Private Schools and Accountability

One of the frequently heard criticisms of private schools (or the private sector in general) is that there is a lack of accountability.

Today I was attended a focus group hosted by my high school alma mater. The school wanted to know how to reach alums, how to get them involved in the school, and, let's be honest, how to get them to donate money.

Now there is absolutely no way that someone would donate money to a school if he/she didn't learn anything there or if the overall experience wasn't a positive one. As such, a private school, if it is to survive in the long run, must provide a good education.

If a private school is unable to provide a good education, or at least one that is better than the free alternatives, it will cease to exist. And you can forget about alumni donations.

Now contrast this with public schools. Public school systems do not have to hustle for private donations. They will get funded regardless of whether they offer a decent education or not.

A public school can offer a subpar education and still survive. A private school that does not offer a decent education will disappear. A private school therefore is accountable for educational results while public schools are not.

Question of the Day

This should be an easy one. Why isn't anyone complaining about the amount of money being spent by the presidential candidates?

Save the Children

A Case High School teacher laments, in a JT letter, that "teachers are blamed for a society that fails children before they even get to school." Children are poor, can't afford college, they don't know what to do as adults, some face the difficulty of family illness and still others have "an addictive parent" that holds them back. Teachers can't "heal all the broken children" but they do "yeoman's work encouraging children from both good as well as broken or destroyed families to do the best they can." Pettit is proud of the successes of teachers.

And he concludes by asking the reader "How are you helping at your house?"

Oh that is an easy one. I am keeping my son as far away from whining, ineffective, hypersensitive, praise-deprived, excuse-making, blame-projecting teachers as I possibly can.

Free Trade For Me, Restrictions For You

I have been in the retail business for 15 years or so and I am still waiting for a customer to offer me more than the asking price. And home sellers will never propose a counter-offer that is less than the buyers original offer.

It is undeniable that people wish to buy at the lowest possible price and sell at the highest possible price. This is human nature and it makes no difference whether you area liberal or a conservative.

On the other hand, it is also true some want free trade for themselves but trade restrictions or regulations on others. They want to buy low and sell high for themselves but also force others, via government, to buy high and sell low.

Examples. The minimum wage forces some to buy labor at artificially high prices. Universal health care forces health care prices down for the buyer, or rather the receiver, of the service. Public education eliminates the cost of education entirely for some. Trade unions lock competitors out of job opportunities, which forces others to pay a higher price for labor.

Free trade for me. Restrictions for others. If this not hypocrisy, what is it?

Harborfest Downtown?

So Harborfest is a no go this summer. To bad. The organizers have stated that the costs of bands and the cost of renting the festival grounds ($28,000?) are too high. I think they are right.

The streets of downtown would be a far better venue and the costs could be reduced dramatically. They could shut down Main Street for far less money. They could rope off the side streets and collect donations at a few locations. They could save money on bands by having many of our local bands perform for far less $. And I believe people would prefer to have a big party on the street where they could also shop in stores, eat in restaurants, drink at bars etc... Full disclosure- this would be good for my business. But that is not the point. I think people would prefer to have the venue on the street.

Agree? Disagree? Let's hear it.

Change, Hope and Strict Constructionism

I met Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Mike Gableman the other day. He has broad shoulders, an infectious smile, and a firm handshake. He is hopeful and he likes change. I think I heard some rattling around in his pocket. Yes we can bring more change and a spirit of hopefullness to Wisconsin. I am sooooooo excited!

Oh, and one more thing. He believes that a judges job is to judge in accordance with the Wisconsin Constitution, irrespective of his personal views.

Or maybe I just thought that is what I heard as I looked into those soft, dreamy eyes....

High on Obama

Is there a difference between a Barack Obama speech and mood elevating drugs?

Thoughts of the Day

I have often heard people state that they want no part of religion because of the many horrendous acts committed in the name of God.

Yet I have never heard of anyone fasting until death because they once got food poisoning.

I have yet to hear anyone push for anarchy because of the government of North Korea.

The residents of New Orleans still use water.

There may well be valid reasons to swear off religion. But because someone detonates retarded people in the name of God is not one of them.

White Guilt

I had a recent post on the subject of bogus racial discrimination lawsuits. Two posters suggested that the way to eliminate bogus discrimination lawsuits would be for employers not to discriminate. Huh? By that way of thinking, bogus discrimination lawsuits only occur after actual discrimination. Or to put it another way, there is no such thing as a bogus discrimination lawsuit. If we proceed logically down this illogical path, we realize that a white person is guilty of whatever accusation is leveled at them by a minority. If you are white, you must be guilty.

White equals guilt is the absurd conclusion one must reach if you think the way to end bogus discrimination lawsuits is to first eliminate discrimination. But I am afraid that what I consider absurd- that white equals guilt- is actually believed by many many people, including large numbers of white people.

Question of the Day

A recent Wall Street Journal poll indicated that Americans are far more uncomfortable with the idea of electing a Mormon or an evangelical Christian than they are a women or a black person.

Is religious bigotry a greater probem than sexism or racism?

Nature or Nurture

"African-Americans make up 6% of the state's population but account for 45% of the adult prison population. These numbers suggest that either blacks are more criminal by nature or some whites seldom get punished for lawless behavior. Either way, it demonstrates a clear imbalance in the way the law works."

Those words belong to Milwaukee Journal Sentinel columnist Eugene Kane.

If "blacks are more criminal by nature", this would not be evidence of "a clear imbalance in the way the law works." If blacks are "more criminal by nature", then their increased incarceration rates would make perfect sense and this would not necessarily indicate any failure "in the way the law works." So Kane is wrong.

And Kane is wrong again in presenting us with the false choice of either "blacks are more criminal by nature or some whites seldom get punished for lawless behavior." If we agree that blacks are more criminal by nature, then we are surely racists. I don't believe for a second that blacks have a more criminal nature than whites.

I believe we all have a criminal nature regardless of the color of our skin and that it is up to parents and ultimately ourselves to control our base instincts.

If there are indeed more crimes being committed by blacks, it is not a result of a criminal nature. I suspect a nurture problem. Children having children, single parent families, no male role models etc...

Now if Kane would recognize the possibility of a nurture problem, he might begin to understand and address the incarceration problem.

Walk This Way

The city of Waterford recently received a $57,000 Department of Transportation grant to encourage children to walk. Read it about it here: http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=713627

Waterford's gum chewing grant application is pending.

Collateral Damage

An assistant professor at Parkside was fired recently for not showing up for work for five months. The professor, a black man of Nigerian descent, was recently denied tenure. He also had filed a federal lawsuit alleging that he was discriminated against because of his race. This matter will be settled in court.

Now imagine you are an employer that, unlike UW Parkside, does not have access to taxpayers cash. You have to spend your own money when you get sued. Now imagine two job applicants that appear to be equally competent, one black and one white. If you hire the white employee, it is exceedingly unlikely that you will face a discrimination lawsuit if you fire him for incompetence. But if you hire the black employee, you face the possibility of getting sued for racial discrimination. Even if the chances of getting sued are remote, the potential damage could be devastating to a business. It is entirely reasonable for an employer to factor in the potential cost of a lawsuit when hiring, even though I suspect that doing so would be illegal.

Now suppose you are an applicant for a job and you happen to be black. You are a reasonable person with no axe to grind. You would never file a bogus discrimination suit. Yet you know that your chances of getting a job are hampered by discrimination lawsuits filed by other black people.

Regarding the Parkside case, I don't know if the lawsuit is bogus or not. But if it is, the Parkside professor will not pay the price. The price will be paid by a decent, competent minority who doesn't get the job.

Money Well Spent

I was out of town for a while but I saw in the USA Today that Joshua Dyess was sentenced to 30 years for his sexual assault of a six year old boy. It is not cheap to incarcerate someone for 30 years - I would not be surprised if the bill will exceed one million dollars.

And this is where the thinking ends for most liberals. They know well the costs of incarceration but they tend not to consider the cost of NOT incarcerating criminals. In this case, the cost would be having more children raped.

I am glad to pay my share to protect the children of our community.

Your Turn

I will be taking a blogging holiday for a bit. Feel free to amuse yourselves and others here in my absence.

Blaming Victims

Rosie Carothers went to work on June 4th of last year. It was not a good day. She was shot at her bar when she asked a customer to leave. And she might lose her liquor license because of this incident.

"Who else is going to be responsible?" asks Racine Alderman Q.A. Shakoor, chair of the Racine Public Safety and Licensing Committee. Apparently not the shooter.

Suppose Rosie had been raped instead of shot. Should she still lose her license?

On Government Pricing

I am in the retail business. If sales are not what I need them to be, I have a few options. I can improve the quality of my offerings, or I can lower the price. It is true that there are other things a retailer can do, but by and large, customers want low prices, good quality or a combination of the two. Or to be brief, customers want value.

It is no different when we buy a home. We factor in everything when buying a home. What is the neighborhood like? Is it safe? Are there jobs? How many square feet are there in the home? Is the roof leaking? How much are taxes? Is the yard too small? Etc...

If, after all the comparisons are made, my customer decides to shop elsewhere, I have a problem. Likewise, if after all the comparisons are made in the housing market, home buyers don't choose Racine, home sellers also have a problem. And there is a reliable measure, the census, to detirmine if home buyers are, as they say, voting with their feet. They are. Racine is losing population.

Home sellers can improve quality by painting, adding a deck, or planting flowers etc... or lower the price, or both.

