2012 in Blogging Isn't Cool

The Sidebar Girls of 2012
Or 400 posts later…..
Popular searches are about the same, Krampus, Grace Slick, Ashley Bulgari, Gestapo Training, Halloween Sex, Ron Paul tattoos, Köprü Tasarımları….
Visitors are from Cincinnati, San Diego, Unknown City (Pakistan)….
Top pages include Hot Robo Cyborg Babes & Hot Star Trek Chicks.
The Sidebar Girl has been a tremendous hit.
My Knowlton's Corner collection hasn't moved a muscle but it's a contender in Northside's Brand Evolution thing. The power of blogging…..
Nobody has sued me
My use of Google Web Fonts has really shaken up the internet in general.
I got rid of the &%^$#! Captcha thingamabob. Now I keep getting notifications of posts that aren't there, tho. whatever….
I have taken to embedding media with html 5 tags which has worked ok except in (surprise) Internet Explorer.
So what's up for the future? Just read this:

There are more abandoned blogs online than there are stars in our galaxy.

And as 'uncle' Al Crowley pointed out, "every man and woman is a star".
So I plan on plugging away, asking all the tough questions, imparting my wisdom & wit to the masses & maybe one of these days I'll spring for that storefront & start a cult church.

LOOSBuilding Cincinnati reports the City of Cincinnati is interested in providing citizens public restrooms. This is something the Cincinnati Beacon proposed awhile ago. It's fine by me but the cost seems kinda high. BC reports that the cost of building, shipping & installing one of these things comes out to about $135,000 apiece. On top of that, maintenance is projected to be around %14,500 (11%) / year.
Now contrast that to the median home value in Cincinnati of $180,000 & general industry estimates of $1,800 (1%) / year.
These loos are 3/4 the value of a typical Cincinnati home (about twice the value of my home) & will run more than 10x the maintenance.
These facilities will be open at the top & bottom so rats, snakes, bats, birds and other vermin can enter freely. The reason for this is so police can watch your feet & make sure only one person at a time is inside. Forget about accompanying your child or helping your disabled parent from wheelchair to commode & back.
One of the problems with people peeing & pooping in public now is that, since we have to hide their pelvic areas from public view or risk being labeled sex offenders, we hide to perform these natural acts & wind up concentrating our bodily waste in small areas. If we could get over this hang up & people could let loose anywhere & maybe pick up their poop as with their dogs, we would not have these offensive areas & would not be looking at spending the cost of a goram house with hugely inflated maintenance rates.

and a child shall lead…
Looks like the face of the end of humanity is going to be pretty cute. I doubt Skynet would be so devious. But the folks at Roboy are predicting a boy robot in 9 months - less than a year before the robot overlords begin to take over the earth - if they get their funding. Couldn't they have stuck with the Summer Glau model? Hopefully a 1A will find someplace to hang out at in the mountains.

PopSci article here

It's All Fun Till….
Well, to each his own, but this ain't for me.
The Learning Charnel was going to air this show on 12/26 but decided to wait a couple weeks in deference to the people killed in Connecticut. That decision makes about as much sense as the show in general.

A Christmas Tale

from The Queen of Romania's Fairy BookQueen Marie of Romania was born in Kent in 1875 & later married to Prince Ferdinand of Romania in 1893. They later were made King & Queen of Romania. Queen Marie is considered directly responsible for Romania's military, well, not getting totally creamed, in WWI & subsequently making substantial territorial gains after the war. Later she took to writing & in 1923 published 'The Queen of Romania's Fairy Book'.
Chapter 4 was titled A Christmas Tale.

This is a very strange tale I have got to tell you today. It is about a mysterious well - a deep, deep well which lay in the centre of a dark forest. It is also a Christmas tale. No one knew why that well was there, nor who had dug it, nor how old it was.
The peasants from the villages around stood in great awe of this well, because from its depth a weird sound could be heard, a sort of moan, half sob, half gurgle, and sometimes a sound as though someone were knocking against its sides, which made you think of a lost soul in distress, perhaps held captive down there and unable to get out.

You can rad the whole story here

More on Queen Marie here

$6B - 'B', Like in BRAINSThis WSJ 24/7 article is about a year old (whoever said BIC wasn't on the ball?) and guesstimates the zombie economy at around $5.74B. But that's a year old & the article only goes down to grade B movies & doesn't address grades C-Z or even porn or the crazy Japanese stuff. Interestingly, the article points out:

George Romero’s 1968 cult classic Night of the Living Dead is royalty-free, and does not add much to the actual economics of the zombie genre.

For Porktown gore fiends we can look forward to bloody Milford's Horror Hound's convention at the shiny Sharonville Convention Center in March (when the ground starts to loosen up a bit) to add our share to the zombie economy.

Are Republicans Really the Business Party ?The CintiBizCourierJournal thing reports that area Rebloodlicans donated almost $2.5M to political campaigns in the last election cycle while Democrips only ponied up a little over a quarter million.
Romney got 10 to 1 over O'Bama and Mandell got over 10 to 1 over Brown. Both Rebloodlicans lost.
Jeff Sinnard told people he didn't want their money and, while losing to Steve Chabot, he actually beat comboverboy in the city of Cincinnati.
So, if the Republicans are betting so much money on the wrong horses, what does it say about their business acumen? Do they really know what to invest in that will sell to the majority of the people?

The Biz Courier article here.

Frank Zappa 1940 - 1993

Tolls on Bridge ?
While the KYTease protest a libertarian funding of a new Ohio River bridge & promote socialist subsidies, it seems the Nolanists are going to trump the Trotskyites.
But how do we console these embittered travelers?
I suggest giving the fleeced bridge users with some entertainment. yup, holographic robot go go dancers!
With this enticement, people will flock to the new bridge & the incresed use of the bridge will pay off the construction costs in a fraction of the time John, Steve & Ray are predicting. As a bonus, the reduced use of other bridges will cut the amount of maintenance spending that they require. All in all a win win situation for everybody.

Media Bridges Needs Your Help
George Corneliussen, star of local access cable & the Fishwarp's letters section, discusses how he got started in his media empire.

