Poll
Friday Poll: Fitness Mom’s Photo
by JOHN ADAMS •
So, Maria Kang, a mother of three who exercises almost every day, posted a photo of herself on Facebook, and it’s caused a stir. She’s obviously fit, but some Facebookers contend that she’s guilty of shaming them, of insulting them with her picture:
(CNN) — Maria Kang likes a good workout. And she is getting one after a bunch of angry women turned her into a punching bag.
The 32-year-old Californian fitness enthusiast is under attack for posing for a cheeky photo and posting it on Facebook. The picture shows Kang — who works out for 30 to 60 minutes per day, six days a week — dressed in a workout bra and shorts that reveal an extremely toned body. She’s surrounded by her three young sons — now 1, 3 and 4. Plastered overhead is a simple but loaded question: “What’s your excuse?”
The photo went viral. It has more than 16 million views on Facebook and more than 12,000 comments. Most of the reaction has been positive; Kang estimates that the negative comments are outnumbered by the
The photo is provocative. And it was meant to be.
But a lot of women out there were absolutely furious with Kang.
“You, as a woman, should be ashamed that you are furthering the downward spiral of how society views women, and how we women view ourselves,” scolded one blogger.
Some call her obnoxious, a showoff, a bully shaming other women and worse.
What’s worse? How about getting accused of being a “bad mother”? That’s right. Some women had the nerve to insist that no one gets into this kind of shape without neglecting their children.
Oh, don’t go there. The last thing we need is another skirmish in the “mommy wars” where women compete to see whose maternal instincts are stronger.
“I did it because I knew it would wake people up,” Kang told me in an interview while her sons clamored for their mom’s attention in the background. “My intention was to inspire and motivate people to get healthy.”
Her point: If a mom with three children can work out, eat healthy and stay fit, what excuse is there for the rest of us?
“It takes a lot of time to raise kids, but you have to also make time to take care of yourself,” she said.
That isn’t easy with Kang’s schedule. She said she cares for her three boys without a nanny in addition to creating and running a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping people get fit.
So here’s my question: insulting or motivational? I think it’s meant to be provocative, but that it’s not insulting – it’s merely motivational. What do you think?
Daily Bread
Daily Bread for 10.18.13
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Friday in Whitewater will be mostly cloudy with a high of forty-nine.
If you happen to enjoy a polite, turn-taking conversation today, you’ll not be alone. A marmoset may be having a similar experience. Asif Ghazanfar, a neurobiologist at Princeton University, finds that other than humans, marmosets are the only known species to take turns that way:
Marmosets are very friendly with one another and very talkative, including when they’re out of sight of each other. Given these cooperative traits, which marmosets share with humans, Ghazanfar and his colleagues wondered if the monkeys also engage in vocal turn-taking (as humans also do) to enhance their cooperation.
To find out, the researchers placed dyads (pairs) of adult common marmoset monkeys (Callithrix jacchus) at opposite corners of a room, which had a visually opaque but acoustically transparent curtain splitting the room in half, diagonally. Over the course of the experiment, they paired the 10 non-related monkeys in various combinations — five cagemate pairs and 22 non-cagemate pairs.
The team recorded 1,415 “phee” calls in 54 sessions. These calls, Ghazanfar explained, are very loud, high-pitched, long-distance vocalizations that marmosets use when separated from other group members.
Ghazanfar and his colleagues discovered that the dyads wouldn’t call out at the same time. Instead, the monkeys would take turns — about five seconds after one monkey called out, the other would respond. Not once did the dyads ever interrupt one another.
This vocal turn-taking is especially remarkable considering that some sessions lasted 30 to 40 minutes. Ghazanfar also noted that the phee calls between the dyads didn’t always alternate one-to-one. “If I am talking to someone, I could make a couple of statements before I get a response,” Ghazanfar said. “It was similar with the marmosets: They do take turns, but not every single call that one marmoset produces gets a response.”
