![\"041014\"](\"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/041014.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The Republican running as an independent here in Blue Arlington won handily in the special election, 57% to 41%. The remaining votes were me and the Wiccans.<\/p>\n
We tried, but could not prevail. Some folks are apparently pretty upset with what is going on in the County: the last openly Republican candidate elected to the Council was in a special election back in 1999.<\/p>\n
Democrats took note of the defeat and resolved to swamp the guy who won the right to serve out the last few months of the seat on the County Council that was vacated by someone who probably realized they were about to be indicted for something.<\/p>\n
He might not have known what he did was illegal. I mean, the concept of being guilty of something is getting to be a familiar thing these days. I was vaguely aware of the concept, but Jon-without mentioned it as a fun fact at Willow last night.<\/p>\n
It had been a good day- a little chilly, but the buds are coming out, flowers coming up, and it was a lovely day with more to come.<\/p>\n
\u201cSpring is going to last about three days this year,\u201d growled Old Jim. Jon-without and TLB were sitting on the far side of Old Jim. He and I were out of sorts about taxes.<\/p>\n
Jim does his by hand, Old School, and I do mine via Turbo Tax, though I think I may have to request an extension and see if there is any way I can legally reduce the eye-watering tax bill. The increase in tax rates, the severance package from losing my job, and the unexpected (and undesired) pay-out of a secondary retirement account, coupled with the loss of the mortgage deduction on the condo I sold last year to cut expenses resulted in\u2026.well, you can imagine.<\/p>\n
Jon-without said: \u201cI read that the average American commits three felonies a day.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d I said. \u201cI have never intentionally broken a law in my life. All my felonies would be purely inadvertent.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDoesn\u2019t matter. Do you have a gun in your Go Bag?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, yeah, that is what a go-bag is for. I have a permit. It\u2019s legal.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEver drive to the District or Maryland?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, yeah. I know. I almost always remember to take it out before I go where it is not legal.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, there you go. Case closed. I was reading a great book by a lawyer named Harvey Silvergrate about that. It is pretty amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThree felonies? Jeeze. That is all I need.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSilvergrate is an ACLU guy,\u201d growled Jim, taking a sip of Bud. \u201cHarvard Law. Worked with Alan Dershowitz. I would rely on his legal opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCrap.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jon-without adjusted his bow tie and took a pull on his raspberry vodka and soda. \u201cCitizens from all walks of life\u2014doctors, accountants, businessmen, political activists, and others\u2014have found themselves the targets of federal prosecutions, despite sensibly believing that they did nothing wrong, broke no laws, and harmed not a single person.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, I went to the Commissary today and did my taxes. If I had not taken the go-bag out of the trunk and inadvertently entered a wrong number in Turbo Tax, I could have been charged with weapons violations on a Federal enclave and tax fraud.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDoesn\u2019t that seem sort of strange for a generally law abiding citizen?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey can\u2019t get all of us,\u201d I said. \u201cThere are too many people trying to live their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is Silvergrate\u2019s main point. We are violating laws and regulations we don\u2019t even know about. There is a woman he wrote about who got two years for selling lobsters in plastic wrap.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou gotta be shitting me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTrue fact. The lady\u2019s name is Diane Huang, and she got named on a Lacey Act violation.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat the hell is that?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a law that makes it illegal to violate \u201cany foreign law,\u201d whether you knew about it or not.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIgnorance is no excuse,\u201d growled Jim. \u201cNot a good defense, as I know altogether too well.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are a raft of those things,\u201d said Jon-without. \u201cWire Fraud, Computer fraud, Obstruction of Justice, even cyber bullying.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t do anything like that,\u201d I said indignantly.<\/p>\n
\u201cDoesn\u2019t matter. The laws are written so poorly that they are completely subjective in application. For example, you blog, right?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, that\u2019s what people call it. I think it is just a letter to my pals.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSorry. If someone takes offense- say the Wiccan-American community, they could accuse you of cyber-bullying.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one even knows exactly what that is,\u201d I said defensively. \u201cBut you are right. They keep talking about new speech crimes that are caused by \u201ctriggers,\u201d and \u201cbeing offended.\u201d The latest was some professor at Rochester Institute of Technology who wants to have people skeptical of catastrophic anthropomorphic global warming locked up as criminals.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere you go,\u201d said Jon-without. \u201cAt least three felonies a day.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOK,\u201d I said, \u201cI take your point. But Jim, you ran for Governor of Nevada one time, didn\u2019t you?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYep. Good experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOK, put on your Governor\u2019s hat. What do you do about Rancher Bundy and his stand off with the Feds over his cattle, Federal lands and the Desert Tortoise?\u201d<\/p>\n
Jim made a church steeple out of his hands, very thoughtful, or was offering up his thanks to the long-neck brown bottle in front of him. \u201cI will have to talk about that tomorrow,\u201d he said. Willow is closed for a private affair, so it will have to be on the newly-opened patio, or at Julio\u2019s next door.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t wait,\u201d I said, taking a deep pull of happy hour white, and thought about the number of felonies that might wait on the way home.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2014 Vic Socotra
\nwww.vicsocotra.com
\nTwitter: @jayare303<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Republican running as an independent here in Blue Arlington won handily in the special election, 57% to 41%. The remaining votes were me and the Wiccans. We tried, but could not prevail. Some folks are apparently pretty upset with what is going on in the County: the last openly Republican candidate elected to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-socotra"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7630"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7634,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7630\/revisions\/7634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}