Category Archives: Unbelievable

Common Sense

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New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg outlawed food donations to homeless shelters last year.

It’s all because the city can’t assess their salt, fat and fiber content, huffed Mr. Bloomberg.

Alrighty then.

Maslow's Hierarchy of NeedsI’m thinking Mr. Bloomberg’s nanny needs to read a little sociology. 70 years ago, in 1943, Abraham Maslow codified human needs in what has become a well known pyramid. Food and sex are the most basic needs. Healthy, safe food is important, but only after we meet the most basic requirement of finding something, anything, to eat in the first place.

Eastman Kodak developed the digital camera in 1975 but never invested in the technology. “Digital photography will undercut sales of our film business,” they rightly said. Kodak stock peaked in 1997 at over $94/share. The stock had dropped to 65 cents/share by 2011; the company is in bankruptcy.

Alrighty then.

I’m thinking that if you introduce a new budget item in a business like Kodak, one that may have no positive effect whatsoever on the company’s performance but one that mirrors past performance, many of the decision makers will allocate money to that cost and keep investing in it even as the company goes down the tubes. Likewise, if you introduce a new budget item in a business like Kodak, one that may turn the industry on its ear but one that defies past performance, many of the decision makers will never invest in the new line even as the company goes down the tubes.

A Florida Keys man named Mitchell about beat his Labrador Retriever puppy to death, got sentenced to nine months, and then his conviction was reversed by a three-judge District Court of Appeal panel.

Then-prosecutor Terre Hunnewell told jurors that the only way Mr. Mitchell was not guilty was if the eyewitness, two veterinarians, and three deputies all lied on the witness stand. The panel said Mr. Hunnewell’s argument “improperly placed the onus of demonstrating the burden of proof [on] the defense.”

Alrighty then.

I’m thinking the evidence outweighs a lawyer’s stupid summation (lawyers ask more stupid questions and make more stupid comments than almost any other population group) but appellate courts rarely consider, well, evidence.

I can’t make sense of any of that.

I’m also thinking Dr. Maslow left Common Sense out of his hierarchy. As a survival need it should maybe be at the base of the pyramid, underpinning even the physiological needs. It’s certainly lacking in New York City, Rochester, NY, and Monroe County, FL.

 

Outrage!

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The Post-Tribune reported on a murder and nobody cared.

Other than the fringe bloggers, no one is outraged that three men choked and shot 24-year-old Jacqueline Gardner to death and stole the tip money she earned as a waitress.

Jacqueline Gardner85 Dollars.

Ms. Gardner suffered and died right outside her Hidden Lake apartment. Her 8-month-old daughter, Alessandra, will never know her mother. Her 4-year-old daughter, Bobbie, will remember her mother and wonder why no one cared.

They killed her for $85.

No one held vigils. There were no demonstrations. Social media was silent.

Where was the NAACP after that 2012 murder in Schererville, Indiana? After all, they were outraged in Florida over Trayvon Martin’s death. Where was Bill Moyers? He, too, was in Florida to deplore the George Zimmerman verdict. Where was Alec Baldwin? OK. Alec Baldwin was making another commercial; no one cares what plane he was on.

Where were the 47,800 outraged tweets per minute, tweets that surpassed the peak for the Sandy Hook massacre?

Where was Ellen Page (@EllenPage) who tweeted “If u really believe racism isnt a massive problem, that the oppression of minorities is not a horrific and systemic issue. U R in denial.”

Where was Dwyane Wade who asked, “How do I explain this to my young boys????”

Where was QTip who wrote “Can’t be surprised… Black life has no value in this country,” in a tweet that was shared more than 2,000 times?

Where was Barack Obama who could have adopted this young woman from his own Chicago metropolitan area “who could have been [his daughter]”?

I know where they were. They were nowhere to be found.

They were nowhere to be found because Jacqueline Gardner was a woman. Women get killed sometimes.

They were nowhere to be found because Jacqueline Gardner was white. Whites aren’t victims.

They were nowhere to be found because Stephen Lee Henderson, Michael A. Craig, and William Blasingame III, all charged with the murder of Jacqueline Gardner, are all black. In the universe of the 47,800 outraged tweeters per minute, even black murderers are the victims and “it’s not fair to play the race card.”

Even Google is nearly silent about Ms. Gardner’s fate.

 

Take It Back

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“Did he mean this as a joke?”

Some back story: A few election cycles ago, conservatives formed Take Back Vermont in response to the then-new law that established civil unions for same-sex couples.

Take Back Vermont wanted to do more than repeal civil unions. It was wanted to shackle the affluent, liberal, Democratic flatlanders who were changing both the laws and the values of the state.

Looking back more than decade later we see the movement was a flop. Liberal Vermont still flirts with socialized medicine (bad) and has done what it should have done in the first place by passing a marriage law that allows any loving, unrelated couple to marry (good).

Professor Louis SeidmanThe Take Our State Back folks have scattered.

A Georgetown Professor of Constitutional Law told the CBS Sunday Morning audience that it’s time to “Take our country back, from the Constitution.”

Didn’t he learn anything from Vermont?

Professor Louis Seidman wants all of us (and presumably all of the lawyers he trains) to stop paying attention to the Constitution and instead consider what process and policies we need to move the country forward.

“To be clear, I don’t think we should give up on everything in the Constitution. The Constitution has many important and inspiring provisions, but we should obey these because they are important and inspiring, not because a bunch of people who are now long-dead favored them two centuries ago.” Professor Seidman said.

