Joe Levi .com

My Immigration Story: The Unspoken History We’d Rather Ignore

Joe Levi — Wed, 08 May 2013 18:30:59 +0000

Cecilia Muñoz, Director, Domestic Policy Council at The White House sent me an email. She wants me to share my immigration story.

This is the start of a national debate. Across the country, we’re having a serious discussion about how we can build a fair and effective immigration system that lives up to our heritage as a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants.

And we need your help to make sure that genuine, personal perspectives are part of the conversation. The truth is, that if we go back far enough, nearly every American story begins somewhere else — so often with ancestors setting out in search of a different life, carving out a future for their children in this place that all of us now call home.

We want to make sure that idea isn’t far from the minds of policymakers here in Washington as we work to reach an agreement to reform immigration.

(…)

So share your American stories with us, and we’ll put them to use.

We’ll publish them on the White House website. We’ll share them on Facebook and Twitter. We’ll do everything we can to make sure they’re part of the debate around immigration reform.

Get started here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/immigration/stories

So I responded to their call. I shared my immigration story. They said they’ll publish it on the White House Website. They’ll share it on Facebook and Twitter. I doubt they actually will because it doesn’t fit their narrative. It doesn’t help them accomplish what they’re trying to accomplish.

Instead, my immigration story illustrates an real case from history. It tells of what happened when foreigners invaded the homeland of my ancestors — and what happened to our people because we didn’t enforce our borders. We didn’t stop the invasion force until it was too late. And their failure to do so has all but led to our extinction. I am one of the last of my people. Here is my story.

My Immigration Story

My ancestors were a proud people. They cared for the land, and the land cared for them. They had their challenges, as all of us do, but they survived and maintained their culture and history for thousands of years. An invasion force arrived under the banner of “colonization”. At first the new arrivals offered friendship. Eventually they began to push further and further into our lands. When we fought back we were called “savages” and were killed — slaughtered — by their superior numbers and firepower.

Soon we were a conquered people, but the invasion force created special areas for us where we could be “left alone” and live out our traditional lives. But even those promises were broken. Those parcels of land were taken from us and we were forced to move by their military whenever our allotted lands were found to have “special” value to some corporate interest.

Contrary to being left alone to live our lives on our lands, we were continually interfered with. Our laws, our sovereignty, or traditions, our culture, our way of live is now all but extinct.

So now, with history as our guide, we look back and asks ourselves: at what point should we consider “immigrants” to be an “invasion force”? A hundred illegally crossing into our borders? A thousand? Ten thousand? At what point do we stop the invasion? When is it too late?

Will this new “invasion force” some day decide to call people who don’t share their skin color “savages”? Will they decide to put them in “reservations”? Will they slaughter anyone who refuses to comply?

Those who not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

We are either a nation of laws, or we are not.

We either secure our borders against unlawful entry, or we do not.

I am Paiute. You asked for my immigration story. Now you have it.

I am Paiute. You asked for “what’s at stake”. Now you know.

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Why I won’t shop at Times Ticking ever again

Joe Levi — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 16:26:19 +0000

Owner
Times Ticking
2044 Layton Hills Mall
Layton, Utah 84041

Subject: I won’t be coming back

Dear sirs,

I’m an advocate of buying local. I try to do business with local stores and shops. I try and keep my money in our community. After my recent experience, I can no longer recommend people do this with your store.

You’ve already lost my money and lost my business. I’m not writing this letter in the hopes of getting anything for myself. Rather, I’m taking my time to share with you my experience in the hopes that I’ll be the last customer you lose.

I bought a new smart watch, a Pebble. It’s a great watch, but I wasn’t happy with its plastic band. I got a recommendation from a friend to get a Special Ops band for it, and really dress it up. I almost bought it off his recommendation. But I stopped myself so I could visit your store and see what you had to offer.

Unfortunately you had no black metal bands in stock. I wasn’t too happy about that, but I your employee brought out a few catalogs and said “we can order anything you want from these”. Great! I picked the band that looks most similar to the one I wanted, plunked down my credit card and was charged about $50 for the band with the promise that it would arrive “in a week or so” and that I’d “get a call” as soon as it was in. Great! I left a happy man. I’d found a decent watch band. I’d supported a local business. It was a good day.

A week and a few days went by. I hadn’t received a phone call, so I called the store. After several minutes on hold I was told that “it’s not in yet, give it a couple more days”.

I gave it a week and called back. Again I was put on hold. Again I was told “it’s not in yet, give it a couple more days”.

After three weeks, still without having heard from anyone, I made a special trip to the store. About 15 minutes passed while your employee looked up my order. Her response? It’s not in yet, give it… I cut her off. “Fine. Just give me a refund.”

I waited again while she went in the back room to make a phone call.

After several more minutes she apparently got approval to refund my money and started ringing it through. She asked for my credit card… then asked for my ID. Why would she need my ID to money back on my card? I thought that was odd at the time.

Apparently it was because she wasn’t putting money back on my card. She was taking another $50 off my card. She asked me to sign the receipt. “Where does it say this is a refund?” It wasn’t. It was another sale. I refused to sign the slip.

She got back on the phone, and headed back into the back room.

Several more minutes passed. She ran my card again and printed another receipt, this time showing it was a negative amount – a credit. Now that the problem she’d just created was fixed she got back to work trying to refund my original payment.

About this time I noticed the card on your counter that solicits customers to scan the QR code and leave a review. I pulled out my phone, scanned the code, and started typing. Here’s the review that I left. As you can tell, it’s quite a few words typed on a very small screen. That should give you an idea of how much time I wasted trying to get the problem fixed.

When all was finally said and done, I got an insincere apology that “it didn’t work out”.

After three weeks your employee still had no idea when the watch band would arrive. Her response was “oh well” — not “I’m sorry” or “we’ll order it again with overnight delivery to your house” or “what can we do to make this right?” Just “oh well”.

I went home and ordered the watch band that I originally wanted from Amazon.com. It costs about twice as much as the one I was going to buy from you. I’ve attached the invoice so you know that I’m being truthful. According to the tracking number, this band has already shipped and should arrive by the time you get this letter.

So, now you’ve heard about my experience with your store. Again, you’ve already lost my money and lost my business. Hopefully by me sharing this information you’ll be able to make whatever changes you feel are necessary and appropriate to ensure that another of your customers doesn’t have the same experience that I had…

… unless you don’t care either.

Cordially,

Joe Levi

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My Pebble Smartwatch Finally Got Here! (Video)

Joe Levi — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 15:46:14 +0000

After several long months my Pebble Smartwatch is finally in-hand — or should that be “on wrist”. Nonetheless, here’s my unboxing and initial setup of the watch, along with a walk-through of the user experience you can expect on your wrist.

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It’s National Joe Day!

Joe Levi — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 14:30:40 +0000

According to Yahoo! News, March 27th is “National Joe Day”. All these years I never knew such a day existed!

How can you properly show your appreciation for your favorite Joe? Why not help me pay off my mortgage?

Apparently March 27th is also:

American Diabetes Association Alert Day
National Spanish Paella Day
Quirky Country Music Song Titles Day
National Cleavage Day (this year, other years it’s been the first week in April)

Sources: news.yahoo.com, metro.co.uk

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I’m going to start doing more videos

Joe Levi — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 16:37:20 +0000

Hey guys and gals, I’ve decided that I need to be doing more videos. So, with that, I’ve produced an “introduction” video to tell you what my channel is going to be all about.

For those of you looking for the links that I promised in the video, here they are:

Let me know what you think the comments.

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Street Racing, Prowling, and Suspicious Activity — in My Neighborhood!

Joe Levi — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 15:47:19 +0000

I’m a very sound sleeper. I can sleep through baby’s crying. I can sleep through conversations. I can sleep through almost anything.

Early Sunday morning I was jolted out of my sleep by the sound of tires squealing near by. A lot of squealing. I was out of bed in an instant. Out the window I saw three cars tearing out of the Community Center — and headed toward our house.

