Happy Halloween

10/31 - the #1 search term for this blog is "Halloween Sex". It's outpacing the #2 term, "Grace Slick" 10/1. This post will only fuel he fire. yay

Jesusween ?

ok - first of all, iff you're going to recreate the word, use the right parts. Make it Jesuseen or something. Not sure what's wrong with Halloween anyway since, wasn't the dude hallowed?
Anyhoo, freaks out of Calgary are promoting Jesusween and will be handing out bibles on October 31. They also want kids to wear white instead of anything ghoulish or horrorific.
uhhh….
I guess the kids can go home, cop a sugar buzz & freak themselves out reading Revelations with flashlights under their chins.
I'm really all in favor of handing out alternatives to candy on Halloween. I have handed out CDs, comic books, trading cards…..
This effort to promote a religion could have some weird consequences, tho. What if people start handing out other religious texts? Will that be ok? Or will parents launch minor neighborhood crusades going on November 1st?
oh well...

3 to Go

or ~ Holey Moley - I agree with the Fishwrap !
I think I'd give Lippert the boot, too, tho. He was nothing but a bad joke by a bitter Berding.

Live From Cincinnati

ya think Al had a hard time with Iggy? Alice was promoted (in TV Guide at least) as a female folk singer…..

Issue 48

Newsmakers to discuss Issue 48 10/30/11 @ 11AM on WKRC.

Is Pat Buchanan a Bitter Old Man ?

I haven't read Pat Buchanan's new book, Suicide of a Superpower: Will America Survive to 2025? but I have heard him hawking it on TV & the intertubes. As he bemoans the decline of white Christian America, he will, no doubt, be peppered with accusations of racism, but he fairly clearly is no thinking that way. He is pointing out that white Christians are becoming a minority & losing their clout socially & politically. He has always been in that winning majority and coupled with his advancing age, I think he is just feeling weak and is just kinda scared.

While I can go along with a lot of his assertions, he seems to be cherry picking and I'm not sure how accurate his historical timeline is. Buchanan, a Catholic, cites the role of Christianity in holding Americans together from the start. However early Americans were profoundly anti-Catholic & as late as the 1960s were somewhat prejudiced against a Catholic president. He cites the role of Christianity in building a great Europe but for the bulk of Europe's Christendom, Europe was pretty much a pit.
His belief in the
melting pot" of the early U.S. is also off base. First & second immigrants were very tribal about their nationalities but after a few generations who could tell a person of Polish origin from a person of French origin? Recognizing people of different continents is easy, tho. Thus, the tribalism remains, the stew fails & the salad wins.
In describing conservatism, he cites Russell Kirk:

A conservative’s task in society is "to preserve a particular people, living in a particular place during a particular time."

While this might work in a class based society, the U.S. is generally classless. We have no noble families or a ruling class. Here & there is a dynasty like the Bush family or the Kennedys but there's no core strain of nobility to maintain. The American politician was supposed to follow more of a Cincinnatus model. Add to that the building of the country on immigration, the original WASP foundation was bound to be replaced, eventually.
I believe the founding fathers expected the country to evolve into something different. Dunno if this i what they expected. Doubt it. But I think Pat is just pining for "the good old days" as seen through his rose tinted glasses.
Maybe I'll read it, dunno.

Issue 48 Proponents Called Out

In the past week, Issue 48 proponents have been called out for their disinformation on the subject. A COA T endorsed city council candidate was called out for the "strange assertions" he posted on FaceBook.
Then, Cincinnatians for Progress filed a complaint over Twitter posts from "GoCoast@Twitter.com". This coming on the heels of the twit making controversial posts about 9/11 first responders.
One has to wonder about the intentions of such ethically challenged people. And their supporters? After a well publicized fund raiser, they tell us they have no money? Where did it go?

Tremont City's Issue 21 imposes 12 mil property tax and eliminates a 1$ income tax.
Residents are dubious.
Noose Son story here.

Another Dead Ass Weekend

Another boring Halloween weekend. This town sucks.
Friday
The Hall of Justice will be opened up for aspiring super hero auditions.
8P-1A
The Cincinnati Zombie Walk starts at NURFC at 7:30P

Saturday
If you need some last minute Halloween decorations, check out the Hazardous Waste Drop Off at 4600 Spring Grove Ave. between 9 & 1
The Comet is hosting a Zombie Invasion with Main St. Gospel, 2 headed Dog & Victoria Electric.
Northside Tavern is hosting the Wussy CD Release Party
Mayday is celebrating their First Annual Beer & Sausage Fest
Chameleon will be Gettin Spooky Wit It
HappenInc. will be having a Monstr Mash Dance
North Presbo is having a Square Dance starting at 7:30P
Sunday
Women's Ultimate Frisbee is on at Salway Park between the sparkling Mill Creek & the spooky Spring Grove Cemetery at 10A
HappenInc. is having a Halloween Book Signing at 3P
The Northside Tea Dance starts at 4P & goes to 7P

And if that's just not enough MetroMix has a few more odds & ends for ya.

Candidates Hit the Streets in Final Weeks Before Elections

Find out where the candidates stand here.

In a move that shouldn't surprise anybody, the FUD spewing masters of misinformation at COA T have endorsed "the smart mouthed little punk" for city council. Apparently, their taste for over the top drama knows no bounds.
UPDATE: In typically melodramatic fashion, COA T endorses The Windbag, too.

Averting Carnage ?

Muskingham County Sheriff's deputies killed almost 50 "exotic" animals the other day near Zanesville, oh. It was a freak incident where the keeper, apparently mentally distraught/ill, released his menagerie & committed suicide.
While the animals posed a threat to humans they probably posed more of a threat to animals. In a small community with a lot of livestock floating around that's not a small issue. Still, it is a small community and people in smaller communities are better at pulling together in a time of emergency than larger communities. Seems people could have kept indoors and secured their pets and livestock for a short period while authorities took some time to capture the animals instead of just going head on massacring them as fast as possible. Columbus Zoo guy, Jack Hanna, said we would have had carnage otherwise. Looks like we did anyway. Zanesville could have easily drawn on animal control from Columbus, Dayton, Chillicothe, Cleveland, Akron & Youngstown. They could have had more professional help from the zoos of Cleveland, Akron, Columbus & Cincinnati. One deputy was being approached by a bear & then a lion. He had to defend himself. I get that. As the animals had been in captivity and around / dependent on humans for awhile, maybe they weren't attacking - but who the hell understands bear / lion body language in Ohio?
Meanwhile the legislation crowd is pouncing all over the opportunity to write more laws & rules.
Liberal Dennis Kucinich wants more laws. Wayne Pacelle of the radical HSUS wasted no time taking advantage of the bizarre situation. While Ohio voters elected a government dedicated to being smaller and less intrusive and to thwart HSUS involvement, WKRC viewers overwhelmingly stated they want more laws after this freak incident.
This was a strange event. The owner of the animals did what he could to maintain the animals. He had vets on call. He invested heavily in the animals. He appeared to be a strong individualist who enjoyed animals, perhaps because he saw the same trait in them. He had had complaints about his operation but that's typical. It was a BATF charge against him that landed him in jail for a year on gun charges. In that time his marriage fell apart, his wife divorcing him while in jail, and when he returned, found his animals had not been cared for as well as he would have liked. It's easy to see how the guy would be despondent and betrayed. When a person considers suicide, they aren't thinking properly. His releasing the animals was not a typical action and nothing that could be expected or legislated. Psychiatric tests for exotic animal owners? Pet owners?
One man's poor mental health should not have prompted the knee jerk reactions that prompted this massacre. The last thing we need now is knee jerk crafted legislation in the aftermath.

