Good morning, Whitewater
The National Weather Service predicts a sunny day with a high of 80. The Farmers’ Almanac continues a multi-day prediction with a forecast for pleasant and fair weather in the Great Lakes region. A match.
There are no public meetings scheduled for Whitewater on the last day of the week — the weekend begins on a private sector note.
There are two stories from yesterday’s Janesville Gazette that describe the pressures of student housing:
Students Spread Out in Whitewater
City, School Address Housing Concerns.
The stories ably describe arguments that residents of Whitewater have have made against student housing for years with no change in demand.
I certainly don’t believe that demand for student housing is the single biggest challenge facing the city. For an affected homeowner, though, it might seem that way. (I’d easily say municipal leadership and administration of justice is a far greater challenge.)
It’s typical of Whitewater’s anti-market impulses that the way out of these challenges seems to be more “aggressive enforcement.”
It’s a futile option. There’s a conflict because there’s an unwillingness to meet demand for student housing. Attempts to restrict supply through ordinance enforcement will prove intrusive and ineffectual.
The answer to demand for housing would be to permit construction of several off campus multi-unit student apartment buildings with typical amenities.
I would guess, however, that Dane Checolinski, a UW-Whitewater student
and member of our Housing Task force has it right:
These people don’t want students living in their neighborhood, but they have no suggestions for where students should live,” he said. “They want the university to house every single student.”
(This observation applies only to the most obstinate critics of student housing; others are more accommodating.)
Unwillingness to accept a few significant off campus student apartments leaves Whitewater locked in a perpetual war with a large student population that will not go away.
It says all one needs to know about our city administration that after years of debate, and a Housing Task Force, the administration has no standards to measure progress:
City Manager Kevin Brunner said…. “We’ve made a lot of inroads,” he said. “How do we measure that? I don’t know.”
The solution to demand is off campus supply, but that’s the last solution that this admintration will take. All the pamphlets in the world won’t create new rental space.
Until that happens, we’ll have this same discussion every year.
Good morning, Whitewater
The National Weather Service predicts a day of thunderstorms and a high of 79. The Farmers’ Almanac begins a new multi-day prediction with a forecast for pleasant and fair weather in the Great Lakes region. They won’t both be right.
There are no public meetings scheduled for Whitewater today.
On this date in Wisconsin history, in 1928, the Wisconsin Historical Society reports that Babe Ruth “hit a towering game-winning home run in the ninth inning to give his team a 5-4 victory in a baseball exhibition at Borchert Field in Milwaukee. Lou Gehrig also played at this event.”
Good morning, Whitewater
There are no public meetings scheduled for Whitewater today.
Today in Wisconsin history, in 1878, a Kenosha editor, Christopher Latham Sholes, patented the typewriter. The Wisconsin Historical Society reports on the details:
The idea for this invention began at Kleinsteuber’s Machine Shop in Milwaukee in the late 1860s. A mechanical engineer by training, Sholes, along with associates Carlos Glidden and Samuel Soulé, spent hours tinkering with the idea. They mounted the key of an old telegraph instrument on a base and tapped down on it to hit carbon & paper against a glass plate. This idea was simple, but in 1868 the mere idea that type striking against paper might produce an image was a novelty. Sholes proceeded to construct a machine to reproduce the entire alphabet. The prototype was sent to Washington as the required Patent Model. This original model still exists at the Smithsonian.
The National Weather Service, forecasts patchy fog with a high of around 83. The Farmers’ Almanac concludes a multi-day prediction with a forecast for stormy weather in the Great Lakes region.
Over at Reason.com, from Reason.tv, there’s a six-minute video offering a libertarian perspective on the Democratic Convention.
Good morning, Whitewater
Like yesterday, there are two public meetings scheduled for Whitewater today.
A 6:00 p.m., there will be a joint meeting of the Common Council, Planning Commission, and the Park and Recreation Board to hear a presentation by Downtown Whitewater, Inc. on Whitewater Street Plaza concept and thereafter discussion and direction to City staff on Whitewater Street Plaza concept.
At 7:00 p.m., Common Council will meet, with an agenda devoted to budgetary matters.
Today in world history, in 1883, the Krakatau (aka Krakatoa) volcano erupted:
Krakatau volcano in the Dutch East Indies roars to life with a volley of ever-increasing explosions. It will culminate the next morning with the loudest explosion in human history.
