Bubbling, Alaska style

Earlier, I received an important e-mail informing me that a young woman bubbled while waiting in line for a train in Alaska.

Did the Prohibition Party take over Louisville?

It wasn't just our imagination. The cities actually are getting worse again in matters of public policy, while rural areas are getting better.

As rural counties in Kentucky vote to loosen alcohol laws, the state's biggest city - Louisville - is seeing protests against Family Dollar stores selling beer.

Louisville today is like Piner 20 years ago.

This is going in the Illness Log!

For the record, since at least Friday, I was plagued by a tonsil stone lodged in my windpipe, and I was running a fever as a result. I wasn't able to dislodge it until this morning.

Campbell County Schools ban 3 books

This happened back in February, but it wasn't covered by main local media until now.

The right-wing Campbell County Schools have generally been hostile to free expression and the interests of the community's young people, and now the district has banned 3 books from its libraries: 'Lucky' by Alice Sebold, 'Tricks' by Ellen Hopkins, and 'Out Of Darkness' by Ashley Hope Perez. What I'm talking about here is not books being removed from required reading lists. Rather, the books were censored from school libraries, so now nobody can even choose to borrow the books.

The district was reportedly reviewing 17 other books.

Are they gonna paddle kids who try to borrow these books?

These acts of censorship came at the direction of some organization that hasn't accomplished much on any issue. That includes fighting against our schools' COVID fascism. I'm just one person, but I've done more to fight against the COVID tyranny in our schools than this group has. I was on it right away, but look how long it took them. They spend more effort yanking books off library shelves than making sure schools are open like normal.

Kind of like the Campbell County Schools do.

New York! Connecticut! Maine! Game day bucket go boom!

In May, I goed on a road trip to the Northeast. It included Acadia National Park, parts of New York state, and other goodies.

Now I have 231 photos posted from the event! These pictures cover only the first part of the trip, but you're ready to read 'em and peep nonetheless...

http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/ohme23a.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/ohme23b.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/ohme23c.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/ohme23d.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/ohme23e.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/ohme23f.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/ohme23g.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/ohme23h.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/ohme23i.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/ohme23j.html

Have no fear, the August ish is here!

Because this is a month ending in 'bip', a new Last Word is now pub!

The August ish talks about more ruined vacations, my cartoon reviews, sitting on a wad of bubble gum at an Occupy march, a person farting at Bush's inauguration, censorship of DVD's, and more!

So point your pooper here...

https://www.scribd.com/document/662189050/The-Last-Word-8-2023

If that doesn't work, scoot on over here...

http://bunkerblast.info/lastword/lw2308.pdf

How we missed our chance for a safer bridge

The Licking Valley Girl Scouts Bridge is the highway bridge that replaced the Shortway Bridge between Covington and Newport. When it opened in 2001, I immediately noticed the span had a major drawback: Despite the 4 wide lanes of road traffic, it had a sidewalk on only one side and no bike lane whatsoever.

I repeat, this was 2001 - hardly ancient history. By 2001, highway planners should have known to include better pedestrian and bike access, especially since the roadway invited vrooming cars and SUV's. I complained about this bitterly in the years after the bridge opened. I warned point-blank that this was a dangerous - possibly deadly - situation. I pleaded for years for this setup to be corrected.

These warnings were not heeded by highway officials. Last year, a woman was hit by a car and killed while riding a bicycle on this bridge. It was a hit-and-run. A few days ago, a motorist pleaded guilty to a series of charges stemming from the tragedy.

Some local residents pointed out that this was preventable but that nobody tries to remedy things like this until after someone is killed. With the stark decline of our cities in this decade, it's also been noted that Boone County is now vastly outpacing Covington and Newport in adding new bike amenities.

Since officials were warned that the bridge was dangerous and refused to fix it, we should look into criminal or civil penalties against our officials.

The FCC is getting completely screwy

This entry is about the twisted mess American radio is these days - and how the FCC lets it go on.

There's an article in the Detroit Free Press about a small high school radio station in Ontonagon, Michigan, that's been around for 45 years. It even managed to stay on the air during the height of the pandemic, when school was closed. But now an out-of-town religious broadcaster has applied to start a station in the same area on the same frequency.

Outrageously, the FCC rubber-stamped that request, even though that frequency already had a station. The high school station is now being forced to either find a different frequency or go off the air for good.

