01 January 2008

2007 in Review - Through A Glass Darkly...
In Chinese culture, the calendar year 2007 was "The year of the Pig" (which describes one DUI felon down my street who just can't seem to STAY in jail, to a freaking "T"). This year will be the year of the RAT (I guess that means snitching will be OK then). I was born in the year of the DRAGON (1952) as was Bruce Lee (1940), so I'm in pretty good company at least. My wife was born in the year of the dog (...and not one word or comment, please).

But after all is said and done, 2007 could really be called the year of the MORON...and for so many of the right reasons. If we look at the celebrity list, we had our fill of MORONS. Whether it was Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Barry Bonds, Rosie O'Donnell, or (insert most any current rap "star" here), we can speak with conviction (and most all of them were convicted as well...or will be) when we say they were practitioners of the fine art of STUPIDITY. But stupidity and moronic behavior was NOT solely limited to the world of glitz & glamor.

In Fort Wayne, we also had our share of candidates for that "Special Kind of Stupid".

--I would have to place the Harrison Square project (and pundits) at the top of this heap, with their incessant ram-rodding this venture down the throats of over 70% of the TAXPAYING PUBLIC that DID NOT WANT this project (as proposed) to come to fruition. But in spite of numerous debates, protests and questions, the city went ahead and bought up land & properties for several times their actual value, bulldozed established businesses back into the ground they sprang from and are moving full speed ahead with this potential white elephant (that "we" will be paying for in the coming decades...trust me).

--Next, I'd have to include the FWCS for it's "proposal" of over $500 MILLION in building repairs, upgrades and constructs, especially at a time where property taxes were soaring out of control. Thank the maker for Evertt Moll and his petitioners who instituted a remonstrance against FWCS, stating the money asked for was excessive, and that a more frugal approach was needed.

--Since I touched on property taxes...well, the Governor at least tossed us a (small) bone in the form of a rebate check in the interim, until something is done to stop (or at least slow) the government's chronic dependency on OUR houses and businesses (that we're paying for several times over). And we all have heard what weaning an addict off of drugs can be like, haven't we? They (the politicians and all the other civil SERVANTS) work for US...NOT the other way around.

--Another item was this "witch hunt" against mayoral candidate Matt Kelty. Those who wanted this man ostracized at any cost are one group of morons that should be taken out into the street and run the hell over. Even the trials in 17th century Salem Massachusetts couldn't have been run better than this campaign to malign someone with trumped up charges. If the LAWS were to blame for Matt's predicament...CHANGE THE DAMN LAWS. And if the people pointing all their fingers at Mr. Kelty would look in their OWN closets and clean out some skeletons, maybe this town wouldn't be so f$cked up.
Never knew the Spanish Inquisition would come back in vogue.

--Those people in our very own local judicial system need to be called on the carpet as well, for turning SO many criminals back out onto OUR streets. With few exceptions, we've seen so many cases plea-bargained into non-existence, case dismissals, and many other non-prosecutable motions put forth that we might as well not even HAVE any form of adjudication in this city. It's high time we had a MAJOR overhauling of this system, starting at the Prosecutor's office door. Let's find out where the REAL crimes lie, shall we?

--Speaking of crime...while the officers of the FWPD are doing their jobs to the very BEST of their abilities, why are certain areas of the city STILL NOT seeing an appreciable drop in criminal activity? It makes one think long and hard when we can't get a handle on drug-ridden neighborhoods, even when citizens DO come forward (and wind up being summarily dismissed), placing themselves at risk, because they know hardly anything gets done to halt this scourge. It's getting to the point where every normal law-abiding citizen will HAVE to strap on a gun JUST to go to the mailbox, or walk their dog without getting accosted. I'd have to say there are some people at the top that are just not making the grade when it comes to diminished drug and gang activity. Maybe some more federal assistance is required, as in internal investigations.

One good bust (per year...if that) does not a safe city make.
And while we're at it, let's get a handle on the burgeoning "immigrant" scene and figure out who is here LEGALLY, hmm?

--Speaking of even more crime, for the year 2007, I can cite (just in an area 3 blocks square) 390+ police calls (of which at least 10 were calls I placed to the FWPD for assorted idiots). This averages 7.5 per week in an area that has barely a 70% occupancy rate. I've had 20+ "wrong numbers" at my phone (all asking for "Ray", and some from as far away as Mississippi), 35 items of "lawn trash" tossed (just) on my property, and have witnessed (and in some cases managed to get pictures of) at least one drug deal per month on my block. We also had over 3200 BOOMCARS come through the area (a few with real gag-a-maggot paintjobs to boot), with many of them "repeat" offenders to the noise ordinance. We even had a house that had 1300+ "visitors" (any of you even come CLOSE to THAT number?) over the past year.
Wonder WHY a house worth less than $30,000 is SO damn popular, hmm?

