Awesome Tattoos

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A lot is being made of Carolina Panthers‘ owner Jerry Richardson‘s conversation with rookie quarterback Cam Newton prior to the 2011 NFL Draft. the quotes are being dissected based off of themes varying from race to ethics.

According to ProFootballTalk.com, Jerry Richardson discussed his pre-draft interview with Cam Newton with PBS’s Charlie Rose. In that discussion, Richardson reportedly revealed the following quotes:

“I said, ‘Do you have any tattoos?’” Richardson told Rose.  “He said, ‘No, sir.  I don’t have any.’  I said, ‘Do you have any piercings?’  he said, ‘No, sir.  I don’t have any.’  I said, ‘We want to keep it that way.’ . . . .

“We want to keep no tattoos, no piercings, and I think you’ve got a very nice haircut.”

Interjected the host:  “You sound like a Lombardi.”

Said Richardson, “No, I just sound reasonable to me.”

Clearly, Richardson in no way thought he was wrong in what many deem as “crossing a line”. In fact, he admitted it sounded reasonable.

Perhaps, but several analysts have already proposed the question – does Richardson question all of his players this way? Did he take the time to consider Jeremy Shockey’s image the same way he is clearly considering Newton’s?

Now, obviously the appearance and image of Carolina’s new golden boy and number one overall pick of the 2011 NFL Draft is going to trump a potentially washed-up, injury-prone, tattooed Shockey; but it’s still a valid question.

Was Richardson trying to protect his investment’s image by not dirtying it up with tattoos and piercings? Clearly. But the ongoing question was whether or not it was out of line.

And it has to be.

If Richardson gets to walk away from this cleanly with no one batting an eye, then there has to be a precedent already set. Every one of his players prior to the selection of Cam Newton should have no piercings and no tattoos. At the very least, that would keep Richardson from coming off as a hypocrite when asking Newton to “keep it that way”.

While it’s easy to toss in the knee-jerk reaction that Richardson is difficult and demanding (just see anything involving him with the NFL Lockout), you have to look at this from the outsider’s perspective.

I know nothing about Richardson other than what I’ve read in the past and the report I’ve mentioned above. however, what I do know is that he’s clearly holding one of his players in higher regard and to different standards in comparison to others.

And while I completely understand the reasoning behind it – that Newton is a huge investment and the face of the Panthers’ franchise – I have still come to the conclusion that this was in no way “okay” for Richardson to do.

If Newton wants to get a tattoo, he should be able to. In fact, short of Richardson scoffing or calling him names, he actually can. But the fact that Richardson singled out Newton as a product, more than a player (or you know, an actual person), shows his true colors.

And while it’s an argument open for debate, one thing is getting a little clearer. if you weren’t sure how you felt about the abrasive Richardson prior to this story, you probably are now.

With the news that police arrested nearly an entire ludus of gladiator impersonators in Rome last week for intimidation and assault, the topic of travel scams has been getting a bit more attention.

As long as there have been travelers there have been those ready to take advantage of them. the closest that I’ve come to being rooked – as far as I know – was during a trip to Tijuana years ago. It was nothing shady, though there was plenty of that for anyone willing. It was just a cash-for-conversation scam.

A friend and I walked into a darkened watering hole (at 6th and Revolucion – an icon of the old TJ) and suddenly felt ourselves being led deeper into the building by several large Mexicans.

Lesson number one: Don’t let the doormen seat you. I was young and naive.

My travel companion and I couldn’t see a thing since coming in from the bright sun left us all temporarily blind. We were seated in complete, utter darkness and we were being steadied by our “guides.” as things came into focus, I saw we were in a bit of a predicament – we were the only people in the place, other than the workers, and they were circling.

A waitress – ahem, this was Tijuana – sat down to take our orders in a rather colorful manner. It quickly became apparent we were probably prime for being scammed. Luckily I was pretty broke and too shy to talk to anyone because we learned later that the club charged for the time the waitress sat to take your order.

Lesson number two: Don’t let them con you into buying them a drink. Evidently the prices on their drinks go way up. I didn’t, because like I said I was young, naive, and I was brought up better than that. (Thank you parents.)

Then again, I was in Tijuana.

As soon as our eyes became accustomed to the dim lighting, we assessed our situation we thought it would be a good idea to make for the door. as we walked out into the blinding sun we were sent on our way by one of the doormen with this traditional Mexican farewell: “Pfft. big spenders.”

After a rather dicey interaction with someone we’ll just call “Mr. Neck Tattoo who Didn’t like Americans,” we crossed back over into the U.S. and headed for San Diego.

While I don’t wish difficult times on anyone, I do find stories of travel scams interesting.

Here’s a list of 10 common travel scams that the Overhead Bin at MSNBC has compiled.

Have you ever been scammed on a trip?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 16th, 2011 at 10:15 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

During the 1970s photography took on a new importance in Britain. After the rise of fashion photographers and photojournalists in the 1960s, a new generation was beginning to emerge who wanted to pursue their own projects, not paid for by advertisers or commissioned by magazine editors but financed piecemeal through a fragile combination of personal and public funding. Rather than travelling abroad, they wanted to explore the lives of ordinary people in Britain, many of whom were under threat of unemployment as the country shifted from an industrial to a service economy and traditional working-class communities began to break down. they wanted to examine the problems caused by poverty, class and race. and they wanted to do this with the minimum of interference or editorial control. Their photographs were aimed principally at exhibition on gallery walls and publication in books.

In this they were influenced by their counterparts in America, where the gallery system took its lead from the Museum of Modern Art, which had had a photography department since 1940 and regularly exhibited new work by young photographers. and for those who wanted to make complete statements in books, rather than to confine them to six or eight pages of a magazine, Robert Frank’s the Americans, based on his road trip across the US in the mid-1950s and published there in 1959, was hugely influential. it was an extended personal essay, full of scepticism about the American dream and, aesthetically, it looked different from anything else that had come before: his pictures were glancing, blurred, uncanny, not perfectly composed but full of emotion. he had used photography to create a work that was more like a novel than a news report, but was no less true.

Meadows, with Shireen Shah and Martin Parr at the opening of Parr’s ‘Home Sweet Home’, Impressions Gallery, York, June 1974. (Photographer unknown)

This was a book that deeply impressed the young Daniel Meadows, a student on the first year of the photography course at Manchester Polytechnic that started in 1970. Meadows had watched a BBC documentary about Davidson as “he strutted about East 100th Street with his 5x4in plate camera on a tripod balanced across his shoulders … I loved it. More particularly I loved the portraits he made: for their engagement, their intimacy and for the generosity he drew out of the people he photographed.”

. . .

Butlin’s Holiday Camp, Filey, North Yorkshire. Meadows worked here alongside Martin Parr as a portrait photographer, taking the opportunity to produce his own, more oblique, compositions

Inspired by Davidson’s approach, Meadows launched his own documentary project in Manchester’s Moss side, home to the African-Caribbean community. he rented an old barber’s shop in Greame Street, called it the Greame Street Free Studio, and opened it every Saturday to invite local people inside to have their portraits taken. Every week he put new pictures in the window and anyone who was photographed could claim a free print. To his own copies, he added quotes from the sitters and his own thoughts about their lives. After eight weeks he ran out of money and the studio closed down, but it was an important first step in what would be, for Meadows, a life’s work spent creating forms of visual storytelling – documenting ordinary people’s lives in words and pictures – a practice that, with the advent of digital technology, has allowed him to make all these stories accessible online.

