L'enfer, c'est les Autres
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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in the "Dah-veed" journal:[<< Previous 20 entries]
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11:06 am
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Twitter This
I am so fucking sick of hearing about Twitter, the most ridiculous fad since the Pet Rock and Sea Monkeys. You know, this must be how conservatives felt when everyone was gushing about Obama...if you don't join the bandwagon, then something must be "wrong" with you. I do not like Twitter. I think it is a completely useless piece of nonsense. I think it has little or no value as a PR tool. I long for the days when journalists dug deeper than 140 characters, when news involved real people, real situations and real writing, not ADD-infused blasts of rhetoric masquerading as news. Now, when I pick up the phone to pitch a reporter, they are too busy Twiddling their "Tweets" to consider the important news of the day. I turn on CNN to find out about the war in Afghanistan and find BREAKING NEWS! ASHTON COOCHER TWIDDLES HIS ONE MILLIONTH TWEETER! I even deigned to listen to National Pretentious Radio the other day, hoping to hear some real news of the world. All I heard was some cultural social psychologist blather about Twitter and how it's going to change the world. I'm starting to feel like Charlton Heston when he finds out the evil, evil truth about Soylent Green.
TWITTER IS KILLING PEOPLE! IT'S KILLING REAL JOURNALISM! IT'S DUMBING DOWN OUR SOCIETY AND CORRUPTING OUR YOUTH. IT MUST BE STOPPED. NOW! WHO'S WITH ME?!?
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02:14 pm
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The best years of our lives
As a teenager, my friends and I used to laugh about people who considered high school the "best years of their lives." But lately I've been thinking...life was so much simpler then. There wasn't all this death and disappointment and loss. Our cares were simple, but over-dramatized. I thought my life was over when my junkie girlfriend (who I had cheated on a half-dozen times) fucked my best friend. What I wouldn't give today to have petty infidelities be my most difficult problem! For money, I only had to worry about scraping together some dope money...today, I am going broke paying life insurance premiums so my kids won't have to scrape together dope money when I'm dead.
I know, boo hoo-fucking-hoo. Cry me a river. I just yearn for the young, stupid days so far behind me sometimes. When all I cared about was getting loaded and laid. When I had no responsibilities. When I had my life in front of me, not sun-setting in my rear-view.
Anyone else dig what I'm saying?
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11:05 am
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A moment of sorrow; an abundance of sweetness
This was a tough thanksgiving. The old man would have been 64 on Thursday and we all missed him terrible - none of us can believe it will be five years next summer since he "bought the farm" (his favorite euphemism for death). Then, on Saturday, Mich took the kids to the grocery store and I seized the opportunity to clean out a few closets. I found some stray sympathy cards from when Nora died and went upstairs to the spare bedroom closed to put them with the others. Our temporary vessel for holding all things Nora is the bottom drawer of a huge legal-sized steel filing cabinet we got from my great aunt's house when she died. We plan to make a permanent "memorial box" someday, but for now it's the file cabinet. Anyway, when I opened the drawer to put away the condolence cards, I had to move some things out of the way to get to the file folder with the cards inside. One of the pieces I had to move was the blanket I used to swaddle her tiny body when we took her off the vent. It's a pink baby blanket, very soft - not your standard-issue hospital receiving blanket. There are tiny drops of Nora's blood on the blanket, from where the doctors gave her the newborn heel stick to confirm the T-18 diagnosis. I gathered up the blanket and cradled it against my cheek like I did with Nora - the blanket still smelled like her. And I cried, of course. The house was empty and I needed to let go, so I cried while I snuggled Nora's blanket and breathed in what was left of her scent. I cried so much my throat hurt, and when I was done I put everything back in the drawer and kept on cleaning. I guess that's the way grief works when it wells up inside you and gushes forth in short, painful pangs every so often.
I am grateful to have such loving children, and they were VERY well-behaved all weekend. My favorite part of not having to go to work is being able to snuggle with Lee Lee and Wally in the morning. Lee is usually behind me, scratching my back, while Wally tucks his head underneath my chin and puts his arm on my shoulder. So when I think about what I'm thankful for, I don't just think about the 42 hours I got to spend with Nora, but I bask in the abundance of love I get from Lee Lee and Wally every day. And that, my friends, is the greatest gift of all.
