Environmental report out... interesting statistics

I need to go on record to say that I believe that we should all be good stewards of the Earth and that it is our God given responsibility to take care of his earth. At the same time the thought that the US is the great evil that is solely responsible for any sort of rise in CO2 gas is just stupid. Over at the Political Nightmare there is a great article talking about several reports around the percentage increase or reduction in CO2 production.

Check out the stats:

From 1990 through 2004, UN figures show increases in Green House Gas emissions as follows:

United States: 13.3%
Canada: 24.2%
Spain: 44.7%
Portugal: 36.7%
Ireland: 25.6%
Greece: 25.8%
Finland: 21.5%
Austria: 16.5%

Who is the lowest on the list? Where is the socialist French? Go check out the article to read more. Join the forums at Political Nightmare to get in the game on the discussion.

-End of Ramble

Arthur R. Miller had it right --- in 1967

Recently I wrote here about PCI, RFID and data compliance and security. Back in 1967 Arther R. Miller wrote in the Atlantic Monthly in an article title "The National Data Center and Personal Privacy" about a similar thing. 41 Years ago! The article was recently re-discovered and posted on Modern Mechanix Blog and can be found here.

An excerpt that is particularly telling:

Finally, the risks to privacy created by a National Data Center lie not only in the misuse of the system by those who desire to injure others or who can obtain some personal advantage by doing so. There also is a legitimate concern that government employees in routine clerical positions will have the capacity to inflict damage through negligence, sloppiness, thoughtlessness, or sheer stupidity, by unintentionally rendering a record inaccurate, or losing it, or disseminating its contents to people not authorized to see it.

To ensure freedom from governmental intrusion, Congress must legislate reasonably precise standards regarding the information that can be recorded in the National Data Center. Certain types of information should not be recorded even if it is technically feasible to do so and a legitimate administrative objective exists. For example, it has long been “feasible,” and from some vantage points “desirable,” to require citizens to carry and display passports when traveling in this country, or to require universal fingerprinting. But we have not done so because these encroachments on our liberties are deemed inconsistent with the philosophical fiber of our society. Likewise, highly personal information, especially medical and psychiatric information, should not be permitted in the center unless human life depends upon recording it.

Go check it out. It's worth the time and the read. Interesting how things that are foretold in the past come to fruition and how we continue to fail to learn.

-End of Ramble

Be Careful What You Wish For

Some commenting on Reverend Jeremiah Wright's style of speech say that his forceful language is designed to solicit discussion and to make people think. If that is the case, then I believe that Ann Coulter hit the proverbial nail on the head with Throw Grandma Under the Bus. She states correctly that discrimination against white people is not only legal, but that it is also mandatory in some instances such as employment and University enrollment. She also very plainly states that Barack Obama gives Rev Wright a pass while essentially calling his grandmother a racist.

Barack has attempted to position himself as the candidate that is beyond race and as a unifying force for all America. As he said in his 2004 DNC keynote address,

...there is not a liberal America and a conservative America -- there is the United States of America. There is not a Black America and a White America and Latino America and Asian America -- there’s the United States of America.

Well, be careful what you wish for as the door has now been opened to discuss racism by all races, not just "typical white people". I believe that we can move beyond race as a country. I also believe that people like Rev Wright are the main obstacle to doing so.

##That's my opinion##

Illegal Immigration

Build the wall

Build the Wall.

Build the WALL!

BUILD THE WALL !!!!!

##That's my opinion##

Oh What A Tangled Web

I don't think that Hillary is lying - seriously. In order to tell a lie you have to know what is true and what is false and then deliberately present the falsehood as truth. I don't believe that Hillary Clinton is capable now, if she ever was, of telling the difference between truth and lies. I believe that she is so hard-wired to manipulate the political situation that her only compass now is political advantage. The truth is a nasty little detail that she has no use for, unless by some mad coincidence it happens to go her way.

That being said, let's take a look at the "List of Lies" presented by someone who should know, Dick Morris. My personal favorite, "She thought Bill was innocent when the Monica scandal broke". Yea right. And to borrow from Dennis Miller commenting on Hillary's book Living History, if she doesn't have the good sense to know that slick Willy is cheating, then she sure doesn't have the mental prowess to be President.

And what the heck was Barack thinking? Jeremiah Wright is not a racist and has never said anything anti-American? Where have you been Barack? You admitted to attending that church for 20 years. You never heard him say or heard anyone talking about Rev. Wright saying any of those hateful things?

What disturbs me the most is that if Barack were Republican, there would be a firestorm of press coverage 24/7 and calls for Congressional hearing for misconduct. The elite media in the United States is so in the tank for the Democrats that you have to have a kool aid iv drip to not notice. How can anyone support a man for President that has the complete lack of judgement to sit in Rev. Wright's church for 20 years. This type of hate speech certainly sheds a new light on Michelle Obama's comment that for the first time in her adult life she is proud to be an American. If she has found it so intolerable to be an American, let me be the first to invite her to take her leave. The world is a mighty big place and it's full of America haters where she should feel right at home - or should I say Wright at home.

##That's my opinion##

Clinton owned by Obama campaign

Reverse Vampyr has this awesome chain of events between Clinton and Obama. It just goes to show you how low this has gotten and how good it looks for McCain...

Find the read here

-End of Ramble

Credit and Debit card security

One of the largest challenges facing the credit card industry today is the proliferation of technology and the ubiquitous nature of the credit and debit card. The nature of the technology used yields significant effects around the associated data security and the ability to protect the consumer’s data from fraudulent activity. The industry has created a standard known as the Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance standard which mandates that any merchant who accepts credit cards must meet a minimum standard of compliance or face fines. Visa, MasterCard and American Express all have published their individual specifications. The PCI program is an overall reaction to the theft and hacking of credit card data. A recent example of hacking is found in the theft of 4.2 million credit and debit card numbers from Hannaford’s of Maine. As can be seen in the article from the Lincoln County News on Hannaford the trust is eroded for the customer in the credit card company as well as in the organization who had their data compromised. Hannaford also has a statement that clearly identifies its compliance to the PCI standards.

A new piece of technology that is being introduced by many of the credit and debit card companies is the built in RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tag. This technology allows the user to be in proximity of a scanner and eliminates the need to ‘swipe’ the card and sign on a receipt or pin pad. MasterCard has some fairly common commercials on the use of this type of technology which they call “Paypass”. This technology is being hacked fairly easily with the purchase of a credit card RFID reader on EBay for $8.00 and then using a simple terminal program to begin reading credit card information without actually viewing the card. This NY Times article shows how easy it is to read credit card data by being in proximity of the card and the Engadget / BoingBoing article shows how a hacker has done this and suggests stainless steel wallets for everyone.

Consumers value the convenience offered by vendors who accept credit and debit cards and they are here to stay. The technology and data security issues will have to be addressed and the credit card issuing companies are taking steps to ensure the protection of consumer. RFID is fraught with privacy challenges that are only just beginning to surface. More marketing attention should be placed on the PCI and privacy compliance. Unfortunately most companies’ privacy statements are buried at the websites reviewed by this author. Vendors and credit card companies need to take a more proactive stance with consumers before confidence is completely eroded.

-End of Ramble