Fourth of July Thoughts

First, Happy Fourth of July to all!

Lance Burri at TrogloPundits notes some pomposity (and I join in). While it is important to understand the underpinnings of our liberty here is what one of those at the founding of our nation had to say about the Fourth of July:

I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.

Source: Assorted Quotes and Notes in Honor of Our Nation’s Independence Day

Then Jonah Goldberg notes this pomposity:
Joe Ellis states:

Why, then, did July 4 become the preferred date for our annual celebration? Well, although nothing momentous occurred on that day, it was the day when the American public first learned about the Declaration. Copies began to appear in newspapers and go up on tavern walls, although in fact it took several weeks for the news to reach all precincts up and down the coast. The deeper truth is that the declaring of American independence was a drawn-out process without a clear-cut crescendo moment. July 4 was an arbitrary choice, but the new nation needed a birthday, and it made as much historical sense as several other alternatives.

Source: The Daily Beast (Joseph Ellis) — Why the Fourth Is a Fraud Even by Joe's admission July 4 is "...the day when the American public first leaned about the Declaration." and do not forget, the British Colonialists too. In addition looking at the document, we see: (Adopted by Congress on July 4, 1776).

If the founders wrote and signed the document on June 28 or whenever and never released the document it would not have been monumental. If Joe is arguing that we should all take holiday from June 28 through July 21 then I guess I am okay, but if we did just that, then Joe would argue the Declaration is not worth celebrating.

Joe, you are overthinking it and while you may impress others most people will never ever hear of you. They'll be around their grills with their family and friends, taking in parades, watching fireworks, having cold ones. Relax & chill would you?

Cap & Tax

One thought just hit me. I am hearing reports of studies that conclude this cap & trade bill currently being debated on in the House of Representatives will drive energy prices anywhere from 50%-88% over their natural levels.

Now, I hope those numbers will discourage the passage of this bill right now.

What do you think when that comes to pass the government will be blamed for the price increases? Does government taxation & regulation ever take the blame for increases in price?

The HWY 23 Job Loss Corridor - Stillwater & Fond du Lac

Just some background information on Mercury Marine.

Mercury Marine's Stillwater plant is responsible for production of its IO engines (Mercruiser) and the Fond du Lac plant is geared towards outboard engines and its parts and accessories business.

In addition, Mercury Marine is a division on the Brunswick Corporation headquartered in Lake Forest IL. Here is the Wiki entry on Mercury Marine.

Two interesting stories. The founder (Carl Kiekhaefer) of Mercury Marine is legend in his drive and his work ethic (or worhaholism if you will) it is reported he fired engineers unwilling to entertain discussions at odd hours (e.g. in the middle of the night) and a story where a guy was sitting around a loading dock doing nothing. The founder stormed up to him and asked his salary and the founder pulled out a wad of bills and gave the loafer two weeks of salary and told him to get off the premises. Turns out the loafer was a delivery guy from a vendor waiting around for his delivery to be offloaded.

One story that is very interesting is how Mercury Marine engines came to be black. They used to be green and the larger engines were a straight six design and the story notes the large size of the engine gave rise to many nicknames a favorable one being "tower of power". One engineer was talking to his mother about the problem and their need to downsize the engines without a sacrifice in performance. The engineer's mother then noted when a woman wants to appear smaller she wears black. The engineer took this thought back to the shop and they performed experiments that showed the perceived size of the engine was about 20% less in black than green.

The HWY 23 Job Loss Corridor - Responding to Dad29

Dad29 says:

But distribution counts. Wisconsin is located in a part of the country which is very cold in the winter; people do not use powerboats on frozen lakes. The South doesn't have that problem, AND the South actually has lakes. A lot of them. And fishermen, too. (We could also postulate that "taxing the rich", a Wisconsin "solution" has an effect on boat-and-motor purchasing.)

Source: Dad29 — Merc Outta Here? I don't know if Dad29 is being serious with this point, perhaps some sarcasm I am missing?

If Mercury Marine engines were only sold and distributed to local dealers — meaning WI, IL, MI, and perhaps MN then I would agree. However, Mercury Marine engines are sold worldwide meaning the winter season is going to affect Mercury Marine sales regardless of their actual location. A major portion of Mercury Marine's market is frozen every year and a move to Oklahoma will not change that.

The only consideration Mercury Marine must give to being located in the Frozen North is their ability to test their products during the winter and their test location is located in Florida not in Oklahoma.

