53 beers on tap

All Saints Day MM DOUBLE personal appearance!

Hope you're all sucking down your Mallo Cups as you're reading this.  I wanted to let you all know, my proud and loyal 8, that Tuesday, I'll do this, like Brutus, 'cause I always KNEW dis, BOOYYYEEEE!!!

No, I wasn't Flavor Flav for Halloween.  More on those escapades later.  What I wanted to tell you is that there will be two, count 'em, TWO opportunities to interact with the Marshmallow Man Tuesday evening.

I'll be attending the 10th anniversary of the Volunteer Center at Slayton House, which is scheduled from 4:30-6:00pm.  Sometime before the 6:00 end chances are high I'll leave, in order to attend the first 2012 election rally/social/hoedown of the Howard County Young Democrats, an organization which I just happened to found, many years ago.  How many, so many that I'm no longer a Young Democrat, so there!

Hope to see you at one or both affairs!  Who knows, there may just be an after-party (or is that after-parties?) function somewhere!

The Beers: Ready to Rock the Mobbies!!!

Last year, this blog didn't win a "Mobbie", the award given by the Baltimore Sun for Maryland's Outstanding Blogs.  (See, MOB?  Mobtown?  Mobbies?)  My take is that the one and only reason why that didn't happen, is because this blog wasn't nominated for any Mobbie categories.  Which is as natural as Warren Miller being inducted into Mensa.

This year, a wrong has been righted.  Sorry, Warren.

53 Beers on Tap has been nominated for TWO, count 'em, TWO, categories for the 2011 Mobbies: Best Howard Blog (as one of eleven such nominated blogs, each one a local blog heavyweight in it's own right, though there can only be one juggernaut), and Best Humor Blog (at least someone gets the semi-satirical nature of this blog)

So starting tomorrow, give this blog the gift that keeps on giving.  The gift of victory!  Go to the Sun's website and vote early and often, as much as the laws of the contest, common sense and gravity allow!  I personally intend to vote Avogadro's Number of times, which, as we all know, is 6.02 times 10 to the 23rd power, for the Beers.  That's a lot of votes.

Commence au festival!!!

On gender identity

Oh boy, here we go.  I expect every right-wing "family values" nut-job in the Mid-Atlantic to come out for this one.

In case you haven't heard, the County Council is considering legislation to make gender identity and expression a protected class under county law.  Wow.  And I recall a day when a gay nominee to the county's Human Rights Commission was basically flayed in the George Howard Building.  Fortunately, yet sadly, that did pave the way a couple years later for a lesbian activist to become the Commission's first homosexual member.

Here is an article about the legislation.

So if you read the article, you will see that the Chairwoman of a statewide lobby in the area of gender rights expresses hope that Howard County becomes the third jurisdiction in the state, behind Baltimore City and Montgomery County, to recognize gender identity and expression as a protected class. 

I hope so too, but I have my doubts sometimes inj this county.  Yes, even when a Republican State Senator from Howard County breaks ranks to endorse gay marriage.  I say this because there exists in Howard County a network of conservatiove congregationsthroughout the county; centered mostly in the western end of the county but extending into Ellicott City, Elkridge, and even parts of Columbia.  I don't doubt for a second the power of these congregations to organize to oppose this legislation.

Additionally, issues surrounding homosexuality and gender identity tend to draw an external audience as well.  Wouldn't be surprised at all to see considerable testimony against this legislation come from outside Howard County-- hell, even outside Maryland.

I think I may need to dust off my testifyin' shoes and get my big behind down to the Howard Building on this one.

 

The best blog posts YOU haven't read, I'll bet!

OK, I'm going to try to go for no typos or misspellings in this post, unlike yesterday's post.  BTW thanks for that, TypePad spell check.  Blow me.

There has been some top-flight analysis of Howard County's population demographics, both in terms of age groups and generations (and if you thought the two were the same, then you need a check up from the neck up) going on in the local blogosphere.  And it has not been on these pages.  Rather, it has been found on Columbia Compass.

These wonderful analyses of US Census data affecting Howard County can be found here and here.  The first page breaks down Howard County's population demographics by age group.  The second page, by generation.

More is promised by Columbia Compass guy on this and I can't wait.  I'll leave it to you, gentle reader, to read the posts, but the next post promises to draw parallels between the increasing presence of certain generations in Howard County with the housing choices currently available, and that might be made available in the future, in Howard County.

Not sure if this is possible, but I'd also like to see this analysis cut across ethic categories as well.  Especially in the light of the last twenty years or so, where the Asian and Hispanic/Latino populations in the HoCo have skyrocketed.

This is tremendous work by Columbia Compass guy and he is to be commended.  It should be every blog reader's sworn duty to read these two posts, as well as future ones on the Compass on this important topic.  Huzzah, sir, huzzah!!!

Watson announces... kinda

Far be it from me to quarrel with a fellow HoCo blogger-- as we all know, I'm not the quarrelling type.  And I certainly wouldn't typically quarrel with someone who put my big mug AND a link to my blog on one of his most recent blog posts.  However--- quarrel I must.  BLOG WARS ARE ON!!!!  Jessie, this is the moment you've dreaded for years-- bloggers at each other's throats!!!!!

Or not.

Nevertheless, I do recall Courtney Watson making an announcement of sprts last night.  But it was not definitively that she was running for County Executive.  It was that she was "strongly considering" running for Exec.  And as Wordbones totally accurately states in his post, her comments were basically a restaement of things that her supporters already knew.  Moreover, she stated that some sort of formal announcement will come at another time.

OK, so why is it important for me to make this distinction?  Well, I think it's fair that elected officials do keep in the back of their minds what their role will be in the next election-- will they run for re-election, seek higher office, if so which office, etc.  This is how they serve the people and earn their livelihood for the most part.   I've no issue there.

