Comments on: Police continue search for stabbing suspect

By: mickey

mickey — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:15:09 +0000

Got any facts to support that claim?

By: mickey

mickey — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 11:31:36 +0000

I think you're full of it. In fact, I think your whole story is malarkey.

As for shelters and safety nets, I happen to volunteer each week at a transitional shelter for women and children who are working very hard to get out of homelessness. And oh, maybe I should mention that the reason 90% of them are there in the first place is because they were escaping domestic violence situations. Bet you didn't know about that little reality of homelessness, eh?

Many of the residents have deep psychological issues, some have addiction issues. ALL of them have self-esteem issues. The program is run by an organization that provides a multitude of services -- the kinds of services you would characterize as "not the solution," except that you'd be wrong on that account. These families are given support and services that enable them to find permanent housing within one year. The kids get regular tutoring and do well in school. It is a program with proven, verifiable results.

But you wouldn't want to hear about that, because you are the expert on homeless shelters and service,s and you know "first hand" that safety nets are nothing more than a scam, otherwise known as the "politically produced metaphor" for bleeding hearts.

How I pity you.

By: Idle Activist

Idle Activist — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 11:01:28 +0000

Who said eliminate them? i think they are fine now, not too big, not too small.

By: sweetrose

sweetrose — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 07:39:59 +0000

But you re assuming which is always foolish. I have no concern whatsoever with improving the life of anyone other than if they are hungry right now I feed them or if they are cold I give them a warm place. I don’t care if they lift themselves out of poverty or not. Charity is not only for the deserving and it should have no strings attached or pay back requirement.

If you like the idea of no safety nets you might like the dark ages…..or maybe Somalia today. Yah that’s the ticket.

By: glutton

glutton — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 07:19:43 +0000

no description ?

By: Handy

Handy — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 05:23:00 +0000

I'll just let the delusional naive bleeding hearts do what they'll always do, and society will have to pick up the pieces of their ignorance…oh well. That's what happens as it is.

By: ethel

ethel — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 04:41:03 +0000

It might be an undistributed middle, but I'm not going to work it out.

By: Idle Activist

Idle Activist — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 03:01:02 +0000

They always seem to be abel to afford $8 for smokes every day….

By: Silver

Silver — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 02:13:24 +0000

I would support a shelter that allowed alcoholics to drink in their rooms. If they couldn't play by the house rules, out they would go. If it were limited to veterans, would that make it okay with the anti-bum contingent?

Shelters are cheaper than prisons. But then just about anything is cheaper than prisons.

By: NoraBell

NoraBell — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 01:37:03 +0000

I get the distinction, but some here don't. There is an awful lot of blanket homeless bashing going on.
And there are more homeless because of the economic situation. For those that consider all homeless bums (or not normal people) it will only makes it harder those homeless who aren't bums to survive in the neighborhood.

By: SPG

SPG — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 01:25:15 +0000

I think I.A. was referring to the drunken bums and not so much the larger class of homeless.

By: SPG

SPG — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 01:23:54 +0000

NoraBell, I think the difference that some people try hamhandedly to make is that you or I when we become unemployed aren't out causing trouble on the streets. We look for a job, we do what we can and we keep going. People slashing each other is more likely the drunken bums than the homeless. I've often cited the difference between the homeless and the bums, and we need to keep that distinction in mind here. I'm a fan of getting the homeless the services and help they need to get back on their feet, but I have a real issue with the number of drunken bums that we have too. Is this a contradiction? Hardly. Some people can't quite make that distinction and group everyone who is homeless as a drunken bum which is hardly the case.

By: NoraBell

NoraBell — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 00:52:59 +0000

'Disposable income?' Yeah, that's the problem with these bums, all their disposable income.

By: NoraBell

NoraBell — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 00:51:22 +0000

I think there was more space for 'Nickelsvilles' back then, for one thing.

By: ballardemican

ballardemican — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 00:49:50 +0000

All I'm gonna say is that I wish I was naive enough to "mentally envisage" illusions as pie in the sky as you describe. If I had that much power of self-delusion I'd spend all of it envisaging that I had a realistic shot at doing unspeakably dirty things to Megan Fox.

