Editorial cartoonist Lisa Benson comments on the Cash for Clunkers program. (The editorial cartoon is from Comics. com, with a more permissive re-use policy than the the website I used last week for Nate Beeler’s cartoon on dissent.)
Good morning, Whitewater
The CDA Business Park Marketing Committee meets at 4:30 p.m. today, and the Planning Commission meets at 6 p.m. tonight. As of this post, the CDA Business Park Marketing Committee agenda was not online. The Planning Commission agenda is available here.
On this day in 1969, the Wood stock festival concluded. The New York TImes covered the event:
Waves of weary youngsters streamed away from the Woodstock Music and Art Fair last night and early today as security officials reported at least two deaths and 4,000 people treated for injuries, illness and adverse drug reactions over the festival’s three-day period.
However festival officials said the folk and rock music could go on until dawn, and most of the crowd was determined to stay on.
Campfires Burn
As the music wailed on into the early morning hours, more than 100 campfires – fed by fence-posts and any other wood the young people could lay their hands on- flickered around the hillside that formed a natural amphitheater for the festival.
By midnight nearly half of the 300,000 fans who had camped here for the weekend had left. A thunderstorm late yesterday afternoon provided the first big impetus to depart, and a steady stream continued to leave through the night.
Drugs and auto traffic continued to be the main headaches.
But the crowd itself was extremely well-behaved. As Dr. William Abruzzi, the festival’s chief medical officer, put it: “There has been no violence whatsoever, which is remarkable for a crowd of this size.
Here’s today’s almanac:
| Almanac | ||
|---|---|---|
| Monday, August 17, 2009 | Sunrise | Sunset |
| Official Time | 06:03 AM | 07:54 PM |
| Civil Twilight | 05:32 AM | 08:24 PM |
| Tomorrow | 06:04 AM | 07:52 PM |
| Tomorrow will be: | 3 minutes shorter | |
| Amount of sunlight: | 13h 51 m | |
| Amount of daylight: | 14h 52 m | |
| Moon phase: | Waning crescentr | |
Property values in Walworth County are up, over last year; taxes are up even more. Meaningful gain, but a tax burden growing even faster.
The story’s in the Walworth County Gazette.
The story includes a link to a Public Policy Forum study. For Whitewater, both our property values and tax levy increased less than the Walworth county figures.
(Walworth County: property values up 5.9% and tax levy up 6.5%. City of Whitewater: 2 % increase in property values and 3.4 % increase in the tax levy. For Walworth County, the tax levy rate increase was about 10% more than the percentage property value increase; in the City of Whitewater, the tax levy rate increase was about 70% higher than the percentage property value increase.)
This is the second of two posts on the Whitewater Tree Commission. The first appears immediately below.
Terms of Law. One finds a quick willingness for some speakers and bureaucrats to rail about harassment, or maligning city workers, by some on — or off — the TC. Whether all of the circumstances involved justify those terms, I cannot say. Quite frankly, I’m not sure anyone else is sure, either.
If violations of law have been committed, then charge; if not, stop using the terms as though they have been committed. (It’s foolish to pretend, too, that everyone here would he held to the same standard, in any event. No one, at least no one serious, thinks Whitewater works that way.)
Personal and Political. Often — very often — Whitewater’s elite cannot tell the difference between the personal and the political. Someone criticizes policy, and in Whitewater, that’s a personal attack, justifying an overheated personal response or an overheated policy response, and probably both. Many of the policy concerns about the TC were already in the past by the time of the meetings; personal animus continued on, very much alive. It’s just a joke — a bad, feeble one — to pretend otherwise. Personalities clashed, these clashes were not addressed properly, and policy (abolish it!) became the instrument of an overwrought reaction.
Now, I’ve been a critic of a few Whitewater politicians and bureaucrats. No reason for surprise — it’s true. Yet, you’d think that I’d desecrated a sanctuary for all the difference it makes.
Dissent. Look, Whitewater’s elite, wholly apart from events at Council –dislikes the kind of dissent that’s completely normal and conventional in — wait for it — the rest of America. They dislike it because policy and debate is debased by personal sensitivity in Whitewater. All across America, for centuries, our people has been known for its free and vigorous debate. Attributed, anonymous, you name it. It’s one of the many reasons were are — rightly — the envy of all the world, of all history.
