tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45452096202738371552024-02-19T10:31:49.368-06:00The Presteblog(Obligatory disclaimers: The views expressed here are the views of the Presteblogger (or the bloggers referred to) and not necessarily those of his family, friends or anyone else on planet Earth. Most hyperlinks go to outside sites, and he’s not responsible for their content. Copyrighted material in links is the property of the copyright-holder. And like fresh watermelon, peaches, pineapple, grapefruit, tomatoes and sweet corn, hyperlinks can go bad after a while.)The Prestebloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13667671319546711881noreply@blogger.comBlogger111125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4545209620273837155.post-41018737248805573482011-10-10T12:39:00.002-05:002011-10-10T12:39:43.912-05:00Just in case you come upon this ...... you really want to go to <a href="http://steveprestegard.com/">steveprestegard.com</a>.The Prestebloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13667671319546711881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4545209620273837155.post-66443280589157968592011-06-01T00:00:00.008-05:002011-06-01T00:00:05.436-05:00Movin' out<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/-UBpt1dya60?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div> <br />
Effective immediately, this blog is moving over to <a href="http://presteblog.wordpress.com/">presteblog.wordpress.com</a>.<br />
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Posts up to this one are still here, but you'll find that posts from this blog are also at <a href="http://presteblog.wordpress.com/">presteblog.wordpress.com</a>.<br />
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Bookmark and enjoy.The Prestebloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13667671319546711881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4545209620273837155.post-15355005121348518342011-05-31T06:00:00.013-05:002011-05-31T06:00:02.361-05:00Presty the DJ for May 31We started with jazz yesterday, so it's worth noting that today is the anniversary of the release of the first jazz record, "Darktown Strutters Ball":<br />
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Ray Stevens' "Gitarzan" reached number eight today in 1969 ...<br />
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... the same day John Lennon and Yoko Ono recorded "Give Peace a Chance":<br />
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Johnny Paycheck, who sang something everyone who's ever worked for a living wanted to say at at least one point:<br />
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Mick Ralphs played guitar for Mott the Hoople ...<br />
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... and Bad Company:<br />
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John "Bonzo" Bonham, drummer for Led Zeppelin:<br />
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This Corey Hart is not the Brewers' centerfielder but the two-hit wonder of the 1980s:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/X2LTL8KgKv8?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>The Prestebloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13667671319546711881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4545209620273837155.post-31756361952222467422011-05-30T06:00:00.026-05:002011-05-30T06:00:06.156-05:00Presty the DJ for May 30Two more Beatles anniversaries today: "Love Me Do" hit number one in 1964 ...<br />
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... four years before the Beatles started work on their only double album. Perhaps that work was so hard that they couldn't think of a more original title than: "The Beatles." You may know it better, however, as "the White Album":<br />
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Birthdays today start with Benny Goodman, who asks us to ...<br />
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Guitarist Lenny Davidson, one of the Dave Clark 5:<br />
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Drummer Nicky "Topper" Headon of The Clash:<br />
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Since we've already mentioned one woodwind player, we should mention another — today is the anniversary of the death of saxophonist Paul Desmond, who collaborated with Dave Brubeck for this classic:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><object class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="http://2.gvt0.com/vi/BwNrmYRiX_o/0.jpg" height="266" width="320"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/BwNrmYRiX_o&fs=1&source=uds" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/BwNrmYRiX_o&fs=1&source=uds" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object></div>The Prestebloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13667671319546711881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4545209620273837155.post-46917771669454902622011-05-29T06:00:00.017-05:002011-05-29T06:00:07.994-05:00Presty the DJ for May 29This is more a pop than rock anniversary: One of the two funniest songs Johnny Cash performed, "One Piece at a Time," hit number 29 today in 1976:<br />
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Birthdays start with Gary Brooker of Procol Harum:<br />
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Bassist Mike Porcaro of Toto:<br />
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Drummer Mel Gaynor of Simple Minds:<br />
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Here is a varied career: David Palmer played drums for ABC ...<br />
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... and AC/DC:<br />
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Today is also the anniversary of the death of Jeff Buckley, who drowned today in 1997:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/mgtxj2x2pJs?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>The Prestebloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13667671319546711881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4545209620273837155.post-73788920967121993542011-05-28T06:00:00.023-05:002011-05-28T06:00:05.845-05:00Presty the DJ for May 28Paul McCartney must like releasing albums in May. Today in 1971, he released his second post-Beatles album, "Ram," which included his first post-Beatles number one single:<br />
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Birthdays today include Papa John Creech of the Jefferson Airplane:<br />
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Gladys Knight:<br />
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John Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival:<br />
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Roland Gift of the Fine Young Cannibals:<br />
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Kylie Minogue:<br />
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Birthdays include April Wine drummer Jerry Mercer:<br />
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Left-wing singer Bruce Cockburn:<br />
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Bass player Pete Sears of Jefferson Starship:<br />
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Neil Finn played for Split Enz ...<br />
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... and Crowded House:<br />
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Alice in Chains drummer Sean Kinney:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><object width="320" height="266" class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="http://3.gvt0.com/vi/Nco_kh8xJDs/0.jpg"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Nco_kh8xJDs&fs=1&source=uds" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Nco_kh8xJDs&fs=1&source=uds" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/r80HF68KM8g?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>The Prestebloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13667671319546711881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4545209620273837155.post-70473800907531981392011-05-26T07:00:00.001-05:002011-05-26T07:00:02.423-05:00Venturing capital, or, If not this, then what?<div style="color: #222222; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">When people on opposite sides of the ideological divide are skeptical about something, you too should be skeptical. (When they agree on something, you should also be skeptical, but that’s a subject for another day.)</div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Milwaukee Magazine’s <a href="http://www.insidemilwaukee.com/Article/5242011-MoreontheVentureCapitalScam" style="color: #004477; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">Bruce Murphy</a> and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/news/122450778.html" style="color: #004477; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">Patrick McIlheran</a> are similarly skeptical about <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/122428249.html" style="color: #004477; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">the venture capital bill</a> in the Legislature. So is Thomas Hefty, who has for years campaigned for a better business climate in this state.</div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">One reason for our business climate problems is the small amount of venture capital — money invested in companies that usually fit in the “high risk/high reward” investment category. Promoting venture capital was part of nearly every economic development study conducted in 2010 in advance of the election.</div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">The <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/122428249.html" style="color: #004477; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">Milwaukee Journal Sentinel</a> reports:</div><blockquote style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: url(http://s2.wp.com/wp-content/themes/pub/journalist/images/quote.gif); background-origin: initial; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; color: #222222; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 50px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 60px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">The program is called the Jobs Now Fund and represents part of the $400 million Wisconsin Jobs Act. It aims to jump-start job creation in Wisconsin by promising $200 million in future tax credits in exchange for $250 million raised from insurance companies.</div><div style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">The money would be invested in Wisconsin businesses through management companies known as certified capital companies, or “CAPCOs.” …</div><div style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">In written testimony submitted for the hearing, Tom Hefty, the former chief executive of Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Wisconsin, called the program “the largest special interest Wisconsin tax cut in history masquerading as an economic development initiative.”</div><div style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">The $200 million in tax credits would never have to be repaid to the state. The payback, supporters say, would come from the job creation and business growth that would result from the investments.</div></blockquote><div style="color: #222222; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">There is no question this state needs more business investors. Not only have we lagged the national average in personal income growth for the past three decades, but we are low on business start-ups as well. (And for all the left’s braying about the evil “rich,” Wisconsin has <a href="http://www.forbes.com/wealth/billionaires#p_1_s_arank_-1_Wisconsin_-1" style="color: #004477; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">very few people</a> who could be defined as really “rich,” which helps show the state’s economic problems as well. The fact that the really “rich” can be <a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/milwaukee/stories/2010/03/08/daily51.html" style="color: #004477; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">named by those who pay attention to such things</a> shows we don’t have nearly enough of them.) The question is how to encourage business investment, particularly in the fast-growth companies that were meant for venture capital.