Shot in the Dark

Month: March 2007

  • The Why We War

    Amir Taheri on the stakes in Iraq: Those familiar with al Qaeda’s literature in the past four years know that all jihadi groups regard new Iraq as the principal battlefield between Osama bin Laden’s version of Islam and modernity.The new Iraq also has determined enemies within: * The Shiite sectarians, often linked to the Khomeinist…

  • Bong Hits 4 SCOTUS

    It’s the same old story: Boy unfurls giggly, pseudo-provocative sign at a school event. Principal suspends boy. Boy and his lawyers spend six years pursuing the case all the way to the Supreme Court. Let’s join them, shall we? [Joseph] Frederick filed suit, saying his First Amendment rights were infringed. A federal appeals court in…

  • New Math

    The Strib, pro forma, notes: A much smaller group of counterprotesters held signs and shouted slogans supporting the troops, the war and Bush. They left out “dominated every argument with calm style”. And while our numbers were certainly small, I called my friend from Citizens for a Supine “Safer” Minnesota for an estimate. “You had…

  • Happy To Pay For A Dull, Anal-Retentive Minnesota

    Bluesfest leaves Duluth. Why?  Because Duluth’s crypto-Maoist government wants to squeeze blood from a turnip, natch: Organizers of Duluth’s Bayfront Blues Festival say they’re choosing a new site to avoid losing thousands of dollars in revenue to the city. The festival has been held in Duluth near Lake Superior for the past 18 summers. But…

  • Separated By Birth?

    I don’t think it’s a separated at birth, per se – more like unknown illegitimate parents… Beakman’s World star (from the nineties) Paul Zaloom, the father…: …and Scrubs star Zach Braff, the son:

  • Proof That Paul Mirengoff Never Lived in Northern Minnesota

    Headline yesterday: “There’s only one Andy Johnson”

  • Minnesota Is Porked

    Katherine Kersten writes re the Somali booze/pork flap: Will America do better than Europe at assimilating Muslims? The jury is still out. But recent local events – Somali taxi-drivers refusing to carry passengers with alcohol, Target cashiers refusing to handle pork, the flying imams incident — signal that difficulties lie ahead. Perhaps, but I’m not…

  • I Don’t Think That Means What She Thinks It Means

    On Saturday, Washington Senator and embarassment Patty Murray delivered the response to President Bush’s address on Saturday: Senator Patty Murray said the nation needs a new direction in Iraq, “not more of the same failures.”…She blamed “Senate Republicans and a president who stubbornly refused to listen” for blocking a Democratic plan to narrow the mission…

  • Fascism: Still In The Closet

    Many of us in the counterprotest noted the absence of regular commenter “Doug”, who last week fantasized about bringing his “veteran” “friends” to “bitch-slap” me for exercising my First Amendment right to free speech. Oh, well. Maybe next time.

  • Logic Via The Left

    So we followed the demonstration up to Lagoon and Hennepin. We stood at the corner, flag and signs in hand, as the crowd of “protesters” swelled around us. Oh, we got some good response – an MTC bus driver honked and gave us a thumbs up – as well as some anger (a few middle…

  • Family Values

    The “protester” bumped – intentionally – into Amendment X. A string of profanities – from the protester, bellowed at full volume – ensued. I looked at the four little kids in strollers and wagons that the passersby were pushing/dragging. “Dude, there’s kids here”. I don’t think he skipped a beat.

  • Start The Demonstration Without Me

    I went down to the Dunn Brothers at Lake and Bryant this morning, and was gratified to meet some people; Amendment X from Savage Republican, regular commenter BillH, a photographer whose name eludes me, and Mark, a charter member of “Old Friends of Mitch going back about thirty years. Fortified with Dunn’s finest, we walked…

  • Yesterday in DC

    Michelle Malkin has the blogburst coverage of yesterday’s Gathering of Eagles counterdemonstration Vietnam Vet’s memorial – which, according to many observers, matched the well-funded ANSWER-sponsored protests against the war: A pure, grass-roots effort, the Gathering of Eagles’ volunteers matched the massive Soros-funded anti-war machine sign for sign, chant for chant, and marcher for marcher. The…

  • Act Locally, Part II

    I’m thinking about stopping by the protest at Lake and Lyndale tomorrow. I’m thinking about stopping by the Dunn Brothers at Lake and Aldrich – a block west of Lyndale – at 11:30 or so. Let me know if you’re interested.

