Snow glorious snow!

Well we finally got it! Minnesota got it's first significant snowfall! It is days and nights like this that I love living in Minnesota. Watching the blowing snow fall in the trees surrounding our home, sipping a warm cup of mulled cider (or in tonights case mulled wine) and watching a good movie (tonights movie is "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire". It makes all of the inconveniences of driving in it all worth while.

Case studies

The NY Times has discovered Minnesota. They printed a fairly well done piece on the aftermath of the 2006 election and what it portends for Minnesota.

"Who ends up where is only the beginning of the tumult under the Capitol dome here as eager new faces and deeply practiced old ones contemplate what Minnesota voters said on Election Day. Money, policy and tactical choices are all in play: how best to spend a $2 billion surplus and address what both parties see as a mandate for improving public education, health care and transportation and for making taxes more fair. "

The new session (which starts January 3) is indeed going to be an interesting one to watch. The DFL leadership is made up strictly of "city" representatives. SpeakeStr Margaret Anderson-Kelliher is from Minneapolis as is Senate Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller. The Republicans countered with Representative Marty Siefert from Rochester as House Minority Leader and Senate Minority Leader Dave Senjem serves SD29 which covers rural Dodge County. This will set up an instant conflict there.

Another source of conflict could come from within the DFL itself as the Times points out.

"But they emerged divided, too, owing much of their surge to newly elected moderates from the suburbs who are unlikely to embrace a pure liberal agenda. The Republicans lost big, but were pushed toward the center as well, led by Mr. Pawlenty, who has said since the election that many of his second-term priorities will overlap with those of the Democrats he fiercely battled in his first four years."

I would argue this point with the Times and will do so shortly.

"The fight of 2007 will revolve around restoring some of the cut programs, and how far to go beyond that in pushing what both parties say is pent-up demand for property tax relief and for spending increases on education, health care and transportation. "

A lot of legislators are going to be torn here. Each House and Senate member will be pushed toward a different priority depending on his district. For example, in the district I live in (SD35) transportation is the number 1 issue, followed (at a fairly large distance) by property tax relief. In other counties, health care costs are the number 1 issue and transportation is well down the list.

Everyone is talking centrism right now.

"The incoming speaker of the House, Margaret Anderson Kelliher, a Democrat from Minneapolis, said she had no problem with that. If the governor’s interests mesh with the Democratic majority’s, for whatever reason, Ms. Kelliher said, it will be a victory for Minnesota.
“He has a real incentive to make his next four years work and gain some national attention,” she said. “Making this a state that gets things done will garner him national attention, and us, too.”

The Governor is too.

"“Republicans love to talk about markets — well, the market just told Republicans something,” he said. “The market just told them, ‘We’re not interested much in your product, and we’re choosing to go to your competitor.’ We need to hear that message.”


And here is where I disagree with the Governor and the Times. There was no rejection of real Republican ideals in this last election. What was rejected were the quasi-conservatives. The ones who said that they followed Conservative principles, but their actions belied their words. The Republican base, discouraged by politicians who walked away from the party platform stayed home in droves and the swing voters said "why should we vote for Democrat posuers when we can vote for the real thing." THAT is why you almost lost Governor Pawlenty. The markets didn't reject the Republican message, they rejected YOU!

Don't feel bad though Governor, departing Speaker Steve Sviggum didn't get it either.

"“It was about George W. Bush,” Mr. Sviggum said in his office, which was lined with boxes ready for his move downstairs. "

One thing is for sure. Some political analysts do get it.

“This is not a progressive or liberal majority; the seats they picked up are in moderate or conservative districts,” said Lawrence R. Jacobs, a professor of political science and director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota.
“The Democratic leadership is very much aware that they’ve got to be careful, that if they go for what they want in their heart of hearts they may end up with a two-year run.”

And that, dear reader, is the rub. The question is whose leadership will "get it" first. Will the DFL leadership get it in order to retain control or will the Republicans wake up and smell the coffee? Only time will tell, but it will make things interesting for the next two years.

Vanished!

Anyone who is surprised at this turn of events has obviously not been paying attention.

"The Islamist forces who have controlled much of Somalia in recent months suddenly vanished from the streets of the capital, Mogadishu, residents said Wednesday night, just as thousands of rival troops massed 15 miles away...Even so, the Islamists, who have been regarded as a regional menace by Ethiopia and the United States, had repeatedly vowed to fight to the death for their religion and their land, making their disappearance that much more unexpected. "

What strikes me as sad, but not surprising is that the vast majority of the Islamists troops were teen-agers - children really. Sadly this is not unusual for Islamist armies.

And that is one of the many, many reasons why the average American mom (and dad) don't have a lot of sympathy for the majority of Muslims. Until such time as "mainstream" Muslims (like Rep. Elect Keith Ellison) start speaking out against this behavior in the name of their God, Muslims will find it hard going gaining ground with mainstream America.

Big Brother is watching you.

Or in this case, your child.

"The Winona school board has voted to allow video surveillance cameras in bathrooms and locker rooms.
Board member Fred Petersen said the new policy, approved unanimously, doesn't mean there will be cameras in those places, but makes it possible if it's necessary in extreme circumstances."

Now I understand their reasoning. I witnessed my fair share of drug deals in the bathroom when I was in high school back in the 1970's. I also understand that video surveillance of our children in schools happens every day.

However, there are still privacy issues here that need to be addressed. If a retail store attempted to install video cameras in their bathrooms in order to deter theft, the hue and cry of outrage would be deafening. If a bar owner installed video cameras in the bathrooms in order to deter drug dealing he would be rightly sued for invasion of privacy. Why are our students not afforded the same privacy?

Then there is the possibility that someone with access to the tapes has less than wholesome motives for viewing the tapes or the possibility that the tapes are not secured so that pedophiles can get access to them. Shouldn't that aspect of safety be considered?

There is long standing judicial precident against this kind of video surveillance. The ACLU sued the City of Minneapolis over its "Photo-Cop" program. Will they do the same here? Only time will tell.

Common sense lives in the US

Thankfully common sense is still alive in the US.

"A U.S. judge on Friday refused to stop Saddam's execution, rejecting a last-minute court challenge.
U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said U.S. courts do not have jurisdiction to interfere in another country's judicial process. The ruling can be appealed, but it was issued within an hour of the time Iraqi officials said they expected the execution to be carried out. "

I was aghast last night to read that this filing was even allowed. I knew nothing about the Judge in question, other than she was a Clinton appointee, but the fact that someone even thought that this was a possibility stunned me. It is comforting to see that common sense is still alive in the US Judiciary.

Gerald Ford

I must admit, a vast majority of my memories of the Ford Administration are based on Chevy Chase and Saturday Night Live. After all, I was about the Junion Logicians age. Just old enough to know that what was going on (Watergate, VietNam etc) was important - young enough to not really care! That is one reason why I had not said anything on the subject...until now.

Peggy Noonan had a fairly balanced look back at the Gerald Ford the President and why, in spite of his not being elected, he was the right thing for the country at the time.

