Current Currency

The Press Gannette reposts an AP article on eliminating the dollar bill.

Boo I say! But not for the reasons you might think. I say it doesn't go far enough. It's past time we got rid of the one and five dollar bills as well as pennies, nickles and quarters. Create reasonably cheap to produce dollar and fiver coins, keep the dime, and make a slightly larger 20 cent piece.

The penny, nickle, and quarter have served us well but the time has come when a penny costs more than a penny to produce.

Districts and Majorities

Good story of the impact of redistricting on the partisan makeup of the legislative bodies in WI.

I note that Democrats won the "popular vote" for The House of Representatives but that Republicans maintained a forty plus seat advantage.

That holds true for the WI Congressional class. When you add up the votes state wide you get 1398916 for the GOP and 1442491 for the Dems. You might think that vote would split our 8 seats in half, four for each party. You might even think that it'd end up five to three in favor of the Dems. In fact, the GOP hove a 5 to 3 seat advantage. We use districts and those districts are redrawn by those in control every ten years.

I have to wonder who won the popular vote in Wisconsin's Legislature. Unfortunately, the GAB doesn't have the numbers up yet but I'm guessing the popular vote for the bodies doesn't match the elected representatives.

Political Thoughts

Folks will blame the the hurricane or the debates or the LDS Church or whatever else they can come up with for Willard Mitt Romney losing to Barrack Hussein Obama. Turns out none of that really mattered because it wasn't... even... close...

I think Kathleen Parker nails a big part of it: "The truth is, Romney was better than the GOP deserved. Party nitwits undermined him, and the self-righteous tried to bring him down. The nitwits are well-enough known at this point — those farthest-right social conservatives who couldn’t find it in their hearts to keep their traps shut."

But I think Kathleen overdoes the party blame and basically gives Mitt a pass. Romney is supposed to be this great manager and leader, right? He saved countless businesses! He saved the Utah Olympics! In the way of these things, his talking points sometimes so heavily used the word "leadership" it became absurd. A great leader would find a way to bring the far right in to his fold besides lying to them in the primaries. A great leader would have made sure his organization was firing on all cylinders and made corrections where required. But his single largest failure in my view was buying in to the Fox filtered reality so much that-- by all accounts-- he was surprised that he lost when public polling has plainly stated for weeks that he was going to lose. I followed the liberal site electoral-vote.com and the conservative electionprojection.com which both said Romney was going to lose. Really? Leadership? Leadership requires gathering and judging information reliability before choosing a course. Leadership would have meant privately pulling aside a writer and having a concession speech prepared. (Though, I have to credit him. Great job for a last minute throw together.) I don't claim to be any sort of insider and nobody bats a thousand but it sure looks to me like team Romney and it's leader was simply out-executed pretty much everywhere but debate number one while operating on incorrect information, especially on election day.

Depending on how you count, I made four or five win predictions this cycle. Obama (while losing the popular vote), Ribble, Hansen, and Genrich. Turns out I was right about the winners but wrong about the presidential popular vote. I really thought it would be closer. And that's part of the reason I just couldn't bring myself to say that Tammy might beat Tommy too. I was just too cynical, so sure that the nether reaches of the conservative machine would be quietly slipping child molester fliers under wipers on the Sunday before the election which would tip it to Tommy in a close race.

I knew that the House of Representatives and WI Assembly would remain essentially unchanged. We just got done with Republican controlled gerrymandering... err, redistricting. The partisan impact of the districts will wear off over the next two or three cycles but we'll have Republican control of the lower houses until then. (These little districts with absurd lines drawn by whoever happens to be in control every ten years are going to make divisiveness worse and worse from here on out. It's too easy to gerrymander with modern technology. Much like how electoral college distorts the presidential, small districts with movable lines distort these legislative bodies. I think it's past time we passed laws that say counties and municipalities should be kept whole in the least or we should just abolish districts and go to proportional representation in the Assembly. Maybe I'll post on this...)

What I didn't see coming is the Republicans taking full control of Wisconsin again. I just wasn't paying attention to other races. Lets hope the party in control acts, well, conservatively instead of ramming things through in a hurry this time. "Bold action" is not a synonym for "good action", and "common sense" is not the same as "good sense". Please try to remember that, OK Republicans? I'm dead serious. No sarcasm here, zero. If you lead with thoughtfulness and deliberateness while sending up trial balloons and setting expectations, you won't have half the state yelling and screaming and drumming at you again.

P.S. I wonder if there has ever before been a Presidential campaign where both candidates tried so hard to ignore whole parts of their names?

Catholic Contrast and Perception

Three out of four Irish who identified themselves as Catholics find the church's teaching on sexuality "irrelevant" Probably not as high among self identified Catholics in the USA but I'd still bet it's a majority.