On this day in 1967 Update: 1867!, America takes possession of Alaska:
…the U.S. formally takes possession of Alaska after purchasing the territory from Russia for $7.2 million, or less than two cents an acre. The Alaska purchase comprised 586,412 square miles, about twice the size of Texas, and was championed by William Henry Seward, the enthusiastically expansionist secretary of state under President Andrew Johnson.
Scientific American‘s daily trivia question asks about offspring, lots of them. (Clicking on the question leads to its answer.)
Business, Free Markets, Laws/Regulations, Liberty
Update: Victory for the Entrepreneurial Monks of Saint Joseph Abbey in Louisiana
by JOHN ADAMS •
Over three years ago, I posted about Louisiana’s attempt to prevent the monks of Saint Joseph Abbey from making and selling handmade caskets. Their products were of fine craftsmanship and durability, and so sought-after. Despite the quality of their work, Louisiana insisted that only a state-licensed funeral director could sell caskets, and that it was a crime for the monks to do so.
This year, a federal appellate court (the Fifth Circuit) overturned Louisiana’s regulatory requirement, and now the United States Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal from Louisiana. This assures that the lower court decision will stand, and so the abbey has, at last, its long-sought vindication.
See, from 2010, Institute for Justice: Free the Monks and Free Enterprise.
(Licensing requirements like this have the obvious consequence of protecting incumbent manufacturers or sellers from competitors who, despite the quality of their products, find themselves denied licenses or burdened with heavy regulatory fees.)
I’ve republished a video from the Institute for Justice, a non-profit law firm that represented the monks, and also the IJ’s latest press release about their win.
A case like this isn’t just important for Louisiana, or Saint Joseph Abbey, or the abbey’s customers. It’s encouraging for small and independent artisans from one side of the country to another, who’d like a chance to offer good and valued products to willing, satisfied purchasers.
Arlington, Va.—Today, the Benedictine monks of Saint Joseph Abbey won the final battle of their five-year confrontation with the State of Louisiana when the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the petition of the Louisiana State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors seeking to overturn the brothers’ landmark constitutional victory. In March, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down Louisiana’s law requiring a funeral director’s license to sell a casket, affirming the constitutional right to earn an honest living without unreasonable government interference.
This case arose when the brothers of Saint Joseph Abbey, a century-old Benedictine monastery in Covington, La., began to sell their handmade caskets in late 2007 to support the monks’ educational and healthcare expenses. The Louisiana State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors moved to shut down the fledgling business before it sold even one casket because it was a crime in Louisiana for anyone but a government-licensed funeral director to sell caskets to the public. The monks brought suit in federal court on the ground that this arbitrary restriction served no legitimate public purpose and existed only to funnel money to the funeral-director cartel.
“The U.S. Supreme Court’s denial of review puts the final nail in the coffin for the state board’s protectionist and outrageous campaign against the monks,” said Institute for Justice Senior Attorney Scott Bullock. “The Abbey’s victory in this case will not only protect their right to sell caskets, but the rights of entrepreneurs throughout the country.”
The monks’ victory is one of only a handful of cases since the 1930s in which federal courts have enforced the constitutional right to economic liberty.
Abbot Justin Brown, who heads the monastic community said, “Today is a good day for us at the Abbey. Knowing that not only has our economic liberty been protected forever, but that we also helped secure the same rights for others makes this years-long battle worth it.”
“Back in March, the 5th Circuit rejected economic protectionism as a legitimate state interest,” explained Jeff Rowes, an IJ senior attorney. “With the Supreme Court’s denial of the funeral board’s appeal, the 5th Circuit’s ruling becomes final.”
“The government cannot require individuals to go through onerous licensing requirements just to sell a box,” said IJ Attorney Darpana Sheth. “This victory opens the door to strike down other irrational licensing restrictions that really serve to protect industry insiders.”
“Arbitrary licensing laws crush the dreams of countless aspiring entrepreneurs across the nation,” said Institute President and General Counsel William Mellor. “This precedent gives them hope that the day will soon come when government no longer stands in the way of honest enterprise.”
Read the Fifth Circuit Decision:
http://iam.ij.org/LACasketsDecision.
Daily Bread
Daily Bread for 10.17.13
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
We’ll have a Thursday that brings morning showers and a high of fifty-six.
