Tom McMahon

Bruce Woolley, The Lost Buggle

Bruce Woolley, The Lost Buggle

Bruce Woolley, Trevor Horn, and Geoffrey Downes wrote Video Killed the Radio Star, broke up, Woolley formed the Camera Club, Horn and Downes formed The Buggles and went on to trivia immortality as the performers of the first video ever on MTV. Too bad. I've always agreed with Trouser Press which called The Buggles' work "technically stunning, reasonably catchy and crashingly hollow." But lucky for us aging baby boomers that they've re-issued the 1979 album by Bruce Woolley and the Camera Club. My favorite album of all time.

How to Kick Shirley S. Abrahamson Off of the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 2012 Without a Recall

Shirley S. Abrahamson was born December 17, 1933, so on her next birthday she will be 78 years old. So all Gov Walker and the Wisconsin State  Legislature need to do  is set the Judicial Retirement Age to 78. Pretty simple, eh?

Wisconsin State Constitution, Article VII, Section 24, part 2: "Unless assigned temporary service under subsection (3), no person may serve as a supreme court justice or judge of a court of record beyond the July 31 following the date on which such person attains that age, of not less than 70 years, which the legislature shall prescribe by law"

Old Shirley turns 78 on December 17, 2011, so her last day on the Court would be July 31, 2012.

David Prosser turns 78 on December 24, 2020, so under the new retirement age of 78 he would have to leave the Court on July 31, 2021. But that's when his current term ends anyway.

The rest of the Wisconsin Supreme Court Justices, with their birth dates and when their terms end. I'll let you do the math:

• N. Patrick Crooks (born May 16, 1938)[2016]
• Patience D. Roggensack (July 7, 1940) [2013]
• Ann Walsh Bradley (born July 5, 1950)[2015]
• Annete K Ziegler (born March 16, 1964) [2017]
• Michael J Gableman (born September 18, 1966)[2018]

Please forward this to all the Wisconsin Republicans you know. Thanks!

Only A Russian Could Have Made A Great Western Like The Magnificent Seven

Although he did a great job of keeping it secret, actor Yul Brynner was born in Vladivostok, Russia. From his son Rock Brynner's Empire and Odyssey: The Brynners in Far East Russia and Beyond :

No American film was ever so treasured and respected during the Soviet era, and that affection remains today. The Magnificent Seven became a national obsession in the USSR; people thronged to see the movie again and again. It was especially popular with teenage boys who, like Vladimir Putin, are today in their fifties and could recite every line of dialogue: after the first year, Soviet authorities prohibited children under sixteen from seeing The Magnificent Seven, reportedly because so many boys started shaving their heads. It was already a secular rite of passage for fathers to take their sons to see the film, and thanks to DVDs, that continues today. By now, The Magnificent Seven is more a part of the cultural heritage in Russia than it is in the United States. Recently, a renowned actor in the Moscow theater spoke to me with tears in his eyes, insisting that "only a Russian could have made a great western like The Magnificent Seven."

Belvidere, Illinois: The Jim Gang Memorial Bypass, Formerly the James Gang Memorial Bypass

Why they changed it:

And by the way, Jim Gang was the father of world-famous architect Jeanne Gang.

April 27 Tornado Outbreak: Why So Many Deaths?

April 27 Tornado Outbreak

Vince Condella:

The Storm Prediction Center and local National Weather Service offices did a terrific job highlighting the dangers of this weather systems. For several days in advance, residents of Mississippi and Alabama knew they were under the gun for tornado-producing thunderstorms.

The storms April 27 were fueled by strong wind shear due to a low-level jet stream from the south and a southwest-to-northeast flowing stream of high speed winds aloft. This created the wind shear (change of wind direction and/or wind speed with height) that provided strong lift and rotating supercell thunderstorms. The storms were moving very fast - up to 50 miles per hour in some cases. So many of these tornadoes could have simply reached people before they had a chance to get to shelter.

Power was also out when many of the tornadoes struck. That's because morning storms knocked out power and even broadcast towers for NOAA Weather Radio. When the afternoon storms struck, some people had to rely on text message warnings from the National Weather Service or their favorite TV station. And even some cell towers were destroyed in the first wave of storms.

And finally, so many of these tornadoes were powerful, probably EF3 or higher. When winds exceed 165 miles hour (EF4) or 200 miles per hour (EF5), there may be no way to escape. Even if you are in a place of safety, homes can be scraped clean off their concrete slabs. (Many homes in the south do not have basements.)

Obama Birth Certificate Debacle Proves Americans Are Powerless

Jeffrey Scott Shapiro:

Many Americans were shocked yesterday when President Obama finally released his long-form birth certificate from the state of Hawaii. The real surprise, however, is that for the past three years, our democratic institutions did not address the matter. The media refused to tackle this issue with the same investigative drive with which they investigated Watergate, President Clinton’s alleged indiscretions and the George W. Bush administration’s missteps in Iraq; the courts declined to hear a single case on the issue; and Congress failed to hold any hearings on the matter.

