On 12/11/2018 8:51 PM, jbeattie wrote:

Time for a story! After they installed the metal detectors over at the old federal court house, I was going in for a hearing and the Marshals out front decided to play a joke on me. I'm sliding my brief case through the x-ray machine and walking through the metal detector when they stop me and said, "we've got a problem." They tell me to look at the x-ray screen and there . . . in my brief case . . . is a Glock 19. I totally freaked out and started spewing denials. They laughed. It turns out they have some sort of template that they can project to evaluate gun silhouettes. The metal detectors in the new federal courthouse in downtown Portland are the only ones anywhere that pick up the metal in my legs and hand. I always get wanded.
This is Federal courthouse in Portland -- your tax dollars at work: https://bora.co/project/mark-o-hatfield-us-courthouse/ It is impressively ****-free.

Last summer, my wife and I and a friend decided to visit the county
courthouse just to tour the building. The three classic bronze statues
that sit atop it (Law, Justice & Strength IIRC) had been restored and
were sitting out front for close up views before being lifted up to the
roof.

As I remembered, the inside was glorious. Wide staircases, granite
columns, gorgeous murals, ornamental windows... truly beautiful.

Then, since we had to pass by it to get to our car, we decided to visit
the new (maybe 15 years old?) federal courthouse nearby.

It had the same architectural charm as the inside of a refrigerator.
Everything was bleak, sterile and devoid of any and all character.

It did have a heck of a metal detector, though! The county's never
squealed about my wife's replacement hip. But the fed's lit up like a
fire truck. I thought they were going to make her take it off.


--
- Frank Krygowski