Year: 2011

Mother of shot suspect: Cops “did their job right”

Now that’s something you don’t hear every day!

Guess the speaker…

Here’s the quote. Who said it? Will America be led by a president elected by a majority of the American people? Or will we be intimidated and blackmailed into following the path dictated by a disruptive radical and militant minority? … In my view, this Fall, any candidate in any party who voices radical sentiment…
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The Rumbler

I reserve the right to change my mind, but I think this is a good idea. I generally hate loud sounds, especially high-pitched loud beeps that seem to be more and more common. I don’t know, maybe I’m just a bit autistic, but whatever. I’ve thrown eggs at honking cars. Hell, I’m proud of that:…
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Invest in Police

RAND has a study showing that in tough economic times, it still makes sense to spend money on police: “Returns on investments in police personnel are likely to be substantial.”

South Philly

I had a good time in Philadelphia. It struck me a bit like a big version Baltimore. And I like Baltimore. And I like big. So there you have it. Hungry and roaming the Old City, not wanted to eat lunch in some Frat Bar that smelled like last night’s beer, I remembered I have…
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Philadelphia

I’m off to Philadelphia for a conference. Just for the record I got nothing against the city. But one of my students just cracked me up by saying, “Philadelphia? What a dump. Imagine if New York and D.C. had a baby. …And beat it.” Ouch.

Union Teachers Teach Better?

From Montclair SocioBlog. Only 5 states do not have collective bargaining for educators and have deemed it illegal. Those states and their ranking on ACT/SAT scores are as follows: * South Carolina – 50th * North Carolina – 49th * Georgia – 48th * Texas – 47th * Virginia – 44th If you are wondering,…
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It’s the Inequality, Stupid

From Mother Jones. Worth a look. If you don’t support “income redistribution,” can we at least stop redistributing income from poor to rich? A huge share of the nation’s economic growth over the past 30 years has gone to the top one-hundredth of one percent, who now make an average of $27 million per household.…
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The Choirboys

This may not be news to anybody who was old enough to read in 1975, but Joseph Wambaugh writes a good police story. I just finished reading The Choirboys, 38 years after it was written. It’s about a bunch of police in Los Angeles: “They were just policemen. Rather ordinary young guys, I thought” It…
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WWJD? The death penalty and Jesus

Texas just executed its 466th murderer in the last three decades (not surprisingly, the guy being executed was black. Black murderers are much more likely to be executed than are white murderers.) But I’m not here to defend murderers. I’m not even really even against the death penalty. (As long as we can be certain…
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