Court TVs "Anatomy of Pursuit": Pursuing the Truth

I'm watching "Court TV". The show is "Anatomy of Crime: Hot Pursuit". It's showing most of the issues surrounding high-speed pursuits between cops and criminals. I say most because they are concentrating on the cops and the innocent people who are hurt or killed during the course of the pursuit. I hear people talking about how the cops are at fault, that the pursuit never should have happened, how the policy in one case allowed the bad guy to go free, but the cop felt at fault for letting him get away, on and on and on.

But guess what is missing? The fact that the criminals being pursued are at fault. Perhaps its a sign of the times that we blame everyone but those responsible. Society is at fault, the government is at fault, blah, blah, blah. But what about the criminals themselves? What of them? Are they not at fault? Not according to this show. It would appear that running from the cops is the way to go. Go ahead! Do it! Even if you hurt or kill someone else, you won't be at fault! It will be the cops fault! It will be the government's fault! The victims will blame both of them and you'll be free and clear! Hell, it might even put you up in the eyes of your cellmates. (One of whom, I hope, is named, "Rufus T. Buttlove.")

And now they're talking about prosecuting cops for participating in high-speed pursuits. Just what your average beat cop needs, another armchair quarterback. (Note: I really loved the fact that one of the people talking most stridently about going after cops if the pursuit goes wrong is a "Professor of Criminology". One of the types of people I detest the most are armchair academics. They feel that they can solve all of the worlds problems with talk and reason. Yeah, prof, whatever...) None of the people talking about prosecuting cops are (or were) cops. Hmmm.

Could we make fleeing from cops in a vehicle (not on foot) a crime similar to firing a gun in public? Think about it. A thousand pounds of vehicle is a very deadly weapon, especially at high speeds. If we consider it a deadly force crime, the cops would be allowed to shoot at the criminals. I've seen many pursuits where the cops were able to, at one point, get close to the driver. They were able to reach in to the car, but they could not wrestle with the perpetrator. I think that if they were allowed to shoot the criminals, the pursuit would be over much quicker. Further, the criminals would think twice about fleeing if they knew the cops could shoot them for it.

Okay, all (sick) joking aside, here's the problem. Today, running from the police stands at the same level as drunk driving did many years ago. Then, Candy Lightner started MADD in 1980. That changed the way people looked at driving drunk. It's not funny anymore. But high speed pursuits are still cool, or not that big a deal. It's almost funny. People love watching them on TV. (Remember the so-called "pursuit" of OJ Simpson?) But they shouldn't be cool anymore. People need to look at them as sick and disgusting. How would they feel if, instead of a car weaving erratically all over the road, the helicopter camera showed a man with a gun indiscriminately shooting people? How would they feel? Thrilled? Or disgusted? That's how we should feel when we see a high-speed pursuit.

Why Am I Always the Only One?

I have both a Roku Soundbridge and Zonealarm installed on my computer. If you own both of these items, you probably already know the problems that arise. No matter what I do, I cannot make them coexist. So, if I want to listen to music on my Soundbridge, I have to temporarily disable my Zonealarm. Soundbridge has an interesting feature that allows you to "telnet" into it in order to make some changes (such as manually set the IP address) or play around with the display.

But telnet is a communication program. And Zonealarm is designed to make it as difficult as possible for programs to communicate. As hard as I've tried to make Zonealarm usable, it's just not possible. I've tried:

* to add "telnet" as a program to Zonealarm. No matter how many times I try, it won't show up on the Zonealarm program list.
* add a rule in the zones to allow telnet to communicate. No matter how I configure the settings, it won't work.
* add a rule in the zones to allow any program in the Trusted zone to communicate. And it won't work.

So, here I am with a firewall that is overly aggressive. You'd think that, as long as Zonealarm has been on the market, someone would have already tripped across this problem. Nope, I'm the first. How do I know? Because I've scoured the Internet looking for something similar (Don't bother looking on Zonealarm's web site. It sucks.)

Every web site I've been to says the party line of, "Add "telnet" to your list of approved programs" and "Put your Soundbridge in the allowed zone". But neither of these options works. Further, there are many settings that are possible for both of these suggestions, but no one will tell you what settings to use.

No dice. I'm the first. Frankly, this is not one of those times when being the premiere on something has its advantages. It's no advantage at all. It just sucks.

Sigh.

Dear America: Stop Your Whining!

I spent this afternoon driving home from work listening to a talk radio channel on XM. I'm guessing that it was a left-leaning talk show because I was subjected to several callers discussing how their lives sucked because George W. Bush was the President of the United States. That was how conversations started, then it invariably went into how the mainstream media will not go after Bush on his stance on various issues, including the war in Iraq.

Before that, I spent some time with some colleagues who are anything but left-leaning. Frankly, some of them would make Rush Limbaugh appear more to the left than Abby Hoffman. They talked about how America was going down the drain because of the attacks on religion, the attacks on Christians by those opposing intelligent design, etc, etc, etc.

I, for one, am sick of all of it. Left and right. Now hear this, you are all idiots.

America, by my definition, is still the greatest country on Earth. (So I'm biased. So sue me.) It's the idiots like you who are flushing it down the commode of history. Stop your whining. Just because George W. Bush is President of the United States does not mean your life is over. If you truly believe that life here is that bad, the borders for outbound people are open. Don't let the door hit you in the ass on your way out.

As for those of you who think that your religious views are under such attack and persecution, find your "Mayflower", weigh anchor, and shove off. Sorry, fellas, but life is just not that bad. Frankly, my life, for all of its faults, is pretty damn good. Perhaps I'm too much of a simpleton, but I have three squares a day, a nice place to live (cramped though it is), a wonderful wife, and good job (despite some of my idiotic colleagues), and a family that is mostly healthy.

I've seen people who have it bad. You are not among them. If having Dubya as the head honcho is the worst that happens to you this decade, you've done pretty damn good.

The one reply I'm sure to get to anyone (Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?) reading this is, "I'm not whining!" My definition of whining is someone stating a problem in their life that has an indirect and intangible impact on their life. At best, Dubya is an indirect impact. Further, it's VERY indirect. Also, I prefer if you were to provide some substance to your smoke (And I sure wish I knew what you were smoking so I could try to place a ban on it...) I'm weary of hearing, "George W. Bush doesn't care. He lies. He does whatever he wants." Blah, blah, blah. Do you mind providing at least one tangible piece of evidence? Fact is, you can't. You listen to others bitch, piss, wail, and moan over the sorry states of their lives and you want to find a scapegoat. Fact is, your lives would be sorry without Dubya. You'd just find someone else to blame it on.

Same goes for you who complain about attacks on religion, Christianity, etc, etc, etc. Would you please provide one shred of evidence of how you are being attacked? One iota? No, don't hand me some magazine, such as Newsshit, Slime or one of the others. I want you to actually read something, process it for yourself, and give me a credible argument in your own words. Really hard to do, isn't it? Especially when you've never done it before. Instead, you want to find the party line of all of the other right-wing idiots (Rush Limbaugh, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell) and just continue to spout it. No, I want you to tell me what YOU think. Can't, huh? Didn't think so.

I want both sides to stop talking in extremes, grow up, and deal with the world as it is, not as you perceive it through your narrow filter. There is a lot more gray between these black and white views of yours. You morons.