What can government do? Same thing. They can try to improve quality via bike trails, train service, taxi service, school referenda, better planning, ice arenas, high speed ferries, facade grants, artist recruitment initiatives, and on and on. These things have not prevented the decline in population. Do you think they will ever lower the price?

Self Hatred?

Condoleezza Rice is self-hating black woman. She was the worst National Security Adviser in modern times. She is incompetent. She may secretly harbor a fantasy that President Bush is her husband. She was put on a pedastal by her parents and "she can't see down from there." She was not allowed to associate with underclass blacks and she once chided a friend for acting "niggerish."

No, I don't hate Condoleezza Rice and I am not on the KKK's mailing list. I got this info from a publication that aims to serve the African American community.

Taxing Problem

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (Racine County section) has a comparison of area property tax rates. As it happens, I own property in both the highest taxed area, Racine, and the lowest taxed area, Wind Point. The difference is quite dramatic.

According to the MJS article, a property in Racine with a $150,000 fair market value will be taxed $3,166 while the same property in Wind Point will be taxed $2,077. Or, to put it another way, property taxes in Racine are 52% higher than Wind Point. Yes, 52% higher.

As my condo in Wind Point is worth in the neighborhood of $150,000, I save over a $1,000 year after year by living in Wind Point rather than Racine. Surely this will increase the value of my condo relative to a similar unit in Racine.

I have spoken to many elected officials in Racine over the years and the prevailing sentiment is that taxes make little or no difference when it comes to selecting a place to live or to open a business. This is pure nonsense. High taxes decrease the value of your investments, whether in homes or businesses. Over time, people grow tired of the high taxes, diminishing returns etc... and they move on. This is one of the factors in Racine's declining population.

It is sad that our elected leaders fail to understand that high taxes hurt Racine in general and property owners in particular.

Selective Vision?

I want to preface my simple and very unscientific observation with a few words. I have no idea whether the Racine Police delivered an unjust beating to Racine resident Bilal Gilleylen the other day. And there is such a thing as a just beating in my opinion, especially if the suspect was trying to take an officers gun. So I will withhold judgement on the issue until the facts are in.

Now my observations. It seems as if eyewitnesses are quite scarce when someone is shot or killed in Racine, but there appear to be no shortage of eyewitnesses when the police are accused of a crime. Or is my observation mistaken?

Progressive Thoughts

"In a perfect world, every pregnancy would be celebrated and each infant would be welcomed healthy and hearty into a community dedicated to the unlimited potential of every individual. It is a world worth having, but one we are unlikely to achieve with the current impasse of opinion on women’s reproductive rights..." This statement was issued by the newly formed Women's Progressive Network of Racine County.

So let me see if I have this right. According to the Women's Progressive Network of Racine County, all women will celebrate their pregnancies and deliver babies so long as we all first agree that women can freely abort their babies, if they wanted to, not that they would of course, because what kind of celebration would that be, I mean, we want to have the babies, and the celebration wouldn't be the same if we terminated the pregnancy, not that they would because a terminated pregnancy wouldn't result in a child, its just that, well, we really don't want to terminate the pregnancy, we just want to, you know, have the right to terminate the pregnancy, even though we never would do such a thing, not that there is anything wrong with the idea mind you, its just that we wouldn't do it because we want to live in a perfect world where all pregnancies are celebrated and all children are born and we can have that world if you would just agree with us that, if we wanted to terminate a pregnancy, we could, not that we would. Got that?

Capitalism and the Poor

According to an article in todays Wall Street Journal, Bill Gates will be delivering a major speech, calling for kinder capitalism. What form that kinder capitalism would take is not entirely clear.

Gates "was emphatic that he's not calling for fundamental change in how capitalism works. " Instead, he would prod businesses to "take their innovative thinkers and think about the most needy." Adam Smith's ideas expressed in "The Wealth of Nations" shouldn't change "one iota."

Yet Gates also thinks that "governments should set policies and disburse funds to create financial incentives to improve the lives of the poor." This policy suggestion would seem to contradict the support for Adam Smith's free markets.

Gates goes on to note that Adam Smith argues in "The theory of Moral Sentiments" that "humans gain pleasure from taking an interest in the fortunes of others."

I hope Bill Gates derives much pleasure from taking an interest in the worlds poor. I also hope he does not lose sight of the fact that capitalism and freedom has done far more to help the poor than government incentives ever will.

Free people from oppressive governments and wealth will follow.

Divide and Unify

In a recent speech, Barrack Obama pitted CEO's against workers, mortgage holders against lenders, mothers against the health care system, he took swipes at drug companies and insurance companies while talking about the differences between "Jena" justice and "Scooter Libby" justice. And then, with no apparent embarrassment, he called for unity.

JT Encourages Tax Cheating

Yesterday, the Journal Times endorsed the idea of a one week tax holiday on energy saving merchandise. Among the reasons why the JT considered this a good idea was that Illinois customers would "drive north, buy a whole bunch of stuff, and not pay a penny in taxes."

Perhaps so, but they would be breaking the law. Illinois buyers of Wisconsin merchandise are required to pay sales tax to the State of Illinois on those purchases. This tax is almost never collected, unless you buy a car in Wisconsin, at which point the State of Illinois will require tax payment before registering the vehicle.

Boycott Economics

Being Dr. Martin Luther King Day, I began to reflect upon the Montgomery bus boycotts and todays busing system. If you have ever seen one of Racine's buses, you know that we have our own boycott well under way. Hypothetical riders can sit anywhere they want so segregation is not the problem. From whom would you segregate the lone rider anyway? The Racine boycott has been years in the making and has had absolutely no impact politically. The reason is quite simple. The purpose of the bus system is no longer to transport people from one location to another but rather to employ bus drivers. And technically speaking, bus drivers don't really need passengers. They do need to get paid though. That's where you, the non bus passenger comes in. Anyway, I was wondering whether Dr. Martin Luther Kings boycott would work today in Racine and I suspect not. The few passengers that ride obviously do not fund the bus system. As such, they would be unable to bring the system to its knees via a boycott. Only paying customers can boycott.

Where Are the Fathers?

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel community columnist Regina Yvette Cooper asks yesterday: Where are the fathers? I will assume that hers was not a rhetorical question and I will take a stab at answering.

Who needs em Regina? The state will take care of the women and children. Need money? See the state. Need food? The state will provide. Housing? The state has you covered. Health care? Check. Education. It's free! What else is there? What do you need a man for? The state is daddy now.

The state provides, it is true, but there is a downside greater than the upside. Men are relieved of their parenting responsibilities. The state is fostering irresponsibility among young men. The state robs them of dignity and purpose. They gradually slink away, and some can be found, as you say, "standing on the corner addicted to everything."

And what of the children? Well, their material needs have been met, but we now know that much more is needed. The state can't replace the love, nurturing, role modelling, or the discipline that children need from a father. Boys will stay boys. The cycle will continue.

Sadly, too few people see the connection between big government and the disappearing man.

Taking Sides

Yesterday I was in City Hall with a bit of time to kill. I wandered over to a bulletin board that had official county notices, forclosures, job openings and such, as well as notices not to remove anything on the board. On the same board were union notices with the same notice not to remove anything. So I read one of the union notices concerning a business in Burlington. According to the notice, the business changed owners recently and the new owner more or less fired everyone and rehired many but with fewer benefits. The new owner met with the union as proscribed by law but did not budge on the issue. The notice calls on people to boycott the business.

Now, allow me to be quite clear on what the subject is that I hope to discuss. It is NOT which side is right, union or ownership. It IS whether it is right, proper, wise, ethical for city and county government to appear to be taking sides in an internal business dispute. Feel free to weigh in.

On Crime

I had a meeting today with a person who works in Uptown. Their business was broken into three times in the last month. Their are plenty of jokes I could insert here about how artists will save the day, but for businesses, crime is no laughing matter. Crime is one of the biggest deterents for businesses and their customers. A few heavily subsidized artists will not change that basic truth.

It's for the Children

The Ozaukee Ice Association got $300,000 in site improvements, and a 38 year interest free "loan" from Ozaukee county taxpayers to fund their ice arena. Now the association wants to add a second sheet of ice in order to "keep the operation viable." To keep this operation viable, the association is asking for debt forgiveness on the $500,000.

"It's a moral issue" associate vice president Gary Wickert told supervisors. "You're not just saying no to a second sheet of ice... you're saying no to all these children."

I love this response from Ozaukee County Supervisor Joe Dean: "It is a moral issue... You have a moral obligation to pay back to $500,000 the county loaned to you."

We could use a Joe Dean in Racine.

Judge Ziegler Molested by JT Editorialists

I have not followed the Annette Zeigler saga with any particular zeal, and I am sure that I will be corrected if mistaken, but Zeigler has not been accused of or convicted of a crime. That bit of information might come as a surprise to anyone who read the Journal Times editorial this morning. Read it here for yourself: http://www.journaltimes.com/articles/2008/01/16/opinion/doc478d47c13070c861078884.txt

From the editorial: "It is true that Ziegler did not commit a major crime..." and "While not a violent crime..." and "Fifteen days' suspension would be innapropriate because her crime was not violent." Gee, might the reader conclude that Judge Ziegler has committed a crime?

Now it is true that the molestation of Zeigler by the Journal Times was not a major crime, and while the molestation was not of a sexual nature, I believe that the Journal Times should nonetheless discontinue the practice of molesting women.

Solidarity?

I wonder how the unions-can-do-no-wrong folks will react to this post. We will soon find out.

