The Gypsy Graves in Spring Grove Cemetery
While other folks can tell you about the legends, origins, rumors and stuff about the Gypsy graves at Spring Grove Cemetery that are elaborately decorated on Memorial Day, nobody seems to want to tell where the graves are. This can make finding them a bit daunting as Spring Grove is one of the largest cemeteries in the country.
Blogging isn't Cool to the rescue.
Go in the main entrance and go straight. Go through the tunnel/under the bridge and make the first left (west). Follow this a while, at one point you will see the tomb of John Robinson on your right. You might want to stop and make an offering to him in commemoration of all that he did to bring joy, excitement and wonderment to kids and families around the country for so many years. The ladies adorning the entrance are Faith, Hope and Charity.
Proceed on (west). You will come to a pond and the road will bend right around it. Follow this road and then bear left. As you head north you will see a chain link fence to your left. It will become a brick wall. When you see an iron gate in the wall - stop.
The graves are to your right on that road and the next couple up ahead.
The grave sites are usually family sites that center around a large memorial stone. Some stones have pillars and some use the marking of a thistle. They are made of both red and grey granite. They decorated around Memorial Day with massive displays of flowers and other decorations and are frequently draped with purple bunting. It's probably about as close to a Day of the Dead as we get up here in whitebread Ohio.
While this may seem like a queer and curious custom, it is serious poo to the folks involved, so, if you go, don't gawk, don't mess with the displays, don't take pictures of mourning people - be respectful.

The Licensed Cyclist

I often hear motorists bitch, whine & moan about how they need licenses & license plates but none of those demon spawn bicyclists do.
So here's why
Early Saturday, May 24, 2014, one car on a straight, flat stretch of road with a 25 MPH speed limit managed to take out 3 utility poles & 1 storefront in a neighborhood business district.
Try, just try doing that on a bicycle.

Not much more at WKRC

Churches and Bicycles

Living in an older American Community, Cincinnati, Ohio, I see an issue that I want to correct but don't know how.
In the rust belt cities a crucial element of their development was the church and a significant remnant of the built environment are the churches.
With population decline and people (like myself) being less inclined to attend churches they are increasingly being abandoned or floundering.
Stand in front of First Lutheran on Race St & look around. You can see about a half dozen churches and when blocked from view, you can see even more steeples. Some of these churches are active, some abandoned, and some active churches are desperately floundering. One is being transformed into a bar.
In the Northside neighborhood of Cincinnati there are about a dozen churches but only about 3 still minister to their original denomination. One is a cookie factory, one is a home (but used to be a pickle factory, GAR HQ and, I think, a Turner HQ).
Churches minus religion are, essentially community centers but how many community centers do we need? People who do attend churches are more likely to go to mega churches located in big box hardware stores & movie theaters & such. Don't get me started on the sacred & the profane on these matters…
So, what do we do with them?
Religion is not immune to the free market & is constantly evolving to remain relevant to the evolving societies it is in. When the Protestants split off from the Catholic Church, the Catholics didn't just sit on their hands. When American Protestants flocked to the Catholic Christmas services, the Protestant churches started offering them, too. The Catholic church begrudgingly accepted divorce & now some churches are accepting same sex marriage.
I've been meaning to address this issue but it goes beyond one post. What got me to actually typing today was an announcement made by the Queen City Bike club listing their Bike Friendly Destinations. There is one church on the list. Dunno why - maybe QCB didn't reach out to the churches. But, with the rise in popularity of bicycling, maybe just reaching out to cyclists might be a way for existing churches to remain relevant, infuse some new blood & maybe thrive again.
A long time ago I ran across a group called The Out Spokin'. Yeah, corny…
They were a Christian group that did group bicycling/camping trips. They seemed almost military in their organization but they all had to rely on each other to do their chores, repairs & stuff so they built some kind of bond (kinda cultish, maybe…).
Anyway, I know chasing bicyclists isn't going to fill the pews up anytime soon but I will likely have more lame ideas to revive the churches & revitalize midwestern cities.
PS, I might be out soon to attend The Bilderberg meetings. Dunno, my invitation appears to be lost in the mail
dang...

The Cranley Carnival

While Jay Kincaid and Kevin Osborne spin like dervishes Cranely's administration careens on like a mad carnival bereft of logic and proportion with interim City Managers, interim spokeswomen, and interim budget directos. Now Cranley says the Cranley budget is a Stiles budget. How's the underside of the bus look, Scott?
Cranley & Murray to continue to pursue their Big Trash policies and, when councilmembers ask when the policies on biking switched from transportation to recreation, they're told to RTFA, assholes.
The collegiality, transparency & progress is exhilarating.

This is what I'm Talking about

Romania's prime minister is looking at eliminating and merging 92 taxes and fees. While the overall cost to the taxpayer & the revenue collected by the state won't change much the accounting & time wasted dealing with all the individual charges will be vastly reduced saving the citizens time, money and promoting more investment which should generate more revenue for the state.
When people whine about the American corporate tax rate, they ignore the fact that the USA has fewer taxes than most countries. The USA overall tax rate is actually very competitive but it's still mired by bureaucracy that stifles investment.
Increasing and creating new fees, as Cincinnati's Mayor John Cranley has proposed, is absolutely the wrong way to go.

The Pirates of Cow Town

Columbus' raid on the counties, Townships & Municipalities has not gone unnoticed, at least, in Hamilton County. The HamCo Auditor published a rather scathing report discussing what's been taken from the citizens & their local jurisdictions solely to overflow the capitol's coffers.

State support for local governments was never some kind of benevolent gift from Columbus. The Local Government Fund dates back to the 1930s. It was instituted and increased over the years as the State eliminated local tax sources taking the income but promising to share it with local governments. The property tax rollbacks came with the Ohio income tax and its increase in the 1970s and 1980s. The State promised to share that additional revenue with localities to reduce local property taxes.
The past promises have been conveniently forgotten.
Ohio’s latest state surplus almost equals what was taken from the Local Government Fund.

Ed Fitzgerald

Sacred Life

While the US Military & CDC engage in (reportedly) mock zombie apocalypses, the military is also experimenting with electronics and such to augment the soldier. Well I say augment, promoters say 'complete'.

In other words, the technology in future armor will really complete humans
Twenty-five years from now, we may be to the point where the sensors are embedded in the skin and the person becomes the processor

But how will this affect the soldier psychologically? Will he feel removed from the mainstream unaugmented / incomplete human? Might he question even defending the 'normal' from the undead? Or would he see the scourge of the zombie as an aid in wiping out the old & ineffectual.
Indeed, what will life become when the world is populated by three semi distinct lifeforms - humans, zombies & cyborgs? Will any or all be deemed 'sacred' life forms?
No doubt the cyborgs will find some strange machine god & homo incompletus will stick to his sky gods but what of the zombie? Will the horde instinctively recognize some uniting putrefactive spirit?
For that matter, couldn't the god that makes life sacred actually be some evolving thing that transcends all 3 worlds of existence?
No doubt there will be blood, embalming fluid & oil spilt before it's all over but what will be left when the dust settles?
Ken Ham accusing Pat Robertson of Paganism?