</div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Wisconsin Technology Council President <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/business/122394234.html" style="color: #004477; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">Tom Still</a> explains how the bill would work:</div><blockquote style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: url(http://s2.wp.com/wp-content/themes/pub/journalist/images/quote.gif); background-origin: initial; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; color: #222222; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 50px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 60px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"> The bill would create two funds totaling $400 million under the umbrella of a new Wisconsin Venture Capital Authority. The complementary funds — the Jobs Now Fund and the Badger Jobs Fund — are designed, respectively, to address Wisconsin’s short-term and long-term investment needs.</div><div style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">The proposal builds on the success of the widely acclaimed and often duplicated Act 255 Tax Credits, which were passed in 2005 and enhanced in 2009. Those tax credits have helped enhance early-stage investing in Wisconsin — but largely at the “angel” capital level, thus creating a need for follow-up investing by venture capital firms in emerging companies.</div><div style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">The credits helped spawn angel networks across Wisconsin, and those networks have dramatically increased both the number of deals and the dollars invested in those deals. But many angels are tapped out. They need “exits” — company mergers, acquisitions or venture investments — to recoup their money. And the companies in which those angels have invested are struggling to survive.</div><div style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Senate Bill 94 would create the Wisconsin Venture Capital Authority and two funds:</div><div style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">The Jobs Now Fund is envisioned as rapid-response fund. It would issue $200 million in tax credits to insurance companies over time in return for investments in certified capital funds. The tax credits would be for 80% of the value of the investments made, so $200 million in credits could attract $250 million in investments. The credits could not be claimed for a minimum of five years, so the money would be put to work well before the credits are paid. It would invest only in Wisconsin companies that meet specific guidelines. In other states, this approach is called a “certified capital company,” or CAPCO, approach.</div><div style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">The Badger Jobs Fund is the longer-term tool. It would invest in qualified venture capital funds on a “fund of funds” basis. The authority could issue up to $200 million in private placement bonds for the Badger Jobs Fund, with the bonds supported by investment returns, the incremental growth of state tax collections from financed companies and contingent tax credits. Bonds would not be a debt of the state, and no more than 15% of the funds could go to any single venture capital firm. For every $1 a qualified venture capital fund receives from the Badger Jobs Fund, it would need to raise $3 on its own.</div></blockquote><div style="color: #222222; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Murphy goes so far, commenting on the Journal Sentinel story, as calling the Jobs Now Fund a scam:</div><blockquote style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: url(http://s2.wp.com/wp-content/themes/pub/journalist/images/quote.gif); background-origin: initial; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; color: #222222; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 50px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 60px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">… the law allows the CAPCOs to keep all the money invested in them by the state, plus 80 percent of the profits generated. Critics have called it a “massive corporate giveaway,” [reporter Kathleen Gallagher] writes.</div><div style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">One new point in her story is a Minnesota study of Wisconsin’s earlier CAPCO program, which found that rather than increasing it may have actually displaced the total amount of venture capital funding in Wisconsin. …</div><div style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">The language of the bill is quite convoluted, and most legislators never understand it. I’d love to hear a detailed explanation of the Wisconsin bill by its sponsors, Sen. <strong style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Randy Hopper</strong> (R-Fond du Lac) and Rep. <strong style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Gary Tauchen</strong> (R-Bonduel).</div><div style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">The CAPCOs have a set game plan and typically grab all the state funding before any real venture capital companies can get a dollar of it. “Local venture capital people often support the bill because they think they’ll get the money,” says [Rutgers University Prof. Sass] Rubin. “But they never do. It’s a con.” …</div><div style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Rubin cites an earlier law passed in Wisconsin, a 25 percent tax credit for angel investors, as a far more sensible way to go. “It’s just enough money to encourage investment, but you’re not screwing up the market and becoming the only reason they invest.”</div></blockquote><div style="color: #222222; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Rubin’s aforementioned position happens to dovetail with <a href="http://www.insidemilwaukee.com/Article/5102011-TheStatesVentureCapitalScam" style="color: #004477; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">a previous Murphy column</a> that describes CAPCOs thusly:</div><blockquote style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: url(http://s2.wp.com/wp-content/themes/pub/journalist/images/quote.gif); background-origin: initial; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; color: #222222; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 50px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 60px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Wisconsin previously passed a CAPCO bill in 1998 which created a $50 million venture capital fund. Normally, experts say, a venture capital fund attracts money from investors, invests it in start-up companies and then returns the principal plus 70 to 80 percent of the profits to the investors. But under the CAPCO model, the state was the investor and got nothing back: None of the profits flowed back to it, and none of the principal was returned.</div><div style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">The state Legislative Audit Bureau found it cost $90,000 per job for that CAPCO program. That’s an outrageous cost, but actually better than the experience in most states. Florida spent $150 million and lost 150 jobs. New York spent $280 million but lost 88 jobs.</div><div style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">A study done for the National Association of Seed and Venture Funds found that state subsidized CAPCOs gained “10 times the return” of unsubsidized companies.</div></blockquote><div style="color: #222222; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">One problem is that your favorite lefty (<a href="http://www.wisopinion.com/index.iml?mdl=feature.mdl&feature=10" style="color: #004477; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">go here</a> and find the list under “Left” for starters) inevitably describes anything that promotes business development, including business investment, as a giveaway for the “rich.” The same people President Obama has been ordering to hire more employees are the same people accused of trying to run the state (the Koch brothers, owners of Georgia–Pacific, one of this state’s largest employers), ruin the state (any business that objects to the overregulation of the Department of Natural Resources), or rob the state (any business person who complains about the state’s tax hell, as in the fourth highest state and local taxes in the U.S.).</div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Tax credits for business should not be used because businesses should not be taxed on their income. The benefits of a profitable business — employees being paid, customers being served and contributions made to their communities — are sufficient to our society if a business was not taxed on any of its income. And businesses don’t pay taxes anyway; every tax assessed on a business — corporate income taxes, personal property taxes, payroll taxes, and taxes to fund Unemployment Compensation, among others — is part of what the business charges for its products or services. Every dollar of cost government dumps upon a business means one less dollar that can go into employee salaries, into owner dividends (and half the households in this country are in the stock market, directly or indirectly), or back into the business.</div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">McIlheran identifies the specific problem and the general solution:</div><blockquote style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: url(http://s2.wp.com/wp-content/themes/pub/journalist/images/quote.gif); background-origin: initial; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; color: #222222; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 50px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 60px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">The plan would offer $200 million in future tax credits to insurers not because anyone likes them but because they’re giant pools of investment money. They’d put up the cash, $250 million, that other management companies would parcel out to entrepreneurs, and the tax credits would ensure they wouldn’t lose their shirts. The credits are a lure, nothing more.</div><div style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Still, why the special inducements? Why the tax gimmicks, which are what high-tax, regulatory hells offer? Why not stick with the program of making taxes more reasonable generally and regulation more rational for all? Sen. Glenn Grothman called it “the most dubious giveaway I’ve seen since I’ve been in the legislature,” and Tom Hefty, Mr. Business Climate, calls it suspect. Experts get quoted by the Journal Sentinel as saying it’s a deal of dubious worth.</div><div style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Hit the brakes. Read the prospectus carefully, as they say in those ads, because if forgoing future tax revenue is to be considered an investment in luring capital to Wisconsin start-ups, it isn’t an investment that state lawmakers have spent enough time examining.</div></blockquote><div style="color: #222222; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">The “tax gimmicks, which are what high-tax, regulatory hells offer,” were the preferred approach of the Doyle Administration. They worked well for the companies that were able to take advantage of them. They were better than no tax incentives at all, but the state’s business climate certainly did not improve during the 2000s. Had the state’s business climate improved at all, then the trend of per-capita personal income growth trailing the nation’s, which started during the Patrick Lucey administration (for those ignorant of Wisconsin political history, Lucey was governor in the 1970s), would have ended during the Doyle administration. It hasn’t.</div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">There is also a potential problem with any kind of state-sponsored venture capital approach that has been demonstrated by the alternative energy industry in the past few years. The Obama administration has offered huge amounts of tax credits to encourage use of wind and solar power and other green energy technology. People and businesses take advantage of the tax credits, and then when they expire, business drops off the face of the earth, so to speak. And one should hesitate when the government anoints a preferred business sector (in the present case, any business with the word “green” in its title), because government operates on politics and not on what is the best potential investment.</div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">I do not believe the proponents of this bill are trying to perpetuate a scam on the state. I think there are reasonable objections to what they propose that are more meaningful than the reflexive anti-business attitude we’ve seen in this state for far too long. It is, for one thing, easier to pass one bill than to pass an entire program, contained within several pieces of legislation, to eliminate business taxes, cut personal income taxes, reduce regulation and defang the regulators. That is what needs to happen in Wisconsin.</div>The Prestebloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13667671319546711881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4545209620273837155.post-70471529075304723882011-05-26T06:00:00.000-05:002011-05-26T06:00:05.876-05:00Presty the DJ for May 26Another Beatles anniversary today: Their "Beatles 1967–1970" album reached number one today in 1973:<br />
