God and Man at UW-Madison

Posted on | May 9, 2025 | 2 Comments

MADISON, Wisconsin
Today is the big day for son Jefferson and, because of what’s called “diploma privilege,” his graduation from the University of Wisconsin Law School means he automatically qualifies for the state bar, without having to pass a bar exam. However, he plans to practice in another state, so he’ll still be going through the bar-exam ordeal there. Yet, qualifying for the Wisconsin bar means that he gets to call himself an attorney right away, which counts for something as these things are reckoned.

Inside the ornate Wisconsin State Capitol

Looking up State Street toward the Capitol

After careful consideration (see “A Happy Week for the Family”), we decided against the toll-free route through Chicago, and instead paid a toll to avoid the new Pope’s hometown. The revised route was also shorter, and we were checked into our hotel by 1:30 Central time. Jefferson was busy taking his last exam, so we met up with his girlfriend and walked from our hotel over to the Capitol, a splendid and impressive bit of Beaux-Arts architecture. After gawking at the elaborate wonder of it all, we then walked down State Street toward the UW campus. If you’ve never been to Madison, let me tell you that State Street is one of America’s great party zones. There are dozens of bars, plus restaurants and boutiques of various kinds. It was a pleasant walk on a sunny spring day, and then we got down to the campus and waited until Jefferson could join us, whereupon we went to eat at a Mediterranean restaurant.

The boy’s a babe-magnet.

The Mediterranean Cafe is nice, and I recommend the Roti Chicken. What I do not recommend, however, is university faculty surrending to Trump Derangement Syndrome, as is the case in Wisconsin:

University of Wisconsin-Madison professors have joined their colleagues at Big Ten schools to formally say they’re frustrated by the Trump administration’s cuts to research funding and efforts to dictate policy on campus.
This week the university’s Faculty Senate, a group of more than 2,200 professors on campus, voted to approve a “Mutual Defense Compact.” The vote followed similar efforts by faculty on other Big Ten campuses.
The resolution urges Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin to help establish a “Mutual Academic Defense Compact.” Under the compact, all participants would “commit meaningful funding to a shared or distributed defense fund.”
The money would provide support to any member under direct political or legal infringement. . . .
On April 22, Mnookin was one of about 300 college and university presidents to sign a letter opposing “the unprecedented government overreach and political interference now endangering American higher education.” . . .
Last month, UW-Madison and several of the other Big Ten universities were included in a letter from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights warning that there would be potential action concerning alleged violations of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act relating to antisemitic harassment and discrimination.

Talk about “climbing up on the cross”! So eager are these academics to be seen as martyrs of “government overreach and political interference” that they’ve joined a “Mutual Defense Compact” to defend against a threat that would seem to be entirely hypothetical, if not indeed imaginary. Has the Trump administration so far taken even a nickel of federal funding away from UW-Madison? And if UW-Madison is not tolerating “antisemitic harassment and discrimination,” what have they got to worry about? It’s just a symbolic “resistance” gesture.

It is worth noting that Trump carried Wisconsin by a margin of 30,000 votes last November, winning 59 of the state’s 72 counties. Republicans hold majorities in both chambers of the Wisconsin legislature. Why can’t the faculty at UW-Madison read the writing on the political wall? Don’t they care about democracy? Do the faculty imagine that making left-wing “resistance” gestures will encourage the state’s voters to repent their Trump-leaning tendencies? Because I suspect such gestures will have the opposite effect. As left-leaning as Madison itself may be (Kamala Harris got 75% of the vote in Dane County), most of the state is a lot more Republican and, if you look at the trends, Wisconsin may be following such other Midwest states as Iowa, Missouri and Ohio in going from battleground “purple” to solid GOP “red.” For the faculty of the state university to be spewing Trump hatred is likely to accelerate such a trend. I’m only in town for a graduation ceremony, but nonetheless feel obligated to warn UW-Madison against committing political seppuku.

