If you havne’t seen the Barbie movie? The following review is submitted for your consideration. .

If you’re going to say “I have no intention of ever going to that movie, because it’s woke crap and I don’t care what you say”, that’s also fine. . If you want to leave a comment to that effect, I respectfully ask you to take it to, say, Fraters Libertas or Anti-Strib.

If you want to tell me I’m wrong about something to do with the movie, by all means, welcome.

---

Counterintuitive

I was probably inclined to dislike it, initially. Not because of any of its merits (Margot Robbie can do almost no wrong), or even any of what one might reasonably predict it’s flaws might be.

But do you want to know a little secret? I’m tired of popular culture bashing men. 

And no, it’s not just a parochial, knee-jerk, gender, politics response; I hate laziness and clichés, whether Amos and Andy, or speedy Gonzalez, or every villain on “Law and Order: SVU“ (hint: it’s always the Christian conservative.)

It’s become a cliché of modern screen writing and advertising; men in popular entertainment are pretty much, either:

• – Neutered halfwits
• – Safe Buffoons (think Fred Flintstone) 
• – BroDudes, with undercurrents of stupidity, malevolence, or both.
• – villains with no more subtlety than a cad in a melodrama, tying the heroine to the railroad tracks
• – Actors with enough star power (Matt Damon, George Clooney, Harrison Ford) to avoid the clichés.

One typical example: from two years ago, a dramedy, called “Single Drunk Female“, a fairly promising concept  about a 20 something advertising exec who drinks herself out of a career and into supervised probation.  A fascinating premise.…

… that apparently couldn’t survive without turning every male in the cast into an impotent, helpless, hopeless buffoon, a one dimensional droog, a villain, or in the case of one and only one characterl, a supernaturally wise voice of reason.

Oops – I just checked my notes, and it turns out that that character, the closest thing to a three dimensional male character, was  actually a transgender woman.

I’d rhetorically ask “imagine what a steady diet of popular culture consistently painting men (who aren’t stars) as buffoons, douche bags and villains does to boys” – but you don’t really have to imagine it, do you? Sometimes it seems boys are living down to the example that popular culture has laid out for them for the past generation.

So yeah. I wasn’t inclined to see the movie, and I started the whole proces with a bit of a chip on my shoulder.

And as I noted this morning, I’d seen a couple of great movies on the previous two weekends – Sound of Freedom and No Hard Feelings. Why harsh the buzz?

I figured I’d do like I’ve done for the last 20 installments of X-Men, 49 Fast and Furiousers and 16 Avengers and Justice Leagues, and let someone else have my seat.

---

But my NARN colleague Jack Tomczak said it was worth a watch – emphatically .

So I figured – why not?

To keep an open mind, I tried to avoid the reviews – but I got sucked into at least part of Ben Shapiro’s scathing reaction. I will brook no babble about Shapiro, by the way; he’s a very sharp guy, really good at most everything he does. Literally, nobody in the media is covering the Hunter Biden scandal like Shapiro. I don’t get the hate some conservatives have for Shapiro, and I don’t have to worry about it.

And I did read one other, extremely positive review, from someone who’s probably closer to my side of the cultural divide than most.

So with a few misgivings, I went to the movie.

---

People on the right side of the cultural fence who’ve never seen the movie can be forgiven for assuming a couple of things:

• It’s “woke”. It’s from Hollywood, which has been destroying lots of beloved franchises lately, so it’s not an *unreasonable* default guess.
• It trashes men. As I noted above, it’s pretty much the ultimate lazy Millennial screenwriter trick. And on the sufr the surface, sure.

————

“Woke”

Michael Knowles isn’t my favorite commentator, but he nailed this point. If you look at the story behind the story – as the director, Greta Gerwig, urges the viewer to do – it’s a very sly *critique* of “woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle” feminism and the collapse of social traditions.

There are so many pointers to this – without giving out any spoilers, I’ll point you to America Ferrera’s [2] understated but brilliant “Harried Mom” character, and her interaction with Rhea Perlman’s character, presented as the woman who invented Barbie and put Mattel on the map, but who I think actually represents…well, I’ll let you figure that out on your own [3], and on and on.

But here’s the connection that sneaks up on you, that is so brilliant and shuts the whole “woke” thing down.

The movie starts in a stylized prehistoric era [4] with little girls playing with dolls – which, narrator Helen Mirren tells us, were always babies, which always left the girls always playing Mommy.

And “then came Barbie”. The little girls then smash their baby dolls and tea sets, as the scene dissolves to perfect, pink, plastic Barbie World, with women doing everything that matters and men demoted to, well, Ken.

There’s even a sly aside to the modern world’s attempt to repeal biology when Helen Mirren notes that “Midge”, the pregnant Barbie, was discontinued.

A bunch of other stuff happens, and we fast forward to the final scene, the final *line* of the movie.

I won’t spoil it. But there is no way to put the opening – the literal and figurative smashing of traditions and expectations dating back to the beginning of time – and the closing together and *not* see that this movie is a *critique* of “third wave feminism”, and the changes in social norms that they have been about for the past few generations – throughout “Barbie’s” commercial life.

