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Michael, Halifax, Canada — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 16:03:22 GMT

I can't believe that Ark. Police officer was let off without so much as a slap on the wrist. I watched the YouTube video and, to me, it looked like the kids were cooperating with the police officer (in so far that they didn't just yell "Scatter!" and all run off in different directions, which is typically what happens in those types of situations), they just didn't think they should be arrested for skateboarding on Go Skateboarding Day. The officer seemed more bent on 'controlling' the teens (with choke holds and headlocks) and punishing them then on trying to resolve the problem. (Which, from the look of the video, might have been as simple as saying "Hey, you kids, you know you're no allow to skateboard on city streets!")
To me, this looks like good, old-fashioned discrimination. The skateboarders are obviously to blame because skateboarders are 'punks'; bad kids simply by definition. It's most likely the same reason skateboarding is banned in that town. Skateboarders = bad, therefore skateboarding = bad.
The funniest part of all this to me is that it was a BIKE cop that arrested the kid. So, what? Bikes are ok on city streets but not skateboards? Where the heck is the logic in that? Basically, these kids are being made criminals simply becuase they perfer skateboards to bicycles.

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fred — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 18:32:30 GMT

Skateboarders need to be choked...especially if they do something wrong. :)

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Sean, NY — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 21:35:46 GMT

This puzzled me coming from Interpol regarding the scammers- “They are fraudsters and they are not good people, but they have their human rights.”
I would like to hear Interpol's definition of human rights. The only thing that gave me pause about the trophy photo's was how focused they were on homosexuality, every other one seemed to have the word "fag" in it. They should be a little more creative, what does it say about them when the worst thing they can think of someone being is gay?
Aside from that though I'm all for this, there has to be some deterrent effect and as the article says- every one that gets tied up jumping through hoops for weeks or months has less time and resources to scam others.

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Greg D, Downingtown, PA — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 00:20:39 GMT

Don't apologize for long posts. The more links the better. I haven't seen Sicko, but I'm calling shenanigans on the "town hall" story. It almost certainly was created by the movie's PR people.

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Nick — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 01:24:26 GMT

So Flip a word, then cut and paste the upside down word back into the upper box, and lo and behold, it's now backwards instead of rightside up. Weird.

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Jim Hawk III — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 01:54:20 GMT

"wean off cars," not "ween off cars."

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Charles, Kingman, AZ — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 03:52:00 GMT

Re:from Michael...these kids are being made criminals simply because they prefer skateboards to bicycles...
No, they are making themselves criminals by breaking the law.

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Jeff Weimer — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 04:21:25 GMT

Is Starbucks REALLY that bad? I (fondly) remember when it was a quaint little coffee shop in the Pike Place Market in Seattle. I go to a Starbucks now (in Norfolk, VA) and still get that same feeling I got 20 years ago when I walked in and smelled all that roasted coffee. That they've managed to keep that after all these years and their unbelievable expansion is a testament to keeping their core ideal. I like their coffee. I used to have it mailed to me when I lived in Japan in the early nineties. They are the standard for premium coffee and for good reason, their product delivers.

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Will Femia — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 04:36:19 GMT

Oops, thanks Jim.

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Will Femia — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 04:58:33 GMT

Jeff, it's not the coffee, or even its quaintness. In fact you make my point yourself. The fact that you can go to your Starbucks in Virginia and get the same feeling you got in Seattle is not necessarily a good thing. I want to get coffee in Virginia and feel like I'm in Virginia. I want to get coffee in Seattle and feel like I'm in Seattle. I want to get coffee in Brooklyn and feel like I'm in Brooklyn. Even though I agree that the coffee itself is good and I've been to Starbucks and will no doubt go again, when it comes to my neighborhood, I want it to be like my neighborhood, not like Seattle, no matter how nice it is in Seattle.

Again, I understand that some places don't have any options and for some small towns getting a Starbucks is an exciting sign of progress.