Shop Electronics at Amazon

Save on Groceries and Everyday Essentials

Shop Amazon Basics

Office & School Supplies

Category: Education, Family, Wisconsin

In The Mailbox: 05.08.25 (Evening Edition)

Posted on | May 8, 2025 | 1 Comment

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Silicon Valley et Hamas delenda sunt.

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Versus Physics – Part 2
EBL: Kashmir, Trump Ends Medical Torture of Beagles, Why The Last Of Us Is Falling Apart, and Ksenia Kareline thanks Donald Trump for getting her released from Russia
Twitchy: 911? We’d Like To Report That DataRepublican Just Wrecked Tim Walz Over The Trans Troop Issue, Trump Taps Judge Jeannine Pirro For Acting DC US Attorney, and James Carville Says Ilhan Omar Needs To Learn To Shut Up
Louder With Crowder: NYC erects this 12-foot statue of a “plus-sized” woman of color meant to symbolize representation or something, Female fencer who wouldn’t let herself be bullied into getting maimed by trans opponent gives powerful Congressional testimony, Joe Biden’s “The View” interview is such a trainwreck, Pet Raccoon Caught By Officers Trying To Smoke Meth Pipe During Traffic Stop, and Is Hallmark raising its AMERICAN MADE prices due to tariffs?
Vox Popoli: EU = Elective Unaliving, Houthis 3, US Navy 0, It Was Never His, and White Smoke
The Bugscuffle Gazette: Question Everything
Gab: A Nation’s Forgotten Sons
Cedar Sanderson: The Retired Assassin’s Guide To Country Gardening
Stoic Observations: XR Barriers To Agreement

