Comments

Episode-1160- Listener Feedback 7-1-13 — 53 Comments

  1. Jack
    Regarding “US Air Force Personal ORDERED not to read about the NSA Scandal” I’m kind of surprised this is the only report of this filtered up. I can pretty much guarantee you every single person on any government ran network has received at LEAST one email. Also not just government ran network, but any network ran under government contract, particularly those who hold clearances.
    Cough cough cough….

  2. did you ever hear the story about Daniel Shays rebellion. These farmers levied thier land to help defeat the British then when these farmers could not pay back thier debts the gov they fought for sided with the very people who wanted to enslave them very interesting. I grew up in Western Mass and was never tught that in School

  3. Impossible – Incapable of being or of occurring

    Standard leadership training in the Corps (and I’m sure the other services):
    Never give an order you can’t enforce..

    The Governmental equivalent would be ‘never pass a law you can’t enforce’

    Seems like both institutions have been infected by the same sorts.

    Of course in the case of military.. I can imagine exactly how much eye rolling was going delivered along with that order, particularly from the noncoms. Probably a bit more than with those ‘this area is off limits’ speeches.

    It seems like that order originated right there in Texas @ Lackland Air Force Base.

    If you read it, its a CYA so the 624th doesn’t have to fill out paperwork about why classified documents are located in insecure parts of their network.

    So, its not saying, ‘don’t read news stories about Snowden..’ its saying ‘don’t view/download classified files (that are available on the internet) onto our computers.

    🙂

    • Sadly this can be enforced at least for those overseas and field deployed. If you are in that situation your only option is the governments net, I am sure you have to log on with a credential to use it. So they can MONITOR the troops, know who broke the order and this is the bad part, prosecute them under the UCMJ for failure to obey an order. That can be a field level Article 15, which can result in reduction in grade by two ranks, 60 days confinement to quarters and 30 days loss of pay.

      Failure to accept an Article 15 will result in a Courts Martial which can and likely will result in incarceration in a US military prison and a dishonorable discharge. This can be a Summary, Special or General Courts Martial depending on how the prosecutor wants to proceed.

      For the record an Article 15 is generally guilty and sentenced period at either the company or field grade level. The above is the maximum punishment at the field grade level (Battalion Commander such as a Lt. Colonel in the US Army) At the company grade it is the company CO (in the Army generally a Captain) and you can get at max 2 weeks confinement to quarters, loss of one month of pay and reduction of one grade at that level.

      Generally the Captain or equivalent in other services at the Company CO level decides to either handle it directly or send you up the chain for a field grade offense. Or the Battalion commander CAN if he really wants to pull it up for greater discipline.

      It gets worse, because it doesn’t stop at a fine, grade reduction and what amounts to house arrest. Either one of these officers can and often will decide to begin proceedings to discharge the offender if they feel the offense warrants it. Contrary to what most civilians believe most of these discharges are not “dishonorable” they are a “general discharge” which is done under honorable conditions, meaning you got fired.

      This will not totally screw the offender for life but it will likely destroy any and all opportunity for any level of employment at the Federal government level, serisously reduce any opportunity for employment at the State and Local government level, eliminate the opportunity to serve in the Guard or Reserves and to boot eliminate any earned retirements and any benefits like the Army College Fund and GI Bill.

      In other words for reading a NY Times article now these airmen risk

      A large fine
      House arrest
      Reduction in rank at best

      Termination and serious life consequences at the mid point

      A large fine
      Reduction in rank
      Incarceration in a military penitentiary and
      Dishonorable discharge and serious impediment to any meaningful employment for life

      It still gets worse! Any courts martial that COULD result in one year or more of incarceration is a felony conviction even if they don’t give the offender a full year! Do you get that. In 2002 the maximum sentence for a special courts martial was raised to one year. Hence if this Airmen or a person in another branch was charged with a special or general courts martial and accused of a crime (like disobeying a general order in a time of war) punishable up to one year in military prison, even if the result is only one day in prison the conviction is considered a felony.

      Now the person can’t own a gun, can’t vote, must answer yes to a felony conviction on every job application they fill out, etc.

      This is some serious bullshit to risk for reading the damn news paper.

      • Jack, I love you man but you’re looking for a conspiracy theory when the simple explanation works. The military doesn’t care if it’s service members/civilians read about this. They know there’s no way to get away from it, it’s on every news source out there.