The source of the sound identified, I went back to bed… but they squealed out of the parking lot, roared down the road, squealed around the corner, and sped down the road in front of my house.

In a residential neighborhood, this is called “Reckless Endangerment”, but since the roads were empty, “Reckless Driving” would suffice. By the time I got to the front door to try and identify the cars, they were gone. I called it in to the Syracuse Police business line (which rolled over to Davis County).

My report having been made, I went back to bed.

Some ten or so minutes later, just as I was starting to drift off (pun intended), I was again woken by the sound of squealing tires. This time I got dressed, hopped in my car, and tried to follow them. Unfortunately my skills at getting hurriedly dressed apparently as fast as they were. I was able to get a rough description: Gray Mustang, and a red coup.

After ten minutes of driving through the neighborhood looking for them, I gave up and returned home. This time, now very wide awake, I sat on my front porch. Imagine my surprise when I saw two cars making their way up the road directly in front of my house. Suspiciously.

The cars were driving very slowly, stopping side-by-side to talk with each other, then moving further up the road toward me. At the stop sign in front of my house I watched as the red coup (in the lead position) shined a flashlight at my neighbors’ house on the West side of the street, then turned back toward the Community Center. The gray Mustang was shining a flashlight at the houses on the East side of the street, then turned East at the stop sign.

They were shining their lights at the windows of the homes. Were they looking for open windows to use as a point of entry? As soon as the Mustang was down the road I hopped back in my car, called Dispatch again (she remembered me from my earlier call). I updated her with the new events and gave the best description of the cars that I could. I also kept her updated on my direction of travel and the cross-streets I was passing.

The Mustang turned down a road and into a cul-de-sac and parked. I made a turn just before the cul-de-sac, pulled over, and shut off my lights, then updated Dispatch with the location. After I was assured Police were en route I began to head back home.

That’s when I saw the red coup again. Apparently it had made it back into the cul-de-sac while I was following the gray Mustang. It stopped in the middle of the road, the driver got out and walked to a truck on the passenger’s side. By this time I was committed to the turn and ended up right behind the coup. The driver was trying to get into a truck parked on the side of the road. Surprised by my headlights, he waived me around him. I jotted his license plate number and continued on my way home.

I got home, told Dispatch the same, and was told the Police Officer would stop by as soon as he was done on scene. I parked and waited on my front porch. The night is particularly quite — and lovely — at 4am.

Some time later an unmarked black SUV pulled up: Syracuse Police in one of their Hybrid police vehicles.

The Officer approached me, we shook hands. He got my information and asked for a description of the events and the vehicles. He says they caught three cars (including the red one), but no Mustang in the cul-de-sac. A bunch of 17-year-old kids out playing night games.

Reportedly the flashlights were to find some of their friends hiding in the neighborhood — I voiced my concern over both the cars with the flashlights because they looked like they were “casing” the neighborhood, and the kids allegedly hiding in the bushes who would likely be thought to be prowlers and could run into problems with armed home owners.

The driver of the red car that was “breaking into the truck” had a key. It was reportedly his friend’s truck. He was “looking for his shoes”. Hmmm, sounds suspicious.

The Officer asked if I wanted to sign a complaint, but that if I did so I’d have to go to court and testify. I told him I didn’t mind going to court to testify to what I’d witnessed, but asked if his report would be visible should any of the kids get pulled over or detained in the future. He said it would. No harm done (other than interrupted sleep), I said I’d prefer to go that route.

He also mentioned that he had the Mayor with him on a ride-along that night, and that she said my name “sounded familiar”. I chucked (the Mayor and I haven’t always gotten along), and asked the officer to tell her I said “hello”.The Officer and I shook hands with him noting that my actions were a “good call”.

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Top Smartphone Apps that Keep You Healthy

guestauthor — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 15:33:36 +0000

by Natalie Bracco, guest author

Technology is an aspect of life that we have grown to rely on. From the vast databases that safeguard our personal information to the computerized motors in modern vehicles, technology plays a vital role in our everyday lives. This concept is no greater than in the different mobile devices that we use for various things. Tablet computers, smartphones and Ultrabooks have all played a role in plugging us in to this modern age where the digital world is at our finger tips.

While some people reference relying too much on technology as leading to a less fit society, others would beg to differ. In fact, there are a variety of smartphone applications that promote health and wellness with additional tools to keep you motivated during that early morning jog or afternoon hike. Below are some of the top smartphone applications that can help keep you healthy.

Instant Heart Rate Pro

A heart rate monitor is a valuable tool to have during a workout for ensuring you maintain an adequate level of exercise. Depending on your fitness level, maintaining a particular level of heart rate over an extended period of time allows you to burn calories at a more efficient level.

Instant Heart Rate Pro is a heart rate monitor application available for Android. It is considered the most accurate heart rate monitor app currently available, and is regularly used by professionals in the medical field who attest to its accuracy. Simply open it up before or during a workout and easily keep track of your heart rate.

BMI Calculator

The BMI Calculator (Body Mass Index) is a free application available for both Android and iOS. It is a simple yet effective app that calculates your BMI as a reference before you begin dieting, or as a little motivation when you see the effects that your lost body fat has on your BMI.

SparkPeople

SparkPeople is a handy application for calorie counters. Whether you prefer T-Mobile cell phones or Apple iPhones, this application is available on most operating systems. It provides the simple means of entering a particular meal into a database that then supplies you with the various “stats” for that meal. Users can then take this information and enter it into different fields to keep track of meals, fat and calories over the course of the day.

WebMD Mobile

Simply put, WebMD Mobile is the cellular optimized version of the popular website. It serves as a valuable, handy tool for people who need to seek out medical advice regardless of where they are.

As someone who is looking to improve their fitness efforts, consider the above heath-based applications as a little boost in motivation. Whether you are looking for a simple way to keep track of your calorie intake, or need a reliable heart monitor, there are many useful apps available that can help keep you in shape.

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An open letter to Tony Divino Toyota about their fraudulently titled email, “An Important Message About Your Vehicle”

Joe Levi — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 19:00:04 +0000

I just got an email from Tony Divino Toyota, a local dealer that I’ve generally used to service my Toyota Prius. It’s been the subject of two recalls so far, and they’ve done the work for me. As far as their service goes, I have no complaints.

Then I got an email titled “An Important Message About Your Vehicle”.

Was is another recall? Was it a reminder that my tires probably needed to be replaced soon? A recommendation that I come in and have my brakes inspected? Notice that they’d forgotten to tighten something completely the last time they serviced it? No.

What was it? And advertisement for an extended warranty. An ad!

Not only that, an ad that they likely knew I’d simply throw away, they apparently decided to try an “hook” me by misleading me.

Well, congratulations, Tony Divino Toyota, it worked. I opened the email. I read it. I realized it’s not “important” at all. I replied to your message that it’s not “important” and that I feel you deliberately lied to me. But you didn’t even have the fortitude to use are REAL reply-to address! Did you know you’d get a backlash of angry customers and didn’t want to field the complaints? I have to assume so.

In any event, some of your customers have web sites and are connected to social networks… hopefully the word will get back to you “through the grape vine”. If not, on well. You just turned a loyal customer into a hater.

If you’re interested, here’s what I tried to send you:

That’s not an “important message about my vehicle”. An “important message about my vehicle” would be a recall notice, a reminder that my tires or break pads were due to be replaced.

Ad advertisement about why I “need” to buy some additional product or service is NOT an “important message about my vehicle”.

Titling your message that way implies that you think I’m stupid. It’s a method to “hijack” my attention to get me to read your unsolicited email.

It’s not appreciated, and it’s not appropriate.

You’ve spent a lot of time building up your “a bit too honest?” tagline… and have thrown it all away with emails like these.

A company who stoops to this to get me to open an email IMMEDIATELY loses my trust. After all, if I can’t trust you to be honest with your emails, how can I trust you to be honest with your repair service or your car sales?

