Shot In The Dark

Accessories - Rumor has it

Accessories - Rumor has it that that a number of DFL concealed-carry supporters are going to stage the quietest protest in DFL convention history.

They'll be carrying their legally-permitted pistols in the convention, just to show the DFL - always pollyanaish and paternalistic about guns - that guns in the hands of the law-abiding do not equal violence.

More as events unfold...

Saud Off - Have you

Saud Off - Have you seen the billboards (one is on I-94 in Frogtown), or heard the radio ads from...Saudi Arabia? I heard them on KSTP the other afternoon - a sonorous talking head declaiming the need for us to support the Saudi peace plan. I thought they felt simply incongruous - a nation whose media demands the liquidation of the Jewish state, and the enslavement of Jewish women, wants to teach us about peace?

Bizarre.

Several American cable networks felt the same, apparently.

The Enlightened Union - American liberals, awash with ambivalence toward (or inflamed with hatred of) the US, often decry the racism in the US, comparing it to Europe's "more enlightened attitude".

This is so untrue in so many ways,and France's record with the Jews is only the latest symptom. People today forget the anti-semitic hatred that pre-Vatican-II Catholicism engendered; during WWII, Polish Catholics were quoted as saying they would rather kill a Jew than a Nazi.

So why is France the only place it seems not to have changed?

The Incoherence of the Left - This critique of Arundhati Roy - an Indian economist and critic - could be applied to so many; Chomsky, much of the Green Party, vast swathes of people at the U of M...

The Unravelling Legacy - I

The Unravelling Legacy - I squirm when I recall people referring to Bill Clinton as "the first black president". I thought it was joke at first - a take off on Steve Martin's line from The Jerk, "I was born a poor black boy...", something too absurd to even bother with. Yes, it's was a given, blacks'd vote Democrat, yadda yadda, but a draft-dodging yutz from Arkansas claiming any fellowship with Afro-Americans? Even in 1992, it just seemed so...

...exploitive.

That's the word I used then. And now, some NAACP members are doing the same.

It's Not Easy, being a

It's Not Easy, being a Green with a Brain - Greens are outraged - and queuing up with plenty of lousy science,and worse - over Bjorn Lomborg's "The Skeptical Environmentalist". Lomborg, by the way, is a Danish Green who, in the process of trying to refute Julian Simon's various debunkings of Green gospel, discovered he, too, was a skeptic.

Ronald Bailey's article has the quote I wish I'd come up with.

Unfortunately for the doomsayers, their central predictions are simply not coming true. And so their best and perhaps only defense against a dispassionate analysis of their claims has been to smear the analyst

. I spent last Thursday evening in a room full of Greens (it's not quite as bad as it sounds), and have run into a lot more lately - and Bailey's dead on in so many areas. The smear is the left's main rhetorical tool these days - which is subject for another screed, another day...

The book, by the way, is a must-read, whether you're a Green or a free-marketeer (although a lot of Green acquaintances respond by saying "I don't want to read it!").

Due to Gun Control -

Due to Gun Control - An article in that notoriously conservative tool, the LA Times, begins to get it right. In noticing the effects of last week's massacre in Germany, the article begins to note the great truth that most liberals and liberal media figures ignore: it's not the guns, it's the social problems.

See no Bias, Hear no

See no Bias, Hear no Bias - According to Byron York, the American news establisment is funding liberal attack groups.

Schuleschiessenanschlacht - Germany's second school

Schuleschiessenanschlacht - Germany's second school massacre in two monthsclaims 18.

Good thing they have strict gun control laws!

Tale of Three Networks -

Tale of Three Networks - The Media Research Center tells the hilarious tale of the widely-varying treatment David Brock received on three network "news" shows - NBC, CNN and Fox.

But there's noooooo liberal bias. Nossir.

What a Night - I'm

What a Night - I'm floored to report that the subscribers to the E-Democracy's Minnesota Politics discussion list voted me "Most Valuable Poster", while the St. Paul discussion group ranked me #3.

I am, of course, one of small group of conservative gadflies on these very liberal lists. I suspect the large number of liberal nominees may have split the vote.