Perhaps the saddest part of this story is its ending.

Mr. Obama did not release the birth certificate because the media pressured him or because the courts actually listened to one of the many cases that were filed. He released it because an obsessed billionaire threatened his electability in 2012, which forces us to ask the question: What good are our democratic institutions if they don’t stand up for the people?

The Most Mysterious President In Modern History

The Washington Times:

Mr. Obama’s hostility to openness drives the public’s curiosity about the most basic facts of his life. For example, he has refused to release his college and law-school transcripts, information recent presidential candidates have openly shown the public despite some embarrassment over decades-old bad grades. What is there for this president to hide? Maybe he flunked government classes or got busted for dope. He has openly discussed his past drug use, but is there more to it? Secrecy breeds speculation. ...

The fact that Mr. Obama did his own dirty laundry reminds that this president has no inkling how to act presidential. Standing at the podium over the seal of the presidency, he claimed, “We don’t have time for this silliness.” He then flew to Chicago with Michelle to tape the Oprah Winfrey show and attend three fundraisers. It’s not as if he didn’t have more important news to discuss such as the appointments of Leon E. Panetta as secretary of defense and Gen. David H. Petraeus as CIA director, Middle East turmoil or America’s multiple wars. Let a flack handle the tabloid fare. The birth-certificate brouhaha reiterates an old political truth: It’s always the cover-up that causes the most trouble. Too bad Mr. Obama didn’t learn his lesson.

Austin Pendleton on Comedy

The Quote:

All the comedies I've done have been hard to film. Film is an anomalous environment for it because you don't know whether they're gonna laugh or not. So you're doing this stuff in total silence. Also comedy is hard to master. In theater when you do a comedy, you rehearse for a few weeks and you begin to feel the rhythm. In film it's an arbitrary rhythm usually that has to look like a truthful one to work. It's very pressured and difficult. I'm not complaining, I've been in some of the best comedies ever made. But I have never been on the set for a comedy where you don't feel like you were in trouble all the time. This is true of bad comedies I've been in and the good ones. You're just exhausted.

Holocaust Graph from Der Spiegel

Holocaust Graph from Der Spiegel

Anne Frank Had a Photo of Actress Deanna Durbin on Her Wall

Anne Frank Had a Photo of Actress Deanna Durbin on Her Wall

Anne Frank pasted pictures of Deanna Durbin (1921- ) to her bedroom wall in the Achterhuis where the Frank family hid during WW2. It's amazing to me that someone whom Anne Frank admired is still around today in 2011.

Eva Braun in Blackface

Eva Braun in Blackface

Eva Braun playing a black man as played by a Jewish man.

Elizabeth Louise Aronsen III

From the late Dr Elizabeth Aronsen:

When I graduated from high school I was asked how I wanted my name to appear on my diploma. Being a relative smartass and liking to poke cheetahs, I wrote in 'Elizabeth Louise Aronsen III' knowing that there could be no such thing in girls as there was in boys because women generally changed their last name when they got married. 

I assumed that the high school officials knew the same thing and would catch the joke. On graduation day my name appeared not only on the diploma as ELA III but on the program as well. Mother was asked by a number of people if I really was ELA III (I guess they didn't get the joke either) and finally she started answering them "Well, there's Rolf, then Jarl, and then Elizabeth so I guess she is the third." 

It continued on to my college and graduate school diplomas (advanced degrees don't mean they are any more savvy) and only stopped with my medical school degree because mother convinced me that I may not be able to obtain a license and practice medicine if I didn't have my legal name on my diploma. Jarl memorialized it one year in a gift of a pewter mug engraved with ELA III. Then when Erica was born she was named Erica Lynn Aronsen so, of course, she becomes ELA IV.

(Found on Facebook via John Tviet)

Historic Photo of Jay Weber and Vicki McKenna Meeting at 10 o'clock

Historic Photo of Jay Weber and Vicki McKenna Meeting at 10 o'clock

April 18, 2011

Wisconsin Per Pupil K-12 Spending vs Inflation, 1953-2008

Wisconsin Per Pupil K-12 Spending vs Inflation, 1953-2008

Bears Fan Dies While Watching The Bears-Packers Game on TV

That Bears Fan was my cousin Mark Ryan, with whom I shared a birthday. The Facebook message from his brother Mike:

Mark said was not feeling well and was in bed. He had told his son he would watch the Bears game with him so he came downstairs. He fell on the way down the stairs. They helped him up and Mark then lied down on the couch for the game. He had something to drink and said he was feeling better. A few minutes later he stopped breathing. The ambulance got him to the hospital quickly but they were not able to revive him. They do not know what the cause was as of yet. It was his 48th birthday this past Friday. I miss you Mark.

Life is indeed One Mixed Bag, eh?

Anatomy of a Tim Cuprisin Smear

Anatomy of a Tim Cuprisin Smear

See how he puts those tags right next to each other? It's the oldest trick in the book. The childish work of a petty, mean, vindictive person.