Free Markets, Laws/Regulations

Anti-immigrant legislation threatens Alabama’s farms

by JOHN ADAMS • 12.06.2011

Of course it does, as any option other than a free market in labor for a need this large is an inferior, inefficient solution. (It’s also an insult to reason that desperate — and dim — officials think that prison labor is an adequate replacement.)

Farmers have complained of a lack of field hands since parts of the law took effect in late September. Many have said legal residents aren’t physically able or mentally tough enough to perform the work, and others wont do so because it doesn’t pay enough.

Hall said the agriculture positions pay well above minimum wage, but many Americans find them too “physically taxing” to perform.

An Internet-based program launched by the state in October to help connect farmers with potential workers has yet to produce results.

Via Yahoo! News.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 12.6.11

by JOHN ADAMS • 12.06.2011

Good morning.

Whitewater’s forecast calls for a mostly cloudy day with a high temperature of thirty-two. That’s only half as warm as El Segundo, where residents will enjoy a sixty-four-degree day with sunny skies.

In the City of Whitewater today, there’ll be a meeting of the Alcohol Licensing Commitee at 6 PM, and a Common Council meeting at 6:30 PM.

The Wisconsin Historical Society recalls that on this day in 1821, the

First Wisconsin Post Office Was Established

On this date the first Wisconsin post office was established in Green Bay. The first postmaster was John Deane and the office is still in existence. [Source:Wisconsin: Its Territorial and Statehood Post Offices, compiled by Frank Moertl, p.30]]

From Japan, there’s news of ‘the world’s most expensive car crash.’ Although these cars were certainly under insurance, the loss to society — regardless of insurance compensation — is still the loss of so many expensive machines.

Cartoons & Comics

V for Vendetta’s Alan Moore, David Lloyd Join Occupy Comics

by JOHN ADAMS • 12.05.2011

Comics have been, and still are, socially relevant and significant:

Nearly 30 years after publishing V for Vendetta, writer Alan Moore and artist David Lloyd are throwing their support behind the global Occupy movement that’s drawn inspiration from their comic’s anti-totalitarian philosophy and iconography.

Moore will contribute a long-form prose piece, possibly with illustrations, to the Occupy Comics project. His writing work will explore the Occupy movement’s principles, corporate control of the comics industry and the superhero paradigm itself.

Via Underwire | Wired.com.

Federal Government

US Mail Continues Spiral After Ending One-Day Delivery

by JOHN ADAMS • 12.05.2011

Pretending that circling the drain is just a form of Olympic swimming:

The headline on the press release indicated that U.S. Postal Service was taking a big step forward. “Postal Service Progresses With Operational Efficiencies,” it read. But in reality, the US Mail is going backwards.

With its Monday press release, the Postal Service said it must reduce operating costs by $30 billion by 2015 in order to return to profitability, and to reach this goal, it has decided that First Class Mail will no longer be delivered within one business day. Delivery times will shift from 1-3 days to 2-3 days.

The change will require time to implement (following administrative rule-making requirements), but should take place during 2012.

Via Wired Enterprise | Wired.com.

Free Markets, Libertarians, Politics

GOP Message-Massager Frank Luntz, in the Wake of Occupy Wall Street

by JOHN ADAMS • 12.05.2011

Matt Welch writes about the GOP’s needless fear, and silly response, to the Occupy movement:

Did you need a little Monday morning reminder of why GOP politics and libertarian ideals so rarely mix when Republicans hold power? Well check out this piece from last week by Yahoo News Chris Moody, who went inside a recent Republican Governors Association plenary session to watch spinmeister Frank Luntz give a bizarre list of 10 GOP-messaging do’s and dont’s in the wake of the Occupy Wall Street movement….

Luntz’s desire to get the word capitalism “removed” from political discourse speaks for itself. My capitalism- and bad metaphor-loving heart reckons that the best way to make a urine-soaked rose smell better is to stop pissing on it, rather than try to banish the word “flower” from your vocabulary.

Via Hit & Run : Reason Magazine.

Crime, Government Spending, Police

Officers Punished for Supporting Eased Drug Laws

by JOHN ADAMS • 12.05.2011

These officers can expect to be hounded out, as so much federal and state money depends, not on solving the problem of addiction, but on waging an ineffective, endless campaign, all the while insisting that this time – yes, this time – everything will be different and better.

Those challenging their dismissals are buoyed by the case of Jonathan Wender, who was fired as a police sergeant in Mountlake Terrace, Wash., in 2005, partly as a result of his support for the decriminalization of marijuana. Mr. Wender won a settlement of $815,000 as well as his old job back. But he retired from the department and took up teaching at the University of Washington, where one of his courses is “Drugs and Society.”

Among those not yet ready to publicly urge the legalization of drugs is a veteran Texas police officer who quietly supports LEAP and spoke on the condition that he not be identified. “We all know the drug war is a bad joke,” he said in a telephone interview. “But we also know that you’ll never get promoted if you’re seen as soft on drugs.”

Via New York Times.com.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 12.5.11

by JOHN ADAMS • 12.05.2011

Good morning.

Flurries (and perhaps thereafter freezing rain) await Whitewater, with a high temperature today of thirty-six. On Manhattan’s Lower East Side, it will be a day of showers with a high of fifty-three.

Today marks the anniversary of the day in 1933 when Prohibition ended.

The Wisconsin Historical Society recalls that decades earlier, in 1879,

the Humane Society of Wisconsin was organized in Milwaukee. Inspired by Henry Bergh, a New York City philanthropist, and his Humane Movement, the state Humane Society was formed to protect both animals and children. However, with the formation of child protection laws in the early 1900s, the Humane Society of Wisconsin began to focus primarily on animal protection. [Source: Humane Society of Wisconsin].