Terri Schiavo should have been a Cow

Ms. Schiavo is dead. Starved to death by her husband. If she had only been born as a cow instead of a woman, she might be alive, or at least her husband would be looking at some serious community service for killing her so cruelly. Chattels such as cows are protected from cruelty at the hands of their owners, liberated women are not.

You've come a long way, baby!

Abe at Don't Let Me Stop You points out that cow starving is a crime, concluding that "every American can sleep easy knowing that we live in a society that does not tolerate a man starving a cow to death." Now if the farmer in Abe's example had been able to marry his cows....

More Hog Tasering

As the Feeder noted in a previous post, hogs appear to be the animal of choice for testing Taser non-lethal weapons. I asked where PETA was while this shocking hog torture was going on in the name of Homeland Security. PETA must have gotten the clue. A new study is planned right in that stronghold of animal rights, Madison Wisconsin, and PETA is right on top of it.

the pigs in this new study are being sacrificed in the name of liberal wuss-ism, and not some benighted neo-con idea like Homeland Security, as an AP story reprinted here, "Professor to Test Stun Guns on Pigs", points out. The aim of this sudy is to see if Taser-happy cops are killing our suspected perps. Even so, this isn't good ehough for the PETA bunch.

"I think this is an outstanding example of one of those questions that can only be answered using animals," said Eric Sandgren, a UW-Madison professor who heads a committee that oversees animal research. "Boy, there's been a lot of deaths from this. If the alternative is to go back to using bullets, let's find out how to make this safe."

That's a worthy goal, but researchers should instead study humans who have survived Taser shocks and autopsy reports of those who died, said Laura Yanne of PETA. She promised an "unprecedented" protest on Tuesday, but would not release details.

"Subjecting pigs to cruel experiments is not the way to go on this. It's so obvious," she said.

In an effort to simulate true life situations where cops Taser bad guys, some of the hogs tested will be hopped up on cocaine before being shocked. I would think the professor could find human volunteers among the numerous dopers at Madison. The promise of govenment-grade cocaine for a bit of a shock should have test subjects lining up.

Wait One, Counselor

Johnnie Cochran Jr. - Dead at 67

This is one cat I'd like to meet in the next life. I have questions.

Watch your damn kids.

These kind of cases always turn my stomach. Little kids having babies and their friends and family are caught totally unawares. How does a daughter go to full term and deliver a baby in the home and her family doesn't notice? How does a son plan and possibly help carry out a school massacre and a supposedly involved dad is clueless?

In Omaha, Maria Vargas gives birth in the family bathtub, hides the kid in the dirty clothes hamper where she suffers brain damage. Channel 7, KETV has the facts here. Scott Stewart of the UNO Gateway has more in his plea for Nebraska to pass a 'safe haven' law.

Keep an eye on those kids, everybody says, including Floyd Jourdain who has been in the news lately as a spokesman for the Red Lake Band of Chippewa, reeling after the tragic killing spree. Next thing you know, his own son is arrested for having some role in the killings. Here's an involved parent who is unaware that his son is hanging out with a 'National Socialist Native American' creep.

I would think a Nazi Indian would stick out like a white sheet at a NAACP meeting. Dad is proud of his sons' accomplishments, puts pictures of them on his web page. Dad scrapes his finger at his neighbors while his own son is shaming the community. Ms. Vargas was afraid that her family would toss her out on the street if they knew she was knocked up. She shouldn't have worried: her folks obviously didn't care. They didn't even notice she was pregnant.

Watch your damn kids. Don't have kids if you don't have the time to raise them. Pinch their heads off if they show nasty tendencies and can't be trained. Otherwise, you might as well send them straight to prison instead of off to school. Do it before they get a chance to breed.

Clyde and Vern back in the news

Just when I thought these miscreants , Vernon and Clyde Bellecourt, had faded away, they are back in the tragic Red Lake killing spree news. The world press is quoting Clyde and his lesser-known brother as if they were the number one spokesmen of red indians in America. These old rabble rousers are nothing but communist dupes and common criminals. Gag me with a peace pipe.

Saturday at the Feedlot

Testing, testing, testing

I made this paste-up to use as a projective test, like the Thematic Apperception Test psychologists give to disturbed people. The patient looks at the picture and tells the Doc what he or she sees. I have already tried this picture on a number of control subjects, thereby establishing a baseline response. I would invite the reader, should you have a minute and the inclination, to explain what is going on here. Free analysis of your responses will be provided at my leisure.

Kyrgyz domino tips

After a keen little bust-up of a coup, VOA reports that "Key opposition figures in Kyrgyzstan are claiming control of the government the day after President Askar Akayev reportedly fled the country." The Roanoke Times puts it briefly: "After Georgia and Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan has undergone the third nonviolent popular uprising against post-Soviet authoritarian leaders by general populations demanding greater openness to democracy. A new, favorable variation on the old domino theory seems to be making progress."

Let them fall. I never believed I would live to see the Berlin wall come down until I saw it on TV.

Checks and Balances: Bastille Option

"So famous is the political theory of checks and balances, so well known to Americans, that he is a bold man who tries to say new things about it." Stanley Pargellis (1938)

There has been crazy talk and crazy suggestions made in the blogs today about the Schiavo case. Courses of action have been put forward which could land folks in jail. Ideas espoused that could get people hurt. To protect the guilty, I won't link to any of these bomb throwing troublemakers. I'll leave that to Ryne McClaren's post, where he adds the Storming the Bastille Option to the Annals of Bad Ideas.

Beyond this call for 'bomb throwing' as a way to 'help Ms. Schiavo' or to assuage our guilt for a media induced sense that each and every one of us is personally starving her to death, there is a reasoned argument for pushing the envelope of non-bomb-throwery in some cases. How else would our Constitutional system of checks and balances function?

Checks and balances may be viewed as a sort of built-in, rigid framework like a corset that holds government from going to hell. That seems to be the view that is commonly held. But I think this puts too much emphasis on the Check and not enough on the Balance.

Do you think judges are running America, while legislatures stand by too spineless to stop the usurpation of their power? Do you think Jeb Bush is caving in, and now even the executive branch has thrown up it hands, powerless? Do you ask yourself why the system of Checks and Balances hasn't made a correction? What stays its Constitutional hand?

If Checks and Balances be a rigid skeleton, it is frozen and helpless. But it is a system, not a few paragraphs on parchment. An interesting analysis of the emerging mechanical view of the world and its relation to the development of the system is found here: Checks and Balances: Liberty, Metaphor and Mechanism, by history professor David Wootton. (where I lifted the quote at the top of this post) Its a bit of a read, but I find it a bit of nifty Constitutional arcana.

Before we call every crazy idea a bad idea, try to think of how the actual mechanics of Checks and Balances is supposed to Work, in the dynamic sense that the Constitutional framers had in mind. As I recall, the framers gave only the executive branch an army.

Updated a bit: Florida officials' attempt, fail to seize Schiavo. (Seen on Drudge)

"It was kind of a showdown on the part of the locals and the state police," the official said. "It was not too long after that Jeb Bush was on TV saying that, evidently, he doesn't have as much authority as people think."

Linked to the very excellent Wizbang Blog's Carnival of the Trackbacks IV

Mike Fahey and J. Edgar Hoover

Hoover - Fahey

The upcoming Omaha city elections just got nastier, with Mayor Mike Fahey adopting yet another of the traits that distinguished the late J. Edgar Hoover. And I don't mean confirmed bachelorhood, either. He and his cronies have stooped to using official powers to obtain the 'private' personnel records of two political opponents. Channel 7, KETV, has the story: City Personnel Records Thrown Into Municipal Elections
Cavanaugh, Friend Police Files Brought To Light, and you can read more about it at Channel 6, WOWT's site here.

