Tag: Good News

Yee Hah

Business

“Come and do yer bidness in Texas” seems to be the current thing.

Coinbase followed other companies reincorporating in Texas after the state legislature in 2023 created the first-of-its-kind specialized trial court to oversee complex business-to-business litigation. It first convened last September. 

This year, the legislature passed SB 29 to create a series of corporate reforms governing certain business entities. It “enhances the predictability and efficiency of Texas entity law and governance while maintaining strong protections for entity owners and transparency,” The Center Square reported. They include codifying the business judgment rule to allow corporations to establish a minimum ownership threshold before a shareholder or group of shareholders can pursue a derivative claim, among other provisions.

The legislature also passed HB 40 to amend state law to enhance Texas Business Court operations statewide, expanding subject matter jurisdiction to include intellectual property, clarifying its supplemental jurisdiction, allowing companies to designate the court as the exclusive venue in their governing documents for dispute resolution, among other measures.

The new laws provide business decision makers “with certainty that sound business judgments made in the best interest of shareholders will not be second-guessed by courts. Absent acts of violent crime, business decisions are to be made by the elected officers and shareholders, not by unelected judges,” Abbott said when signing them into law. “It also eliminates rogue shareholders with just a handful of shares of stock in a company from being able to hold a company hostage from the ability to make sound business decisions.”

Just make sure that your employees become Texans, i.e. they have to leave all their East-Coast politics and -beliefs behind.  Especially that Woke/DEI bullshit and fondness for Big Gummint, because we don’t do that here.

And they need to buy some guns as soon as they can — just to establish their bona fides, so to speak.

Dept. Of Righteous Shootings

Righteous Shootings

I know that Righteous Shootings, almost by definition, include the term “needed killing” somewhere in the preamble.  But here’s an excellent example of taking out someone who’s just breathing oxygen unnecessarily:

A Vietnam War veteran managed to fend off a deranged, naked intruder who broke into a woman’s California home on Friday morning.

The elderly vet was thrown to the ground by the maniac, fracturing both of his legs before he opened fire and fatally shot the intruder.

Police say the nude suspect had been wandering the neighborhood moments earlier, shouting incoherently and attempting to break into several homes.

LAPD Capt. Warner Castillo told reporters that the suspect eventually forced his way into a residence where a woman and two other people were inside, including the 79-year-old veteran, identified by neighbors only as George.

‘The 79-year-old man tells the suspect to leave, tells him I have a gun and I will shoot you. The suspect grabs the man, lifts him, throws him on the ground, and that’s where the man suffered two broken legs,’ Castillo said.

Despite being in agony having been body slammed to the ground by the intruder, the elderly homeowner managed to grab his firearm. 

And the best part:

Police said the rambling man was shot at least two or three times inside the home before collapsing.

Yeah, but:

‘I think it’s a textbook example of self-defense, and I really, really hope he does not face charges,’ neighbor Betsy Weiss said.

It’s Los fucking Angeles, so anything’s possible — but I think the “two broken legs” thing should cause even an L.A. district attorney to think twice before pressing charges.

But the locals should start warming up the tar and plucking the chicken feathers, just in case.

Welcome Back

Business, Management, Marketing / Advertising

This, I think, is Good News:

Long-defunct airline Pan Am is inching towards revival more than three decades after going out of business.

AVi8 Air Capital and Pan American Global Holdings, which owns the intellectual property rights to the Pan Am brand, have begun the certification process with the FAA. AVi8 announced they have completed a business plan for the brand’s revival efforts.

“Avi8 has assembled a world-class team to lead the certification effort and has received strong initial support from aircraft lessors and key vendors,” the company said on Thursday.

If all goes to plan, the company will be based out of Miami with a fleet of Airbus aircrafts*.

Right off the bat, let me say that I loved Pan Am, both the airline and its philosophy — well, before Juan Trippe chased after the lower-income market and cocked up the brand (as documented here).

I just hope that the New Pan Am doesn’t try to be another Spirit or JetBlue (joint motto:  We invented cheap ‘n nasty travel, and we never fail to rub your noses in that ), because that way lies utter, abject failure.

