Whatever optimism I still have about the human race was depleted when I flipped on the electric teevee for a news check. HLN was reporting that a white woman moved into a black neighborhood three months ago and, one month a go, hung up a confederate flag. The neighbors are petitioning the city council -- I didn't catch where -- to make her take it down.
Wrong. She has a perfect right to fly the flag. On the other hand, I would not actively object to a new ordinance making her wear a temporary tattoo on her forehead.
"I am a tasteless old bitch, and not smart."
Six months sounds about right.
Oct 1, 2010
California Open Carry
The City of San Diego has confessed that its cops didn't know or didn't care what they were doing a couple of years ago when they harassed and arrested Samuel Wolanyk for openly carrying an unloaded handgun. That is legal in California, but several street officers, their sergeant, and the booking officer didn't know it.
The bad and wholly unnecessary bust case was settled for $35,000 and a letter from the cops affirmatively stating that Wolanyk was an innocent citizen, wrongly arrested,
The city got off too cheap, if you ask me.
The bad and wholly unnecessary bust case was settled for $35,000 and a letter from the cops affirmatively stating that Wolanyk was an innocent citizen, wrongly arrested,
The city got off too cheap, if you ask me.
True Laws Are Real (2)
When you rebuild the roof over a bay window without a building permit, you commit a criminal act in a certain small town -- even if your repair does not change the foot print of the house.
Without an official "variance," you can't get a building permit because, you scum, you live in a "non-conforming structure." That's because the home sits 30 feet from the rear property line rather than the required 35. That travesty is a relic of the era before it occurred to local politicians and busybodies that government ought to decide what is neighborly -- and aesthetically pleasing -- through zoning laws crafted like a cheap rayon sock. One size fits all. Never mind that your modest little cabin occupies less than 1000 square feet on an acre-plus in a town where a lot 50 feet by 200 feet is usual.
It costs $200 to apply for a zoning variance. It takes about two months, if you're lucky, and requires a set of engineering drawings and a survey map. You need to appear at a Board of Adjustment meeting, tug your forelock again and humbly explain why it is a hardship to have your roof leaking perilously close to your laptop.
If the board says "no," it still gets to keep your $200. Then you either live with the leak or smear big globs of black tar over where you think it originates. That's legal.
Tip O'Neil should have written two corollaries. Tyranny is local. So is idiocy.
And if that ain't the Lord's own truth I'll kiss your arse on the rooftop and give you an hour to fiddle up a crowd.
Without an official "variance," you can't get a building permit because, you scum, you live in a "non-conforming structure." That's because the home sits 30 feet from the rear property line rather than the required 35. That travesty is a relic of the era before it occurred to local politicians and busybodies that government ought to decide what is neighborly -- and aesthetically pleasing -- through zoning laws crafted like a cheap rayon sock. One size fits all. Never mind that your modest little cabin occupies less than 1000 square feet on an acre-plus in a town where a lot 50 feet by 200 feet is usual.
It costs $200 to apply for a zoning variance. It takes about two months, if you're lucky, and requires a set of engineering drawings and a survey map. You need to appear at a Board of Adjustment meeting, tug your forelock again and humbly explain why it is a hardship to have your roof leaking perilously close to your laptop.
If the board says "no," it still gets to keep your $200. Then you either live with the leak or smear big globs of black tar over where you think it originates. That's legal.
Tip O'Neil should have written two corollaries. Tyranny is local. So is idiocy.
And if that ain't the Lord's own truth I'll kiss your arse on the rooftop and give you an hour to fiddle up a crowd.
Sep 30, 2010
American War Lords
Time magazine is out this morning with one of its regularly scheduled Oh-My-God! pieces on warlordism in America, the militias. The goal seems to be to move us to drop everything else we've been worrying about and panic over the backwoods lads who like to don camo and play soldier with their guns that look like assault rifles.
I have trouble thinking of any circumstances that would entice me to join a so-called militia. Personal survival? Sure. Associating with a troop looking for an excuse to start shooting? Hardly.
I understand the generality of their fears, but the "militia movement" -- if there really is such a thing -- strikes me as a few hundred to a few thousand fellows suffering from arrested development and over-exposure to action comics.
As to an actual militia threat to our polity, such as it is, Time creates its own refutation by embedding a link to another Time story on the Top 10 Crimes of 2009. The number of cited crimes committed by "militias," or gun collectors, or shooting enthusiasts, or any of us running around with a CCW, equals zero.
---
To my mind, the crime going on in a Senate hearing room today would be a better focus for Time's perennial need to soil its shorts. That's where Chris Dodd is chairing a meeting on how Ben Bernanke and all his pals intend to fix the financial system.
I have trouble thinking of any circumstances that would entice me to join a so-called militia. Personal survival? Sure. Associating with a troop looking for an excuse to start shooting? Hardly.
I understand the generality of their fears, but the "militia movement" -- if there really is such a thing -- strikes me as a few hundred to a few thousand fellows suffering from arrested development and over-exposure to action comics.
As to an actual militia threat to our polity, such as it is, Time creates its own refutation by embedding a link to another Time story on the Top 10 Crimes of 2009. The number of cited crimes committed by "militias," or gun collectors, or shooting enthusiasts, or any of us running around with a CCW, equals zero.
---
To my mind, the crime going on in a Senate hearing room today would be a better focus for Time's perennial need to soil its shorts. That's where Chris Dodd is chairing a meeting on how Ben Bernanke and all his pals intend to fix the financial system.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)