Grim Economic Realities

Aimlessly tooling around the Internet brought me to this page about the inevitability of an American victory against Japan in WWII.

The author looks at plain economics to show that the moment they launched an attack against America, the Japanes were doomed to lose. He shows how the Great Depression meant we had massive amounts of "slack" in our economy that could be taken up and directed into the war effort, where Japan's economy had almost none.

He also notes that by the end of the war, our navy was larger than every navy in the world combined, a staggering thought.

There's a lot there that benefits a more than casual read. Take a look.

Thought For The Day

From the always-enjoyable James Lileks comes this observation which I share:

I left the mall, feeling, as usual, that everyone is normal, and I think too much about things that do not matter.

Some of My Writing Influences

I was thinking on this last week and I think I can identify five writers who have influenced by non-fiction writing.

James Lileks: I enjoy his gentle, almost apologetic, anger and quiet observational humor. He's a nostalgist, which I fear I am, but embraces modernity at the same time, which I frequently do not.

(Once, I'd have put Garrison Keillor here in place of Lileks. Ever since Keillor's return to Minnesota from his great, failed New York move, there's been a streak of curdled anger and jealousy in his writing that has poisoned him for me. Something was diminished in Keillor by his failure to succeed in the wider world. His resentment and shame ever since makes him unlistenable. He used to celebrate the old but enduring; now he just looks back like a crabbed codger.)

P.J. O'Rourke: In his National Lampoon days, he could sound like he was living the wild life you wanted to live, but more urbanely. He has a magic sleight of hand for slipping the outrageous past your outrage radar and getting you to laugh about it, too. "How to Drive Fast on Drugs While Getting Your Wing-Wang Squeezed and Not Spill Your Drink" is precisely as shocking and funny as the title implies.

George Will: Not today's self-satisfied windbag, but the smart and erudite essayist of the Eighties. Massive command of facts marshalled into unassailable, authoritative arguments, seasoned with humor. I seriously wanted to become a columnist because of him. That same impulse is why I blog and why I wanted Wendi Thomas' job before she chickened out and took it back.

Hunter S. Thompson: Again, not the self-satisfied, tired windbag of his later years but the guy who wrote both Fear and Loathings. Fearless, lay it on the table writing. New Journalism from a parallel, Phil Dickian Psychedelic Wars world. Savage, but with a conscience of sorts; dogged but easily distracted; always at the edges but aimed at the heart of things.

And last, Mark Twain: You cannot be an American humorist or essayist and not be influenced by him. Deeply in love with his country but not at all afraid to point out its flaws, Twain could do that because he knew instinctively how humor makes the medicine go down a bit more easily. And his obvious affection for his subjects kept his criticisms from being mere hate.

I might add H.L. Mencken to this list, but I haven't read enough of him to be sure he's been an influence. He's remembered today largely as the newspaperman's editor and editorialist, unafraid to mock the powerful, but he was also racist and petty.

And, in reviewing this list, I see that all but one are or were at one point in the newspaper business. Oy.

Hillary's Perfect Storm

I've been thinking about something lately. It's the increasing noise from disaffected Republicans and Bush supporters about a possible third party candidacy in the 2008 election. (More, from Mickey Kaus, here.)

The usual rallying / organising points for such a candidate are border security / immigration control and the return of fiscal responsibility to Federal government, if not a revival of small-government cutting. The signs are good that any third party built upon, and focused tightly only on, these two points would severely cut into Republican voters and even a few Democratic voters.

It struck me that if the Republicans don't start taking this talk very, very seriously -- and really soon -- they will be setting up the "perfect storm" that Democrat Hillary Clinton needs to win the Presidency in 2008.

Think back to 1992, when her husband Bill ran. At one point, he was polling in the mid-20s in terms of voters! This was just before he relaunched himself as "the Comeback Kid." (By the way, he gave that name to himself in New Hampshire. The media picked it up, repeated it, and made it stick.)

