Tamir: In contrast to your experience, I must have met scores of polite, professional
cops in my 35 years in town. Which is why when I read about inexcusable behavior, my
inclination is to wonder why the "normal cops" even tolerate the besmirching of their
reputation by these developmentally-retarded individuals. I mean it takes a lot of
work to build up a good reputation. And these few bad cases destroy a lot of that in
SECONDS.
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As for Barret Lane saying the rich folks'll leave town, all the more REASON to adopt
my agenda. The natural unit to govern on most of these issues is at the county level.
We could, conceivably, have only two Minnesota governments to deal with: county and
state. And since counties are creatures of the state, they should work together better
than cities and the state. Just think: cutting the number of bureaucrats by a good
fraction of one half. And those bureaucrats would have to meld the interests of all
these interdependent cities together. I'd think the Metro Council might be better
EXCEPT it is a unique entity which makes it hard for state law to decide how to deal
with it.
The city has already solved past budget crises by handing over healthcare to the
county. So why not hand over the parks, the schools, and the city functions, too, and
be done with it. I know the politicians will be motivated to fight it and hold onto
power. But maybe the headaches of losing revenue would make them less obstructionist.
Then we could have a COUNTY issues forum. Of course, then we'd have Ramsey and Dakota
county people telling Hennepin residents how to run their lives, but what the hey?
By the way.............I am NOT joking here. It has been a source of annoyance for a
long time that we say, out of one side of our mouths that allegedlly government causes
the problems. But then we insist out of the other side we MUST pile up redundant
governments for some reason. Frankly I could see ONE government per state with
counties being the level at which programs are administered.
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After reading about 29th and Queen N, the thought that occurred to me was "How much
city attention would you get if a bunch of the neighbors got rifles and started
dropping the dealers as they deal?" I mean, if you have essential anarchy, why not do
what those who live in anarchy do. Become a militia.
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I see we have the hypertext problem back again. As a point of
information, anyone who uses the email client in the latest Netscape will be offered
the option of plain text when they go to sent an email. That's about as easy as it
can get.
--------------
Jim Mork--Cooper
"War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it; and those who brought war into our Country
deserve all the curses and maledictions a people can pour out." Gen. William T.
Sherman (1864) Letter to the Mayor of Atlanta.
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