The Kool Aid Report is, according to sources close to auteur Joe “Learned Foot” Tucci, coming back.

Not sure where they got it, but I liked this bit from east-metro watchdogblog Expose The Truth:.

In response to the question: “Do you have any dependents?”

I replied ……. 12 million illegal immigrants; 3 million crack heads; 42 million unemployable lazy bastards;

the entire cast of the Jerry Springer Show; 2 million people in over 243 prisons; 300,000 leftovers from Katrina;

half of Mexico; and hundreds more in the U.S. House and Senate.

Apparently, this wasn’t an acceptable answer.

More topically, they are a new blog with a mission to watch Woodbury politics.  I got to meet the proprietors at the MOB party on Saturday.  Keep an eye on ’em!

…don’t forget tonight is the seventh annual Minnesota Organization of Bloggers Summer Party!

We’ll be at Keegans’ Irish Pub in Northeast Minneapolis.  The party starts seven-ish, and runs until people poop out.  Which means 11ish, usually.  We’ll be out back on the cigar patio.

Join us!

…is the 2011 Minnesota Organization of Bloggers summer party!

We’ll be at our traditional summer digs, Keegans Irish Pub in Northeast Minneapolis.  Keegans is on University at Hennepin in Northeast Minneapolis (map below the fold).  It’ll start at 7PM, out on the cigar patio (rain or shine) and it’ll go until we stop!

Come if you’re a blogger, a blog reader, or if you just like hanging out with fun people!

(more…)

Saturday night is the 2011 Minnesota Organization of Bloggers summer party!

We’ll be at our traditional summer digs, Keegans Irish Pub in Northeast Minneapolis.  Keegans is on University at Hennepin in Northeast Minneapolis (map below the fold).  It’ll start at 7PM, out on the cigar patio (rain or shine) and it’ll go until we stop!

Come if you’re a blogger, a blog reader, or if you just like hanging out with fun people!

(more…)

Saturday night is the 2011 Minnesota Organization of Bloggers summer party!

We’ll be at our traditional summer digs, Keegans Irish Pub in Northeast Minneapolis.  Keegans is on University at Hennepin in Northeast Minneapolis (map below the fold).  It’ll start at 7PM, out on the cigar patio (rain or shine) and it’ll go until we stop!

Come if you’re a blogger, a blog reader, or if you just like hanging out with fun people!

(more…)

Saturday night is the 2011 Minnesota Organization of Bloggers summer party!

We’ll be at our traditional summer digs, Keegans Irish Pub in Northeast Minneapolis.  Keegans is on University at Hennepin in Northeast Minneapolis (map below the fold).  It’ll start at 7PM, out on the cigar patio (rain or shine) and it’ll go until we stop!

Come if you’re a blogger, a blog reader, or if you just like hanging out with fun people!

(more…)

…’til the 2011 Minnesota Organization of Bloggers summer party!

We’ll be at our traditional summer home, Keegans Irish Pub in Northeast Minneapolis.  Keegans is on University at Hennepin in Northeast Minneapolis (map below the fold).  It’ll start at 7PM, out on the cigar patio (rain or shine) and it’ll go until we stop!

Come if you’re a blogger, a blog reader, or if you just like hanging out with fun people!

(more…)

The Minnesota Organization of Bloggers Summer Party is coming up very, very soon.

Annoucement tomorrow on the Northern Alliance Radio Network – 1-3PM on AM1280 The Patriot.

(I”m still crossing my fingers someone will show up with a .455 Webley).

The Minnesota Organization of Bloggers Day at the Range will be held on Thursday, July 14, at Burnsville Pistol Range in Burnsville.  The event will run from 5-8PM.

The event will be a benefit for the family of the late Joel Rosenberg.  The suggested donation to participate is $20 – and since every penny of proceeds will go to the Rosenbergs, anything extra is appreciated.

We’ll have five or six firing lanes.  Bring your own handguns; if you don’t own any, there will be quite a few loaners there from various MOB members.

