Winter is baaaack, making sailing seem as far away as ever, so to lighten things up, here's a list of Wisconsin's "10 favoritemost sports" based on observations accumulated over the course of many years:
1. Gambling. It's a great way to make an easy buck.
2. Chipmunk Hockey--using a small roadkill as the puck.
3. Hunting. Wisconsinites will shoot anything that moves.
"THIS AD PAID FOR BY DICK'S GUNS, BAKERY, AND BAIT SHOP."
4. Farting a tune. Required to graduate the 8th grade in Wisconsin.
5. Mud Wrestling--fully clothed. Wisconsinites don't like to show off their fat bodies (and usually it's two men fighting over beer or gambling debts).
6. Jello Slurping. It's a great source of protein too! And try this variation: jello made from pureed deer meat. (believe it)
7. Motorboating. Lucky there are no manatees in Wis. lakes.
8. Animal Love. Some Wisconsinites will pork anything that has antlers and fits in the trunk.
9. Ice Fishing. It's exciting because you never know when you're gonna fall through!
10. Bowling. It's indoors, doesn't require any exertion, and doesn't take any brains... what more could ya ask for? "Now an official part of Commodore's Cup!"
And what about sailing..? Although it is popular around Hoofers, motorboats outnumber sailboats in Madison by a ratio of more than 10 to 1. Of course, Wisconsin's very favorite pastime is watching the Packers, but sitting in a stadium isn't quite a sport.
NOTE: this blog does not condone any of these "sports" or much of the other stuff that goes on around Hoofers and throughout Wisconsin.
Friday, April 1, 2011
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Budget Repair Bill passes
March 19 UPDATE: A slippery democratic Wis. judge has at least temporarily blocked implementation by the Republican senate of this law.
More semi-off-topic but important and relevant news: Gov. Walker's "budget repair" bill has passed--in an altered form that removed the actual budgetary aspects of it. Apparently, a quorum isn't required for non-spending bills, so the Republicans were able to go ahead and vote without those 14 missing Democrats!
This is disturbing on every level. At best, those Republicans are sleazy operators. But if they violated any senate rules, then they're bona fide crooks. The Democrats are crooks in either case for leaving the state three weeks ago and going into hiding like moles. The circuit courts are full of crooked/incompetent judges. The Wis. Supreme Court has an agenda to harm lower and middle class folks. We already knew that everyone in Wis. Union (UW) management is a crook, and many other UW administrators are, basically, crooks too for raising tuition and fees at three times the rate of inflation--every year for the past 15 years (on average). UW-Madison police are, by and large, sleazy abusive crooks (and in a pleasant twist, they weren't exempted from the bill, unlike most state police agencies).
So the question is: who does this leave in Wisconsin that isn't a crook? Such shenanigans in the highest levels of Wis. government reflects on Hoofers. After all, if everyone is a crook, then your being a crook doesn't seem quite so bad, does it..? OMG.
More semi-off-topic but important and relevant news: Gov. Walker's "budget repair" bill has passed--in an altered form that removed the actual budgetary aspects of it. Apparently, a quorum isn't required for non-spending bills, so the Republicans were able to go ahead and vote without those 14 missing Democrats!
This is disturbing on every level. At best, those Republicans are sleazy operators. But if they violated any senate rules, then they're bona fide crooks. The Democrats are crooks in either case for leaving the state three weeks ago and going into hiding like moles. The circuit courts are full of crooked/incompetent judges. The Wis. Supreme Court has an agenda to harm lower and middle class folks. We already knew that everyone in Wis. Union (UW) management is a crook, and many other UW administrators are, basically, crooks too for raising tuition and fees at three times the rate of inflation--every year for the past 15 years (on average). UW-Madison police are, by and large, sleazy abusive crooks (and in a pleasant twist, they weren't exempted from the bill, unlike most state police agencies).
So the question is: who does this leave in Wisconsin that isn't a crook? Such shenanigans in the highest levels of Wis. government reflects on Hoofers. After all, if everyone is a crook, then your being a crook doesn't seem quite so bad, does it..? OMG.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
New head of instruction hired
The club's official site hasn't posted the news yet so we'll break it here:
Hoofers are thrilled to announce that the club has hired a new head of sailing instruction: Dave Elsmo, former coach of the Univ. of Minnesota sailing team.
HSC went with someone who has dinghy coaching experience rather than someone with more general teaching skill. This is understandable given the unimpressive achievements of the Hoofer racing team in recent years. Although they were thrilled to break into the top 20 last fall, the fact is that HSC is bigger than any of the other collegiate clubs (not including Navy or Coast Guard), yet only managed to creep in at #20.