Further images by Meadows of Butlin’s Holiday Camp, Filey, in the summer of 1972

But before that there was Butlin’s. In the summer of 1972, Meadows and a fellow photography student at Manchester, Martin Parr, were employed as “walkies” at Butlin’s Holiday Camp in Filey, in North Yorkshire. Supplied with brown blazers and Butlin’s ties, a camera and a flashgun each, they were sent round the camp to take pictures. each person photographed was issued with a numbered stub, which they handed in the next day to claim their pictures. If they bought them, the walkie got a percentage. If they didn’t, he got nothing.

Here were two young men from the south of England (Parr came from Surrey; Meadows from Gloucestershire) for whom Butlin’s must have promised the perfect image of the northern working classes at play. For Parr, it was “very exciting and entirely up my street”. For Meadows, it was much less ideal: “It was a nasty place to be … it wasn’t the friendly thing that one would see in the adverts. by then it was a kind of battleground for yobbos. Families had given up going because they were now going to the Costa del Sol. Mum and dad and 14-year-old daughter would go to Marbella but 17-year-old son with his first tattoo would be sent with all his mates to Butlin’s Filey … they had the biggest bars I’d ever seen so you never had to queue for a drink, and they could be quite violent.”

Butlin’s Filey, Yorkshire. July-August 1972

Nevertheless, it gave both photographers the chance, when they weren’t officially working, to take their own pictures and it was some of these that were exhibited late in 1972 at the newly opened Impressions Gallery in York, in a show organised by its young director, Val Williams, now director of photography and the Archive Research Centre at London College of Communication. For the past two years she has been searching through Daniel Meadows’ entire photographic archive for an exhibition which opens at the National Media Museum in Bradford later this month. she has also written the book that accompanies it, which traces Meadows’ development and analyses the growth of independent British photography from the 1970s on, setting it within its social context and bringing a gently sceptical eye to the sometimes overly romantic notions of working-class life espoused by Meadows and Parr during their years in the north.

. . .

In their last year as students, Meadows and Parr worked together on a project which, like East 100 Street and the nascent Greame Street studio, sought to photograph the people who inhabited a single location. they were also inspired by Britain’s most popular TV soap opera, Coronation Street, which had started in 1960 and was set in a fictional town based on Salford. the opening credits showed a real Salford street, Archie Street, which no longer exists. For their study Meadows and Parr chose another terraced Salford street, June Street, and in the early spring of 1973 they wrote to every household along it: “We are social documentary photographers and our names are Martin Parr and Daniel Meadows … before redevelopment changes the face of Salford we want to record for future generations the friendly atmosphere which is characteristic of your city.” they would be calling in the next few days “to arrange a date to photograph you at your own convenience”.

The resulting photographs, which were formally posed and shot on a medium-format camera, showed neatly dressed couples, sprawling young families, lone mothers with small children, sitting in their living rooms, and their pictures paid as much attention to the details of the setting – wallpaper, ornaments – as they did to the residents themselves. they also recorded some of the June Street residents talking about their lives, and this, again, fed into Meadows’ growing fascination with documenting Britain in photographs and words.

Four studies from a project portraying the residents of a single street, undertaken in Meadows and Parr’s final year together at college

At the end of 1973, Meadows set off on what would be a defining photographic project, the Free Photographic Omnibus, funded by a variety of grants, donations and sponsors. Meadows converted an old double-decker bus into a travelling studio, complete with studio, darkroom, exhibition space and living space. For the next year he drove up and down England, offering a photo session to anybody who volunteered, with a free print in exchange. “It seemed to me,” Meadows wrote later, “that it was high time someone photographed a cross-section of the English people, not only from all walks of life but from all corners of the country.”

As Val Williams points out, the final cross-section was more limited than originally promised. Meadows agreed: “Where, for instance, are the photographs of bank managers and university professors, dukes and earls, stockbrokers and company directors?” it was not, however, necessary, he said, to use a Free Photographic Omnibus to get a photograph of a stockbroker. “But, if you want to photograph the ‘ordinary man in the street’ then there is no better way of getting to meet him.”

In 1975, he published the results of his findings in Living Like this, a book which aimed “to document the lives of those whose quality of life is threatened by the apparent necessity for rapid social change”. Rapid change, Meadows believed, was the enemy of community life. “It takes a long time for a community feeling to establish itself,” he wrote. “The tower block environment seems to be so totally alien to the people who are obliged to live in it that they cannot envisage themselves remaining in it for the rest of their lives. ‘Something better will turn up.’ and so, because people are hopeful for a future in a street with a patch of garden and a road outside the window they cannot be content with the present. No one can establish firm roots in ‘temporary accommodation’.”

Meadows would go on to exhibit the photographs and, over the next three decades, the “bus project” would grow in popularity and importance. Widely recognised for his work as an oral historian and as a social anthropologist, Meadows has revisited it, republished it, refound and rephotographed some of its subjects. he, and Martin Parr, and Val Williams, have remained at the centre of British independent photography for 40 years. this exhibition is, in different ways, a tribute to them all.

‘Daniel Meadows: Early Photographic Works’, curated by Val Williams, runs at the National Media Museum, Bradford, September 30 to February 19 2012.’Daniel Meadows: Edited Photographs from the 70s and 80s’ by Val Williams is published by Photoworks on October 1, £25.

www.photoworks.org.uk

From left: Newcastle-upon-Tyne, September 1974; Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, identified as James O’Connor (left) and David Balderstone, November 1974; Workington, Cumbria, October 1974; Hulme, Manchester, February 1974

From left: Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, ‘Boot boys’ Brian Morgan, Martin Tebay, Paul McMillan, Phil Tickle, Mike Comish, November 1974; Workington, Cumbria, October 1974; Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, twin brothers Michael and Peter McParland, November 1974; Workington, Cumbria, October 1974

