No Postings on March 31

To celebrate the day that this blogmeister officially stops being young.

I share a birthday with political and quasi-political figures Michael Savage, Al Gore, Barney Frank and Patrick Leahy. The Eiffel Tower was also finished on March 31.

March 31 is also the anniversary of the first instance of Daylight Savings Time in the USA (1918), and of Netscape releasing the source code of their browsers under an open source license, which would eventually beget Firefox, Thunderbird and NVu (1998, that being the first day I could legally drink).

2007 Municipal General Election Preview

There are only two issues in the area that interest me enough to comment.  City school board doesn’t matter because it’s about to be made impotent.

ST. LOUIS CITY PROPOSITION P

Recommendation:  No
Prediction:  Passes

Commentary:  This would force a public vote on all future matters regarding the seizing of St. Louis City park land for development.  This proposal is in reaction to the BJC-Forest Park issue.  I get the feeling that this is the kind of law that, while it appears to be a positive thing to do now, that many people in future St. Louis city are going to wish that their 2007 ancestors had not passed.

OVERLAND CITY PROPOSITION A

Recommendation:  Yes
Prediction:  None

Commentary:  Would recall Mayor “Raggedy” Ann Purzner.  We all owe it to City Attorney Bob Herman to endorse this thing, and to vote for it if you live in Overland, because of how Purzner illegally tried to oust Herman.

Combine Two Paragraphs, And It Makes More Sense

Combining two disjointed paragraphs of this KSDK article, and it makes a lot more sense:

Ricky Martin, who was named person of the year in 2006 by the Latin Recording Academy, has hits including “Livin’ la Vida Loca” and “Shake Your Bon-Bon,” defended the right of pop stars to come out of the closet, saying he felt solidarity with Christian Chavez of Mexican band RBD, who recently said publicly that he is gay.

If you don’t remember who Ricky Martin is, then don’t feel bad. Those two hits listed above, released way back in 1999, were his only two hits.

If you do remember who Ricky Martin is, this means that you also probably remember who Lou Bega is, and that begs the question: What happened to Mambos No. 1 through 4? And why no Mambos No. 6 and higher?

It Happened Here, Too

The Bluffton University (Ohio) baseball team, five of its members were killed in that infamous Atlanta bus crash earlier this month, is playing ball again.

It’s an old story, but there is a local analogue to that crash, or more specifically, poor road engineering that caused that crash there and a number of similar ones here.

What happened in Atlanta is that the bus driver was driving along an Atlanta freeway, in the High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV, or Carpool) Lane. In Atlanta, the HOV lane is simply the leftmost freeway lane striped off with double white lines, in contrast to some cities whose HOV lanes are barrier-separated.

There are a few direct exits from the HOV lanes in Atlanta to regular streets and boulevards, but since the HOV lane is on the left, the exit is a left exit. That bus with the Bluffton baseball team was going through Atlanta on a foggy night, and the bus driver, who himself was fatigued, couldn’t read the signs as he approached one of these HOV exits, and continued to the left on the exit ramp as if he was staying on the freeway. In other words, his own default expectation made him think that forking right was an exit.

But he actually was on an exit, ascending up a ramp to a signal with a street. His speed continued to be that of regular freeway traffic, and he ran right through the signal, and crashed through the other side of the overpass, and the bus fell right back down onto the freeway.

St. Louis had a similar setup until the late 1990s. Going westbound on I-70 through north city, which has barrier-separated reversible (not HOV, Missouri has no carpool lanes) lanes, there was an exit for Union Blvd., where one could exit the express lanes (assuming those lanes were westbound) onto Union, or exit the main lanes to Union. The exit for the express lanes and the one for the main lanes led to the same ascending ramp, so the express lane exit was a right exit, but the exit for the main lanes was a left exit.

