Indeed —
Only the tiniest handful of people—most of whom are already behind bars, in psychiatric institutions, or on psycho-meds—can be driven to kill by political whispers or shouts. Asking us to forever hold our tongues lest we awake their deeper demons infantilizes and neuters us and makes politicians no safer.
Good morning,
Today’s forecast calls for a mostly cloudy day with a high temperature of twenty-nine (with small accumulations of snow likely tonight and tomorrow).
In Whitewater today, there’s a schedule meeting of the Park and Rec Board at 10 a.m. The agenda is available online. Later, at 6:30 p.m., there’s a meeting of the Library Board. That agenda is also online.
In our schools, there will be a special meeting of the WUSD board at 6 p.m., at Central Office. The meeting agenda concerns a possible (and likely) charter school for Whitewater.:
Call to Order and Roll Call
Charter School Authorizer Training – Mr. John Gee, Executive Director, Wisconsin Charter Schools Association
Charter School Contract Review
Research Request Approval (Action Item)
Adjourn
Quick note: items on the district’s website are virtually unlinkable, leaving that website far less useful than it might otherwise be.
On this day in 1776, Thomas Paine first published anonymously the pamphlet Common Sense. The full text is available at Google Books.
So very well deserved —
The UW-Whitewater junior running back was featured in Sports Illustrated’s Faces in the Crowd section celebrating his 299-yard, three touchdown effort Dec. 18 that helped the top-ranked Warhawks beat Mount Union Ohio 31-21 to win their second consecutive NCAA Division III national championship and third in four years.
Via WIAC football: Whitewater’s Coppage featured in Sports Illustrated.
Here’s the Sports Illustrated link — 1/10/11.
Couldn’t happen in Wisconsin: Any fan could spot beer scam mile away, and risk to personal safety of scammers would deter possible fraud in any event.
The unemployment rate fell to its lowest point in 19 months in December, but the 103,000 jobs created fell well short of the tally needed to bring about a sustained recovery in the labor market.
It’s perfect, as Reason notes, for “teachers, students, and anyone intersted in getting the scoop on the Bill of Rights.”
The Bill of Rights – Part 1 – Philosophy & History
The Bill of Rights – Part 2 – The Amendments
Over at a nearby paper, there’s yet another announcement, entitled Innovation Center saluted for economic development, about how Whitewater’s multi-million dollar, publicly-financed Innovation Center supposedly won a significant ‘international’ award.
For a critique of a previous announcement of this kind, see Whitewater’s Innovation Center: Good for Producing Innovative, ‘International’ Fairy tales.
There are three points I’ll raise, specific to this iteration.
News Story or Press Release? One finds this announcement on the front page, below the fold, highlighted and boxed. And yet, is this a news story or a press release? I can’t tell, as it has no byline. If it’s a story, then someone forgot to publish the reporter’s byline. The lack of a byline suggests that it’s a press release, and it’s written like a very poor press release (more on that in a bit).
Membership vs. Entrants. Whoever wrote this did so assuming that readers would think that the membership in an organization implied a large number of entrants for an award. The announcement reads that
The competition is global and challenging. More than 4,500 members across the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and other countries belong to the council.
There may be 4,500 members, but it’s sophistry to imply that those members were all competitors for the award. Only a tiny fraction were actually competitors.
In fact, a prior announcement acknowledged that there were only 28 entrants (and presumably all paid members of this obscure group).
Wisconsin has over five and a half million residents, but no one should infer (or imply!) that anything like that number enters an annual Wisconsin shuffleboard contest, for example.
It’s also telling that the award only seems to go to paying members of the otherwise obscure organization, rather than a full range of all possible, worthy projects from across the globe.
So, 28 actual entrants, but now the implication of 4,500 members. That’s a 16,000% exaggeration level. Now, that’s innovative.
Who’s a Winner, in the IEDC’s Eyes? One should note that the Innovation Center didn’t win anything, but was merely an honorable mention. Here are some other nominees who received honorable mention designation:
Roosevelt Road Form-Based Zoning Overlay District
Berwyn Development Corporation
Berwyn, Cicero, and Oak Park, IL
Houston Museum of Natural Science at Sugar Land
City of Sugar Land
Sugar Land, TX
And for proof of the international scope of the award —
Elgin & St. Thomas Tourism Website
Elgin-St. Thomas Tourism Services
Elgin County, ON Canada
So while one might mistakenly assume a prestigious awards ceremony like this —
It was really more like this —
Ironically, and of no credit to those behind the Innovation Center, the winner in the Innovation Center’s category had the kind of focus that Whitewater should have:
A Framework for Understanding Poverty
West Monroe-West Quachita Chamber
West Monroe, LA
At least one entrant had the right focus.
Here’s the Friday open comments post.
Today’s suggested topic — favorite winter activity.
Mine’s walking with Dog X — we both like cold weather.
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.
