I’m overdue for a series on the drug war (a war now forty years in duration). Until it’s ready, here’s a brief video from former congressional candidate Mark Grannis on the futility of our current strategy:
Politics, Press
Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism posts state officials’ statements of economic interest online
by JOHN ADAMS •
Knowledge is power, or at least, a way to assure integrity among the powerful.
The archive, searchable by party affiliation and district number, is accessible at this link. Available are statements from state legislators, as well as five constitutional officers: governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, treasurer and secretary of state.
Via WisconsinWatch.org. Also linked at Daily Wisconsin.
Press
Will Patch.com, or Something Else, Come to Whitewater, Wisconsin?
by JOHN ADAMS •
You’ve probably noticed that AOL’s Patch.com is flourishing across southeastern Wisconsin, with sixteen cities having that hyper-local website model, among hundreds of Patch.com websites across America. Wisconsin’s current Patch websites offer local news, respectively, for these communities: Brookfield, Caledonia, Fox Point-Bayside, Greendale,Greenfield, Hudson, Menomonee Falls, Mount Pleasant-Sturtevant, Muskego, Oak Creek, Port Washington-Saukville, Shorewood, Sussex, Waukesha, Wauwatosa, and Whitefish Bay.)
A New York Times about Patch from January 2011 notes that the service has problems, including uneven quality and limited traffic at some individual sites.
Patch’s Wisconsin properties are all serving affluent towns, so Whitewater may not see something like it. I think that’s a mistake — we’re a town that needs more news, not less, and a Patch website might have a better go of it in a town with a university. Add our campus to the mix, and we’re as big as some of the towns that now have AOL’s service.
(Quick note: I have no connection to anyone at Patch.com, and no interesting in writing for these websites.)
But if not Patch, then perhaps something like it, as NYT reporter Verne Kopytoff notes that Yahoo! and Google both have an interest in hyper-local news delivery.
Competition is good for a community, and Whitewater could use more rather than fewer newspapers, radio stations, websites, blogs, pamphlets, pigeons with messages on their legs, etc.
Music
Monday Music: Ella Fitzgerald Sings Blue Skies
by JOHN ADAMS •
Daily Bread
Daily Bread for 6.27.11
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
It’s a day of strong thunderstorms ahead for Whitewater, with a high temperature of eighty degrees.
There’s a regular school board meeting tonight, beginning ?in closed session at 6 p.m., with an open session at beginning at 7 p.m., and a possible resumption of the closed session later tonight. ?The agenda as written offers no mention of an open session announcement tonight about internal candidates for district administrator.
Tomorrow’s currently scheduled special meeting lists closed session interviews, if any, and a possible announcement thereafter.
Correction, 6.28.11: interviews are an open process.
It’s not absurd to seek an internal candidate, but Whitewater’s approach — both exemplar and self-parody of a closed process — has little more than an even chance of producing a good candidate. ?See,?Whitewater Schools? Coin Flip.
The Wisconsin Historical Society recalls today as a birthday:
1837 – The Milwaukee Sentinel Founded
On this date the?Milwaukee Sentinel, the oldest newspaper in the state, was founded as a weekly publication by?Solomon Juneau, who also was Milwaukee’s first mayor. [Source:?History Just Ahead:?A Guide to Wisconsin’s Historical Markers edited by Sarah Davis McBride, p. 19]
That’s an inauspicious beginning that’s turned out well, as the paper has long since rejected the combination of politician and publisher, and embraced an independence lacking at its founding.
Daily Bread
Daily Bread for 6.23.11
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
It’s a day of light rains for Whitewater, with a high temperature in the lower sixties.
A century ago, June 23rd marked a day of aviation triumph for Wisconsin:
1911 – First Home-Built Airplane Flies
On this date Wausau native John Schwister became a pioneer in Wisconsin aviation by flying the state’s first home-built airplane. The plane, named the “Minnesota-Badger,” was constructed of wooden ribs covered with light cotton material. Powered by an early-model aircraft engine, the “Minnesota-Badger” flew several hundred feet and reached a maximum altitude of 20 feet. [Source: Wisconsin Aviation Hall of Fame]
Daily Bread
Daily Bread for 6.22.11
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
For Whitewater today, it’s a day of showers with a high temperature in the low seventies.
The Wisconsin Historical Society writes that today, in 1943, was one of the more embarrassing moments in Wisconsin political history:
1943 – McCarthy Breaks Leg in Drunken Accident
On this date future senator Joseph McCarthy broke his leg during a drunken Marine Corps initiation ceremony, despite a press release and other claims that he was hurt in “military action.” Although nicknamed “Tail Gunner Joe”, McCarthy never was a tail gunner, but instead served at a desk as an intelligence officer. In 1951 he applied for medals, including the Distinguished Flying Cross, awarded to those who had flown at least 25 combat missions. The Marine Corps has records of only 11 combat flights McCarthy flew on, and those were described as local “milk run” flights. Many of McCarthy’s claims were disputed by political opponents as well as journalists.
