Glad I didn't go to the Castro...
10 people shot at the Halloween celebration in the Castro last night?! I remember going to the Castro for Halloween more than 10 years ago, and I felt completely safe then. It seems like more and more public events are becoming forums for people to act out their own real-life versions of Dave Chapelle's "When Keeping It Real Goes Wrong" skits...I can't help but think how unhealthy it is to have a society with increasing numbers of people with absolutely nothing to lose, and how that has to figure into the equation when we talk about public violence...
Funny how the two representative cities in this year's World Series, St. Louis and Detroit, also finished 1-2 in a widely published survey of America's most violent cities. The first article I read about this survey mentioned that St. Louis's mayor is named Francis Slay. What an unfortunate coincidence...Oakland finished eighth in the survey-- it's not exactly Camden, New Jersey, but way too close for comfort...
I should be more excited about the upcoming election, given that the Democrats have a real shot at gaining a majority of the seats in the House of Reps, but somehow, I don't feel that fired up. I don't want a bunch of tepid DINOs (Democrats In Name Only) who apologize for holding a single progressive thought, but as long as people like Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Jon Tester of Montana, and Eliot Spitzer of New York do well at the polls (among others with real convictions), I will be more optimistic. Looks like Ken Blackwell is about to be served big-time in Ohio, but you never know...
What deflates me more than anything, though, is the California gubernatorial race-- after Arnold's special election debacle last year, the talk was that the Governator was done politically, but now, it looks like he will cruise to a second term. The only ads I've seen for Phil Angelides are ineffective at best...they're trying to portray Schwarzenegger as a right-wing extremist (Arnold is definitely conservative, but throws enough bones to the opposition, such as measures to combat global warming, to distance himself in the minds of many voters from the rightist of the right). The ads I've seen give no reason for why we should vote FOR Angelides. Voters are getting no insight about the Democratic candidate, and the schmucks behind the Angelides ad campaign need to be thrown overboard at the first opportunity. Plus, Schwarzenegger is viewed favorably by many Democrats, something I can't figure...more of that "Yeah, I may not agree with him, but he just seems like the kind of guy I could sit down and have a beer with" kind of thing. I'm in no mood to hear Democrats complain a year or two from now, "I dunno. I just felt more comfortable with Arnold at the time. I thought things would turn out better this time"...
Funny how the two representative cities in this year's World Series, St. Louis and Detroit, also finished 1-2 in a widely published survey of America's most violent cities. The first article I read about this survey mentioned that St. Louis's mayor is named Francis Slay. What an unfortunate coincidence...Oakland finished eighth in the survey-- it's not exactly Camden, New Jersey, but way too close for comfort...
I should be more excited about the upcoming election, given that the Democrats have a real shot at gaining a majority of the seats in the House of Reps, but somehow, I don't feel that fired up. I don't want a bunch of tepid DINOs (Democrats In Name Only) who apologize for holding a single progressive thought, but as long as people like Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Jon Tester of Montana, and Eliot Spitzer of New York do well at the polls (among others with real convictions), I will be more optimistic. Looks like Ken Blackwell is about to be served big-time in Ohio, but you never know...
What deflates me more than anything, though, is the California gubernatorial race-- after Arnold's special election debacle last year, the talk was that the Governator was done politically, but now, it looks like he will cruise to a second term. The only ads I've seen for Phil Angelides are ineffective at best...they're trying to portray Schwarzenegger as a right-wing extremist (Arnold is definitely conservative, but throws enough bones to the opposition, such as measures to combat global warming, to distance himself in the minds of many voters from the rightist of the right). The ads I've seen give no reason for why we should vote FOR Angelides. Voters are getting no insight about the Democratic candidate, and the schmucks behind the Angelides ad campaign need to be thrown overboard at the first opportunity. Plus, Schwarzenegger is viewed favorably by many Democrats, something I can't figure...more of that "Yeah, I may not agree with him, but he just seems like the kind of guy I could sit down and have a beer with" kind of thing. I'm in no mood to hear Democrats complain a year or two from now, "I dunno. I just felt more comfortable with Arnold at the time. I thought things would turn out better this time"...
posted by Tom (a.k.a. "G-Man") at 12:06 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home