Category:
Government
On Staten Island, the deer population is reportedly getting out of hand. To address this problem the powers that be have decided on
deer vasectomies as the plan of action. The deer will be tranquilized, neutered, and then returned to the wild. At least as wild as it is on Staten Island anyway.
"Mom, Dad--I want to grow up to be an EPA field-worker like Johnny Horizon!"
Such were the words probably never actually spoken in the early 1970s, when the icon of
Johnny Horizon was launched by the BLM. But if any lad or lassie did utter such a wish, then they could have been placated with the
Johnny Horizon Environmental Test Kit. Parker Brothers showed a little poindexter hard at work in their ads for the kit.
Original ad here.
A Federal court judge has ruled that the
Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is not a valid religion. In fact the judge ruled that the church is a parody, a parody, can you believe it?!? Don't worry true believers, this is just a minor setback. Keep on keeping on folks.
As a science fiction writer, I love alternate history novels, about timelines where things happened differently from what we know. Here's a scenario I had been unaware of, which is particularly timely today, in light of many controversies, sharing many parallels.
A factual account of the possible historical turning point is appended below.
Someone did fictionalize it, and you can read
the first 58 pages here.
Source of text.
As George Orwell noted, political language often strives "to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind" — or pure junk, in this case.
Spartanburg Herald Journal - Apr 24, 1989
The
Illinois State Lottery is not currently paying out jackpots above $25,000 until the state budget is passed. There's not even an estimated time frame for the winners who are waiting for their payouts. As you can imagine, the winners have a problem with this.
So often here on WU we see "art' displayed in museums or galleries that is anything but artistic. Well, here is some beautifully done, intricate artwork found just lying in the streets of Japan.
Manhole covers.
German travelers in the 1950s complained that beautiful women were routinely being singled out for strip searches by guards at border crossings. The pretext for these searches was usually something trivial, such as a few Swiss francs undeclared. Sounds like the TSA learned some lessons from these guys.
Source:
The Corpus Christi Caller-Times - Dec 6, 1951
Browsing through the
municipal code of La Mesa, CA (it's a suburb of San Diego and also happens to be the fine town that I call home), I came across this unusual law:
Every person who transports a commercial quantity of avocados shall cause a statement of ownership to be prepared and retained in his personal possession at all times while transporting said avocados...
"Commercial quantity of avocados" shall mean any quantity of avocados in excess of forty (40) pounds exclusive of the container...
Any peace officer, upon probable cause to believe a person is transporting a commercial quantity of avocados, may stop such person and inspect such avocados, whereupon, the statement of ownership described in Section 10.70.030 shall be presented to said peace officer upon request.
Any peace officer, upon reasonable belief that a person is not in legal possession of a commercial quantity of avocados, may seize such avocados without warrant. Upon seizure the peace officer shall take custody of the avocados and turn the same over to the custody of the Chief of Police.
Obviously we take avocados seriously out here. I wonder if the same rule applies to guacamole.
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image source)
Oregon is running a voluntary per mile travel
tax instead of the current per gallon standard. The volunteers do not have to pay the gas tax while participating in the study.
Does anyone really believe the gas tax will go away if the per mile tax is enacted? Does any tax ever go away once it is put in place? So if this goes through we may as well expect both.
What a great way to control travel, especially for the poor. This idea is a greater threat to personal liberty than the Patriot Act. It is much easier to control a non-moving populace.