Fahey's mayoral opponent, Dave Friend, and Mike Cavanaugh, who is trying to unseat one of Faheys stooges on the City Council, were both Omaha policemen in days gone by. Now their employment records are 'out' and being used by Fahey's downtown gang to disparage these fine men's service.

Are you old enough to remember J. Edgar Hoover? The former FBI director who kept dossiers on anyone he figured could help or hurt him in his efforts to deify himself as the pharaoh of the FBI. Of course, Mr. Hoover had a few thing hanging in his closet he didn't particularly want made public. (See the Feed Trough) Makes you wonder, doesn't it?

I'm willing to stoop as low as or lower than the next cat when it comes to politics.

Tough day at the Feedlot

Git!

I have an attitude today. My lunch date said it was the phase of the moon. It seems the moon causes some sort of vortex in the vicinity of Gretna, Nebraska to begin pulling into it all the vitality, kindness, civility and joy from the lives of those exposed. This morning I went to Gretna to get a hot shower, because it is raining and I have a problematic old septic tank. Then I had to ship a package at UPS. I barely got in the place and the young lady that took my package told me I had an attitude. And so the day went. I can't really blog when I feel like the grouch in my drawing.

Legal Contortions - Moral Distortions

I guess I'm too old and arthritic for the advanced legal contortions required to comprehend how Ms. Schiavo's sorry predicament could or should be alleviated by petitioning the courts of law. The arguments are more convoluted than a string theorists extra dimensions. Monday morning lawyering has already started, and she isn't even cooling off yet. Kevin at Wizbang Blog puts it straight out: "Terri Schiavo is going to die because Michael Schiavo has better lawyers." Add this to the legion who would blame the judges, like John, who is On the Right Side of Hypocrisy, and accuses various judges of murder. The whole mess has made conservatives look hypocritical for prodding federal judges to 'activism', which is supposed to be anathema to the right.

Toward finding a non-legalistic analysis, and at the same time not wishing to review the postures of contemporary religious dogma, I happened across this: blog.bioethics.net . The American Journal of Bioethics editors blog, rich with links to other bioethics related blogs. Here is a source of reading that is not only morally reflective, but full of stuff I hadn't thought about in relation to the Schiavo matter. They can't resist trying to be constitutional lawyers, but hey, who can these days? At least it isn't ALL legal yoga.

I always thought the only real job a constititutional lawyer could have would be as a professor of constitutional law. Where's the money in constitutional law, I thought. Goes to show you what I know.

Is it time to pull the Pope's breathing tube?

As the unfortunate Schiavo matter illustrates, life that depends on a tube, especially a life that doesn't look like fun anymore, might as well end. The Pope isn't looking well at all, needs a tube to even breathe, and we have only the word of 'sources' that he really is "determined" to keep going.

This AFP story: 'Frail but determined pope appears to faithful at St Peter's Square' quotes, "A source close to his entourage [who] told AFP that 'the pope is not so bad' and that despite his public silences, 'he speaks with his aides. He is lucid'." Sure, and a wink's as good as a nod.

Write to Life

Right to Life?

Life isn't so bad. Its a matter of degree that depends on your outlook. The emphasis here is important. Your outlook - not someone else's. Some folks would drink poison before they would live in an iron lung. Others figure they can squeeze enough joy, or at least enough moral consistency out of iron lung living to make the indignity of it all worth while. It is a choice. Such are the natural trials and tribulations of life that some of us will be faced with making a real time live or die choice for ourselves.

The Doc tells you news of your impending, painful slide into a permanent vegetative state. You stop off on your way home and visit with your lawyer. Back home, you write a few notes and call the cops before going into the back yard to eat your pistol. I think this is a reasonable reaction. It might not be a good reaction, in the eyes of God and everyone else. But it is your reaction, your plan, and you effectuate it. You don't want to live with the tubes, maybe only half there. It is your choice.

I think any person, even if they aren't in their right mind, has a God given right to make that choice, and if it be in their power, to give effect to their decision. If you find yourself not in your right mind, as Ms. Schiavo finds herself now, you face an ugly problem. You must depend upon either having communicated your wishes effectively beforehand, or upon your ability to blink and wink and gurgle your desires to whomever is at hand. And they might not be friends. They might want you to suffer when you would rather be dead or, vice-versa, to finish you off just when you were getting used to it.

If this prospect concerns you, by all means join the Write to Life movement and get yourself a living will or durable power of attorney or whatever it takes in your state to give effect to your wishes after you are incapacitated. If you don't have a lawyer, go ask your state bar association for help. Get their advice and take it! Then, hope and pray and live your life so that you don't fall helpless in a strange land or among enemies. Or in Florida.
---
What happens if you change your mind? Say you become a vegetable and find out it really suits you. You didn't think you'd like being vegetative when your signed that living will. But now that you've tried it you are thinking, "Life isn't so bad. Its a matter of degree. Now, where's my feeding tube?" Wink Wink

Getting Omaha news on the 'net

I thought I might provide a few tips for those who would research news in the Omaha, Nebraska area.

1. Don't even think of using the Omaha World Herald online. Their web is the slowest, most convoluted news web site this side of the Mississippi. The audaciously named omaha.com site requires registration, and the registration process doesn't work. If you don't use MS Internet Explorer, you are SOL. They also want you to pay to read any article more than 3 weeks old. It is almost as if they hadn't heard of the internet OR the public library. I really don't think they want anyone to read their stuff on the 'net, let alone link to it. I oblige them. You should too, if you don't want heartburn. Besides, their editorial policy is inconsistent with their location in a nearly pure red state. They favor gun control, always take sides with the ACLU, think Unions are what saved America from Capitalism, and long for the good old covered wagon days when print media was the only info game in town. Use this link to steal their headlines for keywords, then go elsewhere to look up the stories that interest you. The OWH is, in their opinion, the only newspaper of consequence in the whole state.
2. Other Newspapers. See above. Seriously, there a numerous newspapers in Nebraska and neighboring states that keep an eye on Omaha. To find the good stuff in them, see #6 below.
   
3. Omaha television station web sites can be excellent sources of area news. Channel 6, WOWT, generally scoops the others, getting the news posted on the web with lightning speed. Their editorial policy is mostly plain vanilla, but they do have a great City Cam network so you can see Omaha in real time. I get most of my Omaha News here. Channel 7, KETV, offers what they call The Omaha Channel, but it is slow to get the news posted. A member of the IBS news group, a provider of news and features to a long list of TV stations. They offer plenty of video clips, if thats what you like. We have FOX affiliate KPTM Channel 42. Their web isn't as fancy, but the local news gets there fast and I like their FOX-like editorial stance. Coming in last is KMTV Channel 3, with no local news. All they offer is links to CBS news and a generic page of news links.
   
4. The AM radio stations in Omaha are fair to middling as far as news goes. KFAB at 1110 is the best, with a smattering of local news. 1290 KKAR is great to listen to, but alas, has no news on it's web. Both of these stations feature "Listen Live" buttons which sometimes work. If you are out of radio range, you can get breaking Omaha news online. I don't like it; you can't cut and paste.
5. FM radio. You will have to check these out yourself; I never, ever listen to FM radio. Not since I found out what FM stands for.
   
6. The search engines. Try the search I have linked in the Feed Trough. It uses Google News beta and attempts to filter out all the sports scores. Sports scores are important, but they aren't news. I like to use the foreign editions of Google News for those languages I am able to read. This gives me a chance to practice reading them and sometimes offers a view of Nebraska as seen through distant eyes. Of course, as denizens of the blogosphere, we must be aware of Technorati, (you can use the little box right on this page) Feedster, etc. for searching for Omaha news on other blogs.
   

Hope this provides a little insight into how I come up with the junk I post here, and a bit of help to anyone looking for the straight skinny in Omaha.

