What makes the present such a frightening time is that a number of nightmarish phenomena that we had thought consigned to the dustbin of history are reappearing. Rioters in the streets. Burning buildings. Plunging markets and the threat of depression. The scent of socialism in the air.
Who, as of, say, 1989, could have imagined that in barely 20 years, what was then known as the Free World could sink so far?
What we are seeing in London and other English cities is an outpouring of evil. To try to explain evil as the result of something else is almost always a mistake.
Facing a storm of criticism for remaining on vacation while his city burned, London Mayor Boris Johnson returned Tuesday to tour Clapham, a well-off south London neighborhood that was one of many stunned by three nights of hopscotching riots that left one man dead and littered the urban landscape with hundreds of damaged businesses and residences.Also at the paper, upper right, "Divided Fed Has Surprise for Markets." And then below that, "Angst on Main Street Threatens Recovery."
The shaggy-haired conservative was greeted by crowds of furious store owners asking where police were as their livelihoods were destroyed.
"I felt ashamed," he said after viewing the damage, "that people could feel such disdain for their neighborhoods."
Community leaders, sociologists, police and lawmakers were left groping for a meaning for the worst social unrest to hit London in a generation. The riots laid bare a phenomenon that has stirred deep unease in Britain in recent years: "yobbery," the anti-social behavior of a generation believed to be so alienated from the norms of civilized society that pockets of some cities live in fear.
Karger finally came out to his parents in 1991, after nursing a friend who died of AIDS. They accepted him, Karger says, but never seemed entirely comfortable. So he kept closeted, which was also better for business. Although he told his business partners — "it wasn't a surprise, and didn't change who or what he was," says one, Lee Stitzenberger — maintaining his secret kept Karger's sexuality from becoming a campaign issue.Karger might be a nice guy personally, but he's aligning himself with the progressive hate industry. And the Times is wrong on Mitt Romney. Romney recently "came out" and signed onto the pledge from the National Organization for Marriage to oppose gay marriage.
When his parents died and he retired, Karger finally came out publicly. It was 2006 and he was 56 years old.
There was no grand announcement. He simply took a lead role in the unsuccessful campaign to save a Laguna Beach gay bar, the Boom Boom Room. Three years later, he founded Californians Against Hate to oppose Proposition 8, the measure banning same-sex marriage, and used his expertise to expose secret funding of the measure by the Mormon Church.
To some extent, his presidential campaign is an extension of that effort. By nudging Mitt Romney, the GOP front-runner and a prominent Mormon — preferably on stage, in front of a national TV audience — Karger would like to stop the church crusade against same-sex marriage. In his view, Romney could make that happen with a phone call.
Romney's feelings are unknown. His campaign declined to comment.
Not surprisingly, BBC is now apologizing for suggesting that the bloke might have been involved. See Telegraph UK, "London riots: BBC apologises for accusing Darcus Howe."
We are witnesses the Mad Maxification of society in the early 21st century.
Turning right, I head South on Main Street. A couple of blocks up a see throngs of people congregating, near a bus stop and in front of an insurance office. Traffic slowed and I rolled down the window to snap a photo. A Latino man was working as a sign-spinner. He ducked down when I raised my camera. Probably an illegal alien making some money under the table:
The neighborhood is a migrant enclave, which helps explain the large number of single-parent households:
Although Orange County has the lowest proportion of single-parent households in Southern California, Santa Ana stands as the highest in that category, with 12,023, or 16%. Laguna Woods, a small city in South County, has the fewest, 21, or 0.2%.There's a lot of poverty here as well. At the corner of Durant and Washington, a local Head Start center:
The roots of this anomaly can be found in Santa Ana's decades-long history as a magnet for immigrants.
This part of the county was converted from orange groves to single-family housing to apartments, said G.U. Krueger, a housing expert in the area. Now, Santa Ana is one of the most densely populated cities in the country.
Michael Ruane, director of the OC Community Indicators Project, which studies trends in the county, said Santa Ana has always stood out statistically because of residential overcrowding, high school dropout rates and the educational level of adults.
But it's also one of the least expensive areas in the county.
"That's why you would live there, or have to, or be unable to move from there," he said.
Heading East, Willard Intermediate School (discussed at the Times) and across the street a Mexican civil rights history mural:
Laura Arreola, 43, may be one of those people. She's lived in various apartments off Parton Street for 14 years. All of her four children have attended schools in the area, where empty strollers sit on overgrown lawns and dusty toys spill onto the sidewalk.Another mural, on Washington across from the school. This one records the promise of education to lift kids out of what looks like is some kind of desolation:
Merchants hawk fried pork bellies and produce from white trucks that serve as gathering points for children. In this tract, more than three-quarters of the households include children.
But the only open space in the neighborhood is the local school, Willard Intermediate, which serves as the de facto park. Children also play in alleyways and the church's patio [nearby St. Peter Evangelical Lutheran Church].
A couple of kids and either their grandmother or another older caregiver. It was about 4:00pm. School's out for summer and a lot of parents were still out working. The woman was speaking Spanish:
Despite the glum statistics at the Times, I didn't see a lot of social disorganization. There was very little graffiti on the walls. This batch below was few and far between:
Also at London's Daily Mail, "Obama has failed blacks, says Bachmann as African-American unemployment hits 16%."
