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Musings from Brian J. Noggle
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Thursday, March 31, 2005
Sandy Berger: Slightly Guilty Sandy Berger, the former National Security Adviser accused of putting documents in his socks, has plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge of stealing classified documents. Of course, dear friends, you realize that stealing classified documents remains a misdemeanor only because only powerful people do it; stealing a couple hundred bucks of rare manuscript or something of comparable size and relative value would land you or I, simple citizens, in jail for a long time. But in case you're interested, remember MfBJN provided Stealing Documents In Socks: A Primer last summer to edify you, lawful reader, about how the bad deed is done. (Story seen on Michelle Malkin.) Athletes Refuse Autographs in Rhode Island After all, Rhode Island is legislating away fees for autographs:
Great Minds Think Alike But that won't necessarily explain why I said something with which Professor Bainbridge might agree. In a recent book review, I said:
Robert B. Parker Interview No wonder I have been getting Technorati hits for Robert B. Parker and Spenser. A blogger at Dumpster Bust has a three part interview with the author. Keep That Penumbra In Your Trousers, Miss Ann Althouse, on a ruling that regarding a landlord who wouldn't renew the lease for a trangender group because they were tranrestrooming, comments:
Wednesday, March 30, 2005
Simple Solution Continues to Evade Authorities Loss of Amtrak would derail some travelers' only ride: If:
Without the state's support, the trains would cease to run, according to Jeff Briggs, a spokesman for the Missouri Department of Transportation. Oh, bite my tongue and perhaps my nose as well; Amtrak isn't a service, it's trainfare, and any increase in ticket rates would adversely impact the poorest among us. Like the poverty-stricken anecdote that kicks off the Post-Dispatch story who works as an IT contractor in Kuwait and earns substinence wages doing so. By raising the ticket prices and covering its costs, Amtrak would ensure that some people could still ride the trains, but Amtrak is a government entity. Its goal is not to cover its costs. Its goal is to exist. Also, to get bigger and get more tax money budget if possible. Also, kudos to the Post-Dispatch reporter for leading with the story of someone returning from the Middle East to parallel the contractor with military men and women serving in the area. It's About Our Fair Share, Not Yours Court rules telecommuter must pay taxes:
The Court of Appeals said that computer programmer Thomas Huckaby who lives in Nashville, Tenn., owed New York income tax for his full salary, not just the time he spent working at his employer's New York offices. Huckaby paid tax on about 25 percent of his income over two years for the time he spent working in New York state. But the court upheld a state tax department ruling that all his income should be taxed. That amounts to $4,387 plus interest. However, the ruling could lead to much greater income for the state as it is applied to the growing field of telecommuting. Now, though, New York tips its hand. It's not about commuters paying for their share of services that they use; it's about New York getting what it thinks is its fair share of your income. I truly look forward to the day that some innovative, unelected regulator determines that my telecommuting is taxable in his jurisdiction because my Internet communication hops through a server in his city or state. Tuesday, March 29, 2005
Malkin Favors Disbanding Internet After all, that's what one could extrapolate from her For the Children rant attacking P2P networks:
It's also about sickos and smut purveyors who have unprecedented access to an unimaginable volume of child porn--not to mention photos of children made available to child sex predators through indavertent file-sharing. Perhaps the paradigm and the workings of the Internet are too advanced and too much a part of society to start burning now. But since we're in a pitchfork and torch mood, maybe we shoul ban other peer-to-peer communication systems that allow users to disseminate illegal content. Like the United States Post Office. Anyone, for the cost of a stamp, can mail child pornography to someone else!!!! Or the phone system--anyone with a phone can dial another user and can tell them a social security number or plot a crime! Come to think of it, Malkin's not the first to want to prohibit P2P protocols and technologies. There's a very basic movement afoot to ban another personal communications device used occasionally for illicit means. The gun, and its transmission the bullet, are frequent targets for prohibition because some individuals use them with ill intent. Remove the tool, and you'll remove exercise of the ill intent, right? I'm all for prosecuting people who commit crimes, but I draw the line at banning multiple use technologies that some individuals will use for ill because human nature leads someone to try to use everything for bad purposes. Once you start, you have to draw an arbitrary and ever-more-constricting line at how much ill-intention use demands prohibition. Easy identity theft and copyright infringement don't make Malkin demand prohibition of P2P software, but alleged child pornography does. That's a couple people among millions of users, a rather small percentage indeed. What percentage of bar stools and pool sticks must be broken over malcreants in brawls before we ban them? Ad absurdum or slippery slope? Slippery slope, I fear. Update: Malkin responds to critics in an update to her post:
I guess one could find some call for parental responsibility in her original post, but in plain English, it looks more like a call for agitation and political action than a call for private citizens to monitor their childrens' computer use. Rigged A survey of the 200 best walking cities, and St. Louis comes in at 103 and Milwaukee comes in at 135? Are you kidding me? What, does St. Louis get higher marks for the extreme sport of dodging crumbling facades? (Link seen on Dustbury.) Biased Source Issues Report Apparently, the IRS thinks people aren't paying their fair share:
That gap -- known as the net tax gap -- is between $257 billion and $298 billion, according to preliminary findings from a three-year study on taxpayer compliance released Tuesday. "Even after IRS enforcement efforts and late payments, the government is being shortchanged by over a quarter-trillion dollars by those who pay less than their fair share," said IRS commissioner Mark W. Everson in a statement. I am uncomfortable when the head of the IRS is determining what each person's fair share of tax burden is. I thought we had elected officials to do that, but what we really have is unelected enforcement agents who want more budget and more power. Australian Public Doesn't Favor Protecting but Does Favor Protection Poll: Australia against Taiwan war:
But the same number who oppose involvement in such a war -- 72 percent -- think Australia's alliance with the United States is important for Australia's security. I find it shortsighted and self-serving that the Australian public won't protect a free people from an aggressive and militaristic foe, but that the Australians would certainly expect us to jump in to save them from the same aggressive and militaristic foe. But that's modern Western thought for you. But It's For Homeland Security. And the Children. Gettysburg College President Katherine Haley Will doesn't care for the Department of Education's new spending program:
The government's plan is to track students individually and in full detail as they complete their post-secondary education. The threat to our students' privacy is of grave concern, and the government has not satisfactorily explained why it wants to collect individual information. So it can perform its job more efficiently, of course. That job? To spend vast sums of tax money and acquire more power and budget for itself. Monday, March 28, 2005
