The American Spectator : A Liberal in Name Only

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A Liberal in Name Only

Evil and apathy are two sides of the same coin.

A friend from church last year purchased an abandoned, ramshackle corner tavern up the street from our house. Allan and his wife Julie, both hippie types in their late thirties, are deeply religious people who make their living conserving old houses in iffy neighborhoods. And yet Allan would never identify himself as a conservative. And that, I might suggest, is conservatism’s problem in a nutshell. Anyway, Allan’s hope is that our neighborhood will soon gentrify and his investment pay off. As with most investments, his is a huge gamble.

Allan, who originally hails from Chicago, is the kind of person you want in your parish, your neighborhood, and your city. This week, however, Allan’s building was vandalized by the kind of people you distinctly do not want in your city. The vandals tagged Allan’s building and a nearby hipster nightclub with gang graffiti: “Surtown 13.” Sur being Spanish for south. Thirteen being the name of the most dangerous gang in the world: Mara Salvatrucha or MS-13. Local gangs where thus put on notice. (I am told we have local gangs, but nowadays when everyone dresses and acts like a gangster it is impossible to tell who is and who is not in a gang.)

Movies, television shows, the Crips, the Bloods, gangsta rap, the band Toto, pretty much all of the worst things in America have come from Los Angeles. No surprise, then, that Mara Salvatrucha originated in L.A. MS-13 began as a group of right-wing Salvadoran political refugees from the 1980s’ civil wars organized to protect their countrymen from African-American gangs. They soon branched out to take on illegal drug and weapons sales. It is estimated there are some 10,000 MS-13 members throughout 42 states. Including, apparently, some in my neighborhood.

I live two or three blocks from Little Mexico, a strip of authentic Mexican restaurants, clothing stores, groceries, and bakeries just south of downtown St. Louis. The wife and I always feel safe strolling through Little Mexico. It is the one part of our neighborhood where we do feel safe. In my experience, the local Latinos are friendly, hardworking people, which can be something of a rarity here in the inner-city.

At the same time, if you follow the news, you know that Mexican drug trafficking organizations are an increasing presence here, and are now the principal movers and wholesale distributors of heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, and marijuana to the area. Nor is MS-13 simply a drug distributor. Elsewhere in the country gang members commonly engage in murder, rape, prostitution, robbery, home invasions, immigration offenses, kidnapping, carjackings, auto thefts and vandalism. No doubt gang leaders will attempt to recruit from among the local Latino population. Youths from broken homes and the undocumented who are alienated from the mainstream culture will be ripe for the picking.

The tragedy is that many Latinos have come to our city searching for a better life. They hoped to leave the drugs and gangs and poverty behind them. And many did manage to find a better life. Now, the scourge of MS-13 has found them here and threatens not only their stable communities, but my neighborhood as well.

MIDDLE CLASS FOLKS often have two responses to street gangs and the crime they foster: arm yourself or flee the city. St. Louis has a population of 342,000 people. According to FBI statistics, there are around 380,000 guns here — many of these in the hands of gang members. The idea that I am going to shoot it out with drug gangs is plain silly. White flight is the standard middle-class response, though it is hardly a solution. Besides, it is white suburbanites who are, to a large extent, the cause of the problem. Everyday their teenage sons drive to my neighborhood and others like it to purchase heroin and cocaine. I don’t know how many times I have come home at lunch to find a drug deal going down in front of my house, the consumers being, from the looks of them and the prep school stickers affixed to their mommy’s Honda Accord, frat boys from the exburbs.

Here in my neighborhood you have three kinds of people. Those, like Allan and Julie, who are working to build a healthy neighborhood; those, like the gangsters and the suburban drug users, who seek to destroy everything in exchange for money or a cheap high; and — by far the majority — those who just don’t give a damn.

There is an old saying: “For evil to triumph let good men do nothing.” Evil and apathy, it would seem, are two sides of the same coin.

About the Author

Christopher Orlet writes from St. Louis.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (71) | Leave a comment Leave a comment

Darin| 4.5.12 @ 7:35AM

Either you choose a side or a side will be chosen for you. When dealing with evil, "neutral" is never an option for evil will never let it be.

Alan Brooks| 4.5.12 @ 12:17PM

Evil? Confederate War monuments are evil.

