To: Etan Cohen and Mike Judge, co-writers of Idiocracy
From: Mitch Berg, uppity peasant
Re: Your Blinding Flash of Epiphany
Etan and Mike,
This is just occurring to you?
I’m a conservative in Saint Paul. Looking at my city government, I thought it was a documentary when I first saw it.
That is all.
…must be tempered by the knowledge that the only reason this happened – University of Missouri professor Melissa “Poster Child for Moral Constipation” Click, was fired earlier this week – was that her little meltdown was caught on video:
(Looking at the “Students” in this video may be the most deeply depressing thing I’ve done lately. Fascism is alive and well and drinking latte on a thousand university campuses)
How many professors out there commit the same, and worse, crimes against free expression and critical inquiry every day, unrecorded and, thanks to the outdated practice of academic tenure, utterly untouchable?
In a just world, every one of those “students” will have this video hounding them throughout their “lives”.
Additional Question: Any bets on whether Click gets hired at one of the Twin Cities’ surplus crop of mediocre colleges?
There’s a new sheriff in town at “ProtectMN”.
She’s got size two shoes to fill.
And they’ll be having a party to talk about it tonight:
Dear Heinrich,
Come meet the new Executive Director of Protect Minnesota and learn how YOU can help prevent gun violence in our state. The Rev. Nancy Nord Bence is excited to meet you, share important information prior to caucusing on March 1, and hear your ideas for the growth of our coalition. Wine and appetizers will be provided.
After “Protect” MN’s last decade in the legislature, one might think the appetizer would be “crow”.
But I imagine they’ll be knocking back the vino, all right.
DATE: Thursday, February 25, 2016
TIME: Open House from 6:30-8:30pm
I’m pretty sure you need to be on the guest list to show up.
It’s right in the middle of the AM1280 Debate Party, so I won’t be able to attend.
Coincidence? I think not.
LOCATION: Protect Minnesota Offices, 2395 University Ave W, Suite 204, St. Paul MN 55114. (That’s in the Security Building on the corner of Raymond and University.) Street parking is free after 5pm. Come to the entrance on Raymond Avenue and our doorman will let you in.
Hope you’ll join us!
The Rev. Nancy Nord Bencewww.protectmn.org
Welcome to the battle, Reverend Nord Bence. I’ll extend you the same invitation I’ve been extending to your predecessor, Heather Martens, for the past decade; you can come on my show any Saturday afternoon and talk “gun safety”. Hopefully you’ll be less pusillanimous than your predecessor.
And just to show you I’m all about the same goals you are, I’ll do this for you:
Audience Participation: What advice do you, the smartest comment section in town‡, want to give Rev. Nord Bence?
Go!
‡ Well, most of you, anyway.
The conclusion to Brendan O’Neil’s latest at National Review, on the “Ivy League Lynch Mob” that gathers, makes vaguely “feminist” noises about sexual assault, and demands the repeal of our entire system of criminal justice:
Assuming a defendant’s innocence is what distinguishes progressive societies from backward ones. It’s the idea that infuses To Kill a Mockingbird. Atticus Finch insists that the black man, Tom, who is accused of rape must receive a fair trial. We learn later that Tom is innocent and that his accuser, Mayella, made up the whole thing. Could that be the case with Kesha, too — that she’s making it up and Dr. Luke is innocent? We don’t know. But entertaining that possibility is what makes us more like Atticus Finch than the Tom-hunting mob, which today’s feminists seem to have modeled themselves on.
The journey to this conclusion – via a splashy, show-biz non-trial and PR lynching of a music producer on the word of a pop star unhappy with her contract – is worth a read.
Venezuela’s slow-motion collapse is switching to fast motion.
Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:
Most recent report from Centers for Disease Control concerning death by gun violence not helpful . . . to Liberals.
A buddy mentioned:
“I took note of the drownings. The Boy Scouts have always considered water as the most dangerous place for scouts. The Director of the Waterfront is always the most responsible position in camp. Not the Director of the Shooting Range, or the Archery Range. Not the Director of the High Climbing Tower, or the Food Service, or even the Medical Oversight person. Waterfront is the place where most kids die in summer camps. But not in Boy Scout camps.”
Water doesn’t drown people. People drown in water. Teach the people to be safe and the water is safe. What an amazing concept. Too bad it doesn’t apply to other activities like driving or hiking or . . . firearms.
Joe Doakes
Accidental shootings are almost 100% preventable – just like accidental drownings. You just have to extend the effort.
Note to “The Other McCain” readers: Welcome!
Note that the title of this post is misleading; I have no (new) evidence of voter fraud or payoffs to Planned Parenthood.
The title was bait for a regular comment section, er, “visitor”.
Inside jokes are the best, aren’t they
Hope you enjoy the stay here!
To: Semi-regular commenter who makes big claims but never, ever responds when the claims are debunked
From: Mitch Berg, blog owner
Re: Questions
Dear regular commenter,
I thought that title would get your attention. Great. I have asked you a few questions in recent months. I figured I’d direct your attention back to them.
It’s one of dozens of questions you’ve left unanswered over the years, but why quibble over a few hundred issues, right?
Those two will be a great start.
Thanks!
Minnesota – the state where everything that isn’t mandatory is banned – jumped down hard on “vaping”, the “smoking” of electronic cigarettes (or “e-cigs”). E-cigs, which create a vapor out of water with flavoring and nicotene, are a vastly lower-risk alternative to smoking cigarettes, without the tar and most of the known carcinogens.
Summary: people enjoying something that looked like, and bore a superficial relationship (there’s something that looks like smoke!) to something the ruling class abhors (but for the tax money) but the declassé enjoy? Ban it!
And so the state’s behavior police, sensing illicit enjoyment, leapt into action, grunting out a series of laws that, while scientifically vacant, made vaping the equivalent of smoking.
But with a little luck, the push for conformity may have taken a hit in, of all places, New York, with a judge noting the radical notion that, with vaping, nothing is burning:
“An electronic cigarette neither burns nor contains tobacco,” said the court. “Instead, the use of such a device, which is commonly referred to as ‘vaping,’ involves the inhalation of vaporized e-cigarette liquid consisting of water, nicotine, a base of propylene glycol or vegetable glycerin and occasionally, flavoring.”
And also, the subversive idea (at least in the age of Obama( that the law means what it says it means:
The issue was brought to the court in the case of People v. Thomas, after vaper Shawn Thomas was issued a citation on the subway and subsequently challenged the citation in court. New York law defines smoking as “the burning of a lighted, cigarette, pipe or any other matter or substance which contains tobacco.”
Let’s hope this sparks (heh) a continued legal rebellion.
Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:
There has been recent discussion about requiring women to register for the draft. Failure to register carries threat of prosecution, but nobody has been prosecuted in decades. Despite lack of enforcement, compliance is 99% in Idaho but only 34% in Washington, DC. We must address the factors causing voluntary non-compliance. If threat of prosecution carries no weight, how can we give young people a meaningful incentive to obey the law?
Joe Doakes
It’s time to end selective service registration. It will never be used, the military doesn’t want it (ever), and it’s major problem isn’t that we don’t draft women; the problem is that the draft puts the onus of defending the nation (especially in the enlisted ranks) entirely on those who don’t have the means to avoid the lottery.
“Selective” service is an abomination to a free society.
A law-abiding citizen with a carry permit killed a would-be robber in Brooklyn Park Monday evening. The Brooklyn Park PD just confirmed that the shooter was a citizen with a carry permit, and the decedent was attempting to rob the citizen.
The person targeted for robbery has “a valid permit to carry a handgun” and was not arrested, said Deputy Police Chief Mark Bruley.
Officers recovered both guns at the scene as they continue to investigate the shooting.
Police have yet to disclose the identities of those involved in the confrontation.
And I’m going to speculate that the law-abiding citizen who did the shooting won’t get his name released, because of the danger he’d face from the rest of the community. It’s been true with several of the justifiable homicides we’ve seen – the Evanovich shooting and the Broadbent incident last summer among them.
Bruley said the man who died “goes back and forth between Brooklyn Park and Minneapolis. He’s an individual we’ve known from previous contact. He certainly hangs out around here.” Bruley declined to say more about that contact entailed.
I’m going to guess it involved the fact that he was just in the middle of getting his life turned around. It’s a theme in this sorts of episodes.
State Rep. Pat Garofalo, R-Farmington, said the outcome of this shooting validates a 2003 law in Minnesota that allows people to carry a firearm in public.
“A loss of life is a tragedy,” Garofalo wrote. “But when a criminal pulls a gun, they risk ending their life. Concealed carry works.”
As of early this year, there were more than 221,000 active permit holders in Minnesota, according to the latest data report from the state’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.
The total has grown by more than 20,000 in the past six months. Now, about one in 19 eligible Minnesota adults has a permit to carry, according to Gun Owners Civil Rights Alliance.
The number is up over 5% of eligible adults – which, in some parts of the state, likely means there’s a better than one in ten chance that someone you might want to try to rob can end you.
The odds are better in the Metro, if you’re a robber; most don’t grow up in a (law-abiding) gun culture; there are fewer ambient, social chances to get into shooting, much less self-defense. Less than 2% of eligible adults have carry permits in the Metro, where the crime rate shows they are the most needed (and, I’d argue, also shows their lack).
Condolences to the victim’s family; he may have run off the rails, but he was someone’s kid, brother or parent.
And best of luck to the shooter, whoever you are. And thanks.
UPDATE: Is this predictable or what – the Strib always shuts down story comments when a good guy uses a gun against a bad actor.
Wonder why that is?
UPDATE 2: By my count, since 2005, that makes five human lives saved via the ability to resist violence with a legally-carried handgun:
The final GOP debate before the MN Caucuses is happening Thursday evening – the Northern Alliance, Brad Carlson and I, will be there!
We’ll be at B-52’s Burgers and Brew, in Inver Grove Heights.
The bar looks nothing like this.
The burgers are fantastic, by the way.
Less brawn – better flavor.
We always get capacity crowds, and it’s always a lot of fun!
Come out and join us!
Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:
After border-crossers have lost their court cases and been denied asylum, federal law considers them “illegal aliens” and they are ordered to be deported. While they’re awaiting deportation, Liberals claim they’re entitled to the same level of humane treatment as we give to American children in the foster care system, which our detention centers don’t provide.
Liberals hope by getting detention centers shut down, the government won’t be able to hold people for deportation and therefore, nobody will get deported. Seems to me the solution is build a wall to keep them out in the first place. Trump is right, again.
Meanwhile, providing what Liberals consider “humane” treatment is actually cruel. The illegals come from places with housing standards substantially lower than expected in this nation. So why are we obligated to improve their lot even as they are deported? Making detention facilities nicer only highlights their loss when illegals eventually are returned to the squalor from whence they came.
Instead of that, illegal aliens awaiting deportation should be housed in comparable conditions to those they face when they are returned. Giving them the taste of the land of milk and honey knowing they will have it ripped from them when they return to the land where nobody cares if they live or die . . . that’s heartless cruelty.
America is better than that.
Joe Doakes
The only greater cruelty? Reminding them how very unlucky they were to be deported, much less caught at all.
… I can’t imagine why people, finding mainstream Christianity spineless and spiritually vacant, are hitting the doors faster than if they were at a Nickelback/Creed surprise gig.
Twitter stock is dropping like Johnny Manziel’s career bell curve.
Part of it is the complete lack of a business model that includes a road to real profit.
But the other part? Twitter’s efforts to actively antagonize half of the population – including yours truly:
The company recently put in a place a “Trust and Safety Council” that they staffed with hard-left social justice nuts. And I do mean real nuts — one of them includes an Islamic “research center” that makes CAIR look like choir boys.
Of course, being a private company, they can ‘censor’ anyone they want, for any reason they want. They can have a “Trust and Safety Council” with Rachel Maddow, Jane Fonda and the board of NOW, for all it matters.
But…
But Twitter might want to think about the fact that about half of the population in this country is conservative, and the other half liberal. It’s not quite that simple of a division, but it’s close enough.
And unlike a little privately-run place like this, where my first and foremost goal is not to maximize my advertising revenue, that is precisely Twitter’s first and foremost goal.
It’s only a matter of time before a public company that does this sort of thing winds up like MySpace.
And while Twitter, being an ultra-ultra-liberal operation that swims in the liberal pond that is San Francisco, may not actually know, or really believe that, one need only look at the successive flops of efforts that need general acceptance but actively antagonize half the populations (see also; every anti-war movie of the past decade, Truth, MSNBC, and on and on).
And good riddance. As I wrote about the other day, Twitter is a vast wasteland of stupid punctuated by the rare little points of misplaced brilliance; like someone doing an impromptu Mozart violin concerto at Wrestlemania.
Let it burn.
…it always makes for low-brow entertainment.
Republicans, say the Democrats, owe the President deference. Elections have consequences and Obama won re-election in 2012.
Yes. And the Republicans won the Senate in 2014 — if anything, a more proximal assertion of popular will. And both have equal standing in appointing a Supreme Court justice.
I keep pointing this out to DFLers who jabber about the President’s election. I never, ever get a response beyond name-calling.
I’ll be adding emphasis to this next stretch:
It’s hard to swallow demands for deference from a party that for seven years has cheered Obama’s serial constitutional depredations: his rewriting the immigration laws by executive order (stayed by the courts); his reordering the energy economy by regulation (stayed by the courts); his enacting the nuclear deal with Iran, the most important treaty of this generation, without the required two-thirds of the Senate (by declaring it an executive agreement).
(Side note: there are actually Democrats who think Obama is “the most disrespected president in history. As if the George W Bush’s administration never happened).
Minority Leader Harry Reid complains about the Senate violating precedent if it refuses a lame-duck nominee. This is rich. It is Reid who just two years ago overthrew all precedent by abolishing the filibuster for most judicial and high executive appointments. In the name of what grand constitutional principle did Reid resort to a parliamentary maneuver so precedent-shattering that it was called the nuclear option? None. He did it in order to pack the U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Columbia with liberals who would reliably deflect challenges to Obamacare.
Power is all that matters to the left. And they can do it, knowing the media gave up checking and balancing about the time man landed on the moon.
Just to set the record/s straight:
Democracy is way too fragile to leave to government.
Only originalists really understand that.
What would be the only thing funnier than Fast Eddie Schultz – the liberal talk show host who really was as dumb as liberals think conservative talk show hosts are – trying to make it as a big-time political player and kingmaker?
“I feel like I am perfectly positioned with my national platform, with my name and visibility and credibility with the middle class, to be the person to head up this super PAC,” he told told the Fargo Forum. “We are a 527; we are a nonprofit; we are incorporated in Washington, D.C., and we are going to get involved in issues around the country that are vital to a strong middle class, with our focus on jobs and wages, health care, education, trade agreements and justice.”
“Middle class issues are here to stay,” Schultz continued.
The answer is “Schultz, inevitably and comically, not merely flopping at it, but cratering worse than the movie Truth” (emphasis added):
According to Mediate, Schultz ran up $10,345.44 in legal fees, $3,000 in web design fees, and a $100 loan and only collected $25 in donations to the organization which was apparently headquartered at a UPS store in downtown Washington D.C.
“It was well-intended, I really wanted to do Americans for a Strong Middle Class,” a tired-looking Schultz said in a video explaining why the PAC crashed and burned.
It just hasn’t been Schultz’s decade.
Who could have foreseen such a thing?
Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:
Bad news: Shot In The Dark failed to make the Southern Poverty Law Center’s list of hate groups again this year.
There are only six hate groups in Minnesota.
A chapter of the KKK somewhere Up North. Not sure how they found them, I never heard of them.
Vinlanders Social Club, a racist skinhead outfit in Vinlanders, Minnesota
A Christian preacher in Annandale who preaches that homosexuality is wrong. [I bet that’s Bradlee Dean – Ed]
The Remnant Press, a traditional Catholic publisher in Forest Lake.
The Israelite Church of God in Jesus Christ, a black separatist church in Minneapolis.
Weisman Publications in Apple Valley, Christian Identity, whatever that means.
Even if we concede that the KKK and racist skinheads are hate groups, so what? Hate speech is constitutional in Minnesota, has been since the St. Paul cross-burning case.
And what’s up with calling the others haters, simply because they’re Christians of one stripe or another?
This looks like nothing more than a list of “people we don’t agree with and wish to silence.”
I’m not sure what you need to do to amp up the hate around here so you can get yourself noticed, Mitch. But there’s one consolation – Powerline didn’t make it, either.
Always next year.
The potatoes seem so small, we’d call them “popcorn” where I come from.
But with the SPLC – which is sort of the curia of the Social Justice Warrior community – there’s always a next year.
I’m frankly more worried SITD will be considered a terrorist outfit than a hate group. It seems pretty likely, with another Democrat administration.
The citadel of Verdun had stood outside the city walls since the early 1600s – a relatively new addition in the Gallic city with a history reaching back to the 4th Century. For nearly 300 years, Verdun had represented the strength of the French nation; it’s surrender to the Prussians in 1870 in the Franco-Prussian War had symbolically (and somewhat practically) closed the chapter of French dominance over the continental affairs of Europe.
The French were determined to never let Verdun fall again. A massive defensive redesign in the 1880s produced a bulwark without rival in Europe, or likely the world. 28 fortresses produced a double-ring of defense, each with 8-feet of steel-reinforced concrete, covered further in sand and earth. 1,000 pieces of artillery, with another 250 in reserve, were supported by a gigantic maze of trenches, bunkers and even an underground rail system. Verdun had been deemed, before the war, “artillery-proof.” If the famed citadel would ever fall again, it would be due to the weakness of the men inside, not the steel that protected them.
On the morning of February 21st, 1916, that theory would be put to the ultimate test. 808 German guns, firing for ten straight hours, lobbed over 1 million shells against the fortifications of Verdun. The barrage could be heard 100 miles away.
For the next nearly 10 months, one of the worst battles in human history would slowly unfold, consuming lives on an industrial scale that exceeded anything the Great War had previously seen. 78% of the entire French army would eventually serve at Verdun. The Germans would dub the battle the “blood-pump of the world.” And anywhere from 973,000 to 1.25 million lives would be maimed or claimed before it was over.
—
French troops at Verdun. Even today, the name “Verdun” conjures the worst images of the Great War
If there is a battle that encapsulates the entirety of the First World War, it might be Verdun. The crushing weight of artillery; the human wave attacks; the obstinance of commanding generals – all were embraced at Verdun. The scale of the battle can be seen even today. Despite the Great War pounding the earth repeatedly at a number of locations, only in sections of Verdun does nothing grow 100 years later. Read the rest of this entry »
Today, the Northern Alliance Radio Network – America’s first grass-roots talk radio show – is on the air! I will be on live from 1-3PM today!
Today on the show,
Don’t forget – King Banaian is on from 9-11AM on AM1440, and Brad Carlson has “The Closer” edition of the NARN Sundays from 2-3PM.
So tune in the Northern Alliance! You have so many options:
Join us!
“Protect Minnesota” is taking it to the streets!
Heather Martens – who, let the record show, has never, not once, said or written a single true, substantive and original thing about guns or gun law – is undertaking one of her last actions as “executive director”
With the Minnesota legislature convening on March 8, now is the time to plug into our plan to stop the gun lobby and build safer communities! Every session, the gun lobby tries to ram through bills like “Shoot First/Stand Your Ground” or carrying pistols without a permit. We’ve been able to stop them year after year — but only because you have shown up.
She’s making things up again. Nobody “showed up”.
“Stand Your Ground” passed the legislature with bipartisan support; it was vetoed by Governor Dayton when Alita Messinger yanked his leash. And that was the only reason Minnesota didn’t join 23 other states that opted to protect the rights of people who resist victimization by criminals and greedy prosecutors.
“Protect” MN’s clubfooted version of activism may have contributed to the good guys almost winning on that issue.
Anyway, they’re going to try to get people to turn up again:
Can you commit to showing up again? [Ha ha ha! – Ed] You’re invited to a meeting near you next week:
In Mahtomedi – Wednesday, February 24, at 6:30 pm — Click here to RSVP
In Saint Paul – Thursday, February 25, at 6:30 pm – Click here to RSVP
In Duluth – Sunday, February 28, a faith summit from 1:30-4:30. Click here to RSVP.
Wanna know something funny? If you try to RSVP, they don’t divulge the locations. They are apparently worried that Real Americans will infiltrate the meetings and…tell the truth? I dunno.
And what can the gentle reader expect?
At these meetings, you will:
- Learn how to pass our background check resolution at your precinct caucus Tuesday, March 1;
- Sign up for face-to-face meetings with key legislators during the session;
- Meet our new executive director!
So wait – “Protect MN” is going to pass a “background check resolution”, to become part of a DFL platform that already calls for gun control?
Sounds like a brilliant use of time and effort!
Oh, yeah – as re the last bullet:
That’s right, I’m stepping out of the executive director role to support Protect MN in other capacities. Watch your email for the full announcement. Meanwhile, see you next week!
If you learn the secret handshake, anyway.
As for me? Heather Martens, I’ll attend your meeting for $1,500.
Thank you for all you do,
Heather Martens
The reader most likely “does” nothing – which likely has more effect on politics in MN than “Protect” MN does.
Bill Clinton calling himself the “first black President” was bad.
Rachel Dolezal “identifying as black” as an excuse for passing her honky self off as black for years and years was worse.
But Bernie? Richie is gunning the speedboat.
Let the “Democrat” jokes begin.
…a more mundane case that could be a much, much bigger deal for offline individual privacy is brewing under the radar in Golden Valley.
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