Ever Stolen a VCR and Other Thoughts on Crime...

 I used to get the news each morning while driving to work by listening to NPR.I find it to be a good source and unlike some they do try to get the news right. On retirement I don't spend much morning time in the car anymore so I fell from that habit and the past couple of years the news has been all bad anyway so the three times a week delivery of The Lufkin Daily News and about three times a month of the New Yorker has been enough.  Last week though while on a morning drive I heard a couple of stories on radio that had enough contrast to mention. 

Seems in New York City the lead prosecutor in an investigation of Trump, the man and his finances resigned because he thought there was enough of a case to bring felony charges. Others thought not, but the case continues, just at a slower pace. I wish Trump a fair trial just as I would like if I sat before a jury of my pears here in Angelina County where everyone knows me just like everyone in New York knows Trump. When it comes to rich people I am kind of a camel through the eye of a needle guy. They say that's an easier thing to imagine than a rich guy getting into Heaven because on the way to amassing billions of dollars sometimes shady things are made to happen. They think that's what Trump, his people or his business might have done.

The second story was on the problem of catalytic converter theft in Shreveport, La. This had become so prevalent that a law was passed to license businesses that accept the converters for recycling the valuable  metals used in the manufacture because the owners acted "naïve" when people sold them ten converters a week. They also made it illegal for an individual to own or sell more than one converter that does not belong to the individual. Apparently you can make as much as $700 off a catalytic converter sale.   

I'm glad this law is pretty well spelled out because of the fact that I own two cars that are 9 and 11 years old respectively and my experiences with vehicles of this age tells me that it's possible that they could turn to slag in my driveway at anytime and with the purchase of a replacement could leave me owning three converters if I could not move the slag from the driveway. First violation $500 or 5 days in jail, second is $1000 nd 60 days. Apparently the expect you to go straight after two offenses.   

My other experience is that I could get less than $700 for a car that's turned to slag. 

All this, white collar crime and catalytic converter theft leads me to a song on an old Steve James album. I've seen Steve play, I own a how to play jug band mandolin VHS tape by him (probably turned to slag by now) and I attended a blues fingerpicking class he taught once.  My fingerpicking still does not sound like his. Someone told me the internet is down to tiktok attention spans so the song is about a rich guy that gets off light and a poor guy that goes to the pen for stealing a VCR. 

Both these things in the news stories are problems. Theft is theft whether a billion or $700 but I do know that singer songwriter Todd Snider has said that having nothing is almost like having it all. 

 Not my yard but a photo I made in New York City, 2019. Make what you will of it all. There are things to think about.