Crisis In Ogden, Utah: City Orders Cardboard Play Fort Razed

The cardboard castle in Ogden, Utah, that has
some city officials up in arms.  

A dad in Ogden, Utah had a whole bunch of big empty boxes. He must have made some big appliance purchases or something.

He was going to throw them out or recycle the cardboard, of course, but first he decided he'd have a little fun.

Jeremy Trentelman built a giant castle out of the boxes, complete with a  slide, trap door, tunnel and windows  or his two young children, ages 3 and 2, reported the Salt Lake Tribune.

Trentelman said he was going to take the cardboard castle down soon. After all, cardboard isn't all that durable in the outdoors.

Now he's going to leave it up longer. Because Ogden City Code Enforcement swooped down quickly.

The enforcement officers said the castle constitutes "waste materials or junk," and he would have to take the castle down within 15 days or face $125 in fines.

"It was a great project for all of us to build, and now it's just fun watching them play in it, and watching their imagination run wild is just fantastic," Trentelman said.

Trentelman said it's absurd that code enforcement acted so instantaneously, so he's going to keep the cardboard castle up longer, out of spite.

Like all code enforcement department's Ogden's is understandably worried about piles of materials that could pose fire, safety and health risks. Secondarily, they want to keep the city looking pretty.

Which all means there's good reason for most city zoning codes, in Ogden and everywhere else.

What gets me is when zoning officers strictly enforce city ordinances in a way that make no sense. Clearly, the Ogden cardboard castle wasn't going to be there forever. Maybe the city prefers children not play outside or use their imaginations.

Maybe code enforcers they feel they have to enforce the codes when they make no sense, because, after all, they do have to follow the law.

That's when you get stupid things like crackdowns on Little Free Libraries. Those are little kiosks that people put in front of their houses so people can voluntarily put books in, then take them out for awhile to read, then put back in the kiosk.

Nice thing, but code enforcers say those are structures. You can't have a fun little convenient little free library.

Some cities said they would allow the Little Free Libraries only if people pay for permits, and they can get the money to do that from local arts organizations, say these crack code enforcers.

Or as The Atlantic put it:

"We've constructed communities where one must obtain prior permission from agents of the state before freely sharing books with one's neighbors! And their proposed solution is to get scarce public arts funds to pay for the needless layer of bureaucracy being imposed on the thing already being done for free."

There've also been big crackdowns on people who dare to plant vegetable gardens in their front yards.

Apparently, your front lawn is supposed to be a useless expanse of wasteful grass, and not something that can provide food, and, if properly cared for, some beauty to a neighborhood.

In most of the enforcement of libraries, gardens and in the Ogden castle, action was prompted by an anonymous complaint. Apparently every neighborhood has at least one miserable killjoy who can't STAND to see anyone have any kind of fun, and in their wimpy, anonymous fashion, try to put a stop to it.

Back in Ogden, a protest movement is growing. The Salt Lake Tribune said a Facebook event is on calling for people to build cardboard castles in their front lawns.

Go-Pro Camera's Free Falls Is Dizzying, Cool

The view from a Go Pro camera just before
the photographer dropped it, and it filmed
itself in a 10,000 foot freefall.  

Some skydivers in Kristianstad, Sweden dropped a Go-Pro camera while way up there at around 10,000 feet.

Somebody later found the camera in the grass and was able to upload the film to YouTube.

The camera spun wildly on the way down, so you can't really see exactly what it was going to land on, but it's a terrifying perspective of the ground getting closer, closer, CLOSER!! in a free fall.

Glad it was a camera and not a person.

A person later found the camera in a field, its memory card intact. That person uploaded the last video on the memory card - the free fall -- onto YouTube and put out a plea to find and return the camera to the owner.

The camera has since been returned to the skydiver. 

Watch:

I'm So Happy "Revenge Porn" Guy Will Rot In Prison For Awhile

This jerk is going to prison because of
his "revenge porn" site. Things like this
happen to creepy guys. Hope he has fun in jail.  

Remember the revenge porn guy?

He was the moron who collected nude or sexually explicit photos of women posted by angry ex-girlfriends and ex-husbands, and posted them on line for all to see.

He then charged the women $300 or more to have those photos removed from the web site.

Yeah, the guy's a real charmer.

The jerk,  Kevin Bollaert, was just sentenced to 18 years in prison after being convicted of operating the revenge porn site, says the Los Angeles Times.

I'm hoping the stiff sentence is a deterrent to others who have the same bright idea as Bollaert. NBC San Diego says two other California men are also facing charges in connection with their revenge porn sites.

Good!

"Sittng behind a computer, committing what is essentially a cowardly and criminal act, will not shield predators from the law or jail," said California Attorney General Kamala Harris, whose office handled the prosecution against Bollaert, says the LA Times.

Bollaert was  convicted of multiple felony counts of identity theft and extortion. Bollaert is also supposed to pay $15,000 in restitution to his victims and a $10,000, but that's almost besides the point.

He is not going to do well in prison, is my guess.

