ChallengesOn May 25, 1961, President John F. Kennedy announced the goal of sending an American safely to the Moon before the end of the decade.
On July 20, 1969, we sent Apollo 11 238,900 miles to the moon & back.
On January 31, 2013 Cincinnati vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls issued a similar challenge to build a 3.5 mile streetcar line in 2 years, by July 2015.
This is the kind of leadership & can-do spirit we need in Cincinnati.

oh, Come On, Gem City…Dayton is considering aerial surveillance cameras. Unfortunatly, nothing cool & futuristic - no rat-brained drones or anything, just some guy flying around over the city. I'd think that the clowns at Wright Pat would be offering all sorts of high-tech Homeland Security surplus gear to experiment on the domestics.
oh well….

Going High Tech on the CrowsSpringfield has employed a number of strategies to deal with their crow population but now downtown merchants have banded together & gone high tech on the problem.
Well, actually, they are just using a technique similar to what convenience stores use to shoo away teenagers by playing sounds the crows may not like. It is, perhaps only a temporary solution, the sounds need to change every so often as the crows get accustomed to the sounds of predators & crows in distress.
Maybe convenience stores should play the sounds of teenagers being tortured….

Rearranging the Deck ChairsFailed Hamilton County Commissioner, Chris Monzel, has decided to actually do something in office - redefine the Hamilton County Commission's mission statement. What does this mean to Hamilton County residents? Nothing.
City Bleat article here.

Can you imagine what this would have been like if all these guys had been driving Ford Nucleons ?

Should Debe Terhar Resign ?
Debe (dēb?) Terhar shared a PhaseBuch meme comparing Hitler to O'Bama. I don't know which one but I am thinking it's one a vegetarian O'Bama hating 'friend' of mine posted. If I knew for sure which one it were, I would post it here.
The Tea Party O'Bama hating fete is pretty bizarre. I'm surprised they never depict him as Voodoo with some weird commie stylized veve.
If Terhar had circulated the image in a mere email to select friends it would be a non issue.
There are people calling on Terhar to cede her post but I kinda like the rede a Fishwarp commenter offered.
Indeed, as a person in education, an essay contrasting Hitler's & O'Bama's gun control policies would be a good idea. People frequently argue that Hitler disarmed the Germans in 1938 but he only disarmed the Jewish people - he liberalized gun laws on the rest of the population. O'Bama? He ain't done nothing - yet.
She should also write an essay on using social media.
History, modern policy & social media are all concerns for today's schoolkids, if a president of the state schoolboard isn't up to speed on these things, she needs to go.

Jobs - What the Hell?There's currently about 12 million people in the US who are unemployed. Some people are saying half of the employed are under employed and others are saying there are 3 million jobs that nobody is qualified to do. Some cite the problem of filling jobs is that qualified candidates refuse to take mandatory drug tests.
Could it be that HR departments are staffed with crazed mutton heads?

This is probably worth going full screen on.

Jim Berns for Mayor ?Jim Berns a DAAP codger & a Libertarian has filed his signatures to run for mayor of Cincinnati. This means we will have a mayoral primary in order to whittle the pool down to 2 candidates. Berns is opposed to the primary and I agree with him on that. He might even be able to change that bit of legislation. He also advocates gay equality & legal, regulated marijuana. A municipal official can't do much there, however.
I've Babbled about this before, but the libertarian philosophy is much better suited to the Federal level than the municipal level. It is best suited for a President. As you get closer & closer to the municipal level you have to deal with nuts, bolts & fire extinguishing. In my contention that a libertarian leader should work as a matchmaker for the private sector, I wonder if someone like Berns has those skills or even desire.
Laissez-faire is a different thing on the macro & micro levels.

Noose Record article here

Murray to Run for Council AgainEx City Councilmember, defeated in a re-election bid after being appointed to council after an unsuccessful election bid, Amy Murray will be mounting another election bid.
Murray, who gained a lot of attention ramming a zoning variance through council for a popular Oakley eatery hails from Hyde Park where residents fight tooth & nail against any and all zoning variances.
Murray works to foster better business relations with a nation that killed over 2,000 Americans in a sneak attack and killed 16,000 POWs thru abusive prisoner of war policies.

Fishwarp article here

Got Your Flu Shot ?
Got the Flu ?
If our only hope of thwarting the takeover of the planet by the robot army is to mutate ourselves into half human - half space-alien super soldiers, is it really worth it?
Sure, you're probably thinking that that flu shot actually was just an influenza prophylactic - you don't feel funny ~ yet. But what if I told you that it sits dormant til the dark overlords actually need your chimeric warrior abilities? That your mutations wouldn't actually begin til triggered by reagents carried in chem-trails…..

