Comment Archives: stories: Last 7 Days
Re: “Legislature passes fair legislation”
This is a big shame. I haven't followed the story of how and why the County opted out of the traditional County Fairgrounds out at E. Henrietta and Calkins. However, that spot is right in the middle of Monroe County, and thus, more fair for all residents who wish to go to it.
Getting rid of the big carnival rides, etc. That is fine, but why do you have to move it? Calkins Rd is accessible by bus. If there's a problem with people parking on roads around the former Fairgrounds, get a posse of deputies together and put up signs saying "You'll get a ticket if you park here" and then hand out the tickets - MC Sheriff and Henrietta Police and volunteers. It takes imagination.
Moving it to Ogden seems to make it remote and separate. What about the pie contests, jam contest etc? Get young people involved in those things -- what about a contest between all high schools to make homemade jams, pies, other things. Because even in the City we grow food or can go to the Public Market and get locally grown cherries, etc. What can we do to bridge the differences between City and non City life in Monroe County?
Re: “Big Brother at work”
Better send for Peter Graves (sorry Tom Cruise) because finding a balance between security and privacy in the 21st. Century is truly a Mission Impossible. The range of opinions is simply too great.
From anti-government, tin foil-hatted paranoiacs on the Far Right, to Libertarians with unrealistic ideas of how to run a society, to Tea Partiers who’re OK with spying on Americans as long as it’s limited to Muslims and other people they don’t like, to middle-of-the-raiders who claim to see both sides of the question but can’t decide which way to lean, to those who don’t give a damn one way or the other, to those who figure that the government is too incompetent to be able to misuse the information they gather, to those who distrust the government (or at least Obama) but feel that the risk of terrorist attacks is greater than the risk to privacy, to those who trust the government to do the right thing.
Now somebody tell me what balance or system of checks and balances can possibly be put in place that can satisfy more than a small percentage of the above groups?
Re: “Orwell and '1984'”
TIM LOUIS MACALUSO - So you believe that a great wrier like Orwell could only have written a novel such as "1984" because of his medical condition? Does that mean that Ray Bradbury was probably suffering from heartburn when he wrote “Fahrenheit 451” (or when Vonnegut wrote “Slaughterhouse- Five”)?
Re: “Medley Centre's long odds”
You should hire Virginia Borden Maier. We already know the mall is dead.
Re: “Analysis finds racial disparity in pot arrests”
Hi MJN - I live in the city's northeast quadrant and I see open-air marijuana sales on the corner near my residence continually, despite arrests made just earlier this week. No I don't believe that the sellers or buyers are dumb or blind. I believe that the sellers are well-motivated and accept the risk willingly. Buyers prefer the convenience of being served right in their cars. Both groups likely have a sense of impunity because police enforcement is rare and inconsistent. Sometimes the police will run some low level harassment (e.g. circling around or maybe idling nearby), but very rarely will they exit their cars. The offenders were involved in some street violence requiring an emergency response just this last weekend and the police chief had within recent weeks also called out the specific street name as a known problem spot, these things being what's most likely prompted the recent arrests.
I'm not actually convinced that drug trafficking and use are quite as prevalent outside of the city as within it. Maybe it is, nevertheless it's only within the city that the law is openly flaunted and it's only within the city that the drug activity correlates to ongoing violence.
The truth is that many people do use marijuana discreetly and without drawing undue attention to themselves and those people maybe go undetected for many years. Other people associate with street gangs, commit various crimes open. Especially when violence flares up, police are forced to respond and, after patting people down, oftentimes the thing which police can most easily charge is marijuana possession.
Re: “Big Brother at work”
MJN - Good points. Seems that a majority of people are satisfied by the deluge of articles penned by PR firms to justify the spying & to clarify that, anyway, PRISM isn't even what we thought it was. Congress "briefings" given by the intelligence directors consist of sanitized talking points & what laws we do have get broadened widely in top secret court opinions. Meanwhile the news cycle moves on. The only wildcard I see remaining is this Snowden/Greenwald duo and whatever they might have left up their sleeves. Supposedly there are multiple leaked documents and Greenwald is working on a second round of articles.