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Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 5.23.14

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Good morning, Whitewater.

Friday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of seventy-two. Sunrise today is 5:22 AM and sunset 8:19 PM. The moon is a waning crescent with just twenty-seven percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1934, notorious bank robbers and murderers Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow meet their end in Louisiana:

Shreveport, La., May 23 — Clyde Barrow, notorious Texas “bad man” and murderer, and his cigar-smoking, quick-shooting woman accomplice, Bonnie Parker, were ambushed and shot to death today in an encounter with Texas Rangers and Sheriff’s deputies.

The 24-year-old desperado, who was accused of twelve murders in the last two years, and his companion whizzed along a little-traveled, paved road near Gibsland, about fifty miles east of here, at eighty-five miles an hour in a high-speed gray automobile, rushing into a carefully-laid death trap.

Before they could use any of the weapons in the small arsenal they had with them, the Rangers and others in the posse riddled them and their car with a deadly hail of bullets.

The onrushing machine, with the dead man at the wheel, careened crazily for an instant and then catapulted into an embankment. While the wheels of the wrecked machine still whirled, the officers, taking no chances with the gunman who had tricked them so often, poured another volley of bullets into the machine.

On this day in 1854, a transportation first for Madison:

1854 – First Railroad Reaches Madison

On this date the Milwaukee and Mississippi railroad reached Madison, connecting the city with Milwaukee. When the cars pulled into the depot, thousands of people gathered to witness the ceremonial arrival of the first train, and an enormous picnic was held on the Capitol grounds for all the passengers who’d made theseven-hour trip from Milwaukee to inaugurate the line. [Source: Waukesha Chronicle, May 24, 1854;Wisconsin State Journal, June 1, 1924]

Puzzability‘s Paying Tribute series concludes with Friday’s game:

This Week’s Game — May 19-23
Paying Tribute
For each day of our parade this Memorial Day week, we started with a word, added the eight letters in MEMORIAL, and rearranged all the letters to get the name of a famous person. Both pieces are described in each day’s clue, with the shorter one first.
Example:
Computer failure; Miami Heat point guard
Answer:
Crash; Mario Chalmers
What to Submit:
Submit both pieces, with the shorter one first (as “Crash; Mario Chalmers” in the example), for your answer.
Friday, May 23
Partner of faith and hope; D.A. portrayer in the original cast of Law & Order

Business, Free Markets, Laws/Regulations, Local Government

Because, you know, it’s government’s job to manipulate results among private businesses

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The presumptions of a local government pol:

This ordinance has been an attempt to require the food trucks to put some skin in the game,” [Fort Atkinson city councilmember] Lescohier said. “That skin is through a fee structure, through an appropriate place for them to operate and to control the noise. Right now if you have a food truck, the deck is stacked in your favor to operate in Fort Atkinson. It is inexpensive and you have your pick of the location.”

‘Skin in the game,’ as though it were his place to decide what this commitment means. (This has become a common – but already tired – demand of some conservatives, among others. They want to collect additional fees from the poor, new businesses, etc., on the theory that this shows those businesses’ commitments.  All it really does is enrich the state, at the expense of some businesses and of consumer choice.)  

Now I’m a resident of Whitewater, not Fort Atkinson, so my concern is a secondary one: that ideas like these don’t damage our marketplace as it will theirs.  That a politician is a voice for incumbents to the detriment of others in Fort Atkinson is not my concern; that Whitewater needn’t make this same mistake is my concern. 

I’d suggest that there are arguments against these restrictions from economics, consumer choice, and economic liberty (as a legal argument). 

Resting on a foundation of those arguments would be the opportunity for a press-focused campaign against these restrictions.  (This is proof that a politician can have a background in politics and the press, but still an approach on this issue that’s pinched and small.) 

It’s easy for a councilmember to pick on a few working people, and rely on a sycophantic local press, but he’d look different if one expanded the focus farther afield. Campaigns against food truck restrictions are often successful, and cause regulators to look foolish in the eyes of a more sophisticated, cosmopolitan audience. 

But Fort Atkinson is not Whitewater, and my interest here is merely as an observer (with an eye to my own city’s policies, not another town’s bad choices).  Their mistakes will only make Whitewater more competitive by contrast.

If this were happening in Whitewater, I would have different feelings. 

Beyond all that, truly, there are other concerns in Whitewater that are both near at hand and of greater scope. 

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 5.22.14

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Good morning, Whitewater.

Thursday will be mostly sunny with a high of seventy-two. We’ll have northwest winds at five to ten miles per hour.

Whitewater’s Tech Park Board meets today at 8 AM. [Update: this is next week’s meeting, for 5.29.14 @ 8 AM.]

On this day in 1859, Arthur Conan Doyle is born.

His most famous literary creation, Sherlock Holmes, is still going strong:

On this day in 1968, Milwaukee’s pro basketball team gets its name:

1968 – Milwaukee Bucks Named

On this date “Milwaukee Bucks” was selected as the franchise name after 14,000 fans participated in a team-naming contest. 45 people suggested the name, one of whom, R.D. Trebilcox, won a car for his efforts. [Source: Bucks.com]

Here’s the Thursday game in Puzzability’s Paying Tribute series:

This Week’s Game — May 19-23
Paying Tribute
For each day of our parade this Memorial Day week, we started with a word, added the eight letters in MEMORIAL, and rearranged all the letters to get the name of a famous person. Both pieces are described in each day’s clue, with the shorter one first.
Example:
Computer failure; Miami Heat point guard
Answer:
Crash; Mario Chalmers
What to Submit:
Submit both pieces, with the shorter one first (as “Crash; Mario Chalmers” in the example), for your answer.
Thursday, May 22
Dangerous African virus; women’s rights pioneer for whom a style of less-restrictive clothing was named

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 5.21.14

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Good morning, Whitewater.