To comment on this article, please e-mail magazineletters@ft.com

This was taken from March 7, 2011: Oil prices surged to near $107 per barrel yesterday and regular gasoline is going for $3.51 per gallon. last March oil sold for around $80 per barrel and gas cost about $2.79 per gallon. Can one of the local gas station owners explain why we are still paying $3.67 for a gallon of gas? Congress needs to realize that entitlements have created the situation that we find ourselves in. more entitlements certainly won’t solve the problem. Tax reform might help but only if used to pay down the debt rather than creating more entitlements to buy votes. the problem is that Congress has proven that they can’t be trusted to do that. “Government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem.” — President Ronald Reagan. I see more and more commercials about using natural gas to power our vehicles with. I don’t know about you, but natural gas to heat my home with is expensive enough. If we start using natural gas to power our vehicles, I don’t know how people are going to afford to heat their homes. I already cut back because I can’t afford to heat it and keep it very warm. Natural gas is a crazy idea. It’s as bad as ethanol made from corn. the wholesale price of gas fell 10 cents a gallon and 19 cents a gallon last Thursday. Today it’s down 11 cents, a total of 40 cents. Jacksonville stations have only gone down three cents in the same period. Tattoos, ah those are the good things, kinda like piercings. Women can do anything a man can do and more. Don’t forget women have kids, can you imagine what would happen if a man tried to have kids? there would be no more, they wouldn’t like it. So for a woman to enjoy a tattoo is a sign of her being who she is, not all like them but some do. Men need to get a grip, they are afraid women will take over. Men, would you like a cookie because women are taking the cake on this one? If you think that tattoos on women are simply a matter of style or individual taste, then you don’t know about the historical meaning of tattooed women. In 19th century America, some women were forced to wear tattoos. In those days, a tattoo symbolized that a woman was a person of loose morals. Perhaps this designation still applies today. at least, that’s my opinion. So now the “state” will start confiscating lost money, etc., after a year. the family, once and if they find it, can claim the cash but not the interest. Legal theft by the state? We should all have to play by the same rules. Some on Open Line must be 200 years old. They couldn’t become so stupid in a normal lifetime. Number one, U.S. Navy Seals do not do their operations in Army National Guard helicopters; they have their own. this is lie number one about our U.S. Navy Seals’ recent deaths. Lie number two, U.S. Navy Seals helicopters do not hold 38 people onboard. Lie number three about the U.S. Navy Seals: When they are sent on missions and die, rarely does the whole country know, it is kept top secret and only the wives and families of the fallen U.S. Navy Seals are told and their fellow squad members. It’s not made public by the news media. Obama’s excuses are a sign of weakness. a strong person does not make excuses because they are proud to take full ownership of their decisions and resolute in their vision of the future. When there is no vision, however, as we have now, the people will perish. Way to go Dumbacrats, for electing the next Herbert Hoover, BHO. you know you’re a redneck if you’re eating a burger from McDonald’s once every week. Hey Quinn. How’s about instead of raising our taxes, cut the medical cards and Link card program? If the do-nothings don’t like it, they can move to another state. I have my own children to pay for. Please tell me you were kidding when you said that the military should be the first ones to lose their paychecks and you want military spending to be cut? Perhaps we should take away their expensive guns and give them sling-shots. the military protects your whiny butt from being overrun by radicals. I will continue to pay taxes at a lower rate than our chauffeurs, butlers and lawn boys. I did create a new job though when I hired a dogwalker for my wolfhound. In this person’s ignorance they undo what they are trying to say. Four people are paid to work by this “imagined “ wealthy person. Can you do that Mr. Complainer and Kool-Aid drinker? Obama gets on TV Aug. 8 and says Congress is working hard to solve the financial crisis over the downgrade in credit rating. What an idiot. Congress is not in session until after Labor Day. Maybe someone should tell him lawmakers all went home. Oblamer, gone January 2013. the correct policy is exactly opposite of what Obama wants. the trick is to stop wasting and throwing good money out the window. Apparently the United States of America is too big of a community for Obama to organize. I still can’t believe we elected this loser. Hey Mr. two Percenter, don’t forget to thank your fellow Republicans for holding the debt ceiling hostage just long enough to get the U.S. downgraded. If you are what you say you are, and not just a wannabe, you can’t be happy with the way the market is going. Serves you right, hope you lose it all. Maybe my taxes will go down when I’m not still supporting your dead weight. Michele Bachmann looking crazy on the cover of a magazine, imagine that. Crazy is as crazy looks, the camera doesn’t lie. the Bush tax cuts increased tax revenues to record levels. I challenge you Democrats and Obama lovers to go to the IRS website and look up the figures for yourself. I bet you won’t, you don’t want to know the truth. It’s easier to live in your little bubble world where everything is Bush’s fault and rich Republicans hate poor people. Shheesh. Grow up. News flash: Obama blames the teleprompter for bad leadership skills. you guys need to understand Obama wasn’t taking care of the millions of homeless people in America or the financial well being of this country or the millions that are out of work. no, Obama was taking care of more important things like getting re-elected and passing laws for gay marriage and blaming others for his mistakes. Would be nice to see a local person go against Rep. Aaron Schock, Peoria Republican politician, the one that voted to turn Medicare over to the greedy insurance companies. I aim to keep this issue in front of the public, angry Senior. Newsweek got it all wrong. Howard Dean is the queen of rage and Al Gore is the second runner up. Obama will now go down in history as our downgrade president, having reduced our debt rating. That will ensure him the falling into the classification as one of the worst presidents we’ve ever had in this country. To the person making the comment about the” drunken idiots at the Redneck Fishing Tournament.” I’m sorry that your life is so boring that you don’t know how to have fun. It’s a fundraiser for the community. get over it, try to have some fun. If the mayor wanted to spur the local economy, he could investigate the local gas station owners who are stealing the money we should be saving on gas. It has dropped again today, as I speak, it’s at $2.68 a gallon. We’re paying a dollar more than the price. I know there are taxes in there, I’m not stupid, but we are paying at least 40 cents more than we should be. the gas station owners are stealing our money. I was wondering if they are getting more jobs. I have a son who is getting frustrated with not being able to find a job. He’s not the only one, his friends are getting frustrated too. They have got to get some jobs or people are going to be in worse shape than they are in now. I have to thank President Obama and Congress for my mortgage interest going up and my credit card interest going up. Thank you, I need to spend more money on that. I want to congratulate the one who writes the Mini Page. That is just great. even as an adult I read every word. It is fun to read and really great. I don’t think we need a president who is so full of religion he can’t do his job. he can’t distinguish between government and praying. We don’t want to lose our country. as if the polar ice caps aren’t melting fast enough, now I see that there are people who want to pull icebergs to Africa to water the African plains. I think that’s a mistake. the death of the Navy Seals is Obama’s fault because he is pulling out the troops too soon. President Bush would have never allowed that to happen. the fact that Obama has destroyed the country’s credit rating with his irresponsible spending is grounds for impeachment. Gas in Roodhouse and White Hall is $3.39 and like always we’re getting screwed over in Jacksonville. What’s up with that? Obama’s attempts at using fancy rhetoric to solve our nation’s problems have failed. this man needs to go and he needs to go quickly. the downgrade doesn’t sound very good and it has only happened to President Obama. They closed another one of the Jacksonville facilities so Quinn can give another one of his PR ladies double her salary so she’d have a nice salary. “…give me your tired, your poor. Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door.” I hope no one wasted their time going to the Alsey picnic. It was a joke. Way to go mayor, they are calling it Fayville now. Do you ever notice the Democrats call it their right to recount votes, but if Republicans do it, it’s call being a sore loser? Double standards for sure. really, you can. Why do you want to wear pants, huh? I don’t get it. those District 117 Board members that vote to close our neighborhood schools, Washington and Franklin, will be punished by voters. They better start looking for new jobs. of course Ray LaHood’s not a true Republican. he cares about what happens to ordinary working people, which is what you are only you’re too stupid to know it. you think if you keep kissing the behinds of the real Repukes they’ll eventually throw you a bone. keep being their lap dogs and see where that gets you. What Obama had is called a fundraiser, political candidates have been having them for years. Only Republicans have wealth, clearly you’re on fixed noise overload. What, are you five? It’s not about double standards, it’s about right and wrong. All this women’s lib has destroyed the family and it shows in the youth now. like it or not, that’s the truth. Wake up Americans, this is your country. Obamics is not working. Obama never could walk on water, like some thought. he does not have a clue, God bless our troops and God bless America. God is our only hope and change. as expensive as the high school yearbook is it would be nice to not have to see the same big photos of teacher’s kids plastered all over the book. Thank God Ray LaHood is not a true Republican. I have known Ray for a long time and he uses common sense to attack a problem. Something the rich people loving Republicans know nothing about. “Were we directed from Washington when to sow and reap, we should soon want bread.” — Thomas Jefferson. Twenty-two brave Navy Seals were killed. Is this a sign of something more sinister than being reported? God bless our troops and God bless America. no liberals, our problems are not caused by the Constitution, but rather by your ignorance of the Constitution. Why is the FBI wasting money and time on a 40-year-old case of D.B. Cooper. there are more important cases to work on instead of wasting tax payer dollars. whoever said Obama never has a plan needs to realize that he always has a plan, go on vacation again. That is always Obama’s plan. That is all he knows how to do. the Department of Education has found a cure for the bad scores that most of the school districts are getting. Exempt them from testing. the fact is that the bad scores don’t point to a failure of the schools but rather the failure of the Department of Education. by the time the schools complete all the bureaucratic mandates, the indoctrination of our students with revisionist history, social reformation, and the green agenda, there is little or no time left to teach reading, math and science. the solution is to shut down the Department of Education and get out of the way so that teachers can teach. the singularity is upon us. Obama played chicken with Republicans and tea partiers and lost. All you people seeing what has happened in Greece, Spain, Ireland and now England beware, it’s coming to America. You’re going to get to experience it in every major city, anarchy, riots, and blood shed. you can thank the NWO which equals the new World Order, and no they are not a bunch of liberals or neo-cons, they are global elite who are destroying our economies world wide. for the idiot in Open Line posting about entitlements on 8/9/11 for your information, and everyone else’s, marijuana is not addictive. this myth has to be stopped. It also does not lead a person to harder drugs, that is another myth. That needs to be squashed. for a supposed teacher you’re not very well educated on drugs. Might try going to rehab and learning from addicts, real addicts. To the teacher in the Open Line on 8/9/11 who posted about entitlements and being drunk and not taking care of our yards and all the rest of his rant. most of us do not have enough money or are not physically able to take care of our yards, we become depressed and alcohol is always a good friend. then again, some of us don’t give a fat rats what you think you over educated punk. Why don’t you try working a real man’s job? To the alleged teacher who posted in Open Line comments on 8/9/11 about entitlements. Maybe if you worked a more physically demanding job and didn’t have that wise mouth education and you hurt your back or were paralyzed on the job you’d have a different view of government entitlements. you sir are what is wrong with the children in this country not having any respect for the elderly or disabled. You’d first have to understand that everyone is different, not everyone is healthy nor can they ever be. Nobody is going to lose any entitlements. the government isn’t going to do away with these programs, or what would all the illegal immigrants do for money who’ve came here besides sell drugs? Suspect any politician trying to use the Lord to get elected. Suspect right wing Texan Republican Rick Perry. Mr. Mayor have you checked out the mud flats on the east end of the lake? you should plant corn rather than waste our money dredging. Another project just like the downtown, doing it only half way.

