King from SCSUScholars notes a bill that should be getting more attention…:

The story tells of a man who built two additions to his property against the regulations of the county zoning ordinance. When he was told he had violated the ordinance, he asked for a waiver from the zoning board, which turned him down. The normal recourse for this is to file suit against the zoning board. But Rep. Tom Rukavina of Virginia authored HF495, which reads in full:

The St. Louis County Board of Adjustment shall issue a variance to any applicant who requests a variance from St. Louis County Zoning Ordinance 46, article IV, sections 3.01 and 3.03, if the property at issue is located in Government Lot 1, Section 35, Township 56, Range 17, and if the request for variance was previously denied at a meeting of the St. Louis County Board of Adjustment on December 19, 2006.

Thats pretty particular to his childhood friends property.

…but seemingly isn’t – outside of the blogs.

Read the whole thing.  Give DFL stalward Rukavina a call.

The Airport Commission is debating the Moslem cabbies’ “right” to refuse service to people with alcohol.

I’ve had about enough of these idiots:

Many cabbies disagreed, saying that the proposal denies them the right to freely practice their religion.

“This is discrimination,” proclaimed Ahmed Shine, a taxi driver for seven years.

No, it’s a “job condition”.  If my religion forbade me from watching people use software, my employer would be well within its rights to toss me.  Ditto the MAC.

And the MAC isn’t saying you can’t drive a cab.  Merely that you can’t drive one on its turf, the airport.

Beyond that, Ahmed?  Stand on principle!  Refuse the booze!  Eke out a living hauling welfare fares home from the grocery store (no booze there!).

Abdifatah Abdi, who said he was speaking for an association of cabdrivers, said the commissioners “will be judged on your decision.”You are deciding the livelihood of 600 drivers and their families,” Abdi said. “Say no to discrimination. Say yes to justice for the weak.”

Then go out and get a job where you don’t have to deal with infidels!

Seriously, what’s next?  Refusing to serve women who aren’t wearing chador?

Go drive your cab in Mogadishu.

Katherine Kersten takes on the U of M’s doltish decision to give Algore a PhD in…something.

Rad the whole thing.  But I liked the decision – “what degree?”

Early on, the doctorate in science had an edge. But the recently released summary of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change changed all that. It made clear that a centerpiece of Gore’s sky-is-falling claim — ocean levels rising 20 feet as a near term prospect — is wildly off base. The panel projects that by 2100, sea level will rise a mere 7 to 23 inches.

So how about an honorary doctorate of laws, based on Gore’s efforts on behalf of the Kyoto global warming treaty? Unfortunately, skeptics might point out that Gore couldn’t even talk Bill Clinton into submitting the treaty to Congress, after the Senate voted 95-0 for a resolution discouraging it, and that compliance has been poor among countries that did sign the treaty.

Humane letters? Naw, that’s not for real men like Al.

Which degree will it be? The Daily article contains a clue. It quoted Ingrid Scantlebury, a precocious U of M freshman not yet caught up in the Gore glow. According to the Daily, Scantlebury “agrees with Gore’s work but doesn’t feel the university should award him a degree for it. ‘It’s mainly a publicity thing,’ she said.”

You guessed it — Gore’s going to get a special honorary doctorate in marketing.

I think “Creative Writing” or “American Fiction” would do, too…

I did not know this:  Pete Townsend (or a fiendishly clever impersonator) has a blog.

And he’s asking is to keep Britney in our thoughts.

And I’ve skiffled through every single page on the blog in the last few hours…

David Strom runs down the list of Minnesota political luminaries – and former luminaries (mostly the latter) and notes:

 Hmm.

The McCain campaign has announced its “Minnesota Team,” and overall the list is very heavy on the liberal Republicans.

Very Heavy.

Very very heavy on the liberal Republicans.

And, after noting the list’s leftness of center and longness of tooth, asks…:

Why was Pawlenty so unsuccessful in filling out this list with big names? Where are the big money people other than Eibensteiner?

Hmmm. Where is everyone else going? Romney or Guiliani? Or just waiting in the wings?

 MOB Mayor Andy Aplikowski says:

I can tell you that many people I have talked to about McCain, are supporting him solely based on his military career, and time served in the Hanoi Hilton. I would never begin to attack them or McCain for that, but I would strongly urge anyone seriously considering McCain to look at his Senate career instead. That’s the kind of President we will get with McCain.