Timely Insight Gun scare closes part of Cincinnati airport:
Baggage screeners noticed an X-ray image that resembled a gun after the passenger had picked up the bag and left the checkpoint, said Christopher White, a Transportation Security Administration spokesman in Atlanta. Were this a novel, movie, or an actual plot, the bad guy would have stashed the gun somewhere beyond the checkpoint for an accomplice to retrieve later. Instead, it's an example of befuddled TSA grunts closing down an airport because they couldn't watch the X-rays in real time. UPDATE: Michelle Malkin comments and suspects it was a real gun. Sunday, March 27, 2005
David Nicklaus Promotes Crony Capitalism I've often said that David Nicklaus is the best columnist in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, which doesn't mean I cannot disagree with him, especially when he embraces crony capitalism, like in the column today entitled "Missouri seems too stingy to be slick on luring jobs". Here's the lead:
Missouri has always been among the stingy. It tries to lure employers with its low-tax environment, and it might sweeten the pot with a few tax credits. Nicklaus seems to argue that the Missouri state government should spend state tax money to buy businesses' loyalty, or at least their location in Missouri. While having businesses and employers in the state does affect the citizens positively with jobs and tax revenue for the state which could provide benefits to the citizens, it's rather circular to use the increased tax revenue to provide tax incentives to businesses. Crony capitalism occurs when government officials favor certain businesses with sweetheart deals at the expense of others, and that's what tax incentive packages do; they give certain large (and powerful) companies advantages over the rest of the field, especially the businesses too small or inconsequential to inspire the state government's lust. So pardon me if I disagree, Mr. Nicklaus. Although other states' governments enjoy squandering their residents' tax money to benefit the few (the employees who work for the company and the state's employees who get more money to spend), I don't think that the Missouri state government should competitively transgress against us taxpayers. Although Missouri might lose a couple big fish, ultimately it will benefit from a continued low-tax environment that encourages entrepreneurs to start their businesses here and to maintain their businesses here. Even if our only benefit as citizens comes from the satisfaction in knowing that our state understands its limitations, almost. Go Phish Some phish scammers really don't put any effort into it. Check out this phish I received today and the domain that displays when I mouse over the "official" link provided: ![]() Click for full size I mean, come on, how about registering a second host name aside from your primary line of business, pornography, guys? Is a little effort too much to expect from confidence boys? Saturday, March 26, 2005
Freedom of Speech Defense for Conspiracy LaShawn Barber is on Hugh Hewitt's side:
Richard Alan Meywes was arrested in Fairview by the FBI and the Buncombe County Sheriff's Office, the FBI said in a prepared statement. Meywes is accused of sending an e-mail putting a $250,000 bounty "on the head of Michael Schiavo" and another $50,000 to eliminate a judge who denied a request to intervene in the Schiavo case, the FBI said. The FBI did not immediately identify the judge. "The e-mail also made reference to the recent death of a judge in Atlanta and the death of (a) judge's family members in Illinois," the FBI said. (Thanks to John Cole for the link to the news story.) Book Report: Three from the 87th by Ed McBain (1971) I inherited this book from my Aunt Dale; I don't know if this was her personal copy or if she bought it to sell on eBay, but I do know that she liked Ed McBain, or at least owned one or more of his books; I remember in particular that I read her copy of Lightning when I was young and impressionable. This collection includes, oddly enough, three of Ed McBain's 87th Precinct novels: Fuzz (1968), Jigsaw (1970), and Hail, Hail, The Gang's All Here (1971). That's right, McBain (or Hunter, if you prefer) has been writing these books for fifty years now, and to a certain demographic, the books haven't aged too badly. I mean, of course, to people from Generation X and before, these books have aged well. We remember computers coming into the fore in our lifetimes; before that, typewriters. Criminey, I wrote my first couple of college papers on an old Smith Corona before I could spring the thousands of dollars (with a loan, no less) for the 286-10 running MS-DOS 5.0 and LotusWorks that would last the rest of my college career). So these stories, which feature cops handwriting forms and typing on typewriters, remain relevant and undated to me. I pity writers now (myself included) whose crime fiction will seemingly be ever dated from this point on--what, he was typing on a computer and not just intuiting through the Gibsonterface? These three novels are short; the whole book runs under 500 pages. But that's something else I remember: novels running under 200 pages each. Now, the publishers think you'll wilt if you spend $30 on fewer than 350 pages. Come to think of it, I would, too. Perhaps hardback publishers are pricing themselves out of the entertainment marketplace by keeping their book prices in line with that of video games. But I digress. These three novels represent not only McBain's deftness, but the power of the third person narrator. Because these books don't rely on a single character's viewpoint, McBain has more latitude to try different things than, say, a first person narrator writer like Robert Crais. The novels appear in this book in reverse chronological order (hence, pardon me while I discuss them in the opposite order in which they appear in the book). Fuzz depicts a series of assassinations in the city perpetrated by the Deaf Man, who will become the 87th Precinct's nemesis over the years. This is his second appearance (I believe, and textual evidence supports it). Jigsaw features a couple of detectives from the 87th Precinct, supported by others of course, investigating a particular crime. Hail, Hail, The Gang's All Here depicts a 24-hour period in the 87th Precinct, with two shifts of detectives dealing with the crimes that occur on their shift. The third person narrator allows a lot of latitude of who the author can include and exclude and even who can die during the course of the book. Authors who use the first person narrator shortcut its immediacy by including third person sections (see also Robert Crais and, I daresay, Robert B. Parker). McBain p0wns you. The novels within the book do present an interesting artifact, though, as they depict life in The City (a proxy for New York) in the 1960s and 1970s. Wow, it did seem like a dangerous place to live....until this fellow named Giuliani showed up. McBain found something to write about afterwards, as his books don't stop with Giuliani's election, but I cannot help but read them in that context. So would I recommend the book? Unabashedly. Although my wonderful and well-read mother-in-law has, on occasion, condemned Ed McBain as smut, I still laud the poetry interspersed with the gritty. Also, she was a high school teacher who had the public's morals to protect. Me? I am a poor boy from the ghetto who wanted to escape with his writing. I cannot think of a better example of the third person narrator in crime fiction series than Ed McBain. Any of them, or any three of them in one volume. Jack Cardetti Strikes Again
"He's especially ravaged the Missouri Division of Youth Services, a national model for how to take care of juvenile offenders and then turn them into productive citizens," Cardetti said.
