The Irishman Speaks and All Shall Listen

Colm's Weekly Soapbox Message

So far so good....

I've gone two for two on the weekly thing. I'm impressed. This is the most commitment I've had to anything since building a windmill and burning it for an english class in my back yard with ryan and jon. This calls for a celebration... champagne anyone?

Conviently Debatable

Steph posted about a mafia dude who got a law degree. Madness followed. To save some pain, I'll c&p all necessary info underneath. Tay and Ryan have added to this on their own sites if you've not noticed yet. So, here we go....

The Original Post:
Seen in the paper:"Mafioso earns law degree in jail"Fantastic. So THIS is where our tax dollars go. To putting criminals through law school. Would anyone like to donate their taxes to put me though school??? No, didn't think so. So, not only is this guy living free, with no need to worry about how to pay the bills, but he's earning a LAW DEGREE at the same time? How does this make sense. Lets help the criminal get a LAW DEGREE so that not only will he possibly be able to get a better job than many people have, but he'll be smarter in his mobster dealings. Let's teach the criminals the loopholes in the law, won't that be fun? I think someone dropped the ball. Maybe it's just me, but I don't think criminals should be getting law degrees (though some would argue that lawyers ARE criminals...), ESPECIALLY on the taxpayers' dime.Hey, It's February. And guess what comes after that? March! And March is the month of GRAD SCHOOL OFFERS! ACK!!! The real world (well, as real as the world of academia can get) is getting closer. Hmmm...

The Madness That Followed
I said:
actually, I think that is very encouraging news. Its called rehabbing those that fell through the cracks. Might as well put their skills to use and learn something useful and be productive instead of them rotting in jail on tax money only to go out and then come back again.The whole tax thing is a different issue altogether I think.Just my thoughts...-mloc 02.03.05 - 2:36 pm #

Then Cara Said:
Yeah, but did they hafta give him a frickin LAW degree? Why not an MBA or something? I'm sure his fellow con-men would be very impressed with his flashy 3-D bar graphs & animated PowerPoint effects.~C 02.03.05 - 8:47 pm #

Then Ryan Said
I don't mind giving people money to go to school. I figure at least this way there is the slim chance that this dude wull become a productive member of society (very, very slim).You have to take into account the reasons that people take up crime in the first place. Gangsters, for the most part, come from the slums. There are traditionally two ways out of the slums, crime and a body bag (not that the two are completely unrealated). Kids from the slums can't afford school unless they're geniuses and get like full scholarships. Getting out the "work hard, go to school" way is pretty much out. Why would you even bother when you see criminals making mad coin and you're working two jobs to put yourself through school, make half what they make and still have a student loan to pay off? It's simply human nature to take the easy way out. So I'm pretty much with Colm here (in more ways than one *wink*).Also, Steph, if you convince me that your education will somehow Damn lenght Nazis.Also, Steph, if you convince me that your education will somehow benefit me, either in the short or long term, I'll give you twenty bucks for your tuition(I wonder if that's tax deductable). Ryan 02.03.05 - 11:41 pm #

To which Steph said:
I'm not against rehabilitation (though I doubt at times how effective it really is). If by some miracle a criminal is able to reform and become a productive member of society, then great! But I think that it should only go so far. I mean, there are plenty of non criminals out there who would probably kill to go to law school (for free especially) but do not have the opportunity. I just wonder what it says about our society that a criminal, someone who has broken the law and/or norms of society, gets rewarded and the poor schmo working 3 jobs just to get by gets bupkas. I think it's awful.And I seriously disagree that it's human nature to take the easy way out. I think most people would rather work hard for what they have. It gives you a sense of accomplishment, and you get so much more out of it. Like paying for school. If I hadn'ty paid my own way through university, I doubt that I would have gotten as much out of it as I did. Everytime I even considered skipping a class, I thought about how much money I'd be wasting if I didn't go. I'm not sure if the though even crosses the mind of the person whose parents/grandparents/parents' workplace pays (though I'm sure there are exceptions.I have no problem with paying people to go to school. People who genuinely want to be there and are going to give it an honest effort. I pay my peer assistance levy. I don't mind that some of my tax money goes to scholarships and research grants, hell, I'll be living off the backs of taxpayers for the rest of my life. I'd even like to eventually start a scholarship fund. But if someone breaks the law, I think it's bad enough our tax dollars go to making sure they have cable and recreational activities, we don't need to be giving them law degrees. It just seems ridiculous that, given two exactly equal people, one of whom has broken the law pretty badly and one of whom has never even hurt a fly and has kids and makes minimum wage, that we give the criminal the opportunity to study something like law (for free) and the other guy can't even imagine doing that. It's wrong on so many levels. Steph 02.04.05 - 8:29 am #

