Great news in the blogosphere!

The Diplomad is back!

Mortgage lender implosion

144 lenders down the tubes since late 2006.

Message for friends...

Oh, you can't scare me, I'm sticking to the union,
I'm sticking to the union, I'm sticking to the union.
You can't scare me, I'm sticking to the union.
I'm sticking to the union, 'til the day I die.

From Union Maid, by Woody Guthrie

Why you need a union.

Update on accident

Her friends say the injured teen is recovering.

Media bias

An outstanding article about media bias in reporting on the war.

Obviously, we can't expect Big Media to police itself. They're too busy publishing forged documents as true, ditto using faked photos, and hiring liars.

All to advance their America-hating, jihadi-loving agenda. Older readers will recall the similarity with coverage of Vietnam.

UPDATE: The Daily News also a bit truth-challenged.

Local accident - developing

We have heard that several area young people were injured in a car accident, one of them seriously.

Keep them in your thoughts and prayers.

Justice at long last

James Ford Seale.

Is this ethical journalism?

On July 25 there's a terse correction (click to enlarge and read):

The original article was here. Click it now and see this:

Are we to believe that the Daily News never makes mistakes? lol. They're rewriting their own online history.

I expect the disclaimer to fade away, too.

You can't find the old article online through internet archives, either. The Snooze prevents their site from being crawled.

Ethical? You decide.

Parish council meeting

We were unable to attend the last parish council meeting and must rely on reports from friends.

Citizens asked questions, and the theme of the replies was mostly, "The law doesn't say what you think it says." Pray tell, then, why don't they rewrite it?

One landowner south of town asked why large farming properties were included in the map as Suburban Residential. She was told that she lived near town, so she's suburban - doesn't explain the "residential," does it? And that the map was drawn to include in that designation properties with city water. However, the area in question does not have city water; they have parish water, I discovered via a phone call.

The council members and planning commission had no current map at the meeting.

A comment equating the zoning law with communism got applause from the audience. The room was packed to overflowing.

There was a comment made by somebody on the council - maybe Toye? - that the parish is expecting a huge amount of growth. I disagree. Like many others, I believe the post-Katrina boom is over.

I, too, am in an area apparently designated "Suburban Residential" by the zoning map. No, it doesn't affect me now. But it will very effectively limit the number of buyers for my property if I decide to sell. On suburban residential, you cannot have horses or livestock. One of the reasons to move out of the city and into the country is to have horses, a few chickens, maybe raise a pig every year - activities that are prohibited in the SR district.

This is a bad law.

Go to this page and email the council members to vote No.

Looks like another land grab to me.

From the dead-tree version of Sunday's Daily News:

Washington Parish residents wanting clarification of the proposed Land Use plan - which is 381 pages in its current state - have one more opportunity to try and get their questions answered.[...]Opponents of the plan, who have become more and more vocal in the criticisms of the plan and their call to take more time to fine-tune it, are expected to turn out in force.

Get thee to the Parish Council meeting Tuesday, June 5 at 6:00 p.m. They say they're gonna vote on this crap on June 11. Yes, crap.

The Washington Parish Model Land Use Management Code is online here [PDF file].

The proposed map of the new zones is online here, at the Washington Parish Planning Commission website.

I don't understand why the Planning Commission couldn't put a better, larger, more detailed map online. I had to download the thing and open it with another map of the parish next to it to see that they seem to be trying to designate a bunch of rural property south of Bogalusa as Suburban Residential - meaning:

• Day care centers serving no more than 17 persons - PROHIBITED. Guess you'll have to drive even farther to have 3-year-old Suzie cared for while you work.


• Greenhouses, non-commercial, as accessory to residential use - CONDITIONAL. No protection for tender potted plants or growing of winter salad greens, huh? Unless you beg the Planning Commission and pay a hefty fee, I'll betcha.


• Horse stables, non-commercial - PROHIBITED. People have bought and built on acreage outside city limits to be told what to do like this??? Doubt it.


• Churches, temples, synagogues, and places of worship, including cemeteries as accessory uses - CONDITIONAL. This oughtta get people riled. No more little neighborhood churches without a special permit or whatever the procedure is gonna be.

Here's another prime cut, from the Executive Summary [my comments interspersed in brackets and italics]:

It is found that non-agricultural uses when contiguous to farmland can affect how an agricultural use can be operated, which can lead to the conversion of agricultural land to urban, suburban, or other non-agricultural use. [You buy property outside city limits and there's a farm across the street, it's glaringly obvious. And you shouldn't be able to make the farmer shut off his tractor or quit fertilizing.] It is a goal of the Parish Comprehensive Plan to preserve agricultural land in the jurisdiction that is not otherwise identified in the Comprehensive Plan as necessary for development.

It is the policy of the Parish to preserve and encourage agricultural land use and operation within the jurisdiction, and to reduce the occurrence of conflicts between agricultural and non-agricultural land uses and to protect public health, safety, and welfare. [Why are you trying to designate a bunch of land used in agriculture as Suburban Residential, then? One of your pals wanna put up a subdivision?]

It is the policy of the Parish to notify applicants for building permits for buildings or land use permits for uses on non-agricultural land abutting agricultural land or operations with notice about the Parish’s support of the preservation of agricultural lands and operations. An additional purpose of the notification requirement is to promote a good neighbor policy by informing prospective builders and occupants of non-agricultural land adjacent to agricultural lands and operations of the effects associated with residing or operating activities close to agricultural land and operations. [Because they can't look next door or across the street and notice the cows and horses? Sheesh.] Another purpose of this Ordinance is to reduce the loss of agricultural resources in the jurisdiction by limiting the circumstances under which agricultural operations on agricultural lands may be deemed a nuisance. [Yeah, you're gonna limit that by calling a bunch of agricultural land "Suburban Residential" and driving out the farmers.]

It is further the policy of the Parish to require all new developments adjacent to agricultural land or operations to provide a buffer to reduce the potential conflicts between agricultural and non-agricultural land uses. By requiring a minimum 150-foot agricultural buffer on abutting non-agricultural lands, the Parish finds it will be helping to ensure prime farmland remains an agricultural use. Buffer requirements are further outlined in subsections of section 4-3.

It's gotta be all about the money. Call a big area Suburban Residential, and before you know it, it'll be incorporated into the city of Bogalusa. Then the city gets a nice windfall in the form of their share of state property taxes.

Get to the Parish Council meeting Tuesday at 6.