Category: News

• U.S. Senate Poll: Greitens leads Republican candidates ahead of August primary for Mo.; Kunce leads Democratic ticket

  The media is trying to make Greitens happen. This poll was commissioned by television stations, and the company conducting the poll has a spotty reputation when it comes to predicting actual winners.
   

• Pierce City, Mo. could have a ‘mass exodus’ of police officers:
  

  Pierce City officers say they plan to resign over concerns they have with the policies of the newly elected mayor. On Tuesday, Mayor Edward Golubski spoke with KY3 but declined to go on camera. The Mayor said he feels blindsided by the issue. He said he wants the best for the city and is happy to help work with the police to ease their concerns.

  “It’s going to be a mass exodus,” Pierce City Officer Chris Hutson said. “Most, if not all of the police officers will be leaving soon.”

  Chris Hutson has been a Pierce City officer for two years. And he has been a part of law enforcement for ten years. Hutson said he is now resigning entirely.

  ”I would be very concerned as to why it’s happening and what’s going to happen to the city,” Hutson said.

  He said it starts with concerns over several of Mayor Golubski’s policies.

  ”He attempted to relieve the chief of his duties and appoint someone that was not only not qualified, but her moral compass is so messed up that it’s unreal,” Hutson said.

  The fact that the news story does not delve into the nature of the policies nor the person to be appointed chief of police, instead focusing on police abandoning their positions, makes one wonder what those policies are. One can speculate, though.

  Although, to be honest, it might not be Soros dipping into small towns but rather someone wanting to promote a relative or significant other. However, the “journalists” don’t dig into the reasons.

  Maybe, if Pierce City runs out of police force, they can deploy their tanks (just kidding, they’re National Guard tanks, but I like linking to that old post).

He has already read this John Kass column: What Would Royko Do?

Kass points out that today’s news media would not support Royko’s style, and I agree.

But the media landscape has changed, too. When Royko was working, the metropolitan daily was a big deal, giving one a chance at a mass audience. Syndication would net a bigger national audience. Television appearances might follow.

But now, the printed (or written word, more to the point) landscape has fragmented. Newspapers have faded in circulation and reach, but they’ve fired their old and grizzled and expensive columnists, replacing them with the same twenty-year-old know-nothings that write the news. Columnists like John Kass and Steve Pokin have gone independent or work for smaller outfits now.

So many different conditions have changed that mean we won’t see the likes of Royko, or Kass for that matter, again.

Today, The Sun has a story about the women who disappeared in Springfield thirty years ago: NEVER FOUND Creepy mystery of how two pals & mum vanished without a trace – with only cue being disturbing answer phone message.

As I mentioned in the book review for the recent novel Gone in the Night, this case continues to resonate vividly in Springfield.

Probably because it’s a smaller city, with less crime than other places, because it’s unresolved, and because it’s in living memory.

I mean, I cannot think of a comparable case in either St. Louis or Milwaukee, but I have been out of their stadtgeists for a while now.

As I have mentioned, I have been known to click crime stories in Milwaukee or St. Louis to see if I knew any of the participants, and once in a while, I would. Well, I have been out of those cities for over a decade or two these days, and most of the guys from the projects or the trailer parks who had gotten on the wrong side of the law have probably died by now.

But here in Springfield, if I click through a story, if I know someone, it’s probably on a positive story. Like Gyms in the Ozarks returning to normal as pandemic restrictions end. I clicked through to see if it was a gym I’d recognize (basically, Planet Fitness on Republic Road, the parks’ Chesterfield or Kinney Family Center, or the downtown or Pat Jones YMCA).

And so it was–it was the Pat Jones YMCA, where I work out. So then I watched to see if I knew anyone there. Or see if I made an appearance, although I would not immediately recognize the old man I am in photographs but not the mirror.

I didn’t recognize anyone working out–the bit was not filmed at my normal time, 8am to 9am on weekdays, or I would have recognized many of the older people who have been working out there for years in the mornings. Like me–almost a decade now, off and on, at roughly the same time in the mornings (although I am probably going to switch to afternoons soon, as I will not make a daily run into Springfield to drop a child off at the Lutheran school there).

