Friday, November 4, 2011

Babies, Critters, Racers and Stuff: Late Night Musings

So I have been a bit busy lately and have been neglecting the long form of late. If you follow me on Facebook you've been getting links of interest and small bits of commentary--I hope you enjoyed those.
I am working on some interesting stuff. Very soon I will have some excerpts from an interesting book titled "The Price of Civilization" by Jeffrey Sachs on the economy to post. With regard to the issues of the. Roman Catholic church I have some thoughts on the balance of Christian forgiveness, restoration and the stewardship and responsibility of keeping children safe in the church.
If you will notice there has been no real news that gets us any closer to finding Lisa Irwin. All we've had is more circus and more strange behavior from her parents along with more publicity seeking from lawyers and activists.
Animal issues have been in the news: a way has been made to give the new operators of the KCMO animal shelter funds to get started on improving conditions at the 30+ year old facility and give the strays of KC a better chance to live, and be healthy and have a chance at finding new owners. The zoo is news as voters--all five of you--will be deciding on a sales tax to support the attraction. I was considering voting yes on this--until I realized it did not sunset. A tax for a specific thing needs a closing date. As much as I think the zoo is a worthwhile thing for a city of our size to have, it may not be something we are destined to do very well--it has been a struggle all the 20+ years I've lived in the metro.
Finally, the city is trying--and appears to have succeeded in buying the Kansas City international Raceway. There is a lot of blow back on this however, and while I doubt the talk of conflict of interest, favoritism and spendthrift ways will stop the sale, it will be interesting to watch. Meantime, this weekend KCIR will be hosting races and timed runs on both Saturday and Sunday. When the strip closes, and especially if no new site for a drag strip is developed, expect more drag racing on Missouri 150 between highway 71 and State Line Road, and on 135th street west of Leawood.
What do you all think of OWS? They've lost support since the 20 somethings among them whined about college loans, more allegations of crime in the camps have come to light, and fire and other vandalism was committed in Oakland. OWS may try to make the incident involving an unfortunate driver in Oakland a "Kent State moment". Whether that "he said/they said" incident can carry that weight is yet to be seen. If you found yourself in that situation, through no fault of your own, what would you do when a mob started banging on the hood and windows of your car? Do you really think you can wait for some sort of rescue?
That is all for now. Over and out. 10-42. Priority 10. We're done.
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3 comments:

Bob G. said...

T.O.:
You have some VERY interesting things coming on your "front burner", and I look forward to reading your posts about that civilzation book, as well as your take on the OWS thing (we might be on the same page...never hurts to be among friends there, hmm?)

That tax seems a bit weird, because if there's ONE thing I learned from paying taxes (and working for the Treasury Department), it's that invariably VERY FEW (if any) taxes EVER "go away" after a time...
Be better to bump the PROPERTY taxes up 1/2 of a percent instead...(just a thought, KCMO leaders)
AT least we know THAT tax never seems to decrease and would add $$$ to the zoo's coffer.

And it never hurts to pay another visit to the WAYSIDE WAIFS...(for the holidays)
Good post.

We're 10-10 "on the side" -
Rolling back to HQ.

Have a great weekend.
Stay safe out there.

chuck said...

OWS is turning into the Wisconsin State Fair.

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