Posted by Dan Rodricks at 11:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

This technology has been around for a few years, I'm told, but I just had my first experience with it.

Stopped at the Safeway on North Charles, and I parked on the street with the expectation of running into the supermarket and picking up some plums. (I usually park in the parking lot.)

Once in the store, I realized I needed more than just plums, so I grabbed a shopping cart and, quicker than you can say Pork-Chop-Special, I had a full cart of groceries.

Paid for my stuff.

Pushed the cart out of the store, down the walkway toward Charles Street and my car.

Got about one foot past the end of the store and the wheels of the shopping cart locked. I stopped short. At first I figured the wheels had gone funky, as they sometimes do. It was suddenly quite weird -- I couldn't budge the thing. It was as if the cart were being held to the pavement by a super-magnet. Then I noticed the sign on the inside of the cart:

This cart protected by anti-theft device. Wheels will lock.

As a Safeway employe explained, there's an electric fence in the pavement, marked with a yellow line I had never noticed before, and a sensor in the cart. Try to push the cart over the line and, slamm-o, you're done. No curbside parcel pickup for you!

Here's more info from The Raw Feed and Metroactive

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 7:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
                    

J-Rod, the girl who lives in my house, became an Orioles fan on July 7, when Erik Bedard mowed down the Texas Rangers. He faced the minimum 27 batters during a complete game shutout, allowing just two hits and striking out 15. (Both times the Rangers got hits, the next batter hit into a double play.) Oh, what a night.

Since then, the second half of the summer of 2007 has been a schizo roller-coaster ride for J-Rod and other Orioles fans. We saw them create a nice buzz with a new manager, win some games in dramatic fashion, beat the Yankees, 12-0, beat the Red Sox -- even sweep the Red Sox at home -- and then fall apart. The Rangers that Bedard dominated beat our Birds in historic fashion, 30-3, just 10 days ago. It's been all down hill from there.

J-Rod has been to The Yard for a game, and she's been otherwise glued to MASN every time the Orioles are on. And she doesn't shut the TV off when they hit the deadly 8th inning and blow leads. Despite this lousy slide that we're in, I am pretty certain J-Rod will be an Orioles fan for life. I encouraged her to blog away, and she did:

This summer I became an Orioles fan. I think you could attribute a lot of my new obsession to a teenage girl’s eye candy, Brian Roberts. It's also the idea of supporting my hometown baseball team that has me in front of the TV each night. This summer I have devoted many long nights to watching the Orioles win some and lose many. Recently, my Orioles’ spirit has been temporarily shattered, after they lost their ninth game in a row last night. The Oriole fan in me has crumbled to little more than a fan of Brian Roberts’ good looks.  Once again the Orioles are in a losing streak and once again fans are devastated. What the Orioles need is to be able to end games in the fifth inning -- they would win them all if they could do that! They start games out so well, but by the 6th or 7th inning everything falls apart. I do not know that much about baseball, but I do think that all the Orioles really need are some good relievers. Next season should be a season to redeem themselves, with some new young players and a fresh start. But for now all we can do is hope this season ends on a positive note. Win one for Dave.

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 6:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

The SS John W. Brown returned home to Pier One, Clinton Street on schedule this morning and rang up, "Finished with Engines." Project Liberty Ship Chairman Mike Schneider called the three-week trip to New England "a very successful" Yankee Adventure with thousands of visitors. More than 35 media took notice of the Brown's presence in Boston and Portland. Here's a photo of Baltimore's Liberty ship at the Cape Cod Canal.

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 5:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

Sun reader Arnie Goldberg read yesterday's column, then wrote this letter, quoting his wife extensively:

I read your column relative to the court system and my wife is correct as most wives are. (I was right once this year, but that's another story.) My wife thinks that we should have professional jurors especially those that are retired. They have the time, the experience and the smarts to be jurors. The cost of selecting 12 people is extraordinary and is a waste of the tax payers money.
 
My wife is correct on another issue. Term limits. We both agree that a one-time 6-year presidential term would be in the best interests of the people. The president spends 2 years learning his job and then the next 2 years campaigning for re-election. This reminds me of a question I have always had. While elected members of Congress are campaigning.e.g. Clinton, Obama et al, who is doing their jobs in Washington? They have been elected by their respective districts/states and they are running for another office. I would argue that if they want to run for another office they should resign from the office they are holding.
 
