Drive-Bys

Pretties from my trip to the Lurie Garden on Saturday:







Oom Keesie has hit the 150,000 visitor mark... and it was my cleavage that lifted him over the top. I can't tell you how proud that makes me. (Not to mention what it says about Keesie and his pals. I have had at least one hit a day since he linked to that post two years ago.)
_____

Mmmm! Bubba's Bodacious Bacon Fried Corn and Creamed Corn Gratin with Fried Onion Rings and Bacon. What's not to love?
_____

Quote of the Day:

TV has given us the illusion that anarchy is people rioting in the streets, smashing car windows and looting every store in sight. But there’s also the polite, quiet, far deadlier anarchy of the core citizenry—the upright citizenry—throwing in the towel and deciding it’s just not worth it anymore.

Scary stuff, my friends. Go read the whole thing.
_____

Are you playing any of those Facebook apps like Farmville or Mafia Wars or the like? Then you need to know this:

Some of Facebook’s most popular apps are sharing the names of users and their friends with advertising companies without their knowledge, it was revealed today.

The security breach means that tens of millions of Facebook users have had their personal details passed on - even if they had set their profile to the strictest privacy setting.

The practice violates Facebook's own rules on data protection and will raise questions about its ability to keep information about its users' activities secure.

Between the folks at Google and the folks at Facebook, neither of whom cares one jot for your privacy online, you need to be very, very careful.
_____

Ear Worm of the Day:



Yep. I really am digging the Dala Girls. Their harmonies give me chills.

Bus Fumes

I kid you not, Governor Giveaway has some 'splaining to do. He can find $6 million to spend on the Museum of Broadcast Communication, but he doesn't have $380,000 to stop this:

With nine months of unpaid bills, one Illinois residential treatment center says it has no choice but to start discharging profoundly emotionally disturbed children.

Letters were sent this month to seven Chicago-area families, giving them 30 days to pick up their children.

"It was a very difficult decision … but the lack of payment is starting to affect other kids," said Debbie Reed, president and CEO of Chaddock, a residential treatment center in the downstate city of Quincy. "It's really a matter of stewardship."

The Illinois Department of Human Services owes Chaddock more than $370,000 for seven students in the state's Individual Care Grant program, which provides funding for residents with severe psychosis who cannot function at home. The facility has not been paid since September, "which makes it impossible for us to continue to serve ICG youth with no indication of when or if we may be paid," Reed wrote in the letter to parents.

Nor $1 million to pay for this...

The Sonia Shankman Orthogenic School in Chicago's Hyde Park community is owed more than $1 million for its 20 ICG students, said co-director Diana Kon, who acknowledges she's under pressure from her board to also terminate services for kids with ICGs.

"I don't want to be the one who closes a school that has been open for 100 years," she said. "We are scrambling to keep the lights on, the doors open and services up and running."

While there are many youths across the state with behavioral issues, those supported by Individual Care Grants have generally failed at every previous placement, said Ray Connor of Oak Park, who started the ICG parents group almost a decade ago.

"These are the most severe kids who are placed here for safety issues," Connor said. "They require 24-hour supervision."

Mark my word, that asshole's going to use this as an excuse to raise taxes. He's an impulse purchaser with this state's tax dollars at the expense of every day budget items, and that simply must stop.

I'm not 100% nuts about Bill Brady and some of his far right whackadoodlery, but at least he's fiscally conservative.

I cannot and will not vote for Quinn in November. His irresponsible spending habits are everything that's wrong in Springfield in a nutshell.

Bus Fumes

Gah! Governor Giveaway is at it again:

Gov. Pat Quinn has announced a $6 million capital grant to the Museum of Broadcast Communications to assist with the completion of its new facility in downtown Chicago.

In remarks prepared for an event with museum officials and supporters Friday night, Quinn said that as one of only three museums dedicated to broadcast history in the nation, completion of the project will help enhance Illinois' tourism industry.
MBC officials anticipate the completed museum will create approximately 200 jobs.

We have teachers who have been or will be fired because there's no money for their salaries. I'll lay you odds that the number of those fired, as opposed to the number of jobs that will be created by this grant, is embarrassing. I'm not opposed to the museum; I just don't believe spending $6 million on it instead of on education makes one bit of sense right now.

This freaking governor has an unbelievable need to be viewed as a "nice guy" -- usually at the expense of the taxpayer. I hope, for once, the old adage "nice guys finish last" is true... come November.