There used to be an expectation that mayors of towns would be old enough to vote; an eighteen-year-old mayor used to be headline news. No longer. Erica Ritz reports on the recent reelection of Mayor Robert "Bobby" Tufts of Dorset, Minnesota, who has yet to enter primary school:
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/08/05/tina-minnesota-town-re-elects-adorable-4-year-old-as-mayor/
In really small settlements, it seems, non-voters can be elected, and Sneaky Pie Brown really might have a chance at a political career.
Showing posts with label Erica Ritz. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Erica Ritz. Show all posts
Monday, August 5, 2013
Thursday, July 18, 2013
Grandmother Stands Her Ground
Erica Ritz shares the story of a grandmother who fought off burglars with a toy guitar...
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/07/18/feisty-grandmother-uses-unlikely-weapon-to-fight-off-intruders-i-just-kept-smacking-one-of-them/
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/07/18/feisty-grandmother-uses-unlikely-weapon-to-fight-off-intruders-i-just-kept-smacking-one-of-them/
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
The Color of Justice, Revisited
The blogger known as Nelson Abdullah or Oldironsides discusses two cases that might be considered hatecrimes, but for some reason or other have not received publicity comparable to the case of George Zimmerman:
http://noisyroom.net/blog/2013/07/16/black-on-white-crime-hardly-gets-anyone-protesting-in-the-streets-racial-bias-in-the-courts-also-a-problem/
Why don't White people howl and riot with outrage about this kind of thing? Maybe because we're brought up to think about unfairness differently.
My late husband had previously been married to a French West Indian woman who did a lot of bad things in order to cheat me out of his estate. How was that possible? Where was the enforcement of what Maryland has in the way of laws? Well...on several occasions, color was involved.
My husband's ex-wife's name had never appeared on the title to our house; she had no legal claim that my husband owed her money; she had never been in the house. Nevertheless, by displaying a blatantly forged "power of attorney" document no competent sixth grade teacher would have accepted, she was able to persuade someone to take out a loan to pay her four times what the house was worth, claim that she'd sold the house...and get a Maryland judge to uphold this person's "good-faith purchase." Is it really that easy to make money illegally in Maryland? Why, apart from personal conscience reasons, aren't more people forging documents that allow them to sell houses the insides of which they've never seen? Er, um...the "good-faith purchaser" and the judge who upheld the purchase happened, like the ex-wife, to be Black.
But I wasn't brought up to define myself primarily as a color. Few White people are. If I were called on to take sides in any kind of conflict between two other people, it's possible that something about one of the people or one side of the story might engage my sympathy in a more subtle way, but I would not automatically side with the White person against any non-White person. It's hard to be sure, but I don't think even "Pure Aryan" blue-eyed blondes whose grandparents actually lived in Europe think that way. As a mostly-White American I was specifically taught that that kind of thinking was wrong.
Americans of African descent apparently aren't receiving this message about justice being color-blind...though they should be. They should be the last ones to want a color war in which they would be outnumbered.
All Americans should be able to see the advantages of living in a country where the majority group have been taught that the rights and wrongs of a criminal case have nothing to do with the body type of the defendant. Nor should they have anything to do with the immoral behavior of interested parties--which is to say that, the more people blame rioting and violent crime on their sympathy for Trayvon Martin, the less sympathy any further prosecution of George Zimmerman should receive. In fact, my feeling is that the perpetrators of this kind of "protest"...
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/07/16/shock-kill-zimmerman-spray-painted-on-side-of-penn-business-before-its-set-on-fire/
...should be required to pay damages directly to the Zimmerman family. And they should serve hard time until they're old enough to understand why.
You want to protest against race-based injustice? Yesterday this web site posted a link to a discussion of a case Erica Ritz here presents in more detail:
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/07/15/is-it-fair-that-a-florida-mom-received-a-20-year-sentence-for-firing-warning-shot/
Is this fair? Is this right? Get your signs, and let's protest! But let's do it right...protesting injustice has nothing to do with threats, riots, or violence of any kind.
http://noisyroom.net/blog/2013/07/16/black-on-white-crime-hardly-gets-anyone-protesting-in-the-streets-racial-bias-in-the-courts-also-a-problem/
Why don't White people howl and riot with outrage about this kind of thing? Maybe because we're brought up to think about unfairness differently.
