The Green Bandit Report

Polyhedral Die You Can Believe In

noreply@blogger.com (The Green Bandit) — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 03:43:00 +0000

Recently there's been some talk about whether McCain is taking bits and pieces of his speeches from other sources. I doubt much will come of this, since there was similar talk about Obama earlier this year and that has all died down. Plagiarism doesn't really have legs as a story, and I think the reason is that people care more about what the candidate says than where he got the words. Otherwise, they'd be criticized for having paid speechwriters and not doing all the work themselves, right? On the other hand, the most recent example is about a story McCain tells about his time in captivity. This goes to the heart of his personal narrative, the way the public perceives him, etc, etc. If McCain did not really share a special moment with a covert Christian in that Vietnamese POW camp, that would be like discovering Obama's white grandmother was actually the picture of a perfectly tolerant, color blind, civil rights activist, rather than a woman with some occasional moments of prejudice that taught the future Senator that even if you don't like everything about a person, there are some people you just can't disown.

All that aside, what really caught my eye was this bit from the McCain campaign's response:

It may be typical of the pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons crowd to disparage a fellow countryman's memory of war from the comfort of mom's basement, but most Americans have the humility and gratitude to respect and learn from the memories of men who suffered on behalf of others.

To be clear, whoever wrote this blurb on McCain's website (I think his name was Michael) is talking about bloggers. Bloggers, of course, all play Dungeons and Dragons, and live in their mothers' basements. In short, what otherwise passes for a reasoned and well thought out response to a possible embarrassment to the candidate is suddenly brought down to the level of ad hominem attacks. School yard insults. He's calling liberal bloggers nerds. He is, presumably, exempting right wing bloggers from this charge.

And of course, we all know, nerds are losers. They'll never amount to anything. And I thought maybe McCain was making progress when he stole from Wikipedia.

Green Bandit out.

Tolls of Death

noreply@blogger.com (The Green Bandit) — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 03:45:00 +0000

I've read that Obama wants to remove troops from Iraq, but put more on the ground in Afghanistan. Now, I'm more anti-war than Obama (in fact, he once quipped that he was not against wars, only against "dumb" wars). But facts on the ground, as they say, seem to support this move if one is militarily inclined. The US has already lost nearly as many troops in combat Afghanistan in the month of August (today is the 1st) as it did in combat in Iraq for the entire month of July.

Happy Independence Day

noreply@blogger.com (The Green Bandit) — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 14:17:00 +0000

Happy Fourth, everyone.

Sheriff Joe Watch: the Sheriff and the Loose Cannon

noreply@blogger.com (The Green Bandit) — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 15:19:00 +0000

Since Joe Arpaio was elected Sheriff for the first time in 1992, I remember several stories of Sheriff's guards and deputies behaving badly. If you want a full list, check out the Wikipedia page. What I don't remember is Joe ever being the slightest bit apologetic about any of the various deaths, beatings, beatings to death, etc that occurred as the result of the actions of the men on his watch. However, when honorary Sheriff's deputy Shaquille O’Neal uses some naughty words (slightly NSFW, but the bad words are bleeped) in an impromptu rap in New York City, now, apparently, Sheriff Joe has finally found a reason to discipline someone. He want's O'Neal's badge(s) back.

No word yet on whether O'Neal actually needs any stinkin' badges. And if you really want to know what those words that got bleeped out of Shaq's rap were, the recently departed George Carlin may be able to clear that up for you. (Yeah, that link is NSFW. It's called "7 words you cant' say on television" for a reason).

/Green Bandit Out

Appologies, and a prediction

noreply@blogger.com (The Green Bandit) — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 17:39:00 +0000

Hi. Sorry I never got around to doing that local politics rundown. Oops. Anyway, I think I can predict at least one gaffe that will occur in presidential politics some time between now and November.

As we know, Republicans and Democrats, and in a broader sense, conservatives and liberals, clash on many issues, but one of the key reasons they clash is that conservatives tend to frame issues -- in their own minds, most likely, as well as in debates -- as straight dichotomies, good versus evil, us versus them, etc, while liberals tend to focus on nuances and often reject the idea that because something is not good, it is therefore evil, or that because something is not evil it is therefore good. Of course neither side sees their own way of viewing the world as wrong, and both sides would quickly defend their own method of framing issues.

