dkSez : : : : : : Don Kahle’s blog

Is a Big Mac really more dangerous than a repeat offender with a drinking problem who hit his girlfriend and then tore the phone off the wall when she tried to call for help?

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Do offenders with the most points get the corner cell with feng-shui-friendly lighting? Don’t be cynical. And no, they don’t get extra desserts either. Just desserts are in short supply these days.

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Back when we had to bring shopping carts back to the front door or risk another driver getting dinged by an errant cart in the lot, the good people were easy to spot. Now bad habits are either acknowledged and mainstreamed or hidden completely from view.

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Meth can be made in your kitchen, or it can be made in your neighbor’s kitchen. Anyone who’s ever baked cookies knows if you’re going to make a mess (in the case of meth, a toxic mess), it doesn’t make sense to stop at just a dozen or two. Better to make plenty and then share your bounty up and down the block.

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Sheriff deputies and cops played competitive sports until around 1973, then competed with other people who use guns for a few years, then ate hamburgers for prizes. But since 1980, our law enforcement personnel have nothing to show for their comraderie and competitive spirit. Or if they do, they no longer show it to the public. Twenty-five years without any display of public pride or without any cause for it — either way, a quarter century is a long time.

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A bit of grandeur would benefit everyone. Instead, we get low ceilings, hallways, dated colors, and a space far more utilitarian than most people have in their homes nowadays. It confirms the belief that government is (and should be!) the poor family down the block, trying to make ends meet, eating creamed corn every night with half a can of tuna for the protein.

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Numbers often numb the public, but only when the numbers are so large or so random or so abstract that the audience cannot attach meaning to them. But a daily accounting of the shortage of local holding cells would be none of those three.

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Diversity is not the true goal. Diversity is the net and the lines on the tennis court, making sure the game isn’t so easy that it’s not enjoyable to play and satisfying to win. The game is identity, common unity, community. But the more “seemingly” diverse the group, the better the surprise when you find yourselves pulling together for the common good.

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No grand jury today, but I wonder.

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As databases begin to replace human memories, who among us doesn’t leave a string of pearls, dots to be connected, in case the government ever wants us for something? What does liberty mean when we require another’s consent to enjoy it?

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