Monday, December 12, 2011 - The Daily Cardinal

Top 10 films of 2011

Win at last, Win at last Ben Brust powered the Badgers to a win over UNLV Saturday with 25 points +SPORTS, page 8

This year’s top flicks have a lot in common: namely, Ryan Gosling +ARTS, page 5 University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Monday, December 12, 2011

TA’s union decides not to recertify, others do

By Tyler Nickerson the Daily Cardinal

The Teaching Assistants’ Association decided to not retain its official status as a union, despite a report showing a vast majority of teachers unions throughout Wisconsin voted to recertify.

Under the law passed earlier this year that restricted collective bargaining rights for public employees, unions are now required to vote

mark kauzlarich/the daily cardinal

UW System President Kevin Reilly told the Board of Regents Friday he has met with legislators and is asking them to ease budget cuts to the system.

UW System President hopes for smaller cuts

By Anna Duffin The Daily Cardinal

UW System President Kevin Reilly remains hopeful the state will decrease funding cuts to the system, he told the Board of Regents Friday.

In October, legislators announced they expect the UW System to absorb an additional $65.7 million in budget cuts this biennium, bringing total cuts to the system to over $300 million for 2011-13.

Cuts to the system account for 38 percent of total cuts included in the lapse.

“We’re working hard to shine a spotlight on this important public policy discussion.”

Kevin Reilly president UW System

But Reilly said he remains optimistic his discussions with legislators will lead them to reconsider the size of the cut.

“I’ve had several conversations with the Secretary of the [Department of Administration], Mike Huebsch, and as of today those lines of communication remain open and I remain hopeful that the DOA will reconsider UW’s share of the new budget lapses,” Reilly said.

UW-Milwaukee Chancellor Michael Lovell said the cuts

and decreased staff could make it more difficult for students to enroll in the classes they need to.

Lovell said 41 UWM faculty and staff have left the university since the initial cuts were announced.

“That number is much greater than I expected,” Lovell said. “These are the top performers on our campuses that are being poached away from other universities in other parts of the country.”

Reilly said by publishing editorials and speaking to citizens

statewide, members of the board hope to draw attention to the cuts.

“We’re working hard to shine a spotlight on this important public policy discussion,” Reilly said.

Reilly said Wisconsin citizens have spoken out against the proportion of the lapse given to the system.

“Prominent businesspeople have stepped forward to assert that cutting the UW so disproportionately is bad for business in Wisconsin,” Reilly said.

annually to recertify.

According to a report released Tuesday by the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission, 177 of Wisconsin’s 208 local teachers unions operating under the new rules voted to recertify.

But the TAA, the union that represents UW-Madison’s teaching assistants, decided that the certification wasn’t worth it.

taa page 3

Regents talk campus safety after Virginia Tech shooting

By Alex DiTullio The Daily Cardinal

In response to the recent shooting of a Virginia Tech campus police officer, UW-Madison Police Chief Sue Riseling discussed improvements the university and campus police departments have made to their crisis prevention and response strategies.

At a Board of Regents meeting Friday, Riseling said following the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007, UW-Madison dramatically improved its ability to communicate with the community. She said in an emergency situation, campus can send out alert messages to more than 77,000 people in 10 minutes or less.

Assistant Director for UW Communications Terry Devitt said many of these improvements come in thanks to text alerts and emails, which can reach students instantly.

“[There are] lots of different tools that one can use to get to the university community and beyond very quickly, and we would use the whole menu if the situation warranted it,” Devitt said.

Riseling said another important safety measure is detecting an individual’s violent tendencies and counseling them before they act violently.

“The key to understanding Virginia Tech of 2007 is the key to prevention,” she said. “If we can identify folks early on, intervene and get them some assistance we can thwart a lot of this.”

The challenge currently facing many of these counseling programs is a lack of funding, Riseling said. She said the university has been forced to lower the administrative services budget, which includes counseling services, to combat the budget deficit.

Regents pass Union plan, Brothers Bar demolition The UW System Board of Regents also unanimously approved the proposed Memorial Union renovation plans, the destruction of Brothers Bar and Grill on University Avenue and the addition of club seats in the Kohl Center.

Bartell said the board passed the Memorial Union renovation plans because they were modified after UW-Madison students voted against the former plans in this fall’s Associated Students of Madison election.

“The Union went back and asked designers to look again and take into consideration the objections that had been raised and [a proposed] addition is now considerably smaller than before,” Regent Jeffrey Bartell said.

Bartell said Brothers will

mark kauzlarich/cardinal file photo

Union renovations would extend onto the terrace. stay in its current location until May so bar owners can find a new site.

The board also passed a resolution allowing the addition of the “South End Club” to the Kohl Center, an area for patrons to eat and drink in the arena.

downtown

Great Winter

Eau Claire native Justin Vernon returned to Wisconsin Saturday night, as Bon Iver played to a sold-out crowd at the Orpheum. + Photo by Mark Kauzlarich

Anna Duffin / The Daily cardinal

“…the great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found.”

page two All I want for Christmas is... tODAY: snow!!1!1!

Tuesday: cloudy

hi 38º / lo 32º

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Monday, December 12, 2011

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this moment to say this holiday season, I wish…

Jacqueline O’Reilly o’really?!

M

y mom, like every mom ever, enjoys the music of Amy Grant. I am no music snob, but I do draw a line here. Still, moms will be moms, and every December like clockwork Amy Grant’s Home for Christmas finds its way into our stereo.

On said album is the track “Grown-up Christmas List,” a song that is supposed to be touching but I find, like so many touching things, completely nauseating. Grant sings, “No more lives torn apart / That wars would never start / And time would heal all hearts / Everyone would have a friend / And right would always win / And love would never end / This is my grown-up Christmas list.”

She’s not wishing for much— just solutions to all of humanity’s unsolvable problems. I know cynicism is supposed to melt away during the holidays, but if I found this song reasonable, it is likely I’d be suffering from a personality disorder, not just a case of severe holiday cheer.