Krakatau (aka Krakatoa) had been rumbling and sending up puffs of ash since May 1883. The eruption turned deadly on the afternoon of Aug. 26, with the first explosion coming at 1 p.m. A column of black ash soon rose 17 miles into the sky above the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra. Earth around and under the volcano continued to move, sending a tsunami out around 5 p.m. Others would follow.
Explosions continued at night, and lightning jumped between the ash column and the island. St. Elmo’s Fire played on a ship’s yardarms and rigging 25 miles away, ash fell on its deck and explosions deafened its crew.
The National Weather Service, predicts an identical prediction to yesterday: a high of around 76 with patchy fog. The Farmers’ Almanac predicts that it will be stormy in the Great Lakes region. This is the first time that I can recall both respective predictions being unchanged day-over-day. I don’t think that it has any particular meaning — it’s just a curiosity.
Bob Barr spoke to readers of the Washington Post via chat on August 21st. Here are excerpts from that interview:
On Energy Policy –
Bob Barr: “I believe that we need to produce more of our basic fuel needs right here in the U.S. We should remove prohibitions to offshore drilling and exploration in ANWR. We need to remove the government restrictions and regulations that inhibit domestic production and refining. Shale oil is another source of energy that could be available to us in the foreseeable future. But all forms of energy are best explored, developed and delivered by the private sector. A free market will do more to reducing our dependence on foreign oil than any government subsidy.”
On the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act –
Bob Barr: “The recent amendment to the FISA bill allows the government to eavesdrop on every American citizen if they are “believed” to be talking or communicating over the Internet with someone outside the U.S. I believe the FISA bill can allow the government total access to the phone calls and Internet communications of U.S. citizens without the benefit of a court order or even probable cause. Privacy issues are a corner stone of my campaign.”
On How Many Houses Barr Owns –
Bob Barr: “Let me take a few minutes to count … one!”
The full transcript is available at
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2008/07/13/DI2008071301623.html
Senator Obama chose another, and less impressive, senator as his running mate. Much sport will be had at the expense of Joe Biden, a gaffe-prone, entrenched incumbent.
Look at him seriously, though, and you find something worse: a career politician who has neither time nor understanding for limited government.
David Boaz recalls Biden’s theatrics in 1991 during the Clarence Thomas nomination hearings:
“Biden bore in on the possibility that Thomas might believe in “natural law,” the idea, as Tony Mauro of USA Today summarized it, that “everyone is born with God-given rights – referred to in the Declaration of Independence as ‘inalienable rights’ to ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ – apart from what any law or the Constitution grants.”
Biden singled out Cato adjunct scholar Richard Epstein and Cato author Stephen Macedo…and demanded to know if Thomas agreed with them that the Constitution protects property rights.”
One could hold a strong property rights view with or without a religious belief.
One cannot easily hold a strong property rights view and still countenance widespread government interference in private affairs.
Poor Joe Biden: smart enough to see that strong property rights might inhibit government spending and scheming, but not smart enough to see that those rights are a part of his country’s foundation of liberty.
Obama could have done better.
Boaz’s telling anecdote is available at
http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2008/08/24/joe-biden-and-limited-government/
Good morning, Whitewater
There are two public meetings scheduled for Whitewater today.
The Community Development Authority Board of Directors will meet at 4:30 p.m. today.
Later, at 7 p.m., there will be a meeting of the WUSD School Board.
Yesterday in Wisconsin history, in 1970, was a tragic date in Wisconsin history, as the Wisconsin Historical Society reports that
… a car bomb exploded outside Sterling Hall, killing research scientist Richard Fassnacht. Sterling Hall was targeted for housing the Army Mathematics Research Center and was bombed in protest of the war in Vietnam. The homemade bomb (2,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate soaked in aviation fuel) was detonated by the New Year’s Gang, aka Vanguard of the Revolution, who demanded that a Milwaukee Black Panther official be released from police custody, ROTC be expelled from the UW campus, and “women’s hours” be abolished on campus. The entire New Year’s Gang fled to Canada the evening of the explosion. Four men were charged with this crime: Karleton Armstrong, David Fine, Dwight Armstrong, and Leo Burt. All but Burt were captured and served time for their participation. Leo Burt remains at large.
The National Weather Service, predicts a high of around 76 with patchy fog. The Farmers’ Almanac predicts that it will be stormy in the Great Lakes region.
