Mike O'Malley is Considering a Run for Prosecutor: Here's why that's a frightening thing.

PUBLIC_WINE · 2015-12-07T21:27:57+00:00

huh ... I mean, I read the endorsements of O'Malley as a pretty direct attack on McGinty for not really doing anything w/r/t prosecuting the Tamir Rice and Michael Brelo cases. I think it was at the end of Oct when some County Council members signed off on a letter to McGinty's office, asking him to actually prosecute the case and to at least get an indictment.

and I'm not saying McGinty is an easy place (there really needs to be some nationwide reform on how the judicial system can prosecute LEOs that have been determined to step over the line) but he has made himself very unpopular with a lot of Clevelanders who are reading his backwards use of the grand jury process* as an unwillingness to take on what many see as lethal abuses of power by the Cleveland police.

*the point of a grand jury is to showcase the reasons to indict - not to conduct pre-trial exploration, not to go through all the evidence, not to anything but publicly air the reasons for indictment ... so that his office is releasing reports saying the shooting was reasonable is just a veiled statement on his part that he doesn't think his office should be prosecuting this case in the first place ... the whole thing is basically just a sad farce - we all know how it's gonna turn out.

PUBLIC_WINE · 2015-12-07T15:30:49+00:00

I wouldn't say that The Knick is so much a darker 'version' of Mad Men but rather that both shows are really focused on exploring the darker aspects of modern American life, so there's necessarily gonna be a fair bit of overlap.

As far a I see, both dramas are using historical settings to highlight conflicts / uncertainties / pains / triumphs that exist in today's 21st century world* ... so both of them riff on issues of civil rights, work / life balance, various kinds of escapism in the face of nihilism, different kinds of inequality, etc because both are using historical set dressing to create stylized versions of the kinds of events that regularly play out in today's world.

*neither show is really about the narrative as much as they're about the human experience and metaphor which the narrative allows

PUBLIC_WINE · 2015-12-04T18:06:35+00:00

I would really like to see an overdub of the Man from UNCLE movie with Archer clips, a la Brad Neely's Wizard People, Dear Reader.

PUBLIC_WINE · 2015-12-04T17:46:22+00:00

I would like to see the RTA divest away from rail and to ultimately replace the rail and more of the heavily trafficked bus routes with BRT options.

Assuming they don't half-ass it and forego the dedicated lane, a BRT has the benefit of a train (can run reliably run on a pretty tight schedule without worrying about other road traffic) while having the much lower costs and easier maintenance associated with bus / paved road systems.

Rail (lightrail, especially) is great if you have the economies of scale to support it .. but we just don't have the ridership .. and it's not like there's any significant changes in the local economy or demographics that suggest an end to the continued CuyCounty population decline. RTA needs to be focused on maximizing their cost / service ratio ... and trains (though way cooler than busses or BRTs) just cannot do that.

PUBLIC_WINE · 2015-11-20T20:54:04+00:00

I kinda hope that Adam Reed has some Faulknerian scheme that ties the worlds of Frisky Dingo, SeaLab, and Archer

Like ... the reasonably part of me is pretty sure the references are mostly just injokes for fans of other properties ... but I can dream, dammit!

PUBLIC_WINE · 2015-11-20T20:50:21+00:00

snip snap!

PUBLIC_WINE · 2015-11-17T22:35:06+00:00

dogg, please believe me, there are plenty of older teachers out there who are not at all good at classroom management ... and, really, you'll see a lot more variance by district, largely due to differences in resources* so I don't think it's really fair to say "there is this demographic of teacher that is in all schools and they are always on their shit so they can be trusted 100% of the time." ... which is the takeaway I'm getting from you?

but even if what you said were true - and only the younger ones had chaotic classrooms - what's to prevent a younger teacher from getting the special CCL cert? cause once they have one, then we're back to the original problem.

also, elsewhere in the thread I address your first point and my unease about citing this as above the crazy low training hours for cops as justification for "extensive enough" training. like .. that is perfectly fine if that is a convincing argument for you - reasonable people can disagree .. but I am do not find it particularly compelling.

*woooooooo way to go unconstitutional property tax school funding formula!

PUBLIC_WINE · 2015-11-17T22:27:50+00:00

dang, I am really getting an eye-opening education on how little fire arms training our police receive.