NBR on the Super Soldier

Foreign Policy on Zombie Apocalypse Preparedness

Glenn's take on Ken & Pat

Voteman

We need this guy over here...
pfah - goofy Eurotrash embed code... here Voteman

Reasons to Commit

Eye Opening has a collection of photos from old mental institutions. Some of them are of people suffering mental illness & being restrained, etc..
This one caught my eye as a list of actual reasons for admission into the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum from 1864 - 1889.

A few of these seemed kinda strange like Novel Reading?
Over Study of Religion - like the clergy?
Tobacco & Masturbation - since masturbation is also listed, I guess this was a popular fetish at the time?
Politics - well, yeah, most politicians should probably be committed
Bad Company - is this about politics again?
Shooting of Daughter - because everybody can relate to killing a son
Excessive Sexual Abuse - as opposed to Acceptable Sexual Abuse

Kinda strange. Probably stranger to just throw mentally ill people into prison nowadays, tho.

Branding Rail

Typical Transit UserCincinnati's Metro is looking for someone to brand the Cincinnati Streetcar.

The Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority is seeking proposals for RFP 20-14 for Streetcar Brand Development. Proposal instructions, specifications and contractual terms and conditions may be obtained by contacting SORTA's Procurement Department, Lyndi Bryan at lbryan@go-metro.com.

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Given the horrors of mass transit, the dangerous route the proposed line might take, the fact that it might even go to Price Hill - I imagine horror should be the main theme. Flames, blood, skulls, ominous music, explosions…
Branding Beat offers this.
The idea of frightening the rider is only half of what they need to do. They need to scare the crap out of every ped, cyclist & motorist that might come into contact with the murderous metal leviathan as it screeches along it's tracks.
I'm tellin' ya maaaaaannn, Horror Sells.

Who Needs a Bridge ?

Ditch the highway, ditch the million lane bridge. For a cool $45,000, you can pedal to the river & then just fly to the other side. By 2020 everybode will be doing it!

Hammasker Schlamascker catalog here

In Reference

Saturday Afternoon

Something tells me nothing's happening at the zoo.
Art sales in the park? check
Mansion Tours? natch
Record fairs? gotcha
Puppet shows? Reggae? Vinyl? Creepy Ceramics?you bet!
heck, you can even pull weeds if you want!
Set the controls for the heart of the Queen City & check out Clifton & Northside Saturday, May 10.
And when you wake up in the gutter Sunday morning - don't worry (much) 'cause you will be in the brunch capitol of the galaxy.

Art in the Park
11AM - 4PM
4001 Hamilton Avenue

Northside Second Saturday
6 - 10PM
Northside

Historic Mansions of Lafayette
1 - 5PM
Cincinnati Women's Club
330 Lafayette Avenue

Northside Record Fair
11AM - 4PM
North Presbyterian Church
4222 Hamilton Avenue

Room With A View: Mixed Media Cigar Box Experiences
6 - 11PM
Bathroom Gallery
4029 Hamilton Avenue

Mark Klish Trunk Show
6 - 100PM
Marketside Mercantile
4170 Hamilton Avenue


CRASH: Cute and/or Creepy Porcelain
6 - 10 PM
Fabricate
4037 Hamilton Avenue

Basement Reggae Night
The Comet
4579 Hamilton Avenue

Tonefarmer
Northside Tavern
9PM
4163 Hamilton Avenue

Hook & Ladder
Chameleon
10PM
4114 Hamilton Avenue

Standing Your Ground

11 years ago today, a guy in the Northside neighborhood of Cincinnati, OH, after an uneventful Citizens on Patrol patrol, stopped into a neighborhood bar on his way home. Then things went terribly wrong.
Two guys charged in brandishing guns and announcing a robbery.
The Citizen on Patrol guy pulled out his pistol & shot one of the robbers in the neck. The other one fled but was caught.
The problem was, in Ohio, it was illegal to take a gun into a bar. So, the guy who saved the day got arrested. Folks in the neighborhood quickly pooled resources & raised his bond while one perp couldn't raise bond & the guy who got shot went to the hospital.
Then came the cool part. The Grand Jury refused to indict the shooter. They said people were fed up with crime & chaos.
He still got kicked out of Citizens on Patrol. Police suggested he run for city council.
Later, that fall, there was an open carry march in the neighborhood to promote concealed carry in Ohio which eventually passed.

For two hours, it made Northside what one Ohio police chief called "the safest neighborhood in the state."

City Bleat interviewed the guy

Fishwarp article

Free Republic article about the march

Ohio Open Carry article

Sound Off

In the discussion of the charnel house that we call the US Highway system, the topic is usually focussed on the bumper car aspect of fellow drivers careening into one another in a mad chaotic dance. But there are other victims of the cyborgic mayhem - the road crews that keep the whole thing going.
Giant blinky signs & arrows are routinely overlooked by the speed crazed motorist, so, in Missouri, they have tried sound alerts to wake up the caged & comatose.
Perhaps this is something bicyclists could do. It could be as simple as riding around screaming at the sky or maybe some sort of siren whistle sort of deal generated by the turning wheels.
The trick is channeling the sound in a narrow path in front of the rider since most bike car collisions occur when people pull out in front of one another. Dunno how much the navy doohickey used by the MODOT weighs but I'm guessing nobody wants to lug it around on a bike.

Pour les Nerds

OhioDanceI worked on this poster at a pre-press shop around 1984. I used a Crosfield scanner & the photo came in as a retouched 8x10 transparency. The scanner was a large drum scanner that used an arc lamp for a light source. It was a two part beast that cost about $200,000 and required a special controlled environment. One piece was the analyse side & the other was an expose side. You didn't scan to a file you just digitized & streamed the info from the analyse side to the expose side (in a darkroom) where green lasers zapped out halftone dots onto a film for the 4 printing colors.
This was pre Photoshop but the scanner had a number of color correction controls found in Photoshop like curves, levels & selective color and it had USM, UCR & GCR (or PCR) that smokes Photoshop to this day.Anyway, there was no visual preview, the operator just had to go by the numbers. He had to memorize a bunch of numbers too, because there was no GUI with pop down menus. He had to input the 'cal' number to get to the operation he wanted to perform.
Somewhere along the line, Crosfield came up with a gizmo called a Scan View. Not only did it give the operator a visual preview, it gave him the ability 'mask' sort of like Photoshop's Select>Color Range. You were limited to 4, I think.
It was a large console thing that kinda looked like an arcade video game like Galagia (SP?). The keypad was pretty much the same as the scanner's. It had a track ball to move the cursor around the image.
The scanner was attached to a really dumb computer called a Scanner Display Terminal (SDT) that allowed the operator to save set ups & automate tasks. It ran on 2 7" floppy disks. Formatting & initialising these things took about 14 steps back in the old days.
I cannot remember exactly how you scanned to the Scan View but the operator would take the 7"floppy with the set up over to the Scan View, insert it & call up the setup & after further edits, save & take it back to the SDT to scan the art.
This particular transparency, because it had been chemically altered, wasn't seen well by the scanner so I globbed it onto the Scan View to use the masking functions to get some of the shoes that weren't coming up right. It was one of the few times we ever used it for something other than just messing around. No idea if the dot etcher worked the films afterward or not.
Maybe I should change the name of this blog to Grandpa's Slide Show...

