VAXXED--the vaccine/autism documentary thru Thurs@Glenwood Arts: not crazy--smart ideas to save kids. Protesters refused free tix.

VAXXED screens daily several times thru Thursday,
at the Glenwood Arts.
The Q&A's were only Friday and Saturday.

You can see it @ Glenwood Arts, 95th & Mission, thru Thurs.
One of the most powerful revelations was that in 1986, Big Pharma got Congress to pass a bill often called Vaccine Court. It exempts the vaccine manufacturers from all damages, unless found at fault by a special legal process using the CDC evidence--well, folks, this movie shows the whistleblower who revealed that the CDC cooked the books! 

It's even worse for black kids than whites. Someone go drag Emanuel Cleaver to the Glenwood Arts! I will work on Kevin Yoder. Congress has refused to call the whistleblower to a hearing!!!

Follow the money folks. Big Pharma is the most powerful lobby in the US. No wonder they are promoting without fear. Just one vaccine nets them $30 billion. And the Gardisol vaccine for teenage girls is subsidized by our federal government, at a cost of $900 per pre-teen girl for a vaccine that wears off, it's not even a lifetime thing!

Connect the dots. See the movie. Do something.

Also, thanks to Tony for posting a revealing 30 min. video review from actual audience members.  See tonyskansascity.com, 5:30am Sunday to see the video.  One mom drove 5 1/2 hours to see VAXXED.  Won't you drive 20 minutes?

A bit more info:
The showtimes this Mon thru Thurs at Glenwood Arts are 12:05; 2:30, 4:40 and 7:05.

There were less than ten protesters Sat. night for the evening show--and class act that he is, Brian Mossman the theatre owner offered each of them a FREE ticket if they would come in and watch the film.

THEY REFUSED!!!  So much for hearing the other side before holding your banner out as if you are an expert.  I wondered if Merck and other vaccine manufacturers just paid them to protest.

The first commenter Sat. at the 5:10pm showing was pro-MMR vaccines, (her husband works for Merck, I think). Dr. Andrew Wakefield was VERY respectful to her, let her talk for at least 5 of the 30 minutes time, and offered to meet with her afterward.

Being a bit of a crusader, who actually lost his medical license in Great Britain, but moved to Austin and continues the educational effort, I expected Wakefield might be a narcissist or know it all, like our Clay Chastain the light rail crusader. Not the case. Calm, a good explainer. Rational. With specific, reasonable suggestions. 

And most important, he is not against ALL vaccines, (tho some of the mothers in Tony's link Sunday at 5:30 am being victims, are.) Wakefield appears rational, with a 4 step plan going forward.
1.  He advocates that Congress needs to call the hearing of the whistleblower from CDC who revealed the coverup...you'll see him in the movie. Come on guys and gals in DC! It makes you appear to be in the bag for Big Pharma that you won't demand the hearing.  No wonder the Sanders and Trump supporters want to throw you out of office.  

Wakefield says, and I agree, we need to overturn the 1986 Vaccine Court absolving this industry from damages. 

2. We need to force the vaccine companies to go back to how we administered vaccines in the 1950's--stop bundling the live virus for Measles, Mumps and Rubella in one toxic soup. Spread out the vaccinations, one a year.

For black youth, change the schedule, and delay all three of those vaccines to well after 3 years old. It's the 12 -15 month window that statistically is so dangerous. Hey, don't take the kids to Disneyland till later! 

3.  And we need to allow parents to use their own conscience in whether or not to vaccinate. California is on the brink of mandating it--with the current crippling schedule, all based on FAKED EVIDENCE!!!  Forced medical procedures...for the perceived good of the "culture".  Reminds one of the Nazi's.

4.   Finally, we need an independent scientific study --not stacked with vaccine manufacturers. A vs. B, etc. kids who took it, vs kids who did not, like they taught us in high school. The staffer for CDC admitted to one Congressman they never did that study!!! That's not just preposterous and illogical, it's fraudulent.

Our elected officials and bureaucrats have sold out our youth. From 1 in 150,000 to 1 in 67. Going to 4 out of 5 kids having autism by 2030. We can't afford that, nor should we doom these kids!

If you are from a church, Wakefield's group will send a free screener copy to you minister.

Film festivals, like KIFF at Glenwood Arts, Nov. 4-10 are where many of these films are shown. They are like the canary in the coal mine. Six years ago, the Glenwood Arts screened Under Our Skin, about lyme disease. Another case of the CDC being financially beholden to the vaccine lobby.

Go see it and decide for yourself if you've been lied to, by well-meaning pediatricians who were deceived with faulty evidence.

For more stories, go to www.kcmopost.com

Friends with Autism? Think Vaccinations caused it? See expose doc, VAXXED, this Fri/Sat for Q&A with Dr. Andrew Wakefield, Glenwood Arts

In the history of the Glenwood Arts, they've never pre-sold 613 tickets for a one week showing of a documentary.  AND Brian Mossman and Ben Mossman, owners, have scored THREE guests for a Q&A, this Fri and Sat, at both the 5:10pm and 8:15 showings.  This is big.

Brian Mossman is also president of KIFF, Ks. Intl. Film Festival.  This year Nov. 4-10--our state's version of Sundance--and the best place to meet thinking people in Johnson County.  (just sayin.)

