When a poor, disadvantaged, misguided, minority person breaks into your home, do you sit him down for a five-course meal, treat the cut on his hand he got from the window he broke, and give him a job mowing your lawn?
Or do you call a cop.
Yeah, I thought so.
Not the grass assassin. Some juicy tidbits have flowed in over the last couple of weeks while I was out goofing off.
Idle Hands
In the great state of Vermont, it is now illegal to let your car idle for more than five minutes during any one-hour period, thanks to a law that went into effect last week. Violators will receive a $10 ticket for the first offense, $50 for the second, and $100 for the third.
Police, fire, and other emergency vehicles don’t have to obey that law so when the cops write you that first, second, or third ticket because your car is “idling” in a Shelburne Road traffic jam next January, you can bet the police car will be running the entire time.
Sheesh.
Garbologists
An “educational technology specialist wants students to connect with the land, and to grow with it. Literally.” So sayeth the newspaper about a man who teaches at a local elementary school. Students spent a day outside with him as they planted blueberry bushes, apple trees, and blue spruce trees in a field behind the school nature center.
“Educational technology specialist”?
We used to have “educators.” Probably then “educationalists.” Now “educational technology specialists.” What is wrong with calling someone who goes hands on with classroom students a “teacher”?
Sheesh.
A Fatal Wait
Speaking of gummint, veterans have languished and died on the VA’s secret list.
VA hospitals are killing people by not getting around to caring for them. At least 40 vets have died waiting for appointments at the Phoenix Veterans Affairs Health Care system alone, all while VA managers there tried to hide that some 1,400-1,600 sick veterans were forced to wait months to see a doctor.
Just a foretelling of what to expect as the Unaffordable Care Act (like HealthCanada) looks for ways to cut the cost of affordable care.
Sheesh.
Apologists
Some Liberal apologist will come along and remind us that the idle law will increase health benefits, cut down on carbon emissions, and save fuel.
No. Vermonters don’t need a nanny law for that but it will certainly help the ticket nazis raise revenue.
Some Liberal apologist will come along and remind us that teachers are professionals and the descriptors help lay people to understand what educators and educationalists and educational technology specialists do.
No. Vermonters know what teachers do. Teachers need to act professional, not make up multi-syllabic titles and print business cards.
Some Liberal apologist will come along and remind us that the Veteran’s Administration and the Health and Human Services (which runs the ACA) are completely different departments.
No. VA is funded by Congress. Obamacare is funded by Congress. That’s a CF. As funding declines and managing-the-finger-pointing increases (the usual route for any government program), we’re gonna die.
Fortunately, two apples a day reduces the risk of stroke by 32%.
You can go pretty much everywhere and see pretty much everything in Florida from the water. That’s particularly true here in the Keys. Unless you happen to be on Card Sound.
Monroe County has found another use for Jersey barriers, boulders, and “No Trespassing” signs: the Sheriff closed down four public access areas near Card Sound Bridge including the Jet Ski Beach. County officials blamed “excessive weekend parties” and rowdiness left the area littered with trash not to mention the graffiti. Four popular Card Sound Road spots are now forbidden territory. Illicit. A no-no. Out of bounds. Gone.
For littering.
Yeah, as if a couple of signs will stop the parties.
Hang on while a couple of bars of the menu at Alice’s come around on the guitar.
I understand the idea of attractive nuisance.
“The attractive nuisance doctrine states that a landowner may be held liable for injuries to children trespassing on the land if the injury is caused by a hazardous object or condition on the land that is likely to attract children who are unable to appreciate the risk posed by the object or condition. The doctrine has been applied to hold landowners liable for injuries caused by abandoned cars, piles of lumber or sand, trampolines, and swimming pools. However, it can be applied to virtually anything on the property of the landowner.” (USLegal)
That (presumably) doesn’t apply to a public parking area but I also understand what municipalities think the attractive nuisance doctrine means.
“The doctrine states that pretty much any improvement you put on public land will attract some nuisance who will hurt himself and sue our asses collectively and individually. As a corollary, that nuisance will make a mess.”
(The Florida Department of Transportation has also shuttered Sea Oats Beach on Lower Matecumbe Key. Reason: trash.)
The FWC page describes these access areas as “Government Owned for General Public Use.”
The nearest (free) launching ramp in Monroe County is now about 40 miles south at Indian Key fill in Islamorada. I’ve never launched up there but plenty of pro fishermen and fishing guides have.
Since the guides use it, that sounds like restraint of trade to me.
For littering.
Remember when the nun lined up all the boys and said, “There will be no recess until the bad boy who wrote ‘sister sux’ on the blackboard comes forward”?
That was bad parenting then, too.
Marathon, Florida incorporated as a city in 1999 for the obvious tax advantages. See, cities have taxing authority. It scrawls across Knight’s Key, Boot Key, Key Vaca, Fat Deer Key, Long Point Key, Crawl Key and Grassy Key in the middle Florida Keys, right next door to beautiful South Puffin. The population was 14 in 1820 and reached a peak of 10,626 as of the 2005 U.S. Census estimate.
8,461 souls make Marathon home today.
Marathon’s Finance Chief oversees the city checkbook on a contract basis. Bishop Rosasco & Company gets paid $384,063 for their fiscal year 2013-14 contract.
384,063 U.S. dollars.
8,461 people.
As a comparison, St. Albans City, Vermont, had a population of 6,918 in 2010. It is right down the road from lovely North Puffin. In 2014 St. Albans City, Vermont, budgeted $52,530 for finance and a huge additional cost of $9,000 for audit and audit consulting.
| $384,063. | $61,530 |
| 8,461. | 6,918 |
Wow.
How’s That Working Out for Ya?