Scarlito’s way

Here’s what I don’t get…conservatives supposedly want LESS government and LESS government intrusion into our lives and yet, when it comes to sex and abortion, many conservatives want to create rules about what a wife has to tell her husband and what consenting adults can do in the privacy of their homes.

Bush’s latest appointee came to the legal conclusion that spousal notification is not an onerous burden on the wife if she chooses to have an abortion. Don’t forget that abortion is still legal here!

I firmly believe that a decision to abort a child should be discussed by both parents. I wish with all my heart that the parents would change their mind and NOT choose abortion. But, as long as abortion is legal, is it really government’s business to intrude into that discussion and decision?

I understand that the underpinning for Alito’s decision may have been his desire to not intrude on the will of the legislature that chose to require spousal notification, but to me, this line of thinking on this issue portends the non-belief in the right to privacy as established in Griswald v. Connecticut.

On the other hand, Alito (in Elizabeth Blackwell Health Center for Women v. Knoll (61 F.3d 170)) cast the tie-breaking vote, when the 3rd Circuit panel enjoined (forbid) the enforcement of a provision in Pa’s Abortion Control Act that had required victims of rape and incest to report the crime to appropriate authorities as a precondition for obtaining an abortion at taxpayer expense under Medicaid.

Although the latter ruling is somewhat encouraging (if commonsensical), I’m thinking that if you firmly believe in the constitutional right to privacy, Alito may not be your man.

The Beaman Park Squirrel-Eating Monster

It may not be as scary as the Bell Witch, the Antioch Deathkiller or the Tennessee Titans (lack of) defense, but there must be a squirrel eating monster residing in the dales or hollows of the newest Nashville Park.

Today was the perfect day for a walk in the park..after eating splendid bagel sandwiches at Bongo Java East we sauntered (can you saunter in a car?) north-westward to Beaman Park. There are two official trails in the park (an experience park-goer told us that there were many more unofficial trails)-The Hollow trail and the Ridgetop trail. Consdering that the Ridgetop trail is 4.4 miles round trip and the Hollow trail was a 2.1 mile loop that didn’t require backtracking, it was an easy choice for us.

I highly recommend taking the trek out to Beaman Park. It’s out of the way but that is one of the park’s many virtues. When I was in high school one of our favorite pranks was to drive up to someone walking or standing on the side of the road and and then ask them if they knew the way to some obscure road (our favorite was North Berry Chapel Road). When they said that they didn’t know the way we proceeded to tell them. Always good for seriously confused looks and deranged laughter from those of us in the car…anyway..Do you know how to get to Beaman Park???

Go out Ashland City Highway from Bordeaux until you get to Eatons Creek Road – turn right (right is the only way you can turn) and stay on Eaton’s Creek for about 50 miles (actually it’s probably 5 or 6). After you cross Old Hickory Blvd. you wll see signs for the park. Turn left on Marrowbone road (it’s marked with a park sign and you will see the entrance to the park on your left in about 1/2 mile). Well worth the trip.

After hiking for about 1/2 mile we realized something was missing. This is a truly isolated quiet forested area with thousands of trees. No squrrels. Absolutely postively none…nada..zip..zilch. Considering that the minute we put out any bird feed in our near-downtown urban area house we see greedy-bird-food-eating squirrels coming out of the, well, trees. How can we have squirrels here in Salemtown and there are NONE in Beaman Park?

My theory (it’s mine and i’m sticking to it) is that a giant squirrel eating monster resides in a cave by the stream that runs through the park. I thought I heard the creature and attempted to take a picture but I must have just missed it.

Maybe someone far smarter than me has a better explaination. But like other bloggers wanting to believe in Loch Ness i’ve gotta believe that intelligient design provides for squirrel eating monsters. Our visting birds would sure be happy if that were the case…

Today’s Personal Responsibility Award, or ‘But, Trent, you’re gonna miss Aunt B!”

“Bloggers claim I was their first pelt, and I believe that. I’ll never read a blog.” – Sen. Trent Lott, quoted in the Christian Science Monitor in their 10/27/05 edition.

I guess that Trent really would feel more comfortable in the Strom Thurmond heyday.

See you in the funny papers?

Today’s words to live by come from the comic strip ‘Get Fuzzy’.