Now you may think you know what you know, about the vaccine/autism connection.  But are you willing to listen?  Dr. Wakefield is controversial, I admit.  But committed to connecting the dots regarding autism.  He's a bit Nelson Mandela--lost his medical license in Great Britain, moved to Austin.  Kept investigating.  Finally SOMEONE spilled the beans about the CDC coverup.  They just flat deleted evidence about the MMR measles vaccine.  Wait till you see the charts!  Autism, including Aspergers Syndrome and the whole "on the spectrum" disorder is epidemic.  And VAXXED:From Coverup to Catastrophe makes the prediction that if we don't fix this, by 2030, 80% of all boys will have it.

Do I think the CDC lies?  Absolutely.  They covered up and refused to deal with HIV/AIDS for political reasons, allowing millions of gays to die.  It wasn't until little teen Ryan White, a straight hemophiliac, got it from a blood transfusion, that America woke up.

Same with Lyme Disease.  The vaccine community, which is headquartered in London, goes after doctor's licenses if they report--or treat--Lyme Disease.  Their henchman in Kansas is a German professor at KState.  Who is...wait for it...on the take, or should I say board, of some vaccine developers.  The goal there?  Fix the old bad vax, that killed people.  When they have the new good one, well guess what: the witch hunt will end.  See "Under Our Skin", another great doc about a health coverup, one I saw years ago at KIFF.  PS: Lyme is an STD, and it's in the blood supply now, with no affordable, accurate test.  JoCo govt. won't report it.  Too much risk and paperwork.

So Andrew Wakefield, is a dog with a bone.  Lost his license.  Became a filmmaker.  Might be somewhat annoying.  Who cares????  Kinda like Clay Chastain in Kansas City.  Who pushed and pushed for the streetcar.  While Mayor James takes all the credit.  That's how leadership is sometimes.
Oh yeah, let's not forget the Tuskegee Airmen. Our US Army secretly gave them venereal diseases and never told them or compensated them for 30 years.  Just studied folks using them as black lab rats.  Does our government lie??  You bet.

If the Vaccine Lobby can financially intimidate a board of directors including Robert DeNiro, founder of Tribeca Film Festival, into pulling the showing of VAXXED, what else might they do to cover up the CDC coverup about their flawed Measles MMR vaccine?  DeNiro has a child with autism.  It wasn't until AFTER the festival that he dared to say,on NBC's TODAY show,  "I think the movie is something that people should see."

Does Big Pharma and the Vaccine Lobby have the power and the motive to suppress the facts????   To drive profits??  You decide.

Fri June 10 and Sat June 11, 5:10p and 8:15p for the Q&A's.  Huzzah to the Mossman twins at the Glenwood Arts for scoring this exclusive screening with THREE guests!!!!  And four Q&A's.  From experience, let me tell you: that's a huge deal.  VAXXED:From Coverup to Catastrophe was banned at Tribeca, but now has shown exclusively at 25 independent theatres around the country.  WE got the three guests!
Avoid lines, buy tix at fineartsgroup.com--under buy tickets, you must enter the date to get to the right page.        Thurs. June 16.  

Forward this to everyone you know with a kid 'on the spectrum' or having a child.
Consider at least spacing out your vaccinations.  Do you think three live ones at once cannot interact badly?  Is it worth it?  I'm not saying no to all vaccines.  But let's fix this.  Now.

For more info, see our full website, www.jocopost.com.  And read a companion story on www.kcmopost.com

The Pete Rose of Shawnee: Councilman Mickey Sandifer: Dumb or Devious? Secretly a tool of the Polsinelli law firm? At taxpayer expense?? The $75,000 question...

Mickey Sandifer is the Pete Rose of Shawnee zoning.  He cheated the taxpayers by throwing the game.  Now at first blush, you might think Mickey Sandifer, Shawnee Ward 4, is the dumbest City Councilman in Johnson County.

Shawnee Councilman Sandifer, who allegedly threw the fight to benefit Polsinelli's client, Vantage Apartments

  After all, he just dragged Shawnee into a lawsuit over the Vantage Apartments, by willfully and blatantly and voluntarily violating the 8 Golden Factors in their rezoning effort-- to build on land the developers own.

But is Sandifer dumb?  Or worse yet, devious?  Paid on the side to throw the fight?  Did he blatantly give his reason for voting no--in order to trigger the lawsuit by the metro's biggest development whore attorneys, Polsinelli?  Knowing that, immediately following the vote, when he did not have to say ANYTHING, instead he deliberately revealed the only illegal answer for his vote?  Knowing, and coached by the development attorneys that this would not only cause the city to be sued, but also allow the zoning to go through?

The neighbors are just realizing Mickey Sandifer screwed them.

Thus allowing Sandifer to POSE as a man who supported the neighbors, but really to get the entire divided council off the hook by forcing the COURT to reverse the zoning disapproval.

That's my bet.

There are only 8 legitimate reasons to say no to zoning.  They are called the Golden Factors. Established following the Kansas Supreme Court case Golden v. Overland Park in 1978.  And by law, there is one glaring reason that city councils can NOT use in making zoning and rezoning decisions.  Namely, that the neighbors don't want it.    

Because: neighbors never want the land next to them to be anything but exactly the way it is, vacant ground.  Or, more of what the neighbors have.  In this case, more single family homes.  But property owners have rights to use their land.  And there are 8 ways to justify it, via planning and staff reports.

Without the Golden Factors, there would be no development.  There would be no schools or nursing homes or fire stations or apartments or retail.

