DOES THAT "IN THE ORIGINAL GERMAN" QUIP APPLY? I'm extending the late Molly Ivins's description of Patrick Buchanan's keynote speech to the 1992 Republican Convention to one of the more notorious Frankfurt School ideas to catch on in the academy.

In City Journal, John Leo (via Milt Rosenberg) visits, once again, some of the same atrocities of the Perpetually Aggrieved.

Much campus censorship rests on philosophical underpinnings that go back to social theorist Herbert Marcuse, a hero to sixties radicals. Marcuse argued that traditional tolerance is repressive—it wards off reform by making the status quo . . . well, tolerable. Marcuse favored intolerance of established and conservative views, with tolerance offered only to the opinions of the oppressed, radicals, subversives, and other outsiders. Indoctrination of students and “deeply pervasive” censorship of others would be necessary, starting on the campuses and fanning out from there.

He goes on to note, however, that censorship for the sake of inclusiveness is becoming national policy in some countries.

Canada now has a national speech code and judges and elites eager to expand it. The Canadian Supreme Court has issued a series of rulings stating that the government may limit speech in the name of worthwhile goals, such as ending discrimination, ensuring social harmony, or promoting sexual equality. The state may now seize published material judged to “degrade” or “dehumanize” any group.

What free-speech supporters would regard as horrendous abuses have become commonplace. In 1997, for instance, the mayor of London, Ontario, ran afoul of Canada’s Human Rights Code for refusing to declare a Gay Pride day, citing her Christian beliefs. The British Columbia College of Teachers refuses to certify teacher education programs at Christian universities if they urge students to abstain from premarital sex, adultery, or homosexual sex. The province’s hate-speech laws use extremely broad language, criminalizing statements that “indicate” discrimination or that “likely” will expose a group or one of its members to hatred or contempt.

Will Canadian subjects be required to pass a dispositions test?

Machinery of repression, however, is machinery that others can learn to operate.

Muslims want to play the same victim game as other aggrieved groups. The French Council of Muslims says that it’s considering taking France Soir, which reprinted the Danish cartoons, to court for provocation. When French novelist Michel Houellebecq said some derogatory things about the Koran, Muslim groups hauled him into court, which eventually exonerated him. The late Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci wrote an angry anti-Muslim book, meant to waken the West to the gravity of the threat posed by Islam. Her prosecution in Italy for writing the book was pending when she died in October.

Much of Europe has painted itself into a corner on Muslim-driven censorship. What can Norway say to pro-censorship Muslims when it already has a hate-speech law forbidding, among other things, “publicly stirring up one part of the population against another,” or any utterance that “threatens, insults or subjects to hatred, persecution, or contempt any person or group of persons because of their creed, race, color, or national or ethnic origin . . . or homosexual bent”? No insulting utterances at all? Since most strong opinions can seem insulting to someone—can hurt someone’s feelings—no insults means no free speech.

Not everybody has the same notion of what constitutes "social progress." It occurs to me that tomorrow's mutation of St. Valentine's day into V-day on campuses nationwide is deliberate stirring up of one part of the population, the women of the fevered brow, against another part.

The follies of the perpetually aggrieved are an inexhaustible source of material. I've located Repressive Tolerance in English, for extended reading.

ALL HAVE WON, AND ALL MUST BE GIVEN PRIZES. Grant McCracken's Anthropology and Economics explains that's not such a bad thing.

The Dove campaign for real beauty and new ideas of beauty may be seen as a reflection of a larger culture shift. In every domain of taste, we are seeing a willingness to expand the tools of judgment and the size of the winner's circle. Zero sum is dying as the logic of our evaluative activities. As a result, our culture is entering a new multiplication of capital and creativity. This is not to say that zero sum is dead in all sectors of our world. It is just subject to new cultural forces here and there that blunt its prevalence and power.

He's expanding on a Virginia Postrel entry invoking (temporarily) her latest Atlantic column, which includes this gem.

Beauty is not just a social construct, and not every girl is beautiful just the way she is.

She has a choice, however, of the construct within which she is evaluated.

HOW OTHERS SEE US. Tell us what you really think.

I'm confused -- Ivy-level academics propose that irrefutable historical facts, such as Jews living in Judea (hint-- it's named Judea), are not facts at all but merely "socially constructed narratives of the dominant power group."

And yet we're also supposed to believe that the evidence for global warming is now "virtually irrefutable."

How do I know global warming isn't a socially-constructed narrative of a bunch of Hebe investment bankers who just want to sell me some carbon-neutral herring they got wholesale from their cousin Moishe?

See my problem?

Academics seem to have decided that everything is acceptable for skepticism and "vigorous and daring academic inquiry," except for, like, eight or twelve leftist shibboleths for which doubt is very nearly a capital offense.

That tars too much of the academy with too broad a brush. Within the academy, there are people who work with evidence and weigh interpretations, and there are people who conceal their inability to formulate anything resembling a testable implication through wordnoise or attempts to make a proper noun out of Theory. Ace, however, is correct to protest the intrusion of practitioners of the second kind into areas (archaeology, not climate science) where practitioners of the first kind are able to thrive.

THAT'S HOW IT BEGINS. The boys at 11-D are using Thomas the Tank Engine to deliver the bath supplies.


First it's the floor, then it might be a ping-pong table, next a corner of the basement, ultimately it can become the entire basement.

THE FRONT PORCH LOOKS GREAT. There's even a webcam for boosters, recruits, fans, and alumni to follow progress on the upscale locker room. But don't tour the studio.

Last fall, students complained their necessary studio space at the Pleasant Street Art Annex was difficult to work in due to leaking water and concerns with security of artwork.

There appear to be limits to what an aspiring artist will put up with.

[Graduate student Dustan] Creech came from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Students from the university interested in graduate school recently called Creech to ask if he recommended NIU.

"I said no," Creech said. "I told them I wouldn't send any student here given the facility for the graduate students. As a student, I feel I've wasted a year here because of the facility."

Other graduate students are wary of recommending the School of Art in light of the facilities.

"I would tell them to run away," [graduate student Hunter] Logan said. "In fairness, they are doing some things to make the program better. The art history and art education people are all top flight."

Students wishing to come to NIU's graduate art program who need off-site studio space are cautioned.

"We are honest with them," [faculty member Adrian] Tio said. "Students should come and visit."

The studio annex is leased. There is still a backlog of deferred maintenance to other buildings. Some of that might be the effect of legislative stinginess. On the other hand, headquarters reveals a preference for upgrading its own offices and for raising money for more visible, if not necessarily academic, projects.

QUOTE OF THE DAY. Market Power's Phil Miller:

It's an excellent example of someone trying to fight the invisible hand and the invisible hand fighting back.

The context is a Miami Herald report on regulation-induced shortages in Venezuela.

"Shortages have increased significantly as well as violations of price controls," Central Bank director Domingo Maza Zavala told Unión Radio on Thursday. "The difference between real market prices and controlled prices is very high."

Authorities on Wednesday raided a warehouse in Caracas and seized seven tons of sugar hoarded by vendors unwilling to market the inventory at the official price.

Major private supermarkets suspended sales of beef earlier this week after one chain was shut down for 48 hours for pricing meat above government-set levels, but an agreement reached with the government on Wednesday night promises to return meat to empty refrigerator shelves.

Most items can still be found, but only by paying a hefty markup at grocery stores or on the black market. The state runs a nationwide network of subsidized food stores, but in recent months some items have become increasingly hard to find.

I suppose those vendors should consider themselves lucky not to have been shot as "running dogs of capitalism" or, that old standby, "speculation."

Somebody supply the punchline. What has 100 legs and eats cabbage?

DON'T ASK ME TO KILL ANY PENALTIES. The semester-long cold snap means the East Lagoon has frozen over, and, miracle of miracles, the University dispatched a plow to clear an ice rink.


