Spring City Chronicle is back

Huckleberry Dumbell is posting again semi-regularly (remind you of anyone?) at Spring City Chronicle.

Now that it’s public…

Does this mean I’m now part of the Main Stream Media?

Dean Mundy, 57, served as a missionary for 21 years in Papua New Guinea and now lives in Waukesha. His favorite topics are those that people always argue about: politics, religion and sports. He considers himself a conservative and is an evangelical Christian who differs from the religious right on many issues. He was one of the original community columnists.

via Our new community columnists – JSOnline.

Waukesha mayoral candidates part 1

This is the first of probably several posts on the spring primary coming up February 16.

First the candidates in alphabetical order (Links on names point to candidate websites, any info about candidates are from this Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article unless a separate link is displayed).

Bill Beglinger, a police officer for 28 years, is running and had an editorial in the Waukesha Freeman (who has invited all five candidates to submit one although only Beglinger and Scrima have thus far done so) explaining why he thinks taxes can be lower with examples. He also notes a listening session he will hold from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Feb. 4 at Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church.

Darryl Enriquez wrote for many years about Waukesha for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He also continued this at his website Waukesha News Online, which is on hiatus while he runs for mayor.

Larry Nelson is the incumbent, having been elected 4 years ago after former mayor Carol Lombardi retired. Some were surprised that Nelson, a Democrat, was elected in a Republican stronghold. They should take a walk downtown sometime. Besides that local elections are less about party ideology and more about local issues. Though I may disagree with his Democratic leanings, in his four years as mayor, there is little to complain about. Most of what he tried to accomplish was overwhelmingly approved by the Common Council.

Randy Radish has been a council member for several years, representing the downtown area. He probably has the most experience with city government.

Jeff Scrima is a developer who is the only candidate who thinks the mayoral position should be part time. He cited high property taxes as a reason for running. He used his editorial to advocate caution on hooking up to Milwaukee water until the situation has been studied further.

Most of these gentlemen are long time residents of the city and have served the city in various capacities.

The Freeman is also eliciting responses from the candidates on different issues and publishing them each Saturday. Last Saturday was on homelessness and this week’s was whether the mayor should be a full time job.

There was also an article in the Freeman about how the candidates stayed informed on city issues.

That will start for an overview. Future posts will delve into particulars.

Scott Brown defeats Martha Coakley in Massachusetts

By now, I expect everyone has heard that Scott Brown (R) defeated Martha Coakley (D) for Ted Kennedy’s old seat.

We’ve also heard, ad nauseum, about what this means for President Obama, the Democratic Party, the Republican Party, health care reform, the 2010 elections, the 2012 presidential elections, well, you get the point.

Cable news, blogs and others need to fill space and this fits the bill.

Was there one main reason Brown won? I doubt it. And let’s not overreact to any one reason or consequence of the Republican victory. There were many.

The truth is, no matter what you’ve heard, they all probably are right in some sense about the meaning of Brown’s victory.

You’ve heard them and I won’t bore you by repeating them.

Republicans still have work to do. Democrats have work to do. Obama has work to do. The voters are angry and they will take out their anger at whomever they perceive is connected to the root of their anger.

Robertson, Rush, Danny Glover and the National Alliance for Liberty and Freedom

What do these four have in common? They said some things about Haiti that brought derision and rightly so. [Ed. note - any bolding below is my own]

First Pat Robertson,

Pat Robertson, the evangelical Christian who once suggested God was punishing Americans with Hurricane Katrina, says a “pact to the devil” brought on the devastating earthquake in Haiti.

…

The Haitians “were under the heel of the French. You know, Napoleon III and whatever,” Robertson said on his broadcast Wednesday. “And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, ‘We will serve you if you will get us free from the French.’ True story. And so, the devil said, ‘OK, it’s a deal.’ “

Besides being mean and hurtful, it shows Robertson’s lack of Biblical knowledge. Any one who has even a cursory knowledge of Scripture knows that sometimes good things happen to bad people and bad things happen to good people.

There’s another problem. It may not be true.