Every once in awhile, the same thing would happen here. Somebody, confused by fog, darkness or alcohol, would think that the left exit from the main lanes was the continuation of the main lanes, while the three main lanes were themselves the exit, and they would race toward Union on that ramp and crash into the overpass wall on the opposite end, or fall off of it.

All those problems were swept away in the late 1990s when the state reconstructed the interchange as a regular right-hand exit ramp only from the main lanes.

Are You Hornier Than A 5th Grader?

Monroe (La.) News-Star:

Two fifth-graders had sex on a classroom floor while two others fondled each other in the classroom, according to a teacher at Spearsville High School.

And that might have happened because:

Students at the kindergarten through 12th grade school are unruly, disrespectful and rarely disciplined, Walker said.

“They cuss at the teachers and throw things at them, and nothing is done,” Walker said. “There was even one student who grabbed a teacher in the butt and nothing was done. The students run the school.”

Spearsville, Louisiana, probably not named after Britney Spears, is a dot on the map in the north central part of the state. Wikipedia’s article states that Spearsville is 96.7% white.

 

Parliamo Italiano in Italia

Italy’s parliament has approved an amendment to the country’s constitution making Italian the official language of Italy. What a shock.

There were actually two main and contradictory pillars of opposition to the motion. One were outright communists, who oppose anything that legitimizes particular groups of human beings over the universal, and the Northern League, which has pushed for Lombard irredentism, and whose Italian dialect is more Venetian than Sicilian.

They’re Angry Alright

New York’s Catholics are indignant over the naked chocolate Jesus statue. While they plan to do a lot about it, read this article carefully.

What is more interesting here is words you won’t read.

You don’t read “riot,” “wilding,” “behead,” or words like that. Those are words you did read in the Muslim reaction to the Mohammed Cartoons.

As If There’s Any Debate

AFP:

A defiant Robert Mugabe openly acknowledged an assault on Zimbabwe’s opposition leader Friday as he sought his ruling party’s nomination to stand once again in next year’s presidential election.

(snip)

While there have been rumblings of discontent within ZANU-PF towards Mugabe, no-one has so far put their head above the parapet to challenge his nomination.

Probably for good reason.  What Mugabe’s goons do to white farmers and his black opposition would not be spared on rivals within his own party.

Inside and Out

A French engineer thinks that the Great Pyramid at Giza was built from the inside outward.

I don’t read anything in this article about aliens or extraterrestrials, and that will make Art Bell and George Noory sad.

The Decline and Fall of the Fox News Channel

They are partnering with the Congressional Black Caucus to put on several intraparty Presidential debates.

Most of the chatter on this issue is from leftists and radical blacks, along the lines of, “CBC, How Could You?” The pertinent and real question should be from our people, “FNC, How Could You?”

If Fox had a right wing reputation once upon a time, they’re losing it. These days, the two most conservative cable TV talking heads are not on Fox. They are Lou Dobbs (CNN) and Glenn Beck (CNN-HN).

Dynamo of Dixie

A 42-year old transvestite woman from Chattanooga, Tenn., living as a man was charged with statutory rape for her/his stiffy-enhanced carnal knowledge of a 15-year old girl. She was arrested as a man, and tossed into jail with men. Her true gender didn’t become revealed until……..I’ll let you see the rest for yourself.

I’ll just say that it call comes out in the wash.

Bruin Bucks

White Los Angeles business executives team up with University of California Los Angeles Black Alumni Association to raise $1.75 million for affirmative action black scholarships and grants.

Meanwhile, non-rich white UCLA students will have to mortgage their next five lifetimes to go to UCLA, and many of them will go bankrupt after they are affirmative actioned out of employment worthy of their UCLA education.

Run Al Run

He’s actually thinking of running as a Green Party candidate. Savage and a guest broke this news last night. Gore’s calculus is that HRC has the D-nomination locked up, and her Iraq flip flopping will turn off the hard left. The Republican will be saddled with his pro-war position, so Gore figures he can win with 37% of the popular vote.

