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Greetings, Quotaholics:
I’ve
got a good idea for a book. The government puts GPS devices on peoples
cars so they can track your every move. There’s nothing you can do about
it because the courts approve it.
Wait. I guess that would be too much like the book 1984 wouldn’t it?
Anyway it’s not fiction. It’s already happened.
According to an article in Time,
the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which covers California
and eight other Western states, recently decided the government can
monitor you with GPS virtually anytime it wants — with no need
for a search warrant.
According to Time, "This case began in 2007, when Drug Enforcement
Administration (DEA) agents decided to monitor Juan Pineda-Moreno, an
Oregon resident who they suspected was growing marijuana. They snuck
onto his property in the middle of the night and found his Jeep in his
driveway, a few feet from his trailer home. Then they attached a GPS
tracking device to the vehicle’s underside."
"After Pineda-Moreno challenged the DEA’s actions, a three-judge
panel of the Ninth Circuit ruled in January that it was all perfectly
legal."
"In fact, the government violated Pineda-Moreno’s privacy rights
in two different ways. For starters, the invasion of his driveway was
wrong. The courts have long held that people have a reasonable expectation
of privacy in their homes and in the ‘curtilage,’ a fancy legal term
for the area around the home. The government’s intrusion on property
just a few feet away was clearly in this zone of privacy."
"The judges veered into offensiveness when they explained why Pineda-Moreno’s
driveway was not private. It was open to strangers, they said, such
as delivery people and neighborhood children, who could wander across
it uninvited."
"The court went on to make a second terrible decision about privacy:
that once a GPS device has been planted, the government is free to use
it to track people without getting a warrant. There is a major battle
under way in the federal and state courts over this issue, and the stakes
are high. After all, if government agents can track people with secretly
planted GPS devices virtually anytime they want, without having to go
to a court for a warrant, we are one step closer to a classic police
state — with technology taking on the role of the KGB or the East
German Stasi."
"Fortunately, other courts are coming to a different conclusion
from the Ninth Circuit’s — including the influential U.S. Court
of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. That court ruled, also
this month, that tracking for an extended period of time with GPS is
an invasion of privacy that requires a warrant. The issue is likely
to end up in the Supreme Court."
What do you think of this sort of thing? Should the police have the
right to come onto your property and attach a GPS to your vehicle? Is
your driveway "public" if it’s not fenced off?
The dissenting judge in the California case said this ruling was unfair
because rich people, who can afford to live behind gates and fences,
would have more rights than poor people. Do you think this is correct?
If so, do you think it’s unfair or another privilege gained from having
money?
Surreptitiously,
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“Friends may come and go but, enemies accumulate.” - Thomas Jones
“I never make stupid mistakes. Only very, very clever ones.” - John
Peel
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Everybody’s A
Comedian!
[Thanks Bonnie]
“May I take your
order?” the waiter asked.
“Yes, how do you prepare your chickens?”
“Nothing special sir,” he said. “We just tell them straight out that
they’re going to die."
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“An original is a creation motivated by desire. Any reproduction of
an originals motivated be necessity. It is marvelous that we are the
only species that creates gratuitous forms. To create is divine, to
reproduce is human.”
“It has never been my object to record my dreams, just the determination
to realize them.”
“Of course, there will always be those who look only at technique, who
ask ‘how’, while others of a more curious nature will ask ‘why’. Personally,
I have always preferred inspiration to information.” - All by American
photographer and artist Man Ray born on this day in 1890
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Speak right up!
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Logs
In geocahing, we have to sign a paper log in almost every cache we find.
It’s proof of our actually finding the cache container. Once this
is accomplished we have to log the find online on the cache webpage.
Today I was at one that was fairly easy, but the requirements were to
provide a narative that made it sound like the outing was such an adventure
that the cache rating would be the highest due to the difficult terrain.
Here is the log I posted:
"I
was on a puzzle run with FolboterJAF. We had just DNF’d on another cache
and were deciding which one we should go after next. We were in a drainage
pipe at the time and, since it was dark and our GPS screens were so
bright, we sat there looking at possibilities. This one was the closest,
so we decided on it.
Our GPS’s pionted to the opposite end of the pipe, so we went that way.
Little did we know that the pipe would get continually smaller as we
traversed it. Finally, we popped out of the end of the pipe where it
was only slightly larger than our hips. We realized we were now only
1/2 way to the cache as our GPS’s had not been getting a signal all
the while in the tube, but had only given us a direction from memory.
Unbeknownst to us, a fence almost 8 feet tall was right in our path.
