To be able to say "Noggle," you first must be able to say "Nah."
Leader of New Orleans Police Resigns
Police Superintendent Eddie Compass resigned Tuesday after four turbulent weeks in which the police force was wracked by desertions and disorganization in Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath.
I’ll grant Police Superintendent, but leader? I think not.
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Professor Reynolds overlooks the obvious when he comments on the disparity between males and females in universities:
I like to walk around campus on nice days, and sometimes I take pictures. When I post them on my blog, people always comment on the number of women in them. But, in fact, that’s a pretty accurate reflection of what college campuses look like these days. (Fellow photoblogging professor Ann Althouse has noticed the same thing.)
Reynolds quotes an article from USA Today which posits 138 women for every 100 men in college. Reynold speculates about the causes and possible solutions to the disparity, but he overlooks the “Jan and Dean” solution.
Universities can move more towards an equitable distribution of genders by promoting:
That would certainly increase male enrollment.
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A European Space Agency mission, named Don Quijote, might practice deflecting asteroids.
Geez, does anyone else think that the result of the mission might be akin to a break in billiards, where a bunch of things go flying off in all directions, making previously not dangerous Near Earth Objects into killers?
I mean, they did name it Don Quijote, for crying out loud. Also, they have an aging population which weighs upon their economies that cries out for a radical solution.
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Holiday Inn Unrolls Gen X Welcome Mat:
“It has lots of glass and is very open. We’re collaborating with a feng shui expert,” Snyder said. “Gen X is very into looking toward the east.”
Cancel our reservations for the Hilton, honey, its layout will anger ancient Chinese spirits and besides, you know how the temprapedic mattresses malign my chakras.
I’d weep for my generation if I weren’t a part of it and close enough to know Snyder’s kookier than we are.
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State set to roll out tire-cleanup fee:
Lack of money temporarily let the air out of Missouri’s program to find and clean up tire piles.
But that should change soon. For the first time since January 2004, retailers will collect a 50-cent fee on each new tire sold in the state, starting Oct. 1. The money will support the Missouri Department of Natural Resources’ waste-tire cleanup and enforcement program.
Missouri lawmakers renewed the program this year when they passed a larger hazardous waste bill. Senate Bill 225 also created a 50-cent fee on the sale of car and truck batteries, to address broader hazardous waste efforts. That fee, which also goes into effect Oct. 1, covers batteries containing lead and sulfuric acid that are six volts or more.
Will they cut our taxes by an equal amount? Will they quit collecting the fee after they’ve cleaned up all old tires in the state?
How naive do they think we are?
They don’t care so long as we continue to have spare change in our pockets and we continue to hand it over.
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What’s wrong with this story:Road-rage bullet hits tip of a raised finger:
About 12:40 a.m., the 25-year-old man was waiting at 500 South for the light to change so he could get on the freeway, said South Salt Lake Police Capt. Chris Snyder.
As he waited, a woman in what turned out to be a stolen car pulled up next to him.
The two made eye contact, but there was something about the contact that made the man uncomfortable, Snyder said. The light turned green and the two cars entered the freeway.
On the onramp, the man told police, the woman began to drive aggressively and sped up to pass the man. In doing so, she hit some traffic cones that gradually closed some of the southbound lanes, Snyder said.
Somewhere between 2100 South and 3300 South, the woman rolled down the window of her car and yelled at the man.
So he made an obscene hand gesture.
That’s when she apparently fired four shots at the driver’s side of the man’s car. One of the bullets hit the tip of the man’s middle finger on his right hand, severing it. His index finger also was injured, but not as seriously.
That bullet lodged in the man’s windshield.
The man tried to follow the woman, Snyder said, but lost her and so he went to seek medical help. He called for help near 6900 South and was taken to Cottonwood Hospital where he was treated and released.
So this woman whom the victim has never seen before yells obscenities at him, follows him, and shoots at him four times with a .357, managing only to hit the tip of his finger, after which he immediately pursues the crazy woman who just shot him until he loses her?
Why do I suspect any actual investigation will uncover more to this story?
Road rage? I think not.
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Owen at Boots and Sabers covers the story of a yeast manufacturing plant’s closing in Milwaukee’s formerly industrial Menomonie Valley. The closure will cause the loss of 80 jobs, but the headline of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel focuses its headline on a by product of manufacturing: Aromatic era may be wafting away for good.
Yes, industry does tend toward the unsightly and to the unscently, but it tends to employ people at more than minimum or service level wages, union or not. But the powers that are commissioned (often not elected) see the loss of industry as an unfettered win:
Red Star’s possible closing is sad, but it opens up another potential redevelopment site, said Laura Bray, executive director of Menomonee Valley Partners Inc., a non-profit group that leads redevelopment efforts in the valley.
