Gardy

Ron Gardenhire was fired today.  The former Minnesota Twins head coach and his entire staff were let go.  Here is my problem with firing Gardy; if you fire your head coach because they failed to deliver when it came to the success of the team, then your argument is that someone could have taken the same roster of players and done better than Gardenhire.  No one, alive or dead, could have taken the dead weight which was the roster for the Twins this season and gotten the team to .500, let alone had a winning program.  There is no way.

If you agree with me, then firing Gardy is the ownership, which insisted the new stadium built in part with tax payer dollars would make them more competitive, taking the easy out and not admitting they are responsible for the talent level on the field.

Here is the article I just had published on MinnPost today:

http://www.minnpost.com/community-voices/2014/09/requiem-twins

One addition to my argument the Twins front office is obsessed with Mauer; the National League batting champion is Justin Morneau, the former first baseman for the Twins.  Part of the reason he's no longer with the team is because they needed to put Mauer, an oft injured catcher who is making $23 million a year, somewhere.  They decided first base.  Without thinking about the talent loss the team would suffer by not trying to keep Justin, they insisted it was best to jettison Morneau, for the non-power hitting, barely major league quality first baseman, Mauer.

If Morneau was still on this team, they would have had 10 more wins this year and Gardy wouldn't have been fired.  Still think the front office's Mauer obsession is nothing to worry about?

The Friday Link for 9/26/14

Hi all!

It's been a light week here on the blog, but I hopefully will have a few different articles I've written over the last few days published elsewhere soon.  I'll let you know if it happens.

I was a member of the improv group Comedy Olympix back in the 90's.  This was the comedy improv Legion of Doom to the Justice League that was, and is, Comedy Sportz.  I'm not sure exactly what the heck happened between the two groups but there was a lot, and I do mean A LOT, of animosity between the guy who owned CO and the people from CS.  I wasn't the best performer, but I did have fun.  We eventually parted ways.

Two observations about my time doing comedy improv:

First, the only career field with a larger percentage of emotionally screwed up people than radio is comedy improv.

Second, my tenure there led to the funniest letter I ever received.  CO would offer improv workshops, something I desperately needed.  The guy who ran them (not the owner) was great.  He was very funny, knew the basic set ups for bits and was very helpful when it came to learning the basics.  On the second workshop I did with him, he ended up having to be gone for the last class, so another comedian from CO, who still works in Twin Cities comedy today, took over for the final week.  She didn't really teach anything that class. We went through a few improv drills and then we ran through a show format.  At the end she said nothing and we left.

I got a letter from her; a critique of my performance.  It was seven paragraphs of the most vicious, insulting, out of line, unjustified professional and personal attacks I have ever received.  There was nothing constructive about anything she wrote, only insult after insult.  "You suck at this, you're the worst ever at that, you don't really look good enough to be on stage."  It went on and on and on.  I was wondering, since she hardly spent anytime in the workshop, if it was actually a twisted joke.  I was assured later, even though she tried to play it off as a joke, she was serious, having sent similar letters to many others in the workshop.

The best part was the last paragraph.  After her vile criticism, she wrote, "Your performance aside, I think you're really nice and hope we can stay friends."  I framed the letter and had it on my wall for a few years.  Like I mentioned, emotionally screwed up!

My time with Comedy Olympix taught me a little about what makes good comedy, and I did have the pleasure of working briefly with some extremely funny people.  I do love when a great comedy skit clicks and the clip for tonight is one of the best.  Everything in this is funny, with the subtle Seth MacFarlane stealing the show.  Top 20 comedy skit all time from SNL, easy.  Enjoy, it's your Friday link!

https://screen.yahoo.com/puppet-class-000000155.html?query=snl+puppets

Weekend Observations

Here are just a few things I pondered today as I watched my kids baseball.

I saw a story about Secession and how nearly 1 in 4 Americans would support a state or region trying to become it's own country.  I think it's funny people who protest government overreach support an idea which would create a mandate by the seceded territory to tax and rule with an iron fist for 50 years.  Good thinking genius!  Also, I think if the current president was Republican and white, the same people who think secession is a good idea would be the ones screaming 'Merica, love it or leave it!

Why is Home Depot not getting far more grief for their data breach, a much larger one than Targets?  Sure I know that Targets happened during the holiday shopping season, and I also have no doubt the outrage machine was being fueled by Target's competition, but Home Depot's data breach happened after corporate America was supposed to have learned from Target's mistakes, and is on a much larger scale.  Is it because Home Depot is a manly man store with lumber and tools and tough guy stuff, and Target isn't?  Is it because Target is in liberal Minnesota and Home Depots corporate offices are in conservative Georgia?  Who knows, but if we are looking for places to bomb which are hurting American interests, how about we light up Serge or Vlad or whomever is the person behind this theft from the American people.  We'd only have to do it once...

The scariest modern trend in religion for me is the new form of Christianity built on validating the economic policies of the tea party conservatives and ultra wealthy.  To actually distort Christian teachings to validate wealthy people as being more blessed, that poor people only deserve a certain amount of pity and charity, and that Jesus really wants a wealthy person to have a kick caboose jet ski, is terrifying.  Ayn Rand, Reagan and Libertarian economic policies are not based on Christian dogma.

How poorly are Native Americans still viewed in the modern USA?  Native Americans were given an opportunity, by the Daily Show, to tell predominately Caucasian Americans their insistence a horrible, racist name and mascot for an NFL football team isn't actually "honoring" them.  Now, the Caucasian Americans are trying to portray themselves as victims because the minority group they insist they are spokespeople for have told them they are hurting not helping.  It's like when racists in the south tried to tell African Americans they should be honored by the flag of the political ideology that wanted to keep them as slaves.  Change the dang name already.

Talk to you tomorrow morning!

The Friday Link for 9/19/14

I'm doing this video for two reasons.  The first is due to the the guy who apparently walked out of a Hennepin County courtroom as he was being convicted of attempted murder.

"Guilty?  Okay, out the door, take the left for the prison bus.  Guilty?  Great, out the door, take the left for the prison bus.  Guilty?"

"No, freedom."

"What?"

"I'm supposed to go free."

"Well, then congratulations..."

I'll save it for the video.

The other reason I'm posting this one today is because it's Monty Python.  I was talking to a guy about cigars.  He loved them, but I don't smoke them.  Cigars remind me of my grandfather who used to pull out the portable TV and watch Benny Hill followed by Monty Python on Friday nights on PBS.  He would be smoking those stogies and laughing/coughing gregariously until tears were streaming down his face.  Monty Python is the funniest comedy troupe ever.  The surrealism of their comedy, from the silly to the ethereal, is unmatched and everyone else is still trying to play catch up (Kids in the Hall got close).

By the way, after Python was Doctor Who.  :-)

This is from Life of Brian (I'm Catholic and I think this is hilarious), so be duly warned, blasphemy ahead.  It's your Friday Link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9knToyK-wUs

Both Sides Do It

Regular listeners of the show recognize our Wednesday guest, Jeff Stein.  He's an old friend from my Ames, Iowa days and he is one of the smarter political minds I know.  He never panders to one side or the other, much to the chagrin of the listeners.  He often says, "Both sides do it," when referencing political mistakes and improprieties, in an effort to look neutral, but his continued use of the phrase has actually earned him a regular sound effect, only played when he says "both sides do it."

I don't like "both sides do it," (BSDI).  I can't stand it when someone says BSDI in regards to an issue where it might be true, but the severity of the offense is wildly uneven.  Both sides have PAC's airing ads for them, but the overwhelming amount of the dark money being spent is lobbed towards the Republicans.  Big Oil and Big Coal spend billions to keep promoting their agenda, and as a counter point, they excuse their behavior by pointing out the "real" villain, Big Green(!), which apparently is making loads of cash by not ripping the earth apart for it's resources.  Okay...?  It's like saying the murderer and the kid who stole a lollipop are both criminals.  While technically true, we can all acknowledge there is difference in the severity of the crimes, or can we?

This morning I was relaying to my sister in law and her husband about Sarah Palin, and the entire Palin clan's, wild drunken brawl in the suburbs of Anchorage.  Seriously, former GOP Vice Presidential candidate and her family, the supposed embodiment of good Christian Values, were in a raging, liquor fueled street fight.  You can't make it up.

My sister in law and her husband are cynical in regards to the news.  They don't vote and they don't pay attention to politics, but even factoring that in, what they said after I told them about the Palin clan made my jaw drop.

"Both sides do it."

Hey, I will be the first to acknowledge bone headed mistakes by Democrats over the years, but to my knowledge, no one from the left is rounding up their extended family and a few bottles of Jack, heading out to a upscale soiree, and then delivering beat downs left and right.  No, both sides DON'T do it.  It's become the easy way out for both far right apologists and political weary cynics to say BSDI.  They dismiss the bad news because they either don't trust the messenger, they have become so turned off by political malfeasance they're looking to get out of the topic quickly, or they are trying to dismiss the bad press.  "See, BSDI so there is no need to pay attention to this story."  This is a problem.

