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  • Thank a Veteran


    Thank a Veteran

    There has never been a time when we should not honor the service of our men and women who have served our country. I am especially sensitive to this because I am a proud Navy Dad.

    Does he face threats? [...]
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    Posted: November 10, 2009, 10:01am EST

  • Bad Night in Beall

    Although it is about 2.5 hours for me each way, I drove to Marshfield on Friday, November 6 to see the Tigers take on the visiting Merrill Blue Jays in the third round of the WIAA Division 2 playoffs. Like a few schools two or three hours from Marshfield like [...]
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    Posted: November 07, 2009, 4:55pm EST

  • Stop the Democratic Bleeding

    President Barack Obama’s November 4 trip to Wisconsin might have only been partially about education policy. It might have been to coax incumbent Wisconsin Governor James Doyle to pull a Brett Farve and declare himself a candidate for re-election in 2010. Failing that, he still hopes to convince Milwaukee Mayor [...]
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    Posted: November 07, 2009, 10:41am EST

  • Acorn Shows Common Phases of Denial

    When several offices of Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (Acorn) were stung by hidden cameras of James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles seeking tax and housing help to run a prostitution ring including bringing underage prostitutes from El Salvador, the response of Acorn illustrates common phases of denial.
    [...]
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    Posted: September 22, 2009, 8:09pm EDT

  • Knee-Slappingly Funny People

    There are a number of people that say and write things so hysterical that I can’t control myself, laughing out loud even when decorum says I should not. I have three laughs: the explosive guffaw, the giggle and the hiss. Increasingly the hiss is reserved for people who have known [...]
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    Posted: September 08, 2009, 9:59pm EDT

  • Thirtieth Anniversary of the Pivotal Event of Our Generation

    We did not think so at the time. No one could escape the news of it but none of us thought it would change everything. It seemed too trivial

    It was the fodder for newspaper cartoonists from coast to coast. Inexplicably, some electronic news outlets found fuzzy footage of [...]
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    Posted: August 31, 2009, 8:41am EDT

  • Wisconsin’s Lame Duck

    News that Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle will not seek another term in 2010 makes him a lame duck until his successor take the oath. He will now have less influence over state spending and state policy than he had before the announcement.

    Doyle could read polls like anyone. A [...]
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    Posted: August 18, 2009, 10:23am EDT

  • A Little Revolution Now and Then

    Many Iranians continue to defy authority by taking to the streets to protest the results of their election for President. Some figures in the revolution against the Shah now think that the revolution has been hijacked by autocrats. The state-sponsored slogan is “Death to America,” like it is still the [...]
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    Posted: July 23, 2009, 9:57pm EDT

  • Wisconsin: Alabama of the North?

    Wisconsin lags neighbors Illinois and Minnesota in jobs and personal income, wrote Thomas Hefty and John Torinus, Jr., in a guest column in the Opinion section of the Wisconsin State Journal on Sunday, July 12. Iowa’s per capita income is less but job creation is three times ours.

    With [...]
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    Posted: July 13, 2009, 10:22am EDT

  • A Day of Remembrance


    A Day of Remembrance

    We are simultaneously mournful and lucky that men and women in the service chose defending our liberties and values in conflicts from the French and Indian War to Iraq and Afghanistan, whether we agree with the conflicts or not. Some died [...]
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    Posted: May 25, 2009, 12:00pm EDT

  • Sacking Speaker Pelosi Now American Tradition

    Was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) briefed on Enhanced Interrogation Techniques, such as water boarding, or not? When? Current Central Intelligence Agency Leon Panetta and former Director Porter Goss have a different version of events. Pelosi read a parsed written statement repeatedly at her weird press conference, blaming the CIA. [...]
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    Posted: May 18, 2009, 8:58am EDT

  • Sacking Speaker Pelosi Now American Tradition

    Was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) briefed on Enhanced Interrogation Techniques, such as water boarding, or not? When? Current Central Intelligence Agency Leon Panetta and former Director Porter Goss have a different version of events. Pelosi read a parsed written statement repeatedly at her weird press conference, blaming the CIA. [...]
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    Posted: May 18, 2009, 8:58am EDT

  • Kemp and Michaelsen

    News that Jack Kemp has passed away is personal to me. Kemp was a big part of my personal and professional life.