Some other names on the list that I know can simply be summed up by saying that they believe the Government should solve every and any problem. RINOs, if you will. We’re gonna be ground zero in the 2008 Presidential melee for Republicans, and this is the list of people McCain and Pawlenty put together to go twist arms? Frankly, a lot of these people won’t even be listened to by the conservative base of the Republican party.

Gotta confess – I’d love to be able to support McCain.  He’s a war hero, for crying out loud. 

But McCain/Feingold would only be forgiveable if McCain were to ask for forgiveness – and, better yet, seek atonement by sponsoring an immediate repeal.

Without that?  I just can’t see it.

The Strib tries to shame the Governor into playing pattycake with Jim “Dr. Pork” Oberstar:

Jim Oberstar wants a partner. The new chairman of the House Transportation Committee a title that makes Oberstar the nations most powerful figure when it comes to planes, trains and automobiles wants badly to give his home state the full benefit of his influence — and the ample federal dollars that flow with it — if only Minnesota will clasp his hand.

(Closed circuit to Ryan Rhodes and Learned Foot: Do you have any idea how hard it was to let that “clasp his hand” thing go without coming up with a better, if bluer, metaphor?  I bet you both do.  I shall learn from the example of Jeff Kouba, and be better than that).

But it will not. At least not so far. Gov. Tim Pawlenty has made plain his disinterest in putting up the money needed to leverage federal dollars to begin solving Minnesotas long-brewing transportation crisis. Why? Because, as Oberstar pointed out to an overflow crowd at a joint transportation committee session in St. Paul last week, it would require raising the states user fee on gasoline, a user fee that the governor prefers to spell “t-a-x.” Thus, the discussion is ended and the partnership precluded.

And one of the principles under which Pawlenty was elected four years ago – and re-elected last year – was upheld.

Imagine that – a politician sticking to a campaign promise!

Other states will be happy to take Minnesotas money, Oberstar said. Forty-five of them have raised their gasoline taxes since Minnesota last raised its in 1988, and many have committed local matches for building transit systems, making them more reliable partners than Minnesota. Its a point that business should especially understand: A partner who wont ante up isnt much of a partner. Asked if he had a message for the governor, Oberstar paused, then said politely: “Face up to the reality.”

Put in plain English: “Pork is how the game is played.  Play along!”

Indeed, Pawlentys reluctance makes him look out-of-date considering the investments other Republican governors have made on several fronts in recent years.

“But Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad!  All the other kids are doing it!  Why can’t I?”

His no-new-taxes song has fallen to golden oldie status as attention shifts to the obvious need for basic investment, in this case, in transportation. Drive through almost any state and youll ride on better roads. Visit any comparable metro area and youll find a better and rapidly expanding transit system. Minnesota looks threadbare. It has been slow to grasp the economic peril of falling behind competitors, slow to feel the tragedy of unsafe rural roads, and slow to understand that the right kind of transportation investments are essential to meeting the challenges of climate change and energy independence. This is not just about metro traffic congestion.

No, but it’s not about improving transportation, either.  The Strib has stood in lock step against road improvements – which we need – in favor of “improvements” to transit (which we don’t, at least certainly not in its current form).

The Senate has the votes to override Pawlentys promised veto of a meaningful transportation bill. House members of both parties must now find the courage to do likewise.

To match Pawlenty’s courage in resisting the easy, primrose path?  To abandoning his principles?

Good luck with that, DFL.

I’m of two minds about this story, about Alabama’s Stillman College hosting a conference on…not race relations in general, but the “N” word itself:

With a debate swirling nationwide over the n-word, a historically black college in Alabama has set aside four days to discuss the racial slur.Participants at the conference, which began Thursday and ends Sunday, discussed topics ranging from the origins of the epithet to whether juggling a few letters makes it socially acceptable at the NSurrection Conference at Stillman College.

Organizers said the goal of the event is to challenge the use of the n-word “through the use of intelligent dialogue and a thorough examination of black history.”

Debate over the use of the word has escalated in recent months, with comedian Michael Richards racial rant prompting black leaders such as the Rev. Jesse Jackson and California Rep. Maxine Waters to urge the public and the entertainment industry to stop using it.

