Today, I was assaulted my several people who simply never learned that:

1. It’s rude in general to have a conversation with someone in the room with you while you are speaking to someone on the phone, especially if the person on the phone needs your full attention in order to provide some service to you.

2. It is double rude to have dual conversations while you continue to hold the phone up to your mouth.

I blame the parents. If you do this as a habit, it’s obvious your parents failed to beat some manners into you.

And while you’re at it, anyone who used the speaker phone on their cell phone with the television playing in the background needs to horsewhipped with barb wire. I’m serious here.

End rant.

You really do need to control your weapon. And this young lady found the 50 Desert Eagle a bit more than she can control.

Perhaps our neighbors to the north — Michigan — have a solution that ought to be tried throughout the state of Illinois: Make it easier for law abiding citizens to carry handguns. That’s that they did in Motor City, and it’s been nothing but beer and skittles ever since:

The incidence of violent crime in Michigan in the six years since the law went into effect has been, on average, below the rate of the previous six years. The overall incidence of death from firearms, including suicide and accidents, also has declined.

More than 155,000 Michiganders — about one in every 65 — are now authorized to carry loaded guns as they go about their everyday affairs, according to Michigan State Police records.

About 25,000 people had CCW permits in Michigan before the law changed in 2001.

We’ve known for years that when states let people defend themselves, the crime rate drops. But most of the states that have passed new laws easing up on gun restrictions tend to be rural, more red-neck states. Gun banners claim that concealed carry laws won’t work in urban areas with higher crime rates. Which is just a sneaky way of saying black people can’t be trusted to own guns.

But here comes Michigan — with it’s urban wasteland called Detroit — experiencing lower crime rates now that SIX TIMES the number of private citizens are legal gun carriers.

Even if one is inclined to believe that the crime rate dropped despite the greater number of citizens able to protect themselves, not because of it, then the results still show that allowing people the ability to exercise their Constitutional rights does NOT lead to gun mayhem in the streets. And since it doesn’t — WHY DO IT?

Obviously, we need to try this in Illinois. Not that Gov. Gun Grab Blagojevich and his liberal, nanny-state minions in the legislature would ever acquiesce. It feels just too doggone self-righteously good too keep guns out of the hands of law abiding citizens. It doesn’t matter that gun control is worthless as a crime reduction tool, since the purpose of gun control laws isn’t to reduce crime, but to help politicians create the illusion that they are doing SOMETHING.

So, if we can’t get Balgo and Mayor Daley go along, I propose that Peoria do what Creve Coeur does — sign residents up as auxiliary police officers, complete with the power to walk around armed. We can’t hire enough full-time officers to stand on every street corner. But we sure can arm law-abiding, community-oriented citizens, give them handgun training, and have them walking among us.

How does a hundred sound? Two hundred?

CUTLINE: Anna Maxwell, 11, left, and Katie Ichikawa, 16, of Santa Cruz, run out of a sauna room through the snow to make the best of the winter storm pounding the Sierra Nevada mountains at Sorenson’s Resort in Hope Valley, Calif., on Saturday, Jan. 5, 2008. The system of storms is expected to impact the region though Thursday.

It was short-sleeve weather her in the River City. At one point, the Weather Channel informed me it was 64 degrees. Just four days ago, I thought I was going to start losing body parts due to front bite.

I want to take grim delight in the fact that other parts of the United States are experiencing snow and cold. Pictures like the one above remind me that some people are just too stupid to realize that they are supposed to be miserable.

The Gods of Irony are observant, and will no doubt punish us for enjoying the warmth by sending us some of this mess. A week from today, we’ll be up to our butts in snow. But I’m pretty confident than Peoria kids are as stupid as to run out in the snow in their skivvies.

A car, a home, a gallon of milk — most everything costs more now than a generation ago. Except a baggie of Mexican marijuana.

Give or take a few dollars, authorities say, pot grown in Mexico and sold in Houston and other Texas cities still goes for about the same price as 25 years ago: $60 to $80 for an ounce.

snip

According to a drug market analysis released earlier this year, federal, state and local police assigned within the Houston-based High Intensity Drug Trafficking area saw marijuana seizures climb from 85,582 pounds in 2005 to last year’s haul of 191,000 pounds.

Based on the weight of a typical marijuana cigarette, enough marijuana to roll more than 171 million joints was taken out of commission in a 16-county area, including Houston and portions of the Texas Gulf Coast.

That’s a lot of manpower that could be going to other law enforcement endevors being used to do something that is obviously no effect in curtailing the availability of cannabis.

The same thing is going on here. Police constantly send out press releases announcing the dollar value of the pot they haul in. I cannot speak from personal experience as to whether or not the price of weed has gone up or down in Peoria, but I doubt it’s changed much during the last 20 years.

