The Inquirer reports that SEPTA and Titan Outdoor, an ad agency specialising in really big ads, are asking the city zoning board for permission to put up a gigantic wrap around ad on SEPTA's office building on Market street. I guess, they figure people will be so beguiled by the enormity of the ads that they won't notice all the trash and bullet ridden corpses their trudging through.
The Inquirer:
"SEPTA says the space -- 16 by 280 feet, 4,480 square feet -- would yield revenue that otherwise would come from riders. 'We try to do something tasteful,' SEPTA spokesman Jim Whitaker said. 'But basically we're trying to make some money for the operating budget without adding to our current fair increases.'"
How about trying to run on schedule, instead? Maybe, if people just didn't give up waiting for the non-existant bus or trolly after an hour and take a cab or just walk, you might make some cash from the riders who would have otherwise taken SEPTA.
Or, if SEPTA is really hard up, how about selling crack or guns? Those are real revenue generators, you bet!
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Summer time and the killing's easy:
The homicide rate in Philly after this weekend is up to 156. In just 142 days, not bad! Watch out Baghdad, here comes Philly! These killings came at the same time that the Inquirer was reporting that the Upper Darby police department was selling seized weapons back to the very gun dealers who sold the guns to the criminals in the first place.
The Inquirer reports:
"These guns included illegal sawed-off shotguns and assault rifles. Just last month, special-education students found one of Upper Darby's confiscated guns as they collected litter near their school."
This was happening up until 2005, the practice has since been suspended, but what the hell? The Upper Darby police department was selling the guns to notorious Lethal Lou's Loans in Upper Darby and Mac's Gun Shop in Clifton Heights. Lou's was so out of control that even the ATF had to finally get around to shutting them down.
You know, it's not easy these days for the ATF to really do anything about ATF -- especially F -- because since W. and his NRA buddies got into office they've pretty much legislated the agency into oblivion. [W. took the ATF to the vet and now it doesn't want to play with the other puppies anymore.] I love it when any effort is made to control guns, the NRA's answer is always that we simply need to enforce the current laws on the books; the very laws they've worked so hard to water down to the point of irrelevance.
Some day sanity will prevail -- or we'll all be dead -- and people will look back on our time and just shake their heads. Who in their right minds would just allow someone to go into a store and buy a machine that is soley designed to kill? According to the Economist, since the Kennedy administration more Americans have died from guns than all the wars of the twentieth century. Are we all completly insane? Why are we allowing the NRA to put ourselves and our children in the bull's eye?
The Inquirer reports:
"These guns included illegal sawed-off shotguns and assault rifles. Just last month, special-education students found one of Upper Darby's confiscated guns as they collected litter near their school."
This was happening up until 2005, the practice has since been suspended, but what the hell? The Upper Darby police department was selling the guns to notorious Lethal Lou's Loans in Upper Darby and Mac's Gun Shop in Clifton Heights. Lou's was so out of control that even the ATF had to finally get around to shutting them down.
You know, it's not easy these days for the ATF to really do anything about ATF -- especially F -- because since W. and his NRA buddies got into office they've pretty much legislated the agency into oblivion. [W. took the ATF to the vet and now it doesn't want to play with the other puppies anymore.] I love it when any effort is made to control guns, the NRA's answer is always that we simply need to enforce the current laws on the books; the very laws they've worked so hard to water down to the point of irrelevance.
Some day sanity will prevail -- or we'll all be dead -- and people will look back on our time and just shake their heads. Who in their right minds would just allow someone to go into a store and buy a machine that is soley designed to kill? According to the Economist, since the Kennedy administration more Americans have died from guns than all the wars of the twentieth century. Are we all completly insane? Why are we allowing the NRA to put ourselves and our children in the bull's eye?
Saturday, May 19, 2007
A note from Ben Frankin:
Being frequently censur'd and condemn'd by different Persons for printing Things which they say ought not to be printed, I have sometimes thought it necessary to make a standing Apology for myself and publish it once a Year to be read upon all Occasions of that nature. . .
I request all who are angry with me on Account of printing things they don't like calmly to consider these following Particulars
1. That the Opinions of Man are almost always as various as their Faces . . .
2. That the Business of Printing has chiefly to do with Men's Opinions; most things that are printed tending to promote some, or opposite others . . .
