Another Useless Law

I think I’m correct in saying that alone among the lower 48 states (i.e. the ones which have interstate highways running through them), Illinois is the only one which still stubbornly enforces a 55mph speed limit on its various highways.  It’s a huge PITA — like so many things about traveling through Illinois — and we all know that it’s not just Sammy Hagar who can’t drive at 55.

Anyway, the lower speed limit didn’t seem to help much (if at all) a couple days back:

A fiery 60-car pile-up happened late Monday morning on I-55 in central Illinois. The horrific wreck appears to have been caused by loose dirt and high winds. Normally, dust storms connote the deserts of the Southwest, but the combination of dry conditions, loose soil from freshly-plowed fields, and high, gusty winds resulted in extremely low visibility which led to multiple collisions along the stretch of interstate south of Springfield, Illinois.

I’ve driven through this kind of dust storm before — the ones I hit in southern Idaho, South Dakota and South Africa’s Orange Free State and Karoo desert come to mind — and it’s no small danger.  Typically, I’ve driven at 10mph or slower under those conditions, the problem being other drivers, who seem to have sooper-dooper x-ray vision and don’t have to slow down until they collide with your car’s rear end.

The same is true of snow storms, of course, the only difference being that snow doesn’t invade every crevice in your car and cause you to choke helplessly while peering through the suddenly-opaque windshield.  Then again, you’re unlikely to freeze to death in a sandstorm, so I guess it’s a crap shoot.

No Longer Guesswork

I was going to play our “Guess The Race?” game with this link, but it’s becoming too much of a slam dunk:

A mob of ninth-grade students has beaten up an assistant principal in Texas, who had to be rushed to hospital with serious head injuries.
The pupils at Westfield High School in Spring, 20 miles north of Houston, pummeled the administrator to the ground as she tried to break up a fight. 

…and the pics answer the question.

Oh, and the response?

“We take the safety of our students and staff very seriously, and there will be no tolerance for any altercations or disruptions to learning at any of our schools.” 

Let me know when these animals are charged with assault, and I might start believing you.

News Roundup

And speaking of getting the finger:


...as woker becomes broker.


...see above.


...bloody peasants.  How dare you try to improve your standard of living?



then gets shot dead by irate homeowner — oh wait, this is Los Angeles, nemmind.


...nor should he, except that he’s a Brit — which means that you have to allow burglars free rein on your property, even if they threaten your life.  Kinda like L.A.



...go Huskers.  Better late than never.

From the Dept. of Unforeseen Consequences:


...you don’t say.


...forget it, Jake;  it’s Michigan.

In Showbiz News:


...witchcraft and sorcery inexplicably omitted from secret.

And related:


...so we’ve gone from this:    ...to this:

Now is when we suck out the INSIGNIFICA:


...headline may include a typo.  And no, I have no clue who she is, either.

And that’s all the news fit to (un)cover.

Not Incompetence – Not Anymore

This is part of a much larger personal story, but I just want to share with you something I said a long time ago.  I’d just launched a major new marketing program involving supermarket customers, their buying and their support for that new program.  Three days after the program’s launch, I went to look at the store sales figures to see how it had all shaken down.

The IT department had lost all the data.  Worse still, they couldn’t tell me when they’d be able to show me any data, going forward.

In a rage, I stormed into the CFO’s office and told him what had happened.  If anything, his shock was greater than mine.  He’d seen my sales projections, my gross profit projections and likely market share gain — but all that was gone.  I looked at him, and said, “It is really difficult for me to come to terms with such gross incompetence and profound indifference of its consequences.  I cannot begin to understand how such incompetence even exists in a huge corporation like ours.”  He looked at me, and nodded.  Then I said, “In fact, if I were a paranoid person — which I’m not — I would actually ascribe negligence on this scale to sabotage.”  And I turned and left.

I have had the same reaction to this situation in south Texas.

