A sterling citizen for whom I have great affection opened his American Community Survey packet this morning. He demonstrated his sterlingness by actually reading questions and penciling in answers for two or three pages.
Then the sorry SOB looked into the mirror of his sterling soul and saw tarnish. File 13.
The Constitution grants Washington the power to enumerate him, so there he stands, hand dutifully up for easier counting, giving the federal snoopers a pass on the Article One specification that he is subject to forced enumeration only once per decade, not at any over-secretion of the enumerators' window-peeping glands.
He decided that the demanded details of his life -- personal, professional, social, and financial -- were (1) an identity thief's dream and (b) a facilitator for further nanny-state bungling and (3) a violation of Article 4 of the Bill of Rights.
He was unimpressed with: "TheCensus Bureau is required by U.S.law to keep your answers confidential." Perhaps that is because, on reading that, something reminded him of Lois Lerner who also pledged to obey the the law while in the employ of another federal tentacle required to observe strict standards of confidentiality.
Showing posts with label Miscellanous assholery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Miscellanous assholery. Show all posts
Oct 17, 2016
Apr 15, 2013
A Monday Morning Mash
1. My friend John in ultra-urban Arizona spent hours looking for .22 Shorts for his friend who owns a Beretta Minx. This crap has been going on for a long time now -- long enough to get me questioning my usual iron resistance to goofy conspiracy theories.
2.I'll ask her to do something about the slightly frizzy hair, but Rep. Martha Blackburn of Tennessee will be offered a high position in my First Administration. This morning on the teevee she characterized the Gosnell murder/abortion case as 'horrible" rather than "horrific." This persuades me she might refrain from using "impact" as a verb. In this language-murdering 21st Century, that qualifies anyone for cabinet-level office.
3. Global warming, anyone? The Plains weather continues to suck. If this kind of weather hangs on for a few more weeks, we're only a middlin' Tambora eruption from a rerun of 1800-and-froze-to-death. If you look at your weather graphic on your telescreen, you'll see a splotch of white about the size of Europe splashed across the country from Oklahoma up to the western Great Lakes. That's real snow, cold and pearly white, reflecting heat back into space at a time when The Good Earth should be soaking up warmth for the 2013 growing season. We'll probably be okay, of course, but it never hurts to remind the climate politicians of how little it takes turn an 8,000-mile diameter rock into a pretty snowball.
4. Nothing else impacts on my mind this morning. So have a nice day if you can, otherwise endure.
2.I'll ask her to do something about the slightly frizzy hair, but Rep. Martha Blackburn of Tennessee will be offered a high position in my First Administration. This morning on the teevee she characterized the Gosnell murder/abortion case as 'horrible" rather than "horrific." This persuades me she might refrain from using "impact" as a verb. In this language-murdering 21st Century, that qualifies anyone for cabinet-level office.
3. Global warming, anyone? The Plains weather continues to suck. If this kind of weather hangs on for a few more weeks, we're only a middlin' Tambora eruption from a rerun of 1800-and-froze-to-death. If you look at your weather graphic on your telescreen, you'll see a splotch of white about the size of Europe splashed across the country from Oklahoma up to the western Great Lakes. That's real snow, cold and pearly white, reflecting heat back into space at a time when The Good Earth should be soaking up warmth for the 2013 growing season. We'll probably be okay, of course, but it never hurts to remind the climate politicians of how little it takes turn an 8,000-mile diameter rock into a pretty snowball.
4. Nothing else impacts on my mind this morning. So have a nice day if you can, otherwise endure.
Apr 11, 2013
Memo to the IRS
Welcome to my blog, and I hope you enjoy reading it more than I enjoyed sending you that check day before yesterday. It again amounted to the price of a very nice Colt 1911 which, as you may know, is a robust yet concealable heavy-caliber weapon capable of accepting high capacity magazines.
(It usually doesn't, because most fellows like me tend to tuck it in our pants and a special big magazine is uncomfortable. Too, a magazine in my pants that sticks out a long ways may, depending on exact positioning, confuse certain onlookers about my social intentions.)
But anyway, as I say, welcome to my site, and I really don't care if you read it because when I publish something to one and all, I think I agree with you that I indeed do give up what you fellas and gals are calling an "expectation of privacy."
Now, about my email:
Piss off.
If the first place, it's none of your damned business what I write to the pretty lady in Ohio.
In the second, you are wasting money. Even if i did forget to report the profit (about $8.50 if I recall correctly) from that garage sale I held back in 1997, I doubt I would detail it in an electronic letter to my spiritual advisor or my vet.
One of your lawyer guys defends your sneaking, unconstitutional practices with,
"...if a service provider fought the (subpoena only, no warrant) search request, it would likely result in "protracted litigation," meaning that any leads from the emails would be "stale" if the IRS ever obtained them."
So, you mean that all you have to do is claim administrative inconvenience as an excuse to pry open every confidence of my life and I'm supposed to light up with an awed understanding. Like Zing go the strings of my heart?
(It usually doesn't, because most fellows like me tend to tuck it in our pants and a special big magazine is uncomfortable. Too, a magazine in my pants that sticks out a long ways may, depending on exact positioning, confuse certain onlookers about my social intentions.)
But anyway, as I say, welcome to my site, and I really don't care if you read it because when I publish something to one and all, I think I agree with you that I indeed do give up what you fellas and gals are calling an "expectation of privacy."
Now, about my email:
Piss off.
If the first place, it's none of your damned business what I write to the pretty lady in Ohio.
