There has been an interesting gathering of security people including politicians, police, military and homeland security people this past week. They gathered on capital hill to discuss the possible future of security and what sort of tools might be useful.
The Washington Post has an article on it.

I can only hope he gets away with this. He's opened a blog where he is willing to discuss things with his troops. There are a lot of people screaming about security, but I wish him well.

I don't even want to know what kinda squirrels they're gonna hunt with this shotgun. Thanks to Evan for this one.

It seems that the upcoming Service Pack One for Microsoft's Vista disables and prevents you from using many popular anti-virus programs, including Trend Micro and Zone Alarm. This is just one more reason to stay away from Vista in any shape or form.
This is the full article with a list of some of the programs that will no longer run if you install their critical update SP1.
If you are planning on purchasing a new computer, I would highly recommend researching either Kubuntu Linux or Apple Macintosh systems.
If it is critical that you must use Microsoft-based software, demand Windows XP and NOT Vista!

This was just published in Forbes online:
"But better pay close attention--because a great deal is riding on the recession odds. There's the value of your portfolio, the cost of money, your job, the price of oil, inflation and very likely the identity of the next inhabitant of the White House. The worse the recession, I would say, the better the chances of the Democratic candidate."

You can read the whole article here: Recession Looms Ahead!

Here are some really good ideas from a professional strategic planner on the two totally different roles that the military is being asked to perform. These roles have been discussed at various times on Jerry Pournelle's EXCELLENT day book.

A Japanese company ( Toyota ) and an American company (General Motors) decided to have a canoe race on the Missouri River . Both teams practiced long and hard to reach their peak performance before the race.
On the big day, the Japanese won by a mile.
The Americans, very discouraged and depressed, decided to investigate the reason for the crushing defeat. A management team made up of senior management was formed to investigate and recommend appropriate action.
Their conclusion was the Japanese had 8 people rowing and 1 person steering, while the American team had 8 people steering and 1 person rowing.
Feeling a deeper study was in order, American management hired a consulting company and paid them a large amount of money for a second opinion.
They advised, of course, that too many people were steering the boat, while not enough people were rowing.
Not sure of how to utilize that information, but wanting to prevent another loss to the Japanese, the rowing team's management structure was totally reorganized to 4 steering supervisors, 3 area steering superintendents and 1 assistant superintendent steering manager.
They also implemented a new performance system that would give the 1 person rowing the boat greater incentive to work harder. It was called the 'Rowing Team Quality First Program' with meetings, dinners and free pens for the rower. There was discussion of getting new paddles, canoes and other equipment, extra vacation days for practices and bonuses.
The next year the Japanese won by two miles.
Humiliated, the American management laid off the rower for poor performance, halted development of a new canoe, sold the paddles, and canceled all capital investments for new equipment. The money saved was distributed to the Senior Executives as bonuses and the next year's racing team was out-sourced to India .
Sadly, The End.
Here's something else to think about: Ford has spent the last thirty years moving its factories out of the US , claiming they can't make money paying American wages.
TOYOTA has spent the last thirty years building more than a dozen plants inside the US . The last quarter's results:
TOYOTA makes 4 billion in profits while Ford racked up 9 billion in losses.
Ford folks are still scratching their heads.
IF THIS WASN'T SO SAD IT MIGHT BE FUNNY!

Here is a very good article about why you should NEVER respond to a stalker. No matter how many times they call, email, IM, etc... Just ignore them permanently.

http://www.groupnewsblog.net/2007/10/dont-feed-stalker.html

I want one of these SUVs... with the 'Presidential Protection' option of the minigun.

Here is real data to back up what I and a lot of other folks have been saying for a long time. The more diverse the cultural background of a community is, the more insulated the individual groups are and the less the contribute to the community overall. This extended research was done by a liberal Harvard Political Scientist. It is much more evidence that multi-ethnicity is good for a community while multi-culturalism is very bad. We are already seeing the effects of this in many parts of the country and the latest push to bring illegal aliens into the fold is going to cost us a great deal.

Hirsi Ali is a refugee from Islam who is grateful to be living in freedom and gives a very good accounting of the dangers posed to western civilizations by Islam.

One of the interesting things about technology is that it is a double-edged sword. Just because it can be used to invade your privacy, doesn't mean that public officials should be protected. This is a courageous fellow and I think it is a sign of a future where we will all be 'live' recording everything we do. That means that we can all take shelter in truth. CopWatch is something to keep an eye on.

The US Army is planning on using a partialy chinese owned company in Pakistan to track critical material shipments. This is almost unbelievable.
http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=37173

Microsoft is working on ways of identifying who you are, where you live and many other demographic items from your surfing habits. This article from New Scientist describes what they hope to achieve. Are you paranoid yet? You should be.