Mission Destruction

I snapped this photo the other day at the corner of Nall Ave and Johnson Drive while picking up my dry cleaning.

According to my highly reliable inside source, Dave the Barber, the work is part of the Rock Creek Floodplain Improvement Project. Dave says all the buildings along the south side of Johnson Drive for several blocks will be removed (you might have noticed a lot of empty buildings if you drive by there).

The long-term plan is to replace the "creek" with culverts, a new bridge on Nall, Rock Creek channel improvements (including a linear park) an outdoor amphitheatre and new retail buildings.

It should be a great improvement to complement work being done as part of the East Gateway project, not to mention the environmental and quality of life benefits of having more green space

tagged: Mission, Kansas, redevelopment, Nall, Johnson, Rock Creek, environmentalist

Fair game

Blogger extraordinaire Dan at Gone Mild published a biting criticism of efforts to do away with the death tax.

In it, he gave an explanation about the inevitability of taxation. I'm here to agree with him, but I'll put a little more bluntly.

Taxes suck.

Yes, we all (well, okay, not all, actually an increasingly small number of us) have to pony up for the privilege of living in the best country on the planet.

It falls upon us to finance smooth roads (in Kansas that is, not Missouri), sewer systems and drinking water as well as the bloated, inefficient government and cable TV and telephones for the poor.

I get it. Taxes are a fact of life. And, as I said, I agree with Dan. They suck.

Where I disagree with Dan is this notion that our current system of taxation is fair. I've thought about it, and I can't really think of a way to make a fair tax system unless we institute some kind of voluntary mass user fee system.

But as Dan would say, even thinking about something so radical is for the simple minded. And, in fact, I've come to grips with taxation not being fair. After all, life isn't fair. Never has been never will be, so you'd better just get used to it.

Regarding the death tax specifically, Dan says

"I don't think that the joy of inheritance suffers unduly when the amount over $4,000,000 is subjected to a tax burden. My heart does not bleed for the rich kids who get only $4,000,000."

Very nice to be so cavalier with other peoples' money. We might not like was "rich" people do with their money, but it's still their money. Whatever happened to property rights?

I guess what vexes me most about the whole discussion is the self deception and sense of entitlement. We all know that it's not fair for the government to take from someone the result of their life's work and give it to someone else. We all know that it's not fair for me to get paid for 56 hours of work even though I worked 80 hours.

Why not a little honesty? Why not just say "Yeah, we know it's not fair, but you have money and other people need it, so we're going to take it from you and spend it on something else. Sorry mate."

tagged: death, tax, inheritance, fair, property rights

YouTube Tuesday: Mr. & Mrs. Brady

I've been getting a lot of hits from Belgium on the Robot Chicken video of Palpatine learning about the destruction of Death Star (my link to the clip got posted on a Belgian message board).

So, in an effort to further pander to the Belgians, I'm adding this clip, again from the comic geniuses at Robot Chicken. This time, they're brutally satirizing the entertainment industry (ironic, no?) by mashing up the Brady Bunch with the BrAngelina non-hit Mr. and Mrs Smith.

The results? Better than both originals.



tagged: movie, YouTube, video, TV, Brady Bunch, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Brangelina, humor, culture, Belgium, Robot Chicken

All in all, not a bad day

I'm still relatively new at the whole Father's Day thing, this being my third. But I'm starting to get the hang of it.

Slept late. Opened a hand-made gift from my daughter and a store-bought gift from my Super Model Wife.

Casual lunch at a casual dining restaurant, then gelato in the River Market. A nice stroll through the market and an easy ride home.

It's not really what you do, but with whom you spend the quality time. And this time, it was high quality.

tagged: Father's Day, family, gellato, River Market, Kansas City, Skagen

KGB Carnival for June 19

As always, Kansas bloggers had a prolific week. Some great posts on a range of topics. Let's kick it...

• j.d. waxes nostalgic with four years of evolution...
  
  
• ...Then he hits the daily double with space colonies.
  
  
• Whole Wheat Blogger informs us that Steve Benson doesn't like the Marines.
  
  
• jdoublep is in the pink (in a creepy but funny way) with Yeah, it seemed a sweet idea at the time.
  
  
• Steph McCarty feasts on Salads and tea at the Rubrics Twist cafe.
  
  
• Lyn shouts Bravo! Bravo. Not! at Bloggin' Outloud.
  
  
• Paul Decelles gives Kudos for the Kansas State Board of Education at The force that through....
  
  
• John B. at Blog Meridian gets the hell into Dodge with Reading signs: A trip to Dodge City.
  
  
• Happy in Bag posts some intriguing pictures of summertime night time visitors.
  
  
• Big Simon takes on an Inconvenient Truth.

And the honorary Kansas Guild of Bloggers entry for this week is:

• Amy says Mr. and Mrs. Citizen, your state's being held back at Wandering Amylessly.

Wow! Some damn good posts if I do say so my damn self! Great job guys. Keep up the good work and don't wait to submit your posts for next week's roundup. Also, if you're interested in hosting the KGB Carnival in an upcoming week, drop me a line to let me know.

Finally, if you haven't done so yet, add your pin to the KGB Frappr map. We know how to find you anyway, so you might as well...

Cheers!

tagged: Kansas, blog, blogger, carnival, KGB, evolution, space colonies, Steve Benson, Dodge City, bravo

Kansas, get your blog on

Thanks again to everyone who submitted posts last week for the Kansas Guild of Bloggers carnival, even though I forgot to post a reminder.

Well, this week I reminded myself to remind you so here it is: Please submit your posts for Monday's KGB Carnival. We've already got some great submissions, but go ahead and get yours in early.

