Shot In The Dark - Politics and Current Events in Minnesota and Beyond

Friday, March 22, 2002

Don Hall - My grandfather, Don Hall, died Wednesday morning in Phoenix. He was 89.

Unlike a lot of Americans, I was blessed to grow up with my grandfather around an awful lot when I was a kid. He was a tall, gregarious guy. He attended Jamestown College, in Jamestown ND, during the height of the dust bowl, putting himself through school working a variety of odd summer jobs, even a WPA project. He was a hall of famer at JC - some of his records still stand, 67 years later.

He taught high school in many little towns in the Dakotas for probably fifteen years or so - even coached the last undefeated season, including post-season, in the history of North Dakota High School basketball (Grand Forks Central, 1940). After that, as I was giggly-delighted to tell my friends in high school, "grandpa sold drugs" - as a representative for Merck, Sharp and Dohm, of course. As a travelling salesman, it seemed he was always passing through town. I went on a trip with him once, and it felt like everyone in all the little towns knew him and said "hi".

I last saw him at my mother's house, nearly six years ago - he and my grandmother Pat moved to Phoenix in the seventies, after they both retired. Age was catching up with him, but even up to my last phone call with him he never sounded any different than he did in my earliest memories of him.

Back to more political talk on Monday. Hope you all have a great weekend.
posted by Mitch Berg 3/22/2002 06:01:12 PM

Sara Brady, Hypocrite - According to this New York Daily News article, anti-gun zealot Sara Brady...seems to have broken a gun law.

Typical enough - it's par for the course for anti-gun activists. The list of anti-gun activists who themselves own and carry guns is long and damning. And it extends to the Twin Cities as well - anti-gun DFLer and former Minneapolis police chief Tony Bouza, who advocates gun confiscation, would exclude himself.

That's who we're dealing with, here, people.
posted by Mitch Berg 3/22/2002 05:50:06 PM

Thursday, March 21, 2002

Donald Hall, RIP - My grandfather passed away yesterday at 89. Had to catalog the influences he had on my life - but I'll try. Later today or this evening.
posted by Mitch Berg 3/21/2002 06:17:54 AM

Today - First day at a new job, so it's going to be a light one (at least until later tonight, Thursday).

I'll leave you with this delightful screed from Lileks. Wish me luck!

posted by Mitch Berg 3/21/2002 06:16:53 AM

Wednesday, March 20, 2002

Was this mentioned at Kyoto? - Beijing is being choked by dust storms.

The dust storms are the result of erosion in the farmland between Beijing and the Gobi desert. That, in turn, is the result of harebrained socialist agriculture policies.

Attention, Green Party members - this just another example of how big government kills.
posted by Mitch Berg 3/20/2002 07:56:52 AM

Redistricting - The Special Judicial Panel released its final redistricting report yesterday.

With a big swath of Sixth District voters swapped into the Second (which Bill Luther barely held in 2000) looks like John Kline has a serious shot of making the third time the charm.

Meanwhile, a fairly conservative suburban Sixth District should be fairly friendly turf for old Second District congressman Mark Kennedy, who defeated David Minge in a squeaker in 2000.

It looks like things might be looking up for conservatives in Minnesota, after ten very frustrating years.
posted by Mitch Berg 3/20/2002 07:50:56 AM

Tuesday, March 19, 2002

Peace Through Rhetoric- What are two things liberals always claim? a) That President Bush is an idiot, and that b) they don't want any wars with anyone anywhere (unless they're pro-life).

Amid the wailings of the professional hand-wringing class here and abroad, this article, in the New York Times, shows how Bush's "Axis of Evil" speech is disproving a) and achieving b). The Iranians, if the signs are to be believed, are talking about softening their line.

Victory through oratory, without a shot being fired? Gosh - that Dubya sure is a dummy, hyuck.
posted by Mitch Berg 3/19/2002 12:55:26 AM

Monday, March 18, 2002

Geraldo - I've wanted to write a good flame of Geraldo Rivera for years. Other people always do it better. James Lileks, in this case.
posted by Mitch Berg 3/18/2002 07:34:07 AM

The Iron Lady vs. The Continent - While Europeans sniff at America's foreign policy and leaders, it's worth noting what history shows us - that most of the harebrained-cum-evil ideas that made the last two centuries so utterly miserable had their genesis on the European continent, while most of what we in America hold dear about our own system started in what's now the UK. Your choice is Personal Liberty, a set of Common Laws worthy of being equal before, and the Sanctity of the Individual, versus guilt until proof of innocence, Communism, Naziism, Socialism - and now, the Uber-Bureacrat State, the European Union.

Margaret Thatcher's new book notes all of the above, asks why the UK should plight it's troth with such a pack of intellectual bankrupts - and calls for the UK to abandon the EU. Here's hoping the debate gets started - once the EU bureaucrats determines exact percentage of dairy content that qualifies "Cheese Food" to be considered "Cheese", anyway.
posted by Mitch Berg 3/18/2002 07:26:42 AM

Ambling Into Balance - Andrew Sullivan posts a repeat of a great blog, in which he reassesses President Bush in light of Frank Bruni's new book, "Ambling Into History".

While Bruni's a moderate liberal who works for the very liberal Washington Post, even heat-seeking conservatives like Anne Coulter are raving about this book.
posted by Mitch Berg 3/18/2002 07:21:19 AM

Sunday, March 17, 2002

Russell Yates Redux - The Washington Post presents Russell Yates' side of the story.

I'll reiterate my theory of the other day - Yates was a guy in a lousy situation, dealing with a mentally-ill wife. He was ill-equipped to deal with the situation he was presented - and made a complete hash of it, as it happens. Was he partly responsible for his kids' deaths? Possibly - and the state is examining that possibility. Was he the monster deserving of the chorus of hatred being directed at him by feminists - and not-so-feminists, like the vacuous Andrea Peyser? If only such questions were as conveniently cut-and-dried as pundits make them, especially our feminist pundits.

I'll bet not one of his accusers has ever had to deal with living with a mentally-ill person. I've found one article, by Glenn Sacks, that seems to show some appreciation of the difficulties .
posted by Mitch Berg 3/17/2002 08:19:03 PM

Berg's Law of Liberal Iraq Commentary:

In attacking the reasons for war, no liberal commentator is capable of addressing more than one of the justifications at a time; to do so would introduce a context in which their argument can not survive