While building a house for Habitat For Humanity, one of my personal heroes, President Jimmy Carter, was taking part in a prayer session before starting the day’s work. The prayers went on and on and on. Finally, President Carter stood up and said, Y’all keep praying. I got a house to build. That’s how I feel about Governor Kathleen Blanco declaration of yesterday as a Day Of Prayer in Louisiana.

My Soundtrack: Precious by Depeche Mode on WOXY.

From the Pew Research Center: Overall, about half the public (48 percent) says that humans and other living things have evolved over time, while 42 percent say that living things have existed in their present form since the beginning of time. Fully 70 percent of white evangelical Protestants say that life has existed in its present form since the beginning of time…. We can’t even break even. Sheesh.

Last Thursday on the MetroHealth Hospital main campus, Steelyard Commons developer Mitch Schneider made a brief presentation to about 18 people and then, for about an hour, opened the floor to questions. There was a steady stream of questions. Thirty minutes in, a woman asked: Cleveland has a living-wage law, will the retailers honor it? Schneider gave a brief and clear answer.

Schneider said that the tenants of Steelyard Commons would follow the city’s living wage ordinance.

The woman’s follow-up questions was to the point: including Wal Mart?

Yes, said Schneider, including Wal Mart.

What I think the woman thought she heard was that the retailers in Steelyard Commons would pay their employees the living wage set by the city. And, in accordance with the ordinance, I’d bet that she expected that the retailers would also provide health care benefits comparable to that provided for city employees.

But that wasn’t what Schneider said. And it isn’t what is going to happen for workers in Steelyard Commons. It won’t happen because, as I’m sure Schneider knew when he gave his answer, the ordinance does not apply to retailers and it doesn’t apply to businesses that do not receive direct financial assistance from the city.

In a follow up question to Schneider I asked him for clarification. He said:

To the extent that the Cleveland Living Wage ordinances are applicable, the retailers will comply. First Interstate does not, as a matter of routine, examine the legal framework regarding employment law for retailers. If it only applies to companies receiving public subsidy from the City, the requirements would not apply. You may want to refer to the city’s law or economic development departments for clarification on the policy.

I didn’t talk to either Cleveland’s law or economic development departments, but I did run my questions past No Cleveland Wal Mart’s sage blogger, Bill Callahan. Bill confirmed that the woman’s question to Schneider was essentially meaningless. The ordinance doesn’t apply so, of course, the retailers will comply since they don’t have to do anything to do so.

But what about the $32 million the city is giving to Steelyard Commons? First, the New Market Tax Credit is coming from the Cuyahoga County Port Authority. While the city controls the majority of the seats on the board, it is not the city and therefore the $32 million subsidy doesn’t count.

I did ask Schneider about that $32 million and how it was going to be used. His response was that only about 10 percent would actually benefit him, as the developer. That didn’t make a lot of sense to me, but my area of expertise is not real estate development. I asked Schneider to elaborate on where the other 90 percent was going. He said:

The other 90 percent is in the form a traditional construction loan provided by Fifth Third Bank (that flows through the Port) to leverage/produce the 10 percent benefit. The loan bears interest and is repayable in accordance with standard lending practices It’s purpose is to fund project costs and it is repayable as a traditional construction loan.

I’ve passed this along to Bill and I expect that he’ll make much better sense of it than I have.

My Soundtrack: Into Thin Air by World Leader Pretend on WOXY.

Fresh from the flood waters of New Orleans, and via Metafilter, come these Associated Press photographs. Click on each photo to get a mirror site of the original page. I’m linking that way because I think there’s a good chance the original Yahoo! News post may get yanked. Read that captions and you’ll figure out why. Things are going to get very ugly in the Delta. Salon’s two cents.

Garrison Keillor reacted differently to the coffee news this week than I did. His is much funnier. She lay in a heap on the stage, not singing, which also was gratifying…. She was OK, as it turned out, but there was a long intermission while they located a sub, meanwhile the patrons were in a festive mood, reminiscing about other operatic swoons and collapses they had seen. As I recall, I had a cup of espresso.