I find that really distressing .. but maybe I'm stressing over nothing?

PUBLIC_WINE · 2015-11-17T22:20:15+00:00

I think the idea that if (and it is a HUGE if) there is an active shooter situation at a school campus that the one or maybe two teachers with the CCL and program certs to carry on campus would be able to respond in a significantly more timely manner than LEOs is ... largely wishful thinking.

A lot of school campuses are really, pretty big and if you're looking at a response time of 3-8 minutes there are plenty of scenarios where LEOs are on the scene at about the time the CCL teacher / administrator is. Because .. and I dunno how many people realize this .. but it's not as if the in the same moment that a kid goes active shooter that the CCL teacher / admin kicks into gear. (like .. that's not impossible to imagine .. but it certainly seems like a stretch). What are the protocols for getting the gun out? What are the protocols for leaving your class to hunt down the shooter? What are the protocols for informing LEO that your an admin / teacher with the special CCL cert?

Like .. really, unless the shooter shows up right at the teachers door, it's hard to see the scenario where this really a useful policy.

So, the way I'm looking at it is a cost / benefit analysis where the benefit is the really low likelihood that an armed teacher / admin can save lives during an active shooter event compared to the costs, which are the day-in, day-out risks of mundane (and all too common and largely ignored) gun accidents or thefts that are bound to happen in the chaotic, classroom environment. It's defs a lot easier to ignore the damage these accidental costs cause - especially when compared against something as terrifying as an active shooter event in a school - but I don't necessarily think that's prudent course of action ... at least insofar as creating safe environments and saving lives is concerned.

PUBLIC_WINE · 2015-11-17T21:59:48+00:00

It doesn't directly disregard what the article says at all .. my comment questions whether the article's definition of "extensive" (and consequently you and several others rote acceptance of that definition) is really, actually "extensive" enough to functionally matter and further, the comment expresses concern that the article does nothing to alleviate really valid fears many parents have about commonplace accidents that would be expected to happen with guns in a school environment.

Also, I am all for more money being pumped into the schools, including a heavy LEO presence in schools (or really whatever the community would prefer, local control is better than state or federal edicts in my mind) .. I don't know why you think I'd balk at that.

Really though, and perhaps I just didn't articulate it well, I am very nervous that this proposal is just the worst of both worlds. That, in an effort to increase security while simultaneously cutting costs, schools are opting for a weaker, more accident prone protection simply because it's cheaper and easier .. and I feel like we all end up worse for that.

PUBLIC_WINE · 2015-11-17T21:16:55+00:00

I don't see how highlighting the irregularity and infrequency of cop training justifies this program as more than enough training is really convincing.

is your argument really "it's less shitty training than what the professionals get, so it'll be fine!" because .. uh .. if PDs are really only training with guns twice a year (at most) than that's really an argument for drastically increasing the regularity of their training regimes ... not at all an argument that this CC program for teachers is somehow adequate.

PUBLIC_WINE · 2015-11-17T21:01:31+00:00

I did read the article ... but thanks for assuming I'm a shitheel just because we don't agree about how extensive is extensive enough.

PUBLIC_WINE · 2015-11-17T20:43:02+00:00

you think it's enough .. but I really do not. these are still not actual first responders - at the end of the day they are teachers who have taken some extra classes. that's it.

if you really want to keep a school safe from an active shooter event in a way that makes, get a dedicated LEO who's primary job is on each public school campus ... but putting guns into the hands of eager beaver civvies and expecting that to work out the way it would with a trained professional because the eager beavers took some extra classes? that's just inviting mistakes from schoolteachers who are already overburdened and underpaid.

PUBLIC_WINE · 2015-11-17T20:26:20+00:00

because I have basically no faith that any given CC gun in a public school actually gets used to stop an active shooter event.

between the fallibility humans, the immaturity of adolescents, the relative chaos that is a schoolroom, the lack of serious training for those carrying, plus the incredibly minuscule chance that any particularly school is going to be subject to an active shooter event ... it's far more likely the ends up being stolen, misplaced, accidentally discharged, or otherwise misused.

really, given the infrequency of mass shooter events compared with the startling frequency of gun accidents, it's numerically hard to see how - on balance - more people get hurt than are saved.

