FREE WHITEWATER

Economy

U.S. Employers Shed 131,000 Jobs in July; Unemployment Rate Steady at 9.5% – WSJ.com

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The government’s latest snapshot of the job market was bleak, a sign the economic recovery is running out of steam with 14.6 million Americans still searching for work.

Job growth proved anemic in July as governments cut jobs and private-sector employers barely expanded.

The economy shed 131,000 jobs, as 143,000 temporary Census workers fell off federal payrolls. Private-sector employment grew by 71,000 in July after a downwardly revised 31,000 in June. Government employment, not counting Census workers, fell by 59,000.

The unemployment rate held steady at 9.5% largely because people gave up hope of finding work and left the labor force.

There’s a way out and up — Significant and permanent reductions in the tax burden on Americans, at all levels, and comprehensive reductions in the size of federal, state, and local government will lift the economy.

See, U.S. Employers Shed 131,000 Jobs in July; Unemployment Rate Steady at 9.5% – WSJ.com.

Laws/Regulations

Apology in Oregon After County Inspectors Shut Down Child’s Lemonade Stand

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It was right for the county’s executive to apologize afterward, but telling that two county inspectors lacked the normal understanding to refrain from shutting the stand down.

Here they are: Petty, small-minded, and contemptous of the culture in which they live. Alternatively, they don’t have the capacity required for exercise of simple authority.

Apology in Oregon After County Inspectors Shut Down Child’s Lemonade Stand

Laws/Regulations

Author David Gumpert on Raw Milk Consumption

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I’ve posted occasionally about raw milk, and the inability of adult consumers to drink natural, unpasteurized milk even in a dairy state like Wisconsin. There’s a story at the Walworth County Gazette‘s online edition about an interview with David Gumpert, who’s written about raw milk. See, Author: More research needed on health risks of raw milk.

(Gumpert is author of “The Raw Milk Revolution: Behind America’s Emerging War Over Food Rights.” He encourages more study in response to Big Dairy’s unwillingness to support research on natural milk.)

The story links to an NPR interview with Gumpert.

Gumpert observes, in the interview, that reviewing Centers for Disease Control data comparing raw milk to eggs, for example, shows that eggs causes far more illnesses than milk.

It’s a seven-minute interview, well worth one’s time.

Comment Forum

Friday Open Comments Forum

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Here’s the Friday open comments post.

It’s a wide open open forum today — comment freely.

The use of pseudonyms and anonymous postings are, of course, fine.

Although the comments template has a space for a name, email address, and website, those who want to leave a field blank can do so. Comments will be moderated, against profanity or trolls. Otherwise, have at it.

I’ll keep the post open through Sunday afternoon.

Law, Liberty

Divorcing Marriage and Government

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There’s considerable talk about a federal judge’s ruling involving California’s Proposition 8, a proposition that defines marriage under California law. There’s discussion of the ruling, laws and constitutional provisions in other states that are similar to Proposition 8, and the politics of it all.

Like most libertarians, I don’t think these discussions are broad enough — why not get government out of the marriage business? It seems odd, but for thousands of years, government was out of the marriage business, in many parts of the world. David Harsanyi writes along these lines, in a column entitled, “Time For a Divorce”.

Harsanyi explains:

In the 1500s, a pestering theologian instituted something called the Marriage Ordinance in Geneva, which made “state registration and church consecration” a dual requirement of matrimony.

We have yet to get over this mistake. But isn’t it about time we freed marriage from the state?

Imagine if government had no interest in the definition of marriage. Individuals could commit to each other, head to the local priest or rabbi or shaman — or no one at all — and enter into contractual agreements, call their blissful union whatever they felt it should be called and go about the business of their lives.

I certainly don’t believe that gay marriage will trigger societal instability or undermine traditional marriage — we already have that covered — but mostly I believe your private relationships are none of my business. And without any government role in the institution, it wouldn’t be the business of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, either.

As the debate stands now, we have two activist groups trying to force their own ethical construction of marriage on the rest of us. And to enforce it, they have been using the power of the state — one via majority rule and the other using the judiciary (subject to change with the vagaries of public opinion).

Time indeed, to get government out of the business of deciding these things, and by deciding, choosing (and defining) the moral standard for groups that simply don’t have or want a common standard.

