tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-326734612024-03-13T12:08:30.804-05:00The Motley CowThe sound of drums from the Kettle Moraine.Mpetersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18399880071535547324noreply@blogger.comBlogger1569125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32673461.post-62874694688454975932022-08-08T15:21:00.004-05:002022-08-08T15:21:42.470-05:00And we've moved! Come find us now at:<a href="http://themotleycow.net" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> themotleycow.net !</span></a><br /><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://themotleycow.net" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="2953" data-original-width="4169" height="284" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLjQUE_fPJk2I2Cm_kKScOHaIwMmetQo-JzW_dqicAIoyDFO21LUDrCsHSdRab2LSdp7A0gnHHTF_T1Ut6-sh3hHCJRkTQZxsyyCA6AXAenK3GhDLbpBD2csE8txVl1JtslsawwEZB_JJLu-yWgnZIgHvdqFHj3V74CWWWQKufDC0AqDi5ig/w400-h284/Sketch0218.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Mpetersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18399880071535547324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32673461.post-29026165004359175392021-05-19T15:57:00.005-05:002021-05-19T21:32:09.262-05:00Return of the Cow.<p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: xx-large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Y8NmJN_IVTs/YKXJ5YmR_AI/AAAAAAAA1_o/A3Gx6pdVt_gtijtADsg2wYsFSA2BlfrSACNcBGAsYHQ/s1280/cow%2Bannounce.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Y8NmJN_IVTs/YKXJ5YmR_AI/AAAAAAAA1_o/A3Gx6pdVt_gtijtADsg2wYsFSA2BlfrSACNcBGAsYHQ/s16000/cow%2Bannounce.jpg" /></a></div><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: xx-large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: xx-large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: xx-large;"></span></div>Mpetersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18399880071535547324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32673461.post-5616430822314537402013-01-01T11:10:00.000-06:002013-01-01T11:10:18.145-06:00Spiritual nourishment for a Happy New Year.Happy New Year everyone,<br />
<br />
<br />
As our government dances along the razor's edge separating prosperity from greed, I thought I'd drop <a href="http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/leo_xiii/encyclicals/documents/hf_l-xiii_enc_15051891_rerum-novarum_en.html">this little spiritual reminder</a> into the pond of the virtual universe -- like a pebble into the pond of the New Year.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Working men have been surrendered, isolated and helpless, to the hard-heartedness of employers and the greed of unchecked competition…so that a small number of very rich men have been able to lay upon the teeming masses of the laboring poor a yoke little better than that of slavery."</blockquote>
Let's remember to enjoy our lives this year. Here's a place to start, by remembering.
Here we go.Mpetersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18399880071535547324noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32673461.post-16369437386783665402012-10-05T19:41:00.002-05:002012-10-05T19:41:44.576-05:00Women too tough. GOP declares war on Children. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://media.salon.com/2012/10/big-bird-debate-romney1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="260" src="http://media.salon.com/2012/10/big-bird-debate-romney1.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div>
<a href="http://www.salon.com/topic/big_bird/">From Salon.</a>Mpetersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18399880071535547324noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32673461.post-88256347643573781992012-08-26T11:08:00.001-05:002012-08-26T11:08:52.109-05:00Everything You've Heard About Failing Schools Is Wrong | Mother Jones<a href="http://www.motherjones.com/media/2012/08/mission-high-false-low-performing-school">Everything You've Heard About Failing Schools Is Wrong | Mother Jones</a>Mpetersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18399880071535547324noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32673461.post-85944306379423541372012-08-20T20:45:00.001-05:002012-08-20T20:45:53.892-05:00The Conservative Psyche: How Ordinary People Come to Embrace Paul Ryan's Cruelty<br />
<a href="http://www.alternet.org/election-2012/conservative-psyche-how-ordinary-people-come-embrace-paul-ryans-cruelty">The Conservative Psyche: How Ordinary People Come to Embrace Paul Ryan's Cruelty | Alternet</a><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 25px;">Earlier this year, Democratic operatives looking for the best way to define Mitt Romney discovered something interesting about Paul Ryan's budget. The </span><em style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 25px;">New York Times </em><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 25px;">reported that when the details of his proposals were run past focus groups, they found that the plan </span><a href="http://digbysblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/they-refused-to-believe-any-politician.html" style="background-color: white; color: #ca8500; font-family: Arial, Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 25px; text-decoration: none;">is so cruel that voters </a><strong style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 25px;">“ </strong><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 25px;">simply refused to believe any politician would do such a thing.”</span></blockquote><br />
