aubreyturner.org

I think the crap that’s been infesting my head has finally cleared.  It started on the 9th as what I thought was a cold and progressed to a sinus/ear infection that lasted through the weekend.  What was particularly annoying over the past week was that one ear would clear and the other would pressurize.  It was kind of like whack-a-mole. 

This was also accompanied by an overwhelming fatigue, which is why I didn’t post anything to the site since the 21st.  I was also trying to work and I just didn’t have anything left to rant with after the day was done.

It would appear that the Liberty Elementary yearbook kerfuffle has gotten the attention of one of the big name bloggers.

A quick check of Google News shows that the story has broken out of the D/FW area and has gone statewide with 14 hits from Houston to San Antonio to Tyler.  I can’t help but wonder if this LGF entry will bring any more widespread coverage.  If so, KISD is going to have a crapstorm on its hands tomorrow.  Heck, they already have a PR nightmare on their hands, and I just don’t see them making it any better with any of their stock PC answers.

My take on it is that if they wanted to use the new nickle with the Liberty design, then they needed to remain as faithful to the original as possible, IGWT and all.  What they could have done was to “fade” the rest of the coin a little and add some glinting highlights to the “Liberty.”  They would also need to move the 2005 on the original down and to the left around the perimeter of the coin, then copy it and change the 5 to a 6 in the copy.  This would get them the “2005-2006” in the original style.  Finally, I’d probably have pulled back on the coin a bit so that it wasn’t so damn big.  But I would not have removed IGWT.

Now there are some in the LGF comments who go on about how the U.S. is a Christian country or how the kids “these days” need God.  I don’t buy into any of that, and frankly, you won’t find anyone more adamant than me that God has no place in a public school other than perhaps in a comparative religion class.  Even with my antipathy towards religion, though, I think anyone who’s offended by this phrase on our money has too much time on his hands. 

Thanks to “Grinder” for the heads-up about the LGF entry.

Update (5/22):  The blogosphere is starting to pick up the story…
Toebee’s Fumes
Lab Kat
Going to the Mat
PSoTD
Dvorak Uncensored
Commonplace
Right Wing News
element115
Clear and Present
Capitalist Infidel
Betsy’s Page
The Mill Street Swamp
The WV Rebel’s Blog
Narcissistic views on News/Politics
Cutting Edge Of Ecstasy
Your World, Our World, My World, Yore World
The Pine Blogger
The Texas Songbird

Note to KISD flacks…  Google News and Technorati need to become part of your daily routine…

I stopped by the drive-in window of one of our local barbeque joints for dinner and couldn’t help but notice a sign posted for the employees.  I don’t recall the exact wording, but the jist of it was that all cellphones must be turned off inside the restaurant.  If an employee was caught with the phone turned on, the employee would lose 10 hours off the schedule.  The sign said that this applied to texting as well (i.e. the manager wanted the phones off not just on vibrate). 

I know this particular place has always had great customer service, so I can certainly see how the management wouldn’t want the employees talking on cellphones when they should be serving customers. 

Now if we could just find a way to apply this rule to the rude a—holes who talk on their phones in store lines, slowing up everyone and spewing their personal information for all the world to hear…

As I had feared, what started last week as a likely cold turned into a sinus infection at some point over the weekend.  I went to the doctor this morning who confirmed it and prescribed 10 days’ worth of great-honkin’ horsepill antibiotics, as well as Flonase to supplement the Claritin-D I already take. 

Considering how I feel about doctors (hey, I’m a guy, what do you expect?) the fact that I made an appointment says something about the problem.  Since I seem to be prone to these damn sinus infections I knew that it wouldn’t go away on its own and I certainly didn’t want to reach the point where my teeth started hurting (or, worse, blow an eardrum).

Hopefully the antibiotics will kill the obnoxious little bastards growing in my head (die! die! die!) and I can return to normal.  With all the sinus infections I get I think my head is defective.  If it was still under warranty I’d demand a new one. 

If I wasn’t still suffering from whatever the hell this is (it’s way too damn strong to be just a cold), I might be inclined to play along with the it’s not amnesty immigration drinking game during tonight’s speech.

But I fear I’d need a whole hell of a lot of beer and tequila.  And I don’t even want to contemplate how it would feel to be stopped up, coughing, and have a hangover at the same time… 

A resounding NO!

The results are in from yesterday’s local elections:

Voters resoundingly shot down a proposed $7.6 million library in Town Center and booted out three City Council members who had supported financing the library without public approval.

In record turnout, residents defeated the library bond, 61.5 percent to 38.5 percent, according to unofficial results.