Update:
At his blog Dad29 reiterates the word distribution. He says that he is talking about the cost to ship parts and accessories, which he believes (with good reason) down south still sell during the winter. While he does have a point I don't believe (no solid figures to back me up on this point, just a gut instinct) that to be a large or even a mid-sized factor. We are seeing WI not only strike out at luring new job centers to WI but are losing ones already here, this is not the first time.

The HWY 23 Job Loss Corridor - Reactions

Not what one would think.

1. Owen at Boots and Sabers thinks:...Governor Doyle will dispatch an intern from Commerce to explain the benefits of a regional cap and tax system to them.


2. The Liberty Tree Lantern views this as yet another reason why Wisconsin Can't Wait for the election to get rid of Governor Doyle.


3. The Mayor's Page notes the story and sets off a comment discussion on the impact of Fond du Lac losing 1,900 some jobs.


4. Dad29 weighs in: mulling over other factors that may be in play.


5. Northshore Exponent pretty much says Doylediddit

Now, surprisingly enough that is about the sum total of the blog reaction to the MJS story and radio reports on the possibility of Mercury Marine consolidating in Oklahoma.

The Appleton Post Crescent presents a few notable facts. First, everyone in a position to know anything is not disclosing information, a lot of the standard comments saying things like "I have no comment on anything that may or may not be discussed", which essentially says (especially in light of the rumors) yeah we are talking about it.

Unlike the Thomas Products Case the state of unionization at both plants is being reported. The Post Crescent in the above story reports the Stillwater plant is not unionized and I know for a fact that there is a union at the Fond du Lac location and that union is the International Association of Machinists. In the Thomas Products case I had to talk to a friend involved with negotiations to save the jobs to find out there was unionization on both ends of the transfer (making the union factor equal in both locations).

I really fear for those jobs and if you think the job loss stops at 1,900 direct Mercury Marine employees you are mistaken.

I will be following this case closely.

Record Sales

I remember back in the mid 90s after Jerry Garcia died, I went to a local music store and could not find a Grateful Dead record in the shop. I bet the same thing is going on with Michael Jackson records around the world.

I was never a big fan of his but this is sad, if for no other reason, an icon from my younger days is gone. RIP Michael Jackson.

The HWY 23 Job Loss Corridor - Mercury Marine

Somewhat fresh off of the Thomas Products announcement in Sheboygan we are now starting to hear that Mercury Marine based in Fond du Lac may consolidate operations in Stillwater Oklahoma. That my friends, is one huge loss of jobs for Fond du Lac. I am guessing a number of people will transfer down but many will not and instead look for a new gig in Fond du Lac or the area.

A source I have reports they are uncertain if this will affect all of Mercury Marine but he notes the Oklahoma people believe this to be the case.

So, Wisconsin is once again bidding to save jobs this is starting to be a regular occurrence. Geeze, wonder why that could be?

The Onion once ran an article talking about how a vast tract of land was discovered between the East & West coasts of America. In the article they noted the places have names that seem to mean "summer vacation places", is that what Wisconsin is to become? Seems so.

Misrepresentation No Matter How You Say It

The other day I reported on Whallah abusing one of my posts. I referred to it as being taken out of context. Capper responds (in the comments) by saying it is paraphrasing but claiming being taken out of context is better for the martyr card. Whatever, because no matter if it was being paraphrased incorrectly or taken out of context (that is what I claim it is) Whallah misrepresents my post.

The gist of what Whallah was saying was that I was blaming the WI left for the outing of the relationship. I did no such thing. If they want to accuse me of blaming them for driving Jessica from the WI blogosphere I'll gladly accept that blame as it was the point.

Going Green — Iran and The Future

One of the talking point a lot of people are using to dismiss the events in Iran is that Mousavi is not all that different from Ahmednijihad, a view I hold at least in general. The implication being it is not worth supporting the Iranian Greens because the new boss will be the same as the old boss.

The position being contested is one that works within a framework of the mullahs who are the real power in Iran, they hold a veto over what the president does. I think it fair to move from that point to believing that Mousavi was a 100% approved candidate that his views on most affairs were not significantly different from the other candidates, Ahmednijihad included. However, it is quite obvious there is some terrible difference that at least the likes of Ayatollah Khameni can not tolerate.

