Mutchler's letter ... or, the thoroughly depressing week that was, Part 2.

In these numbingly stupid times, it's no longer possible to differentiate between fact and The Onion. In fact, The Onion is probably more factual than many alleged news sources.

But there was nothing Onion-like about Thursday's "open letter" from Dave Mutchler, president of the Fraternal Order of Police in Louisville.

I write not as a candidate, just as an ordinary citizen engaged for many years in the pursuit of small business -- and moreover, as someone who tries to live by the rules of the game and tries his best to know why we have these rules, and what they mean.

I know plenty of policemen, and do my best to support the cop on the street. Always have, always will, and yet Mutchler's words were absolutely blood-curdling for anyone who has paid the slightest bit of attention to the outside world.

"Sensationalist, liars and race-baiters" sounds plainly like rhetoric pulled directly from the worst chapters of 20th-century history books -- you know, the ones we typically refuse to read -- as uttered by people in Mutchler's position in places like Franco's Spain, the Uganda of Idi Amin, or in East Germany.

And let me tell you that having traveled in Communist countries, policemen were feared, precisely because the definition of who constituted a "lawless element" was subject to change on whim.

At Insider Louisville, Joe Dunman offers his usual precision take.

Opinion: In a free society we are entitled, right or wrong, to criticize the actions of public servants — including police.

 ... Mutchler’s letter is so dangerous because police officers wield tremendous power and privilege. Our life and liberty as citizens are often literally in their hands. When someone claiming to represent police officers puts citizens “on notice” for their “attitude,” promising to meet them “with force” should they dare not comply with orders, it invokes the most terrifying aspects of a fascist police state.

Police are public servants. They answer to all of us as citizens, even those who don’t reflexively defend their every action. They don’t get to decide who in the community they will protect and who they will target for retribution. That’s not how a democratic, constitutional society works.

I assume by criticizing Mutchler’s ill-conceived threats to the public I will be added to his list of “sensationalists, liars, and race-baiters.”

So be it. In a free society we are entitled, right or wrong, to criticize the actions of our public servants without fear of retribution by agents of the government. Those public servants swear an oath to the Constitution, which still includes, much to Mr. Mutchler’s apparent disdain, the First Amendment.

Of course, Mutchler's subsequent denial of a threatening tone to the words he chose to use testifies more than anything else to several generations of Americans passing through the portals of our education system without instruction as to the meaning of words and how to write them coherently.

The letter was so disturbing that even the milquetoast Courier Journal was moved to rare editorial eloquence.

Editorial | Don’t let Mutchler inflame tensions (The Courier-Journal)

 ... Then, we had to spend a day trying to make sense of the uncivil and unproductive letter from Fraternal Order of Police president Dave Mutchler.

Knowing that our own words are often misinterpreted or misunderstood, we read and re-read his comments. We tried walking a mile in the shoes of an obviously frustrated FOP president. But those shoes kept getting mired in one of the key byproducts of the backside at Churchill Downs.

There are times when we're looking for answers, and while the right answer may be elusive, we can at least eliminate the wrong ones. Mutchler's letter was just such a wrong answer, and that's the best I can do at the moment.

Following are two other explanatory links.

Local FOP president sends threatening open letter to ‘sensationalists, liars and race-baiters’ (UPDATED), by Joe Sonka (Insider Louisville)

Mayor and police chief issue condemnation of FOP president, by Joe Sonka (IL)

Charleston and the Confederacy ... or, the thoroughly depressing week that was, Part 1.

Once again, in the absence of any shared commitment to historical truth, we turn to a comedian to provide critical insight.

I honestly have nothing other than just sadness once again that we have to peer into the abyss of the depraved violence that we do to each other and the nexus of a just gaping racial wound that will not heal, yet we pretend doesn’t exist. And I’m confident, though, that by acknowledging it, by staring into that and seeing it for what it is, we still won’t do jack shit. Yeah. That’s us.

Meanwhile, sorry if it hurts your feelings, but the Confederacy was all about racism, folks. History just shouldn't be an elective.

What the Confederate flag really means to America today, according to a race historian, by Roberto A. Ferdman (Washington Post)

 ... But I also think that people invoke the flag because they want to endorse on some level, even if secretly or subconsciously, the very rationale for the Confederacy. When people say 'heritage not hate,’ they are omitting the obvious, which is that that heritage is hate. When someone says it’s about history, well, that particular history is inseparable from hate, because it is about hate. It’s about racism, and it’s about slavery.

Gone fishing.

Not really.

Fishing holds no great appeal to me, although eating fish can be pleasant enough, so you catch 'em, and I'll bring the beer. Find a third, and maybe he or she can produce cole slaw.

