The Arkanssouri Blog.: 11/01/2005 - 12/01/2005

Wednesday, November 30, 2005

NM Chupacabra news video.

From KRQE here.

[Xposted to PSOD.]

Let me know . . .

. . . when they buy some new Nikes and spiffy purple shrouds.

Scientologists to blame for at least SOME crop circles.

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Suggestion to replace Rep. Cunningham,

who resigned yesterday.

California... The Governator...

How does Representative Shriver sound?

The right likes her, 'cuz she's Mrs. Governator.

The left likes her, 'cuz she's Kennedy-adjacent.

And it's not like the Kennedy clan doesn't have a history of appointing their relatives to office.

A gift for the mob boss in your family...

... for him to leave on the beds of his mob rivals:


Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus Groom and Glam Styling Head!

Could this BE any creepier?

Look what popped up on Brainhop's sidebar today.

So I'm doing my daily scan of Brainhop, and today this article on the solidity/fluidity of ketchup appeared at the top of the sidebar.

Damn strange thing to study, I thought. I wonder if it tells how much taxpayer money is going to the project.

It didn't say, but I did find this. (Emphasis mine.):

Researchers hope that a space-experiment called CVX-2 (short for "Critical
Viscosity of Xenon-2") will soon provide new data about the basic physics of
such fluids. Berg is the principal investigator for the experiment, which is
slated to fly this summer onboard space shuttle Columbia (STS-107).

I got news for 'em. Ain't gonna happen. I emailed them and asked when the article was published, suggesting they print that date at the top of the article. Or if they had the wrong shuttle, that was an easy enough fix.

[Update: It was a past mission. The last shuttle mission was STS-114, which would mean the Columbia disaster was STS-113. (Right? Or am I making unfounded assumptions?)]

Monday, November 28, 2005

God hates manicurists.


Question for you Falwell types:

If God wanted us to have short fingernails, wouldn't they stop growing at the proper length? God didn't create fingernail clippers; man did.

So isn't it an unnatural act to NOT let them grow to their full length? Isn't it a sin?

So give the gay thing a rest and go after those sinners who cut their fingernails.

And start by leading by example.



The power of Spongebob can be used for good. Or EVIL.

From an article in the WPDQ on spanking in area schools:


Jeez. Way to screw up a kid, people. Ten years from now, when the kid's in therapy saying, "I LOVED Spongebob, but he would HIT ME!" I hope you'll be proud of yourselves.

What goes "Clip Clop, clipclop, 'PULL OVER!', clipclopclipclopCLIPCLOP"?

A donkey-cart high-speed pursuit.

I just can't pass this up.

BONUS NEARLY-RANDOM QUOTE TODAY!

"For when mangoes are in season, so too is madness. "

Drink up!

History of cancer in your family? Have a beer or twelve.

I have a very healthy lifestyle.

From our Too Much Time On Their Hands Department . . .

. . . dude made a cube out of rubber bands.

Well, a quasi-cube, anyway. Sides look a little bulgy and corners look a little rounded to me.

Of course, I don't have a degree in cube critiquing, though. So I may be wrong.

Libertarian Gifting.


"No, I will eat it myself!" said the Little Red Hen. And she did.

That's the ending of The Little Red Hen, a copy of which I dropped into a Toys For Tots box yesterday. What's that people say about Libertarians, that we're always recruiting? Why not start young?

This version of the story's negligibly different from the Little Golden Book version, but if you want to read it, you'll get the idea.

Don't get me wrong; there ARE some problems with the story. For instance, why are the welfare types in the story a duck, a goose, a cat, and a pig? I would have chosen a pig, a weasel, a snake, and a jackass.

And why doesn't the Little Red Hen check for ownership of the grain of wheat before she takes it? What if it belongs to someone?

And since when does ONE wheat plant make enough wheat to make a loaf of bread?

But those are tangents that might confuse the target audience. With kids that young, it's better to keep it simple than to explore every possible angle for philosophical consistency.

I bought an extra copy. I may donate it to the kindergarten class at the Thayer Elementary School. Or, if I can get assurances they won't put it in their freakin' book sale, I may donate it to the library. I may give it to my great niece, whose grandmother is a vocal union-slurping Democrat. Or I may keep it for myself.

Although the folk tale upon which this version is based is older, this version was copyrighted in 1954.

Question: Can a 51-year-old chicken run for President?

She'd get my vote.

Bass-Ackward.

Shouldn't the most local levels of government be the most democratic? I've done a little checking and not only do fourth-class cities in Missouri have no recall process, but it's looking like they don't have a petition process, either.

At least, that's my impression. I've got an email in to the Missouri Municipal League to confirm this, but it's not looking good.

So, to be able to directly participate in democracy, we have to upgrade to a third-class city status, which would give the city MORE power to do such things as exercise eminent domain?

Let's just think about that a moment. To be a democracy, we have to give more power to the government and take more power away from the individual.

Welcome to the U.S.S.A.

[Xposted to TTA.]

Free plug.

Longtime readers will remember I long ago gave up trying to make money off this blog. That has given me the freedom to offer a little free publicity to products and services I find most excellent (see the little free "ads" I've given to Cooter's and Fighting Cock?).

Here's the latest -- the Easyshot 5650 staple gun from Powershot Tool Company. Mine is purple and came with an attachment that lets you use it as a desktop stapler.



This may very well be the Best Light-Duty Stapler Ever. Virtually NO kickback.

Obviously.

Today's nearly-random quote comes not from the internet, but from a conversation I overheard yesterday at Dairy Queen.

"I ain't the sharpest cookie in the box."


Who measures the sharpness of cookies? And is there an industry standard? And why is a sharp cookie better than a dull one?

If computers had been more advanced . . .

. . . than TRS-80's when I was in high school, I would have spent my time coming up with things like this.

Saturday, November 26, 2005

Maybe a reader with medical knowledge, such as a former pre-med student, can help me.

How much cushion does the spine have at the back of the neck?

I ask this because, Friday while shopping I saw this guy with a hole in the back of his neck.

Not a sore, mind you. A hole. At least three and a half inches in diameter, and a half-sphere deep.

As if someone had taken a large ice cream scooper and dug out a perfectly round hole in the back of this guy's neck.

It had been done awhile ago, because it was healed up, although there was no skin. It was red inside, where you could see the muscle, and had some sort of shiny, clear, wet-looking coating.

The question is, isn't that where the guy's spine should be? All I saw was muscle.

[Xposted to PSOD.]

Wednesday, I sat staring at a blank screen...

I had an idea for one of my Gummint Cheese comic strips, but I couldn't figure out a way to make it work.

It had to do with altering
a line from The Karate Kid, a movie I hadn't thought of in years.

Wax Poetic On; Wax Poetic Off.

It was a punchline I couldn't find a joke for, so I gave up.

