Vox Popoli

From the Star and Sickle: The anecdotal stories that crime was decreasing in downtown Minneapolis, St. Paul and at the Mall of America started soon after the Metro Transit strike began in early March. Curious about what might be happening, police began discreetly monitoring crime figures and found some intriguing numbers.

• Police calls at the Mall of America, especially on weekends, were down by as much as 21 percent.

• Arrests in downtown Minneapolis had dropped.

• In St. Paul, police calls for so-called “quality of life” complaints, such as narcotics sales near bus stops, also had fallen.

After the metro area’s first transit strike in a decade, the possible relationship between the strike and crime has become a much-debated — and politically touchy — issue. Critics complain that the focus unnecessarily paints an unflattering portrait of bus riders. Police contend that the figures, while showing drops in possible criminal activity, may have uncertain meaning and caution against hasty conclusions.

Interestingly enough, and unsurprisingly, you won’t see a single mention of race in the entire article. But the nervous tone leads to the inescapable conclusion that it was members of a particular group favored by the left-liberal media wasn’t getting arrested as often during the bus strike. I’m just curious to know what point is served by talking around easily established facts.

Lest you get the wrong impression, I should point out that I’m on the side of the narcotic sellers anyhow. They’re just supplying an existing demand, they aren’t forcing their wares on little kids by means of their parents. Oh, that’s right, I forgot. If the government okays it, then it must be desirable.

I seem to recall someone, perhaps Resispa, had numbers on how many government employees there were at the Federal, State and Local levels. Could whoever that is please email me? Also, if you have them, please let me know what the rate of change since either 2000 or 1992 has been. Thanks.

Robert Alt writes on NRO: While a number of networks chose to air graphic scenes from Fallujah, one deserves special mention. Charlie Ryan and Rachel Levin of NBC contacted military officials in Baghdad immediately after the events in Fallujah to request an interview with a group of soldiers. A Coalition military source confirmed that the crew wished to show soldiers a graphic video of the events in Fallujah, and to record the soldiers’ responses. When military officials objected for obvious reasons to this Clockwork Orange proposal, the NBC reporters were incredulous, suggesting that the idea was somehow appropriate because the victims were not soldiers.

As if there wasn’t enough reason to turn off the ABCNNBCBS cabal already. I absolutely HATE the news technique of sticking a microphone in the face of someone who has just experienced a personal tragedy, and the reporter asking in a fake compassionate voice: “how do you feel about your parents dying in a freak opening of a Dho-Nha gate in their microwave?” This is nothing but the worst emotional porn. Emotional vampires – someone should drive a stake through their parasitic hearts.

“Soft on terror? Arguably, terror is his long suit!” Big Chilly went on to point out that while having an Elder God tearing at the fabric of reality could present even more problems for the nation than a Hillary presidency, there’s ample Lovecraftian precedent for a remote-controlled zombie operated by devotees of the mighty octopoid one. A Mancthulhian Candidate, if you will.

Jeff comments: When violence is used to preserve life or the life of a loved one, it is justified. When violence is used as part of a greater purpose, say to preserve our God given human rights in the face of a tyrranical government, it is justifed. But violent reaction to being screwed over by a radio talk show host, is out of line…unless your balls are so small that you can’t take it.

Of course, this leaves out violence for sheer enjoyment’s sake. But Jeff’s reference to the purportedly miniscule size of my genitals reminds me of a story – now there’s a start! Space Bunny and I were lifting weights one afternoon, and I happened to be throwing up a pair of 75s for a few reps of dumbbell shoulder press. One of the women who was a weight room regular yelled out: “what are you compensating for?” To which I responded, loudly, “small penis!”

A shocked silence filled the room as everyone stopped what they were doing and looked right at Space Bunny. She smiled, nodded and held her thumb about an inch away from her index finger, at which point everyone cracked up. Now, there’s a girl!

Joseph Farah is disgusted with them over their support of Arlen Spector. Adam McManus has an even better reason: in a more obscure race in Alabama for State Board of Education, the state Republican Party decided to disqualify Christian radio talk-show host Kelly McGinley from the ballot, indicating she was too disloyal. McGinley had written on her website that “maybe, if we practice tough love, the Republican Party will repent and come back to its platform.” Thankfully, Montgomery County Circuit Judge William Shashy said in a recent ruling that while McGinley had made “strong criticisms” of the GOP, the party had not set any rules that would disqualify a candidate for such criticisms.

