“The Age of the Perpetually Offended”
From the City Hall Blog at the Dallas Morning News:
A special meeting about Dallas County traffic tickets turned tense and bizarre this afternoon.
County commissioners were discussing problems with the central collections office that is used to process traffic ticket payments and handle other paperwork normally done by the JP Courts.
Commissioner Kenneth Mayfield, who is white, said it seemed that central collections “has become a black hole” because paperwork reportedly has become lost in the office.
Commissioner John Wiley Price, who is black, interrupted him with a loud “Excuse me!” He then corrected his colleague, saying the office has become a “white hole.”
That prompted Judge Thomas Jones, who is black, to demand an apology from Mayfield for his racially insensitive analogy.
Mayfield shot back that it was a figure of speech and a science term.
SciGuy points out that:
 Judge Jones should be very glad that the central collections office has not become a white hole, a theoretical object that ejects matter from beyond its event horizon, rather than sucking it in. It wouldn’t be fun for Dallas to find itself so near a quasar.
July 10, 2008 - 02:27 PM on July 10th, 2008
Yes, of course, the Central Collections office could indeed be a white hole! A white hole is a hugely dense body with such strong gravity it assimilates anything that gets near it. It is named white because when viewed through optical instruments, it is highly reflective and so appears white.
So, yes, that’s a white hole, and this Commissioner Price is an ass hole!
July 10, 2008 - 09:59 PM on July 10th, 2008
Good comment, Robert.
July 10, 2008 - 10:20 PM on July 10th, 2008
A black hole is a scientific term. Perhaps it’s time for someone to point out what an idiot this councilman is and run against him on the grounds of incompetence.