World Series > um... News?

Apparently the new president of CBS News, Sean McManus is attributed (on Drudge) with saying:

''You have to move the White Sox to the top of the show, which is more important than all the Harriet Miers stuff.'

Sadly.... much of the public would probably agree. Such is the state of our public mindset, that the goings on in sports trumps news that would actually matter more to their lives. How many of you, who still read newspapers, reach first for the sports section (or comics followed by sports), tossing the rest aside. Be honest. In fact, I would wager that a good many folks don't even bother with the rest of the paper. The same with TV. The news comes on and click.. off to ESPN.

For the record, I am not one of those types. The sports section goes straight to the bin.

As if the current crop of Burger Thing commercials weren't creepy enough

Now you can have a Burger King mask for Halloween. How appropriate. Even my kid thinks the commercials are creepy. Would you eat at a place that inspires nightmares? I don't think my kid would go into the place if someone was dressed like that outside.

How is the new campaign doing for the company? I have no idea, the company is not held by one sole owner or a single stock. But locally, the number of Burger King restaurants continues to decline. The one in East Peoria closed earlier this autumn.

Linkage:

Slate on Burger Thing
NPR spot
Fark photoshopping

Closer to home, Madison Wisconsin is going Wi-Fi

and... the Telcos are not happy. Seems to be some concern over VoIP cutting into their business. So they want to filter out VoIP (like Skype). My take: with 64,000 ports and the availability of encryption, I don't think VoIP will be dying anytime soon.

Hit it

Developers Developing

Some good reading here: NY Times (Its buried in Time$ $elect now... : ( )

Lots of interesting nuggets of info regarding developers.

Its a good read if you actually ponied up. Meant to write more on this but time got away.....

Jib Jab's back !!

And Wal-Mart... um... I mean Big Box Mart is its target.

Touch here.

Haley Barbour gets religion and invites New Urbanists to rebuild MS

Love him or hate him, Mississippi's Governor Haley Barbour has invited New Urbanists to rebuild Mississippi. Duany and others have been called in to restore and rebuild the heart n soul of Mississippi.

"In 30 years, when I'm dead and gone, people will look at what the coast and South Mississippi have become," Barbour told the Mississippi Legislature last month. "If it is simply a newer version of today, we will have failed those people — our children and grandchildren."

Folks are concerned about not being told what to do. What will come of it tho is that people have an idea of what the ideal city/town/village usually involves. Most often that idea is NOT sprawl. Ugly is ugly. The New Urbanists are best able to recapture that community.

Hopefully, their neighbor next door follows on. If any city deserves New Urbanism, it is New Orleans.

It remains to be seen if local developers follow the advice. I think we know all to well that local developers can be a source of friction. On the positive side, the Governor appears to be on board. I feel that for New Urbanism to be really successfull, requires not just the local communities support but rather the support at all levels of government. The Developers who don't accept New Urbanism will play one part of government against another, ultimately undermining the effort to varying degrees.

For Peoria the challenge is to not only get the City Council on board and committed, but to get the County Board on board too. I have no doubt that if the City were to get serious about New Urbanism (they should but are not) that our local developers would simply pick up their toys and go play in the County. The County can't be letting them do this. I watched the recent dispute over requiring new development tie into the city water system. Developers did not want this because in my estimation, they wanted to keep the City out of it, enabling them to play City vs County. You also have to consider Tazwell and Woodford Counties. They too have to be supportive of Peoria's efforts. Developers will play County vs County, City vs City. Soooo..... having the Governor involved might well help curb this. To see Haley Barbour jump in and support New Urbanism (assuming his committment is genuine) is a big WIN. Our governor in Illinois is unlikely to be up to the task.

I wish them luck.

Linkage for MS and New Urbanism:

USA TODAY
Building Online
New Urban News
Talk of the Nation
NPR piece from Morning Edition

Article VI of the Constitution

DailyKOS and others have latched onto something significant:

The Constitution states:

Article. VI.

Clause 1: All Debts contracted and Engagements entered into, before the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the United States under this Constitution, as under the Confederation.

Clause 2: This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.

Clause 3: The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.

This and other remarks sure seem to fudge that line..... unlike the Roberts nomination, the administration seems to be going out of its way to make Mier's faith and membership in an evangelical church an important part of her nomination.

Andrew Sullivan points out:

Sandra Day O'Connor wrote

"In my view, the Religion Clauses - the Free Exercise Clause, the Establishment Clause, the Religious Test Clause, Art. VI, cl. 3, and the Equal Protection Clause as applied to religion - all speak with one voice on this point: absent the most unusual circumstances, one's religion ought not affect one's legal rights or duties or benefits. As I have previously noted, "the Establishment Clause is infringed when the government makes adherence to religion relevant to a person's standing in the political community.' Wallace v. Jaffree, 472 U.S. 38, 69 (1985) (O'CONNOR, J., concurring in judgment)."

The administration sure seems to be wanting to make religion relevant if not central to the Mier's nomination. Can we say unconstitutional??

Spambait

How many spam posts will this get when it hits? Starting in 3, 2, 1

The falacy of vote rigging in Iraq

I keep reading that the current rules for the referendum of the constitution in Iraq requires a 2/3 rds vote for it to fail. Putting it that way is not nearly as scandelous as saying; It only takes one vote over 33% for it to pass. If anything.. the constitution should require one vote over 66% to pass, not to fail. In our own history, the Constitution of 1789 required a universal ratification. If one state had voted it down, it would have failed.