And this has been going on at that house for the past 2 years, in spite of detailed tips sent to Crimestoppers by yours truly. And no one can seem to catch these people.Now remember, this is ONLY in THREE SQUARE BLOCKS. We had 27 homicides in Allen County for 2007, with all but ONE occurring IN Fort Wayne, mostly on the SOUTH side of the city, so my "guesstimate" of 25 was pretty damn close. I predict we're going to see close to that same number AGAIN, if not a nigher number, and of course, everyone will be wondering WHY this happens (the "DUH" factor at work). To date, only 8 cases have been solved (including the VIP video store holdup attempt and the police action shooting over a week ago, so drop that final count to SIX).

Our neighborhood also saw several trash days where we had a MISSED PICKUP (someone forgot people STILL live down here all of a sudden?), and I blame SERV-ALL for that alone. Cable reception suddenly got worse for my house on certain channels (only the ones I happen to watch...go figure), and after several trips to the house, COMCAST has yet to alleviate the recurring problem (hint, when the digital cable box is taken OUT of the loop, the reception is FINE...work with that).

We also had ONE LESS leaf pickup in our area (as usual) thanks to the weather, which somehow manages to soak whatever leaves we have and then freezes them solid for a week). And plowing the snow from our area was hap-hazard at best, with the crews coming along after the snow had been packed down to form a nice SKATING venue on the side streets.

ALL major roads were fine...getting OUT TO THEM was another matter.

If there is some small sliver lining to this cloud, it's that we saw a lot fewer roaming dogs and cats in 2007. So when it comes to last year being THE YEAR OF THE MORON, seems we've got the market pretty well covered down here.

Yet, in the death throes of 2007, we're hearing rumblings about a 300% RISE (they did say 3 times as in 3x) in water/sewer rates for improvements. We're also looking at a RISE in garbage pickup fees. And if the cost to RECYCLE gets any higher, I suppose even that will fall by the wayside, which should make our landfills all the more attractive to developers.

As for local fuel prices? Well, that's going to become the new weekly crapshoot. We already KNOW that home heating fuels (be they oil or natural gas) are RISING every season. And since THOSE fuel costs are rising, it's only logical that ELECTRIC prices will RISE (they need fuel as well, unless they're hydro-electric plants or nuclear). Food costs will RISE in conjunction with higher fuel costs...we've already seen the tip of THAT iceberg at the grocery stores. Looks like a pattern is developing...yes?
We DO have ethanol...the "savior for the masses".....uh, hold that thought. With more CORN needed to produce ethanol, farmers will have to switch from other crops, and that means less "other" food sources, with even feed grain becoming scarcer. So what will feed the livestock then? All the energy pundits (another batch of morons) jerked their knees about a mile past their primate heads on this impending fiasco. Ethanol must be a stop-gap measure...PERIOD, and not "Dr. Erlich's magic bullet". Why bother to turn a society over to a fuel source that costs MORE to produce and yet yields LESS power per gallon than gasoline?
That makes absolutely no sense.

It is, however quite profitable to the right people (who will be able to afford gasoline at whatever price it winds up at).

But never fear...we DO have FIOS in the city now (yaaaay)....and we all know THAT makes all the other problems go away, don't we? Better to watch that important game on your 50 inch big screen LCD TV that's consuming more power than your damn refrigerator, isn't it? Now that's being energy-conscious! The ONLY "carbon footprint" will be MINE...planted squarely on all the asses of those trying to "green me up" while they do whatever the hell they damn well please.

And lastly, the morons that have provided us with ALL this technocrap we "can't live without", such as iPods, picture cellphones, MP3 players, blutooth headsets and other similar nonsense, should be gathered up and pushed off the nearest (and highest) cliff.

The societal fallout from such garbage is self-evident. We have so LITTLE privacy these days, thanks to anyone with a thumb and a picture-taking cellphone. Just ask any woman wearing a skirt and coming down a flight of stairs. We're acclimated to becoming oblivious to everything, thanks to those ear buds crammed in our skulls. We're so wrapped up in some form of "entertainment", that we're simply NOT paying attention to things we SHOULD be these days..and with such a faster-paced society, that can be real bad...real fast. We have men with doctorates from MIT that can't program their damn TVs these days...what's wrong with THIS picture (pun intended)? Whether it's in the front seat of our gadget-laden vehicles to our classrooms...and beyond, it's simply bad for us (but good for the manufacturers and CEOs of this techno-tripe).

Hopefully, we can all wise up a bit in 2008, and start looking where we're going and get pointed back in the right direction...though I'm NOT holding my breath.

I am, however paying attention...as should you.

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