Thursday, April 30, 2009

I May Need to Sue the SJ-R

I’m serious. They let some asshole, pretending to be me, use my full name in their online comments section. Oh, but there could be someone else who has my name, right? Not in conjunction with the name of my blog. Ridiculous comments were made to which, of course, other commenter’s responded, again using my name. The SJ-R better get this under control NOW.

Update: By the way, I NEVER comment in the SJ-R comments section, so if you see anyone pretending to be me, it’s not. I don’t even like reading the stupid that shows up there. I only found out about these incidents because I was tipped off to them.

Update II: The SJ-R has now heard from me.

Update III: The SJ-R has quickly responded by closing the imposter's account.

Update IV: How about a requirement that comment accounts not contain a plausibly real name? I’m sure I’m not the first person to be burned by this.

Update V: After talking to the person I thought was responsible for this, he assures me he is not involved. Taking him at his word, I've removed any accusations here. It actaully kind of scares me more NOT knowing who did it.

Update VI: Well, 24 hours later, the SJ-R still has not removed the bogus comments. Apparently all they did was cancel the imposter's account.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Psychedelia is for Everyone

Now that there is a Democrat in the White House, can we have a Dem version of the Psychedelic Republicans cards?

When Pigs Flu

Ha, ha...The first step in preventing swine flu would be to avoid this.

Sorry, But You’re Not MY Father

I’m going to do two things I don’t normally do: Link to this guy and disrespect the dead. The person in question was a cruel, petty, rigid, vengeful man who was really, in my opinion, a horrible teacher as well. I wouldn’t be writing this if I didn’t still feel the anger more than 30 years later. Maybe 29 years ago he changed. I hope he did.

Update: I've scrubbed the previous updates here because the blogger in question assures me he had nothing to do with the negative feedback I got on this post.

Monday, April 27, 2009

Serious Insights: Stupid Connections Edition

If the swine flu turns out to be not so serious, how long will it be before climate change deniers use that to “prove” climate change doesn’t exist and/or is being unnecessarily hyped?


Some Like It Cold

Heading into the grocery store late Saturday afternoon, I overheard a woman coming out of the store complaining to her companion, “It’s SOOO hot? How long is this going to last?”

Sigh. It was 85 degrees, not all that humid and very breezy. Where is this woman from, Nome, Alaska? And to answer her question: until October.


Friday, April 24, 2009

Shorter Kev 04/24/09

I’d like to take some of your time to shamelessly and randomly slam Chicago since that always plays well in Springfield. I’m outraged that that Mayor Daley would take time to declare a Shakespeare Day. Doesn’t he have something better to do? Don’t I have something better to do than whine about it?



Kevan Kavanaugh’s commentaries can be heard regularly on AM 970 WMAY.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Enjoy Your $2 Gas

I’ve been thinking this too.
More recently, energy prices have stopped that kind of rapid ascent, but they’ve done so because global growth is moving backwards. If the economy moves toward recovery, we have every reason to believe that it will continue to escalate.

And this is part of what makes the failure over the past ten years to invest in a new clean energy economy so unfortunate. Instead, we wound up very much doing the reverse. At a moment in time when a lot of foreigners wanted to lend money to finance investments in America, we could have been investing in clean ways of producing electricity, in new mass transit lines, in walkable communities, etc. But instead we invested in new housing developments that for the most part are even more sprawling and car dependent than the developments we were building in the 1980s.


We are “enjoying” low gasoline prices (at least those of us who are still employed) but that isn’t going to last any longer than the global recession. When business picks up, so will energy demand and gas prices will go through the roof. We failed to heed the warning signs in the past and we have a short window of opportunity to prepare for the surge in energy prices by investing stimulus money in alternatives and infrastructure that will ease the pain some. But waiting isn’t an option any longer.

I’ll even take this one step further. A growing economy can be stymied by energy inflation brought on by scarcity. So any recovery could then be cut short and the economy thrown back into recession by these rising energy costs. That then would lower energy costs, which would allow for a recovery (eventually) and on and on the cycle goes. The only way out of this is to be smarter with our energy options.

John Shimkus: The Giant Tool

Why do you people keep electing this guy? What an ass.

Illinois as Meat

Maybe you’ve seen this SEIU Healthcare Illinois TV ad. It’s the one with the piece of meat shaped like Illinois and we're warned that all of the fat has already been trimmed in government budgets –or something. Well, I’ve seen it enough now that I’m starting to get fixated on the more subtle visual details.