One other subject on which my wife Dorothy is correct. Let professional ball players get paid a minimum of $ 100,000 per year and an incentive program for additional pay, e.g."x" amount for hits home runs etc. This may ensure better baseball and the fans get more bang for their buck.
 
That's all for now. (boy, I'm glad I got that off my chest)
 
Arnie

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 1:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

My reaction to Roy Riley's $52 million lawsuit -- $52.3 million, to be exact -- against the building management for not installing smoke detectors in a West Baltimore apartment where Riley's fiancee, son and the fiancee's niece died went something like this: Sorry for your loss, and everyone can understand why you're upset and suing, but why didn't you install a smoke detector yourself? And sorry if that sounds cold, but to me it's just common sense: If my landlord doesn't install a smoke detector, then I'm going to get one and hang it myself -- especially if there are little kids under my roof.

Riley's lawyer, David Ellin,said he hoped the lawsuit would prompt other landlords to be aware of their responsibility, saying, "Instead of trying to save a few bucks, they might try to save a few lives."

Hey, I'm glad there's a public-interest aspect to this $52.3 million lawsuit. (Right.)

But an adult in this situation should have taken responsibility for the smoke detector. If the landlord didn't, then the adults living in the apartment should have. It would have cost them nothing and saved everything.

Here's comment from reader Linda Miller:

I read with interest your column of 8/23, and I agree with your take on
Roy Riley's needing to take some responsibility for not obtaining a
smoke detector even if his landlord would not. Of course, every time
there is a fire and no smoke detector, I think what you do:  Huh?
Where's your common sense?  Here's the story I want to tell you:

My son and his wife and 4 children (ages 3-9) were asleep at 2:30 a.m.
when my son heard the smoke detector go off. Annoyed at being awaked, he
cursed the 'stupid' smoke detector and went downstairs to turn it off.
What a shock when he saw the kitchen was in flames.  He ran upstairs,
woke up his wife, practically threw his older girls down the steps, went
back and grabbed the twins, got everyone outside, including the dogs.
While my daughter-in-law called the Fire Department, my son got the hose from
the side of the house and proceeded his attempt to reduce the damage as
much as possible.  The fire truck was there within 4 minutes.  The fire
stayed contained to the kitchen, though there was water damage to the
basement playroom.  The most important thing is, they are all well with
a story to tell (not a funeral for the family to prepare).  They're even
getting a new kitchen that the insurance will pay for.  So there you
have it--another testament for  the $10 (or whatever) smoke detector.
Thanks for your reminder.  People NEED to see it! 

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 12:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
                    

Baltimore State's Attorney Patricia Jessamy is crowing about a victim testifying for the prosecution  and helping to secure a conviction in an attempted murder case. Amazing, no?

You'd think this sort of thing is rare in the City That Bleeds, which, of course, it is.

One of the big problems in Baltimore is witness intimidation -- and guys with criminal records (at least those who survive shootings) absolutely refusing to cooperate with police, even if it means letting their assailants walk.

This afternoon, after two days of testimony and an hour of deliberations, a Circuit Court jury convicted 39-year-old Joseph Brinkley, of Baker Street in West Baltimore, on two counts of attempted first-degree murder and handgun charges. (Attempted murder-in-the-first carries a max penalty of life. The handgun counts carry max of 20 years. Judge Paul E. Alpert scheduled sentencing for November 7, 2007.)

According to the prosecutor's office, two men stepped out of an apartment on Oakfield Avenue, on Nov. 11, 2005, and hailed a hack. For some reason -- not disclosed -- Brinkley ran into the street after them and fired nine times from a 9mm semiautomatic handgun. Both men were hit multiple times in the back. The driver was unharmed and drove the victims to find the nearest ambulance.

"One of the victims was in a coma from the injuries for almost three weeks and lost [a] lung," according to a narratiuve of the case issued by Jessamy's office. "Initially, when interviewed by detectives a month after the shooting, he gave a taped statement indicating he did not see who shot him. However, after Brinkley approached him and his nine-year old son a year later, the victim came forward and identified Brinkley as the shooter.

"This witness was the only eyewitness and his compelling and truthful testimony at trial, despite his earlier statements, helped secure this conviction."

Said Jessamy: "This is a perfect example of how the system can work when victims and witnesses come forward to testify. This victim is very brave and should be commended for coming forward."

