Ice Storm wrap up
Like much of Central Massachusetts, we found ourselves without electricity and therefore heat by 10pm on Thursday night. We were lucky to get our power back up Sunday at 2pm, lucky is relative considering there are many who are still without. All things considered, we did OK right from the beginning. Ice buildup in our area was minimal but travel a quarter mile in any direction and you would find yourself faced with serious property damage and tree loss. A mile up the road, the town of Paxton was mostly unrecognizable, still covered in ice with some parts impassable, as recently as Sunday evening.
Knowing the power was still out I grabbed, eight bundles of firewood on my way home from work Friday night. That lasted us through Sat night, keeping the house at a livable 47 degrees. The funny thing about this ‘disaster’ was [...]
Original post by Brendan
2008 Election: Going All-In Edition
It always seems like a good idea to make some predictions surrounding a big election day if for no other reason than to piss people off one last time before the big day. I’m sticking with state issues this year as national politics couldn’t get any less interesting. The presidential race in particular has proven itself more sitcom than future of the free world.
So lets start at the bottom with the Massachusetts ballot questions.
Question One: State Personal Income Tax
This proposed law would reduce the state personal income tax rate to 2.65% for all categories of taxable income for the tax year beginning on or after January 1, 2009, and would eliminate the tax for all tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2010. The personal income tax applies to income received or gain realized by individuals and married couples, by estates of deceased persons, by certain trustees [...]
Original post by Brendan
Salvia headed for ban in Massachusetts
Looks like Massachusetts is warming up to join the growing list of states in the US to move Salvia divinorum to it’s list of controlled substances. On 9/29/2008 legislation (H 4434) proposed by Reps Vinny deMacedo (R) and Daniel Webster (R) of Plymouth County got one step closer to a Senate vote after deMacedo agreed to strip language that would classify blunt wrappers as drug paraphernalia from the year and a half old bill. If there is anything interesting about this legislation, beyond the live Salvia plant growing happily less than a foot from where I’m typing right now, it’s the motivation behind the move.
“Once I saw (on YouTube) the effects of the drug, I realized it isn’t just a small thing,” said Rep. DeMacedo, who has introduced a bill to ban the compound in the Bay State. “All the young kids know about it, and none of [...]
Original post by Brendan
Just in time for the Cheech & Chong reunion tour!
According to a Suffolk University poll, 72% of Massachusetts residents look forward to beginning the process of decriminalizing marijuana.
Of the three questions on the Massachusetts ballot this November, only one question — #2 the decriminalization of marijuana — appears all but certain to pass, according to a poll analysis released today by 7NEWS/Suffolk University. Seventy-two percent favored the proposed law, which would replace the criminal penalties for possession of up to one ounce of marijuana to a civil penalty of forfeiture of the marijuana and a fine of $100. Twenty-two percent opposed the proposed law.
“The public may be signaling that pursuing small-time marijuana users is a waste of taxpayer resources,” said David Paleologos, director of the Political Research Center at Suffolk University. “This issue suggests that there is a Libertarian streak in the thinking of Massachusetts voters.”
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Original post by Brendan
Who are they and what do they make?
A few people have asked me recently both here on RBDN and in the real world where they can find out things like the number of people the City of Worcester employes or what they get paid. There’s no easy answer to that with out a course on public records requests, but a quick and dirty solution has been available for awhile from the Boston Herald.
Have fun kids.
Worcester Payroll
Original post by Brendan
Elderly man scared of technology, News at 11
State Rep John Binienda makes news today with a plan to track who’s buying pre-paid cell phones in an effort to show criminals we’re tough on crime. Apparently by showing criminals we really don’t understand technology.
“There has always been a concern that prepaid services in general enable anonymity in wireless usage and that’s in part a concern because it lends to its use by criminals,” said Fedor Smith, an analyst who monitors the prepaid cellphone industry for Boston-based consulting and research firm Atlantic-ACM. “If you’re calling other prepaid wireless costumers, there’s a completely anonymous network of people.”
Government has officially become your mom, searching through your sock drawer every day after you leave for school because Phil Donahue convinced her you were smoking dope.
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This comes only a week after Governor Patrick signed into law H. 4811, Massachusetts version of Jessicas Law, which along the way picked up this amendment (which has [...]
Original post by Brendan
A blunderbuss for Breault and Babs
Recently I’ve been critical of the kid gloves writers the T&G have used to handle William Breault, Barbara Haller and the (nonexistent) Main South Alliance for Public Safety, hopefully todays commentary by Robert Nemeth is a sign those gloves are coming off.
The latest display of astonishing callousness in the face of a public health emergency came from City Councilor Barbara Haller and William Breault, a self-appointed community activist who uses demagoguery and intimidation to get his way. Under the pretext of protecting public safety, they have led opposition to measures designed to help people endangered by drug addiction, mental illness, homelessness and related problems, causing considerable harm over the years. But this time they went too far.
Excellent.
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Original post by Brendan
William Breault: Stupidest man in Worcester, Part 4
Worcesters favorite mustachioed super hero has taken his side show on the road. First stop The Berkshires! Ellen G. Lahr, reporter for the Berkshire Eagle, was kind enough to sit in as Breaults away team straight man for this interview and did she shine. But, as we must do in a day and age when newspapers lack funding for fact checkers, let’s pull out the red pen together and clean up Bills mistakes for the Eagle staff.
He said the decriminalization effort is at sharp odds with evidence that marijuana use, particularly among teens, carries more health risks than it did years ago, when the drug had less concentrations of THC, the main psychoactive component of pot.
What Billy means to say is, according to US Government research THC toxicity in humans would require consumption of 1500 pounds in under 15 minutes. In other words, the artificial sweetener you [...]
Original post by Brendan