The reason

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
"Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."

Merry Christmas, everyone!

GOPiggies

Funny thing about the Greedy Old Party.

They like to talk about small government. And reducing spending. And eliminating waste. And halting pork.

But, as it turns out, it's nothing but talk.

The demise of the bridge to nowhere notwithstanding, Sen. Ted Stevens and other Republicans remain the kings of pork-barrel spending, proving that GOP mastery of "earmarks" can withstand public scorn, a president's rebuke and even a Democratic takeover of Congress.

The Senate's two biggest sponsors of this year's pet spending projects are Republicans Stevens of Alaska and Thad Cochran of Mississippi, according to preliminary reviews of fiscal 2008 spending bills by Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan group. Two of the House's three biggest claimants of earmarks also are Republicans: Bill Young of Florida and Jerry Lewis of California, the group found.

Funny how the GOP likes to portray the Democratic Party as the party of big spenders, isn't it?

Of course, one man's pork is another man's ... pork. And when you're busy pointing fingers, you just pray that no one takes a look at the facts. Like the fact that the pork kings reside (and always have resided) in the GOP, not in the Democratic Party.

Their continued success at steering billions of taxpayer dollars to their constituents is all the more impressive — or arguably hypocritical — since President Bush and other prominent Republicans sharpened their criticisms of earmarks after Democrats took over the House and Senate majorities in January.

The GOP would rather you didn't know that, by the way.

And so it goes.

Beyond arrogance

Thursday we saw what kind of an administrator the Collier County School Board hired.

An arrogant bully.

When teachers appeared before the Collier County School Board asking for a raise, for fair treatment (for a change) hired gun Dennis Thompson immediately demanded that the board file an unfair labor practice charge against the teacher's union.

He'll punish those damned peons (excuse me, teachers) one way or another. How dare they question his imperial presidency!

The unmitigated gall!

Even a few board members are embarrassed by Thompson's actions:

Board member Pat Carroll said she has never seen the animosity between the administration and the teachers.

“I have never seen a superintendent respond the way he did,” she said.

Thompson said after the meeting he intends to move forward with the unfair labor practice charge. He said Tuttle violated what constitutes collective bargaining.

To translate: 'How DARE you question my authority? I am King Dennis. You are peasants. You will do what I say. You must respect my authorita!' The arrogance boggles the mind.

Thompson was brought in under the most suspicious and most certainly illegal circumstances late last year to clean things up. It was an extremely arrogant move by a few board members who just KNOW better than we peons do.

Last time I checked, the purpose of a school district was to educate students. The folks doing the actual educating are the teachers. Treating those teachers like professionals would seem to be the least the district could do. But not THIS district. And not THIS superintendent. It is, after all, all about Dennis Thompson. King Dennis.

Be careful what you wish for, board members. You just might get it.

Even if that's not what you wanted.

And so it goes.

Just what we need

Republicans can't understand it.

Dems just sit back and chuckle.

But voters understand, even if the politicians (a breed apart from voters or people) just don't get it: We don't like you:

Three weeks before the Iowa caucuses, Republican voters across the country appear uninspired by their field of presidential candidates, with a vast majority saying they have not made a final decision about whom to support, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.
Not one of the Republican candidates is viewed favorably by even half the Republican electorate, the poll found.

But then again, what's to like?
You've got Rudy Giulaini, who's sole claim is that he saved New York. Right Rudy. It'd still be in flames with millions still crying in the street if you hadn't made a lot of very meaningful public appearances. Some resume. Which wife - and which mistress - are you up to now?
You've got Mike Huckabee, a far-right evangelical Christian who apparently still believes the world is flat. And all those dinosaurs died in Noah's flood. Anyone buying his pathetic wingnut rhetoric ... deserves him.
You've got Fred "I think I'll run for president, no I think I'll take a nap" Thompson, who seems to believe that playing a judge (or cop or lawyer or something) on TV is enough qualification.

And you've got Mitt Romney, a pretty boy who could give Bill Clinton lessons in flip-flopping. Mitt assures us that the Mormon church won't dictate his administration once he's elected. Right Mitt (what kind of a name is Mitt?) I remember a Mormon governor from Arizona a few years back. Kept a chair in his governor's office no one was allowed to sit on. That, he said, was where God sat when he came to advise the Gov. on how to run the state. He was impeached; thrown out of office. A cult is a cult is a cult. Bring out the Kool-Aid.

