Larry The Cable Guy

On Friday night, I ended up getting into a Twitter fight with comedian Larry the Cable Guy.

I KNOW!

Disclaimer:  I think his Mater from the Cars movie is one of the better Disney characters they've made.  As far as his 'southern' style of humor, it's fine.  He's no Lewis Grizzard, but who is?  Like most other comedians, sometimes he has good jokes, sometimes not.  Would I pay for a ticket to see him?  Probably not, but there are very few comedians I'd do that for anyway.

Backstory: on Fridays I try to find a video to post.  I call it the Friday Link.  It's usually light and airy, but sometimes can be a bit biting.  I've posted MST3K videos, John Oliver clips, movie clips, and even music videos.  Most of the time the clips are funny.

A few years back, YouTube's algorithm suggested a two part video from comedian David Cross.  In the video, Cross, in a voiceover, reads a letter he wrote which takes exception with Larry the Cable Guy, who wrote, quite incorrectly, about Cross in one of his books.  What takes place in about 18 minutes is a thorough takedown of Larry (real name is Daniel Whitney) for falsely calling out Cross as some liberal, PC police force who's lashing out at Larry for his political incorrect comedy (at least politically incorrect prior to Cars coming out.  Disney checks have a way of cleaning up most comedians).

Cross points out Larry makes jokes (at one point in his career) which were undeniably racist, had gay humor that was just lazy, how wrong it was to call out Cross for being out of touch with southern culture, and how anyone who's heard Cross' comedy would think labeling him politically correct is laughable.

At about 6 minutes into the Part 2 Video: (the Friday Link post is here: David Cross verses Larry The Cable Guy) Cross does something quite spectacular.  He points out that Larry the Cable Guy was guilty (at least in his book) of blurring the lines between Larry's made up back story and the real history of Daniel Whitney.  Whitney was born in Nebraska, living on a hog farm until he was in his mid teens.  He then moved to West Palm Beach, Florida, attending a private high school, before attending college.  His southern backwoods, worldly-wise schtick is an act.  But Cross points out he adopted the fake back story to make mocking Cross seem more relevant to his fans.

THAT'S NOT ME MAKING IT UP!  Go to the Friday Link and watch for yourself.

The reason this video came up this weekend had NOTHING to do with Larry, but rather another 'performer,' musician (???) Kid Rock.  Rock, who's an ardent Trump supporter, went after superstar Taylor Swift for her comments that she should've been more vocal in supporting Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election.  Kid Rock accused Swift of being fake.  Kid Rock is a guy who's a complete fraud.  He was born to a father with multiple car dealerships, lived on a large estate in Detroit's suburbs where he had orchards and horses.  He's nowhere near a white trash success story he claims to be.  I commented this was not the first time a person tried to push their 'act' as their real history.  I ended the post with the clips from Cross.

I post the Friday Link on social media, including links to people relevant to the post.  You never know if someone who's linked to the post will comment on it.

I was shocked when Larry the Cable Guy, on a Friday night, started to take me to task for the Friday Link.  Here's his first post:

I first asked "what is he doing?"  I have no illusions of who I am.  To him, and to most of his fans, I am NOBODY!

Larry is a multi, multi millionaire; wildly successful and supposedly beyond the pettiness of a social media fight.  As a matter of fact, I'm shocked he's even doing his own social media, not hiring out a person to manage his social media pages for him.  And it's a Friday night.  Shouldn't he be doing a show someplace, or hanging out with his family in their (I don't know) triple decker pool, or doing whatever else he wants?  His success has given him the luxury of doing anything!

If I was as wealthy as he was, and some local radio guy in some town I only occasionally visit posted a link to a dated video which called out one of my mistakes, the best path of action would be to ignore it.  I wouldn't need to prove myself to anyone, hence white noise from some regional radio guy can be ignored.  Instead he validated me by acknowledging me, and in turn took a blog post which usually would have 30-40 hits, and pushed it up around 400, highlighting his past mistake himself.

I've looked at my own actions and asked if I did something wrong.  Two things come to mind.  First, regardless of the Cross mistake, there is a HUGE difference between the fake-ness of Kid Rock and Larry the Cable Guy.  Kid acts like he's always been street, rarely acknowledging his story is a complete fabrication.  For the most part, Larry's act/real life blurriness seems to be limited, and he's very publicly acknowledged it's an act, multiple times.  Still, Cross did call him out correctly.

The other thing is the wording I used on the original post.  Here is the original Friday Link post:

The impression Larry and his fans had was the "looking at you" line implied Larry is always fake.  No, the point was to get people to click on the link and read the post.  If you didn't read the post, then it's easy to see how a person can dictate the intent to mean something completely different.  If you click on the link and listen to Cross' letter, my post is correct.  I stand by the post and I stand by the blog.

Larry responds, and it get's weird...

What I posted above from Larry was his first response.  HE decided to respond to ME.  His tweet plows over the blog post and starts coming after me for implying something I wasn't saying.  I never once stated his life is a complete fraud.  If you read the blog post you see (in the case of Larry) I'm referencing the Cross letter.  Larry, intentionally or not, didn't see it that way.  Also the "radio boy" line is specifically made to dismiss me like some toddler.  Okay...fine.

I responded:

Once again, I'm pointing out his problem is with Cross, not myself.  I understand celebrity is a double edged sword, but if you tell the world to 'look at me, look at me,' you can't just turn that off when you make a mistake.  His going after me seemed to be avoiding the person who called him out in the first place, Cross.  Larry could've easily said "that was long time ago, and I made a mistake."  Nope.  

His response:

Okay, once again he's either intentionally or unintentionally ignoring the Cross letter, and Larry starts becoming a jackass.  Biff in Back to the Future ("Hello McFly") wasn't the hero.  He was the bully.  He then delivers a misguided psychological evaluation, implying I'm somehow not enjoying my life (strike 2).  Then he begins a legit defense, "This was 15 years ago."  Valid point, but he follows it up with another swipe at me, implying I'm insecure with my career (Strike three!). 

By design, I host a lovely radio show in Minneapolis.  I've had offers to go to other cities, but I have placed my family first, and stayed here.  I'm quite happy being a medium size fish in the Minnesota pond.  I love my career.  My job (by definition) is to talk about, and occasionally mess with, other people.  Larry got that right.

It's at this point I call him out, and start questioning if my initial stance was wrong.  Was the Cross letter the real mistake?

He completely ignores the reference to David Cross. Instead I get this:

Okay...did the letter say Nixon was a crook and shouldn't be President?  Then the letter was pretty spot on.  Then the conversation takes another turn.

There is a lot to unpack here. You "could do this all night"?  Really???  With all the wealth and success you've had, that's a sad admission.  But I was floored by what came next.

He takes shot at blue collar workers.  If you've worked in radio, the term 'working the board' means producing, the most blue collar of radio jobs.  These are the guys who work the controls to make sure a radio show gets on air.  His implying I'm working the Saturday morning shift comes across as Larry going down the career path shaming route.  Larry has worked in radio, so he knows the producers are usually beginner, lowest rung on the ladder jobs, having to pull weekend shifts.  So paraphrasing how I took his comment, "look at the guy who might be pulling the Saturday morning board shift daring to criticize me, the successful comedian."

I didn't work the board on Saturday.  Brett, Hunter, Eric and Sam are our producers and one of them did.  Everyone at the station and the listeners appreciated their efforts. They're outstanding, and work very hard.

This isn't my first radio job.  I've been working on air shifts since 1993.  My first on air experience was Armed Forces Radio in Nuremberg, Germany in 1991.

He then adds more evidence to the idea he's shaming blue collar radio producers with his [paraphrasing] 'I was smart enough to not learn how to do that job because [implied] it's beneath me. I hope you weren't dumb enough to learn that [implied] worthless task.'

