Hey, Let's All Go to the Milford Shopping Center !

Hamilton County Commissioner Todd Portune has a pet project. He wants to build a train line from downtown Cincinnati to the Milford shopping center. His partner on the county commissioners, Greg Hartmann ain't on board and says so.
I get taking a train from Newtown or Milford to downtown Cincinnati. There's a ton of stuff to do there and with the streetcar system, the whole basin area is easily traversed.
But who wants to go from Cincinnati to the Milford Shopping Center?

Bodybags

You can actually buy Designer Bodybags. Dunno why, but an Amelia woman is upset that her son's cremated remains, well 1/4 of them were placed in a discarded WalMart shopping bag. The bag was in an urn but since the urn didn't seal, the funeral director used the old shopping bag to make sure the 1/4 of a kid didn't get spilled. What he found weird was splitting the kid's ashes up 4 ways.BINGO!Who does that? I can imagine having half my body being buried here & the other half there…
Maybe I will will my body parts to friends & family when I die.

How Cynical Do Ya Wannabe ?

This video is a response to this post on Reddit.
I have to say, I might have bought some pointless crap when buying funerals but I never felt pressured. Of course that might be because the directors were so cunning, but…
Anyway, I've never dealt with one of these corporate places, either.
One thing you have to bear in mind is that laws are different from state to state, so if your funeral director tells you you need something in Ohio & your cousin Larry in Colorado says that's not true, it might just be a state thing - and Ohio's laced up pretty tight on this. Cemeteries can have different policies on things like burial vaults, too.

City Cleaning Up It's Act

2 recent audits have turned up all sorts of waste and unprofessional practices. The Fishwarp has reported on the police impound lot and, most recently, Lunken Airport.
The audits revealed no fraud or wrongdoing, just a casual business as usual ethos that might have worked in Mayberry but has no place in a large 21st century American city.
These investigations speak highly of our current council & administration. Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls has been pushing for audits of the various city operations for years but past councils have not been too eager. Party machine men like Charlie Luken, John Cranley, Charlie Winburn & Chris Monzel have dropped the ball & watched it roll off the court & into the traffic.
We need Qualls' leadership, vision & professionalism to keep up this momentum & make Cincinnati the model city it has been in the past when people lauded the city for it's forward thinking and professionalism in governance and police & fire departments.

Cranley Supporter Accused of Shorting Employees

While Cincinnati mayoral hopeful John Cranley promotes jobs & "fair" employment practices, his supporters seem to have different ideas on how to treat employees.

Horror Sells - Bridges

hey, buddy, wanna buy a bridge? YOU WILL DIE if ya don't!OK, this is pretty wack. For starters, the last couple of times I went over the BSB it was like a race track - ZERO congestion.
Given the slow growth of Ohio's, Kentucky's and Tennessee's populations and the decline in Michigan's AND coupled with millennials driving less - where do they get the notion the highways will continue to get more congested?

Horror Sells

This fake ad is pretty nuts.

Horror sells - Something

Can't embed this due to MTV's mad anal video policies but I would call this performance Horror Pop. But then plushies totally creep me out, so…
Miley Cyrus sodomizing plushies on MTV

Her

This movie about a guy falling in love with the home secretary computer system thinagamabob has got Glenn Beck in a tizzy. I guess it's just one more of Glenn's harbingers of the apocalypse when a geek falls in love with an annoying voice. Probably would have been better made in Bollywood.
Being a fan of the Star Trek TV shows, I must point out that while I had nominal nominal crush on Nurse Chapel, I never had a crush on the computer voice. Now, Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda was a different story altogether.A much better robot love story would probably be Donna Matrix, a story about a love droid whose programming gets hacked with some military programming to suit the needs of a pathetic masochist but results in a lethal dominatrix / terminator kinda robot that terrorizes the city & requires the military to put down. This would make a great movie in the hands of Robert Rodriguez.Now, when can we expect a Him movie?

Those Fickle Republicans

Bad to Bizarre
Remember when Republicans were Republicans & Democrats were Democrats? ~sigh~
But has anything changed other than allegiances? Aside from GOP tergiversation, not really. Cranley is still ethically challenged and exhibits poor judgement. His angry semi-sorta-kinda-maybe factual attack ads in his current bid for political power are a good sign of the small minded, petty, mean-spirited man that he is. (tasing children?)
Maybe that's why the SWOH GOP likes him nowadays...

Telephone

Even menial things take some level of paying attention and, when you are intending to intrude upon someone you should, just out of courtesy - PAY ATTENTION.
Make sure you have the right phone number - no need to intrude on someone who is busy, sleeping (shift workers keep strange hours), or dealing with some life emergency/tragedy. Listen for the person you are calling to answer the phone - don't just be hanging on to the phone babbling to people in the room.
It's not that hard…
oh, yeah, don't be chewing gum when you call someone - nobody wants that in their ear!

I get this

Cranley - the Man Who Would Say Anything

Bad to Bizarre
Cranley issues anther salvo of nonsense in his pathetic campaign to drag Cincinnati down the socioeconomic gutter like Greece.
He knows the property tax hike was to deal with funding cuts made by his GOP pals in Columbus. He knows the parking lease is not a sale. He knows parking rates will go up with or without a lease and he knows any hikes will be approved by the city. He knows the mayor has no authority over the Cincinnati Public Schools.
Get back to basics and let nature take it's course? Like do nothing?
Apparently, Cranley does have one trick up his sleeve to help nature take it's course - he wants to rig city bidding to screw white men by claiming that blacks & women in Cincinnati are minorities. Of course, blacks are barely a minority and women are actually a majority.
Cranley - Bad to Bizarre.

