Spotlight

As the United States celebrates another birthday, it is important to understand why America is still the greatest country on earth.  From protections of human life, dignity, and the pursuit of equality among people, there is still so much more work required to improve.  Improvement and innovation should both highlight the future of America.

The USA was never intended to be a land of handouts but, rather assisting those who need it the most.

The USA was never intended to be the world’s police force but rather we use our military forces to ensure others find peace and dignity of human rights, in addition to protecting America’s safety.

The USA was never intended to be a world superpower but rather its power and strength come from its constituents, its people, and most importantly, its voters.

As we look at the USA today, we see that rising costs, inflation, and bleak forecasts for the future are having a significant toll on America’s people.  This is why voting is very important.  Everyone should vote and have a say in what happens to the future of America.  We should recognize that all our elected officials have a responsibility to represent our interests.  If they do not, we force them out in the most famous of American traditions, the American voting process.

The USA is at another pivotal point in history, a point in history which Americans must decide on a direction to take.

Ask yourself these important questions:

• Has my elected official conducted himself/herself by making the right decisions and choices?
• Has my elected official listened to my letters or concerns regarding a particular vote?
• Has my elected official been involved in unethical behavior?
• Has my elected official forgotten where he/she came from? (your particular district)
• Has my elected official supported laws in which were struck down by the courts?
• Has my elected official failed to curtail and reduce spending?

All of these and many other objective questions should and must be answered based on their voting record and administrative actions.  No one is above these questions when it comes to deciding who to place in office, not even the President of the United States.

We must realize that America is in financial difficulty and we must ensure that her interests (your interests) are, indeed, addressed.  The world still needs a strong America.  We still need a strong America.

The end of this upcoming week also marks a sad day for the history of American innovation, the retirement of the Space Shuttle Fleet.  As the last shuttle liftoff is scheduled to occur by the end of this week, it brings much sadness to me as the Space Shuttle Fleet would not have been realized if it were not for the forward thinking of past Presidents of the United States starting with John F. Kennedy.  I do have an affinity for him as he started it and his successors modernized the space shuttle program into the most prestigious space operations in the world.  As the government continues to find ways in which to cut spending, we must not forget to restart the space shuttle program and ensure that our elected officials realize that the space program is another symbol of our American pride and a true testament to the innovative spirit of America.

So, that brings us to the issue of our financial future. Our elected officials must make the difficult decision of reducing spending and finding ways to make our currency stronger. We should tell our congressmen and congresswomen, state assemblies, and governors that the need for more fiscally sound approaches to our money is long overdue.  America is still needed.  A fiscally unstable government is irresponsible and should not be tolerated at all.

America is still the greatest country on earth; it is our job as constituents that our elected leaders get the message regardless of their political affiliation.  

In a truly remarkable game today at Disch-Faulk Field in Austin, Texas, the 3A State Semi-Finals proved to be an exhilarating one. Unfortunately, Robstown was eliminated by a 4-3 score versus Kennedale today.

We wish Kennedale the best as they advance to the State 3A Championship game.

However, Robstown deserves a great deal of credit for aggressively trying to win this game.  It is quite clear to me that Robstown will be back again next year.  I have no doubt in my mind about it.

Robstown has worked very hard to get to this point and certainly deserve a round of applause.  Most people did not think Robstown had a chance to go as far as it did and counted them out so quickly.  I say don’t count them out just yet.

Congratulations to my alma mater, Robstown High School Cotton Pickers, for a job well done!

BELIEVE

I congratulate the Robstown High School Cottonpicker baseball team for being crowned the Region 4 champions.  Now, Robstown advances to the Semi-Finals in the State Baseball Tournament in Austin.  The last time Robstown appeared at the State Tournament was in 1993, in which they won the State Championship.  It was certainly a long time ago.  An entire generation grew up without ever repeating that honor.

As for the community of fans, they never stopped believing in their high school baseball team.  They have always supported the Robstown High School Cottonpickers from the very beginning.  So, of course, the community is quite excited that years of hard work from the players and coaches has paid off.

I was on the Corpus Christi Caller-Times chat room earlier today and noticed that some people thought the score was too high and Robstown was being too aggressive with the stealing of bases when it was apparent Robstown would win.  I say that it is important for Robstown to remain aggressive in their game and not let their guard down.  The other three region champions will no doubt remain aggressive in their games.

