For Your Consideration

Sober Computer Virus Catches Child Porn Viewer

I seem entirely incapable of understanding programmers who design and release computer viruses.

I simply don’t get it.  I suppose there is a fair portion of ego driving some of it.  An odd sort of display of intellect and power.  I have suffered the crash of computers and loss of data, documents and photos important to me.  Usually I can be heard cursing the people who do this type of stuff with every fiber of my being.

Today I find myself in the unusual position of being thankful for one of the more recent worms to be released on the public.  I am talking of the “Sober” worm, which shows up in email saying the FBI has tracked you visiting illegal websites.

According to the Reuters news service, it seems a 20-year-old man in Paderborn Germany received one of these emails.  The man had a number of child porn pictures on his computer.  Figuring he was busted, he turned himself in to German Police.  A spokesperson for the German Police was quoted as saying; "Here it helped us to uncover a crime which would otherwise probably have gone undetected."

So despite my usual misgivings about those who release this kind of stuff onto an unsuspecting public…I say, Bravo!  Job well done, I hope more scumbags turn themselves in to police.

For that kind of result, I will gladly suffer the indignity of having to deal with a computer virus.

Transit Strike, Prison Escapes and Eavesdropping

Scatter Brained

While I would normally choose a single topic for this morning’s post, there are several issues, which are nagging at me this morning, which I need to run by you.

The Transit Strike

The New York transit strike is entering its second day and costing the city a fortune.  I understand the union is now being fined about a million dollars a day.  In a city where the monthly price of a safe parking spot can cost almost as much as a car payment, many people opt not to own cars.  So the strike can truly have a crippling effect.  Too bad the union has not taken into account that no one likes to be held hostage.  Any public sympathy the workers enjoyed will rapidly evaporate.  It is only a matter of time before New York will follow President Reagan’s example, and fire the transit workers and hire anyone who will drive the damned buses, as Reagan did with the Flight Controllers.  Since it is easier to replace a transit worker, than a Flight Controller, I don’t expect the strike to last very long.  The whole thing does not bode well for environmentalists either.  Those who support mass transit, to save resources and protect the environment, are also being dealt a nasty blow by striking transit workers.  Sounds like a no win situation.

Prison Escapes

What the hell is going on with all these prison escapes lately?  In the news today, a convicted serial rapist has escaped from a Miami prison.  The escapee has been accused of seven rapes of victims ranging in age from 11 to 79, and four attempted rapes.  Nationally we have had a rash of prison escapes.  Escapes and escape attempts will always occur, but it sure seems we could do a heck of a lot better at reducing the number.  Instead of slapping up new prisons as quickly as Starbucks Coffee stands, we should look at alternative sentencing for non-violent offenders and harden existing prisons against escape, housing only those who have shown themselves to be violent offenders.  The whole thing sure makes the idea of a “super prison” somewhere north of the artic circle look appealing.  Between the options of a heated cell with basic cable and a couple hundred miles of inhospitable ice and polar bears, I think escape numbers would fall to about zero. Those who did opt for escape would most likely be taken care of by Mother Nature.  Sounds fair enough to me.

Another thought on Government Eavesdropping

This morning on Fox News, some Republican representative was defending the practice of government eavesdropping.  I wish I had been awake enough to take down his name, but I was still blurry eyed and had just started my first cup of coffee.  Anyway he attempted to justify the practice by saying that telecommunications had changed greatly since the law went banning wiretaps without a warrant.  His contention was that not all forms of current communication are protected.  His point cuts both ways.  While he may have a valid point, it merely points out that we, as a nation, need to revisit the whole issue.  At a minimum, the whole mess is a good reason to debate issue and update our laws as we update our forms of communication.  It is about time anyway; I hope they chose to address the advertisers and other bastards who use “cookies” and other software to “eavesdrop” on our online communication and activity as well.  Eavesdropping to save lives I can tolerate, doing it to make a quick buck is another matter entirely.  I suppose I find that it is not so much the eavesdropping I oppose as much as who is doing it and what the hell the do with the information.

Government Eavesdropping and Privacy

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I am both disturbed and amused by the fact that President Bush has authorized eavesdropping on American citizens.

