A friend sent this little gem by email:
From a book of Japanese Death Poetry (don’t ask).
Empty-handed I entered the world
Bare-foot I leave it.
My coming, my going -
Two simple happenings
That got entangled.
- Kozon Ichikyo
Am I allowed to name names?
Listening:Reckoning
Reading: A History of the Jews
Watching: Woman of the Year & The Philadelphia Story
As if it isn’t hard enough already to prosecute sexual assault cases.
LAPD, sheriff accidentally destroy sex assault DNA evidence
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Police Department and sheriff’s employees unaware of changes in state law destroyed DNA samples from thousands of open sexual assault cases, law enforcement officials admitted.
A statute passed last year permits prosecution of certain sex offense cases within 10 years of the crime, as opposed to the previous six.
But police and sheriff’s officials said officers apparently unaware of the change had destroyed biological evidence in cases filed earlier than 1996.
The lost evidence could affect as many as 4,000 cases in city and county jurisdictions, said the district attorney’s forensic science director.
WHY WERE THEY UNAWARE?? That’s in caps for a reason. Maybe I should bold it, too, for good measure. WHY WERE THEY UNAWARE?? I think we have a quality control issue, here. If, as a glorified secretary in a private company, I was required to follow written, current ISO-approved internal process when handling employee files & processing invoices, surely the LAPD Forensic support staff should be required to confirm they are following the current legal process for handling criminal evidence. It’s very simple, really – keep updated processes, which meet legal guidelines, on hand at all times. Hire one person (or five, however many it takes) to audit procedures & ensure the Forensics department is following them.
If it turns out the LAPD already has someone in this role, then that’s an even bigger black eye – either the auditor is paid for sitting on his hands, or the department ignored the audits.
The LAPD has had one public embarrassment after another regarding forensic process and handling of evidence … why has there been no discernible improvement since OJ?
United Press International: Budget files Chapter 11
Sandy Miller, chairman and chief executive officer, said, “Despite the success of our efforts to increase productivity and rationalize costs, the impact of Sept. 11th and the continued recession in the travel sector has left Budget Group with a level of non-vehicle debt greater than our operations can reasonably support.
I will add this: prior to 9/11, companies like Budget were already affected by the downturn in the economy.
Is it a trend of misplaced blame?
It’s interesting how the terrorist attacks take the blame for what was already an established trend. (The tech sector being a pronounced example of this.)
The attack has affected tourism, most certainly – but business travel is a huge segment of the travel industry, and business travel was affected not by terrorism & fear, but by pure dollars & cents. Business interests demanded a reduction in spending – meaning that by late 2000/early 2001 (when stock prices were diving, and headcount reductions were announced across entire industries), travel budgets were reduced.
Would the economy have begun to rebuild earlier, had there been no attack? I don’t know. But it’s ridiculous to blame 9/11 for the economy – the economy was already well-tanked. Blame it for extending the downturn, if you want – there’s no way to argue for or against, unless you’ve mastered time travel & can alter history. (And if you can do that, why haven’t you?)
The Truth Laid Bear: July 28, 2014
Trying to shake things up a bit?
Is there a California or West Coast blog ring out there? I regularly visit a handful of sites that are written by LA-area based bloggers … but I’ve seen no sign of a formal webring. Just wonderin’.
UPDATE: After much searching, I found one coordinated by the skittish girl … but I dunno.
Public largely blind to battle of budget
Nearly four weeks after it began, California’s multibillion-dollar budget stalemate has caused little or no inconvenience to most of the state’s residents — which might not be a good thing, some political experts say.
Efforts to minimize program disruptions and ease financial hardship can create a largely business-as-usual atmosphere that softens the public’s anger and eases pressure for a quick solution, critics say.
It’s NOT a good thing. As mentioned here and elsewhere, there is no incentive to pass a budget. Republicans are mainly looking to hurt Dem Gray Davis in an election year – and neither they nor the Dems are personally touched by the stalemate. Their staffers are – they aren’t getting paid, but I’m sure they were fully aware of that possibility when they signed on – and as previously noted, legislators continue to receive full per diem. Normally, they would be on break, but instead they’re being paid to NOT reach an agreement.
Connell, the controller, said state office rents, equipment and utility bills will not be paid during the budget standoff. Payments to Medi-Cal providers will be slowed. Local governments won’t receive all the roadway revenue they’re due.
Services to AIDS clinics may be reduced. Rental assistance claims will not be processed. Contracts for interpreters, food delivery, cellular phones, vehicle maintenance and numerous other services could be affected, officials say.
Just little stuff, right? It’s ‘trickle down’ bankruptcy – all those contractors and companies which would receive payment for those services are affected. It (obviously) adversely affects the local economy to have suppliers lose their largest customer for a period of months – every year. And the negative effects from loss of clinic services and rental assistance should be self-evident.
First thing to do is, withhold per diem. Second thing to do, withhold staff support (if they aren’t paid, they don’t work).
As I write this, George is in my lap. She is ignoring me (I am merely furniture, after all) as she curls up to have a quick bathe. Her front left paw is getting an apparently well-needed cleaning – lick between each pad, bite & pull gently at the fur, then lick a bit more. And now … pause, ponder, flip the tail slightly left to right & front to back.
Earlier, Mary Ann decided she wanted on my lap – but got a bit tangled in the mouse cord on her way from the table to me. She managed to click over to a different couple of pages while I unwrapped her … it … them … whatever. But she purred the whole time & couldn’t have cared less that she was interrupting.
“Don’t care, Mommy. Don’t care. Just LOVE me!”
I do. I love them. I respect them. I am occasionally baffled by them. I wonder how they manage to be both Wild and Domestic at once.
We live with seven cats. No, it was not our intention to have seven; I am as shocked as you are. So don’t imagine we started out to run a feline halfway house.
They are a community. They allow us to take part in their community. I have no idea what they consider us to be. Most cat mothers cease ‘mothering’ fairly early – I’ve seen kittens rejected from nursing mom at 8 weeks. So I don’t think we are viewed as ‘parents’ or ‘mothers’. I suppose they might felopomorphize (my word, cat version of ‘anthropomorphize’) a bit – since we are accepted, and are some kind of authority, we might be the biggest, strongest, most hairless cats ever. It might be just as simple as that: since we’re bigger & manage to provide regular food for them, they stick around. Affection is an aside – separate from any conceptions of power.
Elton Beard is keeping an eye on MA Rep. Barney Frank’s States Rights to Medical Marijuana bill.
“Nine states have decided to allow physicians to prescribe medical marijuana,” said Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), one of the bipartisan authors of HR 2592, which was introduced a year ago but has yet to make it out of the House Energy and Commerce Committee to the floor for debate. “What our bill does is to say [that] in those states, there will be no federal prohibition on such use.”
The bill’s supporters have low expectations – and the bill has yet to move out of committee. But I’m hopeful – I’m nothing if not an optimist.
“Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.”
-John Wesley