This was also the year an eccentric billionaire businessman named Ross Perot threw his hat, and money, into the race. At that point in the presidential campaign, he was outpolling Clinton! Perot then, inexplicably, decided to retire from the race for a while, destroying his momentum; Clinton became the "Comeback Kid" and history was made.

It was the presence of Perot in the race that made Clinton's victory possible. Clinton never got more than a plurality in either of his wins. (43% in 1992 and 49% in 1996.) It was the draining effect of Perot and the Reform Party on Republican voters that made Clinton possible.

I think the same thing could happen again, and it may be possible that Hillary is counting on it happening. Any third party focusing on immigration and/or government spending will lower Republican support. But will it be enough to enable a Hillary win?

She has formidable negative numbers to overcome, as well as significant opposition from the anti-Bush Left trying to seize control of the Democratic Party. Smart handlers could turn that second issue into a plus for her, by showing she's not the "old" Hillary of the 90's but the "new" Hillary of the Senate. "Her own party thinks she's too far to the right! It's a sign she's reformed. That makes her OK for Middle America to vote for."

If Republicans pick a Giuliani or a McCain as their candidate -- and there's a third party candidate -- then they really face trouble. Lots of the classic "pro-defense, small government" Republicans will bolt, as will a lot of social conservative Christians. If they have somewhere to go, then Hillary (if she's the Democratic candidate) benefits.

Worse still, imagine the Perot / Reform movement, but with the incredible organising and communication and fund-raising power of the Internet factored in!

It's all speculative at this point. There's no sign of any third party appearing right now, just a fertile ground for one to grow in. But there's a slow confluence of factors and prerequisite conditions brewing up out there. A perfect storm is a possibility. A successful Hillary Rodham Clinton candidacy might happen.

It's something to think about.

"A Bunch of Ted Baxters"

Possumblog's Terry Oglesby is usually pretty mild and very funny. But in this post he lays into a lazy, sloppy, sensationalist reporter with righteous fury. And humor. And science!

Yes, it’s called a chassis dynamometer. It’s a big set of steel cylinders that the car's driven wheels sit on and the car is held stationary, so that it can be hooked up to all the test equipment in the lab to--now, get ready for it--TO ELIMINATE POSSIBLE VARIABLES RELATED TO ROAD SURFACE, such as temperature, friction coefficient, and moisture. In other words, it’s SCIENTIFIC. I know it must hurt your pretty little brain to think about all those big machineries and such, but there’s a REASON for all of that, and it’s not to cover up LIES! Oh, and by the way--carmakers aren’t “allowed” to run them on a chassis dyno--they are REQUIRED TO BY LAW. Which, in fairness, does require READING, and therefore is prima fascia evidence of a COVERUP OF MASSIVE PROPORTION! HOW DARE THE GOVERNMENT REQUIRE THAT WE READ ANYTHING! THEY DON’T TEACH THAT IN J-SCHOOL!

I once got asked by a local reporter how bloggers could be held accountable for what they say. And yet reporters can have an IQ that sounds like the temperature of a warm spring day, put together a story utterly lacking in basic science, basic knowledge, a sensible eye, or anything else resembling evidence of an intellect, and still draw a paycheck every week.

Ah, but she looks good on camera, can do a "walk and talk," and put together a package by deadline that "hooks" viewers. That's what counts. That's what's important.

Everything But The Obvious

I had a feeling, and sure enough: Beale Street Music Festival attendance was down. Look at how the head organiser explains why:

Hampton blamed the threatening weather, the high cost of gas and a general slump in entertainment industry revenues for the downturn. She said about 40 percent of Beale Street Music Festival attendees each year come from outside a 200-mile radius of Memphis, but advance ticket sales were down about 15 percent this year, meaning the event needed heavy walk-up business to generate enough revenue to cover expenses.

Yeeeaaaahh .... If advance sales are down, then it's because the line-up itself was unappealing. Weather's not responsible there. Hampton's spouting a load of PR bull.

Right after the line-up was announced, the general reaction I heard was "meh." Too many old artists and groups still hanging in there; too many also-rans. Not a lot in the way of sizzle and hot.