Still, others in the Corpus Christi Caller-Times chat room were saying that Robstown’s high school baseball team is of meager caliber and the advancement is a symbol that the region overall is weak.  I disagree completely with this notion.  It is important to note that other teams in our area have never received such feedback as they move on to the state tournament in their conferences.  It is also safe to say that most sane people will not agree that the various teams that made it to the State Tournament are undeserving.  The statement and implication made by some in the chat room are certainly undeserving of any real credibility.

It is quite clear that Robstown is in a position to take the State Championship.  As we all know, one must have a burning desire in order to win championships.  In Robstown’s case, they must step up their aggression and seize their opportunity to make history again.

Robstown has operated with a simple motto: BELIEVE.  Believe that great things are possible.  In the case of the other regions, believe that Robstown will not go down without a fight.

Best of luck to the Robstown High School Cottonpickers!  You are on the edge of greatness.  You are on the edge of glory.  

The past few months have been incredible with massive earthquakes and huge tornados.  Unfortunately, we cannot control nature (we never could anyway).  However, we can control how we respond to such catastrophes.  People worldwide and across our great nation have made generous contributions to the various charities that are assisting the victims of these terrible natural disasters.  Despite the economy, it is quite clear that people still care about others.

Unfortunately, given the size and scope of the tornado activity just in the month of May, we can expect some significant activity during the upcoming hurricane season, which starts next week (June 1).

Some tips to remember for the upcoming hurricane season:

1. Take all hurricane and severe weather warnings seriously.  Hurricanes (just like tornados) are highly unpredictable.
2. Start preparing your emergency plan and kit.  Go to http://www.ready.gov now to find out more about this.
3. Remain calm.  While it is important to follow all warnings, it is completely unnecessary to panic.  Panic is contagious.  If one does it, others may do so, as well.  What does that accomplish, really?

Be safe out there, and always have a plan!

Is it me or is this Playstation Network outage getting ridiculous?  More than 2 weeks of the Playstation Network shutdown is, undoubtedly, testing the patience of Playstation Network gamers worldwide.

In my earlier article about information security, I indicated that consumers must decide on how to deal with a company that clearly is not doing enough to safeguard your personal information.  In the final analysis, consumers have a choice of who they deal with.  Security of personal data must be a large factor in determining who earns your business.  This leads us to the question of Sony.  Does Sony earn your business given what we already know about their data breach?  Of course, the data breach experienced by the Playstation Network is already considered the largest security breach of all time in technology.  77 million accounts is a very large number no matter how you slice and dice it.

On the flipside, this was a hack and certainly Sony did not expect this to happen.  Or did they?  CNET and other technology bloggers are already saying that Sony knew about their own software flaws and firewall absences.

If it were me, I would say that Sony does not earn my business given that basic, fundamental technology flaws were already apparent by Sony and experts.  In addition, Sony was completely negligent until now (apparently) to fix the flaws.  This is irresponsible.  Sony should have called outside experts before the network was corrupted by hackers which would have reduced or eliminated a network shutdown for consumers.

While it is true that Microsoft Xbox Live network did have a similar incident with their network in 2008, however it gives no excuse to Sony to completely disregard its own security flaws in the process.  Sony should have learned a lesson from Microsoft’s incident in 2008 and improved upon its own network, which would have proven more cost effective than a 2 week struggle and eliminated the now abundant supply of lawsuits and government probes.  

It is time for Sony Playstation Network users to determine where they go from here.

What a difference a day makes!

America and most of her allies rejoiced over the news of Osama Bin Laden’s death.  The days of Bin Laden’s reign of terror has concluded. 

Definitely, President Obama deserves a great deal of credit for ordering the capture or elimination of Bin Laden.  President George W. Bush also deserves credit for laying the foundation in connection with the hunt for Bin Laden.  Of course, President Obama did also credit President Bush with emphasizing that America is not at war with Islam but rather Islam radical terrorists.  This distinction was very important.  It shows that we value freedom of religion but also that we do not support radicalism, especially those that promote violence and terror.

The initial news media reports had told the world that there was a very important speech from the President.  A Presidential speech so late in the evening, after all, is very unusual.  As such, I was quite intrigued by the mystery.  As I was watching Fox News, Geraldo Rivera suddenly has an epiphany and began to speculate that maybe Osama Bin Laden had been killed but of course it was pure speculation at the time.  Ironically, Geraldo was right.  All the news networks, including Fox News, shortly thereafter confirmed that Bin Laden had been killed in an operation.  Clearly, the news was very monumental and extremely significant in our ongoing war on terror.