If we allow Republican mistakes, important, newsworthy events, to be quickly dismissed, while at the same time, watching the most minor of indiscretions and outright lies about the left being turned into week long news cycles, we have no chance.  Take my lead; when anyone says BSDI, if it's not true, then call them on it.  Challenge them.  Make them defend their self imposed dismissal.  I'm not saying it will change anyone's minds, but by not saying anything, we allow the BSDI crowd to win by default.

The Friday Link for 9/12/14

Stephen Colbert is one of the funniest people I have ever seen.  He has stayed in character, of the self righteous, self serving, delusional, arrogant, Machiavellian right wing political talk show host, for so many years.  It will be hard for me to see him just be Stephen Colbert when he takes over for Letterman next year.

When he started his show, I remember some conservatives thought he was a "real" character.

Here is him losing it on air five times.  This is a little raunchier in points than I usually will post, so viewer be warned.  Enjoy!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/16/stephen-colbert-breaking-character_n_4109895.html

The Piñata

This morning I had Diane from St. Louis Park call in.  I was talking about the joke Pioneer Press editorial written by Mike McFadden, GOP candidate for Senate against Senator Al Franken.  Part of the editorial was about foreign policy, namely the group ISIS/ISIL and President Obama's response to the terrorist organization.  It was a minor point overall, but Diane called in and insisted I was not being politically correct, as ISIS is also Isis, an ancient Egyptian deity.  Her point was the right uses ISIS while the president uses ISIL so we should be culturally sensitive and not upset anyone who worships ancient Egyptian gods.  Okay...?

Diane upset me, but not because I can't take the grammar police pulling me over, usually for my misuse of your/you're or there/they're/their.  She upset me because she so perfectly highlighted what the heck is wrong with the left.  Here is the Republican nominee for Senate in Minnesota, writing an amazingly foolish editorial, ripe for the scorn I was about to level upon it, and Diane derails the whole talk topic with ISIS verses ISIL.

Democrats, we have to stop tripping our own selves up.  There is an element of the left so enamored with the well worded memo, Lincoln v. Douglas debates, Mr. Smith goes to Washington pipe dream, they don't realize the other side just doesn't care.  Not only does that perfect debate world not exist, the right depends on the left romanticizing the idea of an eloquent speech so they can control the entire political process.  The win over the crowd speech, akin to the one given at the end of the movie Revenge of the Nerds, will not happen today because either the nerd would have been beaten to a pulp the minute he said, "I have something to say...", or the opposition would have just walked away and ignored it.  Even if you were to manage to stop the right and force them to listen to your point of view, they'll never acknowledge you're right.  The left, so wanting to win on the merit of their argument, forgets the forest, just so they can pat themselves on the back for the one leaf of grass they trimmed to perfection.

We need to get over this.  Let's look back into history, to the time the current masterminds pulling the strings of the modern Republican party are trying to return us too, the 1870's to the 1920's.  Back then, 50 or so people at any given time were making the decisions for all of us.  Most of those people were not politicians, but extremely wealthy businessmen who happened to be at the forefront of the industries which would drive the country for the next 100 years and beyond.  The people who ran steel, oil, trains, and eventually cars were, for the most part, ruthless, letting their accumulated wealth buy their legacy after their deaths.  This country, with the population in the beginning stages of abandoning the farm and moving into the metro areas, had a incredibly large poverty class who would do anything to survive.  They would work in near slave labor conditions, with death almost a daily occurrence in the workplace.  There were no workers rights.  You just sat back at took it with a smile.  If a worker ever did try to read their well worded memo about the conditions, they were fired, beaten, and often killed.

It took a combination of things happening for change to begin; the horrific deaths and atrocious working conditions being exposed and the workers realizing they far outnumbered the 50 or so people who were pulling the strings.  Big business back then despised the idea of workers rights, and the notion of a union having a seat at the table in business decisions was tantamount to the destruction of the democracy itself.  Change was slow to come, until the businesses screwed things up so bad, we ended up in the Great Depression.  FDR was not a looney leftie.  He just realized the old system was unsustainable if the country was going to develop into the powerhouse it would eventually be.  Workers rights groups now had the backing of the President, and equal rights for all began its path forward.  Many of the business leaders of the time were so upset at FDR, they even tried to assassinate him and overthrow the government.  They failed, and the country moved into the golden age of the worker.

The modern Republican can trace it's roots back to the late 1950's, early 1960's.  Big business, realizing they could never go directly back to the way things used to be, realized in a two party system they could control a lot of the debate if they ran one of the parties.  They chose the Republican Party, as they were recently flush with Dixiecrats, furious over the desegregation of the south.  These guys were perfect foot soldiers to start the march back to the old ways of doing things.

The plan was daunting, but relatively simple; get control of one of the political parties, slowly take over the Federal government first, state governments second, and then local governments, infiltrate all departments of the federal government with appointees, appoint judicial activists to the bench who will side with business first, slowly take control of the media, offer the idiots, zealots and idealists who will vote for you regardless of their circumstances a few core issues to keep them loyal, and offer the rest of the country a few scraps along the way to keep them content enough.

There were a few hiccups (Carter, Iran Contra, the Internet) but they achieved tremendous success, a lot of their advances coming with Reagan's popularity with unions and the working class from 1983 to 1986, but the people pulling the strings realized they had a problem, they were far too successful at turning back the clock.  Moderate Republicans started to peel away from the GOP.  To replace them, the cabal started moving more and more to the right, replenishing their ranks with groups and organizations who were never welcome to the table before:  the religious right, tea partiers, Libertarians, and militias.  Each group brought in more foot soldiers for the right's cause, but middle America started to wash their hands of the Republican Party.

The right's political and economic lies of the last 40 years, like trickle down economics, aren't fooling anyone anymore.  To maintain their power, the right had to tilt the playing field almost onto it's side to stay in power.  They outspend the left 20 to 1 in elections, purge voter lists, gerrymander districts, limit voting, and cultivate indifference, all while unleashing their media to convince you how much the left has failed you.  Even with the overwhelming system to help them win, their lies have caught up to them.  They can't win solid majorities, they can only hope to obstruct the undoing of the system they have created.  They are not trying to win anymore, they are just trying to stop the other side from succeeding.

Which brings us to another topic of this morning, Sarah Palin.  The GOP nominee for Vice President in 2008, and her family, were in a drunken street brawl in Alaska.  The right, so desperate to maintain what little control they have left, depend on the popularity a candidate has with the extreme far right base first and foremost, foregoing vetting and evaluation just to try to appease the extremists that now control their selection process.  As funny as the Palin fiasco is (and it is HILARIOUS!), look at the Republican Candidates in Minnesota.  McFadden, Johnson, Mills, Hagedorn, Emmer, Westrom, MacDonald whoever their running in the 4th and 5th; they're a laughing stock.  Even the 'established' politicians left in the GOP, Kline and Paulson, are empty suits, thin memories of what the Republican Party used to be.  The GOP ticket this year would have never gotten nominated to run 30 years ago, and more than a few would not have even been allowed into the nominating convention.  They have become a low hanging, shoddily made, breaking apart piñata, hoping, heck praying, a light breeze doesn't shatter it.

What do you want to do, talk about the politically correct way to refer to ancient Egyptian gods, or grab a bat and swing away?  Don't get caught up in the metaphor, don't criticize me for being too violent for suggesting hitting a piñata, don't have a debate on whether the bat is made from recyclable material, and for goodness sake, do not prioritize the feelings of the opposition over what is the right thing to do.  If we don't start swinging away, we have no one to blame but ourselves.  Batter up!

Good Gravy!

Here is the story about Sarah Palin, of the Fightin' Palins!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/11/palin-family-brawl_n_5805816.html

Sorry the last two weeks have been light.  Kids went back to school last week and their schedule went nuts, my sister in law and husband are in visiting from Portland, Oregon (by the way, an amazing town!), and the allergy season has begun, hence why I was a full octave lower on my voice this morning.

I promise to get better with the updates soon.  Thanks!

The Friday Link for 9/5/14

Elections are, to a point, popularity contests.  How does the candidate relate to the people?  Part of that is displaying a comedic quality.  People like it when someone can make them laugh by showing off their lighter side.

Republicans stink at comedy.  Good conservative comedy is rare, mainly because it usually devolves into a backhanded insults of some group or minority.  When it doesn't, it usually is so tone deaf to the sentiment of the country it leaves people shocked in a bad way.  Proof?  Behold the comic stylings of W.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKX6luiMINQ

Looking back on that 'bit,' it's embarrassing to think he was the leader of the country.