This is a guy who's 'act' is built around saluting the blue collar workers of America.  It was this point I needed to point out what he was saying. 

I can tell he's trying to get me down a certain path, but he seems to have made some presumptions about me, and was trying to shame my career.  Instead of him making a point about how does it feel to have someone bad mouth your career, it came off more as a bad mouthing blue collar producers.  When I pointed it out his pseudo-elitist shot, he ran to the hog farm defense. 

Daniel, you were raised on a hog farm until you were a teenager.  If you're anything like the farm kids I know, you did your fair share of work, 24/7/365.  But your analogy is broken.  You, at one point, lived on a farm which raised hogs, but you didn't become a successful comedian because of hog farming.  I'm not saying you didn't work hard in comedy.  To be successful you had to, but you're not a successful comedian because of hogs.  You might have some life lessons from the farm days, but those are two completely different careers.  This seems like an attempt to validate yourself today by finding the hardest job you did in your life and applying it to your current career.  I can do that too.

I know I missed a 't' in the post (thanks grammar police!).  I see your hog farming, and I raise you the US Army!  Once again if you get into arguments with random people you know nothing about, you have a tendency of walking into rakes. 

I, ONCE AGAIN, ask him straight forward if the Cross letter is wrong.  His response was to ignore that question (and my US Army service) and act as if I'm over reacting, and I just need to calm down and have a great weekend.   

He asks 'Who's coming after [me]?"  Radio boy, McFly, the shots at my career, the shots at the career he thinks I have, and the constant attempt at oneupmanship.  I'm sure he'll say I'm too sensitive. Dude, I'm just being reactionary to YOUR comments. YOU, the successful comedian, responded to me, the lowly Minnesota radio host.  I'm WAY below your pay grade.

I then, realizing this is going no where, didn't challenge him further, instead finishing up my direct conversation with Larry. 

I got a fist!  

Larry did go on and comment on some of the fan threads which I had to deal with.  One or two were out of line, but most of them were cordial enough.  They mostly seemed to be commenting without ever reading the blog post, just blindly defending Larry.  

On one post, Larry commented:

"Some people have nothing better to do?"  This is my job.  This is what I do!  You're the millionaire, with a million options on the table at any given time. That's a heck of a self own, Larry.

Larry also commented on a thread I has having with another of his fans:

I'm pointing out a reality;  this interaction gives me value.  Every Larry fan who likes, retweets and responds gets me more hits.  I'll be respectful, but I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth.  And Larry, I never sent you anything.  That's not how Twitter works.  I posted your address and you responded to my tweet.  If you would've ignored this, 30-40 people would've seen it and it would've disappeared.

I love this Larry fan response.

Yes Dan, YES THEY ARE!  WOW!!!  But let me change the direction of this post.

Some fans pointed out, regardless of past mistakes, Larry is an outstanding guy.  Here's one:

Out-freaking-standing.  Daniel in his life has definitely done some amazing things.  And he does, most of the time, seem like a really nice guy.  I'm not trying to take that away from him.  I truly hope he has continued success, and outside of Nebraska/Minnesota games, I won't root against him.

But if I may.  Since you opened the door to armchair psychology, let me make two points.

1) I've no idea if you've tried to deal with your David Cross issue, but you clearly need to address your frustrations.  I think the way you initially lashed out at this is less to do with 'some Minnesota jackass taking a swipe at me,' and more with 'here's that damn Cross letter again.'  I think my 'soft target' comment from my first response was spot on.   For what it's worth, admitting mistakes cleanses the soul.

2) You getting into this on Twitter with me is a bad look for you.  You don't need to do this.  This is not about defending yourself or your brand.  I can't hurt either one of those things.  This is not about defending southern culture or your fan base.  I never attacked either one of those things.  In the words of one of your fans and myself:

You are so beyond this.  All it can do is hurt your career and image.  I guess what I'm saying is I don't want to see a guy as talented and as successful as you tripped up by some stupid social media war you could, and should, avoid. 

Daniel, Larry, I'm sorry I upset you, but I stand but he post and the blog.  All my best.

The Friday Link for 8/9/19

I'm trying to jam as much of the summer in as possible, hence a light blog.  This year, my oldest son is a senior.  Next summer I know he won't be able to do the fun things we've done for the last 18 years.  I'm cherishing every day I have.  My priorities are in line.

On my show today, during the conversation about Kid Rock attacking Taylor Swift for her political views, a caller pointed out Kid Rock is a complete fraud.  His poor white working class image is a complete fabrication.  He didn't start off as trailer park trash.  He was born into a family who owned numerous car dealerships in wealthy suburban Detroit, where he lived on a six acre estate with an apple orchard and horses.  You know, from the mean streets!

This reminded me of two videos which I've posted before, but are so worth revisiting.  Tonight's Friday Link is the very funny David Cross' exceptional takedown of Larry the Cable Guy, another person who occasionally seems to become lost in his made up, on stage persona, at times choosing that 'reality' as opposed to who he really is.

Hey success is success, but before you paint yourself as some street wise kid who made it on their own, make sure you can explain the mansions, private schools, suburban malls, and horses.

Warning: some rough language.






Have a great weekend everyone!

The Friday Link for 8/2/19

Time to give some love to Bill Corbett and RiffTrax.

If you've never seen the MST3K alumni of Bill, Mike Nelson and Kevin Murphy in RiffTrax, it's a freaking riot.  They do live shows, which are broadcast around the country.  Speaking of which, you can catch them riffing away this August 15th and 20th, as they watch The Giant Spider Invasion!



If you want tickets for either day, click on this link: https://www.fathomevents.com/events/rifftrax-live-giant-spider-invasion

To get an idea of what you will experience, here are two cuts from them.  First up, Sharknado! This is brilliant.



And then a movie which is one on the all time best riffing targets, Miami Connection.



If you want more (you insatiable freaks) Amazon Prime has TONS of their riffs, but I really recommend catching them live.  They're great.

Have a good weekend everyone!

Hey Moderates, Objects are Further Away Than They Appear

Dear Moderate Democrats,

Stop screwing up the Democratic Party.  Thanks!

No seriously, you need to stop.  You need to stop putting your own personal agenda ahead of the rest of the party.  You're doing more to ensure Republicans stay in charge than anything else coming from the Left.

Moderates are the ones who always balk when it comes to a strong Democratic front in the face of Republican resistance.  Hold W. Bush accountable for the Iraq War?  Nope, they didn't want to upset the moderate Republicans who they thought would work with them.  They decided to not hold anyone accountable for all the US military dead and wounded.  Hold Wall Street accountable for  purposely torpedoing the world economy?  Nope!  Moderate Democrats are the Democrats the banking industry supports.  This ensured even asking bank CFO's what happened to the money would never happen under oath.

Instead, Moderate Democrats tried to appease the rest of the Democratic Party with their stern wagging fingers.  "We won't hold these people accountable, but look at us wag our finger at them as we give them a stern glare."  With the moderate Democrats 'leadership,' we never got justice for the American people.

And there were consequences!  Moderate Democrats insist the reason the Democratic voters stayed at home in 2010 was due to the unpopular Affordable Care Act they passed.  Not only is that laughable (I'll come back to that in a second) but it ignores their own failed promises from 2006 ("elect the Democrats and we'll hold Bush and Cheney accountable") and 2008 ("re-elect us and we'll hold Wall Street accountable!").  One of the main reasons Democrats stayed at home in 2010 is the broken promises of the moderate Democrats.

And let's talk about the Affordable Care Act.  Not only did the moderate Democrats screw up the bill by allowing the inclusion of Marco Rubio's poison pill addition ("look at us compromise!") you then immediately turned on what should've been a winning signature bill for the next 20 years, terrified of Republican cries of "socialism!"  You yourself took the wind out of the sails of Democrats who had addressed the health care crisis in America.  You spent the next 6 years bad mouthing a bill YOU PASSED, a bill which most people loved.  You guys could screw up free ice cream day...

