February, 2014 archive
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
The hunt for politeness continues.
He was apparently anticipating hand-to-squirrel combat; the story says that he was “carrying a Chinese-made rifle, which had a folded bayonet attached.”
I was more careful with my Fanner Fifty.
Bounty Hunting 0
The Army is investigating kickback fraud for recruiting recruits. In a program in which “recruiting assistants” were paid an “incentive” for convincing persons to enlist; the “assistants” used inside information to claim bounties incentive payments for convincing persons they had not convinced.
The program began, natch, in 2005 because the military was having difficulty meeting quotas for cannon-fodder for the wars of George the Worst. Fraud began to be suspected in 2007 and the Army shut the program down in 2011.
From my local rag:
The alleged fraud drew in recruiters, soldiers and civilians with ties to the military who submitted, or profited from, false referrals registered on a website run by a marketing firm the Army hired to run the program. Suspects often obtained the names of people who had enlisted from recruiters, claimed them as their referrals, and then kicked back some of the bonus money to the recruiters.
How very free market.
Many more details at the link.
If You See It on Your Telly Vision “Drama,” It’s a Reel, but It Ain’t Real 0
George Smith explains why you shouldn’t succumb to the cyberwar hype.
Voyage to the Scrap Heap 0
When my parents drove us to Richmond via the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel when I was a young ‘un, we would sometimes see her in port at the Norfolk Naval Base.
She has been in the mothball fleet at the Philadelphia Naval Base for some time.
The USS Forrestal is slated to begin its final voyage from Philadelphia to Texas at 5 a.m. Tuesday.
The Navy offered her for use as a museum or memorial, but there were no viable offers.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Truly polite persons don’t play with it in the car.
Eric Morkert pulled over to the side of the road and was inspecting Glock 17 when the gun discharged and the bullet hit him in the leg.
Walmart SNAPs To 0
It’s an inconvenient truth that economic help for the poor helps the economy, because the poor put that money right back in circulation.
Case in point: Walmart misses itself them food stamps.
Billions of dollars were cut from the program last year, which left food-stamp recipients who shop at Wal-Mart with less money to spend at the world’s largest retailer, the report says.
Mean Girls 0
Chris Christie goes all high school. A nugget from Dick Polman:
Here’s some free advice for the increasingly unloved guv: If you truly want to tout yourself as presidential, even in the midst of a burgeoning scandal, then don’t behave like a peevish juvenile with a tenth-grade mentality. Because most people think of high school as a distant time and place best left in the rear-view mirror.
Responsible Fiscals 0
This could get interesting.
(snip)
According to the complaint, that left First Choice, and other similar financial institutions, with “significant costs associated with, among other things, notifying its members of issues related to the Target Data Breach, closing out and opening new customer accounts, reissuing members’ cards, and/or refunding members’ losses resulting from the unauthorized use of their accounts.”
I’m torn.
There is an emotional appeal to the thought that companies should be held accountable for such massive screw-ups. Yet, we don’t know that Target was directly responsible. Target’s point-of-sale devices contained malware; my reading tells me that many outfits contract out their point-of-sale technology to vendors.
Is Target a legitimate target, is its vendor, or do we get a circular firing squad? May we as customers sue our banks when they get penetrated (after all, they penetrate us all the tim–never mind).
If the suit encourages American card companies to adopt the chip-and-PIN technology used in Europe, which they have resisted because it’s “inconvenient” (yet massive data breaches are somehow “convenient”) (Edit: and the change would cost money), it might be all to the good.
For a good discussion of the Target breach by computer security experts, listen to the latest NetSec podcast.
Separate, But Equal 0
No, it wasn’t.
It never was and was never meant to be.
“Separate, but equal” was a racists’ lie, a scam, a con. And racists continue to lie, to scam, to con.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Practice courtesy on the highways.
As the other driver, Leslie Larrison, 54, pulled in behind Brinkley, the two got into an argument. Brinkely went back to his car, took out a handgun and fatally shot Larrison.
Both of these upstanding citizens had kids in their cars, so an example of politeness was set.
You Can’t Hide from Your Ride 0
You know that nice new car you just got, the one with the built-in Facebook and all those neat monitoring systems?
MidAtlantic AAA’s Ronald Kosh reports that it may be phoning home without your having been informed of it in any way. A snippet:
Folks clutch their pearls about the NSA (with some justification), while, unnoticed, corporations make the NSA look like pikers.
Read the rest.
Stupor Bowl 0
If you like watching large men court concussions by running into each other high speed for a machine that chews them and spits them out, enjoy.
Otherwise, do something useful, like a crossword puzzle or a game of Canfield.
Yes, I’m fed up with Big Football and the endless inane news wankery “coverage” of it all.
I’m done.
Afterthought:
Didn’t miss much, did I?