I didn’t recognize any of the staff–the CEO of the YMCA was interviewed, not any of the front desk people or trainers that I see around.

However, I did recognize the young man they interviewed. Well, no, I recognized the name and then the young man.

He and his mother and father studied at my dojo; they were a couple of months ahead of us. When they reached their black belts, the mother dropped, and then the father and son came sparingly, and then the son dropped, and then the father came on his own a couple of times before dropping. It’s a common pattern amongst families, one I’m trying to avoid.

Of course, I did not recognize the guy because it’s been five years, and he’s grown up a bit in the interim and grew some facial hair. But working off the name, I recognized him.

Between my martial arts classes and the church, I end up recognizing a far better class of people in the news these days.

Apparently, the museum hosting Manet’s A Bar at the Folies-Bergère has slapped a trigger warning on it:

The Courtauld Gallery has been criticised for introducing a ‘woke’ new label on the Manet masterpiece A Bar at the Folies-Bergère. It warns viewers of the ‘unsettling’ presence of a man

As I mentioned when I read a book on Manet, this is my favorite Manet painting.

Also, I think “The unsettling presence of a man” is going to be my slug/lede on my resume and LinkedIn profile from now on.

I am pretty sure these violate the Geneva Convention: Russia’s terrifying ‘hairy woman with drooping breasts’ feared to tickle men to death

Purportedly only folklore. But that’s what Putin wants you to think.

Today, Kim du Toit posted a news roundup which included a link to a Breitbart story German Cardinal Celebrates Mass Marking ‘20 Years of Queer Worship’:

German Cardinal Reinhard Marx celebrated a Mass Sunday to commemorate “20 years of queer worship and pastoral care” in Munich, Germany.

“I desire an inclusive Church, a Church that includes all who want to walk the way of Jesus,” said Cardinal Marx, the archbishop of Munich and an adviser to Pope Francis.

According to the archdiocesan website, the cardinal was preaching to a “queer congregation.”

In his homily, Marx insisted that Jesus himself was opposed to “those who exclude” but rather “would like to invite everyone with the primacy of love!”

“The kingdom of God is to discover that God is love — in all its dimensions,” said Marx, which includes “the sexual dimension.”

One cannot take it too lightly because it’s on Breitbart, as the New Oxford Review‘s editor thinks a schism might be brewing on the continent:

World, be warned: The Germans are on the march again.

This time they’re boldly tramping down the Synodal Path, and they’re being led by their nation’s Catholic bishops. And many in the Church are worried that their final destination will be schism.

Two years ago, the German Church launched a reform program, prompted by revelations of decades of rampant clerical sexual abuse and episcopal cover-up. At first it sounded like good and even necessary work. But over time, the focus of the reform movement, otherwise known as the “Synodal Path,” shifted, eventually homing in on a list of “binding” reforms that, if approved by the bishops’ conference, would contradict longstanding Catholic teaching on issues such as same-sex relationships, ecumenism, lay roles in the Mass, clerical celibacy, and women’s ordination. The recent release of the “Fundamental Text,” the document guiding the German Church’s deliberations, raised many an ecclesiastical eyebrow. At one point, it states that the Catholic Church appears “regressive…especially in the field of gender justice, in the evaluation of queer sexual orientations, and in dealing with failure and new beginnings.” Elsewhere, it states that “there is no one truth of the religious, moral, and political world, and no one form of thought can lay claim to ultimate authority.”

Such worldly “wisdom” masquerading as Catholic theology is why many observers are speculating that the German Church’s march down the Synodal Path could lead to its severing from the Church of Rome.

The whole article requires registration/subscription to New Oxford Review, but clearly Pieter Vree takes the situation in Germany very seriously.

You know, I am half-Catholic, and I like some of its doctrine over Protestant equivalents, but the Church itself is more worldly than heavenly these days, and probably has been since its inception.

Springfield Police Dept. reminds you to take advantage of “Safe Exchange Zone”:

Police remind you to think twice when meeting up to buy an item from someone you meet online.

Springfield Police Department investigators reports recent robberies when people meet up to buy off of Facebook Marketplace or other outlets. Police set up parking spots at the police station designated for internet purchases. The area is well-lit with security camera footage.

