Chasing “likes”– but at what cost?

We imagine many of you are hooked on the various ‘social media’ addictions of our day….sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and who knows how many more.

Here at Side, we’ve steadfastly avoided even creating accounts on such sites, and we regret it not one bit.

You don’t have to look very far or wide to see just how much damage these attention traps have visited upon our culture and our social graces, in spite of the advantages many claim they offer. 

One of the traps they suck users into, as we understand it, is the constant search for “likes.”  Try to find a web site for a new restaurant to check out their menu, and you’re almost always going to find a Facebook page instead, and a request to “like us on Facebook!”

We were recently reminded, however, that there is more than one type of “like.”  Including, we suppose, many we haven’t thought of.

The one at the top of our mind at the moment, though, comes to us compliments of the Bowdoin Orient….the campus newspaper operated by students.  It seems a campus ethnic group invited an “edgy” comedian to entertain on campus, and said comedian violated many of the modern day taboos held sacred by fragile elite college students.  You know, micro-agressions, triggering, oppression and all the rest are always ready to show up when thin lines are crossed.

You can read the entire article here:

https://bowdoinorient.com/2019/04/19/asian-heritage-month-guest-comedian-criticized-for-offensive-language/

In case you don’t care to, which wouldn’t surprise us, we give you this brief excerpt:

“David Zhou ‘21 said any commedian should be better about knowing the audience.  He should have known that if you come to a liberal arts college and start making like offhand jokes about like sex, race, gender, like, you’re going to get slapped,” Zhou said.

How’s that for “likes?”  Three in one sentence!  So David, a Bowdoin sophomore, is already up in the like stats before posting anywhere.

The overarching point in all this for us, however, is the apparent fact that a second year student at an elite, highly selective liberal arts college speaks with all the linguistic polish of valley girls from Southern California. 

Given that his higher education has a price tag of more than one-quarter million dollars for a Bachelor’s degree, isn’t it reasonable to expect he could utter such a brief thought without using conversational crutches?

While the editors of The Orient didn’t seem concerned enough to edit his words on his behalf, we have to wonder how the faculty and administration of the Ivory Tower will deal with this reflection on their English curriculum and teaching rigor.

Perhaps they’ll have to set up a program of “Like-aversion Therapy” for those so-afflicted, similar to the stuttering problem many of us saw in our youth.

We can’t wait to see, like, how they deal with this, like.

Technorati Tags: Bowdoin,likes

Are you one of Eddie Beem’s “white trash Americans?”

 

If you read the Forecaster, you likely know who Eddie Beem is, or as he likes to be called, Edgar Allen Beem.  He’s their “featured” opinion writer, regularly proclaiming his moral, intellectual, cultural, and overall superiority compared to the rest of us.  He’s not above btragging of how much praise he gets from ordinary people as he makes his way through his extraordinary life.  Like many journalists, he is convinced his “work” is more noble and profound than those of lesser souls.

We frequently joust with Eddie on the comment threads for his columns, and we seem to have a knack for getting his shorts twisted around his neck, causing him to unleash all sorts of uncivilized names at us, and others, when we challenge his thoughts and expression.  We’ve lost track of how many times he’s sworn he would never again respond to our comments, but it doesn’t really matter.  All we have to do is chase his goat around his “journalistic” corral, and sure enough he’ll take the bait and break his promise anew.

Governor LePage and President Trump are particular burrs in Eddie’s tongue, and he can take a column on donuts and somehow find a way to turn it into tirades against either or both.  Over the years, Side has come to believe that his bouts of LDS and TDS have done permanent damage to his coping skills, and his behavior has suffered as a result.

Last week, The Forecaster carried an item of his dated January 29th called “Maine goes to pot.”

In the process of responding to comments posted, he pretty much lost control of his senses, stating that “99% of Trump voters are white trash Americans,” suggesting they were violent cretins who would get their just desserts in the upcoming mid-term elections and beyond.  The Forecaster moderator quickly removed Eddie’s shrill vulgarities, realizing they were not in keeping with the lofty standards of their pages.  Therefore, we can’t recover Eddies full exact words.  Nor could we recover them on his Disqus profile page, since he has it set at “private,” which is probably a good thing for him, since the archive would portray the troubled soul of a self-absorbed yet completely self-unaware opinion writer still seeking the validation of all he encounters.

You can find the comment string here: http://www.theforecaster.net/the-universal-notebook-maine-goes-to-pot/, and our comments are posted as “poppypapa.”  Furthermore, our Disgus account is available for public perusal.

You’ll note that two comments were deleted in the string; both of those were Eddie’s.  You can tell from the comments of others just how snotty and snooty he got in his remarks.  Here’s a clip cited in someone else’s post:

"I'm afraid there is no other way to describe Trump followers, 99% of whom are ignorant, prejudiced, evangelical, gun nuts, white nationalists and rednecks."

The comment that “99% of Trump voters are white trash Americans” seemed to us beyond anything we’ve seen from Eddie in his saner days.  Especially since it encompasses the Sides, mumerous family members, and scores and scores of friends and acquaintances.  Not to mention tens of millions of American voters.

So we quickly dashed off a letter to the editor of The Forecaster, reading as shown:

I've been jousting with Ed Beem in the comment strings for his opinion columns for many years, enjoying the fever pitch he rises to when challenged in any way, no matter how civilly.

I've always been surprised, and often shocked, by how someone who considers himself a shining example of humanity's best and brightest, compared to most of his readers, can stoop to the very lowest in name-calling and demonization when readers challenge his thoughts, and often, even when they don't.  His devout hatred of anyone to the right of center, and major elected officials for whom he did not vote, clearly brings out the inner contempt and incivility masked by that avuncular head shot at the top of each column.

In a comment on his recent item on going to pot, Ed lashed out at Trump voters by calling them "white trash Americans."  He went further in related posts, asserting that "99% of Trump voters are white trash Americans," and went even further in labeling them with assorted disgraceful terms.

