Terry Cowgill

A Little Cash Stash

Ever wonder what $205 million in cash looks like? Click here to find out. It was seized in Mexico City Thursday “from methamphetamine producers in one of [the] city’s ritziest neighborhoods.” The cops think it weighs more than two tons.

Sort of makes you want to reconsider your career options. Wonder if I could fit it in my basement …

* * * * * *

Hey, ever get a really awful song stuck in your head? It happens to me more often than I care to admit (can you say Andrea True’s More, More, More?).

My colleague Patrick Sullivan was at the Canaan Super Stop & Shop recently and had the misfortune of hearing Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire.” The ever-amusing Patrick has put together a list of the all-time most annoying songs and solicited contributions from his readers, including yours truly. Check it out.

Monty Python and the 10-Year-Old

Remember Monty Python and The Holy Grail? Got to be one of the silliest films ever to make it off the cutting room floor. And since it makes fun of both Medieval English hierarchy and the French, it will always be one of my favorites.

So my wife and daughter were away last weekend and my 10 1/2 year old son and I were left our own devices. I’ve had the film in my VHS collection for more than 20 years, so I thought I would see if Roger (who is really into silly humor) would find anything funny about The Grail. We got halfway through it in our first sitting.

He found the opening credits (Wik) amusing, followed by “Bring out your dead.” He liked the insulting Frenchman pictured above (”Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!”) hurling insults and livestock at Arthur and his knights (”Fetchez la vache!”).

Since he had just learned in school about the Trojan War, Roger laughed out loud at Sir Bedevere’s ill-fated Trojan rabbit and its subsequent use as a weapon by the Frenchmen. Since I didn’t want him to get any kinky ideas about spanking, I fast-forwarded through the Castle Anthrax.

Continue reading Monty Python and the 10-Year-Old…

Waste Not …

Update: Click here for the LJ’s editorial take on the transfer station issue to date.

It’s been another topsy-turvy week in the arena of waste. No, I’m not talking about cutting government spending, but about what has become the great transfer station imbroglio.

For those of you who did not read my first post on this topic (see below), the long-and-the-short of it is that Salisbury’s first selectman, Curtis Rand, spent $18,000 in town funds to purchase options on a site for a new transfer station without consulting or holding a vote with his fellow members of the Board of Selectmen.

It appears to me that Rand was on solid ground legally (and the town attorney agrees), if for no other reason than the fact that state statutes don’t specifically forbid him from doing what he did. Whether or not it was a wise thing to do is an entirely different question. My guess is that until late in the game, Rand had no idea keeping this information from the other selectmen (notably Peter Oliver) would cause this kind of backlash.

Continue reading Waste Not ……

Pestilence and Disease

As our weather trends milder, it’s time for a mercifully brief global warming update. Here are the latest dire predictions of what climate change could mean to the world. Pestilence and disease. Mass starvation. Red ants crawling up your ankles. Sounds like a calamity of Biblical proportions.

And poorer continents like Africa and Asia are disproportionately affected. Who knows what’ll happen? But the “poor-get-screwed” scenario certainly fits the meme of the PC set. Too bad none of us will be around to see if it actually happens.

P.S. For an alternate view, click here.

‘Transferal’ of Funds

Wow. It was a local media blitz today. I’m not sure I’ve seen this much buzz since Sharon Hospital was for sale or hundreds of people crowded into the Congregational Church to decide whether Salisbury would get a cell tower.

At issue, of course, is Salisbury First Selectman Curtis Rand’s controversial actions last week in signing options to buy property for a new transfer station.

This story has me baffled, at least from a personal perspective. I am an opinionated person. That’s why I write this blog for The Lakeville Journal Company and that’s why I write a lot of the LJ’s editorials. I get paid, in part, to offer my views on a number of issues.

But I must confess I can’t decide how I feel about this topic. Rand’s decision to avoid his fellow members of the Board of Selectmen and sign one-year options to purchase 17 acres of land for $2 million can be defended on several fronts.

After my story came out this morning, Rand went on CATV6 with Marshall Miles and elaborated on what he had told the board at Monday’s meeting. He signed the options after meeting with the Board of Finance and consulting with the town attorney. He felt if the selectmen had voted on the matter in open session, as they are required to do, potential publicity could have killed the deal.

Continue reading ‘Transferal’ of Funds…

Libby Land

For several years now I have been developing more respect for the Washington Post as an authoritative source of national and international news. It’s clearly less agenda-driven than The New York Times and is in much more capable managerial hands (did you hear that, Pinch?)

The recent expose by Dana Priest and Anne Hull on the disgraceful conditions at Walter Reed were a great public service, for example. Even the Wapo’s editorial board has its head screwed on right.

Get a load of the paper’s lead editorial yesterday. It’s a thoughtful and level-headed look at the Scooter Libby trial that, contrary to the prevailing meme of the MSM, doesn’t paint Joe Wilson as some sort of crusading hero battling Darth Vader.

Contrast that with the NYT’s editorial on the same subject. It’s a pious, knee-jerk attempt to launch into a wider critique of the Bush administration’s policies. It buys into all of Wilson’s ridiculous claims and does not mention that he, too, has been exposed as a liar.

The only difference is Libby lied under oath. Otherwise, maybe it would be Wilson who needed a pardon.

You’ve Got To Be Kidding

Kudos to Rick Green for writing a spot-on column in yesterday’s Hartford Courant on school spending.

It was especially needed, given the timetable for school budgets, including the Region One and local school budgets in the Northwest Corner that are being finalized for a referendum and town meetings in May.

As even some Region One administrators have admitted, cutting program budgets may have a painful effect on educators and students, but as enrollments continue to decline there is little alternative, lest budgets be rejected by the voters and the cuts become severe.

But the larger point Rick makes is that with Gov. Rell’s budget proposal targeting billions in new aid to local school districts, someone needs to ask the question: “Will this improve our schools?” So far, most of the discussion has focused on the increased income tax burden town residents will shoulder versus the amount of aid the town will receive (or not receive) in return.

The simple fact is that there has never been a correlation established between school district spending and student achievement. Family income, yes: but school spending, no.

Continue reading You’ve Got To Be Kidding…

The Swiss War Machine

Who would have thought there’s a new imperial aggressor roaming the Alps? And who could have predicted the land of more guns per capita than the U.S. would turn into a marauding juggernaut? Turns out all they really needed was not an AK-47 or even one of those cool little red knives, but one of these …

P.S. Thanks Tony.

In Praise of Journalism

Yesterday’s firing of the commander of Walter Reed Army Medical Center and Dick Ahles’s op-ed piece in the March 1 LJ got me to thinking about the value of good journalism.

This is one of those cases in which military malfeasance or incompetence has been exposed and everyone agrees it was an outrage. SecDef Robert Gates even went so far as to thank The Washington Post for breaking the story.

You may recall several previous stories about alleged military improprieties or national security issues (one of which was penned by the same Postie who broke the Reed story) that had the Bush administration reacting in fits of apoplexy. Unflattering stories about CIA prisons, aggressive interrogation techniques and leaked memos about the dismal outlook for the Iraq war were met were with much huffing and puffing: “You’re endangering national security” or “this emboldens the enemy.”

Not this time. By most accounts, if Post reporters Dana Priest and Anne Hull hadn’t broken the story, officials would have continued to look the other way as wounded heroes received outpatient treatment in disgraceful conditions.

Continue reading In Praise of Journalism…

Two Local Updates

Two LJ news stories that follow up on recent posts on this blog:

Sign, sign, everywhere a sign …

and

That mysterious surveillance camera near Dutcher’s Bridge.