Managers of the school station learned of this when the religious station sent them an e-mail about it. This e-mail included a list of other frequencies they could move to. Then why didn't the religious station apply for one of those frequencies instead? Is it because it bips?

Even if knocking another station off the air or forcing it to accept interference is allowed under the FCC's rules, part of the FCC's job is to look at each application to see if it serves the public interest. But it never does, and hasn't in years.

Have no fear, the July ish is here!

Celebrate the Fourth on the first with a fifth by poppin' open a keg or three and relaxing with the July issue of The Last Word!

This ish talks about rich people complaining about storefront flowers ruining their vacation, Trump ruining summer camp, my history of broken calculators, Soviet bubble gum, the loss of the original 'Star Wars', and cheese getting wasted at Kroger.

So point your pooper here...

https://www.scribd.com/document/656412439/The-Last-Word-7-2023

If that doesn't work, scoot on over here...

http://bunkerblast.info/lastword/lw2307.pdf

Aspartame to be declared carcinogen

Aspartame is likely the most common artificial sweetener in the world but has been known by researchers for decades to cause cancer. Its carcinogenic properties have only been very rarely even remotely touched on by the media, and any findings on it are always swept under the rug instantly. Official regulators in most countries have rarely even acknowledged that aspartame causes cancer. They have not only failed to regulate it but often encouraged it to be used even more. The company that made it was connected to Donald Rumsfeld.

Now - for the first time - the WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer is planning on listing aspartame as "possibly carcinogenic to humans." This follows studies spanning many years, including one just last year in France that found an elevated cancer risk (which the media completely ignored).

Sadly, I know what the official response by American media and regulators is going to be to the WHO ruling. They considered the WHO's COVID-19 recommendations too lax, as the WHO was less reliant on hard lockdowns and mask mandates than the CDC and most U.S. states were. Those bodies went rogue against the WHO by enacting tougher mandates on the public - especially children. You can bet your bottom dollar that American regulators are going to reject the WHO's stance against aspartame, because they reject the WHO every time the WHO is right about something. On every issue lately, American health officials and media are out of step with the science recognized by everyone else, and their immature contrarianism fuels their policy stances that are diametrically opposed to what science would justify.

Another gimme for developers

Everyone in Cincinnati knows that interests like developers and big sports teams always have their grimy hands out - and officials are always happy to oblige.

Now Ohio is planning on passing a budget provision allowing the city to charge users of services like Uber and Lyft to raise $482 million for the city to give to developers to renovate a hotel near the convention center. This plan is being driven by 3CDC, the economic terrorists who have destroyed amenities like Fountain Square and promoted bottomless gentrification and the COVID police state.

This isn't just a handout to developers. This is really like a tax that not only may hit lower economic groups harder but also others who must rely on rideshare services.

The fleecing continues.

Delaware town's effort to let corporations vote stalls

Is it fascism yet?

Recently, city council in Seaford, Delaware, decided to let corporations vote. Corporations would be permitted to vote in public elections in the same manner that people are supposed to be able to vote.

That's fascism. I don't even need to tell you that, because you're smart enough to read this blog. When corporations are declared to be equivalent to people, it's fascism. In fact, this policy would give corporations more power than people have, as voter suppression looms large all over the country.

Jacobin magazine called Seaford's effort "a radical right-wing experiment that cuts at the basic fabric of democracy."

But Seaford's plan seems to have hit a snag as state lawmakers have failed to approve a measure that would allow city council to go forward with its idiocy.

Here's the real bip-up. Seaford already allows property owners who do not even live in the town to vote. This violates the constitutional principle of one vote per person as well as the longstanding protection against property requirements for voting. And get this. A few cities and towns in Delaware already allow corporations to vote. In fact, the manager of numerous businesses in Newark, Delaware, was allowed to vote 31 times - once for each business. Rehoboth Beach allows trusts representing wealthy property owners who do not live in the town to vote - which is exactly the sort of thing I'd expect after hearing about some of the police state totalitarianism in that town.

One of the big problems with the policies discussed above is that they allow wealth to confer special privileges. It could be for rich individuals who own large businesses or fancy second homes, or for faceless corporations like national retail chains that have a store in that town.

This ranks right up there with "the model" that has turned over practically the entire city of Sandy Springs, Georgia, to corporations.

Where are the lawsuits?

More about local healthcare monopolies

Kentucky has a corrupt system in place that grants monopolies to healthcare facilities and allows only 7 hospitals to operate in northern Kentucky, an area with hundreds of thousands of people.

