Part of our town’s Planning Commission meeting last night involved a discussion of the chairperson’s roles and responsibilities. It’s not a bad idea to review all members’ roles every so often, but citizen-volunteers are not the only ones with roles in these matters. City leadership and staff might possess the authority to act expediently, but…

Whitewater, Wisconsin has a Plannining Commission, like most towns, that meets regularly. Last night was its monthly meeting. Here are a some observations on a meeting with a ten-item agenda. Citizen comments and staff reports. It makes sense to place citizen comments and staff reports early in the meeting. The order of the two changes…

The major parties are quick to applaud themselves at selecting, or even considering, ethnic or religious minorities for high office. Both internally and externally, they spend a lot of time enlightening others on how enlightened they are. The Libertarian Party’s vice presidential candidate is Wayne Allyn Root, who is Jewish. Thankfully and true to its…

The town is not, you know, Whitewater, Wisconsin; we don’t have a mayor. No, the mayor in the town of Mount Isa in Australia issued a call for unattractive women to move to his community. He reasoned that the town had a preponderance of men, so women of any kind would be welcome. (The mayor…

The Washington Post’s Libby Copeland offers a profile of a dour Bob Barr (reprinted at the CBS website). Barr just doesn’t have much of a sense of humor. Copeland includes an anecdote about Barr’s behavior at a charity event, when he licked whipped cream from two women in exchange for a charity donation. Needless to…

Update, 8:39 PM — I’ve been told the title of the magazine is Marie Claire — sorry, I’m just not a subscriber. My apologizes to all the august readers of that fine publication. Don’t let my small mistake keep you from enjoying articles on “150 Hairstyles Even You Can Master,” “I Married a Terrorist,” or…

An affinity scam is when a confidence man relies on a common religious, ethnic, or social background to lull unsuspecting marks into a false sense of security. Rather than scrutinize an otherwise dubious proposition, the victim trusts the confidence man on the basis of a common background. Page C1 of the Wall Street Journal has…

Here are numbers 10-18 of my list of Techniques of Municipal Distraction, suitable for self-interested politicians and bureaucrats in towns across America. (Numbers 1-9 are available in an earlier post.) These are among the most common tactics for a local CYA effort: 10. When Policy is Questioned, Defend on Integrity. If someone questions your actions,…

Imagine that you’re a bureaucrat or long-term politician in a municipality with budget problems, failed police leadership, restrictive enforcement, or other embarrassments. Yours could be one of countless towns in America. What to do? The easiest path, and the one that you’ll likely take, it is commit to techniques of distraction rather than acknowledge, let…

Over at Philosecurity.org, security analyst Sherri Davidoff recounts what it’s like to try to fly from Boston’s Logan Airport without a wallet and ID. Her story reveals that TSA security is worrisome, as it asks the wrong information of a passenger without identification, assuring no security while unnecessarily intruding into other matters of personal privacy.…

There is a serious, principled case against Sen. Obama: that he will regulate too much, spend too much, tax too much, and compromise too much on security-state legislation and foreign adventures once in office. When libertarians debate Obama’s supporters on these points, libertarians can carry the day. No one, however, can beat him through crackpot…

One way to predict the outcome of the presidential race is through a market. The University of Iowa operates an electronic futures market where investors can purchase futures in a presidential candidate. The market fluctuates as the value of those contracts rise or fall with a candidate’s prospects. Here’s a description of the market: “The…

Good morning, Whitewater Whitewater has only one public meeting scheduled today: a 6:30 p.m. meeting of the library board. The National Weather Service, predicts a high of 76 degrees and patchy fog. The Farmers’ Almanac calls for fair skies. Today is a proud day in Wisconsin history, according to the Wisconsin Historical Society: on this…

David Boaz offers fitting remarks in tribute to Alexander Solzhenitsyn. Solzhenitsyn waged a lifelong struggle against Soviet communism, a tyranny that killed tens of millions, oppressed hundreds of millions, and destroyed lives across every continent it touched. Solzhenitsyn did not embrace the conventional libertarian vision as we have, but shouldered a noble burden, rare and…