"There are three points about Ford that I'm not sure can ever be sufficiently appreciated.
The first is that when he pardoned Richard Nixon, he threw himself on a grenade to protect the country from shame, from going too far. It was an act of deep political courage, and it was shocking. Almost everyone in the country hated it, including me. But Ford was right. Richard Nixon had been ruined, forced to resign, run out of town on a rail. There was nothing to be gained--nothing--by his being broken on the dock. What was then the new left would never forgive Ford. They should thank him on their knees that he deprived history of proof that what they called their idealism was not untinged by sadism.
Second, Ford's personal dignity--his plain Midwestern rectitude, his old-style, pipe-smoking American normality, and his characterological absence of bile, spite and malice--helped the nation over and through the great tearing of the fabric that was Watergate. This is often referred to, and yet it is hard to communicate what a relief it was. Whether right or wrong, hopeless or wise, a normal man was in charge. This was a balm, a real gift to the country.
Third, he did not understand, and so was undone by, the rise of the modern conservative movement. He did not understand the prairie fire signaled by the California tax revolt, and did not see it roaring east. He did not fully understand how offended the American public was by endless government spending and expanding federal power. He did not see the growing estrangement between Republicans on the ground and a leadership they saw as tax collectors for the welfare state. He did not fully appreciate the public desire for a fresher, more candid attitude toward the Soviet Union, and communism in general. He was not at all alive to what would prove to be deep national qualms about abortion. He was not aware of its ability to alarm, to waken the sleepy Evangelicals of the South and the urban ethnics of the North, who'd previously been content to go with the Democratic flow. Ford was oblivious to this. He thought in his own stolid way that abortion was pretty much an extension of the new feminist movement, which he supported. How could a gallant fella not? "

A fascinating read and a remarkable tribute to a much maligned and misunderstood President.

I'm not alone

In previous posts, I have given you all of my reasons why we should not only not enact a statewide smoking ban but rescind the county wide ones already in place. Now another quarter is heard from.

"I don't smoke. I don't like smoke. But my distaste for the habit doesn't give me cause to have the state manage individual rights.
The new junta of Democratic legislative leaders has declared a statewide smoking ban as the top priority on their thin agenda for the upcoming legislative session."

What about tuition increases, property tax reform and funding roads and transit? Weren't those the hallmarks of the DFL agenda during the campaign?

"A statewide smoking ban in Minnesota is a dangerous constitutional precedent. If the new regime wants the ban to pass, it very likely will pass. But we should at least call it what it is as we plummet further into the nanny-state formerly known as Minnesota.
America was founded on principles of freedom and the right of the individual to self-determine. As a "free" society, the laws we enact must necessarily be directed toward protection of individual freedoms."

I know that I am not the only one to believe that smoking bans are a dangerous Constitutional precedent. I am just oh so glad to see that there are some members of our state house that feel the same way.

"I expect those who want to dictate our freedoms will cry out that the smoking ban is altogether different from the examples offered.
Secondhand smoke obviously affects workers in bars and restaurants. Of course no one wants to suggest that employment is voluntary. Evidence of the negative health impact of secondhand smoke has been presented as indisputable.
If this is such an indisputable truth, then why does the federal government rate secondhand smoke below cell phones as a carcinogen?"

That is an excellent question. Perhaps ALA Bob would be able to provide us with an answer?

"The new junta of Democratic legislative leaders has declared a statewide smoking ban as the top priority on their thin agenda for the upcoming legislative session.
That baffles me. How property taxes, education reform, health care reform and funding for roads and bridges do not top that list of priorities is, in a word, outrageous! Apparently promises made during recent campaigns can now be forgotten."

Another excellent point. I mean the DFL told us that their legislative priorities were property tax reform, health care reform, tuition credits and transportation funding (the order of priorities differed from district to district). What happened to change those priorities?

"The real issue is much larger. The real issue is how far we are willing to let government rules erode our freedom.What will stop the regulatory engineers from focusing their sights on the freedom to consume certain foods they consider unhealthful foods? What will stop them from outlawing certain expressions, like no one should be forced to sit in a public place next to someone spouting profanity or praying aloud? What will stop them from determining who can own and hold certain property like a farmer's right to decide how and what to farm? What will stop them from legislating who we can associate with by restricting procreation based on genetics? What will stop them from legislating our religious freedoms?"

BRAVO Rep. Emmer bravo. Your constituents are well served. We need many more like you both in our state legislature and in the national legislature.

(H/T AAA at Residual Forces)

What did you call me?

That whacky Hugo Chavez is at it again. This time he is shutting down disenting speech in Venezuela.

"Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has said he will not renew the licence for the country's second largest TV channel which he says expires in March 2007.
In an address to troops, Mr Chavez said he would not tolerate media outlets working towards a coup against him. "

This is the man that Cindy Sheehan, Jesse Jackson and Dennis Kuchinich have been holding in high esteem. This is what the far left idolizes. If you read what they say about Chavez, it is clear that they would be happy if the US was ruled by someone like Hugo Chavez. Someone who does not allow dissenting speech or speech that incites people to rebel against the current leader...everything that they do against our current administration! It strikes me as curious that they can, with a straight face, whine incessently about human rights violations here and then turn around and laud someone who does just that.

I find it interesting that the left, the standard bearers of unfettered free speech, are only for it when it is their free speech. However, speak against them....

Violating the Prime Directive

OHMIGAWD!!!! I do not believe what I am reading here...

"Lawyers for Saddam Hussein on Friday made a last-minute appeal to an American court to avert execution in Iraq, asking a judge to block his transfer from U.S. custody to the hands of Iraqi officials.
Hussein's lawyers filed documents Friday afternoon asking for an emergency restraining order aimed at stopping the U.S. government from relinquishing custody of the condemned former Iraqi leader to Iraqi officials, a spokeswoman for a federal court in Washington D.C. said.
The documents were being processed and were not immediately made public. The Justice Department had not yet responded to the request.

Are they serious? They want the US Judiciary to interfere in the workings of a sovereign government?

"A similar request by the former chief justice of the Revolutionary Court, Awad Hamed al-Bandar, was denied Thursday and is under appeal. Al-Bandar also faces execution. The Justice Department argued in that case that U.S. courts have no jurisdiction to interfere with the judicial process of another country. "

Thank God someone at the Justice Department has their head screwed on right. Yes, there have been times when we have had problems with a foreign court ruling, but there are channels for handling that and the US Judiciary is no where near being in said channel!

"Al-Bandar argued that his trial violated his rights under the U.S. Constitution but Justice countered that foreigners being tried in foreign courts are not protected by the U.S. Constitution.
The appeals court did not indicate when it would rule on the issue. "

WHAT?!?!?! This should have been summarily dismissed. The US Appeals Court has NO jurisdiction in this matter. Foreign nationals tried in a court of law within their own country are not subject to US Law or US Constitutional protections! How difficult is that for people to comprehend? Do you realize what kind of precident this could cause? The French government doesn't like a British Court ruling against a French owned business, they can overturn it. A German Court tries and acquits a German citizen of murdering another German citizen and the Russian Government doesn't like the ruling, they can over turn it. I mean why bother with courts at all, if at the whim of a foreigner the court ruling can be set aside?

You know this kind of interference in the workings of a sovereign nation is exactly the kind of interference that liberals love to trot out as a reason why the rest of the world hates the US. Now when it suits them are they going to flock to support this interference? Even in Gene Roddenberry's utopia of Star Trek this was frowned on. The Prime Directive (for all you non-Star Trek geeks) expressly prohibited Federation ships and personnel from interfering in the development and governance of "primative"societies. The Directive lead to much conflict, but all knew that it was for everyone's good that this was done.