Blogosphere dominated by white males

Abe at Don't Let Me Stop You reports on this sad observation at a Harvard conference on bloggers: that the blogosphere is, "dominated by bigmouths of the white-male variety." The story irritated me into leaving a rather sacastic comment there. My suggestion that we needed a government program to teach and encourage blogging by the non-male, non-white folks was facetious.

But I looked to see who was teaching blogging here in the Great Plains. The description of this blog: Adrian's Communication Resources Page , said its purpose was "to support Brent Adrian's English and Speech courses at Central Community College-Grand Island." Adrian linked to a Student Weblog Links and Descriptions, apparently blogs made by students at CCC for classes. Go ahead and peek, it is Spring Break there.

If you go to Central Community College's web, you will see a photo right in the center. When you reload the page without hitting your cache, you will get a different picture each time. I did it only a few times and saw pictures of non-white and non-male students in these pictures. These kids could have been learning to blog at their little Nebraska Community College!

Everything may well be up to date in Kansas City, but we are not slackers here in the Pure Red State. I see no oppressed minority race-gender blogging gap in our future. Not with cutting edge schools like CCC.

There actually was such a case in Venezuela

Narizones

A few years ago I was looking for some information on the assassination of President Kennedy. I had been reading a book on Ted Kennedy's adventures at Chappaquiddick, Senatorial Privilege, and wanted to check some facts the author, Leo Damore, used. An Alta Vista search for "Hands off Cuba", the title of a commie screed Lee Harvey Oswald had been passing out, yielded a surprisingly big list of communist organizations.

I noticed today that you can get a huge updated list of such groups by doing a Google search using "Hands off Venezuela". Every national communist party, wacko commie interest group, association of fellow travelers, and assorted useful idiots will be listed. It's important to know your enemy. That's why I went to law school.

Chavez, what a sorry son of a bitch. Bush won't kill him. And now the dumpy, middle-aged revolucionario has become the new Big Hero of the leftist elite, it having come to their attention that Che Guevara is dead. Bad Hair Blog reports on just how Cool this sad sack of a dictator has become. Val Prieto of Babalu Blog is calling him Che-avez, and notes that Venezuela might just be sliding towards authoritarian rule!

I used to tell people I that if bad times got worse, I would go start a new life in Venezuela. In those days, Caracas sounded like a pleasant, warm, cheap place to settle. Where they wouldn't ask too many questions as long as a fellow had some cash. Gas was a fifteen cents a gallon, I speak Spanish, the natives seemed to be having fun. Now I'll have to think of a new refuge.

Elkhorn looks at Keystone lawsuit, cringes

Omaha annexed the Keystone area in the 1960's. It has been a rocky marriage ever since. Just today, a bitter controversy that saw the Omaha Housing Authority trying to push low-income housing (we used to call them 'projects') into an unwilling neighborhood was voted on by a divided City Council. KPTM Channel 42 News has the story here.

Section 8 housing in Omaha is a fiasco due to their mismanagement and 'ram it down your throat' tactics. The Keystone folks aren't just a bunch of selfish rich snobs shouting NIMBY. They have legitimate concerns. Mayor Fahey has tried to act as a go-between, but he is ineffective bacause he believes in the fraud that is Public Housing. The solid patches on this map are Section 8 locations.



Western Douglas County, (that part of the county not already Omaha) has its own Housing Authority, the DCHA which has less than 1,00 families living in Section 8 housing. The people of Elkhorn, the Douglas County town that has staved off annexation by Omaha for a while, this is an indication of things to come.

Elkhornians must add the prospect of the OHA suing to put 'projects' in their back yards to the already long list of good reasons, (e.g. slow police and rescue response times, lousy trash hauling service, snow removal delays, onerous taxes, rules and regulations, etc.) for not becoming part of the Istanbul of Eastern Nebraska.

Update from WOWT News, OHA prevails over property owners:

After a nearly three-year battle, a controversial housing project is once again moving forward. The Omaha City Council has approved construction of a group of low-income homes in the Keystone neighborhood. It's a victory for the Omaha Housing Authority but a disappointing loss for many of the Keystone residents.

I always knew the individual was helpless as against the state, now it seems neighborhood associations are as well.

Canadian Ingenuity

Droogle

While looking for some stats from Canadian Plains provinces on whether the methamphetamine scourge of the US Plains extends to the north, I came across My Blahg from Ontario. Tucked in in a post that was a dead end for my purposes was this:

It should come as no surprise that it would be a Canadian who has finally come up with the first search engine that is truly useful.
Cheers.

It is the slickest thing since sliced bacon!

Judicial Activism in Flat Rock

I get the Nebraska edition of StatePaper.com in my e-mail. The gent that puts it together, Ed Howard, is a veteran left-leaning Associated Press journalist, but he roots out the good stuff on a regular basis. Today's edition had a story entitled: Judge Murphy Decries Invective, Diatribe In Public Policy Debate, about a decision by Lincoln County District Judge John Murphy. Mr. Howard's emphasis is on Judge Murphy's finely worded finger-scraping at less than civil litigants in a highly politicised (but otherwise irrelevant) North Platte lawsuit. Hardly a pressing issue these days.

Following Mr. Howard's link to the original story in the North Platte Bulletin - Lincoln County's News Alternative, I found more excerpts from Judge Murphy's fine opinion. (District Court opinions aren't generally published, so the reporter, Frank Graham is doing us a big service here.) The real emphasis that Judge Murphy wanted to put on his remarks beame obvious. It wasn't what Ed Howard wanted his readers to take from his honor's eloquent words; it was even better! Here is an excerpt:

“Courts are not super-legislators endowed with the wisdom to second-guess the decision of the elected representatives of the people,” Murphy wrote. “For a court to substitute its judgment for that of a legislative body would bespeak an arrogance totally inappropriate to the way this republican form of democracy functions.”

“It is not for this court to determine whether or not the actions of the City of North Platte are wise or foolish, farsighted or myopic, prudent or wasteful,” Murphy wrote. He said the final judgment must come from citizens, not the courts.

Note that these amazing words come from the mouth of a judge that was appointed by Democrat Governor Bob Kerrey! If you visit the Feed Trough story in the North Platte Bulletin, be sure to read the comments posted there. It put a shine on my day!

Compare the Ed Howard story with the Frank Graham's reportage. Do you think Ed, who writes for the MSM (AP) or Frank, small town reporter, is doing the best job of letting us know what Judge Murphy really had to say? I think Ed is 'putting a spin' on an outstate story for the more citified readers in Lincoln and Omaha. They don't want to hear about this kind of Activist Judge.

Link added: See Frank Graham's blog, Frankly Speaking , and more of Frank's take on the case here.

Judging a book by its cover

The 'cover' in Josh Barfield's case doesn't refer to the snaky tattoos on his arms or his penchant for heavy metal rock music, but to the distinctive Marine Corps headgear he wears to work. From the Marines web comes this Feed Trough story:

CAMP HURRICANE POINT, Ar Ramadi, Iraq (March 20, 2005) -- Patrolling the streets of the insurgent infested city here is probably the last place most people would expect to find a rock 'n' roll star.

However, that's just where you'll find Lance Cpl. Josh R. Barfield, lead singer and guitarist for up-and-coming metal band Blue Collar.

The 23-year-old Glendora, Calif., native and assault man with 1st Platoon, A Company, may not have reached international recognition for his music yet, but he does have a number of fans in his unit, 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment. Many of his fellow grunts consider him to be a top-notch performer who's destined for rock-star fame.

This old timer had almost lost hope for the next generation. It is a cliche to observe that adults through the ages have wrung their hands and lamented, "O tempore! O more!" at the sight of the youth of the day. I admit I was getting to that point. Music I didn't dig, pointless tattoos, dangerous piercings, jive talk I wasn't hep to, and the artifacts of a third-rate public education all had conspired to dry up my hope for the future.

