BeachBoyBogartBlog

How to Stop ALL Spam... No, Really!

2007-10-10T09:01:00.000-05:00

I want to talk to you about Spam, and then I want to ask WHY email users are not doing the obvious, most simple, most effective thing to prevent it.

Security newsletters go on, and on, endlessly, about the spam problem. And it's not helping. Companies are making a lot of money creating and selling anti-spam software, and it's not helping. What good is catching 98% of incoming spam? To me, that's like an OCR program that is 98% accurate... one still has to read the whole damn scan to find the mistakes. And with spam, one pretty much has to scan the "spambox" of collected junk mails to ensure that there are no false positives.

On top of that, the spam-masters just keep getting better at getting past the spam-filters. Let's face it; the only way you can block out the 10,000 different spelling variations of "viagra" is to include every word that has the letters v, i, a, g, and r in it. This stuff is always going to get through, to a greater or lesser extent.

I get NO spam. None. Zip, zero, nada. And I use my email client extensively, day and night. (I use ThunderBird as my POP3 client, but that is beside the point... I pretty much ignore the Junk message filter system that this particular client offers.) It isn't a question of which client has the best filters or plug-ins. Nope.

Here is how I have kept my Inbox literally free of spam for over a year now.

1. I changed my email address to one nobody had ever seen before, and eventually phased out my old address.
2. I do not post my email address on any websites; not even my own. Instead, I use text-only or a special HTML tool to hide the real address.
3. I use my email address only with my friends, and never with casual acquaintances (at one point earlier in 2004, I corresponded with a guy who needed to advertise in my magazine... and that was promptly followed up with him sending me a joke email, which contained a list of at least 50 of his "friends" in the header... and to no one's surprise, the next day I got a joke email from one of those friends, thereby beginning the cycle of junk-mail-from-"friends" hell. I hastily informed both of these people never to do that to me again, under any circumstances. I got lucky: none of them appear to have been hit with a mail-out virus.)
4. Anytime I subscribe to a website for anything at all (newsletters, purchases, trial downloads), I make sure I never give them my email address.
5. Even though I own several domain names, I use a special service that hides my real email addresses from bots and others that scan the WHOIS libraries (all registered domains must provide email contact addresses; it is very easy for spybots and even casual readers to access these addresses, which are usually true addresses.) Services such as myprivacy.ca prevent this from happening. This makes a huge difference.

BUT YOU SAY: "OK, fine, anyone can just stop using their email. And by the way, pal, you can't subscribe to an email newsletter without giving up your address."

Wrong. What I do instead is use an email anonymizer, or ghoster. In my particular case, although there are a number of these services out there, I use Sneakemail (www.sneakemail.com). This is a FREE service (although you can buy a monthly subscription and receive extra tools) that generates a unique email return address for every message I write that needs one. For example, it has created the return address that I used for this email, and to subscribe to Windows Secrets. My REAL email address is never seen by anyone or anything, outside of the Sneakemail servers. And they are pretty damn secure.

BUT YOU SAY: "Hmmm, interesting... but how do you know which address you used; there must be hundreds of them. And more to the point: how does this stop you getting spam? Surely you just get spam at all those addresses."

Wrong again. For each unique address, I can add a little note that tells me who the address was for... even the date I created it. And I attach a little bit of a header that says "This might be spam..." for every address, so that I instantly know, when someone responds to that address, that it is from a place that has received my Sneakemail address... and therefore I am alerted that, well, "this might be spam". Better yet, Sneakemail even creates a SECOND blind email address that the recipient sees... they never even actually see the REAL fake email address. Still with me?

If I ever get a piece of spam, thanks to the Sneakemail header, I know instantly which unscrupulous, lousy, stinking, rotten, lowlife company provided my email address to some entity outside of their domain. I know they either sold it or gave it away, or worse, unbeknownst to them someone in their own company is selling their mailing list off.
Because each address is unique, I always know exactly who sold my name. This lets me do two things:

1. I immediately contact the company that originally sold (or otherwise dispursed) my Sneakemail address. And I give 'em a potential blast of nastiness, couched in polite inquiries into their potential knowledge of the crime. That is, I give them a chance to tell me they were not aware, or to point out that somewhere along the line I missed the part in their Privacy Policy that said they could actually do this.

2. If I don't hear from them in a few days, I simply scrap the address. Here is the cool part: because each address is unique and applies to only one site or company, I never get any more junk mail... no matter how many junk mailers get sold that address. And I don't cancel my subscription to whatever it was, thereby allowing the offender to burden their mail servers with useless mailings to me, mailings that I will never see or even know about. On top of that, any spammer that is using that address is paying money for nothing, and weighing down their servers, too. Isnt' that fantastic?

