So…the local economy is “picking up” because construction on a restaurant that had been delayed has just started? What about the banks closing in our state? We’re celebrating a “dip” in unemployment to 10.7% even though that number is a) hideously high and b) wrong. Our rate went down because people who exhaust their benefits and officially stop looking for a job are removed from the count.

Which explains the unemployment benefit kabuki theater in the past weeks.

We’re probably closer to 15% unemployment and 25-30% underemployment. The commercial real estate market collapse is a nightmare that is literally just around the corner and China, our main foreign creditor, just outlined their plan to depeg the Yuan from the dollar.

But don’t worry, there’s a new restaurant opening up so the economy is just fine. That’s great analysis WYFF. You’re a real credit to news.

So it came as no surprise to me that someone using this pseudonym on my recent post about the Upstate Family Reunion left a comment that seems like it came from a caricature of a Black person, and not a real one:

Winter Santiaga on July 26th, 2010 2:04 am

personally i think it is a good idea to keep the family reunion goin there are plenty of other events that take place each year and nobody complains about it so why should the family reunion be cancelled. is it because of how many african american or black people i may say are in one gathering. im sensing that is the problem. not taxes or anything else, any local events there will be crowds and i think i speak for alot people….why be concerned about the trash if your not the one who has to clean it up…im just saying!!

Really? Let me start of by saying I didn’t alter this “sentence” at all but left it in it’s ungrammatical glory, random ellipses and all. I was confused as to how a person could be a African-American or a Black person but then I realized the Blacks this person speaks of may not be American. But why are Black Americans called African-Americans while Haitians, for example, are still called Blacks? Racism I suppose.

The main point here though is that “Winter Santiaga” suggests that no one should care about all the trash strewn everywhere because they don’t have to pick it up. I suppose a trash fairy comes around to clean up after Winter but the rest of us end up paying overtime to workers to do this, and with city budgets tight I don’t see how Simpsonville can justify the expense, which was my point in the original post.

Since the race card was thrown down let me just say this: I’m Biracial, I grew up in an all-Black family and we were taught to clean up after ourselves. It’s low class to do otherwise.

Now here’s the rub. Let’s say that only 1 percent of Upstate Family Reunion attendees share the view of “Winter Santiago” that you you can drop trash where you will and not worry about it. last year there were 35,000 people, so Simpsonville would be looking at 350 people who were throwing trash on the ground all weekend. But having seen the park the day after last year I know it isn’t 1 percent.

“Winter Santiago’s” comment is one of the best cases I’ve seen for canceling the event. Hopefully next year Simpsonville will come to their senses and say no to the Upstate Family Reunion.

As it turns out the man was high so there were no clowns, but plenty of mayhem:

Police responded early Friday to a call of shots fired at a home in Roberts and found a man apparently hallucinating an attack by clowns.

The 40-year-old man, armed with a shotgun, had fired several shots in his mother’s home. It also appeared that he fired a shot at his mother and visiting father as they fled from the home in a vehicle, said St. Croix County Sheriff Dennis Hillstead.

“Pellets probably hit their windshield,” Hillstead said.

Police arrived about 4 a.m. and surrounded the home. The man came to the door at one point and was “yelling at what he could see in the yard, but there was nothing there,” Hillstead said.

The man went back into the home and fired more rounds, Hillstead said. In total, about 22 shotgun rounds were fired into the walls and ceiling of the home.

The man then went to the porch with the shotgun in hand and a bag of ammunition around his neck. He did not respond to police commands, but after the man slipped and fell, deputies were able to take him into custody, Hillstead said.

While being taken to a hospital for examination, the man indicated he had taken a hallucinogenic drug. He said he believed that people dressed as clowns were attacking his mother’s home and that he had shot and killed a number of them, Hillstead said. He also said he had shot dogs that were attacking him and that his mother had been shot and killed.

“He was … not in touch with reality,” Hillstead said.

Yeah, that’ll happen when you’re tripping. Is it just me or is there something especially sad about a 40-year-old man getting high alone in his mother’s house?

Wisconsin, I should point out, is home to a large Juggalo population. Did he have a bad experience earlier in the day with some clown painted passerbys or is he a “hater” as the Juggalos say? Clearly he isn’t “down with the clown” as they say.

Since no one was hurt it looks like he’ll be in a psych ward until he’s clean then he’ll get probation or a fine. So Juggalos be warned, there’s a clown killer on the loose!

Man, if only drugs were legal this wouldn’t have happened, right guys?

Residents are said to “have concerns” about this year.

35,000 people showed up last year and more may be coming this year. City officials are coordinating with event organizers and promoters to try to make things more orderly, including having 50 police on hand and the city many of which will be state troopers moonlighting and paid by Simpsonville.

It’s unclear who will be handling the massive clean up. Let me venture a guess – you. As in taxpayers who are footing the bill for a event too large to be handled by the meager resources Simpsonville has at it’s disposal anyway. It’s a waste of money, pure and simple.

There comes a point when whatever imaginary gains a city has for hosting an event is outweighed by the hundreds of thousands of real dollars it takes to hold it. And having witnessed the garbage strewn wasteland Heritage Park was transformed into last year first hand I think hundreds of thousands of dollars is a conservative estimate. How many businesses really benefited from the Family Reunion last year? How many of the vendors and bands were Simpsonville locals? Simpsonville is spending money so that people who don’t contribute to the city can make a quick buck and stick taxpayers with the mess.