As such, I’ve put together a more grounded Christmas list.

While still intangible, I’m not asking Santa for world peace or everlasting love. So may I take

To care about the Cold War 20-pages worth

I wish someone had told me four years ago that a love of politics does not always translate to a love of political science.

Had I been told this, I would not have enrolled in my current international relations seminar, a seminar that is requiring me to write a 20-page paper on the Cold War’s end.

Let’s get something straight: I DO NOT GIVE TWO RIPS. To all of the history fanatics whose buttholes just tightened, allow me to clarify. Yes, I understand the Cold War and its conclusion shaped the trajectory of domestic and international politics, but I do not want to be the one to analyze this, especially in a 20-page paper that counts for 70 percent of my grade. But for better or for worse, I will have to, so I ask the universe for just 20-pages worth of interest in this horrifically dense topic.

Also, I ask that my professor not read this column.

For the willpower to stop watching ‘Storage Wars’ marathons

I firmly believe that if you are going to watch television during finals season, it has to be something of the mindless persuasion. “What Not to Wear?” Yes! “Ace of Cakes?”

Duh! “Two and a Half Men?” I’ll judge you pretty harshly, but sure! “The West Wing?”

Whoa, stop, you’re attempting to think.

My poison is “Storage Wars.” It is just so profoundly bad, and you cannot help but feel intelligent when you watch these people attempt to string words into sentences whilst shoveling what is likely a dead old lady’s junk out of a 10x10 storage space—not a bad selfesteem boost during a demoralizing time of the year.

Still, at some point the remote needs to be put down, but that is the step I struggle with. The show may be bad, but it is just so damn addictive, and perhaps only the strength of Santa can help me to press the power button.

That CoffeeBytes’ cups would stop leaking

Am I the only one who suffers from this plight? I hope not, because if so the next 100 words are going to make me sound like a doofus who doesn’t know how to drink from a disposable coffee cup. Let’s assume for now that this is not the case and that all other CoffeeBytes patrons have mysterious brown stains on their jeans from lost drops of Sumatra.

I love CoffeeBytes 20 percent for its product and 80 percent for its convenient location. I work both in the Student

Delving into

Activity Center and Vilas Hall, and during the last few weeks of the semester, I shuffle between the two buildings like a comatose zombie. Thus, Coffeebytes is my refueling station, though I always lose precious globules of caffeine from the moment I pay for the overpriced cup.

Help a girl out: Every drop of coffee counts this month, especially for a gal who is on page three of 20 of her term paper.

To learn the true identity of ‘Foodie’

Avid readers of The Daily Cardinal may have noticed there is someone commenting online under the alias “Foodie” on the majority of Page Two columns.

This mystery person picks an item mentioned in the article, and comments, “Mmm… (insert a hot and/or delicious item mentioned in article here).” I have texted nearly every Cardinal alum I know asking if they are this mysterious being, though all have denied it left and right. So perhaps this is my biggest Christmas wish: Foodie, reveal yourself to the world.

Alright, I’ve put my hopes out there. Let’s hope the universe can grant me a few favors.

Happy holidays, Badgers!

May all of your wishes come true!

Do you cry every time you listen to “Grownup Christmas List?”

Well that’s pathetic, but explain to Jacqueline why she’s got it wrong at jgoreilly@wisc.edu.

’s History

December 12, 1990

Feingold announces U.S. Senate bid

By Nancy Rost of the Cardinal Staff

State Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Middleton, said Tuesday he has already spent two years laying groundwork for a campaign challenging Republican Robert Kasten for his U.S. Senate seat.

Feingold made an informal announcement of his plan to seek the Democratic nomination for the seat at a news conference Monday.

He dispelled rumors that he was planning to run for the congressional seat that was won last month by Republican Scott Klug, formerly held by 16-term Democratic incumbent Rep. Robert Katermeier.

“The real race is against

Kasten,” he said.

“On major campaign issues—in his stand on reproductive rights, in his support of military intervention in many areas, in his opposition to the Civil Rights Bill—on all these issues my position is opposite of Kasten’s,” Feingold said.

Kasten is expected to seek a third term in 1992.

Feingold said in the U.S. Senate campaign has been organized in 30 to 40 counties, and he has already been approaching editorial boards and in-state campaign organizers.

He said his campaign has been, and will continue to be, people-based.

Feingold said he does not expect an easy battle against Kasten. “If you’re not independently wealthy, it’s tough to wage a campaign

against a Republican senator,” he said. “We’ll never have the money Kasten does.”

Feingold estimated that Kasten would sink $5 million to $10 million into the 1992 campaign.

But he said he believed that in mounting a five-year drive against the Republican senator, he has a chance to counteract what he called Kasten’s money-intensive campaign with a campaign based on issues affecting the average citizen.

“This state loves underdog candidates,” he said. “I don’t think [Kasten is] running a campaign most people support.”

Feingold, 37, a native of Janesville, was re-elected Nov. 6 to a third four-year term in the state Senate. He is a graduate of the

University of Wisconsin Law School and former Rhodes Scholar.

State Rep. Spencer Black, D-Madison, hailed the news of Feingold’s U.S. Senate bid. “Feingold has had a very good career in the state Senate,” Black said. “He has served his district well.”

“We currently need a replacement for Kasten,” Black said. “Kasten hasn’t served the average citizen of the state – he is too beholden to the wealthiest interests.”

Feingold said he called the news conference at the Capitol to end speculation about a possible try for the 2nd Congressional District, which includes Dane county and

is one of the state’s most heavily Democratic districts.

Weekend shenanigans get a little weird?

Need to rant about the creeper at your ugly Christmas sweater soiree who couldn’t take a hint?

Become a Page Two columnist for next semester

and join the rest of us Cardinalistas in jamming to Scandinavian superstar Robyn.

For more information, contact us at page2@dailycardinal.com.

news

Monday, December 12, 2011 3

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GAB needs more time to review recall petitions, verify signatures The Government Accountability Board announced Thursday that it will take a month longer than its deadline to review recall petition signatures.

