Divide By Eight (Fit, Meet Shan)

I didn’t want to blog on my birthday about real newsworthy stuff, but this is just too important.

The first map of the proposed Congressional redistricting in Missouri around only 8 seats now have leaked out.  Because this is a Google Map, you can scroll in and out to see the exact boundaries down to street level.

And just like we all knew, Russ Carnahan is the one that’s still standing up after the music stopped and nine people have to scramble for eight chairs.  Overall, the new map seems to be gerrymandered around the best chances for a 6-2 Republican majority for the next decade.  (Though I should say, as you will read, the Republicans are taking bit of a chance putting various parts of Jefferson County in 3 and 8 — I guess they’re assuming that JeffCo turning red in 2010 is a permanent thing and not just a one-election fluke.)  Also, at least on the Missouri sides of both metro areas, there will still be four Congressional districts within the urbanized/suburbanized/exurbanized footprint of the St. Louis region, three KC.  The main difference, and this is the one that’s going to cause consternation out of Room 200 at Tucker and Market, is that all of St. Louis City is within one Congressional district.

While no part of Missouri is specifically under the Voting Rights Act of 1965, you can bet that if the civil rights industry in this state has any fears about this map, it’ll take the matter to the Federal court system.  And in one instance, I think they will complain.

MO-1:  All of St. Louis City, and almost all of the blackest parts of St. Louis County, and a few white liberal parts of the County for good measure.  Job insurance for Lazy Clay.  The civil rights crowd will be happy, even if Mayor Slay won’t be.  The parts of Rock Hill south of Manchester are drawn into 1 because they’re the black sections of Rock Hill.  Russ Carnahan lives in South City, so he would have to run against Clay in the Democrat Primary for 1 in August of next year.  A primary Clay would win handily.

MO-2:  All of St. Louis County that’s not in 1, including all of South County, and also the geographical southern half of St. Charles County, and a wee slight bit of northern Jefferson County, mainly Fenton and High Ridge.  Pretty much job insurance for Todd Akin, or any Republican.  Thanks to the New 2 including lower class whites in Lemay and a chunk of Jewish voters in Creve Coeur, a very blue year nationally could flip this district blue on a temporary basis.  But that’s about it.  If Akin was only toying with a Senate run in fear of what they would do to his district, his worries are over.

MO-3:  Northern St. Charles County, all of Franklin, Warren and Lincoln Counties, and northern Jefferson County including the city of Arnold.  Also includes most of East Central Missouri.  Includes Fulton, Jefferson City and the Lake of the Ozarks.  Blaine Luetkemeyer currently lives in the geography.  I think he won’t have many problems holding it, though since it now includes northern Jefferson County, and Jefferson County’s whites, in spite of last November, still trend Democrat, a very tall blue wave nationally could turn 3 blue on a temporary basis.  If 2010 is a sea change and Jefferson County is starting in on being at least light red, then MO-3 is guaranteed to remain Republican.  FYI, the line between 2 and 3 in St. Charles County is about a line that extends from about the Blanchette Bridge to New Melle.

MO-4:  Not way too different from the existing 4, but instead of Cole County and Jefferson City, it now includes Boone County and Columbia.  Also Fort Leonard Wood.  That 4 will now include the most liberal part of rural Missouri (University of Missouri) means that 4 will only be a light red district, not a deep red one.  I’d be a little nervous if I were Vicky Hartzler.  Maybe the redistricting committee thinks that Columbia and the far southern suburbs of Kansas City will cancel each other out, and the rest of the area will keep 4 in the red.  Interesting that Ike Skelton’s old district just got another military base added to it.

MO-5:  Here’s where the civil rights fit is going to hit the shan.  All of Kansas City’s black population stays in 5, but they also throw in a lot of west central Missouri geography, including Richmond, Marshall and Lexington.  Now, those areas don’t come close to neutralizing the black vote in Kansas City, and in fact, the new 5 might be even bluer than the old 5, because heavy chunks of white Republican Kansas City suburbs like Lee’s Summit and Blue Springs are thrown into MO-6.   I think that, while the Republicans will never win this district, I think this new geography is vulnerable enough for a white Democrat to pick off Emanuel Cleaver such that the NAACP will whine.  If this map goes into Federal court, will be because of 5.

MO-6:  About the northern two-fifths of the state, and it sneaks down into parts of the KC suburbs of Lee’s Summit and Blue Springs.  Pike County and Bowling Green is as close as the new 6 gets to the St. Louis area.  Sam Graves isn’t going to the political graveyard anytime soon with this map.

MO-7:  Springfield, Branson, Joplin.  Sound familiar?  It’s basically the old 7 plus a few counties to the east.  Safe Republican.  Over the very long term, the explosion in the Hispanic population in Southwest Missouri will mean that this district turns from dark red to light red than to swing status, but that’s not relevant to the next ten years.  Currently Billy Long’s, and it seems like it’ll stay that way.

MO-8:  Southeast and South Central Missouri, including southern and central Jefferson County.  Between 1970 and 1980, the last decade when Missouri had 10 House seats, this district did extend as far north as southern Jefferson County, but it didn’t go very far west.  In 1980 and then again in 1990, the Democrats that ran the redistricting process in Jefferson City protected Dick Gephardt by giving him all of Jefferson County then all of Ste. Genevieve County.  But with Missouri going down from 9 to 8 seats, it is no surprise that 8 is once again in the St. Louis metropolitan area, as close as Imperial.  On the other hand, it only goes as far west as West Plains and Howell County — During the last decade, 8 extended almost to Branson.  However, they had to give that area back to MO-7 in order to make its population about one-eighth of the state.  (From 1990 to 2000, 8 did go no further west than Howell County.)  Putting central/southern Jefferson and all of Ste. Gen in Jo Ann Emerson’s district probably means that her margins of victory won’t be as wide in the future.  I also think that when she retires, and should the race be between a Tommy Sowers blue dog type (a legit one, not a fake like Sowers) and a RINO like Emerson, and if the national atmosphere is right (e.g. 2006), 8 could turn blue.  But, like I said in MO-3, if 2010 is a sea change meaning Jefferson County and working class whites in general are light red politically speaking, and 2010 wasn’t just a reactionary outburst, then MO-8 is safe Republican.

***

UPDATE: If this map happens, then say for example you get on southbound I-55 at the Carondelet exit, travel 16 miles and get off at the Imperial Main St. exit.  Your journey will encompass four Congressional districts.  Today, that is all within one district.