Via The Associated Press:

WASHINGTON - Honest Abe will become Colorful Abe with splashes of purple and gray livening up the $5 bill.

The government showed off the new bill Thursday in an Internet news conference — a high-tech unveiling that officials say is entirely appropriate for a 21st century redesign of the bill featuring the Civil War president, Abraham Lincoln.

I’m sure it makes sense from an artistic standpoint, built I think someone overlooked the significance of the word “gray” on the bill honoring the president who lead the “blue” during the Civil War. It could be worse. They sould have slapped the Stars and Bars of the reverse side.

“All successful newspapers are ceaselessly querulous and bellicose. They never defend anyone or anything if they can help it; if the job is forced on them, they tackle it by denouncing someone or something else.”

– H.L. Mencken

“Trying to be a first-rate reporter on the average American newspaper is like trying to play Bach’s ‘St. Matthew’s Passion’ on a ukulele.”

– Ben Bagdikian, media critic and journalist.

And I stand by my negative opinion of the quality of food and service at Avanti’s. Out of the last five times I’ve dined there (with family or friends), I’ve been unimpressed more times than not.

In general, I completely enjoy and approve of “Web Words.” Just as it makes sense to incorporate blogs in news organizations’ online offerings, it also makes sense to incorporate material gathered from online sources into the print or “dead tree” version.

My advice: When quoting a site, include the WWW address.

Hat tip: Curmudgeonly & Skeptical.

Yuck, yuck, yuck.

That sure is funny. A big fat toothless slob pointing out all the cute fictional deer he’s shot. All that’s missing is Bambi’s Mother, along with the titular Disney character himself.

Feh.

The cartoonist, snug in his cocoon of smug self-importance and self-superiority, no doubt thinks he is of a much higher social and intellectual class than any stoopid redneck, “Dueling Banjos”-playing bow-hunter, especially the one who shot “Al,” a white deer outside Springfield, IL. If anyone is going to be blamed, blame the moronic residents of that area, who fed the deer and made him a neighborhood pet, removing a healthy fear of humans that might have helped him survive. That is, until it got sick and died, starved to death or got hit by a car and died (either immediately or days later) — which is what happens to deer outside of Disney movies.

The fact is that in reality, deer are nothing more than giant rats with antlers — pests that would overpopulate and starve to death were it not for hunters thinning the heard. They look statuesque and impressing standing on the side of the road, but they cause injury and death when they dart out in front of moving cars.

In fact, I work with a guy who’s been involved in five deer-vehicle collisions — three of them on Christmas Day in different years. And you know what? He gets to keep the carcass. You see, Bambi makes excellent sausage.

Who said this?

For a school district that wants to build a “community center” style school, they sure are doing their darndest to alienate the community.

It was C.J. Summers, in this post.

Unfortunately, C.J. is taking a (hopefully short) break from blogging. He thinks his posts are getting too negative and wants to catch a breath, get his head on straight and gain perspective. Been there, my friend. It’s hard to not get better when you keep advocating smart, common sense positions, but the gread heads and the short-range thinkers seeking immediate gratification seemt not not be reading.

My advice: Keep fighting the good fight, and be encouraged by the small victories.

Who said this?

For a school district that wants to build a “community center” style school, they sure are doing their darndest to alienate the community.

P.S. No fair for the person who wrote it to answer.

-48 states have laws providing for the carry of concealed weapons by the public. Last time I counted there were only 50 in the Union, so that’s a pretty good chunk of the country.

-The only two states that do not have a CCW law are Wisconsin and Illinois. Even Kalifornia and New York have CCW.

-Every, EVERY, state that has a CCW saw a decline in violent crime immediately after the institution of those laws.

-The gun accident rates of CCW states do not increase, in fact most states show a decrease.

-There is only one reported incident where a CCW gun was used in a violent crime, and that guy was shot by another CCW holder.

Here’s a bit more common sense: The first 10 amendments to the Constitution are called the Bill of Rights because they were designed to specify what rights individuals possessed that the Federal government could not take away.

Obviously, these amendments were not created to give the Federal government power to create a branch of the regular military. That power already existed in the Constitution.

Therefore, it follows that the “well-regulated militia” discussed in the 2nd Amendment has nothing to do with the National Guard or Reserves.

The “militia,” in a broad sense, refers to private citizens who stand ready to defend their family and property.

gun control,militia

Local officials usually do not consider how much growth might occur without a TIF. In 2002 the Neighborhood Capital Budget Group (NCBG), a coalition of 200 Chicago organizations that studies local public investment, looked at 36 of the city’s TIF districts and found that property values were rising in all of them during the five years before they were designated as TIFs. The NCBG projected that the city of Chicago would capture $1.6 billion in second-stream property tax revenue—used to pay off the bonds that subsidized private businesses—over the 23-year life spans of these TIF districts. But it also found that $1.3 billion of that revenue would have been raised anyway, assuming the areas continued growing at their pre-TIF rates.

