Good news, and made better by the means: “This is all privately financed.” One can expect any number of politicians to claim credit, but private effort and private means brought these new jobs.
Daily Bread
Daily Bread for 11.07.11
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning,
It’s a partly cloudy day with a high temperature of sixty ahead for Whitewater, and rain likely tonight and tomorrow.
In our small city today, there will be a meeting of the Park & Rec Board at 5 PM. The meeting agenda is available online.
On this day in 1917, the Bolsheviks seized power, when forces led by Vladimir Lenin overthrew the provisional government of Alexander Kerensky. The New York Times archive includes a story reporting on the beginning of one of history’s most violent regimes.
There’s a happier anniversary on November 7th: it’s Madame Curie’s birthday. Google has a doodle in her honor, and Wikipedia offers still more on the accomplishments of the two-time Nobel laureate.
Of Google, there’s a daily puzzle you might want to try. They publish a puzzle each day, with a separate search site that readers can use that filters published answers so that one cannot simply search for the correct response.
Here’s the puzzle for 11.07: “If the Statue of Liberty (including pedestal) were measured with the unit of length most common in 2650 BCE, how tall would she be?”
Public Meetings
Tech Park Board
by JOHN ADAMS •
Public Meetings
Park & Rec Board
by JOHN ADAMS •
Recent Tweets, 10.30 – 11.5
by JOHN ADAMS •
Cato Institute launches Libertarianism.org | Exploring the theory and history of liberty bit.ly/sxiL2l
4 Nov
She’s done many things right; dating her agent is key mistake Mistakes Hilary Swank Made|Atlantic Wire bit.ly/tqAO3m
4 Nov
Progress or decline? Mark Henschel: Metric system slowly advancing in U.S. bit.ly/uxJc8H
4 Nov
No one comes out well in all this Friday Catblogging: Cat v. Kid « FREE WHITEWATER bit.ly/umpjsb
4 Nov
Great, just great: European Union Scientists Working On Laser To Rip a Hole In Spacetime – Slashdot bit.ly/sgKEmg
4 Nov
Sexagenarian Flynn misunderstands that society now often supports press *or* bystanders with cameras bit.ly/uJsMDJ
3 Nov
Blogging: Write what you believe, defend what you write.
3 Nov
Huffington Post: Wave of deportations leaves thousands of children in foster care huff.to/tVdPkQ
3 Nov
About the size of it: Circular Firing Squad Forms Over Who Leaked the Cain Story – The Atlantic Wire bit.ly/rw9A3F
3 Nov
Gallup: Three in Four Americans Back Obama on Iraq Withdrawal bit.ly/rG5I9N
3 Nov
Why SeaWorld’s orcas don’t have a claim to their freedom under the 13th Amendment (even if they deserve freedom) bit.ly/uQA27J
2 Nov
Fish tacos: they sound odd, but taste delicious Nothing ventured, nothing gained
2 Nov
Outrageous: 18 Arrested in Wisconsin Assembly for Using Cameras |Center for Media and Democracy bit.ly/tQQQNd
2 Nov
Adams on ‘The Shrewd Mr. Flynn’ « FREE WHITEWATER bit.ly/vunxnU
2 Nov
Too funny Left reports on how Right is upset with Romney’s Mormonism HuffPost huff.to/uU9rN7
2 Nov
Copyright troll’s latest problem: US Marshals turned loose to collect $63,720.80 from Righthaven bit.ly/sXEHex
2 Nov
Pretty darn lucky, indeed The Incredible Luck of Mitt Romney – The Atlantic Wire bit.ly/rGq1BJ
1 Nov
Yes RT @bradshorr: The new Google Reader: looks like the designer quit in the middle of the project.
1 Nov
Boo! Scariest Things in *America*, 2011 « FREE WHITEWATER bit.ly/rA66Oo
31 Oct
Boo! Scariest Things in Whitewater, 2011 « FREE WHITEWATER bit.ly/uvidCp
31 Oct
Cartoons & Comics
Sunday Morning Cartoon: Daffy Duck in Yankee Doodle Daffy
by JOHN ADAMS •
Cats
Cat Perched in Traffic Light
by JOHN ADAMS •
Via Huffington Post
Libertarians
Cato Institute launches Libertarianism.org |Exploring the theory and history of liberty
by JOHN ADAMS •
LIBERTY.
It’s a simple idea, but it’s also the linchpin of a complex system of values and practices: justice, prosperity, responsibility, toleration, cooperation, and peace. Many people believe that liberty is the core political value of modern civilization itself, the one that gives substance and form to all the other values of social life.
