We'll be upgrading the site sometime this week, which should take care of the comment problem among other things. Don't forget to bookmark our backup site in case this one is temporarily unavailable during the upgrade.
Thank you for your patience.
As WildChild would say, "That make me so sad."
Via Keith.
Go to: Google images
Post the first result or your favorite result for:
Your turn.
I haven't been following the DeLay travel 'controversy' too closely because I'm just cynical enough to think it's not much of a controversy. Most all of them do it. And if that's the worst they can find on DeLay, that ain't much. But I thought this was pretty funny.
An Associated Press review has found at least 198 previously undisclosed trips were reported by House members since March. That's when news stories began to scrutinize trips DeLay took which were paid for by outside groups.
Yee-haw! Head 'em up, boys! It's a filing stampede!
See if your Rep. made the list of recent belated filers.
Today's local paper has a nice article about a friend of mine, Major Paul Suskie. (registration req'd)
The soldier says his choice to take an earlier Chinook helicopter flight out of a remote part of Afghanistan instead of one on April 6 — one that crashed and left 18 dead — will haunt him for the rest of his life.
The North Little Rock city attorney, who is a judge advocate, or JAG, officer with the Arkansas Army National Guard, says the experience of losing two friends in the crash has made him appreciate Memorial Day more as he prepares to leave Afghanistan and return to Arkansas.
We went through undergrad together and the first year of law school, after which he transferred to the law school in Little Rock. Paul's a good kid, and I'm glad to hear he's doing well.
BTW, he was unofficially nominated by our law school class as our 'Most Likely To Become Governor'. We teased him unmercifully about that.
Wouldn't surprise me a bit if it came true.
It appears my comments are under attack from spammers and/or other nasty bastards. Therefore, comments have been completely disabled, temporarily I hope.
Sorry for the inconvenience.
This is disturbing news. (registration req'd but the article is worth reading in its entirety)
THE FBI PROBE Documents obtained by the Democrat-Gazette regarding the FBI investigation point to 313 state driver’s licenses or identification cards issued to individuals claiming to live at four addresses in Leslie and Tilly, rural mountain communities in the north-central part of the state. Leslie in southeastern Searcy County has an official population of 482. Tilly, which is in Pope County, is not incorporated.
The addresses are listed on Hefner Road, Express Lane, and Route 85 in Leslie, and on Rockwall Lane in Tilly. Local police and staff at the Searcy County clerk’s office say they’ve never heard of those roads in Leslie.
Rockwall Lane runs between Pope County and Van Buren County but officials in both counties say they have no record for a number 204 on that road.
I lived around those areas most of my life, and I've never heard of those roads either. And there's no way in hell there's 300 people at all four of those addresses. Coon dogs maybe, people no way. Hell, Tilly's just a little wide spot in the road way out in the boonies with a gas station and a post office.
But there is something those towns do have in common.
'Kill your neighbor' anti-government wackos and/or white supremacists. Though the latter is more common in Russellville, where most of the licenses and ID cards were issued.***
Now it could just be a case of some people selling documents to illegals. But my gut feeling is that there may be much more to the story than that.
At any rate, it's definitely a story I'm going to be following.
I have to admit I snickered when I saw that none of the licenses came from the Searcy County office. I know the lady who runs that office very well, and I pity the fool who tries to run a scam on her.
Mike & I saw the new Stars Wars yesterday. Conclusion? I'm glad we only paid matinee ticket prices. Acting wooden? Unbearably. Dialogue? Ridiculously bad. We laughed, we gagged, we rolled our eyes. But hey. *shrugs shoulders* It's Star Wars. We're geeks. We had to see it.
I had read a few news articles around about how the movie industry was disappointed that the new Star Wars hadn't revived their slumping sales for other movies. What, did they think it would magically turn crappy movies into something everyone would flock to watch? I'm like, dudes, even the Force isn't that strong.
Here's a idea. Make something that isn't a complete piece of tripe and ticket sales will increase. People haven't stopped going to the movies because they no longer like going to the movies. People have stopped going to the movies because who wants to drive to a theater & fork over $10-15 to watch stupid shite?
The new Star Wars is stupid shite as well. Take away the Star Wars cult appeal, and its ticket sales would suck. Because it hits the top of the suckitude chart. Bottom line: It's a hybrid sci-fi/badly written romance novel with overdone CGI.
Still, it's Star Wars. You gotta see it.
We're back. We had a great time at SDC, except for the busted lip I got from WildChild. Lots of WildChild stories, but right now I'm just too tired.
Comments appear to still be screwed up, sorry. Until I can figure out the problem, you can e-mail me at solliesez-spamsux at yahoo dot com.
Have a safe weekend!
Looks like there's an issue with commenting this morning, sorry about that. I didn't do it, I wasn't even there when it happened.
*ahem*
I'll try to poke around & see what's the problem, but it's quite the hectic day trying to get everything ready for us to leave this evening. And as if I didn't already have enough to do, I found 2 very interesting job leads this morning that I need to jump on with both feet.....if I can find time to polish my resume & get it in the mail before noon.
Gotta jet.
Here's a lawsuit I wish I could file:
A Detroit radio host who says she was fired after complaining that a co-worker's perfume made her sick has won a ten (m) million dollar judgement.
Erin Weber says she was let go in 2001 after she complained that she was allergic to another host's perfume. She says Infinity Broadcasting discriminated against her because of her perfume allergy and retaliated after she filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Infinity disputes her claims, and plans to appeal.
I have a severe perfume allergy, and I tell you I wish I could sue everyone who feels the need to drench themselves in perfume or cologne. Actually, I just wish I could make them stop.
As Mike always says, perfume should be discovered.....not hit you in the face like a brick from 20 feet away.
Makes my eyes water just to think about it.
In case you've missed all the hoopla, Bentonville is getting a real museum. Looks like it will have some nice pieces. Maybe now we'll finally have a place for some of the nicer traveling collections to stop by.
I just have one question though.