Alan Brooks| 4.5.12 @ 12:18PM

a statue of Rommel is wrong for Europe, but a statue of Stonewall Jackson is okay for the South??

Todd S| 4.5.12 @ 2:20PM

Get back on your meds you weirdo

Alan Brooks| 4.5.12 @ 5:12PM

You mention meds alot?; you must know a great deal about them, eh?

Todd S| 4.5.12 @ 6:28PM

You are a weirdo freak and everyone here knows it

Alan Brooks| 4.5.12 @ 7:33PM

Makes two of us- I remember your comments from way back- and they didn't like you.

Skippy| 4.6.12 @ 4:50PM

Confederate war monuments are sacred.

Dr. X| 4.5.12 @ 7:42AM

"The idea that I am going to shoot it out with drug gangs is plain silly."

It is? Why? Because the alternative is to let them (or their customers) steal from you, rape your wife, or shoot you. What makes you think that a bunch of unionized government bureaucrats with high school diplomas (i.e., cops) are going to save you?

You may think it's "silly" for you to shoot it out with the drug gangs. They certainly won't think it's silly to shoot at or steal from an unarmed white guy. Maybe YOU are part of the problem -- "for evil to triumph, good men do nothing." You've already surrendered.

Ever think about forming an armed citizens' group to monitor the drug dealers? Probably wouldn't work in your neighborhood. Your white hippie neighbors wouldn't do it, the cops would discourage it, and your minority neighbors are probably joining the gangs themselves. The gangs will prosper because they're not afraid of anything. Not the cops. Not the locals. And not you.

Better start thinking seriously about white flight.

rm| 4.5.12 @ 1:55PM

I cannot climb in the head of Mr. Orlet, but I think that by "silly" he means it would be silly to think that possessing firearms, having the necessary ammo, being trained up on your firearm(s), and having this gun or these guns well maintained might help in a best-case scenario very short gunfight, you'd need to have a George Jetson spaceship ready to beam out of your rundown neighborhood home -- within 3, 4 hours of your little OK Corral gun battle.

That's right, vaporize yourself from the premises and know you'll never return to that former domicile.

You'll be a wanted man by the gang. And I don't think that law enforcement will offer you any hiding or protection.

You might win that little shootout, but for only the next few hours.

Now with the Zimmerman case on every PD's minds, you think you won't be hauled in by the local police and need to have 5 expert witnesses, audio and visual (full dolby, high definition color video) to corroborate your self-defense and innocence? Fat chance. They'll still hold you for drug testing, forensics, and confiscate your weapons.

And while you are in the tank, who is helping wifey and the kids get out of Dodge?

Besides, we're only five years away from full confiscation of all privately owned firearms.

Bob K.| 4.5.12 @ 9:02PM

I take it that this means that since you are convinced you can't beat them you will join them. At least that is honest of you.

Skippy| 4.6.12 @ 4:52PM

Any man afraid to kill to protect his family cannot call himself a man.

Occam's Tool| 4.8.12 @ 2:10AM

There is a reason I live in rural Minnesota near the Canadian border, 2 hours or so from the closest city of roughly 50,000. Data assessed.

It is not skin color, nor ethnic background, that creates a thug. It is Culture. Create a culture where men are disenfranchised from their roles as head of families and major breadwinners, where matriarchy rules, and you will get poorly socialized males. That's it, and it is as true for lower class Blacks, Whites, Asians, Hispanics, etc.

As Thucydides said, all men are pretty much the same---he does best who trained in the severest school. The severest school for boys requires men to implement it.

Incidentally, that is my major disagreement with the now infamous Debyshire article. As I have discussed with John before, it is not race, but Culture, that makes all the difference.

Young men need fathers to lick the young cubs into line.

Jim| 4.5.12 @ 7:51AM

When we stand up to evil, it slithers away. I have experienced this many, but sadly not all, times in my life. Too many of us are too cowardly or do not want to "get involved." People, if you are breathing, you are involved. Do something.

Egret| 4.5.12 @ 10:16AM

Do something?

How about neighborhoods adopting zero tolerance for gRaFFiTi? Remove it as soon as it appears, the very day it appears.

Claypoole| 4.5.12 @ 8:11AM

End the War on Drugs. Like Prohibition in the 20's, it is good only for fostering organized crime and getting people, many innocent, killed.