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Conservative: Pope Leo XIV Crowned as First American Pontiff
American Greatness: Sen. Josh Hawley Introduces PELOSI Act to Stop Insider Trading, RFK Jr Says HHS Became a ‘Collaborator in Child Trafficking’ Under Biden, The Trump Counterrevolution and the Moral Ledger, SCOTUS Hears Case on LGBTQ Books Forced on Little Ones, and Would the Left Finally Explain the Inexplicable?
American Thinker: DOGE Is Doing the Clean-Up Leftists Can’t Stand, Hillary May Have Unlocked Our Government’s Digital Door, Donald Trump’s Lost Honeymoon, Houdini in a Robe – Judge Dugan’s Courthouse Escape Plan, and The Hamas Masquerade
Animal Magnetism: Goodbye, Blue Monday, Animal’s Daily Alcatraz News, Animal’s Hump Day News, and Animal’s Red Thursday News
BattleSwarm: Trump’s Not The Only One Slapping Tariffs On China, Six In Frio County Arrested For Voting Fraud, Paxton Sues Austin ISD Over CRT, Trump Wins In Court, and Craziest Police Videos
Behind The Black: SpaceX gets approval to sell Starlink in India, Russia signs space agreement with Venezuela, Update on Vast’s space station plans, Europe and India sign agreement to work together on manned space flight, and Bright material on the high points of a Martian mountain
Cafe Hayek: Tariff Work-arounds Are Costly, On Joe Nocera’s Mistaken Take on Trade and Economics, GDP?C+I+G+X-M, Ten Minus Two Never Equals Anything Other Than Eight, and FedEx Began With Imported Aircraft
CDR Salamander: Diversity Thursday
Chicago Boyz: Seth Barrett Tillman – Some Personal Reflections on the Recent Litigation involving Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, At the Movies, The Books of Montgomery County, Part 2, and Back!
Da Tech Guy: Five Quick Thoughts Under the Fedora, also, I’m Old Enough to Remember When the Idea of Mississippi Schools Being Top Notch Would Be a Joke
Don Surber: The riot wasn’t Columbia’s worst news on Wednesday
First Street Journal: Leaping before they looked, Harvard admits to anti-Semitism on campus, and You in a heap o’ trouble, girl!
Gates Of Vienna: Culture-Enriching Murder in Castelfranco, Bringing the Jihad Back Home, Yet Another Vehicle Runs Amok in Munich, The Gestapo Always Rings Twice, and Jihadis In Our Midst at US Mosques
The Geller Report: Federal Judge Decides Democrat Wins NC High Court Race Despite Thousands Of Ineligible Ballots, EU to Provide $11 Million to Highlight the Contribution of the Qur’an and Islam to European Civilization, Macron Welcomes ISIS Leader in Paris, Violent Muslims and Leftists Storm Columbia Library During Finals, and Biden Judge Orders Trump Administration to Accept 12,000 Refugees
Hollywood In Toto: Late-Night Lunacy Reaches Staggering New Levels, Literally Anything Goes in Dizzying Fight or Flight’, Why Horror Fans Need Clown in a Cornfield, ‘American Dirt’s’ Jeanine Cummins Gets Best Revenge Possible, and Hollywood Reporter & Spike Lee Whine Trump Is Silencing His Critics!
The Lid: We Already Have a Supreme Court Case to Shield Trump from all this Lawfare, It’s Just being Ignored, Hegseth Is About To Waffle-Stomp The Pentagon’s Top-Heavy Establishment, and Why Are We Devolving America’s Western Culture? Can We Save Ourselves?
Legal Insurrection: Trump’s 2026 Budget Pulls Plug on Biden’s Green Energy Scams, FBI Opens Case Against Letitia James for Alleged Mortgage Fraud, Chinese Academic Espionage Allegedly Happening at Stanford University, Verbal Smackdown: Kash Patel Turns Tables on House Democrat in Fiery Testimony, and Audit Finds U. Wisconsin System Spent Tens of Millions of Dollars on DEI Activities
Matt Taibbi: Private Equity & Hospitals – Have They Finally Gone Too Far?
Outkick: Charles Barkley Loves Auburn, But He’s Not Wasting His Own Money On NIL, Transgender High School Softball Pitcher Dominates As Battle Over Biological Men In Women’s Sports Rages, Virginia Tech Fans Cause Literal Earthquake As Metallica Plays ‘Enter Sandman’, Paul Pierce’s Faith In Boston Celtics Lands Him In A Wheelchair, and Internet Defends Topless Sunbather After She Makes Sister-In-Law Leave For Being Upset She Had Boobs Out
Power Line: Germany’s Survival On the Line, Let’s Make a Deal, UK Edition, and Uses of the passive voice
Shark Tank: Dunn Spearheads Bipartisan Joint Bill Easing Birth Defect Treatment Coverage
Shot In The Dark: Domino, Payback, The Devil Is In The Details, It’s Sort Of Berg’s Seventh Law, and To Paraphrase Whitney Houston
The Political Hat: Drag Queens, MAPs, and a County Commissioner, The Scientific March Towards Bioroid Catgirls, The Gramscian Right, and Quick Takes – Woke Courses In Academia
This Ain’t Hell: Biden’s Gaza Pier Doomed to Fail, Another Hornet in Davy Jones’ Locker, VA- Bureaucracy in Disarray, Supreme Court OK Transgender Ban, and Then they came for the Generals
Transterrestrial Musings: Getting History Right, AI, The Climate Apocalypse, and An Amusing Scam
Victory Girls: Pete Hegseth – “Less Generals, More GIs Policy”, Michelle Obama Is Tired Of Being Michelle Obama, Again, and Victory In Europe Day 80 Years Later
Watts Up With That: ‘Absolute Silliness’: DOE Delays Biden-Era Rule On Emissions, Energy Consumption in 2024 and the Spanish Power Failure, Google Accused of Greenwashing Massive AI Energy Consumption, and Hottest Start To May?
The Federalist: Filing: Smartmatic Hid Meeting With Dem Megadonor Who Financed Its Suit Against 2020 Election Reporting, House Committees, DOJ Turn Up The Heat On Dems’ ActBlue, Trump Announces U.K. Trade Deal Hours After Media Predict Failure, New Audio Reveals Planned Parenthoods Hand Out Cross-Sex Hormones To Kids Like Candy, and What Is The Point Of Having A GOP Congress?
Mark Steyn: Anniversary Songs, Truth, Myth or Both? Getting History Right in Battle of Britain, Jinns, Rosières, and Prince Bob, War of 1812: The Rematch, and Eight Speech

