Possible car bomb going off in Oslo and then a gunman shooting summer camp kids??? WTH Norway???

I saw on the news about Mayor Nutter in Philly busting out a curfew for the teenagers because of "flash mob" violence happening around the city that have resulted in serious injury etc. He proceed to speak at sunday church services and gave what I read to be an incredible sermon addressing the issues. For those of you out there who think that the Mayor is a fascist for what he's doing let me tell you that over 20 years ago I worked in downtown Philly (this was just prior to the cell phone boom and obviously way before the social networking) at the Marketplace Gallery. The gangs had a move they used to do where they'd stage a fight that would involve a bunch of their members and while this distraction was going on they would do smash and grabs on all the storefronts it could involve upwards of 30 individuals. You can usually tell it was going down and all you could hear were the shopkeepers racing to the store fronts to slam down the security gates to keep them from stealing your wares and it happened quite regularly. We were not effected as much as others because we were a book store, but software etc, swiss army knife store, the clothing boutiques, magazine stands for cigarettes etc and shoe stores were all targeted. But it just amazes me the level people will stoop to and considering the fact that these, i'll call it for what it is, attacks are happening in the tourist areas (Olde City and Center City). How stupid are these people. From what I've read, Philadelphia is one of the few major cities not as badly effected by the economy and to behave like uncouth barbarians in the ANY district of the city is yet another black eye that the city doesn't NEED. But to do it in an area that the tourists who pump extra money into the local economy frequent needs to be met with firm measures. Like those butt heads who trashed the city after that political convention, smashing in store fronts and stuff. I swear, sometimes I really think the dogs of war need to be unleashed on these people. If you're going to behave like animals, then don't be suprised when the response is extreme.

Monk, the tri state area has gone a bit wacko. Maybe the heat, idk. But, even the rolling country side of chester county horse country is getting bad.

Bank robberies, and there are gangs in Kennett Square and Unionville Chadds Ford now, mushroom industry front for drugs, coming out of Mexico. There was a huge drug bust here. The big time dealers are out here for Philly. My friend had two horses stolen last week. We put up night vision cameras, outside of the fences for the horses. I've chased away people at the border of our woods by our house to the pastures, with my gun. The horses are chipped and have tats, but what ever direction you go here, you will find valuable horses. Barbaro was kept down the road from me at Fair Hill, and Smarty Jones was a few miles in another direction. The area is known for top show horses, nothing to have an animal worth 50,000 +

Mine are priceless, they are my babies.

There was a barn that had three horses poisioned last month. The bigger barns have 24 to 7 security. But, the average horse lover has to fend for themselves.

There has been a rash of dogs here tied to railroad tracks, since spring. The dogs are stolen and then found on the tracks.

I get so irrate, just don't get how horrible a person can be to a helpless animal.

Newark, Delaware had over 100 youth in a brawl last weekend. This is a sleepy college town, for most part.

There was a couple just walking through town, and his girlfriend got hit, the boyfriend tried to help her and got cut with a beer bottle.

It was reported as a flash mob incident.

