FREE WHITEWATER

Daily Bread

Daily Bread: April 25, 2008

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Good morning, Whitewater

On this day in 1996, then Gov. Thompson signed Wisconsin Works, W-2, into law. Wisconsin’s law was an example for federal and state welfare reform.

The National Weather Service predicts showers and thunderstorms throughout the day. The Farmers’ Almanac says stormy conditions, so there’s some agreement between the two.

There are no public meetings listed for the City of Whitewater today.

News of Dr. Steinhaus’s unsuccessful candidacy at the Holmen School District has begun to circulate. Although this is not a news site, but one of commentary, FREE WHITEWATER posted this news two days before it appeared elsewhere.

(I’ll also note that Dr. Steinhaus subsequently sent a letter to District staff confirming her unsuccessful candidacy in the Holmen District. Accounts appearing two days after the one at FREE WHITEWATER miss this intervening development.)

I’ll post a double Register Watch™ — one on the Register’s police series, and one on the rest of the paper. It will appear tonight and Saturday.

Libertarians

The Declaration of Independence and Anonymity

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I received an email from someone from Stoughton who wrote contending that, because the Declaration of Independence was a signed document, one could infer that America’s founders disliked anonymous speech.

Here’s a portion of the email:

And when it came time to drop the biggest, loudest, revolutionary document of them all, The Declaration of Independence, there was nothing anonymous about it. The 56 signers, with the poster-size John Hancock boldly front and center, signed their names. Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Franklin again, among the most enduring names in American history. It took courage. Courage of conviction, we call it. Many of them suffered for it.

So while American law protects anonymous speech, the American tradition tells us the only opinion that counts is the one with a name attached to it.

I have not responded previously. I find this argument against anonymous speech unpersuasive. First, it is the settled law in America today, drawing on our tradition, that anonymous speech is protected. Our constitutional law supports this right. It has supported this right long after the Declaration. That legal protection is part of the American tradition, not a right apart from it. (See the 1995 U.S. Supreme Court decision in McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Commission.)

One may weigh preferences as one wishes, but those preferences don’t determine the law. One might say, for example, what one “appreciates” about anonymity, but that merely appreciation doesn’t set the limits of other citizens’ rights.

Second, the Declaration is a political document, not a private writing. It was, after all, a public declaration of the Second Continental Congress, and the signatures on it are akin to a public listing of those voting in favor. Contemporary Congressional votes to day are just the same –those in favor are listed. Even if our law were not settled in favor of legal protection for anonymous speech – and it is – I would not be persuaded against anonymous speech on the basis of the Declaration. The Declaration is easily distinguished from ordinary private writings.

Third, even after the Declaration, those many of who supported independence continued to write anonymously. (The Federalist papers, of Madison, Jay, and Hamilton are the most notable example.) That anonymous speech persisted among those who supported independence should stand as a refutation that the Declaration somehow overturned the American tradition of anonymous speech.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread: April 24, 2008

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Good morning, Whitewater

The National Weather Service predicts a thirty percent chance of rain, with a high of 75 degrees. The Farmers’ Almanac says that “stormy conditions will spread from the west.”

Conditions in Wisconsin can be stormy this time of year, and the Wisconsin State Journal has a story entitled, “The Storm’s the Thing for Weather Spotters” about those especially interested in stormy conditions.

In our school district, it’s Market Day pickup at Lincoln School.

In Wisconsin history, this is the anniversary of the day in 1977 when the Morris Pratt Institute — a center for so-called Spiritualism — moved to Waukesha.

We have enough with which to contend without trying to conjure spirits, thank you.

We’ll carry on just fine without the Institute.

City, Development, Free Markets, University

The Campaign Against Cars Campus

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We’re a university town. There are a few who want desperately for us to be something else, but those wants scarcely matter. The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater is a vital part of Whitewater. Our campus – yes, our campus – improves life for all of us.

Thousand of students receive an education that’s part of the American Dream. Others, not students or faculty, receive cultural and economic benefits from the campus.

The economic benefits are important, as much as the cultural ones. Economic well-being isn’t selfish – it’s the hoped for foundation of a good life that makes good works possible. Prosperity is a good.

We’d collapse economically without the campus. Even if the education of a new generation doesn’t matter to some, one would think that self-interest would impose restraint against anti-student agitation.

It hasn’t. There are men in Whitewater who speak about students the way other men speak about rats. When did being young, and looking for an education, become such a source of contempt and consternation? It should be a source of pride for our community that we have our own campus.

