I am completely impressed. I’ve been looking at LED displays, but always from the point of view of typing the resulting message on a keyboard. Here is one where you walk up to the display and press some of the 4,750 ordinary rocker switches. Kudos and accolades to Valentin Ruhry, whoever you are. You are brilliant.
What are the boundaries of coincidence? Here’s a tough question: what am I to think when several major publishers, like Time and Newsweek, suddenly in the past year have feature articles on topics first mentioned in this blog? Six articles to date, and this month Reader’s Digest makes seven. The topics are completely re-written without any common phrases, but it is the choice of topic that has me wondering.
In the past year, dozens of items have appeared on my themes of food price inflation, the housing disaster, identity theft and now, human resources. You don’t have to read back far to find I questioned current HR practices. Reader’s Digest has a spread on the exact same subject, with the angle suitably changed to “what they don’t want you to know”. Is somebody using this blog to get their ideas?
I can’t prove a thing, and if I did it would be difficult to establish damages, since this blog is free, even from advertising. But darn tootin’ I’ll be watching those people now. One untidy piece of corroborating evidence I’d like to find out is do these various authors in these various magazines know each other?
On top of that, we have a new problem with bingo. You see, I work for tips. I am not an employee. If it falls within the realm of bingo, I should be allowed to do anything that maximizes those tips. The finish time of the regular games can fall anywhere from 9:20 PM to 10:10 PM (and the bar is open until 2:00 AM).
If, as tonight, the game finishes early and the crowd wants to continue, I consider this the equivalent of an encore. Regular bingo crowds do not stand up and chant for more. I should not have to ask anyone’s permission to continue if the crowd so wants. It means the place is booming.
But bars have barmaids. No matter who they think they are, they are still barmaids. And I am still the banjo player. The big difference is there is a chance I might amount to something else.
That’s why I came home and invented a solo bass line to “Passionate Kisses”, a tune that always reminds me of Sharon B. from the corporation.. She’s the middle-aged lady I once dated who had totally adolescent concepts of romantic love. The gal who had four VCRs because she couldn’t figure out how to program any one of them to record her soaps when she was working late shift. The bass line does not match the vocals making this tune among the most complicated in my repertoire. But hey, I’ve played Beethoven and I can play Mary Chapin Carpenter and sing at the same time.
Another of my predictions has come true. Some guy named Bumgardner is being held in jail for refusing to give the authorities the password to his encrypted hard drive. This is where you can test if you deserve to live in a free country. Some people say he is in contempt of court, others say he is pleading the Fifth, his right to remain silent. Most people see the following possibilities:
A) He is guilty and hiding evidence.
B) He has legitimately forgotten the password.
C) He is not guilty and defending his rights.
The first case I totally discount because you have a duty to presume him innocent. If you did not do so, you should move to a dictatorship where you can feel more at home, for you are rotten to the core. The second instance is iffy because it has been used so often the authorities don’t believe it. But nonetheless, he is under no obligation to speak and some people are forgetting that is a basic principle of freedom. He is being questioned as a suspect, not a witness, dammit! That significance should penetrate all but the thickest of skulls.
The last case is a curious one. Most people are too pessimistic to believe Bumgardner is accepting jail time over his principles. Here’s were I part company with most, for I see a variation on the third item that escapes too many people. Suppose he is innocent of the crime for which he is charged, but there is something else on the hard drive that makes him guilty of a different crime? This is the single most disgusting aspect of American law. Where there is nothing that says you have to, but a ton of laws what they can do to you if you don't.
In this scenario the police are intentionally creating double jeopardy. The police know they have no reasonable and probably grounds so they are trying to turn the second crime into a “plain view” incident. If so, he is within his rights to refuse and I suspect the police use this dirty tactic far more often than the public is aware.
Again, the law is clear on this. He is under no obligation to prove his own innocence nor to testify against himself. It is those who are keeping him in jail that are in contempt of the law. Silence is neither false nor misleading. The authorities are aware a person in jail has limited resources to defend themselves. They make it so. Therefore, they are conducting a Trial by Ordeal.
That’s another thing you thought was outlawed in this great country.
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