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THE SUDDEN DRAINAGE OF LAKE DELTON FOLLOWING THE RECENT HEAVY RAINS AND FLOODING HAS ESSENTIALLY REDUCED THE TOMMY BARTLETT SHOW in Wisconsin Dells to a sky and stage act for the time being.

Which is probably the first time ever in its 56-year run in Wisconsin Dells that there was no waterski portion of "The Show" to speak of.

But, nonetheless, perhaps this is as good a time as any to make note of some of the more famous stage acts to grace the shores of Tommy Bartlett Bay on Lake Delton during Act II thereof:

• 1957: A rotating selection of performers from The Lawrence Welk Show made one-week performances, with The Lemmon Sisters being especially popular with audiences. The "Dancing Waters" routine, basically a son et lumičre performance not unlike Waltzing Waters, was added, and would remain part of the evening performance until 1986.
• 1958: Michael Kelly's ice-dancing company performs an ice-skating revue, "Holi-Dells on Ice," on a real ice rink set up on stage--even with 100-degree-plus temperatures for several days.
• 1959: Doug Alii's Hinohino Tahitian Drum Dancers make the first of many appearences bringing a touch of Polynesia to "up where the pines begin." By 1970, the knife-throwing routine in the act was dropped after an elderly woman from Minneapolis was nearly scared when one of the knives came unconfortably close to her seat.
• 1975: Wes Harrison, "Mr. Sound Effects," makes the first of many appearences to the Tommy Bartlett stage.
• 1980's: The Argentine rhythyms of Los Gauchos Latinos and the first of many appearences by the famous Swiss acrobat troupe The Nerveless Nocks, famous for the three-way swaypole exchange. German-born juggler/comedian Dieter "You like it, I do it again!" Tasso becomes another Show favourite. From 1987, a new Laser Lights and Entrancing Waters show wraps up the evening performance, complete with Patriotic Finale.
• 1990's: Risley (Australian foot) juggling troupe, The Ashton Family, makes several appearences, as does the Boehmer Family Jugglers, all 11 members, and contortionist Miss Carolina.
• 2000's: Return of Polynesian dancing to the Tommy Bartlett stage with Netane's Polynesian Drum Dancers continuing the tradition of Doug Alii's company from the late 1950's into the 1970's. Comedian T.J. Howell also graces the stage.

And the common demoninator throughout: Nothing but clean, wholesome, family-friendly entertainment. In fact Mr. Bartlett, who died @ the end of the 1998 season, was proud of the fact that there was never a bad word uttered nor suggestive gesture performed upon the shores of Tommy Bartlett Bay for his audiences.

The fact of which continues to this very day.

Is it any wonder that The Tommy Bartlett Show has consistently remained the #1 live summer outdoor show in the country for many years running, with nearly 50 million people having seen it during its 55-year run?

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BY THE WAY: IN CASE ANY OF YOU ARE WONDERING HOW YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE TO THE RESTORATION OF LAKE DELTON, you can send a check or money order, payable to "Village of Lake Delton" and with "Lake Delton Restoration" noted in the "memo" section, to:

Village of Lake Delton
Lake Delton Restoration Fund
PO Box 87
Lake Delton, WI 53940-0087
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

(Those of you from overseas should make your donation in US dollars, in the form of a cheque or draft drawn on, and payable through, a bank in the United States.)

No amount too small or too big will be declined.  

To whom it may concern:

First, please accept my apologies if this Open Letter causes you any undue or unnecessary intrusion on your day.

In any case:

Doesn't it seem where, on your end, you must be swamped with all manner of identically-phrased-and-nuanced letters and e-mails in response to the latest "name-and-shame" campaigns coming from the likes of so-called "family values" groups such as the American Family Association, Focus on the Family, the Family Research Council and the Traditional Values Coalition taking you to task for things like "supporting the homosexual agenda***to the detriment of Traditional Moral and Family Values," to use a common platitude of their campaigns?

Let alone the likelihood of such "mail-bombing," both virtual and physical, tending to nothing short of harrassment by proxy (with the "action alerts" so ensuing being the proxy) ... as well as creating an added and potentially undue burden of extra work upon the likes of:

• mailroom and computer room staff;
• e-mail servers; and
• those responsible for correspondence intake?

