who is more dysfunctional?

the lithonia city council

or

the clayton country school board?

thoughts?

So, I driving down to the airport and right at the “Grady Curve” I have 7 motorcycles pass me at - honestly - 80 to 90+ MPH. They are all weaving in and out of traffic and lanes. It’s just like a race was going on around me. I’ve encountered this phenomenon a number of times on the 75/85 corridor. Since I’ve been witness to this type of “death wish” activity so many times, I began to wonder if it’s some sort of underground extreme sport: Racing at amazing speeds down crowded interstate highways. Keep in mind, I’m not talking about the open road here. I’m talking the downtown connector.

Have any of you encountered this phenomenon? I can’t think of anything else to call it. I’m sure I’ve seen these incidents at least 10-15 times in the last year or two. Any thoughts?

this post being brought to you by my dog, carter. yes, the dog to the right, who also refuses to use caps -

hi!

one of the nice things about my owner having this little blog-platform here is that i can give a shameless shout out to a business that i think is doing an especially good job and should be rewarded with your dollars if you care to.

so let me give a huge plug to all my friends at the east atlanta animal clinic, absolutely the best vet office in the whole wide world.

just a few thoughts on why i love them so much -

-when james adopted me and my sister at one year old we had some aggression issues with strangers. he was super-worred about taking us to the vet. in fact he was scared we were going to bite the vet. the staff at east atlanta made us feel comfortable in 15 seconds in fact they had me rolled on the floor wagging my tail while they took blood from me
-speaking of the staff, my owner says the vets are the ‘most competent and nicest he has ever worked with. super good about explaining things, answering questions and detailing the best course of treatment.’ i’m not sure what that means exactly, but that is what he says
-today, my knee was hurting. james was really worried about me and called for an appointment. while booked today, they let him drop me off and they fitted me in when they had some free time. seriously, how amazing is that.

anyway, my sisters and i love the vet and if you live in this neck of the woods and need a vet give them some consideration.

also, if you want to agree with me or give a shout to your vet, the comments are open…..WOOF!

Yesterday I had a post all queued up about the Hawks season so far. They’d reached .500 (10-10) had reeled off 3 straight wins - the last against one of the East’s hottest teams, Orlando - and they seemed ready to make the leap to the next level.

Then this happened:

My wife and I were actually watching live as Raptors guard TJ Ford stole a ball and went in for a layup when rookie Hawk Al Horford fouled him hard in the face, sending Ford to the floor where he struck his head against the court.

My synopsis doesn’t really do it justice. Watch the video. I saw it live and I could hardly believe it.

It really sucks for TJ, a talented young player who already missed an entire season (2004-2005) with back and neck problems. Our thoughts and prayers are with TJ and his family.

Poor guy got the business end of a lazy defensive effort by an equally young and talented, though inconsistent, big man in Al Horford. Yet another reason (for me, anyway) to hate Florida Gators. Horford was ejected for a Flagrant 2 foul.

This is a big turning point for the Hawks. How do they overcome this event and the loss of their streak? And what about Toronto?

Oh, and since we’re on sports, the Falcons lost head coach Bobby Petrino to the University of Arkansas.

Is it Baseball season yet? How are the Thrashers even doing?

Get your Halloween groove on early. It’s HorrorFest time in Atlanta. A four day festival of independent horror films, bands, and special events, October 4 - 7. Official Site Here. This looks like it could be a lot of fun.

Okay, now you tell me something… Any scoop, at all, on anything new on the Halloween Event scene? I’m looking for something really new to cover or attend this year. It doesn’t have to be a big event - just something new, different and interesting. Well, we can add “fun” as well but, what is fun for one is not always fun for the other.

Anything thoughts?

For the last several weeks my head has admittedly been up my ass in the sand when it comes to what’s going on in the world. If it isn’t discussed on WABE between 5:45 and 6am on my way to the office, I know nothing about it. 12 hour work days and the busy social season are providing unwanted shelter from reality.

Case in point - yesterday at lunch I bumped into a few girls from the office in the lobby of our building. One of them joked as I passed about how she called and told me to wear black, and I agreed, but then paused to dig in - since they were all wearing black.

One of my colleagues went on to tell me about the Jena 6, and I quickly turned into a mouth breathing, astounded and disgusted by the behavior of my countrymen.

For those in the same position I was yesterday, The Jena 6 are young men in the town of Jena, Louisiana. At the high school there in Jena, there was apparently a tree on campus. A tree called The White Tree, beacuse only the white kids at the school could/did gather around it. One day, some young black men stood under it, and the next day there were six nooses hanging from its limbs.

