The Wine Commonsewer

Plain Text Email

Gentle Readers,

TWC gets a lot of email, most of which is HTML. However, I still get several emails a day in plain text. Often they've been forwarded a few times and as a rule, the text is splattered across the page, the pictures are stripped out, the formatting has gone dyslexic, and whatever meaning or beauty the page held is gone.

Hot tip: Most people are not going to individually open sixteen formerly-embedded pictures and try to fit them with the now-unformatted text that makes no sense. It's mind numbing to do so and the delete key looms large.

Worse. Try tracking a conversation back and forth in plain text with all those > > >. After two or three replies you've lost the rabbit. I'll try to keep up if it's a friend or a client, but I'm grumbling the entire time. Eventually, plain text requires that you excise the relevant parts and paste them into a new email just to beat back the urge to inhale fumes from the tailpipe of an idling UPS truck and slip gently into that good night.

In the heyday of plain text, emails were terse and direct, with little flourish or flair. Plain text was all there was and, like a loin cloth, it served it's purpose. In modern America, we are half past 2008 and plain text email is a relic, a dinosaur, the Neanderthal of the modern computer world.

As Always,

TWC

What Part of Shall Not Be Infringed Is Unclear?

Gentle  Readers,

When the ruling came down on Thursday, TWC was incommunicado, out of the reach of cellular networks and laptops, ten seven and on the side.....

......until the early Friday AM edition of USA Today plunked at the hotel door.

That's Jake waving from the tube.

Most of my gun totin' friends were delighted that the Supers would hear the DC gun ban case, which was totally ineffective in reducing homicides in the nation's capital. TWC warned them to be careful what they wished for and, frankly, I am surprised things went as well as they did. Especially after that disastrous eminent domain ruling.

Video here. Scalia's opinion here. Motor City Mad Man's rant here.

Huh? Sure I got a permit for that thing. It's called the Second Amendment.

Emergency? Dial 3-5-7 Regards,

TWC

Tip of the glass to Lone Châtelaine and KC

Mr Mom & The $700.00 Bus Ride

Gentle Readers,

Mrs TWC is in Fla for a few days at the Foundation for Education Excellence conference. Pretty sure those guys are focused on Florida schools and reforming some of the legal impediments to implementing tiny little bits and pieces of school choice.  I think she's interviewing a New Jersey Senator for something else. John Stossel is a keynote speaker. Mrs TWC is moderating the panel on school finance. I try to keep up.....

Just thinking about school and finance in the same sentence flames me out. Californicate spends over $22,000.00 A YEAR to educate my two kids. Yet I get a letter (Mrs TWC hid it) from the school district explaining that this isn't enough to cover the cost of busing. They want me to cough another $700.00. For busing. I'm hopping mad, apoplectic. And where's the notice of the school board meeting where this was discussed? Didn't get to my house.

It's simple math really, and when we're done, you'll see what I mean.

34 kids per classroom
$11,000.00 per kid in education spending

Follow along boys and girls, that's.....

$374,000.00 per classroom.

Peel off a hundred grand for teacher salaries and benefits and that leaves.....

$274,000.00 per classroom, per year. For that kind of folding long green I'd expect a limo out front at 7:30 AM every weekday.

What, exactly, are you people doing with that money?

Yes I'm aware that school funding is complex. Why is that?

The conference is also screening this:

As Ever,

TWC

Me & Harrison Ford, Doin' Our Civic Duty

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

I'm not big on jury duty but since I'm even less fond of scullery duty at the county lockup I showed up for the cattle call this morning.

The ABA has been hot on jury appreciation for several years, even enlisting Harrison Ford in the campaign. Before you get all weepy eyed and salute the flag, keep in mind that these are the same guys who get five big ones just for walking through the courthouse door on Monday morning. Jurors? Fifteen bucks. Not even enough to cover the cost of gas to get there and home.

