School Dress Codes

This story that Radley Balko linked to reminded me of school dress codes. I hated dress codes when I went to high school.

Both Mission Viejo and University High School, that I attended for a while, had dress codes. As I recall their dress code was much the same as the one in the story: Guy's hair couldn't touch the collar or ears, and no beards or mustaches. Also, girls couldn't wear pants except on a Pant's Day that as held two or three times a year.

I hated it, being a punk yippie. Eventually, some of us managed to get around the hair requirements by buying "short hair wigs". Those were pretty much just normal wigs except the hair on them met the dress code requirements. You'd put the wig on and stuff your longer hair under the wig. Looked kind of stupid but served its purpose. Once you left campus, the wig came off.

I managed to get away from the dress code entirely after I weaseled my way into continuation school. Hillview High School didn't have a dress code.

I don't believe Eureka High School has a dress code. I recall working near there one day and a group of girls were hanging out nearby. For some reason they reminded me of dress codes and I mentioned it to them. They seemed pretty unhappy even at the suggestion of one.

Anybody know of any schools in the area that still have dress codes?

Lots of Petitions Out There

Here's the Secretary of State's list of all 60 (!) ballot initiatives or referendum cleared for circulation as of yesterday. A number of them seem to be similar, dealing with marijuana, taxes and even abortion.

The two most important are the ones that will return the state to a part- time legislature, which I've mentioned before here, and the elimination of the High Speed Rail Authority. That one will save the state near 100 billion dollars, if not more. Passing those two is imperative.

There's 17 initiatives still waiting to be approved for circulation.

More Pot = Safer Streets?

Interesting piece here that looks at the lower auto accident fatalities in states that legalized medical marijuana.

I tend to agree that with most people it's either pot or alcohol. I've heard from others that claim they can do both. Last time I smoked pot was back in the early 80s. Back then, if I smoked pot and drank beer I'd end up having to have a chat with the toilet. It was only one or the other for me.

Gary Johnson on FOX Tonight

Past two term Governor of New Mexico and Libertarian Party Presidential hopeful, Gary Johnson, will be on TV tonight with John Stossel on the FOX Business Network. 8:30pm Eastern Time which I believe is 5:30pm Pacific Time.

SOPA/PIPA: The Day After

You can go back to Craigslist and Wikipedia now. Yesterday's protest is over but we haven't seen the last of those two bills. Reason magazine has a round up on the protest and where the legislation stands now.

Hat tip to Radley Balko for the link.

Call To Action: Stop SOPA

Some web sites, including Craigslist and Wikipedia, have blacked themselves out today to protest the proposed Protect IP and Stop Online Privacy Acts working their way through congress. Craigslist lists a number of things, including online forms, you can do to make your feelings known to your congresscritters.

I found one page that shows Senator Dianne Feinstein as currently supporting Protect IP/SOPA. Mike Thompson opposes but no word on Senator Barbara Boxer. Everyone should at the very least contact Feinstein and Boxer and urge their NO votes on the bills.

I used on the e-mail form on Barbara Boxer's site to contact her. I tried FAXing Dianne Feinstein but there seems to be something wrong with my FAX program. I then tried e-mailing through her web site but access is real slow and I'm getting an error message on her e-mail page. I suspect she's getting hammered with traffic over this.

Now's the time to give them a piece of your mind!

Addendum: Politico has an explanation of what this is all about.

The Citizen's Legislature Act

The Sacramento Bee has a partial list of ballot initiatives circulating right now. They say there might be over 50(!) after all have been cleared by the Secretary of State's office. Yikes!

I won't comment on all of them now but The Citizen's Legislature Act, which would revert the state legislature back to part time, is the most important one of the bunch. I realize the idea of a part- time legislature frightens a lot of people in this state- so many Californians wanting someone to govern every aspect of their lives- but it's the best thing we can do in both the short and long run.

Remember that California used to have a part- time legislature decades ago and things went pretty smooth. Many other states do fine with them. The problem is full- time legislators have way too much time on their hands, judging from the sort of stuff that comes out of Sacramento. The vast majority of it is wasteful, unnecessary or an assault on you or somebody else's freedoms.

We likely can't roll back the clock and take back everything they've done over the years but, by limiting the time they spend in Sacramento, we can at least slow down the pace of future damage.

I Lost My Cookies!

or something like that.

Ever turn on your computer one day and none of the web sites you frequent recognize you? That's what happened to me this morning. News web sites, blogspot, sweepstakes...you name it. I had to log in to everything today. Not as easy as you would think if you forget the username and password for certain sites.

I'm wondering if there's a keyboard shortcut that deletes cookies and maybe I hit just the right keys and accidentally deleted them? Either that or my firewall is blocking them, but its settings haven't changed.

Oh well. I think I got everything back to normal now.