What should the Fox Cities do to attract more business?

(published 6-Sep-2010, Appleton Post-Crescent)

TIF (Tax Increment Financing) is still the way to go.  Businesses may amortize infrastructure investment (love them big financial words) by piggy-backing on a city's ability to get better borrowing rates with revenue bonds.  But there's still that emotional component of the sale; that is, what can Neenah or Appleton offer that sways a business to move here instead of Arizona?  It's tough to sell intangibles like quality of life, sturdiness of the work force, bountifulness of the harvest, or the willingness of crappies and bluegills to jump out of the water into the fishing boat.  Cities brag about cost of living, school choices, and cultural diversions.  The PAC wasn't built specifically to attract businesses, but it sure doesn't hurt App ... Read More »

On Monday I introduced Eleanor to "How Can You Be In Two Places at Once When You're Not Anywhere at All?"...the seminal recording by Firesign Theater featuring Nick Danger, Third Eye:

I had long ago memorized just about the entire thing...but I had no idea that Miss E would be so taken with it.  After listening to all the YouTube episodes she asked if there were a transcript.  So, we found one on-line and printed it out.  She's read it multiple times...and last night ... Read More »

I visited Arizona Governor Jan Brewer's Facebook page today and found that she'd written a stinging rebuke of the "Universal Periodic Review", a "snapshot" of the human rights situation in the U.S.  The letter is addressed to our Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.

The rebuke comes because the report includes a reference to Arizona's new law, S.B. 1070, that has been the center of controversy in the illegal immigration debate.  The law has been partially implemented while parts were put on hold last month just before the law's effective date by Federal Judge Bolton.

Governor Brewer's ire is directed at the fact that the Review is to be submitted to the United Nations Human Rights Council; and that Arizona's law is, essentially, being submitted for review ... Read More »

On August 4th, I was sworn-in as a member of the Sustainable Neenah Committee (SNC).  There are those that thought me nuts.  Others looked askance at my bona fides; i.e., how is it that a municipal committee charged with furthering the goals of sustainability would find a seat for me at the table.

Well, they did.  I've been attending SNC meetings regularly since last summer.  I've had things to contribute and questions to ask.  The chairman of the SNC, Neenah Alderman John Ahles, considered that the discussions the committee has will only benefit from additional -- perhaps alternative, even contrary -- points of view.

I was charged by the Mayor himself to remember that I'm not on the committe to debate whether Neenah should pursue sustainability or not; but to &q ... Read More »

Should the U.S. revoke birthright citizenship?

(published 9-Aug-2010, Appleton Post-Crescent)

No.  To negate the first sentence of the 14th Amendment ("All persons born...in the United States...are citizens") is more than unwise.  It's understandable but, in my humble yet deadly accurate opinion, despicable.  Yes, many of those born in our country are children of illegal immigrants; but to make them criminals too?  That isn't what we stand for.  Instead the Feds should get out of the way of states that want to do something about their illegal immigrant problems.  Immigration bills have been on the legislative dockets of every single state in the Union.  That's a measure of the importance of this issue.  Then to have the spectacle of the federal government suing the state of Arizona was particularly gall ... Read More »

The title refers to Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi's famous remark when the fight over the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act (PPACA) drew to a close with its passage.  In March at the Legislative Conference for the National Association of Counties, Speaker Pelosi said that the health care bill struggle was "very exciting", and then told the elected county representatives from all over the country that Congress

[has] to pass the bill so you can find out what's in it, away from the fog of controversy.

Well, I think that Representative Kevin Brady has given us a superb tool for seeing just what's in that bill.  It's a PDF vector drawing (so you can blow it up to 6400% of full size) of a flo ... Read More »

Yesterday, the Cato Institute concluded its "Confronting Grasping Government" conference in San Diego.  It's the sort of conference I wish that I'd been able to attend but, alas!

This is the conference logo.  It's something to remind us that we've saddled ourselves with a government that continually grows, intrudes, and engulfs.  I'm not one of those who think that the government enfolds, soothes, and protects us from owies.

Is green energy going to be a job creator?

(published 19-Jul-2010, Appleton Post-Crescent on-line)

Government creates jobs, all right: in government bureaucracies. The "investment" in "green" jobs is being sold to us by the same people that sold us the high-speed rail line between Milwaukee and Madison. If you're ready to grit your teeth and say, "Go ahead! Empty my wallet! It's good for everybody!" when that rail line's construction and maintenance costs go over budget by 50% or more; and yet again when ridership turns out to be 50% or less than the rosy projections... then you probably won't flinch too badly when it turns out that the "investment" in renewable energy and " ... Read More »

Should Congress pass an extension of unemployment benefits?

(published 12-Jul-2010, Appleton Post-Crescent)

I've been directly affected by the moral hazard implicit in extended unemployment benefits.  I've collected unemployment for 72 weeks.  Those benefits will now end with the 73rd unemployment check.  I've had moon-lighting gigs in my field (software development) that have provided me with about half again as much money as I got in those unemployment checks.  During this time I applied for about 130 jobs, had a couple dozen telephone screening interviews, and half-a-dozen face-to-face interviews from Green Bay to Milwaukee.  Don't get me started on "behavioral-based interviewing"!  I can see why some people have simply stopped looking for work.  After 130 rejections I've started to wonder what's wrong with m ... Read More »

I have been scornful of the global warming johnnies that bleated about how hurricanes were going to continue to get much worse and more deadly...particularly after the storm surge from Hurricane Katrina overwhelmed New Orleans in 2005.  My scorn was justified immediately when both the 2006 and 2007 hurricane seasons went by with fewer hurricanes than forecast...indeed no more than the 60-year average of six in 2007.

In 2006, of the five hurricanes that formed in the Atlantic, not a single one touched land in North or South America.  They were all out in the mid-Atlantic.  This after NOAA  ... Read More »

Do you see more negatives or positives with social media?

(published 14-Jun-2010, Appleton Post-Crescent)

Twitter is like that scene in "The Matrix" where Cypher shows Neo all the data that's flowing past.  There's too much to make sense out of it.  "All I see now is blonde, brunette, redhead."  Twitter instant status updates fly by faster than a stock market ticker tape.  It's like Max Headroom's "blipverts": after the billionth tweet your head explodes.  It's communication by highway billboards. It's a DJ with nothing to say blabbing on-air to whomever will listen ... which is nobody since everybody else is blabbing about something equally as riveting. With it's emphasis on emoticons and misspelled abbreviations and swearing, it's the computer equivalent of grunting. Now the Library of Congress has acquired ... Read More »

Ladies and gentlemen, Hizzoner Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey scores:

Read More »