For example, once the fat is gone from around the edges of the state, the knife starts cutting northwest Illinois off from the rest of the state. Hmmmm. Would we be able fix our financial problems that way? No one would miss hell holes like Freeport, but can’t we keep Galena and beautiful Jo Daviess County?

But wait! While we don’t see the actual carnage, the ad takes us to the inevitable conclusion with the whole state cut away except for the bone in the middle which appears to be approximately Morgan County.

So my take away from this is we need to generate more revenue so Illinois doesn’t become Jacksonville.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Get Him Out of Here!

This really isn’t fair. We should at least be able to get some entertainment value out of the disgraced governor for all our troubles in having to impeach him and all.

CHICAGO -- Ousted Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s reality TV dreams were dashed Tuesday when a federal judge refused to let him leave the country to tape a show in the Costa Rican jungle because it would interfere with his defense against racketeering and fraud charges.

Federal prosecutors opposed allowing him to go to Central America to star on the NBC reality show “I’m a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here!” — a program similar to “Survivor” in which contestants will be plopped down in the Costa Rican jungle to perform sweaty physical tasks and scheme to avoid elimination.

On the other hand, I’d hate to have to miss the entertainment of his trial here…

Blagojevich’s attorney, Sheldon Sorosky, told Zagel the program would pay for retired marshals or FBI agents to make sure he didn’t flee. But Assistant U.S. Attorney Reid Schar said there was no way to predict whether Blagojevich would seek to stay in Costa Rica or make a break for a neighboring country that has no extradition treaty with the United States.

Police are on the Case (of Beer)

Is it really necessary to arrest people over 18 (but under 21) for drinking at someone’s house? I’m old enough to remember when they raised the drinking age from 19 to 21 and THE BIGGEST RATIONALE was the higher drinking age would more effectively keep 19 and 20 year olds from buying booze for those under 19. Really, that was the proponent’s main argument. They theoretically had no problem with 19 and 20 year-olds drinking, they were just concerned these kids would be passing the bottle to their slightly younger friends. But that notion is long since gone and now you need to be arrested for drinking as a 19 or 20 year old because IT’S THE LAW!


Specifically regarding the linked-to story, the police should have told the occupants of the home to dial down the noise but should not have arrested a bunch of adults for consuming alcohol. And as for the illegal adults, they should have not called attention to themselves by being so loud.

Monday, April 20, 2009

High Times

It’s 4/20. Tee-hee.

Friday, April 17, 2009

The Mexicans Want to Kill Your Kids

I’m sure you’ve heard about all the drug cartel violence in Mexico that has spilled over into U.S., border towns right? Well, apparently that’s just bullshit:

After weeks of hearing the war drums beat louder and louder, Sito Negron, editor of El Paso’s online daily news journal, Newspaper Tree, recently decided he’d had enough. An insurgency on both sides? he thought, listening to Clarke’s prime-time pronouncement. Are you kidding me?

According to the FBI, more than 1,600 people were killed by cartel violence in Juarez [Mexico] in 2008. El Paso, a city of 755,000, recorded just 18 murders last year. Laredo had 11; Brownsville and McAllen had three and nine, respectively. By comparison, Washington, D.C., with a population smaller than El Paso’s, had 186 homicides in 2008.

A native El Pasoan, Negron was fed up with national media feeding the frenzy to militarize his hometown. He published an opinion piece on Newspaper Tree titled, “Who are you idiots, and why are you on national television talking about the border? An open letter to U.S. media"…


El Paso and Juarez are right across the border from each other. There doesn’t seem to be much spillage despite the media hype. I remember seeing on a cable news channel a few weeks ago an interview with the mayor (or something) of one of the U. S. border towns. He kept denying there was any significant “spill over” of violence but the interviewer kept treating him like he was just trying to spin the situation to reflect more favorably on his community. It was strange to watch, and not knowing much about the situation, I wasn’t sure who to believe. I mean, the guy seemed really sincere, not just trying to put the best face on a bad situation, but the interviewer simply didn't want to hear it.

Now, having said all that, there’s no denying the horrific amount of violence actually going on in Mexico and the situation certainly warrants watching so that it somehow doesn’t “spill over”. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. And let’s be mindful that fueling this violence are the guns, demand for drugs, stupid drug laws and money all from the U.S. So while the blood may not be spilled on our side of the border, it’s not like we aren’t involved.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

It's Chicago's Fault

Will makes an excellent point here:

It's easy to attack Cook county for corruption but I wonder if the main difference is that in Chicago there's someone to investigate and uncover it. It's easier to keep things quiet in smaller towns when everyone is benefiting and the local press is cooperative.