I’m not the one running the cost benefit analysis but frankly, this just seems like a bad idea. Simpsonville residents got burned last year, and now the people who run the town are asking you to stick your hand back in the fire, because they’ve thrown more of your money into it so it’ll feel different.

This was a bad idea, and holding it again after the disaster of last year is a really bad idea. Simpsonville City Administrator Russell Hawes claims that if there’s problems similar to last year the event won’t be asked back. Let’s hope that’s true.

But since they didn’t learn their lesson last time I doubt it.

What do you think Alvin Greene thinks is an appropriate punishment for public obscenity charges?

No word yet if Andre Bauer was one of the arrestees.

I have gotten a few emails via the contact form from people (who for the most part claim to be women) claiming I’m being too rough on rapists, child rapists, flashers, public masturbaters and all the other assorted sexual deviants that make up the wild and woolly world of sex offenders. I am not interested in what the “ladies” (guttersluts) who carry water for people who’ve sodomized infants thin. Nor do I have any patience for some obese skank who wants to tell me that said infant sodomizer is a “good man” with a “kind heart” who just “made a mistake” that he deserves forgiveness for.

The most recent letter I got was from a woman who has contacted me before. A tedious woman, she has been beating the decomposing horse of an argument that logic had taken out and shot years ago, namely that I should be covering only “local” crime news and thus caring about online activity designed to support the abuse of children isn’t my business. These letters came in reaction to a piece I wrote about a pro-child rape group called SOSEN whose chief operating officer (who goes by the name “Randy English”) recently claimed that sex offender lists were racism … because Jessica Lundsford was White and people who hate child molesters are xenophobes. It was an asinine point and because SOSEN is a national organization whose activities are of concern to any parent I blogged about it.

“Susie Mae” was not happy and wrote me about it. I was, as usual, cordial and charming and sought to brush her off without acrimony. Which I thought worked until a few minutes ago when I received this email in all caps and three times the normal font size. I guess she was really mad:

It just seems you are gunning for sex offenders as a group. The sex registry is huge. It is full of all kinds of people, many of whom hardly did a thing. Urinated in public, teenagers having sex, etc…. I don’t know anything about this Randy but it just seems your site should be to report local crime.

I’m tired of these canards and I don’t want to hear them. In the future, before you decide to “school me” about how unfair it is that your man is locked up for “a misunderstanding” in which he was caught with pictures of children being raped, please read my response to Susie Mae. While the details may change, I assure you that the spirit of my answer to you will be the same:

Name three people on the registry for urinating in public. Name three teens on the registry for having sex. You’re either a retard who believes the most asinine of lies or (more likely) you’re one of the guttersluts that groupie around for sex offenders, no doubt giving them easy access to your children.

You want to know who’s in Sosen darlin’? Here’s a quick list:

Shirley Lowery- The CEO of Sosen. She maintains that 9-year-old Jessica Lundsford had a “consensual relationship” with John Coey and that her vicious murder was an “assisted suicide”

Clay Keys – A Level 3 sex offender who once threatened to kill me. At the same time he lurked on social networks pretending to be a little girl and cyber stalked several activists.

Linda Pehrson – who is still married to the man who molested her daughter, and now claims the crime is no big deal. She’s also a con artist who uses assumed identities to give interviews and drum up support for her groups.

Jackie Sparling – Her husband was caught with another man trying to lure a 13-year-old to his home to become his sex slave, which included a plan to have her squeeze out children he would also abuse. Despite the fact that it would be impossible for a wife to not know he was planning this she was never charged and continues to work to promote the idea that crimes like his never happen.

The list goes on. Most are themselves people who have raped children and are now involved in a group that works to keep them from reforming. You don’t care because like the scum above you’re all tickled inside by the thought of bedding down one of these miscreants, but decent people do care.

How about this; Stop contacting me. If all you have to say is sex offenders are awesome and we should feel sorry for them you’re not going to find a sympathetic ear here. Why don’t we end this charade and you stop contacting me and I promise that if I ever meet a person who’s sodomized a child and needs a lap dance I’ll let you know.

Thanks for reading,

Rob Taylor

One of the reasons I include so many women in my list above is to point out to you child rape groupies that I know what kind of person you are. There is no comparison to how sex offenders are treated and how Blacks were treated during Jim Crow, or how Jews were treated in Europe or whatever other kind of offensive nonsense you’re vomiting out between letting these perverts gag you while holding onto the pig tails they make you put in your hair.

I’m not interested. There is no debate as to whether people who rape children are evil. There is no possibility that a person who pleasures themselves to images of children being abused is being misunderstood. There is a right and a wrong here.

People who sexually exploit and abuse children have recidivism rates near 50% when they’re being watched. Registries are important tools for daycare centers, teen programs, single parents and any other person who has children to use to ensure they’re making the right choices for their kids. Violent felons aren’t allowed to own guns, they are on a registry. People with a history of DUI aren’t allowed to drive, they are on a registry. And people who abuse and exploit others for their own selfish sexual gratification aren’t allowed to become teachers or camp counselors.

They’re on a registry where they belong.

I don’t care how awesome you think your boyfriend or husband is. If he’s raped someone or molested someone he will not get sympathy from me, because I have morals. I save my sympathy for the victims, not the victimizers.

So before you bother to contact me, remember that I only care about the victims. Whatever sob story you’re peddling won’t change that.

Bigfoot has been sighted in North Carolina for years. The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization lists 57 different sightings on their map. They haven’t, to my knowledge, weighed in on how hot Bigfoot is.

Semi-off topic; When (not if) Nikki Haley becomes governor I hope she closes the border with North Carolina. Just saying.