Idaho Speaks

In Idaho Falls, there’s an annual arts tour at the end of summer.  The artists on display are locally or regionally known.  The venues are within walking distance or a short drive from each other.  Check them out this Thursday evening!

Idaho Falls Arts Council’s Fall Gallery Tour 5 to 9 p.m.  

The Art Museum of Eastern Idaho, 300 S. Capital Ave.  

Eagle Rock Art Guild, 287 Cliff St.  

Plum Loco, 235 Cliff St.

Willowtree Gallery, 210 Cliff St.

O.E. Bell Old School Galleries, 151 N. Ridge Ave.

Willard Arts Center/Carr Gallery, 450 A St.  

Yarn Connection, 415 Park Ave.

Elegance in Art, 385 W. Broadway  

Post Register Gallery, 333 Northgate Mile

Eastern Idaho Photographic Society, 1600 S. 25th

For more information, call 522-0471 or visit www.idahofallsarts.org

Tags: IF arts tour, local and regional artists on display

I did not know Christin Shawver.  She was a Skyline HS student.  She died in a car wreck on September 17th.

On Friday, September 25th we had a memorial service at school.  We had a moment of silence and let go of balloons into the sky.  Emotions were very sad even for those of us who did not know her, and we tried to help honor her memory.  There was some crying.

During the week they collected money for her.  I hope she had a good life and I feel bad for not getting to know her while I had the chance.

Tags: Christin Shawver, Skyline memorial service at school

Welcome to Spamalot!  Want some spam with your spuds?

How is this possible?  Apparently Idaho is the nation’s spam target. 

94 out of 100 emails coming in to our email boxes are spam, on the average.  We were in the bottom 10 last year, and zoomed to the top of the charts this year.  How very strange, and the explanations are just guesses, as the conditions could apply to almost any state.

Second highest in the western part of our nation is Arizona, where residents get 90 spam emails out of every 100. 

However, per Symmantec, Montana is the state where the residents receive the fewest spam emails of anyone in the country.  So very odd, to have such a disparity in two states with very similar conditions.

Any ideas out there about why we are such a juicy target for the spammers?  Are we well known to be gullible?

Tags: email spamalot, Idaho as email spam king

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has been keeping tabs on hate groups in the United States for many years.  When I went to their site I saw this interesting map that shows hate groups in red dots…and then those who signed the online petition against this come up as green blips.  I am now a green blip, peoples! 

Join me there, please, it’s kinda sad that Idaho has so few people standing strong against hate, on their map. 

What’s even sadder is that we have 12 identified hate groups operating in our state.  How awful for us and our children!

Tags: Southern Poverty Law Center

I go occasionally to the local Drinking Liberally group that meets at the Idaho Brew Pub by the river in Idaho Falls.  Drinking Liberallin in Idaho Falls is run by a nuclear engineer named Dan Henry.  People from Idaho Falls will recognize his name from frequent commentary in the Post Register, and his face from frequent attendance at various liberal type protests and rallys held in the area. 

I have only come to know this man in a small way, but I’ve seen enough to know that he’s very engaging and very smart, and he’s fiery and passionate about his beliefs (he and kymberly are friends and they both light up a room).  He can be antagonizing and will attack if he feels you are not being truthful in a discussion, and like a bulldog he doesn’t let go easily. 

That can be offputting if you’re used to getting in your slings and arrows to a willing and like-minded audience without being called on on your shit.  But if you don’t mind a little verbal sparring, this man will gladly take point and educate you and if you’re open minded, you’ll be glad you listened. 

So this post is not about Mr. Henry.  It’s about a newsletter article he wrote for the Drinking Liberally group.  When I read it, I was very crestfallen because he made some very good points about the future of the so-called “Public Option” in the Health Care Reform debate.    His final words were chilling:

Many of us favored a health care reform plan with single-payer or a more comprehensive universal coverage.  Then we sort of settled on the compromise of a public option.  Now it looks like we may be demanding a program that will fail and may set back the cause of universal health care by decades.

On our sidebar we link to his website where he posts these articles.  You can sign up for the weekly newsletter (you’ll be glad you did, he’s a tremendous and prodigious writer).  Be sure to read the article about the Public Option.  Then help us figure out how to actually realize what we’re trying to accomplish with health care reform! 