    Many are familiar with his story. Success as a quarterback for the Buffalo Bills translated into becoming Congressman from Buffalo. He acquired a national reputation as a [...]
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    Posted: May 04, 2009, 9:08pm EDT

  • Two Wisconsins Now

    One Wisconsin Now and Greater Wisconsin Fund is paying for some political advertisements against Dane County Executive candidate Nancy Mistele. The advertisements distort Mistele’s record as a member of the Madison School Board and suggest that the listener call the Mistele campaign office and tell her we do not need [...]
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    Posted: March 30, 2009, 7:48pm EDT

  • Obama’s Valentine to the Iranian People

    Like a clock that does not run, President Barack Obama is only right twice per day. So his Persian New Year message to the Iranian people on March 20 was one of those times.

    The Iranian government and especially Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad underestimated the ability of Obama to [...]
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    Posted: March 23, 2009, 8:05pm EDT

  • New & Improved Links

    A few regular visitors will notice that I have purged links to content that is almost never updated and added links to content which changes daily. Those who visit only when I post something outrageous and newsworthy will not notice.

    There are new Wisconsin links and national links. [...]
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    Posted: February 16, 2009, 4:25pm EST

  • Barack Obushma

    Expectations of those who flocked to Washington and tuned into television around the country for the Inauguration of President Barack Obama are so high, they are bound to be disappointed by the Obama Administration.

    Expectations were similarly high for George W. Bush to be transformative in 2000. He worked [...]
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    Posted: January 27, 2009, 9:16am EST

  • Falk’s 911 Albatross

    On the last day of her life, University of Wisconsin senior Brittany Zimmerman, 21, called 911 from her cell phone about noon on April 2, 2008. She was knifed to death in her apartment near campus a short time later.

    Police arrived nearly an hour later when her fiancée [...]
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    Posted: December 15, 2008, 9:19am EST

  • Raising Taxes a Resort Wisconsin Democrats Will Visit

    Wisconsin’s estimated current $5 billion deficit defies quick fixes. It did not happen overnight. However, a report from the union-dominated Institute for Wisconsin’s Future and the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families says it can be fixed in one year by delaying some tax cuts, raising others and taxing things [...]
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    Posted: December 04, 2008, 9:55pm EST

  • UW Football: Ending with a Whimper

    The turning point of this University of Wisconsin football season was the second half of the game at Michigan. The Badgers squandered a 19 point halftime lead only to lose that game.

    Wisconsin’s Homecoming victory 27-17 over Illinois and 35-32 over Minnesota were reminders of how the Badgers [...]
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    Posted: November 16, 2008, 10:33pm EST

  • Say Nothing against Obama

    Most people have now seen the rants by angry voters at a John McCain town hall meeting in Waukesha on Thursday, October 10, urging McCain to be tougher against Barack Obama and his associates at the third and final Presidential debate. Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle, other Obama surrogates and the [...]
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    Posted: October 12, 2008, 9:58pm EDT

  • Have Democrats Learned Nothing?

    Choosing Delaware Senator Joe Biden to be the Vice Presidential candidate by Illinois Senator and Presidential candidate Barack Obama was an electoral mistake for several reasons. The last two unsuccessful national Democratic tickets were two Senators, even though one was already a sitting Vice President. Obama could have chosen a [...]
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    Posted: August 26, 2008, 8:59am EDT

  • Journalists for Obama

    Writing in the July 14 National Review, Weekly Standard contributing editor Noemie Emery compares how symbiotic the relationship was between Theodore Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy and the press and that now the press has become the cheering section for Barack Obama. Emery’s article can be found at http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_13_60/ai_n27925970.
    [...]
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    Posted: July 31, 2008, 9:12am EDT

  • Madison’s Traffic Problems

    Madison has some unusual traffic problems even in summer with most of the University of Wisconsin students away for the summer. It will be worse when the college kids return.

    I have lived all across the country, including in cities that dwarf Madison. I also have driven on [...]
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    Posted: July 27, 2008, 9:42pm EDT

  • Missing Some Things about the South

    I lived in the Deep South for four years. There are some things I miss, but others not so much, in Wisconsin-speak.

    Chiefly, I miss the food and drink. Even the best barbecue in Madison is not nearly as good as third-tier barbecue in the South. I miss Community [...]
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    Posted: July 16, 2008, 11:46pm EDT

  • “Over the land of the free and the home of the brave”

    July 4 for many Americans is a beery day of sports, food, boating and fireworks. Historically, of course, July 4, 1776, is the date we declared our independence from Great Britain when this was a risky proposition.