Yes, I did lace up skates and give it a try. It's not quite the same as getting back on a bicycle, but I intend to go back again before the ice melts.

Historical note: the traditional last day for outdoor ice rink maintenance in Madison was February 15. That deadline was in effect in the days when "anthropogenic climate change" meant "global cooling."

WINTER IS FOR MODELLING. Job talks, homework, winter worries, but still time to work on some projects. On each of my recent trips to the November Cleveland O Scale show, I've come back with good buys of vintage Walthers passenger cars that are in better than basket-case condition.


The baggage car came back last November, and the day coach is from a previous meet. I took out the wooden seats the builder had installed in it, and added Keil-Line's cast metal bucket seats. It will hold the rails well. The baggage car is fresh out of the paint shop and the lettering and lining-out will come in time.

IS IT WAR, OR IS IT CRIME? The latest generation of roadside bombs in Iraq appear to have Iranian provenance. Andy McCarthy at The Corner links to a New York Times report.

The information includes interrogation reports from the raids indicating that money and weapons components are being brought into Iraq from across the Iranian border in vehicles that travel at night. One of the detainees has identified an Iranian operative as having supplied two of the bombs. The border crossing at Mehran is identified as a major crossing point for the smuggling of money and weapons for Shiite militants, according to the intelligence.

Although smuggling is illegal, it is not equivalent to an act of war. For many years, the existence of Catholic parishes and Irish themed pubs in the United States that raised money for the Irish Republican Army was a sore point with the British government, but all understood that neither the Vatican nor the United States nor the Democratic Party was at war with the Crown.

Mr McCarthy later picks up a Fox News report in which U.S. officials are more specific that these weapons are not being paid for out of the poor box or assembled by freelancers playing the patriot game.

The centerpiece of the evidentiary display, however, was a gray metal pipe about 10 inches long and 6 inches in diameter, the exterior casing of what the military said was an EFP, the roadside bomb that shoots out fist-sized wads of nearly molten copper that can penetrate the armor on an Abrams tank.

The EFPs, as well as Iranian-made mortar shells and rocket-propelled grenades, have been supplied to what the military officials termed "rogue elements" of the Mahdi Army militia of anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. He is a key backer of Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

The U.S. officials glossed over armaments having reached the other major Shiite militia organization, the Badr Brigade. It is the military wing of Iraq's most powerful Shiite political organization, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, whose leaders also have close ties to the U.S.

Many key government figures and members of the Shiite political establishment have deep ties to Iran, having spent decades there in exile during Saddam Hussein's rule. The Badr Brigade was formed and trained by Iran's Revolutionary Guard.

The U.S. officials said there was no evidence of Iranian made EFPs having fallen into the hands of Sunni insurgents who operate mainly in Anbar province in the west of Iraq, Baghdad and regions surrounding the capital.

"We know more than we can show," said one of the senior officials, when pressed for more evidence that the EFPs were made in Iran.

Ah, the joys of intelligence. Because of some overoptimistic estimates of Saddam Hussein's 2002 capabilities, the current war effort is hampered? Or are there operational plans in place, the details of which will be revealed later?

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY. What happens when an attempt to be inoffensive is offensive? Truly.

Then, they had to change it back after the play's producers said that the lack of offense was offensive.

A shout-out to Grim at Villainous Company, who got the memo.

You're supposed to be offended, see; that's kind of the point. If you're not shocked, you won't rexamine your cultural blah-blah-blah, and therefore come to a new and enlightened understanding.

But she also got the cultural imperative.

You were going to be an artist. Or at least own a building that is associated with art. If you'd wanted to do "Hermie the Caterpillar," you'd have opened a day care.

That cultural imperative is also at work at latitudes where Britney Spears would have to cover ...

But people can walk right by a group selling cl*t cookies to promote a political message, sponsored by an organization funded by public funds, and the passing crowd yawns at the scene.

Nobody on this campus will find this at all abnormal.

Too right.

All I know for sure is that I won't be going to any Clark Street garages on Wednesday.

THERE ARE FOUR LETTERS IN OHIO. Last Wednesday, the Lady Huskies had to battle lake effect snow and visit Kent State.


In Inland regatta-speak, the team learned a lot. Saturday, Midwestern Axis of Evil member (find U.S. Highway 23 on your road atlas) and nationally-ranked Bowling Green visited DeKalb.

The Falcons extended their Mid-American Conference record winning streak to 36 games, and the Huskies (15-8, 6-5) lost consecutive games for the first time this season.

The Huskies committed 14 turnovers in the first half en route to an eight-point halftime deficit (42-34). Then a few key miscues early in the second half allowed the Falcons (22-2, 11-0) to build a commanding 18-point advantage by the 16:07 mark.

There is progress, despite the setbacks.

[Curt] Miller didn't stop at that. The sixth-year BGSU coach said [Stephanie] Raymond's impact will be felt beyond this season as NIU coach Carol Owens continues to build the program.

“She's the engine for this program, she has this program going on high cylinder,” Miller said. “Her contribution will help Carol Owens be a champion in the future. People will want to come here because of the legacy Stephanie Raymond will leave here.”

I am particularly pleased to note the recognition Ms Raymond and the current seniors are receiving.

Some days, however, I wonder about the entire enterprise. If Bowling Green does anything less than run the table in the Mid-American regular season and the tournament, they're looking at a first-round road trip to the likes of Maryland or Ohio State. It's even tougher for former Northern Illinois Main Enemy Wisconsin-Green Bay.

UWGB's winning streak is now 16, the fourth-longest in the nation. The Phoenix hasn't [c.q.] lost since Nov. 29. [Head coach Kevin] Borseth warned of crowning his team league champion just yet, with six games left to play, not to mention the tournament - the only way into the NCAA tournament. But this game helped UWGB's cause greatly.

Once upon a time, both Green Bay and Northern Illinois played in the North Star and then the Mid-Continent conferences, and one year both teams made the field of 64. The Mid-American and the Horizon conferences each receive an automatic bid for the tournament winner, but an Illinois-Chicago or a Ball State can have a very good season and be excused with a tournament loss.

NOT A RECORD BREAKING COLD SNAP. From the Friday weather forecast:

By the way...the maximum number of nights in a row below zero in DeKalb and Sycamore is 20, set between January 12-31, 1963. We won't do it this year.

That was the cold snap including the weekend the North Shore Line died.

Another North Shore Line observation: I was reading through some vintage copies of Railroad that I recently received, and one of them reminded me that the 1965 extension of the Skokie Swift to Old Orchard and beyond was preempted by the Chicago and North Western, which rather quickly found the money to buy the North Shore Line trackage north of Dempster Street for "easier access to some industries." (The money might have been well-spent: the North Western reported profits on its commuter service in those days, and a few dollars on lightly-used spur tracks and a stretch of pretty good freight trackage might have kept a few carloads a day of commuters on the bi-levels.)

WRITE YOUR PAPERS AS IF THEY'RE USEFUL. Because sometimes, somebody, and sometimes, that somebody is Huskie!? or Huskie!?, will attempt to read them.

For example...there's a pretty pivotal piece of information included in 90% of the studies I've read...they all leave it without a reference, or decide to reference this one guy. Let's call him 'Mr. Doesn't Include Citations King' ...or Mr. DICK for short. Mr. DICK includes the parameter, and even references it to an author (Jones 1998)...but never includes the full citation at the end (and as you can imagine...more than one or two people named 'Jones' wrote papers in 1998). He's used this same parameter (a dollar amount) for reports in each of the last five years without adjusting it for anything.

Published research, dear reader, is supposed to be replicable. Yes, even those of you who make a living sending Minimally Publishable Units to Rivista Internazionale Numere Due di Bovini. Somebody might want to use that minimal content.