Chicago/Cook County (same thing, right?) bashing is a popular sport with the provincial and radio talk-show crowd locally, but I wouldn’t be so eager to cast stones when you have no idea what’s really going on right here. Having lived in a number of communities in Illinois outside of northeast part of the state, some of them quite small, and I can assure you that there are nefarious things going on everywhere that just don’t get any attention.

The Fighting 18th

Stephen Colbert interviewed Rep. Aaron Schock last night and featured Illinois' “fighting” 18th district.

Wearing Jeans is Immoral and Ruining this Country

Ha, when he’s not lying about global warming, George Will is denouncing the evils of blue jeans:

On any American street, or in any airport or mall, you see the same sad tableau: A 10-year-old boy is walking with his father, whose development was evidently arrested when he was that age, judging by his clothes. Father and son are dressed identically -- running shoes, T-shirts. And jeans, always jeans. If mother is there, she, too, is draped in denim.

Writer Daniel Akst has noticed and has had a constructive conniption. He should be given the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He has earned it by identifying an obnoxious misuse of freedom. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, he has
denounced denim, summoning Americans to soul-searching and repentance about the plague of that ubiquitous fabric, which is symptomatic of deep disorders in the national psyche.


Denim is the carefully calculated costume of people eager to communicate indifference to appearances. But the appearances that people choose to present in public are cues from which we make inferences about their maturity and respect for those to whom they are presenting themselves.

Do not blame Levi Strauss for the misuse of Levi's. When the Gold Rush began, Strauss moved to San Francisco planning to sell strong fabric for the 49ers' tents and wagon covers. Eventually, however, he made tough pants, reinforced by copper rivets, for the tough men who knelt on the muddy, stony banks of Northern California creeks, panning for gold. Today it is silly for Americans whose closest approximation of physical labor consists of loading their bags of clubs into golf carts to go around in public dressed for driving steers up the Chisholm Trail to the railhead in
Abilene.

This is not complicated. For men, sartorial good taste can be reduced to one rule: If Fred Astaire would not have worn it, don't wear it. For women, substitute Grace Kelly.


And that’s just part of his anti-denim, “get off my lawn!” screed; the rest is just as good. He ends with an admission that he was once FORCED to wear a pair of jeans and HATED IT. I’m sorry, but what a priss.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Let the South Rise Again

People think I’m kidding when I say, I’m half-sorry that Lincoln won the Civil War. And by “won” I mean preventing the secession of the Southern states. There was that whole slavery thing the really needed to be ended, hence my half-sorryness. But today, with no slavery in the balance, let the redneck fuckers go. Matt Yglesias agrees:

Honestly, though, I agree with Mike Tomasky that if Texas wants to leave the union we should probably just let them go and I’d say the same for other southern states that feel oppressed by our efforts to use federal tax money to help them take care of their unemployed citizens. Back during the Civil War, the cause of keeping the union together was intertwined with the cause of fighting the great evil of slavery. But assume we just welcome migrants from the Republic of Texas with open arms if they want to flee north, there’d be no comparable problem with letting Texas leave.

Obviously, one advantage of large-scale secession of the most conservative states is that it would be a lot easier to pass progressive legislation. An aspect of Civil War history that people don’t tend to appreciate is that the temporary departure of the Dixie bloc of Senators allowed a huge flowering of legislative activity that wouldn’t otherwise have been possible. In addition to prosecuting the war, the Lincoln-era GOP took sweeping action on industrial policy, infrastructure, land reform, etc. much of which would have been extraordinarily difficult to accomplish had the southerners just stayed in their seats and used the considerable levers of obstruction that are available to legislative minorities.

Really, I have no problem with this. It sure would make the rest of the country a better place. We do need to be prepared for a bit of a refugee problem as I imagine most minorities would be terrified of this. But, we will probably be able to absorb them as our sizable minority of wingnuts relocates to the new haven of crazy. Everyone there would be required to carry guns, abortions would be illegal and women who got them would be executed under the greatly expanded death penalty laws, there would be no taxes (but somehow a big military), foreigners would be not at all welcome and possibly executed under the greatly expanded death penalty laws, smoking would be allowed everywhere, homos would be outlawed and possibly be executed under the greatly expanded death penalty laws, Social Security and Medicare would be eliminated and the elderly abandoned and possibly be executed under the greatly expanded death penalty laws, etc. It would be very appealing to these people. I say le them go for it.

