And I Thought Check-Raising Was Bad

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I used to play in a lot of basement poker games when I lived in DC.  In fact I played in some basement tournaments that paid out very handsomely to the top two or three finishers, and as far as I know the tournaments were legal because the host kept nothing.  In fact the only game that might have been illegal was one hosted by a guy that asked everyone to ante up a couple of bucks for food and if you charge for anything like that you’re technically running an illegal game.

Luckily for me I never found out if the basement games were legal or not because none of them were ever raided.  Some poor schlubs in California weren’t so lucky as evidenced by this first person account of a raid by the San Mateo Sheriff’s department on what sounds like some pretty low-stakes poker players. 

Back in 05 there was a raid at Ham’s Restaurant over in Greensboro that maybe is a little more understandable since it was held in a public place and the prize was pretty significant ($10,000 seat in a poker tournament). Not saying I think it should have been raided since everyone involved seemed to think they were running a legal game akin to a Bingo Night, but still it’s a little easier to swallow than raiding some suburban low-stakes basement game. Unless someone’s making serious money or scamming the players I just don’t see how busting these friendly games is a good use of law enforcement resources.

Speaking of good basement poker does anyone know a nice friendly poker game in the Winston-Salem area?  I promise I won’t breath a word about it, and as my friends in VA will tell you I’m usually very popular with the other players.  In other words I suck.

links for 2008-01-16

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Darwinian Gun Control

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Before getting into this story I will make one admission: guns scare the crap out of me.  Here’s another admission: the idea of many of the people I see on a daily basis being entrusted with guns scares me even more. I need look no further than today’s Winston-Salem Journal to find proof that my fears are well founded:

Two men engaged in
a property dispute became involved in what Sheriff Andy Stokes called a
“face-to-face shootout” yesterday as a surveyor worked on the property.

The shooting took place on Zimmerman Road near the intersection with Burton Road, Stokes said

Joseph Reid Wilson, 53, of Lewisville and Bobby Grant Minor, 78, of Zimmerman Road were each shot twice, Stokes said…

“The shooting took place about 300 feet from the road at the disputed property line,” Stokes said.

“A fence separated
the two pieces of property. One was on one side and one was on the
other. They were about 30 feet apart when they started firing.”…

Earlier in the day, deputies went to the dispute to calm down the two men, Stokes said.

“We thought the situation had been settled, but apparently it flared back up,” Stokes said.

Wilson was shot in
his stomach and back with a .25-caliber automatic pistol, Stokes said.
Minor was shot in the right shoulder and left wrist with a 9 mm
semi-automatic pistol.

This happened in Davie County near Advance, which coincidentally is where Baptist Medical Center would like to build a new hospital.  Wonder if they might consider a trauma center now?

Whatever.  I can’t possibly imagine a situation where a sane person would get so bent out of shape that they’d engage in a firefight over some sort of property dispute.  I mean what happened to good ol’ fist fights?  Hell, what happened to litigation?  You can’t walk 10 feet around here without tripping over a lawyer so why resort to gunfighting?

You know that NRA tag line, "Guns don’t kill people, people kill people?"  Well I think we need to keep stories like this in mind when we discuss gun control, because it’s not guns that need controlling but the morons that use them. 

Now, before some of you get all mad at me for calling all gun owners morons let me say that I don’t mean that.  I mean that I wish we had a way of keeping guns out of the hands of idiots.  I know many fine, intelligent people who own guns and I’m even related to a few of them, but I’m also sure that they are far outnumbered by people whose cranium can best be described as having lights on and nobody home.  You know, the people who think Entertainment Tonight is network news, that the Dog Whisperer speaks a previously undiscovered language called Caninish and that we’re being invaded by our neighbors to the north, the Mexicans.  Letting these people have guns is like standing in the middle of the road waiting for Britney Spears to drive by on her way home from a party: it’s nuts.

Got a Band? The Army Wants You to Be All You Can Be for Them

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I’m willing to bet that not many bands, or their agents, have a defense contract specialist on staff.  That’s too bad since the US Army’s looking for a band to perform at its bases in Afghanistan and Kuwait and they’re soliciting proposals.  From Wired’s Danger Room:

First, a summary of what the Army is seeking:

Professional
Celebrity Rock Music Band, group not to exceed seven people for tour of
FOB’s [forward operating bases] in Kuwait and Afghanistan for February
4-13 2008. The band should be an active rock band, with a music genre
consisting of Southern Rock, Pop Rock, Post-Grunge and Hard Rock. At
least one member of the band should be recognizable as a professional
celebrity. Protective military equipment, such as kevlar, body armour,
eye and ear protection will be provided when the group is travelling on
military rotary or fixed wing aircraft.

Good luck, rockers.   And remember:

Any
criminal conduct, unexcused tardiness or absence which prevents timely
starting of the performance(s) required hereunder, indecency or
obscenity, drunkenness, damage to Government property, failure to
discharge indebtedness to the Government, influence of narcotics or
hallucinatory drugs, threatening breach of national security, violation
of the rules and regulations of the Host Nation, Government or TFF MWR
are grounds for termination of this contract. 

Look’s like Nelson has a revival gig in their future if they want it.

Is Ford Really This Stupid?