My late husband had previously been married to a French West Indian woman who did a lot of bad things in order to cheat me out of his estate. How was that possible? Where was the enforcement of what Maryland has in the way of laws? Well...on several occasions, color was involved.
My husband's ex-wife's name had never appeared on the title to our house; she had no legal claim that my husband owed her money; she had never been in the house. Nevertheless, by displaying a blatantly forged "power of attorney" document no competent sixth grade teacher would have accepted, she was able to persuade someone to take out a loan to pay her four times what the house was worth, claim that she'd sold the house...and get a Maryland judge to uphold this person's "good-faith purchase." Is it really that easy to make money illegally in Maryland? Why, apart from personal conscience reasons, aren't more people forging documents that allow them to sell houses the insides of which they've never seen? Er, um...the "good-faith purchaser" and the judge who upheld the purchase happened, like the ex-wife, to be Black.
But I wasn't brought up to define myself primarily as a color. Few White people are. If I were called on to take sides in any kind of conflict between two other people, it's possible that something about one of the people or one side of the story might engage my sympathy in a more subtle way, but I would not automatically side with the White person against any non-White person. It's hard to be sure, but I don't think even "Pure Aryan" blue-eyed blondes whose grandparents actually lived in Europe think that way. As a mostly-White American I was specifically taught that that kind of thinking was wrong.
Americans of African descent apparently aren't receiving this message about justice being color-blind...though they should be. They should be the last ones to want a color war in which they would be outnumbered.
All Americans should be able to see the advantages of living in a country where the majority group have been taught that the rights and wrongs of a criminal case have nothing to do with the body type of the defendant. Nor should they have anything to do with the immoral behavior of interested parties--which is to say that, the more people blame rioting and violent crime on their sympathy for Trayvon Martin, the less sympathy any further prosecution of George Zimmerman should receive. In fact, my feeling is that the perpetrators of this kind of "protest"...
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/07/16/shock-kill-zimmerman-spray-painted-on-side-of-penn-business-before-its-set-on-fire/
...should be required to pay damages directly to the Zimmerman family. And they should serve hard time until they're old enough to understand why.
You want to protest against race-based injustice? Yesterday this web site posted a link to a discussion of a case Erica Ritz here presents in more detail:
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/07/15/is-it-fair-that-a-florida-mom-received-a-20-year-sentence-for-firing-warning-shot/
Is this fair? Is this right? Get your signs, and let's protest! But let's do it right...protesting injustice has nothing to do with threats, riots, or violence of any kind.
Offering the Wrong Choice Alienates Left-Wing Women Too
Do we have a theme here? When left-wing politicians try to attract women voters by assuming that all women want to "choose" abortion (and that that's pretty much all women do want), they alienate even born-and-raised left-wing women.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/07/15/dana-loesch-shares-incredible-story-behind-why-she-rejected-liberalism-after-getting-pregnant-as-a-broke-unwed-student/
Yes, young women, you do have a choice. And although this overpopulated world might be better off if you'd chosen abstinence from procreative sex until age thirty, you still also have the choice of taking responsibility for any children you may carelessly have chosen to bring into this world. The other things you want to do can wait...at least long enough for you to give birth to the normal healthy full-term baby some older woman is longing to adopt.
No, I'm not saying that if the situation is horrible enough that abortion was your own idea you should force yourself to suffer as much as possible; the radical anti-abortion position tends to be taken by people who think there's some cosmic moral value in masochism. But I am saying that a "choice" to miss a year of school, even to educate people at school or work about the benefits of keeping babies close to their mothers, would have some positive social value, whereas abortion would have, at best, only survival value.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/07/15/dana-loesch-shares-incredible-story-behind-why-she-rejected-liberalism-after-getting-pregnant-as-a-broke-unwed-student/
Yes, young women, you do have a choice. And although this overpopulated world might be better off if you'd chosen abstinence from procreative sex until age thirty, you still also have the choice of taking responsibility for any children you may carelessly have chosen to bring into this world. The other things you want to do can wait...at least long enough for you to give birth to the normal healthy full-term baby some older woman is longing to adopt.
No, I'm not saying that if the situation is horrible enough that abortion was your own idea you should force yourself to suffer as much as possible; the radical anti-abortion position tends to be taken by people who think there's some cosmic moral value in masochism. But I am saying that a "choice" to miss a year of school, even to educate people at school or work about the benefits of keeping babies close to their mothers, would have some positive social value, whereas abortion would have, at best, only survival value.
