Sure, They'd have to do More Pledge Drives and Hand Out More Tote Bags, but...

Our state economy is in the tank, like pretty much everyone else's, which means that the state government's in financial trouble. Our Governor (with the nickname that people love to hate on) proposed a series of spending cuts and other measures to help us limp through, including phasing out some state agencies and programs. One target for phasing out is Idaho Public Television, and proposing this apparently ranks up there with atrocities like smearing tomato sauce on the Mona Lisa. From all the hue and cry I've read about this, you'd think that most of the state watches IPTV at least 50% of the time--and I don't need to consult Neilsen results to know that's not the case.^*

Adam Graham, over at the Idaho Press Tribune's blog "Give Me Liberty," outlined eight talking points defending Otter's proposal, which pretty much makes the case. I'd quibble over the order he gives them, his number 7, should be number 1.

It is no more the job of the government of Idaho to ensure that that IPTV is on the air in Burley than it is for the state of Idaho to ensure there's an opera house and disco in Burley.

That's the whole point, isn't it? It's not the government's job to provide a television station to provide educational programming (for young or old), entertainment, and biased (or unbiased, for that matter) news. In fact, it's downright dangerous for the state to assume that role, ignoring the dollars and cents of it all.

The fact is, Nickelodeon and other cable channels oriented towards kids, libraries, Netflix, BBCAmerica, 24-hour news channels, CSPAN, etc. do everything that Public Television does--and do it more efficiently, effectively and conveniently. We ought to let them do that, and let the state spend it's money where it's needed.

Sadly, it appears that the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee isn't going along with the idea. I just don't get it.


^* Actually, last week in a story on KTVB, Mark Johnson claimed that southern Idaho was one of the best audiences for The Jay Leno Show, which might say more about the State's troubles than anything.

Idaho

My alma mater inaugurated a new president today, which I guess is a good thing. I'll be honest, I've never paid that much attention to the succession of presidents since I left (or before I showed up).

Part of the ceremony was the reading of a poem by Robert Wrigley, a professor in the English department, titled "IDAHO." Here's the text, via an alumni newsletter email from the new president. Interesting piece.

"What's in a name?" Juliet Capulet asked of the night sky.
She was puzzlingly, mysteriously, and beautifully in love
with Romeo, a Montague, and their names made it all go awry.
She could have been asking the stars, or the deep dark above,

the same source Mr. George M. Willing might have inquired of,
in 1861, when he coined the word "Idaho," and claimed it Shoshone.
It wasn't. It meant neither "light from the mountains" nor "gem" of
the same. He made it up. It was, lexicologically, baloney.

And yet, here we have, whatever was meant by it then, Idaho:
a name conjured out of nothing, which even now seems,
some days, sometimes, hard to understand: but from the St. Joe
to the Owyhee, over all its thousands of mountains and streams,

what the word is, is a poem---puzzling, beautiful, mysterious---
that means, as we who live here know, exactly and only what it is.

Technically Not a Miracle, but Ever So Close

I'm not a football guy, really. I can watch a game and understand it/not sounds like a moron, but really I'm with George Will: it's the two worst aspects of American culture, 20 seconds of violence followed by a committee meeting.

But for some reason that I don't care to spend the time figuring out, for me (and countless others who really don't care about sports in general/football in particular), when it comes to your college's team...all bets are off.

I'm a third-generation Idaho Vandal, came of age during the Decade of Dominance, back when the team had it's act together--until it won it's first bowl game (I was in the stands!), lost the coach, and the wheels fell off.

It's been a miserable ten years since then (I haven't mentioned to Frodo that he was born just months before the team forgot what "win" meant), and the team has become a joke--especially in this media market dominated by Boise State University. It's really remarkable what can happen to a program like that overnight (and then keep happening, and happening, and happening)

And then tonight--the University of Idaho Vandals won over their conference opponent the New Mexico State Aggies. Their first win on the road since 2006, their first season opening win since 1999.

21-6. Beautiful. Yeah, it's just one game, but come on--this is great.

I. D. A. H. O. Idaho, Idaho, go, go go!

Here we have Idaho, Winning Her Way to Fame . . .

was just sent the list of The 25 Dumbest Quotes of 2007, and am proud to note that Idaho's senior senator shows up 3, count 'em 3, times. Between Mr. Wide Stance and our state police academy we'll be lucky to end 2008 without being the first state to be ejected from the Union....

(I should add that the 25 Funniest Political Quotes are quite chuckle-worthy)