Kennedy’s World

Posted By Maxbyte on December 28, 2008

Abraham Lincoln

For a number of years, Wikipedia has published the findings of about a dozen studies that have endeavored to assess the relative rank of each U.S. President from George Washington to the sitting president of the day. The first such study was published in 1948 by Harvard’s Arthur M. Schlesinger. Schlesinger conducted a follow-up study fourteen years later, and published it in 1962, four years before his death.

 

George Washington

Dr. Schlesinger and his work on measuring the greatness of U.S. Presidents remain the standard for many of us. As Harvard’s Director of PhD dissertations for 30 years, Schlesinger was meticulous, and his work has substantially contributed to our understanding of that small fraternity of 42 individuals comprising our past and current presidents. [While George W. Bush is nominally our 43rd President, President Grover Cleveland held two non-consecutive terms, thereby using two presidential numbers rather than one. Worse, neither of Cleveland's terms in office is generally regarded as particularly noteworthy.]

 

I first became interested in Wikipedia’s “presidential greatness data” in 2004. At that time, Wikipedia included an average score for each president… the average of all twelve studies selected to measure the “greatness” of each president. There have been many more than twelve such studies since the first two were conducted and published by Dr. Schlesinger. The “average score” published with the original Wikipedia data set was not controlled for “time in office”, something I believed at the time to be a serious omission. But the only time-in-office data I could find at the time was rounded up or down to whole years. What I needed was “days in office”.

 

I have now found “days-in-office” in another Wikipedia segment. It is very well written and well researched.

 

James Buchanan

After several analyses of all twelve data sets, including Dr. Schlesinger’s first two studies, I decided that using twelve data sets dated between 1948 and 2005 made little sense. Historians and scholars have gradually changed their views of “the greatness” of some of our presidents. When compared to Dr. Schlesinger’s 1948 and 1962 studies, George Washington is now sometimes ranked as the fourth greatest, rather than the second or third greatest. And, as new presidents have completed their terms, and been duly evaluated, some of them have been elevated higher than some of their predecessors.

 

I eventually decided to use only the six most recent data sets, ranging from 1994 to 2005. Shortening the analysis period by 46 years had a couple of advantages: 1) it eliminated two of four Siena College surveys, an over-representation that troubled me during my first analysis in 2004; 2) it permitted all recent presidents - except William J. Clinton and George W. Bush - to be included in this analysis [Dr. Schlesinger did not include sitting presidents; nor do I]; and, 3) each president included in the analysis was evaluated with the same six data sets.

 

Warren G. Harding

As I began working with the data, I quickly discovered that there was no need to control for time-in-office. While I have found no evidence that any of the organizations that conducted the “greatness studies” intentionally controlled for time-in-office, it was immediately evident that most historians and scholars who have evaluated presidential “greatness”, tend to rank presidents who serve two consecutive terms higher than those who do not, with but few exceptions. There are some fairly logical possibilities that might explain higher “greatness” ratings for presidents who serve two terms: 1) they tend to be exposed to more issues of national and international importance than do presidents who serve one term or a partial term; 2) the simple act of being reelected to the presidency tends to be a plus in terms of public appeal and confidence; 3) two terms provide presidents with a little “lame duck” time to smooth over perceived mistakes and failings; and, 4) one-term presidents tend to have insufficient time to bring many of their promises and plans to fruition.

 

Before reviewing the findings of this 2008 analysis, I should note that five presidents have been excluded:
1) William Henry Harrison: oldest elected president prior to Ronald Reagan; insisted on delivering a two-hour inaugural speech in bitterly cold weather - without a coat - and died of pneumonia 31 days later. He performed only one minor official duty.
2) James Garfield: survived an assassination attempt four months into his first term on July 2, 1881; but eventually succumbed to his injuries and complications on September 19, 1881.
3) Bill Clinton: only one qualifying post-presidency rating; insufficient data.
4) George W. Bush: current sitting President; automatically excluded from analysis while in office.
5) Barack H. Obama: Currently President-Elect; automatically excluded from analysis.

