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

Saturday, May 18, 2002

Schwoops - I just had a two day haggle with my ISP. I won - hence, the site is on the air again.

I'll post a bunch of make-up stuff over the weekend...
posted by Mitch Berg 5/18/2002 02:56:07 PM

Wednesday, May 15, 2002

Metaphor Alert- The state budget passed the Legislature today. It basically deferred a lot of spending against the hope that tax collections (and thus the economy) will pick up in the next year. Way up. It also pilfs from the Tobacco Endowment, which is very good news.

Quote of the day, from Governor Meathead:

``If you're just shifting and doing money shifts, that isn't solving the problem,''

Would-be Scandal Alert - Apparently, the federal government (including the White House) was warned about a potential hijacking plot in the weeks before September 11.

Although the alert mentioned nothing about using airliners as missiles, and White House advised concerned agencies about the threat, here's my prediction; someone is going to claim it's a White House conspiracy. Michael Moore? Tom Tomorrow? Molly "the Idiot" Ivins? I don't know, but watch for it.

Schwing Naar Recht - OK, it's probably not really Dutch, but the Netherlands, long the continent's poster child for socialist utopianism, is edging to the right.

In the wake of the murder of prime minister candidate Pim Fortuyn last week, the slain libertarian/anti-immigrant/anti-EU leaders' "LPF" party came in second to the Christian Democrats (the name for many European center-right parties - think Jim Ramstad in wooden clogs), sweeping Prime Minister Wim Kok's Labor/Social Democrat coalition from parliamentary leadership in voting today.

The left's going to be so angry. Watch for more backlash against unassimilated immigrants, the EU and the stultifying buro-socialism and enviro-terrorism - and more media hatchet work against anyone to the right of Tony Blair.

posted by Mitch Berg 5/15/2002 08:46:07 PM

Tuesday, May 14, 2002

A Timely Lesson - When columnists and pundits as diverse as Ann Coulter and Jason Lewis hold forth on the incompatibility of the Moslem and Western worlds, they ignore one of the best examples of political moderation, interfaith coexistence, and friendship to the United States - Turkey.

Tunku Varadarajan writes in Opinion Journal about his admiration for Turkey, its leaders and people. I'll admit - my mother and her husband lived in Turkey quite a while, so may things in this eye-opening article were not news to me. But the fact remains that Turkey is a bastion of small-l liberalism (by near-Eastern standards especially), and after Britain and Israel our most steadfast ally, is news to most Americans. While the pusilanimous EU crabwalks away from the US when the heat is on, Turkey's in there with us. Expect Turkish forces to be heavily engaged in any war against Iraq.
posted by Mitch Berg 5/14/2002 01:41:32 PM

Strange Bedfellows - When regular people get together to talk about gun owners' rights, they discuss the practical aspects of the issue; "do guns in the hands of the law-abiding make us all safer"? It's an argument that the gun-rights movement has largely won, on the merits of a strong, unrefuted case.

When wonks gather to discuss the issue, it's more likely to turn to talk of is there really a right to keep and bear arms. There, the issue is both clearer and murkier. The Second Amendment is not a well-written piece of legislation, although a majority of our premier legal minds support the notion that the right to keep and bear arms is an individual, not group, right. Even pre-eminent constitutional scholar Laurence Tribe, after years of claiming the Amendment referred to a group right (the misunderstood "well-regulated militia"), changed his mind - largely on the strength of the reasoning of constitutional legal scholar Sanford Levinson.

Now, something I never believed I'd see in my lifetime - liberal antigun zealot Senator Chuckie Schumer has come out supporting the concept of the individual right.

The Berlin Wall falling in our lifetimes was nothing compared to this...

posted by Mitch Berg 5/14/2002 12:42:07 PM

All Tingly - In my heart of hearts, I have always wanted to take a year off and write the ultimate documentary on theliberal bias of the media.

Well, Hammerin' Ann Coulter has done it for us, in a book to be launched shortly.

I'll buy it when it hits the stands. Expect me to quote from it...er, liberally.
posted by Mitch Berg 5/14/2002 12:30:36 PM

Doh - another crazy day, will post more later.

I'll leave you with this for now - the media's attempt to repackage Chelsea Clinton as the next JohnJohn. The girl has her father's vacuousness and her mother's conscience.
posted by Mitch Berg 5/14/2002 08:50:31 AM

Monday, May 13, 2002

Screed not lest you be Screeded - James Lileks attacks the leftist bigot...Patch Adams.

Wonderful.

Our Class Society- The list of issues where America's wonk class differs from the man and woman on the street is endless - gun control, the Green Party, PBS - and now, the view of Israel.

Resistance is Not Futile - Security guards foil a hijacking in Iran.

Crazy Day - I'm running late this morning - but I'll write more later today.
posted by Mitch Berg 5/13/2002 07:39:02 AM

Sunday, May 12, 2002

News Vs. Propaganda - As rumors of impending war against Iraq quietly mount, 60 Minutes ran an article on tonight's broadcast about the aftermath of the post-Gulf-War gas attacks on Halabja. Saddam Hussein attacked this Kurdish village with nerve gas (attacking victim's central nervous systems) and mustard gas (causing horrendous skin and respiratory burning) after his defeat in the Gulf War. Hundreds died. Many more suffer from cancer, respiratory diseases, and hellish skin and nerve ailments.

Watching tonight's report (which I believe may have been a repeat), I had to wonder - why now? It's a horrifying and utterly compelling report - and watching it moves you to demand action for those responsible, while realizing what that means - toppling the Iraqi dictator.

So - is propaganda a Bad Thing if it moves a nation to move against an evil that, if we wanted to, we could let lie for a while? Who's not directly threatening us?

Yet?

Much more to come.

Bad Medicine - Speaking of Sixty Minutes; another piece broaches a long-overdue issue: balanced coverage over the medical-industrial complex' politicized approach to guns.

It's about time.
posted by Mitch Berg 5/12/2002 06:44:57 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