Philadelphia, The City of Brotherly Irony

ELEVEN students from Julia R. Masterman Laboratory and Demonstration School were filming an antiviolence video when they were attacked after school Monday by other youths, school district officials said yesterday.

"Hey, I have an idea! Let's get rid of violence by making a video! THAT's what has been missing in this city!"

In a city where certain elements have been encouraged to avoid learning the lessons of the jungle this irony hits the sidewalk faster than pigeon poop falling from the statue of Willie Penn.

"We normally don't have trouble at [Masterman]," said Police Capt. Dennis Wilson. "A group that was looking for trouble ran into them and wanted to fight."

Gee, Captain. What did you think would be the result of revolving door courts that keep dumping troublemakers back into the community would be?

At one time in this nation we locked up kids who beat up other kids. The result was that our kids got an education. Now we don't lock up kids who beat up other kids and our kids are not getting educated. I wonder how we should fix this?

Make a video about it?

Ironically, school officials said, the students from Masterman, 17th and Spring Garden streets, were filming a video about rampant violence in Philadelphia. The video included a skit in which one student shoots another because the shooter mistakenly believes that the other stole his sneakers.

The 11 Masterman students, members of the school's African-American Cultural Committee, were in front of the Community College of Philadelphia, across the street at 17th and Spring Garden, about 4:30 when a larger group from nearby schools approached, Assistant Principal Mary Ann Tancredi said.

The Masterman students reported that their assailants had been looking for someone specific, asking, " 'Is that him? Is that him?' " according to schools spokesman Fernando Gallard.

Although the youths did not find their apparent target, Gallard said, they began attacking several Masterman students, some of whom ran back into the school to escape.

And how many of these "youths" will be jailed?

Arrested were Malique Sherril, 18, a Benjamin Franklin High School student, and two 13-year-old boys who attend Laura Wheeling Waring School. Police said all three would be charged with aggravated assault, simple assault and related charges. All three will be suspended.

SUSPENDED! Oh, the HORROR! Kids who are probably disruptive to class and apparently only go to school in order to cause trouble are going to be SUSPENDED!

How about slapping all of them into a jail until such time that they are ready for prison? What were their prior records? Why do I have a feeling that they could probably find their baby daddy in there?

Malcolm Carrington, 13, of West Oak Lane, said he and his classmates had been taunted by students from other schools while walking to and from the nearby Broad Street Subway.

"They think we're not streetwise," he said. "Sometimes I worry about becoming a victim. That's why we walk in groups."

Great job, Philly mayor and cops. You can burn down a city block to get at a few loud-mouths and eventually will stop a serial killer when the stench of rotting flesh coming from his house gets to be too much for his neighbors but when you are watching the next generation of trouble makers at work you just turn away. Let the few good kids who are at least TRYING to learn (despite being handicapped by liberal falsehoods) are being harassed. And the Philly mayor will sit there with his thumb up his butt and let crime get worse.

A Very Important Read

I don't claim to have fully given this post the full attention it deserves. I've skimmed it but need to take a more careful read of it and apply critical thinking to it.

Yes, I do that even to articles that tell me what I want to hear. It's actually more important for those articles than for ones I disregard.

It's at War On Guns and is worth the time and effort.

Touchy-Feely

I am not a huge "touchy-feely" guy. I do a lot of touchy-feely with my wife but outside of that I'm not a big fan of casual intimacy. I don't believe in hugging everyone.

I have a MAJOR problem with casual kissing.

Now, we see Jesse Jackson "greeting" Chelsea Clinton.

He looks like he's giving his least favorite maiden auntie a peck on the cheek. She looks like she's bracing for a smooch from a too amorous uncle. Maybe her dad has a brother?

Why are you two adults putting on this show when you are both so obviously uncomfortable?

To show that you are both able to kiss someone with cooties?

Is it a sin to say "I really don't go around kissing people outside of my marriage"?

Is it a sin to decline kisses from people you aren't married to?

Yes, I know Chelsea is not married but Jackson is. I'm reasonably certain he is not married to Chelsea Clinton. Why is a married man kissing an unmarried woman?

Haven't they heard of handshakes?

Packin'

Okay, if you are stalking me then you already know I am packing.

Not boxes. Not at this moment, anyway.

My CHL, referred to in the write up of my class, came through.

I haven't completed even 30 days of carrying on a daily basis and already not being armed feels "wrong".

I have 4 situations when I don't have a gun immediately upon my body. One of them is in the shower.

I wouldn't count on being able to tell when I'm in the shower if you really are stalking me.

Over a year ago I decided what I WOULD carry when I was licensed. I have kept to that decision, choosing to train with the Glock firearm system. I own other firearms but what I have on me is normally a Glock. What I have near me is normally a Glock.

What I carry is normally a Glock.

If you haven't stalked me I won't make it easy to figure out the carry methods. I keep experimenting with them, anyway. What is true last week may be different next week.