Only asking for 1 vote over 33% for the Iraqing constitution to pass, does not confer legitimacy. Our government should demand and expect better of the process. The Sunni's have a legitimate complaint.

Frankly, instead of the current process, we should have followed the Gen. McArthur model used on Japan, and just imposed a constitution. Some might be critical of that but fail to recognize that General McArthur went to great lengths to understand the Japanese culture and went to great pains to model the constitution to fit. Months were spent researching and formulating the Japanese constitution. 60 years on, it has proven pretty successful. For Iraq, it is probably too late to change. Too many Iraqis have a stake in the current process.

Hmm... I saw this quiz over at Catostrophic Success. I am a sucker for personality profile quizes like this. I am not sure I agree with the layout of the black n white diagram. Anarchism is in the wrong corner. Fascism can certainly be totalitarian as can socialist (eg Leninist). Here goes:

You are a Social Liberal (71% permissive) and an... Economic Liberal (25% permissive) You are best described as a: Democrat Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

The White Plague

I watched W.'s news conference this morning and was reminded of a book I read long ago. Bush had mentioned that quarantines might be needed in the event of a serious pandemic. Quarantines should not surprise anyone but well one can't underestimate people's lack of imagination at times. Who'd a thunk planes could be flown into skyscrapers *rolls eyes*.



The book I was reminded of, is Frank Herbert's The White Plague. Frank Herbert is the author of the classic sci-fi series of Dune books. The Dune books are outstanding and should be standard canon for literature. The movies however were awful. Mr. Herbert wrote The White Plague in 1982, which made it science fiction then but hardly so today. The premise of the book is that some terrorist incident kills the family of a not so prominent geneticist. The geneticist snaps and decides to engineer the deadliest of plagues. This plague is unique in that it selectively targets its victims of a specific genetic profile. In this case, the XX chromosome, e.g. women. The means of initial transport, touch, via money and airborne. In an act of revenge he unleashes a plague to take away the women of the world for the woman (and children) that the world took away from him. What unfolds is a catastrophy of apocolyptic proportions. Quarantines are set up worldwide followed up with nuclear sterilization. Whole cities are incinerated with nuclear weapons. Fighting breaks out. Scientists struggle to combat it but the plague is too fast and effective. Civilization as we know it collapses. Women who are not infected are hidden away in the most draconian of measures. It is a depressing book but one that increasingly seems more plausible. Certainly the technology is no longer science fiction.

If the library has it... read it. The book is currently out of print.

More on Soccer.

In case you missed it, early last September the U.S. national team qualified for the 2006 FIFA World Cup to be hosted in Germany. The U.S. team beat Mexico 2-0. Mexico is a strong player in the world of soccer. This victory was very significant in showing the U.S. as an emerging contender in this world sport. Folks in Mexico were NOT happy.

I remember watching the U.S. play Mexico in the 2002 World Cup. The Mexican crowd was quite hostile and so was the team. You have to remember, the run up to Iraq was underway and Bush has few friends down south. During the course of the game and in interviews afterward, there was some serious hostility between the two teams. If I recall the greatest scorn was heaped on the U.S. hispanic players. Calling them traitors and whatnot. When Mexico won, it was very much, an 'in your face' moment for Mexico. It was a bit unnerving but that goes to show how very serious many countries take this game and the tournement.

The World Cup is to Soccer, what the Superbowl is to American Football... only BIGGER.

Soccer Tourney up in Mossville this weekend !!

The Sporting Futbol Club (thats soccer for the unitiated) is hosting a soccer tournament at their facility in Mossville this weekend (Oct 8-9th). If you want to see the Peoria area's future stars, go out an take a look. Other area clubs will be participating as well. The fields are just south of the Caterpillar facilities, visible from the river road.

On a different note... the soccer programs in the area come in 3 flavors. For kids and parents wanting to explore soccer (ie beginners) as a sport, there is; a) the Peoria Park District fall program, with games held at Detweiler park, b) Sporting FC is also running a recreational league as well. For intermediate players, there is the parochial league run by the various private schools in the area. Some of these private schools take their teams more seriously than others and can be quite good, or bad. For more advanced play and for honest preparation to play later in life in high school and or college, there are the clubs. There are currently three clubs in the area, that I am aware of, and at least one independent team. There is Sporting FC, Peoria Soccer Club, and Morton Blaze. These clubs sponsor teams into the IYSA(CIYSL). Club soccer involves travelling around the state playing other teams in other cities. Club soccer runs from age 8 through high school. Most of the high school kids do club soccer in their off season.

The only critique I have is that you don't see much soccer inside the city. Practices and games seem to occur in four places, Detweiler, Mossville (SFC), Morton's new soccer facility on their south side, and Guardian Angel in West Peoria. To get more kids interested in the game, you need to expose them to the game. Once upon a long time ago, before these facilities came about (1980s), games and practices were held all over in various parks and school playgrounds. I think this contributed to a sharp increase in interest and participation. Soccer still has strong interest and participation but it seems to be waining some. I can't help but feel, that clustering the game in three outlying areas can't be good.

Soccer is a good sport for all kids irregardless of size or gender. Unlike basketball and football (American), small and large kids can thrive in soccer. Unlike baseball, your kids will be more fit and get a more equitable experience. Baseball revolves around the pitcher and catcher. Thats two kids. In soccer, aside from the goalie, there are no 'star' positions.

Anyways.... if you want to see good competitive play at all ages... head to Mossville Saturday and Sunday.