    It is such an American holiday. Because it falls on a [...]
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    Posted: July 03, 2008, 9:31pm EDT

  • Arrest in One of Three Big Unsolved Madison Murders

    Madison police chief Noble Wray announced Friday that Madison police have arrested a suspect in the murder of hospital equipment salesman Joel Marino. Adam Peterson, 20, was arrested in the metro Twin Cities area. His father told the media that Peterson attended the University of Wisconsin briefly.

    Marino was [...]
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    Posted: June 28, 2008, 3:48am EDT

  • A Remembrance of George Carlin

    News that George Carlin has passed away moves me to remembrance. He was more than a comedian to me, although I found him funny. When I was about 11, I bought “Class Clown.”

    As an actor, he was also important in the lives of my children. When Jens [...]
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    Posted: June 23, 2008, 9:22am EDT

  • Happy Birthday, Petty Officer Michaelsen

    My older son, Jens, is 23 today.

    People who know ask if I have sent him a card and present or called him. Jens has asked his grandparents and me to resist sending him a card or presents until he is back on shore in early July. I [...]
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    Posted: June 22, 2008, 10:38pm EDT

  • Was Tamara Greene Killed by Kwame Kilpatrick?

    Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was in his first term and Tamara Greene, a stripper known professionally as Strawberry, allegedly performed for a party at the Mayor’s mansion in September 2002. Supposedly, Mrs. Kilpatrick had been out of town and came home unexpectedly and confronted Greene. In this theory, Greene was [...]
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    Posted: June 20, 2008, 8:52am EDT

  • Dont They Get It?

    An item in the Local section of the Wisconsin State Journal said a Madison driver was arrested for operating under the influence (OWI) and operating a motor vehicle without a license. He has been convicted four times for driving under the influence. With last Saturday’s stop, he has a total [...]
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    Posted: April 26, 2008, 5:14pm EDT

  • Sex, Lies and Evidence

    Just when one thought nobody could be as foolish as former New York Governor Eliott Spitzer, two sex scandals in Michigan have Democrats there reeling. I lived in Lansing for 15 years and I have never seen anything like it.

    Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick had an affair with his [...]
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    Posted: April 13, 2008, 9:28pm EDT

  • Damned Dirty Apes

    News that Charlton Heston has passed away moves me to reflection. He was an actor who played historic figures such as Moses, El Cid, Jonah Ben Hur, Cardinal Richelieu, John the Baptist, “Chinese” Gordon, Michelangelo, Marc Antony and Henry VIII. He won the Oscar as Best Actor in 1959 for [...]
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    Posted: April 08, 2008, 9:11am EDT

  • John McCain: Back from the Grave

    Nothing has surprised me more than the rebound of John McCain’s campaign from near bankruptcy last fall to front-runner status after wins in New Hampshire, South Carolina, Florida and several states on Super Tuesday.

    I have been a McCain supporter since he did some campaign events for Joe [...]
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    Posted: February 06, 2008, 11:57pm EST

  • Wisconsin Voters Deserve an Earlier Presidential Primary

    Wisconsin’s presidential primary was early on the calendar and crucial for candidates running for President for more than 100 years. Wisconsin often was the history-making difference between winning a party nomination for President and losing it. However, so many states have moved their primaries ahead of Wisconsin on the 2008 [...]
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    Posted: January 14, 2008, 10:26pm EST

  • Eight Resolutions for 2008

    Many make resolutions on January 1 because of the convenience of setting goals for the ensuing year. For most of my life, I have avoided making New Year Resolutions.

    Why I am making resolutions this year is because I am unhappy with my life, unlike in the past. [...]
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    Posted: January 02, 2008, 9:32am EST

  • Money and Wisconsin Politics

    Is there too much money in Wisconsin politics?

    Many Wisconsin “good government” groups, like Common Cause, the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign and the League of Women Voters, all advocate reforms in how election campaigns are financed.

    It galls them that Wisconsin’s two-year state budget was 101 days late. [...]
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    Posted: November 25, 2007, 11:39am EST

  • Alabama Football Saint or Sinner?

    High school and college football is a religion in Alabama. There are only two seasons: football season and talking about the next football season. So successful at winning football games, Hoover High School head coach Rush Propst has been a saint to many.