Also, GAB Director Kevin Kennedy said as many as 50 temporary workers will need to be hired to review up to 1.5 million signatures that could be collected in the effort to recall Gov. Scott Walker and four state senators.

A court order is needed to extend the review period longer than the required 31 days. danny marchewka/Cardinal file photo

Ben Manski will run the presidential campaign for the Green Party candidate Dr. Jill Stein. He was the party’s candidate for state Assembly in 2010, but lost to state Rep. Brett Hulsey.

Manski to manage Green Party presidential campaign

By Tyler Nickerson The Daily Cardinal

Madison native and former state Assembly candidate Ben Manski will be in charge of the Green Party’s presidential campaign in 2012.

Manski, who lost to state Rep. Brett Hulsey, D-Madison, despite a strong showing in a 2010 Wisconsin State Assembly election, has a long history with the Green Party. He ran as the party’s candidate in the assembly election, was co-chair of the Green Party of the United States and has worked on presidential campaigns before.

“I think there are probably few people in the United States

that have had the variety of perspectives that I have been able to pull in through that experience,” Manski, a UW-Madison alumnus, said.

Given his credentials, Manski said the party approached him to run as a presidential candidate. He turned down the offer, saying he would prefer to support Dr. Jill Stein in this election.

“There are times when it is appropriate to step forward as a candidate, and there are times when it is more appropriate to support somebody else,” Manski said.

In a blog posting last Wednesday, Stein, who may be making an appearance in

Madison later this week, praised Manski for his experience and broad ideals.

“He is a movement veteran known for his anti-war, labor, environmental, and education advocacy,” Stein said. “He brings the full force of converging social movements into our campaign.”

Manski said that Stein, a physician and activist from Massachusetts, has “united the party in a way that hasn’t been seen in many years.”

“She knows what it takes to run a political campaign,” Manski said. “Personally, she is extremely charismatic and very articulate.”

Athletic board discusses abuse prevention In light of recent scandal surrounding alleged sexual abuse by coaches at Penn State and Syracuse universities, the UW-Madison Athletic Board discussed how it could prevent a similar situation at Wisconsin.

Athletic board members said the department has a variety of mechanisms to respond to an abusive situation.

At the university, adult athletic department employees must follow specific guidelines, such as not transporting student-athletes in personal vehicles. The university also has a “threat assessment team” to assist if allegations of abuse were to arise.

Athletic Board Chair Dale Bjorling said Penn State does

victor bittorf/cardinal file photo

The TAA decided not to recertify as a union, instead focusing on internal reorganization and the recall effort.

taa from page 1 “We thought that we would have more power if we didn’t waste time with this kind of recertification charade,” TAA copresident Alex Hanna said. “We are putting our efforts towards recalling and we are also putting our efforts towards reorganizing

our own members.”

But the Wisconsin Education Association Council, Wisconsin’s largest teachers union, said a certification vote would give public unions a voice, albeit a limited one compared to what they had in the past, to negotiate wages with the administration.

“The overwhelmingly posi-

not have an athletic board and the different parts of the athletic department are not as connected as they are at UW-Madison.

“If you have a concern, talk about it,” Bjorling said. “In the Penn State situation, football was separate from the rest of the athletic department. They were their own enterprise. Here, things are more integrated.” tive results send a clear signal to Governor Walker that his divisive approach to governing and his cuts of $1.6 billion to schools do not reflect Wisconsin values,” Mary Bell, president of WEAC, said in a statement Thursday.

“As a union, our members will stay united as a voice for educators, students and schools, as we continue to focus on the upcoming recall election.”

The Walker administration responded to the results in a statement, saying the new collective bargaining law gives workers the ability to make decisions about union dues and other issues that affect their paychecks.

“Some have chosen to stay certified while others chose not to. The important thing was that they were given the freedom to choose,” the statement says.

Hanna says the TAA is having “huge success reorganizing our members on our own terms” since its decision not to recertify.

On Nov. 28, petition circulators said they had gathered 300,000 of the 540,208 signatures needed to prompt a recall election of Walker and Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch. The petitions are due Jan. 17.

As for the four state senators that are being targeted for recall, petition circulators need between 15,000 and 16,700 signatures, depending on the legislator.

The month-long delay in the review process would likely impact the dates of the potential recall elections.

Democrats to question Republican consultants in redistricting case State Democrats moved forward in their case challenging the constitutionality of new legislative districts after a panel of judges ordered two people who helped draft the maps to give depositions.

Legislative districts are redrawn every 10 years to account for population changes. In 2011, the Republicancontrolled legislature and governor’s office approved maps that favor their party.

Republicans have filed separate lawsuits that argue their maps should be used in the upcoming recall elections.

Three federal judges ruled Thursday that Joe Handrick,

consultant with a firm hired by Republicans, and Tad Ottman, aide to Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, must give depositions to the Democrat’s legal team.

The ruling came despite Republican efforts to suppress the subpoenas for testimony and documents by arguing attorneyclient privilege and legislative immunity apply to Handrick and Ottman.

The judges also said that if they deem future attempts by Republicans to suppress subpoenas as being made in “bad faith”, Democrats would be awarded attorney fees.

Woman arrested for counterfeit bill Police arrested a Madison woman early Friday morning for trying to pay with a counterfeit $100 bill at the nightclub Plan B on Williamson Street.

According to the report, the manager called police and gave a good description of the car the woman and her friend left in. Officers were able to spot the car on the road and pulled her over.

Police said the suspect claimed she had actually gotten the $100 bill in change from the bartender after she paid for drinks using “two hundred dol-

lar bills,” which was soon after clarified as two $100 bills.

“The bar manager said getting a $100 bill in change would be impossible as his staff does not give out $100 bills—for change,” Madison Police Department spokesperson Joel DeSpain said in a statement.

According to police, the manager said the suspect began yelling when the club refused to take her fake money.