 

How Our Presidents Stack Up

 

Presidential Greatness Ranking: High to Low

 

Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, and Washington continue to be regarded, on average, as our three greatest presidents. However, this is the first time I have seen Roosevelt holding on to the #2 position in a group of similarly conducted surveys. Part of the reason Washington is playing second fiddle to Roosevelt is that Siena College Surveys invariably rank Washington as fourth-greatest. To its credit, the 2000 and 2005 surveys conducted by the Wall Street Journal each ranked Washington as #1, the greatest president of all. There has historically been some back and forth between Washington [who created and helped define "administration" at the federal level], and Lincoln who gave his life to hold the Union together [in spite of the Constitution's silence on the issue].

 

The table above helps illustrate changing notions about which of our presidents have been great, in contrast to those who have been merely mortal. I have not previously seen Teddy Roosevelt ranked as our fourth greatest president. Of the ten “greatest” U.S. presidents, only James K. Polk served just one term (1,461 days). Polk was not defeated in a second run for the presidency, he simply decided he had had enough. Whether presaged or not, Polk died of cholera three months after leaving the White House. Polk is ranked among two-term presidents (2,922 days) largely because of his effectiveness as president, and because he managed to shepherd the nation through some of the most critical national and international challenges of our first 65 years as a nation. Polk’s accomplishments included, 1) threatening to go to war against Britain over ownership of the Northwest, and then withdrawing the threat once Britain agreed to a “sharing” arrangement; 2) a successful engagement and conclusion to the Mexican-American war, from the American perspective; 3) the second largest expansion of the continental United States after taking possession of the Oregon Territory (Washington, Oregon, Idaho) and Mexico’s ceding of 525,000 square miles of pre-war territory, excluding Texas, at the end of the Mexican-American War; 4) opening the U.S. Naval Academy; 5) opening the Smithsonian; 6) overseeing groundbreaking for the Washington Monument; 7) and issuance of the first U.S. postage stamp.

 

By contrast, the table above shows that Ulysses S. Grant is the lowest ranked two-term president in the nation’s history, as 2008 comes to a close. He is invariably ranked by historians and scholars in the bottom 25% of all U.S. presidents, partly because of his tolerance for corruption, and perhaps because of his affinity for much too much whiskey. Grant, however, is given credit by some for his efforts to enforce civil rights for African Americans in the wake of the Emancipation Proclamation.

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Tags: Exceptions, Presidents, Rankings, US

Posted By Rosebud on December 19, 2008

Hi! I’d like to introduce myself. You may have noticed a few posts below from “Rosebud”. That’s me! I live in the great State of Washington, in the City of Vancouver. It’s easy to confuse Vancouver, BC [Canada] with Vancouver, USA. Both are great cities, but they are also an even 300 miles apart - north to south. Vancouver, WA has been a fast growing city of about 160,000. The economy has slowed that growth some recently, but it hasn’t - and probably won’t - stop it. Vancouver, WA is 10 miles north of Portland, OR, a mere 16 minute drive either side of rush hour.

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Posted By Rosebud on December 10, 2008

Our Mom wrote this memory of the Mt. St. Helens eruption about our farming dairy family.

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Posted By Rosebud on December 1, 2008

Coming to you from Vancouver, Washington:

I worked in a hospital environment… in the kitchen. One worker was known for sleeping under beds or in closets. My supervisor, very tall, (a woman) had spoken to him many times about his unusual antics. One day, I walked by the pantry, and my supervisor had this man by the collar of his shirt, pulled up in the air eye-to-eye, (his eyes were like saucers), and she said, “Don’t you ever do that again!”