The US Appealate Court needs to take a cue from the Federation. Do not interfere in the workings of a sovereign government. It is in the worlds best interests!

(H/T Michelle Malkin)

In the rush...

In the rush to be the "first" to report anything, it appears that a lot of misinformation has been relayed about the status of Saddam Hussein. At 11:47 am Eastern Fox News reported that Saddam had been handed over, by his American security contingent, to Iraqi authorities. Reuters and Breitbart reported it about a two minutes later. One of Saddam's attorneys (it was reported had even confirmed it. Then at 2:47 pm Eastern, the brakes went on. He hadn't really been handed over after all. It was just a false alarm.

Now fully appreciate the fact that there is a need for content, in this era of 24 hour a day news channels. However, can we please, please, PLEASE try to make half an attempt to verify a story before we report it as fact. Is that too much to ask of todays world of gatekeepers and journalism "professionals"?

Is it any wonder that so few people trust the media and why so many of us turn to alternative sources for our news?

(reporting timeline courtesy of Michelle Malkin - with a few of my own observations thrown in)

About that "Culture of Corruption"

An interesting statistic crossed my inbox the other day. Last week, Judicial Watch released its "Ten most wanted corrupt politicians" list. Of the top 10 (and the 6 subsequent "dishonorable mentions") it was interesting to note the party affiliation of the top 16 and what their current elected status was. The break down is as follows:

9 of the elected officials on the list were Democrats, 6 were Republican (I am counting David Safavian in this list even though he was a Bush appointee and not an elected official). Of the 6 Republicans, 5 are no longer in office. Of the 9 Democrats 8 are still holding their positions of power! For the Republicans that is an 88.9% removal rating. Of those removed Republicans, the 5 elected officials were all removed from their seats by leadership and not by the voters. Of the Democrats, 1 became the Senate Majority Leader, 2 are up for influential committee chairmanships, 1 was pushed (by the incoming Speaker) to be House Majority Leader and 2 are running for President.

Remind me again just whose "culture of corruption" it is Madam Speaker. I'm very confused.

Who's hurt by illegal immigration?

One of the many reasons why, we are told, illegal immigration is a good thing is because the illegal immigrants are doing jobs that "no one else will take" and that their taking these jobs is not hurting anyone...it's a "win-win". Well on the tails of the identity theft angle (of the ICE raids on the Swift Company plants) that we spoke about last week comes this, out of the Houston Chronicle. Houston, being on the front lines of the immigration battle would know, far better than most, what the real story is.

"Illegal immigration is usually presented as a win-win situation: Undocumented foreigners earn far more than they could back home. Consumers get a bargain.
Nowhere to be seen are America's working poor who get stomped on 13 different ways. They have to compete with illegal immigrants for jobs and housing. Low-skilled natives and legal immigrants also end up subsidizing the undocumented because they tend to live in the same communities, which must provide hospitals, police, schools and garbage pickup."

Oops - aren't these the same working poor that are supposed to be the beneficiaries of the minimum wage increase? If they are fighting illegals for these same jobs, how are they supposed to benefit from the wage increases?

Well if that is the case, then who is not hurt by illegal immigration?

" For starters, the people who write about it. I speak of the journalism profession, which has the habit of covering the issue by anecdotes. Reporters thrive on sympathetic stories about illegal immigrants who work hard and go to church.
But, were a busload of illegals from Australia to turn up at their newspaper and offer reportage at 10 percent below the going rate, the writers would call the authorities so fast that your head would spin. And the publisher's argument that thanks to the cheap Australians, he's able to trim a few cents off the newsstand price would make no impression."

Here is a dirty little case of outsourcing that you will not hear the press decrying.

"In 1980, the average meat-processing job paid $19 an hour. The companies then moved their plants to rural areas, far from the Midwest cities and their unions. The industry's wages now average about $9 an hour.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce likes to wail about the "labor shortage." It says there aren't enough chambermaids, dishwashers, etc. to work for its members at lousy wages. Odd, but when there's a shortage of labor — or anything else — doesn't the price of it go up? The price of unskilled labor in the United States hasn't gone up. It's gone down."

You know...now that you mention it...but what can we do?

"For some reason, the job of keeping prices low has fallen entirely on the shoulders of the most vulnerable Americans. If we banged down CEO compensation and sliced lawyers' pay by a third, the same thing would happen. Everyone's prices would drop. The corporation could sell its products for less, and the cost of legal services would fall.
No vocation keeps a tighter lid on immigration than the medical profession. "If we let in 100,000 immigrant doctors," Richard Freeman, another Harvard economist, recently told a group of journalists, "everyone in this room would benefit." Except the American doctors."

Well that would certainly narrow the income gap, wouldn't it?

"Suggest a U.S. labor policy that depresses professional pay as a means of keeping prices in check, and you get laughed out of the room. "

And there is the rub. US labor policy is set, not by what is good for the American worker and good for sales (a la Henry Ford's vision) - it is set up lobbyists and labor unions. Watch to see how this next Congress handles this situation. Will the Democrats (who claim to care about the working poor) really do something to correct the situation (get a handle on illegal immigration, balance out who gets to come in - skilled versus unskilled labor, etc) or will they kow-tow to the interests of big business, big government, big labor and their big campaign contributions. I will not be so cynical as to place bets on which way they go, but I have a sneaking suspicion I know...

Back from the Brink!

I read this story with great joy.

"The whooping crane, the tallest bird in North America, whose numbers dwindled to fewer than 20 in 1941, is not only back from the brink of extinction but also thriving — a comeback story, federal wildlife officials say, that illustrates how a coordinated conservation effort can save a species."

Before we moved to Minnesota, we lived outside of Madison, Wisconsin. Just about an hour north and west of Madison, in the town of Baraboo resides one of the reasons WHY the whooping crane is back from the brink. The International Crane Foundation was formed in the early 1970's with the express purpose of breeding endangered cranes in captivity in order to release the chicks in the wild. Through the hard work of these dedicated scientists and volunteers the whooping and sandhill cranes have been brought back from the brink of extinction. Having shared territory with a nesting pair of sandhill cranes, I can say (without qualification) that the world is a much better place for that work.

Massacre in ?????

I was reading a report about the conflict in Somalia this afternoon.

"MOGADISHU (AFP) - Ethiopia said its forces backing the weak Somali government had dealt a massive blow to Islamists, forcing them to retreat after days of battles that claimed more than 1,000 lives. "

when I read a passage that caused a curious sense of deja vu.

""The Ethiopian forces have massacred people in the areas they have taken," Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, the head of the Islamist executive committee, told a press conference in Mogadishu."

Where have I heard that phrase before? It certainly rings a bell.....oh that's right. I heard it here and here among other places. It seems that any time someone attacked by the Islamists fights back they are accused of "massacre" - usually of civilian massacre. Funny how the Islamists don't talk about the millions of civilians that they have massacred over the years. From Mumbai to London, Indonesia to Spain, France to Pakistan, Iraq to Afghanistan, Israel to Germany to New York City militant Islamists have massacred MILLIONS of innocent non-combatant civilians and yet they never mention that. Ever wonder why that is?

White Christmas

Minnesota has not had that much snow this winter. A white Christmas it wasn't. However, some people did manage to have a white Christmas.