Then I saw these same kids I thought were sucking air I might need, grow up and go to war. I'm impressed, grateful and a bit surprised. I had judged these books by their covers and found them wanting. As Chuck Berry said, "it goes to show you never can tell"!

Terry Schiavo

This old cat has lived big chunks of life with death of one sort or another right up close. It isn't as big a deal as it is cracked up to be. So I haven't had anything to say about the Terry Schiavo fiasco.

I don't have such a high regard for human civility that it surprises me to see this macabre scenario play out as it has. And I don't have such a high regard for myself that I would presume to know better than those directly involved. All I know is that, by allowing the government to intervene, they have made a grotesque mockery of a perfectly normal family tragedy.

I can agree with Paul's post here at Wizbang when he answers his own question, "Why is Terri Schiavo a Partisan Issue?" He points out the obvious, Bad Democrats want to kill helpless innocents and save the guilty, while Good Republicans want to save the innocents and kill the guilty. No kidding.

Read Paul's spirited rant and check out the comments there and you will know why these liberal policies are not planks but trapdoors in the Democrat platform. But if you would know how you would handle such a family tragedy yourself, you will have to wait until it happens. I like to think I would have the strength to ensure the right outcome without abdicating that responsibility in favor of the government.

Nebraska Roundup

An effort to survey the range of blogs with posts on specific topics of interest to Great Plains readers concerning my home state. Today, three subjects that have caught my attention.

Concealed Weapon Permit
A bill to provide for same raises its head in the Nebraska Unicameral again: LB 454

Is That A Gun In Your Pocket, Or Are You Just Happy To See Me? Ryne McClaren: A Weblog

Why on earth do people think it is a good idea? The Official BA Blog

The Dog & Pony Show went well From the Heartland

Freedom & Gun Control... how do they balance? Off The Table

We’re winning SayUncle

Wart do we want? Oonting banned! (or not)
Proposed amendment to the Nebraska Constitution: fishing, trapping, and hunting, " part of the heritage of the people and will be a right forever preserved." (I transliterated the title from a chant I heard made by anti Fox hunting loonies in England.)

Ernie Chambers Goes To Lincoln Ryne McClaren: A Weblog

Bigfoot Hunting Ban in Nebraska? anomaly news

Protect Bigfoot, itching, lounging My $.02 and Unearth Nebraska

Oddest on Omaha - Elkhorn Annexation Do they follow this in St Pete?

Latest Elkhorn Annexation post Cactus Beach Internet Radio Blog, Down Town St Petersburg, Florida

Nebraska Roundup sounds like a name for a regular feature. I'll keep that in mind next Sunday, but would like to state for the record that any consistency the reader may observe in these pages is unintentional.

Nebraska in the News

Henry Hill

I'm guessing, taxpayers, that you bought this man his nice, big smile.* This transplanted Nebraskan with the s--t eating grin is Henry Hill. Like many folks in North Platte, he uses methamphetamine and cocaine when he can get it. He owns an Italian Restaurant and was once a real mobster. Because of his notoriety as a rat-fink snitch stool pigeon who broke his Mafia vow of Omerta, he had a book written about him, and Hollywood made a movie of his nasty ways. At the end of the mildly humorous film, Henry goes into the witness protection program to live, as the movie Henry puts it, "the rest of my life like a schnook."

Henry soon grew tired of schnook life, quit the witness protection program and surfaced as supposedly non-schnook Henry the restaurant owner in Flat Rock. Henry should have watched the movie again, because he doesn't seem to have realized that all his troubles started with his involvement in dope. He is back into it again, and back in trouble again. Now, however, he is a 'former mobster from Nebraska', instead of just another wise guy from out east. The Big Red State is portrayed far and wide, (as far as CNN) as a Montana-like refuge for kooks and wierdos, not to mention as a bastion of schnookdom.

Don't miss Henry's Mafia Auction coming up May 29th in North Platte, Nebraska. He is featuring his old Italian suits. Sounds like a nice drive west (just stay on 80, all the way), and I can check to see if there is any water left in Lake McConaughy.

*I mentioned his teeth because, as any dentist will tell you, amphetamine use wreaks havoc on the teeth. I bet the feds got Hank those oh-so-straight choppers while he was on the Witness program.

Just for Fun

Back in the days when airlines allowed smoking, many nonetheless had rules against cigar or pipe smoking. They wanted you to get your nicotine with a minimum of potentially annoying aroma. To amuse myself on long flights that were mostly populated with American passengers, I would light up a Gauloises. It wouldn't be long before a someone would complain. This would send the stewardess scowling up and down the aisles looking for someone enjoying a cigar. I have always been easily amused.

Google too good for the French

It is a slow Saturday here at the Feedlot. About like most Saturdays this time of year. Apart from the sad story of Jessica Lunsford, and other tragedies, the news is mostly about Europeans making stupid look sharp. On the latter theme, Drudge Report finds this Netscape/CNN page with this Reuters story about AFP:

"SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Agence France Presse has sued Google Inc. (GOOG), alleging the Web search leader includes AFP's photos, news headlines and stories on its news site without permission.

The French news service is seeking damages of at least $17.5 million and an order barring Google News from displaying AFP photographs, news headlines or story leads, according to the suit filed on Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. "

It doesn't surprise this anti-francophile to see the Frenchies try to throw a wrench into the internet innovations the Google folks have brought forth. Bad enough Google is not a French word, they can't pronounce it unless they have heard it. I never really wanted to Cherche their commie newspapers, but if I want to read AFP stories for free, I look here , where Yahoo collects the latest headlines. For more thorough browsing, here is a list of major world publications that buy AFP stories and publish them in their own unique contexts. You can read all of these papers on the big web.

I hope Google beats the AFP. As far as I'm concerned, anyone beats the French.

14 year old Nebraska genius commits suicide

A post from Don't Let Me Stop You concerning Bobby Fischer's most recent misadventures in the cruel world of international fame laments that such a genius has lost his mind. It got me thinking about bad wiring. I mean bad wiring in the nervous system, where wires aren't wires and signals move with chemical slowness. And by bad I mean non-conforming, not necessarily evil. Really bad wiring will result in non-viabilty: if the lungs aren't hooked up right, baby dies soon after birth.

But non-conforming wiring that doesn't kill outright has been related to genius. Anecdotal evidence of fabulously creative artists, philosophers and scientists* being a bit off kilter can be found in nearly every age and cultural setting. The horse indians of the Plains were said to respect insanity as a higher form of thought. The 'absent-minded professor' is a popular modern motif. John Nash, portrayed in the weird movie A Beautiful Mind was a math genius, but almost crippled by delusional madness.

A home-grown Nebraska child prodigy has killed himself this week. AP has the story of the Venango boy's death here.

"Brandenn E. Bremmer, who taught himself how to read at 18 months and began playing the piano at 3, was found dead Tuesday at his home in southwest Nebraska with a gunshot wound to the head".

His mother, who evidently has a small business in Imperial, Fine Things Jewelry & Gifts, didn't tell how he was found, but had this to say:

'"We're rationalizing now," she said. "He had this excessive need to help people and teach people. ... He was so connected with the spiritual world, we felt he could hear people's needs and desires and their cries. We just felt like something touched him that day and he knew he had to leave" so his organs could be donated.

She said Brandenn's kidneys went to two people, his liver to a 22-month old and his heart to an 11-year-old boy.'

This sure sounds like another case of bad wiring in a budding genius. I hope it isn't another "that don't add up" story, but admit to having some stray thoughts along this line. I don't know what his mom means when she says "something touched him that day and he knew he had to leave", but it rings vaguely creepy. Perhaps if he had gone to public schools the state could have drugged his troublesome creative streak away.