I suspect we're going to see this come out in an embarrassing way before the General Election, when someone (probably a McCain staffer, or his eventual running mate, or perhaps McCain himself) will say:

"There are no gray areas when it comes to dealing with Terrorism. This is strictly a black against white issue."

Obviously there are ways that an Obama staffer, or Obama, could make this slip, but (a) it would take more effort since presumably they'd be phrasing it as "not a black and white issue," and (b) it would likely come off as less inflammatory for the same reason. And for the record, I would see this as a gaffe, rather than as an actual incidence of racism. If Obama is smart, his team won't spin it as racism, either, but will instead point out that the "black and white" rhetoric is exactly the problem with taking that approach to any issue. At one time in America "black" was clearly considered bad, and "white" clearly good. Now the country has moved beyond that and sees that there are good and bad people of all colors. We need to look at national security the same way. Terrorists are (by definition) evil, but that doesn't give us the right to treat them unfairly. We disagree with Iran on many important moral issues, but that doesn't mean we can't talk to them without compromising our values.

Anyway,

Green Bandit Out.

PS -- I wonder if this difference in viewpoint is the reason Democrats often nominate an attorney and Republicans usually don't. The last Republican attorney that was elected president was Richard Nixon (who, after all, did negotiate with the Communist government of China).

Getting Local

noreply@blogger.com (The Green Bandit) — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 01:56:00 +0000

I was thinking of posting a top ten list of my favorite Constitutional Amendments in the Bill of Rights, but it's just so hard to choose. So I'm going to start taking a look at the ballot proposals for Flagstaff's city elections (coming up, May 20!).

I realize that of the three (possibly four?) people who read this blog, none of you live in Flagstaff. Sorry.

Guns!

noreply@blogger.com (The Green Bandit) — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 00:51:00 +0000

Saw this comic by conservative cartoonist Chuck Asay during my daily editorial comics trawling. It's a "new" "spin" on the old NRA slogan that "guns don't kill people, people kill people." I'd just like to say that Chuck is entirely right. Guns, sitting, unloaded, on a shelf, locked away, cause no one any harm. You may also note that most gun laws are not directed at the guns themselves. I've never seen a legislature pass a law that says guns must drink from a different drinking fountain, or that they must walk in the gutter rather than on the sidewalk. No, most gun laws are designed to keep hands out of people who cannot be trusted to handle firearms responsibly. How can you tell a person cannot be trusted to handle firearms responsibly? Well the first sign is that this person is attempting to purchase a firearm.

Remember, kids: Automatic Assault Rifles Don't Kill People. Automatic Assault Rifle Owners Kill People.

You think it doesn't effect you?

noreply@blogger.com (The Green Bandit) — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 04:29:00 +0000

If you think the environment doesn't effect you... you're in for an awful shock. Buffalo Mozzarella from Campania has been contaminated by illegal toxic dumping. Our cheese, man! They're getting our cheese!

Seriously, though, this isn't something happening in a pre-industrial country, it's not something that only effects the school children living in some one else's neighborhood. Cutting corners on the environment effects food. It effects the economy. It effects the trendy Italian Bistros that global warming deniers take their trophy wives to on their anniversaries.

If there's one thing Republicans can pride themselves on...

noreply@blogger.com (The Green Bandit) — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 15:16:00 +0000

If there's one thing Republicans can pride themselves on, it's being fiscally conservative, right? Am I right? I'm wrong, aren't I? Let's see how wrong I am:

My favorite line starts at about 2minutes 16seconds in: "Sheriff Joe Arpiao, normally open to all media requests, declined to talk to twelve news on camera about this operation."

Yeah, so apparently the Maricopa County Sheriff's Department is too low on funds to buy basic office supplies, but they're sending county employees to Honduras to help train police there. I'm all for strengthening international relations, but this looks a little like Joe's sending his best employees on working vacations at Maricopa County expense... and shouldn't international relations be the federal government's job?

/Green Bandit Out.

At Least We've Learned from Our Mistakes...

noreply@blogger.com (The Green Bandit) — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 16:29:00 +0000

Found this over at Tom Tomorrow's but the original article is here

MADISON, Wis. - The online gun dealer who sold a weapon to the Virginia Tech shooter said it was an unnerving coincidence that he also sold handgun accessories to the man who killed five students at Northern Illinois University.
ADVERTISEMENT

Eric Thompson said his Web site, [removed by Greenbandit], sold two empty 9 mm Glock magazines and a Glock holster to Steven Kazmierczak on Feb. 4, just 10 days before the 27-year-old opened fire in a classroom and killed five before committing suicide.

