The Town Crank

Author:	Steve Erbach	Created:	Thursday, November 13, 2003 8:30 AM
Just shut yer yap, leave me alone, and stop raising my blankety-blank taxes!

Recent commentary: should we leave Afghanistan?

By Steve Erbach on Friday, August 28, 2009 10:43 AM

Should the U. S. pull out of Afghanistan?

(published 31-Aug-2009, Appleton Post-Crescent)

I decided to ask someone who's actually stationed there. My brother, a retired Marine, works with the Air Force as a civilian contractor in Kabul. He has worked in other dodgy places like Kazakhstan, Bosnia, and Iraq (three times). He made some interesting points: 1) The Karzai government is "despicably" corrupt and we need to cut off its connection with the poppy growers; 2) There's no way with its huge desertion rate (12-15%; unofficially closer to 30%) that the Afghan army can take over the country's security; 3) We should move away from supporting the central government and towards regional and local support to resist insurgents and warlords; 4) Forget nation-building; it never was a real nation. It's a money hole; 5) It's in our long-term interests to prevent de ... Read More »

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A superb letter from DownsizeDC.org

By Steve Erbach on Thursday, August 27, 2009 8:15 AM

I subscribe to Downsizer DIspatch, a publication of DownsizeDC.org. Today's issue is a rip-snorter:

D o w n s i z e r - D i s p a t c h

Quote of the Day: The government called three accountants to testify. The defense asked each one, "What is the proper way to calculate income for purposes of the Internal Revenue Code if you are paid in a gold coin that has a $50 face value on it?"

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You can learn from books

By Steve Erbach on Thursday, August 27, 2009 6:37 AM

Anyone recognize the above quote? I'll give the answer at the end of this post.

I'm getting to the end of one of the best non-fiction books I've read in a long time: The Best Laid Plans: How Government Planning Harms Your Quality of Life, Your Pocketbook, and Your Future. The author, Randal O'Toole, is a lightning rod for government planning lovers across the fruited plain. Some of his staunchest critics include:

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I'd like to direct your attention to...

By Steve Erbach on Friday, August 21, 2009 5:51 AM

...a few postings I made on my political site, NeenahPolitics.com. The 2010 Neenah Mayoral race became very interesting this week because of Scott Rosenow, the first official candidate. An article appeared in the Post-Crescent written by the intrepid Neenah beat reporter, Duke Behnke, describing Rosenow's entry into the race and the fact that he's a 21-year-old college student. Details here.

Rosenow wrote a letter to the Post-Crescent to better outline his reasons for entering the Mayor's race and I posted that letter on NeenahPolitics.com, too.

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Give and take on health care reform VII

By Steve Erbach on Thursday, August 13, 2009 3:42 PM

The Cato Institute has the most detailed and understandable explanation of the workings of health insurance and the effect that government regulations have had on it. The explanation is found in chapter 16 of the 7th edition of the Cato Handbook for Congress.

For example, what effect do mandated coverage laws have on the cost of health insurance? The answer:

All states increase the cost of health insurance by requiring consumers to purchase certain types of coverage, whether or not they want the particular coverage. As a result of these "mandated coverage" laws:

Teetotalers must purchase coverage for alcoholism treatment (45 states).

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Give and take on health care reform VI

By Steve Erbach on Thursday, August 13, 2009 1:38 PM

This makes sense to me, too. From the Wall Street Journal:

The Whole Foods Alternative to ObamaCare

Eight things we can do to improve health care without adding to the deficit.

By JOHN MACKEY

"The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out
of other people's money." — Margaret Thatcher

With a projected $1.8 trillion deficit for 2009, several trillions more in deficits projected over the next decade, and with both Medicare and Social Security entitlement spending about to ratchet up several notches over the next 15 years as Baby Boomers become eligible for both, we are rapidly running out of other pe ... Read More »

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Give and take on health care reform V

By Steve Erbach on Thursday, August 13, 2009 1:24 PM

The following is from The News Observer. It's a column written by an Associate Professor at Duke University, John David Lewis.