Old Soldier| 4.5.12 @ 8:53AM

Over the past couple of decades I have come to agree with that sentiment. Let's just admit that we have lost the war on drugs and deal with it.

c.j. acworth| 4.5.12 @ 9:29AM

I have come to agree. It's unfortunate, but self-destructive people will find ways to destroy themselves. If years of hearing about the dangers of drug use (Whitney Huston ring a bell?) haven't convinced you, then my response, cold as it may sound, is go ahead, do drugs, die, and make room for someone productive.

say what?| 4.5.12 @ 1:32PM

People can go on with cocaine and heroin for years. They don't just start using and croak within 2 or 3 years.

However, when they need another "hit," look out. The Tasmanian Devil appears like a docile lapcat by comparison.

For all those who wish these vile drugs legalized, well, how are you gonna live when the bus driver, taxi driver, plane pilot, and motorist heading at you in your lane (he's driving the wrong way) are users all around you 24/7? How about high guys working the assembly lines or operating massive fork lifts? Or driving 18-wheelers on the interstate doing 70 or 75 mph next to you and your family in the SUV or minivan?

Legalizing it might drop the price but it won't do a thing to curb the crazy addictions and what an addict will do when he or she needs that next fix.

The street price might drop by 200% but it will still cost something. And many addicts cannot or will not hold down regular jobs that will provide income to feed their habits. The addicts are still going to be stealing to obtain the cash they need. They'll still be fully engaged in violent crime to get what they need.

I guess y'all have never been in the same car, boat, or room with a crack addict.

Todd S| 4.5.12 @ 2:28PM

Exactly right, the libertarian panacea of legalization is a fantasy. And where do these people think that heroin and crack should be sold? At Wal Mart? All it will do is legitimize what the gangbangers are currently doing, there will still be the turf wars for their customers. And there will be more customers and drug addicts, it will just open the pandoras box completely on society. Do we really want to model our society after Amsterdam?

Skippy| 4.6.12 @ 4:55PM

As a former drug addict and alcoholic I can testify to the insanity of addiction and the miracle of recovery.
Thank God nobody shot my ass when I was one of the undead.
That said, the war is lost as long as the dopers demand their poison.
Let them buy it and kill themselves.

Dr. X| 4.5.12 @ 9:45AM

I disagree. About the only illegal drug that could arguably be legalized is marijuana. It makes you useless, not dangerous.

Do you really think that legalizing crack, meth, PCP, and heroin will make this country better and safer? It's literally impossible to use these drugs safely or moderately. Do you think a meth addict or crack addict will be less pron to stealing to support his habit if it's legal? Do you really think that allowing hallucinogenic drugs like LSD, which make people literally out of their minds would be better?

I don't.

DRed| 4.5.12 @ 2:54PM

The idea is that prohibition hasn't stopped anyone from getting those drugs. Yes, someone high on crack is more dangerous than a sober person. But that person is going to get crack whether or not its illegal.

Todd S| 4.5.12 @ 3:29PM

So what is your point exactly? We should make all abhorrent behavior legal because some people are going to do it regardless? Do you think crack should be sold legally? And that the government has to provide welfare to these people so they can buy these now "legal" drugs?

DRed| 4.5.12 @ 3:58PM

My point is that the our drug war is an abject failure. It's been a huge waste of money, it's socially destabilizing, it erodes our civil rights, pours profits into the pockets of violent criminals and most importantly-it doesn't do anything to make drugs unavailable (which is what it's supposed to be doing). It's time to try something else.

Dr. X| 4.5.12 @ 5:44PM

I don't think it's been an "abject failure." You have to consider the possibility that MORE people would be on drugs than are presently on drugs if there were no penalties for doing so. I disagree that it "doesn't do anything to make drugs unavailable." Certainly it makes them more difficult to obtain. Do you really want people buying crack and PCP and acid and heroin from vending machines? I also disagree that it's "socially destabilizing." Drugs themselves are socially destabilizing. Ask the family of an addict who steals from his grandmother to get a fix. He'll do the same thing if the drugs are legal.

I will concur, however, that the war on drugs has helped to erode our civil rights. But with civil rights come civil responsibilities. In the past, those responsibilities were promulgated by religion. Unfortunately, our religious values and our civil rights have simultaneously disappeared, and the leftist-nanny-state government has stepped into the breach. The paradox is that we need a militant right-wing movement to restore our religious and civil values to enable us to once again be free.

