Hail Columbia
Hail Columbia, happy land!
Hail, ye heroes, heav'n-born band,
Who fought and bled in freedom's cause,
Who fought and bled in freedom's cause,
And when the storm of war was gone
Enjoy'd the peace your valor won.
Let independence be our boast,
Ever mindful what it cost;
Ever grateful for the prize,
Let its altar reach the skies.

Firm, united let us be,
Rallying round our liberty,
As a band of brothers joined,
Peace and safety we shall find.

MP3 from USAF Band with an alternate version.

John Glenn reacts to the Columbia Disaster.

Columbia Disaster
I remember the day vividly back on January 28th, 1986. I was in my 8th grade social studies class at Washington Junior High in Jamestown, New York. All day long most teachers keep their classes in the auditorium watching television coverage of the Challenger tragedy. To this day I hate watching the video of the Challenger exploding. Feeling the fear then as I do now is horrible and the pain of the families of the astronauts is unimaginable. Those feelings must be respected and the reason for the loss of Columbia must be investigated fully. However, now that another shuttle has been lost, I have but one thought. Space flight must continue. NASA went 3 years without launching a shuttle. That cannot happen again. The United States must continue with manned space flights, and must work towards new and brilliant goals. We must take this horrible event and the grief it will and has brought to the world and use it to build a new effort to go back to the Moon and on to Mars. Fear cannot be let to rule space exploration. The reaction after the Challenger disaster held back space exploration in an untold number of ways. We must not recoil into the shell of hyper-caution, and instead honor the 7 astronauts and all past space explorers by living the dreams of pushing the envelope and breaking out of confines of our planet and our star system. As a society we must understand the risks of exploration and not let the knee-jerk culture of fear to hold back the progress of knowledge. Humans must strive to better themselves. We must go where no one has gone before.

Seeking informationIf you have any connection to the space shuttle or if you have friends or relatives who live in the area where debris from the shuttle Columbia is falling in north Texas, please call the Enquirer's Metro desk at 768-8600 or send an e-mail to dfrench@enquirer.com.Did the Editor(s) actually approve this as a front page link? This rubs me as a bit crass.

John Schlagetter has posted emails from Nate and Amanda illustrating the bigotry and racism of the CJC. Here the CJC is attacking Greg Flannery of City Beat, one of the biggest boycott friendly members of the local media. Shooting one's self in the foot could not have a better example than the CJC's rantings. The highlight is the threat of violence implied in this quote:

He ain't nobody. He ain't done shit for us and never will. All he wants to do us school us on how he would like to see it done. And, of course, the method that he prescribes involves "persuading" the white man to "change his mind and his behavior". To hell with that. These muthafuckas can either be reasoned with or they can feel the pain. Fuck persuading anybody. And it goes without saying that this persuasion is naturally going to come with all kinds of personal sacrifice (financial, emotional, and physical) from us colored folk.

That quote was from Amanda. Yes, it shocked me too, but when you walk around with an anti-Semitic sign like this, anything could come out of your mouth.

Activists call for talks to resolve boycott
How can Luken talk to anyone with any boycott leaders when there is no clear director or group leading the boycott? The CBUF claims they lead the boycott and have defined the boycott as one covering the area of downtown below Central Parkway. The CJC, or rather what is left of it, claims the boycott includes the same area, plus a ban on all outsiders from coming into Cincinnati, but they also have enacted an "Artists of Conscious Campaign" trying to keep all artists/musicians/performers out of the entire Cincinnati region.

On Today’s (Friday’s) Sister Speak radio program on 1230 the Buzz the battle of dueling boycott groups occurred with the likes of Dwight Patton and Juleana Frierson calling in from the CBUF while Amanda Mayes, Monica Williams, and William Kirkland called in from the new and unimproved CJC. The two separate boycotts were declared in the statements from both groups. The fracture of the boycott is official. Luken has no way to negotiate with anyone. He can’t deal with two groups; the egos of the two groups are far too large for even Jimmy Carter to cope. Expecting Luken to do anything with these unfocused groups with hidden agendas is foolhardy and ill-conceived. Moving forward disregarding the boycott is the only path Luken can take. Extortion cannot be reward. An boycott as the means of a political power grab is a never ending process. The boycott will continue forever. To defeat its irrational goals we must make it irrelevant.

Double Standards
If a white person were to have a web page like this with the same type of rhetoric about blacks and race, then on a scale of 1 to 10, how racist would that person be? Is 11 to low?

