Recently in Topeka Category

What could be more fun that browsing the stacks of books, magazines and other intellectually stimulating resources than choosing to satisfy your carnal curiosities in one of the library's study rooms?

Apparently a couple teens decided to concede to the raging hormones and throw caution to the wind since they had their own private study room at the city library.

It never ceases to amaze me the foolishness of people, but hey I can't say the thought never crossed my mind during any one of my study sessions at the library in my youth.

What makes this blog-worthy isn't necessarily the two teenagers sexing it up in the study room, but rather the debate over a few books that currently have homes at the library and the group of Puritans looking to burn them. Evidently, the very proximity to books like, The Joy of Sex, is enough to drive young teens to want to have sex. It has nothing at all to do with TV, society, peer pressure, plain old curiosity or even biology. Perhaps after thumbing through books such as that, they lost all semblance of self control and found the nearest venue to practice their new-found sexual knowledge? At least that's what the Puritans would like to have us believe.

I doubt it. I've owned that book and from what I remember it actually promoted a little more intimacy than that which can be found in library study rooms.

Maybe those kids need a good, old-fashioned abstinence program to get their heads screwed on straight? Yeah, no pun intended.

All I can say is, "It's about stinking time." Finally, someone gets the backbone to take these people to court and kick their stinking butts across the floor. In case you're not familiar, this is the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, KS that likes to go to the funerals of dead soldiers to protest homosexuality. Since I live in Topeka, I have to see these people all the time. It sickens me. Why KS has never really taken a stand against them, I couldn't answer. I haven't lived here all my life. I heard that Westboro handed Topeka's ass to them in a court case quite some time ago, but I don't know the details. However, here's the meat of what happened today:

A Baltimore federal jury awarded nearly $11 million Wednesday to the father of a Marine killed in Iraq, deciding that the family's privacy had been invaded by a Kansas church whose members waved anti-gay signs at the funeral.

Good on ya' Maryland.

I've often ridiculed the place I live - Topeka, KS. While I really don't particularly care for it, there are a few things here and there that I find make living here tolerable. But I'm not going to bore you with the positive things that I could possibly write about tonight.

Hell no!

Recently, the City of Topeka paid $150K for a survey, completed by some consulting group out of Atlanta, GA, to tell them what they need to do to improve the city and make it more attractive to businesses and people. The findings of the survey essentially say that Topeka is unattractive and it "has no sense of place."

"From an outsider's perspective, the community does not show well and does not present a strong sense of place and identity," according to the report. "While community entry corridors (the roads leading into the city) contribute to this impression, it is the city's lack of a strong city core that is the biggest challenge. There is no sense of vibrancy and no center of gravity that a new-urban center of arts, entertainment and housing would provide."