Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean this as a how to.   But at the moment groups like Al Qaeda are more like a herpes infection than a devious adversary.    We’re fed the line that if we don’t stamp out grumpy people then grumpier people will fill the void.   Guess what?  That’s going to happen anyway.

The lack of evolution in their tactics suggests that their command structure truly has been distorted, if not broken.   Consider that the main domestic threats communicated to the American people continue to be:

• Threats to airplanes
• Threats to New York City
• Threats to landmarks on holidays

Call me crazy, but if I’m going to rob a bank, I’m not going to use the most heavily fortified door as my means of entry.  So why are these these still the main targets that we hear about?   Sure, occasionally the TSA in conjunction with XYX as part of a joint effort of the PDQ catches some guy trying to light his underwear on fire on a plane, but that’s about it.  Granted there may be more that gets caught/prevented before it makes the news, but I seriously doubt the number of incidents is really that high.   Any governmental agency is eager to justify it’s budget in the eyes of the American people, and therefore would happily crow about successes.

Which brings me back my original question, why haven’t the tactics changed?    The most insidious threat to US soldiers has been the IED, effectively a coffee can full of nails and some form of explosive.  This has been the most effective tactic employed, so why aren’t there phantom road crews “filling potholes” on main roads in the interior of the country?  Why aren’t there fake road crews “repairing” bridges?    Most of the bridges in the US are in disrepair anyway, I can’t imagine it would take much to create a disruptive hole during rush hour traffic.

Why are major landmarks still targets?   Sure, it’s showy to take down a skyscraper, but it’s just as effective to take out a nursery school in Kansas.   Using large scale targets only inconveniences honest people with heightened security.   Make them scared to go get their morning caffeine fix at Dunkin Donuts, now you’ve got their attention.

Someone might chime in that in the FBI we have one of the world’s best explosives forensics teams, and that may be true.  If I were to buy C4, detonators, and a triggering switch, I imagine they’d find me pretty quickly.   I assume if I bought 55 gallon drums, nitrogen laced fertilizer and a hundred gallons of diesel, that would set off some bells.    But what if you get 6 people to buy each of the ingredients of a lesser bomb on their own then combine them?   There’s no pattern to catch, there’s no warning, there’s just a mess.   So while we have one of the best teams to go in after the fact, on a preventive level there’s not much they can do to stop a more intelligent attack.   It’s the lack of an intelligent attack that we’ve yet to see.

Let’s hope they never wise up.

One of the companies I wrote to is Casella.  They’re literally less than a mile from my house and it says right on their site that they offer residential service.   I’d like to say again…they’re based here in town.   This was their response.   [Name redacted by me]:

I am sorry to say that we do not service Auburn, MA for residential service. I am not sure with it being a municipality if there is another hauler that can service the town.

Sorry!
Thank you
~[removed]

[removed]
Customer Service Supervisor
Casella Waste Services
49 Sword St
Auburn, MA 01501
Phone: 508-860-2102
Fax: 508-755-3642

Call me crazy, but isn’t that the crux of anticompetitive behavior?  One of the reasons that the cable companies were forced to allow others in the area on the same lines was that they were being hit with antitrust allegations.   I’m wondering, isn’t that what the town of Auburn is doing if they prevent other haulers from servicing the town?   This was my response to the CS rep:

Isn’t that anticompetitive behavior though?  I’d be happy to call the town lawyers and offer to sue them for antitrust activities.

The problem is that they don’t actually *do* anything other than collect the money.   Problem with pickup?  Call CMD.  Street was skipped?  Call CMD.  Bill’s due, send us money.   Ugh.

You don’t happen to know where the nearest transfer station is, do you?  At this point I’m happy to hitch up the trailer and do it myself.

Incidentally, I do run a business out of my home.   Do you provide business pickup?  :)

Tom

Isn’t that anticompetitive behavior though?  I’d be happy to call the town lawyers and offer to sue them for antitrust activities.
The problem is that they don’t actually *do* anything other than collect the money.   Problem with pickup?  Call CMD.  Street was skipped?  Call CMD.  Bill’s due, send us money.   Ugh.
You don’t happen to know where the nearest transfer station is, do you?  At this point I’m happy to hitch up the trailer and do it myself.
Incidentally, I do run a business out of my home.   Do you provide business pickup?  :)
Tom

I’m still waiting to see what Waste Management comes back with, but I’m thinking the ultimate answer may be for everyone to start their own little business and contract for business pickup instead.    Can you call poking town paper pushers with a stick a business?    Now where do I look to find a transfer station?  Hmm…

I decided, instead of compressing in the forms for my chess pieces, I’d use a hot piece of glass to burn in the inserts.