Another development site for entertainment venues, like an expanded Indian casino and a Harley Davidson museum. These entertainment-style things, often called the signs of a big-league city by people who want more of them, don’t pay as well as manufacturing jobs and don’t build the community infrastructure and draw families to live in cities; instead, they draw infrequent visitors from the suburbs, divert tourist dollars from other venues within the city, and give the ultra-urban types–who want to think of their cities as big-league more than merely “home.”
(Submitted to the Outside the Beltway Sunday Drive.)
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Hiker stumbles onto pot farm in national forest:
It began when a hiker in the Prescott National Forest stumbled across some interesting-looking plants Wednesday and notified authorities.
It ended on Thursday, after a stakeout, with the arrest of a Mexican national from Los Angeles charged with marijuana production.
That’s indeed code. For:
Rodriguez-Martinez and the others were believed to be illegal immigrants, Jarrell said.
Look who’s blurring the distinction between the Mexican nationals from Los Angeles and illegal immigrants. It’s not the opponents of illegal immigration.
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Boy, 4, lived in filth — and died:
When Ethan Patrick Williams fell off his bicycle in July, no one would have called the cuts and scrapes on his legs serious injuries. Four weeks later the boy, 4, died from an infection. Police say the boy had been living in filthy conditions, and they believe that squalor might have played a role in his death.
Because the police think that the squalor might have played a role, they did the only sensible thing: broke up a grieving family:
Ethan’s mother, Emily A. Altom, 25, and his stepfather, Michael D. Altom, 25, were charged Tuesday with voluntary manslaughter and three counts of endangering the welfare of a child. They were released Wednesday from the Perry County Jail on $15,000 bonds.
But let’s get to the squalor:
In a sworn affidavit, Cpl. Jason D. Kelley of the Perry County Sheriff’s Department described the Altoms’ trailer as unfit for any human dwelling. He described walls and carpeting as soiled and stained and said the floor and kitchen counters were piled high with clothes, broken toys, empty beer cans and rotting food.
He said there “was not enough sleeping space for three children, and no crib for the youngest child.” Kelley said the entire trailer reeked of “a foul offensive odor.”
Friends, that sounds like the Noggle household to a critical eye. As for no sleeping space for the children, am I to assume they never slept then?
I always get a little queasy with stories about child abuse and neglect, particularly as they play out in the papers and in the affadavits. I realize that I Don’t Have Children and Therefore I Cannot Understand (the Sheehanist religion), but building laws to defend the Children which depend upon arbitrary interpretations and impressions of public officials whose livelihoods depend upon prosecution seems like a couple of skips into tyranny. But of course, I don’t have children, so I look at this like a rational man and not a parent.
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Five accused of stealing Missouri tax credits:
Five people were indicted this morning on federal fraud and money-laundering charges for what prosecutors called a $10 million scheme to steal state tax credits.
This could have been avoided if the state only adhered to a policy of taxing businesses equitably, regardless of how the state thinks the businesses benefit either the state or the state’s whims.
But that would deprive the state of its twofer: giveaways to its favorites and the ability to get tough on the crime its giveaways encourage.
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N. Korea Accuses U.S. of Plotting Attack:
In a second day of bluster after its disarmament accord, North Korea accused the United States on Wednesday of planning a nuclear attack and warned it could retaliate.
Let’s make it clear, rest of the world: We have plans to nuke everyone, from North Korea to China to France to Great Britain to St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands. Are we clear on that? Because we understand the nature of man and their collective nature, we are ready to destroy anyone who could attack us, no matter how probable our nuclear plans are to be used.
Because planning is easy, and being unprepared is bad.
So don’t think you’re special, North Korea, even though you’re highest on our list of probable recipients of an unwelcome transfer of nuclear technology. We have plans for every contingency, I hope.
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In an era where citizen everywhere are complaining, post-Kelo, about eminent domain, it’s heartening to see a few noble governments remain unafraid to seize private land to redistribute it as they see fit. Kudos, Manchester, Missouri, Mayor Larry Miles:
However, Manchester Mayor Larry Miles said, “We’re not going to have anyone holding up the project because he doesn’t want to sell.” He noted, “We have 35 residents who have agreed to sell and we would like to move forward.”Butler, he said, is standing in the way of progress and change.
The mayor said Pace Properties might have to use eminent domain to obtain all properties it needs that front on Manchester Road, except for the Eagle Bank site.
