News You Need to Know – Page 134

And This is Why I Hate the United Nations

Even though the United Nations (UN) exists as nothing more than a big circle jerk for state it’s not the only reason I hate them. Members of the UN also finds time in their business schedules to do really really stupid things like putting North Korea in charge of nuclear disarmament:

Canada is boycotting a UN body dedicated to disarmament to protest against North Korea being named its chair, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird announced Monday.

The Conference on Disarmament, where UN members negotiate disarmament and other arms control agreements, is heavily focused on the prevention of a nuclear arms race and nuclear disarmament.

This is the same organization that put Syria on their Human Rights Council after the state butchered citizens, so putting North Korea in charge of nuclear disarmament is simply par for the course.

The UN doesn’t just exists so world governments can sit in a circle and jack each other off while talking about how great they are, it also exists to promote the ideals of hypocrisy.

Fixing the American Economy by Firing the MBAs

I ran across an interesting article that talked about the fact that America no longer produces innovative products because everything is run by MBAs:

Bob Lutz, the former Vice Chairman of General Motors, is the most famous also-ran in the auto business. In the course of his 47-year rampage through the industry, he’s been within swiping range of the brass ring at Ford, BMW, Chrysler and, most recently, GM, but he’s never landed the top gig. It’s because he “made the cars too well,” he says. It might also have something to do with the fact that Maximum Bob, who could double as a character on Mad Men, is less an éminence grise than a pithy self-promoter who has a tendency to go off corporate message. That said, his new book, Car Guys vs. Bean Counters: The Battle for the Soul of American Business, has a message worth hearing. To get the U.S. economy growing again, Lutz says, we need to fire the M.B.A.s and let engineers run the show.

Although this solution won’t fix all of the problems facing American’s economy I believe it would do a great deal to fix our lack of quality American products. Let’s face it, America doesn’t actually create many innovative products anymore. One of the few exceptions to this rule is in the personal electronics and software industries where things are almost always run by engineers. While our phones become more powerful with each passing month our vehicles remain almost the same as they were in the 60’s with only a few refinements to the technologies.

Research and development is a joke because it’s usually seen as too expensive by the bean counters. Why should a company produce an innovative product when such things costs money, it’s far easier to just create a rehash of last year’s model with a new model number slapped on the package and tout the relatively few improvements as major innovations? I think the article has a point, this attitude has lead to a stagnant market where MBAs are now in charge and engineers are relegated to the back rooms (if they’re allowed to continue working at all).

The article also states a side-effect of this system of production, good people are fired so that companies can make the short-term numbers each quarter:

In the U.S., the growth of the financial industry has only exacerbated the trend toward balance-sheet-driven management. Companies everywhere, but particularly in the U.S., where the banking sector wields the most power, are under tremendous short-term pressure to make their quarterly numbers. This often leads to planning that’s reactive rather than smart: force the highest-paid engineers to retire, even if they are the best, and reduce payroll costs across all divisions rather than invest in the ones that are pushing the New New Thing through the pipeline.

Engineers who are good at their jobs want to get paid according to their skills. This does become a problem for the bean counters because they believe it’s far more productive to hire two cheaper engineers than a single expensive one. It never crosses their mind that the one expensive engineer can produce far better products than the two cheap ones though.

Again, I realize that the problems with the United States economy run deeper than a bunch of MBAs. But I also believe America could start churning out innovative products again if the MBAs were tossed out on their asses and quality engineers were allowed to do their thing.

Alas, MBAs are too deeply rooted in the corporate culture and I fear we’ll never rid ourselves of this yoke made by bean counters.

United States Job “Creation” Stalled Last Month

It seems all of that stimulus money has done a great job of… doing nothing while costing a fortune. In the month of June only 18,000 jobs were “created” which was below the estimated 90,000. Oh, unemployment increased a bit to boot, no surprise there:

Only 18,000 new jobs were created in the month, way below expectations of a 90,000 rise, which had been raised by strong private sector hiring figures released on Thursday.

The unemployment rate also rose, to 9.2% from 9.1% a month earlier.