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Levon Helm, drummer for The Band:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><object width="320" height="266" class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="http://1.gvt0.com/vi/XY_5JOEmFK0/0.jpg"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/XY_5JOEmFK0&fs=1&source=uds" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/XY_5JOEmFK0&fs=1&source=uds" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object></div><br />
Verdan "Phally" Allen, keyboard player for Mott the Hoople:<br />
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Gary Peterson of guess who? The Guess Who:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/gkqfpkTTy2w?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br />
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Stevie Nicks:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><object width="320" height="266" class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="http://0.gvt0.com/vi/tR_i0sKWKEA/0.jpg"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/tR_i0sKWKEA&fs=1&source=uds" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/tR_i0sKWKEA&fs=1&source=uds" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"><br />
</div><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/zdEccVETRgc?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><object width="320" height="266" class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="http://1.gvt0.com/vi/tQcrf_iaRrE/0.jpg"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/tQcrf_iaRrE&fs=1&source=uds" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/tQcrf_iaRrE&fs=1&source=uds" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object></div><br />
Lenny Kravitz, who though he records in this century sounds as if he recorded about 40 years ago:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/dmleBWh69nE?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/Pegka3cW9hA?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>The Prestebloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13667671319546711881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4545209620273837155.post-13744042605376715852011-05-25T07:00:00.005-05:002011-05-25T07:00:09.342-05:00Au revoir<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: black; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font: normal normal normal 13px/19px Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.6em; padding-left: 0.6em; padding-right: 0.6em; padding-top: 0.6em;"><a data-mce-href="http://presteblog.wordpress.com/2011/05/07/bienvenue-or-willkommen/" href="http://presteblog.wordpress.com/2011/05/07/bienvenue-or-willkommen/">Less than three weeks ago</a>, a group of Ripon families invited 27 French students into their homes.<br />
Even though it seems like they just got here, they left Tuesday morning. I have rarely had an experience where time went by that fast.<br />
<br />
You've read about <a data-mce-href="http://presteblog.wordpress.com/2011/05/19/les-aventures-francais/" href="http://presteblog.wordpress.com/2011/05/19/les-aventures-francais/">the activities they've done</a>, including an unscheduled activity Sunday night — <a data-mce-href="http://presteblog.wordpress.com/2011/05/22/le-national-weather-service-a-emis/" href="http://presteblog.wordpress.com/2011/05/22/le-national-weather-service-a-emis/">a tour of our basement bathroom/tornado shelter</a> during a tornado warning. (The National Weather Service confirmed two tornadoes in Kingston and Markesan, which were headed in this direction Sunday night.)<br />
One thing I can report is that apparently the entire candy supply of Ripon as of Monday night left for Paris Tuesday. Moritz stuffed his suitcase full of Nerds and Pop Tarts, in exchange for the French chocolate he presented his host parents.<br />
<br />
Moritz's last day in Ripon started with breakfast — a really large breakfast ...<br />
<a data-mce-href="http://presteblog.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/downsized_0524010702.jpg" href="http://presteblog.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/downsized_0524010702.jpg"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-280" data-mce-src="http://presteblog.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/downsized_0524010702.jpg" height="384" src="http://presteblog.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/downsized_0524010702.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="downsized_0524010702" width="512" /></a><br />
... followed by a going-away ceremony at Murray Park/Quest Elementary School:<br />
<a data-mce-href="http://presteblog.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/downsized_0524010919.jpg" href="http://presteblog.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/downsized_0524010919.jpg"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-281" data-mce-src="http://presteblog.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/downsized_0524010919.jpg" height="384" src="http://presteblog.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/downsized_0524010919.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="downsized_0524010919" width="512" /></a><br />
And then they departed for Mitchell Field in Milwaukee with a police (and K-9 dog) escort.<br />
<br />
Based on interviewing the kids Sunday for the Ripon Channel Report, the baseball game was high on the popularity list. They went to things they perhaps didn't think they were going to — in several students' cases, the Cub Scout Pack 3735 year-ending carnival — but the kids all proved their adaptability by hanging around with each other while their host families engaged in activities more age-appropriate, perhaps, for those younger than the French students.<br />
<br />
I can't personally attest to this since I didn't do any foreign-exchange activities as a student, but I've never heard anyone who did regret the experience. And truth be told, hosting Moritz for nearly three weeks wasn't an imposition at all; that's how well he fit in.<br />
<br />
There were genuine tears among the students and a few of the host parents Tuesday morning. There certainly are ways to keep in touch — the Internet, Skype, cellphones, etc. — but one reality of life is that you never really know what the future will hold. I think we'd all like to keep in touch. Whether host families and their guests actually will be able to keep in touch remains to be seen. But I think it's unlikely anyone involved will forget the French Adventure.</div>The Prestebloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13667671319546711881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4545209620273837155.post-47957960486967678902011-05-25T06:00:00.027-05:002011-05-25T06:00:13.801-05:00Presty the DJ for May 25Two unusual anniversaries in rock music today, beginning with John Lennon's taking delivery of <a href="http://www.coolcarsandgirls.com/2010/12/john-lennons-cool-psychedelic-rolls.html">his Rolls-Royce</a> today in 1967 — and it was not your garden-variety Rolls:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcfMb0AJoDXqkCyQOcAEoyv-aHXZbxSwBZ2bd08SXc6m44iwOxXaVm-8nWg1Obol6QM5nS4iTnkWaol1RljktvmugrDp7yYgHkR6d7C6-jlHUFCuRJHNE2oss6yE1sU5-xMVrgD1sEdTDf/s1600/Lennon-Rolls-Royce-5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcfMb0AJoDXqkCyQOcAEoyv-aHXZbxSwBZ2bd08SXc6m44iwOxXaVm-8nWg1Obol6QM5nS4iTnkWaol1RljktvmugrDp7yYgHkR6d7C6-jlHUFCuRJHNE2oss6yE1sU5-xMVrgD1sEdTDf/s320/Lennon-Rolls-Royce-5.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
Ten years to the day later, the Beatles released "<a href="http://www.beatlesource.com/bs/to-starclub.html">Live! at the Star-Club in Hamburg, Germany, 1962</a>," which helped prove that bands don't need to be in existence to continue recording. (And as we know, artists don't have to be living to continue recording either.)<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, back in 1968, the Rolling Stones released "Jumping Jack Flash," which fans found to be a gas gas gas:<br />
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The short list of birthdays includes Mitch Margo of the Tokens ...<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><object class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="http://2.gvt0.com/vi/_LBmUwi6mEo/0.jpg" height="266" width="320"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/_LBmUwi6mEo&fs=1&source=uds" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/_LBmUwi6mEo&fs=1&source=uds" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object></div><br />
... and Klaus Meine of the Scorpions:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><object class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="http://0.gvt0.com/vi/s_lMNufI3hA/0.jpg" height="266" width="320"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/s_lMNufI3hA&fs=1&source=uds" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/s_lMNufI3hA&fs=1&source=uds" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><object class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="http://3.gvt0.com/vi/pmE_l_dN9UM/0.jpg" height="266" width="320"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/pmE_l_dN9UM&fs=1&source=uds" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/pmE_l_dN9UM&fs=1&source=uds" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object></div><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Another edition of Same Song Different Artists:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/cmEBBskGizY?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/I-DLwygh4HM?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>The Prestebloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13667671319546711881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4545209620273837155.post-37816762006605538742011-05-24T07:00:00.001-05:002011-05-25T16:00:03.524-05:00To vacation, or to work<div style="color: #222222; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">My definition of seasons is closer to the meteorological definition than the calendar definition. But not completely.</div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">I have determined that, in Wisconsin at least, summer runs from the Memorial Day weekend to the Labor Day weekend, fall runs from after Labor Day to the Thanksgiving weekend, winter runs from Thanksgiving to Easter, and spring runs from Easter to Memorial Day weekend. (Which means that we had a really, really, really long winter this year, but you knew that already.)</div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">That means that summer is beginning at the end of this week. School is a couple of weeks away from ending for the school year, depending on how many snow days you’ve had.</div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">That brings thoughts of vacation for kids. And for the news media, that brings stories asking why Americans have so little vacation compared with other countries. <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2011/TRAVEL/05/23/vacation.in.america/index.html?eref=rss_travel&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_travel+%28RSS%3A+Travel%29" style="color: #004477; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">CNN.com</a> frowns:</div><blockquote style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: url(http://s2.wp.com/wp-content/themes/pub/journalist/images/quote.gif); background-origin: initial; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; color: #222222; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 50px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 60px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Besides a handful of national holidays, the typical American worker bee gets two or three precious weeks off out of a whole year to relax and see the world — much less than what people in many other countries receive.</div><div style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">And even that amount of vacation often comes with strings attached.</div><div style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Some U.S. companies don’t like employees taking off more than one week at a time. Others expect them to be on call or check their e-mail even when they’re lounging on the beach or taking a hike in the mountains.</div></blockquote><div style="color: #222222; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">(One wonders what CNN’s vacation policy is for its employees.)