HDC proposes changes to Giddings' ORC

Anne Giddings' Ordinance Review Committee met tonight. I attended the discussion regarding the Historic District Commission.

Considering the concerns of many HD residents, the HDC suggested some changes. In particular, the HDC is recommending:

1) elaborating on the definition of the phrase "minor change"and

2) allowing for one staff member to the HDC and one HDC member to determine if something falls within that definition.

I know the sole staff member. So my immediate question was:

Who is the HDC member?

The answer was that the intention is for the Chair -- and the Vice Chair, when the Chair is unavailable -- to make the determinations on "minor changes."

The goal of this change would be to reduce approval time for minor changes in household upkeep.

But in another light, it increases the power of the Chairman. And that's not something to which I'm particularly favorable.

Tim White

Buchanan on the Ordinance Review / HDC meeting

The MRJs Jesse Buchanan wrote a piece on the difficult relationship between the Historic District Commission and Historic Disctrict residents.

Tim White

Lexington & the shot heard round-the-word

The shot heard round-the-world occurred on April 19, 1775 in Lexington, Massachusetts.

From Wikipedia:

The Siege of Boston (April 19, 1775 – March 17, 1776) was the opening phase of the American Revolutionary War, in which New England militiamen—who later became part of the Continental Army—surrounded the town of Boston, Massachusetts, to prevent movement by the British Army garrisoned within. The Americans, led by George Washington, eventually forced the British to withdraw from the town after an 11-month siege.

The siege began on April 19 after the battles of Lexington and Concord, when the militia from many Massachusetts communities surrounded Boston and blocked land access to the then-peninsular town, limiting British resupply to naval operations. The Continental Congress chose to adopt the militia and form the Continental Army, and unanimously elected George Washington as its Commander in Chief. In June 1775, the British seized Bunker and Breeds Hills, but the casualties they suffered were so heavy that they could not break the siege.

And from Schoolhouse Rock:



Tim White

Avatar in 3D

Wow!



Only bummer was that I kept thinking about President Andy Jackson's own Trail of Tears:

The Trail of Tears was the relocation and movement of Native Americans, including many members of the Cherokee, Creek, Seminole,and Choctaw nations among others in the United States, from their homelands to Indian Territory (present day Oklahoma) in the Western United States. The phrase originated from a description of the removal of the Choctaw Nation in 1831. Many Native Americans suffered from exposure, disease, and starvation while en route to their destinations, and many died, including 4,000 of the 15,000 relocated Cherokee.

But aside from that bummer, the movie was incredible.

Tim White

Wikipedia's version of the 1953 coup d'etat in Iran - part 4

With Iran being all over America's 2009 headlines for production of nuclear material... and current reports of significant civil unrest there... I offer the fourth of an ongoing piece on the 1953 Iranian coup d'etat that I found on Wikipedia.

Wikipedia clearly notes that this piece has both its neutrality and factual accuracy disputed. Nonetheless, this perspective on history may be useful in understanding US-Iran relations. And I'm doing this as much for my own edification, as for anyone else who may be interested. These posts are not intended to indicate my agreement or disagreement with anything written.

US support and funding continued after the coup, with the CIA training the Shah's secret police, SAVAK. Originally, the Eisenhower Administration considered Operation Ajax a "successful secret war", but, given its blowback, that assessment is no longer generally held, because of the coup's "haunting and terrible legacy".[16] The coup d’état was "a critical event in post-war world history" that replaced Iran’s native, and secular parliamentary democracy with an authoritarian monarchy.[17] The coup is widely believed to have significantly contributed to the 1979 Iranian Revolution, which deposed the Shah and replaced the pro-Western monarchy with the anti-Western Islamic Republic of Iran.[18]

Tim White

Wikipedia's version of the 1953 coup d'etat in Iran - part 3

With Iran being all over America's 2009 headlines for production of nuclear material... and current reports of significant civil unrest there... I offer the third of an ongoing piece on the 1953 Iranian coup d'etat that I found on Wikipedia.

Wikipedia clearly notes that this piece has both its neutrality and factual accuracy disputed. Nonetheless, this perspective on history may be useful in understanding US-Iran relations. And I'm doing this as much for my own edification, as for anyone else who may be interested. These posts are not intended to indicate my agreement or disagreement with anything written.

The economic and political crisis in Iran that began in early 1952 with the British-organized worldwide boycott of Iranian oil, ended with the signing of the Consortium Agreement of 1954. Pahlavi signed the agreement with the result that, for the first time, United States oil companies shared in the control of Iranian oil, with the U.S. and UK evenly splitting 80% and the remainder divided between French and Dutch interests. Iran was allocated 50% of the revenues, which was an increase from 16% in the original agreement.[12] However, from Iran's perspective, the Consortium Agreement of 1954 was far less favorable than conditions set forth several months earlier in the joint 'Winston Churchill-Dwight D. Eisenhower' proposal to Mosaddegh.[13][14][15] After the coup, the Consortium Agreement of 1954 ended the crisis, and stayed in effect until it was modified in 1957 and 1973 and then ended in 1979 when the Iranian Revolution deposed the monarch.

