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Foundations
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What I'm For
and Against
PRO
- Atomic power
- Space Exploration
- Free Trade
- Capitalism
- Home Schooling
- Liberty
- Amendments IX and X
- 10th Commandment
- Good Manners
ANTI
- War on Drugs
- "Universal" Health Care
- Religion-based government
- Big Government of any kind
- Compulsory government monopoly mass schooling
- Income Tax
- Windmills and other government-subsidized "alternative" energy boondoggles
- The idea that electing the "right" person will make everything better
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Clock
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This excellent clock comes from the Poodwaddle web site. Yes, that's what it's called!
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TC Archive
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DownsizeDC
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The Town Crank
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| Author: |
Steve Erbach |
Created: |
Thursday, November 13, 2003 8:30 AM |
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| Just shut yer yap, leave me alone, and stop raising my blankety-blank taxes! |
By Steve Erbach on
Thursday, March 24, 2011 9:29 AM
No, this isn't going to be a rant about how Social Security is unconstitutional, all right?
I've been reading a few commentaries on Social Security lately; notably from the excellent DownsizeDC.org site as well as a column in the Washington Post by Robert Samuelson. Something Samuelson said triggered a thought:
From 1950 to 1972, [Congress] increased [Social Security benefits] nine times, including a doubling in the early 1950s. In 1972, it indexed benefits to inflation.
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By Steve Erbach on
Friday, March 18, 2011 8:36 AM
Are the municipal elections important to you?
(published 21-Mar-2011, Appleton Post-Crescent)
No matter which town you live in, you can learn a lot by attending Council meetings. You might think you've got it all figured out; but it isn't until you see your city/town/village Council in action that all the incongruities and inconsistencies, machinations and maneuverings, earnestness and evasiveness of local politics are revealed. You learn who on the Council you can rely on and who you have to watch out for; which ones lead and which ones fill space; who shoots straight and who are the slippery characters. Then when you see that it's time for an alderman to go, you hope for a replacement you can trust. In District 1 in Neenah, I beli ...
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By Steve Erbach on
Monday, March 14, 2011 9:10 AM
Stealing shamelessly from the DownsizeDC.org web site, I wrote this letter to Senators Kohl and Johnson and 6th District Representative Petri about Social Security:
Please take steps to reduce Social Security's liabilities.
There is NO easy, painless way to fix the problem. All we can do – all I am relying on YOU to do – is to:
- Protect those who depend on Social Security
- Reduce the Social Security program's liabilities
- Give future generations a better deal
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By Steve Erbach on
Wednesday, March 09, 2011 1:10 PM
With a hat tip to the fine editors of the Encyclopaedia Britannica who gave us "The Annotated Dennis Miller" when he was a color commentator for Monday Night Football -- which is now archived on the ESPN web site -- herewith an explanation of the multifarious cultural references made by the aforementioned Mr. Miller during his rant yesterday (look just below Moore's picture on Miller's web site: there's a link with a speaker and a play icon) on his nationally syndicated radio program about the appearanc
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By Steve Erbach on
Sunday, March 06, 2011 10:17 AM
The Social Security Administration web site, of all places, has over a hundred years of data on the most popular baby names by year. So I asked for 100 years' worth of rankings for the name of my daughter, Eleanor. I took the data the web site gave me and turned it into an Excel spreadsheet with a graph showing the course of the name's popularity over time.
The graph shows that the heyday for "Eleanor" was the roaring 20s -- the 25th most popular girl's name in 1920. For some reason it became really un-popular in the 70s and 80s...but has come more back into favor.
What are the mos ...
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By Steve Erbach on
Sunday, March 06, 2011 7:58 AM
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By Steve Erbach on
Friday, March 04, 2011 5:43 PM
...I realize that the progressives have won. The Republicans (aka "The Stupid Party") always fumble the ball. Then the Democrats get back in power and move the ball further down field towards the progressive goal posts. Very soon, however, they overreach and they're booted out of office in favor of the (temporarily) lesser evil. There really isn't a retreat from the progressive agenda, though. It's sort of like entropy or gravity: it's irresistible. And, once again, the Republicans will blow it as they usually do...and on and on.
This is the progressive age. What's happening now in Madison is only temporary. Even if the Wisconsin 14 are recalled or defeated at the ballot box, they'll only have to wait a few years until the Republicans foul the nest.