Ticketing residents based on how many cars are at a house, or taking pictures of supposed code violations near the university, is self-destructive. No one doubts that America’s economy has slowed. Even in better times, Whitewater has had a higher poverty rate than surrounding communities. The effort of attracting retail to our downtown, or anywhere else in our small city, will be especially vulnerable to recession. Keeping existing businesses going will be difficult.

This is hardly the time to exacerbate our reputation as an enforcement-loving, restriction-favoring town.

When developers and homeowners provide housing for students, they’re responding to a market need. They didn’t create this need; they shouldn’t be badgered for offering housing solutions that neither the city nor state has provided.

Some are concerned about the supposed power of a few local developers. I am not similarly worried. In any event, if the market were more open, with fewer restrictions, then we might be able to attract more developers to dilute the influence of those now building here. If anti-market groups fret over the power of developers here, then they should look to their own actions. Having made Whitewater inhospitable to growth, they now unfairly criticize those who are willing to build and take risks here.

Best options: End enforcement of regulations like the one involving the number of cars in a driveway, and thereafter loosen zoning restrictions to permit optimal use of properties in each neighborhood. (I’d eliminate many of our zoning restrictions, but few are ready for that.)

I’m not looking to curry favor with the college community. I’ve mentioned before that I am not affiliated with the campus. Although my readership has grown month-after-month, I don’t think that I have that many campus readers. I know, too, that many students will take political or social views that aren’t libertarian.

I’m unconcerned; they don’t have to agree with me to deserve a better shake than our (dependent) town gives them.

Inbox Reader Mail

Inbox Reader Mail: Too Many Cars!

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Reader George Washington writes about a City of Whitewater notice concerning the number of cars that municipal regulations permit to be parked at a single-family home at any given time. Washington’s remarks in black, my reply in blue.

Washington writes:

A few landlords have recently received letter stating (due to complaints) that an old ordinance will soon be enforced once again. The ordinance states that no more than 2 vehicles can be parked in any driveway at any time at a home zoned single family. The letter stated that any vehicles beyond the 2 would be ticketed by the city. This only affects about 90% of student housing which is zoned single family!!!! I was informed of this by my landlord today.

Adams replies:

Well, we may be sure that Dr. Roy Nosek — who advocated this approach as far back as August 2007 during a slideshow presentation to the Common Council, will be pleased. One might think that a violation of this type would be ‘fairly innocuous,’ but City Manger Kevin Brunner reserves that term for other matters, it seems.

It’s embarrassing, and injurious to the reputation of the city, to enforce an asinine ordinance like this. We are a college town, seemingly at war with college students, all the while pretending that enforcement is only about aesthetics, beauty, and impartiality.

Our fussy administration is ever-worried about the reputation of the city, but has not the slightest idea that how to secure a good reputation. We could easily find better use of time and effort than this.

You know, the only thing more ridiculous would be a war on dumpsters.

Sadly, we’ve waged that silly campaign, too.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread: April 23, 2008

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Good Morning, Whitewater

The National Weather Service forecast is for a high of 71 degrees, and patchy fog. The Farmers’ Almanac predicts blustery showers.

Once again, there are no public meetings listed for the City of Whitewater today. Civil society rolls along, unaffected.

In our school district, it’s spring picture day at Lincoln School, home of the Lincoln Leopards. I’ve also been following Dr. Leslie Steinhaus’s applications for positions outside Whitewater. I posted an update from the Holmen School District website yesterday morning. Dr. Steinhaus is no longer a candidate for these positions, and will remain at Whitewater for the coming year.

It’s also a great day in Wisconsin history. On this day in 1954, Hank Aaron hit his first major league home run. He went on to hit 754 more, and his total of 755 is an astonishing accomplishment.

This is also the anniversary of the day in 1940 when Herman Anthony patented a leak-proof battery. Anthony was an engineer at Wisconsin’s Rayovac. There an interesting story about the innovation over at Wired entitled, “April 23, 1940: Batteries Included, and they Don’t Leak.”

Libertarians

Environmental Groups

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Some have asked me, after my post on Earth Day, if there’s an environmental group that seems more market-oriented, and willing to try private solutions to bring about conservation.

Well, that would have to be the Nature Conservancy. They purchase land and, in almost all cases, keep the land off the market for further transactions or development. There are some times when they re-sell what they’ve purchased (to increase assets for more vital purchases). Those re-sales make the Nature Conservancy controversial to some environmentalists. These transactions are the exception to the rule, though; I believe that re-sales are sometimes necessary to support the greater mission of the Conservancy.

