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Radley, CNN has picked up the Texas highway robbery story.
Sounds like Moran is just another one of those folks who think we have too much freedom. I remember Bush kept saying after 9/11 that the terrorists hate us for our freedom. So, if our congressmen and terrorists both think we have too damn much freedom, then I guess that puts them on the same side, doesn’t it?
I thought exercise was the best way to extend your life expectancy, but if you add an extra five minutes to your life for every five minutes you’re on the treadmill, what’s the fucking point? I hate that goddamn treadmill….
I got that half glass of wine a day out of the way when I was in my twenties. In fact, I think I’m covered even if I live to be about 150.
I second that fucking awesome
Half a glass a day extends your life for 5 years?
Excellent! I should be immortal at this point.
And eat a Taco Town! Taco every day. It uses organic taco sauce. And has the antioxidant power of Blueberries.
Get a Brain! Morans
Go USA!
(he’s my Congressman too. I don’t think any of his constituents, except you and I, pay attention to what he does. 99.9% of his district votes via the “Oh, I’ve heard of that guy” method)
A pepperoni pizza? Now that’s what I call a taco!
Radley can we all get linkified if we kiss your ass on the internet?
I gotta run and register BalkoIsGod.com.
Radley Balko Is Fucking Awesome!
Who would WANT to argue with that?
Oh yeah, STEP across this line _________
Didn’t think so!
@Kristen #6:
Big +1 for the excellent throwback to 2003. I had almost forgotten about that guy!
I wish we could post pics here. The first link really needs a “Get a brain morans” pic.
Oops beaten to it by Kristen.
Its encouraging that CNN picked up that story about the highwaymen robbing people but its discouraging that so many of the comments left on CNN’s website were basically-well that had all that cash so they must have been drug dealers. Americans are woefully ignorant of what’s going on in their own country.
Well, you are.
The public should be livid to the point of hysteria when stories like that are reported. It’s depressing that people aren’t inclined to give it a second thought until it happens to them. And then they too can’t believe people aren’t more upset about it.
But, like you, I’m encouraged by the national coverage it’s received. National embarrassment is one of the few motivators that seems to be even remotely effective in getting government’s attention these days.
#13 JS:
“Its encouraging that CNN picked up that story about the highwaymen robbing people but its discouraging that so many of the comments left on CNN’s website were basically-well that had all that cash so they must have been drug dealers. Americans are woefully ignorant of what’s going on in their own country.”
It’s not so much woefully ignorant as it is applied racism. The police can get away with crap like this because they focus on a minority. So when Mr. and Mrs. White Christian see blacks get targeted, they just automatically see it as evidence to justify the racial balkanization that’s taught and reinforced by their social clique.
Note: You can replace “White” with whatever happens to be the local majority, and you can replace “Christian” with whatever the local religion is. Human beings are pretty much the same everywhere.
Seems like the ED bill is just sour grapes. He’s just upset that viagra doesn’t work for him and he can’t get it up for some anonymous gay sex at a truck stop restroom.
I dunno, Radley. I think I could deal with the pancake. At least it won’t fall apart after that.
Anent the Taco Town ad (long a favorite in my household) –
What makes this whole bit work is that the commemorative tote bag is filled with VEGETARIAN chili.
‘Cause, you know, chili con carne would just be de trop.
If I Only Had a Brain
I could while away the hours, conferrin’ with the flowers
Consultin’ with the rain.
And my head I’d be scratchin’ while
my thoughts were busy hatchin’
If I only had a brain.
I’d unravel every riddle for any individ’le,
In trouble or in pain.
With the thoughts you’ll be thinkin’
you could be another Lincoln
If you only had a brain.
Oh, I could tell you why The ocean’s near the shore.
I could think of things I never thunk before.
And then I’d sit, and think some more.
I would not be just a nothin’ my head all full of stuffin’
My heart all full of pain.
I would dance and be merry, life would be a ding-a-derry,
If I only had a brain.
lyrics by EH Harburg
Bob#16-I have no doubt the cops were targeting the least likely to fight back, but in the CNN video it was a black cop that was the main one doing it.
Tenure doesn’t matter when your state has a $40 billion budge shortfall.