UPDATE 4/1: Talk about your Rashomon Effect — Channel 5 and the P-D cover the exact same public meeting over this proposed map.  The former says the debate was “heated,” while the latter says that only three people showed up and they might as well seen the Maytag Repairman.  I tend to believe the latter’s take.  As far as any criticism, the simple fact of the matter is that Missouri lost a House seat and the Republicans run the map-drawing process.  There’s no way you can divide 5.9 million people into eight almost equally populated pieces without making someone unhappy.  However, I think the criticism leveled by Rep. Ron Casey (D-Crystal City) might hit its mark — Jefferson County will be divided into MO-3 in the north and MO-8 in the south, and even parts of Fenton (Jefferson County’s side) and High Ridge will be in MO-2.  I think Casey’s words are designed to hit a mark inside the Governor’s Mansion — Don’t forget that Governor Nixon is a Jefferson Countian.  If Casey and the JeffCo Democrats in the General Assembly think they can make enough noise about Jefferson County being divided, they can get the Governor to veto this map.

UPDATE 4/2: Clay and Carnahan being lopped into the same district has made the front page of The Hill.  That article quotes some Missouri Democrats denouncing this proposed map as being “too partisan.”  Well, duh.  I mean, Democrats never draw district maps to favor Democrats.

Also, I’ve been thinking about the boundary between MO-1 and MO-2, and the fact that Mayor Slay is going to bitch about all of the city being in MO-1.  Like I said in MO-2, putting Jewish voters in Creve Coeur in MO-2 puts Akin at a bit of a disadvantage.  Don’t forget, Mark Kasen, who at least at the time lived in Chesterfield, admitted on air that the one and only time he’s ever voted for anything Republican was in the 2000 Republican Primary for MO-2, after Jim Talent left to run for Governor, in order to keep Todd Akin from winning, because Kasen hates non-Marxist Christians.  That probably means Kasen voted for Gene McNary, because by the time election day came around, it was clear that either McNary or Akin would win, so in Kasen’s mind, a vote for McNary was the only way to vote against Akin.  So in order to keep Akin safe and make Slay happy, I propose an amendment to this map:  Change the boundary between 1 and 2 slightly — Shift certain white and cop-filled South St. Louis City neighborhoods like St. Louis Hills and Boulevard Heights (where Slay lives) to MO-2, and give the Jewish neighborhoods in Creve Coeur and some neighborhoods in Maryland Heights that are becoming more and more black by the year to MO-1.  That way, the City will be technically under two Congressional districts with Mayor Slay being an Akin constituent and not a Clay constituent, shutting Slay up, and Akin will be safer because he’s far more likely to get the vote of a white SLPD officer who lives around the corner of Hampton and Eichelberger, or around Morganford and Loughborough, than the Mark Kasens of Creve Coeur or the blacks flooding Maryland Heights apartment complexes.

UPDATE 4/4: I’ve been thinking about the prospects of Gov. Nixon vetoing this map.  The Senate is more than two-thirds Republican, so they would override the veto.  And while the House is just short of two-thirds Republican, I think enough black House members from St. Louis City and North St. Louis County, who live in what would be MO-1 (and what is MO-1 as I write this), would join the override in order to keep Lazy Clay happy.  Unless there is some dissension within the Republican caucus, I think this map is as good as law.

Another Notch on the Trunk

I’m one notch away from meeting my last Constitutional qualification to be President of the United States.  And yes, I do have the birth certificate to prove it.

Unfortunately,  a year from today, I’ll still be missing several hundred million dollars of liquid assets, and also the credibility of having won a statewide public office.  Those informal qualifications.

Aside from her “morning” present to me, (use your imagination – I’ll give you a hint – It involved being spanked 34 times), my red-headed g/f’s other present to me requires me to leave work at noon.  I’m guessing Cardinals opening day tickets.

Casting Thine Pearls Before Swine

Google to test its new ultra high speed municipal broadband system in Kansas City, Kansas.

Doing it anywhere in the KC metro area is bad enough, but GOOG had to pick the Kansas Citiest place in Kansas City.

Along those same lines, I’m finally back into the land of the early 21st century technologically speaking.  My new router came today, and it took me only four hours to do the promised five minute easy setup.  That’s the way routers are — I really wouldn’t want them to be too easy to set up.  In fact, I’d be suspicious of a wifi router setup that goes too easily — I could imagine all the bandwidth whinos with their laptops and smartphones perched near my front door, leeching off my connection.  Both of my apartment complex neighbors tell me that their wireless devices can see my network, (they could not with my previous router), but what they see isn’t what they’re gonna get, not with my complicated password.

Fun With “Head” Lines

Paul Thurrott:  IDC: Windows Phone to Be Number-Two Smartphone by 2015

I’ve used Windows Phone, albeit briefly.  I would already characterize it as Number Two.

Gateway Pundit:  Barack Obama: We Want Illegal Aliens to Succeed

I want illegal aliens to succeed, too.  In their home countries.

Daily Mail:  Buy one, get gun free: Radio Shack in Montana offering free firearm to those who sign up for Dish Network TV

Oh I see.  If you can’t find Gunsmoke on any one of Dish Network’s channels, you can always make your own.

Daily Mail:  University of Chicago student ‘hook up’ website expands to include other colleges

That’s how Facebook got started.  I wonder if “headbook.com” is taken — If not, I think I’ll squat on it.

John Lott:  Libyan War cost at least $600 million in First Week

Imagine all the food and health care $600 million a week could buy.  You know, there used to be a political party that always said things like that.

5:  Scoop! Perez Hilton has deal for children’s book

Look on the bright side — Children are a lot more sophisticated these days.  Some of them are even sperminated.

Mark Levin:  Schumer To Fellow Dems: I’ve Been “Instructed” To Call GOP “Extreme”

Hell, “extreme” is the only word in his vocabulary.

San Antonio Express-News:  Terrorists might be among us

That’s because the Republocrats keep letting them immigrate in.

Pundit Press:  Obama Libya Speech Scheduled To Accommodate ‘Dancing With The Stars’

The choice was listening to Obama drone on about being “clear” yet confusing the hell out of all of us even more, or watching the lard tub they call Kirstie Alley prance around like a damned fool.  Luckily, my remote has a power button.

Tuesday’s Tidbits

*  If you’re a reporter on the Vice-Presidential beat, the job just might be hazardous to your health:

*  Atlanta –  Another city where the actual count turned out to be way less than the “estimates.” Only in The ATL’s case, the “estimated” 2010 population was around 520k, and the real population was around 420k.  That’s a mighty big overestimation — So big that it seems almost like political fluff more than anything that uses the scientific method.

*  Also from Atlanta — Rush Limbaugh’s opening theme song is My City Was Gone by The Pretenders, from 1982.  If certain black politicians in Georgia have their way, five cities will be gone.  The reason they want them to be gone is because they’re majority white.  And as we all know, white people don’t deserve to live in cities.