The experience in Chicago is important. The city invested $1.6 billion in TIFs, even though $1.3 billion in economic development would have occurred anyway. So the bottom line is that the city invested $1.6 billion for $300 million in revenue growth.

The upshot is that TIFs are diverting tax money that otherwise would have been used for government services. The NCBG study found, for instance, that the 36 TIF districts would cost Chicago public schools $632 million (based on development that would have occurred anyway) in property tax revenue, because the property tax rates are frozen for schools as well. This doesn’t merely mean that the schools get more money. If the economic growth occurs with TIFs, that attracts people to the area and thereby raises enrollments. In that case, the cost of teaching the new students will be borne by property owners outside the TIF districts.

My two cents: Not only is it absolutely 100 percent correct to partially blame TIFs closure of Fire Station 11, they are also to blame for the sorry financial shape of Peoria School District 150.

But that’s OK. As long as we can afford the important stuff … like underground parking decks for Caterpillar that sit below a water fountain and pool.

Last night’s vote to drop the TIF caps WAS a vote contrary to the philosophy of “essential services first.” Period. End of discussion.

And anyone who thinks Caterpillar or Lakeview or anyone else associated with this project would hesitate for one moment to come back to the council in three years to ask for operating expenses (even their own forecasts show the museum barely able to do so) just hasn’t been paying attention. The City of Peoria has even more skin in the game now than before. As the Peoria Civic Center proved, no one will have the guts to say no to such requests and risk being blames for its closure. Thirty years from now, they’ll still be remodeling and renovating and they will be asking Peoria taxpayers to foot the bill. And as the city does with the PCC, they will be saying “OK, but just this one last time.”

To say that I am disappointed with this vote is an understatement.

TIF,tax increment financing districts,museum square,Lakeview museum,caterpillar

The Northwestern University Media Management Center says just 9 percent of Americans in their 20s will read a daily paper by 2010 if present trends continue. In 1972, nearly 50 percent did. I understand that many in Generation Y get their news from the Web - and that’s OK. As long as they don’t overlook local news. As long as newspapers can make money and stay in business. And as long as Americans can distinguish unreliable, biased, amateur reporting from the work professional journalists do every day. For all their foibles, I still trust newspapers more than any other media.

I agree and disagree.

I grew up reading newspapers voraciously. I sometimes was late finishing my paper route because I had to read it front to back.

And I agree that for the most part, the best news on the Web comes from news organizations that got their start in print and broadcasting. But this op-ed piece left me with the impression the writer things there is some inherent quality about putting news on dead trees makes it more reliable than Web-only news.

That’s just not true. It costs less to put news on the Web than it does to cultivate trees, turn ‘em into pulp paper, ship the rolls across country, apply ink to the pages, then deliver them by hand door to door.

If you were starting a news organization from scratch, what would YOU choose as your medium? What was the best long-term investment in 1908 — a buggy factory or a car factory?

Eventually, newspapers will go the way of the buggy whip. It’s a matter of economics and demographics.

It’s a matter of evolving or dying. Someday, perhaps in 10 years, there will be a newspaper that announces that newsprint is a liability and starts publishing exclusively on the Web.

We would remind LaHood of something a fellow Republican once said many years ago that resonates even today. “Stand with anybody that stands right,” said Abraham Lincoln, while in Peoria to debate Stephen A. Douglas on Oct. 16, 1854, “and part with him when he goes wrong.”

In America, the rule of law trumps the rule of men. To be sure, even our 16th president sometimes got confused on that score during the Civil War, but that didn’t make it right. Some things transcend politics. LaHood should feel no compulsion to defend the administration when it is wrong, whatever the issue.

It’s a step in the right direction. Too bad the editorial is more about LaHood’s defence of Bush’s choice to take out Saddam Hussein and liberate Iraq, and not about Bush’s defense of the right to torture prisoners or his spying on U.S. citizens.

Perhaps one day someone at the JS will decide to question LaHood directly about his questionable decision to let lobbyists pay for his foreign travel, and the frequent flyer miles he earned directly.

Ray LaHood,Journal Star,lobbyists

Whenever Mom or Dan called to complain, a city inspector would visit. And every single time they did, the inspector rewarded them with their concern by ticketing my parents for some small, easy to fix violation.

Message received. They moved out of the city. Now, Dad plants beautiful flowers in his yard in unincorporated Peoria County. Another victory for the bureaucrats.

After they moved out, friends of the family living in the house to the right moved in. The occupants are constantly running in and out of each others places, and the police are frequent visitors. And “For Sale” signs are sprouting up all over Hanssler Place.

