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Monthly Archives: August 2010

Official Misconduct

Milwaukee County’s Immoral Utilitarianism: Update 20 (Half Measures Are Not Enough)

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The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel published an editorial entitled, Still Not Enough that wisely concludes that Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker’s actions have been inadequate, in response to assault, neglect, and patient deaths at the Milwaukee County Mental Health Complex:

The demotion of John Chianelli, the man in charge of Milwaukee County’s Mental Health Complex, doesn’t solve the credibility problem at the facility.

Chianelli should have been fired – along with anyone else associated with the lax supervision of Omowale Atkins, a patient with a history of violence who allegedly attacked patients and staff alike. A psychiatrist involved with a series of patient controversies was suspended without pay Thursday.

Chianelli will become deputy director of the Disabilities Services Division; he had been paid about $118,000 a year to head the county’s Behavioral Health Division, which oversees the complex. Chianelli was in charge when Atkins committed most of his alleged crimes.

Firing Chianelli would have sent a clear message that the ineptitude so well-documented in the recent articles by Journal Sentinel reporters Meg Kissinger and Steve Schultze will not be tolerated….

County Executive Scott Walker’s first responsibility is to ensure that patients are protected and properly cared for. Anyone who allowed patients to be remain in unsafe conditions should be terminated….

But what’s needed even more is new management and a top-to-bottom shakeup that includes firing anyone found culpable of putting patients at risk. Walker and the board need to right these wrongs – now.

Indeed.

Imagine being a patient at the Disabilities Services Division, and realizing that Walker thinks you deserve better than a failed leader like Chianelli. People treat their animals better than some patients – neglected, starved, abused – were treated at the Mental Health Division under Chianelli’s leadership.

Keeping Chianelli – who allowed his professional license to lapse — on the payroll is wrong, as he deserves dismissal, and his retention sends the wrong message to others.

And yet, there is a cold political value to keeping him employed at public expense. Chianelli may reward those politicians who retain him by remaining silent about their own knowledge of his misdeeds, and their own acquiescence in the actions and inactions that have led to suffering and bad policy.

This issue will only go away when those responsible have been disciplined or removed entirely, and those who come after assure more humane treatment.

I’ve posted about Chianelli’s policy, and the tragedy that is conduct at the MHC, before. See, A Milwaukee County Bureaucrat’s Immoral Utilitarianism, Update: A Milwaukee County Bureaucrat’s Immoral Utilitarianism, Update 2, Update 3, Update 4, Update 5, Update 6, Update 7, Update 8, Update 9, Update 10, Update 11, Update 12, Update 13, Update 14, Update 15, Update 16, Update 17, Update 18, and Update 19.

Comment Forum

Friday Comments Forum — 10 Favorite Reads of All Time (including books, graphic novels, comic books, magazines, etc.)

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Here’s the Friday open comments post.

Today’s suggested topic is a list of “10 Favorite Reads of All Time (including books, graphic novels, comic books, magazines, etc.)?”

Here’s my list, in no particular order:

Paine, Common Sense. Concise, powerful, timeless.

Lincoln, Collected Works, Vol. 1 & 2 (Library of America). Simple, elegant, and powerful writing. Unmatched in American politics.

Commentary Magazine, 1979-80. Commentary when it was truly a neo-conservative magazine. Wonderful to read at the time, for their rigorous critique of Carter’s inept foreign policy.

William Gibson, Pattern Recognition. I think it’s his best work, even better than his highly-regarded Neuromancer.

Hayek, Road to Serfdom. The truth, published when it was an unfashionable truth.

Wells, War of the Worlds:

No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man’s and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water.

With infinite complacency men went to and fro over this globe about their little affairs, serene in their assurance of their empire over matter. It is possible that the infusoria under the microscope do the same. No one gave a thought to the older worlds of space as sources of human danger, or thought of them only to dismiss the idea of life upon them as impossible or improbable. It is curious to recall some of the mental habits of those departed days. At most terrestrial men fancied there might be other men upon Mars, perhaps inferior to themselves and ready to welcome a missionary enterprise. Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us….

Learning the World, Ken Macleod. Humanity discovers an inhabited world, far from earth, with creatures just beginning their own industrial age. Macleod’s description of the small, intelligent mammals is memorable.

Melville, Moby-Dick. We presumptuously treat books like this as something from school, to be put behind us as we grow older. We’re foolish to do so. There’s wonder on these pages, if only we would read see it with fresh and open eyes.

Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. As with Moby-Dick, a book that’s new — and revolutionary — each time one reads it.