Two other prominent environmental groups, the Sierra Club (of John Muir’s founding) and World Wildlife Fund, often favor government solutions to environmental problems. I am not a member of either of these groups, but I know from friends who are members that both groups are increasingly receptive to state-regulation to address environmental problems (particularly global warming).

That doesn’t mean that these latter two groups should be off limits to libertarian members. People join societies for all sorts of reasons.

There may be many members of these societies who join simply to enjoy the nature photographs in their publications.

Others may be looking for discounts or promotions for outdoor activities that are offered with a membership. There’s nothing wrong with joining a club, and paying a membership, for the offers that it provides. If a society didn’t want people to join for that reason alone, then it wouldn’t allow easy access to promotional offers.

Some seek sweeping change; some may have only a limited goal.

The more important point is that there’s more than one way, and one group, seeking to preserve the environment.

For me, that means the Nature Conservancy.

Free Markets

Libertarians and Earth Day

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One of the great gifts of being in Wisconsin is being surrounded by natural beauty that matches anything in America. This beauty is worth conserving.

Today is Earth Day. On Earth Day, there’s much talk about conservation, and — often falsely — much talk about how growth must be stopped, or slowed, to save the planet. Libertarians favor free markets and individual choice, and so schemes to inhibit those markets and choices are, to us, unwise.

Let’s be clear, though: we do not favor markets because we’re libertarians; we’re libertarians because we favor markets. We see the power of individual choice, and that guides our political philosophy and economic thinking.

There are two articles that describe well how many libertarians feel about Earth Day. Over at Reason, Ronald Bailey writes that environmental conditions, over the last few decades, have in many cases actually improved. He makes the powerful point that economic growth and success, rather than inhibiting environmental improvement, actually makes environmental progress possible. Bailey writes that

During a panel discussion held at AEI on the occasion of the release of the Index [of Leading Environmental Indicators], AEI scholar Roger Bate highlighted the point that wealth creation and the institutions that underpin wealth creation (property rights, rule of law, democratic governance) precede environmental clean up. Policies that slow down economic growth also slow down eventual environmental improvement.

Over at Cato, Indur Goklany’s, “On Earth Day, Remember the Humans,” reminds readers “we should renew our promise to keep the environment clean—without adding to human misery or stalling improvements in the human condition.”

Prosperity though well-functioning markets makes environmental and human progress possible. This material progress keeps people fed and healthy, and should not be inhibited. Both environmental gains and fulfillment of human needs and wants are possible.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread: April 22, 2008

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Good morning, Whitewater

It’s Earth Day, today. I’ll post later today about the environmental holiday.

In Whitewater, there are no public meetings scheduled for today.

Affecting our school district, there’s an announcement up on the Holmen School District website about its search for a new district administrator. Our administrator, Leslie Steinhaus, is a candidate for that position. The notice states that

“The School Board is moving forward with the search for a new Superintendent. We are inviting 2 candidates (Dr. Snyder and Dr. Carlson) back to interview with the Board next Monday prior to the Board’s Regular Meeting. This does put us behind by a couple of weeks in the process but we are committed to doing whatever is needed to bring the best possible person to the District by July 1st.”

If the notice is new, then it follows the final candidate open forum Holmen held last week. The Holmen Courier has an online story describing the four candidates who attended the Holmen meet-the-candidates forums. (The story makes it seem that all the forums were on April 9th, but I think the reporter means to say that they began on April 9th.)

The Holmen District is about fifty-percent larger than our own.

The National Weather Service reports that thunderstorms are likely with a high of 71 degrees. The Farmers’ Almanac predicts “blustery showers.” Not identical, but closer to agreement.

There are two very different moments from Wisconsin history to recall today. Today in 1954, the Army-McCarthy hearings began. They lasted for over a month, and led to McCarthy’s disgrace, as he could not prove his charges against members of the government who were supposedly impeding the search for covert communists in public office and the military. Millions watched the hearings.

On a far brighter note, it’s also the birthday of Milwaukee native Charlotte Rae. Rae played Mrs. Garrett from the television sitcom Facts of Life.

Police

Officers and Rights

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Someone wrote to me, and mentioned that in the comments section of the Janesville Gazette stories on FREE WHITEWATER, some of the most supportive comments on free, anonymous speech came from those who are apparently police officers. (See, City Officials Seek Blogger’s Identity and Blogger Keeps a Watchful Eye on Whitewater.)

I’m not surprised. Most officers are more likely to be better-versed in an understanding of law and rights than others.

I think that it should be clear — to a literate, rational person — that I have an affection and close family connection to policing. In my late-December 2007 post entitled, The Force We Need, I state plainly, that my concerns are of the leadership of our police department.

