A longtime friend of the blog writes:

This from MPR – a loving puff piece about the wonderfulness that Ms Bender plans for Mpls (and coming soon to a neighborhood near you)
check out her credentials (mid article) she is committed to solving 21st century problems with 19th century city planning.

When looking at politics in Minneapolis (and, soon, Saint Paul), remember – Betsy Hodges is no longer mayor because she wasn’t far enough to the left for the city’s dominant strain of the DFL.

UPPER MIDDLE CLASS NPR-LISTENING WHOLE FOODS SHOPPING DEMOCRATS FROM GOOD NEIGHBORHOODS WITH “GOOD SCHOOLS”:  “The problem with Republicans is that they’re just so racist”.

EVENTS:  “Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Upper Middle Class Democrat from a Nice Neighborhood:  We’re going to fulfill a liberal goal and start busing your kids and seriously integrating your school district”.

UPPER MIDDLE CLASS NPR-LISTENING WHOLE FOODS SHOPPING DEMOCRATS FROM GOOD NEIGHBORHOODS WITH “GOOD SCHOOLS”:  “No – we’re the good kind of racist!”

…for now.

When dealing with Big Left, today’s satire is tomorrow’s threat.

The headline:   OUR POLL SHOWS MINNESOTANS SUPPORT GUN CONTROL!

Carefully hidden:  _{According to a little over 600 phone calls, of which nearly 2/3 were conducted in the Metro area.}  

My read:  the Strib is switching into full-blown campaign mode, meaning “pimping the DFL’s line no matter what damage it does to what little credibility they may still have among their painstakingly ignorant base, and the DFL’s painstakingly ignorant base (pardon the redundancy”

It’s entirely possible there has never been a better entertainment/media decision made in the history of entertainment/media then Roseanne Barr’s decision to reboot her classic, eponymous sitcom. After two decades, Roseanne is back, bigger (accounting for the shrinking TV audience, especially) and in many ways better than ever after deciding to swim against Hollywood’s oppressively leftist, bicoastal current and do the unthinkable – acknowledge the millions of people in this country who are in real life a lot like the TV show’s fictional family.

The show’s pro Trump attitude has made it a lightning rod among leftists in Hollywood – which is another way to say it’s made of a lightning rod in Hollywood. Its success, on the other hand, has pretty much immunize it for most of that criticism.

On a recent show, Rosanna and “Dan” – her long time husband, played by John Goodman ~ passed out on the couch and “missed all the shows about black and Asian families’ – Blackish and Just Off the Boat, about a couple of, wait for it, hard-working families who happen to be black-ish and asian-ish. Roseanne quips “They’re just like us. There, now you’re all caught up.”

Now, if you’re like me – well, you don’t watch Roseanne, or any other television, so you didn’t see it. But the quip strikes me as saying “there about other families dealing with the cards life has dealt them, same as us.”. Which is not a bad observation, near as I can tell.

But then, racism isn’t where I earn my living, either.

I’m not sure that it’s where Kelvin Yu earns his living, either. He is a comic, actor, and writer on the series Bob’s Burgers (which, for the record, I really don’t care for at all). He took umbrage at the quote, deeming it dismissive of the minority experience:

After a two-decade hiatus, “Roseanne” has suddenly returned in glorious HD for a reason. Its astronomical ratings — over 18 million viewers watched the series the night it had its premiere — proclaims not only the show’s enduring resonance, but also a restitution of something lost (or at least something passed). In this era of capital-D Diversity, numbers like that indicate an unequivocal hunger (dare I say nostalgia) for stories about families like the Conners, who live blue-collar, paycheck-to-paycheck lives; fighting, laughing, and loving in the earnest heartland (read: white working class) of America. Not unlike the results of the 2016 presidential election, the #MakeAmericaWatchRoseanneAgain movement is a beacon in the night, illuminating a once-abandoned subsection of the country with a spotlight of validation. As if it were saying: “I see you. You matter.”

Which is why it’s so galling that a show celebrating ostensibly marginalized Americans would consider shows about even more marginalized Americans a punch line, tossed off between two yawns and a meh, followed by a roomful of people laughing.

