AJ Ratliff Made My Girlfriend Sleep On the Couch

So I watched the game at the sweet sweet bar that I play softball for last night. They also tune into every Brewer game, every night. I have trained them to have it on no matter what, so that if I stop in it better be on TV. (I tip well).

Anyway. That sumbitch worked Bucky last night and I was angry. My girlfriend is an IU grad. I told her at halftime if the Hoosiers won I would dump her. At the end of the game she stood up, jumped up and down, and shook her fantastic ass a little bit.

We reached a deal. I didn't dump her, but she slept on the couch... in her apartment.

You know what sucks about being from Wisconsin?

NOTHING!!

Molly Ivins: Dead

When I was in sixth grade President Richard Nixon died. My teacher at Lowell Elementary in Waukesha only mentioned it by saying "if you don't have anything nice..." when I asked him at the end of the day why the death of a President wasn't worth discussion. That's about my feelings towards Ivins. I'd imagine she is somewhere in the great beyond, discussion a socialist Utopia with Che and Lenin...wondering where it all went wrong. I'm sure she'll be first in line to offer Castro a chair.

She'll be remembered for plagiarism and as the person who coined "Shrub." The Lunatic Fringe is in tears.


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Militant Atheists Taunt the Religious

http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=2837034

Is there really a point to taunting those who believe in God, and to attempt to directly taunt God? Fine be an atheist, but is there a reason to be militant?

Thug Tech Riot

Wow, the Urinal actually posted video of the riot last night that broke out after the Bradley Tech - Bay View overtime basketball game. Clearly, time to stop allowing spectators into the Bradley Tech basketball games. Better yet, charge $35 per ticket, that will quickly solve the problem. These idiots want to beat hell out of each other on their own time in the streets, go nuts, but when these riots break out at high school sporting events, there are families, children, old people and all are put in danger. Go through the video and suspend any kid on the court, any kid swinging, and especially any kid who was arrested or detained. Chances of that happening? Mr. Slim, meet Mr. None.

I like that the Urinal calls it a "disturbance." Anytime DOZENS of cops have to go anywhere, and 4 of these officers are injured, it's no freaking disturbance.

Of course, since most of the people in the video appear to be black, I am sure it's just me being racist for thinking this is outrageous.

Symphony Mario

This is pretty freaking cool, if you like video games, which I in fact, do (just got a DS for the Boston trains...amazing!)

Where Have You Been??

Well, I’ve been in Boston for the past year, and I will be staying for the foreseeable future (grad school). A few things have made me decide to return to the great pastime of blogging. (I think that word is half the reason I stopped by the way).

#1 Google Reader. The thing is incredible. It’s like a never-ending listing of things that interest me, and every day I am adding new feeds. It is fantastic.

#2 Tommy Thompson. T2 is running for President!! He will be my guy until he is knocked out. I want to spread all the word I can, while I can, however I can.

#3 This jackass.

So folks, Righting Wisconsin is back, feel free to drop me a line if you want to know more about my last year. It’s been dope. And go check out the Sports Bar.

TCS Daily: Blood Alcohol Blues

Over at TCS Daily (formerly Tech Central Station) Max Borders actually offers an alternative solution to what is in his eyes (I happen to agree) a problem. The problem is the lowering of BAC limits for an individual to be considered legally drunk. Being the ripe young age of 24 I still am frequently around people drinking, and drinking in large quantities. As such, the effects of varying amounts of booze on different individuals does not escape me. I know 250 lb guys who are considerably impaired after two or three drinks and I know 108 lb girls who can polish off a twelver with no problem. The problem with BAC in determining the ability to drive is that blood alcohol content measures just that, the amount of alcohol in your blood. It does not measure your ability to react to various situations, BAC gives only an indication as to the impairment of an individual. Should the pettie girl who can drink like a fish, blow a .10 and still drive go to jail while the house of a man who drinks like Nicole Kidman from Blind Date but only blows a .04 is sent on his way?