I don't know what percentage of Forecaster readers and advertisers voted for Trump, but I can assure you that there are many more than Eddie might think.  While we don't pay for our copy of the Forecaster, I'd think the editors might be a bit more sensitive to the "diversity" of their readership and ad-buyers.

Eddie clearly doesn't believe in diversity, especially when it comes to opposing those candidates he reveres, no matter who he might offend on your pages in the process.

Maybe Eddie needs a "time out."  Might I suggest one with a TBD end date?

Pem Schaeffer

Brunswick

The Editor not only didn’t publish the letter,  he didn’t even acknowledge it’s receipt.  And Eddie is right back on their pages this week with one of his psuedo-elite-intellectual thought pieces on “the arts,” which he considers one of his greatest strengths.  Not a single mention of his excursions on the unhinged axis the week before, clear as they were for a few revealing moments.

We do note this line in the current item, however:

Maybe I’ve been sensitive to endings lately because at 68 I am making preparations for retirement, developing an investment strategy, getting a will in order, making arrangements for health insurance, long-term care and lugubrious stuff like that.

We humbly suggest that waiting until you are about to retire at 68 is just a touch late to work on an investment strategy.

What we really want to know is whether the editors might have decided that Eddie finally crossed their “line in the sand,” and was told to craft a soft exit for himself in the words of his beloved weekly thought selfies.

In which case, we have to wonder how local groupies will survive without him. 

And where those readers who are not white trash will find validation of their own without him.

     

Technorati Tags: Eddie Beem,white trash Americans,Forecaster

Funny smells and loose ends on the Downeaster Noise Workshop; somebody’s got to do the clean-up!

Let’s face it; if there’s anything you can be sure of, it’s that the local media won’t do any clean-up work!

 

OK; here are the details you need:

Meeting Video Replay: http://tv3hd.brunswickme.org/Cablecast/Public/Show.aspx?ChannelID=1&ShowID=3869

Quiet Zone Brochure handed out before the meeting: https://www.fra.dot.gov/Page/P0889

FRA Quiet Zone Briefing given at the meeting: https://www.scribd.com/document/364670016/Quiet-Zone-Presentation-Brusnwick-ME-11-14-17

           

Last night, after another full day of reflecting on the Workshop of the night before, it seemed to us that some things didn’t smell right.  So we sent this message to town councilors and the Town Manager:

==============================================================

Upon reflection on the meeting itself, and after following up with a railroad professional, the following comments come to mind:

1)  In retrospect, the "no public comment" gag order was even more detrimental than it seemed at the time.  There was no opportunity to challenge answers given by the visitors, to ask follow-up questions, or otherwise dig into the first broad-brush comments given in response to the pre-listed questions.

2)  Patricia Quinn, ED of NNEPRA, was largely silent for the workshop, other than platitudes about working with Amtrak and the TM.  This makes it easy to forget that the State of Maine operates the Downeaster, and that this statutory responsibility and authority is vested in NNEPRA, which she heads.  In this regard, Amtrak and Pan Am are subcontractors to NNEPRA, which buys their services through agreements with each, plus MBTA.  NNEPRA and Ms. Quinn are the direct customer for their services, and she is responsible for oversight of their efforts on NNEPRA's behalf, for seeing that all written obligations are met, and that when issues arise that are not included in the agreements, to see to their resolution and provide assurance to the State, and the host communities, that open deficiencies and complaints are being effectively dispositioned.

3)  NNEPRA has ownership of every aspect of the MLF.  They worked the permitting and approval process from start to finish, with the help of consulting contractors managed by and paid for by the Authority.  NNEPRA was and is the Program Manager and General Contractor for the overall project, including site selection, environmental approval, selection and hiring of subs, design, construction, and acceptance and commissioning.  While Amtrak may staff the MLF, and Pan Am may have tasking associated with the facility, both do so as subcontractors to NNEPRA, with written agreements that should govern these roles and consideration in return.  In other words, "the buck stops at Ms. Quinn's desk" on all matters regarding the MLF and the Downeaster's presence in our community.  She should have been the one summing up by demonstrating the leadership and stewardship to follow up on all Downeaster related tasking that was talked about last night.

4)  I expect that none of the visitors that attended the meeting last night will be at the upcoming Council meeting on November 20th.  So while residents may be permitted to speak in follow-up to last night's meeting, that option will be wholly unsatisfying because other than town officials saying they will pass the concerns and comments along, there will be no meaningful representation of NNEPRA's role in this entire evolution.  So the meeting will of necessity be an anti-climatic, largely symbolic event.

5)  Upon further investigation, it's possible the Pan Am rep sluffed off the east-end operating question with her mention of need to add "interlocks" at the east end.  I contacted a railroad professional to find out what this term means in railroading parlance.  As I understand it, interlocks will add electronics and signaling to the existing switches, but will have nothing to do with the actual placement and physical characteristics of the switches and the related track.  Her comment infers that such interlocks were part of the design and construction for the west end access to the building, but not for the east end.  Which sounds like an obvious management deficiency.  If east end interlocks were included, but not installed before the building was put into service, either Pan Am was not held to their obligations, and/or overall stewardship of the Project was again deficient.  It might be prudent to ask NNEPRA to test east end access geometry by demonstrating entry and exit of a train set from all three east end doors all the way to the Cedar Street wye area. 