- Joe Levi

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Miley Cyrus says “forget Jesus … Stars died so you can live” quote is “beautiful”

Joe Levi — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 21:00:15 +0000

Earlier this month teen icon Miley Ray Cyrus posted a photo on twitter, calling it “Beautiful”. The picture was of Lawrence Krauss, a theoretical physicist, and one of his quotes.

“You are all stardust. You couldn’t be here if stars hadn’t exploded, because the elements (carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, all things that matter for evolution) weren’t created at the beginning of time. They were created in stars. So forget Jesus. Stars died so you can live.”

It’s a nice thought, and bears some truth. After all, everything in the universe is, to use a phrase coined by Carl Sagan, “star stuff”.

But that doesn’t tell the whole story, does it?

In 1983, astronomer Fred Hoyle (1915–2001), wrote the following in his book, The Intelligent Universe:

“A junkyard contains all the bits and pieces of a Boeing 747, dismembered and in disarray. A whirlwind happens to blow through the yard. What is the chance that after its passage a fully assembled 747, ready to fly, will be found standing there?”

But this analogy doesn’t go far enough. In this fictional junkyard there are already parts of that airplane — they simply need to be repaired and assembled by the whirlwind.

To imply that you and I are simply the result of some “cosmic whirlwind” made up of “dead stars” would be closer to that whirlwind excavating a mountain, finding and refining ore, molding parts, distilling oil into plastics, creating insulated wire, and somehow assembling all those raw materials together into that plane.

It sounds absurd — because it is.

Implying that every life on Earth was somehow created from a random happenstance of the cosmos — without some divine intelligence “putting it all together” sounds ridiculous! Yet we’re just one planet, circling one star, in one corner of one galaxy in the entirety of the Universe.

Either some divine intelligence — whether you call Him Jesus, God, Allah, Thor, or any other name — had a hand in putting all that “star stuff” together into you and I and everything else in the Universe … or there an infinite number of “random happenstance” all around us.

Source: @MileyCyrus
Via: Godfather Politics

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Who in Syracuse City is trying to circumvent the City Council?

Joe Levi — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 17:00:09 +0000

Regarding the “Marketing Specialist” and “Planner 1″ positions that are the current talking-points in Syracuse City, Utah… everyone who has called the City, thank you! Our City Recorder, Cassie Brown, contacted me this morning to help clarify the record.

The minutes for that meeting are currently being finalized and are expected to be presented for approval at the next City Council Meeting.

The Ustream video ~IS~ online, it’s just titled incorrectly (sorry for the confusion!). The pertinent discussion about not wanting the Marketing Specialist position comes in at 0:58:00 and the discussion to approve the Resolution WITHOUT creating that position starts at 1:04:00. (Thank you, Cassie, for pointing me to the right video. I knew I’d seen it before, I just couldn’t find it due to the naming issue).

I’ve updated the post on my website to include this updated information, including links to the Ustream video: http://www.joelevi.com/blog/index.php/2012/03/when-did-syracuse-city-approve-the-internet-marketing-position/

Ultimately, it still looks as if someone in the City wanted the “Internet Marketing Specialist” position, but since the City Council voted against creating the position, they just re-purposed an existing title and copied-and-pasted the rejected position’s job description into an already existing position.

What I feel should have happened, if whoever this person in the City was felt so strongly about needing an “Internet Marketing Specialist”, it should have been brought before the City Council for discussion, justification, and ultimately: approval. From what I can tell, that wasn’t done.

Someone in the City decided to do an end-run around those that we elected to represent us. That’s not appropriate. It’s not right. It’s not ethical.

Who was this person, and why didn’t they take it back to the City Council?

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UPDATED: Is a Syracuse City employee trying to circumvent the City Council?!

Joe Levi — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 18:00:36 +0000

I just sent the following to the Syracuse City Mayor and City Council:

Please forgive me, but I’m a little confused. While visiting our City website today I came across a job posting: Planner 1 – Economic Development.

The job requirements include a provision that says “Update and promote City events and other noteworthy information through the use of social media like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, and similar media”… That sounded a bit out of place for a “planner”… and also a bit familiar, so I started doing some research.

In November 2011, when the previous City Council was in place, we had a resolution that would have opened a few new positions: City Lawyer, Engineer, and a “Marketing and Communications” position, with an emphasis on Internet related activities. After much discussion, that council passed the resolution — but only with the “Marketing and Communications” position REMOVED.

From what I can tell, the job posting currently on the City’s site for a “Planner” is almost IDENTICAL to the responsibilities of the “Marketing and Communications Specialist” that was REJECTED by the former City Council.

I’d love to go back and refer to the Minutes from this meeting… but for some reason those minutes seem to be missing from our website. ~~I tried to fall back to the Ustream video, but the video for that session isn’t online either.~~ (see my notes below)

While I’m not trying to imply that some conspiracy is being carried out by anyone in the City, but the fact that the minutes and video for this session are “missing” could be interpreted as “suspicious”. Wouldn’t you agree?

For now, I recommend that the City takes no further action on interviewing or hiring for this position until this issue has been resolved.

The next steps I’d like to see taken would be tracking down who was responsible for requesting that this position (with these responsibilities) be posted, and find out if there was any intent to disregard the will of the City Council in refusing this position.

If so, what disciplinary action would be appropriate for the person or persons involved?

I would like action on the first item (halting consideration to fill the position) taken immediately, and the following two items addressed at the next Public Meeting of the Council.

I look forward to your thoughts by email.

- Joe Levi

If you feel the same way, could you please:

Contact the Mayor and Council ( http://syracuseut.com/YourGovernment/ContactMayorandCityCouncil.aspx ) and simply say “Subject: Planner 1 – Economic Development position; Body: Mayor, Council, It appears as if someone is trying to “pull a fast one” on you! A position that the Council rejected in November is now posted on our website under a new name. Please remove this position and add an agenda item to the next City Council meeting to discuss who posted a job that the City Council rejected, and what the disciplinary actions are appropriate to be taken against the person or persons involved.”
Send this to everyone that you think would be interested in finding out who is trying to circumvent our Elected Officials — and do it quickly! We’ve got to get this issue “on the radar” before the position closes!

UPDATE March 5th, 2012, 11am:

Cassie, our City’s Recorder, contacted me this morning, after having been contacted by other residents, called me to discuss the minutes and Ustream video points I mentioned in my meeting.

She says the minutes are still being working on, and she hopes to have them ready to be approved by the next City Council meeting (March 13th, 2012).

The Ustream video is online, it’s just titled incorrectly. Here is the link to the video: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/18546027. I’ve seen the video before (and inserted comments as well), I just missed it this time around. As such, I have stricken the video portion of my letter, above, and added a note to this update.

I’d like to thank those who have contacted the City. Furthermore, I’d like to thank Cassie Brown for taking time to contact me and help make this document more correct, and add additional information to this issue.

If you’d like to listen to the debate on the Ustream video, the discussion of this position starts at 58:00 and ghe call for a vote is 1:04:00. Councilman Shingleton’s motion to approve the resolution including the Bailiff, but excluding the Marketing Specialist passed 3-2, which is why we do not have a “Marketing Specialist” position in the City’s wage scale.

In short, 3 of our elected officials said the People of the City don’t need a Marketing Specialist, and voted against it. Someone in the City apparently thinks otherwise and is trying to fill that position under another title. The job duties for the two are identical. Unfortunately, the only conclusion I can draw is that someone is trying to circumvent the will of the City Council (our elected representatives) and fill this position using a round-about way. It’s not ethical. It’s not right. It goes against the will of the People.

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And the new Syracuse City Councilman is… not me

Joe Levi — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 13:00:33 +0000

When a City Councilman resigned and a vacancy was created, I was one of 14 who applied to fill his position. Here is what I said to the City Council during last night’s Meeting (the omitted the struck-out section during my presentation).

I feel that any position with the power to tax or limit individual liberties should rightfully be filled through an election by the People. Ideally that’s how this vacancy would be filled, but current circumstance and State Law prescribes otherwise in this instance.

