Carpundit

Some Help With Audi Headlight Theft In Boston

Matt Penella runs Meticulous Mobile Electronics (site) somewhere in the greater Boston area.  He left me a comment advertisement offering to help Audi and Lexus owners who don't want to lose their headlights.  I don't know Matt, but the photos of his work are promising, and if I owned a car likely to fall victim to headlight theft, I'd give him a call.

Police Handcuffing - Could We See Some Discretion, Please?

It's easy to second-guess police actions when they appear in the newspaper after things have all calmed down; it's not so easy to be the police officer, in the heat of the moment, having to decide on an action.  So I have sympathy for cops whose actions are put under the microscope.  Still, I've got to wonder what goes on that makes cops think it's ok to handcuff everyone, old women and little girls included.

I'm sure these officers have an explanation; I'd like to know what it is.

Runaway Bride

How pissed off is John Mason of Duluth, Georgia?  He was polygraphed; he was probably interviewed ten times, with increasing pressure; and the whole country figured he killed his fiancee.  Nope.  She ran away because of cold feet.  Time to get a new girlfriend.

Sure, You Can Land Here. If You've Got a Billion Dollars.

You have to be really sick, or really, really, really rich, to land your helicopter in Falmouth.  Merely being rich won't get it done.  Falmouth Hospital is letting a billionaire donor continue to use its medical helipad, but won't let a mere multi-millionaire donor use it.

I'm sure there's more to the story than made the paper.  And I don't quite trust the hospital spokesman.  He said the billionaire's donation would not earn him "VIP treatment inside the hospital" - just on the heliport.  Yeah, right.

(Personally, if I had that much money, I'd keep my Ferrari at Barnstable Airport, land there, and drive.)

A Blogging Shortcut Proposed

Blogging has its protocols, though mostly unwritten and sometimes unobserved; here are some:

    1. When borrowing, expanding on, or discussing someone's work, link to it.
    2. When writing about an idea or an article that another blogger drew your attention to, give him a tip of the hat.
    3. When linking to a site that requires registration for viewing its content, alert your readers with a (registration required).

A tip of the hat, now in common blog usage, seems to be abbreviating naturally.  From tip of the hat, it morphed to hat tip, and is now seen as a simple HT.

I have started using "reg. req." in place of "registration required," and I've seen others using it, too.  But I don't like it.  It isn't short enough, it's hard to type, and the g and p are visually confusing.  So I have a proposal.

Let's start using "(rr)" instead.  If the registration requires payment -a subscription- let's use ($r) or ($), the latter of which I have seen in use already.  I'm sure this isn't new.  Certainly someone out there is already using rr, but I haven't seen it yet.  It's sure to catch on eventually.  Let's just speed it along.

DaimlerChrysler Also Doing Poorly

DaimlerChrysler had a bad first quarter, like our two big domestic car makers.  The surprise is that it seems to be Mercedes acting as a brake on profitability rather than Chrysler.  Or maybe that's not a surprise.  MB quality is way off; the cars simplay aren't what they used to be.  I own one now, but I wouldn't buy one again.  And that Smart Car may be cute, but its not adding to the bottom line.

Tom Delay - America's Biggest Hypocrite

I think Tom Delay has earned the title, America's Biggest Hypocrite.  Radley Balko did a little Lexis/Nexis research and unearthed this quote from the buffoon himself, from ten years ago:

"The time has come that the American people know exactly what their Representatives are doing here in Washington. Are they feeding at the public trough, taking lobbyist-paid vacations, getting wined and dined by special interest groups? . . .the American people, have a right to know...I say the best disinfectant is full disclosure, not isolation." - U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, 11/16/95 (emphasis added)

Time to go, Tom.  Can't you sense the shifting tide?  Texans aren't that dumb - sooner or later they'll call you what you are: a lying, thieving, hypocrite.

Mass. Turnpike to Impose Additional Fast-Lane Fee - That's A Good Time to Quote Douglas Adams

It seems the Massachusetts Turnpike may start charging drivers to replace aging batteries in their Fast Lane passes (aka EZ Pass, SmartTag, et al.).  Pile that on top of ridiculous salaries, outrageous pension benefits, tolls that never end, and screwing up the Big Dig.

Turnpike Officials are "a bunch of mindless jerks who'll be the first ones up against the wall when the revolution comes."  (One of the many lines that sticks from Adams's wonderful HHGTTG.)

You Want to Sell Drugs? Sell 'em All

Radley Balko asks what he's missing on the topic of pharmacists and the dispensing of abortifacient drugs.  For Balko, it's simple: (1) pharmacies should be free to sell what they want and set policies their employee pharmacists must follow; (2) in turn, pharmacists should be free to work for pharmacies that sell products in line with their own morals.  As well, he writes, 

"(3)A pharmacist or drugstore [should be able to] refuse to fulfill a prescription on moral grounds. If so, they should likewise not be required to refer or recommend a pharmacist who will.

...These seem pretty self-evident to me.  What am I missing?"

I think this: that sometimes the state properly imposes conditions on the granting of licenses.

I believe this dispute is really about what conditions the state should impose on its licensees.  Many regulated service providers are required to provide information.  I don't see why pharmacies should be any different from realtors, lenders, or lawyers in that regard.

Allow pharmacists both to refuse to fill prescriptions and to remain silent about alternative sources, and you will probably effect a denial of access to healthcare in many situations.  Maybe not so much in a city, but certainly quite often in smaller, or rural, areas where the providers are fewer.  Preventing that denial is a valid and wise use of state authority.

You want to sell drugs?  Either sell 'em all, or tell customers where to get the ones you don't carry

Boston Herald Continues to Fan the Puddle

Following-up on yesterday's inflammatory headline with the Mayor's response to its rabble-rousing, the Herald starts here:

"As Boston police scramble to respond to a rising number of violent rapes, Mayor Thomas M. Menino yesterday insisted the streets are safe."

Insisted?  As if there were anyone arguing the opposite position.  Why is the Herald trying to scare people?  It is irresponsible and uncivic.  Sorry, Jay.  Nothing personal.

UPDATE: Of course, Boston's other free paper, the Metro, which I grabbed today only to cover my head in the rain, also gets some crime facts wrong in its headline, "Anti-gay crime on rise."  If you read the "article," you learn that anti-gay crime reports rose last year.  That is not the same thing as its being "on [the] rise," which requires a continued climb.  It is far more likely that such crimes spiked last year because of the gay marriage acrimony.  That fact is clear from the article.  A spike doesn't make a trend.