Monday Musings...
OK, if there is ONE thing I have learned here in Fort Wayne (over the past 11 years), it's that is something "ain't broke"...by ALL means, fix the crap out of it...a LOT!
Oh, and in the process, do NOT tell a living soul when that fix will take place, or how much it will cost (eventually).
Now I like to sit down WITH THE MORNING PAPER, cup of coffee closely attending me, and peruse the cable network news for the inane, the unusual, and sometimes...the obvious.
Well, I got me the coffee...
But it was after 0700, and the paper was about an HOUR LATE (so far). No problem. All I have to do is click over to Fox News, and get the latest...WTF?
Where IS the bloody news channel?
For that matter, where in God's name is my HISTORY CHANNEL, or SCI-FI, or (shudder) even HSN (hoo-boy, the missus WILL be pissed when SHE gets up)?
Seems sometime during the night (another covert ops, no doubt), Verizon has seen fit to muck up ALL the channel listing ABOVE #50!!! Well, that's going to give me something to do this morning, isn't it?
OK, so by 0730, my paper man come down the block, and he tells me that the J/G website had a software problem that crashed the entire system, and that means all those nice, new computer-operated presses went DOWN faster than a $5 whore! He was lucky, because he was one of the few carriers that actually GOT papers this morning, so I now have a paper to read.
Now, all I have to do is figure out ALL my "favorite" channels AGAIN (third time in one month), program them back INTO the "Remote With 1,000 Buttons" (good title for a new horror flick) and have at it anew.
At least I still have my coffee...
Now I don't know WHY the software wasn't properly debugged or at least sim-tested BEFORE implementing it into the mainframe for execution. Cripes, even in the Post-Jurassic period of computers that I once lived in (the bad old 1970s), we ALWAYS ran multiple debugs and test runs before incorporating the programs into the daily routine. And we sometimes had a crash, but nowhere to the frequency we see today. Everything is seemingly interconnected into one huge, honking web of interdependent software manufactured to need constant updates, changes, and revisions. Be interesting to see HOW MANY people would kill themselves if an EMP took out all their electronic devices and they had to rely on THEMSELVES of (God forbid) OTHER PEOPLE for a change.
Just like my wife's car that proudly tells us (via the idiot light on the dashboard) EVERY 100 or so miles, that we need to CHANGE THE OIL. And it has JUST BEEN CHANGED less than 2 months ago, with no loss of oil, no particular matter in it, and no smell of being burnt.
Go figure, hmm?
We create the (to use the hackneyed phrase) "perfect storm" time and again with our technology...and we don't bat an eye when something goes amiss. Oh sure, we piss a fit, or gripe about the state of affairs, but we're becoming more desensitized to it (as we are to other more important aspect to the human condition), and we soon forget the problems that bring us ALL this marvelous technology. We're too damn busy seeking that next "rush" of "what's new"....forget that something innocuous might screw it all up.
But anyway, my wife got up a few minutes ago, and comes sauntering in saying "You;'re not going to believe what happened"? I thought she heard something on the news channel about our area (in which things occur with frightening frequency and severity (often at the drop of a sideways-worn ball cap).
She proceeds to tell me that all the channels have been changed.
I react in a typical deadpan manner saying "Well I think there's only ONE thing to do about this". I follow her into the family room and say "Looks like it's time to use the newly numbered list I made with all the channels you watch." and handed here the updated list I had written earlier this morning.
Smiles all around now, people.
A happy wife is..well, a lot less RPIA wife, that's for sure...LOL!
Seriously though, it WOULD have been nice to be NOTIFIED about the changes. I mean the TV Guide from yesterday's paper is only so much for the cats to piss on now, because that is NOT updated with the new channel numbers.
Yep...STILL have my coffee.
Now the LINCOLN MUSEUM (downtown) is finally CLOSED...another smack in Fort Wayne's already bruised face. They "say" the museum "might" reopen again...(let's all hold our breath, shall we?). And to add insult to injury, the museum CLOSED THEIR DOORS before 5PM yesterday (they closed an hour earlier), so people were left out (aren't we ALWAYS in this city?) standing along the sidewalk.
Next up, we have had yet ANOTHER shooting in the city near the 100 block of Branning St. overnight. Guess that "gun amnesty" program is working real well for them all (as I've predicted). The vic is in critical condition, and 3 suspects have been hauled in for questioning.
Here we go again...let's hope this time the "retribution" (read fallout) is less severe than a few months ago, eh?
And of course, the 4th of July looms in the wings, waiting to pounce like some half-starved carnivore. We've been hearing "gunshots" (read fireworks...or are they?) for the past MONTH anyway, so we know we have just SO MANY damn patriotic people that LOVE to celebrate the independence of this fine nation (translation: We've got a bunch of lazy-ass, non-working ethnics with too much time on their hands and too many fireworks I'd just love to shove up their boomcar-driving asses). Yeah...that's it.
Still, it could always be worse...
...just not by all that much.
Lemme know when that "morning" paper arrives, OK?
And have a happy time re-reprogramming your Verizon FiOS channels today, people!
(been there - done that already this morning)
When it comes down to it...gimme LOW tech ANY day...
Mr. Coffee to the rescue once again...how about a cup Mr. Lincoln?
Seems you have some TIME on your hands these days.

A Great Start For ANY Weekend...
You regulars that frequent this blog probably have a pretty good idea as to WHAT (exactly) today's post will be about. So why keep all of you in suspense any longer... Let's have at it, eh?
The Supreme Court has made a (landmark) decision that was only THIRTY TWO YEARS in the making, namely the repeal of the handgun laws in Washington, D.C.
Let the pigeons loose!
Without getting into all the "legalese", let's just say that the average law-abiding Joe or Jane can now have a handgun within the District of Columbia, and that's making the Anti-gun proponents quaking in their shoes already. Fears of crime rising to an alarming rate issue from their lips (yeah, tell that to the several HUNDRED homicide victims you managed to have almost YEARLY with that damn ban in place) soon after the decision was announced.