And what's more, don't you think these same groups targeting your organisations in a supposedly sincere belief that they are acting out of what they see as a sincere defence of G-d, Country and Family may actually be engaging themselves in the likes of what could actually be actionable offenses under certain circumstances, including but not limited to:

• racketeering;
• unlawful interference with business activity;
• unlawful interference with interstate and/or foreign commerce;
• harrassment;
• sending obscene, indecent or threatening communications through the mails and/or electronic communications;
• extortion;
• blackmail;
• false light;
• malicious prosecution; and
• conspiracies related to one or more of the preceding, as may or may not involve criminal syndicalism?

Against the likelihood that such "Traditional Values" groups may use their Dark Satanic Mills of Moral Outrage Unleashed against your company, have you seriously considered taking legal proceedings against same in case their campaigns target your organisation for one or more of the aforementioned charges, collecting damages in the process?

(This may be an afterthought, but you might also want to consider seeking action under the RICO [Racketeer-Influenced and Corrupt Organisations] Act, which translates into trebled damages if you can show evidence of racketeering's evil influence behind such orgies of harrassment invoking His Name for nothing less than blasphemous ends.

(Even considering where these same organisations are holding dear among their articles of faith the belief that free-market capitalism with American characteristics is one with America's "antient and pecuilar" soverignty and soverign identity, and the defence of the two are mutually interrelated.)

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MEMO TO READERS: Your Correspondent urges you, as per usual with these Open Letters, to "spread the word" among your circle of Secular-Progressive threads especially. And, in this case, with such entities as are targets of Religiopolitical Right harrassment campaigns.

But remember to do so responsibly; "spamming" is not the best way to go about it. Remember: "Knowledge is Power."

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AMONG THOSE SPECIMENS OF THE DREGS OF SOCIETY OTHERWISE KNOWN AS "POOR WHITE TRASH"--Caucasoids of the lowest socioeconomic standing, lower than even such National Minorities their ilk has long been conditioned to consider as "inferior" for their own hubris-weighted arrogance and "honour"--there exists what amounts to an arrogant delusion of "racial consciousness" rivalled only by the same "inferior" National Minorities.

Especially so blacks, Hispanics, Latinos, First Nations and Asians.

Hence, this argument holds, what exactly prevents the "morally superior" White Master Race from their rightful exercise of "racial consciousness" as much as pride and "honour"?

Which, usually, will be put down to "Political Correctness," which their propaganda channels see as "Communist-influenced" or "Communist-inspired," even citing (if @ all) highly-incredible sources to substantiate.

Not to mention the possibility of where the most likely correspondents in the "penfriend" vein among "poor white trash" internationally will be such specimens of Unreconstructed Afrikanerdom from down South Africa way as are of like mind in the "White Racial Consciousness" arena from poorer and traditionally white districts of Pretoria, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Bloemfontein and Durban, with maybe a few from Die Volkstaat Orania--perhaps the most pathetic exercise known in Defending White Racial Consciousness and Honour in an otherwise enlightened world. Never mind all international mail (even to South Africa) now going airmail @ 94˘ a letter and the reply airmail postage being ZAR4.64 (US$0.58) for a letter and ZAR3.01 (US$0.38) for an aerogramme (unless, however, an International Reply Coupon to cover reply postage is purchased @ $2.10 in the United States or ZAR15.40 (US$1.93) in South Africa; one is all you need now).

Which, after all, begs the question of why "poor white trash" should be all too conscious of their race solely because of their own warped and misguided hubris distracting attention from something more worthwhile: Videlicet, what really prevents their advancement in this known and knowing world:

• Lack of access to a decent education;
• Limited job or career options where they reside;
• Relocation to cities (sometimes by force of necessity) just to try and find work, only to wind up on welfare (which "poor white trash" is forever contending as an "indignity");
• Current social welfare policies based heavily upon stereotypes having no factual basis (except among the Zealots and True Believers forever advancing same pro Deo, patria et familia);
• Overzealous to the point of "hard-wired" influence of Fundamentalist/Primitive religious beliefs as may be closer to pseudo in terms of Reality, and their effects upon the mental faculties in general;
• Deliberate and complacent isolation as only worsens the risk and danger of inbreeding and sexually-transmitted diseases, not to mention a latent hyperjuvenile sexual promiscuity (and the culture behind same) common to such insular societies; and
• General acceptance of complacent "stay the course" attitudes and articles of faith as can only make matters worse thanks to corruption, mismanagement, fraud, inefficency, waste and potential for exploitation by weird and unwholesome elements over time.

In other words, it was about time that "poor white trash" started realising that the only race which matters when it comes to "racial consciousness" is the human race, pure and simple.

