respublica

It's so 2004

Washingtonian Magazine has their list of 'ins and outs" in the January issue.  Ins are 2005 and of course, outs are 2004.  Must admit, some of the things which are out I never knew were in, but that's pretty par for the course. 

Of local interest, i.e. Illinois, Barack Obama is "in" and Jim Jeffords is "out".  Didn't know Jeffords was ever in anywhere after he bolted the Republican party to become an "independent". 

One I like:  Tim Russert is "in" and Chris Matthews is "out".  Good news, but Chris will probably take it out on somebody in the most whiney way.

Moon boots are "in" and pointy toes are "out".  What are moon boots?  Let me look them up.  Ok, I'm back.  Here is a moon boot.  This is new?  And 'in"?  They remind me of something, but it must be tucked into my subconscious.

$129!!! 

And...it seems brooches are now "out" and cocktail rings are "in".  Gee, brooches have just made their way to this part of the country and already they're yesterday's news.  Isn't that always the way?

It might as well be spring

New Year's Eve 2004, 4 o'clock in the afternoon and it's 70 degrees here in Illinois, hard by the Mississippi River just east of St. Louis.  People have hung laundry out to dry in the warm breeze, motorcyclists have taken their rides out of garages and are roaring through town, guys are in the grocery stores in shorts, (yes it's the guys doing this) and we're wondering if it might not be a good idea to cut the grass just once more.  Just saw a convertible with its top down go past the house and I'd have to assume the golf courses are full up. Weird. 

Weirdest Illinois moment in 2004

The Dave Matthews band was found to be responsible for dumping 800 pounds of raw sewage from their tour bus onto the Kinzie Street bridge in downtown Chicago.  The waste then poured down on passengers on a tourist boat floating below the bridge. 

Last day to vote...

For the state of Illinois' official reptile and amphibian...if you must.  Election results will be posted as soon as they are available.

Illinois' political losers in 2004

Eric Zorn's December 30 column in the Chicago Tribune has a list of political winners and losers in Illinois for this past year and interestingly, those who made the lists did not necessarily run for election in November, but all are somehow involved in the process.  You can also go to his column and vote for your own choice of losers, but like too many newspapers these days, the online Trib asks you to register and like many bloggers I usually won't cite those dailys as sources because of that.  But its worth a look if you are inclined to sign up.

His list of winners is, in his words, "in short supply", but include Melissa Bean (D) who defeated long time congressman, Phil Crane (R), in one of Illinois' most republican districts.  Also cited is Senator Peter Fitzgerald for keeping "his integrity intact", and of course, Barack Obama, "the class of the field".

On the losing side his choices include: Blair Hull (D) and Jack Ryan (R) both of whom were taken down by embarrassing divorce records.  There are others, but Zorn's biggest loser for 2004 is Governor Rod Blagojevich, "Gov. Soundbite". 

While I see our governor as pretty much a big doofus, I believe the biggest loser is the Illinois Republican party.  Inept and out of touch, run out of downtown Chicago with seemingly no interest in the voters beyond that.  All anyone needs to do is look at the November election results via a county by county colorization and you can see that except for the Chicago area and the St. Louis metro-east, Illinois is a red state.  I would love to predict that in 2005 different republicans will take control of the state leadership, but I'm not optimistic.  And the poll on Zorn's web page shows a lot of Illinoisans agree with me.  The Illinois Republican party is way out in front of everyone else for "biggest loser of 2004." 

But let's not ignore Gordon Maag.  He not only lost his bid to be a state Supreme Court justice, but lost his race to be retained as appelate court justice.  The biggest loss may have been suffered by the people of Illinois who may now be facing future court races similar to this one, expensive and ugly.

Laser beams aimed at pilots

Now, if this turns out to be true, it is one scary thing.  We may be seeing backup pilots on board commercial aircraft to protect landings in case the senior pilot is blinded by a laser beam. 

"Federal officials have expressed concern about terrorists using laser beams, which can distract or temporarily blind a pilot."  I certainly hope so. Michelle Malkin has more on this. 

Motives and desire at the UN

For most of this week no reporting on the Southeast Asian tidal wave has been complete without all news channels adding sidebar discussions in reaction to U.N. assistant secretary, Jan Egeland's remarks about America's "stingyness".  Today Jonah Goldberg, writing in National Review Online has taken the argument, wrapped it up, and tied it with a bow.

"The United States supplies more than one-fifth of the United Nations' total budget (and 57 percent, 33 percent and 27 percent of the budgets for the World Food Program, the Refugee Agency, and Department of Peacekeeping Operations, respectively)."

And if that is not enough:

"Meanwhile, American citizens, partly thanks to those stingy low taxes, send some $34 billion in private aid around the world every year. That's ten times the United Nations total budget. America's Christian ministries, private foundations, and agencies all do far more in direct charity and aid than the United Nations. But bureaucrats — some who've grown fat on Oil-for-Food money — measure stinginess in terms of support to the bureaucracy, not to the constituency the bureaucracy was intended to help."

Indeed, this is most certainly true. 

The word is out about the United Nations

                  

Day By Day Cartoons by Chris Muir for December 30.  Click to enlarge

Do you know your worldly food manners? A quiz

Here's a fun interactive quiz dealing with how other countries see eating habits.  What's right in the U.S.A. may not be so correct abroad.  Take the quiz and see how you measure up.

Tsunami aid

Many bloggers are publicizing lists of agencies which are providing assistance to the victims of the tidal wave which has taken the lives of more than 50,000 people and made many more homeless.  I would like to add another charitable organization which is doing the same and which has historically been one of the first on the scene of natural disasters.  This group was heavily involved in helping Floridians after the multiple hurricanes this past fall and were up and ready to help almost within hours of the tidal wave's strike in SouthEast Asia this weekend.  The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod's World Relief and Human Care as well as its inter-Lutheran partner, Lutheran World Relief of Baltimore, is accepting donations and the way to help through this agency can be found on its web site.   The Command Post has an extensive list of organizations which are actively involved in relief aid.