And that's why they succeed.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Mpetersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18399880071535547324noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32673461.post-49616242817078596502012-08-19T13:39:00.001-05:002012-08-19T13:39:01.394-05:00Paul Ryan, Keynesian?? Here's his Support Of the Keynesian Stimulus.This gets better and better.<br />
<br />
Mitt and Paul? More like Mutt and Jeff.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/paul-ryan-support-of-stimulus-2012-8">Paul Ryan Support Of Stimulus - Business Insider</a><br />
<blockquote><br />
<div style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px;">MSNBC's <a href="http://upwithchrishayes.msnbc.com/_news/2012/08/19/13361928-video-paul-ryan-defended-stimulus-in-2002-when-george-w-bush-wanted-it?chromedomain=leanforward&lite" style="color: #1d637d; text-decoration: none;">Chris Hayes has unearthed</a> a straight-up gem of a video from February 14, 2002, wherein Representative <a class="hidden_link" href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/paul-ryan" style="color: #1d637d; text-decoration: none;">Paul Ryan</a> gives a full-throated defense of stimulus to get the country out of recession.</div><div style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px;">What's key here is not just that Ryan supported stimulus then, it's that he supported it for explicitly Keynesian reasons, including the idea that spending money during a recession would then juice the economy to improve government revenues down the road. And in addition to supporting tax cuts, he explicitly supports things like unemployment insurance and ongoing support for healthcare.</div><div style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px;">The whole segment will blow your mind.</div><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;"><br />
</span></blockquote>Read more: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/paul-ryan-support-of-stimulus-2012-8#ixzz241E7dv7V" style="color: #003399; text-decoration: none;">http://www.businessinsider.com/paul-ryan-support-of-stimulus-2012-8#ixzz241E7dv7V</a> Mpetersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18399880071535547324noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32673461.post-31511132190107383602012-08-15T14:25:00.001-05:002012-08-15T14:25:20.722-05:00Knowledge is Power. Ryan's stock trades very profitable.Reported in the UK Guardian.<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 20px; line-height: 25px;">Paul Ryan sold shares on same day as private briefing of banking crisis.</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px;">Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney's vice-presidential running mate, sold stock in US banks on the same day he attended a confidential meeting where top level officials disclosed the sector was heading for a deep crisis.</span></blockquote><br />
<br />
For more,<a href="http://m.guardian.co.uk/ms/p/gnm/op/view.m?id=15&gid=%2Fworld%2F2012%2Faug%2F13%2Fpaul-ryan-sold-shares-banking-crisis&cat=world#.UCueaBPujjw.facebook"> here's the link.</a><br />
Mpetersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18399880071535547324noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32673461.post-47253617241707294842012-08-14T15:16:00.001-05:002012-08-14T15:17:26.740-05:00National Catholic Reporter says Romney is not truly pro-life.Imposing policies that create more abortions is infinitely worse than policies that merely allow for abortions. Someone at the Catholic Reporter thought this through carefully.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://ncronline.org/news/politics/which-presidential-candidate-truly-pro-life">Which presidential candidate is truly pro-life? | National Catholic Reporter</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<blockquote>
[...]<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Lucida Sans', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;">For example, Obama's Affordable Care Act does not pay for abortions. In Massachusetts, Romney's health care law does. Obama favors, and included in the Affordable Care Act, $250 million of support for vulnerable pregnant women and alternatives to abortion. This support will make abortions much less likely, since most abortions are economic. Romney, on the other hand, has endorsed Wisconsin Republican Paul Ryan's budget, which will cut hundreds of millions of dollars out of the federal plans that support poor women. The undoubted effect: The number of abortions in the United States will increase. On these facts, Obama is much more pro-life than Romney.</span> <br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Lucida Sans', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;"><br />
