Thursday, May 08, 2008

The Thursday Q & A

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I have a couple of items on my mind before we get to the regular Thursday Q&A. First, when I heard about a double shooting in Giles County Tuesday night, I didn't pay much attention to it. There were no details available, and when you hear about shootings any more, you tend to slough it off, figuring it's probably "domestic" or "drug-related." Today, it turned out that two men fishing and camping on the Appalachian Trail were the victims (so far, they're both still alive). And then it was announced that a suspect had been apprehended after crashing the vehicle he stole from one of the men. This whole scenario of shootings on the Appalachian Trail is eerily familiar.

There have been a number of incidents all along the Trail, but the one that sticks in my mind happened close to home. In May of 1981, a young couple was shot in the same general area on the AT as the Tuesday incident. Unfortunately, neither of them survived. After an extensive manhunt, a suspect was arrested and confessed to the killings. His name was Randall Lee Smith. The name of the suspect in Tuesday's shootings? Randall Lee Smith -- one and the same. Smith somehow finagled a plea bargain back in the 80s and was only charged with second degree murder. Besides the plea bargain, there was both physical evidence and the confession. He was sentenced to 30 years, but now we learn that he's been out for 12 YEARS.

I read a book about the case ("Murder on the Appalachian Trail") published in, I think, 1988, written by Jess Carr, who I believe was one of the attorneys involved in the case. I don't remember all the details, but I do recall that Smith was clearly "not right" and should certainly have been considered a continuing threat. His post-parole period of supervision ended in 2006, which means that nobody's been keeping an eye on him. That was a really dumb move; reprehensible, really, when you think about it.




The other thing I wanted to mention was that I had to hustle to get a license for my dog Wednesday. This came about as the result of a letter to the editor I read in the Tuesday morning paper. The City has been cracking down on dog licensure; i.e., it needs more money. Veterinarians are now required to report the names and addresses of patients who live in the City so the animal's license status can be checked. Anyway, in this letter, the writer said that animal control officers are now going door to door checking on dog licenses, and that they came to his door. His dog wasn't licensed, so they issued him a summons -- which he refused to sign. Because he wouldn't sign it, he was arrested, handcuffed, taken to jail, and charged with "obstruction of justice." I've always refused to give in and buy a dog license because, damn it, every other thing I own is taxed to the max and I don't see why I should have to pay a tax on my dog. After reading about that gentleman's ordeal, though, I figured I'd better suck it up and buy a damn license because I sure as hell am not going to jail over it. Why is it that the less money people have, the more some damned taxing authority wants from them? Who cares if the City needs gas money? Not I! I'd rather keep it in my own pocket -- and gas tank. There are never enough cops around to prevent the daily robberies, rapes, maimings, and murders around here, but they can spare the animal control officers to go door to door checking on tax payments. Yeah, I feel safer. If all the various levels of government would stop trying to protect us from ourselves and legislating our every move, they wouldn't need so much money.

Ahhhhh. Venting is good.

And so is grilling, which we'll now proceed to.

1. What was the last tax YOU paid?
2. Is there an income tax in your state?
3. Does your locality impose sales taxes?
4. If you have a dog, did you buy a license?
5. Do you believe Internet sales should be taxed?
6. Do you believe that in cases of violent crime, 30 years should mean 30 years?
7. Have you bought your Mother's Day gift yet?
8. Is there a live volcano anywhere near you?
9. If there is, would you let me know when it looks ready to blow? And toss me a very nice lei before I go in?

TWISTED LINGUISTICS has selected these Words Gone Wild for your viewing pleasure and belly laughs today. See what you can do with the ones that stumped me.

no preceived idea - No communications coming in from the mother ship.

prooved - Cows preening on freshly pedicured hooves.

human beeing - People with sharp, sharp tongues.

libearl

hypociritical - Russian hippopotamuses that can write only in Cyrillic letters.

insurred

Obudsman law - Cracking down on people who smoke pot and then sit around saying Ooooooom.

retunable

famlily - Inbred clan of lily-livered wusses.