Four of the 7 certificates belong to one operator that has had some questionable practices of late and posted medical disinformation on social media accounts. I've had good luck with individual doctors there, but it's generally not doctors or other healthcare professionals who run hospitals these days.

But I've also found that one of the 7 certificates is held by a facility that abused me when I was in my late teens but now operates under a different name, as if to hide its soiled reputation. It now has a partnership with the local hospital system that has most of the rest of the region's healthcare business. The facility that abused me now gets terrible reviews on Google, including a brand new review that says it serves raw food. There are also other complaints about inedible food and about other things that were the exact same things that were going on over 30 years ago. This includes reports that staffers have been verbally abusing and beating patients and not giving them blankets.

Some folks these days say that facilities like this don't do the bad things they did 30 years ago and that everything is better now. But 30 years ago, they said these facilities did not do the things they did 30 years before that, yet they were still doing them. Everyone thinks everything is better than it was, but it never gets better in places like that.

It was the Republicans that put this monopoly system in place, but now there's a few Republican legislators trying to fix it, while the Democrats keep coming up with flimsy excuses to keep this system in place. So it's a bipartisan problem, and the only thing that's changed is which party is worse. The long and short of it is that the Democrats have become the party of abusive healthcare monopolies. They've become the party of child abuse in general: Since 2020, Democrats have done more to lock children out of school than the Republicans have. When a Democratic legislator in Virginia fought against school closures, party hacks recruited an opponent to run against him. So much for "Vote blue no matter who."

A person bubbled at Kroger

Today at the friendly neighborhood Krogie-Wogie, some woman was in such a Krogery mood that she bubbled.

Another funny dream

Last night, I had a dream where I was back in high school, and on the last day of the school year, a standardized test got peed on. This caused the school to notify police, and there was a big story on the news about it.

A person bubbled at Penn Station

Indeed they did.

144 photos from Columbus roadmeet!

In April, I goed to the Columbus roadmeet, and the event yielded 144 photos of a Scholaring interest!

I divided them into 6 parts, and you're gonna peep 'em until your face flies off in front of millions...

http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/col23a.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/col23b.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/col23c.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/col23d.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/col23e.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/col23f.html

Illegal tough for all debts, public and private

We are headed harum-scarum down the road of fascist make-me-believe.

Yesterday, when I went to that public pool in Cincinnati, I made sure I brang a credit card. That's because I read on the website that the pool is now cashless - so I could not pay cash for the $4 admission.

All paper money in the U.S. is labeled as "legal tender for all debts, public and private." Period. Full stop. That means cash is supposed to be accepted for goods and services. The pool is perfectly equipped to accept cash. No excuses. It accepted it when I went there in 2019, so it can accept it now.

The fascist World Economic Forum is rubbing its hands together in excitement at the growing trend of places refusing to accept cash. It's like the days when workers were paid only in scrip.

Cash is freedom. Whenever possible, you should pay cash. Use it or lose it.

Have no fear, the June ish is here!

June wouldn't be June if it didn't sneeze up the June ish of The Last Word!

This ish talks about my Northeastern road trip, the humiliation of online Big Pharma apologists, new developments in a 7th grade schoolyard squabble, a ridiculous commercial for picture discs, and more!

So point thy pooper here...

https://www.scribd.com/document/649640495/The-Last-Word-6-2023

If that doesn't work, glide on over here...

http://bunkerblast.info/lastword/lw2306.pdf

As it wasn't

Remember that Cincinnati city pool I visited a few times in 2019? Today I went back there to make use of this rare heat wave.

Celebrity look-alikes have been known to enjoy this public swimming pool. Just ask the Annie Lennox look-alike who I saw back in 2019. Today, I saw a Harry Styles look-alike there.

Also, some woman brang beer into the pool area, in stark violation of an Allowed Cloud. Funny also.

People bubbled at the parade

This morning, I went to the Memorial Day parade, and I saw 2 people who were in such a festive mood that they bubbled.

DVD recorders will soon be useless

For years, I warned that digital TV signals were inferior to the old analog signals, because the nature of digital signals would cause them to break up. Nobody listened. Congress, the FCC, and the TV industry chose instead to stand around and play with themselves.

Now a new standard for digital TV is finally being developed to remedy this problem, and some stations have already started using it - though you need a whole new TV set to watch using this standard. Now there's another problem in addition to having to buy a new set. Some stations are encrypting their signals under the new standard using digital "rights" management.