In the second, you are wasting money. Even if i did forget to report the profit (about $8.50 if I recall correctly) from that garage sale I held back in 1997, I doubt I would detail it in an electronic letter to my spiritual advisor or my vet.
One of your lawyer guys defends your sneaking, unconstitutional practices with,
"...if a service provider fought the (subpoena only, no warrant) search request, it would likely result in "protracted litigation," meaning that any leads from the emails would be "stale" if the IRS ever obtained them."
So, you mean that all you have to do is claim administrative inconvenience as an excuse to pry open every confidence of my life and I'm supposed to light up with an awed understanding. Like Zing go the strings of my heart?
Jan 25, 2013
My right to be Joe Namath
I was a disabled kid in high school, not quite big enough to play tackle, not quite quick enough to pull out of line from guard position. Coach Eyefergit didn't exactly cut me, but he made it plain that I'd be spending a season on the cold, hard bench. So I became a debater. Nerdsville. My psyche still hasn't recovered.
Little did I know Coach was violating my rights. Washington was slow on this one, but now they've fixed it.
"... the new directive from the Education Department's civil rights division explicitly tells schools and colleges that access to interscholastic, intramural and intercollegiate athletics is a right."
Anyone who doesn't try to make life better for disabled people is a despicable human. Any bureaucrat who assigns a special category of varsity victimhood to kids who already have enough troubles is a fool.
---
If you RTWT you'll probably get a vision of thousands of local schools scratching their heads and wondering how the Hell you implement something like this, and at what cost.
Maybe I'll be back later today, but right now I need to read the Constitution again. I must have missed the part that says the U.S. Department of Education has the authority to decree rights.
If it does, why doesn't it decree that that young folks have the right to be taught to read?
Little did I know Coach was violating my rights. Washington was slow on this one, but now they've fixed it.
"... the new directive from the Education Department's civil rights division explicitly tells schools and colleges that access to interscholastic, intramural and intercollegiate athletics is a right."
Anyone who doesn't try to make life better for disabled people is a despicable human. Any bureaucrat who assigns a special category of varsity victimhood to kids who already have enough troubles is a fool.
---
If you RTWT you'll probably get a vision of thousands of local schools scratching their heads and wondering how the Hell you implement something like this, and at what cost.
Maybe I'll be back later today, but right now I need to read the Constitution again. I must have missed the part that says the U.S. Department of Education has the authority to decree rights.
If it does, why doesn't it decree that that young folks have the right to be taught to read?
Jan 15, 2013
New York: New gun law text
It is here, and, Cowboy, it swings a wide loop. The state senate passed it yesterday, and by the time you read this it may have cleared the Albany house.
I read it from the enacting clause to the final word,* but I confess a degree of eye-glaze and some confusion. Much of the language modifies other laws which are referred to only by statute number. It is quite unnecessarily wordy. I understood as much as I did only because of career experience in extracting actual meaning from political gobbledygook.
The standout quality is its impact on subjects other than firearms control. It affects the mental health system, family law, education laws, and a variety of other criminal and tort procedures. A cursory reading suggests that this is a useful guide to what the United States will be when the extreme Left and the neocon Right finally achieve their post-constitutional America . This is true even if you eliminate the bill's actual gun-control provisions.
For just one -- there are several others -- example: There is a one-day procedure for declaring an upset spouse a "protected party" and imposing a variety of restrictions on his or her mate.There are complicated administrative and judicial reliefs written into the law, but for most real-life purposes, for many or most people, they are permanent. And this occurs before any finding of legal guilt.
---
The actual firearms restrictions tend strongly toward the the Pelosi/Feinstein solution to violence. Another coat of pancake makeup.
Thumb-hole stocks become illegal on semi-automatic long guns. So do barrel shrouds. So do "pistol grips" if they are "conspicuous."
Seven rounds becomes the legal capacity limit for nearly all detachable magazines. (Someone is going to make money with new seven-rounders for millions of Colt Woodsmans, Ruger Standards et. seq., Browning Nomads, Hi-Standard HDs. And so forth.)
Higher capacity magazines already possessed are legal to own, but not use, for one year, after which they must be sold for out-of-state use. The alternative is confiscation and a criminal charge. (New York doesn't mind the horror of murder via the eighth round in a magazine provided, of course, that the victim is shot in a place other than New York. Federalism at work.)
There much more, and at the risk of inviting you devote a lot of time to a tedious chore, I suggest you read the bill. It is almost certainly the sort of frightening nonsense which our president lusts for.
---
*How many of the lawmakers did before voting, I wonder (C.f. Nancy Pelosi's "pass it to know what is in it" theory of making law.)
I read it from the enacting clause to the final word,* but I confess a degree of eye-glaze and some confusion. Much of the language modifies other laws which are referred to only by statute number. It is quite unnecessarily wordy. I understood as much as I did only because of career experience in extracting actual meaning from political gobbledygook.
The standout quality is its impact on subjects other than firearms control. It affects the mental health system, family law, education laws, and a variety of other criminal and tort procedures. A cursory reading suggests that this is a useful guide to what the United States will be when the extreme Left and the neocon Right finally achieve their post-constitutional America . This is true even if you eliminate the bill's actual gun-control provisions.
For just one -- there are several others -- example: There is a one-day procedure for declaring an upset spouse a "protected party" and imposing a variety of restrictions on his or her mate.There are complicated administrative and judicial reliefs written into the law, but for most real-life purposes, for many or most people, they are permanent. And this occurs before any finding of legal guilt.