Nor have Hoofers cleaned up in their division in recent years--despite, again, being the biggest sailing club competing. Hence the desire for a dedicated sailing team coach in lieu of someone with more general teaching experience. We invite Dave out for a ride on one of the large keelboats when he can take time away from the 420s and FJ's!
Hoofers are thrilled to announce that the club has hired a new head of sailing instruction: Dave Elsmo, former coach of the Univ. of Minnesota sailing team.
HSC went with someone who has dinghy coaching experience rather than someone with more general teaching skill. This is understandable given the unimpressive achievements of the Hoofer racing team in recent years. Although they were thrilled to break into the top 20 last fall, the fact is that HSC is bigger than any of the other collegiate clubs (not including Navy or Coast Guard), yet only managed to creep in at #20.
Nor have Hoofers cleaned up in their division in recent years--despite, again, being the biggest sailing club competing. Hence the desire for a dedicated sailing team coach in lieu of someone with more general teaching experience. We invite Dave out for a ride on one of the large keelboats when he can take time away from the 420s and FJ's!
Monday, February 14, 2011
Governor Walker Rules
A bit off-topic, but this is important news. On Friday, our new Republican governor Scott Walker introduced a bill that would severely curtail collective bargaining (i.e. unions) for state employees. UW-Madison staff including Chancellor Martin are up in arms. Why..? Because they've become accustomed to being grossly overpaid and having great benefits, retirement plans, etc. And they'll say anything and everything to try to keep the money.
For example, UW folks claim that the teaching assistant's union, started in 1997, has improved UW-Madison. Nope. On the contrary, UW-Madison has fallen steadily in the U.S. News college rankings since the early 1980s:
Year 83 88 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 08
Rank 13 23 32 41 38 36 34 35 32 31 32 32 34 38
Amazing that 25+ years ago, UW was almost ranked in the top 10 nationally. Oddly, there was an anomalous dip in UW's ranking right about the time the TA's took power, but TA unions have nothing to do with anything except looking out for TAs.
Collective bargaining in general is a non-sequitor for public employees. Historically, unions benefited workers in industry by helping keep corporate power in check, but they have nothing to do with state employment. If you don't like your government job, then quit and get a job in the more competetive corporate world. That's where you need a union.
Wisconsin's massive $2.5 billion budget deficit is nothing less than robbery on an incredible scale. It's 200,000 overpaid state employees stealing from the other 4 million Wisconsin residents--by giving themselves raises, extra benefits, shorter hours, etc. But we already knew that many state employees are crooks. Wis. Union employees are especially adept at getting paid for doing nothing.
For example, UW folks claim that the teaching assistant's union, started in 1997, has improved UW-Madison. Nope. On the contrary, UW-Madison has fallen steadily in the U.S. News college rankings since the early 1980s:
Year 83 88 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 08
Rank 13 23 32 41 38 36 34 35 32 31 32 32 34 38
Amazing that 25+ years ago, UW was almost ranked in the top 10 nationally. Oddly, there was an anomalous dip in UW's ranking right about the time the TA's took power, but TA unions have nothing to do with anything except looking out for TAs.
Collective bargaining in general is a non-sequitor for public employees. Historically, unions benefited workers in industry by helping keep corporate power in check, but they have nothing to do with state employment. If you don't like your government job, then quit and get a job in the more competetive corporate world. That's where you need a union.
Wisconsin's massive $2.5 billion budget deficit is nothing less than robbery on an incredible scale. It's 200,000 overpaid state employees stealing from the other 4 million Wisconsin residents--by giving themselves raises, extra benefits, shorter hours, etc. But we already knew that many state employees are crooks. Wis. Union employees are especially adept at getting paid for doing nothing.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Head of Incompetence
The application deadline for the vacant Head of Instruction job was yesterday (unless they decide to extend it again), so this seems like a good time to review past HOI's.
Let's start back in the pre-JimR days, the late 1980s when Kurt Kummer (what a name, eh?) was the guy. As with most Hoofer leaders and employees, Kurt was a party boy, fond of giving keelboat ratings to his buddies. And when Keelboat instructors wouldn't give Kurt the ratings he wanted, he would demand them.
Then along came Jim Rogers who, like a giant octopus, grabbed the job and held onto it for 15 years. Nothing was off the table for Jim. He would slander, harass, and do whatever else was necessary to solidify his position as HOI. And when the BOC wasn't handling something, he would take it over, like a giant amoeba. Every time he could do that, it would make the HOI job more important, his position ever more secure.
When Jim finally slithered on to the Hoofer Advisor job in 2005, Anne Porter found herself as temporary HOI. Anne never seemed comfortable with the job but did manage to use it to further her own interests. For example, Anne would downgrade exams of people she didn't like while tossing those of people who actually flunked--if the latter happened to be her friends.
