Help find Phoebe.

I know it's a long shot, but if by chance any of my readers have seen Phoebe, call the number in this article.

Nanny Nation

The library's installing new filtering software tomorrow. I'm sure at some point I've cursed on this blasted blog, so if you don't hear from me again, it's because I've been filtered and denied access.

Maybe THAT's why I'm no good at grilling . . .

. . . I've been treating it as a science, not an art.

This dude from Arkansas . . .

. . . must be one tough old sumbitch.

Expanded Mandatory DNA Testing of Felons in Missouri.

Question:

If your conviction is tossed on appeal, do they (and SHOULDN'T they) have to destroy your DNA record?

Gephardt's neighbors: We don't want him.

Gee, Dick. Even Walter Mondale managed to carry his home state.

What's that say about you?

So tell me, Hillary . . .

...how exactly is punishing success and rewarding failure either "for the common good" or "putting the country on track"?


From NewsMax:

"Many of you are well enough off that ... the tax cuts may have helped you. We're saying that for America to get back on track, we're probably going to cut that short and not give it to you," she said at a fund-raiser for radical Sen. Barbara Boxer.

"We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good," the former first lady admitted.

Not wearing seatbelt saves woman from being murdered, or worse.

From the Mayo News Online:

"This is an even more serious development because the reason we were exempt from wearing seatbelts was because of the threat of violence. We (Westport/Newport Association) had a meeting about it last night (Monday) and one female member said she was held by the throat on one occasion by a passenger and she would not have been able to get away had she been wearing a seatbelt," he said.

Rollye out at WLAC.

Probably for the best. She had moments of genius, but you had to sort through hours of muck to get to those moments.

Is it a coincidence that her last show before being kicked off the station was about the Bilderbergers and John Edwards visit to them?

She's been replaced by a self-described "conservative Libertarian."

The guy had my hopes up until he urged us not to vote Libertarian, but to vote Republican because of that whole "lesser of two evils" crapument*. The lesser of two evils is still evil, Mister Sisco, and the two parties in the duopoly are equally evil anyway. It's just that one is evil in an economic sense and the other is evil in a social sense.

But suppose he's right about the lesser of two evils, and that a vote for a Libertarian is a vote for a Democrat. Is the rightness or wrongness of my vote a function of how other people vote? I think not. My vote, like my morality, stands on it's own. It does not depend on the votes or the morality of others.

If you vote for a Republican, you become an accomplice in every gay-bashing, theocracy-establishing, citizen-detaining action he takes. If you vote for a Libertarian, your hands are clean.

Suppose candidate A is polling at 49% and is running on a platform supporting killing all your male children. And suppose candidate B is polling at 49% and is running on a platform of killing all your female children. Now suppose candidate C is polling at 2% and is running on a platform of not killing ANY of your children.

If all you have are sons, do you vote for candidate B? If so, you are complicit in the killing of all the female children. No. You take the moral stand and vote for candidate C. And your hands are clean.





* - crapument: n., argument that is a load of crap.

SCOTUS: Adults use the Internet, too.

Kiddie-proofing the 'net is probably unconstitutional.

Changing of the Guard.

Professional smart-ass William F. Buckley, after 50 years, is giving up control of A Very Funny Magazine.

Note to Fulton County AR:

If you address a jury notice to someone in THAYER MO, odds are they no longer live in FULTON COUNTY AR.

Not rocket science. Not brain surgery.

And it's 37 cents in postage, plus the cost of the envelope, paper, and printing of the notice, that you have pissed down the drain for absolutely no reason.

How did Steve B. spend the national day of mourning for President Reagan?

A quick check of Big Red Giant will tell us.

The first thing they had us do was learn how to react to a Nuclear Attack. In the Army you pretty much just lie face down on the ground and pray to God. I am not kidding here. The steps are: 1) Face the blast, 2) close eyes, 3) interlock hands over your crotch, 4) fall to your knees, 5) fall onto your left (or right) shoulder, 6) turn onto your stomach and put the visor of your helmet into the ground. This position is really only useful if you are about 2 miles away from the blast and you have 10 seconds to do it in.

Peace through strength, brother.

From the Do-As-I-Say, Not-As-I-Do file:

Who enforces the enforcers?

A Bath Township police officer apparently fell asleep behind the wheel of his cruiser early Sunday and crashed into a utility pole in Fairlawn.

Patrolman Michael A. Clar, 39, was treated for injuries at Akron General Medical Center and released, Bath police Lt. Richard W. Munsey said.

The crash, reported at 4:31 a.m., occurred as Clar was westbound on Smith Road near Owasso Avenue in a 2003 Chevrolet Impala patrol cruiser, according to police records.

Lt. Cory Davies, a supervising officer of the Stark/Summit post of the State Highway Patrol, the agency investigating the crash, said Clar told responding officers he fell asleep while driving the cruiser.

Clar was not wearing a seat belt, Davies said.

SCOTUS: Quit trying to be cute with Miranda rights, cops.

It's very simple, cops. Read them their rights. Quit trying to find loopholes around Miranda.

In other words, do your job the way you KNOW it's supposed to be done.

Novel concept.

Babbitt complains Bush isn't spending enough of taxpayers' money on national parks.

Apparently, the drunken sailor Bush is spending like is not drunk enough for Babbitt's tastes.

ANY money spent on them is too much. Sell them to private owners.

In for a penny, in for a pound . . .

As long as I'm doing pot stories, the Supreme Court said today it will consider whether sick people who smoke pot on a doctor's orders are subject to a federal ban on marijuana.

Happy Earthquake Day!

Quakes today in Illinois (4.5 Mag),and Alaska/British Columbia (7.0).

And there have been three small quakes along the New Madrid fault in southeast MO & northwest TN in the past week alone.

Tick.Tick.Tick.

I usually stay away from the pot stories . . .

... because while it SHOULD be legal to do what you want to your own body, making such a cause a priority often gets you labeled a druggie and a crackpot.

But then my friend R sends me something like this, and I just HAVE to pass it along.

Oh, those Czechs!

Don't y'all think this acronym bit has done got out of hand?

PIRATE Act. ART Act.

My, aren't we clever?

How about a change to the PIRATE Act, calling it the Artists' Synchronization Service-Protecting Intellectual Property Rights Against Theft and Expropriation Act. Or, the ASS-PIRATE Act, for short.

And, oh yeah -- criminal cases require, and shoud require, the criminal standard of proof, not the civil one.

DUH!

Bush -- not a fiscal conservative?

He's got both houses of Congress in his corner. And yet, as absitinvidia.com shows us here, he's presided over a 25.3% growth in non-defense discretionary spending.

With the help of cut-and-paste, I can show you how that compares with some of his peers.

Reagan I -9.7%
Reagan II +0.2%
Bush (41) +13.9%
Clinton I +0.7%
Clinton II +14.4%
Bush (43) +25.3%

So, let's see, he walks in lockstep with the bad half of conservatism -- the social conservatives, yet he abandons the good half of conservatism -- the fiscal conservatives.

And I voted for this guy?

I have to keep repeating to myself "It was him or Janet Reno. It was him or Janet Reno. It was him or Janet Reno."