I won’t spoil it. Put on your critical hat, watch it, and tell me where I’m wrong.

———–

“Men / Ken”.

As far as how it treats men – via “Ken”, singular and plural? Yep. Men are vapid, ineffectual, impotent, pointless.

And *that’s the point*. [5] And it may be even more brilliant than the critique of third wave feminism. [6]

Let’s step outside the movie and look at sociology, 2020s style.

What does every sociologist, especially on the right, identify as the problem with young men today? Lack of purpose, goals, meaning?

And that those young men fill in the gap left by the lack of *purpose* to masculinity by asserting it via mindless, deflecting hedonism and pointless violence? [7]

Because society sees them as being about as useful to the world as a bike is to a trout?

Again – no spoilers. But *that* – flopping around without purpose, and then wondering what that purpose *should* be – and its parallels with young mens struggles today, is the point of Ken (singular and plural). When you watch the movie, and see the arc of “Ken’s” behavior throughout, keep that in mind.

———-

So what did the other reviewers miss, that I caught?

To me, the big theme was how very important *purpose* is to life. “Barbieworld” reflects “Modern” society in that everyone has all their material wants met (in fact, to a city full of dolls, they are irrelevant), and all the affirmation they need…

…but there is no purpose.

And it’s when, and how, Barbie and Ken discover that humans (not dolls, literally or figuratively [8]), women *and* men, need *purpose* in their lives that made me sit up in my seat and whisper “holy crap, this is good”.

————

Oh, yeah. The movie is a visual joy.

And not just the Barbieland sets – which are everything you heard they are. They look just like the little Barbieworlds that the girls in the neighborhood would put together out on Mrs. Goehner’s patio, only perfect.

But there are two other visual moments that are much, much better.

The visual change when Barbie meets Rhea Perlman is jarring – and a huge cue as to what lies ahead.

And there’s a scene, near the end of the show, where Ken and Barbie realize what’s missing in both of their lives – neither in Barbie World nor the Real World, but a place that has no visual definition but slowly, subtly shifting lights that are characters in their own right – one of the most striking bits of cinemetography I’ve ever seen. I may watch it again just for that.

————-

Think that review was long? You should see the first one I wrote.

I don’t often urge people to go see movies – but I urge you ignore all the hype on BOTH sides, put on your critical hat, and check it out.

[1] Well, we did. Not sure if they do anymore.

[2] An actress I hate to love, but I love anyway.

[3] Hint: it’s a name the Sixth Commandment advises one not to take in vain.

[4] It’s borrowed from the beginning of “2001: A Space Odyssey”

[5] This is one of several parts Ben Shapiro got hung up on. Shapiro’s brilliant – I push back hard on the conservative hate he gets – but he totally c**pped the bed in his review. Which I *really* don’t get – it’s not like he’s too uneducated to see subtext, allusion and symbolism, especially when it’s *right there on the screen*. Very much the opposite. It’s almost like he c**pped the bed on purpose. Why would he do that? No freaking clue.

[6] Seriously. I may go see the movie again just to put together all the pieces of this subplot.

[7] No spoilers – but there’s a scene I’ll just describe as “Omaha Beach In Saving Private Ryan via Barbieworld” that made me double over laughing, and wince, out loud.

[8] Without getting into politics, much of modern society treats humans as interchangeable widgets whose meaning is to consume. I could write a piece ten times as long as this already huge review on the horrors of that subject alone.

Movies are pretty streaky to me.

Before Gran Torino came out I think I’d gone something like 3-4 years without seeing a movie in a theater. No big deal – I scarcely noticed it, and had plenty of other stuff to keep me busy.

After the “lockdown” ended, I went to a couple of films just to throw a throbbing middle fingers at the Karens of the world. I don’t even remember the movies – just how good throwing. that finger fels. Also how much room I had. I literally was the only person in the theater more than once. #ThaanksGovernorWalz

But I’ve been light on movies again, for a while now. I didn’t grow up with comic books (other than “Flaming Carrot” and, later, “King and Country”), so I have no nostalgia for the endless Marvel and DC franchises. For that matters, I lost all interest in Star Wars after “Attack of the Clones or whatever it was called. I literally haven’t seen a single one after the third episode/sixth movie. When asked which universe I prefer, Star Trek or Star Wars, I reply “Firefly“.

And I try to avoid going to movies I reasonably believe are going to be a waste of time and money. I’ve literally walked out of one movie in my life (The Burbs with Tom Hanks).

But I’ve been on a bit of a tear lately. I’ve seen movies four weekends in a row. And – unbelievably – they’ve all been good.

• Sound of Freedom. Amazing film. . Unbelievably intense. Its critics say “it manipulates the audience ZOMG”. Right . So did “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”, “Oliver Twist” and “Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner”. That’s art, especially art for a cause, for you. .
• No Hard Feelings. Yep ,a Jennifer Lawrence film. “But she’s a lefty”. I don’t care – it’s a movie with a fundamentally conservative message. One reviewer called it “a sex comedy without the sex”, and it’s not wrong – especially given that the one nude scene is hilarious and diametrically not erotic in the least.
• Oppenheimer. I love the fact that a director trusts and audience to be able to follow a complex, non-sequential plot.

