Before there was Balko, there was Royko

Radley Balko and Mike Royko

This article also appears at the Freedom Bunker.

Royko, Mike Royko of the Chicago Daily News that is.  I am a fan of both men and I must admit, my regular reading of Mike Royko did not kick into high gear until the mid 1980s.  However, doing some recent research for a book project, I have been reading a few Royko articles from 1972, articles that predate the birth of Radley Balko by over three years.

I came across Balko's writing in one of his early blog posts years ago on Reason's Hit & Run blog, where he was taking shots at National Review's blog creator, Jonah Goldberg, over something or other that has left my memory.  It did not take long before I was reading Balko on a regular basis, and you cannot read Balko on a regular basis without reading a cop-shoots-dog story or three.  At Hit & Run it might be an exaggeration to say that those stories were a daily feature, but they appeared at least weekly.

Well, before Radley was thought of, Mike Royko was on the cop shoots dog beat in Chicago.  On January 7, 1972 the Chicago Daily News published, "The police get their man" by Mike Royko on his page 3 column.  Sorry no link, the Daily News does not have an online archive.  However, the article is available on microfilm from the Chicago Public Library.

"The police get their man" is a column about Mr. Robert Sheppard of Chicago's Far South Side, and his 90 pound dog Beau.  Mr. Sheppard, a salesman, lived n a modest two-story home.  While he was out for dinner, a prowler visited his home and Beau greeted him by gnawing the burglar's leg.

The burglar fled upstairs and hid behind a door, only to be seen by a neighbor who called the police.  While hiding behind the door, big dog a-growlin',  the burglar made a call too, to his mother and told her he was trapped by an angry dog on the second story of a stranger's house.

Chicago's finest arrived before the trespasser's mom and assessed the situation.  They investigated and discussed things with the neighbor who called earlier, then they rang the doorbell, only to hear big barking, etc.  While they were debating their next move, the prowler called the police with a story that he was hiding in the house from street toughs who had accosted him outside.

After a while, the police entered the house, Beau identified them as strangers, charged, and was felled by two shots from the police.  A third round put Beau out of his suffering.  A faithful dog just doing his job, gunned down in the line of duty.

The cops arrested the burglar and went on their way, leaving Beau in the driveway, where Mr. Sheppard found it.

He could not bear to move the body and he called Chicago's "animal removal service," who gave Mr. Sheppard the runaround, for three days and eventually "told him off," presumably for thinking that anybody in a city office called "animal removal" should bother to remove an animal killed by city cops.  Nobody lifted a finger to help Mr. Sheppard until Mike Royko called about the situation.

As Royko noted in closing, it is doubtful that the crook was going to get away, and the city could have called a team with tranquilizer darts for the tigers that occasionally escaped from the local zoos.  The situation could have been handled without killing Beau.  Yes, all this is true and obvious in hindsight.  Hell, if I were the cop at a door with a 90 pound dog on the other side, I would want to find a solution that avoided opening the door too.

But what about after?  I was just 10 years old when this happened, and maybe I am imagining things.  But, I am pretty darn sure that if almost anywhere in Cook County, and Chicago for sure, if Robert Sheppard shot a dog three times and left it in his driveway, it would not take three days of blowing off the bureaucrats before he was in a jail cell.  Telling them off at day three might result in a "contempt of bureaucrat" beating.

Ⓐ Steve Ⓐ

HUD goes Laissez-Faire?

Listening to the radio the other day I could not believe my ears.  The Wall Street Journal was reporting that the Department of Housing and Urban Development proposed to eliminate local housing density zoning rules.  The only part that was not that surprising was that Rush Limbaugh, and WSJ writer Robert P. Astorino were staunchly against this measure.

What is going on over at HUD?  The folks who work over there never seemed to be liberty minded at all.  Somehow, some way, came to the realization that zoning regulations impact the housing market adversely.  Well, it is not as simple as that.  It appears that the “conclusion” that they came to is that some zoning laws are racist:

In July, HUD published its long-awaited proposal on “Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing” in the Federal Register. It is a sweeping set of land-use regulations that has attracted little national attention. The agency wants the power to dismantle local zoning so communities have what it considers the right mix of economic, racial and ethnic diversity. A finding of discriminatory behavior, or allegations of discrimination, would no longer be necessary. HUD will supply “nationally uniform data” of what it thinks 1,200 communities should look like.