I admit I am disturbed that our government would eavesdrop on our own citizens without a warrant.  As former law enforcement, I can tell you that a warrant is not all that difficult to obtain.  The only reason I can see for not obtaining one is a fear of leaks and that the investigation would somehow be compromised.  I am also not a big fan of the so-called “Patriot Act”; I simply don’t think you can protect our liberties by suspending or repealing them.  But given the choice between the Feds checking my library record and another catastrophic attack like 9-11…I’ll gladly let them know I checked out a Stephen King novel and was late returning it.  Fine, I’ll admit it.

My amusement comes from two things…

Firstly, the fact that the very vocal and outraged politicians, who are soaking up the camera time and preening during interviews condemning the practice, are not admitting they were aware of it months ago.  Where was their outrage then?  If they didn’t feel it was important enough to speak out then, they should shut up now.

But our countrymen being duped by the whole illusion of privacy is what mostly amuses me.  We have no stinking privacy.  The phone in the average American home nowadays, is wireless.  Our conversations are transmitted over radio waves, accessible to anyone with a scanner capable of receiving the particular frequency being used.  Hell, I have listened in on some neighbor’s conversation over my baby’s room monitor.  I suppose they have been subjected to listening to my babies as well.

Cell phones are just as easily monitored.  Oh, purchasing the equipment that scans the cell phone frequencies is supposed to be somewhat controlled, but where there’s a will there’s a way.  Anyone with fairly good electronics skills and a soldering iron could put together a nice little cell phone eavesdropping device.  For crying out loud, a GPS enabled cell phone (a feature we are encouraged to pay for) can actually pinpoint your geographic position within a couple yards.

A number of rental and new cars, cannot only locate your position, but can also retain data about the manner in which you drive, including the speeds at which you traveled.  All of which could be used to negate insurance or warrantee coverage.

The government delivers your mail and public monies fund the libraries.  Advertisers install “cookies” on your computer so they can track your online “preferences”.  Your cable or satellite TV box tracks your viewing habits, and in case you didn’t know it…TypePad, the company I am using to host this blog, provides a “track back” service.  Track backs allow me to sometimes view the website that referred you here, in some cases even providing me the actual text you entered in a search engine that got you here.  Of course I don’t know or care who you are, I’m just happy you’re here and reading my ramblings.

Our privacy is actually nothing more than self-delusion.  So the real crime here is not that President Bush has authorized a few wiretaps, the real crime is that so many of us have bought into the illusion of privacy.  Not only that, but that while we are willing to trade our privacy for “faster internet surfing” or the ability to record HBO on the digital cable box, yet we are unwilling to tolerate another intrusion intended to save American lives.

Our priorities are all outta whack.  So if you’ll excuse me, I’ll go back to watching last season’s episodes of “Deadwood” I recorded on the cable box.

Hometown Treats and Junk Food

I dislike diets, intensely. I would rather much rather work off the calories than count them or carbs for that matter.  Besides I am a fan of comfort and junk foods.  I am well aware of the health risks and of the changing food pyramid  I also find it is amazing that entire courses of study and careers are based around designing diets for people.  Not to knock those folks or good nutrition, but this post isn’t about dieting.

In spite of popular culture and the critics who would like to see me boiled in the same “beef essenced” oil, I like my french fries cooked in, I am going to refer you to a website about food.

If, like me, you grew up in a different part of the country than where you currently live, you will find certain foods are simply unavailable in your area.

Having grown up in the northeast, I grew up with a taste for Drakes Cakes Funny Bones, State Line Potato Chips and a syrupy drink mix called Zarex.

Sadly, I can find no evidence that Zarex is made any longer, but some of the foods I loved are still available.  At my request, my mother has actually traveled thousands of miles by plane carrying boxes of Funny Bones and my wife traveled from Chicago, through horrible snowstorms and multiple delays, carrying me back a pizza (growing up near New York, I prefer the New York style pizza but Chicago style pizza is equally as delicious).  It’s just a regional thing.

That’s why www.hometown-treats.com is so great.  They have a fairly large and growing line of regional food products you can have shipped right to your door.  So if the product is still available and you would like a little taste of home or perhaps a treat from your childhood you should check them out.  You could certainly find a unique gift for someone who longs for foods not available in your area and the next time you find yourself in an argument over what part of the country makes a better food or treat, you can prove it.

The added benefit is that you friends or family members don’t have to explain boxes of Funny Bones in their luggage to airport security.

