Re: Guest Post - You say you want a resolution

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We went to a pick-your-own bobcat farm. It didn't work as well as the one for pumpkins.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 08- 7-15 8:39 AM
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Given David Simon's vehement criticism of O'Malley's approach to crime and policing, I'm not terribly excited to hear what he has to say on the issue.


Posted by: J, Robot | Link to this comment | 08- 7-15 9:06 AM
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Sure, these policing threads can get heated but that's a strange idiom.


Posted by: Eggplant | Link to this comment | 08- 7-15 9:11 AM
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Right, that's the other interesting thing, how it contrasts with his track record. But Hillary Clinton was probably at just about the same tough-on-crime place as O'Malley for a long time, just not as directly involved. (Biden more so - I just searched for a link and found one from MoJo posted six hours ago.) So I see this as precisely the kind of area where activists need to force Democrats in power to improve, rather than demand inherently sympathetic vertueux as nominees - and maybe this is a sign of that happening, with one direct example being the confrontation of O'Malley and Sanders at Netroots Nation.


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 08- 7-15 9:16 AM
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(When I was trying for a good word for "virtuous people" above my brain first hit on "parvirtus", which is not a word but perhaps should be.)


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 08- 7-15 9:17 AM
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O'Malley has obviously been reading my comments.


Posted by: JRoth | Link to this comment | 08- 7-15 9:19 AM
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Bobcat = full professor? I always forget.


Posted by: Thorn | Link to this comment | 08- 7-15 9:24 AM
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Since we're used to cuddlier animals, I think bobcat = U. of Phoenix.


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 08- 7-15 9:25 AM
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These all seem like proposals I'd support, though I don't believe a dang thing any candidate for president is going to tell me about plans. I also like that it's running in Ebony. I don't think white women's magazines get so in-depth with politics generally, but both Ebony and Essence are engaged. (And to tie into yesterday's discussion about names, a junior pastor's stepdaughter has the latter name while the former is more common and I'd often have to stop and think to make sure I didn't accidentally call her the wrong thing. Once I realized her sister was Mahogany, though not spelled that way, I had a helpful mnemonic to remind me that they couldn't both be named after decorative wood.)


Posted by: Thorn | Link to this comment | 08- 7-15 9:30 AM
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bobcat is the agile web development framework that ogged is learning: bobcat.js.


Posted by: Walt Someguy | Link to this comment | 08- 7-15 9:38 AM
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http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Bobcat


Posted by: Buttercup | Link to this comment | 08- 7-15 9:44 AM
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Apparently every English word is now in Urban Dictionary and is also a Javascript library. (I was going to joke "except for vagina", but yes, there is a vagina.js on GitHub.)


Posted by: Walt Someguy | Link to this comment | 08- 7-15 9:50 AM
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O'Malley's approach to crime and policing, I'm not terribly excited to hear what he has to say on the issue.

I'm actually expecting good things, on the basis that Martin O'Malley has always been more than happy to twist with the political winds.


Posted by: Spike | Link to this comment | 08- 7-15 9:56 AM
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Apparently every English word is now in Urban Dictionary

And every given name, except that some seem to be affectionate or disparaging jokes for specific people - noticed earlier this week when I was looking up "benita" from this article on Santa Ana police stealing and eating pot edibles on camera (watch me segue to on-topic!)


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 08- 7-15 11:30 AM
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I don't believe a dang thing any candidate for president is going to tell me about plans.

Yeah, and all the policies centered on grants, encouragement, consensus, forks, and hope are (a) exactly how federalism thwarts improvement and (b) among the easiest to renege on or deliberately fail at.


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 08- 7-15 11:38 AM
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15: On the other hand, I'd like to see Bernie Sanders put out a list like this rather than yammering on about how essentially there's no point talking about racism if we can talk about economic inequality instead. (He's not quite that bad, but it sure would be nice if he were better!)


Posted by: Thorn | Link to this comment | 08- 7-15 11:44 AM
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If cops are going to steal drugs, why don't we just find some stoners who will do the same thing for cheaper and while being polite?


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 08- 7-15 11:47 AM
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My neighbors' kid is very polite and I don't think he's gotten a good job since dropping out of college. I bet he'd steal pot for minimum wage plus getting to steal pot.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 08- 7-15 11:49 AM
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we're off to visit a bobcat farm!