Different Job:

I had a supervisor who worked very long hours in a Japanese manufacturing plant. Our office was a long, skinny room with four desks placed end-to-end facing the wall. I had worked there about two years. One day, I was sitting alone at my desk with my back to my supervisor’s desk. My assistant came in and we were engaged in a conversation. All of a sudden, my assistant’s mouth dropped open and she was looking behind me. I turned around to see what she was looking at, and there was a hand reaching up from the leg-space of my supervisor’s desk. He had crawled in there to take a nap! We both just burst out laughing!!

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Tags: On The Job Fun, Vancouver Washington

Posted By Maxbyte on November 25, 2008

I have now given all of the material posted on the subject of Kegonsa Builders what I hope will prove to be a final edit. Posts that remain are posts that should be useful for those who may contemplate purchasing a Kegonsa-built home or condo when the economy begins turning around in 2010.

Kegonsa-built homes are not worth the asking price, and were not worth the asking price long before the bottom fell out of the mortgage market. Kegonsa-built homes are money pits. Never doubt that, and you may avoid some of the pitfalls the rest of us have experienced.

I do not advise home shoppers to necessarily avoid Kegonsa-built homes. I simply advise that potential buyers be very very careful if considering a Kegonsa-built home. Some of the speculative homes Kegonsa built in Stoughton’s Westview Ridge neighborhood as recently as September 2008 have been unoccupied and largely neglected for more than a year. Do not expect them to be pristine. Having low expectations will help you see problems and potential problems other buyers may not see.

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Tags: Joanne DelPizzo, Kegonsa Builders, Peter Sveum, Stark Realty, Sveum Enterprises

Posted By Maxbyte on October 25, 2008

Here are a couple of photos of a dominant feature of Kegonsa Builder’s neighborhood beautification program in the Stoughton Westview Ridge development. Kegonsa Builders’ habit of planting sales signs any direction but straight up are an eyesore, and that is consistent with its refusal to keep noxious weeds - including toxic Velvet Leaf - out of its vacant lots and off of mountains of unsightly excavated soil.

The camera doesn’t show how completely unattractive Kegonsa’s wayward “For Sale” signs really are. I have been told that the as yet unsold house in the background in the photo below is every bit as unappealing as the one that has been sitting unsold for well over a year diagonally across West Milwaukee Street. I have not been inside of the house in the photo, so cannot agree or disagree with the uncomplimentary feedback from a number of curious neighbors. I have heard nothing complimentary about the home.

Driving through a neighborhood in which For Sale signs are propped up in every direction imaginable says something about the builder / seller, just as it does about the entire neighborhood.

As for what happens to the hole left behind when a Kegonsa “For Sale” sign is removed [home sold], Kegonsa Builders will leave the ugly crooked sign in the lawn for several additional weeks. And, when it is finally removed, the hole left behind will NOT be filled by Kegonsa Builders. Ever. Doing that is left to the buyer, but the buyer is not informed of that. The buyer eventually takes care of the hole after stepping in it and breaking a leg.

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Tags: Kegonsa Builders, Peter Sveum, Sveum Enterprises

Posted By Maxbyte on October 18, 2008

Before listing a number of cautions about what to expect if you purchase a Kegonsa home - especially one that was built as a “speculative” home - I should give credit to Kegonsa Builders for the design of most of their homes in the Westview Ridge neighborhood. Kegonsa Builders has about a dozen different home designs, and you will find many of those designs scattered about in somewhat equal proportions. Unfortunately, by far the best feature of most Kegonsa-built homes is that they are nicely designed from the outside. Once you step inside of a Kegonsa home, the focus gradually moves to cheap amenities, unpainted walls [base paint only], cheap rugs, and shoddy shortcuts caused by Kegonsa Builders’ penny wise tendencies, not by compliant sub-contractors.

Here is a brief list of the issues I have with Kegonsa-built homes:

Spiders: If you like spiders you will be very happy with the Kegonsa vinyl siding feature. You will spend part of a day every week trying to keep spiders and their webs away from your doors, windows, and elsewhere. And for some reason, the spiders indigenous to this area are prolific and virtually impossible to get rid of. Part of that is the way Kegonsa attaches vinyl siding. They leave lots of room for insects of all kinds to get between the siding and exterior walls. Invariably some of them find easy ways of moving right into your living room, bedroom, kitchen, and elsewhere.

