Dennis Kucinich's wife

You may have to be a political junkie to know who he is, but Dennis Kucinich is a Congressman from Cleveland who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination. He doesn't have any chance of winning it because he's basically insane. Not only does he claim to have seen a UFO, but he wants to create a Peace Department. I'm not kidding.

My purpose here is not to bury him, but to praise him. I just found out that his wife can give Jeri Thompson a run for her money. Elizabeth is 31 years old and 6 feet tall. Here she is, with her little troll of a husband:

For the unitiated, here is Fred Thompson's wife, Jeri:

10/31/07 CTA and county news update

Now the city is going to take desk-duty cops and have them hang around schools that will be most affected by the elimination of certain bus routes. That's a good idea, in as much as it has the police actually working to reduce the influence of gangs in bad areas. Gee, Mr. Mayor, what a brilliant idea!

Meanwhile, the county government is up to its usual shenanigans in hiring. It's the usual wasteful patronage stuff that won't go away until voters realize that a Stroger may not be the best guy to run the county. I'm not holding my breath since blacks here vote so monolithically.

UPDATE: How could I miss this the first time around? Here's the usual extreme sob story of the day, courtesy of intrepid Sun-Times reportes Ben Goldberger. Apparently, someone who lives in THE SUBURBS is going to be affected my CTA cuts and fare increases. Gee, no kidding. Here's the good stuff:

By the time he returns home at the end of the day, Riggins, a married 20-year-old with no car and a full-time job, has transferred at least four times -- and spent nearly $10. And that's just when he's stationed at a West Side hospital. Some days he's assigned to jobs in Oak Park, Orland Park, Melrose Park, Tinley Park, Cicero or the Loop. Mass transit is the only way he has to get to any of them.

"It's costing me a pretty penny, costing me too much," Riggins said Tuesday. And as someone wholly dependent on the CTA, Riggins says the doomsday fare increases scheduled to take effect Sunday put a tight squeeze on an already limited budget.

"I'm going to have to stop doing everything I used to do for fun. If I want to eat, that's out of the question right now. It's costing me too much. Something's really got to change."

"This is a big part of my life," Riggins said of the CTA, "and I'm mad at the governor for not getting down there and signing that bill. He had plenty of time, and they say if he doesn't get it signed by January it's going to get even worse. And with winter coming, man."

Now what's not mentioned in the story? How about this: why doesn't he have a car? Has he had a bunch of DUI's or does he blow all his money on fancy stuff? Who knows? I'm guessing it's not because the car fairy hasn't yet left one under his pillow yet like she's done for everyone else.

So an extra $2 to $4 a day is going to cut out all of his fun money? This also isn't questioned, but rather it's taken for granted to be true. I don't believe it. Even granting that it would be true, this guy has clearly made some terrible life choices to even be in this position. I don't have a lot of sympathy for him.

The real problem is that he's allowed himself to become so dependent on cheap, publicly subsidized transportation. That's NOT a reason for forcing taxpayers all over the state to prop up a wasteful beaurocracy.

10/30/07 updates on county and city government

We've had a lull lately in our local governments and their budget battles, but it appears that each Cook County Commissioner gets a 27% increase for his office:

Commissioner Tim Schneider said he never asked for, nor will he take, the $90,000 in extra salaries Stroger is offering his office, saying the county's "in dire straits" and the board should "keep county government at the most efficient level we can" by giving back extra money.

Commissioner Joan Murphy said "maybe [Schneider] doesn't do the amount of work the rest of us do."

"Feel free, if you want, to give yours back, but I'm keeping mine," she said.

Murphy later apologized to Schneider for the verbal attack.

This perfectly sums up the attitude of these guys. Keep in mind this isn't an increase to actually provide more county services (such as they are). They are only to fund commissioner offices and staff. I realize that Murphy apologized (and thus it's not really fair to pick on her for her comments), but the idea that a fellow commissioner wants to save money for taxpayers means he's not doing as much work is infuriating. The only work I see any of them doing anyway is spending and taxing, so maybe a little less of that "work" would be good thing.

Meanwhile, it's not the city budget that's in the news, but the CTA. Yes, yes, the threatening cuts are on the way. Blah, blah. The vast majority of riders are completely unaffected. You know what bus routes are being cut? The goofy, circuitous routes that only run at rush hour or during special events for the benefit of a few people. The sob stories ring pretty hollow:

Daley used Mather High School, 5835 N. Lincoln Ave., as the backdrop for a news conference called to "put a face on" the 39 bus routes on the chopping block.

