respublica

Cross winds

Yesterday this area received some much needed rain, but like so many weekends lately, we also were hit with 'bend you over backwards' wind.  This morning while out with the dog I came across another huge oak tree which toppled over sometime last night. 
Somehow an appropriate image for a Sunday morning.

White House Correspondents Dinner-highs and lows

It has become something of a tradition around our house to set aside the Saturday night of the annual White House Correspondents Dinner and hunker down and watch the proceedings on CSPAN.  There have been years when the featured comedian and the sitting president put on a very funny show.  Even years when the program was merely 'ok' it was worth the time.

Last night the special guest was Stephen Colbert of Comedy Central's Colbert Report and recently we have become fans of his, either staying up later than usual to watch his program or catching the rerun the following evening at 7:30.  So, we had high hopes for his appearance at the big media dinner.  However, we were very disappointed.  He was much too cruel, some media reports are describing his tone as "cutting", but it was certainly much too harsh for this kind of event where the norm is to poke fun at the president and current affairs in, if not an affectionate way, then in something of a lighthearted way.

Some reviewers believe as Ann Althouse wrote, that he had to stay in keeping with his character on the Report or risk losing his fan base.  I disagree because the Colbert personna on Comedy Central affects an almost politically androgenous manner.  Republicans like him because although he is being satirical, the satire leaves room for viewers who support President Bush to find something to like.  That was lost last night.  The video bit with Colbert trying frantically to escape aged reporter Helen Thomas was the one funny part, but it came too late to save Stephen Colbert.  The audience, made up of movie stars and famous athletes and major news people were mostly silent during his time at the podium which says a lot about how he did.

We will probably continue to watch the Colbert Report, but not quite as often and not with the same affection for the man.

On the other hand, President Bush's time at the podium featured a Bush impersonator, Steve Bridges, who stood along side the president and played the part of his alter ego, saying things you just know Bush would like to say if he thought he could.  Excellently done and brilliant comedy.  The audience laughed hard throughout.  Which tells you something.

Joe Gandelman of the Moderate Voice has a good roundup of opinion on last night's dinner.

The National Anthem in still another language

Yesterday all the talk was about the Spanish version of the National Anthem.  The president stated that it should be sung in English, various media polls showed aproximately 68 percent of the country felt the same.  So, we decided here at home to see what the anthem would look and sound like if it were sung in German, after all there was a time in this country's history when many Germans immigrated here.  The MAtH (man about the house) knows a bit of German and while watching the news, began singing the Stars Spangled Banner in German, getting louder and louder and more German in emphasis.  We laughed I tell you, laughed.  What are the question marks at the end of a few lines, I wonder?  Silly time waster, but really...it just seems wrong.

O sag kannst du sehen bei des Morgens frühem Licht,

Was so stolz wir bejubelten bei der Dämmerung letztem Schimmer,

Wessen breite Streifen und helle Sterne durch die gefahrenvolle Kämpfe,

Über die geschauten Wälle so stattlich wehten?

Und der Raketen roter Schein, das Knallen der Bomben in der Luft,

gaben Kund durch die Nacht, dass unsere Flagge noch da war;

O sag weht dieser sternen-besetzte Banner schon,

Über dem Land der Freien und dem Heim der Tapferen?

Woof

April 24-30 is National Pooper Scooper Week in case this news got by you.  The Association of Professional Animal Waste Specialists, aPAWS (!), (who knew?) is determined to educate the dog owning public on the importance of cleaning up after your pet.  To control disease and insects which follow dog droppings, the aPaws organization provides a directory of pooper scooper companies in every state so that pet owners can easily find the equipment necessary to conveniently pick up and dispose of doggy waste. 

Many cities now provide plastic doggie waste bags at the entrance to their parks, whether the park is a designated dog park or not.  These, from personal experience, are the handiest things going, much better by far than walking along with a two pronged pooper scooper.  In Clayton, Missouri, all the parks have them as do several city blocks.  I noticed them in Arlington Virginia when I was out there for a visit a couple of weeks ago.  I don't believe Collinsville's nice Woodland park has them and it would be a good suggestion to the park district. 

Photo via Sophzilla web site

"I tried to be comfortable"

My view of drivers of tracker trailers will never be the same after reading this story. 

