SwanBlog

2007-07-09T23:12:00.001-05:00

Change, Adjustment, and New Beginnings

Please see our posts over at SwanBlog version 2.0. I promise it won't be like New Coke.

The address is http://swanblog2.blogspot.com. Please update your links!

2007-07-06T09:09:00.000-05:00

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (7-6-07)

Open Thread Friday. You choose the topic.

One possible topic is your favorite song with a Bo Diddley Beat. Scott Johnson of Powerline chose "Don't Doubt Yourself, Babe" by the Byrds. I listened to it yesterday and it is quite good.

Scott reports:

My all-time favorite is "Don't Doubt Yourself, Babe" as performed by the Byrds, written by Jackie DeShannon. It's on the Byrds' first album, "Mr. Tambourine Man." Just a great song. I think the Byrds were paying her back for her support of the group while they were getting off the ground, so to speak, but it's one of the highlights of an album that is really full of highlights. Lemme know what you think. Adding the Bo Diddley beat to the song was inspired.

2007-07-05T07:28:00.000-05:00

Brownstone, Cross, and Cleavage

Today we will have a couple of quick takes for this post-holiday Thursday.

First, I discovered another song with the Bo Diddley beat, "Mr. Brownstone" by Guns 'n Roses.

Secondly, both Daniel Pipes and Powerline complain about top female presidential aides wearing makeshift hijabs to the Islamic Center of Washington.

Does it make a difference if, in addition to the hijab, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Frances Townsend is possibly wearing a cross and showing cleavage?

2007-07-03T13:03:00.000-05:00

Bars, Blind, and GPS

New invention uses GPS to help blind people navigate.

For the record, I already invented this in a bar in Excelsior, Minnesota (should have been "Eureka, MN") six months ago. And I have witnesses.

2007-06-29T08:41:00.000-05:00

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (6-29-07)

Open Thread Friday!

2007-06-28T06:38:00.000-05:00

Valentines, Winter Games, and Protests

In response to this post, I was asked whether the Winter Games were ever reinstated. Well, the problem was that the principal conflated two things. For years, the choir nerds (including yours truly for a couple years) would go around on Valentine's Day and deliver singing telegrams. The Winter Games, or Snow Daze, just happened to fall during February 14 that year. Choir nerds were not the ones throwing tennis balls and tins. In fact, we were in a concert during the incident that inspired the cancellation.

The Valentine's Day telegrams actually were scheduled for two days. But because of the one-day cancellation, half of the people didn't get what they paid for.

Did the principal relent? No. First it was a couple of choir nerds (not me) meeting politely with him. Then it was time for Plan B. I brought out the headband and urged the Student Senate to support the sit-in. Here is a picture of the whole thing, including a blurry one of my Jim McMahon headband.

2007-06-27T07:21:00.000-05:00

Banners, Bongs, and Books

The Supreme Court has now ruled in the "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" case. I have no legal insights, just a couple memories from my youth.

There was one guy in my high school (now a lawyer) who wore a shirt that proclaimed, "Fighting for Peace is Like F----g for Virginity" (expletive deleted). I am not sure if any teacher/administrator noticed, let alone disciplined him for it.

My other memory is of a sit-in we held on my senior year. Hopkins High School was designed like a shopping mall (originally nicknamed "Ridgedale II") without escalators. We staged the sit-in in the common "mall" area - an odd choice given that we weren't disrupting anything. My silent protest was to wear a headband with the principal's name on it (in 1986, an obvious homage to quarterback Jim McMahon). What were we protesting? The principal cancelled our Valentines/Winter Games festivities because of a tennis ball and chewing tobacco tin fight in the mall area on the previous day. What can I say? We had a weird school.

2007-06-26T06:14:00.000-05:00

Water, Stem Cells, and San Francisco

In the debate over federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, individuals sometimes wrongly refer to a "ban" on such research. Actually, it is a ban on federal funding of stem cell lines created after a certain date in 2001.

To be fair, we should apply the same scrutiny to a claimed "ban" on bottled water in San Francisco. Read this story (excerpted below) and decide for yourself.

Newsom's executive order bars city departments, agencies and contractors from using city funds to serve water in plastic bottles and in larger dispensers when tap water is available.

"In San Francisco, for the price of one 1 gallon (3.8 litres) of bottled water, local residents can purchase 1,000 gallons (38,000 litres) of tap water," according to the mayor's order.

2007-06-25T08:05:00.000-05:00

Adult, Embryonic, and Stealth

Take a look at this editorial excerpt from the Minneapolis Star Tribune about funding for cord blood initiatives:

Now the issue is how to expand inventories of frozen cord blood so that enough units will be available for all who need treatment. Congress can do much to help, by following through on funding goals it set in establishing just such an effort earlier this decade.

That follow-through is important because umbilical-cord blood has several advantages over bone-marrow transplants. The match doesn't have to be as precise -- and the recent research found fewer cases of "graft-vs.-host disease" complications in the children in the umbilical-cord group. It also should be easier to persuade people to be donors, since the process involves simply having new mothers donate their newborn's umbilical cord to a cord-blood bank.

The study involved several hundred children 16 years old or younger for whom other treatments hadn't worked. Some received cells from cord blood, while others received bone-marrow transplants. Since the results were equally effective and bone-marrow waiting lists for good matches can be long, the prospects for patients look brighter indeed.

* * *

Now read the whole thing and tell me which words are missing. It talks about funding and health benefits, but not...stem cells. I wonder why.

2007-06-22T09:47:00.000-05:00

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (6-22-07)

Open Thread Friday!

2007-06-21T06:40:00.000-05:00

Separate, Equal, and Reserved

A case referenced in the Minnesota Lawyer weblog could have a profound impact on Indian reservations.

A woman objects to receiving social services from her tribe, rather than from the county in which she lives. The dissent by Judge Randall calls into question not just the distribution of social services, but implicitly the reservations themselves. Read it here.

2007-06-20T06:39:00.000-05:00

Immersion, Increase, and Decrease

I have two points to make about this story concerning "Hmong flight" away from Minneapolis North High School.

Let's begin with a quote:

Safety isn't the only problem. Wa Chora Yang also worried that his children weren't making sufficient progress speaking English at the Minneapolis schools. "They just put all the Hmong there in one class," he says. "They just speak Hmong all the time. They don't speak English."

Hooray for Mr. Yang! Immersion is the best way to learn a language. School systems seem to have figured that out with every language except English.

And then there's this quote:

Despite the sanguine views expressed by the incoming Hmong students, evidence is mixed as to the effectiveness of the Choice Is Yours program. A 2006 analysis by the Minnesota Department of Education found that kids enrolled in the program did better on standardized tests than their peers in the Minneapolis schools. But a follow-up study, released in January of this year, showed markedly different findings. It determined that, on average, students enrolled in the program fared 15 percent worse in reading comprehension gains and 17 percent worse in math skills increases than their counterparts enrolled in grades three through seven.

Did you catch that? The "gains" in reading comprehension and "increases" in math skills were less than the students who stayed put. Did you see any mention of what the actual scores were? By way of illustration, if Person X goes from a C-minus to a B-minus and Person Y goes from an A-minus to an A, who is doing better in school? This is the danger of measuring only "gains" and "increases."

2007-06-19T06:33:00.000-05:00

Promises, Promises, and Stewart

I have been meaning to say something about the on-air love-fest between Bill Moyers and Jon Stewart here, here, and here. For that matter, I promised a long time ago that I would write a review after watching a week of The Daily Show.

I am still waiting for the right insight to hit me on this Stewartmania. Any thoughts from readers?

2007-06-18T06:46:00.000-05:00

Race, Poverty, and Statistics

Regarding the recent editorial on the racial "gap" in Minnesota graduation rates, I am of two minds. I agree with the call for educational reform. However, it is difficult to get past the sloppy and/or sneaky way they interpret the data from Education Week.

First off, the report breaks out racial groups and also gives data on poverty. But it does not combine the two (in the version I found), leaving one to wonder whether differences in poverty rates could account for the racial differences.

Secondly, it may be less important to look at Asian/Pacific students as a group than to look at immigrants and first generation Americans versus those who can trace their roots back several generations. If we are truly looking for solutions, it is probably more helpful to look at which students grew up speaking English at home than to paint with a broad racial brush.

Finally, as I have said before, we should focus on raising everyone's achievement, not just on shrinking the "gap." In criticizing Minnesota, the editorial actually cites the numbers for individual minority groups, which is an improvement over those who focus only on the difference between whites and minorities. If one focuses only on the gap, an easy way of narrowing it is to lower white achievement.

2007-06-15T08:08:00.000-05:00

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (6-15-07)

Open Thread Friday. Random thoughts are welcome.

2007-06-14T06:18:00.000-05:00

First Amendment, Logical Fallacies, and More Stuff

Good stuff over at Marty Andrade's blog, including the ever-popular logical fallacy.

Also, Derek Jensen writes to point out that the NCAA revoking press credentials from its baseball championship for live-blogging is probably not a First Amendment violation. It is also probably not going to lower the value of the national television rights for college baseball, which remains at $1.50.

2007-06-13T06:03:00.001-05:00

Beach Balls, Bubbles, and Diplomas

I must admit being conflicted about this Steve Chapman piece on rowdy graduations. In my three graduations (high school, college, and law school), I put a message on my mortarboard every time. I also wore shorts to every ceremony. To my delight at the time, my mother proclaimed my high school graduation to be the most ill-behaved that she had seen, and she had seen at least five of them, not including her own.

No matter what hardships a student or family endured to reach the commencement ceremony, it is difficult for me to grant it the seriousness of a wedding or even a confirmation service. An exchange student from Finland who lived in my college dorm said that they do not have such formal graduation ceremonies in Europe. We guessed that it was because there is so little formality and tradition in America that we go all out for diploma distribution.

