Ameren Hikes Rates

So AmerenUE just received approval to raise their rates.

While realistically the rate increase isn't too terrible let's take a look back on some events that have involved Ameren in the last two years.

The Thom Sauk Hydroelectric plant collapsed destroying a state park and causing millions of dollars in damage.

There were also two storms, one last summer and one last winter, that caused some customers to be without power for up to two weeks.

Yet both in 2005 and 2006 the corporate officers awarded themselves millions of dollars in performance bonuses.

And now Ameren is raising the rates to pay for the storm damages.

It's like they're asking to be the first ones up against the wall when the revolution comes.

Gays, Polish and Sheryl Crow?

I apologize for the tardiness of this entry but I've been kind of busy. I know it's no longer topical but I wrote it two weeks ago and never got around to posting it.

Archbishop Raymond Burke is in the papers again.

Sheryl Crow is Pro-Choice so Burke resigned as chairmen of Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital when Crow was scheduled to play a benefit show for the Bob Costas Cancer Center.

In starting I understand that Burke's job is to support the Catholic Church's beliefs 100% of the time.

However I feel that this presents a clear danger to our society.

The main goal of the concert was to raise money for cancer research and treatment.
This had nothing to do with stem cell research, abortion or "moral evils".

What has happened is that religious beliefs, although well founded, have interfered with a genuinely good thing.

And this is the point where religious Americans can no longer hold themselves above "fundamentalists" because their beliefs have caused some sort of destruction.

It's what leads to flying planes into buildings.

Please don't excommunicate me....

Listen to him talk. The similarity is uncanny

End of Expectoration

Fairview Heights just outlawed spitting.

I don't think I need to say anything else.

"Nappy Headed Hos"

Don Imus called the Rutgers basketball team "nappy headed hos".

OK, America. Calm Down

Was it offensive? Yes.
Was it racist? Yes.
Did it really deserve the attention that it was given? No.

The aftermath of the Imus comment was the most undeserved media circus since the Michael Jackson trial.

Imus was a shock jock. He was paid to piss people off. You really can't expect someone in that profession to be an upstanding member of society.

He was fired. He deserved it.

But America as a whole needs to breath before making such rash decisions.

I'm not black and I'll never understand what structual racism is like.

This being said there are a few things I'd like to say;

I don't think everyone should have been so upset.
I don't think a racist comment made by a shock jock should be taken heart.
I don't think a public apology means shit to Imus.
I don't think this reaction is good for America.

Sometimes we need to accept that the world isn't politically correct.

I'm not trying to say these sort of comments should be allowed, I'm saying that an overzealous reaction to them is potentially just as dangerous.

If reactions like this continue our society will continually grow more and more sterile to the point that it no longer reflects the reality.

At that point someone might even find a commercial about a robot jumping off a bridge offensive.

Oh shit...

Reflection on a Cruel World

I left class yesterday and saw CNN covering the Virgina Tech shooting.

32 dead. 30 injured.
Terrible.
Yet I wasn't really moved at all.

I saw Columbine.
I saw 9/11.
I saw the bombs hit Baghdad.
I've accepted that things like this happen in this world.

And that is the real tragedy.

We live in a world where by the age of 20 a man can be so jaded from all of the violence and destruction around him that he doesn't care that 30 innocent people were murdered.

They're going to blame it on movies.
They're going to blame it on television.
They're going to blame it on video games.
But what no one ever thinks about is that systematic genocide existed before all of those things.

We live in a harsh, terrible, unrelenting world.

Ironically it was a beautiful day in St. Louis.

"Intolerable"? Come On...

So about a month ago the story broke that several St. Louis Police Officers used World Series tickets they had confiscated from scalpers.

Last week 8 officers were suspended and Police Chief Joe Mokwa requested a pay reduction that would cost each officer about $20,000 a year. He referred to their decisions as "intolerable".

Eight Men Out. How Ironic.

While I'm aware that their actions were extremely unprofessional, I have only one response;

Come on...

They took tickets from scalpers.
They gave the tickets to their family and friends.
They returned the tickets to evidence.

No one was hurt. No evidence was damaged.
And a couple people got to see the Cardinals win a World Series game.

Sounds more like a job perk rather than a $20,000 infraction.

Loosen up people.

American Beauty

Yesterday in the City of Overland in St. Louis voters decided to recall Mayor Ann Purzner.

Purzner's year long tender had been filled with nothing but accusations and scandal.

One of the greatest beauties of the American Government System is the concept of the recall.

It stands as an ever present warning to politicians.
It actually gives citizens real power in their government.
It makes the politicians servants of their people.
It says "Do your job right or we'll find someone who can do it better".

Today the people of Overland have done a beautiful thing.

Let's hope it catches on.