President Obama is scheduled to give his 11,319th speech of his (too long) presidency Thursday as the pregame show for the first NFL game of the season.
Obama ignores advice that doesn’t fit into his worldview. Which is why his speech will include nothing the U.S. Chamber of Commerce would suggest would actually create jobs:
At Wednesday’s Labor Day briefing, Chamber Senior Vice President and Chief Economist Dr. Martin Regalia explained that businesses will hire when the economy grows fast enough to make it profitable to hire more workers.
Watch this video from Regalia’s presentation. Also, read his recent post where he explains the critical connection between economic growth and job creation.
Persistently high unemployment requires the focused attention of our leaders and a plan of action not hatched in fantasy land. That’s why the Chamber will be sending a detailed jobs plan to the president and Congress next week.
The number one single in the U.K. todayyyyyyy in 19677777777 …
Today in 1968, the Beatles recorded Eric Clapton’s guitar part for “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” making him the first non-Beatle on a Beatle record:
The number one song in the U.S. today in 1975:
The number one album in the U.S. today in 1975 was Jefferson Starship’s “Red Octopus,” the most commercially successful album to date for Jefferson Starship, Airplane or Thing Thrown into the Sky:
The number one song in the U.S. today in 1980:
Today in 1982, Paul McCartney released “Tug of War”:
The number one song in the U.S. today in 1986:
Birthdays start with Roger Waters of Pink Floyd:
Sylvester:
Claydes Smith of Kool and the Gang:
Banner Thomas played bass for Molly Hatchet:
Pal Waaktaar of A-Ha, the only Norwegian group to record a number-one song in the U.S. and Great Britain:
Dave Bargeron played trombone, tuba, horns and bass for Blood Sweat & Tears:
Dolores O’Riordan of the Cranberries:
One death anniversary of note: Tom Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival today in 1990:
… Labor Day … should be about doing work, not avoiding it. Last week, the govbots got on their horse in one Wisconsin school district to defend the “right” of teachers to take 20 sick days off during a school year already punctuated with union holidays, winter and spring breaks, summers off, and conferences galore. In another district, anger boiled over at the suggestion they up their work day by 30 minutes and put in a (gasp) full eight hard. No, really – and for as many as five straight days in a row. I know, I know.
In yet another pre-Labor Day noogie from our vacationer-in-chief, Mr. Obama’s EPA issued a slew of regulatory pronouncements designed to choke the life right out of the American industrial and energy sectors last week. The President had to quickly back off and rescind his own edicts, deciding we really can’t afford to enact job killing regulations right now.
Which begs the obvious question: when could we ever afford to enact job killing regulations? A month ago, when the President gave his EPA the go-ahead to unleash their regulatory kick in the nuts? Did he think that was a good time to enact job killing regulations? Please don’t tell us that Mr. Obama just figured out this week that we need jobs. Although that would explain a lot. …
Who blocks school choice and prevents inner city kids from having a fighting chance to be educated and employable? Who was it that tried to replace grades and awards with stickers and hugs for everyone? Who was it that insisted that unions run the schools? Who was it that packed school boards in order to negotiate work rules with themselves?
Liberals, that’s who. A half-century of unionized government monopoly schools has produced an unemployable underclass who can’t read or cipher and lacks the basic social skills to win and hold a job. You guys expect us to throw you a parade for that?
And who was it that taxed employers out of the cities? Who didn’t want those icky, icky factories in their gentrified Chardonnay neighborhoods? Who shut down the offshore oil industry? Who cut off the water to California’s agriculture industry? Who was it that increased the minimum wage and drove black teenage unemployment to over 50%? Who was it that forced banks to give mortgages to people who could not afford them and now can’t move to where the jobs are because they are handcuffed to upside down mortgages?
Liberals, that’s who. They have ruined public education; they have ruined the economy; they have sacrificed our jobs on their altar of environmental guilt fantasy; they have chased producers overseas; they have unionized the public sector and increased both its bloat and its sloth. You guys expect us to throw you a parade for that?
I don’t know why you think this is your day. You are the enemies of work; the job killers. They should throw you a parade in China; you have delivered world industrial leadership to them by driving it out of America. Enjoy your bratwurst.
Those of us who work rings around you are not ceding Labor Day to you just because you have the arrogance to claim it for yourselves. 93% of private sector workers choose to work free of union interference. Labor Day is our holiday, too. More of us are left-handed than belong to your unions. You are not even the most popular lefties in the workforce anymore.
Work is freedom of association put to the purpose of mutual prosperity. The exchange of one’s labor for capital is the most basic of capitalist transactions; it is the daily proof that we still own ourselves. That is indeed something to celebrate.