Ohio Casino Revenue Disappointswotta surprise…..
The Ohio casino plan was doomed to, maybe not failure, but certainly not a rousing success. Las Vegas isn't just about gambling - it's an entertainment destination that relies on everybody in town participating. In Ohio we got 4 casinos & everything else is pretty much the same.
It was a bad plan & expecting humongous riches to come from it was ridiculous.
I STUB my plan was better.

Dismal news from WCPO

Horror Sells

Another Boring Ass Weekend in Soul Sucking Cincinnatiugh - this burg is DEAD!
well…..

Friday
Sister Cycles
6:30 PM
MoBo Bicycle CoOp

Mountain Music Squeeze with Anna & Elizabeth
The Hoffner Lodge (old Art Damage Lodge)
4130 Hamilton Ave

Clifton on Ludlow
6 - 9 PM
Clifton
on Ludlow

Hopnosis
The Comet
Grotesque Brooms & John Wesley Coleman

The Northside Tavern
Bethesda, The Mitchells, Josh Eagle & Harvest City

Saturday
Northside Second Saturday
6 - 10 PM
Hamilton Avenue & various side streets

Make a Milk & Cookie Plate for Santa
10 AM - 5 PM
Happen Inc.

Cincinnati Holiday Art Show
10 AM - 4 PM
North Presbyterian Church
4222 Hamilton

Art Openings @ NVISION & Fabricate
both from 6 - 10 PM

The Northside Tavern
The Cliftones

Ohio Lesbian Archives Open House
1 - 4 PM
Clifton United Methodist Church
Clifton @ Senator Pl.

Hopnosis
The Comet
Playfully Yours & Action Camp

Karaike @ Junker's Tavern

Sunday
Compassionate Friends Candle Lighting Ceremony
Soggy Spring Grove Cememery
4389 Spring Grove Ave.

Brunch @ Honey
The Comet
Brunch & The Comet Bluegrass All Stars

The Northside Tavern
Faces Without Places Chili Cookoff

Brunch at Melt

Brunch @ Take the Cake

Brunch @ Sidewinder

Bear Boy!
2 PM
Clifton Cultural Arts Center

MONZEL BREAKS PROMISE
RAISES PROPERTY TAXIn what has become the most failed Hamilton County Commission term ever, Chris Monzel has gone from being useless & ineffective to being a liability. His decision to raise property taxes is just the latest in a string of catastrophes engineered by the man endorsed by a failing Newspaper and a fringe element of a dying party..
Monzel promised to balance the county budget by finding efficiencies - he has FAILED at that.
He voted to give away Drake hospital for a fraction of it's value.
He blocked health department money for HIV/AIDS testing.
He blocked voters from voting on a Union Terminal levy.
His cockamamie plan to sell the stadiums was still born - good thing because he probably would have given them away for a fraction of their value.
He vowed to stop the Cincinnati Streetcar project - he has FAILED at that.
Monzel has FAILED at establishing shared services between city and county as he promised.
Monzel has FAILED at renegotiating stadium leases.
After being elected to the commission (and hiring his florist) he fled his Cincinnati neighborhood of Spring Grove Village whose community council was frequently at odds with his city council positions that included increased government regulations.
And his hope for reducing the county budget in the future is pinned on Obamacare.
Chris Monzel is a disaster. Can we afford for him to finish out the worst term on the Hamilton County Commissioners ever? Monzel needs to admit his failure - cut the county's losses and resign now.

There was a time when everybody in the park had this on an 8 track.

Help Kill HB 171H.B. 171 would ban human cloning and animal-human hybrids in Ohio. it was introduced by Representatives Andy Thompson and Terry Johnson. This bill is promoted by anti-science religionists and has been in committee for over a year. It needs to die there.
Here is a list of committee members to petition to stop this paranoid legislation in it's tracks.

Previous post on the senate version

Fröhliche Krampusnacht alle !

Horror Sells - Walking Dead #1 ad-supported TV show
Walking Dead season finale rated top broadcast/cable TV show.
and, no, I don't particularly like it…..

Deadline Hollywood story here

Will Cincinnati be Destroyed ?Word is that some Earth city will be destroyed in the next Star Trek movie. Could it be Cincinnati? Cleveland? Tremont City?

Yahoo conjecturism here

Happy B-Day Ozzie !!

A More Business Friendly Hamilton CountyIn 2012 the Hamilton County Recorder's Office cost taxpayers $1,410,746 & in 2013 their budget will be $1,060,400, almost a 25% cut.
But in 2012 the office billed more than $7,000,000. Our government is not supposed to be a for profit entity. The Hamilton County Commissioners are using overly high fees to turn the department into a cash cow. It's on a par with speed traps to enhance revenue streams, but in this case, the victim isn't some scofflaw, it's businessmen following the rule of law. Fees collected by the government should only cover the administration of that department's duties. In this particularly vulnerable economic time we find ourselves in, the Hamilton County Commissioners should not be engaging in this immoral anti-business gouging. They should lower the department's fees to reflect the true cost of administering the office. They should not use one department to fund their pet projects & entertainment complexes.
UPDATEThe Fishwarp reports More gouging in the works.

Fishwarp's county budget breakdown here

Criminals, Irate at Getting Caught, File LawsuitSore losers bitch about city's superior gear.
Fishwarp story here

Horror Sells - Banned in Norway
An ad for a sporting goods store that depicts the practical use of sports paraphernalia in a zombie apocalypse has been condemned for being "irrelevant, disgusting and stupid".
Irrelevant now, perhaps, but if Barbara had had a cricket bat…..

VG Nett story here

Audio Ads on Metro
This sounds kinda crazy to me but it's Metro & it seems to work swell in the ad, so…..
The Biz Courier reports that Metro will start blasting ads out on buses every so often & that Commuter Advertising's tech can target times & locations along a route. If you get tired of hearing ads for the same businesses - take a different route!
Apparently, Commuter Advertising produces the ads - dunno if this keeps celebrities out or not. I imagine the same rules apply as with print ads to keep safe sex ads off the bus. That's unfortunate, because…..
Biz Courier story here.