Mr. Lewis states very well what I have wondered about all along during the health care reform debate: why must we assume that the "solution" is more government regulation?

What 'right' to health care?

BY JOHN DAVID LEWIS

DURHAM - As the issue of health care reform builds to a legislative climax, it is important that we not merely parrot the same kinds of proposals we have seen for the past 5 ... Read More »

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Sedation dentistry

By Steve Erbach on Wednesday, August 12, 2009 9:13 AM

Driving the other day, I heard an ad on the radio for a dentist who performs "sedation dentistry". The dentist himself voiced the ad and he said, "Just take one pill an hour before your appointment and you won't even remember you were there."

Google shows about 10 dental offices in the Neenah/Menasha area, so it isn't a new thing. I had just never heard of it before.

It conjures up some funny images, especially since the ad stresses the "you won't even remember" part. The dentist said that instead of having to go for multiple appointments, one session of sedation dentistry would allow the dentist to get all that work done in one sitting.

According to the Consumer Guide to Sedation Dentistry, the patient is actually awake during the visit -- he just d ... Read More »

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Give and take on health care reform IV

By Steve Erbach on Friday, August 07, 2009 9:57 AM

Tim sent me an article from yournews.com to add "fuel to the fire":

Kicking Up the Cost of Health Care

Aug 6
By Bill Wineke

Medicare Part D pays for an expensive shingles vaccine -- but many physicians cannot bill the government, meaning patients experience red tape and costs increase.

MADISON, WI (YN) --The bill I received from the Meriter Medical Group puzzled me.

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Give and take on health care reform III

By Steve Erbach on Friday, August 07, 2009 7:30 AM

"...sink us."

Those are the last two words from my posting on Monday. That's where my old friend, Tim Morrissey, began his comments:

Your last two words are the most pithy. We ARE sunk. We give gazillions to "banks" with NO strings attached, and the "drive-by media", as Mr. Limbo would bloviate, gin up fake outrage about how B of A used scads of the bailout money to give tens of millions in bonuses to the losers who put the hole in the ship in the first place.

It's Madison-liberal claptrap, but we sink gazillions into useless wars half-a-globe away, wrapped in the flag, with claptrap about "freedom ain't free".

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Obama on the "Birther Conspiracy"

By Steve Erbach on Friday, August 07, 2009 6:20 AM

Obama Debunks Birther Conspiracy - watch more funny videos

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Nothin' yet!

By Steve Erbach on Wednesday, August 05, 2009 11:44 AM

[Impatiently tapping foot] We're waiting!

This graphic is from WeatherStreet.com. It shows that as of today, August 5th, 2009, not a single named tropical storm has formed in the Atlantic. By this time last year we'd already had two hurricanes among a total of 5 named storms.

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The Stockdale Paradox

By Steve Erbach on Tuesday, August 04, 2009 1:07 PM

I'll do more on the health care debate with my old compadre, Tim Morrissey (and others), in another blog entry. For the moment though, I'd like to turn to a different topic.

Occasionally I've posted the e-mails I get from a very worthy lobbying group in Washington, DC, called DownsizeDC.org. The latest e-mail deals with support for Congressman Ron Paul's bill to "Audit the Fed". DownsizeDC is in favor of the bill's passage, of course; but the main point of today's e-mail was to emphasize a point about political activism.

The e-mail is written by one of the most trenchant political activists on the scene today, Jim Babka, the President of DownsizeDC.org. Here's the text of the e-mail containing The Stockdale Paradox and its implications for those of us looking for political change:

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Give and take on health care reform II

By Steve Erbach on Monday, August 03, 2009 4:59 PM

My friend, Tim Morrissey, picked up the gauntlet and responded to my post of earlier today. Here's what he had to say:

Touche', Dr. Erbach! Where do I start.... How about your line about coverages "spelled out in the contract" (policy). Sure. Lots of things are spelled out in the contract language. And you know as well as I that even "covered" procedures are often denied by the faceless bureaucrats in the insurance company. They'll find a way to pull a "pre-existing condition" out of your medical records to deny you a "covered" benefit.

