We're All Neo-Liberals Now!

http://www.ldnews.com/ci_13656638 From time to time my family will engage in email-debate. I like this, and look foreward to Google Wave to enhance the experience. This time, the debate over health care continued with my Grandfather sending out the article above. Below is my rebuttal and commentary in general on the… Read more »

A new use for an old drug

Governor Doyle recently said that he supports lifting restrictions on the use of medicinal marijuana, arguing that medical doctors can already use their discretion to prescribe drugs that are addictive and/or dangerous. It is certainly time for the legislature to act and follow through with this request. The restrictions… Read more »

Non-Eminent Domain

The University of Wisconsin System has decided to exercise eminent domain in order to seize the Brothers Bar & Grill at the corner of University and Lake in order to complete the acquisition of land necessary for a planned performance hall for the School of Music. An agreement had been… Read more »

Rep. Paul Ryan's Fix for Health Care: Is He Serious?

According to Paul Ryan (R), representative of Wisconsin’s 1st district, Republicans in congress do in fact have a slew of vibrant solutions to help fix our country’s broken health care system! I know, I know - you are probably asking yourself why Ryan and his colleagues did not mend… Read more »

How Hammes is trying to buy Langdon Street

Hammes Company, the developer for the contentious $109-million Edgewater hotel renovation, has a brilliant new idea for getting the Greek system to support the plan.If you can’t beat ‘em, buy ‘em!On Sunday, Hammes will take a group of Greek leaders up to their luxury box at Lambeau Field in Green… Read more »

More Junk Environmentalism in Madison

The city of Madison recently enacted a law that requires plastic bags to be recycled, thus making it illegal to dispose of non-biodegradable plastic bags with regular household refuse. In order to recycle these sorts of bags, residents now have to visit one of thirteen recycling stations in the… Read more »

A beer tax for downtown Madison

This post isn’t going to win me any friends, but what if we added a localized alcohol sales tax to downtown bars?A few years back, Madison added a $100,000 fund for the “Downtown Safety Initiative”. It funds police overtime to add extra patrols on busy nights in downtown Madison. The… Read more »

Waking a Sleeping Barrett

It may have been a matter of nanoseconds after Governor Doyle announced that he would not seek a third term that Lieutenant Governor Barbara Lawton joined the race. It’s pretty logical that someone who has been rarely utilized by her boss would jump at the chance of being able… Read more »

Whose Economy Are We Fixing?

By all measures, Wisconsin’s economy seems to be in abysmal health. The Wisconsin Policy Research Institute recently published a number of articles, examining the depth of this problem. One article, which comprehensively examines our economic troubles, suggests a number of solutions. While some of these suggestions, such as forward thinking… Read more »

The Fight for Pet Project Prevalence Despite Budget Short Falls

First, let me admit that Madison is actually pursuing the Edgewater Hotel and new central library projects in a way that isn’t raising taxes. Basically, they are using a financing technique called tax incremental financing which basically is a complex financial system involving betting on interest, and federal grants and… Read more »

Environmentalism & Morons

I had a debate coach once point out that in the real world, outside the realm of cross-examinations and time limited speeches, it was terrifically easy to recognize winners and losers in debates. The first to call the other a name lost the argument, the second to do it lost… Read more »

Moron Environmentalists, or Progressives?

When your first article is a direct attack on my intelligence, you’ve asked for it.Matt, if you think Global Warming is based on good science and government protects the environment with regulation, you are the moron. Once the word broke that the hockey stick graph was a crock, proponents of… Read more »

Conservative Environmentalists, or Morons?

I was reading in the Wisconsin State Journal the other day that UW Madison has, for the second year in a row, denied funding for the Collegians for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT). This organization is a student run group here on campus that believes that “most consumer and environmental… Read more »

Pickup Truck or Moped?

A recent op-ed article in The Badger Herald dismissed the University’s “going green” campaign, and similar movements, as ineffectual and counterproductive. Indeed, I would agree that aesthetically-minded environmentalism, which has brought us stringent litter laws but loose industrial emissions regulations, is generally ineffective in producing positive environmental change. However,… Read more »