Crime should NOT get worse, and at the least, should be about the same, given the cross-section of the population. There is GOOD news however, in that crime will more than likely go DOWN (excluding the drug deals that go bad, and crime of opportunity against innocent people who do NOT have handguns). Because you KNOW the criminals will ALWAYS find ways to get guns, but NOW, they might think twice about hitting that house they've been scoping for fear the owner might kill their ass DEAD on the front lawn during a break-in attempt.
Sorry Helmke...you lose on this one...and you lose BIG.
But it's not like I didn't tell you what the problem has been all along...is it?
It's still the PEOPLE that are the root cause of all this...and always will be.
You don't go after the AIRCRAFT MAKER because a Boeing 767 was flown into the WTC back on 9/11/01, do you? Nor do you go after SEAGRAMS distilleries for all the drunk driving fatalities, right?
Same applies to gun makers...period.
Let's make this issue AS BASIC as we can, in case some tree-huggers wander in, shall we?
In comes down to THIS:
1)--POLICE can get to a 911 call within MINUTES.
2)--YOU can get to your gun (usually) within SECONDS.
Do the math.
Which of these two options is the BEST DEFENSE in an imminent and deadly threat scenario, hmm?
Not all that hard to figure out, really.
And that marks the difference between taking another breath or becoming a statistic.
Now I'm not taking anything away from ANY law-enforcement agency, and they would tell you the same thing; they can't be everywhere all the damn time. And unless you have the scratch to hire a patrolman to watch your ass 24/7, you have little recourse but to address crime when it comes into you life with the best possible option to ensure the safety of yourself and your loved ones. And if that means placing some rounds into some thug that would deprive you of your money (and most likely your life as well), then the decision must be made...and made ASAP to act first.
Is this a cavalier "John Wayne" attitude?
Not at all.
It's just the lesser of two evils, actually. Face it, the perps don't really want to die, and you don't want to shoot them, but when given a choice of life or death (to YOU), it's a lot easier to make up one's mind. Criminals tend to make up the mind of the victim for them anyway, so why not RETURN THE "FAVOR"?
--In a related story in Fort Wayne, a group of local pastors have teamed with the FWPD for (another) "gun amnesty" program.
They are asking citizens to VOLUNTARILY give up their guns and ammo..........(wait for it).........(easy now)........BWAHAHAHAHAHAahhahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!
Man, I thought George Carlin came back from the dead on that one for a second...
I'm sorry, but smiling ain't cutting it...I'm ROFLMAO on this "request".
Sure, people...lemme just had over MY weapons, to make the jobs of all my neighbors (read perps) a HELLUVA lot easier when they break into our place or when they accost me when I'm mowing my damn lawn.
What the hell were these folks smoking when they conceived this ill-fated idea? Maybe they should hand over THAT STUFF, eh?
Sorry, had a gun pulled on me by ONE black, snot-nosed, baggy-panted youth when I ASKED him (nicely) to remove his trash that he dumped on my property...that will NEVER happen AGAIN. I will drop anyone that dares to threaten me or my family in such a manner (without hesitation). And somehow I just think that Phil (Marx) or Dan (Turkette)aren't going to be speed-dialing the FWPD to come get any of THEIR guns...just got that feeling.
I mean WTF can these people be thinking by asking people to basically "hand over" their firearms? I suppose if the gun is a POS and doesn't work, that makes sense (about as much sense as the NYC debacle that netted THOUSANDS of broken, rusted and toy guns at $50 a pop to those turning them in...so they could buy BETTER guns). One good thing to ANY weapons that are handed in, is that forensics will give 'em all the "once over" to check for any "history" behind the weapon...smart idea.
Still, haven't we had ENOUGH prayers, meetings, task forces, skull sessions, talking, questioning, and basically BS-ing around. Isn't it time to take this problem to the ONE PLACE that hasn't been considered, namely the HOMES AND STREETS of these areas of our city that enjoy the high crime?
One "curious" aspect to this gun amnesty crap, is that pastors will go to houses to get the weapons "IF THE PEOPLE DON"T FEEL COMFORTABLE ABOUT HAVING A POLICE OFFICER STOP BY TO GET IT". It sure beats walking into the FWPD HQ with an AK slung over the shoulder, a full 7.65 ammo box in one hand, and a 9 mil in the other, just so you can "get rid" of them. A police officer will COME TO YOU instead.
Again, I'm ROFLMAO over this...can't help it. It's just too ridiculous.
WHY would I NOT feel "comfortable" about having cops to my house? Do I have something to HIDE, maybe? I'd wager many of these people already DO (have a lot to hide, that is).
That explains a LOT about a community, doesn't it. And it's NOT like I said that certain people are "brought up" with a blatant disrespect for authority (especially those with a shield and a gun), because I have right here on many occasions.
And I don't have anything to hide, if you look at my picture here.
Truth be told, this whole gun amnesty thing is destined to fail even before it was conceived...it's that simple. Criminals in this city will NEVER give up their weapons, and those law-abiding citizens (like yours truly among other bloggers here) won't surrender them (it's the cold dead fingers thing), so that only leaves those afraid to make ANY waves to anything contrary that will give them up. Well, it they want to do that, fine.
And if they happen to wind up on the wrong end of a stolen gun wielded by a criminal...well, we told 'ya so.
I'm gonna go re-read the article...just so I can laugh some more.
I don't get to do that all too often these days in THIS neighborhood.
In the meantime...
You stay safe and have a great weekend!
(and keep smiling - it makes others wonder what type of gun you're carrying)

Only Solutions...
Anyone remember the movie "TRON"? That was the title (Only Solutions) of one songs from the soundtrack sung by Journey. And it was a pretty good ditty.The movie was groundbreaking in more ways than one as well.
Sorry to say that in the Summit city, such is NOT the case (with solutions that is).