Balloons cannot be
Sad, even the black ones.
And…Pop! Nefesh goes back home

Brace yourself folks! The price of gasoline on Lee road just jumped 57 cents! The Shell station across the street from the Phoenix coffee house on Lee went from $2.52.9 to $3.09.9. A quick check of Cleveland Gas Prices shows that the $3.09.9 price is an agreed upon price with B.P., Marathon, Speedway, Citgo and Sunoco all posting identical prices as of 10:49 this morning.

It was inflation driven by energy costs that ultimately produced the malaise that President Ronald Regan rode into the White House. Is it any wonder that President George Bush finally decided to cut short his vacation? (And, I’m sorry, I don’t buy that it has anything to do with compassion for the human tragedy in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. Oil is threatened. Enough said.)

Well, maybe not really enough said. Here’s Jeff Jarvis’ two bits.

My Soundtrack: Latest Breaking News by Immaculate Machine on WOXY.

I’ve been reading a fascinating book by Anthony Wild of late entitled: Coffee — A Dark History. I plan on posting quite a few things from the book in my Electronic Chapbook, but the news from the University of Scranton, Pennsylvania’s, Dr. Joe A. Vinson — Ph.D. in Physical Organic and Analytical Chemistry, Iowa State University, 1967 — prompted me to jump the gun a bit.

Let me say up front that I have no reason question the rigor of Dr. Vinson”s research, his vitae is impressive. But the Associate Press story tweaked my Lemmings Meter because I had just finished Wild’s Chapter 14: Coffee, Science and History.

In the chapter, Wild traces the influence of organizations, that I’m sure, 99.9 percent of all coffee drinkers have never heard of, like: the Association Scientifique Internationale du Cafe (p. 213); Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (formerly ORSTOM) (p. 215); the Coffee Science Information Center (p. 215); the Institute for Scientific Information on Coffee (p. 215); the Physiological Effect of Coffee Group (p. 215); the British Coffee Association (p. 216); Vanderbilt’s Institute For Coffee Studies (p. 218); and the International Life Sciences Institute (p. 219).

The second sentence of the Associated Press’ Randolph E Schmid’s lede tells the reader:

Coffee not only helps clear the mind and perk up the energy, it also provides more healthful antioxidants than any other food or beverage in the American diet, according to a study released Sunday.

That sentence immediately called to mind this paragraph on page 217 of Wild’s book:

It is increasingly difficult for a reasonably skeptical non-scientist to take seriously the quality of science that is being put forward in these reports. A few years ago the tea industry gleefully jumped on research indicating that green tea had been shown to possess anti-oxidant qualities.

Lo and behold! in 2001 new research apparently demonstrated that coffee had suddenly been imbued with anti-oxidant properties four times stronger than tea! (Emphasis in the original, JH) It may well be the case — only a scientist would dare gainsay it — but to the layperson it smacks of opportunism.

As with all food-related health issues there is a crying need for genuinely objective information. One of the problems caused by the increasing preponderance of science-at-the-service-of-industry is that such information is hard to find, and it is usually the industry-funded science that shouts the loudest and longest.

My Soundtrack: Blue Heaven by The Pogues on WOXY.

This morning, via Dancing On Colette’s Grave, I read Michael Yon’s Online Magazine, one of the many blogs coming from inside Iraq. Yon is an independent writer, so he gets to say what he wants. Bloggers in uniform, however, may not have that privelege much longer. The top Pentagon brass brass is concerned that blogs are providing information to the enemy that could cost American lives.

From UPI’s Shaun Waterman:

The U.S. Army is warning soldiers that posting photos on their Web logs may inadvertently reveal vulnerabilities and tactics, and needlessly place lives at risk.

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Schoomaker circulated a memo to all Army personnel last week saying that we must do a better job at operational security — OPSEC in military parlance.

Some soldiers continue to post sensitive information on the Internet and especially on their Web logs or online diaries, wrote Schoomaker, giving as examples photos depicting weapon system vulnerabilities and tactics, techniques and procedures.

Such OPSEC violations needlessly place lives at risk and degrade the effectiveness of our operations, he wrote.