The ammo supply is, in that great Minnesota tradition, pot luck; feel free to bring a box of ammo out to use on pieces that you want to borrow; you can certainly barter and share ammo when you get there if you want to try more than one piece.  You may also buy ammunition at Burnsville, which sells most of the popular calibers of pistol ammo.   Indeed, we recommend buying ammo at BPR – they are giving us a spectacular rate on the bay.

We have loaners committed in the following calibers:

• .22 Long Rifle
• .38 Special
• .357 Magnum
• 9mm Parabellum/Luger
• .40 S&W
• .45 ACP
• .45 Long Colt (revolver)

Please respond in the comment section, or by emailing me at “feedbackinthedark”, which is a Yahoo dot com address.  Please provide…:

• Your name
• Any extra people in your party
• Whether you will or will not be bringing a piece.
• Whether you’d be willing to share the piece(s) with other particpants.

Hope to see you there!

Here’s the Googlemap for Burnsville Pistol Range.

We’ve been talking about this for seven years.

The time has come.

The Minnesota Organization of Bloggers “Day At The Range” will be held…in the very near future.

Here’s the deal:

• We’ll be renting a bay of lanes – probably 5-6 stations on a firing line – at a local gun range.  We’ll have ’em rented for four hours.
• The event will be on a weeknight – because ranges are much cheaper to rent on weeknights.    This is important because of the next point.
• It’ll be a benefit – details coming soon.  Admission will likely be in the $20 range, with proceed going to the benefit.

Now, here’s where MOBsters come in; we need a couple of numbers

• How many people can make it to a gun range in, let’s say, the south suburbs, on a weeknight – say, Wednesday or Thursday.
• How many people can bring some sort of firearm (OK, handgun)
• How many would be willing to share with people who don’t have their own, or who want to try out otoher firearms?  (You’ll be on your own for the arrangements for ammo; I’d suggest pro-rating your ammo cost per magazine, or 5-6 shots for revolvers, and taking “suggested donations”.

We don’t have a firm date right now, but we will very shortly.

So – if you fit any or all of the categories above, please either leave a comment, or (if you prefer privacy) drop me a line at “feedbackinthedark”, which is a yahoo dot com address.

This will be happening in the very near future.

As if it the leftyblog-conservativeblog battle weren’t already horribly overmatched, the most long-awaited conservative blog in town – Laura Gatz’s “Princess Politics” – is finally up and going.

Stop by and say hi, and make Laura a stop on your daily blog browsing.   It’s gonna be a fun MOB party this summer.

Wait – did I say MOB party this summer?

Why, I do believe I did.

More coming soon.

Benefit for Joel Rosenberg’s family will be tomorrow night at 7PM at Dreamhaven Books. Dreamhaven is at 2301 East 38th Street in Minneapolis.

Don’t forget – tomorrow is the 7th annual Minnesota Organization of Bloggers Winter Fiesta!

We’ll be at Ol’ Mexico – Lexington, just north of Larpenteur in Roseville.  7PM until we’re done!

Drop me an RSVP.  Or just be there.

Don’t forget – the Minnexsota Organization of Bloggers Winter Fiesta is coming up Saturday night at 7PM at Ol’ Mexico.  It’s just north of Larpenteur on Lexington in Roseville!

It’s open to everyone – bloggers, blog readers, blog fans, non-bloggers, whatever you are!  And it’s not just conservatives; politics really aren’t the goal of the MOB party.   Liberal, conservative, moderate, apathetic, even catbloggers; you’re all welcome!

Feel free to RSVP via the facebook page, or at the yahoo dot com email address “Feedbackinthedark”.

A few weeks ago, Brian “Saint Paul” Ward at Fraters – my longtime NARN colleague – vented his Tea-partying rage at U of M mascot Goldy Gopher:

I know I’ll never look upon his leading the “Ni, Ni, Ni” chant at hockey games in the same way again. All this time, he was referring to his putting his knee into the tax payers’ collective groin. Ski-U-Mah, indeed.

Someone has obviously taken Brian’s rant to heart:

An annoyed fan — a University of St. Thomas math professor and a devoted University of Minnesota booster — socked the fuzzy-suited mascot after tiring of his antics during a men’s gymnastics meet Saturday night.