Let the Games Begin

Cincinnati's Central Parkway 'Protected' bike path appears to be a go.
'Mann's Bend' will permanently eradicate more than a dozen mature trees to save 2 hours of parking on early weekday mornings for businesses that do not open before the parking restriction ends.
Furthermore it will upend thousands of years of roadway traditions & force motorists cum pedestrians to cross the 'protected' bike path to get to the sidewalk.
In the picture above, from the Gotham City's DOT, there appears to be a designated crosswalk. I do not know what to expect in Cincinnati. Most likely, motorists cum pedestrians will just cut across in front of or behind their parked cars.
How will this work in the dark winter mornings with commuting cyclists & distracted peds on their phones?

Bizniz Courier article here.

The Contest I Could Have Won

Slummin' in the Sketchbook
Bob City didn't have a comic book store. A guy had to go to various drug stores & such & then fumble around with comics scrunched into obnoxious rotating racks in no particular order. We were lucky to have a local chain called Readmore that sold, comics, magazines, paperbacks, school art supplies, local memorabilia like spoons & plates & coffee mugs, newspapers, beer, wine & pop and pizzas & subs.
Then some guy came along & rewrote the rules. He started up a dedicated comic book store across from a major shopping center.
He also put on the first comic book convention in Springfield, OH.
One of the events at the convention was an art contest. That's what this image was for. It has genuine Steve Ditko rubber extremities & catches that split second realization that death is imminent. Cool, huh?
Anyway, I gave up on it, I knew other people were better than I was. And there were - but nobody submitted anything. So, even unfinished I could have won the prize whatever the prize was…
And this just goes to show you, I guess, pretty much nothing.

Classy Chris

There are so many reasons to toss Chris Smitherman out on his ass, this one seems fairly unimportant.

"The No. 1 solution is we've got to charge the hill [sic] on this culture of no snitching," Smitherman said.

Well, not exactly, but if that's how you want to address the issue then you need to work with the community & the city, county & state law enforcement & court agencies and find a way to protect these witnesses & family members.
Thing is - it's kind of a cheap shot to blame the victims.
The real problem is people who are unable to resolve personal differences with one another in any way other than just eliminating a person.
Is this a black thing? Beats me - I've seen plenty of bad parenting by black moms on the street & buses, tho. They seem to want to stifle any inquisitiveness or creativity their young children have. If the kid grows up with these qualities retarded, he likely will have problems resolving differences with other people and will just choose the "practical (final) solution".
How to accomplish this? I wish I knew.

Fishwarp article here

Voting GOP

As I look over my GOP primary ballot, I see most races are unchallenged and I won't be voting for any of the candidates in the November election. 2 races are contested with 3 women & 3 men running for the district state central committee. Can't find anything on a couple of them. One guy is an ex-Democrat. One guy is an 82 yr old career politician. One lady, the incumbent (the male position is currently vacant) is absolutely batshit crazy. She has a challenger who I disagree with on practically everything but, at least, seems sane & mature. The sane lady claims the crazy lady set up a fake Twitter account to sully the sane lady's reputation. Indeed, the crazy lady's website is mainly juvenile attacks on the sane lady.
So I can do this one of two ways.
1. Vote for the sane lady & maybe bring the GOP back a little closer to reality.
or
2. Vote for the crazy lady & give the party another nudge into chittering oblivion.
decisions, decisions...

Cranley...

punk ass motherfucker rich boy....

Compromise Solution

Here are the trees David Mann wants to remove & pave over to make a wide sidewalk that bicyclists can share with pedestrians, some with mobility issues.What could go wrong?
What's been lost in the argument about a 'protected' bike lane in front of 2145 Central Parkway is that the building also backs onto Central Avenue (you might say the building is centrally located) where there is more parking as well as entrances to the building.There is also a stairway to the left/north of the building.
So, here's my solution.
The owner of the Mohawk building can knock a hole in the east side of his basement wall and let drivers enter via Central Avenue, drive through the building and park in the subway tunnel under the Parkway. Not only would this solve the problems & save the trees, it would provide safe, dry parking for the employees & customers in the building.

Death Trap v. Killer Trees

This video, used without permission, kinda shows why an elaborate bike path on Central Parkway is unnecessary. It also shows why there's room for one. Mind you, the parked cars would all be allowed to park there at the time the video was recorded.

Here We Go

A 'protected' bike path is unnecessary on Central Parkway but could increase cycling in the city. If the path, as originally designed, were built, it could be removed fairly inexpensively. At a Cincinnati City Council Committee meeting April 21st, it was estimated the whole thing could be erased for $40,000.
The meeting was called because Vice Mayor David Mann had 'new information' and mayor John Cranley 'had questions'. I heard no questions from Cranley who I didn't even see at the meeting. David Mann's 'new information' was what had been on the intertubes for a few days prior, that 1 building owner was griping about the plan.
During the speaker's time a business owner complained about it impacting loading & unloading in front of his store. Another business owner complained of lost free parking. Another couple people expressed worries that emergency vehicles getting stuck in traffic. Some people worried about traffic jams during special events downtown. These are all legitimate concerns.
How did Mann respond?
He issued a motion that would appease 1 building owner, cause permanent change, put cyclists & pedestrians in conflict with one another, some of the pedestrians having mobility issues, and cost the taxpayers about $110,000. The other citizens' issues? fuck 'em - Mann didn't address any of the other issues raised. Mann calls this "common sense". I don't. Further I don't call these 11th hour shenanigans good governance.
Why not install the system as planned & see what happens? Any modifications can be made as needed in the future and, as previously noted, it can be undone at a fairly low price.
Now, will Cranley issue 4,285 trivial questions?

Cruisin Bob City - 1957

Happy 420 Day

In honor of 4/20/14 the crack programming & graphics department at Blogging Isn't Cool has concocted a marijuana Photoshop brush (usable in other software (like TheGimp)) and made it available to you for free download!

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The Protection Racket

Some bicyclist today want their own protected roads. Sharing the roads, a social custom dating back thousands of years, is broken they say due to the rise of the machine. Currently the move is towards protected bike lanes.
It's kind of amusing since it was motorists who wanted bikes out of their way who promoted the same idea 40 years ago. Back then, however the cyclists fought back. They refused to cede the thousands of years to the machine.
This 1974 study noted that the 'protected bike path' only really protected the cyclist grom being rear ended by an automobile. That particular collision is actually rare & the least likely collision to happen between a car & a bike accounting for only about 4% of car bike collisions. A cyclist is about 3 times more likely to hit a car making an improper turn in front of the cyclist or a cyclist making an improper turn in front of a car. The most common collision comes from cyclists riding on the wrong side of the road. This problem will likely become a bike on bike issue with the 'protected bike path'. The turning issue might only be exacerbated with the paths & the decreased lines of visibility.
But what's changed in 40 years when the cyclists defied their adversaries and now when the cyclists worst enemy is himself?
Fatal car crashes have been slowly declining over the last 30 years. Cycling whether it be serious/utility cycling or recreational/sport riding certainly seems up over at least the last ten years. Removing the cyclist from the roadway here & there will not help the motorist learn to deal with the cyclist who needs an 'unprotected path'.
I'm reminded of what Ben Franklin once said"

They who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

Let this be my warning to all of you who want your special 'protected paths' - the route you are taking will lead to your banishment from the common roadways.

