New York.  Apparently it’s not cold enough.

A man in a Mendon restaurant accidentally shot himself and the person he was eating with on Saturday.

The Monroe County Sheriff’s department said a man was eating at the Cottage Hotel of Mendon at the corner of Routes 64 and 251 when his gun went off accidentally.

He ended up shooting himself in the hand and ankle and also striking one of the people he was eating with in the ankle as well.

So far, no charges are being filed.

Oh come on, guys, there has to be some sort of penalty for stiffing the waiter on the tip.

Thanks to Brian for the heads up.

I know you’re going to find this hard to believe, but Rick Perry has just found another way to rip off poor people.  You’d think there would be some sort of universal limit to the number of ways you can do that, but apparently not.  He can’t count to three in debates but he can count to infinity trillion when it comes to ways of parting poor people and their money.

Payday lenders are going to hell.  You know it.  I know it.  And they pretend they don’t know it.  The Bible talks about usury and not in very nice terms.  If you recall, the only time Jesus lost his temper was with the moneychangers.  I’m hanging with Jesus on that one.

Here’s Perry latest deal.  First he builds toll roads, you know, so that rich people don’t have to drive with the riffraff and he doesn’t have to raise taxes to build an infrastructure.  But just in case some working poor people will save enough in gas to justify using the toll road, guess where you have to go to pass the toll road account?

Oh yeah, he went there.

The El Paso Times reports that the Camino Real Regional Mobility Authority will be working with the payday lender ACE Cash Express to help collect tolls for the César Chávez Border Highway toll road, which is expected to open Jan. 8.

While people who want to set up an account to use the road or pay off their toll charges can do so by phone, mail or online, the only places to do so in person in El Paso are at ACE stores. Those individuals who make the transaction at the payday lender “will be charged a $3 fee to set up the account and a $2 convenience service fee to replenish a non-credit card,” the paper notes.

If you don’t have a credit card, you are charged $5 extra and have to go to a Payday lender to buy it.  And if you think that Payday lenders aren’t going to try every gimmick possible to get people to take loans they can’t afford to pay back, you’re not going to hell but you are, indeed, an idiot.

Does anybody see irony in this being the César Chávez toll road?  Seriously?  You named ripping off poor people after César Chávez?  You’re going to hell.

What ACE is getting from the partnership is far more valuable than just a small fee.

“What the partnership is essentially doing is potentially sending thousands of potential first customers directly into the stores of a payday lender, giving them what they admit is one of their most important factors,” said Diane Standaert, senior legislative counsel at the Center for Responsible Lending.

But it does not stop there.

Additionally, the man Perry appointed to oversee Texas’ consumer watchdog, William White, is also vice president of payday lender Cash America. The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau recently fined the company $19 million.

Do you wanna know what interest Cash America charges for a 14 day loan?  533%.  No, that’s not a typo.  It’s three numbers starting with a 5.  Some poor guy working two jobs living paycheck to paycheck has a sick kid.  Where’s he going to get medicine before his next paycheck?  Welcome to Cash America!  He even charged higher rates to United States service men and women.

William White is going to hell.  But, meanwhile, he’s Texas’s consumer watchdog.

Holy crap.  Holy crap.  Holy crap.

Y’all, I hate Republicans.  I do.  I just hate them.

Okay, I’m gonna be honest with you and admit that I’ve barely figured out PayPal, so Bitcoin makes my head hurt.  I read wiki about it and some stuff from the FBI.  Basically, I know enough to know that I need to learn more about it if I ever decide to do illegal crap.  Otherwise, knowing as much about it as I do about Chinese algebra will do just fine.

What got me interested was when I read this about Steve Stockman.

Rep. Steve Stockman, R-Texas, who is mounting an insurgent bid against Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, in the 2014 Texas Republican Senate primary, is now accepting the virtual currency known as Bitcoin for campaign donations, Business Insider reports.

Well, I figured he was accepting Confederate Dollars but I didn’t know about this bitcoin stuff.

And on the same day of Stockman’s announcement, there was this —

FBI claims largest Bitcoin seizure after arrest of alleged Silk Road founder.

Silk Road used Bitcoins to let users pay for drugs – but now police have arrested Ross William Ulbricht, who they say is ‘Dread Pirate Roberts’, the owner and operator of secret online marketplace.

Okay, think about it.  This kinda explains his erratic behavior and that campaign headquarters/meth lab.

And, of course, Stockman says it’s about … wait for it … freedom.

“I really think digital currency’s more about freedom,” he explained in a YouTube video alongside Bitcoin Center founder Nick Spanos, a real estate developer. “Because all the time people are trying to get in your pocket, trying to do different things to control you. And if you have your own wealth, and control your own wealth, it’s about freedom, it’s not about anything other than that really. Freedom to choose what you do with your money, and freedom to keep your money without people influencing it by printing money or through regulation.”

Yeah, it’s not about ripping people off with a volatile currency.  It’s not even about untraceable campaign donations.  And it certainly isn’t about being able to track what Stockman spends that money on.   It’s about freedom.

Thanks to everybody for the heads up.

Okay, this is way cool.  Lookie at how scared Senator John Cornyn is of Crazy Congressman Steve Stockman.

But, bless his heart, John doesn’t realize that going to prison, being nuts, and stealing money is expected in Texas Tea Party circles.  Hell, they’ll think he’s their king sent by their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ of the Gun Show.

Those of you who donated to the Juanita Jean / Glen Maxey project got an email from Glen tonight asking you to please beta test the project before it goes live on the Texas Democratic Party website on Monday or Tuesday next week.

Glen forgot to tell you that the site won’t be ready for you to beta test it until tomorrow morning.

I cannot tell you how important your contribution is to getting this game changing project on its feet. We could not have done it without you. This weekend Glen is beginning training county and precinct chairs to use it. On Monday, we can link to it here and everyone can see what a small group of beauty shop customers can accomplish.

If you donated by snail mail but want to be included on the beta testing, please let me know. I’m sorry, but we are only allowing donors to beta test at this point. Glen has the names of the snail mail donors but not all their email addresses.

Once more, thank you. We raised about $8,500 total. You guys are better than recess in heaven.

Ted Cruz still has duel citizenship.  Someone is wondering why.

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz vowed months ago to renounce his Canadian citizenship by the end of 2013, but the Calgary-born Republican is still a dual citizen.

Cruz, 43, recently said in an interview with the Dallas Morning News that lawyers are preparing the paperwork to renounce citizenship, just as he said in August.

Richard Kurland, a Vancouver-based immigration attorney, wonders what’s taking so long. Kurland said Friday that unless there’s a security or mental health issue that hasn’t been disclosed, renouncing citizenship is a simple, quick process.

Well, there ya go.

Thanks to Steve for the heads up and John for the graphic.