The conservative case against the FMA.

Thanks to Mr. Hanna for sending me this link regarding the conservative argument against the Federal Marriage Amendment.

Merry Antichristmas to all!

It comes as no surprise to my friends that Xmas annoys me. So it is with great pleasure that I note today we are as far away from Xmas as we can possibly be, six months from the previous Xmas and six months until the next one.

Most years, Antichristmas falls on June 25, but because this is a leap year, Antichristmas is the last half of June 25 and the first half of June 26.

I hope you all spread the spirit of Antichristmas to those around you.

I thought about naming the holiday "Negachristmas," but realized the name "Antichristmas" would annoy the Xians more. Maybe as much as their insistence that I get into the spirit of Xmas annoys me.

Building deconstruction.

Tired of waiting on the guys to finish demolishing the old storage building out back, I decided this week to help the process along, with my hammer and crowbar.

I'd gotten about half done yesterday when I had to stop because I tore up the crowbar.

Let that sink in a moment.

I tore up . . . the crowbar.

Do you have any idea how mechanically disinclined one has to be in order to tear up a crowbar?

Maybe I AM a chick.

absitinvidia.com

I see the good folks at Absit Invidia have added The Arkanssouri Blog to their blogroll. Welcome, Absit Invidians. I'll have to check your site out.

Corrupt seatbelt ripoff #1.

It seems our neighbors to the west, specifically in the city of Norman OK, are a little too grabby with people's money.

Sick of Republicrats constantly voting themselves pay raises?

This comes from the Southeast Missourian:

Two candidates for lieutenant governor in Missouri said Friday that the elected office is a part-time job and one of the candidates said he would be happy to take a pay cut.

Libertarian Party candidate Mike Ferguson of Grandview, Mo., told a Southeast Missouri Press Association candidates' forum in Cape Girardeau that the part-time job pays $77,000 a year. "I think the salary should be cut to $50,000," he told about 20 editors, publishers and reporters at the forum held at the Seabaugh Polytechnic Building at Southeast Missouri State University.

Clinton to those who deny Iraq/al-Qaeda link: You guys don't know sh!t.

Once again, the Moonies get it right.

In fact, during President Clinton's eight years in office, there were at least two official pronouncements of an alarming alliance between Baghdad and al Qaeda. One came from William S. Cohen, Mr. Clinton's defense secretary. He cited an al Qaeda-Baghdad link to justify the bombing of a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan.
Mr. Bush cited the linkage, in part, to justify invading Iraq and ousting Saddam. He said he could not take the risk of Iraq's weapons falling into bin Laden's hands.
The other pronouncement is contained in a Justice Department indictment on Nov. 4, 1998, charging bin Laden with murder in the bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa.
The indictment disclosed a close relationship between al Qaeda and Saddam's regime, which included specialists on chemical weapons and all types of bombs, including truck bombs, a favorite weapon of terrorists.
The 1998 indictment said: "Al Qaeda also forged alliances with the National Islamic Front in the Sudan and with the government of Iran and its associated terrorist group Hezbollah for the purpose of working together against their perceived common enemies in the West, particularly the United States. In addition, al Qaeda reached an understanding with the government of Iraq that al Qaeda would not work against that government and that on particular projects, specifically including weapons development, al Qaeda would work cooperatively with the government of Iraq."
Shortly after the embassy bombings, Mr. Clinton ordered air strikes on al Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan and on the Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Sudan.
To justify the Sudanese plant as a target, Clinton aides said it was involved in the production of deadly VX nerve gas. Officials further determined that bin Laden owned a stake in the operation and that its manager had traveled to Baghdad to learn bomb-making techniques from Saddam's weapons scientists.
Mr. Cohen elaborated in March in testimony before the September 11 commission.
He testified that "bin Laden had been living [at the plant], that he had, in fact, money that he had put into this military industrial corporation, that the owner of the plant had traveled to Baghdad to meet with the father of the VX program."
He said that if the plant had been allowed to produce VX that was used to kill thousands of Americans, people would have asked him, " 'You had a manager that went to Baghdad; you had Osama bin Laden, who had funded, at least the corporation, and you had traces of [VX precursor] and you did what? And you did nothing?' Is that a responsible activity on the part of the secretary of defense?"

Thousandairre.

I made it to a thousand hits, in about a tenth of the time I expected to when I started.

Thanks, minions.

Looking for a dog?

If so, consider helping these little guys out.

The Gay Penalty.

Court Told To Drop Gay Teen's Prison Term
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff

Posted: June 24, 2004 5:14 pm ET

(Topeka, Kansas) The American Civil Liberties Union Thursday filed a brief supporting a Kansas gay teen sentenced to 17 years in prison for having sex with another teenager.

Matthew Limon is appealing a 206-month prison sentence he received shortly after turning 18 because while he was a resident at a private school for developmentally disabled youth he performed consensual oral sex on another teenager.

Limon would have served a maximum of 15 months in jail under the Kansas law had the other teenager been female. But because the state's "Romeo and Juliet" law applies only to heterosexuals, Limon was convicted under the much harsher state sodomy law.

"In America, all people are supposed to be treated the same under the law, but because he's gay Matthew Limon was sentenced to 13 times longer than another person would have to serve," said Tamara Lange, Limon's attorney from the ACLU's Lesbian and Gay Rights Project.

"We hope that the Court will agree that the state of Kansas should treat all its citizens equally."

The sex act for which Limon was convicted occurred just one week after his 18th birthday

"As we've said all along, the punishment Matthew Limon received shouldn't be any different from that anyone else would have been given for the same offense," said Dick Kurtenbach, Executive Director of the ACLU of Kansas and Western Missouri.

"This young man has already served three and a half years longer than a heterosexual teen would have, and he deserves a chance at rebuilding his life."

The papers filed today in support of Limon's appeal argue that the "Romeo and Juliet" law violates the U.S. Constitution's equal protection guarantees. The Kansas Supreme Court agreed last month (story) to hear the case after the Kansas Court of Appeals upheld the conviction in January. Limon's case had landed back before the lower court after the U.S. Supreme Court ordered it to reconsider the matter in light of the Supreme Court's decision last summer in Lawrence v. Texas, which struck down all same-sex-only sodomy laws.

Under the Kansas "Romeo and Juliet" law, consensual oral sex between two teens is a lesser crime if the younger teenager is 14 to 16 years old, if the older teenager is under 19, if the age difference is less than four years, if there are no third parties involved, and if the two teenagers "are members of the opposite sex."

AR prosecutors argue that sentencing is not part of a trial.

Fortunately, they lose the argument.

From the desk of Bill "Locutis" Gates . . .

"Resistance is futile."

Hugs & Kisses,
Bill

Big Red Giant

According to some blog search engines, Big Red Giant is the closest blog to me.

I stopped by for a read, and the accounts of life in basic training are fascinating. I've added it to my blogroll.

Go have a read.

Meddling mother.

Perhaps, lady, we should ban stupid children instead. And while we're at it, let's ban neglectful mothers who let their 5-year-old aforementioned stupid children play unsupervised.