Aaaaaaaand Barbie.

“Wait – wut”

Yep. Barbie. And I’d do it again – entirely on conservative social criticism grounds .

More tomorrow .

SCENE: Mitch BERG is getting canning supplies at Fleet Farm, when Avery LIBRELLE walks round the corner.

LIBRELLE: Merg!

BERG: Fuc…crying out loud, Avery, how are you?

LIBRELLE: Shut up. We figured out how to get white ammosexuals like you to support common sense gun safety regulations.

BERG: I can’t wait.

LIBRELLE: Give guns to black men!

BERG: Like this guy…

https://twitter.com/jeffcharlesjr/status/1688653967499079680?s=46&t=NQICV0vfnJ7ol-tsbeTj-A

…who’s been getting universal, comprehensive praise from gun owners of all ethnicities?

LIBRELLE: No, no. I mean if we gave stereotypical black men guns and got reactions from stereotypical white ammosexuals.

BERG: That…is, uh, ,probably factual. and uncommonly frank of you. Did you just have a wisdom tooth pulled?

LIBRELLE: They did just legalize weed in Minnesota.

BERG: Aaaaah ,yeah. Hey, look!

(BERG points at…something, LIBRELLE slowly ambles around in the other direction, at which point BERG makes his escape).

And SCENE

Senator Erin Maye Quade continues to confirm my thesis that DFL politicians count on their voters being – let’s be diplomatic – smug, but uninformed and uncritical.

SW is being required to attend a training by a literal, designated hate group for firing an employee who was harassing her co-worker. Apparently, harassing a co-worker is now protected religious liberty? I can't even https://t.co/Zf6mV68eTk

— Erin Maye Quade (@ErinMayeQuade) August 8, 2023

The Alliance Defending Freedom is “literally” “designated” as a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which is – and I know 95% of your readers know this – paid to defame conservative groups, leaders and thought.

It’s high time this behavior be commemorated in a Berg’s Law.

News articles we see as regularly as the rising and falling of the tide:

The spring of every election year: “Evangelicals swinging toward the left! (when a poll shows the Democrat vote among Evangelicans rose from 22% to 23%)

Every decade, during “festival” season: “Country music is moving to the left!” (when some flavor of the month singer goes on “The View” instead of the NASCAR pre-race show”

SCENE: Mitch BERG is sitting in a Chicago-style Viking restaurant in Richfield, perusing the menu. Devadip Ulysses PLOOBRADOR is escorted in and sits at a table next to BERG. PLOOBRADOR is a mystic prophet and self-described wise man who also doubles as a UPS and Doordash driver.

BERG: Mr. Ploobrador.

PLOOBRADOR: Mr. Berg. So what’s been keeping you busy?

BERG: The usual, Collapse of civil society, mostly.

PLOOBRADOR: The tribalism is truly suffocating.

BERG: Yeah, but it goes beyond that. As Dennis Prager notes, in 1861, when the US split into two nations, and provided you leave out slavery and some of the erosions of federalism that’s happened by that point, they were virtual mirror images of each other, at least in terms of structure and process.

And there is just no way that if this nation split up today that’d be the case. If the US split into two nations, one would largely reflect the Constitution as it is, and the other would likely resemble the French Republic with a little dash of Scandinavian parliamentarianism.

PLOOBRADOR: You are not wrong.

BERG: And of course, the way around that is to renew our commitment to federalism, limited government and checks and balances.

But the GOP is killing those institutions with neglect, and the Democrats are killing them very deliberately.

PLOOBRADOR: I can not argue. Decline and collapse is something that requires a great deal of acquiescence.

BERG: Right. So I’m wondering – at this point, barring a serious “coming to Jesus” re federalism at some point, which seems improbable at best…

PLOOBRADOR: …agreed…

BERG: …that some sort of “National Divorce” is inevitable.

PLOOBRADOR: Which would be the most horrible of all things. It wouldn’t be like the American Civil War, with two sides lining up on opposite sides of the Mason Dixon line. It would be more like Bosnia in the ’90s, with ideological “ethnic” cleansing expelling or removing the “infidels” reds from blue territory and vice versa.

BERG: I keep hearing that from people, saying that massive, eliminationist bloodshed is inevitable. And I have to ask – why?

At the best, it’s a matter of choice. People have to choose to be violent. And as we’ve seen, Big Left has no problem getting violent when they think the ends justify the means.

PLOOBRADOR: Hmmmm.

BERG: And at worst? Well, the notion that populations are so very intermingled means there’s a certain amount of balance of terror involved; would Big Left actually go full-bore Rwanda on conservatives in San Francisco and Chicago while “blues” are stranded in Miami, Austin and Boise?

PLOOBRADOR: That seems like an odd thing to be pollyannaish about.