Redistricting ReformWith the failure of the ballot initiative to reform legislative districts in Ohio, we have left it in the hands of the partisan cronies - no matter what hat they ear. Rebloodlicans & the Fishwarp indicated reform was needed but not that reform. So what's the new plan? A letter from the LWV says, essentially, nice try.
This is the kind of thing that should be hammered out by the legislature so the good & bad of ideas can be bounced back & forth till a best or most acceptable plan can be made.
But those guys ain't gonna do it.
If we can get some dialogue going maybe we can get a plan on the ballot every election. That won't cost much. Eventually we would wear down voters & get something passed - like the casinos did.
Another way to get reform going would be to do what the smoking ban folks did & offer a couple choices for the voters in one election. To this day I wonder how many people thought they had to vote for one or the other in that election.
Whatever, the cowards in our legislature are not up to the task.

The Perfect Girl

Floating Eternity - The Offshore Columbarium
ferreal
Due to a lack of land space for graveyards near Hong Kong, Bread Studio has concocted a floating columbarium complete with, ready? - rotating walls.
yup, the shelves full of urns will be on a moving track rotating along the deck on the oval shaped vessel. I guess when you go to visit, you need to follow your deceased loved on'e ashes around the boat.
It's also got a restaurant & hanging bamboo garden!
So, here's my question - would this be viable floating along the Ohio, Mississippi & Missouri Rivers (with or without the moving shelves) ?

Read more

European Union Celebrates Pagan Sodomite !
The new batch of Euros will feature the visage of Europa in both hologram & watermark. Europa, Europe's namesake, was, of course, the Phoenician princess who engaged in bestiality with a disguised pagan god - Zeus.
Is this another indicator of the decline of western civilistion?
Well of course some people think so. In the US we plaster our Judeo Christian beliefs all over our currency & use it to idolize politicians & businessmen. Not exactly in line with some Judeo Christian precepts, ya know? But what the hell, the pyramid with the glowing eyeball is too cool. And all the pentacles? We need to get Venus in there.

More

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYBODY !

To Serve CincinnatiIn an effort to promote vacationing in Downtown Cincinnati, Cincinnati
Mayor Mark Mallory recently tried out the service of Staycate, a business with a terrible website and strange & expensive packages.
I agree that a vacation in downtown Cincinnati can be a great idea. I spent the weekend there a few years ago when my house died. I remembered local blogger, 5chw4r7z, saying "Not living downtown is for suckers. Who needs to get away from it all, when you got it all right here?"
Now, I don't want to live downtown. I like having a yard, but 5chw4r7z has a point. I enjoyed my stay thouroughly & even met up with family (Oakleans) for dinner one night.
But I don't think you need ovrpriced travel agents.
Cincinnati USA, DCI & the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce could pool their data into one site linking hotels, entertaknment venues & their schedules together with transportation options & reservations to offer the potential visitor with all the info they need. Another planning help would be to give distances between hotels & entertainment venues.
Metro should look into more tourist type routes, signage & schedules.
2, 3 or 5 day passes for tourists would help, too. Helping the downtown visitor get around downtown as well as out to places like the Cincinnati Gardens, the Zoo, the 20th Century, Covedale Theater & Northside Tavern should be in the mix. And again, Metro should look into later & more frequent routes on weekends - at least on routes to popular entertainment areas.
The downtown area is pretty flat & fine for bicycling. We already have bicycle rental. Adding multiple day rental and hotel pick up & delivery would make a visit even more friendly. The new Zipcar service will help visitors with memberships & hopefully, the city's emerging taxi regulation will help visitors but I'm kinda skeptical on that one. Regardless, hotel personnel need to be educated on all this stuff.
One thing Cincinnati should have is something they have in mega touris oriented New Orleans - a 24 hour self promotion channel on TV. This is in the hotels & consists of 10 / 20 minute mini documentaries on local places of interest & 30 / 60 second ads for businesses. These could be produced pretty easily at home or utilising students at, at least, 3 local colleges & the local access cable studios. This can help the business traveller as well as the tourist.
As far as marketing to the township dwellers goes - beats me. Those guys hear so much crap from the nattering naybobs of negativity on the radio & TV, it's going to be hard to convince them to visit. However, every time I have had jury duty, the big discussion in the pool is about 'how long it has been since I was downtown - it looks so different'. Maybe that's the place to advertise as most jurors go home not murdered, raped, robbed & mutilated.
Whatever, making downtown more tourist friendly shouldn't be too hard.

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Dumb Ways to Die
Everybody sing!

See Yourself Naked
This is some of the fun stuff you can do with a CT scanner & a 3D printer. After the guy recreated his skeleton he plated the 'printed' bones in metal. JUST LIKE WOLVERINE !!
Now it's just a matter of puttin' the dang things back in.

Boycott Papa John's ?The Fishwarp is asking if people should boycott Papa John's since the owner threatened employees with layoffs if Obama got re-elected. Essentially telling them to vote Romney.
The Papa John's by me used to have a great manager. A young man who 'got it' & produced great pies & maintained great service.
Nowadays, they suck. Last pie I got was garbage. The delivery sucked. Their insane desire to force you to order online drives me up a wall. So I will be boycotting them for awhile - til they figure out how to do their job at least.
However, for all you people supporting the douchebag who runs the chain? Bear in mind he doesn't pay for shit & his employees rely on tips. So when you flood the stores with orders for pizza, please be prepared to tip well & be ready for the delivery so you don't waste the delivery person's time. Quantity of deliveries = $$ to the delivery guys. Papa John's boss doesn't support his employees. That's up to you.