        The issue is the government network systems and how they’re set up. That string of letters on the header and footer of the “leaked” document means something and government systems are setup to look for it. When if it finds it sends out an alert to the IT guys, then they have to come out, find out what happened and scrub the computer. It doesn’t matter that it’s allover the news, just because it’s public doesn’t mean it’s been declassified.

        I agree that most of the stuff that’s classified probably shouldn’t be done in the first place but this is not an attempt by the government to censor news from service members. They can read whatever they want, just not on a government system.

        • You keep believing that if you want to, I am getting more and more reports that there are orders going out in the field to not read, not look, not discuss.

        • While I’m not disagreeing with the practicality of what you’re saying thats incorrect. I’m not sure what your insider knowledge is into the subject, but I can pretty much tell you anybody with a clearance has and will continue to get reminders about incidentally leaking information or accessing classified information, A. on the wrong system and B. without the need to know (you may have a clearance, but not a need to know).

          I don’t think there is an effort to “blind service members” rather the government trying to cover up and prevent a leak from going out further, therefore, gagging troops and preventing them from looking or discussing it. Ask any intelligence officer about the subject at hand and they’ll state it hasn’t be declassified yet, regardless of if its in the news. So by their bureaucratic standards you’d have accessed classified information illegally, and were also disseminating it, whether or not that is the most eye rolling thing ever is another thing all together.

        • Oh hell no Mike do not become an apologist for this bullshit. How the F does someone reading what already is out risk a larger leak? ONLY ONE WAY and ONLY ONE and you are more then smart enough to know exactly how.

          This leak if KNOWN FULLY ABOUT by those in uniform and in other capacity that actually believe what they are doing is good for the nation could make them START ASKING QUESTIONS and might lead to others that know damn well our government is LYING TO US and SCREWING US OVER to also speak up.

          You know what this really is? A smear campaign. The people that leaked Abu Ghraib, Bradley Manning, Edward Snowden and Julian Asange are all scum, that is the message they are trying to tell our men and women guarding our nation.

          For the first time in a LONG time I think we need a new law. Any person trusted with guarding the nation should not only take an oath to the constitution they should first have to read it, then take a test on what it says and then and only then may they take an oath and be trusted with power. Doesn’t matter if that power is as a local LEO, an intel analyst or as a fighting solider. Anyone who in anyway could at anytime use tax payer funds to violate the constituation and citizens rights should have to swear this oath and do so only after demonstrating they have a Fing clue what they are swearing an oath to.

          Last night I watched the movie “Doctored” the entire first part is how the AMA waged a complete smear campaign and witch hunt on the chiropractors for decades with lies and false information. Yep command knows the story is everywhere and they can’t stop people from reading about it. What they can do is make it a CRIME, do you get that a CRIME for those under orders to do so while on duty or on government property. The message is clear if you do that you are a traitor, you are scum, your brothers and sisters in service will spit when your name is mentioned. That is what this is, a psyops campaign to keep others quiet.

          The truth, Edward Snowden, Bradley Manning and Julian Assange are all HEROES! A hero is not someone who does what is right while others cheer him on, he is one who does what is right while others try to stop him, curse his name and get in his way. This applies to the guy who pushes someone out of the way to charge into a burning building and save another person. It also applies to a man who gives up his career, risks his freedom, his name and his life, just to tell the people he swore to defend the truth while they spit on him for doing his REAL JOB.

          Seriously your premise that this is to prevent further leaks is true, just not the way you meant it. There is no way a person reading public information CAN IN ANYWAY create a leak UNLESS it reaches someone else that realizes the truth. You bet your ass they want our service men blinded to the truth and what they can’t keep them from seeing they will malign, slander and spit on.

          “Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel”. ~Samuel Johnson 1775

          Anyone wrapping themselves in the flag while attacking Snowden (like the entire Congress) is exactly who Johnson was talking about.

          I mean Wikileaks for example. If our congress was doing its job that would have resulted in a shit ton of hearings, prosecutions, etc. of our OWN GOVERNMENT, but no, everyone wants Asange’s and Manning’s head. Whether you think the info should have come out or not, some of what we learned our government is ACTIVELY doing with WikiLeaks is absolutely 100% criminal. The fact that no one in Congress asked a single question on that side of the ball, NOT A SINGLE QUESTION (other then the Paul’s who were attacked for it) is very telling.