Where's the Edward Hoppers that have been promised?
He shore paints some right purty pitchures, you know.
I've been messing around with Flickr this morning....test posts are here. Then there's this page.
What do you think?
Mmmm, cheesecake.
Mike had some kind of 'team-building' thingy at work today, for which he made cheesecake. And he left some here for me.
Yesss, the Precious. My cheesecakeses.
*hiss*
Not sure why, but here's my current earworm.
I'm gonna lay my head
On that lonesome railroad line
And let the 2:19 ease my troubled mind
Nothing like a little Janis for a gloomy, rainy day is there?
And a busy day, like the rest of the week. Mike's birthday is this week, and when he told me what he wanted for his birthday I decided he's insane.
He wants to take WildChild here.
So we're driving up to Branson Wednesday evening, and coming back sometime Friday. WildChild, as you can imagine, is excited. This will be his first trip to a real amusement park, and though we've tried to explain, he doesn't really understand exactly what we're doing.
According to him, we're going to Pa's birthday party, where we're going to play video games. (I have no idea where that came from) And there's a carnival there, so we'll ride all the rides, even the big roller coasters. But not the spooky rides. Those are too scary. He's also going to take his (disposable underwater) camera into the pool and go underwater to take pictures of his aunt's feet.
Watching him experience the reality of it will be a blast. Keeping up with him will not be.....which is why my daughter's going with us. I figure it will take all three of us just to keep him corralled.
Meanwhile, I have to start getting everything ready for the trip. I'm not sure which I hate worse, packing or unpacking.
I'll also be closing all comments down sometime tomorrow. I'm not sure whether we'll have internet access or not, and I don't want to worry about spammers, trolls and other spawns of Satan while I'm gone.
Worry about whether the rain is going to stop by Thursday or if we'll end up trapped in a motel with a bored 4 yr. old is more than enough stress, thanks.
Thurl Ravenscroft has passed away. While he's probably better known as the voice of Tony the Tiger, he was one of my favorites for his "You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch" song in the Dr. Suess cartoon.
He will be missed.
Go check out Threadbared.com.
It's hilarious.
So I had a brain MRI first thing this morning. Pretty uneventful except I almost went to sleep because I started thinking about how it sounded & felt like being on a cruise ship chugging along in the Gulf. Towards the end, it started beeping and making a funny sound. I got plumb tickled because it sounded just like the defrost cycle on our microwave when it's time to rotate the meat so it won't cook the edges. Sure enough, here came the tech, who pulled me out to give me the dye injection and shoved me back in to finish the procedure. Then I really got the giggles.
Stick a fork in me, I'm done!
I know the NYPost is prone to sensationalism, but WTF?
Medicaid is providing Viagra to nearly 200 of the state's worst sexual predators, under a federal program that has outraged local lawmakers, according to a new government report.
Why?
In 1998, the department informed states that Medicaid programs covering prescription drugs must also cover Viagra when medically necessary, or face financial sanctions.
I'm no doctor, but I should think Viagra would never be 'medically necessary' for a pervert. They should not have access to those types of drugs at all, let alone requiring Medicaid to pay for it.
WTH are you people thinking?
Did you watch the Preakness yesterday? What a race! I tell you, when Scrappy T shied into Afleet Alex knocking him to his knees, my heart just stopped. As any experienced rider will tell you, both jockeys were mere inches away from being killed or seriously injured. The fact that both were able to keep their seats and avoid a fall is simply amazing.
And Afleet Alex regaining his footing and going on to win the race is almost unbelievable.
That's some horse.
I got a reminder of the benefits of living in a small town while I was in Marshall this week. First, a little background. One of the first things my dad insisted I do after becoming an attorney was to help him deed his property to my sister and me. Not that he's a big landowner or anything, but he wanted to go ahead & give us what little he had so we wouldn't have to mess with probate or anything when he & Mom passed. And a couple of years ago, when his mom & dad passed away, he gave me the 20 acres he inherited from them since it basically controls the access to my other property.
This year, I happened to look over my property tax bill a bit more closely than usual, and noticed that those 20 acres didn't appear to be listed. Hmmm, that's strange I thought. So while I was at my parents', I mentioned I needed the phone number for the tax collector's office. After I explained why, my dad suggested I just stop by the courthouse on my way home.
Wow. Am I ever glad I did.
The clerk started digging around in the computer records to see why I hadn't gotten a tax bill for the 20 acres. She stopped, frowned and said "Now that can't be right." Holy shit, it was listed as "Certified", which meant it was to be turned over to the state for a tax auction.
Now this lady has known me all my life, and knows my parents well, so she dug around some more and found the problem. They'd switched to a new computer program recently, she said, and it had misread my dad's records. My dad, you see, is exempt from paying real estate taxes. Instead of reading him as exempt, the program had interpreted his record as delinquent during the period he had held the property before passing it on to me. And since apparently the property wasn't included in my last year's tax bill, I hadn't paid the taxes on it either.
Nervously I asked her how we could fix it....thinking in my panic it was going to be some incredibly involved process because I'm used to the big city bureaucrat attitude of whatever the computer says is sacrosanct.
Well, she said, if you can pay at least the overdue taxes, I think I can fix the rest.
With a sigh of relief, I told her I would write her a check for whatever amount would make me current. Just give me a figure.
She did a little clicking and editing. I cut her two checks, one for the delinquent taxes and one for this year's bill. Voila! Problem solved. And, she moved everything so all the property was listed under the same name so next year I will get one bill for everything.
Whew! Was I ever glad that happened down home instead of here in Fayetteville. I can't even imagine how difficult that would've been to correct in some big city's system. And I was rilly, rilly glad I'd taken my dad's advice and stopped by to check on it in person.
Once again, Father knows best***.
Of course I had to call my dad after I got home and tease him about losing the farm for delinquent taxes. He was really glad I got it all corrected, he would've been absolutely mortified to see his name listed on the delinquent tax list in the local newspaper this fall.