Another Web site run by Thompson's company, [removed by Greenbandit], also sold a Walther .22-caliber handgun to Seung-Hui Cho, who killed 32 people in April on the Virginia Tech campus before killing himself.

"I'm still blown away by the coincidences," Thompson said Friday. "I'm shaking. I can't believe somebody would order from us again and do this."

Removed links to prevent driving up his webtraffic (not that this site is going to drive a lot his way). If you're really curious about his websites, the original article has them linked. The skills needed to run a business don't really depend on what you're selling. If this guy is as shaken as he says he is, why not go into a different line of work?

Is this Election About Change?

noreply@blogger.com (The Green Bandit) — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 03:13:00 +0000

Everyone says this election is about change. Even the Republicans are trying to run as change candidates. Let's see what they're offering us. From Think Progress:

And there's more over at Crooks and Liars.

My predictions

noreply@blogger.com (The Green Bandit) — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 05:50:00 +0000

The other day, a webcomic creator asked on his LiveJournal what his readers/friends/etc thought would happen with the election.

I said something silly but I'm going to follow up to see how accurate I was. Here was my prediction:

"The Republican outcome could depend on the ME caucus this weekend. Whoever comes out ahead in terms of delegates just before Super Tuesday might get a big boost. The Democratic outcome will depend on the SuperBowl on Sunday. If the Patriots win, Hillary will get the nomination. Otherwise it'll be Obama."

This is a completely baseless, totally off the wall formula. We'll say I was trying to predict what the outcome of Super Tuesday will be (since my predictions for the outcome of the actual election are below) Although Romney won Main, but John McCain is still ahead in delegates, and so will get a boost on Super Tuesday. Because the Patriots lost, Obama will come out ahead after Super Tuesday.

Only time will tell.

EDIT: Some wording above was changed so that it would make sense.

Disappointment

noreply@blogger.com (The Green Bandit) — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 22:39:00 +0000

Two bits of bad news today:

(1) The County Recorder's office informs me that, while I can vote in the general state primary later this year, even if my party isn't on the ballot, as a registered Green I cannot vote in the Democratic or Republican Presidential primary. Which means my choice for the Democratic nomination now has no weight whatsoever. Which takes some, but not all of the bite out of this next item;
(2) Denis Kucinich is dropping out of the Presidential race to focus on his congressional re-election in Ohio. I don't particularly blame him, he was treated like dirt. At least in Congress he has the ability to push his agenda. As a former legislator and failed presidential candidate he would have more time to spend with his wife, which wouldn't be all bad. But you have to assume she's with him at least in part because of his political convictions.

There's more bad news out there, but this is what's hitting home for me at the moment.

GOP: The Party of Family Values

noreply@blogger.com (The Green Bandit) — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 18:32:00 +0000

The new anti-Hillary 527, created by former Nixon staffer Roger Stone, is a one trick pony. The idea is to sell T-Shirts with the group's name and slogan. You can click the link for a full description of the T-Shirt, but here's a hint: the acronym of the group's name is a dirty word, and the slogan is "a 527 Organization to Educate the American Public About What Hillary Clinton Really Is." I find it interesting that a party that trumpets "family values," and advocates censorship, has no problem using foul language in public when it: (a) suits their purpose, and (b) is directed against women.

I look forward to seeing what acronym they come up with if Obama is the nominee. They're certainly educating the public about what the Republican Party really is.

A Few Changes

noreply@blogger.com (The Green Bandit) — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 20:03:00 +0000

Well, Bill Richardson got out of the race. I'm a tad disappointed, but maybe he'll get involved in some other way, some time in the future. One can only hope. On the right hand side of my blog you'll new see that Gov. Richardson's campaign page is no longer linked. In its place I've put Barack Obama, John Edwards, and the Green Party's Cynthia McKinney. I'm still digging around to see just how the GP primary works, so I'm not sure I'll be able to vote in it. Greens don't currently have ballot status in AZ, but that may not matter. I've gotten the impression that the process for the GP primary is divorced from the major party primaries on February 5th. If so, I may be able to vote for a Democrat on the 5th and a Green at some later date. Hooray!