11 comments:

Bilbo said...

no preceived idea - the ESP just isn't working today.

prooved - delivered a proof so elegant that everyone just said, "ooooo!"

human beeing - one of those annoying people who is always buzzing around, bothering you.

libearl - a liberal who's got it all backwards (see, "conservative").

hypociritical - the device used to inject doses of ciritical, a drug which moderates negative opinions about wispy clouds.

insurred - protected against accidents on Roy Rogers' ranch (the Double R-Bar). Okay, I know it's a stretch, but...

Obudsman law - requires man caves to be fully stocked with Bud Lite, assuming no real beer is available.

retunable - able to be brought back, but on a different frequency.

famlily - the flower on a French coat of arms.

And I hope you get lei'd before you hop into that volcano...

Anonymous said...

ha haha ha ahah ha ahah ha aha hah aha haha to this post, serena, and to bilbo's list

well, i think i can take a stab at this one:

retunable: you can tune a piano, but you can't tuna fish... but if you could, then it would be retunable

HAPPY THURSDAY, SERENA JOY! <3

>8---:} )

rkfinnell said...

1. What was the last tax YOU paid?
Leah's federal and state.
2. Is there an income tax in your state?
Yes
3. Does your locality impose sales taxes?
No, but the property tax is higher than the "rich" county
4. If you have a dog, did you buy a license?
No dog, but in the past I have.
5. Do you believe Internet sales should be taxed?
No
6. Do you believe that in cases of violent crime, 30 years should mean 30 years?
Most certainly I do!
7. Have you bought your Mother's Day gift yet?
No reason to unless I buy it for myself.
8. Is there a live volcano anywhere near you?
No, but we do have a fault line
9. If there is, would you let me know when it looks ready to blow? And toss me a very nice lei before I go in?
I could throw a skein of variegated yarn into the largest crack the earthquake made. Your color choices of course.

puerileuwaite said...

Amen, sistah! Some places here are getting more like Britain each day, where over there they even tax each TV set that you have! Isn't that the type of crap that the Colonists protested in the first place?

Anyhoo. How about some semi-serious answers today ...


1. What was the last tax YOU paid? Sales Tax.


2. Is there an income tax in your state? Yes.
3. Does your locality impose sales taxes? Yes.
4. If you have a dog, did you buy a license? N/A.
5. Do you believe Internet sales should be taxed? No.
6. Do you believe that in cases of violent crime, 30 years should mean 30 years? ABSOLUTELY.
7. Have you bought your Mother's Day gift yet? No.
8. Is there a live volcano anywhere near you? None that I know of.
9. If there is, would you let me know when it looks ready to blow? And toss me a very nice lei before I go in? I think I can accomodate, m'lady.

Ed & Jeanne said...

1. What was the last tax YOU paid?

Income in April

2. Is there an income tax in your state?

Yes; and it’s not trivial

3. Does your locality impose sales taxes?

No; we’re like one of only a couple states. Whew!

4. If you have a dog, did you buy a license?

I can’t any place to install a license plate on a dog so I haven’t bothered…

5. Do you believe Internet sales should be taxed?

I find it taxing just to make some internet sales…

6. Do you believe that in cases of violent crime, 30 years should mean 30 years?

Unless it means 100 years…

7. Have you bought your Mother's Day gift yet?

No…I’m not a mother. But I haven’t bought my mother anything either; it’s another year or not knowing what to get her…

8. Is there a live volcano anywhere near you?

Mt. St. Helens. I was up in the death zone two days before it blew in 1980; didn’t have a clue…

9. If there is, would you let me know when it looks ready to blow? And toss me a very nice lei before I go in?

Travel with me and I can almost guarantee some kind of disaster. A friend of mine is staying right by the lava rim in Hawaii; she said I can’t go there because it would explode…

Unknown said...

Creepy story indeed. Kinda makes me feel all warm and safe inside. And your dog should get a license. Only in the backwoods do people let their dogs drive without one.