Update: Here is barking moonbat Political Cheezwhizz reflecting on Brandenn's suicide: He killed himself because he found out his parents were Republicans. I note that the Cheezy Whizzer also is a big fan of Al Franken, a true fellow traveller with a Stalinesque sense of humor.

* Given the state of modern science in admitting 'theories' that leave Karl Popper turning in his grave, modern philosophies that hate wisdom, and modern artists that frame excrement, it is getting so you can't tell the Muses without a program.
------ Link to Whizbang Blog's very excellent Carnival of the Trackbacks III -------

Elkhorn - Omaha annexation duel is a draw for now

Omaha Mayor Fahey now wishes he could get the toothpaste back into the tube. The annexations he thought would be a big coup for him are tied up in court. The only interesting news from now until trials begin will concern whether Omaha can get Elkhorn enjoined from pursuing a sort of 'scorched-earth' policy. A better analogy would be the 'poison pill' of corporate takeover stragegists. Elkhorn could sell its assets off in sweetheart deals, conditionally engorge the city employees' severance packages, etc. The arguments on both sides of these issues are interesting, but not novel. Fahey's Pearl Harbor sneak annexation attack on Elkhorn and its neighbors hasn't helped his chances of reelection. He would have been better advised to make noise about getting the traffic in the city moving again. Pour the man another green beer.

The WOWT article linked here sums up the situation with an apt metaphor, "The duel is a draw for now." Aren't all duels draws right up until they are over? There is only one point in a real duel, the winning point. Maybe they have draws in sissified French 'sword' duels.

Omaha Area TV News Blog

Local TV News personalities are a constant source of interest bordering on fascination for me. At its best, I like to follow the second and third string personalities, the ones that work Saturday mornings, for example. Cats you might actually see hanging around the police station or the courthouse. I came across a most entertaining blog, Omaha TV News. Here is one of those posts that will entertain anyone who watches Omaha broadcast TV News: Worth a Thousand Words.

As fortune would have it, there is no cable TV available at the Feedlot. I don't trust satellite dishes.
The only TV News here is broadcast.

Squint your eyes and you can see it.

I wasn't able to blog all day today. I drove a friend to a Doctor's appointment that required him to be mildly sedated and, therefore, unable to drive himself home. He lives in Gretna and works in Bellevue. His appointment was right smack in midtown Omaha. He hadn't been into the 'big city' for quite a while, so I took the scenic route: all the way down Dodge Street. Gretna is out at about 204th Street; we ended up going as far east as 24th, 180 blocks. That is a lot of Dodge Street, since it is always under construction.

The photo above shows Dodge Street at 118th as it looked today. Can you see the unfinished highway flying out to who knows where? Dodge is actually underneath all this. The idea is to make some sort of elevated skyway out of this notoriously congested part of town. My guess is that it is just another boondoggle. Whoever is selling cement to Nebraska must have quite a lobby in Lincoln.

I don't hate Omaha. It is a fair place to do business, a good place to shop, and some folks even like living there. But it is the "wannabe more than the place really is" mentality that grates. It is like a fancy nightclub; dim lighting, a couple drinks and the cheesy decor starts looking good. Light the place up with bright flourescents and reality becomes visible. The magic of Omaha works best if you squint your eyes. The skyway is there! Squint your eyes and you can see it!

The trip essentially took the whole day, the high point being lunch at the 11Worth Cafe (aka Leavenworth Cafe) at 24th and Leavenworth. Mountains of hash-browns!

Photo from Channel 6's CityCam. As you might guess, I like the Channel 6, WOWT news. And linking to the Omaha World Herald is no good because they make you pay to look at their articles after 21 days. You can use Google's cache, but that is a pain.

Plains Bloggers

When I first started the Plains Feeder a few short months ago, I thought I might write about other bloggers that shared something in common, like geography. The Plains was a natural. Little did I suspect the how thick the blogosphere had become while I wasn't looking. Here are some more:

Ryne McClaren: A Weblog: Ryne McClaren: A Weblog "Dispatches from Red State Nebraska"
This is real Red State stuff if I ever saw it. Newsy, with head-screwed-on-straight commentary. A 20-something Reagan Republican.

Don't Let Me Stop You: Two bedouin roaming The Great American Desert in search of truth and a good time. Unrelenting, very witty, exposure of idiocy in government and life. Abe of Linclon describes himself as a Pre-9/11 conservative libertarian--Post-9/11 libertarian conservative.

I'm making a list of Plains Bloggers. Not just conservative or political blogs, but good, interesting writing. If you know of one, report him or her right here. If you are or ever have been a Plains Blogger, turn yourself in here. You will be treated mercifully.

SOCIAL false sense of SECURITY

CNN Netscape News reports that an Associated Press poll shows that, "While a majority of Americans approve of Bush's handling of terrorism and foreign policy, just over a third, 37 percent, like his approach to Social Security. " The only reason this old feeder can think of to account for this lack of support for Social Security reform is my sense that aging and death are subjects the Pepsi Generation just doesn't want to ponder.

The 'youth culture' has an aversion to contemplation of the truths of our mortality. Even considering Social Security is like pre-planning their funeral or writing their Last Will for the forever young crowd. An increasing number of folks just don't want to entertain any thought related to the inevitable. These people aren't otherwise any more stupid than average, they were just brought up by well meaning parents who hid the fact that the family cat died. Who didn't tell the truth about why grandma doesn't know how to make pie any more. Who took pills and had surgery to reinforce their belief that the grim reaper is just a myth. It is a generation deluded about old age and death.

These people all know that Social Security is a bust. Talk to any person under 30. They have no expectation that their Social Security contributions are anything but another tax. I don't think they are against SS reform, or even its elimination. They just don't want to consider it at all. To do so would ultimately require them to acknowledge their own sad images of the shroud and pall. Pass the wrinkle cream. I'm gonna live forever.

NBC's Castro Appeasement Edition of the West Wing

I can't stand the West Wing. I have never watched an episode all the way through. I especially can't stand Martin Sheen. I wanted to watch it tonight because Val at Babalu Blog had promised that tonight's episode would cause a stir. I tried to watch it, but I couldn't. I need a peaceful mind more and more as I get older. But you should check Val's coverage of the nasty show, titled Ninety Miles Away? The episode was worse than I expected. Val says, "Tonight's entire episode was as if its script had been written by fidel castro himself." And he notes the re-written history depicted in the show includes no mention of the disgraceful JFK (Kennedy, not Kerry) betrayal of Cuba. I have to quit, I'm getting heart-burn.

I can hear the worry beads rattling

Middle East is giving Bush a boost, an article by the Boston Globe's Peter Canellos and Rick Klein shows up here in the International Herald Tribune, France (where it is tomorrow already). This can't be good news for the caviling europeans and their noisome Islamic populations. Shake those beads!

Give the girl a break!

From Gigwise.com, which I don't read every day, comes this view of how the war on terror is being waged on the Liverpool music front. Gigwise writer Daniel Melia reports that Osama bin Laden's niece, Wafa, is "is hoping to launch a music career in the very place her uncle attacked, New York." He goes on to call it, "a somewhat sick twist of fate", and quotes Simon Cowell, judge of idols, 'big headed pop guru twat', etc. as saying, “There’s only one worse surname you could have for a pop career – Hitler.” More comments from Omanforum in the Trough.

See: Binladin... Any Realtion to???? at PowerBlog!
"She walks down the street on the Upper East Side, thin and stylish, another well-heeled beauty chatting away on her cellphone. Except that she isn't — she's Osama bin Laden's niece."
----
I can't see why anyone who found themselves in Liverpool for any reason would stay there any longer than it took them to get out. As you will gather, I'm no Anglophile. I don't dislike them or their history and culture, I just don't want any part of it.

Elkhorn annexes Omaha's intended victims!

