I read an article today about a near catastrophe at O'Hare on Wednesday. When President Bush came to town to sign that boondoggle of a transportation bill, he landed at O'Hare and then took Marine One to Montgomery, IL, outside of Aurora. While he was taking off on the chopper from a "remote northern airstrip," two advance helicopters carrying press and administration officials were flying low on their way to the site.
A 747 was preparing to land and apparently had to swerve when the pilots saw the two choppers below. It is unclear as to what really happened, though, so I may have the story wrong. No one was hurt.
But this bullshit about O'Hare expansion is turning into insanity. While our "leaders" sit back and argue ad nauseum and gavel the meetings before anything gets done, we live here with dangerous conditions at the world's busiest airport. The solution is NOT to make it bigger.
The plans up for debate involve kicking people out of their homes (while low-balling the prices of their properties) and building another airstrip. Yeah, that'll do a whole hell of a lot. The problem isn't so much capacity as it is rampant disorganization. There is not enough room for what O'Hare provides, this is true to a degree, but that's no excuse for dangerous runway configuration and all the other problems that force me to sit, taxiing, for an hour every time I go somewhere.
I'm against the expansion plan primarily, but not exclusively, because the current proposal provides Mayor Daley with condemnation power outside of the city of Chicago. This is unconstitutional. Daley cannot condemn a property in a city that he is not accountable to. The condemned cannot vote him out of office. They have no standing in that situation.
There is no downside to building a third airport in Peotone. We need it badly. Having the "South Suburban" airport will allow people who live in the southern suburbs and south western suburbs as well as people who may live closer to Peotone than Midway to fly out without adding to the already immense congestion. I believe that part of the plan provides for a road to be built connecting I-57 to the south suburbs, not including I-80. The local economy of Peotone will boom overnight. I think we need to focus on the safety of passengers as opposed to any perceived benefit to local congressmen in the O'Hare neck of the woods. Furthermore, one would think that airlines would be for a Peotone airport because it would mean better efficiency at all airports and happier customers, which will always lead to more tickets bought.
Maybe I have my armchair economics incorrect, but it seems sensical to me.
Friday, August 12, 2005
LET'S NOT DISCUSS IT
I don't want to talk about the Cubs. One win after an eight-game losing streak does not make up for things.
Dusty, be a fucking manager already, and manage!
Dusty, be a fucking manager already, and manage!
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
MULTI-TASKING?
When did Greg Kot start working for Entertainment Weekly? And if he's leaving the Tribune for EW, it sucks that he has to limit his reviews and articles and words to more mainstream, commercial stuff and kind of steer clear of what we all know he prefers. He currently has the review of Faith Hill's new CD in EW. I don't know which print edition it is in, last week's or next week's, but it's online now.
Can he work for both media companies, Tribune Media Services and AOL Time Warner? Isn't there an inherent conflict of interest? I did a news search on Google News of Kot's name and an article in the Trib came up but it was dated last week, so maybe he left Chicago to go national? But then I saw that the same article in the Trib was picked up and printed in a San Diego paper. So he technically already was national.
This is not a good development for the Tribune if true. But maybe he just needed to shake things up a little bit. Or maybe it was about money. Or maybe he got into a nasty fight with an editor or the publisher and some harsh evil words were had. Hmmmmmmm.
Can he work for both media companies, Tribune Media Services and AOL Time Warner? Isn't there an inherent conflict of interest? I did a news search on Google News of Kot's name and an article in the Trib came up but it was dated last week, so maybe he left Chicago to go national? But then I saw that the same article in the Trib was picked up and printed in a San Diego paper. So he technically already was national.
This is not a good development for the Tribune if true. But maybe he just needed to shake things up a little bit. Or maybe it was about money. Or maybe he got into a nasty fight with an editor or the publisher and some harsh evil words were had. Hmmmmmmm.