I could wish that the politicians would reduce the size, scope, and reach of government permanently, ...
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By Steve Erbach on
Friday, February 11, 2011 9:13 PM
I subscribe to an email newsletter from the Barlow Planetarium at UW-Fox Valley in Menasha. Imagine my delight when I read the following. I think you'll get a kick out of it, too.
Green Bay Packers - Super Bowl XLV Champions - Asterism
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By Steve Erbach on
Friday, February 11, 2011 3:19 PM
...and now it's France's Sarkozy. They've all said that multiculturalism as a national policy or intent has failed:
Multiculturalism has failed, says French president
Thu Feb 10, 6:10 pm ET
PARIS (AFP) – French President Nicolas Sarkozy declared Thursday that multiculturalism had failed, joining a growing number of world leaders or ex-leaders who have condemned it.
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By Steve Erbach on
Wednesday, January 19, 2011 11:37 AM
This morning on Facebook I posted a link to a blog entry at The Realignment Project. I also posted this:
Yesterday WTAQ's Jerry Bader asked why progressives are obsessed with high-speed rail (HSR). The answer (from the link): "HSR is a vision of economic development where the government is at the center of economic life, the 'investor of last resort' directing growth according to the public good, and where a collectively-consumed public service is the star of government policy." HSR is a blessing for government lovers.
My friend, Don Merkes, the Mayor of Menasha, asked the question:
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By Steve Erbach on
Tuesday, January 18, 2011 7:22 PM
Perhaps it's yet another example of screwy math in main-stream media reporting...but if it isn't, then there's a serious problem.
The story in The Daily Caller, has the headline:
That caught my attention. Britain and the rest of Europe are constantly put forward as shining examples of how good government-controlled health care/health insurance can be.
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By Steve Erbach on
Tuesday, January 18, 2011 5:52 PM
Should certain types of weapons or ammo be restricted?
(published 24-Jan-2011, Appleton Post-Crescent on-line)
Oh, brother! Here we go. It was bullets from a gun that killed those people in Arizona, not the demented creep that pulled the trigger. Do people seriously believe that that psychopath would have been deterred if he couldn't get the ammo he wanted through legal channels? If anything the incident in Tucson highlights the fact that despite the enormous number of laws that already restrict gun ownership, purchases, and use, that maniac was able to buy a gun and use it against innocent people. Oh, and one more thing: everyone knows that Loughner was warped, twisted ...
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By Steve Erbach on
Thursday, December 30, 2010 2:32 PM
What would you like the new governor to accomplish?
(published 3-Jan-2011, Appleton Post-Crescent)
A miracle. No, a raft of miracles. We won't get them but I can dream, can't I? So here's my dream: Walker and the Republican-controlled legislature
- figure out a concrete way to balance the budget without accounting tricks
- extend Milwaukee's school choice program state-wide
- pay back the federal government the money we spent on that blankety-blank train boondoggle
- pull back on the unfunded DNR mandates for municipalities required to install expensive retention ponds by 2013
- lower the state income tax rate
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By Steve Erbach on
Thursday, December 30, 2010 12:35 PM
Today Mark Steyn ("The One-Man Global Content Provider") was a guest host on the Rush Limbaugh program. Whenever he's on-the-air I try to catch his act.
Today he was reviewing the state of Maine's "Compact Flurorescent Lamp Breakage Study Report"...or as Steyn refers to them: Curly Fry Lamps. More specifically he highlighted Appendix E of that report, the "Revised Cleanup Guidance", which does its level best to answer the question: "What if I accidentally break a flurorescent lamp in my home?"
The answer provided by the state of Maine is a simple, 14-step procedure. Here's all you'll need:
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By Steve Erbach on
Tuesday, December 28, 2010 1:16 PM
You don't need a Facebook account to see these pics:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2065536&id=1325118333&l=3b36ad5ade
18 photos (out of the 297 I snapped!) taken during the 2:00pm show on December 11th at the Lawrence Memorial Chapel.
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By Steve Erbach on
Monday, December 27, 2010 11:08 AM
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By Steve Erbach on
Monday, December 27, 2010 9:02 AM
...well, maybe not stellar, but nifty for someone of my political persuasion (Tea Party).
My old friend, Jonathan Menn, gave me the latest issue of the Claremont Review of Books on Christmas Eve. I stared at the cover and laughed out loud. It shows the capitol dome in Washington DC rendered as a steaming tea kettle:
Very satisfying. Of course, my satisfaction will be much deeper if the Stupid Party can actually manage ...
