Time To Get A Fatwah Declared

There was an interesting read over at iOwnTheWorld where Cardigan shared information on a group of Muslim truck drivers who refused to carry shipments of alcohol and were then fired.

It appears the Federal government is intervening on their behalf as their religious rights were violated.

So here we have a group of men who knew they would be transporting goods of all sorts, but they refused to do the work on religious grounds.  There are plenty of arguments to be made regarding if Islam forbids the transport of alcohol or not, but the bottom line is these guys signed a contract saying they would transport goods from one location to the next.  They failed to live up to their contract and were fired.

Let's compare this with the baker who refused to bake a cake for a gay couple.  This is a situation where the baker was asked to perform a job and refused.  He didn't agree to do the job and failed to deliver, he said he would not based on his religious grounds.  This has led to a judge ordering the baker to "cease and desist from discriminating" against gay couples or face financial penalties.

I guess the argument can be made that the refusal to accept a job resulted in humiliation to the gay couple, but why is the government intervening on behalf of the Muslim men?  Is there a bias against Christianity?

We have three choices going forward, we can continue to stand our ground and refuse to do things contrary to our religious beliefs, we can declare ourselves to be Muslim to see if the treatment is the same or we can go Gault and simply say we don't have the time to perform any duties that violate God's rules.

I'm choosing the first.  We are being targeted for a reason and we must stand firm in our beliefs.  We will be called h8ters, bigots, racist, etc...  The list never ends.

Keep in mind, how much fun the second choice could be.  For someone willing to follow through there will eventually be an identical case where Christians are persecuted and Muslims are not.  That could be a lot of fun.

Now that I think about it, does anyone know a Muslim baker I can send some gay folks to?

Getting Older

I've been asked a question I'm pondering how honest to be on.  The younger me would be discreet and keep my mouth shut. Maybe... I think hack to how naïve I've been in the past. Who knows.

I've been asked to provide feedback on how to improve some things.  Being the new man on the team could lead to me getting labeled as an ego maniac.  The bottom line is I've done support for fifteen years and my company is paying me too much money to work basic adds, moves and changes type stuff.  Getting through the tiered stuff is wearing on me too. What's the point in taking a case if you don't get the satisfaction of completing it?

A second thing is my first personality conflict is rearing up.  I'm trying to be lighthearted and laugh things off, but I'm having some serious issues with how a coworker is interacting with me.  I guess I'm expecting too much and I have no desire to air dirty laundry, lets just say I'm ready to change to the position I interviewed for.

I'm going to set up a one on one with my new boss.  I've decided I understand my time in T1.  All well and good to get to understand the product  (not sure why Microsoft didn't run that way) but I want to know what goals and/or timeline I can expect before moving to Tier 2.  Paying dues is one thing, I just want to understand and set expectations.  I do not want to stay in Tier 1.

343

If you are looking for funny, you might want to step away for a minute.  I promise funny is coming, but not yet.  I HAVE to get this out of the way and get on track.

In July of 1997 I quit smoking.  I had my oldest son and my baby boy Christopher (now Chris, he finally won out on that battle) and I realized I wanted to see my children grow up.  I smoked my last cigarette in my back yard and just didn't buy any more.

Three more babies came along, Benjamen, Lucie and then Sadie.

In between Ben and Lucie, we moved to Dallas when I took a new job.  I was in Hammond, Indiana working on a hospital PBX when 9-11 happened.  All the planes were grounded and I couldn't get home.  I had a ticket to fly out of Midway airport on the afternoon of 9-11.  All I could do was watch the news and cry over the phone with my family.

My son didn't believe I was alive.  He knew I was flying home that day and saw enough to know planes flew into buildings and he was convinced I was in them.

I decided I had become fat and lazy.  I weighed 326 pounds and when I flew out to Chicago I had to have a seat belt extender to get buckled.  I was humiliated...

but not enough to stop eating...

THE WIFE got me a book called "Body for Life" and I followed it religiously.  I told her, "It's only 14 weeks, I can do anything for 14 weeks."  I lost 60 something pounds (I was too dumb to keep track).  I kept telling myself, how could I protect my kids when I couldn't run, or fight or do anything.

Once I came off the Body for Life program I started eating in my old ways.  I was still working out, so I thought everything would be OK.  Then one weekend, I had to go to the hospital with the worst pain I have ever felt in my life. My abdomen was giving off a pain I can't describe and nothing would ease it.  THE WIFE finally got me to my doc and she sent me to the ER.  Turns out I had gallstones.

Gallstones formed when I started eating the fatty crap again and my liver and gallbladder couldn't clean everything up properly.  Out came the gallbladder and no more pain, but I couldn't work out for six weeks.  That was the death knell for my "Program".

The weight came back.

I went through another program and dropped 40 pounds like a mad man by taking shots and eating a thousand calories a day. (I forget the name of it, but it was supposed to be 400 calories, but shag it all I can't do that.)

The weight came back.

Late 2013 I went into the hospital with chest pains.  The tech who set me up in bed told he he thought I was a D-Lineman for the Cowboys.  We laughed when my weight was 336 and I told him I would make a good Nose Guard in the 3-4.

So what does this have to do with 343?

Today I went to the doc for flu.  I got Tamilflu which is saving my butt, but I also got my weight. 343.

I can't live like this.  I have to change.  I have a wife, five kids and my oldest son and his wife have a baby coming.  I will be a grandfather soon and I so want to be there for my granddaughter.  I want to dance at her wedding.

