Rum, Romanism and Rebellion

Scott Egan has decided to take some shots at me, he’s entitled to do so, I suppose, and it is his job as Ray Carroll’s gallowglass.

First off, he goes after the name of this blog. He claims it is an anti-Irish slur. No, it is an anti-Catholic slur (as well as an anti-Southern and anti-drinker slur). As a mackerel smacking, Mary worshipping Papist, I’m allowed to use it. I’d also like to point out that I’ve had two conversations with Egan about this blog and he never seemed to have a problem with the title.

Oh, wait, I see. He’s making a false accusation of racism against me because I didn’t properly apologize for what he saw as a false accusation of racism against his boss. I see, it’s irony.

He wonders why I never apologized for this. The reason is simple: I didn’t accuse Carroll of racism.

Here is the full paragraph, from a post about my doubts about Robert Robuck’s candidacy:

Of course, he doesn’t propose to close any of them either because he doesn’t want to say or doesn’t know the details of the programs. Talk like this tells me that he isn’t familiar with the needs of the district he hopes to represent. He is appealing, maybe unintentionally, to the folks that think that too much of their tax money is spent on “those people” on the south and west sides. That’s the line that Ray Carroll and his supporters have been giving for years. When I hear a Democrat ape that line (and when ostensibly progressive activists applaud it), I get concerned about what his agenda is.

First off: is Ray Carroll a racist?

Nope.

However, is he smart enough to know that he is free to pick on certain county programs because the folks cheering him on don’t know or care much about them because the folks who benefit from them are of the wrong class, live in the wrong part of town or, yes, because they are the wrong race? Sure. The fact that Carroll is willing to encourage these folks is all the more disappointing because given his background, he really ought to know better.

I just find it odd that Carroll claims this is all about protecting the taxpayer from wasteful spending, but somehow with the tens of millions of county money spent on the east side and the foothills, there is not a single dime of that that is wasted.

Interestingly, in one of Egan’s replies to me, he claims Carroll is a huge supporter of programs like Kino Hospital and Las Artes. Well, in last week’s Tucson Weekly, Carroll goes after, guess what? Las Artes and Kino Hospital. In fact, as the article notes, he questions the “county’s continued financial support” of Kino.

(By the way, as Egan will no doubt point out again, I work for a county contractor at Las Artes)

Okay, Egan’s two other points: regarding the Nucleus club debate, the first person I had a chance to talk to about that debate was a guy who was standing next to Tom and did not hear the comments. Okay, a mistake, over a rather minor point, really.

Next, Egan claims that I am claiming to be a mind reader because I saw Carroll nod when listening to extreme and bizarre comments from the folks who wanted Isabel García fired. Carroll moves his head up and down, does that mean something else now? Egan acknowledges that this was even visible on TV. What else does that mean?