Uh…waitaminnit.

Is there really “debate” over the word? Doesn’t pretty much everyone agree that it’s wrong?

Well, of course not; the conference does indeed address the very incongruity that has gone through every thinking person’s mind since they saw Richard Pryor’s first movie; why the “N-word” is the most caustic word in the history of the language when some people say it, and a term of endearment when others do:

“I really think that as far as white people are concerned, the word is almost on its way out,” said Hacker, who is white. “That said, there are a lot of white people who still in the privacy of their own minds think the word even if they don’t use it because they regard black people as genetically inferior and that word categorizes that.”

Kovan Flowers, co-founder of AbolishTheNWord.com, said striking the word from use would help set an example for other races.

“We can’t say anything to Hispanics, or whites or whoever unless we stop using it ourselves,” he said. “It’s the root of the mind-set that’s affecting why people are low, from housing to jobs to education.”

Stillman senior Maurice Williams said he organized the conference hoping to educate his peers about the history of the word. The event includes a community fair, charity basketball game, unity march and discussions ranging from the word’s origin to its use among various ethnic groups.

“I had to understand that a lot of the images that we portray in television, in the media, in the hip-hop environment — all of those things have the same connotations as the n-word itself, so therefore it’s the n-word personified,” Williams said. “Where do you see another culture portraying some of these same images?”

Not just “where”, but “why”?

Rapper Tupac Shakur was credited with legitimizing the term “nigga” when he came out with the song “N.I.G.G.A.,” which he said stood for “Never Ignorant Getting Goals Accomplished.”

Stillman English professor Alisea McLeod said she doesn’t buy it.

“It’s hogwash. What this is really indicative of is a heart problem,” she said. “What is coming out of mouths is what is coming out of souls. These are not words that are uplifting and I think (they) point to a bigger problem — a lack of self-love.”

“Self-love”, perhaps.

Self-awareness, as well. Shakur’s “Strictly 4 Ma N.I.G.G.A.Z.” came out in 1993, two years after “N.W.A“, short for “N___z With Attitude”, a group that achieved immense success without the benefit of any radio airplay in the late eighties. It also happened nearly two decades after Richard Pryor released “That N_____’s Crazy”, his first big mainstream success.

Wanna get rid of the word? Stop saying it.

I’m occasionally reminded that in my native North Dakota, state legislators haven’t gotten a pay raise since the 1890’s.  They still (the last I checked) make $5 a day, plus a very modest per diem. 

Business gets done.  Bills get paid.  North Dakota’s high school achievement scores (for whatever standardized test scores are worth) are up there with Minnesota’s at the top of the national rankings.

Minnesota’s legislators, on the other hand, on top of a mid-60K 30K annual salary [Corrected – my bad.  I was thinking of the constitutional offices], get $66 a day in expense money.  Not enough, says the DFL-controlled legislature; they want a 45 percent raise.

Craig “Cap’n Fishsticks” Westover has another plan.  He’s reaching out with his heart:

I am initiating an “Adopt a State Senator” campaign. What greater satisfaction could one have than sharing a little more of what you’ve earned with an overworked and underpaid public servant — someone like little Larry.

Little Larry lives in Minneapolis and drives all the way to the state Capitol in St. Paul every day the Legislature is in session. There is nothing worse for a legislator than to be sitting in his car on a congested freeway hungry and thirsty. Imagine pulling into a Starbucks and having to choose between a grande cafe mocha and a ham and Swiss bagel. On a meager $66 per diem there may not be enough money for both. Our state senators face tough choices like that every day.

But you can help our senators with your contribution of just $30 per day, or about $4,000 per legislative session. That’s right! For just the cost of a 50-inch flat-panel plasma HDTV and premium HDTV service, you can ensure they never again have to choose between city tap water and Evian.

And maybe Larry can get a more recent head shot.  The one shown above was apparently taken during his “I Heart the Bay City Rollers” phase.

 Michele Bachmann – newly-minted Congresswoman from the Sixth District – has always been catnip for the nutbars. 

