The Wisdom of the Game Warden

The Iowa DNR sometimes has its heart in the right place. It often has its head in the dark and malodorous wrong one.

There is some logic to not feeding wild animals, but I object to imprisoning barefoot boy with cheek of tan for the heinous crime of fishing with an angleworm.

Kiwi libertarians' tax protest

I've mentioned the New Zealand libertarians before, and I'll do it again. An active bunch. They seem to be in the midst of a productive tax protest discussion, and it can't hurt a thing to drop in and say "hi" to them.

If anything ought to be globalized, it's liberty.

After a certain point, one snow picture looks pretty much like another, but as a matter of record here is the Transient Officers Quarters structure, which also houses the Base Maintenance and Administration detachments, at Camp J. The scene was recorded on February 9, 2010 just as the most recent 6-8 inch snowfall ended.

Some of the natural drifts approach six feet. My crack meteorology squad measures an average depth on the flat of about 36 inches. Allowing for compaction and two days of slight melting, I estimate total local snowfall for the season well north of four feet. And this allows nothing for the two layers of ice, totaling perhaps an inch, sandwiched between the snow-event strata.

Please note the calm and measured tone of this report. I have not babbled. I have not sobbed. I have not even said (eff-word) winter. I consider this a major victory over self.

Frank Magid, RIP

We should note the passing of Frank Magid, the Iowa "consultant" almost single-handedly responsible for the demise of journalism on television and the substitution of happy talk news.

He became rich by understanding that numbskulls vastly outnumber smart people and advising television stations (and later networks) on how to win the maximum number of fools to the nightly newscasts. He did it with "surveys." He asked viewers if anchor Jane was prettier than anchor Jill. He had folks discuss whether Dan really looked nicer in a sweater .

The sum total of his recorded wisdom about news broadcast content was: "If any story runs more than one minute, the Russians had better be in New York Harbor."

It worked, and the advertisers loved it. This explains things like "L'Oreal, because you're worth it."

Frank, not to speak ill of the dead, and I appreciate that lunch back in the '70s, but you have one Hell of a lot to answer for.