Sheila Pratt Dixon has named new leadership for BACVA and the Convention Center.  She has essentially merged the boards, and renamed the new board the Baltimore Convention and Tourism Board.

And, in a move that is completely indescribable and totally amazing, she has named Baltimore banker Ed Hale, Chairman of 1st Mariner Bank, to head the new board.

The Red Line is a walking, talking "charlie fox".  The long hoped-for, long-awaited, long-dreamed-for transportation line to link the west side and easte side of the cities is too expensive, according to this article in the Calvert Street Communist Party Newsletter.

Over at Red Maryland, Brian Griffiths points to news coming out of Annapolis today that the State Insurance Commissioner has come to the perfectly logical conclusion that the law allows insurance companies to stop writing policies for homeowner's insurance when the calculated risk exceeds the cost of insurance.

What is that?  Insanity in homeowner's insurance making a comeback in Maryland?  Say it ain't so!

Over at my post “Who I am not Voting For, Part II”, Freelander has some comments on my concept of using large scale government “prizes” to encourage development of a practical hydrogen fuel cell.

I had compared such a national “endeavor” to the Transcontinental Railroad, and Freelander made some salient points that I thought merited a full post.

Well, I spent this week working hard.  So I didn't get to post much.  And I spent part of today working, and when I realized it was getting late and my cigar supply was running low, I headed out to my favorite smoke shop (The Humidour) to stock up.

But when I got back, the WildTurkey Phone was ringing off the hook, and my Eastern Shore friends had lit up a giant bottle of bourbon in the sky.  So off to the Bourbon Cave to decode the secret messages...

I do this at my own risk, but I am afraid I must rise up to disagree with the Great Curmudgeon, a/ka/ Bill Duvall, and his post over at Duvafiles.

Do you know the nine scariest words in America?

"I'm from the government, and I am here to help."

Ronald Reagan's famous quip has been repeated often, and it has never been more true.

Niall Ferguson, a noted British author, spreads Fear, Uncertainity and Doubt over at The Telegraph  while worshiping at the alter of the oft-discredited Malthus.  Ferguson, in traditional modern British style, forgets the influence of markets (good and bad) and the results of well-intentioned but stupid policies on the part of government in claiming that our bigger worry should be about grain, not oil.

I think there are some important questions -- in light of the disaster the Guvnah has made of the state's purchase of farmland in Queen Anne's county -- that my friends in Wicomico should be asking.

Watch this Mackes/Davis land deal for the Rockawalkin/Crooked Oak Lane land deal.  (Interesting that it should be taking place on CROOKED Oak Lane).

Up here in the vale of the Gunpowder, one of our local scumbag developers -- one Randy Shelley-- tried to buy off the local community associations by donating land for a massive sports complex on a two lane road no better than Rockawalkin or Crooked Oak.  He did this in order to a get a serious zoning change pushed through on land that used to be tightly classified.  In this, he was aided and abetted by our scumbag RINO county councilman, T. Bryan McIntire.  Why?  "It was for the children".

The local associations were able to get the facility downsized-- from about 600 parking spaces with an indoor facility to 300 parking spots, fewer fields, and no night games after 8pm.  But-- nothing is being done about the traffic load on that road.

Do yourselves a favor, and watch this carefully.  I know some folks who live out that way-- I think that Tom Field lives right around the church there -- and those roads will go to hell quickly.

I don't think anyone would disagree that keeping land as athletic fields is better than another 11 lot McMansion version of Wysteria Lane, but they can kill quality of life just as easily.

Watch your back my friends.