The Union Grove High School teachers union is battling with the administration over their next contract. According to the teachers union, there was a tenative agreement that "called for paying each teacher $1,000 in return for eliminating three years of retirement health insurance for future teachers hires." The union is now upset that the board wishes to reduce the payoff to $500, and this is one of the contentious issues. This info can be found in today's Racine Journal Times.

OK, now let us be clear about what is NOT in dispute. Union Grove Teachers ARE willing to reduce the benefits of future teachers. No, they will not reduce their own benefits. Those are secure. But they don't mind sacrificing the benefits of future teachers. Of course they won't screw their future coworkers because of a sense of fiscal or civic responsibility. No, they are screwing them for the money. And to think that future teachers will have to pay for this "representation."

Deleting Comments

Starting today, I will be deleting pointless comments. The decisions will be entirely mine as this is my blog. Thankfully, this blog has not been plagued by profanity. But pointless, off the subject comments are detracting from the quality of this blog. I just deleted a comment from my most recent thread. To satisfy anyones curiousity, I will reprint it here and explain why it is the type of comment that I may delete. Here it is in its entirety:

From anonymous, "I guess he could be a hedge fund manager, a Telco, or a failing CEO, those who merely STEAL hundreds of millions of $$$ from the mass of people, and have Denis defend them.This vilifying the poor is exactly why the 'right' look like the Pharisees of the Bible that Jesus warned regarding Hell and Eternal Damnation.But, be self-righteous..."

My post was about a man who showed up at my business looking not for a job, but for a signiture making it seem to someone else that he was looking for a job.

Now the deleted poster did not dispute my narrative, nor did he defend the ststem that inspired a man to pretend to look for a job. Instead, he insinuated, without any evidence, that I would defend people who steal millions from others. Not only is this off subject, it is also needlessly mean-spirited, and untrue. The comment merely detracts from the conversation that I had hoped to have on the subject.

Now just to be very clear, I don't mind criticism or strong disagreement. In fact, I rather enjoy the challenge, which is one of the reasons that I have a blog. Anon is welcome to try again.

Will Pretend for Cash

A man entered my business this morning asking if I would sign a paper for him. He was pretty vague about what he wanted me to sign but I soon gathered it had something to do with looking for a job. Now this fellow never actually asked if I was hiring, nor did he present a resume to me, but he wanted me to sign his paper indicating that he was looking for a job. I signed the paper as I thought it would be the quickest way to get him to leave.

After he left I began to wonder what kind of perverse system was in place that encouraged a man to not really look for a job. I figured that he received some sort of financial assistance if he went through the motions of looking for a job. I figured the social service agency that dispensed with the money was operating under the same perverse system. Perhaps they have a contract that pays them per individual that they serve, or pretend to serve.

I asked around a bit and was told that some people are let out of the county jail in order to work, and that some are let out to look for work. So perhaps pretending to look for a job is preferable to a day in the county jail. I called my county supervisor to verify or refute this theory.

Unless I have overlooked something obvious, I suspect the average citizen is getting the shaft here. Either this man is getting cash or undeserved freedom at our expense. Why else would a man pretend to look for a job?

Road to Serfdom

There is an interesting debate brewing over a plan by Governor Doyle to offer tax breaks for business start-ups and research and development. According to an article in yesterday's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Republicans "tripped over themselves praising Doyle's proposals" while some Democrats had their doubts. Democratic Senator Bob Jouch said that "Wisconsin already handed out too many tax breaks to 'specific groups or well-connected individuals.'"

Doyle spokesman Matt Canter defended the plan. "For Wisconsin to be a forward looking state, we have to incentivize the kind of economy we want."

Well herein lies the problem. When government incentivizes the economy it wants, it disencentives the economy that free individuals would otherwise create. When government favors one type of economic activity, it harms all other types of economic activity that are put in a disadvantaged position.

When government incentivizes the kind of economy it wants, it is taking one more step towards controlling the economy and controlling you.

The JT and Leadership

State Representative Robin Vos has offered a plan to fund KRM. In a nutshell, the plan would put the decision in the hands of voters, via referendum.

The Journal Times editorial board suggests that Vos' move "hardly qualifies as leadership."

Now suppose that Robin Vos, elected as a fiscal conservative, decided to ignore the constituents who elected him, abandon his convictions, cozy up to special interests, and more or less disenfranchise those folks who believe that KRM will be a big mistake? Now would that make him a leader in the eyes of the JT? You bet it would.

Let's face it. If you are a fiscal conservative, the JT will never consider you a leader.

Polite Upstanding Conservatives Crush Baby Killing Commies

Well I thought we could have a nice vitriol free social gathering tonight, and it was shaping up that way until the extremely left wing socialist "Pete" declared that I have a political perspective. So I figured I would show him some straight up, down the middle reporting, something a Marxist like him wouldn't know a damn thing about. So here goes. The evening started with the conservatives offering their seats to the ladies and the ladylike liberal men, buying drinks and engaging in polite conversation. Well that came to a screeching halt when Concrete Katie decided to abort a child, citing the positive affects the act would have on the environment. An argument ensued, and fisticuffs were narrowly avoided when the commies offered to appease the conservatives by sacrificing Michael Gibson, who's bloodied corpse can be found under the pool table. Now, if anyone has any other recollections from the evening, please chime in.

Imagine That

Sorry about my previous, long winded post. This one will be short and sweet. Yesterday I received a phone solicitation. The caller wanted to know if I would offer money or, I think, a raffle item for their fund raiser. It seems that the Walden School is wanting to raise funds for some solar panels to put on their building. I will leave my response to your imagination.

Development Idea

Alderman Helding had this to say in a recent post on this site:

"I am not saying the uptown artist plan is perfect or the only answer. It is, however, a plan. It is an attempt to make things better. I would love to talk with anyone about an alternative or a plan that could be tried in another area. I am especially interested in ideas that go beyond "add more cops" and get into how we can make the area better instead of just dealing with the fact it is bad."

OK, I will take a shot at this. For the sake of this discussion, I will exclude the "add more cops" solution, though crime and or the perception of danger can devastate neighborhoods. Leaving aside beefed up law enforcement, I think the answer is economic development. As I see it, there are but two ways that government can stimulate economic development. The first way is to provide subsidies, tax breaks, or other advantages on some members of the community, say artists. The second way would be to provide stimulus to all members of society simultaneously in the form of tax breaks or other advantages, allowing all to keep more of their own money and make their own decisions.

It is easier to make a quick splash the first way. It probably is not too difficult to round up a million bucks or so and get something done. Politicians can then point to this million dollar building and say "see what we have done for you." And this may well help them get reelected. But the downside is that it makes smaller, seemingly inconsequential developments less likely, because those would be developers are also paying for the splashy new building and have less money to spend on their own projects.

The second way is far less sexy. Even if people have more freedom and more money after taxes, most will not have the resources to build a fancy million dollar building. But they just might fix their roof or repave their driveway or paint the garage. The problem is that a tax reducing politician can not easily point to the freshly painted garage and say "see what I did for you."

Now I have written about this before, but it would be a wonderful experiment to allow people in certain wards, or better yet, all the people in Racine, to make improvements to their properties that would not be subject to tax increases for some specified number of years. So say you add a deck to the back of your house that increases the value of your property by $10,000. Your house would be taxed as though the improvement never happened, say, for the next five years.

Unfortunately, this idea may well be illegal. I am looking into this and would hope you might as well Alderman Helding. There is something called the uniformity clause in the Wisconsin Constitution that calls for uniformity in property tax rates, though there may be exceptions permitted.

So we have uniformity in tax rates and I have to admit this sounds fair. But we most certainly do not have uniformity when it comes to cash or other advantages that are handed out to politically savvy developers. They get the handouts, you don't.

So perhaps the city of Racine could try such a program while offering the best legal justification that in house counsel is able to muster. The worst that can happen is someone challenges it and it gets shot down in court. The best that can happen is that the city would have at its disposal a development tool that might actually spur private sector development that can improve our neighborhoods.

Don't Forget

See you all tommorrow, Thursday, 7 pm at the Ivanhoe.

Random Thoughts

I watched a bit of the New Hampshire primary coverage last night and thought I would share some random thoughts.

If I had some change for every time a candidate mentioned change....

Adults look silly when they chant and wave for a politician.

Unity (Obama) is a more popular concept than disunity (Edwards two Americas.)

If you want to be a big time politician, learn to fake authenticity.

Stopping Violence

How do we stop violence in Racine? One person at a time, by force if necessary.

Vigils, peace rallies, doves on a stick, or giant human peace signs will not work, unfortunately. If they did, we would have conquered the problem by now.

Still, I understand the temptation to resort to symbolic, feel good gestures. It probably feels better to do something than to do nothing. Perhaps this is what is motivating a Park High School senior Jamel Garrett to try to form a huge peace symbol. You can read about it here: http://racinepost.blogspot.com/2008/01/human-peace-sign-to-be-stand-against.html.

I don't wish to be critical of the young man. He is grieving the loss of a friend. I am glad that he wants to do something. But there are other things that this youth could do that would be arguably more effective in actually combatting violence.

People inclined towards violence must either stop themselves or be stopped by others. Parents, friends, the police, the justice system etc... can all help stop violent people. As such, Garrett could try to foster an attitude of cooperation with law enforcement that seems lacking among some of our youth. This would not be an easy task if the prevailing sentiment is "$%#@*& the cops."

But trying to stop violent people can only get you so far. It would be far more effective to help violent people begin to stop themselves. Being a young man at Park, Garrett may be in a unique position to do so. Perhaps he could reach out to some young people that he knows are inclined towards violence and try to challenge the attitudes and mindsets that support the violence.

