Oh, hell no

If what BlogKC says is true, it's time to go ballistic.

"Real estate developers are asking KCMO to annex over 300 acres of rural Platte County just north of the Kansas City International Airport for a large suburban-style housing development called 'The Lake at Tomahawke Creek.'”

No, no and hell no and here's why:

The city of Kansas City, Missouri is broke, folks.

We have no money.

We have a poor credit rating now--and it's slipping.

We have too much sprawl now.

It's in the flight path of the airport and (as BlogKC reported) "the airport is warning that it will be noisy for anyone living there..."

"The site is far from existing city services..."

I think that's enough right there.

No.

No.

The answer is no.

Are we clear here?

Link: http://blogkc.com/archives/2009/11/city-asked-to-annex-300-acres-of-sprawl-north-of-kci/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Blogkc+%28BlogKC%29

Addendum: And since when do you make the name for an American Indian tool (tomahawk) British by adding an "e" to the end? Does that make any sense to anyone?

A bullet, dodged

Did you hear that sound?

It was the sound of all of us, here in the US, dodging a bullet.

I believe that was done this past long holiday weekend when the international markets tumbled on news of Dubai's default on their loans.

Actually, I guess it's technically not a default, they just asked if they could not repay their loans for 6 months. If you're the banker, it's a default, though.

Anyway, the markets tumbled Wednesday night.

Luckily for us and the world, it was our national Thanksgiving holiday so our trading markets were closed. Had they been open, I feel sure our markets would have emotionally, psychologically and, really, understandably reacted to this news and been set back with a down trading day. There's no telling how much it would have dropped, if at all, if I'm right.

Then, the next international trading day (our Thanksgiving night), the markets came back and were mostly up so by the time we had our partial trading day on Friday, all the bad news was buffered by this second round of better news.

A friend and I predicted a down day on the markets Friday and, as it turned out, we were right.

What I'm saying is that, with the international markets taking a hit last Wednesday, if ours had been open the next day, we likely would have tumbled--and a good deal, I believe--and then, that night, there could was likely a strong chance those same international markets would have reacted to that, too, and negatively.

Of course this is all speculation but I will say that I'm not the only one that thinks that if there is one more big financial problem any time soon, the whole international deck of cards is in fairly precarious shape and it will be tough on this already-weak system.

Here's hoping we skate by.

Link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20091130/wl_time/08599194339200

The wonderful, long Thanksgiving weekend, somewhat documented

 

I'm doing a bit of a change-up on this blog today. Since this was Thanksgiving weekend and the weather yesterday was so outstanding and, finally, I had more wonderful leisure time on my hands, I took it upon myself to walk from the Plaza up to Loose Park and try to document what a great day it was. This serves three purposes: it shows what we were up to this day, it helps us remember what a great day it was in time to come and, lastly, it gives me photograph-worthy shots, if I'm lucky. Following are the shots I got. I hope you had a terrific holiday and holiday weekend.

 

And of course there were people and families out to feed the ducks at the lagoon.

 

People were all over Loose Park, understandably and as you can see here, I hope. You do have to look rather closely. They were out walking themselves or their dogs, just everything.

 

And there had to be at least one kite-flyer out there and here he was.

 

The late afternoon sun makes for good, warm, easy shots at times. I'm not saying this is one but it could be.

 

And we'll have to remember that this was also the day that KU played a grudge/rematch with MU. (and that MU just barely won, by two points, which had to be painful for all the KU fans, of course).

 

You'll find I covered this once but I liked the perspective and light I got on this one, that's all.

 

The jogging trail, of course, around the park. Several people were taking advantage of it and the warm temperatures, of course.

 

I don't know what they are or what the plant is but they were beautiful, of course, and I loved the late afternoon sunlight.

 

To repeat, brilliant day. And I've always loved this house. (How do you not?)

 

Living on the Plaza as I do (hey, it's an affordable apartment, folks), I get to Loose Park fairly frequently, over the years. I have to say, this was absolutely the busiest I've ever seen the playground there--and that's saying something. This doesn't even really show how very busy it was, too, and all the energy that was coming from it.

