Steele: Star Goes OCD on Brownback Budget

Posted on January 21, 2015 by Rich Steele

cry-babyIn the same week that the Kansas City Star will editorialize rhapsodically about Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech, one in which he will lay out the numerous new ways in which he plans to keep increasing the national debt – free community college, anyone? – its editors predictably lashed Kansas Governor Sam Brownback for his conscientious efforts to control spending in Kansas.

Again!

The Star editors bash Brownback not out of principled resistance, no longer even to boot him from office. No, their Brownback-bashing shows all the signs of a flaming case of obsessive compulsive disorder.

So pronounced is the Star editors’ OCD that they actually criticized Brownback’s proposed tax increase on alcohol and cigarettes.

This may well be the first tax in recent bi-state history that its editors have slammed. Continue reading →

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Hearne: Posnanski was Right; NCAA Sells Out on Paterno Deal

Posted on January 20, 2015 by Hearne Christopher Jr.

paterno-book-3-bdf0ebefc057c967Turns out Joe Posnanski was a prophet…

Three years ago the former Kansas City Star sports columnist took a ton of heat for his puff piece biography of disgraced Penn State football coach Joe Paterno.

You know, the dude who turned the other cheek while convicted child rapist Jerry Sandusky helped him become the winningest NCAA Division One football coach ever.

Take, Deadspin’s “A Plea to Joe Posnanski to Stop Writing Mealy-Mouthed Nonsense About Joe Paterno.”

Dead spin’s Tom Scocca quoted Posnanski from Sports Illustrated as follows:

“I asked Paterno at one point in that last month if he hoped that people would come to see and measure his full life rather than a single, hazy event involving an alleged child molester. ‘It doesn’t matter what people think of me,’ he said. ‘I’ve lived my life. I just hope the truth comes out. And I hope the victims find peace.'”

“A single, hazy event,” Scocca wrote.

“A single, hazy event.

“Jerry Sandusky is charged with 52 criminal offenses, spanning 15 years, against 10 different victims. Presumably Posnanski is referring to the one incident in which Mike McQueary, a graduate assistant coach at the time, said he had seen Sandusky anally raping a boy in the Penn State football showers and reported the rape to Paterno…

“The question Posnanski posed to Paterno is vapid nonsense. He was asking the old man to bullshit him. It’s like the Washington Post‘s Sally Jenkins declining to challenge Paterno when he told her he’d “never heard of rape and a man. Continue reading →

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Hearne: Is Winter 2015 History?

Posted on January 20, 2015 by Hearne Christopher Jr.

Screen Shot 2015-01-20 at 11.21.17 AMHeard on the street; that Winter 2015 is o-v-e-r…

Retailers are fire selling off winter coats, Paul Wilson’s primping his new above ground pool in Olathe, Harley’s waxing his surfboard and Jack Frost is nowhere to be found.

Time to mothball the snowblowers and tune up the lawnmowers?

No way, says KSHB TV weather wonk Gary Lezak.

“This winter there’s a warm pattern and a cold pattern and we just went through the warm pattern,” Lezak says. “We’ve had below average snowfall – but we’ve had 4 1/2 inches of snow so far – do you realize it’s snowed six times already this month?”

Get outta town.

“Seriously, one time it was .2 of an inch, another time it was .2 of an inch, then we had three inches one night. You know, 4 1/2 inches of snow by the end of January isn’t much. So far we’ve averaged 1/2 an inch of snow each time.”

So no May blizzards, like a couple years back?

“It can happen,” Lezak says. “But it’s not going to happen this year.”

And what of the talk that winter 2015 is done for? Continue reading →

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Glazer: Super Bowl Here We Come!

Posted on January 19, 2015 by Craig Glazer

2ps361eWell, at least I picked the right teams to win…

Too bad Indy just got walked on so bad that even the 13 points in the tease didn’t help.

Most fans will be pulling for the New England Patriots and Tom Brady.