Mom and Dad ended up at the Kings Park Mobile Home Park.

They absolutely love it. The place is actually quiet at night. There’s no loud music coming from the neighbors, or from the stream of cars that park briefly in front of their neighbors, just long enough to run inside and leave. No one has stolen their lawnmower, or bicycles or plants and flowers.

Little kids ride their bikes and actually play in the playground, unafraid. Neighbors actually talk to each other and keep track of budding young troublemakers, and pass the names along to park managers. The vast majority of the homes are well-maintained. It’s like small-town America over there.

That wasn’t always the case. An earlier set of park owners park let things slide. New owners came in and started cleaning our the riff-raff by simply not letting them sign new leases for their lots. Many just abandoned their clap-trap mobile homes. Those that couldn’t be cleaned up and/or fixed up were demolished and brand new units were moved in. When knuckleheads from who don’t live in the park are seen wandering around, they are told to get out or get arrested for trespassing.

Meanwhile in Peoria, the city administration wrings their hands and moans about how helpless they are to clear out abandoned properties. They made big promises about a year ago about how spiffy new fines would force them to clean up their act. Nothing doing. In Peoria drug dealers own certain corners. Thugs threaten drivers for the audacity of wanting to drive down a public road.

Yet, if someone were to come to the City of Peoria with a plan to build a mobile home park within city limits and provide low-cost owner-occupied housing that people could actually afford, the city would say no. New mobile home parks aren’t allowed within city limits. And there are people who would fight to the death to keep them from coming back. It’s just the idea of it … mobile homes equals “trailer trash”in their eyes. That’s the stereotype.

Yet compare Kings Park and Highland Estates to the slums of the South Side, parts of the Near North Side and West Bluffs and increasingly, the East Bluff. These mobile home parks are urban paradises compared to some parts of this city.

Original thinkers look for new solutions to old problems. They don’t cling to solutions that don’t work. One idea for cleaning up Peoria should be to consider allowing citizens to place mobile homes in lots within city limits. A properly licensed land owner could simply take out a run-down house of two, put in several mobile homes which would be owned by the occupant. The lot owner would have incentive to maintain the site, lest he or she lose their license. If a structure is ever damaged beyond repair or abandoned, it can be removed or destroyed by the owner of the lot.

Simple.

There are many who will squawk. But doing something is preferable to doing nothing. And that’s what sending folks my parents out of Peoria.

Peorians interested in growth should read this:

Air travelers who want to surf the Net at O’Hare and Midway airports will be able to pay $6.95 a day for the privilege under a long-stalled agreement that will make millions for a politically connected contractor.

“This is one more amenity that will keep our airports competitive and user-friendly,” Mayor Daley said after last week’s City Council vote.

I know for a fact that the Peoria Med-Tech District board has discussed the starting a pilot municipal Wi-Fi system centered in the high-tech corridor.

While I remain skeptical of the Med-Tech District’s in general, I am completely in favor of such a pilot program and muni WiFi. I can think of little that would attract Internet-savvy new businesses more than being able to not only secure an Internet connection, but also be able to network their own workstations through WiFi.

It’s a win-win and a smart member of the City Council would adopt this project as his or her own baby.

wifi,med-tech,peoria

Insight,cable television

I drove past the company’s Southwest Washington plant shortly before noon today and the odor was so thick I thought I was going to vomit.

But, hey … at least no one’s died at the plant for a couple of years that I can recall.

Responding to an explosion in ads for food that targets children, a consumer group Wednesday proposed nutrition-based limits on marketing aimed at kids that would halt ads for sugary snacks and fatty foods.

Suggested guidelines from the Center for Science in the Public Interest would restrict ads to those drinks made mostly from juice or without added sugars, and those foods low in fat, added sugars and salt.

“The problem with food marketing these days is that it almost exclusively is used to encourage children to eat unhealthy foods,” said Margo Wootan, the center’s director of nutrition.

Here we go again. The food Nazis want to limit people’s free speech rights in order to promote their favorite cause. Just because it’s commercial speech, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t not speech — and needs to be protected.

People, we can run nothing put ads for fresh veggies on Saturday mornimg television, kids are still going to want to eat sweet, salty junk. The taste buds do not lie.

And I’m not aware of many poor defenseless children who make their families weekly grocery store purchases. In other words: It’s parents’ responsibility. And I don’t want to hear that it’s too hard and that you can’t control your own children. Stop looking for the government to babysit everyone’s kids because you are too stupid and/or lazy to do the job yourself.

But the guy has been posting articles about the need for some sort of standard policy about blog payola.

And what is blog payola? Well, "payola" is easy enough to define. Dictionary.com says that it is: "Bribery of an influential person in exchange for the promotion of a
product or service, such that of disc jockeys for the promotion of
records."

