Freedom of Speech, Liberty
Scenes from a Whitewater Rally, 3.18.11
by JOHN ADAMS •
Author Archive for JOHN ADAMS
Uncategorized
Wired Reviews Office Toys
by JOHN ADAMS •
If you collect office toys, Wired has a video you’re sure to enjoy. It showcases some of the latest toy guns and arrows that are — supposedly — suitable (or at least safe) for the office. Purchase and use at your own risk…
We’re a playful people, and these gadgets are simply a consequence of that happy disposition.
Comment Forum
Friday Comment Forum: A Banner for Protesters?
by JOHN ADAMS •
Here’s the Friday open comments post.
Tea Party groups commonly use the Gadsden Flag at their rallies; for union protesters, what would be a suitable flag or symbol? Alternatively, should they avoid any symbol?
The use of pseudonyms and anonymous postings is, 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.
Freedom of Speech, Politics
Gadsden and Taunton Flags
by JOHN ADAMS •
The Tea Party found its banner in the Gadsden flag, but I don’t know whether the union protesters will come to adopt a flag of their own. I saw that protesters at the Capitol were flying the Tautnon flag, used by patriots in Taunton, Mass.
The flag symbolized their hope for liberty and equal rights as part of Britain (“union”), before additional injuries drove them to call for independence.
The contemporary use of the flag in support of collective bargaining plays on the word union with a new meaning.
It’s notable that the original use of the flag showed that Americans were patient and hopeful, and sought liberty proudly and patiently before Britain’s repeated abuse made independence necessary.
In that way, contemporary use of the Taunton flag draws upon Americans’ historic hopes for compromise and peace.
Cats
Friday Catblogging: Meankitty.com
by JOHN ADAMS •
Here’s the website for people with ornery cats —
In their own way, though, even bad cats are still good cats.
Daily Bread
Daily Bread for 3.18.11
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning,
It’s a partly sunny and mild day ahead for Whitewater, with a high of fifty degrees.
In our schools today, it’s Coffee with the Principal at 8:30 a.m., and Spirit Day at the middle school.
Quick note: I’ve had a fair number of questions about the possibility of new contracts for district employees. Just as a charter school is measured by its charter, so a contract is measured by its terms; there’s not much to say without those details.
The Wisconsin Historical Society recalls that on this day in 1954,
Parker Pen Employees Win Wage Increase
On this date employees of Parker Pen in Janesville won a 5-cent-an-hour wage increase in contract negotiations. After the raise, male employees made a base pay of $1.95 an hour while their female counterparts were paid $1.62 an hour. [Source: Janesville Gazette]
Parker no longer has a factory in Janesville; the company dominated American pen manufacture for decades in the middle of the twentieth century.
Weird Tales
Worker Plots Revolution at Wisconsin Noodle Shop!
by JOHN ADAMS •
Planning
Japanese Resilience through Evolving Policies
by JOHN ADAMS •
Jesse Walker’s latest article at Reason is entitled, Resilient Japan: Three lessons from the week’s disasters. Here’s Walker’s assessment of Japan following natural and human disaster:
An 8.9 earthquake, a 33-foot tsunami, a series of crises at their battered nuclear plants: The people of Japan have withstood the last week with admirable tenacity. There’s no shortage of lessons the rest of the world can learn from what we’ve been seeing. Here are three of them….
Walker offers reasons Japan’s doing as well as she is, under terrible circumstances, and the third of them is the most important:
3. Resilient policies evolve; brittle policies are imposed….
Japan’s rules are far from perfect, but they evolved through experiment and experience, a process that Lawrence Vale and Thomas Campanella summed up in their 2005 book The Resilient City. Public authorities may try to introduce sweeping new plans after a disaster, they wrote, but “larger urban patterns are not easily or readily altered.”
More often, “particular building codes or practices may change in an effort to limit future vulnerability.” Japanese cities are dense, organic orders whose jumbled layouts are notoriously opaque to outsiders; the country’s citizens have a long history of resisting plans that would substantially reshape the city.
But over the last century they have incrementally altered their codes. Before 1965, skyscrapers were banned altogether, but with advances in engineering the government finally relented and allowed them to appear.
Government Spending
House GOP’s $61 Billion Spending Cuts in Perspective
by JOHN ADAMS •
City, Police
Whitewater’s Search for a New Police Chief (Update 2)
by JOHN ADAMS •
At last night’s Police Commission meeting, the Commission unanimously chose a non-resident as interim chief. For an earlier post on the topic, see Simple and Reasonable Compliance with the Law.
Simple’s not always so simple, but then years of the wrong direction work a powerful distortion and departure from simple and reasonable.
Daily Bread
Daily Bread for 3.17.11
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning,
Whitewater’s forecast calls for a chance of showers, and a high temperature of sixty-four degrees.
It’s Market Day pickup at Lincoln School today, from 5 to 6 p.m. During the day, the 8th grade band will tour Whitewater’s elementary schools.
Wired‘s published a science story today, entitled “Oldest Female Elephants Have Best Memory,” about a study from England:
Elephant matriarchs 60 years of age or older tended to assess threats in a simulated crisis more accurately than younger matriarchs did, says Karen McComb of the University of Sussex in Brighton, England. When researchers played recordings of various lion roars, elephant groups with older matriarchs grew especially defensive at the sound of male cats. Younger matriarchs’ families underreacted, McComb and her colleagues report in an upcoming Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B.
So, elephants may have good memories, but aged females remember particularly well.
Freedom of Speech
Publishing Banned Books: Olga Gardner Galvin on the Literature of Freedom
by JOHN ADAMS •
It’s Sunshine Week, about a citizen’s right to know about the actions of his or her government, and here’s a video about another right – the right to read and publish without government’s interference.
City, Police
Whitewater’s Search for a New Police Chief (Update)
by JOHN ADAMS •
Last evening, Whitewater’s Common Council unanimously approved the hiring of an independent search firm to assist in the selection of a new police chief.
It was the right and prudent course for our city.
For the initial post on the search, see Whitewater’s Search for a New Police Chief.