Occupational Hazards

Enquirer Photo
While I agree with some of the OWS myriad positions, corruption, anti-social business practices & such, I don't think their methodology is very good.
The Tease got a lot of press protesting, shouting, screaming & disrupting Democrat's "Town Hall" meetings, but then they followed the advice Michael Moore had been giving liberals for years - take over the party.
For now, however, the Occupiers have run into the most obvious problem in their strategy - they are breaking the law spending the nights in the parks. The latest ploy in Cincinnati, to say parks must be open 24/7, that it's somehow a constitutional right, is hopeless & just another distraction. By allying with the destitute and homeless, they alienate the vast majority of the 99% they claim to represent & open themselves up to cynical attacks promoting guilt by association.
Furthermore, if you want to make a statement by hanging out outside, start in the spring. Riots, even battles were ended by poor weather.
People condemn marketing and advertising as being tools of the rich and corporations but any small businessman will tell you how important it is. These people need better marketing advice. There is a huge overlap between what these people and the Tease promote but I kinda doubt both sides' real agenda. The Tease have shown their true colors and I have no doubt the Occupiers are just as astroturfed. If they fizzle out, we might never know but if they actually organazize like the Tease we will find out. Both sides have some compelling arguments but I doubt they will ever work together on their common ground which is, unfortunately for them, whre the true majority resides.
Ya really want to hose Wall Street?

50 % Of Americans Say U.S. Should Legalize Pot

For the first time, since statistics were kept in 1969, 50 % of Americans say U.S. should legalize marijuana. A whopping 70% say it should be legalized for medical use. Folks over 65 are 35% in favor.
States and cities are saddled with millions of dollars of expenses fighting a hopeless war against Marijuana that is forced on us by the Federal Government. With the tight budgets we face today, eliminating the curden of enforcing this prohibition, enabling entrepreneurship and creating a new tax revenue stream makes perfect sense. Illegal pot dealers don't rent storefronts and contribute to society. Legal ones can and can be regulated to prohibit sales to minors among other things.
Will our congress listen?
doubt it

Gallup poll here.

NPR story here.

Cincinnati's New Loop Detectors

while (light red){
bicyclist.wait;
echo "c'mon ya %$@! light, CHANGE !";
}
Cincinnati is coming up with more stuff to make bicycling a little more easy / a little more equal. Every cyclist has encountered traffic lights that are not timed but need to be "tripped" by an automobile. The problem is, the light cyclist can't do the tripping. The cyclist had one option. Walk over to a crosswalk button & hit the button then walk back to the street. Enter the new "loop detectors". When you see the above illustration on the road before an intersection, positioning your wheels onto the 2 stripes should signal the signal to give you a green light.
For more info get the poorly named PDF.
transeng_pdf44277?

WEBN is the longest running Album-Rock station in the country.
wow, what a claim.
source

Got a Favorite Presidential Candidate Yet ?
Cain? Romney? Paul? Perry? Obama? WHat the hell happened to Bachmann?
Fear not. The Libertarian convention to pick a candidate will be May 4-6, probably be on C-Span & will show off some of the rising stars of the party. The contenders so far:
Roger Gary
Carl Person
R. Lee Wrights
Wayne Allyn Root

Top 10 Halloween Costumes for 2011


1. The Zombie
2. Charlie Sheen
3. Angry Birds
4. Morph Suits
5. Superheroes
6. Smurfs
7. Pirates
8. Feathers and Frills
9. Monster High
10. Harry Potter

Mangler Post article here.

Strawberry

While Wussy will be having a CD release party 10/29 @ The Northside Tavern, you can purchase the new album for download now. OR, you can pre-order an autographed copy and still download now. Get thee hence.

Dennis Ritchie
1944 - 2011

Dennis Ritchie was best known as the creator of the C programming language and a key developer of the UNIX operating system. Basically, the reason you can see this is because of his innovation.

Those tools were more than inventive bundles of computer code. The C language and Unix reflected a point of view, a different philosophy of computing than what had come before.

NYT bio here.

dmr's Bell Labs page here

Zombie Attack

Well, actually the zombie was attacked.
Pretty much a non-story, seems only the online Examiner covered it, a man dressed as a zombie Mohammed in a Halloween parade in Mechanicsburg, PA was attacked by a Muslim hothead. The guy dressed as a zombie pope (looking for little boys) went unmolested. Both were, apparently part of an Atheist group.
To say they were not trying to be provocative would be a stretch. The victim was filming the whole way. Judging by his ability to loudly and clearly proclaim, "He's choking me!" indicates he was not too severely attacked.
But, now, what do the parade organizers do? This was a parade on a public street. Do they ban costumes depicting religious figures? Do they ban the Atheist group? Either way, people would say they were caving to Muslims and tacitly endorsing Sharia Law. What PC do they wanna be?
IMHO, the zombie Mo (& zombie pope) & the Muslim attacker were both assholes. The Muslim guy was clearly out of line, tho, in the USA - the fist swinging ends at my nose sorta thing…. But the Atheist organization was kinda out of line being controversial in what was probably supposed to be a fairly benign community event.
It would be interesting to see who showed up at a zombie celebrity gathering, tho.

The story from Atlas Shrugs.

