Tag: idiots

Sactown Royalty on Evans trade rumors

Want to kill public support for a big arena project? Start rumor you’re going to trade the team’s best player. Tom Ziller of Sactown Royalty posted an impassioned plea for sanity last night in the face of rumors to that effect being published by Sports Illustrated and former Bee writer Sam Amick.

Ziller takes apart the situation and calls for patience with Evans adjustment to his new role on the team. It’s a great read, as per usual with TZ, and it does make one frustrated with the Kings management. I know next to nothing about these things but it seems to me that a great way to show thanks to folks who put a lot on the line to craft an amazing deal for these owners would be to invest in the team’s future by signing a big free agent at the end of the season.

Batman illegal in Sac County?

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My county lawyer contact clued me in to a real corker of a legal drama. According to the Sacramento County Code, sales of “crime comic books” to children under 18 is a misdemeanor. It dates from 1959 and there is no way to read it that doesn’t make it a crime to sell kids almost any comic book in which superheroes fight crime.

The Board of Supervisors specifically finds that the prohibition against the sale to or circulation of crime “comic” books to children is a reasonable measure to meet the clear and present danger hereinabove found. (Ord. 652 § 1, 1959.)

Among the findings that caused the “clear and present danger” was the finding that “Many children have been incited to commit crimes as a consequence of looking at crime ‘comic’ books.”

Continue reading “Batman illegal in Sac County?”

It pays to recycle


This “blatant act of theft” caused me to pee in your bushes

It’s no secret that in these tough economic times (using this bit for four years now, wow) people will do just about anything to make a few bucks. One of the most popular ways is by recycling. And one of the most popular ways of recycling is by recycling copper. And one of the most popular ways of obtaining copper is by stealing it. Finding places to steal this precious element is where people become especially crafty.

I found this notice on the men’s bathroom door at Valley Oak Park the other day. There was one on the women’s bathroom, I think, but it was ripped off. It must be hard to recycle this sort of thing as it would be a bit obvious when you turn up at your local recycling station. Ah, that’s right, people strike again.

J.A. Recycling did not follow any of the rules, giving us cash for the copper on the spot. When we returned to ask why, workers started leaving…The same scenario played out at Highlands Recycling off Elkhorn Boulevard…Next door at A-1 Recycling, they did take our team member’s driver’s license and thumb print, but there’s no evidence photos were taken of him or the material, and he was given cash instantly.

The state legislature passed AB 844 in 2008, requiring all recycling centers that buy copper to check the seller’s photo ID, take video or a photo of the seller and the material being sold, and also collect their thumb print.

People, once again, are awesome.

Newspaper with a thing for offensive ledes

The Bee reports today on a sex offender caught preying on boys after being released from prison after serving time for a 1988 child molestation charge.

Robert Precobb, a sex offender with a thing for teenage boys, caught a big break last year when a judge ordered him freed from prison. (my emphasis)

Some guys might have “a thing for” redheads, or for Spanish-looking men, or for apple fritters, but a child molester preys on children. It’s super gross to phrase it that way and the Bee should probably change the wording.

What The French?

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Bee careful!
cc, By jurvetson

The Bee has an interesting report today, “Yosemite deaths: Americans may have lost respect for nature’s risks” about recent deaths at Yosemite as evidence of a growing trend in deaths caused by Americans being too stupid/ignorant/tech-obsessed to know when nature is dangerous.

On Wednesday, children waded in a small eddy just 50 yards from the edge. Some playfully teetered on a log that separated the eddy from the river’s torrent. Upstream, a man swam across Emerald Pool and back, crossing the Merced River current and ignoring warnings and prohibitions posted nearby.

Horrifying, right? Read on…

The children playing so close to the edge of Vernal Fall were among a group of 15 Parisians visiting the park.

What. The. French?

But it’s actually a great read with some interesting discussion of a very plausible trend that seems to be affecting people everywhere. Maybe the Bee can research whether Americans are more likely to be literally eating a Big Mac while falling over Vernal Fall.

I didn’t say *bomb* squad…

Suspicious object found in Folsom field

I wasn’t aware that “bong” was commonly known enough to appear in a news article. There’s no euphemism for that? “Tobacco smoking device?” “Tobacco paraphernalia?” Do we not use euphemisms anymore?

The “bomb squad/bong squad” joke is pretty easy but I suppose you would have to call out the bomb techs. That thing could easily be an IED…the kind you put your weed in.

“The Bucket List Bandit” is coming for you

The "Bucket List Bandit"

In case you haven’t heard about the latest criminal mastermind, the so-called “Bucket List Bandit” is wanted for robbing Bank of the West in Carmichael last month, and he got his label because he appears to be 48 to 50 years old and therefore robbing a bank must be on his “bucket list” because he’s so old and appears ready to die at any moment. Hold up, he’s at most 50 years old is what they think? And we think this is an age that means a person is at death’s door?

I can’t exactly explain why this name grates on my soul so much, but I guess the reason is that the criteria for a pop culture reference that we can safely assume will be recognizable to everyone in society has clearly sunk so low that a one-off “Grumpy Old Men” type comedy qualifies. Continue reading ““The Bucket List Bandit” is coming for you”