Nonetheless, I'm thankful - and I think everyone who voted for me in what I consider one of the nicer compliments I've gotten lately.

Political Larnin' - I grew

Political Larnin' - I grew up in a family that valued education - where, near as I could tell, we were all equal, whatever our ideology, as long as what we packed into our skulls was good.

I've come to know, since then, that life is more complex than that. A great many liberals are incredibly smug about the purported difference in education, intelligence and empathy between conservatives and liberals.

Much to write on this subject - and many anecdotal sources to cite (and coming days I will). But til then, an introduction to the complex relationship between politics and education.

%#$%#$$@# Alarm Clock - OK,

%#$%#$$@# Alarm Clock - OK, Running very late. I'll put today's contributions up later today. .

All About Schools - I

All About Schools - I wasn't a big critic of public schools. From some perspectives, I'm still not - my kids still go to them. For now. My dad was a teacher, as were both of my mother's parents. It was part of life, growing up, even moreso than for most kids.

I'd like to write more about schools and education in coming weeks. Starting with this, from today's Strib.

If I Were Only Green

If I Were Only Green - My Green friends love to talk about what a man of integrity Ralph Nader is.

My reply, courtesy of Reason's Matt Welch.

And While We're At It - Greens insist the private market can never be good for the environment. Ronald Bailey suggests they're wrong.

Let the Bleating Begin -

Let the Bleating Begin - the Euro left is already whining about Le Pen.

Hell, I'm upset about Le Pen. He's a fascist. However, a vote for Le Pen is not a vote for fascism, but rather a vote against the EU.

Office Time-waster of the Day:

Office Time-waster of the Day: Find out which character from Monty Python and the Holy Grail you are.

My results below:

which "monty python and the holy grail" character are you?

this quiz was made by colleen

I'd have figured I was John Cleese as the French "seeeeely Eengleesh Knnnn-iggets" character...

Speaking of Diversified Votes... -

Speaking of Diversified Votes... - Mary Cheney, the Vice President's daughter and an open lesbian, is the latest in a series of high-profile gays to defect from what Andrew Sullivan (another one) calls "the plantation of the Democratic Party".

The Native Dollar and Vote

The Native Dollar and Vote - With their casino earnings, Minnesota's Native American tribes have long been a cash cow for Democrat candidates.

Now, it seems, the tribes are wising up and diversifying their spending. And, perhaps, their political outlook.

Ventura talks with Time again

Ventura talks with Time again - Every time he does an interview with a major weekly (or Playboy), I have visions of the mid-eighties Ventura, talking with the "interviewers" in the WWF shows (yes, I watched it -twice...). If only Vince McMahon would do the interviews...

Does Identity Programming Pay? - The Oxygen network is gasping for...oh, I'm not going to stoop that low.

Europe Swings to the Right,

Europe Swings to the Right, Part III - And the left - Britain's Guardian, which is to the UK what the Minnesota Daily is in Minneapolis - isn't at all happy about it.

The most recent rounds of elections - in Denmark, Portugal, Spain, Hungary, Italy,and Belgium - at de facto referenda on the European Union. They are the average Euro-schmuck's last line of resistance against the final triumph of bureaucrats and bean-counters, the EU.

If they can get it...

Europe Swings to the Right

Europe Swings to the Right - Two big election upsets in Europe further mark the continent's swing to the right (by their standards).

In the German Land, or State, of Sachsen-Anhalt, the industrial heart of the former East Germany (to the extent that East Germany had industry or heart), the Christian Democrats clobbered the currently-ruling Social Democrats. Sachsen-Anhalt is regarded as the electoral belwether of the unified Germany - as they go, frequently, so goes the rest of the country - so this defeat is regarded as a bad omen for German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

In the meantime, an even more telling upset in France, current Socialist premier Lionel Jospin has been ejected from the final round of voting in their upcoming presidential election in yesterday' s presidential runoff. The Socialists came in third in the biggest French upset since the Battle of Sedan.