America - Love It or Leave ItThe White House has this goofy Petition Page where anybody can make a petition & anybody can sign it. A number of petitions are asking for the right to peacefully secede from the United States. There's also a petition to Strip the Citizenship from Everyone who Signed a Petition to Secede and Exile Them.
Interestingly, quite a few signatories of these petitions are not from the states desiring secessions. That is - if you don't like a state, you can pretty much set up a petition to kick 'em out.
A number of the states with petitions are top receiver states, like, Alaska #5, Louisiana #8, Mississippi #6, Missouri #4. New York, a top donor state but currently receiving billions in disaster aid & set to need more as ocean levels rise is on the list. Louisiana is in a similar situation but already a top receiver state. If you look at electoral votes, a Democrip might want to off Texas & a Rebloodlican might want to drop off California.
Dunno why Cincinnati isn't on there trying to become it's own nation. THAT would be cool.

crazy
cra•zy | kărāzē |
1 doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results
2 Cincinnati Tea Party

Armistice Day 1918
When armistice talks started, Springfield's city leaders devised a system to alert the citizens of the results. There was no television. Radio was virtually non existent & phones were expensive & rare. A signal system was set up that factories would blow their whistles once every hour if armistice was reached & twice if rejected. When the whistles blew once at 1:45 AM, the town woke up, celebrations & parades erupted as everybody went downtown to rejoice. Businesses shut their doors, factories shut down, somebody left a sign on the door to city hall saying, "Nobody Home". Church and school bells rang and every kind of noisemaker was pressed into service. An official parade began at 3 PM.
This level of spontaneous organization is hard to imagine today when we have so much better communications technology. Thing is, it kinda isolates us, too. Sure, the Twitter servers would probably overload but would a broad swath of people actually physically come together? Would people tolerate the street closings? This wasn't a flash mob - it was a whole town.
The description of the events came from Tamara Dallenbach's Ridgewood in the Country Club District

DOOM + GLOOM
As Rebloodlicans wail, gnash their teeth & take swipes at each other over their recent losses, it's interesting to see their ideas for solutions.
Reinvent conservatism? Dunno, sounds kinda oxymoronic to me.
A crew of right wing special interest groups on C-Span were babbling about getting even crazier. And then there's all the end of humanity crap.
Get a grip, people. Maybe younger people & dark skinned people just don't like your militaristic, religionist, sexist, racist, fascist BS getting rammed down their throats.
My recommendation? No, don't retire & walk off into the desert like the Lebanon Tease beg Democrips to do - get back to what conservatism originally was. You know, when people embraced liberality?
Or how about being old school Republicans? Instead of raping every inch of the nation, maybe try conserving the place ala Teddy Roosevelt? Maybe, like Roosevelt & Eisenhower, make some long term investments in infrastructure?
Yeah, I know - not gonna happen, because the Republican Party is now the party of disaffected right wing southern Democrats. There is no 'getting back' unless you employ Victor Frankenstein or something.
oh well, embrace you extinction.

Warren County Tease Go Emo
Warren County, Cincinnati's representatives in Washington, mourn the loss of the USA - set to become socialeist 'within months'.
Fishwarp posts the melodrama.

Quimbob's Predictions
Per my endorsements, here's my predictions

U.S.
President
Barack Obama ♦
Senate
Sherrod Brown ♦
Congress 01
Steve Chabot (no contest) ♦
Congress 02
Bradley Wenstrup (no contest) ♦

Ohio
State Senate
Bill Seitz ♦
State House 28
Mike Wilson
State House 30
Louis Terhar (no contest) ♦
State House 31
Denise Driehaus ♦
State House 32
Dale Mallory (no contest) ♦
State House 33
Alicia Reece ♦

Hamilton County
County Commisioner
The usual suspects (no contest) ♦
Sheriff
Sean Donovan
Recorder
Wayne Coates ♦
Treasurer
Robert Goering ♦
Coroner
Lakshmi Sammarco ♦

Issues
Issue1
fail ♦
Issue 2
fail ♦
Issue 4
fail
Issue 42
succeed ♦
Issue 50
succeed ♦
Issue 51
succeed ♦

Decoding Dacia
Decoding Dacia, a film or series about ancient Romania & Transylvania by Kogainon Films & National Geographic is scheduled for release sometime soon. Scheduled being the key word. Any word on the BBC's Brittain's Wicca Man?
UPDATEThe Romanian Insider reports the movie (not series) will make it's US debut 11/15/12 in historical Boston. Still no word on widespread release.
Romanian Insider article here

Ohio Issue 2The Republicrats have given us Romnabama this year for president. Romnabama has promised millions of new jobs in the next 4 years. But economist & business wonks have predicted millions of jobs over the next 4 years as well. Romnabama might as well be predicting the sun will return in the morning.
What's more important in this election is congressional races but with 87% of them being uncompetitive due to gerrymandering there's not much to vote for. In Cincinnati there is absolutely no point to vote for a congressman - it's been decided.
Ohio Issue 2 is very important in opening up the districting process by taking it out of the hands of the people who benefit from it the most. Currently it's tantamount to giving an alcoholic night watchman duty at a liquor store.
It may not be perfect but currently our system is fucked. We can tweak a new system later - now it is run by unaccountable politicians in back rooms.YES ON ISSUE 2

Happy Bonfire Night, Everybody !As we all go out to celebrate Bonfire Night tonight - on the eve of an election, well, the end of an election period, we should take some time to reflect on what we are celebrating.
On November 5, 1605, Catholic militant Guy Fawkes was thwarted in his attempt to commit mass murder - his primary target being the Protestant royal family of England. His secondary target - pretty much anybody. His hatred & political zealotry led him to not give a crap about anybody but his own faction's narrow interests.
In America, George Washington prohibited his troops from celebrating the anniversary as American Catholics who served under him were offended. It was the first act of American political correctness, I guess. But America was going to be a nation not bound to a religion and political assassination for religious gains has not been something in our history. In England, it seems to have lost it's religious connection, too, unless, maybe, you worship Lance Armstrong.
But around the world and in the US, religionists are constantly trying to weasel their way into power mixing nationalism & religion into a potent brew. It's a potent force. It's how Dutty Boukman freed Haiti. It's how Iran toppled the Shah. Now it's spread across northern Africa. Russia is cozying up with their previously shunned orthodox church on the highest levels and Chrysi Avgi is trying to get in good with the Greek Orthodox Church to marry religion with their nationalistic movement.
Can't happen here? Baloney. The far right are pushing a religious & nationalist agenda, manipulating people, frequently Catholics, into doing their dirty work. When they get control? Catholics will probably be as welcome in the US as they were in the colonies. We may not have a national religion now but that's the goal of quite a few people.
The nationalism will probably turn ugly along racial lines, too, like in Greece. Some folks like to say the Democratic party is the party of racism. Maybe 150 years ago, but those Democrats have been hemorrhaging for decades & have infiltrated another party with their racist, religionist, nationalist, elitist tory mindset.
Let's just have a nice community bonfire tonight & concentrate on unity and what we can do in the future instead of trying to light a primitive, tribalist fire of hatred in one another's hearts that could send our society back hundreds of years.
what the hell, sing Kumbaya & make S'mores.