And let me point out this convoluted bit of misdirection from article writer John Beifuss:

That means that the tightly budgeted music festival likely will not make a profit this year for only the third time since 1999 ....

That's only an eight year stretch, if he's being inclusive with his years. So three times in eight years is nearly half the time, not only. He's apparently trying to make it sound more rare than it really it for the BSMF to not break even.

And that's bad news for next year, because now they don't have a lot of extra to work with in buying PR and making advance bookings. Maybe for the City, too, which might be pressured to kick in money to make up the slack. Here's hoping that Hampton will be open to informed suggestions about next year's line-up.

How Can We Miss You If You Won't go Away?

Wendi Thomas is back and by her own admission, it seems the bland will be getting blander:

In past columns, I've been hard on these people. Hard on a mayor who fathered a child out of wedlock. Hard on a state rep who took money from a businessman at casinos. Hard on city council members who took favors from developers.

Now, I've got a new sympathy for these folk ....

Oh, thrill. A public watchdog who sympathises with those she's on guard against.

And I'd be doing what young professional women are told is their duty to do: keep climbing the ladder.

It would seem her feminist indoctrination didn't take. Time for re-education!

Often, when otherwise rational people make a mistake, the time to undo it has long since passed. The child, who himself isn't a mistake, is already born.

Love the child; shame the parents.

The ill-gotten gambling money has already been frittered away.

It's called restitution.

The conflicts of interests have been cemented since the basketball and airline tickets from a developer have long since been accepted by elected officials.

Ethics laws and prosecution. Remind the voters who did wrong come election time. Hammer the point.

But I had a chance to undo my error, before The Commercial Appeal hired someone else to write in the space I considered mine.

Which I guess is why she's back on the section front page after the demotion to the inside. Nice to make a mistake and then be rewarded for making it, eh? Why, with her return it's almost as if nothing happened at all! How magical. How special.

But the chances are good that I'll continue to rail against ...

"Chances" are "good?" Oh, well, that's certainly reassuring. Glad to hear it might happen.

But I guess what irks me most is how she pretends something but somehow manages now to actually say it:

... mistakes they made ... it was a mistake ... I did exactly what my instincts told me not to do ... I choose to refer to as the "recent unpleasantness" ... when otherwise rational people make a mistake ... my error ... this humbling experience ...

Two thing missing in all that. Can you spot them?

First, nowhere in all that does she simply say, "I was wrong." She dances real close, but never quite takes ownership. It's in there, it's pretty clear, but it's not actually said. There's a big difference between "Mistakes were made." and "I did wrong."

Also missing is any sense of the hardship she inflicted on the Baltimore Sun. She can't even bring herself to name them! No sense of the heaviness of the fallout of her actions on her shoulders. No compassion for all those she's inconvenienced both here and in Baltimore. No ownership of all the negative consequences her actions have brought on countless others. All she can do is thank the "... readers who have welcomed me back."

No "I'm sorry." No "I'm grateful."

Because it's all about her. She's too happy having everything back to the way it was. That's just selfish. She's refusing to swallow the bitter pill she fashioned and, instead, is setting it aside and trying to get everyone to forget she's supposed to swallow it.

Since Chris Peck came on board a lot of people have left the paper. Some were nudged; others pushed. Some were slanted sidewise, hoping they'd get the idea. How many have come back?

How many have made their failure of spirit a banner of wisdom?

Shame on Wendi. Shame on the Commercial Appeal.

Comment Problems?

I learned from a commenter on another blog that some folks are still having problems with trying to comment here. Since I use Haloscan, there's little I can do there. Can you describe the problem for me? Is it enough of a problem I should try a different solution?

If you want to reply but can't get comments to work for you, try emailing halfbakered AT hollihan DOT net.

Quote of the Day

The Howard Dean Fun Machine rolls on:

Howard Dean, in a speech to the American Jewish Committee, said new industries should emerge to develop alternative fuel sources. The other option, he said, is continued support of Islamic schools that teach hatred of the United States and Israel.