CREATIVE CARPENTRY. Another Wisconsin Dells tradition will soon be history.

After more than half a century of drawing tourists, the Wonder Spot, a mysterious cabin where people can't stand up straight, water runs uphill and chairs balance on two legs, is no more.

Owner Bill Carney has sold the iconic attraction to the village of Lake Delton for $300,000. The village wants to build a road through the crevice where the Wonder Spot has stood since the 1950s.

Now, the Wonder Spot, one of more than a dozen sites around the nation dubbed "gravity vortexes" and a throwback to postwar, family-oriented tourist attractions, has a date with a bulldozer.

There's a website for these gravity vortexes. I once paid a visit to the St. Ignace, Michigan, Mystery Spot. (Hey, another one, not far from Cedar Point!) The forced perspective, selective compression, and other trickery deserve careful study by any model railroad builder. (I'm facing a similar problem: how to build some changes of elevation from staging to working tracks yet make the working tracks all appear to be just above sea level.)

The claim behind each one is similar--gravity doesn't work in them. People seem to grow smaller, can't stand up straight and can barely walk.

And the fourth estate elicits a confession: carnival funhouses use similar tricks.

When people asked what caused the Wonder Spot, Carney's guides blamed it on igneous rock or simply replied they didn't know. When pressed, though, Carney said it's all an optical illusion.

"We said don't try to figure it out," he said. "Just have fun."

I have fun figuring stuff out. I even get paid to figure stuff out.

CONTEMPLATING THE NEW DEAL. Arnold Kling and Brad DeLong visit the Wall Street Journal for a debate. Mr Kling distinguishes hagiography from reality.

The New Deal is a mythical event in history. Just as we revere the constitution as the basis for our government and we revere Abraham Lincoln for ending slavery and preserving the union, we are supposed to revere the New Deal as somehow providing the basis for our modern prosperity. Yet the policies of the New Deal are quite a mixed bag, to say the least. Most were discarded by 1950. The survivors include agricultural policies that were almost certainly wrong then and are almost certainly wrong now. Most of the financial regulations, such as interest rate ceilings on bank deposits, proved unworkable by the 1970s. Social Security, and its offspring Medicare, are going to be the next great financial crisis in this country.

Professor DeLong looks forward.

If we only let Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries get the levels of care they received in 2000, we wouldn't have a long-run healthcare financing problem. But we expect Medicare and Medicaid to pay for more care in the future because we expect our doctors to develop more amazing treatments. We also expect these amazing treatments will be amazingly expensive. And finally we expect Americans will want to provide access to the amazing medical miracles of the future to more than just the rich. Does our general belief that medical care shouldn't be rationed according to ability-to-pay spring from the New Deal, or does it have deeper cultural roots?

The notion of a "common calling" antedates the American Republic, although its implementation was not always systematic. Two points, however, call for further elaboration. First, although those "amazing" medical treatments have high prices, prior to their invention, they were not available at any price. The real policy problem lies in getting down the learning curve more rapidly. If tax dollars pay for everybody's common cold shot, will its cost fall more rapidly because the producer can exploit economies of volume, or will its cost fall less rapidly because the producer is paid for mimicking its current technology? Second, some amazing medical treatments require rationing of some kind or other. We don't traffic in transplantable organs, but the donor network is proposing to favor younger over older patients rather than transplant matching kidneys on a first-come, first-served basis.

Under this system, younger patients who haven't suffered the effects of age and attendant medical deterioration would be favored over patients in their 50s and above. Chances for a transplant also would get worse for older people with Type 2 diabetes, an increasingly common cause of kidney failure and source of medical complications such as hypertension and heart disease.

The change strikes some transplant experts and patients as unfair and potentially dangerous.

"How do you tell a 55-year-old: Too bad, you're too old, you're not getting a kidney because your life expectancy isn't that of a 35-year-old?" said Dr. Michael Abecassis, chief of organ transplantation at Northwestern's Feinberg School of Medicine. "How's the AARP going to react to that?"

"I don't have problems with trying to maximize this valuable resource--kidneys--which are in such short supply today," said Jack Fassnacht, 51, a Chicago lawyer with polycystic kidney disease who has had two transplants. "But I don't like the idea of suggesting the life of a 30-something has more value than the life of a 50-something. That just doesn't seem fair to me."

The change risks undermining public trust in the nation's transplant system, which depends on a reputation for treating all people equally and impartially, Abecassis said. If trust is compromised, fewer people may be willing to donate organs, aggravating a widening mismatch between demand for kidneys and supply.But the current system for distributing kidneys has problems too. People with the most urgent medical needs often are not at the top of waiting lists. Increasingly, those spots are occupied by elderly individuals with underlying medical conditions such as heart disease or hypertension, who may not survive long under any circumstances.

That raises the prospect of a 75-year-old getting called by his hospital--we've found a match!--and rushing to receive a kidney from a 28-year-old killed in an auto accident. If the man lives only three more years, some wonder if that is a good use of the organ, especially when kidneys are in such short supply and the waiting lists so long.

Inequalities also occur in the current system because the supply of kidneys, the demand for organs and the availability of medical services vary by location, said Dr. Michael Shapiro, chief of transplantation at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey.

Virginia Postrel hasn't picked up this story yet, but she's busy attempting to broker a living-donor exchange and she notes that voluntary-paired-donor exchanges might be against existing law.

(New Deal debate via Marginal Revolution.)

CALL FOR SUGGESTIONS. Marginal Revolution's Tyler Cowen receives a request for advice from a high school teacher of Advanced Placement economics. The readers offer a number of suggestions. I'd add a plug for the National Council on Economic Education's Advanced Placement teachers' manual, as well as the Thinking Economics multimedia material.

DIMINISHING RETURNS? Division of Labour's Craig Depken compares three indicators of the state of academic economics in 1970 and 2005. There are twice as many "social scientists" (of all kinds?), nearly five times as many economics journals, and over five times as many articles published in a year. Some of the new journals consistently publish thoughtful work. But does their existence make it easier for editors of the established journals to refuse papers (send it to Journal of Economic Dynamics) that meet their customary standard for originality? (General interest? Give. Me. A. Break. I'm doing well if ten people take the time to work through one of my articles. Some of the more famous economists may have more than ten such readers, but nine-tenths of those extra readers will abandon the article once they've discovered there is no glaring anomaly to pounce upon.)

FOURTH TURNING ALERT. Dr. Sanity:

This is why there is an alliance between the totalitarians of the left-- who are the remaining outposts of communism and socialism that thrive in academic and "intellectual" circles in the West; and the Islamic fanatics of the world. Whether this alliance is a conscious or unconscious one (i.e., whether the specific component of the left actively and deliberately supports Islamic terrorism versus enabling and appeasing it) depends on the level of insight and personal depravity achieved by the true believer of today's left.

This sympathetic and synergistic interaction of the seemingly very different totalitarian mindsets--terrorism in the name of religion combined with the secular neo-marxist fascism of the left--have created a very toxic brew, made even more lethal by the rhetorical and political strategies of postmodernism. The result is a pure and perfect poison that threatens to destroy all human values; all human decency and all human civilization.

Thus the importance of enlisting allies on the Left who grasp that the enemy of their enemy is not necessarily their friend.

I'LL STICK WITH SEX, DEATH, AND THOSE LINES AT THE ROLLERCOASTER. Russell Roberts, on "what do economists do?"

EVOLUTION? Or laziness? Yes, languages evolve. The pace is different, however, for polite company and for business.

But junior high and high school teachers nationwide say they see a troubling trend: [Instant messenger shortcuts] have become so commonplace in children's social lives that the techno spellings are finding their way into essays and other writing
assignments.

"The IM-speak is so prevalent now," said Austin, a language arts teacher at Stonewall Jackson Middle School in Orlando. "I'm always having to instruct my students against using it."

