The Stories and Novels By Derek Ward
A strong marriage rarely has two strong people at the same time. It is a husband and wife who take turns being strong for each other in the moments when the other feels weak.
This week I celebrate four years being married to the most wonderful woman in the world.
You remember that first music album you got that wasn’t kids music? The one that showed you were listening to “real” music? Yeah. Mine was Quiet Riot’s “Metal Health”. I still remember my parents telling me not to sing it while listening to it on headphones, because we were at my grandparents.
Which, the Book of Face helpfully informed me was released forty years ago this month.
There are days I am violently reminded that the 80’s is not twenty years ago.
First, hat tip to Borepatch. I’d heard about this on one of my podcasts first, but he came with the article. According to The Register, police in Hamilton, Ohio served warrants to Ring for not only the videos for a person’s outside cameras, but those inside his home. Quoting liberally from the article:
Last year, around the Thanksgiving holiday, Ohio businessman Michael Larkin received a request for video from his Amazon Ring security system from Hamilton city police.
He complied, providing video from his doorbell camera that was stored on Ring’s servers. After balking at further demands, he subsequently learned that authorities had bypassed the need to get his consent by presenting Ring with a search warrant for video from several of his Ring cameras, including one that covered an indoor area of his home.
According to Politico, Larkin received a notice from Ring that the tech biz had received a warrant and was required to turn over video from numerous cameras, without giving the owner with any say in the matter.
The police reportedly sought neighborhood surveillance as part of a drug investigation in the US city. Larkin’s video-enabled Ring doorbell and other recording devices, they believed, might have captured information that would be helpful with their investigation.
The City of Hamilton Police Department did not respond to requests seeking comment about the scope of its search warrant.
EMPHASIS MINE
For transparency, Ward Manor uses the Echo ecosystem for its smart home stuff. This includes Ring cameras for the outside. We have the ubiquitous doorbell camera (because the one that came with Ward Manor sucks), and a couple more to cover areas that I can’t observe from the windows.
One rule I have enforced is I will not have dedicated cameras pointing inside the house.
Are there cameras inside? Yeah, but that’s because there’s somethings I can’t have without cameras, such as monitors the family uses to view the feeds from Ring. I don’t always like it, but for the Ward household, we’ve judged the trade-off acceptable.
When making your own arrangements, understand that any camera that feeds to anything other than a server you control, can be compromised. Plan accordingly.
Last week I had to go out of town for the day job and ended up picking something up. I will save the gory details, but it’s why I was mostly quiet except for scheduled posts.
This week’s links are going to be Florida and gun heavy.
From the Florida side:
The right’s continued assault on free speech has apparently emboldened one state senator to push for bloggers who write about state officials to register with the state. Hey, Senator Brodeur, go fuck yourself. And read the First Amendment sometime.
According to this article from WFLA, more children are being Baker Acted and they’re making up a larger segment of examinations. For those of you outside the state, the Baker Act allows for temporary involuntary commitments of up to 72 hours if the person is in danger of hurting themselves or others. Is this a situation of over-diagnosising mental illness? Or of schools CYA’ing? It could be both. And they’ll still miss the ones who really need it. Or ignore it. [Looks at Broward]
Let’s balance this with a piece of good news. Last year, a Florida State Trooper stopped a drunk driver from running through a marathon by ramming the car. Trooper Toni Schuck was awarded Trooper of the Year for her selfless actions. For as much grief as I give police for their practices, I want to spotlight those who perform heroic actions.
Now on to gun stuff.
According to Yahoo Finance, Visa and Mastercard have decided to “pause” tracking gun purchases using their cards. I personally think the firms are waiting for some of the furor to die down. Still, take the wins where we can.
According to The Army Times, the Next Gen Weapons program that Sig just won is having some serious issues. The word the article used was “imploding.”
This article from War Is Boring brought a smile on my face. There are reports that Russia is facing an ammunition shortage. The article is about a shortage of missiles, but my first thought was all that surplus ammunition that Americans bought and shot since the end of the Cold War.
A final article of concern.
According to the Brussel Times, Argentina has pulled out of a treaty surrounding the natural resources around the Falklands Islands. Do I think this is the first step to a renewed conflict? Not really. But I think it will be part of a case the Argentine government puts together if it decides to try again.
Let me be a free man, free to travel, free to stop, free to work, free to trade where I choose, free to choose my teachers, free to follow the religion of my fathers, free to think and talk and act for myself.
I’ve stated that I want a pistol-caliber carbine that takes M&P mags. Considering my normal skill at things, I really didn’t want to have to build the thing. I looked at Just Right Carbines, except I’d like to be able to pick it up and get a feel before buying – and they’re sparse on the ground around here. The Henry Homesteader is promising, and I’d probably be able to find some examples to examine before ordering.
Then, this hit my feeds:
The folding I could care less about. The fact that it has the same ergonomics? That has me interested. Plus, it’s a few hundred cheaper than the Henry.
I was saving up for an autoloader shotgun, but this may supplant that.
What Marx observed was that capital tended to accumulate in the hands of fewer and fewer people. And he said that’s a flaw of the capitalist system.
That’s wrong. It’s not the flaw of the capitalist system. It’s a feature of every single system that we know of no matter who set it up and how it operates.
It’s been a year since Russian started their full invasion of Ukraine – although there’s been a low-grade war in eastern Ukraine since 2014. Much to everyone’s surprise, Ukraine wasn’t just steamrolled over. Some of that was due to the fighting spirit of Ukrainian people, but some was due to the complete ineptitude and corruption of the Russian Army. Much to no one’s surprise, the tribes have taken their positions on the conflict, and sent out their flying monkeys to keep their members in line – particularly those of the chattering classes.
My initial thought is that we should be doing whatever we can to help Ukraine. They were the ones invaded. They are the ones who are facing the destruction of their country without provocation. Yet, do we risk a nuclear confrontation with Russia over Ukraine?
I’m also concerned about how the sanctions were laid down on Russia. How quickly the main, and mostly Western, financial system turned on Russia. Why? If Russia is the aggressor? Because we’re seeing the rise of a secondary system with China at its helm.
So, what should we do? Honestly? I think we let the Ukranians buy whatever arms the world will sell them and get the governments out of the way. Maybe making loans that would allow them buy whatever we can sell them.