---
The actual firearms restrictions tend strongly toward the the Pelosi/Feinstein solution to violence. Another coat of pancake makeup.
Thumb-hole stocks become illegal on semi-automatic long guns. So do barrel shrouds. So do "pistol grips" if they are "conspicuous."
Seven rounds becomes the legal capacity limit for nearly all detachable magazines. (Someone is going to make money with new seven-rounders for millions of Colt Woodsmans, Ruger Standards et. seq., Browning Nomads, Hi-Standard HDs. And so forth.)
Higher capacity magazines already possessed are legal to own, but not use, for one year, after which they must be sold for out-of-state use. The alternative is confiscation and a criminal charge. (New York doesn't mind the horror of murder via the eighth round in a magazine provided, of course, that the victim is shot in a place other than New York. Federalism at work.)
There much more, and at the risk of inviting you devote a lot of time to a tedious chore, I suggest you read the bill. It is almost certainly the sort of frightening nonsense which our president lusts for.
---
*How many of the lawmakers did before voting, I wonder (C.f. Nancy Pelosi's "pass it to know what is in it" theory of making law.)
Aug 2, 2012
Joshua for president
Now here's a feel-good story for you. Joshua Smith is nine. He heard his hometown, Detroit, was broke. So he set up a lemonade and popcorn stand in front of his modest home. He dedicates the proceeds to the city, to pay down its debt.
I will not be cynical about Joshua. Good kid. Willing to work. Heart in the right place. Plus, undoubtedly, other virtues once associated with the idea of being American.
However, I'm a little concerned about the city he is trying to help. Detroit is, of course, ruled by grasping politicians who control a regulatory Stasi even Honecker would have been proud of. Unt dey haf ways. That's why Detroit is broke.
Who can doubt that someone with a badge is checking on this lad? Street vending license? Health department license? Zoning approval? Local EPA-like organization hazmat clearances? City, county, state, and federal tax ID number? Sales tax permit? Compliance with EOE dictates? Timely filed reports to OSHA?
Young men like Josh both irritate and frighten the Hacks of City Hall (and Congress etc.).
For one thing, they cringe at yet another shot of publicity calling attention to the results of their stupid and venal ways. Worse yet, they detest a demonstration that a nine-year-old boy knows more about the problems and their solutions than they do.
Of course there's one large structural problem with Joshua's plan. When he turns his profits over to the city he is, by definition, handing money to the politicians. They will piss it away. Or steal it.
I will not be cynical about Joshua. Good kid. Willing to work. Heart in the right place. Plus, undoubtedly, other virtues once associated with the idea of being American.
However, I'm a little concerned about the city he is trying to help. Detroit is, of course, ruled by grasping politicians who control a regulatory Stasi even Honecker would have been proud of. Unt dey haf ways. That's why Detroit is broke.
Who can doubt that someone with a badge is checking on this lad? Street vending license? Health department license? Zoning approval? Local EPA-like organization hazmat clearances? City, county, state, and federal tax ID number? Sales tax permit? Compliance with EOE dictates? Timely filed reports to OSHA?
Young men like Josh both irritate and frighten the Hacks of City Hall (and Congress etc.).
For one thing, they cringe at yet another shot of publicity calling attention to the results of their stupid and venal ways. Worse yet, they detest a demonstration that a nine-year-old boy knows more about the problems and their solutions than they do.
Of course there's one large structural problem with Joshua's plan. When he turns his profits over to the city he is, by definition, handing money to the politicians. They will piss it away. Or steal it.
Jul 26, 2012
Hee-Haw
Tam broke out her dissection kit and went to work on Bill O'Reilly* for an idiotic comment about ammunition stashes and the crack government anti-terrorist machine.
A commenter made the point that only Hulk Hogan could carry 6,000 rounds of ammunition, the hoard Aurora Red allegedly possessed. Good point. (O'Reilly said it was 60,000 rounds. Never mind. Who depends on teevee personalities for facts anyway?)
Too lazy to do the arithmetic, I walked out to the shack and weighed a 20-round box of .257 Roberts, loaded with c. 70-grainers, the closest thing I have to the usual AK47 rounds. One box equals a little more than one pound. Hence 6,000 rounds of 7.62x39 hefts out to quite a bit more than 300 pounds,
Even a better figure of a man than that scrawny-ass loser could handle an ammo load of, at best, 50 or 60 pounds in addition to the weapon itself, the gas mask, the grenades, the body armor, and the tactical Barlow.
If he wanted more at hand for extended mayhem he'd need a pack animal.
We must therefore rally behind common-sense laws to restrict deadly donkey trafficking . If this makes it more dififcult for law-abiding citizens to buy and sell Bill O'Reilly, remember: It's for the children.
Even tighter restrictions are needed on small, easily concealed burros.
---
*The facts force me to qualify this. I am speaking only metaphorically. More's the pity.
A commenter made the point that only Hulk Hogan could carry 6,000 rounds of ammunition, the hoard Aurora Red allegedly possessed. Good point. (O'Reilly said it was 60,000 rounds. Never mind. Who depends on teevee personalities for facts anyway?)
Too lazy to do the arithmetic, I walked out to the shack and weighed a 20-round box of .257 Roberts, loaded with c. 70-grainers, the closest thing I have to the usual AK47 rounds. One box equals a little more than one pound. Hence 6,000 rounds of 7.62x39 hefts out to quite a bit more than 300 pounds,
Even a better figure of a man than that scrawny-ass loser could handle an ammo load of, at best, 50 or 60 pounds in addition to the weapon itself, the gas mask, the grenades, the body armor, and the tactical Barlow.
