Commentary Update for September 23, 2003

1. This week's show
2. Jay Heck on Public Radio today
3. Road Trip Car Wash Today
4. Dave Ranney Reminder
5. This Machine Kills Fascists
6. Simile of the week
7. Bert Grover Blasts UW System Administration

1. This week's show: Winnebago County Executive Jane Van De Hey joins us for a discussion of budget, jail, health, and other issues.
2. Jay Heck on Public Radio Today: Today, Tuesday, September 23rd, Jay Heck of Common Cause In Wisconsin (CC/WI) will provide an hour of analysis and take questions about the prospects for campaign finance reform during the Fall legislative floor session of the Wisconsin Legislature beginning at 3:00 PM on Wisconsin Public Radio's "Ideas Network."
3. Road Trip Car Wash Today: From Amy Doty, lead singer of Commentary's favorite local rock and roll band Road Trip: "I'm having a car wash at my house on Tuesday at 4 PM to raise money for my upcoming kids CD! If you need your car washed, come over between 4 and 6. Hope to see you here. 2060 Witzel Ave, behind Fleet Farm."
4. Dave Ranney Reminder: Just a reminder that author Dave Ranney will be at UW Oshkosh tomorrow at 7 p.m. in the Reeve Union Theater to introduce and lead a post-viewing discussion of the film Life and Debt. Dr. Ranney is the author of Global Decisions, Local Collisions.
5. This Machine Kills Fascists: In the Rhetoric of Music class I am teaching, this week we are talking about the folk music tradition. In brushing up on Woody Guthrie, I came across this picture of him with the inscription "This Machine Kills Fascists" on his guitar. Gotta love that. I suppose anyone offended by it can go Folk Themselves.
6. Simile of the Week: Warren Bluhm in the Green Bay News Chronicle, in an essay celebrating the life of Johnny Cash called "Johnny Cash's Private Armageddon.": "As time goes on, I think that while it's interesting to speculate about Armageddon - that final struggle between good and evil that's described in mysterious terms in the book of Revelation - we each spend our lives in kind of a private Armageddon. Every day we can decide whether we're going to seek the truth or chase after the beast. Sometimes it's an easy choice, and sometimes it's like walking a tightrope over a ring of fire. No one knows the day and hour of the 'real' apocalypse; no one knows the day and hour of his own death, but the choices are the same, just on a different scale."
7. Bert Grover Blasts UW System Administration: Former Wisconsin State Superintendent of Instruction Bert Grover has become increasingly vocal in his criticisms of the UW System Corporate Toadying administration, as noted in this piece by Rob Zaleski.