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05:32 pm
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It's official
Facebook is making me neglect my LiveJournal. I apologize to all three people who read this on a regular basis and promise to write some more in the future.
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04:54 pm
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We've got a bigger problem now
Boy, that last entry was depressing, huh? Sorry about that. I hope this one makes you angry, not sad.
In the eight years of Bush administration trickle-down economic policies, their Iraq war has bankrupted the treasury, their laissez-faire mortgage regulations have torpedoed the housing market and all the while, the GOP does its finest Herbert Hoover impersonation and says "Gee...the system is sound. Let's just wait and see what happens."
Anyone who votes Republican in this election will reap what they sow in a McCain-Palin administration. We'll be well on our way to a true "idiocracy."
Speaking of Palin, this lunatic believes the earth is 6,000 years old and the U.S. was "commanded by God" to invade Iraq. Last time I checked, people with similar delusions were institutionalized. How is this person a few votes and a heartbeat away from leading the free world?!?!
I swear, this fucking world sucks shit and it makes me want to cry...not for me, oh no. I'll be long dead when the proverbial shit hits the fan. I cry for my children and hope they will be part of a better educated, more civic-minded generation than I am. It sickens me to think that for every intelligent voter committed to changing the way the country is run, there are a hundred self-proclaimed and PROUD "rednecks" - uneducated, racist and worthless trash who will vote for McCain-Palin because "she's a MILF" and "he'll let us keep our guns."
I don't want to sound like a Baldwin, but I live pretty close to Canada anyway and think I might move the family there when things get really awful. When we're forced to pray in school and an entire generation of unwanted children is discarded like rubbish because hey, we're "pro-life." When the money-changers on Wall Street repay their loyal investors with 80 cents on the dollar, then retire to a posh federal prison for 8 or 9 months before writing their memoirs. When food, gas and housing are so expensive that only the "middle class" (according to John McCain, people earning more than $5 million a year) can afford to live anywhere but a homeless shelter.
WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE THAT THEY WOULD VOTE FOR A SCREWY OLD FART LIKE MCCAIN AND A DANGEROUS EXTREMIST LIKE PALIN?!?
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10:40 am
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A birthday party, of sorts
Tomorrow would have been Nora's first birthday. We are trying to decide how to remember her on her special day without confusing Lee and Wally. I don't want to call it a "birthday party" because that's how you celebrate when someone is alive. But I don't want it to be a somber memorial-type thing, either. At the very least, I am going to visit the cemetery tomorrow on my lunch hour and leave some flowers. Mich still has not been to the cemetery since the burial, which is ironic because she's the one who fought so hard for her to be buried and not cremated. But I understand that it's more difficult for her in many ways...I guess.
I am really starting to feel the loss after one year - the realization that she would have been pulling up and perhaps walking by now...realizing that we missed all the other milestones like teething and weaning to a cup. Wondering what sort of goofy nicknames I might have created for her, like I have for the other kids. It's especially tough when I mow the lawn. I know it sounds lame, but all summer long in 2007 I thought about her while I cut the grass. I used to add "September Gurls" to my iPod playlists because we thought she was going to be born in September. I thought about her all the time and smiled back then, even when we found out there might be problems. You just never think your baby's not going to make it home from the hospital.
I got to the point last summer where I was OK with the prospect of raising a special needs kid - I read the famous "Welcome to Holland" essay and for a while I was convinced that no matter what we were facing, we'd be able to love and celebrate our daughter's life. I really DO believe those 42 hours were worthy of celebration, though. More than half of T18 babies don't make it to delivery. I just wish I believed in something...anything that would give me hope so that maybe I could look forward to holding that sweet little girl again. I will never forget the touch of her cheek on my chest or the way her tiny body heaved with each breath after we pulled her off the ventilator.
I had to cram a lifetime of love into those 42 hours. It wasn't enough time, for sure, but I like to think she knew she was loved before she slipped away.