Mr. Borders offers an interesting solution at the end of his piece which may or may not be feasible, but at least he is trying to solve a problem.

So the question comes down to this: Are there other (non-cost prohibitive) standards available for testing drivers? One’s that actually test for impairment?
You bet -- and they’re inexpensive.
My tentative suggestion would be a portable driving simulator. If we train fighter-pilots and astronauts on sims, why not test drivers with them? In fact, there are all sorts of computer programs sitting on servers at different universities around the country, not to mention in for-profit companies. There are programs for everything from learning to drive an eighteen wheeler, to -- eureka -- testing people’s driving abilities under the influence.
Even if we thought the driving simulators extant were somehow insufficient for the task of determining whether or not someone is impaired, we know the technology exists and that a prototype for cops could be worked up in a matter of months. Don’t believe me? This following list of games should give us an idea of what’s out there:
 Beta Research Driving Simulator
 Gran Turismo 4
 Subaru (Online Simulator Game)
 Drivesquare
I admit that a formalized simulation might have to be studied extensively. But the technology is there: 3-D virtual reality glasses, algorithms that recreate physical forces, graphics, sound -- and everything else cool and realistic that you might find in your kids’ X-Box 360.
While such new technologies may have to be reworked and tested for use as a legal standard, it’s certainly a significantly better objective standard for determining whether a person is capable of driving than breathalyzers. And while there may be a minor inferential step from someone’s score on the simulation to the presence of alcohol in her body, such a step is far, far narrower than the giant leap between BAC and impairment.

MapSexOffenders.com - Coaching Up the Journal Ed Board

I was a little surprised to read the Journal’s editorial this morning about the new updates to the sex offender web site. According to the Journal:

As of Thursday, Department of Corrections Secretary Matt Frank has promised, it includes specific addresses for those offenders registered. The Web site at http://widocoffenders.org was clunky in practice when we tried it (because of "traffic congestion," said a spokesman), but addresses were included.
Go to the Web site, and click on Search Registry. You can search by name or location. In the location field, type in a ZIP code. Names of sexual offenders who are required to register will appear. Click on any one of them, and that offender's information will pop up, including address.
The ability to type in addresses and get offenders in proximity would be handier, but this addition is an improvement.

A cursory search of the web would have found them a number of sites that not only show sex offenders in the proximity of a given address, but also give a picture of said offender. My favorite is mapsexoffenders.com which uses the google map tool to plot each sex offender in the vicinity of an address or zip code. Clicking on each pinpoint brings up the address and mug shot of the offender. This is a fantastic resource that is far and away better than that listed by the Journal. Shocking.

Happy Thanksgiving! Enjoy the Turkey Fires!

Well, Happy Thanksgiving folks. Here are some deep friar mishaps brought to you by the folks at underwriter laboratories. Enjoy!

A Defeat That Stings...

Reported oil shortages, high gas prices because of skyrocketing demand, and untapped oil reserves in our own country. Seems to me the equation works itself out quite nicely. While the ANWR oil won't solve any problems, it will alleviate some immediate fears and allow for greater saving of oil, our own oil, the cost of which will undoubtedly be cheaper than shipping it in from overseas.

I simply don't understand how the aesthetic value of an environmental preserve, which serves no other purpose than "being pretty" trumps the social and economic needs of the greatest country in the history of civilization? To top it off, the Grand Ol Party congressmen couldn't even get the moratorium lifted on offshore drilling on the east and west coasts.

The worst part is how large the Republican defection was on this issue:

Twenty-five Republicans, led by Rep. Charles Bass of New Hampshire, signed a letter asking GOP leaders to strike the Alaskan drilling provision from the broader $54 billion budget cut bill.

“Rather then reversing decades of protection for this publicly held land, focusing greater attention on renewable energy sources, alternate fuels, and more efficient systems and appliances would yield more net energy savings than could come from ANWR and would have a higher benefit on the nation’s long-term economic leadership and security,” they said.