My recent experience viewing graduation ceremonies involves the affluent Minneapolis suburbs of Wayzata and Maple Grove. To my horror, the powers-that-be are now prohibiting short pants. There may have been other rules; I couldn't get past that one. The soap bubbles and beach balls of my youth are but a memory. Still, if other commencement ceremonies are getting out of hand, I support the school administrators in making reasonable restrictions. This leads me to the disturbing, yet predictible fallout, as outlined in the Chapman piece:

In the enforcement phase, the students perceived racial bias, noting that four of them are black and the other is Hispanic. At other schools, there have been complaints that imposing commencement decorum amounts to forcing nonwhites to abide by stuffy white conventions.

There is no infallible way to define and detect "disruptive behavior," but the school did its best by stationing four observers around the auditorium, and all four wrote down the same five names during the ceremony. Are the educators racist? When I called one of the kids who were punished, Nadia Trent, she said that during her student days, she had never encountered racial bias from school officials.

In any event, bad behavior is not a product of skin color. Well-to-do white schools have their share of people who feel entitled to do whatever they want regardless of how it affects others. Back in 1999, an outdoor venue in suburban Chicago banned a local high school from holding commencement exercises there after students and parents threw marshmallows, trampled flowers, ignored no-smoking signs and insulted employees. This is a high school that is less than 1 percent black.

I have nothing to add.

2007-06-12T07:11:00.000-05:00

Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, and So On

Speaking of gangster movies, check out the Minnesota Lawyer blog posting on The Untouchables baseball scene, including comments by yours truly.

2007-06-11T06:22:00.000-05:00

Tony, Paulie, and Meadow

**SPOILER ALERT**

Is there any series finale that measures up to the series itself? I would argue that last night's final episode of The Sopranos did just that.

Just as The Godfather novel/movies were as much about the World War II post-immigrant generation as they were about the Mafia, the HBO series dealt with everyday experiences of baby boomers in the context of a crime family. The lead characters in The Sopranos were probably meant to be a little older than the actors who portrayed them (what couple named their daughter "Meadow" in 1982?), as the show explored what lives were like for fortysomethings in the 1990s -- from getting your kid into college to putting a parent into a home.

Using the Mafia to talk about real-life problems did not set The Sopranos apart. What made the series unique was how skillfully it was done. Last night's finale was a fitting example of such skill. Too busy to cook, the family meets for dinner at a family-favorite 50s diner. As with almost every show, it proceeded both on the level of a family show and an organized crime drama. As they rave about the onion rings, the audience is eyeballing every restaurant patron as a possible assassin or FBI agent. For a moment, the audience experiences what life must be like for a wiseguy. We were looking over our shoulders for the cops and rivals.

2007-06-01T00:29:00.000-05:00

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (5-31-07)

Open Thread Friday. Enter comments below.

2007-05-30T22:07:00.000-05:00

Grow, Growth, and Cohen

News Flash: Dan Cohen protests the buyout of Doug Grow from the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Recall that Grow was directly responsible for getting Cohen fired from a job where he had just landed on his feet. Cohen apologized to the former lieutenant governor whose shoplifting arrest he exposed. Maybe it's time for Grow to grow up and apologize.

To the braintrust at the Strib:

Previously, I've dwelled at length on the erosion of conservative readership for the Strib. Now, let's take a look at what is going to happen to your liberal base. As more of your experienced news staffers take the buyout, you are going to lose a lot more than you could possibly gain from, for example, a laptop full of advertsing data.

A Dane Smith is irreplaceable. He is lterally a walking encylopedia of Minnesota political history. But not only is he gone from the Daily Blab, he is reemerging in another format -- I believe it is Joel Kramer's organization -- and thus will be lending his expertise to a competitor for the very audience you have so assiduously cultivated lo these many years as the great, in depth source of all things Minnesota . But that stuff -- the essence, the minutia, the judgment -- ain't in your clip files. It's in Dane Smith's head.

Doug Grow. Jeremy Iggers. Jim Boyd. I may not agree with them-- or even like them very much-- but they have proven appeal to your customer base, and invariably they will draw some of that base away from you as they connect with competing organizations. What do I mean by competing organizations? The Citizens' League. The League of Women Floaters. MPR, Greenpeace. There are a zillion of those damn liberal beats, and that's where these people are going to wind up, converting a lifetime accumulation of local political, business, personal knowledge, sources and contacts into newsletters, blogs, websites, media formats and the like that will bring their Strib readers along with them.

Who needs you?

The people that will produce your new Bloomington friendly version are nowhere near possessing the same knowledge, experience or talent as the people you are losing. And frankly, as you are about to find out, the people in Bloomington, don't really give a damn what you have to say about them. It is a truism of the newspaper business that your most valuable assets go down the elevator every night when the paper is put to bed. Now they are going to be going down someone else's elevator, and they aren't going to forget who kicked them out the door.

Goodbye, consevative readers.

Goodbye, liberal readers.

Goodbye.

Dan Cohen

2007-05-30T07:28:00.001-05:00

Cabs, Cartels, and Catchy Phrases

The Minnesota Lawyer blog makes reference to a George Will column and suggests that Mr. Will needed to be prompted to use a "catchy phrase" in reference to the artificial limitation on taxicab licenses in Minneapolis. So, is the word "cartel" so obscure that an esteemed conservative columnist would need a lawyer to clue him in to it?

Decide for yourself. Here is the definition of cartel from Black's Law Dictionary:

A combination of producers of any product joined together to control its production, sale, and price, so as to obtain a monopoly and restrict competition in any particular industry or commodity. Such exist primarily in Europe, being restricted in United States by antitrust laws. Also, an association by agreement of companies or sections of companies having common interests, designed to prevent extreme or unfair competition and allocate markets, and to promote the interchange of knowledge resulting from scientific and technical research, exchange of patent rights, and standardization of products.

Two things. One, the taxi situation in Minneapolis is not a monopoly, because more than one company is involved. Two, as the definition above shows, "cartel" is not necessarily a pejorative. It may have a connotation of big money oil on a national or international scale, such as OPEC or the competitors to Ewing Oil in Dallas, but that is a topic for another post.

2007-05-29T04:59:00.000-05:00

Odds, Ends, and SwanBlog

Welcome to Powerline readers! Here is a link to the Dogpile.com tribute to Memorial Day referenced in the Powerline post.

In other news, I owe a belated link to Captain Capitalism. Be sure to go there for all your charting needs.

2007-05-25T07:37:00.000-05:00

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (5-25-07)

Open Thread Friday. What's on your mind?

2007-05-23T09:31:00.000-05:00

Plaintiff, Defendant, and Insurance Company

Take a look at my comment on a Minnesota Lawyer weblog post concerning a beef from the trial lawyers.

Peter said... Um, did you interview anyone who was _opposed_ to the legislation?
May 22, 2007 6:55 PM

Anonymous said... The ads against this bill were outrageous anti-lawyer ads. Regardless of whatever merits the law change may or may not have had, the ads themselves were objectively deceptive. The premise was to demonize P.I. lawyers rather than to deal with the actual substance of what was really in the proposal. I doubt you'd find a single lawyer who would speak in favor of these ads.
May 22, 2007 9:49 PM

Peter said... Wow.
I will assume that "anonymous" (comment above) is not a journalist. Hopefully he/she is not a lawyer, either.
Are there any lawyers among the legislators who voted against it? Are there any lawyers/lobbyists for the insurance industry?

There is certainly no shortage of people who would speak against the proposed bill. I also suspect that there are people who would defend the ad.

I recall an ad by a PI firm where the viewer is put in the perspective of a mangled car wreck and a mean insurance company employee is asking the viewer to sign a document, offering to pry his/her hand free from the wreckage ("Which one do you write with?").

And then there are the lovely teacher's union "mediocrity" ads from this last election season.
Two (three) wrongs don't make a right, but let's not play the victim card too much, here.
May 23, 2007 7:48
AM

One more thing. It's not like trial lawyers ever engage in hyperbole, right?

2007-05-23T07:29:00.000-05:00

Lawyers, Journalists, and Slaves

There is something seriously wrong when a story about slavery, prostitution, and human trafficking arises, and you have certain journalists who choose to focus on their favorite topics of the U.S. Attorney controversy and immigration. See here and here.

2007-05-22T05:07:00.000-05:00

Gold, Silver, and Webb

Submitted for your approval. A man steals silver from his employer, bit by bit. When he was caught, the story takes a familiar twist.

When police asked Sessing where all the money had come from, he told them he had done work for his brother, that his father-in-law got him a side job doing construction and that his wife "was making all kinds of money with the company she worked for," Jensen said.

Police later took a more hardball approach, telling Sessing they would be questioning his relatives and executing search warrants.

"He says, 'OK, this is too much. They're not involved at all,' " Jensen said. " 'It's all me.' I think part of the embarrassment of getting his entire family involved in his problem was probably the key."

So what, you ask? Well it just seems that law enforcement putting family pressure on suspects was deemed to be unfair during the Whitewater investigation, especially that of Webb Hubbell. Is it a fair/common tactic or not? Remember this quote?

Hubbell accused the Starr's office of trying to pressure him. [Me: Imagine that.]

"Obviously, it's apparent to me that they think by indicting my wife and my friends that I will lie about the president and the first lady," an emotional Hubell said. "I will not do so. And my wife would not want me to do so.

"I want you to know that the Office of Independent Counsel can indict my dog, they can indict my cat, but I'm not going to lie about the president," Hubbell said. "I'm not going to lie about the first lady or anyone else. My wife and I are innocent of the charges that have been brought today."

2007-05-21T07:36:00.000-05:00

Bedrest, Aspirin, and Politics

How dare he! Then-White House counsel Alberto Gonzales visited a seriously ill John Ashcroft (then the attorney general) to try to get Ashcroft to overrule the acting AG, James Comey on a point of legal disagreement.

First of all, I think we should calm down a bit on things that did not happen. Whether it is early drafts of firing lists or legal and political wrangling within the administration, the end result should garner more attention than the process. In some ways, this and other controversies could be seen as evidence that the system works.

But the most silly thing about this controversy is the supposed outrage that they visited Ashcroft in the hospital. Does anyone remember then-Senator Pete Wilson being wheeled into the Capitol Building in 1985 after appendix surgery so that he could vote on military funding? Or the alleged deathbed conversation between William Casey and Bob Woodward? The hospital is far from sacrosanct. I once called a client from my hospital bed to get him to follow up on a matter (The morphine had long-since worn off, but not necessarily the Percoset).

