Homeless, etc.
 

There's a guy in downtown Houston who spends a lot of time in the county buildings handing out little cards that say (in detail) that he is the real president of the US and his rightful position has been taken from him by a great conspiracy, etc. Can't remember what he calls himself, but it's something like His Highness, President Jones. Haven't seen him in a while, though, but I know he bathes in the county library men's room because I know someone who walked in on the guy standing there buck nekkid (The President, not the friend - that would be different).

The homeless problem here is pretty bad and no one really seems to care. I have given food to people who look like they needed it and they took it with gratitude. I don't give money out as a rule, especially to people giving me the "I need $5.00 for gas/bus fare to get home" bit - except once when the woman appeared to be in labor. If she wasn't, they deserved the money for the show.

And while we're talking about begging - there is an awful lot of people sending their middle-class kids out (sports teams, church clubs, etc) out in heavy traffic begging for money to go on a trip (or whatever). You know what? If you want my money, you better learn to wash a car or sell some baked goods to earn it, because begging isn't cutting it, baby.

-TL

agressive panhandling
 

Does he still have Rasputin Music ad on the back of his sign?

Seattle has a "no aggressive pan handling" law that was enacted a few years ago when the economy was previously in the tank and tourists (and locals) bitched that the panhandlers were not only asking for $, but being obnoxious about it. You can arrest those people. There is also a "no loitering" law, so if you want to panhandle, you gotta be standing. If you're sitting or laying down, that'll get you tossed into the city facility. Reason for that was that people were using puppies and kitties to help their cause (which was cruel to the animals forced to live without food while their caretaker drank thunderbird). It allowed the city to put the animals into adoptive homes.

So, if you're in Seattle, you won't find anyone sitting down on the job. Unlike SF, where most of those guys are sitting at the top of the steps of the Bart.

Homeless, etc.
 

When did Al Gore lose his house and move to Houston?

agressive panhandling
 

Based on the distinctly Jos. A. Bank quality of his haberdashery, I would suppose not. But my guess was an even more distant possibility --- that it was a misspelling of zeugma. His use of big, made up words caused me think he might have been a rhetoric major at Cal.

agressive panhandling
 

Did his sandwich board previously say something about Al Gore being abducted by aliens and replaced by a robot? I LOVE that guy.

Non-aggressive Panhandling?
 

Where do you think the guy watches HBO?

agressive panhandling
 

Is it normal for a judge to be armed in Texas?

agressive panhandling
 

Different guy. Remember that one, but haven't seen him for a while... Must have gotten a different schtick as the Gore being a robot thing is kind of dated.

Edited to add: Not LOVE as in man-crush, I hope, Coltrane...

agressive panhandling
 

Yes.

agressive panhandling
 

The guy is a genius about getting on TV. If you watch the local news and there's a story involving a crowd downtown -- a protest, etc. -- he's there, holding his sign.

Beggars Don't Sock
 

If I were homeless, I would totally buckle down on my pan-handling, save up enough for a bus ticket, and move somewhere warm. Don't you think? But not too warm, like Phoenix. In fact, I'd pick LA. Which I did. Of course, homeless people probably don't have passports or ID sufficient to cross borders. But if you're homeless and American and without friends or family, why would you stay in New Haven? Close proximity to Dunkin Donuts?

str(insensitive to the homeless)8

agressive panhandling
 

My guess is yes, though I have nothing really to back the claim up with. I imagine that some of them are concerned about pissed off litigants. This is the only case that I know of in the modern era, though, where the armed judge ran (actually limped, the judge claimed he was armed because he had a pronounced limp) down a suspect and administered lead justice off the bench during the lunch hour.

agressive panhandling
 

WAsn't there big national coverage of allowing judges to pack heat a few years back?

agressive panhandling
 

From this, I'm figuring all judges in Texas must be armed. Otherwise, why would the lawyer who'd just been attacked flag down a limping judge to help him out? With all due respect to the physically challenged, that's not the first person I'm looking to to run down a thief for me.

Good to know, in case I ever have a case in Texas.

Sidd(yes, your Honor, that's an excellent point, your Honor, and can I mention again how good you look today, your Honor?)Finch

Discipline, Sidd, discipline
 

I will not spend the next hour googling this. I will not spend the next hour googling this. I will not spend the next hour googling this. I will not spend the next hour googling this.


Sidd(I will run off with the stripper I met this weekend instead. I will....)Finch

agressive panhandling
 

I think the question is,

"Is it normal for anyone to be unarmed in Texas?" or at least,

"Is it rational to assume that someone you meet on the street in Texas is unarmed?"

agressive panhandling
 

No man-crush. And that's why I always liked that guy...b/c any Al Gore related news was so dated. He kept it up well into 2002.

Beggars Don't Sock
 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by str8outavannuys
If I were homeless, ... In fact, I'd pick LA.


