THE RIFLE
By Dave Svetlik
(reprinted from January 27, 2015 MW issue)
Born in the late 40’s, I grew up in a family of hunters. Fair shots most of them, I remember standing next to my father when a spooked buck crossed our path at a dead run. Dad shot twice, hit twice, and the buck went down. It was near Hatfield, in central Wisconsin.
Dad’s rifle was an old, iron sight, pump action, 30 Remington. It has killed (we kill deer – corn and oats are harvested) a few deer since my father died in ‘94. My sons have used the rifle. It was never a popular caliber and bullets ...
LOOK BEFORE YOU LEAP: KNOW THE EFFECTS OF SELF-INSURANCE BEFORE ADOPTING
The Walker Administration is racing to complete final work on adopting a self-insurance program for the 2017-2019 biennial budget. The lure is more than $42 million in potential annual savings promised by Segal Consulting, the consultant to the Group Insurance Board (GIB). While there is nothing wrong with looking at ways to save money, there is something wrong when doing it to the exclusion of considering the adverse effects of such a change.
The health insurance marketplace is extremely complex and inter-connected: pull it here and something moves over there. To ...
GET BIG MONEY OUT OF POLITICS
By Wisconsin United to Amend
Eighteen Wisconsin communities voted with overwhelming majorities on Tuesday, November 8th, Wisconsin to amend the U.S. Constitution to clarify that only human beings should have inalienable human rights and money is not the same thing as free speech.
All referenda passed with overwhelming majorities: Rock County (86%), Reedsburg (86%), Manitowoc (81%), Delafield (79%), Neshkoro (88%), New Glarus (88%), Spring Valley (91%), Osceola (86%), Mt. Horeb (84%), Monticello (86%), Clayton (86%) and the towns of New Glarus (83%), Harris (65%), ...
WEALTH AND MONEY PART XXIII: PIE IN THE SKY??
“Powerful enemies must be out-fought and out-produced. It is not enough to turn out just a few more planes, a few more tanks, a few more guns, a few more ships than can be turned out by our enemies. We must out-produce them overwhelmingly, so that there can be no question of our ability to provide a crushing superiority of equipment in any theatre of the world war.”
- - President Franklin D. Roosevelt speaking to Congress and the nation after Pearl Harbor.
The United States Army ranked thirty-ninth in the world in 1939. It had a cavalry of fifty thousand ...
QUOTATIONS
“Beneath the shouting, there is suffering.
Beneath the anger, there is fear.
Beneath the threats, there are broken hearts.
Start there and we may get somewhere.”
By Parker Palmer
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“Ring the bells that still can ring. Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack in everything. That is how the light gets in.”
By Leonard Cohen
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Gwen Ifill was a journalist who worked “to bring light rather than heat to the issues.”
The Week, November 18, 2016
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...
WEALTH AND MONEY PART XXII: THE CONSTITUTION OF THE PEOPLE OF PLANET EARTH
Preamble
We the People of Planet Earth, in Order to form a more perfect World Unity, establish Universal Justice, insure Global Tranquility, provide for the peaceful common defense, promote the general and Universal Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty and ongoing Operational Planetary Integrity to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for Spaceship Planet Earth.
Article I
Hereafter and henceforth, the ongoing operational integrity of Planet Earth shall be central to all human decisions and actions. We have but one Spaces...
WANT NATIONAL SECURITY? DISMANTLE THE FOREVER WAR MACHINE
(printed by permission from Yes! Magazine (9/21/16)
The recent 15th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade towers was a reminder of the terrible consequences when a nation ignores the lessons of history—including its own recent history. The U.S. military budget is a tragic example.
We currently spend roughly $598 billion on defense, which is more than the next seven biggest military spenders combined: China, Saudi Arabia, Russia, the United Kingdom, India, France, and Japan. This represents 54 percent of federal discretionary ...
WHAT EXACTLY IS THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE?
My Australian relatives have asked me to define the Electoral College. They are trying to figure out how the USA democracy works. Why doesn’t the popular vote count directly for the president? This is what I told them.
The Electoral College is made up of 538 electors who votes for the USA President and Vice-President. Voters on November 8 actually choose their state’s electors. The candidates receiving the majority of electoral votes (270) wins the Presidency. The number 538 is the total of the USA 435 Representatives, 100 Senators and 3 electors for the District of ...
LIFE AFTER THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN
You have survived the election process. Regardless of who gets elected, progressives have their work cut out for them.
Big Money still has too much power in US politics. The work to bring about clean, transparent government needs to continue. We need to protect each person’s equal voice.
Wisconsin Democracy Campaign headquartered in Madison is working for full disclosure of the donors who fund phony issue ad groups. Montana already has a law that requires such disclosure. Republicans and Democrats in Montana joined together to create the Bipartisan Montana Disclo...
RENEWABLE ENERGY
Greensburg, Kansas is the second U.S. city to go 100 percent renewable after Burlington, Vermont. In May 2007, an EF-5 tornado leveled the small town. Half of the town’s population of 1500 people left town and never returned.
But out of the rubble came an actual model for renewable energy and sustainable development. The city rebuilt every building to LEED-platinum standards and converted every street light to LEDs, the first in the nation to do both.
The city has curbside recycling and saves water with low flow fixtures. It collects rainwater for irrigation and ...