DRed| 4.5.12 @ 8:00PM

Yes, that's certainly a possibility. I'd probably smoke pot if it were legal. The thing is, though, is that drugs aren't actually very difficult to obtain. At least the people I know who use them don't have seem to have much trouble getting them. Look at the numbers of people we have in America who use drugs-does America seem like a country in which obtaining illegal drugs is difficult?

Fascists haven't really done a bang up job restoring freedom in the past, Dr. X, have they? Even if you're more of a fan of quasi-fascist military dictatorship in the vein of a Pinochet or Franco, those countries achieved their current freedoms in spite of, not because, of their murderous dictatorships. You're off your rocker if you think oppressive militancy is the path to freedom.

Luis Stecca| 4.6.12 @ 3:08AM

Alcohol destroys more lives than heroin, cocaine
and crystal methamphetamine combined

Skippy| 4.6.12 @ 4:57PM

True that!

Todd S| 4.5.12 @ 6:32PM

And what is this something else DRed? The Amsterdam model? I tell you what war has certainly not worked and that is the war on poverty, you want to discuss a huge waste of money we can discuss that. Notice we are fighting those "wars" in the same locations.

DRed| 4.5.12 @ 7:55PM

The rates of drug use in Amsterdam are lower than they are in many cities in America. Have you looked at what happened to Portugal after they decriminalized drug possession? Obviously, Portugal isn't America, and drug use is a complex phenomenon, so what works there might not work here. But can't you at least agree that it's folly to keep doing the one thing that has proven not to work?

Occam's Tool| 4.8.12 @ 2:20AM

The level of socioeconomic stability, cultural homogeneity, education, and many other things enhancing a stable society are higher in Holland than here.

Compare Holland's rate of drug abuse with, say, Willmette, IL. Better analysis, and more appropriate.

Occam's Tool| 4.8.12 @ 2:18AM

Dred: I'm THE MAN who actually works with drug abusing populations trying to stabilize their psychosis. I have enough work to do---you would give me more.

I fail to see how making it easier for Native American, Black, and Hispanic populations to destroy themselves can be construed as anything but an act of full-bore racism. But Dr. X is the bad guy. Right.

Again, DRed: have you actually done clinical work with severe substance abusers in minority populations in severely impoverished socioeconomic states? If not, your opinion is worthless compared to mine. I'm boarded, licensed, and suboxone certified.

Nick| 4.5.12 @ 8:59PM

DRed,

"But that person is going to get crack whether or not its illegal."

This is precisely why "that person" needs to be removed from society.
But all of you bleeding heart liberals keep complaining about incarcerating drug users. Because you don't care about protecting those who make up the society.

DRed| 4.5.12 @ 9:36PM

By the way, Nick, you should strike up a friendship with Dr. X. He's an actual fascist. You'd love him-he wants to put me in a concentration camp. I'm sure he'd be quite amused to have you explain to him how he's a leftist.

Nick| 4.6.12 @ 2:21AM

DRed,

Well, since you are the one calling him a "fascist," I can only assume that he falls anywhere from slightly center-left to a religious, right-wing extremist, like myself. Coming from a Bolshevik, such as yourself.

But, all learned people know that the man who made the term fascist popular, Mussolini, was born and raised as a socialist. Fascism was the new, improved national socialism.

Occam's Tool| 4.8.12 @ 2:12AM

Dr. X:

Until you have seen a Maori young male, tattooed and ferociously psychotic from high THC concentration MJ, you really haven't lived a full life in Medicine.

MJ can lead to psychosis in patients susceptible. And with the THC concentration way cranked up over the 1970s, it is anything goes.

Otherwise, concur completely with your statement.

David W| 4.5.12 @ 1:11PM

Maybe. It is unfortunate that there are so many who are unable to handle reality without drugs or alcohol.

It would be nice to have a president and liberal/libertarian politicians stand up and say drugs are bad (instead of the crap, "well, I didn't inhale"). It would also be nice if more people, entertainers, business leaders, church leaders, and bloggers were to decry the use of drugs and how shameful they are. Maybe if the weak-willed hear that enough it might begin to register. Given that many entertainers act like a "Cheech and Chong" act and that our current idiot-in-chief is a stoner from college (and probably still is) we can be assured there will be no stigma associated with drug use.

