Museum of Wisconsin Art

I think the Museum of Wisconsin Art -formerly known as the West Bend Art Museum- is an exemplar of what a relatively small museum can be. Under its former director, Tom Lidtke, it transformed from a one artist nonentity into the best of its kind. How? Litdke decided that while they would never have the resources to compete with the Milwaukee Art Museum or the Elvehjem Museum of Art (now the Chazen Museum of Art) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the museum could still be the best in the world at something if they focussed tightly enough.

He chose to make the museum the main storehouse of art and archives of Wisconsin artists who worked prior to 1950, the cut off date intended in part to reduce political infighting among living artists.

Lidtke succeeded brilliantly. After roughly 25 years of his guidance, the museum is the place to go for anything to do with Wisconsin art. It is also slowly moving to collect pre-European Wisconsin Indian art, and showing contemporary pieces as well. He spearheaded the new building on the east side of the river, making it more visible than the original, red brick former insurance agency building several blocks away, and going with a contemporary design.

When Tom Lidtke retired as the new building was finished, the museum hired a powerhouse curator from the Milwaukee Art Museum, Laurie Winters. If the membership numbers in this article are accurate, Winters has done quite a job of building on what Lidtke created.

Camping Gear: Shoe Organizer/Kitchen Organizer

Some of the 47 ideas on this site strike me as a bit lame or at best cute gimmicks, but using a plastic shoe organizer for the camp kitchen seems like a good one.

When we camp here on Oahu we take a 10 X 20 foot tent for the kitchen & shady, dry sitting area. The cooking gear goes into plastic bins for transport, and it can take some rummaging to find stuff. This might alleviate the problem.

N.B.: There are four pages of stuff. Clik on the title for more details.

DC Wants More Time To Ban Carrying Guns

It is pretty clear that the Capital of the Former Land of the Free will not go gentle into the hell of Constitutional government. They need more time to dream up regulations so draconian that no one will be able to carry a weapon for self defense against their political base.

Image 1453: View From Our Lanai

I shot this about a week ago. Plumbago and Rainbow Shower Tree make nice colors.

Why Women Get Paid Less Than Men

Clik here. What more does one need to know, by golly?

Distribution of Federal Surplus Weapons, County By County

This is an interesting interactive graphic courtesy of the NY Times. Run the cursor over a county to find out what they have gotten from the feds recently.

I grew up in Milwaukee, so I sampled some neighboring areas:

Kenosha: Assault rifles 83
Racine: Assault Rifles 42, Grenade Launchers 2
Milwaukee: Assault Rifles 68
Mequon: Assault Rifles 32, Armored vehicle: 1
Waukesha: Assault Rifles 119, Grenade Launcher: 1
Dane (Madison): Assault Rifles 440, Grenade Launcher: 1

I guess the Mequon people must be a buncha pacifist wimps: the Authorities need only 32 assault rifles and an armored vehicle to keep them in line. Dane County, on the other hand....those frat boys will never have another water balloon fight ever again. Or else.

How To Win A War: Kill Enough People

David P. Goldman in the Asia Times:

In all, one-quarter of military age Southern manhood died in the field, by far the greatest sacrifice ever offered up by a modern nation in war. General W T Sherman, the scourge of the South, explained why this would occur in advance. There existed 300,000 fanatics in the South who knew nothing but hunting, drinking, gambling and dueling, a class who benefited from slavery and would rather die than work for a living. To end the war, Sherman stated on numerous occasions these 300,000 had to be killed. Evidently Sherman was right. For all the wasteful slaughter of the last 18 months of the war, Southern commander Lee barely could persuade his men to surrender in April 1865. The Confederate president, Jefferson Davis, called for guerilla war to continue, and Lee's staff wanted to keep fighting. Lee barely avoided a drawn-out irregular war.

If Goldman is right, we have a great deal more killing to do in the Middle East.

Wars do not end when they are won, but when those who want to fight to the death find their wish has been granted. Sherman's 300,000 fanatics could not face the mediocre circumstances of a South without slaves and were willing to die for their way of life.

Three million Palestinians packed into a narrow strip of land one day may accept the modest fate of a small and impecunious people, but their young people do not seem ready to do so. We do not know how many ever will. The killing will continue for some time before we find out.

From the Islamist perspective, the war for a New Caliphate will continue until the fanatic infidels are all dead, and the rest have submitted.

Belgian Nuclear Power Plant Sabotage

According to this Reuters report, the sabotage was not to the nuclear portion of the facility, may have been committed by an insider, and appears serious enough to take the facility offline until the end of the year.

Electrabel said on Thursday the Doel 4 reactor had shut automatically on Aug. 5 following an oil leak in its steam turbine in the non-nuclear part of the plant. The firm said the leak had caused major damage to the turbine's high-pressure section.

"Based on this partial analysis, Doel 4 will certainly not be available before Dec. 31, 2014," Electrabel said....

Energy experts have raised the spectre of possible blackouts this winter...

Nothing like winter blackouts to make them more dependent on foreign countries.

Who Lost The Cities?

Kevin Williamson at National Review Online has some answers which should be pretty obvious.

Here.

Why Mike Brown's Robbery Matters, and Doesn't

Here.

Of course, little matters other than the narratives, and they are in conflict.

I wonder, though: Does an officer of the court (the Brown family lawyer) have any enforceable responsibility to not inflame public passions by calling the Brown shooting "an execution style murder"?