We were now much closer, so we had to go for it. Using a poor sapling
for a foothold starter, the ascent began. More than a few times, our
feet slipped and we hung from the fence by sheer finger strength. Finally
we were over the top. A quick dismount got us back on the trail.
A little further along and we learned why the fence was there. A large
and deep ditch was between us and GZ (Ground Zero). Scaling and slipping
down the near side placed us right at the water’s edge. It’s a good
thing the weather was ideal. As we entered the water we learned quickly
how deep it was going to be. At waist high at the edge, we started fording
the ditch. Happily, in the center, it was only armpit deep. We had our
valuables on our heads tied up in our shirts, so all was well. We tossed
our stuff on the far bank and clamored out. The steep and slippery bank
on the other side was a bit of a challenge, but we made it unscathed.
OK, maybe a little scathed, but unharmed.
We then encountered the twin to the other fence. Upward and onward was
our motto at this point, and that’s just what we did, with the same
grace & poise we did on the other side. Mounting a slight slope,
we were within sight of GZ, although a large avenue was between us an
our goal.
It must have theen the onslaught of rush-hour as we had to do a realistic
impression of "Frogger" (an old video game) in order to get
across. Our ears were ringing from all the car & truck horns that
were blaring at us as we weaved & dodged our way to safety. Neither
of us got a scratch, although we apologize to those drivers who swerved
and their cars didn’t fare as well. We ran to the safety of the nearby
undergrowth.
Or we thought it was safe. Alternating between nettles and briars, by
the time we got to GZ, our legs were on fire. Pausing to catch our breath
and letting our legs recover, we began our search. FolboterJAF spotted
the container first. WAY UP THERE! Knowing what we had to do, I assisted
FolboterJAF to the first branch.
He was way too high to help me, so I had to use the gymnastic approach
as gymnasts do on the high bar. I ran up, jumped and caught the branch
with my fingertips. With an underslide, hand-over technique, I got my
legs hooked over the branch, and, with the momentum, was able to reach
another branch with my hands. FolboterJAF about fell out of the tree
when my heel caught him in the ribs in the process. Once in full contact,
I was able to either scuttle up from one branch to another, or simply
reach up and grab one. The climb was slow, but deliberate.
Eventually the container was in my hand. I passed the log to my partner
as he was able to stand on two larger branches than the large twigs
that I had to use to get the cache. He signed for us both and we began
our descent.
Once on the ground we checked our waypoint where we left the car. Much
to our surprise, it was less than 100 feet off to the side of where
we came out of the woods. Amazing how a culvert can affect satellite
reception! Thanks for the cache!"
Here’s your quiz:
Have you ever had to write a report or narrative?
Did you ever write one that included some embellishments?
Have you ever told a "little white lie", either on purpose
or as part of something else?
Cliff (the High-Tech Redneck who doesn’t rate a fancy ’signature pic’)
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Email Kirsten
“A
rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates
it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral.”
~ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry ~
From my blog, Running
for Autism
George has been preoccupied with pineapples lately. About two weeks
ago, when we were driving home from somewhere, he suddenly announced
that he wanted to go to the store. He wouldn’t tell us which store
he wanted to visit or what he wanted to buy there, but he did start
giving us directions in the form of pointing and saying “this way
that way” in his sweet lyrical voice. We were curious to see where
this was going to lead, so we followed his directions and ended up
parked outside our regular grocery store. As soon as we walked in,
George ran to the fresh produce section and picked out a pineapple.
Gerard and I looked at each other, shrugged, and paid for the pineapple.
George spent the remainder of that afternoon proudly carrying his
pineapple around. He was beaming from ear to ear as if he’d won the
lottery. The following day he wanted the pineapple cut up. Thinking
he wanted to eat some, I obliged, but all he wanted was the spiky
leafy bit at the top. That was his prized possession for the next
three days. He kept walking up to family members to see how the pineapple
top would look on top of their heads. This gave him endless giggles.
A week passed, the pineapple top eventually got discarded, and all
of us thought the moment had passed. But then there were demands for
another trip to the grocery store. As before, George acquired a pineapple,
but this time he had definite plans for it. As soon as we got home,
he put the pineapple down on a table and started rooting around in
his box of Mr. Potato Head parts. Five minutes later, the transformation
was complete. Plain Old Pineapple had morphed into Mr. Pineapple Head.
It had a full complement of facial features, two arms, and a pair
of shoes. The hair, obviously, was built-in.
This was so cool! The kid made a plan! He was immensely proud of his
creation, and rightfully so.