Perhaps Garrett is already doing these things and more. If so, they will likely garner more results, if less applause, than will a giant human peace symbol.

Observations on Race and Politics

Nobody seems to dislike Barrack Obama. The conservative pundits that I read have questioned his experience and rejected his liberalism, but find him to be a likeable person.

Now, how do liberals treat black conservatives?

How to Eliminate Violence

There is a basketball game upcoming between two RUSD schools, Park vs. Horlick, I think. Because of violence during and after a recent intracity game, RUSD has initiated a new policy. They will not allow entry into the game unless the ticket has been purchased in advance. If you just show up like most people do if they want to go to a high school game, you will be turned away. There will be no profiling here, oh no. Go on home with your bad self granny!

Now this may actually work, I don't know. Maybe the thinking is that anyone inclined to stir up trouble at a basketball game is too impulsive and in the moment to actually plan ahead and buy a ticket in advance. Perhaps so, but I have my doubts.

But there is no doubt that this policy unfairly inconveniences law abiding citizens, lumping them in with the thugs who are terrorizing our city. Rather than do that, there should be a strong police presence ready to round up the troublemakers.

However, if the only objective is to reduce the violence, I have a better suggestion. Play the game at 8:00 am in Manitowoc, and don't sell any tickets. That ought to put a stop to the violence problem.

Conversation with Mayor Becker #2

OK, it was actually the same conversation but I forgot to include a good point that the mayor made. He said that even if the tax burden was cut in half in uptown, very little development would occur there. And he may well be right. So then what?

This is a complicated question. We should first consider what got us to this point. Crime, poor schools, welfare dependency, government failures, private sector greed, or George Bush? All of the above? If you ask me, all of the above, excepting GB, is probably correct. Yes, the private sector has fled, taken there money to safer areas. Deterioration follows.

Mayor Becker is of the view that government stimulus and (my words) micromanaging of the economy is the answer. His methods may differ from previous administrations, but the general philosophy, that more government is the answer, has prevailed for several decades in Racine. What do we have to show for it?

There is a competing philosophy not tried in Racine for the last several decades. Individuals and private businesses, not government, will pull us out of this mess.

But there is no quick fix, not by artists, and not by the change in government philosophy that I am advocating. We are now a few generations into this government-created dependency problem. Many in Racine have lost or never had much in the way of drive or initiative.

The answer is to gradually wean the citizenry off their government dependency. But this would not happen without a fight. But Racine is worth fighting for in my view.

Conversation with Mayor Becker

I got through to Mayor Becker today and had an interesting conversation. I wanted to know how much the uptown rehab project will cost. The project is part of a larger initiative intended to spur development by enticing artists to the area. The mayor did not have the info that I sought- he will by next week- but he assured me that the project will lose money.

It is quite apparent that I have a different philosophy on development than does the mayor. The mayor obviously believes that government must provide the stimulus to encourage development. And while I have no doubt that government stimulus can stimulate growth, I suspect that the flip side is that this stimulus, taken from taxing profitable economic activity, will ultimately reduce the amount of taxable activity. It will do more harm than good, only the good will be visible while the bad will be less immediately apparent.

A property on Martin Luther King Drive has been purchased by the city. It will soon be demolished and cleared for redevelopment. The city has created a TIF district for this property only. A microTIF, if you will. I advanced this idea some time ago- not that I am taking credit for this particular TIF- I oppose the idea. But the idea of stimulating development among ANY citizen is attractive to me. Rather than providing money to John Doe to fix his roof, I suggested that there should be some fixed period of time wherein the improvements would not be taxed. The mayor assures me that this would be unconstitutional and I will assume that he is correct. So the system is rigged in favor of big developers and against John Doe. A big developer can get government money to reduce the cost of his project while it would be unconstitutional to simply defer tax increases to John Doe. Is this fair? I think we should change the constitution. I will get right on that.

Racine Depression

I just finished reading "The Forgotten Man" by Amity Shlaes. Basically, the book challenges the generally accepted notion that Roosevelts New Deal helped lift the US out of the great depression. Shlaes argues the opposite: the New Deal prolonged the depression, and she offers a convincing case.

Anyway, Racine, or at least large portions of it, is arguably in a decades long depression. Are the various government led efforts to solve the problems helping any, or are they simply prolonging and or exacerbating the problems? I am pretty sure you know what I think.

Quick Movie Reviews

I saw the Great Debaters. Liked it well enough but was disturbed by the simple and stereotypical portrayals of whites. It was not until the debaters got to Harvard that any white people were portayed as anything but nasty, stupid racists.

Juno. Loved it. Very funny. Great sound track. Touching. Pro life but not preachy. Go see it.

Write Something Interesting

I will be taking a blogging holiday for a few days. Please write something interesting in my absence.

FreeRacine Fest #2

FreeRacine readers and contributors are cordially invited to meet at 7 pm, Thursday, January 10th at the Ivanhoe in downtown Racine. We will solve all the worlds problems by, say 7:30, after which we will celebrate. One and all are welcome, even my detractors. Please let me know if you will be attending. Thanks.

Howling at the Moon, Indeed

If you want some insight into the reasons for the decline of education in our country, read "Howling and other tips for educators" by retired elementary school principal Mike Schutz. You can find it here: http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=701346.

Shutz maintains that the "good schools," those with high standardized test scores, "are made up of students who come from families with well-educated parents who value education." Shutz adds that schools have no control over this variable.

But schools can control other factors. Many of these factors "are intangible and not measurable by a standardized test, according to Shutz. Shutz has "no expectation that these will raise test scores. But they just might make a child's learning experience more meaningful."

Shutz believes that we need kindness in schools. We need playfulness. We need to slow down. We need to let kids be kids. We need good relationships in school. And we need to let teachers teach.

Now there is nothing obviously wrong with Shutz's suggestions. It is not what Shutz wrote that bothers me. It is what he didn't write.

I think the most important job of a principal at an underperforming school is to accept no excuses. You know, like the one Shutz and so many others offers, the one that goes like this: "We can't help it if these kids have parents that don't care about education."

Poor children and children with imperfect parents can learn. And it is the schools job to teach them. If you can't do it, let another school give it a try. Stop making excuses. And teachers who continue to make excuses should be fired. Not transferred to another school. Fired.

Shutz used to lead his school in "howling at the moon" for no apparent educational purpose. That might be fun, but our schools need more than pointless futile gestures.

Just Wondering

Why does Racine have a Housing Department and a Fair Housing Department?

Comments on Mayor's State of City Speech

I just read Mayor Beckers state of the city speech at http://www.racinedemocrats.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=1442&styleid=3 and thought I would offer a few comments.

First the good news. The city has eliminated 100 full time positions. Normally politicians don't list increased unemployment as an accomplishment, but I am with the mayor on this one. Has anyone noticed a decrease in services? I haven't.

The mayor is proud of the Unified Neighborhood Inspection Team, noting that we now have only 12 boarded up buildings whereas before there were 50. Fewer boarded up buildings is good, of course, but how much did it cost us? Did it take six full time staff members at $80,000 per year for four years? Would it have been cheaper to condemn the properties, bulldoze them and then call it a rain garden?

The mayor acknowledges that the city is not growing and the major initiative to reverse that trend is the uptown artist initiative where they hope to have a thriving artist center. I am still waiting to hear from the mayor about the specifics here, but early indications are that it will cost a fortune. Would it be wiser to spend the money on more police officers or to lower the tax burden on the productive members of Racine?

But my basic problem with the speech is a philosophical one. Government can solve all our problems was the general theme. If that were true, the last fifty years of liberal rule in Racine would have resulted in a thriving and growing population with little crime and much employment. What we actually see is just the opposite. Look for more of the same.

Thought of the Day

Nothing polarizes quite like the truth.

Rumor

I was out and about yesterday, having a cup of coffee, when I heard a most interesting conversation nearby. Two people who evidentally are involved with or well aquainted with the uptown artist initiative were talking. They indicated that the cost of rehabbing one of the uptown buildings will be almost $1 million. They also indicated that the city would sell the two units for $200,000 each. If these people are correct, the city is planning on a loss of $600,000 to bring two artists to Racine, or to relocate two artists already in Racine. I have called Mayor Becker's office to confirm, deny, or clarify. I will update this posting if I hear from the mayor.

Problems Solved

Finally, our local government has solved all the serious problems, such that we can now turn our attention to our total lack of public rain gardens. Yes, a rain garden in the works for Racine, as part of a larger, unspecified environmental education program, this according to a recent Milwaukee Journal article. My question: what is a rain garden and how have we managed so long without one?

Union Costs

"A decision to outsource the work of one of the city's smallest departments could end up costing Racine big, union officials said."

That was the first line in a Journal Times article concerning the city's decision to hire a private company to handle the Management Information System department.

The "big cost" of such a move would not be because the private company is more expensive or less competent but rather because the city could lose money in arbitration. City officials are willing to take that risk as "we don't have the resources or the stable of qualified employees" to get the job done according to City Administrator Ben Hughes.

The dispute it seems centers around the city employee's pensions, their job security, their pay etc... and while that is no doubt important for them, it is worth remembering that government's purpose is to serve the public in the most efficient manner. It is not the function of government to ensure good jobs and high salaries for government employees.

It is my hope that the city's decision will not cost us big. If union officials and current state law prevents city officials from acting in the best interests of the public, then the public, on this issue at least, will be ruled by unelected union leaders. Now that is a big cost.