Un flippin' believeable…all I can say is that as much as I love this country, warts and all, I think it's going down and going down hard. Until we can get the government cleaned up we are ALL screwed. They need to do away with the career politicians and hold them accountable for their terms in office. If they want to start cleaning up the national debt problem. A nice start would be lowering the salary for a congressman from $174,000 to about $48,720 that's a 72% decrease. It also happens to be more then DOUBLE the US poverty line wage for a family of 4. That would be a total savings of $12,528,000 right off the bat. There are 441 members of the house of representatives making that same $174k salary…do the same to them and that would be another $55,248,480 saved. Government vehicles should be the next to go, but you see what I'm saying, there is a way to do it, poor people have been doing it for years, GET ON A SHOESTRING BUDGET AND LEARN THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WHAT YOU NEED AND WHAT YOU WANT! You'd like to have a big staff and a swanky office etc etc, but you DON'T NEED IT. A personal assistant (one) and dormitory room sized office and that's it. That is what WE THE PEOPLE can afford, barely, and believe me you'll prolly still be better off then a vast majority of your constituency. I'm not sure what the housing situation is like and if they get a stipend for that, if they do…stop it. That $48,720 you get, live off that as best you can…THEN you can say you understand the plight of the people, you really WON'T but you'd have a better flippin' idea of what's going on out here. And for the love of all things sacred stop giving aid to these nations who do nothing but stab us in the back constantly…you can start with Pakistan since they didn't have a problem showing China that stealth helicopter the Seal Team crashed getting Bin Laden. And I would fix their little red wagon by getting real chummy with India since Pakistan has always shown a preference to the Chinese…fine they made their bed. They can sleep better without the 3 billion I think I read somewhere in aid money we send them. Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing the government policy going forward being one of isolationism for the next 12 years or so. Close down our foreign embassies, boot out the united nations. Stop all aid to all nations abroad and close our borders. Start rebuilding the infrastructure of our own nation. This would create much needed jobs right here in our own country. Apparently we have all these teenagers with free time on their hands, start fixing the roads, start cleaning up your neighborhoods, if you want $$$ from the government then you'll have to get off your ****, work and earn it. Even if it's a crossing guard at the local elementary, checking ids at the public swimming pool, picking up litter on the side of the road. Hiring rescue crews to work the interstates to help people who have broken down or whatever. See if you can get some of the retired tradesmen to lead crews to go into some of these burnt out cities and towns and dismantle these derelict buildings. Recycle all that can be done so and make the area reuseable. Why keep destroying what's left of our wooded areas natural resources when there are so many places that can be reinhabitated with some effort? There are things that need to be AND can be done. If I had my way, I'd work until I dropped dead because I'M GRATEFUL for all the sacrifices of the people who came before me to give me such a wonderful life. To have the FREEDOM to pretty much do what I want. It's a shame most don't feel the same way. They should. A little humility works wonders.

I know I'm asking for too much, all I'm really asking for in general is 3 things

- Common Sense

- Accountablity

- Responsibility

Because the longer we dangle our feet in the ocean of political correctness the better our chances of being dragged into the water by a strong predator and fed upon….fatally. These predators will NOT have the same sense of compassion for criminality and stupidity we've developed over the years. It's becoming our greatest undoing even as I sit here and type this.

This is just my opinion, which most won't agree with, that's okay

Un flippin' believeable…all I can say is that as much as I love this country, warts and all, I think it's going down and going down hard. Until we can get the government cleaned up we are ALL screwed. They need to do away with the career politicians and hold them accountable for their terms in office. If they want to start cleaning up the national debt problem. A nice start would be lowering the salary for a congressman from $174,000 to about $48,720 that's a 72% decrease. It also happens to be more then DOUBLE the US poverty line wage for a family of 4. That would be a total savings of $12,528,000 right off the bat. There are 441 members of the house of representatives making that same $174k salary…do the same to them and that would be another $55,248,480 saved. Government vehicles should be the next to go, but you see what I'm saying, there is a way to do it, poor people have been doing it for years, GET ON A SHOESTRING BUDGET AND LEARN THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WHAT YOU NEED AND WHAT YOU WANT! You'd like to have a big staff and a swanky office etc etc, but you DON'T NEED IT. A personal assistant (one) and dormitory room sized office and that's it. That is what WE THE PEOPLE can afford, barely, and believe me you'll prolly still be better off then a vast majority of your constituency. I'm not sure what the housing situation is like and if they get a stipend for that, if they do…stop it. That $48,720 you get, live off that as best you can…THEN you can say you understand the plight of the people, you really WON'T but you'd have a better flippin' idea of what's going on out here. And for the love of all things sacred stop giving aid to these nations who do nothing but stab us in the back constantly…you can start with Pakistan since they didn't have a problem showing China that stealth helicopter the Seal Team crashed getting Bin Laden. And I would fix their little red wagon by getting real chummy with India since Pakistan has always shown a preference to the Chinese…fine they made their bed. They can sleep better without the 3 billion I think I read somewhere in aid money we send them. Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing the government policy going forward being one of isolationism for the next 12 years or so. Close down our foreign embassies, boot out the united nations. Stop all aid to all nations abroad and close our borders. Start rebuilding the infrastructure of our own nation. This would create much needed jobs right here in our own country. Apparently we have all these teenagers with free time on their hands, start fixing the roads, start cleaning up your neighborhoods, if you want $$$ from the government then you'll have to get off your ****, work and earn it. Even if it's a crossing guard at the local elementary, checking ids at the public swimming pool, picking up litter on the side of the road. Hiring rescue crews to work the interstates to help people who have broken down or whatever. See if you can get some of the retired tradesmen to lead crews to go into some of these burnt out cities and towns and dismantle these derelict buildings. Recycle all that can be done so and make the area reuseable. Why keep destroying what's left of our wooded areas natural resources when there are so many places that can be reinhabitated with some effort? There are things that need to be AND can be done. If I had my way, I'd work until I dropped dead because I'M GRATEFUL for all the sacrifices of the people who came before me to give me such a wonderful life. To have the FREEDOM to pretty much do what I want. It's a shame most don't feel the same way. They should. A little humility works wonders.