San Francisco Police, Racist, Sexist, Homophobic?

Racist.  Sexist.  Homophobic.  These are some powerful buzzwords.  They imply a lot.  They imply hatred, ignorance, and fear.  Combine these words and you identify just about anyone who isn’t an average white male.  These are the buzzwords being used to describe the attitudes of San Francisco Police Officers who produced and participated in the production of a number of satirical videos.

I have been cringing every time I see reports of the satirical videos produced by Officers in the San Francisco Police Department.  The reports certainly make the videos look bad.  The stink being made has resulted in a number of Officers being suspended.  So I expected the worst.  In my mind I had already condemned the Officers.

Then last night I decided to actually view the videos.  I viewed the 6 of them I could find on the Internet.  Supposedly there is a couple more.  But what I saw, did not seem to justify the vehement reaction they have generated.  The news reports I have seen, show a few short seconds of the worst of each video, they are also shown with no sound.  Not showing the entire video and not playing the soundtrack takes the scenes entirely out of context, and you get the reaction I had or worse.

Ready to condemn the Officers, I watched each video.  I laughed in spite of myself.  The humor was not truly directed at minorities, women or homosexuals.  The humor was directed at the Officers themselves.  They poked fun at their own attitudes and idiosyncrasies.  The police were the ones being “roasted”.  The content was tamer than what you would see on Comedy Central or Reno 911 and the short video about the self-loving, egocentric cop who thinks he is God’s gift to women was absolutely hilarious.  Mostly because I know a few people like that.

The whole thing is being overblown.  Even the website for the San Francisco Chronicle includes a poll where (at the time I checked) 68% of responding readers consider the whole thing to be a “politically correct overreaction”.

At the worst, some time and resources were not effectively used to conduct policing duties.  So reprimand the Officers for that and put them back on the streets where they can do some good.  Don’t hammer them for being human or for having a sense of humor.

The problem with humor is the same as with all forms of communication.  Getting the true message across is dependent on both the meaning the sender intends to be sent and the message the receiver perceives.  So if you are looking for a message to be hurtful, chances are you’ll get your message, despite the sender’s true intentions.

We have enough racist, sexist and homophobic messages out there without looking for everything to be some sort of hateful message.  In fact, the knee jerk reaction to assume the worst, is only working to perpetuate the very problem of negative stereotypes.

One critic interviewed on the news said, “They (the officers) just don’t get it”, and I think maybe it was her who didn’t get it.  Yes, there are some overtones that can be taken negatively in the videos, but if the police can identify these weaknesses and deal with them using humor, they are better adjusted than those among us who stand ready to be offended by the slightest thing.

Take it for what it is and for what the intent is, not what ever trumped up issue you seek to accuse them of.  Watch the damned videos before you seek to hang them out to dry, you might just change your mind and have a laugh while doing it.

A Short Reply to Pablo (Tookie Williams Part II)

In response to my "Open Letter" asking if Tookie Williams supporters had done anything for the victims of Tookie's crimes, Pablo left a good question for me.  In essense he merely asked if I had done anything for crime victims.

He got a fairly heated response for his comment from one reader.

But I feel his question is valid and insightful.

His comment was...

"No. Did you??

Or do you only move when you want the government to kill people instead of helping them get back to society and "rehab" as they are supposed to?"

His assumtion that I desire the government to kill people is off base and unfortunately I have seen no evidence to support "Rehab" of violent offenders.  His assertion that I do not want the likes of Tookie Williams reintegrated with society could not be more accurate, but the actual question portion of his comment is very valid.

The simple answer is "no".  No, other than raising my voice for Tookie's victims, rather than for Tookie, I did none of those things for those specific victims.

But Pablo, I have helped a number of victims, I have choosen a side.  I was a Law Enforcement Officer for both the US Army and civilian sides of the house.   I was also a prison guard and served in the US Coast Guard doing Search and Rescue in the icy cold waters off the coast of Maine.  I have been shot at (only once, thank God), beaten, kicked, bitten (badly), choked, and literally had a drug user try to drive a knife between my shoulder blades (only the quick actions of my partner Dave Lakhani prevented the killing blow).  I have held and comforted both the dying and surviving victims of crime.  I have had to perform CPR on a dying man, while trying to hold his head together after his skull had been shattered from a .45 caliber bullet.