Good job on the new format, it’s great. now, back to Roodhouse. you know, when some folks’ first and only concern about school consolidation is about the fielding of the football team, things are pretty darn sad. do I really need to elaborate more? To the parents who wants to know where the so-called parents are. Their hands are tied, thanks to all the laws. A teenager can do whatever they want and there’s not much the parent can do. if you don’t believe me, ask any police officer and they will tell you the same thing. Habits become character. maybe they shouldn’t, but they do. Character gives worth to life. maybe it shouldn’t, but it does.   if the president and all the other politicians are serious about creating jobs, then why don’t they bring to Washington the CEOs of Proctor & Gamble, Phillip Morris, Caterpillar, GE and all the other so-called American companies’ CEOs and tell them if they want to sell their products in this country then manufacture their products like washing machines, dryers, refrigerators, toothpaste, without lead in it, in this country. but no, Congress would rather go after baseball players. Guess who has the biggest eyesore and junkiest yard in Meredosia? A town board member, of course. That kid who was a page and says $5 million isn’t anything must have political ambitions. Love the new look of the online paper. if we want to instill in youngsters proper values and habits, we should have the courage of our ambiguities, inconsistencies and contradictions. People who use situations to get pity are sad. Especially when they use others situations and do all they can to let everybody know the circumstances. Self-pity is destructive. God bless the Navy SEALs and their families. Someone asked why the tavern was closed in Beardstown. That’s an easy answer, idiot: Because they were not open. Obammie is going to let us in on his plan for jobs and the economy after his taxpayer-funded campaign swing across America on the new taxpayer-funded monster bus and after his 11 day vacation at a 20-acre seaside resort at Martha’s Vineyard. The guy is a consistent hypocrite at least. Shouldn’t we ponder that a bit? Let’s really let our congressman know that we want to have the same gasoline prices that they have in Europe. down with big oil. you just can’t make this stuff up: Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that the Obama administration has a jobs program already in place, and it’s food stamps. When asked about new numbers that show one in every seven Americans now receiving food stamps from the federal government, Vilsack said that’s good news. Food stamps create jobs.Where did Obama get these people? please understand that the Dream Act does not give illegal aliens a free education. it allows them to compete for private scholarships and pay in-state tuition instead of out-of-state tuition, provided that they graduated from an Illinois high school. The “Girls gone Wild” bus was spotted between Nebo and Haypress. how many students are leaving Virginia school to go to another school? I hope our elected officials do the right thing and allow another ambulance company to come to town. I make over $20,000 and I work my butt off to get and keep my job. I lose half my pay in taxes now and fools like you and your Hitler party Democrats want more from my pay. Go to hell. I have a feeling that Obama and the Dumocrats are going to get stomped in the 2012 elections. Rick Perry will don his cowboy boots and will do the stomping. Don’t mess with Texas. Reload, and let’s roll. Everyone who is concerned about the job situation in our country should Google “Job Creators Alliance,” a national organization of employers who are trying to produce conditions that can lead to job creation.   I agree with President Obama. He does need to drop his broken distributive politics, stop vilifying his opponents, and do what’s right for the country. He is absolutely responsible for this economy. in Wednesday’s New York Times, an article noted that those convicted of rioting in British cities several days ago are put into orange jumpsuits and made to clean up the wreckage and sweep up. this kind of creative sentencing gives the victims a chance to see the perps paying back to society, and it gives the perps a chance to earn their way back. we all hope to see this creative justice operating on the streets of Jacksonville before long. Someone wanted to know why restaurants that consistently earn scores from the health department in the 70s are allowed to stay in business. another question: why do some people still eat at such restaurants? The “Core Beliefs” page on the Webster of Job Creators Alliance should be read by everyone in business and government, and this organization’s list of speakers on the same page is very impressive. FutureGen 2.0 is moving forward. Work is progressing on the geologic characterization well pad site. The well will thoroughly evaluate the geology to confirm that the area is an excellent match for carbon dioxide storage. it may also serve as a monitoring well for decades to come. well drilling will start in the next few weeks and it will take about three months to complete the drilling and installation effort. No CO2 will ever be injected into the well, it is for characterization and monitoring only. Kids who start kindergarten knowing their colors, shapes, numbers, and have “please and thank you” habits, and are able to follow a sequence of instructions have a huge advantage in school over kids who have not learned these things. I am sensing a double-standard with the tattoo things and women. why is it when women do it, it’s not OK but it’s OK for men. That screams double-standard to me and I have nine tattoos and I don’t care if you see them or not. I cover them if I need to, otherwise I allow them to be seen. Get over yourself and find something more productive to argue about such as bringing the troops home, something worthwhile. When you redesigned the newspaper on here, why didn’t you leave out Open Line and if people want to make a comment, do it in a letter to the editor where they are required to sign their name, not hide behind a computer? Really? this nation is imploding and people are complaining about tattoos? why don’t we talk about how people can help each other? The government won’t help anyone but themselves. I’m wondering why the president and family didn’t go to Camp David, which is already paid for, rather than paying in the vicinity of $30,000 a week for a Cape Cod Martha’s Vineyard home. also, why was $1.2 million spent for two buses for them to travel on? That is just too much. Let’s be honest. if a bus tour looks like a campaign, sounds like a campaign, blasts the Congress like a campaign, makes more promises like a campaign, spends more tax payer money to the tune of millions of dollars, Mr. President, it’s a political campaign tour. I give up. I’ve been across the Meredosia bridge three or four times in the last three or four days. No one is working there but one lane is shut down on the west side. Can somebody please tell me what they’re doing? I think the Scott County commissioner should ask the county clerk to resign. Poor actions of a public official. if the politicians want to mess with pensions, why don’t they mess with their own? they only have to work a few years in order to earn a full pension. some of them are earning multiple pensions. Let’s cut them down to one, like the rest of us. some people don’t even get that. some people can be very cunning and use every situation they can to get pity from other people. It’s sad when they use family situations, post it all over the Internet just to get pity. All I have left out of the hope and change is the change. and I’m definitely scared to death that he’s going to tax me on that change. I think it’s a travesty when a local government official with low morals can even think about aspiring to a higher office. I’m sure there’s at least one person who agrees with the caller that President Clinton did a good job while in office: Monica Lewinsky. Obama has no plan with regard to withdrawal from Afghanistan. He’s going to walk out on those people and throw away everything we’ve invested there. I wonder what happened to the unity for the community prayer meeting? Thank God that one person doesn’t stop the knee mail, it goes faster than email. be blessed, we are praying for you. The paramedics at LifeStar Ambulance are the best, but the nursing staff at Passavant are very unprofessional, they need to take lessons from LifeStar people on manners. Kudos to the Moose Lodge for opening its doors to Brandon Perry’s family and friends in a time of need. The Moose Lodge is a caring, fraternal organization that has strength in numbers. I hope more people are willing to join this classy organization. would one of you liberals explain this: Obama is going to lay out his jobs plan, after his vacation. Republicans are the ones creating jobs. The corporation that bought ACH came from Florida, which is controlled by Republicans. this is right up there in the ‘top 10 Stupidest things Ever Printed in Open Line.’ Gov. Perry talks about the economy; Obama says “you’ve got to be a little more careful about what you say.” Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan says “Fort Hood shooter is not a terrorist, just a good Muslim who was driven crazy by the terrorist American soldiers who rape Muslim men, women and families.” Where is Obama’s response? oh, I forgot, he is on vacation. The call for civility is one-sided. Our “elected” representatives and officials have seen fit to have relaxed rules to allow illegals to circumvent the rules and regulations, which we must follow to the letter. Let’s show them in the next election how “we the People” feel about their actions. Does anyone know how much the proposed “shovel-ready” jobs project will cost the average American taxpayer? “Lincoln kids” can be bused all over town but my kid, who doesn’t go to Lincoln, can no longer be picked up outside our house. I hear it costs too much in gas for the school district. it sends our youth a fine message. those who can, do and those who can’t wait for everything to be handed to you. Who is this equal opportunity for anyway? I wonder how much money Michele Bachmann has gotten from the state for fostering 20 kids? I’ll bet it is in the hundred thousands. I wonder if it was a big heart or big checks that got her into fostering? I just love the Nazi thinking of you people on the Open Line who think we should take the entitlement programs away from those who need them. Once again, blaming the debt on entitlements instead of on the politicians who cannot balance a simple budget. stop the wars. we are not the world’s police, and if we are we should be the one’s being paid by other countries to do so. put the entitlement recipients out in the pasture like the Nazi Germans did and machine gun them to death if they aren’t college educated and making some righteous bucks and a contributing, able bodied citizen. Exterminate them. they have no reason to live if they are sucking off the system. I’d have to say some of you on here eugenists. recently I had the good fortune to read Open Line. but then I realized that there sure are a lot of idiots in Open Line online. Thank you for letting me be myself again. Illinois Girls Little League just won the Little League World Series. Can’t do much better than that. Can’t we all just get along? Shame on the Journal-Courier for making headlines of the Scott County clerk being arrested. maybe you should do your research and learn the facts before running such a headline. so, every time someone is arrested I want to see it highlighted and a separate article on the arrest. Get a life people. maybe you should get some real news. I just attended the school board meeting and was once again appalled at the antics of the board president. She is nasty at times when addressing others. during the open floor forum she continually winces, tosses her head and looks at her watch. this is in total disrespect of the attendees and she needs to be held accountable for her actions. after being elected to this position she should be attentive to each and every person that speaks at the meeting.  Leonard Pitt’s comments concerning whites becoming a minority in America make me nauseous. His in your face gloating is way over the top. what a racist, white-hating jerk he is. The idiot talking about European gas prices should understand the price he is referring to is per liter, about a quart in this country. this means a comparable price for a gallon is four times the price quoted from Europe. this venue should be renamed to Idiot Line. it sounds like the Roodhouse aldermen have a lot more pressing problems than what is going on out at the campground, which by the way is doing very good now. this is the angry Taxpayer. I see that several people have commented on Open Line online about welfare recipients who abuse and take advantage of the health care system. It’s gratifying to see that I’m not alone in my views, and that there are lots of fellow angry taxpayers out there. welcome aboard, folks. Reload, and let’s roll. Obama is now going to police Syria. we will invade them, wait and see. He is way down in the polls so he needs another staged event, a crisis, to show he can still lead the country. so Hillary and him will send your youth off to fight yet another foreign war we should not be involved in. Bring the troops home and put them on our borders. Pardon my ignorance, but I’ve seen several references in Open Line concerning “tramp stamps.” Could someone kindly tell me, what is a tramp stamp? I’ve never heard of this term, although I gather it’s not complimentary. Editor’s note: It’s a derogatory name given to a tattoo a woman has on the small of her back. I knew without a doubt that the school board was going to vote to close the schools by the looks on their faces. they had already made up their minds before anyone said anything. one of the members was sitting there rolling her eyes. how sad. this is to the North Greene teacher at the Roodhouse council meeting Wednesday night. Outstanding job, hats off to you. not only did you save $8 a month in our trash pick up, you saved the city and us taxpayers $30,000 on trash pick up per year. I think you ought to consider running for office, maybe even mayor. Let’s get the old out and get some people in their with some sense. I hear that the college wants the ground that Turner is on. I’d sure like to know how much that played into the decision for them to close down these schools. The school board is doing very wrong and we’re just letting them. until the scores come up on best Buffet and El Rancherito, don’t eat there. Just because someone is elected to a position on the school board does not mean they know what’s best for the community. Way to go District 117. You’ve just closed the two best schools in the district. you were really thinking about our kids when you did that. if these people can’t play golf without liquor until noon then that’s a shame. also, if the school board can afford new schools, then why not use that money to fix up these great neighborhood schools.