*  Again, from Atlanta.  Pardon me, but I tend to think his “fighting the white racist system” bromide is a relatively recent construct, in order to sway potential black jurors.

*  Now, from the home front.  SLU’s student newspaper opines against a voter ID law for Missouri, claiming that it’ll disenfranchise SLU students who are not Missouri residents.

Well, DUH.  Non-residents aren’t supposed to be voting in Missouri elections.

I guess the next genius editorial from that paper will be that laws that stipulate that voters be at least 18 years old disenfranchise people who are under 18.

And one more thing — Most of them are running around with fake IDs anyway, so just get one from Missouri.

But That Was Once Upon a Time

You know, it wasn’t so long ago that I would have been glad to hear the news that Anheuser-Busch purchased a Chicago-based beer business.  Then again, it wasn’t so long ago that we could call A-B “ours.”

In related news, the troubled August Busch IV is going to resign from the A-B InBev Board of Directors at their next meeting in Brussels.  When InBev bought A-B, part of the deal was putting two Busch family members on the InBev BoD.  Now that Busch IV is gone, that’ll only leave one.  I think the rest of the members are going to strike while the iron is hot, and by “strike,” I mean at the very least close the St. Louis brewery, and probably also move the A-B InBev North American business HQ away from St. Louis and to a more airline-friendly city.

 

Fun With Sunday Headlines

Yahoo:  G.E. paid no taxes on $5.1 billion in profits

I can hear Jeffery Immelt right now:  “Thanks, Barry.”

Daily Mail:  ‘Infinity is not enough’: Sick machete killer sentenced to life as 11-year-old survivor faces him for the first time in court

Maybe not, but “Infinity” in the jargon of British prison sentences means about 5 years.

Politico:  Schism brews in Coffee Party

What?  One member wants socialism and the other member wants communism?

CNS:  Boehner: More Clarity Needed on Libya Operation

Just wait until tomorrow night, John, because Obama will say “let me be perfectly clear” about 500 times yet nobody will understand.

CNS:  Oregon Appeals Court: Teeth Not Dangerous Weapon

You could get popped for carrying a concealed weapon just by closing your mouth.

V-Dare:  MALDEF to Challenge Leaf-Blower Ban…?

No, no reason for stereotypes.  Not at all.

Sunday Wrap-Up

No two ways about it.  I’m going to have to buy myself a new router.  Add to cart, subtract from wallet.  But I’m not buying this.

*  Mayor-Elect Rahm Emanuel considering a city charter reform plan that would cut the number of aldermen in half from 50 to 25.  If that happens, then Chicago (Pop. 2.7 million) will have fewer aldermen than St. Louis (Pop. 319,000).

*  Federal prison inmate George Ryan admits:  He commuted the death sentences of convicted murderers that he knew from the portfolio of evidence packages were guilty.  He says, “but I don’t have to tell you why I did it.”

No you don’t, Former Governor.  I know why you did it — In order to gain favor from what you knew would be potential black jurors in what you knew would be a Chicago-based Federal criminal trial with you as the defendant.

*  Steve Sailer’s latest op-ed length column nails how NCLB will achieve its goal of actually “leaving no child behind” — Making standardized tests both as easy as the drivers license test, and essentially pass/fail in grading.

*  Looks like somebody needs a good dose of teaching tolerance, respect for diversity and sensitivity training.

I wonder if the Federal prosecutors will try and string up the starling for violating the flicker’s Fair Housing rights.  Barring that, Morris Dees could always sue the starling, and even the flicker if it called the starling the n-word.

Boom Goes London, Soon Sydney

On the civility watch:  Marxists (anarchists my foot) riot in London over proposed government budget cuts in the areas of social welfare, education and public employees.  Telegraph, Mail have pics.

It’ll hit Sydney, Australia next.  The reason is that control of the New South Wales state parliament changed hands yesterday from Australian Labour Party to the Liberal*/National Coalition for the first time in 16 years.  The new Premier, Barry O’Farrell promised in the campaign to go all Scott Walker on the state’s public employee unions.

Pauline Hanson ran for one of those NSW Parliamentary seats, but got a disappointing 1.82% of the vote.  The good news is that her very hot and very very very doable 27-year old daughter helped her on the campaign trail, so she might be the Marine to her mother’s Jean Marie in the near future.

UPDATE 4/1: That last news source was wrong.  Pauline Hanson ran for a seat in the upper house of the NSW Parliament, and as of this moment, she is in the lead.

* – The Liberal Party in Australia is actually its lamestream conservative party.

Fun With Friday Headlines

Who stole spring?  80s earlier this week, now snow this morning.  It’s going to be a cold weekend, and in more ways than one — My red head has family obligations out of town, and since I’m now spoken for and everyone has a camera of some sort in my pocket, chasing tail tonight or tomorrow night is out of the question.

But I digress.  On to the headlines.

 

NYP:  City Council votes to rename Queensboro Bridge after former Mayor Ed Koch

Forever changing The King of Queens theme song.

Daily Mail:  Who needs Honolulu? Fargo beats Hawaii in Forbes list of ‘best places to retire’ (was warm weather a factor?)

No, diversity was a factor.  Who wants to retire to the third world?

KCBS-2 LA:  PETA Models Shower Nude In Hollywood To Protest Meat

She gets naked, and wants us to think about fresh meat.  It worked!

Gateway Pundit:  CONFIRMED: Obama Locked Out of White House

HILLARY~!

NYP:  Underwear bomber picked Detroit because it was cheapest flight

He might not have wanted to bomb the airliner if he would have known how cheap it is to live in Detroit.

Lafayette (Ind.) Journal and Courier:  Nearly Naked Mile provides clothes for those in need

“Those in need,” i.e. those that run the Completely Naked Mile at the University of Michigan.

Friday’s Frolicks

*  Gunwalking update:  Second whistle blower implicates more agencies of the alphabet gang.

If true, then it’s going to be harder and harder for people to believe that Obama didn’t know.

*  Along those same lines, watching this video might get your egalitarian sensitivities hurt.

A number of cities and municipalities are passing “stolen gun” ordinances, the jist of which is that this victim would be required to give the cops the serial numbers of all his stolen guns with a certain time period of them having been stolen, or otherwise be forced to pay a several hundred dollar fine.  Of course I can see how that’s logical — It’s the gun owner’s fault that his own guns got stolen.  Just like it’s the woman’s fault that she was raped.  (Sarcasm mode, in case you didn’t notice.)

*  Not that the U.S. Attorneys that work for open borders Republocrats will ever tell you, but all the illicit heroin consumed in the United States has to be imported, and therefore has to cross a border.