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I think
most businesses would love to have a little word of mouth advertising,
but it seems that the folks at Ford (or at least their law firm) are
more interested in protecting their trademark than cultivating a
relationship with some of their most avid supporters.  From Boing Boing:

Josh sez, "The folks at BMC (Black Mustang Club) automotive forum
wanted to put together a calendar featuring members’ cars, and print it
through CafePress. Photos were submitted, the layout was set, and…
CafePress notifies the site admin that pictures of Ford cars cannot be
printed. Not just Ford logos, not just Mustang logos, the car -as a
whole- is a Ford trademark and its image can’t be reproduced without
permission.
So even though Ford has a lineup of enthusiasts who want to show off
their Ford cars, the company is bent on alienating them…

"I got some more info from the folks at cafepress and according to them,
a law firm representing Ford contacted them saying that our calendar
pics (and our club’s event logos – anything with one of our cars in it)
infringes on Ford’s trademarks which include the use of images of THEIR
vehicles. Also, Ford claims that all the images, logos and designs OUR
graphics team made for the BMC events using Danni are theirs as well.
Funny, I thought Danni’s title had my name on it … and I thought you
guys owned your cars … and, well … I’m not even going to get into
how wrong and unfair I feel this whole thing is as I’d be typing for
hours, but I wholeheartedly echo everything you guys have been saying
all afternoon. I’m not letting this go un-addressed and I’ll keep you
guys posted as I get to work on this.

I’m sorry, but at this point we will not be producing the 2008 BMC
Calendar, featuring our 2007 Members of the Month, solely due to Ford
Motor Company’s claim that THEY own all rights to the photos YOU take
of YOUR car."

You can read the predictably irate comments of club members on the BMCForum here.

Cross posted at Lowder Enterprises.

Question about Mr. Snow Answered

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Last week I asked lots of questions after the announcement that Lewisville Elementary School science teacher Alan Snow would not be charged with anything after a long investigation.  At least one of those questions has been answered according to an article by Dan Galindo in the Winston-Salem Journal:

Alan
Snow, a teacher who had been reassigned from Lewisville Elementary
School during a sheriff’s office investigation, will return to the
classroom this month, Superintendent Don Martin announced today.

Snow had been
suspended with pay, then re-assigned to a nonclassroom position with
the school system while deputies investigated an allegation of
misconduct against him.

Garry Frank, the
district attorney for Davidson County, announced last week that there
was not sufficient evidence to charge Snow with any crime.

Authorities have
never explained what the allegation was, and said last week that it
wasn’t appropriate to do so since no charges would be filed.

Snow returns to school on Jan. 23, the first day of the third quarter.

The article doesn’t mention if Mr. Snow is going to return to Lewisville or teach in another school, but he does have his teaching slot back.

On another note I received a worried call from my brother about some of the comments left on my earlier post.  The comments were a little heated and at one point one commenter mentions getting a lawyer to go after another commenter for what he was saying about his/her family and my brother was concerned that I might get caught up in it.  My wife expressed the same concerns.  To address their concerns I gave them a little of my thinking about these specific comments and comments in general which I’ll share here:

  1. Both of the commenters used aliases so I don’t think that one can claim that the other was disparaging his/her family because no individual is actually named.
  2. There were a lot of emotions involved and I honestly think that the reactions were a result of those emotions. 
  3. As for my vulnerability here, I don’t think there’s much to worry about.  While I host the blog I’m not responsible for others’ opinions. From what I’ve read the person who types the comment is responsible, not the owner of the site, blog or message board that contains the comment. On the other hand I do think that if people begin naming names or behaving in potentially harmful ways then I need to step in and remove those comments.  I’d prefer not to, but if comments ever get to the point where personal attacks are made, especially those that target people by name, then I’ll turn off the comments in a heartbeat.  I didn’t delete any of these because I felt the commenters actually brought up good points, expressed their points of view pretty well and highlighted the issues and emotions that make cases like Mr. Snows so difficult and the implications it has for the schools, teachers, students and parents.
  4. By and large the people that leave comments on this blog do a great job.  The biggest problem I have is comment spam and that comes from the same people who inundate us with offers for pharmaceuticals that will greatly enhance parts of our anatomy.  There’s a special place in hell for them, so I just delete them and forget about it.

Now back to our regular programming.

 

links for 2008-01-11

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Times Change and So Do Places

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An item that blew my mind came across one of my news feeds.  It’s an interview with Rick Weddle, the president and CEO of Research Triangle Park, that he gave after a presentation to Detroit’s TechTown
leaders.  Here’s the part that grabbed my attention:

mm:  RTP is famous for bringing together
government, university and business leaders from across the state. How
did North Carolina’s leaders get so many competing factions on the same
page?

Weddle:   First, they were really in the tank and
they realized they had to do something differently. They realized the
existing industrial base was failing, was not sustainable and wouldn’t
be creating the kind of jobs they needed going forward…

…In North Carolina they were able to get the captains of
industry to support and call for support for these research
universities and the collaborative aspects of the park. We were
capitalized in 1959 by private fund drives. More money was raised from Forsyth County  near Winston-Salem
than in the Triangle. That is fascinating when you think about it.
Money was raised all across the state and more money was raised outside
of our region to capitalize the RTP. And that was the richest region at
the time. Now it’s the poorest region because they hung onto their
industrialism. Interestingly enough those captains of industry found it
easier to do RTP in another region while they still milked their cash
cow in their home area. (Emphasis mine)

This reminded me of a conversation I had with my Mom when we first moved here from DC.  Mom had grown up in Winston-Salem and she said that when she was growing up in the 50s and when she left town after graduating Wake Forest, Winston-Salem and Charlotte were essentially the same size and if you had asked anyone to bet on which city would go on to become the larger city most people would have bet on Winston-Salem.  Goes to show what happens when leaders don’t read the tea leaves right.

By the way, Winston-Salem’s current leaders are doing the kinds of things that Weddle recommends.  They’re working with Wake Forest to develop a world class bio-tech center and they are trying to cooperate regionally with Greensboro and High Point to build a new industry base to replace the decimated textile and furniture industries.  So while this region might have suffered over the last 20-30 years there are good signs that the future will be brighter.