Remember when I said it would make the Marquette loss go down easier because I picked Michigan State in my bracket? I was incorrect. That was a complete disaster. A team that can’t shoot and has no inside game against a tough, physical team that rebounds like crazy. Same thing that happened to MU against the Badgers – not a good matchup for them.

In fact, about midway through the second half, my sick daughter started throwing up in her bed, and it was actually a welcome development – since it gave me an excuse not to watch any more of the game. Marquette played so badly, they actually stopped broadcasting it in HD halfway through the game. CBS was probably like, “we’re paying a lot for this HD signal, why waste it on these turds?”

As for the rest of my bracket, I might as well eat it now, so at least I get some nutrients from the paper it’s printed on. Otherwise, it’s a complete waste. I started out 0 for 3 in the morning games, and I’ve just been so-so since then. There should actually be a special prize for a guy who gets all of his picks wrong. If you think about it, it’s just as hard to get all your picks wrong as it is to get all of them right, correct?

Now it’s on to root for Virginia Tech, another one of my former schools (there are only three, although it seems like more).

Here’s my NCAA Tournament bracket. A couple of notes:

As much as it kills me, my Warriors are going down to Michigan State. Of course, this pick is just to hedge my bets, so I’m not completely bummed out when they lose.

My big surprise is Indiana beating UCLA – I think UCLA overachieved all year in a bad conference, and they finished poorly. Hoosiers move on to the final eight.

Kevin Durant scores 64 first half points against North Carolina, realizes he might be drafted by the Bucks, then scores 64 points for Carolina to make everyone think he’s crazy. With the first pick the Bucks instead draft noted white guy Brian Butch, not even realizing he’s not eligible for the draft.

Hoyas cut down the nets, proving once again that Catholic schools have God on their side.

In his most recent Wisconsin Interest article, WPRI Senior Fellow George Lightbourn details how Germans influenced the modern model of bureaucracy.  So if you think your taxes are too high, feel free to blame this guy:

For those who don’t follow serious news, Jon “Bowzer” Bauman, late of the musical group Sha Na Na, was at the State Capitol today lobbying for some dopey bill that prevents people from making money impersonating old groups or something. Actually, I don’t like the bill because it would kill my lucrative career touring Wisconsin as Marvin Gaye.

Anyway, I was wondering which is more puzzling: the fact that people still pay money to go see Sha Na Na, or Bowzer has so little dignity that he still goes around doing this:

I realize I’m waaaaaaaay late to the party on this, but I’ve just now realized how great those “to catch a sex predator” shows are. The ones where the FBI poses online as a 13-year old girl and lures some sex predator to a house where they’re caught on camera and busted by the local cops.

There was one on the other night where NBC found out that the guy they lured to the house had actually been talking dirty to more than one FBI agent at a time.

My initial thought is – you think one FBI agent’s feelings are just a little bit hurt that the guy felt the need to look for love with a different 13 year old girl? Like, maybe their skills at posing as a prepubescent temptress weren’t up to par?

Think that was an awkward day at the FBI offices the next day when the two officers sat next to each other in the morning meeting? Like, one of them shot the other the “oh, so you’re the one he left me for” glance?

And yes, there is a special level of hell for dudes who troll for little girls so much that they actually manage to run into two agents at once. That is dedication.

My old boss is apparently writing an NCAA Tournament blog for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. It would shock me if he even owns a computer, but I have to admit – it is actually really good.

I worked as a basketball manager for the University of Utah from 1993-1996. I was probably the worst manager in the history of managing, as I was more interested in being involved with the playing and coaching aspects of the job than I was interested in washing uniforms.

UPDATE: A friend reminded me that I have this video from a Utah/Arizona game in 1993, where I’m sitting behind the bench. I’m the skinny guy in the white shirt and yellow tie that takes turns looking disgusted at the refs and fixing his early ’90s hair.

Friends of mine knew that it was just a matter of time before I jumped back into the blogging game. For new readers, I’m the guy that used to write a blog as Dennis York before I shut that whole operation down and emerged from the shadows.

I plan on making this blog a repository of things that generally amuse me. I can’t promise that I’ll update it as often as I did the York blog, as I have other writing assignments that will take up a big chunk of my time (see my commentaries at the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute website). Nor will any of the content necessarily reflect the views of WPRI.

However, I do plan on making it an outlet for things that anger, puzzle, and frustrate me. I figure this will be a slightly better option than my second choice, heroin.

The good folks at Wisconsin Public Television somehow decided that I was qualified to contribute an occasional commentary to the “Here and Now” show.

You can watch the video of it here (I’m at about the 24:50 mark), but I caution you may want to escort small children out of the room first. I look like I’m starring in an al-Qaeda hostage video, just with less convincing acting. People watching the show probably accidentally thought they had tuned into a buffalo wing eating contest when they saw my fat head on their TV.

Anyway, despite my contribution, it really is a great show, and everyone should watch. If you don’t, then the terrorists have won.

Oh, and I’m going to be on a again this week. Hopefully, I’ll be a little better.

In an attempt to make wpri.org your one stop shop for free market talk, we have decided to set up a multi-contributor blog. Often times, our authors want the chance to comment on things that may not have the depth of a full column or research paper, so this blog will give them the chance to do that – and maybe have a little fun in the process. Hopefully, this can turn into a forum to facilitate discussion on current topics between our contributors and readers.

So check back regularly, and enjoy!