Those who supported the new library need to understand that those 61.5 percent of the voters are not regressive knuckle-dragging thugs who hate the children.  We want Keller to have a good library that meets the needs of the community, but we want to make sure that our priorities are in order.  Anyhow, I don’t want to rehash that whole thing here.  My reasons for being against the proposal that was put before the voters can be seen here.

Maybe I’m still a bit grumpy today, since I’ve been sick, but I couldn’t help but comment on the rest of the article.  I can’t help but think that certain elements of city government are being a bit obtuse.  As an example, consider this:

“The voters have spoken, and there will be no new library,” Mayor Julie Tandy said, adding that she hadn’t analyzed the numbers and didn’t know why it failed.

First, this doesn’t mean that there will not ever be a new library.  Just that there won’t be one in Town Center any time soon.  Further, it’s not hard to understand why it failed.  We’ve only been talking about this for the last five months.  Is it really possible that she hasn’t heard one single argument against the Town Center proposal?

And then we have the same-old-same-old:

Despite their defeats, Lake and Roberts said they didn’t regret voting for the certificates of obligation.

“I still think it’s the right thing to do,” Lake said, adding that there was a lot of misinformation about the library.

Roberts said the council is charged with making such decisions. “A lot of what happens is basically a total misunderstanding by certain voters out there who didn’t understand why we did what we did.”

I still haven’t heard any specifics on this “misinformation.”  Further, we didn’t misunderstand what the council did and why.  I completely understand that the council had the statutory power to issue the bonds.  What I contest is that they had the authority to do so.  The voters spoke loudly in 1999 on this issue in such a way that it should seem obvious that the voters had revoked their delegation of authority to the council.  Don’t insult the voters by claiming that we don’t understand.  I submit that it’s you who doesn’t understand. 

Further, I’d like to see the law (or at least city policy) changed such that the council never issues bonds or certificates of obligation above a certain amount (perhaps $1,000,000) without approval of the voters.  But then I’m “gridlock is good” kind of guy.  I don’t trust government and I think it needs to be constrained at every level.

My luck with travel and crowds seems to be about 0%, given that every time I do either one I end up getting sick.  I started Tuesday with just a little bit of a sore throat, which got progressively worse during the day.  By Wednesday morning I couldn’t speak at all.  Yesterday wasn’t much better.  Today I can squeak out a sentence or two, but it’s pretty painful. 

I did a bit of research on colds and found that incubation can range from one to five days, with the average being 48 hours.  If one takes 48 hours, and onset of symptoms on Tuesday, that seems to suggest I was infected some time on Sunday.  That makes a lot of sense, because I went to the Rangers game that day.

I should just become a hermit on a deserted island and be done with it.

I’ve noticed that developers seems to be building strip centers on every available piece of land in Keller these days.  I’m guessing that they’re building on spec, since most of them are fairly empty right now.  But I did notice that the first tenant in most of them seems to be a new nail salon.

I suppose we’ll soon discover the actual market demand for nail salons in Keller.  In the meantime, I guess Keller will be well buffed and polished.

Early voting for the Keller and Tarrant County elections ends today at 7:00 p.m.  Otherwise, you’ll have to wait for Saturday to cast your ballot.

I went yesterday and there were people camped out just beyond the no-campaigning DMZ line.  The “Vote YES Committee” had staked out the right side and the “No Meant No” folks were on the left.  Later in the day, while walking the dog, I went by there and ran into Jim Carson and also met Monty Snow in person for the first time.

Ultimately, after considering all the issues, I decided to vote against the library proposal.  I did so because of the following concerns:

• I was not convinced that we were hearing the whole story on financing.

  Interest-only payments are a red flag to me that indicates that we really can’t afford the library.

• I think the library proposal was a case of “wrong time, wrong priority.”

  Let’s get the critical infrastructure items (firestation, roads, etc) funded before we start considering anything else.  I get the impression that the proposal was put forward ahead of those items so a tax increase could be sold as being for critical items, instead of for the library.

• I am not convinced that all the options were considered.

  So far I’ve only heard two options:  Expand the existing one -or- Town Center.  Why weren’t other sites considered?

• Parking logistics.

  Parking at Town Center already sucks.  And it is my considered opinion that whoever designed the traffic circle should be dragged off and shot.  Adding library patrons to the mix won’t help things.  Oh?  And nose-in spots on Bear Creek Raceway?  Does the designer who proposed this have stock in Service King?  And how long will it be until some speeding a**hole kills someone trying to cross Bear Creek to get to the library from Town Center?

• I’m not convinced that the library design is properly optimized.

  The L-shape would appear to increase the overall perimeter footprint without buying internal volume.  Also, the choice of a two-story building adds cost for stairs and elevators.  It is my understanding that library experts recommend that a library should not be multi-story until it passes 50,000-sq.ft. in area.

