Helping a deserving family

Kudos to Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Westwood, for introducing a private bill to expedite the immigration application of Maha Dakar, the Green Township mother at risk of being deported because of the glacial bureacracy of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.

The chances of the bill passing are slim, as noted in Tuesday's Enquirer story, but just filing it will get Dakar, husband Bassam Garadah and their four children an 18-month repreive.

Chabot is a staunch foe of illegal immigration -- one of those who in my opinion insisted on mislabeling the punishments and procedures of the recently defeated immigration reforms as "amnesty." Yet, he correctly sees the inherent unfairness of the Dakar case. This is a family here legally, whose citizenship should be encouraged, but which may have to leave the country or be split apart because of a government agency's inflexibility.

Multi-tasking ourselves to madness

A weekend story on the horrendous instances of children being left in sweltering cars to die points up out, that multi-tasking aside, the human brain is being pushed too far to function well.

Some of the children who died were left in cars through simple negligence and selfishness -- their parents used the car as a babysitter and gave no thought to their children's well-being. But a number of the deaths resulted from parents who, pressed for time or consumed by duties, simply forgot their child was in the backseat.

That's the nightmare many parents face when, rushing from one obligation to another or trying to juggle family responsibilities and a job, they startle from their work to wonder if they were supposed to pick up the baby at the sitter's, or who was dropping the 6-year-old at school or if it was their turn for the carpool.

We may feel the pressure to do it all, and do it all well, but our physiology is holding out against us. Our technology has outpaced our cognitive functioning and, to some extent, we're creating an environment in which humans can't comfortably live.

When the first wave of stories about people declaring email bankruptcy -- sending out blanket messages that they had fallen so behind on their emails that they were simply killing all messages and starting from scratch, or abandoning email altogether, many of us found it novel or amusing. But the more I read of it, the more sense it made. Setting boundaries on technology, work requirements and social commitments may amount to simple survival.

Off to college, but not to party

In the aftermath of alcohol-related tragedies -- in which intoxicated students have died in fires, been hit by trains or killed in auto accidents -- colleges have taken bolder steps to stop binge and underage drinking.

Many have raised penalties, but some are combining that step with a more subtle, less directive approach. They're offering students a chance to choose to live in substance-free dorms. The students must sign a contract that they will not bring drugs or alcohol into their residence halls.

It's a smart, proactive approach, not only because it has high parent-appeal or even because it gives students who don't want to use alcohol an option. It's a chance for students themselves to make a statement about their preferences on campus life, and what they see college being about. Some students are as sick of falling-down-drunk young people as college administrators and townspeople are. They don't care to contribute to what's become, at some schools, a stereotype of college behavior that they find insulting.

At some colleges, these dorms are filling up as quickly as they're opened.

It's a good option.

Knowing what matters most

There are some things you learn best in calm, and some in storm.

That quote by Willa Cather, which hangs above my desk, acknowledges a truth that most of us arrive at only grudgingly: Tragedy brings its own wisdom, the hard-won kind you can't acquire any other way.

The terrible fire that injured eight local firefighters and destroyed a historic Indian Hill home brought its share of difficult lessons this week. As with many news stories, we all probably took different realizations from it. Two struck me.

The first was simply how far human beings will go in the name of duty. An alarm sounds and teams of professional emergency responders put everything they have on the line for strangers. They know the dangers and the odds better than any of us, and yet they still go in. . .

The second lesson was what, given minutes to choose their most precious belongings, Jim and Nancy Jaeger took from their burning house: a dog, two cats, two parrots and a photo album. Left behind were rare and valuable antiques and one-of-a-kind collections.

The Jaegers chose life and memories. I like to think that's what I'd choose as well.

Perhaps the gift in this "storm" for the Jaegers was the chance to see that, when everything was put at risk, they knew the right things to hold onto.

A wise ruling on domestic violence law

The Ohio Supreme Court made the right call when it said the state's defense of marriage amendment couldn't be used to invalidate its domestic violence law.

In cases across the state, defendants charged with domestic violence against an unmarried housemate tried to say language that appeared to equate a spouse to "a person living as a spouse" made the domestic violence law unconstitutional. The marriage amendment, passed in 2004, banned the state from treating unmarried people the same as married people.

The majority of the court rightly affirmed the separate nature of the two laws, and did not allow a misrepresentation of the language to harm a quarter of a century of strong domestic violence law.

The ruling means accused abusers won't be able to skirt charges and victims won't face more obstacles to coming forward.

