Context

We've heard plenty about the effect of Al-Jazeera and similar organizations in how the ongoing war is perceived, and rightly so. There's a lot of sophistication in what goes on their airwaves and it's worth remembering that sophistication and sophistry are very much related terms. We've all seen how these organizations can effectively provide a direct conduit to Al Qaida, Hezbollah, Hamas and all manner of related terrorist organizations, airing their videos, conducting interviews and providing analysis of their operations and ambitions.

This is nothing new, of course - the Nazis and the Japanese provided regular propaganda broadcasts during WWII, featuring the soothing tones of Axis Sally and Tokyo Rose. Early on in the Iraq War, Saddam's mouthpiece "Baghdad Bob" was the butt of many jokes as well. It seemed that we recognized propaganda for what it was. But as the conflict drags on, it seems like our media give increasing credibility to terrorists and hostile foreign government leaders and less to George Bush and the government he runs. Mike Wallace, long renowned as the toughest interviewer in the history of television, gave a respectful, even meek platform for Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, the daytime boss for the Iranian mullahs. Previously, Dan Rather performed a similar service for Saddam Hussein before the Iraq War began.

What's striking about this is that these men, who are sworn enemies of this country, are allowed an essentially open platform for what they believe, while an American president, especially George W. Bush, would not get a similar reception. Every time Bush encounters the media, the hostility he faces is palpable. I suspect that Karl Rove and his fellow political operatives are going to be bringing this sort of thing to the attention of the American public in the coming weeks. At this point many in the media are so heavily invested in their narrative of presidential failure, that I wonder what will happen if contrary evidence is effectively presented....

The Beloit College Mindset

Readers of this feature know that I attended Beloit College. Once a year, the college issues its annual "Mindset List," a list of statments that are purportedly true about the entering freshman class at Beloit. For the first few years, the list was pretty instructive, especially as a reminder that young people do not share common frames of reference with those of us who are older.

What has happened, however, is that the list has become less insightful and more trite each year. As a Beloit alum, I suspect that the list tells you more about Beloit College, and the intellectual limitations of schools like Beloit, than it does about young people generally. There are a few funny ones on the list (www.beloit.edu), like the one saying that for young people, Ringo Starr has always been clean and sober. But many of the other entries are not especially helpful. An example is the one about young people not knowing that Bernard Shaw was on CNN. I've always believed that the cult of personality surrounding news readers is absurd, especially in the current context. Shaw had one important moment in his career, when he inadvertently sandbagged Michael Dukakis in the 1988 presidential debate, but otherwise he was a standard issue talking head who happened to have more melanin than some of his colleagues and rivals.

It's been a nice schtick for ol' alma mater, but the best riposte I've heard to the list is this -- young people today cannot remember when there wasn't a "Beloit College Mindset List." And that might mean it's time to give it a rest.

More non-sequiturs from Mark Kennedy

I haven’t given any money to Mark Kennedy’s U.S. Senate campaign. I’ll bet that a lot of people who have will be asking for their money back. He is now airing yet another bizarre ad, this time bashing the No Child Left Behind act that President Bush signed into law in 2002. Kennedy explains that his father was a school superintendent in Pequot Lakes and that his father used to complain about the incoherent rules that he had to follow, which were apparently passed down from state and federal governments. Because these rules apparently exasperated dear ol’ Dad, Congressman Kennedy was duty-bound to oppose the rules set forth by NCLB, too.

There are more than a few problems with this analysis. What Kennedy seems not to understand, or wants to evade, is that the rules set forth in NCLB don’t affect school districts like Pequot Lakes. Pequot Lakes has not had difficulties in teaching its children the basics. Where the issue comes to fore is in other places, like Minneapolis, or Kansas City, or Gary, or Newark, or Washington, DC, where monies have been lavished on school districts and certain students have failed for generations. Tying funding to performance standards may not be the right answer, but the rules that existed prior to NCLB were a disaster in every way. Democrats mostly hate NCLB because they are beholden to the teachers’ unions, who would strongly prefer that their performance not face any scrutiny. Kennedy is not going to get the teachers’ union vote in any event, because he’ll never be able to out-bid the Democrats.

Things could change, but from this vantage point I have to conclude that Kennedy’s opponent, Amy Klobuchar, is the luckiest politician I have ever seen. Too bad she’s not facing a real opponent.

