Author: Douglas Handshoe

Other Voices | Tom Callaghan: Whose Kids are being Killed?

Posted on March 17, 2022

The expression “whose ox is being gored” comes from Scripture, Exodus:21:35. Nowadays, the phrase is often used in politics to describe how different people in similar circumstances are often treated quite differently depending on the relative “importance” of the individuals.

Important people, which often means rich and powerful people, get better treatment by society and government than those in poorer circumstances. Why? Because the rich and powerful are better positioned to reward those that help them than the poor. It’s not a particularly noble phenomenon, but it reflects human nature and reality.

One would hope that this form of discrimination would not apply to children who are not old enough to be responsible for their circumstances especially in war. Not so. There is a huge difference in how children, babies even, are treated depending upon who they are and who killed them.

Let’s compare Ukraine 2022 and Gaza 2014.

The war in Ukraine started February 24, 2022. I watched a significant amount on TV. Saw the footage of buildings being destroyed residential, commercial, mixed use. It looked like a horror show. Whole portions of ten story buildings falling to the ground. Continue Reading…..

Stone School Bond Election Set for May 17th

This is the season for school bonds folks. In early January the School Board set up a steering committee to plan for the best course of action to replace the school district’s dilapidated High School including public hearings/work sessions. The proposal to emerge was to relocate the High School out to some donated land just west of Highway 49 in the southern portion of Wiggins for both the new High School and Athletic complex. Currently the schools various athletic facilities are scattered around from Perk to off Highway 26 close to Stone Elementary School. All of this can be accomplished starting with the bargain basement price of $19.8 million dollars.

By way of comparison for you readers on the coast Stone County Schools serves over 2500 kids. Some of the facilities are tight for space and/or are very old. Its a typical rural school district that has to stretch their dollars to educate the children and like many such rural school districts do a decent job with the resources they have.

Having been around for a while, my main worry is the School Board has too few dollars for what needs to be accomplished and that can cause major problems on the back end of things.

Since we do vote here we will make a recommendation to join us in voting yes on issuing the bonds in the May 17th election.

Correction: The initial post misidentified the site for the proposed school as 16th Section land.

Tomorrow is School Bond Election Day in the Bay

Slabbed broke the details last August in fact, months before the official rollout earlier this year. The lede of that old post was perceived as a cheap shot by officialdom and I get that point of view. The bonds weren’t being kept secret as much as it was a situation where they were buried in the meeting agendas coupled with locals not engaging the issue due to the pandemic in a governmental beat that is no longer covered as a matter of routine by the local newspapers and certainly not the Tee Vee news.

I suspect the short campaign season was designed to keep opposition from coalescing but there is opposition to the $37.9M bond issue including from Waveland Board Trustee Mike Bell, who ultimately voted against putting the issue on the ballot along with at least 2 Bay St Louis City Councilmen. I have not spoken at length about this with the good people down in Bay-Waveland but I do get a general sense that the 60% majority will be hard to come by. Since it is not our tax dollars, we won’t make any recommendations on tomorrow’s election besides saying to make your voice heard and to go vote.

Other Voices | Tom Callaghan: Fighting for a Tie

Posted on March 6, 2022

Russia is an anomaly. It’s too big. Nearly twice the size of the next biggest country in the world, Canada, with a population less than that of Bangladesh.

Russia is in a war where they can’t afford to win or lose. Putin has forty miles of military vehicles stuck in the mud because he violated the first rule of war in Ukraine: Don’t Start A War In the Mud Season.

Putin knew his timing was off but he had promised China Boss Xi Jinping that he would not commence military action against Ukraine until the Winter Olympics in China finished on February 20, 2022.

Putin is running out of friends fast. He can’t lose Xi Jingping.

The American Press is somewhere between Ga-Ga and Ape-Shit over Ukraine’s leader, Volodymyr Zelensky. It doesn’t hurt that he’s Jewish. Congressman Steve Cohen of Tennessee called him “the bravest man in the World.” Hey, Zelensky is holding things together, from his bunker, asking for help, but he’s not going to be confused with Audie Murphy or Wild Bill Donavan.

I’ve been watching mostly BBC and CNN. Fareed Zakaria does a great job. Jake Tapper and Wolf Blitzer are solid and make sure nobody forgets that Zelensky is Jewish.

The whole Jewish thing is not totally irrelevant. When the Nazis overran Ukraine in WW II, Ukrainians were relieved to be out from under Russian domination. How friendly some Ukrainians were with the Nazis while they were under occupation, who knows? I don’t. Continue Reading……..

Other Voices | Tom Callaghan: Wrongfooting the Bear

Posted on February 14, 2022

The Bear is Putin and he can’t quite get his story straight. He feels, in his gut, that Ukraine is really part of Russia but he doesn’t know how to say so, convincingly.

Every time he gets ready to find a reason to start some high-intensity pushing and shoving in Ukraine, Jake Sullivan stools the “secret”, identifies it as a fabrication and/or false flag operation and takes the Bear off his game. Putin ends up punching air and losing another news cycle.