Choosing reduced-fat friends

A new study that says obese people may make their friends fat raises more questions than a bag of fortune cookies.

The study used 32 years worth of data from a Framingham, Mass., heart study to track weight patterns of more than 12,000 of the town's residents. It reconstructed a network of family and friends then studied the effect of their weight gain or loss on one another.

Neighbors' plumping up didn't have much effect on each other, and family influence was limited. But for every 17 pounds one overweight friend gained, his or her buddy gained five.

What this all means is confusing. It could mean that people unconsciously use their friends as a measure of acceptable weight and drift toward their size. It could mean friends mimic each other's lifestyle habits.

But one has to wonder if there aren't other factors at play. Friends often share similar educational and income levels, often hold some of the same attitudes, have similar interests and are in the same age range. That's often why they're friends.

So is the friend factor really so much of an influence, or is it simply that people with the same interests and living patterns tended to share the same weight-gain patterns?

This study won't change my belief that the long-term solution is concentrating on healthy habits not weight, falling in love with some kind of exercise and only making changes that you can live with forever.

Outstanding in their fields - six feet under

Maybe you can’t take it with you, but evidently you can keep taking it to the bank. The U.S. Department of Agriculture paid out $1.1 billion in farm subsidies to 172,801 dead people between 1999 and 2005, the Government Accountability Office reported this week. That’s a lot of pennies to heaven. Or wherever.

Apparently, the USDA has been outsourcing its payments operation to the Chicago Board of Elections. Who knew?

As the report shows (PDF file), this is more than payment checks simply not catching up with the obit page. Part of it is typical bureaucratic inefficiency and nonsensical rule-making – evidently, the payments are legit as long as the farmer’s estate hasn’t been settled. And part of it could be outright fraud – survivors failing to notify the feds for years after a farmer’s death. About 40 percent of payments went to people who had been dead three years or more, and 19 percent went to people dead seven years or more.

The GAO’s expose comes at a good time for those hoping to reform the nation’s creaky, Depression Era-mentality farm subsidy system. House Democratic leaders are under pressure from big farm interests to retain the traditional payment system for several major crops. Reformers want to bar anyone earning more than $200,000 from getting federal farm payments, and they want some of those funds rerouted to conservation and nutrition programs. Then again, sending more checks to dead farmers might be seen as logical and efficient, in a perverse sort of way. Think about it: For decades, the federal government has been paying farmers not to plant crops. Who better to rely on for that purpose than people who are themselves, uh, planted?

Gonzales' upside-down logic

In a 26-page memo to the Senate Judiciary Committee, released Monday, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said he wants to stay in his job to fix the image of the Justice Department and that he is troubled that politics may have played a role in hiring career federal prosecutors. The memo was released in preparation for Gonzales scheduled appearance before the committee Tuesday.

Its contents show the twists of logic often employed in Washington that leaves news consumers scratching their heads over the doings of newsmakers.

Just so the attorney general doesn’t get too confused when he’s questioned by the committee, I’d like to point out two things for him:

*The broken image he describes at the Justice Department is the result of the policy of politics over justice that has been practiced during his tenure. The one thing that symbolizes the broken image of the Justice Department is Alberto Gonzales himself.

*The problems being investigated by the Judiciary Committee don’t center on people being hired because of their politics; the concern is that federal prosecutors were fired because they didn’t meet the partisan political standard of in charge.

“From my perspective, there are two options available in light of these allegations. I would walk away or I could devote my time, effort and energy to fix the problems,” Gonzales wrote in the memo. Unfortunately, he has picked the wrong option. His staying only makes the situation worse.

Conquering checkers, and then the world

So a computer can beat us every single time at checkers, eh? To someone who is routinely humiliated at the game by her 9-year-old son, this is not such threatening news.

A national story says Canadian researchers finally identified and then countered every possible move by an opponent. They should win some kind of award for persistence or perhaps obsessiveness, spending 18 years to calculate the 39 trillion possible moves.

But I like the director of UC's Center for Robotics' take on the matter. Ernest L. Hall says he eagerly anticipates the real-world problems that can be attacked in such a methodical and analytic manner.

I'll suggest two. Feel free to add your own:

Let's set computers to working out the ultimate, perfect, never-to-be-tampered with layout for a grocery store. Plug in all the variables -- all the tricks and traffic patterns that could make people like me buy a million things we don't need -- and then create a single template for use by every single grocery store for time eternal. I don't care if it's not customer-friendly; I just want consistency. I can take life's major upheavals but mess with my traffic pattern in the grocery store, and I am one mad consumer. Can anybody relate?

