I feel where you're coming from with your pictures idea, Keef...

But I just don't think it will work.

As long as so many members of the black community view "snitching" - i.e. daring to give the police tips/info to help stop/capture those who murder these black kids - as something despicable and worthy of death in itself, the slaughter of young black males will continue unabated.

As long as decent people have to fear for their (and their friends'/family's) lives and well-being for "snitching", nothing will change.

The black community ultimately has to decide what is more important - a code of secrecy/"honor" that involves not working with (white?) cops to help solve homicides...or the lives of their youth.

**************

Publishing the pictures for "all the world to see" may have a psychological effect on outsiders...

But the brutal reality is that the ONLY people who are in a position put a stop to black-on-black crime/homicide is the black community itself.

How powerful would it be if, say, Kanye or Jay-Z spearheaded such an effort? How much influence could Michael Strahan, Kobe Bryant, Shaq et al wield?? Think about it...

As a diehard cheesehead who moved to Milwaukee in the same year that Brett played his first full season for the Pack, I've been in a sad funk since hearing the news of #4's retirement earlier today.

But it wasn't until I read your wonderful column - which perfectly encapsulates the player, legend and man that Brett was and is - that I lost it, and tears started to flow. Dammit...

I'm gonna miss you, you ol' stubbly gunslinger.

For '96-'97....for all the crazy, oh-my-god-how-did-he?!?! passes...for your courage and honesty about your painkiller addiction...for your humanity in the face of Deanna's cancer battle, and your dad Irv's passing...for your true love of the Game...

For all of this and so much more, this Packer fan says thank you, Brett.

Canada's low violent crime rates have more to do with (low) population densities and geographic spread than with Canadian society >> American society.

Certainly we have our social ills here in the U.S. - but it's not like Toronto and Vancouver are exactly crime-free, violence-free cities. {Yes, I have visited/lived in both towns.}

socialism has to do with caring for one's fellow citizens...

Riiiiight. Stalin really "cared" for the 50 million fellow citizens who died under his socialist regime, didn't he?

And Pol Pot really "cared" when he and his agragrian socialist thugs massacred 1 million of their fellow Cambodian citizens - for reasons such as wearing glasses (and therefore being "teacher-like", i.e. favoring education over agragrian communism).

Socialism. We Care.

{Once You Obey.}

...and for every S.H.A. bracelet you buy, $2.00 will be sent to every young Hollywood actress who is courageous enough to refuse to do uber-crappy, hella-sappy romantic comedies.

Now THAT would be a worthy cause!

{Alternate name: the "27 Dresses" bracelet.}

This time with referees not making ridiculous calls (like Big Ben Rothlisberger getting into the endzone when clearly the ball didn't break the plane) that give the edge to the Steelers over the Seahawks...

learn to stop hating themselves, as adolescent girls are wont to do.

There's nothing wrong with an adolescent girl (or boy, too...may I remind Broadsheet that many/most teen boys suffer their own share of self-loathing) feeling okay about themselves, their talents, etc.

But please: let's hope they don't go to the other extreme and promote mindless self-esteem either! (As many schools/camps are wont to do.)

Look - there are already enough Hannah Montanas making music out there. (Which is to say: one is enough) I've got nothing against tunes about feelin' happy and well-balanced and crushin' on cute hotties and always obeying your parents and teachers and God and all of that...

But Rock & Roll??

Man, rock & roll is at least partly descended from the blues - which is at least part of what makes it so f#^kin' great. It's also partly descended from the music of hellraisers like Hank Williams and Jerry Lee Lewis...

A little...just a little...loathing - of maybe yourself, of maybe the asshole(s) who broke your heart, of all the teachers/preachers/cops/politicos who are all just bricks in the wall - can make for some righteous rock & roll.

So hear's hoping that this camp not be a Disneyified "Angst-Free Zone"...

Perhaps it's payback for my/our schaudenfraude as progressives when we see corrupt/hypocritical Repubs - Abramoff, Craig, Lott, DeLay et al - bit the scandal dust?

...but can we please bring back this mythical time of housewives in garters (and maybe French maid aprons/outfits) - at least, say, on a Saturday night when the kids are out hanging with friends??

=)

But for my share of the remaining $2 tril, I would've scored me a Corvette convertible. Triple-black, 6-spd manual and the Z06 muffler package...aww yeah!!

*******

Btw: Based on the current sale at Rainbow Foods in the Twin Cities, $3 000 000 000 000.00 would have bought 30 trillion packages of Ramen Noodles...enough to feed the world fried pasta for weeks on end.

Just sayin'...

To watch Tiger Woods win his 5th PGA tourney in a row with a 20-foot put for birdie - on the 18th hole??

Add "clutch" to this monster's resume; damn, I'm not even a golf fan - yet watching Tiger do what he does makes me cheer my arse off...