Category Archives: Uncategorized

Good Sunday morning. My friend Denny Burke’s Sunday morning jazz selection this week is “Time After Time” by Miles Davis. A few blogs ago, I tried to make sense of the move at James Madison Memorial High School to change the school’s name because Madison owned slaves. Here’s a far more eloquent discussion on theContinue reading “The Contradictions of Thomas Jefferson”

One of our favorite columnists here at YSDA is Sara Elizabeth Cupp. She’s a Never Trump Republican who takes a right-center point of view, which is more conservative then our left-center take on most things, but that just gives her more credibility when she points out the hypocricies of the hard-right. She did that beautifullyContinue reading “So, Who’s Really “Pro-Life”?”

Removing police from Madison’s public high schools never made any sense. It was destined for disaster. Today’s news brings evidence that the disaster is upon us. On Wednesday afternoon about 100 people brought an altercation that began inside East High School onto a street that borders the school. Ten Madison cops and a supervisor hadContinue reading “Get Cops Back in Schools”

I’m a silent sports guy. I ride a bike, I kayak, I hike, I fly fish, I hunt. And I cross country ski. A lot. It’s probably my favorite sport. So, you would think that I’d be with those fighting a snowmobile trail in Blue Mound State Park, my favorite place to ski anywhere. Well,Continue reading “We Should All Get Along at Blue Mound”

Conservatives are generally more happy than liberals because they are at once more accepting of things as they are and yet more willing to take personal responsibility for their own fate. But are those traits exclusive to conservatives? That pretty well sums up the research paper, “Conservatives are happier than liberals, but why?” by Barry R.Continue reading “The Happy Liberal”

White liberals with college degrees care more about race and have a more dim view of race relations than African Americans. What’s going on here? In his influential 2019 piece in Vox, Matthew Yglesias wrote: “In the past five years, white liberals have moved so far to the left on questions of race and racismContinue reading “Why Are White Liberals So Obsessed With Race?”

The city of Madison has half the right idea on dealing with the homeless tent encampment that has sprung up during COVID. But its success will be hampered if it doesn’t follow through on the second part of what needs to be done. First off, let’s give Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway, the City Council and cityContinue reading “Half a Good Idea on Homelessness”

Pretty much every week brings at least a couple of fresh examples of things that push me further away from the left and from the Democratic Party that it dominates. Now, let me hasten to add right here that these things do not shove me into the Republican Party. I find the party of TrumpContinue reading “The Art of Alienation”

Why did they want to break up the old New York Yankees? Because they were too good. Same goes for mega-retailer Amazon. Sen. Elizabeth Warren is now calling for breaking up one of the most successful companies in the world. I don’t know. I can’t think of a single thing I’ve ever gotten out ofContinue reading “Why I Love Amazon”

From time to time, I come across a document that is so good that I want to share it with you in its entirety. That’s the case with the Chicago Principles, a stirring statement in defense of free expression and academic freedom from the University of Chicago. Here it is, unabridged. Report of the CommitteeContinue reading “The Chicago Principles”