win one, lose one

Now that the Mayor has won his volunteer lawsuit against the City one has to wonder if he has the sense to leave his wife at home. A legal victory is quite different from a political one.

duff lite solutions

I think it's great that the President sat down and had a beer with Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Sgt. James Crowley. Really. Nothing but good should come from this. Maybe they'll even learn a little something about beer in the process. The President will be drinking a Bud Lite - which either makes him a pantywaist watching his carbs, an uniformed beer drinker, or a member of the wine and cheese set. Dude! I'm a member of, among other drinking clubs, the wine and cheese set, but I know enough to not drink skunky, watered-down beer. Drink a real beer, not some beer that takes 15 minutes to make.

Wouldn't Amber Wavers American Ale from Washington's own Capitol City Brewing be more appropriate for the White House than one brewed by a Belgian Company? The Belgians make some of the best beers in the world but Anheiser-Busch products aren't one of them. Or better yet, how about one of the Wild Dogs from the largest brewery in Maryland, Flying Dog.

Biggie O may be well read but he probably hasn't read this post about lite beer. Beer, good hand-crafted beer, is good for you, especially if taken in moderation. Lite beer, if taken in moderation or even in excess, is never a good idea.

are you sure you want a lite?

ten places to watch the mr340

Here are 10 places to watch the first day action of the MR340-the longest nonstop canoe/kayak race in the world. This year, approximately 300 boats and 500 racers will depart Kaw Point, the confluence of the Kansas and Missouri Rivers, to begin a journey to St. Charles. Racers have 88 hours to make the 340 miles. (Links are highlighted below as are etimated arrival times of the first racers).

1. Panaramic view of Missouri and Kansas Rivers, Kaw Point, KC, KS.

1. Kaw Point, Kansas City, KS. (8:00 am) If you want to feel the adrenalin of the start this is the place to be. But plan on arriving early because this place will be a zoo. Ample parking outside of the floodwall. This is a great spot to watch the prep, see the boats, and the racers. The downside of Kaw Point, besides the traffic this year, is that once the gun goes off (8 am sharp) you'll soon be seeing the backsides of the racers.

2.
Case Park/Clark's Point, Quality Hill, Kansas City, MO(8:01 am) If you work downtown and can't afford to be too late for work then this park offers several vantage points to see the first mile of fleeting action. Bring a pair of binoculars are use the one on the tripod by the Lewis and Clark statue.

3. View upstream and down from Town of Kansas Pedestrian Bridge, foot of Main St., Kansas City, MO

3. Town of Kansas Pedestrian Bridge. (8:10 am) Probably one of the best spots to view the action as the racers will come into view after they round the first bend. By this time, the leaders will have begun to separate a little but the rest of the pack should still be embroiled in bedlam. Bring a cup of coffee and come early for a spot with a good view. Afterwards have breakfast at Succotash in the RiverMarket.

4. Kites, Richard L. Berkeley Park, 4th of July, 2009.

4. Richard L. Berkeley Riverfront Park.(8:15 am) The poor design of this park is offset by the fact that this year, Friends of the River, are hosting a viewing party. With only 338 miles remaining, the cat and mouse game will have begun in earnest.

5. Riverfront Park.(8:30 am) This was KC's riverfront park before toxic waste and Berkeley decided to upstage them. Located off Riverfront Road in the East Bottoms Industrial area.

6. La Benite Park, Sugar Creek, MO. (10:30 am) Huge sycamores line the banks of the river here; one could pack a picnic and bring the family. A few racers will be pulling off here to tweak their boats or resupply but most will be cruising past this point.

7. Fort Osage. (11 am) Take in the recently opened exhibits at this National Historic Landmark. Abundant shade. Expect the first casualities of the race to start bailing here.

8. Lexington, MO(1 pm). The first checkpoint. Here you can see what paddling 50 miles in August in Missouri does to a person. More casualties and mayhem as people scramble to get in and out their boats in a hurry. Fresh Missouri peaches in town!

9. Waverly, MO(3 pm). A couple of hours before sundown would be a good time grab a grilled burger or hot dog from the locals and see who's cracking and who's still got it.