"We are committed to ending our standing by, while our oil money (provides) indirect funding of fundamentalist Islamic schools all over the world," he said.

Dean took a swipe at the Republican Party, saying the Democratic Party is one of inclusion and religious freedom.

"I was recently asked about the difference between the Democratic and Republican parties," Dean said. "When it comes right down to it, the essential difference is that the Democrats fundamentally believe it is important to make sure that American Jews feel comfortable being American Jews."

Um ... yeah. The other 95% of America thanks you. And I'm sure anti-Semitic black Democrats like Rev. LaSimba Gray are going to be real happy to hear that.

Talk about pandering.

Hey! Wait For Me!

I am so clueless, I swear. Only just today discovered that Hugh Hollowell of Midtown Books has a blog! I'm sure I saw a mention in the newsletter, but I seem to have forgotten it, too.

Anyway, he blogs about books, bookselling, life and everything. Like his store, it's interesting and lowkey. Try this post about his experience in a "big box" bookstore:

So now it is my turn to be "helped". Oh, goodie. After giving her the title and author, she says "We should have a copy". What? You should have a copy? Hell, lady, I should have six pack abs and perfect teeth, but that just ain't the way it is.

So I say, "do you in fact have a copy"?

"I think so", she says.

"Where", I say.

"If we have one, it would be in Business- Motivation", she says, hopefully. [I always liked Swifties]

"Where would that be", I ask.

I kid you not, she looked me dead in the eye and said, "In the business section".

Oh.

Check it out and if you haven't been to Midtown Books (on Madison, just before Cooper near Overton Square) stop by and say hi.

And buy a book!

Fear and Loathing at Hickory Ridge Mall

While doing research for the next post, I stumbled over this overheated but still intriguing vanity post over at FreeRepublic.com.

I was at the Hickory Ridge Mall on Winchester Road in Memphis around 4 pm today. I hadn't been there in about 2 years and I was absolutely stunned to see that half of the people in the mall were hispanics. Spanish was heard everywhere. I saw a lot of attractive and decent looking families towards whom I had sympathetic feelings on a personal level. They just looked like nice people living their lives. But the fact is that I was at the same mall 2 years ago and I hardly saw any hispanics. What is going on with our border security? This isn't a gradual expansion, this is an explosion. We're not talking Houston or LA- this is Memphis!

When I got to the food court I saw a group of about 15 teenage hispanics walking towards me who looked like they just came out of Hollywood Central casting. They were the scariest looking group of guys I've ever seen. Truly ridiculous baggy pants and they had a swagger like this was THEIR mall. You could tell they enjoyed the fear they were causing everyone around them to have. I had to look at them out of the corner of my eye to avoid offending them by staring at them....

Just as the gang members were walking past me a group of about 8 Memphis police officers and a similar number of mall security guards stormed the food court and the gang members started running in all directions. The gang members were yelling angrily like someone was fixing to start shooting, and for the first time in my life I was kneeling down in a mall to avoid potential gunfire.

Most of the gang members escaped but a few were detained. I don't know if they had been seen shoplifting or if this was just a move to keep them out of the mall.

Like I said, the poster is definitely excitable and overly dramatic, but the incident and general observations are pertinent.

I have to admit, about 10 years ago I went to Hickory Ridge pretty regularly. More than any other mall in the area. As much as I'm able to these days, I felt most comfortable there. (Malls creep me out.) But now that I think about it, I haven't been there in at least five years. I've been to Wolfchase and Oak Court a couple of times, but that's it. I tend to shop (what little shopping I do, anyway) at stand-alone stores.

What's been y'all's experience with the changing customer base of local malls and your shopping patterns?

Ron Meroney Arrested

Ron Meroney, co-host and anchor of FOX13's Good Morning Memphis was arrested at his home Wednesday afternoon. He was picked up by TBI on a warrant issued from Wicomico County, Maryland. The warrant stems from a grand jury indictment handed down in December, 2005; the charge was statutory rape. According to Maryland law, the age of consent is 16, so the child involved would be younger than that.

