So says Punxsutawney Phil.
Holiday
Early Spring
by JOHN ADAMS •
Laws/Regulations, Libertarians, Liberty
Nanny of the Month (Jan 2011) Drug Testing 11-year-olds! Fining iPod Users!
by JOHN ADAMS •
Daily Bread
Daily Bread for 2-2-11
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning,
Whitewater’s forecast calls for a windy and snowy day, with a high temperature of twenty degrees.
Both Whitewater’s municipal building and schools are closed today.
Here’s what a major storm looks like, from space:
Science/Nature, Wisconsin
Snowy Day
by JOHN ADAMS •
The National Weather Service offers statistics to put the present snowstorm into perspective. The current record for a day in February for Madison snowfall is 11.9 inches (on 2.6.2008) and for Milwaukee snowfall it’s 16.7 inches (2.10.1960). We’ll see a great deal of snow over the next day, but there have been snowy days before.
We’re a hardy lot.
Although I’m not much for present-day England, the English have proved themselves hardy in the past, most surely during the Second World War. There’s a poster they created in 1939, that’s far, far more justified during our natural, snowy winter than it was during their genuine and terrible emergency, an horrific crisis —
Facing only nature, we’ll be just fine.
Enjoy the snow day ahead.
City, Politics
Nietzsche and the Dark Hope Against a Better Local Politics
by JOHN ADAMS •
It’s been a while since I last read anything of Nietzsche, but his work — even when profoundly wrong — is memorable. There’s a passage from Advantage and Disadvantage of History for Life, that is, itself, about memory. It’s useful for understanding a certain, irresponsible view about how Whitewater’s politics should work.
Imagine the lack of recollection in a herd animal:
Consider the herd grazing before you. These animals do not know what yesterday and today are but leap about, eat, rest, digest, and leap again; and so from morning to night and from day to day, only briefly concerned with their pleasure and displeasure, enthralled by the moment and for that reason neither melancholy nor bored…..
Man may well ask the animal: Why do you not speak to me of your happiness, but only look at me? The animal does want to answer and say: because I always immediately forget want I wanted to say – but then it already forgot this answer and remained silent: so that man could only wonder.
Nietzsche erroneously thinks that some men might envy the animal’s condition; he did not live long enough to see how wrong he was, how perverse is the idea that the condition of animals might be enviable.
But, about the idea of the animal as without memory — at least of the kind that we have — he was surely right. The herd animal (and although he does not specify, I have always imagined Nietzsche wrote of gazelles) does not recall day after day as we do. It can’t even remember a question long enough to utter an answer, as it were.
And yet — and yet — we have a local politics that assumes ordinary people are like this, that they cannot recall from day to day. Memory of an officials’ mistakes, misconduct, and mendacity isn’t supposed to endure from moment to moment; it’s as though every day begins the world anew.
It’s a view both false, shamefully condescending, and utterly irresponsible. In a world where no one recalls, no one will be accountable. It’s the hope of every mediocre career bureaucrat — that there will be no memory of prior, absurd mistakes and lies, and so no consequence for them. Worse than a false view of how the community is, it’s a dark hope of what the community should be, and against a better local politics.
But if some should have this hope, they hope in vain. To disprove the view that we have no memory, and to prevent a time when we should find ourselves without any, it is enough to recount what has happened, as it actually happened.
Daily Bread
Daily Bread for 2-1-11
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning,
It’s a snowy and windy day for Whitewater, with a high temperature of twenty three.
There’s a common council meeting scheduled for tonight, at 6:30 p.m. The agenda is available online.
Update: this council meeting will now take place at 6:30 on February 1st 7th due to snowy weather.
There are, even now, many new discoveries to be made. Over at Wired, there’s a story, entitled, That Ain’t No Jackal: New African Wolf Species Identified, that describes one of those discoveries:
Conservationists in Egypt have discovered a new species of wolf, which shares DNA with Indian and Himalayan cousins.
The “Egyptian jackal”, as it’s known, is not in fact a jackal at all, despite the visual similarities it bears to another local species, the golden jackal. The discovery sheds light on how wolf species migrated through Africa and Europe – proving that grey wolves emerged in Africa about 3 million years before they spread to the northern hemisphere.
Government Spending, Politics
E.J. McMahon: State Bankruptcy Is a Bad Idea – WSJ.com
by JOHN ADAMS •
The biggest state budget gaps will never be closed until politicians use the tools they already have to challenge the overweening power of public employee unions. Meanwhile, Washington can help by lifting some of the burdens it imposes on the states. Converting Medicaid into a block grant, for example, would remove one big excuse governors now have for failing to do more to control their health-care costs. By giving states more flexibility to deal with this program and other federal mandates, Congress will have greater justification for telling governors to fix their own problems.
