Schram: A look at black boxes, legal weed, same-sex marriage
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As the week comes to an end, what say we take a look at several issues that deserve some attention.
• So, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is about to propose that all new cars and light trucks come with data recorders, what we commonly call "black boxes."
While this could be a valuable tool that could lead to safer vehicles, the administration has so far put no limits on how the data information can be used.
Another slice of personal privacy slipping away.
• Who faces the dilemma?
Recreational use of marijuana is now legal in our state.
Pot is still on the federal books as illegal.
The state is moving forward in determining how pot will be grown, sold, taxed and distributed.
Federal authorities are laying low and trying to sift through what their reaction should be.
We're leading.
They are following.
The dilemma is theirs.
I still say buy stock in Taco Bell.
• Finally, what a remarkable scene to see the hundreds of same-sex couples lining up to register for a marriage license.
How gratifying to see local county governments with a process for marriage equality already in place.
I know a lot of gay couples who find it hard to grasp that marriage equality has actually come to pass, while at the same time celebrating the opportunity to formalize and recognize their love and commitment.
A toast: Happiness to you and to us all.
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Have something to say to Ken? Login or signup below to post a comment. Just be sure to read the rules and keep things civil. You can also e-mail him at kenschram@komo4news.com. You can also hook up with Ken on Facebook.
• So, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is about to propose that all new cars and light trucks come with data recorders, what we commonly call "black boxes."
While this could be a valuable tool that could lead to safer vehicles, the administration has so far put no limits on how the data information can be used.
Another slice of personal privacy slipping away.
• Who faces the dilemma?
Recreational use of marijuana is now legal in our state.
Pot is still on the federal books as illegal.
The state is moving forward in determining how pot will be grown, sold, taxed and distributed.
Federal authorities are laying low and trying to sift through what their reaction should be.
We're leading.
They are following.
The dilemma is theirs.
I still say buy stock in Taco Bell.
• Finally, what a remarkable scene to see the hundreds of same-sex couples lining up to register for a marriage license.
How gratifying to see local county governments with a process for marriage equality already in place.
I know a lot of gay couples who find it hard to grasp that marriage equality has actually come to pass, while at the same time celebrating the opportunity to formalize and recognize their love and commitment.
A toast: Happiness to you and to us all.
------
Have something to say to Ken? Login or signup below to post a comment. Just be sure to read the rules and keep things civil. You can also e-mail him at kenschram@komo4news.com. You can also hook up with Ken on Facebook.
Thoughts on "second hand" marijuana smoke?
 @jjccamis Free contact high.
 @Elvis  @jjccamis Been there, done that. Gave a ride to a guy on my way to Yakima. By the time I got there I could walk across the parking lot and not even crush my socks. Never puffed, but in retrospect, I thought those cigarettes he was smoking were rather pungent.
Snerk,,,,I doubt there'll be any mention of it, but be ready,,,"Family courts' are going to need a lot more money in the next few years,,,,and divorce lawyers are just salivating,,,,,,,cuz,,,they're going to be getting a LOT more business,,,,,,,,,,,,
Looks like Ken finally bit off more than he could chew. Surprised it took this long. http://kirkland.patch.com/articles/ken-schram-and-robert-mak?ncid=txtlnkuspatc00000003
Now that's funny...
It is sure interesting how during the election, the libs and gays said passing the law would not redefine marriage.
So what is the f irst thing that happened after the law was passed??? Why we have to change the wording on the marriage license. After all, the gays are OFFENDED by bride and groom.
No, the law didn't redefine mariage!! A license that has been the same since Washington State hood had to be changed. OH, but gays what to be like other Normal people HA!!
@smith401 As compassionate as you're trying to be, I hate to be the one to tell you, but gay people are normal people.
 @smith401 Ha at your ignorance indeed
what?
Ken... You really should read the US Constitution.
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It will answer many of yer questions about the rights of the 'citizens'.
So we have legalized dope so the 60's generation can go out in a cloud of euphoric smoke.. What a great herd of role models....Darwin was indeed right.....med MJ is the biggest con since we thought Obama really meant that he was willing to work with the GOP for economic and fiscal reform.
 @swatguy1 Yeah, what a con. I have replaced highly addictive and organ damaging meds with oils and THC pills.Â
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 @Melissa Angevine  @swatguy1 All natural is the way to go.
I haven't always agreed with Ken, but I've always admired the fact that he was straight forward and said what needed saying no matter how far someone was up the food chain. With these veterans leaving or being let go the real heart of the news media will be gone. Hopefully he will still be around even if it's with another station somewhere.
I give it two years before Polygamy and Bestiality are on the ballot....