It’s Tom’s sixth Super Bowl and nobody has six. A win would secure the title BEST QUARTERBACK OF ALL TIME for Brady. And he may already be just that.

The Pats played the perfect game crushing the Colts from the opening bell.

It was a 45-7 win with many records broken by the Pats. Indy is the AFC team of the future. Just not right now. Mister Blunt ran over the Colts like they weren’t there. Three touchdowns in both games were a record for any back in the post season. Continue reading →

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Leftsetz: Today Last Day to Buy the Failure Known as Google Glass

Posted on January 19, 2015 by Bob Lefsetz
WWE wrestler The Miz

WWE wrestler The Miz

Killed by the public, the press gave it a free pass…

That’s right, for years we were subjected to fawning stories about this idiotic product in the mainstream press. There were numerous pictures of Google cofounders Sergey and Larry at parties, looking like the dorks that they are, until suddenly barroom backlash surfaced in San Francisco and the media woke up to the fact that Google Glass might be an undesired product.

And there you have the modern media paradigm in a nutshell.

The nitwit organizations trumpet everything made by people with money and the truth comes from the public. The inane writers tell us every movie and album is good until someone checks the sales charts thereafter and finds out that they’re stiffs.

How did this happen? How did reporters seeking out truth miss it?

Because they saw themselves as reporters and not analysts, just getting the facts, giving credence to every contrary opinion. Just like on TV all the anchors employ happy talk, all writers believe if you don’t contain the opposite viewpoint in your article you’re not doing your job. And that opinion should be left…on the opinion page.

So therefore, newspapers have turned into sales catalogs, no wonder the younger generation ignores them. Continue reading →

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New Jack City: ‘AMERICAN SNIPER’ SMASHES RECORDS!

Posted on January 18, 2015 by Jack Poessiger

fnd_mc_americansniperThis just in…

Clint Eastwood’s movie American Sniper took in $90.2 million domestic 3-day opening weekend – double the industry’s prediicted numbers.

The anticipated 4-day Martin Luther King weekend gross: $105 million.

Exit poll scoring: A to A+.

Warner Brothers distribution chief Dan Fellman called it the perfect storm.

“The movie is going to have great legs and it’s going to continue to break records,” Fellman said. “It’s going to go down in history.” Continue reading →

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Glazer: Final Four NFL Playoff Picks

Posted on January 18, 2015 by Craig Glazer

glazeAfter a season of upsets, injury and bad calls by refs, it comes down to the elite teams…

These teams were the favorites going into the season, with only Denver absent. Many picked Indianapolis over the Broncos to be in the AFC title game, but New England and Seattle were the favorites all along to go to the Super Bowl.

And today they’re still the favorites.

Green Bay has the great Aaron Rodgers, but beating the Seahawks on the road is unlikely given his calf injury. Thus the Pack is a huge eight point underdog. I think Marshawn Lynch will eventually wear down the Packers defense and Rodgers will be unable to repeat his outstanding performance last week against Tony Romo‘s Cowboys.

By the way, that was a catch for a TD by Dallas last week. It wouldn’t have won the game because the Packers still had four minutes left to score. But I like Seattle and don’t think it will be an edge of your seat ending. Continue reading →

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Leftridge: Here’s How My New Year’s Resolution Went

Posted on January 17, 2015 by Brandon Leftridge

New-Year_Resolutions_listFour out of every seven Americans will make a New Year’s Resolution; three of those four will fail within the first three weeks. The remaining one individual will keep that resolution for at least one month, but half of that one person will then also do it longer. (I just made all of this up, but it’s convoluted enough to sound real, so feel free to use it in casual conversation.)

Anyway, we all make resolutions. Some of us want to save more money or stop smoking; others want to watch more pornography or swear less. The most popular resolution by far is to lose unwanted fat. Although I’m typically not one for such frivolity, I decided to give this last one a shot.