A few caveats here: this is not particularly a push for Sneakemail; they just happen to be the anonymizer I chose. They are simple, effective, free, and offer many, many other benefits (for example, letting me c.c. any Sneakemail mail to my real address, so I have an extra record of any dealings). As well, I must point out that since I have been using Sneakemail, I have actually only received a very, very few pieces of spam to any of the unique addresses, which means to me that there are far more responsible companies out there on the Web than there are bad ones (either that or I have been exceedingly lucky in my choices). And finally, just this week I received two pieces of unwanted junk mail trying to sell me some Men's Club party facilities, complete with pictures of comely babes in Bunny costumes... and both Sneakemail addresses pointed out that the originators (the guys who sold my name) are a pair of partners in very respectable newsletter businesses, whose names I won't mention here). The mails came from two different servers, but arrived within seconds of each other, and apart from the return addresses, were identical. Man, what a waste of everyone's time and money.

In conclusion, I urge everyone around the world to kill the Spam problem immediately. You don't ever have to give out your real email address; always use an anonymizer, and you will never be bothered again. Wouldn't you like to hook up to your messages in the morning and not have to worry about skimming through all the crap, wasting all that time deleting the stuff that gets through your well-intentioned but hopeless filters? And for God's sake, don't post your address anywhere.

If we all did this, wow, what a wonderful world this would be. Now if only the solution were as simple in the fight against crapware...

... Mike Riley

--------------------------------------
Protect yourself from spam,
use http://sneakemail.com

Drowning in a sea of rednecks.

2007-09-08T10:30:00.000-05:00

What is going on with these red- necks, any- way? I was born in '52, and the prom- ise of a better world was everywhere. Everything was to be better, cleaner, brighter. Yeah, the 60's was a nightmare in many ways, but they also gave birth to a new way of thinking for young people: freedom from racism, from war, from hunger. Educations for everyone, international aid, faster communications bringing us closer together.

Yet now, these kids are running for president, and running the businesses, and trying to turn it all around, send us marching back through time into some kind of Conservative hell.

Presidential candidate Mitt Romney, once on the side of gays, is fighting same-sex marriage as part of his campaign. Fred Thompson, actor/senator presidential candidate, proudly proclaims his anti-abortion and pro-Iraq war stance. I know there are lots of dickheads out there already (see FOX News) who believe we should all be locked up for even having sex... but these guys are running for President of the United States (formerly a great world power). And they have support, for Christ's sake.

Well, maybe it's a good thing, I don't know... once the U.S. completely caves in upon itself, the rest of the world can move on.

But I still want to know --and nobody seems to be able to answer this-- what is their motivation? What is this going to get them? Are there truly that many voters out their who give a damn about these issues? And if there are, what is their motivation? Who does this kind of thinking actually help? I mean, what the @#$%@#$&!!?

Penn and Teller's BULLSHIT Show is just that

2007-08-02T20:27:00.000-05:00

Wow. I loved Penn and Teller for years. Even went to see them with Bro Chris. Fantastic, fun, devilish. Even loved their BULLSHIT Show, wherein they have taken on everything from anti-Mexicans to professional colonicists (is that a word?).

But tonight they did a show ravaging Alcoholics Anonymous (and all 12-step groups), and they went too far. Their "cool tool" of obfuscating the issues by interviewing dorks with degrees, and making them look stupid on camera, now is obvious as just another way a couple of rich fucks can shape things to look different than they are.

Don't let their status in the entertainment world fool you anymore.

I'm a "recovered" alcoholic; haven't had a problem for over 25 years. P & T called AA a "religious group"; they interviewed a pissed-off lawyer (at one point in his career, he was told to quit drinking and join AA or get fired) to describe AA's use of the term "higher power" as only GOD, and a specific type of God, who would ruin your life if you didn't follow His ways.

BULLSHIT.

Nobody every pitched me that the higher power was God, unless I wanted it to be. AA members told me that higher power could be anything or anyone. Their definition of a higher power? "Whatever lets you admit that you are powerless over alcohol." Yes, you read that right: whatever. I chose the AA group as my higher power. And all that meant to me, was that I no longer had to worry why I was there, or what a bad person I was.

I quit drinking; I stayed in AA for over a year. Then I had had enough, and moved on. But I still don't drink.