I miss her terribly. My September girl... But somehow I feel like there's still a piece of her inside of me because if I close my eyes I can still feel her cradled against my chest.
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10:42 am
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Time to stop the high school gestapo tactics
Like Katherine Kersten in yesterday's Strib, I am disappointed by what I perceive as a double standard for free speech as it relates to cultural symbolism.
http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/19647674.html?location_refer=$sectionName
Many Americans view the Afghani Taliban regime and the Myanmar junta as evil and uncivilized primarily because these regimes limit speech and punish such transgressions severely. But Kersten makes a valid point about the "punishment fitting the crime" with regard to the Bloomington Kennedy High School students who caused a ruckus with their rebel flag.
Both the Dilworth and Kennedy students were exercising their free speech rights by using sensitive cultural symbols as catalysts. The problem is that the Supreme Court has decided that, while students do not shed their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse door, they are not afforded the same free speech protections as adults because their speech can be deemed "disruptive."
I was once suspended from Anwatin Junior High for wearing a Dead Kennedys t-shirt. The principal, who happened to be a former NFL lineman, insisted the shirt was "disruptive" even though the only disruption occurred when an administrator saw the shirt and was offended. My fellow eighth graders probably didn't know or care who the Kennedys were. Regardless, I was suspended "until I went home to remove the shirt." My father, may he rest in peace, helped me take my challenge all the way to the Minneapolis School Board, where I asserted that the shirt itself was not disruptive - only the administration's reaction had been disruptive...to my right of free speech and my right to an education. Of course, my appeal was rejected on the grounds that the administration had the sole right to determine what constituted "disruption."
While the confederate flag may be seen as a "hate symbol" to some, the fact remains that the flag is not illegal and, unless accompanied by incendiary language or inflammatory behavior, does not have the power to be more disruptive than any other controversial symbol, such as a peace sign or pink triangle, both of which I assume are acceptable forms of student expression at Kennedy High School. Many have compared the confederate flag to the swastika, though I do not accept this parallel. Most history scholars agree that the U.S. civil war occurred as a result of many different states' rights issues, not simply slavery. Also, to compare the CSA's brief history with that of the Third Reich is a vast oversimplification, to say the least. The CSA never attacked anyone, never committed genocide and never plotted a "final solution" for African-Americans. While the confederate flag may be hurtful and offensive to some, it is hardly an unequivocal symbol of hatred like the swastika.
Sadly, state and federal law gives school administrators free reign to decide which opinions or actions constitute "disruption." It is time for student advocates, civil libertarians and elected officials to push for equal free speech protections for high school students. Allowing such subjective standards to remain in place will teach our children that free speech only applies to popular, well-accepted opinions that "don't rock the boat."
Why is it that totalitarianism abroad is abhorred while it is revered as a means of "keeping order" at our public institutions? If we are to teach our children the value of a free society, then we must begin by emphasizing Voltaire’s well-worn civil liberties axiom – “I do not agree with a word you say, but I will fight to the death for your right to say it.”
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09:40 am
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Another muslim temper-tantrum
Those islamo-fascists at CAIR are at it again, this time filing a discrimination claim over employees' right to wear a burqua on a mechanized production line.
http://www.startribune.com/business/19303124.html
There is a line - however fuzzy - between religious accommodation and preferential religious treatment, and this complain falls squarely into the "preferential" category, as do the MCTC muslim footbath issue, the Normandale muslim prayer room issue and the Target checkout issue. The muslim community in Minnesota is growing, there's no doubt about that. But the assumption that Minnesota state government, private employers and public institutions should accommodate EVERY religious request, even if it adversely impacts the lives and livelihoods of non-muslims, is discriminatory in itself and should not be tolerated. This latest muslim "temper tantrum" is akin to demanding an employer install mezzuzot in every threshold to placate Jewish office workers. Or like fundamentalist X-ians demanding to listen to only hymns while working at Starbucks. It is essential that muslims, like past immigrant populations, learn to balance their traditional ways with the customs and mores of a multi-religious society. And they WILL learn, eventually. However, with provocateurs like CAIR seeking to bomb the entire USA back into the cultural stone-age, they are hurting the people they're claiming to help.