6)  Many of the switches used for MLF operations, and other Brunswick train movements, including the Cedar Street wye, require manual switching by Amtrak personnel.  I understand this is a substantial physical task, and switch mechanisms have to be cleared of snow and ice in winter conditions.  Given "more than one way to skin a cat," railroad personnel have historically been known to minimize their "skinning" work by taking the path of least resistance, if you will.  The MLF is a facility ripe for such minimalist operations.  Amtrak staffs the facility, with no regular presence by NNEPRA or Pan Am.  Accordingly, the staff that runs the place is free to do things as they see fit, and if that includes using only one end of the facility for access, who is to challenge them?  In other words, the lack of use of the east end access may not be as the Pan Am rep stated, and no one else at the meeting was likely to challenge that answer.  It's not out of the question to think they may have planned it that way before the meeting.  Again, test runs to demonstrate east end access geometry and mechanicals worthiness seems like a good call.

In conclusion, I believe there is a lot of snow to be plowed on this challenging situation.  I was not encouraged by anything I heard last night, and as I said in a post afterwards,  the bottom line is that Brunswick needs to just "suck it up," and that things are going to get worse instead of better.  More round trips and summer extensions to Rockland that bring the East Side of Brunswick into play ensure that, it would seem.

Respectfully,

Pem Schaeffer

============================================================

                    

There was another odd aroma that came across the room well into the meeting.  We noticed it around the time that “M. William Hollister” of Amtrak got on his soapbox for a few moments, in keeping with the format of his moniker.

He implored us to keep in mind that Amtrak and the Downeaster are all about “economic development,” and that “communities all over the northeast are pleading to have the same benefits as we do,” or words to that effect.

We respectfully take issue with that assertion, M. William, and we refer you to this briefing given to a number of state executives two years ago in the state capital.  Included were the Governor, the Commissioner of the Maine Department of Transportation, Ms. Quinn of NNEPRA, and several other state officials and passenger rail advocates:

             

You can find this presentation here: https://www.scribd.com/document/284589130/PRAC-PDF-Briefing-13-October-15 

We assert that the information and evaluation contained in the briefing is, if anything, more relevant than it was then, as the promises and projections of economic benefits from the Downeaster have continued to fall astoundingly flat on their face.  Or, if you like, their butts.

                                    

M. William also praised the carbon footprint savings of the Downeaster as compared to driving personal vehicles.  We take issue with that claim as well, especially when one considers that the engines pulling the Downeaster are old and creaky, and are grandfathered out of contemporary standards for diesel emissions.  Add to that the fact that in particular, the average train coming into and leaving Brunswick carries no more than a half busload of passengers, and you have an extremely hollow claim.  Today’s motor coaches (Concord, for example) are powered by 325 hp low sulfur diesel engines, while the Amtrak engines are powered by 4,250 hp high sulfur diesel fuel (old style).

Claims that the Downeaster is a net winner on a “per passenger mile” basis, as M. William put it, are readily shown to be wildly inaccurate on any basis, but especially when long idling periods and empty trains are taken into account.

For more informative reading, this document will open your eyes:

     

It was compiled and published by the Union of Concerned Scientists, and you can find it here:

http://www.ucsusa.org/sites/default/files/legacy/assets/documents/clean_vehicles/greentravel_report.pdf

            

So, all in all, it looks like our prediction of a Dog and Pony Show was a pretty good call.  We’ve witnessed hundreds of them over our decades long career and retired life, and we have a “nose” for such things.  And for the bulls that sometimes come along to expand the content.

You should be grateful that Side allows you to escape the sensory delights of such events, and takes it upon himself to do the dirty work for you.  It’s about time you buy us lunch, don’t you think?

Technorati Tags: Brunswick,Bravo Sierra,Downeaster,Amtrak,Economic Development

Post Script: Bowdoin’s school year and self-evident truths…

Let’s begin with a relevant quote:

Illiberal Education

At root the problem is American education, which has become thoroughly dominated by the illiberal thought-world in which social outcomes always trump universal principles. That’s where the battle has been lost.

- from a National Association of Scholars report

Another favorite:

Kenneth Minogue writing in National Review, Nov. 18, 1991:

An ideological movement is a collection of people many of whom could hardly bake a cake, fix a car, sustain a friendship or a marriage, or even do a quadratic equation, yet they believe they know how to rule the world. The university, in which it is possible to combine theoretical pretension with comprehensive ineptitude, has become the natural habitat of the ideological enthusiast. A kind of adventure playground, carefully insulated from reality in order to prevent absent-minded professors from bumping into things as they explore transcendental realms, has become the institutional base for civilizational self-hatred.

(And this is from 25+ years ago!!!! Before current college students were even born!)

One of the chronic afflictions Side suffers from is the curse of an active mind, which in this particular case means we kept thinking of more comments after we published this post three days ago:

http://othersideofbrunswick.blogspot.com/2017/08/the-social-justice-year-in-review.html

As we thought about the materials in that post, and our hypothesis on why there could be so much anxiety among the Bowdoin student body, we recalled some words from the Declaration of Independence, which for some of us matters more than ever, but for a growing number, is a dusty and worthless remnant of America’s founding by the very essence of ‘white privilege.’

Here are the words we’re focusing on:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

In particular, the notion of ‘self-evident truths’ seemed entirely apropos our earlier essay.  It is, we think, at the core of our hypothesis, that much of what students are confronted with and marinated in inside the Bowdoin bubble and the wider culture is in direct conflict with a multiplicity of realities that society has considered exactly that – self evident truths – for centuries.  Realities they are now being told are relics of the past, simply social constructs from an unenlightened age.  The overarching issue, of course, is at the heart of post-modernism: that there is no such thing as objective truth.                                               

From Wikipedia:

Postmodernism asserts to varying degrees that claims to knowledge and truth are products of social, historical or political discourses or interpretations, and are therefore contextual or socially constructed. Accordingly, postmodern thought is broadly characterized by tendencies to epistemological and moral relativism, pluralism, irreverence and self-referentiality.

                                       

(The Ouroboros, shown above, a dragon that continually consumes itself, is used as a symbol for self-reference.)

