Money as a motivator

Do you remember this song?

 

 



 
It's relevant because of a recent report from the Government Accountability Office about U. S. Defense Department employees.  Apparently there are nearly 100,000 of them who have very high level security clearances (above Top Secret), who owe over $700 million in delinquent income tax to the federal government.

This is very scary because of MICE.  That's an acronym that I may have mentioned before in this space.  It stands for Money, Ideology, Coercion, Ego.  The four primary reasons why people make the choice to violate the rules and give classified information to another nation.

The Coercion factor can also be interpreted as Compromised.  There is no easier way to compromise a potential intelligence source than to discover that you can exploit their need for funds.  This is articulated quite clearly in Inside The Aquarium:  The Making of a Top Soviet Spy by "Viktor Suvorov" (a pseudonym). 

Now there is a difference between having clearance and having access.  Just because someone has one of these very high clearance levels doesn't mean that they have access to highly classified information.  So if someone wants to propose that people with high clearances and big money problems merely have their access revoked, and allow them to retain the clearance while they work to resolve their finances; that would be fair. 

Something has to be done.

* * *

I had to go to a meeting early this morning and on my way home needed to run in to 7-11.  As I did, I saw another 7-11 customer emerging from the store and being confronted by a young woman.  She was in her early to mid 20s, very nicely dressed, clean and perfumed.  So when she asked the customer "do you have any spare change" I was taken aback.

I don't see a lot of panhandling these days, aside from people holding signs at freeway on-ramps and off-ramps.  What little I do isn't done by well-dressed, "clean" people.  It led me to wonder why in the world this young woman was asking for handouts.  If she's homeless, she is managing to somehow get clean and obtain nice clothing. 

Then as I was in the store and expecting to be confronted by her question when I exited, I thought about how I might reply.  "I have change, but none to spare" sounds harsh.  So I toyed with the idea of discussing the meaning of the word "spare" as it relates to her request.  I own a spare tire that I carry in my trunk, but it isn't there to be given to someone else.  It's there for a future time of need.  Which is how I treat the change I have in my pockets.  Each day it goes into a container, which is eventually redeemed every six months or so.  My harsh statement is actually the truth.  I have change, but none I am willing to spare.  I have paper currency as well, which I'm also not willing to spare.  Especially to someone who appears able to work to earn a living.

I got lucky.  She was gone when I walked out of the 7-11.

* * *

A 24 year old Chinese grad student at USC was murdered.  Now four teens have been arrested and charged with capital murder.  Five families destroyed. 

The quartet ranges in age from 16 to 19.  Why in the world did they need to rob and kill anyone?  Oh wait.  They didn't need to.  They chose to.  They wanted to.  I'm working on a novel when I get time, and the draft of the first paragraph is relevant here:

"With the exception of self-preservation, the hardest part of killing another human being is making the choice to kill.  Once you've made this choice, the rest is just planning and logistics.  The strange thing is that it actually doesn't get easier to make that choice a second or third time.  Only when killing becomes a profession or vocation does it get easier to make that decision."

I doubt any of the four teens involved in this incident have killed before, although I could be wrong.  What I do know is that for all four of them, their lives are essentially over if they are convicted of capital murder.  Two face being placed on Death Row, while the two younger ones may spend the rest of their lives in prison without possibility of parole.  Cops and lawyers call it LWOP, Life With Out Parole.

Was it just easier and more expedient to kill others in order to get some money?  Was it just for the thrill of taking a life?  To see the spark that is humanity fade from the eyes of another?  I doubt we'll ever know the truth.  What we do know is that five families are in ruin and there was no reason for any of them to be in such a state.

* * *

Random Ponderings:

It may only cost $1 million to add anti-missile defense systems to new passenger jets, but most U. S. carriers are going to fly their current fleets of planes until they are no longer flyable.  Worse yet, jumbo jets are particularly unsuited to the type of moves known as ACM (Air Combat Maneuvering).  Being able to dispense chaff and flares is not much help if you can't make the right moves in conjunction with the launch of these things.

I crack up whenever I hear Geoff Witcher of KNX radio doing a sportscast, if he plays the theme to the TV show "Cops."  It means it is time for the "Athlete Arrest of the Day."

Just how many farewell tours is Cher going to embark on?

What is it with the insane demands of celebrities who tour?  I can think of three or four who insist that a brand new toilet seat be installed in their suite.  You can't sit where others have sat before?

This one probably cost someone in marketing their job:

(An exploding building with a 9/11 release date?  Whoops!)

Kevin Smith may not be Jennifer Garner's favorite person, but he needs to get over it.

Jay Leno as mentor on "Last Comic Standing"...I can see that.

Shania Twain's pending departure from her Vegas residency at Caesar's Palace makes me wonder, what is Mutt Lange up to these days?

Jesse Ventura's win in his defamation suit against "American Sniper" author, the late Chris Kyle, reminds me that Ventura was never a true SEAL.  Yes, he did complete BUD/S and he was assigned to an Underwater Demolition Team (UDT).  But he never completed SEAL Qualification Training, and was never awarded the gold Navy Special Warfare insignia commonly known as "The Budweiser."

I hope Donald Sterling lives forever, but whenever it becomes "his time" I'd love to see a tally of just how many millions he will spend between now and then suing everyone under the sun.

Doesn't matter how many stars a hotel has, charging $127 for three small bottles of sparkling water is way out of bounds.

Stephen A. Smith got off too easy.  Worst case of foot in mouth disease in some time.