Pat Morita, who as Mr. Miyagi, said the original line,
died Thursday.

[Xposted to PSOD.]

Santa wallops child upside the head.

I just want to mention that in all of recorded history, there has never been an instance of the Kwanzaa Bunny smacking a wean.

Of course, the Kwanzaa Bunny isn't white bobbins fancy Santa Claus.

[Hmm. The American to Brit translator isn't working so well. That last line should end with "isn't white trash like Santa Claus."]

Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Bloggiatus.

Library's closed for Black Friday Eve and Black Friday.
Maybe even the day after. So I'll see you all either Saturday or Monday.

Have a Happy Black Friday, everyone!
Or don't. There's nothing wrong with you either way.

Must EVERYthing be a philosophical exercise?

That's one of the gripes non-Randroids have about Objectivists -- that everything, from choice of music to paint color to the decision whether or not to support school fundraisers is viewed through a philosophical lens. Objectivists, and indeed honest followers of ANY philosophy, before making any decision, tend to stop and ask themselves "Is this consistent with my moral values and my sense of life?"

Outsiders, especially those on the Left, who view ideology as a negative, are often frustrated by this and wonder, sometimes aloud, if it's really necessary.

It's called consistency. And yes, it is.

The half-year or so I spent in Houston began with me apartment-sitting for an old friend as he attended Political Philosophy Camp in California. When he returned, he regaled me with tales of the Vagaries of the Inconsistent. In one of these tales, the camp had attended a Lukas Foss concert, in which Foss stole from Bach, ripped apart the piece, and put it back together with parts of, among other things, the theme from the Addams Family. In short, he was the Peter Keating of music. He made Frankenmusic. I've since listened to some of his work. Just awful. Literally makes me want to vomit.

Later, when asked at camp about the concert, my friend voiced his disdain for the music in just such terms, and he was interrupted by some chick (who, being at political philosophy camp, should have known better) who griped that with him, EVERYthing was a philosophical exercise.

When my friend told me this story, it finally crystallized in my mind that it is the uncompromising consistency that the Left hates, and that pragmatism is itself an ideology.

All of this is the lead-in to this article I found, a philosophical defense of Thanksgiving.

I, of course, refer to the day as Black Friday Eve. But that's more of a protest against the whole Stepfordness of the entire holiday season (you must have a merry Christmas or else! What's wrong with you?) than it is of Thanksgiving. I've just chosen to pick my own "un"- holidays -- Black Friday and Kwanzanalia (which begins with the winter solstice and ends with Jan. 1). Next year I may extend the unholiday season to include Samhain and Dia de los Muertos (the Day of The Dead.)

Those days fit better into my S.A.D. Black Friday, for instance, gives me an excuse to dress like a THE/DAN or a faggy goth kid and spook the Stepford shoppers. The question is, is there a place in my unholiday season for a day that celebrates both capitalism and the genocide of some of my ancestors?

Chupacabra, RIP.


I'm guessing it's cold there.

Here's another one for FOUND magazine, which got back to me yesterday about the bizarre and disturbing picture I found in a book at a yard sale, but that's another story.

I come into the library this morning, and grab a piece of scrap paper out of the pile, in case I need to jot something down. I flip the paper over, and find a black and white printout of this page.



With that background, she'd have looked better in warm colors, like deep reds and burgundies. As it is, she looks kinda washed out. But definitely nipular!

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

It'd be a more interesting story if . . .

. . . the last two words in the headline somehow got reversed.

Islanders pray to Jesus image on plant pot.

Some are willing to walk a mile for a Camel.

Others are willing to fall 7.38 miles for one.

And those others would, of course, be total doofballs.

The Darties.

CNN Money lists them as the Most Dangerous Toys of 2005. I've chosen to name them after the sadly extinct Lawn Darts.

Get this -- the Thing Hands are dangerous because you can hit things with them. But I'd much rather get hit with these things than, say, a Tonka truck, or a Game Boy.

And the antigravity boots -- apparently, there is a potential for injuries from jumping around. And this potential doesn't exist when jumping around without the boots?

And another one is dangerous because it has balloons in it. But balloons themselves don't make the list.

Where there is no risk, my friends, there is no reward. Don't let the Fun Police tell you anything differently.

Question:

How can it offend blind people if you put it in a print edition, but not a Braille one?

How would they know?

And is it okay to shout obscenities at the deaf?

Or not listen to the mute?

Or be drenched in tacky cologne near the olfactory-impaired?

There's no room in multiculturalism for white men.

That's the case in Canada, at least.

How long before it creeps across the border?

People used to think I was kidding when I said the straight, white, able-bodied male was the most persecuted minority in today's society.

Someone remind me why the NAACP isn't bigotry, yet the NAAWP is.

Saturday, November 19, 2005

New emoticons!

:). - Cindy Crawford.

:(. - Anna Nicole Smith.

Quick aside here -- whoever decided moles are sexy was just wrong. Moles are gross. Especially when they're on me.

House: No Warfare Interruptis.

House rejects immediate pullout from Iraq 403-3.

I wonder if Bush has suggested they try the Rhythm Method.

Condi needs to get some sun.

Seen on Google News this morning:


God, no! Not the UPPER TORSO OF SHIRTLESS MEN!!!

Today's nearly-random quote:

Miller said the contents of West's city-owned laptop include about 3,300
images, including about 100 showing male genitalia or buttocks. Many of the
images show the upper torso of shirtless men, Miller said.


Two words for you, Mr. Miller -- "Ambercrombie" and "Fitch."

Quill getting a little paranoid about article linkage.

From yesterday's online edition of the WPDQ:


Damn. Since there are no Quill newspaper machines in Thayer, how am I supposed to get a copy of yesterday's edition?

They know me SO well . . .

I paused in my morning ritual of brie and caviar long enough to respond to some doof's insistence that there is no reason to stay in Iraq any longer.

I asked, "No reason? Other than handing over an entire country to al-Qaeda?"

Some other doof responded with this:

Its not our country to hand over....... You obviously live in the Upper
class of society, while us that live in lower class and lower-middle class
suffer with no Medical Insurnace, Interest Rates out the wazzzzzou, Unemployment
issues from time to time, etc. etc..... We have our own battles that need to be
fought here at home.


Spot on, I say. I mean, it's not like I have an entire blog dedicated to adventures in my own poverty. And it's not like, when I discovered this 20-degree morning that my water heater was on the fritz, I wondered if there was some way I could make do until after the first of the month so I could afford to have it looked at. And gawd knows it's not like I have to blog from the public library because I can't afford a computer.

No, wait. It IS like that.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to take the Bentley for a spin around the polo grounds. Butler, where are my riding gloves?

Friday, November 18, 2005

Goodnight, America.

It's been said that he who controls the present controls the past.

The beloved children's book Goodnight Moon has been given the KGB Propaganda treatment, by digitally altering a picture to make the author appear not to be smoking.

