Do candidates' personal lives matter?

(published 30-Jan-2012, Appleton Post-Crescent online)

You can argue the issues all you want and claim to be objective every time you enter a voting booth. But you and I both know that it really comes down to whether you think you could have a beer with the guy, right? Is he at least middling honest? Are the bribes he's taken modest? Do his children not gag too much whenever they attend one of his rallies? Does his wife look like she's actually smiling and not gritting her teeth? There's SOMETHING about the way a politician lives his life that affects you when you find out about it. We treat politicians like the tabloid stars: we revel in their affairs, peccadilloes, and bad judgment. All of that shapes our opinion much more than their stands on the issues, which, by golly, seem to shift around quite a bit. Is ... Read More »

What would help keep medical costs in check?

(published 16-Jan-2012, Appleton Post-Crescent)

I've had a solution to the health care crisis for years. If you remember that doctors take money from sick people, you'll realize that health care isn't a "right"; it's just a service like plumbing or snow removal. There's a crisis in health care costs and availability because government caps the price paid for services to Medicare and Medicaid providers; that is, price CEILINGS are enforced. The result? Lots of doctors don't accept Medicare or Medicaid patients. Thus there's a shortage of health care services due to government meddling. Anything in short supply costs more. What we could try is something akin to milk price supports. That is, place price FLOORS on medical services. You don't hear about ice cream shortages do you? No, because milk prices are suppo ... Read More »

What was the top news story of the year?

(published 26-Dec-2011, Appleton Post-Crescent)

I'll sidestep the top international story since there are only a couple of choices and everybody will make one or the other (I mean the killing of Osama bin Laden and the Japanese earthquake / tsunami / nuclear accident).  I'd rather look at Wisconsin. In my opinion the top story was the chronic temper tantrum thrown by the public employee unions this year.  From the state capitol demonstrations manned by AWOL teachers with fake doctors' excuses; to the Fleebaggers; to the recall of 9 -- count 'em! -- 9 state senators; to the senate recall elections that did NOT tip the majority to the whiners...I mean the Democrats; to the bubbling resentment and grass roots organizing that took place before a Recall Walker movement could officially begin; to the recall sig ... Read More »

Why did the debt supercommittee struggle to agree?

(published 28-Nov-2011, Appleton Post-Crescent)

Because they were tying themselves in knots trying to appear fiscally conservative yet compassionate; unyielding yet conciliatory; determined yet accommodating; implacable yet benevolent; cold-blooded yet warmhearted...you know the drill.  It was the old economic balloon animal squeezed by a committee – which, as everyone knows, is a life form with three or more stomachs and no brain.  I can't imagine what the "super" version of a committee would be.  Maybe something like a sea cucumber that ejects its stomach in self-defense, I don't know.  What I do know is that the "super" committee wasn't going to come up with anything better than the European Union did in its latest Gr ... Read More »

What can Washington do to improve education?

(published 24-Oct-2011, Appleton Post-Crescent)

Short answer: Stay the heck out of it!  The long Tea Party answer: Deep-six the Department of Education, repeal the "No Child Left Behind Act" and "Race to the Top", and keep President and Mrs. Obama away from school lunch menus.  The Obama administration wanted to limit the amount of potatoes served in school meals; but the Senate unanimously voted to prohibit the Department of Agriculture (which provides funding for publicly funded government monopoly school meals) from setting any maximum limits. Good grief! Our Congresscritters seem to have misplaced the 10th Amendment. Government is the only entity that treats a failure like a success. How? By feeding more money into failing programs year after year after year.  And that ... Read More »

What should another stimulus bill accomplish?

(published 19-Sep-2011, Appleton Post-Crescent)

I cannot agree that there should be another stimulus! The federal government has been pouring money we don't have into too many things that have no bearing on economic recovery.  From the President's admission that there WERE no "shovel-ready" projects, to massive high-cost rail projects -- Yay! Governor Walker, by the way! -- to the recent collapse of Solyndra, the Silicon Valley company that was supposed to showcase the Obama administration's clean energy policies...it's unbelievable  to me that we've been duped into agreeing that propping up unprofitable technologies by borrowing money from the Chinese is the way to get the economy going.  The global warming johnnies are in ... Read More »

What does the Sept. 11 anniversary mean to you?