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dave - chicago — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 07:11:13 GMT

in re scammers - I thoroughly enjoyed this site: http://sweetchillisauce.com/nigeria.html

His stories and character names always made me laugh.

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Gary-O — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 12:53:19 GMT

I like coffee - black. No cream, no sugar, no latte frappe carmelized martinized whipped cream with cinammon and little swirly pictures floating on top. Just coffee - black. IMO, Starbucks has the worst black coffee ever. But, as my boss points out, maybe Starbucks black coffee is not intended to be drunk black. Maybe it's more like primer for sweet coffee-based products.

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Thu, 05 Jul 2007 14:38:21 GMT

Say what you want about Starbucks, they know my name, have my drink ready before I get up to the counter, sometimes before I'm in the door. When I've spilled my drink they hand me a new one at no charge, one day when I was having a really bad day, the clerk came around and handed me a cookie at no charge and said that she hoped I would have a better day. When I got pregnant, they helped me find a new drink minus the caffeine, by letting me try lots of stuff for free. Go Starbucks! Go Starbucks! Go Starbucks! I never get that kind of service anywhere local or not.

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Birdman, Canada — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 16:52:20 GMT

Make with the high speed rail...
Didn't the big auto makers get convicted in the Fifties of conspiring to obsolete the inner city tram lines? Their intent was to force people to buy cars. Now it's the airlines.

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Charles, Los Angeles, CA — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 17:19:56 GMT

Regarding the fast-speed rail -

There's really no conspiracy against it; the reasons it hasn't really taken off are cost and siting. Like the article said, a dedicated rail line will make the system make the most sense (since using already existing rail lines does limit your potential speed), and a new dedicated line is expensive - the 10 billion sited in the article is a pretty low estimate for what it would take to make that san francisco to san diego line. You're probably looking at something from around 10-30 billion, which is an extraordinarilly large figure, especially given that it would have to be heavilly, heavilly subsidized by State and local governments (and for states and municipalities - even those as large as California and its cities - even 10 billion is a LOT of money).

Then, of course, there's the problem with getting right-of-way access to build the train, and gaining land and implementing mitigation measures that would be required. A train going 200-400 miles per hour is going to create noise; if it's going to be running through cities (which it will have to, otherwise there is very little point), then what do you do to offset the problems that those living in houses and apartments bordering the tracks? You're required to do something. And actually getting the land to build the track would require a great deal of effort, and likely many, many uses of emininent domain to get the land. And, as you're probably aware, using emininent domain to seize private property isn't the best way for politicos to get reelected.

When you're looking at something that difficult to do at the outset, it becomes even less desirable when you consider that our current train system fails to make money (it's already pretty highly subsidized), and that our road network is one of the best in the world, it becomes harder and harder to justify high-speed rail. Sure, it'd be nice, but if we get along ok without it right now, why do we want to go through the 10-30 billion dollars of expenditures, the required mitigation, the eminent domain, etc to do something slightly better than we already do? High-speed rail works in other countries for the same reasons that ordinary rail works better in those countries than in the US - cars are less common and more expensive, and there is a mugh larger ridership on rail than there exists in the US. Sure, high-speed rail would be nice to have here in the US, but I don't think it's so advantages that those that have the power to see it happen would be willing to expend such monetary and political capital to do it. There's no conspiracy, it just costs a ton in both money and influence, and we're not sure if the demand is really even that high right now.

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Jeff Weimer — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 17:28:37 GMT

Also, Starbucks got where they are by doing a LOT of things right, the the most important is having a good product that people will buy. Why should they be penalized for their success?

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Charles the Few, Rockville, MD — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 18:17:23 GMT

Will,

A couple re-writes for you:
1 Novakula will lie, inveigle and obfuscate about the Diplomat and the Covert Agent he regularly maligns.
2. Right-wing Blogger takes credit for US military/AP/Reuters fixing their own reporting.

You've really got to click more non-wingnut media.

