FREE WHITEWATER

Monthly Archives: August 2010

Twitter

Recent Tweets, 8-8 to 8-14

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@reasonmag: Life for Half an Ounce of Medical Marijuana? http://ow.ly/2oKfi Draconian and perverse
2:17 PM Aug 12th

@wsjfree: Study Finds Illegal Immigrants Account for 1 in 12 U.S. Births http://on.wsj.com/bqzFPO They’re lawful citizens & should be so
2:12 PM Aug 12th

@IJ: Licensing Gone Wild: Monks face jail for selling caskets: http://iam.ij.org/8XXWEU
2:08 PM Aug 12th

RealClearPolitics – Wealthy Dems Stand by Obama (a class in themselves but not for themselves) http://bit.ly/cRM9wF
7:46 PM Aug 10th

Objections and Replies on Independent Commentary » FREE WHITEWATER http://bit.ly/cqcNIe
1:58 PM Aug 10th

@davidgumpert: Raw milk or no raw milk, why can’t we accept that people sometimes get sick from food? http://bit.ly/97IrOc
4:00 PM Aug 9th

Economy

U.S. Economy: Fears rise as disappointing figures pile up – latimes.com

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….Most economists believe a dip back into recession — as well as an equally debilitating bout of deflation, or broadly falling prices — will be avoided. But many have nonetheless warned that the prospects are rising, and say the more probable scenario isn’t much more appealing: a protracted economic malaise with imperceptible growth and stubbornly high joblessness.

“We are mired in a jobless recovery, and the government has run out of ammunition to help out the economy,”said Sung Won Sohn, an economics professor at Cal State Channel Islands. “The current situation doesn’t look very good….”

Although I certainly can’t predict whether we’ll have a another recession, these reports bolster views that I expressed yesterday when posting about David Rosenberg’s assessment that odds of another recession (soon) were greater than 50/50:

It’s telling that no major analyst seems to be predicting better times soon.

For the post on Rosenberg’s assessment, see Analyst: Odds of Double Dip Recession Higher Than 50-50.

Via U.S. economy: Fears rise as disappointing figures pile up – latimes.com.

Government Spending

Nevermind layoffs, Milwaukee teachers union sues over male members’ right to erection help — Los Angeles Times

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It’s a national story now – Andrew Malcolm of the Los Angeles Times covers the Milwaukee Teachers’ Union’s demands and dubious legal basis for those demands —

The Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Assn. has gone to court asking a judge to order the financially strapped school board to reinstate coverage for Viagra, Levitra, Cialis and other erectile dysfunction drugs in union members’ healthcare plans. The union claims that excluding such coverage discriminates against the male gender.

In clearly less important news, facing growing benefit costs and shrinking revenues, the board in June had to lay off about 400 classroom teachers, the first such cuts there in decades.

At this time of stubborn national unemployment for millions, some silly people might question the wisdom of a labor union representing people with actual jobs launching legal action over a $20 pill to improve the functioning of a member of a member….

The school board claims the famous little starter pills are recreational, not medically necessary, and would cost the city $787,000 a year. Offhand, that seems like a lot of educators’ erections, but it’s also enough money to employ 12 full-time teachers of either gender.

Via Nevermind layoffs, Milwaukee teachers union sues over male members’ right to erection help | Top of the Ticket | Los Angeles Times.

I’ve posted about this before. See, “Barrett calls on union to drop Viagra lawsuit” — GazetteXtra.

Economy

John Merline: Where Did All Those Economic ‘Green Shoots’ Go?

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John Merline asks, “Where Did All Those ‘Green Shoots’ Go?”

In an Aug. 2 op-ed headlined “Welcome to the Recovery,” Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said that “we are on a path back to growth.” Eight days later, the Federal Reserve issued a report saying the “pace of recovery in output and employment has slowed in recent months.” The next day the Dow tumbled 265 points, and on Thursday initial jobless claims hit a nearly six-month high….

There’s nothing wrong with a little cheerleading. But there’s a real danger with all this “turning the corner, things are getting better, recovery is on the way” talk. If you don’t think so, just ask Herbert Hoover, who infamously claimed that “prosperity is just around the corner” right before the worst of the Great Depression.

At some point, someone is going to have to level with the American people about just how bad things really are and why, despite all the ministrations from Washington over the past two years, they don’t seem to be getting much better.

Merline’s column offers a “Timeline of Pollyannaish Economic Prognostications” along which he shows how ten predictions of better times were wholly at odds with actual conditions.

Sobering, indeed.

Via Opinion: Where Did All Those Economic ‘Green Shoots’ Go?.

Economy, Politics

Voter Volatility Hits Fever Pitch – WSJ.com

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Gerald Seib writes that

It’s becoming increasingly clear that Americans arent simply in the midst of hard times. They are in the midst of one of the most volatile political environments since World War II.The immediate cause of this volatility is clear enough to see. Just a few months ago, there was a chance that an improving economy and progress in the war in Afghanistan might calm national nerves and return the political world to a more normal setting before Novembers midterm elections.

Instead, trend lines in both the economy and Afghanistan now seem to be heading in the wrong direction, and that is producing a public attitude hovering somewhere between anxiety and apprehension. If hope was the watchword for the 2008 campaign, fear may be more apt for 2010.

An accompanying video elaborates on the story:



via Voter Volatility Hits Fever Pitch – WSJ.com. more >>

Uncategorized

Wolves vs. Dogs

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I read a story yesterday about a Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources website that warns about Dog Depredations by Wolves in Wisconsin – 2010. (I found the link through a story online, Hundreds subscribe to Wisconsin wolf attack alerts.)