OK, I was gonna comment but I couldn’t without a spoiler. Since previous comment contains spoiler, I’ll now dive in -
BB pancake – Radley nails it, perfect. Everything else, hell yeah. And spoiler I SOOOO wanted to spoil – the tote bag is HILARIOUS. This is the fist SNL thing in many years (probably, since the “cowbell” skit) that I thought nailed the shit out of it. Awesome.
Moran is a Democrat? With such an obsession with sex, he sounds like a prime-grade Falwell-wing Republican. I wonder if he will switch parties?
Dave Krueger:
ter·ror·ist (trr-st)
n. frustrated politician
Why is tenure for a teacher ridiculous? Tenure just means that after a probationary period, a process must be followed in order to fire a teacher. In New York — at least in some districts — teachers are evaluated by their supervisors at least once a year, for their entire career. If they’re incompetent, they can be fired.
If the process seems too difficult or expensive or convoluted, that’s one thing, and that’s worth taking a look at. But, what would you have as an alternative? Would you have principals able to fire a teacher at their discretion?
In the context of public schools, that makes no sense. Public schools are not profit making enterprises; public schools are not competing for customers. What is the incentive of a principal to not just get rid of a teacher for any arbitrary reason, even if that teacher is competent?
The profit motive is protection for competent people; without it, people are at the mercy of bureaucratic tyrants.
It’s the concept of public schools that fairly ridiculous to begin with. But, as long as we have them, tenure protects teachers who are doing their jobs.
Cherry Tree Crossing police officers no billed. Video of the shooting up:
http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/latest/lat_518859.shtml?cpage=last#commentnav
does “angle 1″ look seriously cropped to anybody else?
#21, JS:
“Bob#16-I have no doubt the cops were targeting the least likely to fight back, but in the CNN video it was a black cop that was the main one doing it.”
That doesn’t matter. His motivations (Money, boss told him to, etc) is irrelevant to the perceptions of the people watching. It’s also possible that he was recruited for the position simply to deflect the race card. Looking at the comments, they may even have been effective.
Again, what’s crucial is the initial response of the majority of observers, and targeting a group that is a minority to them panders to their inherent biases.
As such, the people targeted were not only the least likely to fight back, but the least likely to cause a local uproar among the people that put the local cops there.
Hey Radley, Thanks for all you do to help make this a free country. Right now it isn’t. It is apparently very difficult to fire a teacher in NYC. A while back, the Wall Street Journal had an article about all of the teachers that report to a big room, to read magazines all day. They are teachers that can’t be fired but the administration wants them nowhere near kids. They call it the rubber room.
If half a glass of wine is good for your health, then the fifth of vodka I drink every day must be fucking fantastic.
I have no problem with tenure, especially in public schools. That gives a tenured teacher the right to talk about what the current administration wouldn’t want you to talk about and protects him from being fired for political reasons. Also, it’s a measure of protection for the students who might not get a particular point of view if the teacher is afraid he’d be fired over expression of said point of view.
The problem is that, like tracer rounds, it works both ways. You can also have a teacher do something like what this one does and then hoops need to be jumped through to fire the guy.
I guess I’d rather have the tenure in place, tho, and protect the educational system from being nothing more than the voice of the government and teaching only what the government wants them to teach.
The problem with tenure being, as usual, the seen vs unseen problem.
We see (or at least some people do… I don’t) tenured teachers being free to talk about what they wish and putting that power to good use.
We don’t see the teachers that never get their foot in the door with fresh ideas because the administration, on those rare occasions that a new position is opened up, will be very, very reluctant to try an untested candidate, because if it turns out the candidate sucks, they’re stuck with them. Forever.
I’ve got two friends who are getting an applied lesson in seen vs unseen as it comes to teacher tenure. Came out of college with teaching degrees and great letters of recommendation from their student teaching. Two years ago. When they get lucky, they get interviews, and if there’s anybody interviewing there with any experience at all, they may as well not bother. It seems the only serious chance they’re ever going to get is in the handful of schools where they’re personally known.
Also, I must have missed something, because I was under the impression government schools already teach exactly what the government tells them to teach. I guess all those standardized tests are really just optional if a teacher wants to do something unconventional.
[...] Politics by Evan Lisull on 7 May 2009 Interesting contest over at the Fraser Institute (HT: Radley Balko): We want to hear from you on what public policy issues you would like to see measured. In [...]
RADLEY! Holy smokes, I think this picture link is for your senator! http://z.about.com/d/politicalhumor/1/0/f/f/get_a_brain_morans.jpg