Whitewater’s few hundred don’t see the world that way, and they gather to themselves bureaucrats, local and transplanted, who are likewise unable to see the difference.
That’s why the Japanese saying should be our town’s motto — the nail that sticks up gets pounded down.
Yet, this isn’t Japan. (In that regard, some of Japan’s not Japan, so to speak.) No matter how much a few want to define part of a America as all of America, it’s not true. Individual liberty and fundamental rights don’t stop at our town line.
One of the people reportedly involved in this drama, scarcely mentioned in these meetings, is someone about whom I have written much, strongly and in satire. I have no idea about the truth of personal conduct in these events, but I do see an irony. (I take no pleasure in it; I merely see it.) Ours is a status quo that can only be defended as a few hundred insist that it must be defended. If not their way, then all other ways are wrong, bad, and intolerable.
These controversies over the Tree Commission could have been resolved without abolition or suspension of that body, without so much personal animosity, and without distorting policy for hurt feelings. If not, if they were forever beyond the reach of our local elite, then what hope have they for significant problems?
Our political life and culture remain as distorted as they have ever been.
There’s a Japanese expression that says, “The nail that sticks up gets pounded down.” Some in Whitewater don’t like dissent, and conflate the political and the personal, in ways detrimental to both.
You may have heard, if you’ve bothered to look at a local headline (and who could blame you if you’ve not?), that Whitewater’s Common Council first considered abolishing, and now seeks to suspend, its Tree Commission. Long discussions, at both the Common Council meetings of July 21st and August 4th, took place on whether to abolish or suspend the Tree Commission (TC).
Video of the Meetings. I watch and record my own videos of Common Council meetings, but I like to refer to a recording that others can see, too. Our public access station posts video recordings of these meetings, and other public meetings, at www.blip.tv.
Here are the recordings from the two sessions on the TC, about which I comment below.
7/21/09
8/4/09
Citizen Commissions. The TC’s members are citizen volunteers. They deserve more, not less, deference than office holders (especially officer holders who are paid.) Imagine being someone other than the few hundred who think they own this town, define its culture for everyone, and may not be questioned. If you’re someone else, with a different point of view, why volunteer if you’ll be tarred with accusations that may have no immediate connection to you?
Some of the complaints from city workers about the TC may be justified, but by the time of the Council meetings, many of these complaints concerned matters in the past. That didn’t stop speakers from complaining as though these problems were continuing, often ignoring what the new chair of the TC had just said.
(I’m not interested in being part of any of these boards or commissions; for those who are interested, watching these sessions with a prospective interest in service must be discouraging. You want to be part of … that?)
Really, though, the whole abolition effort serves as an early valentine to insiders, upset over how they had been treated. Making an example of citizen volunteers, by abolishing their commission, really sends one message: you’re not one of us, and you can go to Hell.
I cannot believe — truly cannot believe — that this would escape someone. Perhaps it did. For some, it may not matter; for others, it assures that those who serve will only be the ‘right’ people, familiar and thus similar.
It’s true that Whitewater does not have to have a TC; other cities function differently. So what? We do have a TC, and the question for us now, is: since we have one, what will we do?
Abolition or Suspension. I was surprised, truly, with the discussion on July 21st, at which the Council considered a proposal to abolish the TC. I’ve teased about trees, and the TC before, but it struck me among the most innocuous of citizen commissions. Then, I’m not the Lorax, and I don’t speak for the trees. I know that trees are important to many, and that they’re an important part of our ecosystem; then again, I once proposed planting cactus in Whitewater to reduce maintenance.
Abolition was a precipitous proposal, even for someone who’d prefer fewer political bodies. If I were to start with abolition, that start would begin elsewhere.
It says nothing good about a majority on our Common Council that they voted to abolish a citizen commission so quickly. Two weeks later, Council settled on the more sensible (but still serious) step of suspending the TC.
Next: Part 2 more >>
Good morning, Whitewater
There are no municipal, public meetings scheduled for week’s end.
