Lincolnite

First New London, Connecticut, convinces the U.S. Supreme Court to legalize the theft of private property. Now, New London wants the plaintiffs in Kelo v. New London to pay back rent on the land the city claimed back in 2000. Plus, New London only plans to pay the landowners the "fair market value" -- a scam in itself, since New London only plans to pay what its assessors determine to be the "fair market value," not what the market determines to be the fair market value -- of the property as it was in 2000. Some victims could lose tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Two questions: First, if the city is demanding back rent, aren't the victims entitled to interest on the payments the city has not yet made? Second, if the land is worth so much -- one landowner may have to pay approximately $6,100 per month in back rent -- how could it have been considered "blighted," and thus subject to government sanctioned property theft eminent domain in the first place?

Jean Charles de Menezes was killed by London police shortly after the second (botched) tube bombings last month. The police say it was a reasonable mistake. de Menezes was wearing a light jacket, not the heavy, weather-inappropriate jacket initially claimed by witnesses; he didn't jump the turnstile, he entered the tube legally and calmly; he wasn't wearing a belt with wires protruding, he didn't have his electrician's belt with him that day; he was shot in the head, seven times, after having been pinned to the ground; and none of this was caught on any of the several cameras in the area because, by freak coincidence, they were all out of order. The Observer asks many relevant questions including, why did plainclothes officers shoot young Jean Charles de Menezes seven times in the head, thinking he posed a terror threat? Somebody has some 'splainin' to do.

I have a not-so-hypothetical question for you all. Gas prices are climbing, that's no secret. How high will they have to climb before you make substantial changes to your lifestyle, either by force or by choice? What will those changes entail? I don't plan to make many changes, regardless of the price of gas. Being a Star Tran user I hardly drive my own vehicle, which can go well over a month on a single tank of gas. Driving around the region to officiate soccer and baseball games could get pricey. Colleges pay mileage, so their games aren't a problem. For games at other levels I would just need to decide how far I'm willing to drive before demanding a raise. The Missus drives about 70 miles each weekday, so we'll take a hit there. But fortunately her car gets reasonable gas mileage. Beyond that, well, I suppose we'll take vacations closer to home. But we don't take very many vacations, so that is hardly an issue. Flights to the in-laws' place in Albuquerque will likely become more expensive, but the in-laws pay for or subsidize The Missus's tickets and I only go once per year (or less). In short, we are situated pretty well. For now. Knock on wood. Update: Prices could be worse!

The Missus had to report to work today for the first day of school. With class sizes hovering around 30 (and likely to increase) and a crop of new students described as "the class from hell," she has her work cut out for her. On the plus side, at least she'll get a raise this fall since she has completed a certain number of graduate credits (15?) on her way to her Masters.

Turn up the volume, sit back, and pray that you don't see yourself in this montage.

The LJS apparently loves hybrid vehicles so much they decided to print an article about them twice in Sunday's paper. I shouldn't be surprised. The Sunday paper is quickly approaching 0% content/100% advertisements. That the LJS would print the same article twice on the same day is pretty consistent with the overall quality of the Sunday rag.

There was an interesting article in the LJS today about the rivalry between the "Gourmet Grill" and "Ali Baba's" on the corner of 14th and O. It was nice to get some comprehensive history on these two joints so kudos to the LJS for this one. I should add, I can chime in a bit on a few of the issues/observations raised in the article: 1) It is also my observation that Naqib isn't exactly the friendliest guy in the world. He could learn a lot from George in this respect (or for that matter George's main helper - the guy who always looks like he just rolled out of bed). 2) Although Naqib may not be so personable, his brother and nephew are actually really nice guys. And 3) - you heard it here folks: not sure if this is provable or not - but it is rumored that the GG uses Kronos gyro meat products (ie known for that ubiquitous "smiling woman" poster) whereas Ali Baba's uses Grecian Delight. Having known others in the fast food greek/mideast grill type industry, it is well known in that community that Grecian Delight is the superior (and more expensive) gyro meat than Kronos, and the distinguishing diner can tell. Which is why I go to Ali Baba's regularly and prefer it to the Gourmet Grill. But beyond gyros - the grilled chicken kabobs are the best - and ask them to use tandoori seasoning as well on it.