We were teasing each other about it and he said "I would've sure hated to have lost those big pine trees." (There's a stand of pine on the property that for some reason my dad just loves.) I replied "To hell with the pines. I was more worried about losing the gate." (Meaning access to my adjoining property)
He got a big laugh out of that.
And yeah, the whole thing made me really homesick. It would be nice to live again in a place where everybody's family or close to it. And where everybody leaves you the hell alone....especially the local government.
I was in Ft. Smith yesterday for a Continuing Legal Education seminar, and got to see my very first real live MoonBat. Asa Hutchinson was one of the presenters, and I was a little surprised that someone loudly booed him after his introduction. (Which I also thought was rather unprofessional & rude) During the Q&A session after his presentation, I got an even bigger surprise.
The third question came from an elderly gentleman sitting not too far from me. He began with "You know, in Germany during the 20's & 30's, the government began many restrictions on its citizen in the name of national security......" I thought naw, he's not really gonna go there.
He continued with "Hitler was elected the first time around, you know."
I almost jumped up and shouted "Invocation of Godwin's Law. You lose!" My next thought was dammit! Why didn't I bring my laptop? I could be liveblogging this.
He went on and on like this for several minutes, ending with an inane question about the Patriot Act that was really more just an implication that Bush=Hitler. I was only half listening to Mr. Hutchinson's answer because I was just so fascinated to actually see a real live MoonBat in action.
I did catch Mr. Hutchinson's remark that an independent judiciary was a safeguard against overreaching government because another guy loudly guffawed when he said it. Mr. Hutchinson paused and said something like "I'm sorry, what?" The guy muttered something about "I can't believe you said that."
Mr. Hutchinson, who appeared to be getting a little pissed, said "Excuse me?" (Not that I blame him. These people were incredibly rude.) The guy said sarcastically "I'm not sure I heard you right. Did you say 'independent judiciary'?' Mr. Hutchinson replied firmly "Yes, I did" and the stare-down began. After 30 seconds or so, Mr. Hutchinson continued his remarks.
The guy pshawed, shook his head and started gathering up his stuff. Then he & his buddy got up and left the room.
Unbelievable. I sat there with my mouth open in shock because I have never seen such an inappropriate and unprofessional display at a legal seminar. I was also thinking Ack! I sure sat in the wrong corner of the room. No wonder there were empty seats there.
Asshattery and moonbattery....and me without my laptop.
Washington County election officials have decided to keep paper ballots.
Washington County ballots will still be cast on paper and counted at a central location, election officials decided Thursday.
County election commissioners voted unanimously to retain the optical-scan ballot counters that tabulate votes at the county courthouse on election nights.
Good decision. Simple is better, and no one has convinced me yet that electronic voting can be made idiot and/or tamper proof.
"Even the best machines fail sometimes, so the simpler we can keep it, the better," [County Judge] Hunton said. "The way we operate, the public can come in and see the whole process."
Voter education should be simple given the basic nature of the system, Lundstrom said.
"You can't idiot-proof everything, but this isn't hard to grasp," Lundstrom said. "We'll do whatever we can, but you can't educate a person not to be stupid."
Ain't that the truth.
I'm heading out in a bit to the Big City, as my dad jokingly calls Marshall, to pick WildChild up from my parents. Who I discovered yesterday are the source of a problem we've all been having with him....namely sneaking into the freezer & eating ice cream from the container.
While on the phone with me yesterday, my mom was dipping him some ice cream. I heard him in the background complaining, and then my mom said "Oh, you don't want to eat it out of a bowl, you'd rather eat from the container? Ok."
*groans* "Mother! I guess you know he gets in trouble for doing that everywhere else."
"Well, he doesn't want to use a bowl."
"So what," I said. "The rest of us are having problems with him sneaking into the freezer & eating ice cream out of the container."
"He can't open my freezer," she said. As if that made it alright.
"Mom, you're causing him to get into trouble from everyone else. Stop letting him eat out of the ice cream container."
And then what does she do? Takes the container away from him and tells him "You can't eat out of the container anymore. Ma says it's not nice."
Gee thanks, Mom. And I'd bet my last dollar she ended up giving it back to him after I hung up the phone.
Spoil him rotten they do.
Jim found a great Norwegian parody of "Kokomo".....entitled "Kosovo".
I always thought that song was stupid. I've been in Kokomo.
Not my idea of paradise.
Because Republican kids volunteer , that's why.
Silly twit.
I don't doubt this story (link via Drudge)
Like a scene from the horror movie "The Birds," large black grackles are swooping down on downtown Houston and attacking people's heads, hair and backs.
Authorities closed off a sidewalk after the aggressive birds, which can have 2-foot wingspans, flew out of magnolia trees Monday in front of the County Administration Building.
We've a pair nesting in a tree in our front lawn, which now has 3 fledgings screeching around the place. A more nasty, raucous, obnoxious bird would be hard to find. I've named one of them Darth Vader, because it seems hell-bent on lawn domination. All it does all day is fly around attacking the other nesting birds in the area......except the mockingbird, which attacks back.
Unlike the other birds, the grackles are afraid of me (heh) because I'm constantly running them away from the bird feeders. If it weren't illegal to fire a gun and/or kill animals within city limits, I would've shot them all long ago.
But since it is, I'd never do anything like remove the screen from the window behind my desk so I could get a clear shot at them at the bird feeders with a pellet gun. Nope, not me. Why, I don't even own a pellet gun.....that shoots very accurately.
Yet.
Good Idea: spending thousands of dollars making the Bikes, Blues & BBQ the 5th most popular bike rally in the nation, and attracting millions of dollars for the local economy.
Bad Idea: once the bike rally has become enormously popular, proposing that the city take steps to "reduce the noise from motorcycles" attending the rally.
Yeah, cuz we all know bikers love to congregate & spend their money in places which harass them about the inevitable noise they make.
Congratulations to Tony & family on the birth of Super Kid IIITM!
Pictures have been promised soon.
UPDATE: Pics are up. What a little sweetheart!