Today is an especially good day in world history, as on this day in 1945, the the Empire of Japan surrendered unconditionally to the Allied powers.
The New York Times website recounts the surrender, bringing an end to the the violence that Japan visited on Asia and the Pacific:
Washington, Aug. 14 — Japan today unconditionally surrendered the hemispheric empire taken by force and held almost intact for more than two years against the rising power of the United States and its Allies in the Pacific war.
The bloody dream of the Japanese military caste vanished in the text of a note to the Four Powers accepting the terms of the Potsdam Declaration of July 26, 1945, which amplified the Cairo Declaration of 1943….
Orders Given to the Japanese
The Department responded with a note to Tokyo through the same channel, ordering the immediate end of hostilities by the Japanese, requiring that the Supreme Allied Commander- who, the President announced, will be Gen. Douglas MacArthur- be notified of the date and hour of the order, and instructing that emissaries of Japan be sent to him at once- at the time and place selected by him- “with full information of the disposition of the Japanese forces and commanders.”
President Truman summoned a special press conference in the Executive offices at 7 P.M. He handed to the reporters three texts.
The first- the only one he read aloud- was that he had received the Japanese note and deemed it full acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration, containing no qualification whatsoever; that arrangements for the formal signing of the peace would be made for the “earliest possible moment;” that the Japanese surrender would be made to General MacArthur in his capacity as Supreme Allied Commander in Chief; that Allied military commanders had been instructed to cease hostilities, but that the formal proclamation of V. J. Day must await the formal signing.
The text ended with the Japanese note in which the Four Powers (the United States, Great Britain, China, and Russia) were officially informed that the Emperor of Japan had issued an imperial rescript of surrender, was prepared to guarantee the necessary signatures to the terms as prescribed by the Allies, and had instructed all his commanders to cease active operations to surrender all arms and to disband all forces under their control and within their reach.
The President’s second announcement was that he had instructed the Selective Service to reduce the monthly military draft from 80,000 to 50,000 men, permitting a constant flow of replacements for the occupation forces and other necessary military units, with the draft held to low-age groups and first discharges given on the basis of long, arduous and faithful war service. He said he hoped to release 5,000,000 to 5,500,000 men in the subsequent year or eighteen months, the ratio governed in some degree by transportation facilities and the world situation.
The President’s final announcement was to decree holidays tomorrow and Thursday for all Federal workers, who, he said, were the “hardest working and perhaps the least appreciated” by the public of all who had helped to wage the war.
Mr. Truman spoke calmly to the reporters, but when he had finished reading his face broke into a smile. Also present were Secretary of State James F. Byrnes and Admiral William D. Leahy, the President’s personal Chief of Staff, and two other members of the Cabinet- Henry A. Wallace, Secretary of Commerce, and James V. Forrestal, Secretary of the Navy- managed to respond to a hurry call in time to be there. The agreement to issue the statements simultaneously in all the Allied capitals, and the brief period between the call to the Cabinet and the announcement, were responsible. Later the chief war administrators and Cordell Hull, former Secretary of State, arrived to congratulate the President.
Here’s today’s almanac:
| Almanac | ||
|---|---|---|
| Friday, August 14, 2009 | Sunrise | Sunset |
| Official Time | 05:59 AM | 07:58 PM |
| Civil Twilight | 05:29 AM | 08:29 PM |
| Tomorrow | 06:57 AM | 07:57 PM |
| Tomorrow will be: | 2 minutes shorter | |
| Amount of sunlight: | 13h 59 m | |
| Amount of daylight: | 15h 0 m | |
| Moon phase: | Waning crescentr | |
Cash for Clunkers gained notoriety as a federal program that quickly ran out of money (new funding followed). Reason.tv recently satirized the program, pointing out problems with the program far beyond poor cost estimates.
Here’s a description accompanying the Reason.tv video:
Come on down to Uncle Sugar’s Auto Mall! It’s the CASH FOR CLUNKERS EXTRAVAGANZA and Uncle Sugar has gotta deal for you, courtesy of voiceless posterity (at the intersection of unsound policy and political expediency).
