Quick Hits - 3/13/15

• Mark in Fridley called in to defend himself this morning and it got even more bizarre.  Read the Mark in Fridley entry from yesterday for a primer.  He started to defend his bashing of Hillary Clinton, insisting Hillary was the horrible candidate, worse than anything the GOP could muster.  I asked him two questions:  1) Since Elizabeth Warren is not running, who does he support in the Democratic primary, and 2) are you telling me whomever the Democratic candidate for President is, you think a Republican and their desire for war with Iran is a better option?  He decided to 'start' with the second question and immediately leveed the implied allegation, 'if Hillary Clinton became President, it'll be far worse than war with Iran, as she will get us into war with Russia, Syria, and...(wait for it)...Venezuela!'   Venezuela?!?  VENEZUELA?!?! Okay there is disliking someone, and then there is disliking someone to the point where your wild allegations and conspiracy theories cause me to question whether I should listen to you at all.  We'll just skip past the whole (INSANE) war with Russia idea, and ask the question, why, pray-tell, would we be going to war with Venezuela?  Don't get me wrong, our relations with them are hardly chummy, but war???  We get it Mark. You hate Clinton with the fire of a million suns.  Fine, please move past it before you say anything more outrageous than 'war monger Hillary Clinton.'

• Let's accept the reality about gun guy; they'll always be for more guns and bullets everywhere, not because it makes us safer, but because they equate a six year old with a loaded assault weapon as a symbol of the Founding Father's patriotism (side note: the founding fathers would be aghast by the gun carnage in American streets. They put "well regulated militia" in the Constitution for a reason).  When that 6 year old unintentionally guns down their friends, pro gun guy will accuse the media of making it all up, or blame Sponge Bob, not the adult who put the loaded assault weapon in the their hands.  Yesterday, in St. Paul, they were debating whether we should allow silencers on guns in Minnesota.  From those hearings, we had the second dumbest argument for a bill this year.  One pro-gun guy's argument was, "we should allow silencers on guns (something criminals would LOVE) because guns are loud and can hurt the ears of the gun owner."  Pathetic.  Buy some earplugs!  

• By the way, the dumbest argument for a bill this year, and a contender for all time dumbest argument for a bill ever, was the woman who wanted to expand liquor sales to Sunday in Minnesota because her child wanted liquor filled lava cakes for their birthday. Since A) mom apparently didn't plan ahead for her child's birthday, and B) mom apparently has to fulfill juniors booze fix, she was forced to have to drive to Wisconsin for orange liquor to make the lava cakes, hence we need to open up liquor sales in Minnesota on Sunday.  I'm neutral on Sunday liquor sales, but lava cakes is one of the dumbest arguments of all time. 

• A reminder, we still have not heard what punishment, if any, was dealt down to the coaches of the five dance line teams from Eden Prairie, Wayzata, Lakeville South, Chaska, and Eastview who coordinated a bully attack on the team from Faribault at the State Championship last month, a display oozing with bad sportsmanship and pettiness for which punishment is not a question.  The coaches, parents and athletes from the five teams booed the Faribault high school kids, refused to acknowledge the team won, ran Faribault off to prevent them from getting a State Championship photo taken on the Target Center floor, followed them down to the interior of Target Center, taunting and bullying them all the way, and then bragged about it as some 'great victory' on social media (until they realized their ploy backfired and the cowards scrubbed their online media clean).  These five teams deserve more than public shame.  The coaches deserve to be thrown out of the Minnesota State High School League.

• Finally, I want to revisit what I said in regards to the University of Minnesota Men's Basketball team likely getting an NIT bid now that they were bounced from the Big 10 Tourney by Ohio State.  I said they likely will get a bid because they are the kind of team the NIT loves; recognizable name, a somewhat iconic facility, a large market to draw locally.  For them to give Minnesota a home game, some very deserving lesser conference team with a 25 and 4 record would have to play a road game here.  That would be a travesty.  Skip the Gophers, hope they get better next year, but don't give them an NIT bid just because you hope it will spur ticket sales and luke warm interest.