Pace Properties seeks to build a $131.5 million shopping center on the northeast corner of Manchester and Highway 141. It is asking for $29.5 million in tax-increment financing from Manchester and about $17 million from a transportation development district. The center would have 476,719 square feet of commercial space.
It takes a really strong leader to cede the powers of government, and lots of tax money, to private land developers when citizens are standing up for their private property rights.
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You got old:
Motley Crue’s Neil Breaks Hip at Concert
Sure, they’re calling it his “leg,” much like they call getting shot in the arse as getting shot in the leg or, more accurately but still as spinny, an upper thigh wound.
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The beauty products from the skin of executed Chinese prisoners:
A Chinese cosmetics company is using skin harvested from the corpses of executed convicts to develop beauty products for sale in Europe, an investigation by the Guardian has discovered.
Agents for the firm have told would-be customers it is developing collagen for lip and wrinkle treatments from skin taken from prisoners after they have been shot. The agents say some of the company’s products have been exported to the UK, and that the use of skin from condemned convicts is “traditional” and nothing to “make such a big fuss about”.
Come on, fill in your own tag lines. Soylent Morning Rose Blush….is people!
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Herb “The Helmet” Kohl stands upon the shoulders of giants during the Roberts confirmation hearings when he echoes philosopher William Martin Joel during a harangue.
Justice, after all, may be blind, but it should not be deaf.
Billy Joel, from the video for “Keeping the Faith” ca 1983-1984:
Your honor, they say justice is blind, but I sure hope it ain’t deaf.
(Quote first seen on Ann Althouse.)
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“This is so complicated that a lot of people will not get it,” said Patrick Lanane, assistant superintendent and chief financial officer for the Lindbergh School District in St. Louis County.
“Be careful, be quick or you will miss one of the most important tax giveaways that will happen in a person’s lifetime,” Lanane said. He and others believe that some outstate school districts are getting far more state aid than they deserve.
Thank you, Mr. Lanane, for looking out for the interests of taxpayers. No, wait, pardon my while cynicism realism settles in: You’re not afraid that these other school districts are getting too much; you’re afraid that your district isn’t getting as much as you think it deserves.
But never fear, our government officials are on the case:
School and business leaders in the St. Louis region feel so strongly that they have begun a campaign to raise $100,000 to pay for studies of the accuracy of assessments in 10 counties, said Glenn Koenen, of the West County Chamber of Commerce. The studies would be completed early next year.
Raising that money to educate students? You forget the purpose of government, citizen, which is to get more money for government, even if it’s from a higher government and its gains are at the expense of other governments in outstate Missouri.
(Link submitted to the Outside the Beltway Traffic Jam.)
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Look out, Crestwood: a private consultant hired by the city has told the city that it has to renovate a privately-owned mall or lose tax revenue. Of course, he couched it in waivers and wherefores, but what do you think the local government heard?
While he proposes redevelopment, Melaniphy [the consultant] doesn’t advise Crestwood on whether the city should use public funds for the project. That’s something the city and Westfield will have to iron out, he said.
“If financial assistance can be used to keep a Macy’s or a big anchor store, the board should at least listen and see if we can accommodate that,” Robinson [Crestwood’s Mayor] said.
Translation: The government should use tax dollars to ensure that it continues receiving tax dollars. Serve the citizens? No, modern government serves itself first.
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Perhaps the striking Northwest mechanics should contemplate crawling back to their wife and begging her forgiveness:
David Pounds, a 22-year mechanic, said he was thinking of changing careers, maybe selling cars. He’s had job interviews, but hasn’t had any offers.
“People are reluctant to hire a guy on strike,” he said.
He has also had trouble finding a job that pays as much. on average. “The last company I interviewed with, the compensation was a joke,” Pounds said.
The last company he interviewed with was probably not relying on government handouts to remain almost solvent, but that’s unrelated, no doubt.
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Nuke Reactors on Campuses Keep Low Profile:
For University of Missouri tailgaters, the name of the new parking lot down the hill from Memorial Stadium is little more than a curiosity: Reactor Field, a nod to the nearby nuclear research reactor.
The nation’s largest university-based reactor keeps an intentionally low local profile, despite its cutting-edge research into promising cancer drugs.
Nothing says “incognito” like naming a facility used by thousands of unknowledgeable, transient sports fans after the “low profile” nuclear reactor which is plainly visible from Providence (name of road redacted for security reasons).
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New Orleans Begins Confiscating Firearms as Water Recedes:
Waters were receding across this flood-beaten city today as police officers began confiscating weapons, including legally registered firearms, from civilians in preparation for a mass forced evacuation of the residents still living here.
Confiscate weapons before a forced migration of peoples. Sounds familiar….
(Link seen on Instapundit.)
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