</span> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Lucida Sans', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;">But let's not stop there. Obama does not financially profit from the abortion industry. Romney does. Bain Capital, in the time Romney was listed as its legal head and even when he was attending Bain board meetings, was an owner of Stericycle, a major disposer of the dead bodies of aborted children in the United States. (See: </span><a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/07/romney-bain-abortion-stericycle-sec" style="background-color: white; color: #336299; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Lucida Sans', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Romney Invested in Medical-Waste Firm That Disposed of Aborted Fetuses, Government Documents Show</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Lucida Sans', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;">.) Bain owned a share of Stericycle until 2004, selling its interest for a profit in the tens of millions of dollars. We can parse what Romney's 1999 "retroactive retirement" from Bain means, but he still gets an annual payout from the firm. To the extent those dollars are part of Bain's Stericycle profits, a strong argument exists that Romney is an abortion profiteer. How pro-life is that?</span> <br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Lucida Sans', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;"><br />
</span> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Lucida Sans', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;">[...]</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Lucida Sans', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;"><br />
</span> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Lucida Sans', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;"><br />
</span> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Lucida Sans', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;"></span></blockquote>
No kidding.Mpetersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18399880071535547324noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32673461.post-18018994179723286692012-08-14T14:54:00.001-05:002012-08-14T14:54:47.095-05:00David Stockman says so: Paul Ryan’s Fairy-Tale Budget Plan <div class="tr_bq">Mr. Stockman was right -- and more courageous than most -- when he told Ronald Reagan the truth and he's right now. Ryan's playing in the fantasy economics league.</div><br />
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/14/opinion/paul-ryans-fairy-tale-budget-plan.html">Paul Ryan’s Fairy-Tale Budget Plan - NYTimes.com</a><br />
<br />
<blockquote>[...]<br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">The greatest regulatory problem — far more urgent that the environmental marginalia Mitt Romney has fumed about — is that the giant Wall Street banks remain dangerous quasi-wards of the state and are inexorably prone to speculative abuse of taxpayer-insured deposits and the Fed’s cheap money. Forget about “too big to fail.” These banks are too big to exist — too big to manage internally and to regulate externally. They need to be broken up by regulatory decree. Instead, the Romney-Ryan ticket attacks the pointless Dodd-Frank regulatory overhaul, when what’s needed is a restoration of Glass-Steagall, the Depression-era legislation that separated commercial and investment banking.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><br />
</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">[...]</span></blockquote>Mpetersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18399880071535547324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32673461.post-452703448109145402012-08-09T00:25:00.006-05:002012-08-09T00:25:54.355-05:00Daily Kos on Tanya LohrA nicely clear and partisan free account of the differences between Tanya Lohr and Glenn Grothman. <br />
<br />
We've earned better representation than Glenn. <br />
<br />
Here's why.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/08/08/1112475/-Tanya-Lohr-vs-Glenn-Grothman-for-WI-State-Senate-His-Words-Her-Words#comments">Daily Kos: Tanya Lohr vs. Glenn Grothman for WI State Senate: His Words, Her Words</a>Mpetersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18399880071535547324noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32673461.post-17330539452581491892012-08-09T00:25:00.004-05:002012-08-09T00:25:44.899-05:00Daily Kos for Tanya Lohr.<br />
A nicely clear and partisan free account of the differences between Tanya Lohr and Glenn Grothman. <br />
<br />
We've earned better representation than Glenn. <br />
<br />
Here's why.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/08/08/1112475/-Tanya-Lohr-vs-Glenn-Grothman-for-WI-State-Senate-His-Words-Her-Words#comments">Daily Kos: Tanya Lohr vs. Glenn Grothman for WI State Senate: His Words, Her Words</a><br />Mpetersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18399880071535547324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32673461.post-33910296585933278512012-08-06T21:35:00.000-05:002012-08-07T04:47:03.141-05:00Tanya Lohr's campaign makes the Huffington Post.<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Read all about it! Tanya stayed to fight for her family, and everyone else's. Here's the link to <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-berkowitz/beauty-and-the-beast_1_b_1740309.html">the Huffington Post</a>.<br />
<blockquote>
So it was with shock and fear that Lohr watched the Walker agenda. His budget decimated support for public education and directly attacked government workers, including teachers. Her family considered leaving, but decided to stay and fight.