Offering some support is a lesser evil to society as a whole than offering none. Evidence? All places that offer no social safety net completely suck. Many places that do, however, are great places to live.

That said I'm also too smart to argue with Libertarians about complex realities that they choose to see (or are only able to process) in black and white theory.

By: Brian

Brian — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 00:48:21 +0000

You are, quite frankly, a terrible person and should be ashamed of yourself. Especially in December.

By: NoraBell

NoraBell — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 00:48:02 +0000

The Trinity shelter is not connected with SHARE (as far as I've heard).

By: NoraBell

NoraBell — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 00:46:21 +0000

So us laid off folks aren't normal, huh? I held onto my 'bad job' for 10 years before getting the ax for no real reason. And I'm not exactly alone in the unemployment line with that tale of woe.

By: NoraBell

NoraBell — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 00:41:59 +0000

That's a different shelter, Plumbe. The Trinity group isn't involved with SHARE.

By: Handy

Handy — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 00:38:39 +0000

You don't get my whole point ballardemican…safety net is a politically produced metaphor meant to inspire people like you to mentally envisage a caring, compassionate place for people to “get back on their feet”. I've seen it first hand, and I'm challenging that metaphor.

How does it help their lives? I've seen it first hand. If people aren't moving forward, they are moving backward—covering basic expenses and allowing them to spend disposable income on drugs and alcohol is not the solution.

By: ballardemican

ballardemican — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 00:26:00 +0000

yes let's eliminate social safety nets so we too can have liber-utopian paradises like they have in Brazil — I think they call them Favelas?

By: blackriverpete

blackriverpete — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 00:22:21 +0000

99 percent made themselves homeless? That's the myth, but it's at variance with the facts. Quite a few are chronically ill, a lot of others are broke because of circumstances largely out of their control, and none of the many homeless children can be blamed for their circumstances.

By: Idle Activist

Idle Activist — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 23:56:04 +0000

” when you become homeless”

Sorry, 99% of the bums you see shuffling around Ballard didn't 'become' homeless. They made themselves homeless through a life of terrible decisions and lack of responsibility.

By: Idle Activist

Idle Activist — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 23:53:32 +0000

“Last I checked none of my neighbors were slicing each others throats.”

We're yuppies, we hire lawyers to do that.

By: Ytoo

Ytoo — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 23:48:20 +0000

Yes exactly. There were people starving in Seattle. It was not a good time and I doubt if many here have ever seen the like. Good people helped others and never asked questions but plenty did not and in fact many made money off the suffering of others. Some would hire men for a day then not pay them and dare them to complain. Local fisherman did that often as did those who ran the mills. Cops would shoot holes in the cans hobos used to cook what little food they could find. Young boys from wealthy families would go downtown and set fire to the shacks of hobos or beat them with sticks and rocks. The police did nothing. It was like there was no law at all.

By: watergirl

watergirl — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 23:26:55 +0000

Oh well, thanks anyway Silver. :-)

By: Ytoo

Ytoo — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 23:20:37 +0000

I was alive then, Were you? We fed them.

By: Handy

Handy — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 23:17:02 +0000

I'm always shocked by the naive perspective of bleeding hearts in Seattle. My girlfriend worked at a homeless shelter, and I had an inside view of the whole system. It's truly shocking—all the way around—from charities using these people as political pawns that give them their power, and such.

Does anyone really think society is helping these people by giving them the necessities of life so they can spend their disposable income on drugs and alcohol? Really? The safety net is just the opposite…it catches people, rather than vice-versa. I wish it wasn't so, but wishes aren't worth much…

By: lathum

lathum — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 23:10:00 +0000

Actually yes. Unemployment insurance and government assistance is a relatively new concept. It didn't come around until Roosevelt and the New Deal and by then we were well into the depression.

Seattlites who were unemployed lived in communities called Hoovervilles, named for President Hoover, the largest one was located where the docks are today across from Qwest and Safeco. They were basically shanties made from whatever scraps people could find. There are reports of people eating tree bark.

There were certain organizations that helped people, such as the Unemployed Citizens League, but they weren't all that effective. Basically if you lost your job prior to 1935 tou were SOL.

By: mickey

mickey — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 22:46:51 +0000

And I think that “name” hit the nail into his own head.

Bigotry and ignorance are pretty easy to spot.