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I can never have a birthday without thinking of my grandfather.  On April 19, 1971 I was a birthday present to then 65 year old Honorable Judge Harold B. Singleton of Amherst VA, representative to the Virginia House of Commons.  I was first grandchild to a Charter Member of the National Honor Society when he graduated from EC Glass High School in 1925.  He attended Lynchburg College and during that time found a matchbook in a restaurant that contained an advertisement for law books on the cover.  He ordered them and became the youngest person to ever pass the Virginia state bar exam on his first attempt.  In 1938 he opened a law firm with Lucien Shrader and in 1941 he was elected to the Virginia House of Commons for 14 years.  He authored and sponsored the legislation that made it legal to buy soft drinks in Virginia and the 1950 revisions to the state code regarding the retirement plan for Virginia state employees.

In 1964 he was appointed Judge of the Amherst District Court.  Later he became the Chief Judge of the 24th District Juvenile and Domestic relations court.  In 1957 and 1958 he was elected National President of the Lynchburg College Alumni Association and National President of the Ruritan National Civics organization in 1963.  A lifetime of great achievements and I did not learn the full extent of them until after his passing in 1994, my last year of college.  Although he took me to coat and tie lunches to shake hands with US Congressmen, growing up he was just Pop.  Although I saw him in the courtroom on a couple of occasions, something I believe none of his other grandchildren ever did, I spent most of my time with him in his extensive garden at Green Lawn, accompanied by our favorite dog Blanc.   I will return to the house on the road I knew as Rural Route 40 very soon, although it is now called Father Judge Road in his honor, to visit my 94 year old grandmother who still resides in the only home I’ve ever known my grandparents to live in.

Have you ever tried to change your password on Facebook?  Google?  Yahoo?  Did you have to do an internet search to figure out how first?  Don’t lie.  I did and I’ve been behind a keyboard for a living for 20 years now.  This unto itself creates a security issue because all of these sites (and more) recommend that users change their passwords frequently but they do not make it obvious where and how to do so.

Every site should have a prominent “Change Password” link at the top of the user account setting page.  Not buried under “security settings” or a link to be sent by email for a password reset.  Furthermore they should go to great lengths to insure their mobile apps have clearly presented options to change the account passwords and they should automatically log the account out from any other device immediately when the password is change.

Why the major sites have not made password changes and management a top priority is a bit of a mystery.  I feel it may have to do with the fear of additional cost of support that may be required for users who change their passwords and then forget the new one or have trouble syncing passwords over multiple devices.  Either way the scenario is the fault of the site designers who do not make changing and managing passwords more obvious and intuitive.

I have no respect in my essence for those who would promote hard line rules and authoritarian control over compassionate, peaceful governance. I will fight against anyone trying to impose such staunch ideology for those who have historically invoked hard line positions on any culture incorrectly assume their agenda provides them superior force. The reality is that a wave returning from oppression is always more powerful the most rigorous attempts at control. For a society to be stable and to protect human rights any society must be able to flex the option of questioning authority. Absolute control is a fallacy that only exists in the minds of those trying to impose it. True freedom only exists when people a free from controls implemented in the name of religion, politics, and any military agenda.

It is absolutely staggering that one state alone may “generate more revenue than Microsoft” from marijuana cultivation while other states continue to run up the bill on tax payers by arresting, court processing and incarcerating citizens on low level possession charges. All over a drug less harmful than alcohol or tobacco, making NC particularly hypocritical because of the states devotion to tobacco farmers. This ain’t about “gateway drugs” or other tired, stale semantics. This is pure economics now. Any loss of revenue and added expense can now be specifically blamed on those too foolish to understand the basic concept of commodity supply and demand. Not to mention the parallel industrial hemp revenue.

Did you know that during the early colonial days of NC it was mandated by the Queen of England that 20% of all crops be comprised of hemp for the navy? To this day nothing can make stronger natural rope and fibers. Most synthetics struggle to surpass hemp, including Kevlar and carbon fibers. Hemp production was ended with the laws introduced by the politically motivated, paranoid propaganda campaigns of the 50’s through the 70’s.

In light of the recent events in our dysfunctional Congress, this morning I presented a question to myself on the way to work: If I had to pick three pieces of legislation to be passed immediately that I thought would benefit all Americans what would they be?  Here’s what I came up with.  It turns out all of them would require constitutional amendments.

1. A constitutional amendment dissolving Congressional approval for an increase in the nation’s debt ceiling subject to the repayment of those debt’s Congress has already incurred.
2. A resolution to dissolve the Citizen’s United ruling and require full disclosure of the source and expenditures of all campaign dollars spent by any candidate running for public office.
3. Repeal and replacement of the 26th amendment.  End the Electoral College and move to a national, popular vote for the President.