Tanya organized locally to recall Scott Walker and his extremist colleagues, including her State Senator Glenn Grothman. She became a coordinator of the Recall campaign and then Chair of the Washington County Democratic Party. And this November, Tanya Lohr will challenge Glenn Grothman for Wisconsin's 20th District Senate Seat.
</blockquote>Mpetersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18399880071535547324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32673461.post-72001211021719294632012-08-03T22:48:00.001-05:002012-08-03T22:48:09.277-05:00Sendik’s, responsible Waste Management? Cool.Okay, I wasn't the only West Bender who lit candles of thanks when we finally got a Sendiks here, but for me, this is the kind of social responsibility we should expect but rarely see.<br />
<br />
Tip o the hat to Sendik's!<br />
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<a href="http://greenfield.patch.com/articles/sendik-s-waste-management-converting-food-waste-to-compost">Sendik’s, Waste Management Converting Food Waste to Compost - Greenfield, WI Patch</a>Mpetersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18399880071535547324noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32673461.post-9094828359865894312012-07-27T13:25:00.002-05:002012-07-27T13:25:48.796-05:00How many days since Glenn Grothman embarrassed Wisconsin?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NeFNPx6hp5w/UBLdACO0cKI/AAAAAAAAFQ8/oqVGdktI2-o/s1600/glenn.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="310" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NeFNPx6hp5w/UBLdACO0cKI/AAAAAAAAFQ8/oqVGdktI2-o/s400/glenn.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />Mpetersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18399880071535547324noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32673461.post-72345224510920445672012-07-20T15:22:00.001-05:002012-07-20T15:22:51.180-05:00Are conservative intellectuals anti-intellectual?Whatever happened to conservative intellectuals?<br />
<br />
<a href="http://chronicle.com/article/Dreaming-of-a-World-Without/132813/">Dreaming of a World Without Intellectuals - The Chronicle Review - The Chronicle of Higher Education</a><br />
<blockquote>A new book, <em>America-Lite: How Imperial Academia Dismantled Our Culture (and Ushered in the Obamacrats)</em> (Encounter), by David Gelernter, a professor of computer science at Yale, affords an occasion to revisit the issue: Do contemporary American conservatives scapegoat intellectuals and teachers? If so, they can claim an all-American pedigree. <br />
<br />
William F. Buckley Jr. began his career in 1951 with <em>God and Man at Yale</em>, which lambasted his professors for their godlessness and socialism. Past and present American intellectuals on the right generally disdain economic or social analyses of political dislocations. They attribute socialism's appeal, for example, not to the condition of society but to the influence of nefarious professors and subversive writers.</blockquote>Mpetersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18399880071535547324noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32673461.post-28836585708328837392012-07-20T10:28:00.001-05:002012-07-20T10:28:48.354-05:00National Survey Shows Support for Voter ID Laws Strongest Among Those with Negative Attitudes Toward African AmericansSo, causation or correlation -- oh wait, it doesn't matter.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.udel.edu/cpc/research/idrace2012/Voter_ID_and_Race_2012/Voter_ID_and_Race.html">Voter ID and Race</a><br />
<br />
<blockquote><div class="paragraph_style_4" lang="--multilingual" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none; background-color: white; font-family: ArialMT, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-top: 0pt; text-align: left;" xml:lang="--multilingual">A new National Agenda Opinion Poll by the University of Delaware’s Center for Political Communication reveals support for voter identification laws is strongest among Americans who harbor negative sentiments toward African Americans.</div><div class="paragraph_style_4" lang="--multilingual" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none; background-color: white; font-family: ArialMT, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0pt; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;" xml:lang="--multilingual">Voter ID laws require individuals to show government issued identification when they vote. The survey findings support recent <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/ag-holder-vows-to-enforce-voting-rights-act-in-dispute-over-texas-photo-id-requirement/2012/07/10/gJQA6VsnaW_story.html" style="color: #797979;" title="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/ag-holder-vows-to-enforce-voting-rights-act-in-dispute-over-texas-photo-id-requirement/2012/07/10/gJQA6VsnaW_story.html" wrc_done="true">comments</a> by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, who portrayed a Texas photo ID law now being challenged as similar to poll taxes used in the Jim Crow era, primarily by Southern states, to block African Americans from voting. Holder pledged to oppose “political pretexts” which, he said, “disenfranchise” black voters.