P&T's BULLSHIT extends to them having us believe that AA teaches us we don't have a mind of our own, that without them, we are nothing. Fucking preposterous.

They showed two people, one pro AA and one anti-AA, arguing at a bar about whether or not it was a disease. And when the anti-AA gal finally said `Look, even if it is a disease, isn`t it your responsibilityÉ`, the other guy didn`t have an answer... because YEAH, and what`s your pointÉ

P&T's BULLSHIT tries to convince us that this almost-70-year old organization is strictly religious because it's headquarters are now in some church-organization building. Well, guess what? LOTS of people believe in God (I'm pretty atheistic myself), and so what? Whatever works. And it works.

P&T's BULLSHIT says that 70 years of never changing your technique is just stupid; after all, cures are improving all the time. And they use an old manual hand drill as a prop, trying to tell us that if doctors still drilled us to get out cancer, then we certainly wouldn't do that, would we? That's just redirection, my friend. Where's the logic in that argument? Look: if doctors still drilled us (and I have to look that one up... I don't think they ever drilled us for cancer), then we would still believe in it, and we would still do it, wouldn't we?

And they didn't offer us any indication that either science or medicine has any methods at all to cure addictions. More redirection.

Then they played the Big Brother card: lots of people have been ordered by the courts, by insurance companies, by employers: either get into a 12-step group and get cured, or lose (you fill in the blank: insurance, family, jobs). And they tell us that this is against our Constitutional rights (American, eh?). They forget to mention, again, two things: one, it is not our constituional right to abuse a substance so badly that we endanger our lives, our familys' lives, or our employers' well-being. Two, the damn programs work; always have worked; that's why people get ordered to go there.

Worse, P&T continue to attach this so called personal-rights thing to organized religion. So at the beginning of the show, they claim AA is a religious group... so by the end of the show, you are agreeing that we shouldn't be forced into religion against our will. Wow, obfuscation, redirection, and entrapment.

This may work for stage gags, but it doesn't work for me. Looks like these guys could use a 12-step group of their own: Bullshitters Anonymous.

'Nuff said.

Harumi: Psychedelic Rock

2007-05-02T08:42:00.000-05:00

"one of the wildest and most unbelievably ambitious recordings to come from the psychedelic era."

"Simply put, there is nothing at all like this record in the known universe."

Thus arrives a re-release of an album by a Japanese rocker named Harumi (interestingly, that seems to be both a boy's and a girl's name in Japan). When I lived with Nanny & Grampa Weiss, Grampa had purchased a stereo that came with 100 free record albums. He was given a free membership in a record club, and every month he allowed me to pick two or three albums for myself. What a great guy.

Most of the records were way off any charts, so I chose by album cover. Harumi was a double-album set. I never knew anything about the guy, but the music was fantastic. Just what I was looking for in the age of psychedelic music. This would be about 1968. It was a huge relief to actually get a record that was good; there was a lot of crap available. I played it for Chris on a trip to Camp Petawawa; together we were thinking this guy was pretty good.

Imagine my surprise the other day when the All Music Guide informed me that, not only was the record now out on CD, but that the reviews were air-gaspingly good. Take a listen to an MP3 that someone thoughtfully has made available. If you are a 60's pysch-era rocker, you owe it to yourself to hit the record store and pick up a copy.

Cheevy Impalah

2007-04-29T09:01:00.000-05:00

Lease is up in early July. Click here to see more photos of new house, Sunday April 29, 2007.

Moving is such sweet sorrow...

2007-04-27T23:32:00.000-05:00

New House April 5 07

Click on the photo to see more...
April 12, 2007. Packing taken care of by Chapala Movers, we leave Los Angeles #93, and take the long journey (all two blocks of it) to San Mateo #25. Mom spends that night and the next few at Pat and Terry's house, with the doggies. Mike spends one night in the new place, and during the next few days does a bunch of stuff: organizing workers, and moving crap around to make it look like he's been working. Then he spends the first weekend, nights only, at Cecilia's.

In between he tries to do as many customer PC service calls as possible, working until late into the evening hours to catch up on the backlog. It promises to be many weeks before all is settled... especially since the Impala decides to vent its weariness by allowing a short, rusting wire to keep the gas pump from working in the mornings. Ah, dear. Mexico... .

McAfee a Bust

2007-01-18T23:46:00.000-06:00

So what, prey tell, is up with McAfee? I have been uninstalling McAfee security software all over town, to give my customers their computer freedom back. McAfee (and let's be fair, Norton even more so) takes over a PC or laptop and eventually grinds it to a halt.