Baltimore desperately needs more of this. It's not snitching. It's the right thing.

REMINDS ME OF A CASE I COVERED A FEW YEARS AGO:

Testimony shines light into a dark city episode
Friday, March 22, 2002

   HERE WE HAVE inspiration from the battered, broken junkie streets of East Baltimore. Here, at the center of one of the most depressing tales of city life, is Rachel Rogers. Attention must be paid, and the moment savored, by all who yearn for a new day, when the drug addicts come clean and the dealers disappear and the children play without fear on the sidewalks. Here we have the story of Rachel Rogers, who did the right thing.

    Maybe it was guilt of having spent, at the age of 28, half her life addicted to cocaine and heroin -- of having been a regular customer of the killer-dealers -- that persuaded Rogers to stop lying and to tell the truth about what she saw.Maybe it was the horror of experience, a tormenting memory of that March night a year ago in the rain on Harford Road.

    Whatever compelled Rogers to testify yesterday afternoon against her old friend and drug supplier, Howard Whitworth, the accused cop-killer known as "Wee," it was not fear of jail.

    No deal had been struck for her testimony.

    Here she was, in dark fleece pullover, telling in simple, clear and awful detail what happened to "Officer Mike" -- Michael Cowdery, 31 years old -- so that the state of Maryland might secure a conviction against her old friend, Wee.

    Rogers sat on the witness stand, about 25 feet across the carpeted, well-appointed courtroom from the jury. Wee sat at a table to her right, about 15 feet away. The prosecutor, Don Giblin, asked the questions.

    "You have a drug problem?" Giblin asked Rogers.

    "Yes, since I was 14," she said.

    Did Rogers know a young man named Mookie?

    Yes.

    Did she know another named Turbo?

    Yes, Mookie and Turbo were drug dealers.

    One of them, a man with braided Medusa hair named Darrell "Turbo" Bizzell, admitted to this during testimony yesterday morning. He said he and his nephew, William "Mookie" Houston, sold Ready Rock, crack cocaine. One of the customers was Rachel Rogers.

    She was with Mookie and Turbo in the Harford Road carryout known as Mike's on March 12, 2001.

    It was about 10 p.m.

    The police came -- four of them, part of a special unit with the dangerous assignment of breaking up the open-air drug markets that thrived for years in the Eastern District.

    Turbo stepped out of the carryout to have a smoke in the rain. That's when he first saw the police officers, all dressed in dark clothing with "hoodies" for their heads, identification tags dangling from chains about their necks.

    Within a minute or so, all four officers -- a woman and three men, including Cowdery -- were standing directly opposite Turbo, Mookie and Rogers. The one Rogers knew as "Officer Mike" stood directly opposite her. In the official jargon of the Baltimore Police Department, these officers were conducting a "field interview." Thousands of them have occurred in the city in the last two years. It is part of the grand plan of Baltimore's mayor and police commissioner to break the cycle of drug dealing and shootings that have ruined large swaths of the city.

    Suddenly Rogers heard the female officer yell, "He has a gun."

    Rogers looked to her right. She saw her old friend, Wee Whitworth, coming toward the group. He wore a black or blue hoodie. He had a silver gun in his hand.

    Rogers heard a shot.

    What happened next? "What does Mookie do?" Giblin, the prosecutor asked.

    "Run," said Rogers.

    "What does Turbo do?"

    "Ran."

    "The officer facing Mookie, what does he do?"

    "Run."

    "The officer facing Turbo, what does he do?"

    "Run."

    "The lady officer, what does she do?"

    "Run."

    "The officer talking to you, Officer Mike, what does ... he ... do?"

    "Fall," Rogers said, her voice fading. "He fell on my legs. ... He fell on me." And it was here that the awful truth about that night and her many years as a drug addict seemed to come crushing in from three sides at once. Here was where Rachel Rogers cried.

    Someone handed her a box of tissues, and she wiped her eyes.

    On the night of the shooting, when detectives asked her to identify the shooter, Rogers refused to give up her old friend and drug dealer, Wee.

    "I wasn't going to tell them," Rogers said.

    "Why?" Giblin asked.

    "My friend," Rogers said.

    Her friend and drug provider, Wee.

    But by May, Rogers had changed her mind.

    And yesterday, this woman who had wasted half of her life on drugs, who had witnessed the death of a young police officer bravely trying to break the grip of the killer-dealers on East Baltimore, gave up her old friend.