And let's see if we can apply the Canadian researchers' move-countermove strategy to human interaction -- namely: a means by which parents can trump, trample or triumph over any argumentative point raised by their children. I do not believe myself alone in thinking that there is an underlying pattern to these conversations that, if I could just identify it, could be used to win the debate with my adolescent every time.

The strategy could go something like this: She raises the point about how little time she has for domestic chores (watching her brother, running errands for her parents, etc., etc.), and I counter with a brilliant calculation that would show how she can free up her time. She lobbies for her own car, and I win the point with a "green argument" that taps into all her burgeoning environmental sensibilities.

Maybe this isn't exactly what Mr. Hall had in mind, but I think we could be onto something. . . .

How many jobs can one politician do?

Political reporter Pat Crowley writes today that Kentucky State Treasurer Jonathan Miller is taking heat for holding two jobs: state treasurer and chair of the state Democratic Party as several hot, statewide races are being fought.

The sniping came from Steve Robertson, the Republican Party state chair, so it's easy to write this off as the typical back-and-forth of politics.

But consider that one of the two state treasurer candidates, Republican Melinda Wheeler, is running for office on the idea of abolishing the position. The duties are slim and can be readily handled by existing departments, she maintains, and there is considerable basis for that view. (Miller can't run for another term. Democrat L.J. "Todd" Hollenbach, opposes Wheeler.)

Logic tells you that if being state treasurer really is a full-time job, there is no way Miller has time to lead the state Democratic Party during a hot election season. Of course, if being in Congress is a full-time job, how can all these candidates have time to run for President?

Maybe it proves once again that there's only a scant connection between jobs in politics and the jobs the rest of us get paid to do.

Cicada's last scream/echoes an empty debate/straw poll is broken

Nobody can confuse politics with poetry these days, but the quasi-Darwinian free-for-all that we call the modern presidential primary system has at least spawned one minor – oh, so very minor – art form: The “bye-ku.” This is a takeoff on the traditional Japanese haiku, the miniature poetic form that aims to capture the essence of a subject within the discipline of a three-line, 5-7-5-syllable scheme.

You may recall that in the 2004 election cycle, James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal created a “bye-ku” as each presidential wannabe dropped out of the race. Actually, Taranto got the idea from former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, who in October 2003 announced he would not run for reelection to Parliament by composing this haiku:

With dusk yet to come
Cicada persists in song
While it still has life

Oblique, perhaps, but far more elegant than, say, “You won’t have Nakasone to kick around anymore.” Taranto was so impressed that he wrote this farewell to the first major dropout from the Oval Office sweepstakes, Florida’s Bob Graham:

9:50 p.m.:
Apply scalp medication
Drop out of race

Not long afterward came Dick Gephardt:

Whoops, I said Bush was
A miserable failure
Turns out I meant me

Then there was this classic for Howard Dean:

He raged and he screamed
Then lingered long enough to
End with a whimper

Well, Taranto’s at it again with the 2008 crop of candidates. You may not have even realized that former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore was bidding for the GOP nomination, but he was – until he dropped out last weekend because he couldn’t raise enough cash. Here’s his bye-ku:

Is he still alive?
We thought he was killed by a
Utah firing squad

Uh, for the record, that’s Gary Gilmore, the first prisoner executed after capital punishment was reinstated in the mid-1970s.
This has potential, folks. Maybe the political parties should require each candidate to write his or her own poetic farewell when dropping out. Of course, in Joe Biden’s case it would be an epic ballad instead of a haiku. Better yet, why leave the field to Taranto? Compose your own bye-kus for the candidates. With nearly two dozen in the field, the possibilities are virtually limitless. And don’t forget, George W. Bush has a bye-ku or two coming, too …

Going after the deepest pockets

Wal-Mart, Safeway, Del Monte Pet Products, Menu Foods.

Those are a handful of the American and Canadian companies named in hundreds of lawsuits spawned by the tainted pet food scandal. What's much harder to find are the names of any Chinese companies even though the source of contamination appears to be chemical-laced wheat gluten and rice protein imported from China.

American companies are easy to sue. Foreign companies with plants or sales representatives on U.S. soil are solid targets, too. But international red tape, low settlements in Chinese courts and the capricious manner in which export standards have been enforced have made Chinese producers the least likely to pay big over the pet food scandal.

Something smells rotten here.

Evil Emperors in Spiderman PJs!