"THIS was the Christmas miracle — or, at least, the Australian bush version.
For three weeks, locals and firefighters have sat trapped, ringed by fire, alone and vulnerable at the top of Mount Buller.
Day after day, the bush burned in the valley below, the flames making charge after charge up the slopes, fanned by hot winds.
But then, at Christmas time, it happened. The winds eased, the prayed-for rains came, and the fire threat abated.
On Christmas Day itself, it snowed. A miracle. Lightly at first, but stronger as the day progressed, coating the mountaintop in an unseasonal white blanket."

Unseasonable is the key word here. It is summer in Australia. Mt. Buller is a ski resort near Melbourne. Their season runs from June through September so December snow is rare (to say the least).

Why, you ask, am I bringing this story to your attention? Because I wish to point out the simple fact that in order for global warming to be global, the warming has to be just that - GLOBAL. Obviously, it is not warmer this summer in Australia if they are getting a rare summer snow storm. It may be unseasonably warm here in Minnesota, but it is unseasonably COLD in parts of the Middle East.

There is still too much unknown about our global climate and how it changes and why it changes to say that man-made global warming is a given! Yes some areas of the globe seem warmer, however there are other areas that are cooler.....

Illegal?

One of the constant drumbeats during the last couple of years has been that the Bush Administration was acting illegally in it's treatment of terrorists and their enablers. Whether it be the NSA eavesdropping program or the rendition program, we were told day in and day out by the bashers that the President was "trampling" on the Constitution. Well, the courts disagree.

"Defense lawyers who had hoped that the public disclosure a year ago of the National Security Agency's wiretapping program would yield information favorable to their clients are being rebuffed by the federal judiciary, which in a series of unusually consistent rulings has rejected efforts by terrorism suspects to access the records." (HT Captain Ed for this story)

"OTTAWA (CP) - Extraordinary rendition, the U.S. practice of shipping terrorism suspects to foreign prisons, may be legal in some cases, says the Foreign Affairs Department.
Documents obtained under the Access to Information Act reveal an intense internal discussion among federal agencies about the "implications for Canada" of the controversial U.S. policy. "

As you can see, the rendition case was so shaky that it was brought to court in Canada where the plaintiffs hoped they would get more sympathetic treatment.

C aptain Ed points out that of the 18 challenges to the NSA program, only one ruling has gone against the Government and that case is on the docket for appeal. It seems to me that is pretty overwhelming support. I wonder why I don't read about these rulings in the New York Times or the Star Tribune? It couldn't be that they are biased, could it?

Merry Christmas to all

Christmas is a time for reflection and for thanksgiving. I would like to take a moment to acknowledge a few people for whom I am very grateful.

The Logical Husband and the Junior Logician for encouraging me in this endeavor. Their support and encouragement means the world to me.

The Minnesota blogging community - I have been blessed to have gotten to know many of the wonderful Minnesota bloggers such as Captain Ed (and his lovely First Mate), Mitch from Shot in the Dark, AAA from Residual Forces and KvM, Gary from KvM, Chief from Freedom Dogs, David Strom (and his lovely wife Margaret) from the Taxpayers League of MN and their blogs Our House and Minneapolis Crime Watch, Tracy and the whole crew at Anti-Strib, Michael over at MDE and of course, Savage Republican who got into this in the first place. I have learned so much from all of you in the past year. Thank you.

To my many online friends and readers I have a special thank you. That you would find my musings and rantings to be worthy of your time, humbles me to no end.

To Mike and Mark and Claire (my wonderful, outstanding reps in St Paul) I have a special thank you. You all made an overwhelming situation managable this last election. I had no idea what I was doing when I was asked to take over the BPOU two months before the election. With your input and support, I managed to survive an interesting 60 some odd days. I look forward to 2008. We will do much, much better then I have no doubt!

To all of you again, thank you for a fantastic 2006 and I pray that you will have an equally fantastic 2007.

Why Christmas?

I stumbled across a very interesting essay on "Why Christmas?"

"Now that it is Christmas, why is it Christmas? Early Christians didn’t put much emphasis on the birth of Jesus Christ but at some point the West did. Evidence suggests that he was born at a time other than winter so it is a convenience date at best.
Nonetheless, we have found it important to recognize the occasion of the birth of Jesus. Why?
The events of his life, his death, and the resurrection are surely of more dramatic consequence than his birth. Hardly anyone does anything special on his or her own actual birth day. The gospels don’t suggest that Jesus did any miracles or preached any great sermons that day but the gospels do record the events and they do hold great meaning if Jesus is who he said he is."

For those who claim to be Christians there are some important things to contemplate.

"What would you do if a guy walked up to you and said that he was God? Perhaps that hasn’t happened to you but it has to me. My thought is that the guy is nuts! This guy is no more the infinite, eternal, creator of the universe than he is a canned ham. I didn’t see him do any wondrous works nor do I know of any great teachings. He is insane or he is absolutely evil and working to convince people of a lie that he himself knows to be a lie. The dilemma of “this guy is nuts” vs. “this guy is evil” is not a significant one as I am quick to dismiss him either way. If there is evidence of greatness otherwise in the character and these are my only two options then I must dismiss those as well. Great teachings by a crazy man or by an evil genius are tossed in the ash heap of history. Miracles performed by crazy people or by the devil and co. are also dismissed for the same reason. Jesus simply can’t be a great teacher, or prophet or Godly miracle worker if he is not as he claimed, God incarnate!"

Not much blogging will be done this weekend. It is time to remember the reason we celebrate this time of year. Merry Christmas everyone. May you have a blessed year.

Place that headline

The headline reads:

"MAN BEATEN FOR "POLLUTING" DRINKING GLASS

A ______ man was beaten by a mob for drinking out of a glass reserved for _____" the story continues. You're thinking that this is from 1960 something Birmingham Alabama aren't you? Sadly you would be wrong. The year is 2007, the place Pakistan and the man who was beaten for drinking out of the wrong glass......was a Christian.

"LAHORE, PAKISTAN (ANS) -- A Christian stone mason received critical injuries, including dislocation of his shoulder after he was seen drinking water from a public facility, by a Muslim man on June 6 (Tuesday) just outside the eastern city of Lahore, the Pakistan Christian Post (PCP) has reported. Nasir Ashraf, the Christian mason was working at the construction site of a school. The trouble for him began while he was returning to the site. Confronting him with anger the Muslim man asked him as to why he drank water from the public facility by using a glass that was placed at the water tank. "

This is one of many reasons why there is such resentment toward Muslims, especially when they start claiming that they are being "profiled". What about what was done to poor Nasir?

Until more moderate Muslims like this scholar start speaking out, the "anti" Muslim sentiment will continue to grow. Who really "speaks" for Islam - the 6 flying Imams or the hundreds of thousands of Muslims who live and work among us every day - the ones that are not engaging in jihad? Will we ever know? That is hard to say as the "moderates" have been awfully silent for a long, long time.

Mixed Messages

Talk about a mixed message. We tell our kids to turn in any guns that they find to an adult because guns are dangerous in untrained hands.

"Ryan Morgan said that he and another student heard that a gun had been stashed in a boys bathroom and they went there, finding it in a garbage can. Morgan reportedly handed the gun over to an assistant principal soon afterwards."