We seem to have more problems than we could ever hope to shake a stick at.
And like the saying goes: "If it's not one damn thing...it's another".
So in that vein, it's time to toss a gauntlet or two down, eh?
Seems the City and County just cannot get this bridge repair thing down. No one wants to take responsibility for maintenance (the former sole responsibility of the county up until 2005). The City wants the County to come up with a plan, while the County points fingers at the City saying they don't really want to get involved. meanwhile, the Township of Wayne is crying the blues over their recent shortfall now.
The County wants to levy a wheel tax to cover the cost of bridge upkeep. The City still wants a plan, and the Township is wondering why poor relief costs so much (gee, I dunno...ask all the lazy-ass morons living in MY part of the city, won'cha?) when they can't crunch the numbers and figure this out for themselves.
A nice clusterf$ck, NO ONE could find, to say the least.
County Commissioner Roy Buskirk had THE best line ever:
"This is why nothing ever gets done".
Welcome to Allen County, Roy...where reasons are AWOL and excuses RULE the day.
And of course we still have the fuel "crisis" at our pumps, making every frigging thing in creation costing more as a result (read my archives regarding the Domino Effect), so the LAST thing taxpaying consumers need is ANOTHER tax (to piss them off royally).
Regarding this archaic and multi-tiered local governmental structure, all I can say is WTF are you people thinking? With a city the size of fort Wayne, why on God's green Earth didn't you guys just ABSORB the township of Wayne INTO your already incorporated city, huh? That would have at least streamlined all this red tape somewhat. And you should have done this when the population got close to 200K.
But NOOOoooooo. You guys have this "forest for the trees" nearsightedness working overtime, right?
And with the number of good-for-nothing, generationally non-working people with all their collective hands wanting "something for nothing", I can only see TWO choices staring all of you in the puss:
1) Give in to these lowlifes and raise every tax imaginable, thereby chasing MORE of the real core taxpayers the hell OUT of Fort Wayne, and watch yourselves become the NEXT Detroit.
2) Close the doors on all the feet of these lazy people and FORCE them to get with the program, becoming useful citizens (who DO pay taxes).
Simple, huh?
That ALONE would save MILLIONS...AND shore up this ever-eroding tax base you so consistently depend upon.
That...is called a SOLUTION.
Now it strikes me as odd that ANY city would condone neighborhoods where 80-90 PERCENT of it's populace DOES NOT WORK (even during the Great Depression people SOUGHT OUT the most menial occupations to survive). Hell, it's way beyond condoning it...this city actually ENCOURAGES it.
And don't give me that hackneyed line about poverty or racial disenfranchisement. That is a load of crap, and anyone with a few synapses still firing can see that.
Where are people being "disenfranchised" when they don't work, but yet somehow manage to have a BRAND NEW SUV or top-of-the-line automobile with that killer sound system and 30 inch rims ? Didn't know WIC covered the cost of new vehicles (and accessories)...did you? And I don;t recall being able to walk into a car dealership and using FOOD STAMPS to purchase a vehicle.. This isn't your grandma's S&H Green stamp redemption center, kiddies.
But that's what I see...every day, and not just in my neighborhood. It's pretty much scattered about.
Funny...our family always got OUR cars the old-fashioned way...we WORKED OUR ASSES OFF FOR THEM. My Dad once owned a 1971 Ford Galaxy LTD (sweet ride, BTW), and he used to refer to that moniker, saying the "LTD" stood for a Long Term Debt! I asked my Dad if he'd co-sign for me when I got my first car. he said "Do you have money in the bank"? I said "Yes". He said "Good, take a loan against THAT, then".
And you know what?
That freaking worked. I paid the loan off ahead of time, got the car, didn't have my account seized for NON-PAYMENT, still had a nice balance, and got a phenomenal CREDIT RATING as a result.
And, after thanking Dad for that sage advice, I never looked back since.
Goes to show what you can do when you WORK for something, eh?
And you appreciate all the more in the process.
But that's just ONE example.
The trouble is when you're brought up with the misconception that life OWES you every damn day for everything, and that if you bitch LOUD enough...and LONG enough, someone will come along and give you money to shut you the f$ck up. This is called LIVING ON THE DOLE (read "poor relief").
There are solutions to this, we just have to find people with enough cajones to enact those solutions. And to hell with those that would stand against them. Tell those ambulance chasers to get a REAL job for a change.
We're all about as close to "crunch time" as we can get (especially in this city), so it's time for someone to step up, ante in, and make the tough choices in order to benefit everyone.
I would advise the city to stop with all the PROBLEM creation...and get with the SOLUTION creation instead. They've spent way more time creating problems as it is. They've spent way too much time effort, and money on every task force and committee under our burning sun...with "zip" to show for it. And over these past 11 years, I've gotten to see the result of their problem "creativity" daily...believe me.
Time to challenge you local politicians by suggesting you attempt to change my POV.
Convince me that you have MY best interest (as a normal taxpaying citizen) at ..seriously. I mean it.
Prove to ME that all you "suits" are capable of decisions WORTHY of the offices you were voted into.
Back up some of that "lip-service" you've been so forthcoming with over the years.
Demonstrate to me that you CAN implement REAL WORKABLE SOLUTIONS for the citizenry instead of all these band-aids on a hemorrhaging city in financial distress suffering from multiple compound fractures.
You City, County, and Township politicos, in all your arrogance and smugness have placed a huge, honking chip on my shoulder for the past 10 years...now, C'mon...knock it off.
Go ahead...I dare 'ya.

Humpday Happenings...
My wife has earned yet another candle for her cake this day, and I must say that there are times when living in this part of Fort Wayne taxes even HER resolve.
She's a bit more "easy going" than I am, but over the past 11 years, she has come to appreciate my stance on certain issues, and even come to have a lot more bite behind her bark (must be all those wonderfully attentive and WELL-BEHAVED teenagers she has to deal with when school is in session...yeah, LOL...that's it).
