MADISON, Wis. -- Donald Trump seems to have had it with Evangelical Christians who are hesitating before endorsing him in his campaign for the 2024 election. “It’s a sign of disloyalty,” he said. “There’s great disloyalty in the field of…
MADISON, Wis. -- Over the course of this nation’s history some very weird people have managed to get themselves elected to public office, but New York Representative-elect George Santos has to rank high on any list. Since he was elected…
MADISON, Wis. -- The University of Wisconsin has a new head football coach, Luke Fickell, who will be paid more than $6 million a year. He replaces Paul Chryst, who will receive something like $11 million severance pay since he…
MADISON, Wis. -- I realize this is a subjective judgment, but that judgment is that this year's Madison Symphony Orchestra Christmas concerts are the best the MSO has ever offered. I haven't attended every one in the organization's 97-year history,…
MADISON, Wis. -- Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi says she is going to leave the top ranks of the Democratic Party at the end of this year and confine herself to her day job as a congresswoman from San…
MADISON, Wis. -- There's a real temptation to describe Christina and Michelle Naughton -- professional pianists who grew up in Madison and received their musical start playing with our youth concerts -- as local kids doing well for themselves. That…
MADISON, Wis. -- If Tuesday's election showed nothing else, it demonstrated that Gov. Tony Evers is one of the most underestimated politicians in the state. I think the reason is that he looks and acts like a school superintendent. Maybe…
MADISON, Wis. -- The severed head of John the Baptist turned out to be the star of Madison Opera's performance of “Salome” last weekend. Which is quite a feat since, once severed, the head doesn't sing a word. Salome, sung…
MADISON, Wis. -- Attending this week’s Madison Symphony Orchestra’s Overture organ concert taught me something unique about classical music as entertainment. Guest artist Christopher Houlihan played brilliantly. He is the Distinguished Chair of Chapel Music at Trinity College in Hartford,…
There are things about the Madison Symphony Orchestra concerts that make me happy but don't directly involve listening to music. For example: At the opening of Friday night's concert, Conductor John DeMain came on stage to explain the absence of…
Madison Symphony Orchestra conductor John DeMain has been trying to present Beethoven's Ninth Symphony for three years – the first two tries were canceled by COVID – and finally led the MSO in a spectacular rendition during weekend concerts. But…
I sometimes wonder if Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is having second thoughts about branding himself as an imitation Trump. If not, he ought to be. The governor's latest stunt was to send two plane loads of Venezuelan refugees to Martha's…
Well, you might think that would be embarrassing. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis staged an expensive publicity stunt, flying two plane loads of cross-border refugees to Martha's Vineyard, the Massachusetts island playground for the super-rich. Then he and his staff went…
It is easy to make a case against President Biden's decision to provide debt relief to millions of (mostly) young Americans who took out student loans. The basic opposition argument is that “I paid back my loans and so should…
MADISON, Wis. -- It is long past the time that our national leaders should take on the authoritarian wing of the Republican Party, and President Joe Biden was right to do so. If you doubt that, just look at what…
Now we have South Carolina Senator Lindsay Graham going on television and threatening riots in the streets should the Department of Justice prosecute former President Trump. And why would the government want to prosecute the former president? I suppose we…
I’m beginning to wonder if Donald Trump may turn out to be our version of the Nigerian Prince. If you have email, you are probably are familiar with what I’m talking about. We periodically get messages from someone who purports…
MADISON, Wis. -- The semi-official Republican response to the FBI search of former President Donald Trump’s Florida property on Monday seems to be that if the government can do that to Trump, what’s to keep the government from doing that…
Well, that’s a campaign theme I thought I would never see. Senator Ron Johnson said during a radio interview Tuesday that he would like to remove Social Security and Medicare from their present status as an entitlement and, instead, make…
We keep talking about the 2020 election “insurrection” as if it were a thing of the past, an event isolated to January 6, 2021. It's not. It is an ongoing event and it continues to pose a threat to American…
Most of the people I know personally who oppose abortion are decent, loving human beings who have a sincere belief that ending a pregnancy is taking a human life. No one I know personally who opposes abortion believes that a…
Whether you like him or despise him, you have to admit that Donald Trump must be the worst judge of talent who has ever occupied the Oval Office. I was thinking of that the other day as I heard the…
MADISON, Wis. -- It is becoming increasingly clear that a lot of our institutions are now facing crises of authority unaccompanied by accountability. The supreme courts of both the United States and Wisconsin, are examples. Each has authority. If we…
MADISON, Wis. -- Imagine living in Missouri – unlikely as that may seem – and watching the following television ad: An angry man carrying a shotgun and assisted by two gunmen dressed in semi-military garb and carrying assault rifles, bursts…
