Shot In The Dark - Politics and Current Events in Minnesota and Beyond

Saturday, February 23, 2002

Other World Alert - My kids watch a bit of "The Disney Channel". Tonight, they were promoting a made-for-Disney-Cable movie ("Cadet Kelly", not that it matters), where a young hippie girl is sent to a military school.

In a scene in a promo for the "movie", a girls drill team is seen, flipping rifles around in that drill-team-y sort of way. The scene in the promo was subtitled: "No Real Guns were Used in This Movie".

Whew, that's a releif. Disney exposes kids to sex ("Boy Meets World"), mockery of parents (too many of their programs to name), valuing athletics over doing schoolwork ("Double Team", "Totally Hoops"), rabid self-centeredness and plenty of other lousy influences - but by jinkum, there are no "real guns" in that movie! Woo Hooo!

It's a great era for sarcastic people.
posted by Mitch Berg 2/23/2002 09:48:37 PM

Friday, February 22, 2002

Weekend - I'll be spending the weekend at that most glorious of American institutions - an elementary school girls' basketball tourney. My daughter kicks butt, by the way. At any rate, although I've promised to take the last two weekends off, this weekend I really, really, really am.

I guarantee it.
posted by Mitch Berg 2/22/2002 04:22:48 PM

Stop the Sketch! - In a state that gave us Rudy Perpich, Phyllis Kahn and Jesse The Mind Ventura, sometimes it helps to remember that there are states out there who are just as silly and trite and profligate with the voters' money and patience as our wierd state.
posted by Mitch Berg 2/22/2002 04:21:43 PM

Iraq 'n Roll - James Robbins discusses a possible endgame in Iraq.
posted by Mitch Berg 2/22/2002 04:19:23 PM

More on the "Clinton Military" - Apparently after eight years of neglect and downsizing, the National Guard isn't as ready for action as we thought.
posted by Mitch Berg 2/22/2002 04:10:50 PM

EuroAlert - Further proof, were any needed, that after 200-odd years, Europeans still haven't gotten this democracy thing figured out.

The EU has all the makings of a bureaucratic police state. And I never thought I'd say it, but - kudos to Tony Blair (if you're reading, Tone!) for swimming against the mediocre bureaucratic tide.
posted by Mitch Berg 2/22/2002 04:08:22 PM

Cold Lampin' with Diddy - Slate addresses the would-be Don King of the 21st century, Puff Dad...er, P-Diddy...er, Sean John...er, Sean "Puffy" Combs. It - and the stories about similar hip-hop megacapitalist Master P - explain less about hip-hop culture than they do about...

...yes, why America is a great place! As long as there's a P.T. Barnum working some room somewhere in this country, things can't be all bad.
posted by Mitch Berg 2/22/2002 12:22:46 PM

Thursday, February 21, 2002

My New Screen Saver! - This, from Germany's "Der Spiegel".

The issues is titled, in English, "The Bush Warriors". Spiegel is hilariously liberal - but in Europe, news outlets are at least honest about their biases.
posted by Mitch Berg 2/21/2002 09:36:16 AM

The Slavery is Freedom Act - Sam McDonald writes in Reason Magazine that the Democrats have at least learned one important lesson from John Aschcroft; are you pushing legislation that is sure to assault civil liberties? Give it a warm, fuzzy name.

Thus, Ted Kennedy's latest whack at controlling the law-abiding American's access to firearms is:
...titled "Gun Sale Anti-Fraud and Privacy Protection." It bears a striking resemblance to the "Gun-Sale Anti-Fraud and Privacy Protection Act" the senators proposed in July. Both bills propose to protect Americans’ privacy by making sure the federal government keeps track of how many guns they buy

Perhaps it's time for the "Americans United and Happy, putting Ted Kennedy in a UPS Box bound for Tadjikistan while Uniting Around the Flag" act to be introduced.

posted by Mitch Berg 2/21/2002 06:33:06 AM

Why I Love Ann Coulter - Sure, she's as subtle as an M1 tank in a feminist caucus meeting, but Ann Coulter sometimes fires off a line that sums things up better than the rest of the landed punditry put together.
When we were at peace, Democrats wanted to raise taxes. Now there's a war, so Democrats want to raise taxes. When there was a surplus, Democrats wanted to raise taxes. Now that there is a mild recession, Democrats want to raise taxes. There is perennially some sector of the economy Teddy Kennedy is longing to socialize and this, too, will require raising taxes.
So it was interesting that Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., recently said of the Bush tax cut: "Ideology dictated that – tax cuts, no matter what the circumstances." At least Republicans admit it.

Which has hilarious parallels here in Minnesota, now that we're fighting our budget battle. In 2000, we had a surplus, so it was time to raise taxes. Today, we're in danger of a deficit - time to raise taxes!
Democrats - when is it not time to raise taxes?
posted by Mitch Berg 2/21/2002 06:21:22 AM

Wednesday, February 20, 2002

How's that? - The Politics section of the Star/Tribune online today includes one of those quickie polls about same-sex benefits. The poll asks:

"Should the state support same-sex employee benefits?

Of course it should

Absolutely not

Only if opposite-sex employees are similarly treated

I don't know

Why isn't "If they're in the same type of legal contract as married people" an option? Heterosexuals living together is an option, implying that the only union that the Strib, and the "benefits for all" activists are concerned with is the romantic coupling, not the legal binding that separates married people from those just banging the headboards together.

Why isn't this ever brought into the debate?
posted by Mitch Berg 2/20/2002 10:28:47 AM

Wonk Power - How Speech Rationing (aka Campaign Finance Reform) helps the ultimate special interest - politicians.
posted by Mitch Berg 2/20/2002 10:21:07 AM

Tuesday, February 19, 2002

The Treehugger Has No Clothes? - Scientists who break from the ranks of environmental activists find themselves being attacked for the darnedest things.

Danish scientist Bjorn Lomborg started writing a book attacking Julian Simon - a scientist who questioned the thesis of global warming. As he continued his research, he found that the evidence favored Simon. Being intellectually honest, Lomborg wrote as much in his book, "The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the Real State of the World". This article explains the reactions he's gotten.

Now - looking at how the academic community attacks heritics from their predetermined, PC conclusions - let's look over how the academic community has reacted to John Lott, shall we?
posted by Mitch Berg 2/19/2002 02:29:18 PM

Too Sad to Joke About - September 11 all but wiped out what had been for me, up to then, the saddest story of the year - the Andrea Yates case, which went to trial yesterday. It brought up an interesting question: in a land where we're all supposed to be equal before the law, are women just a little more equal than the rest of us?

Feminist groups are demanding Yates be released to treatment - that post-partum depression is the villain, not Ms. Yates herself. Imagine a man trying to skate on five murders by claiming he was depressed? Conservative feminists have their own take on this.

In many areas of the law - for example, rape shield laws, which are in the news with the final disposition of the Jovanovich case, and various campus behavioral codes that put the burden of proving innocence against virtually any sex-related charge on the men - women risk being infantilized by the law. In the workplace, they're perfectly equal, of course - but in court, they're weak little creatures that must be deferred to and defended.

It's not a news flash - feminism isn't about equality any more. It's just depressing to see it playing out over the lives of five children.

Ah, well. Back to the real war.
posted by Mitch Berg 2/19/2002 08:14:42 AM

Distorted Priorities - William Safire wrote a great article yesterday about the distortion in security priorities in Washington since the start fo the war, and the danger that poses to our freedom.
posted by Mitch Berg 2/19/2002 06:55:09 AM

Talk Talk - The concealed carry debate begins on Politalk today. In theory, my article "The Top Three Myths about Concealed Carry Reform" should appear. Again, I've posted it on my articles site a day in advance of the debate (because I can, that's why!
posted by Mitch Berg 2/19/2002 06:22:09 AM

First, I Take Your Leg - Fascinating article in the Strib that puts a name to something conservative talk-radio has been noting for years - the tendency of bureaucrats, when "cutting budgets", to slash the things that'll get the most public resistance first. Then, maybe, start trimming actual fat.

Worth reading when dealing with your local school board, come levy time.
posted by Mitch Berg 2/19/2002 06:18:49 AM

Fraying About the Edges - One more sign that life in the Twin Cities just isn't as good as it was.

This was one thing about the greater Twin Cities that always astounded my friends from Chicago and LA. Sorry to see it on the skids.
posted by Mitch Berg 2/19/2002 06:12:02 AM

Now 75% Less Vacuous! - Great article in Reason Magazine about how the press is - or at least sees itself as - being a whole lot less frivolous now than before the war.
posted by Mitch Berg 2/19/2002 06:07:05 AM

Monday, February 18, 2002

Blah - The worst kind of hangover is the one where you haven't had a thing to drink in weeks.

I've got the same upper-respiratory crud that everyone else has. Hacking cough, headache, general Mencken-ish dyspepsia...

So this might be a thin issue today. More to come!
posted by Mitch Berg 2/18/2002 12:21:52 PM

Berg's Law of Liberal Iraq Commentary:

In attacking the reasons for war, no liberal commentator is capable of addressing more than one of the justifications at a time; to do so would introduce a context in which their argument can not survive