The following day, I was lying on the couch watching some meaningless
show on TV. George was sitting beside me admiring Mr. Pineapple Head,
who was occupying pride of place on the coffee table. All of a sudden,
he turned to me with a glint of mischief in his eyes, and proclaimed,
“Mommy is a pineapple!”
The air filled with the sound of his glorious laughter, and I bathed
in the feeling that this perfect mother-and-son moment gave me.
Kaleidoscopically yours,
Kirsten
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A Day Without Judgipoo Is A Pleasure Beyond Words!
This has been a long week. I feel like I’ve spent most of it with Judgipoo.
He probably has a different view of things, but this is my column, and
if he doesn’t agree that he is a pig headed, loud mouthed, obnoxious
— jurist — then he can write his own darn column.
My travail started, as most do, on Monday. I had a difficult final hearing
coming up on Tuesday, and Radar made sure I had a whole afternoon of
clients to help me avoid preparing for it. A prosecutor had invited
me to participate in a pretrial conference in the morning, and since
my client’s future was the subject of our little meeting, I thought
I’d better RSVP in a positive way. Consequently, Radar and I stayed
up until 11:00 p.m. getting ready for the case. The fact that opposing
counsel dropped off about 100 pages of bank records at about 3:00 in
the afternoon did not lessen the time we needed to do that.
The next morning at 9:00, I showed up at court. Judgipoo was entertaining
himself with one of my colleagues who had forgotten about the time change
between our two counties. Our hearing got started a half hour late.
We had been scheduled, according to my copy of the court’s order, from
9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. At 11:00 a.m., Judgipoo interrupted the hearing
for "a small matter that won’t take long", and we had the
pleasure of sitting on the bench out in the hall for 45 minutes.
At about 1:00 p.m., Judgipoo had to take another phone call to set up
a date in another case. He got back 15 minutes later, and his mood hadn’t
improved a bit. He lectured opposing counsel, me and our respective
clients for another 15 minutes or so.
When we finally got down to business, we were informed that Judgipoo
"had all the evidence he needed to make a decision". Then,
he had the nerve to lambast us again. The subject this time? We had
taken too long to present our case. It would have gone a lot smoother
if WE had been more organized.
Two days later, which was not nearly long enough in my opinion, I was
back in Judgipoo’s court. In this drama, the kids didn’t want to visit
with their father because all he does when they are together is watch
TV with his sister and brother-in-law. Judgipoo didn’t feel he could
do anything about it because he didn’t see their situation as a legal
issue.
Judgipoo believes that kids should do exactly what their parents tell
them to do until they’re 18. He figures that the parents will end up
with the relationships they create, and that the court shouldn’t intervene.
Because of this, he will not talk to kids, will not force anyone into
counseling, and will not do anything else about the case except lecture
the lawyers and their clients, and complain about how much of the court’s
time they are wasting.
The tropical plants in Judgipoo’s courtroom are in bloom. The fauna
has had plenty to eat, being amply fed this week on lawyer egos and
client confusion. For the rest of us, it has been a long week. I am
even more grateful, if possible, that it is Friday, and Judgipoo doesn’t
appear to be on my schedule for a few days. This is fortunate for me,
as I am almost out of Tylenol.
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Misc. Tips
[Thanks Bob of the North]
To clean a room after a dusty job, put the hose on the outlet of your
vacuum cleaner. Blow the dust from everything, starting at the ceiling,
and winding up with a pile of heavy particles in the middle of the
floor, for easy sweeping. The fine dust will wind up in the Vacuum
filter. For best results, leave vacuum on for a while after the 1st
pass, clean it, and do another round.
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That one didn’t work out very well! How
about this one?
Next opening line…
I’m now looking forward to fall…
Hints:
Here’s a great new rhyming/composition tool. http://www.writerhymes.com/
There’s also a great rhyming dictionary at http://www.rhymezone.com/
Limerick rules. http://freespace.virgin.net/merrick.sheldon/limerickrules.htm
Submit
Opening Line
Submit
Limerick
The
children are now back in school—
so now they can’t go play the fool—
they’ll study all day
as they leave say "HOORAY"
’cause they no longer sit there and drool. - Cassandra in New
York |
The
children are now back in school
hearing but not learning the golden rule
little Jeffery is so very cool
he’s failing in math
the teacher has forgotten how to laugh
so mom has to come to school
and bring Jeffery her educating tool. - dEE |
The children
are now back in school
The world to them seems very cruel
But try as they might
They can’t fight this fight
So relax, chill out, just be cool. - Bonnie |
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Re: Living Space
My house is 700 sq. ft.