Now contrast that with this:

"The ad hoc committee opened its statement with several 'concrete examples' of recent threats to religious liberty, saying that 'this is not a theological or legal dispute without real-world consequences.'"

Consequences indeed. I think this sort of disconnect between leadership and flock is why both continue to shrink.

Sizing things up, relatively.

Use your mouse wheel after opening this window.

Seeing something like this that shows how much we, humanity, have come to know makes me think of all that remains to be discovered. What's lies beyond, what is further within, and what have we missed along the way?

Financial Peace

From a family relationship and mental health perspective, a debt free life is a whole lot less stress. Money isn't happiness but it is freedom and choices.

Throw on top of that the Christian perspective that God wants you to be a good steward of the resources with which He has blessed you.

A local church is offering Financial Peace Univerity.

I'm glad to see Our Saviour offering it. I have been a fan of Dave Ramsey's books and radio show forever. Definitely mix in a little Jesus in but-- at least in the books and show-- it isn't in your face. If you are having money problems FPU may be worth your while.

Somali Rescue

Outstanding work. There will be no controversy about the military going in to a Somali pirate stronghold to liberate hostages. There's even an upside to the fact that the soldiers apparently killed their way out. The next Somali guy who gets hired for guard duty will be wondering when the Americans are coming. Maybe he'll take up farming instead. For his sake, I hope so.

Congratulations and thanks to everyone from President Obama to everyone down to the folks who really matter, the soldiers who executed this mission.

Happiness Behaviors

Pretty tough to argue with this list of behaviors that happy people share. Especially that last one. OTOH, forgiveness is difficult for me in two cases.

Chicken or egg? Are folks happy because they practice these behaviors or do they practice these behaviors because they are happy? I think it's both but leans heavily to the behavior begetting happiness.

Class Act

You may have caught the article in the GB or Milwaukee papers about the add Mark Tauscher took out in the Journal Sentinel. What a classy thing to do.

“To me, I don’t see a state divided, politically… . In Madison it’s overwhelmingly that way, but around the state I don’t see that.”

You know why that is Governor? I think it's because your staff rents public spaces making them non-public and sends out invitations to only your supporters. To those of us who didn't write you a check, volunteer on your campaign, work to recall a Democrat and don't belong to the Republican party-- you know, the majority of Wisconsinites-- you are totally inaccessible.

Bubble anyone?

Sick Kids? - Green Bay Environmental Polution

I didn't look at the whole list but I don't see a single school within Green Bay or even the Green Bay Area School District that isn't in the top 20% of polluted schools. Many are in the top 1%. How depressing is that? The entire city is a high pollution, cancer causing area it seems.

Of course, the devil is in the details and the report methodology is a computer simulation based on pollution estimates. There are more details in the FAQ. It is possible that the reason we're on the top of the list is that our companies are honest in their reporting and everyone else underestimates. On the other hand, we do have a coal plant and some pretty serious industrial facilities right near down town so it seems very plausible.

We need to actually gather and test air quality samples to get the facts. I wonder what a test like that costs? I wonder if there are EPA, WI-DNR, or other grants the city, county or citizens could go after to get that done. I wonder a bunch of things...

But here's one thing I know. I know it's election season and that means it is a good time for everyone-- that's YOU-- to call your local candidates to press the issue and get commitments to act. Call your candidates and get them to commit to getting air quality tests done. If you don't know who your candidates are, call the Green Bay City Clerk at 920-448-3000, the Brown County Clerk at 920-448-4000, or your local municipal clerk.

Guy Hit

I saw this article in the Press Gannett today. Then another article on the same story came through my reader and it had an addition.

Yes, it is now common knowledge that Guy Zima fathered a kid who is now a teenager while being married to someone other than the kid's mother. Yes, Guy throws his cronies and stooges under the bus for no apparent reason other then to politically beat them up. Yes, if you ask around, you'll find people who say they have witnessed Guy treating his wife horribly in public. It's even easier to find people who have first hand experience with Guy's racism. Yes, Guy picks his nose and digs ear wax when sitting in council meetings. Yes, Guy seems to treat people good or bad based on what he needs from them. Yes, Guy stole bratwurst and Joe Heller won't let him forget it. This stuff is all fair game.

But this anonymous web page just seems way, way over the top. A few comments:

• Unless she's behind it this is very unfair to Eliane Zima. True or not, there are some very personal things in that rant. I think she is the true victim of this hit piece.
• Someone has gone very negative and on the attack. But who? Maybe someone wanting revenge. My guess was Wery might want revenge for the Weary of Wery stuff.
• Guy will once again get his constituents to believe that this is a conspiracy and he's the victim.