And that's not the end of it. A good-faith effort to guage people's opinion of this was begun at Goodnight Reality.

The health Nazis hacked it and tried to skew the results. Typical of their side. If they can't win by rational debate, they'll win by any means necessary.

A tale of two John Dalys.

And a lesson on good and evil, to boot.

I'm willing to change my last name to Lamborghini . . .

Texas town gets corporate name for free satellite TV.

Ah, the dry wit of Libertarians . . .

. . . exampled quite nicely in the following excerpt from this story:

Some neighbors have even erected signs pleading, "Save Our Mansions" -- a slogan Libertarians find grating.

"They say, 'save our mansions,' when they are clearly Mary's mansions," Dively said.

From our Two Words That Don't Go Together department . . .

. . . Hazardous parakeet.

All your base are belong to us.

My Gadget Bag has come up with a list of what it has decided are the most shocking video game moments.

It has left out the sexual assault of Smurfette in a game I think was called Smurf Massacre. And it has also left out the "happy ending" (or the very existence, for that matter) of Stroker 64.

There are a couple more moments that, if not shocking, are certainly enigmatic. One is the title of this post.

Another is, on the C-64 version of Donkey Kong, Mario's girlfriend repeatedly and for no apparent reason shouts "1103!" I have spent twenty years trying to figure out what she means, and have had no luck.

What, no Steven Segal?

Heir to the North Korean throne Kim Jong Chol has a . . . let's say innovative . . . defense strategy:

"I'd not allow weapons or atom bombs any more. I'd destroy all terrorists
with the Hollywood star Jean-Claude Van Damme."

Mr. Moviephonegate?

One reviewer; two starkly different reviews of the same movie.

I chronicled it here.

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Whatever happened to . . .

. . . the Missouri Taxpayers' Watchdog Association?

And more importantly, where do I begin if I want to form the Thayer Taxpayers' Association, or for that matter, the Missouri Taxpayers' Association, Thayer chapter?

[Update: I guess the first place to start is here.]

A rare moment of capitalism in Washington DC:

Bridge to Nowhere defunded!

"The more they overthink the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain."

That's a quote from engineer Montgomery Scott of the starship Enterprise, in the movie Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.

It seems rather fitting, given the problems they're having launching Scotty's ashes into space. Nothing a good engineer with a penchant for ignoring engine specs and a thirst for Romulan ale can't sort out, I hope.

Nearly random quote from today's news . . .

. . . comes from this article:

So what’s the solution for Callie? If she were older, I would have suggested she move away to a new area where she could make a new start and enjoy anonymity.

More from the Jihad Cyndi Follies:

She has introduced the 'Tupac Amaru Shakur Records Collection Act of 2005.'

Someone PLEASE hook her up with Fatwa Patty, so they can both get laid and quit doing stupid sh-t like this.

Maybe all those aqiq-sounding people who donated money to her on September 11-12, 2001, can take up a collection and rent them a motel room.

Nameless Randian Superhero.

Ananova brings us this story of one anonymous man's defiance of the Evil Empire (aka Big Government.):

A Swiss driver flashed by a speed camera attacked it with a pick axe, ran
it over with his car and threw it off a cliff.

The motorist used the pick axe to smash the camera free from its
mountings, then drove what was left up a mountain to throw it off a cliff.

Maybe Ben Franklin was right.

Maybe the wild turkey SHOULD have been our national bird. Because turkeys tend not to do things like this:

Last month, I received a message on my voice mail regarding a peculiar
incident that took place on Messalonskee Lake. The caller stated that Danny Bam
Bam, a five-pound Yorkshire Terrier, had nearly been abducted, then eaten alive
by a pair of bald eagles. Worse yet, the eagles had attacked the woman who tried
to save him.

Damn.

Yesterday I emailed the Missouri Municipal League and asked if there is a process to recall officials in fourth-class cities in Missouri, and if so, what is it.

He got back to me today. There's not one.

Gotta find some other angle to deal with the bad guys in Thayer City Hall.

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Unfortunate.

Seen on MSN today:


It's always important for bears to have protection.

Beavis and Butthead would say, "Heh-heh; heh-heh. 'Bears.' 'Protection.'" If they weren't so busy trying to find TP for Cornholio's bunghole, that is.

I am living in a 1970's sitcom.

In one of the old sitcoms (Taxi or Mork and Mindy, maybe) an immigrant from a foreign land wants to buy an ice cream pop from an ice cream stand. When the vendor asks what flavor, he replies "Buffalo." The whole skit is set up to capitalize on the vendor's frustration that someone wants a flavor that doesn't, and for good reasons SHOULDN'T, exist.

Ladies and gentleman, I bring you SALMON-FLAVORED SODA!

That celery-flavored soda's not sounding quite so hideous now, is it?

Remind me again what's so wrong with the American healthcare system.

Ants eat woman's eye in Indian hospital.

Dude's my hero.

Dude watches all six Star Wars movies simultaneously.

Yeah, but can he do the same thing with the TEN Star Trek movies?

And have you ever watched the Dark Side of the Moon DVD with the volume turned down and simultaneously listened to the Wizard of Oz soundtrack instead?

And you thought the phallocentric religions were weird . . .

. . . turns out some people believe The Anus Is Holy.

And those people are the heterosexual community, which shall henceforth be known as The Anus Worshippers.

The Nailing of the Rockefeller.

Bill Bennett nails Senator Rockefeller.

Go read it for yourself, because I'm guessing you won't see it in The Situation Room, Reliable Sources, or NOW with Bill Moyers.

Feeling a little tinfoil-hattish?

Then I have bad news for you.

Turns out, the tinfoil can actually HELP the government spy on you.

The study, as far as I can tell, does not address the issue of the efficacy of using tinfoil to cover the walls and windows to block detection of certain hydroponic activities, however.

Tomatoes. Yeah, that's it; tomatoes.

Monday, November 14, 2005

Does anyone actually PLAY with paper dolls?

If so, here's a good one.

Alito: Abortion not a right.

And he's right.

Rights are not gender-specific. Men don't have the right to an abortion.

So, at best, abortion is a power, not a right.

And CERTAINLY not one of the rights enumerated in the Constitution.

So what is their position?

Eatery erects sign that says "children of all ages have to behave and use their indoor voices when coming to A Taste of Heaven."

Some found this so offensive they launched a boycott.

I'm wondering, what exactly is the position of the boycotters, that children SHOULDN'T behave, and must use their OUTDOOR VOICES when eating in public?

Saturday, November 12, 2005

And now for your viewing pleasure, I bring you . . .


Pure evil.

Have a family member you don't really like, but you feel obligated to buy a gift for this holiday season?

Then here's the perfect gift.

