The Minuteman

In North Raleigh a man has been accused by a state Department of Transportation official of practicing engineering without a license.

The DOT official in question obviously does not understand what a Engineering License is, does, or what it is for.

Cox has not been accused of claiming that he is an engineer. But Lacy says he filed the complaint because the report “appears to be engineering-level work” by someone who is not licensed as a professional engineer.

News flash for the DOT thug employee.  The point of a professional engineering license is to provide someone to be held accountable in the event of negligence.  It is a certificate that states as my coworker put it, “This person is competent enough to be held liable should something go wrong.”  Once you have a license you can the professionally seal designs and carry the liability.  This is applied to designs and implementations, not studies.

There is no question despite what the DOT official claims, the person who wrote this report has not broken any laws, unless they sealed the document, or indicated that this work was done by someone with a Professional Engineering License.  Doing the work of an engineer does not require a license, carrying the liability that goes with it does.  Doing a traffic analysis, and establishing why a light is needed for public safety actually matches the definition of someone who is allowed to use the title Engineer.

The IEEE‘s formal position on this is as follows: “The title, Engineer, and its derivatives should be reserved for those individuals whose education and experience qualify them to practice in a manner that protects public safety. Strict use of the title serves the interest of both the IEEE-USA and the public by providing a recognized designation by which those qualified to practice engineering may be identified.” It is generally a requirement in the United States to have at least a Bachelor of Science degree in an engineering discipline or related applied science to be considered an engineer and practice as such.

Emphasis mine. The burden of proof for engineering credentials in this case actually rests upon the individual claiming the light is unnecessary.  The action if recommending a traffic light does not provide a danger to the public, however people pulling into traffic on a busy thoroughfare without a light is dangerous to the public.

Some have used this as a rallying cry to ditch government licensing.  This license as I said before is used to distinguish those who have separated themselves from the rest of the herd.  Even if private organizations took care of licensing and fees, you would still need legal recourse or anyone and their mother could claim they were an “Engineer”.  The term “Engineer” actually carries legal weight for liability.  However it would be nice to have ASME, IEEE, and ASCE get together to do the common portion of the licensing, and have each other organization do the specific tests for the fields.  At which point the government should recognize those individuals as having satisfied the requirements to be labeled, “Professional Engineer”.  It is annoying that each state you must be individually licensed in, there is no reciprocity. 

Being a P.E. is not something that is taken lightly, ethically they are bound to report anything that they believe to be questionable regarding practice and safety.  Marine Power and Electric made a fatal mistake when they asked my father to seal documents that he did not write and design.  They threatened to fire him for his refusal, he promptly quit.  The following day he was employed by the State Attorney General as contractor to aid in the investigation of Marine Power and Electric.  Being raised by someone who would unquestionably do the right thing I learned many things, ultimately we all are our own companies and who we work for are customers.  A person with a P.E. is liable for the work they do under that seal, even if working for a company.

Though the end of the article does call into question the character of the licensing board.

Andrew L. Ritter, executive director of the engineers licensing board, said it will take three or four months to investigate Lacy’s allegation against Cox. He said there is a potential for violation if DOT and the public were misled by “engineering-quality work”- even if the authors did not claim to be engineers.

Who determines what qualifies as engineering-quality work, and when I must obtain a license to do so?  If that is the case, the 4 year apprentice requirement should be removed, allowing people to seek licensure immediately.  I can not do work without a license, thus I need one.  As I said previously, a license just allows you to call yourself an engineer and seal documents.  You can still do work without it.  Sounds like some peoples heads have gotten a little to big on the Kool-Aid they’ve been drinking.

H/T to R Mason for the Email. R. Allen for the post I read 5 minutes later.

“Neither despise, nor oppose, what thou dost not understand.” –William Penn, Some Fruits of Solitude

[America would be a much more comfortable and wonderful place if the tree of liberty was truly allowed to flourish without people attacking the branches that they dislike for lack of understanding.  It is amazing the number of people who would wish the Gun Culture away because the do no understand it and cannot fathom why it would exist. 

Even more though than the what William Penn wrote, I submit the following change, “Neither despise, nor oppose, what dost not affect thou.” That which affects you must be an actuality, not a potentiality.  For just because a bat could be used in a brutal assault, should not cause them to be outlawed from possession.

Why does the government prevent me from using a suppressor for my own benefit?  Because someone else at some other time despised it, opposed it, and outlawed it.  True criminals still have the pleasure of use, but I as a law abiding citizen have been robbed of this branch of liberty by those who do not understand it.  May new fertilizer come to the tree of liberty, that it may grow and flourish again.  -B]

I talked the other day about the idiocy of the “internet kill switch.”  While browsing today I found out how bad their claim of necessity was.  It’s the ultimate in creating “FUD”.

The bill, one aide said, would give the president the power to force “the system that controls the floodgates to the Hoover Dam” to cut its connection to the net if the government detected an imminent cyber attack.

At which point I’m going oh, really now.  Here’s why:

Anyone who works around process control and automation knows that the computer networks used are separate and isolated from the internet.  Why would they already be isolated you ask, because the government isn’t as afraid of an attack as much as the business.  Utilities for instance very rarely lease lines or use communication paths they don’t own.  They have shielding cables that also have fiber optics in side.  They run communications at the same time they run the power lines. 

Why is a business more afraid of an attack than the government could be?  Lets say someone causes a protective system to fail to operate, at which point a fault is caused in the power grid.  The result is a transformer exceeding it’s rated voltages, ultimately ending in a failure of the transformer.  A transmission level transformer easily costs millions of dollars and can take 18 months to 2 years for delivery since they are no longer manufactured in the United States.  All that time, that transmission line is out of commission.  If this transformer is tied to a generator, that generator is now no longer able to produce and sell electricity from that generator for 2 years.  Not to mention utilities have to comply with NERC-CIP regarding infrastructure security.