Sometimes it seems we’re all the slaves of simple-minded perceptions these days -- perceptions that serve little purpose except to whip up an “us-vs.-them” frenzy on whatever the hot topic happens to be. Two maybe-not-so-unrelated items bring this to mind:

First, the Editorial Board had a visit Tuesday from Mikhail Margelov, chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs for the Council of Federation, the upper house of Russia’s Federal Assembly, courtesy of Procter & Gamble and the U.S.-Russia Business Council. I gather he’s sort of a rough equivalent of Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joe Biden, although nowhere near as abstruse and long-winded. In fact, Margelov had some fascinating things to say about the strides Russia’s market economy has made in recent years, the potential for trade and investment between the U.S. and Russia, and how politics in both nations tends to gum up the works.
But Margelov was most animated when he was asked to describe the “myths” that he says persist from the Cold War: Russians tend to believe, he said, that “America is always plotting against Russia … America needs a weak Russia,” and so forth. Americans tend to believe, in turn, that “Russia is always to blame for everything … They drink vodka all day,” and what he called the biggest myth of all, “Russia is still an empire.” The current heated rhetoric between the two nations, he explained, serves the internal purposes of the political classes in both countries during election seasons. Any of this sound familiar?

Second, I received a nice e-mail from a local blogger named Brendan from Pleasant Ridge alerting me to the latest post on his thoughtful Spacetropic blog. The post took me to task for a quote from novelist Tom Wolfe disparaging blogs that I used in a post on the 10th anniversary of blogging. Brendan prefaced his broadside with a tongue-in-cheek (I think) allusion to the stereotypes that newspaper editorialists and bloggers labor under. “He is a well-heeled member of the corporate establishment, and I am some wild-eyed everyman tapping away on a laptop in my Spiderman PJs.” Huh? Well-heeled? Don’t I wish.
His point is that bloggers are no mere rumor-mongers. “Blogs are only newspapers, exploded,” Brendan writes, and they “have a hardcore feel of liberty to them.” They lack the “authority” that traditional press imposes; people have to sort out for themselves what’s true and what really matters. I think we’d agree, though, that the lines aren’t so clear, particularly as these media begin to converge.You have some well-heeled bloggers using the medium as an establishment vehicle; you always have some wild-eyed everymen in newsrooms trying to make things explode. I don't know about the PJs.

There’s a lot of hay to be made by mining the extremes in how America views Russia and vice versa, or how bloggers view journalists and vice versa, or you name it. But as with most things in life, the reality is usually somewhere in between.

Happy Blog-day to you and your tribe

Ten years ago – heck, maybe even five years ago – if I had told my co-workers I’d do some “blogging” this afternoon, I would have gotten some very odd stares, to say the least. But here we are. Blogging – posting short written items to a “Web log,” or running online diary of sorts – has become ingrained in our culture. Most people who are online have read them; millions have created their own. I mean, it’s a verb.

As the Wall Street Journal reported this weekend, 2007 marks the 10th anniversary of the blog. That date is squishy, admittedly. Online journals and discussion logs can be traced to well before 1997 – even Usenet groups in the 1980s, before there was a Web. Science fiction author Jerry Pournelle claims to have the original blog, although he hates the word.

But by consensus, 1997 is "a reasonable point at which to mark the emergence of the blog as a distinct life form,” the Journal says. If there is a magic date, it is Dec. 17, 1997, when Jorn Barger coined the word “Weblog” to describe his posting onto his site, Robot Wisdom, of short commentaries, Internet links and cool stuff he found online. The term was quickly shortened to “blog,” and Barger’s innovation has been accepted by the Oxford English Dictionary. They’re everywhere now: Blog search engine Technorati reports it is currently tracking 92.4 million blogs, plus more than 250 million “pieces of tagged social media.”

Blogging has turned into a major force in politics, of course, both as a way for candidates to get their message out and for online pundits to hold politicians’ feet to the fire. It’s huge in the legal profession, too. Law blogs – or “blawgs” – are a genre unto themselves. Public officials such as California Appeals Court Justice William W. Bedsworth have their own blogs. Even when they shouldn't.

Following your favorite blogs can be addictive. But is it worth it? Novelist Tom Wolfe told the Journal he no longer reads them. “The universe of blogs is a universe of rumors,” he writes, noting Marshall McLuhan’s prediction that modern communications would “turn the young into tribal primitives who pay attention not to objective ‘news’ reports but only to what the drums say …” The tribe has spoken. Or posted.

Thank goodness -- no RIP for libraries

Our high-tech, Web-driven world has caused some to wonder and worry if this spells death for public libraries. Thankfully, that doesn't appear to be the case in the places where smart library leaders get the support they need to evolve with the times.