Illogical Atheists

Our local atheists must be getting spooked by Christmas. Mike Ursu has a letter to the editor today arguing, among other things, that "mindless indoctrination in religious fantasies" is dangerous and that "The church can't offer proof to support their claims so they have to resort to indoctrinating children before they gain the ability to think critically." Now these are legitimate concerns that religions should have an answer for.

But Mike seems to want to exempt his own atheism from scrutiny when he writes "Atheism isn't detrimental to children." Mike assails religions for their lack of proof. Very well, but I don't recall his proof of the non-existence of God. Wouldn't then the teaching of atheism to children also involve the dangerous indoctrination of unproven assertions?

Atheist Principles?

You have got to love a good old fashioned debate on the public square. What could be more American? Today we have Christians versus the athiests and dueling monuments. Read about it here: http://www.racinepost.blogspot.com/.

Now I do not wish to debate the theology, rather, I wish to explore the reasoning and the behavior of the atheist.

If I understand the atheists argument, it is that there ought to be seperation between church and state, and that religious displays should not be on public property as this amounts to shoving religion down other's throats. Presumably the atheists would also want laws which forbid their own beliefs, or lack of them, from being expressed on public property. Lead atheist Al Sorenson said as much; "if that (nativity scene) wasn't here, then this pyramid wouldn't be here either."

Thus, Sorenson holds the principle that expressions of belief should not occur on public property. But he is willing to abandon his own principle, by displaying a monument to atheism, in order to demonstrate what exactly? That two wrongs make a right?

I am not impressed.

Debate Over, I Win

If you are getting tired of all the global warming posts here on FreeRacine, I have great news. This will be the last one. Why? Because the debate is over and I have won. Oh sure, there are still some anonymous bloggers and a few "scientists" that may still wish to debate me, but their time is up and they lost. Besides, by now everyone realizes that the losing "scientists" were bought and paid for by desperate environmental organizations looking for attention and money. Their greed makes me ashamed to be an American, but that is a topic for another day. Now, if your not so sure about my victory, consider the following: there is not one peer reviewed article, not even one, that disputes my victory. But just to be charitable, let us consider the possibility that I am wrong. Even if I am wrong, the economy and the environment will be better for it. Why is that you ask? Because meddling governments will not be regulating and redistributing for lost causes anymore. And this renewed appreciation for freedom will have a positive effect on our environment as well because governments that protect private property have better environmental records than socialist countries. So the debate is over folks and I have won. I now await my Nobel prize.

Shifting the Burden of Proof

If person A is advocating policy changes based on an alleged impending crisis, and person B doubts the claims of person A, upon which person should the burden of proof fall? In any sane society, the burden of proof would fall on the person A.

Imagine if the burden of disproof were to fall to person B. Our society would be a mess. If I wanted new windows, I could hurl rocks through them and then blame it on my neighbor. It would be all but impossible for him to prove that he didn't throw the rocks, and I could get my neighbor to pay for my new windows.

It is plainly obvious upon whom the burden of proof should fall, but the global warming alarmists want to shift the burden of disproof to the skeptics. You have seen it recently on this blog, and now the JT is getting in the act. "What counts is that predictions of global warming have not been refuted by strong evidence" says the JT.

True enough, but will shift the burden of proof at our own peril. Or perhaps we could use this new standard for a worthy cause.

Did you know that a giant Easter Bunny will be arriving from Mexico in ten years to eat up all of our crops and our children? We must act now and build a fence.

Shut Up, Fork It Over

Leave it to the Journal Times to capture the essence of the leftist/statist/socialist position on global warming. Read it for yourself if you like at: http://www.journaltimes.com/articles/2007/12/18/opinion/doc47673a8247192770324340.txt

The editorial is entitled Stop talking, start spending. The JT argues that "the whole country has missed some economic opportunity" as "US companies could right now be selling carbon dioxide-control equipment or advanced solar cells to the developing world instead of fighter jets-and could be making a lot more money." "Even if (global warming) skeptics are proven true," the nation will gain "new industries to employ the manufacturing workers whose livelihoods have fled overseas; and an economy that is overall more efficient and has more capital to invest because it's spending less to but energy."

A few thoughts. Is there something preventing US companies from "right now" selling environmental products overseas? Unless the product sales are discouraged by import tariffs or the lack of free trade generally, then no, nothing is preventing our "whole country" from this glorious "economic opportunity." More likely, the products in question are themselves economically inefficient, thus requiring a massive taxpayer subsidy to create this new "industry." The money required to "start spending" will be yours and it will be used to prop up an industry that would not exist without it. And the JT then argues that subsidizing an inefficient industry will somehow result in more capital and a more efficient economy. How so, I wonder? Capital, your capital, will be transferred from capital investments not requiring government subsidy to an industry that can't make it without government subsidy. This is called waste, not efficiency, and it will harm our economy. Someone, anyone at the JT should read an introductory economics textbook.

Truth or Victory

There are two approaches that one can take into an argument/debate/discussion, it seems to me. One is to seek victory at all costs. The other is to seek the truth. Let us consider the likely outcomes of these two approaches.

If the reason to debate is to achieve victory, truth is a secondary consideration. The primary concern being winning, there must also be a loser. In order to avoid being the loser, one must be prepared to cling to a losing argument even in the face of truth. It is at this point when the victory-at-all-costs debater may need to engage in some unscrupulous tactics like the personal attack, changing the subject, creating straw man arguments and so on. This kind of debater will sometimes accept a false assertion but think that they have won the debate.

The truth seeking debater seeks truth first and foremost. This debater is willing to accept his opponents argument if it is shown to be true. This debater may lose the debate but will more likely arrive at the truth in the process. In this kind of debate, there really is no loser. It is a win win situation as both participants arrive at the truth.

I see far too many of the win-at-all-costs debaters and too few truth seekers.

Pope Benedict and Global Warming

Read it here, prophets of doom: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=501316&in_page_id=1811

Here is my favorite line from the article: "The leader of more than a billion Roman Catholics suggested that fears over man-made emissions melting the ice caps and causing a wave of unprecedented disasters were nothing more than scare-mongering."

I wonder why the Journal Times didn't cover this story.

Hungry Kids?

Are too many Wisconsin Kids starting the day hungry? Pete at Racine Post http://www.racinepost.blogspot.com/ thinks so. His evidence is that, of the children eligible for a free breakfast, many are not receiving the free breakfast. Shame on us, we are even behind Arkansas in feeding the children.

Of course there is no actual evidence offered to suggest that the children in question are actually hungry. The "evidence" is that they are not being served breakfast at school.

Is it evidence of my hunger if I didn't eat a Happy Meal this morning? No, it is evidence that I didn't eat a Happy Meal, but it is not evidence that I didn't eat.

Could it be that the children are being fed at home by their parents before school? And if so, wouldn't this suggest that Wisconsin parents are more responsible that those in Arkansas who prefer to shift that responsibility to the state?

Global Warming Hot Air

Let's try this again. I watched a film, The Great Global Warming Swindle, which asserts, that while there is a correlation between CO2 in the atmosphere and global warming, the CO2 does not cause the global warming. If anything, the film asserts, the global warming might result in increasing levels of CO2, as it is the global warming that occurs first, followed by increases in CO2. The film also advances the notion that the sun might be the culprit.

But rather than address that question, here is what we got instead:

Michael Gibson came closest to addressing the question. Congratulations Michael! But rather than address the films basic assertion, he got into the minutiae, getting sidetracked by some minor point about a chart used in the film. He uses the authors alleged and minor error as the reason to dismiss the entire theory.

Another contributor enlightened us with a stirring albeit irrelevant quote from John F. Kennedy who was no doubt talking about something other than global warming.

Another anonymous genius similarly sidestepped the question but gladly offered a lengthy dissertation on population and energy consumption.

Yet another offered a still longer post, copied from who knows where, that addressed the dangers of global warming.

Another poster avoided the question but assured us that scientists worldwide accept the global warming facts, except those that don't of course who are obviously paid by coal producers and who think the earth is flat.

What we are seeing on this blog is a microcosm of the problem. Rather than debate the issue, global warming alarmist instead prefer to monopolize the discussion, change the subject, declare that the debate is already over and that they won, or insult the infidels. Anything and everything other than actual debate.

Correlation and Causation and Global Warming

I listened to the Great Global warming Swindle movie today and was intrigued by one point especially. The narrator noted that there was agreement with Al Gore concerning a correlation between CO2 and global warming. Where there is increased CO2, there has been increased global temperatures. Where they part ways with Gore et al is that they don't confuse correlation with causation. Rather, they have concluded that, if anything, global warming causes an increase in CO2 rather than the other way around. They offered evidence to that effect, suggesting that the global warming comes first, followed hundreds of years later by increases in CO2. I am no scientist so I will not weigh in on the accuracy of that claim, but it is an intriguing point. It is a common mistake to confuse correlation with causation. Perhaps Al Gore has done so.

On Clarence Thomas

I lived in Chicago in the early 90's when Clarence Thomas was confirmed to the Supreme Court. I was swept up in the excitement and I assumed that Thomas was guilty of the sexual harassment claims levelled by his former staffer Anita Hill. In Illinois, Carol Mosely Braun won her race for the US Senate in part because many voters, including yours truly, were disgusted by the cross examination of Anita Hill by her haughty all male inquisitors. I can recall Thomas's angry outburst about the confirmation process which he described as a high tech lynching. A part of me wondered if he was telling the truth. I pushed that thought out of my mind.

