I'm well into season four of The Wire (just finished "Margin of Error"; read my other Jane After Dark installments), and getting into the guts of the Baltimore political scene and how it's all interwoven with the cops and drug business.

Oh, those kids! It really makes you see how they've gotta be extremely driven to get out of that life, because a lot of the adults are just priming them to continue the drug business into the next generation. Not only their parents -- which is really sad -- but people like Marlo, who has his minions handing out back-to-school cash to build goodwill with the kids. At that rate, those kids don't have a shot of clawing their way out of a life of crime.

It will take me another run-through or two to really fit all the pieces together, but I'm digging how all of the characters have evolved ... or not ...

(S04E06) "Don't try this shit at home." -- Norman Wilson

The Sunday before the all-decisive primary, and the candidates are in the pews, not to mention working the congregations after the service. Meanwhile, Bodie's crew, now under Marlo's thumb, works the corner. There's no day of rest for politicians or corner boys. This is not a good week for the cops -- the Major Crimes Unit is a joke under Sgt. Hauk and the commander installed by Rawls a couple weeks back.