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What do you do when you don't have the funding to address a perpetual backlog of unanalyzed rape kits? Ask drivers to foot the bill when applying for a driver's license:
Across the country, there's a backlog of kits containing potential evidence of sexual assaults. Victim advocates say the situation threatens public safety. Lawmakers in dozens of states are pushing for funding, and in Texas, one state representative has offered an innovative solution.
Thousands of rape kits sit sealed and untested in forensics labs and law enforcement offices in Texas. What's missing is state and local funding to pay to analyze the evidence in many of those kits.
If state Rep. Victoria Neave has her way, residents could help chip in. When Texans go to the Department of Public Safety office to apply for a driver's license, they'd be asked if they'd like to help the state pay to test DNA evidence from sexual assault cases — in the same way they're asked if they want to donate to support veterans or organ donation.
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by edIII on Thursday April 13 2017, @10:13PM (8 children)
Stolen? Hardly. You're an American so get over it. Soldiers get paid, but they also take a lot of orders, shit, and run the real risk of dying. Why do they do this? So other Americans at home have the freedom and luxury to spit on them and say vile things.
Veterans means they served, and may have served in war time (America is mostly at war), and they don't get what they deserve. Have you seen a Veteran's hospital?
A beggar is what you would be, and you would be doing it with a British accent, if it weren't for Americans signing up for or being drafted into war.
All so entitled little shits like you can deliver barbs to Veterans on the Internet.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 13 2017, @10:30PM (1 child)
Why do they do this? So other Americans at home have the freedom and luxury to spit on them and say vile things.
That's probably their intention, but it often does not work out that way in practice. Attacking random countries, as we've been doing for many decades, does nothing to increase or protect the freedom of Americans at home. Soldiers don't get to decide these things, but just because someone is a freedom fight in spirit does not mean that they are a freedom fighter in practice.
But of course the real problem is with the ones in power who take advantage of these people.
if it weren't for Americans signing up for or being drafted into war.
Conscription is a form of slavery and no free country would ever use it. Any country that even allows for the possibility of using it is fundamentally broken. Even allowing the country to be destroyed by the enemy is preferable to using it.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by HiThere on Friday April 14 2017, @01:03AM
There are arguments in favor of universal conscription, but it needs to actually be universal. When the poor are conscripted and the rich get out, it is, as you said, slavery. And when all are conscripted, but only the poor are endangered, it is also a form of slavery.
The problem is, the ones who set policy are not endangered by the policies they set. Even if they were this would not be a complete solution, history is full of brutal and malicious generals who lead from the front, but they are less common than those who plan wars that don't endanger themselves or those they care for. Unfortunately, the highly skilled are a limited resource, so if you don't protect them your society is disadvantaged. And those in charge will always think of themselves as highly skilled.
I don't see a good answer. The "volunteer army" sure isn't one. It's a bit more volunteer than if we had press gangs roaming the streets, but when areas are economically depressed, a "volunteer" isn't that much of a volunteer, and when recruits are lied to, calling them volunteers is a blatant lie in and of itself.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 13 2017, @10:44PM (4 children)
What a load of crap. The last war we won that arguably involved national security was WWII. Of the current veterans only a small percentage were involved in operations that made the US safer. Most of it was nation building that led to the current wave of terrorism.
And no neither Iraq not Afghanistan resulted in us being safer.
Not to mention the fact that we can't afford to spend over half a trillion a year on defense.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Thursday April 13 2017, @10:50PM (1 child)
So what about the draftees? They didn't even want the job, they just got letters saying "you're in the army now".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 14 2017, @12:56AM
Even worse are the conscientious objectors. We were treated like garbage. People calling us cowards and whatnot; doing humiliating work designed to punish; getting paid less for the same work as those with unrestricted status. I may have disliked the military before, but seeing the machine like that was even more enlightening. Oh, and I served side-by-side with someone the whole time and he gets benefits I don't because many of them weren't written with people like me in mind.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Friday April 14 2017, @01:05AM
It's possible that the Korean war made us safer. I haven't really studied that part of history.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 14 2017, @12:11PM
And no neither Iraq not Afghanistan resulted in us being safer.
Yet. We're still at war there.
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday April 14 2017, @12:11AM
Hooo boy, my buddy worked at the VA and when I went to visit the place was pretty pathetic. It was clean, but the lines were long and it was like China in the sense that there would be motherfuckers literally crawling across the floor, or they'd fall out of their seats and slump down and start twitching, and nobody (staff or peers alike) would even pay any attention. In the pharmacy you have motherfuckers in tattered clothing moaning and howling and Jonesin' for their opiates and benzodiazepines. It was like Michael Jackson's Thriller, waiting room edition.
Final Impression of the VA: They spend more on their janitorial services than they do actually helping veterans.