OK so the boys payed attention to their teachers and the parents. A good start right?

"The school board for an elementary district has chosen to have a student home schooled instead of expelling him in response to a possession of a gun incident.
The board at Troy Elementary School District made that decision Wednesday night after administrators recommended an expulsion. "

So explain this to me. You teach the kid to turn the gun in and when he does what you tell him, you expel him????? Is it any wonder why kids don't trust the authority figures in their lives?

Zero tolerance policies don't work for just this reason. There is no flexibility for situations where the kid tries to do the right thing! The school administration and school board has to maintain a little common sense! Punishing a kid for attempting to "do the right thing" and turn the gun in is insane!

An era ends.

I am a HUGE baseball fan. As gaga as most guys get over football, I am about baseball. I grew up in Chicago with the Cubs and the White Sox, but I was never as big of an American League fan as I was National League. That is until I moved to Minnesota. Tom Kelly and Ron Gardenhire have done an admirable job of putting together a team of talented players that most parents have no problems with their kids admiring (unlike say Barry Bonds). Which is why yesterday was such a sad day for Twins fans everywhere.

"This was the basement room at the Metrodome where Kirby Puckett announced his retirement in the summer of 1996, and Tom Kelly announced his retirement in the fall of 2001, and now the task had fallen to Brad Radke.
The room was jammed with a few Twins legends, most Twins employees and much media. For 12 years, Radke was as quiet as any prominent athlete we've had in these parts, but on Tuesday, he bordered on the loquacious in making the retirement announcement."

Brad Radke was one of those rare players who was maybe not blessed with the most talent, but he showed up every day and worked hard. He pitched many days last year through some pretty bad pain. He was a staple for the team for 12 wonderful years.

However, it was what he did off of the field that made him even more special. When he was done at the ballpark, he gave back to the community. His Radke Family Foundation helped kids in need with financial and personal support. His community efforts earned him a nomination for the Roberto Clemente Award in 2004.

While Radke's pitching will be hard to replace, I have a feeling he will find a good way to fill in all of that newly found free time.

When is a crisis not a crisis?

I have posted on this topic a number of times. It is a topic where continued disussion is needed and necessary, even if the supporters of the theory of human caused global warming try to stifle debate.

Last week, the UN issued a preview of their latest report on the severity of the global warming "crisis". One minor problem....it's not the crisis that they thought it was.

"Mankind has had less effect on global warming than previously supposed, a United Nations report on climate change will claim next year.
The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says there can be little doubt that humans are responsible for warming the planet, but the organisation has reduced its overall estimate of this effect by 25 per cent."

I do not deny that global warming could be happening. What I find hard to believe, given the preponderance of fact, is that our industrialized society has had a whole lot to do with it. Never forget that the Medieval Warm Period happened long before the internal combustion engine was even a glimmer in anyones mind.

Even the US Senate realizes that there is more to the story than we are being told by the press and Global Warming alarmists like Al Gore.

"Since 1895, the media has alternated between global cooling and warming scares during four separate and sometimes overlapping time periods. From 1895 until the 1930’s the media peddled a coming ice age.
From the late 1920’s until the 1960’s they warned of global warming. From the 1950’s until the 1970’s they warned us again of a coming ice age. This makes modern global warming the fourth estate’s fourth attempt to promote opposing climate change fears during the last 100 years."

I have said this before and I will continue to say this. MORE RESEARCH IS NECESSARY. Man has only been tracking climate change for a very short period of Earth's history. The fossil record shows that there were a number of dramatic changes in the Earth's climate going back to prehistoric times. It is simply foley to think that there is anything man made about this.

Unheeded warnings

When the embryonic stem cell debate first started raging, many bio-ethicists warned that this would happen.

"Healthy new-born babies may have been killed in Ukraine to feed a flourishing international trade in stem cells, evidence obtained by the BBC suggests.
Disturbing video footage of post-mortem examinations on dismembered tiny bodies raises serious questions about what happened to them. "

Many said that unrestrained embryonic stem cell research would lead to harvesting babies for "parts".

"Ukraine has become the self-styled stem cell capital of the world.
There is a trade in stem cells from aborted foetuses, amid unproven claims they can help fight many diseases.
But now there are claims that stem cells are also being harvested from live babies. "

What is worse is that these were heathy, wanted children!

"The BBC has spoken to mothers from the city of Kharkiv who say they gave birth to healthy babies, only to have them taken by maternity staff. "

What is most horrifying is the pictures that were given to the BBC to document this.

"The pictures show organs, including brains, have been stripped - and some bodies dismembered.
A senior British forensic pathologist says he is very concerned to see bodies in pieces - as that is not standard post-mortem practice. " (emphasis added)

Is it now time for all of those who were against this barbaric practice to say "I told you so"?

Will we ever achieve the "dream"?

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King had a dream - a dream where society would not judge people by their race, gender or religion. A true color blind society. Are we there yet? Hardly. You think I am pessimistic? Consider the discussion around the potential Presidential candidacies of Senator Hillary Clinton and Senator Barack Obama. Pundits across the country ponder whether the country is "ready" for a female President or a black President. Miminal attention is paid to their politics and voting records. None of the pundits talk about anything OTHER than race and gender. I would say I wonder why that is, but sadly I fear I know why. It is because as much as we love to talk about addressing the issue we refuse to think about why people act this way and why it is important to understand it. A great case for that is made in this Star Parker column from Townhall.com.

"Paula Zahn devoted two of her hour-long CNN shows this week to the topic "Skin Deep: Racism in America."
After taking the time to watch, the question I walked away with was: "What was the point?"
In my view, the shows told us little that most of us don't already know _ strong racist sentiments exist in the country _ and really never asked the deeper and more important questions about what this means and why we should care...It ignored the most destructive and widely prevailing racist attitude in our society today, one of which both blacks and whites are guilty. This is the attitude that blacks cannot be held to the same standards as whites. "

Until such time as all Americans are held to the same standard of behavior, we are never going to have try equality among the races and the genders. Until such time as we quit defining ourselves by what makes us different (African-American versus Hispanic-American versus women...) we are never going to quit seeing the difference. How difficult is that for people to see?

Say what????

I don't know whether I should take this seriously or not?

"Is it just me, or are any other eco-friends out there starting to wonder just what we have to do to get people to listen? Man, how many times do we have to politely point out that buying a Christmas tree is, pretty much, in terms of blinkered selfishness, akin to hand-drowning peasants in the developing world?
But every night, when I walk home from the allotment, more trees have appeared. Each one, if you're an eco-campaigner like me, an almighty slap in the face. "

If this poor soul is serious, I don't know whether to yell or simply cry. It is people like this (and his multiple counterparts in the "animal rights" movement) that give rise to the environmental whacko monicker that Rush is so fond of and that makes it impossible for real conservation efforts to be taken seriously.

I mean really Will, do you think that no more trees will ever be planted or grown to replace the one that adores your neighbors windows? Do you honestly think that growning Christmas trees is an "evil trade" along the lines of, oh say, slavery?