@Smashquail The slippery slope argument is a bit flawed. First off, polygamy ought to be legal provided everyone involved is aware of each other AND grants their consent. So that's an easy one. As far as beastiality goes, that'd never fly. But then I think we all know how serious you are about having sex with your kitty cat and finding a group of people who would still mary you and your 'hobby'.
 @Smashquail Than you can marry your goat, yay!
 @Smashquail Two years?  Is this something you've been waiting for then? Â
 @Smashquail is Komo your test market for the initiative?
As most of you know WASHINGTON State passed Gay Marriage and Legalized Marijuana on the same day.
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Leviticus 20:13 âIf a man lays with another man he should be stonedâÂ
Now It all makes sense!!
 @al_wa A little free interpretation, was it?
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"If a man also lies with a man, as he lies with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them."
 @Komo Dragon âThe human race has only one really effective weapon and that is laughter.â â Mark Twain
 @al_wa Glad you mentioned Twain - he also wrote: "To trust the God of the Bible is to trust an irascible, vindictive, fierce and ever fickle and changeful master; to trust the true God is to trust a Being who has uttered no promises, but whose beneficent, exact, and changeless ordering of the machinery of His colossal universe is proof that He is at least steadfast to His purposes; whose unwritten laws, so far as the affect man, being equal and impartial, show that he is just and fair; these things, taken together, suggest that if he shall ordain us to live hereafter, he will be steadfast, just and fair toward us. We shall not need to require anything more."
 @al_wa  @Komo Dragon And thats the correct answer. The world is a wacky crazy place.
 @al_wa BTW, the bible needs some serious updating!
Though I realize I can't expect anyone who does not believe in God and his tenants to follow them, I find it truly sad that so many are being misled into believing by our society that it is okay for men to have sex with men or women to have sex with women. Although legalizing "marriage" for same sex couples doesn't make this lifestyle any more wrong than it already was, it certainly sends our children just one more message that this "alternative lifestyle" is okay. And yes, I realize that who these people have sex with does not directly hurt me... sadly enough it is themselves and the ones they love that they are hurting.
@justathought You should also realize that sexual orientation isn't a conscious choice or decision that an individual makes. Gay people don't 'choose' to be gay any more than heterosexual people choose to be heterosexual. Your point is only valid in the sense that homosexuality is wrong for you. You have no right to dictate to others who they should be attracted to, nor does anyone else have the right to make demands to you on whom you are attracted to.
 @justathought It's "tenets."  A tenet is a principle or a belief.
A "tenant" is the occupant of a rental property.
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@justathought I don't understand how, since you acknowledge that their lifestyle has no affect on you, that you feel it's important to try to control the way they live. And, since it makes the ones they love happy, how is it hurting them? The logical problems with your statements are disturbing.
 @justathoughtÂ
"And yes, I realize that who these people have sex with does not directly hurt me... sadly enough it is themselves and the ones they love that they are hurting."
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How?Â
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That's the one question that no one has ever been able to answer. Â I have a gay sister in law. I have a gay brother in law. I am very close with my in-laws. I wake up every day happy, knowing they are happy.Â
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So........ how?
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 @justathought Why don't you mind your own business? Your statement about gays loving each other is sending the wrong message to "our children" is a load of rubbish. Maybe you would be better off spending more time worrying about how to improve your own life and self instead of worrying about the sex lives of others.
What??????????
...I still say buy stock in Taco Bell...
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BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Funny one Ken.
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Second funny line I've heard/read today. The other one, "she is the Toyota Camry of women. Reliable but nothing to look at and completely boring."
If you have nothing to hide then why is it such a big deal?
@AdAckbar Because "nothing to hide" is a bad argument. Do you want everything you do...legal or not...to be on full view? When you have sex with your beloved? When you go to the bathroom, take a shower, change clothes? Read "50 Shades of Grey" or watch a movie you don't want your friends or family to know about? How about your financial records? These things are all legal, but they are still things you probably want kept secret.
 @AdAckbar It's not like AT&T and other telcos are spying on all data that traveled through their networks at the request of the Bush administration. Â
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It's not like Congress passed a law to give these telcos immunity from civil lawsuits for warrantless wiretapping of all Americans.Â
 @AdAckbar Because it goes on to a deeper level than just driving. It's an invasion of privacy spelled out in the constitution and paves the way for more governmental visibility into your daily life. Your same argument could go for a search warrant. If they decided they didn't need one of those anymore and you didn't have anything to hide but police still came in and raided your house on suspicion, would it be a big deal then?
 @mirrors_edge  @AdAckbar Yes, but there are already black boxes in cars, have been for close to two decades (surprise). So if your car was built after say roughly 1995, pretty good chance you already have a black box. The police need a warrant to get the data as part of an accident investigation. This has already gone through the court systems.