While I am no longer in law enforcement, I find I am entirely incabable of walking away from someone being victimized.  So much so that I need to be in court next month to testify against a man who tried to run me over with his car, after I intervened as he threatened my child and several other teens.  He was drunk, angry and spoiling for a fight.  The children were in the wrong place at the right time to be handy targets of his rage.  A number of times I have reported crimes and pressed charges, despite threats to my family and myself, if only because it is the right thing to do.

My wife and I also donate thousands of dollars each year to victims rights and abuse shelters both locally and nationally.  In addition, we have donated our old cell phones for use at anti-abuse "safe houses", since even inactive telephones can still dial 911.

So I feel comfortable calling you to the carpet Pablo.  Your desire to see an end to killing and needless death is noble and commendable. Your choice of causes however, leaves a great deal to be desired.  Aligning yourself with Tookie Williams hurts you, your cause and your credibility.

It is not my intention to dissuade you from saving lives.  Just the opposite, but I think your efforts would be better spent in preventing and stopping the likes of Williams and saving the lives of the innocent.

If you are sincere, you will consider my advice.  If you merely want to feel righteous and indignant you will only see that I also "did nothing" for Tookie's victims specifically.  If that is the case, fine.  At least I provided no support for their killer.  Can you say the same?

An Open Letter to Stanley “Tookie” Williams Supporters

An Open Letter to Stanley “Tookie” Williams Supporters

As I write this, time is running out for Tookie Williams, he will soon be escorted to the Death Chamber where he will be killed by lethal injection.  A less than desirable end for anyone to be sure.

Your desire to save this man’s life is (in my opinion) admirable but misguided.  You obviously have taken to heart Mr. William’s efforts to speak out against gangs and gang violence.  As you prepare to pack your picket signs, placards and buttons into your car’s trunk and make your stand against what you must agree is a wasteful death, I have a couple questions for you…

Where were you after Tookie Williams and his accomplices cold bloodedly murdered their victims?  Did you protest their needless deaths?

Did you protest any of the needless deaths the Crips (of which Tookie Williams is a founding member) are responsible for?   The murders of other gang members, innocent men, women and children caught it the crossfire?  The overdoses?  The suicides?  If so, I didn’t hear your voices then.

Did you take a fraction of the time you are spending defending Tookie Williams, to drive down to the 7-11 or the hotel where Tookie Williams shot gunned his victims?  Did you leave flowers outside?  Did you protest with pictures of these victims of needless violence?  Did you seek out and see if you could assist their surviving family members?  If so, I didn’t see it.

Did you set up a fund to assist the families who lost their loved ones to Tookie Williams’ trigger finger?    Did you seek out celebrities to take up their cause?  Did you seek to make a movie about the victims and their lost contributions to our world?  I only ask, because I never saw any of it.

Tookie Williams could have taken the money from the 7-11 and Motel without committing murder.  But he made a conscious decision to kill.  He made that decision multiple times.  Tookie Williams sealed his fate in a blast of gunpowder and a spray of innocent blood.  He even reportedly mimicked the suffering of one victim to the amusement of himself and his accomplices.  The choice was his and his alone.

So I think you are hypocrites, your pleas fall on ears deafened by the blasts of Tookie’s shotgun.  As I said in a previous post, you are “good hearted, but wrong headed”.  The murderous and deadly ripples of Tookie Williams’ hateful life have spread across our nation and sadly will long outlive him.  Tookie Williams showed no mercy for his victims and your cries for mercy to be extended to Tookie should taste foul in your mouths.

Ask yourselves who was more deserving of mercy…The 7-11 clerk, who might have smiled and wished you a nice day as you paid for some gas and cigarettes…The couple who would have rented you a room rest your head for the night or Tookie Williams, who would have shot you if you had been behind the counter of either establishment?  Just because Tookie Williams has been able to speak out from prison and the victims have forever been silenced, does not mean that Tookie is somehow more deserving of mercy and the victims are less deserving of justice.

Put down your signs, get back in your car, leave the area surrounding the prison and go take your compassion and desire to help, down to the local Victim’s Advocacy Center.  They, at least, both deserve and need your help.

Stuff That Works

I have a hard time spending my money on crap.  Mostly because I always seem to misdirect my anger.  Instead of being upset that the manufacturer over-hyped a product, I generally kick myself for being duped into buying something that doesn’t work nearly as well as I had hoped.