Don't want a streetcar? Group pitches plan to 'climb on' dirigible

A group pushing for a wingless inflatable dirigible to fly folks around Cincinnati pitched its idea Monday.
Organizers of Climb On Cincinnati presented the dirigible idea to the Hamilton County Transportation Improvement District board of directors during the TID’s monthly meeting.
To avoid the added cost of landing spaces, the group has concocted a plan of just hanging rope ladders so passengers could elegantly climb up & down to the craft that would follow varying routes around town.

"People don't want to be confined by roads & rail and, frankly, the very notion of such a system is downright soccialist, so we are going to fly whenever and wherever we want."

The group only needs to raise $10Z and clear any number of FAA hurdles but believes they can be up & running in time for the next passing of Haley's comet.
Meanwhile, another group, Hop on Cincinatti has proposed a collection of routes covered by short buses.

Marijuana

The Great Cross

Some folks in Nevada have decided they will build the largest ever religious monument in the world, The Great Cross. They intend to build a giant cross shaped mausoleum/columbarium that will be larger than the Pyramids. They say they will commence to building the thing as soon as they get 400 stiffs. It is supposed to hold about 600,000 stiffs & cremation remains.
Looks like they're going to need segways to getaround.

Safe

John Cranley's BS Called Out

John Schneider, a Cincinnati resident, calls out John Cranley's "data-light" rhetoric & challenges his Kennedy worship in a LTE.
Shouldn't that be LTTE?
oh well...

Terrorists Strike Green Township !

Where's the blink tag when ya need it?Green Township, a hotbed of GOP corruption in Hamilton County, Ohio, Was the subject of a bomb scare when vigilant residents noted a bomb at the intersection of Ebeneezer & Muddy Creek Roads, doubtless targeting a bridge over the Muddy Creek. The wily terrorists targeted a bridge in the middle of friggin' nowhere where there's another bridge just a quarter mile up the road. Residents cite Section 8.
Yup, Charlie's out there getting stronger while Green Township is just getting dumber.

WC3PO non story here

Profiles in Leadership

How to Bankrupt a City

Democracy sucks - that's why the United States of America opted for a Constitutional Republican form of government instead of the mob rule that results from pure democracy. The frequent ballot initiatives mounted by the CO    and the NA CP are good examples of bad governance, the charter amendment proposed by dubious out of state and out of town groups to radically alter the City of Cincinnati's pension system is the epitome of bad governance. No surprise CO    supports it as bankrupting the city appears to be their main goal.
The amendment purports to patching a hole in the pension fund but actually doesn't address that at all but actually does wind up costing the city more. While supporters claim their plan will avert bankruptcy, it will more probably make bankruptcy more likely.
The local supporters (most are not) appear woefully ignorant of details in the plan, how the current pension system works and wven their own organization.
From the Biz Courier:

"Supporters of the plan have said they did not consider the Social Security issue when they wrote the amendment"

From the Warp:

"However, committee member Robinson, a Procter & Gamble retiree, seemed relatively new to the effort. He said he believes in the need for pension reform, but doesn’t know a lot of specifics about how this proposal was formed.
"There is an organization – I can’t tell you the name of it – that created a model and offered it to cities," he said."

Considering the secrecy surrounding the supporters, it is not surprising to find some of them have been investigated by the IRS.
FWIW, the only mayoral candidate who supports this idea is the tomato smoking Jim Berns.

For more see Biz Courier, Biz Courier, Fishwarp

Pirate Browser

Pirate Bay, the torrent search engine has released a Firefox plug in called PirateBrowser that intends to get around government imposed web censorship.
I mentions the nations of Iran, North Korea, United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Belgium, Finland, Denmark, Italy and Ireland and, while the United States isn't on the list, Hamilton County, Ohio doesn't exactly hold the first amendment in high regard & one of Hamilton County's congresspuke is fairly open to internet control / censorship. Might be something to look into if the freedom hating freaks & CO    allies, the CCV have their way.
It is currently Windows only but the developers are promising Linux & Mac versions.

X-Ray Spex

If X-Ray Spex worked as advertised AND if you hung out with a bunch of models high on cocaine and LSD, this might be the result.
But, really, I always just wanted to see everybody walking around like skeletons, anyway…

Congratulations Mary Kate McCormick

Congratulations to Mary Kate McCormick, Hamilton County Fair Queen 2013.

CO Founder Suggests Copying Detroit

Or reviving the Cincinnati subway as a better alternative to the Cincinnati streetcar.
methinks they've been getting into Jim Berns' tomatoes again….

Fox story here

RIP Karen Black

HAPPY 453!

Happy Birthday Erzsebet - not lookin' a day over 300.

Cincinnati - 2 Square Miles of It

Well, this video actually makes it west of Central Parkway & indicates some industry…
Honestly, people actually do live and work in Cincinnati.
HT to 5chw4r7z

Horror Sells - Hyundais

Now - if you can just find a gas station...

?

As the great Butt Head would say, "what?"

95 Years of Progress

gotta love it

Springfield, Ohio 1917 West Main looking east from Fisher


Springfield, Ohio 2012 West Main looking east from Fisher

Horror Sells Donuts

A zombie bakery? yup in spiffy Spokane. I'm with the newsguy, those maple donuts with bacon sound really good…. KVUE story here

Cincinnati - 2 Square Miles of It

Another promotional video of "Cincinnati", well, about 2% of it
oh, and Playdoh moved to Pawtucket.

UPDATE: and a response

Scopophobia

I really wonder about people who are freaked out about surveillance cameras like Dale Mallory, the NA CP & CO   . I mean, I don't want drones hovering outside my bathroom window, but when I'm out in public? Who cares if somebody is looking at me with his naked eyeballs or through a lens? People who have conversations & pose for pictures while wearing sunglasses is more bothersome for me but that's just a politeness thing.
Seriously, what are these weirdohs like at home?