    "Why?" Giblin asked.

    "'Cause it's not right. ... It's not fair. He died for nothing, Officer Mike."

 

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

Orioles fans -- we're all dying a little bit here. It's a death of a thousand blows. But we can take solace in the trend of the Boston Red Sox. They're slowly blowing their enormous lead in the American League East. It is fun to watch. Yanks sweep the Sox in The Bronx, and now the Orioles head to the -- raise your head and look down your nose -- The Hub of the Bleepin' Universe, where we hope Baltimore's depressing losing streak ends with a couple of wins in Fenway. We watch, We pray.

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 11:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

Tommy Chagouris, of Nick's Inner Harbor Seafood and Nick's Fish House, reports: Demand high, supply good, prices high. "The weather's been nice and people are in that holiday weekend mood to have crabs outdoors," he says. "In September, the good Maryland crabs will start coming in and I think they'll be plentiful and the prices will start coming down."

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 11:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

The best homilies I've ever heard from a Catholic priest came off the beard-shrouded lips of Father Richard T. Lawrence, the pastor at St. Vincent de Paul Church on Front Street, the one near the main post office, the one with the little grove where the homeless take refuge. Now, someone who shares my appreciation for Father Lawrence's wisdom and eloquence has put his homilies on-line. Check out August 12th's, on Praise. Father Lawrence's sermons are always intellectual and very rewarding.  He can revisit a topic with new insights each time.

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 6:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

Maryland students didn't do so hot on the math SATs last year, and now the czar of the University of Maryland thinks we're doomed. "I think the sharp decline is a cause for great concern, if not alarm," said William E. Kirwan, chancellor of the University System of Maryland. The state, he said, needs a work force "that is highly skilled in math, science and technology. And the fact that there's such a gap between Maryland and the national average is very disturbing."

That's a little overwrought, don't you think? Every time I hear a professional educator speaking this way -- about preparing students for the "work force" -- I cringe. Not that young people do not need focus in life, a career path, goals, and eventually a job that will provide them with two homes, two cars, a large-screen HDTV and a trip to Aruba every winter. But I have a dangerous tendency not to regard students as mere sprockets the gears of the modern labor force. I like to think of them as maturing citizens of our nation and the Earth. I don't think universities need to build work forces; they need to build great human beings.

Way too much is invested in the SATs. It's big business, and administrators like Kirwan only feed the beast with his alarmist rhetoric. It would be refreshing to hear a professional educator say something like, "I think too much emphasis is placed on the math and science SATs. As educators we should be more interested in the young person behind the numbers. There may be some great thinkers and scientists out there who simply do not test well, and we need to work harder in the college admissions process to consider all a young person has to offer before distressing about their SAT scores."

Check out the findings from Bates College's 2004 study on its SAT policy. Bates has made the SAT optional in the admissions process since 1984, and in the 20-year study found little difference in academic achievement between those who submitted scores and those who did not.

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 7:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
                    

Do you think we could get this settled? I mean -- a mayor being in trouble with the law after being elected -- that would be pretty embarassing, and the last thing Baltimore needs.

As citizens of this city prepare to vote in the primary less than two weeks from now, it would be helpful to know if the Present Mayor, Sheila Dixon, has operated within the bounds of the law with regard to city contracts and other matters stemming from her reign as City Council President.

We still do not have an answer to the nagging questions raised by the Sun's investigations last year. But the Maryland State Prosecutor is apparently still knocking on this door.

The state prosecutor charged Dale Clark, Dixon's longtime friend and former campaign chairman, with failing to file state income taxes in 2002, 2003, 2004 -- years during which Clark was feeding at City Hall's trough.

(Some friend: "Hey, Sheila, forgot to tellya -- I won't be filing tax returns during the years I'm workin' for you.")

Clark's company received some $600,000 in no-bid computer services contracts through Dixon's office -- all without a written contract. We still don't know if this was a matter of Dixon kicking back some gelt to a friend, or bureaucratic ineptitude. We do know that a member of Dixon's staff discussed keeping payments to Clark below $5,000 each because anything above that would have required Board of Estimates approval.

And we know this: Dixon did not take responsibility for the questionable payments to Clark. She blamed her staff.

The most troubling aspect of this whole affair -- why it's hard to accept it as a mistake -- is the effort to keep the payments to Clark under $5,000. How is it possible Dixon knew nothing about that?