I don't want to gloat to my friends in Illinois or Wisconsin, but Ha! In your face! A Republican governor with a Republican legislature! From the Bookmark Collection Well, it's Saturday, so I've got nothing better to do than to expose you to a representative of my well-used bookmark collection. It's really only a collection because the bookmarks are accumulating in the nightstand drawer, not because I'm actively seeking new and exotic bookmarks. If I were, I'd undoubtedly have better items than the collection of Amazon, used book store, and "here's a gift, send us money" unsolicited fundraiser bookmarks I've got. Still, some of the bookmarks merit comment, including this one:
Remarkable, ainna, that bookmarks can jog as many memories and reflections, sometimes, as the books into which we stick them? So many people just jam notes, slips of paper, and bank privacy notices (hem, well, perhaps only for technical, business-related books, you see) into books because reading doesn't require the pomp and circumstance of true bookmarks. Although, oddly, perhaps that would merit a better sign of books' ubiquitousness.... Friday, March 25, 2005
Don't Settle for the Lesser Symbol Australian columnist Phillip Adams calls the Oscars a symbol of American hegemony. To alter the quote of a more famous Australian, that's not a symbol of American hegemony, this is a symbol of American hegemony: ![]() (Link seen on Tim Blair.) On the Other Side Looks like John Cole isn't on Hewitt's side either. I might describe this as a conservative crack-up, but I'm not a professional radio host. Blogwar! Apparently, Instapundit is not on Hugh Hewitt's side. Let's settle this like Floridians; one gets a box cutter, the other gets a gun store. On Hewitt's Side Perhaps this fellow is a part of Hewitt's rank and file:
Michael W. Mitchell, of Rockford, Ill., entered Randall's Firearms Inc. in Seminole just before 6 p.m. Thursday with a box cutter and tried to steal a gun, said Marianne Pasha, a spokeswoman for the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office. Build a Meme Workshop This morning, Weber and Dolan (teh best morning radio show evar!!!1!) asked listeners what albums they could sing from memory. I didn't call in because I would have filled the segment myself. Not that you care, but here's a partial enumeration of albums I could sing end-to-end were they playing (although for many, I am taken aback when they're played on CD and there's no pause between the song at the end of side 1 and the beginning of side 2). So, anyway:
Now, you play. What albums could you sing every song on if that album is playing? Hugh Hewitt Excludes Me Hugh Hewitt, responding to something by Andrew Sullivan that I haven't and won't read, says there's no conservative crack-up occurring:
However, those elected leaders didn't get elected by just the rank and file. Bush was elected with a coalition of moral/religious conservatives, libertarian-conservatives, and hawkish Democrats. During the election season, I was pleased with how inclusive the Republican electorate was becoming. Now, after the election, it's condensing to its rank and file "Hewitt's side" is sacrificing government constraint and government fiscal discipline to legislate its morality. Now that Hewitt and his side have gotten my libertarianesque vote in the election cycle, they're ready to excommunicate me from the Republican orgy. I, and some of the others not on Hewitt's side, will remember this next election cycle. When a third party candidate comes along with just enough strength to draw our protest votes and the Clintonocracy is restored to the throne, will Hewitt's side learn its lesson? Probably not. But the last time we had a Republican legislature and a Clinton presidency, it worked out to the best for domestic policy. The Republicans wouldn't give Clinton what he wanted, and Clinton could veto what Hewitt's side wanted. Of course, the United States lost ground in foreign policy and international safety, but perhaps we need to toggle between good domestic policy and good foreign policy every decade or so to keep the republic as healthy as possible. Which, unfortunately, seems only to be heroic measures at the end of the republic's life. A Technology Consumers Won't Embrace Ever need to phone 7,000 people at once?
The New York City-based start-up is promoting a communication application at PC Forum that lets a user type a message on a PC that then transforms into a phone call to a few people, or a few thousand. (PC Forum is owned by CNET Networks, owner of News.com.) Though the urgent message currently needs to be typed into a PC (or broadcast from a company's server farm), on April 7, Send Word Now will announce that customers can broadcast messages with a Palm handheld. Thursday, March 24, 2005
Brian Bows to Fark For Fark linked to the story "Paula Abdul Charged With Hit-And-Run" with:
do you really want to love me forever oh oh oh or am I caught in a hit and run? Do Not Eat A study commissioned by a number of environmental groups interested in regulating chemicals has uncovered, in a shocking twist, that your house contains things that the environmental groups want to regulate more (Study finds toxic chemicals in dust samples from U.S. households):
The study, called "Sick of Dust," found 35 hazardous industrial chemicals in household dust samples from 70 homes in seven states, including California. It was commissioned by nine environmental groups, including the Center for Environmental Health in Oakland and the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition in San Jose. "It literally brings home the fact that hazardous chemicals are in our daily lives," said Beverly Thorpe, international director for Clean Production Action, one of the study's sponsors. "We feel now is a prime opportunity to overhaul chemical regulation in the United States." The researchers tested the dust samples for six types of chemicals, including pesticides and flame retardants. All the chemicals are legal, but many are known to be harmful to immune, respiratory, cardiovascular and reproductive systems. They said infants and young children are especially vulnerable to exposure. I'd like to take a moment to elaborate on this thesis and enumerate some other things I don't think you should put in your mouth or slide down your gullet:
Forget Taiwan Same old story, underplayed as usual: Report: China Faces Severe Water Shortages:
More than 100 cities have inadequate water supplies, with more than half "seriously threatened," the official Xinhua News Agency cited Qiu Baoxing, a vice minister of construction, as saying. "The uneven distribution of the limited resource and serious pollution further deteriorate the situation," Qiu said. In Beijing, for example, each resident has access to only 10,593 cubic feet of water a year, compared with the world average of 35,310 cubic feet, Xinhua said in a separate report.
