Category: News

The Post-Dispatch headline is Steelman lags behind Hulshof. What, in votes? No. Projected votes based on a few people reached by phone? No.

GOP gubernatorial candidate Kenny Hulshof rode a wave of endorsements to fundraising success this quarter, outpacing his primary opponent, Sarah Steelman, by more than a 4-1 ratio.

That is, he’s raised more money than she has. But! Citizen, money is a corrupting influence in politics, which is why (the rationale goes) it must be limited by the government.

But the papers, who cheerlead the limitations because they like all government intervention, especially the ones that increase their influence, report on this as though it’s indicative of anything more than who’s got the friends with the deepest pockets.

We could expect it to be Hulshof, the Washington, D.C., resident running for the job. I’m for Steelman, of course, because I think going to Washington, D.C., is sort of like a British man going to WWI. Dudes, I’m Mrs. Dalloway in this scenario, and I just want to have a little party here without damaged veterans of foreign wars or DC “politics” (self- and party-enrichment) ruining it.

What’s my point, other than I saw the movie of the Woolf novel? Oh, yeah, go Steelman.

St. Charles County cuts spending:

Less-than-expected sales tax receipts spurred County Executive Steve Ehlmann today to order county agencies to reduce spending by 8 percent and to eliminate discretionary travel.

Whoa. Must be a stop gap measure until they can figure out how to raise taxes, but still. It’s the sound of fiscal responsibility, if not the practice (but possibly the beginning of the practice).

Cruising bill hits a brick wall:

“I am all too aware of the problems facing the areas targeted by cruising. The cruisers, many of whom are not from St. Louis, are terrorizing our neighborhoods,” Reed said in a statement. “Something needs to be done, but pushing through flawed legislation, which in this bill only continues to erode civil liberties, is not the answer.”

Not passing a poor law just because they can? What sanity-flavored Kool Aid are those alderman drinking? I’d think $4 a gallon gas will curb cruising better than making it illegal, but I’m just thinking back to my young cruising days and shuddering at the thought of putting the whole week’s pay into the gas tank on Friday and Saturday nights, before the Kalt’s burgers and Jolt Cola.

Maybe there is room for some slight optimism in the country and its governance today.

By today, I mean “this morning.” Give me a couple hours and I’ll work myself out of it.

Well, now that many municipalities have eliminated the pit bull and rottweiler threats, perhaps they need to turn their attention to another nemesis of mankind, the miniature dachshund:

A dog chewed off an Alton woman’s big toe while she napped earlier this week.

How many innocent toes have to die before we remove the scourge of this dog breed from our cities? If it saves one toe, it’s worth any cost.

They were bred to bite toes and feet; look at them! They serve no other purpose. City fathers, I demand you round them up and gas them.

Some people think the power of licensing can prevent the deaths of children or tragedies of all sorts. What sort of license could have prevented this?

Adin was already dead, beaten by the defendant at a Motel 6 near the airport because he had wet his pants and was crying, Gabler admitted the next day to police and in court Wednesday.

Gabler wrapped the body in sheets, stuffed the corpse into a suitcase, and drove to Clyde Hamrick Elementary School, just west of Highway 21, near House Springs, where Gabler grew up.

Adin was the son of Min Choi of Maryland Heights. She was visiting relatives in New York and left Adin in Gabler’s care. The couple had been going together for about two years.

Larner said Gabler went on a heroin binge that week and took the drug both before and after Adin’s death.

• A license before dating a heroin user.
• A license before traveling to New York without your children.
• A license for dumping bodies.

Add your own tasteless comments if you need to. Point is, though, that people lie at the heart of many tragedies, whether accidental or willful, and any license regime will not prevent them.

It’s not often you see redevelopment plans like this in the 21st century:

The Stevens family, owners of Sterling Pen Company based in Webster Groves, plan a major renovation to the 1936 “Quonset hut” building that has been unoccupied for more than 15 years. The building would be turned into office space.