Trapped in car, nurse drowns.

Seatbelt fatality #6.

When police investigators arrived, they found Mr Hondo still in the car with his seatbelt on and the doors closed.
Dr Chapman said there were two possible reasons why Mr Hondo had not attempted to escape the car.
"He probably fell unconscious," he commented. "The water level was not very deep but had he been conscious, he might have made an attempt to get out and died from cold, rather than drowning.
"However he might also have been confused by being upside down in the cold and the darkness, while twice over the limit. It is hard for us, in a warm environment, to say how we would react."

Dr. Chapman goes to great pains to avoid giving a very legitimate possibility -- that the guy may have drowned because those extra moments spent fumbling for his seatbelt were a few moments too many.

MO school discovers the economy of scale.

This is the way government is supposed to work. Buy in bulk and it's cheaper.

So why are we still hearing about $900 toilet seats?

And why is this idea so rare in government that when someone DOES use it, it's newsworthy?

"Show Me" a battleground state.

Bush still leads Kerry in the polls. Just barely.

That's gotta be within the margin of error.

Kerry campaign is putting your children at risk.

From this article:

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A Democratic group crucial to John Kerry's presidential campaign has paid felons -- some convicted of sex offenses, assault and burglary -- to conduct door-to-door voter registration drives in at least three election swing states.

America Coming Together, contending that convicted criminals deserve a second chance in society, employs felons as voter canvassers in major metropolitan areas in Missouri, Florida, Ohio and perhaps in other states among the 17 it is targeting in its drive. Some lived in halfway houses, and at least four returned to prison.
...
Although it works against the re-election of President Bush, ACT is an independent group not affiliated with Kerry's campaign -- federal law forbids such coordination. Yet ACT is stocked with veteran Democratic political operatives, many with past ties to Kerry and his advisers.
...
Elleithee confirmed that felons have been hired in Missouri, Florida and Ohio and said it is possible they have been hired in the other 14 states in which it's conducting its drive: Arizona, Arkansas, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin.
...
Citing security concerns for the public and the felons, the Missouri Department of Corrections in April banished ACT from its pool of potential employers for parolees in its halfway houses in Kansas City and St. Louis, department spokesman John Fougere said. Five ACT employees lived at the Kansas City Community Release Center and two others at the St. Louis Community Release Center earlier this year.

"From a public safety standpoint, we didn't want offenders to be in a situation where they would be handling that information," Fougere said. Officials also were concerned the door-to-door campaign would put felons at greater risk of false accusations, he said.

Homo superior.

No, no. That's NOT a really FABulous gay man. It's the scientific name in the X-Men world for mutants, people with a genetic mutation that gives them super powers.

And it seems one has popped up here in our own little world.

Is it a coincidence that he was born in Germany, where millions died in a twisted vision of creating a master race?

Nope, no connection AT ALL.

Thanks to Instapundit for directing my attention to this 1999 CNN article.

Go. Read. Print out several copies to hand out to your head-in-the-Iraqi-sand antiwar liberal friends. Not that they'll listen, of course. Kool-Aid drinkers never do.

NO NO NO NO NO!!!!

He's not ELIGIBLE. He is a criminal.

At least he used to be, all those times he assaulted the Six Million Dollar Man.

Fastening seatbelt, parents lose track of girl, who drowns.

Seatbelt fatality #5.

Seat Belt Kills Unborn Baby.

Seatbelt fatality #4.

The Child Star Syndrome strikes again.

Some people call it the "Different Strokes" syndrome. I don't, because that would tar Gary Coleman with the same brush that tars Todd Bridges and Dana Plato. It seems to me Gary has a pretty good head on his shoulders. It was the people around him, the people who were supposed to be taking care of him, that had seriously f--ed-up priorities.

This morning we find that half of Michelle Tanner, Mary Kate Olsen, has checked herself in for anorexia. These days, she and her sister are famous for being famous instead of for anything they do. I mean, honestly, does anyone GO to any of their movies?

It must be rough at age 18 knowing your most successful days are behind you. It must be rough being purposeless and under the intense media glare at the same time. It must be rough having men three times your age commenting on your hotness in increasing proportion to your thinness.

A few weeks ago, while channel surfing, I came across the Olsen twins on some talk show. Maybe it was Jon Stewart. Whatever it was, I noticed that when asked a question, there was a small delay before either one would answer, as if their modems were of insufficient baud to handle the [ahem] massive datastream the host was throwing at them.

I tried to keep in mind that at age 18, the two do not have the life experience to have the intellectual depth of someone a few years older, that they don't quite get context and nuance yet. And in a life that is both insulated from and exposed to the normal world, it would be a long time before they ever GOT that life experience, if ever. But the nagging thought in the back of my mind was that there was something wrong with them. Both of them.

Parents, take heed. Never EVER make a child responsible for being the primary breadwinner for a family. Odds are, you're destroying them if you do.

A Snapshot of Clinton's Past.

This opinion piece gives us a better glimpse into the content of Slick Willie's character than all six thousand pages of his book, I'd wager.

Candidates Forum Monday.

Press association to hold candidates' forum Friday
Candidates for lieutenant governor and secretary of state will make remarks and take questions at a meeting of the Southeast Missouri Press Association in Cape Girardeau on Friday. Candidates scheduled to attend the event are Senate President Pro Tem Peter Kinder, Republican candidate for lieutenant governor; Mike Ferguson, Libertarian candidate for lieutenant governor; and Catherine Hanaway, Missouri Speaker of the House and a candidate for secretary of state. The forum is scheduled to start at 1:30 p.m. at the Seabaugh Polytechnic Building at Southeast Missouri State University. The forum is open to the public.

Who's running for the 8th?

This will tell you. Gawd knows the Springfield/St. Louis/KC media won't.

Celebrity Deathmatch Battle Royale: Dems. vs. Libs.

Strategy-wise, the Libertarians may be onto something here.

Bush's Mind-Control Plot.

Take your soma, people.

Question.

Last night a caller on the Rollye James show brought up a question I've been wondering about.

It has to do with the South Korean man taken hostage by terrorists. His plaintive pleas that he does not want to die are haunting.

He is a South Korean man speaking to the South Korean government.

Why is he doing it in English?

Apparently, he speaks South Korean, English, and Arabic. But his pleas are in English.

Somethin' fishy going on there.

MoveOn.org : Reality is inconvenient. And so we abandon it.

MoveOn wipes its nose with a tissue of lies.

Regulations are twice the drag on the economy that the budget deficit is.

Yes, yes. I KNOW they're Moonies.

But sometimes the Moonies are right.

And UPI backs them up on this.

The Institute for Justice

Fortune magazine has a nice write-up about the Institute for Justice today.

Apparently, you DON'T have the right to remain silent...

... about your name, anyway. Here's one story, in which the headline writer does not understand the concept of "rights." Individuals have rights. The police have powers.

A better article is here:

The encounter happened after someone called police to report arguing between Hiibel and his daughter in a truck parked along a road. An officer asked him 11 times for his identification or his name.

Hiibel repeatedly refused, at one point saying, "If you've got something, take me to jail" and "I don't want to talk. I've done nothing. I've broken no laws."