Introducing an alarm clock that can't be ignored. There's no snooze or music to lull you back to sleep. Just set the time you need to wake up and when the alarm goes off, four puzzle pieces fly off the top of the clock. The only way to stop the alarm is by putting the pieces back together.


But expect an early morning call the day after Christmas asking, "Why do you hate me?"

I wonder if it comes in a Hangover Edition?

Was it a free-will turtle or a remote control turtle?

P&G looking into reports a woman found a dead turtle in a package of Folgers coffee.

Proof that you can use a turtle for good OR for evil.

First trimester tests for Down's Syndrome.

Somehow I don't think first trimester tests for Down's Syndrome in a fetus are intended to develop therapies to cure the fetus, or alleviate the symptoms.

More likely, they will be used to identify Down's Syndrome babies so that the mother has an excuse to abort it.

Prosecutor: "Neck" + "Snap" + Google = murder.

Prosecutor says googling words makes you guilty of murder.

Robert Petrick searched for the words "neck," "snap," "break" and "hold" on an Internet search engine before his wife died, according to prosecutors
Wednesday.


I suppose it depends on the Booleanity of it all. After all, the intent of "neck AND snap AND break AND hold" can be far different from "neck OR snap OR break OR hold" or individual searches for "neck", "snap", "break", and "hold."

Not to mention searching for the exact phrase "neck snap break hold."

But wasn't the whole reason for him becoming DNC chair that he was a fundraising genius?

Turns out the Doogie Howser of fundraising Howard Dean ain't.

The BBC is as bad at headline writing as ABC.

Man dies after 50 Cent screening.

What they fail to mention is that the man was SHOT. It was the shooter, not 50 Cent (unless he WAS the shooter), that killed the guy. Not the screening; the shooter.

Why does the left blame everything but the criminal?

Maybe I should count my blessings, though. This IS the BBC, remember. They USUALLY blame the bullet, or the gun.

Also note that Loews pulled the movie, but makes no mention of banning the shooter from it's theaters.

The Mailman for head of FEMA.

Who knew Karl Malone was a Randian superhero?

When confronted with red tape and union corruption trying to stop him from helping Mississippi Katrina survivors, he did it anyway.

Malone: "We took six million dollars of equipment and most
of the guys from my company (Malone Properties). But when we got there, they (federal officials) told us that because we wanted to work for free, we had to go home. That we needed a government ID number or a contract to haul out debris.

"I said to them, 'bullshit', we took 30 pieces of equipment and traveled
nine hours and we're going to clean up some lots before we leave. So I told them 'I'm getting on my truck, now try to get me off.' I had my security guys there and they tried to stop us but they couldn't - and we cleared 115 houses. "


"I said to them, 'bullshit.'" HA. Bullshit indeed.

If Ronald Reagan had needed an example when he said that government isn't the solution to our problems; government IS the problem, this would have been a fine one.

Liberals, tired of blaming Mom and Ronald Reagan for everything, switch to blaming Fluffy.

Schizophrenia is best described, I think, as a tendency to draw cause-and-effect conclusions where there are none.

The dog is barking, so the price of oil will go up. You know, that sort of thing.

This story, which concludes that having a cat may cause schizophrenia, strikes me as just this type of cognitive dissonance.

Ronald Reagan didn't get shot because his shooter had a cat as a child. He got shot because his shooter wanted to do Jodie Foster and thought this would impress her.


"But it's not my fault!"

SONY uses it's CD's to spy on you...

... and report back to HQ, and if you try to delete the spyware they install on your computer, it can cripple the system.

Story here.

Friday, November 11, 2005

Secret meeting.

A source familiar with the inner workings of the Thayer City Council told me last night that after the election Tuesday night, the city council held a secret meeting, where they created a new position in the city government -- city administrator, and they hired Gary Barton, the man TCBA wanted the city to hire as economic developer.

Can they hold secret meetings? Missouri's Sunshine Law declares that “It is the public policy of this state that meetings, records, votes, actions, and deliberations of public governmental bodies be open to the public unless otherwise provided by law." As far as I can tell, there was no promotion of this meeting, and there have been thus far no news reporting of it afterward. The law provides that:

At least 24 hours (excluding weekends and holidays) before a public
meeting, the public body must prominently post a notice of the meeting in its
principal office. If there is no such office, the public body should post the
notice at the meeting place.

The notice must include:

Time of meeting;

Date of meeting;

Place of meeting;

Tentative agenda of an open meeting;

and Whether the meeting is open or closed.

If the public body intends to hold a meeting by conference call or other electronic means, the notice must specify the location where the public may observe and attend that meeting. If the public body meets via Internet or other computer link, it shall post a notice on its Web site in addition to posting the notice at its principal office.
If exceptional circumstances prevent the public body from posting notice 24 hours in advance or prevent the meeting from being held at a convenient time or in a place
reasonably accessible to the public, the reasons should be stated in the
meeting’s minutes.



As far as I can tell, NONE of this happened.

Now, onto my next point: Can the city council create a job and fill it, without advertising for people to apply?

Thursday, November 10, 2005

House Repubs: Caribou more important than people.

ANWR drilling dropped from budget.

Remember this the next time you're filling up your gas tank with $2.00+ gasoline. Remember that your sacrifice saved a caribou from the horror of having to look at an oil drill.

Finding a new spiritual home.

Without the Church of Spongebob being around anymore, I have to find a new place of worship.

It just may be here, at the COTFSM.

Big Brother says "Close your garage doors!"

US Military jamming Ottawa garage door openers?


[Xposted to PSOD.]

Just the other day I asked myself,

"Why doesn't the world have any remote-controlled spy turtles?"

Well, now we do.

The bad guys are already regrouping.

Remember how I told you yesterday that the pro-tax types will bring up the Thayer sales tax again?

Well, they're already plotting, and they want to bring it up SOONER than next year's November election, which I assumed would be their first chance.

This comes from the WPDQ. I can't link directly to the story because of the retarded way their site is set up, and the story will disappear in a day or so:

Thayer may put sales taxrequest on another ballot

Thayer voters, by a 196 “no’’ to 115 “yes’ margin, have rejected a half-cent city sales tax to fund development in the city and hire an economic developer, according to the Oregon County Clerk’s office.

Thayer Community Betterment Association President Bob Eckman today told The Quill he is disappointed in the results and believes his group needs to do a better job educating the voters on the need for the tax.

“I thought we did a good job and I think if those who voted ‘no’ understood the value of an economic developer, they would vote in favor. We’re not giving up,” Eckman said. He said he hopes the city council will approve putting the issue on the April ballot.

In a press release prior to the election, Eckman reported that if the tax passed, it would generate an additional $175,000 per year.

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

He asks; I answer.

Jonathan David Morris, over at The Conservative Voice, asks the following question in a piece about the movie Election:

Come on. When was the last time you saw a libertarian actually win
something?