I'm leaning toward Obama at this point for the Democratic nomination. Neither he, nor Edwards is quite anti-war enough for me, but Obama has certainly made a splash by saying he'd be open to talking to hostile leaders -- a step I think we need to take if we're being realistic. Edwards is more anti-corporation than Obama which makes me happy. On the other hand, he's been a force for change outside the system, much as Gore has in recent years. It's possible his personality is more suited to advocacy than politics. I've left Dennis Kucinich on my list because I think he's great, but I don't find him presidential.

Cynthia McKinney is still a candidate I need to do more research into, but she's got a few things going for her. First, she's Green Party, which means her politics are likely to be more closely aligned with mine than a Democrat's would be. If this isn't so, I'll take her off the links. Second, she doesn't have the baggage Ralph Nader has. Third, she's got the distinction of actually having been elected to office, something Nader has never done because he's never set his sights on anything below president. That always upsets me. Pick an achievable goal, dude! Superficially, Cynthia McKinney offers the perfect permutation for those who can't choose between voting for a black man (Obama) or a white woman (Clinton). Either would, of course, be historic and wonderful. McKinney, however, gives us the chance to go straight past that and vote for a black woman for president. If she starts getting anything resembling a foothold in the polls, look for the Right Wing to pull out all the stops and show off just how racist and sexist they are. I'm including the Democrats in the Right Wing in this.

The other change I'm making to the site right now is that I've re-enabled comments, but there's some sort of log in process that you'll have to do. Hopefully this will stop the spamming I was getting before, while allowing others to comment on my blog.

/Green Bandit Out.

2008 Predictions and Resolutions

noreply@blogger.com (The Green Bandit) — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 18:53:00 +0000

Here's the deal. Every year I post my New Year's resolutions online, so that I can go back in 12 months time to see how I did. I always post my top ten resolutions and top ten predictions at my LiveJournal account, and this year's crop can be found here. This year I'm stretching myself by separating my political and personal resolutions and predictions. Which means I have 20 chances to fail miserably, and 20 chances to be utterly and horribly wrong.

Resolutions
10. Spend less money at major chains.
9. Invite friends over for an Earth Day party.
8. Buy nothing on Buy Nothing Day.
7. Make it through an entire calendar year without shopping at Wal*Mart.
6. Read at least 12 new (to me) nonfiction books.
5. Volunteer at least once a month with Friends for Flagstaff’s Future.
4. Educate myself on all the local offices on the Flagstaff ballot before November.
3. Blog all the Ballot Propositions.
2. Volunteer for a Campaign.
1. Get active in the Green Party.

Predictions
10. Barack Obama will win the Democratic Nomination for President.
9. Mitt Romney will win the Republican Nomination for President.
8. Cynthia McKinney will win the Green Party Nomination for President.
7. Nader will run anyway (I get to call this one “right” whether he wins the GP nomination, or runs as an independent after loosing it. So there!).
6. The Reform Party (or other alternative right-wing party/independent candidate) will make enough of a showing in the polls to get their candidate to at least one Presidential debate.
5. The Democrats will take the White House.
4. The Democrats will increase their majority in Congress.
3. George W. Bush’s fist shaking toward Iran will spark at least one military incident, likely involving Israel.
2. Pervez Musharraf’s role in Pakistan will change dramatically by the end of 2008.
1. Record high temperatures this summer across the United States.

EDIT: The above post was made before the results of the Iowa Caucus.

Traditional (?) Year End Post

noreply@blogger.com (The Green Bandit) — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 04:52:00 +0000

I posted my annual wrap up over at my LiveJournal account. Traditionally, I've posted a top ten list of predictions and a top ten list of resolutions at the beginning of every year. Because some of my predictions are political, I'm reposting part of that here. Before I get to that, though, I'm going to try something new this year. Some time around the first of the year, I'm going to post top ten lists for political predictions and resolutions here, while posting my top ten lists for personal predictions and resolutions over at my LJ account. We'll see how well that works. Anyway, here's how right and wrong I was about 2007:

Top Ten Predictions for 2007
10. George W. Bush, who up to this point has used his veto power once in six years while appending an unprecedented number of signing statements to legislation he didn’t like, will set the record for presidential vetoes issued in a single year. It didn't happen exactly this way, but I'd say I was about HALF RIGHT here. Though Bush has gotten a bit veto happy, I haven't been able to find proof that he set any records. This is most likely because he didn't have to. Apparently the Republicans in the 110th Congress did it for him by setting records for filibustering and other obstructionist tactics. I like the filibuster, but it's interesting to note that the person leading the charge, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, was among those advocating the "nuclear option" to stop Democrats from filibustering judicial nominees in the 109th Congress. Perhaps the key to Republican success is to have no long term strategy whatsoever.

9. Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats in Congress will abandon half of their first 100 hours agenda within the first two days. I'm going to call this as WRONG. Nancy Pelosi had a "First 100 hours" agenda for what she would do as Speaker of the House. Although I'm not sure she was successful with all of it, I'm pretty sure they did at least push each and every item on it. It's pretty hard to get a definitive breakdown of what they did and didn't do without, you know, actual effort. But I was impressed with how well they stuck with it for 100 hours. After that? Not so much.

8. Harry Potter will not die. I'm going to say I was RIGHT on this one. Sure, Harry had a near death experience, but the end of the story was Harry alive and well, Voldemort dead and not so well, and Ron and Hermione getting laid pretty much regularly. Woot!

7. At least one former U.S. President will. (For those keeping score, I think only Carter, George H. W. Bush, and Clinton are still living). Thankfully, I was WRONG. Of course, I'm posting this on the 28th, so I suppose that if Jimmy Carter passes away in the next three days, you can blame me. I really hope he doesn't, though.

6. Al Gore will run for President. WRONG, WRONG, WRONG. The Nobel Peace Prize and the Oscar were cool, though. Maybe next he'll get a Grammy. Or perhaps a Daytime Emmy? A Tony?.

5. Drought in the Midwest will cause either a major increase in the cost of produce, or a major increase in government subsidies to industrial agriculture. I'm going to call this one RIGHT. I'm not clear on whether drought was a cause (The Economist actually blames ethanol subsidies for part of this) but this year has, in fact, marked "The End of Cheap Food, which Grist says is not necessarily going to lead us toward more sustainable practices. Oh dear.

4. Snow will fail to fall (or appear) on Christmas in Washington, D.C. Apparently, I was RIGHT.

3. There will be widely reported news of U.S. Military action inside the Iranian border. If there was U.S. Military in Iran, it wasn't widely reported, so WRONG. But we did do quite a bit of sabre rattling, even after our intelligence estimates declared that the Iranians had stopped their a nuclear weapons program.

2. Amzell will get into an acting MFA, but will decline to enroll because she’ll be offered professional theatre work. She is working in professional theatre, last I heard

1. I will start a new blog at www.thegreenbanditreport.org. I already knew the answer to this one when I made the prediction. It already existed. It was RIGHT, but not a big cause for celebration.

So, 4.5 right, 4 wrong, and one more or less abstained from. Let's see if I can do better than 50% in the new year, huh?

Happy New Year, see you in 2008!

Time gets a spine, no one understands

noreply@blogger.com (The Green Bandit) — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 01:26:00 +0000

Each year, Time magazine chooses " the man, woman, couple, group, idea, place, or machine that 'for better or for worse, ...has done the most to influence the events of the year.'" (Wikipedia, quoting a Time collectors edition). Last year they chose "you." This year their choice was someone controversial: Valdimir Putin. Their profile of Mr. Putin is not particularly flattering. While I'm not entirely sure Putin has "done the most to influence the events of the year" (Al Gore won an Oscar and a Nobel Prize, Pervez Musharraf caused some major tension, Nancy Pelosi was instrumental in shaping a new, spineless majority out of the old, spineless minority, etc, etc, etc) the choice does make a certain amount of sense, especially as Putin prepares to step down.

Yet everyone seems to be acting as though Time's "Person of the Year" is an award, rather than a profile. Several political cartoonists have weighed in on the issue, and each one I've seen has taken a negative position on Time's choice. Yes, Vladimir Putin has done some terrible things, in Russia and the world. That's sort of the point.

Big Dick Cheney

noreply@blogger.com (The Green Bandit) — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 19:54:00 +0000

According to Taegan Goddard's Political Wire, Dick Cheney has had a lot to say about the current House of Representatives:

"I’m trying to think how to say all of this in a gentlemanly fashion, but [in] the Congress I served in, that wouldn’t have happened... They are not carrying the big sticks I would have expected."