Surely having larger truths with the stature of 2 + 2 = 4 in human knowledge and understanding suddenly declared obsolete, myths, or otherwise no longer politically acceptable can cause cognitive dissonance and mental conflicts, and eventually lead to anxieties calling for ‘professional’ help.  As well as behaviors that only make things worse.  When large groups in a common setting begin to experience such consequences, all sorts of responses and reactions are possible, as we are seeing more and more frequently.

Given our list of notes made subsequent to the earlier post, we decided we’ll follow the “random comments” approach to pass them along, rather than go through the struggle of fitting them into a “structured,” linear narrative.  Coherence is so outdated, don’t you agree?  So here we go.

*  Bowdoin Leadership:

At the MSMT production of “Newsies” the other night, we were watching the preshow listing of sponsors on the large video displays.  One of them was Bowdoin, calling itself “a leader in studies of the environment.”

We thought to ourselves that given the growing need for therapy to deal with anxieties, maybe the college should focus more on the psychic environment within which students spend their 4 years.  Which is to say the environment between their ears, and the effects the college is having on it.  Are faculty and administration doing everything in their power to see that student mental equilibrium is ‘sustainable?’

* A Research Idea: 

How about this for some research associated with the above comment?  First, come up with an “Anxiety Index” that can be established by a certified professional, with appropriate scales, types, and factors.

Once that is created, require applicants and/or incoming freshman to submit their Index as part of the intake process.  Then repeat the evaluation during their senior year.

Compare each student’s Index for their intake and senior years to see how much it has decreased or increased during their time at Bowdoin.  Analyze the results for the student body as a whole to see just how much effect matriculation at Bowdoin has on the collective student body.  Comparing the two should help clarify whether each student is inherently neurotic, or the Bowdoin experience, in all its glory, has created the anxiety or amplified it.

                                      

We must allow, surely, for the possibility that one can suffer from Anxiety Free Anxiety Disorder: the irrational fear of not having a socially acceptable anxiety disorder.

* Language Revision:

In keeping with the trend of putting “preferred pronouns” in the official record for each student, we’re wondering just how this trend of redefining the meaning of accepted, commonplace words in the English language will proceed.

Terms like mother, father, son, daughter, brother, sister, aunt, uncle, grandfather, grandmother and their various derivatives are grotesque and primitive biological stereotypes.  Assign a task to incoming juniors to develop a list of replacement for these ancient and hurtful terms.  This easily warrants a “field of study” designation, and creation of courses that address the abuses that have existed for most of recorded history.

Extending the concept, what should expecting “parents” tell friends and relatives?

“We’re having a TBD!”

“It’s a male (female) at the moment, but he (she) will decide later what they are (at that moment).

How about the Doctor in the delivery room?  When he holds the baby up by its feet in the classic delivery pose, and examines the plumbing with which it was delivered, among other things, what should be his allowable choice of declarations?  Here’s what we believe on this subject: our conviction is that sex (or gender) is biologically ‘assigned’ at conception, and becomes undeniably apparent at birth, except for an extremely small number of sad cases where a child is delivered with anomalys.  Later excursions on the gender expression axis, which now contains more than 50 identified variants, do not change biological reality.  Gender ‘fluidity’ makes a mockery of biological science as we see it.

Should we finally get rid of those boring blue and pink color stereotypes we’ve all used for centuries as themes for layettes and nurseries?  Gray would be ever so much more sensible, don’t you think?  Or beige?

* Is Bowdoin a College, or Day Care?

Just for fun, read this item, and think hard about it in the context of triggers, micro-aggressions, safe spaces, etc:

“This is not a day care.”  http://www.okwu.edu/blog/2015/11/this-is-not-a-day-care-its-a-university/

* Sexual “Objectification?”

Perhaps feelings that you, as a female (whatever that means to you at the moment!) at Bowdoin, are sexually objectified stems from some terribly obvious behaviors on your part with the willing support of college administrators, including benign indifference.  Such as calling male partners “f_ck boys;” getting up in front of audiences to talk about your vagina; letting it be known that you willingly participate in the hook-up culture; publishing columns in the campus newspaper that discuss pudenda shaving,  prostate stimulation, and other fine points of hooking up; and an administration that litters the campus with bowls of free condoms.

Be honest for just a moment; the entire campus is obsessed with matters of sexuality in all its splendor and variations.  The notion that any element of ‘mystery’ might best be reserved for adult years, when one is more mature and interested in an enduring relationship and a family of one’s own has been tossed by the roadside like so many empty beer cans.

Just look at trending “studies” areas, and the all consuming challenge of determining what one’s gender expression is this month and might be next month, all while flitting from one sexual escapade to the next, leaves little time for other traditional pursuits.  These issues of gender and sexual expression permeate and envelop an ever growing number of classic “liberal arts” subject areas.  In the classroom, out of the classroom – one cannot escape being bombarded with the views of others on these most personal of subjects.  Or at least they used to be.

* One observer’s view:

After 20 years of observation on the campus of Brunswick, we’ve concluded that the majority of residents, and the overwhelming majority in the governing elite and establishment classes, either graduated from Bowdoin, act like they have, or at the very least, wish they had.

             

We’re going to sign off with this from our extensive ‘favorite quote’ archives:

"The most fundamental fact about the ideas of the political left is that they do not work. Therefore we should not be surprised to find the left concentrated in institutions where ideas do not have to work in order to survive." -- Thomas Sowell

Technorati Tags: Anxieties,Bowdoin,Brunswick

Immutable Laws: A Reprise

                

As we reflected on emerging news here in the perfect little town in America, with our peerlessly pulchritudinous purveyors of public policy proposals and prescriptions, we realized that some lessons are important enough that they should be reviewed from time to time.  And so we bring to you this offering of ours from two years ago, both here and on the Maine Wire.

