Author Archives: ObbieZ

Why Are Dead Birds Falling Like Rain?

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There has been a disturbing wave of mass killings of birds lately. First in Arkansas, then in Louisiana, and again in Sweden. Every time reporters consult scientists or local authorities, the pundits write it off to birds “getting stressed” (i.e. freaking out) during the New Year’s fireworks, and either running into things or each other… or dropping dead from exhaustion.

Frankly, I don’t buy it. If thousands of birds (oh, and don’t forget the fish) died from fireworks on New Years Eve, why is this the first time it happened? After all, this isn’t the first time there were fireworks on New Years Eve. If the birds died from fireworks this year, why didn’t they die from fireworks last year? Or any of the previous… oh, maybe fifty years?

Something Else is going on. Most of us can do little more than speculate on what it is. But something new and very unusual happened to these birds that didn’t happen before. Fireworks – however bad for the birds they might be – are not new or unusual

The Dog Days of Winter

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The video that follows is NOT one of ours, but it’s one that we deemed worthy of putting in one of our youtube playlists.

After the snowstorm we had last week, this is kind of what getting around felt like…

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sUL0KCIc48

… except that our snow was much more dense than that. When sidewalks become canyons, that’s a lot of snow.

The Shoddy Stadium Rant

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For the second time in its brief history, the roof of the Metrodome collapsed last weekend. Fortunately, no one was hurt.

When designing an indoor football stadium for Minneapolis, one would think the roof should be designed to withstand the weight of a whole bunch of snow. After all, this part of the world is no stranger to big snowstorms, so it’s not hard to anticipate a really huge snowstorm sometime during the life of such an expensive building.

Yes, 16-20 inches (40-50 cm) is a lot of snow, but this is Minneapolis for crying out loud. Whose the engineer that thought it was OK to build a roof in Minneapolis that can’t handle 20 inches of snow? Did they really think it would never happen in the next 50 years? In MINNEAPOLIS?

That’s like assuming it’ll never get to 120 degrees in Phoenix, or that there’ll never be a big hurricane in Miami, or that there’ll never be a tornado in Topeka, or that you can skip the earthquake-proofing in San Francisco. Somebody wasn’t thinking ahead. Or somebody wasn’t thinking, period.

I heard somebody on the radio today call the stadium “old.” I’m sorry, Wrigley Field and Fenway Park are “old”. A stadium that was built 30 years ago is relatively new. There’s something wrong with having kids grow up watching games in a new stadium and not be able to bring their kids to watch games in the same stadium. There is no history or heritage in a crappy stadium built to last only 30 years.

If there is a God, I think It’s telling the Minnesota Vikings that they should play their games outside… y’know, like Real Men. In Wisconsin, we play football outdoors in January, and there’s not a single empty seat at Lambeau Field even though it might be cold enough to freeze hard liquor. Are Minnesota people really a bunch of softies that can’t watch a football game outside if it gets a little cold?

A couple of years ago, we were hanging out with some friends in Minneapolis, having drinks at a bar looking out at the Metrodome. I asked them if  Viking fans hold the same kind of reverence for the Metrodome that we Packer fans hold for Lambeau Field. The emphatic “no” came with no hesitation whatsoever.

Ironically, it’s now called “Mall of America” stadium. It’s named after the monstrosity that now stands on the site of the stadium this one replaced. The “old” stadium, built in the late 50’s.

Am I the only one who thinks it’s insane to build a new stadium every thirty years?

Judge Nix and the SpokesnFolks Parade

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We got word today that we lost an old friend.

Judge Nix addresses the crowd at the 1998 SpokesnFolks Parade and Festival.

We knew Edmund Nix as a municipal judge, a lawyer, and the father of one of our good friends. Before we knew him, he was a federal prosecutor and a Democratic congressional candidate, among other things.

RoZ and I first met Judge Nix in the courtroom, on separate occasions shortly after we moved into the area. Even though he found both of us guilty, that didn’t stop us from becoming friends.

We won’t talk about my case, but RoZ’s has a fun backstory.