If he wanted more at hand for extended mayhem he'd need a pack animal.
We must therefore rally behind common-sense laws to restrict deadly donkey trafficking . If this makes it more dififcult for law-abiding citizens to buy and sell Bill O'Reilly, remember: It's for the children.
Even tighter restrictions are needed on small, easily concealed burros.
---
*The facts force me to qualify this. I am speaking only metaphorically. More's the pity.
Jul 23, 2012
Why we're broke, except for Utah
If Utaht you saw the national MasterCard go a little more over limit recently, you were right.
It somehow came to the attention of the National Science Foundation that things can get a little dry in Deseret. Nice catch, and a perfectly good reason to shovel an extra $20 million in "research" money to the considerable spawn of Joseph Smith. Utah tax-troughers are giddy with the intellectual challenge. For instance:
"Most of Utah's precipitation falls as snow. As a result, the project will focus on how changing mountain snowpack affects water supplies for the state's growing communities, officials said."
We anxiously await the results of this research, and I submit that we'll all need Valium to cope with the shock of learning that when it snows more in the mountains, Utah gets more water. Another $20 million might extend our knowledge to undertanding that less snow produces less water.
Please notice the words "focus" in the quotation above and "specifically" in this one:
"It will look specifically at watersheds, infrastructure and technology."
if we parse it out we face a single-minded concentration -- which is the meaning of "focus" in this context -- on mountain snow and equally laser-like aiming at "watersheds, infrastructure, and technology."
A definition or three adds clarity:
--Watersheds: Every gawddam valley and divide in the state, from the beautiful Bear River to the tiniest dry wash down south in the multiwife kingdoms.
--Infrastructure: Farms, roads, power plants, bus stations. buildings, airports, ski lifts, temples, brine shrimp warehouses, railroads, visitors centers.
--Technology: Everything with a 110--volt AC connection and/or a battery. Such an an iPod to message Orrin Hatch that $20 million may not be enough to "focus" on and "look specifically" at all that stuff, so send more money and if you do we might vote for you again.
---
it's a jobs program for a few academics, government "public information" specialists, assorted bureaucrats, and journalists who turn a pretty good buck uncritically passing along thin rewrites of federal, state, and local government gobbledygook headed, "For Immediate Release!"
But, on second thought, perhaps I err. After all, we have the governor's explanation that it is, ta-da, a public/private partnership.
Gov. Gary Herbert said. "This public-private collaboration among so many educational, industry and government partners in tackling a key factor in long-term economic growth and quality of life is another example of our state's can-do approach."
If you want to interpret that as a promise the swag will be divvied up among all varieties of looters, why, I guess I sure won't editorialize against you.
It somehow came to the attention of the National Science Foundation that things can get a little dry in Deseret. Nice catch, and a perfectly good reason to shovel an extra $20 million in "research" money to the considerable spawn of Joseph Smith. Utah tax-troughers are giddy with the intellectual challenge. For instance:
"Most of Utah's precipitation falls as snow. As a result, the project will focus on how changing mountain snowpack affects water supplies for the state's growing communities, officials said."
We anxiously await the results of this research, and I submit that we'll all need Valium to cope with the shock of learning that when it snows more in the mountains, Utah gets more water. Another $20 million might extend our knowledge to undertanding that less snow produces less water.
Please notice the words "focus" in the quotation above and "specifically" in this one:
"It will look specifically at watersheds, infrastructure and technology."
if we parse it out we face a single-minded concentration -- which is the meaning of "focus" in this context -- on mountain snow and equally laser-like aiming at "watersheds, infrastructure, and technology."
A definition or three adds clarity:
--Watersheds: Every gawddam valley and divide in the state, from the beautiful Bear River to the tiniest dry wash down south in the multiwife kingdoms.
--Infrastructure: Farms, roads, power plants, bus stations. buildings, airports, ski lifts, temples, brine shrimp warehouses, railroads, visitors centers.
--Technology: Everything with a 110--volt AC connection and/or a battery. Such an an iPod to message Orrin Hatch that $20 million may not be enough to "focus" on and "look specifically" at all that stuff, so send more money and if you do we might vote for you again.
---
it's a jobs program for a few academics, government "public information" specialists, assorted bureaucrats, and journalists who turn a pretty good buck uncritically passing along thin rewrites of federal, state, and local government gobbledygook headed, "For Immediate Release!"
But, on second thought, perhaps I err. After all, we have the governor's explanation that it is, ta-da, a public/private partnership.
Gov. Gary Herbert said. "This public-private collaboration among so many educational, industry and government partners in tackling a key factor in long-term economic growth and quality of life is another example of our state's can-do approach."
If you want to interpret that as a promise the swag will be divvied up among all varieties of looters, why, I guess I sure won't editorialize against you.
Jul 11, 2012
F**king deafie?
A deaf man says he was clearing airport security at Louisville when TSA agents (1) robbed him of his candy (2) laughed at him for being deaf and (3) called him a "fucking deafie." He reported it on his blog, then, according to Reason magazine, got to thinking about the TSA's well-known lust for revenge on anyone who questions the way it executes its holy mission and took the post down.
I will suffer all the Godwin jeers anyone cares to hurl in order to pose a question.
In 1938 or so a German Brown Shirt got quite a bang out of taunting Jewish humans as "fucking Juden." In 2012 American TSA agents get off by ridiculing deaf humans as "fucking deafies." What distinguishes the the American from the Nazi?
