Trail of Tears, Happenin's and more...

Steve Jobs responded to pressure from "blogs, through emails and with phone calls" from angry customers after dropping the price of the iPhone yesterday. Enough so that he is giving a $100 store credit to previous purchasers. Ah, the power of blogs. But I am not claiming that my blurb had any influence, more likely tech bloggers like Kevin Tofel...jkontherun iphone

Anyway, good save, Steve. Oh, wait. Steve, we did notice that you still get to keep the hundred bucks.

Things to do next week.

Monday: Bessemer Neighborhood Association meeting. Bessemer Neighbors

Wednesday: Eat at The Bright Star in Bessemer, and while there, purchase "A Centennial Celebration of The Bright Star Restuarant", and get it signed by owners Jimmy and Nicky Koikos. The Bright Star

Thursday: Angela Davis discusses "Leadership and Democracy." Alys Stephens Center. Free admission. "It is both humiliating and humbling to discover that a single generation after the events that constructed me as a public personality, I am remembered as a hairdo."

And further down the road:

This is a little bit disturbing. The Church of the National Knights of the Ku Klux Klan has been issued a permit to hold a rally in Athens on September 15 to protest immigration policies. On that same day the annual Trail of Tears motorcycle ride (always the 3rd Saturday in September) will bring around 150,000 motorcycle riders through town. Trail of Tears Remembrance

I am all for free speech, and I wouldn't think there would be a conflict here (nor do I think motorcyclists, particularly those on this ride, would be sympathetic to Klan causes) but why schedule a Klan rally on a day of remembrance that carries a degree of peacefulness and calm with it. (I understand that "calm" and "150,000 bikers" may not seem compatible, but you get the idea). And the bikers will probably outnumber the Klan members by about 30,000 to 1.


Klan rallies should be scheduled on days and in places where the public is not likely to cross paths with them. They wanted the court house, they got the city hall, but they should have gotten a different day.


And in my quote worth saving category: in response to the theft of copper from an Alabama Power substation, where a thief used a power saw to cut through several main power lines (interrupting power to 2,800 customers in Forestdale), Jefferson County sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Randy Christian said, "It would just make my day if a char-grilled suspect showed up at one of our local emergency rooms."