He is being held at the Criminal Justice Center (aka 201 Poplar) downtown until a hearing Thursday morning. That is sure to be all over the noon and evening news tomorrow.

I don't particularly want to cover this but it seems that a "one stop shop" of links for websurfers is called for. So this post will serve that need.

The Commercial Appeal has their story here. Apparently, court and public offices in Maryland were closed by the time local media got the word on the story as no one has any quotes or comments from Marylanders as of Wednesday evening. But they note:

Meroney lived in Maryland from 1972-85 and also has lived in Florida, according to an online public records data base.

Remember those dates, as we'll come back to them.

(There is one oddity in the story, an outgrowth of the daily's strange unwillingness to acknowledge any media or news source other than themselves and the national nets/papers. One sentence in the article begins: "According to a FOX 13 Web site ...." "A?" Is there another one? It's either a strange bit of sloppiness or a needless bit of obfuscation.)

The local television news offers a bit more.

WMC/5, in their report write:

Jennifer Johnson with the TBI says, "We were notified by a family member that he was wanted on a warrant out of Maryland and they were very concerned that he had be[en] living in Memphis and had not been picked up."

The "a family member" is a bit vague. Was it the victim's family or Meroney's? Why was this left hanging so long when Meroney isn't attempting anything like hiding? Very strange.

At WPTY/24 there's a bit more:

A TBI spokeswoman says last December the 69 year-old was indicted in Maryland on a charge of statutory rape. She says one of his relatives called the TBI to alert the agency that he was wanted in Maryland.

Stranger still.

And WREG/3 has a bit more background, including discovering another case involving Meroney dating back to 1984! They report:

But News Channel 3 has obtained police reports dating back 22 years ago in a separate Maryland County - Baltimore County.

Those police reports state that a "sexual assault" case was investigated in May, 1984 involving Meroney. They say that the alleged victim was a nine year

But court records show that case was never prosecuted. That a "disposition" for child abuse and second degree rape was put on "nolle prosequi" in August, 1984.

It makes you wonder why this has been sitting out there unnoticed all this time. And if it's part of a pattern, then that's just frightening.

I tried to search various Maryland television news and newspaper sites, but couldn't find anything either current or past. Google didn't offer turn up any results.

As more becomes known, I'll update this post.

THURSDAY EVENING UPDATE: Hmmmm. Very little to update here. I'm kind of surprised, given the explosive nature of the charges and the media's love of this kind of luridness.

Anyway, WMC/5 adds to their original story with this:

A news release by the Wicomico County Child Advocacy Center said only that an investigation uncovered a statutory rape accusation between the months of June and October of 1974.

Is that last a typo? Do they mean "1984" which would match when Meroney lived there?

In 1984, Meroney was charged with several counts of sexual offenses in Baltimore County. Those charges included child abuse and rape.

All but one of those charges were dismissed in July of 1984. On one charge, third-degree sexual offense, Meroney was granted probation before judgment, indicating that a judge found that the facts were sufficient for a prosecution, but instead elected to grant probation before entering a sentence.

So did Meroney fail to complete probation? Did something else happen?

WPTY/24 to their original story add this:

On Thursday at 1:00 p.m. Meroney was released on a $50,000 bond.

Former local television anchor Joe Larkins offers some insider's thoughts about the business side of this situation. As I said to a friend last night after the story broke, innocent or not, mistaken case or whatever, his career is likely over. Even if he's completely exonerated, this will still attach to him forever more.

And that's it. I wonder if the story would be this scant if it involved a politician, businessman or "average citizen." The skeptic in me has to wonder if "one of their own" is being given some slack. I doubt it, but the apparent lack of digging bugs me.

THURSDAY NIGHT UPDATE: OK, WPTY/24 steps up and provides some much needed details. The arrest yesterday involves an incident 31 years ago. A female family member alleges she was raped between June and October of 1974. No details have come out yet as to why the accuser waited 30 years to come forward.

The arrest happened because a family member sent an email to Governor Bredesen's office. Shelby County Sheriffs and Baltimore prosecutors are blaming each other for the snafus.