So yes, she gets her chocolate cake.
She deserves it.
One thing I am happy for is that today is not yesterday. I mean I'd hate like hell to have to say that her birthday was marred by the local "freak show" we were privy to. Take the black family on the other side of our alley that, when mowing their lawn, decided that the two Bud Light beer they found belong on MY property instead of just picking them up and placing them in the 3 trash bins they have on THEIR property. Anything to get it out of their primate paws, I suppose.
The bottles now reside (once again) on THEIR property. Next time, the bottle might go through their window, depending on the mood these morons put me in.
Or perhaps it was that black mook on the moped that rode from a neighbor's house down my lawn and along the sidewalk before he got to the street to ride away? I see him again, we WILL have words, and you can bet they will straighten his hair (under that do-rag). Perhaps it was that black guy that circled the block twice (after 2200 hrs) on foot like he was either lost or looking for something (to break into)?
Maybe it's the loud (rap) music that one could hear the lyrics to coming from some house at the OTHER END of the damn block? Well, after a call to the "men in Blue", that (thankfully) went away (probably until tonight when that short-term memory lapse thing kicks back in, and we go through this all over again).
I did check, and the moon was not in the FULL phase. In fact, we're in the WANING phase...go figure.
I swear...some days, you want to gate off this entire neighborhood, set up a ticket booth, a few concession stands, and frigging charge admission...it's that much of an "attraction" akin to the sideshows of years gone by, complete with the LIZARD MAN, the DOG-FACED BOY, and the BEARDED LADY! It even reminds me of the drive-through "zoos" where you get to see wild animals up close (as they crap all over your car). Nothing screams "FUN" like power-washing monkey $hit off of the family cruiser, eh?
At least opening my own "theme attraction" (after securing the proper permits) might net enough scratch to consider leaving this 2nd rate city (with 3rd world nuances) place FOR GOOD. You just know the city wouldn't allow that anyway.
Still, one has to admire the marvelously insidious manner that they've herded these ethnics into one SPECIFIC part of town (namely the SOUTH side) so they can keep an "eye" on them all. Trouble with that methodology, is that there are pockets of "resistance", such as myself, that quickly become a thorn in the side of not only the city, but the "locals" that inhabit this area. And there's a good reason for that.
We represent what people USED to be like.We are the anachronistic persons who still believe in morality, ethics and values.
We have integrity, a sense of honor, pride, accomplishment, and a patriotism second to none. We believe in freedom and personal rights...for EVERYONE and not a select group. We feel that all people are basically good, until they prove to us otherwise (which in THIS part of town doesn't take long at all).
We live by the Golden Rule of "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you", and not the bastardized version of "We're gonna do whatever the hell we want so deal with it or move".
We don't want needless confrontations, but will never run FROM one...and we will prevail at any cost.
We leave others alone (unless approached) and only expect the same in kind.
We are not afraid to lift a paint brush or push a lawn mower.
We treat people with respect when they demonstrate to US they are capable of GIVING it and not demanding it.
Yeah...we're weird that way.
Used to be a time when all the above was the way in which almost EVERYONE acted and behaved. Wonder when we changed planets and got off of Earth for Bizarro World (where everything is back-asswards) anyway? I must have slept through that one. How about you?
And yet here we are...surviving each day, rather than living it. It makes me think about how many others are in the exact same situation (only the mooks have changed) and have said or done nothing about it?
We hear tell of all these "good neighborhoods" down here. So...where the hell ARE they anyway? And how does one define "good" in today's value system?
Is a neighborhood GOOD only when it's inhabited totally by welfare baby-mamas? I suppose that's ONE way of seeing it. Is it GOOD when no one's been shot in a month? How about not having ANY vacant houses on the block? No burglaries in several weeks?
Like all statistics, they can be manipulated to fit the needs of any group for any reason.
It's when we deal in FACTS that the real rubber meets the road (as we used to say).
And you have to tread lightly, because although all facts are based on statistics, not all statistics are based on facts. And that can get real messy real fast, if you're discernment meter happens to be on the fritz.
But the politicians love it...it keeps them in power and you cringing whenever they open their mouths.
So remember all this when you drop down some money at the next carnival or festival in or around Fort Wayne.
We have one HELLUVA freak show (down) here...and I'll be more than happy to give you the $5 tour!
But always keep your car windows rolled up...we don't want the wild animals to harm you.
Vive Le Resistance!

Back to Business...
For the past two days (that would be Sunday & Monday for those who are "calendarly-inhibited") had an interesting article about the housing "crisis" here in Fort Wayne, and focused primarily on the city's SOUTH side (my part of da hood). And while I found it pretty much on target with what the reporter (J/G's Dan Stockman) had to say, I couldn't help that I somehow heard it all before.
Then it hit me...I had said most everything that had already been said in that article...and for YEARS.
Damn shame I didn't get into journalism, eh?
Anyway, the first article chronicles a neighborhood around the Drexel-Oxford-Wayne Trace area, stating that one of every six houses were for rent or sale. And according to experts (whoever "they" are) it only take one or two empty houses to bring down the values of a neighborhood up to FIFTEEN PERCENT.
So why has OUR property taxes been going up when we had FOUR out of TEN houses on MY block vacant over the past several years? Makes one wonder, does it not?
Maybe it's the fact that we're white, working,paying taxes already and OWN the house we live in...'ya think?
Maybe the city dollar signs in people like us, and doesn't want to kill the goose laying those golden eggs?
Whatever the case, our neighborhood is not all that unlike the one north of McMillen Park. We have our vacant properties, the unkempt houses with foot-tall weeds that I have to call NCE about monthly (because grass just keeps on growing, even if no one lives there), we have our drug houses, our party houses, and the assorted human vermin that one might expect from a group of people with absolutely no vested interest in their neighborhood.