Unfortunately, even if the drug war was stopped tomorrow, it wouldn't end the existence of gangs (legalize pot and you still have all of the bad drugs still being sold). Drugs are only one way to make money. If drugs go away they will just switch to the other forms of "victimless" crimes - which they already have.

Dr. X| 4.5.12 @ 2:35PM

"It is unfortunate that there are so many who are unable to handle reality without drugs or alcohol."

I dissent. They could handle reality just fine, IF they actually had to live in reality. EXCEPT they don't live in reality. They live in a bubble -- a bubble that allows them to take drugs.

Who is on drugs? a) People on welfare who have rent, food, medical care and entertainment provided to them without having to work. They take "recreational" drugs for, well, recreation. b) Rich people (e.g., Hollywood, rock stars) who are in the same position for entirely different reasons. They have too much money without actually working for it and too much time on their hands.

"Recreational" drugs only exist for people who can afford recreation.

People who have to get up at 5 a.m. and go to WORK and can lose their job (and possibly house and car as a consequence) if they fail a surprise drug test tend to NOT take drugs.

Seek| 4.5.12 @ 4:13PM

Actually, surveys show that the main buyers of cocaine in this country are from the same demographic background as the main sellers: Hispanics. Enough with this nonsense about "Hollywood" and "rock stars." They're a minor source of demand. The real problem are the minorities who one day, collectively, may become a majority in this country.

Appleby| 4.5.12 @ 8:20AM

Sometimes if you start with the youngest would-be gangstas, you can make a difference just by turning the Mom Look on them and saying , "Stop that!" in the voice your mother (or grandmother) used when she meant "I'm not kidding, buster brown." A surprising number of children have never been told that what they are doing is wrong. Or that anything is wrong. Or that there is such a concept as "wrong".

Don't start with the big fish. Start with the ones you can influence, that you feel comfortable with influencing. What you say and what you do makes a difference. If you need a really good example of how to begin, talk to the Salvation Army. I guarantee they know how to handle this kind of thing.

Jeremiah Smirking| 4.5.12 @ 8:42AM

Chris, I've got do-gooder relatives whose bleeding "social justice" hearts have kept them in your neighborhood despite shootings, robberies and general urban dependency attitudes that has resulted in kids who, raised in this surrender-to-hopelessness environment (it doesn't matter a bit if you have the cleanest yard on the street) have "grown up" to become the lazy, ambitionless sponges they see around them. It may be fortuitous for you to have this reality laid in your lap daily so that you can churn out an article every Thursday Chris, but I'll take the 30 minute ride into work every day from the peaceful 'burbs on the other side of the river. In today's realities, calling flight "white" no longer attaches a racist stigma to it.

Kevin in Appalachia| 4.5.12 @ 8:46AM

Are we truly "Good" men if we do nothing, or are we cowards? Revelation 21:8 says cowardice is a sin. Something to think about.

gearjammer| 4.5.12 @ 8:48AM

They need more government services. We must pay more in taxes to save these unfortunates. Surely, a beautiful billion dollar community outreach and youth center will do the trick.

Bob K.| 4.5.12 @ 9:26AM

Mr. Orlet,

You are a Journalist and you wrote about armed Journalists in Iraq in 2003 in your article on "Heat-packing Journalists" for Salon on 4/15/2003. Journalists who also usually had armed guards which these people in St. Louis probably can't afford to have.

http://www.salon.com/2003/04/15/orlet/singleton/

Many of America's neighborhoods are worse than some are in Baghdad these days. If the people who make our laws and work in the legal professions won't or can't do anything to ensure a civil society then it is time for the citizenry to arm itself and enforce those laws.

Certainly the citizenry can't wait for, or look for, timely help from the journalistic "profession" on this problem anytime soon.

albert constantine jr.| 4.5.12 @ 9:44AM

While I have read conflicting accounts as to whether MS-13 started first amongst the right wing or left wing refugees from El Salvador, all accounts seem to agree that they are a very violent gang. While there is some variation in graffiti across the US, though, “Sur 13” is actually a Mexican gang conglomerate, stemming from how Mexican immigrants from the south of that country identified, in opposition to the Nortenos (the 14s, or those from Northern Mexico). MS 13 was aligned with Sur 13 and the Mexican mafia (M E), and the Nortenos with La Nuestra Familia, if I recall correctly.