Mr Yu:  From the perspective of people (of all races) who are focusing on what actually matters – economic survival, raising families, the kinds of things most of Hollywood either doesn’t worry about or has contempt for – I suspect the virtue-signaling is lost.

Planned parenthood is giving Disney some writing advice:

And if your goal is to indoctrinate children, that will be a perfectly fine idea.

Although if you want to sell tickets in the parts of the Merica where people actually have children, probably not so much.

I’ve got a few suggestions, though:

• We could do a version of Beauty and the Beast where Belle is a competition three gun shooter who befriends the Beast – a handsome guy who majored in women’s studies, has been thoroughly cowed by campus feminism, and needs to be brought out of his shell.
• Perhaps reboot of Cinderella, where the heroine is a plucky young National Review reader who is constantly tormented by her social justice warrior stepsisters?
• Maybe a version of Aladdin, where Jasmine is the spoiled daughter of a liberal K St. lobbyist who encounters a plucky young ex-paratrooper entrepreneur who turns her world upside down?

The possibilities are completely endless.

We

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

What if the Center for Disease Control studied guns but the findings did not support The Narrative?

Suppress the data, of course.

joe doakes

In meantime, another friend of the blog writes:

More of that pesky empirical evidence that progressives hate.

It’s Science, dammit!

Oh, you bet I’ll be going over this story later this week.

New Yorker columnist applies the PC test to the new Chik-Fil-A outlets in New Orc City.

Ben Shapiro:

But the mere whiff of Jesus means that New York must cast out Chick-fil-A like a leper, and that those who refuse to do so have succumbed to the blasphemous entreaties of the Midianites. “When a location opened in a Queens mall, in 2016, Mayor Bill de Blasio proposed a boycott. No such controversy greeted the opening of this newest outpost. Chick-fil-A’s success here is a marketing coup. Its expansion raises questions about what we expect from our fast food, and to what extent a corporation can join a community,” Piepenring rants.

And insultingly, Chick-fil-A seeks to build community, using the word in its marketing, he complains. “This emphasis on community, especially in the misguided nod to 9/11, suggests an ulterior motive. The restaurant’s corporate purpose still begins with the words ‘to glorify God,’ and that proselytism thrums below the surface of the Fulton Street restaurant, which has the ersatz homespun ambiance of a megachurch.”

If you want to see proof positive of the irreconcilability of the differences between Blue State “elites” and actual humans, read the whole thing.

But you probably needn’t go that far.

SCENE:  The Metropolitan Council, meeting at their downtown office.  It is 1996.  

Members Rick Blickson, Sandra Tostenson, Mark Skjellerud, Andy Blotzer and Audrey Vreeland are in committee meeting with Edgar Folkenflick and Eliza Vanderprimp, representatives from “Transit Works”, a consulting company pushing rail mass transit with metro areas.  

BLICKSON:  We are meeting here today to discuss “Transit Works” proposal that the Twin Cities spend $700 million on a light rail line.  Any questions or comments for the consultants?

TOSTENSON:   Yes.  So just to make sure – the proposed train would be able to run better than buses in the sort of inclement or icy weather that’s so common around here?

FOLKENFLICK:  No – light rail trains are no more robust in their handling in snow and ice than a bus, and may in fact me more vulnerable to route blockage in snowy conditions than buses.

SKJELLERUD: OK.  But the train is more reliable in general?  It can react to stoppages and other irregularities better than buses?

FOLKENFLICK:  That’s incorrect.  While a bus can merely detour around an obstacle, a train is entirely at the mercy of whatever is on the track.

BLOTZER: Er…OK.  But in terms of major incidents…

FOLKENFLICK:  …any major incident will require hours to clear, and enough heavy equipment to widen the Panama Canal, maneuvering on busy city streets, thus taking hours to clear any mishaps.

VREELAND:  So…er, Mr. Folkenflick, Ms. Vanderprimp – why would anyone buy something so seemingly ill-conceived?

