I was visibly upset last night.  My wife even looked over at me and said, "Ok, what's bothering you?"  At first I didn't want to say anything, but after she prodded a bit more I opened the floodgates.  Hey, she asked for it:

"The prior programmer at work used Role authentication instead of Rights authentication.  He also used NUMBERs for his roles.  On an ENTERPRISE level application.   I mean, I'm looking at lines of code like "if((!this.Page.User.IsInRole("2") && !this.Page.User.IsInRole("18")))" in the freaking Page_Load method to hide and show controls and I want to smash my desk into 20 pieces and shove it up my coworkers ass - and they didn't even do anything!"

She started to run for the door but I continued before she got half way there.

"There's not just a few instances of this  crazyness either.  It's scattered like a bowl of rotten spagehtti throughout the entire presentation layer.  Hundreds of them biatches all over the place.  Hon, they're mind fucking me right now.  It's got to stop!!  ARHGHGHGHH I am the HUUUULK."

She dashes for the fridge opens a can of beer and then hands it to me.  Hulk...sleepy.

Why does MS tell us that Roles are good?  Do you know how much scalability problems could have been solved with a Rights system instead?  I think the prior developer was pissing his pants with excitement when he decided to use the Role "18" instead of something like "Administrator".  "MUA HA HA HAAaaa.  I control this application, if it wasn't for me this company wouldn't be in business (actual quote from the dude).  I shall name this Role...17?  No 19...wait...wait...18!  It's perfect!  Middle ground it is bucko!  Time to go home.  Another job well done."