Random Samplings 24: Panhandling Profits, Homelessness by choice, & the Justice League
Random Samplings of a Logical Mind
I got questions. Who will answer?
ISSUE ONE: Profitable Panhandling.
Texas’ big cities are full of panhandlers – people who stake out a claim to some busy intersection and hold up signs asking for money. Sometimes they accost you in the downtown areas, and sometimes you feel a little threatened if you don’t wish to pay up.
All this is constitutionally protected free speech. But I have some questions. What is the median annual take for a typical panhandler? Ten grand? Forty grand? Since begging is a cash business, does the IRS check on this? It certainly is taxable income.
And when panhandlers set up shop on a street corner with a business such as cleaning your front window with a squeegee, can the city rightfully demand some sort of payment for the use of public space to run a business? Since billboards are regulated, can the city prevent them from posting signage? Am I the only one asking these questions?
Panhandlers set up a window-washing business at I-35 & St. John’s in Austin. This is their signage and their garbage dump. (Photo by Lynn Woolley for WBDaily taken March 4, 2021 at 5:30 AM)
ISSUE TWO: Homelessness as a way of life.
People living in tents along downtown streets, or in tent communities that spring up under overpasses on major freeways, has proliferated in recent years. This, of course, prompts woke city councils in left-wing cities to gnash their teeth and bite their fingernails to the quick worrying about the homeless.
But I have questions.
How many homeless people want to be homeless? When the sign says, “will work for food,” do they mean it? If someone offered them a job, would they take it? How many are mentally ill? How many are not? How many have just dropped out of mainstream society but are physically able to work?
Most important, why can’t we take care of the mentally ill, the physically impaired, and homeless veterans who served our country first, and suggest to the rest that they pack up their tents and get a job?
ISSUE THREE: Zack Snyder’s Justice League.
Superhero geeks – you know, like me, are abuzz about the new cut of “Justice League,” a movie that bombed at the box office. Of course, it’s longish – four hours – and that leads to two questions. Why the redo, and was it an improvement?
https://youtu.be/vM-Bja2Gy04
The theatrical version, which was just okay, got in trouble when Snyder’s daughter Autumn passed away and he had to drop out. Suits at DC Comics tapped Joss Whedon to finish the film, but told him to brighten it up and cut the running time way down. He did both, and that left the original with no heart and no explanation for big sections of the plot.
So yes, the new cut is far better, much more entertaining, and easier to follow. In fact, I think it’s better than Marvel’s Avengers movies. I just wish it could be “Justice League of America” again. But that might offend somebody.
Stay tuned for more Random Samplings of a Logical Mind. I’m Lynn Woolley.
Lynn Woolley is a Texas-based author, broadcaster, and songwriter. Follow his podcast at https://www.PlanetLogic.us. Check out his author’s page at https://www.Amazon.com/author/lynnwoolley. Order books direct from Lynn at https://PlanetLogicPress.Square.Site. Email Lynn at lwoolley9189@gmail.com.