If China wants to conquer, Taiwan might only be a starting point. If China goes the militaristic conqueror route, it will need clean land, arable land and fresh water. Which would worry me if I shared a frontier with China. The Hottest Thing Since Apparently, entrepreneurs have decided that some people don't want to sing a la karaoke; they want to lip synch comedy routines:
The premise behind Joke-e-oke is that, at some level, everyone wants to be a comedian. It's a form of entertainment software that allows people, momentarily, to realize this ambition while emulating the classic comedy routines of their favorite comedians. The idea for Joke-e-oke is simple. It's basically karaoke with stand-up comedy material. Many dream of the chance to be a comedian with killer material in front of a laughing crowd. With Joke-e-oke, people are able to live out their comedy fantasy of being their favorite comedian onstage, choosing from a list of stand-up comedy icons to perform. A built in laugh track is added, timed perfectly to accent punch lines. Wednesday, March 23, 2005
Red Herring? How come I haven't heard Terry Wallis mentioned at all by those who want to save Terri Schiavo. Granted, comatose ain't vegetative, but still, I would expect some comparison. UPDATE: Because in this highly-complicated case in which most commentators have incomplete or inadequate knowledge, it's important to introduce more incomparable situations as direct metaphors for the possibilities. Obfuscation through opination. That's the other thing the blogosphere does best. Carnival of the Honkers The first weekly Carnival of the Honkers is up at angelweave. Hurry, for this will probably be the only Carnival of the Honkers, which makes it a blogosphere collectible. The Longest Yard In San Francisco, high school athletic officials have banned the postgame handshake and goodsportsmanship greetings after girls' soccer games:
Not only that, but "all soccer players will be barred from saying a single word to their opponents, opposing coaches or officials upon the conclusion of every soccer game," Donald Collins, the school district's high school athletic commissioner, decreed in an e-mail to all coaches and referees Monday. So instead of winners and losers exchanging friendly or even perfunctory high-fives, "all soccer players will immediately proceed to their respective sidelines upon the conclusion of every soccer game," Collins commanded. Just because a few girls didn't. So the schools will socialize to the lowest common denominator, which will always prove to be a half step above animal given human nature. Tuesday, March 22, 2005
Outside What Box? While declining to support a local sales tax increase for some communities in Wisconsin so that those communities could then spend the money, Wisconsin state senator Alberta Darling had some confusing praise:
Pardon my skepticism, but that doesn't sound new at all. It sounds rather....common for government "leaders." The Noggle Blitzed You know, I don't normally play chess because most knowledgeable opponents recognize the Noggle Blitz for what it really is--a shortsighted attempt to take as many of the opponent's pieces as fast as possible while sowing confusion with those inexplicable queen-for-knight swaps. Of course, I don't normally drink hard liquor either. But this Shot Glass Chess Set might make me take up both. Take a piece, do a shot! I wonder what the blogosphere's resident chessophile would think? UPDATE: Pejman says what he thinks. What Did You Think Would Happen, Casinoport? November, 2004: Maryland Heights voters pass Proposition D, which charges wireless companies $1000 per communications tower (city press release announcing proposition here; results here and here; mayor does happy dance over his new revenue in city newsletter PDF here) March, 2005: news in my wireless bill:
Next month, we will begin collecting a City business license surcharge of 5.0 percent (5.5 percent in Maryland Heights) to recover the cost of a business license tax that the City claimes must be paid by Verizon Wireless. This surcharge will appear in the Verizon Wireless Surcharges section of your bill as the item labeled CITY BUS LIC SURCHG. This surcharge is a Verizon Wireless charge, not a tax, and is subject to change. If ytou have any questions or concerns about the City's imposition of its business license tax on wireless companies, please contact your elected City officials at 636-537-4000 (Chesterfield), 636-227-1385 (Manchester), 314-291-6550 (Maryland Heights), 314-428-7373 (Vinita Park) or 314-385-1015 (Wellston). Not Quite The Victim Agency says school chief bought less than $2,000 in gambling credits: Official embezzled $844,477, said he had gambling problem:
Ronnie Gene DeShon, former superintendent of the Pattonsburg School District, admitted in federal court earlier this month that he embezzled $844,477 over four years. He said he used to money to feed his gambling addiction. But Troy Stremming, president of the Missouri Riverboat Gaming Association, said if DeShon lost hundreds of thousands of dollars gambling, it wasn't at Missouri's riverboat casinos. Gambling records at the riverboat casinos indicate that DeShon bought less than $2,000 in slot machine credits or table game chips since 2001. Like this guy, I took money from my employer's account last year and deposited it in my personal account, although I understand this is less of an issue when you're self-employed. In case it's not, I want to document my addictions and disorders that led me to this sad low:
Universe in Danger as CNN Deploys Headline Paradox Villain announced for 'Spider-Man 3': Thomas Haden Church will play unnamed nemesis. So the studio identified the actor but has not identified the villain. Whomever the character is, undoubtedly Marvel Comics named it in one comic book or another. I'll take Venom in the pool, please. Tomorrow's Anti-Gun Arguments Today From this Haaretz article:
A Palestinian security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Interior Ministry has distributed a letter outlining weapons restrictions to hundreds of militants in the West Bank. The restrictions limit militants to a single weapon, and bar them from loading the weapons or carrying them in public, the official said. He said the measure obligates militants to license the weapons with the Interior Ministry and forbids them from changing their serial numbers. Many militants possess more than one weapon. (Link seen on Roger L. Simon.) Monday, March 21, 2005
Worse Than International Law I don't know how I feel about this hit:
Pleasepleaseplease do not reach a precedent-setting judicial decision based on what the blogosphere says. But There Won't Be Smoking Allowed Attorney: Owner has right to open adult bookstore:
"It's the law," Shostak said. "It is not the whim of this city government to determine whether a business license should be issued. From someone looking from the outside, it appears that if it is something the city likes then it will be issued. If it is something the city doesn't like, then it will not be issued." "We took the city's ordinance and analyzed the zoning issues," Kleinhans said. "We studied it and did our due diligence. We have met all of the requirements according to the ordinance." Perhaps Shostak should emphasize that smoking will be prohibited on the premises. City councils seem to like to ban that. Or maybe they don't appreciate voluntary smoking bans since those entrepreneurs prevent the city councils from doing something!!!1! Post-Dispatch Gets It Right In Sidebar Along side a story entitled Is your poker game legal?, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch provides a sidebar, Will you get busted?, which details numerous poker game scenarios and whether you can be arrested for them. In which, we find the gospel:
Is it legal? No Will you get busted: Not likely, unless you’re playing with a bunch of suspected felons who already are under surveillance. Al Capone got arrested for tax evasion. Piss off a cop or prosecutor, and you can get busted for cards with your buddies. Collateral Damage Audience I don't think these people will sell to their target audience:
That's what Yvette Thomas is banking on. Her growing line of clothing, WaitWear, plasters slogans like "Virginity Lane: Exit When Married" and "Notice: No Trespassing On This Property. My Father Is Watching" on underwear and T-shirts, and is meant to inspire young people to abstain from sex until they tie the knot. UPDATE: Radley Balko concurs. The Dogs That Didn't Bark White House: Schiavo Bill Not a Precedent:
The road to this Republic's hell are paved with non-intentions. Sunday, March 20, 2005