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By Steve Erbach on
Friday, December 24, 2010 9:17 AM
I'm a subscriber to The New Republic's (TNR) email newsletter. Recently they posted a shot of the dead tree version's cover that I think is one of the best images representing a controversial topic I've ever seen:
Lady Liberty subjected to a full-body scan. Fabulous!
So, remembering that outrageously excellent image, I read with a measure of interest TNR's pitch for subscriptions to the magazine. Here's the subject line of the email:
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By Steve Erbach on
Sunday, December 12, 2010 7:20 PM
Here are the songs from yesterday's glorious 7:00 pm Girl Choir concert at the Lawrence Memorial Chapel in Appleton. I would have posted them sooner if it hadn't been for our little blizzard and the waist-deep snow drifts in my driveway!
My daughter, Eleanor, is now in the Intermezzo Choir for 5th, 6th, and 7th grade girls. My wife, Janet, accompanies that choir as well as the Allegretto Choir. Janet also played transitional music while the choirs were trooping off the stage and the next one trooped on. Finally, she played the finale with all the choirs on-stage at once.
First, a couple of pictures. I attended both performances and played unofficial photographer during the first. I didn't listen too much to the music as I was snapping 297 photos!
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By Steve Erbach on
Tuesday, December 07, 2010 5:54 PM
No pictures this time; just the music. And MP3s this time, not Windows Media. That should make the Macsters happy!
I don't have all of the song titles yet and Janet hasn't gotten back home from her errands this evening...but I couldn't wait!
My wife Janet is playing the Steinway concert grand piano on-stage at the Lawrence Memorial Chapel in Appleton, WI, the site of the Lawrence Academy of Music Girl Choir concert this Saturday. I think when she practices tomorrow I'll take some photos of the piano itself. It's banged up, but it sure sounds wonderful.
Janet started off with some warmups:
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By Steve Erbach on
Wednesday, November 24, 2010 8:18 AM
...I saw the best political bumper sticker ever. Yes, the elections finished up weeks ago (though not some of the recounts), but this sticker was timeless. Matter of fact it was a sticker for the 2004 Presidential election.
Here it is:
Cthulhu for President 2004
Why settle for the lesser evil?
Those of you not familiar with Read More »
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By Steve Erbach on
Monday, November 22, 2010 9:25 AM
A few years ago my wife, Janet, put together a Christmas CD for some good friends of ours. It's a compilation of lots of different funny Christmas songs blended together with Monty Python bits and quotes from various movies. Some of it is a bit racy, but the overall effect is a fun-filled Christmas package.
For your holiday enjoyment, here is the playlist of all 27 cuts of The Almost a Christmas CD:
Read More »
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By Steve Erbach on
Monday, November 15, 2010 8:43 AM
My daughter, Eleanor, is a member of the Lawrence Academy of Music Intermezzo Girl Choir. My wife, Janet, is the accompanist for two of the six Girl Choirs including my daughter's. In December five of the Choirs will give a concert at the Lawrence Memorial Chapel. This year will be a program of Christmas music, which only happens once every four years from what I'm told.
One of the songs the Intermezzo Choir will sing is "Riu Riu Chiu", a 16th century Spanish villancico, or, as it became known, "Christmas carol". It's a very pretty song. The title doesn't have any literal meaning; it's supposed to represent the song of the nightingale.
Last night my wife was coaching Eleanor. Since the song is in Spanish, those girls in the choir that don't speak it have to learn it by ear. Eleanor was coming along nicely last nigh ...
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By Steve Erbach on
Monday, November 01, 2010 9:24 AM
Reader Reaction Forum: How can candidates effectively win your support?
(published on-line, 1-Nov-2010, Appleton Post-Crescent)
At best it's a temporary lull in the battle. When a new member of Congress takes his seat he's immediately beset by the pressures to support or not support this issue or the other. Favors are totted up minutely. A Congresscritter can't expect support for his pet bill if he didn't support these 18 other bills by other members. It's like getting caught in a web. Some that have exemplary leadership or deal-making skills wind up as majority/minority leaders. Others, like Ron Paul, wind up as lone wolves.
I guess the question is how will the newly elected Congressman act once in office? Will the campaign trail firebrand carry his flaming sword onto the floor of the House or Senate and slash budgets and make taxes fair for all? Not likely.