The Dobbseian Romney Revealed
The parallels between the Holy Order of the GOP's idolatry & their belief in wheeling & dealing over work and the Bob Dobbs' Church of the Sub Genius & philosophy of slack are amazing.

Battle of the Waynes
A slightly amazing debate. Wayne Coates has cut costs & improved access in his office that brings in almost 7 times their cost. Wayne Lippert's bold ideas? Open the doors 5 more hours a week & create new fees/taxes that may not even be legal. Can you say RINO? Most of the users are on the clock anyway so lunch hours don't really matter. Lippert is just spouting populist crap to get votes.
Seriously, fees should only cover the administration of the office. Government is not a for profit entity. Unfortunately the county commissioners need every last cent to pay for their stadia. A true small government plan would be to improve access & reduce fees. Nothing the Rebloodlicans intend to do.

John Boehner's Identity Crisis

Ohio's Culture of DeathDid you realize Ohio has 4 funerary type museums?
The Peoples Mortuary Museum
Sturgis House Bed & Breakfast
Famous Endings Museum
William Lafferty Memorial Funeral and Carriage Collection
For not a whole lot more info check out USA Today
HT to Morbid Curiosity

Quimbob's Endosements
U.S.
President
Gary Johnson
Senate
Sherrod Brown
Congress 01
Jim Berns
Congress 02
William Smith

Ohio
State Senate
Bill Seitz
State House 28
Connie Pillich
State House 30
Steven L. Newsome
State House 31
Denise Driehaus
State House 32
Ron Mosby
State House 33
Tom Bryan

Judicial
Justice Ohio State Court of Appeals District 1
Bruce Whitman
Judge Court of Common Pleas
Anybody but Ghiz

Hamilton County
County Commisioner
Whatever
Sheriff
whatever
Recorder
Wayne Coates
Treasurer
Robert Goering
Coroner
Lakshmi Sammarco

Issues
Issue1
no
Issue 2
yes
Issue 4
yes
Issue 42
no
Issue 50
yes
Issue 51
yes

I don't ask anymore…..

Issue 2
The politicians & their parties aren't going to do it - we need to. The arguments of the committee formed by this issue not being accountable are ludicrous. The politicians in 'fixed' districts are already unaccountable.

The John Gamble House
A slide show & fly around animation by Graeme R Daley that he asserts is unfinished & rushed due to the urgency needed in preserving what's left of the house that has been carpetbagged by Carter Randolph & his cronies.

Top 10 Halloween Costumes

• Black teenager in jeans & a sweatshirt
• 30 something White male wearing a sweatshirt, jeans & carrying a 'baby' prop
• 30 something White female wearing a jacket, jeans & carrying a 'baby' prop

wait - there were 10?

Spreading STDS ?You can thank Chris Monzel for grandstanding instead of working for a healthier Hamilton County.
FishWarp article here

Go PolandArchbishop Andzej Dzięga is warning folks of he dangers of celebrating Halloween in American fashion which has become increasingly popular since they ditched commieism.
Bear in mind, this is a country where exocism is catching on like wildfire. The 30 fold growth in exorcists over the last 15 years has led Father Aleksander Posacki to launch a magazine on the topic, Egzorcysta.
WTF is in that Polish communion wine anyway?
And can I get some?

The Boundaries of Life and Death

by Saskia Kretzschmann"The Boundaries which divide life from death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins?"
~ Edgar Allan Poe

Fishwarp Endorses SammarcoRead all about it here
Seriously, the differences in the candidates for this office are huge. Dr Lakshmi Sammarco is way more suited to this office than Al's cousin.

Happy 'Visit a Cemetery Day' Everybody !
The fine folks at My Send Off have decreed October 28, 2012 Visit a Cemetery Day. To make it more family friendly they have concocted a sort of scavenger hunt with this cardAnyway, every day is 'Visit a Cemetery Day' around Blogging Isn't Cool HQ. Or maybe it's more like 'Visit a Body Farm Day'.More from Spring Grove Cemetery

Doppelganger
Devil Doll meets Lars…..

Springfield's South Fountain Porch Festival & Ghost Walk
Saturday, 10/27 The South Fountain Preservation Association will present their third biennial Porch Festival starting at 2PM. At 5:30 they will commence a 'Ghost Walk' in a haunted cemetery and from 6-8PM Springfield's non-Halloween Beggars Night.
What more could you ask for?

Details from the Noose Son

Be a Hit at Your Hallowe'en Party!
Gross finger food is always welcome around Halloween and, if you think about it - year 'round.
This exotic delicacy is salami wrapped around cream cheese & topped off with a half olive. Pimento & Tabasco are added to the cream cheese for more zing. You can use tomato instead of olive but - why?
If you need a recipe, you're dumber than the Blogging Isn't Cool culinary staff that frequently can't even keep the dishes clean. For our next recipe? - How to Order a Pizza !.

Horror Sells - Emergency Preparedness
Criminy, now the Red Cross is getting in on the act tying zombie apocalypsos in with Mayan endtimes…..
The guys with the Go Bag videos have some seriously lame Go Bags

Saving Zombies

Who Won the Debate ?
OK, folks, who do you think won the presidential debate on 10/23 in breezy Chicago?