1. What was the last tax YOU paid? Sales tax on my Diet Coke

2. Is there an income tax in your state? Nope (hate me)

3. Does your locality impose sales taxes? State and county.

4. If you have a dog, did you buy a license? Don't have one, but one of my cats has one. I may need it to drive me somewhere one day

5. Do you believe Internet sales should be taxed? Yes, but not totally sure exactly how to do it fairly.

6. Do you believe that in cases of violent crime, 30 years should mean 30 years? Not always. It should be case by case. Some people make mistakes and others do reform.


7. Have you bought your Mother's Day gift yet? Yes

8. Is there a live volcano anywhere near you? I am sure in the ocean somewhere around me.


9. If there is, would you let me know when it looks ready to blow?

It charges quite a bit

And toss me a very nice lei before I go in?
It charges even more for that.

Serena said...

You aced a very hard list of words today, Bilbo. Kudos! I love "Obudsman," and your explanation of "famlily" makes perfect sense once you pointed it out.

I, too, hope I get suitably lei'd before I burn. If anybody's making one up for me, I'd kind of prefer pink hibiscus.:)

LOL, /t. But if one were to retuna, wouldn't it tend to, er, repeat on them? Happy Thursday!:-)

Re your #3, Roxan, we have sales tax AND absurdly high property taxes. And PERSONAL property taxes.

There's a teensy, wimpy fault line in VA, but you have the big mama of fault lines out there. Things being what they are, i.e., weird, they'll probably blow at the same time. So far, nobody's tossed me a pretty flowery lei so, yes, I'd be interested in the yarn. Pinks and greens and blues would work well for me.:)

You're absolutely right, Puggy. Lest people forget, that's exactly why we tossed the tea in the harbor. I know it's only been a little over 200 years but, geez, is the memory of the masses really that short? I agree with you and Roxan on #5. Can you imagine the way the government would screw that up, trying to figure out whether to tax the sale at the point of origin or final destination? They'd spend billions on consultants to tell them what to do.

You all keep saying you can get me that lei, but I'm not seeing anything yet.:-)

I didn't know what to get my mother, either, VE, but I by cracky bought her something today. She'll either like it or she won't. Dang, that was a close call with Mt. St. Helens! I thought I was the Queen of Travel Disasters, but I concede the scepter to you.:-)

I suppose you raise a valid point, Kan. Thing is, I don't allow my dog to drive. She takes this medicine (DOG medicine, mind you) that has labels stuck on the bottle saying "Do not drive or operate heavy machinery when taking this medication" and "Do not drink alcohol while taking this medication." I hide my keys and don't let her go to keggers, so I'm hoping my bases are covered.

They have cat licenses (tax) in Miami? Geez!

Re #9, yeah, there's always some deal breaker.:-)

G-Man said...

Dang Sherry...

It seems everyone wants to lei you...!!

Can't really blame them, but I for one happen to know that the Hisbiscus is the state flower of Hawaii. So you must be talkin about Mt. Kumonnawannaleiya..

That was very very cheesy, but I'm very tired...sorry..G
xoxbgxox

Serena said...

A Hawaiian volcano will work just fine for me, G. I'm not picky. So, are you stringing those hibiscus blossoms together now? Are you making my lei? I know you're tired; long day. All things considered, 'tweren't all that cheesy at all.:)

Skunkfeathers said...

1. Last tax paid?
In an hour from now...gas tax :(

2. Income tax in state?
Yep; Colorado gots one...

3. Local sales tax?
Yep; Lakewood gots one, almost 9%

4. No dog licensing fee; no dog. Hereabouts hasn't yet demanded I license my pet rock...

5. Pro or con Internet sales tax?
Definitely CON!

6. In cases of violent crime, should 30 years be 30 years?
Yep; and death penalty should be death penalty.

7. Got my Mother's Day gift yet?
Uh...later today ;)

8. Is there a live volcano near you?
There used to be...then I left my ex-fiancee ;)

9. If so, is it ready to blow?
14 years later, I don't care LOL...

Serena said...

Don't tell them you have a pet rock, Skunk. As soon as they find out, they WILL want to tax it. LMAO at your #8 & 9. I'd say you're better off with the rock.:-)