Actually, libraries have never been more important. They have been historic equalizers, helping people who lacked access to information from other sources, including their homes. Today, the knowledge of how to get and leverage information can spell the difference between a lifetime of lousy jobs and real earning power. That bank of computers with free Web access at your local library can change someone's life.

But libraries are so much more than that. When our kids were young, we loved taking them to story hours, and they enjoyed walking down the aisles picking out books. I picture my mom walking a few blocks to her neighborhood library for large-type, Western novels for my Dad to read. With about a seventh-grade education, my father didn't discover reading books as something of interest until he was well into his retirement years. They also enjoyed borrowing free movies. (And if I were half as thrifty as my Depression-era parents, I'd have a lot more money.)

Our story today from the Courier-Journal in Louisville pointed to libraries around Kentucky that face soaring demand for books and services. One of the good things about Northern Kentucky is that we seem to understand and appreciate libraries, as new facilities in Kenton and Boone counties illustrate. (Pictured is a Crescent Springs family at the Erlanger branch.)

The story said the number of annual borrowers at Kentucky's public libraries has more than doubled since the mid-1980s to more than 2 million. In a state where literacy and educational attainment rank so low, that is great, hopeful news.

Primary fever

How do you feel about campaign slogans on Christmas cards?

Ohio State Sen. Eric H. Kearney, D-North Avondale, introduced a bill Friday to move Ohio’s 2008 primary election up from March 4 to Jan. 29. State law requires office seekers to file their candidacy petitions 75 days before the primary, which would mean by mid-November, under Kearney’s proposal.

We could look forward to photo-ops of candidates delivering turkeys to the poor at Thanksgiving and carol fests interspersed with stump speeches. Who will look more believable in a Santa suit, Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama? Mitt Romney or Rudy Giuliani? The rest of the packs could dress up as elves for the holiday debates.

Getting a jump on the season is an American tradition. That’s why the stores hang tinsel before Halloween. It’s why we’re talking about football season two days after Baseball’s All-Star game.

This presidential cycle has been more previewed than most, with organized debates having started while the incumbent still had half a term to go. But now Kearney doesn’t want to push us into an early “celebration” of the holiday (can a Primary pass for a holiday?), he wants to pull the holiday back to us. It’s like deciding to celebrate Christmas in October because you just can’t wait any longer.

His reasoning is simple: With a primary in March, the presidential nominations may be decided before Ohioans get to vote because 40 other primaries or party caucuses in other states are scheduled for January and February. As a key electoral swing state, Ohio is entitled to some primary clout as well, he said. What he proposes is essentially election line-cutting.

A primary on Jan. 29 will make Ohio (and Florida) first in the country to cast nominating votes – for now. “For now” being the flaw in this plan. There is not much to stop other states from starting even earlier. New Hampshire, for instance, covets its first primary state status so much that they don’t even assign it a date. Its law just says it will be first – taking place seven days before any other state’s.

If Ohio tries much harder to be first in ’08, it will soon find itself in ’07.

Gambling: threat or menace?

I'm one of those aging boomers who read the humor magazine "National Lampoon" in the 1970s. One of their famous tongue-in-cheek headlines was "Pornography: threat or menace."

I couldn't help but think of that as I heard Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher talk about all the reasons to be against casino gambling during an appearance in Covington on Thursday. Either that, or Fletcher could have been fighting against bringing pool ("That's a capital 'P' and that rhymes with 'T,' which stands for trouble") to River City in "The Music Man."

But, sarcasm aside, the governor made some points I hadn't considered. Even if you're a gambling proponent, what he had to say should give you some pause.

Click here if you'd like to see Fletcher's presentation. It also includes his pitch on some issues such as health care and college tuition in Kentucky. This file can take some time to load, so be patient.

Fire district won't play; Boone board helps a church

Musings come today from our Boone County beat:

Does it seem odd and off-kilter for a church to seek a big, government-sanctioned assist for an expansion? I'm not suggesting it's illegal or unconstitutional, because apparently it isn't.

I'm referring to the decision this week by Boone County Fiscal Court to approve $2.8 million in industrial revenue bonds for fast-growing Vineyard Christian Church, which will use the money for a classroom building that also will be open to community groups. Officials say the taxpayers can't be on the hook, but the court's support will allow the church to get a lower interest rate. It was the first time the county had issued bonds on behalf of a church, although our story noted it has been done in Lexington. Usage of the facility for community activities makes the legal difference.