Need I say more, except to suggest sharing this with your friends?

(N.B. "ZAR," used as above, is the abbreviate for the South African Rand, their monetary unit of 100 cents. Coins are denominated @ 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 and 50 cents and for 1, 2 and 5 rands; notes, 10, 20, 50, 100, 250 and 500 rands. Currently, US$1=ZAR8, while, conversely, ZAR1=US$0.125, FYI.) 

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YOU'LL NEVER GUESS JUST WHO HAPPENS TO BE THE MOST HARD-WIRED SPECIMENS OF TRUE PATRIOT LOVE IN ALL THY SONS COMMAND across the "morally superior" United States, and especially so considering where this is an election year for a number of Constitutional Offices.

As in the kind of True Patriot Love:

• which sees America as being, not unlike Imperial China in its death throes under the Empress Dowager Cixi, the Divinely-Ordained Centre of the World, the Universe and the 28 Known Galaxies, not to mention Portal and Gateway to Heaven;
• which excuses all manner of xenophobically lurid excesses "if and when required," not unlike Nazi Germany and, to a lesser degree, apartheid South Africa;
• which requires appealing to said feelings of True Patriot Love if and when required to accept all manner of sacrifices "in the greater national interest;"
• which expects said Patriot Love to be displayed if and when circumstances require this, and never mind such tending to the obnoxiously garish or ostentatious;
• which sees "national and racial heritage" (especially so the "European-American" model) to be intertwined and interlocked with said Patriot Love; and
• which justifies "whatever means necessary," no matter how vile, loathsome, filthy or disgusting they may be (even if the use of force, intimidation, fear or violence are called for), to so promote--which, in extreme cases, may require acts of self-slaughter "to save Our Beloved Nation from further harm" not unlike Imperial Japan @ the depths of fanatical crudity.

As it turns out, perhaps the most fanatically hard-wired specimens of such overzealous "patriotism" as above, IMHO, are such from the ranks of "poor white trash," using their poverty, fecundity and stupidity as cover for the most fanatically depraved, and @ once arrogant, displays of patriotism known in an otherwise "morally superior" society.

Not to mention using "racial honour and integrity" as a show of arrogance weighted with hubris as cover for their own inferior status in what they regard to be a "superior" and "master" race above all others, to be thus seen as "inferior" or, in extreme cases (especially so blacks and Arabs) "sub-humans."

This notwithstanding these overzealous examples of patriotic arrogance having as common denominators their being:

• poor;
• undereducated or even homeschooled;
• easily influenced by extreme or otherwise misguided elements (in particular "patriot" groups, racist/white-supremacist causes and even specimens of Fundamentalist/Primitive Christianity as are among the lowest examples of the Low Church stylee known);
• coming, for the most part, from dysfunctional or otherwise "broken home" backgrounds with episodes of alcoholism, unstable or limited employment, spousal or child abuse, frequent relocation throughout the country and even episodes of incest as an agency of coercion or control;
• ingrained Fundamentalist/Primitive religiopolitical influences as explains a general unwillingness to accept any type of welfare or charity, fearing such will "promote dependency" (in other words, an attitude of "the Lord will provide" which risks serious mental and/or emotional derangement in the right circumstances);
• possible undiagnosed mental or psychoemotional disorders as a byproduct of such an upbringing;
• resident in socioeconomic backwaters of poverty, fecundity and stupidity, perhaps deliberate, for generations (with clear and present danger of inbreeding);
• lack of a proper education translating to an inability to find or otherwise hold down a steady and stable job; and
• limited and limiting consumer purchasing power thanks to their limited earnings potential, in turn limiting their shopping habits to the likes of Wally World and even "dollar stores" selling what may, in the long run, turn out being overpriced, second-quality merchandise.

Combine these all, and you have perhaps the most retrograde species of "patriot" known to exist.

The kind which can be easily manipulated like a pull-string toy into parroting out cheap platitudes in bumper-sticker-slogan form and stylee, and in a fantical-sounding tone and nuance which their unseen masters expect.

None other than "poor white trash" in their hard-wired fanaticism as much as their "cultural heritage" rooted in poverty, fecundity and stupidity deliberate. Not to mention the obligatory dose of Low Church religiopolitical fanaticism, as required.

As James Boswell reminds us in his Life of Samuel Johnson, "patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel."