Reserving the right to edit my views if I'm wrong in taking the report at face value, I hereby withdraw a semi-apology I once wrote for endorsing those who think Thomas Jefferson is spinning in his grave, justifiably screaming, "What's taking you so long?"
I will suffer all the Godwin jeers anyone cares to hurl in order to pose a question.
In 1938 or so a German Brown Shirt got quite a bang out of taunting Jewish humans as "fucking Juden." In 2012 American TSA agents get off by ridiculing deaf humans as "fucking deafies." What distinguishes the the American from the Nazi?
Reserving the right to edit my views if I'm wrong in taking the report at face value, I hereby withdraw a semi-apology I once wrote for endorsing those who think Thomas Jefferson is spinning in his grave, justifiably screaming, "What's taking you so long?"
Jun 22, 2012
Your Friday morning issues briefing
1. Fool that am, I keep thinking about Attorney General Holder in terms of his criminal violations of the nation's firearms laws. It took Joel to remind me that contempt of congress is a state of mind every thinking citizen embraces. Why should Holder be singled out for the honor?..
2. Try a I might, I simply can not tangle my shorts over the plight of a new-hatched intellectual facing an increase in student loan rates. My teevee tells me the average student debt is $26,000. The added 3.4 per cent would thus cost Ms. and Mr. Average Expert in Liberal Arts some $885 per year or $2.42 per day. This could easily be covered by (a) walking one flight up, to Mom's kitchen, and having your coffee there rather than Starbucks or (b) working an extra 22 minutes at the job for which your degree qualifies you. (Translated to piece work that probably amounts to a dozen double burgers with cheese.)
2. Try a I might, I simply can not tangle my shorts over the plight of a new-hatched intellectual facing an increase in student loan rates. My teevee tells me the average student debt is $26,000. The added 3.4 per cent would thus cost Ms. and Mr. Average Expert in Liberal Arts some $885 per year or $2.42 per day. This could easily be covered by (a) walking one flight up, to Mom's kitchen, and having your coffee there rather than Starbucks or (b) working an extra 22 minutes at the job for which your degree qualifies you. (Translated to piece work that probably amounts to a dozen double burgers with cheese.)
May 6, 2012
Sinful Sunday Thought
I have a small project in mind. Strictly speaking, it requires a building permit. Even more strictly, the building permit will not be issued without a variance because I live in a "nonconforming structure." That is, my little house, on about one and 1/4 acres, sets only 30 feet from the rear property line. The Smugleye-on-Lake Commissariat requires 35 feet. No credit is given for the the 200 feet of grass and trees in front of the house even though the greensward fans out to a generous 310 feet along the road.
It costs $200 (actually, about the cost of the project istelf) to beg for a variance. Nonrefundable. The zoning czars and the variance czars will get around to saying da or nyet in a matter of mere weeks or months.
So, since the project would change no footprint, would be unnoticeable to neighbors, and could probably be done without alerting the zoning checka, I'm thinking just going ahead and pleading ignorance or something if my victimless crime comes to official notice.
But that isn't the sinful impulse.
One of the village council commissars peddles used cars. After the customer agrees to the deal, he tacks on a "documentation" fee, that is, he makes the sucker pay for his paperwork. (light bulb in the text balloon)
I write up the variance request, cut the check, fill out the long building permit form, and let the SOL bureaucracy play with itself until the issue is settled. I then surprise the Smugleye Politburo with a dun, my documentation fee. "Net 30 days; 1 1/2 per cent per month on the unpaid balance thereafter...Thank you for your business!"
I respond to nothing they say, just keep sending "Past Due!" notices and, when the fun of that wears off, file a small-claims action. That costs $30, and -- even with the variance fee -- it strikes me as cheap thrills. -- even if I don't slip a tip to a reporter friend known for her weird sense of humor.
It costs $200 (actually, about the cost of the project istelf) to beg for a variance. Nonrefundable. The zoning czars and the variance czars will get around to saying da or nyet in a matter of mere weeks or months.
So, since the project would change no footprint, would be unnoticeable to neighbors, and could probably be done without alerting the zoning checka, I'm thinking just going ahead and pleading ignorance or something if my victimless crime comes to official notice.
But that isn't the sinful impulse.
One of the village council commissars peddles used cars. After the customer agrees to the deal, he tacks on a "documentation" fee, that is, he makes the sucker pay for his paperwork. (light bulb in the text balloon)
I write up the variance request, cut the check, fill out the long building permit form, and let the SOL bureaucracy play with itself until the issue is settled. I then surprise the Smugleye Politburo with a dun, my documentation fee. "Net 30 days; 1 1/2 per cent per month on the unpaid balance thereafter...Thank you for your business!"
I respond to nothing they say, just keep sending "Past Due!" notices and, when the fun of that wears off, file a small-claims action. That costs $30, and -- even with the variance fee -- it strikes me as cheap thrills. -- even if I don't slip a tip to a reporter friend known for her weird sense of humor.
Apr 26, 2012
The TSA: A fun place to work
Francesco Canesco is probably no more of a terroristic threat to you, me, and the Republic than any other congressperson. And even if he is, his sins are not of the sort that can be uncovered by twiddling his willy. The TSA does not get this.
Rep. Canesco says a TSA agent at the San Antonio airport became too friendly with his privates, so he pushed the groping hand aside and accused him of assault. The federal cop said, "No. You assaulted me." Supervisors calmed the whole thing down.