   

The leading social network for professionals, LinkedIn, released the pricing details of its eagerly-awaited IPO this morning.  the company intends to issue 7.8 million shares (under the proposed ticker LNKD) at a range of $32 to $35. At the mid-point, the valuation would be $3.3 billion.

Yet it’s a good bet that the opening price will be 30% to 40% higher when the shares hit the market — which will probably be in the next week or so.

Founded in 2003, LinkedIn is a pioneer in Web 2.0. the company is a kind of Rolodex for the 21st century, allowing professionals to network over the Internet — without putting up with those goofy family photos and embarassing comments from ex-girlfriends that can abound on other social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. LinkedIn is meant to be for professionals first, an imporant distinction that makes it unique.

LinkedIn’s growth rate has been consistently strong. Now the website has over 100 million members.

More importantly, LinkedIn has created a variety of revenue streams, which include advertising, hiring solutions and premium subscriptions. the professional focus of the network allows it to offer businesses offerings for a fee as opposed to trying to win over clicks or dollars from a consumer-oriented audience. In fact, the company doubled last year’s revenue to $243 million, with net income coming to $15.3 million thanks to professional services.

Although, it looks like the company will begin to sustain losses as it invests aggressively in its business. but as Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) showed in 1997 when it went public with plans to lose money for a full four years before seeing a profit, digital businesses can win big with an IPO even if operations are running in the red. Enough buzz is surrounding social media offerings that LinkedIn should see good momentum in its early days thanks to strong demand.

What’s more, the timing for the IPO is spot-on. Just last week,Renren(NYSE: RENN) pulled-off a successful public offering.  Known as the “Facebook of China,” the company sports a valuation of over $5 billion.

Actually, the shares are selling at more than 100 times 2010’s revenue.  no doubt, this makes the LinkedIn IPO downright cheap with a multiple of 14.

It all adds up for an exciting IPO in the next week or two.

Tom Taulli’s latest book is “All About Short Selling” and his Twitter account is @ttaulli.  he does not own a position in any of the stocks named here.

Getting quotes tattooed on your body is getting more and more popular. Celebrities left and right are getting them, including Lindsay Lohan, Megan Fox and Victoria Beckham. why would one want tattoo quotes? What is so great about these kinds of tattoos and what type should you get? Let me answer these questions and give you some good tattoo quotes recommendations.

Having quotes for tattoos can be really cool. here is a list with some tips to think about:

• Carefully consider the type of quote you want. a popular choice is to find a quote that reflects your own personality. Another choice is to get a statement about something you deeply believe in. Popular choices are having quotes on life and how you view it, quotes on courage or quotes about justice or personal views.
• Consider using a foreign language or foreign letters for your tattoo, as this can make it even more interesting.
• Remember to look for words that means something to you. This may seem obvious but a lot of people get cliche tattoos which don’t really mean anything.
• It is wise to use galleries online for finding your favourite tattoo design or style. it is truly a big help to look at thousands of designs and ideas when looking for the perfect tattoo.

This was just a little bit about tattoo quotes. If you’re new to tattoos, then I recommend getting a small one first, since removing large tattoos can be quite expensive and difficult to do.

The year has just started but obviously one of the biggest trends in tattoo designs is going to be word, literary and written tattoos of popular and cool quotes or sayings. There are many different names for these styles of tattoos but essential they all feature one major growing trend in tattoo designs and that is the trend of the written word.

Of course word tattoos have always been around. a tattoo that features some lettering artwork is often less expensive and pretty easily done and therefore it has always been a pretty popular option. however, words were typically used as an embellishment to the main course so to speak. In other words (pun intended) the graphic artwork of the tattoo design always took the center stage in the past. The only real exception to this rule was a memorial or gang related design. other than those two usually the words were simply to convey the meaning of the picture or the design of the tattoo and the words were never really thought of as the design itself.

However, over the last two or so years this has really changed and now literary tattoos that feature fancy scripts, cursive writing and beautifully embellished fonts are the main part of the design. Some people might choose to give the words or written design a bit of artwork to go with it but it is only meant to enhance the overall design. it seems these days people are fascinated with logos, sayings, words and song lyrics in just about any language. Japanese kanji tattoos, Arabic and Hindi designs as well as Celtic saying and olde English verses has all become very popular.

Popular Locations For Women

This trend has been picked up by men and women alike. just as many women are getting their tattoo quotes as men. Some of the more popular locations for women to get such designs are a bit different than men.

Ankle – The ankle is a pretty small canvas for a tattoo and therefore lends itself to smaller and cute female tattoo designs such as words. also they can naturally curve around the ankle making a beautiful and ornate looking bracelet yet one with deep and rich meaning.

Wrist – The wrist is pretty much like the ankle a great place for a delicate design that is femeinine and sexy at the same time. Thus the words or saying can easily wrap around the wrist. We have all seen the mass of celebrities getting the now famous under wrist tattoo. Typically a one or two word saying that is packed with meaning for the person.

Hip – The hip is the new lower back tattoo design. it is the new location for any sexy tattoo design and so why not but some beautifully embellished writing smack on the hip area.

Rib cage and Side – this has always been a location more reserved for the seriously committed tattoo fans as the rib cage can be one of the more painful areas to get tattoo designs done on. however, these days with so many people getting tattoos it can be hard to come up with original and unique ideas. Thus has lead many women to go with the rib cage tattoo.

Popular Locations For Men

Shoulder – The shoulder area has always been one of the most popular places for a tattoo design. it is easily covered and a great place for a first timer.

Upper back – a upper back tattoo is a great location since it is a big canvas. this is also a pretty popular place for guys to get a written tattoo. Typically guys go for a one word design instead of a saying but it is really up to your own tastes and what you want to get done.

Rib Cage – As mentioned above this was always the area for hardcore tattoo enthusiast as it can be a pretty painful tattoo. however, it sure give you great bragging rights with your buddies when you can sport the cool ambigram tattoo design on your rib cage area. Nice and big to get the full effect. just remember when you buddies ask it wasn’t that painful right?

Forearm – The forearm is one of the more usually but quickly growing areas to get a tattoo done one. since guys like to often get the one word tattoo the shape of the forearm a long rectangle is perfect for one of these designs.

As you can see these are just some of the location for getting a great looking tattoo quotes design. There are many sayings, words and designs out there so spend you time looking carefully and pick something that is going to be important and meaningful to you.

THE "convoy of no-confidence" in the federal Labor government, a convoy of trucks, trailers and campervans sponsored by the National Road Freighters Association started out from all over Australia yesterday and will be converging on Canberra on Monday.

The convoy will be carrying a petition calling for a federal election. Thousands will be streaming in from regional Australia in no fewer than 11 different convoys.

They are coming from Bendigo and Mildura, Warragul and Colac, Norseman and Wyong, Rocklea and Rockhampton, Atherton and Charters Towers, Port Hedland and Halls Creek.

The petitioners assert that "the 43rd executive government of Australia has been compromised into wilfully and intentionally misleading the Australian people [by] introducing a carbon tax without the consent of the Australian people and that would be normally decided by a free and unencumbered ballot".

Of course, governments are entitled to govern as they see fit. nevertheless, a carbon tax was not only directly ruled out by the Prime Minister shortly before the last election, the evidence supporting the impact of the tax has been so opaque and deceptive that it amounts to lying.

Perhaps the petitioners don’t count; after all they probably represent rural electorates already held by the Coalition.

Labor can rest easy. Then again, this convoy is not the protest of the Britons that the world witnessed last week, aptly dubbed "the first bludger uprising".

Australia’s uprising is from workers. Workers, who every day drive trucks and travel in aeroplanes all over Australia to work in mines and on cattle stations and in hundreds of industries that service them.

They may be a little unkempt; they could afford to stand a little closer to a razor blade and a little further away from a tattoo gun, but what they lack in inner-city elegance, they more than make up for in a sense of proportion and reality. They do not like being treated as fools.

The federal Labor government has indeed treated them and millions of others as fools.

Simon Crean may have visited Latrobe Valley, Geelong, Wagga Wagga, Shellharbour, Port Kembla, Gladstone, Mackay, Rockhampton and Newcastle, Whyalla and Mount Gambier, but he’s dreaming if he thinks anyone is buying his "clean energy future" sell-job.