“She also hollered at arresting officers: ‘I hate you mother (expletive) because you caught me,’” DeSpain said in a statement.

arts What films came out on top in 2011 dailycardinal.com

david cottrell co-ttrell it on the mountain

T

he end of the year, as well as the season’s characteristic gold rush of high-caliber cinema, is upon us. And what better time to take in all the Oscar-minded flicks flooding into theaters or catch up on gems passed over from earlier this year than the glorious month of little-to-no responsibility that lies before us, just beyond that abysmal week-which-shall-not-benamed. While there are still a few films I’m highly anticipating over break—namely “Shame,” “Young Adult,” “The Artist” and “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy”—I’d still like to take this time procrastinating from studying to compile my top 10 of 2011 (so far) list.

10. “Attack the Block” An alien invasion movie like none you have ever seen before, “Attack the Block” oozes slick style and makes the most of its incredibly crafty screenplay by writer/director Joe Cornish. Part sci-fi action-thriller, part cheeky British comedy and part social commentary, this flick adds up to so much more than most of its genre-fluff peers.

9. “If A Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front” This documentary out of Sundance traces the origins of the eco-extremist group ELF, as well as the particular story of one member sentenced to an extended prison sentence for the arson of a lumber mill after being demonized by the U.S. government as a terrorist. The real issue this documentary tackles is not

Monday, December 12, 2011

so much environmentalism as it is the way the government uses terrorism scare-mongering as a blank check for their own (corporate) interests.

8. “50/50” I doubt Seth Rogen, while writing the incredibly raunchy script for “Superbad,” ever seriously thought he’d be part of a best picture nominee about cancer, but that will likely be the reality very soon.

Anna Kendrick (“Up in the Air”) and Joseph Gordon-Levitt deliver top-notch, comedic-dramatic performances alongside Rogen in a film that accomplishes a seemingly impossible task: making a movie about cancer that manages to be both deftly funny and pitch-perfect dramatic without crossing over into melodrama or tasteless humor.

7. “Midnight In Paris” Woody Allen is back at the top of his game with “Midnight In Paris,” the best piece of creative output from the writer/director I’ve seen in years.

The cavalcade of celebrity cameos Allen puts together to play various famous historical writers and artists delighted the English major in me to no end. And the film’s meditation on the value (or lack thereof) of having nostalgia for another age stuck with me long after I left the theater.

6. “Bellflower” Cardinal Music Columnist Alex Seraphin called the Coatwolf production team behind “Bellflower” “the Fugazi of the film world” and instantly declared it one of his top 10 movies of all time. While I wouldn’t go that far, I’d certainly give Madison-native Evan Glodell’s passion project a spot in my top 10 of 2011. The film is off the beaten path of usual Hollywood fair. It has incredibly naturalistic dialogue and performances, a story

impossible to pigeonhole into a single genre and a inimitable aesthetic crafted by Glodell’s homemade camera. Also, the fact that the entire production was shot for $17,000 makes this flick a testament to the rapidly-escalating prowess of the DIY-indie filmmaking scene.

5. “Like Crazy” Along will “Bellflower,” writer/ director Drake Doremus’ “Like Crazy” is a standard bearer for just what can be done in filmmaking these days on a comparatively tiny budget. Jason Reitman said it best when delivering the Sundance Grand Jury Prize, the festival’s highest honor, to Doremus for this examination of young love tested by transatlantic distance when he said, “We liked this movie, like crazy.”

4. “The Guard” Part “In Bruges” part “Hot Fuzz,” “The Guard” is a unique blend of dark Irish humor, murder mystery and action flick. The surprising repartee between Brendan Gleeson and Don Cheadle crosses all boundaries of political correctness and makes this movie a pleasure to watch.

3. “Take Shelter” Michael Shannon’s performance as a family man construction worker in rural Ohio plagued by nightmares of an impending apocalyptic storm in “Take Shelter” is utterly riveting on a scale scarcely seen these days, especially from such an under-theradar actor. There’s no doubt in my mind this movie will snag Shannon a best actor nomination on Jan. 24, and I would not be surprised to see him take home a statuette a month later.

2. “Ides of March” “Ides of March” reminded me, if rather abstractly, of 2008’s “Doubt,” a deserving film that was nonetheless deprived of a best picture nomina-

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Photo courtesy film district

Ryan Gosling takes the lead in 2011’s action-crime drama “Drive” where he plays a heist man with a contract on his life. tion. While “Ides” loosely concerns the 2004 Democratic primary, while “Doubt” the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic church, they both deal in uncertainty and carry the particular air of being adapted from plays, with a focus on performances over all else.

George Clooney and Ryan Gosling bring their A-Game and will likely see best actor and best supporting actor nominations respectively, as well as best picture and best director nominations for Clooney.

1. “Drive” I could write volumes on every conceivable aspect of “Drive”—the catchy soundtrack, the mind-bogglingly perfectionist cinematography,

the outstanding performances, the masterfullyadapted screenplay—and have done so quite a bit already this semester. Suffice it to say, “Drive” is without doubt my favorite film of 2011, featuring my favorite performance of the year by Ryan Gosling. This actionpacked, suspenseful drama is a sight to behold on the big screen, and I highly suggest that if you have any opportunity to view it in theaters over break, you do so. The small screen simply cannot do adequate justice to this masterwork of Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn.

Have your own favorite flicks of 2011? E-mail David your list at dcottrell@wisc.edu.

Meet the driven man behind Madison’s top tattoo shop

By Jaime Brackeen The Daily Cardinal

It is hard to believe such serious guidelines underlie the comparatively light-hearted atmosphere of Blue Lotus. Overhearing banter between owner Rob Beyer and tattoo artists Seneca Marks and Noah MacDonald could easily make clients forget they are in fact at a tattoo shop and not a comedy club.

Even more difficult than trying not to crack a smile is getting a serious response from anyone there.

The gullible make themselves easy prey for the witticisms of these charismatic men.

“Good luck trying to get a straight answer out of any of us,” Beyer warned.