Then came Trump, and when it was clear he was corrupt, racist, crooked and likely working with the Russians (he did call for them to help them on camera during the campaign) you insisted there was something FAR more nuanced to him and his supporters, attacking people like myself who dared to call out the racists, the bigots, the purposely ignorant and Trump himself.  You helped validate him.  Today I've been proven 100% correct in my initial assessment.  Meanwhile, moderate Democrats are shockingly less vocal than they should be when it comes to Trump's racist attacks, most of which are on members of their own party!!!  Heck, I've heard more moderate Democrats imply the squad of popular Freshman Democrats are somewhat responsible for Trump's inexcusable racism targeting them.

But in 2018, the Democratic Party stopped listening to the moderates for their marching orders.  They put forward a traditional Democratic platform, highlighting bread and butter, populist Democratic issues, and a renewed call from Democratic leaders to "elect us, get us into power, and we'll hold Trump accountable."  We won big.  Since then, moderate Democrats have returned to their pre-2010 hemming and hawing, trying desperately to hush their own base, filtering their decisions thorough a misguided appeal to a handful of moderate Republicans.

And that's where we are at right now.  Moderate Democrats are telling me we need to ignore the fiscal and social issues of the progressives, issues which bring in traditional and progressive Democrats, along with a large portion of the minority voters.  I've been told "Matt, they're gong to vote Democrat anyway, so their issues are not important."(WTF?!?)  Moderate Democrats plan on ignoring LGBTQ issues, AND most women's issues.  Moderate Democrats have insisted the Democratic Party should ONLY be focused suburban women, and winning over a handful of Republicans.  That's their "sure fire plan" to victory.

It won't work.  We did it that way in 2010, 2012 (which would've been FAR worse if not for President Obama), 2014, and 2016, and every time the moderate Democrats "sure fire plan" failed.  2018 was a return to true Democratic ideals, just like 2006 was, and look at the success the party had.

Moderates, stop screwing this up!

First off moderates, you could learn a few thing from the Republicans.  They don't care what names you call them, as opposed to you, frantically trying to get their approval like the new girl trying to join the popular clique in high school.  Republicans NEVER take their party for granted, and almost always vote in unison with each other.  Moderate Democrats are FAR more eager to work with moderate Republicans than their own party.  It causes them to sacrifice WAY too much in a pathetic attempt to get the moderate Republican's attention.

And most of the time, THEY WILL NOT VOTE WITH YOU!  They voted for Trump for God's sake!  You're spending all your time trying to win over Republicans who pretty much hate you and the party you represent.  And you're ignoring the 110 million mostly Demcorats who sat out 2016.  You started to bring them back to the polls in 2018, and now you seem determined to push them back to the sidelines.

Let me explain it better this way.  Imagine the Democratic Party as a farm, a huge plot of land; 100 acres by 100 acres.  Moderate Democratic farmers are standing near one of the fences.  On the other side of the fence is a neighbor from the Republican farm.  He's 10 feet away from you, but he's clearly on the other side of the fence.  Meanwhile, the rest of your farming buddies in the Democratic Party are WAY on the other side of the field, still on your plot of land, but much further away than the Republican farmer is.  I understand why you think the guy on the other side of the fence is far closer to your mindset, but there's a fatal flaw to your theory.  Even though the farmer on the Republican side has a simile on his face, he HATES you.  He doesn't see ten feet, rather 1000 miles.  You're trying to be neighborly, they're thinking Hatfields and McCoys.

Moderate Democrats, stop screwing this up.  Work with your own party!  Embrace the core values of the Democrats!  Embrace the issues which appeal to minorities, the LGBTQ community and women! Stop trying to win over a few Republicans who will never agree with you!  Follow through on your promises! And stop worrying about what the Republicans will think of you!  They will always bad mouth you no matter what you do, so stop caring what they say!

Worry about getting the 110 million to the polls, most of whom HATE Trump.  The only thing which can stop you from winning is your own foolish, repeatedly proven wrong strategy.

Enemy Territory

I've had some God forsaken overnights away from my house.  I've had atrocious stays in New York City, Eau Claire, Panama City, Florida, Las Vegas, Duluth, and a particularly horrendous night in Atlantic, Iowa.  I never once painted those towns with a wide brush, condemning the communities as a whole.  Regardless of where you are in America, there's always something good; views, parks, wildlife, restaurants, community events, the arts.  There's always something.

But not for Trump and the Republicans.  They need villains.

Trump's latest attack on Baltimore, Maryland, a city which has its problems, LIKE EVERY OTHER CITY DOES, but also has an amazing history and local culture, is just his latest attempt to create an enemy for his base to hate.

These communities always have the same criteria:

1. They have a high minority population
2. They are Democratic Party strongholds
3. They are represented by a politician(s) easy for Trump's racist base to hate

Republicans need bad guys to hate, and have been creating 'enemies of the Republican state' for decades.  They initially turned on California, the state Reagan tamed.  When the GOP started to shift towards more racist and upper class-centric policies in the 1990's, California turned sharply Democrat and has not looked back.  Republicans started attacking the limousine liberals of Los Angeles, Silicon Valley and San Francisco.  Being wealthy and voting Democrat was interpreted as betrayal. The Right convinced their voters to think these towns were run by African Americans, Latinos and undocumented foreigners, pushing drugs, sexual perversion, gang violence, the gay community and a more diverse culture on the poor innocent Christian whites of America.  

They turned on New York City.  It was easy to portray NYC as a foreign country in the USA, until after 9/11.  For a few years, Rightos played nice, until they lost the House and Senate in 2006.  They then returned to bashing New York as a villain, while trying to insist they (Republicans from nowhere near the city) embodied the real sacrifice of 9/11.  It didn't go well for them, but the right soon had President Obama and his town of Chicago to ridicule.

Starting in 2010, the Republicans had a new tactic, "no-go zones." They started portraying certain metro areas as having large swaths where white folk couldn't go without getting raped, killed, shot and then raped again.  It didn't matter the local community had no idea what Republicans were talking about.  This was about giving fake smarts to idiots who never would go to those cities in the first place.  Fear of minorities fueled morons in Iowa screaming about no-go zones in Philadelphia, Houston and Miami.  "I heard about it what REALLY goes on in those towns."  

And that's the point!  The vicious circle of fear wasn't about ruining some schmuck from Nebraska's travel plans.  It was about scaring white, rural Christian Republican voters into believing "if you allow Democrats to take over here, it's only a matter of time before you and your wife are smoking crack, your dog joins MS-13, and your kids are engaged in group gay sex with non-caucasians!"  Fear was, and is, the real goal, regardless of how much the fear is based on lies, bigotry and racism

Recently my own congressional district was attacked.  I live in MN-05, Representative Ilhan Omar's district.  As Trump ridiculed her in recent weeks, Republicans who've never been to Minneapolis came up with a simple explanation on how Omar got elected in the first place; over 90% of the district are Somali and black.  A quick search will show that Minneapolis is still quite predominately white (71%), but that didn't matter for them.  The narrative is created and the fear is stoked.  Now rural white communities are terrified voting Democrat will lead to a massive influx of minorities and Muslims!  

In other words, they're racist idiots, BUT THIS CRAP WORKS ON RACIST IDIOTS!

It wasn't that long ago Republicans used to be competitive in these communities.  Many cities had Republican representation at the local, state and federal levels, but as their message has pushed further and further into white nationalism, they've abandoned urban communities, focusing all their attention on winning in rural and wealthy suburban districts.