Director Spike Lee Criticizes BET
Would this have anything to do with Ed Gordon of BET replacing Spike Lee as a lecturer at UC?

Chris Anderson on Legacies in Cincinnati Politics. Legacies smell of Frats to me. I am not a fan of Frats. I have to live with the often asked question most Miami University alums get: "so, what Frat were you in." Gamma Delta Iota baby! GDI todayI GDI tomorrow! GDI forever new! GDI through and through!

John Schlagetter asks the question that I asked back in September:

So why did Tavis Smiley get off easy without being targeted or boycotted when he was downtown promoting his new NPR show?

I even had pictures.

State of the City
A man living in a van down by the river knows that the state of the city of Cincinnati is Not Good.

Ted Turner Bio Information
This I did not know:

AGE_ 64. Born Nov. 19, 1938, in Cincinnati, Ohio

As CNN quickly debases itself down to the level of FOXNews, I hope the current turmoil does not totally ruin the chances for a turnaround of the network's slide to slime-news. I hope Ted can either buy back the network and mount a return to real news, or start a brand new all news channel that can shine on dial full of dull blather.

Fairly Unbalanced
Biology Professor Refuses to Recommend Students Who Don't Believe in Evolution
I wonder if FOXNews and the Liberty Legal Institute, a conservative group painted as a religious "freedom" group by the "fair and balanced" FOX, would cry foul if a Finance Professor denied a recommendation to a student who was an admitted communist? I would surmise, no.

Matt Weiler has some thoughts on the FOP Letter as well.

Police Slowdown?
Today's Enquirer is ripe with the text of a letter from Cincinnati Fraternal Order of Police president, Roger Webster, to all members of the police union. WHAT A LOAD OF HORSESHIT!!!! Webster's diatribe borders on the maliciously criminal.

When responding in an emergency mode, remember do not drive overly fast, stop at all intersections and stop signs.

On one hand we have the threat of more riots from the bigoted boycotters if the city does not give in to their demands, and on the other side we have the threats of letting emergencies go without responding by the police if the city does not give in to their demands. I expect as much from the boycotters. Their use of extortion as a means of political change is obvious to a five year old, but as a citizen I do expect more from the police.

I cringe when I see a conservative playing hypocritical union games with threats of a slow down. What I find most disgusting is Webster's claim that City Council insulted every police officer. That is the spin only management could love. When he wrote this:

In a matter of hours, seven members of city council slapped each and every police officer in the city in the face and decided to not ratify the supervisors contract.

I wanted to slap his face. A foot patrolman hoofing it in Over-the-Rhine at -11 degrees should give a rat's ass that someone doesn't get a free promotion to assistant chief? There is no principle in that position; there is only the preservation of power. If the police want to turn over a new leaf, they cannot circle the wagons and try and keep outsiders from injecting new blood into their stale division. I wonder if Fangman would have pushed this? My guess is that he helped write it. If this is the idea of fulfilling duty for the police, then I guess we are heading for a world of shit. Pvt. Leonard 'Gomer Pyle' Lawrence might have been more to the point in the movie Full Metal Jacketwhen right before he blew out his brains he said: "I am... in a world... of shit."

Plan adds taxes to real estate purchases and cable TV charges
How does Taft Plan on administering these new taxes? Will local sales taxes automatically cover these new items or will a complicated mess occur in the service industry?

Chris Anderson finds a bias in the Cincinnati Enquirer's coverage of the conceal and carry gun legislation before the Ohio Assembly. I am not sure if the bias Chris believes exists is true, but the bias against abortion rights is something no one can deny, as I commented on previously.

On a concealed carry law: I find it pointless. If people have the need to quell their fears and intimidate others, strap a leg iron on and show the metal on your side. If people want to live like Wyatt Earp, they better look the part.

I think Zee at Spiced Sass can rest assured that anyone reading this post will not have any problem identifying the political leanings of the author. Ditto Head comes to mind, but reactionary sounds as applicable.

State of the Union Observations
We are going to war. Bush cannot declare victory if a coup takes place in Iraq installing a new dictator when he makes a statement like this:

And tonight I have a message for the brave and oppressed people of Iraq: Your enemy is not surrounding your country your enemy is ruling your country. And the day he and his regime are removed from power will be the day of your liberation.

Anything short of a new western democracy in Iraq will be a Bush failure.

Schools will lose if taxes don't rise
Incentive to "sin?" The more we drink and smoke the more tax money will be available to the Schools! Party on Bob!

UPDATE: Chris Anderson adds some thoughts on the same issue.