What do you do when you put an issue of CinWeekly to bed? Well, tonight you go to the Dubliner in Pleasant Ridge and play trivia. I am a semi regular trivia player there myself and along with our crew I was just playing along when I was approached by a man.
Now, you have to realize something that might be obvious. I am a rather bland and nondescript person, well at least outside of the blogosphere. I doubt my writing tone or style matches my face. With that in mind I was approached by Beryl Love, editor of CinWeekly. He wanted to introduce himself to me and wanted me to meet the rest of the staff who were playing the trivia game in the next room.
I have to admit I was surprised to be recognized. My mug is not exactly front-page fodder, but they knew me. I was introduced to the staff of CinWeekly, traded a few friendly jabs, and went on my way. I felt a slight bit of guilt. They were of course nice folks, not so different from anyone else. I have ridden their publication fairly hard since its inception. My guilt was short lived however. Criticism is not usually personal, and with CinWeekly it surely is not.
What was more impressive was that their team finished 2nd in the game. My team finished 4th. I was hoping to rub in an opposite outcome, but I guess their ace in the hole kept them ahead. That ace was the source of their team name: "Where the hell is Tom?" Tom was Tom Callinan, editor of the Enquirer. Tom had a few problems finding the Dubliner. I think someone needs to buy Tom a map of the city, or better yet maybe Gannett can spring for an installation of OnStar in his car.
Most of the staff appears to have read or regularly read the blog, so I would have been remiss not to mention our meeting. Everyone seemed to be having a good time. I hope they don't have to work early tomorrow.
Tuesday, January 06, 2004
False Alarm?
I guess it was just much ado about nothing? WLW had to kill a bunch of commercials for this?
The 800-pound gorilla thinks this was a false alarm, and decided so fairly quickly.
The 800-pound gorilla thinks this was a false alarm, and decided so fairly quickly.
Flight Landing Into Cincinnati with 'Persons of Interest' On Board
WCPO and WLW are reporting that a Plane from France might have suspected terrorists on board. Some reports are that fighter jets are escorting the flight.
UPDATE: "Terrorists" was too strong of a term, and was edited. This might be much ado about nothing, but no one is taking any chances. WLW has live coverage.
UPDATE#2: FOX coverage, and WLWT's report.
UPDATE#3: 3:47PM - Flight is reported to have Landed in Cincinnati. CNN's has story on the incident and reports the plane was escorted by fighter jets. Here downtown a larger than usual number of commercial jets few over downtown in the last 20 minutes.
UPDATE:#4 3:57 PM - WLW is reporting that about 12 law enforcement officials boarded the plane before any passengers deplaned. The plane is away from the main terminal towards the DHL hanger.
UPDATE:#5 4:02 PM - The Enquirer has a story. Some people are starting to leave the plane at this point, but not in mass.
UPDATE: "Terrorists" was too strong of a term, and was edited. This might be much ado about nothing, but no one is taking any chances. WLW has live coverage.
UPDATE#2: FOX coverage, and WLWT's report.
UPDATE#3: 3:47PM - Flight is reported to have Landed in Cincinnati. CNN's has story on the incident and reports the plane was escorted by fighter jets. Here downtown a larger than usual number of commercial jets few over downtown in the last 20 minutes.
UPDATE:#4 3:57 PM - WLW is reporting that about 12 law enforcement officials boarded the plane before any passengers deplaned. The plane is away from the main terminal towards the DHL hanger.
UPDATE:#5 4:02 PM - The Enquirer has a story. Some people are starting to leave the plane at this point, but not in mass.
First Shots are Harsh
The first shots of what will surely be a very harsh and I think eventually violent campaign have been made. Moveon.org's has as a finalist a political ad contest which allegedly compares Bush to Hitler. A group called Club for Growth Political Action Committee has an ad sterotyping Dean:
It is 11 months before the election and we have this already. Come October how will we not have thugs in the streets battling to disrupt each other's rallies?
In the ad, a farmer says he thinks that "Howard Dean should take his tax-hiking, government-expanding, latte-drinking, sushi-eating, Volvo-driving, New York Times-reading ..." before the farmer's wife then finishes the sentence: "... Hollywood-loving, left-wing freak show back to Vermont, where it belongs."This add is supposed to be running in Iowa soon.
It is 11 months before the election and we have this already. Come October how will we not have thugs in the streets battling to disrupt each other's rallies?
Blood, Blood, Blood Makes the Primary Fun!
