Shot in the Dark

Cranking Open The Big Brass Nozzle Of Truth Since 2002

Shot in the Dark

Monthly Archives: June 2018

Ooooooh. Aaaaaaaaah. Wooooooooow.

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None of that will be heard cascading down from Mounds Park this July 4 – at least, not on the city’s dime.

Mayor Carter is declining to spend tax dollars on fireworks:

Mayor Melvin Carter announced on his Facebook page Wednesday that he would be scrapping the annual fireworks display, stating he believes there are better uses for tax dollars.

In his post he writes, “As I’ve considered the budgetary priorities we manage across our city in the first year of my administration, I’ve decided I can’t in good conscience support spending tax dollars on a fireworks display in Saint Paul this year.”

The budget hawk in me applauds – until he realizes that the Saint Paul City Councijl will find  much dumber uses for any money saved.

More philosophically?  I support the Mayor’s decision.  I’m a patriotic American who believes in the ideals of the state that was founded in 1776; a celebration by a government that eschews those ideals, in favor of (at best) those of the Swedish or Danish (or Venezuelan) social welfare states is an appropriation of my culture.

There.  There’s your fireworks.

(Although watching liberals heads exploding over the Kennedy retirement might just be a better display anyway).

Why I Worry About The American Left

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Can you – the relatively normal reader – imagine treating something like this as an accomplishment?

It’s Ron Perlman – a great actor and supremely weird but impeccably hard-left person.

“All Hell Is About To Break Loose”

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Reason’s Damon Root on the Kennedy retirement:

That influence came with a certain price. Over the years, Kennedy has been denounced by every major faction in American politics. In conservative circles, for example, he has been keelhauled as a reckless judicial activist who “invented” a right to gay marriage. Liberals, meanwhile, have burned him in effigy as the unwitting mouthpiece for corporate oligarchs thanks to his majority opinion in the Citizens United case. And among libertarians, Kennedy has been damned as the fair-weather federalist who torpedoed the rights of local medical marijuana users in favor of a federal drug control scheme. Libertarians will also point out that Kennedy joined the majority opinion that unleashed the forces of eminent domain abuse in Kelo v. City of New London (2005).

To say the least, Kennedy’s jurisprudence defies easy categorization. Legal scholars will be arguing about it for a long time to come….In short, thanks to Kennedy’s retirement, all hell is about to break loose.

And the media is already counting the receipts.

 

I Hate To Indulge In Schadenfreude

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But when it comes to our spoiled, entitled left’s whining, whinging, childish mewling over the retirement of Anthony Kennedy – the worst I’ve heard since election night?

Well…

…the more I read…

…and the harder I laugh…

…not to mention their selective grasp of reality…

…Well, I have to say…

I was wrong.  I do love schadenfreude.  

Poll: MItch Berg Thinks 41% Of Americans Are Overly Optimistic

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Rasmusson poll says 59% of Americans think “Trump Haters” will resort to violence:

And, added Rasmussen, 31 percent believe “it’s likely that the United States will experience a second civil war sometime in the next five years.”

The new polling evidence of fear in the country over political division follows the harassment of three top Trump aides, including spokeswoman Sarah Sanders, ordered out of a southern Virginia restaurant, and senior adviser Stephen Miller whose condo drew protests from liberals.

It also follows a call by liberal California Rep. Maxine Waters to bring pressure to Trump officials when in public and urgings from legal experts for Trump aides to apply for concealed carry permits and buy guns.

Having seen “Anti-Fa’s” handiwork – un-“othering” political violence for the left – I am becoming more and more inclined to agree.

Kennedy Heads To Shady Acres

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From NBC:

Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy will retire from the highest U.S. court, giving President Donald Trump another chance to fundamentally reshape the top of the judiciary.

Anthony Kennedy is retiring.

  1. This is yuge.
  2. The culture war is about to get a *lot* hotter.
  3. While I’ve been a Trump non-fan for thirty years, I said before the 2016 election that if he nominated *one* good conservative SCOTUS justice, his time in office would be well spent. He’s got a shot at two, now. Little as I care for Trump, I might actually start getting just a little tired of winning after all. But I’ll get my second wind, fear not.