The GOP purposely has to ignore a major flaw in their 'enemy territory' criticism.  With Trump being President, and with their new standard of creating a fake national emergency to divert money to any problem they see fit, Trump could help ANY city in America he labels persona non grata.  He could, but he won't.  He needs the villain, whether real or not.  Republicans just skip the solution to the problem they've created and only focus on the fear the problem creates.  It's the person who convinces themselves they have an unfounded and unheard of deadly disease, but instead of going to a doctor and getting a real diagnosis, they instead choose to lock themselves in their house, fearing the health crisis they've made up in their mind.

We're supposed to be a United States, with different cultures and people.  Instead we have a political party portraying America as 'wholesome, white, Christian' communities constantly being threatened by the enemy territory within the US border; purposely fanning the flames of racism and ignorance with atrocious consequences.  The enemy is Baltimore today. Detroit or Cleveland or Milwaukee or Boston or wherever tomorrow. 

And speaking of consequences, there truly are no-go zones in America today.  They are communities where one religion is pushed on all who enter, and non conformists are asked to leave.  It's where strangers are not trusted and are usually harassed.  These are places where law enforcement is chomping at the bit to make examples of the outsiders, mainly for the applause and accolades they'll get from the local community.  America's no-go zones are many of the white rural and suburban communities where African Americans, Latinos and pretty much all minorities are just not welcome.  This is the consequence of Republican 'enemy territory' bigotry.

That's a fact.

Cat Fight

Not only should you keep your cats indoors because they can get killed by (at least in metro Minneapolis/St. Paul) dogs, coyotes, raccoons, foxes, and not to mention cars.

Not only should you keep your cat indoors because letting a predator into a eco-system which has never had said predator is stupid, at a cost of numerous animals (song birds, squirrels, rabbits, ducks)  who are not prepared to have to defend themselves from a non-native species (would you tolerate a person letting tropical snakes loose in your neighborhood in summer?).

Not only should you keep your cat indoors because of the insane amount of health and safety risks a cat can get killed by.  Waterborne illnesses an animal will get from licking out of a puddle kill plenty of animals every year.

Not only should you keep your cat indoors because expecting the world to take care of YOUR animal while you act like a responsible pet owner because the cat shows back up at your house every two weeks is a jackass attitude.

Story from a friend about his brother, who lives in a neighboring state.  He walks up to his neighbor's house and knocks.

Man opens door. "Howdy."

"Hey neighbor.  You know how we've had a lot of problems with your cat being outside?"

"Sure, but that's your problem with Mr. Buttons, not mine."

"Funny you should mention that.  Your cat was in our yard last night."

"Well we let him in last night."

"That's fine, but it was in my yard, AGAIN, even after I've asked you numerous times to control Mr. Buttons."

"Lighten up.  It's just a cat."

"Yes it is.  Last night, when I let my dog out, your cat attacked him."

"Mr. Button's will defend himself (said while snickering)."

"Well Mr. Buttons damaged my dog's eye, and my dog is going to need surgery."

Neighbor's face turns more serious. "Well that's a shame, but that's not my problem."

"Actually, it is your problem!  Three people witnessed your cat attack my dog, IN MY YARD, hence you were violating MY private property.  We've documented all the times we've asked you to keep your cat out of our yard, and the law states you're responsible for your pet.  Hence, we are going to sue you for the cost of the surgery on the dog, plus an additional $100,000 for future health issues for our dog, and for our pain and suffering due to the repeated harassment of your pet."

"You can't do that!"

"I'm a lawyer.  Of course I can."

He settled out of court for a total of $75,000.  The cat owner's family moved as well.

If you have a cat, please keep it indoors, for its and your own safety.  If you are a person whose neighbor's cat has been a nuisance, start documenting and know your community/state laws.  A repeating problem might lead to a very large payday.

The Friday Link for 7/26/19

For this week, we visit a hilarious, but somewhat adult language, series from Funny or Die, 'A Very Special Episode.'

The concept is fantastic.  We revisit the 'issue of the moment' episodes from 80's and 90's TV shows, episodes which copied the After School Special formulas from the 70's, talking about teen sex, peer pressure, drugs and drinking.  It was a way for television programs, primarily sitcoms (?), to give themselves some self created "serious acting" cred, doing an episode where serious topics were addressed by the teen stars of the day.  I think the mentality was the comedy show taking it seriously (with jokes) would help the message hit home.  I don't think they thought that through.

To say these episode are atrocious television is an understatement.  They've not aged well.  This is where Funny or Die mines the comedy gold.  Sure they sometimes glorify the vice the episode was railing against (particularly drinking and drug use), but overall this is a great take down of people who were lucky to have the celebrity they had, people who were taking themselves WAY too seriously.

Let's begin with Family Matters where Urkle got drunk and fell off the roof.



Next up is Growing Pains, with the troublesome issue of 80's girls with coke.



Finally, from 7th Heaven (NOT a sitcom), gangs are recruiting!



These episodes are from season 1, but 'A Very Special Episode' just put out their 4th season.  Watch them all...and maybe you'll learn a little something!

Have a great weekend everyone.

The Friday Link for 7/19/19

For this Friday's Link, let's start with Apollo 11.

There was a time in this country when science was praised and appreciated.  Not today.  There's no way on the planet the current US government would spend the money needed for a moon launch, let alone listen to the scientists who would be responsible to make sure the mission happens safely.  It's an interesting question:  would a Republican have a harder time with the cost of a space launch, or having to respect a scientist?

Why is science important?  This video says it all.  Think about the levels of science needed just for this slowed down 30 second clip.  The reason we can look back on Apollo 11 with such pride is due to what it meant beyond getting humans to the moon.  It represents the time when science and intelligence were valued, and by giving them value, nothing was impossible.  Enjoy this video of the science behind the launch.



Since we are on science, how about a great video showing the distance of the solar system.  If you go to Eau Claire Wisconsin, there is a walking path which shows you the distance from the sun to all the planets.  You realize how the outer planers of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto (sorry, not sorry) are an insane distance from us and the sun.  These guys put it in perspective for you without you having to go to Wisconsin.



And to put our science Friday Link to bed, what's more science than the Coneheads on Family Feud.  A classic SNL skit.



Have a great weekend everyone!  Try to stay cool.

What Does It Take

Back in the first decade of the 2000's, I cancelled my Star Tribune newspaper subscription.  The Strib, like most newspapers, had become a hollow shell of its former self, with less and less news content.  They had also become a right leaning paper.  I'm not talking about the editorial page (I'll come back to that) but rather the stories themselves had become unapologetically Republican.  A Democratic politician would do something wrong, and it was top of the front page, above the fold, with three weeks of team coverage, but a Republican politician doing something far worse would be buried deep in the B section, with the reporters and editors themselves making excuses for why they didn't feel the story warranted more coverage.

The reason the mainstream media in this country (mainly regional newspapers and local network television stations) shifted dramatically to a more pro-Republican perspective is due to two things.  Right wing business people were buying up media in the 1990's, closing newsrooms, gutting news staff and pretty much annihilating investigative journalism.  This got rid of quality content, replaced with a shocking amount of GOP talking points reported as 'news.'

The other way the right controlled the news came in the form of advertisers.  Far right wing businesses would advertise, but only if the news reflected their values.  With editors far more obliged to do what the sales department demanded, they drove the news media's direction to the right, ensuring they'd be able to make a buck.

The final straw for me, in regards to the Star Tribune, was a stretch of four weeks of Sundays about 15 years ago.  For those four weeks, the Sunday Editorial section was all FAR right wing garbage, easily disproven lies which mysteriously weren't fact checked by the Strib's editorial board.  All the major editorials in those Sunday newspapers were unforgivable partisan drivel; GOP talking points given validity by the paper.

After the 4th week, I called the paper and asked if this was the new standard.  The perky customer service rep insisted it was okay because the Democrats were allowed to respond in the Monday edition of the paper. Considering the Sunday edition of the paper was read by somewhere in the area of 2.5 to 3 times more people than the Monday paper, this was an admission by the paper their were trying to drive a narrative.  Thanks, but no thanks.

