Our Town

Okie Politics appears to be less than thrilled with the Oklahoma City Council’s decision to begin charging residents for ambulance service with a $3.65 fee added to their monthly utility bills. Residents may opt out if they so choose. According to The Oklahoman …

The fee is needed to help cover the shortfall between EMSA’s revenues and what it costs to provide ambulance service. The city has been paying for that shortfall out of sales tax funds, which are increasingly needed for other priorities.

In his post, “Cornett, Council give thumbs up to socialized ambulance healthcare,” Sam laments:

A regressive tax for a social program. Odd.

Interesting twist as Mayor Mick is consistently in the top five on the Goober-Ten standings. A move towards the left, while a subtle one, on healthcare may provide a tool to change voter perception of the pro-basketball mayor.

We should have seen this one coming. We’ve had socialized fire service and socialized police protection for years now. What’s next? Socialized education and socialized street maintenance? Oh, the “horror” — the horror!

My oldest daughter attends one of Edmond’s three high schools. In general, we like her school, most of her teachers and her academic success there. Yet, there are some things that don’t always set well with me (as would be the case in just about any circumstance, I suppose).

Over the weekend, she was telling us about a substitute teacher she had in a couple of her classes on Friday. The curriculum for the day was apparently Mauri Povich during one class period and Divorce Court in another class period. For the students, this was entertaining, especially when the substitute talked back to the TV during Divorce Court. But, as you might imagine, to parents like us, such information raised eyebrows — or in my case, an exclamation of “WHAT?!?”

I’m glad that my daughter wasn’t in that substitute’s class during the Jerry Springer Show! While I will admit that these trash TV shows can be entertaining and that I’ve indulged in viewing a few times, they certainly don’t seem like the type of educational programming one would expect from a higher-caliber high school. It begs the question, is this a common practice? Are the substitute teachers not given guidance and/or plans for the classes their substituting for?

At one time or another, my father, my mother and my brother have all substituted in the middle and high school levels. I know the challenges that they face and I know that I wouldn’t want to do it. But that doesn’t excuse the schools’ responsibility to know what’s going on in their classrooms.

Don’t the schools owe the students a better education than Mauri Povich, Divorce Court or Jerry Springer — even if it is a substitute teacher? As a parent and as a taxpayer, I would most certainly expect more.

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Certainly among the Christmas favorites for many of us in Oklahoma, there’s a story behind this song:

I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas is a Christmas novelty song written by John Rox and performed by Gayla Peevey (10 years old at the time) in 1953. The B-side of the original 78 featured the song “Are my Ears on Straight?”

Peevey was a regional child star of the Oklahoma City area. According to legend, this 1953 hit was recorded as a fund-raiser to bring the city zoo a hippo. When released nationally by Columbia Records the song shot to the top of the charts, and the city zoo got a baby hippo named Matilda. In a 2007 radio interview with Detroit-based WNIC radio station, Peevey clarified that the song was not recorded as a fundraiser originally. Instead, a local promoter picked up on the popularity of the song and Peevey’s local roots, and launched a campaign to present her with an actual hippopotamus on Christmas. The campaign succeeded, and she was presented with an actual hippopotamus, which she donated to the city zoo. The hippopotamus lived for nearly 50 years.

This video comes from local KOCO-TV5 photojournalist Rob Hedrick, who prefaces it with this explanation:

Jordan Willams and I were covering a car accident, and this gentlemen decided he was tired of waiting in the traffic tieup…

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Karla was inspired this morning to write a poem about her — our — favorite season…

I am Autumn.

I am brisk, cool mornings, pleasant days and chilly nights.

I am scented with the smells of wood and leaves, pumpkins and spice, soup and cornbread.

I am clothed in warm colors and the mist of early morning fog is my veil.

I am a beacon, a symbol, a sign that nature’s winter respite is near.

I am calm; telling everyone to slow down, huddle in close together, and enjoy the beauty of nature.

I am football and turkey and families gathering to give thanks.

I am awe-inspiring and beautiful.

I am but one sign of God’s handiwork.

I am Autumn.

The debate Tuesday night between incumbent (and perennial embarassment) U.S. Senator James Inhofe and challenger Andrew Rice is getting a little national attention, especially in the blogosphere.

Think Progress picked up on Inhofe’s continued inexplicable defense of his comment in 2003 that global warming is “the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people.” I didn’t watch the debate or really even read about it because I know Inhofe will win anyway and he makes me absolutely sick to my stomach every time I hear him speak. However, Think Progress reported this excerpt from that debate:

INHOFE: I think I was right on that, and I do believe — first off, let’s keep in mind, though, what the issue is. It’s not whether or not we’re going into a global warming period. We were. We’re not now.

You know, God’s still up there. We’re now going through a cooling spell. And the whole issue there was is it man-made gases, anthropogenic gases, CO2, methane. I don’t think so.

Think Progress’ story goes on to say:

Asked whether John McCain is a victim of the global warming “hoax,” Inhofe responded, “People are afraid of some of the environmentalists out there because they pour all the money into campaigns and, consequently, we have a lot of people who fall in that category, and some of them are Republicans.”

Summing up his assessment of global warming science, Inhofe declared: “It’s hysteria.”

[...]

This chart prepared by NASA’s Goddard Institute clearly disproves the notion that we’re in a cooling period:

Far from a “cooling spell,” the U.S. is now entering a period of “global boiling.” Each day brings new, troubling headlines of a world wrought with extreme storms, floods, droughts, rising seas, catastrophic change, and species loss.

In addition, the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) recently reported that Arctic sea ice volume likely hit a record low in 2008. NASA data shows that for a four-week period in August 2008, sea ice melted faster during that period than ever before. Apparently, the “cooling spell” hasn’t been felt in the Arctic.

9:42am, Thunder Shop in Leadership Square
The store awaits its opening at 10am. Thousands of Thunder fans await 10am for another reason — individual game tickets go on sale. Based off the fact that season tickets sold out so quickly, Thunder tickets will likely be hard to come by.

5:56pm, Northbound Centennial Expressway/I-235
A pair of concerned citizens hang over the 50th Street overpass along the Centennial Expressway letting northbound commuters heading home know how they feel about the government’s proposed economic rescue plan: “No bailout,” read the florescent pink, hand-written signs.

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* Taken with my iPhone

Okie blogger Kevin Latham, aka The Program Witch, found this instant classic in his morning paper today…

7:04am, Main Street Parking, Downtown Oklahoma City
Looking south from the 7th Floor of the Main Street Parking garage in downtown Oklahoma City, you can see the Ford Center, new home of the Oklahoma City Thunder NBA team, on the left and the historic Colcord Hotel on the right.

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* Taken with my iPhone