</div></blockquote>Mpetersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18399880071535547324noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32673461.post-19650961235071085682012-07-16T13:20:00.001-05:002012-07-16T13:20:00.435-05:00The New Totalitarianism: How American Corporations Have Made America Like the Soviet Union | | AlterNetAs we keep saying.<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.alternet.org/story/156311/the_new_totalitarianism:_how_american_corporations_have_made_america_like_the_soviet_union?akid=9067.248830.gSazAB&rd=1&t=2">The New Totalitarianism: How American Corporations Have Made America Like the Soviet Union | | AlterNet</a><br />
<blockquote><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 25px; text-align: left;">The great power struggle of the 20th century was the competition between Soviet-style communism and "free-market" corporatism for domination of the world's resources. In America, it's taken for granted that Soviet communism lost (though China's more capitalist variant seems to be doing well), and the superiority of neo-liberal economics -- as epitomized by the great multinational corporations -- was thus affirmed for all time and eternity.</span><br />
<div id="paragraph2" name="paragraph2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 25px; margin-bottom: 22px; text-align: left;">There's a small problem with this, though. An old bit of wisdom says: choose your enemies carefully, because over time, you will tend to become the very thing you most strongly resist. One of the most striking things about our victorious corporations now is the degree to which they've taken on some of the most noxious and Kafkaesque attributes of the Soviet system -- too often leaving their employees, customers, and other stakeholders just as powerless over their own fates as the unhappy citizens of those old centrally planned economies of the USSR were back in the day.</div></blockquote>Mpetersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18399880071535547324noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32673461.post-16090164285063189952012-07-12T15:21:00.001-05:002012-07-12T15:21:45.458-05:00Confessions of a recovering ObjectivisAnd while I'm thinking about it, another link from my department conversation:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jun/10/confessions-recovering-objectivist-ayn-rand?INTCMP=SRCH">Confessions of a recovering Objectivist | Victoria Bekiempis | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk</a><br />
<blockquote><div style="background-color: white; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 13px; padding: 0px;">[...]<span style="background-color: transparent;"> </span></div></blockquote><blockquote><div style="background-color: white; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 13px; padding: 0px;">What's scary is that so many Americans have <em style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">not</em> grown out of that mentally puerile phase. Instead, this contingent – now largely comprised of Tea Party radicals – remains mired in her pop philosophy. </div><div style="background-color: white; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 13px; padding: 0px;">(Only now has Republican Congressman <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/paul-ryan" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="More from guardian.co.uk on Paul Ryan">Paul Ryan</a>, perhaps realizing that supporting an atheist adulterer might hurt his veep chances,<a href="http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2012/04/how-tell-paul-ryan-wants-be-veep-hes-rejected-his-former-idol-ayn-rand/51605/" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">changed his tune</a> from Objectivist fanboy to follower of Thomas Aquinas.) </div></blockquote>Mpetersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18399880071535547324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32673461.post-78637128070553493902012-07-12T13:03:00.001-05:002012-07-12T13:03:02.028-05:00REPORT: Scott Walker, Right-Wing “Think Tanks” creating another crisis – Public Employee PensionsBecause if it's not broken, they can't 'fix' it... or put the fix in for their friends.<br />
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<a href="http://bdgrdemocracy.wordpress.com/2012/07/11/report-scott-walker-right-wing-think-tanks-creating-another-crisis-public-employee-pensions/">REPORT: Scott Walker, Right-Wing “Think Tanks” creating another crisis – Public Employee Pensions « Badger Democracy</a><br />