In a factory setting where mechanized equipment can injure or kill workers wearing improper attire, it's inconceivable for any "civil liberties" group to argue women should be allowed to wear flowing skirts, blouses or headgear. It's simply a matter of safety. CAIR needs to back off and understand that we have occupational safety laws in this country. I know that's hard for muslims to understand, since the only law they know is sharia islamic law. But we don't live in a theocracy. I'm sick and tired of these islamofascists attempting to turn our factories, supermarkets and schools into little Meccas. If I'm working in a factory in Saudi, then I'll wear the burqua. But dammit when you're in the U.S., our safety laws trump the glory of allah every time.
It's ridiculous that people are actually addressing this with any seriousness.
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12:26 pm
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Playing the Morality "Blame Game"
Not sure if anyone read Katherine Kersten's screed in Sunday's Strib, slamming Grand Theft Auto IV with the typical book-burning "degenerate art" argument. By Katherine Kersten's logic, playing Grand Theft Auto (GTA) suggests that I am a bad husband and father. I'm wondering if Kersten has ever played a GTA title, or any other video game for that matter.
The GTA franchise has features that appeal to a variety of adult gamers, not just sickos and weirdos who “fantasize about murder” as Kersten alleges. The open-ended gameplay encourages players to perform dozens of side missions, few of which have anything to do with the violent main storyline. Players can put out fires, rescue wounded pedestrians or drive taxicabs. Yes, much of the game is a gritty and realistic portrayal of urban gang warfare. But is it really any more violent than the popular war simulation games on the market? I'm surprised Kersten didn't write about how "Medal of Honor" appeals to the violent, militaristic desires of its players.
Moral police like Kersten always ask "what about the children?" when seeking to censor different types of art, literature and speech. Just as I wouldn't allow my children to watch “The Departed,” I certainly wouldn’t allow them to play GTA. But do not insinuate that I might be a bad father or bad husband simply because I choose to engage in a legitimate form of entertainment one person finds morally unacceptable. Just because I enjoy playing a game like GTA, that doesn’t mean I possess a more heightened potential for “coarseness and cruelty” than any other man.
And please, before passing judgment on something like GTA, I'd encourage Kersten and all the other GTA haters to speak with someone who actually has played the game, rather than referencing phantom “studies” and “research,” no doubt conducted by those who only seek to legislate morality without getting to the root causes of teenage violence. I doubt those "mean girls" in Florida who assaulted a classmate on camera took their cues from GTA.
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02:43 pm
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Hannah Montana Buys Ticket on "Britney Train"
You know what, Miley Cyrus? You CAN'T have the "best of both worlds" in this business. You can't be a virginal 15 year-old one minute and a breast-baring skanky temptress the next. So when you sign up for an Annie Liebowitz photo shoot and she asks you to take off your top, and your disgusting mulletted dad is like "go for it, honey, it's good publicity!" you might want to think twice about how this might look to the nine year-old girls who buy your music. Approving the photos on set, then complaining to the media that they were in bad taste? I'm sorry, but part of being a celebrity is being able to live with your decisions. Clearly, you've got rotten representation working on your behalf. Any agent worth a damn would never have let a 15 year-old virgin do a sexy photo shoot.
To paraphrase Perez Hilton or some other gossip-monger I read today, buying a ticket is the first step towards a Britney-like trainwreck career.
See you in rehab, Miley.
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11:13 am
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RIP Ralph Rapson
http://www.startribune.com/local/17155846.html
Ralph Rapson, probably Minnesota's best-known architect, died today at 93. He was responsible for the Guthrie Theatre (the old, lovely one - not the new, industrial one), Cedar Square West (b.k.a. the "Crack Stack" or "Ghetto in the Sky") and my personal favorite, the uber-Brutalist Rarig Center on the U of M West Bank.
This guy's cutting edge modernist sensibilities, inspired by Alvar Aalto and the Saarinens, as well as Brutalist visionaries like Le Corbusier, were definitely ahead of the times. Sadly, most of Rapson's Twin Cities buildings have long since been demolished.
