On the patio with J & D & A

( and three more )

I love Callahan.

http://www.callahanonline.com/

Tookie

The opinions traded about Tookie Williams and his education were, mostly, two. Some people felt that the death penalty was just, Tookie was a bad man who had committed serious crimes, and that he should be executed. Others felt that the death penalty was unjust or immoral, that Tookie had redeemed himself, and that he should be celebrated for his more recent life.

I abhor the death penalty, so that part is taken care of.

But I don't celebrate Tookie, and I think he belongs in jail and should shut up, and not be celebrated. It's great news that he has become less of a jerk and that he is trying to do good in his own way in prison. But as an alpha gangster he has done so much damage to others that he deserves incarceration for life rather than adulation. Reading the "save Tookie" people I got the feeling that most of them were well-educated privileged people and that almost none of them had lived in gang territory, much less been challenged or attacked by one of L.A.'s street gangs. I have, both, and I can testify that the constant watching for colors, the stark fear of confrontation, and the head injury were all no fun.

And by no means did I have the worst of it. As an ethnic outsider, I might be ripped off or kicked around, but I would never be given the choice to join or die. Nor would I be at risk for drive-by retaliation just because of my race and my neighborhood. I think about my former coworker M. (I've written about him before) running like hell from a drive by because he was black and male and lived in a black neighborhood. And I think about his nephew and friend. At 19, community college students and dorks, they were spending a Saturday afternoon playing Nintendo. They went to McDonalds to get some fries between games, and while they were sitting a couple of gangbangers wandered in.

"Sup?" said one of the bangers.

"Sup," said the kids.

Ten minutes later the bangers came back in and shot them both multiple times. They'd been given a territorial challenge they didn't recognized, and their reward was hospitalization and rehab for bullet wounds.

So remember Tookie's good deeds, sure. But remember too that hundreds of thousands of people you've never met live in fear every day of their local Tookies as much as they live in fear of racist and corrupt police. Below the cut is an editorial from the LA Times by someone who knows that story in the first person.

( Read more... )

Don't.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/donts/pool/

Cow 54, Where Are You?

1. The Gap's ad agency does what I've wanted to do forever: totally destroy a store. I like the animal at the end.
   
   
2. The Aardvark points me to a helpful service for people with lame forums. This should be great for all those Big-Time Commercial Bloggers!!!!!
   
   
3. Saks now offers men the opportunity to shop with a Playboy Bunny. I wonder does this mean you have to buy things for the bunny, like at a taxi dance club? If you buy enough things, do you get bunny-blown on the loading dock? Do the bunnies wear their hilarious 1950s fucktail waitress suits during the experience? For how long do your friends mock you after you make a Hooters out of yourself buying socks?
   
   
4. An architecture blogger who usually writes about Wal-Mart takes on big box churches. Those things fascinate me.
   
   
5. Oh hey great, someone heisted 400 pounds of plastique from a place that had no guards and no security cameras. I'd like to thank that company in advance for the next gigantic terrorist bomb that goes off.
   
   
6. Thank you, Judge Smackdown, for that bodyslam of the inane I.D. people.
   
   
7. Today's Strange Reaction is serial killer music

NSA spying story roundup

From the always useful Defense Tech blog: Total Information Awareness never ended.

It's clear that the Executive Branch has both ignored Congress and defied the Constitution. This is grounds for impeachment.

Worst kind of cellphone headset

[Poll #637817]