The Elkhorn City Council met Tuesday night to finalize the plan they are implementing to foil omaha Mayor Fahey's ill-concieved scheme to annex Elkhorn. WOWT Omaha TV calls it "Defensive Annexation", in the linked article. The Elkhorn plan adds naturally related subdivisions to bring the population up past the magic 10,000 needed under Nebraska's arcane municipalities laws.

Between the half-baked and arbitrary schemes enshrined in the Nebraska statutes by the Unicameral, and the obfuscation added by subsequent Nebraska Supreme Court cases, nobody thinks the law is very clear on this issue. So what do reasonable Nebraskans do when they can't agree? They take it to court!

WOWT reports that, "Both sides believe it will be a couple of years before we know if Elkhorn gets bigger or becomes a part of Omaha." This could take some time, and it won't even come down to a Waco-like confrontation. Much can happen in a couple of years.

As an interesting aside, Elkhorn's city attorney is Duncan Young of Young & White Law Offices. I always thought it took some stones to put that on your shingle and letterhead. Too many potential jokes, the kind that could get you fired for even thinking.

News that 'don't add up'

Sometimes I hear news that makes me think and sometimes say: 'That don't add up'.** Like the story about the young couple who froze to death just a few miles from the Feedlot this past winter. Nebraskans don't get out of their vehicles when stuck in snowstorms. And if they have a cell phone, they are nearly sure to survive. These kids died. It didn't add up. Then the truth comes out. Victory or Death has it straight. They were meth heads, stoned stupid. Now it adds up. Speed kills.

Yesterday I heard this on the radio, which talks all day here in the Feedlot office: a woman was killed Monday night when she was hit by a train over by Gretna. The authorities couldn't say who it was, other that it was a woman. They found ID on what was left of her, but I'm guessing there was a problem matching the face in the ID photo to the one in the washtub they must have used to pick up her remains. The engineer said he "saw the woman and sounded a warning a half-mile away." She made no effort to get off the tracks. (Engineers hate it when this happens.) Today WOWT , Omaha's NBC affiliate, reports they have identified her. She isn't from Gretna, but lived 100 blocks away. We don't stand on the tracks here in Nebraska.

That don't add up!

I'll post more about this when I know more. I hope it isn't another meth story; that crap is a blight on the Prairie.

**
I once knew a squirrely little criminal who lived in Iowa, when he wasn't in Leavenworth, Kansas or fighting WWII. Whenever anything crossed his rodent mind that required further investigation or if he suspected someone was tricking him or telling him a lie, he would say, "That don't add up." It actually came out more like, "At don't add up.", and he had a range of tonal inflections which made it a most powerful linguistic tool in his limited bag of tricks.

Rich Communist List - El Maximo Ladrón

Forbes Magazine is out with its latest list of the world's billionaires. One of the newer faces on the list is fidel castro, according to the Wall Street Journal editorial titled Fidel's Fortune. The article is in the 'members only' part of the online Journal. (Why they want to keep their opinions private is beyond me.) But since I subscribe to both the print and the web WSJ, here is some fair and reasonable, purely academic use:

Fidel's Fortune
March 15, 2005; Page A20

"He didn't make it into the billionaire category, but Fidel Castro nonetheless earned an honorable mention on Forbes magazine's annual list of the World's Richest People out this month. And why not? With a net worth of $550 million, this is one bit of media recognition that El Jefe actually deserves.

According to Forbes, the Cuban leader committed to "socialism or death" has made a killing from a "web of state-owned businesses" -- all of which have no competition in the worker's paradise. Castro's most profitable operations include a convention center, a retail conglomerate and a company called Medicuba that sells pharmaceuticals made on the island, reports the magazine. Not mentioned are Cuba's biggest exports -- seafood, tobacco, sugar and nickel -- which, as El Maximo Lider of the communist regime, Fidel naturally benefits from too.

Castro's business savvy isn't limited to the maintenance of monopolies. He is also adept at turning confiscated property into dollars. In 1993 Castro sold 50% of Havana Club rum, which he had expropriated decades earlier, to the French liquor company Pernod Ricard for, as Forbes notes, $50 million.

Meanwhile, the rest of Cuba is so poor that food is rationed; as of 2003 each person was limited to a pound of chicken a month, according to the Cuba Transition Project at the University of Miami. But at least Cubans aren't being exploited by wealthy capitalists."

This fine opinion and the very words used to express it is the fully protected and copyrighted property of Dow Jones & Company, Inc. Copyright © 2005 All Rights Reserved Don't get the wrong idea!

Update: more at: fidel's Fortune on Babalu Blog

The Beef State and PETA

Today Is International Eat An Animal For PETA Day. I wouldn't have known this except for the sharp cats at Wizbang, who can turn any story into an excuse to run some titty pictures.

( I am pinning my hopes for bloggy success on emulating the Wizbang tit policy.)

This sort of Special Day goes pretty much ignored here in the
Beef State.

Yes, we love our meat and tolerate our PETA freaks. Even pinko Omaha, the home of Omaha Steaks, Gorat's (Warren 'BillionaireLib' Buffet's favorite), Farmer Brown's (although their best location is in Waterloo, just west of Elkhorn), dozens of other steak and chop joints, and countless barbecue fans, puts up with a bit of meat-eating. Witness their short-lived slogan campaign "Omaha, Rare Well Done":

But the evil, out-of-touch Omaha city council recently passed a city ordinance that would ban having a charcoal grill on an apartment balcony. This pissed people off so bad they had to tell the police they didn't have to enforce it. The cops didn't want to be pressed into becoming the cook-out police. They changed their slogan to O! (Remember the Story of O!) Did I mention that the Omaha city government is crazy? Who wouldn't want to a part of all this?

Elkhorn Annexation Update

Click here to read the latest Plains Feeder post about Elkhorn annexation.
---
One of the many reasons often stated for Elkhorn being the town of choice for western Douglas County folks facing annexation has to do with police response time. If you know anything about Omaha, the issue has been simmering for years. The claim has always been that poor folks (read negroes and latinos) and those out of favor with City Hall (read conservatives west of 72nd Street) have to wait longer for Omaha police to respond to their calls. An article in last Sunday's Omaha World Herald points out the disparities. (Here is a link, but the OWH will make it unavailable in 2 weeks.)

Most Omahans don't trust Mayor Fahey's administration to tell the truth about this problem, but even the distorted statistics on response time provided by the foxes watching the hen house make the situation look bad. And when a veteran local police officer, Kevin Housh, took the city to task over their lies and distortions in an article for the police union publication, The Shield, he was promptly fired. Seems he said the Mayor was lying and running a cover-up of the nasty results of his anti-police policies. Now the police difficulties are right out in the open, right where the closeted, secretive Mayor Fahey doesn't want it. Fahey is adamant about the firing, as the Feed Trough article from the Sioux City Journal, Omaha police fire beleaguered police officer, indicates.

Naturally, there are rallies and rants in support of the fired officer. Especially given that another officer, Tariq Al-Amin, one with ties to the Black Panthers, was fired for making murderous comments on his own TV show, and was later reinstated. The First Amendment has raised its august head off the table to make the Housh issue a federal case. In short, policing is a major fiasco in the wanna-be river city.

All the more reason not to be a part of it. Today in Elkhorn, if you are in need of a cop you won't have long to wait for a polite, professional cop who knows who you are and where you fit into the Elkhorn community. Western Douglas County deserves better than to be sucked into the ugly maelstrom that is Omaha policing. They deserve police who Serve and Protect, not cops who are afraid to do their jobs for fear of political reprisals. Keep the stink downtown.

Elkhorn: clearly the better choice if you don't want to wait a half hour for a Fahey-fear-hobbled officer to help you in west Douglas.