So Ryan Said:
I call it beating the system. I have a lot more to say on the subject. Check in 1-2 bussiness days.Ryan 02.04.05 - 6:40 pm #

And now I say:
Your comparison is not fair Steph. Are you saying a mafia man gets nailed with jail time so he can get a free law degree? Seems like a convoluted "cheat the system" to me. Anywho, I understand your position, the guy with minimum wage should have that opportunity for higher learning. But the fact of life is life isn't fair. Basically you're saying one person deserves the break more than the other, so the criminal doesn't deserve the opportunity because it rightfully shouldn't be his/hers. Its punishing a criminal more than above the crime. He did his time, AND he is trying to become a productive member of society. I don't know about you, but this seems to be the perfect rehab the state had in mind when they introduced the penal code. He had to work for his degree, its not like he was handed it, so he earned it. Stop punishing those who've already been punished. Share the love. And to officially make this a homily, what would jesus do? Seriously, would Jesus condemn the criminal for making something of himself, for turning his life around? No, the book backs me up here. He might say go out and help those that need it, give the breaks to those that need it... ie. the min wage guy. But he wouldn't frown upon him. I can guarantee that. Sometimes we get caught looking at only a small corner of a much bigger picture. Step back from the painting, sit on that bench a few feet back. And try to look at the scene as a whole. Things become much more simple. That's my take. -The Irishman Strikes Again!

So this was fairly entertaining and thoughtful debate. I'd say more on it, but I think I've covered what I wanted to cover for the time being. More on ryan and tay's class struggle angle later on. Right now I have to finish this up so I can go to work early, for an impromtu staff meeting. Why? Let me tell you...

The Bouncer named Stretch:
He is 6-5, but weighed about 150. Yeah, you guessed it. He sucked and was useless. We had a bday party for twins who were 19 or 20 go from 40-50 to about a floating 100. Stretch did nothing. I broke up about 6 fights. Two guys tried to punch me, but failed. I kinda wish they had hit me, then I coulda opened a can of whoopass. That woulda been nice, cuz one guy was really ticking me off. I think Steve the other bartender said it best afterwards to me,"Man, I ran over to the stairs when I saw that guy challenge you man. What a punk. I was like, who the hell would want to punch Colm, he's the freaking nicest bouncer I've ever seen!" to which I replied, "Actually, the nicest bouncer is at the wiskey and kicked ryan out after puking in the washroom on BSD day. He even helped him get his coat" Steve: "that's pretty nice". Yeah... So basically we're gonna have a impromtu staff party to fire the bouncer and just have steve's brothers or this 320 pound guy we know come in and have beers on us and guard the door. I mean, if I have to be playing doorman and bouncer, there's a problem. My inner bruce lee strength only goes so far with 137 pounds. Me and Mark (former bartender who was there) were yelling and Joe (stretch) to freaking grab em by the neck and toss them jazz style. What does he do, hug em and talk to them... he was friends with them! I tell ya... as the world turns.

In other news... Super Bowl will be sweet... and beer will be good. That's all I got.

Till next time, control that inner bruce lee strength.

-CIG

posted by The Irishman @ 3:06 p.m.