Investigators say on March 9, a victim met two unknown people in Springfield after connecting on Facebook to buy a Playstation. They met at a Walmart. Investigators say during the exchange the driver pulled a gun on the victim.

* * * *

The safe exchange zone parking spots are available 24/7.

But just last week, the headline was Springfield PD lobby and phone hours change due to staffing shortage:

Starting Monday, March 14th, the hours that the phones are answered, and the lobby is open at the Springfield Police Department on East Chestnut Expressway are being reduced. Previously, the lobby was open from 7 a.m. until 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and then from 7 a.m. until 1 p.m. on Saturdays. Phone lines were open from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. every day of the week. Now, the lobby and phones will be closed over the weekend, and phones will only be answered until 5 p.m. during the week. This does *not* impact 911 calls.

It sounds like the cuts might only impact one police station, but the other has lobby hours that are not 24/7.

One wonders if the “Save Exchange Zone” only offers cameras and the possible presence of a police officer passing by.

You know, like a Walmart parking lot.

More of the messaging that you’re safe because there are cameras. If you’ve read this blog for any length of time, you know I believe that is magically fallacious.

Springfield auto shop reports ‘rampant’ rise in thefts and vandalism

That’s our current preferred garage, exactly five miles away. I know this because sometimes I drop a vehicle off and walk home.

Sometimes, I’ve been known to swap cars, where I drive up, pick one of our cars up and leave the other for service the next day. Perhaps I’ll reconsider that strategy. It will be easier as we will soon have three vehicles and three drivers in the house briefly.

But, man, Springfield’s crime continues to increase.

Confusing siblings is not a matter of racial bias:

Tennis superstar Serena Williams took to Twitter on Wednesday to call out The New York Times for using a photo of her sister, Venus Williams, in an article about her new capital venture fund.

She called on the Times to “do better” with “engrained systems woefully unaware of their biases.”

“No matter how far we come, we get reminded that it’s not enough. This is why I raised $111 million for Serena Ventures,” Williams said on Twitter, adding “even I am overlooked.”

It’s a common mistake. Must we make everything about jargony jargon current rightthink?

C’mon, man, you and I know that’s coming next now that Marquette has redesigned its seal:

Following years of student activism and campus deliberation, Marquette University announced this week that it will change its official seal, most notably by removing an image of the college’s namesake.

The university’s board approved a new seal that, according to an announcement Monday, will “more accurately reflect” the role that Indigenous tribes played in the journey that French Jesuit missionary Jacques Marquette embarked upon in 1673 to find the direction and mouth of the Mississippi River.

The prop bet is whether it will stop being a “Catholic” university before or after the renaming.

I’ve actually placed my money on simultaneously.

Funny thing; although the university sends me glossy magazines on occasion, they don’t try to hit me up for money any more.

High-speed pursuit through Springfield ends in arrest of fugitive:

Deputies from the Greene County Sheriff’s Office Fugitive Apprehension Unit attempted to arrest a wanted fugitive with multiple felony warrants in the north Springfield area. When deputies approached the home where the suspect was located, the fugitive Johnnie Coffer, and another man left the residence in a white Chevy Silverado. Investigators say the fugitive drove to the area of Interstate-44 and West Bypass where he abruptly stopped the vehicle, assaulted the driver, and forced him out of the vehicle before fleeing in the victim’s stolen truck. Deputies initiated a traffic stop on the driver but he kept going.

Due to the nature of the charges, (robbery, assault, and multiple felony warrants) the pursuit continued through north Springfield and eventually went into the south Springfield area. During the pursuit, investigators say the fugitive repeatedly called 911 threatening to assault other drivers by crashing into their vehicles as well as threatening “suicide by cop.” The vehicle pursuit ended in the area of Grant Avenue and Dale Street after a trained deputy performed a low-speed TVI (Tactical Vehicle Intervention) maneuver. Investigators say Coffer’s truck collided with one uninvolved motorist at this point causing no injuries and then he intentionally rammed a deputy sheriff’s patrol vehicle head-on, causing no serious injury to the deputy.

After I picked up the youngest from school yesterday, we stopped by the bank on Battlefield. We heard sirens on Battlefield as we conducted our transaction, and as we headed east on Battlefield, 13 police cars from both Springfield and Greene County were headed in the other direction. I speculated that something was happening at the police station a mile down the road, but nah.