The Last Man on Earth

Give it Back, Kentucky
A letter writer at the Fishwarp asks why Senators Paul & McConnell take federal money but deny it to New York & New Jersey in the form of disaster relief.
Indeed. Kentucky gets $1.45 on their tax dollar while New York & New Jersey are two of the leading donor states in the U.S., receiving respectively $0.79 & $0.55 on their tax dollar. Why should they routinely subsidize Kentucky just to have their senators block emergency aid?
Paul & McConnell need to clean up their own back yard.

Rise of the Robots
I see it in your eyes - take one look and die
Is the inevitable rise of the robots even a question anymore?

The Unborn Dead ?People are getting weirder & weirder.

AVOIDING TOLLSPeople have been writing LTEs to the Fishwarp saying they will use alternative routes over the Ohio River if a new bridge requires the payment of tolls. The paper just ran an article detailing how professional drivers will, among other things, use alternative routes.
So, my question is, if these alternative routes are so viable, why pay $3 BILLION dollars for the daggone thing if nobody is going to use it?

Lance - My 2¢I never liked Lance Armstrong. Greg LeMond? - I liked him. Armstrong always came off as a self serving arrogant jerk. I don't even care about doping - maybe it is rampant in pro cycling (& every other sport). An example of what really irked me, and I am not a big Sheryl Crow fan, was the way the egomaniac would barge onto her stage, maul her and act like he was the natural center of attention. I never understood why she didn't punch him in the neck - it was her stage. Hell, that's what he would have done to her if she crashed into one of his races & mauled him.
I can only imagine his "coming clean" & grandstanding with Oprah (who I also never liked) is to prime the public for a 'tell all' book that he will use to take down with him as many people as possible.
This article kinda nails it although I am into cycling in general & not really into pro sports of any kind.

Sure, Give Kid Monzel the Reins
Hamilton County's biggest failure as a county commisioner is the new president of the commission. Might as well have the Headless Horseman in charge...

Fishwarp story here

A fracking company in Grapevine, TX wants to ship it's dirty water, brine, over 1,100 miles to New Matamoras, Ohio for, well, dumping.

"GreenHunter wants to use a tanker barge that can hold 10,000 barrels"

What could possibly go wrong? Pennsylvania has been doing it for awhile but, hell, at least they're right next door.

"State records show that 12.2 million barrels of fracking waste and brine were injected in the first half of 2012, 56 percent of which came from Pennsylvania and West Virginia."

There's no place closer to Grapevine, TX?
Glad we scuttled solar in favor of becoming a toxic waste dump.

Columbus Dispatch story here.

I guess that, at the Cincinnati Enquirer, IN DEPTH means 'fluff'.

School DangerHow dangerous are America's schools? Do we need assault teams mounted atop the schoolhouses? Armed teachers? WCPO reportsCincinnati Public schools has decided to go ask ALICE.
Looking at the numbers, however, your kid has about a .0001224899598% chance of getting murdered at school & a lot of that has to do with the recent horrific massacre in Newtown. Taking that out of the equation your kid has a .0000702811245% chance of not coming home.
But getting to school? On a bus your kid has a .0002307692308% chance of dying. That's about twice as likely as a murder but doesn't take into account car accidents & those deaths are probably all operator error and not due to anger, jealous rages or mental illness.
So, by all means, let's arm & train our teachers (& pay them accordingly for their new skills & responsibilities), make schools more like prisons than they already are, employ more armed guards & make our kids utterly paranoid so we can create more mentally ill people who might go out & massacre folk.

Paranoid About Revenue ?For all the folks wailing about electronic traffic enforcement technology being a cash grab - here's the solution - GO TO JAIL.

Fishwarp story here.

Dunno if this plan will really improve business for these businesses but it can't hurt. One thing I noticed is that, while I generally like the cluttered chaotic look in Northside's business district, all the wires & cables DO detract from these signs.
Due to psychotic zoning laws the signs had to conform to certain size restrictions but these are larger & more readable than a lot of the signs over new businesses in the downtown/OTR areas of Cincinnati.
While the initial plan was to do 3 Cincinnati area neighborhoods, funding fell short so only one neighborhood was blitzed. Who should be next?

A Sneak Peak at BiC HQ
Unfortunately we can't post a pic of the outside due to Homeland Security rules.

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Bridge Construction to Cut Unemployment 1/3The Build Our New Bridge Now Coalition is reporting that their boondoggle bridge will create 24,000 jobs. With about 74,000 unemployed in the region, this would bring our unemployment rate down to about 4.35%. The $30B bridge will rake in over $160M in tax revenue.
No mention of pigs flying.