Doors: Most Kegonsa homes have at least three entrance / exit doors. Speculative homes in particular [i.e., built for whomever happens to put money down on them; not custom ordered homes] are disgustingly cheap and dysfunctional. The rear doors often have “full panel” glass and have an “R” Value [insulation rating] of about zero. Higher is better; much higher. Moreover, the weather seals will be gone by the end of the first year of the home’s existence. Most of those doors are priced at less than $100, and you get less than you pay for. They are not at all praiseworthy when it comes to security, either.

Inside gypsum walls: One of Kegonsa’s talking points is that they use 5/8-inch thick wallboard, rather than the more typical 1/2-inch wallboard. Don’t make the mistake of being impressed by that. The reason they use thicker wallboard is not to help you make it through wild parties without having someone punch a hole in one of your walls. Kegonsa must use the thicker wallboard to prevent the house from being blown to pieces during the first or second strong storm. Every Kegonsa-built home is literally held together by thick chalky wallboard.

Cheap, low-end brand names: Another Kegonsa talking point is their use of Marillat and other recognizable brand-name kitchen cabinets. Kegonsa uses the low end of every brand name installed in its homes. And that is not the worst of it. They do not install knobs or pulls on any cabinetry. If you want them, add them to your “honey-do” list, and be prepared to shell out more cash than you might prefer.

Use of “factory seconds” throughout the house: Don’t be impressed by window brand names, or much of anything else. The best part of a Kegonsa-built home is on the outside looking in. And you probably don’t want a home that has that as its most distinguishing feature. For example, imagine finding a bathroom with a five foot long “cultured marble” counter [plastic] with a small sink - all in one molded piece - where the sink has no overflow drain but the floor. Further imagine that you eventually find that the counter rocks back and forth after you’ve been using it for a couple of months. The problem is that the counter is a factory reject. One or more underside supports is malformed, causing the entire counter to rock on top of the “supporting” utility cabinet. While many of these products are factory rejects, they are still good enough for Kegonsa. Check everything carefully before you make an offer. Next, you will find that air comes into the house around your windows, as well as the entry doors, partly because cheap vinyl siding is installed around windows and doors in a manner that requires a lot of caulk and insulation. They get neither.

Air Conditioning / Heating Ductwork: I’ve used one of the companies that provides the furnaces, air conditioners, and ductwork for Kegonsa-built homes for years. They are good when they can charge a fair price for their work. But Kegonsa is so cheap it only invests in symbolic ductwork. From the furnace fan area to all parts of the home, so much air leaks from basement ducts that it’s a wonder any of it makes it to the first or second floors. Pay special attention to the “fresh air intake”, usually encased in black plastic in the basement. If the plastic sheath is not installed correctly, and that is often the case, fresh air will freeze as it enters the house, and it will later thaw and drip down onto basement walls / floors. The result is mold and mildew most insurance companies no longer cover, and yet another mess. Kegonsa will tell you it’s not their problem.

Interior paint: It is a cheap base paint that is left behind in a one-gallon can. The can generally lacks identifying information. In other words, it sucks. It is not “finish” paint, and you’ll quickly find out that you need to put a good-quality paint over the base coat throughout your “new home” to preserve your walls, and make them cleanable. What you get with a Kegonsa-built new home is a massive “fixer upper”… a “money pit”.

Floor coverings: The rugs in Kegonsa-built homes are so cheap you will be told not to shampoo them. If you do, you will be told that the water from the shampoo treatment will cause the backing to separate from the rest of the rug.

Fireplaces: You may end up with a “Heat-n-Glow” natural gas fireplace. The brand is a good one, but your fireplace will be near or at the bottom of the line, like everything else. No thermostat, no remote on or off, and no safety features in the event a room becomes hot enough to flash ignite.