So I went up to us. mcafee.com to talk to tech support, because on one customer's machine today, I could not remove the program. It crapped out halfway through uninstallation, and then I was left with no ability to remove the program completely. And the damn startup files insinuate themselves into the startup routine all by themselves.

So guess what? They have no tech support, at least none that is accessible through their website. I even created an account and logged in to see if that would get me somewhere. Nope. Nowhere.

Any software company, especially a so-called security company, that doesn't provide access to the general public, is just a piece o' crap as far as I'm concerned. I'm not talking about the software itself, mind (although it is). I'm talking about the company.

I will pass this information along to my customers from now on, at every opportunity. Humbugs to you, Mc.

Bugs in AntiSpyWare tools

2006-10-25T23:58:00.000-05:00

Everyone on the web consistently recommends Lavasoft's Ad-Aware SE and Spybot Search & Destroy, for protecting your PC. I install these two programs for most of my customers. Ad-Aware Pro, the version that includes Ad-Watch, is better because Ad-Watch loads at startup for live protection.

But I have yet to read anyone's comment, including the developers of these programs, about serious BUGS that each program has:

Ad-Watch often refuses to unload itself from memory, so when you click on Shut Down, it never does. This is a major pain in the ass. (Savvy users discovered a tool to unload all memory-resident programs, like Ad-Watch, to cure this: Google for Windows User Profile Hive Cleanup. It didn't work for me; maybe it will for you.)

Spybot version 1.4, which has been around for quite some time and is still the latest version, has a display bug that effectively hides half its message windows, so you can't properly make selections.

Both these bugs have been around for months and months, so now I don't install Ad-Watch for anyone (including myself), and I use Spybot 1.3.

Should I be complaining? Both these programs are free, yes, so never look a gift horse in the mouth, right? BUT my confidence in the ability of either of these programs to perform effectively and protect me and my customers from malware is seriously diminished, when the developers can't even be bothered to issue a fixed build.

Which brings me to Microsoft: not on the subject of anti-spyware, but their damn MSN Live Messenger. Did you know that early in October Microsft updated their server side, which immediately placed a bug in most user's client versions of Live Messenger, which in turn refused to allow them to connect! The little people heads that signify MSN just kept spinning, and spinning... When questioned, a Microsoft employee said he hoped that MS would issue a statement and a fix... but two weeks have gone by with nary a word from them. You'd think that with the millions of MSN users, this would have become an issue. I just don't understand it.

(You can fix this bug if you have it, in Live Messenge: Google for remove_wlmpolicies.reg)

Michael Caine in ZUNE

2006-09-15T11:57:00.000-05:00

Oh, wait, that's wrong. He did a movie on the big screen called ZULU. But now you can watch it on Microsoft's tiny new ZUNE video player... .

Wow, Apple doesn't stand still long. Just when I was looking at picking up a 30Gig shiny, black video iPod thingy, for over $300 U.S., Steve Jobs comes out in a button-down shirt (I have it on good authority that his butler, Cato, put all his regular black turtlenecks in the drier and shrunk 'em just before the announcements) and tells us about a new video iPod, bigger, better, faster.

http://reviews.cnet.com/4326-6490_7-6546236.html?tag=cnetfd.mt&tag=nl.e501

At the same time, Microsoft announces their new Zune, an iPod fighter. Zune has wireless, so you can share tunes in the classroom or at work. Too cool. All these totally unnecessary items in our lives, enriching our futures.

http://reviews.cnet.com/4326-6490_7-6546547-1.html?tag=nl.e501

2006 TV Season

2006-09-13T11:47:00.000-05:00

In the old days of rileyfamily.ca, I would post the full fall TV schedule for everyone to enjoy. Not much I like better than the anticipation of a buncha new shows. Usually, only two or three survive and they are often not ones I like.

In the absence of updating to our website, here with some great links you will find useful, as they hold everything you want to know: shows, weekly listings, and premiere dates... and even some reviews.

Network listings:
http://www.metacritic.com/tv/seasons/2006fall/networks.shtml

Premiere schedule:
http://www.metacritic.com/tv/seasons/2006fall/index.shtml

Yahoo! preview with video ads of all shows:
http://tv.yahoo.com/feature/fall06/

2006-02-02T23:00:00.000-06:00

Martin Luther King's widow, Coretta Scott King, died Monday. She was 78. She had suffered a severe stroke and a mild heart attack last August and had ovarian cancer.