Jobs & Housing

With the announcement that General Electric will be moving over a thousand jobs to the Cincinnati area, a question looms, where will the employees live? Mason, Oakley & The Banks are supposed to be the short list for the office with a temporary office planned for downtown in the short term. People are pretty comfy commuting for miles, so no matter where the final office is located, anywhere in the region is a viable place for these new workers to call home. If The Banks is the final decision, the new housing coming online in the downtown area will be very attractive for people who don't want to commute long distances. It is also the destination of area highways. Mason & Oakley would probably find most employees living on the east side.
The question is - where will realty agents direct these new residents?
I had a relative who was relocated. The business provided realty services but the agents only knew the sprawly suburban areas so when said relative asked to look at old farmhouses the agent drew a blank.
I don't know how this could be done but I would say neighborhoods need to promote themselves to either GE or to the agency they choose to provide real estate services.
Whatever, the city government will not be the answer.

PS - the relative did find a nice little 1790-1800 farm house with a barn.

'Warp article here

And another perspective from Victorian Antiquities & Design

Trippin'

On April 16, 1943, Al Hoffman took the first LSD trip - on a bicycle!

Revival of Evil

This movie is great. Anton LeVey sounds like a serious neocon.

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The Willful Surrender of the Road

Road Sharing (& drafting - not recommended)It seems really clear to me that every time you cede the roadway to the auto, the bicycle loses twice what it actually gives up. It seems like the cyclists who love the 'take the lane' (be a road hog) strategy are the same ones wanting special bike infrastructure that separates them from the road.
I have considered why people have a fear of sharing the road with autos. Living in Cincinnati, it's kind of hard to get out into the country. I grew up in a smaller community where getting onto a rural highway was pretty easy. Before I could drive, I was riding up & down RT68 to Urbana & Yellow Springs. There was about a foot of pavement to the right of the white edge line. Cars, pickups & semis gliding by at 60MPH…
The notion of sharing the road was also reinforced as motorists had to contend with slow moving farm machinery on the rural roads.
Are the Cincinnatians afraid of the road just 'city slickers'?
People who just ride for recreation, sure bike paths are fine, but if you want to get somewhere, Chillicothe maybe, you are going to have to ride with traffic & the motorists are going to have to know how to deal with the cyclists.
When cyclists continually cede their rightful place on the road, it just empowers the motorists to monopolize the road. heck, look at what they've done to thousands of years of tradition in 100 years.
The argument of 'safety' is just a common tool used to achieve other agendas and you will see both cyclists and motorists use that 'argument'.
CYCLISTS - to keep your rightful place on the road - USE IT!. Hiding and being obnoxious won't help at all.
The clip above is from the movie, Breaking Away.

Occult Detective

One of the ideas I had for a comic book character was an average private detective who got a case involving some cultists that had nothing to do with occultism, but it got him the reputation for actually knowing something about the stuff so he got case after case & found himself learning more & more as he went along.
His character would have developed similarly to the way the W
Willow character evolved in Buffy the Vampire Slayer many years later.
Constantine (the movie) and Supernatural (the TV show) would also be kinda comparable but I had no idea to engage heaven & hell, angels & stuff. I certainly would today. Actually, one of my issues (besides lack of ambition) was that I didn't really know anything about the occult ot the supernatural other than movies & comic books.
If only I had persevered in my dream to be an underpaid comic book creator getting ripped off by publishers, I could have traveled around to comic book conventions & sat at tables signing crap for people I would never in a 1,000 years associate with otherwise.
ah, dreams...

Of Bikes and Cars

There's a young contingent that wants to undo 150 years of organization for no good reason other than they think their unseasoned and convoluted ideas will save the world.
Some small bit of bike infrastructure is ok in our transportation system but completely undoing generations of structure just because it sounds cool is ridiculous.
Bikes and cars are supposed to share the road.
The problem will never be solved with dumb gimmicks and there is no reason to antagonize motorists. Their fragile eggshell minds can barely deal with driving already. No, more crap in the road is not the solution.
The more special stuff that segregates bikes from cars, the more likely bikes will wind up banished from the roads and serving as transportation & just becoming recreational toys.
What we need to do is double the hours of training one needs to procure a drivers license. Furthermore, people learning to drive should be required to learn to ride a bike.
Students in drivers ed classes should take turns driving, biking and walking together to learn how to share the road. As the class bonds and the driver, biker & ped get to know each other as they trade roles, it will become much less of an us v. them issue.
The cost of drivers ed will have to increase but that will get some poor people off the road which I am sure the GOP dominated Ohio legislature would love.
There is currently a plot to reduce Central Parkway to a two lane road. The OTR Community Council and the Northside Community council support this. Why? How many of them have ridden the route for 3 decades? I have. Do people drive like idiots? Absolutely. The solution is not to manage the lousiest driver - it's to raise the standard of driving proficiency.
Contact city hal, the mayor, Mel McVey & Amy Murray and tell them not to head down this self defeating path. Tell your state legislators to improve drivers education.
It's like the fish parable thing, ya know?

Cincinnati Makes the Not So Long List

The RNC has narrowed their 2016 convention site selection to Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Kansas City & Las Vegas.
Denver has legal pot & we all know how the GOP hates drug regulations.
Dallas has rednecks, lousy health codes, lots of low wage jobs & poverty and lousy schools - all GOP benchmarks of success.
Las Vegas has gambling, strippers, prostitution and lots and lots of booze.
Kansas City has a nice song named after it.
Clevo has Dennis Kucinich.
So where's that leave Cincinnati?
A lame casino, lotta crack whores, a coliseum that will likely be empty, a lot of left wing anarchist types, Charlie Winburn, CO   , CCV…
I honestly think one of the best things Cincinnati has to offer is potential protests & street violence that would give the convention more national & international media attention. For that matter, Cleveland would probably do fine, too.
Still, I'm going to put my bitcoins on Dallas or Las Vegas. The GOP is strong in the south & there will be more opportunities to hoodwink hispanics there.

The Fishwarp's take here

You can vote for the site here.
And you know the GOP really cares about what you think.

Palin/Bachmann '16 !

An Audacious Proposal

In Cincinnati there were 2 elections that made major changes to how the government works. In 2001 we changed the way we elect the mayor & changed the mayor's duties. In 2013 we changed the council members to 4 year terms.
Both elections had big consequences and tiny voter turnouts. And, as usual, the politicians who get the majority vote always claim to have been given mandates.
So, here's my great idea.
Establish minimum voter turnout to make an election official. Maybe 30-40% turnout of registered voters should be required. If that isn't achieved, have another election or wait a year & try again.
It would screw with term limits but I don't care, I hate term limits
A toe head at UrbanCincy pointed out it would make ballot initiatives harder as more signatures would be required, but with some of the hare-brained ballot issues we've seen lately that might be a good idea. A city run by referendum is not a very attractive city to investors & business.
The big issue is - is this legal? It wouldn't require that people participate but if they didn't, they'd just wind up with councilmembers who serve for life & then appoint their replacements. Presumably people wouldn't want that so the rule wouldn't force people to vote, it would just really incentivize them.
Ideally it should be a minimum of 50% or more of registered voters, but that ain't gonna happen in Cincinnati any time soon.

