Th-th-th-that’s Alta folks!

This week Worcester Magazine reports the closing of the Alta Café at the hands of the Worcester License Commission. A mixed blessing for the neighborhood to be sure, as they’re slowly running out of people to blame common bad behavior and terrible public safety oversight on.

As expected, local curmudgeon Billy Breault wins the “I’ll eat my hat” award with this line:

“I think it will make for a much safer area.”

Glad you went on the record with that Billy, now when the area is exactly the same a year from now we can completely discount you and your inane opinions.

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July 24, 2008 | Filed Under Team Batshitinsane, The Big Woo, night life | Leave a Comment 

Maybe you could pave over Elm Park?

You just know you’ve got a winner on your hands when a newspaper story dated Tuesday, July 22, 2008, starts with the line

In her first neighborhood walk this year, Mayor Konstantina B. Lukes and a small group of officials took a walk on Highland Street yesterday…

Someone please tell me they’re working off the fiscal calendar.

This reads like nobody involved has been on Highland Street in the past 15 years. While mention is made of both the Boynton and the Sole Proprietor expanding their already huge parking lots and Councilor Haller is working on a valet plan involving Elm Park School the merchants involved agree on one thing:

But merchants and officials agreed the main sticking point for Highland Street is its lack of a municipal parking lot.

Is that a joke? 40 Highland St anyone? That lot could definitely fit more cars if it was re-lined and it’s 600ft away from the active part of Highland St. Really, I can’t be the only person who noticed that. But what’s with this sudden need for more parking? I’ve never once had difficulty parking in that area, am I doing it wrong?

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July 22, 2008 | Filed Under Team Batshitinsane, The Big Woo, redevelopment, transit | 9 Comments 

A blunderbuss for Breault and Babs

Recently I’ve been critical of the kid gloves writers the T&G have used to handle William Breault, Barbara Haller and the (nonexistent) Main South Alliance for Public Safety, hopefully todays commentary by Robert Nemeth is a sign those gloves are coming off.

The latest display of astonishing callousness in the face of a public health emergency came from City Councilor Barbara Haller and William Breault, a self-appointed community activist who uses demagoguery and intimidation to get his way. Under the pretext of protecting public safety, they have led opposition to measures designed to help people endangered by drug addiction, mental illness, homelessness and related problems, causing considerable harm over the years. But this time they went too far.

Excellent.

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July 13, 2008 | Filed Under Team Batshitinsane, The Big Woo, massachusetts, politics, telegram | 1 Comment 

William Breault: Stupidest man in Worcester, Part 4

Worcesters favorite mustachioed super hero has taken his side show on the road. First stop The Berkshires! Ellen G. Lahr, reporter for the Berkshire Eagle, was kind enough to sit in as Breaults away team straight man for this interview and did she shine. But, as we must do in a day and age when newspapers lack funding for fact checkers, let’s pull out the red pen together and clean up Bills mistakes for the Eagle staff.

He said the decriminalization effort is at sharp odds with evidence that marijuana use, particularly among teens, carries more health risks than it did years ago, when the drug had less concentrations of THC, the main psychoactive component of pot.

What Billy means to say is, according to US Government research THC toxicity in humans would require consumption of 1500 pounds in under 15 minutes. In other words, the artificial sweetener you used in your coffee this morning still poses much greater health risks than Marijuana.

Breault said that in his Worcester neighborhood, he’s seen people robbed, injured and killed over marijuana, and with decriminalization, those problems could escalate.

What Billy means here is, he’s full of shit. He’s trying the best he can to make sense of a world that is simply far too confusing for him. What Billy sees in his neighborhood is people robbed, injured, and killed over money. Marijuana is a mostly worthless plant. It can be grown pretty much anywhere on earth with even the poorest of soil conditions. You could throw seeds into just about any urban alleyway and see successful germination. It’s really quite amazing and should make marijuana no more valuable than heirloom tomatoes. Because prohibition has led to increased risk in trafficking, marijuana has increased in value artificially as a commodity. Its value is determined by availability. We’re not just talking about price here. Prices of marijuana are actually relatively low. Its overall risk (imprisonment, loss of employment and asset forfeiture) that raises value as a commodity when prohibition is figured in. If criminal penalties for marijuana are removed for simple possession of under an once, Billy looses one of his best lies to throw around; that drugs and violence are forever married, when history has shown us it is prohibition and violence which can’t be separated.