Democrats, when not sexting a photo of their junk to the world, have a better track record with comedy.  President Obama knows how to work a room and can be outright hilarious at times.  Some uptight individuals will criticize him for participating at all, but they would criticize him regardless of what he does.  They hate him, so to heck with them.  They can't take a joke.

In my mind, this is the funniest thing he has done, "Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis."  It's  a riot, very funny and got 23 million views.  I'm proud this guy is my President.

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/18e820ec3f/between-two-ferns-with-zach-galifianakis-president-barack-obama

Sleeping In

I want to follow up on one of the talk topics from a week ago, the one regarding the study saying kids are too tired, and teenager school start times should be moved to 8:30 AM earliest.  The story goes on to say:

"Delaying the start of the school day until at least 8:30 a.m. would help curb [teenagers] lack of sleep"

The whole story from the Associated Press and the Star Trib can be read here:

http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/health/272522381.html

Let's find our one piece of common ground.  All kids do need to get a good nights rest.  Will any child or adult consistently be able to get 12 hour of sleep daily?  Unlikely.

When I brought this subject up, my point was simple.  If the kids need more sleep, why not have them go to bed earlier?  I got the impression, from about 50% of the response, I'm a fool to think parents can get their kids to go to sleep earlier.  Why can't they?  There is no right in this country to watch Colbert or catch a movie on a weeknight at 10:45.  If you remove the option of kids going to bed earlier, your analysis of the problem becomes very one sided: kids must be able to sleep in!

If you believe the problem is kids need more sleep, then there are two options; have them go to bed earlier or have them start school later.  I side with the easier, more cost effective, first option; have teenagers go to bed earlier.  This is something controllable within individual households, without too much impact to modern society.  The other option, having kids start their day later, would cause a dramatic shift in the modern working family paradigm, forcing most of American businesses to change their hours.  It would impose extra financial and schedule conflicts for the modern working parent.  It would change the way American's work or American companies do business, especially companies who need staff in-house early to work with European partners.  Don't fool yourself, it would cost billions for the worldwide economy to adjust to Little Billy starting school later.

Then there's the complete upheaval in education.  Every school in the country would have to change their hours of operation, dramatically affecting classroom plans and educational schedules.

This would also dramatically effect after school activities and potential employment for high school students.  Little Susie currently works 4 to 10 PM, three evenings a week.  Now she can't get to work until 5:30.  Does she work 4.5 hours less per week, or do we now allow kids to work until midnight?  If it's the later, aren't we just shifting the same problem to later into the night?  How about not getting home from a sport, band practice or the school play until 11 PM?

I know there are some who will say, "well if I could have started school at 9AM, then I would have done better."  I think it's candy coating the solution to imply a kid who has a problem getting going under today's schedule will be bright eyed and bushy tailed under the new schedule.  My guess is they'd adjust their bed time accordingly, being just as late at 9 AM as they were at 7 AM, but even if that one individual would become a straight A student with the later start time, isn't it an unstable premise to apply the same conclusion for all kids?  "It'll work for me, so let's do it for everyone!"  Most teenagers are not failing due to earlier start times.  Are we putting forward a later school start time theory without acknowledging there might be just as negative consequence on the kids who want to get up and get going earlier in the morning?

Alright, I'll play.  Let's start school for all 6th graders this year at 9 AM, and progressively move the start time later as that class got older.  In ten years, they graduate college and head out into the work world.  Either we have completely changed American work environment or not.  If we haven't changed, and the American business day is still the same as it is today, how difficult will it be for a group of people who have never had a real commitment before 9 AM to suddenly be awake and into the office for 7:30 AM conference calls, three days a week?  They are going to have a tough transition at some point, so why not when they're in their teens?

If they have changed the business model and the working world didn't get going until 9AM earliest, what quality controls do you have in place to prevent the next group in 20 years from insisting the school day needs to start at 11 AM, and 20 years later, the school day starting at 1 PM.  Eventually you might even get all the way around the clock and have kids going to bed at 9:15 PM for a 7:37 AM school start time (my 12 year old son's current bed time and first class time).  My method avoids the constant shifting over the next hundred or so years.

This topic was never a judgment on anyone individually, or an individual's specific circumstance.  It never was.  At no point did I ever imply that.

Humor me; let's start by trying to get teenagers to bed earlier and go from there.  If it doesn't work, then we can try the other options, but let's try the most controllable and least impactful option first.

The Friday Link for 8/29/14

This is the kind of stuff which I think makes the internet great.  Something stupid and ludicrous, but done with intelligence, sincerity and enjoyable results.

I encourage you to watch all of these Epic Rap Battles of History, but this was the first one I saw and it makes me chuckle every time.  For the most part clean, but some of these can get pretty dirty, so buyer be warned.  The production quality is quite amazing, and some of the best up and coming talent  in comedy occasionally shows up.  Enjoy for a laugh on a Friday night.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HZ5V9rT96M

A week of apologies!

I want to apologize for not getting more stuff up here this week.  I do have three posts I want to finish up but this week has been nuts.  My kids are all going back to school, so there were the open houses and school supply stuff, it is the last week of summer vacation so I have been trying to maximize the activities (MN Zoo, Pickle making, MN State Fair, Swimming at the beach and Fort Snelling today), and there are one or two other issues I've been dealing with.  I promise some updates this weekend and when the kids get back into school, more regular updates!  TAKE THAT AS A WARNING!

The Friday Link for 8/22/14

Tim Conway was, and is, a brilliant comedian.  He could take a very talented group, like the crew from the Carol Burnett Show, and leave them rolling.  In particular was his ability to absolutely ruin Harvey Korman in sketch after sketch.

Harvey Korman was an extremely funny man himself, as viewed in the riot Blazing Saddles, but there was something about Tim that would leave him doubled over.  Someone told me a good straight man in a comedy bit is supposed to be the relay for the audience, and Korman did that too well, bowling over with laughter at Tim's performance, just like everyone else.

Supposedly, Harvey Korman wet himself during The Dentist skit.  I believe it.  There is nowhere for him to go.  He is just the foil for Tim Conway and his brilliance.  Enjoy on a Friday night.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wk92O0SEjXc

What was your question...?

MNDoT running the message on their LED traffic signs that "Distracted driving is a major cause of accidents in Minnesota" could be the most ironic message ever.

Goofus and Gallant go to Washington

Let me introduce you to the irregular reality.  Democrats, regardless of success of their initiatives, popularity of their platform, and increased quality of life for the vast majority of Americans when they are in charge, are constantly having to prove themselves, being painted successfully with gimmicky, untrue, bumper sticker slogans, and have zero threshold for error on any level.  Republicans are a cluster, incompetent with policy, horrific with budgetary issues, Machiavellian, self serving war hawks, with policies that hurt the vast majority of us while overwhelmingly favoring a small percentage of wealthy Americans, but for some reason continue to be placed in decision making positions they truly no longer should be trusted with.  Think I'm over reacting? Let's compare via the Goofus and Gallant method:

Gallant (D) comes into office with a horrific budget crisis created by Goofus (R), rolls up his sleeves and with little or no help for Goofus, pays off the debts incurred under Goofus' watch, gets spending under control, equalizes the tax system, even handing out tax cuts to many Americans, and makes the economy better for most.  Goofus screams empty threats which are designed to scare the public away from Gallants leadership and put Goofus back in power, just to screw things up again.

Gallant understands the importance of making sure Americans have a pathway to success, trying to help with base needs such as food, shelter, healthcare, education, business training, unemployment assistance and a pathway to citizenship, not as a lifestyle, but as temporary aid.  Goofus calls all people of a lower class moochers and lazy, insisting no help come from the government to make their lives better.  In cases where government assistance can't be stopped, Goofus creates hurdles such a drug tests and public shaming, forcing the needy to have to grovel for help.  Goofus then brags about it on social media, with a "it sucks to be them" quip he thinks is hilarious.

Gallant respects religion, and may or may not reference it in private decision making.  Gallant feels an individuals personal faith decisions are up to the individual, and private.  Goofus always trumpets his Christian faith as the one true religion and insists every decision they make is wrapped in scripture, even decisions which go completely against their own religious teachings. Goofus implies the founding fathers clear wishes to have separation of church and state actually means the founding fathers wanted a state ruled by about 5% of Christian doctrine, while ignoring the 95% of Christian doctrine that backs up Gallants political points.  Goofus then invokes false piety in an effort to turn Christians against Gallant.

Gallant not only wants a strong economy, but a strong environment, education system, transportation system, post office, and workers rights for all.  Goofus creates false bogey men to erode the public's faith in these institutions.  Goofus does this under the false flag of standing up for a strong economy, but Goofus' policies actually weaken the economy as a whole.

