ODDS & ENDS

I followed up on the school security issue and here's some hard numbers.  if you install airport grade metal detectors in each doorway @ $4000 per door x 10 doors and figure 100k for the police presence annually, you've locked the school down for an initial investment of $140,000 followed by an annual police cost of 100k. so they impose a special tax for 'school safety' of one hundred dollars per kid to cover the cost of the program.  or would you rather send them off to school 'as is' and keep your fingers crossed?

i see where criminal JESSE JACKSON JR. is hoping to get out of prison just in time to get a presidential pardon for his sins.  no different than you or me under the same circumstances, right?

i did think it was cool that PRESIDENT OBAMA made a surprise visit to the troops in afghanistan on memorial day. now if he would just bring everyone home. THIRTEEN YEARS is a very long to be fighting and for what? and spare me the 'military significance' of that hell hole. nobody even knew the name of that place before 9/11.

speaking of which, i see where cities in IRAQ are falling back into the hands of the bad guys.  the same cities where over 4,000 americans gave their lives to gain control of the same. and then we left. why were we there in the first place??? oh yeah, weapons of mass destruction. and how many did we find?????  i guarantee you.....in less than 5 years, iraq will be no different regarding the taliban and women's rights than they were for two thousand years leading up to september 11.

seventy years since the D-DAY invasion in france, a day in which the final domino began to fall on hitler.  a good friend of our family, JOHN VANSCHLOCTEREN, was part of the invasion and his widow AUDREY still writes about his heroic day in 1944.  john left us last year in his 90's but his fighting spirit lives on with audrey.  God bless.

think you have problems with plants and trees dying out? the city of chicago has removed almost 30,000 trees in three years due to disease and other health factors but have only replaced 12,000.

video gaming in your local taverns was red hot starting in the summer of 2012 but i just read where revenues fell 2% in april of 2014. a trend or an exception? something to keep an eye on.

the mayor of chicago wants to know why north siders get a simple ordinance ticket for smoking pot but south side blacks get taken into custody for the same offense.  just a guess on my part.......attitude?

and a fond farewell to MAYA ANGELOU who was many things to many people.  a cool chick.  r.i.p.