For some reason, the BBC found this a more compelling and newsworthy story than CNN. Read more at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4665820.stm.

I was a young fellow when the Kennedys and King were assassinated. That was a time when there was nothing but glorious hope for the future, and "they" seemed to be fighting back to ruin it all: killing our heroes, and destroying government, ending with the resignation of Richard Nixon. Or should I say, that was the beginning of this long, slow slide to insanity. The hippie generation, so-called, was crushed. Those same freedom and love-loving hippies grew up to be the guys who run companies like Nortel, firing 5,000 people at a time because profits are never big enough. Not that there are losses, you understand: profits are not big enough. Puke.

I'm sad to see yet another umbilical cord, to my past, move on.

Now I want you all to read about a particularly fascinating group in Black American history: the Black Panthers. This was what we call a BIG DEAL. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3150491.stm

goddam sonofabitch bastard

2006-01-31T23:28:00.000-06:00

Came out of a customer's house today to find my passenger-side mirror totaled. This happens frequently on the narrow streets of Ajijic, and results from one of two things: people parking really badly and sticking their cars' asses out too far; and asshole drivers. Note that I was parked fairly close to the curb.

Funny thing is I am taking the vehicle in Wednedsday, Feb. 1 (tomorrow0 for a complete body job, to repair all the nicks and dents that have accrued since I got here (two of them my own fault). Funnier thing is, I will have to wait days to get a new mirror, at probably an exhorbitant cost, and then it will be black... so I will have to haul it to the bodyshop for a paint job before it can be installed. Do we see money slipping away here, faster than it's coming in?

The good news is that, upon further inspection of my car, I realized they hadn't just stupidly zipped by and smashed the mirror with their vehicle. They'd actually manage to graze the entire length of the car. Why is this good news? Because it could have happened after I had gotten my car back from the bodyshop; instead it happened the day before, and will only be a bad memory soon.

Assholes. I'm keeping my eyes peeled for a dark-colored vehicle with a streak of Cappucino Cream down the driver's side.

Tower, tower, wherefore art thou....

2006-01-30T22:24:00.000-06:00

In the ongoing saga of the Wireless Internet Wars (WIW), it seemed this morning someone stole the transmitting tower right off the roof of the Mexico Wireless offices. The office is just near the TelMex business office on the main highway through town. This could only be the work of some nefarious ex-employee, it was reasoned.

Turns out it was the work of the current owner and a nefarious employee! In an effort to scuttle business following a failed buyout, they figured they would get back at the lost new buyer by screwing up his business: cancelling out the signal to the Instituto Technologico, which has recently been given a huge gift of hardware by IBM U.S.A.

But wait! In the process, they scuttled the signal to a whole raft of their own customers, who were, to say the least... pissed. And wait again! Since the new owner never actually became the new owner, weren't they shooting... themselves... in the foot... to spite their toes?! Woh, yeah.

At the same time, some kind of connection snafu caused TelMex, which supplies their T1 lines, to suspect an overabundance of virused spams being sent out on Mexico Wireless's system, and they shut down one of their T1 lines. So even more customers were without service.

It never rains, but it pours, huh? Eh? Eh? Eh?

Eire

2006-01-29T23:49:00.000-06:00

Ireland - we believe this country to be the home of our forefathers. Today Chris and I were digging around the web, connected between Canada and Mexico via Skype, looking for other examples of our family crest. AS Chris pointed out, in just a couple of years the amount of family history information available has grown massively. And we came across some cool stuff.

You can see a large version of our crest at www.rileyfamily.ca. And there is a link on the page to some information concerning the legend of the red/pink hand, shown dripping blood, bracketed by regal lions. Part of the legend concerns the origins of Ulster,and that made me wonder: what and where exactly is Ulster? I started rooting around again, and what I dug up is truly fascinating.

You can check out more about Ulster, the northern provinces of Ireland, by following this link to Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia.

Sheila Copps... is coming, to town (sing to "Santa Claus is coming to town"

2006-01-29T16:37:00.000-06:00

One of the original Brat Pack (Dingwall, Chretien, Copps, Kinsella etc.... wait, Chretien??) in the Liberal government, Sheila Copps seemed destined for great things. She and her cohorts were, 15 years ago, the young, the un-tampered-with, the rebels in the government. My generation believed they would finally bring good government, responsible government, to Canada.

God only knows what happened. Patronage, swishy positions, false fame... who knows.