Once upon a time, RoZ was part of a motley band of local activists that took a “Critical Mass” bike ride during rush hour on a Friday afternoon. The constabulary followed in their cars for most of the ride – some could say the riders were “escorted” – and at the end of the ride ten riders were detained and issued tickets for “obstructing traffic.”

The “La Crosse Ten” contested their citations in Judge Nix’s courtroom. After all the evidence and arguments were presented, he handed down his verdict. “You did obstruct traffic, so I have to find you guilty.” Then it got interesting. “Sometimes, I have to be innovative in sentencing, so what I want you to do… I want you all to do something legal and creative to promote your cause. Write letters to the editor, call in to radio talk shows, have parades and demonstrations – LEGAL demonstrations – and report back to me in 60 days on what you did, and I will likely waive any fine.”

As the accused and their comrades in the gallery approached to greet each other, one activist exclaimed in his flamboyant voice, “I don’t believe it! He sentenced you to be ACTIVISTS!” We heard the word “parade” in the judge’s list of suggestions and latched onto it. So on a rainy Saturday in September, 150 people marched in the first SpokesnFolks Parade (which always included a festival in the park afterwards), and Judge Nix declared satisfaction that the sentence he’d handed down was served.

It wasn’t long after that that Ed Nix retired as a judge, which made him available to join in on the fun. The SpokesnFolks Parade used prizes to motivate floats and colorful costumes, and we needed a judge to fairly determine whose efforts deserved those prizes. Judge Nix was more than happy to put his black robe back on and be a part of our parade/festival. One year, when it came time to hand out awards, he opened his remarks with, “Never have I been treated so well by people I found guilty.”

Obbie and Judge Nix confer on rewarding prizes at the 1998 SpokesnFolks Parade and Festival.

He totally enjoyed standing on the curb in his black robe, watching the parade pass before him. I’d stand by with a clipboard while he’d point people out. “I want to give that person a prize… and that one over there…”

Over the years we got to visit with the judge quite a few times. He knew that he could call me if he ever needed to talk to a computer guy, and we knew that we could call him if one of us ever needed to talk to a lawyer. Fortunately, we stayed out of trouble so he probably got the better deal out of that arrangement, though he did help us with some routine personal legal paperwork.

As a person and as a judge, Ed Nix was everything you could ask for. He was fair, reasonable, thoughtful, rational, and (most importantly) innovative. The SpokesnFolks Parade and Festival was an annual event for about five years, but it might have never happened at all without Judge Nix’s “innovative sentencing.”

We miss him.

Mayor Medinger, Santa Clause (Earl Grunke), Judge Nix, and Obbie Z at the press conference announcing plans for the 1999 SpokesnFolks Parade and Festival.

Update 12/2 5:30pm: Just found this interesting little tidbit here:

In 1961 [mobster Carl] Caputo was indicted for income tax evasion. He had reported income totaling $721.56 and had actually earned $31,000. This garnered him a 30-day jail sentence and two years of probation. U.S. attorney Edmund Nix had prosecuted Caputo. Ironically, Nix had once worked in a tavern owned by Caputo and was paying his way through Wisconsin-Madison Law School as a bartender.

Snowboarding on Ice Shavings

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The weather prophets told us that today was going to be the warmest day we’ll see for a while, so we took a walk to check out a new bike/ped bridge in our neighborhood.

Crossing a new bridge for the first time is an odd sensation. It’s like going through a wormhole to a place that previously was very far away.

It also reveals parts of our world that have always been there hidden from view, such as this Mississippi River backwater…

This treehouse was hidden from the street, but it’s now a prominent landmark from the bridge…

At the base of the bridge, we saw pink paint on the pavement with arrows pointing the way to the “rec trail.” We could see a line of pink flags marking the future bike trail, which will go around the back of a local ice arena to connect to an existing trail on the other side.

As we followed the trail, we noticed a snow bank behind the ice arena. It was left there by the zamboni, and it consisted of the ice shavings removed during the latest smoothing of the ice. A couple of resourceful kids from the neighborhood decided to make use of this very early “snow” to build a very short run for their snowboards.

It’s good to see people that age finding creative ways to have fun.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcT9u9HW9IQ&start=10

Sunset in Berlin

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Nine years ago tonight, after a long day of traveling, we arrived to our room in the Sunflower Hostel in Berlin. We were greeted by an unusual pattern of clouds radiating from the setting sun. We clamped the camcorder into the window and started rolling.

