Friday, December 29, 2006
It's no secret that I like Warren Bolton more than the Brad Warthen or Cindi Scoppe mainly because he doesn't demonize his opponents. But he does get his fair share of issues wrong.Check out the latest column. Even though your siblings told you not to snitch, your Mom warned you not to be a tattletale, and your schoolmates taught you not to rat them out, good ol' Warren thinks what we need is a society of informers.If you want a safer society there are a lot of things we need but more snitches isn't one of them. We need better, more enforceable/sensible laws; more resources and better training for police; more police; focus on more serious violent crimes and less on smaller violations; truth-in-sentencing (less parole); perhaps most importantly, we need more opportunities through decent education.Bolton tries to equate "snitching" with citizen cooperation. No. Any citizen who sees a crime should assist and cooperate with the police. But volunteering information to get a lighter sentence must be discouraged. Encouraging citizens to fabricate stories to tell the police what they want to here is downright dangerous and inimical to a free society. Mr. Bolton, please let me introduce you to Corey Maye, Kenneth Jamar, Kathryn Johnston, Acelynne Williams, etc., etc. Oh hell, if you want to break with State tradition and do some research, look at the map and check out the entire report.
Posted by Bill Smith at 12:39 PM |
0 comments
Thursday, December 28, 2006
The State takes one giant leap for informed journalism, unbiased reporting, decency and common sense. On behalf of a grateful South Carolina, all I can say is "thank you."
Posted by Bill Smith at 1:27 PM |
2 comments
Friday, December 22, 2006
Even reasonable arguments are made badly in The State.At 7 cents a pack — the nation’s lowest, 93 cents below the national average — we practically beg kids to smoke.
Look, we're not "begging teenagers to smoke" since teenage smoking is illegal. Maybe it's the right thing to raise cigarette taxes, maybe it's not. But taking thing A (too low taxes on cigarettes) and characterizing it as Thing B (an "invitation to smoke") you're demonstrating a disconnect from reality.
Posted by Bill Smith at 1:24 AM |
17 comments
Friday, December 08, 2006
Dateline, Friday—The State's Brad Warthen publishes another utterly uncompelling look at why anti-free speech laws campaign finance regulations must be rigorously enforced. Meanwhile, in a more daring piece, Dave Weigel at Hit-&-Run patiently explains why free participation in politics is The American Way and muzzling citizens isn't likely to work anyhow.
I'd bet cash money that Brad Warthen isn't brave enough to address the real issue: that spending money to get your message out is called free speech. Warthen = Chicken.
Posted by Bill Smith at 12:07 PM |
17 comments
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
I'm taking a page from the divine Sunny Philips's playbook: No off-topic posts on comments. You can tell me I'm a fool or a jerk or a prophet—based on the substance of the post, of course—but this isn't a place for people to grandstand on their random, out-of-left-field agendas. I'll be doing all the ax-grinding and ox-goring up in this piece, thank you very much.
Also: visit Sunny's blog; she has far-and-away the best web-design on the SC blogosphere. Laurin Manning, eat your heart out.
Posted by Bill Smith at 4:20 PM |
6 comments
Sunday, December 03, 2006
Cindi Scoppe has a crush on me. Why else would she behave like this? To see her swooning this way, smitten by my charms, desperately vying for my attention, fantasizing about what it would be like to be held in my arms, enthralled by the thought of a life of inseperable companionship, marked by connubial bliss, domestic tranquility, innumerable children and pets etc., etc.—it's all a little bit pathetic really. I'm embarassed for her.
The day after being excoriated on this blog for her premature declaration of defeat of school choice of this election, she feigns ignorance and files this ridiculous column. It's quite clearly a cry for attention. In some ways, this is not at all unlike when your previously potty-trained toddler has an accident. One step forward, one step back. You're upset about the mess but it's hard to stay angry at the child.
Cindi, I still care about you. But not like that.
Look, you're interpreting the tea leaves about school choice. But school choice wasn't on the ballot. Governor Sanford, chief cheerleader and architect of school choice, was on the ballot. (He won.) Thomas Ravenel, darling of the school-choice movement in South Carolina because he both runs a business and is pro-business, was on the ballot. (He also won.) Richard Eckstrom was on the ballot. (A friend of school choice, Eckstrom won.) Lewis Vaughn, the #1 proponent of school choice in the State House, got elected to the State Senate in a romp. The victories just kept 'a comin'.
Now, Jim Rex also won. But—as per comment #20 in the post directly below—we can't know why. But there were a heckuva lot of issues besides school choice. One was Karen Floyd's previous service in Spartanburg County, which Democrats implied led to the tragic death of a Wofford College employee. (Classy move, Democrats! What's next—kidnapping opposing candidates' tykes?) Another was huge Democrat turnout. Another was the Insider v. Outsider debate. Etc., etc. And then of course there was the vote-stealing which the Democrats have perfected into an art form; it's enough to make Katherine Harris blush!
The point is that Cindi Scoppe is living in a fantasy world where parents don't want any more choices for their children, because the current SC schools are just peachy keen. (Or can be fixed without breaking the monopoly.) Ha! Good one, Cindi! I love a gal with a sense of humor. No, NOT LIKE THAT.
In a world where kids' parents will be able to choose between buying their rugrats one of the three latest game consoles, wouldn't it be nice if they could also choose a little unimportant thing like where they go to school?
Posted by Bill Smith at 11:13 PM |
21 comments