BERG: I know. I just think ruling out a national divorce on relatively peaceful, if far from “good” terms, is really premature.

PLOOBRADOR: Hm. Interesting.

(WAITER, dressed in a bearskin vest and a horned helmet, approaches the tables).

WAITER: Welcome to Skraeliings Viking Restaurant. Can I take your order

BERG: I’ll have the Chicago Dog with a side of onion rings.

WAITER: Very good. And you, sir?

PLOOBRADOR: Make me one with everything.

(WAITER looks at both BERG and PLOOBRADOR, confused).

BERG: I think he’s talking about a hot dog .

(WAITER and PLOOBRADOR both nod).

And SCENE.

SCENE: Mitch BERG is standing in line at a Mexican fast-food joint when Evan Micah BRYAN walks into the store. BRYAN is 23, a 2022 graduate of Macalester with a degree in Political Science, is the Senior Communications Director for the Senate DFL Caucus.

BRYAN: MeRG.

BERG: Uh, hey…

BRYAN: ZOMGConServaTiveZ aRe tEh HiCks aND ruBEz wHo aRe aFRAID of tEH ciTIes.

BERG: As a conservative who lives in the Midway, I refute you.

BRYAN: HeEre iS TeH PrOOf ZOMG!

BERG: Its a photomeme.

BRYAN: OuR pHiLoSOphY in tEh DFL CoMMUnICatION oFFiCe iS iF wE du iT inna MeMe, iT’s ReALi-T!

BERG: Which is why your entire communications strategery is to show DFL politicians in an endless stream of selfies, and lots of end-zone ball-spiking, with no substance whatsoever?

BRYAN: No cOMMeNT.

BERG: Right. So – back to the costume. Let me guess – you are, as a DFL employee, a middle class white guy…

BRYAN: tHAT’s hOw I iDenTiFY.

BERG: …who lives in a neighborhood like Marcy-Holmes or Longfellow or Merriam Park

BRYAN: RiGHt. TEH cOOl pLaCes.

BERG: which is clogged with other young-ish single non-profit-industrial complex employees with plenty of money…

BRYAN: sURe.

BERG: You take the Green Line to a concert once or twice a year…

BRYAN: HoW ELsE woUld I fINd SaINT PaUl?

BERG: Sort of a “Fifteen Minute City”, where everything you do – your coffee shop, your grocery mart, your restaurants, your coffee shop, your bars, your restaurants, your transit stop, your coffee shop, your restaurants, your coffee shops, are all within a fifteen minute walk.

BRYAN: TeH wAY tEH wHOLe worLd sHouLD bE!

BERG: Where all the workers take the bus or drive hoopties in from Richfield or New Hope or Vadnais Heights.

BRYAN: yEp…ER, wUt?

BERG: Your “fifteen minute city” is actually an “Urban Life” theme park. But, sure, by all means, progsplain me about city life, junior.

BRYAN: HeY, loOk! MaTt RoZnOwSki iS slAshinG yOuR TirEz ZOMG!

BERG: Of course he is.

And SCENE

I may be the last person in America to comment on the Jason Aldean song.

But this is right in my wheelhouse, so I’m going to do it anyway.

I grew up in what was a big city in rural North Dakota; Jamestown is around 15,000 people – sort of that awkward stage where people from big cities think they’re in Mayberry, and people from smaller towns get nervous about traffic and crime.

I don’t romanticize small towns. I left Jamestown for a reason; there was literally no opportunity for me there. IAnd as much as North Dakota has evolved, there still isn’t (although if I were 22 today, Fargo would be an option); the town managed to avoid all that unseemly oil money to the west and big tech money in Fargo. And it surprises outsiders (!), but there is no privacy in a small town; everyone knows your history, going back a couple of generations. Even when I was 20, that was claustrophobic for me.

Beyond that? Ugly things happen in small towns. Small-time hoods wind up dumped in rivers after running afoul bigger-time hoodlums. Even if you leave out opioids and meth, which have ravaged many small towns that’ve been passed by economically, the same social patterns that *can* make so many small towns such stable and accountable (and infuriating, Lake Wobegon-like) places can also make for some pretty entrenched miscreancy.

But those same social patterns that drove me so crazy as a kid help enforce something that’s absolutely mandatory for a functioning democracy – the “high trust society”. If you trust that your neighbor isn’t trying to stab you in the back (figuratively – or maybe literally), you can spend that time and effort doing something useful.

If you leave your car unlocked with the keys in the ignition and go to bed, is your car going to be there in the morning? When everyone around you knows everyone and everything they’re doing, and the peer pressure is strong enough, probably, yeah.

And if the Sheriff knows he’s going to be going back to the highway patrol if he screws too many people over? You’ll have a well-behaved, ethical, *trustworthy* sheriff.

My favorite example: during Covid, I listened to some of Governor Walz’s press conferences. He sounded like he was hectoring a bunch of kids in a gym class. It was insulting. Then, I drove across the border and caught Governor Burgum giving a similar address. The difference was night and day; he sounded like he was addressing…adults. Equals. People who he knew would be bending his ear out on the streets of Bismarck if he got too big for his britches.