THEY’RE CALLED LIBERTARIANS.
See, Libertarianism.org.
Freedom of Speech, New Media
The Simplicity of Blogging
by JOHN ADAMS •
The important dynamic for blogging is one that I tweeted about yesterday: write what you believe, and defend what you write. If one writes from conviction, and defends that writing (and the liberty to write), one has a good chance of making one’s way through good times and bad. (In the course of defending something, there’s an opportunity to adjust one’s thinking, too.)
The same cannot be said for those driven by status, situation, social scene: they’ve no internal temperature, and like cold-blooded animals, they’re especially dependent on even slight changes in the weather for their survival.
Blogging often starts out as an alternative to conventional media, but over time persistence takes a toll on conventionality. That’s why in response status quo voices will sometimes imitate the form and style of blogging. When that fails, as it often does, they’ll search for any forum, any medium, to get their message out.
It could not be otherwise. The same desire that formerly motivated people to dominate a social scene will cause them seek new platforms when their old ones are no longer exclusive, or when their old ones are challenged.
That’s not political conventionality’s problem, though: it’s not a lack of a platform that imperils the status quo. It’s the enervation and dissipation that comes from being an exclusive voice, lazy and dull and presumptuous. Social neediness imperils sharp thinking, and to obscure thinking about more than one’s place in a much larger scene than the here-and-now.
The core motivation of conviction, and the impulse to defend those convictions, keeps blogging a clear, persistent, enjoyable pursuit.
Comment Forum
Poll and Comment Forum: Android or iPhone?
by JOHN ADAMS •
Ok, smart readers: here’s a question about smartphones. (‘Smart readers’: that’s all of you, with the exception of anyone visiting who thinks Whitewater’s Tax Incremental District 4 has actually been managed well.)
I use an Android phone, and it’s one in a series of Android phones I’ve used since the launch of that operating system. (Before that I was a longtime BlackBerry user.)
Now, though, I wonder: should I jump ship to the iPhone 4s?
Droid or iPhone? I’ve a poll and comment forum on the topic, and your opinions are my enrichment.
Comments will be moderated against profanity and trolls; otherwise, have at it.
Crime, Liberty, Press
State Journal blasts arrest of Journal Sentinel reporter
by JOHN ADAMS •
Officials’ foolish over-reaching:
We’re not anti-cop. Far from it. We’re actually very much pro-law and order. Some of our best friends are police officers, and we admire the difficult work done by the men and women who keep our communities safe.
But the decision by Milwaukee police officers Wednesday to arrest a Journal Sentinel photographer who was simply doing her job is inexcusable. Were it not so offensive the arrest would be laughable….
Cats
Friday Catblogging: Cat v. Kid
by JOHN ADAMS •
I’m sure to get complaints about this week’s catblogging photo – an animation of a spat between a small child and a feline. Some will blame the cat, others the child, still others will wonder where the parents are (after all — it wasn’t another cat that filmed this conflict).
Daily Bread
Daily Bread for 11.4.11
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning,
It’s a sunny day with a high of fifty-four ahead.
The Wisconsin Historical Society notes that this day marks the anniversary from 1909 of the
Nation’s First Commercially Built Airplane
On this date in Beloit, a plane was assembled and built by Wisconsin’s first pilot, Arthur P. Warner. This self-taught pilot was the 11th in the U.S. to fly a powered aircraft and the first in the U.S. to buy an aircraft for business use. Warner used it to publicize his automotive products.[Source: History Just Ahead: A Guide to Wisconsin’s Historical Markers]
The Journal Sentinel covered the centennial of Warner’s flight in 2009. See, First state flight to be commemorated in Beloit.
Economy, Poverty
More Americans in Dire Poverty, But There’s a Way Out
by JOHN ADAMS •
Disconcerting economic data have this advantage: they’re a useful reminder of work ahead, and a spur to greater zeal.
Best fiscal choices in times of poverty: spending cuts (beginning with elimination of leadership posts) to fund a reduction in taxes, return of most tax money to taxpayers and businesses, with second source of expense savings going to temporary assistance to the poor. It’s cut, return, support.
America will bounce back, but changing course will help us bounce back more quickly.
Anyone contending it’s business as usual in cities and towns across America is either confused or deceptive.
New census data paint a stark portrait of the nation’s haves and have-nots at a time when unemployment remains persistently high. It comes a week before the government releases first-ever economic data that will show more Hispanics, elderly and working-age poor have fallen into poverty.
See, full story from the Associated Press.