I was helpful and added the following comment:

The last time I saw a Libertarian win anything? Five days ago.
Always glad to help out, I am.

Ladies and gentlemen, I bring you . . .

Outrageous.

Andrea Yates to get new trial.

What part of "She DROWNED HER CHILDREN" don't the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals understand?

And you wonder why I don't have a Prince Albert?

Boy, 17, dies after getting lip pierced.

Actually, I'm allergic to piercings. Even the hypoallergenic ones burn a little bit and cause redness.

Had an earring for awhile, but it was constantly irritated. So I let it close.

It was in my left ear, for you earring-curious types. But don't jump to any conclusions...

CNN: Not losing ground is "scoring big."

Now, here's an objective characterization for you:

Democrats scored big in Tuesday's off-year elections, keeping their grip on the governorships of Virginia and New Jersey ...


So, does it not follow that, since the Republicans did not lose any governorships either, they also "scored big?"

Toilet man followup.

A few days ago I posted about a dude suing Home Depot because he got glued to a toilet.

I called him an idiot.

I was right.

It's happened to him before.

So there are two possibilities here.

1. Glue me once, shame on you. Glue me twice, shame on me.

or

2. He didn't know enough to quit perpetrating a fraud while he was ahead, after the first time. He had to come back for seconds, which got him caught.

Either way, he's an idiot.

The only question is whether he's an idiot idiot, or a fraudulent idiot.

I'm guessing the latter.

For those readers who are into "Found Magazine" and "Post Secret"...

... I direct your attention to "Stuff On My Cat."

Strangely,

The Sissy Six has no affiliation whatsoever with Representative Barney Frank.

I'm gonna get a bunch of hate mail for that, aren't I, from people who cannot differentiate between "gay" and "sissy."

Let me spell it out for you.

Barney Frank is gay. That is not what I am ridiculing.

I am ridiculing his sissiness.

There. Does that clear it up for you?

Like Anakin turned on Obi-Wan . . .

you just KNEW someday Rocky would turn on Bullwinkle.

From our Life Is Funny Department . . .

Parents take kids to see "Chicken Little," see something else entirely.

Adults and kids expecting to watch Disney's G-rated animated flick at the AMC Empire 25 theater on 42nd St. were instead presented with a foreign film that opened with a young man committing suicide.

[snip]

Terrified children didn't know what to do as they watched a young boy hang himself from a tree at the 8:45 p.m. screening.


ROFLMAO.

Should we tell them that it was Santa Claus?

196 Points of Light.

[Blogmaster's note: As far as I can tell, this is an internet scoop. Although a local radio station has reported the results of last night's Thayer election, they at this point do not show up anywhere online. I searched through both Google News and All The Web News.]

Yesterday, about this time, I was planning how to write the defeat post. It was to start with "Welcome to the Thayer Soviet."

I got nowhere with bringing the matter of the illegal electioneer (who two sources have identified as Mildred Cornelius, wife mother of Ron Cornelius, who is a member of the Thayer Community Betterment Association) to the attention of either the media or the government. If they were willing to do this, I wouldn't put it past them to gather votes in the graveyard so that they won.

So I began figuring out how I was going to keep from rewarding them with a single penny of my money paying for the tax increase. The current city sales tax is 1%; the increase would have upped it to 1.5%. To not pay any money on the sales tax increase, I would have had to decrease my spending in Thayer by 33%. Their half cent tax increase would have cost the Thayer economy several thousand dollars a year of my money. A large chunk of that would have been achieved through cutting out smoking and beer. I had my "final cigar" all ready to savor, sitting right beside my recliner, waiting to be lit.

Turns out, I didn't need to do all that figuring. The score was Capitalists 196, Socialists 115. My cigar turned into a Victory Cigar and I had a beer or four.

This evens the series to 1-1. The bad guys won the first game of the series, when they got a tax hike passed to build a new (and gawdawful ugly, I might add) Temple to Socialism.

But now the series is even. The only problem is, the series never ends.

I used to believe that once a capitalist, libertarian society is achieved, people would see how it's better for everyone and would stop trying to grow government and shrink liberty, and those of us who have fought the good fight all this time could finally be able to sit back and take a rest. I now see that it will never happen. There will ALWAYS be people who think generosity is when person A forces person B to give money to person C. There will always be people who think the problem is that we have too much liberty. The fight never ends.

And the bad thing is, on any given issue, the good guys have to win EVERY time it's brought up, but the bad guys only have to win ONCE to get it put into law. And on this particular issue, they only have to flip 41 people to get the result they want.

Already, the president of the TCBA is laying the groundwork to bring this up again, talking about how it failed due to a "lack of education about the issue."

No, it failed because it is a fundamentally flawed idea. You don't put a tax increase on the ballot without earmarking what it's to be spent for. And you put a sunset date on it, after which it goes to the voters whether or not to extend it.

You don't improve the city economy by sucking $175,000 out of it and giving it to the government.

You don't encourage business development by creating government bureaucracies; you do it by getting the government out of the way.

And finally, tax hikes are not by any stretch of the imagination "Community Betterment." You want an economic developer? Pay for it by cutting other spending, or better yet, by paying for it yourselves. Because we are SICK of rich people telling us "uneducated" types how that we don't pay enough taxes.

They think they're clever here at the Thayer Library.

On the door to the library is a calendar. Written for today's date is "Shadow Librarian."

They're watching me. I guess they thought I can't read calendars.

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

More from the Dirty Tricks Squad.

I was voter Number Nine. I arrived somewhere between 6:15 and 6:30, I'd guess.

The polling place was at the Thayer Senior Citizens Center. On the door of the Center was a sign in big red letters that said "NO ELECTIONEERING WITHIN 25 FEET OF THE POLLING PLACE," or something to that effect.

Standing not five feet, and likely not three feet, was one of the pro-tax crowd, passing out pro-tax literature.

At 6:45 I attempted a call to the Oregon County Clerk to report them. No answer.

I realized having photographic proof might be a good idea and left for Wal-Mart to pick up a cheap disposable camera. I swung by the polling place first and saw that she wasn't there, so I returned home.

I still wanted a complaint on the record, so I attempted another call to the county clerk. Still no answer.

At 7:15 I finally got an answer. He said he had just returned from the Thayer Senior Center and nobody was there, asked if I had reported it to the election officials. I said no. He explained that they couldn't be within 25 feet of the door. I said that she wasn't even five feet, and probably not three, from the door. He said he'd take care of it.

I realized after hanging up that he didn't ask my name or phone number, or what time I had seen it.

On my way here to the library, I swung by the center again. She was back, further away, but I seriously doubt it was the 25 feet required. She was sitting on a chair that looked suspiciously like the ones used in the senior center, with a big pro-tax yard sign set up beside her.

I wouldn't make a big deal of this, but I KNOW that if I had done it, my ass would be sitting over in the pokey right now.

