It says much about our politics that although Wisconsin makes it easy for smaller-party candidates to get on the ballot, they’re unknowns.
The story also tacitly illustrates the difference between libertarians (of which there are many in Wisconsin) and candidates of the Libertarian Party proper (of which there’s not a single mention). Most libertarians vote with one of the two major parties, shifting between the two from season to season depending on the major parties’ positions.
The LP has done nothing these many years to change that, and this election year in Wisconsin proves no different.
Over at Reason.tv, there’s a half-hour video of a panel discussion about a recently-published anthology, New Threats to Freedom. That title sounds ominous, but it needn’t be, as discussions about liberty forfend the prospect of a more restrictive and regulated society. The panel discussion makes me eager to read the book — available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders, and Templeton Press.
Here’s a link to an interview with Adam Bellow, editor of the anthology:
“On May 17, 2010, Reason sponsored a panel discussion on the new collection New Threats to Freedom featuring editor Adam Bellow (“Where Have All the Grownups Gone?”), Reason’s Katherine Mangu-Ward, Stephen Schwartz (“Shariah in the West”), and Christine Rosen (“The New Behaviorists”).
New Threats (visit the book’s website here) includes contributions from figures such as Christopher Hitchens (“Multiculturalism and the Threat of Conformity”), David Mamet (“The Fairness Doctrine”), Glenn Reynolds (“Liberty and Complacency”), Anne Applebaum (“The Decline of American Press Freedom”), and Reason staffers Katherine Mangu-Ward (“The War on Negative Liberty”) and Michael C. Moynihan (“The Anticapitalists”).
In his introductory essay, Bellow calls for a reinvigorated debate about the meaning and necessity of freedom in a world that is a generation past the Cold War. Reflecting on figures such as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and his own father, the Nobel Prize winning novelist Saul Bellow, he writes,
Many of us assumed that there would always be such people on hand to make the case for freedom and democracy. The loss of many of these outsized intellectual and literary figures in the first decade of this century leaves one wondering whether there are still any grownups around.
But here is a sobering thought: merely to ask the question is to assume responsibility for embracing the task oneself. Resistance doesn’t come out of nowhere; it has to be fostered the old-fashioned way, word by word, through magazines and books, think-tank panels, conferences and seminars. We are the grownups now, and we owe it to the next generation to provide a model of how to be serious about ultimate questions.
Approximately 27 minutes. Shot and edited by Dan Hayes, Meredith Bragg, and Josh Swain.” more >>
Whitewater’s forecast for today calls for scattered thunderstorms with a high of eighty-four degrees.
The Wisconsin Historical Society recalls that on this date in 1832:
Atkinson enters the Trembling Lands
On this date, General Atkinson and his troops entered the area known by the Native Americans as “trembling lands” in their pursuit of Black Hawk. The area was some 10 square miles and contained a large bog. Although the land appeared safe, it would undulate or tremble for yards when pressure was applied. Many of the militiamen were on horses, which plunged to their bellies in the swamp. The “trembling lands” forced Atkinson to retrace his steps back toward the Rock River, in the process losing days in his pursuit of Black Hawk. [Source: Along the Black Hawk Trail by William G. Stark]
Wisconsin’s indoor smoking ban begins today. One might have allowed private establishments, and patrons, to decide for themselves: no-smoking, some in some areas, or smoking in all areas. The state, instead, now bans comprehensively and those choices aren’t available.
It’s the anniversary of the bikini, this date being attributed to the creations of a designer and an engineer in France. The Metropolitan Museum of Art has details on the development:
Fashion designer Jacques Heim and mechanical engineer Louis Reard both claim to be the first to launch the bikini on the French Riviera in Cannes in the summer of 1946. The design, two triangles on top, positioned to cover the bosom and two triangles, one front, one back, on the bottom, was basic. Though Reard patented his version and Heim is now remembered as a couturier and an early supporter of sportswear, there is much debate over who “invented” the bikini. A likely scenario is that both gentlemen had seen the local jeunes filles of Cannes sunning themselves in the most abbreviated beach costumes in order to achieve the bronze of the newly fashionable suntan. The bathers had pushed the fashion to the acceptable social limit, and both businessmen took advantage of this show of youthful daring. Officially, the first time the bikini appeared in a fashion event was at a poolside show at the Piscine Molitor in Paris on July 5, 1946.
Whitewater’s Independence Day parade was among the biggest of recent memory, with local groups and out-of-city participants from as far as fifty miles away. I published some scenes from the parade, in an earlier post.
Just a bit ago, I watched the fireworks from across Cravath Lake, looking toward downtown Whitewater. Thousands of residents and visitors lined the sidewalks, parks, and streets near the lake. Others parked farther away, and watched the display from their cars.
The thunderstorms earlier forecast for tonight held off, and people brought blankets and chairs to watch the celebration. It was a lovely night, the conclusion to a very fine holiday for Whitewater.