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Recent reports on the fiscal state of the Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS) have been consistent. The <a href="http://www.pewstates.org/research/state-fact-sheets/wisconsin-widening-gap-update-85899399360" style="border: 0px; color: #b85b5a; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" wrc_done="true">Pew Research Center</a> rated Wisconsin a “solid performer” in employee pension funds. The <a href="http://bdgrdemocracy.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/wrs-study-full.pdf" style="border: 0px; color: #b85b5a; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" wrc_done="true">Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS) Study</a> submitted under Act 32 on June 30 reported on the fiscal soundness of the fund as well as reforming aspects of the program, including allowing employees to opt into 401(k) style investment. This report was clear in its assessment of the WRS:<br />
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong>Given the current financial health and unique risk-sharing features of the WRS, neither an optional </strong><strong>Defined Contribution plan nor an opt-out of employee contributions should be implemented in Wisconsin at this time.</strong></em></blockquote><br />
Despite these two independent reports reaching the same conclusion; right-wing think tanks and corporate conservatives like Scott Walker are colluding to create a “crisis” of unfunded liability and debt. This crisis will be used (much like <a href="http://bdgrdemocracy.wordpress.com/2012/06/19/the-3-6-billion-walker-lie-continues-all-the-way-to-ireland-pass-the-potatoes/" style="border: 0px; color: #b85b5a; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Walker’s $3.6 Billion deficit lie</a>) to push reform of a successful program which needs no reform, is fully funded, and working. The November election outcome will decide if political will exists to push legislative pension reform in Wisconsin. If successful, corporate conservatives will decimate one of the most beneficial, responsible public pension programs in the world – selling it off to 401(k) investments companies like TIAA-CREF, which stand to profit greatly from “reform.”</blockquote>Mpetersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18399880071535547324noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32673461.post-25044320625439589422012-07-11T11:59:00.001-05:002012-07-11T11:59:27.793-05:00Nickolaus changed software before April election breakdown - JSOnlineProbably nothing.<br />
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<a href="http://www.jsonline.com/news/waukesha/nickolaus-changed-software-program-before-april-election-breakdown-vl62uqt-162003205.html">Nickolaus changed software before April election breakdown - JSOnline</a><br />
<blockquote><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">Sometime after final testing of Waukesha County's election software - but before the April election - County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus mysteriously changed something in her office's computer programming, according to a consulting firm's report released Tuesday.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">Only Nickolaus knows what she did. The consultants can't figure it out, and she's not talking.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">But whatever she did, it caused a breakdown in reporting election results that will <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/news/waukesha/investigating-fixing-nickolaus-election-errors-to-cost-256300-oc62fkb-161844125.html" style="color: #264974; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">cost county taxpayers $256,300</a> to fix, the report says.</div></blockquote>Mpetersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18399880071535547324noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32673461.post-86719558148879676772012-07-11T11:42:00.001-05:002012-07-11T11:42:02.661-05:00Two straightforward dismantlings of Ayn Rand.We've had some conversations in <a href="http://www.manitowoc.uwc.edu/staff/awhite/uwcphi.htm">my department</a> lately about what to do with the disciples of Ayn Rand who occasionally show up and, then, disrupt the class with their attempts to proselytize. This happens mainly in ethics classes where their insistence on what they unreflectively refer to as "selfishness" tends to blind them to the over 2000 years of clear thinking and rigorous argument that, as a rule, grounds coherent and rational ethics in a kind of altruism.<br />
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Frankly, I'm no longer able to distinguish Rand's followers from Scientologists -- except that Scientologists have snazzier technology and, of course, John Travolta.<br />
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Anyway, for those of you also interested in the nuts and bolts, the smoke and mirrors, of Ayn Rand's doctrines, two useful links.<br />
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<a href="http://home.sprynet.com/~owl1/rand.htm">Why I'm not an objectivist</a><br />
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and<br />
