Another day, another dollar

This is a home we built last year for a prominent local attorney and his family.  He's called us back to build a 2500-3000 square foot addition....the final plans are at the architect's now.  Looks like I'll be doing the structural parts soon, then turning it over to bro for the pretty parts.  While I am "retired", the extra coins are appreciated.   Still going in late and leaving early, though.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The storms we had around here last week have really stirred up the pollen....I spent the holiday sneezing. I mean hundreds of times, one right after another.  And when I sneeze, I rattle windows.  There's nothing discreet about my sneezes.  How do people make those little tiny "ah choo's"?  

I think my poor dog is shell shocked.  He'd get nice and comfy on my ottoman right next to me, then I'd get hit by a dozen or so sneezes, and he'd jump straight up and run under the coffee table.  I imagine this is how school kids looked back in the '50's and '60's during those atomic bomb drills when we ducked under our desks.  All better today, though.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I heard on the news the Commie Chinese have gotten into the computers at our major defense contractors and stolen all the good stuff....plans of our newest defense hardware.  Grrr!  

I wanna know why we haven't gotten into THEIR computer systems and just scrambled the hell out of 'em?  Or how about leaving them with nothing besides Windows?  They'll spend all their time rebooting and calling the Geek Squad.  Haha!

Hope you had a nice holiday, or if you're outside the US, a nice weekend.  :)

S

Who's running this asylum?

A couple of years ago I was invited to a presentation by a 4-star Air Force General who was the commander of Air Combat Command.  After his talk during the Q&A he was asked what his biggest fear was and he said a cyberwarfare attack against the US.  

As we all know, we live and die by computers.  They're both a blessing and a curse.  If some douchebag terrorist hits a few evil keystrokes how screwed would YOU be?  We might soon find out.  In recent days Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and several other major banks have experienced some sort of cyber attack, credit being taken by an arab group.   

So what are we collectively doing about it?  Apparently nothing.  That's because The Cybersecurity Act of 2012 failed by a 52-46 vote to pass the US Senate earlier this year.  This was a bill sponsored by Sorta-Independent Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and Republican Susan Collins of Maine, and supported by Brick Obama.  It would have set up a voluntary program of security measures to bolster protections for critical infrastructure networks like water supply systems and electrical grids and banks from attacks by rogue hackers and foreign nation states.

You know who killed the bill?  Lobbyists for the US Chamber of Commerce.  On que Republicans fell in line and voted "no".  They said the bill would have "imposed debilitating pressures on businesses to establish cybersecurity measures."

How is this a partisan issue?  Won't measures to protect our infrastructure and banks help businesses, the Republican's core constituency?  Once again short term profits trumped longer term common sense.  

When some a--hole sitting in a cave somewhere in Hell-istan gets his feelings hurt because someone painted an eye patch or blacked-out a front tooth on 'ol Muhammad's Polaroid and fries our power grid and freezes up our bank accounts, let's all march on the headquarters of the US Chamber of Commerce and ask 'em, "So, how'd that work out for ya?"

S