More news you can't use

On Friday 4 workers were injured when the concrete roof they were pouring collapsed. Luckily no one was killed but it hits at the heart of how far we've come in just the last 10 years or so. There was a time when a work site would consist of 20 or 30 guys busy moving materials and meticulously fabricating a building structure. There was a sense of craftsmanship and accomplishment as the building took shape. No more. Anymore you're lucky to have more than six guys on a crew and a foreman too busy filling out enough paperwork as thick as a Russian novel. He's never abashed to admit that he'll be headed to the trailer office when asked if certain corners can be cut. Out of sight out of mind and a good case for plausible deniability. Can't expect him to be everywhere at once.
But I have three possibilities for the above accident. One was that the scaffolding they were using wasn't set up properly. In multi stage scaffolding if the entire length isn't exactly level the stresses can collapse the middle. Second observation from the photo is that they were using aluminum pole scaffolding which has a lower weight load than steel frame variety. Third possibility was that due to the heavy rains we've had here the footings were undermined but that's hard to say without seeing the inside whether it be a dirt floor or concrete. But such is the nature of the construction business these days.

Now while these guys were risking their lives actually trying to get something done our congress was busy with their usual "no we can't do that" attitude by rejecting all but two amendments to a couple of bills. Of the amendments passed I thought this was particularly poignant:

To clarify that an authorization to use military force, a declaration of war, or any similar authority shall not authorize the detention without charge or trial of a citizen or lawful permanent resident of the United States.

(Humm, correct me if I'm wrong but isn't that part of our constitution already? It's called due process.)

And what examples have we set in these foreign lands when we've rendered their citizens, held them without trial and even tortured them in places like Abu Ghraib? Then there's the issue of heros. A hero isn't somebody who got shot down.  A hero isn't somebody who got lost was attacked then captured. Try telling your boss you just crashed the corporate jet and see what he says. Or maybe that you got lost and couldn't make it to the job site. Oh he'll be thrilled but the military makes heros out of these people. Not buying it anymore. The real heros you never hear about. They are the ones who did their job of 3 and 4 tours and managed to come out of it without much harm.

And then there are drones. There is legislation to prevent autonomous drones from being used because they might kill innocent women and children. I just have to ask. What about the remote flying models they're using now? Manned from a base in Nevada with little to no ground intelligence that are killing women and children. And you just know DARPA is working on something like the one pictured. Glad I won't be around to witness the wars of the future because you just know that if they can make a law against it they can just as easily make another that says it's alright. All in the name of truth justice and the American way... yeah right.