I sat there praying that nobody was hurt, that the shooter had not gotten away.  I waited.

The lives of everybody at this school have forever been changed.  I do not need to go into how this effects me, it doesn’t.  There are hundreds of students, parents, teachers, spouses, and children who are currently living in fear.  The thoughts of “not my child/husband/wife” the thoughts of “why me”.  It is terrifying, it is sickening it is maddening.

As it turns out the shooter has been neutralized.  Whether that means killed or apprehended  I don’t know.  I don’t care.  One would hope it is the former and not the latter, I don’t want to know his name, I don’t want to know why he did it.  There is no good reason to shoot up a school filled with innocent children.

When I get home I’m going to give my child hug, I will call my daughter and tell her I love her.  I will continue to pray for those families.

For those interested in following the story http://www.rgj.com/viewart/20131021/NEWS01/131021004/Update-Shooting-morning-Sparks-Middle-School

http://www.kolotv.com/home/headlines/Shooting-at-Sparks-Middle-School-228622361.html?ref=361

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/student-shot-middle-school-article-1.1491586

I sat there praying that nobody was hurt, that the shooter had not gotten away.  I waited.

The lives of everybody at this school have forever been changed.  I do not need to go into how this effects me, it doesn’t.  There are hundreds of students, parents, teachers, spouses, and children who are currently living in fear.  The thoughts of “not my child/husband/wife” the thoughts of “why me”.  It is terrifying, it is sickening it is maddening.

As it turns out the shooter has been neutralized.  Whether that means killed or apprehended  I don’t know.  I don’t care.  One would hope it is the former and not the latter, I don’t want to know his name, I don’t want to know why he did it.  There is no good reason to shoot up a school filled with innocent children.

When I get home I’m going to give my child hug, I will call my daughter and tell her I love her.  I will continue to pray for those families.

For those interested in following the story http://www.rgj.com/viewart/20131021/NEWS01/131021004/Update-Shooting-morning-Sparks-Middle-School

http://www.kolotv.com/home/headlines/Shooting-at-Sparks-Middle-School-228622361.html?ref=361

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/student-shot-middle-school-article-1.1491586

With the deal that was passed by Congress and signed by the President yesterday, the Republicans did not meet any of their goals.  Those goals being getting the same waivers for private citizens that were already granted to Congress and big business by the President.  The consequences are going to be disastrous to the average American worker.

Anybody who is actually paying attention knows that a great many companies have already dropped coverage for employees who work less than 30 hours a week, a coverage they were getting prior to the insurance premium hikes that came with the new law.  Those who were working more than 30 hours a week have seen their hours cut so they no longer need to be covered by their employer.  Two great examples of this are Trader Joes http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/11/trader-joes-obamacare_n_3902341.html(a company that was previously known for great insurance options for employees), and State employees.  In fact both public and private sector have used health insurance cuts and hours cuts to compensate for the added burden of providing insurance in the wake of higher premiums  http://news.investors.com/politics-obamacare/101713-669013-obamacare-employer-mandate-a-list-of-cuts-to-work-hours-jobs.htm.

Then you have the disaster that was launch day, a day where everybody in the nation began to see just how bad the system was.   Even a liberal, granted a reasonable liberal, like Reporter Ezra Klien of the Washington Post can point to the failure and disaster that the Affordable Care Act is.  http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/10/14/five-thoughts-on-the-obamacare-disaster/  While he points out that the same was said of Medicare Part D, and that at least their the opposition party was Constructive, he goes on to point out all the flaws that go so much deeper with the Affordable Care Act.

The Issues:

1.   The Websites to buy your new insurance plan don’t work.  

“We’re now negative 14 days until the Affordable Care Act and most people still can’t purchase insurance. The magnitude of this failure is stunning. Yes, the federal health-care law is a complicated project, government IT rules are a mess, and the scrutiny has been overwhelming. But the Obama administration knew all that going in. They should’ve been able to build an online portal that works.”-Ezra Klien

2.  Even when the Websites do work and people can buy insurance, the administration of these exchanges doesn’t exercise security protocols.  http://www.twincities.com/politics/ci_24087664/mnsure-health-exchange-data-breach-affects-about-2  Not only is your information not safe from operator error, but security and background checks have allowed people with warrants out for their arrest and a history of writing bad checks into these key jobs.  http://dailycaller.com/2013/10/14/obamacare-navigator-in-kansas-has-outstanding-arrest-warrant/  Yes, the type of person who is most likely to attempt identity theft has direct access to your personal information.  Doesn’t this make you feel comfortable.