Wired. A guilty pleasure. It’s an uncertain grab bag of articles each month — one sometimes finds a real gem.

The use of pseudonyms and anonymous postings are, of course, fine.

Although the comments template has a space for a name, email address, and website, those who want to leave a field blank can do so. Comments will be moderated, against profanity or trolls. Otherwise, have at it.

I’ll keep the post open through Sunday afternoon. Enjoy.

Charity, Press Release

Open Forum on Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementia: Wednesday, September 29, 2010 from 4:30 – 6:30 p.m., Elkhorn

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I received the following press release that I am happy to post —

Open Forum on Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementia
“Coffee, Cookies and Conversation”

The Alzheimer’s Association is hosting “Coffee, Cookies and Conversation” in Elkhorn for community members who wish to learn more about Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia. This program will be offered on Wednesday, September 29, 2010 from 4:30 – 6:30 p.m. at People’s Bank of Elkhorn, 837 N. Wisconsin Street. There is no charge to attend; the program is open to the public.

Have you or a loved one recently been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease or another dementia? If so, this open forum session will provide an opportunity to get questions answered and for participants to discover how the Alzheimer’s Association can help. Rather than a formal presentation, this program focuses on answering questions from the attendees. The presenter for this program is Bonnie Beam-Stratz, MA, MS, Regional Services Coordinator, Alzheimer’s Association.

To register, please contact Bonnie Beam-Stratz at 920-728-4088 or send an email to bonnie.beam@alz.org.

The Alzheimer’s Association is the leading voluntary health organization in Alzheimer care, support and research. Our mission is to eliminate Alzheimer’s disease through the advancement of research; to provide and enhance care and support for all affected; and to reduce the risk of dementia through the promotion of brain health. Our vision is a world without Alzheimer’s. For more information about Alzheimer’s disease and local services visit www.alz.org/sewi or call the Alzheimer’s Association 24/7 Helpline at 800-272-3900.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for Whitewater, Wisconsin: 8-27-10

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Good morning,

Whitewater’s forecast calls for a sunny day with a high of eighty-two degrees.

Today’s Comment Forum topic — “10 Favorite Reads of All Time (including books, graphic novels, comic books, magazines, etc.)”

The Wisconsin Historical Society recalls that on this date in 1878, the typewriter was patented:

On this date Christopher Latham Sholes patented the typewriter. The idea for this invention began at Kleinsteuber’s Machine Shop in Milwaukee in the late 1860s. A mechanical engineer by training, Sholes, along with associates Carlos Glidden and Samuel Soulé, spent hours tinkering with the idea. They mounted the key of an old telegraph instrument on a base and tapped down on it to hit carbon & paper against a glass plate. This idea was simple, but in 1868 the mere idea that type striking against paper might produce an image was a novelty.

Sholes proceeded to construct a machine to reproduce the entire alphabet. The prototype was sent to Washington as the required Patent Model. This original model still exists at the Smithsonian. Investor James Densmore provided the marketing impetus which eventually brought the machine to the Remington Arms Company. Although Remington mass-marketed his typewriter begining in 1874, it was not an instant success. A few years later, improvements made by Remington engineers gave the machine its market appeal and sales skyrocketed. [Source: Wisconsin Lore and Legends, p.41]



Cats

Vicious English Hag Throws Cat in Trash Can

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There’s almost nothing good to say about England, a place I have never liked (my family growing up always preferring other places). As much as I dislike that dank isle, still more do I love cats.

Yet, despite a low opinion of England, even I am sometimes surprised by that nation’s base conduct. Consider the despicable Mary Bale, a cat-hating misfit from Coventry, who was caught on camera throwing a cat into a covered trash can, where it was trapped for hours.

Just watch this vile crone abuse a sweet cat:



Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbMt82yVj24

What does she have to say for herself? She contends that it was all a joke:

The woman who was filmed throwing a cat into a wheelie bin in Coventry today spoke out: “It was just a joke.”

Mary Bale has become a global hate figure after the CCTV footage emerged of her dumping Lola the cat into a litter bin in Brays Lane, Stoke, Coventry.

But the Royal Bank of Scotland worker insists that her actions were only a joke.

She told The Sun: “I really don’t see what everyone is getting so excited about – it’s just a cat. I was walking home from work and saw this cat wander out in front of me.

“I was playing with it, stroking it and listening to it purr as it stood on a garden wall. It was very friendly.

“I don’t know what came over me, but I suddenly thought it would be funny to put it in the wheelie bin, which was right beside me….

“OK, I shouldn’t have done it – but it’s just a cat at the end of the day. I don’t think I deserve to be hated by people all over the world, it was just a split second of madness….