You've also got John McCain, the 71-year-old ex-POW who's "for the war no he's against war and is for torture no he's against torture and he'd invade Iran no he wouldn't and he'd talk tough with North Korea no he wouldn't but vote for me anyway."

Just can't understand why Republican voters can't connect. Can you?

And so it goes.

The battle of the Orange

Wouldn't it be great if Florida and Illinois squared off in a Jan. 1 bowl game?

I mean, Here's Ron Zook, fired from Florida. Versus Urban (Jesus Christ) Meyer at Florida. Zook's replacement.

If you remember, Meyer won a national championship last year. Largely using Ron Zook's recruits. This year, with most of Zook's recruits gone, Meyer's been struggling a bit. Lost three already. With more on the horizon. Accepted excuse: Well, he's using mostly underclassmen. But that's why Zook was fired. He couldn't win with mostly underclassmen. Either.

Meanwhile, Zook went to Illinois. Recruited a whole bunch of blue chippers. Turned a pathetic program around. And is winning again. Turns out he can coach after all. And win. With underclassmen.

How could a bowl promoter resist?

I'm pretty sure Florida would resist. Nothing to gain and everything to lose it they lose. And they're pretty sure they would lose. They know they can't compete with Zook.

I can't wait.

And so it goes.

This is news?

Raise your hand if this surprises you:

WASHINGTON - Former White House press secretary Scott McClellan blames President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for efforts to mislead the public about the role of White House aides in leaking the identity of a CIA operative.
In an excerpt from his forthcoming book, McClellan recounts the 2003 news conference in which he told reporters that aides Karl Rove and I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby were "not involved" in the leak involving operative Valerie Plame.
"There was one problem. It was not true," McClellan writes, according to a brief excerpt released Tuesday. "I had unknowingly passed along false information. And five of the highest-ranking officials in the administration were involved in my doing so: Rove, Libby, the vice president, the president's chief of staff and the president himself."

Personally, I'm shocked SHOCKED I SAY at the information. Who knew?

Along the same lines, just who do you think is really behind this:

WASHINGTON - In their latest tussle with the White House on the Iraq war, two leading House Democrats said Tuesday the Pentagon was using scare tactics to try to goad Congress into passing another war spending bill.

Am I the only one to see presidential (and vice presidential) fingerprints all over this?

Same old BushandCheany. Lying, deceiving, passing off false information as fact. Just adds to the evidence that this is the most corrupt presidency in the history of the U.S.

But we already knew that, didn't we?

And so it goes.

Everything I know...

When we first moved here (almost a year ago now) I knew nothing about the Naples/Southwest Florida area. Nothing.

So I set out to learn.

First I tried the paper and the local electronic media. Nada. Zip. They can report the news, but they can't and don't generally tell what the people are thinking.

I searched the blogosphere. Nada. (If there IS a local blogosphere, I sure can't find it...)

Then I found it. Right back in the newspaper. But not on the front page or the local front.

If you want to now about a community, check out your paper's letters to the editor. The Naples Daily News runs a TON of letters daily.

And if you read all of them, you'll find out a LOT about an area.

For instance: There a LOT of conservatives here. There are a lot of very wealthy people here (but I repeat myself). There are a LOT of people with a lot of time on their hands.

And there are a LOT of people here with the urge to complain while having not much to complain about. In reality, there isn't much to complain about down here in paradise - or its suburbs.

A few observations:

*- If your major concern in life is loud leaf blowers, you have no major concerns in life.

*- If your major concern is that the city just painted the street outside your house and the white paint is too bright (!), you have no major concerns. And no life.

*- The old folks in Old Naples, the richest, most conservative tight-assed area of downtown Naples, does not know or believe there is life after 11 p.m., and they damn sure want it kept that way. Music in a bar after 10:30? The nerve. No way! Attracting people under age 75 to downtown? But they're so LOUD! Destroys the nature of the community (think rest home).

*- Not allowing planes to land at the Naples Airport after 10:30 p.m. is stupid. What? Pilots should land at Ft. Myers and wait until you've had enough sleep and then finish their trip?

*- People who consider George W. Bush an idiot, a liar, and a manipulative and manipulated moron are not traitors. They're just looking critically at one of the most corrupt administrations in the history of the U.S.

