Tag: law

HB 196

Open letter to Terry Meza

Dear Terry, your bill HB 196 would seek to limit the homeowner’s rights to defend himself or his or her property. Your bill would also create a doubt in the would-be victim’s mind as to whether they are within their legal rights to defend themselves. A second of hesitation could get the victim killed. You are confusing the issue, conflating garden gnome’s with tangible property and or life.

In a life-or-death situation, the last thing the victim needs is doubt. If they are reasonably afraid for their lives, they should defend themselves to the fullest extent of the law…period.

Not long ago, this same type of thinking was pervasive in our now President Biden, who said at the time, ‘If a woman is going to get raped, she should pee herself.’

Your bill would make it easier for some attorney to go after the victim, and you and I both know this is not about ‘lawn ornaments.’ That is lawyer-speak to play to the emotions of the feeble-minded.

We all have choices to make. They can choose to steal and take their chances or decide not to steal. They can choose to rape or home invade or decide not to. We, the law-abiding, have our rights under assault by this Congress, currently attacking the second amendment, while we on a parallel front have lunatics calling for defunding the police.

If the police act in a way that contradicts the way they should, then more training and better hiring practices are what we should be advocating.

Adding to this problem, we have a massive influx of aliens who we know by their actions don’t respect our laws.

There is currently a rash of catalytic converters stolen from vehicles. The cost to repair starts at $1000.00 and could go as high as $4,000 if they don’t do any other damage while hacking it off your car. That is hardly a garden gnome.

Why don’t you create a bill that would fine the crap out of those that buy stolen catalytic convertors?

Removing the reward for theft of ‘garden gnomes’ seems like where we should be spending our energy.

I would require that all catalytic convertors be serialized. Those that bring them in for ‘recycle’ must provide identification, including utility bills, to prove that the identity was not fake. A log book should be created and maintained to insure that the ‘recycler’ is on the up and up. The former would take a Congressional act, and the latter could be implemented with an executive order.

-Best

“What is one to do, shoot someone for $200?”

A recent post on a neighborhood blog elicited this response from me. The man had some tools taken from his truck in his driveway and was upset. He asked the question, what is one to do, shoot someone for taking my tools?

Here is my response to him and I think germane enough to share with you, good folks.

You (he) asks a good question. “What am I to do, shoot someone for $200?”

Firstly, shooting someone for any reason will affect your life forever. My litmus test is “Am I genuinely afraid for my life, or those lives of my family?”

If I am genuinely afraid, then the rest of this is a mute point. Carried by six, judged by twelve, simple math really.

The opioid epidemic is probably responsible for the increase in small crimes like this, as fewer and fewer doctors are now prescribing these types of “legal” drugs Legal or not, people are addicted to them and addictions will cause some to sell their mother into slavery for them. If they cannot get them legally, they will get them on the street.

That in and of itself might solve some of the addiction issues, as what they get on the street might very well end their suffering, permanently. Not my wish or desire, just simple facts. Truth told they know the risk too and will do it anyway. That should tell you something about their state of mind, and the risk they will take for a few tools from your truck.

Balancing petty crimes against lethal force is a tough call. So what is one to do?

In this day and age, we have many tools at our disposal.

Alarm your vehicle. Mine is set to lock and arm after 45 seconds, should a family member, or I forget.

“Viper Alarm from Car Toys.”

Keep your valuables out of sight.

Brand your tools or other valuables so that a pawn shop will not be interested in them.

Ring.com makes some not too expensive devices like the floodlight cam and the doorbell.

Both are easy installs for the average homeowner.

That video goes up to the cloud and stays there for some time. In case your home is vandalized the evidence is not where the criminal can get to it.

You said you heard them, Dial 911
Turn on lights, so they know that you heard them.
With the Ring floodlight cam, there is a siren that you can set off. Noises are not what they want.
Open your window and set off an air horn if nothing else. Yell at them telling them the cops are on the way! I would not use Uncle Joe’s advice about touching off your shotgun in the air. Noise is the right idea, just not shotguns.

I would imagine that smash and grab is their ideal way to work so sound and lights will alert your neighbors as well. Usually, they work in pairs. Getting a plate for the cops is a very good idea. Any information is valuable. Many have cameras set up to watch the streets and alleys. Talk to your neighbors and see if they captured anything.