2007-05-18T09:52:00.000-05:00

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (5-18-07)

You know the deal. It's Open Thread Friday!

2007-05-17T07:05:00.000-05:00

Lurking, Legislating and Safety II

To continue yesterday's discussion of anti-lurking laws, I should point out one area of disagreement that I have with the Minnesota Lawyer blog post on this subject (I say this as a fan of the post's author, Barbara Jones, and of the publication in general). For starters, let's look at the title of the post:

Lurking: Let’s eliminate the thought police

The "thought police" reference comes from the fact that the actual offense is "lurking with intent," although you have to read the Minneapolis Star Tribune article (or presumably the Council on Crime and Justice study, if you can wade through the Council's website to find it) to learn this fact. Jones' post doesn't provide a link to the lurking study itself or to the news reports about it. Blogging pointers aside (I am sure I would need pointers writing for a weekly newspaper), I disagree with the notion that reference to "intent" in criminal law is something unusual or Orwellian. From law school, I can recall general intent crimes and specific intent crimes. Aren't there laws proscribing drug possession with intent to distribute?

There is something to this, though. In addition to criminal culpability and greater penalties based on intent, there is a new (going on 20 years) trend of punishing motive for crimes. To clarify, intent determines what you meant to do. Motive determines why you did it. These new "hate crimes" laws do more than distinguish between an accident and purposeful behavior (which is mainly why the criminal justice system looks at intent), they seek too add punishment for having the wrong attitude about a certain group while committing the crime.

It would be difficult to make the case that merely having intent as an element of a crime raises the spectre of "thought police." However, there is a real debate "lurking" over these new so-called hate crimes. That is where we should focus our energies.

Finally, on the subject of the thought police, Ralph Remington of the Minneapolis City Council favors keeping the lurking ordinance, but advocates a different solution.

.... Police officers should be mandated to have yearly psychological exams along with their already required yearly physicals. Police officers should also be mandated to have muscular, robust, cultural sensitivity training. If we direct our energy toward creating policies and best practices with teeth, we can truly start to whittle away at some of the racial disparities in our criminal justice system. On the other hand, it is completely wrongheaded to take away tools that good police officers need in order to execute their jobs.

2007-05-16T07:20:00.000-05:00

Lurking, Legislating, and Safety

Here is the sequence of events:

1. May 7 - Minneapolis Star Tribune reports on opposition to the ordinances in Minneapolis and St. Paul that prohibit "lurking."

2. May 8 - The Minnesota Lawyer weblog strongly opposes the lurking ordinances in the Twin Cities.

3. May 10 - A Roseville man is arrested for lurking near a day care. After police are called, it is discovered that he has a knife. The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports, as does the St. Paul Pioneer Press:

Police find man with 16-inch knife lurking at Roseville daycare center
BY SHANNON PRATHER
Pioneer Press
TwinCities.com-Pioneer Press
Article Last Updated:05/15/2007 01:49:40 PM CDT

A Roseville man found lurking at a church daycare center with a 16-inch knife tucked in his trench coat pocket now faces criminal charges.

Prosecutors charged Richard Christopher Petterson, 34, with one felony count of possessing a dangerous weapon on school property.

Petterson showed up at Lake Ridge Child Care at the Prince of Peace Church in Roseville around 6:30 a.m. Thursday, according to a Ramsey County criminal complaint. Petterson approached day care occupants while children were present. Petterson, dressed in a long trench coat and mumbling, appeared intoxicated, the complaint states.

Staff, fearing for the children's safety, called police. A Roseville officer found Petterson walking near the daycare. The officer ordered Petterson to stop but the suspect kept walking. The officer pulled his gun and ordered Petterson to the ground.

* * *

To be fair, it is not clear that he was arrested specifically for lurking or whether Roseville even has such a law. But this story does add something to the discussion of lurking ordinances.

2007-05-15T06:18:00.000-05:00

Christians, Disabilities, and Power

News Flash. According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune's Doug Grow, it is OK to ridicule Christians, because Christians "represent power."

Well, sometimes BNW has a pretty good idea what will offend. For example, it's had productions with such titles as "Ripped Off the Cross! The Last Crusade of Bill B'Jesus."

Not surprisingly, some Christians weren't amused. But Christians, and other groups pilloried by BNW, represent power. Mental disability equals powerlessness.

Caleb McEwen, BNW's artistic director, said he can't be too concerned about offending.

"We have the right to be wrong'

"People have the right to be offended and we have the right to be wrong," McEwen said. "If we can't use the word 'retard,' does that mean we should not use idiot, moron, or crazy, either? Eventually, we can't say anything."

McEwen pointed out that the word "celebretard" is never used in the script.

But that, according to Sherry Gray, is part of the problem.

Gray, a St. Paul woman who is guardian for her sister, who has intellectual disabilities, is the person who put a national spotlight on the title. She saw an ad for the production and posted her thoughts -- "This is wrong" -- on an international website for people who have family members with disabilities. Not surprisingly, most of the website users share her despair.

"It's the use in the title, with no context, that bothers me," Gray said. "I'd like to see them change the title. But if they can't do that, I hope this can at least be a teachable moment."

2007-05-14T06:12:00.000-05:00

Secrets, Security, and Soft Targets

I have little insight to add in the way of specifics to the foiled Fort Dix terror plot. To paraphrase Woody Allen, we should not ask why it almost happened, we should ask why it does not happen more often.

There is an assumption that Fort Dix is so secure that no serious terrorist would dare try an attack. That may be a faulty assumption, given that Fort Dix is no longer an active duty base. And even so, one of the alleged plotters had a legitimate reason to be on the base, delivering pizzas.

In my opinion, the reason we do not see more of these attacks is that we are not going to withdraw from New Jersey. Even though there are many more "soft" targets in a given American city than there are overseas, a domestic attack would strengthen our resolve rather than weaken it.

2007-05-11T06:43:00.000-05:00

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (5-17-07)

It's Open Thread Friday again. Your thoughts are welcome in the comment block below.

2007-05-10T07:33:00.000-05:00

America, Somalia, and Africa

I meant to have some fun with the use of the term "African American," but not applying it to Somalis. Which continent is Somalia located in, anyway? What color are Somalis?

The first reference is in my post on the Hopkins School District from this week. The second is from a story on a Minnesota high school "Diversity Team" with this quote:

The Asian students hang out in the upper C hallway. Black students hang out in the nurse's foyer, Somali students in the English foyer, and white kids at the senior stair.

* * *

For years, the Diversity Team would give four all-school performances annually: one each on African, African-American, Hispanic and Asian culture. Performances included dancing, music, spoken word and other acts.

The third is from a story about another Minnesota high school:

To visit the Roosevelt cafeteria is to witness the cultural apartheid. Somali girls gather on one side of the room, apart from the Somali boys, the Asian kids, the whites and the African-Americans.

I was going to use this story about violence at the Mall of America. As recently as 8:16PM on Saturday, the Minneapolis Star Tribune website story read thusly:

And in April 2001, a 14-year-old boy was stabbed in the chest in Camp Snoopy during a fight between African-American and Somali teens.

However, the final story carried no reference to race or nationality.

And in April 2001, a 14-year-old boy was stabbed in a fight in Camp Snoopy.

Ordinarily, I would tweak the Minneapolis newspaper for its political correctness. But in this case, the specific race of the victim and assailants was not relevant. However, they could have stated that it was racially/ethnically motivated, which would suggest a greater danger or seriousness of the problem at the mall.

2007-05-08T12:02:00.000-05:00

Coke, Pepsi, and Lileks

What are the chances that the Minneapolis Star Tribune is trying to pull a "New Coke" by assigning James Lileks as a beat reporter instead of a columnist?

There are some who believe that Coca Cola introduced New Coke in the 1980s knowing that it would fail, thus energizing the old brand. Is the Strib smart enough to do the same with its columnists?

2007-05-08T07:55:00.000-05:00

Black, White, and Stereotyped All Over

I need your help on this one. There might be some stereotyping and SBOLE (soft bigotry of low expectations) in this story from a local community newspaper about the Hopkins (Minn.) School District's efforts to close the racial achievement gap in its schools. I can't tell.

Nancy Marcy is a physical education teacher at Hopkins High School and a member of the school's equity team, a group of administrators, teachers and district staff working to abolish the achievement gap between white students and students of color.

Part of the problem, she said, is something called institutional racism.

"Institutional racism is really subtle," Marcy said. "Many of us wouldn't even notice it unless someone pointed it out."

For example, she challenged, what does a perfect classroom look like? Is it noisy? Are students moving? "Many adults would say that if a class is quiet, that's a good class," said Marcy. "But what's considered too much noise?"

As a gym teacher, Marcy willingly admits her tolerance for noise probably outweighs that of other adults. Yet she insists activity, and the noise it creates, are necessary in today's diverse classrooms.

"When they get excited in the classroom, students of color speak up. They want to turn and process with their neighbors," Marcy said.

"Many African-American students," Marcy continued, "come from a culture that values collectivity. It's really important for students of color to be supportive of their friends and to feel supported. For them, working as a small group, teaching one another and putting their names together on a project is really important."

2007-05-07T07:55:00.000-05:00

Hip, Hip, and Hooray!

Every once in awhile, someone says it better than I ever could. In the ongoing restroom debate, Mahan sums it up nicely.

Mahan said... Let me see if I understand this question/issue correctly, then:

Legislation is proposed that will force private property owners to allow persons who suffer from Crohn's to use their restroom. This legislation is opposed as government interference in an area where it really shouldn't go (no pun intended). The opposition is a matter of conscience (as shown in the original post). The idea that legislation involving a medical condition might be opposed calls down the fury of the self-appointed guardians of the moral high ground to berate those who oppose this bill, who have already indicated that they can't see anyone not allowing a sufferer to NOT use their restroom.