On this day in 1931 Al Capone goes to prison:
…gangster Al Capone is sentenced to 11 years in prison for tax evasion and fined $80,000, signaling the downfall of one of the most notorious criminals of the 1920s and 1930s.
Alphonse Gabriel Capone was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1899 to Italian immigrants. He was expelled from school at 14, joined a gang and earned his nickname “Scarface” after being sliced across the cheek during a fight. By 1920, Capone had moved to Chicago, where he was soon helping to run crime boss Johnny Torrio’s illegal enterprises, which included alcohol-smuggling, gambling and prostitution. Torrio retired in 1925 after an attempt on his life and Capone, known for his cunning and brutality, was put in charge of the organization….
Among Capone’s enemies was federal agent Elliot Ness, who led a team of officers known as “The Untouchables” because they couldn’t be corrupted. Ness and his men routinely broke up Capone’s bootlegging businesses, but it was tax-evasion charges that finally stuck and landed Capone in prison in 1931. Capone began serving his time at the U.S. Penitentiary in Atlanta, but amid accusations that he was manipulating the system and receiving cushy treatment, he was transferred to the maximum-security lockup at Alcatraz Island, in California’s San Francisco Bay. He got out early in 1939 for good behavior, after spending his final year in prison in a hospital, suffering from syphilis.
Plagued by health problems for the rest of his life, Capone died in 1947 at age 48 at his home in Palm Island, Florida.
Scientific American‘s daily trivia question asks about a date. (Clicking on the question leads to its answer.)
University
UW-Whitewater Chancellor Telfer to serve as interim UW System President
by JOHN ADAMS •
UW-Whitewater Chancellor Richard J. Telfer will serve as the University of Wisconsin System president when Kevin Reilly leaves the post at the end of the year.
Michael Falbo, president of the UW System Board of Regents, made the announcement in a news release Wednesday.
Telfer, chancellor at UW-Whitewater since 2008, will serve as interim president starting Jan. 1, and will stay in the post until a new president takes over.
I’m well aware of the irony that FREE WHITEWATER is the first local publication to post this news (FW is mostly a site of commentary, not breaking stories).
Overall, though, I’d say that the chancellor’s work elsewhere won’t alter the policies or conditions here appreciably – I’d guess the university will implement as it has, with no major policy changes during this interim period.
Via UW-Whitewater chancellor to serve as interim UW System president @ Wisconsin State Journal.
University
UW-Whitewater Chancellor Telfer to serve as interim UW System President
by JOHN ADAMS •
UW-Whitewater Chancellor Richard J. Telfer will serve as the University of Wisconsin System president when Kevin Reilly leaves the post at the end of the year.
Michael Falbo, president of the UW System Board of Regents, made the announcement in a news release Wednesday.
Telfer, chancellor at UW-Whitewater since 2008, will serve as interim president starting Jan. 1, and will stay in the post until a new president takes over.
I’m well aware of the irony that FREE WHITEWATER is the first local publication to post this news (FW is mostly a site of commentary, not breaking stories).
Overall, though, I’d say that the chancellor’s work elsewhere won’t alter the policies or conditions here appreciably – I’d guess the university will implement as it has, with no major policy changes during this interim period.
Via UW-Whitewater chancellor to serve as interim UW System president @ Wisconsin State Journal.
Business, City, Development, Free Markets, Hip & Prosperous, New Whitewater
Whitewater’s Common Council Meeting for 10.15.13 (Downtown Whitewater and Whitewater’s Merchant Class)
by JOHN ADAMS •
Municipal funding for local business groups, including Downtown Whitewater, Inc., lies ahead. I’ll not discuss those line items today. Instead, I’ll offer a simple observation about local merchants.
Whitewater has spent too much time and money on failed big-ticket, white-collar projects and too little time on her local, merchant class.
I’ve no particular interest in favoring local retailers over national ones; I’ve every reason to cheer local merchants (1) generally as part of true entrepreneurship, and (2) as against empty and laughable ‘investment’ schemes that merely transfer public money from common people to preening, glib-talking men.