But if ANYONE actually announced that they were running for the county's highest office now, not even a year removed from the last general election-- I would kind of have a problem with a campaign season that lasted from October 2011 to September 2014, when the primary election for County Executive would be held.   Heavens knows we have enough problems with perpetual campaigns on the Federal and even statewide levels.  Let's not confront those evils locally as well.

I will offer this contrast to the portrayal of Watson as not often seeing eye to eye with County Executive Ulman.  I do see the two as being very similar insofar as being supportive of business and economic development in Howard County, and of positioning the county as a regional leader.  Both have been supportive of the redevelopment of downtown Columbia and of the revitalization the of US 1 and US 40 corridors.  I do see Watson's role as a legislator as different from Ulman's as an executive-- the former role is much more about being questioning and deliberative, while the latter is abote direction and vision.  Of course, the two are not mututally exclusive, and to be sure, should she run for Executive, Courtney Watson will be measured in part on the basis of her direction and vision for the county.  But if she runs-- in due time.  Please, not now!!!

Marshmallow Man personal appearance TONIGHT!!!

Hi kids!  MM here with an annoucement!  The Marshmallow Man himself will be appearing at Courtney Watson't fundraiser tonight at Serafino's restaurant in Ellicott City.  I invite one and all to come join in the good cheer as the political machinery of the 2014 elections starts to slowly, inexorably, grind to life.

Hope to see you there!  As with all personal appearances, I will be available for autographs, photographs, and quality snark of the first order!

Coming to east county: a new middle school?

OK, I know I can bloody well look on a map as well as anyone, but I have to wonder what the easternmost school located in Howard County is.  For the life of me, I can't think of any county schools located east of US Route 1.  And I'm not looking at a map because, well, I'm lazy.

Well, that's about to change.  At least in a couple years.  First is the new elementary school in Elkridge on Ducketts Lane.  Then, there's going to be a new middle school in the county in 2014 on Coca-Cola Drive, as reported in this article by the totally wonderful (yes, I'm sucking up to her again) Sara Toth.

So there does seem to be a bit of illogic why that site was recently rejected as a location for an elementary school, but yet is okey-dokey for a middle school.  The county cites timing as the deciding factor, in that the need for the new middle school is pressing.  I still have concerns though, about what will happen should the new CSX transfer facility be sited at the location near the school site.  After all, the proximity of the proposed CSX site was the reason why the location of the elementary school was moved.

Perhaps the bigger question then is: why was the elementary school location moved from the Coca-Cola Drive site to the Ducketts Lane site at all?

To turf or not to turf?

As I reflect upon a football weekend, which also contained my son's last-ever high school homecoming, my thoughts turn to this article.

The School Board is looking at a list of school renovation projects that can be funded with the windfall received from the state's increasing the alcohol tax.  That list of projects originally included the installation of articficial turf at Atholton and Hammond high schools.  Well, now that list is under review by the board, and with the politically charged, transparency-paranoid atomosphere we have on the board now, that means "fat chance" for turfing any fields, I'm afraid.

The catch is also, that if the funds aren't used to turf the field, the county's not adding in any funding of its own to get the fields done.  So for advocates of artificial turf at the high school fields, the window of opportunity to turf these fields is now.

It's easy to hit the emotion buttons and ask "why turf the fields when parents and teachers have to dig out of their own pockets to provide for school supplies?" or other such questions.  No one is going to question that there aren't a lot of alternative uses for this funding.

Here's why turfing the fields is improtant to me.  First and foremost, safety.  Turfing the high school playing fields will make the fields safer for high school athletes.  Second, versatility.  Turfing the fields will make the fields suitable for more school and community-related functions and activities.  The playing fields don't have to be protected during the summer months as they do now.  And wouldn't it be cool for a community to hold a concert or two at their local high school field?  Third, cost effectiveness.  Although these fields cost about $1 million to install, including all the relevant sitework, the cost benefit of these fields over time is great due to reduced maintenance.

I'm hoping that the school board chooses to keep turfing these schools on the books for the coming year.  It only makes sense.

The HoCo is AAA again!!!

Good article about Howard County's AAA bond rating being awarded for the 14th year in a row!

This means that Howard County can receive the lowest interest rate possible in paying it's bonds, which of course helps tremendously in terms of debt servicing.  Moreover, the rating, as recently seen in the recent federal debt debacle, provides a commentary on a government's ability to manage its finances.

Now, on the flip side of this, critics of county government will pooh-pooh the bond rating, saying that the high rating is only earned because the county taxes residents too much, the local bureaucracy is bloated, blah blah blah.  To which I proudly say, poppycock!  Rather, the bond rating is representative of Howard's affluent population, diverse economy and reasonable debt burden.

So may the good times roll in Howard County for at least another year.  Maybe the county can put that bond rating to good use and get a few big-ticket projects funded.

Monkey, monkey, monkey!!!

The Board of Appeals has ruled, and they have ruled that Frisky's Wildlife Sanctuary can keep it's 22 monkeys, at least for the remainder of their lives, and that they can take in additional monkeys on a temporary basis.  The lovely and talented (and I'm not just saying that because she's one of the 8) Lindsey McPherson has an article on the matter that you can find here.

Over time, my take on Frisy's has changed.  At first I thought it was totally stupid to bring in monkeys into Howard County, especially to a residental area.  As time has passed, though-- although I'm still not sure how kosher it is to have MoKos in the HoCo, Ido feel that Frisky's owners and staff are responsible and will do their best to keep both the animals and the surrounding community safe.  So I'm OK with the Board of Appeals' decision.