See, like 89% of all Americans, I am morbidly obese and one pepperoni-milkshake away from a massive coronary. I keep an emergency cheeseburger on the nightstand in case I wake up in the middle of the night and need beef; I cut up pieces of hot dog and blend them into mayonnaise, and then I dip pizza crust in the mayonnaise. (I’d seriously rather not even tell you what I do with French fries.)

So I vowed to lose some weight. Not a lot, mind you (I mean, we can’t ALL be as hunky and ripped as John Candy, RIP), but enough so that I don’t have to wear a bra anymore and sitting up too fast doesn’t cause sharp, stabbing pains to ripple through my chest.

Here’s how it’s gone so far: Continue reading →

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Fitzpatrick: Guns Do Kill People, Even in Shawnee

Posted on January 16, 2015 by Jim Fitzpatrick

Charlton-Heston---Guns-Dont-Kill-PeoI was out of town when the Shawnee gun shop robbery and shootout took place last week, and I didn’t go back and read the news stories about it…

Although from reading Hearne’s and Rich Steele’s pieces on KC Confidential, I see that store owner Jon Bieker’s decision to emerge from a back room during the robbery has come under close scrutiny. I’m sure that many members of the public have put themselves in his position and thought about what they would have done.

Hearne has asked me to weigh in on this, and because I’m like him – a former reporter – I’m willing to offer an opinion on just about anything. (When we were at The Star, reporters had to repress their opinions and approach everything with fairness and even handedness in mind.)

At any rate…I don’t pretend to possess the Wisdom of Solomon on this, but I would put my chips somewhere between Hearne’s position that Bieker should have stayed in the back room and Steele’s assertion that Bieker did the right thing by coming out. Continue reading →

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Jack Goes Confidential: Obsessive ‘Foxcatcher’ Disturbs & Fascinates

Posted on January 16, 2015 by Jack Poessiger

foxcatcherTwo amazing motion pictures both opening in KC on the same date!

Coincidence? Not really.

After all it’s Hollywood’s Oscar nominations weekend and both films are taking advantage of the extra buzz and publicity.

The first, of course, is the earlier reviewed AMERICAN SNIPER.

The other is MONEYBALL director Bennett Miller’s fascinating FOXCATCHER which features Steve Carell’s mesmerizing transformation into oddball John DuPont.

It’s a creepy portrayal of the multi-millionaire’s tragic obsession with the sport of wrestling – not pro wrestling, mind you – and his attempts to gain the respect of his peers by coaching a world class American team in the 1988 Olympic games in Seoul, Korea.

The focus here is on his very dark relationship with two champion wrestlers who happen to be brothers. They’re brilliantly played by Mark Ruffalo and Channing Tatum (who delivers the performance of his career).

FOX CATCHER is a true story of great wealth gone awry – emotional bankruptcy at its most tragic. Continue reading →

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Steele: Do Black Lives Really Matter in Missouri?

Posted on January 16, 2015 by Rich Steele

hamill26n-11-webThe Kansas City Star reports rather matter-of-factly that for the fourth time in the last five years, Missouri led the nation in the percentage of its black citizens who were victims of homicide…

Quick: name two black people in the last five years who were shot and killed?

One comes easy. Michael Brown. How could we not know Ferguson’s gentle giant?

Brown was not, however, one of those 9 percent of the Missouri total under eighteen years of age. Their names have already been lost to history.

As much attention as has been paid to Brown’s death, almost none has been paid to the hundreds who died more conventionally.

Al Sharpton has marched for none of them.

And CNN has kept its distance from all of them. Continue reading →

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Sutherland: Camp of the Saints

Posted on January 16, 2015 by Dwight D. Sutherland, Jr.

Screen Shot 2015-01-15 at 6.49.04 PMForty years ago a French author, Jean Raspail, wrote a powerful polemic against multiculturalism…

Translated into English by Norman Shapiro, a Harvard faculty member, it was roundly condemned at the time as racist, hateful, etc., when it was published here in 1975 by Charles Scribner’s Sons.