Speaking of beer, yesterday was the deadline for my quarterly submission to Food & Dining Magazine.

The day started at Gordon Biersch in Louisville. Next came the usual writing, rewriting and re-rewriting of the article itself, and then a mug of Marzen from the Gordon Biersch growler as reward for finishing. It paired nicely with homecooked tacos for dinner.

Friends of the missus made an unexpected appearance, so we made more tacos. Additional growlers were procured. A cigar was smoked. Conversation flowed, time passed, and it was midnight. Naturally, we slept in this morning.

I'm coming to a couple of points.

One, that today I'm annoyed to have wasted an evening drinking beer when there is so much to do, this being a prime reason why I drink so much less beer than ever before.

But, who can be annoyed for long when there is a chance to stop life in its tracks for just a little while and enjoy simple pleasures with friends? No television was necessary, and for this we must be grateful.

Finally, while being spotted drinking a few beers may inflame the puritanical instincts of some observers, there is a considerable difference between such relaxation and ensuing denunciations of drunken debauchery.

After all, fermentation is a natural process. For those of a deistic bent, fermentation issues from God's handbook of earthly delights. During WWII, Winston Churchill never ceased drinking champagne for breakfast, while Adolf Hitler was a teetotaler.

My case makes itself.

Today there is work to be done. Time was squandered last night, though not really, and there'll probably be more of it to use or abuse.

My recent pattern has been an evening with beers followed by five or six without -- except, of course, on city council nights, when extreme, sodden gin-swilling alone provides the altered consciousness necessary to fathom Dan Coffey.

I'm only joking.

I think.

A feather knocks us over as Democrats belatedly shuffle, mumble and pander about oppression.

Given that the Floyd County Democratic Party has been censoring me on social media since December, 2014, it's true that I only rarely visit the party's propaganda hive at Facebook.

ON THE AVENUES: The Adamite Chronicles: Have muzzle, will drivel.

Consequently, I definitely missed this post late last night.

Let's review.

Weeks of silence pass, and at the very last opportunity to indicate the presence of a pulse, however faint, Adam Dickey waits until a brand new autonomous organization steps up to what might have been the Democratic Party's bully pulpit, and then -- only then -- oozes a tepid late-night statement of solidarity with the oppressed ... who have been waiting in vain for weeks on end for Adam's tea leaves to magically align.

And does not so much as mention Dan Coffey's name.

That's passionate, raw courage, isn't it?

In the narrowest of possible interpretations, then yes -- the local Democratic Party has not been silent about Coffey's anti-LGBT slurs, which were captured and documented on film.

But with leaders like these, who needs enemies?

Previously: 

June 11: ON THE AVENUES: This is Dan Coffey, New Albany’s quintessential Democrat.

June 4: ON THE AVENUES: Dan Coffey speaks for Jeff Gahan and the Democratic Party … unless they say otherwise.

And the uncontested winner is: Dan Coffey's vile, bigoted New Albany.

8:15 a.m. update: I missed last night's belated Democratic social media agitprop on the topic.


Following last evening's predictably anti-climactic council meeting, here's your Dan Coffey LGBT Slur Scorecard.

Coffey: No apologies, because knowing your peers are astoundingly weak means never having to say you're sorry.

Pat McLaughlin's City Council: Silent.

Jeff Gahan's City Hall: Silent. Evidently the mayor left his pooper scooper leaning against the plaque in Bicentennial Park.

Adam Dickey's Democratic Party: Silent. Coffey delivers votes to a party that stands for nothing, which makes him a superstar among the posturing.

Chris Lane's Republican Party: Silent, but understandably so. Why on earth would Lane utter a single word when Coffey's happily toeing the GOP's primeval sociability line, and the Democrats seem determined to issue hourly shotgun blasts to their own feet?

Welcome to your so-called civic leaders.

Welcome to their willingness to play their silly small-pond games of politics as usual while one of their own tramples the city's image.

Welcome to New Albany, where fundamental rules never, ever matter, but where the Democratic Kool-Aid is awesome.

The conclusion? It's the essence of simplicity. These "leaders" have not led, and are not leading. If you're appalled at Coffey's antics, these "leaders" have shrugged and let you down. They're not supporting you.

Why continue supporting them?

Another might-fit: Bread and circuses.

It was only after publishing yesterday's ON THE AVENUES column ...

ON THE AVENUES: These 10 definitions will help you speak local politics like a native.

... that the term "bread and circuses" occurred to me.

"Bread and circuses" (or bread and games; from Latin: panem et circenses) is metonymic for a superficial means of appeasement. In the case of politics, the phrase is used to describe the generation of public approval, not through exemplary or excellent public service or public policy, but through diversion; distraction; or the mere satisfaction of the immediate, shallow requirements of a populace, as an offered "palliative." Its originator, Juvenal, used the phrase to decry the selfishness of common people and their neglect of wider concerns. The phrase also implies the erosion or ignorance of civic duty amongst the concerns of the commoner.