VANDERPRIMP:  New York.  Boston.  San Franciso.  Washington DC…

BLICKSON:  We’ll take two!

And SCENE

When Representative Lewis (Lord, I love saying that) is right, he’s right.

And on the bombings in Syria – he’s right:

Whether Kosovo, Libya or now Syria, for far too long Presidents of both parties have acted unilaterally (perhaps for the best of intentions) in taking military action without congressional approval. Outdated authorizations (AUMFs) are no substitute for the clear Constitution requirement that Congress must, at the least, be consulted barring imminent danger to the homeland. Indeed, it is Congress who has the authority and responsibility to debate and vote on what we want to provide any administration in such affairs. Matters of war and peace are too important for politics.

When President Obama bombed Libya, Republicans were rightly outraged. Roscoe Bartlett, serving on the Armed Services Committee, even called the decision an ‘affront to our Constitution.’ That was true then as it is today—especially when so many of the facts and circumstances on the ground have yet to be investigated. The sad truth is America cannot prevent or remedy every tragedy around the world. Nor can we expend our precious blood and treasure unless it is in direct interest of national security.

Finally, let me add that it remains more than a bit troubling that so many who call for intervention seeking to protect the borders of foreign nations seem so cavalier about our own.

I think the Syria bombing may well be Trump’s first serious foreign-policy misstep, and possible his first demonstrable breach of the law.

Proponents of breaking California into three states have enough signatures to get a vote:

Tim Draper, who made his money through Hotmail and Skype, has gathered 600,000 signatures supporting the change – way above the 364,000 needed.

Those who want to break up California believe it would boost educational standards and reduce the political power of Sacramento, the state’s capital.

I don’t know about you, but my fingers are crossed.

We know gun control isn’t about safety.

First, Britain – awash in the same sort of virtue-signaling panic that befalls Big Left regularly – banned guns after the Dunblane Massacre.

After a couple decades of increases, London’s murder rate passed up New York’s for the first time.

Ever.

If you read this blog, you already know what the Brits are “doing” about it.

Last week, TheBlaze reported the number of murders in London, a traditionally safe city, surpassed the number of murders in New York City in February and March for the first time in modern history. The murders were mostly carried out in stabbing attacks with knives.

Now, London Mayor Sadiq Khan is taking action — by implementing knife control.

What is Khan doing?
In response to the spike in crime, Khan deployed over 300 additional London police officers to the city’s most crime-ridden neighborhoods to stop and search anyone they suspect is carrying a knife. In the U.S., such policies are very controversial and possibly violate the Fourth Amendment, but in England, police are able to stop and search anyone they suspect is carrying a knife.

The results?  The same sort of security theater that happens every time government tries to treat not the disease, not even the symptoms, but the tools involved in the symptoms (and, in the UK’s case, the very act of defending yourself from the disease). It’s like treating flu by banning vomit.

And when I say “security theater”, I’m not speaking imprecisely at all:

So after decades of dictatorial posturing, perhaps the number of knives available to criminals will drop (as Britons gnaw on food they can’t cut, or start buying their awful British food pre-cut for them).  That‘ll solve crime right?

Nonsense.  Criminals will start taping nails onto long sticks, or carrying socks full of five pence pieces.  And when the UK government gans nails and coins, they’ll switch to pointed sticks.  And when pointed sticks are finally off the streets, it’ll be rocks and pavers and fists and feet.

Britian keeps this “mind”-set up, they’ll all be legless, armless, immobile consumption machines in a few centuries.

Except the criminals.

As I’ve pointed out in the past, few things annoy me more than the “people” who, when people respond with “thoughts and prayers” after some sort of tragedy or another, bellow “F**K YOUR THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS – WE’VE GOT TO DOOOOO SOMETHING!”, where “SOMETHING” invariably means “some emotion-driven knee-jerk response that will do nothing to deal with the problem, but will serve Big Let’s agenda nicely”.

