aubreyturner.org

This article from the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal (found via ifeminists) got me to thinking about a situation involving a friend of which I was made aware a couple months ago.

To protect the identity of all parties, I will simply call her “M”.  I came to know M through her sister.  Her sister and I had met while we were both in college and we have kept in touch.  She lives a short distance away and I regularly visit.  My friend’s family moved in across the street from her about 5 years ago, so I also ended up meeting all of them.  M’s sister and I are both the same age (32) and she is 10 years behind us (M is now 22), and so I’ve watched her go through graduating high school, going to college, and trying to find a job afterwards (it’s been hard for her, since she graduated just when the bottom fell out of the job market).

In July I was informed by M’s sister that she has been abused by her current boyfriend for the past four years and that the abuse is getting worse.  We had suspected that this was the case, but this was the first confirmation of it.  M was living with him at the time (she still is, but more on that later), so her sister offered to let her move back into her house.  M took her up on the offer and her family helped her move her things out of the apartment.  Unfortunately, she went back to her boyfriend the next day and has been slowly moving back (a little at a time).

I have noticed over the past couple of years that M always seems down or depressed and she also seems to suffer from an image problem (i.e. doesn’t like to have pictures taken, puts herself down frequently, etc).  I suspect that she is staying with her current boyfriend only because she fears that she won’t find anyone else (I think she also fears being alone).  This fear is unfounded, as she is an attractive young woman, but I can understand that she may not see that.

On the rare occasions that he deigns to make an appearance at a family event, he has uniformly treated her with contempt and disrespect.  I was angered by this, but held my tongue, since it wasn’t my business and since it didn’t rise to the level of abuse (but then again, abusers often manipulate their victims through emotional distancing techniques).  Other things that I’ve learned only serve to confirm my negative opinion, such as his obsession with video games (to the exclusion of her at many times).  I found it instructive that his “gifts” to her are often items that he wants.  It also appears that he is not pulling his own weight financially, asking her to buy things for him (like a computer to play his games).

On my last visit, I noticed that she had scars on her hands.  I had been told that this was the case, but this was the first time I saw them.  She told her family that she did it to herself when she was angry.  She also tried to take the blame on herself for the fights with her boyfriend (saying that she attacked him) and for her broken cell phone (she claimed that she got angry and threw it against the wall).

Frankly, all of this is really scaring me.  These all sound like classic abuse symptoms, given that the abuser often blames the victim, who internalizes this blame and starts to believe it (not to mention the cases where the victim actually provokes the outburst in the hopes of getting it out of the way and entering the “make-up/apology” stage).  But the main thing that worries me is that abusers only get worse over time.  I fear that one day he will go too far.

I’ve been doing some research into this topic, and I found that there’s not very much that friends and family can do as long as the victim wants to stay with the abuser.  We can make enquiries, try to provide a supportive atmosphere, and try to persuade her to leave, but the decision ultimately rests with her (although, at this point, I have not discussed this with her—I’ve been a bystander during this whole process, which has been frustrating, but then I’m not part of her family and they’re doing everything they can).  What’s more, the decision to leave must be approached carefully, to avoid an explosive outburst.  The experts advise that we must resist the urge to “rescue” her, which would make the situation worse (if she feels pressured to leave, she may do so, but will then return, and the abuse could get worse).

In the meantime, I guess we’ll all just keep hoping that she remembers that there are people who care about her and who will support her if she leaves him.  I also hope that she won’t be seriously injured (or worse) before she leaves.

Here’s an interesting article on a security vulnerability (privilege escalation exploit) in Microsoft Windows (all versions that use the Win32 API).

The ability to send messages between windows in different processes is something I was familiar with, but I hadn’t given much thought to the security exploit implications of it (although I was well aware of memory protection issues, etc, given I’d played around some code like this when I was learning the Win32 API).  I had been viewing it as a feature that allowed a program to communicate with other windows.  In fact, some fairly handy tools probably use this feature (like WinRunner).

I found this section interesting, though:

This research was sparked by comments made by Microsoft VP Jim Allchin who stated, under oath, that there were flaws in Windows so great that they would threaten national security if the Windows source code were to be disclosed. He mentioned Message Queueing, and immediately regretted it. However, given the quantity of research currently taking place around the world after Mr Allchin’s comments, it is about time the white hat community saw what is actually possible.

At the time Allchin made those comments, I thought that they were a desperate ploy to avoid opening up the Windows source code.  I also thought that it was pretty arrogant to assume that Windows is that important.  But then I thought about the fact that NT (3.5 and 4.0) is C2 certified, so I just let it pass.

The exploit requires the ability for a user to run arbitrary code.  But that’s not as difficult as one might think, and it’s a privilege escalation exploit, so it could allow a guest user to gain system access.

Some more discussion on the topic from slashdot: Shattering Windows

Aimee Deep has an interesting article about defense against copyright-holders trying to hack into computers and destroy files if they suspect that you are hosting content that is in violation of their copyrights.

At the end of the article, she asks:

Now tell me, scholars of the Bill of Rights, because I’m still in High School, what is a standing militia for?

To which I immediately wondered did she mean a standing army or a militia?  I can understand, given the sad state of teaching in this area of late (especially with the advent of politically-correct revisionist history), how this might be an area in which her education has failed her.

Our founders envisioned a country where the “regular” or standing army would be very small.  They (rightly in my opinion) feared what would happen with a large standing army, having just finished a very nasty experience with the (large, standing) British army.  Further, our founders didn’t believe in interventionism or entangling alliances with foreign powers (”’T is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world.”—George Washington).  Given that, who needs an army?