So it follows that blog payola is when bloggers get free stuff in exchange for positive mentions on their blog.

I can see certain Big Cheese bloggers taking freebees in exchange for glowing reviews of their products, like computers, digital cameras and the like, You know, stuff that bloggers and the people who read blogs might buy.

There’s a blogger out there who keeps getting books. Which he never reads. He gives them away to the first person who asks.

Which is a good thing. One of my journalism professors at Eastern Illinois University once made a ton of enemies in his own profession for writing an investigative piece about book reviewers who were making money selling their freebies.

As a reult, the idea that journalists shouldn’t be taking stuff from the people they write about is pretty deeply imprinted into my nearly senile and calcified brain.

Now, don’t get me wrong. if I’m walking down the street and someone if handing out free stuff, I’ll take it. Provided the stuff is something the law allows me to possess, and if the giver doesn’t expect anything in return.

But infortunately, I used to be a journalist. And one of the things they taught us at journalism school is that payola is bad. There was a whole chapter in our text book and everything.

And even though I have sworn a mighty and terrible oath to never practice journalism again, that early brainwashing took.

So, imagine my quandry (gee, I’ve used "quandry" three times in the last two days) the time I took an assignment from the River City Times to report on Peoria’s growing Mexican population.

I visited one of the businesses that had grown to serve this growing population, La Mexicana restaurant. I knew about this place before I started writing the story. It serves great food, and although it is kinda small (it’s  located in the former Dairy Queen on Northeast Jefferson, for crying out loud).

So, I went in with Alex Eguia-Lis, another Peoria blogger and a buddy of mine, who is a native of Mexico and a friend of owner, Jose Espanza. Alex would translate, if necessary. Well, of course, we had lunch as we waited for a chance to interview him.

After it was all over, I have a full stomach and a full notebook.

I reached into my wallet to pay for my meal and Alex gently shook his head. Mr. Espanza was picking up the check. I started to object, but I followed Alex’s lead.

Alex said outside the restaurant that had I insisted on paying, Mr. Espanza would have taken it as an insult. And the freebie was more for Alex’s benefit, he said, because he brought new customers into the place.

Well, I can’t let this guy pay for my meal beause I’m writing a story, That’s not ethical, I replied.

Just overtip the next time you eat there, Alex said.

And that was my plan. I mean, c’mon. Even if I was the kinda guy who took freebies from the people I write about, I wouldn’t take stuff from a guy who probably works 80 hours a week, or more, behind a hot stove in a tiny, little diner.

When the issue came out, I returned to La Mexicana  with a handful of copies. They all seemed happy and I ordered lunch. Not only was the food great, Mr. Espanza placed a big heaping plate of fried ice cream on my plate.

Uh-oh.

I should have known what was coming. He refused to let me pay. I put up a fight, but I didn’t argue too much, because I didn’t want to insult the guy.

I called Alex and asked him that the next time he was in there, puh-lease tell Mr. Espanza that I have to be allowed to pay for my own meals.

It’s been more than a month, and I’m jonesing for some soft-shelled steak tacos. And I miss his smiling, always-friendly staff.

But I’m afraid to go in there.

Damn you, ethics! Damn you!

School board president Aaron Schock and Harrison principal Aurthur Perkins did not break District 150 ethics policies.

That decision late Thursday afternoon from the Peoria School Board of Education Ethics Commission.

Community activist Ernestine Jackson filed two complaints against Schock and Perkins in October.

First she alleged Perkins’ TV commercial ad endorsing Schock for State Representative broke policy and second, a picture in the Illinois Reader of Shock with students at Harrison Primary School was also a violation.

Ethic board member George Burdette said, ”We considered all the information provided by Mrs. Jackson. The commission concluded that these issues were not covered by ethics policy or relevant to original complaint, unanimous decision of ethics commission…complaint is denied.”

First of all, Ernestine Jackson, wife of local NAACP president Donald Jackson, is an old friend of my father. And, Don represented my father and his co-workers against their former employer, Pabst Blue Ribbon.

So I will try to be a little gentle here, for these reasons and because I respect their efforts on the behalf of black people and the community in general.

I just find it completely insane that Mrs. Jackson filed an ethics complaint that essentially took the position that this person — who happened to be black — had no businesses participating in the electoral process. It just doesn’t make sense, except when viewed as a way to get back at Schock for helping to dumb Kay Royster as superintendent of Peoria School District 150.

It should be the role of the NAACP to defend these rights.

"If you combine the populations of Great Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Denmark, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark and Australia you’ll get a population roughly the size of the United States. We had 32,000 gun deaths last year. They had 112. Do you think it’s because Americans are more homicidal by nature? Or do you think it’s because those guys have gun control laws?"

