THEY CAN'T STOP US FROM SINGING

Each U down in U-ville liked U.S. a lot,
But the Binch, living Far East of U-ville, did not.
The Binch hated U.S.--the whole U.S. way!
Now don't ask me why, for nobody can say.
It could be his turban was screwed on too tight.
Or the sun from the desert had beaten too bright.
But I think that the most likely reason of all
May have been that his heart was two sizes too small.

Whatever the reason, his heart or his turban,
He stood facing U-ville, the part that was urban.
"They're doing their business," he snarled from his perch.
"They're raising their families! They're going to church!
They're leading the world, and their empire's thriving,
I must keep the S's and U's from surviving!"

Each week day, he knew, all the U's and the S's,
Would put on their pants and their shirts and their dresses.
They'd go to their offices, playgrounds and schools,
And abide by their U and S values and rules.
And then they'd do something he liked least of all,
Each U down in U-ville, the tall and the small,
Would stand all united, each U and each S.
And they'd sing U-ville's anthem, "God bless us! God bless!"
Around their Twin Towers of U-ville, they'd stand,
And their voices would drown every sound in the land.

"I must stop that singing," Binch said with a smirk,
And he had an idea--an idea that might work!
The Binch stole some U airplanes in U morning hours,
And crashed them right into the U-ville Twin Towers.
"They'll wake to disaster!" he snickered, so sour,
"And how can they sing when they can't find a tower?"

The Binch cocked his ear as U's woke from their sleeping,
All set to enjoy their U-wailing and weeping,
Instead he heard something that started quite low,
And built up quite slow, as it started to grow.
And the Binch heard the most unpredictable thing--
And he couldn't believe it--they started to sing!

He stared down at U-ville, not trusting his eyes,
What he saw was a shocking, disgusting surprise!
Every U down in U-ville, the tall and the small,
Was singing--Without any towers at all!
He hadn't stopped U-Ville from singing! It sung!
For deep in the hearts of the old and the young,
Twin Towers were standing, called Hope and called Pride,
And you can't smash the towers we hold deep inside.

So we circle the sites where our heroes did fall,
With a hand in each hand of the tall and the small,
And we mourn for our losses while knowing we'll cope,
For we still have inside us U-Pride and U-Hope.
For America means a bit more than tall towers,
It means more than wealth or political powers,
It's more than our enemies ever could guess.
So God bless America! Bless us! God bless!

This was sent to me from a friend...I would like to add blessings to all not just America.

How creative! I think this will strike a chord with anyone who raised, or was, a child in the last few decades.

I have passed it along to a number of others.

Thank you for sharing.

Chas.

Meryl: U bet yer S.!!!!! Thanks for posting it. Kerri

Did Bonaire Talk go down yesterday from around 4:00 pm to after 11:00? No discussions and more importently no sunsets.

Access to BonaireTalk and countless other servers around the world was very slow yesterday afternoon as a result of the Nimda computer worm, which was hammering servers, trying to get access (our servers are Linux boxes, so no real threat, but denial of service is a secondary result of the worm). At one point, all HTTP (Web) access was sucked up by the worm. We've put some additional functions in our firewall to just ignore HTTP requests originating as a result of Nimda, and that's made things more accessible (at one point we had over 100 different infected computers trying to send our servers the virus).

Sigh.

Jake

Another poem I just got from a friend here on Bonaire:

-------------
I AM THE FLAG OF THE
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

I am the flag of the United States of America.
My name is Old Glory.
I fly atop the world's tallest buildings.
I stand watch in America's halls of justice.
I fly majestically over institutions of learning.
I stand guard with power in the world.
Look up and see me.

I stand for peace, honor, truth and justice.
I stand for freedom.
I am confident.
I am arrogant.
I am proud.

When I am flown with my fellow banners,
my head is a little higher,
my colors a little truer.

I bow to no one!
I am recognized all over the world.
I am worshipped - I am saluted.
I am loved - I am revered.
I am respected -- and I am feared.

I have fought in every battle of every war
for more then 200 years.
I was flown at Valley Forge, Gettysburg,
Shiloh and Appomattox.
I was there at San Juan Hill,
the trenches of France,
in the Argonne Forest, Anzio, Rome
and the beaches of Normandy, Guam, Okinawa.
The people of Korea, Vietnam and Kuwait
know me as a banner of freedom.
I was there.
I led my troops,
I was dirty, battleworn and tired,
but my soldiers cheered me
And I was proud.
I have been burned, torn and trampled
on the streets of countries I have helped set free.
It does not hurt, for I am invincible.

I have slipped the bonds of Earth
and stood watch over the uncharted frontiers of space
from my vantage point on the moon.
I have borne silent witness
to all of America's finest hours.
But my finest hours are yet to come.

When I am torn into strips and used as bandages
for my wounded comrades on the battlefield,
When I am flown at half-mast to honor my countryman,
when I lie in the trembling arms of a grieving parent
at the grave of their fallen son or daughter,
or in the arms of a child or spouse who will have to go on
without one who gave their life in a national disaster
to save the life of another, as so many did at the Pentagon
or the World Trade Center Towers on 9/11/01.

MY NAME IS OLD GLORY,
LONG MAY I WAVE.

PLEASE FORWARD MY MESSAGE
TO ALL WHO LOVE AND RESPECT ME,
THAT I MAY FLY PROUDLY AND CONTINUE
TO INSPIRE ALL CITIZENS TO HONOR
OUR NATION BY THEIR GREAT UNSELFISH
ACTS OF LOVE AND RESPECT FOR ALL
OF THEIR FELLOW AMERICANS.

------------------------

Jake

I am not too technical, how does the server 'know' an infected computer is trying to get in?

The server doesn't know - but when we (as human administrators of the system) see the Web server logs full of bizarre HTTP requests, but identical from multiple machines, we know something is up, and that gets corroborated by various mailing lists and newsgroups. Once the pattern is determined, we can make some changes to limit the impact.

90% of the traffic we're seeing right now is from this annoying worm. What a waste of Internet bandwidth.

Jake

Any idea of the source(s) of the recent worms?? Seems to be a spate of them lately. Good way for 'terrorists' to disrupt.

The FBI is investigating the source - the timing of this latest one is curiously similar to the terrorist attack time.

Jake

I have some good info about this worm, if anyone wants it email me at my aol account:

tweetylee@aol.com

Here are some links I just sent NetTech's clients regarding Nimda:

http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.nimda.a@mm.html

http://www.mcafee.com/anti-virus/viruses/nimda/default.asp?cid=2448

Jake

Jake,

I can't tell from the links if this affects servers alone or also personal computers. One mentions Win9x/... ???

Glen, it affects both servers and personal pc's. The bad part is that you don't even have to open the attachment to get the virus. If you just open the email, it activtes the virus.

And if you have a preview pane in Outlook or Outlook Express, that's the same as opening the e-mail...

Jake

TKS. Does anyone know if this affects AOL email on a PC running Win98?