Ted Cruz decided to play the "sore loser" card at the Republican National Convention last night.

After saying he would endorse his party's nominee — that person chosen by the Republican voters to be President of the United States ... he didn't.

Look ... when you play in the big game you need to expect no pulled punches and I have much more respect for a man who means what he says than one who doesn't.

So if your family is so fragile that you are rendered a moot point in politics you might want to stay out of the kitchen because you simply can't take the heat.

Ted Cruz got my vote once. I'll never make that mistake again. Getting booed off the stage of your party's national convention speaks volumes for the politician you aren't.

We need an outsider for a change. We need a Trump to get us out of this mess in which those career politicians and mealy mouthed liars who can't keep their word placed us.

Boo !

A diffuse thread through the news of late involves individuals taking it upon themselves to impart their distinctiveness into a situation which is not their purview.

I'm talking about individuals mentioned in the news reporting who have refused service to police officers, placed glass in the food of police officers, and engaged police officers in sniper activity causing their deaths.

The compound tragedy involves those harmed being people other than those stated as perpetrating acts which caused the behaviors in the first place.

It is a sullen note that murder is deemed an appropriate response to anything. This twisted view of justice is becoming pervasive as revenge supplants the legal system with each subsequent lawless gloom and doom scenario.

While I will never condone the abrupt shooting of a person stopped by the police nor will I support another person embedding their knees into the chest of an arrestee on the ground surrounded by six officers ...

the bottom line is those mistreating police officers will eventually be called out on their transgressions as well.

This repeating news of individuals overstepping their boundaries in civil society will itself eventually be met with deadly force by those who support and respect the law.

These stupid notions of retribution are better left to people who don't sling fast food and work in service industries. The police are not public targets for idiots with an axe to grind.

Leave those value judgements to the courts because the bulk of those making them are ill advised and creating what will eventually become insurmountable problems for themselves.

I read an interesting snip on the Rand Blog regarding ethics and artificial intelligence. It went into the various warnings proffered by some of those technology and science people who cautioned regarding the far reaching and wide spread abilities and consequences of "thinking" codebase executing in conjuction with adequate peripherals to pose the threat of all threats.

It's a potential horror story of The Terminator franchise magnitude to be sure ... but I think that some of the application of "ethics" to be subjective and in the machine world certainly relevant to the orientation of the code sequences, i.e., as it pertains to that individual mission involving said AI programming.

Given the fact that the mission could be some extinction level event through nanites released in mass upon the scourges of human existence ... that "ethics" remains relevent to what the AI thinks it's supposed to do.

So as technology evolves in leaps and bounds one thing can be sure. Selfishness and domination will remain a prime mover in the illuminati orientation of our oligarchical orientation to "constitutional republic". The cautionary notes while certainly worth taking heed will likely not save us from those who would seek control of that which is the world.

It's happened before. It's happening now. It will continue.

I have a node on the internet consisting of a web server and an email server clustered with failover.

This outward appearing euphporic situation is not without it's own set of considerations given the behaviors expected viz a viz those encountered:

1. Accessibility. Every spammer out there thinks they need to be able to pelt you with whatever unsolicited commercial email they see fit to send. Some go so far as to appear to view it your patriotic duty as a denizen of the global electronic village to accept that spam without any form of countermeasures.

2. Open relays. If you allow your server to send mail from anyone to anyone else it will be blacklisted as an open relay. I have never had this problem because I maintain a restricted access control list and if you're not in one of those domains I support you can pretty much forget it.

3. Configuration errors. It's easy to goof up some setting and render your server inoperative for whatever reason invoked by those errors. If you maintain an email server you should actively pursue proper configuration bearing in mind the grief your "bleeding edge" distro update might cause.

4. Software updates. You should maintain all updates deemed appropriate to your operating system distribution — if nothing else from a security standpoint alone. Exploits are easier on obsolete modules in the stack and there's always an exploit waiting to happen.

5. Firewalls. I used to be this tight butt hair trigger firewall implementation whereas now I just drop your packets and let you hit the node as much as you like by and large. The exception to this of course is the never ending attempt by individuals who keep doing the same thing incesantly and expecting different results. HOWEVER, I never reject packets anymore because of the consequences of backscatter traffic ... there are individuals which will hold that against you and I have sought to be a much kinder, gentler, tolerant geek in my old age.

6. Know thy enemy. I have amassed a database of subnets from which exploits and hack attempts proliferate. These are typically firewalled as a precautionary measure. I don't feel the need to court disaster just because it happens to be lurking in my midst.

7. MX Records. It became obvious early on that the bulk of spammers don't bother to incorporate DNS records aside from those provided by their ISPs. I require anyone sending email to do so from a server with a valid MX (mail exchange) record in an effort to curtail these residential customers out to make a killing in the spammer markets which abound.