Fans: Many Kegonsa-built homes include one or more ceiling fans. Some include a light fixture, most don’t. None are remote control - a relatively inexpensive and useful feature for fans in particular. Like the fireplace that may come with your home, fans cannot be tweaked with add-on features. Rather, they have to be removed and discarded, and replaced with something that has the features you want.

Kitchen: I’m not much of a cook, by choice. But I know how a good kitchen should be furnished. The famous “kitchen sink” in Kegonsa-built homes is generally a very thin stainless steel sink that can also be used as a cymbal… or aluminum foil. There is, in a few kitchens, an overflow drain for the sink - from one side to the other. If you always leave the drain open on one side, the overflow should work for you. Otherwise, all of the overflow goes onto your kitchen floor, and eventually into your basement. Don’t use your basement to store anything you cherish.

Absence of redundant power: Everything in a Kegonsa-built home requires electricity. That includes your natural gas furnace, water heater, fireplace, stove, etc. If power goes out in the dead of winter for a day or two, and if you haven’t added a backup generator or a wood stove, you may become very cold long before the pipes burst. This is especially critical if power goes out during strong Spring and Summer storms. Add backup power to your sump pump, or you are likely to end up with a swimming pool you don’t want or need.

Light Fixtures: Most can be purchased from Menards for less than $15. The quality is OK, but the design choices are limited in that price range.

Dedicated IP Addresses: A dedicated IP address permits internet users to use an assigned IP address that is essential if you want to install a web server of your own in your home. In other words, an assigned IP address permits you to always have the same address for outgoing and incoming connections. You will not get that feature in any Westview-neighborhood home. If it is critical to your decision to buy a certain home, look elsewhere. Kegonsa Builders will lie to you about whether or not that feature is available, just to get a sale. In my case, that was the primary condition on whether or not I would buy a home in Westview. My Stark Realtor and Kegonsa lied to me repeatedly, and it took me months to determine that no such feature exists in this area. Charter Communications is a coaxial cable provider… exclusively. Their lines cannot be used for dedicated IP addresses. Once again, Kegonsa will flip you off if you ask them why they lied to you - AFTER you purchase one of their homes. By contrast, virtually every other location in Stoughton offers both cable and copper lines for virtually any kind of connection to the internet. My personal theory is that Peter Sveum worked out a kickback arrangement with Charter.

These specific problems stand out in my mind at the moment. There are many others to add, like cheap lawn that requires tons of very expensive but undrinkable water to avoid having something resembling a desert within two years. This year was a good year for rain, but that is rare. I am working on alternative ground covers, including Dutch White Clover, that needs little water, and will tolerate a wide variety of soil and climate conditions. There are other ground covers to consider. Pay no attention to the Kegonsa Kentucky Blue Grass requirement, unless Kegonsa pays your water bill. I expect many states, and perhaps the federal government, to begin encouraging alternative ground covers to conserve water, power, and labor. Having a nice looking yard does not require expensive, labor intensive solutions. Besides, the ground beneath your lawn will be predominantly hard, thick clay that supports only hardy vegetation, like Dutch White Clover.

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Tags: Inflated Prices, Kegonsa Builders, Lousy Amenities, Peter Sveum, Poor Construction

Posted By Maxbyte on October 16, 2008

If you happen to live in Stoughton, and especially if you happen to live in the Westview Ridge development, you may know about a note Peter Sveum sent to all residents a while back. Dated October 3, 2008, Sveum noted the following:

Before you trot over to Ace Hardware for a $15 pint of exterior paint… of which you will use less than one-quarter, consider alternatives. One alternative is to wait until Sveum is forced out of his self-imposed title: “Emperor of Cheap Estates”. Another is to permit your mailbox post to rot to the ground before replacing it with any design of your choice. Yet another is to paint your mailbox post any color of your choice.