The moderates knew they had leverage, given the narrow margin of GOP control of the House. It only takes 14 Republican defections to scuttle a bill, assuming every Democrat opposes it.

Hopefully the Republicans in the Senate can throw a little clout around and get this thing done, finally, for the good of the country instead of cowtowing to the interests of nutty leftists who have twisted the issue into some all-important cause.

Red State Rumor Mill Gets Churning...Justice Sammy Alito?

I don't think they have gotten it right yet, but the folks over at Redstate.org are saying the next nominee will be Samuel Alito, known as Scalito to leftists.

Or, it could possibly be Luttig. Either would be a fantastic choice for the Roberts Court (still love saying it).

Multiple sources are telling RedState that Samuel A. Alito, Jr. of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals will be named by the President at the next associate justice of the United States Supreme Court as early as Monday.

"The situation is still in flux," says one source, "but not very much." Says another, "The White House Counsel's Office is not doing too good at keeping this a secret."

Still another source says, "Luttig and Alito were the fall backs to Miers. They have both been vetted. Alito seems more palatable. There is no need to drag this out, he's been vetted a million times."

Obviously it is still wait and see...

Liberal Pundits: "Abortion Is Murder"

I was reading Jonah Goldberg's piece over at TownHall (newly redesigned I might add) and saw a couple quotes I had not seen before.

And then Bennett offered the infamous hypothetical, saying: "I do know that it's true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could - if that were your sole purpose - you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down. That would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down."

Now, many of you probably know all of this so far. But some probably do not because you've heard about this second hand. And Democrats and many liberals have been trying to distort what Bennett said. Former DNC chair Terry McAuliffe: "The point he was trying to make, I guess, he said, you know, if you were to go out there and kill the black babies, the crime would go down." Ted Kennedy and a predictably long list of others have called him a racist. Radio host Ed Schultz said: Bennett is "out there advocating the murder of all black babies."

Umm, when did these folks start thinking of fetuses as babies? I am one of the rare people in America who has no solid stance on abortion, I have never felt in a position to say one way or the other and I can see compelling arguments on either side. My problem here is with the unabashed hipocrisy coming from these leftists.

Bennet obviously and explicitly said "abort." He was talking about abortion. And McAuliffe and Ed Schultz (radio host in Dakota or something, syndicated in a few place, I don't blame you if you never heard of him I hadn't until I got XM) immediatley say Bennett was advocating "killing black babies."

So has the left, some of the left, or just these two nutters changed their position on abortion (I have a feeling Schultz may be somewhat pro-life, based on DU rants). Is abortion now "murdering babies?" If it is, doesn't the act of murder trump a woman's right to privacy?

Goldberg touches on this later in the column.

Notice how so many righteously offended liberals keep referring to fetuses as people. In The New York Times, Bob Herbert proclaims that Bennett considers "exterminating blacks would be a most effective crime-fighting tool." Schultz and McAuliffe say Bennett wants to exterminate "babies."

Funny, I thought the bedrock faith of pro-abortion liberals is that fetuses aren't babies. Isn't it interesting how this lynchpin of liberal morality evaporates the moment an opportunity to call Bennett a racist presents itself? Talk about utilitarianism.

I cannot fathom how you can have it both ways? When talking about "aborting black fetuses" liberals call it murder, but when talking about abortion in general, it's a "right to choose." That line is far too fine for me.

Badger Hockey Preview!!

This is my favorite day of the sporting year. I'll be leaving work early to be all looped at a little bar near the Kohl Center with a thousand or so close friends to get ready for the rowdiest most intimate sporting experience you can imagine. Nothing beats a packed arena full of knowledgable fans, knowing exactly what to cheer and when to cheer it, all happening in sync no matter how drunk the fandom might be. With that in mind, here is all you need to know about the upcoming Badger season.