Wednesday will be sunny with a high of seventy-eight, and with west winds of five to ten mph.

On this day in 1927, Charles Lindbergh lands the Spirit of St. Louis in Paris.

A silent newsreel reported the accomplishment:

On this day in 1985, a Wisconsinite set another kind of aviation record:

1985 – Distance Record Set for Paper Airplane

On this date Tony Feltch of Wisconsin set the world record for longest distance flown by a paper airplane. Feltch’s airplane, launched at the La Crosse Center, flew 193 feet. [Source: Paper Aircraft Association]

Here’s Puzzability‘s Wednesday game in its Paying Tribute series:

This Week’s Game — May 19-23
Paying Tribute
For each day of our parade this Memorial Day week, we started with a word, added the eight letters in MEMORIAL, and rearranged all the letters to get the name of a famous person. Both pieces are described in each day’s clue, with the shorter one first.
Example:
Computer failure; Miami Heat point guard
Answer:
Crash; Mario Chalmers
What to Submit:
Submit both pieces, with the shorter one first (as “Crash; Mario Chalmers” in the example), for your answer.
Wednesday, May 21
Make sopping wet; director of Independence Day

City, Crime

An Evening Not Worth Having

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There’s video online from a security camera of two people stepping into the Birge Fountain, climbing on the statue, tugging on it until a piece comes off, and (presumably) stealing that piece. 

(For prior FW posts against vandalism, see The Crude Illegitimacy of Vandalism and Update: Vandalism, of Property and Opportunity.)

Watching the video, it seems to be a young couple, although I’ve no idea whether this was a date gone wildly awry.  

The worst crimes are ones of violence against other people.  Still, there’s a maliciousness to destroying others’ possessions that’s wrong on its own scale. 

Odd, too, that this was a couple’s idea of a night out. 

Let’s assume that it was a date.  A couple can have all sorts of fun on the town, but there never was – and never will be – a fun evening that comes from pulling on a statue until a piece of it comes loose.

Whitewater’s a beautiful town, with more than one romantic vista.  One could walk happily through the city with one’s girl for a pleasant evening.

It wasn’t that sort of evening shown on the video. 

Doing the wrong thing shows how far that couple was from enjoying the many good things in the city.  

This was an evening not worth having.    

America, History, Law, Liberty

Understanding America Backwards

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There’s a longstanding maxim of liberty that Americans inherited from England: ‘those things not prohibited by law are permitted.’ The burden is on the state: if there’s no express ban under law, then a person is free to act. 

Since government has to enumerate restrictions if it wants to enforce them, a free society places a practical limitation against constraints on liberty.

(A companion maxim of liberty applies in reverse to the government, itself: the state may do ‘only those things expressly permitted under law.’)

It’s a tragedy of our times that so many officials, and especially small-town ones, believe and act in the opposite and worse way: they assume that action may be limited unless they expressly concede otherwise. 

Most of these same officials consider themselves proud Americans, yet they’re ignorant of even these fundamentals of liberty.  Although those of this ilk may consider themselves proper representatives of our tradition, they’re closer to the hectoring party cadres of third-world autocracies.  

Posted also @ DailyAdams.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 5.20.14

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Good morning, Whitewater.

We’ll have a forty-percent chance of afternoon thunderstorms on a day with a high of eighty.

Common Council meets tonight at 6:30 PM.

In Wyoming, a videographer recorded a time-lapse video of a supercell’s formation. It’s truly impressive, as both natural phenomenon and one person’s recording of it.

Consider the possible reactions to a violent storm or unexpected natural development.

On May 19, 1780, widespread forest fires near the Great Lakes caused so much smoke that they darkened New England’s skies. At the time, New Englanders did not know the reason for the daytime darkness. (It’s only now, after examining tree rings, that scientists believe the cause of the darkness can be claimed with confidence.)

Those in America then, fighting the mightiest power on Earth, might be forgiven for thinking darkness at noon was a worrisome sign, perhaps of the end of the world. Corey Adwar, at Business Insider, writes on what one state legislature considered in response to the darkness.

What legislators considered, and how one of them responded, is memorable:

The Connecticut Legislature, in session during the darkness, debated whether to adjourn because of the possibility that the world was ending. “I am against adjournment. The day of judgment is either approaching, or it is not,” said one legislator, Abraham Davenport, according to CNN’s history of the incident. “If it is not, there is no cause for adjournment; if it is, I choose to be found doing my duty.”

This, I think, from Abraham Davenport, is an example of a deep faith: to commit to the right, so best as one can see it, trusting thereafter in divine mercy.

There was a legislator worth supporting.

Here’s Puzzability‘s Tuesday game:

This Week’s Game — May 19-23
Paying Tribute
For each day of our parade this Memorial Day week, we started with a word, added the eight letters in MEMORIAL, and rearranged all the letters to get the name of a famous person. Both pieces are described in each day’s clue, with the shorter one first.
Example:
Computer failure; Miami Heat point guard
Answer:
Crash; Mario Chalmers
What to Submit:
Submit both pieces, with the shorter one first (as “Crash; Mario Chalmers” in the example), for your answer.
Tuesday, May 20
Actor Cox of Deliverance and RoboCop; female half of the classic Variety headline “Egghead Weds Hourglass”