There is a degree of symmetry between "bread and circuses" and another phrase, "let them eat cake."

While it is commonly attributed to Queen Marie Antoinette, there is no record of this phrase ever having been said by her. It appears in Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Confessions, his autobiography (whose first six books were written in 1765, when Marie Antoinette was nine years of age, and published in 1782). The context of Rousseau's account was his desire to have some bread to accompany some wine he had stolen; however, in feeling he was too elegantly dressed to go into an ordinary bakery, he thus recollected the words of a "great princess". As he wrote in Book 6:

Enfin je me rappelai le pis-aller d’une grande princesse à qui l’on disait que les paysans n’avaient pas de pain, et qui répondit : Qu’ils mangent de la brioche.

Finally I recalled the stopgap solution of a great princess who was told that the peasants had no bread, and who responded: "Let them eat brioche."

See what I did there with the French phrase?

At any rate, in France (and most of Europe) bread was daily subsistence for the peasants, and brioche (cake) a richer and more expensive treat, so to suggest that the peasants might eat cake in the absence of bread was to be oblivious to socio-economic reality -- as when pricing season passes for a water park intended for all, as opposed to some.

As rhetorical swords go, "bread and circuses" is double -edged. We might express disdain for the ruler who distracts the people with restaurants and free performances, but what of the people permitting themselves to be distracted?

ON THE AVENUES: These 10 definitions will help you speak local politics like a native.

ON THE AVENUES: These 10 definitions will help you speak local politics like a native.

A weekly web column by Roger A. Baylor.

It is a matter of considerable disappointment that I’ve never learned to speak a foreign language, at least outside of Restaurant Menu German, Ask for a Beer in Russian and Really Simple Numbers Spanish.

Accordingly, it annoys me when a writer inserts a foreign language phrase into the narrative without translation, especially when it’s French.

Stray Latin words that have crept into our vernacular (“Et tu, Brute?”) are one thing, but interrupting the account of a soccer match to quote Montesquieu strikes me as both pretentious and unnecessary.

On the other hand, finding the right word or words is crucial to communication, and readers “getting” it is the entire point of writing. Often I, too, make references to concepts using words and phrases which I assume are widely understood, but actually are not.

Today, with the magic of cut, paste and Wikipedia (except where noted), it is my aim to clarify certain words, phrases and concepts. There’ll be a definition, and a local example. Let’s begin with rage against the machine.

Political Machine

A political machine is a political organization in which an authoritative boss or small group commands the support of a corps of supporters and businesses (usually campaign workers), who receive rewards for their efforts. The machine's power is based on the ability of the workers to get out the vote for their candidates on election day.

Although these elements are common to most political parties and organizations, they are essential to political machines, which rely on hierarchy and rewards for political power, often enforced by a strong party whip structure. Machines sometimes have a political boss, often rely on patronage, the spoils system, "behind-the-scenes" control, and longstanding political ties within the structure of a representative democracy. The term may have a pejorative sense referring to corrupt political machines.

The Democratic Party machine controls municipal politics in New Albany, and the Republican Party machine in Floyd County, enabling them to maintain a comfy two-party monopoly on power. Among the indispensable cogs in the local patronage political party machine is the …

Ward Heeler

A ward heeler is an American urban political operative who works for a political party in a political ward, the smallest electoral subdivision of a city, usually in order to achieve an election result. A ward heeler may have controlling influence with a small clique in the ward organization. Often, ward heelers have been low-level operatives soliciting votes and performing campaign tasks on behalf of a political boss, including get-out-the-vote efforts, placing campaign signage, coordination of constituent support, etc. In many urban areas, ward heelers also serve as precinct captains.

In spite of the fact that Dan Coffey adheres to no coherent ideology apart from his jowly image in the mirror, his skill at ward heeling – particularly within the Autonomous Republic of Riverview Towers – means he never has to say he’s sorry. Ironically, Uncle Joe Stalin began as a ward heeler for the Bolsheviks, later graduating to …

Cult of Personality

A cult of personality arises when an individual uses mass media, propaganda, or other methods, to create an idealized, heroic, and at times, worshipful image, often through unquestioning flattery and praise.

For almost four years, New Albany’s current mayor has avoided making his first mistake in office. It is a consecutive-day errorless streak without parallel in politics. When missteps have occurred, they’ve been the fault of others. Constantly he produces shiny and magnanimous gifts for his constituents, and does so without raising taxes. He is everywhere, and yet nowhere, his image on the Book of Face, his name on numerous plaques.