Look for all sorts of spin and electoral shenanigans in Germany, Italy (where the pan-Euro left is mobilizing against Silvio Berlusconi as we speak) and, as we noted earlier this week, Hungary, where the relatively conservative and successful government faces a full-court press of Euro-socialists eager for a victory.

Any victory.

Chief Olson - the Minneapolis

Chief Olson - the Minneapolis Police department has had an iffy reputation for years, not only among the sorts that never like any police (professional protesters, the perpetually concerned) but even among fellow law-enforcement officers. The parallels with the Darrell Gates-era LAPD are tempting - a too-small force in a changing city with a pronounced "us against them" attitude, a predilection toward thumping first and asking questions when they felt like it...

Minneapolis chief Robert Olson is on the chopping block. It's about time. I'd suggest that the City of Minneapolis ditch its tendency of the last 20 years of hiring chiefs from the east coast (like Olson's predecessor Tony Bouza). The east is much more comfortable with authoritarian police chiefs. We don't need them here.

If I were a Democrat

If I were a Democrat - and I'm not - I'd be really upset by Algore's showing of his true colors last week in Florida.

Gone like yesterday's hip clothing fad is the centrist, "clintonian" rhetoric of the campaign. Out in full, unashamed force is the regulation-mad far-leftist of Kyoto and Earth in the Balance.

Face it, Dems - those of you who thought Algore wasn't far-left under his chameleon skin were defrauded.

I try to come up with an analogy - like, "it'd be as if John McCain came out and gave a speech favoring hard-right conservative principles, but the analogy falls apart on the realization that I just can't picture most Republicans doing this. Norm Coleman even has more integrity than this.

Watch the Spin - The GAO's report on the Clinton staff's vandalism of the White House as they left office is coming, soon. It shows about $14,000 in deliberate damage by the departing frat kids.

Take your dramamine.

The Incredible Shrinking Left -

The Incredible Shrinking Left - The left in Europe is pulling out all the stops to try to halt its decline. A very successful center-right government in Hungary is struggling to stay in power against a full-court press from the European left.

See any parallels with Minnesota? Maybe not yet. We're sliding to the right ever-so-slowly. But watch what happens if Paul Wellstone is in trouble this fall...

RIP Thor Heyerdal - "Who?"

RIP Thor Heyerdal - "Who?"

Thor Heyderdahl was a Norwegian scientist who proved his theory - that South Americans crossed the Pacific on balsa-log rafts - by crossing the Pacific on a balsa-log raft. The story of the trip, Kon Tiki, was, along with Endurance (the suddenly-hip story of Ernest Shackelton's escape from the Antarctic) one of the more inspiring stories of my childhood.

He was 87. And will be sorely missed.

Potayto, potahto, pablooie - The

Potayto, potahto, pablooie - The media is currently debating whether to call the current wave of terrorists "Suicide Bombers" or "Homicide Bombers". James Lileks weighs in for Suicide...

But my favorite is now Splodeydope.

Spoke too Soon - Last

Spoke too Soon - Last week, I jumped the gun and said that the legislature had legalized some fireworks. The bill had, of course, only passed the House, which, being populated by Republicans, has some faith that Minnesotan's aren't morons.

The Senate,as usual, fixed that.

The Beatings will Continue until

The Beatings will Continue until Morale Improves - Deroy Murdock writes in National Review about the growing realization that our nation's marijuana laws make no sense.

Targeting Target Market - Interesting

Targeting Target Market - Interesting article in the Strib today about the legislative battle over Target Market, which talked about a few days ago. The article is fairly balanced - but does manager to make the little hypstrz who work for Target Market sound not terribly bright...

Good to hear that this preachy, hypocritical and insipid program may be on the chopping block.

Sign of the Impending Apocalypse

Sign of the Impending Apocalypse - Students protesting...nudity in a school play?

For Love of Chomsky -

For Love of Chomsky - I went out with a woman a while ago who was a breathless admirer of Noam Chomsky. And while it was only one of many things that doomed us to only one short date, it did start me thinking; I had only heard muted rumblings of Chomsky, usually from my Green Party friends, ever since college.

He has his critics these days. But also his admirers.