So far, so good. Par for the course. Now, the question arises, how can this sin be redeemed? Aha! The penitent should donate monies! However, there arises a problem; after all is said and done, the Self-Appointed Guardian of The Moral High Ground (SAGTMHG) has apparently chosen a charity that is also a lobbying group. This does not appear to be charity to members of the penitent, so no monies are forthcoming. The SAGTMHG pours forth its scorn and retreats to the safety of the MHG, secure in the knowledge of its own virtue.
Does that sound about right?

May 04, 2007 5:33 PM

2007-05-04T10:18:00.000-05:00

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (5-4-07)

It's Open Thread Friday again!

2007-05-03T08:06:00.000-05:00

Bathrooms, Bathrooms, and Blogs II

MN Observer is still at it. Here is a comment on my previous assertion that the "challenge" by MN Observer to donate to her Crohn's charity might be objectionable because the organization lobbies for the very legislation that many have opposed.

No, you folks were supposed to donate, and I set up a third party - Flash - who was acceptacle to Mr. Bordkorb as the fiscal agent. Mr. Brodkorb assured me that the generosity of his colleagues was so great that the $100 goal would be reached "very quickly."

Flash received not one penny from Mr. Bordkorb's friends, the ones who insisted that they had nothing against Crohn's sufferers.

Stingy is a word that comes to mind.

To review, the issue was not the fiscal agent. The issue was whether the money would go for lobbying. Don't expect cooperation in a charity effort if your first resort is to insult your fundraising partners.

2007-05-02T05:32:00.000-05:00

Converts, Catholics, and Coleman

Nick Coleman wants you at Catholic mass. I am not sure that he wants you to convert to Catholicism, just so long as you show up.

Let me explain. In his latest Minneapolis Star Tribune column, Coleman laments that fact that Lutherans and Catholics have different beliefs (a pesky little 500 year-old problem). Specifically, he cites the generous offer of a Lutheran church in St. Peter, Minn. to share space with the local Cathoic parish after the latter lost its church building to a tornado. Together they celebrated mass, including communion, under the extraordinary circumstances. The problem was that they continued the practice of joint services every Easter for years, even after the church was rebuilt. The higher ups in the Catholic church stopped the practice. Nick wanted them to keep up the hybrid church service.

SwanBlog readers will recall that Nick Coleman expressed delight on seeing a Muslim (not just a person of Arab or Middle Eastern descent, but a practicing Muslim) at Christmas Eve mass in 2004. It is great to find common ground and to pursue ecumenical goals, but one wonders whether Coleman thinks that there are any differences between individual religious denominations that are worth preserving.

UPDATE: I fixed the second paragraph to reflect that it was the Catholic church that was hit by the tornado.

2007-04-30T14:42:00.000-05:00

Questions, Answers, and Revelations

It is rare when someone poses a rhetorical question and then answers it in a manner that gives the opposite impression than he/she intended. Such was the case with Ahmed Tharwat's op/ed piece in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. He attempted to rebut the concerns raised in the same newspaper by Kathy Kersten concerning taxpayer funds for ritual foot washing facilities in Minneapolis Community and Technical College.

First he jokes about the controversy:

Kersten seems intent on stirring up negative public opinion on relatively minor topics in her apparent crusade to save American culture from the Muslims. If this is "just the beginning," as she warned of the foot-washing threat, what else might Muslims bring to campus? Lord forbid, Arabic books?

Then he complains about the facilities:

Besides lacking a low-level washing area with a drain for washing feet, there is also no bidet-like system for cleaning after using the toilet. Water is the essential element for a thorough cleaning -- toilet paper will not suffice.

I think he answered his own rhetorical question.

2007-04-30T06:22:00.000-05:00

Diversity, Indoctrination, and I Told You So

There is so much to talk about on a Monday. First off, there is a study reported in Time that says that employee diversity training doesn't work. More here, here, and here. As with any failed program, there may be calls to do it more extensively or drop it entirely. I have my own opinion on which is the right course of action.

2007-04-27T06:53:00.000-05:00

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (4-27-07)

It's Open Thread Friday! Feel free to opine on the topic of your choice - or give me your thoughts on the linkage between the proposed restroom access act (my posts here) and the proposed ritual footwashing stations at MCTC. As always, use the comment section below.

2007-04-26T07:58:00.000-05:00

Vegetable, Dairy, and Politics

Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski is attempting to live on food stamps. He is spending exactly $21 on food for the week.

The funny thing is the former Agriculture Secretary John Block did the same thing in 1983. According to a generally supportive editorial in the Omaha World-Herald on August 7, 1983, some accused Secretary Block of "grandstanding" and "showing insensitivity to the plight of the poor." Interestingly, the editorial described the weekly budget for Block, his wife, and 19 year-old daughter as $58 for the week.

I understand that certain programs are targeted for cuts, and that food stamps do not provide a lavish lifestyle, but are we to understand that food stamp budgets have essentially stayed the same in actual dollars in 20+ years? Or is there some creative bookkeeping and grandstanding going on here on the part of Governor Kulongoski? The story says that $21 is what the average Oregonian food stamp recipient spends on groceries in a week. Could they spend more if they needed to? Where is the media criticism?

2007-04-25T08:12:00.000-05:00

Bathrooms, Bathrooms, and Blogs

Someone smarter (or more awake) than me might be able to link these two things.

First, MN Observer finally responded to my comment about her charity challenge. My objection was that the money went to an organization that also happened to be lobbying for controversial legislation. It also seemed to be a setup, in that we were not really supposed to donate, just prove that conservatives are heartless. Here is a nugget from the comment:

If you had exercised the curiosity and reading comprehension of the junior high mentality you proudly display, you would have seen in Ms. Stassen-Berger's article that indeed the Executive Director of CCFA was urging the passage of the legislation.

Finally, given that the donation will go to help those who suffer from the disease, I think that the charge of "more interested in the issue than the solution" is best leveled at yourself.

I will let readers decide for themselves whether MN Observer was sincere in reaching out to the right for a charity fundraiser.

Second, in other restroom news, the Minneapolis Star Tribune has an editorial supporting religious footwashing stations at Minneapolis Community and Technical College. No word on whether they will take my suggestion and install a no-slip mat and a stool.

2007-04-24T07:12:00.000-05:00

Church, State, and Plumbing Editorial

Here is an editorial in the Minnesota Daily (using a SwanBlog-like title) concerning the controversy at the Minneapolis Community and Technical College. To review, MCTC is reviewing whether to install ritual foot washing fixtures to facilitate Muslim prayer.

The editorial correctly outlines one objection to the proposed foot washing facilities -- taxpayer funding. But there is also the issue of adding permanent fixtures to solve a problem that only recently appeared on our radar screens (It may always have been a problem, or it may be a recent strategy to further a larger agenda).

My solution? Place a mat under a sink or two in at least one male/female restroon in each building to avoid water getting all over the floor. Also, add a stool near the sink that could be used by anyone for any number of purposes. See how that works.

2007-04-23T05:30:00.000-05:00

Buttons, Poker, and Kit Kats

Is it just me, or was last night's episode of The Sopranos kind of creepy in light of recent events?

UPDATE: Jonah Goldberg thinks so, too.

2007-04-20T08:27:00.000-05:00

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (4-20-07)

Open thread Friday. We got a good debate going last week. Join in this week with a submission on the topic of your choice in the comment section below.

2007-04-18T07:10:00.000-05:00

Paulose, Policy, and Petty

The new Minnesota Lawyer weblog provides updates on the controversy surrounding U.S. Attorney Rachel Paulose. Specifically, Mark Cohen's editor's column states that, while the controversy over her swearing-in was overblown, disagreement and resignations over her managment style is a serious matter. My take on the swearing-in and other matters is here.

The reporter who "broke" the swearing-in story clearly sees the subsequent controversy as vindication of his original report. Local TV reporter Bob McNaney combines gloating and self-pity in his very first weblog posting. But is there any link between an inexpensive, if formal, investiture ceremony and being a difficult boss?

McNaney and others who cling to the investiture ceremony compromise their credibility, I think, on the subsequent story. The story morphed from being a waste of taxpayer dollars (except that it only cost $225), to a conflict of interest (since using the law school atrium for free might make prosecutors too chummy with...defense attorneys who...went to law school there? As opposed to prosecutors who themselves graduated from St. Thomas undergraduate or law school?), to a waste of office time (except that the arrangements would take just as much time if it were held in a middle school gymnasium).

The only obvious link between the two is that people are gossiping behind Paulose's back. That may be because she is a difficult manager. Or she may have been treated unfairly. But is it even worth exploring why people want to undermine the new USA? Is it possible that Paulose actually is the wronged party in this dispute?

2007-04-17T07:15:00.001-05:00

Let's just pause for a moment and reflect on the tragedy at Virginia Tech.

2007-04-16T06:06:00.000-05:00

Imus, Iran, and SwanBlog

Please bear with me for a little Spring cleaning.

I have been asked to react to Gov. Huckabee's comment that the firing of Don Imus raises free speech issues. Mahan likens it to the Dixie Chicks complaining that radio stations refused to play their music, following disparaging comments made about the president to an overseas audience. My opinion is that, on the one hand, the result of the controversy is the purest form of free speech. The corporations made a judgment that they did not want Imus on the stations that they owned. The protesters also spoke out on issues they felt strongly about. Since the government is not the one punishing the speech of the shock jock, the First Amendment is not implicated.

Huckabee's comment could be defended on the ground that, although government was not involved, the firing still violates the principle of freedom of expression.

* * *

Another topic is the seeming willingness of the British sailors held hostage by Iran to make disloyal statements. The teaching point in all this is that, if you are forced to make such a statement, you had better have bruises and a look of terror in your eyes. Facts are coming out about their treatment and psychological pressures they endured. It is difficult for any of us to say whether or when we would have cracked under similar circumstances. But at least give yourself a black eye and a few scratches.

* * *

You may ask if there were any posts within my first 500 that didn't exactly work. Well, from the top of my head, I would say the Cityville series, the Boxing Day Truce, and the never-written Daily Show with Jon Stewart post.

2007-04-13T08:40:00.000-05:00

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (4-13-07)

It's Open Thread Friday! Give us your thoughts in the comment section.