There's something about a church being beholden to a governmental body for its growth plans that is bugging me. Just because the church could do it doesn't mean the leaders should have. They could have kept more of a distance and paid the same interest rates most people or businesses pay. What do others think?

Meanwhile, give a "thumbs down" to the Burlington Fire Protection District for backing out of a study to examine the advantage and disadvantages of greater cooperation and possible merger with the Hebron and Point Pleasant districts.

There's evidence around the country that regionalizing fire service can lead to improved response, greater professionalism and efficient use of resources. Regardless of anyone's motives or concerns about the way the process started, Burlington officials are being narrow-minded by refusing to even study the idea.

Stone cold Ohioans

Peter Bronson has an interesting column about Ohio history in Thursday's Enquirer about the figures in the U.S. Capitol's Statuary Hall.

As Pete explains it, each state gets to put up statues of two famous citizens. In Ohio's case we have former President James Garfield and former Governor/Senator/Congressman William "Earthquake" Allen, a 19th Century poll who is an eminently forgettable old racist. An Ohio legislative committee, as noted in the column, is working on replacing Allen with somebody a little more memorable and worthy of the honor.

The only other ways for somebody to have their statue in the Capitol is through an act of Congress or as a gift from some outside group that Congress chooses to accept. The latter resulted in the statue of a third Ohioan, Ulysses Grant, being placed there as a gift to the nation from the Grand Army of the Republic.

I digress.

Replacing Allen with a better candidate is something we all have a chance to weigh in on. We have a message board on our Community Conversation page to take your suggestions, which will be forwarded to State Sen. Robert Schuler, R-Cincinnati, and his committee. Pete suggested such luminaries as the Wright Brothers, Roy Rogers and Albert Sabin. I'd toss in Paul Brown or Harriet Beecher Stowe. The two main qualifications are that you have a connection to Ohio and that you be dead.

Let's have some more suggestions.

All a-Twitter over 'microblogging'

E-mail? Hopelessly old-fashioned. Blogs? Tediously passe. Texting? Sooooo last week.

No, anybody who’s truly “with it” online is now “microblogging” – sending out a sporadic stream of short phrases to family, friends and random strangers, describing the most mundane snippets of your life in real time, via web, cell phone, e-mail or instant messager. You know: “Just finished flossing.” “My nose itches.” “Spilled coffee on my new tie.” Stuff like that.

The current flagship of microblogging is a site/service called Twitter, which describes itself as “a global community of friends and strangers answering one simple question: What are you doing?" If you really want to know, here are some actual random Twitters:

More client work. - steinhardt

Mmm, lunch at home is the best – Makal

New low: I’ve made a wrong turn inside of a parking garage. - bkocik

Pretending I’m less drunk than I am. – Colman

[stapler haiku] I sit on the desk / Milton reaches, palms sweaty / I staple, staple – redswingline

Who are the dozen random strangers reading my Twitter? Send me a message if you see this. - josephgrossberg

Nothing, it seems, is too twivial for Twitter. Even so, as the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday, venture capitalists are absolutely salivating over it and its competitors (notably Jaiku), and services such as Facebook and MySpace may eventually incorporate microblogging. And its proponents are straining hard to rationalize it as something deeper than what it really is, which is inane chatter from disconnected, multitasking techies. Says Twitter’s Biz Stone: “Any individual post is usually something mundane. But it keeps the relationship alive; it keeps you a good son or a good brother.” Yeah, right.

So are you trying to bite off that hangnail right now? Go ahead, Twitter me.

Baseball, secession and a heroic act

Thumbs up: To the Florence Freedom as they host the Frontier League All-Star Game at Champion Window Field this week. The game is a sellout. The team has had to overcome some unusual obstacles. That includes the conviction of its former majority owner, Chuck Hildebrant, who was sentenced to prison for bank fraud and other violations, and the failure of local officials to do enough due diligence at that time. But, as each year goes by, the franchise's rocky start recedes into old news. Third-year owner Clint Brown has led a needed makeover. Attendance is up, the games are fun and affordable, ownership is stable and Champion Field -- a jewel of a small ballpark -- has become a great venue for community events and high school baseball games.

Thumbs down: To attorney Eric Deters for again raising the idea of having Independence and the surrounding area secede from Kenton County in the dispute of whether the new Kenton County Jail should be located near a school and residential area in rapidly growing Independence. It's fine to be a spirited advocate for a cause, but the secession idea seems like grandstanding. Not only is it all-but impossible under the Kentucky Constitution, the last thing Kentucky needs is more counties and the related cost of more government. Kentucky is the 26th-ranked state in population but has the fourth-most counties -- 120 of 'em. Ohio gets by with 88.