-- Vice President Cheney, in an interview with The Politico, suggesting Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) and Rep. John Dingell (D-MI) don't stand up to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).

I figured maybe it was taken out of context, so I took a look at the link Political Wire provided, and the Politicos article seems pretty clear on what the Vice President is saying. Am I reading too much into this? What does the Veep mean when he says that John Murtha and John Dingell aren't carrying "the big sticks" when they deal with Nancy Pelosi? Am I assigning too much importance to the fact that Speaker Pelosi is the first female Speaker of the House in History? My recollection (assisted by Google) is that Cheney was House Minority Whip for the Republicans -- a party known for falling in line with their party's leadership, especially in the 80's when Cheney was in Congress. As whip, his job would have been to make sure that the rank and file Republicans fell into lockstep with the Minority Leader.

So, am I wrong in thinking that the Veep was accusing Murtha and Dingell of having dicks too small to stand up to a woman? Is that why he was "trying to think how to say all of this in a gentlemanly fashion?"

This man disgusts me. Film at eleven.

/Green Bandit Out.

YouTube, what have you done?

noreply@blogger.com (The Green Bandit) — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 15:37:00 +0000

Remember that Obama Girl music video? And the weird Mike Gravel video where he stares at the camera, throws a rock into a pond, then walks off? Well, what happens when someone gets the bright idea to combine the two? Keep in mind, I'm pretty sure that Gravel is the only democratic candidate who has made legalization of marijuana an official part of his platform...

/Green Bandit Out.

Happy Holidays, You're a Hero, Thanks, Now Get Out of Here.

noreply@blogger.com (The Green Bandit) — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 19:01:00 +0000

So apparently, being a bona fide hero in Arizona means you're spared the indignity of deportation proceedings when they cart your rear end back to Mexico. A boy and his mother (daddy had passed away, I believe) were camping in southern Arizona over Thanksgiving, when the van they were in went off the side of a cliff. Mom was trapped, the boy survived:

The boy, Christopher Buztheitner, was found on Thanksgiving evening wandering in a remote canyon a few miles north of the Mexican border by an immigrant trying to walk into the U.S. The boy led the man back to his mother's crashed van, Estrada said.

The migrant was identified as Jesus Manuel Cordova, 26, of Magdalena de Kino in the northern Mexican state of Sonora.

So Jesus finds this kid, wandering in the wilderness, builds him a fire, comforts him, and flags down some hunters. Remember, this whole time Jesus is breaking the law by being in the United States, and likely knows that he is endangering himself to help this child. Apparently he went peacefully, too:

About 8 a.m. Friday, Cordova flagged down a group of hunters and they called for help. Cordova surrendered to Border Patrol agents and agreed to be returned to Mexico without going through formal deportation proceedings.

Law enforcement even seemed to recognize that this was a good human being:

[Santa Cruz County Sheriff Tony] Estrada said earlier that Cordova's actions likely saved the boy and he risked being caught to do what was right. He said it should serve as a reminder that most undocumented migrants are good people.

"They respond where there's a need," Estrada said. "We're very grateful that he was there."

Industrious, compassionate, responsive, helpful, people named Jesus are certainly not the type of people we want entering this country, right?

Flagstaff Shows its Compassion

noreply@blogger.com (The Green Bandit) — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 02:58:00 +0000

So, some people in Flag have been able to push pretty hard for the opening of a new homeless shelter. This makes me feel very good about the town I live in. However, this response from locals doesn't.

Certain people, and I'm not pointing my finger at any particular person, party, or political mindset, are of the opinion that homelessness is the fault of the homeless person, and that anyone who doesn't have a place to sleep at night must have made bad choices, or have made the choice to live off the hard work of others. There are volumes filled on the debate about the causes of homelessness, and I don't intend to get into that debate here. I care about the causes of homelessness, because understanding the cause is important if you want to solve the problem. When the question is whether or not we should help homeless people, though, I really don't give a cup full of piss who you put the blame on. Homelessness is everyone's problem, it's everyone's responsibility.

