FREE WHITEWATER

Bad Ideas, Cats

Friday Catblogging: Man Ruins His Marriage by Returning Cat to Shelter

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In the Toronto Star, so-called advice columnist Ellie Tesher gave her opinion to a man who returned the family cat to a shelter because he was too shiftless to care for it:

Q I agreed to get a cat on the promise that my wife and her son would be the primary caregivers. After a few years, I realized I was the one dealing with the litter, food and water, and even occasional vet visits. Meanwhile, my wife and her son just enjoyed the fun parts. I am not a pet-hater, I just never had any growing up.

The cat eventually died of kidney failure. Then my wife wanted another cat. I made it very clear that the minute I needed to do ANYTHING, for whatever reason, I would return the cat to the animal shelter. She didn’t believe me, until one day the cat was gone, and I informed her which animal shelter I took it to.

I think this marriage is over. Do you agree?

Catnapped

A It’s not up to me, nor the cat. Do what feels right. You don’t get nine lives.

Tesher couldn’t have given worse advice:

(1) This man’s ultimatum shows his controlling and slothful nature. There must be therapists in Canada. Tesher should have recommended that he consider intensive institutional care.

(2) “Do what feels right” is bad advice since those feelings led him to do something wrong.

(3) This cat was subjected to the stress of a shelter, and might have been given away or euthanized before the spouse and her son could rescue him.

(4) No, buddy, you’re not a pet-hater. You’re a cat-hater. I know one when I see one.

(5) Of course the marriage should be over. The spouse and her son should get as far away from this miscreant as possible.

(6) This libertarian blogger has great respect for the people of Canada, and is confident that the spouse can find a better Canadian partner (if she would like one) than the worthless sack of crap who took her cat to a shelter.

(7) I should sincerely hope that, while this man is walking alone one day on a cold Toronto street, a pack of tabbies attacks him, and inflicts the maximum damage possible through strategic bites to the most vulnerable parts of his anatomy. If there’s any justice on this planet, this guy has it coming.

(8) The Star should cancel Tesher’s bad-advice column immediately.

(9) Come on, Canada — you can do better.

 

City, Film

Film: Tuesday, January 30, 1 PM @ Seniors in the Park, What Happens Later

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Tuesday, January 30th at 1 PM, there will be a showing of What Happens Later @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin Community Building:

Romance/Comedy

Rated R (Language)

1 hour, 43 minutes (2023)

Two ex-lovers see each other for the first time in years when they are both snowed in at an airport overnight. Starring Meg Ryan and David Duchovny.

One can find more information about What Happens Later at the Internet Movie Database.

America, City, Daily Bread, Development, Economy, Local Government, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 1.25.24: Now is Whitewater’s Time to Seize an Improving National and State Economy

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 Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 39. Sunrise is 7:17 and sunset 4:59 for 9h 43m 36s of daytime. The moon is full with 100% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Lakes Advisory Committee meets at 5 PM and the Board of Zoning Appeals meets at 6 PM. 

On this day in 1945, the Battle of the Bulge ends in an Allied victory. 

When the national economy is poor, it’s unlikely that Whitewater (having for years lagged the national economy) would do well. When the Wisconsin economy is poor, it’s unlikely that Whitewater (having for years lagged the state economy) would do well. Even when the national economy was doing well years ago, Whitewater was behind. 

As it turns out, happily, the state and national economies are again doing well. Those favorable economic conditions are an opportunity for Whitewater — now’s the time to join in America’s and Wisconsin’s achievements. Of those national economic gains, there’s more good news from across a continent with 340 million people. Ben Casselman reports U.S. Economy Grew at 3.3% Rate in Latest Quarter (‘The increase in gross domestic product, while slower than in the previous period, showed the resilience of the recovery from the pandemic’s upheaval’):

The U.S. economy continued to grow at a healthy pace at the end of 2023, capping a year in which unemployment remained low, inflation cooled and a widely predicted recession never materialized.

Gross domestic product, adjusted for inflation, grew at a 3.3 percent annual rate in the fourth quarter, the Commerce Department said on Thursday. That was down from the 4.9 percent rate in the third quarter but easily topped forecasters’ expectations and showed the resilience of the recovery from the pandemic’s economic upheaval.