If you were to go out there with your shotgun or another deadly force weapon you might very well be surprised to find that you are now in harm’s way as they had a partner. If on the other hand, you were to injure them or kill them, some subhuman life form of a lawyer would find any family members that they had and represent them on a contingency basis to sue you civilly. Pictures of the dead or injured person from his or her days in church, scouts, the soccer field as a 12-year-old, or as a family member and good dad or mom would adorn the courtroom. They would paint this person as the ideal person having them appear the saint, and you the angry old curmudgeon without any heart, hell-bent on killing people with your mean old gun. If the perp is or was a different race or gender than you, that too will factor into swaying the jury that you are now a racist or a sexist or both.

If you cannot afford a lawyer, they might very well get a judgment against you. It is relatively simple to emotionally manipulate a jury. This would then cost much more than a few hundred dollars in tools. As it is a civil case and not a criminal case, no free Lawyers for you.

If you can afford one and you had best be able to, it will cost you no less than $5K on a no bill. The process will go on for months, and it will consume you.

“What is one to do?” You asked

Good luck, I hope that you or our neighbors find some of this information helpful….

Full disclosure, I have no vested interest in any of the products or companies mentioned. I also do not believe that all lawyers are sub-human life forms. 🙂

-Best

https://drugabuse.com/

https://ring.com/

https://www.viper.com/

Freedom of speech @GregAbbott_tx @thefive

Freedom of speech

Here in the good ole USA we have something in our Bill of Rights called the first amendment.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

This is important enough to be the “First Amendment!”

Recently a Vet tried to take away a flag from some protestors on some college. The protestors were desecrating the flag to make a point and the veteran was having no part of that.

There most certainly must be a better way for the protestors to get their point across, rather than desecrating that which most of us hold dear, it is their right to do so!

Trampling on a flag is a form of speech according to the law so I have another form of speech that is being abridged and we are doing nothing about it.

manhart-screen-capture — She denies doing this for publicity… You be the judge.

Female-vet-defends-flag — Being arrested for stopping some students from trampling on the American Flag.

If I am traveling down the road and see some cop lurking in the woods waiting for some speeder; and I flash my lights to warn fellow travelers I can get ticketed.

Folks that is wrong on so many levels and nothing is being done about it. Some days don’t you just feel like a sheep with the cops and other bureaucrats as the big bad wolf?

Flashing my lights is my right under the first amendment. Just as it is my right to flip on the CB or other communication device and warn people.

Waze-navigation-app — I have tried this with some success. It is better if you have a passenger so you don’t have to fool with something while driving.

maxresdefault (2) — From about the same time as Smokey and the Bandit.

B002LZUY8A-1 — One of the best on the market.

The problems are twofold.

First and foremost traffic tickets have been a source of revenue generation and that is wrong as it removes objectivity from the equation. In many cases it turns traffic enforcement into a game and guess what it does for public relations between citizen’s and the police?

Secondly what is flashing my lights? It is a code. What is a code? It is a form of speech, my speech!

This is actually a case for the ACLU… My free speech is being abridged here!

Not only I am well within my rights to flash my lights, I am doing a public service in that I am actually slowing traffic back to whatever the legal limit is; which is the sole purpose of the traffic cop in the first place.

This needs to be a change.org thing.

This will probably be better suited for the states to deal with rather than trying to get those inside the beltway to do anything. They have to take a poll to figure out if they should go to the bathroom much less actually vote on something that matters.

As always, I welcome your input, thoughts and enlightened conversation about this or any of my other blogs.

They’re on TV, they know the right answer!

Not so fast… Liberal hacks have been spewing out verbiage (verbal garbage) for years, and people suck it up as the Gospel.

Why? You see them on the “silver screen” and they appear “all knowing!”

They are actors, which is what they do, they act! Do you think that the “actors in Big Bang really have a clue about particle physics? I am dubious that they could spell Higgs-Boson much less know one if it bit them in the ass! Please understand I have no ill feelings towards this group of actors. I have watched them through most of their careers and enjoy their talents. If I met them however; would I like them? Who knows?

Their entire claim to fame is that they can read a script, remember it long enough to regurgitate their lines and emote. I am certain that looks and who you know has a lot to do with it.

When liberal elites run things, it is almost never good for the “little people.” I would expand that to say the “elites” period.