10. Stump Island Park, Glasgow, MO (Wednesday morning). Here's your chance to take a ferry ride across the Mighty MO and have breakfast at the Riverside Cafe. Ferry service begins at 6 am.

moi v. brown and williamson

Many of us like to stand in judgement of our hometown sports teams-especially when they suck as badly as the KC Royals. Some lament the poor pitching, others the lack of power, and still others the blundering mishaps. Although these traits are definitely problematic for a professional club to own, potentially they are solvable. However, until the current owner, David Glass, stops treating the team as just another mediocre Walmart franchise, the team will remain trashed. Apparently manager Trey Hillman shaved his 'stache after the latest 10 game losing streak which has momentarily stopped the bleeding and given some fans reason again to hope the team can at least play .500 ball.

Speaking of mediocre franchises moi learned something last week. One benefit of losing your mother to lung cancer and a heart attack, to detesting second-hand smoke, and a major-league dislike of greedy corporations is that it makes it fairly easy to get recused from serving on a month long jury trial involving the malfeasance of Big Tobacco. My disdain for the stupidity of white trash rednecks who smoke Kools for 50 years because they think they are a healthy alternative to unfiltered Camels and my love for film, including The Insider, also may have worked in my favor.

After being dismissed from this jury (if I didn't have a day job it might have been interesting to listen to two sides of America laying a shit trail for 4 weeks), I discovered that this case has already been tried once. And found in favor of the people who apparently have yet to discover that the basis of advertising is a LIE. The retrial courtesy of a technicality expounded by an appellate court. At this point many would give up but whenever there's lots of money involved people tend to keep grubbing for worms until the dirty end.

Yes. I know nicotine is the most addictive substance on the planet. OK. I know it's hard to stop smoking. And cancer deaths from smoking are horrible and sad. I know the tobacco companies lied and cheated and did (and do) most anything to keep people addicted to the product-the drug delivery system. But the link between the habit and the death it causes is apparently clear to everyone except those who still believe that the Royals have a chance this year to make the playoffs.

butterflies are free: damien hurst and lance armstrong

Lance Armstrong, who has a finally figured out a way to make even the French like him, will be riding a custom Trek Madone decorated by the artist Damien Hurst when he rides laps around the Champs Elysees today on his way to a 3rd place finish in the General Classification of the 2009 edition of Le Tour. Decorating a bike with Hurst butterfly decals is a bit like putting playing cards used by Scotty Nguyen in the spokes except that the Armstrong/Hurst bike is expected to fetch ridiculous sums at auction, the proceeds to benefit the Livestrong Foundation.

the funk recieves a standing eight count

Mark Funkhouser suffered another defeat at the hands of the City Council on Thursday. Everyone deserves their day in court but Funk was handed a political decision in closed council chambers. The council voted 7-3 (Funkhouser abstained) to settle the discrimination lawsuit with former aid, Ruth Bates, for $550,000--up from the original $30,000 settlement negotiated between attorneys in the case. That settlement was blown up when Funkhouser, who somehow managed to lose most of the political insight that got him elected in the first place, decided to release a press release publicly slamming the plaintiff within hours of the first settlement.

Do the math. $550,000 minus $30,000 equals $520,000. That's the amount that the council was willing to pay to sink any chance the Mayor might have had at a second term. For a guy touted to be 'smart with the money' the Mayor has squandered KC's on more than one occasion. Remember the La Raza incident? That one cost the city several million dollars in lost tourism dollars. Being stubborn can turn a person into an intractable idiot.

Will Funkhouser ever realize that being Mayor should be less about him (or her!) and more about The City? In the operatic theater of KC politics "it ain't over till the fat lady sings" (how very true in this case) but the brightest future for the Mayor will likely be the candlelit confines of his rustic Ozark cabin. Maybe there will enough chinks between the logs to let some illuminating shafts of light leak into his life.

call me joe

Cambridge Police Officer James Crowley, along with innumerable right-wing bloggers, are wrong when they insinuate that the arrest of anyone, black, white, red, or brown, who are attempting to enter their own home, "is a local issue". For those with shorter memories, institutional racism and Jim Crow laws were often justified based upon the idea that locals had the right to choose to associate with whomever they wished. That they do. They did not have the right to discriminate against or exclude them based on race - which was the common practice, and although less common today, is still a practice.

If Officer Crowley, who may not be a racist, had the sense to admit that he made a mistake (and this seems to be difficult for any police officer to do) then this issue would have gone away quickly. That he has publicly stated that he'll never apologize only ensures that the country again will be forced to continue to face it's racist attitudes. That a good thing.

Anyone who believes that the election of Barack Obama as the President sent us into a postracial period neglects to understand the effects of the continued use of the term "the first black President" on the American psyche. As long we are calling him that, a man who is as easily as white as he is black, then we've still got a way to go with equality in this country. Let's just call him the President of the United States.