Thumbs up: To a real hero -- David Setters of Burlington. Early Saturday, he drove into the Darlington Farms condominium complex in Burlington with a friend after work and saw flames coming from a building roof. He ran to the building, knocked on a security door until someone let him in and went door-to-door making noise to wake sleeping residents, many of them elderly. On the third floor, he had to cover his mouth with his shirt to protect from smoke inhalation. "I just did what I hope anyone would do for me," said the humble hero.

If you have a nomination for an up-or-down thumb, just respond to this posting.

Gun follies

We have the right to bear arms, it’s just that sometimes awkward things happen to some of those who do.

Take for instance State Rep. Borris Miles of Texas, a freshman lawmaker who opposed a state law giving people a stronger right to defend themselves with deadly force. The so-called “castle doctrine,” passed in Texas earlier this year, said a person doesn’t have to retreat from an intruder before using deadly force.

Miles and other opponents thought the bill went too far in letting people use deadly force against threats in their homes, vehicles and workplaces.

So it is a bit of a surprise that on Sunday that Sen. Miles pulled out his gun and fired on two men he caught stealing copper pipe out of a house he is building in Houston. One man, who threw a pocketknife at the senator, was wounded in the leg, is now facing aggravated robbery charges.

Despite his reported opposition to the stronger “castle doctrine,” Miles, a former law enforcement officer, is licensed to carry a concealed weapon.

I guess the moral of the story is don’t confront a Texan armed with a shootin’ irony.

Tough dealing

Fernando Lee North, accused of being the so-called Purple People Bridge rapist, was willing to take a plea as long as he wouldn’t get more than 70 years in jail.

The Hamilton County Prosecutor’s office decided to hold firm, insisting on a maximum of 100 years. North said no to that Friday and now is scheduled for trial next month on multiple charges of aggravated robbery, robbery, kidnapping and rape for attacks last November. If convicted of everything he could get 148 years in prison.

Assuming he’s guilty as charged, North deserves to stay locked up forever. But the math here doesn’t add up. North is now 31. If he got sent away on the deal for a maximum 70 years he would be 101 when he got out. Cutting him such a "bargain" and saving the emotional and financial costs of a trial sounds like a pretty good deal for the law-abiding.

Hold your nose and keep paying the tab

This is why people get disgusted and cynical about politics. Check out this scene:

Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher, facing a tough re-election battle, calls a special session to handle a big item that he says can't wait until 2008 -- a proposal to give tax incentives to draw a $3 billion coal gasification plant to the state. Then he lards up the agenda with items that can, indeed, wait but will play well to potential Republican voters. And some of these items -- such as authorization for Northern Kentucky University to expand much-need dormitory space -- could have been handled during the last session if everyone did the jobs they were elected to do.

The Democrats, who control the House, say the session is too expensive and isn't needed. The session opens Thursday. The House, led by Speaker and failed governor candidate Jody Richards (pictured), adjourns in an hour. The Senate, run by the GOP, stays in session. An expensive, needless court battle now looms. Nothing gets accomplished. Taxpayers keep paying.

Check out this story or Pat Crowley's blog if you want more lurid details.

Ups and downs in Covington

Thumbs down: To the idea of putting 20 cafe tables in the median of Sixth Street in Covington's Main Strasse entertainment district. Last week, state officials put a stop to serving at the 20 cafe tables owned by the Cock & Bull English Pub and Dee Felice Cafe in the wide median. A final ruling is pending. As often happens in Covington politics, there are lots of differences of opinion and charges of hidden agendas.

Maybe this would be fine for special events when the streets are closed to vehicles. But, really, doesn't it just seem dumb to be serving alcoholic beverages to people seated on a median between two lanes of moving traffic that include drivers who have been drinking?

Thumbs up: To Covington developer Bill Butler, for pledging $1 million through his Corporex Cos. to be the catalyst for a "catalytic development corporation." The idea is to raise $10 million to start a fund pool that could be used for a variety of urban improvement projects. Butler also is recruiting other private investors and banking support. This is one of many worthwhile ideas emerging from the Vision 2015 blueprint for Northern Kentucky's future. Other groups are actively pursuing everything from bike trails to job creation. Unlike many such efforts, Vision 2015 doesn't appear to be a report that gets initial attention and then gets dusty on shelves. That's important, because there is no guarantee that the prosperity of recent years is automatic for the future.