That’s why it’s unavailing when our force’s present chief falsely contends that I am somehow angry at the department. I am angry at no one; I am critical — for sound reasons of policy — at our current police administrator, and the lack of adequate citizen oversight.

As for our officers, I have always wished them well, and believed that they deserved and would benefit from a different direction. more >>

Daily Bread

Daily Bread: April 21, 2008

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Good Morning, Whitewater

I’ll lead off this morning with the birthday, in 1838, of conservationist John Muir. Muir was born in Scotland, but came to Wisconsin in 1849. Muir’s work on behalf of conservation and environmental concerns included the founding of the Sierra Club. About two years ago, I read his nature writings, collected in a Library of America volume. Muir’s Story of My Boyhood and Youth recounts, among other experiences, his time in Wisconsin.

There’s an excellent trail named in Muir’s honor in the southern unit of the Kettle Moraine State Forest. It says much about Muir’s greatness that it’s only one of the several trails and parks across America named in his honor.

There’s a Park Board meeting schedule for today at 5 p.m., but otherwise no public meetings scheduled in the city.

In our school district, there is a meeting at the high school of the Whitewater Parent Advisory group scheduled for five o’clock.

Last week, I mentioned that District Administrator Steinhaus submitted an application as a candidate, based on published accounts, for at least four positions in other communities. I don’t recall seeing any other Whitewater publication mention all four applications together, but I may have missed it. The number is significant because it suggests a desire to leave the community. If a candidate applies to one place, the application may mean no more than a special bond to another group; four applications suggests more strongly a desire to leave one’s present position. (I know that sometimes a candidate for superintendent submits applications to more than one district in an area.)

Here’s an update: the St. Cloud, Minnesota picked Steven Jordahl to be its next superintendent; the Prior Lake-Savage District selected Sue Ann Gruver; White Bear Lake selected Mike Lovett.

To my knowledge, the Holmen, Wisconsin District position remains open.

The National Weather Service predicts a high of 77 degrees for today; the year-in-advance Farmers’ Almanac predicts “blustery showers” for the Great Lakes. more >>

Free Markets, Planning

Planning and Weather Forecasting

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I’ve included two weather forecasts with most Daily Bread posts: one from the National Weather Service, and one from the Farmers’ Almanac.

As I noted previously, there is a way to look at the two as a contrast between government and private sector planning. Reader Amy wrote me in early April, and asked me if the two weather reports had a deeper meaning. Here’s what I wrote on April 7th in reply:

Reader Amy writes with her theory about the use of a weather report on Daily Bread: Am I including a daily weather report (1) just as a weather report, (2) as a commentary on planning — from the National Weather Service, (3) or both? She says both.

That’s it — adding a weather report is both a simple daily bulletin and a libertarian’s take on how hard prediction of complex events — key to planning — really is. That’s why, of course, the Farmers’ Almanac prediction runs alongside the National Weather Service one. In one case, we have the finest models of forecasting in the world; in the second, the assessment of a small book that’s by turns interesting, quaint, or funny, but hardly scientific.

Superficially, the contrast appears to be one between a government agency (NWS) and a private forecaster (Almanac Publishing Company). That appearance is only part of the story — it only addresses the organization responsible for the two forecasts, not the method each uses.

Looking deeper, in this case I think that it’s the government agency that exhibits the flexibility and versatility most common in the private sector; the Farmers’ Almanac — although a private concern — adopts a method more typical of long-range government planning.

There are a few common characteristics to most government planning: (1) long-range forecasting, (2) comprehensive forecasting, (3) planning for others’ property, not one’s own, (4) a public nature of the planning that may encourage special interests to co-opt or distort the planning outcome, and (5) general inflexibility (based mainly on characteristics (1) and (2)).

These characteristics may not all apply in every case, but they appear often in government planning. The long-range and comprehensive nature of most government planning exhibits that audacity that most leads government planning astray — it’s too difficult, even for the very clever, to allocate resources as well through a planning process as through the suppleness of market incentives based on prices.

If that’s true, then it’s the Farmers’ Almanac — with its year-in-advance forecasting method, that more closely resembles government planning than an actual government agency. It’s the Farmers’ Almanac that has the boldness to predict something as complicated as the weather a year in advance.

Once they make the prediction, there’s no going back — the forecast is published, and will not be changed. Like most bad government planning, the Almanac seeks to plan far ahead (a year is a relatively long time for a weather forecast), about complicated events (climate on any given day), and is inflexible (once printed, there’s no going back).

The National Weather Service adjusts forecasts quickly and flexibility as conditions change, and even relies on information from ordinary people to adjust its forecasts. (The National Weather Service has an e-Spotter program, where people can use the Internet to report conditions as they happen.)