I grew amazed on the swift reaction in New York and Washington, D.C.  It was a clear display of American pride and a relentless resolve to seek justice for a clear wrong brought upon us against our will on September 11.

Equally amazing was how Twitter and Facebook has changed the entire face of reporting news.  Earlier today, we learned from the news media that one of Osama Bin Laden’s neighbors actually posted information live on Twitter.  He did not even know Osama Bin Laden was his neighbor!  One example, he wrote about helicopters hovering around his immediate which was strange to him.  As a result of his observation, Twitter is technically the first one to break the news of activities surrounding Osama Bin Laden.  After the rest of the world found out about Bin Laden’s demise, the social media networks were abuzz with congratulations and tributes to our armed forces and the victims of September 11.  It is these two components of this event that has made social networking very important for the future.  The social networks have, undoubtedly, created an outlet of expression and, coincidentally, substantial news.  So, social networks are definitely here to stay.

While today we are celebrating the death of Osama Bin Laden, tomorrow and going forward we must realize that we cannot let our guard down.  We cannot let our resolve fade on the war on terror.  In many ways, the death of Bin Laden has only closed a chapter but has definitely opened a new one.  Not surprisingly, many of the radical terrorist organizations have already dubbed Bin Laden as a “martyr” and has undoubtedly given support for revenge attacks upon the United States and her interests.  Some U.S. intelligence officials and analysts have told the media that the war on terror is complete.  This is clearly reckless! 

We have already forgotten about the role of Iran in the terrorist organizations.  It has been a widely held belief that Iran has continued to funnel money to the world’s terrorists.  It is this clear fact that we cannot declare that the war on terror is over.  Iran still wants Israel eliminated.  Iran still aspires to eliminate all religious beliefs (excluding their own, of course).  Iran is still advancing its quest on weaponizing nuclear material.  Iran cannot be overlooked in the equation to eliminate the world of all terrorists.  Of course, Iran is certainly a very large obstacle for the United States and there are no easy solutions concerning their involvement.

Despite the clear victory of this day for America, there are still unanswered questions about this event.  Here is a list of some unanswered questions:

·         Why are the photographs of the Bin Laden’s body still not released?

·         How much involvement did Congress have?

·         Why was the body disposed so quickly?

Aside from these unanswered questions, we should all realize that the world is continually changing and most of these changes are not beneficial to the United States.  As a result of these changes, the United States must adapt to these changes on every level such as:

• government spending reforms.
• eliminating dependence on foreign oil.
• finding ways for businesses to create jobs.
• being more proactive on preserving interests and values that define the United States.

Just to name a few!

The United States is the greatest country on earth. It is time to remain serious on the war on terror.  It is also time to get serious about our economic condition and to ensure that our government is playing the right role in our society.

In the last few months, the issue of customer information security has been a topic of some discussion. More importantly, it is also telling of our current technological state today.

The major information security deficiencies from well respected companies such as Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and several state governments across the country is a clear trend.

The information technology industry (specifically, the information security sector) has subscribed to the long held belief that no system is ever 100% secure. Most companies undergo a security assessment on their technology systems to ensure that sensitive information is well protected.

On the same token, the software industry, especially Microsoft, has undergone dramatic changes to how information is processed on business and consumer devices. Such changes, logically, result in further vulnerabilities not expected prior to such launches. In the case of Microsoft, the seemingly epidemic of updates to its operating systems is usually to correct such vulnerabilities not previously known.

What does this mean for the average person (the consumer)? Well, some operating systems require the frequent updates, while other operating systems do not require frequent updates, and, amazingly, some do not require updates at all, for the most part.

The various security vulnerabilities, unfortunately, will continue to rear its ugly head in society. Luckily, programmers, designers, and computer experts continue to work together to protect consumers and businesses alike. From viruses, malware, and loop holes, there are clearly many more elements to the story than just the information vulnerability issues. However, none of these are of lesser importance.

Consumers are caught in the middle, however. Unfortunately, no real recourse is available for information security breaches. Perhaps, the most important issue in our day in age is how to address or, perhaps, hold accountable companies with such breaches including software manufacturers.

Let the debate begin!