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<a href="http://home.sprynet.com/~owl1/rand5.htm">Critique of "The Objectivist Ethics"</a>Mpetersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18399880071535547324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32673461.post-8367615201065720992012-07-09T21:40:00.001-05:002012-07-09T21:40:01.886-05:00How the GOP saves money. Costs taxpayers $256,300 in Waukesha.<a href="http://www.jsonline.com/news/waukesha/investigating-fixing-nickolaus-election-errors-to-cost-256300-oc62fkb-161844125.html">Investigating, fixing Nickolaus election errors to cost $256,300 - JSOnline</a><br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq"><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: left;">After Nickolaus stepped aside, Command Central LLC, the Minnesota election software vendor, wasn't able to arrange training for other county staffers until late August, Cummings said. That led the county to hire Command Central to program the software itself for the May 8 recall primary, the June 5 recall general election and the upcoming Aug. 14 primary, at a cost of $237,300, he said.</span></blockquote>Mpetersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18399880071535547324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32673461.post-79761087220161453602012-07-07T11:47:00.001-05:002012-07-07T11:47:32.818-05:00Turning the tide on corporate educationFor-profit education is <i>for profit</i>. Not clear enough?<br />
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<a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/07/01/1103066/-Turning-the-tide-on-corporate-education">Daily Kos: Turning the tide on corporate education</a><br />
<blockquote><span style="background-color: white; color: #242424; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">Progressives love reform, and our public school system could certainly use improvement. But any reform that seeks to introduce a profit motive to education while weakening our teachers is simply not progressive, no matter whether the word "reform" is a part of a carefully focus-grouped tagline or not. We don't consider "tort reform" to be progressive when it limits the rights of ordinary people to seek redress through the courts against bad corporate actors, and we don't consider Medicare reform "progressive" when Paul Ryan seeks to privatize it to make insurance companies even wealthier at the expense of our seniors. We need to apply this same suspicion to all the players in the increasingly complex movement geared toward changing education policy.</span><br />
<div style="background-color: white; color: #242424; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">The progressive victory regarding Change.org is a small but significant step in raising awareness about this issue, but solidarity is key: Progressives must hold Democrats accountable for supporting the for-profit education agenda just as much as they would for supporting attacks on any other union or worker group. The fight to save public education can be won, but it will require standing together to recognize the threat and oppose it everywhere, every time</div></blockquote>Mpetersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18399880071535547324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32673461.post-66132862236619174692012-07-07T11:43:00.001-05:002012-07-07T11:43:29.959-05:00Last Weekend, Half of Germany Was Running on Solar PowerOh well, we'll never be able to catch up with German technology -- not when we keep cutting education. <br />
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<a href="http://www.treehugger.com/energy-policy/half-germany-was-powered-solar.html">Last Weekend, Half of Germany Was Running on Solar Power : TreeHugger</a><br />
<blockquote><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font: inherit; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">Now, FITs do make electricity more expensive, since the cost of subsidizing that higher fixed rate is absorbed by all electricity consumers. But Germany<a href="http://grist.org/energy-policy/2011-04-20-germans-pay-extra-for-clean-energy-why-dont-americans/" style="border: 0px; color: #004276; font-size: 14px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrc_done="true">doesn't really mind</a> . And why not? Simple: its citizenry has agreed that producing more non-nuclear clean power is worth shelling out a few extra bucks for each month. Gasp.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font: inherit; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">Conventional wisdom here in the states is that proposing anything that would lead to higher utility bills would be impossible; the masses would revolt over "energy taxes." Well, that's what our political class would have you believe: in reality, a very recent poll found that a majority of Americans would indeed be willing to pay <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/americans-would-pay-more-for-clean-energy--but-congress-wouldnt/2012/05/14/gIQAO0vrOU_blog.html" style="border: 0px; color: #004276; font-size: 14px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrc_done="true">over $160 extra dollars a year</a> to buy cleaner electricity. Of course, support varies from region to region and tends to be consolidated in Democratic-leaning areas.</div></blockquote>Mpetersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18399880071535547324noreply@blogger.com0