 

And, oh yeah, there was a partial moon on the rise, too, to complete the virtually perfect Thanksgiving weekend.

 

Just a brilliant day.

 

I just liked it, that's all there is to it. (And hey, I can dream, can't I?)

 

I thought this might be good to show both how busy it truly was on the Plaza (no surprise) and the West Edge and its cranes threatening the area--and city. (lol)

 

This wouldn't be any big deal but this accomplishes two things: it gives the near-obligatory photo of the fountain in front of the Eddie Bauer store, which we all like so much, think, and because it shows this rather cute couple. I say cute (reluctantly, believe me) because they were getting a picture of what looked to be their newborn baby on what must be the child's first Thanksgiving and then I felt I had to get a shot of them because they wore matching "Thanksgiving brown" clothing. I wouldn't do it but it was cute on them.

 

This was pretty incredible, in its own way, and unique--at least for Kansas City. These guys kept driving around the Plaza, making the car bounce and twist, as is shown here. The car, amazingly, isn't broken--the suspension system was hopped up to do just these kinds of tricks. (To each their own, right?).

 

This is just to emphasize, again, how warm it was in the area this day, Saturday, and really, how warm it's been since, what? October, I think. Great Autumn to remember. (Don't forget it when we're freezing our tushies off, later).For clarification, too, I'm not going to turn this into my photography blog, either. I'll still continue to put my photos on my other blog (KC Photog Blog). It's just that this seemed like the perfect time, day and weekend to put these up, from the holiday weekend, as a way to keep up with the city and the Thanksgiving weekend.

 

I just threw this in to show how beautiful a day it was (as though we needed reminding, right?) and because I thought it turned out well, what with the light and clouds, etc. I will tell you, the streets were far more busy than this shows. It seemed everyone in town had the same idea--to go to the Plaza.

 

This was really refreshing for me and, I suspect, a lot of people--two young guys with their string instruments, playing for the public. (So you know, I'm a huge lover of string music, classical, in particular). They were in front of the Buca de Beppa Restaurant entrance.

 

And what would the Plaza be anymore, if not for the collection of cyclists and their cycles at Latte' Land, right?

 

And these beautiful people were helping collect donations for Salvation Army, of course, in front of Barnes and Noble bookstore.(It's admittedly not a great picture--the light on the sign is too harsh--but I wanted to make sure I put thse folks up, as a way of thanking them for their work and volunteering.

The annual "Thanksgiving weekend Elvis sighting on the Country Club Plaza"

 

To the Kansas City Star: Don't do us any favors

The headline on the front page of The Kansas City Star today is "When might Squitiro return?"

The Star shouldn't even pose the question.

The answer is, hopefully, bloody never.

I mean, really, if you're Mayor Mark Funkhouser or his wife, Gloria Squitiro, evntually common sense should hit and the conclusion should be that a) you've cost the city you're supposed to run enough money (one-half million dollars in settling the lawsuit against her and her big mouth, was just one example) and b) for pity's sake, you can give him advice from home all you want.

Give it up.

The follow-up section of the same, continued article, back on page A20 had the following headline for it, too: "Her advising of Funkhouser continues away from City Hall".

And that's as it should be.

Hopefully, we'll leave this little arrangement just as it is, for the benefit of the all involved, but most particularly, the city and citizens of Kansas City, Missouri.

Link: http://www.kansascity.com/637/story/1599158.html

Sanity and insanity on the Thanksgiving weekend

All from The Kansas City Star today.

First the insanity:

--some lunatic in Florida (thank God it was there) "opened fire on his family after Thanksgiving dinner."

I always wonder why these people don't do everyone a favor and put the gun at their own head, instead of anyone else. Granted, this guy is clearly nuts but, I ask you, wouldn't it be nice?

--The couple who crashed the White House State dinner the other night got to walk right up and meet and greet the President and First Lady.

Nearly unbelievable.

As I said, somebody's ass is out the door on that one.

--Now our Congress is considering doing a "Cash for clunkers" for appliances and that industry.