My grandpa always said that bobcats don't just grow on trees.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 08- 7-15 12:02 PM
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"Rex is getting old, son, and your mother and I both think he'd be happier if he went to live on a bobcat farm."


Posted by: Todd | Link to this comment | 08- 7-15 12:17 PM
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Where the lemonade springs and the bluebird sings
In the Bobcat Brownie Mountain.


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 08- 7-15 12:25 PM
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I'd like pictures of the bobcats on the bobcat farm.

As for police reform, I dunno. An extended and intensified initial training period, and/or more intensive regular continuing regular training, and/or a you-really-can-and-will-wash-out probationary period, might give us more bang for our reformist buck than another civilian independent oversight board or authority that would inevitably succumb to regulatory capture or sclerosis.


Posted by: Flippanter | Link to this comment | 08- 7-15 12:26 PM
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2: If you ever wondered whether David Simon were the sort of person who wears a production jacket for his own television series and glares around the stalled subway car both begging and daring commuters to recognize him, he is.


Posted by: Flippanter | Link to this comment | 08- 7-15 12:31 PM
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22: done. Also coyotes.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 08- 7-15 12:38 PM
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23: "Hey, aren't you the guy who played Skinner on the X-Files? No? Dr. Romano, then?"


Posted by: Todd | Link to this comment | 08- 7-15 12:47 PM
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'"Biloxi Blues" was just great.'


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 08- 7-15 12:49 PM
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"The Shield, right? Amirite? Wow!"

"The Wire"

"No, not the writer, the guy who played that crooked cop in the lead, that was you, right?."


Posted by: Barry Freed | Link to this comment | 08- 7-15 1:08 PM
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"Hey, McNutty"


Posted by: bubbles | Link to this comment | 08- 7-15 1:51 PM
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So, are David Simon's objections to O'Malley's policing views actually sane? Because the time I encountered him in a FB discussion he actually came off as something of a nutter.


Posted by: Lord Castock | Link to this comment | 08- 7-15 2:18 PM
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29: I assumed 2 was about O'Malley's record as mayor and governor, not his current set of proposals.


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 08- 7-15 2:52 PM
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22.2: Sold.


Posted by: togolosh | Link to this comment | 08- 7-15 4:52 PM
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30: As did I, but are those criticisms sane? What are they?


Posted by: Lord Castock | Link to this comment | 08- 7-15 4:54 PM
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(Oh hang on, right, this.)


Posted by: Lord Castock | Link to this comment | 08- 7-15 5:02 PM
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32: This overview of Simon's complaints against O'Malley links to a 2006 WaPo article debunking some of it.

Certainly Baltimore did have to pay out over $4 million in settlements over police misconduct charges in 2010; the total amount over the last decade is apparently over twice that. I honestly don't know whether it's fair to say that O'Malley is responsible for that.


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 08- 7-15 5:52 PM
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This, though, I do think is a tad unfair:

Martin O'Malley has always been more than happy to twist with the political winds.

O'Malley has taken some pretty unpopular positions: against the death penalty, strongly against the TPP, and, I believe, against the Keystone XL pipeline (not sure on that).

I'm off now, though.


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 08- 7-15 6:15 PM
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It's nice of him to want to protect Nebraska from oil spills.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 08- 7-15 6:18 PM
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Maybe he just wants war with Canada.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 08- 7-15 6:20 PM
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We could use a Canadian election thread at some point.


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 08- 7-15 6:38 PM
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A Canadian election thread would consist of: "Harper obviously sucks. The Libs and NDP have 99% overlapping platforms. Liz May is great but the Green are electorally irrelevant. Vote strategically." There's really nothing else to be said.


Posted by: Lord Castock | Link to this comment | 08- 7-15 7:34 PM
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Shouldn't Canadian politics be...purer?


Posted by: Natilo Paennim | Link to this comment | 08- 7-15 8:13 PM
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I guess you could see Rob Ford as a purer version of Trump, in some sense.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 08- 7-15 8:25 PM
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trump's crack-smoking video woulld be much classier. much much classier.


Posted by: turgid jacobian | Link to this comment | 08- 7-15 8:32 PM
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Greeting from Princeton BC! Where a redneck looking hippie guy just asked me what I think of Trump. And volunteered that he thought the guy was too honest.

