Largely Unreported Snowden Interview

As a Libertarian, I feel that it is necessary to forward this information in a public forum, as it is imperative that all sides be heard in the matter of Edward Snowden and the NSA.

Not that I have changed my opinion of Mr. Snowden, for he did violate his integrity and word regardless of his intention, but I do believe that good will come of this, despite the immediate damage that his leaks did to the NSA's capabilities and reputation.

I have often asked myself over the past few months, "What would I do in Edward Snowden's shoes?"  And I know that I would not put my intellectual effort toward such an ignoble goal, and as such I would resign quietly without violating whatever agreements would bind me.  Sadly, that would not result in the profound change that Mr. Snowden sought, but my integrity is worth more to me than public good.

John Mauldin: When Income Inequality Isn't

Here is another incredibly impressive article by John Mauldin.  This man has more access to data than almost anyone I know of.

Afghan Elections

I found a news article on Fox News that contains some very encouraging news.  There is one Afghani woman in particular that this article quotes that I want to honor in particular.

"I'm not afraid of Taliban threats, we will die one day anyway. I want my vote to be a slap in the face of the Taliban," Laila Neyazi of Kabul told AFP.

This is the kind of attitude that contains the raw and potent power to change a nation.  Sadly, I don't know any Afghani people to encourage with this, but this woman is a forebearer of better times for Afghanistan.

Charles Murray's Advice for a Happy Life

I found this charming article in a Wall Street Journal essay section.  I don't normally post fluffy stuff on life, but this has it's serious shades also.  It is an altogether well-written article with some good advice that I need to take to heart.

Income Inequality

Another article by John Mauldin citing a large amount of research data that covers a broad spectrum of economics and is not geared towards any one policy paradigm.

I edited out the more personal sections of his letter.  If you want all of the URLs in this article, you will have to run through John's original paper here.

Cast Java Map to ConcurrentMap

I couldn't find a quick and easy example of this on Google, so here you go:

Using Google Guava:

Map<String, String> map;
ConcurrentMap<String, String> ccMap = new MapMaker().weakKeys().weakValues().makeMap();
ccMap.putAll(map);

Simple & Stupid Logger for Java

Since I cannot find a logger easy enough for me to use, I made one.

The jar file is here: linky

This logger is thread safe.

Example usage in a servlet:

package com.logtest;

import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.PrintWriter;
import javax.servlet.ServletConfig;
import javax.servlet.ServletContext;
import javax.servlet.ServletException;
import javax.servlet.annotation.WebServlet;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;

import log4andrew.Logger;
import log4andrew.LogLevel;

/**
 * Servlet implementation class Test
 */
@WebServlet("/Test")
public class Test extends HttpServlet {
    private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
    private static String filePath = "";
    private static String fileName = "";
    Logger fLogger = null;
    final static String FS = File.seperator;
    /**
     * @see HttpServlet#HttpServlet()
     */
    public Test() {
        super();
    }
   
    @Override
    public void init(ServletConfig config){
        ServletContext scxt = config.getServletContext();
        filePath = scxt.getRealPath("WEB-INF") + FS + "logs" + FS;
        fileName = "servletTest";
        fLogger = new Logger(filePath, fileName, LogLevel.INFO);
    }

    /**
     * @see HttpServlet#doGet(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response)
     */
    protected void doGet(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) throws ServletException, IOException {
        PrintWriter out = response.getWriter();
        out.println("file location: " + filePath + fileName);
        fLogger.critical("some message");
        out.println("debug message logged");
    }

    /**
     * @see HttpServlet#doPost(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response)
     */
    protected void doPost(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) throws ServletException, IOException {
        doGet(request, response);
    }

}

The Most Damaging President Ever

I found an article on the site RealClearPolitics.com, which describes in somewhat gory detail the damage that President Barack Obama has done to our nation.  Sadly, the damage is not constrained to merely domestic policy.

In his social justice crusade, he has managed to put more people on government assistance than any other time in the history of our nation, destroying human, intellectual, and operational capital that our nation requires to remain competitive on the global stage.  In his over-zealousness for remaking America in his image, he has dragged the credibility of his office and our nation through the mud with every nation of importance in the world.  With blind fervor, Obama has overturned principles of integrity in leadership that have stood, more or less, since the dawn of human civilization.

I am doubtful whether America will be able to recover from the damage that he has done, particularly since a sizable portion of our nation still rallies around the call to crusade: "In Obama we trust."

How to ask questions on the Internet

I found an excellent site that serves as a remind to all who operate on the Internet.

How to ask questions the smart way:
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

It is a good reminder for myself, as well as anyone else who seeks to interact intelligently.

Stripped-down Version of Glass-Steagall

Today, a stripped-down version of the Glass-Steagall Act was put back in place today, 5 years after the financial world nearly brought our nation to the brink of collapse.  While, not an ideal solution, having a holey parachute is better than none at all.  Just hope to God that the regulating agencies are able to maintain intelligent and hawkish regulators indefinitely, otherwise the "Volker Rule" is going to hell in a handbasket.

Arsonists Running the Fire Brigade

This article is a superb explanation of some of the structural problems facing our economy today, exasperated by foolish and corrupt Central Bankers and driven by greedy bastards on Wall Street.

The current trends, which are strongly reinforced by the honorless sociopolitical culture that has completely pervaded modern Western society, are going to result in nothing less than the utter and complete implosion of our financial, political and social systems.


As this quote in the article below states: "People who have made retirement plans based on past return assumptions will not be happy. Does anyone truly understand the implications of making the world's reserve currency a carry-trade currency for an extended period of time? I can see how this is good for bankers and the financial industry, and any intelligent investor will try to take advantage of it; but dear gods, the distortions in the economic landscape are mind-boggling."


The Dodd-Frank legislation needs to be disposed of and replaced with the Glass-Steagall Act from 1933.  Anything less will mean the total collapse of the world financial markets under the corruption of government and the greed of the captains of the financial sectors.

The PDF to the original article is here: http://d21uq3hx4esec9.cloudfront.net/uploads/pdf/131130_TFTF2.pdf

Edited: 2015-10-23 to fix 1937 to 1933 for passage of GS Act.

Character Encoding

I found an incredibly entertaining article regarding the development and use of character encoding sets.  I am going to paste it below in case this fellow ever decides to quit hosting his website.

Original article: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/Unicode.html