Live from Brookdale Library

A few random thoughts on a snowy Sunday....

• The Vikings chose well in selecting Brad Childress as their new head coach. After the paranoia of the Dennis Green era and the palooka-ism of the Tice regime, Childress will bring an air of quiet professionalism to what has been an increasingly bizarre organization. While watching the Vikings has brought much amusement to those of us who live here but do not support their efforts, it has been difficult for the fans of the team to go through all the intellectual contortions. The teams that have been most successful (Patriots, Panthers, Steelers, etc.) in the recent era have been rather dull. Dull seems to work. And it appears that's what's coming to Minnesota.
• The "Bush Lied! People Died! Plus He Spied! So he must be fried!" line of argument that I've been hearing lately is less than convincing. Democrats have always treated some laws as holy writ (cf. the famous Boland Amendment of the 80s, which took on the mystique of a constitutional amendment), but simply have ignore other lawbreaking ("lying to a grand jury doesn't rise to the level of an impeachable offense") when it suited their purposes. Hypocrisy is always in season in Washington, so I would imagine that all this will end soon enough. Then again, perhaps 2009 can't come soon enough for some people.
• Speaking of the next election cycle, one thing that will be most interesting is whether or not the two national politicians most associated with "centrist" thinking are able to get through the party faithful on both sides. I'm thinking of John McCain on the Republican side and Joe Lieberman on the Democratic side. Both arouse passion verging on hatred among the ideological foot soldiers of each party, to say nothing of bandwith-consuming amounts of vitriol within the blogosphere. Just a hunch - neither one is going to get the nod in 2008, even though both would likely be better for the country than the candidates likely to emerge from the upcoming primary season. And here we are writing about this at the very beginning of 2006.
• I have a good friend named Julie who may have even read this blog at one point or another; she has complained about the content of the highly recommended Umlaut Free (www.umlautfree.com), so I know she does lurk about somewhat in these dusty precincts. She had an excellent take on the now celebrated "gay cowboy" movie, Brokeback Mountain. She noted that the movie, rather than being a noble exercise in showing the beauty of following your heart (often confused with your gonads, but never mind), is actually a portrait of two dishonest men who are living a lie and who break up marriages and abandon their families. She senses that there is nothing noble at all about the amorous wranglers. But for many in Hollywood and among our other elites, following the call of your genitalia is the highest form of aesthetic pursuit, even if it leads to a puptent in Wyoming. It's more authentic, doncha know.