2007-04-12T06:49:00.000-05:00

Smoking, Slavery, and Senators

Here is the Cliff's Notes version of a story in today's Minneapolis Star Tribune:

In smoking ban debate, county commissioner makes sweeping generalization that he must always do what a majority of his constituents want. Fellow commissioner queries whether that would include voting for slavery if a majority were in favor. Commissioner says 'yes' to voting for slavery. Pandemonium ensues.

Today's fun (yet predictable) quote is as follows:

"He doesn't seem to understand, and for him to hold a public office and not understand that is offensive," [St. Mark's AME Pastor Danita] Williams said. She said Nelson must offer a public, unqualified apology, "and he also needs to take a diversity class."

Of course. I wonder how long before someone demands that Don Imus take a similar class. But St. Louis County Commissioner Keith Nelson does not need a diversity class. He needs a civics class because of his failure to understand the difference between representative democracy and direct democracy. But I digress.

The other predictable thing from the story is that Nelson accuses his fellow commissioner of equating smoking with slavery. Not true. The other guy was taking Nelson's sweeping generalization to its logical extreme. Two former Indiana politicians (what is it with these Hoosiers?) unfairly got in hot water for doing exactly the same thing -- then-Senator Dan Quayle for asking whether his relatively few years in the Senate would have excluded John F. Kennedy from being President, and Senator Rick Santorum for asking whether the arguments in favor of gay marriage could also justify bestiality.

The point of taking someone's sweeping generalization to its logical extreme is not to say that the two things are the same or similar. It is to show how two totally different things are equated when one makes an unqualified and logically sloppy statement. Last summer, I wrote about this as a guest on SCSU Scholars.

This leads to a larger point about comparisons. By bringing up slavery, have I equated the Taliban and the Baathists with slaveowners? Or have I merely pointed out a flaw in the sweeping generalization presented by Boyd and Coleman?

Let's assume that someone asserts that the reason that Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. is a hero is that he went to jail for his beliefs. If a second person points out that the Ayatollah Khomeini also went to jail for his beliefs, does that mean that the second person has likened MLK to a ruthless dictator? Actually, the second person would be saying quite the opposite. When your standard for heroism is so imprecise, then polar opposites like MLK and Khomeini are caught up in the same category. So you had better refine your definition of heroism.

Remember Sen. Lloyd Bentsen's famous "Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy" line? Again, that was billed as a "comparison" by then-Senator Quayle to the 35th president. Perhaps Quayle could have responded that Bentsen had proved his point. When you look only at age and years in Congress, then people who are as different as President Kennedy and Vice President Quayle look exactly the same. So we must evaluate candidates using other criteria.

Nelson would have been better off to trot out the flawed, but effective logic of Lloyd Bentsen from the beginning. He, too, could have been a media hero.

2007-04-10T07:07:00.000-05:00

Reminiscing, Protesting, and Blogging

Derek Jensen wants a post on the British hostages. I just now posted something on my local GOP site about the City of St. Louis Park's decision to show one side of the global warming debate. I also need to talk more about the last 500 posts.

Stay tuned, campers.

2007-04-09T06:06:00.000-05:00

Woodward, Bernstein, and McNaney?

Remember the old morse code opening to the KSTP television news (examples here and here)? The St. Paul station still uses the "dit dit dit dah" sound effect for severe weather updates. We may have to dust that off for another of Bob "Scoop" McNaney's breaking news stories on Rachel Paulose. Powerline summarizes the objections to this manufactured controversy in a recent post.

But this breaking news thing is fun, so here goes:

Dit Dit Dit Dah, Dit Dit Dit Dah

We interrupt the celebration of SwanBlog's 500th post to present this shocking story. Rachel Paulose once left a Continuing Legal Education seminar EARLY.

SwanBlog readers may know that I have been involved in the controversy over the requirement for Minnesota lawyers to attend political indoctrination called "Elimination of Bias" Continuing Legal Education (CLE). The Federalist Society, which caters to conservative and libertarian lawyers but also tries to present both sides of the issue, held a panel discussion a couple of years ago as an "alternative" Elimination of Bias CLE. Rachel Paulose sat in the same row as me at the seminar (gasp). Nick Coleman of the Minneapolis paper tries to make a big deal over Paulose's "membership" in the Federalist Society. More on that later.

But more shocking than the then-future U.S. Attorney attending a seminar that tried to present both sides of the issue was that she left early! Well, technically she left on time. The seminar was supposed to run two hours, but the discussion period got lively. Unlike the one-sided fare typically offered by the bar association, the Federalist Society CLE sparked intelligent and spririted discussion, extending several minutes beyond the two hours mandated for attorneys to attend every three years. But Rachel got up and left as soon as the mandated time had expired.

This is consistent with the image of Paulose as a driven, no-nonsense person. Maybe the current manufactured controversy involves people who are turned off by such a personality. However, that would not have the same sizzle as breaking news.

The Paulose-left-early-from-Federalist-seminar scoop demonstrates one other thing. It is doubtful that she would be involved in a Federalist Society secret conspiracy because she wouldn't stick around long enough to be involved in the really sneaky stuff. I have addressed the misconceptions about Federalist Society membership here, here, and here. Also, here are some excerpts from a Minneapolis Star Tribune article from August 1, 2005. The issue then was whether it was credible for then-Supreme Court Nominee John Roberts not to know whether he had been a member of the Federalist Society.

Roberts' vagueness over the exact nature of his ties to the group is typical of all of them, members say. It's not a membership group in the way that a labor union has members; it's more like "being on the mailing list." Nor is it an advocacy group like the American Civil Liberties Union, members say. It's a debating society, with a website that lists events and speakers.

Any ties at all to the Federalist Society indicate that Roberts is conservative, they agree, but they wouldn't expect President Bush to appoint anyone who wasn't. It doesn't prove whether or not he's a mainstream choice. Even so, some members admit to a certain reserve about being members.

After declaring that it's "no secret society," with "no secret handshakes," [my colleague Kim] Crockett confessed that when she first applied for jobs as a lawyer, she prepared two resumes: one disclosing her Federalist ties (she had started a chapter at her Ivy League university) and one that did not. In the end she went with full disclosure, she said, but added:

"A lot of people don't put it on their resumes. That's why the `membership' issue is so touchy. All the professions, journalism, law, academia, are liberal politically, and you pay a price when you don't agree with members of your `club.'-"

***

Most people don't know it, but Minnesota has its own John Roberts: G. Barry Anderson, an appellate judge whom Pawlenty appointed to the state Supreme Court last year.

Anderson said he was happy to own up. "I'd have to check my Quicken [computer] program to see if I've paid dues," he said, "but I believe I'm a card-carrying member."

Anderson described the Roberts membership controversy, which wasn't an issue when he was appointed, as somewhat bemusing.

"Anyone who has so little going on in their life that they're interested in esoteric discussions about legal theory is welcome to come, and will find a full spectrum of opinion represented," he said.

***

Emphasizing that he was speaking not as state DFL Party chairman but as a lawyer, Melendez agreed with the group's contention that one can be a Federalist without being an extremist.

"A number of good friends of mine are members. I disagree with them on many things, but they are well within the realm of mainstream politics," he said.

Finally, the otherwise excellent Patterico post wrongly compares the Federalist Society to the ACLU, Alliance for Justice, and People for the American Way. Unlike those liberal organizations, the Federalist Society does not litigate cases. The organization may have an agenda, but it doesn't do anything except talk about ideas.

2007-04-04T06:06:00.000-05:00

498, 499, and 500

It's SwanBlog's 500th post! This blog is still too obscure to look back with nostalgia to my humble beginnings. The major spikes in readership have come when I received a link from Powerline or other prominent blog.

In writing a blog, one must decide the purpose. One legitimate purpose of a weblog is to function almost as a comment thread for another well-known blog. To illustrate, let's say that you have occasional good ideas or good links to share. You can e-mail other bloggers in hopes that they take your ideas and add them in their own posting. Or you can write a piece on your own blog and then send a link to the more prominent site. The advantage of the latter method is that the other blogger doesn't have to compose an entire post. If you make it easier for the person to disseminate your ideas, they are more likely to play ball. In this way, it is almost like an open comment thread on the other person's blog. You are not interested in promoting your site or your name per se, just getting someone and their readership to take notice of your idea(s).

For a long time, SwanBlog was just that. No regular readership to speak of, unless I got a link from Powerline, SCSU Scholars, or another top site. As a member of the Minnesota Organization of Bloggers, where there is a large "blogroll" of people linking to each other, I received random traffic from surfing (I know, I am delinquent in posting the blogroll - shhhhh). The next step was to post more regularly so that people would read the blog for its own sake.

Two years ago, I vowed to post every day in May. In his instructions for new bloggers, Marty Andrade says that one needs to post every weekday to gain readership. This is how I entered phase 2 of my blogging life. It is possible to become someone's morning read if there is a good likelihood that something new will be there each morning.

Phase 3 is when you have 100 readers per day. I am not there yet, by a long shot. Phase 3 is where you really can have an influence. Instead of e-mailing what you think is a particularly good post to the prominent blogs, you will generate buzz and links from other blogs merely through your own posting. That is when the Internet really becomes a meritocracy. The better you write, the more influence you will have. Let's hope for Phase 3 in the next 500 posts.

Also, stay tuned for a look back on some things that worked, and things that did not. Thanks for reading!

2007-04-03T00:15:00.000-05:00

Thriller, Rumble, and Scrapple

I continue to post on the "Inconvenient Truth" controversy over at the Senate District 44 weblog. Stay tuned for a big celebration for post number 500 on SwanBlog.

2007-04-02T08:44:00.000-05:00

Ready, Fire, and Aim (Rake, Not Progress)

Check out the Senate District 44 GOP weblog where I take on Brian Lambert (remember him?).

2007-03-30T09:41:00.000-05:00

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday

It's Open Thread Friday. Comments on the topic of your choice below. One possible topic is the sitcom this reminds you of.

2007-03-29T12:37:00.000-05:00

Razzle, Dazzle, and That's the Fact Jack

There is some controversy over whether or not the captured British sailors fought hard enough against the Iranians. To me, that is a little premature and a little like blaming the victim.