• Rocky Anderson (J)
• Virgil Goode (C)
• Gary Johnson (L)
• Jill Stein (G)

Or one of the 2 chickenshit losers who didn't even show up?

Horseshoe Casino Seeks Zoning Variance For signage That Can Be Seen From Space
Meanwhile Duke Energy has said it will need a rate hike to power the sign.

More at UrbanCinti

District 28
Pillich speaks sense & maturity while Wilson spews hot air & childish rhetoric & skewed history.

Have Gun Will Vote
Of course I'm not sure why I need a license to exercise my second amendment freedoms, but…..

Ohio Teabaggers Challenges for NaughtWell, except if their purpose is harassment….
Texas based TeaBag group challenges 1,800 Ohio voters & comes up with next to nothing. Some of the challenges had already ben caught by local BOEs.

'No one at our office, and some have worked there for decades, could remember seeing so many challenges at one time,' said Franklin County board spokesman Ben Piscitelli.

Franklin County dismissed all the challenges as did Butler, Lucas & Cuyahoga.

It seems as though some groups are filing these challenges based on very scant evidence and in doing so they’re walking right up to the edge of voter intimidation,' said Ellis Jacobs, an attorney with the Miami Valley Voter Protection Coalition. 'Unfortunately they don't seem to take very seriously people’s right to vote.

One couple targeted by the Barely Legal vigilantes were a pair of entrepreneurs who travelev around the country selling jewelry at renaissance fairs.
Reaa the whole mess at the Springfield Noose Son ~ for free!
More from the New Yorker

The Real Presidential Debate
The presidential candidates for the Constitution, Green, Justice & Libertarin Parties will meet October 23 @ 8PM CDT in breezy Chicago to debate their policies & ideas.
These candidates are shut out of the Republicrast debates & virtually shut out of the Lmestream media. Internet's a bitch, tho and this debate will be available online at Free & Equal. org, on LinkTV and Al Jazeera.
The corporate world is highly invested in the Republican & Democratic parties. The Financial, Insurance & Real Estate lobbies pour small fortunes into their coffers - not to get one or the other elected but to make sure they own whoever gets elected. They don't want to have to deal with 4 more parties and have to actually prioritize…..
And they certaily don't care about YOU

Racism and Intimidation ?
A billboard in Clevo essentially states facts. It was paid for by an out of state organization that, apparently, just loves Ohio. But groups up there claimed the billboards were tantamount to racism & intimidation & wanted the billboards taken down. When the billboard owners, Fear Charnel, found an issue with their clients anonymity they did remove the billboards. It says on the billboards who sponsored them so I don't understand the anonymity thing.
Thing is, if you run around making frivolous claims of racism & intimidation, people will stop taking you seriously. It's happened with the GOP's hyperbole over voter fraud. I say, let 'em post their pointless billboards - they're only wasting their own money. If you're afraid you are committing voter fraud - you probably are.

Plane Dealer article here

Lipstick on a PigHorrible service, brain dead employees….
From the Fishwarp:

Queen City Centre Kroger store is poised for a $4.5 million facelift starting by early next year.

What they need to do is educate employees. Routinely blocking the bike rack is ridiculous. The recent reorganization of the wine section is an example of complete incompetence. The racist BS in the deli is unacceptable. The butchers not knowing what calf's liver is is utterly astonishing. Not keeping the electric scooter cart things charged is lame. Spreading related items across the store is maybe a good strategy but is insulting to the customer.
But then the customer is generally treated as a nuisance to be eradicated & if service is the best way to get the customer out the door, well, ok. Filthy bathrooms, arrogant customer service desk reps, shitty selection, slow, inattentive clerks, and the solution is a $4.5M facelift?
yow
Keller's IGA in Clifton, with inferior facilities, was always like a breath of fresh air compared to the dumbassery of the Queen City Centre Kroger. Talk about some misplaced priorities.

More from the Fishwarp (for a fee) here.

Top 20 Songs Requested for Funerals
Of course, your church may object to some of these & technically, it's a public performance so you're supposed to pay royalties, so.......
YMMV (That'd be a good title for a lifey/death song !)

1	Frank Sinatra - 'My Way'
2	Sarah Brightman/Andrea Bocelli - 'Time To Say Goodbye'
3	Bette Midler - 'Wind Beneath My Wings'
4	Eva Cassidy - 'Over The Rainbow'
5	Robbie Williams - 'Angels'
6	Westlife - 'You Raise Me Up'
7	Gerry & The Pacemakers - 'You'll Never Walk Alone'
8	Vera Lynn - 'We'll Meet Again'
9	Celine Dion - 'My Heart Will Go On'
10	Nat King Cole - 'Unforgettable'
11	Tina Turner - 'The Best'
12	Whitney Houston/Dolly Parton - 'I Will Always Love You'
13	Monty Python - 'Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life'
14	Luther Vandross - 'Dance With My Father'
15	Louis Armstrong - 'Wonderful World'
16	Daniel O'Donnell - 'Danny Boy'
17	Eva Cassidy - 'Fields Of Gold'
18	Righteous Brothers (and various) - 'Unchained Melody'
19	Westlife - 'Flying Without Wings'
20	Eva Cassidy - 'Songbird'

NME

Issue 2
Like the Cincinnati Biniz Courier, Blogging Isn't Cool supports Issue 2.
In this interview, Dan Hurley describes the bill better than most elements of the media while Rebloodlican Kevin DeWine (recently ousted as Ohio chairman of the GOP by Lord High Kasich & a cadre of Teas) spouts a lot of FUD & buzzwords.

Folks - Just steal the Damn Signs…
Obama yard signs burnedGood old Green Township, no less…..
Cincinnati Harold story here

Fishwarp Claims Hamilton County Needs a New VisionTalk about the blind leading the blind…
So what the hell, I'll chime in too.
Portune is a mature, reasonable, experienced adult. But his vision is getting kinda stale. Hartmann, though less experienced seems to also be a mature adult but he seems kinda short sighted. Monzel is an utterly useless ideologue with no vision at all.
I agree with the Fishwarp, but with these 3, we can't expect much if anything at this point. But they are virtually unchallenged in the upcoming election.
I endorsed Hartmann & Portune but I'm kinda thinking about voting for neither them nor Portune's challenger. Unfortunately, I don't think any of these guys count their votes. They either win or lose and consider either a mandate.