        • The soul and substance of what customarily ranks as patriotism is moral cowardice — and always has been.
          – Mark Twain’s Notebook

          ie. going along with the crowd. In any country, the easy path is to be ‘patriotic’.. in other words, to support the status quo.

          “Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”
          ? Patrick Henry

          “The true character of liberty is independence, maintained by force.” – Voltaire

          Wasn’t going to go down this road until I heard that you’re taking the Fourth of July off this year. I feel like with everything that’s going on its better observed as a day of mourning and reflection, rather than a day of celebration.

        • You know I don’t buy into that day of morning stuff that some do. Look at it this way, sure they have polluted what it means to be a patriot but I won’t stop being or calling myself a true patriot, I won’t let them take that away from me. Nor will I let them destroy what it means that on July 4th, 1776 a new republic was born out of a tyrannical colonist regime. I won’t blindly wave a flag, but I won’t put it down either.

          These bastards have taken so much I won’t let them take true patriotism, true constitutionalism, the recognition of inalienable rights of all men or anything else this nation actually was founded on. You can morn, I will eat well with my family, thank my version of God that I am still in the fight and plan my next assault.

          I really hope that gives you a new way to look at this issue man, I know you are a very smart and open minded person.

        • @Modern –
          Always good to have someone let me know when I’m talking out of my ass. 😉

          Letting the parasites claim MY country and MY flag, while denigrating MY constitution and trying to convince me that their agenda is ‘what’s right for America’.. ain’t going to happen.

          So, I’ll stop talking defeatist.. as if ‘they’ have the upper hand, and focus on MY agenda for MY country. And practice a bit of gratitude for all the things that are FANTASTIC about our country.

          This is not to ignore that bad things are afoot, or that bad things have been, and are being done.. just to move the focus to the now, and to what I want in the future.

          Guess I need to cut back on the Lew Rockwell for a while too.. 😉

      • From what I know this restriction is supposed to apply to ALL people with a clearance, whether in the service or contractors. I remember seeing similar notifications like this a 2-3 years ago when Wikileaks burst on the scene. If my memory serves, they tell this to cleared persons on the basis of the agreement we all signed that we promised to not attempt to access classified information beyond our ‘need to know’, clearance level, or attempt to access classified documents on computers that are not approved to handle classified data. So on the basis of one or more of these factors, reading about it on even on your own time or your HOME computer is technically a violation of that agreement. And sure enough, in the training they specifically mention just because classified material is public doesn’t mean you can handle it any differently. So yes it’s BS and a stupid, nonsensical technicality, but it’s still binding.
        Now as to how enforceable this is in reality, well, I think most people here can guess that one for themselves….

      • @Modern
        I’m in agreement with you on this, I had just wanted to mention the actual legal basis of this ‘restriction’ and that it in fact is supposed to apply to EVERYONE with a clearance and with ANY computer (not just soldiers on niprnet or other government systems) and so it’s actually EVEN WORSE than the original article lets on. I find it one of the most absurd kinds of nanny-state bureaucratic power-trip mandates I’ve experienced yet (all the more so I guess since I’m one of those they’re trying to control with extremely unreasonable demands). But if it’s any consolation, from what I’ve seen with some of the discussions that go on at work, most people are keeping up with the news and giving the restriction the figurative middle finger (at least in regards to their time away from work). And better yet, a good number of them are just as upset with the scandal as the audience here…

        • Reading your earlier post I do get the technicality and how the powers that be can just say, we are trying to protect you from our own policy.

          What you are saying is,

          1. The info was leaked and is public
          2. Even though the info is public it hasn’t been declassified
          3. Those with clearance to use government networks can’t view any classified info unless they have a need to know basis and the clearance level required for the info
          4. Just because 1 is true it doesn’t change 2 or 3

          What a bunch of bullshit, the real reason though is as I said, to brain wash any that could step up next into blind patriotism and slander the heroes who have spoken the truth.