Well, racist they might be and just from memory I can think of numerous examples where there is no doubt that this is true.  No doubt at all.  But just because every single zoning law is not racist based or motivated is no reason to defend any of them.  Every one of them is bad in some way, and I knew the HUD action was too good to be true.  But eliminating home occupancy/density regulations is the part that Limbaugh and Astorino were complaining about, maybe with a side complaint that the feds might impose their own version, a version that has a whole different set of people who do not own a parcel of property telling the parcel owner what to do with it.

Before anybody thinks that I’ve forgotten that there is no Constitutional provision for HUD, I have not.  Also, even if there was I don’t see them having the authority to push the locals around.

Now, of some miracle occurred and everyplace in the US adopted a Houston, TX style lack of zoning we might see a marked change in the housing situation, especially in places like San Francisco and New York.  That is, if your view of the housing situation is having enough housing at all given levels of quality for everybody seeking it.

If your view is keeping housing expensive, so the fat cats who own it now can enjoy an artificially high price for their property, just keep on keeping on the way things are now.

Also posted here: http://freedombunker.com/2013/09/16/hud-goes-laissez-faire/

Ⓐ Steve Ⓐ

Vote Sweetie Lee for Knoxville City Council Second District (Pond Gap)

Vote for Sweetie Lee, write in candidate for the Knoxville City Council, Second District
(Pond Gap)

Now endorsed by Paul Krassner, co-founder of the Youth International Party!

On Sep 16, 2013, at 1:44 PM, Steve Esposito wrote:

In the Pigisis candidate tradition, I am running my wife's cat, Sweetie, for city council.

On Sep 16, 2013, at 4:57 PM, Paul Krassner wrote:

Well, Sweetie sure has my vote...

Ⓐ Steve Ⓐ

Guest Blog by Jack Butturini on Classical Liberalism

I take pleasure in having high school classmate Jack Butturini as my guest on the blog today.  We attended Bearden High School together, and I graduated one year after him, with his insightful and lovely sister Jill.  His post is short, sweet and to the point.

It has been an interesting day with several debates with my liberal friends. In fact I agree with many things that are titled “liberal”; protecting our environment, promoting equal rights for women, improving race relations. But there are many things I can’t agree with. The belief that bigger government is the answer is against my core beliefs. We are a country founded on individualism. The current moves in our government look more and more like socialism and not democracy.

In my life I have been at virtually every aspect of the financial spectrum. I have been poor, bordering on homeless and I have been moderately wealthy. I have lost everything financial more than once. But I never blamed it on anyone else. My mistakes are my mistakes. To think that is the government job to pick me up when I don’t succeed is actually crippling to me.

If you want to help people, help them. Don’t ask the government to take it away from someone else to do the job that individuals can do better. If you want to help the poor with money, make more money and give it away. That is your prerogative. It is not yours or the government’s job to take a person’s hard earned money and give it to someone who may not even have the desire to work.

Of course social programs are needed. But the current system is rewarding complacency.

The bottom line is this; if you want a better life get off your ass and make one. If you want to help other people, get off your ass and help them.

Jack Butturini

Jack Butturini is a 52 years old Graduate of Bearden High School, class of 1979.  He's taught Martial Arts for over 35 years and currently owns a school in Morgan County, Tennessee. His goal in life is not to get people to see his view, but to open their eyes to the challenges in our country.

Ⓐ Steve Ⓐ

"Made in the USSR"

Also posted at the Freedom Bunker

With all this Assad chatter and Obama sabre rattling, I missed something in the mix.  If the Assad regime shelled a village with chemical weapons, where are the “Made in USSR” (or however they say that in Russian) captions under pictures of the bomb fragments?

In Egypt it seemed to be a daily call to arms.  ”Look! Tear gas grenades “Made in USA!!!!”" yada, yada, yada.  Of course, the rifles shooting people dead were made in the USSR, but that never got much play.

So in Syria, where every single item in their military inventory was sold to them by the Soviets, except for a few odds, ends and curiosities from North Korea and China (the one on the UN Security Council, not the one in Taiwan that has real elections).

Mark Steyn makes an interesting observation too:

Like his patrons in Tehran and Moscow, Assad’s reaction to American threats is to double up with laughter and say, “Bring it, twerkypants.” Headline from Friday’s Guardian in London: “Syria: ‘Napalm’ Bomb Dropped on School Playground, BBC Claims” — which, if true, suggests that even a blood-soaked mass murderer is not without a sense of humor. Napalm, eh? There’s a word I haven’t heard since, oh, 40 years ago or thereabouts, somewhere in the general vicinity of southeast Asia.

