The Squire feels like going feral

The Squire used to believe that when one died, God (or one of his representatives) would whisper a short sentence into your ear that would explain the mysteries of the universe and the meaning of life. It would be so head-smackingly simple that you would wonder why it had not occurred to you. (We also once believed that one could be dropped from an airplane and bounce around on top of cumulous clouds. The reason no one did was the danger of falling off down to earth below. Einstein, we were not.)

Humankind is learning that time can stand completely still, that the universe is still expanding, that it began with the Big Bang. (At first there was nothing, then it exploded. WHAT exploded?!!!)

We can trace back to Adam and Eve through DNA and — soon enough — jigger a genome here and there to cure disease. Apropos of almost nothing, the white lab coats at other institutes find that the dogs the First Peoples brought with them across the Bering Strait are no more. For all practical purposes, they died out completely.

The Lost Dogs of the Americas (good name for a music band) tells us that exhaustive DNA studies prove that so-called pre-contact dogs have disappeared to an extent similar to the Neanderthals. … the closest living DNA match to the pre-contact dogs is a strange, but well known cancer, a tumor. A tumor?!

Government journalism = Pravda

Socialist provocateur John Nichols keeps plumping for government-financed everything, including journalism. Thank you to non-government-financed Politico for the antidote. “State-funded reporting won’t save journalism. It’s bound to make it worse.” 

If you thought chronically corrupt New Jersey had enough problems you under-estimate what Democrats are capable of. The state is sprinkling $5 million in tax money (down from the originally sought $100 million) to prop up journalism. Of course, the government money comes with more strings than the Philadelphia Symphony. 

The project [is] barnacled with bureaucracy. According to NJBiz, a staff of four will be hired to oversee the non-profit program while taking direction from a 13-member board of directors chosen by the governor, the legislature, five participating universities and others. Grants will go only to organizations that collaborate with one of the universities, or community, media and technology organizations affiliated with the consortium.

The fact that the consortium’s ruling body is top-heavy with government leaders and employees should give us pause. How can a nonprofit news organization directed by people in the government even pretend to be independent? Will it be able to criticize the governor? The Legislature? 

In any event, do you want Scott Walker, Robin Vos, and Scott Fitzgerald to decide who gets the journalism cash?

Speaking of socialism, California’s likely next governor, Gavin Newsom, is tamping down expectations for single payer health insurance. Just like Vermont’s Democrat(ic) governor did a few years ago.

Speaking of Bernie Sanders, the Vermont socialist is campaigning for Tammy Baldwin July 14 in Eau Claire. The Onion of the Right Wing Conspiracy, the Babylon Bee, reports that Senator Sanders is asking Americans to please stop sending him books on basic economics. 

Sanders made the request after receiving yet another daily shipment of books from well-meaning Americans who simply assumed that he has never read a book on the subject in his life. “I’m drowning here.” 

Instead, send your Economics for Dummies texts to:

Sen. Tammy Baldwin, 30 West Mifflin Street, Suite 700, Madison, WI 53703

The last time we got nasty

A guest here at the Stately Manor asked when the Squire might report on the reunion of the 60s radicals here in Madison. Not invited and never that radical, we answered. In any event, we were hiding our lily white tush under a UW-Oshkosh dormitory bed, not on the Madison campus.

We began to think then that some of my contemporaries’ shenanigans were serving to prolong the Vietnam War. Apropos the previous blogge, “the Gloves Are Off,” David Greenberg reminds Capital Times readers “What Happened the Last Time the Left Got Nasty.” 

… Many of the acts we now celebrate as valorous instances of civil disobedience —the sit-ins to integrate Woolworths and other lunch counters, Freedom Rides to integrate interstate travel — drew fire at the time for their impertinence or incivility. But those protests don’t provide a proper parallel to the hounding of administration officials in public eateries. … In truth, the civil rights movement of the 1960s remains a model today precisely because of its Gandhian philosophy, its devotion to taking the high road, which signaled the nobility of the demonstrators’ motives and the justness of their cause and as a result won over public opinion.

Terrorists like Bernadette Dohrn, Bill Ayers, Bobby Seale, and Angela Davis; groups like Weather Underground, Black Panthers, and UW-Madison’s Army Math bombers won no hearts and minds. 

 

Rewriting history — Open forums are scheduled in the in UW-Madison Memorial Union about re-naming the Porter Butts art gallery and Fredric March theatre: one July 11 at noon, the other on July 12 at 5 pm. This Isthmus cover story remains definitive.

 

Why we can’t warm up to Donald Trump: at a campaign rally in Montana this week he mocked George Bush Sr. Louche.  

“Cheap and ugly.” Wish one of these resided in the Manor’s stable: a 1968 Subaru 360; 25 horsepower two-cylinder engine; 3 feet shorter than a VW Beetle; 45 mph top speed.

 

Coyote sighting — Neighbor spotted a coyote in her back yard on Gilbert Road “with something dark in its mouth.” Fifi? C’mere Fifi! Kitty kitty kitty!

Beautiful day today. Think I’ll join the HOG motorcycle ride to Bunker Hill in Waterford, Robin Vos’s territory. We’ll call ourselves the Lost Dogs of Madison. The Squire feels like going feral.