Just trying to figure out the lifespan of MacDonald can take a gargantuan effort. Upon being asked MacDonald’s age, responses from Marks varied: “With your hat on, you’re easily 25,” “This dude’s like 48 or whatever,” “Noah is old.”

MacDonald himself threw out numerous replies: “I’m 42,” “I’m 28,” and “I am… busy.” He is 36. But that is beside the point.

Beyer certainly gets in on the fun, as well. Oftentimes he likes to mess with MacDonald by using a carefully placed mirror to stare at him until McDonald can feel Beyer’s watchful gaze.

“Do you ever feel like somebody’s creepin’ on you?” MacDonald asked. “And then you’re like… Dang it! That damn mirror!” It was at this moment he noticed Beyer watching

him in it again.

All in all, they are very likeable individuals—Beyer included, hardass reputation aside. But they have to be. Tattooing is a service industry.

Charm abounds within the small building, and endearing terms like “sweetheart” and “darlin’” roll off their tongues without a second thought.

Beyer is a big softy when it comes to children. A friend brought his daughter by one Saturday afternoon, and Beyer shifted directly into the role of entertainer, pointing out all the fish in his aquarium and doing his best to explain the art of tattooing to a girl of about six or seven years.

“You can always go back to school, but when I got into the business, you either took your opportunity or it wasn’t given to you again.”

Rob Beyer owner Blue Lotus Tattoo

With complete seriousness, he told her why MacDonald was using a yellow color to sketch his drawing.

“You go up with your light color first, and then that way if you make boom boom you can fix it,” he cooed.

This gentle nature prevails throughout most of his days, whether it is his lone name on the list to

bring in dinner for everyone or giving an employee a second chance.

One may wonder where this comes from after learning he was not given much throughout his own childhood. Beyer is truly a self-made man.

Although he was born in Racine, he grew up all over the state, mostly in Kenosha. His journey to the present most certainly required a lot of drive.

“I was a ward of the state when I was 16 so there was nothing there for me, but I survived,” he said in a matter-of-fact tone. “I joined the military because I knew I’d at least get three squares and a cot every day.”

After his stint with the military, Beyer enrolled at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside for a semester then transferred to Madison Area Technical College for another semester before finally settling in at UW-Madison for the next five years.

Here he was pursuing a degree in chemistry until, at the age of 21, the decision to get his first tattoo changed his plans for the future.

It was a symbol from heavymetal band Queensrÿche’s album, Empire.

From here, things just clicked with the campus tattoo shop and eventually they offered him a job working the counter. Not long after, he stopped going to school to

pursue the rare chance of becoming a tattoo artist.

“You can always go back to school, but when I got into the business, you know, you either took your opportunity or it wasn’t given to you again,” Beyer said.

Then, after two years working as an apprentice, the manager told him he couldn’t draw.

“I think he was threatened by the fact that I wasn’t a typical person who worked there,” he said. “I was actually motivated and organized and could make things grow and expand.”

He ended up becoming a piercer, but tattooing never left his thoughts. Finally, he realized he was not getting due recognition for all the effort he put in.

“I worked 10 hours a day, six days a week and made less than 10 thousand dollars,” he said. “I asked for a raise because I was the only piercer and I ran the entire show, ordering, the scheduling, everything.”

The manager wouldn’t give it to him, so he turned in his notice and in 1994 opened his own shop, The Piercing Lounge.

In the meantime, friends from his former shop offered to train him in the art of tattooing. Beyer leapt at the chance, even if it meant long, weekly commutes.

“I took them up on it and drove to Minneapolis every weekend for four months to learn how to tat-

t Par of twowo t

too,” he said.

By 1996, he had opened Blue Lotus at its first location on Old University Avenue. Eventually he combined this and the Piercing Lounge at their current spot just off of University Avenue on Gilman Street, right in the heart of UW-Madison’s campus.

Obviously, the business has become successful. Head piercer John Kid remembered when it was one of the few piercing shops in the area.

“When I first started here, we’d have to ask people to leave,” he reminisced. “There were so many people all the time.”

Things have slowed down since, but 17 years after The Piercing Lounge opened Blue Lotus is still thriving. With the state of the economy being what it is, Kid said many other local establishments are not fairing as well.

“We just heard from another person who works in town here, and they haven’t had a customer in their door in two weeks,” Kid said.

Surprising, since of all of Madison’s tattoo venues, Blue Lotus is known for being one of the more expensive places in town because of its quality jewelry and work. This positive feedback only reinforces the sayings that hang above Beyer’s work station: “Good tattoos aren’t cheap,” and “Cheap tattoos aren’t good.”

Part one of this feature ran on Friday, Dec. 9 and can be found at dailycardinal.com.

opinion Permits for protesting unconstitutional 6

l

Monday, December 12, 2011

dailycardinal.com

view Cardinal View editorials represent The Daily Cardinal’s organizational opinion. Each editorial is crafted independent of news coverage.

W

hat are the ultimate principles behind issuing a permit? To grant privileges to individuals that would otherwise be turned away if certain qualifications weren’t met. What is the purpose of a rally or demonstration? To further advocate a cause that otherwise isn’t being addressed. What is the overarching reason behind Gov. Scott Walker’s updated facilities policy? Take one guess.

On Dec. 1, regulations requiring four or more people to obtain a permit prior to an event, demonstration or rally in or around the Capitol went into effect. Under the new policies, individuals attempting to exercise their First Amendment rights to assemble are now not only required to notify the

Department of Administration at least three days beforehand but, are also expected to set aside $50 per hour for each police officer the DOA feels it necessary to be at the event and, in some cases, obtain liability insurance that often poses problematic when dealing with private firms. Yup, the government is essentially asking people to pay to protest and, in return, provoking more protests against paying to protest.

Last March, tens of thousands of individuals stormed the Capitol to cry foul at Walker’s union crushing budget repair bill. They marched, they sang, they decorated the Capitol in public worker sentiment that will forever leave a mark in Wisconsin history.