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THIS PICTURE, READERS, COULD PERHAPS RELATE TO THE FIRST ITEM OF BUSINESS TODAY FROM YOUR CORRESPONDENT THIS MILD, YET BREEZY, MORNING here in the Minnwissippi--videlicet, an apology:

For a time last evening, Blogdrive's host server was swamped with so many requests from across the Information Stuporbahn for this weblog, it reached a point where it practically went offline, prompting some of you to see instead on screen a message to that effect explained above.

The problem, thankfully, has been rectified, and Your Correspondent regrets any inconvenience suffered.

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ANOTHER DESTRUCTIVE SWARM OF TORNADOES HIT KANSAS ON THE OVERNIGHT, bringing destruction to Goodland and parts of the Kansas State University campus in Manhattan.

In the latter instance, expect certain "academic freedom" Zealots and True Believers pushing the meme that such was a show of Divine Judgement on the "liberal academic tendencies" of land-grant universities like Kansas State--all the while, as per usual, lacking credible evidence.

But, on the other hand, how would you expect the Rev. Fred "Westboro Baptist Church" Phelps to respond to the tornadic destruction which Kansas has seen so far this year, what with his Zealotry and True Belief in explaining where such specimens of disaster are signs of Divine Judgement upon the targeted for excusing homosexuals and homosexuality (and Kansas, historically, not very tolerant about "sexual aberrations and perversions" to the point of attracting religious nut cases like the Phelps family)?

(Let alone flooding on Iowa's Cedar River as has devastated Waterloo/Cedar Falls and is now doing its work upon Cedar Rapids, with Iowa City/Coralville the next likely targets. Come to think of it, virtually all of Iowa's prominent rivers flowing into the Mississippi--the Cedar, Winnebago, Upper Iowa, Iowa, Wapsipinicon and Des Moines--are seeing substantial flooding risk.)

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AND STILL, THE GOP'S DICK DASTARDLY SQUADRON IS AS BUSY AS EVER WITH THEIR CAUTIOUS AND CAREFUL STUDY AND ANALYSIS of the "dirty tricks" campaigns by Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF party ahead of the Presidential runoff to guarantee victory by one Robert Mugabe--unless it should happen that he suddenly snuffs it beforehand, throwing Zimbabwe into disarray.

Especially such involving the so-called "war veterans" brigands as never fought in the Zimbabwean War of Independence; come to think of it, Zimbabwe's "war veterans" are nothing short of a goon squad of the highest order, who can be counted upon to perform the most loathsome and "dethpickable" acts, deeds and exploits for Mugabe.

Especially so the kind as can be used to harrass or silence opposition supporters "by whatever means necessary," including "accidents" as were really "night-and-fog" disappearing acts.

Come to think of it, could the GOP be on to something in recruiting such exposed previously as sham "war veterans" of especially Vietnam and the First Gulf War in "redemption for value" scams involving The Old Ultraviolence against National Minorities to discourage their electoral participation based on flimsy pretexts of "identification documents not in proper form"?

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SINCE THE KUOMINTANG FLED MAINLAND CHINA IN THE WAKE OF THE COMMUNISTS' COMINGTO POWER IN 1949, SETTING UP SHOP ON TAIWAN, Beijing has long seen Taiwan as nothing less than a "renegade province" whose soverignty rightly belongs to the Chinese mainland.

And to back this up, has stopped @ nothing to threaten military action against Taiwan "just in case."

But could things be starting to cool for once?

I say this because of Beijing and Taipei having reached accords on greater access to trade and tourism, including establishment of direct flights between Taiwan and the People's Republic every weekend rather than on the likes of the Lunar New Year and the Fall Harvest Festival, among major holidays.

TT4N....  

THE FOLLOWING VIRTUAL OP-ED FROM THE CAPITAL TIMES (MADISON, WI--AND, BY EXTENSION, CYBERSPACE) BY BILL BERRY may want to be considered "food for thought" about the possibility of having these same displaced workers consider the benefits of mutual self-help initiatives as an agency of empowering themselves in the face of, and against future, uncertainty:

The message is clear to American workers: You're on your own, suckers.

As General Motors announced last week it was closing the Janesville assembly plant and three others in North America, the workers in those plants didn't even merit a nod from the Bush administration, which hailed the job-cutting announcement as a demonstration of the virtues of the free market. White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said, "It's a sign that Detroit continues to adapt and evolve and address the change in consumer tastes and attitudes."

In this case, the "free market" means that thousands of workers at GM and related industries in south-central Wisconsin will be free to fend for themselves. Oh, there will be worker retraining and some rather generous termination benefits, at least for United Auto Workers union employees, but after that, see you later.