*  Hey, Lawrence Taylor:  I don’t card prostitutes either, because I don’t solicit prostitutes.

Dumbass.

*  Scrap copper thefts seem to be a big problem in St. Louis City and East St. Louis.  (Could we draw a conclusion here, or would that be racist?)  The cops in both cities are laying the blame squarely on the backs of thieves who steal scrap copper legitimate businesses that pay cash for scrap copper.

*  #6 seems to be the smartest man in that photograph.

*  The country music stars of the time were loyal and vocal supporters of George Wallace’s Presidential campaigns.

Now, the fact that today’s country music is nothing more than warmed over pop recorded in Nashville is mirrored by the fact that the genre’s biggest stars are the same kind of celebutards as their pop contemporaries.

And what do we have now?  Garth Brooks, who hates “white racism,” who penned a song (“We Shall Be Free,” essentially a “country” version of “We Are The World”) in reaction to the L.A. riots in 1992, and is an Obamabot.

Garth Dummy is from Oklahoma, which was the reddest state in 2008, ironically.

*  How Anheuser-Busch survived prohibition.  Yes, make fun of grape soda now, but it sustained the institution for which a handful of my relatives worked after it was legally able to brew beer again.

*  You’ll hear far more media coverage of a young white woman complaining on YouTube about her Asian peers at UCLA being too loud and rude in the library than you will about this.

*  You have read the story right now, so I don’t need to comment on it in a way that thousands of bloggers already have.

I will say that I find it ironic that Gov. Terry Branstad signed off on it.  Because Branstad campaigned on signing an SB 1070 type bill for Iowa during the election campaign last fall.

*  Again.

*  Whaddaya know.  Lorena Bobbitt has gone into the floral business.

*  I have seen Justin Bieber’s future, and it is David Cassidy.

*  Hmmm.  “Beat Me in St. Louis.”

It’s perhaps a good thing the city of Fairview Heights could do nothing about it.  For if it could, and it would have sent the cops in there to stop it, the attendees might have mistaken the cops for some freaky beginning to some freaky S&M ritual.

Really?

The engineer of Waco, the architect of “The Wall,” and the defender of Duke slanderers?

Obama thinks she should run the Federal government’s premier law enforcement agency?

J. Edgar would be rolling over in his grave.

Good for the CPD

A pair of Chicago’s finest dumped off a squad car that had a gang banger in the back in the territory of a rival gang.

Scared straight.

Unfortunately, Department Brass don’t quite see it the same way I do.

Population Center

Just as the mathematicians predicted, the new population center of the United States is in Texas County.  More specifically, just south of Fort Leonard Wood, near the town of Plato.

The population center, which was near Edgar Springs in Phelps County in 2000, near Sullivan in Crawford County in 1990, near DeSoto in Jefferson County in 1980, and near Mascoutah, Illinois in St. Clair County in 1970, did indeed shift westward and southward, but not as far west or south as it did between previous decades.

Dictators Are From Mars, Despots Are From Venus

Reuters:  Chavez says capitalism may have ended life on Mars

Saturn didn’t make it because of the lack of high speed rail.  Pluto will only be a viable host of life if it has strong public employee unions with collective bargaining rights.

AOL:  Nation of Islam Looks to UFOs to Save the World

But then after the aliens save the world, the benefits won’t trickle down to black people.  Then the NOI will accuse our alien overlord messiah occupiers of racism.  The aliens will respond with, “but some of my very best Earthling friends are black!”

2:  Mo Attorney General Koster Says Health Overhaul Has Uncertain Legal Status

Let me bring some certainty to the conversation, Chris:  Unconstitutional.

Daily Mail:  Hugh Laurie says goodbye to acting (temporarily) as he launches a music career with his first ever performance

It’ll be the first stop on his Piano and Vicodin tour.

Hot Air:  “We Are at War” – NEA’s Plan of Attack

I’ve seen the way liberals and neo-liberals fight wars.  Whoever is the enemy of the NEA should have no problems.

Newark Star-Ledger:  Rapper Ja Rule, a Saddle River resident, admits to defrauding government of more than $1.1M in taxes

Saddle River, New Jersey.  Putting on my Poverty Center hat, I have discovered a link between Ja Rule and Richard Nixon.

The Blaze:  ‘Pole Fitness’ for Jesus? A Form of Worship? One TX Woman Says ‘Yes’

HWJPD?  How Would Jesus Pole Dance?

Steve Patterson:  Readers: St. Louis Public Schools Must Improve To Stop Population Loss

They must.  They simply must.  Of course, the “how” is going to be a bit tricky, if not a bit politically incorrect.

Wednesday’s Wobegons

NextMedia nails it again.  The other two at the end are Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown.  They’ve been has-beens for quite awhile; Chris Brown is just starting in on being a has-been.  So they could teach him a lot about cheap publicity seeking.

*  Glenn Beck’s TV show on fox is hemorrhaging viewers.  At this rate, Beck is in danger of having twice the ratings of the typical MSNBC host.

*  Why are three Democrat Senators leaning on Apple to remove a DUI Checkpoint app from its App Store?  Isn’t Apple supposed to be the big favorite left wing corporation?

*  All else fails, blame the turtle.  I bet this is the kind of man who said the dog ate his homework when he was still in school.

*  Who says they aren’t Marines?  And even if they aren’t, why are we upset that they are pretending to be Marines?  Hell, there’s a whole entire political party in this country and a half of another one that wants to shove a DREAM Act down our throats to make them all citizens instantly if they sign up for the military.

*  You can tell your city is dying when you lost a quarter of your population in the last decade, yet the Hispanic population only increased by 1,500.

*  Some women are that desperate to get their latches onto a man’s money.  I’ll leave it at that.

*  30 meth labs in one house. You can probably guess that he’s a lot younger than he looks.

*  What?  Has Saudi Arabia actually bought a whole entire partisan caucus in the U.S. Senate?

*  They should just be thankful he was wearing pants and a shirt at all.  Because he usually runs around in less than that.

Good News For Marine

In a leading indicator on how the upcoming French Presidential elections will turn out, the Front National has garnered 15% of the vote in a nationwide round of municipal elections. Some four hundred FN candidates finished in either first or second place, meaning they will advance to next week’s runoff.  Of those, 30 finished in first place, though I don’t think any of those got past the 50% magic number to win outright.

The reason this is important is that the FN under Marine Le Pen’s father never really bothered with this round of local elections.  At this point in the process in 2002, the year and election cycle when Jean Marie Le Pen finished first in the Presidential first round, then lost in the runoff, the FN didn’t have a single local office candidate advance to the runoff.  So Marine is starting way ahead of the curve.

