Reflections From a Murky Pond

Well, we all know the fantasy that nerds and Hollywood put forward as truth in regards to Hacking, Information Security, and such like. To listen to them, it’s all about technology skills and crafty, intuitive intellect. Below is a hilarious – to me at least – cartoon that puts paid to that fantasy.

Cartoon courtesy of xkcd

Trust me, in the world of Information Warfare, advanced technology is neither the most effective means of stealing someone’s information nor the most commonly used methodology. Social Engineering has always been more cost effective and “brute force attacks” are more often the use of actual force than one might expect.

Some days it’s just not safe to surf the internet in the morning – especially during or near breakfast time. You never know what horror might appear on your screen and interfere with both your sanity and your digestion.

Image courtesy of LOL Celebs!

For men at least there’s a small blessing – back in 2002 Rosie O’Donnell came out of the closet and admitted to being a lesbian, so we’re fairly safe from further cerebral and ocular abuse on this front. Sadly, our lesbian and bisexual women friends have no such protection.

But please, O ye merciful Gods! Grant us all your favor and reprieve. Please do not let her have kept this BDSM outfit! And please, please, please let their never ever, ever be a Rosie O’Donnell sex tape!

Chocolate v. Vanilla: A Study In Racial Bias

There seems to be a definite bias in the media’s portrayal of government interactions with natural disasters in America. It’s a bias that seems to have its basis on the both the race of the victims and the race of the current President of the Unite States. This is a shameful thing, but not one that anyone who is clear of thought would fail to expect. After all, the media has continued to gloat over installing America’s first Black President, Barack Obama.

The media was quick, strident and persistent in their attacks on President Bush in the wake of hurricane Katrina’s destruction of large swaths of New Orleans, LA. Their incessant diatribes painted a very negative picture of Bush’s, the federal government’s, and FEMA’s response to the situation. They made sure to vilify the US government in general and President Bush in particular – all the while providing a sympathetic venue for New Orleans’ mayor, Ray Nagin’s racism and hate speech.

Where is the media now? Why are they so silent on the latest deadly disaster to impact a segment of America?

In the likely case that you haven’t heard about it, the Midwest was hit by savage ice storms a few days ago.  At least 42 people died in the storms and literally a million or more people are without power or water days after the storm has passed. It’s a total fiasco and FEMA is barely involved at all, though the Governor has deployed all his available National Guard forces to help maintain order and work to rescue people from lethal conditions. FEMA’s lack of presence in the wake of the ice storms is a cause for must anger and resentment among the population of Kentucky.

Yet where is the media in all this? There has been the same sort of ineffective response from FEMA to the Kentucky ice storms as there was to New Orleans’ hurricane, and there hasn’t even been a “heartfelt condolences” visit from President Obama – yet the media withholds its ire. Why is this different?

When “Chocolate City” – Mayor Nagin’s own words or yammerings – is devastated, anything less then full federal relief is cause for media outrage. When whole counties in Kentucky that are filled with blue-collar Whites who “cling to their God and their guns” – let’s call then “Vanilla Counties” – is laid waste,  it’s a whole different (non)story apparently…

The difference seems as simple as the difference of Chocolate v. Vanilla.

During his election campaign Obama – referring to Governor Sarah Palin’s nomination as the Republican Vice-Presidential candidate – quipped, “You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig.”

You Can Put Lipstick On A Pig, But It’s Still Made Of Pork

It’s kind of funny how things that one does or says come back around to haunt you later. It’s hilarious how soon this sometimes occurs. 😛