Public Tax Cheats

A list of Illinois’ biggest tax-cheating politicians of all time can be found here. I’ll say this for Blago, he’s not on this list.

Waiting for Tax Day

I’ve never understood people who put off filing their income taxes when they know they are owed a REFUND. Why wait for the money? Why wait until a time when it will take longer to get your return processed? Why, why, why? Here you have a financial incentive not to procrastinate and you still insist on doing so. You are deeply flawed individuals!

Shorter Kev 04/15/09

Springfield rocks! Believe it or not, I’m once again going to try and convince you everything is great in Springfield and it’s just the national media that’s being all negative cuz they’re just that way. A positive attitude is good for business so please advertise on the radio.

Kevan Kavanaugh’s commentaries can be heard regularly on AM 970 WMAY.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Where Business Goes to Die

Why does it seem like everything that ever goes into Vinegar Hill Mall turns to shit? It’s got kind of a bad location too.

Oh, and while I don't know any more than what's in the SJ-R article, both sides of this "issue" seem unappealing to me. Good luck to both of them.

Friday, April 10, 2009

The Glory of War

This morning I read this NYT obit of Illinoisan Russell Dunham and his heroic deeds in World War II.

On the afternoon of Jan. 8, 1945, Sergeant Dunham was leading a platoon in the 30th Infantry, Third Infantry Division, when the soldiers, among them his brother Ralph, were pinned down by German fire. They were at the bottom of a hill near the village of Kaysersberg, the birthplace of the Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Albert Schweitzer.

German machine-gunners and riflemen fired down on the Americans while an artillery barrage landed behind them. “The only way to go was up,” Mr. Dunham told Reader’s Digest long afterward.

Wearing as camouflage a white robe made from a mattress cover, Sergeant Dunham ran up the hill ahead of his platoon and charged a machine-gun emplacement. He was shot in the back, and his camouflage became useless: his white clothing was soaked with blood.

Despite “excruciating pain” from his wound, as the Medal of Honor citation told it, Sergeant Dunham wiped out three machine-gun nests and attacked German riflemen in foxholes. Moments later, Ralph Dunham destroyed a fourth machine-gun position.

Firing 175 rounds of carbine fire and throwing 11 grenades, Russell Dunham killed nine Germans, wounded seven and captured two others.

Two weeks later, his battalion was surrounded by German tanks at the French town of Holtzwihr. Most of the men were forced to surrender, but as Mr. Dunham told it to Peter Collier in his book “Medal of Honor,” he hid in a sauerkraut barrel outside a barn.

He was discovered by two German soldiers the next morning, but while searching him they found a pack of cigarettes in his pocket and began to fight over it. They never noticed a pistol in a shoulder holster under Sergeant Dunham’s arm.

While the Germans were taking him toward their lines, one of them stopped at a bar. Sergeant Dunham shot and killed the other soldier. He escaped on foot, was spotted a couple of days later by United States Army engineers building a bridge, and was treated for severely frozen feet.
Not long before the war ended, Dunham was deservedly awarded the Medal of Honor.

War stories like this grab our interest (I've been thinking about the sauerkraut barrel since I read about it morning). But the very sad fact of war is that for every tale like this, there are hundreds in which our hero was sitting, standing, ducking, running or sleeping and suddenly his (or her) head is blown off. End of story. And I'm sure Dunham would have been the first to agree with and appreciate that.

Thursday, April 09, 2009

Dude, Where’s My Bingo Marker?

This is the picture accompanying the story in today’s SJ-R about the thriving bingo business here in Springfield. But what’s this guy’s deal? He’s waaaaay too young to want to be playing bingo. Hopefully he’s just there to help his grandma.

Separate But Equally Wasteful

I suppose they have their reasons (that are none of my business, so I won’t ask) but I work with a married couple who come to work at the same time but drive separate cars. They often park right next to each other. They work feet from each other. Why the two cars? Being Americans and all, I suppose it could be because they like to listen to different radio stations or something important like that.

Wednesday, April 08, 2009

The Year of Teh Gay

Gay marriage will be legal in Illinois in 2012. Or so it says here.

RIP Books?

Charles Warner on the future of books (hint - there isn’t one):

Last week I received an advanced copy of my book (printed on paper), Media Selling, Fourth Edition, and I was thrilled to finally hold it and turn its pages. I used the book last fall in a graduate course I reach at The New School. I put drafts of a couple of revised chapters of the book online for them to read, and I received no complaints from the students. No one said, “I don’t like reading books online; I prefer carrying around a 600-page book in my back pack and having the tactile feeling of paper and turning pages.” Of course not, they do virtually all of their reading online today.