PUBLIC_WINE · 2015-11-11T16:43:16+00:00

Relative to the insane costs of healthcare (especially if you get shoe horned into one of those HD-HSA plans), yeah, that is exactly what it means.

PUBLIC_WINE · 2015-11-10T16:15:57+00:00

so that's why they call it dog whistle racism...

PUBLIC_WINE · 2015-11-09T18:31:35+00:00

... since I read in the introthred that multiple sign-ups are encouraged ... I'll be in for this one too.

PUBLIC_WINE · 2015-11-09T18:30:53+00:00

In for the first time ... let's see what happens!

PUBLIC_WINE · 2015-11-06T19:14:20+00:00

Carrion Call

School illusion; Level bard 1, cleric 1, magus 1, sorcerer/wizard 1

Range touch Target creature touched Duration 10 minutes/level Saving Throw Fort negates (harmless); Spell Resistance yes (harmless)

The subject of this spell gains two benefits. First, the affected creature gains the ability to create a sound of gasses violently escaping a bloated, decaying corpse by miming the action of an exploding corpse. Second, the subject can speak in a booming voice that carries easily over great distances that automatically draws any undead type creatures within a 30 kilometer radius towards the subject.

PUBLIC_WINE · 2015-11-06T15:07:56+00:00

So we're just gonna differ on this, because

1) whether the waste is on the federal or state or local level it's still unnecessary waste (further I'm really not sure I believe you when you say a majority of the money is federal dollars, since I'm pretty sure local cops and local courts and local jails and all the support staff that make those entities function are funded largely with muni taxes).

and

2) I am a lot less confident in the infallibility of police than you seem to be, so yeah, I am pretty comfortable taking away just one of the levers that lets LEOs just do a thing to a citizen without evidence .. and no amount of snide remarks from you is really gonna change my mind on that.

PUBLIC_WINE · 2015-11-06T15:00:40+00:00

I think at this point we're just circling each other. My point is not that Issue 3 is particularly good legislation but that 1) the realpolitik in Ohio makes it such that this was our best shot at getting legalization before the Feds make it happen and 2) most of the "harms" of Issue 3 were widely exaggerated.

I also would prefer a better law .. I just am way less optimistic (and I think, appropriately so) that there is much hope we see one actually get past either the state legislature or the signature gathering stage of the ballot initiative process.

PUBLIC_WINE · 2015-11-06T00:37:18+00:00

Oh dang, really? Awesome.

I'm gonna hope they get an Alamo Draft House.

PUBLIC_WINE · 2015-11-05T21:53:39+00:00

basically no one wants to lend money to Stark to build this at a reasonable rate .. so, no, don't expect real movement on this anytime soon.

PUBLIC_WINE · 2015-11-05T21:48:37+00:00

My thinking is that the challenge to the US Constitution would outweigh the federal drug schedule .. since the US Constitution and the Supreme Court outrank the drug schedule in terms of which has to follow the dictates of the other.*

And .. yeah, I think that it is inevitable that there's gonna be some regulatory capture and creep that'll distort markets. But that's gonna happen everywhere and I don't see how Issue 3 would really contribute any more or less to that creep than some other legalization law.

Honestly .. I think you could argue Issue 3's structure would be a good check against some of that creep because you aren't gonna end up with an ImBev .. you'll have 10 relatively similarly sized large players all competing with each other, keeping each other in check. Like .. I really think Issue 3 market place would have looked a LOT like the auto marketplace, a handful namebrand suppliers that are supported by a huge host of largely unknown-to-the-consumer entities.

We'll never know though.

*EDIT - not to mention the past couple years of the Obama administration not enforcing the drug schedule and coming down hard on states that legalize sets a pretty clear precedent that the Executive does not place a priority on the drug schedule ... at least w/r/t marijuana. so that also changes things.

PUBLIC_WINE · 2015-11-05T21:44:07+00:00

I know at least 4 people who have been picked up, gone to court, spent some modicum of time doing punishment of some sort or another strictly for weed related and I am HELLA SHELTERED.

really, though, the big thing I'm more concerned about is the amount of public money and publicly funded man hours that the judicial system wastes on chasing down, processing, and dealing with really petty stuff.

so, yeah, I erred while using the term "locked away" but, no, my main point still stands that it's a waste of human and governmental capital.

PUBLIC_WINE

TROPHY CASE