I just read Thomas's book called My Grandfathers Son. He has lead an interesting life, quite apart from the Anita Hill drama. He was raised by his grandparents who raised he and his brother in a very strict manner. These kids worked all the time and had no time or inclination to get in trouble as they would have to deal with their grandfather if they did. They went to Catholic schools where the nuns neither made or accepted excuses. Clarence Thomas worked very hard and he was very successful academically even as he went on to nearly all white schools.

There are probably some who could never believe that it was the liberal lying and not the conservative. And we can never know for sure, but I am more inclined to believe Thomas after having read his book. His grandparents had instilled some solid values in Thomas. He strayed from those values from time to time, as he has openly admitted, but the Anita Hill smearing now seems like a typical "ends justifies the means" character assassination.

Silly Season

There were some strange letters to the editor today.

"If we build the train and leave the highway at 6 lanes, and the highway is congested, lots of people will take the train, saving tons of carbon emissions" argues Mary Spengler. But congestion will mean that more cars will be on the road for longer periods of time, spewing even more CO2.

In another letter, Sarah Kangas takes on Kimberly-Clark and All-Saints Hospital, arguing that tissue paper should be made from recycled materials rather than the trees that they apparently use. But aren't trees a renewable resource?

But this one takes the cake: Karla Olinger argues that it is a "gross understatement" to describe our health care system as a "national disgrace" that is "pathetically behind Cuba." Why would anyone present an argument and then declare that their own argument is grossly understated? Tell us how you really feel Karla, don't understate your hatred for your country!

And Karla, I don't think I am overstating anything when I suggest that many FreeRacine readers would be willing to chip in to purchase for you a one way ticket to Cuba.

Bag Your Skepticism

The Journal Times warns us today that "blogs are not automatically more serious or believable than the flyers one used to find stapled to utility poles" and that they are "merely the newest medium through which dubious old messages can be passed..." and that we should "keep a bag of skepticism handy to leaven the assertions which you find."

Good advice. One should also carry "a bag of skepticism" when reading the assertions contained in the Journal Times.

But there are exceptions to every rule. All material offered here at FreeRacine, excepting the comments section, is unequivocally true an should be unquestionably accepted as such by all readers. Got that anon?

On Predators

I am about twenty pounds overweight and I have a mild headache. I blame predatory grocers and a predatory bartender, respectively. Can't pay back your loans? Find a predator to blame.

The word predator is taking on a whole new meaning before our eyes and I intend to embrace the new and expanded meaning of the word.

Your property taxes will soon be arriving. If your bill increases, you can blame our predatorial politicians.

On Greatness and the Left

Yesterday I described the great Thomas Sowell as great and I was taken to task for doing so by an anonymous lefty blogger. I did so for two reasons; one, Thomas Sowell is a great economist and a great thinker, and two, I enjoy tweaking the left at every opportunity.

Now why would describing someone as great tweak the left? Well, greatness and egalitarianism, a tendency of many on the left, are very much at odds with one another. If equality is your goal, then greatness is your enemy.

It is this mindset that spawns the leftist attacks on greatness that we are seeing with greater frequency every day. This is why everyone gets a trophy instead of just the champions. It is why some schools are doing away with valedictorians and honor rolls. It is one of the reasons why WalMart is under constant attack.

Some no doubt are unable to enjoy the greatness of others as it reminds them of their own shortcomings. For the healthy among us, enjoy a great person today!

On Watching "Louder Than Words" or Not

Is there any point in watching the 9-11 Truther's movie "Louder Than Words"? An anonymous poster thinks I should. I think this is the movie being shown repeatedly on Racine's access chanel. I read the Wikpedia account of the film. That suggests to me that I have better things to do with my time. But go ahead anon, tell me why I'm wrong.

Assignment for Walden Students

The great Thomas Sowell asks a timely question:

"Now that the British television documentary, "The Great Global Warming Swindle" is available on DVD, will those schools that forced their students to watch Al Gore's movie, "An Inconvenient Truth" also show them the other side? Ask them."

And so I will. So how about it Michael Gibson, Sam Braun, Katrina, 12 year old, etc... Your assignment for today is to ask your teacher to show you "The Great Global Warming Swindle." Please report back.

Planning To Fail

People are not exactly lining up to live on the 1000 block of Dr. Martin Luther King Drive. Apparently even the homeless don't want to live there-the last owners were a homeless shelter who lost the property in forclosure. And City Development Director Brian O'Connell acknowledges that the cost to build on the property will exceed what houses could sell for there, according to a recent article in the Journal Times. So naturally the city wants to invest your money in this losing proposition. They have already spent $190,000 to buy the property and they project that the demolition cost will be another $110,000. Developers, all of them with their hands out, will cost taxpayers even more.

Do the leaders of our city realize that Racine is declining in population? As such we have excess housing in all likelihood. Do we really want to attract still more people to our city that can't provide for themselves? Is this the kind of planning we want for Racine?

An Excellent Question

I have never done one of these hat tip things, but Caledonia Unplugged http://caledoniaunplugged.blogspot.com/ asks an excellent question concerning Metra and KRM. Suppose Metra, with all their financial difficulties, decides to cut service to Kenosha? What assurances do we have/will we have that our Milwaukee to Kenosha train will continue on to Chicago?

Move Over Shakespeare

Parkside Theatre will soon be performing "The Laramie Project." The play is "the most frequently produced play on college campuses since its 1999 debut" according to the article in the Journal Times. The play explores the impact of the gruesome murder of a gay student named Matthew Shepard.

Reviews of the play and scrutiny of the plays supporters suggest that it is highly political, with pro gay and anti Christian themes as well as advocacy for hate crime legislation.

My point here is NOT to diminish the horror experienced by Matthew Shepard, nor is it to criticize homosexuals, or to advocate for Christianity, or to weigh in one way or the other on hate crime legislation, or even to criticize Parkside for their choice of plays.

My point here IS to wonder aloud about the political culture on college campuses across the country, assuming the truth in the claim that the "Laramie Project" is indeed the most produced play on college campuses. Is the point of theatre to advance political causes? Must every aspect of a college education be politicized?

Liars Club?

I was teasing Kay from http://blueracine.blogspot.com the other day, wondering when she, an admitted hunter and SUV driving WalMart shopper, would be expelled from the Democrat Party. They had a big tent was the response, more or less. Could I join, I asked. Yes of course was the anwer. I then explained that I stand for, among other things, less taxation, fewer regulations, school vouchers, and that I think that thing growing inside a pregnant woman is a human life. Her response was that my views were not aligned with those held by Democrats and that, technically speaking, I could not join if I were honest about my views. On the other hand, if I was a liar...

And now a disclaimer for the perpetually outraged. Kay did not say that I could join only if I lied about my views. I inferred that from her response. Furthermore, I don't think that Democrats are any more dishonest than the general public. This entire post is intended to be funny. Decide for yourselves if I have succeeded.

On Liquor Licensing, Objectivity and Subjectivity

I know this is not a sexy subject, but I wanted to explain to Greg Helding and others what my objections are to the current method of issuing liquor licenses in the city of Racine. And for the record, I have no interest in obtaining a liquor license.


My previous concern/complaint is that the process for obtaining a liquor license is highly subjective in nature. Applicants must endure a political process which includes input from nearby residents and other concerned citizens. This may sound like a fine idea to many people, but it certainly allows for any of the isms to taint the process and make it profoundly unfair to some. Often the "some" will be black, as there is often fear, reasonable or otherwise, associated with large numbers of black people at a club or bar.


Greg Helding responded to my concern by noting the dangers of government that attempts to remove subjectivity from the process. He noted problems with OSHA, the ADA, and equal opportunity laws that try to take subjectivity out of the process. His examples were good ones and I agree with his assertion that common sense/subjectivity must play a part in government.

However, we must distinguish between branches of government. Legislators, such as Greg Helding, write laws. The executive branch enforces them and the judicial branch interprets them. The subjectivity should be a key component of the latter two branches but not so much the former. Laws should be clearly written such that any liquor license applicant would know if he or she could obtain the license.

With regards to liquor licensing in Racine, it seems to me that the legislators, or alderman, are taking on executive and judicial functions in addition to their duties as lawmakers. Often their wrangling over prospective licensees includes discussions and or requirements to aid local law enforcement with security cameras, off duty policemen etc... and rejecting certain applicants often involves judging the likelihood that an applicant will one day run afoul of the law.

If our alderman were omniscient, this would be fine policy. Until such time, we should have an objective process for obtaining liquor licenses, coupled with a degree of subectivity in enforcement of the liquor laws and the judgements rendered against those who violate the laws.

Random Thoughts on KRM

I have pretty much stayed on the sidelines of the KRM debate. That may have to change.

Proponents of KRM are now proposing another funding method, a sales tax that would fund a regional transportation system. At least we will have the opportunity to shoot this down in a referendum.

KRM proponents were always telling us it is now or never when they were trying to get state funding and approval of a massive tax increase on car rentals. Well now is passed and the never never happened. They are back. It seems they are taking a page from the RUSD referendum playbook.

Racine's Regional Transportation Administration rep Jody Karls likes the sales tax idea because "You're making somebody else pay for it." Evidentally Jody Karls doesn't pay sales tax for his purchases in Racine. Perhaps there should be an investigation. On the other hand, if Karls can really get someone else to pay for KRM, he would have my full support. Perhaps he can convince the city councils in Denver or Miami to fund our train.

Once we agree to this RTA tax, we will have lost control forever. Does the Miller stadium tax ring a bell. Milwaukee is larger than us. I don't know the makeup of the RTA board, but I suspect it will be weighted towards Milwaukee. Do the citizens of Racine county really want to foot the bill for Milwaukee's bus system?