Ther resulting video was accelerated 15-1 (IF I remember correctly), and the audio is a montage of clips from the original recording. The trains you hear are a mix of S-bahn, U-bahn, commuter and intercity trains.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4_ViRMAXS4

Stupidity Wins Over Statesmanship

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Much like our neighbors in Minnesota, Wisconsin has a proud history of progressive senators with names like LaFollette, Proxmire and Nelson; but every once in a while a right-wing nut-job with piles of corporate money comes along to derail a distinguished career.

After many years away, I came back to Wisconsin in 1992, just as Russ Feingold was campaigning to reclaim the senate seat that Gaylord Nelson had lost some years earlier. His commercials consisted of grainy film of this young lawyer giving a tour of his house. The folksiness resonated and Feingold became our senator.

In 2001, George Bush railroaded the euphemistically named “Patriot” Act thru Congress. It was riddled with provisions designed to turn America into a fascist police state with warrantless searches, electronic monitoring of citizens, defining “terrorist” to include organizers of consumer boycotts, and arbitrary detainment.

But in those days fear reigned supreme, and the bill was rushed thru the Senate on a 99-1 vote. We were in Europe at the time, and people we met understood how insane this law was. But we could proudly say that the one “no” vote came from OUR senator, Russ Feingold.

This year, he got challenged by a guy named Ron Johnson. He runs a plastics factory in Oshkosh where he is not well-liked by his employees. But he had piles of his own money to throw into the race, and he knew how to con tea-bagger types.

Even the most conservative newspapers in the state would not endorse him. If he didn’t refuse outright to meet with editorial boards, he only spoke in vague sound bytes when he did. Every time he opened his mouth, stupid bullslop would come out, so his handlers had him shut up and bombard the state with tv ads, mailers, and robocalls instead. Never mind that it was all the same stupid bullslop in slick packaging.

I predict that Ron Johnson will be the least distinguished Wisconsin senator since Joe McCarthy (interestingly, they both come from the same general area of the state). Maybe in six years, the state will be so nauseated by Johnson’s antics that Feingold can win his seat back.

Russ Feingold is too good a guy to retire from public life at such a young age. I hope he finds a way to stick around and be a champion of all that is good and decent.

It is very rare that I am impressed with anyone who works in the dark realm of politics, but I was proud to have Russ Feingold as my senator. Tonight, I am ashamed of my state for not re-electing him.

An Open Letter to the Tea Party

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As a progressive, I share a lot of fundamental beliefs that you Tea Partiers promote.

You say you want your country back. I’d like my country back, too, and I think we’re talking about the same country. It was the country we knew as kids, where families made a comfortable living on one salary, where there was plenty of honest work for good wages, and where people helped out their neighbors in a time of need.

But now it takes two salaries to support a family (if you’re lucky) while the wealth we produce is hoarded by greedy Wall Street investors who think nothing of dismissing thousands of workers to gain 1% in profit margin.

I’ve been victimized by the same economic injustices that you have, so I can understand the frustrations behind your anger. What I can’t understand is why you are supporting Republicans.

Don’t you know that Republicans are the party of Big Business? They’re sponsored by the same fat cats who trashed our economy, and if elected they will continue to do the bidding of this uber-rich elite. There are no true advocates for working people in the GOP.

Check out the front groups sponsoring your Tea Party rallies. The people paying for those expensive stage sets, tour buses, sound systems and promotion are the same oil billionaires, Wall Street banksters and job exporters who’ve ripped off our country.

If elected, they will resume their orgy of casino capitalism, and they’re tricking you into endorsing it.

Bumping Up the Oldies

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There are some gems buried in the depths of this blog… posts discussing topics that still come up often.

  • Many years ago, I wrote a rant about the influence of money in politics. Today, it seems more important than ever, so go read Gold-plated Bullslop.
  • We still get asked whether we’re on Facebook. This should explain why we’re not.
  • Finally, this was one of our most popular posts for many years. It succinctly explains how a big-box store selling cheap stuff can destroy an economy.