DRM is a refuge of scoundrels. It already rendered digital music tracks useless. When consumers transferred their music to a new computer, tracks with DRM stopped working. That's like if records were designed to break if you got a new record player (though Panasonic did little short of that with their shitty styluses in the '90s). How will DRM will affect the new TV standard? With the new standard, stations may prevent DVD recorders from recording off the air.

The FCC has a mandate to make sure radio and TV stations operate in the public interest and provide free service to the public. You might think free over-the-air TV is here to stay. But the FCC is doing nothing to prevent encryption of broadcast signals, despite the mandate to make sure these signals are free.

The Empire State strikes back

Some of you may know that I was gone all week on a road trip to the Northeast. It ruled! It was better than dealing with society's mind-blowing public policy decline that has continued unabated for most of the past 40 years.

My string of fact-finding missions is generally beyond the scope of this blog. That's really Last Word material. However, on Wednesday, as we were sitting in traffic in Troy, New York, a woman who drove past bubbled.

I did my patriotic duty!

I'm planning on going on a fact-finding mission in the Northeast next week, so I won't be home during the Kentucky primary on Tuesday, May 16.

That means I had to cast an absentee ballot! A few days ago, I filled out my ballot for Geoff Young for governor and took the sealed ballot down to the drop-off box at the county building.

At this point, I'm experienced enough to know that it's seldom productive to give detailed explanations for each vote. Never invest too much effort in any public figure. I've seen too many political figures abandon their strongest stances. I also know never to vote for Andy Beshear again, after his botched pandemic handling, his support of a Republican tax bill, and other foibles.

You're also probably wondering why I'm still a registered Democrat after Beshear's many screw-ups. I had planned to change my registration, but I am delaying it because President Biden might actually have a viable challenger in the 2024 primary. But only if poo.

Have no fear, the May ish is here!

May wouldn't be May without the May ish of The Last Word!

This edition is a special '90s flashback ish! In addition to the recent Columbus roadmeet, this ish talks about '90s events like the Highland Heights City Council meeting with the Monty Burns look-alike, a professor finding a mess in a restroom, the Phil's Gum City commercial, and hilarious online trolls.

Scribd is again blocking it, but you can still find this ish by gliding on over here...

http://bunkerblast.info/lastword/lw2305.pdf

A person bunkerooed at the Columbus bus station

Earlier this evening, I arrived home from the Columbus roadmeet! I plan to include details of it in the next Last Word, but it's obligatory that I post here about the fact that when I was at the Columbus bus terminal, ready to return to Cincinnati, I detected the hilarious sound of 2 loud-and-proud bunker blasts!

Idaho bans corporal punishment in schools

We're pleased to add Idaho as another state that has prohibited corporal punishment in public schools, as state lawmakers have actually passed what appears to be one of the most forward-thinking laws on the subject anywhere in the country.

What's interesting in this case is that Idaho actually has one of the most Republican legislatures in America. For a long time, the Republicans were the ones fighting to paddle kids more, but now that's the Democrats' specialty. In our part of the country, it's the Democratic-leaning major cities where schools have lately resorted to more extreme forms of physical punishment. The Lexington Herald-Leader recently reported that schools in Lexington now use pepper spray as a disciplinary tool. The same has been occurring in Memphis.

Hey Dems, how does it feel to be the party of paddling and pepper spraying 6-year-olds?

Michael Moore look-alike sighted

Remember Michael Moore? He was an Academy Award-winning filmmaker. He used to make some great movies, but now he just stovepipes whatever Apple tells him to say.

Today, at the Wendy's in Newport, I saw a Michael Moore look-alike.

Have no fear, the April ish is here!

Because you're so cool, the April ish of The Last Word is pub. Scribd is blocking it again, and won't respond to my support ticket from last Friday, but you can read the latest Last Word on my own site!

This ish talks about a Central American cruise I didn't go on, legislators vandalizing a restroom at the Kentucky State Capitol, 'Solid Gold', the box-eating chair, the downfall of record fairs, and more!

So point your pooper here...

http://bunkerblast.info/lastword/lw2304.pdf

Aunt Edna goes to the bank

Remember that actress Imogene Coca? Today, I saw an Imogene Coca look-alike bicycling through the parking lot at the bank. She looked like Imogene Coca did when she was older, around the time she played Aunt Edna in 'National Lampoon's Vacation'.

I also received a very important e-mail declaring that a Nina Blackwood look-alike was sighted at a park.