On the surface, this makes perfect sense. If inexperienced personnel are inadvertantly giving away information that the enemy can use, then, hell yes, the brass needs to crack down. But I have a suspicion that something else may be at work here.

I think it’s possible that as the news from Iraq gets worse and worse, the frustration of troops given less than the full support they deserve from President George Bush. is starting to show. There are hundreds (thousands?) of military blogs. Americans, used to one of our most precious rights, free speech, can be a vocal and verbose lot.

While we give up certain rights when we come under the Uniform Code Of Military Justice, the inclination is to still act as if the full Constitution applies to you. We’re Americans, we have this silly love relations with Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.

What military blogs are you reading?

My Soundtrack: Faking The Books by Lali Puna on WOXY.

Runners win the long
Stern chase, creates ahnasheem;
On an endorphin high

Click above to see the entire strip. No comment needed, Carol Lay says it perfectly.

Screaming eagle roars
Red, white and blue necks craning;
I remember coufey

From Creating Passionate Users via BuzzMachine: But the difference between what we now consider old-school marketing (otherwise known as The Four P’s — product, price, promotion, and placement — heavy on advertising and branding”) and the neo-marketing we’re doing here is frickin’ huge. But who will get a frickin’ clue?

To read every book I wanted would not be a bad exchange for my soul. I began the summer vowing to not bring another book home until I’d read the ones already here. That didn’t last long. At present there are 33 works of fiction lined up on my desk as I write this. So many books. So little time.

David danced, his kilt
Spinning, flying, he didn”t care;
This too is tefilah

I don”t care. There is no need to define blog. I doubt there ever was such a call to define newspaper or television or radio or book – or, for that matter, telephone or instant messenger. A blog is merely a tool that lets you do anything from change the world to share your shopping list. People will use it however they wish. And it is way too soon in… More…

My words come when dark
Crouches, preparing to flee;
Genius dawns like shachar

For those people who think the United States should leave Iraq tomorrow, please consider these numbers: According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s best estimates, the present population of Iraq is 26,975,000. Of that number, approximately 7,080,000 are males between the ages of 15 and 60, generally speaking, those of fighting age.

That means that the remaining 19,895,000 are women, children and men over the age of 60.

Are you prepared to abandon those nearly 20 million souls to the fundamentalist hell we’ve created?

I’m not. Technically I’m a Vietnam Era Veteran, although Saigon fell while I was still in A School at Great Lakes, Illinois. What I did see, however, was the flood of boat people fleeing Vietnam. The USS Bainbridge, CGN-25, on which I served, rescued one such boatload of people in the South China Sea.

There were some 300 men, women and children crammed into a boat that was barely 75 feet long. They had run out of fuel, food and water. We repaired their engine and supplied fuel. The ship’s doctor and corpsman saw to injuries, and the crew donated clothing and caps to fight off the sun.

It was not a pretty sight, but when they finally cast off with a compass to point them towards the Philippines, there were smiles and waves coming from that tiny boat. I’ll leave it to veterans who were in-country to express how they feel. I, however, would not want to be in a position of abandoning the innocents.

President George Bush has embroiled the United States in a quagmire that he lacks the political will or capital to any longer win. Flying in the face of the Powell Doctrine and against the advice of his top military officers, President Bush attempted to score a show victory on the cheap by committing a minimum of force.

Our service personnel daily pay the ultimate price for his timidity and bad sense.

But, as Secretary of State Collin Powell reminded the president: if we break it, we’ve bought it.

And I think President Bush, and those around him, should be impeached and removed from office for the lies he’s told in foisting this human debt on our nation.

My Soundtrack: Dream Daddy by World Leader Pretend on WOXY.

(Man, I couldn’t make up these soundtracks if I tried.)

Thanks to George for the catch. My modest proposal of a Wal Mart toothpaste buycott has gotten some legs from Robert Greenwald’s Wal Mart: The High Cost Of Low Price movie website. If you think the toothpaste buycott is good idea, give it a shout. And yes, I know I’m showing my age with the head on this post.