Month: November 2019
Over on my wife’s blog, cursive
Patti Logsdon’s County Board record
By Guest Blogger, Franklin Alderman Steve Taylor
Former Milwaukee County Supervisor
Considering election season is right around the corner I wanted to look at Patti Logsdon’s record and accomplishments. Let me start by saying that I didn’t find much of anything. In my six years on the Board I used a monthly e-newsletter, which she doesn’t do, to highlight each month I was in office. I also mailed out an annual newsletter to over 10,000 households summarizing legislation I sponsored and projects I shepherded successfully through the budget process. You can find these documents here.
Here is what I found by looking at her two newsletters: Not much in her 2018 edition except for an amendment to repair two small bridges costing $250,000. Here is the catch. She had to vote for the budget which increased your property taxes to get that amendment.
It is hard to imagine but her 2019 accomplishments are even more costly to the taxpayers. She highlights her support for the “Fair Deal” which raises the sales tax by 1%. She writes about bus routes the County Executive proposed cutting and leads us to believe she had something to do with restoring them. Not likely considering one of those routes went to the new Amazon development in Oak Creek (I pushed a land swap through the Board before I left) and during the budget it was removed from the budget by her colleagues, clearly showing how much support she has. Patti did end up voting against the budget but before she did, she voted for carrying over the property tax levy from previous years. Those two votes contradict themselves so either she cut a deal (2/3 votes needed to exceed use of carryforward tax levy limit capacity as authorized by State Statutes) or was simply confused.
I am sure some will read this and wonder why I am writing about her record. My response would be what record? Some may wonder why even write about her at all. The answer is simple. You see she ran as a “real conservative” but her actions tell a different story. Pro-property tax hike in 2018, Pro-tax levy increase in 2019, Pro-sales tax increase in 2019 (Republican leadership in Madison opposes) and I forgot to mention Pro-marijuana (she doesn’t write about that anywhere). Where is the outrage from talk radio? If I supported any of the above, I would have been ripped. With “conservatives” Dan Sebring (bankrupt much?) and Deanna Alexander (Fraud) not running who will guide her down that “conservative” path? Clearly her actions show she isn’t capable even with that guidance.
That is why I am writing about her record because someone must.
Today’s highly interesting read (11/26/19): How Trump Clinches Re-Election
Today’s read is from Wayne Allyn Root, a CEO, entrepreneur, best-selling author, and nationally-syndicated talk show host. The obligatory tease….
Smart minds understand impeachment is already dead. Trump won. Democrats lost. To paraphrase the late O.J. attorney Johnny Cochrane, “If the glove don’t fit, the Senate must acquit.” So why waste any more space in this column on impeachment?
Trump is sitting pretty. Now he needs to make one simple announcement to guarantee re-election by an electoral landslide. He needs to announce a…
Read the entire column to find out.
The latest pro-life news (11/25/19)
THIS WEEKLY BLOG PROMOTES A CULTURE OF LIFE
Don’t miss our closing heartwarming story every week!
ALSO:
Elizabeth Warren Calls Killing Babies in Abortions a “Human Right,” Abortion Activists Cheer
Defunding Planned Parenthood was the easy part
67% of Babies With Down Syndrome Die in Abortions. This Must End
AND FINALLY, LOVIN’ LIFE…
Teacher adopts student with Down syndrome after his mom dies of cancer
12 Thanksgiving pregnancy announcement ideas
Thank you for reading!
Groundbreaking today for major project at Franklin’s Ballpark Commons
Today Franklin Mayor Steve Olson attended and spoke at the groundbreaking for Velo Village, a luxury apartment community within the Ballpark Commons mixed-use development in Franklin. When complete, Velo Village will be comprised of 265 apartment homes in five modern residential buildings with a stand-alone clubhouse that has 3,100 square feet of programmed amenity space and an outdoor swimming pool.
Earlier I blogged that Olson attended a ceremony for a different project, one that involved senior housing that Olson opposed. No such ceremony took place. My apologies for the error.
Having said that
Let’s see what happens at the 2020 ceremony for that other project that involves senior living that Olson ripped the hell out of.