Is arguing with your daughter illegal? If not, then why is it any of the police's business WHAT this guy's name is?

The court ruled that forcing someone to give police their name does not violate their Fourth Amendment protection from unreasonable searches. The court also said name requests do not violate the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, except in rare cases.

But what ABOUT those 'rare cases'? Do rights not apply to the minority in America anymore?

"One's identity is, by definition, unique; yet it is, in another sense, a universal characteristic. Answering a request to disclose a name is likely to be so insignificant in the scheme of things as to be incriminating only in unusual circumstances," Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote for the majority.

This is new-age, self-contradictory bullplop. Has Kennedy been hanging around the Clintons too much? Rights exist independently of the "insignificance" of respecting them, and they are to be respected even in "unusual circumstances."

The ruling was a follow up to a 1968 decision that said police may briefly detain someone on reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing, without the stronger standard of probable cause, to get more information. Justices said that during such brief detentions, known as Terry stops after the 1968 ruling, people must answer questions about their identities.

So, arguing with your daughter is now considered "wrongdoing."

Polish your jackboots, justices.

Fire up the daisy-cutters and MOABs.

And if THOSE don't work, a few tactical nukes should give Iran an attitude adjustment.

Trapped by seat belt, man is burned beyond recognition.

Seat Belt Fatality #3.

PLEASE tell me he didn't say that.

Clinton: "I do not see [my impeachment] as a great stain because it was illigitimate..."
"...The stain I left on Monica's blue dress; now THERE was a great stain!"

Clinton's "Worst Day"

It wasn't the day his administration sentenced Elian Gonzales to a life under brutal communist rule.

It wasn't the day he decided to treat the bombing of the World Trade Center as a law enforcement, not a warfare, issue.

It wasn't the day he did nothing to punish the barbarians who bombed the USS Cole.

It wasn't the day the Murrah Building exploded.

It wasn't the day his administration torched the children of Waco, just because their parents had the audacity to defend their First and Second Amendment rights.

It wasn't even the day his mama died.

No, Clinton says his "worst day" in office was the day he told his wife he'd been putting his dipstick where it didn't belong.

This, I remind you, is the man who signed the Defense of Marriage Act.

It's not what you know; it's who you know.

Clinton says he was disappointed in his brother for becoming addicted to cocaine.

Not disappointed enough to make Roger live with the consequences of his actions, apparently. Clinton pardoned him, not because he deserved a pardon more than the thousands of other drug users who DIDN'T get pardoned. Rather, Clinton pardoned Roger for no other reason than he was his brother.

But wait, Bill. Haven't you spent your entire political career railing against those who use positions of power and privilege for personal gain? How is this any different?

The Truth Is Out There: In Reeds Spring MO.

Apparently, the extraterrestrial equivalent to the Beverly Hillbillies has been passing through the neighborhood.

This fell off their vehicle.

The Free State Project Turns Ugly.

Note to the people of Grafton, NH:

You don't get to pick your neighbors.

Suggestion to Bush.

The third parties on the right could cost him the election.

Solution? Stop courting the social conservatives and start courting the libertarians.

Private space flight becomes a reality.

The story is here.

Meanwhile, NASA is still on the chicken-wire and bubble gum plan for repairs.

I fear we may have seen the last of the space shuttle launches.

Rise of the Monkeynator.

Of all the things we need in this world, is a mechanical monkey one of them?

Seat Belt Rips of Arm

If he would have died had he not been wearing a seatbelt, you just KNOW this story would have said so.

But it didn't.

The truth is out there in Arkansas.

Maybe it's just me, but this one looks pretty man-made.

One step closer to Orwell.

No more sexy billboards.

And they STILL didn't include Enzyte, Viagra, and Summer's Eve in the 'offensive' category.

Gee thanks, Governor Sideshow Bob Beholden.

Political plagiarism.

Pete Sessions, get your own comments. Stop stealing Boozman's.

Did it end with an "a" or an "er"?

The 'n' word. Not a slur, apparently.

Hmmm....

Arkansas tort reform lawsuit tossed.

Story here.

Honk your horn, get electrocuted.

No honking your horn. Big Brother/Officer Friendly doesn't like that.

Seat Belt Kills Woman.

From this article:

As she and Hutson drove down a steep hill, officials believe, the current of rising floodwaters swept her car 100 feet off the road. The car stopped just short of Stuart Creek, which swelled 6 feet above the road as about 10 inches of rain fell before sunrise, said Matt Tatum, an official with the Henry County Department of Public Safety. The creek normally passes under Meeks Road, but Wednesday it submerged Fuller's car.

When the car was discovered about 5:30 a.m., Fuller, of Eden, N.C., was dead, still wearing her seat belt.

Would she have gotten out and survived if she wasn't required by law to be shackled in?

[Tangentially related story:]
Lentz, who was wearing a seat belt, was pronounced dead at the scene, according to Kraig Troxell, Sheriff's Office spokesman.

A 13-year-old rear-seat passenger, who was not wearing a seat belt, was ejected from the SUV. The juvenile was airlifted to Inova Fairfax Hospital with serious but non-life threatening injuries, Troxell said.

Another 13-year-old, who is Lentz's daughter, was riding in the back seat and suffered minor injuries. She was not wearing a seat belt. A 19-year-old, seated in the front seat with seat belt fastened, was also injured. Both were treated at Loudoun Hospital Center at Lansdowne, and released.

In other words, 100% of the people not wearing a seat belt in that wreck survived. Only 50% of the people who WERE wearing a seat belt survived. Yet we are prohibited from playing the odds.

Those rejects from 'Deliverance'

are at it again.

You'd think that after the firestorm that erupted following their attempt to jail gays, they'd be a little gun shy. Apparently, hard-headedness, like the extra chromosome, runs in their genes.


[Update:] Not only do they want to round up the gays and lock them up, they want tax-supported pulpits with captive audiences, too.

Osama would feel right at home in Rhea County.

I wondered how long it would take

before someone started calling it the Clone Wars.

An aside: What happens to the pro-life argument that life begins at conception if you have a life that began without ever having been conceived?

Did Jesus' life begin at conception?

Tobacco buyout...

Thinking about this sentence hurts my head:

The U.S. House voted Thursday to pay tobacco farmers for giving up their government price supports,

Just end the subsidies. You don't have to "buy them out."

I've got a better idea, Gale...

... sell the federal land to private owners, instead.

Socialists in Seymour Snipe at each other

The pro-tax crowd in Seymour have turned on each other.

It's been almost 15 years...

... since Brad Evans' home burned in a blaze of antigay hatred and bigotry. There still have been no arrests of the arsonist or arsonists.

What is the statute of limitations for arson in Missouri? Could it be that this monster will never be punished?

Rot in hell, Jean Dixon.

[Update: From this, it looks like this bastard's gotten off scott-free. For once in your life, you piece of slime, be a man and admit what you did. There's no point in hiding it now; you're not going to jail.]

Hatch, Conservatives in pissing match.

Go away, Orrin. You annoy me.