The exterior of the former brick warehouse, 8193 Big Bend, was modernized by the Stevens in the early 1990s, but the interior was never completed. The two-story building also has a basement.

The development proposal does not call for any new construction, but would create parking for the newly-renovated building by demolishing the building currently occupied by Earth Designs. That property is also owned by the Stevens family, as is the building and property leased by the adjoining Roger’s Produce, 625 E. Lockwood.

Jeff De Pew, owner of Earth Designs, said he has been working with the Stevens family who has “made sure I have a viable and comfortable option” for relocation of his business.

De Pew said he will move Earth Designs into a residential property at 624 Fair Oaks Ave., located directly behind his current location. The house is owned by the Stevens family, who plan a major renovation to the structure for use as a business. The home’s backyard will be converted into additional parking. All access to the new development will be off of Big Bend, and not the residential neighborhood to the north.

What, the development company owns all the properties itself and doesn’t need tax money to do the work?

Kudos to the Stevens family and Sterling Pen. I hope the city of Webster Groves doesn’t veto the plan simply because it doesn’t call for the government to exert undue influence.

Clayton company says it has built a better grill:

A Clayton entrepreneur is offering a solution for cooks who love to barbecue but find charcoal grills physically or environmentally distasteful.

Bryce Rutter, founder and chief executive of Metaphase Design Group Inc., set up a company to produce a novel grill — one that takes up less space and uses up to 75 percent fewer charcoal briquettes than traditional models.

Then Rutter went an environmental step further last month by acquiring the exclusive North American rights to import an all-natural charcoal made in the Philippines from coconut shells.

Guys, there’s this thing called knowing your target audience, and the people who worry about charcoal grills being environmentally distasteful don’t, you know, eat meat much less cook it over a flame. Their total food preparation experience involves leaving their lofts to go for sushi or Thai or Indian food.

But know that you’ve designed it, you’ll discover the flawed business premise.

Some big news here in St. Louis this weekend: Archbishop Burke, the recent and short-term leader of the Catholic church in St. Louis, was told to take a new position in Rome. The paper and pseudo-Catholics in the region rejoiced, calmly, and the paper helpfully illustrated the things it ran full color spreads on during Burke’s tenure in the story Burke’s tenure here was never dull:

• Archbishop Burke excommunicated a couple of women who started calling themselves Catholic priests and offering mass in a synagogue where they could get space. The paper runs their picture with the story about Burke to give a human face to his totalitarian enforcement of actual, you know, Catholic teaching and doctrine.
• Archbishop Burke reallocated assets of the church, including a Polish parish named for St. Stanislaus. The lay board of the church said no thanks and brought in a rogue priest to run the church. The lay board was shocked to then discover that a priest who would defy the archbishop would also start doing other non-Catholic things, such as recognizing women priests.
• Burke took actions in support of Catholic anti-abortion, anti-embryonic stem cell research teachings, shocking the “enlightened” society of St. Louis.

In other words, he followed the theological mandates of his church and its hierarchy.

However, some “Catholics” and the anti-churching amongst the journalistic set like to run pieces on the authoritarianism and the non-do-your-own-thing vibe of the Catholic church. They want to pick their beliefs and their attitudes from the salad bar of modern day life and still call themselves members of the group, no matter how few characteristics they share with the group. Or, I suppose, they want to tear down something greater than themselves to prove their own power.

You want the mass without the international heirarchy? Become a Lutheran. You want to control your own church and its funds? Join or start a storefront Baptist church. You want women ministers? Become a Unitarian or a Methodist or any of the other sects that have them. You want to worship by having sex with a priestess of Mother Gaia on Tuesday afternoons? Become governor of New York (or some other political office holder) and pay full price same as in town. But do not think that your inclinations are just as Catholic as John Paul II.