Fishwarp's pay article here

Gannett really oughtta be paying me for driving so much traffic to their site…….

Traditional v. Natural Burial
Caitlin Doughty of Order of the Good Death discusses the differences between natural & traditional (which has only been 'traditional' for less than 200 years) burial.
Seriously, the burial vault ($$$$) was designed to thwart grave robbing but since the average criminal is too lazy to dig up a grave nowadays, that ain't a problem. Now the vault is indeed used to keep the lawns looking nice.
Well, that & so you don't hit soft spots while strolling through the boneyard. That's always a little disconcerting - especially when your foot gets stuck in a hole.

Horror Sells - Operating Systems

Final Notice

I've been getting these final notices for, I think, ever. Usually don't get 2 in a day….

BATMAN @ WPAFB
The Batcave is in Dayton? Whuldathunkit?
This is pretty cool because what BATMAN produces is a lot like what Batman uses in the comics.
Check out Dayton Daily Noose, BATMAN labs makes gear that helps warfighters

Johnny Lytle 10/13/32 - 12/15/95Springfield, Ohio jazz musician - vibraphonist, Johnny Lytle:

Walk a Soul Mile
Blue Vibes
Summertime
Wikipedia

Wendy - Another Year Older
Wendy's has updated their graphics - both Wendy & her signature. The changes in Wendy are kinda interesting. She seems to be wearing the same blouse but it's been cropped off to hide the old timey fashion. The big difference is that she seems to be holding her head high instead of looking up - head slightly bowed. The eyes seem to be the big difference. Well, ok, that & the angle of her eyebrows & pigtail ribbons.
But the biggest difference is the shitty type. I can see ditching the old type which went out of style decades ago but for this? gah
There was a phase around 1970 where 'old timey' was in. Silent movies had a resurgence in popularity. The movie Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid was huge. But that went out by the mid 70s. While the restaurant's decor has changed & the menu has expanded the graphics did just kinda sit there. I guess it's about time for a change & Wendy looks ok (and a new blouse would be AOK) but that type is seriously lame.
Does anybody even wear pigtails anymore? The Little Mermaid chick might have been a better way to go on the hair.
Brand New article here

From the Ain't Nothing To Do Dept.
Need to get out of the house & away from the robocalls, YouTube ads & TV commercials? Is it obvious I don't have a smart phone?
Friday thru Sunday The Church of the Annunciation and the Blessed Virgin Mary in wind swept Clifton, hosts the most un-German Oktoberfest in Cincinnati. It's more of an Italian celebration with Italian sausage & LaRosa's pizza.
Saturday afternoon historic Walnut Hills will host the Cincinnati Street Food Festival from 11 to 5. Food trucks & music from around the region!
This will give you an hour to roll over to eclectic Northside for the Northside Second Saturday from 6 to 10. This month's festivities feature a Scavenger Hunt sponsored by Django Western Taco.
Sunday, get your Italian going again with the Sacred Heart Church Italian Dinner in campy Camp Washington starting at 10AM.
In the afternoon, head on up to creepy Spring Grove Cemetery for the Cruise In car & hearse show from 3 to 7 with loud music & more grub provided by CAIN.
OK? So don't come crying to me if you're fucking bored…..

UPDATE - The Cruise In is canceled

Elmwood Place has installed speeding cameras that have issued 6.600 tickets in less than a month.
For a 2 week period of testing, they noted 20,000 speed violations. Given those numbers, I would guess they are giving criminals some leeway, but the criminals packed a village council meeting crying foul over the use of technology that renders their game strategies obsolete & saves police officers to do more important work befitting their expertise.
However, while the cameras found an outrageous disdain for safety with the 20,000 recorded violations, the Fishwarp article never mentions any safety issues. Have there been accidents? Has anybody been injured? If so, how frequent & severe were the accidents?
Maybe the issue is too low speed limits.

Fishwarp article here

Studies by the CDC show about 23% of American teens smoke marijuana. They compare it to smoking cigarettes, which makes no real sense - comparing the number of teens drinking would be more logical.
But still, do the 50% of Americans who oppose the legalisation of marijuana believe we should brand almost a quarter of our teens criminals & prosecute, fine & jail them?

Hallowe'en Sells
Forget about new car sales & housing starts, the new economic bellwether is Hallowe'en sales - candy, costumes, pumpkin futures…..
US News & World Report sez that to get a handle on the economy - just walk down the street & look at Hallowe'en decorations on your neighbor's porches.
170 million people are planning to celebrate Halloween this year - that's 71.5% - up from 68.6% last year. Hallowe'en spending is expected to reach almost $8B - up 17.5% from last year. Folks are going to spend $2.5B on costumes for themselves & $370M on their critters. Dunno about spending on concrete geese.

MoneyLand article here.

ArtWorks Installs New Sculptural Bike Rack in Northside's Jacob Hoffner Park

Bike Rack is Ninth to be Installed through Queen City Art Racks Project~Press Release:
On September 11, ArtWorks installed their latest sculptural bike rack on Hamilton Avenue in Northside's Jacob Hoffner Park. The bike rack is a part of ArtWorks' Queen City Art Rack project, and was designed by local artist and metal worker Kate Demske.
Queen City Art Racks is an ongoing initiative to bring artist-designed, functional bike racks to public spaces throughout Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. In the process, it engages community stakeholders, employs professional artists, and strengthens the region's transportation options by creating awareness around bicycle parking. Since its launch in the spring of 2010, Queen City Art Racks has created 14 opportunities for artists. The new art rack in Northside is the ninth to be installed.
The design for this art rack was inspired by Northside history. Demske, who lives and works in Northside, shared, "This park was once the estate of Jacob Hoffner, noted Northside land owner and philanthropist. He was also an avid gardener, and Palm Street was named for the most famous plant in his greenhouse: a Sago Palm which had been owned by Robert Morris (one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence) before and during the Revolutionary War. This palm lived more than 130 years and was eventually donated to Horticultural Hall in Philadelphia. It's said that the only specimen that could rival it was owned by George Washington."
The project was sponsored by John Castaldi and Terry Bazeley, with additional support provided by MoBo Bicycle Co-op. Castaldi stated, "Terry and I see art created through ArtWorks every single day and believe very strongly that public art enriches the lives of all Cincinnatians. We are also very committed to Northside and our neighbors here and wanted to do something for our community. Finally, we wanted the rack to be designed by one of our neighborhood's many artists and were thrilled with the choice of Kate Demske and the final result."

