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Barbie Cummings and the Highway Patrol

Could it be the title of her next movie?

Barbie Cummings is a clever, clever girl.

The porn star based out of Knoxville was pulled over by a Tennessee Highway Patrolman outside of Nashville and engaged in an exchange of favors with the officer. Actually, she still got the ticket, so there actually wasn’t an exchange.

This genius took photos and videos and bragged to his fellow patrolmen about it and has subsequently been suspended. All Barbie did was write about it on her blog.

Very clever. Hope all of you SEO masters are paying attention. This is TRUE viral marketing. The story has caused such a stir in Tennessee and presumably created so much traffic to her blog that it, ahem, went down last night.

No worries, they got it up again. 🙂 I was able to go there and do some fact checking. Don’t visit it from the office, but if you want to see free speech in action, it’s worth a look.

Maybe you’ll read it, maybe you won’t, but this girl is lucky that my friend BGE no longer lives in Knoxville. Their lives are about as parallel as the two rails of a train track. If they ever cross, look out!

Story about the incident in the KNS

***UPDATE***

Obviously, demand for information is high. Subscribe to this feed and I’ll update with news…

I just checked out her site to see if there were any updates since this story went national. Apparently she either got a nice offer for her domain name or she’s put her own Barbie store on her site. I’d guess the former. Unfortunate for all of you who were looking to get a firsthand look/read. I’m sure her site will surface again at a new address. Stay tuned.

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Knox County Property Tax Increase?!

WHAT?!?!!? Wasn’t it the threat of a property tax increase the used to strongarm the public into voting to approve the doubling of the wheel tax a couple of years ago?!?!!? By the way, that money was supposed to go for the new downtown library. If you haven’t been, take a trip downtown and check it out. It is truly a beautiful building. And the books–you’ve never seen books such as these.

Right.

Here’s my favorite quote from the KNS story:

“We’ve had very solid economic growth, but I don’t think anybody anticipated the impact of the pension plan on the budget,” the mayor said.

Actually, I think there were quite a few of us who anticipated this impact. That’s why we voted against it! I don’t need access to the accounting records of the county to know that spending a ton of money that wasn’t spent previously is going to impact a budget.

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Knox County Schools To Address Academics?

Now we are hearing the other side of the issue, from parents who are supportive of the rezoning efforts.  Most of these supporters realize that someone has to be moved, and although it may be a tough pill to swallow, it has to be accepted.  School board chairwoman Karen Carson is encouraged, and looks forward to moving ahead:

“We have other issues that we’ve got to start addressing, like the budget, the superintendent search and academics,” she said.

Wow!  As soon as the rezoning issue is resolved, academics will crack the top 3 of the school board’s priorities!!!  I may have to rethink my position that public schools are horribly ineffective and a waste of tax dollars.

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NASCAR and Pro Wrestling

I’ve been saying it for years. NASCAR is fixed. Professional Wrestling may have predetermined outcomes, but NASCAR is rigged. At least pro wrestling doesn’t claim to be real.

Finally I’m vindicated. One of NASCAR’s own has broken kayfabe and told the truth.

Two-time champion Tony Stewart likened NASCAR to professional wrestling and accused it of using bogus caution flags to shape races in biting comments made on his weekly radio show.

The day I apologize for dogging out NASCAR while defending pro wrestling is the day I have to watch John Cena chase Randy Orton around and around the ring for four hours straight.

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Knoxville Eyesores

I actually got up yesterday to check the KNS online to see their article on Knoxville Eyesores.  I have to say that I’m a little disappointed, but I guess you get what you pay for.  It seems like they were addressing issues that occur everywhere else in Generica–urban sprawl, litter, strip malls, abanadoned warehouses, etc.

While all of these are definitely eyesores, they aren’t specific to Knoxville.  I decided I’d come up with my own incomplete list of eyesores that are specific to K-Town.  Of course, these are my personal opinions. Continue reading “Knoxville Eyesores”

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Knox County School Rezoning

This one will stir the pot. There is an uproar going on right now over the rezoning of schools in Knox County to accomodate the new Hardin Valley High School. 3,400 students from Farragut, West, Bearden, Karns, Gibbs, Austin-East, Central, Carter, Fulton, Halls, and Powell are going to be affected.

Let me get this straight…

You had no problem paying for failing public schools before you had children attending them. You will have no problem continuing to pay for these failing schools long after your child has graduated. You have no problem allowing the state/county to decide when your children will go to a failing school. You have no problem allowing the state to decide on the failing curriculum. You have no problem allowing the state to lump your child (an individual) into this failing curriculum that is geared towards the masses. You have no problem with the state using funds (tax money) to support athletic programs instead of actual education. You have no problem with teachers’ unions and tenure which potentially allow incompetent and lazy teachers to continue “educating” your children. You have no problem with teachers “teaching to the test” to achieve high scores on state mandated standardized tests for the purpose of getting a raise instead of teaching your child to reason and think for themselves.