I’m not even Catholic, and the media stories offend me.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch performs its simple hard-hitting journalism in sounding an unnecessary klaxon calling for more government oversight and regulation. This time, again, a tragic accidental death of a child should lead (in a perfect Post-Dispatch world) to more government regulation and intrusion. The accident:

A year ago last Thursday the Blechas’ second son, Nathan, died at age 4 months in a portable crib in Lutz’s home, after being placed on his abdomen for a nap. The St. Louis County Medical Examiner’s office ruled the cause of death “re-breath,” the breathing in of carbon dioxide exhaled by the baby, who was too young to turn his head away from a wrinkle in the mattress.

The next day, Lutz shut the day care for good.

Here’s what we glean from the bits:

• The death was an accident.
• The caregiver, riven by guilt, left the profession the next day.
• The paper is not reporting on an accident; instead, one year later, it’s reporting on the parents of the dead child and their crusade to Make Sure Their Child’s Death Was Not In Vain.

The call to government control:

According to state records, Lutz had obtained a license to cut hair and one to practice massage, but when it came to child care, she never applied to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services’ Child Care Regulation section. That’s the unit that inspects day cares and issues licenses for people routinely caring for more than four unrelated children.

Nathan’s parents say they have been waiting “for the system to kick in.” But nothing has happened: no criminal charges, no fines, no outrage and no reform of a child-care oversight system that the Blechas feel did little to prevent or recognize Nathan’s death.

Steve Blecha said he called the Jefferson County sheriff’s office early this year and was told the death had been ruled accidental.

He also learned that the most Lutz could be fined for operating without a license was $200 — a fine so small that Blecha said it didn’t matter that prosecutors didn’t pursue it.

Of course, the article goes into detail about how the government can only fine unlicensed day care facilities and cannot bring down the wrath of the gods upon them. I suppose the “journalists” and certainly the tragically affected parents would like MURDER ONE charges or something to make the people who’ve thought twice THINK TWICE about having accidents, but jeez.

A license probably won’t prevent every accident. It will, however, raise the cost of doing business as a baby sitter/day care, which in turn will drive out conscientious people who won’t pay the money. Then, when the people who cannot afford au pairs need to drop their kids off while they work, they will turn to less conscientious family members, and further accidents will occur.

I hate it when children die, but I also hate it when their deaths lead to knee-jerk statist action that will have unintended consequences worse than the initial accident precipitating the knee-jerk reaction.

But the papers? Man, they love standing up for the outlier since the little guys have already been accommodated.

Fla. vandals tag 60 cars with anti-Obama messages:

Police on Sunday were investigating vandals’ spray-painting of dozens of city vehicles here, some with disparaging messages about the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.

Sounds like those racist Republicans, probably on purpose. But:

They even left business cards on the vehicles that disparage both the Illinois senator and his rival, Republican John McCain. The cards voice support for Sen. Hillary Clinton, Obama’s former opponent.

Fortunately, AP had one of its mysteriously present stringers on the scene:

Mike Lowe, a videographer working for The Associated Press, first told police about the damage. He saw three cars with anti-Obama messages, while the others were just heavily painted.

Wait, I thought the headline said sixty cars were tagged with anti-Obamaisms. Truth is, it’s only 3?

Can’t anyone report the events without “hedging” the language into utter falsehood?

A small newspaper’s editor comes out in favor of nationalizing the oil industry:

Here is one question: If the free market is the answer, how come gas at the pump is far, far cheaper in countries where governments run the oil business – Russia, Venezuela, Indonesia. Please, I am just asking a question. I am not a commie.

Just asking a question facilely; I thought journalists wanted answers, but not when the answers undermine their glib socialism. Since he’s not bothering to discuss the lifespan or quality of life of regular citizens in those countries, he’s really just pushing a commie viewpoint.

Perhaps Corrigan would like to talk about how cheap microwave dinners are in Cuba, since that worker’s paradise is only now giving its citizens conveniences we’ve taken for granted for decades. I would guess the same sort of dynamic holds true for cars; only a small percentage of people have cars, and even those who do tend to use them to try to escape to America and its high gas prices.