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The whole "black box requirement" is a red herring - they've been around for almost two decades. What the law really does is standardize the data set to make it easier on accident investigators and the NHTSA in recall considerations. You can thank Toyota, and their proprietary data setup that was largely useless garbled data during the UAI investigations.
Thanks Ken, and best wishes on what's next. Â I've enjoyed agreeing, and disagreeing with you often over the years, and our one email exchange where we agreed to disagree (it can be done!). Â You will be missed. Â
Federal authorities are lying low, not laying low.Â
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Merry Christmas.Â
Black Boxes. If your worried about the black boxes tracking your where abouts, then you need to ditch you cell phone. That tells those secret people where you are. Worried about your privacy? then don't  use those reward cards at Safeway.Â
We as a nation of people gave our privacy away willing to corporate america decades ago.
Now if your worried about the black box, then get the people you hate the most "The ACLU" and they will fight this battle.
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 @snoopy84 As for the Safeway card argument, I use a phone number to access the "rewards" and it works like a charm. You can, too. I use (area code) 555-1212. It is directory assistance and it works without telling on you.
 @snoopy84 A slight rewrite to your post, if you're worried about black boxes tracing your whereabouts, get a pay-as-you-go phone and use a fake name to register it. Sign up for your Safeway card with a fake name. I used my dog's name and a last-name alias, and provided the address and phone number of the White House: 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest, Washington, DC 20500 Phone: (202) 456-2121
The black boxes are already in over 90% of new vehicles anyways so there's not much we can do there.
There is still no constitutional reason why any state can't pass any laws about cannabis they want to. Its proected by the 10th Amendment. As long as it doesn't cross state lines. The pressure is building on the feds to start doing their job. Just a matter of time before they tuck their tales between their legs and give up the ridiculous drug war.
Glad to see gays finally getting their civil rights. Marriage is not a religious institution its a legal one. Thats why there's permits to file and fees to pay and the state does not have the authority to violate civil rights of individuals. Hope they all live long and productive marriages. Maybe they will adopt some of the poor children warehoused in orphanages.
1. I don't believe our Government should be in the "marriage" business to begin with. Leave that to the "churches", and for tax purposes everyone should be an individual taxpayer with no write offs. Just an individual payer with a flat tax rate.
2. I would prefer to see our Government spend "our" money on drug treatment, rather than drug enforcement. If you don't prosecute the sale and transportation of the product then there is no profit for anyone and the lucrative business of drug manufacture, distribution and sales goes away. That would take the violence along with it.
3. Driving on Public Roads, with a Government issued license AND vehicle tabs means there is no expectation of privacy since you already had to "ask permission" to use the taxpayer funded resources. Pretty simple and straight forward beliefs that don't cost money to enforce, or require multiple Government agencies to regulate, enforce and monitor.
@RTNavy You haven't been paying attention. Marriage has always been a civil matter, over which religious organizations have license to officiate. Note that ministers pronounce two people married "by the authority vested in me by the state of Washington" (or wherever). Your way would require everyone to marry in a church, without recourse, which would probably be unconstitutional.
@TheMadTurk I agree, that religion have license to officiate, the religious marriage is not the only one offered to the people, nor is any one religion considered to be 'the right one' by the state. The individual has every right to decide to pursue a religious or a civil marriage and both are equally valid in the state's eyes. Now same sex couples have access to the same rights.
 @RTNavy Government should have an interest in marriage between a man and woman because that relationship offers unique contributions to the health of society.  Even if the courts rule that same-sex relationships are "marriages" too but that doesn't make them the same thing.
@Vertex @RTNavy However that implies that every marriage results in procreation, which it does not. Next, individuals are either productive members of society, thus contributing towards an improvement of socity's health or they are not. The individual's sexual orientation plays no role in that.
Agreed, but people and their governments are good at shooting themselves in the foot. You are right, two men or two women can have sexual activity but can't have sexual intercourse, hence their types of relationships are not the same thing as a man and a woman's. To say that those relationships are the same as the gold standard will be an interesting social experiment. Genger neutral, not to say neutered, marriage here we come. Sign me off as coming from a long line of farmers....
 @RTNavy As for number one I am not religious and I am not about to let a church dictate who I am to marry. Freedoms are a given, if one wants to be a slave to a church or a religion do not expect everyone else to follow a Pied Piper of of a 2000 year old book written by a bunch of power hungry hash head looking for a means to enslave others using intimidation and fear.
You haven't read the book, I gather. Or been to a church lately if you think churches dictate who to marry. Freedoms are not a given, they have been fought for and dearly won. I'm not taking any of mine for granted or as a given, that's for sure. Good luck to you.
@Thinktank38 Wow, a lot of churches 'strongly encourage' (dictate) who their parishoners should marry. Both the mormon and the jw organizations push their members to marry one of their own and will strongly discourage members to change their minds.