“My strength is that I can laugh at myself, Bucky”
“Your weakness is that you don’t have a choice!”

Would that I had a choice…

But, what I want to know is this: Does anybody under the age of 30 read the funny papers/comics? I don’t mean comic books, but the comic strips found in the pages of your daily paper.

I’ve read the funnies since I was six years old. I grew up with the Nashville Banner and migrated to the Tennessean when I was in college. I’ve read either the Banner’s funnies or the Tennessean’s funnies pretty much every day to this day (when I’ve been in town).

My kids barely read the paper, much less the funnies. I don’t think their friends read the funnies. When I go to Bongo Java/Portland Brew/Kijijis/Starbucks I don’t notice any of my fellow loiterers reading the funnies (not that I sneak around furtively looking over their shoulders).

Other than Cal Thomas on the Op-Ed page who makes me laugh unintentionally, and the occasional sports piece claiming that THIS is the year that Vandy football is going to a bowl, I can’t think of anything in the paper funnier or more pleasurable than ‘Get Fuzzy’, ‘Zits’, ‘Doonesbury’, ‘Curtis’, ‘Red & Rover’ and the venerable chestnut ‘Blondie’.

Are the funny papers the newspaper equivalent of Matlock? Should they be sponsored by Depends?

If Fox News had been around throughout history…

HT: Kimble Forrister – Alabama Arise

It only hurts when I pump…Thanks Exxon..thanks 10Billion Times

Big oil must LOVE the hurricane season…

Third Quarter EARNINGS
Exxon/Mobile $10,000,000,000 (up 75% from 2004 3rd quarter)
BP $6,430,000,000 (up from $4,870,000,000)
Chevron $3,590,000,000 (up from $3,200,000,000)

Republican reaction – Let’s give em’ some MORE money! SEE BELOW

Outside of Kinky Friedman…

Sarah Silverman is probably the funniest and absolutely the most politically incorrect human alive. Check out THIS trailer for her upcoming movie.

WARNING: Not really work/family/prettymuchanysetting friendly..careful with the volume on the speakers!

Why don’t we just give them Texas – $10,000,000,000 isn’t enough??

In a stunning example of corporate welfare in a time when congress is supposedly scouring the budget for things to cut, House Republicans recently ramrodded an energy bill through Congress that would give financial incentives to energy companies to encourage them to build new refineries. Considering that EXXON made TEN BILLION dollars in profits this past quarter ($110,000,000 PER DAY) I’m thinking that they oughta build their own damn refineries on their own dime. Do any of the House Republicans that voted for this have any shame? These profits were made largely on the back of the hurricane tragedy. I understand that US refinery capacity is not high enough but the capacity was exactly the same when gas was $2.10 a gallon. Price spikes were understandable but price gouging should be condemned. Ironically the bill encouraging new refineries contains language against price gouging…fines up to $11,000 per infraction…whooooooooooo scary!

When Bush was running for President he chastized Clinton for not using his power to ‘jawbone’ OPEC about the high price of oil: “What I think the president ought to do [when gas prices spike] is he ought to get on the phone with the OPEC cartel and say we expect you to open your spigots…And the president of the United States must jawbone OPEC members to lower the price.”

I’m wondering when the jawboning is going to begin? ‘m waiting with bated breath for that phone call from Bush to EXXON…

Today’s theme song comes Richard and Linda Thompson..

Their incredible album (CD for all you youts) ‘Shoot out the Lights’ contains the prescient tune ‘Did she jump or was she pushed?’

Harriet, we hardly knew ya…but we knew enough…

If only Bush had listened to himself….

In 2000, Bush clearly stated his beliefs as to when US military force should be used.

Of course, 9/11 happened and we heard how that changed everything..but let’s not forget: nearly all the 9/11 terrorists were Saudi nationals. The Taliban and their largely Saudi funding co-opted Afghanistan and we, quite rightly, took them on and at least temporarily took them out.

Syria is obviously a state that supports terror, while Iraq didn’t even have a single plane that could reach the United States. Not that anybody seriously thinks/thought that Saddam is a jolly good fellow, but according to the original Bush policy, we wouldn’t have attacked Saddam.

The following is from one of the debates between Bush and Gore…

New question. How would you go about as president deciding when it was in the national interest to use U.S. force, generally?