As I said earlier, Pan Am’s road to aviation success and profitability is not through the mass market, but by catering to the affluent traveler, with peerless customer service and spotless aircraft.  Like they used to.

Despite Pan Am’s earlier demise, their brand might still have some cachet left over, even now.  And if they relaunch and re-brand the airline back to its heritage and strengths (including — gasp! comely flight attendants and not grab-a-granny / tattooed slatterns, some overlap), I can almost guarantee they’ll do well.

Go for it, guys.  I for one look forward to your trip [sic] with great anticipation, and I hope that future passengers won’t be able to beat the experience…

And by the way:  resist the impulse to change your old logo.  It was wonderful then, and will serve you well now.

*Ummm… it’s aircraft not aircrafts — “aircraft” is both singular and plural, like “sheep” or “deer”, but let’s not have that interfere with the good news.

Piling On

Architecture

I don’t know how much more of this I can stand:

The White House on Tuesday reportedly fired members of Washington, D.C.’s Commission of Fine Arts, which advises on architectural developments in the capital, including the White House.

The White House has fired all six commission members who were installed under former President Joe Biden, and whose terms were expected to end in 2028.

“We are preparing to appoint a new slate of members to the commission that are more aligned with President Trump’s America First Policies,” a White House official told The Hill.

So… does this mean no more government buildings that look like this?

Fire away, then.

Well, Now

Immigration, Legal Stuff

Seems as though there’s a teeny hole in the Constitution after all:

Twenty-five Republican attorneys general have filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court, challenging birthright citizenship.

“The idea that citizenship is guaranteed to everyone born in the United States doesn’t square with the plain language of the Fourteenth Amendment or the way many government officials and legal analysts understood the law when it was adopted after the Civil War.

“If you look at the law at the time, citizenship attached to kids whose parents were lawfully in the country. Each child born in this country is precious no matter their parents’ immigration status, but not every child is entitled to American citizenship. This case could allow the Supreme Court to resolve a constitutional question with far-reaching implications for the States and our nation.”

I have to say that this little feature always nagged at me (despite being a one-time immigrant myself).  The idea that anyone born in the U.S. had automatic citizenship seemed on its face to be unreasonable — I mean, I think that we are the only country in the world that allows for this in our legal system.  (There might be a couple of others, but I suspect that these might be countries where nobody wants to live anyway.)

Whatever, I’d like to see this whole “anchor baby” situation disappear.  The child should be a citizen of the home country of either the mother or the father (if known).  If nobody knows who the father is (a regrettably-common feature of modern-day life) and the mother were to die during or soon after childbirth, then I might be prepared to accept automatic citizenship for the baby, if only for humanitarian reasons.

Anyway, I’m glad to see that the issue may soon be resolved one way or the other.  I’ll leave it to your imagination to figure out who might oppose this initiative by the various attorneys-general.

Dept. Of Righteous Shootings

Righteous Shootings

When you hear news like this, you just know it’s going to have a happy ending:

“10-4 units responding to the burglary in progress, 22nd Avenue caller now advising it was a black male wearing a white shirt armed with a firearm. The caller now advises she has shot that male; he is currently laying on the ground.”

Ignoring the grammar — it’s “lying”, not “laying” — the rest of the story appears to be that a choirboy broke into an Alabama woman’s house armed with a gun, only to discover that said Heroine was likewise armed and quite prepared to defend herself.  Which she did, to his detriment.

Of course, the choirboy was just some innocent kid — not.

Morgan County Coroner Jeff Chunn identified the male as 46-year-old Narado Brinkley, and WZDX said his criminal past includes drug and burglary convictions.

State records show Brinkley served time for offenses, including first-degree robbery, third-degree burglary, possession of a pistol by a convicted felon, and distribution of a controlled substance, WZDX noted.

His records also indicate multiple probation violations, and he most recently served five months after a 2023 conviction on drug and burglary counts, WZDX added.

So maybe not some pore lil’ choirboy, but a total asshole not worthy of any sympathy whatsoever.

There should be some reward — I mean actual money — offered to people who end up ridding society of such scum.  Feel free to disagree with me, but you’d be wrong.