Archive for January 12th, 2013

Bookmarks.

Saturday, January 12th, 2013

A couple of things I want to bookmark here, even though they’ve been all over the web, for two reasons:

  1. I want to get more serious about doing a “best articles” of the year for 2013, assuming we’re all still here at the end of 2013.
  2. I want to bookmark these for future reference.

These are mostly bookmarks for myself, so the rest of you can ignore this post if you’d like.

So:

“Here Is What Happens When You Cast Lindsay Lohan in Your Movie“, the absolutely crazy account of what happens when Paul Schrader, Lindsay Lohan, Bret Easton Ellis, and a porn star try to make a low-budget, funded on Kickstarter, movie. Hilarity ensues.

Also: “Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek“. This is supposed to be an amazing use of interactive media to tell a story, and it is the kind of story that’s right up my alley; I just have not gotten around to going through it yet.

This isn’t really an “article of the year” candidate, but I wanted to point it out and bookmark it for future reference: “The Minimum Viable Kitchen“, or how to cook great food for an investment of under $1,000 in tools. I wouldn’t take this as gospel: while my two favorite kitchen knives are both Victorinox (and I should probably add that paring knife to the battery), I’ve heard some pretty negative things about the accessories for the Kitchenaid mixers. So take this with a grain of salt and do some hands-on work before making a major purchase (or even a minor one: Blood Bath and Beyond should let you fondle that Oxo whisk for a while before you buy it).

Posted in 2013, Clippings, Food, Reading list | Comments Closed

!Crazy for the law.

Saturday, January 12th, 2013

Another update: I have previously written about Carolyn Barnes, who was accused of shooting at a census worker, ruled incompetent to stand trial, sent to the state hospital, and continued to practice law while maintaining that she was sane.

Well, she found a judge who agrees with her. Yesterday, she was ruled competent to stand trial. The judge ordered her release from the state hospital to the county jail, and set an early April trial date. He also set a bail of $30,000 and:

…ordered Barnes to wear a GPS monitor if she made bail — a prospect Barnes said would be difficult.
While she has been detained at the hospital, she said, her house has been vandalized and she has no remaining assets.

The “no remaining assets” part is also worth a little focus here. You see, the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, the people who run the state hospitals, tries to

…collect treatment fees from mentally ill patients ordered into the hospitals by judges until they are ready to stand trial. Critics compared the practice to dunning incarcerated prisoners for their room and board.

According to the Statesman, Ms. Barnes was being charged $509 a day, and has been invoiced for “more than $100,000”.

If I were to fly out to New York City next Tuesday and stay for a week, I could get what seems like a pretty nice hotel room for around $350 a night – possibly less than $300. Subtracting that from the $509 a day Ms. Barnes was being billed leaves me with $150 to $200 a day for food, which even by NYC standards sounds fair: get a couple of bagels with lox spread for breakfast, maybe grab a dog from a street vendor for lunch, and you’ve still got enough money to eat someplace decent to fairly nice for dinner. Of course, I’m not including the cost of medication in my calculations, but there’s also no mention in the articles I’ve seen that Ms. Barnes was getting medication, or that medication was included in her bill.

Posted in Clippings, Law | 1 Comment »

Gun show update.

Saturday, January 12th, 2013

The Statesman is reporting that the Travis County Commissioners could vote on a gun show ban as early as Tuesday.

However, the paper is also reporting that at least two of the commissioners are “backing away” from supporting the measure:

County Judge Sam Biscoe has said he asked the commissioners court to consider a ban of gun shows at county facilities after receiving emails from 200 people asking for one.
But after Tuesday’s legal briefing from county attorneys, he said the prospect of a ban was “not good.”
Commissioners Sarah Eckhardt and Gerald Daugherty told the Statesman they didn’t think the county had the power to enact a gun show ban. Daugherty, the lone Republican on the five-member court, said he wouldn’t support a ban even if he thought it were legal.

Before we give props to Eckhart and Daugherty, they are also quoted as supporting “background checks for anyone buying a gun at a gun show”. Oddly enough, so is Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson. I suspect that Daugherty and Patterson are just misinformed, not malicious; I’m not sure about Eckhardt.

In any case, now is not the time to back off. Keep those cards, letters, and faxes coming in, people. Contact information for all of the commissioners is right here.

Posted in Clippings, Guns, Politics, Travis County | Comments Closed