Oh, the irony

J.D. at Evolution updated us yesterday on the Shawnee County government's ban on a Libertarian fund raiser. Evidently, the fundraiser was banned because the planned location was a privately owned nudist camp.

So the judges in Topeka think it's okay to restrict the rights of private landowners because they don't like the idea of a nudist camp.

But I guess if there was a God Hates Fags rally going on, it would have been constitutionally protected.

Mmmkay...

tagged: nudist, Topeka, Kansas, politics, Libertarian

Re: Cycling

I'm totally stoked about sports. Not baseball (the Royals extinguished that fire long ago) and certainly not World Cup Yawner (er, Soccer).

Nope. It's finally Tour De France time. This year's edition of the Tour was wide open even before it started with living legend Lance Armstrong finally out to pasture in his retirement. My Supermodel Wife and I were looking forward to seeing a big race among the previous years' also rans, including contenders Jan Ullrich, Ivan Basso and Joseba Beloki.

But the day before the race kicked off, a Spanish doping probe (heh) named those two as well as several other riders. They were summarily kicked out of the race, leaving the race for anyone to win, even another American.

And through the first week, the race hasn't disappointed. As of today, Aussie Robbie McEwen has won three of the first six stages. Yet he still can't get past Belgium's Tom Boonen.

And thanks to the new DVR, I don't have to miss a minute of the Tour coverage, which is aired locally at an inconvenient 8:30 a.m.

I have only two beefs with the coverage this year. First is that it's not in high-definition, and second is, what's with that gap-toothed bonehead Bob Roll. Is he the token American? Get someone whose more telegenic.

Anyway, tomorrow is the big individual time trial. It could have a major impact on the rest of the race so don't miss it. Or if you do, make sure to DVR it.

tagged: sport, baseball, soccer, cycling, Tour de France, DVR, Lance Armstrong, Tom Boonen, Robbie McEwen

Good, bad, ugly

My absence from the blogiverse this week was due to a relaxing five-day weekend at my parents house in the country. It was followed of course by a harrowingly stressful return to the office, but let us not dwell on the negative.

One of the great things about a vacation in the country is observing the good, the bad and the ugly of nature.

The good: My mother has cultivated an amazing flock of humming birds this summer. The tiny flying missiles were almost a better show than the fireworks as they buzzed and dive bombed the feeders around mom's deck. Mom shot an excellent picture of one of them feeding. I hope to post it in the near future.

The bad: Nature can be brutal. I was fishing off the dam one evening when I felt a slight tug on the line. I pulled the line in to find a three-inch long crawdad munching on the bait. He had a death grip on the line, so I brought it on shore to show my three-year old daughter. She'd never seen such a creature before, so she was impressed. But she was smart enough not to get too close to the business end of the claws.

When show-and-tell was over, I dropped the mudpuppy on the ground near the creek and watched as he made his way to the water. He was a few feet from the water's edge when I saw a sudden movement. A giant bull frog has spotted the movement and in a flash he had pounced on the crawdad and swallowed the back two-thirds of the unfortunate crustacean. Within a few seconds, the struggle was over. The frog had eaten the crawdad whole, except for a single claw that had been bitten off and lay flexing on the ground. I felt kind of like Marlin Perkins.

The ugly: We've been home for a couple of days. I'm sitting on the couch last night petting Dexter the Dynamic Jack Russell Terrier, who had accompanied us on our trip to the wilderness. As I scratched him behind the ears, which he loves, I felt an unfamiliar lump. I figured he had a burr stuck in his coat from his adventures in the wild. But upon close inspection, I found the burr to be a small tick feasting on canine blood.

Ticks aren't allowed in our house by decree of my Supermodel Wife. So Dexter and I went outside to remove the hitchhiker. With some effort I pulled him off and decided a further inspection was warranted. We discovered another tick on Dexter's cheek (a smaller one this time) and two more behind each of his front legs.

We removed each of the critters with the help of some tweezers, and they were summarily crushed on the sidewalk by my Supermodel Wife.

I went inside to wash my hands. But for the rest of the night, I kept feeling "things" crawling on my skin and in my hair. That kind of thing really gives me the creeps.

tagged: vacation, country, frog, crawdad, humming bird, tick, dog, nature

Is there anybody in there?