The issue of marriage is too important to be a political issue, subject to a group consensus that impinges on individuals’ private consciences. What should, or shouldn’t be, marriage isn’t a decision that one should ever put to plebiscite — one does not make these significant moral judgments and decisions by opinion survey. more >>

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for Whitewater, Wisconsin: 8-6-10

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Good morning,

Whitewater’s forecast calls for a mostly sunny day, with a high temperature of eighty-two degrees.

At Wired, there’s a story about a funny science program, Look Around You — a spoof of science programs, really. In Look Around You: Science Video Reductio ad Absurdum, Daniel Dumas writes about the series:

Remember being horrendously bored in school while watching science videos that had production values on par with Plan 9 From Outer Space? Well, Peter Serafinowicz (Simon Pegg’s boorish roommate in Shaun of the Dead) and his writing partner, Robert Popper, conceived the Look Around You series as an homage to the poorly cobbled educational reels from the late 70s and early 80s.

The 8-to-10 minute clips are injected with heavy doses of incorrect information, dubious claims and pure absurdism. To wit, in the segment called Maths, the narrator asserts, “the largest number is 45 billion, although mathematicians suspect there might be larger numbers.”

In this video, Serafinowicz and Popper explain their project:

Link:

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid90402333001?bclid=90190339001&bctid=292352654001.

Here’s a link to the whole series, at the BBC website:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/lookaroundyou/ more >>

Law, Laws/Regulations, Police

Reason.tv: Five Ways the Drug War Hurts Kids: A Conversation with Neill Franklin of LEAP

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I never have, and never will, support a drug culture. I’ve argued for a change in the law regarding medical marijuana, but it’s a change in the law that I’ve advocated, for those in chronic pain.

Beyond that, I think it’s well past time to see that existing efforts in the drug war haven’t stopped the spread of addiction. Current efforts have been, this last generation, an expensive failure.

(I dislike the description of anti-addiction efforts as part of a war, as we are not at war with our fellow citizens, and as war is reserved as a last resort of real soldiers fighting the real foreign enemies of this country.)

Americans are right to fight against addiction; they’re equally right to see that the fight isn’t now being won as a ‘war’ on drugs. If there are those who insist on seeing the current struggle as a war, they’d do well to admit it’s a domestic Vietnam.

Americans can, and one day will, do much better against addiction than we’re doing now in a wasteful and destructive domestic effort described as a war.

For some of the many ways that war has been misguided, Reason offers a short interview with Neill Franklin.

Here’s a description of the interview:

Commentators like Bill O’Reilly claim that ending the drug war would lead to more children being abused by drug-addicted parents. But 33-year law enforcement veteran Neill Franklin sees it differently.

“These drugs in an illegal environment are more accessible to our kids,” says Franklin, who serves as Executive Director Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, “because we leave complete control, regulation, and standards up to the criminals.”

Reason.tv’s Ted Balaker sat down with Franklin to discuss how battling drug dealers in Baltimore turned him against the war on drugs and why ending prohibition would improve safety for children, as well as the rest of us.

Approximately 8.2 minutes.

Interview by Ted Balaker. Shot by Alex Manning and Paul Detrick. Edited by Hawk Jensen and Sam Corcos.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzOHQdKRANA more >>

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for Whitewater, Wisconsin: 8-5-10

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Good morning,

It’s a sunny day forecast for Whitewater, with a high temperature of eighty-four degrees.

In Wisconsin history on this date, the Wisconsin Historical Society recalls that in 1910

1910 – Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show Performs
On this date Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show performed to an enthusiastic crowd at the Rock County fairgrounds. [Source: Janesville Gazette]

Here’s film that the Thomas Edison Company made, of the show (although not from the Janesville appearance):



Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3w__1GyfQPQ more >>

City, Police

Whitewater’s Police Commission Meeting for 8-4-10

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There’s a Police Commission meeting tonight in Whitewater, at 7 p.m. The agenda for the meeting appears below.

First the agenda, and remarks thereafter.

One standard for residents, an easier one for officials.

At the bottom of the August 4th agenda, one reads that on August 2nd it was

August 2, 2010
Emailed/mailed to PFC members
Faxed to the Whitewater Register for posting
Faxed to the Library for posting
Emailed to Channel 13 for posting
Emailed to City Clerk’s Office for posting on City Hall bulletin board
Posted on City of Whitewater Website (ci.whitewater.wi.us)

That’s two days’ notice before the meeting. For those who might need an interpreter, or access for a disability, however, the city has as a more demanding, three days’ notice requirement:

Anyone requiring special arrangements is asked to call the Office of the City Clerk, 262-473-0500, at least 72 hours prior to the meeting.

