Month: March 2005

Wal-Mart Go Home!

The Kansas City Coalition for Worker Justice opposes replacing the dilapidated Blue Ridge Mall[*1] in Kansas City with a new shopping center anchored by Wal-Mart.

Hey, Worker Justice guys, how can we properly blog you if you don’t have a web site? Kansas City Star links can only get you so far. You have nothing to lose but your chains, you know.

Bush Is Still Right

Today’s “Bush Was Right” article courtesy the U.K.’s Independent[*1] . (From Little Green Footballs[*2] via Instipundit[*3] ).

John Bolton at the UN

Early positive reviews from the conservative side on John Bolton. WSJ opinion page[*1] approves:
So we can only assume that Mr. Annan was sincere yesterday when he welcomed President Bush’s decision to nominate John Bolton to succeed John Danforth as U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. As the media wasted no time in explaining, Mr. Bolton is a “hard-liner,” guilty of such violations of diplomatic protocol as calling North Korea “a hellish nightmare” ruled by a “tyrannical dictator.” More such violations will be required if Mr. Bolton’s mission is to succeed.

The Freepers[*2] are happy (a bit giddy, actually, going off onto an Office Space[*3] tangent).

The reactionary liberal side is not quite so happy–Council for a Livable World[*4] , Counterpunch[*5] , and the little-known Center for American Progress[*6] .

Morning Whip 3/7/05

Morning, all.

Let’s see . . . college basketball is the lead here at Medary:

Tennessee Lady Vols beat #1 LSU[*1] to win the SEC championship.

Missouri beats Kansas[*2] . Mizzou salvages a .500 regular season.

Illinois gets beat by Ohio State[*3] , so it looks like South Dakota State’s rumored opener next year against the Illini won’t feature a returning undefeated national champion vs. a first-year D-I RPI counter.

Current affairs:

The Sgrena Incident[*4] (the Italian Communist journalist wounded in a U.S. attack in Iran). Something is odd about this whole thing, and not just Sgrena’s paranoid thought that she was deliberately targeted.

It wasn’t just me: I admit I was wondering what was up with all of the really photogenic Lebanese women showing up in photos of the demonstrations against Syria. Megablogger Instapundit (Glenn Reynolds)[*5] notices, too. (Yes, I know it’s a cynical mechanism to grab attention, ya think I was born yesterday?)

Squashed Philosophers

Via Memepool[*1] , an idea whose time has come:

Glyn Hughes’ Squashed Philosophers[*2] .

A web site which condenses Western philosopher’s work down to our current sound-bite attention span. Or something like that. I especially like the reading time icons to the right of each philosopher’s entry. A definite keeper.

Bush Continues To Be Right

Today’s “Bush Was Right” editorial courtesy the Chicago Tribune[*1] .

Um, `Could Bush be right?’
Published March 6, 2005

Who on Earth wants to be known as the last foe of freedom? . . .

No movement has only one catalyst: Palestinians, for example, needed to be free of Yasser Arafat before independence could emerge as an option. But Washington’s muscular diplomacy unarguably is playing a crucial role throughout the Mideast. For one repressive regime after another, the sight of American soldiers at long last enforcing United Nations resolutions–and bestowing democracy on a subjugated people–surely must concentrate the mind.

What’s a Medary?

The settlement of Medary was one of the first white settlements in what is now South Dakota. In 1869, a permanent settlement was founded on the Big Sioux River, and named after the third and last Territorial governor of Minnesota, Samuel Medary[*1] , whose son, Samuel Medary, Jr. accompanied the party as engineer and surveyor.

When the railroad came through in 1879, Medary was bypassed to the north by about 4 miles south. The town didn’t immediately pick up and move to the railhead at Brookings, but over the years dwindled away.

Today, the southern edge of Brookings is now within a mile or two of the old Medary town site. Medary Avenue in Brookings runs north and south, and bisects the South Dakota State University campus. Medary Commons is on the SDSU campus[*2] , and Medary Elementary School[*3] is just off Medary Avenue.

Links:
Brookings County History[*4]
Brookings Tourist Information[*5]
The Town of Medary[*6]
Pre-Territorial History of Dakota Territory[*7]

Morning Whip, 3/5/05

Victory for VoIP: FCC rules that a local telco/ISP can not block Voice over IP (VoIP) traffic[*1] from their customers.

Gas is expensive[*2] . And it’s won’t be getting any cheaper. Why? Wal-Mart. I’m serious – gas is expensive because the emerging economies of Asia, led by China, are using more and more energy resources.[*3] All the sudden, President Bush’s call for hydrogen-powered cars[*4] doesn’t seem quite as frivolous as some commented after the 2003 State of the Union address[*5] . The key is alternative methods of electricity generation. Time to reconsider nuclear power plants[*6] ? Or how about the new, high-efficiency solar panel technology[*7] ?

That’s it this morning. Go out and play, everyone, it’s Saturday.