The mascot-mauling left the professor red-faced, regretful and banned from the University of Minnesota’s Sports Pavilion and Williams Arena for a year. Goldy is left shaken, his gopher face damaged. And spectators didn’t know what to think.

“Honestly, we thought it was funny at the time,” said Barry Colthorpe, who watched the bleacher knock-down unfold as he sat with his wife. “I know it shouldn’t be funny that someone got punched, but the fact that it was a mascot, it was an unreal situation. But you can’t go around punching people even if it’s a mascot.”

Most fans know that Goldy tries to entertain crowds with light-hearted shenanigans. “He doesn’t mean any harm,” said Scott Ellison, U of M associate athletic director. “He’s just there to add a little fun.”

There’s a simmering pot of rage among those middle-aged academics.  Gotta be careful, Brian.

Don’t forget – the Minnesota Organization of Bloggers Winter Party is coming up soon!

It’ll be Saturday evening, March 26, at Ol’ Mexico in Roseville.

Do us a favor and hit the RSVP page on Facebook, or just drop me a line at “feedbackinthedark”, which is a Yahoo email address.

We’d love to have you there!

The Seventh (mostly) Annual Minnesota Organization of Bloggers Winter Party is now scheduled for Saturday, March 26 at Ol’ Mexico in Roseville!  Googlemap)

We had a great time there last year, what with the large-ish indoor room (with attached outdoor smoking patio) and really really amazing waitstaff.  We figured “Why mess with success?”

Please RSVP to “feedbackinthedark”, which is a Yahoo email address, or to go the MOB Facebook page!

Minnesota Public Radio wants to know “What are the sounds that symbolize your community?”

Given that my “community’s” sounds are best represented by the likes of Ryan Rhodes and Learned Foot, perhaps MPR will be sorry they asked.

But perhaps we should find out.

I wasn’t going to write about this until I saw he’d written about it first.

Ryan Rhodes – who’s been running the “Rambling Rhodes” (among many other names) blog for about as long as anyone in Minnesota has been blogging, and has been a regular commenter on this blog ever since I’ve had comments – had a rough December.  He and his wife’s twins – Finn and Zoey – were born very, very prematurely, weighing a pound and a half apiece.

Finn died on New Years’ Eve.  But Zoey is hanging in there.

Unfortunately, the tragic turn of events that greeted us at the end of December, as well as the gaping hole left in our lives by Finn’s passing, has numbed my wife and me considerably when it comes to the sheer medical miracle that Zoey is still with us and fighting strong. We’ve been so mired in grief and sorrow, the everyday fact of Zoey’s continued existence almost seems like it’s the least fate could give us. Nay, owes us.

But, she is alive. And, it is rather miraculous.

She was delivered via C-section at a paltry 1 lb. 4.5 oz. I like to use the analogy of her being the size of a TV remote control, but that doesn’t really convey the reality. Her tiny size didn’t register for me until I saw her footprints alongside the footprints of my first son, Aiden, when he was born at 8 lb. 15 oz. The difference is truly staggering, like Andre the Giant next to Vern Troyer. And I remember thinking, 15 months ago, how the hell we were going to keep AIDEN ALIVE.

The delicate balance of drugs, medications, fluids, oxygen and general environment required to keep a 24-week old preemie alive is ridiculously complex. Each time I visit Zoey, I have to practically squint past the banks of machines and monitors to see the little wriggling putty of flesh that is my daughter.

He walks through the concentric miracles of both technology and infant physiology that are helping Zoey hang in there:

The lungs, which are about the most undeveloped organs in their whole bodies, can somehow be persuaded to kick things into developmental gear. It’s not an exact science, but the organs that are normally one of the last ones asked to perform can be coaxed from the bench and perform a game-saving series of plays that can make even the most die-hard pessimist hope, optimistically, for a victory. Preemie lungs are the Detroit Lions or the Cincinnati Bengals, or an expansion team.

Today was a good day. A much-needed good day. For all of us.

Tomorrow? Who the f*** knows?

But, you know what? I’m hopeful, and that’s huge.

So I’ll urge your to direct your prayers, karmic imprecations, best wishes or whatever your worldview calls for to Ryan, his wife, Aiden and, of course, Zoey.