When I want your advice, I will give it to you
Slammer posted a
provocative commentary on recent school advice regarding teenagers, parties, and motels during the Homecoming weekend.
Though I can't rally behind the notion of asking my kid if they scored, I do see the underlying problem of schools assuming the role of telling parents how to do there job. Frankly, parenting is similar to religion in that the bell curve of beliefs is very wide and there are lots of bad practitioners -- yet if you want to really tick off the majority, tell them how to practice their beliefs.
Rather than advise parents on how to do their job, how about providing
resources and
tools that help parents come to their own educated
conclusions on
possible risks of teenage behavior.
Guess this issue isn't dead after all
This
new poll should finally get some discussion going on the upcoming advisory referendum on the Death Penalty. Up till now, there has been surprisingly little in the news on this.
What I want to see is how the Pro Life groups (Wisconsin Right to Life, Focus on the Family, etc) weigh in on the issue. Typically these groups have proclaimed the sanctity of all human life whether in the womb, a test tube, or on a ventilator. I'm anxious to see how they line up on an issue that conservative candidates have traditionally supported. To be fair, the Vatican has been consistent on the issue -- they oppose abortion, stem cell research, and the death penalty.
Aside from the social hypocrisy, I am always apalled at
how much more it costs to have a death penalty. Why would I want to support a measure that inherently spends more of my tax dollars on convicted killers? Just so that attorneys can make more money and killers can have a private cell? Go figure.
Sometimes ya feel like a (wing)nut!
Just to show that I live to call BS on both sides of the spectrum, check out this
new accusation from a Lefty that I normally agree with.
First time I have ever heard Newsweek called "right wing." How about just maybe the US version features an article that doesn't have much international appeal and thus wouldn't sell as well. I've subscribed to Newsweek for years and have never seen them "burying bad news" for Bush.
Mr Anonymous...
When I first set up this blog, I disabled anonymous comments. I wanted opinions to be attributable to the person, even if the person is a virtual psuedonym. Also, allowing anonymous posting also allows for spam posts (which happened to me early on).
However, as was recently pointed out to m, this can discourage those who choose not to register on blogger.com to simply not comment. So I am changing the comments to allow anonymous posting.
I have not and will not moderate comments unless they are obviously spam.
I do encourage readers to register a name though, even if they don't blog. Or at least sign the bottom of the comment so we don't have Mr. Anonymous debating himself!
Mason -- I expect full and active participation!! ;)
Thick as a Brick
Ideas are a dime a dozen. Negative reactions to those ideas are even cheaper. Interestingly enough, Blogs are free.
Evansville appears to be chock full of ideas lately: Roundabouts, Biodiesel, Four Year Old Kindergarten, Stopping the War, Continuing the War, Skate Parks, Drain the Lake, Fill the Lake, V-Notch the Lake, Closing Madison Street two weeks before construction begins, and now BRICKS.
The Downtown brick idea is a classic set up for argument.
Proponents tout the $400,000 DoT grant and the Historic Evansville look that will be accomplished. One would assume that there are hordes of Madisonians and Illinoisies just waiting to rush in to Evansville once the streets are paved with bricks of old.
Nay-sayers jump on the the arguments of frivilous waste, the annoying bumpity feel that driving on brick provides, and the question of how to safely plow snow off the brick.
It will be a fun debate to watch and one I will likely do from the sidelines. I understand the attractiveness and potential draw of a "historic" downtown look. Delevan's downtown is stunning with its brick paved streets.
But I also question whether the goals of this investment will ever be met. Evansville needs a lot more than brick pavement to draw a tourist economy. But then there is the real question -- are we trying to go after a tourist economy? Are we looking to bring in antique and specialty shops, botiques, restaurants, and B&Bs? Is the intent to create a little Galena?
If the answer is "no" then spending $400,000 of state dollars and $200,000 of city dollars seems just plain stupid.
$600,000 is a very high price to pay for prettying things up for the locals. Think of the senior transportion service that could buy. Or supplementing the Dean Center. Or new police cars. Or the lake we could dredge. Or the Tony Hawk Dream Park. Or -- and this is really radical -- saving the taxpayers a boatload of cash by not spending it.
If the answer is "yes" we want tourism, then we better have a better plan than laying brick. Travel to successful small town tourist sites and you will find something there that Evansville lacks -- a solid base to support tourist oriented businesses. Brodhead, Stoughton, Monroe, New Glarus, Cambridge are all examples of cities that had a viable economy in their downtowns from which to build. Brodhead offers a great example of how the Chamber of Commerce unified the businesses through the downtown redevelopment in such a way that one can spend a happy tourist day shopping in their downtown.
If the answer is "yes" then we lack a key ingredient: planning. If the Mayor wants bricks, then she needs to show me how that fits into an overall plan for downtown redevelopment that is not only comprehensive but also is viable. Otherwise we will be the prettiest bankrupt city in Wisconsin.
To get decent planning, we need more than people with two year terms. We need professionals who have a long term view and long term ownership of the project. In short, we need a
City Administrator.
Yo Slammer! Did you get an invite to this?