    Barring a Democrat sweep of the Presidency and Senate in 2020, Ruth Bader Ginsburg is going to die sitting in her seat. And given the influence of Chicago democrats on capital hill, perhaps even beyond.

Open Letter To Tim Walz

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To:  Represenative Tim Walz
From:  Mitch Berg, Ornery Peasant
Re:  Sell Sell Sell

Rep. Walz,

You’re running in a primary this fall against a dog’s breakfast of people who, notwithstanding your attempt to re-paint yourself as a “progressive”, are far, far to your left.

To your credit, you’ve taken that “re-painting” pretty seriously:

Rep. Walz, burning whatever cred he may have had with gun owners by french-kissing “Moms Want Action” in 2016.

But your fellow DFLers prefer their “Democratic Socialism” neat.  No ice.

And apparently, with a little communist chaser.

For years, I’ve heard my Democrat friends chanting “Ronald Reagan wouldn’t get endorsed by today’s GOP” – with the premise being Reagan was “too centrist” for today’s GOP . It’s a perfectly plausible claim, if you have no idea about the history of the GOP; go and google “A Time For Choosing”, the full hour-long speech, if you need proof; it’d fit in at any Tea Party meeting in the past decade. If anything, Reagan would still scare the DC establishment; George Will was deeply unhappy with Reagan’s performance, and we know what George has been up to lately.

So no – Reagan would *not* have trouble in today’s GOP, or at least the part of the party that swept the elections in 2010 and 2014.

But Paul Wellstone and Hubert Humphrey would get laughed out of today’s Democratic Party. Of that, there can be no doubt.

That is all.

Imagine…

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…a state, and a world, where this guy is the chief law enforcement official:

He thinks Justice Gorsuch was bribed, and the case is on par with Plessy V. Ferguson.  

“I am deeply disappointed that this ruling gives legitimacy to discrimination and Islamophobia,” he said. “America holds a unique place in the world as a nation of immigrants. Unlike some other countries, we welcome refugees, asylum seekers, and dreamers fleeing war and instability in other parts of the world. America is and must remain the ‘land of the free’ where the family escaping persecution in North Korea or civil war in Syria can seek shelter and thrive.”

Just what Minnesota needs – an AG who believes the law means what he says it means.

Dig deep and give time and money for Doug Wardlow.

 

Spirit Of America

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Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

https://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/car-technology/a21272157/aerodynamics-car-science/

 

The reason all cars look the same is aerodynamics, which matter to fuel efficiency, which is mandated by the government.

I’d gladly give up a few miles per gallon if I could have my ’67 Mustang back, only with less rust and a modern reliable engine.

Give me a Mustang body sitting on a Hyundai Sonata powertrain and we’re golden.

Let’s see:

Yeah, that’d work.

Clear, Present

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SCENE: Mitch BERG is mowing his lawn.  He stops to clear some crud from around the blades as Avery LIBRELLE slowly walks up behind him, picking up a flattened pop cup from the sidewalk.  LIBRELLE gets behind BERG and throws it at him.  It catches the air and planes away from BERG, who notices the sound of it flopping to the ground.

LIBRELLE:  Merg!   Get the hell out of public!

BERG:  (Shakes head wearily)  Hey, Avery.  What, now?

LIBRELLE:  We’re shutting you down!

BERG:  I’m mowing my lawn.  On my own property.   Why so violent?

LIBRELLE:  Oh, yeah?  What about when the Tea Partiers yelled at us progressives during the Town Hall meetings in 2009?

BERG:  Individuals expressed anger – but not violence – at events intended to be public dialogues.  No GOP leadership called for violence against the opposition…

LIBRELLE:  I am the Resistance!  I am going to attack you, because Trump is literally Hitler.    So get off your lawn before I kill you!

BERG:  Seems a little drastic  (Resumes clearing blade).

LIBRELLE:  Besides, you need to know…

BERG: You know I have surveillance cameras on my yard, and our entire interaction has been taped, right?

LIBRELLE:   DON”T YOU DARE!  YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO TAPE ME!  HOW DARE YOU! (Turns and runs).

