Tuesday 21 May 2024 10:03:34 1716303814

Lessee, today is 19 May. Guess it isn't too early to get ready for Juneteenth. I wouldn't notice it except for the spike in homicides in the urban areas. And the news coverage. Whole month of February, Juneteenth, anything else? I guess Juneteenth is just one day but it seems the violence goes on longer, before and after. You don't suppose... nah, wouldn't be prudent. Those other malcontents have the entire year covered:

February -   February 7: National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day
  -   Week after Valentine's Day: Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week
  -   February 28: HIV Is Not A Crime Awareness Day
March -   March: Bisexual Health Awareness Month
  -   Week varies in March: National LGBT Health Awareness Week
  -   March 10: National Women & Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day
  -   March 20: National Native HIV/AIDS Awareness Day
  -   March 31: International Transgender Day of Visibility
April -   April 6: International Asexuality Da
  -   April 10: National Youth HIV/AIDS ADay
  -   Third Friday of April: Day of Silence
  -   April 18: National Transgender HIV Testing Day
  -   April 18: Nonbinary Parents Day
  -   April 26: Lesbian Visibility Day
May -   First Sunday In May: International Family Equality Day
  -   May 17: International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia
  -   May 19: National Asian & Pacific Islander HIV/AIDS Awareness Day
  -   May 22: Harvey Milk Day
  -   May 24: Pansexual and Panromantic Awareness and Visibility Day
June -   June: LGBTQ Pride Month
  -   June 1: LGBTQ Families Day
  -   June 12: Pulse Remembrance
  -   June 15: Anniversary of U.S. Supreme Court Bostock decision
  -   June 26: Anniversary of U.S. Supreme Court legalizing marriage equality
  -   June 27: National HIV Testing Day
  -   June 28: Stonewall Day
  -   June 30: Queer Youth of Faith Day
July -   Week of July 14: Nonbinary Awareness Week,
  -   July 16: International Drag Day
August -   August 14: Gay Uncles Day
  -   August 20: Southern HIV/AIDS Awareness Day
September -   September 18: National HIV/AIDS & Aging Awareness Day
  -   Week of September 23: Bisexual+ Awareness Week
  -   September 27: National Gay Men's HIV/AIDS Awareness Day
October -   October: LGBTQ History Month
  -   October 8: International Lesbian Day
  -   October 11: National Coming Out Day
  -   October 15: National Latinx HIV/AIDS Awareness Day
  -   October 19: National LGBT Center Awareness Day
  -   Third Wednesday in October: International Pronouns Day
  -   Third Thursday in October: Spirit Day
  -   Last week in October: Asexual Awareness Week
  -   October 26: Intersex Awareness Day
November -   First Sunday of November: Transgender Parent Day
  -   November 13-19: Transgender Awareness Week
  -   November 20: Transgender Day of Remembrance
December -   December 1: World AIDS Day
  -   December 8: Pansexual/Panromantic Pride Day
  -   December 14: HIV Cure Research Day

No need to comment - it is what it is. The Jonestown telly and paper both did their duty, nothing on either of the independent sites - yet. Since the festivities are a ways off let's see what else we got.

Dunno who found these controversial. Whoever objected probably. What's controversial about this?

'The four acts now going into effect create a stricter signature-matching process for mail-in ballots, shorter deadlines to turn in absentee ballots, require voters who cast a provisional ballot to provide a photo ID within six days of the election, and ban anyone except voters from coming within 100 feet of a polling place, including campaigners and volunteers,' our content partner KARK reported. (KAIT)

Makes sense to most people, which is why the usual suspects did what the usual suspects do. Fortunately Arkansas is about as red as you can get, just doesn't get as much attention as Florida and Texas so these things usually don't succeed.

Seems the state is going to help out some folks with their water. Dunno about you but I pay a pretty good bill on all three of my properties, in two counties and three separate systems. Do we have some municipalities here in Arkansas that are like Flint? I was born in Flint and lived there for four years, guess I can blame the water for me being a little nuts. Actually that was sixty years ago and the place was in pretty decent shape then. I would be interested in seeing which ones get the money. Arkansas has a pretty fair budget surplus so I don't begrudge some needy folks being helped. Theoretically it's almost all loans - five million from the taxpayers - so it might get paid back. Some municipalities like the ones I was talking about the other day have declining populations and not much revenue coming in. Of course they could just do the sensible thing and shut down the towns, save a lot of money.

In other news a former speaker of the Arkansas House of Representatives died. I don't remember him - whenever Arkansas had a dim majority in either house were dark days. Last time was in 2013 (just for a few days that year as it changed to Republican) and that is a good thing. Not gonna speak ill of the dead - being a dim is all you need to know.

I checked on the Paragould newspaper to see if anything significant was up. A denizen of Little Rock was arrested there for theft of property, four counts of theft of property (credit/debit card), breaking or entering and engaging in a continuing criminal gang, organization or enterprise'. With all the transient crime around here do we have people just traveling around doing crimes? I know Jonestown has for a long time had malefactors from Memphis and a lot of the Paragould influx has been from Memphis. I suppose if you're a predator you're looking for prey and wherever it takes you... you know, opportunistic feeders.

Seriously fast justice here. It usually takes longer than that to set a trial date - did the perp just decide to get it over with and cop a plea? It would be nice if more cases could be disposed of that way, however they did it.

Not in NEA but the local telly outlet covers part of Misery. Are graduation shootings a new category or are they just filed under 'mass shootings' when there is more than one shootee? Guess I could check and see if Wickedpedia has a category for that since there seem to be a few of them these days. Or maybe people are just shooting people all over the place. They had a shooting in Savannah Georgia, actually three or so, no deaders. The mayor said 'proliferation of guns was a factor in the shootings and that reasonable gun control laws are needed.' Well Mr. Mayor, I say that people like you are the main factor in most crime these days and it is those people that need to be controlled. OK? As for Cape, I used to stop there when driving to St. Louis and that area, seems like a nice enough town. It's best known as the hometown of the great El Rushbo.

Are Dodge Chargers involved in an inordinate number of certain types of accidents and crimes? Actually I can neither confirm nor deny that, but I do know the answer.