(For the record, today I do have an digital subscription for work, mainly for sports)

For those who think the news media stopped moving towards the right when Obama became President, think again.  They got worse.  I remember when I caught the Strib publishing a 'letter to the editor' from a CEO from a major banking group in town.  They never once identified the banker for his obvious ulterior motives, instead portraying him as a regular guy who happened to drop a letter in the mail.  If I were to write a letter to the editor and try to pass it off as 'Matt from Hopkins,' there's no way the paper would publish it without making sure everyone knew it's the liberal radio host in town.  Heck, let's be honest, they would've never published it period.

I started noticing the comical crowd size double standard in the Twin Cities news media about 10 years ago.  A right wing political event would happen and the coverage was "large crowds, big turnout, more than expected rallied."  The media was usually exaggerating about 100 right leaning people OR LESS.  Sometimes it was just a few dozen rightos.  In the case of the pro-Confederate flag rally, it was six!  No matter the turnout, a right wing rally or event was always a rousing success!  But when a few thousand people would show up for a liberal event, the narrative was "less than expected, smaller crowds, and unknown number of protesters."  Many times the news media wouldn't even cover a liberal rally or event at all.

The best example of this was Scott Walker coming to Hudson, Wisconsin for a rally.  Twenty three people showed up to support Walker.  23!!!  Meanwhile, well over 200 people came to protest Walker.  The Twin Cities news media reported the complete opposite, "big turnout for Walker!"  I think KARE 11 was the ONLY station to mention the protesters, as an afterthought; "a counter protest also took place."

Where the news media in this town is at today is VERY scary.  Over the last few years, there have been multiple stories which are UNDENIABLY NEWS, stories which made Republicans look bad, not intentionally but factually.  Considering the positions of power and places where these stories occurred, the news relevance was clear.

• Former Republican Speaker of the House Kurt Daudt had his credit card debt forgiven (a rare feat in this day and age) and the legal team which helped him with his mysterious debt forgiveness had a lobbying wing in St. Paul.
• Republicans told North Minneapolis' predominantly African American population they were on their own after a tornado hit their community; how they needed to pull themselves up by their own boot straps.  They never seemed to have a problem with emergency tornado relief before the inner city strike.
• Representative Jim Newberger  made a racist comment on the Minnesota House floor, targeting the predominately African American population in North Minneapolis.
• Republicans called a man to testify that he'd stolen months and months of food assistance, just to prove a millionaire could abuse the system.  No one verified the forms he filled out for attaining the food assistance, to ensure he wasn't lying (hence a crime).  No journalist asked why the Republicans were suddenly embracing fraud.
• While the media did cover the accusations of sexual misconduct against former Rep. Tony Cornish, they were shockingly silent when a disgraced Cornish returned to the Capitol a few months after being forced to resign, seemingly there to threaten and intimidate the former Democratic Representative Erin May Quade, who had initially accused him of inappropriate harassment.  
• GOP candidate for Attorney General Doug Wardlow was accused by multiple former classmates of being an extreme bully while in high school.  After Wardlow challenged the accusations, more classmates came forward with more stories of extreme bullying.
• Republican representative Cal Bahr called for violence against Democratic Legislators who were writing common sense gun regulations.  He called for them to be thrown to the curb, stomped on, and then run over a few times.  He made these threats in the Capitol itself.  His excuse was he was only talking about the bills, not the people writing them.  That excuse is counterpointed by the video showing him CLEARLY making the threats to the politicians themselves.
• Republican Representative Tony Jergens, throwing a temper tantrum after an amendment failed in the Minnesota House, verbally and physically threatened Democratic Representative Jamie Becker-Finn in the House annex.  It was a loud threat, heard throughout the House, and reports stated Jergens had to be physically restrained.

Wow!  All of those stories are undoubtedly newsworthy.  Outside of City Pages and Bluestem Prairie, most of these stories got little if ANY coverage in the Twin Cities newspapers (Star Tribune, Pioneer Press), television stations (KARE, WCCO, KSTP, KMSP) or other media groups (MPR).

Why?  I had no idea until the Wardlow story broke.  The reason the story broke was due to a call to my radio show where a caller explained the bullying from his perspective.  I was shocked.  I posted the story online, linking to most of the Twin Cities news media. "Here's the GOP candidate for the AG's office being accused of extreme bullying."  Nothing.  Flabbergasted, I contacted a few journalists I knew directly, saying here's the story, here's the bullied person's phone number, and please do not feel any need to include me or the radio station in the story.

One journalist told me directly: "Matt the story is definitely news worthy, but because it originated from you, I can't report on it without drawing criticism of being the 'liberal media'."

Sweet Lord...putting aside the acknowledgment the story indeed had merit, the criticism would be coming from people who want to see Wardlow as Attorney General, hence their criticism should be taken with a grain of salt.  I'm pretty sure I was one of the first people in town to talk about most of the above stories.  Now I have to ask how many of those stories were buried because I committed the crime of talking about them first?

Now we have an even more damaging story.  Last Monday, the 8th, I was made aware of a young man dying.  Jesimya David Scherer-Radcliff (Jesy) died due to rationing insulin.  As tragic as that story is on it's own, it has added depth when you consider Jesy was working two jobs and yet still couldn't afford the skyrocketing costs of insulin. Jesy was a person the Emergency Insulin Act was designed to save, someone working as hard as he could but still could not afford the life saving medication.  The Emergency Insulin Act was ruthlessly killed by Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka and the Senate Republicans at the end of session, likely due to big Pharma lobbying to kill a no brainer bill.

This would be the first person who would've been saved by the Emergency Insulin Act, instead he was the first (to my knowledge) to die since Gazleka and the Republicans decided it was better to hand a death sentence to the poor rather than 'waste' tax dollars saving these human beings. The merits of the story are undeniable, as Republicans across the state should have to answer why weren't they trying to schedule an emergency special session to fix this.  Instead, nothing...well at least for a few days.  KARE 11 finally wrote a story about it on Friday the 12th, but for the most part, the rest of the media decided to give the Minnesota Republican Party ANOTHER pass for their inexcusable behavior.

I don't know what we can do to fix this, but let me say to all news editors and journalists, if there is a story which originates from my radio show, which is undeniable news which should be reported, then:

LEAVE ME OUT OF IT!!!

My ego doesn't need to be stroked.  Leave me out of it and report the news...you know, do your job!  At this point, your reluctance to look at the Republican Party's indiscretions and mistakes neutrally is getting pretty damn scary (and unAmerican). 

Then again, we're now witnessing the Twin Cities and national news media going out of their way to not call Trump's latest undeniably racist tweets racist, preferring to report on the racism as someone else making an accusation.  If we're the point where most journalists are unable to say "water is wet," then news media may be too far gone to save.

The Friday Link for 7/12/19

Tig Notaro is having her moment.

If you're not aware of who Tig is, she's a successful stand up comedian who's had consistent TV and movie work over the last few years.  But lately, she's pushed the accelerator on her career.

Whomever cast her as engineer Jett Reno in Star Trek: Discovery, congratulations!  You made one of the all time time great casting decisions in Star Trek history.  That's a big statement, so don't take my word for it.  Watch for yourself.



Sweet Lord is that fun!

Even better, Tig is a bit of introvert.  For someone who works in the industry, she doesn't really watch too much television or movies, focusing on her family instead of celebrity pageantry.  I respect the heck out of that.

The folks at Funny or Die have come up with a freaking brilliant talk show featuring Tig.  Under A Rock with Tig Notaro is a sensational show!  Tig has no idea who her guests are so she has to guess.  Charming, hilarious, and at times painfully awkward, it is wonderful.  Enjoy three of her episodes:







Have a great weekend everyone!

The Friday Link for 7/5/19

I hope everyone had a great Independence Day...well everyone outside of the Trump Administration.  Considering they're keeping human beings in worse conditions than zoo animals, those guys can suck it!