Desperate people do desperate things. It doesn't matter why a person is desperate, whether they got laid off from work and can't afford a place to live, or they're mentally ill and are off their meds, or they're addicted to drugs, or they've got no work ethic, or they're one of the estimated 195,000 Veterans who is homeless on any given night. Desperate is desperate, and if you don't have a home, that's desperate. Drinking your entire income away is an act of desperation. Crime, begging, and prostitution are acts of desperation. They aren't particularly productive acts, and they aren't acts that anyone should look up to, or feel good about. What matters, though, is that they are things people will do if they are living on the street.

Building a new homeless shelter keeps people off of the street. It doesn't solve all of their problems, and it might not stop them from hassling you for change, or stealing your purse, or getting drunk and passing out in a puddle of their own urine in your front yard. Then again, it might. Who knows? It's certainly got a better chance of reducing crime than sticking with the status quo. What a new shelter will do is keep them from dying in the below freezing temperatures that are already upon us. Or getting ill from exposure and sent to the hospital. If you're the kind of person who thinks that they're just getting what they deserve, remember this: when a person without money dies or goes to the hospital, it's the taxpayers who pay the bill. I'm not the type who gets angry about paying taxes, but if I am given the choice between paying taxes to save someone's life, or paying taxes to cover the cost of their death... I'd rather they live.

The other thing that building the homeless shelter will do is give some people a chance. Yes, some people don't believe that any homeless person will take the chances offered at the shelter to get their lives back on track. Believe it or not, some of them will. If even one person will turn their life around, it's better than what we have now.

Furthermore, I can tell you some things that building a new homeless shelter will not do. It won't spontaneously cause more people to choose to be homeless, or to migrate to Flagstaff from somewhere else. It won't make them more likely to commit crimes or drink or do drugs. If anything, it will make them slightly less likely to do those things because it will make them slightly less desperate. Even if it doesn't reduce the crime rate, however, the worst case scenario is that some people's lives will be improved because they will have a place to spend the night. A place that isn't your front lawn.

I'm the kind of person who takes pity on those whose lives are not as good as mine. I don't care how you got into the fix you're in. If you don't have shelter, or don't know where your next meal is coming from, I feel sorry for you, and I want to help. I'm not addressing the people who think like me, though. They don't need convincing. I'm addressing everyone who has felt threatened or disgusted by homeless people. I'm even addressing everyone who has been a victim of a crime committed by a homeless man or woman. Placing blame doesn't solve anything. Failing to build a shelter will just keep things the way they are. Opening a new shelter won't solve everything, but it can help some. It certainly can't hurt.

Green Bandit Out.

P.S. -- Commenting still disabled. If you want to comment, I'll make an entry on my LiveJournal and you can post there.

Temporarily suspended comments

noreply@blogger.com (The Green Bandit) — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 17:27:00 +0000

Okay, so apparently the new cool thing to do for spammers is to find a blogger account and post lots and lost of spam comments, which then show up in my inbox. This is inconvenient for me, especially because the occasional comment from the three people on the planet who read this blog is the only thing that reassures me that there aren't zero people on the planet reading this blog. For now, however, comments are suspended, until I can find the time to learn how to filter out the spam.

Thanks for your patience,

The Management

Green Bandit Out.

No. Just... no.

noreply@blogger.com (The Green Bandit) — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 03:58:00 +0000

According to this New York Times article, Ernesto Guevara, better known as Che, is now on a bikini. I just hope that everyone wearing this Che merchandise knows that, if the man were alive today, he would probably burn down the factories where these things are made, and assassinate the CEOs who run the companies. We're talking about a Socialist revolutionary here who really believed the stuff. He wasn't some power hungry Fidel Castro, or Joseph Stalin. This man overturned governments because he seriously believed that what he was doing would help the people. And he is likely the single greatest reason that Cuba is the health care capitol of the Spanish speaking Americas. But seriously, if he saw you rockin' the latest designer laptop bag with his image on it, you'd likely be dead where you stood.

Green Bandit Out.

Fine for Littering

noreply@blogger.com (The Green Bandit) — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 01:45:00 +0000

This just in, via the Washington Post: Apparently picking up litter in Iraq is now punishable by death.

So, we've been sniping at anyone who picks up weapons materials that we've deliberately placed as bait... don't we also have some sort of weapon exchange program where we pay Iraqis to turn in guns and stuff? I'm not saying that they're deliberately laying down "bait" that people could get a reward for... I'm just not certain that they're going out of their way to make sure nothing they leave laying out could bring dollar signs to an innocent civilian's eyes.