And as far as your partner's suggestion that we "unravel and reknit" some old cashmere that we all have lying around, I have to ask, how do you think the goats that said cashmere came from feel about being shorn in order to make your full-head balaclava? I'm just saying..... Oh and that wire top from a champagne bottle...are you aware of how big the carbon footprint that manufacturing and bringing that champagne to England is? I'll admit that Rowan is quite the crafty lady, but that is an awfully big carbon footprint she is encouraging people to use. Oh and if we all quit our "time consuming jobs in order to not drive and so we can make our own carbon neutral gifts, just who will pay for your state provided health care?

While I'm thinking about, just what do you and Rowan eat? Hopefully it is organically grown vegatables. Oh but we can't have that. Certainly a staunch eco-campaigner like you knows that plants have feelings to...right????

Lip Service

Much has been said (around Minnesota) about the ICE raids at the Swift & Company meatpacking plant in Worthington. Leave it to our local papers of record though to focus their reporting on who the real victim is in all of this. Are the real victims the people whose identies were stolen? Or are they the workers who, after entering our country illegally, STOLE the identities of American citizens in order to stay here? You sure couldn't tell by reading the Pioneer Press.

"Federal officials say Tuesday's meatpacking plant raids in Minnesota and five other states highlight a growing problem of illegal workers buying or stealing identities to get jobs.
"This investigation has uncovered a disturbing front in the war against illegal immigrants," said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. "Enforcement actions like this one protect the privacy rights of innocent Americans while striking a blow against illegal immigration."
But some immigration advocates said federal officials are using the identity theft issue as a scare tactic."

The reporting by both papers left one to ponder just who the bad guy in the drama were.

"Residents of this southwestern Minnesota community were coping Wednesday with the fear, uncertainty and anxiety created by a surprise raid the day before at Worthington's Swift & Co. pork-processing plant, where 230 people were detained for alleged immigration violations. Churches scrambled to find housing for children whose parents were swept up, a few businesses remained shuttered, and many people were too afraid to set foot outside their homes."

You would almost think that the ICE agents were the bad guys here.

"News of the raid, one of six carried out at Swift plants across the country, has rattled immigrant workers in food-processing plants across Minnesota. And nowhere is the impact more intense than along a 75-mile stretch of Hwy. 60.
That's where a half-dozen processing plants between Worthington and Madelia employ hundreds of immigrants, most of whom are Hispanic.
"They're afraid to go to the bank, to the stores," Amaya said. "They don't take their things. They just pick up and go, and it's hard, because they work really hard."

How difficult is it for our press to realize that the folks that ICE busted, BROKE THE LAW? The last time I looked, this was a nation of laws and if you broke the law you were supposed to go to jail.

At least the New York Times has the honesty to report the truth of the situation.

"The raids have led some people to heap scorn on Swift and, of course, on the illegal immigrants, particularly the dozens of detainees who have been charged with identity theft and other crimes. But doing so misses the bigger picture. Swift and its workers are merely Exhibit A in an immigration system that is failing in all of its parts.
It is a system that rewards illegality and pays lip service to lawfulness and order." (emphasis mine)

As I have stated in the past, I have worked with Mexican immigrants of legal and illegal status. My own ancestors are from the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico so this whole story is very personal to me. What bothers me about the whole thing is how quickly certain factions (like the Star Tribune and the PiPress) gloss over the fact that the first act in this country that these immigrants took was to break our laws. I understand that for most of them, they did so under the most honorable of intentions (making a better life for themselves) but the law is the law and if we are to remain a nation of laws, then we must enforce the laws on the books, REGARDLESS OF HOW WE FEEL ABOUT THE LAW. If you feel that the law is wrong, then by all means, lobby your representative to get the law changed.

Until such time as our immigration laws are fixed (and I hope and pray that it comes soon) we can not complain when the federal government decides to make a show of enforcing it.

The 1% myth

The conventional "wisdom" is that the top 1% of wage earners earn over 16% of the income in this country. However, as Alan Reynolds writes in the Wall Street Journal (subscription required) that is a myth of epic proportions. (HT Poor and Stupid who posts the entire article).

"As many others have done, Virginia's Democratic Senator-elect Jim Webb recently complained on this page of an "ever-widening divide" in America, claiming "the top 1% now takes in an astounding 16% of national income, up from 8% in 1980." Those same figures have been repeatedly echoed in all major newspapers, including this one. Yet the statement is clearly false. The top 1% of households never received anything remotely approaching 16% of personal income (national income includes corporate profits). The top 1% of tax returns accounted for 10.6% of personal income in 2004. But that number too is problematic.

The architects of these estimates, Thomas Piketty of École Normale Supérieure in Paris and Emmanuel Saez of the University of California at Berkeley, did not refer to shares of total income but to shares of income reported on individual income tax returns -- a very different thing. They estimate that the top 1% (1.3 million) of taxpayers accounted for 16.1% of reported income in 2004. But they explicitly exclude Social Security and other transfer payments, which make up a large and growing share of total income: 14.7% of personal income in 2004, up from 9.3% in 1980. Besides, not everyone files a tax return, not all income is taxable (e.g., municipal bonds), and not every taxpayer tells the complete truth about his or her income."

One of Mr. Luskin's astute readers points out that which is obvious to all fiscal conservatives.

"1. The top 1% are the people who make the pie larger (and life easier) for all, NOT people who steal others' share of the pie,
2. Taxes on INCOME hurt those still TRYING to get rich, NOT the ALREADY-rich anyway,
3. Politicians who want to keep (and/or make) their constituents as poor and dependent as possible are morally no better than dictators who want to keep their subjects from escaping their countries. and
4. Appeals to, and the deliberate provoking of, hatred masked as envy are evil, in the objective sense of that term."

It is insightfull commentary and a must read if you are at all effected by tax policy (which we ALL are).

Which leads us to a simple method of breaking it down tax policy and just who those tax cuts "for the fich" really hurt.

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for dinner and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this: The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing. The fifth would pay $1. The sixth would pay $3. The seventh would pay $7. The eighth would pay $12. The ninth would pay $18. The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59. So, that's what they decided to do.
The ten men ate dinner in the restaurant every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. "Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily meal by $20 " Dinner for the ten now cost just $80. The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes, so the first four men were unaffected. They would still eat for free. But what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?' They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to eat their meal. So, the restaurant owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay. And so: The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings). The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33% savings). The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28% savings). The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings). The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings). The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings). Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continuedto eat for free.
But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings. "I only got a dollar out of the $20," declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man," but he got $10!" "Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a dollar too. It's unfair that he got ten times more than me!" "That's true!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $10 back whenI got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!" "Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison. "We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!" The nine men surroundedthe tenth and beat him up. The next night the tenth man didn't show up for dinner, so the nine sat down and ate without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of thebill!
And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start eating somewhere that the atmosphere is friendlier.

Now that particular piece has been around the internet a time or two and it's authorship is questioned, but the math of the story (based on our current tax system) has not. Those tax cuts may seem to be "more beneficial" to the rich, but when you don't pay taxes (or you pay minimal taxes) you really should not expect to receive the lions share of the tax cuts. 10% of $0.00 is and always will be zero. There is no disputing the math. 10% of something will always be greater than 10% of nothing whether that something be $100.00 or $100,000.00.