*- People who support abortion on demand are not baby killers. In fact, given the situation too many babies are born into, they probably care more about babies than you do. Or have you adopted your 10 or 12 unwanted babies this year? An unwanted, unloved baby is much sadder and more destructive to society than a few grams of unwanted tissue.

*- If opening public meetings with prayer is OK because you aren't endorsing any one religion, then at the next Naples City Council meeting, I want someone to kill a chicken and pass around some ganja. And next week we can sacrifice a virgin. (What's that you say? It's only OK if it's YOUR particular religion? I see.)

*- They're not closing the Vanderbilt library because they hate you. They're closing the library because you aren't willing to pay for it. What's that? You'll pay for yours; let them close that one over there? Oh, I see.

*- Complaining about 'illegals' around here is simply a coded form of racism. Don't kid yourself. Or me. It's not the illegals you're worried about, it's all those spicks and beaners and wetbacks, isn't it? And you really don't want them to go; you just want them to shut up about the cost of housing and living conditions while they manicure your lawn and do about a hundred other jobs that no one else around here is gonna do. And if you think they're taking jobs from 'real' Americans, when was the last time you saw 'leaf blower operator' or 'lawn manicurist' 'street sweeper' on a 'real' American's resume? And God Bless America.

*- All those beaners and spicks and wetbacks had damned sure better learn to speak English and God Bless America. How? ESL classes, of course. What? We had to cancel those classes to give you old rich bas***ds some tax relief? Too bad. Jesus spoke English; why can't they?

. *- Signing your letters "God Bless America' does not make you more patriotic than I am. But it does make you look sillier. You think god's gonna bless the U.S. more than any other country? Oh, yeah, I forgot, Jesus was born in Bethlehem, PA., right?

And so it goes.

The drive to survive

I used to believe that Illinois drivers were the stupidist, most inconsiderate and generally worst drivers in the hemisphere.

Then I moved to Florida.

To quote every teenaged girl in America, O M G!

If you've never driven here, you cannot imagine the levels of stupidity you can see every day on the roads in Southwest Florida.

Let me explain.

First, you must take into account the demographics here. About 70 percent of the population is retired. WAY WAY retired.

Most of the rest of the folks are real estate agents.

Consider: Old retired folks' (ORF) reactions are slow. Many of them recognize that fact. So, to be safe, ORFs drive slow. Very slow. Old retired folks also don't have any place urgent to go. The cocktail hour at the club will wait for them. (There's plenty of evidence of that). So they drive slower.

For some reason, ORFs are usually looking for some place they can't remember the location of. So they drive even slower, looking intently. In the left lane. ORFs LOVE the left lane.

Most major streets and highways in the area are six-lane thoroughfares, most with large, heavily landscaped boulevards dividing the lanes with periodic cuts to allow for left turns and U-turns (which are legal here just about everywhere).

When an ORF decides he/she must turn left, said ORF immediately moves into the left lane. The passing lane. AT LEAST 5 MILES BEFORE THEY TURN. Just to be sure. So, there you have it, an ORF putting down the road in the left/passing lane at 35 mph. In a 55 mph zone.

There are at least a couple more ORF tricks that get me. The habit of breaking at a green light, presumable because 'You never know, it just MIGHT turn red any minute without warning.'

And the best: On a busy thoroughfare, with traffic moving along at 45 mph or 55 mph, some kind ol' ORF in the left lane will STOP (STOP!) to allow a driver headed in the other direction to turn into their lane. The rest of the traffic behind them also had been moving 45mph or 55 mph. 10 or 15 driver following the kind soul are all jamming HARD on their breaks while this kind ol' ORF is being nice and polite to the left turner. Rear-end accidents abound around here.

Then, beyond the ORF, there's the busy real estate agent (BREA). BREAs apparently troll up and down major streets looking for customers. All the while, they have their cell phones attached to their ear. Paying little of no attention to their driving. They'll go along happily at 10-15 mph below the speed limit, occasionally and randomly weaving from lane to lane, suddenly notice they're going slow and speed up to 10 or 15 mph above the speed limit.

Or, they'll suddenly and unexpectedly notice that, yes, they have been driving for some time oblivious to surrounding traffic, and break for no apparent reason.