14 weeks.  I can do ANYTHING for 14 weeks.

We're From The NSA And We're Here To Help

Found an interesting article everyone should read at Zero Hedge. The NSA's book of bugging goodness made it out and to cut to the chase, we're screwed.

The latest revelation from the biggest wholesale spying scandal since Nixon, exposed by Germany's Spiegel which continues the strategy of revealing Snowden leaks on a staggered, delayed basis, involves a back door access-focused NSA division called ANT, (which supposedly stands for Access Network Technology), described by Spiegel as "master carpenters" for the NSA's TAO (Tailored Access Operations, read more about TAO here). The ANT people have "burrowed into nearly all the security architecture made by the major players in the industry -- including American global market leader Cisco and its Chinese competitor Huawei, but also producers of mass-market goods, such as US computer-maker Dell.

What caught my eye more than anything was this:

The ANT division doesn't just manufacture surveillance hardware. It also develops software for special tasks. The ANT developers have a clear preference for planting their malicious code in so-called BIOS, software located on a computer's motherboard that is the first thing to load when a computer is turned on.

This has a number of valuable advantages: an infected PC or server appears to be functioning normally, so the infection remains invisible to virus protection and other security programs. And even if the hard drive of an infected computer has been completely erased and a new operating system is installed, the ANT malware can continue to function and ensures that new spyware can once again be loaded onto what is presumed to be a clean computer. The ANT developers call this "Persistence" and believe this approach has provided them with the possibility of permanent access.

Another program attacks the firmware in hard drives manufactured by Western Digital, Seagate, Maxtor and Samsung, all of which, with the exception of latter, are American companies. Here, too, it appears the US intelligence agency is compromising the technology and products of American companies.

Other ANT programs target Internet routers meant for professional use or hardware firewalls intended to protect company networks from online attacks. Many digital attack weapons are "remotely installable" -- in other words, over the Internet. Others require a direct attack on an end-user device -- an "interdiction," as it is known in NSA jargon -- in order to install malware or bugging equipment.

If you're an IT guy you know what this means. Everything you do to clean your PC, reload it, replace the hard drive, encrypt it, it doesn't matter. as soon as you connect to the internet they can read you. Even if you miraculously clean everything on your machine they've got you moving through the internet's routers.

Yeah, yeah I know. If you don't have anything to hide you have nothing to worry about. Of course it depends on who's judging you.

Source article: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-12-29/nsas-50-page-catalog-back-door-penetration-techniques-revealed

Why I Don't Like The Budget Deal

I am hearing talking heads on TV saying the budget deal is great because we don't have to face a government shutdown.  Here's why that is bullcrap.

1. The President is supposed to propose a budget as he is obligated to do in the Constitution.
2. The Congress then irons out a deal for the budget and pass one.
3. The President either signs it or Vetoes it and back to step to or the budget is approved.
4. We then follow the budget for the year.

The President has sent budgets to Congress which have been so bad not a single one has pasted.
The Congress (either through failures of the House and Senate, or just the Senate) have failed to pass any budget since 2009.

We don't need to celebrate this crap deal, we need to tell Congress and the President to FOLLOW THE CONSTITUTION AND PASS A BUDGET.  This needs to be done every year.

Just pretending to get along doesn't do squat.  No more spending "Deals" or "Continuing Resolutions", pass a budget.  It is your job!

Happy 20 Month Survival Jasper!

Today on "The Five" during the "One More Thing" segment Dana Perino celebrated her dog Jasper's 20 month birthday.  The rest of the cast complained this wasn't a "Real" birthday.

THE WIFE and I considered the possibility she may be celebrating because she has trouble keeping her pets alive for any length of time.

Is this the face of a murderer?

We tweeted Greg Gutfeld to try to confirm this, but there has been no confirmation.

We'll keep you posted!

Stay safe Jasper... Stay safe...

New Star Wars Trailer Leaked?

Um... no, not really.


HT - Geeks of Doom

So Tired

I'm counting down.  I've turned in my notice at work and I am set to start my new job Monday after next.

But I'm tired...

I've been surprised at how relentless many employers are now.  It's not a case of can you do the job, it's can you do all of these jobs with an unrealistic expectation of success.

I have a case where a customer has done the equivalent of flailing their arms and saying "Stuff doesn't work".  They don't give details, they just complain "Stuff doesn't work."

I have another customer we identified an incorrect configuration on two weeks ago.  Yesterday the guy who was sent on site to help fix things found the same setting.  I told him we'd told them two weeks ago to change the setting.  I was told they were going to change it last night.

This morning they asked me what i found in the logs.  I asked what the results were of the change.

The customer is still "Testing" in their lab before rolling it into production.

My boss is asking me what is going on.  We have managers all over the place asking what is going on.  The customer is still angry that this isn't fixed.

But their own people refuse to change the setting we KNOW is causing problems.

My main complaint about my current position is I am the fall guy.  I am tasked with fixing whatever is broken, yet I have no authority to change anything or force anyone to do anything.  So this customer continues to sit on their hands and I keep looking at the same logs.

One more week...

I Am Amused

Thanks to increased visibility due to link love from some buddy sites I have been enjoying some of the spam comments which are attempted to be posted on the blog.  The lack of basic grammar and... well... English makes for humorous reading.

I'll have to start sharing the ones that make me laugh the hardest.

Hump Day!!!

Yeah, he didn't see the humor in it either