Hamilton County Commissioner Phil Heimlich is endorsing Pat DeWine in what the Enquirer is calling his "maverick campaign to unseat fellow Republican John Dowlin."
This should be fun! It is always fun to watch an intra-party fight for office, but it is even more interesting when an incumbent faces a challenge for the party endorsement. I can't find any firm ideological split in the local GOP here. So far it is more of a battle of either the old guard vs. the new guard, or just personal friends sticking together.
What it might be is City Republicans vs. suburbanites if one takes this at face value:
Geographic political slits have historically been true on a macro level, but is this a sign of micro-geographic political battle? The City folk vs. Country folk? Westsider vs. Eastsider? Old Money vs. New Money?
This primary should prove fun.
This should be fun! It is always fun to watch an intra-party fight for office, but it is even more interesting when an incumbent faces a challenge for the party endorsement. I can't find any firm ideological split in the local GOP here. So far it is more of a battle of either the old guard vs. the new guard, or just personal friends sticking together.
What it might be is City Republicans vs. suburbanites if one takes this at face value:
"He has been a steadfast supporter on township and suburban issues," said state Rep. Bill Seitz of Green Township. "Now is no time to leave our county at the mercy of a city-centric commission."I guess Seitz should just come out and say it what he really wants to say: "fuck the city."
Geographic political slits have historically been true on a macro level, but is this a sign of micro-geographic political battle? The City folk vs. Country folk? Westsider vs. Eastsider? Old Money vs. New Money?
This primary should prove fun.
Tracking Visitors
Michael at Rantophilia comments on the new program to fingerprint and photograph all foreign visitors not from specific strong allied countries (mostly European countries).
I myself am no overly upset of this method. We have laws on the books now limiting how long non-citizens can stay in our country. Tracking people in this manner will make it easier to find those who have violated the terms of their visa. The problems hear are appearances. One is that this looks really bad. It looks like something the Soviets would do to Westerners. I don’t like it when we look like authoritarians. The second is that the claims or more likely the implication that this will somehow help keep out terrorists are just vast over exaggerations. This will not keep people out who want to do harm. It might keep out the lone nut bent on doing something small, but if an established terrorist group wants to get people into the country, they can still do it without worrying about this new system.
The question then becomes, is this program so important? Well, I don't really think it is, but there is not a legal reason not to enforce the laws on the books in this manner.
I also have read about many countries pissed about this, namely Brazil. On this front I don't really see their gripe. Americans are not treated like saints anywhere in the world, so fingerprints or pictures of us will not matter, and it will not hurt them either.
I do however wonder what we will do with the fingerprints and photos. Will we share them with other countries? Will we keep them for ourselves? This is what scares me more: we don't care. Will we care if (or when) the Homeland Security Department does this for any domestic air travel?
More from the Enquirer.
I myself am no overly upset of this method. We have laws on the books now limiting how long non-citizens can stay in our country. Tracking people in this manner will make it easier to find those who have violated the terms of their visa. The problems hear are appearances. One is that this looks really bad. It looks like something the Soviets would do to Westerners. I don’t like it when we look like authoritarians. The second is that the claims or more likely the implication that this will somehow help keep out terrorists are just vast over exaggerations. This will not keep people out who want to do harm. It might keep out the lone nut bent on doing something small, but if an established terrorist group wants to get people into the country, they can still do it without worrying about this new system.
The question then becomes, is this program so important? Well, I don't really think it is, but there is not a legal reason not to enforce the laws on the books in this manner.
I also have read about many countries pissed about this, namely Brazil. On this front I don't really see their gripe. Americans are not treated like saints anywhere in the world, so fingerprints or pictures of us will not matter, and it will not hurt them either.
I do however wonder what we will do with the fingerprints and photos. Will we share them with other countries? Will we keep them for ourselves? This is what scares me more: we don't care. Will we care if (or when) the Homeland Security Department does this for any domestic air travel?
More from the Enquirer.
Queen City Soapbox: Ethan Hahn Back and Blogging in Force
Please check out Ethan over at Queen City Soapbox. Ethan has been away from regular blogging, but has restarted his efforts. I bid him a welcome back!
Ethan has posts on: the Red's Faithful blog, Pete Rose, Freedom, and the cold.
Yes it is damn cold today. One must love hitting 67 one day (Saturday) and then three days latter is drops to 10.
Ethan has posts on: the Red's Faithful blog, Pete Rose, Freedom, and the cold.
Yes it is damn cold today. One must love hitting 67 one day (Saturday) and then three days latter is drops to 10.
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