Gallant wants a fair tax system, making sure the wealthiest people pay somewhere close to the same tax rates as the middle class does for the same freedoms.  Gallant wants to make sure tax cheats are caught, that American companies are rewarded for keeping good paying jobs in America, and the American people see the benefit of their tax dollars at work.  Goofus screams about 'cutting the fat' and 'tax and spend liberals.'  Goofus screams class warfare at the mere suggestion the wealthiest tax rates are held to the same standard as the working classes and accuses anyone who criticizes American companies that ship jobs, their headquarters and profits overseas as Anti-American.  In truth, Goofus doesn't want taxes to go down at all.  He wants the tax rates to stay where they are at, finding a way to guide the money from the government's coffers into the accounts of the wealthiest Americans.

As you look at what the Republican Goofus' stand for, it shocks me anyone votes for them at all, but then you throw out Goofus' other problems (sex scandals, personal bankruptcy, grift, cronyism, extremist rhetoric, racism, homophobia, and other behaviors which contradict their own self promoted moral superiority with comic aplomb), them still being in a position of power boggles the mind.  Is it any surprise the GOP has to redraw districts, disguise their candidates as Democrats, discourage voting, especially in the minority areas, limit voting hours, and outspend their opponents 15-1 to stay in power?

Meanwhile, if a Democrat has a hair out of place, the right's propaganda machine will insist all Democrats are bad.  "This misplaced follicle signifies the complete and total failure of all democrat policies."

This country would be a lot better if Americans did what the GOP is terrified of them doing; stepping back and asking the question, who is actually helping me?  For the vast majority of US citizens, the answer is Gallant and the Democrats.

ART - Vol. 1

I went out to Big Stone Mini Golf and Sculpture Garden in Minnetrista.  That was a blast.  It could be the best mini golf I've ever played.  Extremely cool holes, very creative, and a lot of great art.  FYI - 14 holes, and they take check or cash only, but a fantastic two hours with the kids.

Here is some of the art I really liked.  One or two really appealed to me.   ;-)   Enjoy and go see them yourself

O Captain, My Captain

Since his tragic passing, most major television channels are breaking out the Robin Williams movie collection in force.  After returning from a workout at the Y, I found Dead Poets Society airing on Flix.  I was planning on watching a few minutes, just to get reminded of how great Williams was as Professor John Keating, and ended up catching it all the way to the end, with my kids eventually joining me.  It's a tour de force for Williams, but it's also an amazing movie, which inspires just as strong today as it did back in the late 80's.

After I first saw it back in 1989, I wanted to be expressive, a writer, a thinker.  I became more interested in the arts, not just poetry, but painting, acting, music, sculpture; things I still cherish today.  It helped me learn to try new things.  Doesn't mean I have to be good at them, but I usually don't shy away from a new challenge.  Want proof:  I really don't like heights but I volunteered to be an airborne traffic reporter, flying around the metro in a small Beechcraft Sport 2-seater.  I'm impressed I sounded human on most of my reports.  I only heaved once.  I also did television.  I only heaved once there too.

Watching the movie today, it makes me want to be a teacher.  The pure joy William's character gets by teaching people to think differently is captivating.  The scene where Ethan Hawke's character creates a terrific poem while under duress from Keating, and the look on William's face when it finally does happen, summarizes, I imagine, the joy a teacher gets from helping an individual muster the courage to take the next step on their individual path.

When this movie originally came out, one of the reasons it resonated was due to the prevalent 1980's 'Greed is Good' mindset in American life.  Money and power were important.  Your happiness is secondary to your standing.  Being a successful business person trumped everything.  Romanticism was dead and poetry, the arts and free thinking were the playthings of the lost and wasted mind.   The movie was based in 1959, another time where human priorities had been detoured.  Today...we definitely need Professor John Keating once again.

At the end of the movie, I lost it at the same exact place as I did back when I watched it in 1989.  When the student named Hopkins (!), the jock-like dim bulb who said, "The cat sat on the mat," stood up, I was bawling.  The heck with it, give me a desk to stand on...

O Captain, My Captain.

The Friday Link for 8/15/14

I remember being a kid in Rhode Island and watching television with my parents.  What I remember most was the funny stuff, the stuff where my parents would both be laughing uncontrollably. Cheers was always a favorite, The Muppet Show too.  I remember watching The Blues Brothers when it was the Saturday Night Movie of the Week!  I can still she the tears of laughter on my moms face while my father chuckled loudly.  Then there was The Pink Panther.

Peter Sellers was an amazing talent.  His ability to stay in character, regardless of how ludicrous the situation, is unmatched.  Some of his comedy is dated, especially with certain ethnic references, but his Inspector Clouseau was a thing of beauty.

Here is the best of his matches against Cato.  I can still hear my parents laughing when I watched this many years ago.  Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbUD7FRStbY

How Can I NOT Question What is Going On?

1) Stewart Mills, a wealthy Vice President of Mills Fleet Farm, who seems to have been chosen, groomed and inserted into the MN-08 race as the Republican candidate to try to unseat Congressman Rick Nolan, has a speech recorded at the 2nd Amendment and Liberty Rally this summer, in which he pulls a Mitt Romney, insisting the 99%'ers should never have negative feelings about wealthy 1% "job creators" and adds how the ultra wealthy should be allowed to keep most of their money, at the expense of the non-ultra wealthy.

2) The video is edited down for time constraints and placed into a political ad, making sure the voters see Mr. Mills' feelings about wealth and entitlement.  Personally, I don't think the ad distorts Mr. Mills comments to the point where I feel it's misrepresentative.  As a matter of fact, I think the ad actually softens Mr. Mills' overall point.

3) The ad is being aired on many media outlets in the state, with the exception being Hubbard Broadcasting's KSTP and WDIO.  Both have refused to air the ads.

4)  The Hubbard family insists this decision was made by the media company's legal department without any input from the Hubbard family themselves.

5) It's publicly known the Hubbard family are big supporters of Republicans.  The Hubbard family wants Republicans to win elections.  This is common knowledge throughout the Twin Cities radio portion of Hubbard Broadcasting; I worked for them for three years.  I am guessing this is also known within the company's legal department.

6) Hubbard Broadcasting Legal Department political ad approval process is a mystery.  They have not really explained their justification for pulling the ads, beyond their agreeing with the Mills campaign's "it's edited," and "that's not fair!" arguments, and the legal department doesn't seem to have the same approval standard for ads against Democrats where some of the allegations against them are quite exaggerated, at best.  Once again, in my opinion, the Stewart Mills ads are not deceptive at all.  Read the linked article and watch the un-edited tape yourself.  As a matter of fact, forward the unedited video onto everyone you know, especially anyone who lives in the MN-08 district.  They should see it.
http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2014/08/hubbard_broadcastings_decision_to_pull_anti-stewart_mills_attack_ad_sparks_controversy.php

6) Stewart Mills has now used the Hubbard Broadcast Company's boycott of the ad as campaign fodder, talking about how the ads are untruthful because the ads were yanked in Minnesota.  To my knowledge, the only media outlets to pull the ad are the two Hubbard Broadcasting properties.

7) The Hubbard family is a sponsor of a fundraiser for the Stewart Mills campaign being held 8/14, featuring John Boehner.


At the very least there seems to be a lot of incidental back scratching going on.

There's no evidence Mr. Hubbard or any of the Hubbard family are lying.  He's a friend to certain members of my extended family, and for the record, I have some positive memories of my time at KSTP-AM.  The Hubbards, and all of Hubbard Broadcasting, were outstanding when they stood behind my former Program Director after he was seriously injured in a motorcycle crash.  The entire Hubbard family always treated me well and never told me directly what I should and should not talk about on air.  My boss did with some regularity, and it always lined up with their political point of view.

Is it so hard to believe the Hubbard Broadcasting Legal Department knew the Hubbard's personal political preferences, knew of their personal support for Stewart Mills and his campaign, and knew it's important to the family that MN-08 go back to the GOP, and in turn used Mills campaign's flimsy argument to justify pulling the ads?

We trust media to be honest in their presentation of the news, but this series of events shows how people get a perception of an agenda driven media, and media as corrupt and bias.  Where does the owners personal feelings end and where does the objectivity begin?  In this case, that is a blurred line at best.

It's not on me as a listener or viewer to prove a media outlet has got an agenda, it's up to the news outlet to prove they are not being driven by an ulterior motive.  Needless to say, I'll be watching what ads Hubbard Broadcasting does or does not approve this election cycle.  I'll be very interested in what the Hubbard Broadcasting Legal Department's justifications in both cases will be.

Robin Williams

I have 5000 things I want to write about, but the only thing I can think about is the loss of Robin Williams, one of the greatest funny men this world was ever blessed with.

