You may not like President Barack Obama – he may end up losing his office in two weeks – but he showed the nation last night who was boss and who was in command of this country…
Obama clearly confirmed to us that he’s a sharp, brilliant man who is a strong and clear leader. Mitt Romney showed us he cares and wants to be president, but he also has only one real plan.
“Mister President, your economy still isn’t good.” Continue reading
“I’ve seen wider ideological differences between Jehovah’s Witnesses”
Bill Maher, Debate Night Twitter
That about sums up last night’s debate… We basically saw two neocon warmongers pretend they’re for World Peace while talking about regime change in Syria and how we “must stop” a nuclear Iran. Along with a side order of “who’s a bigger friend of Israel,” which Mitt Romney definitely is.
So who won? Continue reading
On Thursday, September 27th, the legendary Slash played a sold out show at the Midland Theatre featuring Myles Kennedy. The set had something for everyone, from Guns N’ Roses, Velvet Revolver and of course songs from their most recent release, “Apocalyptic Love” which released in May of this year.
Setlist: Halo, Night Train, Ghost, Standing in the Sun, Back From Cali, Been There Lately, Civil War, Rocket Queen, No More Heroes, Carolina, We’re all Gonna Die, Out ta Get Me, Not for Me, Starlight, Anastasia, You’re a Lie, Sweet Child O’ Mine, Slither, Fall to Pieces, and Paradise City.
Photos by Katie McPansy Grogan
A streetcar named desire?
Kansas City mayor Sly James and most of city council are for a new $100 million streetcar system that will connect much of midtown to downtown. The plan calls for an early try with the first streetcar route between the River Market and Union Station.
Of course taxpayers get to pay for the, uh, experiment.
So while both presidential hopefuls go on and on about lowering our federal income taxes, the bigger load continues to fall on city and state taxes for business. These once small amounts of two and three percent have risen to 10% and more over the last couple decades. And as we add the bills up to be paid by small businesses with increased taxes, it’s created major stress in a slowed economy.
Two big questions on the streetcar system are, do we need one today and will it make our city grow? Continue reading
Outside of the Kansas Basketball program, this area has had no really good teams to cheer about over the years…
I know many of you say, “What about Sporting Kansas City?” Sorry, they draw well and soccer is on the rise, but outside of this area nobody much has heard of MLS let alone our team nam. NOBODY. When it ‘ain’t’ covered by the national press and ESPN it doesn’t count.
But don’t feel bad.
Soccer’s on the rise and nobody can name a player in the WNBA either for the most part.
But KANSAS STATE FOOTBALL has landed and HUGE. Continue reading
Sprint is being bought by a Japanese company, the Kansas City Board of Trade was sold to a Chicago firm. At least Hallmark is still doing well! Oh, what a minute…
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A design for a remodeled airport for Kansas City is at least 18 months away. I’m not saying they’re downsizing, but the new airport will be centered around Johnny Rowland‘s house.
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Continue reading
Vikings quarterback Christian Ponder is the new “hot” guy in the NFL…
Now that the well publicized romance between Dallas quarterback Tony Romo and Jessica Simpson is long over. Ponder has come clean; he’s hooked up with beautiful, blonde ESPN star, Samantha Steele.
Not only that but his team is a surprising 5-1.
And this Sunday I look for him to take his team to 6-1 with a win over another surprise club, Arizona. Continue reading
Whatever happened to big corporations doing the right thing in the public interest?
Or paying the price if they’re caught doing otherwise. Those were the days, huh? Which brings us to the very prickly situation at the 13 year-old Cinemark Palace on the Plaza movie theater.
It’s no secret that the Kansas City Health Department and local media were alerted to a report that bedbugs were discovered at the Plaza movieplex. But rather than play it straight with the public at large and own up to the nightmarish pest presence, the Dallas-based theater chain engaged in a campaign of deceit and disinformation.
In her October 2nd column the Star‘s Joyce Smith got snookered into reporting that Cinemark’s Plaza Palace had closed temporarily merely because the company was “refurbishing the inside of the theater.” Continue reading
Talk about the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing….
A prime example of that is evidenced in a recent column by Kansas City Star features columnist Jeneé Osterheldt about the bogus use of the color pink to sell stuff during National Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October.
“Yes, I’m all about women’s issues, and breast cancer awareness is a recurring topic in my column,” Osterheldt writes. “But the color becomes blinding when big corporations slap pink on any and everything to hustle their products.”
Osterheldt’s reasoning is sound.
“For some products, very little money goes to the cure,” she continues. “Or the company has already given a flat donation and still slaps pink on products to play on the consumer’s conscience. The key is doing the research before you throw down your dollars.” Continue reading
Back in May I called the presidential election 53-47 Romney and everything is starting to fall into place…
Gallup has the “Mormon Savior” 7 points up and he just took the lead in the RealClearPolitics Electoral College Map, 206-201 with only nine states left that are listed as toss-ups. Add another 42 electoral votes from Florida & Virginia that are looking like they are going Romney, and thats 248 towards the 270 needed for a win. Continue reading
Here it is folks, better late than never, right?…
I’ve finally come down off my US National Team high after watching them take it to Guatemala for 90 minutes at LIVESTRONG Tuesday.