So it’s interesting to note that we, in fact, are right:

Prayer might make people feel better, but, as some critics have argued, does it direct their attention away from problems that need to be addressed? In other words, is prayer a distraction? Recent behavioral science experiments suggest that it isn’t, that prayer helps people focus their attention. In one study, research participants with varying levels of religiosity completed cognitive tasks that assess attention. After finishing these tasks, they were instructed to bring to mind one concern in their lives. One group of participants was then asked to spend ten minutes praying about that concern. Another group was asked to spend ten minutes thinking about that concern. A final group spent that time working on a puzzle. Then they repeated the attention tasks. Researchers looked for changes in their performance and found that among highly religious individuals, praying about a life concern, compared with thinking about it or being distracted with a puzzle, improved cognitive performance. No differences were observed among the less religious. These findings are consistent with the researchers’ proposal that prayer frees up cognitive resources needed to focus on mental tasks by reducing the extent to which people are distracted by negative emotions.

I’ve found that metaphysics and theology aside, it helps put emotional turbulence in context and free up mental resources for the rational thought actually needed after a crisis.

Which is another weapon Big Left thinks only the government really needs…

An App I’m Working On

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

The case for mandating gun ownership.   And why serving in the militia should be compulsory.
As a general rule, I react negatively to the suggestion that I should be required to do anything for the federal government.  But the point about civic virtue is important.  In a world where people think bacon comes from a store and cops shouldn’t be so mean when they arrest murderers, a little time spent patrolling the streets of your own town might open some eyes.
Who knows, maybe we could form a committee of citizens to maintain vigilance in the neighborhood.  Might be a good deterrent to crime.

Joe Doakes

I think public safety is like tax withholding; if you had to do it yourself, your point of view would be very different.

Join me from 1-3PM today on the NARN!

Today on the show:

• MNGOP Chair Jennifer Carnahan
• Xavier Bicott and Lee McGrath talking about the civil forfeiture reform law, which is being stalled in the legislature.

Don’t forget – King Banaian is on from 9-11AM on AM1440, and Brad Carlson is  on “The Closer” edition of the NARN Sundays from 2-3PM.

So tune in the Northern Alliance! You have so many options:

• AM1280 in the Metro
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Join us!

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails

Whenever a microaggression occurs, Al Sharpton is on the first plane to lead the march.

Think David Hogg is heading to YouTube HQ?

Joe Doakes

Given that logic has nothing to do with gun control?  Sure, why not?

To:  Mills Fleet Farm
From:  Mitch Berg, Irascible Peasant
Re:  Blowing With The Wind Breeze.

Dear Fleet Farm,

I’ve  been shopping Fleet Farm for a lot of sundries besides guns and ammo (back when I had guns, which I don’t anymore, because they terrify me).

But no more.

Stand with the heroes, or lie down with the sheep.  There is no in between.

That is all.

An international group of scientists have spent the past couple of decades working to distill the essence of Urban Progressive Privilege into one, single, blog post.

And it appears they’re very close to success.

Statistician from the vaunted FiveThirtyEight.org starts out as an anti-gunner…

…before realizing that the whole thing is a sham. 

There are l literally too many good parts to find just one pull quote – read the whole thing already – but this bit about the fact that complicated problems (crime, suicide) don’t respond to simplistic solutions:

Even the most data-driven practices, such as New Orleans’ plan to identify gang members for intervention based on previous arrests and weapons seizures, wind up more personal than most policies floated. The young men at risk can be identified by an algorithm, but they have to be disarmed one by one, personally — not en masse as though they were all interchangeable. A reduction in gun deaths is most likely to come from finding smaller chances for victories and expanding those solutions as much as possible. We save lives by focusing on a range of tactics to protect the different kinds of potential victims and reforming potential killers, not from sweeping bans focused on the guns themselves.

Do yourself a favor and read the whole thing.

Do your friends a favor and circulate it widely.

I suppose we owe liberal retired SCOTUS judge John Paul Stevens a twisted thank you for accidentally telling the truth and calling for the outright repeal of the Second Amendment.

And for more than just exposing the manipulative lie.  As Glenn Reynolds notes, Stevens’ statement reveals something I suspect much of the left would rather have kept quiet:

1. Calls to repeal the Second Amendment are, despite whatever gyrations the callers go through, tacit admissions that the Second Amendment bars sweeping gun control.