The brilliance of the Kansas Supreme Court's ruling was: it specifies eight legitimate reasons.  And it contains the Secret Bullet: if any council member is dumb enough to step on the buzzer, and utter the words, "I just did it because the neighbors told me to say no", then the zoning goes through.

AND if, like Mickey Sandifer, they happen to be so stupid or naive or arrogant or narcissistic {or option five: all of the above} as to say it, during the meeting, to the smiling Cheshire cat face of a Polsinelli attorney, then the project gets their zoning approved anyway, but there's also a fine.  In this case, $75,000 is cited in the lawsuit against the taxpayers of Shawnee.  (Note, Councilman Sandifer is paid a salary of around $8000 a year.  In my opinion, he should voluntarily cover the fine.)

Now, I am not a fan of Polsinelli's development law firm, especially John Peterson (he of Meadowbrook and the Tutera properties in Prairie Village).  And now he has his legacy, his son the puppet, young Curt Peterson, handling the EASY cases.  

How easy was it for Curt to get the zoning?  Well, pretty easy!!!  Maybe that explains why Curt Peterson REPORTEDLY WINKED AT SANDIFER!

Before the meeting, possibly in a private phone call, untraceable like an email would be:
All the lawyer had to do was potentially speak to Mr. Low Self Esteem, shoot-from-the- lip Mickey Sandifer, and whisper:  "You be the hero, Mickey.  Just vote no, but right afterward, talk into the mike and say these words:  "I voted no because the neighbors didn't want this zoning."

And of course, Mickey Sandifer played right into Polsinelli/Peterson strategy.  That's how they earn $500 an hour.  Playing weaklings like violins.    I haven't reviewed Sandifer's campaign contribution reports.  I can only imagine he will have as much money as he ever needs to run for re-election.

Here is Sandifer's poison pill money quote:
"I'm put on the council to vote in favor of the residents that I represent.  The residents in the area didn't want it, so I voted the way I voted because I felt that's how I could best represent the people."

And with that, the neighbors were screwed, but left with the false impression that Sandifer was "on their side".  No.  He wasn't.  He threw the fight and screwed you forever.

Elected office is not a plebiscite.  (Mickey would never know that big word.  He quit high school 38 or so  years ago, SM North, quit macrame class and jewelry making class six weeks before graduation.  Jesus.  Couldn't tie a few knots in order to graduate, and go to work for Daddy, driving Daddy's Explorer around the family trash business site,  the rest of his life.  He just got his GED only after I suggested he do it so he could "make a difference in this town".  After which he ran against me, by lying that I wanted to widen 75th St, which of course I did not. )

A Lesson in What it Means to be an Elected Official, 
You Take an Oath to Follow the Laws of Ks:
So elected office means you go to the meetings and read the reports and know the damn LAW.  That is your oath.  And along the way, you are coached, in executive sessions, by your city attorney, on exactly how to NOT break the law.  You are not a kneejerk do-what-a-dozen-neighbors-tell you, because they do not always know the law.  They just want what they want.

If America's cities were plebiscites, we could just install little voting apps on everyone's home computer or cellphone...and every Monday, homeowner could vote on every issue, even if they were uninformed.  Even if that vote would cost your fellow taxpayers $75,000 in fines.

Now Mickey Sandifer tried, once again, to be the Big Man.  (He tried it earlier, during the Deffenbaugh zoning when as a Planning Commissioner he went around in Daddy's truck and meddled as an unrequested 'negotiator' with those neighbors.)

This time, Sandifer just screwed all the taxpayers, including the neighbors he claimed to support, out of $75,000 AND the zoning.

And of all places.  Because that Golden case, in Overland Park, was triggered by a case before Shawnee's former City Attorney, the great and very wise Marvin Rainey.  (Father of Shawnee's current city attorney, Marvin's son, Ellis Rainey.)  Marvin used to be the mayor of OP.  AND JoCo's first Election Commissioner.  So when I was on the Council, trust me, we were coached all about the Golden Factors.

Shame on Mickey Sandifer.  Always a  know it all, always a wanna be.

I hope our local paper, the Shawnee Dispatch figures this out and reports on it.  Soon.  They should have spotted it when I did: the moment Sandifer VOLUNTEERED his illegal reason.  Instead, they waited until Curt Peterson filed the inevitable lawsuit last week.

Is that a pencil in your pocket or are you just glad to see me? How Graphene will change your world and lighten your purse or pocket.

There's a new next big thing.  Graphene.  Get ready to throw away your laptops, I-Pods and cell phones.  They will be as obsolete as 8 track tape, 78 recordings and cassettes in a very short while.  

From University of Manchester Click here to see Graphene, on The OneShow

OK, guys and gals--tell me a few things:  First: How do I invest in this?  
Second:  And should I?  Or am I impossibly late to this party???

(I did love the trailer for the upcoming Sally Fields movie, "Doris", where she asks a roomful of GenX hipsters who want her "digits" eg phone number, do they have a pencil.  And they tell her, "Nobody uses pencils any more."  Ha.  Those kids obviously do not golf.  And just maybe the late Sally Fields, as Doris, will have the last laugh.)

And third: Not to put too fine a point on it, (pun intended), but exactly how might you develop careers or new opportunities for yourselves, in this industry?

Life is moving pretty fast here in my world.  First we lost Pluto.  It was undeclared a planet.  By fiat from scientists.

  

So, with an eye to finality, I rushed to rip that page about Pluto, the Ninth Planet, out of my Encyclopedia Brittanica.