When Omaha wore hats and ties

These downtown Omaha dandies were photographed in 1919. They were just hanging around the corner of 17th and Dodge, about 11:00 pm on a September Sunday. Maybe it was because it was Sunday, or maybe Omaha gentlemen were just natty dressers then. All those neck ties and hats and suits. You don't see that now. It is all ball caps and sweatshirts. But they certainly weren't any more civilized in 1917. Guess what these cats were doing, then Click Here to see if you were right.

Read all about it here, at nebraskastudies.org. I thought to connect this to my opinions respecting the Omaha - Elkhorn Annexation fiasco, but thought twice. It has, after all, been almost 86 years. Things have changed.

Babalu & Buzz - Cuban Mission Crisis

I like it when my two favorite places to get news from the South cover the same stuff. Val Prieto's Babalu Blog has this great piece on Louisiana Governor Blanco's 'mission' to Cuba: PSSST! Mrs. Blanco! Yes you! From Louisiana! Castro can't drop dead soon enough and useful idiotas like Mrs. Blanco seem to be trying to breath life into his communism-ravaged regime. Val says she has shot Louisiana in the foot, and I think that Jeff Crouere of the Bayou Buzz would agree. His take, aptly titled Louisiana´s Blanco-Cuban Mission Crises, ends up saying, "Our economy might be bad here, but it isn’t bad enough to trade with the devil." These cats from the warm country tell it like it is.

Babalu Buzz sounds like a name for a drink.

Big Brother watching you? No worries.

Does it surprise anyone that the accused rapist, Brian Nichols, was caught on courthouse security cameras overpowering his guard and shooting his way to temporary freedom? I saw this fact first on Matt Drudge's page today. I include another story in the Feed Trough, from a 1996 CNN paranoia piece on surveillance cameras. It has always been my contention that the only video surveillance cameras that actually fronted a human being looking at a monitor in real time were in Casinos. This reinforces my belief. It is probably least likely that surveillance cameras on government properties are watched, with the possible exception of some military installations. Those responsible will say there isn't the money for it, but support jobs in America's courthouses and other public buildings have long been a boon to locally connected slackers. It is a very low-level form of the political spoils system or city hall nepotism, but the result is: no one will be watching the security monitor much of the time, maybe not ever.

So, if you are worried about Big Brother, relax! If you feel safer thinking your Big Bro is watching over you, well... rest easy anyhow.

America Last

Philip Bennett, Managing Editor of Washington Post, says in an interview with Communist China's People's Daily Online: "'I don't think US should be the leader of the world'". I don't know if useful idiot Bennett said this because he truly hates America and all it stands for, or simply because he was a victim of modern education. You know, where we teach our young that competition is bad and that striving to be first or best is anti-social. In either case, Mr. Bennet should do less public thinking.

Chicago Sun-Times - Ace Headlines

Chicago is one of those cities that is utterly unique; right in a class with Istanbul, Madrid and Tangier. The Sun-Times is a daily read for me because I figure I should read at least one paper from an old-fashioned mid-western Democat enclave. I have developed a taste for their Chicago style headlines. This one is a perfect example:Divorce ends bad week for former Boeing CEO. The story is, of course, about Harry Stonecipher, the randy old goat that used to run Boeing. My grandpa said, "The best way to f--k your business is to stick your dick in it."

Void Where Prohibited by Law

My reply to a recent Wizbang post reminded me of my old pocket Constitution, which in a fit of pique over the the same issue almost 30 years ago, I defaced with a home-made rubber stamp. I have scanned the cover here:



I keep it right next to Bastiat's "The Law".

I thought the left coast liked "Assisted Suicides"

Looking for a laugh on an otherwise slow Saturday at the Feedlot, I naturally turned to the Associated Press. These cats at the AP are always right on top of news that isn't quite, well, news. Terence Chea reports that the time has come to put up a railing to stop people from jumping to their deaths. In the story, Eve Meyer, executive director of San Francisco Suicide Prevention, whines that, "The longer we delay, the more lives it's going to cost, the more money it's going to cost and the more we lose focus."

Honestly, I thought the left coast loonies all were in favor of assisted self-termination, or ethical suicide. Maybe they don't like their bridge being used as a jumping off point to the hereafter because there are no bureaucrats involved, no licensing requirements, and no paperwork involved. It would be easier to solve these problems than to build a jump fence. Set up an office where suicides could consult with a doctor or psychologist who could then prescribe a jump off the bridge. Still more bureaucrats could make suitable arrangements, like transportation to the bridge, disposition of the corpse, etc. Fees levied on the jumpers or collected from selling TV and concession rights could cover the costs.

Maybe Omaha could do something similar with their imaginary footbridge across the Missouri River. Those distraught by the ugly fact that Omaha will never annex itself into being a San Francisco or New York or even a Kansas City can leap into the mud (or onto the ice).

Elkhorn Annexation

Click here to read the latest Plains Feeder post about Elkhorn annexation.
---
Some folks are wondering why the Plains Feeder, ostensibly located in Nebraska and close by Omaha, hasn't made a comment regarding Omaha's Blitzkrieg attack on the small, bucolic berg named Elkhorn. It is, of course, an important matter, but I wanted to see how far Omaha Mayor Fahey and his gaggle of Downtown Democrat city council lackeys would go. Well, they have gone all the way, and it is time for me to announce what I call the 'Nuclear Option' available to the shocked and awed denizens of Elkhorn.

There has been a great deal of reportage on the issue, but most all of it by the Omaha World-Herald. Not generally a left-leaning rag, the OWH will take the pinko path when dealing with local matters: gun control, welfare, public housing, etc. So their coverage of the Elkhorn Annexation matter is suspect. I have a better analysis.

The eastern portion of Omaha, generally that part of it which lies east of 72nd Street, is an anomalous island of blue in an otherwise nearly pristine red state. (Not counting college towns, rife with commies and foreigners.) The downtown Democrat gang runs the city of Omaha like a miniature New York City, which I am sure how this cow town appears in their dreams. It is all culture and sophistication. They even have a "French Cafe" where the big-wigs can go to put ketchup on their cordon bleu. It is located in the "Old Market", a tourist trap created out of a moldering warehouse district. So cool, it almost seems real. There is talk of streetcars and fake canals with gondolas. The Stockyards are gone.

The latest downtown democrat spending binge has been an effort to turn Omaha's Muddy Mo riverfront into a gentrified world of yuppies. The riverfront is best known here for giving Omaha environmental superfund status by hosting a lead smelter for decades. The smelter site has been 'capped' so riverfront tourists won't get sick right away. But the yards in the downtown democrats districts are so polluted your kids will be retarded if you feed them vegetables grown in your own garden. They have borrowed money until they are hard put to think of new ways to tax their way out. They never have been up front about who is going to end up holding the bag for their Quest Center, a great grain-bin shaped convention center. Of course, it is managed by, who else: downtown political cronies.

The police department is a fiasco in Omaha. Their ranks are divided, the Mayor's pick for police Chief was politically correct, but otherwise wrong. Rapes, drug murders, holdups and car-jackings are common all over Omaha. Gangs rule the streets of North Omaha. It is a dirty little secret, but Omaha has a n-----town in North Omaha. The city fathers created this physical ghetto when Interstate 80 came through. They routed it so as to cut the black community off from the downtown. (In those days, there actually was a thriving downtown.) Yep, they can build a convention center, but the sewers in North O still back up every time it rains. Downtown democrats have North O covered with a couple of flaky council members who think the only way their constituents can prosper is by playing social victim and raking in grant money for 'programs'. Which money the program managers, (more cronies) promptly steal or piss away by mismanagement.

These observations, and more, have oft been cited as the reasons Elkhorn folk don't want to become a part of Omaha. Others reasons include crappy services, fearsome new taxes on cars, sales, property, etc, as well as onerous city ordinances the fine people of Elkhorn have seen fit not to burden themselves with, such as a ban on fireworks, gun registration, and zoning rules that would make the humblest neighborhoods live up to impossible standards. But I'm not so much interested in why Elkhorn resists, as I am with why Omaha persists.

