Category: General

Man shot in head on Facebook Live as friends played with guns, cops say

And therein lays the problem: guns are not toys for play. It is truly unfortunate that someone was accidentally shot by another who didn’t know this important rule about firearms, and I hope the shooter pays an appropriate penalty for their actions.

Owning a firearm may be your right under the constitution, but it comes with responsibilities. One is to handle them safely, another is to protect them from misuse. If you are unwilling to honor these responsibilities, please don’t own firearms. You’ll just make responsible owners look bad.

Crystal Mason received a 5 year sentence for voting illegally in 2016. Seems harsh, but voter fraud strikes at the heart of our republic and must be dealt with sternly. However, I think the real reason for the long sentence may be her apparent unwillingness to accept responsibility for her actions. She continually denied knowing that she could not vote when she cast her provisional ballot, even though the form that Texas currently requires provisional voters to sign (and it is my understanding she signed this form or one similar) makes it clear that felons who have not completed their entire sentence – including probation – are not allowed to vote. Hard to feel sorry for the woman under the circumstances.

Others have received similar sentences:

Melowese Richardson, a former poll worker, voted twice herself in 2012 and three times for her comatose sister (in 2008, 2011 and 2012). She was sentenced to 5 years as well, probably due in part to her roll as a poll worker – a position of trust one would expect to honor voting laws. The judge made note of her long criminal history during her sentencing. Interestingly, she was apparently honored by some upon her early release from prison.

Rosa Maria Ortega, a Mexican national and permanent resident of the U.S., was sentenced to eight years in prison (and will likely be deported after serving her sentence) for claiming to be a U.S. citizen and voting multiple times. A harsh sentence for sure, but as with Mason she did not take responsibility for her actions. She claimed that she did not understand the voter registration form, but the prosecution had an ace up their sleeve. According to this Washington Post article her voter registration application in Tarrant County, Texas had been rejected because she was a non-citizen; her response was to send in another application claiming she was a citizen. That kind of makes it hard to argue that you did not know you were not eligible to vote.

So… the message is to vote, but vote legally.

Squatters can now claim parking rights!

Seattle homeless man rejoices after judge rules his truck is a home

“Vehicles where people actually live and have to live, the city should show home humanity and respect for civil rights, the Constitution and should manage the situation that’s fair and lawful for the people living in the vehicles,” Ann LoGerfo, Long’s attorney said.

Uh… what about the rights of everyone else?

I’m going out to install a mailbox on my Porsche; then I’ll be able to park anywhere, for as long as I want, for free.

If you make it riskier for landlords to rent property (because of obscure laws that can be exploited by crafty tenants to the detriment of the landlords), you should rightfully expect rents to increase to account for the risk.

5 NYC tenant laws your landlord doesn’t want you to know

Nothing like teaching people how to circumvent the spirit of a rental agreement.

Mandating below-market rental housing will never work. While it supplies some “affordable” housing, the quantity is insufficient; only the lucky few who are selected to live in these units will benefit (and I imagine some favoritism/nepotism will occur in the selection process).

Housing costs are a function of supply and demand. If Portland really wants lower rents, then they need to get the hell out of the way and let builders build more supply. Once supply outpaces demand, prices will fall for everyone – not just the lucky few.

Sorry for the long hiatus. I’ve been busy…

But I’m back now!

Job protectionism is not a valid economic system… well, at least not one that will work.

Initially, an objection by Supervisor Norman Yee to delivery robots on San Francisco streets was that they would eliminate delivery jobs. However, protectionism such as this is bad; freeing workers up for other higher-level functions (like designing, building or repairing delivery robots) while automating low-paying jobs and eliminating street traffic results in higher productivity and lower costs for all – a boon to any economy.Unfortunately, things only went downhill from there; later revisions of the proposal went so far as to require that delivery companies “keep a human nearby to monitor the devices and agree to a labor clause protecting their human workers’ right to unionize.” (emphasis mine).

OK – somebody’s got to say it: this proposal is complete lunacy. I just hope that Yee’s constituents are smart enough to see past his short-sighted protectionist legislation.

Santa Cruz, CA is suing 29 oil companies for the effects of global warming due to fossil fuels.

However, I can’t help but believe that they got it wrong: the global warming effects are from the burning of fossil fuels – not their mining or production. Doesn’t this mean that the users of fossil fuels – including the inhabitants of Santa Cruz – are the true villains? After all, the oil companies would not produce fossil fuels if there were  no demand….

An ‘E! News’ anchor found out she earns half what her male co-host makes. So she quit.