And now…

…just because I feel like something light, today.

—-

Two blonde guys were working for the city. One would dig a hole, the other would follow behind him and fill the hole in.

They worked furiously all day without rest, one guy digging a hole, the other guy filling it in again.

An onlooker was amazed at their hard work, but couldn’t understand what they were doing. So he asked the hole digger, “I appreciate the effort you are putting into your work, but what’s the story? You dig a hole and your partner follows behind and fills it up again.”

The hole digger wiped his brow and sighed, “Well, normally we are a three-man team, but the guy who plants the trees is sick today.”

—–

A big city lawyer went duck hunting in rural South Dakota. He shot and dropped a bird, but it fell into a farmer’s field on the other side of a fence.

As the lawyer climbed over the fence, an elderly farmer drove up on his tractor and asked him what he was doing. The litigator responded, “I shot a duck and it fell in this field, and now I’m going to retrieve it.” The old farmer replied, “This is my property, and you are not coming over here.”

The indignant lawyer said, “I am one of the best trial attorneys in the United States and, if you don’t let me get that duck, I’ll sue you and take everything you own.

The old farmer smiled and said, “Apparently, you don’t know how we settle disputes in South Dakota. We settle small disagreements like this with the “Three Kick Rule.”

The lawyer asked, “What is the Three Kick Rule?”

The Farmer replied, “Well, because the dispute occurs on my land, first I kick you three times, and then you kick me three times, and so on back and forth until someone gives up.”

The attorney quickly thought about the proposed contest and decided that he could easily take the old codger. He agreed to abide by the local custom. The old farmer slowly climbed down from the tractor and walked up to the attorney. His first kick planted the toe of his heavy steel-toed work boot into the lawyer’s groin and dropped him to his knees. His second kick to the midriff sent the lawyer’s last meal gushing from his mouth. The lawyer was on all fours when the farmer’s third kick to his rear end sent him face-first into a fresh cow pie.

The lawyer summoned every bit of his will and managed to get to his feet. Wiping his face with the arm of his jacket, he said, “Okay, Now it’s my turn.”

The old farmer smiled and said, “Naw, I give up. You can have the duck.”

—–

Q: A Greek, a Spaniard, and an Italian walk into a bar for drinks.  Who pays?

A: The German.

We Already Regulate You

Another lesson from Europe, this time from the United Kingdom, rears its…head.

It seems that Oxford thinks it’s a good idea to put surveillance devices into all the taxi cabs that operate in the city, and at taxpayer expense, yet (I suppose this might be mildly better than making the cabbies pay for them—that would be a bit like making the condemned criminal pay for his own rope).  What’s more, after the passenger has gotten out of the cab, even after the cab’s ignition has been shut off, Oxford’s devices will continue to record for a time, and the records will be held available to the city’s authorities for a month.

It’s all to protect the cabbies and the passengers from each other, don’t you know.  Mutual complaints and everything, you see

As for you pesky citizens and your concerns (“…staggering invasion of privacy, being done with no evidence, no consultation and a total disregard for civil liberties,” wrote Nick Pickles of the organization Big Brother Watch), don’t you worry your pretty little heads.  The City says that when a company “buy[s] the taxi and license [they] submit to a regulatory regime.”  Presumably, this submission extends to the passenger, as well, when he uses that taxi with its license.

We already regulate you.  That justifies us regulating you more.

Let’s see, now, where else are we seeing government intrusion?  Hmm….