What people saw is now officially confirmed. It was true before; confirmation is still welcome to answer objections from people who will ask, “But was it officially confirmed?”
See, Walworth County Today: Weather Service Confirms Thursday’s Tornado Near Whitewater .
There’s an odd story originally printed in the Idaho Mountain Express about a police dog named Dax that bit a schnauzer named Max.
(I have written before about a biting police dog from Edgerton, Wisconsin, but that case was about serious injuries the dog inflicted on two people, one of whom was a police officer.)
In Idaho, it was simply dog v. dog, but even then the dog was kept out of service pending retraining.
The battle over the right to drink natural, unpasteurized milk is a national one, as a story in the Los Angeles Times confirms.
If government can ban raw milk because of the supposed danger, why wouldn’t it ban the uncertain practice of potluck dinners at schools, churches, and workplaces? I wouldn’t support a ban on potlucks or raw milk; the question simply shows how arbitrary government seems.
(Seems, because only one of those two cases has Big Dairy clamoring for a ban on a competitive product.)
See, LA Times: Food Raid Raises Questions Over Existing Milk Laws…and the Safety of Potlucks
I don’t have a great knowledge of comic books, but I do know a bit, about some. I wish I knew more. We’re a creative country, and the art and stories of comic books have been part of our culture for generations. They’re so much a part of this culture, that successful comics can be wildly profitable, with large numbers of fans, and the chance for major films based on their characters. (Some of those geeks with large collections are now major forces in Hollywood.)
Comic-Con International went on this past weekend in San Diego. Over one-hundred thousand people attended during the three-day event.
Here’s a video to show what it was like:
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihWEXWzbnao.
Some of these attendees are out-of-the-ordinary, but this is one of the places a free, prosperous society leads: to individual creativity and fun that need not apologize for not fitting in. On Friday, one of the commenters to this website wrote something that reminded me of the words of the great English philosopher, Adam Ant:
We don’t follow fashion
That would be a joke
You know we’re gonna set them, set them
So ev’ryone can take note, take note
Some of the people at events like this will probably wind up setting fashions for others to take note. more >>
You just can’t keep a good economic system down. Despite three years of calumnies, three-quarters of Americans still support free markets.
See, Poll: Most Americans Pick Free Market Over Government-Run Economy.
Good morning,
Whitewater’s forecast calls for a sunny day, with a high of eighty-four degrees.
The Board of Directors of Whitewater’s Community Development Authority meets today, from 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. The agenda is available online.
The agenda’s a fine substitute for a crossword or other puzzle, but a deficient and embarrassing public agenda. Consider these items:
6. Discussion and Possible Action on Whitewater’s TIF District #4
a. Pro-forma
b. Project Plan
c. Timetable
What would that mean to a resident? He or she would have no idea what action was being considered. This is vague language that’s written as though it were code, not the public agenda for a public meeting of a public entity, conducting a meeting under Wisconsin law. One would know more about tax incremental district 4 if one were simply to say that the district is gasping for air, so many decisions already having been botched.
Read on still farther, and one finds this:
12. Adjourn to closed session at approximately 5:45PM to reconvene approximately 6:00PM per Wisconsin State Statutes 19.85 (1)(e). Deliberating or negotiating the purchasing of public properties, the
investing of public funds, or conducting other specified public business, whenever competitive or bargaining reasons require a closed session
a. Economic Development Loan 1421 W Main Street, Whitewater, WI
Closed sessions are a part of our law, but about what would this closed session be? One sees only that 1421 W Main Street is seeking an economic development loan.
This is surprising to me — in the history of the world, I know of no instance where a street address was able to ask for a loan. If this should be the first, one would think that Whitewater’s city manager, Kevin Brunner, would want to publicize the astonishing fact.
(Brunner, in addition to serving as city manager, also acts as head of the CDA. He is, I’d guess, compensated for both roles. This raises two points. First, there cannot be a truly independent CDA where a city manager runs both a city and a CDA. Second, current compensation must not be related to the performance of tax incremental district 4, because then Brunner would owe the city money.)
These are gentlemen who run public entities — legally obligated to the public — as though they were private clubs, speaking cagily, without true and normal candor, as though the public were a burden in the way of their vain dreams of ‘vision’ and ‘development.’
