Shot in the Dark

Speaking Of Shots In The Dark: Welcome To the New Design!

  • Mixed Messages

    On the one hand, I do believe that rehabilitation makes sense; once most people get out of their 20s and 30s, the small-brain hormonal impulsiveness behind a fair portion of crime starts to fade just a bit, and long-term prisoners need something to replace that part of their lives with. So the prison college program hignlighted on NPR earlier…

  • Life Imitates Blog

    Ten years or so ago, during the heyday of the political blog, some of us – conservatives with fond memories of the punk era in music – quipped “conservatism is the new punk”. In places like Minneapolis and Saint Paul, it’s still pretty true; conservatives and conservatism are the counterculture, the disruption, the sound of the gleeful…

  • Trivia Contest

    The more I write this blog, the more I realize how prescient Berg’s Seventh Law is. Remember when the left had their intestines tied in a knot over people open-carrying guns? Then Trump got elected – and the rules have changed: So I headed straight to the Capitol, but the pro-Trump event was petering out.…

  • The Mission For Today – And The Next 10 Months

    As this is being published, there’s a hearing going on down at the State Office Building. With that in mind, let’s run down the current situation for the two Second Amendment bills we’ve been following: Deadlines And Commitments:  As of today: “Constitutional Carry” is pretty much dead for this session; House Public Safety passed it,…

  • Bedrock Principles

    Some believe that liberals have no princples; that it’s all about power. Well, some liberal have some principles, it’s true, and some of them aren’t about getting and keeping power. But as Jonah Goldberg points out, it’d be a mistake to think that liberals aren’t constitutional originalists, as seen during the Gorsuch hearings (I’ll add…

  • Just Doing Their Jobs

    To:  The Star/Tribune From:  Mitch Berg, Deplorable Peasant Re:  You’re Not Even Trying To Deny It Anymore, Are You? Dear Strib: I’ll take the headline of this piece as a tacit – and, let’s be honest, redundant – admission that your paper isn’t so much a “journalistic” endeavor as a PR arm for the DFL.…

  • Wally Got A Job With NASA

    Joe Doakes from Como Park emails: Scott Adams (yes, the Dilbert guy) explains why climate science doesn’t persuade him so far.  He’ll never do lunch with NPR people again.

  • The Club

    On Saturday, a rally at the state capitol asked Saint Paul and Ramco authorities to actually enforce the law against the spoiled children of their golf buddies. Many people at the rally said they were concerned that not prosecuting the protesters would send the message that it’s acceptable to interrupt a peaceful event with noise and violence.…

  • TIme For Some Petty Partisanship

    Kevin Williamson in National Review comes perilously close to my riff on people who think being “Moderate” is, itself, a good thing: Bipartisanship is desirable not because the best course is likely to be found at the midpoint between two extremes: The man who drinks to excess every day is a drunk, and so is…

  • Rationality

    Joe Doakes from Como Park emails: I’ve been bewildered that Democrats don’t care about Obamacare and Social Security running in the red. Nobody acts irrationally in their own minds. Whatever they’re doing, it makes sense to them. But how can the government run in the red forever? How will Democrats repay the debt racked up…

  • Spoke Too Soon

    We’re told…: http://www.gomn.com/news/why-the-twin-cities-will-go-dark-for-an-hour-saturday-night/ To which I reply: I normally live under a vow of darkness, picked up during my formative years during the “energy crisis”.  I’m a frugal guy – far moreso than most Minnesotans. But my house may well have beeen visible from space.

  • I Heard It On The NARN

    The article on Minneapolis that I cited. And it’s go time.  Please – join, or at least sign up for the email blasts and newsletters from, the MN Gun Owners Caucus and the Gun Owners Civil Rights Alliance.

  • If You’re Looking For NARN, Baby I’m Tougher Than The Rest

    Today, the Northern Alliance Radio Network – America’s first grass-roots talk radio show – is on the air! Today on the show: The GOP’s no good, very bad week – and the road back. Rob Doar Today, the Northern Alliance Radio Network – America’s first grass-roots talk radio show – is on the air! Today on the show: The MNGOP’s…

  • On The Other Hand…

    At least one state in the upper midwest remembers who the good guys are.    NoDak governor (and husband of my high school classmate Kathy) Doug Burgum signed a “Constitutional Carry” law in North Dakota, similar to the one the MNGOP wet its pants over this week.

  • Lie First, Lie Always: Delusions Of Adequacy

    It’s been a frustrating week to be a Real American in Minnesota – an American who believes that law-abiding citizens should have more rights in the eyes of the law than criminals. More on that tomorrow on the show.  Oh, yes – the show will fairly crackle with rage. But there’s some comic relief.  Grim…

  • Ausweis, Bitte

    Joe Doakes from Como Park emails: Every state issues its own driver’s license but the quality varies greatly.  TSA decided it needed a standard form of identification to screen people allowed onto airplanes.  As of next year, Minnesota’s driver’s licenses will not meet the new requirements.  A bill to upgrade them is stalled in the…

  • Mission For Today

    Y’know that calling that all of us Second Amendment Human Rights supporters need to do to keep the Constitutional Carry and Self Defense Reform bills alive in the Omnibus bills? Keep at it. It’s having an effect – if only by  making certain GOP leaders nervous. A few of them made the mistake of thinking…

  • “Wiretapping”

    “The press takes [Trump] literally, but not seriously; his supporters take him seriously, but not literally. ”  — Salena Zito When Donald Trump claimed “Trump Tower had been wiretapped”, the media – awash in images of sweaty, donut-dust-stained cops hunched over in a 1974 Ford Econoline amid amplifiers and reel to reel tape decks, concentrating on…

  • Tangent

    When discussing the attack on the British Parliament yesterday, one picture is worth a thousand words:

  • Possible New Berg’s Law

    Joe Doakes from Como Park emails: I hadn’t heard about this case.  It’s a bad decision.  A jury of one’s peers that deliberates in secret is fundamental to the American system of justice.  Every other system is subject to corruption and undue influence that deprives the defendant of a fair chance at an impartial verdict.…

  • Time For Some Action

    Gun owners. When we’re on the defensive – as we were 3-4 years ago, here in Minnesota – we are the most motivated people in politics.  We make people sit up and listen – or we throw them out of office. But when times are less perilous?   It’s another story.  And it’s understandable; unlike…

  • The First Priority Is To Have Priorities

    Joe Doakes from Como Park emails: President Trump issued an Executive Order on immigration last month, pursuant to a law passed by Congress and signed by President Obama two years ago.   A Federal judge in California blocked it.   President Trump issued a revised Executive Order that took into account the judge’s objections.  A Federal judge…

  • The Warm Flint, The Cold Baltimore

    What’s the only thing worse than politics? No politics.  Or, rather, no need for politics, since someone is making all the decisions without any need for all that pesky “compromise” and “discussion”. History is full of the big examples – the USSR, East Germany, Germany itself, Communist China, India under Indira Gandhi, and on and…

  • Note

    The thing to remember, when reading of the medias “reporting” about Trump – in this case, about his budget – is that so much of it is completely made up.

  • Howl

    Joe Doakes from Como Park emails: Republicans in Congress are doing their usual job of chickening out from taking effective action, preferring half-assed deck-chair-arranging and cost-can-kicking instead of risking the chance someone might call them names.  Fixing this mess requires understanding how we got into it.  Before the Great Depression, doctors charged what the patient…

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