Well, gangs and violence, anyway.

A City Desk reader captured this sight with a cell phone cam yesterday morning, around 10:30 a.m., on the 1500 block of Marion Street NW:

The reader explains: 'Took some photos yesterday of 6 kids from the Mayor's Conservation Corps rolling [a] joint and smoking pot....I did call the police but they didn't show up before the kids finished up. You can see a lighter and smoke in the photos. You can tell what he's smoking from how he's holding it. :-) I could smell it...(don't ask me how I know what it smells like).'

(Because the alleged tokers are likely minors, City Desk has blurred their faces.)

Wilbon's piece attempts to slam the bong-sucking swimmer.

Wilbon's been the hardest-working superstar in sports newspapering for a while now. But if his latest column were a Goofus and Gallant panel, Wilbon would own the Goofus role the way Olivier did Hamlet.

Wilbon compares pot smokers to dog killers and stop-sign running drunks.

Even with the occasional caveats Wilbon throws into his paragraphs, his argument is beyond laughable. Given Wilbon's profile and credibility, his argument's downright dangerous, since it's based on the same insincerity and/or stupidity that allows SWAT teams to go unpunished for terrorizing innocent families.

Good morning, City Desk readers. I hope you all had a happy [insert holiday here].  My household celebrated the day by lounging around in tall tees, eating ice cream out of the carton, and watching the entire fourth season of Weeds (OMG! The ending so totally threw me off. Deets later--don't want to spoil the show for n00bz!)

And now some news:

• New Columbia Heights reports on a new gang cruising 14th St. called the "Whipsters"--not what you think, trust me. (Unless the first thing that came to your mind was a variation on "hipsters," in which case you're kind of right.) The Whipsters have open membership on Facebook! (Keep your eyes open for gang signs painted in raw breast milk and crushed berries from local berry collectives.)
• On Dec. 15, Christmas Eve (aka, Dec. 24) developers broke ground for the new Anacostia library. And Now, Anacostia has more info and some floor plans.
• The folks at Congress Heights on the Rise have the final 2008 numbers from the MPD's All Hands on Deck initiative: "MPD officers made 462 arrests, recovered nine firearms, and seized $35,925 worth of drugs. All five AHOD’s netted more than 2,300 arrests. Overall, assaults involving a gun are down 13 percent and robberies committed with the use of a gun are down 12 percent compared to this time last year."

$35k worth of drugs yet only nine illegal firearms? Ya'll know what that means, dontcha? The price of pot is going up, up, up! So much for catching an after-Christmas fire sale on qp's of purple haze...

Btw: Every single one of those 2,300 arrests that was drug-related translates to an adult, teen, or pre-teen, who--for the rest of his or her life--will be ineligible to receive federal financial aid for higher education. Two thumbs up, Cathy Lanier, for perpetuating the urban-poverty cycle!

Photo courtesy of Flickr user indi.ca