Pssst … excuse me, but do you mind if I steal a glance behind that façade on the film studio backlot …

Potemkin Village

The phrase "Potemkin village" was originally used to describe a fake portable village, built only to impress. According to the story, Grigory Potemkin erected the fake portable settlement along the banks of the Dnieper River in order to fool Empress Catherine II during her journey to Crimea in 1787. The phrase is now used, typically in politics and economics, to describe any construction (literal or figurative) built solely to deceive others into thinking that some situation is better than it really is.

Our new water sports palace is very nice, thank you, but have you walked through an alleyway lately?

Seen the condition of some of our housing stock?

Tried to cross the street at Main and W. 1st?

Noticed the proliferation of Dollar General Stores on all available street corners?

It’s looking more and more like …

Smoke and mirrors

A metaphor for a deceptive, fraudulent or insubstantial explanation or description. The source of the name is based on magicians' illusions, where magicians make objects appear or disappear by extending or retracting mirrors amid a distracting burst of smoke. The expression may have a connotation of virtuosity or cleverness in carrying out such a deception.

Another recurring local political favorite is the ‘ol …

Bait-and-switch

A form of fraud used in retail sales but also employed in other contexts. First, customers are "baited" by merchants' advertising products or services at a low price, but when customers visit the store, they discover that the advertised goods are not available, or the customers are pressured by sales people to consider similar, but higher priced items ("switching").

“Hello. I see you carry the economy packets of Municipal Budget. Can I have one of them, please? What’s that? You’re out of those, but you have the 40% Larger in Less Than Five Years size? Hmm, can I think about it for a minute? What? Whaddya mean I’ve already paid for it?”

Transparency

As used in science, engineering, business, the humanities and in other social contexts, it implies openness, communication, and accountability. Transparency is operating in such a way that it is easy for others to see what actions are performed. It has been defined simply as "the perceived quality of intentionally shared information from a sender".

As David Duggins demonstrated at Tuesday’s merchant meeting, “transparency” in New Albany is when anyone needing anything from government supplies an itemized, exhaustive list of motives, causes, effects and outcomes to a board of “works” that meets weekly at 10:00 a.m. and refuses to be bothered any other day or way, and when transparency is turned the other way around, it means government will conceive, plan, approve and execute a $20 million dollar TIF bond for parks without the benefit of a single substantive public meeting until after the plan is finished, primarily because …

Monetization

The term "monetization" may be used informally to refer to exchanging possessions for cash or cash equivalents, including selling a security interest, charging fees for something that used to be free, or attempting to make money on goods or services that were previously unprofitable or had been considered to have the potential to earn profits.

In New Albany, monetization occurs when the political machine utilizes non-transparency to fund capital projects (or Potemkin Villages) by bonding debt, incorporating the ward heeler’s share, as well as guaranteeing that lists of future political donors will include the same names as those on the contracts to design and construct the expensive capital projects. Many diverse beaks are made wet, and the circle remains unbroken, except that perhaps we’re finally about to witness a …

Revolution of Rising Expectations

Popularized during the 1950s in discussions of the foreign and developmental aid policies of the United States, the term was used to describe the hope of the poorest counties for a better future in the wake of postwar decolonialization. It was said that rising expectations embodied the 20th century’s “real” revolution insofar as it represented for the vast majority of the world’s population a break from centuries of stagnation, fatalism, and exploitation. (Encyclopedia.com)

In a New Albanian context, rising expectations are that the traditional political bait ‘n’ switch is replaced by merit and efficiency in civic management, wherein the city’s infrastructure and assets are deployed to provide a more level playing field for residents every day, not every now and then, and from the grassroots building upward, rather than trickling down.

It’s a point best made when borrowing a term from Teddy.

Bully pulpit

A sufficiently conspicuous position that provides an opportunity to speak out and be listened to. This term was coined by President Theodore Roosevelt, who referred to the White House as a "bully pulpit", by which he meant a terrific platform from which to advocate an agenda. Roosevelt used the word bully as an adjective meaning "superb" or "wonderful", a more common usage in his time than it is today. Another expression which survives from this era is "bully for you", synonymous with "good for you".

1,466 words, and not a single one of them French.

You’re welcome.

---

Recent columns:

June 11: ON THE AVENUES: This is Dan Coffey, New Albany’s quintessential Democrat.

June 4: ON THE AVENUES: Dan Coffey speaks for Jeff Gahan and the Democratic Party … unless they say otherwise.

May 28: ON THE AVENUES: The last of the summer beer.

May 21: ON THE AVENUES REWOUND: "I Just Want to Know, Can I Park Here Somewhere?”

May 14: ON THE AVENUES: Take this cult of personality and shove it.