Cap Times Preview

State Journal Preview

USCHO WCHA Preview, Insidecollegehockey.com WCHA preview


My personal analysis? Well, oddly enough the Badgers are ranked 10th in the national preseason poll behind FIVE WCHA teams. However, in the WCHA coaches poll, the Badgers are picked to finish second. Odd things afoot. The Maroon and Mustard Goofers are solid, with a great young class. CC has incredible offensive potential, Denver the same. The Sioux of ND lost some talent but were able to retain a Milwaukee kid named Drew Stafford (who I owned in my day) which will help. The Badgers didn't add a ton but look out for Jack Skille, the guy can play and rumors have it he and Phil Kessel (the filthy traitorous scum bag) despise each other. Should be fun to watch! I think Bucky contends for the title, but finishes second or third in the WCHA.

As promised, here is a must see video. Honestly if you do one thing today, watch this idiot. This is after a game in Minnesota where he muffed two empty netters and basically played a poor game all around. So the teams clear the ice and Hirsch decides he isn't done. Watch and see a mental breakdown happen before your eyes. Screw the Gophers. (By the way, Tyler is fine and was back on the ice a few weeks later).

Are African American Women Inherrantly Racist? Kane seems to think so

I read Eugene Kane's column this morning with a little bit of disbelief. I read through the first three quarters of it and pretty much all he did was bash black men. The column was about how black women don't feel most black men would make suitable husbands or fathers hence they just get knocked up to "fill a void" and distance themselved from the father.

"Before pregnancy, these young women's lives were often spinning out of control, dogged by school failure, struggles with parents and peers, the lure of drugs and alcohol and the omnipresent dangers of their neighborhood streets.

"Into this void comes a baby, bringing a profound sense of meaning and identity."

I wanted to run this theory past someone who has worked extensively with black single mothers.

June Perry, executive director of New Concept Self Development in Milwaukee, a non-profit social service agency that has a variety of programs for low-income families in the African-American community, saw some credibility in the book's views.

"I think most people support marriage if it makes your life better and improves the life of the child," Perry said. "But for many black women, that reality is limited."

Many black women don't have a large pool of candidates for marriage due to social realities, Perry said.

"There's the lack of employment and lack of education among black men, and there's also the incarceration rate," Perry said. "Marriage is great if you have someone who can join your life as a partner, but if he's unemployed or incarcerated, he's probably not going to be there."

Perry said many women want children but resist marriage due to the circumstances of the men in their lives.

According to this specialist black women see black men as unemployable losers or worse, criminals who will not "make thier life better and improve the life of the child."

I was a little struck by the tone of the column, given that if Bill Bennet had made these comments Jesse Jackson would have been calling for his head. But it seems that African American women don't reserve their bigotry for just black men. Nope, according to Kane black women also have some sort of aversion to white men.

Compounding the problem is the fact that black women don't marry outside their race as often as other women do.

Compounding the problem is the fact that black women don't marry outside their race as often as other women do.

Kane doesn't give any facts supporting this, just claims it is so. I decided to write Mr. Kane to see if I could get some follow up (he is usually pretty good about getting back). Here is my letter:

Mr Kane,

I was struck by your most recent article. It seems that the people most inherently averse to African American men are African American women. You write, as a given, that most black women feel that most black men will not improve their lives. I was literally stunned. Do black women really peg black men as uneducated louts or criminals as the following paragraph suggests?

“"I think most people support marriage if it makes your life better and improves the life of the child," Perry said. "But for many black women, that reality is limited."
Many black women don't have a large pool of candidates for marriage due to social realities, Perry said.
"There's the lack of employment and lack of education among black men, and there's also the incarceration rate," Perry said. "Marriage is great if you have someone who can join your life as a partner, but if he's unemployed or incarcerated, he's probably not going to be there."
You have written back to back columns, one condemning Bill Bennet for inferring black people are more likely to be criminals, and the next saying most black men are unintelligent or criminals? I don’t really get it. They seem to be reflections of the same though.

