Password Overkill

I went online to update my credit card information to for my speed pass, and received a message about updating my password. Here are the new requirements:

Passwords must contain at least eight (8) characters.
The password must contain at least one of each:
•upper case letter (A-Z)
•lower case letter (a-z)
•number (0-9)
•special character (~,!,#,%,^,&,*)

Hmmm.  These requirements are way stiffer than say, my BANK or BROKERAGE services provider.  Don’t tell anyone, but my new password is “llkjh458&^$ijhkiABC”.  It will be easy to remember.  Leave it to the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles to take the security of your personal information very seriously.  On a related note, I just received someone else’s speed pass information in the mail (name, address, licence plate info, payment info, etc).  Hard copy.  Which means that my info was sent to somebody else.  Way to go, RMV!

REMINDER: COKE and TWINKIES FOR SCHOOL LUNCH FRIDAY MARCH 30TH

As reported here, this Friday, March 30th is being called “Coke and Twinkies” for lunch day in Massachusetts.  The aim is to remind public schools and municipalities that parents will decide what is best for their children, particularly in light of widely publicized stories of overreaching actions by school employees.  Simply packing these items in your child’s lunch will send a clear message to your children’s school.

BREAKING: Parent Group announces Coke and Twinkies Lunch Day – March 30

METROWEST MASSACHUSETTS: Fed up with the ever-increasing regulations on children’s school lunches sent from home, and reports of unacceptable food “discipline” in other parts of the country, a group of Massachusetts parents have announced that they would like to hold a “Coke and Twinkies” lunch day in all Massachusetts public schools.  The event aims to reinforce the concept that parents make the decisions as to what’s in their children’s homemade lunches (except for peanuts and tree nuts, and strictly banned items, of course). Samantha Freeman, mother of 3 elementary school children in Middlesex County says “One lunch like this won’t hurt anybody, and it will send a message to the schools that our parental prerogatives are being ignored. Schools and teacher groups generally support all those “Occupy” movements, well this is an “occupy the cafeteria” situation.”  Ms. Blackburn suggests that parents pack Coke and Twinkies, or other frowned-upon lunch items in addition to their child’s regular lunch on Friday, March 30th.  The group hopes that word of mouth will make the coordinated presence of junk foods in the cafeteria noticeable to school administrators, who should take note of the “protest”.  The group hopes readers will forward this information to potential participants.

Note: The National Center for Public Policy Research held a “Lunch-In” on February 23rd in Washington DC to protest the aggressive guidelines increasingly applied to homemade lunches.

Get Wet ‘n Sandy!

My Cranky Boys shown here on Spectacle Island, in Boston Harbor last week.  They learned about getting “wet and sandy” by watching the Discovery Channel’s documentary that followed a class through the six-month  Navy Seal BUD/S training program.  For those unfamiliar with the term, its tip #9 in the ‘Top 10 Thinks to Know Before BUD/S” from Military.com‘s fitness center:

9. Wet and Sandy

Jumping into the ocean then rolling around in the sand is a standard form of punishment / motivation for the class at BUD/S. It is cold and not comfortable, so you just have to prepare yourself for getting wet and sandy everyday at BUD/S. On days that you do not get wet and sandy, it will be the same feeling as getting off early at work on a three-day weekend!

Beware: after watching the videos, your kids may start saying things like “let’s do some log PT?”,  “it pays to be a winner”, “second place is first loser”, and “the only easy day was yesterday”. Take your chances.

What’s the big deal?

So what if Provincetown schools OK’d a measure that would allow school nurses to distribute condoms at ALL public schools (even elementary level schools). Everyone’s overreacting. It’s not like they’ll be distributed in the cafeteria with school lunch, or in the latest school telephone directory. The kids can formally request one from the school nurse when they go in for their head lice-check, or when they go get a band-aid for a teensy boo-boo, or when they lose a baby tooth and want one of those little treasure chests so they won’t lose it on the bus on the way home!  The schools aren’t required to notify parents when they’ve distributed the condoms, but it seems to make sense since recent scientific evidence suggests that many children become sexually active after losing one or more baby teeth during the school day, or after having head lice. Coincidence? I think not. Two birds, one stone, yadda yadda.