The latest reading is preliminary and may be revised in the months ahead.

Forecasters entered 2023 expecting the Federal Reserve’s aggressive campaign of interest-rate increases to push the economy into reverse. Instead, growth accelerated: For the full year, measured from the end of 2022 to the end of 2023, G.D.P. grew 3.1 percent, up from less than 1 percent the year before and faster than in any of the five years preceding the pandemic. (A different measure, based on average output over the full year, showed annual growth of 2.5 percent in 2023.)

Emphasis added. 

Now’s the time. 

Rare double brood of cicadas will emerge this spring:

City, Local Government, School District

Daily Bread for 1.24.24: Rashomon-upon-Cravath

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 Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be rainy with a high of 37. Sunrise is 7:16 and sunset 4:57 for 9h 41m 27s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 98.8% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 41, Claudius is proclaimed Roman emperor by the Praetorian Guard after they assassinate the previous emperor, his nephew Caligula.

  Whitewater has been in, and will yet remain for years, in a local version of Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon: people in the city will express markedly different, sometimes contradictory, accounts of behavior and events. While it’s natural for people to see events with slight variations, Whitewater is in a period where accounts and perspectives even within the same small town are now disparate and exclusive of other views.

And so, and so, not everyone will agree on which animals are leopards, so to speak. America is now like this, Wisconsin is now like this, and Whitewater is now like this. To say as much is neither a challenge nor a taunt. It’s perhaps the one observation on which everyone can still agree. (It’s true, by the way, even if others don’t agree.) 

A question for those in, and those following, local government presents itself: How will you manage in conditions where there are basic disagreements about the very facts under consideration?

Wanting conditions to return to yesteryear’s certainty (never as certain as assumed in retrospect) won’t work. Whitewater’s policymakers will not be able to reconstitute the past. Yesterday’s tricks won’t work with today’s dogs. 

Those who can adjust temperamentally and intellectually to uncertainty and essential disagreement will fare well (or well enough). Those who are looking for predictability and consensus will fare poorly. 

As always, a sound approach: The hotter the temperature, the colder the man. 

Rashomon is an extraordinary film. If you’ve not seen it, here’s a new trailer to entice you.

Bigotry, City, Daily Bread, Racism, University

Daily Bread for 1.23.24: Neo-Nazis Arrive Into, and Depart from, Whitewater

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 Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be snowy with a high of 37. Sunrise is 7:17 and sunset 4:56 for 9h 39m 22s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 95.5% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Finance Committee meets at 5 PM. 

On this day in 1986, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducts its first members: Little Richard, Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Fats Domino, The Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Elvis Presley.

  Dozens of stories, many from national publications, now report on the arrival and departure on late Sunday afternoon (1.21.23) of the of the neo-Nazi Blood Tribe onto the UW-Whitewater campus. Of those stories, reporting from Kimberly Wethal at the Wisconsin State Journal, UW-Whitewater condemns antisemitic incident on campus, is the most concisely informative:

UW-Whitewater’s chancellor is condemning an incident Sunday night during which a small group of people projected Nazi and antisemitic imagery on the side of a residence hall and chanted white supremacist slogans.

Shortly before 5:45 p.m. Sunday, campus police received reports of four people, dressed all in red, standing outside Knilans residence hall on the east side of campus, chanting phrases such as “there will be blood” and projecting a swastika and antisemitic phrases onto the side of the residence hall.

The group’s actions and appearance are consistent with members of “the Blood Tribe,” a Neo-Nazi group that has made two appearances at UW-Madison and a pro-LGBT event in Watertown last year.

The group’s goal is to scare or intimidate people with their presence, according to the Anti-Defamation League, an organization that fights antisemitism and extremism in the U.S.

In an email to students and staff, UW-Whitewater Chancellor Corey King called the actions of the group “abhorrent,” adding that they go against the university’s core values.

“At UW-Whitewater, we strive to create a safe community where everyone feels a sense of belonging. We take pride in our Warhawk family. We reject hate in all its forms,” King said. “On this first day of the new semester, I ask all of us to reaffirm our commitment to our core values and not let the actions of an outside group that seeks to incite hate, division and fear take us off course.”