The book’s plot is very straight forward.  It’s a nightmarish account of the Western world (Europe and the United States) being overrun by a tidal wave of third world immigrants.

The political and cultural Left in the book insist that it be allowed on humanitarian grounds, with particular emphasis on the plight of children being sent here as the spear head of the demographic invasion.

Their arguments were couched in terms of cultural relativism, but the real aim was to consolidate political power by swamping the opposition. Many liberals and progressives are today unequivocal about this.

Undocumented immigrants, as Jay Leno has noted, is just a euphemism for unregistered Democrats.  Continue reading →

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Hearne: $6 Million Walnuts ‘Mausoleum’ to be Auctioned

Posted on January 15, 2015 by Hearne Christopher Jr.
Reagan-SP-Price-autograph

President Reagan & Charles Price

Think of it as wretched excess…

Remember the Beverly Hillbillies television show? Where an unassuming family of hillbillies discovers oil, then drives their run down jalopy to a spiffy, new mansion in Beverly Hills, California.

Dream come true, huh?

Well, right now Kansas City’s Cates Auction Real Estate Company could use some rich hillbillies to ante up for the 9,000 square foot “penthouse it intends to auction “in The Walnuts at 51st and Wornall Road.

Just one problem.

The sellers – who allegedly plowed $6 million into it – have been trying to dump it for $3 million, when according to Zillo it only sold for $419,000 in 2009.

That’s quite a markup – even for a home that once hosted Prince Charles, Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, according to Cates’ listing for the January 30th auction.

Not surprisingly it used to belong to former US Ambassador to England Charles Price.

Cates hopes to unload the condo on the highest bidder over $1.5 million.

That could happen, but as old world and prestigious as the penthouse is, there’s something kind of sterile and uninspiring about the multi story abode that Zillow now estimates to be worth only $631,617. Continue reading →

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Hearne: Englewood Theatre Tangles with Arrow, Glenwood Sign to Indy, Not Ranch Mart

Posted on January 15, 2015 by Hearne Christopher Jr.

3739566700_751e92e6d7_zThis just in…

Today we “learned” in the Kansas City Star that movie mogul Wade Williams‘ gigundo, historic Glenwood Arts sign would be moving to 95th and Mission Road after the theater complex at Metcalf South shopping center bites the dust later this month.

Not gonna happen.

No way the Ranch Mart would allow that, Williams says.

Instead, the sign will be heading east to Williams’ Englewood Theatre in Independence.

Speaking of which,…

“I’m trying to decide whether to put two more screens at the Englewood,” Williams says.

Matter of fact, had it not been for a basement flood and another niggling annoyance the Englewood would have reopened last year, Williams says.

At present he’s embroiled in a dispute with the vaunted Arrow Fabricare Services.

“They were working on the curtain for our big screen,” Williams says. “It’s sixty feet wide and weighs probably 200 pounds or more. Now it’s going to cost $15,000 to replace.”

Things went awry after he sent it to Arrow for cleaning, Williams says. Continue reading →

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Hearne: ‘She’s a Pistol’ No Ordinary Gun Store

Posted on January 15, 2015 by Hearne Christopher Jr.
IMG_5290

She’s a Pistol

Most of the guns stores I’ve been to were daunting, foreboding places…

Walls with semi automatic weapons of war mounted upon them and stacked along shelves; arrays of handguns in glass display cases; ammo everywhere; legions of gritty looking dudes and tough types circulating the stores and an all encompassing sense of testosterone trumping the scent of cheap cologne.

Macho, militaristic man caves of the highest order – havens for both the strong and the weak in search of strength.

My hunch is, most of you have spent very little if any time in such places – other than maybe the munitions departments at Cabella’s or Dick’s.

Why would you?

Gun ownership’s on a four decade decline.  Continue reading →

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Steele: ‘She’s A Pistol’ Owner Did What He Had To Do

Posted on January 15, 2015 by Rich Steele

28ef42680e4363e428684f5c703d5cda9f1d4958a37af18a2f466fb128f6f139The best testimony we have to date on the actions of gun shop owner Jon Bieker comes from his wife Becky…

“I have lost my husband in this senseless murder. Although tragic, he saved my life because he carried a firearm.”