Crean says that "pricing carbon is another fundamental but necessary economic reform from a Labor government" in the mould of Bob Hawke’s floating of the dollar in 1983. Bollocks.

What Crean, Julia Gillard and Wayne Swan will not tell the electors is that the cost of the carbon tax in cold, hard dollars is the equivalent of an entire year’s gross domestic product.

Just let that soak in for one moment. across the scope of this scheme, 2012 until 2050, Australians will lose the equivalent of an entire year’s income.

The cost of failing to abate carbon dioxide sufficient to change the temperature one iota, is one entire year’s income.

In its report, Strong Growth, Low Pollution Modelling a Carbon Price, Treasury modelling has deliberately hidden the real cost of the carbon tax.

The modelling has not added together each of the GDP losses as a result of the tax in each year. on Treasury’s best case, the number representing the costs to the Australian economy of the carbon tax for the period 2012-2050 is $1.35 trillion, a year’s worth of GDP. Treasury presents these figures only as a percentage loss from a base case of an economy with no carbon tax.

Even using the "Labor economists" Garnaut-Stern-Quiggin discount rate, the figure Treasury believe Australians would be prepared to pay to forgo present income to "solve the problem", is $873 billion across the period. but the most realistic discount rate that common-sense Australians would actually be prepared to pay, one closer to zero, delivers the figure $1.35 trillion.

Added to this failure to reveal the true cost of a carbon tax is the other big lie, pointed out by my colleague Henry Ergas (among numerous other failings in the scheme), that the carbon tax "job growth" does not exist.

The jobs growth as such is not a result of the Treasury model; it is an assumption of the model. It relies on lower real wages to make good the assumption of full unemployment.

All other things considered, the real outcome of the carbon tax will in fact be both job losses and real wage decline. Treasury knows this and the Treasurer knows this, or at least he should.

The petitioners are angry because they have been told that the carbon tax will save the world from climate change, and that the carbon tax will not cost more than they can be compensated for.

According to Newspoll, only 30 per cent of Australians support the government’s "plan to put a price on carbon".

I am certain that if they were aware of the true cost of the carbon tax, that number would fall even further.