For your Friday Link this week, it's back to Minnesota's finest, the gold standard for comedy, Mystery Science Theater 3000!  One of the best parts about the show is no matter the cast incarnation you're viewing, there are always stellar jokes and can't miss episodes.

For this week's clip, it's San Francisco International!  This was one of the movies which came out in the 1970's Airport craze, only it's FAR worse.  An awful script, 'G'-list actors, comatose action sequences, and disturbing acting make this a gem.  Enjoy!


I hope you have a great rest of the 4th of July weekend!

Was That All it Took?

The Minnesota Twins are insanely good this year.  No one is more surprised than myself as at the beginning of the season, I was scratching my head wondering who half these guys were.  But almost by magic, rookie manager Rocco Baldelli has taken this rag tag bunch of players and turned them in a juggernaut.

The transformation is insane.  The Twins lead the major leagues in home runs (Home freaking Runs!!!) at 156, runs (471), total bases (1446), RBI's (453), team batting average (.271), and they lead slugging percentage by a mile (.498).  They're third in hits (787), 4th in doubles (169), and are 6th in on base percentage (.337).  [stats as of 10 PM on 6/30/19]

This...THIS from a team who has been known as the small ball capitol of baseball.  The Twin's legacy against power began under Tom Kelly and continued through Gardenhire and Molitor's regimes.  They were so committed to hitting only singles and doubles they gave David Ortiz to the Boston Red Sox for a bag of pebbles.  They literally were angry he kept hitting the ball out of the park.  You would've thought the shame of that bad decision would've changed things up, but it wasn't until the complete gutting of the team after last season did we finally get a major shift in coaching.

It'a almost as if Rocco has just told these guys "you see that fence out there.  Hit it over that!"  I'm at a complete loss for anything else which can explain this offensive explosion.

Well not entirely.  I think the mentality of where the Twins have been for the last 15 or so seasons has a lot to do with Joe Mauer.  The Twins fell in love with Mauer the minute they drafted him.  They conceived of a marketing strategy which placed Joe in the center of their universe as the sun, and everything else orbited around him.  Mauer was a great player, but their desire to keep him as the "best Twin" caused the organization to play a style of baseball which sacrificed the talents of many; as long as the shine never went off the Mauer apple.  Anytime a hot hitting player started to get some traction in the fan base, they suddenly were in a different uniform.  If Mauer was primarily a singles and doubles hitter, then sure as heck no one else could be hitting home runs.

I know some people will scream that's not true, many players had big hitting years with the team.  Yeah, and where are they now?  The reason the 2019 roster was a bushel of "who?" is because any player who started to garner some of the Mauer praise for themselves found themselves shipped off to another team.  The removal of the overachieving player wasn't instant, but it was consistent.

Now, with Mauer retired, and along with him the Mauer doctrine, players are coming out of the shadows and swinging for the fences. There are eight Twins with 10 or more homers by late June! Jorge Polanco is hitting .320. Six regular players are hitting .270 or better.  Eddie Rosario has 60 RBI's, Max Kepler has 53, C. J. Cron 52!  This team came out of nowhere and if the bats keep working for them, they will play deep into October.

Swing for the fences!  Was that all it took?  Apparently, yes...well that and the removal of the Mauer handcuffs which were on the rest of the Minnesota Twins.

Northern Minnesota Love, 2019

I love taking pictures of wildflowers in Minnesota.  It's a goofy hobby.  Here are some photos from my recent trip up north.  Not only did I get some of the early flowers (which were blooming because it has been much cooler than normal up there), I found a Lady Slipper, the Minnesota state flower growing near our cabin.  Enjoy!

The Friday Link for 6/28/19

I was on vacation this week, got back on Tuesday and haven't had time to write squat this week.  I do hope to have my northland flowers post up this weekend, plus one or two others soon.

For this week, I'm turing it over to Showtime's Our Cartoon President.  Three clips for you tonight, starting with their take on the Democratic Debate, followed by Bernie meeting Mitt Romney, and finally the Trump reelection kickoff rally.

The last one is particularly good because it lambasts Pelosi and Schumer pretty good too. Enjoy!

WARNING - more than a little bad language!  You've been warned...







Have a great weekend everyone.

The Friday Link for 6/21/19

This week I plan to make you smarter...well not me doing it, but rather two very smart people.

First of, if you aren't subscribed to Robert Reich's YouTube page, you are missing out on one of the best YouTube pages, period.  Not only are his videos chock full of information and knowledge, they are truly good videos.  Reich understands the YouTube genre and format, excelling at it.  The only downside is some of his videos will make you angry and sad, because they point you to stark reality, but he always offers optimism in the end.

Two from Robert Rich, one on Trump's economic failure, and the other is the sham that is the conservative chants of 'Made in America' today.





The second guy up tonight is Stephen Fry, who has been putting out lusciously thick explanations on the stupidity of Brexit for awhile now.  If you go back and watch all of his videos, you'll be impressed with the completeness of his explanations.  Even relative novices in the US can understand what is going on.  Here's his latest from a few weeks ago.



Have a great weekend!

The Ghosts

There's something which I need to hammer into the moderate Democrats heads.  Moderate Republicans DO NOT EXISTS ANYMORE!

One of the biggest problems we've had as a party is moderate Democrats taking an approach which dismisses a majority of the Democratic Party in favor of 'working with' moderate Republicans.  It's not hard to understand, as many moderate Democrats think they have more in common with the guy five feet away from them, on the other side of the fence, rather than the brother WAY over on the other side of the field.

The problem is moderate Republicans are no longer on the other side of the fence, rather five farms over.  To visit the moderate Republicans the moderate Democrats still think exist, they need a time machine.  The moderate Republicans they're trying to work with haven't existed in the Republican party for 15 years.

Moderates on the right began being phased out by their own party starting in the early 90's.  Back then there were pro-choice, and pro-social safety net Republicans, but when Newt Gingrich came around, everything started to change.  The party demanded no deviation from a standard group of beliefs, a platform which was much further to the right than moderates were used to.  The message was simple; become more conservative or retire.

Many moderates did retire.  But some, begrudgingly or not, moved further to the right.  Jim Ramstad managed to make it to 2008, but by then even he realized the party wasn't going to stop moving further and further to the right.  He abandoned ship, replaced by the eager far right yes man Erik Paulsen.

Local Republicans, like Jim Rhodes, my one time MN House Rep., found himself the face of a party which not only no longer represented him, it no longer represented the district he served.  The national party's movement had turned his district a solid blue.

Moderate Republicans have disappeared.  They're casper, vapor, a ghost.  Anyone who's an active Republican is so far to the right, there's no ability for them to claim they're moderate.  For goodness sake, the Minnesota Republicans just voted against an Emergency Insulin Fund, a non partisan issue which would save lives.  They all voted against it.  Where's the moderate there?  On the national level, the narrative is clear.  If you're not two steps further to the right of Trump, you're liberal.  Look at how people like Susan Collins have had to sell out their own morals to stay in the party's favor.

Moderate Republican voters have scattered.  If they silently kept voting Republican, they technically moved away from moderation the minute they checked Trump on the ballot.  Some Moderates became Democrats.  Others, who are too stubborn to even consider voting Democrat, stay at home on election day.  They know their party is dangerous, but to vote against them would mean they're betraying Reagan.  They'd rather sit it out.

Moderate Democrats, the Republicans who are going to work with you have already become Democrats.  Forget trying to appeal to a phantom.  Focus your attention in two directions; your party (even though they might be liberal progressives, they still have more in common with you than the moderate Republicans do) and on the 110 million who sat out the last election (many of whom are frustrated Democrats and progressives who have been turned off by the moderates who have been driving the party towards the right rather than focusing on Democratic strongpoints).

Moderate Republicans no longer exist.