WCPO story here

Department of Numbers (?!) info here

NPR Discusses Fantasy World BuildingSaladin Ahmed talks about the popularity of fantasy world building & cites The Hobbit books at length.
This is what Stan Lee did with Marvel Comics (among other things) that catapulted Marvel sales over DC's in the 60s. DC figured it out & did the same, of course, later. It also explains the popularity of Fox News, I guess.
So, what I don't understand is, why the heck doesn't television do this? Once in a while there is a crossover but establishing a real universe where characters of one show are aware of characters & events in other shows & crossovers are more frequent and season finales are so interconnected the viewer HAS to keep the dial on ONE channel?
They'd clean up.

Graffiti, Crime or Culture
The short video asks if graffiti is an art form or vandalism/destruction. The frumpy lady points out that it's a personal property issue which pretty much nails it. The DAAP students issue came up but they didn't show their lame tagging, or at least, didn't tell you that's what was on the screen.
I have heard of tagging being described as the equivalent of dogs pissing on poles. I'd say that's about right. Then again, a lot of modern architecture doesn't offer much either.
Anyway, if Michelangelo started painting on the side of my house, I'm pretty sure I'd be after him with a baseball bat.

What Are John Cranley's Motives ?John Cranley, after leaving Cincinnati city council over ethics issues, has decided to run for mayor.
While out of office Cranley has been busy developing real estate, his Incline Village, in East Price Hill. With his handy government contacts, he has managed to finagle almost $7M of tax payer money for his real estate scheme.
While Cranley has supported the Cincinnati streetcar project in the past, he later denounced it & is now making his opposition a central point of his mayoral campaign.
Why?
Cranley knows government dollars are limited. If dollars are spent on the streetcar, the Banks or Madisonville, they will not be available for East Price Hill. If these areas attract people, they will not buy into his development gamble. What other neighborhoods will he shaft to further his personal gain?
He's definitely not the kind of person we want at the helm of Cincinnati.

fuckin' Illuminati, maaaannnnnnn…….

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Pelosi Again ?While the Rebloodlicans have defined themselves as the party of crazy, the Dmocrips have done a great job of seizing the mantle of the party of dumbassedness.
In the last couple elections Rebloodlicans have made a habit of running against Pelosi & not their actual political rivals. Steve Chabot barely mentioned Steve Driehaus, but made a lot of noise about Pelosi. The thing is, she's become a liability for other members of the party.
I don't know who'd they would put in charge & I don't think it's particularly her fault and, since I'm not a Democrip I really don't care. Boehner, as a Republican leader is actually doing a pretty good job of herding the GOP - a job akin to herding cats. I doubt he's a liability to most Rebloodlicans, tho.

The City of Cincinnati MUST Hire an Exorcist NOW !How many businesses have to fail at 7th & Race before the city admits the place is cursed? The latest looking at moving or closing is the fairly itinerant Blue Wisp Jazz Club. I have been to this location in a number of incarnations & it is just unbelievable. The presence of some evil force is palpable. Clearly the problem is rooted in the kitchen but it permeates the whole facility & who knows what mischief it has wreaked in the rest of the building which is apparently owned by the city.
It is only a matter of time til we start having problems in the Washington Park garage. It was never ghost proofed which is about dumber than poop when you bury a garage in a cemetery.
Maybe Winburn can pull something off with a bag of salt.

Business Courier article here

If teachers were armed, the teachers lounge would look something like a scene from a Quentin Tarantino movie.

My Gift to Cincinnati
Because I'm a nice guy I decided to do some divination for the town I call home nowadays. Although it's not exactly a rosy outlook for 2013 - to be forewarned is to be forearmed.
I used a standard pentacle spread applying 5 elements to the points.
In the spirit position I got the 8 of Pentacles, 'Prudence', in Hod, the Sun is in Virgo.
In the Fire position I pulled up the Knight of Pentacles
In the Air position, I drew 10 - the Wheel of Fortune which is generally attributed to Saturn.
In the water position, I turned up 4 - the Emperor, associated with everybody's fave, Ares.
Finally, in the Earth position, I was presented with the 9 of Swords, 'Despair & Cruelty', in Yesod with Mars in Gemini ~yikes~
So, I think it's pretty clear financial matters and some strong emotions & personalities are going to be the way of '13 here in Porkopolis.
Did I really have to shuffle up some cards to know this???
LUX

Ohio's Bloody RoadsTraffic deaths grew 4% in 2012 from 1,015 in 2011 to 1,056. Compare that to Ohio's homicides in 2011 of 513. Sounds like your chances are better stiffing your pimp than driving to work…..
While police fall all over themselves patting themselves on the back when fatalities go down, the Fishwarp reports:

A patrol spokeswoman says it’s too soon to tell why the number of fatalities rose.

Ohio's roadways are a killing field. The bloody folly must end. BUILD PASSENGER RAIL NOW.

Fishwarp story here

Happy New Year

Uncle Dave Lewis @ the Rake's End 12/28/12