Final grades are in. Barring some bureaucractic snafu, I am now the proud owner of a semi-offical A.A.S. in Computer Programming Applications. (It'll be official when I get the diploma in the mail in about a month or so)
Whew! I'm rilly glad that's over.
I think I'll celebrate by cleaning the bathroom, followed by lunch and a nap.
Yay me!
There's an upcoming Promise Keepers rally here at Razorback Stadium, and it's predictably got some local groups' knickers in a knot.
Promise Keepers may bring many people and dollars to Fayetteville, but they also bring intolerance, according to a consortium of groups that say Razorback Stadium should not be used to promote a religious viewpoint. "I don’t think this singleminded group should have their meeting here. It’s not an all-encompassing group and we are promoting diversity at the university," said Marian Kunetka, an archeologist at the Arkansas Archeological Survey at the University of Arkansas.
Promote diversity by excluding groups who don't think like us. I think someone needs a dictionary.
"We try to promote thinking and critical analysis and then we let this huge meeting come in with this one narrow viewpoint and try to promote it to everyone on campus. There’s no way that competing viewpoints could get the stadium; they wouldn’t have enough people here," added Wanda Stephens, immediate pastpresident of the Arkansas National Organization of Women.
Unlike NOW, which undoubtedly has a different but better narrow viewpoint.
For NOW President Melanie Dietzel, the issue is the inappropriateness of a non-diverse group using the facilities of a diverse campus. "You’re inviting parents to bring their kids and you have this going on, on campus. What kind of message is that sending about their true dedication to diversity?" she asked. "My point is, our university is saying we have this diversity plan in place that we want to protect, encourage, support, be tolerant of all of this diversity. And yet, in our Razorback Stadium, we’re going to have speakers who have made these broad statements openly defying the philosophy of the university. I just think this flies in the face of what they’re promoting as the university’s real efforts at diversity."
Asked if the university might be allowing diversity by allowing the Promise Keepers to use the campus, Dietzel answered, "No. I am for freedom of speech and I am for freedom of religion, and I think it’s important to protect that, but not when it’s something designed to hurt other people. I’m not saying physically. Their rhetoric is certainly hurtful to people and I don’t think that’s something the university should encourage."
Wow, that's quite the cognitive dissonance she's got there.
Now I'm only vaguely familiar with Promise Keepers, but their agenda doesn't matter. If they can pony up the cost of renting the stadium, more power to them.....whether it's Promise Keepers, NOW or the KKK. I reckon most people are smart enough to decide for themselves whether a group promotes good ideas. And public exposure of bad ideas is like pouring bleach on mold. It makes them die out much more quickly. (Which raises the interesting question of why NOW is unable to similarly fill the stadium)
All of which is illustrative of the growing climate of intolerance here in Fayetteville. It's understandable that a group or groups want to exclude those who believe differently. Hell, it's required. It's a sociological axiom that for an 'us' to exist, there must be a 'them'.
But don't go round preaching 'diversity' when what you really mean is "any group that's not male and/or Christian".
That's just hypocritical bullshit.
Here's hoping the Donald wins another one.
Donald Trump, escalating his war against the "empty skeleton" Freedom Tower, will offer his own design for a rebuilt 111-story "World Trade Center" at Ground Zero at a press conference tomorrow.
The design will be based on the previous building, except bigger, stronger, harder....which would be a vast improvement on the current hideous design.
"The design for the Freedom Tower is an egghead design, designed by an egghead, which has no practical application and which, frankly, didn't look very good," Trump said at the time.
He's being too kind. The current design is a impractical piece of shite, on a stick. Skeletal remains topped by a modern minaret.
Not exactly the message I'd like to send.
While most of the news, features and multi-media on NYTimes.com will remain free and available to users, the work of Op-Ed columnists and some of the best known voices from the news side of The Times and The International Herald Tribune (IHT) will be available only to TimesSelect subscribers beginning in September. Home-delivery subscribers will automatically receive TimesSelect as part of their benefits. TimesSelect will be priced at $49.95 for an annual subscription.
......
TimesSelect's features include:
-- Special Voices - Access to some of the most influential and
insightful voices today, including David Brooks, Maureen Dowd,
Tom Friedman, Bob Herbert, Nicholas Kristof, Paul Krugman,
Frank Rich, John Tierney, Dave Anderson, Peter Applebome,
Harvey Araton, Dan Barry, Clyde Haberman, Gretchen Morgenson,
Joe Nocera, Floyd Norris, Joyce Purnick, William Rhoden,
Selena Roberts, George Vescey, Roger Cohen, and John Vinocur.
Wow. What a great business plan. Our credibility's in the crapper, our op-ed columnists are a running joke.....say! Let's start charging for content!
Lemme know how that works out for you.
HAHAHAHAHAHA!
Coming on the heels of things like BlogNashville, the pending PajamasMedia and finishing Hugh Hewitt's pretentious little book on blogs, this made me giggle a little.
Web loggers did not fare well in the poll. Among journalists, 59 percent said blogs were not a "legitimate" source of news and only 13 percent considered bloggers to be journalists -- though 85 percent said bloggers should be afforded First Amendment protection.
Mr. Dautrich said so few Americans knew about blogs that the survey was unable to measure their opinions.
The Achilles' heel of bloggers is, I think, we get so wrapped up in our own little blogosphere that we forget most of the world doesn't even know we exist. Or care. More and more I'm seeing so-called 'A-list' bloggers (and bloggers in general) who seem to think they're not only the best thing since sliced bread, but that they also rank right below, or equal to, the second coming of Christ.
Puh-lease. Sit down and have a nice warm cup of Get Over Yourself.
Sure bloggers helped bring down public figures like Trent Lott and Dan Rather, but do you really think any of that would've happened without the publicity generated in the MSM? Not bloody likely. Blogs work best when they work with MSM, not independent of it. Without the MSM, bloggers aren't much different from that loony guy on the corner, preaching from his soapbox. And they'd reach a similar sized audience. Regardless of what some blogpundits think about themselves, Thomas Paine they ain't.