During this period, officials

began drafting a new policy, for no other reason than keep such a magnifying voice against Walker out—giving credence to the idea that Walker’s ultimate goal in requiring Capitol permits is to curb demonstrations against the current administration. The fact that these policies were instigated by Wisconsin’s passionate response to the budget repair bill only furthers this editorial board’s conviction that the Walker administration believed tens of thousands of Wisconsinites should have handed over money in the fight for their rights.

The government is essentially asking people to pay to protest.

To put it formulaically: Walker implements policy. A

Moderate Republican wrong choice Zach Thomae opinion columnist

T

he Republican primary season is certainly going to be interesting, if the preceding months are any indication. However, most people are going to draw the wrong lessons from it. It is true that the polls have fluctuated because there is no clear frontrunner. But the conclusion most draw from this—that there is no frontrunner because the field is weak—is almost certainly wrong. On the contrary, the Republican base’s problem is that its candidates are too strong.

The conventional wisdom tells a nice story about hubris and extremism. For whatever reason, the Republican party— both its voters and its representatives—have coalesced around one goal: defeating President Barak Obama. As we may expect, the party has found clarity in opposition—everything that Obama supports, Republicans oppose. So the story goes, this is a tragic mistake—a wiser Republican party would put forth its own positive, moderate agenda, because a radical, negative conservative could never win.

But the Republicans have done this anyway, and their newfound taste for purity has allowed many candidates who would previously have been ignored to have a reasonable chance of winning. So it goes, none of these candidates are strong enough to beat Obama in 2012, and the pre-primary hysterics have been an extended look at Republican voters realizing this. Doomed by their arrogance to fail when it should be impossible to lose—if you think about it, it really is a nice story. A nice, clear and simple story—which also happens to be wrong.

Republican primary voters are basically divided into three camps. Two of them are small groups supporting specific can-

didates—former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Texas Congressman Ron Paul, to be precise. The rest of the primary base (which happens to still be a majority of it) hasn’t consistently backed any one candidate—after partially backing MicheleBachmann, it has gone for Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Herman Cain and now for former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. The size of this section of the base is roughly constant, so any gains for these candidates comes at the expense of the others. All of these candidates are in broad agreement over policy—in more technical terms, we could call them perfect substitutes.

This is where the conventional wisdom breaks down.

According to it, the candidates are roughly equal because they’re equally bad. But this isn’t what Republicans would tell you— in fact, all of these candidates are in broad agreement with Republican voters, if the polls are to be believed. The primary goal of the Republican party is to enact Republican policies, and any of these candidates would be an effective counter to Obama. This means that Republicans get to be picky on the little things—but no matter who ends up winning the primary, Republicans are going to get the policies they want.

Of course, these are just Republican voters—whoever wins the nomination must appeal to the general public.

Many would call this primary a failure because the candidates seem unlikely to appeal to the general public, but let’s think about this. For one, economic conditions strongly favor Republicans at the moment—if there was ever a time to nominate a radical conservative, it would be now.

But there’s something else wrong with this story. The

Republican Party should try to appeal to a broad section of voters—the broader the better. But this is a terrible strategy. Republicans shouldn’t nominate a moderate and try to win as many votes as possible, they should nominate someone much more conservative and try to win by as little as possible. After all, winning is winning, and there’s no reason to waste an opportunity to get someone more conservative in office in order to win worthless votes. On top of this, remember that the Republican Party wants to be as opposed to President Obama as it can be.

In other words, even if it nominates a moderate candidate and win the election, they still lose.

For the Republican Party, the only way to win is to go all in.

Many will see this primary season as a harbinger of doom for Republicans, a temporary aberration on the course to modernity. However, a better way to see this primary is as a future model for primaries to come. Long-term trends in the electorate have gone toward increased polarization between Republicans and Democrats.

This has led to the parties becoming much more ideologically coherent—especially the Republican party, which is now almost uniformly ideologically conservative. If this continues, then primary elections will no longer be times of ideological in-fights, but times where broadly-similar candidates are exposed to scrutiny, waiting for their transgressions to come to light. Fittingly, this primary is a lot like a market—a market for Republicans. The only thing we don’t know is whether the party will embrace it.

Zach Thomae is a freshman majoring in computer science.

Disagree with Zach? Please send all feedback to opinion@dailycardinal.com.

massive portion of Wisconsin protests that policy. Walker schemes up plan to force said protestors into paying for demonstrations that he ignited— silencing those who can’t pay and transferring that voice to policies that scream, “You can disagree with me, but you have to pay to show it!”

On top of the obvious origin behind these policies is the fact that they’re over-the-top, “are you kidding me?” unconstitutional. Requiring individuals to ask permission and pay the government to protest ultimately disenfranchises organizations and interest groups with limited access to monetary resources and gives too much discretion to the government itself. These regulations have the potential to deter small-scale causes from rallying because the DOA could charge the group for a police presence that wasn’t even all that necessary. Ultimately, deciding who has the right to protest through a permit system gives the government the

authority to lay a political smack down on rallies that pose a threat to the administration.

Sound like a familiar situation in Wisconsin?

Allowing the Department of Administration the authority to decide whether police services are required, whether clean-up costs are incurred and whether or not an organization has the right to utilize the Capitol as proper protest grounds runs the risk of extreme discrimination against Wisconsin voices and perspectives.

Any barrier between an individual and their right to assemble is an obstruction of the First Amendment. To be fair, Walker isn’t outright saying he intends to take away First- Amendment rights from those protesting against him, but then again nowhere in this editorial will you find a direct accusation that he is guilty of this either. In both cases, you just have to read between the lines.

Please send all feedback to opinion@dailycardinal.com.

The Dirty Bird says:

Write for the Daily Cardinal. Because we care!

