8 January 2010
8 January 2010
RALPH’S SKETCH ‘N’ KVETCH…
0718 by Jeff Hess
Osama Bin Laden said he would bleed us into bankruptcy…
8 January 2010
FROM MY DAD…
0630 by Jeff Hess
I could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog chuckle I present: From My Dad.
It isn’t pollution that’s harming the environment. It’s the impurities in our air and water that are doing it. — Al Gore, Vice President
Warning: never trust an Internet quote without checking something other than Google. I’m willing to bet that less than 10 percent of these are real or accurate.
8 January 2010
FROM MY CHAPBOOK…
0030 by Jeff HessFound in my electronic chapbook.
These collaborative experiments led in due course to the ultimate reductio ad absurdum, the Great Sex Novel Poker Game. This ill-advised venture consisted of half a dozen of us, all writers of this sort of trash and all fond at the time of nightlong poker sessions. Operating on the premised that any of us could produce a chapter in an hour or so, we met for a night of poker during which five of us sat around the table while one of us at a time went upstairs and wrote fifteen or twenty pages of The Book. But the time the night was done-or the following day, or whatever-we would each have contributed two chapter, the book would be finished, and a division of spoils would make us all winners, even those of us who had proved unlucky at cards. p. 69
From Telling Lies for Fun and Profit: A Manual for Fiction Writers by Lawrence Block.
7 January 2010
ROLDO RIGHTS…
2200 by Jeff HessWhy not get in line? Cities, counties, all levels of government are giving it away. So why shouldn”t American Greetings get in line. Crain”s Cleveland Business is reporting today that the Brooklyn, Ohio Company seeks to relocate because the city raised its city tax a half percent.
Governments are giving away – tax abatements, land, other gratuities – tax revenue to businesses. At the same time governments are tapping regressive taxes and hosts of fees to make up for revenue losses.
(Please check my post about the city income tax problem.)
When will we learn? Don”t capitalists say that the market rules? Why have governments gotten into the business of business?
It”s a losing game for cities no matter what the mayors or council members say. However, indications are full steam ahead. Give it away. By the bushel. Or really by the truckload.
They are just pandering to voters. They give revenue away in order to say that they are spurring economic development.
Too often what they are doing is rewarding one business that will just take business away from another. Net gain: Nothing. Maybe net losses, however.
But each time the office-holders will tell you they are bringing in jobs. And every time you look at the job picture, well, we are losing jobs.
Let the bidding begin.
7 January 2010
GOOD MORNING MYANMAR…
2130 by Jeff Hess
In 2007 sent a box of panties I collected to the generals. This year there’s another bit of guerrilla theatre to engage in. Here’s my plan: first ask Ralph Solonitz to design the seed packet, second get the packets made and distribute them filled with sunflower seeds, third, watch the flowers, and awareness, grow.
From Sunflower For Suu:
We are a campaign with the aim to encourage awareness of Aung San Suu Kyi and the human rights issues in Burma by growing sunflowers and spreading their seeds.
Sunflowers are extremely hardy and have long been associated as a symbol of peace.
We encourage you to join in the Sunflower for Suu campaign, grow sunflowers and show your support for human rights in Burma now!
Together we can show our support for Aung San Suu Kyi one sunflower at a time.
I’m going to put up a tip jar later for anyone who wants to drop in a buck or two to help defray costs of the project. Any extra that rolls in will be donated to Sunflower For Suu.
7 January 2010
7 January 2010
ROLDO RIGHTS…
1613 by Jeff HessResearcher George Zeller still finds “job destruction” – his term – continues in Ohio. However, he gleans some “optimistic findings” in job figures for the first month of this new decade.
Here is his entire message about the first week of January 2010 and the jobs picture in Ohio:
Since it is Thursday, we have an updated Economic Indicators analysis of the level of new unemployment claims in Cleveland-Akron-Lorain-Elyria and in Ohio. Today’s new data are for the first week in January, and thus the first week of the first quarter of 2010 and the first week of calendar 2009. The newly updated full report is now available on the Internet.
This report is designed to measure the point at which Ohio’s lengthy 2000s recessionary contraction in its labor market finally comes Continue Reading »
7 January 2010
MY COMMENTS…
1130 by Jeff Hess7 January 2010
BUT IF YOU WANT TO WIN THAT OSCAR…
1018 by Jeff HessFrom Huffington Post
Natalie Portman covers February’s Elle UK, and in her interview she discusses the sorts of roles she doesn’t like to take on–overtly Jewish characters, one-dimensional girlfriends and sex bombs.
Earlier this year Jerusalem-born Natalie broke one of her rules and played a Hasidic bride in ‘New York, I Love You.’ She now stars in the war drama ‘Brothers’ opposite Jake Gyllenhaal and Tobey Maguire.
“I’ve always tried to stay away from playing Jews. I get like 20 Holocaust scripts a month, but I hate the genre.