Book Report: Duty: A Father, His Son, and the Man Who Won the War by Bob Greene (2000) I bought this book for fourteen bucks in paperback at Borders (well, I used a gift card for part of it) because I like Bob Greene's work. As some of you might recall, I read Bob Greene's America last year. He's much better at columns and essays than at full length novels, it would appear based on this single sample. This book chronicles the aftermath Bob Greene's father's death. Greene explores his relationship to his father and seeks a better understanding of the World War II generation as he interviews Paul Tibbets, the man who not only flew the Enola Gay but commanded the military force responsible for putting together the mission. So Greene weaves together the individually compelling stories in what, ultimately, proves to be a less than satisfying mishmash. Greene wanders between his memories of his father's last days, his interviews with Tibbets, and the audiotapes that his father made to tell his children his WWII experiences as an infantryman in Italy in the war. Throughout, we get Greene's earnest voice, sometime plaintive and sometimes naive, discussing the events as they unfold. I've complimented Greene's columns and his collection of columns for their concision and transparent eyeballness, but he cannot sustain it in this longer work. And at the end, Greene gets to meet the two other surviving members of the Enola Gay crew as the three reunite in Branson, Missouri. We get to see they're older and that most people don't know who they are, and at the end of the weekend, the book pretty much ends. It doesn't build to a strong insight or conclusion of any real meat, and although a column doesn't have to, a book should. So I'm ultimately disappointed. I look forward to more collections of his columns, if any exist, but have some trepidation regarding his other long works and his novel. But I'll try at least one, since it's on my too-read shelves. Saturday, March 19, 2005
The Post-Dispatch Has A Big Mind Obviously, it does not worry about consistency. Dateline: December. Post-Dispatch fires reporter for blogging. Dateline: March. Lead editorial: FREEDOM OF INFORMATION: Freedom in the blogosphere Excerpt:
Friday, March 18, 2005
Moose Abuse The Milwaukee Admirals lost to the Manitoba Moose last night. The Moose backstopper Wade Flaherty won the MVP of the Calder Cup playoffs last year when he led the Milwaukee Admirals to the championship. And the Admirals had their backup goalie in, so essentially it was last year's number one Admirals goalie against the number three Admirals goalie. What would you expect? However, in accordance with the rules of the Hockey Whoopass Jamboree, I must post the winning team's logo: ![]() As well as a link to Your Moosey Fate, who had the foresight to pick the Moose in the jamboree. Book Report: Star Trek 6 by James Blish (1972) Okay I read another of these. I bought 5-10 for 33 cents each at Hooked on Books in Springfield, and they're well worth it. Star Trek 6, like the others in the series, gathers together some of the episodes from the original Star Trek series and does them in a short story format. They're quick reads as they run about 130 pages each and, as paperbacks, they fit in one's pocket. A couple of things strike me as I read them:
Possession by Law Enforcement Is 10/10ths of the Law In the story entitled " $3.3 million in suspect cash is seized ", we encounter a hint of another way the federal government has eroded property rights:
Sure, this story is about $3.3 million, but it includes other enumerations as well:
Gratuitous In an article entitled "Twist and Shout: Readers nominate the most-idiotic-twist endings.", Slate's movie guy offers an editorial comment:
But it does put you on Eric Mink's career path--from television critic to editor of the op-ed pages. Iala Iacta Est No Stopping Global Warming, Studies Predict
Thursday, March 17, 2005
Waste of a Bullet US troops shoot dead Iraqi general: police I mean, if he's dead, why waste the ammo? On a serious note, we love the caption for the photo: "US troops have killed a number of coalition personnel. (Reuters)" Of all the things you could say about US troops, I guess that's one. Not What He Had In Mind Sure, some of us have speculated that it's how we want to go, but this probably isn't what we've got in mind:
Book Report: Cold Service by Robert B. Parker (2005) I actually ordered Cold Service from Amazon, so I'm a week late in reading it. But I read it in a single night, as is my wont. It helps that the books are thick, but the print is large and the most of the book is dialogue. The plot basically recycles Small Vices and Pale Kings and Princes in that Hawk gets shot, almost dies, and when he recuperates, he and Spenser will pit the various organized crime elements against each other to get revenge on the gang who shot Hawk and the people whom he was protecting (some bodyguard--sorry, that's A Savage Place). The same knocks I make on Crais novels I can make on Parker in the last couple of years. The plot centers on a favor for a friend instead of a case, it features a problem and not a mystery, and it features an ethnic gang of the month (Ukrainians). Still, I was partly raised by Robert B. Parker since I read the best of the Spenser novels in my fatherless formative years, so I give him a little more leeway for the books he phones in. Still, I enjoyed the book well enough, but I'd prefer to see Spenser work on some cases, not some guerilla campaigns against organized crime. Warranty Violation Imagine my horror this morning when I discovered that I opened my new toothbrush from the wrong end: ![]() Jeez, I should have read all instructions carefully. By removing the toothbrush from the box handle first, I've not only violated the warranty, which means that if this toothbrush fails to clean my teeth effectively, I cannot return it to the manufacturer for repair, but also that I have actually diminished the effectiveness of the toothbrush whose toothcleaning power was actually activated by the upward motion of the toothbrush head through the OPEN THIS END side. Not to mention this very blog entry will be used as evidence against me at the next hearing, making it harder for me to acquire and receive a license for toothbrushes in the future. What a sucky way to start my day. Wednesday, March 16, 2005
Where'd Everybody Go? So as I monitored my daily hits, I could have wondered why I was not getting any hits from my trackback to a VodkaPundit post in this post yesterday defending Kansas and attacking those who would attack Kansas. As Matt at Overtaken by Events discovered, the guest blogging author of the original post closed comments and eliminated all trackbacks. Poor form, Peter. That's One Big Insect This headline would be much funnier with a hyphen: Family of protester killed by bulldozer-suing Caterpillar What kind of caterpillar sues bulldozers, anyway? (Link seen on Overlawyered.) Preventing Carpal Tunnels Remember, ergonomics are important. Fortunately, Ajax helps me maintain proper wrist angle: ![]() Welcome, Fellow Felons (Unprosecuted) Professor Glenn Reynolds, a little known blogger, writes in Tech Central Station:
Book Report: The American Zone by L. Neil Smith (2001) I saw this book last winter at the 80% off book store before I saw its predecessor The Probability Broach; however, I found the first one and read it first and finally, five months later, got to this book. This book is a short story stuffed with Libertarian policy. A couple of crimes occur, and the heroes interview a number of authoritarian straw men and shout them down with Libertarian reason. Then, on page 250, a member of the villains committing the crimes comes forward and explains to them what's going on in the plot and how to reach the climactic shootout where the bad guys die, the good guys are only injured, and an unexpected cavalry arrives. I guess if you eagerly bought the book, this is kinda what you hoped would happen. However, I found the book tiresome to read without a plot, although the writing was simple and easygoing enough. But it's hard to overtly root for an ideology as the antagonist. Tuesday, March 15, 2005
They Must Have Run Out of Tobacco Lawsuit Money Newark, New Jersey, used homeland security grants to buy garbage trucks:
Newark unveiled its new garbage trucks last month — and boasted that the financing had partly come from "Homeland Security grants." Republican lawmakers yesterday blasted the city for "misuse" of federal money. "It goes to the heart of credibility," said Assemblyman Joseph Pennacchio, who noted New Jersey officials have been lobbying for more anti-terror funds. "You can't say we're buying garbage trucks on one hand and we're not getting enough Homeland Security money on the other." Not to mention that it's illegal to buy garbage trucks with a Homeland Security grant, says the department. More Separate But Unequal Waiter, there's a nose ring in my soup: Wyoming may ban facial piercings in restaurants
It was enough to persuade the Governor's Food Safety Council to recommend banning facial jewelry for restaurant workers who prepare food -- perhaps becoming the first state in the country to do so. Unfortunately, we expect nothing less. Gratuitous Slap Guestblogging at VodkaPundit, someone whose blog I don't bother with slaps the state of Kansas. Why? Because it's there.