Going back to her time with the Maple River Education Coalition (now EdWatch), which was (if memory serves) her stepping-stone to the legislature, she’s been a lighting rod for all manner of loonies, spazzes, AV-club marxists, conspiracy-mongering dimbulbs, spittle-flecked wannabee pundits, personality-deficit-disorder-plagued schlemiels (and a few gay people with legitimate gripes about her uncompromising opposition to gay marriage).  She beat Patty Wetterling last November, as I predicted (and the Strib did not) by eight points; I remain convinced that her unhinged, deranged detractors were responsible for at least a point or two of that total.

Someone asked in the comment section last week why I hadn’t commented yet on Bachmann’s seeming malaprop regarding Iran’s plans in Iraq.  The simple answer was, I really had nothing to say, yet.  I hadn’t really paid much attention; I figured if the mainstream media is attacking Bachmann or, indeed, any conservative, it’s either:

• a hatchet job on their part (see Rochelle Olson’s coverage of Alan Fine)
• a real reach (see the Strib’s coverage of Rod Morgan Grams)
• A slip of the lip, mistatement or flub that gets blown up, with the help of a local news establishment that is in active connivance with the DFL, into a major event.

The answer?  Well, it’s Bachmann, so “all three, and a little drool to boot” is probably the correct answer.

Jay Reding writes the post I would like to have:

The Star-Tribune is questioning Rep. Michele Bachmann when she said that Iran was planning to partition Iraq and create a terrorist state. Rep. Bachmann is actually correct, except she’s confusing Iran and al-Qaeda.

Al-Qaeda did indeed declare their own Islamic State of Iraq. There is also some evidence that the Iranian government has supported Sunni militias in the past and would continue to do so if they thought it would serve their tactical aims.

Bachmann’s statements were imprecise, but the Star-Tribune could have done a small amount of research and figured out what she meant — there is an “Islamic State of Iraq” presently operating in Iraq, and it is quite possible that the Iranians would either support them directly or end up creating a de facto partition of Iraq through their influence of the Shi’ite militias. Bachmann’s statement at most may have confused Iranians with the Majlis Shura al-Mujahideen fi al-Iraq (Mujihadeen Shura Council — the umbrella group for Sunni militants in Iraq).

Now, Representative Bachmann has never been one of my go-to people on foreign policy or defense; taxes, education and social policy are her turf. 

But as Ed and I discussed on the show this past weekend, Bachmann’s statement actually got most of the situation right; Iran does want to see the US get defeated in Iraq; they do want to establish a sphere of influence in the new country; it is obviously they want to use that sphere as a safe haven for their own terrorist proxies.

So did Bachmann muff the facts about who did what to whom in Iraq?  Possible.  Hell, Silvester Reyes, the Dems’ choice to run the House Intelligence Committee, didn’t do so hot at that either, and that is putatively his turf.

With any other Minnesota representative, it would have been treated as a simple flub – a molehill.  Since it’s the poster-child for everything the DFL and the Strib loathes, on the other hand, it shall be treated as a mountain.

NOTE TO THE HATRED-ADDLED:  There’s nothing “difficult” about defending Bachmann – because I’m not.  Merely pointing out facts. 

And noting someone’s comment doesn’t imply any form of consternation.  At least, not for most of us…

I’ve been a vocal supporter of Second Amendment rights ever since…well, since I wasn’t.

Looking back, there was probably a time I was hinky about guns. I grew up among non-gun-owning Democrats, after all. I suspect the North Dakota Boys’ State platform I wrote for the Federalist Party back in the summer of 1980 may have had something in it about handgun registration.

That eroded over time, of course; I became, bit by bit, a believer in the right of the citizen to defend him/herself – and in the original, real intent of the Second Amendment.

It came to a head with me in the summer of 1988. I was living in a duplex in the Midway with a couple of chowder-headed roommates, including one who was (it turned out) addicted to drugs, booze, sex, smokes and gambling. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

We were all working nights at the time. I had a night off; the other guys had left. It was around 11 at night. I was upstairs; the phone, and the exit, were downstairs.

I heard voices. Not my roommates’ voices, either; strangers.

I picked up a gun – a .22 semiautomatic rifle, in this case – and walked to the top of the stairs. It was an old duplex, so the floor creaked mightily. The voices downstairs stopped – but didn’t leave the building.

I crouched behind the banister at the top of the stairs. “Who’s down there”.

I heard a creak of someone moving across the floorboards.