Mendacity

My favorite movie starring Elizabeth Taylor was 1958′s Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.  (I favor that movie for other reasons as well.  Care to guess?)  Though I never really bought Liz Taylor with a Southern accent.  It just wasn’t credible.

CHTR is available on Netflix instant streaming.

This was the movie that taught me the meaning of the word “mendacity,” first and foremost that it was not a gender slur.  And that Burl Ives could do something other than sing Christmas songs.

Japanuking Up

The recent disaster with the Japanese nuclear power plants made me remember — Y2K didn’t turn out to be much of a problem, and I wasn’t expecting it to amount to huge problems, and certainly not the cataclysm that some predicted.  But to the extent that Y2K did glitch things up, it was mainly centered around Japanese nuclear power plants.

Maybe the Japanese don’t do nuclear energy as well as we think.

Fun Wih Headlines (Note the Missing “T”)

Daily Mail:  AT&T becomes U.S. biggest mobile operator after buying T-Mobile for $39billion

The deal has yet to win approval from the anti-trust section of the DOJ, which will surely be concerned about AT&T’s emerging monopoly on the letter “T.”

HuffPo:  Snooki Snubs Sen. Chuck Schumer

Ignoring Chuck Schumer is not an easy thing to do for someone of even an average constitution to accomplish.  That a tart like Snooki did it is amazing.

Dan Riehl:  Why Are NRO And Heritage Undermining Conservatism’s Future?

National Review?  Don’t you know?  Their mission all along was to stand athwart history and yell “slow down just a bit!”

P-D:  Columnist offers Dooley a Chicago-style deal

That could only mean rampant nepotism or lead poisoning.

Daily Mail:  Not Beliebers: Katy Perry gets booed when she suggests covering a Justin Bieber track at London show

Good.  We’re making progress.  The ultimate goal is to boo Justin Bieber herself.

Daily Mail:  Chris Brown smashes window in violent rage after Good Morning America host quizzes him over Rihanna assault

Chris Brown.  Didn’t he used to be somebody?

Tampa Tribune:  B.J. Upton happy Tampa Bay Rays had his back after comments from fan

If he got his feelings hurt too much, then I’m sure Joe Maddon can make it all better by treating him to a Mexican restaurant in Hazleton.

Tuesday’s Tidbits

Sorry about the absence yesterday.  Aside from all else, my router is being a dick, my dishwasher is being a dick, and even my, well, you know — That’s being a dick, too.

*  As of now, the amount of disputed taxes, which she will indeed pay, is around $287,000.  Those are the Missouri state taxes she didn’t have to pay for registering a private plane of hers in Delaware.

Imagine how many hungry kids in Missouri $287G could feed.  Imagine all the health care they could get.

*  P-D goes over the history of the Kansas City P.D., and chronicles its brief experiment with local control.  This might be why there’s not the same level of clamoring for local control on the other side of the state that there is on this one.  Also the P-D chronicles the history of the historical accident that is Missouri state control over the SLPD and KCPD.

*  The Messiah, the one that was going to make us loved in the world once again, is protested in Brazil and Chile.

*  Live bombs found behind a Chicago McDonalds.  To the best of my knowledge, the SPLC isn’t suspecting a white man who lives in a compound.

*  Nothing says getting popped for a murder rap 18 years later like naming your newborn son “Sheltkeem.”

*  I’ll have a vote in this on April 5, as I am now a St. Louis County resident.

Though I don’t think my vote for Jake Zimmerman will matter – I think he’ll win handily.  His opponent goes by “Chip Wood.”

*  Mark Cuban, don’t forfeit your man card.  I want someone to come where you live and literally and physically take it from you.

*  “Only the best and brightest.”  And only on a “temporary” basis.

Translated from British Governmentese into English, that means every non-white dummy gets to come and stay for life.  And don’t you dare complain about it if you’re a native born white, otherwise they’ll put you in jail.

*  Locked-out NFL players discover:  Health care costs money.

*  Lahti dahti dah:  Tiger Woods dating his daugther.  If my memory serves, and it usually does, Jeff Lahti was with the Cardinals during the 1987 season as well.  But Todd Worrell, who emerged in the latter part of the ’85 season, because our ace closer in ’86, so Lahti was nothing more than a setup man in ’86 and also in ’87 if he was still here.

Firefox 4 Is Out

Go get it, or upgrade if you already have it.

And after you upgrade or install, read this and this in order to get the UI back to normal.  As you know, I’ve been using Firefox 4′s nightlies in special testing OS accounts before 4.0 hit Beta.  (And as many betas as Fx4 has had, that was a LONG time ago.)  Therefore, I’ve had enough experience with Mozilla’s UI changes, so I’ve refined the un-fucking up procedures with each new beta release.  The procedure I outlined in those links and videos (especially the video) should still be valid for official 4.0, as they were for the final beta release.  If it isn’t, contact me and I’ll get to the bottom of things.

Now, Firefox is going to go all Google and brand each minor bug fix as a new whole number version.  I’m going to stick with testing nightly builds, which should become 5.0 Alpha 1 Pre pretty soon on the latest trunk, in order to confirm my suspicion.  (UPDATE 3/24:  The nightlies are now 4.2 Alpha 1 Pre)

Sunday Wrap-Up

*  This is news?  Hell, we’ve known this for a long time.  And it’s not just Obama/Holder, either — White people have had virtually no civil rights since civil rights began, because we’re really not full humans when you get right down to it.

What is news is that this sorta cracks the media silence about bullying — Even though the Obamas are making a big deal about it, most of the serious bullying is non-white on white.  Though the Obamas et al. are only concerned when it happens among minorities, or happens to a homosexual student.

*  This is news to you, Eugene?  Hell, we’ve known this for a long time.  And that is “diverse” means black, Hispanic, both, or not white.

Maybe your next water-is-wet blockbuster will be tell us that in popular usage, the word “racist” simply means “white person.”

*  First Lady Michelle Obama goes on a crusade, and every Democrat Governor has to drone along?

*  Uh oh.  I’m not liking this one bit.  It’s not that she said anything about outsourcing and H-1B, but anyone who had any intent on solving the issue in the way we think it should be solved wouldn’t be speaking in India at all.

*  Of course, a plurality of Californians say that immigration isn’t the fundamental reason behind the declining quality of life in the state.  That’s because their quality of life got better because the “migrated” to California, and I don’t mean from other states.  The people to ask are whites who are no longer living in California.

*  “Quan’tourage.”  LOL.

*  I’ll just link to it.  I’m not going to comment on it, because you already know what I’m going to say, if you’re been reading this medium for any length of time.

*  They don’t grok the Fourth Amendment on ink and paper.  They’re certainly not going to get it any better written across your chest.

*  Swing as hard as you can, David!