Is it just me, or

Is it just me, or is Governor Ventura coming across as completely incoherent in the Strib today?

State GOP leaders criticized Target Market, a front for the state's anti-tobacco bureaucracy, and a rock concert that TM is promoting.

For starters, Target Market is an organization that you are paying for with the "excess premiums" that the state of Minnesota got from the tobacco companies during the the Great Minnesota Tobacco Money Grab (aka lawsuit) The organization apparently exists to "provide information" to teenagers about smoking, which apparently they don't get from school, any media that isn't actively advertising tobacco, and the side-panels of every cigarette package these teenagers have ever seen.

They "provide" this "information" through a series of abrasive, juvenile TV commercials, packaged rock concerts (Goldfinger used to be kinda cool), and "events" like a winter rally at the capitol. Now, I haven't been a teenager for about twenty years, but I have hunch if someone had come at me with a series of events that were such obvious pandering, I think I'd have walked into Mini Mart and bought a pack of filterless Chesterfields. If kids today do take TM seriously, then my generation will be the first generation to be right about what morons kids today are!

Look at the pictures. The teenagers are posed with the supple dexterity of an East German propoganda photo. The villains are such perfect caricatures of evil [white Euro] men, it's as if Michael Moore's febrile racist imagination has come to life..

So the GOP criticizes this manipulative propaganda boondoggle - and suddenly Governor Dimbulb rockets into action?

What a crazy state.

Daily TV Jumps the Shark

Daily TV Jumps the Shark - Proving that daytime talk TV really is on the skids, Ellen Degeneres will be hosting a daily gabfest soon.

Ohio Concealed Carry Ban is

Ohio Concealed Carry Ban is Unconstitutional - An Ohio appeals court has upheld a lower court ruling that a Hamilton County ban on the carrying of concealed handguns is unconstitutional.

The framers of the state constitution "put the citizens' rights up front," said Mark Painter, presiding judge of the appeals court. "We believe they meant what they said."

The usual assortment of nannystate lackeys is lining up against the decision.

Still, there is hope out there.

Death to the Talivan! -

Death to the Talivan! - Hawaii abolishes radar-photography vans for speed enforcement on state roads.

I'm always shocked that Minnesota never jumped on that one. Perhaps another sign that this state is edging toward conservatism.

Roger and...Who? - Salon and

Roger and...Who? - Salon and Spinsanity are breaking this story; ultrliberal Michael Moore has allegedly plagiarized parts of his latest racist screed, "Stupid White Men".

As Andrew Sullivan asks - the Boston Globe suspended a conservative columnist for a vastly less egregious offense. Will the liberal media establishment be consistent in its treatment of its dyspeptic darling, Moore?

Under the Weather - That's

Under the Weather - That's what I am.

Hope to write something later today.

Waxy, Yellow Federal Buildup -

Waxy, Yellow Federal Buildup - Mike Lynch of Reason writes about how hard it is to kill a federal program.

Yeaaaaaah, the Taxxxx-maaaaan - This

Yeaaaaaah, the Taxxxx-maaaaan - This is an interesting story on how people with relatively high incomes are paying the vast majority of our nation's taxes.

The surpising part - it's from the Associated Press!

Post-Postism - A great essay

Post-Postism - A great essay today on life in the intellectual wasteland...of a typical university English department.

Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy - One

Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy - One of Tony Blair's policy wonks, Robert Cooper, is calling for "Liberal Imperialism".

Granted, on one level Cooper is referring to a "small-l" liberalism - sort of. Cooper floats the theory that states are either pre-modern (can't sustain themselves), modern (sustain themselves through the will of the nation-state) or post-modern (sustained through mutual cooperation. But he returns to the Big-L Liberalism - because the apotheosis of the "post-modern" desirable state, according to Cooper, is the uber-bureaucracy, such as the EU).

Some of the hooters in this piece:

it follows that we should not think of the EU or even NATO as the root cause of the half century of peace we have enjoyed in Western Europe. The basic fact is that Western European countries no longer want to fight each other.