It was built in three stages, and I suspect that it started with a
small family living in two rooms. The bathroom replaced the outhouse
in the last addition. I’m currently adding a solar heat collector,
and have improved the insulation. If I gave up my workshop, I’d be
tempted to go really small. The average European has 300 sq. ft of
living space, but some North Americans are finding freedom in 100.
There is some really good furniture that can give a single space two
or three functions now. The hardest thing seems to be avoiding legal
hassles for not living in a wasteful way. - Bob of the North
I’ve lived in one
home that was around 3,000 square feet, two story plus attic and basement,
but no McMansion! It was built in 1803, and the largest room in it
was the dining room ( 24 feet long), the smallest was the "Birthing
Room" which was barely seven feet wide. A colonial. Ten rooms.
Then we moved on to a Victorian 18 room job in which six rooms were
separated from the main house because they had been built as servants
quarters in 1880. Also a huge dining room, awful basement, no real
storage space in the attic, one bathroom.
I don’t think it’s the square footage that counts today - it’s the
amenitites - like a Master Suite, a bathroom for almost every bedroom,
a family or recreation room, deck and patio, etc. that today’s upwardly
mobile people look for. They usually don’t know how to rehab or build
anything, so they look at new homes.
Skills, tools, and space use change every few years. Many of today’s
kids have no idea how to apply a hammer to a nail any more than they
know what’s under the hood of their car or how it operates. In 1803
Dinner was a noon meal in the Big House dining room where farm hands
and family ate together, where the food was raised, stored and prepared
by a group of women who were usually partly hired hands. They baked
the bread, churned the butter from cream separated in a cold room
after the farm boy hauled it up from the barn. The wood burning stove
began cooking dinner the minute breakfast was over. Water was brought
in by bucket, sometimes a pump was arranged in the kitchen (I’ve seen
two such arrangements) to save the ladies this chore. Imagine trimming
wicks and cleaning and refilling oil lamps every day. Hauling out
those "thunder jugs" one had under every bed. Same was still
true in 1880. No electricity, no indoor plumbing, no central heating
systems meant a lot of work! Then all of that changed, homes got smaller
because of "labor saving devices", fewer people hired servants,
TV and computers happened, needed space arranged differently from
the old houses, and we started upgrading - at ever spiraling cost!
Maybe I should admit to having hands-on experience with all the chores
mentioned. I spent a month at my Great Aunt’s home when I was nine.
It was a Victorian home in Pennsylvania on a huge dairy farm, and
had never been electrified, had no running water, none of the five
bedrooms had been converted to a bathroom. And her first words to
me were "Everybody has chores to do. Yours will be…" and
she enumerated them, and I did them.
The best thing I liked about the old houses was the kitchens. They
had to be remodeled, but they were Eat-In size. Usually they had a
small ROOM called a Pantry, not a two foot wide cabinet. But today’s
families don’t do much canning and need space to store dozens of jars
of stuff - unless it’s a "New" idea and somebody holds a
Class. I grew up helping do that stuff, my kids even helped with gardening
and canning. Then they moved to cities and condos, townhouses and
apartments and forgot all about it.
Personally, this Go Green stuff seems like just another buzz term
to make money. Our house is about as "green" as we’re likely
to get it - efficient windows, heating and hot water systems, insulation,
florescent light bulbs, recycling program, composting, rain barrels,
and the only electric lawn mower in the neighborhood. I’m waiting
to see when the designer fad of using heavy slabs of stone for countertops
and ceramic block on half the floors ends, and what they’ll dream
up next that home sellers have to do to meet the expectations of buyers.
I suspect the change will come when folks get tired of replacing their
wine glasses and frustrated with permanent stains in the granite.
Cleaning up shards of glass gets old. - Nancy L in Ohio
In 1999, I started a new
job. We moved from Charleston, SC (lovely city) to a rural area in
northeastern SC. We left a home that had over 2600 square feet, 2.5
baths, 3 bedrooms, FROG, attached two car garage, etc., that was located
in a housing development (you know, houses that are barely 40′ apart).