</div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">This question has economic impact in Wisconsin. The license plates may say “America’s Dairyland,” but tourism is one of the state’s top three employers, and most of that tourism spending is coming up. (For proof, watch Illinois travelers try to navigate around the U.S. 41 construction in Oshkosh this weekend.)</div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">This kind of story presents enormous opportunities for America-bashing among Americans. Someone named<a href="http://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-blogs/why-americans-dont-travel-overseas/" style="color: #004477; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">Nomadic Matt</a>, writing about why Americans don’t vacation overseas, managed to bash government, the media and ourselves in just two paragraphs:</div><blockquote style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: url(http://s2.wp.com/wp-content/themes/pub/journalist/images/quote.gif); background-origin: initial; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; color: #222222; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 50px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 60px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Americans are just scared of the world. I mean really scared. Maybe even petrified. In this post-9/11 world, Americans have been taught the world is a big scary place. There are terrorists outside every hotel waiting to kidnap you. People don’t like you because you are American. The world is violent. It’s poor. It’s dirty. It’s savage. <a href="http://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-guides/canada-travel-tips/" style="color: #004477; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">Canada</a> and <a href="http://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-guides/europe-travel-tips/" style="color: #004477; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">Europe</a> are O.K. but, if you go there, they will still be rude to you because you are American. No one likes us.</div><div style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Even before 9/11, the media created an environment of fear. If it bleeds, it leads right? Prior to 9/11, the media played up violence at home and abroad. Pictures of riots in the foreign streets, threats against Americans, and general violence were all played up to portray a violent and unsafe world. After, 9/11, it only got worse. Politicians now tell us “they hate you” as former NYC mayor, Rudy Guiliani, did during his campaign. It’s US vs. THEM!!!</div></blockquote><div style="color: #222222; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Those two paragraphs border on parody, but they’re not without some validity. It is true that Americans are much less multilingual than other countries. (Our French foreign exchange student, who leaves today, speaks at least four languages.) Government’s efforts to protect us from the next 9/11 — the Patriot Act, color-coded terrorism warnings, the fourth-degree sexual assault gang known as the Transportation Security Administration — have not made Americans feel safer, have they? For whatever reason(s), the adventurous spirit that propelled our ancestors to leave their homes for an uncertain future in the New World has been replaced by a desire for familiarity and security, financial and otherwise. (Of course, the prevalent attitude in Europe seems to be that every American has shot at least one other American in the past 12 months, so fear based on ignorance is not unique to this country.)</div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Americans are accused of believing the world revolves around this country. That’s because … the world <em style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">does</em>revolve around this country, like it or don’t. Combine military, economic and political power, and the U.S. is still number one, like it or don’t. The number of people trying to move to the U.S. far outweighs the number planning on permanently leaving.</div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Nomadic Matt refrains from America-bashing long enough to point out:</div><blockquote style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: url(http://s2.wp.com/wp-content/themes/pub/journalist/images/quote.gif); background-origin: initial; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; color: #222222; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 50px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 60px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Most family vacations in America are to other parts of America. Why? Because the U.S.A. takes up a whole continent and we have all the world’s environments in our states. Need beaches? Head to Florida. The tropics? Hawaii. Desert? Arizona. The cold Tundra? Alaska. Temperate forests? Washington. This attitude is best summed up by a response I got from a friend in Iowa: “Why would you want to go to Thailand? It’s far and scary. If you want beaches, just go to Florida.” Americans simply don’t see the need to go anywhere else when they can do it all in their country …</div></blockquote><div style="color: #222222; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">One difference between the U.S. and the rest of the world is the latter’s dependence on mass transit. In this country, the largest percentage of vacations are by family car. As much fun as, say, buying a Porsche and opting for European delivery would be, the number of Americans who drive on an overseas vacation is quite low. (Probably due to the stories others will tell you about the quality, or lack thereof, of other countries’ drivers.) So if you travel outside the U.S., you are dependent on the train or bus travel schedule, in addition to the airlines’ travel schedule. (And those who fly on business will tell you the more you fly in the post-9/11 world, the less you like the experience.) A lot of Americans prefer transportation independence.</div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">More generally, part of the reason Americans vacation less, I believe, is genetic, believe it or not. Our ancestors came to this country to better themselves. Those Europeans then and Latin Americans, Asians and other minorities now who come here believe they will have better lives here than where they came from. What that does equal? Work, including more than one job in many cases. Those not interested in improving their lives (perhaps because they felt their lives were pretty good anyway) never came here.</div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Related is the concept that Americans like to work. One reason to go into business is to make more money (you hope); another is to be more in charge of your own destiny. Another is to be able to do what businesses do in the places where they have facilities — serve their customers, employ people, and contribute to their communities. As the CNN story admits:</div><blockquote style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: url(http://s2.wp.com/wp-content/themes/pub/journalist/images/quote.gif); background-origin: initial; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; color: #222222; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 50px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 60px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Working more makes Americans happier than Europeans, according to a study published recently in the <a href="http://www.springerlink.com/content/33078107768v8044/" style="color: #004477; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: underline;" target="new">Journal of Happiness Studies</a>. That may be because Americans believe more than Europeans do that hard work is associated with success, wrote Adam Okulicz-Kozaryn, the study’s author and an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Dallas.</div><div style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">“Americans maximize their… [happiness] by working, and Europeans maximize their [happiness] through leisure,” he found.</div></blockquote><div style="color: #222222; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">I assume that part of the harrumphing about us not-enough-time-off Americans has to do with your attitude toward not just work, but your current work situation. (I came to the conclusion that most journalists are anti-business because, well, as a work environment journalism puts the “fun” in “dysfunction,” and journalists probably assume that most workplaces are like theirs.) If you’re not doing what you want to be doing, or if you’re in an undesirable work environment (however you define that), or if you feel undercompensated (however you define that) for your work, then you’d probably prefer to be anywhere else other than work.</div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">One reason I have not been sympathetic to public employee unions in their attempted coup d’etat to reverse the Nov. 2 election results is because of the number of business owners I know. Most businesses don’t have many employees, and making a profit (the most important thing, the thing without which nothing else happens, for any business) is hard. Unlike public-sector employees, business owners’ work hours vastly exceed 40 per week. They work nights and weekends and holidays. Their employees get vacation time; they often don’t, or if they do, they are the ones emailing and calling back to the office.</div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Another reason for lack of vacationing that parents figure out is the cost, in numerous ways, of vacations. Much, but not all of it, is financial. On the one hand, for parents to go off on their own vacation and leave the kids with someone else seems irresponsible. But given the bickering that takes place among our children on a typical day, to be blunt the idea of listening to their arguing for several days with no alternative outlet for the adults — you can’t tell the kids to go outside when you’re in a van between destinations — doesn’t sound very appealing. (How my parents put up with that with my brother and me is beyond my ability to comprehend.) Even if the kids get along, based our experience from a three-day wedding trip to Indiana last year, American military units have an easier time deploying than our family does going anywhere overnight. Vacations are really for the kids, not the parents; put another way, parents never get real vacations until the kids leave home.</div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">In the current economy, the tourism industry has promoted the concept of a “staycation.” Even before today, I’ve taken weeks of vacation without planning on a major trip. And other than not having to get up to go to work, I can’t endorse the concept, seeing as how that kind of “staycation” inevitably involves doing things you haven’t previously had time to do (usually some kind of house project), or taking the kids someplace you wouldn’t otherwise choose to go.</div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">The stereotypical school summer vacation — days where nothing other than lunch and dinner is on your schedule — is disappearing for kids, too. Those who believe Americans don’t get enough vacation time are countered by those who believe that American students aren’t in school enough. Chinese students are in school about a month longer than Americans, and the Japanese school year runs from April to March (with breaks between trimesters). Throw in where American students’ test scores compare to other countries’ students, and the conclusion is that more time in school would equal better test scores. (That is an assertion not necessarily proven by evidence, similar to the assertion that more money spent on schools is supposed to lead to better results.)</div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Our kids’ summer schedules include summer school, baseball, Scouting summer camps and trips to grandparents. (All except the first by their choice, I point out.) Wisconsin summers are so short that if I were to travel outside the U.S., I would (1) want it to be during a period of usually crappy weather here (2) in a place that has better weather than here. And that runs smack into school for the kids.</div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Economists will tell you that there are always trade-offs. Having children is the largest trade-off, a trade-off the scope of which no parent-to-be realizes. That trip where you and your significant other jet-set yourselves through Europe? Not happening in your lifetime, mom and dad. Home ownership is much more valued in this country than in other countries; the trade-off is that frighteningly large number that represents the sum of 360 house payments. And many trade-offs are trade-offs you don’t even realize you’re making at the time. While I would never argue against the value of going to college, there is that matter of post-graduation student debt, which encourages graduates into the work world as soon as possible.</div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">And what if you actually like your work? (I wrote three years ago that you should never love your job, because your job doesn’t love you.) Supposedly on our deathbeds we won’t regret not having working more. But many business owners I’ve met over the years don’t believe they’ve worked a day in their lives; that’s how much they enjoy doing what they do — serving customers, seeing the people they’ve hired grow in their skills and accomplishments, being able to make a positive difference in their communities, and so on. Employment is a two-way street — no one is entitled to a job, and certainly not a particular job; but no employer is entitled to a specific employee either. Each has to agree to meet the needs of the other; when that doesn’t happen, either an employer excuses an employee from further work, or an employee leaves for a better opportunity.</div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">If you think you get too little vacation time, maybe the problem isn’t in your vacation time, but in your work.</div>The Prestebloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13667671319546711881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4545209620273837155.post-42904407796177173762011-05-24T06:00:00.026-05:002011-05-24T15:25:59.997-05:00Presty the DJ for May 24Two Beatles anniversaries today:<br />