* * *

July 30th in History:

634 – Battle of Ajnadayn: Byzantine forces under Theodore are defeated by the Rashidun Caliphate near Beit Shemesh (modern Israel).
762 – Baghdad is founded by caliph Al-Mansur.
1419 – First Defenestration of Prague: a crowd of radical Hussites kill seven members of the Prague city council.
1502 – Christopher Columbus lands at Guanaja in the Bay Islands off the coast of Honduras during his fourth voyage.
1608 – At Ticonderoga (now Crown Point, New York), Samuel de Champlain shoots and kills two Iroquois chiefs. This was to set the tone for French-Iroquois relations for the next one hundred years.
1619 – In Jamestown, Virginia, the first representative assembly in the Americas, the House of Burgesses, convenes for the first time.
1629 – An earthquake in Naples, Italy, kills about 10,000 people.
1635 – Eighty Years' War: The Siege of Schenkenschans begins; Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange, begins the recapture of the strategically important fortress from the Spanish Army.
1656 – Swedish forces under the command of King Charles X Gustav defeat the forces of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth at the Battle of Warsaw.
1676 – Nathaniel Bacon issues the "Declaration of the People of Virginia", beginning Bacon's Rebellion against the rule of Governor William Berkeley.
1729 – Foundation of Baltimore, Maryland.
1733 – The first Masonic Grand Lodge in the future United States is constituted in Massachusetts.
1756 – In Saint Petersburg, Bartolomeo Rastrelli presents the newly built Catherine Palace to Empress Elizabeth and her courtiers.
1811 – Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, leader of the Mexican insurgency, is executed by the Spanish in Chihuahua, Chihuahua, Mexico.
1825 – Malden Island is discovered by captain George Byron, 7th Baron Byron.
1859 – First ascent of Grand Combin, one of the highest summits in the Alps.
1863 – American Indian Wars: Representatives of the United States and tribal leaders including Chief Pocatello (of the Shoshone) sign the Treaty of Box Elder.
1864 – American Civil War: Battle of the Crater – Union forces attempt to break Confederate lines at Petersburg, Virginia by exploding a large bomb under their trenches.
1865 – The steamboat Brother Jonathan sinks off the coast of Crescent City, California, killing 225 passengers, the deadliest shipwreck on the Pacific Coast of the U.S. at the time.
1866 – New Orleans, Louisiana's Democratic government orders police to raid an integrated Republican Party meeting, killing 40 people and injuring 150.
1871 – The Staten Island Ferry Westfield's boiler explodes, killing over 85 people.
1912 – Japan's Emperor Meiji dies and is succeeded by his son Yoshihito, who is now known as the Emperor Taishō.
1916 – Black Tom Island explosion in Jersey City, New Jersey.
1930 – In Montevideo, Uruguay wins the first FIFA World Cup.
1932 – Premiere of Walt Disney's Flowers and Trees, the first cartoon short to use Technicolor and the first Academy Award winning cartoon short.
1945 – World War II: Japanese submarine I-58 sinks the USS Indianapolis, killing 883 seamen.
1956 – A joint resolution of the U.S. Congress is signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, authorizing In God we trust as the U.S. national motto.
1962 – The Trans-Canada Highway, the largest national highway in the world, is officially opened.
1965 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Social Security Act of 1965 into law, establishing Medicare and Medicaid.
1969 – Vietnam War: US President Richard Nixon makes an unscheduled visit to South Vietnam and meets with President Nguyen Van Thieu and U.S. military commanders.
1971 – Apollo program: Apollo 15 Mission – David Scott and James Irwin on the Apollo Lunar Module module Falcon land on the Moon with the first Lunar Rover.
1971 – An All Nippon Airways Boeing 727 and a Japanese Air Force F-86 collide over Morioka, Iwate, Japan killing 162.
1974 – Watergate scandal: U.S. President Richard Nixon releases subpoenaed White House recordings after being ordered to do so by the Supreme Court of the United States.
1974 – Six Royal Canadian Army Cadets are killed and fifty-four are injured in an accidental grenade blast at CFB Valcartier Cadet Camp.
1975 – Jimmy Hoffa disappears from the parking lot of the Machus Red Fox restaurant in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, at about 2:30 p.m. He is never seen or heard from again, and will be declared legally dead on this date in 1982.
1978 – The 730 (transport), Okinawa Prefecture changes its traffic on the right-hand side of the road to the left-hand side.
1980 – Vanuatu gains independence.
1980 – Israel's Knesset passes the Jerusalem Law
1990 – George Steinbrenner is forced by Commissioner Fay Vincent to resign as principal partner of New York Yankees for hiring Howie Spira to "get dirt" on Dave Winfield.
2003 – In Mexico, the last 'old style' Volkswagen Beetle rolls off the assembly line.
2006 – The world's longest running music show Top of the Pops is broadcast for the last time on BBC Two. The show had aired for 42 years.

Famous Folk Born on July 30th:

Samuel Rogers
Emily Bronte
Henry Ford
Casey Stengel
Russell Van Horn
Henry W. Bloch
Joe Nuxhall
Bud Selig
Eleanor Smeal
Peter Bogdanovich
Patricia Schroeder (she was a good interview)
Paul Anka
David Sanborn
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Frank Stallone
Ken Olin
Rat Scabies
Delta Burke
Anita Hill
Kate Bush
Richard Linklater
Laurence Fishburne
Lisa Kudrow
Vivica A. Fox
Christopher Nolan
Tom Green
Hilary Swank
Misty May-Treanor
Jaime Pressley
Yvonne Strahovski