But then.. Oy veh.  A month ago, some smarter more unstoppable scientists with OCD and hoarding tendencies discovered a replacement ninth planet.  30,000 years away, sight unseen.  But it made the cut.  Which is a good thing, right?  Cut and paste, baby.  Cut. And. Paste.

Thank God for Scotch tape.  And my Grandma's pinking shears....I could have used a photo of a regular Scotch tape dispenser, but since many readers find me via Tonyskansascity.com, I thought I'd emulate his sexy spacer technique.  Min is so lame.  I know.  But it's an homage.  A start.

The coolest thing to me about graphene is that carbon is the 6th most abundant element on Earth.  I recently saw a re-airing of Lesley Stahl's alarming story about "rare earth minerals", being found mostly in China.  So this would possibly  keep us competitive if we can avoid our reliance on "rare earth".

I know we have some here in the US as well, but digging it out is as crazy as fracking.  

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/rare-earth-elements-china-monopoly-60-minutes-lesley-stahl-2/

I am sure Donald Trump will be all over graphene, after he sweeps Super Tuesday.  We're not just gonna built a well.  And put a 35% trade tariff on all things Chinese.  Now we're gonna cut them out of the cell phone bidness.

And to help me remember the name, and do my little part to promote it to the world, raising our global consciousness of the next new thing, from now on, when I dine at a restaurant on the Plaza or at Urban Table, where they take one's name and call you for a table, I'm just going to CALL MYSELF GRAPHENE!!!

Read it here first: Obama takes Supreme Court seat, doesn't resign till he is confirmed. Biden becomes Prez; runs for reelection; Hillary is out.

You are reading this prediction and advice here first, breaking news from the heart of America, Shawnee Ks. at 8:41pm Sat. Feb. 13, 2016:

If he's smart, President Obama nominates himself, immediately, to be ratified by the US Senate to replace the late (and still lukewarm) Justice Antonin Scalia.

He does this because: he is young, needs something to do the rest of his life, and because he can.  Come on, read the list that USA Today just posted, (end of this post) of 10 other possibles.  They are virtual nobodies.

Appointing any of them is a recipe for disaster.  It invites a frozen Senate, waiting out the election.

The only way to ram thru an appointment and confirmation is for Obama to nominate himself.

Obama would not resign until the Senate confirms him.  Vice President Joe Biden would then automatically become the President.  He would also go to the Democratic convention this summer, and seek his first FULL term.

Biden's calculus has changed.  He was way behind, in the process--when he chose not to file originally.  What a difference a day makes...

The Senate would approve Obama because even the Republicans would prefer Joe Biden to Hillary Clinton.  And the Dems would confirm Obama because he's qualified (he was a Constitutional law professor before he became President.)  Whether you like him or not (and I don't) he does have the resume and more importantly--think about it.  count the votes.  Obama can twist arms on any number of issues to ensure he has the votes...and gets confirmed this summer.

The losers would be Hillary...and Bernie Sanders.  Now Hillary MIGHT accept being Vice President, figuring that Biden might die in office.  Or she'd just go home and be a grandma.

The Democratic Party got a big win today with the death of Scalia.  Nobody saw that coming.  They had been campaigning on the assumption that up to three justices might be expected to die in the next eight years, AFTER the Presidential election.  But Scalia was not on that list of justices who were older and in frail health.  He died in his sleep. Of natural causes, during a hunting trip.

Tho they have hunted together, previously, former Vice President Dick Cheney was nowhere near Scalia on this trip!!!

Had he been able to make a choice, I'm betting that as a VERY conservative Republican, the late Justice Scalia would not have chosen Feb. 13th to take the exit lane while the Democratic President could name the nominees to replace him.

No sitting President has ever used this self-nominated strategy, but it's been discussed.  And hey, there's always a first time.  I believe that at times, a sitting President has sent three names to the Senate for vetting and confirmation.  Now wouldn't it be a hoot if those three names were:
Himself
Hillary
Bernie

In basketball that's called a three-pointer.  Or a slam dunk.

Here's the USA list of Ten Nobodies:

WASHINGTON — Who could replace Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia if Republicans don't block all of President Obama's nominees, as appears likely? Here are 10 possibilities:

Sri Srinivasan: The 48-year-old federal appeals court judge was confirmed unanimously in 2013 for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit — a traditional stepping-stone to the Supreme Court. He would be the court's first Indian-American justice.

USA TODAY

Sri Srinivasan: Supreme Court justice in the making?

Patricia Millett: Srinivasan's 52-year-old colleague on the D.C. Circuit is popular in both parties and is frequently mentioned as a possible candidate. She argued 32 cases before the Supreme Court as an advocate.

Merrick Garland: At 63, Garland is older than most nominees, since presidents want their choices to stick around for decades on the bench. He is a moderate who serves as chief judge on the D.C. Circuit court and could be a compromise choice.

Kamala Harris: California's attorney general, 51, could be another leading candidate. She has the added luster of holding political office, a life experience that is sorely lacking on the Supreme Court. She's currently running for the U.S. Senate seat of retiring Sen. Barbara Boxer.

Deval Patrick: The former governor of Massachusetts, 59, is a close friend of the president who served in the Justice Department during President Bill Clinton's administration.

Amy Klobuchar: If the Senate would be less inclined to block one of its own, the senior senator from Minnesota, 55, might be someone Obama would consider.