<b>1964: </b>The Beatles make their third appearance on CBS-TV's "Ed Sullivan Show."<br />
<b>1969: </b>"Get Back" (with Billy Preston on keyboards) hits number one:<br />
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Meanwhile, today in 1968, Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithful were arrested for drug possession.<br />
<br />
Birthdays today start with Bob Dylan:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><object width="320" height="266" class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="http://1.gvt0.com/vi/d_ujAXxNxU0/0.jpg"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/d_ujAXxNxU0&fs=1&source=uds" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/d_ujAXxNxU0&fs=1&source=uds" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/rQpwdu3hlUY?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/0xV2vGKlzn4?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br />
Derek Quinn, guitarist for Freddie and the Dreamers ...<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><object class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="http://0.gvt0.com/vi/62M_odE813A/0.jpg" height="266" width="320"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/62M_odE813A&fs=1&source=uds" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/62M_odE813A&fs=1&source=uds" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object></div><br />
... was born the same day as Sarah Dash of LaBelle, who was born two years before the eponymous Patti LaBelle ...<br />
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... who was born the same day as this one-hit wonder, who claimed to be ...<br />
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John Ilsley of Dire Straits:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/BgrIIuFeBgo?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br />
Red Rider drummer Rob Baker:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/oI8ZoWrUrCs?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br />
Rich Robinson of the Black Crowes:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/SC0D59Ecunk?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>The Prestebloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13667671319546711881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4545209620273837155.post-34614843410008876032011-05-23T07:00:00.004-05:002011-05-23T07:41:35.020-05:00A pause to ponder punditry<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: black; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font: normal normal normal 13px/19px Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.6em; padding-left: 0.6em; padding-right: 0.6em; padding-top: 0.6em;"><div id="post-body-5380790889131213206">An oddity about <a data-mce-href="http://presteblog.wordpress.com/2011/03/31/beginning-at-the-end/" href="http://presteblog.wordpress.com/2011/03/31/beginning-at-the-end/">my current employment situation</a> is that I have never been this popular as a pundit before now.</div><div><br />
</div><div>On Friday, I was on <a data-mce-href="http://presteblog.wordpress.com/2011/05/20/steve-media-all-steve-all-the-time/" href="http://presteblog.wordpress.com/2011/05/20/steve-media-all-steve-all-the-time/">Wisconsin Public Radio</a>. The previous Sunday, I was on "<a data-mce-href="http://presteblog.wordpress.com/2011/05/13/coming-to-a-tv-then-website-near-you-2/" href="http://presteblog.wordpress.com/2011/05/13/coming-to-a-tv-then-website-near-you-2/">Sunday Insight with Charlie Sykes</a>," and<a data-mce-href="http://presteblog.wordpress.com/2011/04/22/coming-to-a-tv-then-website-near-you/" href="http://presteblog.wordpress.com/2011/04/22/coming-to-a-tv-then-website-near-you/">Easter Sunday</a> before that. The week before Palm Sunday, I was back on <a data-mce-href="http://presteblog.wordpress.com/2011/04/14/coming-to-a-radio-and-website-near-you/" href="http://presteblog.wordpress.com/2011/04/14/coming-to-a-radio-and-website-near-you/">Wisconsin Public Radio</a>. I have had more blog entries posted at <a data-mce-href="http://www.wisopinion.com/INDEX.IML" href="http://www.wisopinion.com/INDEX.IML">WisOpinion.com</a> now than I had when I was at the late Marketplace.</div><div><br />
</div><div>One reason is that my policy (even before March 30) has been to always accept media invitations. (A former colleague of mine called me a "media whore," and Sykes called me a "media ho," and to both I'd say I resemble those remarks.) Visibility is important (particularly when you're looking for your next job) in the 15-minutes-of-fame media universe. Almost no one knows me outside of Wisconsin, but thanks to the Ideas Network, the state's oldest TV station and this and my previous blog, I have some level of notoriety among the opinionators statewide.</div><div><br />
</div><div>Part of the reason is that, with this new blog, I'm writing m0re original pieces than at Marketplace. Depending on how busy my week was, I'd write between one and three original pieces, and the rest of the week would be taken up with repeating posts of others that I liked or found provocative or at least interesting.</div><div><br />
</div><div>Since I have this blog linked to Facebook (as well as LinkedIn and Twitter), I assume the people I have now Friended (including, it seems, most of the members of the La Follette High School Class of 1983) and vice versa will find out that, wow, Presty is really a right-winger. (I've been a proud member of Hillary Clinton's Vast Right Wing Conspiracy since the 1990s.)</div><div><br />
</div><div>The thing, however, is that (1) I am perfectly capable of not talking about politics (the phrase "the personal is political" did not come from the right side of the political aisle), and (2) I have no problems arguing ideas because ideas are supposed to be argued, and the way one improves the process of delivering opinions is to debate opinions. And, now that I think of it, there is a (3): If you don't like a blog entry, don't read it.</div><div><br />
</div><div>For those who haven't read this blog before and wonder where my libertarian/conservative/anti-government ethos came from, it came to me at, of all places, church Sunday. (Yes, there was church Sunday, because The Rapture didn't happen Saturday.) The priest was talking about the PBS documentary "Freedom Riders," about the civil rights movement in the South in the 1950s and 1960s. I didn't see much of it, but I've seen videos and photos of police officers beating on protesters, bullwhips, police dogs, tear gas, etc., against nonviolent protesters.</div><div><br />
</div><div>Here's the punch line: The police were hired by a police chief who was hired by the duly elected representatives of the Southern city of your choice. Orval Faubus, George Wallace, Lester Maddox and the other racist governors were all elected by the citizens of their state. (In Wallace's case, Alabama's solution for their gubernatorial term limits was to elect Wallace's first wife, Lurleen, as governor.) People who lacked any rational evidence beyond their own prejudice voted for politicians who created and enforced Jim Crow laws and stuck a giant middle finger at the U.S. Constitution, one hundred years after the end of the Civil War.</div><div><br />
</div><div>That is the face of democracy. So is interning Japanese Americans during World War II because, you know, there were just too many Americans of German descent to lock up all of them in internment camps. Your federal government<a data-mce-href="http://www.cdc.gov/tuskegee/timeline.htm" href="http://www.cdc.gov/tuskegee/timeline.htm">injected black men with syphilis</a> just to see what would happen to them. The Vietnam war has both parties' fingerprints all over it. Some municipal governments in this country think it's perfectly OK to take land away from its rightful owners because the politicians think they have a better use for that land. (And the U.S. Supreme Court stupidly reinforced government's right to eminent domain under the abominable <a data-mce-href="http://www.ij.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=920&Itemid=165" href="http://www.ij.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=920&Itemid=165">Kelo v. New London</a> decision.) And I live here in the birthplace of the Republican Party, whose founders started the GOP in an era where most Americans either thought slavery was a good thing or was none of their business.</div><div><br />
</div><div>Democracy is flawed, and our government is flawed — indeed, every human institution is flawed — because humans are involved. The Constitution was written not just to design our government, but to protect us from our government. The Bill of Rights gave the citizens the rights to free expression and ownership of guns and against unreasonable search and seizure and self-incrimination. Leave it to democracy, and as the saying goes, 51 percent of the people can vote to imprison 49 percent of the people.</div><div><br />
</div><div>I know who I don't want responsible for upholding or enforcing my rights. Ruth Conniff of The Progressive was perhaps more revealing than she thought she was being in Friday's discussion about voter ID. When I pointed out the list of things for which an ID is required, including getting a library card and <a data-mce-href="http://presteblog.wordpress.com/2011/05/18/when-i-started-opposing-the-drug-war/" href="http://presteblog.wordpress.com/2011/05/18/when-i-started-opposing-the-drug-war/">cold medicine</a>, she retorted that there is no constitutional right to buying cold medicine.</div><div><br />
I had no idea Conniff was such a strict constructionist. That to me says that to Conniff, y0ur rights — such as your right to the medical treatment of your choice — are whatever the government says they are. (The pro-abortion-rights movement better figure out that the same government that gives the right to an abortion can take that right away.) If Conniff represents the prevalent attitude in the People's Republic of Madison, that would explain why I hate my hometown. (Which has changed, and not for the better, since my high school days anyway, as demonstrated by the first drive-by shooting at my high school shortly after I left Madison.)</div><div><br />
This is not, by the way, an argument in favor of the GOP since the GOP infringes upon different rights from the Democrats. If you like government's stealing your money through taxes and wasted government spending, be a Democrat. (If you like government's stealing other people's money through taxes but not yours, you're a hypocrite.) If you like government's interfering with your personal life, be a Republican. If you like neither ... what is the answer to that?<br />
<br />
Before Jesus Christ's birth, the psalmist wrote in Psalm 146:3, "Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help." If you're expecting help from the government, regardless of who's in charge of that government, you've gone to the wrong place.<br />