Horror Sells

Pepsi
Who cares when the bus shows up with these nutty animations at the shelter?
Still ain't buyin' no damn Pepsi, tho...

Circuses

With a budget shortfall of $20M & another bond rating downgrade, Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley has decided to add to his ever growing public debt by adding more recreation facilities for his wealthy white east side neighbors.
While the Wasson Way bike path is better than some bike paths in that it actually has some destinations, all those destinations are already on ROADS. Do we have to pay to maintain both? Can we afford to pay for both?

More at Business Courier

The Voice of Privilege

Some people throw around accusations of racism with wild abandon. While that was my first impression at Cincinnati Mayor, John Cranley's latest statements about immigration, I am not sure if it might just be classism.
From the 'Warp:

If you're fleeing political persecution anywhere in the world, we want you here. Cincinnati has a lot of older, blighted housing that immigrants could rehab and settle in. I would love to take advantage of that as a community redevelopment tool.

great
Be a tool, come live in Cincinnati's slums.
He also mentions luring wealthy people with handouts.
Cranley is finally being the wealthy corporatist Democrat he purported to be with this cynical elitist plan - the commoditization of people as tools and the handouts of other people's money…
I have said before, we need to sell foreign investors on the city's assets but all Cranley has to offer are freebies & cast offs.

More t the 'Warp

Snubbed Again

oh, my minion, the devils at The City Bleat have snubbed this blog agin in their Best of Cincinnati farce.
Know this, Bleaters, my vengeance will be terrible.

Cincinnati by the Sea

While San Diego is known by many Ohioans as Dayton by the Sea, apparently Floridians find Cincinnati & San Diego so similar as to be interchangeable.
Note the last skyline shot in this intro. We're not in Ohio anymore…
HT to Paradox24

The Devolution of the GOP

The Democratic party has hemorrhaged right wingers & the GOP has been sucking them in like vampires for decades. Strom Thurmond lead the first group shortly after WWII & Ronald Reagan opened the doors to them in the 80s. Lyndon Johnson pissed off the racist southern Democrats with the Civil Rights act in 64 and with the failure of George Wallace, the south has just gotten redder ever since.
The GOP is essentially a party of right wing nationalist corporatists nowadays AKA fascists. The old GOP, heck even Nixon's GOP is dead.
If anybody doubts the party snatcher idea, check out their latest move, H.R. 1459 which essentially guts the Antiquities Act of 1906.
The 1906 legislation authorized the president to act independently to protect our natural lands. The latest legislation seeks to politicize the decisions & mire them in debate & bureaucracy.
Both bills were submitted by Republicans & the act in 1906 was signed by Republican environmentalist President Theodore Roosevelt.
Roosevelt was no friend to the corporatists but now the GOP is stacked with corporatists & eschatologists.
Conservative used to have something to do with conservation. Roosevelt got that and it showed in his vision for the future. The people claiming that designation today might as well call themselves woombas or something for their philosophies have nothing to do with the definition of the word.
There is an evil force amongst us in the USA today and it is the Democratic Party's right wing - the GOP.

Legacy of Fear

Bad to BizarreBeing a child during the Reagan administration must have been a traumatic experience. I can only imagine how talk of "killer trees" must have affected the tender mind of an 8 year old John Cranley. Indeed, it must haunt him to this day as he states that 'a wall of trees is creepy'.
After campaigning on a policy of neighborhood balkanization, he states that giving the neighborhoods more control over their own futures is 'scary'. Another trauma from his Reagan childhood?
Coming from the fairly paranoid Green Township probably hasn't helped the boy much, either.
Soapbox has a review the fear crazed mayor's first 100 days

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uh, Al? Alicia? Really?

They say politics makes strange bedfellows. Unfortunately these might just be peas in a pod. Meloweese Richardson, Al Sharpton & Alicia Rece join together to kick of a voter rights act. So, was Smitherman there? I mean, if we are arguing for the rights of crazy people to vote, it only seems logical…

More at the Fishwarp

Another Campaign Promise ?

Read All about it at the Fishwarp, City gives CO    $675,000 to go away.
So how many potholes is this? How many laid off police officers? How many fire station brownouts is this?

Hey Frisch's

COCA COLA

The Damned

A few years ago, I chronicled concerts I had attended but noted that a few had 'gotten away'. I was just made aware that 28 years ago tonight, I was at a Damned concert at the Jockey Club in picturesque Newport Kentucky. The band had done an in store promo at one of those old supermarket sized record stores.
Later, during the show, fluorescent lamps started falling out of the ceiling fixtures into the crowd. Dunno if anybody got hurt. The band probably figured it happened all the time.
Later, my date kept shouting ELOIIIIIISSE!!

Been There Done That

There's one way to get motorist's attention while riding a bike…
When I was young, thin & had long wavy hair, I would ride shirtless in the summer. Frequently I would catch male motorists checking me out & quickly snapping their noggins back into the forward position when they got a look at my hairy chest & ugly mug. How lucky did they think they were? So, I dunno, it might not be a good way to get their attention.
Anyway, when I did ride naked, it was only late at night in a residential area.
With no helmet…

FISH FRY

yup, that time of year again, be sure to check out St Boniface's Fridays through Lent (whenever that is) from 5-7PM.

A Top Vote getter

I got a robocall about this from Chas the other day. I am assuming he is using a Republican phone list. it's heartening to know that this CO    & GOP endorsed city councilman who was one of the top vote getters in the last election has the answers to all my problems. Rumour has it the snake oil salesman might have his eyes on the Ohio state legislature. ~yay~
and Cincinnatians will probably vote for him...

They Walk Among Us

Sunnydale? Bon Temps? Add Springfield, Ohio to the list. Once a quaint happy town where everybody knew one another and everybody had a smile for one another.
Now it's overrun with vampires, werewolves & such. Fortunately we've got some middle aged guy & a couple teenage girls fighting to defend us with their Slayer Covenant.
The Daily Mail reports on a middle aged man who took his fantasy world seriously & enlisted teenage girls to join him.
It's kinda strange. I'm into a lot of the crazy science fiction, supernatural stuff Mr Edwards is into and, as such, frequently find myself in contact with young people & even kids online.
A. I keep my fantasy world out of the real world.
B. When I am dealing with yunguns, I am very guarded in what I say & frequently don't say anything. I sure as hell don't recruit kids.
In one of Edwards' videos he talks about how monsters exist. I think he got that right.