Vicki A. Davis, a high school teacher at Westwood Schools in Camilla, Ga., said she even finds the abbreviated words in term papers.

"I'm Southern, but I wouldn't use the sayings, "squeal like a pig" or "kick the bucket," in formal writing (because) some people may not understand," Davis said. "IM-speak should be treated the same way."

Some people are more accepting.

Some educators, like David Warlick, 54, of Raleigh, N.C., see the young burgeoning band of instant messengers as a phenomenon that should be celebrated. Teachers should credit their students with inventing a new language ideal for communicating in a high-tech world, said Warlick, who has authored three books on technology in the classroom.

And most avoid those pitfalls once they enter college, said Larry Beason, director of freshman composition at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Ala.

"Some of the same kids that I teach now were probably guilty of techno spellings in high school," Beason said. "But most students realize that they need to put their adolescent spellings behind them by the time they get to college."

Once again, it's on higher education to enforce the standards the common schools have failed to enforce?

WHAT TOOK THEM SO LONG? Among ferroequinologists, a large number of the active editors and writers are friends of Steak 'n Shake.

OK, cult might be too strong a word, but what would you call a bunch of guys who can name every Steak 'n Shake they ever visited and probably its ZIP code, and is led by a man who decorated his kitchen to look like one?

That would be Mike Schafer, the self-proclaimed president of the fan club.

That would be the once and present editor of Passenger Train Journal and self-proclaimed president of the Illinois and St. Louis.

This behavior may be caused by fumes from the magazine business, because [Kevin P.] Keefe and 13 of his fellow devotees all work at Kalmbach Publishing in Waukesha - or used to.

That would be as in the founder of Passenger Train Journal.

They showed up Wednesday during the very first hour that a new Steak 'n Shake in Wauwatosa was open. The debut Milwaukee-area location is on the corner of 124th and Burleigh.

No doubt for a good wallow in the past: one of the pioneer Steak 'n Shakes is hard by some major railroad bridges in the Peoria area, and, for some reason, a lot of Midwestern model railroaders find the concept for a layout as "move a lot of freight cars to Peoria and shuffle them all afternoon, then eat a dry hamburger and stringy fries." (I'm not impressed by Steak 'n Shake's cooking techniques, and I've sparred with some of these guys about them.) The Milwaukee location is a little too far from the former Chicago & North Western freight belt for that kind of railfanning.

In an uncertain world, what these fans like most about this restaurant is that it hasn't changed much since opening in the 1930s in Illinois. It feels retro, right down to the durable china plates, although Schafer was chiding owner Joe Denis about the lack of neon signage at this site.

"It's familiar. It's good food. It's something to do," said Dave Ingles. No one in the club can top his feat of stopping at 177 different locations, starting with a boyhood visit in Chicago Heights about 1950. A little Lipitor and he's good to go.

So now we have the past editor of Trains at this gathering. The article doesn't mention whether Railfan and Railroad's Jim Boyd, also a Midwesterner and occasional habitue of that Peoria Steak 'n Shake, was at this feeding frenzy.

LAMEST EXCUSE OF THE DAY. The barbarians are inside the gates at Indiana State.

Karen Schmid, associate vice president for academic affairs at the 11,000-student public university, said that the general plan for eliminating and combining various departments and programs had been thoroughly vetted with the faculty and comes after a multiyear process that culminated last September with a list of priorities from a campus task force. The final recommendations were released last week by the provost and must be approved by the Board of Trustees, who will meet in April.

Schmid said that the reduction is a response to criticism from the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, the university’s regional accreditor. “When they last did our accrediting review, they said that we have too many programs for a university of our size and too many programs with low enrollment,” she said. In fact, the university has found that about 8,800 students are enrolled in 107 programs, and another 1,800 major in the remaining 107.

The physics program has only two tenured faculty members and three non-tenured professors, and only nine undergraduate majors. Philosophy has 19 majors and four faculty members.

Eric Preston, an assistant professor of physics, said his department is an average size for a physics program that offers only bachelor’s degrees. And getting rid of physics, he said, “makes a pretty serious statement about the direction the university is going in.” He added: “Can we really call this a university without physics and philosophy?”

So let's jettison philosophy and physics. I'm reminded of John Garner's quip.

I'm also encouraged that some observers see these program eliminations as sending the wrong message.

David Schrader, executive director of the American Philosophical Association, said that dropping core programs like philosophy and physics “can’t help but reduce the academic quality at Indiana State.” He said that philosophy always attracts a small number of majors but that many students in other programs take philosophy classes. “So the contribution from a program like philosophy should be measured in overall enrollment in courses, not just the number of majors.”

The elimination of the physics program comes at a time when numerous reports such as the National Academies’ “Rising Above the Gathering Storm,” call for increased investments in physical sciences, said Ted Hodapp, director of education and diversity at the American Physical Society. “So this institution is going against the grain of the national movement,” he said.

Academic quality involves a different set of objectives than does access-assessment-remediation-retention. Let the struggle be joined.

GOOD QUESTION.

Lynne Kiesling has an extended post, with many links, on the current troubles of the Chicago Transit Authority (see also this unofficial site.) She's got a deeper public policy question.

Simply put: what is the most efficient and fair way to fund and manage existing and future urban rail public transportation? Public ownership and management is not performing well in this case, but is privatization feasible? Or is there more going on than just a simple public/private ownership difference in incentives and performance?

In the case of Chicago, the rapid transit has historically failed to meet expenses out of the farebox, despite the efforts of business titans including Charles Tyson Yerkes, also known as the financial angel behind the Yerkes Observatory at Williams Bay (the dome mechanism makes all the right streetcar noises!) and as the American capitalist for the initial electric lines of the London UndergrounD (the cars would not have looked out of place in Chicago), and Samuel Insull, whose moustache appears in Citizen Kane and whose armchair hosts the Lyric Opera. David M. Young's Chicago Transit: An Illustrated History does not paint a pretty picture of what became the L. Mr Yerkes was able to obtain control of the Lake Street line at distress prices and he had more than a few troubles building his own Northwestern Elevated (today's Howard and Ravenswood services.) It was his idea to build the Union Loop in order to provide downtown connectivity and make the lines more useful. Mr Young hits the high spots of these machinations at pp. 58-62. Even with the Loop, the Rapid Transit system was never a money maker. Mr Young goes so far as to title his chapter on the Insull consolidation of the Rapid Transit with the Chicago Aurora and Elgin and Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee interurbans and with Commonwealth Edison "The Limitations of Private Enterprise." And when the pyramid of holding companies came undone in "The Fall of the House of Insull," Mr Young's interpretation was that the financial troubles of the Rapid Transit were what started it.

But when the Rapid Transit was part of the public utility conglomerate, the combined system was able to get things done a bit more quickly. Consider, for example, the completion of the North Shore Line's high-speed line through the Skokie Valley. Although the North Shore was looking at ways to replace its city street trackage in Wilmette and Kenilworth as early as 1912 (including one plan that would have brought the trains from Kenilworth into Chicago by way of Kimball and the Ravenswood) once it committed to the bypass, the Howard to Dempster section was commenced in 1924 and open in May 1925, and the balance of the line was open in 1926, just in time to serve a Eucharistic Congress in Mundelein. (The connections between the Insull companies and the Roman Catholic Church are material for a future post.) See Bruce G. Moffat's The "L": The Development of Chicago's Rapid Transit System, 1888-1932 for more. (Reviews here.)

Although the private sector rapid transit company might have required a little help from the power company profits to get the work done, its creation of the high speed line is expedited compared to the public management. Sometime in the late 1980s a friend, in making conversation, asked if I was aware the Transit Authority wanted to extend the Skokie Swift to Old Orchard. My reaction: it used to go to Milwaukee. Surprised reaction. No surprise.