I think he’s way overestimating anti-Iraq war sentiment. And even if he runs Green and HRC runs D, and he costs her the election, I think there’s enough animosity between the Clintons and Gores that he wouldn’t mind at all.

The dream scenario for Republicans would be that if Gore runs with the Greens, Obama wins the Democrat nomination, and that the Republicans don’t put a non-white in the running mate slot. If that happens, with all apologies to the unofficial BHO YouTube anti-HRC ad, 2008 would be a lot like 1984.

Where’s the Vigils?

AP:

HUNTSVILLE, Texas – A death-row inmate who had vowed not to go willingly to the death chamber set a fire in his cell Thursday, but when the time came, walked to his death without a fight. Roy Lee Pippin, 51, was executed by lethal injection for the deaths of two Florida men gunned down in a dispute about missing drug money. From the gurney, he blamed the jury, the trial judge and the prosecutor, and said that he was innocent.

Yet, there’s no news of midnight vigils around the Huntsville drip joint. Nor is there any mention here of professional agitators complaining about the racial disparities in the death penalty (though there ought to be — whites convicted of first-degree murder are more likely to be executed than blacks or Hispanics so convicted).

Why all the silence?

That picture above speaks volumes.

New to the Blogroll

Paleo Future.   How disappointing the present is in comparison to the lofty expectations of yesterday’s tomorrows.

Gladly

Boston Herald:

Mexico’s attorney general on Wednesday demanded U.S. authorities do more to stop guns and drug money from heading south and fueling the drug violence in Mexico that left more 2,000 dead last year.

Eduardo Medina Mora told a business forum that the vast majority of arms used by the soldiers of drug cartels, including assault rifles and grenades, are smuggled from the United States.

I would be glad to oblige, if I had a say in the matter.

Bad Advice

P-D Headline:

Blunt’s press secretary haunted by nude photos on web

Knowing how badly things are going for Gov. Blunt, he must be getting bad advice, meaning that this is the culpable party and their photo:

Six Figures

E-mail from State Rep. Jeanette Mott Oxford (D-St. Louis City) to the Arch City Chronicle:

We just had a lively debate on how to give state employees a raise this year. The governor called for a 3% increase across the board. The Democrats called for a flat raise of $972 per state employee instead which means that $20,000 a year workers would get a 4.9% raise, while a $100,000 per year employee would get only 1%.

About the only state employees that are making more than $100,000 a year are Matt Blunt, Gary Pinkel and Mike Anderson. Perhaps proving one of Rep. Oxford’s other points in that e-mail.

For the Greater Good

Recently, I have seen a spate of TV ads for TIAA-CREF Financial Services. All of the ads play a light instrumental version of “Somewhere” by Bernstein/Sondheim in the background, and the visuals involve scenes from the education or health care fields.

TIAA-CREF, which stands for Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association – College Retirement Equities Fund, was inspired by Andrew Carnegie and founded by one of his top lieutenants and with Carnegie Foundation money in 1918 as TIAA.

The goal of the ads, and the goal of TIAA-CREF’s services, is to extol the virtues of financial planning for those in the education, health care, and non-profit sectors. As you can see from their logo, they provide services “for the greater good.”

Does anyone else other than me feel a little insulted?

The implication is that only the education, health care and non-profit sectors are altruistic enough to do things “for the greater good.”

I suppose UPS or FedEx, which makes many deliveries to educational, health care and non-profit institutions, doesn’t help the “greater good.”

It would also seem that construction contractors, who build the edifices where health care and education take place, don’t help the “greater good.”

All of this also ignores the fact that most education and health care firms and institutions are just as interested in the bottom line as the greedy non-altruists at the delivery company and the construction firm. Go to any big-city hospital complex, and one of two things or both are forever happening there: Construction and major renovation. The only difference is that the profits earned in health care and education aren’t subject to Federal corporate income taxes.