Celebrate workplace liberty this Labor Day. Enjoy yourselves.
Today in 1962, the Beatles recorded “Love Me Do,” taking 17 takes to do it right:
Three years later, the Beatles had the number one single …
… which referred to something The Who could have used, because on the same day the Who’s van was vandalized and $10,000 in musical equipment was stolen from them while they were buying … a guard dog:
Today in 1968, the Rolling Stones’ “Street Fighting Man” was banned in Chicago and other U.S. cities because the powers that be thought listeners were taking the song too literally:
The number one single in the U.S. today in 1971:
The number one single in the U.S. today in 1976:
The number one single today in 1982 on this side …
… and the other side of the Atlantic:
Birthdays begin with Merald “Bubba” Knight of Gladys Knight and the Pips:
Gene Parsons of The Byrds:
Gary Duncan and Greg Elmore of Quicksilver Messenger Service were born on the same day:
Martin Chambers played drums for the Pretenders:
Ty Longley, guitarist for Great White, who died with 99 fans in the 2003 nightclub fire in Warwick, R.I.:
The number one song in the U.S. today in 1955 was written 102 years earlier:
The number one song in the U.S. today in 1966:
Today in 1970, Arthur Brown demonstrated what The Crazy World of Arthur Brown was like by getting arrested at the Palermo Pop ’70 Festival in Italy for stripping naked and setting fire to his helmet during …
Today in 1982, the three-day-long Us Festival in San Bernardino, Calif., began, bankrolled by Apple Computer founder Steve Wozniak:
The number one song in the U.S. today in 1983:
Birthdays today start with Al Jardine of the Beach Boys:
On Sundays for the past few months, the two public television stations we get (one of which is part of Wisconsin Public Television, the other of which is not) has been carrying PBS’ “Masterpiece Mystery,” which is actually British TV’s police procedural contribution.
When Sunday’s installment of “Inspector Lewis” (which has been on since the end of “Zen,” whose three episodes made me want to see more) came on, I commented that “Masterpiece Mystery” starts our police TV-viewing week. The new “Hawaii Five-0” is on CBS on Mondays, the original “CSI” is on CBS on Wednesdays, “Rookie Blue” is on ABC on Thursdays, and until football started we would occasionally watch “Blue Bloods” on CBS on Fridays. (On Tuesdays it’s “Combat Hospital,” proving that there’s an exception to every rule, except that “Combat Hospital” followed “Detroit 187.”) On weekends, I watch the syndicated “CSI: Miami,” which stars David Caruso, who we watched on the first season of “NYPD Blue.”
My cop TV viewing goes back a long, long way, to two series that started in the 1960s: “Adam-12” …
… and the original “Hawaii Five-O.”
“Adam-12” was one of the creations of Jack Webb, who started by creating “Dragnet,” which I sporadically watched. One episode stuck in my brain early on, an episode sometimes called “The Big High” and sometimes called “Grass Kills,” about a marijuana-smoking couple who are too high to notice that their baby is drowning in a bathtub.
Another creation of Webb’s was a personal favorite, although it came and went in one season — “Chase,” about a special L.A. police unit assigned to cases too hot for regular cops to handle. I probably noticed the series most because of its cool theme music and because the series included a mag-wheel-equipped unmarked squad car, a motorcycle, a helicopter and a police dog.
The original “Hawaii Five-O,” meanwhile, ended as the longest-running police series in TV history, having cycled through its entire cast more than once except for star Jack Lord. I was somewhat skeptical about Five-O’s return given past rumors (including a 1990s recasting with Russell Wong and, of all people, Gary Busey). But as long as fans of the original make allowances for the updating, such as the non-square characters and their willingness to seriously bend or ignore the rules, they should enjoy the new “Five-0.”
Now that I think about it, my police TV viewing can be viewed as a continuum of YouTube clips, starting with officers Reed and Malloy …
… and McGarrett and the rest of the Five-O four …
… to really young cops …
… to the cops you call should you be bothered by, say, hostage situations …
… to detectives Starsky and Hutchinson …
… to Ponch and Jon …
… to the Hill Street Station in an unnamed city that looks suspiciously like Chicago …
… to much warmer Miami …
… back to Chicago …
… then to New York …
… then to another part of New York …
… then Baltimore …
… and back to L.A. …
… and, too briefly, in Detroit …
… and back in L.A.: …
… and back in Honolulu.
You may have noticed that Los Angeles keeps coming up. The fact that L.A. is where all the movie studios are would be the first explanation. But read a couple of novels of Joseph Wambaugh, former L.A. police officer, and you’ll find that L.A. has both geographic and personal diversity, the latter meaning enough aberrant personalities to provide at least one story on every street corner.