    Hoover is a growing affluent [...]
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    Posted: November 16, 2007, 10:03pm EST

  • Conflicted Feelings about Staying in Madison

    In 2006, I was glad to move back to Madison to live and work in one of Americas prettiest cities. It was a pleasure to go to work every day in Americas most breath-taking State Capitol with its amazing large first floor, ornate mosaics and striking combination of red, green, [...]
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    Posted: October 20, 2007, 6:29pm EDT

  • Tiger Ghost of the Past

    My parents, who live in central Florida, came to Marshfield this weekend for my mother’s 55th MHS class reunion so I drove up to see them. While I was there, I went to the Homecoming game on Friday.

    I had not gone to a Marshfield High School football [...]
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    Posted: October 07, 2007, 11:23am EDT

  • Michaelsen Children Now on Two Sides of the Pacific Ocean

    Number of comments: 1
    Eric Paul Michaelsen, now 20 and a junior at Kalamazoo College, called me on the morning of August 31 to say he was leaving for Japan. He will be there through March 2008. This will be the third time he has been to Japan but the longest stay. He will [...]
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    Posted: September 03, 2007, 12:10am EDT
    by Mark G. Michaelsen

  • What Happens in Pascagoula Doesn’t Stay in Pascagoula

    Last Thursday, a fire at the aging Chevron refinery in Pascagoula, Mississippi, temporarily sidelined one of the 10 largest oil refineries in America. Although Chevron says most of the refinery is undamaged, it has not restarted yet.

    I knew this because my oldest stepchild, John, is working on [...]
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    Posted: August 23, 2007, 9:18am EDT
    by Mark G. Michaelsen

  • Wearing Politics on Your Sleeve

    Without even thinking about it Monday, I pulled on one of my Mark Green for Governor campaign tee shirt to go to make a deposit at the credit union branch down the street in the Hill Farms state office building. Hill Farms is also the headquarters of the Wisconsin Department [...]
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    Posted: August 14, 2007, 10:02pm EDT
    by Mark G. Michaelsen

  • I Came, I Saw, Iraq

    Julius Caesar said about Gaul, “Veni, vide, vici.” I came, I saw, I conquered. It was elegant in simplicity. There is nothing elegant or simple about Iraq, however, nor do we seek to conquer it.

    Americans and American politicians are polarized. Some want the troops pulled out of [...]
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    Posted: July 28, 2007, 10:52pm EDT
    by Mark G. Michaelsen

  • Newtonian Laws of Legislative Bodies

    A type of Newtonian law governs the actions and inactions of legislative bodies, such as the Wisconsin legislature and Congress. It is not Newtonian in the physics and gravity sense, although some of those laws about motion and force seem to apply, too. Instead, think of them as Michaelsen’s Laws [...]
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    Posted: July 17, 2007, 9:43pm EDT
    by Mark G. Michaelsen

  • Happy Disindepence Day

    July 4 for many Americans is a beery day of sports, food and boating but I worked a few hours at a retail job in Madison. When I worked on July 4 in the American South, customers would often share a plate of food from home. Barbecued ribs, chicken and [...]
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    Posted: July 05, 2007, 9:43pm EDT
    by Mark G. Michaelsen

  • Doctrinal Purity & Minority Status

    Although I admire and largely agree with Republican Wisconsin legislators elected in the Wisconsin counties of Washington and Waukesha and the conservative talk radio hosts and bloggers who cater to them, they have been drinking their own wine.

    Many are figuratively willing to throw more moderate Republicans elected [...]
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    Posted: July 03, 2007, 8:10am EDT
    by Mark G. Michaelsen

  • Madison’s Vang Pao Elementary School: On and Off

    In the mountainous region of Laos, the Hmong people were American allies during the Vietnam War. They rescued downed American fliers and attacked convoys moving supplies from North Vietnam to the Viet Cong along the Ho Chi Minh Trail through Laos. It is likely that Vang Pao’s “Secret Army” also [...]
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    Posted: June 21, 2007, 8:22am EDT
    by Mark G. Michaelsen

  • A Tearful Farewell

    My older son Jens Michaelsen stopped to stay overnight with me in Madison on his way to Seattle, Washington. It was great to see him and hard to see him go. We were both choked up and we hugged several times.

