Posted by
Jon's Place on Tuesday, July 31, 2007 11:09:39 PM
So I had the good sense to get out of town for a few days. Take a little vacation. But before jumping back into the fray of everything, I thought I would let my curiosity just look around here and there. And so, I found some odds and ends.
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And the first odd end was this: a cleavage story. I thought wow! Mrs. Clinton has finally had it and admits there is a major cleft in her relationship with Bill, well good for her. But no, I find out that Senator Clinton is actually, clandestinely, applying for a moonlighting job with Playboy. Not so clandestine as it turns out. To understand what the Clintons and their enablers mean go to the man on loan from God: Rush Limbaugh:
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_073007/content/01125107.guest.html
Glad to see as always MSM is raising, er, lowering, the line of discourse.
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Update: Fantastic, regular folks across the nation are incensed since Mr. Prager brought this story, Unruly schoolboys or sex offenders?,
(http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1185040507206380.xml&coll=7) to national attention, meaning, the disgusting, foul, monstrous DA Bradley Barry is on the hot seat, and I'm betting it's getting hotter: http://www.townhall.com/MediaPlayer/AudioPlayer.aspx?ContentGuid=2860c337-5f0a-4425-ab06-
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Here’s something of an oddity from across the Pond: “Once the name was announced [Highcross Quarter], the witches, wizards and gnomes immediately registered several internet domain names using the term.” Um, yes, I was unaware that there were gnomes about. Of course, I was aware that we are living among self styled witches, and, wizards? I do live in California after all. But leave it to Britain to have a story where the lede can be “A coven of elderly witches has claimed victory in a bizarre battle to have the name of a £350 million shopping centre changed.” www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/07/24/nwitches124.xml
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Ah, City Government at its best, from the kickback capital of the country, or at least the only kickback capital I know of--I have no doubt that some of you have your own capitals. This particular scheme is for the books: that is an above board $150.00 fee for a piece of paper for the privilege of buying a condo.
http://www.dailynews.com/opinions/ci_6503494
I found this quote particularly typical and salient of LA politics in general: “The fee is particularly egregious in the face of allegations of corruption in the Housing Authority by top manager Victor Taracena. Recent reports indicate Taracena steered nearly $800,000 in contracts to his brothers and three politically connected firms without competitive bidding and for jacked-up prices.” So does this mean the capital is cracked?
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Continuing with our theme of frolic and fun with Los Angeles City/County Government, LA. County Counsel Ray Fortner proposed a new game of hide and seek: “that the government no longer make information public about proposed legal settlements.”
http://www.dailynews.com/opinions/ci_6503416 So, tort reform anyone? or and both. Can we please give flight to the Stymphalian birds http://www.pantheon.org/articles/s/stymphalian_birds.html devouring local civic Government in LA City and County.
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If newspapers find themselves in a Brave New World (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_New_World), and adaptation is the mother’s milk to survival, then it looks like multi-media is the mother's milk. So with that in mind lets cover the pot holes. Doesn't fit? Not the right cleavage? (alright a little stretched, so here's men at work--no, not the band, and, no, not the movie): http://www.insidesocal.com/video/videos/the_art_of_potholes.html. And for you golf aficionados here’s a little something on one of the best public courses I have had the pleasure of playing, Griffith Park,: Harding: http://www.insidesocal.com/video/videos/griffithpark072507.html This course and its sister course, Wilson, are old enough to have tall tall trees, pines, eucalyptus and I’m not sure but it seems to me they have some coastal Redwoods (not easy trees to hit over).
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While we’re on the topic, we have a wonderful convergence of Orwell and Huxley: “Schwarzenegger and Democrats said they agree on at least one aspect of health care reform: the money employers and others are asked to pay into the state-run health insurance pool should be considered fees, not taxes.” http://www.ocregister.com/news/democrats-consolidate-health-1740874-plans-say-negotiations-can-begin So we’ll control health care through Government mandates, meaning, rationing because the free-market is taken out of play, lifting the lid on cost brakes leading to absurd pricing spirals (see post secondary education) leading inevitably to massive tax increases, er, fee increases, and then ultimately a reduction of service as the public, you and me, can no longer sustain the fleecing, at which point Gov. decides to clamp down harder on what professionals can charge, leading to labor shortages (see Britain), and the importation of cheap labor (hmm we already know about this one) and finally disemboweled health care. Great--just great. Could somebody please save us from the do-gooders.
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Okay, that was depressing, so how about a little good news: http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/07/31/philippines.volcano.ap/index.html. Yes, I know, you’re wondering how a volcano blowing its top can be good news: Global cooling, if it blows enough anyway: http://eospso.gsfc.nasa.gov/ftp_docs/Volcanoes.pdf and http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/gsfc/service/gallery/fact_sheets/earthsci/volcano.htm. That is if you’re into global cooling anyway--me, not so much. Little ice ages tear apart discreet economies leading to a rift in the global economy and finally food shortages: http://www2.sunysuffolk.edu/mandias/lia/little_ice_age.html. Okay, so that wasn’t such a warm ending, oh well.