May 7: ON THE AVENUES: In Havel I trust.

I'm a guest on the Rusty Satellite Show today, so go and listen.

Multi-modal Louisville journalist Rick Redding and I have many mutual friends, and we've "known" each other through social media and the internet for a very long time, but our first actual face to face meeting came only yesterday at the Public House.

The upshot: I'm on Rick's Rusty Satellite podcast today.

So is Christopher 2X, who like me recently submitted to a colon cancer screening, a topic Rick wrote about at Insider Louisville a few days ago.

Colon cancer screenings can save lives – have you gotten yours yet?

Here's the podcast pitch.

Go listen.

Talking with 2X, Beers and Blogging with Roger Baylor

Roger Baylor was advocating craft beer before it was such a craze, and he was blogging about important local issues when most people in New Albany didn’t know what a blog was. But now he’s made a name for himself challenging the status quo and politics of the city, and he’s running for Mayor. And still trying to convince people to steer clear of Bud Light. I’m looking forward to watching the Mayor’s race over there.

Coincidence? I don’t know but the same week that I was writing a column about Colon Cancer Prevention Week for Insider Louisville, both 2X and Baylor told me about their recent experience getting a colonoscopy.

Deutschland '83: Finally, television I'd like to watch.

I'm notorious for watching very little television -- an hour a week, sometimes two, and just about all of it on the public channels. There are so many worthy books to read.

However, this series sounds like it was written and filmed just for me. Accordingly, I missed last night's premiere. In fact, I couldn't have watched it, given that we have only the local channels on cable.

Some day ...

Spies, Bananas, and the Berlin Wall: ‘Deutschland 83,’ the Summer’s Best New Show, Premieres Tonight, by Andy Greenwald (Grantland)

It’s an eight-part series about a baby-faced East German soldier named Martin who is secreted into the West German army as a spy in 1983, when the Cold War was at its hottest and synth-pop was at its coolest.

Walkability might as well begin with the intersection of Main and West 1st, so can it begin now?

At yesterday's downtown merchant meeting, a representative of the YMCA observed that it can be very difficult for cars coming from Y's side of West 1st Street to see eastbound oncoming traffic on Main, owing to cars parked in front of what will soon be the Floyd County Brewing Company.

She asked David Duggins, the city's economic development director. if something might be done about the parked cars.

Granted, it's a question for the Board of Public Works and Safety, but as we've seen, the board doesn't emerge from its Tuesday morning lair, and naturally it is fitting and proper for city official like Duggins to attend meetings like the merchant mixer.

Listening to this exchange, it immediately occurred to me that (a) the true danger lies with the speed of traffic and the concurrent absence of four-way stop at the intersection, and (b) it's an inexcusable state of affairs not only for drivers of cars, but more importantly, for people walking.

When FCBC opens, there will be heavily patronized businesses (and the non-profit YMCA) on all four corners. Already we've noted the dangers for people trying to cross these streets. In fact, it's been eight months since I pointed to this (see the links below). Pins drop, crickets chirp.

So, yesterday morning, taking all this into consideration, and understanding that my question is better directed to Warren Nash than David Duggins, I decided to ask it, anyway.

Given the hazards for walkers at this uncontrolled intersection, does the city have any plans to calm traffic and/or install crosswalks (and, as Ian Hall subsequently noted, improve lighting for nighttime walkers)?

Duggins' answer: Well, uh, no.

It's the perfect example of a city potentially using the infrastructure (streets and sidewalks) it already owns and manages to help local businesses without directly awarding them grants, abatements and other direct subsidies.

It's the perfect example of complete streets as economic development drivers AND quality of life enhancers for non-automotive users -- and the drivers of cars would benefit, too.

It's the perfect example of an opportunity to promote public safety.

But in order to succeed, City Hall has to get a grip, have a pulse, and grasp what walkability really means. Currently it does not, and with each passing day, the odds of a tragedy occurring get better, not worse. It is inexcusable.

Let's transform this intersection into a human-friendly, safe conduit for patrons of these businesses and the YMCA to pass back and forth between them without fearing for the lives.

My links from last October:

Must we wait for a traffic study to slow traffic and put crosswalks at the corner of Main and W. 1st?

Which downtown New Albany intersections are the very worst for walkers?

Observe free throw technique with Rick Barry of the 1975 Golden State Warriors.

The Golden State Warriors captured the NBA championship last night in Cleveland.

It is the Oakland-based franchise's first crown since 1975, when Gerald Ford was President and the American Basketball Association remained alive, with Artis Gilmore and the Colonels still playing in Louisville.

Rick Barry was the star for the 1975 Golden State Warriors, and this clip shows how he compiled one of the highest free throw percentages in league history.

