I didn’t even remember hitting the pillow Friday night, our first night in New York.  It was about 8AM when I got up.  The kids were pretty much dead to the world.  I snuck downstairs to the hotel’s bar for breakfast.  I enjoyed a honest-to-gawd New York bagel and a cup of coffee and made paperdolls with the Times.  The hotel was crawling with Germans, enjoying the lopsided exchange rate to party like it was 1940.  I had a lot of fun practicing mein Deutsch.

It was going to be the last quiet moment of the day.

My kids, Bun and Zam, were both in their brother’s wedding party (their brother, Will, is their mother’s son from her first marriage). Which meant that there wasn’t much time to waste.

9AM; try to wake Bun up for her noon get-together with the bridesmaids, then a quick subway ride to 51st Street to find Zam a shirt. Back to the hotel to get Bun going (via subway and a quick cab ride) to their hotel, by the UN on 44th Street, after physically rolling Zam out of bed and hauling him to the shower so he could make his 1PM meeting with the groomsmen. Then back to the hotel to pick him up, off on the subway (not without an argument; he was a little nervous about riding the train, and wanted to take the cab everywhere) to Grand Central and another fast cab jaunt to the other hotel, almost on time (to an amazing suite overlooking the East River and Brooklyn, stuffed with pizza and beer and other bachelor-party necessities that Zam was perfectly happy to eat albeit not welcome to drink). Then back to the hotel for a quick shower and a change into my own suit, and back on the train up to 103rd.

Not sure what to say about the wedding. I’ve never been a huge fan of weddings. But it was lovely. Will is a fun, sharp, creative guy, and he’s marrying married to a girl he’s known since high school who’s the scion…scionette?…scienne?…anyway, the youngest member of a family that’s heavily involved in theatre in New York and the Twin Cities. So the wedding was wonderfully paced, tastefully staged, and left everyone, myself included, feeling just really, really nice about the whole thing. I don’t know which of the two is luckier, for the record.

Here’s the groom’s party:

No, I’m not gonna tell you who’s who. Flash knows, but he’s gonna keep mum. Aren’t you, Flash?

And, although I have about a hundred lovely pictures of the ceremony itself, I’m also going to refrain from posting them.

Anyway – the wedding was lovely. Perfect, indeed. Even the weather cooperated; you could see a cloud front rolling in from north Jersey as we left the park.

Then it was off to the reception, at a 12th-floor penthouse restaurant with a rooftop deck, two blocks north of the Empire State building, the view of which I regrettably have no pictures. Take my word for it – it was stunning. When in New York and needing to book a party, two words for ya – “Gary’s Loft”. That is all.

Then home with the kids, and off to the after-party, at a bar on 36th Street. Had a long talk with my stepson and his new wife – of both of whom I’m immensely proud, and for both of whom I’m boundlessly happy.

It was just starting to piddle a cold, windy rain as I walked home down Park Avenue. Walking in New York is always feast or famine; going east or west is humbling in the face of blocks that stretch for half a mile (at least in Midtown), but going north or south is an ego boost; zipping down from 36th to 28th was a couple minutes’ work.

I flopped into bed – the kids, unexpectedly, were out cold – and slept, again, like a log.

Bob Collins at NewsCut notes:

Fortunately, we’ve got The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. It’s based on interviews of more than 100,000 people and it, shows that 47 percent of Americans are struggling and 4 percent are suffering. Forty-nine percent of respondents are reported to be thriving based on a personal assessment of how they feel about their lives at the time of the survey, and where they think they’ll be in five years.

The survey is done every day and Gallup says it will do it for the next 25 years.

I would love to see the final results – especially broken down by things like religious outlook, politics, family status, favorite baseball team…

Findings so far indicate that peoples’ workplaces and any health problems are the two major contributors to whether people are happy.

From the article about the survey:

James Harter is Gallup’s chief scientist for workplace management and well-being. He said he was particularly surprised by the double whammy of a negative work environment plus a disease condition. And despite knowing the national statistics, he was still surprised to find that two-thirds of working adults were overweight or obese.

So what’s the good news? Social time with friends and family is a buffer for the stress caused by most factors, he said.

“The more you have, the better,” Harter said. He suggested that a graph showing Americans’ overall happiness – which rises sharply on the weekends and drops during the week – may be due in part to the increased social time most people have on the weekends, especially those who work during the week.

I know that among the most miserable times in my life were the ones where I was working at awful jobs – nightclub DJ, some technical writing gigs, Information Architect at a large local bank…

Oh, and what do you think your life is going to be like in five years.

Every time I’ve ever tried to guess that – as my Twenty Years Ago Today series pretty well shows – I’ve been dismally, or sometimes pleasantly, wrong.