He didn’t take kindly to my suggestion that if he would feel safer living in these places, he might consider moving. So I sent him this more serious reply:

"The 2nd Amendment isn’t about hunting rights. It’s about protecting civil liberties. It’s about protecting your liberties.

"Germany was a fascist state whose citizens did not have the power to fight back. Same thing with Japan. France, Sweden and Denmark were conquered by these same Germans and Japanese. Great Britain and Australia — while staunch allies and deserving of every ounce of my respect today — needed us to save them from Germany and Japan.

"Today, all of these nations you mentioned needed out help[ to provide their bulk of their defense against lawyer and more threatening neighbors. Even today, while Russia isn’t officially Communist, events in Ukraine show us that Russia still nurtures ambitions of Empire.

"And let us look at other peace-loving nations that deprive citizens the right to own firearms: China. Vietnam, Cuba.

"Neil, it’s obvious that you enjoy the benefits of living in the most powerful and most free nation on Earth. You have no first-hand comparison to any other situation. You cannot conceive of America of being anything but powerful and free. You don’t realize that this state of existence did not come about by accident. It came about by design.

"Forget the revisionist history you learned from left-leaning teachers at high school and Duke University. Our Founding Fathers were not a bunch of rich guys just out to avoid their taxes. They were well-read men, dedicated to establishing a nation that would work for the long haul. They studied the political scientists of their day. The studied the histories or ancient Rome and Greece. Our nation is the culmination of more than a century of Enlightenment ideals put to use.

"They set up a nation on a foundation with three pillars: Freedom of Speech and the Press, the Right to Self Government and the Right of People to Own the Means to Revolt. The writings of our founding fathers makes it clear that they wanted us to have the power to do so, and that they considered it likely this may need to happen. I think they would be surprised there hasn’t been more of it, frankly.

"Should any of these pillars fall, Democracy cannot stand. What good is the power of free speech and the power to elect our own leaders if the citizens do not have the means to insist should the government decide to do away with elections and newspapers?

"And you cannot tell me that generals and demagogues have not sit around, sipping brandy, discussing how wonderful it would be indeed without those pesky reporters and the need to run for re-election all the damn time.

"There is a word for people who do not have the means to fight back. That word is ’serf.’ If you want to be a surf, that’s fine. Feel free to enjoy the freedom you do. even though you are letting others do your fighting for you.

"We’ve lasted for more than 200 years. Let’s not assume that we will last for another 200 simply through inertia."

Don’t spank little Neil too hard people. Pity him. He learned liberal group think from his mother, and his expensive East Coast education cemented his mind that way.

People: Grow the Hell up. Learn to behave between now and when I get back from work, OK?

The feature article is an interview I did with Rev. Timothy Criss,
Peoria County Sheriff Mike McCoy and two residents of the neighborhood
where many of the dead and missing women were last seen.
It was obvious that the law enforcement community and the black
community see this thing from different angles. Both of them are right
and both of them are wrong. But they both seem to be working together
despite these differences and the hurt feelings and mistrust.

My two cents about this mess is that the cops aren’t and weren’t as unconcerned as a lot of people assumed they were. Nor were they as
concerned as they would have been had the race and economic status of
the victims been different.

But then, the same thing could be said about the white community
here in Peoria. Face it, this is not huge concern for most white people
and most people who don’t have much to do with Peoria south of the
bluffs.

That needs to change.

The new River City Times is available at the following locations:

Alwan Brothers
Bella Mani
Bradley University
Buffalo Wild Wings
Carrigan’s
Co-op Records
Cub Foods
Don’s Musicland
Eagles Nest
Echo Valley Meats
Elmore’s Musical Warehouse
Exhibit A Gallery
Firehouse Bar & Grill
Grandpa John’s Rib Shack
Holiday Inn Brandywine
Holiday Inn City Center
Illinois Central College
Jenerations
JJ Ryan’s
Jubilee Foods
Kroger
Mulligans
One World Coffee
P.S. Nice Tan
Schnucks Foods
Shell Gas Stations
Speedway Gas
Thorton’s East Peoria
Tomcat’s Back Alley

… and many others.

Tamika Donelson marched through Downtown Peoria on Thursday because she wants people to know that her mother was a loving and caring person.

Her mother, Wanda Jackson, was found dead March 21, 2001, and is the first of 10 dead or missing women who share a similar profile.

Jackson was the mother of nine children and several grandchildren, Donelson said. She was a "happy spirit" and spent as much time as she could with her children.

People in Peoria are aware of these dead women, but they have a negative image that they are "not good people and not loved," Donelson said

"That is not the case," stated Donelson, pointing to the people gathered to remember the missing and dead. These are their family members who love them very much, she said.

