23. December 2008 by Revelator.

It’s Christmas time again and instead of thinking about what presents to buy all I can think about is our military forces overseas. Spending the holidays defending your country is a supremely righteous thing to do and deserves the utmost respect from your fellow countrymen and women. But I can’t help but picture some 20 year old G.I. manning his post thinking about his family and wishing he was 10 years old again. Ten years old and sitting wide awake in bed on Christmas morning wondering if it’s still too early to wake up Mom and Dad so he can get to that tree and rip open all those presents with his name on them. How does he deal with that memory and still do his job of keeping us free?

And I think about that mom out there escorting a convoy on Christmas day… How does she do what her country has asked her to do knowing that she won’t be there when her kids wake up to see what Santa brought them?

And I ask myself; Where do we get these Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines who volunteer to protect this country in such dangerous times? I signed up in 1978 during a time of peace and retired in 2000 without suffering any damage. If I were 18 today could I still make such a commitment? I honestly don’t know - but I thank God that there are fellow countrymen and women out there who will.

Every year about this time that poem about the lone G.I. standing his watch in the snow on Christmas Eve (and every other day) circulates and every year I read it and every year I get somewhat emotional about it. There are many versions of this poem but I’m gonna share just part of the one credited to Lance Corporal James M. Schmidt, USMC, written in 1986. When you’re done reading this please say a prayer for all those vigilantly guarding our freedoms in faraway lands.

The Very Thought
Brought A Tear To My Eye,
I Dropped To My Knees
And Started To Cry.

The Soldier Awakened
And I Heard A Rough Voice,
“Santa Don’t Cry,
This Life Is My Choice;

I Fight For Freedom,
I Don’t Ask For More,
My Life Is My God,
My Country, My Corps.”

Keep the Faith!
Revelator

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5. December 2008 by Revelator.

Regular readers of this blog may remember that I went on quite a rant some time ago about what some are passing off as fortune cookies. You know the ones; you open it and the words inside are not a fortune but some lame quote or some inisight about you, the cookie eater.

Well - here’s the latest “fortune” I recieved: “You have a flair for adding a fanciful dimension to any story.”

Ladies and gentlemen this is NOT a fortune - it’s a statement! And not even a true statement. Reread it and I’ll explain: “You have a flair for adding a faciful dimension to any story.” Did you get it that time? No? Well then allow me to put this into plain english for you - “You are a liar.” That is what this “fortune” told me…I am a liar. I mean, what else would you call someone who has the ability to add fanciful dimensions to a story? That’s right - you call that person a liar.

So not only did I not get a fortune from my fortune cookie (again) the damn thing called me a liar. At least it said I have a “flair” for it so presumably I’m a good liar - so I got that going for me…which is nice.

Keep the Faith!
Revelator

Voodoo Child (Slight Return) - Jimi Hendrix

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5. December 2008 by Revelator.

SIGINT (n) - intelligence information gathered from communications intelligence or electronics intelligence or telemetry intelligence.
COMINT (n) - technical and intelligence information derived from foreign communications by other than the intended recipients.
IGNORINT (n) - intelligence gathered by the direct exploitation of stupid people.

If you will grant that the biggest threat to the information you are trying to protect is the unintentional insider then you have to agree that IGNORINT collection is the biggest threat to the security of your operations. And yes, I know there is a difference between ignorance and stupidity but in the final analysis INGORINT exploits both so I’m not going to split hairs.

Whether the information lost is because of one persons inability to think beyond a third grade level or because the person wasn’t properly briefed doesn’t matter to the IGNORINT collector. And when it comes right down to it many properly trained and briefed individuals will let stupid overide their training when put to the test. For example, otherwise intelligent and security savvy men seem to zoom right to stupid when confronted with a beautiful woman or large quantities of alcohol. And if you combine stupid inducing amounts of alcohol with a friendly female then you have the perfect storm for IGNORINT collectors.

But don’t let me mislead you - many of us can call up stupid at will even without the aid of alcohol or other stupid inducing products or situations and therein lies the problem. IGNORINT collectors know this and are available to exploit this known weakness at a moments notice. Whether it’s picking up our discarded trash, or collecting a ton or two of recycled whole white paper, or hanging out at the local watering hole, or listening to a speech at a professional symposium, or exploiting personal blogs, or…well, you get the point. We just give so much away that it blows my mind sometimes.

Humans as a species are designed to make mistakes and consistantly do things that are generally considered not that bright. But what are we to do about it? Well, if you’re looking for The Revelator to enlighten you then you just might be in for a long wait. About all you can do is acknowledge this vulnerability and fight against it in anyway you can. Good luck with that. And if you come up with a way to somehow defeat even a small amount of IGNORINT collection you let me know.

Keep the Faith!
Revelator

Chain of Fools - Aretha Franklin

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