Metropolitan Rural

It’s that time of year again.  Yes, it’s time to traumatize the little kids by forcing them to dress up in ridiculous clothes, walk down the street, ring your doorbell and tell you a joke.  All for a measly five cent piece of candy.  I honestly don’t get the whole joke thing that goes on around here.  I’ve never heard of any other cities that are so adamant about it (or do it at all to be more exact).

If you are new to the area, be sure your kids have a  joke down pat before they leave the house, otherwise they will be stammering and embarrassed  before long.  Here’s one I heard on KWMU the other day that I got a kick out of.

Two atoms walk out of a bar.  One atom turns to the other and says, “I think I left an electron back there.”

“Are you sure?” the other replied.

“Yes, I’m Positive!

If you get that one then I’m impressed!  Happy Halloween.

Still haven’t made your choices for you ballot this coming Tuesday?  Don’t forget, there are several elections going on that you may not have heard much about.  For elected positions you can check out the Post-Dispatch Politics section and look at the Voter’s Guide for your area (St. Louis area only).

If you want to get more information on propositions that are on the ballot, you can check out my prior post on Proposition A for a link to the Secretary of State’s website with more details.

If seen two blog posts in the last week or so about Proposition A. Steve Patterson over at Urban Review is still Undecided on Proposition A. Mayor Slay, on the other hand, will be Voting For Prop A.

If you’re not familiar with Proposition A, the full text can be found here. A summary is here below:

          Official Ballot Title:

Shall Missouri law be amended to:

• repeal the current individual maximum loss limit for gambling;
• prohibit any future loss limits;
• require identification to enter the gambling area only if necessary to establish that an individual is at least 21 years old;
• restrict the number of casinos to those already built or being built;
• increase the casino gambling tax from 20% to 21%;
• create a new specific education fund from gambling tax proceeds generated as a result of this measure called the “Schools First Elementary and Secondary Education Improvement Fund”; and
• require annual audits of this new fund?

State governmental entities will receive an estimated $105.1 to $130.0 million annually for elementary and secondary education, and $5.0 to $7.0 million annually for higher education, early childhood development, veterans, and other programs. Local governmental entities receiving gambling boat tax and fee revenues will receive an estimated $18.1 to $19.0 million annually.

Fair Ballot Language:

A “yes” vote will amend Missouri law to:

• repeal the current individual maximum loss limit for gambling;
• prohibit any future loss limits;
• require identification to enter the gambling area only if necessary to establish that an individual is at least 21 years old;
• restrict the number of casinos to those already built or being built;
• increase the casino gambling tax from 20% to 21%;
• create a new specific education fund from gambling tax proceeds generated as a result of this measure called the “Schools First Elementary and Secondary Education Improvement Fund”; and
• require annual audits of this new fund.

A “no” vote will maintain the current individual maximum loss limit of five hundred dollars for each gambling excursion. The casino gambling tax will not be increased nor will the “Schools First Elementary and Secondary Education Improvement Fund” be created. Also, the number of new casinos that may be built in Missouri will not be restricted.

If passed, this measure will increase the casino gambling tax.

In general, I don’t have a problem with removing the loss limits on gambling. If people are entertained that way and want to spend their money there, fine. We don’t put limits on how many beers, nachos and souvenirs you buy at a Cardinals game.

At the same time, why the need to prohibit any further competition?  Why prohibit loss limits from being added in the future?  Oh, and why the special education fund from the proceeds of this change?  Does that mean just the extra 1% in tax, or does it include the full 21% for anything people lose over $500 as well?  Wasn’t the casino money supposed to be going to education all along?

If you ask me to vote on removing the loss limits, you’d have my vote.  However, you throw in all the other crap so that you (the casinos) make out like bandits in the process, I will emphatically vote NO.

If you want more details on the other ballot initiatives, you can find details and the full text of them all at them all over at the SOS site.

No, not dreams in a wishful sort of way, but dreams while sleeping.  Last night I had this very vivid dream of being in a large sports stadium with thousands of other people.  There were 2 small stages in the center of the mob of people.  On the stages were Obama and McCain.  The scoreboards overhead were keeping track of the official electoral results as they were reported (I know, pretty weird huh?).

Anyway, things started off pretty close and then Obama started pulling ahead.  The margin kept growing until it was almost certain he would win.  Then, the unexpected happened, the last few states all got their results in at once and McCain was declared the winner.