I urge you to check out Rarig Center - that top-heavy concrete crate of a building is perfectly proportioned inside, and I just love the woodgrain textures from the concrete molds used to pour the walls.
There's a great retrospective book about Rapson that came out a few years ago - it's worth searching out if you like modern architecture.
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02:51 pm
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RIP Jon Hassler
Minnesota novelist Jon Hassler died. Do any of you WAP folks remember going to his reading and book signing with George? I honestly enjoyed reading his stuff, though now I realize how sappy and maudlin most of it is. What I liked about his writing is, while his slow-moving and uber-emotional plot lines dragged on and on, his characters really came to life for me. Besides, he is one of the first authors I ever met "live and in person" so I'll always have fond memories.
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06:39 pm
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Viva Facebook
So my crazy work colleagues introduced me to Facebook and now I'm addicted. But fear not, LJ readers - I will still post here, particularly because there a severe character and word count limitations to what I can say on FB and, if you know me, you know I ain't at a loss for words.
For those of you asking me on Facebook what I've been doing since the bad 'ol days of North High, here's the Readers Digest condensed version.
After high school, in January 1991, my parents were desperate to get me away from my junkie girlfriend, so they shipped me off to Europe for a year with an open-ended plane ticket, a Eurail pass and my dad's gold card. I visited 13 countries and talked with my folks every week. A typical conversation went something like this:
Dad: You're advancing a lot of cash in Amsterdam.
Me: Yeah, the exchange rate is really bad. You know...the goddamn gulf war.
Dad: But you withdrew $300 on Thursday, and another $200 on Friday.
Me: What can I say? It's expensive here. I'll be home soon.
Upon returning from Europa, I enrolled at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities - good 'ol "Screw U," which was a lot cheaper then than it is now. As a frosh, I thought I wanted to be a journalist, but I took "Intro to Mass Comm" and I hated it - I got a "C." Then I wanted to be a linguist (go figure) before I realized I would need math and logic credits. Finally, I thought..."Hmmm, I like to write, I like to talk and I like to read - maybe I'll get a history degree!" So that's what I did. I graduated in 1995 and went straight to a pair of internships - one for a U.S. Congressman and the other for the late, great Senator Paul D. Wellstone, D-MN. When I wrapped up my internship in D.C., I spent a few months waking up at 10 a.m., getting high, watching "Bananas in Pajamas" and sending out a few resumes. I finally caught on at a VERY prestigious political consulting firm, where I worked on several campaigns and did some cause marketing and PR work.
One day, the office manager stopped by my desk to tell me she had hired a temporary receptionist named Michael. "A girl named Michael," I though. "Who could this strange, beautiful creature be?" I asked her to marry me two months after we met, and we were wed in July of 2000. The ceremony was typical of a couple of crazy kids embarking on a crazy marital adventure - we tied the knot in the ruins of an old movie theater on Main Street in Gloversville, New York. It was dusty and dingy and the perfect venue for the perfect marriage.
Immediately after the wedding, we moved to Minnesota. Mich had told me early in our courtship that she hated DC and would live just about anywhere else. "How about the Twin Cities?," I asked. "Sure, I've never lived there," said my adoring wife (who had called 10 different cities "home" while growing up with a military officer for a dad.
I took a gig with a VERY prestigious public relations firm and moved to Edina (gag) where we set up shop in a little house and tried to get pregnant. We had our daughter in late 2003 and started discussing when to get started on another kid. "How about in a year?," I suggested one day. "Or two?" A couple of days later, Mich called me at the office and asked "How about in nine months, does that work for you?"
We were thrilled and a little scared by the prospect of having two kids in diapers, but we eagerly called our parents and told them the good news. It was one of the last conversations I ever had with my father, who died of a sudden and massive heart attack while on a fly-in fishing trip in Canada. When we found out we were expecting a boy, I bawled in the ultrasound room and begged Mich to let me name our son after my dad. She relented. He was born in February of 2005 and there's something about his blue eyes that make my hard-hearted Atheist self imagine there MIGHT be something to this whole "soul" business.
