Should Wisconsin legalize sobriety road checks?

(published 4-Jan-2010, Appleton Post-Crescent)

How about this instead?  A new federal subsidy for all bars, restaurants, and nightclubs that serve alcohol to hire sobriety testers.  These people would sit at all the exits and observe patrons as they leave.  They would spot anyone exhibiting signs of drunkenness.  Each drunk would be pulled aside and asked a battery of confusing questions.  The tester would then use one of those newfangled passive alcohol sensors.  Now here's the beauty part of my idea:  If the drunk flunks, the tester would call a cab...and the cab fare would be subsidized, too!  At a much reduced rate, of course, like Medicare payments to doctors.  Isn't that brilliant?  We'd probably pay as much for sobriety testers in bars as we ... Read More »

I attended both of the Girl Choir concerts last Saturday, December 12th.  Both concerts were very fine. There weren't the spectacular highs in these performances as there were in the 2008 concerts, but the performances overall were on a higher plane.  I think that the choir directors and the muscial director of the Girl Choir were striving for a more consistently thematic performance.  They achieved it, in my opinion.

The theme of the concert was "To Music".  All of the songs expressed love of music and appreciation for what it brings to the performers as well as to the listeners.

I told the director of the Intermezzo Choir, Amber Evey Schmidt, ... Read More »

The extent of sea ice over the past 8 years:

Nothing much to see here...which is the point. Seasonal sea ice isn't doing anything surprising, such as shrinking down to nothing as erstwhile Vice President Gore would have us believe.