Being fresh off of a Weatherman binge, stuff like that jumps out at me.  They whined a lot about the Napalm, but only when it was made in the USA.

Well, don’t hold your breath on seeing any complaints of nerve gas “Made in the USSR”, unless National Review sends Steyn over with a film crew.

Steve is a graduate of the University of Tennessee, Finance.  He is a 30 year veteran Aviation Officer of the Army National Guard and Army Reserve, and former Defense Contractor in Resource Management.  He has always had a libertarian streak, no matter which major Party flag he flew. Today he is a Minarchist leaning to Anarcho-Capitalism. He and his wife reside in a secret, undisclosed, subterranean lair with the clan motto of “Leave us alone and nobody gets hurt.” The Anarchist’s Soufflé  Book is Steve’s current work in progress, along with Time Bomber: The Forgotten Yippie, coming soon any year now.  Steve has been published by the Reason Foundation, and the Foundation for Economic Education.  Follow Steve @AustrianAnarchy and view his Austrian Anarchy blog.

Ⓐ Steve Ⓐ

Why I am no longer a Panera customer

Also posted at Freedom Bunker.

So friends, what would you say if I had a sign out front “Free Self-Serve Car Wash with every book purchase” and, after you bought my book you pulled around back to discover there is no water, would you have a complaint?

I think so, and that is why I am complaining about Panera.

I spent over two hours in their Peters Road #203830 (205 North Peters Road Knoxville, TN 37923) trying to connect to the internet.  I even made the most boring YouTube video ever about one attempt.  It takes about 2 min. to find out that, yes everybody who got there before you can connect, but their system can’t handle the crushing usage of 20 people.  Yes, you heard me.  There were other people working away online, but when I tried to connect, they were overloaded or something.

Now, one of my Facebook friends claims I have no right to complain, because I could have brought my own connection.  Does that make any sense to you, dear reader?  If I had my own connection, I would not bother with a joint that charges almost $6 for chocolate and coffee (mocha, for you fancy-pantsers).

There was something that drew me to that cafe, something called THE OFFER OF FREE INTERNET CONNECTIONS!  Now mind you, I am not one to just plop down, take up space and bandwidth, make a mess, and expect someone to clean up after me.  No, I hung in there trying to connect through the business I actually made a purchase from, I even asked the staff about it not once, but twice.  Also, the price of my hot beverage was elevated to pay for the one thing I was really there for, to get some work don while connected to the internet.

Finally, I connected to the Lowe’s up the hill so I could email my wife and let her know I would be picking her up for an appointment.

All was not lost, I did make the most boring 2 min. video ever uploaded to YouTube.  Well, unless there is a paint drying video up there.  The experience was 60 times longer than the video and quite annoying.  Also, on Facebook I did get what someone thinks passes for a speech about commerce when she informed me that I should have brought my own internet.  You know, just like you should bring your own water to that free car wash with every fill-up, or book.  Makes me wonder if everybody 50 years old or younger received their economics education from Marx and Keynes, just like president Obama.

Rather than dining at Panera, like I had planned, I relocated to the nearby Krystal and sure enough, those folks know how to run a WiFi connection all the way up to the cloud.

Bottom line: If your internet is not working, be a good enough businessperson to put out a sign.

Steve is a graduate of the University of Tennessee, Finance.  He is a 30 year veteran Aviation Officer of the Army National Guard and Army Reserve, and former Defense Contractor in Resource Management.  He has always had a libertarian streak, no matter which major Party flag he flew. Today he is a Minarchist leaning to Anarcho-Capitalism. He and his wife reside in a secret, undisclosed, subterranean lair with the clan motto of “Leave us alone and nobody gets hurt.” The Anarchist’s Soufflé  Book is Steve’s current work in progress, along with Time Bomber: The Forgotten Yippie, coming soon any year now.  Steve has been published by the Reason Foundation, and the Foundation for Economic Education.  Follow Steve @AustrianAnarchy and view his Austrian Anarchy blog.

Ⓐ Steve Ⓐ

Time Bomber Book Stuff

Sorry to be away from the blog for what seems like forever.

Things have been a little hectic on the new book front.  Looks like my first book will be Time Bomber: The Forgotten Yippie, and am going with a new start-up publisher.  Looks like I have the cover all set, now I have to finish writing the book.