The Friday Link for 6/14/19

Since last week I had Saturday Night Live's Bill Hader in his Dateline NBC persona, I thought this week it'd be worthwhile to remember that Bill Hader was the best comedy skit game show host they ever had on SNL.

Now before people immediately scream Will Ferrel and his Alex Trebek from Celebrity Jeopardy or Kenan Thompson's Steve Harvey from Celebrity Family Feud, those were fantastic, but it was always the same bit.  I will also throw in Amy Poehler and Tina Fey in their one time sensational game show Meet Your Second Wife.  Great but it was only a one time deal.

Bader basically does the same host every time but tweeks it just enough to make each show unique.

Four for you tonight!

First up, the hands down best Bill Hader Game show host skit, Game of Game of Thrones!



Then it's the star studded It's a Date!



Then an underrated gem, America's toughest gameshow, Dylan McDermott or Dermot Mulroney!



Finally, We all ask the question, What's Wrong With Tanya?



Have a great weekend everyone!

Cooling Off

The National Hockey League has a problem. They just had one of the most entertaining stories in years happen, a plucky St. Louis Blues team comes out of nowhere to win the Stanley Cup, and outside of hockey fans in St. Louis, no one cares.  Sure, I know there are some people who love hockey who are gushing about it right now, but the vast majority of us could care less.

And I like hockey!  Seriously I do. It pains me to see the consistent failure Minnesota hockey is.  I love a good playoff matchup, but I didn't watch anything past early May this year.  A lot of that has to do with a league which has some major problems that are only getting worse.  Here are three huge ones.

Every #1 seed lost in the first round of the playoffs.  What is the value of having a great record if all it gets you is a speedy exit from the playoffs?  Tampa, Washington, Nashville and Calgary gave you excitement heading into the playoffs, but all of them were shown the door.  Tampa, the best team this league has produced in years, was SWEPT by a lowly Columbus squad.  Not only do you send all the best players home in the first round, you force fans to have to familiarize themselves with teams they didn't pay attention to throughout the season just to follow what's happening.  If only one of the top seeds lost, then you would've had a much better playoffs. Instead, it was a championship of "who?"

Come playoff time, the goal of the underdogs is to cripple the other teams best players with scrub players, and they do it with amazing success.  Imagine five of the best players on a baseball team or football team were specifically targeted during a playoff game by some guy who was just signed to the respective team the day before.  No one would tolerate it, but watching 4th line guys go head hunting, tasked with a mission of ending a season, and sometimes a career, of the best players on the other side, is a tactic which is neutralizing the sport, driving away the fans.  And this is only getting worse.

The league has to get better at calling these games.  Game five of the Stanley Cup final was decided on a blown call.  Even the offending player knew they had committed a penalty.  The refs missed it, and there was no way for the league to get the blown call correct.  It's not diminishing the human referees to have available instant replay; it only makes the games better.

What can the league do?  As unlikely as these things are to come to fruition, I would suggest three instant changes.

• Make the rinks Olympic size.  The more open ice means the best players thrive.  This alone would make it harder for underdogs to upset teams in the first round, but not impossible. The league should be looking to showcase their best teams and players in a given year, not have to send out addendum to update you on the no name wild card teams no one cares about.  The open ice would make CONSISTENT skill important again.
• When a player injures another player, they sit until the other player comes back from the injury. If the player is assessed a suspension for injuring the other player, then the suspension begins the day the injured player returns, and they sit the entire time the player they injured is healing, and THEN the suspension.  If a player cripples another player and that player doesn't ever return to the ice, then the player who caused the career ending injury never plays again either.  This new standard would instantly stop the bloodbath the first round of the NHL playoffs has become.
• Give the teams the ability to have a play reviewed, regardless of whether it's a scoring play or not.  If everyone in the arena sees the penalty, but not the refs, then you need to have the ability to right the wrong.  Give each team a review each period.

I would also make the argument the league needs to move some of these teams out of the far south. Nothing against Miami, Arizona, Carolina and Dallas, but these teams are lowest rung on the ladders in these major metro areas.  At least in Seattle, Quebec, Kansas City and Salt Lake City the communities would not have to have a tutorial to explain exactly what they are watching.  

The NHL can have a great story like St. Louis happen, but with its lousy playoff situation, it gets diminished and ignored.  Ice does indeed melt fast in June.

The Friday Link for 6/7/19

One of the funnier bits they did on Saturday Night Live over the last ten years was Bill Hader's version of Dateline NBC's Keith Morrison.  This impersonation is very good, a bit over the top but every time I've watched Dateline, there's at least one segment where Morrison sounds just like Hader's impersonation of him.

To do a good impersonation of someone, you generally have to be a fan.  Hader apparently loves Keith Morrison, and for that matter, Dateline NBC.

With that set up, the Friday Link this week is first Bill Hader doing an impersonation of Morrison on Saturday Night from a few years back (2011).  Warning, it gets a little adult:



Then a real treat.  The Sunday Today show convinced Hader to go visit the Dateline NBC studio and meet Morrison.  You can't fake the geekiness Hader puts forward.  He clearly is excited to meet the host.  For his part, Morrison seems to understand how the bread gets buttered and points out how Hader's impression of him actually extended his career.  The end of this clip is just so perfect!



Have a great weekend everyone!

Parental Advice from Matt!

Today, is the last day of the school year.  I'm so proud of my kids, how they're all happy, get great grades, are involved in sports and music, and seem well balanced.

I'm hesitant to give out parenting advice because one thing I've learned is there are lots of ways to raise great kids.  My way is not necessarily better or worse than anyone else's, and what worked for me might not work for anyone else.  That being said, here are three bits of advice which I think are pretty spot on.

1) Read to your kids when they're young.  Without a doubt, the reason my kids are good in school is because my wife started reading to them every night when they were young.  If she wasn't around, I'd read to them, but my wife carried the bulk of that burden.  There are many reasons reading to your kids at a young age is great (increased imagination, awareness of the world, learning important life lessons) but encouraging them to read on their own has paid us back 17 years later with straight A's.  If there's one thing I'd attribute to my children's positive outcomes, it's this.  Read a story to your kids every night.

2) Back in 2007, my wife and I made a decision.  I'd leave my Marketing Director gig and focus on working in radio, a schedule which allowed me to (technically) be a stay at home parent.  For 12 years, I've either dropped my kids off at the bus in the morning, picked my kids up from the bus in the afternoon, or both.  I'll miss that.  I understand having a flexible schedule like mine is a luxury, but making time for your kids, and letting them know you're a consistent presence, even when you're at work, is calming and reassuring for your kids.  Today, my youngest officially leaves elementary school.  After 13 years, I will no longer be taking my kids to the bus (big brother will drive them to school next year).  I feel like I accomplished something today.

3) Make sure your kids get downtime. These kids schedules are insane.  When you get kids into junior high and high school, you'll be floored by the levels of time commitment required for academics, sports, music, theater; whatever regular or extra-circular activity they're engaged in.  Just like adults, make sure they get time to stop and breathe.  How you let them do so it up to you, but as they get older, you'll come to realize screens are how their generation communicates.  Where I used to try to extremely limit the amount of screen time they got, I now realize it's a necessary evil to ensure your kid is not a pariah.  What age you allow a screen is up to you, but 13 has worked for us, with social media sites being allowed according to their threat level (Snapchat Never!).  We allow screen time, but that's us.  How you regulate your kid's downtime is up to you.  And make sure they are going to bed at a reasonable time.  Downtime is not just during the day.

I'll shut up now.  You raise your kids how you see fit, but if you do versions of the aforementioned guidelines, you'll probably be very happy with the results.  Good Luck!