Locally, many of our gang related homicides stem from the battles between the Latin Kings (generally of Puerto Rican background) and Sur 13 (Mexican). This far from the actual border, though, expanding rosters is more important than one’s point of origin, so Latin Kings might have whites, blacks or even Mexicans, and Sur 13 might admit someone from Cuidad Juarez.

Regardless of the details, though, along with Mr. Orlet’s tale this morning, it shows one of the ways how the effect of federal immigration policy (or the lack of one) has an impact on local immigration policy (the flight to the suburbs).

Bob K.| 4.5.12 @ 10:58AM

If my local lawyer friends are right the gangs in NE PA seem to organize based on their own National origin: Puerto Rico, The Dominican Republic, Guatemala etc. Each area of the USA seems to have it's own Nationalistic problem.

The deliberate lack of any coherent immigration policy has caused this breakdown in civil order and that is because our federal bureaucracy funds too many political, religious, legal, educational and welfare organizations with the money needed to serve, service and exploit these peoples.

LarryK| 4.5.12 @ 9:56AM

Nice article, as usual, although you were a little hard on the band Toto. Next time you're looking for a truly awful, late-70s LA band, get The Knack.

Todd S| 4.5.12 @ 2:38PM

My Sharona does have an outstanding guitar solo, can't speak for the rest of their music though.

albert constantine jr.| 4.5.12 @ 9:30PM

I was dating a young woman at the time who preferred "Good Girls Don't", much to my enjoyment.

Le Cracquere| 4.5.12 @ 11:13AM

People like Orlet's friends just can't win. They catch flak from the left for being gentrifiers who cause property taxes to rise, and are somehow less "real" than their neighbors BY VIRTUE OF being less violent, dysfunctional, and hopeless.

But in my experience, people like them catch equal flak from the right for trying to reclaim city life and make it worth living. I've heard fellow conservatives all but explicitly say that only a liberal would want to walk to a commercial establishment, be able to see his neighbors from his door, or not have an acre-plus lot in the outskirts.

So best of luck to Orlet's friends. Hope they're able to carve out an enjoyable life in the end, despite the turned-up noses on all sides.

Bob K.| 4.5.12 @ 1:06PM

It has nothing to do with "Liberal" and "Left" or "Conservative" and "Right" which are labels only of interest to the "chattering" class during arguments about their definitions. It has everything to do with politics and publicity on a national scale where local realities are ignored and votes and money are where it is at.

Scooter's comment below about "association" and "neighborhood watches" would be a start if the people who control Mr. Orlet's "profession" don't turn those words and ideas into crimes themselves!

Dr. X| 4.5.12 @ 2:41PM

The paradox of gentrification, of course, is that its ultimate goal is to get uneducated blacks and minorities and single-parent households to move out, and to get two-parent households headed by educated whites and Asians to move in.

Orlet's "hippie" neighbors would never SAY that, of course, and probably never even THINK it.

Cognitive dissonance.

scooter| 4.5.12 @ 11:29AM

can you say "association"?

or "neighborhood watch"?

The chilling effect on decent people doing the right thing from the Zimmerman debacle is and will be a sad legacy!

Skippy| 4.6.12 @ 5:31PM

Ignore the chatterers.
Carry 2 extra mags.

Petronius| 4.5.12 @ 11:58AM

I am one of the handful of old Conservatives still in St. Louis. I cannot leave unless I take a lot less than than what my property would bring in a normal real estate market no thanks to Dodd, Frank, Fannie, and Freddie. Being to old to pay off another mortgage anywhere keeps me captive. The only offer I had was from a flipper who is Latino. This city was finished the day the Liberals stuffed the ballots to take over the school board with the blessings of poly-sci lawyers from SLU and Wash U telling the tax payers there was no fraud when almost 60,000 people voted who don't exist. Most of the south side then moved to Metherson Co. which was exactly what the libs wanted. And so long as the gangs rob and kill people not attached to the universities and city hall, there will be no official reaction. The spring initiation season is just starting. As I said before, your property will soon be limited to what you can retain through armed force or carry at a dead run. The trash control the culture and politics. G.B. Shaw was right when he said, "America will pass from barbarism to decadence and back with a brief period of civilization in between."