It does, however, bring to mind a scene from the movie Stripes, where the troops go after the missing EMV truck, mistakenly ending up in Czechoslovakia. The troop truck is stopped by the Warsaw Pact border guards, resulting in a standoff between East and West. The Americans point their M-16s at the guards for a split second, when John Candy's "Ox" character thinks better of it, handing over his rifle and telling his comrades to do the same:

Here you go. There you go.
Hand them off there, boys.

Now that is an example of a quick surrender.

2007-03-28T14:19:00.000-05:00

Faye, Stuart, and the UK

Mario Loyola of National Review Online predicts that this image will spur the UK to take action against Iran.

He also makes reference to this image:

Anyone remember that video of Saddam visiting the western hostages in the run-up to Desert Storm? Saddam made the bad mistake of sitting a British child on his knee; the child looked terrified, and the British public woke up the next morning ready for war.

ME: The boy's name was Stuart Lockwood. I also remember a picture of a captured British pilot with facial injuries (possibly from ejecting from the plane). One Fleet Street newspaper headline said, "You'll Pay!"

2007-03-26T06:39:00.000-05:00

Shame, Shame, and Shame

I heard a new (to me, at least) song with the Bo Diddley beat. It was "Shame, Shame, Shame" by Shirley and Company. As disco one-hit wonders go, it was not bad. Listen to a snippet and see what appears to be the album cover here. The purported album cover suggests that this is an anti-Nixon song.

2007-03-23T06:09:00.000-05:00

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (3-23-07)

Open Thread Friday is spreading like wildfire. The Star Tribune's Big Question blog is doing it. Add your thoughts on your preferred subject in the comment section.

2007-03-21T06:42:00.000-05:00

Training, Training, and Training

Somehow I missed this one. California has a new law requiring supervisors at private companies to undergo two hours of sexual harassment training, every two years.

Any thoughts, readers?

UPDATE (3-22-07) I should link to my other blog on this topic, and the website on the effort to end the requirement for Minnesota lawyers.

2007-03-20T06:50:00.000-05:00

Luke, Brubaker, and Prisons

I don't have much to add to Powerline's obituary of Stuart Rosenberg, director of Cool Hand Luke. Paul Newman's performance as the title character is part of movie history. The film is also notable for its use of Christian imagery.

Stuart Rosenberg's other prison film is the underrated Brubaker (1980). Instead of being a philosophical tale about the classic anti-hero, Brubaker is truly about prison and not much else. It is based on the true story of Tom Murton, who blew the whistle on corruption and horrible conditions in the prison farms of Arkansas.

It is a testament to the late director that he could make two movies that are seemingly about the same subject, but are completely different in style, tone, and message.

2007-03-19T07:26:00.000-05:00

Walter, John, and Dick

So I am reading this story about Walter Reed, right? The story talks about how there are problems handing over the hospital to the private company that is supposed to run it. Then I read this excerpt about the private contractor:

IAP is owned by a New York hedge fund whose board is chaired by former Treasury Secretary John Snow, and it is led by former executives of Kellogg, Brown and Root, the subsidiary spun off by Texas-based Halliburton Inc., the oil services firm once run by Vice President Dick Cheney.

IAP finally got the job in November 2006, but further delays caused by the Army and Congress delayed work until Feb. 4, two weeks before the Post series and two years after the number of patients at the hospital hit a record 900.

Read that again. Is the information about Cheney helpful? The company formerly run by the Vice President had a subsidirary with some executives who left, and those former executives now head a different company that recently took over operations at Walter Reed (post-scandal). Walter Reed is Vice President Cheney's fault! I knew it.

2007-03-16T07:24:00.000-05:00

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (3-16-07)

It's open thread Friday. Give me your thoughts on the topic of your choice in the comments section below. Two possible topics:

1. If Attorney General Gonzales, who serves at the pleasure of the President, were to be fired under political pressure, how would that be different from firing U.S. Attorneys, who serve at the pleasure of the President, for political reasons?

2. Is there a rash of ATV gangs in homeowners' associations? Is that what the street toughs are riding nowadays?

2007-03-15T09:31:00.000-05:00

Capra, Imams, and You

Powerline's Scott Johnson has a piece about the John Does listed in a lawsuit against airline and government officials by several imams. His reference to Frank Capra's 1941 classic, Meet John Doe, is very fitting. This speech is from a scene when the bum (recruited by the newspaper to pose as John Doe) really begins to believe his words. It may describe the average citizens who apparently did the right thing in reporting the unusual behavior of the imams. It certainly describes the individuals on Flight 93.

He's the man the ads are written for. He's the fella everybody sells things to. He's Joe Doakes, the world's greatest stooge and the world's greatest strength. Yes sir, yes sir, we're a great family, the John Does. We are the meek who are supposed to inherit the earth. You'll find us everywhere. We raise the crops, we dig the mines, work the factories, keep the books, fly the planes and drive the buses, and when the cop yells, 'Stand back there you,' he means us - the John Does. We've existed since time began. We built the pyramids. We saw Christ crucified, pulled the oars for Roman emperors, sailed the boats for Columbus, retreated from Moscow with Napoleon, and froze with Washington at Valley Forge. Yes sir, we've been in there dodging left hooks since before History began to walk. In our struggle for freedom, we've hit the canvas many a time, but we always bounced back because we're the people - and we're tough. (Applause)...
They've started a lot of talk about free people goin' soft, that we can't take it. That's a lot of hooey! A free people can beat the world at anything, from war to tiddlywinks, if we all pull in the same direction.
(Applause)
I know a lot of you are saying, 'What can I do? I'm just a little punk. I don't count. Well, you're dead wrong. The little punks have always counted because in the long run, the character of a country is the sum total of the character of its little punks.
(Applause)
But we've all got to get in there and pitch. We can't win the old ball game unless we have teamwork. And that's where every John Doe comes in. It's up to him to get together with his teammate, and your teammate, my friends, is the guy next door to ya. Your neighbor - he's a terribly important guy, that guy next door. You're gonna need him and he's gonna need you, so look him up. If he's sick, call on him. If he's hungry, feed him. If he's out of a job, find him one. To most of you, your neighbor is a stranger, a guy with a barkin' dog and a high fence around him. Now you can't be a stranger to any guy that's on your own team. So tear down the fence that separates you. Tear down the fence and you'll tear down a lot of hates and prejudices. Tear down all the fences in the country and you'll really have teamwork.
(Applause)
I know a lot of you are saying to yourselves: 'He's askin' for a miracle to happen. He's expecting people to change all of a sudden.' Well, you're wrong. It's no miracle.
...Yes sir, my friends, the meek can only inherit the earth when the John Does start loving their neighbors. You'd better start right now. Don't wait till the game is called on account of darkness. Wake up, John Doe, you're the hope of the world.

2007-03-14T07:01:00.000-05:00

Problems, Solutions, and Gripes

Over at Minnesota Democrats Exposed, there was a challenge issued in a comment to one of the posts. In order to prove that conservatives who objected to the proposed restroom access act do not lack compassion, MNObserver was going to match any donations to the Crohn's and Colitis Federation of America.

All well and good. To review, the proposed law would require private businesses to open up their restrooms to people with certain illnesses (like Crohn's), even if the restrooms were for employees only. Some conservatives objected, saying that the law was an unnecessary intrusion on property rights, and that you can't legislate compassion and decency.

In response to the dare/challenge, I wrote this:

MNObserver:

Does the CCFA lobby for things such as the legislation we are talking about here?

I think that people will object to being dared/shamed into donating just as much as they object to government mandating it.

Comment by Peter S. — March 1, 2007 @ 10:13 pm

I think this is a reasonable question, given the controversy over the legislation. In general, people should check out the charities to which they are contributing. But MNObserver did not respond. She waited until the donation time had expired and then wrote this attack on my compassion:

There were some responses, though, so I don’t think we can assume they missed the challenge. There was Peter Swan showing his compassion in the comments insisting that he objected to being shamed into doing the right thing.

I don't know MNObserver, but I do have some friendly advice. You have left yourself open to charges that you are more interested in the issue than the solution. By posting it only in the comment section of MDE (and on a leftist blog) and by not responding to some legitimate questions, it almost looks like you wanted no one to contribute so you could confirm your accusation against conservatives. If you really want to help find a cure/treatment, work with conservatives rather than setting them up.

2007-03-12T06:57:00.000-05:00

Hairnet, Powder, and Purse Strap

This site debates the best super hero weapons of all time.

I have some nominations for the worst. This 1956 Batman comic introduces Batwoman.

Beware the cosmetic powder and the purse straps...

...as well as the hairnet.

2007-03-09T08:00:00.000-06:00

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (3-9-07)

Kathy Kersten dislikes open threads. Please give me your thoughts on this and other matters in the comment section below.

2007-03-08T05:29:00.000-06:00

Combat, Hostile Fire, and Kosovo

The breathless Star Tribune headline tells us that the military "may cut" the pay of troops in Kosovo. If you read this in combination with the story, you will find that there are specific criteria for hostile fire and imminent danger (combat) pay. It is not as though people in the Pentagon were sitting around and someone said, "I've got an idea. Let's pay our military less money."

When I was stationed in the Balkans in 1998, there was a distinction between hostile fire pay and imminent danger pay. It was something like $100 per month for the former and an additional $100 per month for the latter. Now, it seems as though both hostile fire and imminent danger pay qualify for $225 per month. One solution to the controversy would be to once again separate the two dollar amounts to recognize the difference between, say, Iraq and Kosovo.

Of course, there might be a story here about military success in the former Yugoslavia and how it is possible to keep ethnic and religious divisions from erupting into civil war. Nah!

2007-03-07T05:19:00.000-06:00

Dole, Shalala, and You

Not much time to write, but I want to say something about the Walter Reed situation.

As I understand it, these are patients who are healthy enough to be released from the hospital, but not quite ready to be discharged since they need continuing outpatient care. I also believe that in previous wars, such patients would be sent to the VA system much quicker.

