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September 8th, 2009
04:06 pm - Halfway there
Back in the '90s, I wrote an editorial complaining about the city's practice of putting up street cleaning signs the night before in Hyde Park giving people less than 24 hours' notice (and sometimes barely 12 hours' notice) that they had to move their vehicles or be hit with a $50 fine. There was no reason, other than collecting more fines, that the city could not give 48 hours' notice, I wrote. Or better yet, why not adopt fixed cleaning times for Hyde Park just as some better-run North Side neighborhoods did. This provoked both the 4th and 5th Ward Aldermen to write in -- the biggest official reaction we had ever received -- to condemn the editorial and, basically, blame lazy students for getting tickets.
Via HydeParkProgress, I was happy to see that progress has been made in the old neighborhood, sort of.
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July 8th, 2009
04:54 pm - Apartment dilemma, or tri-lemma
I plan to move in eight days, but still can't decide where.. Any opinions are appreciated
( Read more... )
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April 1st, 2009
05:05 pm - For the wages of sin is death, plus tax
So the first (of many) Obama taxes kicked in today, a 62-cent per pack levy on cigarettes, the same one W. vetoed last fall. Some of the news stories pointed our that the tax is expected to cut cigarette consumption by as much as -9% (black market sales will presumably increase; do those Indian reservation cigarettes escape this tax?). That means the Fed's will not get as much additional revenue as some congressmen hoped.
However, none of the MSM stories I saw pointed out the fact that Chicago, Cook County, Illinois and every other taxing jurisdiction will lose -9% of the their expected cigarette tax revenues, making deficits worse, more layoffs etc.
Long down the road, there will be health benefits. Small consolation in a recession though.
(I would not mind new helping offset the revenue losses with new penalties -- or enforced current ones -- on people who toss butts on the ground).
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March 20th, 2009
11:50 am - Not so Special Olympics
Speaking of Obama gaffes, I won't join the chorus (not entirely of conservatives) trashing him for his I-bowl-like-Special-Olympics joke on Leno (whether a president should ever appear on late-night comedy shows is another matter altogether). it wasn't particularly funny and was certainly politically incorrect, but come on...
The bigger problem is that it has people, including Obama, singing the praises of the Special Olympics. By and large, these people must never have attended one because these events are appalling.
( Read more... )
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10:27 am - The gift that keeps on giving
Though little reported on this side of the pond, the Brits were apparently taken back by Obama's shabby treatment of their Prime Minister on his visit to DC early in the month. Among the complaints were that Brown's symbolically-laden and historically significant gift to Obama was reciprocated by a DVD set of famous American movies, the kind one might find in a Wal-Mart (if you would dare walk into such an anti-union establishment).
Now it turns out that the DVDs were Region 1 and hence not even playable in the UK. This from the most tech-savvy administration in history?
Hillary may need to prepare another "reset" button for this no-longer-so-special relationship.
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December 30th, 2008
03:15 pm - Ego beyond the grave
Why did Roland Burris accept -- even, according to reports, lobby for -- the appointment to Obama's Senate seat from scandal-plagued Blago?
The same reason he ran unsuccessfully for Senate, and Governor and Governor and Governor and Mayor.
The same reason he named his kids Roland, Jr. and Rolanda.
and the same reason he built this...
( Read more... )
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November 5th, 2008
10:38 am - There's got to be a pony in there somewhere...
One silver lining (via Powerlineblog.com):
"One should never say 'never' in politics. However, Barack Obama's victory almost certainly means that neither Hillary Clinton nor Al Gore will ever be president of the United States."
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November 4th, 2008
11:30 am - And so it ends...
I have not really mentioned the election (or anything else) in a while. The prospects are so depressing even a Prince of Cairo party couldn't leaven them.
The building where I worked sent out a notice that they would be locking the doors shortly after 5 p.m. as a security precaution because of the Obamafest (and we're a mile and a half from Grant Park!). I'd like to think they have special insight into a brewing election upset this evening. Probably, however, they just want to be on the safe side whenever there's a mass of pumped-up Chicagoans.
If you're inclined to attend, be careful.
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October 3rd, 2008
01:22 pm - Posted without comment
Via Overheard in New York:
Black guy who just walked in: Excuse me, sir, have you been waiting for the train long?
White guy reading newspaper (with an Obama sticker on his bag): Sorry, I don't have any spare change.
Black guy: What?
--1 Train
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March 4th, 2008
12:22 pm - Obama's Real Secret?
The exposure today of yet another faux urban underclass memoir (passionate autobiography of mixed-race foster-child-turned-gangbanger-and-drug-runner turns out to be fiction from white middle-class suburbanite) reminded me of something I meant to post long ago. I think that there is a good chance that Barack Obama, like some of Oprah's other favorite writers, is a fraud. His tales of early cocaine use and at least borderline gang connections may well be completely bogus.
Think of it.Obama comes from a middle-class/privileged background, has had the best of education (well, Harvard at least), and can't really point to a single notable incidence of racial discrimination. Without this story, basically, he's Mitt Romney, give or take a hundred million dollars. That is not a story that sells books, let alone one that fuels a political career.
( Read more... )
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December 13th, 2007
03:01 pm - Nominee, Least Likely to Win Sympathy Award
From buff guy in gym: "This [Chicago] weather is just too cold for me... after all, I only have 8% body fat."
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October 30th, 2007
08:29 am - MP3 Bleg
A friend is looking for an MP3 player to listen to her taped law school class lectures. Apparently the first iPod she tried didn't work for her because she could not go forward or back without skipping to the next "song". She has RSI (hence her shift from an electrical engineering career to law to reduce the amount of keyboarding), so she has problems with sensitive buttons. (And even before RSI, she was a klutz).
