Public Housing in Huntsville

The Huntsville Housing Authority has been quietly buying up apartment buildings in the city to spread out the people currently in public housing. Section 8 vouchers will be used to pay for a lot of them to live in this new subsidized housing. There has been a great deal of angst about this as the city has not told people where the new concentrations of residents will be. Also people currently living in the apartments will be forced to leave if they make too much money. The Huntsville Times reports on the issue here. The answer to their question, as The Atlantic found out, is probably yes.

Lileks on the Internet

I have enjoyed James Lilek's work since I discovered it on the internet back around 2001, I think. This paragraph he wrote in yesterday's bleat describes to me exactly how I use the internet.

"the internet is a giant distributed information storage and retrieval system, and the most powerful tools are the meat-and-water units attached at the end by their fingertips. But some, it seemed, googled it. That’s fine. But it reminded me that there’s a difference between knowing a thing and knowing how it find it. Does the distinction matter? Well, yes. For obvious reasons, it helps to know how to make a fire, as opposed to knowing where you can get pdfs online of the Boy Scout Handbook. But knowing things lets you make connections in your head you can’t get with the web; the intenret leads you from point A to point 85, and while it’s usually an interesting anabasis, all you remember at the end is how one damn thing leads to another, not connects to another. It’s as if we dump out a jigsaw puzzle on the table and compliment ourselves on seeing 500 pieces, instead of the picture they’re supposed to form.

I know, I know - I’m talking about knowing the source of an amusingly dubbed Hong Kong movie that concerns mock outrage over rice. I wonder if it’s on YouTube."

My problem is I never write things down or bookmark them and forget by the next day what I found. The same is true with Amazon and books, and YouTube with music. There is so much out there to find and remember.

Video of my Mazdaspeed3

This is a video I made fooling around with my car, my Vado, audio editing software and so on. Driving around Athens, AL one night.

Premiership Returning to Norm

First Hull City and then Aston Villa flirted with success but now with only two months to go the big four teams assert themselves. With Arsenal destroying Blackburn 4-0 and Villa losing Man U, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal have taken the four top spots. Coming off of a lame win on penalties over Rome in Rome to advance in the Champions League Arsenal shook off some of their lethargy behind Arshevin. He was able to "bamboozled Danny Simpson with a great piece of chicanery and lashed his shot from a tight angle beyond Robinson." according to the Telegraph. Maybe these four goals and the return of Eduardo and Walcott will shake the team loose and they will score like they are capable off.

Washington Post Gets Smaller To Serve Their Readers Better

In the continuing saga of print newspapers struggling to make money the Washington Post announced it is folding the business section into the front page section. Using the argument, as reported at the Politico, "designed to signal to readers the centrality of economic news, as well as the increasing overlap of political and economic events, in today’s world." They use the argument put out by Newsweek as we discussed in this post that their audience is more exclusive now. At this rate the Post will shrink to be like the New York Post - all one large section.

Chas Freeman

I am not a big fan of the Chas Freeman pick, but how much can The Weekly Standard keep piling it on?

Update -- He withdrew. This is interesting because outside of an article in The Washington Post yesterday the MSM did not report on any controversy with this pick.

See Powerline for more.

The Dying Cities of America

Back earlier this year the Weekly Standard wrote an article about Detroit. One of my friends from Northern California reacted in shock that there could be a city like this in America. Unfortunately the country is covered in cities like this. Ones where the industry died and the middle class fled to the suburbs and only the poor and hard up remain. Cities like St. Louis where swathes of the North Side are abandoned. The site, Built St. Louis, describes how that city is changing not necessarily for the better. Even the city near me, Huntsville, which is dynamic and growing still has large areas that are poor, ugly and need development. It is a sad state of affairs, but one that will not change for a while.

I Think Excite Weather is a Little Confused

I am hoping it is not really -15 degrees outside. I think it is more like 50 degrees F.

The Revolution Starts at Noon

I am conservative when it comes to politics but I am far from active. I vote and keep up on things. I read a lot of blogs, mostly righty ones, and I guess the fact that the Republican Party is on the outs right now is leading to an active discussion of its future. Somehow Rush's speech at CPAC has galvanized the "grow the party by appealing to moderate" wing against the "hardcore" right. Here are a couple of posts that seem to summarize things. First at The Strata-Sphere the moderate argument is made. Then at Ace of Spades is the middle view, the base is important to the Part as a whole. Then at Riehl World View is the more stronger support of the Rush view. Makes you think in a sad way of this scene from Monty Python's Life of Brian.

Snow in Alabama

We woke up to find it had really snowed in Alabama. This is the first heavy snow we have had since we moved here 41/2 years ago.