Law enforcement officials are seeking a “Mexican male” in connection with a shooting that left five people dead in Cleveland, Texas, Friday night, Fox News reports.
The San Jacinto Sheriff’s Office received a “harassment” call and responding deputies found four victims shot to death and an eight-year-old boy critically wounded. The boy was transported to a hospital, where he died.
All of the victims are believed to be from Honduras, according to San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers.
Capers said his office received the “harassment” call at 11:31 p.m.
Capers said law enforcement is actively searching for the “Mexican male subject” believed to be the shooter and have “a copy of his consulate card.”
He said the Mexican man “has been known to shoot his .223 in the front yard, which is evident from the shell casings in the front yard.”
Capers believes the suspect has fled the area.

And this update:

San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers indicated Francisco Oropesa, the Mexican national who allegedly shot and killed five people in Cleveland, Texas, on Friday, has eluded police and “could be anywhere now.”
The FBI is warning people to stay clear of the 38-year-old suspect if they spot him, FOX News reported: “Reminder, if you see him DO NOT approach him. He is armed and dangerous. If you have a tip about his whereabouts call the San Jacinto County Sheriff’s Office at 936-653-4367.”
On Sunday, FBI special agent in charge Fred Smith said police and agents have just been “running into dead ends” in their search for Oropesa.
He added, “Right now, we have zero leads of him.”

And the last little cherry on top of this shitcake:

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials provided updated information on the suspected killer of five Honduran migrants. Officials report that an immigration judge first ordered Francisco Oropeza Perez-Torres, 38, to be removed from the United States on March 19, 2009. ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations officers deported the migrant to Mexico later that month.
Subsequent to this, Oropeza illegally re-entered the U.S. and was removed, once again, in September 2009. He was removed two more times in January 2012 and July 2016.
In January 2012, a Texas court in Montgomery County (which neighbors San Jacinto County where the alleged murders took place) convicted the Mexican national for driving while intoxicated. The court sentenced him to an unreported period of incarceration.

So this murderous asshole has been deported before, not once but four times.  On his last entry into the U.S., he somehow got hold of an AR-15 rifle (despite all the fucking laws that exist to prevent felons and illegal aliens from possessing guns), with the depressingly-foreseeable outcome.

Between Immigration, local law enforcement, the Justice Department and the FBI, there has been not just one cockup, but a multiyear succession of cockups which eventually ended in the death of an entire, innocent family.

So, to go back to my original story:  at what point do we stop ascribing this disaster to gross incompetence, and start thinking about actual sabotage — a deliberate undermining of our immigration laws and the legal system?

By the way, a week after my meeting with the CFO, the head of IT was ignominiously fired.

Do not expect anything like this, though, to happen to anyone in government or the legal system.

Random Tottie

And then there was Cindy Morgan.

“Who she, Kim?”

This Cindy Morgan, from Caddyshack :

“Oh yeah.”

And she grew up, as they say, rather well:

Apparently, she was in some movie named Tron :

…but I never saw it because genre.  To continue:

 

Of course, she’s no spring chicken now — she’s my age — but she has matured, in the nicest possible way:

Quite lovely, then and now.

New Time

In the past I’ve scheduled my posts to appear just after 6am Central so that people could read them either before or soon after they got to work — which many people have supported.  But several Longtime Brit and Euro Readers recently asked via email whether I could possibly give them the same opportunity, and it’s an easy change to make.

Henceforth, my daily posts will appear soon after midnight Central, i.e. early morning Over There.  (I have no Asian Readers other than a slew of what appears to be Chinese bots, and my ANZAC Readers will just have to deal with it, as the time difference is too extreme for me to do anything to help them.  Sorry.)

Speaking of Brits, Mr. Free Market shared this wonderful take on modern education with me, and I didn’t want it to be submerged amongst all the other cartoons and memes:

Brilliant.  (I know:  “Theorem” not “Theorum”.  Probably written by a Math guy.)