Because concentrated benefits and dispersed cost is the NEW AMERICAN WAY! YEE HAW!
One of the most popular bloggers in America is law professor and author Glenn Reynolds. He recently conducted an interview with Reason.tv.
Here’s a description of the Reason.tv video:
At Reason’s DC office, Reason.tv Editor in Chief Nick Gillespie recently sat down with super blogger Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit.com and PJTV .
Reynolds, who has described his politics as “libertarian,” has long been a champion of technological liberation, a supporter of the Iraq War, and an agitator for more social and fiscal libertarianism within the Republican Party.
In this interview with Reason.tv Editor Nick Gillespie, the Instapundit talks about his approach to blogging, his disappointment in President Obama’s social policies, and why he believes we are currently reliving “the politics of 1968.”
Approximately 9 minutes. Shot and edited by Dan Hayes.
Months ago, the film version of the Watchmen reached theaters. The graphic novel on which the film was based was highly celebrated, but I thought the film only middling.
One of the characters, though, caught the attention of libertarians: Rorschach, one of the costumed vigilantes who are protagonists of the novel and film.
Over at Reason magazine, Brian Doherty wrote an essay entitled, “Rorschach Doesn’t Shrug”. Doherty refers to Rorschach as an Objectivist hero. (Four quick remarks: (1) There are aspects of Rorschach that are disagreeable, (2) I know little about comics, (3) I don’t identify with comic book characters, and (4) I’m a libertarian, but not an Objectivist.) Still, it’s not hard to see, as Doherty does, that are are aspects of Rorschach that are admirable:
To be the kind of man whose highest value is to “have lived life free from compromise,” as Rorschach says, makes that man “unreasonable” in the colloquial sense—that is, you aren’t going to be able to talk them in or out of much. You are going to find them abrasive, aggravating, and in circumstances like those the characters in Watchmen find themselves in, mad, bad, and dangerous to know [note: here Doherty uses a description applied to Lord Byron]….
Yet he’s also the only man around who stands up for everyone’s right to be judged individually on the basis of their character and actions, their right not to be a means to someone else’s higher end—no matter what one might think of that end….
Rorschach judges as an individual mind, and judges individual minds. Rorschach is no handsome Rand hero as she imagined them; but he’s still probably the most vivid and well-thought-out Objectivist hero that Rand didn’t create.
Rorschach is a worthy character for another reason, too: he keeps going, despite public opposition or social contempt. He sees individuals as individuals, eschewing group favoritism, surely. Yet, he eschews group pressure, too. That’s also praiseworthy — to carry on despite futile social pressures and social scheming. An individualist in how he sees others, and how he lives his own life.
Admirable.
How to assure prosperity for years to come? The way Reagan did in beginning in 1982:
“The simple – yet difficult to achieve – strategy of getting government out of the way and turning the economy over to free enterprise set the stage for a period of tremendous economic growth and wealth creation.”
Good morning, Whitewater
There are no municipal, public meetings scheduled for today. This, by the way, is the condition of civil society.
Here’s today’s almanac:
| Almanac | ||
|---|---|---|
| Thursday, August 13, 2009 | Sunrise | Sunset |
| Official Time | 05:50 AM | 08:00 PM |
| Civil Twilight | 05:27 AM | 08:30 PM |
| Tomorrow | 05:59AM | 07:58 PM |
| Tomorrow will be: | 3 minutes shorter | |
| Amount of sunlight: | 14h 2m | |
| Amount of daylight: | 15h 3m | |
| Moon phase: | Third quarter | |
Hey, Whitewater, how about a task force?
These flesh-eating aquatic mammals are probably making their way from Drummond to Whitewater even now. In about 20 or 25 years, they’ll have reached our city limits.
Coincidentally, that’s about the same amount of time that it would take one of our task forces to propose an effective solution to the looming otter menace.
Not a moment to lose….Come on city bureaucrats, you can do this….
Austrian woman reports otter attack in Wisconsin.
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| From Free Whitewater |
UPDATE: 6:49 PM — I’ve included a picture of one of the marauding otters, helpfully supplied from the FREE WHITEWATER Bureau of Aquatic Mammals, Municipal Risks Division.