3.  People who do get insurance apparently aren’t getting the right coverage, think they got coverage, or in some cases get coverage for three plans thinking they got coverage for one plan.   http://www.marketwatch.com/story/obamacare-woes-widen-as-insurers-get-wrong-data-2013-10-18  Now think about this for a second.  According to Yahoo News, http://finance.yahoo.com/news/50-states-obamacare-113318311.html, the average cost of a Bronze Plan costs $249 a month in premium costs.  So lets say Joe Schmo accidentally signs up for 3 plans thinking he only signed up for 1 plan.  Legally he will be required to pay for all three plans until he cancels two of them a mark up of an additional $500 per month.  This of course assumes that he accidentally signs up for three Bronze plans, as bad as the system is he could be signed up for a Brozne Plan and two Gold plans (as I am struggling to find any information on the cost of a Platinum Plan).  A gold plan costs an average of $412 per month http://www.mlive.com/business/index.ssf/2013/10/see_how_much_obamacare_coverag.html.  This boosts Joes Burden up to over $1,000 per month on health insurance that he might not be able to afford.

Contrast this with my old insurance plan when I worked at Leeann Chin.  There the cost was about the same as the Bronze Plan, but the coverage was about equal with the Gold.  Mind you I was paying for family coverage and getting more for less.  These plans destroyed low rates.
 
        4.  The law is not evenly enforced.  Large employers and Congress have been exempted but average citizens have not.  http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/10/09/fact-check-did-president-obama-exempt-members-of-congress-from-obamacare/  A complicated bit of jargon but the gist of it is, Congress does not have to buy into the Health Exchanges like everybody else does.

         5.  As I already pointed out the costs are outrageous.  Not only are they higher than previous premiums, but waivers and tax credits are practically pointless as they don’t help the people who need it.  http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/30/us-employers-slash-hours-avoid-obamacare A mall working in Minnesota earning only 15,000 per year would only qualify for a government voucher of $349 dollars on a health plan that costs almost 10% of her income.

Look this is only the very beginning.  The reason the costs of premiums are going up everywhere is because by getting rid of the pre-existing condition clause now everybody can be covered for anything.  This means people who previously had to pay out of pocket for some procedures pay the same price as everybody else.  To compensate the rates go up for everybody.  What is more, because the costs are going up younger people (you know, the ones who don’t have as many health issues) aren’t buying plans and taking the calculated wager that they actually save money by not having insurance.  Heck it is the smart thing to do.  If you will be covered anyway when you need insurance why not wait until you need it to get it.  This of course only raises rates more because without the younger people in the pool the money available needs to compensate for those infirm who do in fact need coverage.

Mark Stein rightly pointed out that many Conservative Machiavellian types claim that President. Obama designed this plan to be so bad that it would lead to a single payer system.  But the system we have that is being run by the government is in fact so bad that it should be a glaring warning to anybody that the Government could actually run a single payer system either.http://www.hughhewitt.com/mark-steyn-returns-reopening-day/

Personally I think the President was trying to address the issue of health coverage for those with pre existing conditions, but that all of the what then questions were probably never asked.  Well meaning, good intentions, poorly planned and even worse the execution of the law.  It isn’t that Democrats or Republicans don’t care, it is that the law isn’t doing what people wanted it to do, because we didn’t take the time to design, plan, or adjust for the laws failures.  When even the Daily Kos is reffering to the roll out as a failure you know this is not a successful government plan.http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/10/13/1246988/-At-least-110-000-people-signed-up-for-Obamacare-Crowdsourcing-Help-Needed#

Finally on 13 October Kos reports that at least 110,000 have signed up for coverage.  How many more will have to sign up per working day in order to reach the administration’s goal of 7 Million?  anybody? Well Hugh Hewitt via Hank Adler has an answer  http://www.hughhewitt.com/7-million-number/  It doesn’t look good.