I remember watching Happy Days in early 1978 and a new character stopping by for a one time visit, Mork from Ork.  It was so good, in the Fall of that year, Mork and Mindy became one of the most popular shows on television.  Overnight, everyone at Wickford Elementary in Wickford, Rhode Island was going "Nanu-nanu!"  I was 9 going on 10.

Let me point out two roles I really loved.  The World According to Garp was a heartbreaking film and William's first real serious dramatic role.  I remember his casting being met with a lot of criticism, but he was tremendous in that movie.  The other, Aladdin.  He made Genie an iconic character.

Here is a great way to spend 90 minutes.  I am sad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiCxqbT2Ru8

Depression is a serious disease.  If you know someone who might be depressed, help them find the support they need.

The Friday Link for 8/8/14...on 8/9/14

Police Squad!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L27QZU6V8c8

Police Squad is known today as a series of movies with Leslie Nielsen, but it started off as a six episode television series in the early 80's.  It was one of the funniest things ever on TV, a show which took 2 or 3 viewings to catch all of the sight gags.  This show deconstructed the television police detective show so well, they had to completely rethink the genre afterwards.

John Ashton, mainly known for his role of Officer Taggart in Beverly Hills Cop, makes an appearance as a shakedown thug.  He says the the joke where the two thugs are questioned about the rock was his hardest scene ever to film, as they all were laughing so hard.  Watch this and be amazed at how good this show was.

Sorry it's a day late.

Traffic

First off, a bit of housekeeping.  Friday link will come on Saturday.  It is what it is.

Many people know I started in Minneapolis/St.Paul reporting traffic.  I moved back to Minneapolis in 2000 from Ames, Iowa and landed at Metro Traffic.  I started there as a part time employee and became the Assistant Director of Operations in 2003.  I stayed there until 2006, even flying around as an airborne reporter, and I did an extended fill in stint on the Fox 9 Morning News a few years back.

In my opinion, traffic is very necessary, but I also believe agricultural broadcasting is still important.  I only think around 10% of any given metro listens to traffic, and when they hear of a delay on their regular route, know the metro well enough to jump on a secondary road or back street to get around it.  Ten percent might not seem like a lot, but if that 10% did continue down their regular path during backups, traffic in the metro would be horrible, far worse than it is right now.  I also think radio traffic trumps any vehicles navigational device's traffic.  How safe is it in stop and go traffic to be looking at a screen?

Traffic reporting is very repetitive.  I was starting to lose my mind some mornings when it was all the same thing all the time.  There were a few reasons I left Metro; that was one of them.

Another reason was something I was reminded of today.  You become de-sensitized to death when you see it on camera with any regularity.  I remember my first death while reporting.  94 at Hemlock, motorcycle accident, and without getting into the details, it was clear the rider was dead.  The guys who operate the cameras will usually shut them off in cases like that, but they couldn't react fast enough before I, and anyone else watching, got a big eyeful.

This was a human being.  He was going someplace, doing something.  He had priorities for the day.  He had loved ones who were waiting to see him.  His favorite show was on the DVR waiting to be watched, there was the garden he was working on, there was the fishing trip with his father he had planned for the next month, there was the fantasy football league he couldn't wait to begin, there were children he and his wife were going to have.  Done, finished.  It was something I saw play out over and over and over again during my tenure.

Craig Stevens is a friend of mine from back at Metro (an excellent broadcaster himself).  He and I used to try to imagine the astronomical parameters it took for someone to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.   Just making the traffic light, or not.  Forgetting something in their house and going back for it.  Waking up on time or waking up late that day because the power was out.  The slightest variance of the gas pedal 20 miles earlier which allowed them to move ahead of one car, stay behind another, catch a stretch of open road and accelerate, or come across a disabled vehicle and have to wait an additional five minutes.  And then factor all of the same equations for all of the other people involved.  The cosmic alignment needed for an accident to happen is astounding and humbling.

In September 2005, I remember an accident with injuries and, mentally, not really acknowledging the seriousness of the accident.  Reporting it all the time had made me numb to the suffering.  I found out two day slater that same accident had claimed the life of a friend's sister.  I was jolted back into reality.  It was time for me to move on.

My kids and I had a wonderful time at the Minnesota History Museum today.  We saw the Toys exhibit (it's fantastic) and had lunch (my youngest had to wait an additional ten minutes for cheese pizza, which she then had to wait another ten minutes for it to cool down).  We left the museum, got onto 94, and started driving back to our house from St. Paul, giggling and laughing at the exhibits we'd seen and how old their dad was.

Right before the 280 exit, there was an accident.  It happened less than a minute before we had gotten there and less than 1/10th of a mile ahead of us.  It involved a motorcycle.  It was not good.  I was trying to see if I needed to get out.  I was trained as the emergency medic in the military (if the real medics were killed in the line of duty, I would take over) and it had helped me numerous times in civilian life.  I could tell it was a bad accident, and already ten or so cars had pulled over to try to help.  I called 911 and began to merge over to the far right lane to get by.  I told the now silent kids to look out the passenger side windows until we got past.  A semi and a few other good samaritans had stopped their vehicles to block the carnage from view, but you saw enough.  Broken glass, twited metal, shards of plastic...and red.  We drove past.  I told the kids they could look forward again and we quietly sped home.

I report the traffic in the morning.  It's important.  Driving is not just about your commute.

I'll never forget how fragile and important life is.

The Friday Link for 8/1/14

I like Jim Gaffigan.  I think he's funny, and he's clean.  Don't get me wrong, I love raunchy, disgusting comedy not meant for human ears (Robert Baril), but with kids, it's nice to have someone you can watch and not have to have a discussion afterwards.

Plus BEARS!!!

Jim Gaffigan - Camping, waking up, and bacon

Enjoy.

Boom Goes the Dino-Right

I had a friend ask me, knowing what I do, why is the right so angry now.  Simply, I think they realized how close they came to actually achieving what they really wanted.  They wanted to turn back the clock, get rid of the Civil Rights Act, get rid of the social safety net programs begun under FDR, get rid of the unions, get rid of any workers rights, and get rid of basic foundations of our society, such as hospitals, safe streets, fire departments and education for all.  Frankly, they wanted to take us back to the 1840's.

They lost their way and became conflicted.  As much as these people say they hate big government, the truth is they LOVE big government.  What they really mean is they love government when its for them or their families, just not for anyone else.  The want to be Galt, but in a display of brilliant irony, they've become too greedy.

The right got close. They really did.  They look back at the control they had, especially from 2002 to 2006, and they could actually taste it.  The mistake they made was thinking they could actually get away with it.  When they realized it wasn't going to happen, their attacks became bitter and angry, vilifying anything they disagreed with, in a sick attempt to try to make these unpopular political ideas popular.  It's kind of like the ex-boyfriend who becomes a stalker; if he can't find a way for her to like him when he's being nice, he'll take a darker path because he knows what's best for her!

Want proof?  Moochers, losers, takers, slackers, illegals, free-loaders.  These are the pleasant words they use to describe the users of health care, social security, welfare, people wanting minimum wage increases, and people upset about the government obscenely favoring the wealthy.  They use these words thinking it makes their political opinion more appealing.  The real story is the far right is furious their point of view isn't taken as unchecked truth anymore.

They save the real nasty words for the things they truly despise but know they have lost the fight on;  Obama, gay marriage, equality.

The right is having a temper tantrum.  The moderates left the dance floor years ago when they realized who their dance partner was becoming.  Now the extremists are beginning to realize they have lost the public trust.  They're quitting, storming off the ballroom floor unable to understand why no one wants to dance with them anymore.

Two final thoughts.  Galt was a myth, a fairy tale which could never exist, not in the capacity the neuvo-libertarians think it could.  You might as well base your economic and political ideologies on a Hobbit, Harry Potter or the Lorax.

Go ahead and quit.  No seriously go.  We won't be sorry you left, as you were part of the problem, not part of the solution.

The Craziness of Doing Nothing

Another day, another death by gun.  This time it was a Mendota Heights police officer who pulled over a vehicle, only to be gunned down with three shots almost instantaneously.  The officer never had a chance to pull his weapon.  It was still in the holster.  Guns are lethal by design, and reaction time is almost nonexistent.  All my prayers and thoughts go the officers family, and please make a donation to help the family out at http://www.gofundme.com/ccqr1s

At this point, it's time for the mouth pieces of the gun industry to rush in and insist we do not talk about guns so soon after the tragedy.  They'll insist we need to concern ourselves with the victims of the violence, people the gun lobby doesn't really care about.  The gun lobby's true motivation is to prevent people from talking about guns when another senseless death is in front of us, as they know it makes people ask the question, "why are guns so prevalent in our culture."  Guns are so prevalent because the gun industry, the bullet industry and their lackeys make so much money off of guns, whilst wrapping their image in the American flag, they have all but drowned out any real counterpoint based in sanity.

