Walkies went well… for some reason though, Newtcam deactivated right as I was leaving. I’m going to leave it on today, and see how well it does… it’s been a while. I was reflecting on my sweetheart as I walked…spent a nice span over at the beach, thinknig about watching the surf with her, holding hands…She fills my heart and mind… I forgot mister camera, but I’ll bring it on next walk there. The camera does quicktime movies, too…I’ll perhaps host one of those next.. to get full-motion.
And now, some overanalysis of today’s news…on the theme of diddling with the Internet, there’s today’s story in the NY Times.
“After a 10-week court-ordered shutdown of nearly all its computer communications, the Interior Department said yesterday that it had restored some of them, bringing e- mail back to government scientists, Web service to national parks – and payments to nearly 40,000 American Indians.”
The Interior Department’s computer communications have been offline for 10 weeks? How did that one slip by me?
When you consider that the Interior Department is landlord for one-eighth of the country, this is a big dang deal.
“A federal district judge ordered the department on Dec. 5 to shut down its entire computer system, saying it could not safeguard the accounting system that manages money for Indians.”
I don’t know…Something is making my Scotto-Sense ™ tingle. Here’s the thing: most of the story focuses on the payments to Native Americans. This is hardly an incentive to make people care. It’s presented like some egregious form of welfare was held up for a few months. It isn’t. It’s the fees the government pays for use of tribal land. You know… rent.
This is one thing that is making the squiggly lines come from my head. About 80% of the article is about Indians not getting their government checks. Without explicitly saying as much, the story seems to be about a Native American variation of Reagan’s “welfare queens” not getting their handout for sitting on their asses. (Am I being hypersensitive?)
Look at that date again. December 5th, 2001. What other things were happening in the news at about that time?
Hidden among the tales of pissed-off Injuns there are some rather interesting tidbits:
“The shutdown has disrupted recruiting for summer firefighters and studies on wetlands and endangered species, and has forced thousands of government workers back to an era of typewriters and endless paper forms.”
Uh huh. I bet it would be pretty fricking hard to do any investigating in that situation. Now let’s see, which industries are always coming into conflict with people concerned about wetlands and endangered species?
“Even with the National Park Service Web site scheduled to open within a day, an Interior agency that manages even more land – the Bureau of Land Management – will remain offline indefinitely, as will the Fish and Wildlife Service and the department’s general site, officials said.”
Hmmmmm. So the Bureau of Land Management will remain offline indefinitely. How conveeenient.
Oh, and the reason given for all this offline time? Those gosh darn hackers. Not that there has actually been any evidence of hacking, but the system is *vulnerable* to hacking so it has to stay incommunicado. Bah, sez I.