A week later the incident was repeated, and we can forgive even an elected official for complaining that he's been placed on the TSA list of those who must be palpated often and deeply because:
The TSA has a history of bearing grudges against commuters who issue complaints against the agency. A mother who was detained in a glass cell by TSA agents in Phoenix in 2010 said the incident was retribution for a previous complaint regarding confiscation of her breast milk.
In full fairness, we shouldn't overlook the possibility that pervs of the homosexual persuasion are over-represented in the San Antonio TSA corps and that they simply find Congressman Canesco very hot. That's the price of fame and beauty, Congressman.
Anyway, it's all something to think about for the next time you put your 12-year-old grandson on a flight to San Antonio.
Rep. Canesco says a TSA agent at the San Antonio airport became too friendly with his privates, so he pushed the groping hand aside and accused him of assault. The federal cop said, "No. You assaulted me." Supervisors calmed the whole thing down.
A week later the incident was repeated, and we can forgive even an elected official for complaining that he's been placed on the TSA list of those who must be palpated often and deeply because:
The TSA has a history of bearing grudges against commuters who issue complaints against the agency. A mother who was detained in a glass cell by TSA agents in Phoenix in 2010 said the incident was retribution for a previous complaint regarding confiscation of her breast milk.
In full fairness, we shouldn't overlook the possibility that pervs of the homosexual persuasion are over-represented in the San Antonio TSA corps and that they simply find Congressman Canesco very hot. That's the price of fame and beauty, Congressman.
Anyway, it's all something to think about for the next time you put your 12-year-old grandson on a flight to San Antonio.
Dec 24, 2011
Sons of Guns and the BATF
In re: Red Jacket Armory and Soap Opera; BATFEieio; Discovery Channel; Sons of Guns.
Retaining my general view that anything Holder's Batfee does will be an affront to civil liberties and logical throught processes, I can't whip up much excitement about this one.
For one thing it's a chore to figure out who did what to whom and who still owns what ever is left of the company. Don't tell me. Don't care.
For another, my tolerance for contrived drama has faded to zero since the days when I got puckerbutted about whether Trigger would untie Roy in time to escape the murderin' rustlers. And whether Tonto could really pull the Lone Ranger and Silver out of the quicksand under a hail of Comanche arrows.
'course, there was that great episode on mounting a couple of M242s and a grenade launcher on the sherf's river boat. That'll learn them catfish poachers and pot puffers a thing ot two.
Retaining my general view that anything Holder's Batfee does will be an affront to civil liberties and logical throught processes, I can't whip up much excitement about this one.
For one thing it's a chore to figure out who did what to whom and who still owns what ever is left of the company. Don't tell me. Don't care.
For another, my tolerance for contrived drama has faded to zero since the days when I got puckerbutted about whether Trigger would untie Roy in time to escape the murderin' rustlers. And whether Tonto could really pull the Lone Ranger and Silver out of the quicksand under a hail of Comanche arrows.
'course, there was that great episode on mounting a couple of M242s and a grenade launcher on the sherf's river boat. That'll learn them catfish poachers and pot puffers a thing ot two.
Dec 1, 2011
From world welfare capital
Looking for a reason to admire Herman Cain and despise Newt Gingrich?
Search no further than the land of the tall corn where our economic base grows in rows, where our corn and bean producers have, for a century and a-half, cultivated an image of sober, god-fearing, rugged individualism.
And so they endorse* for President of These United States, ta-da, conservative Newt Gingrich.
Newt Gingrich earned straight A’s on agriculture, energy, trade and other policies measured by the Iowa Corn Growers Association.
They love Newt because he promises to give them all they want of other people's stuff. And I do mean all they want. He is the agripimptorian of the GOP Class of '12.
By contrast, the Row Crop Royalty hates Herman Cain without even referring to off-field boffing. Herm gets a "D" for telling the Corn Growers' Association to put on big-boy pants and quit whining like a 16-year-old unwed mother of three on the south side of Chicago upset because she doan get enough from the welfare.
Our Ron Paul sits in the back of the room with Herman. He also earned a "D" despite not returning the questionnaire. The cornies said they evaluated such refusniks by checking their records and public statements. Paul, of course, has taken several subversive positions, including the radical notion that you should be permitted to put gasoline in your tank.
Just for shidts and grins, I suppose, the corn growers also graded His Ineptness, the sitting president. Barry got a "B," tied with Mitt Romney.
N.B. -- To absorb the full flavor of all this, a guy should take time to click through the links in the news story and on the corn growers candidate report card where you can read the questions and candidate answers. If the corn growers implicit demands don't read like an Acorn wish list I'll kiss your arse in a crop circle and let you take aerial photos with a long lens.
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* “ 'This is a tool for farmers and voters, not an endorsement,' (said) Corn Growers president Kevin Ross..." Kevin, that's bullshit and you know it.
.
Search no further than the land of the tall corn where our economic base grows in rows, where our corn and bean producers have, for a century and a-half, cultivated an image of sober, god-fearing, rugged individualism.
And so they endorse* for President of These United States, ta-da, conservative Newt Gingrich.
Newt Gingrich earned straight A’s on agriculture, energy, trade and other policies measured by the Iowa Corn Growers Association.
They love Newt because he promises to give them all they want of other people's stuff. And I do mean all they want. He is the agripimptorian of the GOP Class of '12.
By contrast, the Row Crop Royalty hates Herman Cain without even referring to off-field boffing. Herm gets a "D" for telling the Corn Growers' Association to put on big-boy pants and quit whining like a 16-year-old unwed mother of three on the south side of Chicago upset because she doan get enough from the welfare.
