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Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 3.20.14

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Good morning.

Thursday will be mostly sunny with a high of forty-five.

A post at Relevant reminds that sometimes a problem offers its own solution:

sometimes the very thing that causes your problems might also be the solution—in this case, a biker was knocked over by a speeding mattress, but also happened to land on that mattress where—according to authorities in Brazil, where this all happened, he was just fine. It all happens at about the 20 second mark …

On this day in 1854, activists found the Republican Party:

1854 – Republican Party Founded
On this date Free Soilers and Whigs outraged by the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, met in Ripon to consider forming a new political party. The meeting’s organizer, Alvan E. Bovay, proposed the name “Republican” which had been suggested by New York editor Horace Greeley. You can see eyewitness accounts of the meeting, early Republican campaign documents, and other original sources on our page devoted to Wisconsin and the Republican Party. Though other places have claimed themselves as the birthplace of the Republican Party, this was the earliest meeting held for the purpose and the first to use the term Republican. [Source: History of Wisconsin, II: 218-219]

Puzzability‘s Irish Stew continues with Thursday’s game:

This Week’s Game — March 17-21
Irish Stew
We’re going for brogue this St. Patrick’s Day week. For each day, we started with a word or phrase, added the seven letters in IRELAND, 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:
Affirmative answer; Rescue Me star
Answer:
Yes; Denis Leary
What to Submit:
Submit both pieces, with the shorter one first (as “Yes; Denis Leary” in the example), for your answer.
Thursday, March 20
Airtight, as a seal; star of The Blue Angel and Witness for the Prosecution

City, Local Government, Planning

Latisha Birkeland, Modernizer

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There are few aspects of city life that affect residents more than neighborhood services.  For years, Whitewater struggled with an inefficient and erratic neighborhood services program.  Left, right, center, libertarian: just about anyone saw that there was, to be mild about it, room for improvement.  

Residents not only saw problems, but those problems led many to confuse the boundaries between law enforcement, civil enforcement, and zoning. Meetings about residents’ concerns quickly devolved into frustrated calls for the wrong kind of enforcement, and an over-confidence that zoning could be a substitute for enforcement, of whatever kind.

This was the department and the role into which Latisha Birkeland stepped when she became Neighborhood Services Director.  

She took that department, from that time, into a more modern, more forward-looking, more conventional one.  That’s not meant as a mild compliment – it’s meant to be a robust one.  It was no easy task.

I cannot say that I have supported every decision that Ms. Birkeland has made; it would be unexpected, really, if a libertarian had supported everything a city planner and neighborhood services official had done.

One sees, though, that she has been good for Whitewater, apart from ideology or politics.  

Our municipal administration, and City Manager Clapper, now have an obligation to find someone as capable, someone of a similar, contemporary outlook.  Whitewater will continue to make gains if they do, and will slip backward if they do not.  

The city will feel the consequences, and the administration will bear the responsibility, for the outcome.  

I am sure that we can continue to do well.

Appreciative of her efforts for Whitewater, one wishes Ms. Birkeland the best for her career.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 3.19.14

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Good morning.

It’s a Wednesday of rain in the Whippet City, with a high of forty.

Downtown Whitewater’s Board of Directors meets this morning at 8 AM.

It seems that France, a place Americans tease as the home of the beret, has a problem: her last indigenous beret-maker is at risk of collapse —

I’m not sure what to make of this, truly. At the very least, it places numerous jokes based on an overly-broad stereotype at risk.

On this day eleven years ago, the Iraq War begins.

Here’s Wednesday’s Puzzability game:

This Week’s Game — March 17-21
Irish Stew
We’re going for brogue this St. Patrick’s Day week. For each day, we started with a word or phrase, added the seven letters in IRELAND, 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:
Affirmative answer; Rescue Me star
Answer:
Yes; Denis Leary
What to Submit:
Submit both pieces, with the shorter one first (as “Yes; Denis Leary” in the example), for your answer.
Wednesday, March 19
Dreamy to the point of foolishness; director of Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

Education, Government Spending, School District

Lead Substantively, Support Fiscally

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Update, 3.19.14. Someone’s asked if the Common Core discussion at Monday’s school board meeting doesn’t undercut my argument about the need to lead every presentation with a substantive (academics, athletics, art) discussion.  

