A Good Year for the Outlaw

This is on the Pantagraph’s website right now.
http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2007/04/30/news/doc4636091e66ca8079821886.txt
Much like recent Peoria cases, family members and witnesses are disputing police descriptions of the incident. What’s going on here? I’m not going to take any sides on any of the current cases, but does it not seem that there are more disputed reports between local police and [...]

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These are getting too long, this one and future critiques will be shorter. I hope.
Underrated: Bachman-Turner Overdrive
When I was voice tracking a shift for The Eagle about a year and a half ago, it was a running joke between Scott Robbins, Rick Hirschmann and me that BTO was the “Greatest Band of all time!” I [...]

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Over the weekend, Diane and I rented “Bobby”. Great movie, everything ties together at the end, big stars, well done by Emilio Estavez, it was his labor of love and it shows.
Anyway, watching it, I realized the I have something in common with Bill Macy and Jim Belushi. To wit: In “Bobby”, Macy’s character is married to Sharon Stone’s hairdresser. [...]

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http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2851544
Let’s hope this is the step that gets us to suspensions, lifetime bans, and arrests for these players that are ruining the Greatest Game.

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The Mavericks
The genius of Raul Malo and The Mavericks has long been underappreciated by some and totally unappreciated by idiotic country radio consultants.
This band, like the Kentucky Headhunters, can do anything, but the stuff I like the best is their retro-sounding straight ahead country, particularly on their masterpiece CD “What A Crying Shame” (1994). 
That CD featured the [...]

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So the loud, annoying, but non-stinging or biting Cicadas are going to make their first appearance in 17 years this spring.
http://www.pjstar.com/stories/042907/TRI_BD2LFCIF.020.php
Two thoughts come to mind:
1) Once every 17 years, in other words, they are brave enough to appear in public more often than Vonster.
2) 17 years…big deal. The Cubs haven’t burrowed out of their holes for [...]

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Over the next few days, I’m going to post my list of the 10 most underrated bands/singers, not in any particular order. At the end, I might rank ‘em, but I’m just going to post them for now.
The Kentucky Headhunters
These guys burst onto the scene in 1989 with “Pickin’ On Nashville”, a collection of originals [...]

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But this time, they’re in the parking lot.
I’ve finally found one area where Peoria might…emphasize MIGHT…be a little better than Kewanee, and that’s driving through large parking lots.
The Wally World (Evil Empire) store is Kewanee’s largest, and has the biggest parking lot. It is nicely and clearly marked out, with parking spots and driving “lanes” [...]

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Let me preface by saying I’m all for safety, and again, let me state that speeding alone is NOT unsafe, it’s when there is a combination of poor driving habits involved that speeding CAN be unsafe.
Here is what I’ve said to the Legislators I’ve called this week.
I’m okay with the stings and speed traps, IF [...]

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And they found this dude innocent.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-04-23-dungeon-assault_N.htm
There are SO many things wrong in this story. Not wrong in the reporting, wrong in how this redneck creep goes about living his life, and about how South Carolina is now clearly ahead of Kansas in the race for the most backwards, backwoods, redneck state in the country.

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http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2007/04/25/news/doc462e9598f3872573145387.txt
Maybe Vonster and his other redneck friends can go live there.

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Watching Jon Stewart and John McCain go at it last night was awesome. And they shook hands at the end. Tell me again why “The Daily Show” is not a better way to get news than CNN, MSNBC, or Faux?
McCain fought gamely, and admitted how poorly the Bushies have run the “war” (did anyone ever [...]

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Lamest performance ever. I didn’t even know he was still alive, quite honestly. Seems the administration AND the suck-ups that cover the administration didn’t want to get skewered this year. Wimps.
Steven Colbert should be signed to a lifetime contract to do that gig.

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Made a drive to Bloomington yesterday afternoon, and told my son on the phone as I was heading up the hill towards Morton, “I’ll bet I run into Illinois’ finest here in a few minutes.” And right on cue, there they were, four Illinois State Police cruisers, all with cars pulled over in the westbound [...]

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April, 2007 – Virginia Tech. 32 killed, dozens wounded, guns acquired legally.
October, 2006 – Pennsylvania Amish school. 5 little girls killed, guns acquired legally.
Sept, 2006 – Platte Canyon H.S., Colorado. 1 killed, six girls taken hostage, some sexually assaulted, gun acquired legally. 53-year old shooter “researched” girls on MySpace, entered school as “student”, disguised with [...]

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Diane and I have only lived here since August, so this was our first city election to vote in. We both did a good job of educating ourselves on the races and issues important to us, and went up and voted. And what a day it turned out to be.
The longtime mayor, two incumbent council [...]

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In the last two days, I have witnessed countless times where the host, whether it be Faux, CNN, MSNBC, or the so-called “major” networks, have tried to create the story, tried to blame “the school”, or “campus police”, for the entire incident at Virginia Tech.
In nearly every response, the student, parent, or official says the same [...]

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I continue to read letters-to-the-editor and hear comments from idiotic talk show hosts (there’s a particularly idiotic one on 1420 AM in the Quad Cities, a guy who is just to the political right of Attila the Hun) who are so far gone, it’s laughably tragic.
You know what I’m talking about, it’s this argument: “If [...]

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It’s 3:30 pm Central time, and Faux News is already playing the blame game on the Virginia Tech incident. Some loudmouth woman is telling the pathetically bad Neil Cavuto that the University is solely to blame for this incident spiraling today.
“Officials should have locked down campus at 7:30.”
“These students shouldn’t have been allowed to go [...]

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For some reason, I’ve been seeing a lot of Jeff Bridges on the tube lately, and you know what? That’s a good thing. Dude is talented.
11-year old Emily rented “Stick It” a couple weekends ago, and the best part of this teen chick flick was Jeff Bridges. (When Emmy rents a movie, we watch it with [...]

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I think it’s among the most lazy, arrogant, rude, selfish things being done in our everyday lives.
“The shopping cart in the middle of the parking spot.”
You’ve all seen it. A shopper will walk 70-100 feet or more, pushing a shopping cart from the store exit to the trunk of their car. They’ll take the time to unload [...]

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Everybody and their brother and their other brother have already commented on Don Imus.
Here’s mine:
First of all, the WORST thing uttered on Imus’ broadcast was the word “jigaboo” by the producer. Where is the outrage over that? THAT was the comment, to me, that was thoroughly unacceptable. None of the discussion was real smart, [...]

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George W. Bush, 1999
“Victory means exit strategy, and it’s important for the president to explain to us what the exit strategy is.”
“I think it’s also important for the president to lay out a timetable as to how long they will be involved and when they will be withdrawn.”
George W. Bush, 2007
“The consequences of imposing such [...]

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So the San Francisco Giants lose the other night, and what’s the only “highlight” we’re shown from the game? Barry “Sterry” Bonds hitting a drug-enhanced homer into the first row, barely clearing the fence.
Any pitcher on my team that didn’t throw a pitch directly at him in his first at bat would be fined. He [...]

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As I head to Bloomington tomorrow, I’m looking forward to seeing if the Illinois Highway Patrol will be making their fourth straight Saturday evening appearance on that treacherous stretch of I-74 between Morton and three miles east of Morton.  You know the stretch I’m talking about, the completely flat, completely straight, pretty much excellent visibility [...]

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