“Zere vill be no dissent! You must adhere to zee Party!” Maybe the Republican leadership is fascist after all. Although you’d think calling for a strict adherence to the party platform would be considered desirable. I have no doubt they’ll take care of that little rule next time around. Obey or Else!

I’m not disgusted, however, I’m amused. You get what you pay for and you get what you vote for. If you’re dumb enough to support strong government “conservatives”, don’t be surprised when you get left-liberal leadership. You cannot hope to see smaller government come from those dedicated to making it bigger. I’d think this was a priori apparent, but it’s clear that a surprisingly large number of conservative Republicans need to hear it anyhow: some people don’t mean what they say. This can even be true of politicians whose last name isn’t Clinton and who don’t have a (D) in front of their name.

I’m so tired of hearing “well, I think Bush is a good man and I believe he really wants to blah blah blah.” You can think whatever you want, of course, but you’re obviously not paying very close attention. So he led us into Afghanistan and Iraq – BFD! Wilson got us into WWI, FDR led us into WWII, LBJ led us into Vietnam, did that make them all conservative champions of small government?

Gypsy writes: Why vote for the lesser of two evils? Cthulhu 2004!!!

Are there any rules in the Constitution that bar the candidacy of an Elder God from the Outer Darkness just because he happens to be slumbering beneath the ice in Antarctica? Perhaps that’s the third-party solution. Once he gets into the debates – and who’s going to gainsay Mighty Cthulhu – he’ll win hands down by virtue of causing the other candidates to fail their SAN roll. And then, he’ll nail down both the squamous and rugose votes, no problem.

No one will ever be able to argue that Cthulhu will be soft on terror after he devours the entire contents of Guantanamo Bay live on camera.

From the Village Voice: With the air gushing out of John Kerry’s balloon, it may be only a matter of time until political insiders in Washington face the dread reality that the junior senator from Massachusetts doesn’t have what it takes to win and has got to go. As arrogant and out of it as the Democratic political establishment is, even these pols know the party’s got to have someone to run against George Bush. They can’t exactly expect the president to self-destruct into thin air…. What to do? Look for the Dem biggies, whoever they are these days, to sit down with the rich and arrogant presumptive nominee and try to persuade him to take a hike. Then they can return to business as usual—resurrecting John Edwards, who is still hanging around, or staging an open convention in Boston, or both.

Wow! When the Village Voice hates a Democratic nominee even more than they hate George Bush, you know the Dems are in disarray.

Thomas Sowell plays the players: Readers sometimes ask why I am seldom seen or heard on television or radio. Mainly it is because I turn down 90 percent of the invitations I get. A recent radio interview shows why. I was invited on as a guest to talk about my new book, “Affirmative Action Around the World.” But when I phoned in for the interview while the program was on the air, I discovered that another guest was already waiting in ambush, talking about a wholly different topic, minimum wage laws. When I asked the hostess whether I was on the program to discuss minimum wage laws and she said that I was, I knew that this was the old bait-and-switch game that I had encountered many times over the years…. So I hung up the phone. Apparently the people who run the program became angry that I would not play along with their game. They phoned me. They phoned the Hoover Institution, where I work, demanding to speak to the director. But the Hoover Institution includes people who know what the media are like, so this ploy didn’t get very far.

Sowell has the right of it. I’d blow them off in a heartbeat too. If nothing else, you have to establish that you are not to be messed with in the future. I figure radio’s safer for me than television. There are a few TV types that the urge to Frankenize would be too overwhelming. I don’t know if I could even formulate complete sentences, as I’d be sitting there silently debating whether a few weeks in jail and the inevitable lawsuit would be worth it.

Doesn’t turning the other cheek mean that it’s okay to pop them one first?

From the Washington Times: Mr. Toomey, a conservative who had limited himself to three terms in the House, came from far behind in polls to run almost even with Mr. Specter, a liberal four-term incumbent supported by President Bush, fellow Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Rick Santorum and other key Republican lawmakers in the state. With outside groups spending freely in the race, it became a referendum on the strength of each wing of the party.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you your Republican Party! Not that I was before, but it’s now impossible to be sympathetic to arguments that the president is hamstrung by Congress. I have to believe that Mr. Bush’s endorsement was worth more than the 16,000-vote margin of victory for Senator Specter of Scotland nee’ Pennsylvania. What’s that again about George Delano being a secret conservative? My guess is that he moves even further to the left after he wins re-election, which he will do thanks to the increasingly hapless Jean-Francois.

I must say that Kerry is simply magnificent to watch from afar. He’s the Keystone Kandidate that we’ve been missing ever since Perot hung up his charts.