The 1984 case was a completely separate incident.

If, and I stress if the charges are true then we move to a new fear. It's widely accepted in psychological circles that once a pedophile (or ephebophile, they are related) acts on his impulses, he will continue to act on them. If we have two incidents 10 years apart, we must consider that there might be further undiscovered incidents in the intervening time.

I know, pretty horrifying to think about.

Finally, let's use this opportunity to clear up some terms here. A pedophile is a person (usually but not always a man) who is sexually attracted to children. By that we mean pre-sexual children: infants, toddlers, pre-adolescents. Humans without secondary sexual characteristics like breasts, pubic hair, hip curves, etc.

An ephebophile is a related phenomenon, involving people who are sexually attracted to post-adolescent children, to humans who are sexually immature and still developing like tweens or late bloomers.

NOTE: No more updates to this post.

You See? I Told You: Immigrant Rallies Dept.

After the amazingly large rally downtown a couple of weeks ago, where 10,000 folks showed up fairly spontaneously, the "big" rally Monday for illegal immigrants' rights was a bust. The school system reports few students left; no big crowds. It seems the main event was at a local Hispanic Church.

Of course, the big picture in the CA was the black skinned man wrapped in the American flag. And the paper repeatedly mentions that May Day is a huge holiday in Central and South American countries but doesn't tell you why. Nor explain why so few showed up if it's such a big holiday.

Money quote, from the very end of the article:

Dawn Shute, who runs the Foreign Language Immersion Childcare Center on Mud Island, said many of her workers -- all of them legal and documented -- asked three weeks ago to be off work on May 1. So FLICC organized volunteers from among its parents in order to make it happen.

"Some of them were going to participate in rallies," Shute said, "but some of them said they just wanted to be invisible for the day."

Again, for those of you who are late to the Half-Bakered party or who just react first without thought, I'm not at all opposed to immigration. I am the son of an immigrant; Quebecois, though my appearance is that of my paternal Irish great-grandparents.

I also think the US government does a piss-poor job of making it possible for resident aliens to become citizens. But the uncontrolled border to the south is a problem. The uncontrolled flood of people is a problem. The imbalance between Mexican attitudes to their emigrants and our immigrants vs. our de facto situation needs addressing and rebalancing.

In many parts of this country American culture (white, black, whatever) is being supplanted by a non-assimilating Hispanic one. That must be stopped and they must be assimilated. Or we will have problems.

Don't believe me? Look around the world at other nations with similar situations. England (Caribbean blacks), France (North African Muslims), Germany (Turks and East Germans and former Yugoslavians), Japan (Koreans, Chinese, Philippinos), southern Russian (Arab Muslims), Iraq (Kurds), Saudi Arabia (Philippinos), Mexico (Central Americans), Australia (Lebanese and West Pacific Asians). The list is long and instructive.

The lesson is clear. Slow down, absorb, assimilate, re-open. Repeat.

The consequences are clear. Ask yourself where would you like to live without moving: America or Mexico?

The coverage goes back to what I talked about in a post last week. The rallies Monday were supposed to be even huger than the ones previous. The country was supposed to be shut down, or at least annoyingly inconvenienced. That didn't happen. With few exceptions, the rallies were smaller. Rallies in Florida and the Northeast emphasised flexing the political muscle of the already established immigrant communities -- people who are working their way into American culture and political structures with an eye to finding their place. Not folks trying to set up their own parallel world on this land.

Media coverage was suspiciously light on making the follow-on connection. There's already evidence (witness the money quote above) that there's a backlash happening, which may be partly why the latest rallies made a point of waving American flags. I think the Instapundit had it right when he noted that some organisers aren't interested in anything more than creating an alienated group of immigrants and an angry group of Americans as a way to further discord. It's all about the revolution, he argues. It seems many immigrants (the legal, naturalised, assimilating kind) spotted that as well and decided not to play along.

Good for them.

Spring Bloggers Bash?