Contempt or Cowardice ?
Suppose you had a candidate forum and one party just refused to show up?
An environmentally themed group is hosting a candidate forum, "Greening Cincinnati: A Candidates' Forum" tonight from 5P to 8P at the Northside Tavern at 4163 Hamilton Ave. in Northside. Not one of the GOP endorsed candidates are planning to attend. To be fair Republicans running as independents or Charterites are showing up. Is good stewardship of God's green Earth so repugnant or insignificant to these fine conservatives that they can't face such a forum?

Attending:
Mike Allen R/I
Kathy Atkinson I
Chris Bortz R/C
Nicholas Hollan D
Patricia McCollum I
Roxanne Qualls D/C
Laure Quinlivan D
Jason Riveiro D
Chris Seelbach D
Yvette Simpson D/C
PG Sittenfeld D
Cecil Thomas D
Wendell Young D

Handy Voting Guide

Horror Sells Part 2
~or~
Revenge of Horor Sells
~or~
Son of Horror Sells
~or~
Revenge of the Son of Horror Sells
~or~
It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Halloween

Is FedEx poised to be the next ZomCon?
Politicians are getting their ads out on TV, mailers, robocalls, and who knows what else. What's scarier? Brain-eating rotting undead? Or soul sucking, brain-killing corpo-politician zombies?
I'm tellin' ya - horror sells.
UPDATE yeesh, no sooner do I post this & Ace Hardware goes all zombie, too.

Horror Sells Part 1.

Vamps
Deadly Dreamgirls

The local Fishwrap recently ran a poll asking what your favorite locally made film was. As usual, they missed Vamps - Deadly Dreamgirls made in 1995 by Mark Burchett & Michael D. Fox.
The movie is about a guy, Paul Morris, on the eve of his entering the priesthood, running into an old high school friend, Jennifer Huss, who is working in a strip club. Turns out the club is a front for vampire strippers aided by a creepy Charles Cooper and under the domain of Lorissa McComas.

Huss and Morris
Naturally, Morris has to rescue his old crush from the evil vampire sisterhood.
The movie lists locations Trixie's Delight's Cocktail Lounge of Newport, KY, a Little Professor Bookstore in Milford, OH and the Wildwood Inn of Florence, KY.

And of course the Ohio River.

The soundtrack includes tunes by Steve Gatch and The Mortals.
The movie spawned a sequel, Blood Sisters, also featuring Morris & Amber Newman.
It's a shame the Enquirer omitted this masterpiece since they explicitly thank the paper in their credits. That might have had something to do with cleaning up spills, tho.

Karma

In an interesting turn of events, Ohio was denied $1.5M in federal funds for a feasibility study regarding privatising state highways. The money had previously been OKd. ODOT's Jerry Wray claims the reversal was politics. He should know. In the spring his department yanked previously OKd funds for a Cincinnati rail project.
Prior to that, Ohio's governor Kasich had refused federal funds for a state wide rail project & referred to proponents as rail cultists. It appears the concrete cultists won't be getting any more money to hand out to their consultant cronies this year.

Frogtown Noose Son story here.

Happy WZD Y'All !

History

2 dozen?

Seriously? And the politicians supporting Issue 48 don't even show up? Smitherman, Winburn, Ghiz, Murray, Mills couldn't even be bothered? Shannon Jones was busy calling people outside her district to badger them in SB5, so I get that, but the rest of 'em?
Maybe they knew that WXIX would be there & they didn't want the bad publicity that would come from being seen with this fringe group.
NOTE: The picture above is not meant to play the "Nazi card", the guys in the pic just happen to be Nazis.

Monocle story here.

Northside Porch Tour

WLWT at the 2009 tour
and then a bunch of other junk
Saturday, October 1 from 6-9PM, experience the biennial Northside Porch Tour.
Over one-hundred porches will be featured in this tour showcasing one of the most unique architectural elements of the Northside Community. Traveling along the route, you will receive a visual and narrative historical perspective of the overall streetscape featuring houses with period porches built circa 1890 thru 1940. Ride on a 20-person horse drawn carriage along the route elegantly lit by 1,000's of luminaries for a measly $3.
Tours start at the Security Fence Co. @ 4260 Dane Avenue where there will be grub & jams.
Meanwhile, Over the Avenue at the C&D @ 1714 Hanfield Ave, The Cincinnati Rollrgirls will be hosting a Steak Out steak dinner fundraiser beginning at 6PM.
ALSO
From 10A to 4P, 1650 Glen Parker will be open as part of the Green Energy Ohio Tour. It is a solar powered LEED certified home.
As usual, Northside is the place to be.

Barbe Cue for Mayor !

BarBe Cue, spokesmannequin for KT's Barbecue & Deli in picturesque Reading, OH, has thrown her hat into the ring to be mayor of the city. Or somebody has, dunno if she can really throw anything.
Given the calibre of politicians the Democrats & Republicans have been giving us of late, throwing some votes to a mannequin might wake up these clowns. Doubt it. But what the heck, Blogging Isn't Cool (tho not a Readingite) supports Ms Cue in her bid against "Bo"…..

Porktown Fishwrap story here.

The ApocalypseEV-1

You know the drill. You're pumping gas, on the run, keeping an eye out for zombie gas station attendants, you think you got it under contral when -BAM- some fuckin' zombie sneaks up behind you & is trying to gnaw on your spleen & you have to resort to hand to hand combat with some damn stinking rotting reanimated motherfucker.
Of course that's only a short term problem since, after the zombie apocalypse, gas production is slowly going to go down the drain & then it's bicycle time.
Or is it ?
Enter Mike & Kenny with the Apocalypse EV1 - an electric car with solar panels to charge the long lasting battery. This bad boy has it all. With a 2WD model clocking in at 20HP and a 4WD packing 40HP, this is the silent running all terrain getaway for you.
This sucker is packing:

• 2wd / 20hp
• Wheel Mounted Motors
• 40 W Solar charging
• Built in Wall Charger
• Deep Cycle Batteries
• 5 Point Safety Harnesses
• Roll Cage
• $5-8k Price Point
• Options:
• 4wd / 40 hp
• EMP Hardened Electronics
• High Grade Solar Cells
• Extended Range Batteries
• Locking Trunk

These guys also market an electric chainsaw with solar chargers. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be an option to mount the thing onto the front or sides of the vehicle. An optional HMGT mount on the roof would be pretty sweet, too.

Popular Mechanics article here.

WYSO to Boost Power

WYSO, 91.3, Antioch College's radio station since 1958, will be boosting their power from 37,000 watts to 50,000 giving Cincinnatians a better chance of hearing their volunteer programming.
Porktowners are well acquainted with the volunteer community radio concept nowadays due to WAIF, started decades ago by WYSO veterans.

Frogtown Noose Son story here.