McCarthy had this advantage, if consistency in such matters is an advantage: he was a lout from beginning to end, evident to anyone who looked his way. One cannot say he appeared to be one thing, but was truly something else; he was unsuited to represent others, from any angle or distance.
Libertarians, Press Release
The First Candidate
by JOHN ADAMS •
I regret not posting this press release sooner, as it mentions the Libertarian Party’s first candidate, Dr. John Hospers, who passed away recently ninety-three years of age:
John Hospers, first Libertarian presidential nominee, dies at 93
WASHINGTON – John Hospers, the Libertarian Party’s first presidential nominee in 1972, died on June 12, 2011 in Los Angeles, California at the age of 93.
Hospers became the Libertarian Party’s first nominee for U.S. President at its first national convention in Colorado on June 18, 1972. Hospers and his running mate, Tonie Nathan, each received one electoral vote in the 1972 election from Roger MacBride, a renegade elector in Virginia.
Hospers was a professor of philosophy at several universities, including the University of Southern California.
A brief biography is available at his website.
In 1971, he wrote the book Libertarianism – A Political Philosophy for Tomorrow, which described the libertarian political and economic philosophy.
Libertarian Party Chair Mark Hinkle said, “I’ve been involved with the Libertarian Party since voting for John Hospers for president in 1972. Dr. Hospers was very influential in the formative days of our party, and we will miss him.”
A photo of a 1972 Hospers campaign poster is available here.
Via Libertarian Party.
Libertarians
Libertarianism Growing in Popularity
by JOHN ADAMS •
A recent CNN poll shows that libertarianism is on the rise in the last three years in the United States, more than at any point in the last two decades.
The poll, which CNN has conducted yearly since 1993, tracks the strength of social and economic libertarianism and reveals that both ideas are gaining popular support.
See, Libertarianism | CNN Poll | On The Rise | The Daily Caller.
Liberty
Raw Milk’s Not an Ordinary School Food
by JOHN ADAMS •
I have long favored raw milk as a choice for adults, and adults who choose it for their children. It’s not, though, a food that’s ready for school children whose parents have not constented to its inclusion on a menu:
Laboratory test results show that the Campylobactor jejuni bacteria that caused diarrheal illness among 16 individuals who drank unpasteurized (raw) milk at a school event early this month in Raymond was the same bacteria strain found in unpasteurized milk produced at a local farm, according to officials from the Department of Health Services (DHS) and Western Racine County Health Department (WRCHD). A parent had supplied unpasteurized milk from the farm for the school event.
Unfortunately, an incident like this will be used to justify banning organic milk comprehensively and indiscriminately, even in America’s Dairyland.
See, Raw milk source of campylobacter that sickens 16 in Wisconsin school.
Daily Bread
Daily Bread for 6.21.11
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
It’s a day of thunderstorms with a high temperature of about eighty ahead for Whitewater.
It’s a busy day of public meetings in the Whippet City. At 4 p.m., Whitewater’s Community Development Authority meets (see, Community Development Authority 6.21.11 agenda). At 4:15, Whitewater’s Urban Forestry Commission meets (see, Urban Forestry 6.21.11 agenda).
Later, at 6:30 p.m., Common Council will be in session (see, Common Council 6.21.11 agenda).
Music
Monday Music: Ben Sommer’s Henry Kissinger
by JOHN ADAMS •
Sommer’s music is always a treat, and here he insightfully describes the many and particular problems of Dr. K’s foreign policy.
Go, Ben, go:
Daily Bread
Daily Bread for 6.20.11
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
It’s a cloudy day forecast for Whitewater, with a high temperature of seventy-seven, and a chance of thunderstorms.
There’s a Park & Recreation Board meeting today in Whitewater, at 4 p.m. The meeting agenda is available online.
Today is the anniversary of a labor controversy from 1911, as the Wisconsin Historical Society recalls:
On this date Italian working men, employed by Andrus Asphalt Company in Madison, went on strike and threatened to kill their foreman if they did not receive an increase in wages for laying pavement. The men demanded a 25-cent (a day) raise, from $1.75 to $2.00. To learn more about strikes and the labor movement visit our Birth of the Labor Movement page in Turning Points. [Source: Bishops to Bootleggers: A Biographical Guide to Resurrection Cemetery, pg. 184]