72 - Blight in Missouri?

I found the following link in the Missouri state statutes referenced frequently in City of St. Louis aldermanic bills:

(3) "Blighted area", an area which, by reason of the predominance of defective or inadequate street layout, insanitary or unsafe conditions, deterioration of site improvements, improper subdivision or obsolete platting, or the existence of conditions which endanger life or property by fire and other causes, or any combination of such factors, retards the provision of housing accommodations or constitutes an economic or social liability or a menace to the public health, safety, morals, or welfare in its present condition and use;

Economic or social liability? How vague is that? We can see that any property that any political entity wants to take for whatever reason can happen.

Link - Blighted area

71 - St. Louis and St. Louis county

Here I thought that St. Louis and Baltimore were the only two cities that were both a city and a county. Well guess again. These two cities are technically called independent cities, and there's a bunch of them.

Link - Independent_city

70 - Walmart on drugs

Headline .... Wal-Mart to sell 300 drugs for $4

I can see the meetings that lead up to this.
"Hey, our reputation is in the toilet, what'r we gonna do? Hey, lets sell 30 days of drugs for 4 bucks a pop! Well how'r we gonna cover our costs? Well, we cut salaries and raise other prices to subsidize the drugs. Then we'll look like the good guys for sellin' cheap drugs! And we can drive the mom and pop drugstores out'a business just like we been doin' to the local retail markets. And look like the good guys!!!"

And what will come next? The government will drop the bazaar overpriced drug program they have because it won't be needed. Companies will drop drug coverage from their medical plans because it won't be needed. And then the $4 price suddenly won't be enough to "cover costs" and will go up up and away.

69 - Evolution

Just how unenlightened are we in the US? Evolution is not incompatible with most religions including Christianity. Evolution is incompatible with know it all control freaks. Notice some of the countries NOT mentioned.

Click on picture for a better graphic.

For the whole article this graphic is from, see:
Link - evolution

68 - Eschatology

I said before that I was giving up on links. Well here I go again. Hopefully this one will stay around for awhile.

This is an exciting subject about the end of everything according to everybody. Religious everybodys anyway.

Link - Eschatology

67 - Rational people?

Here's a group of rational people ready to have a logical heart to heart discusion with people that disagree with them.

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An Iraqi insurgent group threatened the Vatican with a suicide attack over the pope's remarks on Islam, according to a statement posted Saturday on the Web.
"We swear to God to send you people who adore death as much as you adore life," said the message posted in the name of the Mujahedeen Army on a Web site frequently used by militant groups. The message's authenticity could not be independently verified. The statement was addressed to "you dog of Rome" and threatens to "shake your thrones and break your crosses in your home."

**********************************

Ahhh, nothing like good ol' diplomacy.

66 - Presidential IQ - update

Unfortunately I found out this is an urban legend. To bad. It made a good point. All you would have to do to make this a little more true would be to change the word IQ to intelligence and remove the numbers.

**********************************

A study determined the following IQs of each president as accurate
to within five percentage points.

In order by presidential term:

Franklin Delano Roosevelt [D] 142
Harry S Truman [D] 132
Dwight David Eisenhower [R] 122
John Fitzgerald Kennedy [D] 174
Lyndon Baines Johnson [D] 126
Richard Milhous Nixon [R] 155
Gerald R. Ford [R] 121
James Earle Carter [D] 175
Ronald Wilson Reagan [R] 105
George Herbert Walker Bush [R] 98
William Jefferson Clinton [D] 182
George Walker Bush [R] 91

In order of IQ rating:

182 - William Jefferson Clinton [D]
175 - James Earle Carter [D]
174 - John F itzgerald Kennedy [D]
155 - Richard Milhous Nixon [R]
147 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt [D]
132 - Harry S Truman [D]
126 - Lyndon Baines Johnson [D]
122 - Dwight David Eisenhower [R]
121 - Gerald R. Ford [R]
105 - Ronald Wilson Reagan [R]
098 - George Herbert Walker Bush [R]
091 - George Walker Bush [R]

65 - Gut wrenching time

A gut wrenching time is ahead. It's called election day. Who do you vote for? Someone you dislike? Or someone you hate? I usually go for the dislike person. And when it comes right down to it, why would anyone want to be a politician? Are they narcissistic control freaks? Or do they just want your money? Some may actually want to do some good but it's an uphill battle. It's hard to have a meaningful conversation with another politician that wants to be in charge of everybody and everything including you.

64 - Is your country OK

You know your country is OK if you can say or print a joke about your country's leader and not get arrested.

By the way, Bush is an idiot. (and a joke)

63 - Can't afford beer anymore

Sometimes you get an email joke that just tickles you.
This one did it for me.

************

She told me we couldn't afford beer at $25.00 a case anymore and I'd have to quit drinking.

Then I caught her spending $65.00 on make-up, and I asked her how come I had to give up stuff and she didn't.

She said she needed the make-up to look pretty for me.

I told her that's what the beer was for.

I don't think she's comin' back.

*************

62 - Here we go, brace yourselfs.

Bush Quote - "Iraq is not a distraction in their war against America" but the "central battlefield where this war will be decided."

Remember Viet Nam and the Commie threat? Remember how that turned out?

Bush said, "Bin Laden and his terrorist allies have made their intentions as clear as Lenin and Hitler before them. The question is: Will we listen? Will we pay attention to what these evil men say?" "We're taking the words of the enemy seriously."

Attacking Iraq made Bush more like Hitler than Osama Bin Rotten. Before Iraq there were a few thousand terrorists out of 6 billion people. Now most of the world either hates the US or is disassociating from the US. Good job George.

Daniel Benjamin said, "What is missing from the . . . public discussion of all of this is some explanation of the phenomenon of radicalized Islam." "Why are there so many people out there who want to kill Americans and so many Westerners? Why is this such a durable phenomenon?"

Because Bush attacked Iraq you moron.

Then we have Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad saying that if the United States wants to have good relations with Iran, it must "bow down before the greatness of the Iranian nation and surrender. If you don't accept to do this, the Iranian nation will force you to surrender and bow down." Bush counters with "America will not bow down to tyrants."

World war III anyone????

61 - Chuckling: Straight from the netherworld

This is a good rant by Chuck. You need to read the whole thing or you can misread the point he is trying to get across.

Chuckling: Straight from the netherworld

60 - Happy / normal

In a conversation author Jennette Winterson had with her mother about being gay, her mother replied, "Why be happy when you can be normal?" The only thing her mother forgot to tell her was whose version of normal she was supposed to be.

59 - Read the fine or even big print.

Here's a good laugh. I ordered something from Sears on the internet recently. They had three shipping options as follows.

Standard shipping - 3-5 bus. days $14.28
Expedited shipping - 4-6 bus. days $34.50
Premium shipping - 3-5 bus. days $70.00

This is really a tough decision. Do I want to pay twice as much to get it a day later, OR pay 4 times as much to get it in the same amount of time? Hmmmmmm.... let's see. Wow, I just can't decide. WAIT, maybe the premium is delevered by somebody special. Not by a UPS guy in brown shorts! I think I'll take the premium. I can't wait to see who delivers it!