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</div><div><strong>What new blog? </strong>The apocalyptic event known as my joining Facebook was accompanied by advice to move my blog to WordPress. At the moment, I'm posting on both while I evaluate which works better for my purposes. One or the other, or maybe both, can be accessed via Twitter, my Facebook page or LinkedIn. You have been warned.</div></div>The Prestebloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13667671319546711881noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4545209620273837155.post-65294009059684371832011-05-23T06:00:00.012-05:002011-05-23T06:00:04.556-05:00Presty the DJ for May 23Today in 1969, the Who released their rock opera "Tommy" ...<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZfZQLXs72Lo?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br />
... two years before Iron Butterfly disbanded over arguments over what "In a Gadda Da Vita" (which is one-third the length of all of "Tommy") actually meant:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/1C2GVOLkxAc?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">With another short list (evidently parents of future rockers weren't doing much in October), here is another cover twofer, the latter of which comes from someone who made an entire career out of covers:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/-S1VmqyTUBk?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><object width="320" height="266" class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="http://1.gvt0.com/vi/NTpsd_da4ck/0.jpg"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/NTpsd_da4ck&fs=1&source=uds" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/NTpsd_da4ck&fs=1&source=uds" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object></div>The Prestebloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13667671319546711881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4545209620273837155.post-36000163280177253172011-05-22T20:40:00.001-05:002011-05-22T20:59:38.515-05:00"Le National Weather Service a émis ..."Because we always like to <a href="http://presteblog.blogspot.com/2011/05/les-aventures-francais.html">entertain our guests</a>:<br />
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<a href="http://presteblog.blogspot.com/2011/05/une-veille-de-tornade.html">Earlier today</a> the National Weather Service suggested the chance of severe weather, including tornadoes.<br />
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The first wave of storms came this afternoon, with (as photographed by Erica Dakins) storms well north of Ripon:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9CMYGobRoZ-wI0mfQUozvU0QbO5CqnwywLVfzeHzSFU4b4pE5OpP_WRBWGf0_D8C43KyvzizGdqVu0IZitwLXB281E3uZpNIjiUfO0H9_yDccPhIZR7n-UjqhG769Dbzbv4AQprhUhgd0/s1600/412.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9CMYGobRoZ-wI0mfQUozvU0QbO5CqnwywLVfzeHzSFU4b4pE5OpP_WRBWGf0_D8C43KyvzizGdqVu0IZitwLXB281E3uZpNIjiUfO0H9_yDccPhIZR7n-UjqhG769Dbzbv4AQprhUhgd0/s400/412.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIxNGQ0MM8lpZ3ZC2s4wESTPhPSY8_JA1c57KIleKX_kWTyQmIyBQQRBAbH16eZoGHXtTNr1pDFSyrTdqbWRTCerJYHOi5SjuUwsmISbC7PFxsCOiX-85bruYnmfnbB6e5ph-olofR4ZCD/s1600/2011-05-22_16-17-16_758.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIxNGQ0MM8lpZ3ZC2s4wESTPhPSY8_JA1c57KIleKX_kWTyQmIyBQQRBAbH16eZoGHXtTNr1pDFSyrTdqbWRTCerJYHOi5SjuUwsmISbC7PFxsCOiX-85bruYnmfnbB6e5ph-olofR4ZCD/s400/2011-05-22_16-17-16_758.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
So we went to Cedar Ridge Ranch for the farewell party, where food was eaten, horses were observed and video was shot for the next Ripon Channel Report (coming to a TV near you if you're a Charter Cable subscriber in the Ripon area).<br />
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We had been home not one minute when our weather radio went off to report:<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN SULLIVAN HAS ISSUED A</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">* TORNADO WARNING FOR...</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> NORTHWESTERN FOND DU LAC COUNTY IN EAST CENTRAL WISCONSIN...</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> SOUTHERN GREEN LAKE COUNTY IN SOUTH CENTRAL WISCONSIN...</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">* UNTIL 830 PM CDT</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">* AT 742 PM CDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> SEVERE THUNDERSTORM CAPABLE OF PRODUCING A TORNADO. THIS DANGEROUS</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> STORM WAS LOCATED NEAR MARKESAN...OR 15 MILES SOUTHWEST OF RIPON...</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> AND MOVING NORTHEAST AT 45 MPH.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">* THIS TORNADIC STORM WILL BE NEAR...</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> GREEN LAKE AROUND 755 PM CDT.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> RIPON AROUND 805 PM CDT.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> ROSENDALE AROUND 810 PM CDT.</span><br />
<div><br />
</div><div>So at least at the Prestegard house our French Adventure guest got to see what Americans who live in or near Tornado Alley do in tornado warnings: Head to the basement.</div><div><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjneiA4ZnjXWOQ_Ba3d74bBnaaRINa01lgKBQ_ja__wQ6VL2Im-dtwHVIz2jj4eajTu4e_Bor4E2t0_78u1eyKaw5RC9_8FHoFgZl4B0jGXiW4WlrGIK31Ca14KZq9WgekR657KlapNmDjR/s1600/downsized_0522012005.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjneiA4ZnjXWOQ_Ba3d74bBnaaRINa01lgKBQ_ja__wQ6VL2Im-dtwHVIz2jj4eajTu4e_Bor4E2t0_78u1eyKaw5RC9_8FHoFgZl4B0jGXiW4WlrGIK31Ca14KZq9WgekR657KlapNmDjR/s400/downsized_0522012005.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
The storm went south and east of Ripon. If there was a tornado (and someone from Markesan apparently called the Green Lake County Sheriff's Department to report a tornado going over his house), it missed here.<br />
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But at least we got to see a rainbow (which you can only sort of see in this photo):<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO51D0cJNlSLF-Qm0kmbYQxVZ5zFum-nBG3M3uxDhp8dupO8D-Dql-cq0EhUTYKe5FmlxSZ4DfFK6Zgb-2o0j_-R4M24xg40Hjb8MQBPLu0CkuJRnXFmUlvlJLsoXMl7GdPYwwYyyFjiIw/s1600/0522012014.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO51D0cJNlSLF-Qm0kmbYQxVZ5zFum-nBG3M3uxDhp8dupO8D-Dql-cq0EhUTYKe5FmlxSZ4DfFK6Zgb-2o0j_-R4M24xg40Hjb8MQBPLu0CkuJRnXFmUlvlJLsoXMl7GdPYwwYyyFjiIw/s400/0522012014.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>The Prestebloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13667671319546711881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4545209620273837155.post-69291443893805500892011-05-22T14:25:00.001-05:002011-05-22T16:26:56.750-05:00Une veille de tornade<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">It looks like the (two-days-before) farewell party for our French Adventure students may be enlivened by ...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/watch/ww0327_radar_big.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="280" src="http://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/watch/ww0327_radar_big.gif" width="320" /></a></div><br />
... a <a href="http://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/watch/ww0327.html">Tornado Watch</a> until 10 p.m.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR2iF1IQaVF1bJzitGdvT2EAOxKuWwmhl_kq63q18d4w5iN5n_zwGPrmNk6T-kSHsYPWeM65F8ni8fdS-YmRNrF1RfWHPiRxpK1sHwRlnDsIu2SxkFZPoDDvCulipALJQKBf0NtwEwNpyb/s1600/day1otlk_2000.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="217" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR2iF1IQaVF1bJzitGdvT2EAOxKuWwmhl_kq63q18d4w5iN5n_zwGPrmNk6T-kSHsYPWeM65F8ni8fdS-YmRNrF1RfWHPiRxpK1sHwRlnDsIu2SxkFZPoDDvCulipALJQKBf0NtwEwNpyb/s320/day1otlk_2000.gif" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTTzk9Ec1gqO7Af1WbVs6Pma2IqzJpYnRp3PF0nYY27iOOVmG1QN3QBUXGS3wWlf1AskzdU7KCWqMqBe9ZwO_dxoR0FlsJAwEQdMjCWa4qGH3f8tn9O5sTzPmy-9ZMvmcieS803eHzORsL/s1600/day1probotlk_2000_torn.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="217" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTTzk9Ec1gqO7Af1WbVs6Pma2IqzJpYnRp3PF0nYY27iOOVmG1QN3QBUXGS3wWlf1AskzdU7KCWqMqBe9ZwO_dxoR0FlsJAwEQdMjCWa4qGH3f8tn9O5sTzPmy-9ZMvmcieS803eHzORsL/s320/day1probotlk_2000_torn.gif" style="cursor: move;" width="320" /></a></div>The Prestebloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13667671319546711881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4545209620273837155.post-69282014508604977502011-05-22T07:00:00.009-05:002011-05-22T07:00:02.722-05:00Presty the DJ for May 22Well, now that Matthew 24:36 trumped Family Radio ...<br />
<br />
Today in 1965, the Beatles found that "Ticket to Ride" was a ticket to the top of the charts:<br />
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The short list of birthdays includes Specials keyboard player Jerry Dammers:<br />
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Patrick Morrissey of Depeche Mode:<br />
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Time for a twofer from this past week:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/Xraj86LNgYc?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>The Prestebloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13667671319546711881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4545209620273837155.post-46984329269605719142011-05-21T07:00:00.006-05:002011-05-21T07:00:03.011-05:00Presty the DJ for May 21One strange anniversary in rock music Saturday.<br />
<br />
In 1968, Paul McCartney and Jane Asher attended a concert of ... Andy Williams:<br />
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Eleven years later, not McCartney, but Elton John became the first Western artist to perform in the Soviet Union.<br />
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Four years later, David Bowie's suggestion reached number one:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/N4d7Wp9kKjA?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;">Birthdays start with Ronald Isley, one of the Isley Brothers:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/VL9xOLpwI0I?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/q1DDgNCLD84?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;">Animals guitarist Hilton Valentine:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/mmdPQp6Jcdk?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><object class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="http://2.gvt0.com/vi/u_fnyxHZOQ4/0.jpg" height="266" width="320"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/u_fnyxHZOQ4&fs=1&source=uds" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/u_fnyxHZOQ4&fs=1&source=uds" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;">Bill Champlain, who sang for Chicago, the greatest rock band in history ...</div><div style="text-align: center;"><object class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="http://0.gvt0.com/vi/ebrfFK_5xXA/0.jpg" height="266" width="320"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ebrfFK_5xXA&fs=1&source=uds" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ebrfFK_5xXA&fs=1&source=uds" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;">... although his tenure with the band was during its late-'80s-and-onward descent into ballad hell, instead of:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/NDQon2oiq8M?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/WLiuMkGCOC4?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br />
</div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/oWXpD3jlAgY?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;">Leo Sayer was born a year later:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/O6gEkfwozhE?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br />
</div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/L2W3t5u7cxs?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br />
</div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;">Roger Hodgson of Supertramp:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/6ffHqMaUCTw?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;">Molly Hatchet keyboard player (who knew they had one?) John Glavin ...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><object class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="http://1.gvt0.com/vi/z_3SydJVaE0/0.jpg" height="266" width="320"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/z_3SydJVaE0&fs=1&source=uds" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/z_3SydJVaE0&fs=1&source=uds" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object></div><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;">... and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers drummer Stan Lynch were born the same day:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/SlI1iprFng4?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"></div>The Prestebloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13667671319546711881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4545209620273837155.post-15720641394871157892011-05-20T07:00:00.016-05:002011-05-20T07:15:11.067-05:00Just in case, thanks for readingThe subject of this post requires its own soundtrack:<br />
