How it started:
How it’s going:
Context
- Wikipedia’s entry for Spring Break
- CNN — Miami Beach declares a state of emergency and curfew as spring break crowds spark safety concerns
- NBC News — Miami Beach declares state of emergency over spring break crowds
- New York Times — Covid-19: Miami Beach Shuts Down Late-Night Spring Break Parties
- WFLA — Video: Spring break crowd cheers on handcuffed man who escaped from Clearwater police cruiser
…and is tradition on this blog, that means it’s time to post a favorite tune of mine from the nineties, from the alternate universe known as Canadian music. Here’s First Day of Spring, by The Gandharvas:
It’s a bit of gloomy day in Tampa Bay today, but we could use the rain, so I’m not going to complain. The self-portrait I’ll use to mark spring will be this rather green one from a couple of days ago — St. Patrick’s Day:
I can already hear management’s response: “80 hours? Those are rookie numbers.”
Be sure to read the article, which includes this gem:
The survey recommended maximum 80-hour work weeks with no work on Saturday or after 9pm on Friday.
The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) was signed into law back in 1994. Since then, it’s awarded over $8 billion in grants to state and local governments and organizations so that they could develop initiatives, programs, and services to protect and support women who are undergoing or who have survived sexual assault, domestic violence, and stalking.
The law expired in February 2019, and until then, reauthorizing it was a formality. Then it changed.
H.R. 1585, also known as the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2019, had a provision to close the “Boyfriend Loophole”. Simply put, this loophole limited the ability of people convicted of abusing or stalking a non-spouse partner to get firearms. Previous versions of the Act applied this limit to abusers who’d lived with or had a child with the victim. (Despite what people will tell you, Christianity isn’t the majority religion here in the U.S.; it’s gun worship.)
The Act passed a vote in the House of Representatives (263–158), but got stalled in the Senate. The National Rifle Association (as I said: gun worship) warned Republicans that voting for it would affect their ratings (Yes, in a nightmare version of Yelp, they rate politicians, and provide them with campaign funds. Again, I say: gun worship.) One NRA spokesghoul described it as “a smokescreen for its real goal—banning firearms ownership”. Because of their actions, VAWA hasn’t been reauthorized since 2019 — until now.
A day after the Atlanta spa shootings (which I’ll write about later), the House of Representatives voted 244-172 to pass VAWA. That’s right, this time even more Republicans — 172 in total — voted to oppose the Violence Against Women Act.
Remember that.
Recommended reading
- The Independent — Outrage as 172 Republicans vote to oppose Violence Against Women Act
- GQ — Why Can’t the Senate Pass the Violence Against Women Act?
- Jezebel — The NRA Is Fighting Like Hell to Keep Stalkers and Abusers Armed