Sheldon Whitehouse: See "Senate" above. Whitehouse, 60, the junior senator from Rhode Island, is a former attorney general of Rhode Island and U.S. attorney with strong credentials.

Goodwin Liu: He was Obama's choice for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in 2010, but Republicans blocked his nomination, making him a less likely choice now. At 45, he sits on the California Supreme Court.

Paul Watford: A judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, Watford, 48, is another Obama nominee with a potentially stellar future.

Jane Kelly: She is a 51-year-old judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit who was a career public defender. From Iowa, she has enjoyed the prior support of Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, who heads the Senate Judiciary Committee.

More on the death of Justice Scalia:

For a related story, about the effect of Scalia's untimely death, and the new likelihood that Missouri's Justice Clarence Thomas will have to actually write some dissenting opinions, see www.KcmoPost.com

Renee Kelly's Harvest, an overpriced greasy spoon in Shawnee, by a pretentious chef who wants to move to KCMO

Renee Kelly's Harvest, is in the old Caenen Castle on Johnson Drive in Shawnee--west of Shawnee City Hall (Nieman) about half a mile.

The building has also been a rest home, a night club and other things.

Renee Kelly's Mom told me, personally in 2003, that she bought the home to launch a career in food service for her daughter.  Caenen Castle, (sans the Renee) was the name at first.   She started at first doing catering, private parties and lots of wedding receptions.  The house, sans elevator, is beautifully restored.  It has lots of charm.  But on this Friday night, in the height of KC Restaurant Week, was largely as deserted as its former life as a haunted house.

Over the years, Renee's brand identity shifted from the ambiance to her personality.  She changed the menu from home cooking to feature a growing trend of "Farm to Market" cooking.  That means locally grown foods, mostly organic.  Renee is a bit stiff, like a scolding nun with a ruler, about rapping the customers' knuckles with this incessant message of virtue and health.  Her menu is so broad and changes so often it is described on numerous web sites as "all over the place".  Many online reviews call her food overpriced.  So I wanted to sample it during KC Restaurant Week, $33 for dinner or $15 for lunch.  I defy you to find that menu online.  She signed up at the last minute, long after the first 100 restaurants were committed to the charity event, and many places had already booked up for the 10 day season.

Let me ask you this: when you feature just three entrees for the special, {rabbit ravioli (3 to a plate); clams and mussels (a meager 10 count) and baby back ribs with barley risotto}, how in heck does a competent chef with integrity run out of the ribs , at 6pm on Friday night?  Even Aldi down the street had raw ribs, if that is what you lacked.

One had to plan ahead early that morning, to substitute with a far lesser cut of meat, brisket that needed to be marinated in sarsaparilla.  And the $33 special cost more than most things on the regular menu.  Quite the opposite of the six other fine dining places I visited this week.  They offered a deep discount.

Renee is ambitious.  I'll give her that.  I followed her this season on Bravo's excellent series, Top Chef.  Renee won the first Quickfire challenge.  This gal can chop up a tray of 30 whole chickens into smaller pieces, I tell you!  Whack, whack, whack!!!

While she was then voted first to leave, as was KCMO's Debbie Gold, a truly charming, creative and self-effacing chef from several seasons back, Renee Kelly demonstrated enthusiasm, confidence and sass.

One wonders why chefs leave their business for a month to appear on Top Chef.  It became clear to me that Renee has her eyes set on whatever will land her a choice second location in the heart of KCMO.  Because when she introduced herself, she never once mentioned that her flagship--and ONLY-- restaurant at the moment is in Shawnee.  KANSAS!   Hands on her hips, stuck out at a jaunt, tossing her auburn curls, it was: "I am Renee Kelly, the sassy chef from Kansas City MISSOURI!"  

(Excuse me?  She is not.  No restaurant there, no license, etc.  And not even a tax subsidy, tho of course everyone asks.)  The very personable waitress, Claire, added, "Nobody knows where Shawnee is."  Well that's not the point, when you are trying to brand yourself as being not from a major market.

I do recall in the early "aughts", when Renee and her rah-rah stage mom first approached me at a Chamber event, to intercede with the codes officials and planning staff at the city of Shawnee about opening Caenen Castle as a public restaurant.  (I was the elected president of the Shawnee City Council then.)  They had the big head about expecting the city to completely ignore or break all their codes.  To hear tell, Renee's Mommy wanted the city to condemn adjacent land for a song, so they could magically and cheaply meet the city's firm and inviolate requirements for offstreet parking.  Or just make life easy: to commandeer onstreet parking, currently in use by the existing neighbors, to suddenly post it from 5p-10p as as Private Parking for Caenen Castle only!

And I quote: "Do you realize just how talented my daughter is and what she is about to create??  For this little town??"  

To Shawnee's credit, we maintained our requirements.  And did not 'give away the farm' to the eventual Farm to Table/Contemporary American restaurant.  Perhaps that's why Renee Kelly's 'Harvest' (forget the Castle) is now rebranding and seeking greener pastures in KCMO, the lush land of abatements.

Oh brother.  I'd love to be a fly on the wall if Mommy Kelly tries to negotiate with the other queen of entitlement, Shirley Helzberg, (above) for Renee Kelly to now be handed a tax-abated signature site downtown in Greedy Shirley's tax-abated development in the Crossroads.  For BNIM Architects, who cannot keep a straight face by threatening to move to JoCo if their ladidah millionairess landlady-first-time-developer doesn't get her $5 million tax break?