MY BRAIN
It was Sunday night. I tend to curse weekends, or Sunday nights in particular, because in just two days I am able to throw off my entire sleep schedule so completely, that I am always a zombie on Monday. I lay there in bed, tossing and turning, at one, two, three in the morning, not at all tired, and completely unable to force myself to sleep.
Usually when I reach a certain period of sleeplessness, say deep in the middle of the night, some term or question gets caught in my brain, unable to get free, like I have an FCC-approved version of Tourette's Syndrome. I remember one time during freshman year of college when I couldn't stop asking myself some question about Steven Soderbergh's filmography. I didn't know it very well and I couldn't remember which came first, The Limey or Out of Sight, or maybe it was Erin Brockovich/Traffic related. Who the fuck cares now? But it was pissing me off for totally unknown reasons. I finally fell asleep, annoyed.
Or there was the time two years ago when I couldn't get the words "The Maldives" out of my head to saunter off to slumber. The evil midget bastard inside my head kept repeating it like on a broken record all night. I should have just punched him; that would have knocked me into a nice sleep.
On Sunday, it happened again. I couldn't stop thinking about the words "mortar & pestle." Without the sexual overtones, of course. This was only an exercise in language.
I had seen a set at IKEA that day and I don't often see mortars and pestles. They make me think that if I ever used one, I'd feel like a caveman. They're so primitive.
Anyway, I was stuck in a rut, looking for a groove. I couldn't find one.
Damn those spice tools; how they keep me up at night!
Usually when I reach a certain period of sleeplessness, say deep in the middle of the night, some term or question gets caught in my brain, unable to get free, like I have an FCC-approved version of Tourette's Syndrome. I remember one time during freshman year of college when I couldn't stop asking myself some question about Steven Soderbergh's filmography. I didn't know it very well and I couldn't remember which came first, The Limey or Out of Sight, or maybe it was Erin Brockovich/Traffic related. Who the fuck cares now? But it was pissing me off for totally unknown reasons. I finally fell asleep, annoyed.
Or there was the time two years ago when I couldn't get the words "The Maldives" out of my head to saunter off to slumber. The evil midget bastard inside my head kept repeating it like on a broken record all night. I should have just punched him; that would have knocked me into a nice sleep.
On Sunday, it happened again. I couldn't stop thinking about the words "mortar & pestle." Without the sexual overtones, of course. This was only an exercise in language.
I had seen a set at IKEA that day and I don't often see mortars and pestles. They make me think that if I ever used one, I'd feel like a caveman. They're so primitive.
Anyway, I was stuck in a rut, looking for a groove. I couldn't find one.
Damn those spice tools; how they keep me up at night!
WORKING RETIREMENT & BASTARD POLITICAL SPOUSES
I read recently that retiring Supreme Court Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor is going to co-chair with former Sen. Bill Bradley an American Bar Association Commission on Civic Education and the Separation of Powers. It seems that the majority of Americans know shit about our government. Seems ending those high school civics classes graduation requirements was a big mistake.
I am really unclear as to what exactly this group will do. They have absolutely no power to change anything. Are they just going to go around the country telling us all how stupid we are? Are they going to walk into churches and offices and other places adults congregate and pop-quiz them, "Jay-walking" style? Is this going to be made into a direct-to-infomercial video that we stupid Americans can buy so we can laugh at other stupid Americans? Seems kind of a futile thing to work on. Unless of course they're going to work with each state legislature to reinstate civics requirements in high school curriculums. That's useful. But that's not what this appears to be.
My take: go to someplace warm and sleep in a little and enjoy retirement.
This all was thrust back in my face the other day when I read an article in a New York paper about Jeanine Pirro announcing her candidacy for U.S. Senate. It seems Pirro (the Westchester County DA for the last three terms) has a white-collar felon for a husband. He was convicted of tax evasion and other similar crimes and spent 11 months in jail. All while she was an elected DA. Her name was dragged through the mud and her finances and questions about her luxury cars (Ferraris and Bentleys) and wrought-iron pigpen (for their pet pigs) arose. It seems she has mollified her critics sufficiently on those issues. None of it is stopping her from running, and appears not to be unseemly character traits for public officials, at least not anymore.
