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If there was ever a political story heavy in irony, it is the reporting on how members of congress are upset that the CIA and Dick Cheney kept secret a proposed program on how to get al Quada terrorists.
Supposedly the reasons for not telling the House Intelligence committee was that there was a fear no one there could keep a secret.
And, this week's news proves they were right.
We're making them up as we go.
A company or business intern who's job it is to twitter messages on upcoming promotions, sales and even respond to customer complaints.
Am I getting emails from Circuit City twice a week? I thought they went out of business. Is it possible they took all the good stuff out of all their stores before their "going out of business sales" and took it to a warehouse where they are now selling it all from the internet?
According to CNN Money the top 100 were chosen on the basis of a strong economy, great schools, low crime and affordable homes.
Illinois has 3 cities on the list--Glen Carbon 91, Batavia 56, and Buffalo Grove 65. Glen Carbon is in the St. Louis Metro East and surely CNN Money could have found a better photo for this city.
Missouri landed 4-- Jackson 59, Liberty 29, Ellisville 25, and Lake St. Louis 9.
Number one is Louisville Colorado.
Clicking each city will give you a description of why it made the list.
Nice summer evening, time for a short walk. Ferdie looks for squirrels, Dale wants to keep going so he can see the All Star Game Home Run Derby.
Photo taken with my new phone, the first cell phone I've ever owned with a built in camera, the Blackberry Tour which was released yesterday.
Anther study on combating dementia in older people. Last week a new study hinted that 5 cups of coffee a day may keep Alzheimer's at bay and now it seems moderate drinking by the elderly may reduce the risk of developing Dementia.
Certainly these two things are much more palatable than a revolving door of medication.
Irony in a time when energy saving is a huge deal. Missouri Governor, Jay Nixon plans to sign the Missouri Energy Efficiency Act bill which will actually make consumers pay a penalty on their power bills if they use less electricity.
"An Associated Press analysis last week of the Missouri Energy Efficiency Investment Act showed private utility companies would be able to recoup costs for new energy-saving programs by charging customers more."
The governor seemed "irked" at the AP's conclusion, but the bill did have the full support of all the utility companies as well as the state legislature and some consumer advocates.
This is very weird.
A good example of roadside Americana, the World's Largest Catsup Bottle water tower stands along 159 on the south end of Collinsville. Built in 1949 for the Brooks Catsup bottling plant, the catsup bottle celebrated it's 60th birthday today with a festival and car show in the American Legion park.
Click pictures for a clearer view.
Driving north on 159 drivers get the best view of the catsup bottle standing above the remnants of the bottling plant. As sad as the old stone structure looks, I've always loved that part of the scene.
Meanwhile, back at the American Legion, the party has begun. For some reason, Uncle Sam joined the festivities, standing proudly in front of the old Army helicopter.
Big. Elvis was there too, maybe just a bit taller than Uncle Sam.
MC Mike Gassman began the program.
The American Legion color guard carried in the flags.
The Legion post commander or past commander, Jesse Hoskins sang the National Anthem.
He sang the anthem as well as I've ever heard it sung, strong, loud and totally in tune with no musical accompaniment. He should be asked to sing for the All Star Game. Forget celebrities and rock stars, Jesse Hoskins is the one you want.
Then on to the activities and food.
First up was the catsup tasting contest, who could taste pick the Brook Catsup over the other brand.
Souvenirs.
The car show entrants were spread out all over as were the cars of people attending the festival.
Here's a car that caught my eye.
The frame of this car was so low to the ground, I wondered how it managed bumps in the road.
Two of our neighbors, Kris and Dawn come over to check things out.
An ice sculpter chain saws a replica of the catsup bottle.
I don't know what the deal is with this small pickup truck, but it had all kinds of dinosaurs and other creatures all over its roof.
Here's Jesse Hoskins again, making barbequed pork steaks. He and others from the Wilkerson Chapel have done this for years and the meat is really really good.
Here's Herb, a man I've known for years from my time on the library board. He's one of the nicest people you'll ever meet. He was handling the ribs.
A look at the crowd.
The midway...so to speak. The blue tent on the left had someone selling Chicago hot dogs among other things, the menu board promised the real thing from Chicago, right down to the sport peppers, something you can't get in the St. Louis area.
And something you don't see very often at festivals so it was one of my favorite signs.
No porta-pottys. How great is that?
iPhones have apps. Not new news. But, Battery Go! which has become one of the most downloaded apps from Apple's iTunes store is news.
Battery Go! is a 99 cent download which was created by three Valparaiso University students who thought developing an application for iPhone would be an interesting summer project. They succeeded faster than they expected and their app has become more successful than they may ever have dreamed and the three may have found a career they hadn't planned on.
In simplest form, Battery Go! allows the iPhone user to calculate how much battery power they have left for certain tasks such as phone calls, watching movies, playing games. iPhones use more battery power than ordinary cell phones which makes knowing when a charge is needed important.
Congrats to the three guys from Valpo, the university one of our daughters went to and a place we hold dear.
