More Random Stuff

“Allowing into our homes the kind of media that tolerates foul language, indecent acts and bodily exposure (I believe he means more skin than ordinarily seen in public or in the classroom) creates the atmosphere for teens to act indecently.” A WSJ reader responding to Jeff Zaslow’s column on teens’ dating habits.

Question in the WSJ. “Should water-boarding be legal for use on enemy combatants? I can answer that easily. If I caught anybody that I knew had kidnapped someone I cared deeply about and that person wouldn’t tell what happened to this loved one, I would have the answer before an hour or two was over. If I was involved in a situation where someone admitted planting a bomb but wouldn’t say where and I had my way, they would tell. And, yes, as Senator Lindsey Graham says, my actions might be repugnant to me also. I pray that it never happens.

Then again, I am not a law-breaker so I would follow legal procedure. Then again, it depends.

And confirm Michael B. Mukasey as Attorney General now. He is what the country needs while we need less Feingold, Schumer, Rangel, Boxer and Spector types.

According to Brook Nelson of Peoria Heights, 1200 educators appeared at a Heart of Illinois Conference on Oct. 19 at East Peoria Community High School and no local media showed up to cover the event. Some award-winning educators spoke.

Hard to believe but conferences are not as exciting as a person with pink braids in a household with an attitude. By the way, Shawnterya had not returned to school as of yesterday. Everybody loses but the JS got a lot of pictures and copy.

Shawnterrya,(came up red today on my Spell-Check tonight)who presents an $100, 10 hour hairdo in school but I hear by loose talk that her mother is employed while the kid is a poverty level student.

Hmmmmm.

From the Economist “A new disease is abroad in eastern Germany: Frauenmangel, lack of women. In some towns there are only 75 women for every 100 guys. The article says that girls are more studious than boys, so they get better qualified and migrate west to find both partners and jobs. The boys lack role models at home, where fathers are often unemployed, and at school, where teachers are mainly female. Young men now account for 65% of German high-school dropouts.” Do the last three sentences sound familiar?

While some of Peoria’s leadership advocates trails to replace rails, an article in The Informed Reader, A Lonely Road Home for Commuters: How Longer Drives Exact Social Costs” pretty well sums up what is happening in the good old U.S.A. Two economists at the University of Zurich found in a lifestyle survey that an hour long commute requires a 40% boost in salary to keep the commuters as “satisfied” with their lives as non-commuters.” Get a copy of this of this sales pitch, you downtown planners. (Think Pat Sullivan) Nine out of 10 commuters travel by car and 88% of those drivers do so alone. Every 10 minutes of commuting results in 10% fewer social connections and long periods alone provoke loneliness, reduces time for sleep, sports and other “things”.

The article says in Atlanta it sometimes takes 45 minutes to travel 10 miles. Many of you have traveled through Atlanta at rush hour. I believe 1 ½ hours is more like it today.

When gas hits $4 a gallon, all growing communities are going to be forced to look for less congestive and cheaper ways to move people. In Peoria, either that or redevelop the center of the city to more residential. Downtown major development that has taken place over the last century is not all going to move north.

I believe my vote on the resolution the county sent to Senator Durbin and others was correct the first time. Unfortunately, because Peoria is growing in sprawl rather than population that quickly, I will probably not live to see what the Surface Transportation Board decides and then live to see what happens when it does decide. I’m betting on the SBC to make the “right” decision.

That’s right, the STB, not Peoria Heights or the City of Peoria. Read David Jordan’s Transportation blogs. Mr. Jordan not only makes a lot of sense, but he is also interesting reading. And Sharon Deckard will email you more information that is factual about light transportation developing in communities across the country that are growing.

And while you are looking up the articles in the WSJ, best all around business newspaper I’ve ever read, look up “Tough Love on Skid row, on the Opinion page, 11/2/07. Quoting Officer Deon Joseph: The idea that because people were homeless, they have a right to break ‘minor’ laws…has led to nothing but death, disease and despair.” In Los Angeles policemen are fighting to help the homeless. So-called civil libertarians want to let them rot" so reads the article.

Time for dinner and then Channel 22 so I’ll end with a couple of quips from the JSEB “if we dance around the word “race” then it’s not about race, even if everybody know it’s about race” and Gary Sandberg's sage statement about City Council” actions, “We need to focus our energy on earlier commitments. We need to finish things.”

I’m with you there, Gary.