One of those routes, the No. 93 California, runs right past Mather. If the route is eliminated, junior Christina Correa and hundreds of her classmates will be forced to walk in the dark to Western four blocks away or to Kimball six blocks from their high school.

California and Western are exactly one-half mile from each other. I walk further than a half mile EVERY DAY I take the Blue Line from my house. So do a lot of people, and then think of those who walk even further. And yes, it gets dark and we all have to deal with it. Buck up, kids, and walk with friends. Geez, if there are hundreds of you who do it you won't have any trouble finding some people to walk with you!

Apparently there's also the issue of putting a casino downtown to help fund the city's budget. Anybody who thinks this is a good idea should walk around Las Vegas some time. I don't mean on the Strip, but off of it or downtown (off of Fremont). As much as I love Vegas, those casinos bring with them many problems. Think there's already too much crime and homelessness in Chicago now? Just wait until that thing opens up. It's not worth having easy, quick access to a blackjack table after work.

The riverboats tend to isolate themselves from it to an extent, but even those cities have problems from the boats.

Bar report - The Tap Room

After my date last night, it was only 1 AM. On my way home, I went to The Tap Room, located on Western at about 2250 North. It has an adjacent liquor store, just to give you an idea of its level of class.

Anyway, I'd always wanted to go there. Upon entering, every seat was full save for a few up front. Draft Miller Lites were $1.50, which is NICE. The crowd was entirely Mexican except for me.

Let me tell you about a Mexican bar: it's the only place I've ever been where an obese girl was the most popular one in the place. I mean, she had to be 3 bills, easy. At one time she had 4 guys talking to her (either that or they were orbiting her). It was quite the scene.

Anyway, the crowd sucked but it was very cheap and fairly close to my house.

McDonald's pizza

This has to be clicked on to see and believe, but all I can say is that I want to eat it. Here's the first stage:



Here's the end result:

Smoking in China and middle age

I found an interesting column by a guy who lives in China and just recently took up smoking in middle age:

After years of resisting, a friend in Shanghai gave me the perfect excuse to start smoking. China has become so polluted, he told me, that it's better to breathe through a cigarette filter than just take in the air on its own. And if your lungs are going to get shot to hell anyway, you might as well enjoy it. So, well into middle age, I figured that it was probably a good time to take up the smoking habit. The result? I enjoy it so much that I don't know why I didn't take it up earlier.

The rest of the column mentions how good some Chinese brands taste.

Indiana's ranked 9th in the preseason coach's poll

Oh my, I almost pooped myself. I've been waiting SO LONG for a good team again! Meaning, 15 years since the 1993 team that lost in the regional final due to their best big guy (Alan Henderson) getting hurt at the end of the season.

UPDATE: To answer A-How's question in the comments, I do not consider 2002 a great year. They were a 5-seed with double-digit losses that had a lucky run in the NCAA tournament. It was fun, but I want a stud team that pounds on the competition all year. Call me spoiled, I guess.

Latino gangs targeting blacks in South Central

Where's Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson for this? Oh right, it doesn't involve white people:

A south Los Angeles Latino street gang targeted African-American gang rivals and other blacks in a campaign of neighborhood "cleansing," federal prosecutors say. Alleged leaders and foot soldiers in the Hispanic gang Florencia 13, also called F13, are being arraigned this week on charges stemming from a pair of federal indictments that allege that the gang kept a tight grip on its turf by shooting members of a rival gang—and sometimes random black civilians. The "most disturbing aspect" of the federal charges was that "innocent citizens … ended up being shot simply because of the color of their skin," U.S. Attorney Thomas O'Brien told reporters in announcing the indictments.

For shame!

I guess my post mocking him wasn't enough, so in the upper-left corner of the page I've decided to put a reminder of how long it's been since Bryan has updated his blog. Hopefully this spurs some action.

Great clock for the math nerd in your life

This would be fantastic hanging in my office at work.

The DREAM Act was killed yesterday

It wasn't very heavily reported, but yesterday the Senate had a cloture vote on an illegal immigrant amnesty bill that didn't even go through the committee process. That's the same tactic used for the giant amnesty bill that was brought up earlier this year. For that earlier bill, huge public pressure, including call volume so great that the Senate switchboard broke down, helped kill it. It seems that that finally imprinted in the elites' minds that us regular people who see more of illegal immigrants than housekeepers and busboys (including the negatives that Senators in fancy neighborhoods never do) want it to end.