2. Good luck with that, we’re more likely to see an amendment banning abortion pass than one repealing the Second Amendment.

3. The Second Amendment, according to the Framers (and some Supreme Court dictum) recognizes a natural right; repealing the amendment doesn’t extinguish the right.

4. Nothing could be better for the GOP in 2018 and 2020 races than for the Dems to make this an issue.

Further proof, as if any were needed among those paying attention, that there can be no compromise.  Ever.

Silicon Valley has turned in to a de facto surveillance state, and is using its power to try to quash Conservative thought on the Internet.

The “#meToo” movement has harnessed the power of the Progressive Herd to co-opt what started as a good message (don’t abuse women!) into a policy bludgeon and a wedge used to shame, bully and censor dissent.

Conservative speech is actively squelched on campus, in many corporations, and in many community groups .

Big Left is relentlessly pimping a bunch of kids who, a month ago, were eating Tide Pods on Youtube, as the great unheard voices of wisdom on gun policy they clearly don’t understand in any way.

And the DC Establishment – Republican and Democrat both – have basically turned into the same, free-spending, debt-blind creature.

Sorry, libs;  the “resistance” in this country is entirely on the right.

Never thought I’d see the mainstream media cover this angle to the “spontaneous student demonstrations” against law-abiding gun owners; as I’ve noted, Big Left only protests when it’s kids who look like the children of NPR executives being murdered.

Kids – black and brown ones, anyway – being killed daily in Democrat-run hellholes like North Minneapolis, Dayton’s Bluff, Newark, Camden, Baltimore, Oakland, Stockton, Sacramento, Saint Louis, New Orleans, Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland?  Not so much.

And someone finally covered that angle:

The pain was more than familiar to them, as was the loss. Not one student who spoke inside the school at 13^th and Brandywine had been spared the impact of gun violence. One by one they talked of friends whose funerals were reminders of how growing old can never be taken for granted in some of the city’s neighborhoods, of fathers gunned down before their kids even learned how to say the word Dad. “My whole life I been afraid of the world around me,” wrote Simone Akridge, 15.

So they, better than most, knew how the Florida students felt.

It’s the attention the Florida students have gotten that felt unfamiliar and unjust when so little attention is paid to the gun violence that touches so many children in cities like Philadelphia.

Ahem.

DO YOU F****NG THINK SO?

Note to every African-American – it is  unjust, because Big Left doesn’t care about you.  You are worth more to them poor, badly-educated, and bleeding in an emergency room or cold in the ground than you are alive, healthy and participating in the free market – but not when it comes to reminding the nation that the places Big Left controls are failed states run in a symbiotic relationship with criminal enterprises financed by a black market in drugs that leads to carnivorous gang activity…

…that kills your kids.

Those hamsters parading around DC?  They don’t see you, much less recognize your suffering.

Prog celebs spoke at the astroturf anti-gun “march” on Satuday…

…and then decamped in SUVs with armed guards:

It’s fascinating to watch the celebrities & students who just spoke about the evils of firearms to thousands of cheering people leave the rally under heavily armed guard with visible handguns protecting them as they retreat into private limousines pic.twitter.com/v6xdp0sdj3

— Benny (@bennyjohnson) March 24, 2018

The Democrats figured it out; no more armed security for Democrat candidates or politicians:

“We’ve talked to all possible candidates and everyone has agreed. Gun violence is a huge issue in our country, and guns are the problem. So whoever runs for president as a Democrat in 2020—be it Bernie, Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Jerry Brown, and/or whoever else throws their hat in the ring—they will steadfastly refuse to employ security teams who carry scary firearms.”

Tyler further confirmed that if a Democrat wins the White House in 2020, their first order of business will be to disarm the Secret Service. Asked how the president would then be kept safe, Tyler revealed that they plan on introducing a gun-free zone encompassing a 500-yard radius around the president at all times.

“Problem solved,” he said.

I’m so glad they conquered the hypocrisy problem.

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