Free ride...um, I mean, free speech

Austin's solicitation laws are pretty lax, so most street corners are populated with panhandlers. It's not uncommon to see three or four people working the same intersection during peak hours. There have been efforts to curb this in the past, but with good enough lawyerin', I suppose you could squeeze just about anything underneath the protective umbrella of the First Amendment.

But I saw a guy today with a sign that read: "I aint proud of this, but at least I'm not robbing houses or selling drugs."

I suppose that logic makes a pretty compelling case for begging on the street, but I wonder where getting a job falls into his world view?