The "S" word

"Secretive Kerry Ponders VP Choice."

Wow. They used to only use the "S" word on Nixon.

It's a short jump from "secretive" to "reclusive," and a short jump from there to "hermetic," and then you're just one step away from "paranoid psychopath."

How Jay Nixon and the Democrats sold the gays out in Missouri.

Great article.

So great I dare not cut and paste from it, or I'll wind up cutting and pasting the whole thing.

Wake up, gay people. The Democrats are not your friends. The Libertarians are.

Blue Jeans vs. Black Robes

From this article:

"In Montana, we think [marriage] should be decided by folks who wear blue jeans, not folks who wear black robes," said Montana state Rep. Jeff Laszloffy, author of the amendment.

How well did the people in blue jeans handle the issue of segregation, Mr. Laszloffy?

Democracy, I remind Mr. Laszloffy, is three wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for dinner. Certain things are placed outside majority rule -- life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, property, equal protection under the law. These things are called rights, and they are supposedly inalienable.

The Tobacco Settlement

Remember when state governments said they needed stiff taxes on cigarettes to fund health expenses for smokers?

Seen any of these new programs?

On a tangential note, there is more on the reprehensible dishonesty of the settlement here.

This isn't anything you didn't already know,

but it IS kind of neat to look at.

Big Brother Wants Your Spooge.

Or your spit. Or your hair. Or your blood. Or your skin. Even if you're eventually found innocent, he wants it anyway.


And he ain't givin' it back after you're exonerated, either.

New Madrid earthquake yesterday.

The Big 'Un's coming, people. You just wait and see.

Dem Convention 5 Million over budget.

And these are the people you want in charge of federal spending?

Virgin Skin No More

Well, I've done it. I broke my tattoo cherry today. I say "broke" because over and over in my head, my 7th grade English teacher, Ms. Vest, keeps repeating "There's no such word as 'busted.' The proper conjugation is 'burst, burst, burst.'"

A small black bear claw now adorns my upper right arm.

The land thieves are at it again...

...this time in Arkadelphia.

One of the Walter Williamses

has a good piece on "price discrimination" today.

From the tone of the article, I'm assuming it's the good Walter Williams and not the evil one.

Holden's $18.9 billion state budget

for a state of 5.5 million people. The article is here.

Note to Governor Sideshow Bob: I would be much better off if you just sent me a check for my $3436.36 instead of spending it FOR me.

The Bill of Non-Rights.

This is good stuff, except for article 8, which would be good stuff in times of a draft, but considering everyone in the armed forces at the moment enlisted voluntarily, knowing they could be sent to fight a war they might not support, it is little more than tripe.

Prolly no posts on the morrow.

Another eye appointment in the Western Plains.

What else WOULD they be -- animals? Minerals?

The Ag Dept. has determined that french fries are indeed vegetables.

Good thing we have the government to tell us these things. I don't think we could've figured that out by ourselves.

And ketchup is a vegetable, too.

Term of endearment?

No, people. It's not. There is no situation in which the C-word is not a term of derision.

Jacko paid off 1993 kid with $23 million . . .

. . . that must make the kid the priciest whore in the history of the world.

Cyberterrorism hits Google, Microsoft, Yahoo et al.

I refuse to call it "hacking," a term that conjures up images of misguided, curious youngsters who get a little too cute with their computers in between games of Dungeons & Dragons.

It is cyberterrorism, plain and simple.

Miller started it.

No, really; Miller started it with it's ad campaign mocking Bud's "King of Beers" slogan. You know, the ones where Miller is running for "President of Beers." The one with the debate with a Clydesdale.

It just so happens that Bud siezed on the opportunity to take the disastrous ad campaign and run with it, noting that Miller, owned by a South African company now, is not eligible to be President of Beers.

I've been waiting for a Bud NASCAR spot, saying "Rusty Wallace [driver of the #2 Miller Lite Dodge] has a Bud sticker on his car. Doesn't that tell you something? You won't see any Miller stickers on Dale Jr.'s #8 Budweiser Chevrolet."

Like a Drunken Sailor

From this article in the Southeast Missourian.

Gov. Bob Holden has set in motion a process that may result in the federal government's funding of several local projects that will help build bridges, aid business expansion and fund new educational equipment in Southeast Missouri.

None of which are federal issues, Sideshow Bob! If you want them funded, fund them yourself.

"Thais Learn About Missouri."

Because, I guess, it is somehow important for Thais to learn about Missouri.

Important enough to get State Dept. funding, anyway.

What a country.

Which way did it go?

The Amazing Disappearing Lake.

But I thought

trade was a BAD thing.

Gus Wingfield: There's no problem a little nepotism won't cure.

He's at it again.

Must've been a breakdown in the space/time continuum somewhere...

...because there are still Confederate widows running around out there.

Doing business in Arkansas . . .

... is about to get even less appealing.

First Strippers, Now Stern

Endorsements of John Kerry keep rolling in.

I'm not sure they're WELCOME endorsements, but they're endorsements nonetheless.

Summer Reading List

ChronWatch has come up with a really good summer reading list.

Among the books is Ayn Rand's Anthem, an underappreciated little novel that every potential Objectivist should start out with. Or give as gifts to teenagers with incomplete personalities, after they've outgrown Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose and The Little Red Hen.

Arkansas amendment petitions

Potheads and Bible-thumpers, unite!

Not going anywhere.

Don't you think the holy rollers at the world headquarters of the Assembly of God had a hissy fit when they read this article?

If the city that is the capital of Holyrollerdom has such an active gay community, maybe the holy rollers ought to just give up trying to push gay people out of existence.

Dems are the party of big government; Reps are the other party of big government.

The WaPo actually has a pretty good article today.

As John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge argue in their smart new book, "The Right Nation," for every Cato Institute libertarian, the GOP harbors a moralist who wants government to regulate your private life; for every anti-tax crusader, there is a neocon who believes that government should strive to instill such virtues as patriotism, educational discipline and marital fidelity.

More bloggy insider baseball.

This article points out that the stereotypical blogger is astereotypical.

This day is off to a wonderful start.

I went to the tire shop this morning to get the right front tire patched -- about a $10 job.

Instead, I had to replace both front tires because they had steel showing through on the insides of each one, a $108 job. What's worse, I didn't have that much cash on me because I wasn't expecting that big of a production, and the tire shop didn't take Visa cards, and the wheels were already off the Escort, so I had to walk a half mile to the nearest gas station so I could get a cash advance, complete with higher interest rates and miscellaneous fees. It probably put me over my credit limit.

Maybe next time Mom will listen to me when I tell her we need to get the wheels aligned, or at least the tires rotated, instead of believing I am an idiot who doesn't know what he's talking about and brushing me off.

I doubt it, though.

Well, it was certainly an odd soundtrack to the Reagan funeral...

... but somehow appropriate. Rest in Peace, Ray Charles.

Seven Spanish Angels by Willie Nelson and Ray Charles.

He looked down into her brown eyes,
And said: "Say a prayer for me."
She threw her arms around him,
Whispered: "God will keep us free."
They could hear the riders coming,
He said: "This is my last fight.
"If they take me back to Texas,
"They won't take me back alive."

