From an endangered moderate Republican comes this spot-on final word about the 2012 national election.

I bow, scrape and supplicate. I wish I could have written this, although perhaps the fact that I am NOT a moderate Republican denies me a unique perspective. Whatever the reason: Yes ... that's it. Thanks to K for the link.

Cry Babies And Sore Losers

I’m seeing Americans post photos of our Flag hung upside down because the President won reelection. They’re defending this action as a “Naval sign of distress”. Let me tell you something: you are not on a battleship, you are a manager at McDonalds in Follansbee, WV, and you are in fact, a lunatic.

Our next guest on “Connect the Grandstanding Dots” is none other than Councilman Cappuccino!

(A pair of hands clapping. Ants shuffle across the sidewalk. A pin drops. Somewhere, a dog barks)

Councilman Cappuccino’s non-benignly neglected 1st council district figures prominently in two Tribune news stories, both by Daniel Suddeath.

Your task as reader is to use the encrypted secret agent code found on the back of Dan Coffey’s Bazooka Joe University degree in zoning and redevelopment, take your grimy old Rubik’s Cube out for a fresh spin, read the tea leaves (Lipton only, please), grind some batwing with mortar and pestle from Granny’s kitchen out in Bugtussel (or was it Birdseye?), and conclude how these two items are related.

You have three guesses … and the first two don’t count. Have fun!

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Lopp Properties eyes west end development

Local commercial developer Lopp Properties has announced plans for a mixed-use project in New Albany’s west end that would include restaurants, retail stores and hotel and office space. Lopp Properties President John Lopp said in a Friday news release the company is in the initial stages of acquiring property along West Main Street and West Spring Street.

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New Albany City Council votes Monday on TIF expansions

Councilman Dan Coffey will introduce a resolution asking for zoning changes in the west end. A petition with several signatures is circulating asking the council to zone West 4th Street west to West 10th Street, and Falling Run Creek south to Main Street as neighborhood residential. The petition states the change would not affect existing businesses.

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All right ... how'd you do?

Good, but don't forget that what we're witnessing here is a transparent reprise of the Wizard of Westside's perpetual jihad against economic development, against human reason, and against all things that strike him as more modern than a backyard privy. If that weren't the case, why is he trying to frighten his own constituents by feeding them tales about their properties being seized?

To paraphrase a dear friend, "any council member who plays along with him from here on out ... deserves no mercy."

Wrong teleprompter, bub.

It’s sublime narcissism, indeed, for Indiana’s property tax “revolutionaries” to imagine themselves populating an Ayn Rand novel and announcing that they intend to stop the engine of local government.

The only difference is that good, bad or indifferent, the original John Galt at least had a counter-proposal. The current crop doesn’t. They’re playing roles in Rand’s novel – just not the ones they think.

People like New Albany’s resident nutty professor have latched on to this issue for one reason and one reason only: As a means to sate a lifetime of pathological grudges while camped safely on the sidelines of relevance. Along with the Steve Prices of the world, they can offer nothing save for civic decay management. That simply isn’t enough for a 21st century city, although I suppose that at the end of the day, it scratches an itch.

The wrong one, but an itch.