When a vacancy in the Supreme Court arises it’s tradition to fill the vacancy with a like-minded individual: if the position was held by a “liberal” Justice, persons with a Liberal background are considered above those with a Conservative background, and vice versa. If we are to use that model tonight, we should appoint the person who’s views are in-line with former Councilman Kimmel. I’ve sided with him on the majority of his votes.

During public comment to fill a previous vacancy, many residents voiced their request to fill the position with someone who could add some ethnic diversity to the Council. I don’t feel that race or ethnicity should be used to disqualify someone from consideration—I don’t think they should be used to specifically qualify someone either. However, out of respect for those who feel otherwise, as a member of the Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah I can bring a measure of ethnic diversity to the Council. I’ve been unable to find another Native American that has held a seat on the Council; this could be an opportunity for a positive headline in the local papers – something our City desperately needs.

I’ve been passionately active in our City government. When a previous Council tried to change our form of government they held a “debate”. No one showed up to argue against them. A one-sided debate isn’t a debate at all. I refused to sit idly by. I rose from the audience, took a seat on the opposing side, and argued against the change. Because of my actions some claimed I was in the Mayor’s pocket, but later, when that Mayor failed to carry out his statutory duty, I called him on it – no one on that Council did. Recently I discovered that the City was carrying out its Council Meetings without a set of Rules of Order and Procedure, as required by State Law, I pushed until the Council remedied the situation. When an unlawful section was included in those Rules, I successfully lobbied for its removal. When the Mayor issued an order in violation of State Law, I stood my ground and refused to be bullied; I’d done my research and knew the law. These examples illustrate that I stand on principle and the law, not allegiances with individuals.

Lastly, I am the elected Vice Chair and an elected State Delegate for the Syracuse 08 Precinct, which covers approximately 550 families in the heart of Syracuse. I’ve served in these capacities for the last 2 years, without missing a single meeting or failing to cast a single vote. Since these neighbors have already entrusted me to represent their views on both State and Federal issues, I would have no difficulty representing them on the City Council.

My name is Joe Levi, and I thank you for your consideration.

After almost 45 minutes of deliberation in a Closed Session, the Council returned and ultimately appointed Brian Duncan to the position by a 4 to 1 margin. With his legal background I expect that he’ll be able to reign in our City Attorney and be responsive to the will of the people.

I support Councilmembers Shingleton, Johnson, and Lisonbee in their votes, and welcome Councilman Duncan aboard!

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Update on Wind Damage at Mom’s House

Joe Levi — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 19:30:50 +0000

I visited Mom today. The lawn shed still needs to be re-shingled but has a few inches of snow on it. It still has felt, a layer of shingles, and another layer of felt on it, so I don’t think it’s a rush — we can probably wait until Spring.

The wind tore the ladders off the shed and bent the brackets. Dad probably has some brackets around we can use to replace them (if they can’t be bent back into shape).

The power is working but Mom says the “weather cap” still needs to be replaced. I’ll have to follow up on that.

The power problems (caused by the wind) blew out one of the control modules on her furnace — which they don’t make any more, and we couldn’t find a used/refirb unit anywhere… so she’s got a brand-new 95% efficient furnace and new electronic thermostat.

A young driver took the corner too fast and wiped out Mom’s mailbox. She was nice, left the box and a note on the front porch apologizing for the damage. I found an extra mailbox that Dad had in the lawn shed, but I thought he had a heavy-duty, steel mailbox somewhere. Has anyone seen this recently? The plan is to put up a temporary post (until Spring) and then cement in a post. (The metal one probably won’t work.)

Patti showed up and we covered most of all that… and she wanted me to take her picture…

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My Recent Actions Were a Test for Mayor Jamie Nagle, Her Actions Were Alarming

Joe Levi — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 14:00:28 +0000

My friends, relatives, and neighbors may be wondering why I took the actions I did at the last few City Council meetings. Specifically, what has been covered recently by the Standard Examiner.

Let me take this opportunity to go “on the record”, and let you know my side of the story.

At a recent Syracuse City Council Meeting I brought up a concern: it seemed that the City was holding meetings without any “written rules”, as is required by Utah State Code 10-03-606.

The Mayor stated that she had been assured by the City Attorney that they were in compliance with State Law.

I got the impression that the Mayor was “brushing off” a citizen’s concern that the City was holding their meetings in violation of State Law.
I got the impression that she felt she was somehow “above the law”.
I hoped I was wrong.

Later in that meeting a Councilman tried to make a motion. The Mayor replied “… This is my meeting! I’ll run it however I want!”

That action coupled with my impression that the Mayor was “above the law” didn’t sit well with me.

I did what any responsible Citizen should: I dug deeper

The City had a set of rules put together and an agenda item added to adopt those rules at last night’s meeting.

Last night I spoke during the public comment section, exposing what I had found in their proposed set of rules:

I pointed out that the “rules” they were voting on had some serious problems. I only had 30 minutes to read through them, and in that time came up with 24 problems — though I’m sure there are more problems than what I found.
I pointed out that one particular rule was even illegal! Vesting the Mayor with unilateral power to remove someone from a public meeting is a clear violation of Utah 10-3-608. (By including that I was setting the stage for what would come later in the meeting.)
I pointed out that one section in the “rules” redefines the powers and responsibilities of the Mayor to be the “chief legislative officer” and the “chief judicial officer”. Further, this Mayor’s role had recently been changed to empower her to call upon the residents to be her own police force — making her the “chief law enforcement officer”, too.
I concluded that when a SINGLE PERSON holds all the powers of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government, that’s no longer a “Representative” government, that’s a Dictatorship.

Was that what Mayor Jamie Nagle was trying implement? Her own dictatorship in our city? I certainly hoped not — but based on my previous experience and the “above the law” attitude that I had witnessed, I felt compelled dig deeper.

I was curious why Mayor Nagle had not vocally objected to those powers being vested in her — or her position. Why wouldn’t a Mayor object to being given the power of all three branches of government?
Even if Mayor Nagle didn’t wield these “dictatorial powers”, a future Mayor could. Wouldn’t a Mayor be concerned that her successor might use those powers to undo everything she had done, and do everything to ensure that didn’t happen?

My five minutes expired before I could finish, and the Mayor asked me to sit down.

What happened next was an act of Civil Disobedience — and it was a test for Mayor Jamie Nagle.

I had no way of knowing if Mayor Nagle truly felt that she was “above the law”.
I had no way of knowing if Mayor Nagle supported all three branches of government being consolidated under her position.

So I put her to a test: I didn’t sit down.

I wanted to see if Mayor Nagle would violate State Law by ordering my removal. Such an order would go against Utah 10-3-608. I felt that her resulting actions would be indicative of whether or not she felt State Law applied to her.

If a Mayor were to openly violate State Law in a public meeting of the legislative body, I felt that my “above the law” impressions would be proven legitimate.
I hoped she would comply with State Law and call for a motion to have me removed.
After all, just moments before I had informed her of the legal requirements to have someone removed — so she couldn’t claim ignorance to the Law.

I didn’t sit down.

She ordered me to sit down. (I asked the City Recorder to include that “verbatim” in the minutes, the Mayor told her not to.)
The Mayor then ordered the police chief to have me removed.

My jaw dropped. Had Mayor Jamie Nagle just violated the very State Law that I’d hoped she wouldn’t?

I informed the chief that of the specifics of Utah 10-3-608, that a member of the public can only be removed by a 2/3 vote of the legislative body.
I then turned to the Mayor and asked if she was making a motion to have me removed. She just stared at me.
Councilman Ocaña then moved that I be removed from the meeting. No one seconded the motion.

Luckily, the police chief didn’t forcefully remove me from the meeting — but the Mayor had already issued her order. In a public meeting. In front of witnesses. In what I feel was blatant disregard for, and in violation of Utah State Law.

For me, my concerns were verified and my actions to expose them were justified.

That’s why I did what I did.