Marijuana use cited in emergency room admissions is on the rise nationally, Breault said.

This is where Bills ignorance shines. If you go to an ER with an overdose, you’re asked what drugs you use and are using. Since marijuana use is so prevalent, of course more people report using it. But it’s not the reason they’re in the ER. This is one of those lines of reasoning you have to be a total douchbag to fall into. There are no marijuana overdoses, or even medical emergencies, period.

And contrary to what the Boston group states, he claimed that few, if any, inmates in the state’s jails are sent there for minor marijuana possession alone; in local courts, it’s not uncommon for first-time possession offenders to receive an eventual dismissal of the charges, with no criminal record resulting.

This red herring is either evidence that Bill may not be a complete moron, or he’s such a moron he can’t follow his own bull shit anymore. If we do in-fact have a system where simple possession results in dismissal, why wouldn’t that be cause enough for decriminalization? Do we simply enjoy wasting money on arrests and court proceedings?

The National Institute on Drug Abuse states that THC increases the heart rate.

I just finished my second cup of coffee and can actually see my heart beating against my chest wall. Can’t remember a single time where smoking weed has resulted in a rapid heart rate, your millage may vary. If this is a sign of the desperation the prohibition crowd is feeling, the Committee for a Sensible Marijuana Policy should be proud.

A recent Yale University study also showed that THC administered to 150 health volunteers led to psychotic symptoms in 50 percent of them.

Sort of. First of all, this study is over a year old. Maybe news just travels slowly to the Berkshires. The important factor of this research is the involvement of schizophrenics. The Yale folks were trying to judge the effects of marijuana on schizophrenics whose symptoms were controlled. The “psychotic symptoms” reported were hallucinations and paranoia. This is where medicine and the real world start the diverge briefly. For a sober person to experience hallucinations and unprovoked paranoia you have “psychotic symptoms”. If a marijuana smoker experiences hallucinations and paranoia, you simply have a person who should be smoking indicas as opposed to sativas or at the very least an indica dominate hybrid. So parents, don’t worry about your kids going psychotic, they already know this.

Capeless said his overriding concern is that the ballot measure “sends the wrong message to kids,” who in general have been reporting less marijuana use in recent years.

Berkshire County District Attorney David Capeless is a dick. You know what really sends the wrong message to kids, Dave? Asset forfeiture and using them as tools to snitch on their parents. Fuck you.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Big thank you to a certain Taxi Guy for bringing this Eagle story to our attention.

July 12, 2008 | Filed Under Team Batshitinsane, The Big Woo, massachusetts, newspapers, politics | Leave a Comment 

Greenwich, CT sounds like an awful place

1. kids build a Wiffleball field
2. kids play Wiffleball
2. lawyers show up and obligatory batshit insanity ensues

…they had no idea just who would come — youthful Wiffle ball players, yes, but also angry neighbors and their lawyer, the police, the town nuisance officer and tree warden and other officials in all shapes and sizes. It turns out that one kid’s field of dreams is an adult’s dangerous nuisance, liability nightmare, inappropriate usurpation of green space, unpermitted special use or drag on property values, and their Wiffle-ball Fenway has become the talk of Greenwich and a suburban Rorschach test about youthful summers past and present.

Jack Weinberg was right. Kids, don’t trust anybody over 30.

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July 10, 2008 | Filed Under Team Batshitinsane | 5 Comments 

William Breault: Stupidest man in Worcester, part 3

In today’s T&G a story about the apparent success of the cities new Yellow Boxes for needle disposal. Billy, what do you have to say on the matter?

“I haven’t found an environmentally or socially conscious drug addict”

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He’s making it too easy folks.