The pro-gun forces in the USA have really become obscenely brazen.  After the Newtown, Connecticut massacre, where young children were riddled with bullets, shot from a weapon doing exactly what it was supposed to do, the public outrage was so intense, the gun lobby needed to come up with a new narrative.  They started planting an idea in the fringe far right of the pro-gun groups that these mass shootings were not real, and the federal government was either staging them or making up the whole crisis for nefarious reasons, something slack jawed morons ate up as a 'viable' explanation for what really happened.  They were so good at pushing this conspiracy theory, people even drove to Newtown for the purpose of ripping down memorials for the slain children in the middle of the night, screaming "it's a lie!"  At the same time, the same gun industry put the same gun model used to slaughter young children on special, reminding buyers, "you'd better get yours now before Obama comes and takes them all away."  Sales skyrocketed.

Or how about the new NRA narrative; people should be forced to learn how to shoot a weapon in order to move on in school, the government should subsidize gun sales, and there should be mandatory gun areas in the country.  Of course, these pro-gun initiatives would take the profits of these gun and bullet companies into the stratosphere.  When I first read this, I was shocked at how much it sounded like a dystopian future from an 1980's book.  This backs up my statement, the only gun rights being stomped on in the United States in 2014 is my right to NOT have guns jammed into my families face 24/7, 365.

For God's sake, we regulate cough syrup in this country, a product where the vast majority of purchases are to stop coughing due to illness.  We have tons of regulations on cough syrup because a small portion of the purchases go to drug abuse and for meth making. Meanwhile, most injuries and deaths involving a gun are not some "good guy" with a gun stopping a bad guy with a gun, they are accidental shootings, suicides and homicides.  Salon magazine complied the numbers for one year after Newtown (December 16, 2012 - December 14, 2013):

Estimated number of people killed in the USA that year by guns - 33,173
Number of school shootings that year - 26
Number of children who died that year do to gun violence - nearly 200

(http://www.salon.com/2013/12/14/after_newtown_a_look_at_guns_in_america_partner/)

Do you think there were 33,173 cases of good guys with guns stopping bad guys with guns in that one year?  I would guess there were 100 of fewer cases where non-law enforcement used a gun to stop someone threatening bodily harm, nationwide.  If I'm correct, 33,173 cases, 100 justified.  Heck let's make it a John McClain wet dream and call it 33,173 cases, 5000 justified.  Even under the grossly unbalanced pro-gun stats, bad cases of gun violence are over five times more likely than good cases, and we are not even including the numerous times someone threatened another person with a gun.  And yet the mere suggestion of funding the regulations currently in place (something the gun lobby made sure would be permanently defunded), proposing legislation to stop gun purchases by the mentally ill or a violent offender (a category the shooter in the latest story fell into), or suggesting that gun stores are inspected to make sure their gun inventory is accounted for, will send the gun enthusiasts into a screaming fit, accusing you of being against the founding fathers and everything this country stands for.  By the way, read some history.  The founding fathers would not be for this carnage on our streets, and would keep pointing to the "well regulated militia" part of the 2nd Amendment, something the gun lobby wishes they could erase.

Let's take the current madness from the gun lobby and apply it so something else just as dangerous, drinking and driving.  Imagine the liquor industry, feeling like their sales would skyrocket if drinking and driving were legal, insisted police officers not be allowed to enforce any laws on the books involving alcohol, not fund the enforcement of said laws, make it illegal to question if someone is drunk, insist not serving a drunk another beer would violate the spirit of the country, and insist no government agency or funding be used to investigate the real numbers behind drinking and driving.  They then introduce us to a guy we'll call Bill.  Bill has been a drunk all of his life, has driven drunk all the time and yet has never gotten into an accident.  The hypothetical liquor industry will do what the real gun lobby does, take away all of the parameters used to evaluate a situation that could bring any negative analysis regarding Bill, and then filter the remaining facts through a rose color prism to come up with the conclusion they want everyone to believe; since Bill never got in trouble, and since Bill is a great guy (take our word for it), then no one good has ever been hurt by drinking and driving.

They then start spending money wildly, buying off politicians left and right to make sure no new legislation about drinking and driving ever comes to light, regardless of public demand.  When a drunk drives into a crowd of people, killing twelve, they will insist no one talk about drinking and driving so soon after the accident, biding their time until they can launch a full scale offensive about how the founding fathers wanted people to drink and drive.  Also, are we sure the case with the twelve deaths actually happened?  Maybe it was the government trying to take away your booze and car keys. (To quote the boogie man - boggie, boogie, boogie boogie!)

But that still isn't enough.  To make this comparison really represent where the gun nuts are today, you would have to insist everyone, regardless of age, criminal history and mental stability be allowed to drink and drive.  As a matter of fact, we should have mandatory drinking and driving zones, and drinking and driving classes in schools! "When everyone is drunk and behind the wheel of a car, only then will we be truly safe."

I hope I didn't just give the liquor lobby any ideas.

Nothing will change.  That's the saddest part of all of this.  I am pro hunting guns, and although I would never have one, I'm okay with personal defense handguns.  I will be ridiculed because I just want the unjustifiable body count to stop.  What will it take to get common sense gun laws passed and enforced in this country?  I don't know, a slaughter of 700 or 800 adults and children.  The outcry for change would be deafening, but it all comes down to whether or not our politicians would ever look at the gun lobby and say, "no campaign donation, regardless of size, will prevent me from doing what is right."

I am not holding my breath.

The Friday Link for 7/25/14

Sorry it's been a busy end of the week with camps, play dates and sports.  The boy did have two home runs in the same game tonight.

I have had the absolute pleasure of interviewing Cinematic Titanic's J. Elvis Weinstein, Mary Jo Pehl and Trace Beaulieu.  Not only are they great interviews and very funny, they are some of the nicest people I've ever had the privilege of getting to talk with.  I eventually will get Frank Conniff and Joel Hodgson on with us too.

Go to their website:

http://www.cinematictitanic.com

and buy all of their DVD's.  You'll have a hard time finding anything as funny, anywhere.  Click below for the Friday Link!  This is the preview of Rattlers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpYHSODbmZY

ART!

Cragg from the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.  Very cool.

A Duck is a Duck is a Duck....

I have been taking some grief about a comparison I made on air the other day.  After Ukrainian separatists backed by Russia got a new toy, high altitude anti-aircraft missiles, and proceeded to execute around 300 people for simply flying from The Netherlands to Malaysia, the point I made was when a political party or leader gets into bed with a fringe element, handing some level of power to an extremist point of view, it usually never ends up well for the political party or leader.  I was specifically referencing Russia's President Putin supporting the crazies in eastern Ukraine, and to create another example of this political maneuvering, I brought up the far-right extremists who have taken over the Republican party here in the United States, going out of my way to make sure no one thought I was implying the tea-partiers, religious extremists and pseudo-libertarians in the USA were intending to, or capable of, shooting down airliners.  The point remains, when fringe elements take over it usually never ends well for the political party.

Apparently, I have crossed a line...or have I.

Let me reiterate, I am not making a direct apples to apples comparison in regards to the Tea Party verses Ukrainian Separatists.  Only a fool would think I was trying to do that, but the GOP has to come to grips with how much of their party has been usurped by the extreme far right, and how it threatens to ruin their party.  Back in 1999, after years of neoconservative policies had driven people away from the GOP, the puppet masters behind W. Bush started to court the religious far right, the libertarians, the racists, the militias and the stupid who were desperately trying find something they could blame for their own problems.  This new group of foot soldiers were never before allowed to have a seat at the table, but out of necessity, they were welcomed to belly on up.  Buoyed by success in 2000, 2004, and especially 2010, this once fringe right leaning political ideology, was now driving the Republican bus, requiring a blood oath to be able to stay on board.  For God's sake, one of the candidates on the stage during the 2012 GOP primary was a freaking Libertarian, and all of the other candidates were desperately trying to mimic him.  This would be like a Socialist candidate being up on the Democratic stage, and let's face it, the left wouldn't even allow a Green Party candidate in the arena, let alone a true Socialist.

How far to the extreme has the GOP gotten?

1) They applauded when a group of far right extremists threatened to open fire on government agents.  These militia extremists threatened to do so while hiding behind women and children.  The government agents were only doing their job and the person the right rallied behind was a tax cheat, government aid abuser and a racist.  It's only when the right realized their unbridled support for Bundy and his racist views would be construed as endorsement that, out of fear of losing voters, they quietly backed away.

2)  The GOP, while claiming to care for children, insist the loving thing to do with undocumented children without parents on the US border is to throw them back into the hell scape they are trying to flee without even a sandwich, while screaming in their faces to "get out."

