Category: Current Events
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“…And That Is Why You Fail.”
Tracy Claeys was fired from his job as the head football coach for the University of Minnesota. Honestly, this shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone (including Claeys himself who noted that he told his family that he likely would be fired Tuesday morning), but in interviews he’s been doing, he keeps hitting on a…
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An Uncivilized Discourse
Whatever happened to respectful disagreements? Apparently, when it comes to political rallies, policy discussions, or even within the walls of our political institutions, respectfully disagreeing with someone has gone the way of the dodo. Eggs are getting tossed by protesters outside political rallies. Journalists are being roughed up at rallies. Names are being called. Insults are…
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Pardon Me, But I’ve Seen This Election Before
I hope that there are many of us in Minnesota who are watching the “Trump Train” and are shaking our heads. Except that we aren’t entirely shaking them in disgust–we’ve seen this show before, and we know how it reads from beginning to end. We’ve seen this before because way back in 1998, we Minnesotans elected…
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Be Careful What You Wish For
Long ago, practically in a previous life, we lived in North Dakota. We lived for a while, in fact, on the eastern edge of the Bakken oil field, and then later, further east off of its eastern edge. But that first year, we lived in Plaza, ND, a town–if it could indeed be called that–that…
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Option ‘C’
A month or so ago, there was a story, actually released by the North Korean government, that leader Kim Jong Un’s uncle and close advisor, Jang Song Thaek was executed for “attempting to overthrow the state.” Then this week, a report came out of North Korea (known by some as the crazy Korea) that Jang…
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It’s Dead, Jim
Let us all take a moment of silence to mourn the loss of something that has been near and dear to us for a long time. The Metrodome is now, officially, dead. After today’s Vikings game, the process of dismantling it is beginning. Like doctors harvesting organs from the freshly deceased, construction workers–or are they…
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Is “I Told You So” Wrong?
I recall feeling this same way about leadership I’d supported all the way back in 1979 and 1980. Jimmy Carter’s presidency, so hopeful at the outset because we were communally digging out from the morass that was Nixon/Ford, had become a mess. Unable to move forward in any substantial fashion in key areas of the…
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Looking the Right Way
The news over the last couple of days has been filled with information from the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C., where a man apparently opened fire and ended up killing 13 people including himself. As our society and news media has been trained to do by these now all too frequent events, we’re asking the…
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When a Stadium Isn’t a Stadium
The Vikings showed off renderings of their new stadium Monday night. It is our $1 billion temple purpose-built to the football gods, a place to stand for 30 years or so as our monument to our perpetually mediocre professional football team. And it’s just butt ugly. I’m not even sure that it looks like a…
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Divides
It was, by any measure, a momentous day on Monday. The Minnesota Senate passed the same-sex marriage law which finally allows for the state to stop discriminating against a group of people based solely on who they love. Wherever you stand on the issue, it’s an important day, but not the end nor the beginning…
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Tragedy and Questions
These things just never seem to stop, and it just rattles your sense of security and shakes your faith in humanity. After all, it wasn’t that long ago that we were mourning those souls lost at Sandy Hook Elementary School at the hands of a deeply disturbed individual. And here again, we’re mourning something horrific…
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Clarification
Welcome to 2013, kids. The bold future, the “brave new world” promised by the 21st Century. A time of amazing technology, great human achievement, and complete political gridlock. Our nation is in a “sequester,” having passed a budget plan nearly two years ago that forced upon the entire country budget cuts–which may or may…
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A Shot In The Dark
Just about a month ago, the country was forced to come to grips with one simple fact: we are all mortal–old, young, rich or poor–and everyone on this Earth has a limited time to experience life. Tragically, we learned this because 20 children, and six school staff members, and a mother who by all accounts…
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Pictures and Their Words
I was flipping through news sites online last week and came across this picture: It made me howl. Honestly. With no context or caption, it’s just hilarious. Heck, even with a context or caption, it’s hilarious. I’ll give you the real caption later. But it’s more fun to create an entire scene around this.…