They don't do it this way any longer, and in fact, Barry was the only one doing it this way when he played.

Check it out.

Read this now: "How Thor's Hammer Made Its Way Onto Soldiers' Headstones."

As we learned yesterday, the Hammer of Thor is included among the VA-approved emblems for federal military cemeteries cited yesterday.

The posting produced this comment from a blog reader.

The VA's list of available emblems for headstones and markers might help Dan Coffey choose invocation contestants.

So emblem 16 just demonstrates the intolerance and lack of respect shown by some elected members of New Albany's City Council.

The US government respects folks' religious opinions so much they even have a symbol for non-believers, allowing all to be equal in a federal military cemetery. No one's belief or non-belief is held up as better than any other.

Exactly why compulsory Council prayer to some one's notion of a "legitimate religion" is so repugnant.

Ranging back to the Hammer of Thor, reader KS provides this link, which helpfully explains ...

How Thor's Hammer Made Its Way Onto Soldiers' Headstones

... To summarize, Thor’s hammer represents heroism, nobility, self-reliance, and honor. It’s a symbol with a history that extends back a thousand years to pre-Christian Europe. And adherents of Odinism, the religion that Thor’s hammer represents, tend to make natural soldiers. Oh, and it also shares a pretty strong cultural heritage with a superhero who is, in his own weird, Technicolor, space viking way, as American as apple pie. How strange would it be, then, if the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs—the organization that oversees cemeteries dedicated to U.S. veterans and ultimately says which symbols can be used therein to represent your religious faith—had a problem with Thor’s hammer?

But for decades, the VA did have a problem with Thor’s hammer. Not so much for what Mjölnir stood for but because it was a pagan symbol, and pagan symbols were verboten.

With paganism usually viewed as an "umbrella term of convenience" covering numerous traditions, there isn't a single shared symbol or emblem.

What's more, "legitimate" religions like those venerated by Dan "Manic 7th Street Preacher" Coffey commonly denounce paganism, associating it with Satanism and witchcraft, thus complicating the decision-making process. In this instance, families of dead soldiers refused to compromise with the VA, and fought for the wishes of their loved ones.

 ... On September 25, 2005, Sergeant Patrick Stewart was killed in action in Afghanistan when a rocket-propelled grenade shot down his Chinook helicopter. An avowed Wiccan, it was Sgt. Stewart’s wish to be buried underneath the Pentacle. His widow, Roberta Stewart, petitioned for her husband to have his wishes respected by the Department of Veterans Affairs, but the VA stuck to their guns, claiming that the Pentacle was not a "recognized emblem of faith." The matter quickly came to a head, with Americans United for the Separation of Church and State filing a lawsuit on Stewart’s behalf in November 2006, arguing that the VA was showing favoritism for some faiths over others by having an "approved list" of religious symbols under which a soldier could be buried.

There was a settlement and the Pentacle was approved. Subsequently, "the Department of Veterans Affairs got out of the deciding game," but not until testimony from an embarrassing source was unceremoniously discarded.

On May 10, 2013, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs quietly made an update to its official list of approved emblems, adding Thor’s hammer, Mjölnir. "There was no press release, no announcement, nothing," Pitzl-Waters marvels. "They just dumped the symbol, and all of a sudden, there was Thor’s hammer."

It's an article worth reading in its entirety.

The VA's list of available emblems for headstones and markers might help Dan Coffey choose invocation contestants.

Yesterday, reader W took issue with 1st district councilman Dan "Wizard of Westside & Dispenser of Soulful Balm" Coffey's ongoing insistence that only "legitimate" religious institutions are eligible to offer invocations before council.

NAC Reader Comments 1: "The US Government has no list of 'legitimate' religions."

As Coffey contemplates the existence of various "official" religions, to be daintily arranged in precise order on his clipboard with a different color of Crayola for each, the very same blog reader who commented yesterday has provided the VA's list for the councilman's use.

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
National Cemetery Administration
Available Emblems of Belief for Placement on Government Headstones and Markers

First, I've chosen a few of the more interesting emblems. The whole list follows.

You're welcome, CM Coffey.

I'm readying my stirring atheist's invocation as we drift toward irrelevance together.

