respublica

Let's recap

What we've learned the past few days:

So, to recap: IRS hates conservatives, DOJ's spying on journos, HHS pressuring industry to fund Obamacare and then there's Benghazi.. (Tweet by someone yesterday)

If you haven't heard about the second one it's ok because the news broke just this afternoon.  "The Justice Department secretly obtained two months of telephone records of reporters and editors for the Associated Press in what the news cooperative's top executive called a "massive and unprecedented intrusion" into how news organizations gather the news."

A tweet from Jonah Goldberg: Government is just the word we use for things we do together, like audit political enemies and monitor journalists' phone calls.

The explanations and so called outrage from the White House are sounding pretty thin right now. 

Gosnell guilty

Abortion Dr of horrors, Kermit Gosnell was found guilty of murder in 3 of 4 babies and guilty of manslaughter in the death of a woman who died of an overdose at the clinic. Also found guilty of 21 counts of abortion of the unborn, 24 weeks or older.

His defense attorney said, "the “baby problem” was a big factor and the “media was overwhelmingly against” him." The baby problem. Wow.

The jury will return Tuesday to decide on his penalty.

Totes

We could wallpaper an entire house with all the tote bags handed out over the years by public/private organizations. We use one or two occasionally, most never. But, they are one of those things which seem a bit too good to throw out so they lay in piles in various closets.

Maybe it's time for some group to come up with some other giveaway for official meetings and conventions.

Today's new news

What news gets emphasized changes by the day, your head turns right then left, then, "look over there." It's hard to keep up, but for today my question has been, "What in the world is a 3-D gun and why is this suddenly all over the news?"

Some how you can make a plastic gun at home using a 3-D printer. No idea how this works but this is making many government agencies angry and are working to put a stop to it.

Present day pranks

Perhaps you've heard of one or both of these pranks/hoaxes. The first is mainly an annoying nuisance done by teenagers the second much more serious.

Gallon Smashing. A teen (usually a boy) goes into a grocery store, picks up 2 gallons of milk or juice and proceeds to throw them hard to the floor so that they break. He then pretends to slip and fall feigning injury. Other shoppers run to his aid.  Dumb.

Swatting. This has been done to political foes, usually by extremist liberals to conservatives (maybe liberal is too mild a term). Or, it has been done to Hollywood celebrities by who knows who. It begins with someone calling 9-11 ostensibly by the owner of a home which says "I just shot and killed my wife" or there's a hostage situation, or some other horrific thing. The police come, surround the place and, not knowing the innocent homeowner has no idea about the phone call, put the family in danger.

The most recent Swatting took place Saturday night at the Michigan home of Republican congressman Mike Rogers. This is a dangerous game being played.

Oh those Comfort Dogs

A nice story and great slide show on the Lutheran Church Charities Comfort Dogs in Boston after the bombing. The LCC K-9 group were on their way to Boston with the dogs within hours of the horror and are still there. The photo slide show is most touching.

One reason why you can't believe the initial reports

RE Boston Marathon bombing and most other shocking news events.

Because we're so wired in and have access to immediate news everyone in that industry wants to be the first to get facts which often leads to several missteps, wrong information and u-turns. It's better not to take everything you hear or read at face value just after things happen. Take this one bit of information aired by 2 different national news people:

From CBS' John Miller on the explosive devices, "very early analysis shows they're "not very sophisticated".

At around the same time NBC's Savannah Guthrie, "expert says devices were sophisticated." 

A small point certainly, but that's the kind of contradiction that happens after a major story. 

ICYMI , a hipster fact

ICYMI in Twitter and text talk is short for In case you missed it. Using initials for well used phrases helps keep you to the 140 characters or less rule on Twitter. TWSS is another and stands for That's what she said. Others might be:

FWIW-for what it's worth

IMHO or IMO-In my humble opinion or In my opinion

L8R-later

OTOH-on the other hand

And so it goes. But what caught my eye in this story in the New York Times about how hipsters are growing more comfortable in the suburbs as the more traditionally urban areas like Manhattan and the Bohemian neighborhoods become out of reach financially. 

Just what is a Hipster: "Hipsters are a subculture of men and women typically in their 20's and 30's that value independent thinking, counter-culture, progressive politics, an appreciation of art and indie-rock, creativity, intelligence, and witty banter."

ICYMI. Hipsters, according to the NYT's, other than being mildly insufferable (IMO) are finding the things they like in the suburbs where the cost of living is less. Here's how the paper described life in Hipsturbia: "A Yoga studio opened on Main Street that offers lunch-hour vinyasa classes. Nearby is a bicycle store that sells Dutch-style bikes, and a farm-to-table restaurant that sources its edible nasturtiums from its backyard garden. Across the street is the home-décor shop that purveys monofloral honey produced by nomadic beekeepers in Sicily. And down the street is a retro-chic bakery, where the red-velvet cupcakes are gluten-free and the windows are decorated with bird silhouettes — the universal symbol for “hipsters welcome.”

And that last is what made me think about the Twitter/text short cuts, "The bird silhouette is the universal symbol for "Hipsters Welcome". How many of you knew this? Kind of like the old speakeasies of the 1920's when there were universal symbols on the door that told you this was a place to get a drink.

Watch for those bird symbols here in St. Louis if you want to be a Hipster. And, FWIW, ask someone how they source their nasturtiums from a backyard garden in the winter.

 

We move on so quickly

It's becoming almost impossible to keep up with the major news stories mainly because by the time you settle in to think about the issues involved they're gone and something else is on center stage. And by center stage I mean a story which is dominating all news outlets and commentary.

There was the war on women, then the budget-deficit-taxes, then turn your head and it was guns, then taxes and deficit again and whoops, now it's drones.

Tomorrow it will probably be people running for president in 2016.

In St Louis two major developments

One seems to be a go, the other has been stopped for now.

Last night the Crestwood board of aldermen voted 4-2 to allow TIF funds to a developer wanting to put a Walmart on Watson Road where a long abandoned movie theater sits. Like TIF or not, like Walmart or not, I know this corner and it drags the whole area down, there is no evidence someone was going to waltz in and be an economic savior. Walmart will add energy and money to the city's coffers and locals will come in droves.

The Central West End plan for a Whole Foods and condos has hit a stalemate because local union United Food & Commercial Workers Local 655 is demanding a neutrality agreement in which employers refrain from opposing employee union organizing efforts. No Whole Foods store is unionized and the company spokesman said they would not be signing any neutrality agreement nor would they go to any meetings about it. Before this blip neighbors were excited and work was about to begin in February. Now maybe April maybe later. One problem with this particular union is having is they may have angered other unions which would be doing the construction on this project.