Sadly, all was not well professionally and I had a less-than-amicable separation with my employer in 2006. Rather than retreating to bonghits and Bananas in Pajamas like the last time I was unemployed, I ended up landing at a very cool, creative PR agency where I do a lot more than collect a paycheck. It feels really good to feel financially secure, yet proud of the work I do.
The past couple of years, between losing my dad and my job, I didn't think things could get any worse, but they did. Mich and I were so excited to have another kid - we were expecting a girl during most of 2007. Unfortunately, due to the fickle finger of genetics, our daughter was born with Trisomy 18, a very severe chromosomal abnormality, and died 42 hours after coming into the world. Rather than turn to religion, as many people do in times like these, the tragedy galvanized my atheist tendencies completely, and now I doubt I will ever turn to organized religion in my lifetime (though I never say never).
So that's where things stand - I'm on the downward slope to the 40 year mark, living the Leave it to Beaver life in Caketown, USA (our house is a white colonial - need I say more?) and commuting to work downtown every day in the EZ Pass lane, cussing at drivers and texting on my BlackBerry.
I hope you've enjoyed this episode of "This Is Your Life" - I'm happy to answer any questions...as if any of you care for clarification. See, some things never change - I'm still the same self-important schmuck I've always been. But you know what? I like it that way.
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07:47 pm
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Minnesota Parents Gone Wild
It happens every year - sometimes in February, like today, and other times later in the season. That first day of temperate sunshine, when the icy winter doldrums thaw for a few hours and allow for windchill-less outdoor family fun.
Lee Lee went sledding for the first time and, as we expected, it was a perfect match for her daredevil instincts. Wally took one look down the hill and said "no, I'm a little scared." Lee, on the other hand, jumped on the sled and squealed with delight all the way to the bottom. I even plopped my fat ass on a sled and white-knuckled it down the "big" hill, just to show Lee Lee I once had a daring streak, too.
Two by two, moms and dads arrived at the park with their bundled boys and girls. Kids shed their gloves and teetered on the monkey bars. We all stood around and marveled at our good fortune. "What a beautiful day," we all remarked. "And I hear tomorrow it will be less windy!"
Only in Minnesota does a 33-degree February day resemble the first day of spring anywhere else in the world. I remember growing up on Lake Calhoun and seeing joggers in short pants circling the lake paths in mid-February. In college, I saw University students on campus rollerblading across a slushy Northrop mall in March. But today, it was like spring break for us cooped-up parents - watching our cabin-feverish kids chasing each-other through the snow was...well...absolutely wild.
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04:03 pm
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You know you're getting old when...
I had a molar extracted today in preparation for a titanium dental implant. Somewhere in between the double-dose of halcion, the nitrous and copious vicodin, I had a fuzzy revelation that this must be the beginning of the end...of my youth, that is. With cadaver bone stuffed into my jaw and cadaver skin covering the gaping hole in my mouth, I can't help but think that when they start using dead people's parts to fix you, it won't be long before they're using your skin and bones on some other poor sucker.
That's all I know for today, kids. Carry on...
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09:20 am
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Shame of the Nation
President George Dubya Bush looked like a wide-eyed freshman in his "legacy" speech to Congress. Even the TV pundits remarked that El Presidente seemed tentative and ill-at-ease - it was not his best speech (as if there've been any great ones) and sounded very boilerplate. Honestly, it didn't do much to inspire me and I don't think it changed my belief that Bush II is in the bottom three of my "Idol-in-Chief" competition.
There was one point when I did curse at the TV. Immediately after scolding the Congress for not extending his "warrantless wiretap" law, he launched into a cheesy constitutional homily. He invoked "we the people" and spit out every possible platitude about freedom and the founding fathers. It was like listening to a pedophile talk about how much he loves children - listening to this fascist who (along with his henchmen Rove and Cheney) basically wiped his ass with the constitution and dismantled individual rights for the past seven years...all in the name of "freedom."