Cover

Cover design, even with professional help, is pretty rough stuff.  I suggest everybody watch this video of Chip Kidd at TED to get your head in the right neighborhood on what a good cover should be.

If you have the time, and I happen to have too much of that on my hands right now, I suggest you do a YouTube search for Chip Kidd, set the filter to videos longer than 20 min. and watch a few more of his videos.  Even if you think he is repeating a talk, keep watching and there will be something new in there.

He emphasizes that the cover by itself does not sell the book.  I must agree.  However, and I think he agrees too, a horrible cover will not get anybody to pick the thing up and look inside.  Especially if you are an unknown author like me.

Interior

Designing the cover is not the end of the story either.  The interior of the book needs to be designed too.  Sure, you can sit down with MS Word and bang out a bunch of pages, but they won't look like a book.  You will end up with something that visually resembles a high school history class paper that never ends.  Sure, some people might start reading it, and if it is good then they will buy it.  But they have to get to that point first.

Another point, some book people do not like MS Word and want you to use something else.  It is fine if you already have Adobe Creative Suite and know how to use it, but if you have any relatively new MS Word/Office version you can design the interior like a pro.  Of course, a pro might be better at it than you, so you might want to let them do it.  However, it is YOUR book, so wanting to take some control of the process is understandable.

Templates and Tweaking

CreateSpace.Com has book interior templates for MS Word that get you most of the way there.  However, you still will not have a professional look.  For that, you need to look at some books in the bookstore and get some ideas.

One thing I noticed is that I never paid much attention to book interior design when I was "just" a reader of books.  I started noticing when I started looking at books for researching Time Bomber.  I liked Mark Rudd's beginning the first chapter with a "dropped cap".  I'd seen that before, but never paid much attention.  I am using it in my book.

Of course, I like to see my name at every turn of the page just like any other writer.  However, as a reader I like to see where I am at the top of the page.  With the CS template, the even and odd page headers and footers are different.  So, I put my chapter titles on the even pages and the book title on the odd pages.  At the bottom of the even pages is my name, and on the odd page footers is the publisher's spot.   None of that is on the first page of a chapter.

If you don't already know how to do this in Word, it is pretty easy.  You paste and format your chapter title into the header of the side you want it on (even for me), select "same as previous" on the next even page.  For the odd pages, paste what you want in their headers and footers and do the same.  You really don't want any of that on the first page of your chapters, but the first pages are unique, so if everything is set right you don't need to worry about it if you didn't put anything in there.

Something I finally noticed was hyphenation in print books.  I was under the mistaken impression that justifying the document to both margins would create a better looking book.  Well, it doesn't.  It makes big giant spaces that look crappy, like someone created the book in a word processor.  Under Page Layout/Page Setup, turn on automatic hyphenation.

While you are at it, learn about "Orphan Control" and use that too.  I use Word 2007, and this is a good set of instructions:

Open your document in Microsoft Word. If you have not started writing yet, you can set the widow/orphan control before you start. If you have already started writing, select all of the text before proceeding. 

Select the "Home" menu. In the "Paragraph" section, click on the box to the right of "Paragraph." A dialogue box will appear. 

Click on the "Line and Page Breaks" tab. Look for "Widow/Orphan Control" at the top, under "Pagination." Click on the box to the left. If there is a check mark in the box, the widow/orphan control is turned on and Word will make sure there are no single lines separated from their paragraphs. If there is no check mark in the box, the control is turned off. 

Click "OK" when you have made your selections. Your paragraphs should now be set the way you wanted.

There is a style debate about putting page numbers on the first page of a chapter.  Some publishers do, others do not.  I like all of the pages of the body to have numbers, so every page of every chapter has a number.  The first page of my chapters has the page number in the bottom center.  Other pages have the numbers at the bottom corner farthest from the spine.  Of course, that can change before it goes to print.

One thing I do not like at all, and most everybody does it, is sticking every picture in the center of the book.  I stuck most of mine at the end, other than four pages of scrawled notes by the bomber that I placed in the first chapter, along with transcripts of the notes on facing pages.  Also, I have a few FBI documents in there, so when they come up in the narrative I transcribed them using a typewriter font and reference the document in the documents section that they came from.

One thing I am saving for last is the index.  Some of the books I've read were jammed full if great information that you have to just remember where it appeared in the book, because there is either no index, or the index is horrible.  I've never used the Word indexing tools yet, so wish me luck.

Ⓐ Steve Ⓐ