Remember that Peter Sveum will get a percentage of every purchase specifically mixed for the “Ticky Tacky Boxes” he has built ["Ticky Tacky Boxes" is a phrase from a song titled "Little Boxes", a song written by Malvina Reynolds in 1962 as a spoof on suburbia]. Remember too that many surfaces, including entrance, exit, and adjoining garage doors - all of which are either vinyl clad or metal clad doors - will not form a bond with Ace Hardware brand paint. I personally use Ace Hardware paint often. It is often superior to more recognizable brand name paints, but the clad doors used in Westview Ridge homes are not among the things that are acceptable for Ace Hardware brand paint. Use Pittsburgh Paint or Dutch Boy if you want a lasting finish. [A gallon of the latter two brands purchased at Menards is less expensive than a quart of Ace Hardware paint.]

Ace Hardware paint is probably very satisfactory for mailbox posts, but what are you going to do with the $13 of paint you don’t use? Remove the lid and splash the rest on the parking lot at 1200 Nygaard Street?

If 50 of us take Sveum’s self-serving advise: 1). he will get a nice bonus from Ace; 2). we will get mad as heck that the original paint only lasted two or three years; and, 3). there will be 40 quarts or more of a paint that will beg for alternative uses.

Don’t follow the advise of anyone connected to Kegonsa Builders. Google for more information, or get in touch with the appropriate office at City Hall.

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Tags: Kegonsa Builders, Peter Sveum, Westview Ridge

Posted By Maxbyte on September 23, 2008

If you decide to purchase a Kegonsa Builders’ home, and have read or browsed through this blog to find out what you may be getting into, I strongly recommend that you retain an attorney to help guide your home purchase decision, and to review the documentation. You and the attorney should ask LOTS of questions. Retaining an attorney to purchase Real Estate is not required in Wisconsin, unlike more consumer-oriented states.

Keep in mind that Stark Realtors actively cooperates with Kegonsa Builders to transfer as much of your bank account as possible to their own accounts.

If you are a person of color, you are not likely to be permitted to purchase a home in Stoughton’s and Kegonsa Builders’ Westview Ridge neighborhood. On the plus side, shake the dirt from your feet and look for a more diverse place to live in the greater Stoughton, Oregon, Fitchburg, Madison area. On the negative side, you have a legitimate state or federal complaint if you wish to spend money on a dubious outcome. Redlining is difficult to prove in court.

Regardless of racial, ethnic, and other factors, keep copies of every document you sign. Home Builder and Real Estate fraud is also difficult to prove, particularly in Wisconsin.

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Tags: Kegonsa Builders, Peter Sveum, Redlinging, Stoughton Wisconsin

Posted By Maxbyte on September 18, 2008

Here are more examples of “life in a Kegonsa neighborhood”.

The first photo shows my 2-year-old home’s back door and door frame. The doors appear to be vinyl-clad, rather than metal-clad. In either event, “clad” entrance doors are ultra cheap and require replacement within a few years. This photo is an example of intentional penny-pinching and a lack of concern on the part of both the City of Stoughton and Kegonsa Builders to throw building materials together in a way that results in “planned obsolescence”. Peter Sveum and Kegonsa Builders cut corners at every opportunity to make a few gouged bucks at the expense of unwary home buyers.

The last two photos provide potential home buyers with a sense of how bad “bad neighbors” Peter Sveum and Kegonsa Builders really are. The weed is Velvet Leaf, one of the most devastating sources of allergens. There are piles of dirt like this throughout the Westview neighborhood of Stoughton. There is also a city ordinance prohibiting this unsightly and dangerous pile of noxious plants. The ordinance should be amended to prohibit noxious home builders, as well. Fortunately in this instance, the city forced Sveum to get rid of all weeds and Velvet Leaf, but not before a 4-year-old child who spends his days with his great-grandmother had his eyes, nose, and sinuses completely blocked by the allergen.

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Tags: Kegonsa Builders, Peter Sveum, toxic weeds, Unsightly Excavation Dirt and Weeds