WTMJ’s Steve Scaffidi thinks the recent behavior of my family, and possibly yours, is ‘insane’
Scaffidi was just opening his program about a week or 10 days ago (good guy, was a great mayor, but just hasn’t grown or developed into a really, really accomplished talk show host) when he made what I thought was a rather surprising statement.
Let’s put it this way. Scaffidi would be shaking his head if he had paid a visit to my home in the past week or so when he would have seen our Christmas decorations along with multiple trees. Not because they’re tacky (they’re not), or over the top (they’re not). It’s the simple fact that they’re already up. Scaffidi was flabbergasted at the very notion, saying on air this whole idea was “insane” because “it’s not even Thanksgiving.”
I guess I missed the memo about that particular rule. Lots of homes in my subdivision have their outdoor lights going as well. Apparently, using Scaffidi’s logic, those neighbors are suffering from a disordered state of mind.
Scaffidi is not alone. A 2015 poll by Confused.com found that more than 86 percent of people said that the entire month of November was too early to put up decorations. But science disagrees.
“It create[s] that neurological shift that can produce happiness,” says psychologist Deborah Serani. “Christmas decorating will spike dopamine, a feel-good hormone.”
“In a world full of stress and anxiety people like to associate to things that make them happy and Christmas decorations evoke those strong feelings of the childhood,” says psychologist Steve McKeown.
There’s also a school of thought that asserts if neighbors see you putting up Christmas decorations they consider you as being sociable and approachable.
Look, Scaffidi is more than OK to issue an opinion. He’s talk show host for heaven’s sake, and his viewpoint certainly isn’t evil or cruel. But ‘insane’ is not how I would describe Christmas early birds.
I close with this wonderful story.
Today’s highly interesting read (11/25/19) : Let’s talk this Thanksgiving
Seriously, columnist Tom Purcell says a food fight this Thanksgiving is a good and much-needed idea.
Look, Thanksgiving is supposed to be a day of coming together and showing gratitude for our many blessings. Regrettably, in our highly agitated state, tensions between left- and right-leaning folks and everyone in between are ruining our holiday meals.
So this year, let the mashed potatoes fly!
My Most Popular Blogs (11/25/19)
Here are my most popular blogs from last week, Sunday – Saturday:
1) Steve Taylor reacts to Deanna Alexander’s latest announcement
2) Friday Night Forgotten Oldie: From X-rated to PG
3) Best Memes of the Week (11/17/19)
4) The Barking Lot – America’s Finest Dog Blog (11/23/19)
5) Goodnight everyone, and have a Bring on the Holidays weekend!
6) Who was that woman on The Flintstones?
7) Today’s highly interesting read (11/21/19): Foiled by Fall Foliage
8) Photos of the Week (11/17/19)
9) 2ND UPDATE: The death of newspapers?
Culinary no-no #633
Culinary no-no began on Father’s Day 2007, a beautiful summer day, when I wrote about grilling brats. And eating brats. And topping those brats. I was inspired by my wife, Jennifer who, in my admittedly unscientific opinion, ruins brats by squirting ketchup on them. Other dining taboos quickly came to mind. The original idea was to take this concept only a few months, till the end of summer and then pull the plug. Then the unexpected happened. People started reading Culinary no-no. Lots of folks. So we keep doing the no-no.
An amazing American success story is..
S. Truett Cathy started the business in 1946, when he and his brother, Ben, opened an Atlanta diner known as The Dwarf Grill. In 1967, Cathy founded and opened the first Chick-fil-A restaurant in Atlanta.
At the time of Truett’s death in 2014 Chick-fil-A had more than 1,800 restaurants in 40 states (plus the District of Columbia). Today, Chick-fil-A has the highest same-store sales and is the largest quick-service chicken restaurant chain in the United States based on annual system-wide sales.
Chick-fil-A’s purpose statement reads, “To glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that is entrusted to us and to have a positive influence on all who come into contact with Chick-fil-A.” Truett decided to close his restaurant on Sundays in 1946, more than 20 years before Chick-fil-A was born. He believed that his employees should join him to rest and worship if they wanted.
The franchise’s mission and Sunday closings led to a strong and loyal following, but vocal opposition erupted in 2012 when the company’s current CEO, Dan Cathy, son of founder Truett Cathy, shared his views on gay marriage.