But you do have a problem with the state deciding which of these failing schools your child must attend?

Isn’t lack of choice and control an expected part of socialism? Was the fact that public schools, social security, etc are socialist institutions conveniently left out of the failing public education most of us received?

Sounds to me like we are getting precisely what we deserve for turning so much control over to the state in the first place.

**UPDATE**

I stand corrected.  There are very important angles of this story I haven’t considered.  Luckily, the News Sentinel is on the job.

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Helping People Avoid Foreclosures the Right Way

Brad Warbiany has it right when he talks about the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America:

…these guys (a private group) are helping people, so I’m not going to criticize them in any way.

This is how people are helped in a free market.  Those with a vested interest in the success of the individuals who borrowed money from them try to make the best of a bad situation. 

Unforunately, there are plenty of other people, Charles Schumer for instance, who want the federal government to bail out people who borrowed money they can’t pay back, which is basically helping the companies who shouldn’t have loaned them in the first place.  Never mind the fact that the federal government itself already runs at a deficit.

I’ll spell it out for you on simpler terms, with the middle man removed.  You and I will be forced to provide someone else with housing by paying back a loan they took out with a bank who shouldn’t have loaned them the money in the first place.

Surely the banks will expect this money back with no interest.  Right.  Here’s an article that tells the whole story without the common sense slant I just provided.

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Concensus versus Truth–Global Warming, Babe Ruth, and Rickey Henderson

The other day, a friend sent me an article from the KNS  about recent temperatures in East Tennessee, presumably trying to convince me that global warming is real and that the temperatures and phenomena in this area for the past 20 years prove it.  All of this stemmed from a conversation we had a few days before about global warming, whether or not humans are causing it, and who (individuals or governments) should do something about it.  Disclaimer:  I feel it necessary to state at this point that this is not a post on global warming.

The guy who sent this article is one of the smatest people I know–easily in the top five amongst my friends, although that may not mean much :), when it comes to raw intellectual power.  He is well educated in the sciences, with an engineering degree from a university who’s program is respected nationally.  I think it is safe to assume that the scientific method is still taught and practiced there and was part of his training.

My surprise isn’t that he believes in global warming.  I am more intrigued that he is willing to argue the causes, which he believes to be humans, based on scientific concensus while completely dismissing facts proven by the scientific method.  He doesn’t dismiss all of the facts mind you, just the ones that don’t support his opinion.

Okay…no more global warming.  Let’s shift gears and talk about baseball and how these topics are related. Continue reading “Concensus versus Truth–Global Warming, Babe Ruth, and Rickey Henderson”

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Do Smoking Bans Cause DUIs?

From the KNS:

”As the U.S. Surgeon General said last year — the debate is over, the science is clear. Secondhand smoke is a serious health hazard that causes premature death and disease in children and nonsmoking adults,” said Conte.

That statement is certainly true, and I’m not contesting it.  However, there is one small detail to this issue that proponents of smoking bans overlook–the freedom to choose. Continue reading “Do Smoking Bans Cause DUIs?”

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Bank Robbery? Me?

Here’s something that doesn’t happen to you every day…

This morning on my way to work I passed an Alcoal police officer who quickly turned around and pulled me over.  I wasn’t speeding or doing anything else wrong, but oh well.  I rolled my window down and he motioned me out of the car.  He told me it was actually nothing, that there had been a bank robbery and that it obviously wasn’t me.  My plates and vehicle description were close to that of the suspect.

I told a co-worker about it as soon as I got in, and he forwarded a news email he’d received from WNOX‘s Dave Foulk.  The suspect was a female (obviously not me).  She was driving a silver VW Jetta (I drive a silver VW Golf), and the robbery happened at Northshore and Pellissippi (I’d driven by there moments before). 

Good job by the Alcoa police for a well-executed stop.  I think the officer was smart to pull me over.  Volkswagens look pretty much the same from the front, so a silver VW was a good reason for him to turn around and check it out.   The possibility also existed that a witness had seen a Golf, but thought it was a Jetta.  Additionally, the two of the last three digits of my plates matched that of the suspect.

Most importantly, he quickly realized I’d done nothing wrong, explained the situation, and told me to have a good day.  I wish all traffic stops were handled that well.

***UPDATE***

The KNS has more.