How are you supposed to answer an ad statum attack? Update: Dustbury's thoughts. More Separate But Equal To Destroy Now that a judge in San Francisco has ruled that banning gay marriage invokes the magickal separate but unequal curse, I humbly suggest some other institutions which could use a judicial takedown for promoting separateness but equalness:
Monday, March 14, 2005
Another Surveillance Camera Triumph Remember, friends, cameras cannot keep you safe; they can only provide prosecutors and law enforcement officials with leads and evidence after the bad guys do bad things. Control desk failed to notice assault on camera:
The video shows Hall guiding Nichols, whose hands are still handcuffed behind his back, face-first into one of two open cells. Hall releases one cuff and turns Nichols around to unhook the remaining cuff, which is dangling from his wrist. She uncuffs him so he can change from a jail jumpsuit into street clothes. The muscular, 33-year-old Nichols then lunges at Hall, knocking the petite, 51-year-old woman backward into another cell. Both disappear from camera view. Because there is no audio recording with the camera, it is unclear whether Nichols shot Hall or caused her severe head injuries by hitting her with his fist and knocking her to the concrete floor. Two to three minutes later, Nichols emerges from the cell, holding Hall's gun belt and police radio. He picks up her keys from the floor and locks her inside the cell. Nichols then goes into a nearby cell. A couple of minutes later he emerges, dressed in civilian clothes. He locks the door behind him and saunters calmly out of the holding area, carrying the gun belt, according to the law enforcement official who viewed the tape. Nichols appears to know exactly which key to use to unlock the holding area door and enters a vacant courtroom on the eighth floor. What Good Is a Criminal Record? San Francisco has determined that having convictions on your record might make people think less of you. So they're all in favor of removing criminal convictions:
She escaped when her pimp was sent to prison. Now she is back with her family, working part-time and attending college. The poised and articulate 23- year-old wants her criminal past cleared so she can enter the field of her dreams: nursing. A San Francisco program called Clean Slate may be the answer. Using a little-known state law, the Clean Slate program run by the San Francisco public defender's office got more than 1,500 criminal cases cleared last year. Another 2,227 are being processed. The cleared cases -- all committed in San Francisco -- range from lesser charges such as prostitution and petty theft to more serious offenses including attempted rape, drug dealing, assault and vehicular manslaughter. Sunday, March 13, 2005
Too Little, Too Late Sen. Paul Sarbanes won't seek reelection Too damn little, too late. When your name has been attached to a piece of legislation designed to hobble corporations and to transfer wealth from publicly-owned companies to accounting firms and the government, you've been in office too long. When your legislation is used as a perjorative amongst well-informed people (SOX you!), your retirement comes too late. That McCain-Feingoldin' Federal-power-mad, doin'-somethin legislator. May he retire in piece and not inflict current legislators with his lobbying. Because They Already Memorialized Dead Homeless People Last Week More feature writing from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Whatever happened to Evelyn West?, which eulogizes a famous stripper in St. Louis from the 1950s:
He ignored the clues that this 83-year-old woman once had been famous. They could be found in the stacks of provocative photographs all about her quarters; three bedrooms stacked with boxes that made it impossible to walk through the rooms. Some contained the outfits she donned backstage and then discarded onstage to the cheers of hundreds each night. Missouri Citizens Have Too Much Power, Missouri Legislator Determines Bill would forbid ‘harassing' requests for documents:
But a loose definition of the bill's wording by government officials who process the requests could hurt even well-intentioned residents, some say. House Bill 391, the proposed change to Missouri's Sunshine Law, would allow a public governmental body to refuse any "vexatious" request for documents. The bill defines a vexatious request as "any request for documents which is frivolous, repetitive or unreasonable and made for the primary purpose of harassing a public governmental body or any member of a governmental body."
Saturday, March 12, 2005
Big Business and Big Labor Local government works for big corporations; however, apparently in Des Moines, the local government also obeys the dicta of big labor. After all, they threw out a low bid for a city contract probably because the low bidder used non-union employees:
The savings would have been large enough to nearly pay for last year's decision to restore power to 4,200 streetlights that had been turned off in a cost-saving move. "I respect the council members because I know they have a tough job, but this was" wrong, said Thelma Saxton, whose family owns Saxton Inc., which employs non-union labor. Officials of Corell Contractor Inc. of West Des Moines and a lobbyist for the Central Iowa Building and Construction Trades Council contacted council members before this week's vote and asked them not to hire Saxton. Corell employs union labor. Iowa laws do not require cities to use union labor. Easter Bunny: Too Religious for Commerce Apparently, the Easter Bunny is too Christian for some malls:
Not that there's a shortage of 6-foot white rabbits carrying baskets of colored eggs. It's just that Mr. Shopping Mall Bunny is becoming more politically correct. The bunny at The Gardens mall Easter egg hunt last weekend — oops, make that just plain "egg hunt" — was called Garden Bunny. "The name just complemented The Gardens of the Palm Beaches," mall Marketing Director Jeannie Roberts said. Saturday, Baxter the Bunny is available for photos at the Mall at Wellington Green. At Town Center in Boca Raton, Peter Rabbit will hand out goodies and pose for pictures. "Because we're such a multicultural community, it's good just to remain neutral," mall General Manager Sam Hosen said. Friday, March 11, 2005
Report: Industry Group Wants Government Money Group: U.S. losing competitive edge:
Thursday, March 10, 2005
My State Legislator Coddles Corporation I'm very disappointed to see that my State Senator has decided that a local company needs handouts to stick around:
To keep the company in Missouri, Sen. John Loudon, R-Ballwin, said he has introduced an 11th-hour bill to improve Missouri's menu of economic incentives. He filed the bill March 1 after meeting with St. Louis County officials. "There is very real competition from other communities throughout the country that are making inquiries into one of our fastest-growing companies," said Denny Coleman, president of the St. Louis County Economic Council. "The array of incentives programs we have here are not as strong as our competitor states." Bureaucrat Explains Economic Theory Martin Braeske, planning supervisor for the St. Louis City school district, explains how finance works as he discusses the sale of schoolhouses:
Wednesday, March 09, 2005
Spending Tax Money is the Only Assurance of Integrity Democrat state politicians are upset that Matt Blunt isn't spending state tax money to fly himself around the state:
"Special interests picked his Cabinet, and now they're taxiing him around the state to further curry favor with him," Cardetti said. Sun-Times Double Team Both Richard Roeper and Neil Steinberg spend some of their columns today pooh-poohing blogs. Roeper:
The media landscape is changing, and that's a positive thing. We're supposed to be living in a democracy in which all voices have an equal opportunity to be heard. The more platforms in the public square, the better. Still, we need to keep a sense of perspective. The new media doesn't yet have a fraction of the clout, power, success and influence still enjoyed by the old media.
