Speaking Of Shots In The Dark: Welcome To the New Design!
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Somewhere In Morocco
KAEPERNICK (Staring out of the desert): “Chris Kluwe, you magnificent bastard! I read your book!”
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Alt And Be Recognized
Joe Doakes from Como Park emails: University of Chicago just become Alt-Right U? According to NPR, “alts” are everywhere. Beware, citizen!
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Rationing
Joe Doakes from Como Park emails: Doctors are like walleyes: everybody wants one but there aren’t enough to go around, so we must ration them. Walleyes are rationed by license. Medical care traditionally has been rationed by price. But when the government pays, there is no price, so now Britain is rationing by morality. It…
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Dear Melodramatic Has-Been Celebrities
To: Melodramatic Has-Been Celebs From: Mitch Berg, Irascible Peasant Re: Book Those Tickets! All, We’ve heard it all before. Put up or shut up. That is all.
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Desinformatzya
The bad news: the Kremlin has learned the power of swamping Westerners with bogus stories: Disinformation most famously succeeded in early 2014 with the initial obfuscation about deploying Russian forces to seize Crimea. That summer, Russia pumped out a dizzying array of theories about the destruction of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over Ukraine, blaming the…
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Knocked Out
One of my pet peeves, among activists in the media? When someone comes up on the wrong end of a police or civilian civil defense shooting, and the media and activists jabber that the person was “unarmed”. Of course, sometimes it means someone got murdered. Of course, sometimes it means someone got murdered. But “unarmed”…
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Planning!
A friend of the blog writes: On the neighborhood Facebook page, someone was noting concern over the camps being set-up on the MNDOT green space at Snelling and I94. She then commented that she found out the city had loosened regulation on homeless camps and panhandling. A few months ago, I mused that the excessive…
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But Wait!
Joe Doakes from Como Park emails: Minnesota Continuing Legal Education is presenting a seminar on Gun Law. Brochure is here: $295 is a chunk of dough for a person who doesn’t practice law in this area, and can’t write off the cost as a business expense. But the “Can’t Attend” box says the written materials…
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Everything Two, Four, Six, 12 And 22 Years Old Is New Again
What does the “Alt-Right” have in common with 2014’s Koch Brothers, 2012’s “ALEC”, 2010’s “Tea Party”, 2004’s “neocons”, and 1994’s “Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy?” Everything! One of the great staples of politics – in this case, the left, although the right does it too (although with less cynical panache or institutional momentum) – is “finding a boogeyman…
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The Dog Ate The Entire American Mainstream Media’s Homework
Over the past couple of weeks, conservatives have noted the media’s toxic double-standard in reporting two different natural disasters; their hyperbolic and sensationalistic coverage of Hurricane Katrina, which was as saturated as the sodden delta soil… …versus their virtual ban on coverage of the catastrophic rain storms that struck Cajun country over the past few…
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$ sudo happy birthday > you
Today is the 25th birthday of the Linux operating system – which has morphed from Linus Torvalds’ hobby into the operating system running the vast majority of the world’s servers, including the ones bringing out this blog. Here’s the current Linux family tree: In my home, we have a couple of Macs, a couple of…
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I’ll Swim Against The School
A lot of conservatives bag on the President pretty hard for his dedication to his golf game. Kevin Williamson says it’s a mistake, and I agree. There are two reasons. The first: There are some obvious and practical reasons not to discourage President Obama’s sporting pursuits. The most obvious of them is that every hour…
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“Their Business Is War, And They Do Their Business”
John Noonan in the Weekly Standard does his bit to correct a bit of comic historical slander against the French military. The stereotype exists in a realm of pop-history, where many believe that France’s past is littered with dropped rifles and abandoned posts. This stink has clung to the French military for decades now. It’s…
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Follow Up
Joe Doakes from Como Park follows up yesterday’s report from the Saturday “gun buyback”: I sent this email to the Star Tribune reporter, liz.sawyer@startribune.com “Your article “After Strong Response” regarding the Minneapolis gun buy-back stated they handed out $25,000 in gift cards. I don’t think that’s correct. I was the sixth person in line at…
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Question
Reading over the story about Saturda’s “gun buyback”, I have a question. By Joe’s count, there were a total of six cops at the South Mpls location, most of them on overtime. Let’s assume the same number at the North Side “buyback”. If I recall correctly, cops get about $40 an hour for overtime (someone correct me…
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Buyback Diary
The Betsy “The Besty!” Hodges regime in Minneapolis held a gun buyback (via the Pillsbury Foundation, a non-profit that is part of the DFL family in Minneapolis) over the weekend. Kind of. I originally intended to attend – but other events caught up with me on Saturday morning. Fortunately, Joe Doakes from Como Park attended.…
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At Least Metamucil Isn’t Doing Sports Marketing
Tor from “Torwegian” notes with disapproval the ChiSox’ new stadium: With some corporate marketing people, you just can fix stupid or financially desperate. Count among them White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf, quoted by WGN-TV: “We are pleased to find, in Guaranteed Rate, a new naming rights partner founded in Chicago by Chicagoans, which shares our…
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NARN At The Fair!
Today, the Northern Alliance Radio Network – America’s first grass-roots talk radio show – is on the air! I’l be on live from the Minnesota State Fair from 1-3PM today this afternoon, live at the AM1280 booth on Machinery Hill! . Today on the show: District 66A House candidate Jon Heyer will join us to talk about running in Saint…
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Dr. Blake
It’s been a long, long time since I’ve been punched in the stomach. But I remember what it feels like with this news: Dr. Jim Blake, my college advisor, died a few months ago in Oil City, PA. He was 68. That I’m hearing about it a few seasons late shows how life’s sturm und drang will have…
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Gloriously Justifiable Homicide
Gawker is dead. You could read their sniveling, responsibility-denying self-post-mortem… …or you could let Sean Davis do it for you: Gawker is dead; let us dance on its rank, festering grave. I only hope that sometime in my life I get the chance to pelt Nick Denton with taunts and garbage.
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Planning
Joe Doakes from Como Park emails in re tomorrow’s “Gun Buyback for Artists” in Minneapolis: Minneapolis is having a gun buy-back [tomorrow]. I’m thinking of dumping some relics from my gun locker. I need SITD readers to check my reasoning. After Hillary is elected, the economy collapses and the Zombie Apocalypse hits, when there is…
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Remora
SCENE: Mitch BERG is has just picked up a pound of coffee beans from the neighborhood coffee shop. As he leaves, he notices Avery LIBRELLE sitting at a table. BERG tries to look smaller, and starts to slink past to get to the door – but LIBRELLE notices him. LIBRELLE: Merg! BERG: Oh…hey, Avery. What’s…
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Dilemma
On the one hand: cocktails good. On the other hands: “cocktail culture” bad. And the effluvia of “cocktail culture?” Just plain silly. Although two thubs up to the entrepreneurs involved!
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Negotiation
Joe Doakes from Como Park emails: Asylum seekers legally prohibited from working, decline voluntary work that generate favorable PR, demand minimum wage instead. Gee, maybe Mark Dayton can talk to Angela Merkel about getting some of those folks to move here. Joe Doakes Soon they’ll be going door to door for MPIRG.
Got any book recommendations?