  • Act Locally

    Lassie over at The Dogs on tomorrow’s local anti-war pro-dictatorship demonstrations: 12:00 PM – Books Not Bombs Youth Bloc Gather at military recruitment station on Lake & Lyndale followed by a youth march to the… 1:00 PM Mass Community Antiwar Demonstration Gather at Hennepin and Lagoon then march to Loring Park for a rally On…

  • NARN Tomorrow

    We’ll be talking again with the Minnesota contingent at A Gathering of Eagles – the counter-protest in Washington tomorrow. Here’s a little taste of what and who they’ll be facing:   Via Smash, thence via Michelle Malkin Check out the GOE website.  Help out, even if you’re not on the bus to go to DC…

  • Note To Rudy

    Carnivore from TvM notes: No Democrat running for president has had anything to say about the ruling. If a Republican candidate, say a former mayor from New York, who needs help on the gun issue, would come out and actually endorse the ruling and say he would appoint judges likes those who decided the case…

  • On My Block, All The Guys Called Her Flamingo

    Commenter Fresch Fisch left this in the comments section yesterday – one of the latest treasure trove of YouTube vids I’ve started obsessing over.  Only this one – a “Darkness”-era version of “Backstreets”, the best break-up song of all time – is astounding. I like just about everything Springsteen’s done, from the great stuff (Born…

  • Dioux The Sioux

    While I follow hockey in general only a little more than, say, rollerderby, I do get a little excited over WCHA puck.  Partly because it’s really good hockey (sorry, NHL fans – I’ve always preferred college puck, albeit in the same way that I prefer being shot to death by a crazed fan to being…

  • It Wants Food

    The DFL-glutted Senate is Happy To Demand More Money for a “Better” Minnesota: A more-than-$500-million annual tax increase for roads and transit survived its first test Thursday in a state Senate committee, suggesting that legislators’ appetite for new revenue and the investments it would fund will fuel a long and spirited debate at the Capitol.…

  • Yet Again

    Paglia is right about Ann Coulter: Coulter is a smart woman with formidable energy, and whether liberals like it or not, she is a high-profile feminist role model in her appetite for aggressive debate. But Coulter seems to be regressing rather than growing intellectually and sharpening her analytic skills. She evidently leaves no room in…

  • Hooray For Hollywood

    It’s been a while since I’ve done one of Red’s memes. This one’s about movies. So I’d best get cranking, huh?  1. Name a movie that you have seen more than 10 times. Not as many as I’d have liked.  Casablanca, of course, I’ve seen 44-46 times.  I’ve probably seen Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back, …

  • She’s Got A Point

    Camille Paglia on women in politics: Dianne Feinstein is far more presidential than Hillary Clinton, who alternates between smugness and defensiveness before pulling out that tiresome middle-aged .mom card. Feinstein, even when maneuvering strategically, always seems genuinely focused on the idea at hand, while Hillary isn’t really there — she’s just riffling mentally through her…

  • Thank You, Mrs. Clinton

    You are a gift that keeps on giving. Presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton told Democrats Tuesday the “vast, right-wing conspiracy” is back, using a phrase she once coined to describe partisan criticism…Clinton was first lady when she famously charged allegations of an affair between her then-president husband Bill Clinton and White House intern Monica Lewinsky…

  • Good Thing We Have Gatekeepers!

    Last week,Joel Rosenberg highlighted a piece from the Blue Earth Daily Democrat about a fatal shooting. Let’s flip through the piece and find the bits and pieces of atrocious style, editorial malfeasance, and error in fact; I’ll highlight them and put explanations in square brackets. No fair looking at Joel’s piece. Yet. A Richfield man…