Next Wednesday, May 7, Michael Medved and Ed Schultz will throw down in a head-to-head debate between talk radio titans.  And you can be there!

Get your tickets at the Patriot website – they’re $99 for the VIP Ticket, which includes dinner with Medved, Schultz and about a hundred of their closest friends, plus the debate and a photo op.

Tix for the debate only are $20 in advance, $25 at the door.

Unlike lesser debates, audience questions will be half of the show; come on in and get your two cents in!

Oh, yeah – I’ll be co-MC-ing the event, along with former St. Paul representative and current MN2020 poobah Matt Entenza. 

C’mon out!

A commenter yesterday broke into an unrelated thread (as is his wont) to demand that I write about Iraq and Afghanistan.

OK.

We’re winning in Iraq. The tide turned during the surge, and it’ll stay turned. Iraq’s fractious politlcs will take years to settle, and Al Quaeda and the Ba’athists will try to mount a campaign of harassment to try to affect the US election (because the most important front in that war, since the very beginning, has been inside the beltway.

And yes – we’ll likely be in Iraq for a long time, if not 100 years. People who read and understand little enough of history to be liberals point at Senator McCain’s statement and snigger.

The more curious among them – the ones that dont’ get all their news from Jon Stewart – point out that comparisons to our 60+ year involvements in Germany, Italy, Korea and Japan aren’t the same – and they’re right. Counterinsurgency is a very different cat to skin. The Iraq war is much more like the Philippines; a very brief conventional war (and accomplished mission!), followed by six years of “hot” insurgency and years of low-level troubles from groups that were both unrelated to and utterly provoked by the original rulers, and 35 years of military involvement (that dovetailed into another war that headed off the planned handover of all sovereignty by five years). It’s also got a lot more in common with El Salvador – where an asymmetric assortment of US troops, diplomats, contractors and aid workers conducted a compaign that brought medical care, money and security to the Salvadoran hinterlands, and the rule of law to the Salvadoran military, government, and eventually society as a whole.

Afghanistan is still very much in the balance. More on that later.

So – ask a question, get an answer. For whatever it’s worth.

So the kids and I went to New York last weekend for my stepson’s wedding. 

We had a 6AM flight.  The kids’ bright idea was to stay up all night so they wouldn’t fall asleep.  A bad idea, under normal circumstances – and it would come back to haunt us – but for a variety of reasons, chief among them being that I only got two hours of sleep myself that night, it worked out well.  They blasted me out of bed for a change (turnabout is not fair play) at 3AM, we finished our packing, and jumped in a 4AM taxi to the airport.

We got there quickly, got our tickets, checked our bags and zipped through security, all in under twenty minutes.  I sat back when we got to the gate, less than an hour after leaving home, and figured “if this is the way the rest of the trip goes, bring it on!”

It was not, and it was brought on.

We landed in plenty of time to catch our connecting flight at O’Hare, as morning took hold – and arrived at our gate just in time to see the 8AM flight to LaGuardia was cancelled. 

The kids promptly fell asleep on seats in the terminal – the night before caught up with them.  Which, I figured, was fine – having never been on standby before.  Then I realized – I have to go where the flights are.  So I spent the next two hours running around O’Hare to the various gates, watching us crawl slowly up the Standby list.

Finally, we got on a 10AM flight – the last three open seats on the plane – which didn’t take off until 11.  We were going to have to haul donkey to get to the 4:30PM wedding rehearsal.   

But we were rewarded with a flight right up the center of Manhattan for the first time in all my trips to the city, before we landed at LaGuardia.    And then took a bus to the middle of Queens, where we got on the “7” train to Midtown.  The “7” is an El in Queens, before diving under the East River to join the NYC subway system.  I’d ridden it several times in the past – but it was the kids’ first big introduction to New York in all its character, sprawl and glorious filth. Then to the “6” train at Grand Central, taking us to our hotel on 28th Street…

…where the kids, crabby and sleep-deprived and cranky from having to stand on the subway, promptly started to fall asleep.  It was not to be.  I rousted them up and got them back on the train.  Our destination this time was 103rd Street, and the Conservatory Gardens, a lovely gem of a place that seems to host more weddings than Elvis’ chapel in Vegas. 

And it was lovely:

We walked through the rehearsal – and then cabbed down to the Groom’s Dinner, at the Hard Rock in Times Square.

Fun?  Yes.  Sleepy kids?  Well, Bun held out OK, but Zam ended up nodding off with his head on the table.  It was time to go, before too terribly long – like, 9:00ish PM. 