I’ve been known to watch cop TV that is older than I am as well. One of the most noteworthy early cop series was “The Naked City,” based on the movie of the same name:
I don’t remember Burt Reynolds’ one season as a New York detective in ABC’s “Hawk.” But a decade later, when Reynolds was one of the biggest movie stars of the day, NBC decided to reshow the series:
One thing you may have noticed about all these series, and even such series I didn’t mention here, like “Kojak” …
… features distinctive, dramatic theme music, written by such master composers as Elmer Bernstein (“The Rookies”), Mike Post (“NYPD Blue”) and Lalo Schifrin (the first “Starsky and Hutch,” among numerous others), and titles in which one of the stars is the setting of the series:.
And my cop TV viewing isn’t limited to the U.S. (Or North America, given that “Rookie Blue” is pretty obviously Canadian.) One benefit of the year I worked in New London was the New London library, which was part of the Fox Cities-area library system, which introduced me to a 1970s British cop series, “The Sweeney.”:
To come full circle to the lead, the star of “The Sweeney,” John Thaw, later played the title character in “Inspector Morse,” whose partner became the title character in “Inspector Lewis” after Thaw’s death:.
I’d watch Australian TV cops too, but their availability even on YouTube is dodgy.
So what is it about police TV, one of the oldest forms of radio and TV drama? Certainly everyone who ever played cops and robbers can relate to the real fictional thing. (Our house has enough weapons in it to stock a decent-sized police department, or a banana republic’s army.) A veteran police sergeant nicknamed “The Oracle” in the Wambaugh “Hollywood” police novels is quoted as telling new officers that “Doing good police work is the most fun you’ll ever have in your life.”
Whodunits appeal to the brain, unlike many other forms of entertainment (and certainly the oxymoronic term “reality TV”). Even if your vocational interest ended around the time you had to get glasses, most people can admire the idealized image of someone who defends victims and oppresses the bad guys.
We’re in the re-cycle, so to speak, of a trend that first started in the early 1970s — series about specialized cops beyond the traditional beat cops or detectives. The aforementioned “Chase” and “SWAT” were two examples; all the CSI series fit into that mold now.
But what is most compelling about good TV is not the stories; it’s the characters. Time was when my identification with a particular character depended on such things as his name (Steve McGarrett, natch) and heroic nature. Perhaps because I’m getting older, or perhaps because I can now discern good writing, I enjoy watching the cops like Andy Sipowicz of “NYPD Blue,” Lennie Briscoe of the first “Law & Order,” or John Munch of “Homicide” and “Law & Order: SVU.” (Or, to go off canon for a moment, Sam Axe of “Burn Notice.”) I suspect that in some alternative universe, Sipowicz and Briscoe are sitting in a Manhattan bar, drinking their club sodas (they were alcoholics) and trying to top each other with lurid stories about cases they’ve worked.
I have three TV cop projects floating around in my head, one of which could fit the current recycle:
“Black and White,” about two young detectives in 1968 New York. The white detective’s name is Black, and the black detective’s name is White, natch. It would be an interesting look at a turbulent, to say the least, period in our history from the perspective of two young members of the establishment, complete with period music, fashions, cars, etc. The theme music: The Undisputed Truth’s “Smiling Faces Sometimes.”
“DCI,” about agents of the Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation, which is responsible for “investigating crimes that are statewide in nature or importance,” including “homicide, arson, financial crimes, illegal gaming, multi-jurisdictional crimes, drug trafficking, computer crimes, homeland security, public integrity & government corruption as well as crimes against children.” That and various Wisconsin settings should be enough to fill a few seasons, right? Theme music: Something from a musical act with Wisconsin roots; perhaps the Bodeans?
An unnamed series about two older detectives who violate rules, rough up suspects, get involved in high-speed suspects and other frowned-upon police activity but are barely tolerated because they also have the highest clearance rate in the police force. Think of two Dirty Harrys in their late careers. Theme music: Perhaps this underappreciated Post work?
I’d be willing to work on a cop series for free if I could write the story that included the arrest of every reality TV “star,” beginning with the two-digit-IQ “stars” of “Jersey Shore.”