LTE of the DayConcerning the Fishwarp's endorsement for Sheriff,

'You endorsed the Republican for sheriff even though he is a "double-dipper" in "an economically challenging time, [you] didn’t hear much in the way of specifics, he’ll need to bring new ideas, approaches and energy" to the job, he has no specific recommendations, he “should actually borrow some ideas from Neil, his opponent, including an independent audit…"
So you endorse him anyway.

Why?'

Well, whoever said the Fishwarp was partisan?

For a fee, you can read the entire letter here

oh, and BTW

Party of Bizarro World Condemns World of Warcraft Candidate
In what kinda sounds like a Dr Who v. Star Trek battle, the Maine GOP BOP have attacked Democratic state senate candidate, Colleen Lachowicz, for playing World of Warcraft. I can understnd their fear. Who wouldn't vote for a candidate that looks like this?They seek to confuse voters with the real life politician & her past time RPG character. If you're old enough you might remember the Dan Quayle / Murphy Brown nonsense. The slips into dementia were sporadic back then. It seems the total break with reality is nearly complete as the Bizarro Old Party grapples with modern technology.

Lachowicz' rebuttal here

El Reg article here.

State Cuts Cause Counties to Raise Taxes to Cover 911 ServicesWOW who could have seen that coming?

Champaign County in the Springfield Noose Son

Horror Sells - Perfume
OK, maybe not horror, but Gaga definitely gets into the creepizordial on this ad for her new perfume, Fame.

Steaks & Skates
The C&D Cafe @ 1714 Hanfield will be hosting the Cincinnati Rollergirls annual Steak Out Sat., Oct. 6, 2012 - 4:00pm - 9:00pm
$10 for a steak dinner (or a delicious marinated and grilled portabella mushroom) with profits going to fund the 2013 roller derby season.

Counting on Your Suicide





An ad campaign by Elvis Communications that won a Chip Shop award & inspired this article at NewsBiscuit alarmed a few folks this summer.

Extra Credit

Horror Sells
You'd think a race in California could have better special effects but tying the candidate to the occult is pretty good.
Al Jones of course spilled the guts on W's affiliation with the occult in his Secrets of the Bohemian Grove.

Virtual Autopsy in Hamilton County ?
You might have seen it in CSI but, actually none of the cities the shows are set in actually have the technology. It's not exactly new, it's been bobbling around for maybe 10 years. Most of the leadership in the field seems to be coming from Europe but Hamilton County Coroner, Dr. Lakshmi Sammarco is pushing for it right here. In an interview on Newsmakers, Dan Hurley brought up that she was involved with folks in dead Los Angeles in setting up a system there.
A virtual autopsy uses a CT scanner to make a 3D model of the body avoiding invasion of the actual body. This may be handy for folks who oppose post mortem dissection on religious grounds but it more likely will aid in typical autopsies by guiding the coroner in his operations, resulting in more efficient operations and preserving evidence that might be ruined when cutting blindly into the cadaver. It also generates a permanent file of the body prior to burial & subsequent decomposition. This can save time & money & dubious results from exhuming the corpse at a later date.
The CGI image is also less jarring to the juror than photographs of the actual cadaver thus giving the juror better insight as to what's going on.
But how much is this gonna cost us you ask.
Dr Sammarco points out that, besides resolution, some of the advances in the CT scanning technology don't apply to corpses. Reduced radiation exposure & image stabilising to compensate for the slight movements of living patients don't matter when the patient is deceased. So the coroner's office could use yesterday's used scanners that the hospitals want to replace. She believes the county could possibly find the equipment for free. And as an added bonus, since we would be leading the region, if not the entire midwest, in the tech we could charge nearby counties for the service, hence, it could actually generate revenue.
The Cincinnati Blog expects no political issues to write about in this race but I disagree. Republican candidate for the office, HamCo GOP chairman Triantafilou's cousin Dr. Pete Kambelos, besides being an ideologue, isn't interested in new technology and insists we should just keep plugging away, doing things the way we always did it.
This race is about Hamilton County being a leader in forensics or just sitting on our hands Monzel style & watching the world pass by. This could be one of the most pivotal local races this fall.

More info:

Some cool video candy of the maturing of the tech:
Inside the skull of a suicide victim

Discovry News

John Husted's Wet Dream

Break the Cycle
Imagine a Libertarian president calling out Democrats on what they're supposed to be doing and Republicans on what they're supposed to be doing. yeah Pundits have said the debates between Romney & Obama will do next to nothing to sway voters one way or the other. As Johnson points out, however, he can only do better with the visibility & that can only hurt the Rebloodlican/Democrip cabal. And my fave - if everybody wasted their vote on Johnson - he would be elected president.

The Fishwarp's Advice
The Fishwarp recently posted an editorial that, in COA T's words:

'It's almost like these words might have come off of COAST's keyboard.'

advises the city stop all work on it's streetcar plan, years in the making, and come up with a brand new economic plan.
Of course this comes right at the time the the Fishwarp unveils it's new business plan to offer subscribers nothing new but raise their subscription rates 68% and to restrict their website access effectively shrinking the audience that they market to advertisers. I can only imagine Danny Partridges reaction to this scheme.
Should the city take advice from such an organisation? Apparently the community annihilating political whores at COA T think so - which speaks volumes.

Northside Homes ?What's up with northside houses? Check a few out. Then go online & get a tour ticket for the September 30 Hidden Treasures of Northside House Tour !

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