On Tolerance

Last night I was at a gathering of twenty or so people. I was chatting amicably with a fellow, his wife and another couple. The subject of conversation centered on the work experiences of one of the men, a painter for the State of Wisconsin. After a while, the painter asked what I do for fun. I hesitated, then answered honestly, "I like to blog." He asked for the name of my blog. I hesitated again, having been through this before. I said something to the effect that he may find some of my views objectionable. But he persisted, asking why etc... until I had to explain my views on unions. My view, in brief, is that unions can be helpful for members but that they are often harmful to society at large. Though I delivered this viewpoint reluctantly, gently, and at his insistence, it soon became clear that he not only didn't like my opinion, but that he didn't like me. Like I said, I have been through this before. Oh well.

In recent years, I have gained greater clarity of my political views. I am comfortable holding them, discussing them, and defending them if neccessary. One of the consequences of this increased confidence is that a small minority of liberals will reject me personally because of the viewpoints that I hold. In other words, I am not only wrong, mistaken, naive etc..., but bad. Again, oh well.

Interestingly, when I was moderately left of center, I did not encounter a comparable rejection from conservatives.

My conclusion: conservatives are more tolerant than liberals, generally speaking.

Taking the Bait

I have been asked by my detractors to list my accomplishments here in Racine. No doubt they want to pick them apart, dispute them, or minimize their importance. I don't like to promote myself and if you look through my archives, you will see that I don't. I also don't like to dodge questions. So I either need to dodge a question or promote my accomplishments. I have chosen the latter. I will separate my accomplishments into two categories, professional and political. My personal accomplishments shall remain personal.

Professional accomplishments: My wife and I started a business from scratch about 14 years ago. When we moved to Racine, we rented a small storefront on Main street. We have sinced expanded significantly, nearly quadrupling in size. As part of our expansion, we purchased an eyesore in the 400 block of Main street, a block that was nearly dead at the time. That eyesore is now among the most attractive buildings downtown. The 400 block of Main street is now fairly solid, and we deserve some of the credit for that improvement. Part of our business is raising money for hospitals throughout the midwest. We have donated about $250,000 to hospitals in the last decade or so. We also employ people. At present we have four employees, among them a current RUSD student, an RUSD alum and college student, and a parent of an RUSD alum who happens to be a strong supporter of RUSD. I mention these RUSD connections and the contributions to hospitals so that you will understand that a successful boycotting campaign will result in collateral damage. Our economic activity generates considerable revenue for government. We of course pay state and federal income taxes, we pay local property taxes on two properties, we pay payroll taxes, and we generate alot of sales tax revenue. I don't even want to think about how much we pay in taxes, but I will say this to the boycotters; it is not wise for a parasite to kill its host.

Political accomplishments: I would consider myself a sort of freelance political activist. My first foray into political activism started when I began to explore the wisdom of having taxpayers foot the bill for an indoor ice arena. There were a multitude of reasons to oppose that idea, but among the most convincing is the notion that your average taxpayer should not be required to subsidize the activities of the rich. For this reason and others, I was aligned with many liberals in opposing this spending. Anyway, I had a hand in stopping that nonsense. I later wrote editorials in the Journal Times, at least two of which contributed to a fair outcome for oppressed people. In one I argued that the Lighthouse Church (I think that is the name), having purchased the former REAL school, renovated it, and gotten an occupancy permit form city hall, ought to be able to occupy their own building. Mayor Becker had other ideas, namely condos, and was using tactics of questionable legality to prevent the occupancy. My commentary may have helped the church. Church members think so and are grateful for my help. Another article may have helped a black couple get a liquor license. Our liquor licensing process deserves an overhaul, in large part because licensees are subject to a subjective process that includes, essentially, the blessings of neighbors. This may sound like a good idea to many, but it allows racism or any of the other isms to taint the process. Anyway, they got their license and subsequently botched their operation. It is harder to measure other political accomplishments, though I think that they are real. For example, my editorials in the JT, love em or hate em, sparked discussion of issues that need to be discussed. The same is true of this blog.

So go ahead anon et al, snipe away.

Kids and Politics

When I was twelve, I spent my time fishing, playing kick the can, and dreaming of a major league baseball career. I was not lecturing adults on global cooling or the dangers of DDT or any of the other now discredited media driven hysterias of my youth. But todays youth are different. They are far more politically active. The question of the day is, is this a good thing?


My guess is that like so many issues, there will be the same liberal/conservative divide. Liberals will by and large think it a good idea. Conservatives, not so much.


Children, by virtue of their age, have limited formal education. What formal education they do have comes almost entirely at the hands of liberals. They have very limited informal education or life experience to draw from. For the most part, they don't get paychecks and they don't pay taxes. They have no experience with the sophistry of politicians. They are less stable emotionally. As they mature and explore their world, they will often need the comfort and support and sense of belonging that can be provided by groups and causes.


For all of the above reasons, children are far easier to manipulate than mature adults. So they are a tempting target for agenda driven individuals. Recruiting children is a great way to swell the numbers for your cause.

Kids should be kids. There will be time enough later to confront adult issues. We shouldn't use them for our own political purposes.

Response to Walden Green Supporters

My apologies for the delayed response to the many passionate comments on the solar panel issue. I was out of town on business for two days.

Anyway, the facts that I used for my blog entry were those that I gathered from the Journal Times newspaper article on Sunday. Since I am a conscientious recycler, I no longer have the article at home, and am unable to review the JT article at this time. However, I would not be surprised if the JT article contained factual errors or was incomplete. And I don't discount the possibility that I may have made some errors.

But, as always, I am most interested in arriving at the truth. As such, I would welcome any opportunity to discuss this issue with any or all of the respondents. Perhaps this could be a worthwhile educational exercise. Maybe I could meet with the students, teachers and parents who are active with this project. I am available to meet with any and all and I await your invitation.

Mindless Idealism Causes Global Warming

Walden School is going green, according to an article in today's Journal Times. Students are getting involved, raising money for solar panels that will cost $232,000 and bring in annual revenue of $4,000. The "profits" will be used to "fund other projects, like improving the old windows..."

I hope the teachers at Walden will not let their zeal for environmentalism distract them from teaching core subjects like math. This project presents a unique learning opportunity for Walden students.

$4,000 divided by $232,000 = .0172413, or 1.7%.
$232,000 divided by $4,000 = 58.

The Walden project will earn an annual on return on investment of 1.7% and it would take 58 years to pay off the project and begin to profit from it.

Now suppose the Walden administration and students really wanted to replace those drafty, inefficient windows. Suppose they considered alternative uses for the $232,000. Lets say they found a bank willing to offer a 3.45% (double the return on the solar panels) annual return on the $232,000. They would have an annual return of $8,000 instead of $4,000. Using this conservative example, the cost of the mindless idealism being taught at Walden would be $4,000 per year.

But it is worse than that actually. Instead of placing solar panels on their roof, they could instead replace the windows. I suspect that they could save over $4,000 annually on reduced heating and cooling costs. And Walden is likely heated and cooled by using electricity, which is produced by burning coal, which we all know pollutes the air and causes global warming.

I wish the students at Walden would stop destroying our earth.

Blissful Ignorance

I have had thousands of conversations with liberals in recent years. I understand their point of view, largely because I once shared their point of view. But it amazes me how ignorant liberals can be regarding conservative points of view. And when I say "ignorant" I don't mean to suggest that liberals are inherently stupid or anything of the sort. I mean to say that they have little or no exposure to serious conservative thought, and as such, are by definition, ignorant on the issue.



Unfortunately, it saddens me to report that this is often willful ignorance in the sense that they actively avoid exposure to conservative thought. An example of this tendency can be found at http://blueracine.blogspot.com/ in a post entitled "The Other Side". Kay has signed up for some sort of conservative notice or something, it seems, for the sole purpose of ridiculing conservatives without having read their work. I challenged her to read an interesting book by the absolutely brilliant Thomas Sowell, which she promptly dismissed as propaganda. I suspect that the reason to avoid conservative thought is because one is insecure about one's beliefs and does not want them scrutinized.

Ignorance is bliss, they say. I disagree.

City Business

I sat in on a city planning meeting this evening. If I had any hair, I would have pulled it all out.

A business on Rapids Drive wanted to put up a sign. Rapids Drive is a busy street with many businesses, many signs and no residences. However, there was a women there who lived on nearby Floyd Street but didn't want to be able to see the sign from her house. She wanted it moved down a bit so it would be out of her line of sight. I don't think city planners should set the precedent that people have a right to a particular view out their window. After all, the business may not like the look of that ladies house. This woman should have been told that the business has every right, per city laws, to have the sign there and that if she didn't like the view she could move or plant a tree. Next item!

Next item was a women who wanted to open a resale shop in a strip mall on Douglas avenue. Poor thing had to genuflect to the planners and agree to a number of conditions, some of which were outside of her control. Some of the conditions were landscaping, sign removal and consolidation, hours of operation and lots of other stuff. Now this woman does not own the property in question, she is a renter. The owner must make the adjustments that may well cost several thousands of dollars. My guess is that he/she will try to pass this cost along to his tenants. These additional costs will make it harder for this or any other business to survive. Look for more vacant buildings and fewer businesses on Douglas Avenue thanks to the city council and the planning department.

On a positive note, it looks like I will be able to put a deck on my building as I see fit. I happened to read the city ordinances and since my project will cost less than $5,000, I am exempt from having to prostrate myself in front of the taste police, er the downtown design review commission. What color should I paint the railings? I am thinking alternating pink and green railings would be quite a sight.