The MSM isn't any better. Instead of using blogs as valuable sources of leads and fact-checking, they generally view bloggers as barbarians storming the gates of the Holy Citadel of journalism.
Blogs have their place. They played an important role in the last presidential election by contributing to the debate over John Kerry's experience in Vietnam and George Bush's National Guard records. But if they replace solid journalistic principles and practices, the public will be ill-served and the profession may suffer a mortal wound from which it might not recover.
With blogs, we do not know if what we read is true. For most blogs, no editor checks for factual errors and no one is restrained from editorializing. The Big Media sometimes are guilty of the same shortcomings, but at least there is a presumption in favor of accuracy and fairness, plus a way to shame them and occasionally force a correction if they mess up. Blogs have no checks and balances.
I read his columns frequently, and think he's a pretty smart guy. But this makes it obvious he, like most journalists, doesn't have a freaking clue how blogs work. Post something as blatantly inaccurate as Newsweek's recent Koran flushing article, and I guarantee you someone will call you on it before the sun sets (or rises as the case may be). Fact checking in a nanosecond is what the blogosphere is all about.
Which is, I suspect, the real problem journalists have with bloggers. They can't get away with shoddy reporting and sloppy editing anymore.
What neither bloggers nor journalists seem to understand is that they're both better because of the other. MSM can become more accurate because of bloggers, which will help their credibility problem. Without MSM, bloggers would be reduced to posting about their cats.
Or merely their own little corner of the world, which is just as bad.
When I write about the changes for the worse currently happening in Fayetteville, I get called "a bitter sounding person". However, it's not just me.
This new, spiked heel and shiny shirt Dickson Street of see-and-be-seen bars is pushing out Birkenstock and tie-dyed dives.
"We call it the gentrification of Dickson Street," said Robin Rues, a member of the Fayetteville-based band Wildwood.
Local bands & 'interesting' people are being replaced by "be seen" bars & condos.....much like what happened in NYC's Greenwich Village. While you may call that 'progress', it's certainly not change for the better.
I'm not bitter, but I've had it up to here with pretentious yuppies and their pseudo-hippy, self-righteous socialist agenda.
And I'm not the only one.
This just in from the NYTimes:
Blogging is hard, just like 'real' writing.
Who knew?
I know doing a spit take is so last year, but I swear the kitty in my lap came really close to getting sprayed with a mouthful of tea just now when I read this line:
"He used to have a normal nose until Hillary stopped suddenly."
HAHAHAHAHAHA!
Excellent.
Why so it is. The day started off pretty well, I liked the internal medicine doctor, so far, so good.** Was sitting there getting blood drawn for testing....and sitting....and sitting. I started thinking Holy Shit, why is this taking so long?
I looked down when the tech was finished: 6 vials full. I'm like "Day-amn. Did you leave any in there?"
She was not amused. Humorless hussy.
The rest of the day has been reasonably uneventful, except when I was driving back from picking WildChild up and got choked on a drink of water. Me, not him. A very big drink of water that I quickly realized that A) I couldn't breathe at all; and B) I was going to wreck if I didn't breathe like now. So I had to spit the water out, which went everywhere.
Jeez Louis, what a mess. My shirt, pants and cell phone were soaked. And Mr. Center of the Universe is back there in his car seat bitching because a few drops got on his sandal.
Well, EX-UUUSE MEEE.
That's ok, Ma, he said. Dry my shoe.
It's a good thing they're so cute. It's all that keeps us from killing them sometimes.
Testing for a lupus flare up & various & sundry other things. Should get the results back in about a week and a half. And in about a week, I get to have a MRI....of my brain!
MMmmm, braaaaiiins!
Great new blog. My favorite post so far is this one. Or maybe this one.
Heh.
Ever wonder what the Multistate Bar Exam was all about? Here's a fairly accurate tongue-in-cheek interpretation, including this gem:
Ironically, if one practiced the criminal law on the Bar exam, one might be disbarred.
Indeed. Heh. (Link via Instapundit)
I had to take it twice, once for Arkansas & once for Oklahoma. I still have the occasional nightmare about it.
Yes, it is that bad.
All the recent fuss around here....me with doctors** & Mike with tech support....got me thinking about those little phrases we all use when we're too polite or too constrained by circumstance to bluntly say what we're really thinking.
One of Mike's is "Have a nice day." Translation: "You're a f*cking moron & I'm tired of wasting my time talking to you. Go away."
One of mine is "Is that so? Hmmm." Translation: "You're an idiot, aren't you? It shows."
What's some of your favorite phrases and their translations?
Latest update is that I have an appointment with an internal medicine specialist on Friday....arranged by a doctor with whom my daughter works.
Keep your fingers crossed.
Fayetteville's request for a 4.8 mill increase for schools lost in yesterday's election.
Fayetteville School District voters turned thumbs down on a tax increase to pay higher salaries to teachers and upgrade computers Tuesday in what officials call one of the largest turnouts in recent years in a school election.
The unofficial returns show 61 percent of voters casting ballots Tuesday against the 4.8-mill tax increase. About 11 percent of the district's 37,806 registered voters cast ballots.
I find this pretty interesting for a couple of reasons. One, it illustrates the growing bind Fayetteville is finding itself in. Surrounding communities receive more tax dollars for schools on less millage because they're more friendly to the evil capitalist businesses. Pseudo-hippies don't want their taxes raised anymore than anyone else. Yet everyone wants more tax dollars for school, roads, etc.
And that money has to come from somewhere. It don't grow on any of those hallowed trees so zealously protected by the city. The economic reality is that tax dollars come from businesses and/or citizens. Decrease one and the other has to make up the difference, or tax revenues fall. When tax revenues fall, governmental services decrease.