I get no kick from B.J. Sander

Another high draft pick on a kicker, another bad result. The Packers cut their losses yesterday when they gave punter B. J. Sander his walking papers. They have decided to go with a young kicker from Canada instead.

We've been here before, of course. The Packers found an excellent placekicker way back in 1972 when they plucked Chester Marcol out of Hillsdale College with a second round draft pick. Marcol did a very good job for a number of years, until he began losing his battle with the bottle. But since then, the Packers have reached for kickers three separate times and each of them didn't work out. The Packers picked up a punter from Michigan State named Ray Stachowitz in the early 80s. Stachowitz was supposed to be an upgrade over journeyman David Beverly, but he really never did well, hanging on for a few years before quietly disappearing. Back in 1997, the Packers decided to drop reliable Chris Jacke and drafted Penn State kicker Brett Conway. Conway was injured and never kicked for the team; fortunately, the Packers were able to find Ryan Longwell on the street. Longwell developed into the best, most consistent kicker in Packer history before his departure this off-season. Sander, a punter from Ohio State, was unimpressive throughout his tenure in Green Bay.

There seems to be a pattern here - Big Ten kickers, big legs in college, little results. Specialists can be a huge problem, of course; Phil Bengtson's 1968 Packer squad probably would have made the playoffs except for the terrible production they got out of a cavalcade of kickers. But it doesn't make much sense to draft a kicker too high. The only Hall of Fame kicker to be drafted in the first round was longtime Raider punter Ray Guy. It should tell you something.

What month is it again?

Regular readers of this feature are typically astute, and I’m reasonably certain that most everyone who finds this space realizes what month this is. But I’m not so sure that others do. Consider:

· The chattering classes apparently decided that this was Katrina Week. Not coincidentally, Spike Lee has a two part documentary on Hurricane Katrina airing on some pay cable channel or other, so we’ve been treated to a lot of blather and finger-pointing about last year’s BIG EVENT. It’s apparently important that certain aspects of the disaster (i.e., the role of the Federal Government) must be a consistent source of discussion. Interestingly, the hurricane season for 2006 has been something of a dud, especially for those who posit GLOBAL WARMING as a prime mover of HUGE CATASTROPHIC STORMS that will WIPE OUT HUMANITY AND DESTROY THE PLANET. The lack of climatological cooperation seems to be AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH to certain people.
· Cindy Sheehan is protesting in Crawford, Texas. It seems to have escaped notice, but President Bush has not been on an evil ONE MONTH VACATION down there this year. Kinda takes the air out of things for Sheehan, I guess.
· Bush has begun talking a little more about the HORRIBLE OPTIONAL WAR again. You know, the WAR THAT KILLS INNOCENTS and CAUSES TERRORISM TO SPREAD. THE WAR FOR OIL. THAT NEOCON WAR. That war. He has been inconveniently adding a little context to what’s happening. He actually used a term that’s been much in use in certain precincts – “Islamic Fascism.” He can’t do this of course, because that is PLAYING POLITICS and QUESTIONING THE PATRIOTISM of those who disagree with him. It is EVIL.

Just a guess – there might be more of this sort of thing in store. THAT EVIL KARL ROVE! WHY ISN’T HE IN JAIL? WHERE’S MY PAXIL?!!

Football is getting closer - what do we know?

After the second round of pre-season games, I think we know a few things:

1. Brett Favre can still throw. Favre had a nice game against the Atlanta Falcons on Saturday, throwing two touchdown passes. He still has a propensity to throw the interception, but he still looks to have enough in the tank to perform well this year. Favre can break Dan Marino's record for most touchdown passes this year, and George Blanda's record for most career interceptions. He should probably own both records - it would be right summation of his career - high reward, high risk.
2. The Vikings may have a good young quarterback in Tarvaris Jackson, but they better keep Brad Johnson healthy. Jackson has talent and poise. He reminds me of Steve McNair and Jake Delhomme. He could be a nemesis for my beloved Packers for many years. Having said that, he's probably not ready to play much this season. And the two veteran backup quarterbacks the Vikings have in camp, Mike McMahon and J.T. O'Sullivan, are both stiffs. If the 38-year old Johnson gets hurt, the Vikes will be in a lot of trouble.
3. The AFC continues to have a big talent edge on the NFC, but the gap may be closing. These things tend to be cyclical, of course, especially in the NFL, which makes it very difficult for a team to stay on top for long. I still think the AFC will produce the Super Bowl winner, however. Who it will be is a tougher question. If any NFC team has a shot this year, it's probably Carolina.
4. The news in college football in the Twin Cities is pretty muddled. The Gophers do not seem to have any idea who will be their tailback. Laurence Maroney is now a pro and Gary Russell is an academic casualty. Amir Pinnix should have had the job sewn up, but he doesn't. If the Gophs don't have a quality runner, they will struggle in the Big Ten.
5. I'm really eager to see what the Badgers will be like this season under Bret Bielema. Barry Alvarez generally built efficient, powerful teams that would physically whip the opposition while committing few errors. Bielema is a young man and it will be interesting to see if he opens things up in Madison. Ohio State, Penn State and Michigan, the traditional powers of the Big Ten, are all a lot more colorful programs than they used to be. The old, traditional Big Ten style can still work, but if the leaders aren't using it, it begs a few questions. The answers will start coming soon.

Meanwhile, there's still a lot of baseball to think about. More on that soon.

Deserving to lose

The upcoming election cycle is becoming increasing dreary and depressing. As I listen to the candidates, I am increasingly convinced that Michael Barone has it exactly right. The Republicans definitely deserve to lose, but the Democrats don’t deserve to win.

I’ve been watching in amazement the increasingly desperate campaign flailings of Mark Kennedy, the Republican nominee for the open U.S. Senate seat here in Minnesota. Kennedy made his bones as a solid, smart and diligent Congressman in the 6th Congressional District, which leans somewhat more conservative than the rest of the state. He is running against Amy Klobuchar, the Hennepin County attorney, who has managed to take a pretty good lead even though she has offered essentially nothing other than her father’s famous last name as a justification for her candidacy.

Kennedy has now run at least three television advertisements, each more incoherent than the first. I wrote about the first, introductory ad in my July 26 entry. This too clever by half advertisement continues to run regularly on Twin Cities television stations. Kennedy’s latest ad suggests that he has a plan to solve high gas prices. He suggests repealing (temporarily) the federal gas tax, and removing any tax breaks that Big Oil is currently getting, and taking the money that this would supposedly net to develop alternative fuels. Okay, let’s look at this.

· The federal gas tax is $0.183/gallon; this means that, if I put 10 gallons of gas into my car, it would save me $1.83. I paid $2.81/gallon this morning. The $1.83 that I would have saved would have meant I would have paid $2.62/gallon instead. Would it help me? Sure – it would save me about $250/year in the aggregate. If I’m smart, I could use that wisely.
· I really wonder how many tax breaks the oil companies currently get. I don’t think the domestic oil companies are really the issue, as they do not control the price, the overall market does. Unless the US figures out a way to tax the likes of Petronas (Malaysia), Pemex (Mexico) and especially PDVSA (Venezuela) and ARAMCO (Saudi Arabia), and other nationalized oil companies, there won’t be a lot to gain. Here’s a hint – the US has no shot at getting any money from any of these entities.
· Alternative fuels, in the lexicon of any Midwestern politician, means ethanol. And it would be difficult to find something that’s more heavily subsidized than ethanol.
Long and short of it? Kennedy’s proposal is silly. It really doesn’t do anything useful to solve any issue. And it distracts from the real issue – that the Democrats are essentially proposing surrender as their foreign policy.

Cherchez la femme

Something I've noticed - in recent days we've seen two separate aviation-related incidents involving women. On one, a trans-Atlantic flight was diverted to Boston after a female passenger began behaving strangely on the flight. There's a pretty good account of what happened in yesterday's Best of The Web Today column on the Wall Street Journal's opinion website (www.opinionjournal.com). Subsequently, a woman attempted to sneak potentially explosive liquids on a plane at an airport in Huntington, West Virginia.

These two incidents may be coincidental, but I wonder. We've heard a lot of hand-wringing about profiling passengers and the legal, moral and ethical pitfalls involved. I'm guessing there will be more attempts, but the perpetrators may not be young male Arabic or South Asian Muslims (e.g., Pakistanis or Malaysians). The nation grows weary of all this. But there's a reason why the Founders termed "eternal vigilance" the price of liberty. And all the Carter administration federal judges in Detroit (and elsewhere), and all the shrill self-congratulatory rulings they issue from the bench, won't change that.