      • @Modern,
        Yep, you’ve got it in a nutshell. It’s 0ne of several reasons I am growing to resent this line of work…. when I first started I felt like I was doing and working on something worthwhile, but over time it’s become an increasingly bureaucratic and soul-sucking experience. And with this it’s like having some unseen gov’t bureaucrat version of Eric Cartman issuing periodic memos of: “You will respect my authori-tay!!!”. It almost begs the question, is it better to stay so there are more people of conscience in this field who push to keep some semblance of integrity, or leave so as to retain one’s sanity and happiness? Sadly, at this point I have to say the latter feels like the better choice. It’s unfortunate that many service members, unlike contractors, have to wait years to have the luxury of quitting.

        • If anything is truly soul sucking find a better way and do so fast.

          Don’t feel an obligation to stay for any other man’s good, you are better for society when you are happy and fulfilled.

          In the words of Richard Bach, “The best way to avoid responsibilities is to say, I’ve got responsibilities”.

          Please ponder that, so many stay miserable by some false sense of duty and obligations, the real responsiblity to society is for you to be happy, that isn’t selfish, it is actually very hard for most people to do.

          Look at what I have done with TSP, it is the first time in my life (professionally) I have been truly happy. For years I ran companies as a salesman I felt it was my duty to sell enough to feed 25% of the company (since I was one of 4 regional VPs, that is how the math worked). Then I ran three companies at the same time later in life, we employed a combined 65 people, I felt it was my duty to stay there, build those companies and felt good that 65 families had food on the table from my effort and sacrifice. As I began pondering leaving that to do TSP full time I worried that no one could run those concerns like I did, they might fail without me.

          You know they survived, though some lean outs and lay offs occurred.

          When I asked myself if doing this full time would make me happy even if not rich, the answer was full on YES! It wasn’t scary money wise as we live smart and even now I can land a high paying job just by putting out the word that I am on the market. It wasn’t scary that it might fail, it was already a success and all my success in the past was built on the backs of failures anyway. The only hard part was giving myself permission to say basically those who had depended on me were on their own. No longer would I create jobs, train people, innovate the next great concept and market it. No I would just sit back and enjoy myself.

          Then look what happened! In doing what I personally wanted I feel I have done more to help more people then I ever could have in business traditionally. There are literally hundreds of small businesses out there today inspired by TSP and Five Minutes with Jack. Tens of thousands of gardens have provided food on hundreds of thousands of tables that families have shared. Countless times I have had to hide a tear when met by people saying “I need you to know you changed my life” because I know they mean it.

          Man that ain’t be bragging, this is hard to say like this publicly. Despite my in your face style when it comes to tooting my own horn I am quite reserved and just don’t like to do it. But the facts are the facts and in finding my happiness I was able to do more not less for others.

          Flat out unless you are in line to be Director of the CIA or something like that, there isn’t much you can do anyway. So stop living your life for others and live for yourself. God gave you your life, he didn’t give your life to me or to any other man. Life is a gift and those that receive it have a RESPONSIBILITY to make the most of it. You are not getting younger, you won’t resent loving life at the end of your life, but you may very well resent not having lived it to your own version of what is best for you and those you love. That will never happen in an environment one describes as soul sucking.

      • @Modern,
        Yeah, that is the direction both my heart and head are pushing, despite how nice this career seems on paper. But it’s nice to hear it from someone else for a change. To be honest nobody’s job depends on me staying, so the only people who really depend on me are my family. And IMO things are largely too far gone to try to work within the system to make a difference (especially for a rank-and-file engineer).

        Thanks, and keep up the great work…

  4. You are 100% correct on the difference between men and women. Men are logical thinkers. They like to fix one problem at a time. Women have to juggle problems. Junior needs to go to the dentist and there is also an appointment to get the car fixed and what should I fix for dinner and the shirts need to be picked up at the cleaners and still have to clean the house and and and. We’re thinking about that at the same time. The man would say …have to take Junior to the dentist. It’s just how we’re wired.

    As for pissing people off, I started my sermon this past Sunday with a quote by Winston Churchill : ‘You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.’ My sermon was about Rev Richard Wurmbrand who spent well over a decade of his life in Communist prisons being tortured simply for preaching the word of God and went on to say how corrupt our current gov’t is in BOTH parties and that we are seeing multiple liberties taken from us including our right to worship as we wish. One guy walked out.
    And so…I have made enemies and I pissed people off and I could care less. I’m sick of the church with no backbone and I’m NOT afraid to stand at the pulpit and tell the people to either defend their constitution or lose it.
    They were basically in shock. They’re used to being lulled to sleep with politically correct BS.