Anyway, 60 votes were needed in the cloture vote to move it to a final vote, where a simple majority would pass it and it would be up to the House to consider the issue (though there are no indications they would have). It only received 52 votes and failed in cloture.

(As an interesting aside, Sen. John McCain, who has been a huge amnesty supporter over the years, wasn't there for the vote. This despite being there earlier that day for the other huge Senate vote on the confirmation of Judge Leslie Southwick. He knows that if he wants to win the Republican presidential nomination for which he's running he can't be an amnesty supporter, so he didn't even stay for it. Fine with me.)

The result is that amnesty supporters are rueful. Their leader is our own Sen. Richard Durbin. He's up for re-election next year, and if there's any way to knock him off it's on this issue. I'm surprised he's not getting a challenge from the right on this issue in the Democratic primary, but maybe that's what our state's party has degenerated to:

“This issue has been so painful for so many people — they’re running scared,” said Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), the sponsor of the DREAM Act. When immigration is debated in Congress, Durbin said, “the switchboards light up and the hate starts spewing.”

It's always easy for liberals and the left to accuse those who disagree with them as racists (or sexists, or homophobes, or whatever). They tried really hard earlier this year on the big bill, and it failed. It's not easy to paint 75% of the country as racists, and the whole tactic is getting so tired that no one cowers from it any more (ask Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, who have been reduced to jokes outside of liberal circles).

One last thing: don't believe the spin in the politico article about what the DREAM Act was supposed to do. This is the real scoop, and it's even more mild criticism than I'd give it. More info is here. Here's more roundup of the aftermath.

Memories of the 4 Queens

In fairness, I was neither naked nor sleepwalking. It's still familiar.

Bryan sucks

We can safely say that Bryan is a terrible blogger. Not only has his personal blog had no updates in 29 days, but the new flagship website of him and Sean, WhereIPeed.com, STILL has nothing. This a few weeks after being told that Sean's unemployment would have that thing up and running.

Just give it up, dude.

P.S. This is a warning to the rest of you: I'm watching!

If only this movie was really coming out

I haven't seen 300 yet, but this version called 1776 would be great.

Thoughts on Revenge of the Nerds

After The Biggest Loser last night, Encore was showing Revenge of the Nerds. Sure, it's a comedy classic, and mainly for the subtleties in the movie. However, watching it last night made me realize there a lot of silly plot devices that just don't make sense. For example:

How can a college football team have only about 20 players on it? Only if they had leather helmets, I say.

Also, all white guys on the team?

How can the football coach intimidate the dean the way he does? Any coach who even hinted at that kind of behavior to the dean of a college would be out on his ass and NEVER coach in college again.

Why does Louis' dad drop them off approximately a mile away from their dorm? They have to be able to get closer.

As a corollary, how do ALL of their possessions fit in that trunk, which they can also carry (and thus isn't packed very tightly)?

Biggest Loser poll

I don't care what you three people who say TBL is a girlie show think. I love it. Run fatty! Do those one-armed pushups, Jillian! Continue to make your team hate you, Kim! Keep on being the gayest straight dude around, Bob!

Plus, poker with cookies would rock.

UPDATE: Uh oh, there was just a promo for our fair hostess' show, Days of Our Lives. My confidence in the neutrality of the show is shaken. There ain't no Days commercials during Heroes.

UPDATE 2: Oh snap! Because Amy is so lazy, we may at last see what we've all been waiting for. That's right, Kim and Jillian in a fight to the death. Preferably in mud or jello.

UPDATE 3: Kim must be laughing her ass off now at Amy!

UPDATE 4: I'm not a fan of Allison's hair at the weigh-in. She's too naturally pretty to waste time with that elaborately curly hairstyle. Keep it straight, baby.

UPDATE 5: We have the first ever villian on the show. Congrats, Neil. Hopefully someone punches you in the baby maker next episode.

10/23/07 update on fiscal government stories (city only)

Nothing from the county since last week, but yesterday there was an interesting article about Mayor Daley's goofy proposal to raise taxes to pay for, of all things, libraries. What's most fascinating is its insights into the mind of someone who has spent her entire working life in a comfortable government job. I am tempted to paste the whole thing here with comments after each paragraph, but I'll try to hold back. It starts like this:

Opposing libraries is like taking a stand against Mom and apple pie. But that's the bind confronting Chicago aldermen.

Oh yeah, I'm sure they are going to lose an election by voting against new libraries (which no one cares about) and voting for lower property taxes (which everyone cares about). Anyway:

On Monday, Library Commissioner Mary Dempsey tried to salvage an increase that appears to be going nowhere in the City Council.