Gary.Johns@acu.edu.au

The president is now trying to place the blame for his failed economy on Congressional gridlock and they certainly share the blame. The truth is that the problem originates in the $137 million shadow government that has been set up in the White House. his appointed czars that continuously spew out job-killing regulations with no oversight represent the president’s agenda. they certainly don’t represent the people of this country. Congress should probably be blamed for not shutting this fiasco down. There is no constitutional basis for their existence. he has never installed a legitimate cabinet. how is it that the Morgan County Courthouse has so many rude and hateful employees?  Is it because it starts at the top and sifts down? or is it a requirement to be employed there? Those people you are treating so badly are paying your salaries, you know. it is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes, a principle which if acted on, would save one-half the wars of the world … Thomas Jefferson. too bad Obammie doesn’t believe this. Now that they’ve struck down the healthcare mandate, all middle-class and working-class taxpayers that have private health insurance should drop it whether they can afford it or not. I get downright giddy at the thought of lying in a hospital bed or the ER knowing it’s going to cost Sarah Palin, Paris Hilton and all those other useless people that are rich and famous for no reason more on their healthcare premiums. I figure they owe the middle-class, we’ve been paying for their tax cuts for 12 years now they can pay for not only our healthcare but, also for all the illegals they’re always railing about. At least Obama required they pay something, this way they get away without paying a dime all the cost gets handed to the rich. this is way better than raising taxes on them, they have no choice but to pay. Obama’s mandate is ruled unconstitutional but Romneycare and car insurance isn’t. funny how that works, huh? OK, come on, everyone who bought raffle tickets for PAWS, if your check was returned, you were notified by your bank, please don’t make these folks who volunteered to sell tickets chase you, or even worse stiff them. we all deposited your checks and wrote one to PAWS. Scott County’s 911 service is paid by a surcharge of $350 a line. In recent years the declining number of land lines has reduced funding for emergency dispatch by thousands of dollars, prompting the need to make cuts. Wake up, Brown County. it was said this would not happen in Brown County. And why couldn’t it? to the person who is complaining about the troops fighting in the Middle East saying that he or she has never been threatened by those countries. The reason you haven’t been threatened is because we are there. we protect you from things you have no clue about, so instead of complaining about us why don’t you try and support us. oh yeah, and did you forget that it was the people from the Middle East that attacked this great country in 2001? my eyes are going crossed and I still have a headache from reading the rants of idiots in Open Line Online. “does anyone know where I can buy a season pass for the Virginia football season?” I realize you think that is a funny comment. but let me explain to you why it’s really not all that humorous. The spiteful and vindictive fools at A-C , opted out of the sports co-op with Virginia within a month of the consolidation vote earlier this year. they, of course, had every legal right to do so, but the honorable thing would have been for the A-C Board to notify Virginia that this would be the last year of the sports co-op and they would not renew it for next year. Now you have the WIVC football teams having to deal with one less game than they had originally scheduled for. yes, they will get a “forfeit” victory, but this may cause them problems come playoff selection time later on. like I said earlier, the decent thing would have been for A-C to have given Virginia a years’ notice that they intended to end the sports co-op, but instead in their childish act of “payback,” they have messed up this year’s WIVC football season. sorry, but I don’t think that is really very funny. Par for the course. Scott County should just dissolve and allow Pike, Morgan, and Greene to absorb it. they already handle the police calls now thanks to the worthless sheriff. John Boehner is going to be at the Aaron Schock fundraiser in Edwards, Ill. Isn’t that where the Aryan Nation’s compound is? The constitution does not call for separation of church and state. it actually states that the government can’t restrict or mandate the practice of religion. Atheism itself is a religion so it is actually a violation of the constitution for the government to mandate the removal of religious symbols or prohibit prayer in public venues.  The first Amendment states that the government cannot prohibit. this to the guy who posted about his girlfriend almost hitting two children on bikes recently on Hardin Street: maybe she should also slow down number one, and number two, stop texting you if you’re not in the auto, and number three, if you’re in the auto, stop fooling around with you.  she should be anticipating what these children are about to do and be watching them. Unions collect huge amounts of cash, pay no taxes, produce no product rather than a misplaced sense of entitlement to other people’s money. they are worse than any corporation. Has anyone ever audited a union to see where the funds really go? What gives? Spending all this money on the Morgan County courthouse and still have to enter it as second-class citizens through the basement door. another Jacksonville screw-up. Aren’t we, the citizens of America, entitled to the same gasoline prices that Europeans have, huh?  The big oil companies are the only reason why we don’t enjoy the gasoline prices people in Europe enjoy. Manchester must have a tea party fire department, then. Something that is real nonsense and unacceptable is taking the Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid away from the elderly and disabled before cutting aid to foreign nations and cutting the pensions, salaries, and healthcare for those politicians pushing this agenda. Anyone who supports ending these programs just may be a Nazi. to the teacher who says nobody who says if we use marijuana and other drugs we should have to pay for our own health issues if the use of these drugs caused our health problem. What about prescription drugs? I’ve used them for years and all drugs have side effects for your information and they aren’t always pleasant. should we, if prescribed by a doctor, also have to pay for the long-term use of these drugs? The biggest conspiracy theory of all is the U.S. government’s version of Sept. 11, 2001. Infowars.com because there is a war on for your mind. to the young teacher in the Open Line commenting about people not having an education: I got news for you Mr. I have an education and I can read and comprehend what I read. I also know what SIU Carbondale is like, and, as a matter of fact, all colleges except one, Bringham Young University, all are non-stop parties.  you say you had two children just in time to receive the tax credit, wow. Now you kind of contradict yourself bashing the people on Open Line on welfare and being tired of paying into Social Security for disabled people. you sound like a real card, Mr. High and Mighty Teacher and you’re receiving money for children of yours and also money from the taxpayers plus you’re off work more than you work. I know what I did for a living and it was a dangerous job.  