Then there is that little matter of the Thirteenth Amendment, prohibiting involuntary servitude. There is nothing voluntary about serving on a jury. Where's the ACLU on this? Wait. They're all lawyers too.

The system depends upon the citizen juror. And they play on your civic pride, your patriotism, hell, they even invoke Thomas Jefferson, TWC's Patron Saint. That's all well and good, but how about putting the lowly juror on a par with the presiding judge or the lead attorney? Ain't gonna happen. 

But, to be fair & balanced, Californicate has adopted a system that is infinitely more organized and much more juror-friendly than in years past.  I do commend them for that although I suspect that it was forced on them by mass civil disobedience. After all, when your done jailing potheads, how much more room is there for people ignoring a jury summons?

I might feel better about it if the judicial system was about getting at the truth of the matter. More often than not, it's about tricks and technicalities.

Course, I am contrary by nature so I tend to blow things like jury duty way out of proportion. This time around it cost me a day I'm not getting back but I also read most of a trashy paperback novel. Not so bad, really. Still, I couldn't get out of town fast enough.

Get home to a bottle of wine and this.....

As Ever,

The WC

Prop 98 Fails (Your Tax Dollars At Work)

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

Californios emphatically rejected a ballot initiative that would have dramatically reduced the ability of politically well-connected developers to use eminent domain to acquire private property.

I don't think anybody was hoodwinked, most voters don't care. Unless it's their ox being gored. John Q is much more concerned with aesthetics and property values than with property rights. Nearly every person I know is okay with Kelo-style eminent domain to some degree. It's all situational. If the blight is offensive enough, well, no problema, send in the bulldozers.

One look at opposition funding and you get a clear picture of who benefits and how big the stakes were.....

Opponents spent about $11.3 million, much of it from the League of California Cities, California State Assn. of Counties and California Redevelopment Assn.

I'm curious. How is it legal for tax supported agencies to spend tax money, forcibly extracted from the wallets of the general public, to lobby for (or against) legislation?

Enjoy your new mall, brought to you by Costco and friends, courtesy of your former next door neighbor.

As Always,

TWC

California: Yes on 98 Either You Own The Property Or You Are The Property

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

Today is Election Day (again) in Californicate because it simply makes no sense to hold the state primary election on the same date as the federal primary election. But more important than choosing who will stab you in the eye with a sharp stick and take your money is the question of who will stab you in the eye with pitchfork and take your land.

Today, by voting yes on Prop 98, you have an opportunity to restrain politically well-connected developers from hopping into the sack with tax-paid government officials with an eye to bettering the neighborhood by sending the bulldozers to your house.

UPDATE: Several people pointed out that voting NO on 99 is pretty important as well.

We're rerunning the screed today. Pay close attention.

It comes as no surprise that Governor Schwarzzengroper, a man who makes ex-governor Moonbeam look sensible, opposes a ballot initiative that would prevent local government from seizing your property for the benefit of wealthy, politically well-connected developers and corporations like Costco.

Legal battles came to a head.....when Cypress officials tried to take Cottonwood's land at the corner of Katella Avenue and Walker Street for Costco. Church officials fought back and in 2003 agreed to a land swap selling the city its land and buying a larger neighboring property.

After a three year battle, the city agreed to a compromise and then paid the church 18 million for the land. Costco then bought the land from the city for 12.5 million. Some people call that your tax dollars at work. I call it corporate welfare.

Despite Poletown and Kelo, and despite what Souter and the Supers think, the real Constitution prohibits any taking of private property except for public use and then only after due process and upon payment of a fair price.

No person shall be . . . deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

Not to mention the ethical and moral considerations implicit in this question: Whose property is it anyway?

Put another way, you either own the property or you are the property.

As Ever,

TWC

Julio and the Homeless

Gentle Readers,

Tooling down the hill and across town this morning (in the politically incorrect full size Japanese pick up truck that's made in America) TWC rolled off I-15 at Magnolia Street. It's a long ramp on an upslope. Near the top sat a couple of booze-addled homeless guys with long greasy hair. One was lazily smoking. The other fumbled with the signs: Hungry! Please Help. How do I know they was booze-addled? I don't. But it's a reasonable assumption.

