THE PERSISTENT IRRITATION

Scores are up

Ignore the rebuys column. That was left over from the previous game. I'm too lazy to go back and fix it. We had 13 rebuys total. Not bad for an 8-person game.

Scores are up

Hats of to Mark B., Brent C. and Lance C.

 

The Chicago Food Desert

Mari Gallagher is a leading researcher on the subject of food deserts (particularly in Chicago). Today she released new data indicating that, while improvements have been made, there is much more to be done.

From the Chicago Sun-Times:

On the eve of First Lady Michelle Obama’s visit to Chicago’s food desert neighborhoods, a report out Monday shows Chicago’s food desert has shrunk by 40 percent in the past five years, but the number of adults and children still thirsting for healthy foods remains high. The Chicago food desert population totals 384,000, of whom nearly a third — 124,000 — are children, said report author and food desert expert Mari Gallagher, founder and principal of Chicago-based Mari Gallagher Research & Consulting Group. Most of the desert is in predominantly African-American communities.

“That’s a lot of children — roughly the size of Naperville,” Gallagher said. “If all of those children loaded onto school buses, the buses would line up bumper-to-bumper from President Obama’s house in Hyde Park, make a stop at City Hall and travel on to Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s house in Ravenswood.”

Visit marigallagher.com/projects to download the complete report.

Scores are up

The 2011-2012 season started large. 10 players, 9 rebuys, lots of KK crushing action. Hats off to Damon S., whose first venture into the league yielded a big win. Also welcome back to Ben M. and Mari O. Hopefully we'll see you all again next month.

The Internet is more powerful than you can ever imagine

Not only does it give you unfettered access to piano-playing kittens, it also has been proven to save you money.

Seriously, who does such a thing?

Scenes from a Kubb tournament

Coalition finds a treasure trove of easy cuts to federal budget

Yesterday, a coalition of non-profit organizations representing a diverse range of political opinions released a report that shows how Congress can cut almost $400 billion in wasteful spending. Nothing new, right? I mean, there's no shortage of opinions on what to cut these days.

What makes this list interesting is that nearly all of the subsidies and tax breaks listed in this report actually have negative environmental impacts. Whether it's a subsidy to an oil company or an incentive to grow commodity crops where they shouldn't be grown, our government routinely incentivizes the destruction of our environment. From GreenScissors.com:

The Green Scissors report finds cuts in energy, agriculture, transportation, and land and water projects. Targets include massive giveaways of publicly-owned resources such as timber, oil and natural gas and minerals, poorly conceived road projects and a bevy of questionable Army Corps of Engineers water projects.

As highlighted in the report, the federal government could end the following programs and save the United States:

• $72,000,000,000 for general revenue transfers to the Highway Trust Fund,
• $30,000,000,000 for crop insurance, and
• $4, 820,000,000 for Oil and Gas Royalty relief.

Seems to me the first step in the budget cutting process should be to look very closely at these harmful subsidies.

But don't take my word for it. Click here to read the report and decide for yourself. And if you agree with me, perhaps send a note to your local Super Committee member and tell him/her that they should take a look, too.

 

Still life with Rabbit and Lap Pretzel

 

Final scores are up.

Final scores are up. Congrats to Brent C.




Can you believe we've been doing this for six years now? Where does the time go? Here is a rundown of winners for each year.

SEASON	1ST	2ND	3RD
2010-2011	Brent C.	Rick R.	Jeff H.
2009-2010	Jeff H.	Chris L.	Ben M.
2008-2009	Brent C.	Jeff H.	Chris L.
2007-2008	Jeff H.	Ben M.	Pedro S.
2006-2007	Jeff H.	Josh A.	Chris L.
2005-2006	Sean C.	Jeff H.	Peter S.