That’s not *entirely* a function of smaller towns and states; Salt Lake City and Boise and Plano Texas all do really well by those measures. But all of them have social cohesion and a high trust culture in common.

So if I were to do an edit on the Aldean song, I may go with something like “Try that in a place with high-trust area with social cohesion”.

(On the claims that the song is “racist?” That’s just moronic; you presume social disorder and crime are “black” things? And as to the courthouse used in the video having been the site of a lynching 100 years ago? Take that up with the Tennesee Film Board, which markets filming locations to production companies; many videos, and 2-3 movies (including the “Hannah Montana” movie and a Lifetime Christmas film) have been shot at that same courthouse. Oddly, the Tennessee Film Board doesn’t talk about lynching history any more than Duluth’s Chamber of Commerce does…).

“First, they ignore you. Then they. mock you. Then they attack you. Then you win”
– Gandhi

I remember during the heyday of the Tea Party, in 2009-10, living through Gandhi’s aphorism – and, in the end, seeing how very overrated Gandhi was as a keeper of profound wisdom.

But I digress.

The Democrats, MSM (ptr) and the Mitt Romney wing of the GOP did their best to pretend it didn’t matter.

Then it turned to mockery and its idiot cousin, uninformed defamation.

Then came the attacks.

And then we won – at least, in 2010. Big Left and Big GOP still don’t want to talk about it, but the Tea Party beat both establishments like Keith Moon beating a rack tom.

Of course, in 2012 and onward, the Empire struck back. Big Left and Big GOP teamed up, in effect, to smother the insurgents. It didn’t help that, by dint of being elected to actual office, the Tea Party became “the establishment” that the Ron Paul crowd railed against in the next presidential cycle. The momentum ebbed – as it often does when grassroots movements have to get back to their day jobs.

The cycle has cycled.

“The Strib paid notice in its op-ed page that the “Mama Bears” – who’ve been sitting it out, apparently, since Sarah Palin left the stage – are back (emphasis added):

These conservative mothers and grandmothers, who in recent years have organized for ”parental rights,” including banning discussion of gender identity in schools, have been classified as extremists by the Southern Poverty Law Center. They have also been among the most coveted voters so far in the 2024 Republican presidential primary.

Donald Trump praised their work, saying organizations such as Moms for Liberty had taught the liberal left a lesson: ”Don’t mess with America’s moms.” Ron DeSantis said ”woke” policies had “awakened the most powerful political force in the country: mama bears.” His wife, Casey DeSantis, who launched ”Mamas for DeSantis” in leadoff-voting Iowa, said moms and grandmas were the ”game changer” in DeSantis’ blowout win for a second term as Florida governor. She predicted they will be again as he runs for president.

Who wants to tell columnist Sara Burnett know that nobody outside the mainstream media thinks the SPLC has any more objective down the middle credibility than ISAIAH or Moms Want Action?

Ye shall know them by their opposition:

”Republicans have decided that this is, I think, their golden ticket for the primaries to rile up their base,” said Katie Paris, who runs Red, Wine and Blue, a network of women pushing back on GOP-backed policies such as the anti-LGBTQ and anti-trans efforts of Moms for Liberty.

Leave it to Big Left to try to rally women around box wine. What next – an activist group called “Valium Girls?”

”Call it ‘parents’ rights,’ call it ‘mama bears,’ and try to make it sound like something that would be common sense. … The reality about ‘parents’ rights’ is that it’s just about the rights of a vocal minority that is trying to carry out an extreme political agenda.”

I can’t wait for the next Minnesota DFLer to try to comment on that last sentence.

Representative Walter Hudson put it best:

Much more to come

Mitch BERG is on the air in the bunker at AM1280. He’s interviewing Aaron ROSTON, writer at the (possibly fictional) progressive blog “MinnesotaLiberalAlliance.Blogspot.com“.   He is a crossing guard at a school in rural southern Minnesota, and is a bullying activist – mostly focusing on promoting bullying of children of conservatives. ROSTON is talkng into microphone 3, lookng over the console at BERG.

BERG:  So you’re pro-choice? 

ROSTON:  Of course.  Abortion is a human right, 

BERG:  Let’;s define “human”.

ROSTON: That’s kind of absurd.

BERG:  Possible. Let’s see. So I have a question for you. When your mother was pregnant with and delivering you, at what point was it no longer acceptable for her to “terminate” you? Please be specific.

ROSTON:  Well, that was her choice.

BERG:  Right, Understood. So at what point in the pregnancy was it no longer her choice .

ROSTON:  Whenever she said.

BERG:  So could she terminate you now/

ROSTON:  Of course not. That’s absurd.

BERG:  Why?

ROSTON: Because I’m a human.

BERG:  Sure. So when did you become a human?

ROSTON:  When I was born.

BERG:  So two minutes after you were born, you were a human?

ROSTON:  Yes.

BERG:  And thirty seconds before you were born, when you were the exact same person you were ninety seconds later, but not quite out of your mother yet – was your life worth defending?