There were seven Spanish angels,
At the altar of the Sun.
They were praying for the lovers,
In the Valley of the Gun.
When the battle stopped and the smoke cleared,
There was thunder from the throne.
And seven Spanish angels,
Took another angel home.

She reached down and picked the gun up,
That lay smoking in his hand.
She said: "Father, please forgive me,
"I can't make it without my man."
And she knew the gun was empty,
And she knew she couldn't win.
But her final prayer was answered,
When the rifles fired again.

There were seven Spanish angels,
At the altar of the Sun.
They were praying for the lovers,
In the Valley of the Gun.
When the battle stopped and the smoke cleared,
There was thunder from the throne.
And seven Spanish angels,
Took another angel home.

There were seven Spanish angels,
At the altar of the Sun.
They were praying for the lovers,
In the Valley of the Gun.
When the battle stopped and the smoke cleared,
There was thunder from the throne.
And seven Spanish angels,
Took another angel home.

There were seven Spanish angels, (at the altar),
At the altar of the Sun, (oh I believe),
They were praying for the lovers (yeah they was),
In the Valley of the Gun.
(Well, well, well),
When the battle stopped and the smoke cleared (there was thunder),
There was thunder from the throne, (oh yeah),
And seven Spanish angels,
Took another angel home.

Hey, there's Corliss. Where's O Miller?

I hadn't realized Corliss Williamson was still playing in the NBA. But then, until this year, the Pistons haven't exactly been on my radar screen, or anyone else's, for that matter. I don't even know when he was traded to the Pistons.

Corliss is a reminder of happier times at the University of Arkansas basketball program.

McCain to Kerry: STOP STALKING ME!!!!

Will whomever Kerry asks next be known as the Replacement Candidate? The Second Choice?

Gitcha freek on, officer.

This comes from KARK:


Federal prosecutors charge Carlisle officer alleged sex abuse case( Air Date: 6/11/2004 )

A Carlisle police officer is charged with federal civil rights violations for allegedly forcing a prisoner to
engage in sexual acts.
U-S Attorney Bud Cummins says 24-year-old Jeffrey Hampton faces two counts. Hampton is on paid administrative leave while an
investigation continues.
Cummins says Hampton allegedly forced the prisoner to perform sexual acts in exchange for benefits including being released from custody. Cummins did not identify the gender of the inmate.

[Update: Inmate was later identified as a dude.]

[Update 2: Gitcha freek on, teach.]

No posts tomorrow.

I don't know if the library will be open or not, but even if it is, I am taking the day off out of respect for President Reagan.

404 Vine St. Thayer MO.

If you go by the above address and see something in the yard you want, steal it. Apparently, the adults who live at that house want to live in a society where going into other people's yards and stealing things is acceptable.

Yesterday, I discovered half of my sunflower crop had been stolen. A little investigation later, I discovered the likely culprits were the boys who lived at the above address. Sick of putting up with such $hit, I called the cops.

The cop went to their house and found the evidence on their porch. He told me that when their dad got home, he would be giving me a visit to talk about it.

Guess what? Chicken$hit Dad didn't show up and sent the youngest of the two boys to my house to apologize instead. That way, there was no way for me to demand replacement with equally tall, equally healthy sunflowers planted by the boys in the same spots by Saturday.

F---ing a$$hole. If you refuse to be held financially responsible for what your kids do, why the HELL are you letting them go all over the neighborhood unsupervised? DCFS ought to take your children away from you. What are you teaching them? That all you have to do is apologize, not make restitution? Five to one they're both in prison getting sodomized every day by the time they're 20.

I hope they get leukemia and die.
Have a nice day, prick.

The History of Arkanssouri

It seems this area has it's own history book (here), detailing Civil War events from Thayer to Sturkie to West Plains. If interested, take a look.

By a vote of 2 to 1,

the voters of Springfield have cheerfully decided to provide the rope for their own hanging.

It seems K.I.T.T. needs to be fitted with a breathalyzer.

David, David, David.

Don't you realize you can afford to HIRE a designated driver if you need one?

"It is always the summer of 1983, and Ronald Reagan is always president. "

Damn you, Doug Kern. Don't you know you're not supposed to make old men like me cry?

I'm not even going to speculate on any ulterior motives.

Even Bill Clinton can be decent, when he wants to be.

The display and condolence book are sponsored by the William J. Clinton Presidential Library, which provided a photograph of Reagan and several letters President Clinton and Reagan sent each other during Clinton's years in the White House. Also on display are copies of Reagan's schedule when he was in Arkansas in 1984 and 1988.

A large bowl of jelly beans, a favorite of Reagan, also was placed on a table under the United States flag, and state flags of Arkansas, California and Illinois. Reagan was born in Dixon, Ill., and was governor of California before being elected president in 1980.

The condolence book will be available to the public to sign until Friday at Curran Hall, 615 East Capitol Ave.

Take THAT, camel jockeys!

Wouldn't be great if the fuel of the future could be grown in America's heartland instead of drilled out of the sands of the mideast?

It would be nice to have THEM begging US for fuel for a change.

The Three Missing Women

There may be a break in the case of Springfield's three missing women.

While the story seems cautious, it seems to me the police are just covering their bases on the off chance that this lead doesn't pan out.

Was the SMSU Board of Regents involved?

Ebbett's Field, the sequel.

For those of you who don't get the reference, Ebbett's was a bar in Springield MO that was stolen by Southwest Missouri State University so they could build an unneeded parking garage.

So what? It's less money they can spend on beer and cigarettes.

It seems people are charging what they want to for items they sell. Shame, shame.

I dunno about "vouchers only," though. Isn't there something on cash about it being legal tender for ALL debts, public and private?

[Sunday, June 6, 2004 entry]

When I finished Saturday's entry, I rushed home, planning to write a post comparing and contrasting Ronald Reagan with John Kerry. As soon as I walked in the door, though, I heard the news that President Reagan had passed away, and I realized this was not a day for politics.

It is with an odd mixture of equal parts sadness and relief that I write this. Sadness that there is no longer a Ronald Reagan in the world, and relief that President Reagan is no longer a prisoner in his own body, betrayed by his own mind.

In the hours of the afternoon of September 11, 2001, one thought kept popping into my head -- this country needs Ronald Reagan to hold it together. George W. Bush is many things, but the Great Communicator is not one of them. I thought back at the countless times I'd winced as Bush stumbled over the pronunciation of a word and honestly didn't know if he would be up to the job of giving voice to our national grief and anger. Thankfully, in the days following 9/11 George W. Bush and Rudy Giuliani did an admirable, even heroic, job of preventing this nation from falling apart.

Then came Columbia. Again I found myself wishing the Gipper could step in and set the tone. While Bush gave a good speech, telling us all the astronauts were safely home, it was not a great speech, like the one where Reagan told us the Challenger Seven had slipped the surly bonds of earth and touched the face of God.

I'm trying to find one moment that symbolizes everything about President Reagan. Many give us a glimpse of him, but none gives the whole picture.