“I have a gun!”, I yelled, and racked up a round. The bolt snapped forward with a perky \little “ka-snick” – I’d have preferred the mighty “KA-SCHLACK” of a 12-gauge at about that point…

…but I heard a muted “oh, shit”, and saw the backs of a couple of pairs of shoes as they ran out the door.

I waited – my heart pounding, trying not to hyperventilate, at the top of the stairs – for what felt like half an hour, before I slowly crept down the stairs, rifle loaded and levelled, to make sure they were gone. The front door was wide open, and a few things – a boom box, I remember – were missing. I had a serious talk with my roommates about locking the door on their way out the next morning.

And I thought – because I had all too much time for thinking, back then – that it wasn’t the sound of me moving upstairs that sent ’em running; it was the immediate, real potential that I could blow them away (or, given the gun involved, pepper them with little holes) that decided the matter for them. What if I’d had no gun?, I wondered.

And so I became a believer.

I knew back then from reading about the subject that shooting someone, even in utterly-justified self-defense, is difficult – sometimes devastating. That lesson was reinforced by my concealed carry training class, about a year and a half ago, with the excellent Joel Rosenberg (who I recommend without reservation to those of you who are looking to get qualified); shooting a person, even when it’s utterly justified, is at best the beginning of an emotional rollercoaster, the entree to years of trouble.

So it’s nothing anyone should look into lightly. Lesson learned.

A story in today’s Strib piece about a man who shot a stalker – his girlfriend’s apparently-deranged ex – last winter – is a great case study.

(more…)

Here’s my new niece, Naomi, when she was about a day or so old, a few days ago:

Just ‘dorble.

There are times I miss having babies.

Especially when other people get to take care of the diapers and waking up.

Ryan Rhodes beats Nick Coleman like a baby seal.

The Strib editorial board  wants a statewide wmoking ban, and doesn’t want any plebeian concerns about “people losing their livelihoods and investments”, “separation of powers”, “informed risk” or any of that palaver about “debate” getting in the way!

In public health circles, hopes have been high since the November election that Minnesota might soon enact a straightforward smoking ban…Alas, its now clear that the path to success remains littered with obstacles.

In the Senate, the once straightforward smoking ban was so altered this week that passing it as is would be worse than the status quo. Thats because it not only contains new provisions for smoking in establishments with ventilation systems, it preempts local entities from having stricter protections from secondhand smoke — as many do now. Passing a bill with those two provisions would force Minneapolis, St. Paul, Bloomington, Golden Valley and a number of other localities to weaken their hard-fought bans.

And for what? Compromising in this way would compromise Minnesotans health. Last years U.S. surgeon generals report was unequivocal on this point: The only way to protect employees and patrons of restaurants and bars is to prohibit smoking. No other method will work.

So, Strib editorial board – why not grow a pair, and “prohibit smoking?”

Why are you futzing around with petty minutiae like banning smoking in bars?

Ban the sale and consumption of tobacco!

Since you, the Strib editorial board, are promoting yourselves as defenders of public health, and are showing your totalitarian disdain for the protestations of the plebeians, why not go all the way?  Why not ban the leaf?

Oh, wait – you (or, rather, the gutless DFL simps that you’re in bed with) can’t figure out a way to do without the tax money that smoking raises the state?

SCREW IT!  If it’s principle you want, then operate from principle!

Strib Editors – if you can’t push for a complete ban on all tobacco, in the interest of the “public health” you barber so ignorantly about, then shut up.

Climatologist Patrick Michaels on the inconvenient facts :

The main point of the movie is that, unless we do something very serious, very soon about carbon dioxide emissions, much of Greenland’s 630,000 cubic miles of ice is going to fall into the ocean, raising sea levels over twenty feet by the year 2100.

Where’s the scientific support for this claim? Certainly not in the recent Policymaker’s Summary from the United Nations’ much anticipated compendium on climate change. Under the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s medium-range emission scenario for greenhouse gases, a rise in sea level of between 8 and 17 inches is predicted by 2100. Gore’s film exaggerates the rise by about 2,000 percent.

Even 17 inches is likely to be high, because it assumes that the concentration of methane, an important greenhouse gas, is growing rapidly. Atmospheric methane concentration hasn’t changed appreciably for seven years, and Nobel Laureate Sherwood Rowland recently pronounced the IPCC’s methane emissions scenarios as “quite unlikely.”