An interesting bit about it, though–we looked on the local media stations about what was going on during the course of the evening, but we didn’t find anything. It reached the local television station’s Web site this morning when the news organization printed law enforcement’s statement. And the live shot in the article linked above was from later that evening, a standup outside the police station on Battlefield. C’mon, guys, don’t any of you have a police scanner and someone to jump on big events like that? Nah, the two twenty-four-year-olds are already knocking off by 4:30, and if it ain’t on Twitter, it ain’t happening.

The headline in the Springfield Business Journal article was not specific: Former STL Blues player files for Congress

I would have guessed Kelly Chase, but it’s actually Jim Campbell; the snippet named him, and I remembered his nickname Soupy and his number 10 without any prompting. He played for the Blues in the late 1990s when we watched all the games and had partial season tickets.

I was not impressed with his play, actually, and I’m not impressed that a business owner in the St. Louis area is filing to run with an address in Camden County. It looks carpetbaggish to me, but maybe he does live out there and only has business interests in the St. Louis area.

Kudos to the St. Louis television station for diminishing his entrepreneurship:

The domino effect of U.S. Rep. Vicky Hartzler’s decision to run for Missouri’s U.S. Senate seat instead of seeking re-election to the House in the fourth congressional district appears to have led a former St. Louis Blues hockey player-turned St. Louis County bar owner to run for a seat in Congress.

A bar owner. How seedy-sounding, probably by intention.

Bat falcon spotted in US for first time:

A bird from Central and South America has been spotted in the United States for the very first time.

The “bat falcon” was captured on camera at the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge in Texas in December, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Driving down the wages for good American falcons.

You know, I amaze my beautiful wife sometimes when I can hear the propane delivery across the house and across the garage buffer zone, a package delivery, or the mail carrier visiting our mailbox sixty or eighty yards down the driveway (that one’s easy, as I can hear the pattern of acceleration and braking–both acceleration, I know, physicists, but give me a break, okay?–as she (Ginger, now Cara) drives from our mailbox to the next.

But an explosion at the power plant up the road? Nah, brah.

Although it was not dramatic; from the picture in the article, it looks like something small in a shed might have gone up.

Meanwhile, the city of Springfield is blowing up another of its power plants on purpose.

Because excess power generation capacity is so civilization, man.

A British tabloid has a headline that clashes with the news immediately after the event: Star Trek legend William Shatner confesses he ‘wasn’t impressed’ after visiting space

Last autumn, when he actually took the trip, our stories were different.

William Shatner delivers spacey monologue to Bezos after Blue Origin launch

“Everybody in the world needs to do this!” a tearful Shatner told the second-richest man in the world while others celebrated over champagne in the background.

“To see the moon come and whip by — now you’re staring into blackness — that’s the thing,” he added.

“The covering of blue, this blanket, this comforter of blue we have around us. We think, ‘Oh, that’s blue sky,’ and all of a sudden you shoot through it and you whip the sheet off you and you’re looking into blackness, into black nothingness.

“As you look down, there’s your blue down there with the black up there. There is Mother Earth and comfort and there is — is there death? I don’t know. Is that the way death is?” he asked.

“It was so moving. This experience, it’s something unbelievable.”

A British tabloid, making something up? Inconceivable!

I would say Everything old is new again, but I’m not feeling renewed.

But my son mentioned a news tidbit, International Space Station will hurtle to Earth in 2031— but it won’t hit you, to me the other day, and I said, as Sarah Hoyt at Instapundit did, “Oh, you mean like Skylab?”

He had no idea what Skylab was. I guess it’s not on TikTok, and history began somewhere in the 21st century.

Eesh, although we try to educate the lads, they beat on, boats against the current, borne back carelessly into the the eternal present.

An update to the story Don’t approach lab monkey missing after crash, people told:

Woman on rabies meds after crashed truck spills crates of monkeys on road

Geez, I hope she’s okay.

Meanwhile, do not approach lab monkeys missing after a crash or people who have been in contact with lab monkeys missing after crash.

Does anyone think the CDC is on this, or are political opinions made into public health threats more important?