The antidote to the florid, phony press releases for these schemes is to read something insightful; the cure for enduring some prattling fool’s attempt at sophistication is to visit a merchant.
For reading I’ll always choose the early Jane Jacobs; for visits one should talk to a local businessperson in town. One reads with an open mind; one visits as an ordinary customer.
When I walk through the city, through its downtown, I’m both happy and concerned. I’m happy for what we have; worried that our focus isn’t on a true, productive, merchant class, but instead is on big schemes.
Last night, Downtown Whitewater’s director, Tamara Brodnicki, spoke to Common Council, in a quarterly presentation about her members’ and organization’s progress. Few presentations interest me more – better a simple discussion about merchants than a day about grand ideas.
She spoke about actual developments and upcoming events. That’s as it should be here, from all groups, always: a list of progress and of concrete plans.
Here’s what should weigh on us, long beyond the fall budget season: nothing good will come to a city that doesn’t support an open, vibrant, market culture. No one will move and invest here if the downtown isn’t a success.
Structures, plans, organizations, budgets, re-zoning – all that awaits, and may have more than one outcome.
It’s well past time, though, for this city to look away from the big-but-futile, toward the small-but-hopeful.
City, Government Spending, Local Government, Politics
Whitewater’s Common Council Meeting for 10.15.13 (City Manager, Budget Perspective)
by JOHN ADAMS •
It’s budget season for local governments across Wisconsin, including Whitewater. Presentations beginning in October will conclude with a vote in November.
A few introductory remarks on that process follow.
City Manager, Cameron Clapper. City Manager Clapper has two tasks, not one: daily management the city’s local government, and normalizing the way his administration describes local government’s functions.
In a city with a normal and mature politics, he’d have only the former task; it’s his particular circumstance that Whitewater has not had that kind of local government, particularly in the years immediately before Mr. Clapper’s appointment.
That’s not been Whitewater: this city has had the (wholly unnecessary) small-town disease of insecurity, of ridiculously describing every action in the grandest terms, of exaggerating accomplishments beyond the point of lying, and of hiding municipal mistakes rather than honestly admitting them.
I’ve neither respect nor sympathy for that way of speaking. It’s unbecoming and unworthy of capable, mature American men and women.
Many from among the generation of city notables before Mr. Clapper has lived this way and come up in the city this way, and prefers people who – regardless of their origins – talk that same way.
That way – of that generation – has no demographic future. They’ll either decline with a bang or a whimper, but decline they will.
As much as running the city government, Mr. Clapper has the chance and obligation to help to normalize politics in this city, to speak (as he typically does) in a matter-of-fact, conventional way. To do so has been, and will be, all to the good.
That’s no small, back-handed compliment – after what we’ve seen of those who came before him, Mr. Clapper’s way can make a big improvement.
The pressure to adopt the bad and embarrassing habits of others will be intense, of course; people like that prefer their own kind, or those who become like them.
What has been said, famously, of Ancient Israel is probably good advice for a leader in this city: Israel’s excellence lay not in how she was like the other nations around her, but in how she was different from them.
Whitewater doesn’t need puffery – we are a place worth loving, contending over, and building, as we are, and hope to be, without exaggeration or manipulation.
One wishes him the best, truly – success here would be of great benefit to the city’s future. We’ve gone on far too long the wrong way, and should delay the inevitable right way no longer.
Budgets & the Economy. We’ve a city budget, and a school district budget, but it’s the environment in which officials propose those budgets that matters even more.
The economy comes first, and fiscal accounts (that is, public budgets for cities, counties, schools) come second.
Knowing whether a flock of condors will survive requires knowing something of the environment in which they live. One could study their anatomy endlessly and still have no definite answer without an adequate environmental understanding.
So, here seems to be a reasonable plan for thinking about budgets:
1. A survey of our city’s economy.
2. A look at our long-term fiscal outlook.
3. Review of the 2014 budget proposal for the city.
(The same plan applies for our public school budget, county budget, etc.)
It’s economic, long-term fiscal, and short-term fiscal, in that order, I think.