BUSH: Well, if it’s in our vital national interest, and that means whether our territory is threatened or people could be harmed, whether or not the alliances are — our defense alliances are threatened, whether or not our friends in the Middle East are threatened. That would be a time to seriously consider the use of force. Secondly, whether or not the mission was clear. Whether or not it was a clear understanding as to what the mission would be. Thirdly, whether or not we were prepared and trained to win. Whether or not our forces were of high morale and high standing and well-equipped. And finally, whether or not there was an exit strategy. I would take the use of force very seriously. I would be guarded in my approach. I don’t think we can be all things to all people in the world. I think we’ve got to be very careful when we commit our troops. The vice president and I have a disagreement about the use of troops. He believes in nation building. I would be very careful about using our troops as nation builders. I believe the role of the military is to fight and win war and therefore prevent war from happening in the first place. So I would take my responsibility seriously.

So…now we have one of the largest nation-building endeavors in American history and no end in sight regarding American involvement..AND the new constitution ensures
that Islam will be the law of the land.

Year 2000 George doesn’t sound so bad…

double latte for the devil..let me please introduce myself..i’m a barista with wealth and taste

First Dylan, now the STONES.

The idols of my youth are peddling coffee…sigh.

British Film-zine lists Top 100 Films – Vertigo is ‘2’???

The English film magazine ‘Total Film’ is publishing a book listing the top 100 films of all times. My question – Is marijuana legal in England now? I haven’t seen ‘Tokyo Story’ so I can’t comment on that choice but geeze louize, Hitchcock made a dozen films better than Vertigo…and, FIGHT CLUB puhleeeze. I’m a huge Goodfellas fan but Godfathers I and II are both better. The rest of the list is here.

Total Film Top 10
1 GoodFellas
2 Vertigo
3 Jaws
4 Fight Club
5 The Godfather Part II
6 Citizen Kane
7 Tokyo Story
8 The Empire Strikes Back
9 The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy
10 His Girl Friday

You can ride up front on the bus, but it’s better to be white when you drive your car..

Flashback to separate water fountains and ‘colored’ bathroom entrances, and klan marches. White flight from neighborhoods close to where I grew up and everyone treating the first black kid at Lipscomb High like he was some kind of science experiment..When I heard that Rosa Parks died, I thought about courage and prejudice and yeah, we’ve come a long way from that bus ride, but let’s not overtax ourselves backpatting.

I always find it amusing when white people proclaim that racism is pretty much a thing of the past or that we need to move on. If you have any black acquaintances have a little chat wth them about shopping in department stores or driving through predominently white neighborhoods.

Check out the study from the Department of Justice Statistics Division on racial profiling and what happens after people of color are pulled over…oh crap you can’t check out the parts concerning race because the Bush folks removed them from the report. In fact when the Director protested the exorcism he was let go…

From the NY Times on August 26…

The White House is replacing the official, Lawrence A. Greenfeld, who is director of the Bureau of Justice Statistics, months after he complained that senior political officials at the department were seeking to distort publicly the findings of the statistical report by his agency.

The report found that while drivers from different racial or ethnic groups were stopped by the police at essentially the same rate, blacks and Hispanics were much more likely to have their vehicles searched or be subjected to the use of force once they were stopped.

If you wanna honor Rosa ask the Bush folks to release the unexpurgated report and maybe to quit shooting the messengers.

Just another fraternity prank – 21 detainees killed

This story from USA Today (also caught by Brittney here) uncovers the fact that 21 American-held detainees in Iraq and Afganistan have died while in custody. Perhaps these deaths will spur the House to pass the ‘anti-torture’ Defense funding bill rider overwhelmingly passed by the Senate.

The only bills that Bush has threatened to veto are the defense appropriation bill mentioned above and the bill which would allow the federal government to fund the harvesting of stem cells from fertility clinic embryos that would otherwise be thrown away.

Is this really the legacy that Bush wants to leave? Pro-torture and anti-science? Creating embryos solely for the purpose of cloning or stem cell harvest should be forbidden, but reaping stem cells instead of tossing them seems the only sane thing to do.

Can the Bush gang get ANYTHING RIGHT?