He's not off to a good start. He cried in court as his victims talked about how traumatized they were, and still were, by all those perverts out there who saw the photos and are still trying to contact them.

That crying jag was surely a contrast to Bollaert's cocky demeanor when he thought he was this big hotshot stud running his horrible web sites.

Somehow, when Bollaert gets out of jail in as little as 10 years, he's not exactly going to be the most sought after bachelor in California.

I think his being alone all the time will be good for him. But even better for the women of California.

Wedding Save The Date Is Epic Action Adventure Movie

This couple made an unforgettable video
so that would be wedding guests wouldn't forget
the date of their nuptials. 

Most of us have received one of those "save the date" wedding announcements. Not exactly an invitation, but a notice that a couple is going to get married on such and such a date.

The risk, of course, is forgetting that date.

To combat this, couples could offer up an unforgettable save the date announement.

One California couple, Tyler Macniven and Kelly Hennigan, put this concept to a new level with an epic action adventure movie in which they "save the date" from thugs using such wedding staples as garter belts, thrown flowers and a wedding cake. (this one rigged with a bomb!)

This is so entertaining. I wish I knew the couple. If the save the date video is so good, I can't imagine how good the actually wedding would be.

According to the Huffington Post, Macniven offered hints at what the wedding might be like. "Instead of a cake cutting, were going to have a traditional cake explosion, where we blow up a giant wedding cake. "

Wedding guests will also have to sign a liability waiver for the secret hijinks they have planned for their nuptials.

Watch the video and see for yourself:

Texas State Police Say Officer Needs Counseling Because He Posed For Pic With Snoop Dog

Are you a crazy person, or at least need counseling if you pose for a photo with rapper Snoop Dog?

That's what Texas Police officer Billy Spears must be wondering after his bosses got mad, really mad at him for the crime of posing with Snoop Dog.

This Texas police officer got in
trouble with his bosses for the High Crime (ha!)
of posing for a pic with Snoop Dogg.  

Maybe it's because Spears' bosses hate him for some reason, or he did something else wrong, but posing with Snoop Dogg is apparently a big, BIG no-no in Texas Police circles, according to The Guardian newspaper. 

Spears briefly posed with Snoop Dogg at SXSW in Austin recently. Snoop put the photo on his Instagram page and captioned it, "Me 'n My Deputy Dog."

Texas Police said Spears should have never posed with Snoop Dog because he has past criminal convictions for drug possession.

The Dallas Morning News says the counseling was needed because posing with a convicted drug dealer reflects badly on the Texas Department Of Public Safety.

Of course throwing the book at a cop for posing briefly for a pic with a famous person reflects badly on the department, too, but never mind.

Spears said he didn't know about those convictions, which is plausible because you can't expect a cop to know the criminal history of every single celebrity walking around out there.

Besides, Snoop Dogg has no outstanding warrants and no new criminal charges hanging over him. In that respect, the rapper was just another citizen walking around. I'm not sure what the harm is in this photo, then.

Maybe Spears was supposed to come up with some excuse to arrest Snoop Dogg again, just because they figure he's not a good guy?

Apparently, since Spears was forced to undergo counseling for being so outlandishly crazy to spend, say 20 seconds, posing for a photo with some random celebrity.

The counseling, says the Dallas Morning News, includes an order not to pose for photos with anybody. No sense in having a police officer appear friendly, with all the negative publicity about police brutality circulating around.

So be forwarned, law enforcement: If you see Snoop Dogg, stay as far, far away as possible.

Indiana's Little Pizza Shop Of Horrors

Memories Pizza in Indiana played the culture
wars well, and were rewarded with nearly $500,000
in GoFundMe loot.  

I hope the owners of Memories Pizza in Indiana are pleased as punch that they signed on to the nation's long running culture wars.

The people who run the place decided to get on TV and talk about their bigotry (they say Christianity), making themselves a target for all the yahoos out there, and then playing the martyr card when the yahoos inevitably attacked.

They've got the playbook down pat, don't they?

Here's the backstory: As you probably heard, Indiana is in an uproar because the governor, Mike Pense, signed legislation called the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

Though the backers of the law denied it, the new legislation went beyond somewhat similar, existing laws in other  jurisdiction and pretty much opened the door for businesses to turn gay people away because some business owners' religious beliefs say that gay people are scummy.

Or something like that.

Amid cries of boycotts, and the business establishment canceling expansions, hiring and events over the uproar, the law was just "modified" a bit to make it a tiny bit less discriminatory.

The owners of the pizza place, Crystal O'Connor and her father Kevin O'Connor,  came forward the other day and said their restaurant is a "Christian establishment" and thusly favored the law as it was originally signed by Pense, because they wouldn't want to be forced to cater a gay wedding because they don't believe in the "homosexual lifestyle," whatever that is.

I'm not sure there's any gay couples out there who think their dream wedding is one catered with pizza from Memories Pizza, but what do I know?

They would, grudgingly, serve a gay couple if they came into the restaurant and just wanted a pizza. But for all I know they'd spit in their pizza.