Tim White

Wikipedia's version of the 1953 coup d'etat in Iran - part 2

With Iran being all over America's 2009 headlines for production of nuclear material... and current reports of significant civil unrest there... I offer the second of an ongoing piece on the 1953 Iranian coup d'etat that I found on Wikipedia.

Wikipedia clearly notes that this piece has both its neutrality and factual accuracy disputed. Nonetheless, this perspective on history may be useful in understanding US-Iran relations. And I'm doing this as much for my own edification, as for anyone else who may be interested. These posts are not intended to indicate my agreement or disagreement with anything written.

Two years earlier, in 1951, Mosaddeq, backed by his nationalist supporters in the Iranian parliament and throughout Iran, had angered Britain with his argument that Iran should begin profiting from its vast oil reserves instead of allowing profits to continue to flow to Britain. In 1951, Iran's Parliament, the Majlis, nationalized Iran's oil industry and then elected Mosaddeq as prime minster. Since 1913, the oil industry in Iran had been controlled exclusively by the British government-controlled Anglo-Iranian Oil Company,[6][7] the UK's single largest overseas investment.[8] The ejection of the British staff of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC) from the nationalized refineries in Iran triggered a crisis at Abadan, the world's largest refinery, in what came to be called the Abadan Crisis.[9] Britain accused Mosaddeq of violating the legal rights of the AIOC and mobilized a worldwide boycott of Iran's oil that plunged Iran into financial crisis. "After Iran nationalized the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company May 2, 1951, Britain assembled an armada made up of its Navy, Air Force and army to seize the island of Abadan in order to reclaim control of the oil refinery but Prime Minister Clement Attlee declined to attack, choosing instead to enforce the economic boycott against Iran.[10] The British government, headed by Winston Churchill, tried to enlist the United States in planning a coup, but President Harry S. Truman refused. Under his successor, Dwight D. Eisenhower, however, the CIA embarked on its first covert operation to overthrow a foreign government.[11]

Tim White

Wikipedia's version of the 1953 coup d'etat in Iran

With Iran being all over America's 2009 headlines for production of nuclear material... and current reports of significant civil unrest there... I offer the first of an ongoing piece on the 1953 Iranian coup d'etat that I found on Wikipedia.

Wikipedia clearly notes that this piece has both its neutrality and factual accuracy disputed. Nonetheless, this perspective on history may be useful in understanding US-Iran relations. And I'm doing this as much for my own edification, as for anyone else who may be interested. These posts are not intended to indicate my agreement or disagreement with anything written.

The 1953 Iranian coup d’état deposed the democratically elected government of Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mosaddeq.[1][2][3]

The United States' Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) overthrew the government of the popular Prime Minister Mosaddeq at the request of, and with support from the British government. In what the CIA called Operation Ajax, the U.S. enabled Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to become an authoritarian monarch[4], who went on to rule Iran for 26 years until he was overthrown in 1979.[5]

Tim White

Click thru to the Wikipedia page to see the references.

Historical Society holiday open house postponed

I just got a call from the Historical Society. Due to the snow, their holiday open house has been postponed until next week.

Tim White

Dorgan was right; Dodd & Lieberman were wrong

Regarding the financial meltdown, the Huffington Post's Dan Froomkin offers a necessary review of history:

He got it right last time.

Senator Byron Dorgan, Democrat of North Dakota, was one of eight senators who stood up to oppose the repeal of the Glass-Steagall act in 1999. That repeal, which was signed into law by President Clinton exactly 10 years ago today, broke down the barriers between commercial banking and investment banking, and led to the growth of behemoth financial firms that were able to take enormous risks with impunity, because they were "too big to fail."

"I think we will in 10 years' time look back and say we should not have done this," Dorgan said back then.

Byron Dorgan in his own words:



The US Senate's GLBA (Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act) roll call is here. Who were the eight voting nay?

Boxer (D-CA)
Bryan (D-NV)
Dorgan (D-ND)
Feingold (D-WI)
Harkin (D-IA)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Shelby (R-AL)
Wellstone (D-MN)

Among those voting yea:

Dodd (D-CT)
Lieberman (D-CT)

GLBA was a mistake. I'm glad to see the Banking Committee's ranking Republican got it right... though the rest of them were apparently out to lunch when this got discussed.

It's also worth noting that the Gramm in GLBA is Phil Gramm. He was an economic advisor to John McCain in 2008.