I was hoping one of you gadget folks who listen to those newfangled books on digital tape things could offer a suggestion. Much obliged.
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July 3rd, 2007
10:25 am - Smashed
Someone was carried out of my badminton league on a stretcher last night. I didn't see him go down, but apparently he tripped in a game and landed hard on his shoulder and/or elbow. It took the ambulance crew about ten minutes to strap him into this chair-like contraption that immobilized the affected limb. It looked like they had given him some sort of strap to bite down on for the pain -- I guess ambulances do not administer any pain medication before the patient can be examined by a doctor.
I didn't know the guy, but it stands to reason that -- like nearly everyone else in the league -- he was in better shape and better coordinated than I am. Makes me want to check that my health insurance is all paid up...
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May 24th, 2007
10:39 am - Cooling cats
Now that summer is almost here, I have a question about temperature control for cats. On a few of the worst days last year, I left the air conditioner running while I was at work. Sure, distant feline cousins seem to have no problem lolling about in the brutal temperatures on the African plain, but Cat (we'll call him that because it's not like he ever answered to his given name) just looked pathetic slumped on the floor in the heat. But then, he's usually slumped somewhere, so maybe I'm just projecting my own discomfort.
More often, however, I'd let the ceiling fan run all day because that's relatively cheap compared to the A/C. It does make the room less stuffy, but I was thinking today that fans cool mainly by speeding evaporation from the skin. Cats don't have exposed skin, so does he even get any benefit from my extra kilowatts?
Should I just leave him to his own (non-electrical) devices?
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April 23rd, 2007
04:19 pm - Housing correction panic
I came across this quote in a financial commentary fretting about the impact of the housing correction on the economy:
"When is it going to end? Prices are falling like a rock, and nobody is looking. I think I can sell this place for $450,000, down $50,000 from a year ago. I will be lucky to make $100,000 or $150,000 since I bought it two years ago."
--Complaints by a real estate investor, Modesto, CA, March 24, 2007
Yes, only a 33-50% profit in two years. Sounds like recession to me.
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April 20th, 2007
11:36 am - An Ivy League education
The first response by an institution of higher education to the Virginia Tech tragedy is in: Yale has banned the use of "realistic-looking stage weapons" from all their theatrical productions.
(via powerlineblog.com)
It likely goes downhill from here.
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March 13th, 2007
01:15 pm - A new entry?
Taking advantage of rare early-spring-like weather, I broke out my bike for the ride to work yesterday for the first time in what seemed like ages. It's been almost as long since I biked than since I last updated this LJ...
In past winters, I have managed to bike to work at least half the time. This year, though, the lakefront bike path seemed to be perpetually covered in ice (and maybe I was a little lazy). While there has been more precipitation than usual this year, I think the Park District has been unusually lax in clearing the path, especially north of Foster which suffers from poor drainage at the best of times.
A cynic might note that my alderman succeeded in getting her only opponent tossed off the ballot in December, about the same time that city services began to disappear. Did she actively redirect workers to contested wards or was she just unable to stop the mayor from doing it?
Beats me, but then I wrote in US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald for all city offices anyway. The only way Daley and co. are ever leaving will be in a paddy wagon to the nearest Club Fed.
Incidentally, my favorite Scooter Libby conspiracy theory (OK, so it's just my theory) is that Scooter wasn't the scapegoat for Dick Cheney. Rather, Bush sicced Fitzgerald on him to get the US Attorney out of his good friend and occasional dining partner Daley's hair for a while.
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November 10th, 2006
10:56 am - Obama Watch
The elections turned out in the best possible way for Illinois' junior senator -- Democrats have Congress and every other major African-American candidate was defeated (save for the new governor of Massachusetts, but who cares really), leaving him more prominent than ever. And the just-announced exit of Congressmen Jesse Jackson Jr. and Guitierrez from Chicago's mayoral race next year means that Obama will not be put under pressure to endorse an anti-Daley candidate, enabling him to avoid alienating anyone.
InTrade, one of the major online political betting forums, has already added an "Obama to be '08 Democratic nominee" contract. His odds are 16% vs. 50% for Hillary, but above Gore and Edwards.
( Read more... )
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October 18th, 2006
12:24 pm - How can we miss it if it never leaves?
To huge fanfare last winter, the Berghoff restaurant downtown closed after 107 years inbusiness as the owners went off into retirement. For the last several weeks, lines of people waiting to get in one last meal at the Chicago landmark wrapped around the block.
Except, as I learned yesterday, it's still open. Now operated by a Berghoff daughter, it goes by 17West at the Berghoff. Though the website promises tradition "with a twist," the menu looked much the same to me, albeit shorter. German staples like sauerbraten and weinerschnitzel were still prominently featured. There were also no apparent changes in the decor, save that the east dining room is now used for private functions only.
Unfortunately, the quality was also unchanged. The creamed spinach was good; the beer was the same. The weinerschnitzel, however, was dry and chewy. And the service was slow and inattentive.
Longer ago than I like to think about, the Berghoff was one of my favorite restaurants. Good food and Old-World charm at reasonable prices. But as the older German waiters retired, the place began a long descent. This new incarnation will only further sully its reputation.
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October 5th, 2006
03:16 pm - If Not For Those Meddling Kids...
That pesky Internet. Before I could compose a post arguing that the so-called victims in the Foley scandal were anything but, and were likely stringing him along for dastardly political purposes (expanding on a comment I made on ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) multiplexer's LJ), Drudge reports that the IMs were, in fact, a practical joke played on dirty old man Foley. The page, who says he is straight, played along with Foley's IMs, getting ever more explicit, and then shared them with some page friends as a joke, or so the story goes.
( Read more... )
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