The Springfield Noose-Son version

HT to Losantville

Back When the GOP Was Funny

My Buzzfed Personality Crisis

What I have learned about myself from Buzzfeed…
During medieval times I would live in the Astoria neighborhood of New York City transported to the state of New Mexico. If I was president, I'd be Woodrow Wilson. If I were an apostle, I'd be St Phillip. OTOH if I were on the Firefly crew, i'd be Cap'n Tightpants. If I happened to become a comic book villain, I'd be Mr Freeze but as an animated dog, I'd be Mr Peabody. My literary soulmate would be Henry Thoreau.
uh.. yeah
Not a fan of Woody, never heard of Astoria, HATE New Mexico, never read Thoreau, Mr Freeze is kinda dumb, I'm cool with Mr Peabody & medieval times but I alway thought of myself as more of a Wash. St Phillip? beats me…
What's sad is that somebody is probably taking this nonsense to the bank.
Mr Freeze in New Mexico?

Happy BDay, Rob

WANTED

I'm posting this here because I know my vast readership knows a lot of violent juvenile delinquents.
It's an odd bit of advertising - posting the victim's picture on a wanted poster. Why WKRC is so prominent is puzzling, too.
Anyway, after a cold crappy winter, a nice warm sunny day came along & Mr Tramble was sitting on his front porch when accosted by 2 male black teenagers who shot him when he refused to give up his property. The bullet severed his spine, paralyzing him and, as I write this, the guy is on life support at the hospital.
It was a weekday just after noon when the kids should have been in school. The police reported that because truancy is so high in the city, it's hard sorting through all the recorded truants.
Police are distributing these posters thru Northside but the kids likely are not from that neighborhood & are probably steering clear of it. The only description is 2 black boys. That narrows it down….
The maggots were skipping school that Mr Tramble paid for. They probably live in subsidized housing Mr Tramble pays for. They probably get free food Mr Tramble pays for. But that wasn't enough for these vicious toads. Someone knows who these brats are. Someone must suspect them. Are any mothers wondering if it was one of their boys?
This shit is fucked up.

WKRC story here

Springfield Timelapse

You've seen Tokyo, London, New York, Rio…
Now it's time for fuckin' Frogtown, bitches…..

Male Models

Seriously - Tesla guy or Bugatti girl ?
In an article over at the Globe & Mail, the author is pleased to report that more male models are being used at car shows. While women in skimpy, clingy outfits (or just swimsuits (because cars & swimming just go together)) have traditionally been the norm, the guys just wear street clothes and some of 'em are positively dorky. Why aren't the guys rolling around on the hoods in their skateboard culottes?

Globe & Mail article here

…and since it popped into my head, I'm sure it popped into everybody else's.

What Would You Be Caught Dead In ?

not this!This fashion show of funeral gowns rejected by Star Trek was probably a little different for the models who are probably a little more used to runway shows. Dunno why they are lying on mirrors on the floor but what the heck, you usually don't look up at people on runways, either.
So what would you want to be buried in? Your usual attire? Something more formal? A Batman costume?
You can go biodegradable
The Siberian Ice Maiden wore a 3 foot high hat that necessitated an 8 foot coffin.

Some more crap to ponder

Vengeance of a Mad King

Of Cranley's campaign promises, I don't recall him promising to fire any individuals. He said he would look into a new city manager & the current one could apply, but he turned on that promise & fired the guy with no viable replacement to this day.
His claim to protect the taxpayers' dollars by not paying $1.2M to move a tenant with a lease expiring in 2017 might be laudable but since it comes with wanting to blow $12M on a garage that seems to have no future & ditch $60M in private investment that would bring hundreds of jobs & tax paying residents to the city - well, that's a little weird.
From the Currier:

'The support for the development has been overwhelming with the hundreds of new jobs, millions in economic impact, enhancing the downtown skyline, removal of Pogue's Garage - a real eye sore to the downtown - and bringing a needed cutting edge urban grocery,' Flaherty said.

Now Cranley & Seelbach have enlisted 3CDC, not a particularly unbiased actor, to analyse the deal (that's already been analysed).
Meanwhile, Cranley's fiscal prudence has only widened the budget gap.
Read more about this madman at CityBleat

Will the Windbag Investigate ?

Cincinnati road crews are almost $5M over budget this year after buying an extra $2.8M of extra salt. Is this yet another Saltgate? Will Charlie mount another investigation into the city employees who flagrantly squander our tax dollars?

More at WLWT

Ohio Follows Arizona

Ohio Christian Alliance reports that, after nutjob Jan Brewer shot down Arizona's Religious Freedom act (lampooned here by Jon Stewart), the Ohio general Assembly shelved, indefinitely, it's (mysteriously) similar legislation, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, H.B. 376. The reason being, 'while the legislation stemmed from a well-meaning place, they don't want to allow for confusion around the issue.'
Apparently, the OCA & the CCV are very disappointed in their loss of freedom to discriminate and ram their extremist agenda down Ohioan's throats. How confusing is that?

An AI Seance

OK, when the going gets weird, the weird get going. So, after you kick the bucket, these guys have come up with a scheme that marries the dumbass shit you tweet & blather about in other online venues with an artificial intelligence engine, globs it onto an avatar and lets your loved ones semi sorta kinda speak with your dead ass via Skype.
First thing to pop into my noggin was the scene in Dark Star where the crew has to resurrect the dead captain.
I don't get it. It might fly with casual friends, but for close friends & relatives, forget it. Or maybe that's how people relate to each other now.
Still, I bet Harry Houdini would have kicked the developers asses.

More here

WCPO Jumps the Shark

Carol Williams endless warnings of, "it's not as safe as you think" have now gone into the realm of passenger rail. Apparently streetcars kill. But not in the hundred mile an hour screeching metal on metal way that would be cool - more like the the way fences lure motorists to their demise way. After dire warnings, the article does state that all the accidents they cite have been due to motorist error but Chairman Brinkman almost tearfully assures us that because of the streetcar, people will die. Never mind that without street rail, about a thousand people a year die in traffic accidents every year in Ohio.
I used to like charnel 9 but they have taken a jag that seems to have led them into the twilight zone. Well, what the hell. Horror sells.

More Cello Madness

Putin will teach you to love the Motherland

Putin will teach you to love the MotherlandIt appears Pussy Riot is at it again. God I love the vocals - Russian just nails it for angry punk music.
Whatever, they've got their work cut out for 'em. Between some stuff Eric Voegelinwrote & stuff like this article, What Makes The Russians Tick? by Richard Longworth, I don't thin change - real change - is coming to Russia anytime soon.

Hey Hollywood !

Everybody knows it. Everybody is thinking it. But nobody will say it.
OK, I will. Hollywood should put Aztec Ace on the big screen. A guy from the 23rd century with a penchant for jazz & Coca Cola, who lives in an ancient Aztec pyramid who goes globe trotting & time traveling with his girlfriend Bridget & the floating, disembodied head of Sigmund Freud in an effort to save the space time continuum couldn't not be a success.
But, Quimbob, doesn't Hollywood fuck up everything it touches?
Well, yeah….
oh well...

More on Ace

KAHN !

Horror Sells

Time, money, safety? Gridlock? Check out the ominous music.
And, as you know, being stuck in traffic makes you an easy target for the imminent zombie horde.