That’s why, in this case, I would expect that the flexibility and openness to new information would favor the National Weather Service as a forecaster over the Farmers’ Almanac. In this situation — a rare one, I think — it’s the government agency that has the advantage, as its method is more like a market-oriented one that than an actual, privately-owned publication.

Register Watch™

Register Watch™ for the April 17, 2008 Issue

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Blogging’s been around for a while, but it’s still new to some people. The unfamiliarity of it likely disturbs a few people in Whitewater. The best example of an overwrought media reaction to blogging can be found in the Register’s March 28th issue, in Register editor Carrie Dampier’s proffer defense of her newspaper. My reply to her defense can be found at my post entitled, “Register Watch™ for the March 28, 2008 Issue (Part 2)”

No one should really be shocked by blogging — I’ve contended that blogging is just a modern form of the long American tradition of pamphleteering. See, for example, “Blogging: Once and Future American Tradition.”

Many blogs and websites comment on the media without causing any kind of embarrassing, ill-argued reply. There’s Times Watch, a blog that covers and critiques the New York Times; alternatively, one could read Fox Attacks, a website that critiques Fox News.

If there are blogs that critique sports figures, television stars, politicians, books, films, cars, and musicians, then no one should really be surprised that bloggers will take a look at how the press functions.

Our small town could use a vigorous press, as I believe that a vigorous press keeps government honest.

I’ll take a look at the April 17th issue of the Register and see how our local paper — 152 years old — is doing.

The front page offers up three stories — the dedication of the Cravath Lakefront Arch on Sunday, the new Common Council, and the continuing, multi-part series on the Police Department. (I have waited to comment on the police series, and after three stories in print I feel there’s enough to assess what’s the series. I will do so early next week.)

The most prominent of the stories, accompanied by a color photograph, is on the Cravath Lakefront Arch to be dedicated Sunday. The story describes the sections of the arch, its principal donors, and the date and time of the formal dedication ceremony (Sunday, April 20th at 2 p.m.)

There’s one odd bit to the story, though: the description of a design that commemorates “Whitewater’s rich past, present, and future.” I hope very much that our future is rich, but I know of no way to commemorate what has yet to happen.

Editor Dampier writes on the new member of the Common Council (Lynn Binnie), the Council election of a president (Patrick Singer), and which Council members will have places on various boards and committees. The story involves not a single quotation from anyone (1) reflecting on his or her election, (2) the possible direction of the Council, or (3) assignment to any board or committee.

That seems like the very least one should expect from a newspaper that proudly proclaims it’s Whitewater’s community paper. This is about as incurious as a story could be. Most reporters would like to ask a few questions, get reactions, etc. There’s none of that in this story from any of the elected officials. It’s just a dull recitation without any insight into how any of these politicians might feel about the year ahead.

(There is an accompanying photograph of Binnie taking his oath of office, printed in overly rich colors, and shot from an angle that captures one of the two people in the photograph only from the back.)

Ten — yes, ten — relatively brief stories inside the paper list no author: DWI Receives 2008 National Main Street Program Accreditation, Siren’s Warning, Stimulus Payment Help for Seniors, Public Information Meeting Scheduled for Highway 12 Project, Whitewater Chamber Welcomes New Members, Gateway Offers Forklift Training, EF Homestay Program Looking for Host Families, ‘Help is Here Express’ Bus Tour Comes to Whitewater, Fort Health Care Supports “List it, Don’t Risk It” Campaign, and Top 10 Problems with the American Diet.

Who wrote these pieces? I don’t know. Not one has a byline. Not one says “By Register Staff’, etc. Some of them read like barely re-worked press releases. They take up a lot of space, but they’re without any sort of inquisitive angle, etc.

One wonders if anyone at the Register has any curiosity at all. A local paper should be more than an attempt to fill space between out-of-town advertisements. (Most ads in the April 17th section of the Register are still for concerns located beyond Whitewater.) more >>

Cartoons & Comics

Friday Morning Cartoon

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Today I offer a cartoon called “Chicken a la King.” It has a Mae West parody, and Mae works her magic in this 1936 cartoon.

It’s also an inside reference to a reader who sometimes sends single-panel parodies of this website to me. He sends them along as a “Hen House” series, in which a quintet of hens critique FREE WHITEWATER. It’s a good series, and I enjoy it. The hens are no fans of FREE WHITEWATER, but that doesn’t really matter to me.

I am sure I like the series more the way it is.

Here’s Chicken a la King — Enjoy.

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