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Give and take on Health Care Reform

By Steve Erbach on Monday, August 03, 2009 12:37 PM

My old friend, Tim Morrissey, has begun blogging since he had the can tied to his tail by the MidWest Family radio stations last November. His "About Me" paragraph gives a pretty good description of the tenor of his blog, "The Way Things R":

Cranky, out-of-sorts, and generally pissed off about a lot of stuff.

That's Tim's picture, if you hadn't guessed. It was taken several years ago before his hirsuteness started to go gray and before he grew a beard. But this is how I remember him best.

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This had to happen sooner or later

By Steve Erbach on Monday, August 03, 2009 6:20 AM

The logical extension of the "it isn't my fault" mindset so popular these days:

College Grad Can't Find Job, Wants $$$ Back

By JENNIFER MILLMAN

She went to college to boost her chances of finding a great job once she got out of school, but now that that hasn't happened, Trina Thompson wants her money back.

Thompson, a graduate of Monroe College, is suing her school for the $70,000 she spent on tuition because she hasn't found solid employment since receiving her bachelor's degree in April, according to a published report.

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Recent commentary: Hard cases in child health care

By Steve Erbach on Friday, July 31, 2009 10:59 AM

Should parents have the right to choose prayer over medicine for their sick children?

(published 3-Aug-2009, Appleton Post-Crescent)

Hard cases make bad laws. Lets say the state legislature passed a law requiring all parents to take their children to doctors on a regular basis, how would that be enforceable? As usual with this sort of law, absolutely everyone is treated like a criminal. I can just see it now: before taking their new baby home from the hospital, the parents have to sign an acknowledgment that they are liable for a set schedule of doctors' visits for the first 18 years of the child's life. Then there are the fees to enroll and a rider on their drivers' licenses. There'll be a list of pediatricians that are in compliance with the law. Social workers will visit every quarter to approve the child's home health log. Penalties, of cou ... Read More »

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The Kids from Wisconsin

By Steve Erbach on Thursday, July 30, 2009 5:44 AM

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 »

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Apollo 11: We Choose the Moon

By Steve Erbach on Saturday, July 18, 2009 9:17 AM

This is a fascinating site. http://wechoosethemoon.org . It's an interactive site dedicated to re-living the Apollo 11 mission to the moon:

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

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Apollo 11: three excellent commentaries

By Steve Erbach on Friday, July 17, 2009 3:45 PM

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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The Reading Room:
Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy

By Steve Erbach on Thursday, July 09, 2009 11:19 AM

I've been reading Joseph Schumpeter's great work on economics, Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy. It isn't written as clearly as Socialism by Ludwig von Mises but I think that's because Schumpeter's classic delves into a bit of satire and persiflage, making the experience a bit disorienting yet delightful when one runs across something like the following.

In the chapter entitled Marx the Teacher, Schumpeter takes Marx to task for the entire synthesis of the Marxian theories. He starts to pick Marx apart like a glutton picks apart a roasted chicken.

The section I'm reading now deals with the Marxian and neo-Marxian view of protectionism. Marx – and especially his followers – inveigh against the "sinister interests" in agriculture and big business that scream for protection against foreign competition.

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Recent commentary: Wisconsin budget process

By Steve Erbach on Thursday, July 02, 2009 10:36 AM

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 »

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Sin taxes

By Steve Erbach on Wednesday, July 01, 2009 2:39 PM

I was reading a Reuters article about the budget crises in most of the states of the Union. Many states are instituting or raising "sin" taxes; i.e., taxes on cigarettes, liquor, adult entertainment, etc.

What caught my eye was this:

California is mulling legalizing marijuana and charging a $50-per-ounce tax on it along with the state's sale tax.

California, of course, has the worst budget mess of all. Taking into account the sum of the budget shortfalls of all the states combined -- approx. $130 billion -- California "owns" about one-fourth of it all by itself.

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Dander's up

By Steve Erbach on Monday, June 15, 2009 5:29 AM

Human-caused global warming. More and more it gets my dander up, most recently in the Amazon.com discussion forums. Here's the byplay I had with one fellow over the past few days.