4. That it is unreasonable to any one Man or Set of Men to expect to be please'd with everything that is printed. . .
5. Printers are educated in the Belief that when Men differ in Opinion, both Sides ought equally to have advantage of being heard by the Publik; and that when Truth and Error have fair play, the former is always overmatch for the latter. . .
8. That if all printers were determine'd not to print anything till they were sure it would offend nobody, there would be very little printed. . .
Dr. Benjamin Franklin, Editor
The Pennsylvania Gazatte, 1729-1748
I request all who are angry with me on Account of printing things they don't like calmly to consider these following Particulars
1. That the Opinions of Man are almost always as various as their Faces . . .
2. That the Business of Printing has chiefly to do with Men's Opinions; most things that are printed tending to promote some, or opposite others . . .
4. That it is unreasonable to any one Man or Set of Men to expect to be please'd with everything that is printed. . .
5. Printers are educated in the Belief that when Men differ in Opinion, both Sides ought equally to have advantage of being heard by the Publik; and that when Truth and Error have fair play, the former is always overmatch for the latter. . .
8. That if all printers were determine'd not to print anything till they were sure it would offend nobody, there would be very little printed. . .
Dr. Benjamin Franklin, Editor
The Pennsylvania Gazatte, 1729-1748
Two Hundred and Nine years and four days ago in Philadelphia
In 1798, president John Adams sought to start a trumped up war with the Revolutionaries in France and along the way use the phony war as an excuse to smother the young American democracy. His noxious Alien and Sedition Acts were used to fire up racist hatred of the Irish and at the same time silence his critics by prosecuting them, deporting them or putting them in prison. Even someone who dared utter an unflattering appraisal of his Rotundity within earshot of one of his partisans could find themselves behind bars and loaded down with a hefty fine.
One paper in the nation's capital, the Philadelphia Aurora, was particularly active in its denunciations of Adams. The Editor, William Duane, frequently had visits from Adam's rough neck supporters who busted up his press, beat him in front of his family and arrested him for what he published.
Upon taking the job of Editor of the Aurora after the death of Benjamin Franklin Bache in 1798, who died in during that year's yellow fever epidemic, Duane very quickly gained the attention of the highest levels of the US government.
July 24, 1799
Secretary of State Timothy Pickering writes to president John Adams:
"There is in the Aurora of the city an uninterrupted stream of slander on the American government. I enclose the paper of this morning. It is not the first time that the editor has suggested that you had asserted the influence of the British government in affairs of our own and insinuated that it was obtained through bribery. The general readers of the Aurora will believe both. I shall give the paper to Mr. Rawle, and, if he thinks it libelous, desire him to prosecute the editor . . .
The Editor of the Aurora, William Duane, pretends he is an American citizen, saying he was born in Vermont, but was when a child, taken back with his parents to Ireland, where he was educated. But I understand the facts to be, that he went from American prior to our revolution, remained in the British dominions till after peace, went to the British East Indies, where he committed or was charged with some crime, and returned to Great Britain, from whence, within three or four years past, he came to this country to stir up sedition and work other mischief.
I presume, therefore, that he is really a British subject and, as an alien, liable to be banished from the United States. He has lately set himself up to be the captain of a company of volunteers, whose distinguished badges are a plume of cock-neck feathers and a small black cockade and a large eagle. He is doubtless a United Irishman, and the company probably formed to oppose the authority of the government; and, in case of war and invasion by the French, to join them."
Duane attacked and beaten:
On Wednesday, May 15, 1799, William Duane was attacked in his office by a contingent of Federal troops from the city's volunteer Calvary unhappy about an article he had written about them the day before. They demanded to know who the source of his story was but he would not divulge the name. He was grabbed by the leader of the group of about thirty toughs out of his chair and dragged down the stairs and into Franklin Court where he was mercilessly beaten in front of his young son and then, as a final humiliation, whipped.
Mere minutes after the assault he wrote this:
"If any circumstance could more deeply impress on his mind . . . to guard, with vigilance of republican jealousy, against the artifices, the intrigues and injustice of arbitrary men; -- this conduct would only more and more attack him to his principles -- but he has never slackened since he has had the honor to hold his present situation -- and while he holds it, his hand must perish or his vital principles must be suspended by the hand of some of those assassins before he will shrink from exposing villains and crimes to public obloquy."