Ok -
this is obviously sick and wrong and not endorsed by the GOP. Hopefully Dean doesn't get too much press on this fringe crap.
I have to admit though, firing a couple of paintball rounds at a cutout of Hillary or Howard would be tough to pass up.
Let the new race begin
For the first time since Ed Garvey was the Democrat's choice against Tommy, I am at a loss as to what to do with my vote this coming November. Normally the choice is fairly obvious -- two candidates, one right and one left -- I tend to sway left with firm grasp on the middle. Since the Reagan Revolution it had become much easier for me as the right became the far right and the left tried to fill the vacuum left in the middle.
But then you get an occasional hiccup from the left where their candidate is more of a New Age Marxist than they are Democrat. Such was the case with Mr. Garvey, and that left me with voting for a Republican who reached out to us in the middle.
Now I face it again with the AG race. No clue if Falk is really as left-field as she shows herself, but she does scare me with the rhetoric. And while Van Hollen is likely too far to the right for my views, he does restore some of my faith in the GOP for not selecting the WingNut known as Bucher.
So I start looking at this race with a fresh perspective and hope to be won over by one of the candidates. Which really is the way it ought to work anyway. So far it looks like far-left vs mid-right -- that places me directly in the center on the political spectrum. Now is the time to start looking at the two and giving out points for legitimate stances throughout the race.
The score starts 0 - 0. First match is where they chose to hold their Victory Parties.
Falk --
Fyfe's Corner Bistro. As an individual going out to eat, a very nice choice -- good food, extensive bar, great service. But this is also an upper scale Isthmus restaurant known as a favorite among the "Progressive Dane" liberals who have money to burn. Seriously, if you want a campaign event at an Isthmus eatery without looking like the stereotypical Madison Lib, The Avenue is your place for making constituents feel welcome.
Van Hollen --
Rex's Innkeeper. A Waunakee institution. This says a lot about the candidate. It is in the Madison area without being in Madison. It is an excellent supper club for the common folk (gee sounds almost like a place for Democrats to hang out!). Nothing pretentious, just good food and service with any arrogance being at least 10 miles to the south.
The score now stands: Falk 0, Van Hollen 1
The Curse of Two
Arrrgh - first I see that Grumps gets up earlier than me to post
a reminder.
But that's okay - we need all the reminding we can get on Primary days.
Then I see he took
my topic!
I had the same thought yesterday when reading about the
latest message from Al-Qaida #2.
So I'm left with loosely related trivia. Name the source:
"Snake Pliskin? I thought you were dead!"
Could I get a Reality Check on the price of intersections?
There must be something in DoT's water over at the Hill Farm building. How else to explain the string of stupid designs? From the Fort Atkinson Bypass and related deaths to the Highway 11 bypass in Janesville and related near death experiences, the DoT planners don't seem tuned into reality lately.
Now comes
the latest scheme -- solve the intersection problem at Hwy 14 and John Lindemann Drive by putting in a ROUNDABOUT? Is DoT subcontracting their planning department to the UW Urban Arts program? Will they pay for a three tier fountain in the middle?
Now I personally like roundabouts in many instances. For congested intersections with predominantly auto traffic, they are a creative and attractive solution for keeping the traffic moving, albeit slowly. The roundabouts at Thompson Drive and Hwy 30 in Madison are an improvement over the congestion that used to exist there - though about 30% of the traffic going through the roundabout still has no idea what the rules of the intersection are. Racine has a very attractive, useful, and large roundabout intersection on the south end of downtown that does a nice job of funneling traffic to the shore, business district, and residential area.
Heck, a roundabout in Evansville at Main and Madison would look nice and keep things moving well….if it weren't for the trucks.
And there in lies the problem. Ask a truck driver his favorite direction and I bet it will be "straight ahead." Does DoT have a clue how difficult a roundabout would make it for all of the truck traffic? Truck traffic that is driven by a truck trailer plant being 100 yards from the propose roundabout? Truck traffic that will be increasing soon with our new biodeisel plant? And then there are the farm implements - harvesters, sprayers, and wide load rigs that look like they should be battling Godzilla. Thos should make a roundabout lots of fun.
Why is it so hard to simply design some friggin' turn lanes with a little room for growth at the interesection?
Seven Days...
For some candidates, the creepy voice from
The Ring should scare them.
Seven days till either Wally or Janis go solo against a long held Republican seat.
Seven days till the two TopCops for Rock County square off.
Seven days till the Gang of Four Losers is reduced to two.
My Primary endorsements:
Janis Ringhand -- offers experience and proven ability. Janis and I were not always on the same side of our Council debates, but I always felt respect for her opinions and felt she showed me the same.
Bob Spoden -- Again, experience and proven ability win out again.
For the TopLawyer for Wisconsin position -- nobody. JB and Paul are in right field. Kathleen is uninspiring in every way. Peg, though the best qualified, has proven her political agenda for undermining everyone in her way (from key Republicans to Jim Doyle). I will end up voting for Peg as the least of four evils, but that is hardly an endorsement.
Exporting North of the Border?
It appears that there may indeed be a growing market for Evansville's new biodiesel industry. I noticed that amidst the current construction on East Washington in Madison, a
new business had gone in.