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By Steve Erbach on
Sunday, October 31, 2010 2:01 PM
On an email list I subscribe to, someone asked me if the term "Congresscritter" was original with me. I had to admit that it wasn't. I simply heard it somewhere long ago and liked it and use it every chance I get.
It got me to thinking about whether I've actually had any original thoughts. Sad to say I only came up with two. So I'm now laying claim to them officially on the GoreNet for all the world to see:
- "Fashion paper plate©", as in, "Greg was the opposite of dapper: he was a fashion paper plate."
- A joke: "Lutheran guilt is worse than Catholic guilt because Lutherans are guilty they're not Catholics."
All the rest is derivative.
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By Steve Erbach on
Friday, October 29, 2010 6:53 PM
This story made me laugh out loud...the best laugh this week!
Here's the chronology:
- In August, Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) was defeated in the Republican primary by former judge Joe Miller; a "shocking upset". Miller had been supported by the Tea Party and Sarah Palin.
- On September 17 Murkowski announced that she would mount a write-in campaign to retain her Senate seat.
- Early voters in Alaska had asked for help determining who the official write-in candidates were since the names were not found on the ballot. The state's Division of Elections had allowed this saying that they anticipated a lot of questions about Murkowski.
Read More »
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By Steve Erbach on
Wednesday, October 27, 2010 6:19 PM
Two entirely different stories with similar sub-plots: that "the will of the people" was thwarted.
First, the passage of the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act, aka "ObamaCare". The conservatives have been making hay saying that the majority of Americans were opposed to its passage; but our Congresscritters, our we-know-better-than-the-Great-Unwashed elected representatives in D.C. went ahead and passed it anyway. Now there's serious talk of either repealing it or "fixing" the parts that those poor Democrats didn't know were in the bill.
Second, the passage of an increase in the retirement age in La Belle France: from a minimum of 60 years of age to 62. Millions have already staged protests, strikes, and even riots. What you see in almost every news story about the new legislation is that the people are against it ...
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By Steve Erbach on
Friday, October 22, 2010 8:59 AM
This story in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel Online made me a little crazy. Here's a little burg (pop. around 11,000) whose school board has decided to ask parents to enroll their children in sex education classes via an "opt-in" registration. That is, to attend the class the parents have to return a permission slip, just as they do for a field trip outside the school.
Now, however, the state Department of Public Instruction is making threatening noises about suing the Cedarbury school district. Why? Because the state avers that the registration should be of the "opt-out" variety. That is, unless a parent specifically says, "No", the child will be enrolled in the sex ed classes.
I'm with Cedarbu ...
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By Steve Erbach on
Friday, October 08, 2010 9:55 AM
The indispensable Reg (theRegister.com) provides details from a report published in Nature (requires a subscription, unfortunately) that says that maybe it was Old Sol that made everything on terra firma warmer after all in the past few years. Who'd a thunk it?
That is, even though the Sun's recent sunspot activity has been historically low, its effect on surface temps has been enhanced since its output of visible and infrared light has been higher. Infrared is the part of the spectrum that fast food joints use in heat lamps to keep your fries warm. It's also the radiation that heats up the inside of your car when the windows are rolled up.
Read More »
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By Steve Erbach on
Thursday, October 07, 2010 2:11 PM
How do you figure out what campaign info to believe?
(published 11-Oct-2010, Appleton Post-Crescent)
I'll answer that question with a question: "How far can you throw a politician?" That's about how far I trust what a candidate says about himself. My family hasn't watched TV (cable or broadcast) since mid-November, 1999; so, glory be! I don't have to SEE political TV ads. I can selectively examine candidate web sites and sites like WisPolitics.com to read their platforms. I listen to radio news to hear the lastest scandals. I can hear their voices in sound bites, too. (That's how I knew Clinton had trouble with the truth...sticky mouth when answering uncomfortable questions.) Radio and web pundits provide color and depth to the candidates. Political advocacy web sites have valuable inf ...
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Tea Partyer
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U.S. Congressman, Maxine Waters, says that the TEA Party "can go straight to hell." Well, after you, Maxine!
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Our Founder
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"Just shut yer yap, leave me alone, and stop raising my blankety blank taxes!"
You are free to add your two cents to any blog entry if you register; but if you want to send a deeply personal message to Our Founder, [click here].
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