Amazon Warehouse Deals
Best Sellers – Patio, Lawn, & Garden
New Releases – Patio, Lawn, & Garden

Category: Linkagery

In The Mailbox: 05.08.25 (Morning Edition)

Posted on | May 8, 2025 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 05.08.25 (Morning Edition)

— compiled by Wombat-socho

As usual, Thursday is the day when I finally get caught up on all the linkagery.
What time is it, boys & girls? That’s right! Time for another Based Books Sale, this time concentrating on North American fantasy! All books 99 cents or less! Give money to authors who don’t hate you!
Silicon Valley et Hamas delenda sunt.

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: Another Federal Law Enforcement Screw Up
EBL: The Sinking of the Lusitania : Sleeping Sun
Twitchy: Scott Jennings Points Out The Real Constitutional Crisis Facing America, Trump Or Trans? and Symone Sanders Posted This Video To TikTok On Purpose
Louder With Crowder: Woke Democrat tries to bait Kristi Noem with fake news about “deported children,” it winds up being a YUGE mistake
Vox Popoli: The Revelation of the Mole People, also, War on the Subcontinent
The Bugscuffle Gazette: Publishing News
Stoic Observations: The Yeti Solution

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
CDR Salamander: We Must Not Let The F/A-18 Line Go Cold
Dana Loesch: House Republicans Move To Codify Spending & Tax Cuts, also, The Times Square Statue Is An Insult
Don Surber: Globalists copy Trump and win
Matt Taibbi: I Tried To Cover A May Day Protest – “Antifascists” Had A Problem With That, My Education Solution,

Amazon Warehouse Deals
Best Sellers – Snacks & Sweets
Best Sellers – Health & Household

Category: Linkagery

A Happy Week for the Family

Posted on | May 8, 2025 | 1 Comment

BERRIEN SPRINGS, Michigan
Apologies for the lack of blog content this week, but my wife and I have been on the road, and won’t return home until Tuesday. On Sunday, our youngest daughter Reagan graduated cum laude from Andrews University, with a double major in history and Spanish. Her senior honors thesis was, “The Significance of the Malvinas Issue in the Politics of President Javier Milei.” She left early Monday morning for a six-week journey around Latin America, three weeks of which are a school trip, a course requirement for her Spanish major, which will be followed by three weeks in Argentina visiting her novio and his family.

We look forward to her novio being able to come here and visit us, but when he applied for a travel visa last year, he was turned down by the U.S. Embassy personnel in Buenos Aires. That was under the Biden administration, of course, and now that Trump is president, I’ve assured my daughter that I’ll take care of this problem by calling in a favor from my old pal Marco Rubio. Gotta remember to write that letter . . .

If @SecRubio is looking for advisers on Argentina, please note the topic of my daughter’s honors thesis. Just sayin’ … pic.twitter.com/sDTvgAwhfm

— The Patriarch Tree (@PatriarchTree) May 5, 2025

Because of the travel schedule — we are now about 600 miles west of home — I’ve had to wedge in my day-job work (which I never talk about) into marathon sessions where I do three days’ worth of work in a single day. And today will be another road day, as we drive about 260 miles to Madison, Wisconsin, where our son Jefferson will be graduating from law school Friday. We are obviously quite proud of Jeff because, although he is a third-generation college graduate (my dad was Class of 1950 at Tuscaloosa), he is the first* law-school graduate in the family. The asterisk beside “first” is required because our oldest daughter’s husband is a lawyer and also, incidentally, the son of Argentine immigrants, so there’s some kind of weird pattern involved here. Maybe in a generation or two, all my descendants will be bilingual lawyers.