Data for April and May was also revised down by a total of 44,000 jobs.

The poor result was driven by continuing layoffs by the public sector – where 39,000 jobs were lost – and a much weaker-than-expected 57,000 jobs created in the private sector.

First of all the term jobs created is a complete fallacy when those jobs are products of government interference in the market. Any idiot can tell you that jobs are not created by dumping money into a few favored industries but by employers who are doing well and need an increased labor force. When times are good people do business and that business creates a need for more laborers whom are then hired by employers.

The government seems to believe that simply throwing money into the banking system will somehow magically lead to increased business and thus more employment. That doesn’t work of course because employers are not likely to take loans to increase the number of employees if they have no need for more employees. The government is also doing its damnedest to prop up failing businesses in the hopes of keeping people employed at those businesses, well, employed. This doesn’t work though because people aren’t buying goods from those businesses which is what lead to their failure. You can dump as much money into a failing business as you want but it won’t make consumers want their products.

If the government wants to help the economy recover they’ll stop interfering. Of course that being the logical solution the government is likely to take a different route entirely:

The weak data has raised expectations that the US Federal Reserve may ultimately have to adopt a third programme of “quantitative easing” – buying up debts in order to pump cash into the economy – just as its second such programme has come to an end.

Ah yes, the classic government solution of, “If it doesn’t work just try again, only harder!”

Cash a Check, Go to Jail

Some people are assholes but usually just being an asshole isn’t that big of a deal. When being an asshole at work leads to an innocent man sitting in jail for an entire weekend then you need to be fired. That’s what happened to Mr. Njoku when he tried to cash a valid cashier’s check issued by his former bank:

Njoku signed up to have the rebate deposited directly into his Chase Bank account. But when the IRS rebate arrived, there was a problem. Chase had closed Njoku’s account because of overdrawn checks in the past. The bank deducted $600 to cover what he owed them and mailed him a cashier’s check for the difference–$8,463.21.

But when Njoku showed up at the Chase branch near his house intending to cash the check, he was in for a nasty surprise.

The check had Njoku’s name and address on it and was issued by JP Morgan Chase. But the Chase Customer Banker who handles large checks at the Auburn branch was immediately suspicious.

“I was embarrassed,” Njoku said. “She asked me what I did for a living. Asked me where I got the check from, looked me up and down—like ‘you just bought a house in Auburn, really?’ She didn’t believe that,” he said.

Here’s the thing, if a person comes into your bank with a cashier’s check issued by your bank it should be trivial to punch up records involving that check on your computer. I’m sure doing so would take all of five minutes. Instead the employee decided the check was fraudulent and called the police:

But when Njoku arrived, it wasn’t the money that was waiting for him.

“They just threw me in jail; they called the police and said this guy has a fraudulent check,” Njoku said.

Auburn police arrested him for forgery – a felony crime.

“I was like – you’re making a mistake, you’re making a mistake, don’t take me to jail, I got work tomorrow. I can’t afford to miss work,” he said.

Njoku was taken to jail on June 24, 2010, which was a Thursday. The next day, Chase Special Investigations, realized it was a mistake. The check was legitimate. The Investigator called Auburn Police and left a message with the detective handling the case, but it was her day off. So Njoku stayed in jail for the entire weekend. Finally, on Monday, he was released.

An innocent man spent an entire weekend in jail because some employee decided that man’s check was fraudulent. It would have taken all of five minutes to determine the legitimacy of the check and cashed it. But the worst part is the bank made nothing more than a half-assed attempt to inform the police of their huge fuck up. But this isn’t even the end of the story as Mr. Njoke also lost his car over the ordeal:

Njoku’s car had been towed from the bank parking lot and his check seized as evidence.

“I had to wait a couple of weeks,” he said, “and my car got sold, auctioned off.”

Njoku says he didn’t have the money to pay the impound fees and fines to get his car back before it was sold. He said he also lost his job because he didn’t show up for work while he was in jail.