Now that would be a dish: Filet of Catfight on Green Dirt Farm greens, with raspberry vinaigrette.

OK, so how was my actual dinner at Renee Kelly's Harvest in Caenen Castle in Shawnee?

Horribly greasy.  Both the substitute brisket with greens; 
   and the duck (regular menu) with gooseberry schmeared on
   the plate like blood from a crime scene.
Over-seasoned.
Over-priced.
Absolutely wonderful waitress, Claire.
Adele songs over the PA.  "Hello?" Pretty sure that's illegal...

You know what, Shirley Helzberg?  And Sly James?  You can have her.

Story, in PV: giving huge value at KC Restaurant Week. Just needs to frost their front windows

Of 184 restaurants participating in KC Restaurant Week this year, Story has the certifiably best food in JoCo--and they're practically giving it away.

The special dinners are just $33;  Lunches are $15.  IF you can get in.  Always use OpenTable.com for a reservation.  In this weather, wusses often cancel at the last minute, so do not give up.  Keep checking--you might score a top tier restaurant that will provide the meal of the year for you.

What does one get from Story for $33?  When the rest of the year, prices are higher?  I loved the Mahi Mahi.  A seasoned broth so special, the Bush Bean Dog is stalking Chef Carl on Twitter and Instagram, hoping he will reveal the secret recipe.  On the regular menu, just that course alone is $28.

Plus I quietly slurped up my choice of the starter, a creamy white bean soup, perfect for January--which the regular menu lists @ $9.  (I could have had the salad, a value of $8.)

Plus the world's most sensational bread basket--like a trip to Paris. Without the Muslim riots outside. The perfectly hard crust that so many restaurants cannot achieve.  I always feel a bit like a wolf on the prowl when I tear into really good French bread.  Do you?

And for dessert, merde---I adored the cardamom flavored Panne Cotta.  With two citrus pieces on top--like lazy cats curled up in the sun.

Wiki describes Panna cotta:   (Italian 'cooked cream') is an Italian dessert of sweetened cream thickened with gelatin and molded. The cream may be aromatized with rum, coffee, vanilla, or other flavorings.

Story is not a French restaurant.  It's that new breed of New American cuisine and craft bartending. The chef is Carl Thorne-Thomsen.  He might be the last of the hypenated husbands.  But he is first in my book of award-winning chefs in JoCo.  Just named to 100 Restaurants Worth Traveling To.  The only one in the metro.

And they weren't talking about just guiding your Lincoln up Mission Road from Leawood. They meant: fly into town, hail a cab (hard to get Uber at KCI) and head to 3931 W. 69th Ter, in the very middle of the Prairie Village Shops, next to Standee's Theatres and across from the great Cafe Provence.  

Now I love Story.  Went there for my birthday.  But I have two suggestions.

One:  Someone please go buy Chef Carl some black plates.  All of his are white.  But when you serve a Panne Cotta, which is ivory, on a white plate, even tho it has those fancy drips orbiting the dish, like Neptune's 14 moons, well, it would be  breathtaking if it just was served on a black plate--so this "out of this world" dessert could really stand out in the culinary firmament.

And Two:
Frost the windows on the east side of their front door.  Or get reflective tape.  Because there you are, swooning with delight, until some SUV pulls into the parking space with their headlights on, and sits there.  No doubt texting or calling or catching up on Facebook.  An eternity.   If you are seated in any of the first four tables, the lights are right in your eyes.  Six feet from the window!  Think doe in the headlights.  Or the raid in Benghazi.  It completely ruins the moment.  In Gitmo, they use that kind of a surprise on the guys we are torturing to elicit confessions.

Why isn't this fixed??  I know the market research says show people inside dining, to attract folks from the sidewalk.  But really.  Perhaps Chef Carl and the waiters are always standing up when they stroll thru the dining room.  If they EVER sat down, after dark, where they seated me, trust me, they'd be fixing this.  It's bad enough that the view all the time is the Chico's sign.  Story has cute faux drapes of stringy yarn.  They fail to cover the windows nor cut the glare.  Please.  Design a better solution.  You'll rocket from one thumb up--because my other hand was rummaging for my sunglasses.  To two thumbs up.

Clean up your yard quick! And close your garage door!!! Big Brother/aka JoCo government is taking the picture of every home.

Click here to see why there's a white van in front of your home...

It's just Big Brother.

And it's time for the Johnson County update.

I know it would look much more prosperous if the bureaucrats scheduled this when there are leaves on the trees.  Oh well, apparently, NON-beggars can't be choosers, either.

At the very least, close your garage door.  Nobody wants to see it.  You've seen those commercials for Febreze, re pet odors you have gone "nose blind" to?  Every day you park your car and rush to enter your home through a maze of rubble, boxes, sports equipment, plastic toys, tomato cages, hoses, loppers, ladders, shovels and junk just piled up waiting for Deffenbaugh's Spring Cleanup.

I am reminded of the great George Carlin, and his routines about Our Stuff.

And what about those treasures you are pre-staging in your garage for that sale you never got around to, last year?

Ouch, I just hurt myself with self-confession.  

Surely someone will pay handsomely for Joan Baez vinyl.  Nobody I'd date, but somebody.

Remember the JoCo Golden Rule: We in the golden ghetto do not want to see the white trash you have become "garage blind" to.  Close your garage door except when ingressing or egressing.
That's the rule in my HOA.  Or at least it was before the world's worst HOA President, Krista Turner, came to power.

