respublica

Behold the optimism

Someone writing about the Cubs has his rose colored glasses on this morning. Mike Kiley, writing in the Chicago Sun-Times says: "Now that the Cubs have won two games in a row for the second time in the last 32 games, they only need to go 70-41 in the remaining  111 games and perhaps have a chance at the National League wild card."

Baseball:  The stuff dreams are made of. 

Highways, bridges and experts

Three stories of interest to those who have to drive around the St. Louis area.  The Highway 40 planners still have not come to any decision on what they are going to do when they begin reconstructing 12 miles of that road which cuts through the heart of St. Louis.  Close it all down and finish in 3 years (ha) or close one direction of the road until done and then do the other or close part of the road in each direction.  The county and the city disagree on which is better, MODOT is waiting for actual plans before they decide. 

Bill McClellan, Post-Dispatch columnist, has an intriguing point of view today.  He submits:  If it's not broke, why are we fixing Highway 40.  Words to think about.  One of his conclusions is something I have believed for a longtime and that is that the constant highway work all over the country is because:  "Highway construction is always popular. To the construction industry, it's big bucks. To the unions, it's high-paying jobs."  I would be on Bill's side on this one, read the whole column to see his reasoning. 

On the other hand, the biggest traffic problem in this area comes from the bridges.  Bridges from Illinois into St. Louis and bridges from St. Charles County into St. Louis.  Missouri has waffled on their earlier promise to partner in a new bridge across the Mississippi and now Illinois officials are suggesting going it alone with a plans for...maybe...a coupler bridge.  This coupler bridge would sit along side the present ML King bridge with one bridge handling eastbound traffic and the other westbound. 

Of all the highway projects being discussed, a new bridge connecting Illinois to St. Louis and the rest of Missouri should have the highest priority.  It is the place where the biggest jams occur.

Observe: Man can fly

This is the stuff of dreams, admit it.  Everyone at sometime in their lives has daydreamed about what it would be like to be able to fly like birds, unencumbered by airplane seats.  Well, the German firm of Elektroniksystem und Logistik and Draeger have developed a modular wing system which will allow paratroopers the ability to fly 200 KM before having to come back to earth.  The company hopes to complete their testing by the end of this year and have the wings available by 2007.

Presently this flying equipment will be headed to the military, but if it is found to be successful, it won't be long before those of us in the private sector get our own set of wings.  Imagine rush hour in the year 2010.  Cool.

A marketplace of ideas and the exchange of information

An Edwardsville man is in the process of solicitating signatures on a petition in order to get himself on the November ballot as a third party candidate running for Congress in the 19th district which is currently represented by John Shimkus of Collinsville.

John Hartman, who has created a party he has named The Growth Forum Party, believes his candidacy is about opening government and letting more voices be heard.  He believes his new forum will allow objectivity to reign when discussing issues.  Disagreement would be less heated and partisan. 

Hartman must secure 15,000 signatures by June 26 in order to get on the ballot, so far he has 5000.  His newly created party has no website that I can find, although his own has a sketchy, and overly vague, rendering of what he would hope to accomplish if elected.  He seems to have no noticeable stands on any of the current issues, but couches his information in mostly vague idealistic phrases. 

The term Growth is used in the sense of maturing, or learning something new that may redirect our opinion and actions.  The term Forum is used as a respected marketplace of ideas and exchange of information.

Hartman seems like a nice person, well educated and able, but he must do more than wave around nice sounding words about exchange of ideas if he wants to make a serious run.  He would be better served to have something more concrete as well as a more informative website.

       

 

What's there to find?

Two bits of computer info this morning.  Project IP is a website which shows you how much information your computer is putting out and what other visitors, companies or individuals etc can learn about your machine.  Project IP knows more about my computer than I do.  Take a look to see what your machine is transmitting.

A way to make your website show as a graph.  Very cool.  via The Presurfer

Memorial Day in Collinsville 2006

Collinsville celebrates Memorial Day the old fashioned way, with a parade, a military ceremony of remembrance, and lots of flags.  Everything went off smoothly except for the weather which was miserably hot and humid...not just warm...hot.  Several of us who serve on the board of Collinsville Progress, Inc, volunteered to put small flags along the main artery through town if the board okayed the expense.  They did, the flags were purchased, and 4 of us met up at 7 this morning and got to work. 

Pat and John put flags on the east side of Vandalia Street and Bob and I took the west.  Here Pat and John work in front of the already well decorated American Legion.

Here we are at the end of our flag planting.  We covered about a mile's worth of ground this morning and then went and drank a lot of water.  We stopped a nice man who happened along and asked him to take our picture. 

Later in the morning residents began arriving to watch the parade.  Here a number of folks wandered around the American Legion memorial while they waited.

Another view of the Legion and its WWII helicopter which is a popular item for people of all ages.  Many people spent quite a bit of time walking all around it while they waited for the parade. 

The parade ended at the VFW, just a couple of blocks down from the American Legion.  The VFW Post put on an extremely well done service complete with printed programs, a good sound system, the high school band playing patriotic music, a 21 gun salute and echoing taps played by two trumpeters.  The only issue was sitting and standing on the hot hot blacktop parking lot.  But there was a breeze, as they say.

This year's speaker was Collinsville Police Chief, Scott Williams.  He could have talked for a good while, but a speaker knows his audience.  The chief managed to say everything he needed to say in 45 seconds.  Walking home, the MAtH (man about the house) who does a lot of guest speaking, said, "That was so great.  He really knew what he was doing."  And, because it was so hot and his speech so short, everyone there will probably remember his talk more than any past speaker. 

What a great day.  God bless the troops, God bless this native land and those who served and paid the ultimate price.

Memorial Day 2006

Fly the flag, attend a parade, listen to those who speak, honor those who gave their lives in service to this country.

A much more timely bumper sticker than Kerry-Edwards 2004

From Outside the Beltway, a bumper sticker and maybe t-shirts and hats, giving some of their own back to members of congress and how they see themselves.

Wouldn't it be nice...

National Review Online has a list of the top fifty conservative rock songs as compiled by NRO reporter, John Miller.  Number one is "Won't Get Fooled Again" by The Who.  Number two is "Taxman" by the Beatles.  The NRO site has the entire list and links to where these songs can be purchased. 

A 108 year old "temporary tax"

The IRS lost in 5 circuit court of appeals and will now be refunding $15 billion to customers for the past 3 years of long distance telephone service.

Back in 1898, yes, 1898, the government enacted a 3% excise tax on long distance phone calls as a "temporary" luxury tax on Americans who owned phones in order to fund the Spanish American War.  Funny thing is no sitting Congress ever got around to eliminating that "temporary" tax when the war ended.  Want a reminder of how things looked back in 1898 when there came a tax to fund the Spanish American War, a time when no one was driving cars and one of my ancestors was setting off with an Illinois regiment to fight with the Rough Riders.  We've been paying for this war right up until today.  as if...

According to TaxProf what happens now is this:

• No immediate action is required by taxpayers.
• Refunds will be a part of 2006 tax returns filed in 2007.
• Refund claims will cover all excise tax paid on long-distance service over the last three years (time allowed given statute of limitations).
• Interest will be paid on refunds.
• The IRS is working on a simplified method for individuals to use to claim a refund on their 2006 tax returns.
• Refunds will not include tax paid on local telephone service, which was not involved in the litigation.