For people with way too much extra kitchen counter space.
Doubtful that any of these 5 will ever find a place here at home.
Lesson two. If you're going to leave your young children ages 8, 7, and 3 at the mall in the care of two 12 year olds while you go home to take a nap, don't be blaming your grand education or Sarah Palin when the police charge you with child endangerment. When the 12 year olds left the little ones in the purse department by the cosmetics counter while they went to try on shirts, don't be thinking you're being charged because you're a female professor.
Somehow a New York Times writer got into this farse and agreed with the mother that police and prosecutors have it in for highly educated and professorial women because they're seen as too uppity and should just remain quiet and at home. Then the reporter took the dive into the deep waters of excuse making:
"This is why Palin — in her down-home aw-shucks posturing — is the 21st-century face of the backlash against women’s progress. This is why Kevane could be threatened and humiliated in front of her kids, menaced with jail time and ultimately railroaded into cutting a deal with the prosecution, once she realized she’d never be popular enough with local jurors to have a shot at making a successful not-guilty plea in court. (Paradox of paradoxes, as part of her deferred prosecution agreement, she was sentenced to even more education: in the form of a parenting class.)"
Does anyone with half a brain not see that leaving three young children at a mall in the care of two 12 year olds while she goes home "to rest", might not be the smartest idea? And, blaming everyone but the mother by infering political and psycological reasons for her arrest is the height of stupid?
Lesson One. If you're a local tv news station doing an investigative report on how the St. Louis police are parking in no parking zones while on and off duty, don't be griping and calling it retaliation when the cops start ticketing all the station's employees for doing the same thing in the streets around their building.
Scroll down the linked page for the story on KSDK's I Team.
The American Legion in Collinsville has long been known for their Friday night fish fry, but this year they've added music in the park to the menu. Big Band music. I walked over and made a video of the orchestra playing Glenn Miller's In the Mood. It was quite windy and not a professional video, but it's fun just the same.
Kim Komando's tip of the day has a chart showing the size of a tv screen most suitable for how far you sit from it. Don't we all wonder how big a tv we should get? Is bigger better? Sometimes it is.
Distance Minimum size Maximum size
6 feet 24-inch screen 36-inch screen
8 feet 32-inch screen 48-inch screen
10 feet 40-inch screen 60-inch screen
12 feet 48-inch screen 72-inch screen
Sears has opened an online holiday store and has begun putting Christmas boutiques in hundreds of its stores.
I'm dreaming of a consumer free Christmas.
Mayor Slay and the St. Louis Board of Aldermen have been holding public hearings on a possible citywide smoking ban. The ban would include bars, restaurants, private clubs and 80 percent of hotel rooms.
What it will not include are the city's casinos.
The last public hearing was yesterday, a possible vote will come in September. Joe Finn, the owner of Pat's Bar and Grill on Oakland across Highway 40 from the zoo voiced his opposition to the smoking ban ordinance yesterday. He told reporters afterward that it is totally unfair to small bar and restaurant owners to ban smoking in them, but allow smoking in the casinos.
I agree. When Illinois passed their smoking ban it included casinos and St. Louis' ordinance should too. If the aldermen and mayor are really concerned about the effects of second hand smoke, they wouldn't be be giving casinos a pass for the sake of revenue.
Just the fact that they are guarding the revenue they receive from casinos gives lie to their argument that a smoking ban will hurt income. The very argument small businesses are making.
Belleville Mayor Mark Eckert and the city council passed an ordinance against transient vendors which included the long running Keller Farms summer sweet corn stand.
This would be a mere niblet of a story except that local Illinois people love their local sweet corn and are fighting back.
The BND has the story with a humorous video.
18 million dollars of stimulus money has been allocated for the redesign of the Recovery.gov website.
This is incomprehensible and incompetent. No wonder the first stimulus isn't working.
From Purina, a chart which ranks weight on a scale of one to nine, with 4 and 5 being idle weight. The chart includes an artist rendering of what each animal looks like for each number.
A similar rendering from a veterinarian using a 1-5 scale.
In the Dogtown neighborhood of St. Louis, a community garden fills what was formerly a vacant lot on Tamm Ave near Manchester. I went by this morning to take a look because next summer we hope to have one of these on the Concordia Seminary campus.
While I was there, the man who oversees the garden and conveniently lives right across the street, came along and gave me some of the history and how the garden works.
They built the garden in conjunction with Gateway Greening, an organization which advised them on the best way to plant and what to plant as well as how to be a true organic garden.
There are approximately 20 individual plots available to area residents who pay $15 dollars a year, January to January. This fee covers costs which include insurance, water, mulch, etc. Interestingly, each plot is different, some are filled with native flowering plants while others are all edible crops and herbs. All of the support material for holding up plants and vegetables are natural woods, sticks which fall from the trees. There is also a gazebo and several benches hidden away in shady spots.
Mulched paths run through the area and a black iron fence separates the garden from the sidewalk and street.