We originally treated the subject on Side with this collection of posts:  http://othersideofbrunswick.blogspot.com/search?q=immutable+laws

Just for grins, we’re going to repeat the original article, in toto, below.  Please read it, reflect on it, and absorb it.  We hope to make it clear why this is relevant in the next day or so.  For now, just think of it as Friday night homework.

===========================================================

June 11, 2013

By Pem Schaeffer — Dr. Thomas Sowell, the prolific scholar and author at the Hoover Institution, sometimes writes columns he calls ‘Random Thoughts.’  He passes along seemingly unconnected thoughts on a variety of subjects, so he can cross them off his ‘to do’ list.

Sowell is brilliant, and to the dismay of many, a black conservative, which makes him persona non grata in most serious discussions about social and political policy. Especially in enlightened places like Maine.  Would that I could spend an internship under his tutelage.

Here’s hoping he won’t take offense at my borrowing of his ‘random’ theme.

Random Observations on Town and School Budgeting:

• Those advocating ever higher spending like to remind us that “you get what you pay for.”  You’re damn straight; if you increase teacher pay, you get higher paid teachers.  Further, if you increase school spending, you get a more expensive school system.

• Accountability is a largely unknown concept, because the average taxpayer thinks this is what Certified Public Accountants study.  And that it rates their competence when they complete their studies.

• Elected officials are the last to acknowledge there is no tooth fairy, and that free lunches have a cost.

• There’s never enough money for ‘public servants’ to be good stewards of what we already own, by keeping existing physical assets in good repair.  But there’s always enough money to tear such assets down and build something new in their place.
  • Imagine if your private structure was crumbling and in danger of being condemned. You’d be seen as irresponsible, unprincipled, and someone who didn’t care about their neighbors.
  • If private property was managed the way public property is, ¾ of downtown Brunswick would have had to be torn down decades ago, especially those properties in the historic district overseen by the Village Review Board.  Half the houses in town would have to be torn down as well…those 40 years old or more.  Including yours, more than likely, if you happen to live in an ‘older’ home in town.
  • Corollary: there’s never enough public interest, let alone a mandate, that officials maintain existing facilities as a first priority, but always great public clamor to support ripping down and replacing existing facilities that were ALLOWED, consciously, to fall into disrepair.
  • In sum, government ‘staff’ is rewarded for letting things fall apart, instead of being penalized or held accountable.

• Town officials, and the vast majority of their constituents, act as if no state or federal revenue sharing or subsidy comes out of local pockets.  Witness the resolution making its way through various town governing bodies regarding state revenue sharing and general purpose aid to education.

• School system professionals are masters learning from masters on how to manipulate local leadership and voters.  Local union leadership learns from highly paid state union leadership, which learns from even higher paid national union leadership.
  • You, the local taxpayer, learns from no-one.  You have no one advocating for you.

• You can fool all of the people some of the time; and you can fool some of the people all of the time.
  • Sadly, you can fool enough of the people most of the time to get them to support shooting themselves in the foot.  Or, if you prefer, most of the people enough of the time.

• All congress critters and elected state officials are sons-a-bitches, except ours, who are OUR sons-a-bitches.

• “What belongs to you, you tend to take care of; what belongs to no one or everyone tends to fall into disrepair.” (Thanks to the Mackinac Center for Public Policy)
  • Which leads to the premise that tearing down buildings that were mis-managed into irrelevance and unusability is an “investment in our future.”
  • In Brunswick, look at the old town hall, the ‘Old High School;’ the Times Record  Building.  Now, watch Jordan Acres School, the Rec Center, the current Town Hall, Coffin Elementary School, and Brunswick Junior High School rise on the platform of the public chopping block.  All for ‘community pride.’  We gave away the beloved Longfellow School, criminally mismanaged care of Jordan Acres School, and now, because we couldn’t figure out how to keep Coffin and BJHS in serviceable condition, we need to replace them “for the children,” with zero repercussions for those responsible.  What’s more, just to prove how benevolent we are, we’re about to give away the Federal St. Rec Building to benefit the School Department.

• You can govern, or you can spend.  The latter is a 10-1 favorite over the former.

• Spending more always trumps courage, commitment, and stewardship.

• “Tough choices” are only tough because officials embrace no immutable, rock solid principles.

• “For the children” has about as much relevance as “for the taxpayer.”
  • It may be ‘for the children,’ but there’s no denying ‘it’s from the taxpayers.’

• “Costs beyond our control” are almost without exception those approved in prior year actions.

• The property tax is the most insidious, predatory form of taxation there is, because it is adjustable rate.
  • It ignores the scarcity of resources that is the fundamental law of economics.
  • Bring six worried mommies and a real estate agent to a municipal government meeting, and you can up the tax rate by 10% without even breathing heavy.
  • If the feds and state did the same thing, we’d all be penniless in a few years.

• Government is the only form of human enterprise that has no competition, never goes out of business, or terminates employees for incompetence.
  • And no human enterprise more needs these influences and consequences for ineptness.

• Government operated public schools have been declining in performance in national and international rankings for years, regardless of spending more and having smaller class size.
  • Thank goodness, in Brunswick we have the one exception.  I’m confident that YOUR town is similarly exempt from this characterization.

• Henry Hazlitt’s ‘economics in one lesson’ reads as follows:
  • ‘The art of economics consists in looking not merely at the immediate but at the longer effects of any act or policy; it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely for one group but for all groups.”
  • Elected officials reject this lesson, along with the law of scarcity, as they rush to spend for the short term and to quiet the squeakiest wheels.

• Mission creep is the order of the day; good intentions are the only justification required.
  • Schools are now soup kitchens, health clinics, social service providers, behavioral interventionists, and babysitters.
  • Town charters are as ignored as State and Federal Constitutions.

• Proactive leadership and guidelines for budget preparation are to be eschewed for theatrical wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth in reaction to budget submissions, especially when it comes to school budgets.
  • This is the ‘leading from behind’ approach embraced elsewhere in our governance.  In this case, ‘leading from behind’ is ‘leading from a corner.’