I agree. Those homeless in the park by the pier in Santa Monica look pretty damn content.

agressive panhandling
 

What's "judge" got to do (got to do) with it? I believe Texas has concealed carry laws. So I could be packing heat in my purse. You might keep that in mind if we ever meet (in TX).

Beggars Don't Sock
 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Sazerac

Same with the homeless in Key West. They have it made.

Discipline, Sidd, discipline
 

But does she squirt?

http://nerve.com/regulars/ididitfors...dex.asp?page=1

agressive panhandling
 

No, that was airline pilots.

agressive panhandling
 

I once received a lovely catalog in the mail containing stylish and ladylike holsters/handbags for your gun (pink leather armpit holster, anyone?). I believe because I once ordered a cop I know a cheerful "old-fashioned corner policeman helping a kiddie" type Christmas ornament.

Anyway, tempted as I was from an accessories standpoint, alas I do not own firearms.

Beggars Don't Sock
 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Sazerac
I knew a guy who ran away from home as a teenager, hooked up with an older gentleman who travelled to Hawaii with him as a "companion" who then decided to stay. He lived on the beaches of Maui for a year. That's what you gotta do if you're homeless.

agressive panhandling
 

That's this year. I'm waiting for Sidd to come back with a report. But maybe it was loosening (further) the concealed weapons laws of Texas, or soemthing.

agressive panhandling
 

That, the heat, the hurricanes, the tornados, and the scorpions my best friend in college kept finding in his house whenever he went home, make me slightly wary of going to Texas. Anything else about it I should know about before I visit?

agressive panhandling
 

Texas has concealed carry laws, but not in courtrooms. Judges traditionally arm themselves, but now I believe it is on the books - they may have to have a conceal/carry permit to take a gun into the courtroom, however.

I don't know a crim defense lawyer who doesn't keep a loaded gun in em's desk. They have not as much faith in their own clients as they want us to have.

-T(not packing)L

agressive panhandling
 

not sure about the best, but i've like to nominate atlanta as having the worst. at least from what i've seen, atlanta seems to have the highest percentage of really agressive and threatening homeless people. between the homeless, maniac drivers, and the extreme heat and humidity, it quickly becomes obvious why no one ever walks there.

Discipline, Sidd, discipline
 

That was absolutely hilarious. But the following line will stay with me for a few days, in an unpleasant bad-Mexican-food sort of way:

"I envisioned a time when the streets of Carthage, Sparta and Babylon were awash with unencumbered vaginal juices."

Ugh.

agressive panhandling
 

Does he also attend various sporting events wearing a rainbow wig and carrying the bible citation sign? Haven't seen him in years, but he was everywhere.

Anne

I can't remember the citation. Wasn't John 23:6 or something like that?

agressive panhandling
 

There's no scorpions around Houston (ok, maybe 1 or 2, but I've never seen one), only snakes and if you can't deal with a little venom, then you're just a wimp. We're the Friendship State - how bad can it be?

-T(My mom spotted a bobcat just north of town last week - very cool)L

edited to add - and the traffic. You should definitely be prepared for that if you visit.

agressive panhandling
 

Fire ants and the green salsa at Taqueria Arandas.

agressive panhandling
 

We're generally a friendly lot. That can be a little disconcerting to some people from northern locales.

agressive panhandling
 

John 3:16.

And he's in jail for kidnapping or something. Which would explain why he hasn't been seen in a while.

There was a movie made about him a few years back called something like Rainbow Man.

agressive panhandling
 

Thanks!! I will be able to sleep tonight.

From IMDB:
Remember that man in the rainbow-colored Afro wig who carried the "John 3:16" sign? During the 70s and 80s he seemed to be everywhere: at televised baseball and football games, shuttle launches, and hundreds of other events. So who was he, and what ever happened to him? In Sam Green's award-winning new "slapstick tragedy," we find out. And the truth involving an unhappy childhood, a kidnapped hotel maid, and three life sentences in prison is stranger than fiction...

IMDB link here

agressive panhandling
 

I wasn't thinking in courtrooms (and wouldn't have thought judges could have guns in courtrooms; that kind of scares me and makes me glad I'm not ever in courtrooms) because it sounded like they were out on the street.

f(not telling)b

agressive panhandling
 

Well, for excellent Mexican food and exceeding friendliness, I suppose a few fire ants and killer scorpions are worth it. Does this hospitality extend to my jumping into the arms of the nearest hapless Texan the minute I am stalked by a poisonous critter?

edited to add, I don't mind snakes at all, as the local copperheads never worried me. It's the damned scorpions that freak me out

agressive panhandling
 

The pink leather holster would look nice with a mother-of-pearl handled ladylike handgun.

agressive panhandling
 

So true! If you're going to blow the head off some bastard, you might as well look pretty doing it.

agressive panhandling
 

This sounds strangely erotic.