In the email, King said the university has no reason to believe the group presents a threat to campus, and the group left shortly after police were called. But university police have increased patrols.

One cannot say whether this fanatical band will be back, but they were not from here, were not welcome here, and will never be welcome here. 

NISAR: Tracking Earth’s Changes From Space (Mission Overview):

City, Daily Bread, Development, Economy, Employment, Entitlement

Daily Bread for 1.22.24: Wisconsin’s Favorable Employment Statistics

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 Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 33. Sunrise is 7:17 and sunset 4:55 for 9h 37m 18s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 89.9% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Urban Forestry Commission meets at 4:30 PM and the Police & Fire Commission at 6 PM. The Whitewater School Board’s Policy Review Committee meets at 5:30 PM, and the full school board enters closed session shortly after 6:30 PM with open session scheduled at 7 PM.  

On this day in 1957, the New York City “Mad Bomber,” George P. Metesky, is arrested in Waterbury, Connecticut and charged with planting more than 30 bombs.

Employment levels remain positive for Wisconsin. Erik Gunn reports Wisconsin unemployment remains low in December as jobs continue to grow:

Wisconsin’s monthly employment snapshots finished the year with a new record for the number of jobs and an upbeat assessment from the state’s labor department.

A survey of employers projected a total of nearly 3.03 million jobs in Wisconsin in December 2023, according to the Department of Workforce Development (DWD).

Based on a separate survey of households, DWD projected an unemployment rate of 3.3%, the same as in November 2023. The unemployment rate calculates how many people are not working in the total labor force, which consists of people who are working or actively seeking work.

The data show Wisconsin employers and workers are “just continuing the trends we saw all year,” said DWD’s chief economist, Dennis Winters, at a media briefing Thursday. “And the way things are shaping up for 2024, we expect the same thing.”

The employers survey counted a total of 3,026,500 nonfarm jobs in Wisconsin in December, a gain of 80,000 from a year ago.

There is, however, a requirement to capitalize on the state’s improving outlook: it takes high-quality leaders and ideas to make the most of good times. 

Whitewater has been in this situation before, in 2020 before the pandemic, when local men looked around at a positive national and state economy and bemoaned better times had not reached Whitewater.

See Whitewater’s Still Waiting for That Boom:

“We’ve just had one of the most booming economies that this country’s seen in close to 60 years. And we’re not at the table. We’re not playing. We’re not out there.”

Well, yes. There was a national boom, uplifting many cities, but it passed by Whitewater. What did Whitewater get after the Great Recession, years into a national boom? Whitewater received a designation as a low-income community.  (The gentlemen speaking, these ‘Greater Whitewater’ development men, were by their own accounts at the center of local CDA policy during most of the years that the state and national boom ignored Whitewater.)

Leaders then were responsible for having positioned the city poorly. Once again: it takes high-quality leaders and ideas to make the most of good times. 

Fire breaks out at Russian gas terminal in Baltic Sea port:

City, Daily Bread, Health, Waste Digesters, Water, WGTB, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 1.21.24: Water Quality on Mississippi River Improving

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 Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 17. Sunrise is 7:18 and sunset 4:53 for 9h 35m 18s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 84.2% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1960, Little Joe 1B, a Mercury spacecraft, lifts off from Wallops Island, Virginia with Miss Sam, a female rhesus monkey on board.

Some good news about — literally on and in — the Upper Mississippi: Hope Kirwan reports Water quality on Mississippi River ‘improving, with a ways to go’ (Report looks at contamination levels, other water quality measures over last three decades’).  Kirwan writes 

Water quality on the upper Mississippi River has largely improved over the last 30 years, but action is needed to address different contaminants than those seen in previous decades.

That’s the takeaway from a new water quality report by the Upper Mississippi River Basin Association, or UMRBA, which represents Wisconsin and four other states.

The same report was first completed in 1989, when the river was largely polluted around urban areas, according to UMRBA’s executive director Kirsten Wallace.

She said this year’s version highlights the impact from years of work to reduce contamination from wastewater treatment plants, agricultural land and other sources throughout the river basin.

“We’re seeing declining trends in total (sediment and algae), metals and particles that attach to the sediment like phosphorus,” Wallace said. “So that all has been good.”