Anyway, Sheila was so hot in politics at one point that Canada's national news magazine, Saturday Night, actually got her dressed in leathers and posing on a motorbike on their cover one month. I tried to find that picture to post here, but I can't find anything of Sheila except one tiny .jpg. I guess the Saturday Night cover was copyrighted and there was a big fight with the photographer, so you who missed it may never get to see it.

All that being said, she is turning up here, in Frebruary, in our little town of Ajijic to speak to members of the Canadian Club (I am a member, but as with Groucho Marx, I won't go to any group meetings where they would actually have me).

Bad News for TelMex Prodigy Users

2006-01-26T12:50:00.000-06:00

I'm not sure what's going on here, other than the little town of Ajijic has been swamped the past few weeks with SnowBirds and newcomers of all types, including Mexican tourists. But I have had a number of service calls from people complaining they can't send any email. And I haven't been able to fix any of 'em. Repeated calls to TelMex Prodigy's support line have gotten me the same answer: "Must be a lot of traffic on the servers, because there is nothing wrong on our end.

Well, I've tested the SMTP email server from my own PC, using our paid-for Prodigy service, the same one we use to access the 'Net. And guess what? Same problem. Now, I know it isn't my PC or any of my customers' PCs. It is on TelMex's end, and it has to be either a bandwidth or a hardware management issue. And until they are ready to admit the problem and do something about it, I am doing two things:

1. Emailing their tech department with a list of customers, with account information, who are having problems... so they don't just ignore this (ha!), and
2. Looking for a POP service online that doesn't cost anything, that I can set up for my customers.

Still and all, considering where we live, it is hard to believe we even have access to high-speed Internet.

New Gorey Details

2006-01-17T00:24:00.000-06:00

Listening to National Public Radio today on Sirius satellite radio, I stumbled across a Martin Luther King Day conference, at the the Daughters of the American Revolution's Constitution Hall in Washington. I did not recognize the voice of the man speaking, live, to a very enthusiastic crowd. He was effectively, intelligently, and factually tearing down President George Bush's recent public foray into dangerous political waters: admission of usurping and bypassing American Constitutional laws protecting the freedoms and rights of U.S. citizens. The speech's polemic concerned Bush's revelation a couple of weeks ago that he is aware and has authorized wiretaps and other illegal surveillance techniques on his own countrypeople.

Is this something new? Are all the political espionage movies and books that proclaim illegal spying, in the name of "democracy", as a good thing, merely works of fiction based on... fiction? Or would one suppose that this has been going on for years, and that we just have never been informed publicy about it?

What's all the fuss about? I am 100% in favour of using any means possible to snare "the bad guys": those we perceive as terrorists, criminals, politicians on the take... whomever. BUT of course the question here is: who gets to decide who is "bad"? Until Watergate and Nixon's ignominius resignation, we all felt pretty secure that the powers that be knew who was good and who was bad, and acted accordingly, in line with our generally accepted consensus of right and wrong. But that's all changed now.

Is it a big leap, or a short step, to compare the possibilities of potential abuse in American government with those underhanded and filthy techniques employed by the likes of Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot and Ida Amin? In all of those cases, the people of the countries they "led" were misled into believing it was all good, all good. In retrospect, with the lessons of history in our heads, we can surely see how wrong, and how bad, and how corrupt those regimes were. Is the America of today any different?

Yes, it is. So far, there is no open threat of violence against those who disagree or will not tolerate the government in power. People like Al Gore will not be assassinated, murdered, or simply caused to disappear by the U.S. military for taking a bold and powerful public stand against the Bush regime. At least, not yet. Aye, and maybe that's where we must look ever more cautiously: not yet. Because the laws that people like Gore are revolting against are truly scary. They are not revolutionary in concept; they are historical in viewpoint, and they stem directly from the same kind of thinking that made men like those mentioned above such dangerous tyrants: they give the government the power to detain any person for any reason, for an indiscriminate length of time. Without providing them, as guaranteed in the Constitution of the U.S. and many other developed countries, the right to an attorney, nor even a phone call, nor even a notification to their family that they have been detained. Nor are those detained even given the right to hear the charges against them, let alone defend themselves. All in the name of National Security.

What if it was your father? Or son or daughter? Or friend. We in the Western world express disgust, dismay, and righteous indignation when we hear that a citizen of any country has been detained against their will on seemingly trumped up charges, in so-called developing countries, and so-called third-world countries.

On the other hand, Gore is running again for President in 2008, and it's pretty easy to take shots when you're on the other side. So, who do you believe? Who do you believe?