My initial take is that the complaints in the Washington Post story (follow up here) fall into three categories: genuinelyterrible conditions, misunderstanding of the military, and legitimate practices that ought to continue. For example, I wonder if the requirement that higher ranking patients supervise the lower ranking ones is a strategy to speed the recovery of the former. Give them something to do, and all that.

2007-03-05T06:29:00.000-06:00

Right, Wrong, and In Between

Cherokees vote to weed out descendants of former slaves from their tribal rolls. Where is the outrage?

2007-03-02T08:50:00.000-06:00

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (3-2-07)

Any thoughts on this snowy Friday? As always, enter them into the comment section.

2007-03-01T07:41:00.000-06:00

Men, Women, and Family

Here is the actual card that is the subject of discussion at Minnesota Democrats Exposed as appeared in the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

2007-02-28T07:04:00.000-06:00

Professors, Hmong, and Lutonians

Check out this controversy involving a U-Wisconsin law professor. Long story short, he is in hot water for pointing out some difficulties minority groups may face. Specifically, he talked about stereotypes that Hmong immigrants face in Wisconsin. Then an e-mail was circulated repeating the professor's words, but omitting the context in which he said that people need to overcome those stereotypes.

Imagine if I were to say that people wrongly assume that Lutonians are stupid. Have I said something bigoted? No. If anything, I am exposing the bigotry.

Whatever unconventional methods the professor used to combat stereotypes, he should be condemned for his methods, and not his beliefs. If the mere mention of a stereotype (albeit in dramatic and shocking terms) in a disapproving way makes one a racist, then wouldn't the person who quoted the statements in an e-mail also be a racist?

2007-02-27T05:07:00.000-06:00

Logan, Cronkite, and Bias

Did you miss 60 Minutes this week? Big news! Lara Logan reports that:

1. Some servicemembers are opposed to the mission in Iraq.
2. Some of those who are opposed to the mission are complaining to members of Congress.
3. Despite their misgivings, the troops who complained are continuing with their mission.

Hardly earth-shattering stuff. The only twists that made the story remotely newsworthy were the fact that the troops in question have formed an online group, and reports from Military Times that a majority of those polled oppose the President's handling of Iraq. The irony is that the most newsworthy thing this group of soliders and marines has done is appear on the 60 Minutes broadcast.

If I were reporting on this online group of war opponents, I would be interested whether they received criticism from their comrades. Logan interviews unrelated servicemembers, but no actual "buddies" of the ones in the online group. I would also be interested to know the methodology of the Military Times poll. More on the poll in question here, and a piece on a previous poll here.

Lara Logan is apparently the criticize-the-war correspondent for the Sunday news magazine. SwanBlog covered her brand of journalism previously, as have others. I am starting to wonder if getting active military to oppose the war on camera (out of uniform) is part of a strategy to provide the equivalent of Walter Cronkite opposing the Vietnam War. In this instance it is not the "Most Trusted Man in America," but a supposed majority of our brave troops.

2007-02-25T22:25:00.000-06:00

Mencken, Kalb, and Me

OK. I admit that I am a little slow on the uptake. I was listening to the car radio over lunch the other day. One talk radio host asked another host how he dealt with the critics. The quote went something like "...or else you could do as H.L. Mencken did and simply write back, 'You may be right.'"

Bells went off. Didn't a well-known journalist say that to me once? I searched my e-mail to no avail. Then I searched SwanBlog and found this post:

Here is my correspondence with Kalb:

From: Peter A Swanson
To: marvinkalb@XXXXXXXXXXXX
Sent: Friday, September 30, 2005 11:51 PM
Subject: Journalism and Morals

Dear Mr. Kalb:

I have been following your letters about the 60 Minutes scandal on the Powerline weblog.

I am glad that you now acknowledge that the documents are clear. Your first e-mail to Charles Thomas was snarky and dismissive on this point.

I am more concerned about your response to John Hinderaker. You write, "[W]ell, you go your way, I'll go with the young men I covered who went to Vietnam for their country. We can disagree." This statement suggests that you can support President Bush or the men who served in Vietnam, but not both. Are those the only two options? What does that say to people who oppose the Iraq war, but "support the troops."

Your statement conveniently shifts from media criticism, the facts of which support Hinderaker, to political commentary. You have made a moral judgment about President Bush, but who cares? Some voters agreed with you last November. More did not. That you disagree with the voters should not figure into your assessment of the 60 Minutes story, which was the reason for your interview with Dan Rather and the subsequent e-mail exchange. In fact, your strong feelings about President Bush's military record may have affected your approach to the Rather interview.

George W. Bush had been elected to two terms as governor and had served as president for over three years when the 60 Minutes story aired. If it were just about the fact that he didn't serve in Vietnam when others did, that was old news. I remember the younger Bush being interviewed on the floor of the Republican convention in 1988 about the Dan Quayle National Guard controversy. Bush mentioned that he had also served in the National Guard. So your particular gripe about the President was not exactly breaking news in September 2004. It was, however, just in time to stop the post-convention bounce and to counter the Swift Boat ads.

Speaking of the Swift Boat Veterans, are you including them when you say [you] will go with those who "went to Vietnam for their country"?

In every election since 1992, the candidate with the less impressive military record won the presidency. The elections in 1972 and 1980 are notable in this regard, too. Senator Bob Dole is probably wondering where your support was during his campaigns.

Dan Rather failed. You also failed in your critique of his journalism. There are so many lessons an experienced journalist like yourself could take from this. Too bad your dislike of President Bush got in the way.

Sincerely,

Peter A. Swanson
www.swanblog.blogspot.com

From: marvinkalb@XXXXXXXXX
To: lawdog@XXXXXXXXX
Sent: Wednesday, October 05, 2005 12:21 PM
Subject: Re: Journalism and Morals

Dear Mr. Swanson:
You may be right.
Marvin Kalb

There you have it. I changed his mind. He was not just brushing me off in an arrogant way that does not call for a response. He really is open minded. His next interview will be free from the errors that plagued his Rather interview. I look forward to the new and improved Marvin Kalb.

In my own defense, I did figure out right away that Kalb was jerking my chain. Before blogs, that would have been the end of it. This post from Leisure Guy talks about the change that the Internet has brought to situations like this.

Other than that, I may be culturally ignorant, but I also say, "Marvin, you're no H.L. Mencken."

2007-02-23T06:38:00.001-06:00

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (2-23-07)

It's Open Thread Friday. What do you want to talk about (use the comment section)?

2007-02-22T06:27:00.000-06:00

The Academy, My Fans, and My Manager

It is time again for the annual Academy Awards death montage. Which departed person will get the most applause in this year's telecast? Here are my predictions:

Behind the Camera
1. Robert Altman (M*A*S*H will be shown)
2. Cartoon Pioneer Joseph Barbera
3. Iwoa Takamoto - Animator for Scooby Doo

Actors/Actress
1. Peter Boyle (Young Frankenstein will be shown)
2. Jack Palance (one-armed pushups will be shown)
3. Bruno Kirby (Godfather II scene with DeNiro will be shown)

Honorable mention, but probably not as much applause - Jack Warden, Red Buttons, June Allyson, Glenn Ford

I recommend taping the show and skipping everything except the death montage and Eddie Murphy's possible award.

That is all.

2007-02-21T07:10:00.000-06:00

Originalism, Originals, and Fakes

In this post, I criticize a number of recent media attempts to describe judicial activism vs. judicial restraint. My main complaint is that they try to rebut claims of judicial activism without really defining the term. And there is no real effort to put forth the other side of the argument.

This LA Times article makes a couple of half-hearted swipes at providing Supreme Court Justice Scalia's point of view, but it distorts his positions more than anything. Anyone want to take a first crack at analyzing the LA Times article?

Hat tip: Becket Wynand

2007-02-20T07:00:00.000-06:00

Cardinal, Archbishop, and Blogger

Did you hear the one about the Cardinal, the Archbishop, and the Blogger? Archbishop Harry Flynn of the St. Paul-Minneapolis Archdiosese has had a busy couple of weeks. He attended a rally at the state capitol building against global warming, which led to an exchange of letters with a blogger from of Right Handed Heat.

Then Flynn was interviewed by the Minneapolis Star Tribune article, which touched on the global warming controversy:

Q: You have spoken out several times about global warming. How have people reacted to that?

A: I was happy to speak at the Legislature on this issue. My message was not a political one, but simply that God has given us this Earth and we'd better take care of it. God speaks very strongly in Genesis. It's a mandate, that we care for the Earth. It was amazing the distress that caused some people, the mean-spiritedness it brought out in some. I don't know if that's because of an inability to face the truth or fear of asking questions.

Go back to the exchange of letters here and decide for yourself who is mean-spirited.

Finally, Cardinal George Pell of the Sydney, Austrailia Archdiocese describes the "semi-religious" "mild hysteria" of the global warming crowd in Catholic Communications.

2007-02-19T05:11:00.000-06:00

U.S. Supreme, State Supreme, and Public Television

Over the weekend, I finished watching two documentaries on the court system. There was a nationally-produced one about the U.S. Supreme Court, as well as a local one about the Minnesota Supreme Court.

My general reaction to both documentaries is that they spend a lot of time defending against charges of judicial activism, but very little time defining the term. There is no sense of why someone might adhere to the doctrine. Instead, in the PBS documentary, the viewer is shown how conservative justices, generally (and Justice Scalia, specifically), are supposedly hypocrites on this point. The unstated conclusion is that, because one or more adherents to judicial restraint (the opposite of "activism") are allegedly inconsistent, then the entire doctrine is flawed. This theme was continued in an episode of Tim Russert's CNBC show with Supreme Court authors Jan Crawford Greenburg and Jeffrey Rosen (link: scroll down).

Similarly, the PBS documentary and Russert's show treat the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Bush v. Gore as an undisputed outrage. They are perfectly willing to see the conservative justices as twisting the law to generate a desired outcome in the 2000 Florida ballot recount, and therefore determine the presidency, but are unwilling (except in a short comment by Rosen on the Russert show) to acknowledge that the same thing might be true for liberal justices.