============================================================

The Maine Wire link is http://www.mainenewssimply.com/content/maine-wire/schaeffer-s-immutable-laws

Technorati Tags: Municipal governance,immutable laws,economics

Where is Jane Millett?????

Oh where, oh where can she be?

Do you remember this column that appeared in The Ostrich in June?  It was written by Jane Millett, and in it the lovely and gracious author made these comments about your humble correspondent:

He speaks out against the schools and their budget, but has been not only absent from town meetings but mysteriously silent as well.

While the Brunswick Town Council negotiates its way from less than 30,000 square feet of combined office space for “town office needs” (police, municipal and recreation offices) to more than 95,000 square feet of space in new or newly acquired office spaces, I have wondered at many of these council meetings, “Where is Pem Schaeffer when it really counts?”

So, I’m wondering where you’ve been, Pem? I’ve been tempted to call you, but figured you just got tired of no reponses (sic) from much of the Town Council, like so many others I’ve heard from.

No, it seems you just want to shortchange the schools, but not the municipal budget. What gives?

We didn’t realize it at the time, but this was Sally’s Jane’s way of beginning her campaign for the Cape Brunswick Town Council, which sends shivers up and down your spine.

Jane wondered where we were ‘when it really counts.’  To which we say, back at you, ma’am! 

             

We recently posted an on-line candidate forum consisting of questions for town council and school board candidates.  And we subsequently added incumbent councilors and school board members to those invited to post their on-line answers.

Going the extra mile, we even emailed the incumbents of both bodies at their official addresses to provide the questions and request their response for publication here.

So far, the response from both incumbents and new candidates has been a resounding

            

So, we’re ‘wondering where you’ve been, Jane,’ to borrow a thought.

You might remember Jane as the one who spoke at budget hearings to insist that the number one reason people move to Cape Brunswick is ‘because of our excellent schools.’  As we’ve pointed out, she never talks about why people move out of Cape Brunswick, to provide those listings and vacancies for her to fill with new residents.

Jane, along with every other addressee for our questions, is a no-show so far.  Maybe we’ll have to schedule an ‘open house’ somewhere in town from 1-3 on a Sunday afternoon to see if we can get her to show up.

For now, though, apparently these questions haven’t spurred her to show up ‘when it counts.’ So to up the ante to attract her attention, we propose these additional questions just for her:

1.  When you drive a prospective buyer around town and tell them about our ‘excellent schools,’ do you take them past Jordan Acres School and tell them how our School Department allowed it to fail structurally, and that it’s now scheduled for the next round of our demolition derby?

                  

2.  Do you drive them by Coffin School and BJHS on Columbia Street so they can see the rotting temporary classrooms, and tell them about the sinking floors, cracking walls, busted toilets and other deferred maintenance that has both heading for the same ash heap as JA?  And with replacement costs that should raise their property taxes by a boat-load?

                      

3.  Do you drive them by that architectural nightmare known as HBS School, and tell them about the Brunswick High School that used to be located there, but was allowed to fall into such shameful disrepair that ‘there was no choice but to build a new one?’

4.  Do you drive them by the former Longfellow School, a long-time, much loved neighborhood elementary school, and tell them how, according to School Department officials, and the always objective architectural consultants, the school was no longer fit for use, and could not be cost-effectively saved?

        

5.  Do you tell them how Bowdoin College, not known for it’s thriftiness, was magically able to restore the school to fit for use status, and at the same time completely rebuild it inside for far different purposes, for the pauper’s sum of $6 million?  Or about 25% of the cost of a new school these days?  As shown in great detail in these two links?

http://www.bowdoin.edu/academics/campus/edwards-center-for-art-and-dance/longfellow-school.shtml

http://bowdoinorient.com/article/7923

6.  Do you tell them that nowhere is the Cape Brunswick School Department’s commitment to excellence for ‘the children’ more obvious than in the stewardship of the buildings we educate them in?  Or in the crowding we brought on by tossing aside two neighborhood schools?

7.  Do you tell them that in the face of these circumstances, our per student costs have virtually doubled in recent years?

We hope, Jane, that you can ‘show up’ when it counts.  You know what Woody Allen says.

And you could help us avoid a less than encouraging ‘turnout’ for our on-line forum so far.

                

Because this is when ‘it really counts,’ Jane.  Or are you determined to add to the customary responsiveness you referred to with these words:

but figured you just got tired of no reponses (sic) from much of the Town Council, like so many others I’ve heard from.

Heck, you haven’t even been elected yet, any you’re already showing expertise at the ‘optics’ of speaking with the council.

It’s up to you, Jane.  You do want potential buyers to think as highly of our council candidates as they do of our schools, don’t you?

                 

Let’s not break any more eggs than we have to; they’re awful messy to wipe up.

(A question for our readers: do any of you know who the Architect was for Jordan Acres School, and what construction firm built it? – Ed.)

Technorati Tags: Cape Brunswick,town council candidates,candidate forum,schools,stewardship

Thoreau: today’s inspiration

                       

 

 

   Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)

 

Maybe you noticed this “quote of the day” from Thoreau in our side bar area, maybe you didn’t:

Most of the luxuries, and many of the so-called comforts of life, are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind.

It’s well known that Thoreau is an inspiration and demi-God to many in our area of the country, including many in our region, state, and town.  It could even be said that he’s a founding father of the environmental/naturalist movement.

So we come to remind you that the very self same Thoreau also voiced this famous truism:

That government is best which governs least.

Many who claim to idolize him and his naturalist tendencies may find this ‘inconvenient.’

Regardless, we don’t believe anyone can say with a straight face and clear conscience that our municipal, state, and particularly federal governments are ‘governing least.’  In fact, the reality is they’re doing exactly the opposite.