(You can read the text of Al Gore's speech today at http://www.algore04.com/)

Both Sides of Selling Real Estate?

2006-01-15T11:55:00.000-06:00

A news item in this week's local Guadalajara Reporter, our English-language newspaper, reports two stories concerning real estate on its front page: one indicating that the selling boom is far from over, with the average listing selling at $250,000 (!); the second, that inmigración is about to come down hard on gringos selling that same real estate, when they don't have a license to do so.

This topic has become quite a bone of contention among licensed sellers, both gringo and Mejicano alike. Inmigración looks fairly on people like Cecilia, who has lived here for almost 30 years, speaks the language, has strong ties to the community both socially and in business, and has been legally licensed. But the fact that at least 50% of agents around Lakeside are not Mexican has irritated a lot of Mexican agents-- and buyers.

There are, by recent count, over 180 individual agents registered here. That means 90 or more are not indigenous. And apparently a large number of these are not properly licensed, nor do they have proper visa or working-paper status with the Federal/State governments. There is also a grand disparity and a huge frustration over the recent pricing of homes, due to the continuous influx of foreigners (like me). Prices are ridiculously high, forcing housing out of the reach of the majority of the Mexican villagers, and now even beyond the grasp of the type of person who came down here to retire in the first place... because it was cheaper.

It will be interesting to witness the outcome. The question is: should non-Mexicans be able to take over in real estate, or any commercial area, the way they have? What do we do in Canada when something like this begins to appear on our radar? On the other hand, big business can come in and take over large percentages of the technology sector, and governments in both countries give them financial incentives to do so, in the hopes of generating more tax income. Right now, it seems to me to be a two-faced argument. The local public only gets up in arms when it affects them directly.

Cecilia in London

2006-01-14T18:52:00.000-06:00

That's Cecilia with her sister, Caro. Taken some years back when the two were obviously still drifting in hippie-land somewhere. I mean, check those hats.

Cecilia is visiting Caro right now, and London is cold and damp. Unfortunately for C, she hasn't had to experience a winter in just about 30 years. My Gawd. It took a month of planning just to figure out what to take to keep warm. Luckily, a number of friends pulled through with coats and hats and thermal undies and stuff. But you should try shopping in Mexico for winter boots. Maybe in the northern states of the country... but here at Lakeside, where all the tourists come for the winter, it's a little tricky. But, she got some: pink, to boot.

Everybody wish her a warm time, K? And luck to both of them during this hugely important reunion.

King Rat

2006-01-12T18:01:00.001-06:00

A week ago, Mom took the two doggies to a local vet to be cared for and groomed, for eight days... so we could have the fumigador dude come in and get rid of our mice. Pretty big mice, in fact... I have been told that unlike our cute little field mice, these can look as big as rats.

Well, here it is a week later, and we have the dogs back, nice and clean and happy to be home. Brinka immediately went into the laundry room, which seemed to be the place where the mice were hanging out. Guess what she sniffed out? Yep, see the picture.

Only thing is, you can tell from the tails... these guys are not big field mice. They are rats. One of them was dead under the washing machine, the bigger one. They had been feeding on stuff that looked like colored granola or wheat cereal (completely ignoring the rat poison cubes lying everywhere), and it caused a bunch of internal bleeding, leading to fatal heart attacks. The vet assures me they feel no pain, just get sleepy and die. But the smaller of the two you see there had obviously spent a lot of time licking his chest area, because it was still wet and matted. And he is pretty thin compared to his compadre, leading me to believe the poison really does something not pleasant.

It is really nice to have the dogs home and not barking or running around like head-hunters, trying to flush out the mice. And perhaps when we awaken on the morrow, there won't be any more knocked over flowerpots or partially consumed mandarin oranges. Yay!

Technology: Can't live with it...

2006-01-12T18:01:00.000-06:00

Hey, CES has come and gone again. I see the NEW Harmony remote clocks in at $400 U.S. That's pathetic. I don't care how much research goes into a product... even HIV drugs are cheaper than that.

But there were some other cool things:

http://engadget.com/2006/01/09/best-of-ces-2006/

I wonder when Mexico will get gadgets that let me watch my favorite TV shows on a 1.5 inch screen? God, I am already blind and I have a widescreen Sony that I need glasses for. Barf.

Christmas.... Did We Have That Already?

2006-01-04T00:21:00.000-06:00

Christmas '05. Done. Gone. I am now the proud owner of a bought-in-Mexico flannel robe and two super-cool daytimers. I gave up using the PocketPC two years ago for scheduling: trying to type using a stylus, in the car between visits, was causing bipolar syndrome in my tiny brain.

