Is this it?!

I got a speeding ticket in May of this year from an automated machine sitting on the side of the road. The ticket did not reach my mailbox until early August. My follow up court date was yesterday.

This was the first time I was in court for a moving violation since I was 16 years old. (39 now) I listened to perhaps 30 cases go before mine came up. The whole system appears to be a waste of peoples time, creates no value in our community, and charges fines to many folks who just can’t afford it.

Are the roads safer because of these automated speeding tickets?

Is Milwaukie Safer/Better because code violation officers are walking around fining homeowners whose shrubs go over the property line?

Government has it’s place, I understand. But this appeared to be a money laundering operation. The judge went through each case in about 1 or 2 minutes. Always “lowered” the fine to $120, $160 or $250. By my calculations they are generating in the neighborhood of $10,000/hour. A few bored/miserable government workers get a job, while many hard working or folks who don’t have much are inconvienenced and charged these “fines” while be talked down to by the judge in his disrespectful condescending tone.

It’s just a sad thing to see.

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We created a new category of work back in 2003 called blogging. Folks didn’t think that would work out.

from Jason Calacanis.

I enjoy reading this guys blog and he has a lot of good ideas and shares great stuff. It is unreal how much he thinks of himself at times. To say that “we created a new category of work in 2003 called blogging” is just plain inaccurate.

We were working/blogging well before 2003 as were lotsa of others. It is not unusual to see such a lack of humility from a yank entrepreneur of course. Maybe I should start blabbing and making stuff up. Folks just might believe it.

When I read an article like this about the pollution from fertilizer, it helps reinforce the idea that Organic farming techniques are important. I wonder what the farmer that uses fertilizer thinks…he may just be trying to put rice and beans on the table for his/her family. Or is farming become such a large corporate business, that big pulbic companies are letting their fertilizer run off into the Mississippi.

Off to Jury Duty today…hoping that I do no get picked this time. Last time I went in 1996, I was selected for a Murder Trail in Chicago.

Journalist killed in Iraq war justified

Reuters said it could not agree that the death of Dana, a prize-winning Palestinian cameraman, was justified and called for the urgent implementation of recommendations in the report to improve the safety of journalists in war zones.

What does the journalist expect. It’s war dude. People are shooting big guns at each other with the intent to destroy one another. Yes, it is tragic…but what do you expect – it’s war. Covering that shit is at your own risk in my opinion. Don’t expect young men that are killing or be killed to recognize you as a 3rd party every time.

The Dalai Lama writes, “If we really think about it, our very survival, even today, depends upon the acts of kindness of so many people. Right from the moment of our birth, we are under the care and kindness of our parents ; later in life, when facing the sufferings of disease and old age, we are again dependent on the kindness of others. If at the beginning and end of our lives we depend upon others’ kindness, then why in the middle should we not act kindly toward others?”
(saw this on Rolf’s site)