Here is a picture of graffiti along Broward Blvd, looking East at a gathering lightning storm over the Atlantic. It turns out there has not been a store that sells legal forms in the area for over four years. I got this information by finding the Attorney General’s office and asking a lawyer type. The office is on the 7th floor of the Citibank building, a block East of the Courthouse on the South side. This is a super secret location that is not listed on the building directory. Proof that upon retirement, Maxwell Smart became a security consultant.This Federal Court is another thing. The public entrance is way around back beside the uptake ducts and garbage bins. Unless you approach from the “wrong” direction, you have to walk up a handicap ramp, which is harder to do than walk up the same distance on a flight of stairs. It is only right that the majority suffer or, why, they’d forget about handicapped people altogether, damn it! The building also has an airport style metal detector for people who don’t know about Glocks, and three stooge g-men checking driver’s licenses for terrorists too dumb to get fake ID. If the place gets leveled, they’ll, duh, have complete documentation on who did it, along with his credit score.
In the end, I gave up. It turns out the guy who “remembered” the store had not been in Ft. Lauderdale in around five years. I heard that the booklet was available inside the Courthouse, but, ahem, there was no guarantee they would not just print it off the Internet. The system raises the question that if a person has no ID, does that mean they cannot be tried as they would not be allowed in the building. I’m reminded of a statement by a history teacher, let me go look it up as I can’t quote this one from memory.
Norman Cantor, “The conception of the state as a territorial entity whose right to command obedience was limited only by its constitution and physical boundaries was essential to seventeenth-century political thought.” Hmm, it also says he is a Leff Professor. What’s a leff? Time for the Big Dictionary. It isn’t in there, I will avoid saying it got leff out. Anyway, the seventeenth century means the 1600’s and that is about the mentality of the people I saw today. He should have added that an even larger limitation is the intellect of the people the state hires to do the job.
For the record, I am a follower of John Locke, because Locke came up with the same ideas as myself, only a few hundred years earlier. My position is that man enters into society as a contract and gives up just barely enough of his personal liberty to allow a leadership which guarantees his safety, property, and equality. I go a little further. Leadership creates men who seek power if only to deprive other men of gaining it, and therefore leadership must be kept to a minimum as defined by that which men cannot do for themselves. If the leadership oversteps common authority, the contract to obey is broken. By this definition, Americans owe nothing to their politicians.
There was still time to download thirty prospective tunes. I have compiled a list of Country singers. The first thing I notice is that Country is dominated by vocalists, there are very few famous country bands. I can off-hand many reasons for that. I have to find old country tunes because the new ones just do not keep the crowd interested past the fancy intros. I biked up to Jimbo’s, who have an Internet juke box where you can look up artists. I must say that system is definitely a telling case of supply and demand.
Dixie Chicks. One thing I don’t think is on my agenda is running out and buying their album. The music seems to address unsavory subjects, which may be the purpose of some music. Still, one song, “Goodbye Earl” appears to be about getting away with killing an abusive husband. Much as I abhor violence, I do not buy the theory that abused women had “no idea whatsoever” the man was violent. I don’t have the answer but believing that nobody warned her is too unlikely altogether.
Here’s something. That digital juke box. If you pick a song, you can bump it up to the top of the play list by using another of your credits. Suppose you are chatting up some bar bunny and decide to impress her with your awesome taste in music (I know men who actually think along these lines), but some doofus is playing hip-hop or other inappropriate “genre”. You can pay extra to have your song come on next. As Sam put it, you gotta “stuff your cash”. Does this mean the other guy can put in even more money and bump you? Have there been any fatalities?
The Taurus is acting up again, getting hard to start. Yes, I know, it is the heat that kills batteries, just like the cold kills them where that happens. This means a trip to Miami later in the week. I need a tune up anyway. It is a fifty-mile trip but there is no place else I can trust to do it right the first time. Manuel at El Mago on Calle Ocho, that’s my mechanic.
Trivia. The new ATMs have a scanner that checks the bills for valid serial numbers. That means one of my earliest predictions about the Internet has come true, the tracking of individual bills will shortly follow. It would make it tough for thieves to spend stolen money, but the overall concept will quickly be abused by the authorities to invade personal privacy. Every new system like this creates a new brand of crook. It also nullifies plans I made in 1991 to track the same numbers.