*  This is going to put certain white people on the right in a philosophical paradox.  On the one hand, it’s that notorious white hating bigot mulatto preacher whose words were lost on his parishioner Barack Obama for almost 20 years.  On the other hand, he bashes that certain country that certain people within a certain element on the right blame for all their problems and all the world’s problems.  I wonder how their minds will process this news?

Most times, they wind up siding or at least secretly sympathizing with the white-hating black bigot simply because they hate Jews and Israel more than they advocate for white people.

Now, for me, it’s not at all a paradox, and it’s not a difficult riddle.  If you adopt the sensible position, that Jews are just another subset of white people, and Israel just another white country, then your brain can process this Jeremiah Wright story very easily.  The answer:  Jeremiah Wright?  Bad, just bad.  And wrong, just wrong.

As an aside, it is for that very reason why, in spite of many accusations from that crowd, I am not a philo-Semite.  I’m no more or less interested in Jewish or Israeli culture than I am in Bulgarian culture, Icelandic culture, French culture, Czech culture, and so on.  I’m not Jewish, save one great-great-great grandparent on my father’s side, but if I were (more) Jewish, philo-Semitism would freak me out — There is a throng of people so acutely interested in my people and the only dedicated Jewish ethno-state on Earth — Where are all the people so interested in Bulgarians?  Icelandics?  The French?  Czechs?  In the process of semi-arguing with a troll on James Edwards’s blog, he said that philo-Semitism was a form of stalking, and I agree with that, too.  I am not prepared to go as far as certain Jewish scholars and say that philo-Semites are secretly anti-Semites manifesting their bigotry wrapped in candy.  But I can understand why they’re so scared.  At the very least, you can’t be philo-Semitic without buying into what are termed “anti-Semitic stereotypes.”

*  If anyone knows where I can find this video (The Googitburo has already deleted it), lemme know.

*  Ooh, I want one for my birthday!

*  Too bad Peter King’s hearings are over so soon.  Because I found a few more people he could quiz, not to mention audit.

*  The Top 100 “Socially Networked” cities in the country.  Notice something in common about most of the cities in the bottom ten?  Especially 94-100?  Aside from Detroit, they’re all heavily Hispanic.

*  Can we officially now start calling our President “Bush 44?” To augment a point I made above, there is a certain level of secret sympathy for President Obama Bush 44 among certain kinds of white right-wingers, simply because Obama Bush 44 has an Arabic-sounding name, and is therefore “expected” to secretly side against Israel.  They’re probably crying in their cereal bowl this morning.

*  Maybe there’s a reason Wyclef Jean left Haiti.

Unfortunately for us, their loss is also our loss.

*  WIN.  Epic Win.

Saturday Headline Wrap-Up

NYP:  Bloomberg says city will help with quake donations

I’m surprised Mikhail Bloombergov isn’t blaming the Japan earthquake on a disgruntled tea party activist.

NYP:  NASA officials investigating cocaine discovery at Kennedy Space Center

Irony alert.

5:  Docs: March Madness just the time for a vasectomy

Bouncing balls and dropping balls.  Not exactly my idea of good marketing synergy.

Fox Sports:  [Adrian] Peterson compares NFL labor to slavery

I’m calling on the Minnesota Vikings to release Mr. Peterson from bondage immediately.

Politico:  Al Franken: ‘They’re coming after the Internet’

And by “they,” he means himself.

New America Media:  GOP Eyes Black Vote in 2012

I want to make a joke here about a broom closet.  I just can’t get a punchline off the tip of my tongue.

NYDN:  Young people Tweet their immigration fears away, take to Facebook to set up rallies

I’m finally glad that young native born white American adults are finally waking up to their own dispossession at the han…er, sorry about that.  It wasn’t what I was thinking.

The Hill:  Schumer tells Boehner: Abandon the Tea Party

Don’t worry, John.  You know Chuck Schumer has your best interests at heart.

UK Telegraph:  Labour shadow minister says Tories ‘want Muslims out of London’

Actually, it’s only the BNP that wants this.  But close enough for British government work.

The Atlantic:  Children Sickened by Cocaine at DC Public School Once Recommended for Obama Girls

Charlie Sheen has already inquired about enrolling his children there.

UK Telegraph:  Freed prisoners graduate to violent crime after jail

Seems like they were already at violent crime if they were in jail.

P-D:  Cokie Roberts to give Maryville University graduation speech

Good.  It’ll give a chance for Maryville grads to catch up on some sleep.

ABC:  Sen. Paul Unveils 5-Year Budget Plan: Eliminates Four Federal Agencies

A Freshman Senator can seem to find cuts that his own party’s leadership over in the other chamber can’t.

AP:  Torture charges shatter Croatian’s quiet Ky. life

Quiet Kentucky life?  I guess he never went anywhere around Lexington during basketball season, or anywhere around Louisville in early May.

P-D:  St. Louis woman gets 11 years in stabbing death of boyfriend

She’ll now have a lot of girlfriends, but will never have another boyfriend.

Breitbart:  Obama cancels public speech in Rio square: embassy

That’s because he knew he wouldn’t look good wearing only a micromini male bikini, which is the dress code for men in Rio this time of year.

P-D:  Ohio to charge inmates $1 per month for electricity

Why can’t I get that kind of deal?  (Without having to commit a serious felony).

P-D:  Kansas City takes ho-hum view on police oversight

Kansas City takes a ho-hum view on everything.

MSNBC:  Why Firefox 4 isn’t abandoning Windows XP

Because a lot of people are still using Windows XP, duh.

Ak-In?

Might throw his hat into SEN.

If he does, he’s my preferred candidate for SEN-R in August 2012.  Sorry, Ann.  Sorry, Sarah.

I always figured that he had ambitions for some sort of statewide office, and was waiting for the right time to strike, as he would have to give up his House seat to run for whatever.  Then again, with redistricting coming, we don’t know exactly what his own district will look like in 2012 — Maybe he thinks that if the map is accidentally drawn the wrong way, he could be a bit vulnerable either in the primaries or in the general.

In 2000, when Jim Talent abandoned MO-2 to run for Governor, the frontrunner in the Republican primary to replace him was former St. Louis County Executive and former Bush 41 Administration INS Chief Gene McNary.  Todd Akin was in the race, but not much talked about.  In my preview of that primary season, on another medium, I predicted an Akin win, because I had my ear to the ground and heard all the support Akin (then a State Representative) had among the conservative Christian churches in West County and St. Charles County.  Part of the reason I could predict an Akin win was because McNary, even black in 2000, was just plain old news.  Even with a strong Akin, McNary would have won that primary easily if he were still at the peak of his power and his news-worthiness.  However, a well-supported Akin at the grass routes combined with McNary being old news is why Akin won that primary, and is now on his sixth term in Congress.