    • The wife does this to me all the time. I’m focused on something and starts playing 20 questions with me. What do you want for dinner? XYZ? How about this?

      I eventually have to stop her and say, “I have no answer for you. I’m not thinking about that… I’m working on something else.”

      • I call this “setting a course”, it is what men do. We might multi task but there is always one primary mission and it gets full priority until accomplished, then the next, then the next. To woman this often seems crazy but we generally get more done in a day.

        Now women will say but when you have to deal with children that changes and it does to a degree. On task, change a diaper, back to task, cut gum out of hair back to task, finish task stop fight on to next task.

        It is just how we are wired.

        Here is how anyone male or female can do this even better.

        Beginning of day, make a list of everything that you need or want to do that day. Now write a number from 1-5 next to each thing.

        A 5 means something bad will happen if you don’t do it, a serious consequence, like paying a bill on time, getting Johnny to practice on time, etc.

        A 4 means it will cause an inconvenience, you won’t really be put out but you would be far better off, especially the next day if you did it.

        A 3 is something that needs to happen in the next 3 days or it will become a 4 or a 5 after that.

        A 2 is something you need to get done in the next 10 days or so.

        A 1 is something that you don’t really need to do but would like to get done.

        When you are on a 5 there is no time to jack around with a 1. Frankly 1’s are often more fun then 5s, that is how 5s get to be 5s in the first place instead of being knocked out as a 4 or a 3. I do this in my head, but I find many people do better to make that list each day.

        Every unproductive employee I ever had I put on a probation that required this list to be presented to myself or their manager first thing in the AM, at lunch and at COB. In 15 years of ownership and management, I only ever had to fire one person that got on board and did this.

        I fired a lot of other people but such people didn’t do what was asked or were bad enough they never got the chance.

        Ladies that say they can’t do this, I challenge you to try, I had a lot of women work for me over the years. More of them then men needed this structure at some point, and folks it was a MAN that got fired.

        • The problem I’m having is evaluating the magnitude.

          We recently bought 5 grapes from Lowes for cheap (they were basically half off). Since then I have absolutely had no earthly Idea where to fit them into the plan, and every day has basically been a “this needs to get done” but I’ve had an absolute design block of where. There are still too many unknowns about where we are expanding the house (zone 1 becomes a bitch for planning if you’re integrating in eventual permanent additions) or where the 2nd garden is going… or x y and z. So i’m like shit. Alot of places are off limits because when we finally clear some of this acerage, we’re going to need those places open and clear.

          And then I go… all this over 25 fing dollars. (5 grapes x 5 dollars each). I’m panicking and refusing to put something in the ground over 5 dollars per plant. (I could plant it and rip it out years later, and who gives two shits right?)

        • How about plan B, throw them in a larger pot or a 5 gallon bucket, water them and grow that root system until you find a place for them, we have quite a few plants in that scenario right now.

        • Further, I guess what I’m saying, if its not “done right” and perfect the first time, I have a hard time committing to working on it.

          Thanks for the leadership tip by the way. Thats definitely another good tool to use on top of some of the others I’ve learned over the years (similar to the guest you had on the other day talking about stating what you know and what you don’t know, to clear up and evaluate the “battlefield”).

        • Plan B.
          Sheesh I said that the other day and friggin forgot. I have big ol’ 7 gallon pots ready to go for that.

          I’ll be doing that today as soon as I get off. Thanks for the help!

        • I appreciate your thoughts on men and women. I refer to the thinking of women as “chick logic”. My girlfriend doesn’t seem to get the “joke”. The term emotional decision making is much better. I’ll be using that from now on.

    • @Ronnie in Iowa,
      Is the audio of your sermon available online anywhere (church website, etc)? Would LOVE to hear it! Well done!

  5. Hey great info about the Chipotle peppers. So I don’t have any red peppers. If i do this with green Jalapenos what would that be called?

    thanks you are awesome!

    • LOL for lack of a better term “green chipolte” but FTR that is sort of like saying non alcoholic beer.