Taxation Without Representation
Residents in the communities surrounding Cincinnati who derive their income from jobs in Cincinnati complain that they have no say in Cincinnati politics even though they pay income taxes for their Cincinnati derived income. Many, if not all Ohio cities tax this way. Most foreign countries do as well. Locally, many of these outlying non-resident workers are Cincinnati expatriates.
They complain bitterly that, like the colonial patriots who fomented a war for independence from England cited taxation without representation as a major cause for their displeasure, are asking for nothing more or less.
Let's take a closer look.
The American colonies were originally chartered to people and groups by the king. That is, they were essentially businesses / corporations that would receive some nominal political and military support from the crown. England knew that expanding their empire by strictly militaristic means would bankrupt the kingdom and they saw this as a more economical way of expanding the empire. The colonists saw themselves as patriotic Britons engaged in in patriotic endeavors. They saw themselves increasing the wealth & power of England and spreading the philosophies & culture of their great country. These companies were in America, Jamaica & India, the most notorious being the East India Company.
The taxation without representation thing arose from onerous restrictions and taxes put exclusively on the American colonies. The restrictions and taxes were levied by Parliament although Parliament had not been involved in their charters in the first place. The colonists saw their societies as under the crown but not really under Parliament - maybe parallel? Scotland, Ireland & Wales had all been granted seats in Parliament since American colonization had started but the proximities of those lands made participation in the body much more practical than far off lands like the Americas & India.
The people who lived and worked in Cincinnati & opted to move their residences out of town in the second half of the 20th century were not seeking to expand the borders of Cincinnati. They were not inclined to expand the wealth or spread the philosophies of Cincinnati. Many actually cite a preference to live outside of the city and abandon that society. In the pre 20th century model of American cities, this move away from the city center by the wealthy was expected and the cities just grew by annexing the newly developed areas. This was expected and the wealthy residents fairly knew it was coming and appreciated the services they gained by being part of the city. Granted, this wasn't 100%.
These people moving away did so on their own. They had no compact with the mayor or whomever.
Actually, for a historical context, these people who derive their wealth from one community, manipulate it's politics, and hurry away with the wealth as soon as possible, probably have less in common with pre-Revolutionary War patriots and much more in common with post-Civil War carpetbaggers. Doubtless, many of these people are probably Republicans, too.
Should they have a say in Cincinnati politics?
Again, the problem is to figure out how. As long as they express allegiance to their townships, villages & cities of residence, I don't see how, other than bankrolling moles in the city.
They really need a new argument, tho.

Anybody But Chabot
Edmund Burke, father of conservatism, stated in Reflections on the Revolution in France, regarding the assembly of representatives in the new government,

"Judge, Sir, of my surprise when I found that a very great proportion of the assembly (a majority, I believe, of the members who attended) was composed of practitioners in the law. It was composed, not of distinguished magistrates, who had given pledges to their country of their science, prudence, and integrity; not of leading advocates, the glory of the bar; not of renowned professors in universities; — but for the far greater part, as it must in such a number, of the inferior, unlearned, mechanical, merely instrumental members of the profession. There were distinguished exceptions, but the general composition was of obscure provincial advocates, of stewards of petty local jurisdictions, country attornies, notaries, and the whole train of the ministers of municipal litigation, the fomenters and conductors of the petty war of village vexation."

Sound like anybody?
How about Steve Chabot? yup. Fits the dude to a T.
That people think this guy is some kinda good conservative representative is mind blowing (if you don't take into account the subjugation of the Republican party by poorly read, simple southern Democrat types seduced by Ronald Reagan's Hitleresque advances, exalting their ignorance while condemning intellectuals, experts & the worldly).
To this end I have moved a page from the hated FaceBook to Blogger, Anybody But Chabot, an aggregate kinda page for documenting all the dumb shit the asshole does and to promote any candidate who challenges him, be they Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Green, Independent, Tory, Whig, Know Nothing. Islamic Brotherhood, I don't care. I'll support a SHERO candidate over this career politician.

COA$$$T
COA T, in their support of police & fire unions as well as big pharma & prosthetic manufacturers continues it's campaign of fear mongering and lies to prevent the use of red light cameras. Instilling the fear that such devices house Stalin channeling homuncululi, they also provide a cartoon that misrepresents the purpose of the yellow light and typically, for these guys, tosses in a good bit of violence to boot.
As with most of COA T's irresponsible proposals, costs to governments would go up and costs to citizens would go up in both cash & life.

Can Zombies Dance ?

Can zombies sing? With Shaadi of the Dead, Bollywood enters the zombie movie milieu. Bollywood movies are frequently peppered with lavish dance scenes and poorly lip-synced singing. How the zombie wedding crashers will pull this off will be interesting but probably entertaining.

Genelia D'Souza

MensXP story here.

Wormfood
While Ohio refuses to allow open air cremation & water cremation, a new body disposal system has been created by Swedish entrepreneur Susanne Wiigh-Mäsak. She touts it as eco-friendly as her freeze drying process turns the body into fertilizer.

"This ecological alternative to cremation or conventional burial involves freezing the body to minus 18 degrees before being submerged in liquid nitrogen. The then very brittle corpse is turned into a fine powder by a short vibration of specific amplitude, removing the 70 per cent water component from the remains by so-called freeze drying followed by burial in a biodegradable box made from corn starch in a shallow grave."

How long will Ohio drag it's heels on this one? Another chance to reduce government intrusion in our lives & offer Ohioans more choice & allow more products for the funeral industry likely to go unheeded.

Irish Times story here.

Apocalyptic Cult? Lunatic Fringe?

Is the GOP/Tea Party an apocalyptic cult of lunatics?
A veteran Capitol hill staffer, Mike Lofgren suggests it.
Matt Taibbi, over at Rolling Stone, Seems to think so.
But that's just opinion. What I found interesting was a recent report from the Brookings Institute showing centrists slightly more aligned with the Left and Democrats than the mainstream Republican party and a total disconnect from the majority of Americans by Fox News watchers & Tea Baggers. Their report focuses on social perceptions & fairly ignores economic issues but over and over the far right is completely out of whack with centrists, Independents and frequently pretty divorced from mainstream Republicans. For all their bluster about the "Far Left", that category is the absolute smallest of any category in the bunch. That is, the vast left wing conspiracy just ain't there.
Of course, the fanatical nationalist, religionist Tease will likely just say the study proves the conspiracy does exist, tho. It's part of the territory.