Part of the revolution mythology is that one of the revolution leaders sacrificed a pig in Bois Caïmin in a voodoo ceremony and made a contract with Petwo [Haitian voodoo spirits]. It may or may not be true, but to call that a pact with the devil is a gross misrepresentation of what voodoo is. It’s about anything but the devil. He’s imposing an evangelical religious order on a much more sophisticated practice, and he’s turning it into a cheap invocation of Satanism.

Some evangelicals, especially the charismatics, of which Robertson is one, would contend that these types of ceremonies are a pact with Satan.

Robertson’s spokeman denied that Robertson claimed God was punishing Haiti,

Dr. Robertson never stated that the earthquake was God’s wrath. If you watch the entire video segment, Dr. Robertson’s compassion for the people of Haiti is clear. He called for prayer for them. His humanitarian arm has been working to help thousands of people in Haiti over the last year, and they are currently launching a major relief and recovery effort to help the victims of this disaster. They have sent a shipment of millions of dollars worth of medications that is now in Haiti, and their disaster team leaders are expected to arrive tomorrow and begin operations to ease the suffering.

The only versions of the statement I saw was on YouTube which is blocked on my network so you’ll have to make your own decision.

Here’s my point: If Harry Reid can be forgiven an insensitive remark because of his years of action, why can’t Robertson’s insensitive remarks be forgiven for the same reason?

On to Rush:

Rush Limbaugh is not backing down from his claim that President Barack Obama is trying to score political points off the earthquake in Haiti.

Challenged by a caller during his show Thursday, Limbaugh said: “If I said it, I meant to say it, and I do believe that everything is political to this president.”

“Everything this president sees is a political opportunity, including Haiti, and he will use it to burnish his credentials with minorities in this country and around the world, and to accuse Republicans of having no compassion,” Limbaugh said in comments flagged by the liberal blog Think Progress. [links were already in the article linked to]

I take Rush with a grain of salt whenever I get the rare chance of listening to him. He says outlandish things. He says them to gain listeners. Listeners bring him money. If people don’t know that by now….

And the fact that a politician would do something for political gain is shocking! Shocking I tell you.

I think it was the wrong time to say it, but Rush really doesn’t care what I think.

Danny Glover, in contrast with Robertson, believes the earthquake was caused by global warming.

“What happened in Haiti could happen to anywhere in the Caribbean because all these island nations are in peril because of global warming,” Glover said. “When we see what we did at the climate summit in Copenhagen, this is the response, this is what happens, you know what I’m sayin’?”

Um, no, Mr. Glover, we don’t.

Finally, there is a petition circulating online, purportedly by “National Alliance for Liberty and Freedom, a coalition of national libertarian, tea party, objectivist, and Ayn Rand groups and written by Glenn Adamson (glennadamson78@yahoo.com)”. This petition wanted no public funds to go to help Haiti earthquake victims.

Who is this organization? A Google search only brought me back to the petition and some interesting tweets,

First – @owillis that petition looks fake … who is Glenn Adamson and the “national alliance for liberty and freedom”?

Second –  @velvethammer [commetator Alan?] Colmes is blaming Freedom Works for a petition that clearly says it was written by “National Alliance for Liberty and Freedom”

Last – Hey [MSNBC's Rachel] @maddow does The National Alliance for Liberty and Freedom exist? regarding Haiti petition by “Glenn Adamson” can’t find them on web.

Who is Glenn Adamson? An email to the address on the petition has brought no response thus far. Another Google search only gave me hits for an arts writer, or posts about this petition

So I regard this petition as fake until someone can give me some information on the organization and the author.

There.

Bureaucrats gone wild 2

Science project prompts SD school evacuation (H/T Instapundit via BoingBoing)

Students were evacuated from Millennial Tech Magnet Middle School in the Chollas View neighborhood Friday afternoon after an 11-year-old student brought a personal science project that he had been making at home to school, authorities said.

Maurice Luque, spokesman for the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department, said the student had been making the device in his home garage. A vice principal saw the student showing it to other students at school about 11:40 a.m. Friday and was concerned that it might be harmful, and San Diego police were notified.

…

The student will not be prosecuted, but authorities were recommending that he and his parents get counseling, the spokesman said. The student violated school policies, but there was no criminal intent, Luque said.

So what kind of science projects should be done now?