3) They want to distort Christianity, a religion based on love and compassion, into a platform for legal discrimination against a group of people (the GLBT community), a group they don't like for personal reasons.  They hide behind the same Christian values when striping all food, medical and housing aid from the neediest of Americans.

4) It is impossible for the modern GOP'er to acknowledge that their party has EVER done anything wrong.  When confronted about such things as Iraq, Iran/Contra, the housing and banking collapse of 2008, or Katrina, it usually ends up with them making wildly outrageous accusations, screaming at the top of their lungs or storming off in a huff.  They do this because they already know they can't defend the right's actions, so lies, temper tantrums and running away are their only options.

5) It is impossible for the modern GOP'er to acknowledge the opposition party was ever right.  Point to the economic recovery the country has had over the last five years, an economic recovery which has pretty much been done by Obama himself, or possibly the greatest economic time in the country's history, the Clinton 90's, an economic boon created by smart governing from Clinton (for a fun activity, go look at 93/94 and see the GOP argue how Clinton's economic stimulus would "ruin" the country and how they proudly voted against it.  Too funny!).  To be fair, the Republican voter gets most of their 'news' from right leaning propaganda machines who either distort, lie about or ignore positive news for the left.  Regardless, as for their reaction, it's the same as it is for #4.

6) Many GOP'ers want to force everyone to always carry a loaded gun.  The mere suggestion that you may not think that's safe and don't want to, or limiting a mentally unstable man or serial spousal abuser's access to one makes their blood boil.  If you bring up any of the mass shootings in this country, their response is a belligerent ranting on how it's either unfair to mention those shootings, or the shooting was "made up."  They will even scream the later into the face of the parents of children ripped to shreds in Newtown, Connecticut.

7) There isn't an event or person the far right can't vilify; victims of violence, the Olympics, children, a POW, the family members of shooting victims, The World Cup, the hungry.  They can do it to anyone or anything in an effort to justify their flawed beliefs and/or hatred of the President.

8) They praised a political despot in Vladimir Putin just so they could criticize their own president.

9) The right applauded the idea of an individual or corporation getting between a woman and their doctor, something they spent four years insisting President Obama was menacing to do.  They will foolishly go after popular health choices, such as contraception, in an effort to tarnish the record of President Obama and the Democrats, regardless of the impact on most Americans.

10) They have threatened to revoke the basic security net system of America (social security, medicare and medicare) and the basic laws which, although inadequate in some cases, still present a basic rights barrier for the American worker (minimum wage, child labor laws, unions) not because they don't work. They want to get rid of them because they do work.

11) They will, in one breath, act like the wealthiest Americans are some poor, persecuted class who are the true victims in our modern world, while in the next breath criticize the truly needy and poor as living high on the hog, mooching off of hard working Americans.

12) There is a palatable racist element within the GOP.  Two words - Birth Certificate.  To paraphrase the Simpsons, "The GOP isn't racist, but it's number one with racists."

Shall I go on?

There is a Republican running for a state house seat here in Minnesota who is for - paying for the right to vote, forced child labor, water boarding and no celebrations for pregnant women who get married.  She terrifies the establishment GOP because she could win her primary, something that would have been near impossible 20 years ago.

It's time for the leadership of the right and their media megaphones to realize how close we've come to the brink.  Your relentless talk about revolutions, killing grandma, taking your guns, terrorist sympathizing, and anti-American rhetoric has encouraged the crazies driving the bus to aim for the cliff.  When the inevitable happens, not some drunken Ukrainian hillbilly shooting down a commercial airliner, but some delusional zealot taking a shot at the President (God forbid), a zealot  who is going off perceived marching orders from the right to save themselves and America, you can no longer bow your head and act as if no one could have seen this tragedy coming. Yes we can, and you on the right are responsible for the potential trigger man.  You can no longer keep telling some idiot the bees are their enemy, insinuating they need to stop the bees, encouraging them to throw rock after rock after rock at the beehive until the individual gets stung, and then innocently put your hands in the air and act as if you had nothing to do with it.

GOP, get control of your party.  This continued march into lunacy will only doom you to the history books.

I stand by the comparison.

Same Street, Different Directions

Let me share two pictures I took this morning walking my dog.  These two photos were taken less than a block away from each other, a few blocks from my house.  I did edit the license plate and neighbor's house number out of the one picture.

First, I really don't know the political preferences of either neighbor.  I can take a guess about the truck one; probably tea-party or pseudo-nuevo-Libertarian, but regardless, they clearly hate Obama.  I have no idea in regards to the flower folks.

The front yard of the truck guy was a mixture of dirt, weeds and grass, obstructed by four cars, two in the driveway, two on the street (including the truck).  One other car in the driveway, an older, rust riddled beauty, also had some over the top, anti-Obama bumper stickers.  The other front yard was not blocked by any cars on the street and there weren't any in the driveway.  The flowers spread from property line to property line, thick and vibrant.  My guess is no one would want to veil the gorgeous summer display by parking their car in front of it.

The houses?  The truck guy has a house more akin to Frankenstein, at one time a tiny little thing, but added too a little here and a there over time.  It didn't look bad, just off.  They have a large front porch, which might be a selling point for the property if it looked nice.  This porch desperately needs some upkeep.  Hanging from the porch, next to an American flag, is a larger Gadsden flag, with three empty beer cans littered about offering evidence of the previous nights activities.  The flower house was not the freshest or prettiest, but it was well kept, testifying that the overwhelming flower display wasn't due to laziness or apathy.  While you couldn't miss the truck guy's house, this house almost disappeared behind the brilliant, natural colors in the yard.

I met someone who was at the truck house once.  Late Spring 2013, I was walking past and struck up a conversation with him.  I asked about how he liked the neighborhood.  It didn't take him long to start taking shots at his neighbors, something he offered freely.  The man, caucasian and around 30, insisted skin color and religion wasn't the problem, but used his own introduction on the subject as a springboard into a litany of stereotypes and derogatory statements.  I made an excuse and got going.

The only thing I know about the flower neighbor is that a few years back, someone complained about the condition of the front yard.  My guess is the trade off to have such a luxurious late June through August pageant means the yard must look bad the remainder of the non-snow covered year.  The issue must have been resolved.

Questions:

Which neighbor would you feel safer with?
Which neighbor looks more welcoming?
Who would you rather have living near your house?

The Friday Link for 7/18/14

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYyyhb4k1Tk

On Fridays, I am going to start putting up a link for something fun.  This is a segment of the APM series Wits featuring Dessa, a great artist I had the pleasure of interviewing a few weeks back.  Enjoy!

Wealth

I have said something on the air a few times which I want to repeat here.

Wealth is wasted on the wealthy.

Now before anyone calls me Johnny Wealth-Redistribution, most wealthy people understand the book value of the money they have, and many of them have good lives, because they can.  My whole point consists of one thing;  many people with 10's of millions of dollars, 100's of million's of dollars, and even billions of dollars, are fools because out of ignorance, stupidity or near maniacal drive, they don't just walk away from the constricts of life.

Have you ever taken the time to think about how much money someone would need to own to ensure they lead an amazing life without ever having to do anything they didn't want to do, ever again?  I peg it at $50 million.  Once a person has $50 million after taxes, they could lead a very comfortable life (please!).  You're eating out every meal (a nice one too), you never have to make a car or house payment again, you have good tickets to every theater performance and sporting event in your town, you could travel in style, dress anyway you want and see pretty much anything you ever wanted to see.  Heck, you could sit in bed all day long and surf the internet.  Where people with $50 million get into trouble is when they get outrageous with what they do, like put a shark tank in their garage, build their own space plane or sleep with a certain celebrity.  If you can keep the obscene bucket list to a minimum, you can lead the first class life and never have to worry.  If you are a little frugal with your $50 million, you can leave a nice chunk of change to the kiddos.  If you have ten figures or higher, you have so much money you can sleep with that celebrity in the shark tank on the space plane.  Obscene away!

Yet how many of these uber-wealthy people still get up every morning, get dressed (in a suit no less!), drive into their office, and work.  Yeah, actually work.  I understand they're more than likely not over seeing the day to day numbers of their company or investments, but they are taking calls, having meetings and and reading reports and analysis.  Why?  Sure I get the type-A personalty thing, and it is hard to turn off the business switch, but how many people would choose to jump through other peoples hoops when they owned that much money?

I also understand there are people who will dismiss me under the guise of the lottery mentality.  "Sure Matt, $50 million would be great in a lump sum but it's a different feeling when you earn it.  You just can't walk away that easily."  That's my point, YES YOU CAN!  You can walk, put on your favorite pair of shorts, the t-shirt of your choosing and wave to your kids every morning as they head off to private school.  You're right. I have not had to keep up the image of a luxurious lifestyle, and that $50 million, with my modest suburban house, practical cars, and frugal life would have a very different spend pattern for me.  But there is the problem, you've been so busy chasing the brass ring, you don't even realize you've been grasping it for awhile.