Jim Steranko

Cincinnati doesn't get many luminaries these days. Sure Charlaine Harris, Jimmy Buffet, some worn out heavy metal bands - but no Cormac McCarthyies, no Wozniacs, no Doc Horrors….
The Cincinnati Comic Expo will be in town this weekend, and although their big guest of honor isn't a comic guy at all but a film producer, Michael E. Uslan, they are also bringing in Jim Steranko. Maybe that should be Jim fucking Steranko
This dude fairly revolutionized comics around 1970. He's not a genius or anything, he's probably more akin to a god.
This is what comics looked like before Steranko (BS)

This is what they looked like after Steranko (AS)

Steranko brought a cinematic quality to comics which kinda makes sense since comic books are essentially storyboards. That is, all movies are made from comic books. He introduced graphic elements to a graphic medium that previously ignored it's graphicness and surrealism to a medium that's pretty surreal to begin with. He introduced multimedia collage psychedelics & got creative with moiré patterns with Zip-a-Tone screens.He also brought a mature noireness. The mature part certainly got him in trouble a couple times.
This page was controversial. Not only were there no word balloons or bam pow sound effects, it was too racy

Check out the last and next to last panel. They had to be changed to meet the Comics Code.
Original

Published

Steranko's time in comic book production didn't last long, he's done a lot of covers over the years and been involved with other areas of the comic book industry as well as film and animation work.


More on Steranko here at The Drawing of Jim Steranko, including "wallpaper".

Steranko's website which appears to just be a placeholder.

Fishwrap story about the convention.

Cincinnati - Not a Boxing Town ?
While various people about town promote the merits of boxing, it appears Cincinnatians aren't too interestd in pro boxing. A recent event, Strikeforce World Grand Prix: Barnett vs. Kharitonov, only drew about 2,000 fans. The guy running Club Ritz, a boxing supporter, draws that many people to his parking lot after hours on weekends.
I heard nothing of this event but I tend to ignore sports. The Fishwrap had a couple articles about it and about a half dozen blog posts. The promoter claims to have saturated the media. I saw nothing on TV.
The promoter has no plans to return to the Queen City.
The poor showing makes me wonder how Dale Mallory's proposed green pizza boxing arena would have fared.

Noose Son story here.

9 10 11

Photo via Masque Hysteria
What to do on this numerically unique day (in the U.S.A.) ?
duh…..
Get yer arse to Northside!
EXCITING SHIT ALL DAY LONG !!!
Household Hazardous Waste Drop-Off
9:00 Am - 1:00 PM
4600 Spring Grove Avenue
For information 513- 946-7700

Mill Creek Clean Up
9:00 AM - 1:00 PM
Salway Park Parking Lot
Spring Grove Avenue @ Crawford
For information and registration 513-708-2249
or info@millcreekrestoration.org

Heal Your Legacy, Free Your Children: a Workshop for Individuals Born into Families!
10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
The Dharma Center
15 Moline Street
For information 513-591-2942
or annebbecker@gmail.com

Wesleyan Cemetery Tour
1:00 PM
Wesleyan Cemetery
4003 Colerain Avenue
For information & reservations (required) 513-542-2909

Cincinnati Folk Dancers
2:00 PM
Cumminsville branch of the Cincinnati Public Library
For information 513-369-4449
or Sarah.Schellenger@cincinnatilibrary.org

7th Annual Lantern Lighting Event
5:00 - 8:00 PM
Spring Grove Cemetery
Spring Grove Avenue

Northside Second Saturday
6:00 - 10:00 PM
Hamilton & Spring Grove Avenues
For information info@fabnorthside.com

Bluebelles: Lifetime Portraits from the Mid 20th Century
6:00 PM
Fabricate
4037 Hamilton Avenue
For information 513-407-6057
or chris@fabnorthside.com

Maurice Mattei and Claire Timmerman
10:00 PM
The Comet
4579 Hamilton Avenue
513-541-8900

Tonefarmer and Goose
10:00 PM
Northside Tavern
4163 Hamilton Avenue
For information 513-542-3603
or northsidetavern@gmail.com

Queen City Cookies Art Camp
sometime
Fergus Park
For information 513-335-1067

Boozing My Religion
sometime
Mayday
4227 Spring Grove Avenue
For information 513-541-0999

Second Saturday will have a number of businesses staying open late including:
Take the Cake which will be serving dinner.
And then there's these guys
Fabricate
Prairie
Thunder-Sky, Inc.
NVISION
Chicken Lays an Egg
Sidewinder
Cryptogram Ink
American Can (soon!)
Northside Surplus
Sweet Peace Bakery
Melt
Picnic and Pantry
Northslice
Happen Inc.
Chameleon
Ko-Sho Japanese Restaurant
3 Legged Dog Yoga Collective
The Painted Fish
Skincraft
Taylor Jameson Hair Design
Shake It Records
Ruttle & Neltner Florist
Shop Therapy
ALSO
While not on the "official" list of participants, these guys will be hawking' their stuff into the evening, too.
NYPD

Car Culture

What happens when you have a car adducted centric culture? You go crazy. You think you have to drive. And many people let their dependence on cars paint them into a corner, making them truly dependent.
The Dayton Daily News reports that 20% of fatal car crashes involve people driving with suspended drivers licenses.

Nearly 1 million Ohio residents have a suspended license; many having multiple suspensions at a time — the average is 2.8 per driver, according to Lindsey Bohrer, public information officer for the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles.

People just gotta drive. It seems necessary to live. It seems to be a right.
But,

Lt. Anne Ralston, public affairs commander for Ohio Highway Patrol said, "Driving is a privilege and licensed drivers are required to go through testing, a renewal process, and have insurance."

How do people get their licenses suspended? It's not just bad driving. In fact, there are 46 ways you can get a suspension - not all of them involve driving. One really dumb way is to not pay child support. Dunno how that helps matters. 116,000 suspensions in Ohio come from drug possession with or without car in the picture.

The federal government requires states to suspend your license if you’re convicted of a drug offense, but a state’s governor and legislature can opt out by certifying that they oppose such a law, something Ohio leaders have not done.

Hard to believe our current legislature & administration wouldn't opt out of this - they are so eager to sever ties with D.C. & give us smaller less intrusive government & all.
It just shows how much of an addiction it is. Like a dope dealer teasing an addict by withholding his fix, the government teases people by withholding their driving privileges.
Are you an addict?
Do you avoid going places where you cannot smoke?
Do you avoid going places where you cannot drink?
Do you avoid going places where you cannot park your car?

