Author Archives: dave cieslewicz

I am for materialism. Let’s be comfortable. Let’s get more stuff. Let’s focus on acquisition. Searching for meaning in life? It’s about a better sofa and a bigger flat screen. When I see one of those bumper stickers on a Prius that says, “Live simply so that others may simply live,” I drive very, veryContinue reading “For a Materialistic Society”

Madison Ald. Gary Halverson resigned last night. He probably made the right decision for his family, but the whole awful episode says worse things about the hard-left than it does about Halverson. Here’s the story. In 2020, before he was on the Council and before the January 6, 2021 Insurrection, Halverson joined the Oath Keepers,Continue reading “The Unforgiving Hard-Left”

Madison is building or will soon begin construction on a lot of stuff: major projects at the public high schools, bus rapid transit, a new men’s shelter, a jail consolidation, and more.  And all that building is happening at a time when construction costs are increasing rapidly. It’s probably time to make some hard choicesContinue reading “Madison’s Public Market Might Have Checked Out”

In a couple of days the new Marquette poll comes out. That will be the biggest day in this election cycle, perhaps until election day itself. For me, these are the big questions to be answered: Has RoJo made any headway? Mandela Barnes took a significant seven point lead over Ron Johnson in the lastContinue reading “Wait ’til Wednesday”

To hear Republicans tell it, we need ever-increasing hurdles to cast a ballot to prevent rampant voter fraud (which apparently only hurts Republican candidates.) To hear the Democrats tell it, the Republicans have imposed the equivalent of poll taxes and literacy tests. None of that is true. In fact, all this sound and fury overContinue reading “None Of It Matters Much”

Nobody can top the UW Athletic Department for sanctimony. But now they’ve reached a new level with the Varsity Collective. To understand what this thing is and why it’s so galling you need some background. Last year, at the point of legal gun, the NCAA finally allowed college athletes to benefit from their own name,Continue reading “The Cynicism of the “Varsity Collective””

UW Madison history professor James Sweet should have known what was coming. Sweet, who is also the current President of the American History Association, wrote a much needed essay in the AHA publication about the dangers of “presentism”, that is the tendency to apply present day perspectives and values to historic events. Predictably, the academyContinue reading “Not So Sweet”

A grab bag today. Biden misses the point. Yesterday Pres. Joe Biden attended union rallies in Milwaukee and Pittsburgh to celebrate Labor Day. But only one out of 10 American workers belongs to a union. If Biden really wanted to connect with labor he would have visited the loading dock at a Wal-Mart or theContinue reading “Catching Up on a Few Things”

On Labor Day, when we should be celebrating the fruits of diligence, hard work and just showing up on time, I had the good fortune of stumbling across a piece on the merits of merit in, of all places, the New York Times. The guest essay is by Asra Nomani, a woman who came toContinue reading “On the Merits”

On Labor Day weekend, here’s a question that hard-left Democrats need to ask themselves: If they’re so pro-worker how come workers have been abandoning them in droves? Once the blue collar party, Democrats are fast becoming the party of college-educated, relatively affluent, white collar workers who live in big cities and college towns. And yet,Continue reading “The Invisible Workforce”