Simon on Moyers

Great interview (h/t to Michele Sabatier), as always, with David Simon:

BILL MOYERS: And yet, the drug war keeps getting crazier and crazier. From selling guns to Mexico's drug cartel, to cramming more people into prison, even though they haven't committed violent crimes. Why don't the policies change?

DAVID SIMON: Because there's no political capital in it. There really isn't. The fear of being called soft on crime, soft on drugs. The paranoia that's been induced.

Listen, if you could be Draconian and reduce drug use by locking people up, you might have an argument. But we are the jailing-est country on the planet right now. Two million people in prison. When I started as a police reporter, 33, 34 percent of the federal inmate population was violent offenders. Now it's like, seven to eight percent. So, we're locking up less violent people. More of them. The drugs are purer. They've not-- they haven't closed down a single drug corner that I know of in Baltimore for any length of time. It's not working. And by the way this is not a Republican/Democrat thing. Because a lot of the most Draconian stuff came out of the Clinton Administration. This guy trying to maneuver to the center, in order not to be perceived as Leftist by a Republican Congress.

...

The people most affected by this are black and brown and poor. It's the abandoned inner cores of our urban areas. And we don't, as we said before, economically, we don't need those people. The American economy doesn't need them. So, as long as they stay in their ghettos, and they only kill each other, we're willing to pay a police presence to keep them out of our America. And to let them fight over scraps, which is what the drug war, effectively, is. I don't think-- since we basically have become a market-based culture and it's what we know, and it's what's led us to this sad denouement, I think we're going to follow market-based logic, right to the bitter end.

FYI: Documentary is about a cook who works on-campus at a fraternity house.

Documentary is just about done. Clocks in at 12 min. Final Cut is pretty cool.

Boy

I recently used a service to clean and scan hundreds of negatives that I had lying around. Over the next few weeks, I'll be posting some of these reclaimed, and now digital, photos. You can see all pics in this series here. This photo was taken in 1999 in Tses, Namibia, where I served as a Peace Corps Volunteer. This is one of my students.

Moved on to bolied peanuts and getting distracted.

At my first Rebels baseball game, eating chicken on a stick, and chilling with friends in left field.

Janeze and Pernaphia

I recently used a service to clean and scan hundreds of negatives that I had lying around. Over the next few weeks, I'll be posting some of these reclaimed, and now digital, photos. You can see all pics in this series here. This photo was taken in 1999 in Tses, Namibia, where I served as a Peace Corps Volunteer. This is Janeze and Pernaphia, two of my students.

Manassah and Libard

I recently used a service to clean and scan hundreds of negatives that I had lying around. Over the next few weeks, I'll be posting some of these reclaimed, and now digital, photos. You can see all pics in this series here. This photo was taken in 1999 in Tses, Namibia, where I served as a Peace Corps Volunteer. This is Manassah and Libard, two of my students.

Martha

I recently used a service to clean and scan hundreds of negatives that I had lying around. Over the next few weeks, I'll be posting some of these reclaimed, and now digital, photos. You can see all pics in this series here. This photo was taken in 1999 in Engela, Namibia, where I served as a Peace Corps Volunteer. This is Martha Mukumangani, one of my students.

Pernaphia

I recently used a service to clean and scan hundreds of negatives that I had lying around. Over the next few weeks, I'll be posting some of these reclaimed, and now digital, photos. You can see all pics in this series here. This photo was taken in 1999 in Tses, Namibia, where I served as a Peace Corps Volunteer. This is Pernaphia Steenkamp, one of my students.

Yeah, Vermont keeps it real.

Joe made pizza from scratch with a garlic and parm crust.

Watching the game with Joe, Elizabeth and Connor.

At Proud Larry's for Whit's BDay.

New photos up on the MTC homepage: http://ping.fm/XZufP

Mervin

I recently used a service to clean and scan hundreds of negatives that I had lying around. Over the next few weeks, I'll be posting some of these reclaimed, and now digital, photos. You can see all pics in this series here. This photo was taken in 1999 in Tses, Namibia, where I served as a Peace Corps Volunteer. This is Mevin McKay, one of my students.

Otiile

I recently used a service to clean and scan hundreds of negatives that I had lying around. Over the next few weeks, I'll be posting some of these reclaimed, and now digital, photos. You can see all pics in this series here. This photo was taken in 1998 in Engela, Namibia, where I served as a Peace Corps Volunteer. This is Otiile, one of my students.