And of course, along with all these nuances, will follow the subsequent crime that has become the "hallmark" of neighborhoods like these. If it's not scrappers gutting some abandoned house, it's burglaries in the ones still occupied. Or it can be vandalism (thugs marking their turf like dogs pissing on a tree), car thefts, or strong-arm robberies of whoever is foolish enough to brave the streets after dark (and even during broad daylight sometimes).
It's small wonder as to WHY Southtown Mall went to way of the Passenger Pigeon, given circumstances such as these. Same can be said for the BP station at Anthony and Rudisill, or the corner of Warsaw & Suttenfield, or Pettit and Hanna Sts, or the 5800 block of Bunt Drive, or the 7900 block of Serenity Drive. Yes friends, the list never seems to have an end. I would say we have a much more pressing problem in our midst.
it's not so much a housing "glut", but more of a glut of people with no knowledge as to maintaining a viable neighborhood. They have NO concept of community, save for parties thrown on most any day for no reason, save for everyone having another child, or funeral, or sometimes, for no reason at all. They'll come together to act stupid and be loud to all hours, but when it comes to protecting one another's investments...not a soul in sight.
Renters today (in my area at least) have none of the self-respect required to know HOW to take care of something belonging to someone else (the property).
They have no knowledge of ownership, because they either beg, borrow or steal whatever they need to get by. There is NO long-term mindset at work here. it;'s all for the "here and now". Well, neighborhoods tend to last a tad longer than "here and now".
Good or bad, neighborhoods were here before you were born, and will be here long after you've passed on.
Now, the city (as the article alludes to) can tear down houses until those cows come home, and build up the areas anew (with more housing people won't be able to afford), and still be able to affect the positive change they're hoping for. We've given out entitlements to "first time homeowners", breaks for renters, and we can see the result of this folly first-hand.
One thing the city has NOT done is make it worthwhile to REMAIN in neighborhoods that are at their tipping point when it comes to social and structural decline. No one has knocked on my door and even thanked me for doing all that I can to keep my area from getting worse (which it is anyway, simply because there's more of THEM than more of "ME").
The only incentive we have is that the place is basically free & clear, and to take on a mortgage under the current economic situations would not be one of my top ten things to do right now.
The second part of the article talks about razing structures. I've seen people in Philly who had their houses taken from them (by the city) in order to raxe them and make way for the I-95 expansion. Nice historic homes...gone. And the displaced people (many who were at retirement age) were "given" high-rise apartments to compensate. Well, crime moved in, chased the good folks out, and now they have a tenement slum area where once a quaint neighborhood thrived. All the good people are GONE, and the city has another financial black hole to deal with.
Fort Wayne would like to (apparently) follow suit, with tearing down houses for "further development".
I would be the first one to say tear them all down, but I would ONLY say that as a LAST RESORT. Many can be refurbished...and should be. Then, what the city needs to do is get some GOOD people into these houses - none of this lazy-ass, welfare-baby-mama w/ Bebe's kids plus the boyfriend of the month and his friends bullshit!
People have got to be taught HOW to behave when they decide to live among OTHER people who maybe don't like hearing car horns (read ghetto doorbells) at 2AM, or gunshots, or people stopping at the corner to open their car door and take a damn piss before motoring on. They have to learn that what is THEIR business should remain relatively private, and by that I mean I don't want to hear what the hell is going on in YOUR life half a damn block away (it's called keep your f$cking mouth shut once in a while, loud ass).
Is there a housing CRISIS in Fort Wayne? Definitely, but it's born out of the problems relating to the PEOPLE in those houses (or the lack of people that should be in those houses). That is what primarily leads to all the rentals, the vacancies, the board-ups, the crime, and everything else we've come to know and love down on the south side of the city.
Is there a racial factor at work here?
Most assuredly, but trash can come in ANY color. We just happen to have a lot more of one particular hue (which the city likes, becasue they can keep an eye on them all when they're hered into ONE area), that's all, but we also have our share of all the other trash as well.
Like I said here before, I have a great idea that warrants consideration if not implementation, and would be in the city's best interest, "IF" they went ahead to rehab as many of these houses as is possible, get our military service people into them (especially veterans who require housing as our state reps have said time and again), and THEN watch neighborhoods come back to life.
It sure as hell would beat the life support we're operating on now, wouldn't it?

No Way To Start A Week...
I can think of several ways I'd RATHER be waking up this morning (in spite of the assorted aches and pains from being up and down a ladder more than a fireman with gutter cleaning), considering I didn't see this mentioned on the 11PM news last night, but hearing THIS sure wasn't one of them:
((LOS ANGELES (AP) - George Carlin, the dean of counterculture comedians whose biting insights on life and language were immortalized in his "Seven Words You Can Never Say On TV" routine, died of heart failure Sunday.
He was 71.
Carlin, who had a history of heart trouble, went into St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica on Sunday afternoon complaining of chest pain and died later that evening, said his publicist, Jeff Abraham. He had performed as recently as last weekend at the Orleans Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas.
"He was a genius and I will miss him dearly," Jack Burns, who was the other half of a comedy duo with Carlin in the early 1960s, told The Associated Press.
Carlin's jokes constantly breached the accepted boundaries of comedy and language, particularly with his routine on the "Seven Words" - all of which are taboo on broadcast TV and radio to this day.
When he uttered all seven at a show in Milwaukee in 1972, he was arrested on charges of disturbing the peace, freed on $150 bail and exonerated when a Wisconsin judge dismissed the case, saying it was indecent but citing free speech and the lack of any disturbance.
When the words were later played on a New York radio station, they resulted in a 1978 Supreme Court ruling upholding the government's authority to sanction stations for broadcasting offensive language during hours when children might be listening.
"So my name is a footnote in American legal history, which I'm perversely kind of proud of," he told The Associated Press earlier this year.
Despite his reputation as unapologetically irreverent, Carlin was a television staple through the decades, serving as the host of the "Saturday Night Live" debut in 1975 - noting on his Web site that he was "loaded on cocaine all week long" - and appearing some 130 times on "The Tonight Show."
