Category Archives: Uncategorized

Getting admitted into the UW Madison is something of a crap shoot. The process is a secret as closely guarded as the nuclear codes. Let’s make it totally transparent. It appears that right now there are only two ways to have 100% assurance that you’ll get into the UW. By state law you have toContinue reading “Make UW Admissions Transparent”

On the fifty-something anniversary of Earth Day it’s time for the environmental movement to grow up. More accurately, it’s important to admit that we have grown up and grown into the establishment. Today, environmentalism isn’t some scrappy, radical movement. Environmentalists are no longer banging at the castle walls. They run the castle. The Environmental ProtectionContinue reading “Environmentalism Is The Establishment”

If Chris McIntosh’s entire tenure as UW Madison’s Athletic Director wasn’t disappointing enough, his exit was even worse. Not only did McIntosh jump a ship that he had steered onto the rocks, but he left for a newly created, cushy and insular job at the Big Ten: Deputy Commissioner of Strategy. Strategy for what? WillContinue reading “New Badger AD Has to Get It”

What on earth will my party do when we don’t have Donald Trump to kick around any more? Every day it looks like the Democrats will do better in November. It had already been a given that the Blues would take back the House, including Wisconsin’s Third Congressional District, and the Wisconsin State Senate. ButContinue reading “A Project 2028 For the Dems”

It was a fair bet that the quiet Wisconsin gubernatorial race would get a little louder after the spring elections. And sure enough this week the big teachers union, WEAC, surprised a lot of people by endorsing Madison’s State Senator Kelda Roys. That was surprising to me mostly for the timing of it and, toContinue reading “WEAC Weighs in Early”

Somebody’s playing politics with gerrymandering. Actually, I suspect everybody’s playing politics with gerrymandering. After long and winding court fights, for the first time in a decade and a half Wisconsin conducted legislative races in 2024 under fair maps. The result was what was predicted by the experts: a slightly red state now has a LegislatureContinue reading “Redistricting Gamesmanship”

Chris McIntosh said that leaving his job as UW Athletic Director was “bitter-sweet” for him. It certainly was for the fans. It was bitter to watch him operate in his job and sweet to see him go. McIntosh took a program that Barry Alvarez and Pat Richter built into a great success and ran theContinue reading “Good Riddance, Chris McIntosh”

I spent a lot of last weekend watching the Masters golf tournament, the most pretentious spectacle in all of sports. The fans are “patrons” and the golf course is “the property.” “Stuffy” doesn’t begin to describe either the event itself or the broadcast. The property was referred to more than once as “the sacred sod,”Continue reading “The Masters and Immortality”

The Rothman Affair may be running its course. That’s fine by me. After all, we’ve got a significant UW leader leaving every other day. We’ll write about Chris McIntosh some other time. Last week two senior members of the Board of Regents appeared before a Senate Committee and, despite believing that they were constrained inContinue reading “The Rothman Paradox”

I just filed my taxes. It took me all afternoon. And there’s nothing exotic about our situation. No fancy investments, no foreign income, no capital gains… Just straight income and the standard deduction. So, why should it be this hard? And why should I be sitting here thinking that I missed something, got it wrongContinue reading “A Better, Fairer, Simpler Tax System”