Interesting… have you noticed how the justices on our present Supreme Court tend to lean more and more toward moving us into a police state? They have just ruled that…
“Criminal suspects must now unambiguously invoke their right to remain silent—which counterintuitively, requires them to speak.” (see article in Vanity Fair.)
I’ve lived long enough to remember a time when most of our citizens looked down on countries like the former Soviet Union because of their failure to protect the rights of people, because of the way they controlled and repressed their people, and how we criticized these other countries for being “police states.” Our country has been on the slippery slope of totalitarianism for the sake of security for the last decade, and it looks like we can’t stop the slide. Unfortunately younger people are not aware of what we are losing as a country, and I wonder what they are taught these days. It is amazing to me how quickly people will give up rights when they are afraid — especially they are willing to give up what they think of as other people’s rights.
In any case, if you find yourself in trouble (mistakes happen) you need to know that the Miranda rules have been weakened, and pray that you are not so upset and confused that you fail to clearly and explicitly invoke your rights. You could waive your rights without knowing it!
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On another note, our office continues to struggle with the new Matrix system for the NWMLS. One member describes the experience of going from using Locator, our former system, to using Matrix, what we are stuck with now, as going back to using MS Dos after using Windows XP or Windows 7. It takes more steps to accomplish what you want to accomplish, and if you get one little “jot or tittle” wrong — you have to start over again. Matrix is not very intuitive. For real estate professionals who have been in the business for years, this change has been a nightmare. All of us miss certain features that are gone. I believe in the old adage, “if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it!” I can’t understand why those who get to make decisions that affect all of us decided to change a system that was working, and working well. Now they are trying to fix things in Matrix that are not working, and we are guessing that there are features that we used to have in Locator that we will never have in Matrix. What a bummer.
We continue to watch and care deeply about the catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico. We are lovers of water here in Mason County, where Hood Canal loops through our county, and where we are so close to the Pacific beaches. We have had our own ecological problems with the Canal and foolishly created dead zones (low oxygen levels) by improper sewage run offs and throwing dead fish back into the water. Our dead zones are so minor when compared to the disaster in the Gulf, of course. May the oil that is gushing into the gulf soon be stopped, and may clean up of oil and toxins proceed quickly and effectively.
Tags: oil, police state, Supreme Court, totalitarianism