Emal letters or editorials to opinion@dailycardinal.com

We hope you enjoyed the Cardinal’s 2011 Tech Guide Remember, you can find and test out all of the gifts we reviewed, from the iPad 2 to wireless mice, at the DoIT Tech Store’s two locations, and online.

techstore.doit.wisc.edu DoIT Tech Store at Computer Sciences 1210 W Dayton St. Monday-Friday 7:45 a.m.-5 p.m.

DoIT Tech Store at Health Sciences 750 Highland Ave. Monday-Friday 7:45 a.m.-5:30 p.m.

Saturday 10 a.m.-3 p.m.

And we’d like to thank DoIT for loaning us their gadgets to review!

comics dailycardinal.com

Now that’s depressing... More than 10 people a year are killed by vending machines.

Monday, December 12, 2011 • 7

Dozing off

Today’s Sudoku

Evil Bird

By Caitlin Kirihara kirihara@wisc.edu

© Puzzles by Pappocom

Eatin’ Cake

By Dylan Moriarty EatinCake@gmail.com

Solution, tips and computer program available at www.sudoku.com.

Fill in the grid so that every row, every column and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 through 9.

Tanked Life

By Steven Wishau wishau@wisc.edu

Today’s Crossword Puzzle

Caved In

Answer key available at www.dailycardinal.com

LOTS UPSTAIRS ACROSS 1 Knight in training 5 Jackson 5 hairdos 10 Singer-actor Kristofferson 14 Opera solo 15 Having had too much to drink 16 Cheep accommodations?

17 Good bettors follow it 19 Spanish jar 20 2,000 pounds 21 Well-mannered 22 Perry Mason, e.g.

24 Illustrations and such 26 ___ Fein (Irish political party) 27 Suffix with “social” or “urban” 28 Twists out of shape 32 Billiards stroke for sharks 35 Like a plug, but not a socket 36 Follow, as a suspect 37 Suffix with “sermon” or “cigar” 38 Charlton Heston role 39 Add to the payroll 40 Roger Rabbit, e.g.

41 Currier’s partner

42 Made it through crunch time?

43 One reason for italics 45 ___ Leandro, Calif.

46 Contemporary of Raymond and Agatha 47 Anatomical quintet 51 Bogart-Hepburn movie locale 54 Source of misery 55 Sound that broke the silence of the lambs?

56 Like a long shot’s chances 57 Think tank product 60 Global extreme 61 ___ nous 62 Grades K-6 63 Clairvoyant 64 Type of surgery 65 Not one, to Jethro Bodine DOWN 1 Lasagna or linguine 2 Knightwear 3 “Fee-fi-fo-fum” sayer 4 Hearing aid?

5 Esteem 6 Monk’s robe 7 Ancient German character 8 Homophone for “won” 9 Penthouse views

1 0 Ignoramus 11 Depend (on) 12 Skye or Man 13 It may twinkle 18 CD alternative 23 Formicary inhabitant 25 Smart aleck 26 Cobbler’s stock 28 Court events 29 Parade stopper 30 It keeps on rolling 31 Luge 32 Allot 33 Tiny source of energy 34 “Say no more” 35 Dinner companion?

38 Identify incorrectly 42 Borge’s countrymen 44 ____ de Triomphe 45 One with a confession 47 Word with “laissez” or “savoir” 48 Fever-causing virus 49 Less plentiful 50 Rat Pack pal of Dean and Frank 51 Snakes in hieroglyphics 52 Ice mass 53 Infuriate 54 Some make it to Cooperstown 58 Genetic material 59 Royal flush component

First in Twenty Classic

By Nick Kryshak nkryshak@wisc.edu

By Angel Lee alee23@wisc.edu

Washington and the Bear

By Derek Sandberg kalarooka@gmail.com

Sports

Monday december 12, 2011 DailyCardinal.com

Men’s Basketball

Men’s Hockey

Badgers fail to take step forward

By Matt Masterson The Daily Cardinal

Mark Kauzlarich/the daily cardinal

Ben Brust scored a career-high 25 points, including a perfect day from behind the arc, to lead the Badgers past UNLV.

Brust pushes UW past UNLV

By Max Sternberg The Daily Cardinal

It was far from pretty, but the Wisconsin men’s basketball team (8-2 overall) team finally picked up the non-conference win it needed as it defeated UNLV (9-2) 62-51 Saturday.

Wisconsin shot just 37 percent from the field as a team, but sophomore guard Ben Brust saved them from a far worse number, finishing the afternoon with a career-high 25 points on 8-of-9 shooting, including a 7-for-7 mark from behind the three-point line.

“Ben makes close to half of our field goals. Without that we don’t win,” senior guard Jordan Taylor said. “Defensively it was a good effort, and Ben took it over on the offensive end. We won. Doesn’t matter how you get it done.”

“The past three games, a lot of them felt good, they just weren’t going in,” Brust said after tying his own school record from 3-point range. “You just have to have shooters amnesia and just keep firing to shoot out of it.”

Beyond the record-setting shooting day by Brust, the Badger defense stifled a high-powered Rebel offense that scored 90 in a win over North Carolina earlier in the year. UNLV sophomore forward Mike Moser, who came into Saturday averaging 15.8 points and 12.5 rebounds per game, only managed four points, picking up nine of his 11 rebounds on the defensive glass.

Despite struggling on the boards in recent games, UW dominated on Saturday, picking up 10 offensive rebounds against UNLV and putting up eight more shots than the Runnin’ Rebels.

“The fact that [UNLV] did not have an offensive rebound in the first half, I thought our guys did a good job of putting bodies on them,” UW head coach Bo Ryan said. “We battled them on the glass, I can take that.”

That work on the defensive end ultimately allowed Wisconsin

to overcome a poor shooting performance in addition to a tough day for Taylor. The Badgers’ preseason All-American point guard was shadowed on the offensive end the entire contest, finishing 0-for10 from the field with just four points. Taylor also finished with an uncharacteristic three turnovers despite managing six assists.

Ultimately, UNLV managed only one player in double digits scoring, as senior forward Chase Stanback led the way with 16 points on 5-of-9 shooting. Still, that was a far cry from the 25 points he threw down on the Badgers in UNLV’s 68-65 win last season in Las Vegas.

