A man on a Metro bus isn’t moving and efforts to shake him awake don’t work. The bus driver asks passengers: “What do you think I should do?” To this the writer at The True Tales of a Caffeine Addict says, I doubt it would have been too much to check to see if the man has a pulse.

Yeah, I cry over the Military History channel. Church of the Big Sky. Looks for her mother in the old films.

I Now Pronounce You offers some sharp thoughts about the Mitchell Report, and writes: I kept thinking that someone, anyone, would step up and express exactly what I was feeling. I waited…and I waited.

Doctor of Thinkology takes a different look at Hillary in Journey of the Hero.

Photo. Blue Coyote Laughing uses dodge and burn to paint.

Is America Ready For a Black President? AverageBro.com

The first war casaulty of 2008, Major Andrew Olmsted, was also a prolific blogger. Catch Up Lady. He prepared a blog post in this event. Catch Up Lady writes:

Olmsted’s death not only underscores the power of blogging as a medium and a means of self expression, but also calls attention to the “digital lives” that so many of us lead and the large online community we touch as a result.

The Supreme Court is currently considering whether or not to uphold a federal appeals court’s strikedown of the D.C. gun ban. The essential argument is that even with the gun ban in place, D.C.’s violent crime rate is still far too high, and the illegal gun trade means that criminals can always get their hands on a piece, even when citizens can’t. Read the rest of this entry »

Today’s Examiner has a brief story about the DC DMV’s new initiative to embed SmarTrip chips in D.C. driver’s licenses, starting in 2008. As someone who’s written about privacy invasions and identity theft extensively, this scares the living crap out of me. If you lose one of these new licenses, someone can not only steal your identity, but can use your license to move through the Metro system.

“But you can track them and get your license back,” you say? Right–but that means they can also track you as well. SmarTrip cards are powered by radio-frequency identifier (RFID) microchips, a controversial technology that has many privacy advocates worried about a potential future where our movements can be tracked from stem to stern. Any data encoded about you on the chip that can be read by an RFID reader is fair game. A pilot program in a United Kingdom school has set up students’ uniforms to include RFID chips in order to track their movements, for example. Creepy, to say the least. Read the rest of this entry »

Those of you who have lists of things to complain about regarding our fair city won’t have the notorious zone system to kick around anymore–Mayor Adrian Fenty has ordered the DC Taxicab Commission to switch all cabs operating in the District to a metered system.

Naturally, the cabbies are threatening a strike, and none of this amounts to more than political posturing until the change actually takes effect, which could be months away, even beyond Fenty’s hoped-for spring deadline. But on its face, is this a good or bad move? Read the rest of this entry »

One of the flaws many politically-oriented sorts in D.C. have is the tendency to focus on national issues at the expense of not seeing the importance of local developments. I know this is a problem I have, and my participation here in D.C. Blogs is a way to help remedy that. Another good example would be the American Prospect’s Ezra Klein, whose comments about DC’s ethnic makeup not attracting amenities for yuppies touched off a big firestorm. Read the rest of this entry »

I saw DC Councilmember Jim Graham while I was out having a drink at Temperance Hall last night. It’s funny, because I tend to disagree with the hard-line stance Graham takes when it comes to city nightclubs and bars that cater to an urban(read: non-white) demographic. That said, I realized that I could not argue with those views too much that night once I walked past The House gentleman’s club.

Now, I’m all for having the option of going to a bar and seeing strippers. I just don’t like going back to the car and seeing it plastered with photos of butt cheeks. Strip club flyers tend to follow this format: Very graphic collages of strippers in thongs, with directions to the club, and the mention of some kind of raggedy extra incentive, such as “Free Papa Johns Pizza Night” or “Chocolate Thunder’s Birthday Celebration.” Most nights, and especially on the weekends, these flyers are all over the neighborhood.
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Sometimes I think my super liberal hypersensitive mind is playing tricks on me. However, I know for a fact I can’t be crazy all the time. I mean, is it just me, or am I not the only person who finds this poster not just offensive, but dangerous?

Some background: I live in Switzerland right now, and these posters are everywhere. It’s an advertisement to drum up signatures for an initiative by the Schweizerische Volkpartei (SVP) to kick out foreigners (and in some cases, their families as well) found guilty of crimes. I wrote about this on my personal blog and received a couple of e-mails telling me I was wrong. That, in fact, this isn’t racist, but just a demonstrative of the old “black sheep” parable. Right.
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