It ain't quantum physics, you know. But the current administration, backed by the pseudo-hippies, doesn't seem to understand basic economics. Take, for example, the Dickson Street 'renovation' plan. The main thrust of the plan appears to be to turn Dickson Street into a collection of art galleries and select bars/coffee shops.....a type of pretentious Yuppieville, you might say. Which is why they were backing the 'Entertainment District' legislation BTW. Visions of yuppies spending their weekend afternoons (and their trust funds) strolling from gallery to gallery, with a glass of merlot in hand (or whatever the in wine happens to be) were dancing in their heads.
The reality of the matter is that this is a college town. Let's face it, Dickson Street is one of Fayetteville's major cash cows because of the money spent there by college students. In other words, bars. The average college student won't give a rat's ass for art galleries, and will take their parents' money elsewhere. Likely out of town, because it's not like they're a captive market.
It seems to me that the Dickson Street 'renovation plan' is remarkably similar to the underpants gnomes business plan.....much like the rest of the city's plans.
Which brings me to the other reason I find the election results interesting (and amusing). The millage increase had been hyped by certain of the local media, the ones which normally support the mayor's plans. Now it's probably normal for a city's mayor to support increased school funding, but the election appeared to be getting an abnormally strong mayoral backing.
It all struck me as kinda odd until I read a quote (which of course I can't find this morning b/c of the bad archival policies of our local media) along the lines of the TIF district was only a small part of the school's taxing district, so even if the school lost its millage in the TIF district it wouldn't have much impact on the overall total collected if the millage increase passed.
Now there's a win-win situation for the city and the school, isn't it? The city gets more money out of its TIF district, and the school gets the benefit of the increase in the non-TIF area to offset the revenue lost to the TIF district. (Assuming of course that it's ruled the TIF district can access school millage.) Overall, a millage increase would've provided a mighty handy carrot for the city to use in its TIF litigation. The school might very well drop or lessen its opposition to the TIF district if it wouldn't lose its overall funding level.
How very Machiavellian.
Now I doubt that this was an issue for the average voter. I think the millage failed because Fayetteville already has one of the higher school millages in the state, and because Fayetteville also has one of the highest per-pupil expenditure ratios in the state. I would say that the average voter thought the school was already getting more than enough funding.
But it also just goes to show you that you can't be too careful when dealing with the pseudo-hippy set. They ain't too bright, but they're pretty crafty....especially when they're trying to get their hands a little deeper into your pocket.
It's the 'All For The Common Good' socialism thing that justifies them spending your money instead of their own.
We're having issues with our ISP, so our DSL is down. Dial-up sux ass....especially when I'm needing to repeatedly FTP files to the school's network so I can finish my PHP projects.
Just a suggestion to our ISP tech support:
It's probably a rilly, rilly bad idea to insist that Mike needs to do a system restore on the laptop with which he can access the internet just fine as long as he bypasses your DHCP server. You know, the DHCP server that refuses to respond no matter what we try. The one which is obviously broken, but you refuse to even check. Though I'll admit that sitting back and watching the air turn blue was moderately interesting for me, at least.
And best of luck with that recto-cranial inversion!
UPDATE: Wow, that recto-cranial inversion works wonders. I ran some errands, came back home & the DSL was back up. And I didn't do a system restore or change anything. Hmmm, I wonder how they fixed 'our' broken network when we weren't even home?
Technology's amazing, isn't it?
I spent the morning at the new rheumatologist....which was a complete and total waste of time & money. Not only did I not get any blood work to check for a flare-up, I left with my burning question unanswered:
"Were you an arrogant, condescending asshole before you became a rheumatologist, or did you take a special class?"
Because when a 'specialist' tells me things like my old family doctor wasn't competent to diagnose me because he's not a specialist like them, and they can tell by looking at me that I don't have an autoimmune disorder.....well, I not only think they're an arrogant, condescending asshole, but ignorant as well.
And when they follow up by telling me I've never been really sick because I've never taken a certain medication which practically cures lupus, well, that starts to piss me off. Because that is so totally wrong it's almost funny. And then the topper was when she blew off my explanation that I hadn't taken that medication because I refused it due to its potential side effects. You see, when I have a choice between A) a medication which may or may not work and has the possible side effects of blindness or death, among other things; or B) some other medication that may or may not work, but doesn't have any serious side effects, I'm gonna pick B every goddamn time. Call me crazy, but there you go.
So now I have to try & find yet another doctor because this one wouldn't do anything, and this is getting worse. Not only is the sciatic nerve in my left leg so inflamed that I can't stand or walk for any length of time without being in excruiating pain, Saturday I noticed a numb spot on my lip. Which is now spreading up the side of my face. Both of these, like my arm/hand problem, are old nerve injury sites. Gee, think there might be a connection there? Like maybe, gee I dunno, something attacking weak spots/scar tissue in the nerve sheath?? Something like maybe lupus like the neurologist said? Oh no, it can't be that because I don't have a rash. Just like about 40% of other lupus patients don't.
Madre de Dios, I freaking hate the rheumatologists around here.
I'm not fit company for man nor beast at the moment.
I'll go away now.
The Georgia student's suspension for talking to his Iraq-deployed mom during school hours has been reduced due to the overwhelming public response.
Following hundreds of angry phone calls and e-mails, school officials in this Army base city have reduced a suspension imposed on a student who wouldn't give up his cell phone while talking to his mom -- a sergeant on duty in Iraq.
The angry calls about the boy's suspension got so bad at one point that secretaries had to take their phones off the hook, Assistant Principal Alfred Parham said.
Which is good because the whole thing was so stupid. And could've been avoided by a judicious application of common sense by the teacher involved by allowing the student to finish the phone call before confiscating his cell phone.
The teacher claims that the student never said the call was from his mother, but I don't buy that....especially since I've read elsewhere that his mother attempted to call back after she was disconnected. Hello, caller ID?
Now I have the utmost respect for good teachers, who have a difficult job. And cell phones certainly have no place in a classroom. But a another quote from the asst. principal makes me think there was more to this.
Mr. Parham said, however, that Kevin's behavior at school has been "a chronic problem."