Print from Bruce R. Meyer negative collection
Milwaukee Limited^(*) at Clark and Lake, September 1962
In those days, the westbound Lake trains used the near platform.

Chicago Tribune reporters are hailing, finally, progress on the extension of the Swift to Old Orchard, which is at approximately the Harmswoods station, the next North Shore Line express^(*) stop north of Dempster.

Talked about for four decades but with nothing accomplished, an expansion of the Skokie Swift rapid transit line could hardly have moved any slower.

Commuters will first see an improvement that was part of the initial 1925 extension, which served both the Rapid Transit and the North Shore.

But with the long-sought addition of a new downtown station on Oakton Street looking like a sure thing, Skokie officials believe the time might have come to extend the Swift, also known as the Chicago Transit Authority's Yellow Line, to a new train station near Old Orchard mall.

The other 1925 stations were at Ridge, Asbury, Dodge, Crawford, and Kostner.

When the North Shore filed for abandonment in 1958, Chicago Transit Authority (public ownership came in 1945) considered purchase of the high speed line as far as Waukegan. North Shore's own ridership studies had a plurality of the commuters boarding at Dempster Street with relatively light loads north of Briergate. As the Transit Authority has a large maintenance facility along the North Shore just west of the drainage canal in Evanston, it was relatively inexpensive to buy only the North Shore property from west of that facility to Dempster. But no sooner was the North Shore gone than some people wanted it back.

The CTA's last expansion in the North Shore was in 1964, when it began running the Swift on the tracks of the old North Shore railroad, which went bust in 1963 (this sentence as published has been corrected in this text).

Proposals to extend the line go back to at least 1965, Tribune archives show, when the Skokie Valley Transportation Council, an ad hoc committee of North Shore towns, recommended an Old Orchard stop.

The public sector appears to be moving more slowly, but the incentives were different. Prior to the New Deal, power companies and interurban railroads were known to engage in real estate development. I have seen speculation that the North Shore's bypass anticipated such development. I have seen no evidence that real-estate interests backed the extension.^(*)Using the interurban locution, in which a "local" stops anywhere somebody waves a newspaper (flaming at night), an "express" stops only at stations named in the timetable, and a "limited" stops at a limited number of stations.

HOW POSITIONAL ARMS RACES WORK. Ohio University has to compete for football recruits against Bowling Green and Northern Illinois. Something has to give.

The University said [the cuts] were being done to comply with Title IX, and because of a $4 million deficit the department has accumulated over the years.

Yes, that's what they said. Now let's look at the facts. Actually, there are two major reasons why this decision fails to stand up to scrutiny. Let's look at each of them.

First, the University is not out of compliance with Title IX according to the Women's Sports Foundation, probably the leading advocate for Title IX adherence. Last year, Ohio University ranked first out of the 119 Division I schools in Title IX compliance. This year, it ranks 21st – still better than more than 80 percent of Division I schools. So why does the athletic director maintain that his department is not in compliance? I believe there are only two possible explanations: Either his analysis was seriously flawed or there was a deliberate attempt to misstate the facts.

As for the issue of the budget deficit, the second rationale: Yes, the Ohio University Athletic Department has built up a $4 million deficit over the years. This is not something that happened overnight. Didn't anyone notice?

Aside from that, you have to ask: what impact would cutting men's swimming have on the deficit? It turns out that the incremental cost of having a men's swim team -- in addition to the women's team -- comes to roughly $35,000 a year. Let's see: at $35,000 a year, it would only take a bit more than 114 years to erase the deficit. And, that's assuming zero inflation and zero interest on the debt.

On top of that, we have learned that even as the A.D. is crying "poverty," he plans to move on with building a $20 million indoor football practice facility. When asked, he says "most" of the $20 million will come from "private donations." But he's unclear about how much "most" is. It could be just pennies more than $10 million. Or it might be 11 to 12 million, or maybe even 15. Whatever it is, it will only add to the deficit, perhaps doubling or even tripling it.

As a former college professor, I would have to give the OU administration an "F" for research and transparency.

(Via University Diaries.)

Here's how the recruiting dynamic looks from DeKalb.

"When it really comes down to it Central Michigan, Western Michigan, Bowling Green, and Ball State are our main competition," [Northern Illinois recruiting coordinator Mike] Sabock said. "We do not expect to lose someone to another MAC school if we want them."

And "if we want them" is the key statement.

Just a few years ago Bowling Green came to the Chicago land area in hopes of sneaking an offensive lineman from underneath the nose of the Huskies.

But instead of trying to protect its home turf, NIU let the Falcons take the recruit. And it proved to be a wise decision.

With the Bowling Green on the schedule, Sabock told his players they could expose this lineman.

"We can beat him," Sabock told his team. "He wasn't good enough to be one of us."

Sure enough, the Huskies ripped through the offensive lineman, sacking the quarterback multiple times.

And Northern Illinois has the Yordon Center. Thus, Ohio has to have one too, in order to tempt recruits capable of beating Northern Illinois and winning a bowl game.

NOW THERE'S A CHARGE FOR WHAT THEY USED TO GIVE FOR FREE. (Apologies to Tom Lehrer.) John Palmer asks, "What Is a Reasonable Fee for ATM Usage?" The context: populist politicians in the People's Republic of Canada would prefer to ban the fees. His lead, however, illustrates the real problem.

When ATMs were first introduced over 30 years ago, financial institutions encouraged their own customers to use them, hoping to reduce teller costs. And for the most part this change has been successful.

That, in fact, was the motivation of Wisconsin's Take Your Money Everywhere campaign, circa 1978, and the selling point was that an account holder at Affiliated Bank could withdraw money from a machine maintained by Anchor Savings & Loan or First Wisconsin (not the current incarnation), or, once the board was sold on the scheme, the University of Wisconsin's employee credit union.

Professor Palmer goes on to note,

At the time I liked it, but I figured there must be legislation requiring these kind people to treat us so generously. It just didn't seem to me that zero transaction charges for ATM use would emerge in a competitive, profit-maximizing equilibrium.

With bundling and nonconvexities, why not? The cost to the member bank of serving another bank's depositor is lower through the network than it would be to go through all the rigamarole of cashing a check for someone (not necessarily an out-of-towner) who is not a depositor. Remember those days? "Do you have an account with us?" (No.) "Can you produce five forms of identification and a lien on your first child?" (May I speak with a manager?)

The ill will (and regulatory reaction) the bankers have engendered is partially self-inflicted. It is easier to introduce a service at a premium price and lower the price along the learning curve, than it is to introduce a service at no extra charge and then introduce charges. (That the latter behavior looks a lot like the popular perception of predatory pricing doesn't help.)

THEORY AND PRACTICE. Northern Illinois University's excellent meteorologist Gilbert Sebenste notes the hazards in forecasting snow and in measuring it.

As an FYI, although it has been widely reported that our official total was 4.0" from the storm (from me, using a ruler from behind Davis Hall)...a meteorology professor and the official climate recorder this morning had 5" and 5.4" respectively. Based on this data, and the fact that the very powdery snow had settled even two hours after it had stopped when I measured it...the official snow total has been revised to 5.4". Sycamore's official report at 3.6" stands...their report was likely taken after the snow had settled as well (that report is not in error; technically snow observers of this genre are supposed to always take the weather observation at 7 PM, which he did). So both reports from DeKalb and Sycamore are valid, and explain the discrepancy...as well as highlight just how difficult it is to measure snowfall consistently. 4 professional weather observers came up with 4 significantly different snowfall totals over a 4 mile span. And you thought FORECASTING snow was hard...

The deep freeze Monday and Tuesday didn't do much for local morale, already somewhat depressed by a football game last Sunday.