ROSTON:  That was up to my mother.

BERG:  So the only thing that changed about the moral value of your life in that ninety seconds was you emerging from your mother? It was entirely your mother’s call?

ROSTON: Sure.

BERG:  So could she still “terminate” you?

ROSTON:  Don’t be absurd!

BERG:  Why can’t she?

ROSTON:  You can’t murder a human.

BERG:  So thirty seconds before you were born, you weren’t human?

ROSTON:  Nope.

BERG:  And a minute later you were.

ROSTON: Yes.

BERG:  With the only difference being your mother’s choice?

ROSTON:  Yes.

BERG:  And no other reason she couldn’t terminate you today.

ROSTON:  You’re clearly a racist.

BERG:  Clearly.

(AND SCENE)

As I noted a couple weeks ago, drag bores me stiff.

So it’s a little galling that “drag” – a minstrel-show appropriation of a (to me) deadly dull art form, presented under the fairly proposterous premise that people with what people used to refer to as “alternate lifestyles” are remotely “underground” [1], especially in places like the Twin Cities these days – is one of our currently inescapable social skirmishes.

Last week, a children’s book store in Chaska – Chaska – was the subject of a viral video in which a woman castigated an employee over the store holding a “drag story time”. [2]

Well, that was a line that the increasingly “blue” far-west metro will not tolerate being crossed:

https://twitter.com/StarTribune/status/1677852317750796288

Drag shows: Meh.

Metro parents tripping over themselves to signal their virtue by, er, dragging their kids to a minstrel show? Blech.

I wish I could do a blind exit poll of the kids who got stuffed into that store, to see how many of the boys were creeped straight the hell out – or bored out of their minds and desperately wanting to do pretty much anything else in the world.

---

[1] One of Scott Johnson’s great contributions to the American intellectual landscape was referring to today’s LGBT movement as based around “the love that just won’t shut up”.

[2] Has the store ever done a “Blue Collar Family Story Time?” An “immigrant Story Time, or a “Veterans Story Time”? An “Intact Nuclear Family Story Time?” Why is it that men doing a female minstrel show are the only “storytellers” our extreme left wants to recognize?

I’m sure Planned Parenthood of Mankato will do a wonderfully dispassionate and culturally literate job…

…that won’t end up keeping customers coming back for life.

Amirite?

And don’t you dare call it indoctrination!

A friend of the blog emails:

[This advertiser] had it right.

Oh, I completely agree.

It was still morning in America.Notice, of course, thst it was 34 years ago. Reagan had barely left office. The Berlin Wall had yet to fall, but it was teetering.

But this is a good time to remind d you to be the backlash you want to see.

It’s faint – easy to miss in the din and blare of the DFL celebrating its just-finished legislative orgy, in the bleating of the news media, in the squawking of Governor Klink and honking of Lieutenant Governor Flanagan at a restaurant or parade.

But it’s out there.

Listen, and you can hear it: “The typical “independent” MInnesota voter is no more enamored of abortion on demand throughout and after pregnancy, at taxpayer expense, for all people of all ages who make it to Minnesota, legally or not, than they are of the idea of completely banning abortion”.

Because as the hangover from the DFL’s legislative orgy sets in, the DFL’s elected officials are telling you they know it, although not much more loudly than the whisper, so as not to offend their “progressive” overseers.

Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar said Sunday she supports allowing limitations on abortion in the third trimester of pregnancy wading into the thorny political debate of abortion procedure time frames.

“I support allowing for limitations in the third trimester that do not interfere with the life or health of the women,” Klobuchar told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union,” while also reaffirming her support for codifying Roe v. Wade.

So while every Democrat will wriggle away from the question “at what point in pregnancy would it have no longer been OK for your mother to abort you” like it’s a live hand grenade, you can see that they’re not aware that some people can and do answer it.

Metro progressive DFLers don’t hear it, of course – or will turn up the volume of their little show:

https://twitter.com/NortonMpls/status/1673506963915677696

But Amy knows.

Minneapolis has big plans for transit, and Minneapolitans are part of them, whether they like it or not.

June 24, 2023 – 2:00 PM

In seven years, Minneapolis transportation planners want 60% of trips in the city taken on public transit, or made by biking, walking or rolling.

The effort to achieve that ambitious goal, which is laid out in the city’s Transportation Action Plan, began this month as the city partnered with marketing agency Vision Flourish to kick off the mode-shift campaign called “As You Go Minneapolis.”

“We want to shift people’s behavior and thinking about how to move about the city,” said Amy Barnstorff, a transportation planner in the city’s Public Works Department.

No word on how they plan to enforce compliance with this diktat.

It was about this time fifteen years ago that I was in the middle of my 11-month experiment at doing without a car.

Among my conclusions from that experiment:

I want to laugh when I see some of the lefties – especially the transit-oriented leftybloggers – yapping about running their lives on transit.  I notice that not a single one of them seems to have kids; children are the big clinker in the “transit-oriented lifestyle”.  If you have to get kids to an after-school event, it’s a major expedition; if you have to take one to urgent care, it’s either miserable (hauling sick kids on the bus is a rotten feeling, although I never had to do it) or expensive (cabs in the Twin Cities are nothing to write home about). 