Well, Natalie, take a lesson from reader Kate Winslet.
7 January 2010
SO… DID THEY RADIO THE PILOT…?
0816 by Jeff HessFrom the Los Angeles Times:
The new information shows that border enforcement officials discovered the suspected extremist ties involving the Nigerian, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, in a database despite intelligence failures that have been criticized by President Obama.
“The people in Detroit were prepared to look at him in secondary inspection,” a senior law enforcement official said. “The decision had been made. The [database] had picked up the State Department concern about this guy — that this guy may have been involved with extremist elements in Yemen.”
They didn’t want to close the barn door until the horse was running free…
7 January 2010
TRULY EARNING FULL CITIZENSHIP…
0722 by Jeff HessFrom Ta-Nehisi Coates:
In my lifetime, I have floated through all manner of geekdom–comic books, sci-fi, sports, medieval history, video games. The Civil War, with its swashbuckling heroes, its staggering toll, and its consequence of emancipation, is the culmination of an unorthodox intellectual journey. Galactus and Charlemagne are charming, but if not for Fleetwood and Veale, I might not exist. By the time I stumbled upon New Market Heights, I’d read about the battle in at least three books.
Don’t miss Ta-Nehisi’ Walmart And The Civil War.
7 January 2010
ENGLAND MUST BECOME NO. 15…
0654 by Jeff HessFrom the BBC:
The alleged US plane bomber met radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen, after being recruited in London… [Emphasis mine, JH.]
By announcing that travelers from 14 countries will get special attention at airports, the Transport Safety Administration continues to demonstrate that the only action it is capable of taking is closing the barn door after the horses are running free. Remember, Richard Reid, the shoe-bomber, was born in South London. How long will the TSA allow these dangerous citizens of Great Britain to enter our country without cavity searches?
Nigerians are righteously pissed at this most recent silliness.
7 January 2010
FROM MY DAD…
0630 by Jeff HessI could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog chuckle I present: From My Dad.
Half this game is ninety percent mental. — Philadelphia Phillies manager, Danny Ozark
Warning: never trust an Internet quote without checking something other than Google. I’m willing to bet that less than 10 percent of these are real or accurate.
7 January 2010
FROM MY CHAPBOOK…
0030 by Jeff HessFound in my electronic chapbook.
It was all great fun. Don and I tended to leave one another with impossible cliff-hangers, killing off one another”s chief characters at will. Hal and I devised a La Ronde form that made sex-novel collaboration almost effortless-i.e., the view point character in the first chapter had, uh, a carnal connection with someone, who went on to become the viewpoint character in the second chapter, wherein he or she got it on with the person destined to star in Chapter 3. And so on. p. 69
From Telling Lies for Fun and Profit: A Manual for Fiction Writers by Lawrence Block.
6 January 2010
GOOD MORNING MYANMAR…
2130 by Jeff HessBack in November I wrote about one videographer who had been arrested tried and thrown in prison for helping to record images the members of Myanmar’s State Peace and Development Council found inconvenient. Now two more video journalists have been sentenced. Does Tim Russo appreciate how fortunate he is?
From AFP:
A Myanmar court has handed down a 20-year jail term to a video journalist who worked with exiled media, rights groups said Wednesday, as the ruling junta continues its crackdown on dissent.
Freelance reporter Hla Hla Win, 25, was arrested in September after visiting a Buddhist monastery in the northern town of Pakokku, Paris-based Reporters Without Borders and the Burma Media Association said in a joint statement.
Hla Hla Win was sentenced by a court in Pakokku on December 31 for an alleged violation of the country’s Electronics Act, the groups said. A man accompanying her was sentenced to 26 years in jail, they added.
There was no immediate confirmation of the sentence from authorities in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, which remains under tight US and EU sanctions because of its record on human rights.
“We are outraged that this young woman has been given a 20-year jail term,” the two organisations said in the statement.
The jailed reporter had worked with the Myanmar exile broadcaster Democratic Voice of Burma, based in Oslo, Norway.
I wonder if I could be as courageous as these people.
6 January 2010
ROLDO RIGHTS…
2000 by Jeff HessNot named nor indicted. Sound familiar? Keeping up with Forest City could be a full-time job. Forest City Ratner”s Atlantic Yards watchdogs are keeping a sharp eye on the Cleveland firm”s cousin in Brooklyn and New York.
They know how to play politics as anyone from Cleveland can attest.
Forest City Ratner, unnamed/unindicted, cited as giving indicted man consulting job after he got Yonkers Council Member to change vote on Ridge Hill
A federal investigation of corruption in Yonkers has led to three indictments in connection with two real estate projects, one of them Forest City Ratner’s Ridge Hill.
And while Forest City Ratner is neither named nor indicted, the investigation is ongoing and, at least as presented by federal prosecutors, the developer’s conduct seems suspect. Continue Reading »