BERG:  (Shakes head, restarts mower)

And SCENE

It’s A Start

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Americans like their guns:

The Small Arms Survey estimates there are 393,300,000 civilian-owned firearms in the United States. The survey, performed by the Graduate Institute of Geneva, estimated the United States military has about 4.5 million firearms. It put the number of firearms owned by police throughout the United States at just over 1 million.

That means American civilians own nearly 100 times as many firearms as the U.S. military and nearly 400 times as many as law enforcement.

Let’s do the math:  there are 8,000 homicides a year, divided among 400 million guns.   That means roughly one gun out of 50,000 is used in a homicide per year (assuming each gun is used once, which is far from true.

Amerian guns are actually safer, crime-wise, than American citizens are.

This Is Today’s DFL

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Ilhan Omar – DFL endorsed candidate for Congress in the 5th CD – is a raving anti-semite.

State representative Ilhan Omar has yet to complete her first term in the Minnesota legislature, where she has accomplished approximately nothing of substance, though she has now secured the DFL endorsement to succeed Minnesota Fifth District Rep. Keith Ellison in Congress. In the brief Weekly Standard article “The anti-Israel seat,” I conclude with observations related to Omar’s frank hatred of Israel. She doesn’t sugarcoat it. She calls Israel an “apartheid regime.”

That is a defamatory falsehood with a shabby provenance. In Omar’s case, it is something more than an impulsive comment in a recent tweet. It represents her considered judgment. One can see it at work in her remarks on the floor of the Minnesota House in opposition to a bill (HF 400) opposing the boycott of Israel promoted by so-called BDS groups harking back to the “Zionism is racism” lie of the 1970’s.

And it’s fascinating how local media treats Omar’s anti-semitiem; exactly the same way as they treated her dubious family history.

It makes sense; their editors and producers know they’ll never get another invite to the Oceannarie if they do.

Collision In Intersectionality

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Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

Minneapolis Gay Pride parade started late.  Gays were blocked by Blacks, protesting a shooting.  Their lives matter, you see, whereas gay lives . . . .

By adopting the tactic of hijacking other people’s events solely to generate publicity, BLM has turned into the Westboro Baptist Church.  Their protests are no longer persuasive, they’re a nuisance and by blocking the gay parade, BLM is now a hate group.

Calling the Southern Poverty Law Center – update your list.

Joe Doakes

Watching intersectionals argue over public mindshare is a little like watching crabs fighting to get to the top of a bucket.

You’d think in a city the size of MInneapolis, there’d be plenty of bucket for everyone.  But no..

The Healing Power Of “The Right Noises”

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“Environmentalists” get a pass on flying around the world in private jets to environmental conferences because they make the right noises.

Sexual harassers get a pass from #MeeeeToooos on, well, harassing sexually because they make the right noises.

Politicians who demand small businesses pay minimum wages far above the market rate pay their staff serf wages, without a peep in opposition, because they make the right noises about abortion.

Yappy gun grabber demands you give up your guns, while surrounded by armed security guards, and not a pundit so much as scratches their head at the arrogance, because he makes the right noises.

Is there any sin “the right noises” can’t get forgiven?

Grab A Hammer

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Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

A Jew turned Christian turned Evangelical says Christians “sold” their principles in supporting Trump.  Time to move beyond social battles and forsake the politics of hate, fear and violence.  Time to embrace gun control.  Time to be like Episcopalians.

In other words, Never Trump.

He’s not alone.  Catholic bishops in the United States have embraced Open Borders, climate change, gun control . . .

In other words, Never Trump.

I don’t understand the New World Order.  I’m stuck in the Old World, the world in which the purpose of religion was to save my immortal soul from eternal damnation, a risk posed by my personal moral failings.  Hellfire and damnation were the punishment for sin, not the result of global warming caused by greenhouse gasses emitted by the engine in my car. I was admonished to live in the world, but not be of it, that I might someday be worthy of salvation and heaven.

Either everybody has been doing it wrong for the last 2,000 years or modern religion has completely lost its way.  I’m beginning to think it’s time to write out a few theses and find myself a hammer.

Joe Doakes

When progs finally get around to rewriting the Bible, Christ will work for a non-profit that sought justice for carpenters.

Welcome To NARNTown. Population: You.

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Join me from 1-3PM today on the NARN!