I did it so you’d know — so you wouldn’t have to wonder as I had.
I did it so you’d know that when push comes to shove, if we don’t have rules — or have disregard for them — what can happen when we don’t hold our elected officials accountable and require they follow the rules.

That said, I hope to work with the City Council, to review their proposed rules and make observations and recommendations where I feel they’re wrong. After my recent activities, I don’t know if that input will fall upon deaf ears.

But now you know the rest of the story.

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I’m Mormon, and I’m voting for Ron Paul!

Joe Levi — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 22:22:14 +0000

My “I’m Mormon, and I’m voting for Ron Paul!”™ products are now online! Show your support for Ron Paul:

Tell your friends!

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“Taxing the rich” makes poor/middle-class people poorer

Joe Levi — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 15:00:04 +0000

The Dem’s are floating the “tax the rich”, “make the rich pay their ‘fair share’” rhetoric to try and pay for their programs. Which, of course, gets the “not-rich” to back their plan… ironically, the “not-rich” are the beneficiaries of these programs.

So let’s tax the “rich” — i.e., the businesses, or business owners. What do they do? Well, they started and ran a successful business, right? So they’re a relatively intelligent lot of people. They see taxes as an expense on the balance sheet. What do you do when expenses increase? You either lower other expenses (outsourcing and off-shoring are two popular ways to do this), reduce the quality of the product (which “not-rich” people buy, and have to buy again and again when the cheaper version breaks, making the “not-rich” people poorer), or raise the cost of the item (again, making the “not-rich” people poorer).

So who is really footing the bill for “taxing the rich”? You guessed it. The poor are.

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On the eve of the Government Shutdown, look where Silver closed

Joe Levi — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 18:30:55 +0000

On the eve of the Government Shutdown, holy snot! What you seen what Silver has done this week? Look at where it closed today!

It’s up almost $3 this week, up almost $5 this month, and (hold on to your hat) up $22.50 from a year ago — more than DOUBLE!

	Today	Change	Week Ago	Month Ago	Year Ago
Gold	$1,474.00	+$14.40	$1,429.10	$1,427.30	$1,152.80
Silver	$40.66	+$1.07	$37.77	$35.73	$18.16
Platinum	$1,815.00	+$33.70	$1,775.00	$1,806.90	$1,717.10
Palladium	$794.00	+$13.85	$773.55	$788.80	$503.65

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Silver jumps 76 cents, closes at $38.53

Joe Levi — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 18:45:53 +0000

This time last year I was posting updates about the closing prices of Silver almost daily. A lot of you got tired of the practice, so I stopped…

Today I think it’s worth mentioning again.

Generally, the start of the week sees a dip in prices, and the rest of the week posts gains. That’s just sorta how things work. This type of pattern usually is explained by people putting in sell orders over the weekend that are filled on Monday, which drives the price down. The following days generally see that initial dip bought back by the end of the week.

Of course, that’s over-simplifying, and it doesn’t happen that way all the time. But it’s interesting not only to see a jump in prices on a Monday, but a HUGE jump! 76 cents is a substantial amount when looking at something valued at $38/ounce!

If you own 1,000 ounce silver bars, today’s movement would have netted you $760 per bar.

	Today	Change	Week Ago	Month Ago	Year Ago
Gold	$1,433.10	+$4.00	$1,421.90	$1,428.50	$1,124.40
Silver	$38.53	+$0.76	$37.14	$35.44	$17.91
Platinum	$1,784.50	+$9.50	$1,750.40	$1,840.60	$1,668.70
Palladium	$782.60	+$9.05	$748.20	$812.85	$491.35

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Orchestral version of Rebecca Black’s Friday

Joe Levi — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 16:30:42 +0000

If you’re not familiar with the internet sensation that is Friday by Rebecca Black, you’re really missing out!

Now there’s even an orchestral, instrumental version, and it’s awesome!

And, Hitler’s reaction after he hears the original for the first time: (potty-words alert!)

Thanks: Mike Dopp

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Quote of the day: Tea bags…

Joe Levi — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 19:15:44 +0000

Quote of the day:

We are all like Tea bags- We don’t know our own strength until we’re in hot water.

– Unknown

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Another funny story about Dad

Joe Levi — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 17:00:02 +0000

I just remembered another story from when Dad was in the Emergency Room earlier this week…

The doctor, when doing his initial assessment, asked Dad to raise his right arm. Dad raised his left arm.

The doctor smiled and looked at us, then said “okay, now can you raise your other arm?”

Realizing that he’d raised the wrong arm the first time Dad said “okay, but only if we can call it the left one.”

The doctor, Mom, and I laughed. The Doctor said “sure, works for me”.

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Update on my Dad

Joe Levi — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 21:01:06 +0000

Dad visited the doctor a few days back and had 2 liters of fluid drained from his belly. The doctor pointed toward liver problems as the likely source, prescribed some medications (3 pills), and scheduled some diagnostic procedures and a follow-up appointment for next week.

Last night (after having taken his first dose of the medications) Mom called me around 11pm, telling me that Dad wasn’t doing so well and wanted to go to the emergency room.

For those of you familiar with my Dad you know this is bad — really bad. Dad hates doctors and he hates hospitals even more. The last time he was in the ER was when he cut his arm with a chainsaw 20-some years ago. He’s been very vocal about wanting to “die at home”, not in some hospital surrounded by strangers. For him to be asking to go to the ER is almost beyond comprehension.

Dad has always avoided imposing on anyone for anything — and he doesn’t like people to see him when he’s sick. For Dad to have Mom call me — 20+ minutes away — and ask for my help to take him to the hospital… well, yeah, you can see what I mean.

When I arrived he wasn’t breathing well, was dizzy, nauseated, and had been vomiting. He couldn’t stand by himself, let alone walk anywhere, not even to the restroom.

Mom and I helped him get his coat on and to his feet, then had him hold on to me, piggy-back style to provide balance and support while we walked down the stairs and to the car. He threw up twice in that short trip — not a lot, but it was still concerning.

We got him and Mom in the car and made it to the ER. Once there we were triaged and admitted quickly. The ER doctor that helped us Dr. Bass, a Southern Gentleman originally from Louisiana.

They gave him a shot for the nausea, then a pill for the dizziness. They took some blood work, ran an EKG, and listened to his heart and found an abnormal heartbeat (aortal fibrillation). This could be contributing to the dizziness and possibly to the water build-up. A referral to a cardiologist was provided.

They ran a CT scan and found no blockages, stroke, or bleeds — all good. Dad commented that he didn’t think they’d find any “cats with they scanned” him. His dry humor returning was a good sign.

Within 30 minutes he was feeling much better. No longer nauseated and dizziness returning to his “normal” levels. Blood work came back clear. It was actually better than the tests they’d run the day (or so) prior.

As soon as a urine sample could be provided and tested it came back okay, too.

Dad started complaining of a pain in his right ear. The doctor looked and didn’t find any problems, but looking with the scope caused Dad significant pain. Turns out it was the joint where the jaw connects to right by the ear — probably caused by “sleeping on it wrong”. Another half-hour after he changed positions to lay on his back the pain in the ear was all but gone.

After having researched the three medications Dad had just started taking, a couple of them have side-effects that include dizziness, tiredness, shortness of breath, even feinting. With no other obvious culprits showing up in the tests, that was the most likely cause. Any change we can get the pharmaceutical company to pay for the ER visit because of the side-effects of their medication?

During the adventure Dad’s mood improved, he smiled at jokes, and he even found time to sing some of those sappy old country-western songs like he’s been known to do.

Almost ready to discharge him, the doctor wanted to check his blood pressure first. 85/59. Too low.

They hooked him up to a saline IV and tried again. Same thing.

They hooked him up to another saline IV and tried again. Same thing.

The doctor tried to get a second opinion from the hospital’s admitting doctor to see if he should be admitted, or sent home.