Despite the snow and the cold, the Union Pacific kept going. They may not expedite stuff, and their dispatchers have forgotten what "first class train" means, but they'll get through. That's the last traces of sunlight at 5.20 pm. Cheer up.


Winter could still come in as warmer and drier than average, that snow day at the beginning notwithstanding.

Despite the cold weather, the massive amount of warm air we had in December and Mid-January will still force this winter to be somewhat above average, using the standard definition of winter, running from December 1 through February 28.

There are disclaimers.

Note that this winter could go either way in terms of being wet, dry or average. The breakdown of El Nino could cause more snow or precipitation late this month, and that could bring us back to at or even above average levels. At this point, confidence for a dry winter must now be reduced to low, but still represents the best outcome for the season. For the rest of this month, February should easily be below average on temperatures, with very high confidence, as well as below to near average liquid precipitation, with fair confidence.

With the snowpack in place and El Nino broken down, that could make for a chilly spring.

EPIMINIDES PARADOX? Is it ethical to correctly complete an online ethics course in less than ten minutes and then to admit ex post to wrongdoing?

I am not making this up.

In September 2006 mathematics professors Marvin Zeman and Walter Wallis reviewed the material from the State of Illinois Ethics Training Program, passed the 10-question quiz at its end, and received certificates from the Illinois Executive Inspector General stating they had successfully completed the training.

However, in November, they were notified by Inspector General James Wright that their certificates were invalid because the training program was completed in less than the minimum time. The minimum time was not specified.

Consequently, the pair was ordered to complete an additional training program for non-compliant employees and sign its accompanying certification form. Failing to comply could lead to discipline, including possible termination of state employment.

"I believe that taking the additional training and signing the certification would be an admission that I was non-compliant, though I was not," Zeman said. "It would be unethical for me to sign this document."

Via King at SCSU Scholars.

The logic involved might be more complicated.

REVEALED PREFERENCES. Instructive map at Insta Pundit. Note, at 10 am on a business day, the convergence of business jets on Hilton Head Island.

DEFINING A COLLEGE TOWN. Despite Tuesday's snow, a Northern Star reporter stopped by my office to obtain some insights, such as they are, on what makes DeKalb different from a college town, as well as different from a residential suburb.

A MORE FAVORABLE POLITICAL CLIMATE FOR PASSENGER RAIL? Perhaps.

In what may be the bellwether Amtrak story of the year, Railway Age Magazine’s highly respected journalist and former editor Luther Miller presents an interview with new Amtrak President Alex Kummant that for the first time in the trade press recognizes a potential sea change for Amtrak’s future.

Words are plentiful, deeds are precious.

RECOGNIZING ACHIEVEMENT. I had opportunity to visit a nearby elementary school. Despite the wind-chill warnings, classes were in session. Has it really been 400 years since English colonists first attempted to set up housekeeping on these shores?


The more famous Mayflower passengers were blown off their original course. Their intent was to affiliate with the Virginia colonists.

It's not every day that a class gets in-room catering from CiCi's Pizza with ice cream for dessert.


It's also not every day that we get to recognize a second place team in a Stock Market Game simulation, and a state winner and the ninth and second place national winners in the Invest Write essay competition, all in one fifth grade class. Now I will revise upward the expectations to set at Northern Illinois.


The mayor and the school superintendent were able to attend. Well done, kids, and thanks for the hospitality.

THERE'S NO SIEVE CHANT IN BASKETBALL. Marquette Warrior fans manage to rattle Connecticut capo Geno Auriemma anyway.

The No. 6-ranked Huskies, one of the nation's premier women's programs, squeaked past the 16th-ranked Golden Eagles, 52-48. As the final score would indicate, it was anything but easy.

Not even an energized capacity crowd of 4,000, the first sellout in the three-year history of the Al McGuire Center, could help the Golden Eagles. But the crowd, especially the students seated near Connecticut's bench, managed to get under coach Geno Auriemma's skin in his first coaching trip to Marquette.

"I don't know about the quality of a Catholic education when I hear some of the things I heard tonight," Auriemma said. "I know it's Milwaukee and the kids drink a lot of beer.

"But I don't think there will be any place tougher to play than here. The (fans) were fun at least."

A less-well-known pack of Huskies secures a winning season in a game that matched former college rivals as coaches.

[Maria] Fantanarosa was recruited by Northern Illinois in 1985 and she had the Huskies among her top three choices, but decided to play guard at Miami. If she had attended NIU, she would have been teammates with [Carol] Owens, a Hall of Famer for the Huskies.

“Jane Albright was here at the time (as head coach) and I thought the world of her,” Fantanarosa said. “Cary Groth was here, there were a lot of neat people. I joked with Carol before the game. I said, ‘Gosh, we could have been teammates Carol, how many assists would I have had?' She just started laughing.”

Miami of Ohio and Northern Illinois both play in the Mid-American; years ago they were in something called the North Star Conference.

BUILD IT AND THEY WILL COME. The early returns are in from Sturtevant for Racine, and the paid car park is not discouraging ridership.

During the four full months after the new station opened, from September through December, ridership was up 14%, from 18,933 in the last four months of 2005 to 21,531, state figures show. But ridership was also up 14% in the seven full months before the station opened, figures showed.

August usage was very strong.

Ethan Johnson, program and planning analyst for the transportation department, said the vast majority of riders travel from Milwaukee to Chicago.

There are several reasons for the increase, but the most obvious is that as congestion in and around Chicago gets worse, people see the train as a more viable option.

Other reasons include roller coaster gasoline prices, increased marketing that has raised awareness of the line's availability, and a good on-time record.

Proceeds from the car park are being reinvested in other improvements.

Fees are $2 for every car coming into the lot.

"I know we're making money on the parking, and those funds are helping pay for the operation of the depot," [village administrator Mark] Janiuk said.

The parking fees also have been used to implement suggestions made by riders.

For example, benches were installed in October on the platforms.

Some of the trains have a trolley service of light snacks and beverages. Is there a coffee bar in the station yet?

Elsewhere in Wisconsin, the public choice dynamic is at work.

The gravy train has left the station.

And the conductor is none other than veteran PR maven H. Carl Mueller, who is leading a team of politicians, community activists and lobbyists charged with selling a plan to run a commuter train line from Kenosha to Milwaukee.

The Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Transit Authority recently agreed to pay Mueller's team up to $496,000 for nearly 16 months of work.

"In essence, we're becoming the staff . . . for the RTA, which has a huge task in front of it," Mueller said.

The RTA is spearheading plans for a $198 million commuter link that would make 14 round trips daily. The public agency is seeking legislative approval to boost the car rental tax from $2 to $15 per car.

Not exactly Sewer Socialism anymore.

GETTING INTO THEIR O-O-D-A LOOP.

What military aircraft are you? EA-6B Prowler You are an EA-6B. You are sinister, preferring not to get into confrontations, but extract revenge through mind games and technological interference. You also love to make noise and couldn't care less about pollution.

Click Here to Take This Quiz Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests.

(Via Country Pundit.)

GETTING THE INCENTIVES RIGHT. I'll give Insta Pundit the Quote of the Day.

Energy conservation needs to be something positive. Nothing sells on a "suffer for the future" model very well. Too many environmental activists are hair-shirt types (at least when the hair-shirt is for other people) and that stuff is poor salesmanship. Martin Eberhard, of Tesla Roadster fame, is right when he says that many early electric cars were "punishment cars," predicated on the notion that driving was inherently suspect. Make electric cars fun, and useful, and people will want them. This lesson applies to lots of other things, too. Neo-puritanism, on the other hand, has a certain personal and political appeal to some people, but it doesn't sell beyond its niche. The less scold, the more sold.

It's part of what's by his standards a mini-dissertation worth your time.