Smoking bans stink

I am an ex-smoker. I quit smoking probably 15 years ago. I can tell you all the different times I tried to quit, what worked and what failed and how I finally succeeded. I prefer being a non-smoker. I know it is healthier for me...HOWEVER I would never, as a non-smoker, presume to dictate my choice of partaking in a LEGAL SUBSTANCE on a someone else nor would I ever demand that they stop smoking on their property. Which is why I vehemently oppose smoking bans. Having said all of that, I really wish that someone here in Minnesota had the intestinal fortitude to do what these Pittsburgh restaurant owners have done.

"Among the lunch crowd at Mitchell's Bar & Restaurant, Downtown, loyal patrons know they can have a smoke with their beer or burger without anyone flashing them a nasty look.
It was no different yesterday at 2:30 p.m. as 15 regulars lingered at a reserved table, celebrating the holidays, teasing friends, sipping cocktails and puffing on cigars.
James G. Mitchell would like his family's 100-year-old restaurant to stay that way. So, together with his lifelong friend, John Petrolias, owner of the Smithfield Cafe at 639 Smithfield St., Mr. Mitchell sued Allegheny County and Chief Executive Dan Onorato this week, requesting an injunction to halt an ordinance that bans smoking in restaurants, taverns and social clubs with 10 or more employees. It is set to take effect Jan. 2."

I agree with ALA Bob that smoking is not healthy for the smoker. I suspect he is correct that second hand smoke CAN have an adverse effect on people, but I don't think it is as much of a given as he will tell you (both my mother and my father in law grew up in households where their parents smoked heavily and neither on of them has asthma or lung cancer). However, I am a firm believer in the markets. If there is that much of a demand for non-smoking restaurants, then the restaurant owners will convert them. If other restaurant owners decide that their patrons want to allow smoking or if they owner wants to spend tons of money on state of the art air filtration systems so that smokers and non-smokers alike can be accomodated, then by all means they should be allowed to make that decision. The state should not tell a property owners what legal activities that the property owner can and can not allow on their property.

Governor Pawlenty - if you really, really, REALLY want a smoking ban then do it right! MAKE SMOKING ILLEGAL IN THE STATE OF MINNESOTA! Make the sale of cigarettes, cigars and all tobacco products illegal. Take all of the money that you get in cigarette taxes and "fees" and throw it away too because as soon as you make tobacco illegal in Minnesota, you are forgoing all that money. And that is the government's dirty little secret. The Governor and the Legislators and even ALA Bob know that if smoking is made illegal all of their money dries up. Let's face it - it is easier for a meth addict to give up their drug of choice than it is for any government entity to give up their money!

The meaning of the word "is"

Do you remember, back with the Mark Foley scandal erupted, the cries for the heads of Rep. Denny Hastert and the head of "anyone" who knew about Rep. Foley's transgressions who did not bring this to someones immediate attention. Well, I wonder why this has not gotten more press then.

"The head of the House Democrats' campaign committee, Rep. Rahm Emanuel, had heard of former Rep. Mark Foley's inappropriate e-mails to a former male page a year before they became public, a campaign committee aide told CNN."

So I am guessing here that "anyone" who knew about this really meant "anyone who is in the Republican leadership"...would that be an accurate statement? Personally given what I know about Illinois politics and Illinois politicians, I am not surprised that Rep. Emmanuel knew about this. Remember that Illinois gave us Richard J. Daley....that is all you need to know about it and the situation.

Class (or lack thereof)

I read (last night as the story was unfolding) about Senator Tim Johnson's (D-SD) illness and said a quick prayer for him. Later, while reading Michelle Malkin's post on the story, I decided to follow a link she provided to the DU discussion on his illness. I figured there had to be more than a few posts blaming the Bush/Cheney/Rove/Halliburton network for a congenital disease. Well the firewall on the Junior Logician's computer would not allow me access to DU because of the language and subject matter of the site. I laughed and decided to wait until this morning.

My patience was not misplaced. While all over the right side of the blogosphere you have people expressing their hopes for the Senators rapid recovery and return to service, the left side of the blogosphere is in full froth over the possibility that THEY COULD LOSE THE SENATE! Brian Maloney (over at Radio Equalizer) has a great round up of reaction, but here are a few of my personal favorites.

"My God,these vultures are murdering to keep POWER. BushCo`s CIA has all sorts of devious ways to induce a “stroke” I am guessing this is no accident with the South Dakota senator.Yea,Paul Wellstone all over again.

Comment by raymond collins — December 13, 2006 @ 7:18 pm"

and

"Its a sad comment on this Administration that the first thing I thought was that this was a White House Kremlin job to keep control of the Senate.By: rockwell on December 13, 2006 at 05:08pm"

What absolutely sent me over the edge was the press' reaction to the Senator's condition. This (from the NY Times) was a typical reaction

" Senator Tim Johnson, a Democrat from South Dakota, was hospitalized today after what his office at first called a “possible stroke,” leading to concern among Democrats that their new one-vote majority in the Senate could be in danger." (emphasis mine)

Now I understand that in DC politics is everything, but come on!!!! Here we have a human being, with a family who is worried sick about what is going on, and all the press can talk about is which political party gets to keep the majority???? What a pack of vultures! Is there nothing that is more important to these people than power? Sadly, I think the answer is no.

First and foremost my thoughts and prayers are with Senator Johnson and his family. Fifty Nine is way too young for this to be happening (says someone who is quickly creeping up on the big 5-0). Like Mitch, this is not how I prefer to "win". I want to lay it all out going into election day and let the people decided. I don't want power decided by who the lucky appointee is. That takes all the fun out of it!

Technical Issues...

Well the laptop from pergatory is being replaced. I call it the laptop from pergatory because it made my life, ummmm COMPLICATED (that's the word) for the last three years. I told the Logical Husband that the laptop would be replaced before the extended warranty expired next March. I had to have the mother board replaced twice, the hard drive once and it came off of the shelf with a virus pre-installed for my enjoyment!

Because all of my blogging essentials are on the laptop from pergatory, blogging the last few days was spotty, but I finally got everything transferred to the desktop that runs our home network so I can get back at it again. I will be cranking out the posts again more regularly (unless life interferes which has been doing a lot lately).

Thanks for your patience dear readers. Hopefully we are back on track yet again!

LL

RIP Jeane Kirkpatrick

Much has been written (in the last two days) about former US ambassador to the UN Jeane Kirkpatrick. Her loss this week is big in a lot of ways.

Back when she was at the UN, I can't say I was a fan. I found her brashness to be off-putting. But then again, I was a know it all teenager. Now, in 20/20 hindsight, I realize that her brashness was a large reason for her success. You can not be a cream puff when you are running in diplomatic circles, and Ms. Kirkpatrick could never be mistaken for a cream puff. Her staunch activism against communism belied the fact that in college, she was an active socialist in college. Working in the Reagan Administration, she was still a registered Democrat, although a disallusioned one to be sure. Her 1984 "Blame America First" speech is a speech that every JFK Democrat and "neo-con" in this country can relate to as it documents out our very own disallusionment with the party we grew up in and it has been quoted extensively since her death. Rather than quoting the same part of the speech that everyone else highlighted, I would like to close with this portion of her text.

"I want to begin tonight by quoting the speech of the president whom I very greatly admire, Harry Truman, who once said to the Congress:
"The United States has become great because we, as a people, have been able to work together for great objectives even while differing about details."
He continued:
"The elements of our strength are many. They include our democratic government, our economic system, our great natural resources. But, the basic source of our strength is spiritual. We believe in the dignity of man."