Thursday’s Toestubs

*  The events in Japan have focused our attention back on the New Madrid Fault.

Before we all panic, there is a theory that:  (A)  Every earthquake on the NMF since the 1811-12 “big ones” have been nothing more than aftershocks of those “big ones,” (B) The NMF is shutting down, and therefore (C) There will never be any earthquake on the dying NMF as big as the 1811-12 events ever again.

*  The Hispanic population in the United States overall is larger than the Census Bureau’s estimates suggested it would have been.  (Then again, you should know by now to take CB “estimates” with a grain of salt.)  However, the CB most underestimated the Hispanic population in the Midwest and South, and actually overestimated the Hispanic population in states traditionally known to have significant populations.

*  Copywrong Extremist in Chief.  This should mean that white people whose age is under 35 and whose brain cell count is over 35 should be totally through with him for 2012.

Notice the Chamber of Commerce is a big player behind the scenes.  That should also prove once and for all that this Democrat act from last October, spreading FUD about the CoC laundering foreign money to Republican Congressional candidates, was just a play act for show.  The truth of the matter is that the CoC and the Obama White House have been friendly all along.  They both want immigration amnesty, and this copywrong bill.  I get the feeling that the CoC played along with the Democrats play act of dragging their name through the mud in exchange for a promise that Obama, Reid et al would heavily push their agenda going forward.

*  The child poverty map of London.  I bet it’s really similar to the map of London showing each division’s black population.

*  This is just rich.  A lot of the same people giving Michele Bachmann grief for placing Lexington and Concord (of American Revolutionary fame) in the wrong state have no problems with public school American history textbooks that barely mention the American Revolution, and only mention it in the context of giving Crispus Attucks the credit for it.

*  NRA responds to Obama’s recent sleight-of-hand re Amendment #2.  They spend most of the letter contending that Obama is a two-bit phony when he claims to support the 2nd’s fundamental premise, and go into various items of the Obama record to prove it.  One thing I wish they would have added is that when Illinois passed an anti-preeemption law quite a few years ago, (one of IL’s rare sensible legislative moves on the gun issue), meaning that cities (read: Chicago) that had gun laws tougher than the state’s could not enforce such laws against individuals who used guns to defend themselves against a violent crime, and were violating such a tougher-than-the-state municipal gun law in the process.  The bill was almost unanimously passed in both the State House and Senate.  I said “almost” unanimously — Take a guess who was one of the very few State Senators to vote against it.  Barack Hussein Obama, mmm mmm mmm.

One good thing the NRA said in this letter is that Tucson tragedies keep on happening because we have a 24/7 media cycle that gives such people eternal fame and infamy.  The NRA told Obama in essence to tell the media which support him to knock it off.  And not surprisingly, the NRA’s letter didn’t state the Tucson suspect’s name.  Notice you have never read the suspect’s name on this medium, and you never will.  It didn’t take me long after the shootings in Tucson to figure out that this was a publicity seeking and infamy seeking schizophrenic drug addict, doing what publicity seeking and infamy seeking schizophrenic drug addicts do.  Therefore, I wasn’t going to give him what he wanted, even if everyone else but me and the NRA did.

*  Dave Checketts is selling the Blues.  Good, because I was boycotting the Blues until he did.  And the reason was that Checketts far more than anyone is responsible for Rush Limbaugh not owning 9% of the Rams.  Checketts was the one who invited Limbaugh into the group and then kicked him out after the heat got to be a little too much for him.  If not for Judas Checketts, nothing any of the critics and haters did or said could have prevented Limbaugh from gaining that ownership share.

*  This happened at King Louis Square, the “mixed income” replacement for the Darst-Webbes.  Now we’re watching the decline and eventual failure of putting “bad” people next to “good” in the hopes that the “good” rubs off on the “bad.”  This is significant, because the Cabrini Green replacements in Chicago are pretty much the same thing, except at least for awhile, former Cabrini tenants are screened very heavily before they’re allowed to live in the new projects.  However, because this is Chicago, and because blacks have extra special civil rights there, and because that heavy screening “disparately impacts” blacks, in the lingo of liberal Federal judges, that extra screening will eventually be done away it, and the “new” Cabrinis will look like the old ones in no time.

*  Uh oh.  Obama is losing Joan Baez.

Obama’s loss is Dixie’s gain.

*  P-D finds out that Regal Rex’s legal residence is on some big acreage southeast of Jefferson City.  Ergo, he is not a city resident, and therefore can’t vote next month in the earnings tax repeal vote which the city has to hold now every five years because of the statewide proposition he pushed.

What’s more interesting to me is how Regal Rex living in central Missouri plays into his support for local control of the SLPD and KCPD.  First off, we now know it won’t affect him, because he doesn’t have to worry about what will be more crime in those cities if local control happens.  But what is Regal Rex’s angle here?  I know he has some tangential financial link to charter schools, so that’s why he was big into those.  I now think his real motivation for Prop A last November was Machiavellian — to get liberals to empty their wells every five years to save the earnings taxes in STL and KC so there’s no money left over for statewide Democrat candidates.  But what is his motivation for local control?  I have no theories.

*  This McDonalds is in a part of San Jose that is well known for rivalries and feuds between gangs named Norteño and Sureño.  Yet, officially, there is an “official” call out there for a “white” (or Hispanic) suspect in what appears to be a gang hit outside that McDs.

Us sneaky debbils…

New to the Blogroll

Kim Harvey. Best enjoyed with a tank full of QT gasoline and a box full of Krispy Kreme donuts.  Pha pha phaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

Congress Shall Make No Law, Abridging the Freedom of the Headlines

UK Telegraph:  Burger King boss insults British women and food

So saith the the chief executive of a fast feeder that microwaves cold burger patties.

Yahoo Sports:  Dwyane Wade wins custody fight for sons

A black man is in court relating to his children, and it’s because he wants them.  A man is in court relating to the custody of his children, and he rather than the kids’ mother wins them.  That’s something you don’t read every day.

Roll Call:  Democrats Look to Twitter to Reverse Fortunes for 2012

Yeah, I’m going to love to see some of these big-mouth leftists limit themselves to 140 characters.

NYP:  Tony Hawk dumped third wife Lhotse Merriam for his best friend’s wife

Make that his former best friend.

CNS:  Kansas Republican Proposes State Income Tax Exemption to Lure Newcomers

On the other hand:  Kansas.

CNS:  UCLA Debates What to Do About Student’s Video Rant Mocking Asians

They can start by reading the First Amendment, and end with a reading of the First Amendment.