Putin is accustomed to being first actor and having the advantage of surprise and Jake Sullivan is peeing in his porridge. The window of opportunity for Putin’s designs on Ukraine is closing.

Which is a good thing.

Who is this guy, Jake Sullivan? His actual occupation is National Security Advisor to the President of the United States. Henry Kissinger made the job glamorous and exciting. Kissinger made himself Nixon’s friend, confidant and alter ego. He became famous and powerful in the process. Continue Reading……..

Other Voices | Tom Callaghan: Do The Right Thing Joe

Someone has got to tell Joe Biden to do the right thing.

Joe, you helped Obama win two terms and you beat Trump. Good for you. But, imagining you as President seven years from now is a bridge too far. In fact the very thought of a total of eight years of President Joe Biden, the guy I voted for, gives me the heebee-geebees.

Here’s what you have to do, Joe. On January 21, 2022, which is the one year anniversary of your Inauguration, go on TV and make the following statement.

“I SHALL NOT SEEK, NOR WILL I ACCEPT, THE NOMINATION OF MY PARTY FOR ANOTHER TERM AS YOUR PRESIDENT.”

Those were the exact words used by President Lyndon Johnson on March 31, 1968, seven months before the 1968 Presidential Election. Johnson was losing public support over the Viet Nam War and did what he thought was best for the Country and his Party at the time. Johnson’s announcement stabilized his poll numbers and he finished his term at just under 50% Job Approval. Not bad given the tumultuous Sixties and the War.

Joe Biden is a fighter and a patriot, I’m sure it goes against every instinct in his being to make such an announcement one year into his presidency. But, its not about what’s good for Joe anymore, its about the country and maintaining a viable two party system in the Congress. Continue Reading……

December 2021……

Seems like the whole year blew by in an instant folks. For our part we’ve been spending the last 9 weeks training to complete our first half marathon. With the successful completion of our ten mile day on Sunday, we’re ready to go, the only open question being how fast we can make the trek on raceday.

There have been a few times I actually missed Slabbed during that time period, such as when Dave Elliot showed some ass with Anita Lee over his out of state car tag. Dave sunk to a new low there but we really need to tackle the other controversy he stirred as buried in his remarks is the concept of self selection bias and that is worth exploring when time allows.

Of course Meggan Gray being an anti-vaxer made for some fun local jackassery we also missed out on. (Hint to Meggan, the Pope said to get the vaccine so claiming a religious exemption was pretty retarded.)

Anchor talent starved WVVX snapped Gray up pretty quickly. We’re still monitoring both TV stations but with the advent of streaming we still watch the NOLA TV news as the larger market stations have far more resources and seem less politically-agenda driven than WLOX in particular.

There have been other things happening as well. This month we’ll peel back a few layers on Hancock Port and Harbor as there were some major changes made in the leadership of that particular county agency in the Summer of 2020 that flew way under the radar with the pandemic raging and such.

Continue reading “December 2021……”

Other Voices | Lana Noonan: What Does Government Cost in Hancock County This Month?

It’s bill paying time all over the county of Hancock this week and next as all 3 cities, the county, and the 2 school districts publish their claim dockets on their agendas.

Bay St. Louis, Waveland and Diamondhead all have their first meetings of November tonight.

Bay St. Louis at 5:30pm in their council chambers behind the shell station at Highway 90 and Main St.

Waveland at 6:30pm at board room in city hall on Coleman Avenue

Diamondhead at 6:00pm at city hall in Diamondhead

The Hancock County Board of supervisors met yesterday, Nov. 1,  at 9:00am at government complex on Highway 90 in Bay St. Louis.  All of their meetings are archived for viewing by gong to their website, click on supervisors, agendas, and select meeting date.

Continue reading “Other Voices | Lana Noonan: What Does Government Cost in Hancock County This Month?”

Other Voices | Tom Callaghan: Bannon!

I’ve always liked Steve Bannon.

We’ve got a bit in common. We’re both mostly Irish and mostly, Catholic. Bannon went to high school with Benedictine Catholic Monks in Richmond, VA. I attended most of the Jesuit Colleges on the East Coast graduating from one of them. Bannon was elected President of the Student Body at Virginia Tech, in Harrisonburg, VA. I was elected to the student council from my home room in high school….ok, ok no big deal, but I beat the Class President and the Class Valedictorian in a three person race.

So, put that in your pipe and smoke it.

Bannon calls himself a nationalist populist. I call myself an Obama-Pelosi Democrat with emphasis on staying out of unnecessary Mideast wars urged upon us by Israel and her, bought and paid for, friends in Congress. I know they’re “bought and paid for” because Tom Friedman of the Times said they were and Tom loves Israel more than life itself.

Bannon talks too much and often makes enemies. Chicken libs (a chicken lib is unwilling to criticize Israel ever) love to take shots at Bannon. Organized commenters (its called Hasbara, from the Hebrew) join the fray to vile excess. Their “real” gripe: Bannon supposedly said, according to one of his former wives (are you kidding me!), that he “didn’t want his kids going to school with a bunch of whiny Jewish brats.” Continue Reading………