Our Ron Paul sits in the back of the room with Herman. He also earned a "D" despite not returning the questionnaire. The cornies said they evaluated such refusniks by checking their records and public statements. Paul, of course, has taken several subversive positions, including the radical notion that you should be permitted to put gasoline in your tank.
Just for shidts and grins, I suppose, the corn growers also graded His Ineptness, the sitting president. Barry got a "B," tied with Mitt Romney.
N.B. -- To absorb the full flavor of all this, a guy should take time to click through the links in the news story and on the corn growers candidate report card where you can read the questions and candidate answers. If the corn growers implicit demands don't read like an Acorn wish list I'll kiss your arse in a crop circle and let you take aerial photos with a long lens.
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* “ 'This is a tool for farmers and voters, not an endorsement,' (said) Corn Growers president Kevin Ross..." Kevin, that's bullshit and you know it.
.
Nov 17, 2011
Boy Scoutageddon
That last post got me thinking about federal charters in general. The first one I personally heard of was the 1916 charter of the Boy Scouts of America. When I was a Tenderfoot we were told we ought to be real proud of that.
The charter was accompanied by the tradition of making Potus the honorary president of the Boy Scouts of America. Yep, His Obamaness is the current head Scout. Never mind his discomfort in associating with a patriotic, quasi-religious organization which also insists that adult scout leaders be hetero -- or at least sufficiently controlled to keep their mouths shut and their hands off the little boys at Camporee time.
Consider the unthinkable. Tragedy robs the nation of its president and vice-president while Barney Frank is speaker of the U.S. House. As his first official act he (with congresscritter help) charters Acorn. Then he waits for the invitation to honorarily head the Boy Scouts and wonders whether -- if the invitation comes -- he should accept or decline. Talk about your horns of a dilemma...
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On balance, I think the Scouts should bow out of the charter. If nothing else it would set a nice example for Freddy Mac.
The charter was accompanied by the tradition of making Potus the honorary president of the Boy Scouts of America. Yep, His Obamaness is the current head Scout. Never mind his discomfort in associating with a patriotic, quasi-religious organization which also insists that adult scout leaders be hetero -- or at least sufficiently controlled to keep their mouths shut and their hands off the little boys at Camporee time.
Consider the unthinkable. Tragedy robs the nation of its president and vice-president while Barney Frank is speaker of the U.S. House. As his first official act he (with congresscritter help) charters Acorn. Then he waits for the invitation to honorarily head the Boy Scouts and wonders whether -- if the invitation comes -- he should accept or decline. Talk about your horns of a dilemma...
---
On balance, I think the Scouts should bow out of the charter. If nothing else it would set a nice example for Freddy Mac.
Nov 13, 2011
Gee, maybe President Obama really is a Christian
Or maybe he just decided a new Christmas tree tax was not the wisest possible political move.
Big Christmas tree growers actually wanted a 15-cent-per-tree tax to promote Christmas trees, and the Obama Administration went along. Then those pesky conservatives started tossing around words like "Grinch." The President turned 180 and advanced, warp speed, to the rear
The immediate result of the tax would have been a national board for the promotion of Christmas trees. We can't actually prove that the new bureaucracy would have immediately set up a lobbying effort to extort a little extra from the general fund of U.S. Treasury, but if you suspect this was the real motive, I forgive you.
Big Christmas tree growers actually wanted a 15-cent-per-tree tax to promote Christmas trees, and the Obama Administration went along. Then those pesky conservatives started tossing around words like "Grinch." The President turned 180 and advanced, warp speed, to the rear
The immediate result of the tax would have been a national board for the promotion of Christmas trees. We can't actually prove that the new bureaucracy would have immediately set up a lobbying effort to extort a little extra from the general fund of U.S. Treasury, but if you suspect this was the real motive, I forgive you.
Oct 21, 2011
Silence Citizen!
1 -- -- I probably wouldn't like this woman. For one thing, I'm suspicious of people who write dramatic "diaries" obviously meant for publication. Nevertheless:
2. -- I would hate existing in a nation where people like Amy do not exist or where, worse, the thugs of The Power have succeeded in cowing them into obedient silence and cheerful submission.
3. -- Assuming Amy reported accurately in her personal journal, she was detained, harassed, mistreated, and arrested ("disorderly conduct") for the crime of reciting The Fourth Amendment as the TSA in Albuquerque prepared to backhand her groin.
Tam and Popehat (H/T to each) write cogent takes on the outrage. But one more angle, if you please:
By the time the following dialogue took place, airport cops had handcuffed the woman (before arresting her and without Mirandizing her) and taken her driving license and other possessions. Officer Friendly and his fellows were just going by the book.
2. -- I would hate existing in a nation where people like Amy do not exist or where, worse, the thugs of The Power have succeeded in cowing them into obedient silence and cheerful submission.
3. -- Assuming Amy reported accurately in her personal journal, she was detained, harassed, mistreated, and arrested ("disorderly conduct") for the crime of reciting The Fourth Amendment as the TSA in Albuquerque prepared to backhand her groin.
Tam and Popehat (H/T to each) write cogent takes on the outrage. But one more angle, if you please:
By the time the following dialogue took place, airport cops had handcuffed the woman (before arresting her and without Mirandizing her) and taken her driving license and other possessions. Officer Friendly and his fellows were just going by the book.
Amy: "I wasn't under arrest. You had no right to take anything from me. What if you(r) book doesn't follow the Constitution, the highest law in the land?"