Finally, they took a manual pressure reading, this time it was 90-something over 60-something. Still low, but no longer in the danger zone. The doctor asked what we wanted to do. I recapped:

No longer vomiting
No longer nauseated
Able to stand on his own
Ear-ache is all but gone
Dizziness has returned to “normal” levels
Blood-pressure has been stable for the last several hours — though lower than we’d like
Tests all came back clear
Medication that had been started the day before the onset of symptoms included side-effects including the presenting symptoms

Dad piped up: “I think I can go home”. Good enough.

They prepped the discharge papers and Dad was back home, in bed around 6:30am. Mom said he slept until 10 or 11am — which is really good for Dad. He was doing pretty well this morning when I talked to him.

I advised them to call the Doctor that prescribed the 3 medications to see if they should adjust the dosage, change it, or stop taking one or more of them.

So, there you have it. Now I won’t have to tell the story every time someone in the family asks.

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Are these videos signs of the end of days?

Joe Levi — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 15:00:03 +0000

We’re certainly

Orb over Dome of the Rock

This is one of the most compelling “UFO’s” I’ve ever seen. So far four videos have surfaced that cover the event, all taken from different locations and different people. In the videos an orb of light hangs high over the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, descends until it’s immediately over the Dome, moves slightly, flashes a few times lighting the area beneath with a bright light, then rapidly ascends.

Here’s the first video:

And here are three videos composited and time matched so you can see it from different angles all at once:

Horseman of the Apocalypse in Egypt?

In this video, summing up what’s been going on in Egypt, at about 1:15 in you’ll see a ghostly green object that some say looks like a rider on a horse. The “horse and rider” travel with the camera with 4 or 5 other greenish orbs (indicating it might be something caused on or in the camera). It is, however, pretty spooky looking.

What do you think?

Are these videos fakes? Are they just anomalies in the videographic process? Or are they signs spoken of in religious texts?

If they are signs, what other signs have you seen recently?

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Got another donation!

Joe Levi — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 17:08:42 +0000

I just got another donation to the mortgage/adoption fund! Thanks, Steve H.!

If you’d like to donate, too, you can use these links:

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Jazz Bear and away-fan, fight!

Joe Levi — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 22:00:16 +0000

You know me, I’m not a sports fan… but when I saw this video of the Jazz Bear, the mascot of the Utah Jazz (I know, I thought the mascot was a New Orleans-style band, too!), I literally laughed out loud. Literally.

(Hat tip to Mike Dopp for showing me the video.)

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He gets a million bucks, but you won’t help me pay off my mortgage?! For shame!

Joe Levi — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 18:00:16 +0000

A while back I put out a plea asking people to help me pay off my mortgage. Okay, it wasn’t so much a plea as it was an experiment in social networking, but who’s keeping track.

Anyhow, I got a few people who donated. And by “a few” I mean “less than 3″. So, either the social experiment failed, or all you who use social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, and Twitter failed.

That’s right. You failed — miserably. You couldn’t even pay off my mortgage. What a bunch of losers.

Why do I say that? Take a look at this guy. He gets on the innerwebs and begs for a million dollars. Guess what, he gets it! Well, he’s getting it the beginning of next month at some gala event, but that’s just little details.

But you, may alleged “friends” (most of whom I’ve never met) can’t band together to pay off a measly mortgage? For shame.

I guess you could try to redeem yourselves… but here’s what you’ve got to do:

Donate any amount that you’d like to help pay off my mortgage
Tell all your friends on your social network of choice that you donated, and that if they don’t donate they’re not really your friend

(Hat tip to Mike Dopp for showing me the video… but he still hasn’t donated. Loser.)

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Portal 2: This Year

Joe Levi — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 18:45:37 +0000

If you haven’t played Portal by now, you can turn off the internet or go back to your Facebook games….

For the rest of you, feast your eyes on this:

The post Portal 2: This Year appeared first on Joe Levi .com.

T-Mobile’s Latest Ad Pokes Fun at Verizon and AT&T

Joe Levi — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 00:07:56 +0000

“Hey, no choice is still a choice.”

T-Mobile’s latest “anti-iPhone” commercial takes aim at both Verizon and AT&T. Since the iPhone 4 is a 3G phone on both AT&T (HSPA+) and Verizon (CDMA/LTE), T-Mobile concludes that the iPhone is slow regardless of what network you’re on. In the past they’ve taken shots at FaceTime, touting the ability to make video calls anywhere, not just when under a Wi-Fi umbrella. The commercial goes on to advertise T-Mobile data plans starting at just US$10/month. T-Mobile isn’t holding any punches!

Will we see an upcoming commercial advertising the fact that Verizon’s iPhone isn’t able to access the Internet while on a call?

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Poor Ewoks, never had a chance

Joe Levi — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 15:00:01 +0000

An alternate ending to Return of the Jedi:

Via: Mike Dopp

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This year I resolve to get out of debt

Joe Levi — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 21:28:32 +0000

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

Financial Guru Dave Ramsey is quick to point out that debt is cancer.

It enslaves us to jobs that we don’t like, places that we’d rather not live, and things that are worth less now than we acquired for them.

Whether or not you subscribe to Dave’s philosophy is up to you. I bring it up because I’ve personally implemented several of his philosophies and cannot explain how liberating it is to not only have significantly less debt, but also significantly more cash available to do stuff.

That having been said, unless you apply 100% of your salary against your debt, it’s going to take longer than just one year to get out of debt. Since you probably can’t go without food, water, clothing, toiletries, and the like for that long, you’re going to have to start taking small bites — just like eating an elephant.

I’m not going into all the details of how to do this, but the steps are fairly basic:

Live within your means: don’t spend more than you make
Pay off what you owe: minimum payments aren’t going to cut it
Once you’ve found you’ve dug yourself into a hole, stop digging: stop using those credit cards right now

For complete details, grab a copy of The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness and get started.

As for me, my financial goals this year are to pay off:

my Discover Card
my car
a line of credit
and get a good start on another credit card

Doing so will represent around $25,000 in debt that I’ll no longer owe — and will free up around $900/month that would have gone toward feeding the debt-monster. But that money won’t be squandered — it’ll be put right back into the snowball to pay off more debt… stay tuned for my 2012 resolutions…

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Notes about recovering data from your .MENC file

Joe Levi — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 13:00:32 +0000

I’ve taken some flack lately about my articles relating to Windows Mobile’s .MENC files.

Apparently, some people (you know who you are) don’t particularly like what I have to say, so let’s do a little recap.

.MENC is a file-extension that denotes “mobile encryption” by Windows Mobile devices (not Windows Phone 7). Windows Mobile gives you (or whoever is responsible for administrating the device) the ability to remotely wipe the phone. The problem with this was the sdcard, which was untouched. So any proprietary information stored on the sdcard would still be accessible, even after a remote wipe of the phone.

Another scenario is if you have a password set up to access your device. If you misplace your phone, it would take a significant amount of time and effort to break into the phone. Unfortunately, it’s very easy to open the phone, take out the sdcard, and read its contents using another computer.

To address both of these problems, Microsoft let users (or administrators) encrypt the contents of the sdcard on a file-by-file basis. It was completely transparent to the user, and let the device access the files easily and quickly, but when the sdcard was removed, the files weren’t accessible because they’re encrypted. Pop the card back into the phone that created them, and they were accessible again.

My instructions for being able to recover the date within the .MENC files was simple: turn off sdcard encryption, then copy/move the encrypted files to another location on the card, and the encryption would be removed from the files.

The requires that you have access to the device on which the .MENC files were created, are able to access it (unlock it with a password, if present), and that it hasn’t been reset (because if it has, the encryption keys are regenerated, and the files made with the old keys are inaccessible).

That’s what some people haven’t liked. To them I say, tough beans. It’s doing exactly what it was designed to do. If you want to try breaking into the files via a brute-force attack, feel free. But just as I wouldn’t tell you how to break in to and hotwire a car, I’m not going to tell you how to break into a .MENC file. (I don’t know how to do either.)

S0, lesson learned, move on. If the files were that important you’d have backed them up somewhere else, right? Exactly.