I know I'm asking for too much, all I'm really asking for in general is 3 things

- Common Sense

- Accountablity

- Responsibility

Because the longer we dangle our feet in the ocean of political correctness the better our chances of being dragged into the water by a strong predator and fed upon….fatally. These predators will NOT have the same sense of compassion for criminality and stupidity we've developed over the years. It's becoming our greatest undoing even as I sit here and type this.

This is just my opinion, which most won't agree with, that's okay

I agree with you, Monk, on everything. I admire your courage for speaking up, too. Most people are too beaten down by all the politically correct BS to speak their minds, IMO.

I admire Mayor Nutter for doing and saying all the things he did. I especially admire him for having the courage to address the issue of absentee parents. He told them to stop being human ATMs and sperm donors. What did he get for his efforts? Accused of not being "black" enough to speak on the subject. WTH??? The NAACP did come out and support him, though, which I was glad to see. We need more people of courage to address the issues that are plaguing our country and a whole lot less political correctness.

What happened in England (not the UK, by the way, since only England had riots) is going to happen here if we don't get a stronger grip. We need to stop paying people to have children that they aren't going to take the trouble of raising, stop taking away from the producers to give to people who refuse to get off their butts and stop making excuses for the segment of society that is completely anti-social.

Personally, I have had it with all the political correctness and the "it's not their fault" and "it demeans people to make them work for their welfare checks" crap. The rest of us have to earn a living… Why shouldn't they have to do something to earn their checks?

I also agree with everything else in your post. If we stopped sending money overseas and spent it here instead we could afford to rebuild our infrastructure. WHY are we still sending money to Pakistan??? Why are we allowing ourselves to be told what to do by the UN?

I could rant on and on, but I won't. I just wanted to let you know that at least one person on this board agrees with you.

Thanks KK and I agree with Sithy too about the state government. If they do finalize legalize marijuana you can bet the government will screw it up…only the gov't could screw up growing A WEED!

You can bet your sweet arse they'll tax the hell out of it, put all kinds of regulations on how and where it can be grown, packaged and sold and just generally make a complete mess of the situation. All you have to do is look at what they've done to another plant: tobacco. You can't even smoke it OUTSIDE now in a lot of places. No one seems to see the irony of the SUVs driving by all those no-smoking areas. After all, which one is doing more harm to your health, my cigarette or the SUV?

No one but me seems to see the irony intrinsic in trying to get marijuana legalized while frowning on tobacco products, either. Why can't the government just keep its nose out of our business?

All I know is that back in the day when I imbibed in that kind of thing, I had friends who grew pot themselves and put it in places that the government actually owned and maintained and harvested an incredible strain. Is it possible that the road crews didn't know what it was? Idiots. It wasn't like a huge field or anything, but a very stealthy location on a bridge approach going in to Philly, essentially hidden in plain sight.

I read a book about the WM3 years ago although the only one I could find when I searched for the name of it was "Devil's Knot" released in 2003, but that doesn't strike me as the title of the book and it seemed earlier than 2003 when I read it …

I always felt that Jessie Miskelly's testimony was unreliable due to his severe learning disability that bordered retardation…then there was the extreme pressure placed on the WM police to find the killers and seeming haste to implicate heavy metal rebel: Damien Echols and pals…How about the proximity to a truck wash where the boys were riding bikes before they were abducted and dumped nearby?…the early, very sincere seeming cell block interviews with Echols and Jason Baldwin following their convictions adamantly proclaiming their innocence to me; was quite compelling …

The entire trial struck me as based on some very circumstantial evidence and questionably admissible testimony….b