Lexington Herald-Leader:  Kentucky rifle team holds off West Virginia to win first NCAA championship

NCAA riflery seems to be a rather regional sport.

Tuesday’s Toestubs, Local and State Edition

*  You learn something new everyday:  The Unsinkable Molly Brown was from Hannibal.

*  Sorry, but all your fancy theories are bull.  The reason St. Louis suffered in the post-WBTS years is only because TPTB punished Missouri because it was a quasi-Southern state, and St. Louis had to suffer because it was in Missouri, even though it was very much pro-Union.  If not for that, then St. Louis would have been made the major railroad center that Chicago became.  Then again, that turned out to be a blessing in disguise — As black and expensive as is Chicago, St. Louis would have had the blacks Chicago got plus the ones we did get from The Great Migration, plus the high cost of living.

*  Yeah, it’s a “fairly open church.”  The Episcopal Church is so open that it’s not even recognizably Christian anymore.

I wonder if there are any Muslim clerics or imams in Saudi Arabia taking on the rituals and liturgy of a Catholic or High Protestant or Byzantine Christian denomination during Ramadan.

*  I’ve been following this particular institution since 2006, and now it’s enough of an icon to be the subject of a documentary.  Except the documentary won’t breach the obvious taboo — That’s why you read this medium.

*  Lazy Clay?  No time to investigate the VA Hospital in his own district.  Left that slack to Russ Carnahan to pick up.  But he does have to time to team up with Jerry Costello to propose naming the New I-70 Mississippi River Bridge to open in several years just north of Downtown after both of them.

*  On the one hand, I think smoking inside a facility where you go to make yourself more physically fit kinda defeats the purpose.  On the other hand, and on the other side of the ledger, are the nanny state do-gooders in City government.

So I’m siding with MAC.

If they’re jonesing for a fight, they can bring back the gender separated skinny dips.

*  I’ve already seen these ads.

Three words:  Follow the money.

Hint:  The “group” funding these ads are largely bankrolled by the manufacturer of red light camera systems.  Too, various police and fire chiefs, whose departments stand to benefit from the increased traffic fines, figure prominently into this milieu.

Follow the money.

*  Two East St. Louis men now stand accused of a slew of felony charges for their part in any number of crimes in St. Louis City in January.  St. Louis City’s Finest finally caught up to them when they were fleeing from police pursuit in a stolen car and crashed into the Downtown Hooters.

All I can say is that I hope they got a good look at those hooters, because they won’t be seeing any like them for quite a few years.

*  I think GOOG is behind this, in one way or another.  It’s disappointing that Billy Long, the new Congressman from Springfield, and Peter King, are too.

*  If the alternative is Peter Kindercare, then I wouldn’t so much mind if Jay Nixon isn’t a one-term Governor.

In related news, House Speaker Steve Tilley, who is running for Kinder’s current job in 2012, has broken the race embargo (and not in an endearing way) on the Local Control bill and its motivations.  Tilley has gone so far as to accuse the SLPOA and other opponents of local control of “white racism.”

Man, I tell you, there must be some epicenter of linguine-spined stupid in southeast Missouri.  Peter Kindercare is from the Cape and is a “lover” (fill in the rest for yourself), and Tilley is from right up the road in Perryville, and is the same kind of “lover” (again, fill in the rest for yourself).  To think, we could have a Kinder-Tilley ticket for GOV and LT GOV next year.  They’ll spend most of their time campaigning in the ghetto and will get 10% of the black vote as their reward.  I, however, will vote third party in both races.

*  If we can guarantee our own form of republican government, fine.  But the Federal Constitution states that the Federal government is supposed to guarantee to each state a republican form of government.  And by “republican,” they don’t mean a theocratic Sha’ria system.  Best way to accomplish that is to severely limit legal Muslim immigration.

Tuesday’s Toestubs, National and World Edition

*  I thought the AFLAC Duck voice sounded familiar.  Turns out it was Gilbert Gottfried, who no longer has that role because of his proclivity to open beak and insert webbed feet on Twitter.

*  Right on the heels of the revelation of Operation Gunrunner, it also turns out the Yankee government lets a lot of cash flow in that direction, too.

*  If Peter King is going to investigate Muslim proselytization in prisons (largely aimed at black inmates), I would hope that he can confirm or debunk a rumor that’s been going around for years, that such efforts are Quadaffi-bankrolled.

*  Car theft:  It’s a Hispanic thing, you better understand.

*  CCW was going to happen in Wisconsin this year anyway, but the fact that so many leftist goons have made threats against the lives and safety of the Republican state legislators that passed the public employee union reform bill very likely means that they’ll probably make it next on the agenda.

*  I finally found something more stupid than offering a middle school athlete a college scholarship — Expecting a nursery school to prep your little crumb-cruncher for the Ivy League.

Believe me, your brat’s not getting into an Ivy unless s/he has some sort of legacy “in” or racial/religious/ethnic “in” or is closely related to a big donor.  Nursery school isn’t going to change that.

Speaking of, the first round of college coaches offering scholarships to middle schoolers happened a few years ago, and we’re already far enough along to see that most of those have turned out to be disappointments, busts, or injury-plagued while in high school.  That and some of the coaches who offered the scholarships got fired in the meantime.  The problem with this setup is that the scholarship isn’t official until the athlete is allowed to sign on the dotted line, and that can’t be until the February of the athlete’s senior year of high school.  Any promised scholarship before that is not a signed contract, but a verbal promise.  Now that I’m thinking about it, and thinking out loud, I get the feeling that some of these coaches offering these scholarships so early have Machiavellian motivations — I think they’re engaging in a long-term test of the young man’s personal character and constitution, and of his sense of self-motivation.  They want to see how the young man handles himself in his high school academic and athletic career while he *THINKS* he has his free ride to college locked up.

*  I have three choice words for one Mr. Harrison Mosley.  One of them rhymes with a racial pejorative, one of them is a racial pejorative, and the third is “lover.”

*  PJB is sweating Japan’s “demographic decline” too much.  As long as it’s near homogeneously Japanese, the raw number won’t matter that much.

*  They used to say What’s Good for GM Is Good for America.  Now, what’s good for America is now good for Chicago, because more than two years ago, what was good for Chicago was supposed to be good for America.

*  Let me help you solve this riddle:  82% of public schools are “failing” according to NCLB because NCLB mandates relative racial equality in achievement and outcome.  The real scandal should be how 18% of schools are “passing” this impossible mandate — Cheating, book-cooking, what have you.

*  Gone too Zune — We hardly knew ye.  Come to think of it, I didn’t know you at all, neither you nor the iCabal’s similar devices.

On the other hand, <sarcasm> Microsoft still has its oh-so-successful smartphone platform to fall back on. </sarcasm>