Here are a few photographs of the show:
The crowd was happy and appreciative, but I thought subdued, too. The weekend was wonderful; their concerns were surely elsewhere. I took no surveys, and so I can offer only my own assessment. I’d guess there’s an underlying worry among many about the near future, a concern about the next few years, despite a justifiable pride and hope and fundamental optimism about America’s greater future. In that way, this time feels to me like nothing so much as the Bicentennial. Then, like now, people were justifiably proud of America’s heritage, but uncertain about what what might wait just ahead.
We came through that time, and we will come this one, too — difficult, with travel over hard ground, but well within the ability of Americans. Although one might have doubts about the road ahead, and legitimate skepticism about local politicians’ solutions, it’s impossible to be other than optimistic walking through tonight’s crowd.
They, above all others, are the ones who sustain the city, and support the country, that will yet see better days on their account.
There’s a fine story at the Washington Post (free registration req’d) entitled, “Jefferson Changed ‘Subjects’ to ‘Citizens’ in Declaration of Independence.” It’s long been known that Jefferson made changes as he worked on his draft of the Declaration, as anyone would. ONly in one case, however, did he erase a word entirely, and substitute a different one. (In other cases, he merely scratched a word out, and wrote a new one beside it. For more on the science behind the discovery, see “Subjects of Attention.”)
Using advanced imaging technology, research chemist Dr. Fernella France and colleagues examined Jefferson’s actual written draft:
Scholars of the revolution have long speculated about the “citizens” smear — wondering whether the erased word was “patriots” or “residents” — but now the Library of Congress has determined that the change was far more dramatic.
Using a modified version of the kind of spectral imaging technology developed for the military and for monitoring agriculture, research scientists teased apart the mystery and reconstructed the word that Jefferson banished in 1776.
“Seldom can we re-create a moment in history in such a dramatic and living way,” Library of Congress preservation director Dianne van der Reyden said at Friday’s announcement of the discovery.
“It’s almost like we can see him write ‘subjects’ and then quickly decide that’s not what he wanted to say at all, that he didn’t even want a record of it,” she said. “Really, it sends chills down the spine.”
Yes, it very much does. Here a great man, who helped make us what we are, saw the looming truth of his, and of others’, efforts: that we would never again be merely subjects, but were from then onward citizens.
And so we are, proudly, to this day.
Jefferson’s rough draft of the Declaration, third page — Courtesy of the Library of Congress
RT @CatoInstitute: Celebrate your independence (and educate a few friends) with 10 Pocket Constitutions for $10. http://bit.ly/93Rwam
1:24 PM Jul 2nd
Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Gableman survives ethics charges by not perishing http://bit.ly/bac5KQ
11:53 AM Jul 1st
It’s about time – RT @reasonmag: British Health Secretary to Jamie Oliver: Shut Yer Pie Hole http://ow.ly/25iRh
12:28 PM Jun 30th
Perhaps detecting spies was easier in 1966 | From FreeWhitewater.com http://bit.ly/cuLqxg
12:25 PM Jun 30th
Public office, even in small town, should be for governing based on principle, not getting notice & plaudits to fill gaping emotional holes
1:44 PM Jun 29th
The downside of American prosperity is that the economy can tolerate jobs for white-collar, overly indulged, nutty people
12:07 PM Jun 29th via Seesmic
Geeks Rejoice! Amazon Kindle app now available in the Android Market | Android Central http://bit.ly/9MTt9N
6:44 PM Jun 28th
Hasn’t anyone in Whitewater, WI seen The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance? http://bit.ly/cTNNtR
3:02 PM Jun 28th
RT @IJ: VICTORY: Justice Thomas’ Writing Breathes Life Into Important Privileges or Immunities Clause: http://iam.ij.org/9tABzS
12:56 PM Jun 28th
Failed political culture of Whitewater, Wisconsin runs on personality as principle Confused officials cannot see they’re different things
12:55 PM Jun 28th
It was kid’s day at Whitewater’s Independence Weekend fair. A few quick shots, from many hundreds happy moments, of many hundreds (or thousands) of kids.
The economic recovery limped ahead last month as the nation’s private-sector employers added an anemic 83,000 jobs – a pace far too slow to replace the 8.5 million jobs obliterated by the recession.
June marked the second consecutive month of wheezing private-sector job creation, and long-term unemployment reached new post-World War II records, according to the latest monthly U.S. Labor Department report, released Friday….
The year began with high hopes, in part because Washington spent hundreds of billions of dollars on homeowner tax credits, automaker bailouts and public-works spending meant to stimulate the economy.
But the stimulus appears to be wearing off. According to data in the past week, a key index of consumer confidence dropped sharply in June. Auto sales also fell from the previous month.