      Jalapenos are something unique in the hot pepper world. Most hots get hotter as color changes. I made the mistake of taking a bite out of a “mild” mariachi pepper one time, I had eaten many yellow ones with almost no burn. I popped in an orange one and with that mistake chewed ice for about 20 minutes after that.

      Jalapenos actually get less hot when they go to red, I figure it is because the sugar in them is higher and it must displace some of the capsaicin. Additionally red jalapenos get a fruity taste. Yep you can do it with green ones but it will not be the same, it won’t be bad just different.

      You can actually do this with any pepper, I need to grow some seranos next year and ripen some of them to red. The owner of Terroir Seeds sent me some smoked serano pepper powder last year and it was pretty spectacular.

      • I bought probably 10 different types of hot peppers exclusively for the purpose of drying them and creating my own seasoning.

        Down h’ya in Looziana, we tend to like hot seasonin’s. I’ll have to keep in mind the idea of smoking it then turning it into a powder.

  6. I fought for the people of the USA (United States of America), I live in the USSA (United Socialist States of Amerika). I am a new citizen of Tennessee, leaving the land of my birth, Texas, as I believe it is being turned into a power base for the politically rich. My nightmare is returning as I believe that I will once again have to step into the roll of combatant to retake the country that was given away to the politicians who hold no loyalties to any people or country. This time I hope a larger portion of the people will stand up and do their part. I volunteered, yes, which means that I’m already in it. Those who would not stand up for their country while they still had one, will you now stand up for the country you have now lost. This is not a call to arms, but rather just an old soldier begging his countrymen (and women) to stand up and act at the ballot box while we still have one

    • Are you sure the ballot box work? Everything has been bought and purchased. I am sure the ballot box has been bought by Goldman Sac or Google or some other major corporation.

      I don’t believe the ballot box work.

      • They don’t buy the box, just both candidates. Even if all elections were completely without fraud it still would not matter.

    • I have spent time on the battle field and I never want to hurt another EVER again. That said I know we are going to have to fight them at the ballot box or on the battle field. As I said before I volunteered long ago so I’m already in it and will continue to keep my word to you my people and to our beloved Constitution. My sisters and brothers in arms are being threatened with UCMJ (Uniform Code of Military Justice) for even looking at the truth, my people are being threatened with government action for standing up for their rights, our food and water is being destroyed and our children are being taught to be drones. If not the ballot box or the battle field, then what? I am an old retired soldier, what would you, my people, want me to do? I am your willing servant.

      • See Shorty most people just don’t get what you are saying for the non initiated you have to s-p-e-l-l i-t o-u-t for them, LOL.

        Many people reading this have no idea what you mean when you say,

        “I volunteered long ago so I’m already in it and will continue to keep my word to you my people and to our beloved Constitution”

        Many scratch their head and say, “um does he mean some militia or something”.

        Folks he means his SERVICE in the military and his oath that still stands. A good solider, sailor, marine or airman knows this is true. When your term of service ends your obligations to show up, put on a uniform, answer directly to authority, do 0600 PT, be deployed to a 3rd world shit hole, etc. may be over but you oath to uphold and defend the constitution against ALL enemies both foreign and DOMESTIC, well that goes with you to the grave.

        Many people including many who took the oath just don’t understand this. For them I recommend some time at http://oathkeepers.org

  7. I worked for a mutual fund servicing company. I worked with a couple large money market funds from a very large well known company. We had to keep an off schedule spreadsheet of the fees for these funds because if we actually booked the fees the funds would break $1.00 on a daily basis. These funds are only being propped up to keep the money flowing.

  8. I ordered those fly cast bubbles today. Looking forward to using them. I’m an avid fisher, love to chase trout in the spring and fall. Summer months I switch up to smallies in the local rivers.

    I ran into a guy fishing a similar technique this spring. He wasn’t using a bubble, but had rigged up a leader on the end of his spinning line. He was mainly using the water flow itself to get the line moving, and as the faster water gave way to the pools he managed to work the line a decent distance from where he stood. In his case, corn was the bait, but the point was the fine leader/tippet he was using gave the bait barely any resistance and allowed it to find its natural depth.

    Hoping these work out for me, as the summer gets hotter, the trout are few and farther between.

  9. Jack,

    Just wanted to say a quick “thank you” for being so open about your product experiences.