The Third Dimension

Back in 1972, Ed Catmull was at the University of Utah with other notable slackers, Fred Parke, James H. Clark, John Warnock and Alan Kay, when he cooked up this. I think I am going to draw polygons all over myself this Halloween. Anyway, these nerds seem to have done OK.
For more on the history of this clip NerdPlusArt.

One More Thing About Chabot & Cameras…
Not to flog a dead horse, but it's kinda interesting that Steve Chabot is so concerned about preserving people's privacy when he supported renewing the fairly unconstitutional surveillance initiatives in the Patriot Act.
Or should I say the "Small Business Additional Temporary Extension Act"?

Story here.

Mumbo Jumbo Rhubarb Rhubarb

The Oppourtunist Candidate

The Model Police Force
As the specter of diminishing revenue spreads it's shadow over Cincinnati's safety departments we need to look at matters objectively and see how we got here in the first place.

In this chart you can see how police staffing has changed over the years in comparison to the city's population (measured in hundreds). While the population crested around 1950, the police force has only continued to grow with a few hiccups along the way. (Officers were laid off in 1977 due to a tax levy failure only to be hired back in 1979.) Through most of the city's history police levels were around 1 per 600 residents. That trend changed about the time the population began to decline giving us a ratio of more than 1 officer per 300 residents. Many people want even more police (but haven't proposed new taxes to pay for them).
So what's happened since the middle of the 20th century?

Actual calls for service have actually been in decline.
One change has been the rise of the automobile. Around 1940-50, car ownership per household moved over the 50% mark. Besides creating a whole new class of criminal, the auto has created a whole new set of safety issues previously unknown to man. The modern automobile with it's luxurious confines also puts passengers in a steel and glass bubble that isolates them from the communities they are in (when they are not on isolated special roadways). Add to that, the sensationalistic, distorted, fear mongering pumped through car radios to their isolated audiences and you can see some serious attitudinal adjusting.

Television came onto the scene around that time, too. People could get entertainment at home that they had previously had to go to public places to enjoy. Couple this new bit of isolation with TV news that has increasingly been geared towards entertainment & sensationalism and perception of reality just gets more distorted and fantastic.
Then, of course, there's the decline in population itself. One looks around and doesn't see the familiar faces. The familiar businesses close down. Landmarks are demolished. Cincinnati has also seen it's neighborhoods split and blighted by highways further alienating remaining residents from their environment.
There's also the "bulge" of baby boomers who re aging & dying. Where once a powerful bloc in society, their influence is beginning to wane. An aging white population is slowly being replaced with a younger black population exacerbating the "generation gap" with a "culture gap" as well.
Could it be that the "need" for so many police is really just a reaction to fear borne of isolation, insecurity, alienation and a world view distorted by a sensationalistic fear mongering media?

A lot of the info here was found at The Greater Cincinnati Police Historical Society Museum site.

Historical Perspectives
In the recent dust up with a local Catholic girls school trying to host an interfaith outreach potluckk, a lot of moronity has been raised. Dan Hurley, a local historian amongs about a dozen other hats, posted a LTE in the local Fishwrap discussing the social position of Catholics in America in the mid 1800s.
Hurley notes:

A newspaper entitled the "Anti-Papist," published in Cincinnati in 1846-47 with contributions from Harriet Beecher Stowe and other prominent citizens, stated clearly, it opposed "the principles of Papacy as both anti-Christian and anti-Republican."

An easy entertaining way to get an idea of what was going on would be to watch "Gangs of New York". That crap wasn't just in New York. It was thriving in the midwest as well. source and source.
We quit celebrating Guy Fawkes/Pope Day (with the burning of the Pope in effigy) because George Washington needed every ale man he could muster for the Revolution and that meant the few Catholics who served, too. King George was frequently represented in league with the Pope, as Anti-Christ like figures around the time of the Revolution.
When I see the Catholic Church behave in the small minded way they did at MoM, I wonder if the anti-Papist movement didn't have merit.

Full letter here.

Tandy Ad - 1982

Send in the Drones
Residents in the Springfield - Dayton area might be getting a sneak peek at the end of the world soon if legislators approve the airspace for rat brain controlled stealth assault drones. Estimates are for 1,000 new jobs - well, till they are replaced by robots.

Read all about it here.

Video by CincyStreetcar Blog

Chabot Wood
Mother of Mercy, a Catholic girls high school in Westwood, has backed out of hosting an interfaith Ramadan dinner at the school Friday night.
Instead, the dinner will be held in the Catholic Center at St. Monica-St. George Parish in University Heights.
After the "Cameragate" incident at Steve Chabot's Last "town hall" appearance it's interesting to contrast the neighborhoods' differences in tolerance and to think about how intolerant Westwood is overwhelmingly supportive of Chabot while diverse University Heights is probably at best, luke warm to the guy.
Westwood - take your small minded ignorant hatred & secede. And take combover boy with ya.

Fishwrap story here.

Cut the Damn Camera

It appears Representative Steve Chabot is all about controlling the message. In typical lawyerly fashion, he wants no documentation of his public appearances. Why? What's he afraid of? That he might be exposed for being the lame wildebeest that he is?

Cabaret Voltaaire's Cut the Damn Camera.

It's Official
The government has declared itself, it's agents and agencies not culpable. Message from Deters - "Don't even try suing us"
Still no word from the witness. Still no identification of the "psychedelic" mushrooms.
SSDD
Retread Fishwrap story here
WCPO's non story here
WKRC's shallow story here
WLWT's video of Deters moving his lips here
Here's a guy explaining how to attack a police officer. Think about his movements if he were extremely drunk.

1969 OK

Johnny Lytle

Watching an older person grapple with senility & dementia can appeal to one's more cynical sense of humor but when the affliction strikes a loved one the response usually is not that one. It's stricken members of my family & we have been adamant about protecting our loved ones from the humiliation of a cynical public. One of the most famous cases in this regard was Nancy & Ronald Reagan. When the ex-president's mind gave way, Nancy Reagan almost militantly shielded her husband from the cynical public.
While COA T's amoral and opportunistic exploitation of former Cincinnati councilman, mayor and congressman Tom Luken is pretty depraved, it's not to be unexpected. This has led to Luken challenging Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory to a series of televised debates. Luken forgot about his last scheduled television appearance on Newsmakers. Does the man deserve the public humiliation? I am sure some past political opponents would relish it, Mallory has no taste for it, but the question is - where the hell is the Luken family?

Springfield In Top 5 Again
The Springfield News Sun reports that Site Selection Magazine has ranked Springfield, OH, #5 as an area for economic development for cities between 50,000 & 200,000.
While Springfield has slipped a little. This is the third year in a row it has been in the top 5. Dayton and Cincinnati have usually ranked well in their population categories.
In other pointless list news, they also have Ohio at #10 in their top 10 states.