If you have a suggestion for a "thumbs up or thumbs down" item in Northern Kentucky, just attach it to this post.

Taking care of Scooter

The President stepped on his tongue several times in the whole Scooter Libby/Plame Blame Game.

First, three years ago, he told us all that if anybody in his administration leaked classified information he'd see that their hide got nailed to the wall but good.

Then, after it embarrassingly turned out that several people, including Libby, Karl Rove and Richard Armitage had talked to the press about Valarie Plame being an operative with the CIA, Bush said he meant he would nail anyone convicted of a crime for the leaking.

Then, after Libby, chief aide for Vice President Dick Cheney, was convicted of perjury for lying about doing the leaking, Bush said he wouldn't comment or consider using his power to reduce Libby's punishment as long as there were pending appeals.

Then, Monday, when a federal appeals court said there was no reason Libby couldn't start serving his jail time while appealing his conviction, the President stepped in to cut Libby a break. He didn't pardon Libby. He commuted his sentence down from two and a half years in jail to probation and a $250,000 fine, because the original sentence was "too harsh."

Given that it was recomended by a Republican prosecutor, imposed by a Republican judge and based on established sentencing guidelines, there are some conclusions to be drawn:
*Criminal punishment is never too harsh unless it is being applied to someone you know and can sympathize with.
*Blanket statements about zero tolerance of leaks etc., don't mean much when the leakers did it to help your side.

There is nothing illegal or improper about the President's action. He has pretty much absolute power when it comes to deciding whose sentence to pardon or reduce. That's a safeguard built into the system to protect against potential prosecutorial or judicial abuse.

Not illegal and not improper is not the same thing as not hypocritical.

'Earth Alone': I made my species disappear

In what may be one of the most ambitious “thought experiments” ever, science writer Alan Weisman has undertaken to describe what would happen to the planet if all humans were to suddenly vanish. His notions, detailed in his coming book The World Without Us, are previewed in this month’s Scientific American, complete with eerie renderings of post-human cityscapes. Read the interview with Weisman and see if you agree with him.

What Weisman came up after talking to experts in various fields is sobering, startling – and humbling. New York’s subway system would be flooded within two days; nuclear reactors would burn or melt down within a week; in a matter of months, our great skyscrapers, highways and other structures would be crumbling. “I discovered that our huge, imposing, overwhelming infrastructures that seem so monumental and indestructible are actually these fairly fragile concepts,” he told SciAm. Most traces of humanity would be swallowed up in primeval forests within centuries. Even plastics and the pollutants we generate could eventually break down as microbes adapt to consume them.

The species Weisman says would be the big winners after we all flew the coop are birds (who wouldn’t hit buildings and power lines anymore), trees, mosquitoes and feral house cats. The losers, other than cattle – and obviously, other domesticated animals – might be a surprise: Rats would soon starve and disappear without humans’ garbage to eat. Head lice would become extinct because they’ve adapted so specifically to us (a nice thought). And cockroaches, contrary to the popular notion that they'd survive any calamity, could not live outside the tropics without heated buildings. Who would replace us? Probably baboons – and they’d get a boost in their brain development from all the ready-made tools and gadgets we’d leave lying around. “Planet of the Apes” wasn’t so far off.

Would the earth be better off without us? “I don’t think it’s necessary for us to all disappear for the earth to come back to a healthier state,” Weisman says. Well, thank goodness for that.

Paying kids to come to school

I once asked the mother of one of the brightest, hardest-working teenagers I had ever met what she had done to motivate her son when he was a little boy.

"Money," she said without missing a beat. "When he was little, he'd work for pennies."

I say that to acknowledge that, like it or not, cash stands behind some of mankind's best efforts.

Nevertheless, I am not a fan of New York City's plan to pay low-income students to do well on tests ($300 to $350), get a library card ($50),and graduate from high school ($400). In addition, their parents can make $25 for attending a parent-teacher conference. The family also gets $600 for each Regents exam the child passes.

The bonuses come mostly from private funds and target 2,500 families in six poor neighborhoods. In fact, they're pitched as an anti-poverty effort that will improve student achievement.

Plenty of middle- and upper-income parents use financial incentives to motivate their kids, but I think we foster a mercenary attitude when we pay kids to come to school and work hard -- and, geesh, to even get a library card. And I wonder how much benefit a parent-teacher conference could provide if parents have to be paid to attend.

Sorry, I think there are better ways to fight poverty and to get children to take responsibility for their own learning.