I tried finding people with either an environmental or social component to their fame, I’ll happily entertain criticisms or make adjustments to the list via comments. Why the T&G keeps printing his crap is beyond me but it really makes them appear lazy to anyone who made it through second grade.

Part 1
Part 2

July 8, 2008 | Filed Under Team Batshitinsane, The Big Woo, entertainment, massachusetts, politics | 6 Comments 

William Breault: Stupidest man in Worcester, part 2

I remember when working as an EMT, a conversation that would spring up often was the potential of narcan for non-professional administration. If you’ve never seen the drug used it’s really an amazing thing. Watching someone who has overdosed on opiates on the nod and on the way out the door, essentially go into withdrawal and ready to OD again, all in seconds. Very neat stuff. Since an opiate overdose will obviously kill you and narcan is relatively safe drug with a short half life, it stands to reason packaging the product for self administration the same way we have epi-pens for allergic reactions, would be a no brainer.

Enter Billy Breault, the one man band known as the Main South Alliance for Public Safety, with an opinion on the grant money Worcester is getting to train opiate users on the self administration of narcan.

“We’ve had private conversations with those involved,” Mr. Breault said. “This funding is under the guise of drug prevention, but this is more about assisting than preventing.”

Yes, you disgusting fraud, it’s about assisting people in staying alive while reducing the burden on public services. How is that a bad thing? The problem with douche bags like Billy, they really believe there is a war on drugs. They thought Nixon had a real plan, believed all that Nancy Reagan bull shit, they still think D.A.R.E. is a successful program and they believe in some puritanical pipe dream that one day people will stop putting the things in their bodies that make life fun. Fear these people as they are not very bright.

This grant Worcester is receiving is an extension of a program currently running in Boston, San Francisco, New Mexico, Philadelphia, New York, Baltimore, Los Angeles and Chicago; modeled after successful programs in Europe. The reality of these narcan emergency kits is they save lives and arguably more importantly they save resources. They allow a user, friends or family to administer a narcan nasal spray at the first sign of overdose, which contrary to popular opinion is an anomaly for a seasoned user. So while it’s fair to be critical of the OD itself and the addiction leading to it, it’s undeniable this self administration removes an ambulance, engine company, police response and obligatory emergency room evaluation from the equation. Since the only logical argument against drug use and its affects on society is the burden it places on public resources, this sort of program is an obvious step in the right direction.

Our biggest problem with drugs in Worcester isn’t the drugs themselves. It’s pretending they don’t touch every race, economic class and political affiliation. Which is why in Worcester we’re decades behind other large cities in treatment and prevention. Until we’re honest with that fact, annoyances like Billy will continue spouting off and ignorant fools will continue to listen.

link to T&G article on the subject.
And lest we forget…

June 14, 2008 | Filed Under Team Batshitinsane, The Big Woo, massachusetts | 12 Comments 

unlawful free speech

Claire Schaeffer-Duffy of the Worcester Catholic Worker will not be spending any time behind bars for her role in Januarys anti-Guantanamo demonstration outside the Supreme Court.

That’s nice.

But I still can’t shake the charge against her from my head, “unlawful free speech“. I would really appreciate if any American citizen reading this would entertain a simple request by saying that out loud a few times, maybe try it in front of a small audience. Now try and imagine a judge saying it; how could we allow such an Orwellian phrase to find it’s way into a US courtroom?

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Since there’s no telling how long they’ll stay up, here are a few of the comments from that T&G story on the sentencing. T&G commenters never fail to prove themselves some of the most ignorant sub-cretins on earth. Stay classy Worcester!

Ms. Schaeffer-Duffy would rather have our families die from more 9/11’s than offend Muslim extremist. These people are the worst of the worst captured on foreign soil and detained on foreign soil. They do not enjoy the protection of our Constitution nor should they. If you believe they are, then you must insist we immediately declare war on China, North Korea, and Saudi Arabia.

