Last night, Janet, Eleanor, and I went to see a performance of The Kids from Wisconsin at Kaukauna High School. (For those of you from around here, that isn't the old Kaukauna High School down in the flats; it's the new Kaukauna High School out east of town with a brand new theater and all.  I'm glad we went there early because I had to get directions from a lady at a gas station.  No, I didn't use Google Maps this time, silly ... Read More »

• a "live" transmission of all radio traffic between Mission Control and the Apollo 11 spacecraft
• a Facebook widget for tracking mission progress until July 20th
• the classic diagram showing where Apollo 11 is located
• multiple ways to view the spacecraft in space looking towards the moon or back to earth
• A mission clock
• Constantly updating stats

On the evening of July 20th, 1969, I was lying on the floor of a good friend's bedroom watching Walter Cronkite watching the pictures broadcast across space from our moon.  We had built a cardboard model of the Lunar Excursion Module and set it on the floor as we watched the agonizingly slow descent of Neil Armstrong down the external ladder to the moon's surface.

We heard Armstrong's famous quote, but we weren't at all concerned about whether he said "...for man" or "...for a man" ... we were too awestruck by the event.  We could not grasp the enormity of what had happened, but we were still struck speechless, rolling on the floor laughing with delight.

40 years on, it's time for some decent commentary on that event.  Here are three with the first paragraph or so of each:

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What do you think of the state budget process this year?

(On time? Too quick? Too many policy items? Finally plugging up the record $6.6 billion shortfall? Other thoughts?)

(published 6-Jul-2009, Appleton Post-Crescent)

I must say that I like the California budgeting process (as opposed to Wisconsin's) for one key reason: the budget cannot pass without a two-thirds majority vote of the legislature.  An attempt was made in 2004 with Proposition 56 to change that two-thirds majority requirement to a 55% majority.  Interestingly enough, two-thirds of California's voters were opposed to the change.  I think that requiring a two-thirds majority to pass a budget is a good idea.  Recent headlines proove that California still gets itself into budget trouble, super-majority or no.  Government and budget trouble go together like pain and suffering; like we ... Read More »