Monthly Archives: May 2005

Lind: 17th Century Spain = 21st Century USA?

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William S. Lind:

When people ask me what to read to find an historical parallel with America’s situation today, I usually recommend J. H. Elliott’s splendid history of Spain in the first half of the 17th century, The Count-Duke of Olivares: A Statesman in an Age of Decline. One of the features of the Spanish court in that period was its increasing disconnection with reality. At one point, Spain was trying to establish a Baltic fleet while the Dutch navy controlled the Straits of Gibraltar.

The Capital Times Holds a Town Meeting

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Click to view a larger version of this photo

 The Capital Times held a Town meeting at Ancora Coffee on Monroe St. this evening. While the crowd was thin (total of 25 or so people, a number from the paper) this event is a useful idea.

The way we all obtain information has changed so dramatically, and continues to do so, it’s difficult for me to see the daily newspaper surviving, given the current economics. Weekly and Sunday publications have a better shot, I think – maybe. The trick for the Cap Times is to figure out how to migrate their local coverage into the internet era AND change the way they publish. I’m not sure that their current approach to the internet makes any sense – simply repurposing newspaper content online.
Having said all that, there will always be a market for excellent reporting. My youngest attended the town meeting and wrote up an article, for publication here 🙂

A Meeting at Ancora

On Thursday, May 12th at Ancora, a meeting about the Capital Times was held. The meeting was held so that the Capital Times could hear what the people had to say. With a cookie and my shuffle, I was content. But, little did I know that I could be content without my cookie or my shuffle.

One of the first issues of the evening was that people wanted more national and international coverage (I don’t think that will help the Cap Times – ed).

In the meeting, there were put-ups and put-downs. A topic that I was interested in was talk about micro chips (RFID). People are thinking in ten years, that we will start putting little micro chips in everything, like books. Putting them in books is a great idea. Like, if the books get lost, you can find them, but then I heard that people micro chips in children’s clothes.

Sure, the parents will know where the kids are, but anyone can get to this information and then…. I don’t want to talk about it.

People have their opinions and their opinions aren’t mine, but if you want to know what I like? I like the Capital Times.

National ID passes Senate

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Kim Zetter on the recently passed legislation 100-0, which means both Senators Kohl & Feingold voted for it…. Bill Scannell notes that 5/10/2005 is the date that a national ID card requirement was passed…. A major player behind this legislation – our own, safe seat congressman, F. James Sensenbrenner…. (recipient of the largest amount of special interest travel among Wisconsin’s congressional delegation).

Declan McCullagh posted a FAQ.

Keillor on the Decline of Radio

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Garrison Keillor:

The deregulation of radio was tough on good-neighbor radio because Clear Channel and other conglomerates were anxious to vacuum up every station in sight for fabulous sums of cash and turn them into robot repeaters. I dropped in to a broadcasting school last fall and saw kids being trained for radio careers as if radio were a branch of computer processing. They had no conception of the possibility of talking into a microphone to an audience that wants to hear what you have to say. I tried to suggest what a cheat this was, but the instructor was standing next to me. Clear Channel’s brand of robotics is not the future of broadcasting. With a whole generation turning to iPod and another generation discovering satellite radio and Internet radio, the robotic formatted-music station looks like a very marginal operation indeed. Training kids to do that is like teaching typewriter repair.