The city has a Library Commissioner? That alone is wasteful. How much money does she make? That's a budget cut for you right there.

She noted that $99 million of the increase was needed to support salaries of a library work force "stretched to the limit" by 434 vacancies. That leaves $9 million to retire the $130 million borrowing needed to build roughly a dozen new libraries.

That's a lot of money to waste on building new libraries. But of course, her first priority is to increase the unionized government workforce, which she no doubt was once a part of.

And Dempsey warned that, without the increase, Chicago would have no choice but to reduce weekend and evening hours. Most libraries are open until 8 or 9 p.m. to accommodate working families. Sunday is the busiest day at Chicago's three largest libraries.

So, don't reduce hours on Sunday. Also, why are "families" out until 9 PM? Those kids should be in bed! Finally, isn't it always about "working families"? I'm tired of them getting all the good stuff. As though parents who don't keep their kids out late at libraries don't work.

"We'd have to look at trimming hours and positions" and halt new construction, even in cases where land for new libraries has been donated to the city, the commissioner said.

Donating land is easy. How about them also donating money to run the libraries? The second-best part is yet to come, however:

Dempsey noted that the record property tax increase would amount to just $80 more each year for the owner of a $250,000 home.

"That's $6.67 a month. I don't think you can buy a new paperback book for $6.67. But with your library card, you can check out 30 books at a time," she said.

These are the words of someone who has deified libraries beyond recognition. First, if everyone who had to pay the extra tax went to the library to get their books, the libraries would need a whole bunch more money for staffing and materials (like wasteful internet access for people to cheap to get it at home). Second, who wants to read some ratty book from the library when they can buy a new book for $20? Third, is it the job of the city to enforce some annual library use fee on millions of people who would never use them? Finally, and most absurdly, who would have any possible reason to check out 30 books at a time?

The best part is last. Bear with me and read the whole section:

Ald. Tom Tunney (44th) went so far as to suggest alternative funding sources — like selling naming rights to branch libraries, providing "retail opportunities" in new libraries and getting a corporate sponsor for the library card itself.

"We're trying to look for every opportunity for revenue," Tunney said.

Dempsey said she has "never ruled anything out" to raise new money. But she also questioned whether such innovative ideas would "sustain" library operations.

"We keep people with us for 30-plus, 40 years because they see a career track in the library. They see advancement opportunities. We have a tuition reimbursement program. We send people to library school..It would be less attractive to people if we were running around every year trying to find corporate sponsorships to pay for basic city operations," she said.

Wow. The city pays to send people to library school. What the hell is library school? I think that even without a degree from library school I could figure out how to check out books for people and use the Dewey decimal system. What advantage is there to having people seeing working in a library as a career with "advancement opportunites"? They don't do anything! And the capper is that it would just be so awful to try to find ambitious, hard-working people who have to raise money rather than lazy, contented, career book filers.

I thought everyone would appreciate seeing the inner workings of the city library system. Hopefully you are as cranky about it as I am.

I found my guy...

...in the primaries. On the heels of today's endorsement from the spokeman of the We-Want-To-See-Your-Hot-Wife-For-Four-Years caucus (Fubar), I can say that after months of waffling Fred Thompson is my guy. Why?

It's all because he's the only major candidate (apologies to Duncan Hunter and Tom Tancredo) who is willing to do something about illegal immigration. Add in that he's primarily a small-government guy, and I'm willing to finally say that I've found my candidate.

That said, I'd still vote with some enthusiasm for Rudy or Romney in the general election. For McCain and Huckabee I'd probably show up and vote for them, but with little interest. Luckily, they are currently 4th and 5th in the race and don't have a lot money.

New poll question

Last night I met a girl out for drinks, and the discussion turned to TV. I mentioned that among other shows, I regularly watch The Biggest Loser. She seemed surprised and said that it was a girly show in a sea of guy shows in my lineup. I tried to tell her that I like it mainly for the freak-show aspect of it, but she was undeterred.

Thus the poll question.

One of my minor work pet peeves

The spreadsheet output of our valuation numbers comes in a stack of paper about 30 pages long. It's amazing how many people can't staple these together properly. People know I'm no Lou Ferrigno, but I am easily strong enough to perform a nice stapling job on these every time. The worst offender is this tiny little girl who without fail cannot do it. I am constantly pulling out her staples and re-doing them. It's becoming tiresome.

This leads to questions, such as:

Does she just have bad stapling technique?

Is she really not strong enough to get the job done correctly?

I don't know the answers to these questions.