I’ll wait for the book.

But the movie’s got a good shot at the Oscar on pure Bush-bashing points alone.

I’ll be at the Patriot’s Oscar broadcast tomorrow evening at the St. Paul Hotel.

And according to Nikki Finkke, we could be there mighty late:

Sunday nights Academy Awards telecast could end up the longest on record. Thats the prediction Ive been given by one VIP who helps oversee this 79th Oscars and is therefore in a position to know.

We’ll be there with  Michael Medved, talking about the event as it happens.

Which is just about the only way you can get me to watch the Oscars – at the St. Paul with a couple hundred of my closest friends!

Does the title describe the Dems’ latest proposal – to try to repeal the President’s war powers from 2003? 

Or does it describe the Democrat senators themselves? 

You be the judge.

Here’s the grimly-funny part (emphasis mine):

While these officials said the precise wording of the measure remains unsettled, one draft would restrict American troops in Iraq to combating al-Qaida, training Iraqi army and police forces, maintaining Iraq’s territorial integrity and otherwise proceeding with the withdrawal of combat forces.  

“Showtime Six, this is Showtime Four Two, we’re taking fire from those buildings north of the highway.  Say again?  Er, roger that.  Sergeant Lonsdale!  Ask them if they’re Al Quaeda!”

[muffled arabic sounds in distance]

SGT. LONSDALE: “I think that means ‘no, nobody here but us Ba’athists, sir…”

“Negative, Showtime Six.  What?  Oh…Roger that, Showtime Four Two Out.  Cease fire!  Cease fire!”

Just a note to all of you who sat out last November’s senate election, or voted Libertarian, or figured that was no difference between the candidates because Mark Kennedy supported ethanol subsidies:  Thanks.

Tom Vilsack bails out of the Prez race.

Vilsack left office in January and traveled through states holding early tests of strength, but he attracted neither the attention nor the campaign cash of his top tier rivals — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Sen. Barack Obama and John Edwards.

In the most recent financial documents, Vilsack reported raising more than $1.1 million in the last seven weeks of 2006 but only had around $396,000 cash in the bank. Some campaign finance experts contend the candidates will need $20 million by June 2007.

Vilsack’s decision still leaves a crowded field of eight Democrats dominated by Clinton, Obama and Edwards.

The best I could say about Tom Vilsack was that “he’d suck less as a president than Hillary! or Obama – but I’d be lying.  Vilsack’s moderate credentials were forged.

Still, the farther left the field drifts, the better.

…is 7 lbs 9 oz, and healthy, and has one really proud uncle today.

Oh, and kudos to my brat little sister Barb and her hubby Jeff – AKA “Mom and Dad” – too. 

…and doesn’t get body-slammed to the ground!

Read the story.

…I have seen almost none of the Oscar nominees this year.  I don’t get out to all that many movies these days, for better or worse.

JACK VALENTI: “You should!  Movies are THE great American form of entertainment!”

MITCH: “Who let Jack Valenti into my dream?”

Anyway, even though I’ve seen almost none of the movies, and have almost no idea who any of them are, I’m going to have fun anyway.  I’m going to the Patriot’s Oscar night broadcast with  Michael Medved on Sunday at the St. Paul Hotel (and so can you!).  And I figure I might as well have some stake in the event, if only to have something to rub peoples’ faces in in the unlikely event I win (although, given the ’02 Senate and Gubernatorial, ’04 Presidential, and most of the ’06 Congressional races, not to mention my Super Bowl prediction, which was less than 20 points off in a game the Bears weren’t even supposed to be in, maybe not all that unlikely), it might be good to have some predix on the ground just in case.

And remember – it’s all in good fun.  Unless I win.

So without further ado:

Best Actor: I never saw any of the nominated movies, but I will go with Peter O’Toole, since I have never heard of Ryan Gosling, DiCaprio is too obvious and Will Smith and Forest Whitaker will split the “Oscars Are Too White” vote.

Best Supporting Actor: Djimon Hounsou.  Not sure why, except that I thought Alan Arkin (who is one of my favorite actors) was just OK in the immensely-overrated Little Miss Sunshine.  And Blood Diamond has great buzz.