Yours,

Charles

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Steve, AR — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 19:21:17 GMT

RE: Hot Spring skateboarders. The police officer had already run them off once. Skateboarding on city sidewalks is illegal. They had been warned once and were a hazard to elderly pedestrians. When arrested, they resisted. One jumped on the officers back and began hitting him in the head. At least half are not even minors, but were in their 20s. They sought to provoke a confrontation for the purpose of making a video and they succeeded. The local population is about 95% in favor of the officer.

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Cian — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 19:22:31 GMT

If you happened to like that Muse cover, I'd also like to suggest their video for "Knights of Cydonia" - only the best sci-fi/karate spaghetti western ever!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=YygyHCRrKho

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Chance VS, Burlington, NJ — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 21:25:08 GMT

Re: High Speed Trains, etc...

While Charles from Los Angeles makes some very valid points, he did mention in passing the standard line about existing trains not being profitable, even with heavy subsidies...

The subsidy argument is somewhat flawed when compared to other forms of transportation. Car transit has been widely subsidized -- the money spent to create the interstate highway system helped create the possibility for the American car culture. The gasoline taxes that feed both the federal and state transportation trust funds enable the road widening projects that ameliorate the impact of more and more cars on the road.

Air travel is also subsidized heavily. Last time I checked, the airlines weren't paying for most of the runway construction in the US, and I believe that the FAA is funded from general appropriations as well.

I am not saying that rail is perfect, and there is no doubt that between the logistics and NIMBYism, there are real challenges to bringing hi-speed rail to the US. I am just saying that rail should not be dismissed out of hand through a false comparison with other transportation methods.

Thanks,

Chance

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Matthew, Glen Burnie, Maryland — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 21:25:14 GMT

Also, If you like Muse, check out their song titled, Starlight, its a very good song that is in decent rotation on the Baltimore/DC area radio stations... Thanks...

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Pat Singleton, Rathdrum ID — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 00:49:33 GMT

Skateboard video, i did watch it: Beyond that, the video was edited from the kids perspective, an elderly man was injured and downtown shop owners had complained as well, the initial contact was likely just as you suggested would have "fixed" it. "you kids stop, you know that's illegal"...and their response was to continue to flaunt the law so they could make their video. beyond that they made sure to constantly say they were being "harrassed" and arrested for "riding a skateboard" and the officer replied several times, no, for resiting arrest and interfering with a law enforcement officer.

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Clint, Chicago, Illionois — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 13:23:39 GMT

Will,

With respect to 32% not being a large enough number of Europeans scared of America to justify a story, I offer this: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,274934,00.html

It seems a few months back, the Pew Research Center offered poll results suggesting that about a quarter of American muslims thought suicide attacks sometimes justifiable. Twenty-six percent is a lot smaller than 32%, yet the number was trumpeted all across the wire (The only story I could find quick enough to satisfy my natural lethargy came from Fox News, but actual journalists reported it too). So I would say that, like most news statistics, the value depends on the metrics of some sensationalist index.

Somebody should track this.

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Patrick Moore, Greenville, SC — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 13:57:21 GMT

I have to say I am glad the 'skateboard cop' was cleared. It is quite disturbing to see how many people are so easily misled by 30sec cell phone clips without bothering to understand what came before or after. This is perhaps the best example in recent memory of how 'short attention-span theater' has led to thousands of people being manipulated without even bothering to understand a simple concept known as context.

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Will Femia — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 14:12:25 GMT

Clint, your point is well taken - though I think there's a qualitative difference between a group of people who want to kill and a group of people who are afraid of being killed. I'd be concerned with that 1-in-4 number even if it was 1-in-10 (assuming its context is being accurately reported). But you're right. We can't take the 1-in-4 report and then go on to say that it shows that Muslims condone murder.