Manufacturing added 9,000 jobs in June, although Dresser called the increase lukewarm. U.S. manufacturers have added 136,000 jobs since December 2009.
The mortgage meltdown, which triggered the financial crisis and ensuing slump, continued to be felt. Construction employment in June decreased by 22,000.
Should all of this be true — and it is — what does this tell about states and cities and towns that took stimulus money but have nothing to show for it? It suggests that many public projects involved a formula of local promises in exchange federal taxpayers’ money, with little to show afterward.
The mad rush of states, cities, and towns to be first at the trough has been of little advantage for the poor, longterm unemployed, or new entrants to the workforce. There was an emptiness, and a selfish emptiness, in more than a few of these submitted proposals.
Whitewater’s Independence weekend events continue, and a full description is available at ww4th.com. Here’s what’s upcoming:
Saturday, July 3rd (Kid’s Day)
12 Noon Festival Opens
– Midway by Christman Amusement Opens (Arm Bands 12PM-4PM)
– American Legion Beer Tent Opens
– Food Vendors Open 12:00 noon – 4:00PM – Children’s petting zoo– Sponsored by Dalee Water Conditioning
1:00 PM – Minneiska Ski Show on beautiful Cravath Lake
Live Music Stage Noon – 1:00PM – Cross Point Church Band
2:00PM – 3:00PM – EKiss O Musical
3:30PM – 5:00PM – Beyond Youth
5:30PM – 8:30PM – Saddle Brook National Music Act!
9:00 PM – Heidi Newfield of Trick Pony – www.heidinewfield.com
Whitewater’s weather tonight should be clear and comfortable. People sometimes say that summer nights in the 50s or 60s are comfortable. That’s true (and tonight is forecast for 60 degrees), but even occasional colder nights are agreeable. Hard not to find these days other than agreeable. It’s the beginning of America’s largest summer holiday, these few days commemorating our beginnings. Just wonderful.
I went out to visit Whitewater’s business park, on the east side of this small city. I always find my visits depressing — the layout is bleak, uninviting, and dull. Roads and curbsides snake among bland buildings and empty lots. Businesses are so far apart, with too much empty space in between, and the area lacks the hustle and bustle characteristic of production, growth, and prosperity.
I’ll post some photos of the park next week.
No visit would be complete without a quick stop at the site of Whitewater’s forthcoming Innovation Center. I took a few pictures there, too. Those pictures, also, deserve their own post, but I will include just one, for now. It’s of a crooked fence, near one of the gravel driveways into the site:
What a waste of federal and local money all this is. We’ll spend millions for something no better in design — and less useful in function — than an average, modern middle school. If the federal government must tax and spend, it would have done better to give the money to needy people as cash grants. Even a spendthrift idea like that would be more useful than the current project.
As for the driving vanity of the bureaucrats and politicians behind this effort, could we not have satisfied that overweening need and pride for less than several million? We might have built a marble statute for each of them, given each a gold watch, with a vacation cruise for the lot of them, and still saved most of the money now prodigally spent.
I took my photos from the street, and just beyond the curb, so that I’d not run afoul of the warning from No Trespassing signs. The day was over, and no one else was nearby, with only one car passing while I was there. The area was so ugly and in such contrast to the green field nearby, that there was no reason any onlooker should want to go closer.
In the foreground of the picture, however, one can see a few wildflowers, any one of which is better looking, and greener, than anything one will find looking through to the other side of the fence. I took a picture of them, to cleanse the palate, so to speak:
Much better. Even my poor photography cannot obscure something so lovely.
Why not end tonight with something equally impressive as these flowers, and something truly innovative? Here, from the sessions that led to The Birth of the Cool, is a recording of Boplicity.
I received the following press release from the Eagle Historical Society that I am happy to post:
Eagle Ice Cream Social and Benefit Concert
The Eagle Historical Society and Palmyra-Eagle Community Band invite everyone to come out for a free Ice Cream Social on Sunday, July 11th from 1:30 pm – 3:30 pm at the Eagle Village Park located on Main Street and Markham Road in Eagle.
The cake and ice cream is free to all, with cakes baked and donated by members of the Eagle Historical Society and ice cream graciously donated by Tasty Z’s/Eagle BP.
Cash donations are welcome to help with clean-up efforts at the Historic Oak Ridge Cemetery in Eagle, which was heavily damaged by the tornado on Monday June 21st, and all money collected will go toward that effort.
The concert starts at 2 pm, featuring the Palmyra-Eagle Community Band, and will include the music of John Phillip Sousa, current movie and show hits, and polkas. Amazing soloists will thrill all with a “Dixieland Surprise” and you can join in the great Audience Sing-A-Long.
Come one, come all to this annual Eagle old-fashioned treat with a patriotic theme, providing wholesome and great family fun! Remember Sunday July 11th 1:30 pm – 3:30 pm.