See, Wheelie bin cat woman: It was just a joke

Not only is this low woman particularly grotesque, but she apparently thinks others are fools, proving that she’s one herself. One can see that she throws the cat into the bin, forcefully and maliciously, thereafter shutting the lid. Contending that this was a mere joke is a transparent lie. Even her own words condemn her, as she first futilely calls her abuse a “joke,” but only moments later admits that her actions were “madness.”

Either she’s an exceptionally stupid liar, who can’t maintain her lies for more than a few sentences, or she’s a fool who underestimates others’ ability to comprehend readily her excuse-making dishonesty.

By the way, this arrogant eyesore can squawk all she wants about what she believes she deserves, but others have a right to form their own opinions of her. Although I would not condone violence against her, people are free to despise her all they want.

Considering her actions, and lies about them, normal people will likely conclude that she is, in fact, despicable. more >>

Film

Birth of a Nation

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From last Friday’s Comments Forum, here’s one of a reader’s favorite films:

The controversial early film, Birth of a Nation — a prominent early film, but with a viewpoint that’s now thankfully rejected. The film came out about 5 years before the Klan reached its height in America, and reflects the Klan’s lying view of history. It’s notable for being an early film, not for a message rightly relegated to the dustbin.



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Uncategorized

Appraising Online Appraisals

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The Wall Street Journal has a story about online appraisers, entitled Services Spot Hidden Gems Among the Junk. For those who live far from an appraiser, a service like this might help someone learn the approximate value of possessions sitting in an attic.

I wouldn’t rely on an appraisal like this for goods of high value or susceptible of easy, common replication as fakes.

There’s no disputing, though, that the Olivetti typewriter depicted in the story certainly looks sharp.

Economy

Sorman: The Financial Crisis Seen [Clearly] Through Free-Market Eyes

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Guy Sorman of City Journal writes at length in the Dallas Morning News about the financial crisis:

As in the 1930s and 1970s, so today: Crises are a serious problem, but misguided economic policy makes them worse. After the 1930s, only war production could overcome the negative economic consequences of the New Deal.

After the stagflation of the 1970s, it took the bold leadership of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan to reorient the West toward free markets and prosperity.

How long will it take this time before governments understand that overreacting to the crisis and imposing disproved Keynesian remedies will dampen and delay economic recovery? The answer depends on the ability of free-market economists and commentators to communicate their narrative of the crisis.

See, The Financial Crisis Seen Through Free-Market Eyes.

Economy, Politics

Those Who Paved the Way

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Over at Economics21, James Capretta assessed the American economy through a Mid-Year Update.

Capretta’s assessment relied on Office of Management and Budget projections:

The numbers are eye-popping. The budget deficit in 2010 is expected to set a record at $1.471 trillion – or 10% of GDP. In 2011, the administration projects the deficit will again top $1.4 trillion. From 2010 to 2020, the Obama budget plan would run up a cumulative deficit of nearly $10 trillion, and the nation’s debt would reach $18.5 trillion in 2020, up from $5.8 trillion at the end of 2008.

Even more ominous for the president is the economic forecast. It shows unemployment remaining at over 8% through the 2012 presidential re-election campaign, despite the assumption that relatively normal economic growth would have been underway for more than two years by then.

The primary problem is quite plainly out of control federal spending. In 2008, total federal outlays were about $2.9 trillion. President Obama wants to add $1 trillion to that total in 2011, or about a 33% expansion of governmental activity in just three years.

Capretta’s article appeared in July; a month later, the economic outlook has grown worse. It’s possible to spend even more (although politically difficult to swing), but if all this hasn’t been enough, a prudent team might consider a different approach, entirely.

There’s growing support for a different approach, but it’s worth noting that there were more than a few Republicans in Congress, and at the state and local level, who were for big spending (2006-08) until they were against it (2009-10). They paved the path on which others walked.

One should be unsympathetic to Republicans of this ilk; they spent drunkenly to assure their own political control, lost that gambit, and now insist they’re sober and prudent again. These big-spending conservatives, with their proud talk about government-business partnerships, pushed projects that were unsound fiscally and politically.

All that pork wasn’t for the public’s benefit, but for their own. Having discarded their principles, they thought they could substitute patronage, pork, influence over business, and an overweening, proud declaration of their own importance.

Instead, they’ve nothing good left — they cast aside principle, gained nothing for America through their schemes, and are seen now (correctly) as bloated panderers by both left and right.