To compound my confusion is your insinuation, without supporting facts, that black women are racist, or at least overly averse to men of other races. You candor is appreciated, but you don’t seem to find these things the least bit strange.

The conclusion I drew from your column is that African American women have children to fill otherwise empty lives “fill a void” and would rather be a single mom than pursue option A. an unemployable black man B. an African American criminal or C. heavens forbid, a white man. I can’t imagine this is the case, and if it is the situation is more bleak than poverty or wedlock babies. Forget changing the attitudes of racists Southerners or condescending white liberals, the attitudes that need to be changed most, from this article, is that of the African American mothers.

If these mothers are assuming black men are no good, that attitude obviously is picked up at one level or another by her children, thus resulting in an almost self perpetuating cycle of disdain for black men in the black community. The female children will share the mothers views and the male children will think of themselves as destined to be no good.

Thanks for you time and the thought provoking column

I'll let you know if I get anything.

I needed that!

Last night was a fantastic night for hockey fans. The stadums were 98% full, scoring was up over 30% (penalties were up 40%) and removing the red line really was a hit.

Here is a fantastic recap of all last night's action. I listened to the Bruins-Haps game for a little while while I was stuck at work and it was great, lawd lawd how I missed it!

An acquaintance of the family notched the first of many (and notched an assist, congrats Zack!)

Great Wisco alum Dany Heatley Q&A (by the way, our boy scored the put away in the first regular season shootout for the Sens!)

I have a treat for you guys tomorrow. I'm gonna post a link to a video that I have gotten a lot of heat over. It is the famous Tyler Hirsch meltdown video. I'll tell more tomorrow, but when I put it up my site meter almost melted and my comment section was loaded with Goofer fans yelling at me to take it down. I'm sorry but with College Hockey just around the corner (FSN 7pm tomorrow night for you unluky enough to not have tickets yet, and there is still a bit of room on the Bucky Badger Bandwagon!) I have to post the video of a kid I know literally losing his mind at the end of a game, especially since he plays for the Maroon and Mustard).

cross posted over at The Wisconsin Sports Bar

Tom DeLay

I have no been following the DeLay scandal and I have no real desire to at this point. Based on the tidbits I've read the thing seemed to start out as a partisan witch hunt, but if it resulted in finding illegal activity then I have no problem throwing the guy in jail.

I do, however, think it is too early to find him guilty, since as far as I know, there is still a little thing called a trial.

Politically speaking, I'm glad it happened now so that it does as little damage as possible. The earlier the better, as it lessens the effects it could potentially have on 06 elections, and basically makes it a dead issue in 08.

I am too young to really remember the leftist equivalent in 94 (i believe) Dan Rostenkowski (?) which ended up killing the dems in that election, but if this had happened a few months later I could definitely see the same results.

I await the fallout with baited breath.

Barak Obama's Black Problem

Last December, barely a month after his election as US Senator, the east coast press devoted reams of paper to the potential First Black President. He was hailed throughout the minority community as a sure thing, a rising star, a can't miss African American. Liberals dream about a candidate like Mr. Obama, eloquent, from average roots, minority, and liberal as Teddy Kennedy. To top it all off, he is from the midwest, young and handsome. There is only one problem;

Barak Obama is colored.


If you read that paragraph in the Washington Monthly you would be rightly stunned. I daresay Jesse Jackson would be shaking the place down with his Rainbow Coalition and Farrakahn would be threatening a black uprising if the Monthly didn't apologize.

Why then is the following paragraph, from Amy Sullivan, acceptible?

Last December, barely a month after Bush's reelection, George Will devoted a column to Romney's potential, and a quick succession of profiles in the Weekly Standard, National Review, and The Atlantic Monthly appeared in the spring. Who could blame them? Romney has had a successful business career (he is known to most Americans as the man who saved the Salt Lake City Olympics). He comes from noble moderate Republican lineage (his father was governor of Michigan). He is attractive (the National Review sighed over his "chiseled handsomeness"). And he grabbed national headlines—and the attention of social conservatives—by standing up to the Massachusetts Supreme Court's legalization of gay marriage. Just as Democrats are always looking for a liberal nominee from a red state, Republicans dream about a candidate like Romney: a social conservative from the most cerulean of blue states who can please the base while not scaring off moderates.