Really, our government needs to learn that we're unplugging a bit, as a consumer society. We've spent way too damned much money on virtually everything and the party is over. They need to stop throwing our own--now borrowed--money at us. First it was for houses--which they're likely going to extend--then it was for cars, now appliances. Give it up, ladies and gentelmen. We know we're over-extended on credit. When are you going to learn you are?

--Sady, some coupld from our own Columbia, Missouri fell asleep in a Caseyville, Illinois motel room "after leaving an infant and toddler in a running van outside."

Yikes.

I'm not even going to touch that irresponsibility and stupidity.

--Mayor Michael Bloomberg paid $100 million of his own money "to narrowly win a third term" for himself in New York City, "breaking his previous records for the most expensive self-financed political bid in US history..."

This is where we're headed, folks, with rich people buying our elections, only much worse, if we don't institute very real--and stringent--campaign finance reform.

--Former CNN host Lou Dobbs looks to be eyeing a run for President in 2012.

I'm not sure if I should laugh or cry.

--It looks more and more like some idiot with a bomb blew up a train in Russia, killing 25 people and injuring lots more, of course.

--This last one falls in the insanity and sanity column, both. I reported earlier that our city is going to have a two-day free health care clinic downtown at Bartle Hall. The insanity is that we have to do this, here in the United States.

The sanity:

--Again, that we are having a two-day free health care clinic downtown soon, at Bartle Hall. God bless all the people who are sacrificing their time, talent and energy to do this for the less well-off.

--The Governor of Bali had put in a request to sacrifice "hundreds of rare reptiles"--turtles--that were "to be killed for religious ceremonies."

Thank goodness common sense prevailed.

--I'd almost put money right now on KU's head coach Mark Mangino being fired very shortly--possibly as soon as tomorrow. It might not happen but after reading what he's said and done with his football players, I'm thinking it's a sure thing he's out. He was just too politically incorrect--and way off base.

--It looks like China and Russia are backing a nuclear limits ban on Iran through the UN. International cooperation always looks good.

--It's a beautiful weekend here in the midwest US and there are loads and loads of people helping and doing things for, their fellow man (person, whatever).

That's always terrific.

Have a great weekend, y'all.

Link: www.kansascity.com

For anyone and everyone who thinks we don't need health care reform

This is what too many of us have come to.

The Kansas City Star reports today that there will be a free health care clinic right here in our own little cowtown. It is to be a two day event at Bartle Hall December 9 and 10.

As I said, this is what health care has come to here in the US.

The richest country in the world has the most expensive--and least available--health care system in the world.

These free health care fairs have been done in the Appalachians, the West Coast (LA), the East Coast (West Virginia) and elsewhere. For too many of us, our insurance and insurance companies have priced us out of having good, sound health care.

It's undeniable but people and corporations deny it, regardless.

It's sad.

It's pathetic.

Maddening.

Did you know that the US is ranked 37th, internationally, when it comes to mortality rates?

Yeah, we are.

We are BEHIND Costa Rica on this.

Costa freakin' Rica, people.

Think we have the best health care system in the world?

Think again.

And did you see yesterday in the media that we are ranked number 3, again internationally, in terms of obesity rates?

I'm not saying that's anyone's fault but our own, individually, but it adds up to a really ugly health care picture.

If one more right-wing, closed-minded, uniformed, jingoistic chucklehead--family, friend, whatever--claims we don't need health care reform, I may well go apeshit on 'em.

Link: http://www.kansascity.com/115/story/1597536.html

Whole lotta' hatin' comin' on

The President is going to the United Nations first, it seems, on December 9, at the start of a 12 day session, then go to Oslo to accept the Nobel Peace Prize the next day.

Can you imagine how Glenn Beck, Rush "Porkulus" Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and all the folks at Faux News are salivating for this? I'm thinking they all figure they have a great deal to be thankful for.

They'll be trashing the UN, this Nobel Peace Prize--again or some more--and dissing on Mr. Obama all they can, every second.

Get ready. They're going to whip themselves into a holiday frenzy.