Power went out for an hour or two (I wasn't really paying attention) in parts of Lincoln today. We here at the Wilson homestead (48th & Highway 2 area) were among the affected. I received reports that folks both north and south of the 40th & Old Cheney area noticed their lights flicker, but their power did not actually go out. Who else was affected? Does anybody have any information on the cause?

I am such a grown-up. I was in a working mood today. I had originally planned to work in the yard, but the rain stymied most of those plans. Instead, I decided to do something that wouldn't require me to get soaked. Now, there are a hundred things I could have chosen to do. But for some reason I opted for one of the least desirable of all options: I decided to clean the garage. Garage cleaning is no fun. It's made even less fun when you don't do it often enough. There were enough leaves in my garage to re-leave half the trees in the neighborhood. Fortunately, I had a new weapon at my disposal: a brand new shop-vac. Between the very sucky (that's a good thing) shop-vac and a very capable shop broom I managed to make the garage look like, well, a clean garage. I reckon it'll stay that way for about two days. While I ate lunch I decided to read some of the packets of information sent to me by the adoption agency. The most recent packets concerned the trials and tribulations of interracial adoptions. I've not made it all the way through, but so far the materials fall into one of two groups: 1) well-written, frank descriptions of things to think about when considering an interracial adoption; and 2) racist liberal bullshit more obnoxious than anything even Al Sharpton could come up with. (Lest you think that, by calling the material "liberal bullshit," I am identifying myself as a flaming conservative, allow me to remind you that I also point out conservative bullshit with just as much scorn.) The toilet paper literature I read today reinforced my intention to track our adoption experiences here at Lincolnite. I want to shed light on the positives and the negatives of our experiences so that others can learn from us. The crap I read today wil l certainly become the subject of a blog post or full article. Heck, if I continue to find so much of the material on interracial adoptions unsatisfactory, perhaps I should gather my thoughts into a book. Certainly there are others out there who, like me, are adopting interracially, but who don't enjoy being told constantly that: white people are racists; white people have no culture; and you are morally corrupt if you fail to raise your child exactly the way somebody else says you should. Before I close this post, I should make one thing clear: I am not trying to link our adoption agency with these ideas. The materials they have given to us were authored by others. They were printed in various newsletters, journals, newspapers, and so on. The agency itself may or may not collectively agree with the stuff they send us. It is entirely possible that the materials they send our way are just what are available to them. After all, there aren't that many domestic interracial adoptions going on. It is fair to assume that there are not, in turn, very many written materials to turn to. I will find out more about the agency's own beliefs when The Missus and I go to their training session in September. Until then, I'm going to assign no particular ideology to the adoption agency. If I find out they have one, whatever it may be, I will pass it on to you.

The Missus and I hit Ribfest tonight. It was the first time I had ever been to Ribfest in the evening; typically I visit during the day since I work Downtown. Overall it was a great experience. I do have some gripes, all of them directed at Johnson's BBQ. For one thing, their service was pathetic and slow. In part that was because they used local help (high school aged girls). I'm not bashing the girls necessarily, although they didn't go out of their way to provide anything better than mediocre service. Considering they were probably being paid minimum wage and I'm certain they received only scant directions on what to do, I can't really fault them. The behind-the-scenes workers -- that is, the guys actually running the joint -- were lazy and slow. I realize they're probably tired, but 1) it's only day one of a weekend-long event, and 2) I'm paying them way too much money for them to be bums. I ordered a BBQ pork sandwich. The pork was barely (and I do mean barely) done, and the sauce was pathetic. I'm not sure what it was called, but even Kraft pulls off a better barbecue sauce. Last year I ordered their thermonuclear sauce. Now that was a sauce that was worth the money. Anyway, my suggestion: skip Johnson's this year. For an encore I decided to try some ribs from Rasta Joe's. I had overheard a guy talking about how good they were, so I figured I'd check them out myself. Not only was the sauce about 65 times better than the Johnson's miserable sluice, the ribs were very tender and the meat was impressively flavorful. Rasta Joe's saved the day. Throughout the evening Soul Dawg performed on the stage. They started off a little rough, but they really picked up steam as they went along. Their peak was probably early in their second set when everything really clicked. By the time they finished for the evening they had drawn quite a crowd around the stage. There was even s ome (playful) booing when they wrapped up and didn't play an encore. The highlight of the evening, other than Rasta Joe's ribs, was definitely overhearing two guys in line behind me discuss one's sexual escapades with his lactating wife. I'll spare you the details.