Here's a dirty little secret about schools & students. A student who's been labeled a 'behavior problem' gets punished for the slightest rule infraction; a student who makes good grades and/or has athletic talent does not. My ADHD son was, for a time, the former. I was the latter. I once got caught skipping school, which in my day was an automatic 3 licks with a paddle. Instead, I was told the next time I wanted to cut class, to let the superintendant know where I was going. Seriously.
My son was in trouble constantly, even for things he didn't do. The school's attitude was that since he was usually the ringleader, the times he claimed he didn't do anything he was just lying. Even after we got him on medication and got his behavior under control. Once a troublemaker, always a troublemaker. (Fortunately, we eventually moved to a different school district.)
Life in general is like that too, so this isn't necessarily a bad lesson for a kid to learn......as long as he or she understands the underlying dynamics. But I don't think that's what this kid has learned so far.
And Kevin added: "I'm not a golden child and I've been wrong, but I was right this time."
Yes, he was. But which do you think he will learn from this? That the better his behavior is, the more he's allowed to bend the rules when necessary? Or that authority figures are arbitrary & unfair, and therefore don't deserve respect?
Exactly.
UPDATE: The article was a very well-done fake. Which is even funnier. Thanks to Keith for the heads-up!
(Link via Fark)
I just turned in my last C++ project. Yay me! And it even worked. Double Yay me! Considering that I managed to learn/teach myself enough C++.Net in 3 weeks to do the damn thing, Triple Yay me!
I'm feeling pretty good about myself right now.
Going back to work on my final 2 PHP projects should take care of that in a hurry.
Back to the grindstone.
Michele has 10 questions:
1. What is your favorite word? Currently it's "extrude". I like words that sound like what they mean. Onomatopoeia it's called, I think.
2. What is your least favorite word? "Burglary". It's really difficult for me to pronounce correctly. For some reason, I always try to say 'buggery' instead.....which is pretty funny, but embarrassing when you're in a courtroom.
3. What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally? Music. Classical music for legal writing. And Big Band/Swing when I'm writing code. The Ramones or Doug & the Slugs when I'm driving.
4. What turns you off? Too much background noise. I get distracted easily--Hey! Wanna ride bikes?
5. What is your favorite curse word? Tough question. Ummm, prolly "SHIT!". Learning to swear in Spanish was one of the best things I ever did. That way most people aren't sure whether you cursed or not, so you can use it most anywhere. I once had a fairly religious boss whose favorite swear word was "Peaches!". That always cracked me up.
6. What sound or noise do you love? A child's laughter, especially WildChild's. They're so uninhibited, and get such joy out of life.
7. What sound or noise do you hate? A fork scraping across a china plate. *shudder* I can't even stand to think about it.
8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? Veterinarian. Kids and animals, not that much difference.
9. What profession would you not like to do? Social worker. Dealing with their bureaucracy and clients on a daily basis would drive me insane. I don't know how they do it.
10. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates? "Ooops! Sorry, scheduling error. You'll have to go back."
Your turn.
According to the BBC, Tony Blair's Labour party has won re-election for a record third time.
Let the spin begin.
.....when wanna-be terrorists are reduced to setting off cherry bombs.
....when a state's Board of Education committee feels the need to reenact the Scopes trial.
....when New York citizens lose their collective minds.
.....when I'm forced to admit that I agree with these two. Sorry, but it's true. For lawyering, Word sucks ass.
WordPerfect rules.
Yay! My last class is over! I'm 3 projects away from being finished. And my only final exam got cancelled.
Life is moderately good.
Everyone at school's been asking if I planned to walk in tomorrow night's graduation ceremony.
No thanks. Been there, done that, got the tassel. Twice.
And though I've been teasing Mike that I don't quite have the entire matching set of degrees (I don't have a Master's), I sincerely hope to never step foot inside a college again. Unless I'm teaching. I'd like to teach legal research & writing someday.....pass my mad skillz on to another generation of paralegals and/or budding attorneys. Though the way most students write today, I'd have to buy ink for my Red Pen of DeathTM by the tanker load.
Their fragile self-esteem be damned.
Texas, home of some of the most rabid sport fans in the nation, is considering cheerleading legislation.
Texas, the home of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, the National Cheerleaders Association and the Herkie jump (more on that later), may have put modern cheerleading on the map. But the Texas House of Representatives, concerned that high school cheerleading is becoming too raunchy, has approved a bill that would allow state education officials to prohibit "overtly sexually suggestive" cheering and drill team routines.
You may think this is silly, but have you been to a high school sports event lately? It's not your mother's cheerleading any more. I've seen 'dance' routines at my kids' school that would make any pole-dancer green with envy.
"What's defined as lewd by one person is skill, talent and hard work to another," Mr. Howze said. "We're from Texas, which is obviously a very Christian-based state and something I support, but why do we want the government doing something that parents are already doing?"
Parents eventually stepped in at my kids' school, after the 'spirit squad' appeared during halftime wearing a whole lot of nothing and did a routine that was so suggestive & lewd that the entire gym fell quiet in shocked disbelief. Even I stopped studying for my next day's law class & watched, because I couldn't believe what those kids were doing. It was that obscene.
Now I'm not a big fan of government micro-managing what goes on in schools, but what do you do when parents won't do their job? Cuz I can tell you the parents of the girls on our dance team didn't think there was anything wrong with what they did.
Fortunately, there were enough of us who had the opinion that teen-aged girls shouldn't be dancing in public like a bunch of hootchie mama strippers to get the school to stop it.
Regardless of the "skill, talent and hard work" it took them to learn it.
I'm getting mighty sick of reading criticisms of Mrs. Bush's speech at the Correspondent's dinner....especially from liberals whose everyday language would make a sailor blush. And from others who think the joke about milking a horse was something vulgar.
*rolls eyes*
City folk.