The bare bones of the story goes like this:  A husband and wife driving a big rig crashed on I 255 near Caseyville shortly after midnight on Thursday when their truck hit a culvert and landed in the median.  The couple were extricated from under the dash board and found to be "nearly naked". 

The wife who was driving at the time, or shall we say, was sleeping at the time, explained her lack of clothing: "I tried to be comfortable," she explained. "I was traveling where nobody could see me from the outside." She added: "I wasn't planning on stopping.

Her husband, who turned out to be totally naked, was also asleep, but in the bunk behind the front seats.  The wife-driver fleshed out her experience:  "I was driving down the road listening to the radio, and the next thing I saw a pine tree coming at me," she said.

There's a lesson here somewhere, but not one which leads me to want too look too closely.

This that and the other thing

Instapundit has a funny photo of a gas conserving car.

Capitol Fax asked a provocative question yesterday in reaction to a column in the Sun-Times by Mary Mitchell.  Is it wrong for clergy to run for political office.  This brought many comments.

A new to me blog with a Chicago and Illinois slant, It's My Mind, related the story of a Fenger High School teacher who quit his job after it was learned he had a blog in which he talked about problems and issues at that school.  His blog was named Regnef.  Clever?  My parents graduated from Fenger which is in the southside Roseland neighborhood so this story caught my eye.  In any event Levois, of It's My Mind is worth taking a look at as he takes at look at things that interest him.  He has also joined the cast over at Illinoize.

"And we're dealing with foie gras?"

Last September a Chicago alderman, Joe Moore, introduced an ordinance which would ban foie gras in city restaurants because, "our culture does not condone the torture of innocent and defenseless creatures".  Since then there has been little news on what happened to this proposal.  Until now. 

Yesterday the board of Chicago aldermen unanimously passed the law which would forbid the selling of foie gras, goose liver pate.  Mayor Daley was honking mad over what he considers a huge time waster.

"We have children getting killed by gang leaders and dope dealers.  We have real issues here in this city.  And we're dealing with foie gras?  Let's get some priorites.  Our priorities should be children, the quality of education.  It should be seniors.  We should worry about the gas price.  We should worry about the global economy."

Well and good, but I'm not sure I would be comfortable with the Chicago aldermen attempting to fix the global economy.  I was with Mayor Daley when he continued, "I think we have four restaurants that serve foie gras...someone talks about foie gras this week.  What's next week? 

But then he swam out into murkier waters:  "I have a fish tank.  I don't want any aldermen coming up there, putting their hands in and start eating sushi.  My little fish there. That would really bother all of us."   His fish tank is where he lost me.

 

Voting again in more ways than one

If anyone thought the voting problems in East St. Louis could not get anymore crazy, today's story in the BND reports that the chairman of the East St. Louis election board, Barbara Greenwood, may have voted twice in the March primary.  And, weirder still, she voted as both a democrat and a republican.  And, threatened the election judges who called her on it.

Attorney for the election board, John Kurowski, said a sheriff's investigation was under way, but that, "We get those (complaints) from time to time," he said. "Mrs. Greenwood is not treated any differently from anybody else."

Blah zay...to say the least.

Coke. UCLA students. Boycott. Wierd logic.

Some UCLA students are protesting in hopes of getting Coke banned from their campus.  Seems their anger at the pop company has something to do with the civil war in Columbia.  Things then get a bit murky, logically speaking, as the students have a difficult time explaining how Coke is a villain in this piece. 

Alex Mouhibian of the Daily Bruin went to the protest and tried to decipher just what the issue was and ended up with a great column highlighting the "don't confuse me with facts, my mind's made up" style of thinking among the college protesters. 

One protester, after admitting Coke gave people in Columbia jobs they wouldn't otherwise have, then proceeded to chant, "We support workers, we don't support Coke."  Read the whole thing if your brain can follow the convoluted logic.  Via Fark

One great idea

Stephen Green of Vodkapundit was asked by a friend who was having a birthday to name one great song for each year of her life.  He has his list on his site, but I would take it one step further.  If you know anyone who's having a birthday, make a cd of the songs of his/her life.  How cool would that be?