and keeping the rest of the middle class on edge about whether they too are going slide off into poverty does keep them distracted from minor issues like social justice.

otoh, i read somewhere [wish i could find that link] that something like 60% [more? can’t remember] of our incumbent elected politicians are further right than their constituencies. so while it’s society’s fault to some extent for electing these goons, iirc, an awful lot of them were something of trojan horses, only revealing their inner sociopath after they were in office. the shrub did win a lot of people over with his compassionate consrvatism shtick. not all of us, of course, but it was a popular meme a the time.

speaking of which, do you know anything about jeff miller’s challengers? i haven’t found much about them on the web anywhere and it’s been several years since i kept up with local politics much.

Society will spend $100K a day for a premie in a neonatal unit, but won’t spend the $500 for prenatal care that would have resulted in a normal, healthy baby. That is insane.

It’s almost as if the “powers that be” are programming poor people to be criminals, because that’s the only job they can afford.

the connection that it’s harder to get people to see is the myriad ways that the robber barons and their minions have been dismantling everything for the past quarter century. subprime mortgages. usurious fees and interest on credit cards. defined contribution pensions replacing defined benefit pensions. looted and/or mismanaged pension funds. deregulation of commodities trading [enron anyone? and now it’s happening to agricultural commodities — your food]. new, ‘modern’ financial instruments in a new, more ‘nimble’ market. automation/outsourcing/offshoring of good-paying jobs. manipulation of the h1b visas program. the myth of ‘retraining’ go back to college, spend thousands to get another degree, and we’re not going to tell you that once you start making too much money in your new vocation we’re going to do the same thing all over again. not to mention the rise in predatory lending for college loans. health insurance that isn’t. property insurance that isn’t. insane ceo pay. huge tax cuts and loopholes for corporations and the wealthy. tiny tax cuts for the rest of us to keep us from looking behind the curtain.

oh, and the privatization of prisons is making money for the robber barons too.

We wouldn’t be spending all this money on prisons if we had spent a little money on prenatal care and early childhood development, but people don’t see the connection, no matter how many studies prove it exists.

If you want to prevent crime, guarantee that every child will have a happy childhood. That’s the answer; that’s always been the answer; that will always be the answer. We can’t do that, but we need to keep trying. it’s also why we need to elect bunches and bunches of truly liberal politicians, because generous social safety nets really do help.

Back in the days when I was flying commercial, I remember that the people who made me nervous were the “first flyers”. If I had one sitting next to me I knew I would get no sleep, and this was in the days when you could actually fit in a coach seat on an aircraft, and you got fed.

You had to keep up a litany of what was happening – landing gear retracting, flaps retracting, fuel transfer pump – to keep them from going bananas.

After a while I paid full-fare so I wasn’t in uniform and a target for these people. The extra money was worth it.

There is no silver bullet! There is no magic formula! There is no quick and easy solution!

Walking and talking is how you solve crimes and find criminals. You piece together the “clues” and locate the guilty. If you want to prevent crime, guarantee that every child will have a happy childhood. That’s the answer; that’s always been the answer; that will always be the answer. We can’t do that, so we have to go back to walking and talking.

Staff Profile: Dr James Ferryman

Perhaps he should have a team of behavioral scientists and experienced police (as Bryan correctly points out) working with him. Not for the project, they would all know it’ll be a dismal failure, but because he’s a dangerous lunatic.

What a World! LOL

While I doubt the police want to get involved, there are always lawyers available to deal with vigilantes.