Finally, there were two interesting clips on the Bush v. Gore segment of the PBS documentary. Disgraced former Congressman Mark Foley and former UN Ambassador John Bolton each make brief appearances in news clips.

2007-02-16T08:54:00.000-06:00

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (2-16-07)

Open Thread Friday. Put your ideas in the comment section below.

2007-02-15T05:24:00.000-06:00

WTCN, WUSA, and KARE

Ken Speake is retiring. The long-time reporter for Minneapolis television station KARE 11 is the only journalist I know who includes the word "yup" in his scripts. Click here to see a sample of his smooth storytelling. The only time I ever saw him deviate from his smooth on-camera delivery was when he ended a report at a wilderness camp with a shot of himself on a rope swing exclaiming, "Wheeeee."

Back in the 1980s, Speake took over "Minnesota's Child" duties from another reporter. The series of stories was designed to increase participation in Big Brothers/Big Sisters. Each week, Ken would do a fun activity with a youngster, while lamenting, "Yeah, it's tough growing up without a dad. Mom tries to take his place, but sometimes you want to do guy stuff."

Ken will be missed.

2007-02-13T08:33:00.000-06:00

Fight, Fight, and Bad Judgment II

To continue my thoughts in yesterday's post, why is it OK for a person like Sacha Baron Cohen or Mel Brooks to use blatant racial stereotypes as a means of satire, but it is not OK for college students to have a party where they show up in blackface?

1. The movie audience is in on the joke, while the joke is on the bigot. Not so for the college party, where the butt of the joke is the minority.

2. It is possible to deftly use comedy and wit in the controlled environment of a book, play, or movie. When you simply invite people to show up at a party in offensive costumes, it is not satire. Each person will have his own motive for attending the party.

That said, the colleges involved should stay away from any discipline or new initiative to combat this trend. The students obviously know that it is offensive (that was the point), so sensitivity training would be wrong. Unfortunately, there is no standardized test or high school transcript that can measure good judgment.

2007-02-12T05:47:00.000-06:00

Fight, Fight, and Bad Judgment

A couple of things for your Monday consideration. First, there is a war of comments going on for this recent post below. What is it about evolution that gets people all riled up?

Second, I have a number of thoughts about the recent string of offensive racial stereotypes happening on college campus parties, often in connection with MLK Day or Black History Month. There was one incident here locally at Macalester College. Here are my thoughts, in no particular order:

1. Private colleges like Macalester are well within their rights to enforce a code of conduct on or off campus that would prohibit such behavior. If the rules are made clear at the time of enrollment (or at the beginning of each school year), and students act out in such a way, go ahead and punish them. At one point, I think Macalester banned fraternities and sororities. So it is nothing new to expand the dean's reach off campus (and the party in question seems to have been held on campus, which strengthens their ability to address the situation).

2. Public colleges should stay out of the business of censoring such parties, as long as the offensive communication is not in the presence of, and directed at, a specific individual (e.g., threats, stalking, harassment). I question whether public college officials should even address a specific situation. It is good to generally express disapproval for such behavior, but it is risky to go down the path of "exploring options" as to what the public college will do about it.

3. Sensitivity training is a bad idea, particularly in this context. If you have a "Politically Incorrect" party, you know that you are not supposed to be engaging in these stereotypes. Moreover, if you hold the party on MLK Day, you are actually thumbing your nose at such things.

4. It is one thing for a group of friends to joke around amongst themselves during a night of drinking. It is quite another to take the time (presumably while sober) to plan it ahead of time and spend time concocting an offensive costume. The act of doing it, taking pictures, and then posting them on the Internet is breathtakingly bad judgment.

5. Satire is alive and well with the work of Sacha Baron Cohen (and Mel Brooks before him), but this is not that.

6. That there may have been black people invited to the parties, or even in attendance, means nothing. If your black friend thinks the party is a good idea, your friend is an idiot.

2007-02-09T07:52:00.000-06:00

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (2-9-07)

What's on your mind? Put it in the comment section below.

2007-02-08T06:38:00.000-06:00

Old Testament, New Testament, and Evolution

The Corner on National Review Online has an interesting post about a Catholic cardinal archbishop who is working to find "middle ground" on the whole evolution vs. creationism debate.

That's fine. The proposed middle ground may actually be the truth. But it is still one contender in the marketplace of ideas that has to compete with all the others. More about my thoughts here in my last post from Evolution Week.

2007-02-07T07:07:00.000-06:00

Rich, Poor, and Squeeze

This story tells us that "Africa's Internet gap" is getting wider. Apparently, things are getting better on the continent, in terms of Internet access, but not as fast as Europe and other places. It is interesting to talk about a "gap," because it is a way to make good news seem like bad news. The story could be written in terms of improvement in the Internet infrastructure of Africa, but instead it has a negative spin.

It reminds me of the Democrat line about the "rich getting richer, the poor getting poorer, and the middle class getting squeezed." That old saw has been used by everyone from Gov. Dukakis to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Of course, it is only half bad. The rich getting richer part is actually good. If the poor are actually getting poorer (and not just having more kids, thus becoming a larger share of the population), then we should focus on that, rather than the "gap." Also, what does it mean to be squeezed? Either you are getting richer, getting poorer, or staying the same. And if the gap is growing, wouldn't the middle class be "stretched" rather than "squeezed"?

2007-02-06T05:13:00.000-06:00

Cully, Corporations, and the Corner

More on the resignation of former Pentagon official Cully Stimson from National Review Online here, here, here, here, and here.

I wrote about the problems this presents for the Minnesota legal community here.

UPDATE: If National Review can give an opposing view on its pages (namely that large corporations should screen whether their outside law firms represent detainees in the War on Terror), I can certainly link to it. Note that the Minneapolis firm of Dorsey & Whitney is on the list of prominent firms that represent detainees.

I am still on the side of letting them do pro bono work for whoever they want. And I am sitting back and enjoying the prospect of certain activists being put in an uncomfortable position, given their earlier stance on law firms taking on unpopular clients.

2007-02-05T06:52:00.000-06:00

Terrorists, CEOs, and Reputable Firms

Pentagon Official Charles "Cully" Stimson was on a roll. Stimson, deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee affairs, had called out a number of law firms whose attorneys had done pro bono work for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay.

"I think, quite honestly, when corporate CEOs see that those firms are representing the very terrorists who hit their bottom line back in 2001, those CEOs are going to make those law firms choose between representing terrorists or representing reputable firms. And I think that is going to have major play in the next few weeks. And we want to watch that play out," said Stimson in an interview with Federal News Radio Jan. 11.

Stimson later apologized, the Pentagon disavowed his remarks, and legal experts defended lawyers who take on representation of unpopular clients. Problem solved. Except that there was little said about the story here in Minnesota. Surely local attorneys, some of whom actually represent suspected terrorists, would rush to condemn Stimson's comments.

But wait, the Minnesota bar does not have the moral authority to defend those who represent unpopular clients. The bar has disgraced itself through sins of commission and omission in the Maslon Edelman and Delahunty matters.

UPDATE: I missed the story that Cully Stimson resigned on Friday.

2007-02-02T07:29:00.000-06:00

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (2-2-07)

Welcome to Open Thread Friday. It's your turn. Write about something in the comment section below. One possible topic is the Lakeville (MN) School District's use of Huck Finn in the classroom.

2007-02-01T06:19:00.000-06:00

Hut, Hike, and Hibbing

So the powerhouse Hibbing Community College football team is suspended due to academic and behavioral problems of the players? When I saw this story, I remember being surprised that college athletics would be so competitive at that level that you would have to bring in ringers. Then I saw this quote from the Minneapolis Star Tribune story:

Provost Ken Simberg said he has no idea when -- or if -- football will be reinstated. Instead, Hibbing plans to use the $50,000 to $60,000 now spent on football for recruiting other students to improve diversity on the northern Minnesota campus.

Or this quote from the Hibbing Daily Tribune:

During his address, Sertich noted that one of the concerns is an unintended consequence of suspending the football program.

“Hibbing Community College has enjoyed greater diversity, racial and ethnic diversity as a result of its athletic programming — again, clearly football is at the top of that list,” said Sertich. “So, it is also a concern to us today that we hear what the effects and plans might be so we don’t lose one important strong attribute of the college, while we are looking at all aspects of any given program.”

So it is an affirmative action program in addition to (or instead of) being an athletic program. Interesting.

2007-01-30T08:00:00.000-06:00

Death, Taxes, and Health Care

One of the criticisms of the president's plan to limit deductibility of certain "Cadillac" health care plans (details here) is that the resulting tax breaks to encourage the uninsured to purchase private health insurance would not help those who do not pay income tax. Liberals point out that tax breaks logically only go to those who pay taxes.

I am not well-versed enough to debate the merits of the president's plan, but there is an interesting irony in this criticism. Go back to 2001 when there was a surplus, and the president also proposed tax breaks. Back then there were liberal complaints that not everyone got a tax rebate. And it was conservatives who pointed out that it did not make sense to give an income tax break to someone who didn't pay income taxes.

Not enough to accuse one side or the other of hypocrisy, but it does make for an interesting irony as to what is logical to assume about tax breaks.

2007-01-29T07:18:00.000-06:00

Walter, Andrei, and Elian

In my "Iraq, El Salvador, and Refugees" post, I talk about how people tend to use political refugees selectively. You embrace a refugee if you are opposed to their country of origin. Derek Jensen asked in the comment section whether I was referring to the Elian Gonzalez case or something else.

In addition to Elian, there were two famous cases (dating from the 1980s) involving children from what was then the Soviet Union: Andrei Berezhkov and Walter Polovchak. Those individuals were embraced by conservatives, partially as a means of opposing communism.

2007-01-26T08:17:00.000-06:00

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (1-26-07)

Open Thread Friday. Talk about a topic of your choice in the comment section below.

2007-01-25T05:26:00.000-06:00

Women, Children, and Men II

In Tuesday's post, I discussed the need to change the media's methods in dealing with potential sexual assault victims whose identities had already been revealed.

There is one other situation where this is applicable. When a military female is detained as a hostage or prisoner of war, there is one question that is on the minds of most people when she is rescued, released, or escapes. Is that fair?