Surrender

And now, a Mr. Dilettante song parody. Hum along if you'd like

Old Joe told me, yes he told me
I'd meet guys like Ned
He also told me stay away
You never know, so he'd kvetch

Now when I stepped into the booth
I heard the bloggers scream
This Cindy Sheehan good old fever dream

Jesse's all right, Sharpton's all right
They just seem a little weird
Surrender, surrender, just don't give the game away

"You can't vote for Lieberman,"
Ol' Ned said, turning three shades of green
"I've got solutions to your problems,"
He said from his limousine

Now don't you fret about the war
There's nothing to fear you see
Because Madame Albright is on the scene

Nancy's all right, Russ is all right
The just seem a little weird
Surrender, surrender, just don't give the game away

Mr. Robinson's Neighborhood

The news about Koren Robinson's arrest in Mankato for drunken driving and other related charges is sad, indeed. For some, alcohol is the road to ruin and there's no excusing what Robinson did, especially causing a high-speed chase down Hwy 169.

While it's not clear what the results of this latest incident will be, we can reasonably surmise that Robinson's career with the Vikings is probably over and his NFL career is as well. He came into the league following a stellar career at North Carolina State, having played a key role in defeating the Gophers in the legendary Micronpc.com bowl way back in 1999. Who could forget that day? He joined the pass-centric attack of the Seattle Seahawks and under the tutelage of Mike Holmgren, learned the NFL game. But he couldn't stay away from the bright lights and developed a significant drinking problem. Seattle eventually released Robinson after a series of incidents and he came to the Vikings with hat in hand last season. He needed a chance and the Vikings were the last chance he had. He thrived under the laissez-faire coaching of Mike Tice and soon became a key contributor to the team. He was rewarded with a multi-year contract and league-wide praise for his courage in facing the demons. Only Monday, sportscaster Michele Tafoya sang his praises on Monday Night Football. But one day later, he threw it all away.

As a Wisconsin boy, I've seen and done a lot of drinking in my time. But, for whatever reason, I've been able to largely walk away from the lifestyle. I have a beer about once a month these days and haven't gone out drinking at all, except for a few random bachelor parties. I can see the allure is still there, but it's not been that difficult to walk away. I'm lucky, I guess. I do hope that, someday, Koren Robinson can defeat his demons once and for all.

Reasons to be Cheerful

I'm a casual fan of Ian Dury, a British pub-rocker who put out a few wonderful ditties about 25 years ago. One of my favorites is his somewhat sardonic update on Rogers and Hammerstein, "Reasons to be Cheerful," in which Dury sings (sort of) about things he likes, including claret wine, carrot juice, Steven Biko, singing along to Smokey Robinson, and the solos of John Coltrane. His list may not exactly jibe with yours or mine, but I always have liked the tune because it does remind me that no matter how bad things look, there are reasons to be cheerful. It's probably not coincidental that Dury released the song around the same time that Monty Python featured the song "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life," as sung by the lead character in their movie "The Life of Brian," as he is being crucified.

So instead of worrying about Hezbollah, or snarking about on annoying politicians, today let's consider some of our own "Reasons to be Cheerful." Here's a short list:

Pennant races
Smiling kids' faces
The Minneapolis Institute of Arts
Old chestnuts on the radio
Groucho, Harpo, Chico (Dury mentions them, too)
Steaming cups of coffee
Heath Bar English Toffee
McDonald's Buffalo Chicken Sauce
Mowing the lawn in the early evening
Sunsets over Lake Johanna
Justin Morneau
An Arnie Palmer in a tall glass
Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract

Feel free to add yours.

Month of Ghosts Redux

It’s difficult to believe, but Mom died six years ago on this day. I’ve discussed my mom a fair amount in this space; she endured a lot and achieved more than she likely knew. She died following complications from a mastectomy, but it’s difficult to know how long she would have lasted, as she had developed emphysema and was essentially confined to a wheelchair the last year of her life.