On the contrary, I had it in mind, and it bolsters my contention.  A discussion of curriculum at a board meeting, but not in presentations to the community elsewhere, is a half-heard discussion. Trying to separate fiscal and curriculum discussions (and present them singly to the audience one hopes will be most receptive) is a mistake. One can only pick one’s audience accurately for so long; a wrong choice only invites criticism that one has held back information, and cherry-picked one’s audiences.

Better to present both, as a set, everywhere one can, each and every time one can.      

Original post —

A salesman knocks on one’s door, and when greeted, begins with this presentation:

Good morning, residents of this fine domicile.  I’ve an offer that’s on discount today, down from the regular price of $100 to a new, low price of $75.  We’re offering our same, tried-and-true product – no changes or substitutions, I promise – at a significantly lower rate.  

So, how many would you like to buy?

Would you take his deal?

Perhaps, but likely not before asking one question: “What are you selling?”

The price means nothing if one doesn’t know the goods being offered, and their quality.  

Not long ago at Common Council, and more recently to a community group, the Whitewater Schools’ district administrator and business manager presented on the fiscal condition of the district.  

No doubt, it’s good that there are presentations like this – better to be forthright than to withhold information.  

I’d offer a suggestion, though, and one that’s useful when one considers that there are statewide concerns about public school districts’ finances but also their curricula (the worry of some over Common Core, for example.)

In every presentation about the district, no matter how long or brief, the first part of the presentation should address substantive accomplishments (academic, athletic, artistic) before a discussion of expenditures.

I write this as a libertarian, who would prefer smaller government not merely as less expensive, but as less burdensome or regulatory.  If we are to spend – and I know we sometimes must – then the first step should be a justification for that spending (that is, a list of accomplishments or goals yet to be met).

This uniform, two-step approach assures that neither of the major objections (on action or cost) to a project will ever go unaddressed.  It’s not a libertarian’s purpose to assist government, but there are times when a simple method helps both government and its skeptics.  

Many districts in this state focused on fiscal changes, but were quite plainly caught flat-footed when objections to a given curriculum emerged over the last year.  Whitewater didn’t see much fuss, and I’m not wading into that topic today.   

Those other districts, however, were short-sighted to believe that fiscal discipline (at least as they touted it) would insulate them from other political challenges, some of which have been curriculum-centered.

It’s insufficient (although necessary) to talk about mere cost – all expenditures require an explanation, so that one might measure their influence more broadly.  

No presentations this district’s officials give will be as useful for them or for Whitewater as presentations that lead on substance and thereafter immediately follow on cost.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 3.18.14

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Good morning.

Sunrise today is 7:02 AM and sunset 7:05 PM. The moon is in a washing gibbous phase with ninety-six percent of its visible disk illuminated. We’ll have a partly sunny day today with a high of forty-five.

Common Council and the Planning Commission meet jointly tonight at 6:30 PM on campus.

Yesterday, I kindly received some recommendations for music from the Celtic band The Pogues. I listed to, and liked, all of the recommended songs (Body of an American, Fairytale of New York, Misty Morning Albert Bridge, The Broad Majestic Shannon, Rainy Night in Soho, NW3).

Here’s The Body of an American —

On this day in 1953, the Braves announce that they’re moving to Wisconsin:

1953 – Braves Move to Milwaukee
On this date the Braves baseball team announced that they were moving from Boston to Milwaukee. [Source: The History Net]

Here’s Puzzability‘s Tuesday game:

This Week’s Game — March 17-21
Irish Stew
We’re going for brogue this St. Patrick’s Day week. For each day, we started with a word or phrase, added the seven letters in IRELAND, 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:
Affirmative answer; Rescue Me star
Answer:
Yes; Denis Leary
What to Submit:
Submit both pieces, with the shorter one first (as “Yes; Denis Leary” in the example), for your answer.
Tuesday, March 18
La Cage aux Folles attire; author of the memoir It’s Always Something

Music

Monday Music, Part 2: Pharrell Williams, Happy

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A longtime reader wrote in this morning, and teased me over my post of the Cranberries’ Roses (on the theory that it was a melancholy song). I picked that song because Delores O’Riordan has a fine voice, and an Irish singer seemed fitting on St. Patrick’s Day.