He produced 23 comedy albums, 14 HBO specials, three books, a couple of TV shows and appeared in several movies, from his own comedy specials to "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" in 1989 - a testament to his range from cerebral satire and cultural commentary to downright silliness (and sometimes hitting all points in one stroke).
"Why do they lock gas station bathrooms?" he once mused.
"Are they afraid someone will clean them?"
He won four Grammy Awards, each for best spoken comedy album, and was nominated for five Emmy awards. On Tuesday, it was announced that Carlin was being awarded
the 11th annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, which will be presented Nov. 10 in Washington and broadcast on PBS.
Carlin started his career on the traditional nightclub circuit in a coat and tie, pairing with Burns to spoof TV game shows, news and movies. Perhaps in spite of the outlaw soul, "George was fairly conservative when I met him," said Burns, describing himself as the more left-leaning of the two. It was a degree of separation that would reverse when they came upon Lenny Bruce, the original shock comic, in the early '60s.
"We were working in Chicago, and we went to see Lenny, and we were both blown away," Burns said, recalling the moment as the beginning of the end for their collaboration if not their close friendship. "It was an epiphany for George. The comedy we were doing at the time wasn't exactly groundbreaking, and George knew then that he wanted to go in a different direction."
That direction would make Carlin as much a social commentator and philosopher as
comedian, a position he would relish through the years.
"The whole problem with this idea of obscenity and indecency, and all of these things - bad language and whatever - it's all caused by one basic thing, and that is: religious superstition," Carlin told the AP in a 2004 interview.
"There's an idea that the human body is somehow evil and bad and there are parts of it that are especially evil and bad, and we should be ashamed. Fear, guilt and shame are built into the attitude toward sex and the body. It's reflected in these prohibitions and these taboos that we have."
When asked about the fallout from the Super Bowl halftime show that ended with Janet Jackson's breast-baring "wardrobe malfunction," Carlin told the AP, "What are we, surprised?"
"On that Super Bowl broadcast of Janet Jackson's there was also a commercial about a 4-hour erection. A lot of people were saying about Janet Jackson, 'How do I explain to my kids? We're a little family, we watched it together ...' And, well, what did you say about the other thing? These are convenient targets."
Carlin was born May 12, 1937 and grew up in the Morningside Heights section of Manhattan, raised by a single mother. After dropping out of high school in the ninth grade, he joined the Air Force in 1954. He received three court-martials and numerous disciplinary punishments, according to his official Web site.
While in the Air Force he started working as an off-base disc jockey at a radio station in Shreveport, La., and after receiving a general discharge in 1957, took an announcing job at WEZE in Boston.
"Fired after three months for driving mobile news van to New York to buy pot," his Web
site says.
From there he went on to a job on the night shift as a deejay at a radio station in Forth Worth, Texas. Carlin also worked variety of temporary jobs including a carnival organist and a marketing director for a peanut brittle.
In 1960, he left with Burns, a Texas radio buddy, for Hollywood to pursue a nightclub career as comedy team Burns & Carlin. He left with $300, but his first break came just months later when the duo appeared on the Tonight Show with Jack Paar.
Carlin said he hoped to would emulate his childhood hero, Danny Kaye, the kindly, rubber-faced comedian who ruled over the decade that Carlin grew up in - the 1950s - with a clever but gentle humor reflective of its times.
Only problem was, it didn't work for him, and they broke up by 1962.
"I was doing superficial comedy entertaining people who didn't really care: Businessmen, people in nightclubs, conservative people. And I had been doing that for the better part of 10 years when it finally dawned on me that I was in the wrong place doing the wrong things for the wrong people," Carlin reflected recently as he prepared for his 14th HBO special, "It's Bad For Ya."
Eventually Carlin lost the buttoned-up look, favoring the beard, ponytail and all-black attire for which he came to be known.
But even with his decidedly adult-comedy bent, Carlin never lost his childlike sense of mischief, even voicing kid-friendly projects like episodes of the TV show "Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends" and the spacey Volkswagen bus Fillmore in the 2006 Pixar hit
"Cars."
Carlin's first wife, Brenda, died in 1997.
He is survived by wife Sally Wade; daughter
Kelly Carlin McCall; son-in-law Bob McCall; brother Patrick Carlin; and sister-in-law
Marlene Carlin.))
All I can say right now is...."wow".
Some people you just figure will OUTLIVE you, no matter what. I thought George would be doing a standup about death right after I passed away. Goes to show how weird life truly is.
I mean, I grew UP with the guy...well, not "literally", but I remember all his early days throughout the 1960s right up until now. Back then, if it wasn't Congolia Breckenridge trying to win QUEEN FOR A DAY golfclubs, it was Al Sleet, the "Hippy-Dippy Weatherman" ...with all the hippy dippy weather, man, who proclaimed that:
'Huge rocks are falling from the sky, great fissures have appeared in the ground, swallowing up thousands, and the sun has turned as black as sackcloth...so I wouldn't sweat the traffic of that morning commute on the I-5 near L.A all that much.'
Yeah...that kinda stuff.
I was a bit miffed when he proudly announced he smoked pot (and was arrested for that), but hell, everyone was doing that, and most of us wound up perfectly OK (that still doesn't make me an advocate). It was George's cocaine and alcohol problems that bothered me. Here was this comedian with ALL this bloody talent, and he's doing this to himself.
Still, he made it through that, and a few heart attacks later, even he himself knew it was time to wise up.
He was the ONLY comedian that could have me crying laughing to the point of hyperventilation.
Even when I would read a book of his like Silly Putty & Napalm, I'd start laughing out loud.
He spoke to the idiosyncratic nuances of everyday life. He chastined us for being "poltically-correct" to a fault. He chided us for being TOO protective of an earth that has taken damn good car of ITSELF for EONS.