Oh, yeah…and I’m sure that Dan wouldn’t mind it much if you started attending Drinking Liberally meetings and helped broaden the discussion! 

Tags: health care reform, IF Drinking Liberally, Public Option

We’ve had this site up and running for a few months now but we’ve been terribly remiss in publicizing it (and we keep saying that, but hey, it’s been a crazy year!)  We all have very busy lives and haven’t taken the time to make this site the “happenin” place to be, when you’re online.  

The site is donated by one of our authors, so we aren’t hurting in that way.  But we are experiencing a dramatic slow down in the number of articles written, even as our readership is growing.

As such, it seems really apparent that we need more authors than we currently have, just to get a decent amount of material out there for our readers to peruse.  Here’s your opportunity.  If you would like to write articles or record audio or video podcasts for our site, register and send me an email at our contact address.   

If you have ideas for things you would like to see as part of this site, let us know.  We’re flexible and we would really like to grow into a valid community forum (and we know that it takes time, but…)

In the meantime, thank you for reading!

Tags: Authors Needed, Growing Website Needs Authors

There’s a story on Time Magazine online that discusses the various incidents surrounding citizens who have been arrested for what is popularly known as “Contempt of Cop”.    Flipping the bird at a cop, or yelling obscenities at them.

Even though these “offenses” have been ruled as protected free speech, officers continue to use these arrest and detain tactics…in effect, throwing their weight around and creating legal grief (for a short time) on the person who created grief for them.  That was widely presumed to have been the reason Henry Gates in Boston was arrested, because he got mad and yelled at the officer that he felt was disrespectful to him merely because he was black.  (And who knows what actually happened).

I hate to think that officers are so dumb they arrest someone in the heat of the moment because THEY are getting dissed, but they are humans, after all.  The problem has always been that fine line between police brutality and abuse of power vs the rights of the citizens to be verbally abusive to the police officers who have to endure it (and the embarrassment that goes with it).  Which is more likely to happen if the officer and the person flipping her/him off were alone on the street:

• nothing would happen because there were no witnesses, or
• EVERYTHING would happen to the perp because there were no witnesses.

I guess the answer is that the response would be all over the board, just as our police officers are.  I liked this quote from the article:

But Hackbart, a paralegal who learned about court rulings on vulgar language in a communications-law class, says police should not be able to punish people by issuing citations they know to be unconstitutional. …”Does everybody have to go through this to defend themselves against a bogus charge?”

Tags: Contempt of Cop Arrests, Time Magazine online

It’s quite pretty, visually.  I’ve driven through it and seen the landscaping that has taken place, and you can tell, they’re taking care to make it attractive.

The only businesses I’ve gone to there are the two restaurants, Iggy’s and Hard Hat.  Both are pretty decent food and service.   Apparently they also have a coffee house, so I may check that out soon.

Per the Post Register today, they are planning to introduce residential lots in the next year.  And they have a recreational area almost ready to open that they’re calling “Central Valley” which will be lots of little streams flowing to a small lake, and landscaped walkways running through the area. 

For more information about the new development, go to their website.

Tags: Ball Ventures, Post Register, Snake River Landing

Great dissatisfaction with our state’s House of Representatives members.  Mike Simpson (R) is being called a Republican In Name Only.  Walt Minnick (D) is being called a Democrat In Name Only. 

In other words, a centrist, not an extremist.  At least, until you ask members of their own party.  Their party members think they are violating their agreements to vote the party line, or to support the basic principles of the party.  Walt Minnick as a Blue Dog Democrat votes more in line with the Idaho Republicans than he does with the other Democrats in Congress.  Mike Simpson doesn’t say NO often enough to President Obama, per Russ Matthews, who is running against him in next year’s GOP primary.

So what do you think?  Are their votes too different from their party platforms?  Are their votes too different from their constituents’ wishes?  Or are the extremists in both parties just making noise?

Tags: DINO, Mike Simpson, RINO, Russ Matthews, Walt Minnick

This is one I enjoy from Will Rogers, and it’s a no-brainer.

Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.

Tags: Quote of the Day, Will Rogers