I'll bet you a nickel this gal will major in psych or some other worthless subject

She's already incapable of working to support herself, which is why she decided to sue her own parents for her expenses.  The Captain will have a field day.  Or a brain hemorrhage.  Or both.

 

A New Jersey teenager claiming that her mother and father tossed her out of their home and cut her off financially is suing them for immediate support, current private-school fees and future college tuition. The parents, meanwhile, say that daughter Rachel Canning, 18, moved out voluntarily after refusing to abide by their rules.

“We love our child and miss her. This is terrible. It’s killing me and my wife,” Rachel's father, Sean Canning, a town administrator and retired police officer, tells the Daily Record. “We have a child we want home. We’re not Draconian and now we’re getting hauled into court. She’s demanding that we pay her bills but she doesn’t want to live at home, and she’s saying, ‘I don’t want to live under your rules.’”

Update:

I hope this teen drama queen loses, and loses hard.  I hope that the parents are awarded legal fees and the man who is fronting Canning's bill, (over $12k so far) is named responsible for their fees.  Teach everyone a lesson here.

A Morris Catholic High School honor student and athlete who claims her parents threw her out of their Lincoln Park home when she turned 18 has taken the highly unusual step of suing them for immediate financial support and to force them to pay for her college education. 

Private high school senior Rachel Canning, a cheerleader and lacrosse player who has aspirations to be a biomedical engineer, filed a lawsuit last week in the Family Part of state Superior Court in Morristown that seeks a judge’s declaration that she is nonemancipated and dependent as a student on her parents for support.

...Rachel Canning’s lawyer, Tanya N. Helfand, will ask that parents Sean and Elizabeth Canning, who haven’t paid an outstanding $5,306 Morris Catholic tuition bill, be ordered to settle that debt, pay Rachel’s current living and transportation expenses, and commit an existing college fund to their daughter... 

Leave California, my friends, just leave

California is the worst.

CEO Comments  

“CA Regulates and taxes companies unreasonably.”  

“California is getting worse, if that is even possible.”  

“California’s legal system is broken. Employment law and contract law are highly problematic and along with regulations and taxes, discourage any further investment in this state.”  

“California is completely confiscatory, ever dreamng up new ways to stick it to sub-Apple-sized companies. So far, Washington is smart enough to recognize where its jobs come from.”  

“Am not aware of any businesses other than entertainment that will be expanding or moving into CA. It is a black hole.”  

“Only thing [California has] going for them is the immigrant influx and the established industries already there.”  

“California has the best labor pool and the worst government. Taxes are punitive, labor laws are punitive and regulations are restrictive. California is a Union Owned State.”  

“California is accelerating down the wrong track. At some point even the climate will be outweighed by the massive disincentives to business and the tax penalties on the modestly successful. It’s well on its way to becoming an environment where the super elites (Hollywood, Silicon Valley and the political class) are separated from the ‘service class’ by a personal income chasm as the union continue to plunder the state’s treasury.”  

“I’m considering relocating my business now based in California.”  

“California is not small business friendly, or friendly for any business size when it gets down to it. Taxes are beyond belief and going higher. Cost of living overall is out of control just like our elect leaders in Sacramento. Too many entitlements and not enough people contributing.”

 Seriously.

California not only taxes and regulates its economy more than most other states, but also aggressively interferes in the personal lives of its citizens.

Why is California so bad?  I'm going to say this is the reason. California's politics are overwhelmingly liberal.  Large state, high taxation, punish success in business, reward mediocrity and failures of behavior, and of course, every person is a child who needs a coddling (and sometimes a scolding) from the state, their beneficent parent figure.

 

Listen, folks.  You are not going to change it from the inside. It's a stage 4 cancer that will run it's course.  There is no question about that.  The only real question is whether conservatives and libertarians will let themselves be taken down with that cancer. Don't do it.  Leave now and let California go feral. When they've eaten themselves sufficiently, we can come back and buy up the property for less than $100 per house, like you can in Detroit.

That will be the time to come back to California. Then we'll tear it down and rebuild.

Paying with plastic?

I'm sure the Captain and Peter Schiff will have a chuckle over this.  I know I did.  I'm certain Ben Bernanke is laughing his ass off, albeit for a different reason.

 

Cleaning lady throws "modern art" out with the trash

On Borepatch: The cleaning lady has more brains than the rest of them.

An article by the BBC:

A cleaner has mistakenly thrown away contemporary artworks meant to be part of an exhibition in southern Italy.  

Works made out of newspaper and cardboard, and cookie pieces scattered across the floor as part of Sala Murat's display were thrown out.  

Lorenzo Roca, from cleaning firm Chiarissima, said the unnamed cleaner was  "just doing her job".  

He added his firm's insurance would cover the value of the art, estimated to  be around 10,000 euros (£8,200).   

According  to local press, security noticed a number of items were missing when the  venue, in the province of Bari, opened on Wednesday morning.  

It later emerged the cleaner had handed them over to refuse collectors, thinking it was rubbish left behind by workers who set up the Mediating Landscape exhibition.

"Works made out of newspaper and cardboard, and cookie pieces scattered across the floor" are worth 10,000 euros?  I'm in the wrong business.

Thinking outside the box: what if we decentralize taxation?

What if individual sectors of our state/city governments provide services on a subscriber basis, and collect revenues in house?   What services would individuals classify as a necessity and which ones would we classify as a luxury?  We'd quickly find out since we would have more choices and control on how our tax dollars are spent, and how much we want to spend.

Here are some ideas...

• The state transportation authority would collect a simple one time taxes on sales of vehicles, (not annual registration fees) and maintain the highways.
• The city transportation authority would collect taxes on tire and gasoline sales and maintain the roads.
• Police and fire services would maintain memberships like a private security company, and send bills to households exactly like municipal water services do.  Perhaps "member areas" would work best, paid by neighborhood HOA type fees.
• Emergency services - 911 can bill per call, as I believe ambulances already do. 
• Air traffic control could be paid for by adding a fee to plane tickets and/or a tax to aviation fuel and products. 
• Port authorities would charge inspection and security fees directly to importers/exporters and handle security and inspections at the ports.

Furthermore, we could roll this idea up to the state level as well, letting states decide what federal services the state wished to subscribe to.  Does Arizona, New Mexico or Texas want the services of the ATF?  Does Montana want to pay for NOAA's hurricane data?

I think this idea has merits, (if not legs), and could go a long way towards reducing the impact of government on the lives of individuals.  There are still challenges to overcome - do we provide free schooling?  How big should the military be, and how do we pay for it?  etc.  Those questions may not be answered here, but I am sure this can be a part of the overall solution.

Peruta means CA will go Shall Issue

Yahoo!  With Peruta, the 9th district court has done something I though would never happen in California.  They've increased freedom for Californians.  What a great day.

Raffaello D'Andrea: The astounding athletic power of quadcopters

Simply amazing.