SOME THINGS STAY THE SAME. The Packers remain the last representative of the Black and Blue Division to win a world championship, and a Chicago Bear quarterback controversy has already begun on a Chicago sports-talk show. Brett Favre's return looks a bit less questionable tonight than it did earlier this week.

WHEN MILTON FRIEDMAN LEFT WISCONSIN. From Economists at Wisconsin, p. 120, an excerpt of a letter from Milton Friedman to Robert J. Lampman, editor of the book.

I did not at the time regard anti-Semitism as the major factor involved in the affair and I do not now. Unquestionably, the major factor was the controversy between the School of Commerce and the economics department, and the desire by the School of Commerce to take over the economics department.

Also in the book is an excerpt from In and Out of the Ivory Tower by Harold M. Groves, who supported Friedman's appointment, suggesting intrigues.

I had invited Milton Friedman to Wisconsin as a top assistant in a WPA project that was tabulating and interpreting data from Wisconsin income tax returns. ... Friedman was conservative, extremely able, and a gentleman. I had backed him for a permanent appointment in our department and this had been championed by my erstwhile detractor Dean Sellery. The appointment was made (sic) without majority support in the department and later retracted under political pressure and intrigue by [Walter] Morton and Fay Elwell, Dean of the School of Commerce.

Walter Morton disagrees.

During the year Groves asked [Friedman] to make an analysis of our work in statistics. He made it and it was widely circulated. The essence of it was that no student could obtain satisfactory knowledge of statistics as it was now being taught. This meant that Professors [Philip G.] Fox [MA Wisconsin, ABD Columbia, retired 1970] and [Erwin A.] Gaumnitz [Ph.D. Minnesota, still dean of the College of Business in 1971] were doing a poor job. This analysis was highly impolitic because, under our procedures, we could not fire Fox and Gaumnitz from the course without giving them a full hearing. ...

You must remember that Harold Groves always thought he was a great politician. But politically he handled this in a miserable manner. He always regarded me as "bad citizen" because I was usually straightforward and did not take politics into account.

Immediately following the essay on the Milton Friedman Affair is an essay on the falling out between economics and Commerce, which is sobering reading.

$MART $AVING AND $PENDING. Charlie Sykes takes an interest in the power of compounding, part of his continuing lament that the schools are failing to teach basic personal finance. When I do teacher training workshops, I'll sometimes bring a chessboard and some candy corn to introduce the concept.

There is a well-known story of the man who invented chess. The local ruler was so pleased with the invention that he offered the inventor a great reward in gold. The inventor suggested an alternative reward: he would get one grain of wheat on the first square of the chess board, two grains on the second square, four on the third, eight on the fourth, etc., doubling the number of grains each time. The ruler saw that this must be a much better deal for him, and accepted. The board has 64 squares. How many total grains of wheat did the ruler have to pay the inventor?

There's a longer version of the story here.

The National Council on Economic Education offers a number of teacher resources that will strengthen students' investing skills, including the Learning, Earning and Investing series. In the State Line and North West Frontier, see me. The Illinois Council on Economic Education maintains other centers that provide such resources elsewhere in the states. Economics Wisconsin offer similar services elsewhere in the Cheddar Curtain Free Trade Zone.

Now for a somewhat more subtle problem that I generally don't use at teacher workshops. Suppose I have identified an asset that will double in a year. I invest $1 today and I receive $2 in a year. Now let's extend the problem: the asset pays 100% annual interest, compounded semi-annually. I invest $1 today, it grows to $1.50 in six months and I receive $2.25 at years end. Extend the problem again: now my 100% annual interest compounds quarterly. In three months I have $1.25, which grows to $1.56 in six months, $1.95 in nine months, and $2.44 at year's end. Does it follow that if my asset compounds continuously, I will have even more money? If so, how much more? Can I exceed the payoff to the inventor of chess by compounding more rapidly?

(The answer is here, but remember, if I give this as a class exercise, no peeking.)

WE'RE IN THE WARM SECTOR. The view of the cornfield just before sunset.


Southwest winds at 15-18 gusting to 40, temperature -4^o, wind chill advisories posted for tonight and tomorrow. Those southwesterlies are harbingers of a reinforcing shot of even colder air headed this way.

ADULTS ONLY M.P.C. That notation, which predated G-M-R-X, which predated G-PG-PG13-R-X, often accompanied the listings at Wauwatosa's (or is it just east of city limits?) Times Fine Arts Theatre, which in those days specialized in the kinds of offerings the intellectualoids call "filllm." Some things change, some things don't.

New Times owner Larry Widen, local film industry veteran and freelance writer (for, among other publications, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel), said the theater will offer a mix of classics, art films like "Old Joy" and "Sweet Land," which just finished a two-week stand there, and commercial art films like "The Queen" and "The Departed."

Widen, who is also promoting a series of live concerts at the theater this spring, is spending $500,000 on improvements, including a modern concession stand, a DVD projector and new seats, and is understandably cautious about his investment.

Still specializing in filllms, I see, but not necessarily the R and X offerings.

HO-HO-HO CHI MINH. Some people opposed U.S. involvement in Vietnam because they did not believe it in the country's interest to do so. Others were actively on the other side.

Professor Bainbridge suggests that Washington Post diarist William Arkin has crossed over.

"England is, I believe, the only country in which, during a great war, eminent men write and speak as if they belonged to the enemy"

He elaborates.

It is one thing to doubt the prudence of the decision to invade Iraq. One can even disagree with the proposition that, having imprudently decided to invade, we now cannot cut-and-run, which by the way remains my position (see my Examiner column). It's quite another to stand up and tell the American military, in effect, that they cannot win and that you believe the best thing would be for them to admit defeat and come home.

Uncle Jimbo at Blackfive has a somewhat angrier retort. Rick Moran's Right Wing Nut House is more temperately displeased.

Of course, some never try and hide their contempt for our military. One of the major players in the anti-war movement, Code Pink, picketed Walter Reed hospital where many of our wounded vets are being treated. They even accosted and razzed some soldiers who were out-patients coming in for further treatment on wounds suffered in battle.

The press was extremely careful not to report these demonstrations. Gather half a dozen anarchists, greens, or moveon.org types on a street corner asking people to “honk for impeachment” and that will get you a page 3 write up in most newspapers. But somehow, there were no reporters available to cover these demonstrations at Walter Reed that showed such monumental disrespect for the volunteers who have suffered wounds in service to their country.

But the Democrats and their allies on the left have largely been successful in subsuming their real feelings about the military with only a couple of exceptions marring the record. Predictably, John Kerry’s “botched joke” about the intelligence of soldiers serving in Iraq was one such example of this subsurface hate for those in the military. It apparently sank his presidential ambitions and probably saved the Republicans a couple of House seats in the election. But at the time, it was generally felt that Kerry’s revealing anecdote was just a demonstration of his long time loathing of active duty personnel. Like Strangelove, Kerry just couldn’t help himself.

Now we have William Arkin of the Washington Post revealing in spectacularly ignorant fashion, his own contempt for the men and women who currently wear the uniform. In what can only be described as a shockingly inappropriate post on his blog, Arkin complains that the men and women in the military who speak out in favor of the mission in Iraq and complain about the lack of support from the American people are a bunch of ungrateful wretches who who should shut up and do their jobs – a job that Arkin believes is akin to one that a mercenary does...

He also recommends additional reactions to Mr Arkin.

Winds of Change's Armed Liberal attempts to provide an intellectual foundation for Mr Arkin's comments that does not include "on the other side."

The problem I have with much of the progressive antiwar left - the soil from which Mr. Arkin sprung - is that the fundamental challenge to them remains maintaining a 'moral challenge' via-a-vis the U.S. and the West. It's liberation theology, writ small.

Doesn't liberation theology presuppose that there's somebody who wants to be liberated? Is that true of the main enemy?