“The official name of an Ubuntu release is “Ubuntu X.YY” with X representing the year (minus 2000) and YY representing the month of eventual release within in that year. Ubuntu’s first release, made in 2004 October (10th month) was Ubuntu 4.10. Since the actual release date is not known until it’s ready and humans tend to prefer names rather than numbers, a set of codenames are used by developers and testers during the buildup to a release:”

The Code names are all double letter sequences.  So while 13.10 is Saucy Salamander, 14.04 is currently undecided but will be a combination of an Adjective and Animal starting with the letter T.  14.10 will be a combination using the letter U and so on. This will continue until October of 2017 when the names will shift to the beginning of the alphabet again.

If you are at all curious about Linux I suggest you go to http://www.ubuntu.com and take a tour.  You can even create a live USB Disk or Live CD and give it a test drive without installing on your computer.  You will be quite surprised on just how easy Linux is now.

Cameras are always rolling, abuse will always be brought to light.  The lesson being do what is right not only when you think you are  being watched do what is right always.  Of course this used to be the measure of good man.  You knew the character of a person based on whether or not the person was good only under the spot light or if they continued even when they thought nobody was looking.

Mitch Berg over at Shot in the Dark posted a video he hopes to go viral.  I am going to help with that cause.

Like Mitch I spent a good amount of time in Bars.  Having first been a server at a Restuarant and bar from 1999-2005, and of course many years as an adult drinker.

The abuse this Soldier endured is unconscionable, it is a good thing this pedestrian was not only there but intentionally documented the abuse by this Officer.  Drunk or not he is not only out of line but completely in the wrong.  Especially with the back story of her being arrested only for rejecting his efforts to take her home for the night.  As Mitch points out it did take the the Sheriff a week to suspend Deputy Derrick, no doubt such damning evidence played a part in the suspension, and his current assault charges.  http://www.wltx.com/news/article/252931/2/Off-Duty-Deputy-Who-Arrested-Soldier-Fired

If there had been no camera, how long do you think this could have gone before the Soldier saw justice and this bad cop were arrested?  It is hard to say, but as Mr. Berg points out, sober cops arrived on the scene and justice was ultimately served.

To my fellow Soldiers.  This is why you always go out with a buddy.  The buddy system works, it helps protect you and keep you from getting into trouble.  And when trouble does find you, your buddy can do what this good Samaritan did and document it for your own protection under the law.

Cameras are always rolling, abuse will always be brought to light.  The lesson being do what is right not only when you think you are  being watched do what is right always.  Of course this used to be the measure of good man.  You knew the character of a person based on whether or not the person was good only under the spot light or if they continued even when they thought nobody was looking.

Mitch Berg over at Shot in the Dark posted a video he hopes to go viral.  I am going to help with that cause.

Like Mitch I spent a good amount of time in Bars.  Having first been a server at a Restuarant and bar from 1999-2005, and of course many years as an adult drinker.

The abuse this Soldier endured is unconscionable, it is a good thing this pedestrian was not only there but intentionally documented the abuse by this Officer.  Drunk or not he is not only out of line but completely in the wrong.  Especially with the back story of her being arrested only for rejecting his efforts to take her home for the night.  As Mitch points out it did take the the Sheriff a week to suspend Deputy Derrick, no doubt such damning evidence played a part in the suspension, and his current assault charges.  http://www.wltx.com/news/article/252931/2/Off-Duty-Deputy-Who-Arrested-Soldier-Fired

If there had been no camera, how long do you think this could have gone before the Soldier saw justice and this bad cop were arrested?  It is hard to say, but as Mr. Berg points out, sober cops arrived on the scene and justice was ultimately served.