Rivers, Wolves, Beavers & Stuff

This video tlks about how the reintroduction of wolves changed the habitat & even the rivers in Yellowstone. The Book, The Mill Creek, An unnatural History of an Urban Stream discusses a lot of the same thing except in an urban environment. As anybody in Cincinnati can attest, there's not much in the way of beavers & wolves but loads of deer that the cops kill from time to time. Should Cincinnati reintroduce wolves? Might be kinda cool. It would make waiting at a bus stop more interesting. Late nights, sprinting across parking lots could get really entertaining.

Remembering Dresden 1945

February 13-15 1945, Dresden was firebombed & strafed mercilessly in an effort to finish the war in Europe. Here is a recollection by a survivor

Then the bombing began again. This time there was no pause between detonations and the rocking was so severe, we lost our balance, and were tossed around in the basement like a bunch of ragdolls. At times the basement walls were separated and lifted up. We could see the flashes of the fiery explosions outside. There were a lot of fire bombs and canisters of phosphorous being dumped everywhere. The phosphorus was a thick liquid that burned upon exposure to air and as it penetrated cracks in buildings, it burned wherever it leaked through. The fumes from it were poisonous. When it came leaking down the basement steps somebody yelled to grab a beer (there was some stored where we were), soak a cloth, a piece of your clothing, and press it over your mouth and nose. The panic was horrible. Everybody pushed, shoved and clawed to get a bottle.

Meanwhile…

While it's only taken 50 years, Sports Illustrated has finally decided to use the ultimate swimsuit model in their rag.
whatever...

More from La Timez here

MORE

While John Cranley wants to hire more police and add to a budget that's already in the red, do we really need more police? A post from the Cincinnati Libertarian from '05 indicates, not necessarily.

Are more police officers always the answer? Lt Rahtz sites an experiment in Kansas City where the police department there took all of their patrols out of one beat, and sent them to a beat with a similar crime rate (the only time a police officer would enter that beat was when dispatched). So for a time, one beat had twice as much police presence as before, and the other one had virtually none.
So, what was the end result? Crime stayed the same in both beats. Police presence had no effect on crime!

While having more police to respond & investigate might be on the table, mere presence doesn't seem to be any deterrent.
Add to that, that The Queen City is near the top 10 of officers per capita in the nation and that we had only about 300 police around 1890 when the city population & footprint were about the same…
Maybe holograms are the answer.

.

Sylvia Plath, 11/27/32 - 2/11/63
Peter Laughner, 8/22/52 - 6/22/77

Who Needs a Bridge ?

Do you commute over the Ohio River on a regular basis? Are you "blocked by the bridge"? Don't want to pay tolls on a new bridge?
This amphibious car can do 80mph on land & 44mph on the water. For a cool $135,000 you can avoid all that nonsense and just drive across the river whenever you please. No need to confiscate $3 BILLION dollars from the taxpayers to cover your dumb decision to live 100 miles from your job with a major natural obstacle along the route…

Find out more here

Slummin' in the Sketchbook

CFD goes Vimeo

Fireline from CitiCable on Vimeo.

the sound effects crack me up, but it's cool that the Cincinnati Fire Department is communicating. The Fire Dept & other city services are reaching out to citizenry thru Nextdoor.

So How's That New Government Working For ya ?

Our new, level headed, fiscally conservative City council & mayor are off to an incredible start. While their first month was exciting, there was a bit of a lull in January, but February is making up for lost time.
Back in December the mayor expressed his commitment to core services. CO   's Amy Murray took over the transportation committee & that fiscal watchdog, the Windbag uncovered a horrific scandal as the city had bought road salt without running out of their current supply - never mind that salt doesn't go bad….
Now the city is running out of salt, the streets are snarled & unpassable. Transportation, core services, Saltgate - everything has come to a grinding halt under those folks who were going to 'clean up the mess'. Charlie Winburn should apologize to the salt buyers right now.
Cranley has also announced he will reveal his parking semi-modernization plan that will raise rates, incur more debt, apparently, skip smartphone compatibility & maintain the same lax maintenance & enforcement.
Leadership in action, boy howdy.

Bike Sharing = Insanity

The yahoos over at Urban Cincy go off on Bike Sharing like they just found Bettie Page. They seem to go for any weird bicycle jimcrackery. At some point it comes down to pedaling from point A to point B, tho.
The proposed Cincinnati bike share program is expected to cost $1.2M to get going & $400,000/year to run. It uses a system of stations with bikes nobody wants to ride locked in high tech bike racks and card readers to determine if you are a subscriber or just snaging a bike for half an hour. It appears to service people who, out of the blue, decide they need to ride from one station to the next. So, what if I neither live near a station nor want to go anywhere near a station? The rationale is that

usage of shared bikes is intended for one-way rentals

Seriously? You're never going home? 99% of all trips are round trips.
So, this scheme relies on paying people to constantly redistribute the bikes.
You may or may not be able to get a bike, so, do you leave for your destination an hour before you need to be there or twenty minutes? You won't know til you walk over to the station to see what's available.
A one year membership/subscription to ride a crappy bike that may or may not be available & may or may not get you where you want to go & may or may not be available to get you home again will be around $80. If this is as serious you are about riding - BUY A CHEAP BIKE!!! It's gonna be about the same price.
Bike rental services can rent by the hour or week or anywhere in between. They can offer crappy bikes or nicer bikes & fit you. They can work with hotels & deliver & pick up the bikes and you can just have the hotel valet store your bike. They could probably work something out with the train depot.
Investing almost $2M to service people who randomly spaz out & need a bike to go from one bike rack to another is just crazy.

Fishwarp regurgitates UrbanCincy story here

A New Home for the Police Museum

Lost in the shuffle, as the Hamilton County GOP seeks to game the local elections & politicize the county law enforcement agencies, one of the entities moving the Mercy Hospital in Mt Airy is the Greater Cincinnati Police Museum.
These guys had lost their old location and with a budget of about $0, they had no place to go. With the donation of the facility to the county, the museum has been invited to set up shop with a larger facility with more parking.

Good Fences Make Good Neighbors

What's a cemetery without a cool wrought iron fence around it - you know, with spikes ^ stuff up top? Unfortunately, when you have cars, you can't have nice stuff.
Ferncliff Cemetery, in Springfield, OH, has a problem with motorists losing control on a Bend in the road and careening into the cemetery destroying the expensive iron fence panels. They cost about $1,240 apiece and a car can take out 4 pretty easy. Apparently they stop the cars, tho…
FWIW, I never had any problem navigating that turn.
The latest chunk to get creamed wasn't on the bend, however, it was on a straight stretch of road.
I have seen this at Cincinnati's Spring Grove Cemetery, too. One of the few straight, flat stretches of Roadway in the city and people manage to veer off the road & destroy iron fences pretty regularly.
The corner of Spring Grove and Crawford, at the SW corner of the cemetery is so impossible to navigate the cemetery has moved their fence back incrementally over the years to accommodate the shitty drivers.
The aforelinked Frogtown Noose Son article has the headline:

Springfield cemetery fence a magnet for car crashes

So, I guess the villain, a temptress, I guess, is the fence luring innocent motorists to their demise with their siren call, "come to me, come to me, crash, crash…".
I'm gonna go out on a limb here & say we need to quit handing out drivers licenses like candy at a parade & stop assuming peoples' driving skills never diminish. A reduced speed limit, Cemetery Zone, like a school zone might help but on streets like Winton Road, on the east side of Spring Grove Cemetery is a daredevil race track and any speed limit signs are pointless.