Your job? oh, well maybe you’ll suffer a paper cut on the finger. You’re very lucky and you’re not right, all people do not have the chance you had. You’re young and you’re education ain’t so high and mighty. Mr. Teacher, got some news for you, you’re going to be learning hopefully the rest of your life. Anyone know why The Riverlook Tavern is closed in Beardstown? if you are fed up with high gas prices, write to your congressman and U.S. senators, tell them you are fed up with those prices, and demand that we have gas prices comparable to those of Europe. Frustration, anger, disappointment, and even a keen sense of betrayal well up from time to time in you and many others, but if it is any comfort please remember that you were not the only people who voted for President Obama. we are not just talking about closing a school and sending them together to one of the other remaining schools, we are talking about destroying a community and its sense of community in so doing. do not close Washington or Franklin schools. Can someone explain how taking money from someone who has a proven record of revenue, giving it to a government that has a proven record of inefficiency and mismanagement, who then give it to their cronies and people who have a proven record of being incapable of helping themselves, is a good idea? to the caller who didn’t know the difference between entitlements, investments or charity. The key is welfare is not charity and taxes are not charity. if taxes fund it, then it is welfare. Getting rid of their higher-paid employees and replacing them with lower-paid new hires is the Republicans’ idea of job creation. Farmers don’t receive an entitlement. they get a subsidy. Is there corruption involved? Of course there is. it comes from the government. People are seldom diligent when spending someone else’s money. Well said, Richard Nelson. it is sad to see my once-proud and respected GOP turn into what it has become. they now embrace the politics of fear and hatred toward all but the upper class. it seems the rants, raves and diatribes of Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity carry more weight than compassion for their fellow man. do not close Washington nor Franklin Elementary Schools. The School Board should put an end to the destructive policies and rhetoric that have eroded confidence in our public schools, demoralized teachers, and put off the maintenance of our buildings that has already forced the closure of schools like Jefferson and Lafayette. So the teabaggers want to call themselves the Teapublicans. more fitting names are the “Teapukes” or the “Teahadists.” if you don’t know what the tea party’s terrorist actions were first with the threat of shutting down the government and then the debt ceiling crisis they created, then you are an idiot. There wouldn’t be any $25,000 meth labs to clean up if they could buy it legally. Is the Drug War worth it to the taxpayers? The person complaining about tattoos must be to big of a coward to get one. Tattoos are nothing more than artwork on flesh.  Beautiful. let me get this straight. Joe Farmer has received over a million dollars in welfare and owns thousands of acres of land. no wonder we are in such  a mess. The picture in the paper of the old elm tree being taken down on Valleyview does not coincide with the picture. someone might be missing a tree they didn’t know about. its upsetting that we would fly soldiers into a battlegrounds on an outdated Chinook helicopter that you can hear coming 10 miles away moves so slow and is so large. they were like sitting ducks. if we can’t afford updated equipment bring these courageous men and women home. we were at Walmart and saw boys and girls with tattoos all over their body and weren’t out of school yet. Wow, we wonder where they got all that money to pay to look like freaks. Hmmm. Are you kidding, Richard Nelson?  did you not listen to the entire broadcast or just to MSNBC? did you not catch what happened after the next elections? Dream? For whom? I see that even with opposition, South Jacksonville pushed the zoning issue through. What happened to representing the public? to the person who thinks a public education system is essential to the future of anything should check out the Link cards, food stamps, public housing and the state of Illinois budget, the federal budget, Medicaid or any other thing a government touches. What has happen to people that all they want is a handout? “dear Liar Repuke” and I stopped reading because I knew I wouldn’t read anything intelligent, just the typical mud-slinging of a socialist liberal. Dick Nelson, you should be ashamed of yourself. you use your “intelligence” to spread fear and ignorance. you pretend to state one side fairly and then sell the other side short. all of your letters to the editor should be titled “Deconstructing education.” Here’s an idea: Close North, Washington and Franklin schools and build a state-of-the-art elementary school on the Turner property. Let’s tattoo a bar code on the people getting welfare, and that includes the farmers. Who are you kidding? The same idiot is making all these Obama comments. Twenty-five thousand dollars for a meth cleanup? I can do it for less than $5 with a gallon of gas and a match. before I moved to Jacksonville, the only place where I’d ever seen women with tattoos was in the freak show at the carnival. There are women with tattoos everywhere you look in Jacksonville. I think this town must be the tattooed woman capital of the world. sorry to say, but I think it makes these women, and the town itself, look trashy and low-class. Was that a debate last night or a new reality show called Send In The Clowns. I didn’t think it was possible but, they were even more stupid than the first time. it was hilarious. President Bachmann and first dudette — not in this lifetime. keep your stocks and bonds. Gold may or may not be a good investment. Credit cards are fine if you pay the full balance at the end of the month. if not, you are spending more than you are taking in and are part of the problem. you will soon get a personal lesson that debt is a problem. Those that pay in to entitlement programs through their taxes are entitled to the amount that they paid in. many are drawing from the programs that have not contributed. this is welfare, charity, handouts or bribes but they certainly are not entitled to it. The supercommittee that has been set up is one more step away from representative government and toward government by committee which worked so well for the USSR and chairman Mao. The poetic lines come from “The New Colossus,” a poem written by Emma Lazarus (1849-1887), an American Jewish poet born in New York City. she is best known for this sonnet written in 1883; its lines appear on a bronze plaque in the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty in 1912. Her political views are unknown, since women couldn’t vote until the 1920s. if corporations aren’t people neither are unions, family planning, the American Red Cross, Acorn, etc. Dehumanizing an organization doesn’t give you the right to steal from it. maybe you should try to form a corporation and employ some people. I’ve held a union job for the past 30 years and I can honestly say I am better off today than I would have been had I not been a member of a union. Since the infrastructure in this country needs repair, maybe we can take the people drawing unemployment and let them lean on a shovel handle so that the union people could actually earn their pay. my niece with her nose piercing got just what she needed, another hole in her head. The Republican plan to get us out of Iraq and Afghanistan certainly wouldn’t have included starting a third war in Libya without congressional consent that no one can explain the need for. The answer certainly isn’t to give our sovereignty to NATO. Why are all compact fluorescent light bulbs made in China?  look into a mirror, and then think about tattoos. a mark for life. Yuck. For those who are tired of call centers not having American English-speaking operators: you can ask to speak to someone in the USA and they have to re-route your call, as they are legally obligated to do this. Wooho, yippe skippy. Nut job Bachmann won the irrelevant worthless Iowa straw poll. Proof they’re still a bunch of Idiots Out Wandering Around. I’ll bet her and Mr. Fancy Panties are dancing the hokey pokey tonight. she might want to change her stand on raising the debt ceiling. She’ll have to raise it a whole lot of times with the Ryan plan and all those extra tax breaks to her corporate sponsors. Minnesota said Iowa can keep her, forever. she won’t win any polls there. I see that Obama is going on tour this week. he will be reaching out to listen to the heartbeat of the people of the Midwest. In reality, this will be a taxpayer-funded campaign bus trip to three key swing states.