A FEBRUARY COLD SPELL DOES NOT REFUTE THE HYPOTHESIS. For your amusement, however, a flippant look at the global warming consensus.

Day by Day, 30 January 2007.

Ramirez cartoon courtesy Charlie Sykes.

SOMEBODY ELSE WILL DRIVE THE TRACTOR. Pundits debate whether he should go or stay. Brett Favre will return to the Packers.

Only 18 of the 79 players on the current roster were more than 12 years old when Favre became the starting quarterback for the Packers.

Tell me about it. The department's job applications now include people who were born after January 14, 1980, the day I defended my dissertation.

THE MINSK-KIEV-TEXAS? Sure looks like the Katy inspection car.


High-rail vehicles are apparently an informal method of transportation in the former Soviet Union, here at the Bug River. The photo is from English Russia and a reactivated Transport Blog supplied the link.

DETENTE NORTH OF THE CHEDDAR CURTAIN. Blue and orange here?

THE ENEMY OF MY ENEMY IS NOT NECESSARILY MY FRIEND. Via Milt Rosenberg, an essay by Fred Halliday in Dissent questioning the instinct of many on the Left to side with any Third World population that meets a naive criterion for "oppressed."

Leaving aside widespread, if usually unarticulated, sympathy for the attacks of September 11, 2001, justified on the grounds that “the Americans deserved it,” we have seen since 2003 an overt coincidence of policies, with considerable support for the Iraqi “resistance,” which includes strong Islamist elements, and, more recently and even more explicitly, support for Hezbollah in Lebanon. In the Middle East itself, and on parts of the European far left, an overt alliance with Islamists has been established, going back at least to the mass demonstrations in early 2003 that preceded the Iraq War, but also including a convergence of slogans on Palestine—supporting suicide bombings and denying the legitimacy of the Israeli state. Last year, for example, radical Basque demonstrators were preceded by a militant waving a Hezbollah flag. Moreover, since most of those who oppose the U.S. action in Iraq of 2003 also opposed the war in Afghanistan in 2001, this leads, whether clearly recognized or not, to support for the anti-Western Taliban, armed groups now active across that country.

Mr Halliday recognizes that the adherent of fundamentalist Islam isn't some latter-day manifestation of a counter-culture, with burkas instead of peasant dresses.

To this history of jihad against the left, over many decades, must be added one further fact, namely the deep differences that should separate any conceivable program of the radical left from that of Islamist parties. Whether on the rights of women, on secularism, or on free speech, the two political currents are radically opposed; they espouse what should be incompatible positions. So too are they opposed on another issue: the complete absence from the Islamist program of any inclusive internationalism. Instead, while appealing to the community or umma of Muslims, the Islamists, be they al-Qaeda or Hezbollah, appeal only to particular communities and pour out the venom of an unrelenting chauvinism toward nonbelievers, Jews, and even toward Muslims of a different sect than their own. Their rhetoric against Jews far exceeds anything of which the earlier generation of secular Palestinian nationalists was capable. Few today seem to recall the remark of the German socialist leader August Bebel, that anti-Semitism “is the socialism of fools.” Presumably those on the left today who ally with Islamists do so by reference to some concept of false consciousness. It is open to question, however, whose consciousness is the most mistaken.

Quite so.

THE ON WISCONSIN AND THE CANNONBALL TO ROLL AGAIN? A bill under consideration in Congress has the potential to extend passenger train service from Milwaukee to Madison.

The Milwaukee-Madison corridor is part of the Midwest Regional Rail Initiative, a nine-state coalition to connect the region with rail passenger service. It includes Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Missouri, and Minnesota. Randy Wade, Wisconsin Department of Transportation passenger rail manager, told the Post that the cost of extending Amtrak's Hiawatha service between Milwaukee and Chicago to Madison is now set at $316 million. About $227 million would go toward infrastructure and $89 million toward new equipment.

If Congress passes the bill, Wisconsin DOT would apply for funding for the corridor. Under the new legislation, 80 percent of the funding would be provided by the federal government, while the remaining 20 percent, around $63 million, would be paid for with state funds. Construction would begin two years after funding is approved. If the bill passes this year, it will be complete by 2010, Wade told the Post.

The message for passenger train advocates in Wisconsin appears to be if you build it, they will come.

"The ridership increases are reflective of the investments we've made in the train sets and infrastructure all along the line," Wisconsin Department of Transportation Secretary Frank Busalacchi told the Capitol Times of Madison, Wis. "As a result of the increased ridership, we anticipate the need to add an additional car on each of the Hiawatha Service runs later this year to eliminate times when there's standing room only."

Wisconsin DOT opened new stations at Sturtevant, Wis., on Aug. 14, 2006, and at Milwaukee's General Mitchell International Airport on January 18, 2005. Currently, Milwaukee's downtown Amtrak station is undergoing an extensive remodeling. Wisconsin covers 75 percent of the operating costs of the Hiawatha Service with Illinois providing the remaining 25 percent. The service includes seven Chicago-Milwaukee round trips Monday through Saturday and six on Sunday. The service has its own Web site at www.amtrakhiawatha.com.

In the spirit of the Cheddar Curtain Free Trade Zone, Illinois has now joined the Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Compact. (This is a different organization from the Midwest Regional Rail Initiative. Too much fragmentation?)

The High Speed Rail Association wants to see an increase in frequency of trains. "The work it takes to increase frequency and dependency is the same work that it takes to make the train faster," Richard Harnish, executive director of the Midwest High Speed Rail Association, told Kankakee's Daily Journal. Improvements made for frequency and dependability have the "happy coincidence of taking time out of the schedule," Harnish said. The association brings together both individuals and cities, mostly cities that have Amtrak service.

I recommend that participants in this compact work on connectivity: the current schedules appear to be set route by route with some logical Chicago connections (Milwaukee-Urbana, Macomb-Ann Arbor either unmakeable or unmanageably long.)

THERE IS STILL WORK TO DO. From time to time, I check up on progress at Milwaukee Hamilton. Not too long ago, at a formerly selective high school, people went to a rumble and a basketball game broke out. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel has an open forum on sports-related fighting including an observation from the North-West Frontier.

This is part of the reason why I left both Milwaukee and Madison. The crime rates are rising in both cities if not exploding. Fights after or during basketball games are not only a problem in Milwaukee, but the illustrious madison schools have problems too. It amazes me that this happens. I will stay here.... when Monroe loses to someone say like Orangeville (In evil Illinois) they shakes hands and move on, players and fans alike.... its just a game... no need to brawl like your life depends upon it.

At Hamilton, good news and bad news.

When Superintendent William Andrekopoulos met with two reporters last week, he said that, sure, there had been problems at high schools, but there were good things, too. Some schools are doing well. Name some, a reporter asked.

Hamilton was on his list. Just that morning, he had visited the southwest side high school, the largest in MPS, and he liked what he saw.

But literally as the interview was taking place, this happened at Hamilton: Two students finished a final exam and left. Just outside the school, they were attacked by several youths wielding at least one baseball bat, police and MPS officials said. One of the students was left hospitalized and unconscious.

Further along in the article, news that will certainly give pause to university faculty.

The rocky realities for MPS high schools go beyond safety issues. To sit in a high school class and watch students give reports summing up a research project on an environmental issue is to see that the content of student work itself is a serious issue. The reports reflected little enterprise, little understanding and little work - and this was in a school with a better reputation than many.

What's next, college as the new junior high?

RUNNING EXTRA. Will I have to bring my diploma to any alumni basketball events?

On Friday afternoon, Milwaukee Public School's Superintendent William Andrekopoulos announced a further crackdown on ticket sales across the district. Students at a school will now only be able to buy one ticket for a game involving their school. They will have to show ID to get into the games. Parents will be able to buy only two tickets. And, ticket sales will now be limited to only 60 percent of a gym's capacity.