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Charles, Los Angeles, CA — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 16:05:29 GMT

Chance from Jersey -

You're right that we subsidize pretty much all other forms of transportation as well; I didn't mean to say that subsidies shouldn't exist, because in many cases they are very important and even necessary for our way of life to continue.

I should have been a bit more clear in my post; it's not the subsidy that's a problem per se (alhtough the enormous up-front cost that building anew high-speed rail line costs should be considered), its that even with current subsidies, the industry of passenger train travel in the US isn't all that wide, and it isn't exactly profitable; airlines (well, some airlines, at any rate) manage to do well for themselves, and the auto industry is enormously profitable.

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Dave, Chicago, IL — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 16:10:26 GMT

The scam artist article was deeply satisfying, because I seem to get two of these a week! Also, I managed to find the video they mentioned (about the scammers doing the Monty Python sketch). Far too funny. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvyrzQldOKE
If that link is eaten, the poster on youtube was "419eater".

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Drew, KC — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 17:31:18 GMT

Patrick,
The skateboarder clip was more than 30 seconds. Have you even watched it?

All of you claiming you are glad the cop was cleared - do you really think it is fine that a cop grabbed a 13 year old girl in a chokehold? A girl that was not resisting arrest or causing any disturbance whatsoever? This is fine and dandy?

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LV — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 17:27:18 GMT

Drew in KC, there have been some locals - and perhaps witnesses - who have decried the skaters' video as misleading. I've got a healty skepticism of the police myself, but in this case there seems to be legitimate doubt over whether the video shows the full story. One report I read - purportedly from a local exposed to in-depth reporting - said that the girl jumped on the cop's back and started hitting him almost immediately upon his arrival. If that's true, it certainly casts a different light to the story. I'm not saying the cop definitely should have been cleared, but seemingly-legitimate holes have been poked through the skaters' claims and even the video itself.

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Drew, KC — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 16:16:58 GMT

LV,
If that is the case than this is truely a strange story. In the video I saw the cop had several chances to arrest the girl but did nothing to her initially. He was talking to another cuffed skater when she walked up to see what was going on. He told her (and others) to sit down. She started to walk away and that is when he grabbed her in the chokehold. Thats what I see and it is not excuseable. Her jumping on his back at some point before would change things but that doesn't make much sense. Why wouldn't he have arrested her at that time or recognized her when she walked up? This is the video I'm talking about:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EH6AYVn2yw4

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Summer, Seattle, WA — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 21:33:54 GMT

When it comes to the train system not being profitable, part of that is due to the fact that Amtrak (the only company with cross-country trains) is forced to share the tracks with freight trains. This inevitably makes the passenger trains late, often many hours late, if not a day late, simply because it's the freight companies that "own" the tracks, and so have the right-of-way. This continual problem leads to high costs related to overtime for the employees, or even, in some cases, due to union regulations, forcing the trains to sit in the same spot for many hours while a new engineer crew is driven out to the train to replace the current one since they are only allowed to work for a certain number of hours. All this, on top of the fact that being notoriously late, leads to a reduced ridership and fewer trains being run. What needs to happen is the passenger trains need to either 1) be given the right-of-way, or 2) be given their own tracks. This won't solve all the problems, Amtrak still has some severe management problems, but it could help. I mean, a company who refuses to give its on board employees more than a perfunctory 2-4% raise usually years apart, and yet has no problem with giving its middle management a 13.5% raise when they certainly haven't earned it needs to have something done. And then they hire more managers and cut on board employees. At least they got rid of the one president of the company that was embezzling all the funds away! (though the current one may be no better...)

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Walt Slaughter, Detroit, Mich. — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 18:34:32 GMT

I don't evn know if this is the proper site for this query but I'll ask it anyway. I'm in the habit of catching up on the "Today Show" coverage on my media player which genenerously provides the first hour and makes it available for aproximately a week. Why is the post Texas/Ohio primary program (Wed. Mar 5) missing? Is this MSNBC ineptitude, or is something nefarious going on?
Sincerely, Walt Slaughter