Also, send emails and posts (hell, email this post) to all your friends and enemies to submit a post for the roundup. And don't forget to mention this call for entries on your blog and include the submit link. I'll post it on Monday, so try to get the submissions in by Sunday afternoon.

Also, if you interested in hosting the KGB Carnival, let me know and we'll set that up too. Like most things, this is a lot more fun when more people participate.

Thanks. Check back Monday for the roundup.

tagged: Kansas, blog, blogger, carnival, KGB

Horizontal

Here's something fun to do some weekend.

Get up at about 5 a.m. Hop in your car and head southwest out of Kansas City on I-35. Keep going for about about 3 hours and you'll arrive in Wichita. Now exit onto US Highway 54 and keep going west. Keep going. Keep going... more... more.

After about four more hours, you'll arrive in Liberal, Kan. Wasn't that fun?

Along the way, you will have noticed the landscape taking on a decidedly horizontal nature. John B. at Blog Meridian noted this phenomenon during a recent trip to Dodge City.

Most people I know--even, in one case, a student I'm teaching this summer who is FROM there--would wonder, What would bring otherwise-sane people out there? To live, no less?

I lived/worked in Liberal for about two and a half years, and it's true. At first blush, it appears that there is nothing but grass, sky and roadsigns in southwest Kansas.

But believe me, if you look more closely there is much more there. The tastes, textures and colors are there, but in much finer gradations than in urban areas. It's like comparing a subtle French-style wine to a bold-tasting Californian, or exploring the abstract and complex hues of a Mark Rothko.

You have to work a little harder, spend a little time and dig under the surface, but in the end it's worth it.

Here are a few my personal observations from living there.

• The people are very nice, congenial even, but only from a distance at first. There is a feeling that they know you're "just passing through" and that you have no real interest in getting to know the lay of the land. But they're okay with it. Life there isn't for everyone.
• For me, living in an area so dominated by vast expanses of earth and sky provided a great deal of perspective. Standing on the "hill" on the Liberal golf course, you can see forever on a clear day. You can watch towering thunderstorm clouds barreling down the prairie from miles away. It was a clear message that I, a mere human, am insignificant in comparison to the vastness of nature/creation.
• Ancient resources like the Ogallala Aquifer (a giant underground sponge full of water) and the Hugoton Gas Field - the largest natural gas deposit in the North America (aside from Al Franken)- contributed to my sense of perspective in time. There I was, living a few feet above water that dates back to the last ice age.

I guess the point is that all places are interesting and have their own kind of beauty. Sometimes it's more overt and in-you-face. Sometimes you have to get under the surface to find it.

But if you're only looking at roadsigns, that's all you'll see.

tagged: Kansas, perspective, Dodge City, Mark Rothko, Ogalla Aquifer, Hugoton, Liberal

Carlin v. Coulter

I made a special point to switch from Letterman over to Leno last night to watch Carlin v. Coulter.

I'm a huge George Carlin fan. Always have been. He's got such a great way with words and he's never been afraid to say anything. Ann Coulter was also a guest.

Obviously, like the rest of the shallow minded, I was hoping to see a train-wreck of a clash between Carlin and Coulter, two people of opposite and outspoken political views.

Fortunately (or unfortunately for those of us hoping to see fireworks) the segment was very civil. Carlin cracked wise a couple of times ("I never thought I would move to the right of Ann Coulter" he said, as he made room on the guest couch), but he pretty much let her have her moment.

And Coulter did an adequate job presenting herself. She didn't crash and burn, but she didn't knock anyone's socks off.

Of course much hay was made of the recent quasi-controversial remark she made in her book re: 9/11 wives. I really don't see what's so controversial, given the context of the comment.

My biggest problem with Coulter (and others like her on all sides of the political spectrum) is the pervasive "we verses they" world view. Liberals verses Conservatives (neocons). It's not very conducive to debate and progress.

But then, progress isn't really the objective. As I pointed out on STP's Coulter post and Dan pointed out today, people like Coulter (and Michael Moore, Arianna Huffington , et. alii.) are really in the business of generating buzz to gather readers and sell books, syndicate columns, etc. And in this regard you, me and all the rest who talk, write and comment about them are complicit.

tagged: Ann Coulter, George Carlin, Jay Leno, politics, culture, Michael Moore, liberal, conservative

You know it was a great party when...

These three words appear together: hippie airbrushed boobies.

Thanks for the pics NCTRNL.

tagged: Wakarusa, festival, Lawrence, hippie, airbrush, boobies, party

Tropical depressing

I feel really bad for AlGore today.

Lately AlGore has been at the height of his propaganda power, eclipsing even the great Michael Moore with his magnum opus An Inconvenient Truth, a so-called documentary about how evil Republicans are causing global warming in an attempt increase unemployment for brown people and make loads of money off of a hurricane-induced shrimp shortage.

Yes, AlGore has been flying high on the winds of a predicted record number of named Atlantic and Gulf Coast hurricanes headed our way this season while residents of New Orleans continue the struggle to recover after last year's Hurricane Katrina.

But this past weekend took a little bit of wind out of his sails.

As Tropical Storm Alberto rumbled toward the Florida coast, one could almost see AlGore and the Goreites salivating at the prospect of another chance to score political points from another vicious storm. And even though weather scientists remained calm, some chicken littles got their hopes up that we would see yet another hurricane as the storm intensified over a three-hour period.

But alas, Alberto just didn't have the right stuff. He sauntered onshore with lots of rain, but from an AlGore perspective, was pretty anticlimactic (anticlimatic?).

So let's hope, for AlGore's sake, that the next weather system to come across the Atlantic is a little more menacing. By the end of Hurricane Season 2006, if all goes well and millions end up dead or homeless, AlGore may still have something to smile about going into election season.

tagged: Al Gore, hurricane, Katrina, global warning, Florida, politics, environmentalist