Their idea was that the body of the people* would comprise the militia, which could be called up in time of war to defend the country.

Perhaps in this case, all able-minded “hackers” could be thought of as the militia of the cyber-United States, arising to defend the country and themselves from the depredations of mauraders.

Of course, a requirement for a militia is that each member of the militia posess such arms as are generally accepted into use by soldiers at the time, such arms to be supplied by the soldier himself.

In the case of cyber-attack this would require certain tools that might run afoul of the DMCA as well as proposed anti-hacking legislation that is currently being considered.  Interesting how the politicians and big companies don’t want us to have the tools to protect ourselves, but will reserve them for their own use.  As an ardent defender of RKBA, I find the parallel particularly instructive.

Also, given the parallel to self-defense, there is the issue of pre-emptive damage to the other.  If someone is causing damage to your system, I think you would have a right to take whatever steps are necessary to stop that damage, up to and including causing damage to that other’s system.  Provided, of course, that you were actually under attack at the time.  In the case of self-defense, if I fire a gun at another person, I will have to show justfication after the fact (i.e. review by the police, the district attorney, the grand jury, and possibly a trial-if it comes to that). 

Anyway, to paraphrase from my RKBA roots: They can have my firewall when they pry it from my cold, dead fingers.

* The United States Code declares the militia to be able-bodied males betweeen 17 and 45 (see this for a definition of militia, or this for a quote from the actual section of the United States code).

Rachel Lucas has a great rant up about Target and the number ‘88’ (I could almost see the vein throbbing on her forehead as I read it).  Like everything ‘PC’, this is utter nonsense.  So what if a bunch of nutbags are using that number as their private little catchphrase.  If we had to stop using any word, number, or phrase that some objectionable types are using, we’d be left with nothing to say.

As a member of the class of 88 I find this all highly annoying.

Someone once said that you couldn’t go broke underestimating the taste of the American public.

He was right.

I’ve been wanting to put together a set of pages for the guns that I own for quite a while now.  I finally did it and the page can be seen here.

I just started reading The Ballad of Carl Drega, by Vin Suprynowicz.  It’s been sitting on my shelf for a few months, along with all the other books in my backlog.  I haven’t gotten very far yet because I keep getting boiling mad and have to put it down and go do something else for a while.  It’s strong medicine, best taken in small doses.  More later.

Instapundit nails it again with his Fox News column on airport “security” (see the responses and more commentary here).  I know that I will not fly again until this nonsense goes away.  My recent trip to California was by road (3800 miles round-trip).  I will be going to Boulder, CO next month on business and I plan to go to Las Vegas after Christmas.  Both of those will be on the road as well.  Until there is real protection in the air, it will stay that way (and both my employer and I will save on airfare as well).

What’s been going on lately with all the child abductions and murders?  Has the problem gotten worse lately or are we just hearing more about it? 

As I was typing this I thought I’d go get some links to the stories that have been coming out lately.  I stumbled across this item from KGTV in San Diego via Yahoo! news.  Their take on this is that there aren’t more child abductions occurring now than in the past, but that the news media is really paying a lot of attention to this topic right now.  That’s probably correct, but the media can really drive people’s perceptions of events.

I think what really brought this to mind was the abduction of a baby from a Wal-Mart parking lot in Abilene, TX last week.  The woman who abducted the child was caught in Quanah, TX, which is on the way to Amarillo on Highway 287.  On the return trip from my vacation in California, I was stopped by a DPS trooper on 287 because there was an alert out for a blue Chevy Avalanche.  The trooper looked at me and my mother and immediately knew that we weren’t the people he was seeking.  Of course I had to go through the CHL drill with him when he wanted to see my driver’s license.  He was actually quite polite about it and thanked us for being patient when we left.  My mother told me that there had been an attempted abduction in Amarillo the evening before, and that the suspect in that case was driving a blue Avalanche.  Once I knew that, I was willing to put up with the inconvenience of the stop, because the officer was looking for someone who had tried to do something truly evil.

It also makes me wonder what would have happened had there been a CHL holder in that Wal-Mart parking lot.  Perhaps the kidnapping could have been stopped right then and there.  Of course, as they teach you in the CHL course, you unholster a lot of responsibility when that gun comes out.  The question here would be does the crime rise to the level of “aggravated kidnapping”, which is important, since according to Texas Penal Code Section 9.32 (a)(3)(B), one may only use deadly force to prevent the other’s imminent commission of aggravated kidnapping, murder, sexual assault, aggravated sexual assault, robbery, or aggravated robbery.  The woman was charged with kidnapping, rather than aggravated kidnapping, but I think in this case a person who intevenes would be given the benefit of the doubt (provided no innocent bystanders are injured) (but then again, I’m not a lawyer, so that opinion is worth every penny you paid for it ).  I know that I’d have to take the chance if it were one of my nieces (provided I could do so without harming them).  Still, one has to be prepared to go to jail while the case is resolved.

That strange smell and weird noise are the results of bringing my rusty old copy of Greymatter back into action after a long period of inactivity.  Between taking a vacation (went to California), work, and general malaise, I just didn’t get around to updating this site.  Besides, it seemed like all the other people said most of what I wanted to say.  I could burn up many hours a day just reading their blogs (check out some of the ones to the right if you don’t believe me ).

I will probably make a few posts in the next few days to catch up and to unload.  My trip to California brought up some interesting issues that could use some exploration and perhaps I’ll post some pictures from the Grand Canyon, where I stopped on the way back.