Kickin' ass and takin' names

Transgender Navy SEAL 'Warrior Princess' Comes Out

Then and now....I think I've found the person who should be in charge of cleaning up the sexual misconduct scandal now rampant in our military.  ;)

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It's been five years since the banks rolled the dice one time too many and just about took down the world's financial system, and three years since Congress passed the Dodd-Frank bill that was supposed to bring the bankers back into line with sane, sensible practices.  (Note:  Isn't it ironic that the former Senator and Congressman the bill was named after were two of the banker's most egregious enablers on the way to their going over the cliff?)

Three years, yet only 38% of Dodd-Frank has been implemented.  According to today's USA Today, the bankers have so far been successful stonewalling 62% of it.  The fox is truly in charge of the henhouse. 

Think after the "Warrior Princess" kicks ass and cleans up the military she can go after the bankers?  

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Yesterday the Supreme Court hit a home run.  They've managed to piss off just about everybody.  They narrowly ruled 5-4 that people charged with a felony can be required to submit to a DNA swab.  The original argument for DNA testing was to prove the identity of the accused, but the dissenters say the test results will go into a database and be used to possibly solve other past, present, or future crimes.

The big outrage is that this is (some say) a violation of the Fourth Amendment which forbids searches without reasonable suspicion to gather evidence for an unrelated crime.  Ummm....hold on there Kemo Sabe.

How is this any different than people charged with serious crimes giving up their fingerprints to a database?  That's been used to solve crimes and is admissible as evidence in court for as long as I can remember and nobody seemed to get their knickers is a wad over that one.  Isn't DNA evidence just a newer, state-of-the-art version of fingerprinting?

To me the issue should be whether DNA swabs should be taken and entered into a database from those charged with a serious crime or only from those convicted of a serious crime?  Big difference!

Just something for you to think about.  :)

S

Things that really chap my hide....

Passwords.  Hate 'em!  

I've written about this before, but nothing has changed and they're still chapping my hide.  Typical security question:  "What was the name of your first elementary school?"  xxxxxxxx

"Incorrect.  What was the name of your first elementary school?"  Hmmm....maybe it's case sensitive?  Xxxxxxxx

"Incorrect.  What was the name of your first elementary school?"  Listen up, dammit.  I went there for six friggin' years.  I KNOW what the name of my school was.  It's xxxxxxxx.

"Incorrect.  You are now locked out.  You must jump through 6 incredibly difficult hoops in order to regain access.  Get ready to give blood and have your DNA tested.  Oh, and bend over."

Grrrrrr!

But there is hope.  Yesterday I heard that some nerdy inventor, apparently just as fed up with passwords as me, will soon release a new program/app that uses "biometrics" (retinal scan?) to determine the legitimacy of a user.  You look into the camera on your computer (or iPhone?) and it can tell if you are really "you".  

I could be the face of this product....the poor Goober who never can remember all his many passwords. I doubt I'm alone on this.

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Bureaucrats.  I think they're profiling me.

When building a new home we have to provide to the city building inspection department a "form and elevation survey".  This confirms that the home is not being built outside the allowable building pad (not too close to the side or front or rear property lines).  It's also to confirm that we are at least at  the required minimum elevation above sea level (to make sure we're not in a flood plain).

I turned mine in on the project we have underway now and two days later they kicked it back.  The subdivision plat they have on file shows one side property line to be be 164.22 feet long.

My surveyor found it to actually be 164.23 feet long....one one-hundredth of a foot longer.  That's about 1/8" difference. Big Whoop!  It made absolutely no difference in whether the home was properly within the pad.  We had plenty of space to spare all around.  

I had to call my surveyor and have them redo it to show the .22, all because some bureaucrat didn't have enough sense (or the authority) to make the call.  Grrrrr!

For the record I appreciate legitimate building inspections.  I know first hand that there are plenty of builders who stay up late thinking of ways they can cut corners to make a few more $$$$, quality be damned.  Inspectors need to hold their ground.  What I described here, however, just borders on harassment.

S

A terrible thought.....

So we finally got Usama bin Laden. Wonderful news! But we interred his body at sea, and all we have now are photos and some DNA, which we used to "definitively" identify him.

But appearance-wise he looks to me a lot like that guy from the Oakridge Boys they let go, or maybe a member of ZZTop. Are we sure they're all accounted for?

And is Pakistan/Yemen/Saudi Arabia, etc. like Arkansas? I mean does EVERYONE there have the same DNA?

Hmmmmm.

S