If we never lifted a finger in aggression again the only Americans still alive will be governed by Sharia law and living in fear soon after. Don’t forget who paid for your privilege to be a peace activist.
-Tim McKeon  EB

I could protest too if I didn’t have to work for a living.
-CK

I have to wonder how scary one really thinks the U.S. Government is when one constantly goes out of their way to be placed in Government custody. I wonder if Scotty or Claire would so blithely arrange for themselves to be detained under the Taliban (or in Iran, Syria, etc). That would take guts. The play-acting that the S-D’s engage in is nothing more than a sad ego massage.
‘Oooh, ooh, I’m so important that I was arrested!!! Aren’t I a rebel??? Screw the man!!! Can you spare a few bucks?…’
-Tom

A slap on the wrist for these low lifes.They sympathize with terrorists who would cut our heads off at the drop of a hat.These traitors should have been given lengthy jail sentences as an example to others who would collaborate with the enemies of our country.
-slap on the wrist

…I’m sure they sleep better than the Clintonistas who watched our civilians being slaughtered by Muslim terrorists all around the globe and decided it would be a swell time for a ‘peace-dividend’.
They probably should have waited for the peace, don’t ya think?
-Tom

They should have locked her up and thrown the key away.
-YS

May 31, 2008 | Filed Under Team Batshitinsane, The Big Woo, politics, telegram | 2 Comments 

A tax on people who are bad at math

Looks like Councilor Smith actually took his batshit insane local lottery proposal to the council floor today. While the proposal is fanciful and mostly ridiculous for a number of reasons, according to the Worcester Magazine blog Mr Smith said something tonight which he really needs to be called out on.

He also wants the City Manager to work with the delegation to change the funding formula to more accurately reflect what Worcester put into the system. It shouldn’t be our job to subsidize the other cities and towns.

While on the surface I agree with this sentiment in totality, reality says it’s time Mr Smith read the second paragraph of the preamble to the constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

The body politic is formed by a voluntary association of individuals: it is a social compact, by which the whole people covenants with each citizen, and each citizen with the whole people, that all shall be governed by certain laws for the common good. It is the duty of the people, therefore, in framing a constitution of government, to provide for an equitable mode of making laws, as well as for an impartial interpretation, and a faithful execution of them; that every man may, at all times, find his security in them.

We’re not living on an island Joff and while there is an excellent, logical argument for keeping Worcester money in Worcester that can only happen when people start leaving the suburbs to move back here. You would need to rewrite over sixty years of federal law and essentially roll back every aspect of our economy to pre WWII levels to make that possible. All very noble goals indeed, but unfortunately, the schools need pencils today.

May 13, 2008 | Filed Under Team Batshitinsane, The Big Woo, massachusetts, politics, redevelopment | 4 Comments 

So Long, and Thanks for All the Tips

Looks like its game over for sanity in the Woo. At last nights council meeting we saw a unanimous vote to adopt a new amendment expanding adult zoning just enough to keep the city from facing a slam dunk of a constitutional challenge. Of course this introduces a slew of new problems, but since they’re mostly logical and contradict the teachings of the infallible Chief Gemme, don’t expect anyone to notice.
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In other ridiculous news, the Council last night voted to apply for a 10 million dollar grant from the FAA for airport upgrades. What makes this confusing is it seems if we were to shutter the airport today we would be about 9 million in the hole to the FAA. Call me crazy but if we have a 9 mill balance sheet with the feds instead of taking another 10 might it make more sense to call it even and just turn the lights off? I know these monies don’t truly balance themselves out, but at what point do we start reeling this one in? I don’t follow airport happenings the way I should, all my airport info comes from Bill Randell these days, but this seems like one of those times when you sort of expect Kenny Rogers to show up and start singing the chorus from ‘The Gambler‘.
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Oh, and councilor Rosen is calling for a local hearing on marijuana decriminalization. Apparently years of research, overwhelming popular support and no end to the dollars flushed down the toilet is still not enough to convince some local leaders everything they were raised to believe about drugs is utter horse shit. No, what we need is the opportunity for Councilor Haller to trot out her Breault on a leash to make us look like back water buffoons in a public forum. sweet.
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April 30, 2008 | Filed Under Team Batshitinsane, The Big Woo, massachusetts, politics | 2 Comments 

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