Just to run down the hunch, I checked out the transit planner featured in the article.

And sure enough, she punched all the expected tickets; her and her significant other apparently have a dog, but no children.

I’ve yet to meet anyone who can walk that particular walk without having a car for a backup.

Someone prove me wrong.

Something doesn’t quite smell right about this story.

The bar cited Anheuser-Busch’s “move to stop its marketing campaign celebrating actress, comedian, and content creator Dylan Mulvaney’s first year as a woman.” https://t.co/dqXGAFKhPI

— Alpha News (@AlphaNewsMN) June 19, 2023

It’s a gay bar, dumping Bud Light over them, abandoning the Dylan Mulvaney campaign.

The stereotype of gay bar patrons is that they have impeccable taste.

We are talking Bud Light.

Anyone else seeing the problem here?

Of course, the lesson to companies is, or should be, “don’t get involved in the culture war. Because once you dip your toe in, there is no “middle ground“.

SCENE: One morning at MNDFL Headquarters. An array of progressive Minnesota luminaries are gathered around a table. At the head sits Lieutenant Governor Peggy FLANAGAN. To her right, Ken MARTIN, chair of the DFL. The other seats are occupied by Javier MORILLO of the SEIU, Denise SPECHT of Education MInnesota, Alida MESSINGER of Alliance for a Better MInnesota, and the senior staff of Minnesotans United for All Progressive Causes, the non-profit/money-laundering operation that works with the party.

FLANAGAN: Murphy!

(Esme MURPHY enters the room): Yes, Maam?

FLANAGAN: Gimme a g*****mn Manhattan.

MURPHY: Yes, ma’am. (Murphy exits.)

FLANAGAN: OK, Ken, where’s the governor?

MARTIN (Yelling): Governor Walz?

WALZ (Enters from a closet next to the exit door). Hraaaa hraaa hraaaas hreaa One Minnesota hraaaaa hra hra hraaaaaa Best State (holds out an iPhone, takes a selfie) hraaaa hraaaa hra hra donut hraaaaaa hraaaaa…

FLANAGAN: Got it! Enough! (WALZ goes back into the closet).

FLANAGAN: We need an example of a place in the real world that is dominated by Democrats and exemplifies love and equity.

Inge “Lucky” CARROLL, a former guidance counselor at a school for monomaniacs, Inge is Head Meme-Buffer at “Minnesotans United for All Liberal Causes, raises her hand.

FLANAGAN: What?

CARROLL: Let’s have them look at Hamtramck, Michigan. It’s solid Democrat country – their Democrat congresswoman won by a sixty point margin. And the city is majority Muslim and is run by an elected Muslim city council, and they just voted…

(CARROLL squints at a site on her phone) uhhhhhhh…

On Tuesday, Hamtramck, Michigan’s city council, unanimously voted to banPride flags from being displayed on public property. Located just outside Detroit, Hamtramck is the only Muslim-majority town in the United States.

The ruling was celebrated with cheers and applause inside City Hall, where dozens of concerned residents, Muslim and Christian, had shown up to express their thoughts on the matter.

According to the Detroit Free Press, the resolution was introduced by Councilman and Mayor Pro Tem Mohammed Hassan, and applies not only to Pride flags, but also those promoting any “religious, ethnic, racial, political, or sexual orientation group.”

“Only, the American flag, and the nations’ flags that represent the international character of our City shall be flown,” Hassan stated, adding that it was imperative to “maintain and confirm the neutrality of the city of Hamtramck towards its residents.”

FLANAGAN: (Sits, dumbfounded)

(The closet door opens. Governor WALZ steps out, and wanders around the room like a Roomba)

WALZ: Hraa hra hraaa hra hraaaaa hraaaaa hra BestState hra hraaaa hra Fully Funded hra hra hraaaaaa hra hra hraaa hra…

And SCENE

Maybe, just maybe, the kids will be all right:

https://twitter.com/RichardHanania/status/1668742696020877312

Us Gen-X grandparents will have a role in helping our Zeeper/Alpha grandkids reclaim this nation’s actual legacy.

Also: I bet if this keeps up Big Left will stop trying to register teenagers to vote.

Big Media (Loudly). Target is getting threatened for backing off of some trans-forward merch in some stores in some places…

(More quietly): …by pro-LGBTQIAetc advocates.

Conclusion: give in to the wannabe terrorists so the conservatives don’t win!

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

I am endlessly informed by Liberals that the reason Black students do poorly in school is racism.  The teachers, the principals, the entire educational system is against them. If that’s so, then I must ask: why do we continue to employ racists in those positions?  Fire every one of them, hire new people who pledge to do better, and monitor the results.  If Black students do better, then Liberals were right.  If not, then the problem lies elsewhere and we can stop hearing about racism as the problem.

The wrongfully accused and ultimately fired teachers and administrators?  They can learn to code.