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<a href="http://www.familyradio.com/graphical/literature/judgment/judgment.html">Family Radio</a> has been broadcasting and advertising that the end of the world will occur Saturday at 6 p.m. wherever you are.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.rbr.com/radio/family-radio-apocalyptic-countdown-winding-down.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter">RBR.com</a> reports:<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;">According to a fact sheet published on the group’s website, this is what is about to happen: “On May 21, 2011 two events will occur. These events could not be more opposite in nature, the one more wonderful than can be imagined; the other more horrific than can be imagined. A great earthquake will occur the Bible describes it as ‘such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.’ This earthquake will be so powerful it will throw open all graves. The remains of the all the believers who have ever lived will be instantly transformed into glorified spiritual bodies to be forever with God.” The rest will be “thrown out upon the ground to be shamed,” and will experience “horror and chaos beyond description.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;">There will be an interim period running from 5/21/11 until 10/21/11, when Family Radio says final destruction of the Earth take place.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;">The Family Radio website notes that it is still accepting donations, and although its donor computer operation is said to be undergoing maintenance, the group says it has representatives on hand to process donations from call-in givers. It accepts credit or debit cards.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 19px;">So any ministers reading this apparently need not bother to prepare a sermon or homily for Sunday.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;">I pointed out in selecting Family Radio my "Sunday Insight with Charlie Sykes" Loser of the Week that evidently Family Radio was unfamiliar with Matthew 24:36, which readeth: "</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #001320; line-height: 21px;">But of that day and hour knows no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only."</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #001320; font-family: inherit; line-height: 21px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #001320; font-family: inherit; line-height: 21px;">Oh, but Harold Camping, owner of Family Radio, <a href="http://literature/nomanknows/nomanknows.html">has an explanation</a>:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #001320; line-height: 21px;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #001320; line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; line-height: normal;"></span></span></span><br />
<table bgcolor="#efefef" border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="5"><tbody>
<tr><td align="center" colspan="3"><div align="justify"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In the Bible a wise man is a true believer, to whom God has given a profound trust in the authority of the Bible. True believers have been in existence since the beginning of time. But the timeline of history as it is revealed in the Bible was never revealed to the hearts of the true believers. For example, throughout most of the church age it was generally believed that Creation occurred in the year 4004 B.C.</span></div></td></tr>
<tr><td align="center" colspan="3"><div align="justify"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> However, about 35 years ago God began to open the true believers’ understanding of the timeline of history. Thus it was discovered that the Bible teaches that when the events of the past are coordinated with our modern calendar, we can learn dates of history such as Creation (11,013 B.C.), the flood of Noah’s day (4990 B.C.), the exodus of Israel from Egypt (1447 B.C.) and the death of Solomon (93l B.C.)*</span></div></td></tr>
<tr><td align="center" colspan="3"><div align="justify"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> However, it was not until a very few years ago that the accurate knowledge of the entire timeline of history was revealed to true believers by God from the Bible. This timeline extends all the way to the end of time. During these past several years God has been revealing a great many truths, which have been completely hidden in the Bible until this time when we are so near the end of the world.</span></div></td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #001320; font-family: inherit; line-height: 21px;">(The essay gets more creative from there, believe me.)</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #001320; font-family: inherit; line-height: 21px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #001320; font-family: inherit; line-height: 21px;">So Camping is, similar to Matthew Harrison Brady (that is, William Jennings Bryan) in "Inherit the Wind," a believer that the Earth is only tens of thousands of years old. I am neither a scientist nor a theologian, but it seems rather presumptuous to limit God to a 24-hour day, does it not? The Episcopal Church, to which I've belonged for a decade, describes itself as a tricycle of Scripture (the big wheel), tradition and reason. And there is no real reason that evolution is incompatible with God's creation.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #001320; font-family: inherit; line-height: 21px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #001320; line-height: 21px;">The minister who married my wife and me claims that there is only one verse of the Bible, John 3:16, that does not require an additional verse to back it up. Matthew 24:36 has two — Mark 13:32 ("But of that day and that hour knows no man, no not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father") and, from my favorite book of the Bible, Acts 1:7 ("And he said to them, it is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father has put in his own power"). </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #001320; line-height: 21px;">Moreover, the quoted words of Jesus Christ would seem to have paramount ranking as a source of information for Christians, would they not?</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #001320; font-family: inherit; line-height: 21px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #001320; font-family: inherit; line-height: 21px;"><a href="http://www.abhota.info/">A Brief History of the Apocalypse</a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #001320; line-height: 21px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #001320; line-height: 21px;">has a listing of predictions of the end of the world dating all the way back to 2800 B.C. </span>A real wave of apocalysomania took place in 1000 A.D., which I guess would have been Y1K. (I remember Y2K, when driving back home after a sumptuous not-really-millennium meal we listened to that paragon of reason, Art Bell, report about mysterious blackouts. Bell somehow neglected to mention that the University of Wisconsin football team's going to back-to-back Rose Bowls must have been a sign of the end times.) And we've had predictions of the end practically every year since 1972. (No, Richard Nixon's reelection was not one of them, but at the University of Wisconsin, Ronald Reagan's reelection was.) Before Pat Robertson was claiming that 9/11 and hurricanes were divine retribution, he predicted the end of the world would take place in the fall of 1982. (Breaking up with my first girlfriend and losing my job in the same week seemed like the end of the world, but it wasn't.)</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #001320; font-family: inherit; line-height: 21px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #001320; font-family: inherit; line-height: 21px;">I recall two specifically. In 1978, Pope Paul VI died, and then his successor, John Paul I, died a month after becoming pope. Newspapers at the time noted the legend of <a href="http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/malachy.htm">St. Malachy</a>, an Irish priest who wrote down descriptions of every pope from Peter forward. When the list of popes runs out, the legend has it, our time runs out. And there is only one pope left on the list, Benedict XVI's successor, who by the way is supposed to be the Devil incarnate. (That should make the next College of Cardinals meeting after Benedict's death really interesting.)</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #001320; font-family: inherit; line-height: 21px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #001320; font-family: inherit; line-height: 21px;">The other prediction, in 1982, was not exactly a prediction of the end, but of galactic disorder caused by <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1981/02/02/world/with-sino-chinese-sees-disaster-when-planets-line-up.html">all the planets in this solar system lining up</a>. Leonard Nimoy narrated an episode of "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zK4PGCQQ4Oc">In Search Of</a>" that warned of the calamity on the way. Nimoy's most famous character, Mr. Spock, would have pointed out that such a theory is illogical because the planets are not all on the same plane. (To which Dr. McCoy would have contributed, "How do I know? I'm a doctor, not an astronomer!")</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #001320; font-family: inherit; line-height: 21px;">The planetary alignment previously occurred Feb. 4, 1962; astrologer Jeane Dixon predicted that the Antichrist would be born the next day. (Which means the Antichrist is actress <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000492/">Jennifer Jason Leigh</a>.)</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #001320; font-family: inherit; line-height: 21px;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #001320;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 21px;">Remember the earthquake that destroyed Taiwan and created the tsunami that killed millions May 11? You don't, because the prediction of someone named Professor Wang didn't happen. Of course, this year is less than half over, so we may still enter the <a href="http://www.salemctr.com/photon.html">Photon Belt</a> (no, that was not an episode of Star Trek) before the end of the year. </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #001320; font-family: inherit; line-height: 21px;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #001320;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 21px;">The next prediction of our doom is Dec. 23, 2012, according to the Mayans, whose calendar runs out on that day. (So don't bother getting Christmas presents next year, and you can skip gassing up the snowblower, when by then gas should be about $14 a gallon.) But if that prediction isn't accurate, there are <a href="http://www.abhota.info/end6.htm">plenty of others waiting in the wings</a>. For instance, back in 1960, Science magazine predicted that on Nov. 13, 2026, the world's population would reach infinity.</span></span><br />
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</span></span>The Prestebloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13667671319546711881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4545209620273837155.post-49178033317452924172011-05-20T06:30:00.019-05:002011-05-20T06:30:03.612-05:00Steve Media: All Steve, All the Time<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Less than a week after my latest "<a href="http://presteblog.blogspot.com/2011/05/in-case-you-missed-it.html">Sunday Insight with Charlie Sykes</a>" appearance, I was on the Ripon anti-slavery walk (the Little White Schoolhouse, the Abraham Lincoln statue at Ripon College, a cemetery where an ex-slave is buried, etc.) with my oldest son when I got the call from Wisconsin Public Radio. I'll be on WPR's Joy Cardin show with Ruth Conniff of The Progressive Friday at 8 a.m.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">As always, <span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;">Wisconsin Public Radio’s Ideas Network can be heard on WHA (970 AM) in Madison, WLBL (930 AM) in Auburndale, WHID (88.1 FM) in Green Bay, WHWC (88.3 FM) in Menomonie, WRFW (88.7 FM) in River Falls, WEPS (88.9 FM) in Elgin, Ill., WHAA (89.1 FM) in Adams, WHBM (90.3 FM) in Park Falls, WHLA (90.3 FM) in La Crosse, WRST (90.3 FM) in Oshkosh, WHAD (90.7 FM) in Delafield, W215AQ (90.9 FM) in Middleton, KUWS (91.3 FM) in Superior, WHHI (91.3 FM) in Highland, WSHS (91.7 FM) in Sheboygan, WHDI (91.9 FM) in Sister Bay, WLBL (91.9 FM) in Wausau, W275AF (102.9 FM) in Ashland, W300BM (107.9 FM) in Madison, and of course online at</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><a href="http://www.wpr.org/" style="text-decoration: none;">www.wpr.org</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;">.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;">Meanwhile, Charter Cable subscribers in Ripon can watch the new (as in it didn't exist before Monday afternoon) Ripon Channel Report this weekend starting Saturday at 9 a.m. The Internet being what it is, The Ripon Channel's Kenton Barber captured <a href="http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1697769892776&set=a.1052458480394.2008542.1493755459&type=1&ref=nf">the taping Thursday afternoon</a>.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;">The video may also be online this weekend, complete with weather forecast.</span>The Prestebloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13667671319546711881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4545209620273837155.post-5703782564036685662011-05-20T06:00:00.040-05:002011-05-20T06:00:10.602-05:00Presty the DJ for May 20Today is famous in rock history for two reasons. The second was in 1980, when drummer Peter Criss quit Kiss. The first was in 1967, when the BBC banned the Beatles' "A Day in the Life" due to its alleged drug references:<br />