Ironic on a Number of Levels

AP:

SAN DIEGO – Two executives at a company that once helped build a fence to keep illegal immigrants from crossing the Mexican border were sentenced Wednesday to six months of home confinement for hiring undocumented workers.

Mel Kay, founder, chairman and president of Golden State Fence Co., and manager Michael McLaughlin had pleaded guilty in federal court to knowingly hiring illegal aliens. U.S. District Judge Barry Ted Moskowitz ordered each to serve 1,040 hours of community service and spend three years on probation.

(snip)

Federal prosecutors took the rare step of seeking prison time after the men acknowledged hiring at least 10 illegal immigrants in 2004 and 2005. The charges carried a maximum possible penalty of five years in prison.

However, prosecutors were unable to find a previous case in which an employer had been sent to jail for knowingly hiring illegal immigrants.

“Prosecution is long overdue in this area,” [*****] said. “Honestly, the government’s efforts have been at the border, not with the employer. Obviously, the government has signaled a change with this case.”

(snip)

[*****] said he was uneasy with handing down jail time because the company did not deserve to be “the poster child” for unscrupulous employers. All of Kay’s workers paid
Social Security taxes and received health benefits, vacation and sick time. Many earned more than $50,000 a year.

Well then, what company that knowingly hires illegal aliens DOES deserve to be made an example? Most people follow the law because they fear being the “example.” If there is no “example” made, then most people won’t follow the law. That’s our argument with the illegal alien question itself, and our answer to the liberal charge that “you can’t deport or jail 36 million people.” You couldn’t jail all the people that would cheat on their taxes if nobody was strung up in public for it.

The company did work at military bases and other government facilities — an irony that Moskowitz noted as he considered whether to send Kay to prison.

“He’d probably go to one of the camp facilities that he built the fence for,” the judge said.

The other irony would have been if illegal aliens they hired would have worked on this border fence, though there is no evidence of that. If illegal aliens would have worked on this fence, I could imagine that they would deliberatly do a shoddy job.

I am not linking to the source material because it contains the name of a Federal judge.

The Hubris of Someone Named “Mitt”

He’s already floating trial balloons on running mates. Don’t count your delegates before they hatch.

Actually, Presidential candidate Romney is so different than Governor Romney that I’m surprised that he isn’t suggesting himself as a possible running mate, to bring ideological balance to the ticket.

Feminist Studies Cirricula Must Not Include Biology

WaPo:

It’s called the Promoting Responsible Fatherhood Initiative, and the Bush administration doles out up to $50 million annually to fund its programs to build job skills and help fathers connect better with their children. But the National Organization for Women says the effort is illegal because it’s only about men.

I get the sneaking feeling that this is because that only men can be fathers.

You Might Not Believe It

Thieves steal.

A Cleveland pair accused of scamming department stores out of millions of dollars are banned from the courthouse cafeteria for stealing food. How their bond wasn’t revoked is beyond me.

Here’s One Name You Aren’t Reading

In several stories about the swimming events at the World Championships in Melbourne, Australia, which are essentially Olympic games between the quadrennials, you’ll see the name “Michael Phelps” a lot, but I’m not reading this man’s name in any of them:

This is Cullen Jones, a Bronx native who swam collegiately at North Carolina State University, and recently turned pro, and is literally swimming in endorsement money, as corporations seek to paste their logo on the only decent black competitive speed swimmer in history.

What happened to the Great Black Aquatic Hope this year?

UPDATE 8/11/2008: Because of the Olympics, this post is receiving a lot of hits at the time of this writing.  Last night (U.S. time), the Americans won Gold in the 4×100 Free Relay.  Michael Phelps swam the first leg, and was slower than his usual self.  By the time Cullen Jones finished the third leg, with the slowest split among all four Americans, by the way, we were way behind the French.  It took Jason Lezak swimming like grease lightning to beat the French by 0.08 seconds.