ATHEIST (16)

HUMANIST (AMERICAN HUMANIST ASSOCIATION) (32) 

FAROHAR (Zoroastrianism) (43)

INFINITY (49)

HAMMER OF THOR (55) 

WICCAN (37)

SANDHILL CRANE (57)

AVAILABLE EMBLEMS

LATIN CROSS (01)
BUDDHIST (Wheel of Righteousness) (02)
JUDAISM (Star of David) (03)
PRESBYTERIAN CROSS (04)
RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CROSS (05)
LUTHERAN CROSS (06)
EPISCOPAL CROSS (07)
UNITARIAN CHURCH (Flaming Chalice) (08)
UNITED METHODIST CHURCH (09)
AARONIC ORDER CHURCH (10)
MORMON (Angel Moroni) (11)
NATIVE AMERICAN CHURCH OF NORTH AMERICA (12)
SERBIAN ORTHODOX (13)
GREEK CROSS (14)
BAHAI (9 Pointed Star) (15)
ATHEIST (16)
MUSLIM (Crescent and Star) (17)
HINDU (18)
KONKO-KYO FAITH (19)
COMMUNITY OF CHRIST (20)
SUFISM REORIENTED (21)
TENRIKYO CHURCH (22)
SIECHO-NO-IE (23)
THE CHURCH OF WORLD MESSIANITY (lzunome) (24)
UNITED CHURCH OF RELIGIOUS SCIENCE (25)
CHRISTIAN REFORMED CHURCH (26)
UNITED MORAVIAN CHURCH (27)
ECKANKAR (28)
CHRISTIAN CHURCH (29)
CHRISTIAN & MISSIONARY ALLIANCE (30)
UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST (31)
HUMANIST (AMERICAN HUMANIST ASSOCIATION) (32)
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SEVENTH DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH (40)
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New Albany's new slogan: "Truck Through City" ... Part 92: "It's not an option" for the Bored of Works -- unless you're a dump truck.

Recently we considered the urgent need for a freshening of the bureaucratic gene pool.

Seattle alleys, New Albany street pianos and the overdue purging of bureaucrats.

As Hannegan Roseberry's experience with our gatekeepers at the Board of Works earlier this week illustrates, the cultural asphyxiation starts at the very top. Hannegan had an idea, and the bored's political appointees could barely stifle their yawns while flashing the usual reply: "It's not an option."

But enough of that. Let's get straight to the dumb truck porn.

Demokrasi in Turkey, though a word less seldom encountered in New Albany.

Words tend to be taken so lightly in New Albanian political circles that they might as well not even exist.

Rather, we might communicate by grunting and moaning sounds simply denoting lesser or greater monetization ecstasy, accompanied only periodically by Orwellian linguistic adaptations, such as the word "fundamentally," which in New Albany implies surface sheen and not basic substance.

On to the post; first Turkey, then Krugman.

At least Turkey has some variety of awakening underway.

From Atatürk to demokrasi: a glossary of changing Turkey, by Elif Shafak (The Guardian)

As every writer, journalist or poet knows only too well, words are not to be taken lightly. Especially so in Turkey. Words can get you sued and put on trial, demonised by the government and their henchmen in the media, sent to prison or into exile. Critical-minded individuals can be branded as “traitors” overnight – just because of an article or a poem or even a tweet.

The surprise outcome of last Sunday’s Turkish elections, in which President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development party (AKP) lost its majority, leading to the resignation of prime minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, has sent shockwaves around Europe and the Middle East. But to understand the political situation in a land as complicated as Turkey requires one to look not only at what is being said, but also at the deliberate silences. Here’s a glossary of key words ...

In New Albany, these deliberate silences usually occur when someone like me asks someone like Democratic Party chairman (and redevelopment lackey) Adam Dickey how it's possible that Dan Coffey is a Democrat.

The columnist Krugman sees a leftward shift for the Democratic Party in national terms, and in part, explains this by suggesting the party sees the futility of centrist positioning.

The problem locally is that many Democrats start from an ideological perspective so far right that merely moving to the center would require a seismic upheaval.

Democrats Being Democrats, by Paul Krugman (New York Times)

You see, ever since Ronald Reagan’s election in 1980, Democrats have been on the ideological defensive. Even when they won elections they seemed afraid to endorse clearly progressive positions, eager to demonstrate their centrism by supporting policies like cuts to Social Security that their base hated. But that era appears to be over. Why?

Yet another gigantic cash flushing sound heard as ORBP axes tolling consultant.

I really enjoyed doing these memes ("Kerry Stemler's statement on the occasion of the Clark Memorial Bridge closing," July 8, 2014), and am humbly grateful for the opportunity to reprise them. Meanwhile, in case you were wondering about the headline ...

Adviser and advisor are both accepted spellings of the noun meaning one who advises or counsels. There is no difference between them. But adviser, the older version, is listed as the primary spelling in most dictionaries, and it is about five times as common as advisor in current news publications from throughout the English-speaking world.

Now, to the point, as stated eloquently by the inimitable Iamhoosier at Fb:

The never ending cluster ****, known as the Bridge$ project.

Yep. Sure is, and will continue to be. I repeat: It should be called the Kerry Stemler Toll Bridge, forever more.