About 30 people marched from the George Washington Carver Center, 710 W. Third St., to the Peoria County Courthouse in order to raise awareness of the case. A few cars passing the group standing at the corner of Adams and Main streets honked in support, and some passersby stopped to join as the group grew to more than 40 people by the march’s conclusion.

I was at the march, and reporter Tom McKenzie’s account is an accurate one.

I was disappointed in the fact that of the 40 or so people who eventually were among the marchers, about five were white.

Part of this may be due to the fact that this march didn’t get a whole lot of advance publicity. I found out about it the day before. But I would be lying to say that white Peorians feel the same ownership of this problem as do black Peorians.

That’s a shame, and its an attitude that needs to be corrected.

Does anyone think that the problems of drug abuse and prostitution are on;y black problems, because they are practices in neighborhoods with large black populations? Who do you think are buying the drugs and the services of the women addicted to these drugs?
 

Several Pekin area residents have been victimized by the telephone promise of large winnings from a Canadian lottery.

"When those people go to that location to wire money, that is the last possible point where we can try to prevent this crime," [former Pekin Police officer Dean] Bacon said.

Bacon, who is also the coordinator for Operation Senior Security with the Center for Prevention of Abuse, said the poster also will be displayed at banks in the Tri-County Area.

 

"I came up with it because I was searching for something else . . . something more on how we can prevent this," Bacon said. "Its taken a lot of money from people."

Bacon said the campaign is being funded by Western Union.

 

Bacon said the scam has hit elderly women in Pekin, Eureka, Farmington and Washington.

Let’s take a poll: People who target elderly people for these scams should be:

A. Covered in peanut better, tied to a post and fed to flesh eating hogs.

B. Lowered by pulley, feet first, into the blades of a jet turbine.

C. Forced to watch a "Family Matters"/"Full open by tooth pics, ala "A Clockwork Orange."

D. A & B, but not C, because C is too cruel.

It was about 11 a.m. — hours away before the first flake of what is expected to be about eight inches of snow would arrive. About half the drivers slowed to well bellow what was necessary for the rain-wet road conditions. The other half — pissed off at how slow everyone else was driving — was determined to speed up and zig-zag around them, as if they were trying out for a spot on the NASCAR circuit.

And then there is another typical reaction to slightly inclement weather: The people who think they need to start straddling both lanes of the road. People! It’s just a little rain! It’s not like the snow has fallen and the traffic has worn ruts into the road.

And while I am on the subject of people too stupid to drive — a flashing red arrow does not mean you need to sit there in your car waiting for the arrow to turn green. It’s the same as a flashing red stop light. As soon as the opposing traffic has passed, you can make the turn. There is such a flashing red arrow for those trying to enter to the Kroger’s store from the north-bound lane of Sheridan Road. Twice this month, I have been stuck behind some brain-stem-damaged gentleman who sat there all confused about how long it was going to take to get a green arrow. Eventually, the guy waiting ahead of me actually got out of his car and told the dip sh*t confused person that he could indeed turn as soon as traffic was clear. Since punches were not thrown, I can only assume his language was more temperate than mine would have been.

The first sign of trouble was when I sent two separate emails, both with large images attached. All four images were close to 1 Megapixel.

I sent them at about 5 a.m. Monday. By  1 p.m., they had not arrived at their destination.

I resent the images and the cutlines, but in four seperate emails. They still hadn’t arrived by an hour later, and I had to drive into Woodford County to deliver them on a CD.

Had I not bothered to check my email, I would have gone off to work with these important photographs undelivered, and the River City Times would not have a front cover picture.

Ouch.

Is anyone aware of any problems Google is having today?

I really concerned about using Gmail in the future because of this.

I’m betting that I will read about some horrible tragedy this week.

I’m not going to worry about it. I just hope one of these idiot parents gets mauled trying to save the kid’s life.

NOTE: Don’t bother sending me email or comments about how pit bulls are gentle and good with children. I don’t buy it. You never see news articles about how a cop had to kills a poodle because it wouldn’t unclench its jaws from around some young child’s throat.

And YES … I am prejudiced against the breed. Last I read, that wasn’t a hate crime. Just common sense.

The Illinois State Board of Education evaluated District 150’s special education services last March and released the report on Nov. 3, reviving the controversial issue of the deaf students at Sterling School.

The district now finds itself caught between two state agencies, the State Board and the Peoria Regional Human Rights Authority, a division of the Illinois Guardianship and Advocacy Commission.

Last January, the latter found that temporarily removing the children from Sterling School violated their rights to an appropriate education.

Both state agencies cite sections of the same state law on special education to reach different conclusions.

It seems to me, that if parents think the current situation where hearing impaired students are served in one location is the best, then that ought to be what happens.