Nevertheless, Jones got a gold medal just the same, and more than that, the imagery of a black swimmer with an Olympic Gold, when most MSM stories about blacks and swimming usually end up badly for the swimmers, is going to be too good to pass up.  Expect to hear a lot about him, by the time the media’s done, he’ll be almost as good as Michael Phelps.

After these Olympics, when Michael Phelps has walked away with multiple golds and/or others, and Cullen Jones has not that many, I’m just wondering if USA Swimming’s ensuing efforts to find the next Cullen Jones will miss the next Michael Phelps.

Nothing Doing

AFP:

DAR ES SALAAM (AFP) – Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete denied Thursday that an emergency summit of southern African leaders would put pressure on embattled Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe.

“Pressure? We are in a meeting, not pressure,” Kikwete told reporters before the Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit got into full swing Thursday morning.

And why would they do anything about Mugabe?  They agree with Mugabe and what he is doing, and those ruling countries not named South Africa would do the same if there were any white people there to rob.  In ZA’s case, they’re already starting.

Duh, Stupid

A 17-year old disgraced former Police Explorer on the Melbourne, Florida Police Department is now an object of police interest, not a protege of them.

He used his knowledge of the workings of the department to take a police cruiser, dress up as a real cop, and he even made one traffic stop. Unfortunately, a real Melbourne cop pulled over to help him, as apparently Melbourne, Florida is crime-free enough such that multiple squad cars can do one minor traffic top. The real cop then noticed the fake cop and took him in.

If he would have tried this in a busy urban department like St. Louis, he might have gotten away with the scam for longer than he did. That is because the SLPD is so busy that having more than one cruiser do a regular traffic stop is a severe waste of resources that are needed to scrape murder victims off of back alley pavements.

Either way, this young man has to be one of the more stupid human beings on Earth. Every once in awhile, I’ll hear a story of a police car or vehicle stolen. I think to myself, like, DUH, man. You actually think you’re going to be able to keep that car for any serious length of time without someone getting suspicious?

UPDATE 1:35 PM: The suspect is 17-year old Ramon Perez, Jr. of West Melbourne, Florida. He is charged with impersonating an officer, grand theft, burglary, unlawful use of a police badge and unauthorized use of a police radio frequency.

One hint that anyone that he pulled over might have had that something was amiss was all his acne scars.

Warp Speed

Here’s hoping that your mail makes like Luke Skywalker and gets there in timely fashion. Otherwise, it will end up in the belly of Jabba the Hutt, or sucked into the Death Star.

Duff On Tap

In a promotional move for this summer’s upcoming Simpsons movie, several 7-11 outlets will convert to the fictional “Kwik-E-Mart” seen on “The Simpsons.”  The rouse will go so far as selling real-life imitations of the fictional items available there.  No telling if an Apu mascot will be serving you.

Hmmm, let’s think this thing through.

(1)  Is Duff Beer more like Budweiser or Miller?

(2)  Will there be Sanjaya Malakar promotional material behind the counter?

(3)  I wonder what the scanner would show as the price for a scanned-in baby Maggie.

(4)  Finally, I get to see Homer choking Bart in real life.

(5)  I think I’ll have Mrs. Krabapple and Principal Skinner apply for SLPS positions.  Meanwhile, Otto the bus driver would be perfect for School Board.

(6)  Will AmerenUE reciprocate for the time by having CEO Gary Rainwater legally changing his name to C. Montgomery Burns?

And finally:

(7)  How will QT respond?  By theming their stores with Beavis and Butt-Head?

What Team Wears Orange?

Former Major League pitcher Ugueth Urbina will be spending the next decade-and-a-half in one of Hugo Chavez’s egalitarian collective resorts for a conviction of attempted murder.

He should take heart:  His country’s President is doing everything he can to make his own country almost prison-like, with himself as the warden.

Bad Choice of Words

AP Headline:

Cover Of Final Harry Potter Book Unveiled

After Daniel Radcliffe’s last endeavor in the performing arts, I think the AP could have come up with a better word than “unveiled.”