Random thoughts

My beloved Cardinals lost last night. Alas. No more discussion is needed.

Also, I saw a disturbing item in this morning's Decatur Daily. An elderly woman was fleeced in a foreign lottery scam. You all know the routine. Someone called her and told her she'd won $4.8 million in the Canadian lottery, but to clear up all the paperwork, she'd have to send them some money. Over the next six months she sent them $36,000 and now her bank account is empty, yet she never did get her $4.8 million. [Was it supposed to be C$ or U.S.$?]

I know the elderly are vulnerable to these scams; heck my grandmother was once CONVINCED that she really had won the Publisher's Clearing House sweepstakes because it said so right there on her envelope. Still, I don't see how this scam continues to succeed. Didn't this woman realize she'd never purchased a ticket in the Canadian Lottery? Also, they asked her to use an alias on the wire transfers in order to keep her winnings secret.

This last tidbit led LeJuan George, an official with the BBB of N AL, to say:

Anyone asking you to use an alias in a transaction should serve as a red flag that you are being scammed.

Thanks Mr. George.

The next thing from today's paper may be controversial. Okay, on reflection, I see that there's no good way for me to present this argument, so I guess I'll wimp out and just give you the condensed version. Blogging really makes me think about things like this. I'd hate to have my words floating around the web come back to haunt me later if someone were to claim that I'm in favor of sex offenders. That's not at all what I was goint to write, but ...

Today's Daily has a story about how the Sheriff's Office website now allows you to type in an address and see all the sex offenders living within one mile. I understand why people want to take all reasonable measures to protect the children, but remember 1984, The Crucible, and the Amirault case in Massachusetts? I guess my point is that we should be careful in our attempts to establish a safe society.

Actually the Sheriff's Office thing reminded me of another big brother issue I just ran across -- Google Earth. Do y'all know about Google Earth? It's a program that you can download and then see zoomed in street-level images of almost any spot on Earth. You can even do this by address. A couple of disclaimers. First, not all areas have good images. My address, for instance, shows up as a blob of green trees. True we do have lots of trees in my neighborhood, but I think they just don't have good, detailed images for my street yet. Just a few streets away, though, you can get a pretty good shot, even zoomed in close enough to see details. For instance, I did find my previous house up on the mountain in Huntsville. It was a little blurry when I zoomed in close, but I could make out details -- the garage next to my house, the little well house behind the house, the little clearing across the road where I buried Ozzie (my beloved cat), etc. I also checked on the addresses of some of my readers (even some in other countries) and it was kind of freaky.

I don't want to go all Unibomber, but maybe technology is just going a little too far. Yep, I'm thinking I'll go practice my Morse code and dust off my abacus and get ready for a return to the simple life. I wonder if the Amish will accept me? Oh well, y'all shouldn't be surprised about this from a guy who doesn't have a cell phone.

Tomorrow is my trip to Tuscaloosa. I'm sure I'll report on that next week.

P.S. Speaking of The Crucible, check out Salem Possessed. I haven't read the more up-to-date books on the subject, but stuff like this is why I love studying economics. We can make anything an economic question, if one properly understands the meaning of economics.