By announcing to the world that they favored discrimination against gay people, the owners of Memories Pizza had to have known they would put themselves in the middle of a huge shitstorm.

And boy did they ever.

The backlash against Memories Pizza was, well, memorable, but also predictable. All kinds of off-color, crude, and very negative Yelp reviews went up, the restaurant's web site was hacked, and the restaurant owners got the inevitable death threats.

Because trolls of all stripes, be they liberal, conservative or neither, have their go-to button. Anytime they remotely dislike something or someone, they let the death threats fly.

As if that would accomplish anything.

Of course, the pizza place shut down in the face of the threats, and stupid pranks like ordering pizza they have no intention of actually buying.

The idiots that issued the threats enabled the pizza restaurant owners to play that martyr card, that all gay people were fascists who wanted to take over the world.

The pizza joint established a GoFundMe page to garner donations from like minded people (some say mouth breathing knuckle draggers, you decide) to stay afloat. At last check they'd collected something like $485,000, probably more than that by now.

I bet the owners of Memories Pizza are already packing their bags for a nice vacation to Cabu with that loot.

I have no idea how financially stable Memories Pizza was before all this started. It might have been making money like gangbusters, or it could have been about to fall off a monetary cliff. Who knows?

But you've got to hand it to the people who run this pizza joint. They certainly took full advantage of a Big Public Controversy.

They got their own bully pulpit, so they could attempt to bully people they don't like, as prescribed by their so-called "Christian" beliefs. And they get a ton of free money to boot.

I don't know if Memories Pizza people thought this through ahead of time as a money making scheme, but it sure worked out that way.

Yes, they were probably genuinely frightened by the idiots issuing their threats and probably didn't think their public comments would blow up to be a national story.

The anti-gay bigots win big, too. They can point to Memories Pizza and say anytime they come down on the side of what they call righteousness, "Big Gay" will threaten them into silence, and take away their free speech rights.

Of course, anytime you say something, the First Amendment doesn't give you any protection from people criticizing it.

Plus, there's always a few idiots among the mostly peaceful, normal people who don't like anti-gay bigotry.  The idiots who issue threats are the ones that get all the attention, because they're not about anti-gay bigotry, they're all about getting attention. Morons.

Death threats are always, always wrong. I've always wondered why they're not prosecuted more vigorously.

The anti-gay activists can also claim, falsely, that the bundles of money Memories got via GoFundMe proves that everybody in America hates the gays, just like them.

Though the corporations that rebelled against the "religious rights" law know a majority of people don't like this type of discrimination. It's bad for business.

But, Memories Pizza sure captured a niche here. There are a fair number of people out there who Hate The Gays.

In terms of making bundles of money and becomin a poster child "martyr" for the radical Christian right, well played, Memories Pizza!

Sorry, But This "Mean Tweets" Episode Isn't Funny Like The Others. But It's Important

A couple of the homeless people after
 reading mean tweets about the homeless
for a PSA to encourage looking looking at all
people as part of humanity.  

I'm a big fan of Jimmy Kimmel's "Mean Tweets" segments, in which  celebrities read the horrible things people say about them on Twitter.

The celebrities have a good sense of humor about it, and it's pretty funny. I've featured a few of them on this here blog thingy.

I don't mean to be Debbie Downer here, but there's another "Mean Tweets" episode circulating, and Jimmy Kimmel and his humor were not involved.

The organization, Raising The Roof Canada,  has homeless people read mean Tweets about themselves.

It turns out, Surprise! lots of idiots on Twitter say idiotic, mean things. Among the awful things they say are insults about homeless people, how they are supposedly subhuman, not something we shold see, and it's all their fault, blah, blah, blah.

The Canadian broadcaster CBC has the deets:

"The goal? To get people to see that these people who have nowhere to live are human beings, too.

'Only when this happens will people stop saying nasty things, stop assuming the stereotypes are true,' said Carolann Barr, executive director of Raisiing the Roof. 'Then we can work together to prevent and end homelessness.

Barr and Raising the Roof wanted to create a campaign that would help people look past stereotypes about homelessness and see the real folks who live their lives without a place to cal home."

I'm sure the heartbreaking PSA you'll see in the video below won't change the behavior of the Twitter twits who make sport of skewing homeless people. (And in the process making themselves far less dignified than said homeless people.)

Homelessness is often a product of bad luck. Sometimes it's a product of a bad decision, but we're all guilty of bad decisions. Usually we recover quickly, but occasionally, the recovery is hard to come by.

Maybe the mean Twitterers should become homeless for awhile. Just to see what it's like.  I'd also like to see the idiot people who Tweeted such nonsense to say it face to face to the people featured in the video.

How would they react to the fact they made some of these people cry, and many of us viewers cry?

I'd like to think there's some humanity hidden somewhere inside the mean Tweeters, but I have mh doubts.

For the rest of us, the video you'll see below is a useful reminder that everybody, including the homeless, are humans with hopes and feelings and worthiness.