There’s no reason I can think of not to take her at her word.

Occam’s Razor–simplest explanation is the best–suggests Becky was beaten before the shootout. Why–or how—would anyone have hit her after bullets started flying?

Let’s assume Jon was in the back. He hears demands being made and wife crying out for help. Does he remain in the back hoping perps will not kill his wife or does he come out?

A survivor remains in back. A man comes out. Continue reading →

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Jack Goes Confidential: Clint Eastwood Brilliantly Directs Bradley Cooper As ‘American Sniper’

Posted on January 15, 2015 by Jack Poessiger

american-sniper-shot-for-webYears ago the actor Clint Eastwood uttered his now famous words, “Make My Day.”

Today the phrase could easily be attached to producer-director Eastwood’s latest contribution to the American cinema scene.

With AMERICAN SNIPER the 84 year-old filmmaker flawlessly lays bare the account of an American hero—a patriotic Texan named Chris Kyle.

Following the 9/11 attacks in New York City, Kyle enlisted in the Navy SEAL program determined to fight for his country and stand up to terrorists.

He became the most decorated marksman—make that sniper—in U.S. military history with a reported 150-plus confirmed kills to his name.

Kyle’s actions are credited with saving hundreds of U.S. soldiers’ lives. Continue reading →

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Steele: Isn’t “Dismemberment” Just a Wee Bit Intrusive?

Posted on January 15, 2015 by Rich Steele

fetusI’ve always been a bit squeamish when the subject comes to abortion…

That’s one reason I’ll be avoiding Planned Parenthood‘s upcoming “Chili for Choice” chow down in Wichita. However a new bill being proposed in Kansas makes me more squeamish still.

Then again, that may be its purpose.

The bill by Kansans for Life would prohibit doctors from using a variety of medical instruments to “dismember” an unborn baby.

Language matters here. Continue reading →

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Hearne: ‘She’s a Pistol’ Owner Should Not Have Engaged Robbers

Posted on January 14, 2015 by Hearne Christopher Jr.

Screen Shot 2015-01-14 at 12.47.58 PMShawnee Police and the district attorney are in no hurry to deliver the goods…

At this stage of the game, they’re not releasing virtually any details from last week’s gun battle at She’s a Pistol in downtown Shawnee. Something about not giving the “bad guys” information that could be used against prosecutors in their pending murder trials.

I don’t get it because, seriously, what allegedly happened allegedly happened.

What’s the use in concealing whether or not – for example – the store owner’s wife got smacked in the head before or after her now dead husband burst into the room sparking a Hollywood-esque shootout?

Many of the pro shoot ’em up crowd have jumped to the conclusion that she was hit before, sparking her husband’s unwise decision to test his video game shooting skills on a room full of armed perps.

And what sort of injury did she sustain anyway? Was it the result of her foolishly mouthing off to the robbers or refusing to cooperate with them? Was it a case of the bad guys sending a message? Or was it a sign that more foul play was at hand and something had to be done.

This much is known: Continue reading →

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Glazer: Pointless Shawnee Gun Battle Reminds Scribe of Shootouts Past

Posted on January 14, 2015 by Craig Glazer

glazerunfilteredHearne gave us some well thought out insight into the shootout in Shawnee…

The one at the gun store now to be known as the  O.K. Corral.

THE QUESTION BEING, When you have a weapon available and are being robbed at gunpoint, should you shoot at the bad guys?

The answer usually is no.

However it can depend on the situation and YOU. Have you had any training and what do you have inside in the way of intestinal fortitude? You also have to consider the perpetrators situation. The way he or they are acting. Does it seem like they want to kill you even if you cooperate?

At this point, we don’t know the details of the slain gun store owner situation.

When I was younger I lived in a very violent world. Continue reading →

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