But Wallace said the monitoring data, collected from sites along the river between 1989 and 2018, shows there are some pollutants that have increased in the last three decades.

Levels of nitrogen, a nutrient that often comes from runoff of farm fields and other lands, have increased in the section of the river along Wisconsin.

Emphasis added. 

See also Upper Mississippi River Basin Association’s 2023 How Clean is the River? Report and 2023 How Clean is the River? Executive Summary.

A community that expects beneficial development keeps harmful waste to a minimum, exports its waste to places where it cannot harm other humans or animals, and does not import others’ harmful waste into its borders.  Three times since FREE WHITEWATER began publishing officials in this city’s government have recklessly considered plans to bring others’ waste into this city. Each plan was, at last, sensibly abandoned when repeated studies showed the impracticality of the plan (while not addressing all of the obvious environmental risks to Whitewater’s residents). 

If there should one day be a fourth effort, then it will fare no better than the last three. 

Penguin selfie offers bird’s eye view:

Daily Bread, Faraway Places, Food

Daily Bread for 1.20.24: Berlin’s Flying Ramen

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 Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 16. Sunrise is 7:19 and sunset 4:52 for 9h 33m 21s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 75% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1929, the first full-length talking motion picture filmed outdoors, In Old Arizona, is released.

Berlin’s Flying Ramen: 

In the bustling city of Berlin, an extraordinary ramen phenomenon has taken flight thanks to a man named Christopher. From the confines of his apartment, Christopher crafts and delivers fresh ramen kits in a most unconventional manner. Using a vibrant red bucket suspended from his window, he lowers these delectable packages to eager customers waiting below. What started as a creative solution for social distancing during lockdown has evolved into a cherished ritual in the culinary landscape. Christopher’s flying ramen delivery system has become an iconic symbol of his business, capturing the imagination of locals and international patrons alike. As customers eagerly await their airborne ramen, the act of receiving this unique delivery has transformed into a communal experience, making Christopher’s flying ramen a beloved and distinctive culinary adventure in the heart of Berlin.

Endangered baby hippo makes debut at Czech zoo: 

Mikolas, a baby pygmy hippo born at the Dvur Kralove nad Labem zoo in the Czech Republic last month, made his public debut on Jan. 15.

City, Film

Film: To Be Rescheduled Due to Inclement Weather: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

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Updated 1.23.24: To be rescheduled due to snowy weather. There will be a showing of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin Community Building:

Adventure/Action

Rated PG-13

2 hours, 34 minutes (2023)

In this fifth installment, Indy (Harrison Ford) now a college professor approaching retirement, is forced to re-enter the fray in the battle between good and evil: a dial that can change time and reverse the outcome of World War 2! Also starring Antonio Banderas, Karen Allen, and John Rhys-Davies.

One can find more information about Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny at the Internet Movie Database.

Conspiracy Theories, Daily Bread, Legislature, State Government, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 1.19.24: Wisconsin Assembly’s Queen of Crackpottery Comes Up Short (Yet Again)

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 Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 11. Sunrise is 7:19 and sunset 4:51 for 9h 31m 26s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 66.2% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1983, the Apple Lisa, the first commercial personal computer from Apple to have a graphical user interface and a computer mouse, is announced.

Credit where credit is due, including credit for recognizing that the attempts to impeach the Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe are baseless (where baseless properly excludes drunken delusions, chanting voices in one’s head, or congenital cognitive deficiency). Scott Bauer reports Wisconsin Republican leader derides GOP impeachment attempt targeting state’s top elections official:

In the Assembly, state Rep. Janel Brandtjen has introduced a resolution to impeach Wolfe. As of Thursday, it had just five co-sponsors in addition to Brandtjen. It would require 50 votes to pass.

Brandtjen tried in vain on Tuesday to be recognized to speak in an attempt to get a vote on her proposal. Brandtjen, who has endorsed discredited conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, accused Republican leaders of being “Administrator Wolfe’s PR team.”

During a news conference before Thursday’s session, Assembly Majority Leader Tyler August said Brandtjen’s proposal would not be voted on because it doesn’t have enough support to get out of committee or be approved by a majority of the Assembly.

