The Life of a Hobo

Unwanted Residents

In some communities, not only are they passing laws specifically targeted at the homeless (like making it illegal to lie down on park benches), they are making it against the law to give food and other assistance to those without an address. They feel their communities are being overrun by the homeless and are looking for anything they can do to protect their cities from such unsavory types, but let's take this to it's logical conclusion. Suppose every city, state, and municipality passes such laws, basically making homelessness a universal crime. This population will then either all end up in jail or . . . wandering the wilderness until they die? Is this really the right way to approach the problem?

. . . For the first time anyone in Orlando could remember, not only would panhandlers find themselves in the crosshairs of the law, but so would those trying to help them.

A week before Orlando’s ordinance took effect, Las Vegas criminalized giving food to even a single transient in any city park.

Advocates for the homeless feared it wouldn’t be long before other cities passed laws.

Dallas, Fort Myers, Fla., Gainesville, Fla., Wilmington, N.C., and Atlanta have laws restricting or outright prohibiting the feeding of the homeless. In Fairfax County, Va., homemade meals and meals made in church kitchens may not be distributed to the homeless unless first approved by the county. . . .

And for something from the complete other end of the spectrum:

More wretched excess

Former Secretary of State George Shultz wears personalized pinstripes. Get close and you can see his name spelled out in discreet vertical stripes.

We hear such suits run about $10K.