Tim White

Civil War reenactment at Bartlem Park on Saturday

From the MRJs Jesse Buchanan:

The Second Connecticut Volunteer Heavy Artillery, a group of Civil War reenactors, will camp at Bartlem Park on South Main St. across from Cheshire High School Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Tim White

Dems TPM – Chief Justice Steele is wrong!

FWIW, I've already sincerely apologized to Laura for inappropriate anonymous comments on my blog. I’ve also deleted the comments. I took both actions as soon as the inappropriate comments were brought to my attention.

But not-so-surprisingly, it appears to be the TalkingPointsMemo being used in this campaign.

Personally, I wish that at tonight’s forum candidates had focused on the issues – not distractions – and spoken more about how they intend to improve the town. For instance, how do candidates intend to address the Town’s low employee morale? This is particularly concerning when it comes to public safety.

Regardless, here are some quotes from the AP article (by Randall Chase) regarding the Delaware decision favoring the free speech rights of an anonymous blogger over the rights of a public official:

(Supreme Court Chief Justice Myron) Steele described the Internet as a "unique democratizing medium unlike anything that has come before," and said anonymous speech in blogs and chat rooms in some instances can become the modern equivalent of political pamphleteering...

Steele noted in his opinion that plaintiffs in such cases can use the Internet to respond to character attacks and "generally set the record straight," and that, as in Cahill's case, blogs and chatrooms tend to be vehicles for people to express opinions, not facts.

"Given the context, no reasonable person could have interpreted these statements as being anything other than opinion. ... The statements are, therefore, incapable of a defamatory meaning," he wrote.

I’m not sure where CT stands on this. Frankly though, I’m baffled as to why Dems are suggesting that Chief Justice Myron Steele is wrong. Nonetheless, I remain focused on the issues facing Cheshire’s fourth district, as well as the whole town.

Tim White

UPDATE: And despite the obvious implication of the letter in today's Herald, I did not post the inappropriate comments about Laura.

"He who goes borrowing, goes sorrowing" - Ben Franklin

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard of the London Telegraph reports on China's unease with US monetary policy:

Cheng Siwei, former vice-chairman of the Standing Committee and now head of China's green energy drive, said Beijing was dismayed by the Fed's recourse to "credit easing"....

"If they keep printing money to buy bonds it will lead to inflation, and after a year or two the dollar will fall hard. Most of our foreign reserves are in US bonds and this is very difficult to change, so we will diversify incremental reserves into euros, yen, and other currencies," he said....

"The US spends tomorrow's money today," he said. "We Chinese spend today's money tomorrow. That's why we have this financial crisis."

"He who goes borrowing, goes sorrowing," said Mr Cheng.

It was a quote from US founding father Benjamin Franklin.

Oh wait... silly me. President Bush's failed economic team President Obama's failed economic team (Bernanke and Geithner) said "Trust us. Just do as we say and everything will be fine."

Whether America experiences more deflation or inflation over the next few years, one thing is certain: America's standard of living is going to fall. I just hope the politicians in Washington are honest about it. The sooner they get past the denial stage, the sooner we'll head toward a robust recovery.

Tim White

A childhood memory

The NHR has article about a fellow named Jerry Ellison. My dad mentioned the article to me tonight.

I just thought I'd post it here since it brought back fond childhood memories. When I was little, my dad would bring me to see Jerry on Saturday mornings. They'd chat for a little while... then my dad would bring me across the street to the emporium... where he'd buy me some penny candy. Ha! Imagine getting anything for a penny today?! And thirty years later, I frequent the same area... about 50 yards to the west....

And though I wasn't thinking about it when I started writing this post about 60 seconds ago... I can't help but think... ah... yes... Mr. Bernanke, your Federal Reserve truly has protected the value of the dollar. We're so lucky to have your printing presses!

Tim White

Common Sense by Thomas Paine (53/53)

As I've previously discussed here, anonymity on the web and on this blog is appropriate. After all, our Founding Fathers hid behind pseudonyms routinely. In this ongoing piece, I'm highlighting one of the more famous anonymous writings from a Founding Father - Common Sense by Thomas Paine.

O ye that love mankind! Ye that dare oppose, not only the tyranny, but the tyrant, stand forth! Every spot of the old world is overrun with oppression. Freedom hath been hunted round the globe. Asia, and Africa, have long expelled her. — Europe regards her like a stranger, and England hath given her warning to depart. O! receive the fugitive, and prepare in time an asylum for mankind.

I now see how Thomas Paine helped inspire the birth of our nation.