At a red light, they BREAs are the ones who have to be honked at to remind them that the light's been green for 30 second now. At which point they take off at the speed of light, aimlessly wandering between lanes as they carry on oh-so-important phone conversations. (Since no one around here's actually selling or buying property - except us - God only knows what they're talking about).

There are a few other driving categories to mention (like the lane-changing late maniac (LCLM), the oblivious phone-obsessed teenaged girls OPATAG), bullet proof teenaged boys (BPTAB) and the ever dangerous oh-so-cautious and law-abiding Hispanic (OSCLAH), but they'll have to be the subject of another blog.

As a person who must drive 35 minutes each way to and from work daily, I encounter many of these critters. And of course, as a driver, I'm totally law-abiding and blameless. Of course.

Right.

The point is, Illinois folks, if you want the title of stupidest, most inconsiderate drivers back, you'd better start working.

These Floridians (and the tourists) have got a BIG lead on you.

And so it goes.

Blogger's bustafugged

Ain't it wonderful? I had to revert to an old style template because it seems that the new templates in the new improved Blogger don't allow comments.

And so it goes.

I'm back, sort of

Before this thing gets rolling (if it does) a little background for anyone who's interested.

I'm an old guy who's spent my career in the publishing business. That career has taken me pretty much all over the country (at least 4 time zones worth...). The last stop lasted an incredible 18 1/2 years. Then...

We moved to Florida from Champaign, IL, just a year ago. While in Illinois, I posted almost daily on this blog for over two years. Topics ranged from politics to social issues to sports to idiot drivers to University politics and policies to whatever struck my fancy at that moment.

When we moved, I found myself too busy and too ignorant of Florida politics to take part. I mostly just watched. When it comes to politics in Florida, there's a lot to watch. Still haven't run into Chad yet....

I'm still pretty ignorant, but that didn't matter in the past, so I'm willing to give it another shot. Don't look for daily postings but periodically, I'll be here to vent my feelings, frustrations and perhaps for an occasional gloat.

It's good to be back. Sort of.

And so it goes.

Buh-Bye

I'm no longer in Illinois and am no longer able nor do I have the desire to follow issues and politics there enough to comment.

I don't yet have enough of a handle on politics and other issues in my little area of Florida to feel like commenting.

This looks like a good time to put this blog to rest.

At least temporarily.

See ya. It's been fun.

And so it goes.

It was time...

FINALLY!

Even from 1,300 miles away, I had to smile when I heard the Chief finally would be retired. But surprisingly, even to me, I wasn't all that elated.

Yes, I'm overwhelmingly glad that the ol' UI is finally being dragged into the 20th century, kicking and screaming (no, not the 21st, they're not there yet). It's time they acknowledged, no matter how haltingly, that they have been participating in institutional racism for only 81 years.

But at the same time, I felt empathy (not pity) for the Cheef's supporters. They are losing something that they treasure, that they are very very close and connected to. I'm sorry for that folks. I've lost things, too. I know it hurts. Go ahead, shout, scream, curse, cry if you want. That's part of the grieving process.

But, at the same time, it was well past time to admit that the continued portrayal of a Native American in that stereotyped, Boy Scout-ed and Hollywood-ized and yes, offensive manner was nothing more than a racist event.

Deny if you want, but deep down you know it was racist.

It was wrong.

It had to go.

Not because the NCAA said so. Not because some white protesters said so. Not because I said so.

Because it was wrong.

It was offensive.

It demeaned a race of people - a race of Americans - who deserve better than that.

Folks, simply, it is not right to demean ANY race of people. To demean one is to demean us all.

So I'm completely glad the UI's halftime minstrel is going to be gone very very soon.

And I'm not even gonna say it's about time.

Because it's about 80 years past 'about time.'

And so it goes.

In a puff of smoke

I'm not there to witness it, but I'm sure the economies of Champaign and Urbana have come to a screeching halt and probably collapsed by now.

After all, unless my calendar is faulty, I believe both Champaign and Urbana are now smoke free. By now about 20 bar owners and an equal number of restaurant owners should have plummeted to their deaths from the top of Illini Towers.

On the other hand, if the bar business is such a risky proposition then why are there about 20 more bars in CU than about 2 years ago?

Nevertheless, it's an historic day for C-U. A long time coming. May the rest of the state and the country follow your lead.

And so it goes.