“Well, guilty as charged,” said Cathy when asked about the company’s position. “We are very much supportive of the family — the biblical definition of the family unit. We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives. We give God thanks for that. We operate as a family business … our restaurants are typically led by families; some are single. We want to do anything we possibly can to strengthen families. We are very much committed to that. We intend to stay the course. We know that it might not be popular with everyone, but thank the Lord, we live in a country where we can share our values and operate on biblical principles.”
The gay and LGBTQ communities protested. Then in 2019 the nation learned that Chick-Fil-A made charitable donations to anti-LGBTQ organizations, adding fuel to the fire.
So Chick-fil-A generated more shockwaves when the Chick-fil A Foundation announced on November 18 that it would dedicate $9 million to these initiatives in 2020:
- Education: To support education, we are expanding our partnership with Junior Achievement USA (JA). JA offers kindergarten to 12th grade programs that foster work-readiness, entrepreneurship and financial literacy skills, and use experiential learning to inspire students to dream big and reach their potential. The organization reaches nearly 5 million students annually.
- Homelessness: To address youth homelessness, we are expanding our partnership with Covenant House International. For more than four decades, Covenant House has helped transform and save the lives of more than a million homeless, runaway and trafficked young people – reaching 70,000 youth each year.
- Hunger: To fight hunger, we will support more than 120 communities by dedicating $25,000 to a local food bank at each new Chick-fil-A opening.
Chick-fil-A also stated “The new initiative will no longer include donating to organizations like the Salvation Army, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and the Paul Anderson Youth Home.”
Reaction from previous Chick-fil-A backers was swift.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott was angry and promised to have his dinner at a different local restaurant instead.
Former Alabama governor turned media commentator Mike Huckabee called the announcement a “sell out to the LEFT and a betrayal to loyal customers.”
Tony Perkins, president of the conservative Christian Family Research Council said . “Every time someone ate there they were making a cultural statement. This company — a brave holdout for so many years — is running away from the people and principles that made them who they are. Chick-fil-A didn’t just compromise their witness. They dragged thousands of godly men and women into the pit with them — owners, employees, and franchisees who never signed up for this. They’re the ones the company abandoned.”
Alas, poor Chick-fil-A, was also pounded from both sides.
“When Chick-Fil-A apologizes directly to the LGBTQ community and begins to donate to pro-LGBTQ causes, then I will eat there. Not one second before,” said Drew Anderson of GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation).
Others complained the new initiative should have spent more.
Top brass at Chick-fil-A should have realized you can’t appease the Left. If they hated you yesterday they will hate you today and continue hating you tomorrow. And whatever Chick-fil-A would decide to donate to new organizations it wasn’t going to be enough. It never is.
Meanwhile any plans to boycott (this time by the Right) would be foolish. From a Culinary no-no this past June:
The American Customer Service Index (ACSI) just released its survey results for America’s top fast food restaurant.
The ACSI questioned 23,000 consumers using a 100-point scale. Customers were asked to rate fast-food restaurants on the following:
Accuracy
Food quality
Menu variety
Cleanliness
Staff behavior
The top restaurant scored an 86. For the 4th consecutive year, Chick-fil-A was #1.
The hostile opposition to Chick-fil-A is well-documented because of the owner’s Christian beliefs. But the chain has a strong loyal following. From Twitter:
Say what you will about their politics, you can’t argue with the customer service. I once saw a drive through cashier literally chase a car down in open traffic to correct someone’s order.
William McClelland @willmcclelland
If you’re going the fast food route, there are tastier options (they’re still very good) but they beat every other chain hands down in the employee friendliness department. The person taking your order doesn’t act like they hate you and their job.
All the protests, kiss-ins and demonstrations have failed miserably.
Chick-fil-A is the most profitable fast-food chain in the U.S. on a per-unit basis, with a single Chick-fil-A franchise earning an average of $4.1 million in annual sales, according to QSR Magazine. By comparison, the average unit volume at a KFC location is $1.2 million. The Wall Street Journal called Chick-fil-A “one of the fastest-growing domestic fast-food chains, with more than 2,400 U.S. restaurants. Its crispy fried-chicken sandwich and focus on speed and service have found fans well beyond its Southern base in recent years.”
This Just In... From Franklin, WI 