Hello? Echo? Is anybody left around here?

After a brief blogging hiatus for some vacation travel and work recovery, I wanted to click out a quick post to pimp the next edition of the Kansas Guild of Bloggers Carnival.

As you know, Joel Matthis at Cup O' Joel hosted last Monday's KGB Carnival, and in my humble opinion, he did one hell of a good job. Let's all give him a round of applause...

Everyone go over to Joe's and leave a comment. He deserves it.

Now, on to the next big announcement. Next week's edition of the carnival will be hosted by John B. at BlogMeridian. John is a regular contributor to the KGB, and one of the few KGB bloggers who isn't from Northeast Kansas.

So let's help John have a great carnival. Remember to submit your favorite blog posts from this week to John. You can use this handy submit link, which makes everything easier on the host.

tagged: Kansas, blog, blogger, carnival, KGB

YouTube Tuesday: Special Independence Day Edition

My Supermodel Wife and I are heading out of town for some holiday travel, but I wanted to leave you with this special Fourth of July message.

During this holiday weekend, it's important to have fun and celebrate our country's independence. Despite all of our problems, the American experiment continues to be a rousing success.

So eat, drink and be merry. But it's also important to remember safety, especially when celebrating the traditional way with fireworks.

Remember, in the interest of fireworks safety, please keep you fireworks away from your mannequins and watermelons.

tagged: movie, YouTube, video, TV, Independence Day, The Daily Show, fireworks, Fourth of July, watermelons, mannequins, humor, culture

Not news to me

Sometimes I wonder how Larry Moore sleeps at night.

Here's this supposedly mature, ostensibly credible so-called journalist who, by the looks of his gray hair and wrinkled skin (man, high definition really brings out the detail) has been in the TV news business for a while, and I have absolutely no respect for him.

It's not just the lame, banal unwisecracks he makes during the segment segues. And it's not just the sensationalist teasers that have become so commonplace that they don't even work any more.

It's the actual content of what he chooses (or, more probably, his bosses choose) to present.

I mean, how in the hell does Britney Spears posing nude and pregnant on a magazine cover rate a story on the local news coverage. Hell, Tony didn't even stoop that low.

And, to be fair, it's not just Larry Moore. He's just the most goobery of all the local news stations who pretty much give the same report every night.

So here's a hint for the so-called local, so-called news organization: If you're presenting something as news it should be NEW!. Reporting Friday on a building collapse that happened Monday isn't news. If anything, it's olds.

Reporting that Britney Spears is white trash attention whore isn't news. Everybody already knows that. And besides, Larry Moore, why do you think anyone cares.

If you want to maintain any kind of relevancy, quit broadcasting trash. Stop serving mental junk food and give us something with some intellectual protein.

tagged: Kansas City, local, news, media, Larry Moore, Britney Spears, nude, pregnant

Quick reminder

Hey bloggers...

Don't forget that Monday's Kansas Guild of Bloggers Carnival will be hosted by Joel Matthis at Cup O' Joel.

Make sure to submit your favorite blog post by Sunday afternoon. (Actually, as uptight as Joel is, I'm sure he would appreciate the submission even sooner... like, NOW!). Use the submit link, or email Joel or myself a link if you want to be included.

Also, help get the word out by including the submit link on your blog and letting your friends (or, in my case, friend) know about this thing of ours.

tagged: Kansas, blog, blogger, carnival, KGB

Noble Rot

Kansas leads the nation on many issues. Paved roads per capita and anti-gay bigot funeral picketing, for example.

Kansas is also the leader in per-capita beef production (as well as per capita bull manure production, as this blog attests).

But Kansas still lags behind most of the rest for the free world in enacting reasonable liquor legislation. Recent steps taken by the state legislature have helped move us in the right direction, but still (<-- that's a pun, get it?). It's like Kansas didn't get the memo when prohibition was repealed. Too busy totaling their tees I guess. That's a shame.

For one thing, those of you who don't live near the state line and can't have your wine shipments sent to a friend in KCMO, you're missing out on some great wine bargains. For another thing, there are some great businesses suffering because of the old-maid attitude toward drinking.