Whoever wins in November, I sure hope they stop using "freedom" as some kind of punchline while individual liberty is getting cornholed.
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02:04 pm
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Childhood Meme
Alright, everyone else I know has done this stupid meme...
Father went to college
Father finished college
Mother went to college
Mother finished college
Have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor
Were the same or higher class than your high school teachers
Had more than 50 books in your childhood home
Had more than 500 books in your childhood home
Were read children's books by a parent
Had lessons of any kind before you turned 18
Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18
The people in the media who dress and talk like you were portrayed positively
Had a credit card with your name on it before you turned 18
Your parents (or a trust) paid for the majority of your college costs .
Your parents (or a trust) paid for all of your college costs
Went to a private high school
Went to summer camp
Had a private tutor before you turned 18
Family vacations involved staying at hotels.
Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18
Your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down from them
There was original art in your house when you were a child
Had a phone in your room before you turned 18
You and your family lived in a single family house
Your parent(s) owned their own house or apartment before you left home
You had your own room as a child
Participated in an SAT/ACT prep course
Had your own TV in your room in High School
Owned a mutual fund or IRA in High School or College
Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16.
Went on a cruise with your family
Went on more than one cruise with your family
Your parents took you to museums and art galleries as you grew up
You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family
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05:42 pm
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On Frozen Pond
Obligatory plug for my agency's big event...the third annual U.S. Pond Hockey Championships. Lake Nokomis, this weekend. It's free. It's cold. There'll be hockey players cussing at each-other and getting drunk in the beer garden. In other words, fun for the whole family. I'll be there Friday and Sunday - on Sunday Lee Lee is going to help me hand out some milk samples before we head home to watch NFL.
Go to http://www.uspondhockey.com for more information. And think warm thoughts for me, freezing my ass on Friday.
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07:58 pm
[Link] | Honestly...how could any professional broadcaster be such a bonehead?
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You certainly have to file Kelly Tilghman's on-air, on-camera comments during the Golf Channel's coverage of the Mercedes-Benz Championship under the "What was she thinking?" column.
During their usual post-round banter as they wrapped up Day 2 at the Plantation Course at Kapalua, Tilghman and cohort Nick Faldo discussed young players who could possibly challenge Tiger. Faldo, ever the joker, said perhaps the youngsters should "gang up (on Tiger) for a while." The pair laughed a bit before Tilghman responded by saying, "Lynch him in a back alley." The pair chuckled awkwardly before moving on.
The Golf Channel said it received a limited number of complaints regarding the comment.
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Maybe I am getting old and cynical, but Tilghman apologized immediately, called her friend Mr. Woods and apologized to him and probably feels more embarassed than anything. But that didn't stop Al Sharpton for calling for her termination and suggesting she's a racist. What the fuck is wrong with people? It was a stupid thing to say, sure. But it's a far cry from Jimmy the Greek's ridiculous and historically-inaccurate diatribe about black athletes.
It was a mistake. Let it go, people.
And who the hell made Al Sharpton the king of all black people, anyway?
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01:17 pm
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The Islamization of Political Correctness
This is the second time I've agreed with Katherine Kersten at the Strib - and she's right on about this one too.
http://www.startribune.com/featuredColumns/12551256.html
The PC-inspired decision to create a "meditation room" at Normandale Community College (a public two-year college) is 100 percent unacceptable, not to mention unconstitutional.
I am disappointed with my friends at the Minnesota Civil Liberties Union for not speaking out about this grave violation of church-state separation, and I urge them to investigate how this college was allowed to create a separate space on its campus for individual religious observances.
The issue is not, as some politically correct loudmouths may allege, whether muslims have the right to pray. Of course, anyone who wishes to pray is free to do so at any time. The issue here is making a special accommodation for one religion over another. While the school might claim the "meditation room" is for everyone, it's clear from the resources (including hate literature against Jews and Christians) available in the space that this room is a muslim prayer room.
The school ought to close the meditation room immediately and refuse to bow to pressure from the PC establishment. A public institution is no place for sanctioned religious expression - as Normandale officials can see now, such unconstitutional acts only beget religious intolerance.
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