In the short term, however, there’s that 260-mile drive to Madison — dangerous! After all, in recent months the UW campus has been overrun by pro-Hamas protesters, and for all we know those Jew-hating scumbags have plans to disrupt the graduation ceremony, and I might have to strangle one with my bare hands, which would be unfortunate.

Also, when I checked the route to Madison, the quickest toll-free route was through Chicago, where 110 people have been shot to death so far this year, and another 424 were wounded. Dodging gunfire is one of those road hazards that Chicago residents probably don’t think much about, but it’s my first time. For inspiration, I’ve got the immortal words of Elwood Blues: “It’s 106 miles to Chicago, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it’s dark… and we’re wearing sunglasses.”

Shop Electronics at Amazon

Save on Groceries and Everyday Essentials

Shop Amazon Basics

Office & School Supplies

Category: Family

In The Mailbox: 05.07.25 (Evening Edition)

Posted on | May 7, 2025 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 05.07.25 (Evening Edition)

— compiled by Wombat-socho

I can’t believe it’s only 7 PM. Oh, wait. I forgot to reset the time zone on the Surface. *facepalm*
Silicon Valley et Hamas delenda sunt.

Pot, kettle…

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: The Buffalo School System and Media Fail Kids, also If You Break Into Homes, You Will Eventually Find an Armed Homeowner
Director Blue: The Ballad of Thom Tillis
EBL: The Accountant 2, The Stock Market Has Recovered Its Losses, Speed the Plow, and MAGAtraz
Twitchy: Canadian Cop Starts Presser On Missing Children With Land Acknowledgement, Catholic Priests in Washington Will Defy State’s Anti-Catholic Confessional Snitch Law, and Democrat Rep Argues Taxpayer-Funded Health Care For Illegals Benefits Everybody
Louder With Crowder: JD Vance blasts Ilhan Omar’s “genocidal language”, Massachusetts daycare busted for harboring illegal immigrant… on the run from sexually assaulting a 13-year-old, Multicultural Immigration Has No Place in America & Must Be Stopped, Commie actor Sean Penn calls Trump a “spouse murderer,” and then he gets ridiculous, and Byron Donalds Schools NBC About Due Process After Reporter Tries To Corner Him On Illegals
Vox Popoli: The Return of the Mercenary, We Are So Back, Ethnic Cleansing Approved, Stay Sane, Stay Frosty, and When “Misinformation” Isn’t
The Bugscuffle Gazette: “No.”
Stoic Observations: I’ve Seen The Future
Jim McCoy: Cartwright’s Cavaliers
Upstream Reviews: Magelight

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
CDR Salamander: One to 6000 vs. One to 1400
Don Surber: Up next – the deregulation of America
STUMP: Taxing Tuesday – Geeking Out With The SALT Cap

Amazon Warehouse Deals
Cartwright’s Cavaliers
Magelight
Best Sellers – Home & Kitchen
New Releases – Home & Kitchen

Category: Linkagery

In The Mailbox: 05.07.25 (Unspeakably Early Morning Edition)

Posted on | May 7, 2025 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 05.07.25 (Unspeakably Early Morning Edition)

— compiled by Wombat-socho

From the Temporary East Coast Command Center in Chantilly, Virginia.
HIT THE TIP JAR!
Silicon Valley et Hamas delenda sunt.