Microsoft has you covered with Windows Phone 7 though… you can’t even remove the sdcard without voiding your warranty. So there.

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Provo, Utah Girls parody

Joe Levi — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 14:00:25 +0000

My sister-in-law passed this on to me, and I laughed so hard I figured I should pass it on to you, too!

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Experts: Mystery contrail was from Chinese missile ‘Muted response’ was decision ‘made by the president himself’

Joe Levi — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 21:28:56 +0000

Source: JayForde.com

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Angry Birds & Pigs finally sit down for peace talks

Joe Levi — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 18:45:10 +0000

At long last, the pigs and angry birds have sat down at the negotiating table to end the senseless violence that has cost so many people countless hours of work and family-together time in this futile struggle…

Watch the video below:

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Bovine Suicide?

Joe Levi — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 13:00:15 +0000

Some days in a cow’s life are harder than others… but there are so many reasons to go on living… think of all the cows that will miss you in the herd… think of all the humans that won’t have your life-giving milk to give them strong teeth and bones… at the very least, think of Mike Rowe who now has yet another Dirty Job, cleaning your carcass out for the undercarriage of the train.

Warning: Potty-mouth train-driver

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It’s getting cold, have you got your sleeping bag ready?

Joe Levi — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 22:25:07 +0000

It’s getting cold outside, and in the interest of preparedness, you should be able to snuggle up and be warm even if the power goes out, the gas line gets cut, or even if you just want to set the thermostat at 40-degrees!

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Flying any time soon?

Joe Levi — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 00:01:58 +0000

In today’s “security at any cost” environment, sometimes we need a little subtle reminder about what we’re giving up…

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Updates Coming to the Android Market?

Joe Levi — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 18:08:06 +0000

Publishers and developers just got an email from Google’s Android Market Team advising them of “planned service outage impacting Android Market”. This outage to the Android Market Developer Console will occur at 10PM on Thursday 18 November and ends by 4AM Friday 19 November 2010, Pacific Standard Time. Google originally got the days wrong and sent out an update to reflect the changes mentioned above.

“During this time, there will be view-only access to the Developer Console at http://market.android.com/publish. You will be able to view your list of applications and error reports; however, you will not be able to upload new apps or make updates to existing apps. The publish status of your applications and use of the Android Market app on phones should not be impacted.”

While this shouldn’t have any impact on end-users, or people browsing the Android Market, it does infer that changes are coming to the back-end, which may bring new features to the front-end.

What new features would you like to see in the Android Market?

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I oppose S.510

Joe Levi — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 01:38:01 +0000

I oppose S.510, the poorly named “Food Safety Modernization Act”… This act puts various controls under the Department of Homeland Security and… wait, what?! Yes indeed!

It also:

will do NOTHING to make the food supply “safer”
will further encumber small business
will open the floodgates for tyrannical federal bureaucrats to crush local producers of healthy food
will EXPAND government to the tune of nearly $1 billion to grow the government’s reach, and calls for over 17,000 new bureaucrats to be hired through fiscal year 2014

If you’re opposed to the GIANT power-grab by the Federal Government like I am, you probably would be interested to know that Senator Hatch not only SUPPORTS it, he’s a fracking co-sponsor!

This is an OUTRAGE! Has he forgotten his numerous promises to make government SMALLER? Has he forgotten the tea party activists and State Delegates that FIRED his colleague, Senator Robert F. Bennett?

I, for one, won’t stand for it and am calling him on the carpet!

I have a letter all ready to drop in the mail to his Washington DC office:

Senator Orrin Hatch
104 Hart Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510

I called his Washington office (202-224-5251), his Ogden office (801-625-5672), and his Salt Lake City office (801-524-4380).

I sent him an email via his web form (http://hatch.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Offices.Contact) and even sent faxes to him.

I’ve sent number Tweets to @orrinhatch on Twitter with the simple message:

@orrinhatch I OPPOSE S.510, you should too! #utpol #tcot #teaparty

What have you done?

You have to act fast, tomorrow (11/17/2010) they’re voting on it. TELL SENATOR HATCH TO OPPOSE S.510! Do it now, before it’s too late!

Via:

You can re-tweet these to help drive the point home:

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Those are not rights, Those are rations of slavery

Joe Levi — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 22:17:32 +0000

It’s not an endlessly expanding list of rights — the “right” to an education; the “right” to health care; the “right” to food and hosting. That is not freedom. That is dependency. Those are not rights. Those are rations of slavery — hay and a barn for human cattle.

– Alexis de Tocqueville

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Keynesian policies have been a wretched failure…

Joe Levi — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 21:45:47 +0000

The fact that colossal stimulus spending, zero interest rates, the purchase of over a trillion in toxic assets by the Fed, and the loosest monetary policy in history have done absolutely nothing to revitalize the economy, has proven that Keynesian policies have been a wretched failure.

Small businesses, which are the backbone of America (these are the folks who will create a recovery if there is to be one), are now being vilified by the president and portrayed as the evil empire (millionaire and billionaire Bogey men) and any wealth they have created and accumulated is ill gotten. No — their wealth comes from hard work, saving, successful risk taking and delivering products and services for which people want to pay. Something Obama and his congressional Marxist supporters only punish today.

– James Quinn, Newsletter Editor

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QotD: We will be forced to live within our means or…

Joe Levi — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 01:00:43 +0000

As we have described for several years, the U.S. economy is virtually locked into a long arc of decline. There are no politically palatable solutions to the quandary. Until Americans are ready to take their lumps and accept a steep drop in their standard of living, the U.S. government will have no leverage with the creditor nations and no ability to keep its promises. Therefore we should celebrate when China even gives our Treasury Secretary an audience.

If China does manage to topple the U.S. dollar from its perch as the international reserve currency, our economy will very likely move into free fall as decades of inflation come pouring back into the country. We will be forced to live within our means or face hyperinflation.

– John Browne, Senior Market Strategist

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Farewell 1-800-GOOG-411

Joe Levi — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 18:52:36 +0000

800-FREE-411Today is November 12th, 2010, the day Google said they were turning off their GOOG411 service.

For those of you who don’t know, GOOG411 was a replacement for “411″. Instead of dialing 411 on your phone to get information and find a phone number, you could dial 1-800-GOOG-411 and get the same service from Google. It worked so well that my wife even recommended it to friends and family members (which is saying a lot!).

Today that service is scheduled to go away.

Your options now? Other than going back to paying for 411, you could try:

1-800-FREE-411
1-800-BING-411

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Harassing Phone Calls from (801) 663-7181

Joe Levi — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 20:32:20 +0000

Have you gotten a phone call from this number?

(801) 663-7181
1 (801) 663-7181
+1 (801) 663-7181
801-663-7181
8016637181

I have. I’ve been getting phone calls from them for the last week or more. They never leave a message, and when I call them back I’m met with a recorded voice that says:

Thank you for calling Discover Card. We recently tried to contact you in regard to a product or service we were offering.

If you’d like to speak with an Account Manager regarding that product or service, please press 1 now.

Otherwise, we appreciate your business and hope that you will continue to use your Discover Card for all of your everyday purchases.

The times when I’ve answered the call I’ve listened to their offer and politely declined it. Each time they’ve persisted, maybe I didn’t hear them right, and I’d be a fool to pass it up. Each time I say no, and ask that they not call me again.

Some days I’ve gotten 6-8 calls from this number.

My number is on the “do-not-call” registry. People who signed up originally are starting to get calls because their request is only good for a specific number of years. My request is up-to-date.

But that doesn’t help, not if I do business with the company in question, or — and here’s the rub — if I do business with the company that has “partnered” with a third-party. Another way to look at a “third party partner” is someone to whom Discover has sold my information.

I called Discover today and spoke with Deb in Arizona. She apologized and told me if it was from Discover, the phone calls would stop immediately. However, if it’s a “partner” calling me, my request could take two weeks or more. Two weeks of 6-8 calls a day? Not good enough. I told Deb as much, but she said it was outside of her power to do any better. No problemo, Deb, let me talk with someone that has the power.