I'm about to do my best to sic the media onto them. I won't even bother contacting the local radio station, though. As noted previously, the President of the TCBA works in upper management there, so it would do absolutely no good at all to contact them, and might in fact be detrimental to my cause to tip them off.

After I get done with that, I'm heading back home to stay by the phone in case someone needs a ride.

[Update: Notified the MO Sec. of State, too. They may get away with it, but they won't get away with it unnoticed.]

Monday, November 07, 2005

T minus 20.5 hours and counting.

Tomorrow's the day, and I have no idea how busy I'll be, so I may not blog.

I have no idea how it will turn out.

A month, or even a week, ago I would have said the tax increase would easily go down in flames.

That was before I found out how desperately the TCBA want it to pass. Desperate desires yield desperate actions. Would it surprise me if dead people voted tomorrow? No.

I think in the beginning, the TCBA thought they would just quietly push this through and nobody would challenge them. They were wrong. Even if it passes, some of their shady actions have been exposed.

I'll repeat my earlier offer -- if you're voting 'no' and need a ride to the polls, let me know.

The head librarian and some other woman were talking about me this morning. I caught the phrase "says it's a 'tax hike'," a phrase I deliberately used instead of "tax increase" in my letter(s) to the editor, and something about "especially with him being a single man."

1. How do they know I'm single?
2. What does my marital status have to do with whether or not this tax should pass?

I am being followed.

But there's only ONE "s" in "Asteroid"!

Asteroid to be named after gay transvestite folk singer.

Now, before you pickers of nits start piling on, the phrase "gay transvestite" is correct. Yes, there ARE straight transvestites.

I just don't know if any of them are folk singers.

Saturday, November 05, 2005

Now THIS is interesting.


So I'm doing a little digging on the members of the TCBA.

One member, Sam Currier, owns the Warm Fork Woodlands, a lumber company that may or may not have ties to the Warm Fork restaurant, where the Chamber of Commerce ALWAYS has it's meetings.

Turns out, on 2/10/2003, the Warm Fork restaurant got a DEFENSE CONTRACT for $2,520:



For a weapon system NOT DISCERNABLE OR CLASSIFIED? WTF?!?!!

I also found out Dennis Redmon somehow is a member of the South Central Ozark Council of Governments, despite the fact that he is a banker, not employed in government.

I wish I'd had the time to do more digging into the TCBA before the vote Tuesday. There's lots of good dirt there to dig.

But won't I get cat hair on my tongue?

Free KITTEN TASTER PACK!

Maybe I could order one, take the kitten and the toy out of it, throw out the rest, and just keep the kitten, not eat it.

Oops. UK only. I'm afraid I can't save the poor thing.

Friday, November 04, 2005

Bob Dougherty is an idiot.

Dude gets glued to a Home Depot crapper.

Who does he sue? The prankster who put the glue on the toilet seat?

No, no. He sues Home Depot, of course.

I really wish in these lawsuits, before they determine amounts, they would determine percentages of responsibility, and the winner has to collect all of the MOST responsible's amount before he can move onto the next most responsible.

In this case, the gluer's about 85% responsible, Home Depot is 10% responsible for not finding and cleaning up the situation, and Mr. Bob himself is 5% responsible for not looking before he sat down. So if the award is fifty thousand dollars, Mr. Bob has to collect $42,500 from the gluer before going after Home Depot's five thou.

Innsbruck Prof: Pick A Winner!

And now a word from the pro-nose-picking constituency:


Innsbruck-based lung specialist Prof Dr Friedrich Bischinger said people who pick their noses with their fingers were healthy, happier and probably better in tune with their bodies.

[But wait, it gets worse; Snip.]

“With the finger you can get to places you just can’t reach with a handkerchief, keeping your nose far cleaner. “And eating the dry remains of what you pull out is a great way of strengthening the body’s immune system. “


The dry remains, mind you. Beware the wet ones.

Хомер Симпсон, Антиобщественные элементы Номер один.

Remember the good ol' days, when the KGB was concerned about more important things than Homer Simpson?

Tomlinson Quits PBS.

He may have been the only voice of reason at the Система Радиовещания Публики, and now he's gone.

Assault is not a consensual act.

Believe it or not, the attention-grabber in this article for me wasn't the part where she glued his weiner to his abdomen and his buttcheeks together.

It is the bitch's inconsistency about the wrongness of her own actions. The relevant excerpt, emphasis on inconsistency mine:

O'Toole had pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault and served six months'probation, but her ex-boyfriend is now suing for damages.

O'Toole's attorney, Chuck Evans, said it was a consensual act and Slaby wasn't permanently damaged.


If it was consensual, why did she plead guilty to assault? And if it was assault, how can it be consensual?

And, inconsistency aside, they expect us to believe the guy consented to it?

Osama bin Goodman.

Vegas mayor: What happens in Vegas should get your thumb cut off on TV.

Let's see. What you've got there, Mr. Mayor, is a city that is the biggest hub of organized crime east of New York. You know, the mob -- you "used to be" their lawyer. And you want to cut off the thumbs of taggers?

Not murderers? Not rapists? Not extortionists? What, you don't want a bunch of thumbless buddies over for Thanksgiving dinner?

Paging Oliver Stone.

I'm not sure even Oliver Stone could sort out the intricacies of this conspiracy.

Apparently, City Hall is giving out my home address to anyone who wants it, because I got a visitor yesterday who said he got my address from City Hall. The thing is, they had to dig into either property tax records or the voter registration to get it, because the phone is not in my name.

Luckily, he was a friendly.

He said that he didn't know where I live, so he "went to City Hall and they told me. They know all about you."

He also made some comment akin to "They were right; you ARE a big guy."

Apparently, they are assembling a dossier on me. What they don't realize is that I've been blackballed before, and I'll survive being blackballed again. And if they go after me, I'll remind them that the desire to attack the messenger is a direct function of one's ability to attack the message.

He did tip me off to an odious thing the TCBA did -- they put one of their pro-tax signs on the lawn in front of the Baptist church on Chestnut Street, endangering the church's tax-exempt status. I don't know if that's the only church they did it to, but I wouldn't put it past this corrupt bunch to put them on every church lawn in Thayer. That's the problem with the ends-justify-the-means crowd: they always see THEIR ends as paramount.

I think what the Libertarians and capitalists need is a national way of coordinating ground troops to get out the NO vote in individual cities. In other words, go where the battles are.

And if we had some group here in Missouri to send out a survey prior to elections such as this, with postage-paid reply postcards that don't have the responder's name or address, but do have a tracking number the group can check against their database . . . I'm just thinking out loud here, so you'll have to bear with me . . .

The survey would be one question, such as "Do you intend to vote FOR or AGAINST the tax increase on the Thayer ballot November 8th?" with a box to check next to Yes or No.

