Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!

The Post-Gazette once called this blog "less anti-Ravenstahl than most [Pittsburgh Political blogs]", which, I'm sure, was intended to be some sort of compliment. I don't think this place is particularly "anti-Ravenstahl" as much as it is "anti-stupid"; indeed, I think I am being particularly impartial when I say that I think all politicians are a bunch of yutzes, although some more so than others.

I'm not a rabid, frothing-at-the-mouth zealot or anything. I like to think of myself of radical with a pension and a mortgage, for what it's worth.

More often than not, however, the anti-politician streak and the anti-stupid streak sort of mashup in a disgusting orgy usually reserved for the dance floors of clubs in the Strip. The local Mayoral Golf outing fracas seems to be one of those cases.

Look, I don't know much about geometry anymore, but I remember this much: (1) a point is a point, (2) two points define a line, and (3) three points define a plane. I also remember from my rhetoric & logic classes that 3 examples are a good foundation for an argumentative proof, and that three examples set up a joke.

You seek what I'm getting at here: we are beginning to define what I'm defining the "Ravenstahl Stupid Plane argument-joke", which is a needlessly cumbersome way of saying that the Mayor seems to be taking actions that are consistently not well thought out. Take for example his sluffing off of a Hill District Community meeting in March to go drink on a plane with Ron Burkle and now his decision to go play golf instead of addressing the controversy of the promoted police commanders. [I'm sure that loyal, more focused readers can fill in a third event to complete the trifecta, if they wish.]

But, It's not that what Ravenstahl's decisions were particularly "wrong" or "evil" but more "boneheaded" and "not-at-all well thought out". It's like the mayor is deliberately peeing on the electric fence or sticking a fork in his eye: not wrong, just unnecessarily stupid.

Now, when I was his age I would have totally gone drinking with Ron and golfing with Mario. I mean, seriously: how awesome would that have been? But I wasn't the mayor of a major metropolitan area at the time either. Heck, I'm not a particularly religious person nor am I a big fan of St. Paul, but even I get1 Corinthians 13.

If the mayor wants to last the next two years, let alone the next four months, somebody on the 5th floor had better start keeping him on a short leash... or at least keep him away from sharp objects.