.

Kind of an odd song for a singalong but what the hell, happy Birthday to Dave Davies.

Happy Imbolc Everybody !!

Branding Gone Wild

OK, so, when Madeira public schools started up girl's sports the jock boys teased the jock girls by calling them Amazons. The girls in turn claimed the name & since 1970, the girls have been the Amazons & the boys have been The Mustangs.
NOW they are talking about their branding & are talking about tossing out 44 years of tradition in an attempt to solidify their branding under one name.
kinda late for that one fellas….
Some people want to keep things consistent. Some people find the name offensive. To the former, changing something after 44 years is not consistent. To the latter, did you ever watch Xena? seriously…
My advice to the Madeira PS is, "Oh, come away from it, Fritz, leave it alone!".

Fishwarp story with goofy opinion meter thingamabob here

Fascism in Cincinnati

It's frustrating in Cincinnati, well, ok, everywhere how people use terms like conservative, liberal, progressive, etc & conflate Republican with conservative Democrat with liberal.
I remember reading the Fishwarp over at Marge & Les' house in sylvan Mt Auburn about 30 years ago - a noob to the Queen City. I read a story of moralist douche bags forcing their agenda down everybody's throats in some unholy marriage of business & government. I expressed my disappointment and Marge told me, "Yes, Quimbob, Cincinnati is a very conservative town."
"NO!", I retorted, "This isn't conservative. This is fascist!"
Marge chuckled an my naivete.
Dumb ol' broad - still, my introduction to Porktown politics
Anyway, the Cincinnati streetcar turned into a political issue lining up the Republicans & conservatives against the liberals, progressives & divided the Democrats. Why? good question.
In an article over at The American Conservative they bring up:

Trying to divine the reasons why the new mayor so abhorred the streetcar might be a fool’s errand.
Streetcars can and do foster and bind cohesive neighborhoods in ways that buses simply cannot. We conservatives look kindly on streetcars for these very reasons.

The fact is that the local political parties are more like self enriching gangs than representative organizations trying to better the community. To a great extent they actually feed off of one another like a pair of Yin Yahg parasites. Add in self serving entities like CO   , the NA CP, the TEA Baggers with their chest beating & fear mongering and you have a potent stew when it comes to things like the Cincinnati streetcar.
But it's got nothing to do with conservative or liberal.
Is it conservative? Sure it helps build community. Is it socialist? Sure it's a public enterprise. Is it liberal? Sure, users will have to be somewhat accepting of their neighbors. Is it progressive? Sorta. I guess. Elitist? huh?
The American Conservative is Pat Buchanan's baby and has replaced Bill Buckley's National Review as the publication of the traditional conservative American as Bill Kristol has handed over the National Review to the radical neocons, teabaggers & Birchers. In the event of a zombie apocalypse, I imagine Buckley is going to make a beeline to Kristol's place.
I'm guessing most of the people claiming to be conservative in Cincinnati today are really more along the lines of George Wallace Democrats than anything else. A lot of the 'progressive' streetcar supporters I have seen are probably more along the lines of Nixon & Eisenhower Republicans & some of 'em are hardcore capitalists.
The streetcar was never a political issue & the only reason it became one was because self serving groups who saw it's intention as a threat to their own self interests knew they could game the political process to their advantage.
Whatever, maybe they can keep the streetcar running on time.

Hawkgirl

Long before Victoria's Secret started putting wings on anemic super models, alien crime fighter, Shayera Hol from Thanagar, donned wings & fought crime on earth with her old man, Carter.
I always liked Hawkgirl. Besides her loose fitting tank top, I think part of it was that she was married and thus, not always hopelessly pining over some goofball. Apparently, she made great sandwiches, too.

Hamilton County GOP Power Grabs

Let's face it, the Hamilton County GOP doesn't give a rat's ass about the county & it's residents. Everything is about Republican dominion & their old boy's network (including spouses, & cousins).
In a recent Newsmakers episode coroner, Dr Sammarco outlined a whole host of county agencies that could share the Mercy Hospital site in Mt Airy with the crime lab. Her suggestions were primarily law enforcement which fits in with the crime lab's purpose. The GOP's last minute bid to move the Board of Elections to the facility is wrong headed and not even a good fit as the crime lab requires a bit of security & the BOE is by it's nature a public office with people coming & going all day long.
HamCo GOP Chairman Al Triantafilou waged a dirty campaign against Sammarco in an effort to get his boy into the office based on a campaign of "everything's just fine at the crime lab". This is his move to screw the crime lab that he characterizes in a bit of Wally Butterworth channeling as a "failed Democrat experiment".
There's no point trying to work with the GOP on this - they are dealing in bad faith - but crazy begets crazy, so John Cranley has offered space for the BOE downtown. A roughly $700k/yr gift to county taxpayers from Cincinnati. Obviously not what the GOP chairman wants as he tries to drive a wedge between city & county. Cranley also asked GOP BOE member Chip Gerhardt to recuse himself from voting on the issue as he is a city employee. Gerhardt promptly resigned due to his fealty to the GOP death cult.
The HamCo GOP is so hellbent on rigging elections & attaining power, they will sabotage public safety without a second thought. They are behaving more like suicide assassins than the statesmen they purport to be.
The citizens of Hamilton County need an Atticus Finch.

HERE is the direct link to the Newsmakers interview.

As the Crime Lab turns here, here and here

In Defense of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. wishing they had had a V8A lot of people are ragging on Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. as an abysmal failure. While I don't think it's fantastic I do like it. Folks want it to be in the middle of the Marvel Universe, but
S.H.I.E.L.D. was always a huge global intelligence agency with many facets. Originally the comic book only focussed on the top dogs, kinda like Star Trek TOS. The enemies were usually cold war types like The Yellow Claw who could work today very nicely. This series focusses on a particular group within the organisation.
People dissatisfied with the series seem to want everything NOW. Go watch a Resident Evil movie for that. For a long running series to make it, it has to pace itself. Dark Angel was a good example of pacing going too fast (as well as boxing in the plot). OTOH, Firefly was a good example of the public's (and the bean counters) microscopic attention spans.
The thing is there's a lot to explore in the Marvel / S.H.I.E.L.D. universe.
Marvel will likely use this vehicle to promote their movies & other products in the future. Recent plots have referenced Asgard in conjunction with the recent release of the latest Thor movie. Fair Sif is slated for an appearance soon.
With new Avengers, X-Men, Spiderman, Ant Man, Captain America, and maybe a Doctor Strange with Johnny Depp heading for the big screen, there's lots of opportunity for the show to have crossovers. There's also a Daredevil series for TV in the works.
Daredevil will probably suck, however having MaTT Murdock provide counsel for or to sue the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. could be fun.
FWIW, the series was only slated for half a season but the network has picked up the second half.