Right. And an aggressive Soviet dictatorship just fell into line singing Kum Ba Ya.
Then there's this one:

"The EU is the most developed example of a postmodern system. It represents security through transparency, and transparency through interdependence...The USA is the more doubtful case since it is not clear that the US government or Congress accepts either the necessity or desirability of interdependence, or its corollaries of openness, mutual surveillance and mutual interference"

Catch that? In other words, "The EU is secure because it stands for nothing, and its membership pulls it to the most mediocre common denominator."

How about dealing with states that don't play nice?

The challenge to the postmodern world is to get used to the idea of double standards. Among ourselves, we operate on the basis of laws and open cooperative security. But when dealing with more old-fashioned kinds of states outside the postmodern continent of Europe, we need to revert to the rougher methods of an earlier era - force, pre-emptive attack, deception, whatever is necessary to deal with those who still live in the nineteenth century world of every state for itself

Er - wasn't that what the non-"postmodern" USA did? And the "post-modern" EU shimmied away from like a six-year-old away from a plate of spinach?

So the Clinton Legacy isn't dead, perhaps, but gone dormant, hiding out in Western Europe...

The Clinton Legacy, Part II

The Clinton Legacy, Part II - Gallup released polls today that showed Clinton, today, has the third-worst post-presidency job-approval ratings of any president of the last forty years. Thirty points below the sainted John F. Kennedy - no big surprise. But twenty glorious points below Ronald Reagan - and sixteen points below George HW Bush and nine points below...Gerald Ford and Jimmyu Carter?

Clinton's legacy, measured by this poll, is that Americans think he's not as bad as Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon.

Our work here isn't done, but we can at least break for coffee.

Nanny's Retreat - the

Nanny's Retreat - the Legislature, after decades of serving as the scolding mom, finally okayed some fireworks.

Not very important? Maybe. But this is the sort of bill that got nowhere in the last twenty years of absolute DFL hegemony. Today, fireworks. Tomorrow - concealed carry reform, real tax and welfare reform, public school reform...?

With the redistricting reflecting Minnesota's newer, more conservative face, anything's possible.

Less about Moore - I've

Less about Moore - I've never liked Michael Moore. "Blood in the Face" was an interesting movie about American nazis and the Klan, but drew wider sociological conclusions that weren't supported by any rational evidence. His rants against corporate America in "Roger and Me" were delivered with such self-satisfied smugness that I eventually rooted for Roger to come barrelling of the podium with a squad of goons at the climactic shareholders meeting. The smug (that word and Moore are permanently linked in my mind, so it keeps coming up) derision he heaps upon the former GM workers who started the lint roller factory is the part that sticks in my bile duct. Moore hammered the theme with all the grace of a Polish jazz band during the movie; the narrator would be talking about economic improvement, Moore would roll a lint roller around, apparently mopping up scraps of scorn that dribbled from his mouth to his lap. "What morons", the message seemed to be, "trying to start their own business instead of railing at GM, as I do..."

"Downsize This" was worse. Easy layups against corporate bigwigs, plus stretchy screeds against such difficult targets as an angry limo driver.

Now, word is dribbling out, at least through the blogosphere, about the liberties Moore takes, and the sloppy research he foists off, in his current book, "Stupid White Men".

I don't add much to this (other than my article above). I'm just hoping this adds to the critical mass against Moore. His fifteen minutes should have ended ten years ago.

What's in a Domain Name?

What's in a Domain Name? - Local activists are playing dirty...with internet domain names.

The Slickster Returns? (Why I Love Ann Coulter, Part II)

Ann Coulter talks about the effort to rehabilitate "the Clinton Legacy".
As she says it:

I THOUGHT THEY WANTED TO "MOVE ON." But now that all the statutes of limitations have expired, liberals won't shut up about Bill Clinton. To little evident success, they have been desperately trying to launch their lumbering Rube Goldberg of a Clinton Rehabilitation Project for months now.

The revisionism involved is astounding. As is the shallowness and inconsequence of "the Clinton Legacy".
This will be an interesting testament to either the ability of the American people to discern when they're being manipulated - or their willingness to be.