Myself, I’ve always considered it somewhat idiotic to define "least restrictive environment" to always mean mainlining. What good does it do to plop a student who could learn better in an environment best suited to his or her particular condition into a classroom where the student much compete for attention with 30 other kids. And, it’s not fair to the other students to lose valuable time because the teacher much devote special attention to a special needs student.

I’m not saying that it’s always wrong to mainstream or even wrong most of the time. It just seems wrong to make it policy that it’s always the most important consideration. There needs to be compromises and that there are as many "best" situations as their are special needs students.

There are students with multiple conditions who require labor-intensive services. There are others who can thrive among mainstream students with minimal accommodations, like large-print books and a seat at the front of the class. Other special needs students have severe learning disabilities that make it impossible to learn from a standard classroom situation, and others have severe behavioral problems. These kids won’t benefit from mainstreaming and it hurts the other kids for them to be there.

A little rationality is called for.

The state government — with its competing cookie-cutter approaches — isn’t going to provide that. The state looks at numbers and categories and makes pronouncements from on high.

This applies to virtually every situation in which the state governments local governments. It’s not about helping. It’s about mandates and covering one’s ass.

A member of the government in Germany has compared George W. Bush to Hitler. This person believes Bush wants to invade Iraq for pretty much the same reason Hitler invaded Poland. Personally, I’m was not aware Poland a rogue terrorist nation on the verge of developing nuclear weaponry, but what do I know. I went to public schools.

On the day of the attack, I sat at work, numb, watching Bush address the nation. Bush said he would tolerate no acts of vengeance against people of Muslims or people of Arab descent. That is not what America is all about, he said, adding that the War on terrorism would be conducted against terrorists, not religions or nationalities. Yeah, that sounds real Hitler-like.

Speaking of Hitler-like behavior, high-ranking Germans have apparently taken to claiming that the Jews are behind the United State’s war mongering. Apparently, some of these folks need a few more field trips to see the death camps, because somehow it hasn’t quite sunk in with them that this kind of scapegoating behavior has consequences. The New York Times’ William Safire suggests Germany is too unreliable an ally to host troops. My father, an unreconstructed FDR Democrat and no fan of Bush 1 or 2, upon hearing that the President of the United States of America was being compared to Hitler, suggested Germany be given the opportunity to run its economy while paying for its own national defense.

stock market,corporate greed,stock manipulation,stock options as expenses,Jonathan Alter,libertarian,expenses

First, the court was right, no matter what the polls say. If polls to decided issues of state-established religions, being Jewish or Catholic would be illegal.

Second, whether of not the pledge mentions God, or even whether it is recited in school or not, is utterly irrelevant to our quality of life or the preservation of our republic. U.S. Attorney John Ashcroft’s relentless assault on basic civil liberties since Sept. 11 is of far greater threat.

Third, politicians may have been genuinely concerned when they first heard of the decision. But that lasted a second before their thoughts turned to how to use it to their political advantage by demonstrating how they were defending God and country against a liberal assault. One bozo even wants to amend the Constitution.

Feh.

John Ashcroft,pledge of allegiance,civil liberties,9th Circuit Federal Court

I walked out of a grocery store because I was sick of waiting. I was picking up a few items on my home from work. The line wasn�t too long; just two customers — a lady at the front of the line was writing her check and the guy directly ahead of me had about less than a dozen items on the conveyor belt.

Five minutes later, the cashier was standing at the customer service counter twiddling her thumbs.

She needed to get the lady’s check approved and there was no manager there. Finally, a manager showed up. He was no help. The cashier left and trotted over to find someone in the office who could.

Finally, I had enough. I marched to the customer service counter and dropped my paltry four items on the counter.

“How can I help you?” the manager asked.

“Got tired of waiting,” I said, then turned and walked out the door without looking back.

Some would say I was being rude. Hardly.

My time and my money are valuable to be. When a business treats me like dirt, and I give them my money anyway, I am telling them I agree to the shabby treatment. It is no different than letting someone verbally abuse you because it would be rude to insist they stop.Being treated like crap sucks away your dignity and sense of self respect.

This one evening, I was sick of it and I wasn’t going to put up with it.

It wasn’t my fault it wasn’t taking so long. It wasn’t the check-writer’s fault either, all she wanted to so was pay for her groceries. It wasn’t the cashier’s fault either; She was trying to do a job her managers gave her no authority to perform, otherwise she would have been able to approve or deny the check.

Does a store have the right to be careful when it comes to whether or not to accept a check?

Absolutely.

But I have the right to insist I be treated right with respect from those with whom I do business.

Next time, I’ll do more than walk away and leave my groceries behind. I’ll fill it up with ice cream, fresh meat, fish and poultry. Call it my way to provide the free market with an incentive to provide good customer service.