Trust me…

DON’T DO THIS

Even under a decent vent sucking the smoke out, it was still a stupid thing to do in hindsight.   The result was ok, but so not worth it.

Ugh.

Next time I’ll just use the doming set to press in the slots like I did for the set I donated.

Maybe I’ll consider trying this:

—– Original Message —-
From: GMAC Mortgage Online Services <Customer_Service@gmacm.com>
To: xxxxxxx@yahoo.com
Sent: Sat, February 20, 2010 2:57:58 AM
Subject: GMAC Mortgage Registration Expiration

Dear Valued GMAC Mortgage Customer,

It’s been over 12 months since your last visit to the GMAC Mortgage Web Site and your registration has expired. Because we are extremely cautious of all security issues that could affect our customers, we will lock out a specific User Name after inactivity of 360 days. This is due to the possibility of a customer having left their ISP server for another and their email address being re-used by their previous Internet provider.

Depending on your Internet Service Provider, you may not be able to receive active links or view and/or click on any of the links provided. Please go to our Web site and log into gmacmortgage.com. If you are able to view the link, but may not be able to click on it, you can cut and paste the link into the ‘address’ or ‘location’ field of your browser and press ‘enter’ or ‘go’.

*The privacy and security of our customer’s personal information is an issue GMAC Mortgage takes very seriously. For that reason, we have removed any indication of your name or other personal data from this message.

GMAC Mortgage
1-800-766-4622
HTTP://WWW.GMACMORTGAGE.COM

The information contained in this communication is confidential and privileged proprietary information intended only for the personal and confidential use of the individual or entity to whom it is addressed. If you are not the addressee indicated in this message (or an agent responsible for delivery of the message to such person), you are hereby notified that you have received this communication in error and that any review, dissemination, copying or unauthorized use of this message is strictly prohibited. In such case, you should destroy this message and kindly notify the sender by email.

Contact Us:
https://www.gmacmortgage.com/Utilities/Contact_Us/ContactUs.html

Please advise immediately if you or your employer do not consent to Internet email for messages of this kind. Opinions, conclusions and other information in this message that do not relate to the official business of the Company shall be understood as neither given nor endorsed by it. It is the Company’s policy that emails are intended for and should be used for business purposes only.

And my response:

Here’s one example from a message in my spam trap:

http://chavdaphotographers.com/gallery/online.bankofamerica.com/

online.bankofamerica.com/ccss-rva.bankofamerica.com/ccss/102%26target=
acctOverview%26acid=1%26os/SSOEntrypageid=102%26target=
acctOverview%26acid=/onlineid-sessionload/signon.do/

Three free bits of advice, take them for what you will:

1. Don’t ever click a log-in link from an email.  Go to the site in question and log in correctly.
2. In many cases, if you move your mouse over a link you can see the destination in the browser’s status bar.  At best it should direct you to the actual site you think it’s heading towards.   Just be wary of bankoffamerica.com or bankofameirca.com   Two misspellings that look so similar to the real thing you might be fooled.
3. Be wary of bit.ly and other types of shortened links in email.  You can’t see the destination of where they’ll take you, it’s best just not to click on them.

That’s not a bad thing actually.  Why’s that?  Well, I’m betting there’s a directive that says if the TSA agent has eyes, you should spit in them.  There may be a “Three Stooges” directive allowing you to slap the forehead of a TSA agent like he/she was Curly.   And if you’re challenged, say there’s a TSA directive saying you should do so.  Do you think the minimum wage earning slack jaw has clearance for anything actually secret?  Do you think *anyone* in that airport will actually have access?  Not unless there happens to be a TSA paper pusher heading to a plane somewhere.  So they can’t prove you wrong.  But even if they *did* have access, they couldn’t tell you yes or no.  Is there a directive that says they have to check your bag?  Probably, but because if the terrorists knew they would know not to carry bags, they can’t confirm or deny it.

So is there a Curly directive?  They can’t tell you.  HA!  Nyuk nyuk nyuk my friend, slap ‘em.

As soon as I entered your site I was presented with a survey. Not after using it. Not after making a purchase. As. Soon. As. I. Entered the site. It seems you were just looking for age and time zone info. But let me add a question for you, “how was your experience today on the wal-mart.com site?” Well, let me tell you, I was so annoyed with the stupid ass survey that popped up that instead of looking for a picture frame as I had intended I instead sent the customer service folks an angry message then left to shop elsewhere. So I’m glad you got your demographic data, I hope it was worth losing a sale over.

While they couldn’t get the age range data from my visit, there are several web services out there that could have matched my IP address to known geolocation data and looked up the time zone data from that.  It’s not that hard.

As an interesting aside, I’ve put Google AdSense ads on my blog recently.  Next to my “Deadliest Craft Show” entry there was an ad for replacement canopies.  I found that amusing.