And the kids stepped out, and saw this…:

…and suddenly weren’t tired any more.  We had to take a run up Broadway and a dip into the huge, Wonka-like Toys R Us…

…and thence, by cab, back to the hotel.  The kids noticed a McDonalds on the corner, and wanted to run down before taking a walk around the neighborhood.  I told ’em “go ahead, I just wanna lay down for a minute…”

Well, of course, the next thing I remember it was 8AM.  The big day, in fact.

More on that tomorrow.

I echo some of my paleoconservative friends in their disgust at what passes for “Republican” these days.

And yet being in control – even unaggressive control by a very unconservative version of the party – has its benefits, if civil liberties matter to you:

A federal appeals court Wednesday tossed out New York City’s lawsuit accusing the gun industry of selling firearms with the knowledge they can be diverted into illegal markets.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a federal law provides the gun industry with broad immunity from lawsuits brought by crime victims and violence-plagued cities. A federal judge had allowed the lawsuit to proceed, though it had not yet reached trial.

New York is one of several cities that had sued gun makers. It said the industry violated public nuisance law by failing to take reasonable steps to stop widespread access to illegal firearms.

The lawsuit asked for no monetary damages. It had sought a court order for gun makers to more closely monitor those dealers who frequently sell guns later used to commit crimes.

Carnivore at TvM notes:

Yet another frivolous lawsuit against firearms manufacturers has been thrown out thanks to Congress passing the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act in 2005.

Control has its benefits.

Yet another reason not to stay home in November, if you’re a Republican – even if you are upset at McCain or Norm Coleman or whomever.

I’m going to go to work as a curriculum writer.

I’ve got some samples I’m going to start sending around to school districts.

Sample 1

This activity illustrates the fact that whether or not your faith believes dogs and pigs are “unclean” or not, dogs and pigs should be regarded as a beneficial. Making dogs and pigs socially acceptable gives us bacon and big warm pillows on cold mornings. 1. Write “Bacon and Fetch” on the board. 2. Explain that Bacon and Fetch are two of life’s great joys and stress relievers, and that people who don’t think so really are weird. 3. Ask students to think of reasons why people in societies would find dogs and pigs unclean would like bacon and “fetch”, and write the responses in a column to the left of “”Bacon and Fetch”. 4. Next, have students think about why people in other societies love bacon and playing “fetch” with a loveable puppy, and list all of their responses in a column to the right of “Bacon and Fetch”.

I’ll give you all $1,000 when it’s accepted by the public school system!

Sample 2

This activity illustrates the fact that whether or not one believes there is a scientific basis to the theory that part of intelligence is genetic, and part of that genetic makeup is ethnic and racial, there is a need to observe this fact. As Will Saletan noted in that conservative tool Slate:

Among white Americans, the average IQ, as of a decade or so ago, was 103. Among Asian-Americans, it was 106. Among Jewish Americans, it was 113. Among Latino Americans, it was 89. Among African-Americans, it was 85. Around the world, studies find the same general pattern: whites 100, East Asians 106, sub-Sarahan Africans 70. One IQ table shows 113 in Hong Kong, 110 in Japan, and 100 in Britain. White populations in Australia, Canada, Europe, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United States score closer to one another than to the worldwide black average. It’s been that way for at least a century…

…So, what should we make of the difference in averages?

We don’t like to think IQ is mostly inherited. But we’ve all known families who are smarter than others. Twin and sibling studies, which can sort genetic from environmental factors, suggest more than half the variation in IQ scores is genetic. A task force report from the American Psychological Association indicates it might be even higher. The report doesn’t conclude that genes explain racial gaps in IQ. But the tests on which racial gaps are biggest happen to be the tests on which genes, as measured by comparative sibling performance, exert the biggest influence.

Admitting the genetic basis for intelligence makes it safer for the who have to deal with intelligence. 1. Write “Emotional Response” and “Scientific Fact” on the board. 2. Explain that 100 is traditionally deemed to be the “average” IQ for people in the world. 3. Ask students to think of reasons why ignoring the scientific evidence of the genetic and ethnic link to intelligence is dumb, and them under “emotional response”. 4. Next, have students think about why it’s smart to think the truth, and list all of their responses in a column under “Scientific Fact”.

I’m told I might have a little trouble getting this one passed, too. Stay tuned. [*]
Sample 3

This one’s on sex-ed. And, unlike the curriculum proposals (albeit not the Will Saletan quote in Sample 2) above, it’s real. Bob Collins writes about the debate:

Where it’s likely to get testy, if this curriculum should actually be adopted in schools statewide, are sections such as this:

This activity illustrates the fact that whether or not abortion is legal, there is a need for the procedure. Making abortion legal makes it safe for the women who access these services. 1. Write “1973” on the board. 2. Explain that 1973 was the year when abortion became legal in the U.S., but that women had abortions before then. 3. Ask students to think of reasons why a woman would have an illegal abortion and write all of their responses in a column to the left of “1973”. 4. Next, have students think about why women have abortions today, and list all of their responses in a column to the right of “1973”.

