Well-Preserved
Mighty mite real estate guy John Saunders looks to be next in line to become chair of Bloomington’s Historic Preservation Commission. He was notified by current Commission member Marj Hudgins that he’d been tabbed. The full Commission will vote on new officers at one of the two upcoming February meetings.
Saunders
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The Commission, as of today, has two vacancies. Under normal circ.’s, some 13 B-ton citizens fill the board, with nine appointed by the mayor and four named by the city council. Just in case you were wondering, here are the members:
- Jeannine Butler retired educator and current MCCSC board member
- David Harstad real estate
- Saunders real estate
- Hudgins real estate
- Marleen Newman senior lecturer, Indiana University, Dept. of Apparel Merchandising & Interior Design
- Sam DeSollar architect
- Chris Cockerham real estate
- Doug Bruce architect
- Chris Sturbaum construction company owner and city council member
- Leslie Abshier Boys & Girls Clubs of Bloomington
- Duncan Campbell historic preservation consultant and retired Ball State University architecture professor
BTW: Saunders says he attended Keb’ Mo’s show at the packed Buskirk Chumley Theater Tuesday night. The neo-delta bluesman shook the place to the rafters, the BHPC’s next chair observed.
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Pence: Aw, I Was Just Joshin’
So, Gov. Mike Pence was really dedicated to his Just IN idea, huh?
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Peeps have been saying his aborted state-run news agency will come back to haunt him as he chases the Republican presidential nomination. I say, Meh. Give the citizenry a month, two at the very most, and they’ll have forgotten it ever happened.
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Open Season
The interwebs last week were abuzz with yet another story of cops gunning down a citizen. This time it was a teenaged white girl named Kristiana Coignard who was turned into a swiss cheese by constables from the smallish east Texas town of Longview.
Pix of the teen show a cute and delightful-looking little gal. Natch, the prevailing sentiment was Johnny Law had gone way, way, way too far. That’s two extra ways owing to the target’s Caucasian-ness.
Coignard
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Why, it was wailed, would the police do such a thing?
It occurs to me that there was a time when cops were well-known for solving problems with their fists or with hand held tools meant to inflict excruciating but not necessarily life altering damage. Think rubber hoses, nightsticks, and telephone books. Think also guys like Chicago’s notorious street sergeant nicknamed “Gloves” — he’d dramatically slip on kid leather gloves before administering one of his patented beatings to juveniles, be they delinquent or not. Civil rights and anti-police brutality crusaders worked tirelessly to get these kinds of police practices outlawed. To a large extent, police brutality has been reduced. At least the hand-to-hand variety.
Sadly, what we’re left with ain’t much better. In fact, it’s worse. A lot worse. Cops today, it seems, often fire their pistols at the drop of a hat. And prosecutors and mayors are reasonably happy to let them do so.
So why did the cops shoot this teenaged girl? Because they can.
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Scientists Should Be Seen, Not Heard
The citizens of this holy land say they dig scientists. Only they’re not so fond of all that much scientists have to say.
A Scientist Works On An Old School Laptop
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That’s the finding of the latest Pew Research Center poll conducted in collaboration with the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Scope these poll findings:
- 87% of scientists polled say eating GMO food is safe; only 37% of civilians think so
- 68% of brain geeks think eating pesticide-treated food is safe; a mere 28% of the public buys that
- 87% of these scientists are sure humans have caused climate change; only half the people do
- 98% of the scientists accept evolution; 65% of your neighbors do
The takeaway for scientists? Americans think you look great in your lab coats. But just shut up, wouldya?
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Natural?
Speaking of science, do you read the Natural News website?
Please don’t.
NN‘s majordomo, Mike Adams, who fancies himself “the Health Ranger,” is one of the wingnuttiest characters in this mad, mad, mad, mad world. I point this out because the name of his compendium of falsities, nonsense, and woo suggests a crunchy, peaceful, kumbaya message. It ain’t.
Adams is beloved by misinformation mavens like Dr. Mehmet Oz, the Food Babe, and scads of huffers and puffers about how there’s a worldwide arch-criminal conspiracy to turn us all into scurrying lab rats. He’s also from the moon.
Mike Adams And…, Hell, I don’t Know What It Is
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Here are a few examples of what he believes:
- GMO researchers are modern-day Nazis
- In “chemtrails“
- In “quantum healing“
- HIV has nothing to do with AIDS
- Parents should not have their children vaccinated
- The Sandy Hook school massacre was a hoax
- Western medicines and doctors are useless
- Barack Obama was not born in the United States
- 9/11 was an inside job
Neurologica’s Steven Novella has said of Adams:
If it is unscientific, antiscientific, conspiracy-mongering, or downright silly, Mike Adams appears to be all for it – whatever sells the “natural” products he hawks on his site.
One final shot: Last summer in a series of posts on NN, Adams repeated his claim that GMO researchers are the moral equivalent of Dr. Josef Mengele and his cronies and called for right-thinking folks to, well, murder them.
No, Natural News is decidedly not crunchy, peaceful, and kumbaya-ish.
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