So because of one asshole working at the bank an innocent man spent a weekend in jail, lost his job, and had his car stolen from him by the state. I’d say Mr. Njoku certainly has valid grounds for a lawsuit against the Bank being the cost him so much. Likely though the banksters will get away scott-free and the employee will keep her job. These are the types of situations that people can get into simply because of another person’s laziness.

United States Claims Jurisdiction Over All .com and .net Domains

What good is authority if you can’t just wantonly expand it? The United States Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency has claimed that they have jurisdiction over all .com and .net domains:

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency believes it has the authority to shut down any and all .com and .net websites that run afoul of copyright law, even if the site’s servers are hosted overseas.

[…]

Perhaps it has. The reason ICE feels its authority extends to any .com and .net domain overseas is because they’re all routed through Verisign, a registry service based in Virginia. As far as Barnett is concerned, that alone gives ICE the right extradite foreign site owners to the U.S. on piracy charges.

I hereby call bullshit on this. Although all traffic from those top level domains does route through Verisign the actual domain name is owned by the purchaser. For example I am the owner of christopherburg.com (although I use privacy protection to ensure my personal information doesn’t come up with a whois command). As a resident of the United States the federal government could attempt to lay claim that they have jurisdiction over my domain (if they claim that I’ll just laugh and give them the finger). On the other hand if the owner of a domain lives in Canada the United States government has no legitimate claim to the domain because it’s the property of a Canadian citizen.

Of course the United States government, like all governments, doesn’t give two shits about what is and isn’t “legal” for them. They make the rules and thus get to decide what is and isn’t legal. If they wish to perform a warrantless raid on a home you can damned well assure yourself that they will find some “legal” means of doing it (probably under anti-terrorism laws).

In this case ICE’s justification for claiming their actions are legal eliminates the concept of property rights.

Police Arrest People for Feeding the Hungry in Orlando

It’s often said that people aren’t willing to help others like they used to. Many blame this on the fact that the population has become apathetic since the government involved itself with welfare, Medicare, and Medicade. The belief is people won’t help others because they think the government will do it. Well this is probably part of the reason but I think the other part is the fact the government has basically made it illegal to help others out. Take for instance the organizations Food Not Bombs who have been providing two meals a week in Orlando:

A group called “Food Not Bombs” serves two vegan/vegetarian meals in the Lake Eola Park in Downtown Orlando FL every week. They server breakfast on Mondays and Dinner on Wednesdays.

Of course what they’re doing is illegal because Orlando has an ordinance against sharing food with a “large group” in a downtown park more than twice a year. On top of that the city is also enforcing this ordinance:

The city of Orlando passed a controversial city ordinance that prohibits sharing food with large groups in a downtown city park more than twice a year. This ordinance was, of course, meant just for the “Food Not Bombs” group that did it twice a week. The group had been fighting the ordinance but lost a legal appeal in April. So they decided to keep serving the homeless and the hungry dispute the fact the ordinance could now be enforced. So far, according to the “Food Not Bombs” website, 13 have been arrest for feeding the homeless and the hungry in the park.

As is the general case when people give the government a big middle finger and decide they will continue helping those in need the government sent in their thugs to arrest the members of Food Not Bombs. Here’s the video of that fun little stunt:

Remember kids you’re not supposed to help those in need. Should you decide to do something as subversive as provide food to the hungry you will be arrested and if you don’t come willingly you will be forced to comply through the judicious use of violence. Shut up slave and do as you’re told.

The author of the linked article of course criticizes the actions of Food Not Bombs for disobeying the rules. It’s not the author’s fault for not understanding that the only way to get change in government is through disobeying their stupid rules. Once enough people are arrested and the public outcry is large enough these types of ordinances usually go away or at the very least the police get sick of enforcing them. It’s amazing how effective clogging up the court system and filling jails will non-violent individuals messes up the authoritarian’s little system.