I’m not unalterably opposed to a new library.  I like libraries and I absorbed countless books from my local library when I was growing up.  But I will not allow that to override logic for a bad proposal.  Let’s get our priorities straight, get the necessary infrastructure items in place, and then we can consider all the options for a new library.

Since comments are closed on my original postings about Lindsey Crumpton (Deadly Stupidity and You Have Mail!), someone calling themselves “upset family member” came along and left a comment on my TenTenTwelveCorp post (see #6).

Since it’s way off topic for the given thread, I’ve decided to respond here and link to it from the comments on that article. 

Here’s what “upset family member” had to say:

i was very upset to read about what you called “Deadly Stupidty” because you called my family member stupid. Lindsey is not stupid she is very smart. she is mentally not capable of handleing depression. did you ever stop to think that maybe just maybe that because of her actions it hurts everyone in her family every single second of every day. if you knew how much pain Lindsey is going through right now you never would have rubbed it in her face. i HATE people like you who think they can just judge everyone without knowing shit. and as for the Bartletts im sorry and Lindsey has told me how much she regrets what she did to your family. but you know your family isnt the only ones going through tough times because we are also dealing with losing a family member not physically but mentally you may not think that its the same but really it is i will never know that cheerleader, and happy fun loving person ever again because of what happened. and i understand why you want to hurt her emotionally but i serioslly dont think that she could handle that but what your going to do youll do i cant really stop you. because everyday when she leaves the house she gets stares and its just awfull how mean this world is. again im sorry for what happened to the Bartletts ,but please dont call my family member stupid because you dont have any right judgeing my family member the only person that has a right judge others is God and you sure as hell aint him so back the f*** off.

Aside from what appears to be a genetic inability to use capitalization and punctuation, it appears that I’ve struck a nerve.  So allow me to respond to each point in turn:

i was very upset to read about what you called “Deadly Stupidty” because you called my family member stupid. Lindsey is not stupid she is very smart. she is mentally not capable of handleing depression.

Not to be overly pedantic, but the second definition of stupid, at least according to Dictionary.com is “Tending to make poor decisions or careless mistakes.”

It seems to me that intentionally trying to flip your vehicle in order to kill yourself is, at a minimum, a pretty poor decision, especially as we see that an innocent woman was killed.  As for her ability to handle depression?  That sounds like an excuse to me.  Try telling that to the dead woman.  Oh.  That’s right.  You can’t.

Lindsey’s actions were criminally irresponsible, selfish, and reprehensible. 

did you ever stop to think that maybe just maybe that because of her actions it hurts everyone in her family every single second of every day. if you knew how much pain Lindsey is going through right now you never would have rubbed it in her face.

I didn’t set out to rub anything in anyone’s face.  I simply commented with my take on what I thought of the situation as reported by The Fort Worth Star Telegram.  As for her pain, I really don’t care that much.  She did deadly damage to another family.  That can’t be taken back and it can’t be apoligized away. 

i HATE people like you who think they can just judge everyone without knowing shit.

Tough.  Get used to it, because she’s now a public figure, so everyone is going to have an opinion.  As for judgement?  Each of us judges thousands of things every day.  That’s not going to stop because it offends you.  As for “knowing shit”, what else is there to know except that her selfish and stupid suicide attempt cost the life of an innocent woman?  The reasons are irrelevant!  Her choice of action is all that matters.

and as for the Bartletts im sorry and Lindsey has told me how much she regrets what she did to your family. but you know your family isnt the only ones going through tough times because we are also dealing with losing a family member not physically but mentally you may not think that its the same but really it is i will never know that cheerleader, and happy fun loving person ever again because of what happened. and i understand why you want to hurt her emotionally but i serioslly dont think that she could handle that but what your going to do youll do i cant really stop you. because everyday when she leaves the house she gets stares and its just awfull how mean this world is.

I’m not sure if you’ve mistaken me for a member of the lady’s family or you’re responding to a comment from a family member.  But it seems a bit whiny to me to be comparing your family’s “pain” to that of the lady who was killed. 

again im sorry for what happened to the Bartletts ,but please dont call my family member stupid because you dont have any right judgeing my family member the only person that has a right judge others is God and you sure as hell aint him so back the f*** off.

Since I don’t believe in your God, you’ll understand that I don’t buy into any of that nonsense about “Him” being the only one who has the right to judge.  As a sentient being with the right of free speech I have an absolute right to judge any person or thing that I care to. 

Finally, you need to know one more thing:  I am not going to be moved from my judgement of this case.  You and the rest of Lindsey’s family are not going to change one thing I’ve written.  Everything you say or send to me will be documented on this site along with my response for all of the Internet to read should they decide to search Google on her name.  Do you really want to add to the documentation trail?