Throughout my high-school years, I worked at the Kingfisher's Inn in Marion. It was a great job (my best friend who was the son of the owner helped me get it). I started out washing dishes but worked my way up to a senior cook position. I learned a lot about the value of hard work and the value of having a good time from Bob and Kathy, the owners.

Well, over the past 10 years as surrounding counties began to liberate their liquor laws, Marion County fell behind. The fine people of Marion refused to allow restaurants to serve alcoholic beverages with a meal. Can you imagine having a medium rare filet without a glass of Cabernet? Me neither.

And neither could many of the regular customers who would come from as far away as Wichita and Junction City. When other counties started allowing wine with dinner, Bob and Kathy couldn't compete. Finally, a couple of years ago, they had to close the restaurant.

They couldn't find a buyer of course, because any competent restaurateur would check out the local liquor laws. As far as I know, the place is still vacant. Bob and Kathy were forced to find work elsewhere.

The tragedy is that the rural community lost a valuable business and priceless community members. All because they didn't want to allow wine with dinner, something I believe Jesus was in favor of.

tagged: Kansas, law, legislation, wine, liquor, restaurant, prohibition

Or not TV

A few weeks ago my supermodel wife and I said goodbye to a long family friend. Craig had been a member of our household for as long as we’ve had a household.

Through five major relocations, major life decisions, career changes, new family members (and lost family members) and all of the major national events over the past 13 years, Craig was with us.

Craig is the off-brand name of the generic 19-inch television set I bought for $180 bucks through the Alco employee discount layaway program when I was in college.

We knew Craig’s time must be coming. I mean, I didn’t expect the off-brand import to last more than 5 years. Balls to Korean electrical engineers, I guess.

But alas, a couple of weeks ago a click from the ‘on’ button of the remote was met with a snap, crackle, pop and no picture.

It was a sad moment, but life goes on. It gave us the opportunity to do something we rarely do: drop a ton of money on an impulse buy.

After a quick consultation where we decided that if our TV is going to last for 15 years, let’s get some really kick-ass technology, we hit a sale at Nebraska Furniture Mart. We dropped $1400 on a 42-inch widescreen Samsung rear-projection LCD DLP high-definition television.

It took a couple of days to get the upgraded HD cable box from Time Warner. But when we did, holy crap the picture is good. I was never a huge hockey fan, but I watching hockey in HD is an incredible experience. You can literally see the details as if you’re there, but with a great zoom lens and amazing camera angles.

Baseball is the same (except when the Royals are playing). It’s a whole new level of engagement.

Movies look amazing. I can see why theaters like AMC are losing money. Batman Begins was airing on HBOHD (the HD is for High Definition—duh!) and the picture is incredible.

In fact, pretty much everything looks better and more dynamic, the news, talk shows like Letterman, movies and especially sports. Everything that is, except World Cup Soccer.

That’s still incredibly boring.

tagged: TV, television, HD, high definition, movies, theater, World Cup, soccer, Samsung

Not my cup of tea

I saw this report on ABC last night, so I automatically question it's veracity.

But since it contained information that was favorable to me, I give it the benefit of the doubt.

The report basically helps enable my drug habit by touting the potential benefits of the chemical compounds found in coffee (both decaff and the regular kind).

From the story:

"Mounting evidence suggests all those lattes and cappuccinos might not only improve your mood, they might also improve your health. Daily cups of coffee have been linked to a reduced risk of Parkinson's disease, liver cancer, gallstones, and type 2 diabetes."

Furthermore, the same studies show that the more coffee you drink, the more health benefits you get.

With that in mind, I've decided to take on a mid-year's resolution to quadruple my coffee intake. So for my daily lunch break, I'm now going to have four double espressos from Starbucks instead of just the one.

The beauty of this is that because I'm doing this for my health, I can use my healthcare reimbursement account to pay for the daily doses.

Just d-d-d-don't be surp-p-prised is I st-t-tart acting a lit-t-t-tle jit-t-t-tery.

tagged: coffee, caffeine, Starbucks, venti, drug, cappuccino, espresso, health, diabetes