I was reminded a little while ago that we've not had a bloggers bash recently. Spring is nearly over; you can feel the hot humid breath of summer on your neck even now.

So what say you all? Ready for another bash? Offers, suggestions, observations, bribes from venues, etc all solicited.

Uh Oh

So I head over to Rachel and the City to see what the Kewl Kidz are up to these days and there's nothing there but a placeholder page saying "There is no website configured at this address." Please tell me everything is all right and this is just another web hiccup.

I like Rachel's site and her view of a particular part of Memphis that, were I twenty years younger, I'd be deep in the middle of. She's also a massive booster of indie and rock Memphis music and there's just not enough of that.

Fiscal Prudence for Thee But Not for Me

Those of you who watch television news may remember seeing that Governor Phil Bredesen only have 2% raises for "state employees" this year. His definition of state workers seems to be a bit convoluted:

You've heard of Speakers Jimmy Naifeh and John Wilder; but you may not be as familiar with their right-hand men. Burney Durham is Naifeh's chief of staff and chief clerk of the House.

In 2003, Durham made around $115,000. Now, he makes more than $145,000 -- a 26% increase from three years ago.

Russell Humphrey is Wilder's chief of staff in the Senate. His salary increased from $104,000 to $134,000 -- 28% in three years.

"Are you worth that much money?" asked Amons.

"I love my job. I'd do it no matter what they paid me," said Humphrey.

Last year alone, Humphrey and Durham got 12% raises -- six times what Governor Phil Bredesen budgeted for everyone else. At Governor Bredesen's state of the state address, he had announced, "we're proposing a total of 2% in raises for our employees."

Channel 4's I-Team tracked the salaries of every state employee over the last three-years. In the legislature, we found the ten staffers who make more than $100,000 a year each averaged a 20% increase from 2003 to 2006. That's more than TWICE what the average state worker got during the same time period -- 9%.

Sounds a lot like our Mayor Herenton and his cushy crew, doesn't it? The police and fire department and other first responders have to make do with no raise, but Herenton's political appointees and his office staff are quite well paid.

On your dime.

I thought America was a represetative democracy where the bureacracy were "public servants." Since when did we become a monarchy with an aristocracy?

Link via Say Uncle.

Voting With Their Feet

Les Jones looks at the inter-state migration of Americans and maps it to a blue / red political color scheme to instructive result.

Drop the Bomb on Monroe Avenue

Sorry for the sporadic and indifferent blogging of late. I was away from the computer all weekend and then yesterday the new property managers (PMs) for our complex dropped the bomb on us.

The PMs sent out letters to most of the residents of five of the six buildings they manage on this street. All will have their month-to-month leases terminated at the end of this month. My buildings will be shut down and boarded up, preparatory to being completely stripped and remodelled.

Residents on longer leases (like my year-to-year lease) will be terminated as their leases expire. But it's clear, everyone is going from at least four buildings, maybe five, by year's end. The sixth building is spared for now as it's still in excellent repair. All the others have suffered from a series of landlords and property managers who ranged from overwhelmed to actively indifferent to just plain cheap. The buildings have suffered a lot; the apartments can't be filled; the residents we do have are either druggies or fearful decent people.

There's been a change in the crack business on the street. The shifts happened over the past few months. The drug dealer behind me apparently got the message and scaled his activities waaaaay back. He announced last month he was moving a bit farther east, but he's still using the apartment with friends. The dealers across the street were evicted finally, so that stopped. (Although the crackheads keep breaking into one apartment as a crashpad and den.)

But the apartments in the middle of the street, and the house owned by a cop next door, became the new center of drug activity. It's unbelievable down there; worse than almost anything ever was here. It's nearly completely over-run.

But the most amazing thing is the formerly quiet apartment directly across from me. It used to be low key except for some activity by the homeless at one apartment. That guy was grandfathered into the ownership of the building by the former owner, his father! He cannot be evicted in his lifetime and he lives for free. So he's utterly uncaring about anything.

But then some new tenants moved in there and it all quickly went to hell. There's the new single mother who, for inexplicable reasons, began to hang out with and party with the male crackheads on the street. Next thing, they were over there regularly.