There's only one problem. Romney is a Mormon, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS).

Sucks to suck...

I was talking to my buddy last night about the 2008 Presidential race. I am what I am and he is a slowly moving to the center lefty. I told him, I have no clue who the heck I will vote for, and if McCain is nominated it just may have to be the Democrat (or Pat Buchanan).

Anyway, I told him I assumed a emocrat would win, it just seems to go that way, and he told me he wasn't so sure but that if a lefty doesn't win, "what with all that's been going on" the democrat party is dead. I couldn't agree more. If the Republicans can somehow win in 2008 imagine the shockwave that would send through staunch socialists like Kennedy and Kucinich! It would literally be the stake through the heart of their idiotic ideology.

Jonah Goldberg has a nice column today about how terrible it is to be a democrat, amidst the low approval ratings of a Republican president, and still have absolutely ZERO power:

Of the myriad civic, legal and political lessons to be drawn from Thursday's assured vote to confirm Judge John Roberts as chief justice of the Supreme Court, the most glaring is how much it just plain stinks to be a Democrat these days.

George W. Bush is at his lowest approval level of his presidency, Iraq will not likely be a political winner for the foreseeable future, congressional Republicans are balking at his agenda and, in response, Bush is throwing money out the window as if he's afraid it might catch fire. Yet his thoroughly rich, white male nominee has passed with barely a scratch.

We'll see how weak they really are in a week or so, when the next conservative white male is nominated to associate justice...

Congratulation La Crosse

La Crosse has been named the sixth best Oktoberfest destination in the United States. Pretty impressive for a place that lately has only been in the news because some lunatic parents blamed guys drowning in the river at bar time on a serial killer, and not on the most likely cause, guys falling into a river while taking a leak on their way home from the bars. I've been to La Crosse, I've gotten drunk in La Crosse and I can guaranty one of those scenarios is the correct one.

But I digress, here is what Askmen.com has to say about La Crosse's Oktoberfest Party:

The town of La Crosse began organizing Oktoberfest events in 1961, and over 40 years later, the festivities are better than ever. Famous for its numerous parades, La Crosse's version of Oktoberfest is a light-hearted, relaxing event where friendly people get together to eat the notoriously great bratwurst and down beer as if it were water. Yes, the people of Wisconsin know how to make Oktoberfest their own and 175,000 people gather to experience it with them.

To top it all off, a three-hour Maple Leaf Parade and a Miss La Crosse/Oktoberfest beauty pageant round out the festivities, proving that a visit to La Crosse is worth the trip.

Must-do: See the world's largest six-pack at the City Brewery.

Again, congratulations to all the good folks in the nort'west.

WI Librarians Naked for the Kids?

Seriously, I know sex sells, but northern Wisconsin librarians getting mostly naked for a calendar? That is definitely a new one on me.

The idea for the "Desperate Librarians" 2006 wall calendar came about because Craig Lahm is retiring after 32 years of running Kaukauna's library, and his colleagues in the Outagamie Waupaca Library System wanted to come up with a different kind of gift.

Twelve of them decided they would use photographs of themselves to make a simple calendar that they would print at a Walgreens. But after the librarians took their idea to Countryside Photographers in Seymour, they decided to professionally produce a calendar and sell it as a fund-raiser.

That's when six of the 12 librarians bailed out. But five middle-aged library directors and a 32-year-old assistant each put up $200 and posed provocatively, using oversize books to cover what their clothes usually do.

Proceeds benefit the public libraries in Weyauwega, Clintonville, Marion, Seymour and Manawa as well as Waupaca.

If you ask me, this should NOT have been done...