We decided to not only downsize (boys were grown up and basically
gone) but to live out in the country, too (one neighbor is in hollering
distance, and I can see one more several hundred yards away). We bought
a 3-year old house just barely over 1800 square feet located on 3
acres, 3 bedrooms and 2 baths, with attached garage (her small car,
my motorcycle and zero-turn lawn mower fit in there) and a detached
2 car garage that was a shell. I built a 24′ x 12′ screened in porch
and also a deck on the back. I then finished the 24′ x 24′ garage
and made it into an air-conditioned/heated shop for me (I got into
woodworking). Three years ago, I built another, bigger shop 24′ x
40′ (my "man"-rage instead of a garage) because my wife
got into firing glass and making glass bowls, beads, bottles, etc.,
and we needed space for her equipment, too. The "old" shop
was re-converted back into a 2-car garage (still with heat and air
that I don’t turn on) for our 1966 Mustang and my truck. Now, here’s
the really cool part – counting the attached garage, detached
garage and shop we have about 1900 square feet of garage and shop
space…more than the square footage in our house. AARGH !!! You’ll
never get either of us back in a city… - Jerry in SC
I currently live
in a tri-level house and I would estimate it’s living space at about
3,000 sq ft.
We are retiring to a home in Kansas that has about 2,500 sq ft. I
feel crunched in it. The main
reason is my books. I love books, I had a room in my house in Guthrie
devoted to books, but I
will have to find space in Kansas for books. The oldest book goes
back to 1830, Ivanhoe a lot
of the others are 1880 vintage. My first home was about 900 sq ft
then each home got larger. - BJ in Oz (Guthrie, Oklahoma and Caldwell,
Kansas)
When I met my husband he
had a 700 square feet house with no basement but a crawl space. I
had just bought a 2 bedroom condo of about the same size I would guess.
When we decided to have kids, we did major renovations to add space
for a 2nd bedroom. We did that by raising the house to build a basement.
We now have a bit more than 1400 square feet of living space with
2 full bathroom. I then sold my condo and we paid for some of the
renovations with the money I made with it.
I would like to have a slightly bigger home but not a McMansion. You
need to have a cleaning lady for those and who needs all this space
anyways? I found that most big houses like that only have 2 or 3 people
living there, what’s the point of all that space. Plus I would rather
have a backyard, a front yard and some space separating my house from
the neighbor’s for some privacy.
Right now we are paying more on the capital than on interest so if
all goes well, we should be mortgage free in less than 10 years. Better
than being mortgaged to the tilt for a big mansion and not being able
to stay home with my child and go out for dinner once a week. - Nathalie
in Montreal
Re:
Cannaba-Dabba-Doo
When,
oh when, is our society going to stop putting people who smoke pot
in jail??? What a waste of jail space and taxpayer money. I guess
it’s just easier to prosecute pot smokers than actual criminals. Irritates
the hell outta me, I have to tell you. Now, I realize your client
may have more offenses than just smoking, but if he has that many
medical and personal problems (2 deaths in the same DAY?? Poor guy!),
smoking probably keeps him from literally killing someone. And it
IS a good pain reducer, and if he really does have cancer, it helps
with that, too.
At the risk of redundancy, it all just seems like such a waste. -
OhioKat
Re:
Futility
Northern Ohio has not been
as hot as down your way, thank goodness! But we also experienced the
drought period. We never water the lawn. Just vegetables and flower
beds. Back yard - from rain barrels most of the time, twice from the
faucet. Front yard - a weekly dose from a faucet and hose to annuals,
mostly. Mulch has helped a lot, as do trees. Shaded areas don’t dry
out as much. Our lawn has stayed relatively green, just like the whole
neighborhood. - Nancy L in Ohio
my husband cuts
mostly 2 x a month and we’ve had high and lots of storms.Our trees
and grass are beautiful and grreen - dEE
I let nature rule. If the
grass dies, so be it. It comes back again, it always has.
I live in a semi-dry state (Oklahoma) and to me it is a waste of resources
to water
the lawn, especially when I have about an acre and a half. - BJ thinking
green or brown in Guthrie, Oklahoma
Re:
Punch In The Face
You’ll have to
stand in line to punch Barney. That thing is the anti-Christ, I just
know it! I have always been grateful that my son was too old for such
shows when Barney showed up. We missed Teletubbies, too, and the one
time I did catch the show, I just stared at it, fascinated. What kind
of drugs were the people who came up with that show on, anyway? I
want some!  - OhioKat
Re:
Pakistan
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/08/25/warns-taliban-attack-aid-workers-pakistan/
- Tammy
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Disclaimer- All quotes printed in this publication are believed to be
accurately attributed, but no guarantees are made that some incorrectly
attributed, or even outright false quotes won’t get in here from time
to time. I assure readers that I will do my best to weed out incorrect
quotes, and will print a retraction as soon as I become aware of any errors.
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