Cop: "It's not that big a deal.* It's for everyone's safety. We don't want to take the risk. You don't have to fly you know. You give up your rights when you fly."**
A quick review: This woman did not refuse to submit to a privates-probe by the on-duty federal groper. She did not propose to physically resist any part of intimate search by a stranger. All she did was recite the Constitutional basis for her opinion that -- while she might have to be felt up -- she damned sure didn't have to approve of it.
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* -- If the cop really believed that, we're in even more trouble than we thought because he didn't come up with the Constitutional analysis on his own. He was regurgitating settled policy as handed down by the Inner Party. When O'Brien is authorized to distinguish between trivial rights and important ones, the Constitution becomes a quaint relic of the world before Oceania.
** -- So, as we walk along the street, we are citizens. But a mysterious occurrence takes over when we are aloft, making us, instead, subjects. Not by law, but by decree. See Inner Party, supra.
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* -- If the cop really believed that, we're in even more trouble than we thought because he didn't come up with the Constitutional analysis on his own. He was regurgitating settled policy as handed down by the Inner Party. When O'Brien is authorized to distinguish between trivial rights and important ones, the Constitution becomes a quaint relic of the world before Oceania.
** -- So, as we walk along the street, we are citizens. But a mysterious occurrence takes over when we are aloft, making us, instead, subjects. Not by law, but by decree. See Inner Party, supra.
Oct 15, 2011
Why we're broke
We shouldn't let Baby Huie chew our bullets. Eating lead is a bad idea. It might damage his brain. That would make him too dull for any profession except politics.
So we certainly applaud our governments' drive to keep Huie lead-free and smart. Except, maybe...
The grant is for $2.45 million. Local taxpayers will be extorted to the tune of another $2 million. If you total that and add a few hundred thou left over from the earlier HUD $3 million grant -- plus whatever local tax bite that one "leveraged" -- and you get something north of $6 million. But let's be conservative and say it's only $5.5 million.
Peanuts, of course, if it preserves enough Huie brainpower to permit him to prosper as a vinyl siding salesman.
Or maybe not. All that money permits the county health czars to tidy up 142 homes in the next three years.
Time for the world's most useful tool for politico-economic analysis -- a five-buck pocket calculator.
Lessee. Five and a-half million divided by 142 equals, ta-dahh, $38,732 dollars per house. And 39 cents, to be precise.
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Okay, but it's for the poor and therefore righteous, right?
"Funds from the grant are available to assist homeowners whose income is less than 80 percent of the median family income and landlords whose tenants’ incomes are less than 80 percent of the median family income. "
The median family income in this state is a little more than $60,000 per year, apparently meaning you can heist your neighbors for a new paint job even if you gross $48,000.
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Yeah, even our official state health masters say you can pretty much eliminate Baby H chewing lead paint chips by repainting with latex. 'course you must use obscure techniques known only to practitioners of that mysterious profession known as (shhhh) "painters."
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H.L. Mencken: "Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats."
So we certainly applaud our governments' drive to keep Huie lead-free and smart. Except, maybe...
The grant is for $2.45 million. Local taxpayers will be extorted to the tune of another $2 million. If you total that and add a few hundred thou left over from the earlier HUD $3 million grant -- plus whatever local tax bite that one "leveraged" -- and you get something north of $6 million. But let's be conservative and say it's only $5.5 million.
Peanuts, of course, if it preserves enough Huie brainpower to permit him to prosper as a vinyl siding salesman.
Or maybe not. All that money permits the county health czars to tidy up 142 homes in the next three years.
Time for the world's most useful tool for politico-economic analysis -- a five-buck pocket calculator.
Lessee. Five and a-half million divided by 142 equals, ta-dahh, $38,732 dollars per house. And 39 cents, to be precise.
---
Okay, but it's for the poor and therefore righteous, right?
"Funds from the grant are available to assist homeowners whose income is less than 80 percent of the median family income and landlords whose tenants’ incomes are less than 80 percent of the median family income. "
The median family income in this state is a little more than $60,000 per year, apparently meaning you can heist your neighbors for a new paint job even if you gross $48,000.
---
Yeah, even our official state health masters say you can pretty much eliminate Baby H chewing lead paint chips by repainting with latex. 'course you must use obscure techniques known only to practitioners of that mysterious profession known as (shhhh) "painters."
---
H.L. Mencken: "Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats."
Oct 23, 2009
Uh-oh
A little local news here, but as you read please keep in mind that Ruby Ridge and Waco were certifiably planned by certified and/or certifiable government planners.
This little county is composed mostly of two middlin' towns and a clutch of tiny contiguous burgs strung around the lakes. The result is that some 18,000 people are governed and taxed by at least seven mayors, seven city councils, the county board of supervisors, and gawd knows how many special taxing units for the sewer, greedy green groups, and so forth.
I just learned that we're beginning another efficiency drive to combine services and all that crap that will either (a) never happen or (b) incur costs higher than "savings." We've heard it before, but this time we've hired an expert, and the radio says, straight-faced and without a hint of irony:
"Alvin C. Blatnik the Fourth (not his real name), who leads the ISU Extension GIS group, will be the lead researcher. He is also a certified planner with the American Institute of Certified Planners."
If all that certifying doesn't curdle your spit with fear I'll kiss your arse at the courthouse flag pole and give you an hour to round up every tax-sucking bureaucrat in the area.
Jul 30, 2009
A current outrage
You're invited to visit The Smallest Minority for the latest on third parties trying to shut down commerce and charitable giving in anything they happen to dislike. The villain this time is Pay Pal which pulled the plug on a Soldiers' Angels project. Seems that a firearm was mentioned.
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