Don’t like our view?  Deal with it, because it’s the truth.

Have a nice evening.

Technorati Tags: governing class,thoreau

Weekend Tidbits

Herewith a few ‘curiosities’ to keep your juices flowing and your mind sharp.  Side came across this first one in the Wall Street Journal:

From an 1876 speech by Civil War veteran, orator and Republican Party figure Robert Ingersoll:

I will now give you my ideas about finance. In the first place the Government does not support the people, the people support the Government.

The Government is a perpetual pauper. It passes round the hat, and solicits contributions; but then you must remember that the Government has a musket behind the hat. The Government produces nothing. It does not plow the land, it does not sow corn, it does not grow trees. The Government is a perpetual consumer.

We support the Government. Now, the idea that the Government can make money for you and me to live on—why, it is the same as though my hired man should issue certificates of my indebtedness to him for me to live on.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323482504578226122035177756.html

This next one we saw posted on an on-line bulletin board we frequent, under the title “A Lesson In Irony.”

The Food Stamp Program, administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is proud to be distributing this year the greatest amount of free Meals and Food Stamps ever, to 46 million people.

Meanwhile, the National Park Service, administered by the U.S. Department of the Interior, asks us

"Please Do Not Feed the Animals."

Their stated reason for the policy is because "The animals will grow dependent on handouts and will not learn to take care of
themselves."

Thus ends today's lesson in irony.

That’s for sure!

Technorati Tags: irony,federal government

A quote for our times….

I came across this today; I believe it stems from a classic text of many years ago:

"When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that justifies it."

-Frederic Bastiat

As I often do, I suggest you read it slowly, and more than once, to let the words sink in as they relate to present times.

Pogo has this quote filed under '”us.”

Thoughts for the day….

An easy out, to give you something to think on.

As scarce as truth is, the supply always seems to exceed the demand.

 

Winston Churchill complained, "Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened."

Technorati Tags: truth,quotes,Churchill

Baldacci a bit “windy” on wind power….and “location”

You may have seen issues of “The Maine Democrat” distributed around town in recent years.  It’s now known as “Maine Insights.”

It’s an unabashedly partisan publication that usually averages one picture of Governor Baldacci per page.   If I was a lawyer, I’d muse on how it avoids being considered a campaign tool for Democrat officials as a group; but I’m not.

The periodical is published, written, and photographed by Ramona du Houx, whom I believe to be the mother of our own local state representative, Alex Cornell du Houx.

I usually pick up a copy and scan it to see what’s going on.  This month’s issue features an “exclusive interview” by Ms. du Houx with our governor, focusing on the alternative energy sector.

In it, this comment by the governor is cited:

“Key to it all is location. A company building a wind farm in New England doesn’t want to ship them from Iowa. Maine is the most North Easterly state in the United States. Everyone coming from overseas lands in Maine first. It’s all about location, location, location.

I could express astonishment; first, that the governor would say such a thing, and second, that the publisher/author would report it as such.

But what’s the use?  We’ll just have to assume they know a lot more about this than we do, just like on most other things the government gets involved in.

There’s got to be some great opportunities here for somebody….hot dog carts, souvenirs, you name it.  Perhaps even a latter day “Ellis Island,” figuratively if not literally.

Technorati Tags: Baldacci,Maine

Lake Basebegone Press Wars: The truth is out

Well, the quiet days are over for awhile in Lake Basebegone, where all the politicians are apolitical and all the celebrity attorneys are just wronged benefactors of country folk who don’t know no better.

Before updating you, a postscript to today’s earlier post.  I have my own concerns about Maine’s and Brunswick’s business friendliness, but that’s for another time.  Let’s be very clear and very blunt: given the facts on the public record, facts that no relevant party has challenged, anyone who uses the skepticism and remarks about Oxford to assert Brunswick’s business hostility is lost on the lunacy axis, and will soon hit the guard rails on the highway of economic development.  Note to those involved: cut the victim crap.

Lake Basebegone and “Quote of the Day'”

I was just glancing at the quote of the day on the Blog, which reads thus:

Affairs are easier of entrance than of exit; and it is but common prudence to see our way out before we venture in.

Aesop (620 BC-560 BC)

It seems a perfect reminder for Brunswick’s town council as they find themselves having to decide on whether F. Lee Bailey’s Oxford Aviation should be the beneficiary of taxpayer funds.

The quote reminds us it’s always easier to get into a situation than it is to get out of it.  And that before we get in, we should have a plan/understanding of how to get out.

My guess is there’s no way out of a CDBG once it’s been approved.  And with F. Lee Bailey at the helm, there’s no desirable way out of an “affair” with Oxford Aviation.

This is government at work, after-all, and how many disasters have you ever seen them back out of?  Getting out is never the choice when more spending is an option, is it?

Technorati Tags: MRRA,BNAS,Brunswick,Maine,Oxford Aviation,F. Lee Bailey

Central Planning and Health Care "Reform"

The current rush to nationalize heath care is lubricated with the rhetoric of "basic human rights" and other attempts to use moral superiority as a way to stifle the opposition.  But such simplistic appeals to "fairness" and "social justice" completely miss the larger issue, and distract from the larger issue at hand, which is the fundamental founding concept of individual liberty under limited government vs. centralized planning of individual lives under unlimited government.

(This is an excerpt from the post; to read the rest of it, click on the 'read more' link just below.)

Test Time; Oil : Water as Politics : ????

A few weeks back, I wrote on Scott Ruppert's (also known as Basicman) great op-ed column, and also his "Whatever Happened to Truth" blog post. The link to the Basicman Blog is over on the right under "Sites I follow."

After completing my post, I realized it was a perfect chance to weave in a musical interlude, and I had missed it. So here it is now:

MATRON(Spoken)
The whole world's gone low-brow. Thing's ain't what
they used to be.