Mayor Fahey insists that his reason for the sudden decision to annex Elkhorn has to do with a posterity which will blame him if Omaha's westward growth is hindered by Elkhorn's continued existence. This is patently untrue.

Mayor Fahey gives not one whit about posterity: he wants to get re-elected NOW. It is no accident that he kicked off his re-election campaign by announcing the Elkhorn blitzkrieg. The City of Omaha has a two building skyline. Sure, it isn't a one-horse town any more, but it ain't a metropolis, either. There is plenty of room for Omaha to grow up, before it grows out (literally AND figuratively). Besides, there is room to the West south of Pacific street, and even more room to the North, where development is actually needed. This issue gets Fahey's name in the paper at the expense of the good people of Elkhorn.

What can Elkhorn do? According to Fahey's lawyers, nothing. They read state law to conclude that there is no such thing as democratic self-determination when it comes to Omaha's power to annex. No power ever envisaged by our sage Unicameral was so broad as they imagine their power to annex to be. It violates the right of all annexees to due process of law; they have no say and no recourse. Our Constitutions here in Nebraska, both state and federal, allow for no such usurpation of the people's right of association. Fahey thinks he is a little Saddam, marching into Kuwait under some twisted notion of manifest destiny.

This brings me back to the Nuclear Option. Actually, it is more like a Nuclear Option dreamed up by the Mahatma than one from the cold war play book. Here is how it works: Elkhorn simply refuses to be annexed. The Elkhorn City Hall continues to run the town, their fine police keep on keeping the peace, their fire station responds to fires and the daily drive-time accidents on West Dodge, their city crews keep the place well-oiled and looking sharp, just as they always have. What will Fahey do? Like the Pope, Fahey has no divisions to send. Omaha has no army. They cannot enforce their annexation rulings unilaterally without creating a breach of the peace! As I read Nebraska law (and it has been more than 20 years since I passed the Nebraska Bar), Fahey's city minions cannot enforce their ordinances on an unwilling Elkhorn so long as Elkhorn REFUSES TO SUBMIT. Fahey cannot arrest Elkhorn's duly elected officials, nor can he force them to step down. Not without a fight, and the law doesn't allow him to start one. Just ignore Mr. Fahey, and if he sends his hordes of officers forth to harass the good citizens of Elkhorn, just send them packing back where they came from.

It's time to run up the "Don't Tread on Me" flag that flew for freedom from external oppression so many years ago. If you want to be free from oppression, you must first act like you are free. Don't ask for your rights, exercise and keep the ones God gave you.

Annex Elkhorn? You and what army, Mr. Fahey?
---
Read more about the Elkhorn annexation at Plains Feeder.

Cold War Connie

This is one of my favorite photographs. I took it in the early sixties at what was then called Washington National Airport. Something important was happening, but I can't for the life of me remember what it was. It had to do with this beautiful Constellation, and someone coming off the plane. My mind was in a sort of fog in those days, so I'm not surprised I can't remember. Years later, I found this 35mm slide in an old box of photos I took and it started to bring back some strange memories. The Constellation was a nice ride, anyhow.

Dan Rather's going: I see him swirling in the bowl.

I didn't like Dan Rather. Not ever. I always felt that he was in league with the one-worlders who can't see communist thinking for the nasty business it really is. A fellow traveller. And a smart-ass to boot. As his grotesque "leave-taking" unfolded this past week I could barely restrain my impulse to write something nasty about Dan; a sort of parting shot. Then I saw this article linked on the Drudge Report from My Way News. The writer quotes Vanity Fair media columnist Michael Wolff, who sums up the "network bigs" reaction to Dan's departure thusly, "I think the network recognizes the vastness of his leave-taking, the end-of-an-era nature of it, and the difficult choices it means the network bigs will have to make, at the same time that they're relieved he's going." Brings to mind the feeling that goes with taking a dump after being constipated for days. Very satisfying, but you aren't really relieved until the turds clear the trap without clogging.

Tits?

As I have mentioned before, Kevin of Wizbang holds that the regular inclusion of photographs of boobs will help any blog along. Sometimes, I guess, even the mere hint that a link might lead to a tittie picture will suffice. Look how he builds the reader's sense of expectancy; this link must surely show some bare breasts! A "topless protester". Here is what you get: "Bare-breasted protest for Prince Charles". I can't make it sound the least bit like it might appeal to any normal prurient interest. Thinking of anything connected with sex and Prince Charles always makes me think of his tampon fantasy. So here is the Plains Feeder's "maybe some tit" link! This will drive the page counter off the charts.

BayouBuzz.com - Louisiana Politics and News

BayouBuzz.com - Louisiana Politics and News: "Governor Blanco is packing her bags to get ready to talk trade with Communist Cuba"

What is it with everybody kissing up to Castro these days? Just a fad? I'm not sure, but it makes me think of shirt-tail relatives coming out of the woodwork to fawn over an old widowed aunt with money and a bad prognosis. Maybe they want to be sure they get a mention in his obit. Part of the legacy. Or do they see some future Cuban Pie to be divided when Castro croaks, and somehow, kissing Castro's butt will get them a big slice? ¿Quién sabe?

Ya gotta love the Bayou Buzz!

Marxist Leninist Thought Stinks on Ice.

Accidently found this blog postG3head's Blog while looking for references to an Omaha World Herald article. In it this self-styled generic geek makes reference to some sort of communist "gift economy". I didn't take the time to check out the geek's profile or read enough of his blog to get an idea of which line of geek ideology he follows. But I couldn't help clicking on the gift economy link. It leads to a Wikipedia definition of gift economy. A gift economy is to any real economy as a Dutch treat is to any real treat.

Upon reading the rest of Mr. G3head's post I see he may have been under the influence of paint fumes at the time. Gift economy, indeed! The Wiki sayeth, "gift economies can co-exist with planned economies, market economies and barter economies." How about, "Screw you, Jack. I've got mine, and if you don't watch it, I'll have yours, too." Can the candy asses in the gift economy co-exist with this one? Commies are invariably intolerant bastards.

Get on with it, already!

Castro Warns of Possible Assassination Plot Against Venezuelan President Chavez. Mr. Castro, long-time communist chump claims Olympic record for having survived hundreds of murder attempts orchestrated by Washington. Don't believe it! The scurrilous bloodsucker was smart to bring his own chickens to New York, but if "Washington" wanted him dead, he would be dead. Same goes for his little Venezuelan puppy, Che-vez. When "Washington" really gets serious about wanting someone dead, they don't put a reward on his head or try to slip him poison cigars, as the conspiracy folks would have you believe. The heavies from "Washington" don't even like to poison their target's soup or jab him with a poison umbrella, as the ComBlock skullduggers do.

They just see to it that the target gets shot dead.

Just ask Che.

Hogs Make Sacrifices for Homeland Security

I was nosing around the CBS News web site to find a feedback link that would work with Mozilla when I saw this story: Study Questions Stun Gun Safety. It seems this study, "done by the Air Force and obtained by CBS News, found that repeated shocks from a Taser stun gun led to heart damage in pigs." Even Dan Rather wouldn't gin up a story like this with a fake document, so I checked it out.

American liberals tend to be against the police having any really effective tools. They imagine a Euro-Bobby sort of constabulary that would settle problems with quotations from Dr. Phil and having prescription-writing authority. I'm sure the sensitives at CBS wouldn't have the cops go back to low tech nightsticks and come-alongs. Perhaps someone will screw the taxpayers into paying for a study to see if repeated application of the traditional 'stun baton' or nightstick could lead to head damage.

And where's PETA while these pigs are getting Tasered until they have palpitations? Off scaring the kids at some chicken restaurant.