On the same day, the Erie Canal Soda Pop Festival was held on Bull Island in the Wabash River between Illinois and Indiana. The festival attracted four times the projected number of fans, three fans drowned in the Wabash River, and the remaining crowd ended the festival by burning down the stage:
Birthdays begin with Hugo Montenegro, who had a couple instrumental hits in the 1960s:
One-hit wonder Bobby Purify:
Joe Simon …
… was born the same day as Rosalind Ashford of Martha and the Vandellas:
Billy Preston:
Mik Kaminski played violin for the Electric Light Orchestra:
Today begins school in Ripon and in most of Wisconsin. So parents breathe a sigh of relief that the kids are finally out of the house, until they realize that now they have to get their children to their various after-school activities.
This has been an unusual summer for one glaring reason, and yet it hasn’t been unusual in the day-to-day things. All three kids went to summer school. All three played baseball (T-ball in Shaena’s case). All three went to church camp, Shaena with me. (Which was not how I expected to spend her summer vacation, although those three days were far from summerlike.) All three visited their grandparents, and we got back reports that made us wonder whose children they had. We didn’t go on vacation, in part for the aforementioned glaring reason, but I’m not sure the family is up to being locked inside a van for extended periods of time anyway. More than once, in fact, I’ve wondered how everyone would have gotten to everything had there been two working parents, particularly with the occasional added complication of orthodontist and veterinarian appointments.
But that’s so yesterday. Our family planning skills are so keen that this year we have three children going to three different schools — Ripon Middle School and Ripon’s 3–5 and K–2 schools — which will be the case for the next two school years starting today. The oldest two are going to new schools this year, and that brings along its one-day touch of anxiety.
Ripon has something that didn’t exist when we were in school — charter schools, which use project-based learning for kids who can learn better by doing. Michael was in Quest in its first year, and Dylan starts there today, although Quest has already put him to work building flower beds. I was elected to Quest’s board, because I was one of two candidates for two positions. I made the mistake of showing up for the first meeting 20 minutes late, so I’m the board’s president-elect.
The particular concern is that three-year horror known as middle school. My three years at Schenk Middle School were my three worst in any level of education by an order of magnitude. I had things stolen from me. I was on the losing end of altercations from people who decided for whatever reason that I should be their target. I got good grades, but good grades seemed to be a negative in middle school. I suddenly noticed interesting things about girls, but they of course wouldn’t give me the time of day.
Which wasn’t surprising, since I looked like this:
This is a photo of the top 10 finishers at the 1979 Madison City Spelling Bee. The kid on the lower right finished in second place. When he found out I was on Facebook, he sent this photo to me, along with the next day’s story …
I’m not sure what one does with a spelling bee title, other than notice typos in newspapers. I went into journalism; Yago went into academia, although he is, sadly for him, a Michigan Wolverine.
I used to think I had a uniquely bad middle school experience. Then I thought Madison middle schools were uniquely bad experiences. (Schenk at the time looked like a bad mix of “West Side Story,” Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species and Lord of the Flies … until I saw East High School.) My current theory, which may be modified after our three children survive middle school, is similar to making a bad dish — how good the recipe is cannot be overcome by bad ingredients. They’re too old for elementary school, but they aren’t mature enough for high school. Their bodies are changing in ways their brains can’t understand. Sixth grade (full of, according to my middle school band teacher, “sick graders”) might be the time that children start to realize the world around them, particularly their own homes, aren’t places where everything is OK with a kiss and a cookie. And, contrary to what has been suggested elsewhere, you cannot take an 11-year-old and put him or her in suspended animation for three years. And I’m not sure you can tell a middle-schooler who can’t understand why the world has turned against him anything better than that you have to stick it out.
What also will be different this year, and not just in Ripon, is, or are, the teachers. News reports indicate a record number of teacher retirements from school systems, which usually is blamed on the restrictions on public employee collective bargaining passed by the Legislature earlier this year. Michael is starting his seventh year in the school district, and only two of his previous six teachers are still working in the school district. The decision to retire or not is up to the individual, of course. But as long as the state’s public and private universities continue to produce education graduates, teachers to replace retiring teachers will be in plentiful supply.
The only story that comes to mind about the first day of school is from my first day in high school. I got through homeroom and the first three class periods and by 11:10 a.m. was really hungry. In La Follette’s pre-block-scheduling days, La Follette had three lunch periods — one between third and fourth hour, one between fourth and fifth hour, and one in the middle of fourth hour. Since no one had told me when I was scheduled to have lunch, I decided that since I was hungry, it was time to eat. After lunch, I went to my fourth-hour class discover that, no, I had the second lunch period, a conclusion I came to after I found the room dark and the door locked. Fortunately, there were no long-term academic repercussions. Unfortunately, after freshman year I had the last lunch period for the next three years.
The one sure thing is that, shortly after this new school year starts, students will have another song in mind:
Steve Prestegard.com: The Presteblog 
