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Yesterday, the Courier Journal reported that Louisville is nearing the limit of its borrowing through municipal bonds. Thus, posing a problem for library-tax opponents such as Hal Heiner,

“A major looming issue for city officials is how to fund improvement of the library system, given the failure of the library-tax referendum…

In early November, Louisville Metro Council member Hal Heiner, R-19th, proposed a $25 million bond issue to get library improvements under way. But, after the tax failed, council Democrats and Abramson said the bond issue proposal was premature.”

So, to cut a long story short, we don’t have the tax money for the libraries, we can’t get the bonds, and no one knows exactly what to do.

Well, we could look at Oregon’s recent solution to a similar problem: public libraries for profit. Although I would suggest going one step further than Oregon and propose private libraries for profit; which would inevitably result in converting our libraries into computer labs. (An update I consider already long overdue.)

Michael Stevens has more on the WHAS/Joe Elliott issue.

Morgan writes:

Dr. Albert Molher, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary here in Louisville, stated, “By any estimation, the Pill, in all of its forms, has led to a radical transformation of America’s moral landscape. It has facilitated extramarital and premarital sex on a scale unprecedented in human history.”

Artificial contraception leads people to view their body as mere instruments. I believe that to sever the act of reproduction from sex altogether is profoundly anti-humanistic. This is a mentality we must change.

Not to be an uppity feminist here, but what the heck is wrong with me thinking of my body as an instrument? Separating the act of sex from reproduction has some pretty obvious benefits for everyone involved, the most important of which is liberating women from the risk of an unwanted pregnancy.

The pill has given women unprecedented control over their own lives. It’s no coincidence that female participation in the workforce rises dramatically with use of oral contraception.

I’d love to agree with Al Mohler on something … anything, really. I just can’t see how he can believe that giving a woman greater control over her own bells and whistles really amounts to nothing more than a radical, presumably negative, “transformation of the moral landscape.”

The fact that the pill has facilitated better family planning and fewer unwanted pregnancies, I hope, isn’t a trifle for people like Mohler or our own Morgan. Personal liberty implies allowing free people to use new technologies however they wish, as painful as that might be to our delicate sensibilities.

Last Monday, Jefferson County Board of Education approved the bias protection for gay and lesbian workers.

Over 400 people were in attendance for the vote. Those in support of the bias protection were holding signs which read “Protect the Workers” and “Fairness for All.”

While those in opposition were holding signs urging the board to, “Protect the Children.”

But I couldn’t find any sign pleading to, “Protect Parents’ Choice.”

Personally, I don’t give a flip if you want gays, lesbians, bisexuals, cross-dressers, or any other type of (for lack of a better phrase) sexually diverse people to teach your child – just so long as my own child is not forced to sit in their classroom.

Once again, school choice seems to be an obvious solution.

With school choice, not only would Mike Slaton, and all other members of the so-called Fairness Campaign be free to send their children to schools which do employ homosexuals. But also, those parents who are uncomfortable with gays teaching their kids would be free to send their children to schools which do not employ homosexuals.

As a result, both sides of the aisle are satisfied. 

School choice not only, “Protects the Children,” but is truly, “Fairness for All.”

I used to work with Joe Elliott. He’s a class act, an excellent host and it’s a shame that he’s been laid off:

A popular radio talk show host is off the air. WAVE 3 has learned from several sources that Joe Elliott — who for years has hosted the 9:00 p.m. to Midnight show on 84WHAS — has been let go.

Elliott — who is blind — grew up in Louisville. A college professor told him he’d never make it in radio. He ended up covering much of the nation on the 50,000 watt station dissecting all the important issues of Kentuckiana.

WAVE 3 contacted Clear Channel which owns WHAS radio. They offered no comment and haven’t released a statement. But our sources say it’s a cost cutting measure and that the time slot will likely go to a nationally syndicated program.

… for young people who think like this:

I am a conservative. I value truly limited government, the rule of law, fiscal responsibility, free markets, civil liberties, and a humble, no-nation-building foreign policy, and I first assumed, as many still do, that the Republican Party best fit my convictions. But I’ve discovered that there’s no difference between the Republican and Democratic parties.

The GOP enacts liberal policies and today is composed of big-government sell-outs, progressive imperialists, militant Christians and far left neo-cons who have hijacked the party, Washington and the media.

