Humble opinion
I was half-curious about Scott Walker's voluminous revisionist history lesson, so thank you for condensing his book Unintimidated down to two-thirds of a page ("Scott Walker Cuts Loose on Unions, Protesters," 11/15/2013).
Interesting though it may be, I find Walker's telling of his self-professed direct connection with "god" wiping out at least a volume or two of his enormous abundance of and also self-professed "humility."
Nonrevisionist history will tell you humility might have been the last word on the list used to describe Scott Walker during the uprising of 2011-2012.
Doug Hatch
Nihilism a downer
There was nothing in your capsule review of The Counselor to warn people it was nihilistic (I've read the reviews since I saw it and learned this about Cormac McCarthy's typical viewpoint -- it's nihilistic), pornographic, disturbing and had images of severed heads, hands and dumped bodies. I think there should have been some warning by your reviewer. Saying the writer was a Pulitzer winner and the cinematography was great were positives; there really weren't any negatives mentioned. Two hours of your life is really too much time to spend on a badly made movie.
Karen Marion, Middleton
Judge Doyle Square boondoggle
A recent article by Joe Tarr describes the subsidies the city of Madison provides to organizations that use the convention center ("Cash for Conventions," 11/22/2013). He calls them payments "to attract visitors to Monona Terrace," to the tune of over $150,000 a year.
It seems to me he's shown us an alternative to this massive $200 million-plus Judge Doyle Square boondoggle. According to Tarr in an earlier Isthmus article ("Millions More for Monona Terrace," 11/8/2013), the expensive Hilton, Madison's first convention center hotel (that was supposed to support the convention center), did not agree to give convention attendees a cut rate. Judge Doyle Square is supposed to fix that mistake by spending yet more public funds -- up to $80 million -- so that cheaper rooms can be negotiated for attendees. The city promises to negotiate both setting aside blocks of rooms and also a discounted rate for Monona Terrace attendees.
For heaven's sake, Madison should just provide the subsidy to the Hilton so that attendees can stay there at a cut rate. This is already an established Madison policy. This is far cheaper for Madisonians, who, I understand, are already paying $6 million a year to keep Monona Terrace afloat. Subsidizing the blocks of rooms will come to what, 100 bucks a room? That's chicken feed compared to the monster sums being discussed here.
Man up, people. Admit Madison was in a rush to curry favor with the Hilton and made a mistake. Fix it by negotiating these discounts "to attract visitors." Don't make the same mistake again by sinking Madison's future into yet another massive boondoggle.
Ann Fleischli