The Commission expects at least 72 hours. By their own standards, they’ve not provided enough time for entirely reasonable requests of those with special needs.

This isn’t a clerical matter. Is there no leader who reads this, and sees what it plainly means? I don’t even mean ‘is there no leader who cares’ about service to residents, but instead is there no leader who sees how embarrassing this is?

The shiver of excitement. Perhaps, every so often, officials here and elsewhere get a shiver of excitement of doing what they want, whatever they want, good policy notwithstanding. There’s probably been more than one person on this continent who’s mumbled to himself, “I’ll do what I damn well please.”

That’s predictable and unsurprising. I’ve often thought that officials gone wrong don’t get better; they get worse. They typically huddle together, supporting each other in one bad notion or another.

The history of the South from two generations ago is instructive. Those who were defiantly opposed to a better politics didn’t yield easily or become gentler.p They grew worse, for the most part.

Change came around them, and in spite of them.

In a different way, that will be true in Whitewater. A new generation will discard and hold in contempt the shoddy practices of this time. (In the interim, as some of the current group succeed each other, one can be sure that they’ll quickly turn on their immediate predecessors. They’ll prove faithless successors.)

A good point, still as useful as when first made, deserves to be made again. A few of those are in order:

About that notice. Look at how the Commission provides notice, apart from the amount of notice. It’s a lot of faxing for posting, but not much certainly that half of it gets up, and gets seen, in time.

If these men and women had a yard sale, they’d be sure to give more notice than what they give for a public commission.

The same small room. The City Manager’s Conference Room has a great sound to it (so very important), but this group belongs in a meeting room, not a conference room.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for Whitewater, Wisconsin: 8-4-10

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Good morning,

Whitewater’s forecast for today calls for a slight chance of showers with a high temperature of eighty-seven degrees.

In the City of Whitewater, there will be a Landmarks Commission meeting today, at 5 p.m. The agenda is available online.

On this day in 1901, Louis Armstrong was born. Upon his death, roughly seventy years later, a New York Times obituary describe Armstrong’s many accomplishments and unequalled role in making jazz a great art form:

Miles Davis, a contemporary jazz star, has asserted that “you can’t play anything on a horn that Louis hasn’t played.” Teddy Wilson, who played piano with Mr. Armstrong in 1933, has called him “the greatest jazz musician that’s ever been.”

And Leonard Feather, the eminent jazz critic and author of “The Encyclopedia of Jazz,” wrote of Mr. Armstrong:

“It is difficult. . .to see in correct perspective Armstrong’s contribution as the first vital jazz soloist to attain worldwide influence as trumpeter, singer, entertainer, dynamic show business personality and strong force in stimulating interest in jazz.

“His style, melodically and harmonically simple by the standards of later jazz trends, achieved in his early records an unprecedented warmth and beauty. His singing, lacking most of the traditional vocal qualities accepted outside the jazz world, had a rhythmic intensity and guttural charm that induced literally thousands of other vocalists to imitate him, just at countless trumpeters through the years reflected the impact of his style.

And this of his style, so very plain and American and wonderful, when he played for English royalty:

While he was in London, Mr. Armstrong demonstrated memorably that he had little use for the niceties of diplomatic protocol.

During a command performance for King George V, Mr. Armstrong ignored the rule that performers are not supposed to refer to members of the Royal Family while playing before them and announced on the brink of a hot trumpet break, “This one’s for you, Rex.”

(Many years later in 1956, Satchmo played before King George’s granddaughter, Princess Margaret. “We’re really gonna lay this one on for the Princess,” he grinned, and launched into “Mahogany Hall Stomp,” a sort of jazz elegy to a New Orleans bordello. The Princess loved it.)



Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5Hbh_-IRs8. more >>

Economy

Second-Quarter Slowdown Likely Worse Than First Thought – Real Time Economics – WSJ

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The slowdown in economic growth recorded in the second quarter was likely even less robust than initially reported on Friday, according to new inventory data released today.

Inventories have had a major impact on growth over the past few quarters, and the change was estimated to have added more than one percentage point to the 2.4% annual rate of gross domestic product growth reported by the Commerce Department Friday. But factory-order data for June shows that the estimate used to calculate the preliminary number was way off.

One reads that GDP growth wasn’t even a paltry 2.4%, but likely between only 1.7% and 2%.

See, Second-Quarter Slowdown Likely Worse Than First Thought – Real Time Economics – WSJ.