Senate's Report on Pre-War Intelligence Assessments of Iraq

For those of you that know me, you know that I am very adamant about reading the original sources and making my own decisions.

On the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence website, there is the July 7, 2004 committee's Report on the U.S. Intelligence Community Pre-War Intelligence Assessments of Iraq or the much shorter Conclusions Excerpt.

Do your best. Sadly, there are no longer any easy or short answers to problems. The easy problems were solved by the people before us.

Enduring Images Exhibit in Fremont, OH

While I was in Fremont, I had the wonderful opportunity to visit the grounds of the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center. The exhibit, "Enduring Images", just became available to the public recently but I was most fortunate to see many of the images prior to opening. My sister-in-law, Holly Elder, contributed her considerable framing expertise to several (maybe all) of the pieces. Her husband, John, and I made the only contribution we could have to such a learned and distinguished endeavor. We loaded up to the pieces into a van and transported them to the Hayes Center. I am reminded of an often paraphrased Marxist tenet, "From each according to their abilities..." (see note 1)

In addition, The Elder Family celebrated the 50th Wedding Anniversary of Steware & JoAnn Elder of Fremont at the Dillon House adjacent to the Presidential Center grounds which was purchased by the Presidential Center in 1962. The restoration of the Dillon House was wonderful and provided a perfect venue for the celebration.

Not only are the grounds of the Presidential Center very pleasant, but the library itself has several informative exhibits as well as "Enduring Images". It will make a good low-key & pleasant family outing.

References :
note 1 (some interesting paraphrasing of this quote including one by Normal Rockwell)
note 2 (interesting computer science application of this tenet)
note 3 (more actual quotes from Karl Marx...lots of them interesting)
note 4 (a generic Karl Marx reference page for the historical minded)

David Brin's Blog

One of my favorite SciFi authors, David Brin has a blog on the same service as I do. He makes some very good comments.

Just returned from Fremont, Ohio

We just returned from Fremont, Ohio where we celebrated the 50th Wedding Anniversary of JoAnn & Stewart Elder. Congratulations!

Yup...Still around...

Yes, I am still around but just can't find the words. Hardly. Actually, truth be told, I have found that Blogger was just too slow to be useful to me for blogging. Given my brief return here at this moment, the speed actually feels tolerable.

Don't worry I am still around.

Hello All -

Don't worry, I am still around. The muses just hasn't spoken to me lately. Maybe, once Spring arrives.

Information Assurance, What the Heck is That?

I had the great opportunity to attend a discussion of "Information Assurance" hosted by Saint Michael's College this past Wednesday evening. The speaker was Professor M. E. Kabay of Norwich University. It would be easy, but wrong, to equate information assurance with computer or network security. When as Dr. Kabay asked us to consider the tenets of information assurance, it is quite apparent that concepts or issues like digital signatures, cyptographical methods, and biometrics (to name a few) are mechanisms within the information assurance framework.

In addition, I was particularly gratified to hear Dr. Kabay ask us to fully consider the psycho-social aspects involved in securing information which is often ignored by computer security specialists.

I hope to have another opportunity to hear Dr. Kabay speak again in the future.