Vice-president Thomas Jefferson writes:
"[T]hese friends of order, these enemies of disorganization, assemble a second time to pull down the printing office of the young and amiable widow of the grandson of Benjamin Franklin. On the other hand, a body of real republicans, of men who are real friends of order, assemble in arms, and . . . mounted guard to protect the office of this widow, the person of the Editor, of his journeymen, his apprentices and his son. "
Dedication and mission of this blog:
Such bravery and dedication to the freedom of the press and the right to express one's opinions, no matter how unpalatable to vain men in power, were displayed in the streets and printing presses of Philadelphia. If it hadn't been for the sacrifice of the likes of Benjamin Franklin Bache, his widow Peggy Markoe Bache, William Duane and his readers we would be living in very different country today. Only continual vigilance and renewed dedication to the principles they fought for can save the country we all grew up in from disappearing under the boot of unchecked Bushism.
This blog is dedicated to Benjamin Franklin, his grandson Benjamin Franklin Bache and William Duane.
The mission of this blog is to expose villains and crimes to public obloquy.
One paper in the nation's capital, the Philadelphia Aurora, was particularly active in its denunciations of Adams. The Editor, William Duane, frequently had visits from Adam's rough neck supporters who busted up his press, beat him in front of his family and arrested him for what he published.
Upon taking the job of Editor of the Aurora after the death of Benjamin Franklin Bache in 1798, who died in during that year's yellow fever epidemic, Duane very quickly gained the attention of the highest levels of the US government.
July 24, 1799
Secretary of State Timothy Pickering writes to president John Adams:
"There is in the Aurora of the city an uninterrupted stream of slander on the American government. I enclose the paper of this morning. It is not the first time that the editor has suggested that you had asserted the influence of the British government in affairs of our own and insinuated that it was obtained through bribery. The general readers of the Aurora will believe both. I shall give the paper to Mr. Rawle, and, if he thinks it libelous, desire him to prosecute the editor . . .
The Editor of the Aurora, William Duane, pretends he is an American citizen, saying he was born in Vermont, but was when a child, taken back with his parents to Ireland, where he was educated. But I understand the facts to be, that he went from American prior to our revolution, remained in the British dominions till after peace, went to the British East Indies, where he committed or was charged with some crime, and returned to Great Britain, from whence, within three or four years past, he came to this country to stir up sedition and work other mischief.
I presume, therefore, that he is really a British subject and, as an alien, liable to be banished from the United States. He has lately set himself up to be the captain of a company of volunteers, whose distinguished badges are a plume of cock-neck feathers and a small black cockade and a large eagle. He is doubtless a United Irishman, and the company probably formed to oppose the authority of the government; and, in case of war and invasion by the French, to join them."
Duane attacked and beaten:
On Wednesday, May 15, 1799, William Duane was attacked in his office by a contingent of Federal troops from the city's volunteer Calvary unhappy about an article he had written about them the day before. They demanded to know who the source of his story was but he would not divulge the name. He was grabbed by the leader of the group of about thirty toughs out of his chair and dragged down the stairs and into Franklin Court where he was mercilessly beaten in front of his young son and then, as a final humiliation, whipped.
Mere minutes after the assault he wrote this:
"If any circumstance could more deeply impress on his mind . . . to guard, with vigilance of republican jealousy, against the artifices, the intrigues and injustice of arbitrary men; -- this conduct would only more and more attack him to his principles -- but he has never slackened since he has had the honor to hold his present situation -- and while he holds it, his hand must perish or his vital principles must be suspended by the hand of some of those assassins before he will shrink from exposing villains and crimes to public obloquy."
Vice-president Thomas Jefferson writes:
"[T]hese friends of order, these enemies of disorganization, assemble a second time to pull down the printing office of the young and amiable widow of the grandson of Benjamin Franklin. On the other hand, a body of real republicans, of men who are real friends of order, assemble in arms, and . . . mounted guard to protect the office of this widow, the person of the Editor, of his journeymen, his apprentices and his son. "
Dedication and mission of this blog:
Such bravery and dedication to the freedom of the press and the right to express one's opinions, no matter how unpalatable to vain men in power, were displayed in the streets and printing presses of Philadelphia. If it hadn't been for the sacrifice of the likes of Benjamin Franklin Bache, his widow Peggy Markoe Bache, William Duane and his readers we would be living in very different country today. Only continual vigilance and renewed dedication to the principles they fought for can save the country we all grew up in from disappearing under the boot of unchecked Bushism.