Then Brian Borkovec took over and found he could not only negotiate his salary but actually vote to approve it (a felony in Wisconsin). Alas, crimes are pooh-poohed around the Wisconsin Union--as long as they're committed by a Wis. Union employee. Borkovec was also known to stalk people he didn't like and then write "reports" on them. Hey Borko: the public can monitor your criminal activities but you as a state employee are not allowed to harass the public.
The last HOI was Tom Barry who was quickly swept into the Hoofer Hole. Humor? Check. Overwhelmed? Check. Farm off the work to your subordinates? Check. When that didn't go so well, Tom managed to quit this past summer before getting fired.
Wow, what a group. Did we miss anyone?
So here we are in 2011, with a new commodore looking for a new HOI who will not only take care of instruction but also coach the sailing team (of which she just happens to be a member). Good golly. What manner o' beastie can do all that?!
We'll find out.
Let's start back in the pre-JimR days, the late 1980s when Kurt Kummer (what a name, eh?) was the guy. As with most Hoofer leaders and employees, Kurt was a party boy, fond of giving keelboat ratings to his buddies. And when Keelboat instructors wouldn't give Kurt the ratings he wanted, he would demand them.
Then along came Jim Rogers who, like a giant octopus, grabbed the job and held onto it for 15 years. Nothing was off the table for Jim. He would slander, harass, and do whatever else was necessary to solidify his position as HOI. And when the BOC wasn't handling something, he would take it over, like a giant amoeba. Every time he could do that, it would make the HOI job more important, his position ever more secure.
When Jim finally slithered on to the Hoofer Advisor job in 2005, Anne Porter found herself as temporary HOI. Anne never seemed comfortable with the job but did manage to use it to further her own interests. For example, Anne would downgrade exams of people she didn't like while tossing those of people who actually flunked--if the latter happened to be her friends.
Then Brian Borkovec took over and found he could not only negotiate his salary but actually vote to approve it (a felony in Wisconsin). Alas, crimes are pooh-poohed around the Wisconsin Union--as long as they're committed by a Wis. Union employee. Borkovec was also known to stalk people he didn't like and then write "reports" on them. Hey Borko: the public can monitor your criminal activities but you as a state employee are not allowed to harass the public.
The last HOI was Tom Barry who was quickly swept into the Hoofer Hole. Humor? Check. Overwhelmed? Check. Farm off the work to your subordinates? Check. When that didn't go so well, Tom managed to quit this past summer before getting fired.
Wow, what a group. Did we miss anyone?
So here we are in 2011, with a new commodore looking for a new HOI who will not only take care of instruction but also coach the sailing team (of which she just happens to be a member). Good golly. What manner o' beastie can do all that?!
We'll find out.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
The Hoofer pyramid scheme
Interesting stats from a recent Education Committee email:
Around 65% of the club are new members every year.
40% of new members in 2010 never earned a rating.
Very similar statistics on ratings were reported two years ago on this very blog. Alas, there is an even more disturbing possibility than the two suggested in that earlier post (slow learners or poor teachers): a deliberate pyramid scheme.
And that's what Hoofer Sailing Club appears to be, at least to a significant degree: one big pyramid scheme. The purpose simply is not to teach sailing, but to make money and control resources. The way they do it is by saying, "Give us your money and we'll teach you how to sail." But the large percentage of club members who never learn to sail belie that. Club leaders need a large base of paying "members" to provide capital and operating funds (since the 100 or so club leaders don't have to pay anything), so each year they mount an advertising campaign to recruit new suckers, er, members who will pay around $200 each. Of course there are some good club leaders too, but they're either the minority or are simply dominated by the sleazeballs and crooks. If the latter had their way all the time, HSC would be a model pyramid scheme.
For details, check out these related posts on HSC criminal activities, club structure, money grubbing, and arrogance.
Around 65% of the club are new members every year.
40% of new members in 2010 never earned a rating.
Very similar statistics on ratings were reported two years ago on this very blog. Alas, there is an even more disturbing possibility than the two suggested in that earlier post (slow learners or poor teachers): a deliberate pyramid scheme.
And that's what Hoofer Sailing Club appears to be, at least to a significant degree: one big pyramid scheme. The purpose simply is not to teach sailing, but to make money and control resources. The way they do it is by saying, "Give us your money and we'll teach you how to sail." But the large percentage of club members who never learn to sail belie that. Club leaders need a large base of paying "members" to provide capital and operating funds (since the 100 or so club leaders don't have to pay anything), so each year they mount an advertising campaign to recruit new suckers, er, members who will pay around $200 each. Of course there are some good club leaders too, but they're either the minority or are simply dominated by the sleazeballs and crooks. If the latter had their way all the time, HSC would be a model pyramid scheme.
For details, check out these related posts on HSC criminal activities, club structure, money grubbing, and arrogance.
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