The highlight of Friday's game, played in 20º temperatures, was Head Coach Luke Fickell blowing his nose, biker-style, straight onto the ground on the sideline in the second half. Yes, we were there watching for some inconceivable reason, shivering on the Wisconsin sideline and all out of vodka.
As for Hoofer Sailing, today it's basically a glorified day care center for irresponsible college students. That was the wet dream and unstated goal of Wisconsin Union Director Mark Guthier who wanted control so he could make money off of it, and to puff up his ego some more. Even if Hoofers doesn't make money for the Union, it gives him a rush to know that he's finally running the show. He even refers to it as the "Tong Family Marina" or The Marina. We'd laugh if that weren't so sad.
Over the past two-plus decades, Guthier and other UW admins have grown increasingly out of touch with UW students and with the UW's mission. That puts some students out of touch too, creating a vicious cycle of ignorance and narcissism. It's elitist and reminiscent of some Ivy League colleges.
Eighty percent of Harvard professors identify as liberal or very liberal. On 60 Minutes last Sunday, U. of Austin (a tiny right-wing school in Texas) admins slammed that as biased and out of touch:
"Any university that is identifiably political isn't fulfilling its mission."
--U. of Austin spokesperson
But the fact is that intelligent people tend to be liberal/Democratic, whereas the uneducated tend to vote Republican. Why?
It's because the brain is like a muscle--you need to use it or lose it. Education isn't indoctrination. It's development, and if you don't develop your brain and your mind, you'll get dumber--and in the end you'll have a stronger tendency to vote Republican.
Republican correlates with lots of stupid things, like guns, dogs, low taxes for the wealthy, ATVs, etc. There's nothing really wrong with any of those things, but they won't solve any of the world's problems or any of the growing problems here in Madison. It's more complex than that, of course, but a blog post can't go into that much detail. But the faculty at Harvard and other "elite" schools are not out of touch. They're educated, they're enlightened. They've developed their brains instead of their brawn. Unfortunately that can some across as elitist to the laboring class.
As for Director Guthier, a criminal, he is a closet conservative who has found a home at the UW which continues to slide to the right along with the rest of Wisconsin. One side effect of the creeping conservatism is the dramatic increase in surveillance, although it might be needed keep Outdoor Rentals staff from stealing anymore. Too bad there are no surveillance cameras in Guthier's office. That might turn up some really interesting things.
By the way Mr. Tong, we need more money--some of the new piers are already wearing out! Plus, we want to build an offshore bar next summer.
