Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Quick Takes

Very quick -- I had a 4:00 a.m. phone call from work that blew a huge hole in the night's sleep. Not that I'm complaining: I'll get paid for it.


Supreme Court Justice and foe of the Second Amendment Stephen Breyer, held up at machete-point on Nevis:* I'm sure he's greatly relieved it wasn't a gun. Pity there was no possible way the honest folk could stop the crime, h'mm.


The President has sent forth The Great Budget! --And a Raw Deal it is, with any possible end to the red ink pushed out a decade or more. Spend, spend, and tax the rich harder -- at least, until they join their friend Mr. Justice Breyer on Nevis, where a once-in-a-decade $1000 visit by a machete-wielding bandit would look like comic relief compared to the fed.gov's bite. Look for this budget to be no more than a colorful glob in the food-fight of Election 2012 (da-da-dum!) and just as likely to end up in the trash instead of feeding anyone.


The late Whitney Houston, sent home to Newark, New Jersey for her funeral after a a career plagued by drug use. Newark, NJ? Ah, lady, there's the problem! ...Dammit. Y'know, if they'd spend a quarter of the tax money-- my money and yours, too -- applied to the The War On (Some) Drugs in cleverly promoting that being stoned was uncool, we might manage to lose pop singers at a much lower rate -- ditto the several thousand unknowns who check out for every musician or actor found dead in the loo. (Too glib? Too bad -- poor woman spent the bulk of her career on the brink and nobody seemed able to pull her back. For every Whitney or Elvis, there's an army of Jane and John Does dieing by degrees. Don't look for any of them to get three days of oh, whhhhyyy??? on national TV.)
________________________________
* Part -- by their accounting, the neglected part -- of the island nation of St. Kitts and Nevis, an ex-British colony, Commonwealth member and with a decidedly British take on firearms. A beautiful place, withal.

3 comments:

Stranger said...

Well, not once in a decade. While the Kitittians are generally nice folks, The Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis reports just under three completed robberies a day.

Differing definitions make a direct comparison of rates meaningless, but by US standards the rate would be over 1,000 per 100K population - compared to our 700.

The Justice is fortunate that his smile is not several inches lower. We are fortunate that his survival means Obama may not get to nominate his replacement.

Stranger

rickn8or said...

"We are fortunate that his survival means Obama may not get to nominate his replacement."

In light of Kelo v. New London I don't think there's much difference between Breyer and anyone else Teh Won could appoint.

In light of his dissenting opinions in DC v. Heller and McDonald v. Chicago I hope he filled his trousers. But even if he had, I don't think he would have had an epiphany.

Anonymous said...

rickn8or, the article doesn't indicate that they tried resisting, and so I'm fairly confident that there is at least one Supreme Court justice firmly in the "don't resist and give the criminal what he wants" camp. Sensible, as long as the criminals cooperate by not maiming or killing you every single time any given criminal comes after you, and it doesn't hurt you to give up the odd thousand here and there.

From now on, he'll probably hire armed security when he takes his family to the place they have in the Caribbean.

Mike James