Best Actress: Much as I’m dying to see either Penelope Cruz or Kate Winslet in an evening gown, my money’s on Helen Mirren.  And when I say “my money”, it’s a figure of speech.  Don’t get greedy, Learned Foot.

Best Supporting Actress:  Jennifer Hudson has all the buzz.  I’ll go with that this time.

Best Directing: The Departed will finally earn an Oscar, just out of pure guilt.

Best Picture:  The Departed, again.

Discuss.

And I’m only bummed I didn’t think of it first.

Ed is going to be podcasting on BlogTalkRadio at 9PM Central this evening, talking about the aftermath of the Democrats’ serial press conference debate.

Better than most podcasts, it’s live  – you can actually call in (check Ed’s page for the call-in number). 

If you hear Ed’s show (or mine) and think “hey – I could do this better” – by all means do!  Blog TalkRadio is actively seeking to expand its roster of conservatives on the “air”.  Better yet, it’s not only free, but at some point there’s gonna be some ad money involved.

Anyway – tune in!

Wesley Clark, that is.

America’s favorite Clinton-era general is back, and is pimping another non-cause.  And if you’re online around 12:30, he’s going to be on Jim Boyce’s show on BlogTalkRadio.  I may try to call in; it’d be nice if he was facing someone  besides sycophants…
He’s also popping up on the Huffpo.

Coincidence?

…no matter how crappy school is, kids should not do this:

A school administrator got a blast of pepper spray in the face Wednesday when trying to intervene in a fight brewing between two students in the Rosemount High School cafeteria, said Principal Greg Clausen.

The altercation took place about 11:20 a.m. in a cafeteria/student center filled with more than 400 students, and the pepper-spray-wielding student continued to spray the chemical after being grabbed by the administrator. Officials decided to end the school day early at 12:45 p.m.

Clausen said that he didnt believe it was possible for students to eat in the cafeteria. “It was amazing how big an area that pepper spray permeates,” he said.

Yes, pepper spray is nasty stuff.

On the one hand, I’m encouraged; the entire school district (presumably) didn’t “go into lockdown”, which schools in the metro will do these days if a student writes “gunnysack” (there’s a “Gun” in there!).

On the other hand, five’ll get you ten the Rosemount Schools will adopt a “Zero Tolerance for Spray” policy; soon, if  a kid brings a Binaca to school, they’ll call the “liaison officer” and lock the place down…

At first, I thought I might say “I have had days like this”.  The story, about a Crookston couple skipped town leaving their kids behind, almost sounded grimly funny at first:

Even before they left in September, the complaint said, food supplies had dwindled, bills had piled up and the landlord was talking about evicting them. Her son and his fiancée took care of the girls for a time, and the couple have been reported to be in Montana or Wyoming.

Now the girls are in foster care and a warrant has been issued for the couples arrest on gross misdemeanor charges of child neglect.

The son, Aaron Merck, 21, said Wednesday that his mother phoned himin Bagley, Minn., a few days after the couple left Crookston and said, “You wont believe what I did. … I left.”

When Merck asked his mother what she meant, he said that she told him: “Im in Montana right now,” and that she wasnt planning on returning.

When he asked whether the girls knew, Merck said his mother replied: “I told them I had to work late.”

The temptation, truly, is often there.

Of course, it’s really not funny at all…

Merck, who now lives in Thief River Falls, Minn., said his mother was stressed out by the younger daughter, who had been dating men in their 20s.

He said the girls went into foster care in November after he and his fiancée, who are expecting a baby, decided they could no longer afford to care for them. A third daughter, who is an adult, also helped out, he said.

Jennifer Anderson has been married four or five times, her son said. The family moved around a lot before settling in what police investigator Aaron Pry and neighbors called a “quiet neighborhood” in Crookston.

Criminal complaints and other sources offered this picture of family dysfunction, instability and abuse:

William, 44, and Jennifer, 42, dated for two years and married a year ago. Four months into their marriage, William was charged with terroristic threats for allegedly threatening to kill the girls and their mother. Authorities say he was drinking at the time.

William becomes physically violent only when he drinks, but he can be verbally abusive anytime, a complaint quoted Jennifer as telling police. William Andersons mother told an officer that he had been jailed for assaulting his ex-wife.

And so on, and so forth.

The greatest line in Keanu Reeves’ career; “you have to have a license to drive a car, but any a****le can be a parent…”