(published 5-Sep-2011, Appleton Post-Crescent)

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell said recently, "the one thing the terrorists cannot do - not one of them, not 10 of them, not 10,000 of them -they can't change who we are." I'm afraid that that turns out NOT to be the case with respect to the site of the World Trade Center. A nation that sent a man to the moon in less than a decade after President Kennedy set that goal cannot seem to build a new building on the site of the 9/11 disaster in New York.  Bickering, wrangling, grandstanding, whining, posturing, and mewling and puking like infants. As an old friend of mine said about it, "Everyone's ego had to be massaged."  We're definitely good at the self-esteem gam ... Read More »

Reader Reaction Forum: Do the stock market's daily ups and downs worry you?

(published 15-Aug-2011, Appleton Post-Crescent)

In a word, no. What really worries me is something that Mark Steyn pinpoints in his new book, "After America". That is, "When did human life become impossible without a 'safety net'?" In other words, what happened to the American "can-do" spirit? The most recent sign of the ignominious retreat from our status as the world leader in just about everything was the end of the Space Shuttle program, leaving a bloated bureaucracy behind. We solved the greatest engineering problem in ... Read More »

This is the title page of my copy of Mark Steyn's latest book, "After America: Get Ready for Armageddon". Note the keen dedication!

A couple of my friends asked if Steyn actually read The Town Crank blog. I had to confess that I'd read about the release of the book last month, and pre-paid list price + shipping to get Steyn to dedicate as well as auto ... Read More »

I finally broke down and purchased a no-contract smart phone at Radio Shack this week.  It's an LG Optimus V from Virgin Mobile.  The price had dropped 25% in recent weeks.  My son, Alex, already has one from Sprint (for which he's paying a lot more per month) and he's actually happy with it, unlike the last couple of phones he's had.

The phone sports a 3.2 megapixel camera/videocam and I had my first opportunity to use it this morning.  Of course it's a kitten video; what did you expect?

Is it too early to pay attention to the Presidential race?

(published 11-Jul-2011, Appleton Post-Crescent on-line)

I'd pay a lot more attention if a Democrat challenged Obama in a primary. THAT would be interesting.  Kinda like when Reagan challenged Ford. But, no, it isn't too early...it actually can't come early enough for me. I determined quite a while ago that if asked about Obama I'd say, "The President's got a tough job. Lets see how he does." Well, we've seen.  The guy is living in a fantasy world with respect to the economy. I liked a couple things that happened on his watch, though: The Navy SEAL raid on that Somali pirate lifeboat in April, 2009, that freed Captain Richard Phillips; and the Navy SEAL raid on Osama bin Laden's Pakistani compound. And I won't be unhappy if some major troop withdrawals take place in Afghanistan and Iraq. But that is ... Read More »

From the comic strip, Family Tree. "I'll suggest that." Yes, do, please.  Pretty please?

Will concealed carry permits make Wisconsin safer?

(published 20-Jun-2011, Appleton Post-Crescent)

OK, if you want to play that game, how about these: Will a War on Drugs decrease drug use? Will Supreme Court decisions granting the right to abortion help reduce overpopulation? Will compelling attendance at government monopoly mass schools improve education? Will girls wearing provocative clothing cause more rapes? Will requiring voter ID improve knowledge of the issues? Will treating people with AIDS differently from people with syphillis reduce the public health risk? The concealed carry question as stated presumes that the perception of "safety" is the only objection people have to the granting of concealed carry permits. It's a false dichotomy. It isn't an either/or issue. The question contains implied assumptions that would be ludicrous to stipulate ... Read More »

I'm going to take a slight detour...or rather revisit something related to public education that I investigated some time ago.

This image is the cover of the book "The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life" by Herrnstein and Murray.

This book started a firestorm of controversy.  In essence, it pitted the folksy myth voiced by Garrison Keillor -- "Lake Wobegon: where all the children are above avera ... Read More »

What's the next step in the War on Terror?

(published 9-May-2011, Appleton Post-Crescent)

Re-evaluate everything.  Our relationship with Pakistan, for example.  The news that Obama's compound was a long par five away from the Kakul (Pakistan Military Academy), coupled with Pakistan's years of denials that Obama could be there, bear thorough examination.  Some claim that the U. S. could now exert a lot of leverage on Zardari.  One thing to watch out for: how to allow Pakistan to save face.  But far more importantly, Michael Moore is unhappy! O! The humanity!  OBL should have gone on trial, he says.  Maybe in Moore's fantasy world bin Laden could have gotten the Robert Blake jury and gotten off! Democratic supporters of President Obama are coming to grips with the fact that their guy has changed. As Dennis Miller so prescie ... Read More »