As required reading for the course I listed no books printed on paper but, in addition to the online chapters, I included four blogs, the Business section of The New York Times which could be read online, and three podcasts. I also assigned several videos to watch. After one class toward the end of the year, I asked several students if they would like to be able to listen to Media Selling on their iPods (every student had one, of course), and their responses were unanimously and enthusiastically, “Of course.”

…to think that books, which are based on a technology that is five-and-a-half centuries old, will be around much longer is the ultimate Luddite delusion. Within a few years when students matriculate for their first semester in college, they will be given a devise, perhaps something similar to a Kindle or an iPhone that connects to the Internet, and a password. Included in their tuition and fees will be a charges for up-to-date synonyms for “books” and “library” and “personal computer.”

Current libraries will be turned into museums that will display old printed manuscripts and books that are representative of the past – collections in glass cases that you can look at but cannot touch. Historical relics in a reliquary. All books, including textbooks, will be available online – no need for libraries – and students won’t buy them, they will subscribe to them.

As an author of a textbook, I will write Media Selling, have it copy edited by smart software, and publish it online to Amazon.com with whom I negotiated a deal directly. Amazon.com will have an educational division that will have an up-to-date database that includes all the people who teach a course that is related to my book and all media company managers who might be prospects for the book, and through an automated process Amazon.com will promote the book via email and AdWords on Google.

Students and professionals will subscribe to on a yearly basis, not buy it. For that subscription fee, which will be about what the printed book costs today, I will be obligated to update the book quarterly. When book subscribers Media Selling, it will automatically be updated, just like my Firefox browser is.

Bye-bye 600-page heavy books, bye-bye libraries, bye-bye book publishers. Hello convenience, hello being current, and hello revenue that goes directly to authors instead of to Gutenberg’s descendants and people who kill trees.


Well, I’m willing to agree with Warner when it comes to books and higher education. I can see textbooks being phased out rather quickly in that realm. But beyond that, I think the book’s final and complete demise is a long way off.

For one thing, the technology for using paperless books can be expensive for a large portion of the population. Not necessarily completely out of reach, but expensive in its start-up costs. And that doesn’t even take into consideration cultural biases towards books.

For example, it may take a generation or two (or much better technology) to wean parents of young children off of reading books to their kids. There are few moments in daily life that are more bonding for parent and child. Parents remember being read to by their parents FROM BOOKS and will want to do the same. That’s not to say something can’t come along that will be the equal to traditional books and eventually the switch will be made. I’m just saying we aren’t there yet. (For example, the Kindle does poorly with graphics and no kid is going to sit still for a storybook with no pictures).

Kids books are a “specialty” kind of book and I don’t want to get too hung up on just those cases (think books of photography). The average novel or work of non-fiction for adults could easily be published exclusively electronically with little effort even today. It would miss a large chunk of the population that doesn’t have the hardware yet, but it could be done. So yes, we are getting there but the relegation of books to museums is still at least a couple of decades away.

Close Out City

So did you get screwed at Circuit City?
Circuit City hired professional liquidation services to run the final days of the chain. And somewhat counterintuitively, the first thing the liquidators did was raise prices. Substantially. And it worked. Merchandise flew out of the showroom and the company made some real money in its final moments of existence.

The reasoning actually proves pretty simple: A high-profile closure brings a crush of bargain-hunters. Circuit City was mobbed. Those customers, however, were operating off of a fairly simple theory of why they would get a good deal; Circuit City was going out of business and needed to sell down its stock. But the liquidator had a lot more experience with closures than the customers and so knew full well that the consumers would think they were getting a good deal whether or not they were. And so they in fact got a bad deal.

Behavioral economists talk of predictable irrationality. But the corollary problem is what I call
asymmetric rationality. Businesses have enough consumer data to detect patterns in our recurrent screw-ups. We fail predictably. They track those failures continually. And so there are many times when we think we're gaming them -- like rushing to Circuit City's final sale -- and they're actually gaming us.
I’ve actually noticed the lack of bargains at the many “close-out sales” I’ve been to over the years. I did not partake in CC’s closing for that very reason. Also, I’ve been burned on the no return policy that is unavoidable at these things. I remember once buying a sheet set at Venture as it closed out here in Springfield. When I got home, I found that there was no bottom sheet. Too bad for me. I saved 30% (or something) but really got nothing useful.

Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Your Argument is So Gay

Of all the issues out there, I really think the most indefensible is the Right’s opposition to gay marriage. I don’t mean just repugnant or wrong-headed, but genuinely indefensible. They really have nothing that doesn’t boil down to just some sort of squeamishness with gay sex, which isn’t stopped by marriage bans. Today, Vermont became the latest state in which gay marriage is legal. The dam is bursting.


Civic Duty

I voted today but only knew one person on the ballot out of four races. I guess I should have given a shit.


Volcanic Reaction

Some mildly funny excuse for being late to work here. But in my days working in the Springfield unemployment office, I think the best excuse for not showing up for work (and then getting fired) involved….a volcano. You see, this discharged worker was originally from the Philippines and had retuned to her native land for a visit using vacation time from work. Just as she was about to fly back to the U.S., a volcano in the Philippines erupted closing the airports there. It was a big eruption and made all the papers so to speak. When she did finally make it back, she found she had lost her job. So she headed on down to the unemployment office and was granted benefits based on the fact that her dismissal was due to no fault of here own.

Monday, April 06, 2009

Dishwashing Done Right

What caught my eye in this Kevin Drum post wasn't the phosphate "controversy", but the associated photo:

That old-time dishwasher is at a height where you don't have to bend over to load/unload! Man, I wish I had one of those. What will they think of next in the 1950s?

True Patriotism

I really don't get why this is considered patriotic but if you are the Dixie Chicks and say you don't like George Bush you are America-haters.

Friday, April 03, 2009

"Springfield Girl" Internet Predator Victim?

Did I miss this in the local press when it happened?

…in one case [Megan Fulara, a community outreach liaison from the Illinois Attorney General's office] described involving a young Springfield girl who developed an online friendship.

"For seven months, she was chatting with someone, and he never said anything inappropriate," she said.

Eventually the friend, who was in fact a grown man, asked for a picture of the girl, who forwarded one from her yearbook. The man then re-sent a doctored photo featuring the girl's head atop a naked woman's body and proceeded to blackmail her with the photo.

"He extorted over 156 naked pictures of this girl," she said.

That offender was caught, but Fulara said that is not always the case.


Fulara was giving a presentation on online predators to a group in Carbondale. I just remember this being in the news here. Maybe I missed it or just forgot about it.
I think the whole “online predator” thing is a bit overblown to begin with (not that it doesn’t EVER happen) and even in this scary story, the child was not actually ever touched. Obviously, the “friend” was a creep and deserved to be punished but even a minimal amount of parental supervision would have stopped this quickly. Which, I guess, may have been Fulara’s point.

Comments On

I’ve turned comments back on but they will now be moderated. Turns out, Blogger has a decent moderating sytem that will let me filter out the BS. That means your comment will not immediately show up and if you’re my racist troll, they won’t ever show up. See ya.

Shorter Kev 04/03/09

Blagojevich sucks! He coulda had class. He coulda been a contender. He coulda been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what he is…

Kevan Kavanaugh’s commentaries can be heard regularly on AM 970 WMAY.

Thursday, April 02, 2009

Twins Born Years Apart?

I generally stay away from commenting on some of the stranger things I see reading the obituaries in the SJ-R since I don’t want to come across as making fun of someone’s recently deceased friend or relative. But today the SJ-R (online anyway) has two completely different people with the same photograph. I’m actually kind of proud of myself that I even noticed since I don’t know either of them and the pictures were at opposite ends of the obit listings.


Wednesday, April 01, 2009

springfieldlovesglennbeck@yahoo.com

Due to an increasing infestation of wingnuts (and the resulting political pie fights), I finally left the springfieldillinois Yahoo group. I can get Teh Stupid on right wing blogs. I was more interested in Springfield non-political information and that seems to be mostly overshadowed by a few who seem to think we need political lectures in our e-mail boxes.
On a related note, most comments I get here anymore are from a particularly obnoxious and racist troll. I immediately delete those comments but there is no point in having comments if Mr. Troll is the only one commenting. So, I will be limiting comments from now on to only select posts. My email is always available. I’m just not interested in babysitting an asshole like Mr. Troll.

Shorter Kev 04/01/09

April Fool’s Day pranks rule! Let me tell you about some really funny ones. Why is no one laughing? Anyway, Dave Kelm is leaving our airwaves to become a lawyer.

Kevan Kavanaugh’s commentaries can be heard regularly on AM 970 WMAY.