Operation Sealion (4 May 2008)

We will be talking about the pending land-grab as Northfield seeks to obtain more lebensraum from the peaceful farming communities to the west. All of this will be a continuation of our last meeting, as we track the hot topic events here in Northfield. We may ask the hard questions, we may reach the hard conclusions, but we’ll not be deterred by the difficulties nor intimidated by the answers. Bring your maps, bring your thoughts and we’ll take a snapshot of the local thoughts. Let’s see what develops, at the next Politics and a Pint.

Politics Is Always Local … (27 April 2008)

Well, the Rules state that “All of Politics is Local”, so this week we are going to read all about it (see refs) and talk local. The mayor’s race plus three members of the council make a ruling majority, or do we need the “clean sweep”? Raise your pints, raise your points, raise your minds, but we don’t raise our voices, at Politics and a Pint at the Contented Cow this (and every) Sunday.

Afghanistan … (20 Apr 2008)

At the last P&aP I talked briefly with John Fossum, recently returned from Afghanistan. He said he had some photos (on a computer) and that he would be interested in showing us some of them and talking about his experiences “over there”. This should be a very interesting evening, in the spirit of an earlier mind-opening presention by Carleton Professor Bereket Haileab , who gave a presentation in December of 2007 (with visuals!) on the topic “The Ethics of Foreign Aid”. Join us for what promises to be an interesting peek behind the headlines at the next Politics and a Pint!

Tax time! And are we happy? (13 Apr 2008)

We are still gripped by the chill of winter, but that is nothing compared to the icy feeling in the pit of your stomach if you are trying to do your own income taxes. Obama says the people are bitter and clinging to the guns and their gods. Well, I doubt that the annual IRS ceremonial sacrifice, where we all do a St Vitus dance of forms and free-style, helps much. We will be tax minus two days when we talk about TAXES at the next Politics and a Pint.

Peeking at peak oil (6 Apr 2008)

Okay, so oil is over $100 a barrel, diesel is $4 a gallon and the Chinese are buying BMWs like there was a tomorrow. Is the sky falling or is it all just marketing hype? In the interest of unearthing some truth, we will visit the topic of “peak oil”. What is it? How do we predict it? How do we avoid it?

Economists tell us that we never “run out” of a resource, it just gets too expensive to be used the way we might have gotten used to. Consider whale oil, which used to be a pretty valuable and increasingly hard to find resource. When’s the last time you felt the pinch of not being able to find good cheap whale oil? This is an example of “substitutability”, which says that expensive goods will be replaced by alternatives. Indeed, while good intentions will put a few hybrids on the road and make some people choose lower life styles closer to work, $10 per gallon gas will really incentivise (!sorry!) the masses. Let oil prices rise!

Let’s talk candidates (30 Mar 2008)

Last week’s P&P was canceled, but a couple of us showed up and we started in on the death penalty. We’ll reprise that (briefly), then open up for a general discussion and a straw poll on the national election. Some of us will pick candidates because we like what they are promising to give us (free health care, safety nets for bad investors, and “what about the children?”). Others of us will pick candidates because they promise to follow principles we find important (”let them eat cake (that they buy themselves)“).

It promises to be a contentious and foundational night … don’t miss the next Politics and a Pint.

Legal details (in appropriately tiny font):

What: Politics and a Pint
Where: The Contented Cow
When: 6-7:30PM, 30 Mar 2008

Well, before we talked politicians we talked (again) about the death penalty.  At the end of the night we had a pretty good solution, but we left the numbers as an exercise for the interested student.

I argued that the numbers only allowed me intellectual honesty in that I could pick a position knowing that I condemned some (unknown) innocents to death (whether because I (through the state) executed them or because I (again through the state) let them live and possibly kill again.

Some people were unable to separate their emotions from their thoughts while others simply did not care to connect the dots, but there was little direct support for the death penalty.

One interesting comment made later was that perhaps life in prison was worse than death (if we take away the TVs, the exercise rooms and the human contact). Perhaps such prisoner’s could be offered a “little yellow pill” once a month that they could take to end their meaningless and unredeemable existence. Seems harsh, but at least such a death would not be done “in our name”.

Dying for justice …

We confront one of the more divisive of issues … capital punishment. This is a highly emotional issue and it will take some real open minds to give this a fair hearing. I’ll plan on starting by framing the question as a purely unemotional decision problem — a classic decision problem — how many innocent people die under each of our decisions, and is there a qualitative difference between 10 innocent people dying because we were unable to stop criminals and 1 innocent person that we might (as a society) execute?

D.A.R.E. to be knowledgable (16 Mar 2008)

Some of you with longer memories than the usual scandal-watching P. Hilton and B. Spears fans might remember something about heroin in Northfield? (Say it ain’t so, Joe, say it ain’t so). The city attempted to divert attention from this by throwing the mayor, the police chief, the city council and the city staff under the bus. But we weren’t distracted by all these bit’s o’ drama. Now, as the city considers bringing in a “popular” program (DARE) to deal with the drug problem, we will review how the program works, what it claims and (most important) what it delivers. We’ll ask “who pays for this” and if the answer is “other people” (e.g., the Feds) we’ll ask if we are getting their money’s worth. We’ll snoop out some resources to back our positions and we’ll bring it all together at next week’s Politics and a Pint at the Contented Cow.

Fair trade … myth or fiction (9 Mar 2008)

We talked a couple of weeks ago about “unintended consequences”, which is a term that captures the idea that the road to heck is paved with good intentions. We will continue that investigation by asking what we mean by “fair trade”, what we hope to accomplish (our good intentions) and the reality (unintended consequences). I’ll post some references later tonight.

Where’s Northfield’s brain these days (2 Mar 2008)

You might remember that last time we visited we heard that the city council was on the attack with the mayor in full retreat while several million of the city’s money went missing and the planning commission did everything but. But wait! Why worry about all of that when we can also focus on … skate parks, where to put ‘em and why. Come to the Contented Cow for Politics and a Pint and tell the city where they should put those pesky skateboarders. Once the important stuff is done maybe we’ll talk about those missing millions and the personalities that make Northfield politics more entertaining than the Jerry Springer show. So, how is the political climate in Northfield … next at Politics and a Pint

We had a vigorous discussion focusing on the city’s many problems, from tyrannical staff to questionable tactics of one of the council members (Jon Denison) and the inability or unwillingness of the council to hold him accountable for his changing addresses and the impact of those shifting sands on his ability to represent the 4th Ward. The mayor’s problems were scarcely mentioned as the focus sat squarely on the council and the staff.

Legal details (in appropriately tiny font):

What: Politics and a Pint
Where: The Contented Cow
When: 6-8PM, 2 Mar 2008