I thought of the CB craze while watching an excruciating CNN "Inside the Blogs" report on a blogger -- someone who keeps an online diary -- who was accredited and given access to a White House press conference, making him "perhaps the first blogger to cover the daily press briefings." Yowza. Though they also let in a turkey at Thanksgiving, CNN found this particular entrance highly significant, perhaps some kind of turning point, and as the protracted, painful segment unfolded, the reporter tried to present the usual piranha frenzy in the so-called "blogosphere" by actually scrolling down, on air, blocks of verbiage on her computer screen. "It's hard to read," she said as the text flew by. Is it ever. So why was CNN fooled? I know producers have time to fill, but they stumbled onto a common misperception that deserves note. Stuck as always in the jail of the present moment, we mistake White House or presidential involvement for a sign of importance or respectability. Tuesday, March 08, 2005
Book Report: Star Trek 5 by James Blish (1972) You damn kids want to know what old skool geeks did before DVDs, before VHS, and even before BetaMax? In the dark, dark days of the early 1970s, after the original Star Trek series disappeared from the airwaves and the animated series offered the only respite (the movie which revived the franchise was 8 years off in 1972, Star Wars the sci fi savior was 5 years off, and the next Star Trek Series a whopping fourteen years off). James Blish, a sci fi writer/hack took the episodes from the original series and published them in a series of books. That's right, you damn kids. Before they had DVDs, they had books, and geeks read. Not just books on development, but science fiction. In books. I was first exposed to this series in high school, right before Star Trek: The Next Generation came out. So when I found a number of these books (starting with this one) at Hooked on Books priced at three for a dollar, I bought a season's worth of Star Trek for a buck sixty-seven. You can't beat that at garage sales for old videocassettes, werd. This book runs 135 pages, roughly, and features seven stories. I remember many of the episodes, so I'm really drawn along. One hour episodes, condensed into 15 page stories, translates into some quick and easy science fiction reading. Granted, if you're not familiar with the original series and its characters, perhaps the book won't hold the same appeal for you. But you're a damn kid anyway, and I want you off of my lawn! Brian Likes the URL String In my capacity in software QA working on Web applications, I know there's no easier means of havoc than to mess with the URL string sent to the Web application. Looks as though some "hackers" have discovered the same with a university application, um, application:
(Link seen on Outside the Beltway.) Mmmm. Fuzzy Chicken Save Toby.
Unfortunately, on June 30th, 2005, Toby will die. I am going to eat him. I am going to take Toby to a butcher to have him slaughter this cute bunny. I will then prepare Toby for a midsummer feast. I have several recipes under consideration, which can be seen, with some pretty graphic images, under the recipe section. Eye Witness Shocker! Italy Foreign Minister Disputes U.S. Claim:
Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini told parliament that the car carrying the intelligence officer and an ex-hostage to freedom was not speeding and was not ordered to stop by U.S. troops at a checkpoint, contrary to what U.S. officials say. Punish the Suspected Here comes the intersection of gun rights and terrorism, and shockingly, they want to limit gun rights for our security: U.S. let terror suspects buy guns, feds say
People suspected of being members of terrorist groups are not automatically barred from legally buying guns, and the new investigation, conducted by congressional officials at the Government Accountability Office, indicated that people with clear links to terrorist groups had taken advantage of this gap on a regular basis. Since Sept. 11, 2001, law enforcement officials and gun control groups have voiced increasing concern about the prospect of having a terrorist walk into a gun shop, legally buying an assault rifle or other type of weapon and using it in an attack. Some slippery slopes are so steep that they're vertical drops, werd. Brian Doesn't Cry Like a Baby A reminiscience spurred by Richard Roeper's column today:
From one Web site hawking the stickers: "Imagine your friend spotting a few bullet holes on his new car after a long day at work; he may just cry like a baby." Monday, March 07, 2005
I Got Nothing Since I don't have anything witty or insightful to say today, perhaps you should just go read the Chicago Tribune's Steve Chapman in his column "The illusions of the minimum wage", which begins:
The Massachusetts Democrat is offering a measure that would boost the wage floor from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour over the next two years. He notes that it has not been lifted since 1997, during which time senators have gotten seven pay raises. "If the Senate is serious about an anti-poverty agenda," he said, "let's start by raising the minimum wage." Republicans, meanwhile, might accept an increase of $1.10, as proposed by Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.). It may seem like an inescapable truth that if you increase the amount employers pay their lowest-wage workers, you will have fewer poor people. Money, after all, is what they lack, and a higher minimum wage means more money to those in the worst-paying jobs. In fact, this is one of those obvious facts that turns out not to be a fact at all. The available evidence suggests that raising the minimum wage doesn't do what it's supposed to do. Sunday, March 06, 2005
Deep Cover Investigative Journalism Norville to Anchor From 'Home Confinement':
It's maddening, but I like madness. It keeps me company and walks on cats' paws. Seriously, what's next? Deborah Norville drives her own car so viewers know what commuting is like? (Link seen on Tim Blair's site.) Were I a Cynical, Suspicious Man If I were a cynic, or a hopeful writer of suspense fiction, I might make something different of this story: Italian Journalist Rejects U.S. Account. Okay, we have these salient events:
I would title the book Ill Manifest. Update: Real-life mystery writer Roger L. Simon offers a plot. Update II: Baldilocks, who deploys a Ludlumian title for a post in The Sgrena Gambit, indicates that the car depicted above might not be the car alledgedly shot 300-400 times. Homelessness Rediscovery Watch The St. Louis Post-Dispatch waxes romantic about homelessness in its Metro section today: For two men, it was a place to call home.