Enter Joyce, Deb’s manager in Arizona. Joyce can’t help either, but was quick to point out that I had agreed to have “partners” call me because I didn’t opt-out when Discover sent out their revised Privacy Policy recently. Except that I did.

In any event, she can’t do anything to help either.

Hey, you know what, I’m a credentialed journalist, I wonder what their Discover’s Public Relations department has to say about this. I was referred to Leslie and Laura who, based on their area code, are out of Illinois.

Unfortunately — or conveniently? — neither is currently available… but I left a message, and may get a call back.

Before I go into what I can do to combat the calls, I’ll give Discover Media Relations a chance to chime in… but if I don’t hear back, I’ll go ahead and let you in on some sneaky and clever ways to keep from being harassed yourself…

Stay tuned!

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California Missile Crisis: Scenario 5, Deformed ConTrail

Joe Levi — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 18:09:36 +0000

The Pentagon is telling us all not to worry… they have looked at data from “a lot of sources” and have determined that it’s nothing to worry about… it was probably just a condensation trail, or ConTrail, from a plane — which just happened to be distorted to look like a missile launch…

What do you think? Do you have another scenario?

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California Missile Crisis: Scenario 4, Launch by a Foreign Government

Joe Levi — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 02:45:08 +0000

There are many foreign governments that have submarines capable of launching ICBM’s. China, as far as we know, only has noisy diesel subs, not quiet nuclear ones. One would imagine if the Chinese parked a sub off the coast of LA that we’d have “heard” it and responded with destroyers. So either it was another country with subs capable of launching an ICBM and quiet enough to sneak past our defenses, or China has gotten themselves a “quiet” sub.

Why do I think it might have been China? Well, we just went through another round of “quantitative easing” which is another way to say that the U.S. Dollar just became worth less than it was before. China holds a lot of U.S. Dollars. They’d be justifiably upset with us by making their investment worth less, and maybe take military action, providing us with a show of power. China is, of course, our neighbor to the West, across the Pacific Ocean, and that’s where the missile was fired from.

But the missile came from within “archipelagic waters”, and therefore within the territory of the United States of America, which means it would be more than just saber rattling. If they’d have done it half way between LA and Hawaii, THAT would be an impressive show… but this was within our territorial waters… and by definition an act of war.

So, what if they laid down an ultimatum while President Obama is “in their neck of the woods” demanding payment of our debt in “pre-inflated dollars”, basically, calling the loan due now, and we diplomatically said “up yours”. Would that be enough for China to dispatch a secret sub into U.S. waters, launch a missile capable of destroying Los Angeles, and then scuttle it?

That would sure get our attention, wouldn’t it? They would basically be saying, “you can’t push us around, see what we could have done? Meet our demands or we’ll launch another one.”

Were that the case the President would definitely need more time to evaluate the situation, get our defenses in order (quietly), and prepare to respond to the threat (quietly). How much time would he need? I don’t know, a day or so perhaps?

Parallels

Does anyone else see the parallels of what may have happened yesterday off the coast of California with the Cuban Missile Crisis? Are we preparing to go to war against an foreign country (not just a “terror organization”)?

Are we at war?

Are we at war? Well, other than a war on terror, a war on drugs, and a war on tax evaders, are we at war with another government? Not that I know of.

Will we be shortly? I sincerely hope not!

Am I prepping for the worst, just in case? Are you?

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California Missile Crisis: Scenario 3, Launch by a Terror Organization

Joe Levi — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 02:30:59 +0000

Since the U.S. military denies any involvement in the launch, and if that’s to be believed, we haven’t heard word from the White House that it was a defensive launch, we have to conclude that it was fired by someone other than the U.S. military.

Who’s left? A civilian or non-civilian (read: terrorist), or a foreign government.

Since launching an ICBM from a submarine (we don’t know of any boats in the area) would require an actual submarine, we have to assume that a terror organization somehow got a hold of a pretty high-end submarine with ICBM’s on board. But no governments are reporting having lost a submarine, so that’s likely not the case.

You can, however, launch a missile from a mobile, submerged platform. Doing so requires the missile and platform loaded on a fairly large boat (or towed behind a fairly powerful boat), pulled into place, and dropped off, floating below the surface until the launch order was given. Some conspiracy theorists believe this is how the “airplane” that hit the Pentagon on 9/11 was launched… if you want to believe that it was a missile, not a plane… but I digress.

No terror organizations have come forward claiming responsibility for the launch. Since they would be all over freaking us out by having accomplished either the hijacking of a foreign sub, or with the successful deployment of a remotely launched ICBM, and have not, we can likely rule out this scenario.

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California Missile Crisis: Scenario 2, Defensive Launch

Joe Levi — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 02:15:30 +0000

If it was a defensive launch, what were we shooting at? The missile was too large to be attempting to take down an aircraft.

If the target had been a ship or submarine, it’s more likely a torpedo would have been used, so we can rule out defense of an air or sea attack or “provocation”.

The only reasons we’d fire an ICMB/SLBM (other than a training or testing exercise) would be to destroy a land-based enemy target, and that would likely be in response to a foreign government having launched first — or threatened to launch first where we felt launch was imminent.

The latter could explain why the missile may have been scuttled — and why we’re not currently at war with, well, whoever the “bad guy” is in this scenario. They threatened to launch, we fired a missile, they backed down, so we scuttled the missile.

Were this the case, there would likely be a delay in reporting “what really happened” because the President himself would need to be involved in, and would likely make the announcement to nation himself. He’s overseas right now, so a delay of even 12-20 hours would be “reasonable”. Since it’s been almost a full day since the event, and we haven’t gotten word from the White House or Pentagon, we can likely rule out this scenario.

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California Missile Crisis: Scenario 1, Accidental Launch During Training Exercise

Joe Levi — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 02:00:21 +0000

Scenario 1: Accidental Launch During Training Exercise

If the Navy “accidentally” launched the missile during an “exercise” it stands to reason that there would not be a NOTAM filed. However, were this the case, the Navy (or some other military entity) would likely have come forward with this information. But they have not… so we can likely rule out this scenario.

If we trust that there wasn’t an exercise which involved the launch, and that it wasn’t an accident, was it a defensive launch?

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California Missile Crisis: Facts and Questions

Joe Levi — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 01:40:56 +0000

Earlier today I mentioned that a news helicopter in California caught on camera what looked like a “large missile” being launched from off the coast of California. Of course this raised quite a bit of “water cooler discussion”… here’s what we’ve come up with.

Findings of Fact as of this Writing:

The video came from a legitimate source
The video has been reviewed by experts and has been deemed authentic
The experts not only believe what was seen to be a missile, but a “very large missile” such as an ICBM or SLBM
The location of the launch was approximately 35 miles off the coast of Los Angeles, California
Even though the location of the launch was more than 12 miles off the coast, it was within “archipelagic waters”, and therefore within the territory of the United States of America
The U.S. Navy and all other branches of the U.S. military are denying their involvement in the launch of the missle
There have been no NOTAMs filed; a NOTAM is a “notification to airmen”, basically a prerequisite to a practice firing of a missile or the detonating of large explosives, to avoid accidentally hitting a commercial or civilian aircraft
No foreign government has taken responsibility for the launch
President Obama is currently in Asia
In the past, former presidents have “demonstrated military capabilities” with similar missile launches (which are then scuttled — detonated harmlessly in the air) when they have been abroad
There have been no impact reports — no one had reported knowing “where the missile went”

Questions:

Since “no one knows” where the missile went, was it scuttled?
Since President Obama is in Asia currently, and the missile was launched from within the Pacific Ocean, was this a showing of military capabilities to an Asian government? If so which one? And if so, why is the Navy denying involvement in the launch, and why wasn’t a NOTAM filed?
Was this missile fired by the United States?
Was the launch accidental?

Deduction and Speculation to come…

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