Previously

Dilemma at the Fishwrap

As the Porktown Fishwrap's print edition sales fall, they have opted to using a smaller and more appropriate tabloid format. An easy solution for the newer size restraints would be to move to a 5 or 6 point font but therein lies the rub. Most of the people who still read the paper paper are increasingly in need of 14, 16 & 18 point (preferably bold) type.
what to do, what to do…..
With any luck they will adopt the Page Three Girl. At any rate, the smaller format will be more convenient to use on the streetcar.

Can You Spot the Difference ?

Over the years people ask about the proposed Cincinnati Streetcar system - What's any different about the streetcar and dressing up a bus like NOKY's Southbank Shuttle? I dunno. Do YOU see anything remotely different?

What do these guys have in common?
Ace Hardware, Clifton
Ace Hardware, Northside
Adrian Durbin Florist
Algin Office Equipment
Ambar India
American Apparel
American Heritage Flooring
Amol India
Antonelli Institute of Art
Apna India
Aquarius Star
Aronoff Center
Arby's
Arlin's
Baba Budan's
Bacall's
Bagel Brothers
Below Zero Lounge
Biagio's Bistro
The Blue Jay
Bruegger's Bagels
Cadillac Ranch
Campus Cyclery
Chameleon
Check Smart
Chicago Gyro
China Kitchen
Chipotle
Cincinnati Main Library
Clifton library
Clifton Natural Foods
Clifton Post office
Clifton Wines
College Hill Coffee
The Comet
Contemporary Arts Center
CVS
Darou Salam
Donato's Pizza
Ellanet
Esquire Theatre
Extreme Fashions
Good Samaritan Hospital
Goodie's Barbecue
Graeter's
Grammer's
Greg's Antiques
The Grove
Habaneros
Hamilton County Court House
Happen
Harry's Bar & Pizza
Hazel Glas
Honey
Javier's ~ or whatever it's called now
Jeff Ruby's Steakhouse
Jerusalem Restaurant
KFC/Taco Hell
Kilamanjaro
KoSho
La Rosa's
Lenhardt's
Mac's Pizza
Main Event
Mediterranean Foods
Melt
Mishiella's
Mixx
MOTR Pub
Murphy's Pub
Nada
Naru
National City Bank
Nicholson's
Northside Bar
North Side Bank & Trust
Northside library
Northside Tavern
NorthSlice
NVision
NYPD
Ohio Book Store
Ohio Check Cashers
Olive's
Park & Vine
Park Chili
Penn Station
Picnic & Pantry
PNC Bank
Proud Rooster
Richter & Phillips
Rohs Street Cafe
Schaeper's Pharmacy
Schwartz's Point
Shadeau Breads
Shake It Records
Shell Gas
Sidewinder Coffee
Sitwell's Coffee House
Skyline
Some Clothing Store in Clifton
Some Jewelry Store in Clifton
Starbucks's
Subway
Sophia's
Take the Cake
The Tax Place
Taylor Jameson
Thai Cafe
Thai Express
Tink's
Toko Baru
U.C.
White Castle

Yep, if you want a burrito, a coffee, listen to jazz, rock, bluegrass or maybe just get a master's degree - it's all available on Metro's RT 17.
~ and, yeah, I know the list isn't complete….

Searching old Newspapers
ok, this is probably old news to everybody else but it's pretty cool. Google has scans of some old newspapers at Google Newspapers. It's not a lot. No Cincinnati or Dayton but a little Springfield, some Covington, 35 years of Urbana & a damn century of Portsmouth.
Springfield Daily News 1861-2
Covington Journal 1849-76
Champaign Democrat (Urbana, OH) 1887-1916
The Urbana Democrat 1913-1915
The Urbana Daily Democrat 1915-1922
Portsmouth Daily Times 1900-2004

Attendance at Hamilton County Fair Almost Doubles

Photos from the HCF FaceBook site
Meanwhile neighboring fairs had decreases in attendance along the lines of almost 20%. Still, the Fishwrap has to grouse about it.
oh, yeah, a goat was born there last week (at the fair - not the Enquirer).

The Road to Hell
My name is Chris and I'll be your driver

In the latest episode of the Sillyman Hour on Time Warner Local Access Cable, Smitherman wanders a residential area of Avondale bemoaning all the vacant abandoned housing. Besides breaking into the Mr Rogers theme repeatedly he tries linking the blight to a proposed health clinic (shot down by Smitherman's Republican comrades) and the proposed streetcar.
I agree that the buildings need to be occupied & so does the city. The city's law department has been vexed with banks like Wells-Fargo & Deutsche Bank and their cavalier handling of their properties.
Smitherman has a plan, tho, and as he repeatedly states, "It's not rocket science". The city should use eminent domain to seize the properties and then sell them to responsible people for $1 each.
He doesn't mention that the government is required to compensate property owners a fair value for their properties & that the process is long and costly. He also ignores the fact that his plan is unconstitutional. Remember the (other) Gamble House that did get saved in Norwood? You can't use eminent domain to transfer property from one owner to another.
The city can, however, use infrastructure to make places more convenient to live in. That's the core of the streetcar plan that Smitherman so despises as bringing in new residents is characterized as gentrification. Wouldn't that be the result of his unconstitutional plan for Avondale? Or maybe the issue is the right people.

And the First Salvo is Fired

The Fishwrap, AKA the Area Around Cincinnati Enquirer has fired off it's first doom & gloom article about the Hamilton County Fair, which runs from today through Saturday, complete with 29 black & white photos shot during the 50s & 60s. Probably the last time they sent a reporter. Many of the pictures, like above, showing empty stands. The black & white subtly indicating the event is old & out of date. The lack of highlights indicates dark, murky undesirability.
waytogoboys…..

Read all about it here

Diversity for Dollars

NPR had an article about Hollywood Heroes Losing the Fight for Diversity with author John Ridley. Ridley complained that the various movie adaptations of white comic book characters should replace those characters with Black & Hispanic actors to kinda mix it up & get a more diverse audience.
Ridley suggests:

"But for a real leap, how about casting Will Smith as Superman; Denzel Washington as Superman's father, Jor-El; and Michelle Rodriguez as Lois Lane? I guarantee you non-stop chatter until the film opens."