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/26/us/politics/26climate.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

Random thoughts on a wonderful, long, beautiful holiday weekend

--The Star reports that "A 17-year-old girl remained hospitalized this morning after she was shot on Thanksgiving night in central Kansas City." I can't write very long here, today, because I'm going to join the East side clergy who are going to be protesting this and the other shootings and killings of their fellow-citizens in the city. Yeah, right;

--The Kansas City Star reported this morning that drivers who already have suspended licenses are being picked up outside court in downtown Kansas City by the police. A couple things come to mind--first, good for the cops. This is a great idea. It should have been done years before now. And two, it was reported on, I think, KCTV5 a few days ago, on the evening news. What this means is that now the Star is following the local, crappy TV news coverage, which is notoriously lame. That's how bad it's gotten at the Star. Used to be, the Star scooped virtually all news organizations in town. No more, no surprise, sadly. So it goes;

--It isn't my goal to repeatedly complain about our local newspaper but one of the big stories on the front page this morning was that the Country Club Plaza Thanksgiving evening holiday lighting ceremony "is a balm in hard times." Really? If I'm unemployed--or underemployed--how is that going to give me comfort? And this is news how? And still, to this day, the Star hasn't done one more researching story on the ousting of the City Manager--they still haven't tried to ask the questions for us of just why he was let go. Oh, well. Que sera, sera;

--People are still, amazingly, writing in to the Star today, supporting now-ex-City Manager Wayne Cauthen. Nearly unbelieveable, but for being uninformed;

--Much more surprisingly, there was yet another letter to the editor in the paper, declaring that we, the people of Kansas City, should "Just give the man a chance to be the mayor and see what good things he can do for Kansas City." And she was serious. Of course, she lived in Leawood, Kansas but what the hell, right?;

--The Star editorial staff let Mike Hendricks write yet another op/ed column about how we should ride our bicycles to work. Yeah. Right. That's gonna happen. I really don't like or want to be cynical or sarcastic but that just patently isn't going to happen. Not here in America. Not with Americans. A few of us but darned few;

--If I could, I would never hear the term "Black Friday" ever again. Same with reports the last few days, continuing all weekend, I'm sure, about the shopping season. This morning, even NPR went WAY overboard with this. One of their reports said "people are looking to save money." Really? There's a surprise, huh?

--Then there's the Reno County (Hutchinson, Kansas) defense attorney who brings and presents a "dud" hand grenade in his closing remarks for his client's case to prove a point. Oh, yeah. There's a rocket scientist;

--Who would think it would ever, anymore, be possible to crash a State dinner at the White House, no matter who the President? It's for sure someone's job--or some people's jobs--will be sacrificed. Makes me want to crash a Ward Parkway or Mission Hills party one of these days. (Not actually, but suddenly seems much more possible);

--did you see where we (the US through the US Forest Service) just bought 1200 acres of "scenic meadow land...in the Sierra Nevada neard Truckee, CA" for $3 million? Sounds cool. I'd love to go see it. I don't know how we're going to take care of it, since we don't take care of our National Parks already but what the hell. At least, hopefully, the logging companies won't get it. Hopefully;

--did you know you could die if you get stuck upside down in a cave for 24 hours? Who knew? (And I'm not being flip about the young man's death);

--Fortunately for everyone--and Wal-Mart in particular--apparently no one was killed this year, trying to get that terrific holiday bargain in the early-morning hours. (And now that I think of it, how would you like to be remembered as "the person who was trampled to death on Thanksgiving morning, trying to get that perfect holiday bargain"?);

--It's great, I think, to sit at a Panera's restaurant, writing a local blog, while listening to your favorite music, while all about you is near-chaos. (Right now, Andrea Bocelli singing "Ave Maria").

Okay, everyone, go out there and have a terrific holiday weekend!

Links:
http://www.kansascity.com/news/breaking_news/story/1596294.html
http://www.kansascity.com/934/gallery/1596068.html
http://www.kansascity.com/934/gallery/1578438.html
http://www.kansascity.com/115/story/1595583.html
http://voices.kansascity.com/node/6681
http://www.kansascity.com/340/story/1595391.html
http://blogs.kansascity.com/unfettered_letters/2009/11/cauthens-dismissal.html