Yet I still find myself willing to try just about anything “new and improved”.  It must be a fundamental flaw in most consumers; why else would advertisers go to such extremes to flaunt some new scent or flavor.  It must be some odd quest for discovery, instead of traveling to exotic corners of the globe; we seek out bargains and discoveries we share only with our close circle of friends and acquaintances.

In order to break this cycle, I have decided to share a few items that I have purchased that actually work as well as I had hoped.  Unfortunately, I am not sponsored by anyone and will receive no financial gain for sharing this information.  At least, my lack of sponsorship will only increase my credibility.

Here are a few items/products I have tried which I wouldn’t hesitate to purchase again and feel comfortable recommending to you…

Rain-X:  A chemical treatment for windshields that repels rainwater.  This stuff is amazing.  Easy to use and works great.  It works so well in fact, that you often get better results NOT using your car’s wipers.  Besides it is hypnotic to watch the rain bead up and slide up off the windshield at speed.  (Avoid their anti-fog product, it works but leaves a oily residue on the inside of your windshield, which attracts dust, is difficult to remove and very slightly blurs your view)

California Water Blade:  A silicone squeegee used to remove water after washing your car.  Quickly removes water, conforms well to most contours and is fairly gentle on the surface of your car’s paint.  It saves time and towels.  However, the car’s surface MUST be free of dirt and grit or it will potentially scratch paint.  But, so would a chamois or towel for that matter.

Mr. Clean Magic Eraser Sponge:  Works MUCH better than I expected.  Removes crayon, pencil, scuff marks and a wide variety of debris from your home’s painted surfaces.  No soaps, detergents or cleansers are used, so it does an excellent job at limiting damage to paint.  Not for use on all surfaces (darn it!).  Even though they seem expensive, not using detergents saves money and makes them very affordable.  However, they rapidly deteriorate with use and start to fall apart.

Picasa2:  A free digital photo software download available from Google.  Excellent way to manage photos, does a great job at removing “red eye”.  While it is limited in editing tools and photo manipulation, it is easy to use and navigate and exceeds most basic software included with many digital cameras.  As a free download it is hard to beat.

Swiffer Duster:  Lightweight duster with replaceable, disposable duster portion.  An excellent cleaning tool for both home and car.  Locks in dirt very well, is able to dust around and under most objects without lifting or removing them.  I don’t quite dance around the house with the darned thing but it works so much better than other options it IS a joy to use.

The Disk Doctor:  Polishing/Repair tool for scratched CDs and DVDs.  I have only used the manual version of this tool, which is a tedious pain in the butt, however a model with an electric motor is available.  My kids put our DVDs to the test.  They often get scratched to the point where they cannot be played.  The Disc Doctor helps greatly.  It is not a 100% fix, but with DVDs at $14.00 to $20.00 bucks a whack a Disc Doctor will quickly pay for itself.  Also works on music and computer CDs.  So if the data is critical it is worth a shot to try a Disc Doctor.

These are just a few items off the top of my head, I will occasionally list more.  In fact, I think I may make up lists of items, which I have tried, which are a rip-off at any price.  Unfortunately that would make for a much longer list.

Feel free to leave comments on products you have tried and were impressed with.  If you like this type of thing check out www.epinions.com and www.consumerreports.org

The Eminent Domain Crisis

Well, it seems the floodgates have opened.  Local governments, corporations and land developers, emboldened by the recent Supreme Court ruling on Eminent Domain are at it again.  This time in Riviera Beach Florida.

While in the US Coast Guard in the early 90s I was assigned and lived near Riviera Beach.  Even at that time it was an area in economic decline, with a large minority population and suffering from the blight of crack and drug addicts setting up shop in vacated buildings and homes and the crime drug addiction brings.  All I know is that I elected to move a little father north in Stuart, Florida.

But there remains a large number of good people who live in Riviera Beach, because it is one of the few coastal areas where housing remains somewhat affordable.  These residents have managed to weather hurricanes, economic declines, and the crazy days of both the Cuban Boat Lift and rafts full of desperate Haitians showing up on their shores.  They also managed to survive the heyday of the cocaine driven insanity of 80s and 90s.

