Standards and Grudges

Sunday 20 March, 2005

Feral Cats, Unprotected in Minnesota

Filed under: Politics, Wisconsin News — Steven A. Stehling @ 15:01

Ann Althouse has a post about feral cats. She links to a Minnesota Star Tribune article that makes the point that feral cats are fair game in Minnesota. I hadn’t even bothered to check if feral cats were an unprotected species in other states. A few groups in Minnesota oppose the cat hunt, but they offer no real alternative. One group called Camp Companion has captured, sterilized and returned 230 feral cats. Is that really an achievement when the feral cat population is estimated in the millions? It’s been estimated that feral cats kill 1 million birds each day throughout the United States. That is an estimate on the low end. The higher end estimate would be 27 million birds killed each day by feral cats. That doesn’t even count the number of native endangered small mammals killed by cats, or the number of native animals that die due to competition with feral cats.

So why is the feral cat hunt a bad idea? I’ve seen opponents try to argue that people will be accidentally shot by hunters shooting housecats, hunters will be killing cats in the city and family pets will be killed indiscriminately. If those accusations were valid, then there would be some sort of news of that type coming out of Minnesota. Hunters don’t hunt inside the city. There are laws about that and they are followed. If hunters ignored these laws, then you’d have duck hunters setting up blinds at the UW Madison Memorial Union to shoot some ducks. Cat lovers also need to face the fact that if they let their pet outside to roam, then their cat is contributing to the problem. Even if their cat is spayed/neutered, they can still kill native species.

The cat lovers oppose the hunt only because they humanize cats. That’s fine; they don’t have to kill cats. Others will take care of it. Just like others take care of getting meat to the grocery store. It’s not as if the Humane Society does not kill millions of cats each year. Hunters can do the same without taking the cats to the Humane Society which keeps the cat locked up for a few weeks before destroying them, wasting time and resources.


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Ward Churchill at UW Whitewater

Filed under: Politics, Wisconsin News — Steven A. Stehling @ 6:00

I still don’t have the video of Ward Churchill’s visit to UW Whitewater. I could easily get it if I went down there, but I don’t want to make a trip down there solely for that purpose. I know someone going to school there and she can bring me the video when she comes up to Madison in a couple weeks. I do have audio of the event though. I was considering distributing the audio via BitTorrent, but a couple factors convinced me to use the traditional method. The file is only 12 MB and this server has a wicked fast connection. There’s also the fact that the many do not know how to use BitTorrent. It’s not worth someone’s trouble to download, install, configure and then learn how to use BitTorrent just to get one small file. I will be putting the video on BitTorrent though, so if you want to see that, you better get up to speed on BitTorrent.

Enjoy

Ward Churchill, UW Whitewater, 12.2 MB, 1h 11m 14s

Saturday 19 March, 2005

The Isthmus, Propaganda & the Draft

Filed under: Politics — Steven A. Stehling @ 20:57

Last summer I was in Noodles on State St getting some dinner to go for my roommates and myself. To kill time while I waited I picked up The Isthmus. A segment I read really pissed me off. Not because I disagreed with their opinion, but because it was outright propaganda. Later that week I made a webpage to voice my rage. I’ve been digging through the website logs and I noticed that webpage is still getting traffic. Here’s what that webpage has.

End Political Ignorance!

After reading an article in a newspaper I felt I had to do something. The newspaper is the Isthmus June 4, 2004 Vol. 29 No. 23 from Madison, Wisconsin. Below is a portion of “Eighth-graders confess what really gets their goat”. They interviewed students from O’Keeffe Middle School.

Imminent Threat
It has been 30 years since Americans have been unwillingly entered into a war through a military draft. If President Bush is re-elected, the next draft may be sooner than you think.

In November 2003, on the Pentagon’s anti-terrorism Web site, it posted a request for volunteers to serve on the draft boards and appeals boards that will decide whether men (current draft law does not affect women) can get deferments or exemptions. $28 million has been added to the 2004 Selective Service System budget to prepare for a military draft that could start as early as June 15, 2005.

Congress brought twin bills S. 89 and H.R. 153 forward this year, entitled the Universal National Service Act of 2003, “To provide for the common defense by requiring that all young persons [age 18-25] in the United States, including women, perform a period of military service or a period of civilian service in furtherance of the nations defense and homeland security and for other purposes. The active bills currently sit in the Armed Services Committees of the House and Senate.

I think that people should not be forced to a war they don’t believe in. A draft is violating people’s rights, forcing them into war without the people’s approval and that is unconstitutional.

- Nick Pomplun

I find it hard to believe an eighth-grader wrote this. So I assume the student provided the basic idea and the newspaper edited it heavily to make it more presentable. If it’s not already apparent, the Isthmus newspaper is an extremely liberal paper. Many people in the Madison area tend to be liberal to the point that they are intolerant of other’s views. Great place to live if you’re willing to conform to the status quo. Anyways, I feel it’s time to address the tone of this article.