There was his way of disarming his opponents by being so damn likeable. Mondale was doomed in that second debate from the moment Reagan promised not to exploit his youth and inexperience. He had to laugh, even if only to dispel the perception that he was a bitter, joyless old man. And after laughing, how does one switch gears and go for the jugular?

There was his joking on the way to the emergency room after being shot and, as we would learn later, nearly killed. I forgot to duck, Nancy. I hope you doctors are Republicans.

Today, Mr. President, we are all Republicans.

There was his robust chopping of wood at an age of greater than eighty. There was his growling insistence that he PAID for that microphone, and the unspoken follow-up that he'd say whatever he damn well wanted.

There was his selective inability to hear questions he didn't want to answer over the whirl of helicopter blades. There was his insistence that he didn't recall. Not that he COULDN'T recall, mind you, but that he DIDN'T.

There were his beloved jelly beans.

There was the malaise of the America he inherited, and the optimism of the America he left behind. There was his successful beating back of the notion that America is the cause of all the world's problems, a notion now creeping back into political circles. There was his belief that it is a good thing to strive to be better than you currently are. There was his insistence that the government get off our backs.

There was that speech in Berlin, urging Gorbachev to tear down the wall. There was that convention speech after he left office where he started shaky but grew younger and stronger the longer he talked.

And there was that letter-- the one where he was comforting the nation about his revelation that he had Alzheimer's Disease. Even that letter was full of optimism and faith.

But the one image that sticks in my mind was repeated countless times in the Reagan years. The Commander in Chief steps down off Marine One, or sometimes Air Force One, sharply dressed in a dark suit, with a spring in his step. He stops at the bottom, turns stiffly to the man in uniform waiting there for him, and snaps a crisp, proud salute to him. None of this strolling lazily off the aircraft in a bomber jacket and delivering a limp salute because you have to, like Clinton did. And even George W. Bush hasn't mastered the technique, though he's tried.

What that image says to me is pride. It says respect. It says honor. But it doesn't just say those things about how we feel about President Reagan. It says those things about how Reagan felt about the office of the Presidency and about the armed forces. And about America. And about us.

Today, we are all Republicans, Mr. President. Now go catch up on things with Maureen. It's morning in Heaven.


Oh Captain! My Captain!
O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won,
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.


O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up--for you the flag is flung--for you the bugle trills,
For you bouquets and ribbon'd wreaths--for you the shores a-crowding,
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
Here Captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head!
It is some dream that on the deck,
You've fallen cold and dead.


My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still,
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will,
The ship is anchor'd safe and sound, its voyage closed and done,
From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won;
Exult O shores, and ring O bells!
But I with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

Walt Whitman (1819-1892)

Twilight In America.

Days, maybe. Months at the most.

God bless you, Mr. President. Share some jelly beans with President Jefferson.

Energy alternatives.

I wonder if this would work as well using Taliban and al-Qaeda members instead of turkeys.

Protect against "encroachment by developers", Roy?

Why not protect the area against encroachment by GOVERNMENT?

It seems Jim Talent isn't the only one supporting land grabs.

The Foamy Menace

Of all the things in the world to worry about, these people concentrate on foam ?!?!!

Jim Talent & The Harry Truman Land Grab

Jim Talent supports taking more property out of the hands of private owners and giving it to the government.
Yoo-hoo?!? Jimmy??? Aren't you supposed to be for SMALLER government?

Chupacabra!

Ugh.

"Whoever wins Missouri will be the next President of the United States."

Here is an article describing Missouri's status as a major battleground state.

'Backdoor draft'

Breach of contract, yes. Backdoor draft? Dunno.

What happened to the Medical Privacy Law?

Governor Huckabee, unhappy that big government has been thrown out of our bedrooms, is trying to put it in our kitchens.

Another boasts a disturbing new program in the state of Arkansas which requires public schools in that state to monitor the weight and Body Mass Index of all 450,000 public school children in that state.

Big Brother is watching you eat.

Selective Theocracy

Funny how these morons have never rallied against murder, and they've never rallied against theft. They've never rallied against rape, and they've never rallied against lynching. They've never rallied against child abuse, and they've never rallied against kidnapping.

But gay marriage? Now THERE's something they'll rally about.

Note to ministers: Your own religion doesn't say anything about gay marriage. Gay sex, yes. Gay marriage, no. Learn your Bible.

This isn't exactly new news.

But it may be of interest to some of my blogophile readers. It seems some people are making money off their blogs.

Apparently, Google has cut me off

I guess it didn't like my dozens of News Alerts I created. Now I have to go do it manually. P.I.T.A.


















* - P.I.T.A. - n., Pain In The Ass.

Tenet Resigns.

Developing.

Rocket

I bleed Cubbie blue, but if they have to get beaten up, they can take some comfort in the fact that the guy who beat them up is really, really, really good looking.





And how non-PC is it of me to notice that, compared to the rest of MLB, the Astros and the Cubs seem to have an awful lot of white players?

And Jessica Simpson is no Einstein.

Missouri's senators have a knack for stating the obvious.

Why isn't the title of this article "Well, Duh!!!"?

GM masters the art of double entendre.

I'm at the Dollar General Store yesterday looking for paper towels. I pass through the men's shirt area and find a grey T-shirt with no picture on it, just blue lettering, outlined in white.

Hummer.
Like Nothing Else.
That's almost as good as "Ladies, it's his birthday. Why not give him a Hummer?"

Obviously, I had to buy one.

Bush not on the Illinois ballot?

Hmmm...
Can you write off such a large electoral state and still win the Presidency?

True, he lost 55-42% there in 2000, but I think you have to at least TRY to get the big states.

And if he doesn't get on the ballot there, who do the Republicans there vote for? Write him in? That never works.

Maybe the Libertarians should concentrate a lot of effort there.
"You can't vote Bush; you don't want to vote Kerry. Vote Libertarian."

Governor Mikey defends the Obesity Police.

Governor Mikey (of the supposedly "less government party") tells us why he's in favor of big government involving itself in your eating habits.
The solution, Governor Mikey, is to stop covering those illnesses and conditions with taxpayer money, and stop requiring private insurers to cover them, not to spend more taxpayer money trying to pester people into compliance.

Dallas: The Guitar Gods' Olympus for three days.

Too bad Jimi Hendrix isn't still around. And too bad Dallas is so far away.

Eric Clapton is hosting a three day music festival in the big D with a dream team of guitarists -- B.B. King, Carlos Santana, Jeff Beck, Buddy Guy, Robert Cray, Joe Walsh, J.J. Cale, Bo Diddley, James Taylor, Jimmie Vaughan and Vince Gill.

Well, OK, I don't really think of Vince Gill as a guitar god, but I wish I could make it there anyway.

Response to "Amy."

One reader emailed me regarding the new Elementary Temple to Socialism. I've changed her name, since I haven't been able to get back to her to ask if it's OK to print this. I've also left out some things that might help in identifying her.

LOL!
Yeah... o.k. I wonder who you are and how you associated my relationship to Thayer... other than I did recognise the ark-piper addy, so I get a connection... vaguely.