And don't get me started on multi billionaires who still go into the office.  What are you doing? You've won!!!  Challenge quit years ago!  Go buy your own country and impose yourself as lifetime ruler, give your money away to charitable groups so for centuries your name will be associated with benevolence, or find a hollow volcano you can turn into your lair and await Bond.

Wealthy people, ask yourself these questions:  How are your kids?  Are they happy?  Are they always trying to get your approval, sacrificing everything to do so?  Do they understand the value of the life you have earned for them?  Are they spoiled brats with a machiavellian level of entitlement?  Will they bitterly fight each other to the death after your gone because they all learned from you that unless you have all the money you're a failure?  If you feel as if you would answer those questions negatively, then quit.  Quit and work as hard on your family as you did to get the money you cherish.

I appreciate hard work.  I respect the heck out of someone who starts with nothing and ends up in the upper echelon of the economic sector, but what are you doing it for?  What else are you trying to achieve?  Wealth is wasted on the wealthy when the wealthy realize, too late, that even though they could have stopped working decades earlier and lived an amazing life, they didn't because of a attempt to create a legacy few would appreciate.  Instead, the only legacy they leave behind is the one about the fool and their money.

Please Help Stop the Destruction of Net Neutrality

We all should be terrified by the FCC potentially removing net neutrality rules.  Seriously, because I am a Democrat, this blog would probably only be available at some high end, premium internet service price ladder, if available at all.  I'm dead serious.

Follow the link below and fill out the form and submit it.  I did.  I said the following:

Please don't get rid of net-nuetrality. If you do, not only will you ruin one of the last true free vestiges of thought and expression available to the masses, you will prove that regardless of the percentage of the US's population that disagrees with the idea (60, 70, 80, 90%) money is the only thing that matters in the FCC's eyes.

I decided to leave the swear words out, but don't let my prudishness stop you!

This goes way beyond one political party or ideal.  Get your friends, all of them, involved to make sure the Internet stays neutral for all.  Thanks.

https://www.dearfcc.org/?c=upworthy

Black and White

How am I supposed to take serious any person who insists we not investigate a President who started a war under false pretenses, lied openly to the American people and the Congress, who fed their war machine on the public's fear following the 9/11 attacks, and whose decision led to thousands of dead American soldiers, tens of thousands of permanently injured soldiers, at least one hundred thousand dead Iraqis and trillions of dollars of tax payer money disappearing into the Iraqi desert, but yet insist we have to impeach a different President who, through an effort to help Americans without health insurance and to reign in out of control medical costs, passed a law, through a dully elected Congress and had it upheld by the Supreme Court, having Americans buy private health insurance, something that's making a positive difference in many American's lives, something that has gotten more Americans health insurance and brought down health costs, whose biggest critics of the program just don't like the President and are using their anger at health companies who cancelled their health plans rather than make them more consumer friendly to fuel distorted outrage, and who have had the primary failures in the program purposely created by his opposition party to intentionally turn the President into a boogyman, at the expense of the well being of the people they represent?

Or do you just want to impeach him because he's African American?

Exceeding the Parody

There comes a point where the parody of something turns out to be more of a prediction or prophecy, which in turn makes the joke seem ethereal.  The most consummate example of this is "The Onion's" fake headline from when George W. Bush took office, "Our Long National Nightmare of Peace and Prosperity is Finally Over."  But something has happened in the last five years to the Republican party where it's becoming impossible to make a parody of them.  The right seems to take making fun of them as a dare, and doubles down on the ludicrous, and nowhere is it more apparent than the right's hatred of the president.

Take the story today from the Raw Story website about Kathy Perkins, the founder of the Mom's With Guns group.  This is one of these organizations who have sprung up since Obama became president, built on the conspiracy theories floated by the NRA and the gun manufacturers that Obama is coming to take your guns.  You know the kind of group; "we're for safe and responsible gun ownership, we love our guns, only a good guy with a gun stops a bad guy with a gun" (On a side note - you guys suck at stopping bad guys with guns.  Just saying).  MWG actually posts the line -

We are Law Abiding Citizens of this Great Republic of the United States of America from ALL walks of life.

These groups get so upset when they get labeled gun kooks.  They hate it when anyone portrays their hatred of Obama as anything more than simple political disagreement, or their maniacal love of guns as anything but their love of 'Merica.

Kathy Perkins put a picture of the President up on her Facebook page with the line, "Where is an assassin when you need one?"  Law abiding citizen my caboose, you gun kook!

There is a small element of disturbed people in this country who knowingly put forward the lie they are simple political discourse, but so desperately want to scream the N-word or fuel Obama violence porn, and can barely, and usually unsuccessfully, hide their true feelings.

By the way, no conservative will condemn this woman's statements.  Instead, they will be silent or try to find some comment on a message board to counterpoint, saying, "See, you guys started it."  This wasn't some internet troll anonymously looking to offset their own anger by moronically lashing out at a target.  This was the leader of a supposed law-abiding gun group, a person who views Fox news photos and loves Pick Perry (judging by this Facebook post) so presumedly votes Republican and leans politically right, openly wishing for a assassin to kill the President of the United States.

No one should ever 'joke' about killing the President, regardless of what letter is next to their name.  I can say that unequivocally.  But I wonder about my Republican leaning friends who will see this post, see me calling them out and still say nothing.  I hope it's because they're hiding behind Reagan's 11th Commandment crud, and not because down deep inside they agree with Kathy Perkins.  Regardless, it is a hypocrisy no one could ever parody.  Why can I say that?  Image the outrage from the right if this was ever said by the leader of a left leaning organization about a Republican president.


http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/07/12/moms-with-guns-founder-shares-obama-pic-on-facebook-adds-where-is-assassin-when-you-need-one/

House Keeping #1

Hi all!  I hope you like the blog.  Spiffy as polished kyanite, but I have to be honest here.  If you think I am going to be posting new stuff here all the time, sorry to burst your bubble.  I might be a crazy cat, but I just don't have that much time.

Some days I imagine I might have 3 or 4 new posts, other times (like this week when I have numerous family and kid commitments) it might only be one for the week.  Regardless, I appreciate you visiting and promise to try to make updates on a regular basis.

Cool cool!

The Brilliance of America

The article, raw, that was published on Minn Post.

Most 4^th of July’s, I’m usually wearing my “Kiss the Cook” apron while grilling my family’s favorites, contemplating what will lead off my fireworks extravaganza later in the evening.  This year, with my family visiting relatives, I found myself with only the company of my dog for the holiday.  Him needing a walk and myself wanting some social interaction, I headed for Lake Calhoun. 

            As I strolled Friday afternoon, observing the waters of the recent storms exaggerating the shoreline of the lake, and surveying the numerous people wearing red, white and blue tinged clothes in recognition of the USA’s 238^th birthday, I noticed an amazing display of unity on the south side of the lake.  All ethnicities, religions, sexual orientations, ages, economic classes; all of them together, walking and celebrating in a true melting pot of our society, all brought together under the umbrella of exaltation for greatest country in the world.  This wasn’t some organized event or pay to enter bar-b-que, this just happened on it’s own.  It was stunning.

            To compare this to what we usually experience on a daily basis, you’d find it hard to imagine it was the same country.  We’re bombarded with the message of who is or isn’t our enemy, how our President is either the worst man to ever walk the Earth, or a great symbol of how far we’ve come, and why you can no longer disagree with someone on an issue, but you must vilify and despise them.  I think the reason so many people dive headfirst into sports, gaming and reality television is just so they can find a respite from all of the negativity.  Seeing the walls of pessimism disappear and a joyful unity take its place brought a feeling of hopefulness.

            What really brings all of us together on a fine summer day in Minnesota is something highlighted in the Declaration of Independence in regards to “certain unalienable Rights,” “that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” Regardless of how people on both sides of the aisle feel, we have far more in common than we are sometimes willing to acknowledge.  We all want Life and Liberty and Happiness, and just because we don’t always agree on how to achieve those things, it’s when we recognize we’re all striving for the same goal that we evolve into something great. 

            Take the aforementioned overflowing water issue going on in the state.  This excess water is affecting us all, from the opulent lakefront mansions around Lake Minnetonka to the lower income apartments and townhomes of the city.  From the roads and land around our biggest corporations, to the roads and land around or smallest businesses.  It’s the great equalizer, threatening our Happiness at the very least.  By working together we can find a plan to overcome the problem.  That ideal is what this country is about, working together, not trying to wallow in our differences.

            I love America.  I am proud to be an American.  I love what this country represents and what it can inspire.  I might not always agree with the direction we are going, but I can look at my fellow countrymen and women and be proud to be in this together.  I just hope we can find a way to make the good feelings last longer than a holiday weekend or an environmental emergency.