    Until he arrived late in the evening on [...]
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    Posted: June 03, 2007, 10:06pm EDT
    by Mark G. Michaelsen

  • Between Iraq and a Hard Place

    Increasing polarization between those who want to bring the ground troops from Iraq either immediately or say they want a time-table for withdrawal and those who want to stay the course and say a time-table tells the insurgents that they are winning alienates the American people who have conflicting feelings [...]
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    Posted: May 26, 2007, 12:06am EDT
    by Mark G. Michaelsen

  • Expectation of Privacy vs. Duty to Warn

    Those of us who have worked in full-service and self-service copy centers are expected to guard the privacy of customer documents.

    After all, we would want people to guard our Social Security numbers, bank account numbers and trade secrets. I have often told those copying sensitive documents not [...]
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    Posted: May 20, 2007, 9:03pm EDT
    by Mark G. Michaelsen

  • Wisconsin: A One-Plate State?

    At the Joint Finance Committee, a motion to make Wisconsin join the list of one-plate state passed 9-6 yesterday. It made less news than issuing drivers licenses to illegal immigrants.

    Opponents worried that law enforcement needs two license plates so that they can see from the front if a [...]
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    Posted: May 18, 2007, 9:47am EDT
    by Mark G. Michaelsen

  • The New New New Chrysler

    News that Daimler Benz is selling money-losing Chrysler Corporation to private investment firm and turnaround expert Cerberus Capital Management fills me with mixed feelings. Chrysler lost about $2 billion last year. Cerberus will pay $7.4 billion for the company. Cerberus turned around the Merwin’s department store chain, Air Canada, GMAC, [...]
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    Posted: May 16, 2007, 10:22am EDT
    by Mark G. Michaelsen

  • “A Nation’s Horse” II

    NBC, having produced “Barbaro: A Nation’s Horse” and lined up advertisers, showed their documentary Saturday, May 5 in prime time.

    Over a syrupy soundtrack was footage of Barbaro’s greatest wins, pulling up with a shattered leg in the Preakness, and slide from successful surgery to illness and death [...]
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    Posted: May 11, 2007, 11:32am EDT
    by Mark G. Michaelsen

  • Graduating Class of 2007

    Soon the University of Wisconsin-Madison will graduate its senior class. Drivers near campus will have to dodge young people in caps and gowns. Some of them will soon start good jobs or have been accepted to graduate and professional schools. Proud parents will be driving slowly around town and turning [...]
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    Posted: May 04, 2007, 3:17pm EDT
    by Mark G. Michaelsen

  • “A Nation’s Horse”

    Not Seabiscuit, who came from nowhere to provide a needed diversion to people suffering from the Great Depression and to win the legendary match race against Man O’ War, the winner of the Triple Crown. Not Secretariat. Not even Affirmed.

    No, NBC’s shameless run-up to the Kentucky Derby [...]
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    Posted: April 29, 2007, 6:41pm EDT
    by Mark G. Michaelsen

  • Da Games

    Chicago’s bid for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games will fail when the Selection Committee meets in October 2009. Why? It is Chicago and not as exotic or as beautiful as Rio, Prague, Madrid, Tokyo or Rome, it’s competitors.

    This won’t keep Illinois Governor Rod Blagjovic, who has had [...]
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    Posted: April 16, 2007, 1:54pm EDT
    by Mark G. Michaelsen

  • My Big Adventure with Tommy & Newt

    Former Wisconsin Tommy Thompson had already announced on ABC-TV’s “This Week” program on Sunday that he was formally declaring as a Republican candidate for President of the U.S.

    As a result, the faithful and those who felt obligated to attend the first Wisconsin declaration by Thompson April 4 at [...]
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    Posted: April 05, 2007, 12:38pm EDT
    by Mark G. Michaelsen

  • The Progressives Are Right

    How could I have been so wrong in advocating ideas to empower citizens seeking lower taxes, protection from crime, and a range of customer choice? I have been guilty of Thought Crime.

    Teacher unions put educating kids first. If you think education is expensive, try ignorance. Charter schools and [...]
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    Posted: April 01, 2007, 2:46pm EDT
    by Mark G. Michaelsen

  • British Marines and Iraq’s WMD

    Iran’s seizure of 15 British sailors and marines who were operating in Iraqi territorial waters is the latest gambit in decades of dispute between Iran and Iraq over the Shatt Al-Arab waterway. Control over the Shatt Al-Arab triggered the Iran-Iraq War and Saddam’s use of nerve gas against Iran.

    [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: March 30, 2007, 7:46pm EDT
    by Mark G. Michaelsen
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