Actually... I think there is something that needs to be done, since they went ahead and put that school in such an idiotic place in the first place. I got poo-pooed when I picked the design of the school apart. Not enough bathrooms, no changing room or showers for the gym (I was told that the children only change into sneakers... what???), and no room for same in the future. Exits were a bit sparse for fire safty... Never mind that my training and experience is civil design... I got my head patted just like the other ladies in the garden club as they tried to sell the idea to us. I also asked if the old school is in such rotten shape, how can we trust the new school to be maintained any better?

And where are the freaking 25 mph signs? I encounter 142/63 daily, sometimes multiple times a day. I have yet to see 25 mph signs, flashing lights, you know... the whole ball of wax that's supposed to be around schools, like should already be in place since the highschool is already located there.
And speaking of traffic... the traffic gets idiotic enough through there when school lets out, especially during heavy shopping seasons, like Christmas, what with Wally's World of Rip Offs and Rejects, Wallace and Owens, and the sillyness of highschool traffic as it already is.

Yeah, that crossing is a bit scary. I've crossed it a couple times m'self, and I admit I'm a little cavalier about such things, having made a living working on roadways before I got too old and beat up to resort to such things anymore. I sure wouldn't want a 10 year old kid doing what I do when I cross a road. Anyrate... that is a scary intersection.

Covered crossway?

Well I sure as hell hope the design is better than that idiotic design down town...
... who ever did that took no consideration of turning radiuses, drainage, and ... human nature (Like, really... counting on volunteers to maintain those idiotic planters that have subsoil and concrete chunks in them?).

And those "handicap ramps" are more likely to cause handicaps than assist the handicapped! Geez, ya know, MODOT has those standards for download to any designer in the state, for freebies. I know... I been there... used to do it on a regular basis. Just makes design work soooooo much easier.

Ah well... Hmmm. I might have to go have me a look at this covered crossway design, ... ... doesn't do much for my standing in the good ol' boy system up there.
Enjoy!

"Amy"

Here's my response:

Dear "Amy":

As for how I got your email addy -- I went into yahoo's member directory and searched for Thayer MO.

As for who I am, it's not really important. You probably wouldn't know me even if I told you. What IS important is what I have to say, not my identity.

My big problem with the school is that property owners bear the entire burden of paying for it, yet non-property-owners were allowed to vote on the tax increase. That's why I call it the Temple to Socialism. What is it about owning property that makes little ol' childless me more responsible for paying for a child's education than the child's parents, who don't pay any property taxes if they rent or live with relatives, are?

The kicker is that Thayer could have gotten a grant to build a new school without raising property taxes at all -- that's what Koshkonong did. So now we're paying taxes to build a school for Kosh AND for Thayer.

And didn't you just love all those commercials the good-ol'-boy network kept running before the tax levy election? You know, the ones that implied that if you voted against it, you must want Thayer's children to die? I've got some posts on that in the archives of my blog. Let me see if I can find some:

http://arkanssouri.blogspot.com/2004/04/aftermath.html

http://arkanssouri.blogspot.com/2004/04/thayer-school-board-election-day.html

http://arkanssouri.blogspot.com/2004/04/this-doyle-fink-fellow.html

http://arkanssouri.blogspot.com/2004/04/thayer-school-board-elections-theyre.html




And it's awfully peculiar how before the election their position was that the old building wasn't fit for anything but demolition, but now that they have their new Temple started, they're trying to find buyers for it. I'd wager it winds up in the hands of one of the good-ol-boys for a steal.

I never even looked at the plans for the new school. Nor did I tour the old school. There was nothing in those plans, or in the old school, that made it my responsibility to pay for a new one. But your points about the design flaws of the new Temple don't surprise me. If you build in some deficiencies now, it makes it that much easier to ask for ANOTHER new school in a few years, after this one is "outgrown."

How long do you think it'll be before they try to get a new high school out of this? I can hear their arguments now -- we've got a state-of-the-art elementary school; don't our children deserve a state-of-the-art high school instead of the 20th-century one they have?

I agree about the traffic snarls the placement of the new Temple will create -- it's already a huge problem when school lets out, and it'll increase exponentially when classes begin at the new building. I guess then they'll want even MORE money so they can "improve" that section of road. They could have placed it on the other side of the high school and not messed traffic up too much, but government almost never does things the right way when they can do it the wrong way, so they can "fix" it later. It's called job security.

I'd never noticed there weren't any 25 MPH signs near the high school before. That's gotta be a violation of some state law.

Don't get me started on the "revitalization" of downtown. They got the grant just for the sake of getting a grant. Only after they got it did they begin planning what to do with it. When they repainted the parking space stripes up 2nd Street, they increased the angle of them, swinging the rear ends of parked cars further out into the middle of the road, making it hard for a car to fit through when cars are parked on both sides of the street, and impossible for a delivery truck to do so. And they botched the space next to the planters at the top of the hill, next to the library. It looks like it was designed by a kindergartener.

And what is the point of having a sidewalk if you have to walk all the way up the street to get to stairs to get ON the sidewalk? Younguns can just jump up on them, but those of us with a few years on us can't do that.. This is a perfect example of government planning.

Well, take care, Amy. I hope you liked my blog. Stop by and have a read whenever you feel like it.

www.arkanssouri.blogspot.com

Better late than never . . .

... I thought you might be interested in this story of Jo Ann Emerson spending your money like a drunken sailor.

OK, so he's not Ron Quixote anymore...

Ron Paul opines and extrapolates on the notion that that those who trade liberty for security deserve neither.

Ron? Can you come live in Thayer and be MY Congressman?

Hanoi John -- For Animals and Against Them.

Newsmax points out another example of how consistency has never been John Kerry's strong point.

One Temple To Socialism Closed . . .

... hundreds left to go.

Story here.

And oh yeah; it didn't "die." It closed. Saying it "died" is an irrational, emotional position that only enforces the perception that the left cannot argue logically and therefore must resort to emotional hyperbole.

No, Speaker-elect Stovall . . .

. . . it doesn't need change. It needs to be abolished.

Old taxes never die . . .

. . . even in Rush Limbaugh's hometown. Instead, city leaders scramble to find new ways to spend.

Bizarre Atmospheric Conditions.

Instead of the local (well, somewhat local) FM station located at 96.9 on the dial, KUPH from Willow Springs, this morning I am receiving Electric 96.9 out of Paducah KY, which Mapquest tells me is 197.36 miles away.

Are we having an ion storm?

Didn't Maximum Overdrive start somewhat similarly to this?

My Backyard Right Now is as messy as Granny's panties.

I'm finally getting the outbuilding in the backyard torn down, and it looks like a tornado hit it. When the guys taking it down pulled it over, it squashed my big Royal Empress tree, one of the ones I planted as a 9/11 memorial.

I think it will grow back, but it will probably be scarred pretty badly. That's OK; we're all damaged goods. We all have scars.

Libertarians pick pres & VP noms.

Nolan was better in the Q&A part of the debates, even won all the primaries. Russo was better in the closing statement (even suggested civil disobedience if third parties aren't allowed in the debates). Yet somehow the Libertarians wound up picking Badnarik.