8. Discarded email. I have several sets of rules by which email is discarded. I discard email from specific email addresses, specified domains, keywords in the header, subject, or body of the communication, and I generally reek havoc that is now silent but deadly.

9. To sum it up; if you need access you get it because I want you to have it. If you don't need access your are likely discarded at the server. These granular (low level) controls are the culmination of years of experience and a great many mistakes along the way. I can implement or reverse any block anytime for anyone anywhere. I prefer peaceful coexistence above all things. This is simply the way it is.

Hating on someone has pretty much been going on forever. I cannot remember a time when harsh words have not been said to me, about me, or from me.

Only in our late revisionist culture where idiot millenial Yale students claim the "right" to this vague thing called "safe space" regardless of how much it steps on freedom of speech.

Nobody has a right not to be offended. Not some moron ivy league dumbass regardless of how vehemently she screams about losing her "safe place" because of some idiotic notion regarding halloween costumes.

However, people have the right to say offensive things. It is called "freedom of speech" and no amount of political correctness, revisionist bullcrap, or any other aspect of this "new normal" which is anything but that will alter the reality of what the United States was built upon and the multitude of persons such as myself who await any confrontation to the contrary.
 

We have the bill of rights. Cart you dumb ass home and don't expect an apology stupid. You have no right to any form of acknowledgement. Period.

Another aspect of this interpretive model where a company feels the right to police the bill of rights lay in facebook whereby they will remove those "hate speech" examples they choose. Leaving up imagery of murdered policemen while forcing others to submit to some vague policy they appear make up as they go or to which they subject their membership to on the whims.

I'm glad I never wanted a facebook account.

The real world is fraught with disagreement. While I am not one to chronically "disagree disagreeably" I am also one to forbid you to trod on my bill of rights without being challenged. The US Constitution and the Bill of Rights were here long before your stupid Yale student ass.

I have tolerated a never ending stream of hostile environment and harsh words directed at me my entire life. So gobble on, safe space Turkeys. You and your intolerance and failure to thrive in all the adversity characteristic of this world in which we live are precisely what's wrong with the United States today.

We're deep in the throes of a heat wave which has persisted for the past couple weeks.

Lately this has resulted in afternoon storms which have given various locations a much needed precipitation and I for one enjoyed the radical drop in temperature this afternoon after our neighborhood spritzing.

Hot and muggy is the name of the game round these parts with that humidity and sunshine driving the storm machine into overdrive.

Given the fact that we're borderline drought I'm all for whatever we can get in the rainfall department.

Anyway, I hope your weather is less oppressive than ours but I don't see ours backing off til Halloween or so.

This appears to becoming our lot in life — global warming or not.

Back in a kinder, gentler time I spent time in Nice, France. It was there that I experienced the rudest human beings on the face of the earth at the Russian Orthodox Church and took in the shore of the Mediterranean drinking Drambuie from snifters at a bar close by prior to returning to the ship that evening.

Riding along the cliffs where Princess Grace of Monaco had her fatal automobile accident I was taken by the sheer drop off and speed of the bus in which we traveled.

However, in all my excitement during that day I never once feared for my life. In fact I was quite at ease with most everything by the end of my stay.

Bastille Day in Nice turned abruptly tragic when a Tunisian immigrant plowed through persons watching a fireworks show killing many before being shot and killed in a hail of gunfire by police.

The perp, one Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel described as a French-Tunisian "career criminal", rammed the crowd for about a mile and opened fire on the celebrants. Those victims include a Texan and his son. In addition to those killed there are a number in critical condition in local hospitals.

It is sad commentary when that hate generated by a group of miscreants continually falls upon innocent people such as those simply out to celebrate independence day festvities in Nice, France.

The consequences are an extension of the the state of emergency already in force and I'm sure that the scrutiny of these individuals out to kill the rest of us will now increase.

When I was a child, I attempted to be much more philosophical than I am presently. Not yet having been jaded by the real world to any meaure I would immerse myself in various writings to include the epic and lyric poetry as well as drama of preclassical antiquity through the Greek classical and Roman adaptations which came later.

Nowadays I find myself predisposed to those banal pursuits of working in a Microsoft (ugh) shop with people who can't interoperate with a computer unless they have a GUI and mouse and the frustrations of that rare technological disease of the workplace called 'lackounix' ...

However, my childhood has left me with certain streams of thought pervading that which I am and the crux of my issues though rooted firmly in eating and living indoors are merely diversions which ultimately subvert my existence from those depths I once occupied to these shallows where you now find me.

Chinese philosophy has given us two principles. Yin, negative, dark, and feminine ... and the other positive, bright, and masculine called Yang. It is said that their interactions influence our destinies as well as those of things upon the earth.