Let’s take the tax code for example. Each and every election cycle we have people talk about changing it, making it simple. Makes for great talking points and for a great control of the narrative but in reality, it will never be simplified. It is thousands of pages of text which benefit the people with the gold, written by the people with the gold for the people with the gold! It is a way to legally extract money from you and give it to them or at least distribute it in ways that buys votes from the disenfranchised, aka those who refuse to work no matter what! There is a part of the population that vote, as their sole job, they vote for a living; and you pay them to do it.

Hey Hollywood, if your so damned bright how come California is bankrupt? How come every liberal idea of socialism and communism has never worked in history, ever! The only people that this ideology benefit is the 1% who look down from their ivory tower and say stupid shit like “let them eat cake” thinking cake is cheaper than bread!

If Guns are so damned evil, how come you guys have them? You want gun laws for the peasants, but not for you. The people know, and surely you must know; that laws are for the people who are not criminals! Passing gun legislation will only hurt law abiding citizens.

If you don’t like guns, don’t buy them! If I were president; I would push legislation that would have every “able” person in the country that was willing and able to take the proper course and get from the government free guns and ammo. Once every year or two they come in and re-fresh their proficiency and renew the certification. Don’t you know that crime would go down to nothing! We who make an industry out of locking people up would change that quickly. Would more people die in burglaries and other stupid criminal acts, Yes! Would the courts be busy at first, probably, why? Because people, (dumb people,) would test the system. There are stupid people out there that would have to see if grandpa or grandma would really shoot them. “Tap it three times grandma!”

The truth is that the typical response time for a 911 call is twenty minutes. Let me say that again, TWENTY MINUTES! Do you have any idea how fast a criminal can kill you and your entire family and be gone? Long before the first police car ever arrives on the scene.

By the time you hear the door kicked in, pick up the phone “instead of a gun,” that bad guy is already in your home looking for you, and or a family member. Now you can grab your shotgun and fire a warning shot like Mr. Biden suggested, or you can call 911 and try to stay alive while the cop finishes eating dinner, or writing up that guy that was going 5 miles over the speed limit, or investigating a domestic disturbance or; you can pick up your gun, that you know how to use and save the taxpayers some money, and your life!. The simple truth is that the cops will get there in time to write up the incident (most of the time.) What will they be writing up? If you have a gun that Matthew Mcconaughey and other liberal silver screen people (who have guns and body guards) think that you don’t need, or should not have, they hopefully will be writing up that there is either an injured or dead person that was attempting a break in, which needs to be dealt with.

When the people that you love from the silver screen come out and advocate for this or that or for some candidate remember that you have no idea who that person is, or what they are about. I loved Ed Asner. Did I really? Lou Grant, Mary Tyler Moore and even the bumbling news anchor Ted Baxter. Those are the people I loved, to watch.

Ed’s philosophy and activist rolls he has taken are diametrically opposite of mine in every way. This man believes that we took down the Twin Towers. When he talks in public do you see him as the lovable, intelligent all knowing news editor, Lou Grant?

Mr. Obama seems like a real nice person. I am certain that I could be friends with him but, as president I could not agree with his politics. With him, I learned and embraced the word “Feckless.” That is a terrible thing to have to admit and relate to a sitting president. I thought that Jimmy Carter would go down in history as the worst president ever, I think he got spared that title. I think President Obama’s ideology is flawed beyond repair. I do believe that he believes that what he is doing is good. This is the classic Ivory tower syndrome. Cake is not bread Mr. President. People need a hand up, not a hand out, Mr. President. With your approval rating so low, how about stop governing by the damned polls and just do the right thing. Stop leading from the rear! If you are lost; call me. I don’t have a red phone but I am certain that your guys can find my number. I am not a yes man and will tell you like it is! I am older than you; and I probably know more history than you do. I have run a company and I know how balance a budget, I do like it when you don’t have the teleprompter, when you talk and it is from you, and not half a dozen script writers.

Did I say script?

Yes, Script, only Mr. Obama does not memorize it, he simply reads it. His wife has aspirations of being on the silver screen too, as she has been in at least one show that I saw; Parks and Recs. She is pretty and has the right connections, so who knows.

I am unsure what drives people to want to be on the silver screen in the first place; I suspect narcissism but, psychology is not my main interest. This country is!

I dislike the process of politics. What kind of life is it where one begs for money and votes the entire time that they are in the public eye? No damned wonder nothing gets done in Washington, they are too busy setting things up for their next election!

