You probably saw this story on CNN this past weekend (like I did).

In Orange County, the problem isn’t dashing through the snow. It’s cars darting down the street at high speeds.

So the Orange County Sheriff’s Office is doing something about it, launching Operation ELF: Enforcing Limits and Fining speeders.

Here’s how it works: a sheriff’s deputy dressed as an elf clocks cars using a radar gun then dispatches a motorcycle deputy to pull them over and issue the driver a ticket.

A lot of people were screaming and crying about entrapment after being caught doing 56 in a 35. Huh? Like the Elf Deputy said (I’m paraphrasing): “By the time they see me, I’ve already clocked them, and it doesn’t matter if I’m dressed like an elf or not.”

But, y’know, what it really comes down to is this: “If you’re not willing to pay the fine, don’t stomp the gas pedal.”

I also don’t get how speed traps are entrapment. What’d they do? Stick a naked hooker on the back of a pickup truck and accelerate until you got above the speed-limit and then pulled you over? That’s entrapment! An elf running a radar-gun isn’t. Entrapment is “when [a person] is induced or persuaded by law enforcement officers or their agents to commit a crime that he had no previous intent to commit.” But, but, but … you were already doing the crime!

People = Stupid. Law Enforcing Elves = SWEEEET.

Patrick Yrizarry’s sculpture (view the full gallery) is almost enough to get me to put my laptop down and grab my DVD box-sets of Star Trek: The Next Generation to watch both parts of “The Best of Both Worlds.” But, of course, finals won’t wait, and I’ve got papers to write. Besides, after I watched both episodes, I’d have to watch “Family“, which, in dealing with Picard’s coming to grips with being forced to kill thousands as a tool of the Borg, deserved to have been named “The Best of Both Worlds Pt. 3,” and is essential viewing.

This story reminds me of when I was a teen and I’d walk past Victoria’s Secret on the lower level of The Columbia Mall, and I would ever so discreetly shift my eyes so I could see the lingerie-wearing models on the advertising placards.

This was back in the day before internet porn. Or, rather, my ability to access internet porn.

Dilbert’s a fan of BSG! HT to BaltimoreMick.

I’ve been bad about blogging on BSG lately, understandable given my increased work load as finals arrive, studying commences, and, did I mention how many papers I have to write? Anyway, some quick thoughts on the episode, first, a summary:

Food supplies have been contaminated. The refugees in the Rag Tag Fleet are starving. Galactica locates a planet with an edible protein-packed algae in the middle of a dense and hard to navigate (not to mention highly-radioactive) star-cluster. Galactica’s pilots use Raptors to navigate skeleton-crewed ships through the cluster. After Starbuck learns that Kat assumed a new identity and reinvented her life after the Cylon attacks on Caprica (she was a drug smuggler named Sasha), Kat switches her radiation badge with Helo’s, hoping to kill herself before her secret is revealed to Admiral Adama.

* So, now that Tigh’s back as XO, Helo gets booted back to the flight-wing, and judging from the CoC chart at the end of the episode, he’s not even a flight leader. Man. There is just no more job security anywhere.

* I liked Kat, and I’m sorry to see her go. I always thought of her and Starbuck as the same character at different points in their lives, and thought the contrast between them — and their rivalry — was great.

* Of the three newly-recruited pilots we met in “Act of Contrition”, now only Hot Dog remains.

MSBNC.com:

The Heart Attack Grill — a theme restaurant whose specialties include the Quadruple Bypass Burger and Flatliner Fries, cooked in pure lard — is making health-care professionals’ blood pressure rise, and not because of the menu.

It is because of the waitresses’ naughty nurse uniforms.

Several nurses have complained to the Arizona attorney general’s office, and a national nursing group has repeatedly asked Heart Attack Grill owner Jon Basso to stop using the outfits.

“Nurses are the most sexually fantasized-about profession,” said Sandy Summers, executive director of the Center for Nursing Advocacy, based in Baltimore. “We’re asking people, if they’re going to have these fantasies, please don’t make it so public. Move these sexual fantasies to other professions.”

So, it’s okay when strippers show up to bachelor parties in a nurse’s costume, but serving food is out!

Do candystripers still exist, or do nurses serve food to patients when they’re stuck in a hospital bed? I haven’t watched E.R. in quite some time, and I don’t remember any Grey’s Anatomy episodes touching on this subject. I mean, this just seems like an odd thing to get your panties in a twist over.

(This, by the way, looks delicious, and no, I’m not talking about the quadruple bypass).