“We have a process that has been utilized in this building for decades of how to bring a bill or a resolution to the floor,” August said. “And that’s the process that we’ll continue to use.”

August said if Brandtjen has enough support to bring the measure forward for a vote, she can.

“But the fact is she doesn’t,” August said. “Our caucus is focused on real things, not grifting and not making a big show for the cameras. And that’s all she’s interested in doing.”

Now, I’m not inclined to agree that the WISGOP is focused on real things, but it’s indisputable among non-lunatics that Brandtjen is focused on unreal things. A low bar, yes.

And yet, and yet, among the 5.8 million Wisconsinites, Brandtjen is not the state’s only crackpot, although she now seems to sit on the crackpottery throne. (Where Michael Gableman is these days I do not know, as Arkham Asylum is a fictional place. )  

Amish man, horses help pull SUV out of snow in Ethridge, Tennessee:

Daily Bread, Elections, Presidential Race 2024, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 1.18.24: No, Wisconsin’s Presidential Primary Won’t Matter

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 Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 15. Sunrise is 7:20 and sunset 4:50 for 9h 29m 34s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 54% of its visible disk illuminated.

 The Whitewater’s Community Development Authority meets at 5:30 PM.

On this day in 1977, scientists identify a previously unknown bacterium as the cause of the mysterious Legionnaires’ disease.

  So, one reads this morning the question Will Wisconsin’s presidential primary matter? Experts say we’ll see:

While presidential primaries began this week with the Iowa caucuses, both parties may have already selected their nominees by the time Wisconsin voters have a say. 

Wisconsin’s primary elections take place April 2. Most experts expect the nominations to be decided by then, barring some unforeseen event that reshapes the race. 

Most experts are probably right expecting the nomination to be decided by April, without needing a “we’ll see.” Epistemologically, it’s correct to say the significance of the April 2nd presidential primary in Wisconsin will depend on the vote tally on that day measured against any claims about that vote tally. In this way, “we’ll see” is the right answer from either experts or laypeople. “We’ll see,” however, in the title of the story so evades consideration of probabilities (including those from experts cited in this very story) that it’s not much of an answer.

This libertarian blogger will wade into these waters: the April 2nd Wisconsin presidential primary will not matter to the outcome of either major party’s nomination contest. 

Kobe the Husky Saves Philadelphia Neighborhood from Potentially Explosive Gas Leak:

Crime, Daily Bread, Law, Legislation, Speaker Vos, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 1.17.24: Sure Enough, That ‘Bipartisan’ Marijuana Possession Bill Is Going Nowhere

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 Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 14. Sunrise is 7:21 and sunset 4:48 for 9h 27m 44s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 44.7% of its visible disk illuminated.

 Whitewater’s Parks & Recreation Board meets at 5:30 PM and the Library Board at 6:30 PM. 

On this day in 1944, Allied forces launch the first of four assaults on Monte Cassino to break through the Winter Line and seize Rome, an effort that would ultimately take four months and cost 105,000 Allied casualties.

  Yesterday, I posted on a story about a ‘bipartisan’ marijuana decriminalization bill that seemed unlikely to go anywhere. See On Decriminalizing Marijuana Possession, Bipartisan Bills Don’t Assure Passage (“Success for this bill will not come from those who have proposed it, but instead only if opponents on both sides of decriminalization (‘no’ and ‘more’) are prepared to accept the proposal of a few legislators working in bipartisanship. (As of 12.22.23, the bill had only a few sponsors.)”).

Commenter Joe noted that “Nonetheless, the dinosaur abolitionists in the state senate are persisting and will likely sink Vos’ bill. Evers offering to sign it was probably the kiss of death. No way the Senate R-Team will want to be seen actually cooperating on a matter of high public support with the dreaded Dems.”

Sure enough, later yesterday Speaker Vos proved that he wanted the mere claim of supporting a bill he knew would not pass:

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos doesn’t plan to compromise with Senate Republicans who oppose his plan to create a medical marijuana program in Wisconsin.

Vos, a Republican from Rochester, told reporters Tuesday he won’t amend a bill from Assembly Republicans to create the program to address concerns Senate Republicans have with the legislation.

 Change awaits redistricting. 

The world’s largest iceberg: