Shot in the Dark

Tag: The Endless Emergency

  • I’m Not Going To Say…

    …that Kim Norton, mayor of Rochester, is simultaneously both the most authoritarian person in Minnesota politics and the most groaningly, er, ill-informed, incurious and tone-deaf. But I will say… ..that if you think I’m inferring that message between the lines, I’m not going to argue with you all that hard.

  • Open Letter To Governor Walz

    To: Governor WalzFrom: Mitch Berg, Irascible PeasantRe: State Of Non-Emergency Your Highness, Your ongoing, and apparently endless, emergency declaration is, put mildly, draconian – especially if you’re in the private sector, especially an entrepreneur. You’ll notice that a sizable majority of people supporting the your most extreme quarantining provisions are public, non-profit or academic employees,…

  • The Minnesota Stasi

    The state is going after Senator, and Doctor, Scott Jensen, for… …well, counterrevolutionary activity, apparently: Minnesota senator and medical physician Dr. Scott Jensen says he is under investigation by the Minnesota State Board of Medical Practice for allegedly spreading misinformation about COVID-19. Jensen revealed the investigation in a Facebook video on Sunday, saying the medical board…

  • Accountability

    The Senate GOP – the only real bit of power the opposition has in Minnesota – is finally going to ask the question that it seems nearly nobody in our media will. Why didi the DFL politiclal “chain of command”, from Mayors Carter and McDreamy up through Governor Klink, allow two of the Twin Cities…

  • Promises, Broken

    We were PROMISED 1,440 dead from Covid by the end of May and a huge surge in cases this Summer.  We’re not even close on deaths and there’s no evidence of a surge, here or anywhere else in the nation.  And hospitalizations are declining.   So is the Health Department admitting it was wrong, wrong, and wrong?   Of…

  • Ken Martin And The Legion Of Smug

    May 14: Ken Martin, chair of the DFL, makes a bold prediction and a really dumb statement: Fast forward nearly a month: as of June 12, Wisconsin’s death rate per million is half that of Minnesota. Its active cases are a solid 40% lower than Minnesota’s. And that was after Wisconsin started out “leading” Minnesota…

  • Count Down ‘Til The Moving Goalposts

    Remember when the Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down Governor “Nanny” Evers’ lockdown? And cheeseheads swarmed into bars, sans masks and social distancing, et avec about two months worth of socializing to catch up on? Remember the carnage the Twin Cities’ media and Karen class predicted? EIther will they, if they have anything to say about…

  • When Government Imitates “The Onion”, The People Will Imitate “Babylon Bee”

    North Carolina speedway declares its stock car race a “peaceful protest”: A North Carolina speedway drew a crowd of more than 2,000 spectators in defiance of the state’s coronavirus restrictions after declaring the race a “protest.” The governor’s office had warned Ace Speedway in Elon earlier this week that a crowd of more than 25…

  • Some Memorials Are More Equal Than Others

    My brother died one month ago today.  No funeral – they were illegal.  Covid. It was SCIENCE! Then the Covid rules changed: we could have a 10-people funeral.  That wasn’t enough for both our side and the widow’s side of the family to attend.  No funeral.  SCIENCE! Then the Covid rules changed again: we could…

  • Open Question For “The Party Of Science”

    To: Governor Walz and the Minnesota DFLFrom: Mitch Berg, Irascible Peasant who passed College BiologyRe: Help me underdstand this Governor Walz So let me get this straight. According to you; Covid19 is a lethal epidemic. Attending protests to seek the re-opening of the state during the middle of the pandemic threatens grandma and, since “essential…

  • Never Was

    SCENE: Mitch BERG is standing at the east end of the Marshall Lake Bridge, looking through binoculars at the fires along East Lake Street. Absorbed, he doesn’t notice LEAKY THE BEAGLE – a superannuated dog wearing sunglasses and a fake mustache, and affecting a cheap version of a German accent – riding up behind him…

  • Dense

    “Red” states are 45% of the nation’s population – and about 21% of the nation’s Covid19 deaths (and 25% of the cases, as far as testing shows, although that’s a fuzzy numerator at best in many states, including Minnesota). That leaves most of this epidemic’s carnage to the 100 most densely-populated counties – almost all…

  • Minnesota Is Finally Number 1

    Minnesota has the highest share of long-term-care residents as fatalities of any state in the union. So we’re finally champs at something. And looking at the numbers in that spreadsheet, it’s beyond shocking – nearly ten percent of all ilong term care residents in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut – the Blue Triangle of…

  • Never Waste A Crisis – Libertarian Edition

    I pointed out with a bit of mindly tart surprise last month that California, after voting in lock step with the statist agenda for the past thirty years, had rediscovered the virtues of federalism via the current public health crisis, and the (to progressives) greater crisis of Hillary losing the election. That was a tad…

  • Idle Question For Governor Walz

    Question: why are tiny United Churches of Christ in small towns in southwestern Minnesota, the huge Cathedral of Saint Paul, and the sprawling Living Word Church which seats several thousand people several times every normal Sunday, all limited to 10 attendees? What’s the ostensible “science” behind concluding fifty people on a restaurant patio – any…

  • Make Minnesota Productive Again

    Since the Governor won’t let me go out to play, I’m spending my time athome wisely. I’m taking the on-line class to renew my Permit to Carry a Pistol. I’malso shopping on-line for guns (to be shipped to my local FFL fordelivery) and stocking up on ammunition (to be shipped directly to mydoorstep). Thanks, Governor.…

  • Civil Disobedience

    I’ll confess – I never thought I’d see the Catholic Church act up against big government. The Missouri Synod Lutherans? Sure. But Twin Cities catholics? I’d given up hope. Happy to admit I got that one wrong. Minnesota’s collection of Bishops have joined with the conservative Missouri Synod Lutherans to defy the Governor’s absurd “10…

  • Heroes Walking Among Us

    Went for a walk, saw this sign, having trouble identifying the symbol for “government bureaucrats.”   Hey, we’re essential, you know.  Those papers aren’t going to shuffle themselves.  Joe Doakes Sardonic as Joe is, he knows as well as anyone that government workers of all kinds are the most essential workers there are. They’re public employees union…

  • A Look Ahead To Government Healthcare…

    …with a side helping of “Blue Minnesota always tries to emulate New York”. City-run nursing homes in NYC became wretched hellscapes during the worst of the pandemic: “It was just heartbreaking,” said one of the RNs, a mom of four from Wisconsin who spent about 17 days at the Coler Rehabilitation and Nursing Care Center.…

  • The Good News: Americans Have Learned A Lot About Dealing With Crises

    The bad news: they learned it by watching The Walking Dead. I’ve noticed a serious uptick in incredibly dangerous, reckless driving since the onset of the epidemic. Now, out on I94 between the Cities is one thing. But this includes a lot of episodes on Saint Paul’s narrow side streets. Worst example? I was driving…

  • Timing

    Newest Covid statistics. 10% of the people tested got the virus.  1.5% of those who got the virus, needed hospitalization. One-half of one percent of those who got the virus, died from it.  80% of the deaths are in nursing homes.  No child has died from it.   The computer model estimates from the press…

  • Densely Packed People

    “Politics is the least effective possible way to get things done” is a tight paraphrase of one of my favorite Kevin Williamson quotes. And it may as well be the theme in this piece, from far-from-right Pro Publica, Pullquote from among many contenders: [San Francisco Mayor London] Breed, it turns out, had sent de Blasio…

  • Tone Deaf

    600,000 Minnesotans lost their jobs this Spring. The $1.5 billion surplus is now a $2.5 billion deficit.  DFL legislators want to give 50,000 state employees a 2% raise in July.   My thought: there are 50,000 state employees?  That’s a lot of bureaucrats.  And it does not include all government employees – teachers, county or…

  • Government By Slogan

    Gym class is one of few parts of high school – mostly junior high – that I’ve actively tried to blot from my mind. Don’t get me wrong – some of the gym teachers at my high school might not have been sadistic sociopaths. Some of them may have grown as human beings. I’ll leave…

  • Representative Karen

    Tina LIebling, representative from… …well, it might as well be Eastasia, given her attitude about, well, the role of the elected legislature, especially the part that’s in opposition., But I digress. Here’s the representative, talking about GOP Senators who were doing the – let me make sure I’m perfectly clear oh this – actual job…