In Mexico, with no snow, no blaring Christmas commercials, and in my little village, no big stores parading the latest "stuff", Christmas seems far less intrusive and important. Mexicans, many of them Catholics, truly cherish the holidays as holy, and spiritual. (Oh, yeah, they like the presents, but what turns them on more is the Day of the Magi--January 6-- which is when they really do the gift-giving thing. I'll see if I can get photos on Friday to celebrate that day.) So when Christmas finally comes, after all the waiting and shopping, and then leaves again, it seems too sudden; even more swift than its departure after the Canadian holidays. Boxing Day doesn't have any meaning here, except to expatriate Canadians. Which is very cool. The Brick be damned.

Whack-a-Santa

2006-01-02T21:34:00.000-06:00

About 12:30, New Year's morning. Cecilia, who has provided the Santa pinata full of candies and peanuts, gets to bash her own creation. The lady that runs this annual party on Cecilia's block never lets anyone get away: she grabs them, puts the blindfold on, and sort of points them in the direction of the pinata. Two of her family members are out of site, yanking on the rope every time the happy-go-lucky whacker tries to get in a hit. This Santa took about 15 whacks before he finally exploded, showering candy cigarettes and lollies everywhere. Then, the kids rush in and grab whatever they can, while the family sets ups the next pinata.

New Year's! In Mexico! Yay!

2006-01-02T21:31:00.000-06:00

This particular party was down the street from us. See the little corner store, or tiendita, on the left? One of the family owns a music store or something; set up this massive sound system on the street. The music could be heard all over the village. Pretty damned obnoxious, and it went on until about 4 am. REALLY loud. But the kids around here really enjoyed it. On the right, we see a young cabellero doing (I forget the proper name) a cut dance. You've seen it on TV: looks like the guys is trying to slice the girl in half about six times in a row, then they dance, then slice, then dance. Ouch.

Madcap in Guadalajara

2005-12-30T16:53:00.000-06:00

'm not particularly fond of driving in Guadalajara by myself; it's far away and busy, busy, busy. But this morning I needed computer parts from MiPC, so off I went. Arrived 11:15 to find a sign on the gates saying, in Spanish of course: "Closed for Inventory until 11:40 hoy (today). But by Noon they were still closed. Frustrating. Customers waiting back home for RAM and wireless cards. So I pondered: turn around and go home (although that is not easy, because I was on a HUGE one-way boulevard, and needed to consult the map to figure out maybe how to get back), or go on to the Galerias Mall where I could exchange my headphones for a better pair. No problemo: old pair were already in the car, so off I went. Even got parking for free!
But on the way back, the highway to Chapala was blocked off, and I had to follow a snaking detour (against the traffic on Lazaro Cardenas - see map), along with thousands and thousands of other drivers, along major highways to get back to the right highway. Took an extra 3/4 hour. Ah, well: Mexico. No damage done. Had plenty of time to think on the way: "Why don't I stop in at that new burrito place and try them out for lunch?" Which I did. Then after: "Why don't I stop at that birria place and get dinner for everyone?" Which I did! I will see if I can dig up pics from last year: birria is a soupy stew, usually made with chivo, or goat's meat. And it is Yummy. Steve, you would love it. I stood amidst the goat's head soup (Mick Jagger wasn't kidding with that album title), watching the cooks chop bones and meat and legs and meat, and pour gallons of salsa and liquids and hotsauce and beans with melted cheese, and left with an absolutely HUGE (there's that word again) bag of food.

And that was the last incident on the way home... except to note that with the holidays here, the highways and our small towns are bursting at the seams with tourists. Ah, well: Mexico.

Johanna Visits; Flat Tire Results

2005-12-27T17:05:00.000-06:00

Johanna came to take care of the dogs while we were at Blue Bay Beach. She is the gal from Cape Cod who sold Chris the house here in Mejico. The dogs reaaaaaaaaaaaally liked her.

On a completely unrelated note, here are the Flat Tire Results: Today, Mom called me from Soriana in Chapala on a pay phone. Seems her tire, already flattening, had blown completely. So I dropped my cupasoup and flew out the door. Fortunately she had rolled to a stop very near to a Firestone dealer, who put in a new tire in 10 minutes flat. Now where in Canada can ya get service like that, I ask? I ask again... ?

Christmas at Cecilia's

2005-12-27T09:23:00.000-06:00

Not bad for a Mexican Christmas, eh? Eh?!