Over to you, governor.

That proposal is not only real – but unless the governor vetoes the legislation containg the proposal, it’s going to be pretty much law.

(more…)

Jeff Brandenberger thinks that economic growth is a generally good thing.  The self-described DFLer and ELCA Lutheran works a job in the private sector and would like the school system to suck less.

“Huh?”, you might say, before rejoining “Big friggin’ deal!”. 

And you’d be right. 

Background:  I’ve never smoked so much as a joint in my life; compared to me, Chad the Elder is a Dave Matthews roadie. 

And yet I don’t care if people do light up around me.  Pot has its harmful effects – it’s half the reason people still listen to the Doors – but less, all in all, than booze, which I cheerfully enjoy.  Drunk people start brawls and smack people around; baked people lie around and look for cheetos.  I’d have little problem legalizing, or at least decriminalizing, pot – although I’d still not partake because, jeezawfriday, it’s smoke, man.  How do you inhale that crap?

Oh, yeah.  I’m a conservative Christian Republican. 

Andy Birkey at the MRTA Monitor writes a piece to lend propaganda support to a DFL “medical pot” bill in the Legislature (I add emphasis):

Iron Range resident K.K. Forss has found medical marijuana to be a substantial relief for pain he suffers as the result of a disc that burst in his neck. The self-described registered Republican and born-again Christian uses marijuana for pain he says is constant and debilitating.

Now, Andy Birkey being an online “citizen journalist” and all, he was smart enough to find a cheeba monkey who has no google record of being a “Republicans for Kucinich”-type Republican, or even a Sturdevant-approved one.  So maybe there’s something to that…

…except who cares?  What is that factoid supposed to lend this story?

So yesterday I read Doug Grow for the first time since he left the Strib.  It was a review of P.J. O’Rourke’s speech at the Northrup.  And since it’s the first thing I’ve read from Grow now that he’s working for an overtly-political “news” outlet (The MNPost), I have to ask…

…is he doing anything different?

The southeast-Henco town of Saint Bonifacius has had enough, and isn’t going to take anymore.  Some of its leaders, business people want to secede from tax-sotted Hennepin County, and go over to low-tax Carver County:

They say Carver County has lower taxes, more responsive law enforcement and no multimillion-dollar stadiums. The last straw: the new transit sales tax, which Hennepin adopted and Carver did not.

“Our tax dollars seem to find their way, very quickly, to Minneapolis and its pet projects,” said Mayor Rick Weible. “I think the idea is, look, we’re feeling a little left out here.”

They wish the snow plows came a bit sooner and fear losing local businesses to the siren song of lower taxes just down the road.

It’s a complaint that’s been heard before from citizens of the rural communities of western Hennepin County.

They sometimes resent the higher cost of living they help support in the eastern big cities and suburbs.

The great fallout from the so-called “Minnesota Miracle” is that the parts of Minnesota that work – small exurban towns like Saint Boni, productive rural cities and towns, the burbs – subsidize the parts that don’t, like the Twin City governments.

But for many officials, residents and business owners in St. Bonifacius — known to locals as “St. Boni” — even the discussion of seceding has been exhilarating.”It’s the best damn idea I’ve ever heard,” said Jay Gregg, longtime owner of Gregg Floor Covering. “We’re sick and tired of being trapped by the Minneapolis politicians. All they care about is our tax base. And now our taxes are going to finance their light rail? That’s nuts.”

The article notes that it’d be pretty hard to pull this off

Last year, the Legislature passed a measure that would allow the entire city [of Rockford – which is split between Hennepin and Wright Counties] to become a part of Wright County. However, the measure required Hennepin County’s approval, and so far it has refused, with county officials saying it would set a bad precedent.

The usual, predictable suspects are lining up:

Bob DeBoer, policy director for the Citizens League, said the city should consider the percentage of its residents who work in Hennepin County — 57 percent, not counting those who work within St. Bonifacius itself, according to 2000 Census data. Only 22.5 percent work in Carver County.

“I find this idea of cities opting in or out of a county based on the taxes of the day troubling,” DeBoer said. “To secede from Hennepin County would essentially be saying, ‘Thanks for all the great infrastructure and jobs, but we don’t want to pay for it.’ “

But I think the point is that Saint Boni isn’t getting all that “great infrastructure”.  They’re getting higher taxes to subsidize Minneapolis.