Besides, in these temps, it's freezing all the garden and painting supplies you have in your garage.

And if your yard is cluttered as well, hurry--there's a brief warm-up in the weather.  Pick up your crap.  Store your giant trash bins where they belong, either inside your garage, or at least behind the front wall of your home.

These curbside portraits of your biggest investment will be like a drivers' license for your home for more years than you might imagine.  Used not just for assessment and taxation, but also all these google maps, etc that prospective homebuyers search before they buy in your neighborhood.

So between the county's white van and Google Maps' eye in the sky, you can run but you can't hide.

If your neighbors' yards look a mess, that can reflect negatively on your home's value, especially if you are moving soon.  Have some fun.  Challenge your neighbors to play a game like I do with kids: 30 Minute Pickup.  Only in your case, the winner gets a beer.  Not bad, right before the next playoffs game.

At the bottom of the link, there are some other things the Curious Mind can search.  Verify the property lines for your fences, for example.

And if you have a loved one in the dating world, or on Tinder (heaven help you), or your kids or grandkids are going on playdates with schoolmates, one can check out the kind of dwelling they might be visiting.


With my Norwegian frugality, and OCD talents, at least when I decide to get rid of stuff I will have the right sized box to put things in:

Now why haven't I cleaned out my own garage, you ask?  I'm busy.  Blogging.

Happy New Year.

10 snobbiest cities in Kansas--and all but one are in JoCo!!! But at least my town, Shawnee, was 18, and didn't make ten most redneck towns.

Just in time for holiday taunting...See the 10 snobbiest cities in Kansas--here!

Gotta love the descriptions. Years ago, I promised snobby Leawood Mayor Peggy Dunn that I would not say "ladidah Leawood", in any of my memorable radio spots for Rutlader Furniture,  for an entire year.  Well, time's up.  Ladidah is as #1 lives.  Truth be told: that is not a live giraffe ogling the Mayor's cleavage.  She was at a Lyric Ball auction.  And she is not really taller than a giraffe.

Second spoiler alert: Prairie Village does not have mountains.  Yet.  Tho once the new mayor, Laura Wassmer, decorates her new free Joco tax subsidized community center, the former Meadowbrook Club House, she may want to build a ski chalet and serve cocoa at Meadowbrook.  But only if the county commission subsidizes it.  Someone, ask Commissioner and former mayor of PV, Ron Shaffer.  It could be the next tax subsidy: New Courthouse plus Morgue for Olathe.  Plus a bonus Mountain Range for Prairie Village, to get those swing voters there.

And when they show Fairway on this list, that photo is the Shawnee Indian Mission museum.  This is disgusting, because it was where snooty Kansas missionaries had the courts/sheriffs kidnap and house little Indian kids, and tried to turn them into worker bees for white families.  Tried to beat their native religion out of them, and turn them into Methodists.  And yet, we spend JoCo county tax dollars to subsidize this and celebrate it.

Stealing someone's culture and brainwashing them.  Not a good thing---
---Martha Stewart

To my knowledge, no native American Indians currently live in Fairway.  But Fairway does boast the region's largest inventory of homes with just one car garages, since that used to be the rule there.  Point that out, as you haul your relatives by car on this Tour de Snootiness.

Now many of you will argue, rightfully and indisputably, that of course Mission Hills should have been #1.  That's what makes these silly lists such perfect table talk for your family holiday party. Statistics.  Bigger liars than your Uncle Homer.

And is it true George Brett moved from Mission Hills to PV?  Someone report back on this.  I thought it was just his wife who opened a little noshery in PV.  There are no homes with ballfields in the back yard for George's four boys--in Prairie Village, are there???

So, before you put on your ugly sweater or unfurl your napkin--and tuck it tastelessly into your shirt collar, do one thing:

Print off the list, and tuck it into your pocket.  Pull it out when your family members bring up any of the Top 10 WORST subjects for Christmas dinner:
Hillary or--
Bernie
Trump
Cruz
Muslims
Planned Parenthood
Obamacare
Second Amendment v. Gun control
Former Royals players
How about those Chiefs

Before you shop for Xmas, peek at your new JoCo property tax statement: Comm. Steve Klika broke his promise, and just cost you $48 every year for life.

You could have bought a loved one a decent gift for around $48 this Christmas.  And every year thereafter.  But instead, by one vote, you are forced to pay the County to cover Steve Klika's sellout and failed job search.

This is what happens when unemployable men of low integrity get into office.  They break their campaign promises.  They sell us out, to pay off their pimp--by spending Other People's Money.  So three years ago, Steve Klika of southern Overland Park had failed once again in his career.

Untrained and with a whiny cloying personality hauntingly reminiscent of Barney Fife, Klika was let go from his 18 month job as an executive headhunter.  (But lied about it on campaign disclosure forms for 3 years.) This followed his previous job loss, running tour busses to Branson.  Not a college grad, he sure didn't want to lose his house in the Blue Valley school district.  He was desperate to feed his three kids and his very young wife, Amber.  As her boss at KC Agenda described her to me last summer, "Amber works just part time,  as one of our Party Girls--entertaining men at conventions at hotels in downtown KCMO."

So Klika ran to replace former Kansas City Chief, County Commissioner Dave Lindstrom, who went back to real estate.  Klika's opponent, Terry Presta, was a conservative Republican, who ended up with a job in Topeka running the Lottery.