He was the quintessential curmudgeon, and a role model (of sorts with his grasp of the obvious) for me in the autumn of MY life.

There have been many that followed him with that manner of comedic style, but there will ONLY be one George Carlin.
Love him or hate him, you DID have to admire him.
He was never afraid to say what needed to be said.
There are just so many things to remember him by.
And something to think about the next time you get ON the bus or plane. Why is it you get IN the car, but get ON a plane? Screw that, I'm getting IN the DAMN PLANE...YOU can f$cking get ON the plane.
And remember, people aren't retarded, they're "handi-capable".
They're not blind, they're "visually-impaired".
They're not stupid, they're "scholastically-challenged".
Time for me to get back to my life, and the "scholastically-challenged" people that live in MY neighbor(less)hood.
Gonna miss 'ya, George, like a member of my family.
Thanks for ALL the laughs...I enjoyed EVERY one of them.

Just Another Crazy Friday...
Right here in Summit City...with a capital *C*, and that rhymes with *D*...and that stands for DUMB!
Dumb, as in WTF are people thinking anyway?
Man, it feels like a day I should be out on a street corner going "...And Here's your SIGN"!
Take this morning...a nice day to truck out early (temps in the mid-50s) get the week's shopping done with the missus, and get back to "Homestead Heights", and do as little as possible until the "locals" start their daily round of $hit, made to annoy the deceased AS WELL AS the living.
OK, so we hit K-Mart for some sale items...they're OUT of them. Didn't know EVERYONE suddenly needed a Uniden - 5.8 Ghz 3 handset cordless phone system w/ digital answering machine...did you?
Came as a complete SHOCK to me...no $hit!
Anyway, we DID find a few other things, and as we motored along to checkout, I found it was strangely VACANT...as in NOBODY was at ANY register. Now this is happening at 0845...and K-mart OPENS at 0800. SO what's the deal here?
After questioning one of the VERY few staff people there (no one was even stocking shelves), we found out that the register people DON'T come in until 0900!
Well spank me rosy.
Who in their right mind opens a store with only ONE person (service counter worker) to man a SINGLE register when early is the BEST time to shop (avoiding crowds and traffic)? What "if" a sale was going on, eh? I know my wife was ready to ditch what we were going to purchase and walk the hell out.
And she'd be right to do so. It's called customer SERVICE for a reason.
We did get rung up and trucked on over to Scott's for groceries....and surprise AGAIN. No SEEDED RYE BREAD. Not even in the damn freezer (I STILL know how to thaw stuff). NO scallops, NO 8-piece fried chicken out, NO signs with sale deli items, and only ONE register open there as well. But at least there was more than 3 people in THAT store!
After that, over to Family Dollar, and lo and behold....they had what we wanted (and then some). Got ourselves a new hummingbird feeder for $2! Can't beat that with a stick.
OK, so now we're getting someplace...finally.
Over to Walgreen's for the last items, and found every damn one (even the coupon items we were looking for)...amazing! At least THEY know how to open early with adequate staffing! The new manager there seems to be more on the ball than others in recent memory. Always a good thing in this part of town. That's what I'm USED to.
On the way home, we see some police cars in the 500 block of Pettit and in the alley. Remarkable how SOME people just cannot act properly before 10 A-frigging-M! Hope it was a drug bust. We LIKE to see that around here...sends a message (like the song goes...'We're not gonna take it....") to these moronic thugs.
It simply amazes me how the SOUTH side of this city is ignored in so many ways.
Sure, we may have a new Wal-Mart...AND a new Menards...AND a new Police/Fire Academy, but we didn't really need to lose what we used to have in the process.
Southtown Mall was nice...really it was.
it was the surrounding NEIGHBORHOODS that changed...and not for the better.
THAT is what killed Southtown Mall, and it's what continues to injure this once nice part of Fort Wayne.
Wouldn't it have been nice to have ALL the monies that were spent tearing down Southtown mall, fighting Wichart in court over the property (anyone still recall THAT clusterf$ck?), and the subsequent abatements that went to secure the businesses currently there?


Then again...wouldn't it be nice to have DECENT neighbors...and corner stores...and a lot less hassle?
Hell, it would be worth having higher taxes IF that were the case.
Still, it will all come down to PEOPLE...
It always does...whether they wear baggy pants walking down the middle of our streets, or nice suits behind the wheel of city-supplied vehicles...or even staunch "hold-outs" like ourselves that still believe that this part of the city is worth reclaiming.
Some people we need (like the good ones)...others, we simply DO NOT (and you know who they are).
In any event...
DO have a SAFE weekend, wherever you happen to go.

They Say It's Your Birthday...
Well it's not MINE...not yet anyway. And my wife's birthday is NEXT week (right after our anniversary - clever girl).
Today marks the 30th birthday of that adorable and oft times irascible feline.
That's right...none other than GARFIELD.
It was on this day 30 years ago that artist Jim Davis produced the first Garfield cartoon.
The rest, as they say...is history.
Here's a link for a very good story (and Q&A):
http://www.newslinkindiana.com/index.php?src=news&refno=1987&category=Top%20Story
And the "official" Garfield link:
http://www.garfield.com/
And the wiki site (history of the comic strip):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garfield
Suffice it to say Garfield has grown over the years, and we're not just talking about his waistline!
There is not one place you can go where Garfield has not had an influence. You see him on men's neckties. They have watches, assorted plush figures, stick-ons and Christmas ornaments. They have towels, hats, and every OTHER article of clothing imaginable. I myself have two pairs of Garfield holiday socks, as well as more than a few shirts and sweatshirts. My favorite is the BIG FAT HAIRY DEAL sweatshirt (that I once wore when standing in front of NIAGARA FALLS). My favorite t-shirt is a picture of Garfield standing on Odie's back while he's running, holding the dog's ears with the words "EASY RIDER" beneath them . Now I don't care who you are...that's cute!
