This and that

I hope everyone has noticed our clean streets in Columbus.  The new street sweeper want by my house the other day.  I wanted to run behind it like it was the DDT sprayer in the old days!  But I didn't.

If this thing can last 5 years "we" will save $5,000 a year (or something like that) over the old procedure.

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From what I understand the CAC has agreed to step away from the auditorium and let the CTA have their go at it.  All they ask is that they be considered to step in again IF the CTA pulls back.  I have no problems with this (as if any one cared what I thought  LOL). 

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Mr. Ed's Magical Midway has left the building and are headed to Jefferson my old county fair haunting grounds.

This image is of an unknown little girl from about 3 years ago in Jefferson.  I would LOVE to find out who she is.  It was a photo I did not think that much about at the time but when I got home and started looking at my shots . . . . . I wish I had gotten her name so I could get a photo to her family!

Sort of like this one I took at The Harmony Bar in Madison.  I told the father to get a hold of me and I would send him a copy.  I never heard back.

remember this shot from a few days ago?

The "Old" Garage Barbershop is now open for business and it looks pretty nice inside.

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I was banned from the Facebook page Wisconsin Birding last night - sigh! Maybe Kelly, if he is completely bored can look into this  :-)

There was a post showing a woman feeding a baby hummingbird that fell out of a tree.  All of a sudden Mike McDowell the administrator (I find out) is telling her she is breaking the law and what she is doing is illegal and he is being a little assy about it.  She should immediately contact authorities and take the bird in.

Well, I thought he was being a little rough and asked if there were rehab cops driving around and all of a sudden I'm getting a PM'd saying I WAS NO HELP and I asked what IS the law she is breaking and all of a sudden we are into the  Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918.

Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918?  Really?   I skimmed over a majority of the Act on Wiki and did not see the correlation and said I thought he was being a little anal about it and then things went south and BAM!   banned!   sigh!      

My banned forum list grows by one.

Wisconsin Birding - banned for questioning the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918

Operation Sports - banned for saying that perhaps the developers should put more time into the actual game mechanics instead of wasting time making the dumb mascots. - Negative talk    

Two plus Two gambling Forum - banned for arguing that a 60% ATS long term win rate in the NFL was NOT unheard of and I could prove it.  After I was banned I won 63%

Audio Video Forum - banned for arguing that 3D TV was a fad and would never catch hold.

Each one of those the administrator just did not like being told he was wrong.  Luckily those are a teeny tiny fraction of the forums I have been to in my life. 

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This is my buddy Elwood's garden.  Used to be just a bunch of garbage and wasteland.

And then there is American Apparel who apologized for celebrating the 4th of July by posting a photo of The Challenger Explosion and thinking it was fireworks and tagged the photo as 'smoke' and 'clouds.'  

I guess the person that worked for the company was born after the event. 

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An email from the Chief!

The vehicle was a pickup truck with some anti-Obama words affixed to it.

First, I want to make it clear that this person/vehicle was not part of the parade and was not in the parade procession.

The vehicle was following the end, emergency vehicles that were bringing up the rear of the parade units. The roadway was open to normal, public vehicular traffic behind these emergency vehicles and this person/vehicle had a right to be operating on the roadway.

I was in a squad car following him because we had a problem with him trying to get into the parade near the staging area. I followed him to make sure he was not violating the law as he indicated to me that he would attempt to do.

He was not being escorted by the Columbus Police Department in any way, shape of form.

This person attempted to enter the parade earlier and was stopped by law enforcement because he was not part of the parade and any person, unit or vehicle that was not part of the parade was not allowed on any road that was close to the public for the parade. He was defiant with us and Roger Venden (4^th of July Festival President) even responded to our location to confirm with us and tell this person he was not part of the parade. This person was not detained any further because there were no criminal/traffic violations and he left the area.

After the last parade units passed the first closed street/intersection by Middleton and Ludington St. this person followed on the now open, public roadway. He was not violating any law but I followed him to make sure he wasn’t going to do anything illegal or unsafe.

Again, he was not part of the parade, and the police department was not escorting him or giving him any special privileges.

It can be difficult to balance a person’s freedoms with violations of the law. However, our department did just that today. We enforced the law but at the same time recognized and respected a person’s constitutional right to free speech. How awesome is it that on this national holiday in which we celebrate our freedoms and independence that we have an opportunity to see our democracy in action?

Feel free to distribute this message, or read it to anyone who has any concerns or questions over this issue.