Things need to change so these guys can actually get some work done.

I have some ideas that would fix it and guess what, they are from history and some are simply common sense which, we as a nation seem to be short of these days!

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more. It’s a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing! Scene 5 of Macbeth, if memory serves…

-Best

Technology, the Good the Bad and the Ugly

As someone who makes a living either by designing systems or complete data centers or managing or servicing same, I probably am more in tune with technology than the normal folk. That is not bragging, it is simply stating facts.

The other day while I was in the super market, upon checking out there was two long lines, waiting to check out. Employees could be seen wandering by, looking at the lines and then continuing on their way. This was a major chain grocery store.

The longest line was for the automated kiosk. As there were long lines of folks with overflowing carts at the one “regular” cashier I opted for the kiosk.

While I could go on about how we are loosing touch with our customers using things like kiosk, and lets face it the internet; kiosk in a grocery store are a mistake. While waiting my turn to “check out” , there was one middle aged lady wondering around from kiosk to kiosk, as the red light on top of each one blinked on a few second apart. That is not fair to the customer and certainly a terrible job for the lady. I personally vote with my feet.

There are too many different items and some are not even in the system. When the normal cashier has to obtain help, “price check” what do they expect us to do? “They” don’t care. They are saving the salaries of 4 employees, while getting you to do their work.

Other technology which is problematic is automated machines that call you. It is bad enough to call a company and have to “listen closely to our menu as our menu items have changed.” Weaving my way through automated machines or IVR’s, when I need customer service, just adds gasoline to the fire; and I install this stuff!

Now we have a constant stream of calls on a daily basis from an automated outgoing IVR trying to sell us something or “hold on for an important message!” The only positive to this is; I don’t really feel so bad hanging up on a machine. The problem with hanging up is that it simply puts your number back into the queue and calls you another time.

Technology replaces people, workers. There is a glut of un-employed people in this country and there is a plethora of new technology taking their place. While no businessman starts a business because he wants to employ people; employees are a necessary “evil,” or are they?

Technology also strips away our rights as citizens to expect some modicum of privacy. From backscatter radiation machines at the airport removing your clothes, to the “no warrant needed” to be wire tapped by just about anyone that wants to.

Some graduating high school kids ask me what I thought they should major in. I pointed them towards the medical field as I don’t see a kiosk doing this. There are of course in the works ways to contact a doctor over “Skype” or other such network. There is no telling what part of the world the call will go and as far as privacy, who knows. How does a doctor from 3000 miles away palpate your abdomen?

Lastly, I want to touch briefly on Drones. I find it inconceivable that we can be watched in more places than ever before. Cameras at every street corner with facial biometric ability to track whoever “they” want to is a little spooky. Law enforcement with remote control drones that they can fly over any place that they deem of interest and “look” down as to the goings on, possibly in your back yard or through your window.

It is not just law enforcement that has these but private citizens have them as well. Currently they are a bit pricey but as the technology becomes more accessible, the prices will come down enough so eventually the pimple faced kid next door will have the ability to fly a camera outside your window, or over your pool.

There are cameras on these drones that have such a high rate of magnification, they can see into your open window from blocks away and tell how many freckles you have on your bottom. There are also FLIR “infrared” cameras that can see heat signatures so you are not even safe to skinny dip in the dark of night!

Google has already proven that you really have no right to expect privacy in your own back yard as the satellite views of neighborhoods and so forth have been littered with people nude sunbathing.

Military drones are equipped with technology that from 17,500 feet can tell what kind, and color of the clothes that you are wearing. The drones for “use over the US,” are to be equipped with technology to tell if you are armed or, electronic surveillance of your cell phone.

If one wanted to get “off the grid” as it were, one would have to live like a caveman with no technology what so ever. Maybe we should find the Sasquatch and find out how they do it.

We are an overly litigious society and perhaps this is one law suite that needs to be fought, if for no other reason than to shine the spot light on a situation that is quickly coming upon us and will get out of hand in no time. I happen to believe that you do have a right to privacy in your home, your back yard, and if you own a lot of land, there too. Law abiding citizens should not have to worry about this sort of thing. I also happen to believe that any branch of law enforcement should be required to obtain a warrant before any type of wire tap, or flying some sort of camera over or around your property. We live in a new age and Orwell may have just missed it by thirty years.

-Best to you and those that you care about.