Ohio River Bridges Project removes toll services advisor due to failure to correct myriad of failures, by Joe Sonka (Insider Lousiville)

The Kentucky-Indiana Joint Board of the Ohio River Bridges Project removed and replaced eTrans KY Inc. as its toll services advisor on Tuesday, stating in a resolution that the contractor’s performance since it began in February “has not met with the expectations of the Joint Board.”

While the board provided few details about eTrans’ deficiencies, an open records request obtained by Insider Louisville from the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet shows the cabinet gave the company notices of default in April and May, listing a myriad of failures and incompetencies that were not corrected.

Recent posting about the ORBP:

Surprise, surprise, surprise ... said Gomer Pyle, Kerry Stemler and 1Si, as bridge tolls go on forever.

Thanks to motorized oligarchs like Kerry Stemler, "We still pursue an elusive automobile paradise like a swamp-lost Conquistador seeking the Fountain of Youth."

Stemler on road-pounding trucks: “A (truck) carrying 20 tons of asphalt or crushed stone – we're taxing (the Clark Memorial Bridge) an awful lot."

One Southern Indiana's hypocrisy is absolutely reprehensible.

Downtown merchant meeting Tuesday morning, 8:30 a.m., at the Pepin Mansion.

It's late notice, but hear ye: The informal downtown "merchant mixer" group meets Tuesday morning (tomorrow) at 8:30 a.m. at the Pepin Mansion (1003 E. Main Street), where there was a kickass,  sure-sounded-Greek-t-us wedding party jamming on Saturday night. We heard it after exiting the Culbertson's garden party, and shifted immediately into crashing mode. I could almost taste the ouzo, even if it was entirely imagined.

Learn more about the Pepin Mansion Historic B & B

NAC Reader Comments 3: On Chattanooga's fiber optic internet system.

NAC reader W read our post, On Helsinki and the importance of internet infrastructure, and offered a wonderful counter-example much closer to home.

Imagine a city that provides EVERY home and business with one GIGABIT PER SECOND fiber optic internet access.

That city is Chattanooga, Tennessee. They have already built the system:
http://chattanoogagig.com
The city built the system on it's own, offering iInternet service 200 times faster than the puny "service" offered by Time Warner. 10 times faster than the US FCC Broadband initiative set for 2025.

Chattanooga is a city with a population of just 167,000 people (40% smaller than Louisville) and they are actively seeking business investment, relocation and growth.

Some town around here will do this. That town will win. Other towns will get to the party late, if at all.

NAC Reader Comments 2: "Why does the city turn a blind eye to the negligence on Spring Street?"

Regular blog reader BM recently shared a past Facebook review, posted to the city's Fb site but as yet unacknowledged, and noted that since city officials routinely deny reading what appears at NA Confidential even as they rush to respond to it, perhaps his point would gain wider circulation if published here.

It surely can't come any more slowly than 334-odd days later, so let's give it a go.

From June 10, 2015:

Shared this post because it's been 11 months and nothing has been done on Spring Street yet John Rosenbarger's street has been improved to slow traffic. No answers to my post from the Mayor or his constituents. Still waiting Mr. HAMBURGLER.

From July 11, 2014 -- posted as a review to the city's outsourced Fb page, without reply:

Maybe the city can get some funding to build a pet cemetery instead of a dog park. May I suggest somewhere on Spring Street between Vincennes and 8th Street. This way all the semis can pay their proper respects to the beloved animals that are killed by them. Lost our family cat this morning to a truck doing at least 45 miles an hour!! Why does the city turn a blind eye to the negligence on Spring Street? Maybe if it were the Mayors cat, something might be done??

NAC Reader Comments 1: "The US Government has no list of 'legitimate' religions."

Referring to our post on June 2, Prayer duly restored, the Ayatollah Coffey will now decide whether your religion deserves his stamp of approval, reader W takes issue with Dan Coffey's insistence that only "legitimate" religions can offer invocations before council.

Looks like I need to bone up on my atheistic scripture ... or find a Druid.

"Coffey disagreed, as he said the U.S. Supreme Court ruling assures that a church has to be deemed as a legitimate institution before it can push for inclusion in public prayer during a meeting."

I've just read the Supreme Court ruling, including Parts II and II-B.

There is no mention in the ruling that a church must be "deemed as a legitimate institution" before it can be included in public prayer.

The US Government has no list of "legitimate religions." There's this document called the Constitution which specifically forbids a government list of "official" religions.

Councilman Coffey could be opening a huge can of worms for Council prayer if he insists on allowing only "officially recognized" religions. The only such US list that exists is the list of religious emblems of faith allowed on US Veteran headstones.

The list of religions "officially recognized" by a US government agency include Wicca, Eckanar, The Hammer of Thor, and yes, Atheist.