Month: March 2011

Zero Tolerance Means Zero Intelligence

Public schools not only have a history of being rather poor in the field of educating children but they also have a history of zero tolerance. Between kids being expelled for having shotguns off school property, kids being kicked out for making a gun shape with their fingers, and kids being given the boot for having Aspirin it’s amazing there are any children left in school. Well here’s another one for the record book, a 13 year-old kid was shown the door for brining acne medicine:

A typical middle school girl, 13-year-old Hayley Russell was worried about another acne flare-up when she brought her orange prescription bottle to Rachel Carson Middle School in Fairfax County, Virginia.

She placed the erythromycin on the top shelf of her locker so she could retrieve an antibiotic pill to take at lunch. And then she forgot about it.

The pills sat in her locker for months. When an administrator confronted her about them last May, acting on a tip from other girls, Hayley quickly acknowledged her mistake. But it triggered a disciplinary process that kept her out of class for more than seven weeks, banned her from even visiting Carson without official permission, and eventually forced her to transfer to another school.

Yes not only did she bring medication but she had the audacity to have a prescription for it! It’s sad to see things haven’t changed since I was in high school and administrators were sacrificing children in order to look like they were protective of the kids’ well being.

Can Anybody Say Conflict of Interest

There has been a lawsuit going on between i4i and Microsoft over a claimed patent involving XML editing. Microsoft started using XML as the basis for their Office document file formats partially due to urges by world governments for a more open format. That last sentence has no bearing on this story, I just like pointing out irony.

The lawsuit has finally reached the Supreme Court where Microsoft will argue to the federal court against i4i. Unfortunately for Microsoft the government has failed an amicus brief against them:

The U.S. government is backing i4i in its case against Microsoft that the Supreme Court is expected to hear in April.

Acting Solicitor General Neal Kumar Katyal filed an amicus brief supporting a U.S. Court of Appeal decision and i4i’s position on Friday. The brief represents the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

This is a major argument I have against the court systems in this country, they are loaded with conflict of interest. Ultimately the Supreme Court represents the federal government thus having other agencies of the federal government file amicus briefs creates a conflict of interest. That’s not to say the Supreme Court hasn’t ruled against federal legislation in the past, they certainly have, but the potential exists.

The Supreme Court shouldn’t have been made as an arm of the federal government but instead as a completely separate entity. If i4i wins this case a claim of conflict of interest would be valid but alas could not be appealed. It certainly becomes an interesting scenario when you think about it.

I’m Losing Count

It seems Wyoming and New Hampshire aren’t the only new states pushing permitless concealed carry legislation. Montana has now jumped onto the band wagon. Montana’s is a bit different though as it would require people who carry to still receive training:

Republican Rep. Krayton Kerns’ House Bill 271 cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee Monday. The bill was amended to require completion of a training course to carry without a permit.

This seems unenforceable. How is an officer going to determine if a person carry a firearm received training? Is the person supposed to carry their training certificate at all times? In that case there is little difference in requiring a permit. Still it’s progress.

Bugger Off Mother Nature

If driving my truck causes global warming as Al Gore keeps claiming I’m going to start driving more. Here in Minnesota we just got down with weather involving temperatures in the 50s and now we’re looking at a foot of snow. Did I also mention that we’re under a flood warning to boot? Mother nature sure is doing her damnedest to kill Minnesotans.

Where the Hell is that global warming Gore has been promising?

Priorities

With the spiraling deficit looking to cause a massive economic catastrophe it’s nice to see our “representatives” can find time out of their busy schedule to deal with the most important issues:

Four U.S. senators Tuesday called on Apple to yank iPhone and iPad apps that help drunken drivers evade police, saying the programs are “harmful to public safety.”

Sens. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Charles Schumer (D-NY), Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Tom Udall (D-NM) asked Scott Forstall, the head of Apple’s iPhone software group, to pull an unspecified number of apps from the company’s App Store. The senators also made similar requests of Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt and Research in Motion’s (RIM) co-CEOs, James Balsillie and Michael Lazaridis.

Yup instead of dealing with real issues they’re taking time whining about applications available for phones. Do we even know if these applications work? Has a drunk driver been able to evade arrest because of this application? These things should be answered before time paid for by tax payers is taken up by “representatives” to bitch about such applications.

I guess these “representatives” will also have to go after the police as they often advertise these checkpoints:

“Many police departments promote or advertise DUI [driving under the influence] crackdowns through the media as PSAs or through PR,” Scott said. “We are just taking it a bit further and pushing the info to drivers through GPS and smart phone technology. The idea is to deter drivers from drinking and driving. When drivers get alerts for DUI checkpoints on their smart phones and GPS, they will think twice about drinking and driving.”

Apparently Capitalism Killed Life on Mars

Hugo Chavez is one of my favorite punching bags. First he claims that the earthquake in Haiti was caused by the United State’s super top secret earthquake machine and now he’s claiming capitalism is likely what killed all life on Mars:

“I have always said, heard, that it would not be strange that there had been civilization on Mars, but maybe capitalism arrived there, imperialism arrived and finished off the planet,” Chavez said in speech to mark World Water Day.

Chavez, who also holds capitalism responsible for many of the world’s problems, warned that water supplies on Earth were drying up.

Well Mr. Chavez I’d say it’s far more probably that socialism arrived as it has a nasty habit of leading to horrible loss of life as exemplified by the Soviet Union’s attempt at collectivization and China’s Great Leap Forward. It is the red planet after all.

Your Tax Dollars at Work Illegally Experimenting on American Citizens

I came across a really interesting article on Wikipedia titled Unethical Human Experimentation in the United States. Many of these experiments were government initiated and funded which is rather frightening.

A couple of the most interesting reads are the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment and Project MKULTRA (which isn’t just some conspiracy theorist malarkey, but an actual series of CIA experiments that later lead to a congressional hearing). It’s worth taking some time out of your day and reading through these because some of them are almost unbelievable.

That’s Clever

I have to agree with Bruce Schneier that this is just plain clever:

The thieves glue down the “enter,” “cancel” and “clear” buttons on the keypad and wait until the customer goes into the bank for help before withdrawing money from their account.

The robbed customers have already punched in their PINs when they realize the keypad buttons are stuck. The unwitting customers either do not know that they can use the ATM touchscreen to finish their transaction, or become nervous when the keypad isn’t working and react by leaving the ATM unattended, Richmond Station police Capt. Richard Corriea said.

Since January, there have been four such thefts in the Richmond District alone, Corriea said.

Take note when you use an ATM check to make sure the keys are all in proper working order. Most of the time the simplest hacks are the most effective.