We believe in the dignity of man....how can you not find that inspiring?

Rest in peace grand lady. You served your country well.

Another alternative

I wrote before about the false promise of ethanol. Well the Star Tribune, in a moment of clarity, points us to an alternative to E-85 that actually may have promise.

"World demand for fuel and food is projected to double in the next 50 years. Now, researchers at the University of Minnesota have concluded that corn may not be up to the task of filling both stomachs and gas tanks.
"Unless we produce food and biofuel in an efficient manner, they will be directly competing with each other," said David Tilman, regents professor of ecology at the University of Minnesota. "We will have high prices for both."
University researchers, led by Tilman, think they've found a solution -- supply the facilities that make ethanol with a diverse mixture of prairie grasses instead of corn. The grasses not only can produce more net energy per acre than corn but they also act as a sponge for greenhouse gases before being harvested, soaking them out of the air and into their roots and surrounding soil, the researchers found."

An alternative fuel that will not compete for food sources and may actually absorb greeenhouse gases? Now that is an alternative to invest in!

"Harvesting and processing a hectare (about 2.5 acres) of grasslands produces about three-tenths of a metric ton of carbon dioxide, the researchers calculated. But in the first 10 years, the grasses absorb 4.4 metric tons of carbon dioxide. In other words, the prairie grasses absorb about 14 times more greenhouse gas than is released in producing grass-based fuel."

Let's hope that our Senators and our Governor will see the potential here and give this alternative the same kind of attention that they have given to corn based E-85.

A time for all things

There is a time and a place for everything, so goes the conventional wisdom. I begin to worry about how much wisdom there is in the world today after reading this.

"Fitness USA, a gym chain, is investigating an alleged civil rights violation involving a local Muslim woman who says her afternoon prayer was interrupted by a fellow patron, and that her complaint to management about the situation was rejected."

The time and the place for prayer is not in the gym, just as church (or temple or mosque) is not the place for a workout! I would think that is something that is relatively obvious.

Speaking of lacking wisdom...

"The manager told me, 'You have to respect her (the patron), but she does not have to respect your God,'" said Wardeh Sultan of Dearborn. "I've had my membership for seven or eight years, and I've never had a problem with praying there."

OK, you are the manager of a business and you don't know that it is not a good thing to tell you customer that they have to respect the other customers but the other customers don't have to respect them? I do hope you realize what this will probably mean to your employment status...right?????

Now there is certainly a lot of common sense lacking in this story, but the bottom line is the gym is not the place for prayer - I don't care what your religion is. If you have scheduled times that you have to be in prayer, then you should probably make the effort to get to mosque and save the workout for another time of day. I'm just saying.....

A dogs life.

I love dogs. Dogs have been a constant in my life. I've had pure breeds and mixed breeds, small breeds (Pugs), medium breeds (Brittany Spaniels) and large breeds (German Shepherds and Dobermans). As a matter of fact, our current dog (a border collie cross) is using my left foot as a pillow as I am typing this. However, this is just nuts!

"Flaunted as fashion statements, pint-sized canines are, to some minds, the fur-bearing equivalent of a pair of Louboutin pumps or other accessory. “I think of them as a handbag with a heartbeat,” said Robin Bowden, a vice president of Prudential Douglas Elliman, a real estate company in Manhattan."

As I stated earlier, I have owned a "prestige" dog. Actually a breed that was only owned by royalty for years - a Pug. The emporers Pugs were treated as well as the royal family and the attitude of entitlement survives in the breed to this day (if my little guy was typical and I have been assured he was). However, he was a dog, not an accessory. He needed exercise and socialization (his favorite playmate was my sisters Doberman!). Going through life in someones purse is not a healthy lifestyle for a dog. Also, as pampered as my little guy was (and he was spoiled rotten) I never took him into restaurants and places were dogs were expressly prohibited!

"Mr. Fudge, a 4-year-old Chihuahua who belongs to Wendy Kaplan, a fit model and personal style consultant in New York, owns a yellow Old Navy raincoat, a denim fleece vest and, for blustery days, an orange simulated snakeskin coat with a pocket “in case he needs a biscuit,” Ms. Kaplan explained.
Mr. Fudge travels in a leopard-spotted bag. “There are places I have to sneak him into — the post office, Gristedes, the neighborhood bakery,” Ms. Kaplan said.
No fan of ordinances barring pets from restaurants and other indoor public spaces, she demanded: “Why should that be? We are after all a doggie culture.”

No Ms. Kaplan - we live in a societyand a culture of laws. There are reasons why non-working dogs are not allowed in the post office or your favorite restaurant. Oh and are you willing to be responsible for the woman at the next table who is allergic to Mr. Fudge?

This story is the epitome of everything that us Midwesterners say is wrong about New York City. Dogs are wonderful companions. They live to please their people. However, we owe it to them to provide them with a heathy lifestyle. Treating them as "fashion accessories" is not healthy.

American Ingenuity

Memo to John Kerry and Charlie Rangel....would you care to revise your comments about the "intelligence" of our troops?

"STRATFORD, N.J. — In an age of multimillion-dollar high-tech weapons systems, sometimes it's the simplest ideas that can save lives. Which is why a New Jersey mother is organizing a drive to send cans of Silly String to Iraq.
American troops use the stuff to detect trip wires around bombs, as Marcelle Shriver learned from her son, a soldier in Iraq."

Something so simple in a use so ingenious. Only an American military person could come up with it.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

This is one of those subjects that is a virtual minefield. However I'm going there anyway!

There is a news story out of New York, where a Muslim counter-terrorist cop is suing the city for harassment. Given what the cop went through, yes it was workplace harassment and it should be addressed.

Now come the mines....the cop talks about anit-Muslim statements like that the Koran is "hate-filled"....Well Christians get the same thing sir. In Canada, the Bible is considered to be "hate speech". The cop talks about his religion being "ridiculed". As a Christian all I can say is welcome to the club! From "The Book of Daniel" to "Studio 60" (a show that I love, but they are a little rough in their treatment of Christians) to "The Last Temptation of Christ" to the "Pi$$ Christ" to the removal of Christ from Christmas, Christians have their religion ridiculed and put down at every turn. However, when our God is mocked, we don't riot, burn buildings or threaten to behead people. We have been known to launch boycotts and write letters. Some even get so bold as to picket the offending institution. The last resort is legal.

Now before all of you liberals out there get your dander up, let me re-iterate...the cop has more than enough legal standing for his lawsuit. What I am saying here is that there is a certain amount of thick skin that a religious person has to develop in life. One thing this cop deals with day in a day out is the absolute WORST of the believers of his religion. People who do not share his beliefs are going to be jaded against it. Heaven knows that if I worked in an environment where I were working with people who didn't share my faith and we were tracking the badest of the bad in my religion, I would understand why they are jaded and try to show them why these people do not represent the majority of my faith. I have to wonder if this cop tried to do that. It would be nice if any Muslim would speak out thusly. Sadly, I have not heard many Muslims that do decry what the terrorists are doing - which is why a lot of people react the way they do to Muslims.

Look I do work with people of different religions (from my own), even those who have no religious beliefs. We treat each other with a certain amount of respect that is right and proper. It is that respect that this cop deserves...that EVERY person of faith deserves. It would be nice if we could ALL be so bold as to show that to one another.