For the better part of a year it had been their bench, and even on those rainy nights when they would leave to take shelter under the roof of a nearby bus stop, they would always return. There was no address, not in the strict sense of the word, but for Morris White and Kerry Smith, it was the closest thing to a home they would know for much of 2004. They arrived for the first time in the late spring, when the city air was warm and clean, and the sweetgum trees were heavy with new leaves. If these homeless people don't care to change their condition, why should I? Why should tax money be spent on them, other than it's free? I doubt the Post-Dispatch wanted to raise these questions. Saturday, March 05, 2005
St. Louis County Excited to Seize Tax Money from Employees Well, that' how I would have titled this story, which the St. Louis Post-Dispatch entitled "St. Louis County lures 300 jobs from Alton":
Those workers will move into a new 10-story headquarters building just off Interstate 270 and Olive Boulevard, where they'll be joined by 200 employees from Clayton and a dozen or so from Chesterfield, under the deal unveiled Friday.
Remember, St. Louis County government serves itself and its corporate juicers, not the residents. If you don't believe it, buy a house where developers will want to build a strip mall in 2014. Book Report: A Century of Enterprise: St. Louis 1894-1994 by Rockwell Gray (1994) This book represents another picture book I inherited from my aunt, and if the used price on Amazon is any guide, it might have been her biggest eBay score. But she lacked a certain follow through on the whole online auction thing. So I've got it now, and I thumbed through it, looking at the historical photos of business in St. Louis and reading the flattering paragraphs accompanying the photos. The book was, as a matter of fact, underwritten by one of the enterprises whose start is depicted in the book. Of course that company and all others in St. Louis are praised. Lavishly. So the book provides interesting photographs, and some trivia and insights, including:
The End is Nigh On September 30, 2005, Teddy Ruxpin became self-aware:
Friday, March 04, 2005
Book Report: The 100 Greatest Movies of All Time by Ty Burr (1999) This book represents another picture book I inherited from my aunt. Not that it meant much to her; she probably bought it at a yard sale to sell on eBay, and I might well have been at the yard sale with her, egging her on. It's a compendium of 100 of the best movies from 1894-1994, as determined by Entertainment Weekly and Ty Burr. It contains the requisite mixture of classics and foreign films. Man, you know, the last foreign film I saw was El Mariachi, and prior to that it's limited to Jackie Chan and kung fu flicks. I didn't even see Crouching Estrogen, Hidden Misandry even though my wise and benevolent mother-in-law recommended it. But books of this stripe are good browsing material, even if you're not a tabloid fan or if you don't care for anything lighter than The Atlantic Monthly for your magazine reading. Books like this are quick espresso shots of trivia information, information I hope to put to use at the next North Side Mindflayers Trivia Night victory. Plus, if you're a trivia smart aleck like me, you'll look for flaws in the book. Like that the cover contains a still from Rebel without a Cause, which didn't make the book. Or that the still of Han Solo confronting Jabba the Hutt from Star Wars was not from the original, but from the 25th anniversary re-release (in 1997, which was beyond the five year cutoff of the book). So it's a good enough book, a quick one-night flip through, and it won't kill as many brain cells as, say, watching the French language liberated sexuality movies. Book Report: Treachery by Bill Gertz (2004) My beautiful wife bought me this book, whose full title is Treachery : How America's Friends and Foes Are Secretly Arming Our Enemies, for Christmas, because the message of the season is Peace on Earth and this book details, in part, why that ain't happening. Gertz compiles the evidence that other countries, including Germany, France, Russia, and China, are arming rogue countries. I don't know that I would have ever called these nations our friends, contrary to what Tom Clancy would have had us believe, so I'm not plussed by this information. It's all pretty damning, and it's the stuff I get daily on the blogs I tend to read. But to the uninitiated, and to those who don't get their daily dose of human nature writ large on the international scale on the Internet, I'm sure the book was an eye-opener. Gertz is a good, methodical writer and has a lot of access to insights and insiders to tease out information about national security and to present compelling calls to action with that information. So if you've got a hot and sexy wife who buys you things, I cannot emphasize enough that this is a good book to receive. Still Learning My wife likes musicals. Top Secret, while it includes singing, is apparently not a musical. Great Minds Think Alike....And Sometimes I Think That Way, Too I just ordered this book after Instapundit flogged it: Go Directly to Jail : the Criminalization of Almost Everything. That's a live horse this blog continues to beat, hopefully unto death, after which I will continue to strike just so it doesn't arise as some undead nightmare. No pun intended, but I'll take it. Forget the Articles, Send Me More Naked Women E-Mail Playboy sends me this junk mail teaser:
End of Week Snark Another coming of age story for young men results in charges: Teacher Accused of Sex Abuse:
Wednesday, March 02, 2005
Rolled a 1 on a d6 Archaelogists uncover three coffins, mummies behind a secret door:
Book Report: The Forgotten Man by Robert Crais (2005) This book is the latest in the Elvis Cole novels by Robert Crais; he released it just last month. As a later Elvis Cole novel, it features all the hallmarks of the Cole novels:
When a strange, tattooed man is murdered, his dying words claim that Elvis Cole is his son. Cole, who never knew father, wonders if this is the man and if not, why the dying man would make the claim. So Cole investigates, dredges up some long fallow crimes, and pines for Lucy Chenier. I am finally done with the series, which is a blessing and a curse; now I have to stand before my bookshelves when I finish a book and pick another one from the hundreds of volumes on my to-read shelves. It was so easy to just resignedly pick up the next Crais novel, and now I am stuck with my indecision. Officer, It's Not What You Think Fark links to the story Teacher Has Sex with Pupil While Baby in Car: Cops with the unfortunate summary: That's preposition abuse if I ever saw it. Automotive Shopping Advice A review of the Lincoln Town Car BPS, courtesy of Business 2.0:
Tuesday, March 01, 2005
St. Louis Post-Dispatch Sides Against Seniors In a story entitled "Between a rock and a hard place", the St. Louis Post-Dispatch must choose between tax spending government bureaucrats and senior citizens. And it chooses the government spenders:
Districts rely on property taxes for a significant part of their budgets. For the Collinsville School District, that decrease is expected to total close to a $800,000 revenue shortfall for next year. "We're not alone with this. All school districts are affected - some more and some less," said Superintendent Dennis Craft. "But we did not expect this (cut in funding) to this extent." The decrease stems from two exemptions. One, called the Homestead Exemption, is offered to senior citizens. The program increased the reduction amount from $2,500 to $3,000 on property assessments. Another program, called Senate bill 1790, or owner-occupied exemption, increases what can be omitted from property assessments by as much as $1,500 from what was originally set at $3,500. This means that homeowners can potentially pay less in taxes because their property assessments are decreased. Seniors who own a home can take advantage of both exemption programs, saving as much as $8,000 from their home's assessed value. |
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