Swinging right onto the surface street I noticed twenty or so illegals, loitering near Big Box Hardware, spread out in small groups of twos and threes. All neatly dressed in work clothes. All hoping for a days wages. At half past Saturday mid-morning their chances were dimming. How do I know they was illegals? I don't. But it's a reasonable assumption.

Needless to say, neither demographic is wildly popular with mainstream America, but judging by the onslaught of political propaganda arriving daily in the box out front (election June 3) you'd think the single greatest threat to the Republic and the *only* issue in this county is those guys down on Magnolia looking for a job. How Un-American.

As Ever,

TWC

Alice Cooper: Terrorist

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

My kids made parole. As of the end of next week, School's Out! Not exactly for summer, because we're year round. The House Blond starts fifth grade right after Independence Day and Jake starts Junior High on or about his twelfth birthday.

Just like a little kid myself, I been toe tappin' around the Casa, humming no more pen-sills, no more booooks-ah.....

That's from the GOP's token psuedo-drag queen Addams Family makeup queen and bad boy shock rocker Alice Cooper's wildly popular rock standard that's been adopted by succeeding generations of adolescents yearning to be free of the chalkboard yoke.

It occurs to me that by modern standards, this guy is a fargin' terrorist. I mean, look at these lyrics:

School's out for summer
School's out forever
School's been blown to pieces

Emphasis mine. But can we be too careful? What would happen to a seventh grader running through the halls on the last day of school, not singing, but gleefully shouting....

School's been blown to pieces

 

Not sure, but if you are horseplaying on a school bus, tossing around a kitchen timer in a game of hot potato, and somebody jokes that it's a bomb, you will be expelled. Or,  if you make a crude drawing of something that looks like a gun, you will be expelled. Or if you accidentally bring a butter knife to school, you will be expelled.

Head implosion? Boy Howdy, you shoulda seen it when the House Blond brought a plastic replica of a rifle to school. Teacher's request. A prop for the kid playing Daniel Boone in the school play about the westward movement of America. Daniel Boone DID carry a rifle, didn't he?

Later, in the office retrieving the offending item: Good grief, Ma'am, it's not like someone just handed you a live grenade with the pin pulled. Handling it gingerly doesn't make it less likely that a toy rifle is going to explode and take the admin office out with it.

Mrs TWC was right about sending the kid to school with a toy gun when she observed that this isn't going to go well.

Alice Cooper was inspired to write his terrorist screed by.....

.....the last three minutes of the last day of school when you're sitting there and it's like a slow fuse burning. If we can catch that three minutes in a song, it's going to be so big.

He was right.

If you can't see the vid, it's here.

Can't salute you, can't find a flag......

As Ever,

TWC

Out On The Road Today, Gentle Readers......

....I didn't notice any Dead Head stickers on no Cadillacs but I DID accidentally and distractedly listen to a bit of Dr Laura, a woman who obviously detests her audience.

Granted, if you call up a talk show host during prime time to bare your soul you may be pathetically disconnected from any semblance of self-esteem. Some may say you even get what you got coming. But still, Dr Laura is Don Rickles in drag without a trace of humor. Even when she's right, she's wrong. Except, she actually is the mother of her children. We think.

For something a little more upbeat, try this one:

As Ever,

TWC

If You Take A Walk, I'll Tax Your Feet

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

As promised, Tax Freedom Day in America arrived on April 23, 2008. That means, on average, you worked from New Year's Day until April 22 to pay your taxes. As you mop your brow with a ratty doo rag in relief, you may wonder what the Takers, er, I mean the Taxers will tax next.

As Ever,

TWC

Can't see the video? It's here.

Tip of the glass to Freedom Talks