This weekend's Tours
This weekend in Cincinnati, there are a couple interesting tours available.
Downtown, there is the Downtown Tour of Living from noon to 5 PM.
The homes are apartments and condos and go from 4th to 14th streets.
In Northside Great Outdoors Weekends presents a Northside Tour of Death, What the Dead Can Tell Us at Wesleyan Cemetery from noon to 4 PM.
The gravesites of veterans of every war the U.S. has been involved in will be visited and tombstone symbolism will be discussed.
These tours offer a glimpse of where we came from, where we are today and where we are going.
heh, the graveyard......
Anyway, sounds fun.

The Wesleyan Cemetery tour has been cancelled due to wind damage from last week's storm

Wittenberg opens center for civic engagement
Wittenberg University opens The Center for Civic and Urban Engagement to help coordinate faculty and student service projects into four areas of engagement in Springfield: Renewing the Core and Creek; Strengthening After-School Programs, Preparing for Future Jobs, and Improving Housing Quality.
Springfield mayor, Warren Copeland, claims the program will help set the university apart from other liberal arts colleges by highlighting the advantage an urban setting provides for practical applications in majors from the sciences to social services to the arts.

Noose Son story here.

I can't believe Jeff Beck is still not in the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame. What the hell are they waiting for ? He is on the list of potential inductees for 2009.

• Jeff Beck


• Chic


• Wanda Jackson


• Little Anthony and the Imperials


• Metallica


• Run-D.M.C.


• The Stooges


• War


• Bobby Womack

Metallica ? ugh.....

Story here.

Pope condemns 'pagan' love of money, power
oh, this is good,
"Pope Benedict XVI condemned unbridled “pagan” passion for power, possessions and money as a modern-day plague Saturday as he led more than a quarter of a million Catholics in an outdoor Mass in Paris."
Perhaps he wants to go back to a kinder gentler time, like When King Philip the Fair pretty much bought and sold the papacy under Pope Clement V.
Or maybe he is thinking of getting back into the lucrative indulgence racket.
We have,
"The pope urged the faithful to “shun the worship of idols."
ah, but then,
"The late-morning Mass ended peacefully, with followers pressing for a chance to touch the pontiff’s robes"
uh, yeah-
About that.....
I don't know as this love of money and idols is so "pagan". Seems to be a pretty traditional Catholic pastime.

Story here.

All full up !

If you had any plans on getting interred in the Bushnell family mausoleum, forget it. The last grave has been filled.

Noose Son story here.

Science Debate
The front running presidential candidates are asked a set of questions bout their stance on science, technology, energy, environment and education.
The gist of their answers ?
Obama - throw money
McCain - incentives
For the most part, they agree on all the issues, it's just a matter of how to deal with them. The difference in their strategies is basically the same difference between Democrats and Republicans we are only too used to.
Still, after Bush's recent jog back to the middle ages, these guys seem refreshing.

Story here.

Spring Grove Cemetery 9/16/08
Headed over to Spring Grove Cemetery today to check out the havoc. The smashed monuments were much scarcer than I had feared. There were a good number of trees down but they were a minority. Just happened to be a bunch of big old ones. The crew have a real job on their hands. As of Tuesday afternoon they were still without power.
One uprooted tree right by the road revealed a marker it seems to have completely grown over. The name on it was Ike !
Well, ok not really.
 
As I was walking around the cemetery, standing under half felled trees, I started to realize how dangerous my adventure actually was. Well, nobody ever had a problem accusing me of stupidity.
There was a funeral coming in as I left. Death goes on.


                                               

Whatever happened to @$*! ?

A couple of the offending pages from the latest issue of All Star Batman and Robin that has been pulled from the shelves so it can be reprinted.
The author, Frank Miller, the guy behind Sin City and 300 has, apparently, lost his mind. Likely the effect of spending too much time in Hollywood....

Kansas City Star story here.

Is the Barr Campaign Finished ?
In this article Libertarian Party founder, David Nolan says so.
"As of yesterday afternoon, Bob Barr's Presidential campaign is effectively over. There were signs of serious trouble even before yesterday, but his "no-show" at Ron Paul's Campaign for Liberty news conference -- followed by an insulting suggestion that Ron should join Barr on the LP ticket in the VP slot -- demonstrated just how out-of-touch the Barr campaign is, and how poor Barr's vote total is likely to be."
Video of the press conference pt 1, pt 2, pt 3.
The Libertarians know their candidates for president won't win. They use the process to promote their ideas and values. Their candidates are chosen with an eye towards their ability to communicate these messages. In this election cycle they chose a "celebrity" candidate in Bob Barr who is just not a Libertarian.
Sayeth Barr, "I'm not interested in third parties getting the most possible votes, I'm interested in Bob Barr as the nominee for the Libertarian Party getting the most possible votes."
I guess you could see this coming.
In the last election the Libertarian, Michael Badnarik and Green, David Cobb, almost seemed like a team on the campaign trail. Of course, Nader refused to debate with the third party candidates then. Will Barr be the holdout this time ? Will Nader be more forthcoming this time ? Will the next reality show on TV have people putting lipstick on barnyard animals ?
Stay tuned, Bat-Friends.