When thinking about 2014’s budget, for city or schools, that’s how I’ll proceed over the weeks ahead.
Next: Downtown Whitewater and Whitewater’s Merchant Class
Anderson, Cartoons & Comics
Branch Offices
by JOHN ADAMS •
Daily Bread
Daily Bread for 10.16.13 (Giant Squirrel Project Edition)
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Midweek in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of fifty-three, and winds from the west at 10 mph.
Zoologists recently found something in the jungles of southeast Asia…a giant flying squirrel that puts our own local species to shame:
Biswamoyopterus laoensis is a large flying squirrel that weighs 1.8 kg and measures about 42 inches (1.08 m) in total length – the body is about 18 inches (0.46 m) long and the tail is 24 inches (0.62 m) long.
Impressive.
We should import them into Whitewater, pronto. Whitewater’s municipal government, and university administration, should be on the phone talking to the Laotian government at the earliest suitable opportunity. (Helpful hint: they’re 12 hours ahead of us. You’re welcome.)
I’d guess that these monster flying squirrels would be unsuited to our climate, but that shouldn’t stop us. Where there’s a will, there’s a way, and a multi-million-dollar, publicly-funded tech park. Why fret over an inability of the CESA 2 Building Innovation Center to make even its payments in lieu of taxes when a program of Flying Squirrel Importation could save that crony-capitalist building?
I’ve not a biologist, but there are several fruitful angles to pursue: genetic modification for cold-climate living, mass production of squirrel sweaters (plaid would look sharp), or construction of insulated squirrel habitats conveniently located throughout the city in people’s trees, spaced no more than 50 yards apart to provide plentiful opportunities for Biswamoyopterus laoensis to take shelter.
There you are: the Next Big Thing™.
On this day in 1793, the French execute Marie-Antoinette:
The daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor Francis I, she married Louis in 1770 to strengthen the French-Austrian alliance. At a time of economic turmoil in France, she lived extravagantly and encouraged her husband to resist reform of the monarchy. In one episode, she allegedly responded to news that the French peasantry had no bread to eat by callously replying, “Let them eat cake.” The increasing revolutionary uproar convinced the king and queen to attempt an escape to Austria in 1791, but they were captured by revolutionary forces and carried back to Paris. In 1792, the French monarchy was abolished, and Louis and Marie-Antoinette were condemned for treason.
Scientific American‘s daily trivia question asks about the history of science and its politization. (Clicking on the question leads to its answer.)
City, Planning
Whitewater’s Planning Commission Meeting for 10.14.13
by JOHN ADAMS •
Whitewater’s Planning Commission met for its monthly meeting last night, with three principal topics (items 4, 5, and 6 on the agenda):
4. Hold a public hearing for consideration of a conditional use permit (for expansion to include wholesale alcohol operation) for CC Property Development LLC., Christ Christon to have a brewery and tap room at 111 W. Whitewater Street (Second Salem Brewing Company, LLC.).
5. Hold a public hearing for consideration of a change in the District Zoning Map for the parcel located at 319 W. James Street (Tax Parcel # /TR 00025) to rezone from R-3 (Multi-family Residence) Zoning District to a B-2 (Central Business) Zoning District for the development of a restaurant.
6. Hold a public hearing for consideration of a conditional use permit (tavern and other places selling alcohol by the drink) for Tyler Sailsbery to serve beer and liquor at 319 W. James Street (for a “Class B” Beer and Liquor License) for a new restaurant, tavern and distillery (Casual Joes).
A few quick remarks follow.
Second Salem. It’s a clever name about our city’s reputation from the past, and, I think, a very good idea for our present. Second Salem would be a nano-brewery (production amounts of a barrel, that is, a bit over thirty-one gallons).
The location is excellent, with ample parking and easily accessible for those coming from either the east or west beyond Whitewater on Main Street. (The property is now the Whitewater Street Restaurant.)
An establishment like this is different from a tavern, and would be a fine additional to an emerging restaurant culture in Whitewater.