Long story short, the article referred to Pirro's maybe opponent Hillary Clinton (Pirro has to win the primary first) as having husband baggage of her own. The paper wrote that her husband, former President Bill Clinton, was "nearly impeached." (Quotes mine because I don't have an italics command, damn work blogger.) If I remember correctly, he was the first elected president impeached. He was not, however, removed from office. It seems such a simple thing to get correct, and that copyeditors or editors or anyone who looks at the raw material of a newspaper, especially on such an high-profile announcement story, would have caught the obvious error. Clearly no one had to take a civics class.
But about the general matchup, Hillary is in no position to bring up husbands. It's like a no-lose for Pirro. She has this scumbag husband, someone whose existence would have precluded her aspirations for public office in the past, but if Hillary opens the door by attacking he-Pirro (don't know his name), she opens the door to much more about her own husband, and we all know there is plenty of material there.
Frankly, since America was sold on Bill in 1992 as getting "two for the price of one," and since Hillary acted with more authority as any First Lady in history, unlawfully perhaps, we can get an idea as to the type of president she would be. But that really doesn't apply to a Senate race.
It seems that Pirro will win the primary, unless the walls come tumbling down between now and March. It is going to be a dynamite election season, not the least of which will involve two intelligent, ambitious, political veterans duking it out in New York.
I am really unclear as to what exactly this group will do. They have absolutely no power to change anything. Are they just going to go around the country telling us all how stupid we are? Are they going to walk into churches and offices and other places adults congregate and pop-quiz them, "Jay-walking" style? Is this going to be made into a direct-to-infomercial video that we stupid Americans can buy so we can laugh at other stupid Americans? Seems kind of a futile thing to work on. Unless of course they're going to work with each state legislature to reinstate civics requirements in high school curriculums. That's useful. But that's not what this appears to be.
My take: go to someplace warm and sleep in a little and enjoy retirement.
This all was thrust back in my face the other day when I read an article in a New York paper about Jeanine Pirro announcing her candidacy for U.S. Senate. It seems Pirro (the Westchester County DA for the last three terms) has a white-collar felon for a husband. He was convicted of tax evasion and other similar crimes and spent 11 months in jail. All while she was an elected DA. Her name was dragged through the mud and her finances and questions about her luxury cars (Ferraris and Bentleys) and wrought-iron pigpen (for their pet pigs) arose. It seems she has mollified her critics sufficiently on those issues. None of it is stopping her from running, and appears not to be unseemly character traits for public officials, at least not anymore.
Long story short, the article referred to Pirro's maybe opponent Hillary Clinton (Pirro has to win the primary first) as having husband baggage of her own. The paper wrote that her husband, former President Bill Clinton, was "nearly impeached." (Quotes mine because I don't have an italics command, damn work blogger.) If I remember correctly, he was the first elected president impeached. He was not, however, removed from office. It seems such a simple thing to get correct, and that copyeditors or editors or anyone who looks at the raw material of a newspaper, especially on such an high-profile announcement story, would have caught the obvious error. Clearly no one had to take a civics class.
But about the general matchup, Hillary is in no position to bring up husbands. It's like a no-lose for Pirro. She has this scumbag husband, someone whose existence would have precluded her aspirations for public office in the past, but if Hillary opens the door by attacking he-Pirro (don't know his name), she opens the door to much more about her own husband, and we all know there is plenty of material there.
Frankly, since America was sold on Bill in 1992 as getting "two for the price of one," and since Hillary acted with more authority as any First Lady in history, unlawfully perhaps, we can get an idea as to the type of president she would be. But that really doesn't apply to a Senate race.
It seems that Pirro will win the primary, unless the walls come tumbling down between now and March. It is going to be a dynamite election season, not the least of which will involve two intelligent, ambitious, political veterans duking it out in New York.
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