When the group gets the surveys back, if the vast majority says "No," release the survey to the media. If the majority says "Yes," then the survey's for internal use.

But crosscheck the tracking number of all the "No" respondents with your database, get their phone numbers, and call them the day of the election, asking if they need a ride to the polls. And if they do, send them one.

It's called "Get Out The Vote."

I wonder how much of a hissy fit the media would throw if I suggested next Tuesday is "Get A Commie Too Drunk To Vote" Day.

The HOST "article" (I guess that's what you'd call it.)

Here's my letter to the editor, sent to several media outlets:

I have a few questions about the proposed sales tax hike on the Thayer ballot November 8th.

First, how does taking $175,000 per year OUT of the local economy and giving it to the government help the economy?

Second, the Thayer Community Betterment Association has applauded the work of a previous economic developer in bringing in funding for new downtown lighting, a water line to nowhere, a sidewalk from the school to downtown, a "tourist information center" that doesn't benefit residents and tourists don't even KNOW about, and sidewalks that don't function as sidewalks, because you have to walk IN the street until you can get to stairs to get ON the sidewalk (take a look just down the hill from the library and you'll see what I mean). The question is, how many Thayer jobs have these projects created? Because I don't see any.

Third, isn't the fact that Thayer has a lower tax rate than surrounding cities an economic PLUS? If the tax hike is approved, and I was shopping for a $20,000 car, for instance, what incentive would I have to buy it in Thayer when I could go to a nearby community and buy it and pay less in taxes on it? And the reverse is true: under the current taxes, why would someone buy a new Chevy pickup in West Plains when they can buy the same truck in Thayer and pay less in taxes?

Fourth, if economic development is the true goal of the tax, why are the Chamber of Commerce and the TCBA so insistent on passing it? If successful, wouldn't it create more competition for their businesses, both in the prices they charge and in the wages they pay? There's something they're not telling us.

Fifth, how does the fact that I have to eat and buy clothing make me responsible for paying the salary of an economic developer?

Sixth, if the mayor truly wanted economic development, would he have let his personal beef with a local resident drive him to claim he would bankrupt the city in litigation of that's what it took to keep him from opening a business?

And finally, how much money was spent on signs and mailings in support of the tax hike? Because from where I sit, it looks like that money would have gone a long way toward paying the $175,000 without a tax hike.

John Hutchison,
Thayer MO.


Here is HOST Weekly's response, with my rebuttals in red.

1) The tax is, hopefully, going to be supported by tourist by way of McDonalds and WalMart as well as the locals.

That doesn't answer the question.

2) The point of the "beautification" downtown was not intended in itself to create jobs, by rather was recommended by numerous Economic Developing Specialists as the First Step into attracting industry into the area. The Tourist Information Center" is not being opened on time because Jim hart is the only one willing to put in the time and he just doesn't have it to put in. He needs help. Know anyone interested in lending a hand?

If the point was "beautification," then why is the TCBA holding it up as a shining example of economic development? No jobs were created with these projects.

3) It is true that our tax base is lower than all of our surrounding areas, and even with this tax hike it will continue to be the lowest. therefore, the incentive has not gone away.

Not gone away entirely, but it certainly will have diminished, perhaps enough that it will no longer lure out-of-city shoppers to Thayer instead of, say, West Plains.

4) At the last Chamber of Commerce meeting (were you there?) the Thayer Bank President, Dennis Redman did the presentation of the 1/2 cent tax levy. He was there to rally the support of the community, in this case represented by the Chamber of Commerce. Did you know the average mean age of citizens in this community is over 37 yrs old. There is no future for our community nor for our youth without growth. Our children graduate and then leave because there is nothing for them here. no way to support a family. The Chamber members may be business owners by they also have families here and true concerns about this community and it's future.

As you know, I was not there. I was unaware that going to CoC meetings is a prerequisite to having an opinion. There are two very good reasons I was not there, both having to do with the restaurant where the CoC meetings are always held.

The first is that, from what I have heard, smokers are not welcome at Warm Fork Restaurant. If they don't want my smoke, they don't want my money.

The second is the fact that the CoC ALWAYS meets there. This amounts to a monopoly of the CoC's business, despite the fact that there are several other restaurants in Thayer, such as the Country Cottage and the State Line, which, although it sits on the State Line, is a Thayer business, because they sell Missouri Lottery scratch-off tickets.

5) Economic Development and Community health is the responsibility of all citizens.

What makes it the responsibility of all citizens, and not just those that want it?

6) I'm not sure specifically which business potential you are referring to. Perhaps you could be more clear about the facts of the case.

The mayor let his personal grudge with Bob Crase drive him to fight tooth and nail to keep from opening a business in Thayer. If economic development is the goal, should the city not ENCOURAGE the opening of new businesses? Whatever the merits of his beef with Crase were, he shouldn't let them override his duty to do what is good for the city.

7) I do not personally know how much was spent to promote this cause, but it is my opinion you are not familiar enough with the inner workings of this community. What I mean by that is that I feel you are asking the wrong questions.

Just what "inner workings" demand that we march in lockstep with the Chamber of Commerce? And these are the questions that interest me, so how can they be the wrong questions? When people spend twenty dollars to force me to spend ten, I have to wonder what their motives are.

From all of my responses to you, I am sure that you have concluded that I am 'for' this 1/2 cent sale tax. However, at this time, I cannot support it and would personally vote again it when it comes to ballot.

My reasons for this are NOT because I do not support Economic Development. I completely support it and realize the dangers to our community as a whole if something is not done and soon.

What I cannot abide by is a government asking for our hard earned wages in tax and them not being willing to GUARANTEE us anything in return. If I understood what Mr Redman said in the last Chamber meeting, they are asking for a tax without a real plan. I personally believe the plan should come first. Kinda like putting the cart before the horse, I think.

As I understand it, City Hall is not will to guarantee the funds will be used for what they claim they are asking them for. This seems rather, to me, like Taxation Without Representation or perhaps we should say The Thayer Tea Party.

Any of this ring a bell? I asked Mr Redman during the meeting what percentage of the tax dollars collected for this cause would be directly used to attract industry. That is when the truth came out that there was no plan as of yet and that City Hall was "hopefully" going to use the money the way we are asking them to, specifically, getting Industry into our community, not just a beautification plan. How about we get something in writing first, then take our money when we know for sure what we are actually paying for.

The tax has no sundown , either. This is a good thing, usually, because it is easier to stop a tax than it is to get it going in the first place, however, when there is nothing guaranteeing it will even be used for true development rather than many more years of beautification, I have to ask myself, who would ever agree to such a thing.

Spynot.

Found an alternative to Anonymizer.

Spynot.

It's a little clunky to figure out how to use the free, ad-supported browser, but it might let you into pages that Anonymizer won't.

Thursday, November 03, 2005

CNN: Aaron Brown was what's wrong with our network.