You might think this happened in 1956, but it didn’t. It happened in 2006. Here. In our backyard.

So the young men went back to the tree. I would have. They waited. They challenged the backwards thinking redneckness of it all, and it came. Those white boys came back, and what ensued was a school yard scrap. Nothing worse than what you or I saw in our days of lockers and letter jackets, but with much better cause than the justification for the fights of my youth.

The next chapter is where it gets really mind boggling and perverse: the black youths were arrested and charged with Attempted Murder. One of them, 17-year-old Mychal Bell; remains in jail.

Link love to stories about it on CNN here.

I continued on my day more and more aware of all the folks I crossed paths with wearing black. I was inspired by the unity and the support they presented without saying a word. I heard that Morehouse and Clark sent busses of folks to Jena to participate in the protests. I also hear that since Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama was tied up here in Atlanta, he sent representatives to Jena.

Now it’s your turn. What are your thoughts on the situation? Based on a CNN.com online poll, most CNN readers see this as an issue of race, though some of the folks in Jena say otherwise.

Did you wear black yesterday? Did you notice it but didn’t know why? Tell me. I wanna hear.

Well, from a purely numerical standpoint, Barry Bonds is the major league record holder, but myself (and most other Atlantans and baseball fans in general) would say that Hank Aaron is still (and, potentially, will always be) the home run king.

Maybe I’m splitting hairs and getting caught up in syntax and nuance, but in an era of alleged steroid use by Bonds and others and the reprehensible neglect and potential animal cruelty of our own Michael Vick, it’s refreshing that someone like Hank Aaron, who lives and works here in Atlanta, has only grown in stature over the years. Sure, he’s still not getting his full due, but maybe Bonds usurping his record will only make folks appreciate Aaron that much more.

So, love or hate Bonds, we all now have to deal with this number. Personally, I vote for an asterisk or at the very least a reconsideration of his elbow armor.

Either way, I’m a little bit sad this morning. Maybe the San Francisco Metbloggers can grace us with their thoughts here or on their blog, but I doubt it’ll change many minds.

My final words: Hank Aaron*

*Home Run King

UPDATE: The DC Metblog has some ire for Bonds, who hit his home run off a Nationals pitcher.

Everybody and their brother is talking about the kidnapping that took place in my neighborhood, East Atlanta, on Saturday night (Sunday morning, actually). In case you haven’t heard about it, two lawyers were abducted after leaving a bar on Glenwood Avenue, then driven to a house in Cabbagetown, where they were held hostage until they were found by police on Sunday. Most of the discussion is about whether the neighborhood is a safe place to live. As far as I can tell, though, most residents, especially those who have been around for years, think it is as safe as any other urban neighborhood in Atlanta. I agree.
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you may have previously read this author’s intention to become a fan of the atlanta hawks. they seem like just the kind of lovable losers i am bound to support anyway (although some who have lived in this town longer than i probably remember a time when than wasn’t the case for the hawks.)

late this week the hawks used their two top 15 draft picks to draft florida power forward al horford and texas a&m point guard acie law iv.

now i am new to the whole basketball gig so i’m not really sure what to make of these picks but matt over at the atlanta hawks blog certainly has some opinions.

first on horford:

Horford is ready to play, even more so than Shelden Williams was. I wanted Conley (obviously), but I’m happy with this.

and next on law:

like this pick. I am not convinced that the way Law played in college is the kind of player he’s going to be in the pros. I think he’s smart and that he will make a great point guard.

over on the creative loafing fresh loaf blog scott freeman has additional thoughts on the hawks draft including some caution about horford.

GO HAWKS!

you’ve probably seen the ’suggest a story’ button over on the right side of the page there. well finally back home from china and the czech republic, i took a look at what had been suggested while i was gone and came across an interesting anonymous suggestion called “MB ATL Needs Shaping Up,” which i am going to post here in it’s entirety:

This isn’t really a story submission more as it is an overall suggestion. Could you guys do more to report on local news? I know Metroblogging isn’t an event listing, but you sure can’t tell that from looking at the past few stories. It’s either authors plugging events they’re involved with or interested in or fluff pieces about nothing specifically Atlanta related. How about the collapse over at Grady Memorial Hospital? Or Decatur getting free Wi-Fi? Don’t let the AJC scoop you guys!

so i am looking for your reaction to that. i think it’s a fair assesment of our coverage of local news (i.e. none of us have posted about chris benoit or the wayne williams dna test results) but it is also fair that to be a news site is not our mission.

so what are you looking for? more news? more music? more culture? more drinks of the week?

drop your thoughts in the comments on this post.