My brother-in-law and I like to play pool, but so far we haven't had much luck finding a good place to play. Barley's in the Old City has a lot of nice tables, but people are usually lined up waiting to get one. The noise..oh...er..music is also blastingly loud. Any suggestions from you locals? We need something close to downtown or North Knoxville.

Just a note of thanks and a free plug for our web hosting service provider, Hosting Matters.

Because of the growth of this site and the complexity of the software, we were outgrowing our shared hosting account with them and decided to move our web empire to our own dedicated server.

The American Academy for Park and Recreation Administration and the National Recreation and Park Association have named Tennessee State Parks the best in the U.S.

Tennessee was recently awarded the 2007 Gold Medal Award for Excellence in Park and Recreation Management. The other two finalists were Georgia and Utah.

Among Tennessee's accomplishments since 2003:

• Reopening 14 parks that had been previously closed;

• Removing access fees from the 23 state parks that had instituted them;

• Acquiring properties with exceptional conservation value from Bowater;

• Partnering with the Nature Conservancy and conservation-minded timber companies to protect 124,000 acres on the Northern Cumberland Plateau;

• Working with community organizations and other partners to open the first Boundless Playground at a state park anywhere in the country at Warriors’ Path State Park;

• Purchasing renewable “Green Power” in all state parks where it’s available.

A panel of parks and recreation professionals judged state park programs on "long-range planning, resource management, citizen support systems, environmental stewardship, program and professional development and agency recognition."

The effects of the housing bust are rippling through the economy according to this Newsweek report:

The collateral damage is spreading. Because home sales and moves stimulate purchases of appliances, electronics and furniture, the giant chains that catered to house flippers and renovators have reported recessionlike results. In the second quarter, same-store sales were down 5.2 percent at Home Depot and 4.3 percent at Sears.

[..]

The National Marine Manufacturers Association said it expects pleasure-boat sales, down 6 percent in 2006, to fall 10 percent more in 2007, largely due to the housing woes.

[..]

In July, auto sales were down 12 percent from the year before. When CNW Research asked consumers who were putting off plans to buy new cars why they were doing so, 17.6 percent cited housing issues like falling home equity or rising mortgage payments.

Here's more disturbing info from the article:

• Nearly 180,000 homes fell into foreclosure in July, up 93 percent from a year ago.

• Sales of new single-family homes were off 22.3 percent in June from a year earlier.

• Sales of existing homes were off 9 percent in July.

• There is 9.6 months worth of housing inventory for sale, more than double the 2005 level.

• A national housing price index fell 3.2 percent between June 2006 and June 2007, "the largest sustained decline in year-over-year prices since 1991" according to a Yale economist.

• Employment in housing-related industries has declined 119,400 since August 2006.

Chris Kromm from the Institute for Southern Studies and Facing South testified before a Congressional briefing this week regarding the Gulf Coast post-Katrina housing crisis. Here are his prepared remarks.

The Knoxville Writers' Guild has voted to sponsor a collection of short pieces, tentatively entitled A Knoxville Christmas 2007. This is a short-fused opportunity to participate in a potentially very rewarding project.

The Christmas Collection will consist of short fiction, nonfiction, personal memoirs, slice-of-life, poetry and just about any other form of short work.

You must be a member of the Writers' Guild to submit a piece for consideration. New and inexperienced writers are WELCOME, so now is the time to join.

Citizenship by birth has been prescribed by the Constitution since 1868 -- and upheld for 109 years by the Supreme Court -- but the Republican presidential candidate made it sound anachronistic.

"I think that law was created at another time and place for valid reasons," the former U.S. senator from Tennessee said earlier this month. "It probably needs to be revisited."
...
"It probably needs to be revisited," he said. "The question is whether or not it would require a constitutional amendment or a change in law."

Thompson gets better all the time. A great replacement for GWB. If he keeps it up, he might actually get elected. Another pseudo cowboy/farmer you might want to drink a beer with. This time the T is for Tennessee, not Texas.

When I first moved to Maryville I heard all the horror stories of rebel flags and redneck idiocy surrounding the Maryville HS Rebels. And I vowed, in principle, to root against Maryville High School in football. But I went with a neighbor to the game last week against Powell and not only found no Confederate flags (they've been banned) but no likenesses of them on t-shirts or elsewhere. It occurred to me at that point that the Maryville Rebels were not so hopelessly associated in the general public with neo-Confederatism or its associated brands of political retardation. So I became a fan, reluctantly I suppose, but a fan nonetheless. It seemed safe to root for the Maryville Rebels football.

That brings us to this week, where the Marvville HS Rebels take their 50 game winning streak against Blount County rival and rising 5A state power William Blount HS. I've been listening to the game on local wingnut radio - aka "truth" radio at WBCR 1470. It's been a riveting game so far. Maryville is up 13-6 late in the 3rd quarter.

Our hosting service provider will be moving this site to another server starting sometime after 7PM tonight (Friday, Sept. 28).