According to Sun reports last year, Dixon had personally crafted a no-bid contract for Clark. Though that deal expired in March 2001, Clark continued to get paid without a contract. Dixon said at the time that she was wrong for setting up the deal and that she would seek competitive bids. 

OK. . .  But a month later, on May 3, 2001, Tripps sent Clark an e-mail suggesting a way around the rule requiring board approval for contracts. The aide suggested Clark just submit invoices for amounts under $5,000.

What was Dixon's reaction at the time The Sun published stories on the matter?

She accused us of printing "lies" about her and her staff.  "There were mistakes made in my office that I had no knowledge of, in some cases," she said.

What did Dixon have to say yesterday? Asked whether she had been cooperating with the state prosecutor, she said: "You'll have to take that up with my attorney."

Like the transparency there?

You can't rush justice. But it would be nice to know if the state prosecutor has found real corruption here -- not just unpaid taxes by the mayor's friend -- and the sooner the better, before the election please. Dixon and voters deserve to know one way or the other if she's on the hook. 

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 5:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)
                    

Thanks to Sun editor Jeff Landaw for bringing this bit of Alexander Pope to my attention, so appropriate to the subject of today's column (though in a reverse sort of way):

"The hungry judges soon the sentence sign, and wretches hang that jurymen may dine."

On the other hand, many complain that in Baltimore juries are disinclined to convict. This recent e-mail from a frustrated Baltimore judge is representative of other comments I've heard off and on over the last five years: "Have presided over 50 jury trials [in the last six months] with a half-dozen convictions at best. Locking up bad guys is fine, but if the jury acquits, as they almost always do, what’s the point?"

I got Judge Kershaw's middle initial wrong -- it's B. not W. Sorry about that.

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 3:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
                    

Report from JHU Security, dated 8/29/07:

Theft From Auto - Eastern Campus, 1101 E. 33rd St., Ellerslie Lot - On Aug.
27th between 7:30 AM and 4:30 PM, a catalytic converter was sawed off an
employee's parked vehicle.  Investigation continuing.

More on this: Melissa Harris's story about precious metal thieves in The Sun earlier this month:

© 2007 The Baltimore Sun

   From her third-floor Baltimore apartment, Katherine Lundy heard the whir of
an electric saw carving metal. She looked out her window expecting to see
construction workers but instead spotted a pair of legs sticking out from
under her roommate's Toyota pickup truck.
   She rushed down the stairs, but the thief and three accomplices had driven
off with the truck's catalytic converter.
    Catalytic converters are increasingly lucrative targets for thieves, who
chop them off for the precious metals inside, such as platinum and rhodium,
which are trading at higher prices than gold and fueling an industrial boom in
Asia.
   The thefts, which can take less than a minute, are an international problem
and are committed in large part by drug addicts who sell the converters to
backyard mechanics or scrap dealers for $100 to $150 each, said Baltimore
County Detective Sgt. Bob Jagoe, a member of the Regional Auto Theft Task
Force.
   "When it's not your money, that's not a bad deal," he said. "Anybody can
buy them. Anybody can sell them. The law is always five to 10 years behind
thieves. Who would have known 10 years ago that we would have had a problem
with people cutting off catalytic converters?"
   The converters, which made their debut in the United States in the
mid-1970s in response to stricter federal pollution standards, clean the most
harmful pollutants from a car's exhaust. The cost to replace a stolen
converter can vary from $400 to $1,400, depending on how much of the exhaust
system the thieves remove.
   "That was the first I had heard of people stealing catalytic converters,"
said Lundy, who witnessed the theft in her Station North neighborhood about
11:30 a.m. on a Saturday last month. "But now that I know of it, when I
mention it, I've had people tell me, `Oh yeah, that happened to my friend.'"
   Area police departments do not track catalytic converter thefts and instead
classify them as "thefts from motor vehicles," lumping them in with stolen car
radios, hubcaps and windshield wipers. But police, junkyard owners and
mechanics say that the thefts are up. The task force has started a catalytic
converter theft project.
   The crime is a tricky one to solve and requires the cooperation of scrap
dealers, who can be at a competitive disadvantage if they decline parts whose
origins are suspicious, Jagoe said.
   To solve the crime, detectives would need to clean the equipment, which is
difficult, search for a serial number that indicates what type of vehicle it
came from - if rust has not obliterated it - and then "get underneath the car
and see if it fits," Jagoe said.
   By that time, most drivers would have replaced the part. Without a
catalytic converter a car sounds louder than "the loudest motorcycle you've
ever heard," said Ed Nemphos, owner of Brentwood Automotive in Hampden.
   "It would take an ungodly amount of time to make the case," Jagoe said, if
police tried to match a converter to its car without any other evidence. "I
don't know of any agency that attempts to identify things" that way.
   Joe O'Connell II, co-owner of Converter King of Maryland, buys and sells
used converters at a brick industrial complex in Lansdowne.
   Each week, his workers tear apart hundreds of converters and store their
dirty, gray honeycombs, which are coated in platinum, palladium or rhodium, or
a combination of them.
   Inside the honeycombs, hot emissions combine with the metals and turn the
harmful gases into oxygen or reduce them to government-mandated levels.
   O'Connell sells the honeycombs to refineries in New Jersey and New York,
where workers use a $250,000 piece of equipment to remove the dust and dirt,
melt the valuable metals and sell the raw material, he said. No such
refineries exist in Maryland, he said.
   "The stuff inside them is carcinogenic," O'Connell said.
   This week, rhodium was selling for $5,960 an ounce; platinum, $1,300; and
palladium, $365. By comparison, gold was trading at $667 an ounce. Jagoe said
that thieves often target foreign-made sport utility vehicles and trucks
because they're easier to slide under and the converters are larger and thus
contain more precious metals.
   O'Connell and his sister, Deborah Rosskelly, who owns East Coast Catalytic
Converters next door, have called police when they suspect someone is trying
to hawk stolen goods. One man, whom they reported, was showing up four or five
times a day in a taxi - one converter at a time, Rosskelly said.
   Two wanted posters and four black-and-white photographs of men suspected of
stealing catalytic converters hang on a wall in O'Connell's office. O'Connell
wrote "JAIL" in blue ink next to one of the men, whom he helped police
apprehend.
   "We have regular customers," Rosskelly said. "So if we see someone we don't
know pulling one converter out of the trunk of their car, it's fishy."
   Parking lots with large numbers of cars sitting overnight are primary
targets, Jagoe said.
   Shannon Patterson, owner of Auto Recycling of Baltimore on Haven Street,
which buys cars and sells the parts, said that his yard has been hit three or
four times in the past year.
   The vandals cut through a hole in his fence, used battery-powered saws to
grind off a few converters and then sold them to a nearby scrap dealer.
   Compared with other auto parts and metals, "catalytic converters are, pound
for pound, the easiest and most valuable thing to get," Patterson said.

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 6:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

Oh, Lord, let me return as a New York Post headline writer. Today's front, with photo and story about Leona Helmsley's little doggie, Trouble, inheriting $12 million from the Queen of Mean: Rich Bitch

Freedom of the press -- a wonderful thing

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 6:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 6:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
                    

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 10:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
                    

This is about dog fighting, OK? It's about cruetly to animals -- and a young, foolish NFL quarterback with a lot of money making stupid, cruel choices. He's in big trouble, his career in ruins, sponsors pulling away. The Atlanta Falcons are going to go after his multi-million-dollar signing bonus, last I heard. All this over dog-fighting and killing dogs . . . . If Vick had been accused of hitting a girlfriend or spouse, or if he had been caught up in a night club with the wrong people -- guys carrying knives, say, who actually ended up killing someone -- do you think the NFL would push the consequences to this extent? Do you think the Football Nation would care that much? Sorry, but I doubt it. It's Fantasy Football time, and I'm sure we'll all learn to live without Michael Vick in the lineup.

Ten years ago, authors of the book Pros and Cons looked at a sample of NFL players -- roughly one-third of all players in the league -- and found that 21 percent had been arrested or indicted for crimes including assault, rape, sexual abuse, drugs, even homicide. "Athletes wear the mantle of privilege in this society," the radio host Lisa Simeone wrote in the Sun a few years ago. "Their fans are far more interested in their records of wins and losses than in their records of arrest."

Except when it's about dogs.

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 6:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
                    

Ernie Imhoff, chronicler of the SS John W. Brown, one of the last of the World War II Liberty ships, reports on the 65-year-old troop ship's Yankee adventure:

"In Boston the