The law and the jungle

Breaker, breaker, good buddy. Better slow down that semi. Around that curve up ahead is someplace Smoky likes to hang out. Oh, my God! You in the semi -- you are the Smoky!

My cat Dutch occasionally escapes from the house when I'm not fast enough getting in the front door. But he doesn't know what to do after that, so he just sits on the front porch looking confused (forgive the anthropomorphization) until I pick him up and toss him unceremoniously back inside. Seems like escaped criminals aren't any smarter or better prepared than my cat:

I was on the noon show yesterday at WBOI, NPR, talking about Hoosier retailers, mostly grocery and convenience stores, making their latest push to legalize Sunday alcohol sales and to permit cold beer sales at places other than package stores.

Agreed that "a wise Latina woman . . ." was a stupid thing to say -- even Sonia Sotomayor thinks so by now -- did the senators have to go over and over it? It showed an unfortunate mindset of Sotomayor's to sink into group-identity politics, but getting her to recant it (or as close as a nominee will get to that) did nothing special for me.

The Indianapolis Star and Fort Wayne Journal Gazette each weigh in with skepticism over the BMV's plan to implement Real ID procedures designed to thwart indentify theft and deal with post-9/11 concerns about terrorism. Both mention the inconveniece for some and hardship for others of the one-time requirement to provide multiple forms of ID such as birth certificates, Social Security cards and utility bills. Then each takes a slightly different approach to the concerns of some that we are on our way to a de facto national ID card.

I was raised in Kentucky, where there were "wet" counties allowing alcohol and "dry" counties prohibiting it, so I know the intricacies of bootlegging. It was not illegal to purchase a small amount of alcohol in a wet county and take it to a dry county for personal consumption. But possession of a large amount in a dry county created a presumption by authorities that the alcohol was going to be illegally sold.

My current favorite neologism comes from a commentary about a motion in a Florida case made against the Posted in: Current Affairs, Film, The law and the jungle, Words and all that

I don't know whether to make this couple the Hoosier criminal geniuses of the week or parents of the week:

An Indianapolis couple was arrested after they were caught smoking marijuana while waiting in the drive-through line at an Arby's restaurant with their 1-year-old in the back seat, police said.

A restaurant employee noticed the aroma late Friday and called 911, then had the couple wait for their order as police sped to the scene.

[. . .]

Whoever came up with the idea of taking stray dogs into prison was brilliant -- it helps the dogs and can give the inmates an idea of what it's like to be a responsible human being. But now they're trying the same thing with cats, and I'm not so sure about that one:

Schlusser and his fellow offenders work in eight-hour shifts caring for 59 cats who entered the facility on June 22.

If you have a job, you probably have a dress code, and we all remember them from school, too. Some fancy restaurants have them. But how about having to comply with one just to do your banking?

SOUTH BEND — It's every bank teller's worst fear — the next customer could be the one who pulls a gun and demands money. At least one local credit union is now using a dress code to deter robbers.