Tim White

Common Sense by Thomas Paine (52/53)

As I've previously discussed here, anonymity on the web and on this blog is appropriate. After all, our Founding Fathers hid behind pseudonyms routinely. In this ongoing piece, I'm highlighting one of the more famous anonymous writings from a Founding Father - Common Sense by Thomas Paine.

Ye that tell us of harmony and reconciliation, can ye restore to us the time that is past? Can ye give to prostitution its former innocence? Neither can ye reconcile Britain and America. The last cord now is broken, the people of England are presenting addresses against us. There are injuries which nature cannot forgive; she would cease to be nature if she did. As well can the lover forgive the ravisher of his mistress, as the continent forgive the murders of Britain. The Almighty hath implanted in us these unextinguishable feelings for good and wise purposes. They are the guardians of his image in our hearts. They distinguish us from the herd of common animals. The social compact would dissolve, and justice be extirpated from the earth, or have only a casual existence were we callous to the touches of affection. The robber, and the murderer, would often escape unpunished, did not the injuries which our tempers sustain, provoke us into justice.

Amazing. Absolutely amazing. So powerful.

Tim White

Common Sense by Thomas Paine (51/53)

As I've previously discussed here, anonymity on the web and on this blog is appropriate. After all, our Founding Fathers hid behind pseudonyms routinely. In this ongoing piece, I'm highlighting one of the more famous anonymous writings from a Founding Father - Common Sense by Thomas Paine.

To talk of friendship with those in whom our reason forbids us to have faith, and our affections wounded through a thousand pores instruct us to detest, is madness and folly. Every day wears out the little remains of kindred between us and them, and can there be any reason to hope, that as the relationship expires, the affection will increase, or that we shall agree better, when we have ten times more and greater concerns to quarrel over than ever?

Tim White

Common Sense by Thomas Paine (50/53)

As I've previously discussed here, anonymity on the web and on this blog is appropriate. After all, our Founding Fathers hid behind pseudonyms routinely. In this ongoing piece, I'm highlighting one of the more famous anonymous writings from a Founding Father - Common Sense by Thomas Paine.

A government of our own is our natural right: And when a man seriously reflects on the precariousness of human affairs, he will become convinced, that it is infinitely wiser and safer, to form a constitution of our own in a cool deliberate manner, while we have it in our power, than to trust such an interesting event to time and chance. If we omit it now, some, Massanello may hereafter arise, who laying hold of popular disquietudes, may collect together the desperate and discontented, and by assuming to themselves the powers of government, may sweep away the liberties of the continent like a deluge. Should the government of America return again into the hands of Britain, the tottering situation of things, will be a temptation for some desperate adventurer to try his fortune; and in such a case, what relief can Britain give? Ere she could hear the news, the fatal business might be done; and ourselves suffering like the wretched Britons under the oppression of the Conqueror. Ye that oppose independence now, ye know not what ye do; ye are opening a door to eternal tyranny, by keeping vacant the seat of government. There are thousands, and tens of thousands, who would think it glorious to expel from the continent, that barbarous and hellish power, which hath stirred up the Indians and Negroes to destroy us, the cruelty hath a double guilt, it is dealing brutally by us, and treacherously by them.

Tim White

Common Sense by Thomas Paine (49/53)

As I've previously discussed here, anonymity on the web and on this blog is appropriate. After all, our Founding Fathers hid behind pseudonyms routinely. In this ongoing piece, I'm highlighting one of the more famous anonymous writings from a Founding Father - Common Sense by Thomas Paine.

But where says some is the King of America? I'll tell you Friend, he reigns above, and doth not make havoc of mankind like the Royal Brute of Britain. Yet that we may not appear to be defective even in earthly honors, let a day be solemnly set apart for proclaiming the charter; let it be brought forth placed on the divine law, the word of God; let a crown be placed thereon, by which the world may know, that so far as we approve as monarchy, that in America THE LAW IS KING. For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be King; and there ought to be no other. But lest any ill use should afterwards arise, let the crown at the conclusion of the ceremony be demolished, and scattered among the people whose right it is.

Wow. It took me a second to understand this, but wow. This is amazingly powerful. I can see how Thomas Paine inspired a nation.

Tim White

Common Sense by Thomas Paine (48/53)

As I've previously discussed here, anonymity on the web and on this blog is appropriate. After all, our Founding Fathers hid behind pseudonyms routinely. In this ongoing piece, I'm highlighting one of the more famous anonymous writings from a Founding Father - Common Sense by Thomas Paine.

Should any body of men be hereafter delegated for this or some similar purpose, I offer them the following extracts from that wise observer on governments Dragonetti. "The science" says he "of the politician consists in fixing the true point of happiness and freedom. Those men would deserve the gratitude of ages, who should discover a mode of government that contained the greatest sum of individual happiness, with the least national expense."

"Dragonetti on virtue and rewards."

Tim White