Ever since I began the blogroll a few weeks ago I've noticed the hits on this site jumping a fair bit. The new visitors haven't been commenting, but that's ok. I don't mind lurkers. Hi lurkers! For those of you who don't know what this whole Lincolnite thing is about, I suppose I should explain. Eventually Lincolnite will be a neato community resource for the city of Lincoln. But it's a work in progress. I chip away at it when I can. If you have any suggestions, or if you would just like to de-lurk, drop me a note in the comments.

James Dobson offers some helpful advice on how to keep your son from catching The Gay. An excerpt:

Meanwhile, the boy's father has to do his part. He needs to mirror and affirm his son's maleness. He can play rough-and-tumble games with his son, in ways that are decidedly different from the games he would play with a little girl. He can help his son learn to throw and catch a ball. He can teach him to pound a square wooden peg into a square hole in a pegboard. He can even take his son with him into the shower, where the boy cannot help but notice that Dad has a penis, just like his, only bigger.

If I didn't know better I would've sworn Dobson's piece was really written by somebody from Landover Baptist.

I'm headed off to Ribfest in a couple hours. I hope you are planning to attend. Even if you're not a pork fan there are plenty of other options, including beef, chicken, and a little seafood. Vegetarian? Uhh, I think you might be out of luck. You could always chew on a used napkin or something. Everybody's favorite band Soul Dawg -- featuring my high school track coach (and cross country coach, and history teacher, and citizenship issues teacher) Ted, and my favorite substitute trumpet teacher and fellow bus rider Joel -- is performing tonight at 6:30. Look for me near the stage; I'll be the one trying to throw rib bones into Ted's saxophone.

Have any of you who ride Star Tran -- all 25 of you -- ever noticed how friendly the riders are to the bus drivers? I'm not talking about "the regulars" who know the drivers and go to their kids' birthday parties. I mean the occasional riders, or the ones who ride frequently but who don't ever interact with the drivers. I'll bet a good 75% of the riders say either "Thanks" or "Have a good day" when exiting the bus, even when leaving via the back door. And they even say those things to the crappy and/or surly drivers. I first thought about this after talking with a friend who currently lives in New Jersey. She was very surprised by how different the people are, and she noted that she earns curious stares when she says things like "Thank you" to folks like store clerks. If nothing else, the fact that Lincolnites say "Thanks" to their bus drivers is yet another small reason that I enjoy living in Lincoln.

CNN's recent story on cargo security at U.S. airports highlights the ridiculousness of harassing the crap out of passengers -- the most common offense of whom is carrying a pocket knife or nail file -- while ignoring the larger danger of unscreened cargo. Why do we so assault grandma's dignity in search of razor blades when the real danger lies elsewhere? Two reasons. First, the TSA's actions within airport terminals are visible. Thus, they can claim "See, we're doing something about the terrorist threat!" Even though in reality the TSA's largest success is as a massive jobs program. Second, there are no good or cheap ways to screen all the cargo that makes its way onto America's airliners. Any attempted solutions using today's infrastructure would hardly make a difference. The United States loves to overreact to yesterday's terrorist tactics. That's why today you can't take a pocket knife onto a flight or carry an unsearched bag onto a subway car. Personally, I would rather defend against today's or tomorrow's terrorist tactics. We can't say we don't know what those tactics will be. Stumped? Ask Hollywood. Or ask anybody. Terrorists aren't likely to use any tactics that haven't already been thought of -- and warned about -- by dozens of people.