which place is scariest?

[dubkitty]

in terms of the US political spectrum Livingstone was pretty extreme both in his urban management policies e.g. the traffic restrictions and in his broader politics. i included him as an example of an political figure who's noted for eccentricity as much as extreme sentiment; a US equivalent would be Dennis Kucinich if anyone took Kucinich seriously.

[Scruffie]

I don't want to get into a huge debate but... he wasn't that extreme and his policies worked and brought in money, his traffic restrictions have widely been regarded as a success (Even if implementation wasn't great, not his fault, blame third parties) government is business... i'm a lefty if anything but I can admit he didn't cock up badly... there's alot worse people *Glares at David Cameron*

Actually quite a funny guy too, been on some panel shows in the past, you'd think he was a dick but he'll take the piss out of himself.

[mathias]

Really, Racine? Kind of makes me glad I live in a small town.

Yep. I used to live on the second most gang-ridden block of Racine too. That place is unpleasant.

Truth, I lived in Racine (my family is from there, I'm technically not, but lived there for awhile.)

My jeep got all shot up while it was parallel parked and some meth-head got pulled over by the cops. Meth head pulls a gun and puts 4 rounds into my Jeep, not the cops. Cops shoot. I came out of a store 30-minutes-ish later to find ambulances and a police report I have to file.

[starcastic]

Woah. That's heavy, Mathias. I also want to add that when I was in sixth grade we had a special D.A.R.E. class in which we learned all of the local gang signs and how to casually and calmly throw them up. There was a rash of random shootings at the time where gangs would drive around and flash their sign at people on the streets. If they didn't flash the same sign back they would be shot on the spot.

[mathias]

That said, there's plenty of places I don't want to go because they're far scarier.

[tuffteef]

regarding?

its extreme dangerous ness
knife junkies

[starcastic]

@ Mathias... You're right. It's just that Racine is the scariest place I personally have known.

When IfIHadAHiFi was on tour in Baltimore there were hoards of cops running through downtown chasing someone with a Halloween skull mask and a gun who just killed someone. Bums were throwing cans and other garbage at them and the cops were not phased in the least. That was pretty freaky.

[Ironbird13]

im glad to live in NZ

[mathias]

@ Mathias... You're right. It's just that Racine is the scariest place I personally have known.

When IfIHadAHiFi was on tour in Baltimore there were hoards of cops running through downtown chasing someone with a Halloween skull mask and a gun who just killed someone. Bums were throwing cans and other garbage at them and the cops were not phased in the least. That was pretty freaky.

More fun before I fall asleep:

I lived down by Carthage, in the old convent by where the hospital in Kenosha used to stand. One night the fire alarm goes off, so I wake up and look out into the hall. Nothing, but I can definitely smell smoke. I happen to have my blinds open (it was a sliding glass door facing the road, park, and Lake Michigan beyond.) I turn around in time to see a lit couch fall from the second story's balcony. People upstairs had fallen asleep smoking, and pushing the couch outside and over the railing was the quickest way to put out the fire in their (pothead) minds.

That wasn't really a great night. It also has nothing to do with how dangerous Racine is, just how stupid those people in Kenosha were.

And for people not from Wisconsin, I am sorry, but we have crazy names for everything: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGcQCtFlENA

[starcastic]

When I was eighteen in Racine there were some local kids that knew about my brother's sweet hang out spot in the garage. Couches, posters, cool lights, etc. They snuck in there and got high as shit. They passed out and accidentally set a couch on fire. How nice of them to leave unscathed and unconcerned that our garage was going up in flames. If it wasn't for me getting home at 1:00 AM, seeing the smoke and calling 911 my entire family would have surely died. No such thing as a neighborhood watch on Center Street.

[devnulljp]

You let greasy reality TV show hosts with bad combovers and fundie hockey moms run to be in charge of the largest military and biggest nuclear weapons stockpile in the world.
The US scares the shit out of me.

i suppose you can look at it thus. on the other hand, the US hasn't elected a Berlusconi or an Allende <Nixon?>; we've not had a Le Pen, a Zhirinovsky <OK, but there is that little matter of Guantanamo Bay to deal with>, or an Oswald Mosley as a serious national figure <the Tea Party?>, nor a Chavez or a Lula <well of course, you're all scared of socialists >, and haven't had a racialist as a major politician since the salad days of George Wallace forty years ago <again with the Tea Party?>. we've not appointed a rock star with no real knowledge <Arnie? Hell, George W Bush, Dan Quayle?> to a major Cabinet position like Australia did with Peter Garrett. we haven't even had the equivalent of a George Galloway or a Red Ken Livingstone <again with the red scare; Ken did a lot of great things in his time; even gorgeous George in his early days was OK>. all in all, i'd say the US is looking pretty good in the whackadoo politician comparison.

No but you did have a senile B-movie actor whose sole qualification was that he grassed out other actors as reds to McCarthy, Not to mention Nixon, and there was that retarded fake-cowboy fella a while ago.
And there's also good old Arnold Schwarzenegger ... not a rockstar, but really what were his qualifications for running California? (Although all in all he seems to be better at it than many of the rest of them).

I'm in Canada. we have this douchebag in charge (until Monday anyway)

[grindonomicon]

'merica scares me. You go out into the boonies and those folk are scary

Hey now!

Dude. I come from Racine, Wisconsin...

Really, Racine? Kind of makes me glad I live in a small town.

Racine, Kenosha, Beloit. All suck.

Madison and Appleton rock tho. Green Bay can be OK.

Some say Milw too. If I could find my way around Milw, I'd prob feel different about it. :

[mathias]

Some say Milw too. If I could find my way around Milw, I'd prob feel different about it. :

Milwaukee is the result of three different towns competing to be "The Town", so they did stupid things like not lining up their roads on either side of a river (before there were bridges) and making the road naming grid work differently in different parts of the city. Really, it's the fault of the three town's founders, who were competing, but we also had little skirmishes over the construction of bridges over the rivers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milwaukee_Bridge_War
Plus we really have a lot of one-way streets that don't need to be one-way, especially downtown.

[mathias]

So this thread has been largely about Wisconsin, but there's plenty of places that I actually find scary enough to never visit.

What do you guys find scariest on the planet?

[grindonomicon]

Parts of Africa; wouldn't want to be an ugly american wandering around the middle east. Columbia sounds messed up too.

Australia doesn't seem scary. My perception of it is a big Arizona-Florida with more beer. All the Australians I've met have been very laid back, even tho they were all in ass-kicking noise rock or punk rock bands.

I have friend's who speak casually of fighting with nazi's in Europe. That sounds reasonable scary to me, so Europe would get my vote for choices from the list.