Where did the day go?

Galina and I stayed out until after midnight last night, which is some kind of first for us, at least in this millennium. We had a pretty good time, and met some interesting people.

I should have gotten some work done today, but I didn't - at least not of the translation kind. Instead, I continued to shave junk out of my stuff, went through some old papers downstairs, got a haircut, and allowed myself to get depressed over the situation with the estate (apparently, there will be delays in getting the details of my old man's naturalization out of the government, and the lawyer seemed to smile broadly as he said that, which I fear does not bode me well, financially).

That depression was compounded somewhat by an article I read in USA Today about how certain parties in government believe the no-fly terrorist watch list - which continues to make news of the most disagreeable kind - is not being sufficiently utilized. From the article:

The government's terrorist watch list has swelled to more than 755,000 names, according to a new government report that has raised worries about the list's effectiveness.

[... The GAO report also says] Homeland Security has not done enough to use the list more broadly in the private sector, where workers applying for jobs in sensitive places such as chemical factories could do harm. [Leonard Boyle, director of the FBI's Terrorist Screening Center] urges that the list be used by for screening at businesses where workers could "carry out attacks on our critical infrastructure that could harm large numbers of persons or cause immense economic damage."

One gets the feeling that someone in power will always be of the opinion the list isn't being used broadly enough.

Cheers...

UPDATE: Trying to get off the list can be daunting as well, in more ways than one. Check out this story on how the site set up for redress has exposed users to identity theft.