The DNR webpage allows visitors to sign up for email alerts when there are reports of wolf attacks. I signed up, so that my dog (the pseudonymous Dog X) and I can be on guard. I can’t imagine a wolf attack in town, but if a stinkin’ wolf wanders through town one night, and causes mayhem, we’ll be notified.

(By the way, private services could provide these updates, too.)

Here’s the link: Subscribe to Wisconsin Gray Wolf Depredation Alerts.

Most attacks are not on pet dogs, but hunting dogs. Here’s a DNR description of wolves’ behavior:

As with other wild canids, wolves are very territorial and will guard their territories from other wolves, coyotes, and domestic dogs. Wolves are probably most aggressive toward strange wolves and dogs at den and rendezvous sites when their pups are small, during the breeding season in January and February, and when they are protecting a fresh kill. Wolf packs have pups in spring and then later will use rendezvous sites from mid June to late September, after the pups are big enough to leave their den. Adult wolves are very defensive of pups at rendezvous sites and will attack other predators, including dogs, that get too close to the rendezvous site or the pups.

A pack will use from 2 to 3 to as many as 6 or more rendezvous sites during the summer. The exact locations vary from year to year and throughout the summer. The sites are usually forest openings or edge areas, with lots of wolf tracks, droppings, and matted vegetation. Move 2 or 3 miles from any rendezvous site, if possible, before releasing dogs. In addition, avoid releasing dogs at baits recently visited by wolves. When looking for bear sign at a bait, make sure to also look for wolf tracks. Be familiar with your own dog’s tracks, so that you can distinguish it from any wolf tracks. If a specific bait site is receiving a lot of wolf use, discontinue using it until wolves have left, and concentrate on an alternative bait site. Some hunters have had success with bells on dog collars to reduce wolf attacks, but some dogs with bells have been attacked by wolves.

Forewarned is forearmed.

Economy, Taxes/Taxation

Analyst: Odds of Double Dip Recession Higher Than 50-50

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I have no way of calculating the likelihood of another recession. More meaningfully, and without any predictions, one can see that present conditions are already hard for millions of unemployed Americans.

It’s telling that no major analyst seems to be predicting better times soon.

We can assure a return of better times sooner, however, if we reduce tax and regulatory burdens on ordinary Americans and small businesses.

See, Rosenberg: Odds of Double Dip Higher than 50 50/.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for Whitewater, Wisconsin: 8-13-10

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Good morning,

Whitewater’s forecast calls for a sunny day with a high temperature of ninety-one degrees.

On this day in 1899, Alfred Hitchcock was born. Eighty years later, the New York Times recalled his life upon his passing:

In a characteristically incisive remark, Mr. Hitchcock once summed up his approach to moviemaking: “Some films are slices of life, mine are slices of cake.” The director of scores of psychological thrillers for more than half a century was the master manipulator of menace and the macabre, and the leading specialist in suspense and shock.

His best movies were meticulously orchestrated nightmares of peril and pursuit relieved by unexpected comic ironies, absurdities and anomalies. Films made by the portly, cherubic director invariably progressed from deceptively commonplace trifles of life to shattering revelations, and with elegant style and structure, he pervaded mundane events and scenes with a haunting mood of mounting anxiety.

In delicately balancing the commonplace and the bizarre, he was the most noted juggler of emotions in the longest major directorial career in film history. His distinctive style was vigorously visual, always stressing imagery over dialogue and often using silence to increase apprehension. Among his most stunning montages were a harrowing attack by a bullet-firing crop-dusting plane on Cary Grant at a deserted crossroad amid barren cornfields in “North by Northwest,” a brutal shower-slaying in “Psycho” and an avian assault on a sleepy village in “The Birds.”

Here the trailer from North by Northwest. It’s dated, but interesting, and the film is fantastic —



The Friday Comments Forum will be on holiday today, but back next week. Many thanks for your contributions, and the feature will be resume with a new topic on next Friday.

For today, there are more posts on the way. more >>

Law

Trial by Jury in Civil Lawsuits

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In A Libertarian’s Misplaced Attack on the Constitution, Ken Connor defends the common law — and later U.S. Constitution’s Seventh Amendment protection of trial by jury: “In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.”

Connor lakes libertarian John Stossel to task for an attack on tort lawyers, and on the tort law system — for litigating civil wrongs like personal injury — in America. Connor’s correct that the Seventh Amendment addresses civil lawsuits, including actions for negligence, etc. He contends that one should reject Stossel’s attack on tort lawyers, as it’s really an attack on the Seventh Amendment:

What this really boils down to, then, is a question of principle. With regard to other questions constitutional, conservatives (and libertarians, for that matter) argue that an exception should not be allowed to undo the rule. We shouldn’t revoke the 2nd amendment just because some individuals commit crimes with guns. We shouldn’t axe the 1st amendment just because some choose to exercise their free speech in a hateful manner. And we shouldn’t do away with the 7th amendment just because some tort lawyers and their clients make frivolous claims in court.

One can have tort reform (or more reform, so to speak, as we don’t seem ever to get it right) and trial by jury in civil cases. The two aren’t exclusive of each other. Still, for those who’d like to see a defense of current tort law, Connor goes to town (so vigorously I’d almost think he made his living as a tort lawyer). One sledom sees defenses of the current system, and Connor’s catches one’s attention.