They’ve not the credibility to complain about the current administration, as they were scouts for, and pioneers of, the current federal approach.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for Whitewater, Wisconsin: 8-26-10

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Good morning,

Whitewater’s forecast for today calls for a sunny day with a high of seventy-six.

Tomorrow’s Friday Comment Forum topic — “10 Favorite Reads of All Time (including books, graphic novels, comic books, magazines, etc.).”

This Saturday, from 8 AM to 4 PM, there will be a Garage Sale Fundraiser for the Whitewater League of Women Voters, with free LWV 90th Birthday cupcakes, at 230 S. Cottage St., Whitewater. The sale items include “Great assortment of household and miscellaneous items: a FREE piano (needs work), partial penguin collection, and don’t miss the many vintage movie and other ads from the 40’s and 50’s and boxes of vintage magazines.”

The New York TImes recalls that on this date in 1920 the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, guaranteeing women the right to vote, was declared in effect:

The half-century struggle for woman suffrage in the United States reached its climax at 8 o’clock this morning, when Bainbridge Colby, as Secretary of State, issued his proclamation announcing that the Nineteenth Amendment had become a part of the Constitution of the United States.

The signing of the proclamation took place at that hour at Secretary Colby’s residence, 1507 K Street Northwest, without ceremony of any kind, and the issuance of the proclamation was unaccompanied by the taking of movies or other pictures, despite the fact that the National Woman’s Party, or militant branch of the general suffrage movement, had been anxious to be represented by a delegation of women and to have the historic event filmed for public display and permanent record.

Secretary Colby did not act with undue haste in signing the proclamation, but only after he had given careful study to the packet which arrived by mail during the early morning hours containing the certificate of the Governor of Tennessee that that State’s Legislature had ratified the Congressional resolution submitting the amendment to the States for action.

No Suffrage Leaders See Signing

None of the leaders of the woman suffrage movement was present when the proclamation was signed.

“It was quite tragic,” declared Mrs. Abby Scott Baker of the National Woman’s Party. “This was the final culmination of the women’s fight, and, women, irrespective of factions, should have been allowed to be present when the proclamation was signed. However the women of America have fought a big fight and nothing can take from them their triumph.”

Official Misconduct

Milwaukee County’s Immoral Utilitarianism: Update 19 (John Chianelli, Administrator of Milwaukee County Behavioral Health Division, Removed from Post)

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And yet, so much more to be done…

Steve Schultze and Meg Kissinger of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel write that

Milwaukee County officials said late Wednesday that John Chianelli, who oversees the troubled Milwaukee County Mental Health Complex, would be leaving that post Monday.

The announcement followed growing criticism of Chianelli in the wake of a Journal Sentinel investigation into problems at the complex, including lax supervision of a patient with a history of violence and other cases of bungled care.

Omowale Atkins is facing charge of sexually assaulting one patient and is believed to be the father of a baby born to another patient in April. That woman also said had been sexually assaulted by Atkins, but no charges were filed after a psychiatrist told investigators he believed the sex was consensual.

The newspaper found Atkins repeatedly was allowed to leave the secure ward, against doctor’s orders, with nurses filing false paperwork to say he was being checked every 15 minutes. Twice he had overnight visits to group homes, but staff did not inform the group home operators of his history of violence….

A statement issued Wednesday by Geri Lyday, the interim director of the county’s Department of Health and Human Services, provided no reasons for the removal of Chianelli.

It said Chianelli, in his post since late 2007, will transfer to a position as deputy director of the Disabilities Services Division….

“A search for a new BHD director is underway,” Lyday said in the statement.

See, Chianelli removed as head of mental health complex.

Patients, families of patients, residents of Milwaukee County, and residents of Wisconsin owe the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel thanks for committed and honest journalism, in the service of honesty, clarity, and the principled, compassionate treatment of vulnerable people.

For those under the care of the Disabilities Services Division, to which Chianelli has been transferred, this must be a disappointing day — Chianelli should have been sacked, and his statements and actions should be the subject of a thorough criminal investigation. He’s now, sadly, able to afflict others. That will never be right.

This issue will only go away when those responsible have been disciplined or removed entirely, and those who come after assure more humane treatment.

I’ve posted about Chianelli’s policy, and the tragedy that is conduct at the MHC, before. See, A Milwaukee County Bureaucrat’s Immoral Utilitarianism, Update: A Milwaukee County Bureaucrat’s Immoral Utilitarianism, Update 2, Update 3, Update 4, Update 5, Update 6, Update 7, Update 8, Update 9, Update 10, Update 11, Update 12, Update 13, Update 14, Update 15, Update 16, Update 17, and Update 18.