“They are a very talented team; they score close to 80 or 90 points a game,” junior forward Mike Bruesewitz said. “Something I think we need to continue to do is to hang our hat on our defense and keep holding those high scoring teams within our threshold and make sure we can take care of business that way.”

Although Brust was certainly the headline, the re-emergence of Bruesewitz and sophomore guard Josh Gasser were perhaps the most encouraging signs.

Bruesewitz rebounded from recent struggles to have a solid afternoon, showing much more energy on both ends of the floor than he had shown over the last few games. His six points and team-high 10 rebounds were crucial for a Badger team that has not done the little things quite well as of late. And having struggled offensively while being hampered by a sore right wrist, Gasser made his presence known from the get-go, finishing with six points and eight rebounds at the second guard spot.

“I felt like I was able to put the ball on the floor a little bit against their bigger guys,” Bruesewitz said.

“That takes some pressuring off Jordan, trying to get in the lane. I was able to create some stuff for myself and for my teammates.”

Facing top ranked teams has become increasingly routine for the Wisconsin men’s hockey team this season, but after failing to come away with a win against No. 1 Minnesota-Duluth, the young Badgers are still looking to take the next step forward.

“What was disappointing was that we didn’t take that mental step to come out and be that dictating team,” head coach Mike Eaves said. “That’s just a sign that we’re not ready for that step.

We’re still awfully young.”

The Badgers (4-8-2 WCHA, 7-9-2 overall) played a solid game on Friday, skating to a 3-3 tie with the top team in the country, but after coming away with one point, they were unable to carry their momentum through to Saturday.

If Wisconsin was going to have any chance against the Bulldogs (12-3-3, 10-2-2), it needed to get out to a hot start, which is exactly what it did Friday night, jumping to a 2-0 lead in the first period with tallies from freshman forward Brad Navin and junior defenseman Justin Schultz.

Minnesota-Duluth fought back to tie the game in the second before Schultz added his second goal of the night to retake the lead early in the third period. Schultz, who is tied for second in scoring in the country, scored fromt the point off a pass from sophomore Mark Zengerle that found its way through traffic and into the net.

The lead was short-lived however, as UMD freshman forward Caleb Herbert knotted the score just minutes later off an odd deflection that made it past freshman goalie Joel Rumpel. This

ended the scoring for the night, as the teams played evenly down the stretch and made it through overtime with no real chances.

“There is a side where we’re happy with the point against the No. 1 team in the country, but there’s also that fine line where we cannot be satisfied,” Eaves said after Friday’s game. “If we slip tomorrow from where we are tonight, then this game tonight does us no good.”

Unfortunately, that ominous statement would come to fruition the following night. UMD senior Jack Connolly, the nation’s leader in points, opened the scoring Saturday less than two minutes into the game on a deflection off of Schultz. Although the shots were fairly even between the teams, it was clear that the Bulldogs were controlling the pace of the game and looking for their time to strike.

That time came in the second when UMD rattled off three more goals in the first 10:31 of the

period, resulting in Rumpel being replaced by fellow freshman goaltender Landon Peterson. For the first time during the series, the Badgers looked completely overmatched and were unable to get out of their own way.

Wisconsin got on the board late with goals from Navin and Zengerle (who extended his point streak to 17 games—the second longest in UW men’s hockey history), but it was too little too late for the Badgers, who have been unable to put together a complete series against a top team this season.

“I think it’s the result,” captain John Ramage said when asked what he was disappointed with. “I think every day in practice we battle hard and we’re doing everything right, now we just need to get results.”

Eaves and his Badgers have the next three weeks off before facing the U.S. Under-18 National team in an exhibition game at the Kohl Center Dec. 31.

Mark Kauzlarich/the daily cardinal

Defenseman Justin Schultz continued his strong offensive season against UMD, registering two goals and an assist.

Women’s Hockey

Wisconsin sweeps Bemidji to end 2011

By Vince Huth The Daily Cardinal

The No. 1 Wisconsin women’s hockey team (13-1-0 WCHA, 19-1-0 overall) swept No. 7 Bemidji State (6-7-1, 10-72) this weekend, extending their winning streak to 14 games.

Bemidji State had a 4-3-1 record against top-10 opponents coming into the series and jumped out to a 1-0 lead Friday afternoon behind junior forward Emily Erickson’s goal, but it was all Wisconsin the rest of the way. Junior defensemen Stefanie McKeough notched her second goal of the season off an assist from junior forward Brianna Decker, and senior forward Hilary Knight tied the game midway through the second period.

Knight scored late in the second period to give Wisconsin the lead, and sophomore forward Brittany Ammerman added an empty net goal late in the third to cement the 3-1 win for the Badgers.

Bemidji State had yet to be swept by an opponent this season, but Wisconsin ended that streak with ease Saturday, topping the Beavers 6-1. The Badgers did not trail during the game, scoring three times in the first 13 minutes.

Knight started the scoring for the Badgers with a shorthanded goal just three minutes into the game, but the senior captain did not stop there. Knight added a second goal later in the first period and tallied one more in the third to secure the hat trick.

Decker, McKeough and senior forward Brooke Ammerman each added goals during Saturday’s victory.

Bemidji State was Wisconsin’s first ranked opponent since it hosted Boston University in late October. The Badgers went six weeks without playing upper-

end competition, but one would not have guessed as much after seeing them against Bemidji.

The Badgers’ performance this weekend says a lot about this team. Although Bemidji State got on the board first in Friday’s contest, Wisconsin showed once again why it is the top team in women’s collegiate hockey.

Many teams would have come out flat in Wisconsin’s situation.

However, the Badgers appear to not have digressed at all from their high level of play in October.

UWBadgers.com contributed to this report.

Mark Kauzlarich/cardinal file photo

Hilary Knight tallied five goals for the Badgers in Bemidji, including a hat-trick in Saturday’s 6-1 win over the Beavers.