14th & Girard

When a person is told that five police forces patrol in DC, the first comment that comes is "Wow, I bet it's safe!" The implication that "more is better" would be untrue.

The true implication is: where many entities in charge, no one does anything.

Who's going to shut down 14th & Girard, NW? There is about one killing every other month there. Are we going to wait until a middle-class pedestrian gets shot? Or a child?

This rant is not just about that particular park. The US Park Service is responsible for many parks in DC, and are very reluctant to do anything at all. It took two years to get a fence around 11th and Monroe, NW. And half the time the Park Service doesn't lock it at night.

If the US Park Service wants to exercise bureaucratic control over an area, they need to be responsible for patrolling it as well. We're getting sick of this. We pay taxes, we get no vote, and we have no say over half of the city.

Take the Al Jazeera Poll - Should the Virginia Tech Gunman's Video Be Broadcast

By broadcasting the video that the deranged student recorded, the news media is only encouraging copycats. The gunman himself referred to the Columbine killers, no doubt because of their video messages.

Brooke Gladstone of NPR's On The Media said today that airing the videos was the only thing news outlets could do. I disagree. The graphic and offensive images are not providing any new information and only serve to encourage others to follow suit.

Al Jazeera has an online poll. Take it and see what their readers think.

"Morally Retarded"

Let's begin the cultural shift with the introduction of a new phrase: morally retarded.

The phrase is an accurate description of those who go on these mass killing sprees. Too many messages in the popular culture associate a willingness to commit violence with a superiority of character, where the person is depicted as having transcended normal limits.

The opposite is true. People who can commit violence are morally retarded and need to be depicted that way. They've never developed limits because of their moral retardation. Their decision-making capacities are skewed. The result is violence our entire society has to suffer.

Let's change the conversation about violence.

Guns Don't Kill, People Do

And that's the problem. People kill. I know there are many responsible gun owners and hunters. My Dad is one of them. And I am sure that any one of them can pass basic safety criteria and not be upset at needing to have a clean arrest record and proficiency at the firearm they are buying.

And how would the world end if all guns had tracing microchips? If we traced gun ownership like we do car ownership? What is the big need for automatic weapons?

I'd really like to know.