Where’s 1421 W Main Street, Whitewater, Wisconsin? It’s right here:
Good evening,
It’s a clear night tonight in Whitewater, with a full moon, and a low of fifty-eight degrees.
I spend a fair amount of time online, and I visit websites from left, center, and right. There’s nothing I enjoy more than a new find. Happily, I came across one recently, that I’d like to share. I had never before seen GritTV, but finding it was a real treat.
The website is not connected with the magazine called Grit; GritTV is a left-of-center website with public affairs programming. It’s also so cheesy that it makes the Grit newspaper look like the New York Times. (GritTV would do better to claim it was connected to the Grit newspaper, in the hope that the style of the latter — such as it is — might rub off on the former.)
Here’s a description of GritTV, from its website:
Launched on May 12, 2008, GRITtv reaches millions of viewers weekly on Free Speech TV on Dish network (9415) and DirecTV (340) on cable and public television stations nationwide, and anytime, anywhere online. Distributed in multiple platforms, GRITtv is a daily, 30-minute discussion for people who want to make a difference.
Incorporating viewer-submitted content, grassroots activism, and a positive, progressive message that aims to go beyond the one-way format of traditional media, GRITtv talks to the people commercial media ignore. Independent filmmakers and journalists, activists, and the smartest thinkers and doers of our time are part of the conversation, and you can be too.
I’m sure some of that’s true, but watching one of their programs is like watching a parody from Second City Television, except not as clever, well-produced, or intentionally funny.
Here’s a segment with two activists, talking about environmental policy. Consider, first, how GritTV describes the episode:
Our biological clock is ticking, and it’s ticking fast. Global temperature averages have risen by ten degrees, eliminating many species and drying up necessary water resources. When natural ecology changes, human ecology changes; while we might not have an apocalyptic Day After Tomorrow scenario, it may be a slow and more painful series of wars, refugees, and failed states brought on by slowing food production.
Heather Rogers, author of Green Gone Wrong and Gwynne Dyer, author of Climate Wars joined us in the studio to discuss the risks and environmental policy needs to postpone the inevitable, bleak consequences of overconsumption. While plenty of people are making personal choices to ride their bikes or be vegetarians, these will barely help without structural policy changes to curb the behavior of the unconverted.
I’m not sure what’s funnier — misuse of the expression ‘biological clock,’ the description of those who disagree as ‘unconverted,’ or set that’s as cheesy as anything I can recall.
See for yourself, and enjoy seventeen minutes of utter nonsense. You’ve probably not seen anything like this since you last hurried past a mumbling vagrant sitting on a bench near a local flop house.
Link: http://www.grittv.org/2010/07/10/heather-rogers-gwynne-dyer-environment-climate-change/. more >>
Contador wins, Schleck comes within 39 seconds, and Armstrong retires, again. A summary of Stage 20, and the Tour, is available at Cyclingnews.com and Bicycling.com. See, July 25, Stage 20: Longjumeau – Paris 102.5km (Tres victorias de Francia para Contador!) and Contador Wins 2010 Tour de France.
Versus offered the Tour in HD, and like so many other viewers, it was the first time I saw it that way. These were twenty interesting stages, televised in a compelling, beautiful format.
Contador’s won the TdF three times, and may have other victories yet ahead.
Cycling, too, has other events ahead, in competition and (perhaps) in the courtroom. For American fans of Lance Armstrong, as for the fans who once stood by Floyd Landis, these are likely to be frustrating months. Armstrong has had, to be sure, a high-flying and controversial career. See, Armstrong Could Never Leave Well Enough Alone.
Allegations have been leveled against Armstrong many times, but the standard of review will be more exacting than previous claims against him. I’ve read David Walsh’s book, From Lance to Landis: Inside the American Doping Controversy at the Tour de France, and it offers suspicions, but nothing like the sort of case that federal investigation would have to craft. By comparison with a federal investigation, Walsh’s book is just a piker.
(I’d guess that it will a hard to make a case against Armstrong, but that Jeff Novitzky of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will do all he can, and a judge will likely have to remind him of those things he can’t).
I’m opposed to doping in sports, because I think it excessively unnatural, but also because athletes agree not to dope, and so to do so is dishonest. I’d dislike a sport that allowed doping, but at least it would be a candid competition — athletes would simply admit what they took.
