I hate Dan Rodricks and his commentary

Uncle Duke said:

Baltimore's inner city violence problem is akin to a septic system, and one badly in need of a pump. There comes a time where the functionality of any system requires the unpleasant job inherent to the removal of waste. And yes, some of these characters represent genuine evil, and are genuine waste.

Rodrick's mindset is typical of the breed. "Gun Violence" is a very convenient and a very well thought out choice of words. The people who create these terms aren't village idiots. They are highly educated individuals, oftentimes with an agenda of securing and maintaining their own personal power, who create this and similar terms very purposefully. Repeated often enough, the term "gun violence" serves both conveniently and effectively to deflect attention from fatally flawed ideology, failed policies, and a comparative handful of genuinely bad and predatory actors on the streets.

Here's a novel idea. There's such a thing as evil, and there's such a thing as waste. Bring on the truck. And since you're not going to do that, and instead you intend to leave the waste in place? Then you will NOT infringe on the ability of law abiding folks who choose only a chance to possibly avoid being consumed by these predators. Yeah, 100,000 applications. Where's the mystery? Each one says I'll feel much more confident in entrusting my own personal safety.......... to me.

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ShoreShooter said:

You won't have Dan to worry about much longer. He recently printed a goodbye column saying he was leaving the Sun

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fabsroman said:

Yeah, it is a lot more complicated than a septic system. More like a sewage treatment plant.

Let's face it, most people born in the "not so good" areas of inner cities face a struggle from day one. They grow up in a culture that does not teach the proper things for true success, at least not through legal methods. They start out in public schools that SUCK. Just in case you missed that, the schools SUCK. A lot of them are born into a family with a single parent. They live in terrible housing. The list goes on and on.

I don't watch much TV, but last weekend I was on Long Island without internet access, so I watched a show on the bankruptcy and decline of Detroit. Detroit has been given an offer of one billion dollars for an island that it owns, which is currently a park. That offer was $1,000,000,000. A politician was caught on camera at a demonstration saying the park belongs to "The People" and nobody is taking it from them. Then, the host interviewed another politician and asked him about the museum and the 2,000 pieces of art in the Detroit museum, one piece of which was worth around 200 million. That is $200,000,000. When the host mentioned selling the art to pay the city's bills, the politician used the phrase "that art belong to The People". Last I checked, Detroit's debt also belongs "To The People". So, either they pay more taxes to take care of the city's debt or the assets get sold. Now, imagine being born in Detroit 10 years ago and still living there. Imagine going to public school right now as a 10 year old. What can we really expect when the entire system is completely broken. They drove business away by raising taxes to cover corruption, etc., and now they look for a scapegoat and a free meal. How the federal government could possibly afford to bail out every municipality that is teetering on bankruptcy, I have no idea. Bidder question is, who would be bailing the federal government out.

We have a mess on our hands, and most of it is because of the large cities.

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gprimr1 said:

Honestly, conservative owners would be equally biased about other things. What we NEED is objective news reporting without bias.

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Phil I Am said:

Al Jazeera America goes live today, beginning at 2pm. Watching seems treasonous, but maybe it will capture enough audience to shutdown CNN and MSNBC. Watching it will be akin to becoming a Democrat just to vote against the antis in the primaries.


Al Jazeera America

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fabsroman said:

Yeah, it is a lot more complicated than a septic system. More like a sewage treatment plant.

Let's face it, most people born in the "not so good" areas of inner cities face a struggle from day one. They grow up in a culture that does not teach the proper things for true success, at least not through legal methods. They start out in public schools that SUCK. Just in case you missed that, the schools SUCK. A lot of them are born into a family with a single parent. They live in terrible housing. The list goes on and on.

I don't watch much TV, but last weekend I was on Long Island without internet access, so I watched a show on the bankruptcy and decline of Detroit. Detroit has been given an offer of one billion dollars for an island that it owns, which is currently a park. That offer was $1,000,000,000. A politician was caught on camera at a demonstration saying the park belongs to "The People" and nobody is taking it from them. Then, the host interviewed another politician and asked him about the museum and the 2,000 pieces of art in the Detroit museum, one piece of which was worth around 200 million. That is $200,000,000. When the host mentioned selling the art to pay the city's bills, the politician used the phrase "that art belong to The People". Last I checked, Detroit's debt also belongs "To The People". So, either they pay more taxes to take care of the city's debt or the assets get sold. Now, imagine being born in Detroit 10 years ago and still living there. Imagine going to public school right now as a 10 year old. What can we really expect when the entire system is completely broken. They drove business away by raising taxes to cover corruption, etc., and now they look for a scapegoat and a free meal. How the federal government could possibly afford to bail out every municipality that is teetering on bankruptcy, I have no idea. Bidder question is, who would be bailing the federal government out.

We have a mess on our hands, and most of it is because of the large cities.

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T'Challa said:

Quite the observation. Imo corruption and greed is what started the decline in urban America. As you stated, the system in most urban areas is broken. The only system that appears to work is the election process and how politicians are habitually reelected without having produced meaningful service to all the people. Lobbying system still works too.

Sent from my mobile device.

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River Mud said:

Funny story, 3 or 4 years ago, my boss at the time was involved with lobbying for the statewide plastic bag bill (bag tax). I have mixed feelings about the concept, but as someone who works in streams and stormwater ponds, I know that roughly 50% of the trash in urban water is from plastic bags. Anyhoo, it looked like the bill was going to sail through the legislature, and at the last second, the lobbyists from the plastic manufacturer's association swooped into Annapolis. Want to know which democratic bloc they broke?

Baltimore City. These slick lobbyists, most of whom have never been 'poor' or 'discriminated against' in their entire lives, convinced the gullible Baltimore City delegation that the bag tax was "racist" and that it would "prey on black families." (You know, when you are buying all of your groceries at Royal Farms at a 30% markup over retail, that 5 cents per bag is sure a killer). The legislators believed it, and the Baltimore City Dems broke on the issue, allowing anti-tax Reps to stop the bill.

It's hard to hate lobbyists when they're just plain good at what they do (Vinnie D comes to mind), and it makes me that much angrier at our elected officials for being so damn gullible to very obvious lobbyist pitches...

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Publius said:

They are not gullible, they are thinking of that $200K/year lobbying job in case they lose an election. Why then upset a lobbyist friend?

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