Here’s a post on questions or comments that readers have recently sent along. I’ve responded directly to these inquiries, but I’ll publish excerpts of some questions and replies here.

What do you think about the Madison/Capitol/union protests?

Lots of questions along these lines.

I’m from a movement family, and so I’m favorable toward the right to assemble and protest. (A ‘movement’ family: an old libertarian family, stretching back even before the term libertarian was coined.) I was at the protest Saturday, taking pictures and recording video. The crowd was huge and peaceful. For many, protesting was probably new to them. I’d guess they feel good about speaking out. So they should.

For pictures and video, see, from Daily Wisconsin, Scenes from Capitol Protest 3.12.11 and Capitol Protest 3.12.11.

Refutation to the charge that the protesters are ‘thugs’ or ‘pickets’ requires no more than a photograph or recording of the protests. These are peaceful people exercising their rights, and defending the right to freedom of association.

Insults from the right about these protesters sound like versions of insults that right-leaning Tea Party groups faced two years ago. There’s human nature: rather than see these collective-bargaining supporters as legitimate, the right now turns on their legitimacy with variations on insults the Tea Party, itself, faced.

That’s not a principled approach; it’s an opportunistic and cynical one.

When have you talked about freedom of association before?

Months ago, in a post about neighborhood associations. (The question comes as a result of a recent post entitled, The Libertarian Position on Unions: In Support of Freedom of Association, in which the national Libertarian Party noted that attacks on collective bargaining are attacks on the right to freedom of association.)

In a post from May 2010, I pointed out that some associations — by lobbying government — interfere with the freedom of association of other residents. See, Whitewater’s Planning Commission Meeting from 5/10/10: Residential Overlay, discussing the dissent in Village of Belle Terre v. Borass.

Questions about Daily Wisconsin: kind words, and some questions about how it’s doing.

First, thanks for visiting both FREE WHITEWATER and Daily Wisconsin. I’ve incorporated reader suggestions into DW, and there will be more on the way.

DW is about ten weeks old, and is off to a good start, without any press releases, etc. Its traffic is all word of mouth, so to speak, but that’s worked very well so far. I’m content to let it build as it has been.

Daily Wisconsin links to significant or interesting Wisconsin news stories. That’s DW’s main theme — what’s happening in America’s Dairyland, today?

The website has, though, this intended characteristic: that the headlines are punchy, epigrammatic. So much of what newspapers and blogs write is bland, lacking the flavor of a pithy summary. Posts and stories don’t need to be like that.

Here’s an example. Instead of writing “Manitowoc man sentenced for 12th OWI,” I’ve described that news as “Manitowoc Rumpot Sentenced for 12th Drunk Driving Offense.” After the headline, I might add some commentary, a sentence or two. Alternatively, I might quote from a portion of a story with the quotation highlighted for emphasis. In each post, I link to the original publication, listing the source’s name in the link.

The news is that someone’s been driving drunk time after time (perhaps more than the dozen times he’s been caught). That news carries a punch, and there’s no reason that a description of a miscreant’s repeated bad deeds shouldn’t be direct, sharp, and feisty.

The same is true of a good deed. A headline that reads “Local Boy Saves Dog” isn’t as lively as “Six-Year Old Saves Crippled, Drowning Dachshund.”

There’s more opportunity in this regard — practice makes perfect.

A survey of news, with a bit of commentary, interests me more than pretending there’s no commentary involved. Selection is commentary, placement is commentary, word-choice is commentary.

Requests for predictions of different kinds.

I publish a predictions feature at the beginning of each year, but I’m not a suitable prognosticator.

If I were, I’d already have made lawful bets on the outcome of the last few World Series. I think certain long-term trends are likely, but the day-to-day is often unpredictable. That’s true of unexpected political proposals as much as natural disasters. Most people wisely navigate uncertainties with the confidence from deeper, enduring principles.

I’m an optimist about America — our best days are yet ahead.