From Peggy Noonan on Joan Rivers:
There was nobody like her. Some people are knockoffs or imitations of other, stronger, more vivid figures, but there was never another Joan Rivers before her or while she lived. She was a seriously wonderful, self-invented woman....
Her eye was original. Twenty years ago, when everyone was talking about how wonderful it was that Vegas had been cleaned up and the mob had been thrown out, Joan said no, no, no, they are ruining the mystique. First of all, she said, those mobsters knew how to care for a lady, those guys with bent noses were respectful and gentlemen, except when they were killing you. Second, she said, organized crime is better than disorganized crime, which will replace it. Third, the mobsters had a patina of class, they dressed well and saw that everyone else did, so Vegas wasn’t a slobocracy, which is what it is becoming with men in shorts playing the slots in the lobby of the hotel. The old Vegas had dignity. She hated the bluenoses who’d clean up what wasn’t mean to be clean. No one wanted Sin City cleaned up, she said, they wanted to go there and visit sin and then go home. http://blogs.wsj.com/peggynoonan/2014/09/05/joan-rivers-the-entertainer/
Instead of the mob of yesteryear in Vegas, now we have a bunch of mostly minority gangs, thugs of all colors and a lot of crime on the Strip, Fremont St. and all over the Valley. 8 years ago, Vegas was a nice town, now, gangs, drugs, vagrants and other morons. The education system is broke and will never be fixed without a complete overhaul and you cannot walk anywhere without looking over your shoulder.
Would things be different if the mobs still ruled? I'm not sure, but it certainly could not be worse.
You forgot the MBA gang, which ruined the casinos.
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