How did Klika beat his opponent, a known and trusted conservative in that district of southern OP?  In the opinion of many, as documented in print, Steve Klika lied to the voters.  He POSED as a conservative.   At every campaign stop, he made a pledge: "I will not vote for ANY tax increases until we do our job and finally rebuild the outdated Johnson County Courthouse."

But two weeks after he was sworn in, he took off the mask.  Klika broke his promise, for the first of three times.  He became the swing vote for the worst real estate project in JoCo history, the King Louie bailout.  The $400,000 building the county bought from Eilert's supporter and future Sunflower landfill development partner, Kessinger Hunter--where Lindstrom has worked.  Klika poured $4.5 million into moldy King Louie in his first month as a commissioner.  By law that money should have been the seller's responsibility for asbestos abatement and buttoning up the building that had been just two weeks away from condemnation.

After that, Klika was the swing vote that poured even more tax money into King Louie.  A total of $32 million.  In a s shady financing scheme that pays much higher interest rates, and is reserved only for wealthy bond investors.  For an unnecessary community center seven blocks away from a far better community center operated by Overland Park, Matt Ross Center.

How did Chairman Ed Eilert get Klika's vote?  Well, many believe he promised the pathetic over-the-hill guy a job.  Which didn't pan out.  But Eilert got his vote.  During the same months as the King Louie votes, Eilert was backing Klika for the job of Director of the ATA.  After all, he had run a tour bus company worth less than $1 million.  Why not a five county bus company worth seventy times that in annual tax subsidies?  What's a few zeroes among friends?  All Klika had to do was sell out the taxpayers.

The professional headhunters for the ATA checked out Klika's declining career path and fuzzy dates on his resume.  The ATA had already banked Eilert's half a million annual subsidy of the newly reunited metro bus company.  They didn't need the dead weight of a weak manager in Klika.  So, the ATA chose Joe Reardon, the seasoned, scrappy guy from KCK instead.

Klika hung his head like Eyeore the Mule.  (oh alright, if you insist...)                                            

Now he had no new daytime big boy job.  Since then, he has remained totally dependent on his $65,000 a year one day a week Thursday job as Eilert's boy, his swing vote.  One of seven JoCo commissioners on the BOCC/Board of County Commissioners.  Now, for the record, Klika a neighbor in Blue Valley have started a new headhunter business--but that has never taken off.  Doesn't have a web site, an office or a phone.

So this is how politics works.  You pay off your supporters with sweet contracts.

This is how a one vote margin cost the average JoCo homeowner $48 a year, every year, in property tax increases.

The BOCC is seven men who meet during the day, instead of at night, like they used to.
2015 was an "off year" for elections...so this was the year that Eilert could still count on four votes he controlled, to the three conservatives he did not control.

There is no newspaper coverage of county business.
And the TV stations are busy covering crime in KCMO.
Their reporters must leave bread crumbs or plug into GoogleMaps just to find the county offices in Olathe.  And how do you tell a story in 45 seconds?  You can't.

So Klika is the big traitor.  But who are the other three men who love to spend Other People's Money?

Ed Eilert:
In 2014, Chairman Ed Eilert defeated challenger crazy lazy Patricia Lightner, the worst campaigner and debater in JoCo history.  He's on his final victory lap, and will likely set himself up to work for some of the real estate barons that he has enriched over the years.  So he votes for everything that enriches Overland Park, including King Louie.  And to keep the money flowing to moderate OP, Eilert votes against anything that would, by law, be required to be build in conservative Olathe, including a new Courthouse.

Commissioner Ron Shaffer:
Former mayor of PV, beat Mission's former mayor, Laura McConwell. So how did he bring home the bacon to his liberal Dem voters?   Shaffer voted for King Louie, AND then immediately for Meadowbrook --the park department giveaway of a FREE community center for the voters in Prairie Village.  (The county took the hit for the city of PV.  And kept the worst half of the land, leaving the better half to a car dealer turned developer: VanTrust Foundation.)

Commissioner Jim Allen, former mayor of Shawnee, with 7,117 loyal State Farm clients, also voted for King Louie.  And Meadowbrook.  And the third leg of political pork: the Parks&Rec and Library mill levy increases as well.  So-- what did Shawnee get?  Bupkiss.  Losing a museum.  No new funds for crumbling streets.  And just $1.3 million for a study to fix the stupid Monticello "RedBox" lending kiosk that never works.  (I know.  It doesn't take that kinda money to "study" this.)

But Allen had to get something for his vote: the other half of Allen's District #2 is Lenexa.  And they got a second free library.  Allen voted with the Eilert Cabal to raise property taxes for not just Parks and Rec, but also the Library board.  Lenexa is building a new city center, on dangerous unstable land that was dynamited by Shawn O'Rourke's cave storage company, 20 years ago near 97th and Renner.  Hence, lots of buildings no taller than two stories, so they don't fall down, go boom.  But instead of that city paying to build themselves a second unneeded library, (in an era of Google and Wikipedia) Lenexa got the county to build them a second full sized one for free.

The difference between Shaffer and Allen and Klika?
Only Steve Klika campaigned on a promise of no new taxes.
Just remember that in the August 2016 primary and the August 2016 general election.

You could have bought your loved one something nice this Christmas.  But instead, Steve Klika sold you out perpetually, in a year with no election.  He's hoping you're too stupid to remember.  Let's find someone, a true conservative in southern Overland Park to replace him.

Editor's note: Ten days ago, the BOCC finally voted to "study" building a new courthouse.  Not build it.  Just study it!