Still, a sad song wasn’t meant to suggest that I’m sad. I’m not.

So, for someone who’d like something happier, here’s Pharrell Williams with Happy:

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 3.17.14

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Good morning.

St. Patrick’s Day in Whitewater will be mostly cloudy with a high of thirty-three.

st-patricks-day-2014-4879006277042176.2-hp
Google has a doodle on its search page today with a link to information about the holiday. I’m not of Irish ancestry, but yet still I know – as do most people – that this holiday isn’t meant to be about over-drinking.

In Chicago, residents dyed part of the Chicago River green for the holiday. Embedded below is a time-lapse video of their work:

On this day in 1941, Milwaukee’s airport gets its name:

1941 – General Mitchell Field Named
On this date Milwaukee’s airport was named to honor the city’s famous air-power pioneer, General William Mitchell. [Source: History Just Ahead: A Guide to Wisconsin’s Historical Markers edited by Sarah Davis McBride]

This week’s Puzzability series is called Irish Stew. Here’s Monday’s game:

This Week’s Game — March 17-21
Irish Stew
We’re going for brogue this St. Patrick’s Day week. For each day, we started with a word or phrase, added the seven letters in IRELAND, 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:
Affirmative answer; Rescue Me star
Answer:
Yes; Denis Leary
What to Submit:
Submit both pieces, with the shorter one first (as “Yes; Denis Leary” in the example), for your answer.
Monday, March 17
Private eye, in film noir; author of The Satanic Verses

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 3.16.14

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Good morning.

Sunday will see gradually sunnier skies and a high of twenty=three in Whitewater.

Tracked_landing_vehicles_(LVTs)_approach_Iwo_Jima;fig14

‘Tracked landing vehicles (LVTs), jam-packed with 4th Marine Division troops, approach the Line of Departure at H-hour on D-day. In the center rear can be seen the control vessels which attempted to maintain order in the landing. Department of Defense Photo.’
Via Wikipedia

On this day in 1945, fighting on Iwo Jima ends, assuring that the island was wholly in American hands:

…the west Pacific volcanic island of Iwo Jima is declared secured by the U.S. military after months of fiercely fighting its Japanese defenders.

The Americans began applying pressure to the Japanese defense of Iwo Jima in February 1944, when B-24 and B-25 bombers raided the island for 74 days straight. It was the longest pre-invasion bombardment of the war, necessary because of the extent to which the Japanese–21,000 strong–fortified the island, above and below ground, including a network of caves. Underwater demolition teams (“frogmen”) were dispatched by the Americans just before the actual invasion to clear the shores of mines and any other obstacles that could obstruct an invading force. In fact, the Japanese mistook the frogmen for an invasion force and killed 170 of them.

The amphibious landings of Marines began the morning of February 19, 1945, as the secretary of the Navy, James Forrestal, accompanied by journalists, surveyed the scene from a command ship offshore. The Marines made their way onto the island–and seven Japanese battalions opened fire, obliterating them. By that evening, more than 550 Marines were dead and more than 1,800 were wounded.

In the face of such fierce counterattack, the Americans reconciled themselves to the fact that Iwo Jima could be taken only one yard at a time. A key position on the island was Mt. Suribachi, the center of the Japanese defense. The 28th Marine Regiment closed in and around the base of the volcanic mountain at the rate of 400 yards per day, employing flamethrowers, grenades, and demolition charges against the Japanese that were hidden in caves and pillboxes (low concrete emplacements for machine-gun nests). Approximately 40 Marines finally began a climb up the volcanic ash mountain, which was smoking from the constant bombardment, and at 10 a.m. on February 23, a half-dozen Marines raised an American flag at its peak, using a pipe as a flag post. Two photographers caught a restaging of the flag raising for posterity, creating one of the most reproduced images of the war. With Mt. Suribachi claimed, one-third of Iwo Jima was under American control.

On March 16, with a U.S. Navy military government established, Iwo Jima was declared secured and the fighting over. When all was done, more than 6,000 Marines died fighting for the island, along with almost all the 21,000 Japanese soldiers trying to defend it.