    I bought the Yellow Jacket and have had problems with the charging function. When I heard it wasn’t very effective as a stun gun, that was the last straw… going back soon.
    It does look actually well-built, and is a well-conceived product… (my first reaction was “what a dumb idea”, then once I’d thought about it… “genius idea!”). Just maybe not right for prime time.

    Anyhow, have a good 4th!
    David

  10. Dear Jack,
    Thank you for explaining why I have such a hard time with being awake and applying permaculture. I am awake and am informed and want to do something, but all I can think of is the problem. Don’t get me wrong I have done a lot, but the more I read/listen ect. the more needs done. I have the same problem with Geoffs permaculture class. I have an idea of how it works, but all of the problems of using our land and lack of water keep me stuck in the emotions. Trying to talk to hubby..I get frustrated..He presents the information and talks and talks..I want a plan… Step 1, 2,3 ect. Then when I get emotional about it I can look at the plan and reorganize. Thanks for all you do.

  11. I’m a cleared information security professional working under contract for a government agency, while I don’t have access to special information about this or ANY related topics. …

    I can confirm that I’ve received similar warnings about accessing the leaked classified documents being a violation of my clearance agreement. The warning notifications I’ve received don’t forbid me from accessing the public news, however some news sites feature the classified documents themselves and viewing them from a non classified network is most certainly a classified information incident.

    Classified information that finds its way to a non-classified network is considered information spillage and every incident needs to be documented. Despite the horrible language used in the USAF notification you shared, I do honestly believe the intent was only to reduce the number of information spillage events that needed to be reported on the specific non-classified government operated information network.

    If you don’t have a clearance (and will never need one) you can look at whatever you want on your OWN internet connection.

    At least in my case I have a steady feed of news sources on this topics being provided to me, the only caveat is someone is pre-screening them for possible spillage. I can assure you however that the message is not one sided towards the government and I find this NSA program just as disgusting as any other true American whose sworn to uphold the constitution should.

    Jack, I think this is one of those instances where I disagree with your interpretation of the governments intent here… in my eyes this is incompetence over malice.

    Keep fighting the good fight though….

    • Again I get the technicality, doesn’t matter. I am getting numberous reports from those in service being told to NOT READ OR PAY ATTENTION TO any of this information from any source.

      You may have a government job but you are not a military member. When any ranking member of your command tells you to or not to do something it is an ORDER and failure to comply is subject to UCMJ action.

      • I’m well aware of UCMJ and chain of command; so I “get” it.

        The letter you read on Air didn’t read as “don’t look at news stories” to me. It read as “don’t look at news stories on this very specific network” with a subtext of “because it’s our network and we monitor everything you do on this network and are sick of reporting incidents”.

        I can’t speak to other reports you’ve received, I was responding only to the news piece you mentioned in this episode.

        It sounds as if there are a lot of CO’s out there that aren’t very bright and give some really stupid orders that should probably be challenged… But I’m not sure how the military would operate if every stupid order was questioned 😉

        • Before you blame the COs, remember this old saying shit explain everything in the military, “shit rolls downhill”, again this is simple, it is top command trying to basically run a smear campaign on people who are actually heroes.

      • Outside that very specific “technicality” I’d like to share my viewpoint on this and other recent leaks. Any normal person would stop trying to keep a secret after the whole world new the truth, these documents would be declassified in a sane world preventing this entire issue with our troops. Why are these documents still classified if I could print them off on my home computer after a 2 min Google search?

        I responded here because what the troops are being ordered to do is easily rebutted when you consider who owns and operates the networks they are being ordered not to do this on. So in that regard I consider that news “gossip” and dislike it because it detracts from the real issues.

        Should our government be allowed to have secrets like this NSA project at all? If so who is allowed to know, Obama at first claimed he did not understand the full extent of the project, but if he didn’t and the people didn’t WHO DID?

        I know that it’s the NSA’s Office of Inspector Generals (OIG), job to prevent these kind of constitutional violations. Where the hell is the media interview attempts with THAT department, who is getting fired there. Did the OIG know this was going on?

  12. “Whatever seed Monsanto sent to the repository was incinerated,” USDA spokesman Ed Curlett said.

    If you read that literally, that doesn’t mean that all the wheat was incinerated – just the wheat that Monsanto sent. Very well chosen words if you ask me.