The old site will be here until everything is pointed to the new server. If you post anything after 7PM during this move it will be stranded on the old server and lost (user registration, blogs, comments, anything), so wait until we get the all clear to resume posting.

Thanks!

UPDATE: Site has been moved and seems to be working. Let me know if you notice anything weird.

From singer/songwriter/artist and former Talking Head, David Byrne:

"At the Holiday Inn in Knoxville, I saw a sign for the historic town center. Thinking it might contain some character and restaurants, we head there in search of dinner. There's no one on the streets -- not metaphorically, but literally not a single soul is out and it's not even 8 o'clock. Eventually, we reach Market Square where we see people sitting at some outdoor seats. There are few restaurants, so we're in luck. They serve me wine in a tiny plastic airplane bottle and we share a nice salad and some salmon. We wonder, where is everyone? Do they come to town to work, some of them, and then go home and stay in at night? Or do they go to restaurants and bars in suburban strip malls?"

That's about right, unfortunately. I wish he'd stopped by on a busier night. More at his site, including his take on Dollywood.

Faisal is a charming guy with a real knack for creating delicious dishes. He told me the other day, he is doing "surprisingly well".

The KNS Bottom Line Blog had this to say:

"The cafe, which is open from 10:30 a.m.-3 a.m. Tuesday-Saturday, sells but isn't limited to a range of vegan and vegetarian dishes. Patrons can find what Petro touts as "global comfort food," including French pressed coffee, tea, wraps, sandwiches, salads and grains."

Read more at Link...

I watched the GOP debate/forum on PBS yesterday. No frontrunners showed. Tom Joyner got in some digs by saying "Hello to all of you watching at home: Mayor Guiliani, Senator Thompson...." Until I watched this I had no idea there were so many GOP candidates or that Allen Keyes is running again. Tecado from Co. is interesting. Keyes mentioned that none of the frontrunners showed up at the Christian right "Values Voters" debate either.
Although Ron Paul seemed a little wacky he spoke out strongly against the "war on drugs " and Huckabee-who seemed decent, spoke out against the "three strikes and your out " laws. But these things are paid lip service every 4 years. The debate was at a historically black college in Baltimore. Ron Paul seemed to have the biggest crowd there and alot of the audience was white.
It seemed pretty whimpy that the front-runners didn't show because they thought it would be hostile and its too bad that interesting candidates aren't getting air time besides the frontrunners. No questions seemed intended to set any candidate up. But its interesting that the Dem frontrunners didn't/aren't going to? show up at the Fox debate-also sponsored by a black caucus group.

This afternoon on Knoxville’s WBIR-TV, the midday drawing for the Tennessee Lottery’s Cash 3 number was actually last night’s. Just after 1:30pm, the station aired “today’s winning Cash 3 number” but last night’s drawing was aired instead.

Last night’s Cash 3 number was 6-6-1.

Today’s darwing on WBIR got as far as 6-6-….and then some alert person cut it off before the third number could air.

About twenty minutes later, the station aired today’s actual winning number drawing which was 7-8-0.

Question: will the TEL be forced to pay out for BOTH numbers again like they were forced to do a couple weeks ago when they made the same goof? (They should pay out for any number beginning with 66 since the last digit didn't air.)

Another question: when will the TEL admit its new computerized drawing system is an unmitigated failure?

Third question: Does TEL Commissioner Rebecca Paul deserve her yearly bonus?

Does this man have no ethics?

Gallup:

Gallup's annual Governance survey shows that trust in the federal government has continued to decrease this year after showing noticeable signs of decline the past two years. Now, Americans generally express less trust in the federal government than at any point in the past decade, and trust in many federal government institutions is now lower than it was during the Watergate era, generally recognized as the low point in American history for trust in government.

Both the legislative and executive branches share the blame:

[T]he 43% who now express trust in the executive branch is only slightly better than the 40% who did so in April 1974, four months before Richard Nixon resigned as president amid the Watergate scandal.
. . .
Trust in the legislative branch of the federal government continues to erode, dropping six percentage points in each of the last two years (from 62% in 2005 to 50% today). The current level of trust in Congress is significantly lower than any other measurement Gallup has obtained.

More findings here.

Where in the hell was Fred Thompson last night?? I know where he wasn't Tavis Smiley's All-American Republican debate @ Morgan State. The debate centered on concerns of black Americans.

I can not believe that a former senator from Tennessee did not go to this debate.

Thats right. I did not say Republican senator.

I said Tennessee senator. Its a disgrace, for our state, Fred Thompson did not attend this debate.

The Republicans, in this county, supporting Thompson can spin it all you want but, by God, there is no excuse for him not have been there last night.

In the 1st District... this is flyer I'm going to put up if No Show Fred wins the nomination.

Fred didnt show up for You
Dont show up for Him
Let's shut him out.

NO VOTES FOR NO SHOW FRED!!

Similar to Gonzales', I don't remember.

Thompson's answers are I don't know.

Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson said Thursday he was unaware that a federal judge had ruled last week that lethal injection procedures in his home state were unconstitutional.
...
In Florida earlier this month, Thompson seemed surprised when asked about oil drilling in the Everglades, a major issue in the state.
...
Thompson also gave no opinion when asked about efforts by President Bush and Congress to keep brain-damaged Terri Schiavo alive two years ago, saying he did not remember details of the case that stirred national debate.

I do believe Fred is going to be a little harder to train for the job of President of the United States than most candidates. Why would anyone want to help this guy become president?

This story has deep implications. It also reveals some intriguing connections with Hunt Oil and GWB. Some politicians suggest this deal foreshadows a knowledge that the country is about to be divided by us in a way that will give the Kurds control of Iraqi oil. This will not happen without a lot of uproar and bloodshed. Our stated goal in Iraq, the one our troops are dying for was to insure ALL Iraqis shared equally in oil revenues. Then why is our government not stopping Hunt Oil from making a contract with only one party--the Kurds? I think this is only the tip of the iceberg. It has been known for a couple of weeks, but it isn't getting much press. Hmm...I wonder why? Congressman and presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) is trying to get answers. Link...

"President George W. Bush has twice appointed Mr. Hunt to a seat on the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (PFIAB), which is said to have access to intelligence that experts acknowledge is advantageous to the international energy interest of the Hunt Oil Company."

Why has this oil man been given access to intelligence when members of our own Congress have often been rebuffed by the White House?

Yesterday, while I was catnapping, Krishna the puppy ate my glasses. They looked like a bicycle that hit a bus. I was horrified as I can't really afford a new pair this month. I do need to see this month though, so I pulled the old credit card out of the drawer where I had hidden it and drove off to get the bad news. The guy in the optical counter however did not try to sell me a new pair of glasses. I should repeat that because it is an absolute miracle. He did NOT try to sell me anew pair! He disappeared for awhile and somehow reworked them. He added pieces, twisted others back in place, and handed them to me like brand new!

Now here's the best part. No charge!

I felt like I was in a mom and pop store.

The defense rested today, without calling Lumpy to the stand, ending the "sworn" testimony part of the trial.

Now they will proceed with motions and closing arguments, which are expected Monday morning, with jury deliberations to begin as early as Monday afternoon. Should be interesting next week.

For more informed commentary from lawyers and others on the legal issues and strategies, see this thread. I think I have to agree with Mark Siegel that the defense gave up about half way through the trial, and they now await their fate.

The Obama campaign told the leaders of the Service Employees International Union in a private meeting earlier this week that a candidate would need $80 million to $100 million to compete in the unprecedented 25 states that hold elections in the first month of voting — and only Obama and Clinton can do that.

Edwards is a sentimental favorite of many in the union. But after hearing the presentation the leaders postponed their decision whether to endorse him until after the third quarter campaign finance deadline.

Edwards is now going for public financing for his presidential campaign.

There's got to be a better way. We should be ashamed of ourselves for letting this get out of hand. As Edwards said, "This is not healthy. ... This campaign should not be a fundraising contest."

In an age of al-Qaida, sleeper cells and the threat of nuclear terrorism, Huntsville [AL] is dusting off its Cold War manual to create the nation's most ambitious fallout-shelter plan, featuring an abandoned mine big enough for 20,000 people to take cover underground.

Okay, what do they know that we should know? Should we start digging those trenches in our back yards again?

The Atlas Society and its Objectivist Center have an article with a brief history of blogging (in their opinion), Atlas Mugged: How a Gang of Scrappy, Individual Bloggers Broke the Stranglehold of the Mainstream Media.

There is also discussion on the future of blogging with Glenn Reynolds, the Instapundit.

The annual Neighborhood Conference is scheduled for Saturday, October 13. More info here.

These conferences are usually pretty good. Notice that stormwater and traffic calming, two topics heavily discussed here, are on the agenda.

Tom Tomorrow

Here are some excerpts from last night's debate.

I watched quite a bit of it, and it seemed like one of the better ones. There were substantive questions on substantive issues for the most part. Some of the questions brought out some actual differences among the candidates.

There was also a segment where Russert confronted candidates with tough questions about past mistakes or controversies, and each handled it well, I thought.

More commentary follows...

"A DHS spokesperson says they found a four-month-old boy in a darkened room with a pacifier taped in his mouth by two pieces of two-inch clear packing tape."

This article sickened me. Link... It also reminded me of the difficulties some parents and almost all low income working mothers have in finding good affordable care. As a country and a state we should do more to insure every single child recieves the best of care when their parents are out trying to earn a living.

Children who suffer this kind of abuse are likely to be warped and scared for life. I'm a baby lover myself, and it broke my heart to think what that poor little child must have been thinking alone in the dark with tape placed across his mouth. The fact that the center received 3 stars from the inspectors is also worrisome.

The University of Tennessee is going to pay the UT Foundation $56 million for Knoxville Place, the massive apartment complex that takes up most of the block behind the law school.

XM Radio announces plans to broadcast live from the Grand Ole Opry, and will air selected performances and archival broadcasts on several channels.

I guess we've come a long way from listening to Minnie Pearl and Roy Acuff on a fuzzy AM pocket radio.