It is a juxtaposition of opposite and contrary forces in a complementary configuration meant to illustrate that interconnection and interdependency in nature.

The two influences permeate all people and I for one consist of that confluence which is the differential result of competing orientations.

It makes for a subtle rage when I see the stupidity which consists of these human beings who would march down the interstate highway disrupting interstate commerce while those who would criticize these buffoons are terminated from their employment with extreme prejudice.

So in my never ending pursuit of lodging and daily bread of several types I will continue to keep my opinions regarding the so-called newsworthy mess du jour to myself lest I suffer those same brutal consequences.

Never was a fan of pokemon. Back when the kiddies around the house were watching it I was preoccupied with other things.

Now, instead of a cartoon franchise we have a new iteration in the form of an augmented reality game utilizing the GPS in a smart phone to attain the goal of locating pokemon in the real world.

As is the case with such fads it has become big bucks for the owner and people are playing it all over becoming instant tresspassers in the name of entertainment.

There has been a bit of a hubub about certain locales complaining that they are not suitable venues. It seems that the National Holocaust Museum would just as soon not host those playing the game among others.

However, in the midst of the few intrusions the bulk of the players are really having good times and I dare say I could never knock anyone for actually having fun these days.

So ... if you like it go for it. As for me, my smart phone will remain pokemonless for I do not download apps nor do I engage entertainment.

It is a work device and I try to maintain that orientation to it.

Besides, it's all pretty undignified for an old fart such as myself anyway.

Crisis of Character by former United States Secret Service officer Gary J Byrne is a book on the NY Times best seller list.

It provides the gist of the Clinton administration from 1993 through 2001 involving a lot of mess to which I'd just as soon not be exposed — but the interesting underbelly of it all is just how niggardly the nature of their interpersonal relationship appears and the profoundly deficient apparent lack of "character and temperament" requisite for any leader of the United States of America.

While I don't claim to be this stellar example of doing the right thing — it has been my personal view that entirely too many people conducting the political and business affairs of the Clintons have ended up mysteriously and suspiciously dead with wounds undocumented in the "official" investigation.

Add to this any number of other deficiencies of the Clinton reign from Monica Lewinski's semen stained dress to the infamous private mail server of the Secretary of State which was subsequently swept under the carpet by the Director of the FBI — and Attorney General, who met with Bill Clinton for an impromptu discussion ... and ALL appear to be in cahoots with the remainder of the democratic establishment in blurring the seriousness and the facts via a suppressing smoke screen of attempts to diffuse the situation.

Another Clinton white house is just about as good an idea as Bernie Sanders proposed socialist utopia: nothing good can come out of it.

Sooner or later we need to hold our leadership accountable for their actions and lack thereof. This simply does not appear to be happening. I'll take Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton any old day; particularly in light of the travesty which was eight years of Barack Obama and his professional vacationing on Air Force One agenda.

October will find ATM owners here in the states upgrading or replacing those cash fountains with models which accept chip cards or become liable for defined instances of fraud they may incur without them.

It seems that the chip machines themselves as well as that maintenance of them may be self limiting in the market of the convenience store or watering hole proper to the point that many establishments of the retail persuasion may forgo the ATM on premises altogether.

Depending on which side of the transaction fee you happen to be standing on this may be horrible or not so much ...

Statistics state that compromised ATM-created problems for customers increased some 600% last year.

The skullduggery is evolving to include these chip based technologies and there are exploits which have been drummed up for the chip based access points as well.

Be all of this as it may I feel that my fiscal responsibility should eclipse my convenience of monetary access so I am quick to only hit those few ATMs at my bank.

I have even had a lesson from the bank on what to look for before inserting the old debit card — which by the way remains a chipless "swipe" device to this day.

The bottom line here is increasing vigilance is warranted for anyone who wants to protect their bottom line.

Let the foolhardy get ripped off by the cyber criminal. I hit my transaction logs several times daily and I don't use just ANY machine to access my money.

There is a manchild named Raymond Geisel who lives aboard a boat at Marathon in the Florida keys and is repeatedly landing himself in trouble by opening his mouth when he should remain silent.

The kid has done federal time for threatening presidents Barack Obama and George W Bush while in Miami training to be a bail bondsman.

Now he's allegedly stalked an animal control officer and threatened the lives of a deputy sheriff and a state marine officer.

OK. I was way too mouthy from childhood through well beyond age 28 when I started straightening up otherwise. There comes a time when you need to keep that puffy tude to yourself because even though you might be quite angry you're really not all that.

When you go around making threats and being all banty rooster bad ass the only thing you're doing is bringing yourself more grief. AGAIN ... far better to remain silent and be though a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt. Like me at your age, you're running out of chances.