There’s a story unattributed press release (?) on page 3 of the Register about the accreditation of the Whitewater Police Department.
One of the opportunities for a blogger is being able to reply to misleading and distorted press releases. No matter how often municipal leaders scatter junk, there’s a blogger somewhere to clean it up.
I have previously posted showing how accreditation is an empty honor. See, for example, “Whitewater Police Department Re-Accreditation”.
In that post, I noted that
(1) accreditation effort is self-selected,
(2) measuring hundreds of checklist items is trivial,
(3) accreditation evaluators are often favorable representatives of nearby departments,
(4) accreditation ignores sensible standards that serious, unaffiliated institutions and organizations have proposed that directly concern the most important matters in policing.
In the present PR effort from the August 21st Register, there’s no longer a laughable effort to identify a specific, high number of accreditation standards (220, 300, 320, whatever) that our police department’s leadership fantastically and heroically achieved.
Now, that accomplishment is described simply as “over 200.” Over two-hundred is no more serious, of course, but it says something about the confusion of the announcement’s author that he or she thought it was a more reasonable number.
By the way, our small town has an ‘Accreditation Manager?” I knew as much, but imagine being so lacking in sense that you admit your effort is the small-town equivalent of a Japanese cram school.
For as long as I can remember, I have heard the expression that a picture is worth a thousand words. If that’s true, then the accompanying photo is a sad commentary on accreditation.
Has there ever been a more somber, glum, and melancholy awards photograph than the one printed in the Register? This is a submitted, posed photo; I can only imagine how gloomy a candid, spontaneous photograph would be.
Three police leaders, no real smiles, no uniforms (no matter how pricey the uniform allowance), the gentleman on the left with his jacket unbuttoned, Whitewater’s police chief holding a commonplace plaque that one might find in any trophy shop, all looking downcast.
Whitewater, here is your empty honor.
(This was a photo from the formal accreditation presentation, in Eau Claire. Imagine someone having already announced the award, and then thinking that the formal ceremony needed a subsequent, separate announcement. Too funny.)
If there were any group that should stay away from the media, for its best interest, it is our police leadership.
Some of the most sadly embarrassing information on this department comes from its own publications and press releases.
I know that they don’t see it that way, but it’s a case of not knowing what they don’t know.
This is what might happen in any town, if a police leadership lived in a small echo chamber, listening to the congratulatory praise of sycophants. Hearing little or no good advice, and having lived this way for so long, they would have no idea how ridiculous this looks and sounds to anyone outside their narrow cadre.
(The photograph and story were picked up on a local website, confirming my contention that the biggest threat to the Register is an online competitor with a similar editorial perspective. The photograph online is larger and in color – yet otherwise no more impressive.)
If this were truly a meaningful departmental honor, then I have a better suggestion:
Why not take a group-photograph in Whitewater with as many field officers as possible, proudly in uniform, smiling and sharing in the award?
The challenge is that one would have to call those officers, they’d have to answer the phone, and willingly assemble.
A departmental leadership that was truly field-oriented would have had this as a first – and only — instinct. In any event, the accomplishment would have to be a serious, not an empty, one.
Accreditation’s not that accomplishment, and Whitewater – now – is not that place.
Here’s the third in my triple-feature coverage of my town’s local paper, the Whitewater Register. I’ll divide coverage of the 8/21 issue into two parts, because this issue is chock-full of rich, creamy, chocolaty status-quo goodness.
The lead story is on recycling, and a public interest group’s finding that in five of Wisconsin’s counties there “are some barriers” to recycling. Are any of those counties nearby? The story doesn’t say. What are the barriers to recycling, should we be one of those counties? The story doesn’t say.
Nonetheless, this is the lead story of the Register, shoehorning out-of-town news as though it were local. In 24 (that’s twenty-four) paragraphs, we never learn where the barrier-ridden counties are, or what those barriers might be.
The subtitle of the story is unintentionally funny: “New initiative hopes to boost city’s, state’s commitment to the 3Rs.” The story never tells us what those three Rs, in fact, are. (The SMART website, at Wisconsin Be SMART Coalition’s website tells us – they’re REDUCE, REUSE, and RECYCLE.”)
The three Rs used to be, so to speak, “reading, ‘riting, ‘rithmetic.” That was when schooling was important, presumably, and when people actually remembered what those three Rs were.
If one wants to know the modern 3 Rs, one has to put down the local paper’s lengthy story, and surf the Web.