I am endlessly informed by Liberals that the reason Black defendants are over-represented in the justice system is racism. The cops, the prosecutors and judges, the entire legal system is against them.  If that’s so, then I must ask: why do we continue to employ racists in those positions?  Fire every one of them, hire new people who pledge to do better, and monitor the results. If Blacks do better, then Liberals were right.  If not, then the problem lies elsewhere and we can quit hearing about racism as the problem.

The wrongfully accused and ultimately fired cops, lawyers and judges?  They can learn to code.

We cannot continue to blame racists for society’s problems while we continue to harbor racists in their positions of power.  A wholesale makeover of society is required.

Maybe you’re thinking that’s too ambitious.  Maybe you’re thinking we should start small, a pilot project so to speak, to see how it goes.  I have a suggestion, lifted from Henry VI, Part 2:

“The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.”

Joe Doakes No Longer in Como Park

If progs didn’t have racism/white supremacy/toxic masculinity to deflect to, they’d have to work.

Minnesota is transferring his first transgender female to the Shakopee women’s prison.

Minnesota's prison system says it will move a transgender inmate to a facility matching their gender identity, a first for the department since it updated its policy. https://t.co/BiZT6RXgTg

— KSTP (@KSTP) June 1, 2023

But I’m not here to talk about the obvious issue.

No – there are two issues that go way beyond putting (deep breath) bio-men into women’s prisons.

Stay In Your Lane: Shakopee is referred to as a “women’s. prison”.

Is the MN Department of Corrections a bunch of biologists?

Do are they experts in what “women” are? Like this PhD?

Which leads us to another, inarguably more serious problem.

Pronouns Pronouns Pronouns: What’s in the world “Prison?”

The word “Son”.

Since we don’t know the genders of the incarcerated (indeed, the incarcerated themselves may not know at any given time), it’s time to change the name of the facility to “Shakopee Prixyn”.

(more…)

To: Jon Collins, Senior Reporter on Race, Class and Communities, MInnesota Public Radio
From: Mitch Berg, Obstreporous Peasant
Re: Anniversary + Findings

Mr. Collins,

As with last year and 2021, I hope this day finds you well.

It was three years ago today you sent this out on your listener mailing list::

“South Minneapolis: I know this sounds crazy. But it’s 2020. And I’m working on story now about white supremacists coming to Minneapolis to foment race war under cover of the protests. I need your help, and your friends help. Please refer anyone with real, credible info (not rumor or speculation) or sources to me at (I’m gonna redact that)

What the heck – let’s give this a shot:

Now, I know MPR reporters don’t generally deign to respond to the peasantry – in fact, I know MPR News management specifically tells staff not to engage with the unwashed masses.

But I’m genuinely curious – did you find anything?

It’s not of idle interest to me.  Mine was one of the neighborhoods that got burned, looted and vandalized in May of 2020 (noting at the time that I saw a lot of “AmeriKKKa” and “Destroy the 1%” graffiti, but not a single swastika or “14 words” reference, I’m thinking the Twin Cities either got the most inept “white supremacists” in the history of bigotry, or they were the most ingenious – fiendishly tricking a whole city full of leftists into doing the job for them – the sort of fieldcraft that’d make a Mossad agent envious).     

While I am a very overt conservative (I went from Bob Collins’ Christmas Card list to…well, very much off of it during his unfortunate unpleasantness a few years ago), I also spent time covering radical groups of all stripes back when I was in the mainstream media.  

I ask because a not-so-cursory look through the last three years of your reporting doesn’t seem to show anything.  

And as I do every year on the anniversary of this event, I’d like to invite you on my show (Saturday, 1-3PM) to talk about your findings.   Because it’s everyone’s city. 

Thanks,

Mitch Berg
Host, WWTC-AM

 

…as the George Floyd riots gathered steam, this blog (thanks to a source with deep connections among Henco first responders) scooped the entire rest of the Twin Cities media on the Third Precinct story.

Representative Alicia Kozlowski – one of the DFL‘s leading public intellectuals and thought leaders – had this to say over the weekend about illegal immigration

https://twitter.com/liishkozlowski/status/1660425683837898752?s=46&t=NQICV0vfnJ7ol-tsbeTj-A

So, apparently, Rep. Kozlowski‘s (and the DFL‘s) new taxes and gun control laws can be ignored, then?

For that matter, given that by her logic, the legislature itself is illegitimate, she shouldn’t actually have a position of any authority at all?

Urban Progressive Privilege means never having to really rationalize your only rationality.

The SPPD has arrested a suspect in the arson of a mosque on Dale Street in Saint Paul:

Police said Thursday officers arrested 42-year-old Said Ntamugabumwe around 8 p.m. Wednesday. He was booked into the Ramsey County Jail on suspicion of first-degree arson. 

Read More: Arrest Made in Minnesota Mosque Arson Case | https://krocnews.com/arrest-made-in-minnesota-mosque-arson-case/?trackback=twitter_mobile&utm_source=tsmclip&utm_medium=referral

No word if Mr. Ntamugabumwe was carrying an umbrella.