Shot In The Dark

The Road Warrior: RIP Joe Hansen

Someone left a comment today, and I finally confirmed it: Joe Hanson has passed away. I don't know any of the details yet, but I can certainly guess. We'll come back to that, maybe, later. I worked with Joe twice...

My Father The Steamroller

Like Lileks, I've been catching up on 24, starting with the first season. It's amazing; my son practically pushes me out the door to get to the store for the next installment (I'm up to 4PM, the fourth of the...

Tramps Like Us

Bruce Springsteen released Born To Run thirty years ago today. Thirty years. The album is twice as old as I was when I first heard it. Amazing. I hear the album today, and it's still just as fresh as it...

Whitewash

Over at the City Pages - our local freebie lifestyle handout - they seem to start young writers out on the "Facile Stereotype" beat. Molly Priesmeyer is the CP writer perhaps best known to us in the NARN. She appeared...

Spring Cleaning: All Your Eggs In One Basket

Abstinence is an excellent, preferred option in sex education. But it's not the whole answer to what ails our society, as much as some pundits would like it to be.

Delusions of Hauteur

I never much cared for the suburbs; I grew up in rural America, and if I wanna live in a small town, I'll go to a <real one. But I leap to the 'burbs' defense in this piece; the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

100 Reasons I'm Voting For Bush, Not Kerry

In which I lay out my 100 reasons why I kept my vote with George W. Bush.

Cry Satire!

Is it satire, or is it not? Only the Strib's ever-more-bizarre editorial board knows for sure, as I critique an op ed by...er, you'll have to read the story.

Teaching Old Armies New Tricks

Americans are used to the notion that our military can pretty much pick up at any time, and fight any war, anywhere. It's enshrined in US military lore:From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli, we'll fight our...

Exerpts from "Tour of Doody - the Mitch Berg Story"

From Douglas Brinkley's upcoming work of history, "Tour of Doody - the Mitch Berg Story": Page 175:...one of the most difficult jobs Berg faced at that time of his life was choosing between the woman he loved, Marisa Tomei, and...

Stabbing John Knox's Corpse

I'm a Christian, and I worship with the Presbyterian Church. I do it for theological reasons that I stand by.

Unfortunately, the PCUSA's General Assembly has been hijacked by idiots. I address them in this open letter.

The Plain Truth

My thoughts on the end of the Plain Layne crisis of 2004.

You Might Not Be An American If...

A lot of people liked this one.

The Fraudier Fraud

It refers to the 9/11 commission.

Load of Kos

Markos "Kos" Zuniga used to be a fairly rational guy. We document his descent here.

Why Schools Can't Succeed

My four-part series on why efforts to "fix" education are doomed before they even start. They're not rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic - because at least the Titanic could float.

Everything That Dies Someday Comes Back

My homily on the hard times in the central core of my adopted home.

Things I Wish I'd Said - Dating Edition

I've been single for four years now. I figure that I've been on at least one date with a total of 72 different women in that time. With some I had second or third dates, a few I dated for...

Wuss

Men get a bum rap. It must be good business.

The Curse of the CD

I listened to an artist's debut album the other day. It was an artist I wanted to like; I'd heard a few songs off the album, and I liked them. But when I finally listened to the whole thing, it...

The Blood of the Infidel

Jonathan Chait loses it.

Gored

I dissect the lunacy of "Hesiod", a moonbat "choir-preacher" leftyblogger. I could have tied a hand behind my back, but why?

Limbaugh on Blogs

The things bloggers don't get about Rush Limbaugh - and vice versa.

Tanks For The Memories! -

Can the Nine Dwarves fill the Duke's shoes?

The Untouchables

Welcome to the real world, Minnesota's AFSCME employees!

The Class System

The class struggle the left's warned us about is finally here. Only the left are the patricians, and the right are the proles.

For The Children

Ten Things I want my kids to grow up knowing.

The Pope of Bruce

Eric Alteran stole Bruce Springsteen. I steal him back.

I'd Get Mad - But I'm Too Tired

I tackled a particularly, myopically sexist New Republic writer with a very Barbara Billingsley-ish outlook on things. One of my most satisfying Instalanches.

More Nominees

A couple of correspondents sound off:"Joe Biernat and Christine Jax [ed: the writer is mistaken. Biernat's a Minneapolis DFL City Councilman who just resigned over corruption charges, and brother of Jax' husband Len, also a bigtime liberal Minnesota pol]....

Blacklist Nominee

Wow - the pixels were hardly dry! An emailer nominates:Daniel Schorr - If I hear that nitwit brag one more time about being on nixon's enemies list, i'm going to puke.Another sends [MPR "Midmorning" host] Katherine Lanpher. The sneering condescension...

The Blogosphere Blacklist

In the mid-nineties, P.J.O'Rourke started a tongue-in-cheek "blacklist" of liberal celebs and eminementoes that had outstayed their welcomes, and needed to leave the public eye. Well, it's a new century, and a new adminstration - and it's time for a...

Brits

Twin Cities writer Bill Tuomala writes "Exiled on Main Street", a meandering, Godfather's Noon Buffet of pop-culcha. Here, he writes an article I'd been gnawing on for a while - a deflation of British rock history. He even riffs...

Keillor. Again

This post kept me on the map - in response to Keillor's petulant and ill-tempered response to we peasants.

It was the most fun I'd had in years.

Open Letter to Keillor

The post that put me on the map.

Wellstone on Iraq - In

A relic from back when people still criticized Minnesota's Saint.

Back Home in Minnesota

Looking back, this piece - chock-full of inside info from well-placed GOP sources - is very interesting.

The Races

More inside GOP info, all the more interesting given the way the 2002 election turned out.

Where is the Anger? -

If you believed media spin in the fall of 2002, you'd think people were very sanguine about 9/11.

Believe It

Shenanigans at the Saint Paul Public Schools