Seek| 4.5.12 @ 4:16PM

St. Louis was done for when blacks became the majority of residents. Any white person living north of Delmar and south of Natural Bridge might as well commit suicide -- assuming there are any left.

Louis Jenkins| 4.5.12 @ 12:03PM

Having trouble telling who is a gang member? Just look for the colors. That's all you have to do. ie, a couple of young men walking thru a parking lot had RED prominately displayed on their person. Equals gang members. Even in small town USA you can recognize them. My advice, if you live in a transitional neighborhood- pack up your kids and belongings and leave. Forget notifying the police. When seconds count the police are minutes away. The two people who bought the corner store-they've wasted their money. Until the majority of Americans realize that you can fight back, getting out is the best method of dealing with them. Make your stand and you'll be alone when the time comes. Unfortunate, but true.

cicero| 4.5.12 @ 1:02PM

White flight is losing its color here in southeastern Michigan, as the blacks, browns, yellows, and whomever else can afford it flee the uncivilized streets of Detroit. Detrot is fast approaching a St. Louis. We have 700,000 people, and should be down to 380,000 in a few years. More young men were killed in Detroit in the past 10 years, than American soldiers in Afghanistan. Anyone who willingly subjects his family to such danger is failing in his first responsibilties. Rather we move to safer areas, and train our young men to protect our most vulnerable from the uncivilized. From a safe bastian, we can win that fight. To waste our energies trying to fight the criminal element in their own backyard is silly. However, if we fail to teach our young men what their primary purpose is, is suicidal for the culture.

Paul A'Barge| 4.5.12 @ 2:35PM

St Louis? Ever been there? I have.

After 5:30 pm, there is no one left downtown other than homeless men and software consultants pulling suitcases behind them.

Move out. I suggest you move to Texas.

Petronius| 4.5.12 @ 2:53PM

I'm considering Crawford Co.

Seek| 4.5.12 @ 4:19PM

When it first opened, the Galleria was a wonderful downtown shopping center -- a retail tonic. There was just one problem: the clientele. They were heavily black. And within a few years the blacks managed to trash the place and scare the customers away. The high vacancy rate is the end result.

DRed| 4.5.12 @ 2:43PM

End prohibition

Calvin| 4.5.12 @ 4:17PM

End DRed.

Todd S| 4.5.12 @ 6:35PM

DRed wants to be able to take his bong to his local part and not get hassled by the pigs about it, that would just be groovy man!

DRed| 4.5.12 @ 8:07PM

What I'd really like to do is take a cold beer to the park on a nice day, but I'd hate to get another ticket for drinking in public.

Bill| 4.5.12 @ 5:15PM

America has diseases: Blacks and Latinos.

Nick| 4.5.12 @ 8:52PM

"That nigger lover President Clinton had the pen and vetoed so many good bills passed by the Gingrich-led Congress."
- Written by Bill the Bigot, in the Time for Newt to Do the Honorable Thing thread:

http://spectator.org/archives/.....ent_749403

You're a moron and a racist, Bigot Bill.
GO AWAY!

RCV| 4.5.12 @ 10:42PM

You are such a despicable human being, Bill.

Petronius| 4.5.12 @ 10:11PM

Complexion does not matter. Predatory, perverse, and parasitic behavior does! They get away with it because of dupes, idiots, and cultural traitors in positions of authority.

9thID| 4.5.12 @ 11:31PM

The solution to the "drug war" is straightforward, but the moral compass and will are lacking:

- Secure the border
- Streamline and severely limit the appeals process
- Implement Sheriff Joe style jails and prisons including hard labor
- Mandatory sentences for repeat offenders including a 3-strikes you’re out capital sentence for dealers & violent offenders

The use of these addictive and illicit drugs not only destroy tens of thousands of individuals every year, they also destroy entire families, kill innocents on our highways and in violence, spread infectious diseases, and drive up healthcare premiums and costs. We have enough of a problem with alcohol abuse without adding the exponentially worse Libertine "Opium Dens of London" of meth, crack, heroin, spice, etc. to our societal rot.

But hey, this is just another area where the Libertine cousins of Liber-alsim and Liber-tarianism joins forces for their humanistic and shared depravity. In humanistic Libertinism we are watching Romans 1:18 and following unfold in HighDef...

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