Teachers and Principles

A conversation was relayed to me recently wherein my retail business was being discussed. The conversation included several Racine Unified teachers who stated that while they liked the offerings at my store, they could not shop there, as a matter of principle. They evidentally did not approve of my public criticism of RUSD and the series of spending referenda.

Now I was not there, but if I was, I would have asked what principle they would be violating by shopping at my store.

Now it can't be that the teachers object to my constitutionally protected right to speak. Certainly this is part of the curriculum at RUSD schools, so it can't be that.

Could it be that they oppose political activism in general? Would they boycott my store if I had an "IMPEACH BUSH" and a "VOTE YES" sign in my window? Somehow I doubt it.

I am at a loss. I can't for the life of me figure out what principle is at stake for these teachers. Do any of my readers care to speculate?

Owens Legacy Used By Racemongers

Thank you Ken Lumpkin of the Insider News for telling the story of civil rights activist Corrine Owens. You can read it at: http://insidernewsonline.com/index.html. I have often been amused by the constant stream of awards bestowed on Owens, as I had no idea what she has accomplished. But thanks to Ken Lumpkin, I have a clearer picture of Owens and her efforts. Owens has shown courage and resolve in taking on the blatantly racist institutions and practices that were common in Racine and elsewhere. For this, she deserves credit.



But part of me believes that Owens is being used. She is being used, via award bombardment, to perpetuate an outdated and unnecessary style of activism. If blacks were barred from teaching in Racine Unified, for example, as they were several decades ago, then Owen's methods of persistant confrontation of racist institutions would be entirely appropriate. But times have changed.



Rather than dwell on Owens and her contributions, we should be engaged in debate and discussion about the present day problems facing the black community. By trotting out Owens every other day to accept yet another award, her followers are in effect saying that the present day problems facing the black community are the same as they have always been, namely, racist individuals and institutions-end of story.



This false narrative of the struggle among black people in Racine may well be benificial for black activist and their cohorts, the guilty white liberal, but it is an open question whether it is helpful to black people in general and black children in particular. I can think of nothing more harmful than to poison the minds of black children by telling them that white society is oppressing them and that any efforts to better themselves will be fruitless in our hostile society.



I respect Corrine Owen's efforts in confronting racism. She deserves to be recognized for her contibutions. And Racine deserves an honest discussion concerning the difficulties confronting the black community.

Sleepless Nights

I saw Mayor Becker last night and took the opportunity to complain about the fact that the unelected Design Review Committee can effectively veto my idea of adding a rooftop deck to my building on the grounds that they don't find it attractive enough. Never mind that my wife and I, and many skilled tradesmen, have taken one of ugliest buildings in the city and turned it into one of the most attractive. We simply can't be trusted to make attractive additions.

Mayor Becker said this government intrusion is for my own good. "You can sleep at night knowing that your neighbor will not be putting ugly additions on his building" said the mayor.

It is not potentially ugly redevelopment that keeps me up nights. Intrusive and paternalistic governments on the other hand...

Retailers Union?

Two downtown Racine retailers are seeking to organize other downtown businesses such that they cooperate for the good of all downtown retailers. So far, the group has suggested that downtown retailers stay open later on Fridays during the Christmas season and to offer limited Sunday hours. I can support this initiative as I have been preaching, and practicing, the notion that we need to better accomodate our customers with longer hours. So far, so good.

Now I have a sneaking suspicion that this group may offer some suggestions that I will not be able to support. Perhaps it is raging paranoia on my part, but I will not be in the least surprised if they will initiate a program to increase cooperation between retailers by "suggesting" which products or product lines a retailer may sell. It is my sincere hope that they do not take this step.

I very much want to have cordial and cooperative relations with fellow retailers downtown. Yet there are limits to the kind of organized activities that I could support. As a firm believer in freedom, I would resist and oppose any efforts by a group of people to tell me how to run my business. The phrase "mind your own business" seems particularly appropriate in this context.

My hope is that downtown retailers who are struggling will take a hard look at their internal operations rather than mistakenly assume that there is a collective solution to their business concerns. Are your products interesting? Are they displayed in an attractive manner? Are they priced to move? How do you treat your customers? Do you complain to customers about business? Do you manage your employees well? What is working? What isn't?

I want Racine to have a bustling and successful downtown. As such, I want my neighboring businesses to succeed, as it is better to have a thriving business next door than to have a vacancy.

My advice to downtown retailers: Focus more on internal operations and less on collective action.

Rate RUSD Cafeterias

If you want to know how the Racine Health Department rates local restaurants for cleanliness etc..., go to http://www.cityofracine.org/Depts/health/restaurant_scoring.aspx. Not on their list are RUSD cafeterias. Given that tainted food may have caused an outbreak of food poisoning at some RUSD schools, perhaps parents would be interested in learning how their childs school rates in the cleanliness department. Maybe one of our local alderman could propose an ordinance to address this problem.

Nine Local Terrorists Arrested

I picked up the JT this morning and read the front page headline: "Third murder suspect arrested." Then I looked at the local section and found more good news: "Sixth murder suspect arrested." If the allegations are true, these people have been shooting up houses, breaking into homes, committing armed robberies, and of course, murdering people. There are now nine fewer terrorists on the streets of Racine. Good job RPD.

Law Could Sicken Economy

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel columnist Gregory Stanford wants to interfere with my business. In his Sunday commentary, "Don't call in sick at some firms", he calls for a law wherein employees would have the "right to earn up to nine sick days a year, to be used for actual illnesses."

Stanford predictably tells only half of the story by sharing anecdotes about people who became sick but had to come to work anyway. But no mention of the difficulty posed to businesses when employees decide to take a day off for the hell of it, as some surely would, or do.

I don't offer sick pay at my small business. My employees understand the reality that apparently does not dawn on Gregory Stanford. Small retail businesses, and I suspect many other businesses, don't have piles of extra money to throw around.

But I do the best I can to keep my employees happy. I am as flexible as I can be with requests for time off. I offer significant discounts to employees who may wish to purchase our items. I have given bonuses and this year a few of my long time employees were given a weeks paid vacation. If someone needs more hours, I try to accomodate them.

I do all this in part because I am a swell guy, but there is more to it than that. I want to keep good employees as happy as I can, so they continue to work for me. But I am constrained by reality as are most people. I can't offer health insurance, sick days, or six figure salaries. I do the best I can by my employees.

But my best is not good enough for Gregory Stanford.

The cruel irony is that Stanford's proposed law would be harmful to the very people he purportedly seeks to help. If our legislators pass new laws that undermine my business, I would probably manage to survive. I could make no such promises to my employees.

Accomplishments I'd Like To Know

I believe I have blogged once before on the subject of serial award collector Corinne Owens, but I feel compelled to do so once again. Owens is in the news again and like last time, I am still left wondering what it is that she has accomplished and why it is that she receives so much recognition. She was interviewed in the JT's "People You Should Know" series.

When asked "Why is what you've done important" Owens answered "Because it's all designed to help others."

Very well. My questions are as follows:

1) What has she designed?
2) Was it designed well?
3) Did it help others?
4) Who did it help?
5) How did it help them?

I know it is heresy in Racine to ask questions about Corrine Owens, but I will keep asking until someone can answer.

Racism and the Left

I just read an article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel entitled "Minority professors rare in sciences."

The article sites a study that stated "Minorities are less likely to enter and remain in science and engineering when they lack mentors and role models."

Now I have not read the study and as such I may be fairly accused of being intellectually lazy. That aside, I have a problem with the above quote.

The quote assumes that people of one race or gender are incapable of mentoring or role modeling for someone of another race or gender.

I know that there are some for whom anything said or done in the name of diversity must be good. Do any of my readers wish to take a crack at defending the notion that a member of one race can't mentor someone of another race? Or do we all agree with me that this notion, emanating from the left, is quite obviously racist?

9-11 and partisanship

I was talking to someone the other day who believes that 9-11 was a cooperative effort between the Bush administration, CIA, oil buddies etc... and Osama et al.

There is a documentary out there that alleges that the buildings were cleared out and timed explosives were put in place. There are theories about the impossibility of melting steel causing the collapse of the buildings. There is apparently a CNN reporter on film stating that building #7 had collapsed, though it was pictured behind her at the time, only to collapse later. Someone who owns one of the buildings apparently has ties to the Bush family. And on and on.

In order for this conspiracy to be true, one has to believe that Bush, his family, and no doubt hundreds of others would be willing to incinerate a few thousand Americans in the hopes of cashing in later with war and oil profits. I simply can't believe (given the evidence that I have seen thus far) that hundreds of the wealthiest and most powerful individuals in the world would take the risk of getting caught, disgracing themselves, their family and their country to get rich. They are already rich.

Anyway, my question. Do you think that, given the exact same set of facts and theories, the 9-11 conspiracy believers would still be believers if you substituted Clinton for Bush as the main villian?

Lefty Lit

I was talking to a customer in my store some time ago and she made it abundantly clear that she was quite proudly liberal. We had an enjoyable conversation- it is possible by the way. I can't remember how the conversation went exactly, but I remember asking her what book or which intellectual most succinctly articulated the liberal political philosophy. Her answer and I am not making this up: Al Franken. I almost lost my drink through my nose. Now I am offering an opportunity for anon, CTW, Concrete Katie, Pete or anyone else primarily on the left to provide for me the book (a book is preferable to a person who may have written numerous books) that best explains your way of thinking. I just may read it if I haven't already. I thank you in advance for your suggestions.