On the other hand, perhaps Corrigan hopes nationalization will save his industry, as newspapers are in precipitous decline as a business model (link via Instapundit).

Previously on State Run Health Care Lost:

State-run health care in Wisconsin begins denying coverage to the most vulnerable, i.e., expensive, “clients”.

Now, another state with universal health care begins its rationing:

Treatment of advanced cancer meant to prolong life, or change the course of this disease, is not covered by the Oregon Health Plan, said the unsigned letter Wagner received from LIPA, the Eugene company that administers the plan in Lane County.

….
“We can’t cover everything for everyone,” said Dr. Walter Shaffer, medical director of the state Division of Medical Assistance Programs, which administers the Oregon Health Plan.

“Taxpayer dollars are limited for publicly funded programs. We try to come up with polices that provide the most good for the most people. Most cancer treatments are high priority on the list,” Shaffer said.

But the intent of the list was to exclude coverage of treatments that are futile, or where potential benefit is minimal in relation to expense.

That sounds kinda like the insurance industry, except without choice and responsibility-proof government bureacratic effort.

Note to the Kansas City Star: I am against government health care, not for more expensive programs throwing greater amounts of confiscated citizen money after diminishing returns. Thank you, that is all.
(Link seen on Dustbury.)

St. Louis Magazine has a balanced piece on the creation of the trash districts in the county. Well, it twitches a nod to balance anyway by writing about a hauling company that will go bankrupt when it loses its share of a free market (although the author uses his creative writing chops to even tilt the verbiage against the free market solution in this portion of the story) and then, on the other side almost, adoring licky love to a sales manager for a recycling company (who gets more money from the mandated, unfree, forced recycling program, so he’s in favor of more county-mandated income for his company).

What really got my dander up, though, was this insight from constitutional scholar and unelected bureaucrat in charge of the county’s Solid Waste Management Program John Haasis:

Again, the phone started ringing in Haasis’ office: “We don’t want you to pick who our hauler is. It’s our American right. It’s our right from God to pick who hauls our trash.” Haasis sighs again. “Last time I checked,” he says, “it’s not in the Bill of Rights.”

Understand that, citizen. This fellow asserts that all of your rights are right there in the first ten amendments to the constitution, and the government can do what it wants otherwise.

And fear your government and its disciples.

On May 31, 2008, we received our “economic stimulus” check from the US Department of Treasury for $1,500.

On June 16, 2008, we shall send that $1,500 plus some back to the US Department of Treasury as our quarterly estimated earnings tax (we’re self-employed, you see).

Thanks, Congress, for spotting me a little cash flow to pay the government.

If the whole country had to file estimated earnings taxes quarterly, I’d think we’d see a much smaller annual budget.

When life gives you too much rain to write about a drought, a plucky journalist finds a way to lament the rain.

Contractors wonder when the rain will go away:

A year-to-date record of nearly 28 inches has been a headache shared by a range of local construction-related companies, including developers, general contractors, concrete pourers, bricklayers and other subcontractors.

The rain delayed several projects, required overtime work and cost developers extra money. And even though the sun reappeared most of last week, companies say the water problem will not evaporate soon.

Cool, wet spring dampening possibilities for corn crop:

A cold, wet spring put crop planting weeks behind schedule across much of the U.S. Corn Belt and drastically slowed growth where corn is already in the ground.

Now, farmers in parts of Iowa, Illinois and Indiana are replanting corn that either sat under water in flooded fields too long to germinate or can’t break through sodden, compact soils. And the cool, soggy weather continues, the last thing a heat-loving crop like corn needs.

“It’s starting to look like a very difficult year,” University of Illinois agronomy professor Emerson Nafziger said.

Fear the unrelenting dreaded fireball in the sky, or fear the unrelenting drowning death from above, but rest assured, the media will insist you fear something.