Today on the show:

  • Trump visited MN last week.  The “news” stories about the visit were mostly written in advance.
  • A skirmish in the social civil war.
  • Andy Cilek, on the MN Voters Alliance’s victory at the SCOTUS a few weeks back
  • Bob Schoenberger on the latest developments with the Enbridge 3 pipeline in northern Minnesota.

Don’t forget – King Banaian is on from 9-11AM on AM1440, and Brad Carlson is  on “The Closer” edition of the NARN Sundays from 2-3PM.

So tune in the Northern Alliance! You have so many options:

Join us!

The Manhattan Civil Liberties Privileges Union

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The ACLU doesn’t quite make it official – but leaked memos show that the former civil liberties and current “civil liberties” group doesn’t really fuss with actual freedom much anymore:

The American Civil Liberties Union will weigh its interest in protecting the First Amendment against its other commitments to social justice, racial equality, and women’s rights, given the possibility that offensive speech might undermine ACLU goals.

“Our defense of speech may have a greater or lesser harmful impact on the equality and justice work to which we are also committed,” wrote ACLU staffers in a confidential memo obtained by former board member Wendy Kaminer.

Hearing it from the proverbial horse’s mouth is really just making it offiicial-ish; it’s been pretty obvious for decades, on some issues (most notably the Second Amendment).

I’m Not Saying…

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…that gun control activists are stupid.

I am saying they sure hope you’re stupid, and are trying to make you more so

“Protect” MN posted this:

Now, I get that you can’t judge a book by its cover…

…but do you see this guy standing m line at Cabelas filling out his paperwork while waiting for his NICS to come back?

While I strive to remain civil, I’m at a loss to remember a less…cognitively adept public figure than Nancy Nord Bence.

The Real Resistance

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“Resistance” implies one is fighting an all-powerful status quo.

LIberals in liberal cities are not the “resistance”; they are “the power”.

And teachers?  People in the public education system?  Going against the herd in the world of public education is truly resistance.

And teachers who have decided that their and their charges’ lives are worth more than the vague blandishments of security theater may be the bravest resistance of all:

On a recent morning in Newcomerstown, Ohio, a row of teachers stood in a line with guns drawn and moved slowly toward a row of steel plate targets.

As the teachers advanced, bullets pinged off the metal with each round they fired.

The teachers had come to take part in Faster Saves Lives, a voluntary training program run by an Ohio-based nonprofit that has taught more than 1,300 school staff members to carry and use firearms since 2013. (Faster stands for Faculty/Administrator Safety Training & Emergency Response.)

“My students are my kids, basically, and I want to be able to protect them just like I would protect my own son,” said a 34-year-old Ohio teacher of students with special needs who participated in the program and spoke on the condition of anonymity out of concern that by going public, she or her school could be targeted by a shooter.

I suspect – and all the evidence that actually exists supports me on this – that the opposite is the case.

Anyway – more, faster, please.

The Fix Is In

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Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

The sex problem in the Catholic Church was caused by gay priests preying on altar boys.  That’s not pedophilia (dirty old man and young girl), that’s pederasty (gay man and young boy), which is a crime and also a sin.  The behavior went on for years while the Church hierarchy actively covered it up, denied it happened, took the predators’ side against the victims.  The congregation at large believed the people in authority and dismissed allegations as wicked gossip and ridiculous conspiracy theory.

There have been rumors floating around for a couple of years that sex with children is rampant in certain corners of politics.  Bill Clinton rode the Lolita Express (a charter flight to a private island where underage sex is supposedly available).  Anthony Weiner’s texts.  A pizza parlor in New York that sold no pizza but sent a lot of children on deliveries.  Child porn found on computers that also were used to leak classified data.  Celebrity suicides for no apparent reason but who are linked to people accused of promoting child sex.  At this point, the politicians deny it happened.  The FBI seems to be covering for certain well-connected people.  The media dismisses the allegations as wicked gossip and ridiculous conspiracy theory.  And ordinary people still believe the people in authority.

I’m getting a sick feeling in my stomach.

Joe Doakes

My big worry is that we – all of us – are getting so desensitized that the level of what it takes to shock us is approaching meaninglessness.