The free-market spin will blame union wages and benefits for the downfall of the auto industry. It's true that huge pension payrolls are a burden for the old-guard automakers, but then they furiously fought off union proposals in the 1960s to pool company pensions.

The modern-day history of UAW and many other unions can be summed up in one word: concessions. That has been the standard response to corporate power. Speaking to The Associated Press last week, UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said there was little the union could do about the latest changes at GM and Ford. So much for the big, bad unions.

Canadian Auto Workers President Buzz Hargrove, meanwhile, expressed shock and outrage over the closing of the Oshawa, Ontario, plant, which came only weeks after his union pushed through a concessions contract. Hargrove then went off on a nationalist tirade, saying, "This is an American company, controlled by Americans, and they are making decisions in tough times to protect American jobs." He denounced Mexican workers because GM had decided to build hybrid pickups there instead of in Canada.

The Canadian spin doesn't ring particularly well here in central Wisconsin, where a major sector in the area economy has been dismantled piece by piece. The Canadian-owned Soo Line Railroad was sold to a newly formed company called Wisconsin Central in the 1980s, and workers were immediately informed that their unions had no say in the matter. They were offered new jobs at lower pay and benefits, take it or leave it. Many took it. For a while, Wisconsin Central thrived. But a few years ago, it was sold to--surprise--the Canadian National railroad. Hundreds of Wisconsin jobs have been moved elsewhere in the wake of that change.

We have another example of the powerlessness of workers here in central Wisconsin. Locally owned Consolidated Papers was sold to the Finnish company Stora Enso less than a decade ago. In no time at all, Stora had pared about 2,000 jobs, and communities like Wisconsin Rapids and Biron were reeling. Their unions could do little to protect them.

Canadian union boss Hargrove's anger might have been misplaced, but you have to give it to him and his charges for showing some spunk. They picketed GM headquarters in Ontario and threatened to block the entrances to the Oshawa plant should GM seek to dismantle and move equipment.

It used to be that corporations would just send in some thugs and pound some heads at times like that. It's more sophisticated these days. The systematic dismantling of worker rights has been engineered in the bowels of government, the courts and the marketplace. The thugs do their work from behind radio microphones and on TV at night, in the employ of corporations that enjoy all of the legal rights of individuals but few of the responsibilities.

Unions have been an inconvenient impediment in this new age, but they're slipping off the radar one plant closing and one buyout at a time.

Meanwhile, workers in non-union settings pretty much fend for themselves. Layoffs, buyouts and terminations are at the will of the company and are borne in loneliness and despair by those who are cast off.

It would be dishonest and unfair to paint every corporation as a bad guy. Many, perhaps most, of them treat their workers with respect and offer excellent wages, benefits and workplace amenities. They play stellar roles in communities and support many charitable causes.

But when times get tough, in a country that fails to provide its citizens with affordable and accessible health care, that has stepped away from its responsibilities to protect worker health and safety because it was seen as anti-business, and where we now hear strident calls for dismantling Social Security and other safety nets for the average Joe and Jane, the message is quite clear: You're on your own, suckers.

(Actually, a bit of clarification: The lines which Soo Line, now Canadian Pacific, sold to Wisconsin Central, and subsequently sold to Canadian National, were actually duplicate routings, for the most part, of the former Milwaukee Road between Chicago, Milwaukee and the Twin Cities, and onward to the Twin Ports and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan; Soo Line was awarded The Milwaukee Road by the Federal bankruptcy court in 1985 to settle an outright bidding war between Chicago and North Western, since merged into Union Pacific, and Canadian National as threatened to get nasty.)

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IN ANY CASE, MIGHT I BE THE FIRST TO SUGGEST WHERE THE DISPLACED AMERICAN WORKER CONSIDER MODELS OF MUTUAL SELF-HELP based on the English friendly society, which was itself seen as social welfare before the welfare state came along, towards their empowerment against future economic insecurity.

With that in mind, might I recommend having representatives of the British Council and The Association of Friendly Societies (which represents the industry in Great Britain) come over to the United States and promote the concept, even establishing a few model such based on the Holloway Tables rather than the Fibonacci Sequences, with an eye towards such as a tool of empowering the working classes based on mutual self-help models. (Unless, however, the Zealots and True Believers in Neoconservatism can show valid cause that mutual self-help of this sort "tends to Communism" or otherwise "perpetuates dependency***incompatible with American economic models and experience.")

So what otherwise prevents? 

Need I say more?