It started when I posted Freeeman Dyson's article about climate change. Here's how it progressed on Amazon.com:

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Camille Paglia does it again

By Steve Erbach on Thursday, June 11, 2009 3:56 PM

I'm a regular reader of Camille Paglia's monthly pieces on Salon.com. This month's column (posted yesterday) leads off with a wonderfully incisive critique of President Obama's speech in Cairo. Here's an excerpt:

Obama's lack of fervor may be one reason he rejects and perhaps cannot comprehend the religious passions that perennially erupt around the globe and that will never be waved away by mere words. By approaching religion with the cool, neutral voice of the American professional elite, Obama was sometimes simplistic and even inadvertently condescending, as in his gift bag of educational perks like "scholarships," "internships," and "online learning" -- as if any of these could checkmate the seething, hallucinatory obsessions of jihadism.

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Keeping things in perspective

By Steve Erbach on Thursday, June 11, 2009 3:00 PM

I normally don't get too worked up about emails sent by friends that have a series of pictures with either humorous or heart-rending captions. The jokes are usually pretty lame and my heart usually isn't rended too much...

An email from my brother, Dan in Afghanistan, broke the mold enough that I thought I'd post the pictures and captions here. It's all about looking beyond yourself when things get a little rough. So, herewith the text and pictures from my brother's email.

Let’s not forget how good we have it in the United States; and thank a soldier when you see one for protecting our way of life.

When a soldier comes home...

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Video speaks for itself

By Steve Erbach on Wednesday, June 10, 2009 5:00 PM

A 72-year-old woman filmed with police monitor equipment. She gets tasered by a traffic officer. Tasered. The incident occured May 11th of this year.

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Excellent climate change interview with Freeman Dyson

By Steve Erbach on Wednesday, June 10, 2009 4:42 AM

Freeman Dyson, the Princeton physicist, has been an influential force in science for decades. He's still alive and kicking.

In March the New York Times Magazine published a cover story on Dyson's views of human-caused global warming. It created a stir, to put it mildly. So a fellow named Michael D. Lemonick, a Time magazine writer for 20 years currently writing for Climate Central, interviewed him for Yale Environment 360.

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Recent commentary: a question for the President

By Steve Erbach on Friday, June 05, 2009 10:51 AM

If you could see President Obama and ask him one question, what would it be?

(published 8-Jun-2009, Appleton Post-Crescent)

Mr. President, I'm just a regular guy who was down-sized from a job I enjoyed. I don't blame you nor do I blame the previous administration. However, the enormous effort that you and Congress have expended on economic issues will be ultimately wasted. We'll be left with an incredibly huge national debt coupled with rampant deficit spending far into the future -- perhaps as long as the United States survives as an independent nation. That's what I'm concerned about: our survival. I'm afraid that the suffering of future generations of Americans will be great because of what we've done today to try to save our bacon. The economy will recover; it always has, even after the Great Depression. But my question is, haven't you learned that ... Read More »

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What to do about climate change

By Steve Erbach on Thursday, May 28, 2009 8:22 AM

I subscribe to an Amazon Community discussion group on climate change. Its activity waxes and wanes over the months. This particular group has had 338 messages posted since it began in March of last year.

Today I saw a little message posted by lady who is interested in septic tank aerators, "sweet filters", green homes, and stopping global warming. The post that caught my eye reads:

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions will stop global warming. Turning off lights or denying yourself simple pleasures will not change much. Some things you can do at home will make a big difference are:

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What I'm For and Against

Should the U. S. pull out of Afghanistan?

D o w n s i z e r - D i s p a t c h

Kicking Up the Cost of Health Care

Medicare Part D pays for an expensive shingles vaccine -- but many physicians cannot bill the government, meaning patients experience red tape and costs increase.

Should parents have the right to choose prayer over medicine for their sick children?

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?)

When a soldier comes home...

If you could see President Obama and ask him one question, what would it be?

Miscellany

News & Commentary

What I'm For
and Against