Then there's the single mother with two good-looking daughters. One is sixteen and very attractive; she's prone to tight tees and short shorts. The other daughter is a single mother in her twenties and is also attractive. So is their mother. All began to hang out with and socialise with the crackhead population at the apartments in the middle of the block who drifted over once they laid eyes on the trio. And they all chaperone these guys around in their car, as does the single mother.

The men began to hang out on the steps, like cats smelling a female in heat; some even spent the night there. Rumors about the sexual exploits of the mother and youngest daughter began to pop up and, sadly, they are easy to believe based on their public behavior. It's fascinating in that train wreck kind of way.

And then there's the man who has been trading liquor and drug money for sex. He's got some of the crackheads staying over at his place, too. When his stereo equipment was stolen he was angry but his neighbors had little sympathy. Considering who he let visit him, it wasn't a surprise.

Their resident manager in the past week has gotten into three fights with men he's trying to keep off the property. (All crackheads.) He's being advised to carry his gun with him, as we think retaliation might be coming. It's hard to say, though, since he's been dealing with the crackhead zombies and not the dealers. But, he's standing up to them and creating a profile. He may need hammering back down.

The constant circus over there finally reached its limit and now he's evicting the mother and two daughters. The other woman is being given final notice. The man has decided on his own to leave the city. So, I might be moving across the street soon.

And dealing with all this mess has been keeping me away from the computer.

The upshot is that the drug problem might be decimated soon. The downside is the hardline PMs are using the nuclear option to do it, scattering most of us to the winds. And there's little reason to believe they'll patrol and monitor the boarded up buildings sufficiently, meaning those of us who remain might still have druggies but with the added bonus of breakins and fires! Sweet.

The rumor is that the buildings I presently live in will, in fact, be demolished to make way for two or three single-family homes. It wouldn't be a bad idea, given what's happening on the rest of the street. The new house on the corner is quickly shaping up nicely; it's sited well and so far fits in handsomely.

It's hard to know what's happening. The new PMs are being very vague and hard to reach, even duplicitous. They originally sent out notices right after taking over asking us our maintenance concerns and indicating they would be coming around with new lease agreements for everyone. Then mere weeks later, they dropped the bomb. On the day that happened, they didn't answer their phones or return calls. When you could get through, it was "So and so is out / in a meeting / just popped in then left." Leave a message; get no call back. They have a plan, but they don't plan to share it with us.

It's shaping up already as an interesting summer.

Anecdotal Evidence

Take it for what it's worth. The news was full of talk about today's illegal immigrant rallies, but I noticed the Mexican construction workers across the street were there bright and early this morning, maybe 7AM. They left just half an hour ago, about 6PM. They did take a very long lunch though. Some "Day Without Immigrants."

The evening news was hard to take. Lots of talk about crowds but nothing comparing them to the size of the last rallies, an omission that's odd for television news to make. One "rally organiser" doofus even started talking about "our rights as citizens under the Constitution." Hey! You aren't citizens, so you have no rights under the American Constitution. It doesn't apply to you yet.

Join the club and earn the membership benefits.

As for Memphis itself, if there was a rally, I didn't see a mention on the local evening news, either at 5 or 6PM. If there's something later, I'll update.

Lileks on Suburbia

A perfect kind of description of suburbia from James Lileks:

It was held this year in Rosemount, one of those suburbs I never have a reason to visit. Way the hell out there. I ran out of highway after 20 minutes, and grumbled my way through Saturday-shopper traffic. It was the usual photocopy burb, with the Target and the Home Depot and the Krispy Kreme and chain restaurants arrayed along the road – but in a different order and configuration! Why, it’s like Bizarro land. Eventually I found the road I needed, which lead through the tiny downtown of a town that had existed on its own, miles from the Big Bad City, for decades. Not much there now, save a party store in the ground floor of a slumping heap of bricks, and a concrete bar across the street. But the community center up the road where the event was held was rather new, and huge.