Now, you would almost think that was my subconscious, conservative, rural self hoping for a McCain victory.  But here’s the real kicker.  When that happened, I shot awake in a cold sweat with my heart racing.  It was like waking up from a nightmare where you’re being chased by a mass murderer or something.  Honestly, it was a little disturbing.  Even though I’m rather conservative, I just can’t find it in me to vote for McCain.  That said, I still haven’t convinced myself to vote FOR Obama either.  I can’t imagine what kind of dreams I’d be having if I actually watched TV an had to deal with even more coverage of the election!

Last week there was a proposal to make changes to the Arch Grounds. Preservationists and parks people are not at all happy about the prospects of some of the land being taken over for private development/management. If you don’t check out Michael Allen’s Eco Absence blog regularly, you should head over there. Here are a couple of articles recently on opposition to the plans.

• National Park Service Retirees Oppose Preliminary Plan to “Privatize” Portion of St. Louis Gateway Arch Site
• National Parks Conservation Association Concerned about Potential Development on Grounds of National Historic Landmark in St. Louis
• NPS Expected to Announce Preferred Alternatives for Arch Grounds Today

On a completely new topic, I got a picture from my brother yesterday.  He’s currently in Beijing, China on a 6 month work assignment.  He finally got around to doing some sight seeing now that all the Olympic visitors have cleared out of the city.  He sent me this totally awesome picture he took last weekend of the Great Wall.  I couldn’t resist sharing it.

I was utterly appalled yesterday. I have been sitting on the fence so far in this presidential election. Driving over to my in-laws in U. City we saw someone putting up a “No Obama” sign in the yard. It’s bad enough that someone feels the need to support NOT voting for someone rather than encouraging you to vote FOR their candidate, but this sign was even worse. The first “o” was the Islamic moon & star symbol and Obama was spelled out in other such characters. Obviously, they are attempting to link Obama to Muslim extremists and terrorists. I have to agree with the sentiments of Colin Powell here. If Obama was a Muslim… “So What.” This country was colonized by people fleeing religious persecution and now you want to tell me we can’t allow a certain kind of religion here? Pardon me, but that’s Bull Sh!t.

I tried to find a picture of the sign online, but didn’t have much luck. I did find a site (to remain nameless and linkless) that has lots of user created content of political signs. There, I found 16,700 items in the “anti Obama” category and another 12,400 in the “anti McCain” category.

Is it too much to ask of Americans to be more Positive and less Negative. Why do we insist on supporting our choices by degrading the choices of others? It’s about more than just politics as well. There is plenty of “don’t drive foreign cars” sentiment to go along with “buy American.” Why must we always be the bully and put down others in order to make ourselves look better?

It’s time we take a good, long look ourselves in the mirror and figure out who we really are. It’s time to stand up and say I’m Pro-America without being Anti-Foreigner. Let’s be Pro-City without being Anti-County, Pro-Missouri without being Anti-Illinois. Let’s remind each other about the good things in life and in this country. It makes me hearken back to my April post, Ask Not What Your Country Can Do For You…

Does anyone else out there get the feeds from the Mayor’s website? I should call them force feeds as they don’t allow people to comment, only send out their press releases. Anyway, the last week has been full of announcements of official endorsements for the Mayor’s re-election coming up next year.

I really wonder about these groups who are endorsing the mayor already. I mean, how do you endorse someone for office when you don’t know who else is running yet? It’s not like the filing deadline has past yet or anything. It’s like adding salt to your food without tasting it first.

The St. Louis City Board of Elections states the general municipal election is to be in April of 2009 (though they don’t have it listed on their calendar for whatever reason). I did call directly and found out the primary will be held the first Tuesday in March (3/3/2009) and that filing for Mayor opens 100 days prior to the primary (11/24/2008). Filing closes 60 days before the primary (1/2/2009, if I did my math correctly). That means not only is he getting endorsements before the filing deadline is up, he’s getting them before he’s even able to file himself!

As you can see below, I found 7 union organizations that have already endorsed a candidate who isn’t even officially running for office yet. I can understand that you might contribute to someone’s campaign so they have funds for filing for candidacy (after all the fee is 1% of the mayor’s salary). But for an organization to come out and openly endorse someone for office before they even know who else might be in the race against them is just absurd in my book. Then again, maybe I’m just weird. I tend to wait and see who’s running, investigate the platform and then make a decision.