Oh. This could be good. We’ll keep the all parts I like and dump the ones I don’t?

Cool.

“All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.” That’s not very inspiring. Congress has an approval rating of about minus 362 percent. Let ’em get real jobs and leave the rest of us alone.

“The Congress shall have Power … To borrow money on the credit of the United States.” I’m thinking the purse snatcher who charged the big screen TV on Anne’s credit card is Congress’ stupid younger brother. Let’s jettison that one, too.

“Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.” Oh, no. In these Patriot Days, we need to deep-six that. Treason against the United States must, must consist of whatever the President says it is. I can dig it.

John AdamsExcept. Except as dead white guy John Adams wrote in his letter to the officers of the First Brigade of the Third Division of the Militia of Massachusetts, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

Zealots often use that quote for religious purposes but I see the rest of the words. Mr. Adams believed that the U.S. Constitution was inadequate to govern the immoral.

The world is full of politicians like Professor Seidman who seduce us with promises of loose morals and anarchy.

The danger was summed up by an Egyptian protester yesterday: “the president must resign and a new constitution must be written” to replace the Morsi sham. Egypt’s current Sharia-based document replaced the 1971 Mubarek charter.

If we are to take back our own country, we have to start making decisions for ourselves, and stop deferring to an ancient and outdated document,” Professor Seidman said.

Alrighty then. No more irrelevant dead white guys.

All you Muslims, listen up. The Koran is no longer your law. All you Englishmen, listen up. The Magna Carta is null and void. All you African Americans, listen up. Professor Seidman has retracted the Emancipation Proclamation.

“Democracy depends upon its people not acting out of blatant self interest,” Glenn Peacock wrote on the Internoodle recently.

“We are doomed,” Rufus said.

Perhaps not. Maybe Professor Seidman’s talk was simply a Saturday Night Live skit that got to the wrong network.

Trash to Riches

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My garbage man has to buy a new truck.

Vermont has very little municipal trash collection, even in our small municipalities. Many Vermonters contract private haulers to collect and dump our trash; others, like my daughter, load up their dogs and plastic bags for the Saturday morning outing to the transfer station.

Freelance Editorial Art by Roy Doty: http://www.roydoty.com/posters-editorial/garbage-truck.htm Tom Ripley owns my garbage route. I like Tom. He’s friendly, always on time, and comes right up on the porch to pick up the trash cans. He even (usually) latches the storm door when he puts the cans back. He owns a couple of used garbage trucks that he bought at the state auction and usually has a couple-three pickups that he runs around his route every Sunday before church. Sadly, he’s leaving the business because Vermont says he has to buy a new truck.

Gov. Peter Shumlin (D-VT) moved us “towards universal recycling [to] advance Vermont into the next generation of solid waste management and keep more waste out of our landfills” with a new law he signed this year.

The mandate requires waste haulers to collect everything from yard waste to commercial food waste, and prohibits dumping any recyclable or compostable materials in landfills.

Did you know there is a U.S. Composting Council? Its executive director says that “Enacting the law over time will ensure its success on a number of levels.”

The timeline begins in 2014 when all mandated recyclables must be removed from the solid waste stream. In 2015 yard waste goes. Two years after that, in 2017 food waste must be gone.

The prohibition mandates that every hauler have compartmented trucks. And everyone is soooooo very pleased about how the law will be phased in to give haulers enough time to build the infrastructure.

Tom has to buy a new truck.

Of course by law, Tom won’t be allowed to charge extra for handling the recycled materials.

But wait! There’s more!

“If a facility collects mandated recyclables from a commercial hauler, the facility may charge a fee for the collection of those mandated recyclables.” — Act 148

Tom has to buy a new truck.

But wait! There’s more!

Food residuals can’t go in the waste stream any more. In fact, “uncontaminated material that is derived from processing or discarding of food and that is recyclable, in a manner consistent with section 6605k of this title” (i.e. preconsumer and postconsumer food scraps) must be source separated. — Act 148

I have to pick out the wilted lettuce. Tom has to buy a new truck.

“Mr. Ripley could use his old truck and just drive the route twice,” one regulator told me. Or four times if our regulatory friend could count.

That makes perfect Green sense.

It used to be that when government usurped private property by annexing your land or legislated you out of business, it was called a taking. Times change. I guess the Far Green figures that a mandated purchase like Tom’s new truck is just another tax.

Follow the money. Somebody’s getting rich on this but it sure ain’t Tom Ripley.

For the record, Act 148 does allow new “taxes on all nonrecyclable, nonbiodegradable products or packaging.”

Dead DRUNK?

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Passersby thought a New York man was dead behind the wheel of a locked car in a Lake George motel parking lot. They called the law.

The poor fellow was instead really really really drunk. Like passed out drunk. Like too drunk to walk, let alone drive drunk. Like not bothering a soul drunk.

motel carsWarren County sheriff’s deputies saw the car was locked and the man couldn’t respond so they broke the window. That’s when they discovered he was alive, but very drunk.

A blood test (I guess he couldn’t blow in the tube) showed his blood-alcohol content was 0.27 percent. The legal limit in New York for driving while intoxicated is 0.08 percent.

He was parked in a motel parking lot. Parked. On private property. Sleeping it off.

Sheriff’s deputies broke his car window to get to him. The law won.

He was charged with aggravated DWI.

Say what?