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Behavior unappreciated by adults
Roving gangs of teenagers are mugging citizens throughout the city, including here on the southwest side of Madison. Some as young as 14. Since April, 30 strong-arm robberies have been reported, apparently for kicks as much as the stray iPod and pocket change.
Question of the day: where did this behavior come from? Straight-A students returning home from band practice, perhaps? That was the objection to former Ald. Thuy Pham-Remmele's proposed teenage curfew -- that police would harass young people lugging tubas.
More likely young people gone feral due to lack of adult discipline, don't you think? They're just taking the next step in a progression of anti-social behavior, which, up to this point, has been excused away with this kind of infamous thinking:
"As long as there have been parks, there have been teenagers engaging in behavior in them that is unappreciated by the elder population."
West District Police Captain Jay Lengfeld makes short work of another shibboleth, the "tough economy" excuse.
"I don't think we can say they were all looking for jobs and couldn't get jobs," he told Joe Tarr of Isthmus.
No, seeking work would entail a certain sense of personal and societal responsibility not in evidence in the typical wilding.
Police Chief Noble Wray makes another good point: "If they're going to continue to do this they're going to get caught."
Or they're going to run into an early carrier of a concealed weapon who is not afraid to use it. (Blaska has scheduled his CC permit training.)
Respect for the law
"It's not the law-abiding folks with permits that will hurt you," said Brown County Sheriff's Capt. Randy Schultz. "It's those that don't follow the law that are the ones that are going to hurt you."
Schultz was responding to a statement issued Wednesday by Sheboygan County District Attorney Joe DeCecco, who blasted state leaders in Madison for passing the concealed carry gun law. So reports the Green Bay Press Gazette.
Shirley, you jest
Longtime moderate businessman John Torinus says it is time for Shirley Abrahamson to step down.
Here's an observation from the world of management: The tone, atmosphere and culture of any organization start at the top. ... Abrahamson has had problems in the past with justices, even with justices of her own partisan persuasion. And she clearly is part of the bitter debate on the current court. Her dissent in the recent 4-3 ruling to allow the Legislative decision on public union bargaining was stinging and virtually personal in nature.
The liberal intolerance for diversity
Of opinion, that is. Janet Daley in London's The Daily Telegraph opines on the phone hacking mess Rupert Murdoch's London tabloid got itself into.
The problem is that Fox's audience share is enormous, by far the largest of any cable news channel, whereas MSNBC's is tiny, the smallest of any cable news channel. ... the result is infuriating for the Left-liberal axis ...
It is worth asking … why people who regard themselves as believers in free speech and liberal democracy can be so openly eager to close off -- silence, kill, extinguish -- different political views from their own. ... bizarrely, it defends this stance in the name of fairness.
How liberals think, Vol. XIV
The Policy Research Factory here at the Stately Manor has concluded that our liberal acquaintances (for they ARE ...) do, indeed, think. But not as the process is normally understood. Here is an example from Fighting Ed Garvey. He extols the virtues of "this amazing woman," one Elizabeth Warren who, apparently, is being passed over for a federal sinecure by that hopey changey guy. Fighting Ed moans:
Who is more qualified than ... Elizabeth Warren is for the job she created out of thin air -- the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. I heard about this amazing woman/academic on Bill Moyer's PBS program and became an instant advocate for her as our protector.
Creating government jobs out of thin air, yeah, that's progressivism, alright. A job, apparently, that did not bubble up to the priority list in either the New Deal or the Great Society but promoted on the government-owned news media. But here is the liberal bone marrow of the issue -- "this amazing woman" should have been "our protector" in the "everyone a victim" status of the welfare state.
Shades of the Great Protector, Oliver Cromwell, that amazing man. This way doth servitude lie. Into your hands, O Amazing Woman/Academic, I commend my freedom.
Collective bargaining a losing issue?
I have been saying for months that the Siege of the Capitol and the revolt of the unionistas is not a sure-fire winner outside the Peoples' Republic of Madison. Anne of Althouse cites both Craver and the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.
They're not bringing up collective bargaining but we are. Here's some "incoming" directed at Sen. Harsdorf's opponent in next month's recall election.
How embarrassing. Milwaukee TV-6 Investigators looked into how the Governor's reforms have benefited school districts and found that nearly every one came out in good shape. Except Milwaukee's teachers union-dominated district, which is laying off teachers, uniquely in the state, it appears.