S. 89 was introduced to the Senate by Sen Fritz Hollings (SC) on January 7, 2003. On January 22, 2004, Sen Hollings endorsed John Kerry for President. Rep Charles Rangel (NY) introduced H.R. 163 (the article wrongly identified the Selective Service Bill as H.R. 153) to the House on the same day as S. 89 went to the Senate. Sen Hollings and Rep Rangel are both Democrats. If you didn’t know, President Bush is a Republican.

Where did this student get the idea that re-electing Bush will result in the passage of these Selective Service bills? Their parents or teachers perhaps. Ignorance begets ignorance. Teach the truth. Have whatever political view you want, but don’t try to sway people to your side by way of lies and deceit.
Republicans got sick of the issue and demanded a vote. In the end both H.R. 163 and S. 89 failed and debate about a new draft has died. You can still find those that try to argue that Bush tried to re-instate the draft and is still trying. There’s no facts to support those accusations though. It’s all just hot air to drum up anti-Bush support.

Wednesday 16 March, 2005

For Sale:

Filed under: Madison News, Politics — Steven A. Stehling @ 12:03

Mayor & City Coucil, slightly used, guaranteed return on investment

Madison City Council has approved $2.3 million of taxpayer’s money to finance a grocery store for the Monroe St neighborhood. Its part of a mixed use development at the site of the vacant Ken Kopps building. Without the public assistance financing the development would not include a grocery store. The neighborhood was adamant that it wanted a grocery store included. The interesting thing about the development is that it does not contain the eight lower income dwellings required by law. Instead it contains three and the developer will be required to pay a fee.

The Monroe neighborhood is a major support hub for the Progressives, Democrats and outright Liberals that currently control the local government, the very government that supports laws such as including low income housing in developments. Apparently in return for their support, the City Council has decided that the Monroe neighborhood not only does not need to include the minimum low income housing, but can also use taxpayer’s money to build a grocery store in a more convenient location.

The Monroe St area is an affluent neighborhood. These are people that can afford to form a co-op to finance the construction of a grocery store. They instead choose to call in favors from politicians that they purchased. The politicians in turn spend OUR money to win favor with a neighborhood that is too snobbish to include the minimum required low income housing. They support politicians that claim to “help the little guy”, but they’re devoted subscribers to “Not in my backyard”. Low income housing is good enough for my neighborhood, but not theirs.

I have a message for the Progressives, Democrats and Liberals in Madison. It’s a message they might remember, it is after all one of their favorite chants.

NOT IN MY NAME

I do not support the use of taxpayer dollars to finance any development in the Monroe St neighborhood.

I do not support the approval of any development that bypasses low income housing inclusion that is forced upon the rest of the city.

I do not support a Mayor or City Council that sells taxpayer dollars in exchange for political support.

NOT IN MY NAME MAYOR DAVE

Contact these jokers and tell them how you feel.

Mayor Dave
District 1 Ron Ferrell
District 2 Brenda Konkel
District 3 Warren Onken
District 4 Michael Verveer
District 5 Robbie Webber
District 6 Judy Olson
District 7 Zach Brandon
District 8 Austin King
District 9 Paul Skidmore
District 10 Ken Golden
District 11 Jean MacCubbin
District 12 Brian Bedford
District 13 Andrew Heidt
District 14 Tim Breur
District 15 Gregory Markle
District 16 Judy Compton
District 17 Santiago Rosas
District 18 Paul Van Vooy
District 19 Steve Holtzman
District 20 Cindy Thomas

If you don’t feel like sending them an email, call them at home. Here’s a listing of their numbers.

If you don’t know who your representative is, go here and click on the map where you live and it will direct you to the District Alderperson’s website.

Andrew Heidt is the District Alderperson for the Monroe neighborhood. He’s also on the Community Development Authority which is charged with managing redevelopment programs. It’s his job to ensure low income housing is provided in Madison, except in his district of course. The rich liberal snobs that got him into office don’t want unworthy low income families in their neighborhood.

UPDATE

The development location is actually in District 10. Ken Golden is the Alderperson. I’ve heard a rumor that Ken pressured members of the Council to vote in favor of it or he would remove the “Big Box” ordinance. I don’t understand how one Alderperson alone could do that, so I have my doubts about that rumor. I do believe Ken did something underhanded, but he wasn’t alone. There’s plenty of guilt to go around.

Tuesday 15 March, 2005

Audioborne Disease

Filed under: Politics — Steven A. Stehling @ 12:27

I’ve been wondering if Al Franken could do or ever has done one complete show without mentioning Bill O’Reilly. Al made his name in the Progressive/Liberal/Activist community by attacking Bill. His radio show is just as one dimensional as his climb to pundit fame. In order to make something sound worse or twist it to make it sound bad, he often introduces topics in skit form. I guess he learned that trick from SNL’s audiovox skits.

What really bothers me about Al is that he’s more arrogant than anyone he’s attacked. He’s not that smart, intuitive or funny, but he sure thinks he is. You can tune in to 92.1 and from the start of the day until the end they discuss ninety percent of the same things and say almost exactly the same thing. They only differ in how they attempt to inject comedy. It’s not Progressive radio, it’s Liberal “Yes Men” Talking Points, all day, every day.

Conform Comrades! Keep clapping. Discuss what we tell you to discuss.

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