Speaking of soccer, Sporting has a huge away game this Saturday at the NY Red Bulls. SKC is hosting a big watch party for the 6:00 game in the Member’s Club with a bunch of cheap food and drink specials. If you haven’t checked the club out yet, you should.
To the pickmobile! Continue reading
You won’t get ripped off for five buck pizza or rained out – but you will get the bejesus scared out of you…
That’s the plan at Monty Summers’ four haunted house cavalcade in Kansas City’s East Bottoms.
“I’ve been doing this for 38 years, crazy huh?” says Summers, the founder / owner of The Edge of Hell, Beast, Chambers of Edgar Allan Poe and Macabre Cinema. “People faint, pee their pants, hyperventilate – do all kinds of crazy stuff – and we have 18 to 20 adults every night that are scared to death and they leave (early). But you know, it’s the best advertising we have.”
Summers’ Edge of Hell – founded in 1975 – is the second oldest haunted house attraction in the country behind Akron, Ohio’s Haunted Schoolhouse that was established in 1974.
That out of an estimated 3,500 to 5,000 “haunted attractions” nationwide. Continue reading
It is going to happen and it’s going to happen soon…
No more Dwayne Bowe. According to Yahoo Sports and 610 Sports, D-Bowe is a goner. Bowe wants out of Kansas City and NOW. He’s tired of being on this team that’s going nowhere. Chiefs general manager Scott Pioli will likely trade him in the next few weeks so he can at least get a number 2 or 3 draft pick for him. Bowe has made it clear HE DOES NOT WANT TO BE HERE NOW OR NEXT SEASON.
Can you blame him? Continue reading
If you’re into police thrillers, you’re probably a fan of James Patterson‘s best selling novels…
Patterson’s 12th is called CROSS and is the latest to make it to the big screen. But this time out with Tyler Perry assuming the title character of ALEX CROSS who was previously played by Morgan Freeman in KISS THE GIRLS and ALONG CAME A SPIDER.
Here forensic psychologist-detective Alex Cross meets his match when a very skilled and sadistic serial killer known as The Butcher and nicknamed Picasso, predicts every step of the police investigation. Hence easily torturing and killing his victims—and getting away with it. Continue reading
Saw some interesting new shows on Broadway this Fall. But, as they say, they don’t make em like they used to…
CHAPLIN is a new musical about the exciting but not always happy life of the world’s most famous silent movie star. Rob McClure does a fantastic job in the title role, probably the first must-see performance of the new musical season.
An even darker new work is the Paul Rudd- Michael Shannon starrer GRACE, about a Minnesota couple who move south to Florida to open a chain of gospel-themed hotels. “Six Fee Under” scribe Craig Wright wrote GRACE, the season’s first new play, which also features Ed Asner, making two Cowtowners in the cast.
But save the best for last– though it came first (50 years ago). Continue reading
“Good night. Sleep tight. Don’t let the bedbugs bite.”
Who didn’t grow up hearing that children’s limerick? Kansas City Health Department public information officer Jeff Hershberger did. So did Mark Lillis, the Bedbug Division manager for Schendel Pest Services.
And count me in.
None of the three of us thought much of it at the time. Continue reading
More than anything else I heard during last night’s debate, the thing that stood out was that 47 million people were on food stamps…
Mitt Romney brought this scary fact up early on in the debate. And President Obama didn’t say anything else about it, so I take it to be true. I think this speaks volumes as to where America is today; with 17% or more of America broke and needing food stamps. Continue reading
Confession time: I like scary stuff.
Now this may not be as groundbreaking an admission as, oh, say, admitting that you are erotically transfixed by kangaroos, or that you are secretly the patriarch of two families who know nothing of one another, but it’s still something.
See, horror fans typically get lumped in with sci-fi nerds who speak Klingon and peculiar sorts who get runes tattooed on the top of their feet and dream of a better tomorrow in Middle Earth. But the thing is, it’s not the same at all. I don’t wear more black than the average person and my face isn’t perforated by metal rings nor decorated with eyeliner and pancake makeup.
I’m not a “goth,” as it were; I just like scary movies and books and television shows. I like hearing ghost stories told around a campfire and I like reading them with the lights off and I like watching something just scary enough to make me a little fidgety, something that gives me the wholly ridiculous notion that some dude with an axe is just hanging out in the guest room closet. Continue reading
Sam’s Army stormed into LIVESTRONG, flags and songs in tow, on a perfect Tuesday night.
The party was for a pivotal World Cup qualifier between the US and Guatemala. Both teams came in tied in group play so the winning team would win the group and receive the top seed heading into the next round.
But it was also an elimination game of sorts for the US. A tie would’ve put both teams through. And a loss for Guatemala would leave them in limbo, awaiting the result of the Jamaica – Antigua & Barbuda game. In other words it was a huge game… Continue reading
U.S. citizens remain some of the most sexually repressed in the world…
At least outwardly.
Ever notice that when a sexual topic comes up people’s voices drop to a hushed tone?
For that matter, some of our most common sexual practices are actually against the law in Kansas. Straight and gay.
If the K.B.I. ever decided to enforce those outdated laws, half of the state would probably be behind bars. To that end allow me to offer up some of the more bizarre sexual urban legends….
Believe it or not but…… Continue reading