To my fellow Soldiers.  This is why you always go out with a buddy.  The buddy system works, it helps protect you and keep you from getting into trouble.  And when trouble does find you, your buddy can do what this good Samaritan did and document it for your own protection under the law.

To which I say this.  Shut up and Act.  Then go read “Shut up and Sing”  http://www.amazon.com/Shut-Up-Sing-Hollywood-Subverting/dp/B005DICRFA by Laura Ingraham.

It is a shame that good actors and otherwise good people really just have to open their mouth and spout out inanities in the public eye.

Yes the President is a good and intelligent man.  There is no doubt about it, there is no doubt that he cares about this country, and there is no doubt that he views his vision of America as superior than that of his political opponents.

This however does not mean that those who disagree with him and who have a different vision are: racist, xenophobic, stupid…

The current gridlock is pitted entirely on Constitutional Roles of Government.  Both the Executive Branch and the Legislative Branch are making sure their powers upheld and not trampled upon by the other.  Article 1 and Article 2 of the Constitution are balancing out as they were designed to do.

This isn’t a matter of race it is a matter of Constitutional Authority and to bring race into it as Mr. Redford has demeans not only the process but also Mr. Redford’s own intelligence.  Let the Politicians fight it out Mr. Redford let them figure it out and stay out of the mess because talk like yours only serves to divide our nation.

I write another blog that is called Guided Conscience, it is mostly dedicated to philosophical issues, the Fabled Orange Guatemalan Gummy Bear is for creative writing,  My Dusty Bookshelves is dedicated to my own writing as well as book reviews, and finally Recovery is a blog dedicated to my physical recovery from injury.

Today’s post over at the Recovery Blog ties in with Linux and programming and as such I will reproduce it here as well.

I run with a MotoACTV sports watch.  This is a device that was recently discontinued, but is in my opinion the king of Android Smart Watches despite being much older than the new efforts by Samsung and Apple.  Up until a few weeks ago all of my running and exercise activity was being updated to http://www.motoactv.com however since the MotoACTV is discontinued by Motorola I was looking for an alternative.

Running programs I have used in the past included Nike +, however since Nike won’t synch the footpod, nor Nike Fuel with the Android phone I have no interest in using them for anything other than my shoes.

I tried Addidas MiCoach and I tried Runkeeper.  Both are nice, except they both require the use of a phone.  Being in the Army it is frowned upon to bring my phone with to PT.  I certainly cannot carry it on my arm in a sleeve, that would be out of uniform.


I already own a MotoACTV, I saw no need to go and purchase a Garmin Forerunner or any other running watch.  Instead I followed the guides over at http://motoactv.wikispaces.com.  Here is what you need to know.

From my experience it isn’t worth installing the https://sites.google.com/site/t2k269group/home/runkeeperactv ROM.  While it is a nice looking ROM I found it lacked certain features like Wifi support, I’m guessing they can be installed but it wasn’t worth it.  To be fair the wifi I was using was from my phone so that could be part of why it kept disconnecting.

Instead I suggest installing ClearD’s Rom.  http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2085202&highlight=motoactv

I loosely followed this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GU_8aXu9sA8 on how to Root and custom Flash the MotoAACTV.

My modified instructions are outlined below.  Before you begin, be aware that I am not responsible if you brick your MotoACTV.  That said, I have modded two of them without killing them.  Also be sure you have a full charge otherwise you risk killing the device for good.

Last note, if for some reason you end up in a loop try device restart by holding the power button and the start button down at the same time for 7-10 seconds.

Without Further ado the guide to turning your MotoACTV into a dual reporting smart watch.

Step 1.  Collect Required Software.

•  MotoACTV Root Tool V2.0.1 (easiest way to root and mod your MotoActv in Windows)
• Get your Rom.  I reccommend  ClearDroid™ MotoACTV http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=36348102&postcount=2  though other Roms can be found at http://motoactv.wikispaces.com/list_roms
• Get the Modified Runkeeper App and Heartrate Monitor App.  RunKeeperMOD and Heart Rate App if these links fail they should be found on the official RunkeeperACTV webpage https://sites.google.com/site/t2k269group/home/runkeeperactv