For the love of Pete, they’re all true in their promises of what will happen once you’ve given over your credit card number and social security number to a friendly pharmacy in .cn and have downloaded their special desktop price widget named attackNSA.exe.

Just ask these two fellows who’ve apparently taken the treatment. What else could explain a naked woman ramming their truck with her car to get them to stop? All the desire promised in all those subject lines, baby.

(Link seen on Dustbury.)

My, is it already the eighth year of the 20th century already? Must be why Creve Coeur has fallen into a development rut that only raising the costs of doing business in the city can cure:

City officials are asking voters next Tuesday to authorize a half-cent economic development sales tax that they say would keep the city competitive.

Creve Coeur’s economic circumstances are uncertain, said Paul Zimitzsch, chairman of the city’s Economic Development Commission. “Town and Country is opening a big box retail center. Clayton is pursuing redevelopment. We’ve become the hole in the doughnut,” he said.

Let’s see, in the last eight years, Creve Coeur has thrown up a massive business development (CityPlace); a set of mixed use buildings (King’s Landing, et al, ca 2006); tried to run a longtime auto dealer, a country club, and an American Legion post out of town to build more of the same (2001); and in 2006 put out its own fluff piece entitled WHY CREVE COEUR IS THE HEART OF COMMERCE.

Pretty damn impressive run for a municipality crying poverty.

You know what an actual business owner and resident thinks?

But David Caldwell, a resident and owner of a business in Creve Coeur, sees that kind of hole as a blessing that prevents overdevelopment.

Creve Coeur also needs to keep its sales tax low to remain competitive, Caldwell said.

That’s not the sort of thinking that wins you elections; that’s the sort of thinking that allows you to make an honest living. Which is why he’s ultimately doomed.

Another part of another government laments about the costs of keeping its workings transparent:

A bill that would require more rollbacks of property tax rates also would provide residents and business owners with more details about their property taxes.

Getting the additional information may cost St. Louis County nearly $700,000, officials said.

Dear government: please, consider the costs of doing your job transparently as non-negotiable. Pay out this expense and maybe seek to save that money elsewhere, such as doing your job efficiently and maybe not doing stupid things with tax money. There’s a pipe dream for a citizen.

However, I’m not sure I think this is efficiency:

And Eugene Leung, the county’s revenue director, wants the county to hire a company from Dallas to help the assessor. Leung wants to hire the firm without seeking bids or proposals.

You know, it would really suck to have to open things up so the public sees things like no bid contracts and the decision process for that, ainna?

Trash decision will hinge on complaints — from whom?:

It’s interesting how a handful of complaints can change something that’s working fine for everybody else.

The St. Charles County Council, for instance, is considering a plan that might change trash collection for all unincorporated areas in the county because of three negative comments.

The proposal would split the areas into trash collection districts, each served by only one waste hauler.

Currently, 11 companies have permits to operate anywhere in the county, and residents can choose which one picks up their trash.

Council Chairman Dan Foust wants to tinker with that arrangement because he got phone calls from three residents in the St. Charles Hills neighborhood, which has 1,600 homes.

The negative comments were about the nuisance produced by the current competitive arrangement.

Right now, trucks from multiple companies are going up and down the streets almost daily. It would be quieter if just one company’s trucks were going by twice a week.[Emphasis added]

You know what else would make streets quieter? How about limiting deliveries to one parcel post carrier, such as DHL? That way, you don’t get Federal Express (note: I just wanted to be the last man in America to use its full name) or United Parcel Service trucks rumbling down the streets. Or how about only allowing one furniture store to deliver to the area? This thin gruel of rationalization that seeks to move from a free market solution to one open to corruption (best bid package presented to the trash district commissioners, hint hint, gets all the business) could apply to just about anything.

But this has precedent, don’t you know, now that St. Louis County has imposed this solutions on a reluctant populace.

And the others? Well, St. Charles County isn’t going to break that ground, but if some other regional government succeeds, perhaps a good presentation or two, hint hint, to the county commission could get the commissioners on board.