Sometimes You Have to Love Steve Jobs

Although Steve Jobs often comes off as an asshole and he’s a complete control freak there are times you just have to hand it to him fro doing awesome things. Recently Apple had to go to the Cupertino city council to get permission to build a gigantic new headquarters. Why permission needs to be sought out from city councils to construct a building on your own land is beyond me but like most government agents the council are a bunch of looters and saw this as an opportunity to extort something extra from Apple. Unfortunately for them Jobs would have none of that as demonstrated in this video:

For those of you who didn’t want to watch the video a member of the city council asked “What’s in it for us?” The question was a hope that the city could extort free Wi-Fi from Apple but Jobs did a beautiful job of pointing out what the city would get:

You see, I’m a simpleton. I’ve always had this view that we pay taxes and the city should do those things. Now if we can get out of paying taxes, I’d be glad to put up Wi Fi.

Check and mate. I love of Jobs was willing to simply say, “Fuck you you looting bastards, we likely pay you more money each year than anybody else in the forsaken city.” As companies are fleeing California in droves members of city councils should be doing everything they can to attract businesses to help keep their unemployment down. Instead, as demonstrated in this case, many city councils seem to believe they need to extort as much as possible from business owners.

I applaud Jobs for denying the city council’s attempt at extortion. More people should be willing to stand up to government bureaucrats and tell them where to shove their attempts at looting.

How Officers Handle Real Threats

As Uncle aptly points out the police love putting on their SWAT gear and kicking in doors when they’re in pursuit of a criminal who is likely not going to provide much resistance. When federal agents decided to go after James Bulger, a man suspected in 19 murders, the police didn’t storm in his apartment with guns blazing but instead used good old social engineering to lure the man out:

Then, according to people familiar with the case, James “Whitey” Bulger’s 16 years on the run came to an end Wednesday night with a phone call and a lie.

Federal officers arranged for a call to Mr. Bulger in his third-floor apartment to say that his storage locker might have been broken into.

Officers could use similar tactics in many arrests but then they wouldn’t get to toss on the riot gear and play soldier as they kick down your door, run in with guns drawn, and then act surprised that people are appalled at their antics. After all what’s the point of having authority if you don’t get to force people to respect it?

In all seriousness I would appreciate it if police officers would utilize social engineering methods in their arrests instead of brute force. If you trick somebody into coming out so he can be arrested the risk of violence is much lower than kicking in the suspect’s front door during a no-knock raid.

Lulz Security Calls it Quits

I’ve mentioned my interest in Lulz Security and Anonymous stemmed strongly from their ability to keep themselves anonymous for quite a length of time considering the high value targets they went after. Well Lulz Security has called it quits claiming that they only intended to perform their attacks for 50 days.

This story doesn’t really hold water though as personal information of many members of the group has been published leading which makes their sudden “planned” disbanding rather convenient. What I would like to know though are where they failed in keeping themselves anonymous. The ability to keep one’s self anonymous online is a valuable thing and learning from the mistakes made by others is the only way we can ensure those needing or simply wanting to hide online have the ability to do so.

Of course it’s also possible that Lulz Security’s announcement of the organization disbanding is just them trolling everybody. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them announcement that their previous announcement was just made to fuck with people and that they’re restarting their attacks.

Government Money Management

There are numerous jokes about the government paying obscene amounts of money on frivolous things. How much do you think the United States government spends on air conditioning tents and temporary facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan? Information presented by Every Day, No Days Off puts the bill at $20 billion which is $1 billion more than NASA’s entire budget.

The largest part of United States spending is military related. Some people will say that spending $20 billion on keep our troops comfortable is a minor cost compared to the sacrifice those soldiers make. I say that sending them over there in the first place is not only an offense against them but also against those countries. Most of those soldiers signed up with the intention of defending this country but instead were sent overseas into third world countries that posed no viable threat to the United States. We’re risking the lives of soldiers for needless occupations that accomplish nothing more than getting soldiers kill and dumping endless amounts of cash into the military industrial complex.

When a country has to spend more on air conditioning for occupying troops than getting our asses further into space you know the is a problem. In our case that problem is imperialism which has been shown to be an unmaintainable system time and time again (seriously it didn’t work out in the long run for the Mongols, Romans, British, Spanish, Soviet Union, or any other military force).