But many earmarks are valid expenses – it’s just a way of designating what the money is to be spent on.

A less honorable, but inevitable, use of earmarks is for political horse trading – I’ll vote for your bill if you vote for my earmark.

Then there’s earmarks for pure corruption and pure idiocy.

For many years, Democrat Senator Proxmire would award the “Golden Fleece” award for government spending that sounded really dumb – a study on the sex life of prairie voles, or something. Most of the projects he singled out were valid. Many earmarks are likewise appropriate (and many are really wrong).

Let’s add it up: it lets people get real jobs instead of them going out slinging crack or killing kids. It enables them not to boomerang back into gang life with huge social and literal costs to our society. To latch onto a paltry $200K when we’re looking at financial institutions getting billions – let’s put things in perspective, shall we?

Nicely done, Celeste.

Some of those rich folks on the right or the left should write checks for programs like this one. But right now we’re in such dire straights that Homeboy Industries could actually have to close its doors (it’s still living month to month. I just haven’t brought it up lately) because the private grant money situation is in such terrible shape.

Bernie Madoff alone took down giant nonprofits.

And speaking of crime and punishment, there’s a guy who needs to be locked up for-freaking-ever.

But you’re absolutely right about the connection between physical abuse in the family and later violence or dysfunction. Research indicates that the majority of incarcerated males in America were abused and/or severely neglected as children. But, obviously, there are multiple risk factors. Some who were abused also become upstanding citizens.

“The formation of violent gang members with tattoos may start earlier than we think. That’s where a greater need exists.” I don’t think it’s a greater need, but it’s certainly essential.

Everyone at this point who works in any way with the issues of gang violence reduction agrees that it must be approached from three directions: 1. Suppression—aka law enforcement. 2. Prevention, which is what you’re talking about. And 3. Intervention, which is just what it says. The tattoo removal program is one small aspect of an intervention strategy.

Gang violence is best viewed from a public health point of view, which means keeping people from getting the “disease,” whenever possible, and also providing the means to cure them if they do. If we do a good enough job at the prevention end, we’ll need less intervention. But we ain’t there yet.

However, as worthy an aim as it is, its not a valid federal expense. It’s only $200K but multiply that by hundreds of Congress Members with thousands of requests and you get our budget mess.

It should not be hard to raise $200K from individuals or corporations. Any one of these big mouth Hollywood actors or talk show Republicans could pop a check.

Why must we always go to government to solve our problems when private industry and volunteer organizations almost always do better? (World War II and the space program excepted).

…a federal court jury recently awarded a white woman $200,000 in a discrimination case that involved “a bathroom whupping” of a 6-year-old African-American child.

In 2006, Cathleen Schandelmeier-Bartels was working as a cultural program coordinator at the South Shore Cultural Center, a Chicago Park District facility. Schandelmeier-Bartels alleged in the lawsuit that she was fired because she reported to the Illinois Department of Children and Family Service and the police that the 6-year-old’s aunt beat him in the park district bathroom.

A federal jury agreed.

“I feel sad that the public has to pay for someone’s mistake,” Schandelmeier-Bartels said during a telephone interview.

Schandelmeier-Bartels claimed that after she complained, an African-American program coordinator told her “It’s a black thing: We beat our children.”

Later, when she took the matter to Andrea Adams, her supervisor, she was again told: “This is how we discipline our children in our culture.”

Well, there’s $200,000 down the can. Who knew that the government would defend child abuse…and, who knew that it was a “black thing.” This also might explain why a certain culture has a disproportionate percentage of kids who grow up with a violence mentality.

I wonder how many kids in L.A. grow up nuts because of their abusive upbringing…but, I know that liberals would prefer to be politically correct and not “offend” some others about this.

The formation of violent gang members with tattoos may start earlier than we think. That’s where a greater need exists.

So, it’s not only a matter of who pays, but of priorities.