• UAW Endorses Mayor Slay
• Insulators Endorse Mayor Slay
• IBEW, Local 1; UNITE HERE; Hoisting Engineers 513 Endorse Mayor Slay
• SEIU Endorses Mayor Slay
• Laborers Endorse Mayor Slay

UPDATE:  Speaking of all this.  Does anyone out there have some good gossip on who else is considering running for Mayor this next year?  And no, I’m old enough, and been a property owner long enough, but I haven’t lived in the city long enough.

What ever happened to our sense of personal responsibility? It seems every day I see more people who are so totally self absorbed they ignore the needs of others.

• There was the man who tried to cross the street without a signal and held up traffic turning left with a green arrow. You can’t wait for 10 seconds until they are done and it’s your turn?
• There was the lady driving a van yesterday who insisted she turn left, pushing herself through the first 2 of 3 lanes of traffic, only to get hit by an oncoming car in the 3rd lane. Honestly, you can’t see past the school bus and the city bus in the first two. If you were really in such a hurry, you just blew it.
• There was the guy at the grocery store parking lot this weekend who yelled out his car window at us. He’d pulled half way out of his spot after we were most of the way out of ours just two spots down. We waited for him, and when he didn’t go we assumed he wanted us to go around him.
• There are the drivers giving me angry looks for being in the crosswalk with a cross signal when they want to turn left on a yield signal.
• There are people demanding the government give us more affordable health insurance so they don’t have to take care of their own bodies.
• There are parents who get upset with public school teachers for not teaching their children when those same parents do nothing to encourage their children at home.

I don’t know about you, but I still routinely get strange looks when I say please, or thank you sir/miss/ma’am. It’s almost like they are shocked that someone is being polite to them. You see, in a small town, your ambulance service is your next door neighbor. That guy you just cut off in traffic will be sitting next to you at the diner tonight. Here in the city, it seems everyone wants to stay nameless and faceless. It just makes it easier to ignore those other people because “I’ll never see them again anyway.”

What strikes me as funny is that with all of this, people still seem surprised when corporate executives and politicians act the same way they do.  Should we really be surprised that our leaders act the same way we do?

I just saw this wonderful post over at 47 Thoughts called Dear John McCain:  I am Not Voting for You.  My blog friend Lisa espouses why her conservative Republican self will not be voting for John McCain.  As a fiscal conservative and social liberal (do those 2 things really go together?), I really understand where she’s coming from.  While I tend to consider myself Republican (and becoming more Libertarian every day), I too am finding it again very difficult to support the Republican Presidential candidate.

Without a doubt, John McCain has proven himself to be out of touch on a number of occasions.  And the campaigns this year have again fallen to the lowest common denominator of mud slinging.  Lisa goes into some depth on McCain’s health care plan.  I don’t entirely agree with her view as I might be considered one of her “the young, the lucky.”  However, I also come from a family with a history of diabetes and high blood pressure.  I fight daily to try and keep myself in good health.  My only problem with that is I get no benefit for those efforts from  my health insurance.

You see, being in group medical insurance plan, we all pay the same.  The insurance company plans to make money on people like me and use it to pay for someone just like me who isn’t quite as careful with their health.  They make no distinction.  I’m forced to pay high premiums for the “privilege” of lower out-of-pocket costs on the rare occasion I need care.  I’m on the brink of getting out of my current plan through work and doing my own private policy.  I currently have an HSA (Health Savings Account) plan that does give me a higher than normal deductible.  I want to drastically up that amount to lower my premiums substantially.  With the HSA plans, you can offset the higher deductible by putting money in your HSA pre-tax as long as it’s taken out to pay health care costs.  It doesn’t matter if it’s cost your insurance company covers or not.  It’s similar to the Flex Spending Account (FSA) that many people have at work, except mine doesn’t expire at the end of the year and it doesn’t disappear if I leave my employer.

What this does for me is to let ME choose how my health care dollars are spent.  I still have coverage for those major events in life, I’ll just have to pay more out of pocket then with the money I’ve saved from not paying so much every month “just in case.”  I like having more control over where my money is spent.

Back to the subject of John McCain.  I still like the suggestion from a co-worker of mine the other day regarding the election… “Can we have a do-over?”