There are postcards, movies, animated shows, books, pencils, pens, tablets, and notebooks. They have collectibles out the wazoo (I have the resin numbered figures as well as the collector plates w/ gold trim from the early 1990s). Garfield is EVERYWHERE...and in a tasteful way. I still have my McD's Garfield mugs...anyone remember those?
I always said they should open a store JUST for Garfield items. Well, since the Internet took off, that's basically a moot point now.
Jim Davis has given us endless hours of entertainment, insight, and even a reason to see our OWN cats in an entirely different light (and that would definitely explain those "9PM CRAZIES" we cat owners are privy to).







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(if the type is too small on these cartoons, click for full-size)
Not to boast, but I've done my share of Garfield pictures in years past. If it wasn't a "weekend celebratory" theme, it was a movie "take-off". I apologize, Jim...didn't mean to step on that copyright. I never made any money off of it, it that accounts for anything. I'm sorry that I'm artistically-inclined.
Wanna HIRE ME instead????
(pssst...I DO live in Indiana)
I used to have a sign (2 decades ago) in my parts department office that proclaimed: "If we can't get it...it doesn't exist" with none other than GARFIELD wearing a company logo hat and shirt. That always caught the attention of people in our part of the facility, and soon I began to see people from OTHER departments wanting to get a gander (and maybe even some hard-to-find part for that old monitor or camera unit). Ah yes...those were the days.
And I always had DOGS as I grew up...go figure.
Maybe the allure of Garfield has been his ability to call them as he seem them, whether it's smashing a spider, negotiating with a mouse, or punting Odie off the table.
It's a marvelous way of living vicariously.
And for the past thirty years....it has worked!
SO HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GARFIELD.
We're not getting older...we're just getting better
(AND older).

Isn't It A Bit Strange...
If there's ONE thing the city of Fort Wayne does NOT lack, it's a continuing source of "stuff" (and you know what word REALLY should go there) that makes one want to raise an eyebrow, and take another LONG look.
In the past few weeks, we've had (here) a sudden increase in the number of "suspicious" fires on the South side. Now at the start, I said to my wife that they were ARSONS. And I was correct in that call.
See, having come from a much larger city where "Jewish Lightning" occurs with a sense of regularity, you get to know what to look for.
In a business venue, arson frequently occurs when a company is having financial difficulties. The owner just wants to get the hell out, but can't just up and shut the doors. So the building (mysteriously) "catches fire", burns to the ground, the insurance money pays off the owner (and maybe the employees who are now displaced), and the company is dissolved. Simple, huh? Take a watch of the Jack Lemmon movie PAPER TIGER to get an idea of all this.
As for all these residential houses being torched, the FWFD spokesperson is saying that each fire is "unique", and it's statements like THAT which give me pause. Fire IS fire...period. The motivation BEHIND the fire can be a number of finite reasons. The BUILDINGS are usually the ONLY "unique" factor in the equation (as are the arsonists, although their Modus Operandi don't even differ all that much).
In every case so far, the fires were started in a VACANT house. The fires were started on the SECOND FLOOR. The area of the fires is a relatively SMALL area.
My take is that the FWFD needs to see if any (or all) of the houses had been hit by scrappers when they examine the remains. If the copper is still there...fine. If it is NOT, then that opens another door on these arsons. And as you already know, we DO have a problem with scrappers (especially on the SOUTH side of the city). Scrappers were the ones that caused that house at 3608 S. Anthony Blvd to explode (back on 5 June) when scrappers opened up a gas line during their "extracurricular" activities. I suppose we're fortunate the houses targeted in MY area did not have such dumb ass thieves when they were targeted. The damage caused THEN only set the homeowners back a thousand dollars or so (lucky them).
I mean there IS such a thing as a GAS SHUT OFF VALVE, moron!
Goes to show criminals are stupid for all the right reasons.
I can understand the need of the FWFD to not disclose ALL information about these arsons, but to take the typical "stock answer" way out might not be the way to go either. The public needs to know AS MUCH as is possible without compromising the investigations. There might be citizens out there NOW that have seen something, or know something, but since the fire department hasn't "jogged their memory" when releasing information, people aren't putting two and two together yet.
Does the arsonist live in the targeted area?
Perhaps, but it would depend on several things, not the least of which is whether this is a scrapper-related situation. The perp (or perps) could be from across town, but see THIS area as "ripe for the picking". It's also dependent upon whether people will notice anything out of the ordinary, or whether they're too self-absorbed to give a crap (much like the neighbors I have surrounding me).
Let's face it, there is SOMETHING about that area around the 1300 block of Jackson St. and the 600 block of Hendricks St. that is attracting someone's attention. maybe it's all the vacant houses...maybe something else. The latest arson is on the NW side (800 block Florence).
Maybe it's someone's idea of URBAN RENEWAL...who knows?
---In a somewhat related story, Allen County HOMEOWNERS will see about a 28% DROP in property taxes (Well, spank me rosy and sell my clothes...I MUST be goin' to heaven). I just hope these suspicious fires don't impact on people wanting to BUY a home (and not be given one for free, as is the case with any "entitlement" program).

Of course businesses will see up to a 3% increase, and RENTAL PROPERTIES will also see higher taxes (about frigging time).

Maybe that will cause a drop in the NUMBER of rentals we have around here. Of course, that would ALSO mean we need a school to TEACH first time home buyers WTF is means to OWN a house, and MAINTAIN it (as well as the property it's on), and HOW to be a good neighbor (and not one of these culturally-diverse assholes that do nothing but annoy others with their constant behavioral "nuances"...and noise).
Like Dad said..."If you're gonna dream, son...dream BIG".
I can dream that will happen. Problem is, it won't make it so. It's that darn short-term memory problem they suffer from. But I can still hope.
Hope the hit the damn lottery...and "Get the hell outta Dodge", that is!
Remember..it's all downhill until the weekend (or is that UP-hill?) depending on YOUR point of view.