Emphasis mine. And this …

Perhaps, like me, you voted for George W. Bush because you wanted to shrink government, not triple its size. Maybe you supported George W. Bush because you believed in a foreign policy of non-intervention, only to be told that we must “fight them over there so we don’t have to fight them over here.” This is a far cry from George Washington’s warning about entangling ourselves in the affairs with other nations.

The GOP today is not conservative.Thus, true conservatives have but two options: reform our party or leave it.

Ron Paul and Tom Tancredo are the only GOP presidential hopefuls who haven’t sold out. And Paul is the only candidate who is pro-life, a strict constitutionalist who is a proven advocate of slashing the size of government. He’s also against the Iraq war, and has been since the beginning. But if genuine conservatives fail to succeed in electing Ron Paul, our only option will be to leave the GOP and form our own party, one that will truly stand by our conservative principles.

From the Wall Street Journal:

Fortunately, the origins of America’s most celebrated turkey sandwich are unchallenged and probably unchallengeable. I speak of the Hot Brown, devised in 1926 in Louisville’s grand Brown Hotel by Chef Fred K. Schmidt as a novelty replacement for ham and eggs at the midnight suppers that followed big dances at the hotel.

You can still experience this pinnacle of turkey haute cuisine at the Brown Hotel in its hallowed traditional form. Nominally a sandwich, the Hot Brown is actually a casserole of sliced turkey breast, toast and bacon covered with an egg-thickened Mornay sauce (white sauce with Parmesan; see recipe).

Here’s the Brown Hotel recipe:

Brown Hotel
4 ounces butter
Flour to make a roux (about 6 tablespoons)
3 to 3 1/2 cups milk
1 beaten egg
6 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
1 ounce whipped cream (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste
Slices of roast turkey
8 to 12 slices of toast (may be trimmed)
1/4 beefsteak tomato
Extra Parmesan for topping
8 to 12 strips of fried bacon

• Melt butter and add enough flour to make a reasonably thick roux (enough to absorb all of the butter). Add milk and Parmesan cheese. Add egg to thicken sauce, but do not allow sauce to boil. Remove from heat. Fold in whipped cream. Add salt and pepper to taste.

• For each Hot Brown, place two slices of toast on a metal (or flameproof) dish. Cover the toast with a liberal amount of turkey. Pour a generous amount of sauce over the turkey and toast. Add tomato on sides of dish. Sprinkle with additional Parmesan cheese. Place entire dish under a broiler until the sauce is speckled brown and bubbly. Remove from broiler, cross two pieces of bacon on top, and serve immediately.

And if you’re still not tired of turkey, try this (I don’t think it sounds very good):

… the Cold Brown, an obscure cousin to the hot one. As she remembers it from many a lazy summer lunch of her Kentucky girlhood, the Cold Brown is an open-faced sandwich composed of sliced turkey, lettuce, tomato, hard-boiled egg and Thousand Island dressing.

Mary Meehan writes in a letter to the Courier-Journal:

Burn books! This is what I heard the majority of voters say. It sickened me. Chris Thieneman has worked to vote this down for 30 days. He says he has won and will continue to try to come up with the money to build the new libraries.

But even if he comes up with the money to build the new libraries, will the money still be there 10 or 20 years from now when we need to update computers, buy books, fix roofs, plumbing or heating that goes bad? (Just like in our homes, things get old and need to be replaced or repaired.)

Saying YES to the libraries would have meant that we would have had the means to build the new facilities, purchase the new equipment, and over the years make any new purchases without asking the people for more new money.

The people who worked on this referendum did not come up with, or work on it, for 30 days. Many volunteers who really care about libraries, not just the people who work at the library, worked many hours to come up with the plan.

We have said NO to knowledge.

MARY E. MEEHAN

Louisville 40223

Darn it. If I’d known that people had worked so very hard to force this tax on every worker in Louisville, I really could’ve gotten behind it.

And I guess she’s right. It is a bit rude to ask for money to build stuff. Simply taking the needed money each payday seems far less intrusive.

I suppose it’s not difficult for some people to imagine a skinny middle schooler wearing tattered clothes sitting a vacant lot eating dirt because the people of Louisville voted against a permanent tax increase. The child, unable to conjugate sentences, will never know how the people of Louisville so disliked knowledge that they destroyed the city’s only opportunity to learn further.