The People Killing Christianity are the Christians

Dear Conservative, far right wing Christians.  The other day I was reading a story about how some Evangelical minister was blaming the downward trend in church attendance on the usual suspects: Liberals, Atheists, Satan, and even a shout out to the Netflix version of Sabrina, the Teenage Witch.  Over the last few decades, I've read this story multiple times and now I feel it's time for me to try to set you guys straight.

The people who are killing Christianity are the Christians themselves; far right zealots whose altered version of the religion, and demands for loyalty to certain politicians and political beliefs, are driving people away in droves.

You are!  You've managed to take a religion whose tentpoles are based on peace, welcoming, love and compassion, and have mutilated it into a weapon against your perceived enemies.  You've distorted Jesus' teaching to unrecognizable levels, and in some cases just made crap up, creating new far right Christian tentpoles intended to vilify, torment, persecute and condemn. Let me show you how your version of the religion is a mockery, and is devaluing the Christian faith as a whole.

Let's start with the demand any Christian adhere to a Republican only standard, and how you're making fools with such a demand in the age of Trump.  News break: Trump isn't a devout Christian!  At best he's the guy who begrudgingly wanders into a house of worship on the major holidays.  He loves to brag how Christian he is, but he does very little to show any religious habits.  He doesn't go to church on a regular basis.  HE DOESN'T!  He clearly has a very limited grasp of the Bible.  And when you compare his political agenda to the teachings from Matthew, Mark, Luke and John [the four books of the New Testament which make all Chrisitians Christian] it's as if he's purposely trying to do everything the exact opposite of how Jesus told us to live our lives.  Yet you Christians have anointed Trump a new biblical deity, commanding all Christians to support him no matter how anti-Christian he gets.

Meanwhile, the same exact people constantly vilified former President Obama, a man who was clearly a Christian!  You discounted and dismissed his faith because it allowed the Christian right to hate him.  Under the far right Christians' new Biblical rules, love, compassion an forgiveness for your fellow man could be negated as long as you labeled the person you wanted to hate a non-Christian. With President Obama, the right ignored his faith to feed their flames of hate.  And before you clowns on the right say "I never did that," you're lying!  Every Evangelical Chrisitan pushed the 'Obama as a fake Chrisitan' narrative, or at best you silently said nothing as you nodded in agreement.

You far right Christians watch Trump do the most unChristian things and you say nothing.  Jailing asylum seekers seeking safety, denying sick people life saving medical coverage, gutting social programs for the poor, and embracing a grossly unfair economic and justice system, things Jesus taught us to fight against, are all given a pass by the Christian right.  Evangelicals just hum their psalms loudly to drum out the cries and screams from young children, lost in Trump's chaotic immigration system, some of whom have been sexually assaulted repeatedly, some of whom have been handed over by Trump to sex traffickers, as these young children lose hope of ever being reunited with family.  And over a dozen kids have died under Trump's 'benevolence.'  Yes indeed, Trump has done all of this, yet you far right Christians say nothing, endorsing his evil behavior with silence.

And yet the far right/Evangelical Christians feel as if they are pious for one simple reason; they've created a hierarchy of sins.  For Evangelicals and far right Christians, their version of Christianity is that abortion is the biggest sin, then being gay, and the rest of Jesus' teachings are just lip service; great if you do them, but no necessary because "I saved a baby and condemned a gay man!"  For the record, that's not how Jesus or Christianity works.  There was never supposed to be a Lord of the Rings type of list, 'one sin to rule them all,' but that's what the Right's done with Christianity

Abortion.  As I wrote years back, I'm personally against it.  Christians, being anti-abortion is never mentioned in the Bible.  IT ISN'T! Not only that, the Bible says life begins at Breath (not conception), Numbers mandates certain women need to get an abortion, and God himself not only demands slaughter of infants and fetuses, he himself has killed them (you think Noah's flood didn't kill a while bunch of unborn and born kids?).  And for the record, Jesus never once mentioned abortion, but he did directly condemn the death penalty.

Christian Right, you care nothing for that baby when the baby is born.  You don't.  I know you'll say that's not true, but it is.  When was the last time you screamed at a politician for not feeding them, not offering them medical care, not sheltering them, not offering free daycare options?   Jesus would be for all of these things, plus much, much more, AND YOU KNOW IT(!), but yet you never get into a politicians face when they threaten to cut these programs or argue the poor are just freeloaders.

I know the Christian Right, when confronted with all of this, fall back to the "but I'm saving an innocent life," but two points: the death penalty and wars.  If all life is sacred (according to the Bible), why do you tolerate executions and wars?  Don't give me 18th and 19th century revisions to the Bible meant to justify corporal punishment in the lawless West.  "Because he deserved it" was NEVER valid reason to execute a person, according to Jesus.  And we have executed innocent people, something which has been proven.  How many politicians have you called about that?  How many sermons have you heard about the wrongful imprisonment and killing of an innocent man?  The entire sacrifice of Jesus at Easter was a condemnation of execution, period! And war?  Come on, you think wars are still fought with guys on one side and the other guys on the other, like WWI.  We bomb from the stratosphere, killing innocent civilians.  Modern war kills FAR MORE civilians (including woman and children, both born and unborn) then it does soldiers today.  Trump is now offering to pardon war criminals, people who murdered innocents in war zones, and you Evangelical Christians say nothing because your sin outrage hierarchy tells you their death is not as bad as an pregnant teen getting an abortion (and [let's be honest] you're not bothered because the dead in war zones are usually Muslims - you know, the non-Christians excuse I mentioned earlier).

While I agree (personally) a baby is innocent, I feel it's innocent both inside the mother and outside the mother.  But not you far Right Christians.  The baby is innocent until it's born, then it's a moocher "wasting my taxpayer dollars!"  And I'll even cut deeper, outside of cute caucasian babies, your world view embraces many non-caucasian kids living life in a harsh and unpleasant foster care system for 18 years, with no chance at adoption, as 'Christians' insist they don't owe those children anything after demanding their birth.

At best Christian Right, you're not pro life.  You're pro de-womb-ing only, AT BEST!

As far as your strange fascination with the LGBTQ community, a group of people who were made in the same exact manner as heterosexual people, never once did Jesus condemn gay people.  He didn't, no matter how much you try to say he did.  You're just elevating lesser teachings from the Old and New Testaments to OVERRULE Jesus, an attempt to validate your hatred.  Whose teachings make up Christianity?  It is Jesus or Paul?  Is it Leviticus or Jesus?  Trick questions, it was Jesus!  Your hatred of the LGBTQ community is not Christianity.  It just isn't.

And by the way, your hatred of gay people always seems to boil down to your fascination with the kind of sex the LGBTQ community has.  That's weird and it tells me far more about you than it does about them.  Instead of vilifying others for engaging in something you secretly think about, maybe you should try it, with a willing partner, either heterosexual or otherwise.  Maybe you'll realize God made us in this form, and he never gave us no fly zones.  ENJOY!  Explore the beautiful thing you've been given, yourself, and stop hating others who your seem to be jealous of.

This is the Evangelical Chriatian today. "Here's the Bible, now we're going to throw out 99% of it.  Seriously, completely ignore most of it!  In regards to the pro life potion of Biblical teachings, here's some fan fiction we wrote which overrides actual Biblical scripture.  The only lives that matter are babies, Republicans and those in your immediate family who agree with your politics.  And here are a random group of non-Jesus Biblical passages on why we have to stop the LGBTQ community from having sex.  Seriously, obsess over the types of sex those people are having.  And just remember when you hear a Bible passage which focuses on the needy or contradicts what we preach, nod you head with a smile and immediately ignore it!"

It's a mystery why you guys can't fill up the pews!

The reason people are leaving the church in droves is you Evangelicals and Far Right Christians.  Stop being jerks, stop weaponizing the Bible, stop validating your personal hatreds with a religion which supposed to be based on love and compassion, and embrace a welcoming spirit, screaming out loud "you are loved here, regardless of who you are!"

That's always been Christianity's strongest selling point.