My inner sheep – mmmmmmmmmm cheesecaKe

The other night, my wife and I went to see ‘Everything is Illuminated’ (well worth seeing) over in my old neighborhood – Green Hills. We got over there early enough to grab some grub before the flick. Apparently my Inner sheep felt compelled to walk in the rain along with about 143,000 people to Green Hills newest trendoid – The Cheesecake Factory. We noticed a wee bit of a line. We saw the pictures…mmmm.

Primal Pavlovian response..hundreds of us baaaaing in line..and then we were told..We were told that there would be a freaking THREE and 1/2 HOUR WAIT!!!

Needless to say, we curbed Pavlov and the inner sheep and hied it on over to Cheeseburger Charlies to at least get a modicum of cheese.

Three and a half HOURS…what would I wait three and 1/2 hours for????

1) Jesus
2) Beatles reunion (all freaking four of em’)
3) My wife (she occasionally reads my blog) – in all fairness, she is pokey but has never kept me waiting all that long
4) A private meeting with keira knightley
5) Cheesecake at the mecca of Cheesecake – Junior’s in Brooklyn

blogspamalot – who’s writing this stuff??

Our kids are all in their twenties now, but when they were in their teens we had more than a few anxious moments and a few of those horrible late night phone calls that never bode well. My sons never called at 2:00 AM to discuss the Yankees.

I’m sure that if we had known the deep secrets of their hearts we might have been able to anticipate some of the problems. But, what I didn’t know (and now know thanks to blog spam) is that instant road repair may have been the bond that would have held the family together AND possibly reduced the amount of car insurance that we’ve paid over the years. If ONLY the following message had come to my attention when my kids were teens.

I pass it along now hoping that if you have kids you will pay attention and heed the call. If only ONE child can be absorbed into the world of instant road repair, I’ve done my job.

The following ‘spam’ is printed as I found it in all its glorious and mystifying power:

Many teens hide deepest secrets in plain sight. Blame it on bawdy talks shows and reality television. Today’s teens are telling tales of … It’s the “Jerry Springer syndrome,” said Patrick O’Malley, a marriage and family therapist in Fort Worth.

Find out how to buy and sell anything, like things related to instant road repair on interest free credit and pay back whenever you want! Exchange FREE ads on any topic, like instant road repair!

I’m fighting back the tears..God BLESS Instant Road Repair!

BuSH Team bingo

If you work in any kind of corporate or bureaucratic environment, you’ve probably heard of, or play the ‘Bullshit Bingo’ Game. There are several versions, but all incorporate buzzwords likely to come up in a meeting.

My particular ‘favorite’ buzzword is paradigm, particularly when coupled with the word ‘shift’. ‘Thinking outside the box’ should probably boxed away along with ‘let’s take this offline’, ‘bottom line’, ‘pro-active’ and ‘touch base’.

After watching the Republican News Channel a bit this past week, I’m seeing the ‘buzz-spin’ taking form, with the phrase ‘the criminalization of politics’ appearing with amazing frequency from the lips of the apologists. This defense of the outing of Valerie Plame and the anticipated indictments of Rove and Libby strikes me as particularly funny when considering that many/most of these same pundits were solemnly asserting that the ‘rule of law’ is paramount when considering the foibles of Clinton and his prevarications about White House blow jobs.

Listen carefully over the next few days and see how many times you hear ‘Criminalization of Politics’ in reference to Plame-Gate. Today on Meet the Press, Senator Hutchison (R-Texas) began a new strain of the spin disease when she opined that one can hope that Prosecutor Fitzgerald’s indictments are not based on trivialities like perjury or somesuch. Hutchison wasn’t so pithy as to summarize her thoughts into a clever quip like ‘criminalization of politics’, but her pre-emptive defense of Libby’s legal woes is high comedy for those who remember the Republic spin-team’s Starr-Chamber attacks on Clinton’s false witness. Her ‘defense’ of perjury would defy credulity if one lived in a vacumn, but just watching the Bush byters over the past few weeks, chiefly Press Secretary McLelland, makes me wonder if the word SPIN should be replaced by Hurricane.