Just another day in district court

OVER THE TRANSOM
Director Blue: Spygate’s Top 20: A Hall of Shame
EBL: Careme, also, May The 4th Be With You
Twitchy: Scott Jennings Explains What Dems Sudden Love Of Due Process Is About, Jasmine Crockett – Who She Really Is, and Bloomberg Claims NPR & PBS Are A Threat To The White House
Louder With Crowder: Jen Psaki, Gavin Newsom take turns insulting the intelligence of Americans, To bash Donald Trump, CNN interviewed a Mexican Cartel member about being labeled a terrorist, Kamala Harris returns for anti-Trump speech, instead claims elephants live rent-free in her head, Somehow, accusing Donald Trump of KIDNAPPING isn’t the most ridiculous thing Jasmine Crockett says here, and CNN data guru forced to admit Americans STILL think Trump is doing a better job than Kamala Harris ever would
Vox Popoli: Sanctioning the Wrong Side, He Shouldn’t Have Been Fired, The Battle of Shiloh, The Last Day of the Spring Sale, and Ten Must-Read Books
Jim McCoy: Chris Kennedy’s Asbaran Solutions
Tom Kratman: Dear Millennials
Bacon Time: The Crops Are Coming In
Upstream Reviews: Starquest #2 – Secret Agents of the Galaxy, May New Releases, and Along With The Gods – Two Worlds,
The Bugscuffle Gazette: Add A Pinch Of Sarcasm, also, So About That Texas Bill
Postcards From Barsoom: Food For The Moon,
Gab: The Last Refuge For Real People
Toni Airaksinen: ER Doctor Calls Jews “Demonic”, Accuses Them Of Killing Babies

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Baldilocks: Bottom up
CDR Salamander: China’s Overseas Bases & The Transition To War, also, Army Steals A March In Adapting To Change
Dana Loesch: Never Dress Like Your Furniture Unless You’re Rich
Don Surber: They fear something greater than Trump
Matt Taibbi: NPR Should Be Axed Because It’s Anti-Thought Not Anti-Trump, In John Fetterman Profile NYT Combines Neurology & Politics, No, State Media & Democracy Don’t Go Hand In Hand, and Do Your Own Research – Liber.Net’s Misinfo Grant Database,
STUMP: Geeking Out With Papal History, also, The Next Pope & Vatican Finances

Amazon Warehouse Deals
Asbaran Solutions
Secret Agents of the Galaxy
Along With The Gods – The Two Worlds
Best Sellers – Automotive

Category: Linkagery

Rule 5 Sunday: In & Out

Posted on | May 4, 2025 | 2 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Posting this early since I need to get packed up and leave early tomorrow for Vegas en route to DC, where I’ll be putting the Surface Pro to the test as a blogging device. This week’s cutie is, I believe, from @kbdabear on X.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley et Hamas delendam sunt.

Do you think she likes it animal style?

ANIMAL MAGNETISM: Rule Five Eleventh Annual Commencement Speech Friday, and the Saturday Gingermageddon.

EBL: Saturday Night Girls With Guns, Dying For Sex, Nadine Sierra, Tu Tambien Lo Harias, MAGA Switcharoo, May Day, Dua Lipa, When That Man Is Dead And Gone, Lazarus, Franklin, and Für Elise

A VIEW FROM THE BEACH: Molly Eskam, Forget It Jake, It’s Baltimore, Fish Pic Friday – Fishing With Amanda, Thursday Tanlines, CBF, Watermen Oppose North Bay Salmon, The Wednesday Wetness, Do Porpoise Point to a Better Bay?, Afterlife, PA Finds Federal Models “Exponentially” Overestimate Susquehanna Pollution, Trump Promises to Restore Columbus Day, The Monday Morning Stimulus, Random Celebrity News and Palm Sunday

BACON TIME: Rule Five Butt Its Friday

Thanks to everyone for all the luscious links!

Amazon Warehouse Deals
Deals on Premium Beauty Products
Visit Amazon’s Intimate Apparel Shop
Shop Sex & Sensuality Gifts

Category: Rule 5

FMJRA 2.0: Out of the Cellar (Again)

Posted on | May 4, 2025 | Comments Off on FMJRA 2.0: Out of the Cellar (Again)

— compiled by Wombat-socho

The Senators had a good week. Took two out of three from the Phillies at RFK and then split with the O’s in Baltimore, which makes us 3-2 for the week and 48-58 overall. We’re out of the cellar, two games ahead of the A’s and two behind the Brewers, most of our injured players and pitchers are off the DL, and Pete says we may just squeak into a wild card slot. The chances of us reaching .500 are pretty slim according to Grok, since we have to win 33 of our remaining 56 games, but that’s what we play the games to find out.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley et Hamas delendam sunt.