This area is full of the everyday working class “Joes” who makes the high dollar resort living in the surrounding areas possible.  They are the folks who work in the stores, repair the cars and boats, build and maintain the beautiful homes and golf courses, which surround them.

Now the local government and developers want to forcibly purchase the homes and property of these folks (Approximately 800 acres of waterfront property) and develop luxury homes, yacht clubs and upscale shopping.  The Mayor, Michael Brown, was quoted as saying “We will eliminate poverty in Riviera Beach”.

What an ASS!  He is probably correct though, with the support of the courts, the seizures of property will come and then the area will be developed into beautiful and costly area to live.  So costly that the poor and middle class people struggling to make a life for themselves will be forced to move elsewhere.  Too bad the “poverty” Mayor Brown is talking about eliminating is actually living, breathing people and families, who actually voted this idiot into office.

Apparently it gets worse.  USA Today reports that California City, CA. has had a vacant area in the Mojave Desert declared “Urbanized and Blighted” so it area could be “acquired” (read as…Stolen under the color of law) and developed into a test facility for Hyundai motors.  The whole thing has me seething.

Since you are sitting at your computer reading this, I suggest you take 5 minutes of your time and email your state representatives.  Let them know in no uncertain terms you are against the misuse of Eminent Domain and that you will not tolerate it or any politician who supports it.  Demand they amend the law immediately to prevent this type of abuse.  If you don’t you may find your home is next.  I am certain a better and more valuable (taxable) use could be found for your property, rather that housing and sheltering your family.

The Death Penalty

Much is being made of the 1000^th execution in our country since the Supreme Court reinstated the Death Penalty nearly 30 years ago.  It is a false milestone.  A convenient number, used to bring attention to the issue by those that oppose the Death Penalty.

Most who oppose the Death Penalty have had the luxury of making and forming their opinions from a comfortable distance.  My opinions were formed a bit closer to the bone.  I worked as a prison guard on Idaho’s Death Row.  In fact, I volunteered and was accepted as a member of the “Warden’s Team”, a euphemism for guards who would be called on to escort the condemned prisoner to the death chamber and secure the inmate to the table.

Fortunately Idaho executed no prisoners while I worked for the Department of Corrections.  As odd as it seems, I never even entered the trailer designated as the death chamber.  We never even trained in our duties, we would have if we had ever gotten within a few days of an execution, but we pretty much avoided the whole issue.  We were so successful in avoiding it; I didn’t even know the all the identities of my other team members.  For security reasons, our names were not released.

I worked and interacted daily with the 30+ men condemned to die.  I came to know them.  I gained some odd measure of respect for some, and learned to despise others.  Why?  Because I was exposed to them as human beings, the good, bad and ugly.  Yet I still support the Death Penalty.

If for no other reason, it satisfies some gut level instinct in me that the offender got what he or she deserves.

Kenneth Boyd, the 1000^th person executed since the reinstatement of the death penalty, during an interview in the week before his execution, is quoted as saying "I'd hate to be remembered as that. I don't like the idea of being picked as a number."

It seems he disliked this more than being remembered as a man who murder his father-in-law and wife in the presence of his children.  One of his boys was actually pinned under the body of his wife while he shot her to death.  The boy was able to wiggle free and hide underneath a bed.  His other son grabbed the gun while Boyd attempted to reload the weapon.

With Boyd gone, attention is now turned towards “Tookie” Williams, co-founder of the Crips.  A man convicted of the murders of 4 people during the robberies of a 7-11 store and a motel.  He used a shotgun and shot some of the victims multiple times.  He reportedly joked about one victim’s suffering by mimicking the gurgling sounds the dying 7-11 clerk made attempting to breath after being shot twice through the back at close range.  The clerk supposedly offered no resistance and was lying on the floor when he was shot through the back.

Screw Tookie Williams and the people (including a number of celebrities) who support him claiming he has changed and now speaks out against gang violence.

Perhaps these good hearted but wrong headed people ought to learn a lessen from author Norman Mailer, who helped gain the release of Jack Henry Abott, who stabbed another inmate to death while serving a sentence for writing bad checks, after Mailer compiled and published letters from Abott in prison under the title “In the Belly of the Beast”.  The book did well and Abott became a media darling, yet within six weeks of his release to a halfway house, Abott murdered another man.  At least Abott saved the state trouble and hung himself with his sheets and a shoelace in his cell.