More are also screaming that these claims are “FUD”.  Nevada’s Bureau of Reclamation, responsible for the dam, are extremely pissed as well.

“I’d like to point out that this is not a factual example, because Hoover Dam and important facilities like it are not connected to the internet,” Peter Soeth, a spokesman for the bureau, said in an e-mail. “These types of facilities are protected by multiple layers of security, including physical separation from the internet, that are in place because of multiple security mandates and good business practices.”

So the thought of someone hacking in like Live Free or Die Hard is completely unrealistic.  Seriously, that movie is like any other movie from Hollywood, leave your suspension of disbelief at the door.  Unsurprisingly the morons in Congress do not seem to understand that Hollywood is not Reality.  Of course though the statements from our Congress critters cause people to believe that the loss of their freedom is justified due to this possible catastrophe.  [snark]They are so much smarter and wiser than we are, we must need to surrender our freedoms if they ask us to[/snark].

So please, remember if a politician is asking for something, seriously question the motivations, and most importantly, question any “examples” of dangers they use.  TSA and DHS hasn’t caught any terrorists unless you include the domains they confiscated.  The FBI and the DOD followed political correctness so hard that they allowed Ft. Hood to occur.  So why the name of Zeus’s Butthole would we hand over the power to shut down the internet.  We have seen what governments really do with that power.  Anyone who supports this bill is a Tyrant, no doubt, because, “Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom, It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.”   Reject “FUD” for what it is.

HB 1016-2011 passed the rules committee and has been placed on the calendar for a second reading.

Previous posts on HB-1016 are here and here.

When I find out when the second reading will be, I will post it here.

Update 2/7/2011:It just passed the house.

A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.  This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities. – Thomas Jefferson

[I came across this wonderful post the other day regarding who is paying what with regards to taxes.  What stuck out the most for me though was this chart illustrating net incomes based off the earnings in a year. 

Think about that for a second.  People actually get PAID for having lower incomes.  This is socialism no matter how you cut it, robbing the productive under force of law, to give to those who would rather not work.  Why am I paying taxes to subsidize people who don’t want to work?  I wish I could I’d stay home and do my hobbies all day, but instead I have to pay to support the bloated spending of Washington.  The wife and I keep working harder to try and build up more savings, all we get to do in return though is pay more taxes.  For those who say, “We all need to pay our fair share.” Anything but a FLAT tax is unfair.  Why should I have to pay more in taxes because I work harder and am more productive?  The economy is floundering and there is massive unemployment because people are finding it more profitable to not work.  By Mr. Jefferson’s statement, as can be plainly seen, this is not the sum of good government.  We are no longer free to regulate our own pursuits, and certainly the government is stealing the bread from labor, and this government is by no means wise or frugal.  -B]

People ask me why I object so abhorrently about the no-fly list, and why I am dead set against a list of people restricted from owning firearms.  Today I found the shining example of why it’s so horrible from the UK.

“An immigration officer put his own wife on a terrorist watch list – ­so she could not get home from a trip to Pakistan.”

…

“The officer worked with a unit that puts terror and criminal suspects on the watch list of people “not conducive to the public good”. He simply had to log on to a computer database to add his wife as a ­potential suspect.”

This women was deprived of her right and liberty to return home without due process of law.  Someone was allowed to discriminate against her and prevent her from free travel.  As for a list of people restricted from owning firearms, it already exists as the NICS system.  The NICS system is severely flawed and prevents those who can lawfully obtain firearms from getting them.  All it takes is being charged and you’re forever black balled.  Lists are just a way to discriminate without due process while looking like those running it are protecting us.

A 13-year-old Jefferson County boy says he knows what he did was wrong, but says it was an accident and he never intended to hurt anyone when he shot his toy airsoft gun at a friend, who was hit in the eye.

The kid made an absolutely dumb mistake.  However this is not something that the government, most especially a prosecutor needs to be involved in.  I had a run in with a dick prosecutor, it’s not fun.  He and the other boy are still friends, from the description is was rough housing that went a little too far.

Mr. Prosecutor sees a way to make a name for himself and this is the result!  Someone once said, “It takes a good prosecutor to convict a guilty man, it takes a GREAT prosecutor to convict an innocent one.”  Even with records sealed, it will seriously screw with this kids life. 

The ATFs gun smuggling program has finally gotten the attention of our elected representatives. 

“These extremely serious allegations were accompanied by detailed documentation which appears to lend credibility to the claims and partially corroborates them,” Grassley wrote.

This whole sequence of events reads like the plot out of Enemies Foreign and Domestic.  No spoilers here so go read it, suffice it to say, I’ve heard this play before hopefully this one ends better.  Especially since the ATFs budget is up to get slashed. 

The proposed ATF cutbacks, which would amount to nearly $160 million out of a $1.25 billion budget request – a 12.8 percent reduction that would also be 3.6 percent below the current budget – are outlined in a preliminary budget document obtained by The Washington Post. ATF spokesman Scot Thomasson declined to comment, because the budget process was not complete.

This agency continually harasses law abiding citizens who are doing no harm to anyone but merely minding their own business.  Doing that though gets them more press time and funding that nailing someone with a pack of camels from across state lines. On the upside it appears that their plan to use smuggling as the justification to increase their budget may have royally backfired now that it had congressional attention that they were moving material across the border.

H/T to Alan.