Christopher Waters, a Republican?

Who would've ever suspected such a thing from the owner of the uber-green (and very yummy, albeit extremely busy) Nomad Cafe?

Okay, so he's not a Republican ... not yet.

But check this out. From the East Bay Express:

Around 7 a.m. on New Year's Day, "I called OPD emergency dispatch to confirm that the cafe had been broken into. ... The dispatcher kindly and regretfully informed me that the response time would be slow due to several murders and shootings that were in the queue." Waters says that, what with several stickups at Pizza Plaza and Jump'n Java, local business owners "are all wondering if and when the time is going to come that we decide we have to leave this town behind, before it makes Republicans out of us."

He theorizes that the area's being hit because, "finally succumbing to community and police pressure, the Uptown Market at Aileen and Shattuck finally installed eight security cameras and began actively dissuading their resident thugs from loitering and plying their drug trade there. This has made the usual suspects feel unwelcome and they have begun migrating back up toward, and above, Alcatraz. It's a shame that the best we have been able to do so far is continue kicking these people back up and down Shattuck Avenue."

The Bay Area's been making a conservative -- though hopefully not a Republican -- out of me for a while. The vague, let's-coddle-them social policies around here sometimes turn my stomach. (See my earlier rant on the proposed Oakland Ambassadors, the brainchild of Jane Brunner, who would have these would-be thugs standing sentinel at BART stations to walk little old ladies home from the train.) Common sense, people, please.

My friend Dave said a while back: "Conservatives think it all comes down to personal responsibility. Liberals think it's all about environment." I'm pretty firmly on the side of personal responsibility. It's Momma Thug's job to teach her little thuglet to, well, not be a thuglet. You can social-program until you're blue in the face and you're still going to have these little shits kicking in Christopher Waters' door. Not to mention perpetrating the far worse crimes that delayed the cops' response time on New Year's Day.

This makes me think about an incident I saw at the San Diego airport while waiting for my flight home this afternoon. A kid, probably about two years old, was throwing a hissy. I mean, it was a complete shit-fit. Her mother just threw up her hands and stood over her, waiting for the kid to calm down.

Now I'm a hypocrite, since I have never had and most likely never will have children, but I absolutely don't believe in permissive, passive parenting. Pick the kid up, swat her on the ass, and be on your merry way. You let a two-year-old rule you, and you might wind up being proud of their one accomplishment: Successfully getting away with robbing the Nomad. 'Nuff said.