Peter SchorschIn a few weeks, Facebook certainly will unleash its Year In Review app, which automatically compiles some of the most-liked photos from your feeds over the past year and puts them into a neat little timeline.
For most folks, the algorithm does its job. It’s not perfect, but it’s a fine way to look back at your year and remember the big moments, even if you would have made different decisions when it comes to the actual photos used. And when you consider that Facebook is offering this customized feature to over 1 billion people, it’s almost impressive.
One Year In Review I’m looking forward to reviewing is state Representative Frank Artiles’. What a 2015 he has had!
First of all, there was that heartwarming moment when the GOP lawmaker was accused of punching a college kid:
The student, Peter Alberti, told the Miami Herald that Rep. Frank Artiles, R-Miami, hit him in the face sometime late Monday or early Tuesday at Clyde’s and Costello’s, located on South Adams Street not far from the Capitol.
“He was trying to get by, up at the bar, to get drinks,” Artiles told the Herald in a phone interview. “He punched me in the face.”
While Artiles denied punching anyone, it wasn’t long before he struck again, this time by introducing one of the worst bills of the 2015 Legislative Session:
HB 583, the “Single-Sex Public Facilities” bill, or as it was dubbed, Florida’s “Bathroom Bill,” would have made it illegal for any trans citizen to use a single-sex restroom that does not match the gender they were assigned at birth. Such a violation would result in a first-degree misdemeanor charge, punishable by a $1,000 fine and up to one year in jail. The law would also open the owner of any establishment where a trans person uses the restroom to lawsuits from other patrons, as they would be “liable in a civil action to any person who is lawfully using the same single-sex public facility.”
To complete his trifecta of initiatives which seemed designed to generate negative publicity, Artiles applied for a permit to take part in Florida’s controversial black bear hunt. Unfortunately for Artiles (but fortunately for some bear), Artiles was shut out. The Tampa Bay Times’ Michael Auslen reports:
Artiles — one of 3,700 people who bought $100 permits for the hunt — didn’t make it out before then.
“I was going to go out there today, but they shut it down,” he said Monday.
Don’t be too concerned about Artiles; he boasted to Auslen that he’s killed a bear before.
And that’s Frank Artiles’ year in review. Congrats to him, the college-kid-punching-transgender-people-hating-bear-hunting lawmaker!