Cycling doesn’t, so athletes should refrain. To do otherwise is to cheat and lie.
By the way, although cycling has long been a European sport, I’m not the sort of fan who favors European athletes because it seem more ‘sophisticated’ or ‘genuine.’ I love America, and I know that we’re capable of producing great athletes who triumph without illegal drugs. (I’d also like to note that many of the worst doping scandals have been European ones.)
America is so capable, that we have a great cyclist who won the Tour de France three times.
He won honestly; we can win that way again.
Greg LeMond: Bravo To The New Generation | Cyclingnews.com http://bit.ly/9cKDRK
about 6 hours ago
Our national debt would horrify the Founders | Washington Examiner http://bit.ly/9BCMSU
about 9 hours ago
Libertarian legal scholar handicaps whether Supreme Court will find ObamaCare’s insurance mandate constitutional http://bit.ly/d55xVT
about 18 hours ago
Floyd Landis Nightline Interview: ‘I Saw Lance Armstrong Using Drugs’ – ABC News http://bit.ly/aApY7n
about 18 hours ago
Selfish employees seek more while many are unemployed: UW System officials call for restoring raises http://bit.ly/bcRmc6
about 18 hours ago
Tour De France: Stage 19, Contador bests Schleck, remains in yellow | Cyclingnews.com http://bit.ly/cGbm9J
about 18 hours ago
Althouse: “I don’t think you can be a journalist and carry water for a politician, and that’s what they were doing”: http://bit.ly/dzrXtG
about 18 hours ago
RT @WiStateJournal: http://ow.ly/18evKx Candidate Ieshuh Griffin may be joker, but WI should allow her to run as ‘not the whiteman’s bitch’
4:14 PM Jul 21st
I’d like to see Schleck win TdF, but he’ll have to do more than talk tough to beat a ruthless competitor like Contador http://bit.ly/cbjOTI
4:03 PM Jul 21st
Temporarily – Contador and Schleck make up on French TV http://bit.ly/92IObj
3:22 PM Jul 20th
Advocacy doesn’t make something right or wrong; it merely suggests which of the two something already is
2:12 PM Jul 19th
Government cannot repeal human nature Local officials that declare themselves beyond normal are likely such only in self-promotion & lying
11:52 AM Jul 19th
One way to spot third-tier bureaucratic propaganda Over use of exclamation marks We’re working for you! Tax bills go out next week! Etc.
11:48 AM Jul 19th
When a city declares all’s happiness & light, behind the scenes it’s likely malaise & bullying
11:45 AM Jul 19th
From Fox, here’s a video of a bison attacking a tourist at Yellowstone Park:
I first found a shorter version of the video at the Huffington Post, and that website described the attack as a ‘summer bummer.’
Oh no — it’s a gift of amazing bragging rights. The tourist apparently survived with only bruises after being hit by a 2,000 pound animal. She’s got a story to tell at every party she attends for the rest of her life.
Her Yellowstone trip may turn out to be the best vacation she ever takes.
Meanwhile, at the Wall Street Journal, all the editors must be on vacation, because somehow the chimp-supporting, English troublemaker Jane Goodall got to publish an essay entitled, A Journey Through the Jungle. It’s packed with lies about chimpanzees, ignoring the truth about their human-hating inclinations. The English, especially nutty Englishwomen, are particularly given to this sort of dishonesty.
Goodall’s characteristically upside-down perspective is on display; she’s not even shrewd enough to hide it:
Today we try to keep a certain distance from the chimpanzees while observing them—their immune system is uncannily like our own and we know they can catch many of our infectious diseases.
No, no, no — that’s not why people should stay away. People should stay away from chimps so they don’t get their faces ripped off by the nasty creatures.
There are few animals more vicious than chimps, and all the so-called nature expeditions ever undertaken can do nothing to refute the real science that confirms chimpanzee savagery — to other chimps, to humans, and to all creation, most likely.
I’m more than happy to set the record straight —
See, Chimpanzees: Cuddly Primates or Vicious Killers? Vicious Killers!
Contador expands his lead, besting Schleck, and remains in yellow for the ride to Paris. Contador didn’t even need to eat his parents to show how ruthless he could be. (He probably would have; he just didn’t need to this year.)
Tour De France: Stage 19, Route Maps & Results | Cyclingnews.com.