Saturday, July 6, 2013
Ohio Phenology: Rain-Related Sinkhole
Erica Ritz's story isn't actually news (it happened on Wednesday, 3 July) but it's worth going back if you've not already read it...
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/07/04/woman-makes-brave-escape-after-massive-sinkhole-swallows-her-car-see-the-incredible-photos/
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/07/04/woman-makes-brave-escape-after-massive-sinkhole-swallows-her-car-see-the-incredible-photos/
The Best Way to Control Weeds
Erica Ritz has documentation, and photos, of the cool, Green, unbearably cute way the San Francisco International Airport is controlling weeds:
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/07/05/the-unusual-environmentalist-reason-san-francisco-intl-airport-now-has-about-400-goats/
It'll work for you, too, Gentle Readers. Not only are goats a safe, clean, cute way to control weeds, not only do they avoid eating grass and concentrate on the "brush" that fouls up lawn mowers; many goats especially like to eat poison ivy.
We posted something about this last year, and we'll say it again, in memory of my red-haired aunt who lived in fear of poison ivy and whose brush with sprayed poison ivy actually put her in the intensive care unit. (So far as she knew, she didn't inhale the spray, but somehow the reaction got into her lungs.) Never try to kill poison ivy with poisons. And if you're worried about inhaling the volatile oils as poison ivy burns, stop worrying--you don't have to burn it, either. Rent a goat!
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/07/05/the-unusual-environmentalist-reason-san-francisco-intl-airport-now-has-about-400-goats/
It'll work for you, too, Gentle Readers. Not only are goats a safe, clean, cute way to control weeds, not only do they avoid eating grass and concentrate on the "brush" that fouls up lawn mowers; many goats especially like to eat poison ivy.
We posted something about this last year, and we'll say it again, in memory of my red-haired aunt who lived in fear of poison ivy and whose brush with sprayed poison ivy actually put her in the intensive care unit. (So far as she knew, she didn't inhale the spray, but somehow the reaction got into her lungs.) Never try to kill poison ivy with poisons. And if you're worried about inhaling the volatile oils as poison ivy burns, stop worrying--you don't have to burn it, either. Rent a goat!
Friday, June 21, 2013
Sheep-Eating Plant?
Erica Ritz explains why Puya chilensis is sometimes called "the sheep-eating plant":
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/06/20/massive-sheep-eating-plant-set-to-bloom-in-the-u-k/
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/06/20/massive-sheep-eating-plant-set-to-bloom-in-the-u-k/
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Democratic Party Line Alienates Senator Guillory
That Google + button on The Blaze doesn't seem to be working...'cos so many people are plussing The Blaze that it seems to be forming a Google + page all to itself. Anyway, here's the article by Erica Ritz I was trying to "plus":
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/06/20/what-was-the-last-straw-for-la-senator-who-just-left-plantation-of-the-democratic-party/
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/06/20/what-was-the-last-straw-for-la-senator-who-just-left-plantation-of-the-democratic-party/
Monday, June 17, 2013
Valley Fever
Erica Ritz reports on the dangers (and expenses) of fungus infestation:
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/06/17/the-unexpected-reason-thousands-of-california-inmates-might-be-moved/
More about this disease:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/valley-fever/DS00695
Animals get it, too:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coccidioidomycosis
The irony is that this fungus is most likely to affect allergy sufferers who hoped for relief in a warm desert climate.
http://www.casa.arizona.edu/~peter/valleyfever/web/page4.html
Fungi that live in damp climates can make humans and pets ill too; Stachybotrys atra, whose odor I grew up believing was the natural odor of cellars (it's familiar to anyone who rides the Metro in Washington), has been blamed for deaths. But moving from place to place is not the answer. Fungi are everywhere. We have to contend with the kind that grow where we are.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/06/17/the-unexpected-reason-thousands-of-california-inmates-might-be-moved/
More about this disease:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/valley-fever/DS00695
Animals get it, too:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coccidioidomycosis
The irony is that this fungus is most likely to affect allergy sufferers who hoped for relief in a warm desert climate.
http://www.casa.arizona.edu/~peter/valleyfever/web/page4.html
Fungi that live in damp climates can make humans and pets ill too; Stachybotrys atra, whose odor I grew up believing was the natural odor of cellars (it's familiar to anyone who rides the Metro in Washington), has been blamed for deaths. But moving from place to place is not the answer. Fungi are everywhere. We have to contend with the kind that grow where we are.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