I even carry at home. I'm not one to lock up my gun just because I'm in my house. Since I read that most armed citizen encounters occur in the walls of one's own home I have committed to making sure I'm armed there.

Yes, I could have been doing that all along without the plastic. If had read that tidbit before now I probably would have carried at home before now.

I follow the letter and spirit of the laws that I am licensed under. I will, however, continue to lobby to increase the legal recognition of my real rights.

Gun Grabbin' Ray Horsing around with an M4

What's wrong with this image?

The thing most wrong with it is that Ray Nagin can play with hardware YOU can't buy.

That's right. Mr. Contempt of Court is able to play with toys YOU can't buy since only cops can have full autos and select fires made/imported after 1986.

You couldn't legally buy that toy he's holding from your gun dealer, however if you were a criminal it probably would only run a couple of thousand dollars, if that much. I don't know for a fact since I don't hang out with criminals but you can bet your bippy that they won't spend money for guns when there is bling to buy.

Now for the real question. Why aren't the New Orleans and Louisiana press crucifying Gun Grabbin' Ray for stealing property from law-abiding citizens? For the man to get close to pointing his finger and saying "bang" the press should be scalding him like a chicken for plucking.

Or maybe the press in Louisiana likes the mayor for stealing property from tax-paying, law-abiding citizens?

Is THAT why they will act like Ray Nagin is some sort of priceless art piece?

Which is worse? The lying scum-sucking bottom feeder living on the government payroll after stealing from honest citizens or the press that won't stand up for the people?

Nagin has that laughing jackass holding the other M4 to go out with that assault poodle shooter and take tax money away from honest citizens. The press seems to think they can TELL people what to think and not suffer for it.

Yet they still wonder why there is a decline in circulation?

Their investors should be asking about that little problem.

The Brits March Into Oblivion, again

England's commissioner for children and a civil liberties group joined in on a campaign Tuesday to ban high-frequency devices intended to drive misbehaving children away from shops and other areas.

The so-called "Mosquito" device emits high-frequency noise which is audible — and annoying — to young ears, but generally not heard by people over 20.

"This device is a quick fix that does not tackle the root cause of the problem and it is indiscriminate," English Children's Commissioner Al Aynsley-Green said.

You are right, Al. It does not tackle the root cause of the problem.

The root cause of the problem is you stopped spanking kids and you stopped locking up kids who were into stealing, breaking things and being a pain in the ass. You even stopped making those trouble makers go into the military.

So, with undisciplined, spoiled kids being handed welfare from the cradle and unemployment as soon as they can stumble out of school you wind up with generations of white trash.

You really should have left that up to your cousins on this side of the pond. We can create white trash who turn into millionaires. You just turn your millionaires into white trash.

Aynsley-Green said in an interview with British Broadcasting Corp. radio that the devices do not tackle the real problem, which is that children have no place to gather other than on the streets.

"I think it is a powerful symptom of what I call the malaise at the heart of our society," he said.

"I'm very concerned about what I see to be an emerging gap between the young and the old, the fears, the intolerance, even the hatred, of the older generation toward the young."

It is the JOB of the older generation to be intolerant of the young. If the young had any sense they wouldn't tolerate themselves.

There is no amount of shoving safety pins though your lip or chartreuse dyed Mohawks that will make up for getting an education and working your ass off every day.

I realize that my name doesn't have a hyphen in it but I would have sworn that morons like Al could grasp these subtleties.

Shami Chakrabarti, director of the civil rights group Liberty, supported the campaign.

"Imagine the outcry if a device was introduced that caused blanket discomfort to people of one race or gender, rather than to our kids," Chakrabarti said. "The 'Mosquito' has no place in a country that values its children and seeks to instill them with dignity and respect."

Dignity? Respect?

Respect is EARNED. It's not a handout from the nanny state! Dignity is when you fall on your face in a pile of dung and get up and brush yourself off and keep doing your job. Any of the punks in this story doing that? Or are they whining about how they aren't able to shoplift enough for a new iPod?

Well, Shami? Which is it?

"People talk about infringing human rights but what about the human rights of the shopkeeper who is seeing his business collapse because groups of unruly teenagers are driving away his customers?"

What about their rights, indeed.

Another Must Read

For me to refer folks to HWT is somewhat silly but if I steer just one person who hasn't found the place by way of my sidebar or some other path then I have done something good.

This post on the topic of gun control is well reasoned.

If you keep digging down to the root of their dislike of firearms you will generally find that what is really motivating them is a hatred not of the firearm itself, which is an inanimate object after all, but rather a deep hatred of the kind of person who chooses to own and carry a firearm for self protection.

The person who chooses to carry a firearm is above all stating that he or she is willing to take responsibility for their own life and safety. This is why gun control is a fixture of the political left because the idea of individuals taking responsibility for themselves is anathema to the left. The left's ideal of the perfect world is a population mired in helpless dependency upon the state (which will be ruled by the enlightened masters of the Left) for every necessity of life from protection from crime to their housing and health care to their next meal.

Go and read the rest and be enlightened.

Old school.