Spin all you like but the simple fact is that Wilson’s wife was outed for vengence. The spinners are all screaming that Wilson is a liar, but HE told the truth about uranium and ‘yellow-cakes’. For reasons yet to be uncovered, the Bush gang wanted and planned this war from the onset of the administration. ‘9/11’ was a great cover despite the fact that nearly every one of the 9/11 murderers came from Saudia Arabia and not Iraq.

So, to the list of BS bingo words, let’s add ‘criminalization of politics’ and ‘trivial indictments’ to the list already highlighted by ‘9/11’ and ‘war on terror’.

I’m listing below my favorite words used in the business version of BS Bingo.

# Synergy
# Strategic fit
# Core competencies
# Turbulent environment
# Out of the box
# Pushback
# Bottom line
# Revisit
# Take that off-line
# 24/7
# Out of the loop
# Benchmark
# Value-added
# Proactive
# Bandwidth
# Win-win
# Think outside the box
# Fast track
# Results-driven
# Paradigm
# Empower (or empowerment)
# Knowledge base
# At the end of the day
# Touch base
# Mindset
# Client focus(ed) or Customer focus(ed)
# Ballpark
# Game plan
# Scenario
# Leverage
# Cascade
# Sequential or sequentially

Conference on Neighborhoods – Kudos to S-TownMike

I attended the Mayor’s Conference on Neighborhoods today and I heard a great speech by the Mayor and an interesting speech by Police Chief Serpas, but most importantly I saw my neighbor, super blogger and friend, S-TownMike win one of six Neighbor of the Year awards given by the Mayor’s Office. Considering that there are now 650 neighborhood associations here in Nashville, winning a neighborhood leadership award is quite the honor. S-TownMike is pictured above, as you might have surmised, holding his award. I got to hold the award and I can tell you that it is NOT plastic. Kudos to S-TownMike!

The Mayor (Bill Purcell) made a little news when he practically said that he would not be running for a third term. There has been controversy and apparent contradiction between the term limits law and the Metro Charter regarding whether a Nashville Mayor is subject to term limits. The Mayor stated that he was going to propose an amendment to the Metro Charter that would impose a two-term limit on the Mayoral office.

Purcell also said that he will propose a revision to the charter that would decrease the size of the Metro Council. I have in mind one or two candidates for elimination if the proposal were to be enacted.

Chief Serpas gave a statistically laden speech which did not sugar coat the increase in homicides in Nashville this calendar year. He clearly is not happy with the homicide stats, an emotion I am sure is shared by the families of the 80+ folks murdered thusfar this year.

Serpas defended his emphasis on enforcing traffic laws with statistics that sold me – I didn’t write down the specific numbers, but a LARGE percentage of people pulled over were subsequently arrested for a more serious offense.

Purcell is a great speaker…Serpas is more workmanlike. A critical note re the Serpas speech – The Powerpoint slideshow accompanying the speech was unreadable and incredibly CLUTTERED. Serpas is a stats man, but sweet fancy MOsEs, he managed to insert practically every stat relating to crime into his slide show along with a few nearly incomprehensible graphs. Even HE couldn’t even read HIS own slides.

A final note: The luncheon was opened with a prayer. I have no problem with that, in general, but during a government sponsored event, praying ‘in Jesus name’ should be avoided. Presumably there are Jewish, Hindi, Kurdish and other non-Christian neighborhoods who don’t pray in the name of Jesus. I would be similiarly offended if a non-Christian prayed to the Buddha or Shiva of his/her choice.

It’s not that we have the right not to be offended, it’s that governmental functions should avoid the sponsorship or endorsement of a particular religion.

To further compound the offense to our Jewish neighbors, the luncheon meat was pork….

demotivatin’…

The folks at Despair.com do a really good job in counteracting all those cheesy screensaver/wallpaper/coffee mugs/posters that are passed around the workplace intending to make our day better or inspire us to loftier aspirations. Personally, I find cute pictures of cats almost as inspiring as watching the Metro Council debate ethics. I’m not going to forward the email with the damn cat pictures to my friends because I like my friends.

Demotivation usually fits my mood more than inspiration…color me jaded.

What’s in your freezer?

According to a story teased on the front page of USA Today, scientists are unthawing the body of an air force pilot who crashed in the Sierra Nevada mountains during WW II.

Unconfirmed reports state that the thawed-out pilot’s first words were: “Boy, Ted Williams is REALLY pissed!!”