Why, that old saw is as old as dirt. I first heard that joke when I was just a tot. From my dad, who would no more tell an off-color joke in mixed company or in front of a child than he would rise & fly. The gist of the joke is that the person is too dumb to tell a horse from a cow, or a steer from a cow, which is the way I've usually heard it. Perfectly innocent.
But good grief. What some of you have thought that joke was about. You ought to be ashamed.
Such statements reflect much more about the state of your mind than the mind of the joke teller.
What would you do for a HooAH bar?
Developed as a high-energy combat ration for Army Rangers and U.S. Marines almost a decade ago at the Army Soldier Systems Center in Massachusetts, the HooAH! name and formula officially have been licensed by a trio of California brothers who know a good thing when they see it.
I'll have to try these. We always take a handful of energy bars when we fly since the airlines cut back on serving real food.....and since no one wants to fly with Low-Blood Sugar Satan.
The company donates a portion of the $2 retail price to Army relief programs, provides free bars for wounded soldiers and has shipped 7,000 HooAH! bars to tsunami survivors. They also can be ordered online at hooahbar.com. [Edited to include actual hyperlink]
According to their website, the bar comes in two flavors, chocolate crisp and apple cinnamon. You can also buy boxes at a discounted rate for the "Any Soldier" program, and they will ship your order free for two boxes or more.
Pretty good deal.
What she said.
Found via this week's Grand Rounds.
McRoy & McNair, a downtown fixture for 113 yrs., is closing.
The printing company/office supply store has operated in Fayetteville since 1892, the last 80 years in its location at 17 E. Center St.
But co-owners Leon Fowler and Don Loftis have decided to close the store by June 30 after selling the building to the developers constructing the luxury hotel on the site of the Mountain Inn. Condos, apartments and retail space on the rest of the block east of the Fayetteville Square are also planned.
I used to shop there when my law practice was active. They carried all kinds of various legal paraphenalia, notary stamps, covers for legal documents and such, that you couldn't find anywhere else. They even had ribbons for my old manual typewriter. And they are really nice people.
I hate to see them close and be replaced by overpriced condos for the tofu-chewing, artsy-fartsy set. They were part of what made Fayetteville the interesting place it used to be.
They will be missed.
Since my son's presently working in a military NICU*, this caught my eye.
American soldiers returning to their German base from Iraq are undergoing their own small "baby boom," becoming parents in such numbers as to strain the resources of the base military hospital.
This hospital normally has 1-2 births per month. They're now expecting around 40 per month. I haven't seen any figures for other comparable military bases, but I would expect them to be similar for returning soldiers.
I've also noticed a growing trend towards larger families generally. Families that 10 yrs. ago would've had 1-2 children are now having 3-4....or more. Which got me thinking.
Are we heading into another baby boom like post-WWII?
Maybe so. After all, there are several similarities between now and the post-WWII era. Society is becoming more conservative and more family oriented. The economy is doing fairly well. And we've thousands of soldiers returning from war.
It would be interesting to compare birth rate figures, at least.
**Newborn Intensive Care Unit, for my non-medical readers.
And let me tell you, I can't get used to hearing my footloose & fancy-free son saying "Oops, Mom, I've got to go. One of my babies needs a diaper change." It just sounds so.....funny.
The far left and far right appear to be heading towards a steel cage death match....winner to rule the world. The left recently had a weekend conference called "Examining the Real Agenda of the Religious Far Right."
Topics examined included:
Dominionism is the theory that the account in Genesis in which God gave man dominion over the earth has become a political teaching advocating that Christians gain and hold power. Christian reconstructionism is the theory that Christian conservatives intend to impose Old Testament law in America.
Funny, but my reading of Genesis is more a "top-of-the-food-chain man as caretaker" rather than a exhortation to seize political power. Genesis and "The Prince" never seemed to me to have much in common. But what do I know?
And I'm sure we've all seen the drive to "impose Old Testament law". You know, the wildly popular "Pigs Is Unclean" movement. I thought about joining, but I do likes me some bacon. Besides, if, God forbid, anything ever happened to Mike, I'm not marrying one of his brothers. You guys are nice and all, but I don't like you like that.
The United States is "not yet a theocracy," Joan Bokaer, founder of TheocracyWatch.org, said Friday night, but she argued that "the United States is beginning to fit the model of a reconstructed America."
Reconstruction? Where's my 40 acres and a mule, ye damned carpetbagger? Oh, sorry. Wrong era.
Tax cuts combined with increased funding for faith-based social programs and decreases in welfare spending, Ms. Bokaer said, were examples of "the theological right ... zealously setting up to establish their beliefs in all aspects of our society."
And they're such evil beliefs, like "charity begins at home" and "as ye do to the least among you, so you do unto me". Sorry, but I don't have much problem with weaning them what need it away from the government teat. The most damaging effect of the 'War Against Poverty' was its teaching people that the world owed them a living. Should we take care of those who can't take care of themselves? Absolutely. Should we help those who need assistance getting back on their feet? You betcha. But we shouldn't help those who are too damn lazy to get an education/job.
She compared the Federal Communications Commission's threatened crackdown on indecency on television with the Taliban, the repressive Islamic rulers of Afghanistan who harbored Osama bin Laden's terrorist network until toppled by a U.S.-led invasion.
"Indecency police are a major part of theocratic states," Ms. Bokaer said, flashing a picture of Islamic women covered head to foot under the title, "Taliban: Ministry for the Protection of Virtue and Prevention of Vice."
Yeah, remember those Neilsen ratings for the public stoning of Janet Jackson and her halftime show producers? They trounced the beheading of Al Franken by 15 points.....leaving the primetime right hand chopping-off of the writers for the Howard Stern show a distant third.
You know, hyperbole and excessive rhetoric aside, there are those of us moderates who are sick of all the trash that's currently shown on tv and in movies. We're sick of seeing kids dressed in tacky clothing that 20 years ago only a cheap hooker would've worn. And we're sick of the coarse language and general lack of good manners that seems to permeate society these days.
That doesn't mean we endorse the burka.
All things in moderation, as the man said.