VELMA(Spoken)
They sure ain't, Mama. They sure ain't it's all gone.

(Singing)
Whatever happened to fair dealing?
And pure ethics
And nice manners?
Why is it everyone now is a pain in the ass?
Whatever happened to class?

MATRON
Class.
Whatever happened to, "Please, may I?"
And, "Yes, thank you?"
And, "How charming?"
Now, every son of a bitch is a snake in the grass
Whatever happened to class?

Those who follow musical theater will recognize this is from Chicago, one of our great favorites. (It's playing again at MSMT next summer, so if you haven't seen it before, or want to see it again, you better get in line early for tickets.)

Today I happened to notice the Quote of the Day on the right side of the page is:

Politics have no relation to morals.

Niccolo Machiavelli

Spot on, many would say. Especially after watching a Senator from Louisiana sell her vote on the health care debate recently for $300 million in taxpayer money. Or hearing a Congressman from Pennsylvania say that pork coming his way may look like graft or corruption, but if it supports his people, he supports the corruption.

One wonders what sort of "leverage" Maine's two Senators will use as the health care debate proceeds; it should be interesting to watch the bidding.

Which all ties in with an Imprimus column that came my way in September.

In it, Walter Williams discusses "Future Prospects for Economic Liberty." When I read it, I circled this passage:

Some will respond that big government is what the majority of voters want, and that in a democracy the majority rules. But America’s Founders didn’t found a democracy, they founded a republic. The authors of The Federalist Papers, arguing for ratification of the Constitution, showed how pure democracy has led historically to tyranny. Instead, they set up a limited government, with checks and balances, to help ensure that the reason of the people, rather than the selfish passions of a majority, would hold sway. Unaware of the distinction between a democracy and a republic, many today believe that a majority consensus establishes morality. Nothing could be further from the truth.

In other words, morality is whatever the times and the people decide it is. Just think for a moment how dangerous that concept is, and I would offer up WW II and Nazi Germany as just one example of such danger.

But this also speaks to the larger point of modern politics not being grounded in any established morality, other than the self-interests of those who govern and what it takes to keep them in power.

Williams adds:

Another common argument is that we need big government to protect the little guy from corporate giants. But a corporation can’t pick a consumer’s pocket. The consumer must voluntarily pay money for the corporation’s product. It is big government, not corporations, that have the power to take our money by force. I should also point out that private business can force us to pay them by employing government. To see this happening, just look at the automobile industry or at most corporate farmers today. If General Motors or a corporate farm is having trouble, they can ask me for help, and I may or may not choose to help. But if they ask government to help and an IRS agent shows up at my door demanding money, I have no choice but to hand it over. It is big government that the little guy needs protection against, not big business. And the only protection available is in the Constitution and the ballot box.

Sadly, we have virtually no protection left against big government; the Constitution is dismissed as so much inconvenient baggage ("negative rights"), and the permanent ruling class renders the ballot box far less effective than it should be. Incumbency is simply too easy to purchase, the Constitution be damned.

Recently I was reading a book review in The Weekly Standard entitled "Cool Gone Cold."

I found these two lines regarding "perspectival thinking" to be memorable, and relevant to this discussion:

Loosely, this means regarding reality as lying mainly in the eye of the beholder rather than being fixed, immutable, and objectively given.

The idea that reality is whatever it is perceived to be, rather than something with independent existence, is likely to be with us as long as our culture survives.

There is obviously broad support for moral relativism and its many byproducts in this day and age. And especially despised in our big government age is any notion of constraining Government with a Constitution. Why how do you expect our benevolent "public servants" to save us from ourselves if we put chains on them?

How quaint a concept, I suppose.

But ask yourself this if you don't think there is a need for absolutes within the framework of our lives. Suppose your bank, and your employer, and your investment company all decided that instead of the absolutism of the mathematics we learned as children and came to hold dear, that their math "realities" lay mainly in the eye of the beholder rather than being fixed, immutable, and objectively given.

In other words, your bank, your employer, and your investment firm would come up with results for you that bear no relationship to what you think they should be, because they could each invent their own math rules to suit their purposes.

That might sound a little hair-brained, but it's not too different than what the federal government does as it reinvents the laws of finance and economics to make the answers come out the way it wants, rather than the way "arcane absolutes" would make them come out.

And feels free to reinvent them further, whenever the need arises.

Anything for the greater good, right?

Lincoln's Wisdom - Updated

"You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time."

- Abraham Lincoln

"You can't fool all of the people all of the time, but you can fool enough of the people most of the time."

- P. C. Poppycock

How the Government Saves Us Money

Just a quote from my working years:

"The Government always wants to save money, and they'll spend whatever it takes to do it."

- authors unknown

Timely quotes

Andrew Ferguson, in an article about Uncle Sam forgiving student loans:

"In common discourse, public service is already an elastic term, used mostly as a form of self-flattery..."

Leszek Kolakowski, Polish Philosopher, 1995:

"Capitalism developed spontaneously and organically from the spread of commerce. Nobody planned it, and it did not need an all-embracing ideology, whereas socialism was an ideological construction. Ultimately, capitalism is human nature at work--that is, man's greed allowed to follow its course--whereas socialism is an attempt to institutionalize and enforce fraternity. It seems obvious by now that a society in which greed is the main motivation of human action, for all of its repugnant and deplorable aspects, is incomparably better than a society based on compulsory brotherhood, whether in national or international socialism."

In a humorous reflection on social theory, Kolakowski also said:

"Those who hate gardening need a theory. Not to garden without a theory is a shallow, unworthy way of life."

Street Wisdom

"Justice" and future opportunity

Pursuant to other writings on our economic outlook, this quote from the Cato Institute's Will Wilkinson is insightful.

There is no justice, and great harm, in diminishing the whole array of future opportunity to save a few people now from a regrettable fate.

I encountered it in Mark Levin's book.