Conservation, Nature
Sandhill Cranes
by JOHN ADAMS •
A video of a huge flock Sandhill Cranes at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico, USA. The video clip includes cranes landing.
By snowpeak (John Fowler)
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/snowpeak/5396822610/)
[CC-BY-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)]
via Wikimedia Commons more >>
Public Meetings
Common Council
by JOHN ADAMS •
Daily Bread
Daily Bread for 1-31-11
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning,
It’s a snowy day ahead for Whitewater, with a high temperature of twenty-three degrees.
It’s the 31st day of the year, with 334 days left in 2011, and with one day left for voting in the Pepsi Refresh Project for the Treyton Kilar Field of Dreams.
From across Whitewater, and places beyond, so very many people have supported this project, and their support have kept this fine effort in the running for a grant from PepsiCo.
I have been voting for it each day this month, and will happily add today’s vote to those that came before. A vote for this project is a simple, quiet act of goodness and hope.
Here’s the project overview, from the Pepsi Refresh website —
Treyton Kilar, age 6, was killed in a senseless car crash by a drunk driver on September 2, 2010. In an effort to create hope out of despair, the Whitewater community has united to build a new baseball field to honor Treyton and provide a happy, healthy place for families and children to come together safely. Treyton’s big dream was to someday play professional baseball.
He spent countless hours practicing at home and on teams through the Whitewater Parks and Recreation Department. Although Treyton’s dream was cut short by a senseless tragedy, this new ball field will provide our young people with an opportunity to achieve their dreams. By providing a place for family friendly and safe activities, the Treyton Kilar Field of Dreams will provide an alternative to drinking and driving and be a monument to overcoming evil with goodness and love.
Here’s how to vote —
1. Register at http://www.refresheverything.com/treytonkilar and then vote for the Field of Dreams project. Once registered, you’ll be able to vote for the project.
2. For Facebook, go to http://www.refresheverything.com/treytonkilar, and install the blue Facebook application (it’s in the right column of the page).
3. Text 105500 to Pepsi (73774)
Beautiful Whitewater
Beautiful Whitewater
by JOHN ADAMS •
Recent Tweets, 1-23 to 1-29
by JOHN ADAMS •
The Beat Sweetener: Mistake for press, justification for blogs Urban Dict http://bit.ly/h0PguF
29 Jan
Whitewater’s city manager tries to pick winners in the marketplace, he distorts private flow of capital, and creates only losers
28 Jan
Closure notice filed for Wisconsin Cheeseman http://dlvr.it/FJ5RK
28 Jan
Institute for Justice Defends the Rights of Street Vendors « FREE WHITEWATER http://bit.ly/gW97cw
27 Jan
Spoken and Unspoken « FREE WHITEWATER http://bit.ly/gOZogL
26 Jan
Maryland United Way asks soup kitchen to sign anti-terrorism pledge Are Wisconsin agencies asking something similar? http://bit.ly/h5CW6G
25 Jan
Cartoons & Comics
Sunday Morning Comic: Peals Before Swine
by JOHN ADAMS •
Uncategorized
The Bold Cure for Respiratory Infection
by JOHN ADAMS •
A community experiences an outbreak of a respiratory disease, of unknown kind. The condition seems similar to ones that the community’s faced before, year after year.
The town fathers meet, to decide what to do. Some suggest over-the-counter medicines, others encourage the ill to drink lots of fluids, and still others suggest doctor’s visits. Only a few people in the town have ever been to a doctor, and those who have seen one have never bothered with a routine of checkups and preventive care.
“Doctors,” the majority cries, “they can’t do anything. We need results!”
From the back of the room, a middle-aged man offers a solution.
“Leeches,’ he says.
There’s silence in the room.
The man goes on: “That’s right, leeches. They suck the illness right out. Better still, after a treatment with leeches, the patient is so queasy and weak, that’s he’s too sick to catch another respiratory infection. Many people are too scared to get sick again. The fear, uncertainty, and doubt that leeches inspire encourages people to stay healthy. That’s our solution. It’s the latest, greatest cure.”
A few people pose objections, among them that doctors haven’t been consulted regularly and diligently, that using leeches risks infection, and that — in fact — leeches were once tried clinically and rejected as a solution.
The man smiles. He looks around, and says, “We should ignore this criticism. Don’t consider a word of it. These leeches will be applied with my expert care and caution. I’m known as a professional and prudent man. I would tell readily you as much.”
The critics repeat their concerns.
And yet, people are still sick, and someone needs to do something. Doctors, pharmaceuticals, fluids — they seem too tame. It’s time for a bold, dare one say wild, solution. Something that will get people’s attention, and make the papers.
The town fathers vote, considering from among the options.
Leeches.