A kind of stereotype there I think. Black males & Hispanic females...
Ya want real flips John? How about Gina Torres as General Georgette Patton portrayed as a vampire prostitute that preys on children? How about a hard drinking, hard fighting, hard loving, gun totin' Mother Theresa played by Tom Selleck? How about Brad Pitt as Dutty Boukman?
Or howabout you do what Robert Rodriguez did & create your own damn hero as in Machete? Or Disney with The Incredibles?
If your aim is parody, fine. Weapon Brown and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies were both great as parodies. If you want to do an adaptation, do it straight. I think maybe Ridley has been in Hollywood too long.
As Bruce Campbell pointed out:

"If you go to Hollywood, you've already sold out. By the sheer act of going there, you're saying, 'I need to go there because this is the only way I can get my movie made.' Baloney! Indiana's the place to make your movie. Pontiac, Michigan. Whatever. Then you're just making it on the merits of the movie."

.
Disney knows that it's characters are it's main asset. Ya don't fuck with 'em. Valerie D'Orazio brought this up on her now locked down blog, The Occasional Super Heroine. If Marvel or DC want to piss away their characters (and Marvel definitely seems to) that's their choice. The comic book reader is pretty conservative, tho, and while the illiterate popular movie audience may go for it today, it's not a good long term strategy. If you just want some money for your next fix, whoring could be the way to go. I suggest getting creative, however.

Die You Zombie Bastards

Die You Zombie Bastards (2005), is quite simply a masterpiece of film making. Red needs to find his wife, Violet, after count Nefarious kidnaps her to be his queen in a world where he has transformed the population of Earth into mindless zombie slaves. Helping to reunite the cannibal couple is Hasil Adkins in his dramatic debut as Red's sensei. Jamie Gillis delivers a blockbuster finale as Stavros, the mysterious man who aids Red along the way.
Paired with a powerful soundtrack by top recording artists, this globe trotting action adventure is bound to thrill and delight.

Support your local newspaper.
Piss off Jeff Ruby.

Return of the Brownshirts?

photo by CSPAETHC
One of the things I like about the blogosphere is that it gives the "man on the street" a chance to self publish & then the interconnectedness of the intertubes has a viral component that kinda resembles an anarchist AP.
Originally published at CincyVoices by CSPAETHC. He witnessed a campaign worker sporting a Chris Smitherman shirt collecting signatures & then emptying a news box of City Beat papers and depositing them in a nearby trashcan. The edition of the City Beat had this article taking Smitherman to task for recent political positions. Smitherman, who is president of a Cincinnati chapter of the NACP has taken a number of positions that seem to run contrary to mainstream & national NAACP positions.
The result to CSPAETHC's post is that it spread like wildfire through the local blogosphere. It's been repeated at The Cincinnati Blog, The Cincinnati Asylum & Metro Cincinnati as well as on local message boards.
I'm no pro editor so I don't know if this merits MSM coverage. The Fishwrap's Politics Extra Blog seems well suited. The Asylum demands Smitherman give City Beat an apology. There are a number of ways Smitherman can get out of this but they all require that he address the issue. Ignoring it could be pretty costly in the end.

M

Yes, this marks my 1,000th post on this thing. Dumb luck should have provided for at least 1 worthwhile post. I mean a chicken or a monkey would be able to churn out something…..
Well, if people don't arrive via "next blog" they appear to be searching for Grace Slick, Iggy Pop, Mrs Butterworth or Leslie Ghiz.
~ok~
After the Grace Slick article, my most popular page is a countdown of the 10 Hottest Robo-Cyborg Babes. A crowning achievement.
I mainly focus on SW Ohio but, after Cincinnati, the next highest ranking city to hit the site is Columbus. But that comes in behind Sydney, Lower Hutt & friggin' Madras.
I admit it, I only signed up with Blogger so I could post a comment on a Rob Zombie blog. I only started making my own posts because I had nothing to do at work.
I started out griping about Republican fiscal irresponsibility in the county government. I haven't had much of an impact there. Then I campaigned for Ron Paul & railed against Obama. That went well. Condemned state gambling. fail. Ragged on the CCV - they're still looking for ways to crawl down our throats & into any other unprotected orifice. I wanted to change the world. Maybe I should just learn how to make bombs…
or go into real estate - regardless, I will endeavor to improve my use of commas & not mix up tenses so much in my next 1,000 bits of blathering.

Shorts

From Lemmy
Pet Peeve #279 - why do guys have to wear big long baggy shorts? There's no point & they look dumb. They're more like culottes. Lemmy gets it. Girls get it. Usually girls are the vain ones who wear impractical things but in this case, the guys got 'em beat in spades. It's hot. It's muggy.
jeezle…

Baseball, Hot Dogs, Apple Pie

WCPO reports that Paul McCartney's request to not serve meat at his shows will not be honored in Cincinnati. Hamilton County Commissioner Greg Hartmann says fans need not worry and hot dogs will be served.
ok, how hard would it be to serve vegetarian hot dogs & just not tell people? In my experience, carnivores & vegetarians have a knee jerk reaction to the word "vegetarian" with carnivores blurting out "HELL NOES" & vegetarians getting all giggly & tittery.
If it tastes good, people tend to eat it.

The Teacher Is NOT Your Friend

Missouri has passed a law preventing teachers & students from "friending" on social media services that allow private messaging. Apparently they don't want kids to turn out like Waldo.
Thing is, teachers and students have always lived amongst us. Teachers have always had rules limiting their behavior. Kids have always been stupid & misinterpret the intentions of teachers.
This legislation is throwing the baby out with the bath water.
It also highlights a problem with social media which is that none of us is just one person. Short of establishing a number of accounts, it's hard to address that with junk like PhaseBuch, MySpaz or Tweeter. Why would an adult teacher want a student reading about cousin Jimmy's upcoming operation? I know I wouldn't have wanted my high school teachers reading about my personal teenage crap.
That being said, being a middle aged geek who likes cartoons, punk rock & zombies, I have accumulated a lot of young "friends" on the intertubes. Some of these kids clearly don't get the idea that they are posting personal crap to the entire world. More than once I have thought about asking to talk to their parents. Maybe their teachers could do this. Well, not in Missouri.

NPR story here.

Could The Guy Do Something More Arrogant ?
After campaigning on an austerity / small government platform & lambasting the incumbent governor for his use of a personal aircraft, it appears the new sheriff is in line to quadruple his use of the same plane. His spokesman has said they realized after the election just how handy the plane was. What else did Kasich fail to think through? Could a rail line across the state have actually been a good idea? Running through the state's capitol, perhaps a gubernatorial rail car set up for meetings & press conferences could have been handy too.

WKYC story here.

Greg Hardman of Christian Moerlein Brewing & Lager House