Aaron Brown fired.

Sure. Right. Aaron Brown was the problem.

Not Wolf Blitzer. Not Anderson "The Mole" Cooper. Not the endlessly annoying Nancy Grace.

Aaron Brown. You betcha.

I Want To . . .

Useful online stuff.

What part of "Congress shall make no law..." don't they understand?

Bill exempting blogging from campaign-finance laws defeated in the House.

Anyone have a list of who voted 'NO', so we can hold these bastards accountable?

[Update] Never mind; found it.

Ambushed.

Shouldn't I be able to use the library without being ambushed by the minions of the Thayer Community "Betterment" Association?

I wonder how long they planned this.

On a related note, I didn't call in to the radio show. I did note, however, that the one call that made it through was from a tax supporter.

Two others were "mysteriously" dropped.

Bob Eckman of the TCBA was one of the two "guests" of the radio station, which is a part of the Ozark Radio Network. He also just happens to be a member of the Management Team of the Ozark Radio Network. The ORN has to my knowledge no plans to offer opponents of the tax a similar show. He also is one of the on-air staff, which means he makes his living by speaking on the air and thinking on his feet. I wonder, did he give the TCBA free commercial time on the ORN, in addition to this program, which was essentially an hour-long commercial itself? If so, that will free up one AM preset and three FM presets on my car radio, because if that is the case, I will refuse to listen to any of ORN's stations ever again.

The whole program was set up so that the two TCBAers, one of which is an on-air personality, could gang up on callers that are against the tax. If they had made it to the air, that is. So why would I have called in, to be ambushed?

But I did learn a couple of interesting things -- farm implements are exempt from the tax, while food is not. Why is this? Only a very few people would benefit from the farm implement exemption, but EVERYONE would benefit from a food exemption. Not everyone in Thayer has to farm, but EVERYONE in Thayer has to eat.

The two PRETENDED to answer why it's not earmarked on the ballot what the tax would be used for, but gave no real answer at all. And they ignored the issue of the tax NEVER ENDING completely.

They also flat-out lied and said the city council unanimously supported passage of the tax. Yet we see in the letters to the editor of the South Missourian News that two of the councilmembers (the letterwriter and one other) do NOT support passage. They supported PUTTING IT ON THE BALLOT, which is a different thing entirely from supporting passage.

And the reason they supported putting it on the ballot? I have it on good authority that the Chamber of Commerce/TCBA, at the city council meeting where it was decided to put it on the ballot, threatened to somehow backdoor the tax increase into law WITHOUT A VOTE OF THE PEOPLE if it WASN'T put on the ballot.

Now, onto the library ambush.

What you out-of-towners need to know is that the Library, the Thayer Health Department, and a chiropractor are in the same building, owned by the family of both the librarian and the chiropractor.

So I'm sitting here searching news stories on the computer a few minutes ago, obviously busy. In walks the chiropractor, who I have seen several times a week for years but who has never before said a word to me. He has the copy of the WPDQ in which my letter to the editor appeared, in his hand.

"Did you write this letter to the editor?" he sneered. I replied that I did.

"Do you want me to give you some answers?" he continued.

I told him I was busy and had already made up my mind, then did my best to ignore him as he went ON and ON about how what I wrote wasn't accurate.

Simple questions are neither accurate nor inaccurate. They are simply questions.

A little digging reveals that the chiropractor, Dr. Mainprize, is a member of the Thayer Chamber of Commerce, the organization for which the TCBA is a front.

Eventually, I ignored him enough that he went away.

TCBA must stand for "This Can't Be Advancement."

HOST Weekly put out their edition today. Contrary to how it appeared at first, they didn't chop up my letter. I'll try to get it posted tomorrow.

Posting cut short today.

Radio show about the sales tax hike in half an hour, and I need to be at home in case there's an opportunity to call into it.

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Ah, if only it were literally true . . .

A headline from Glen Reynolds at MSNBC.com:



Note to the humor-challenged: It's a joke. As a Libertarian, I do not advocate the assassination of political figures. If it were an accident, however . . .

And these are the people who called Newt Gingrich mean-spirited.

Someone please tell Harry Reid that the floor of the Senate is not the place to throw a tantrum.

And while they're at it, they can also tell Car Eleven that it is HIS party that set the standard that the majority does not have to give the minority any consideration, during the forty years the Democrats had a stranglehold on the Congress.

Greenpeace: Enemy of the Environment.

Rainbow Warrior II smashes into coral reef.

Maybe we should send the French after them again.

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Because you can never have too many Italian-American New Jerseyans on the Supreme Court . . .


Scalia. Alito.

Next nomination?

Soprano.

Go ahead, Californians.

Surf the tsunami.

And eat the silica gel.

People who would do such things need to be thinned out a little.

If nothing else . . .

the good guys in the Thayer tax hike fight are costing the bad guys some moolah.

New radio spot out today. Says a sales tax is the fairest way to fund an economic developer.

Wrong.

The fairest way is to collect donations from those who WANT an economic developer.

The second fairest way is to cut other spending enough to fund it.

A sales tax takes money from those who have no interest in whether or not Thayer economically develops -- those that already have money, either through jobs, retirement or through welfare. If you've got money, you don't NEED economic development.

The spot also insists the city council has passed a resolution promising to spend the money collected ONLY on economic development.

Could it, or a future council, not rescind that resolution and buy parasols instead?

And has anyone considered that not being so economically developed has it's ADVANTAGES, such as a rather low cost of living?

Truculent!

A little sump'n sump'n in honor of the guys at 4x4 Pride.

Sorry, ladies. I couldn't find one in army fatigue green with brown construction boots and an Indigo Girls bumper sticker.

"Good smell" vexes New Yorkers.

It's called Febreeze, people.

But seriously, folks . . .

This reminds me of one time I was driving at night from Sturkie, Arkansas, to Moody, Missouri, to buy lottery tickets. The road is full of dips and rises. In one of the dips was this thick fog, which is not uncommon in those parts on cool nights.

What was unusual was the smell. It wasn't just a faint whiff; it was an almost overpowering stench.

And the only thing I can compare to what it smelled like was burning cotton candy.

This was several years before meth took hold in the Ozarks, so I don't think it was due to someone cooking nearby.

If women weren't involved, would it have been okay?

More fun with ABC's copy writing ability (emphasis mine):

October 30. 2005 - SUMMIT TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) - Personnel files show that seven male firefighters were dismissed from the Summit Township Fire Department following claims that they had sex with women in two department firehouses.


The NERVE of them! Sex WITH WOMEN!!!

So David Lynch says to Eraserhead . . .

... "Don't worry; be happy."

You know what would make me happy, Mr. Lynch?

A damn fine cup of coffee.

The face of Big Brother is red and furry with googly eyes.


How do you say "Fold your damn newspaper OR ELSE!" in Japanese?

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