Do You Have a Right to Be a Bum on Public Property?

I confess to mixed feelings on this type of issue. If taxpayers are financing sidewalks, does that mean anybody has a right to use them for any purpose, at any time?

Here’s a blurb from the People’s Republic of San Francisco.

San Francisco police officers have started enforcing the city’s new ban on sitting and lying on the sidewalk. In November, voters approved the sit/lie law, which makes it illegal to hang out on San Francisco sidewalks between 7 am and 11 pm. “The cops said that the first time, we get admonished. And then after that, they’ll start filling out tickets,” he said. “They only have a select few that they’re going to choose to do that with.” Those tickets will start at $50 and could escalate to $500 or even jail time.

One thing I do know, however, is that giving bums tickets is not going to be very effective.

Read Full Post »

The Billion Dollar-o-Gram

Some of these numbers are a bit dodgy, and some of the assumptions are pathetically flawed (more spending by government leads to less poverty being a clear example of faulty thinking), but this comparison of big numbers is very interesting.

I now know, for instance, that the net worth of Bill Gates is supposedly equal to the annual earnings of the porn industry. Maybe that will help me win a game of Trivial Pursuit some day.

Read Full Post »