This blog is dedicated to Benjamin Franklin, his grandson Benjamin Franklin Bache and William Duane.
The mission of this blog is to expose villains and crimes to public obloquy.
Friday, May 18, 2007
Crime in Philly: How much is too much?
Can I just say that crime is out of control in the city of Philadelphia? This may not come as any big surprise to anyone considering over 140 gun homicides already this year, but beyond those grim statistics there's also the day-to-day violence that eats away at our quality of life and sense of security with numbing regularity. How many of us have not been touched by this epidemic of violence? My guess would be very few.
In the past six months, two friends of mine have been assaulted on the streets of Fishtown. One was beaten by three young males who jumped out of their car and brutalized him for no reason other than random, crazed violence. Another was a young woman in her twenties who was mugged and had her purse stolen by another trio of males who also jumped out of a car. In that case, happily and quite amazingly, she happened to see those same young men in a Center City location many days later and called the police who apprehended them. An outcome like that, however, is obviously all too rare.
Perhaps the most egregious incident happened just days ago at a well known tavern in Northern Liberties, an area that is supposedly "safe" these days. Two young men were asked to leave the premises at closing and proceeded to pummel an employee around the face and head, giving him two black eyes. One waitress was knocked unconscious and a cook was stabbed with a throwing dart in the ear and neck.
The circumstances surrounding the arrival of the police and the resulting release of the assailants are murky, but the fact is that these two brutal thugs are still walking our streets as free men. Word is that all the employees were too intimidated to press charges and the police therefore allowed the men to go, not even bothering to verify their identities.
That said, I don't wish to be too harsh on the police. This city is severely under-policed for the size of the population, the prosecutor’s office is overwhelmed, and the intimidation of witnesses and the lack of protection from them is well documented.
There are currently 2 million people in prisons in the United States -- up from 200,000 thirty years ago -- and about 100,000 are being released into the general population every year. Since the 80's, when rehabilitation took a backseat to retribution we've incacreated countless non-violent offenders, criminals have only become more violent and recidivist. In the years to come we’re all likely to run into some of these people and rest assured there will be those wanting to take out their punishment on us. They haven't been rehabilitated, merely "processed."
We’d better think about hiring some more police and start working on finding more room in prison for the truly violent offender. We haven’t the luxury of imprisoning the non-violent drug offender any more.
In the past six months, two friends of mine have been assaulted on the streets of Fishtown. One was beaten by three young males who jumped out of their car and brutalized him for no reason other than random, crazed violence. Another was a young woman in her twenties who was mugged and had her purse stolen by another trio of males who also jumped out of a car. In that case, happily and quite amazingly, she happened to see those same young men in a Center City location many days later and called the police who apprehended them. An outcome like that, however, is obviously all too rare.
Perhaps the most egregious incident happened just days ago at a well known tavern in Northern Liberties, an area that is supposedly "safe" these days. Two young men were asked to leave the premises at closing and proceeded to pummel an employee around the face and head, giving him two black eyes. One waitress was knocked unconscious and a cook was stabbed with a throwing dart in the ear and neck.
The circumstances surrounding the arrival of the police and the resulting release of the assailants are murky, but the fact is that these two brutal thugs are still walking our streets as free men. Word is that all the employees were too intimidated to press charges and the police therefore allowed the men to go, not even bothering to verify their identities.
That said, I don't wish to be too harsh on the police. This city is severely under-policed for the size of the population, the prosecutor’s office is overwhelmed, and the intimidation of witnesses and the lack of protection from them is well documented.
There are currently 2 million people in prisons in the United States -- up from 200,000 thirty years ago -- and about 100,000 are being released into the general population every year. Since the 80's, when rehabilitation took a backseat to retribution we've incacreated countless non-violent offenders, criminals have only become more violent and recidivist. In the years to come we’re all likely to run into some of these people and rest assured there will be those wanting to take out their punishment on us. They haven't been rehabilitated, merely "processed."
We’d better think about hiring some more police and start working on finding more room in prison for the truly violent offender. We haven’t the luxury of imprisoning the non-violent drug offender any more.
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