A Mixed-Bag Planning Commission. There’s a wide range of opinion on this Planning Commission, but sadly there also seems a wide range of understanding, too. These commissioners run the range from very savvy to not-as-much. The gaps aren’t those of left and right, or even market as against regulatory preferences. They’re more fundamental.
There’s something both strange and, candidly, obtuse about bemoaning the loss of a breakfast restaurant for a nano-brewery when it’s clear consumer demand will favor the latter.
When a commissioner insists the former would be preferable for patrons, but the day-in, day-out traffic shows the opposite, it only shows a commissioner’s lack of feel for the town as it is.
Council would do well, when picking people for the Planning Commission, to pick those – regardless of partisan ideology – with a feel for consumer sentiment, patronage, and trends.
Casual Joe’s application for a conditional use permit and a zoning change to B-2 for 319 W. James Street. The Planning Commission chose to continue their consideration of proprietor Tyler Sailsbery’s application until the next meeting of the commission, at which there will be a public hearing about the proposal for a restaurant, tavern, and distillery.
There’s an opportunity for a compromise here, between residents and proprietor, if there’s some willingness to work on a deal.
No doubt all would concede that communication of the proposal to residents nearby could have been better. Whether those residents will consider a reasonable deal, there’s no way to know.
There is, however, a practical problem with this discussion: when a commissioner tells Common Council last week that he wishes there were more licenses for projects like this, and then begins his discussion at Planning last night with his reservations, only to find those reservations might persuade others on Planning to scuttle the deal, something he might not want, he’s left with a question: which way forward?
Now, I know that one might reconcile these different positions, but it’s not a debating society: whipsawing from one view to another might get a good result, but it’s dicey and hardly a reliable, long-term strategy.
Sooner or later one may find that the music stops with no chair nearby.
That’s why, in the end, I think clearly-stated ideological views are a better approach: one knows where one’s representatives stand, and there’s still room for an applicant to persuade those of a different view to come around to one’s side (at least on a particular issue).
The best outcome would be a compromise, one that allows the proposal to go forward in a way that’s satisfactory to both applicant and residents.
Film
Film: Barcelona
by JOHN ADAMS •
Daily Bread
Daily Bread for 10.15.13
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Tuesday in Whitewater will be a rainy day with a high of sixty-three.
The Alcohol Licensing Review Committee meets at 5:30 PM, and Common Council at 6:30 PM this evening.
On this day in 1945, the Vichy leader and Nazi collaborator Pierre Laval meets his fate:
Hostile to the declaration of war against Germany in 1939, Laval encouraged the antiwar faction in the French government, and with the German invasion in 1940 he used his political influence to force an armistice with Germany. Henri Pétain took over the new Vichy state, and Laval served as minister of state. Laval was dismissed by PÉtain in December 1940 for negotiating privately with Germany.
By 1942, Laval had won the trust of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, and the elderly Pétain became merely a figurehead in the Vichy regime. As the premier of Vichy France, Laval collaborated with the Nazi programs of oppression and genocide, and increasingly became a puppet of Hitler. After the Allied liberation of France, he was forced to flee east for German protection. With the defeat of Germany in May 1945, he escaped to Spain but was expelled and went into hiding in Austria, where he finally surrendered to American authorities in late July. Extradited to France, Laval was convicted of treason by the High Court of Justice in a sensational trial. Condemned to death, he attempted suicide by poison but was nursed back to health in time for his execution, on October 15, 1945.
On this day in 1885, thousands of Wisconsin workers go on strike:
1885 – Marinette-Menominee Lumbermen Strike
On this date 2,500 Marinette-Menominee lumbermen walked off the job to support a reduction in workday hours. Mill owners locked out the workers in an attempt to force acceptance of an eleven-hour workday. The lockout failed as many lumbermen simply moved away from the area rather than agree to work eleven hour days. The employers were forced to negotiate with unions and conceded to a ten-hour work day and cash payment for wages. To learn more about lumber and Wisconsin History, visit Turning Points.[Source: A Labor History Anthology, p.24]
Scientific American‘s daily trivia question asks about extraterrestrial sports. (Clicking on the question leads to its answer.)
Here’s a video link to Shepard playing that sport on the lunar surface.