OK, maybe it wasn’t very moving in the usual way this week. No hostility and no kicking around the local politicos. But it’s what’s going on in my life right now. And after all, moving sucks! Hope you enjoy the column, either way.
Frankly, the moving experience is about as much fun as losing a major limb in a wheat thresher.
Feel sorry for me.
I don’t know if anyone saw Channel 10 tonight, but they ran a story prefaced with all the anger and disgust Bob and the new gal could muster. The story, about a guy in Florida who got his 85-year-old granny suffering from dementia to pretend to be a gangsta for a video he was doing, was run despite the anchor’s warnings that it was disturbing, or disgusting or some other such thing.
Number one, the story’s from Florida, so what the hell do we care about it? Number two, if it’s so damn disgusting and horrific, why run it? Number three, it’s not like the kid hurt granny, all he did was have her dress funny, wave a pistol and curse. My grandmother did that all the time. Elder abuse? Not quite. Stupid? Perhaps. Funny? Well, SOME people might think so.
But I get so tired of the local stations scouring the world for outrageous stories, then breathlessly telling us how awful what they’re about to show us is. Wouldn’t the space be better used for doing some more in-depth reporting? Letting the meteorologist develop a weather boner over light rain and humidity every night for 10 minutes, then hitting us with some supposedly disgusting video from WeeWaw, Wisconsin just doesn’t make sense to me.
We’ve got plenty of perverts right here in River City. Get out there and find them! Then the anchors can tsk, tsk our local pervs at least. Really, most of the time watching more than the first five minutes of the local news seems superfluous. WPMI often leads with this stuff, too, or features it as their second story. Certainly there’s a story on the guy who was walking down Spring Hill Ave. in a housecoat yesterday. I bet he’s abused someone recently, or been abused.
Get local and stay local, guys. And please cut back on the weather unless something’s actually happening.
The recent crime spree in Mobile has a lot of people, particularly some of my brethren in the news media, pointing the finger at downtown and it’s nearby neighborhoods. And yes, there have been some crimes in my Oakleigh neighborhood and in downtown, but it’s happening all over town. In my latest column I talk about this situation. The Loop has been hard hit, and there have even been holdups in tony Spring Hill. People try to keep it quiet.
I know the company line at City Hall is that crime really hasn’t risen, but I’m not buying that. Maybe the number of armed robberies is the same, but no one cares when someone hanging out at a juke joint on Michigan Avenue at midnight gets robbed. When it’s the Blockbuster at the Loop that’s held up, that’s another story.
The cops I’ve talked to all say they need more help. More people patrolling. That’s the answer. Stop the stupid roadblocks and trying to catch people with expired insurance, and patrol more. Get more guys and gals out there with handcuffs, tasers and pistols. That’s what we need.
Even though Chicago is Boeing’s corporate HQ, we all know it’s heart and soul is Seattle. In my latest column, I talk about how all this tanker business is starting to make people around here hate on the Emerald City. (more…)
I’m not sure how powerful my psychic friend’s predictive powers are, but I called my old buddy Nostridumas the other night to find out how we might benefit from the Northop/EADS contract. Of course that was before Boeing protested. Wait, shouldn’t he have known that was coming?
While it always makes me nervous when politics are involved, I think Boeing will get spanked, as they should, and this contract will help transform this city.
And before any of you ask, no, I was not on acid when I wrote this insanity.
OK, looks like my iffy source was half right. Fortunately the part he was wrong about was us getting half. We got the WHOLE Air Force tanker contract. Big stuff for our city.
We already were expected to be one of the fastest-growing cities in the country over the next five years - now this!
The people who helped put this deal together deserve a lot of congratulations and perhaps a few beers!
OK, I’ve been hearing all week that “Today’s the Day” for the Northrop/EADS v. Boeing announcement. So I’m skeptical. But I did hear again this a.m. from a quasi-reliable source that it’s going to happen after the stock market closes today and will be a split of the contract between us and them.
I’ve thought all along this baby will eventually be split. It’s too much money and too big an opportunity for Washington to make everyone happy. (Unless you start thinking about how much money is being spent.)
Even a split would be HUGE for Mobile. It gets us into real aerospace production and puts lots of jobs just five minutes from downtown.
If you drive by Bienville Square and see the Chamber of Commerce leadership doing cannonballs into the fountain at about 5 p.m., you’ll know we got it.
Let’s keep our collective fingers crossed.
There may be a new superintendent and a relatively new school board president, but it looks like it’s business as usual at the former Barton Academy. Fleet Belle and Hazel Fournier got busted earlier this month having a secret meeting with a school board employee.
I have my doubts things will ever change with this gang in charge. I hope Dr. Nichols will have the cajones to at least try to keep them honest. His dazzling salary may make that hard to do, though.
Well, I guess I’ll start my blogging career writing about the rebel flag Ben George and his cronies ran up a giant flagpole along I-10 near Grand Bay recently. We’ve gotten a good bit of feedback on my Jan. 28 column on the matter. There have already been a couple of letters denouncing my opinion that ran in the issue out now, but the real doozies are on their way in the next issue.
I think some people misunderstand what I’m trying to say. I’m not against the Rebel flag. I think it makes a great pair of shorts or bandanna. I just don’t think its proponents can do anything that will keep most people from associating the flag with redneckism or flat-out racism. Dr. George acts like he put the flag out there to preserve history, but I think he did it just to provoke people.
He called the other day and gave me his usual spiel that I’m a “cultural bigot” and then said blood would be on my hands when some kid gets shot wearing a Dixie Outfitters shirt. If blood’s on anyone’s hands, I’d think it would be on those of the person who shoot someone over a T-shirt, if, indeed, that ever happens. (Super doubtful.)
I think the Confederate Flag does have a place in society — a museum or in a cemetery. Flying along the side of the road just reinforces the perception that Alabama is a backward, redneck state.
Frankly, I’m hoping a natural disaster takes that embarrassing eyesore away sometime soon.
Hey folks, Lagniappemobile.com now has a way for you to offer your take on what’s in your favorite local newspaper. We hope you’ll find this to be a great place to exchange ideas and let us know what you think.
So let’s have some fun.