Now, what would be my guess of Iran's future if the Green movement succeeds? I don't expect a full fledged Jeffersonian liberal democracy or republic to emerge. I expect a nation more liberal than its current self but it will be a very very long time before trendy cafes in Isfahan will be hosting showings of Eve Ensler's famous work. I suspect too, a nation more willing to give up some of its nasty habits (e.g. assasinations, supporting the likes of Hezbolalalah and Hamas) and perhaps a nation we would be okay with exploring nuclear energy. Remember, it isn't the weapon, but the finger on the trigger.

Now, as I said above, I agree Mousavi is probably not very dissimilar from Ahmednijihad, so why do I still support the Iranian Green movement? Because it weakens the mullah's grip on power on Iran, even if this movement fails it has both weakened the mullahs and unmasked them for what they are. If it succeeds it is hard to say what will happen to Mousavi if he will continue to ride the wave he is on or if other forces will displace him.

I do not fear Iran lurching in a less liberal direction on account of the Mullahs, but I do fear Iran lurching leftwards one site I was reading talked about the Marxists organizing labor strikes and they could very well be riding that wave at the end of the storm.

Is Blogger Beer Breaking Out?

I see I have been taken out of context by one of the bigger WI Lefty blogs Whallah: Blogger Beer alternates between it's just people being human and it's all the lefties' fault. Does this mean I am finally coming of age in the Wisconsin blogosphere?

Here is what I said. My comments put into proper context state it is the fault of the lefties that Jessica quit blogging. Nowhere do I assign partisan blame to anyone over the affair, that blame lay solely with the participants in the affair. I also note the left is most likely full of mirth & glee something commonly referred to as schadenfreude — an all too human (and regrettable) trait.

Infidelity In the News

Two prominent people in Wisconsin have been outed as having affairs with each other.

One was a conservative blogger and she has been the subject of commentary here at Blogger Beer. In addition, I have commented on marital infidelity too. I'll not name names, I am sure a quick google can turn that information up for you here, I am not writing to expose them anymore than what has been done already.

I have tenuous contacts with the woman in this case and in the past she used to blog but stopped doing so due to the misogynistic venom the lefty Cheddarshpere spewed at her. I am sure, those same lefties are full of glee and mirth today to see this happen.

In my previous comments on the marital infidelity of Eliot Spitzer I noted it we should not be cynical or harsh on Eliot's wife because marriage is as much about forgiveness and assisting our spouse as it is about being faithful.

One should never be gleeful in the downfall of another, as downfall is an all too common occurrence for humans. I offer prayers of support and encouragement to both parties in this case that they may find healing and forgiveness.

It is not about hypocrisy or any other such thing (finding hypocrisy is as easy as finding speeders at a NASCAR race) it is just a reminder we are all fallen and morally crippled.

Twittercus - The Signal to Noise Ratio

Is very very low. I suppose that is sorta the intent is to pump out a lot of noise so as to make it hard for Iranian thugs to discern who is an Iranian they can go after and who is out of bounds.

I am seeing a number of messages that are verbatim 100x over. I would encourage new recruits to the Twittercus army to lurk and read for a bit, this will help you learn the reliable sources and the messages that do not need incessant repetition.

Twittercus - GUIDELINES ON TWITTERING FOR IRAN

The purpose of this guide is to help you participate constructively in the Iranian election protests through Twitter.

1. Do NOT publicise proxy IP's over twitter, and especially not using the #iranelection hashtag. Security forces are monitoring this hashtag, and the moment they identify a proxy IP they will block it in Iran. If you are creating new proxies for the Iranian bloggers, DM them to @stopAhmadi or @iran09 and they will distributed them discretely to bloggers in Iran.

2. Hashtags, the only two legitimate hashtags being used by bloggers in Iran are #iranelection and #gr88, other hashtag ideas run the risk of diluting the conversation.

3. Keep you bull$hit filter up! Security forces are now setting up twitter accounts to spread disinformation by posing as Iranian protesters. Please don't retweet impetuosly, try to confirm information with reliable sources before retweeting. The legitimate sources are not hard to find and follow.

4. Help cover the bloggers: change your twitter settings so that your location is TEHRAN and your time zone is GMT +3.30. Security forces are hunting for bloggers using location and timezone searches. If we all become 'Iranians' it becomes much harder to find them.

5. Don't blow their cover! If you discover a genuine source, please don't publicise their name or location on a website. These bloggers are in REAL danger. Spread the word discretely through your own networks but don't signpost them to the security forces. People are dying there, for real, please keep that in mind...