Since they say that writing about music is like dancing about architecture, I’ve got some audio tracks so you can hear the Baltimore Club sound and the work of K-Swift, who died a few days ago. First and foremost, Baltimore Club Music is a beat. If it ain’t got this beat, it’s not club music…
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You should really play some of her music while reading this post I’m very sad to read about the death of my favorite Baltimore DJ, K-Swift. The poor girl was only 28 and died in a swimming pool accident. And when she started mixing a decade ago, she really was a girl in a man’s…
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Cocaine Sustains War Despite Rebel Losses in Colombia …this is what drug prohibition does. From the New York Times.
I just chased two junkies off my stoop! This is, as they say, not that kind of neighborhood. Plus this block has something like four active and former cops living on it. I’m sitting here writing about drug legalization in my basement office, and I hear two guys outside the window. One goes on my…
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Me and Lee Brown (former Houston mayor, New York Police Commissioner, and federal Drug Czar) mano-a-mano in a no-holds-barred cage match! (Also known as 700 words in U.S. News & World Report.) I think I kick his ass. But then I would think that, wouldn’t I? And it’s not really a fair cage match. He…
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During any given year, a 15- to 34-year-old man in the Eastern District has about the same chance of being killed as a U.S. soldier stationed in Iraq. That’s just wrong. The Eastern stats are from page 203 of my book. The Iraq stats are taken from DonHodges.com. I bring this up because of an…
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Back in January, the Baltimore City Paper published a good simple analysis of homicide numbers in 2007. I was just looking at it again. As we all know, violence is not equally spread out in society. It may not be politically correct to talk about race and violence, but homicide in America is disproportionately a…
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Last night I read a great article in the New Yorkerabout the new sort-of-legal-at-the-state-and-local-level but still very-federally-illegal California medicinal-marijuana industry. I’m very curious to see how this system evolves and is regulated. It just might work. And it may be a good model for other states. At the very least, it’s starting to make California…
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I’m skeptical of any law with a personal name. Initiative with cool sounding names, especially if it’s an acronym, are also trouble. For instance, ix-nay, I would say, to Initiative Hammer of Poseidon. Sure, Poseidon had a trident and Thor had the hammer, but it’s worth a little mythological inaccuracy to get a name like…
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