Wittenberg Invests in Cincinnati

Well, sorta.
A Wittenberg University investment club was recently profiled by TheStreet, a Wall Street Journal newsletter for it's success in bucking recent downwards market trends.
Notable investments in their portfolio included Cincinnati based Proctor and Gamble and a major employer in the Cincinnati area, General Electric.
Proof that investing in Ohio is a good idea.

Noose Son story here.

Haiti before the recent storms
Haiti has suffered poor land management for years.
Heck, Haiti has suffered poor management for years, period.
Deforestation, erosion and poor farming practices on a hilly terrain make Haiti's countryside susceptible to landslides, mudslides and flooding. A good rain can cause serious problems. Four hurricane strength storms in a month are devastating.
In the U.S. we have well built homes, a solid modern transportation, communications and power infrastructure, agencies like FEMA and a kick ass National Guard system that does a lot more than just kick asses.
Haiti has, virtually, none of this.
In the best of times, Haitians suffer poverty and malnutrition, hunger and disease. Roads and communication are spotty. Just keeping the power on day to day is a chore and some people never had power to begin with.
Haiti and the U.S. threw off the yolk of European oppression at about the same time. Haiti's yolk being considerably more oppressive than America's.
We should be allies in liberty in the western hemisphere.
Sadly, due to the political realities of just holding our own nation together, we were never much of an ally in the 19th century (when our nation almost fell apart). In the 20th century President Wilson entered Haiti to stabilize their government (invade, occupy and open the doors to American profiteers who looted the island nation in a way that makes Haliburton in Iraq look like the United Way).
While our governments can't seem to get along, there is no reason we, as individuals, can't help. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies lets you target your donations to the country of your choice.
Haiti has really gotten creamed in the last few weeks.

Every explanation I have read about the merits of Proportional Representation voting (PR) have involved a notion that everybody is a racist and when a race is in a minority, their racist agenda cannot be realized. The idea that people don't enter the voting booth (or whatever you call those things nowadays) and that elected officials won't rise to the occasion is petty and small minded. Actually, it's downright un-American.
I have never felt councilmembers I have and haven't voted for, Leslie Ghiz, Roxanne Qualls, Laketa Cole and Cecil Thomas have ever thought any less of me because I have a white penis. The idea that populating our city council with vaginas and black flesh will make for better governance is ridiculous.
PR is credited with getting a mulatto son of an immigrant nominated as a corporate party's candidate for president, but it also shut out a woman whose American heritage runs generations deeper. Women make up a greater proportion of the country. Children of immigrants certainly don't make up a majority. How is this more fair ?
Further, if we want to make sure our demographics are equally represented on the council, we will need to make sure we have the proper number of black and white men and women. The notion gets even crazier when you take in things like religion, economic class, education, age, sexual orientation, handicaps and so on. Indeed, I would think wealth and education would be a better standard for a candidate than race or sex (obviously ideas don't count).
The cost to implement this goofy plan has been estimated to be somewhere between $20,000 and $3,000,000. For the lowball price we get hand counting that will lend itself to fraud, take about 2 weeks to get a result and cost us accreditation from the Federal government. Then, if it doesn't work the way we want - what plan will we try next ? At what cost ?
The best explanation I can find for why Cincinnati abandoned this method of voting in the 50s is that The White Man is an Evil Racist Scumbag.
yay
Only one other city in the US uses this method of voting. Why ?
I guess that after we get this convoluted mess in place, we can work on quotas for juries.

In my time on the planet, Springfield has struggled with bus service. At some times it just hasn't existed. There was a point they considered little buses. To get around, many young people would hop trains that slowed down as they rolled through town. I remember when they got their first air-conditioned bus. It was a big deal.
sigh
Anyway, while their current bus service, SCAT, is limited to weekday dayshift riders, their ridership has been steadily growing of late due to gas prices as well as new and adjusted (improved) routes.
Still, if you are healthy, with an hour wait between buses, you could probably walk most of the way to most anywhere in town.

Noose Son story here.

What is wrong with this picture ?

Will the Springfield-Beckley Municipal Airport become the airport of choice for Dayton and Columbus travelers ?
I doubt it.
Skybus founder, John Weikle, has been talking with city officials about recreating the low budget passenger airline and basing it in the Springfield airport.
It won't be cheap. Upgrades needed would include improved and expanded taxiways, aprons, hangars, terminal areas, baggage handling, parking and security.
There is an Air National Guard base at the airport now. There was a cargo airline that operated out of the airport decades ago.
It would be a kind of odd drive for Columbusites and Daytonistas to the airport kinda hidden between 68 and 72 on a narrow little road about midway between Springfield and Yellow Springs.
I would say Mr Weikle's assertion that, "I would not be surprised to see (Springfield) eventually become the airport of choice for Dayton and Columbus travelers" is pretty far fetched.
Still, it could be a real boon to Mayberry's Mini Mart.

Noose Son article here.