Ron Paul Fan On Malls, Radiohead

There’s an op-ed in today’s Inquirer predicting the demise of the mall; the writer seems to be under the impression that Americans are now cutting back on spending and will no longer shop-’til-they-drop at giant monuments to suburban sprawl.

Anyway, it has one of the best comments I’ve ever read on a Philly.com article, and I’d like to share it with you now. This might be my favorite comment of all time, actually, especially if it’s real.

Ron Paul fans: Tough on malls, soft on Radiohead.

Also: Oxford Valley Mall isn’t so bad. Has this person ever been to Neshaminy? While it does have Café Riviera, I can assure you the Oxford Valley Mall is much, much nicer.

A grim future for the all-American mall [Inquirer]

Great Moments In Guest Columns

Well la de da! Last week, Alan Butkovitz had one of those wacky press conferences where he talked about ending the student TransPass program and other SEPTA-related ideas. Fair enough, I guess. Earlier this week, Butkovitz responds in an editorial about how great he is, and how shoddy he thinks the Daily News editorial was. And look who has has backing him!

THE BEST response to the Daily News editorial criticizing me for exposing problems with SEPTA’s student TransPass program and subway security measures came from Maude, a reader who posted this online comment: “The writer of this editorial obviously doesn’t have to depend on SEPTA like the rest of us. Try riding the system before forming your opinion.”

More than 80 percent of the comments posted on the newspaper’s own Web site expressed a similar bewilderment that the People Paper would be so out of touch with the reality of crime and violence in our subways.

Yes, that’s right, Alan Butkovitz is using Philly.com commenters to defend himself. But what does the KKK think about the SEPTA TransPass program?!

On SEPTA safety, don’t shoot the messenger [Daily News]