The Similkameen valley is pretty neat. Go there.

Be sure you wear lots of maroon and silver to the bobcat farm. They like that.


Posted by: CharleyCarp | Link to this comment | 08- 7-15 8:48 PM
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+s


Posted by: CharleyCarp | Link to this comment | 08- 7-15 8:51 PM
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No campaign signs along the Crowsnest. Just signs with YES or NO, always all caps, never anything else.

Apparently it's about this.


Posted by: CharleyCarp | Link to this comment | 08- 7-15 8:57 PM
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Oh, you are in BC. I was in Kelowna yesterday!


Posted by: Unfoggetarian: "Pause endlessly, then go in" (9) | Link to this comment | 08- 7-15 9:14 PM
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Heading for Vancouver in the am. And then Nanaimo. You?


Posted by: CharleyCarp | Link to this comment | 08- 7-15 9:44 PM
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Shoot, I had been uninformedly hoping an NDP victory would be a step left from the Liberals. What happened with them?


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 08- 7-15 9:48 PM
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Either the Federal Liberals have moved left or the Federal NDP have skewed a bit centre-ward. Probably a bit of both.

After getting elected in Alberta the NDP can smell an actual Federal mandate and are going after it whole-hog. They might just get it, too, I couldn't rule it out at this point.


Posted by: Lord Castock | Link to this comment | 08- 7-15 9:57 PM
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(At any rate it's not like voting for either NDP or Libs at this point would involve compromising any major principles or policies that matter to me, so I'm cool with it.)


Posted by: Lord Castock | Link to this comment | 08- 7-15 9:58 PM
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Was in Vancouver two days ago. Tonight in Canmore. Tomorrow Drumheller and Calgary.


Posted by: Unfoggetarian: "Pause endlessly, then go in." (9) | Link to this comment | 08- 7-15 10:08 PM
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Here's Simon's latest takedown of O'Malley. I found the argument compelling, but then again I would be predisposed to it anyway given that one of my areas of study relates to disingenuous data manipulation to score political points.


Posted by: J, Robot | Link to this comment | 08- 7-15 10:22 PM
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Baltimore, of course, is not alone (but do see here for The Sun's own investigation of bogus rape stats). Emmanuel's Chicago also has some 'splainin to do.


Posted by: J, Robot | Link to this comment | 08- 7-15 11:03 PM
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Riding is such an old-fashioned term. I suggest a more modern term: blast radius.


Posted by: Walt Someguy | Link to this comment | 08- 8-15 12:27 AM
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O'Malley has taken some pretty unpopular positions: against the death penalty, strongly against the TPP, and, I believe, against the Keystone XL pipeline (not sure on that).

That's because the opening on the field (before Sanders showed up) was on Hillary's left. If it was on her right, he would have gone the other way.

It's true he's solid against the death penalty. Perhaps I have some residual bitterness about the way he sold out Maryland to casino gambling.


Posted by: Spike | Link to this comment | 08- 8-15 6:08 AM
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Some places cite this Washington Post article from 2006 as a debunking of Simon's claims, but it's not strongly unconvincing. It notes that under O'Malley's predecessor as mayor there appeared to have been pushing down from aggravated to simple assault and then says that under O'Malley by contrast simple assaults also dropped. Then it's all "no evidence has emerged" and "if there is a mass conspiracy... there are a lot of us who would have to be on board with that" and an admission snuck in that rapes were admitted to be undercounted in 2002 by 15%.

So is it so hard to believe if it happened before it could happen again (indeed O'Malley's stats about how much crime dropped under him it says are based on an audit that re-added those aggravated assaults to the baseline), and that the police smartened up by reducing crime reports in general, not just reclassifying? Simon specifically refers to apparent cases of crimes not going into the counting system at all, which would be consistent with that.


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 08- 8-15 8:59 AM
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Nanaimo! So beautiful.


Posted by: dairy queen | Link to this comment | 08- 8-15 1:22 PM
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Was in Vancouver two days ago. Tonight in Canmore. Tomorrow Drumheller and Calgary. It is a wonderful memory


Posted by: survival games | Link to this comment | 07-20-17 11:55 PM
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