Yep, I was there…

…in Boston at the Tea Party on Wednesday, the 14th. It was a pretty mellow gathering, truth be told. Someone today asked me how it was, and I said “it was nice”. I was in Worcester last year, and it was really rowdy, but I was hanging with some older folks in Boston, and it was very low-key (and I wandered around a lot, and I didn’t see much rowdy at all).  I forgot how pretty Boston is in springtime, and it was a beautiful day to see Sarah P. in Massachusetts(!), get a burrito from my favorite cart vendor, and feel the rumble of the MBTA beneath my park bench as I basked in the midday sun for the quietest lunch I’ve had in years.

Back off ladies, he’s married -

This handsome, well-educated, self-described “progressive”  Bostonian shared his opinion of Sarah Palin at today’s Tea Party event in Boston. His wife was unable to join him because she had to stay home to make his sandwiches, dammit!

Boston Tea Par-tay

'Nuff said.

The real reason you should vote for Scott Brown

Look.  I’m as giddy as the next guy with the fact that there’s actually a very close race to fill Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat in Massachusetts.  Did you hear that?  Massachusetts could lose TED KENNEDY’S senate seat to a REPUBLICAN. It’s surreal.  Anyway, everyone wins by electing  Scott Brown to the Senate (throw him a few bucks if you can; consider it an investment).

Let me explain: You don’t like the health “reform” bill?  Of course not, nobody on either side of the aisle does, and an all-encompassing distaste for the bill could be a more unifying issue to ordinary Americans than national security.  Everybody hates the prospects, and all for very different reasons.  If we elect Scott Brown, in the immediate term he counts as the 41st vote against the bill, in any form.  Phew – the nation would thank us, while Congressional Democrats will scapegoat us as the reason why their swell deal didn’t pass.  I’ll gladly take the blame!  Now as for the medium-term risks:  he’ll only sit for two years, so think of it as a short-term hedge investment.  This may slow down or completely railroad any other bone-headed schemes dreamed up by Congress that will put us in the poor house (Cap and Trade, Crazy Climate Crap, Taxes on the Taxes for the Taxes?).  You stave off some really bad economic plans, and can kick him out in two years after our President and our Congress have been dope-slapped back to reality.  If you’re a Democrat, it’s a hedge strategy that just may keep you in the majority in both houses with this year’s mid-term elections (blame Scott Brown and the Republicans for why the “reform” won’t pass).  Suffer the Republican for two years, until you get some better leadership that isn’t so ass-backwards.

But the real reason to vote for Scott Brown, is that if you elect Martha Coakley as the 60th rubber-stamp Senator, there is the very real possibility that any chance of economic recovery will be squelched by the greedy self-interests in Washington, and cause our downturn to linger for at least the first half of this decade.  That leaves a lot of ground to make up, worst of which could mean that your kids, even if well-educated, won’t find good jobs after you’ve mortgaged your home for their college tuition.  Add it all up, and here’s the scariest part:  your children may never move out of your house.  Think seriously before you pull that lever, fill in that dot, punch that button, or however the heck we vote around here.  Scary, isn’t it?

BREAKING: New rule for elderly drivers

"I know that farmer's market is around here somewhere.."

The Massachusetts legislature this week chose not to take action to toughen the state’s driving and licensing laws to address the seemingly endless instances of incompetent senior citizens driving on our roads. Luckily, most incidents result in property damage, but in some instances personal injury occurs, usually with no cognition of the events by the elderly driver.  One representative said “there is little support for age-based testing at this point”. In lieu of toughening licensing and road test laws, the state has issued a mandate for all seniors to have a senior booster seat in their vehicles.  The registry of Motor Vehicles believes that most of the “newsworthy incidents of perceived elderly carelessness are accompanied by drivers who actually cannot see over the dashboard”.  Governor Patrick has approved of federal stimulus (TARP) funds to be used to subsidize the senior booster seats.  Drivers who qualify will receive a seat free of charge.  The state department of transportation along with the Registry of Motor Vehicles will publish the guidelines next week, along with announcing where seniors should go to get their boost.  A new public awareness program will also be launched, called “Help Boost Them Up, Before they Mow You Down”.  The state acknowledges the early costs of the program to be upwards of $158 million, half of which will be paid for by TARP funds, the other half of which will come from the new Booster Tax, that will add $5.00 to each new child booster seat sold in the Commonwealth.  Booster seats are currently required for all passengers under the age of 10, until  they measure 4’9″ tall.