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Birthdays start with soul singer Shorty Long, who warned people that ...<br />
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Who is Jill Jackson? She was the Paula of Paul and Paula, the former of whom (whose real name wasn't Paul either) sang to her:<br />
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Joe Cocker did one of the best covers of all time, a song so nice he covered it twice (with Leon Russell on piano):<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: -webkit-auto;">One wonders if James Henderson, lead singer of Black Oak Arkansas, was Jim Dandy to the rescue:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/PXMyKJxIL6E?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br />
Mr. Mister keyboard player Steve George:<br />
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Oconomowoc native <a href="http://www.janewiedlin.com/">Jane Wiedlin</a>, guitarist for the Go-Gos:<br />
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Today is the birthday (in separate years) of John and Susan Cowsill of the Cowsills:<br />
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John Cowsill also played drums on this '80s one-hit wonder:<br />
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</div>The Prestebloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13667671319546711881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4545209620273837155.post-53807908891312132062011-05-19T08:00:00.038-05:002011-05-19T20:51:29.419-05:00Apparently I am a sign of the apocalypseJudging from the reactions, I am one of the few people that, until yesterday, was not on Facebook:<br />
<br />
<h6 class="uiStreamMessage" data-ft="{"type":"msg"}" style="color: black; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span class="messageBody" style="background-color: #cccccc; line-height: 14px;">OMG Hubby has finally joined Facebook. Friend him NOW!</span></h6><h6 class="uiStreamMessage" data-ft="{"type":"msg"}" style="color: black; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span class="messageBody" style="line-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #cccccc; color: #333333; line-height: normal;">FB will NEVER be the same</span></span></h6><h6 class="uiStreamMessage" data-ft="{"type":"msg"}" style="color: black; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span class="messageBody" style="line-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #cccccc; color: #333333; line-height: normal;">How did you do that...John still won't!</span></span></h6><h6 class="uiStreamMessage" data-ft="{"type":"msg"}" style="color: black; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span class="messageBody" style="line-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #cccccc; color: black; font-size: 13px; line-height: 14px;">Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria! 12/21/2012 is soon approaching! and yet another sign...Steve is on Facebook</span></span></span></h6><h6 class="uiStreamMessage" data-ft="{"type":"msg"}" style="color: black; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span class="messageBody" style="line-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-size: 13px; line-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #cccccc; color: #333333; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal;"><h6 class="uiStreamMessage" data-ft="{"type":"msg"}" style="color: black; font-size: 11px; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span class="messageBody" style="line-height: 14px;">HI! i see facebook won again...</span></h6><div></div></span></span></span></span></h6><div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"></div><br />
<br />
But now I am. I found out that there was no one by my name on Facebook, so if you do a search for my name, you are guaranteed to find me. (I am also on LinkedIn, and you can see from the right side of this page that I am Presty1965 on Twitter.)<br />
<br />
Until now I had assumed that Facebook was, well, too social for, you know, a business magazine publisher/editor/pundit. Then I was advised by someone considerably more savvy than I in social media (you know who you are, Todd, and thanks) that if it were a country, Facebook would be the third largest country in the world. (I wonder if Facebook is run any better than countries one and two ... or for that matter this one.)<br />
<br />
Since I have this blog linked to Facebook (as well as LinkedIn and Twitter), I assume all the people I have now Friended and vice versa will find out that, wow, Presty is really a right-winger. (I've been a proud member of Hillary Clinton's Vast Right Wing Conspiracy since the 1990s.) The thing, however, is that (1) I am perfectly capable of not talking about politics (remember that the phrase "the personal is political" did not come from the right side of the political aisle), and (2) I have no problems arguing ideas because ideas are supposed to be argued, and the way one improves the process of delivering opinions is to debate opinions. And, now that I think of it, there is a (3): If you don't like a blog entry, don't read it.The Prestebloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13667671319546711881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4545209620273837155.post-11032663929847663292011-05-19T07:00:00.044-05:002011-05-19T07:03:33.583-05:00Les aventures FrançaisIt is hard to believe — mon dieu! — that the Ripon French adventure is more than half over and less than a week away from being over.<br />
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<a href="http://presteblog.blogspot.com/2011/05/bienvenue-or-willkommen.html">You read</a> that Moritz arrived in the overnight between May 5 and May 6 ...<br />
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... and was to do whatever his host family did in addition to the other activities planned for his class.<br />
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Put the two together, and his weeks have included going to two different churches (ours plus a confirmation ceremony at another church), going to Michael's baseball practices and Boy Scout meetings, seeing minor league baseball ...<br />
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... playing minigolf (followed a week later by bowling at the same place) ...<br />
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... going to Lambeau Field and the state Capitol, swimming and skating at the same place ...<br />
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... going to one of Ripon's best known employers — Rippin' Good Cookies — on a walking tour of the city ...<br />
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... Crazy Dress Day at school Wednesday ...<br />
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... and, you know, school. (He has homework, which is more than I can say of his host.)<br />
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His schedule still includes a farm trip, a trip to the Wisconsin Dells (what the French might call un piège à touristes if they have such a phrase), a going-away party at a horse ranch Sunday night (at which if he's not careful he might end up on TV), and then his actual departure Tuesday morning. It would be worth flying back to Paris with the class merely to see their zombie-like states the first couple of days back in France.<br />
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The experience shows, for one thing, the technological miracles we take for granted. The first photo in this blog was shot at 12:04 a.m. after the students had arrived, with my cellphone. I emailed the photo to his parents in Paris; they got it sometime after 7:04 a.m. Paris time through the Internet, satellites and who knows what else. A week later, his parents called Moritz ... from Rome to my cellphone. (Paris and Rome are in the same time zone.) Moritz talked to them in the lobby of the Oshkosh 20th Avenue YMCA.<br />
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As I mentioned earlier this month, it amazes me that 11-year-old kids are international travelers. (Moritz was watching CBS-TV's "The Amazing Race" season finale, in which the final contestants were in a museum in Rio de Janeiro. Moritz looked up and casually said, "I've been there.") Moritz's school, <a href="http://www.eabjm.org/home?">L'École Active Bilingue Jeannine Manuel</a>, is the largest nondenominational private school in France, so one might expect its students' families are reasonably well off, but there is the issue of whether 11-year-olds are mentally and emotionally ready for different cultures from theirs. From what I've seen, these kids obviously are.<br />
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Tuesday will be a hard day. The biggest problem we've had with Moritz is making sure we choose the right vehicle for the activity, given that my car seats five, which is one too few for everyone. (The skating and bowling involved extra people; fortunately Jannan's minivan seats seven.) Other than that, he's fit right in, including eating my spaghetti sauce and lasagna. (I was told lasagna was his favorite food, but only his mother's lasagna; that was proven untrue two pieces later.) He's quieter than his host siblings, but his host siblings are pretty much a nonstop run-on sentence. And he is so laid back that he hasn't objected to anything we've dragged him to so far.<br />
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The experience has been (pardon my high school French) "formidable!" I hope we keep in touch with Moritz, and I'm thinking we'll be doing this again in a few years if circumstances work out.The Prestebloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13667671319546711881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4545209620273837155.post-81834746045840252892011-05-19T06:00:00.042-05:002011-05-19T06:00:01.041-05:00Presty the DJ for May 19Three events in rock — well, music — history are of note today:<br />
<b>1958: </b>The soundtrack to the musical "South Pacific" went to number one and stayed there for 31 weeks. The film version starred Mitzi Gaynor, who looked very much like my mother a few years later.<br />
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<b>1979: </b>Eric Clapton married Patti Boyd, the former wife of George Harrison and the muse for the song "Layla." The song lasted much longer than the marriage.<br />
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Birthdays today are led by Pete Townshend of The Who:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">AC/DC drummer Phillip Rudd:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/H1iR2Wi3u5o?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br />
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Two members of Blood Sweat & Tears: trombonist Jerry Hyman and saxophone and flute player Greg Herbert:<br />
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Bass player Dusty Hill of ZZ Top:<br />
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Ramones lead singer Joey Ramone (born Jeffrey Hyman, so he must have been adopted by the Ramone family, right? Right?):<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/1Z9iUdiS3hI?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>The Prestebloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13667671319546711881noreply@blogger.com0