I think she still felt she had a lot to live for. She had recently met her third grandchild, my nephew Joel, who was born one month before her passing. Six years on, she now has six grandchildren, as Will, Natalie and Eddie have joined our family. This next generation, including Ben and Maria, are generally blessed with healthy grandparents on the other side of their respective families, so at least the kids can share the wisdom and love these maternal grandparents will provide. Still, it’s a shame that only Ben remembers Mom. She had a lot to teach these children, but the lessons will have to come second-hand.

Coffee with the Scourge

So I met the Red Scourge for coffee on Friday. As readers of this feature generally know, there are two people I know who are referred to as the Red Scourge. One is, to borrow a phrase from Yeats, a drunken, vainglorious lout who lives in Wisconsin and who is well known for his beer-fueled but ultimately harmless antics. The other Red Scourge is my former co-worker, an innocent looking red haired woman with an abundance of native intelligence, a no-b.s. sensibility and a tongue like a lash. That’s the one I saw.

We both are B of A refugees and we’ve both endured sometimes difficult job searches since the offices we shared were closed earlier this year. Although our experiences since then have varied to some degree, we’ve come to some similar conclusions:

· We both are finding that our experiences are a double edged sword. Banks generally are pretty generous with job titles; while it’s a neat thing to refer to yourself as an “Assistant Vice President,” those words, when placed on a resume, can actually hurt. In most cases, and most places, a VP is a senior leader of an organization; at B of A, VPs are something less than that. Both of us have found that the job title makes prospective employers think you are “overqualified” for a job.
· While business is supposed to be good right now, companies are still very cautious about hiring. We’ve both had experiences where a job that was posted did not, ultimately, get filled. Companies continue to run quite lean.
· We both have very mixed emotions about our former employer. There is no question that the team we had was a great group to work with, but the amount of institutional support we had seemed lacking. It’s still not clear that B of A is committed to the line of business; if they had been, they would have made more of an effort to keep the team intact.

We’re both moving on with our lives, but there are a lot of loose ends. And a few scars that have yet to heal.

Stockyard Days Parade

Most of the suburbs of Twinstown have some form of annual celebration/festival/confab. In most cases, the celebrations have a theme that relates to something about the area’s present or past. I live in New Brighton, which generally qualifies as one of the most non-descript of suburbs. If you drive the streets of New Brighton, you generally find classic, Wonder Years-era suburban homes, generally on quarter acre lots, typically with well manicured lawns. It’s a tidy, unremarkable place bisected by two major expressways (35W and 694) and most people pass through my town without giving it a second thought, just as people pass through places like Elmhurst, Illinois, or West Allis, Wisconsin, to cite two similar places.

With not much to talk about now, New Brighton looks to its past. About 100 years ago, New Brighton was a rail town, one of the first stops out of Minneapolis, and its primary business was stockyards. There were often more cattle than people in town in those days. Around the same time, stockyards also sprouted in South St. Paul and this competition routed the New Brighton stockyards, which quickly faded from the scene. Despite this evident failure in the city’s past, the city chooses to celebrate this failed heritage with Stockyard Days. Like most of these festivals, a big part of the hoopla is the annual parade, which marches through “downtown” New Brighton (a non-descript New Urbanist invention that looks most like a small office park) and then down Old Highway 8 to the American Legion post. Ben and his Cub Scout troop marched in the parade this year, so Maria and I went to see the festivities. We plunked down in front of St. John the Baptist school with Maria’s grandparents and watched it happen.

There were three things on display – beauty queens, politicians and candy. Many, many suburbs have similar festivals and it seems that all of them stage beauty pageants. We saw lovelies from Hopkins, Brooklyn Center, Brooklyn Park, Fridley, Vadnais Heights, Little Canada, Hopkins, Lakeville, Woodbury, Richfield, White Bear Lake, Stillwater and other suburban enclaves, most wearing satin gowns and cowboy hats. We saw candidates for governor, Congress, the state legislature, the state senate, attorney general, secretary of state, auditor, school board, county sheriff and even more obscure administrative fiefdoms. And there was candy. Everyone was throwing candy to the spectators. Maria came home with more candy than she generally gets for Halloween and she was covered with campaign stickers from the various politicians and the mark of the Vulcans (of St. Paul Winter Carnival fame) on her cheek.

I find these parades oddly reassuring. They are a vestige of a simpler past, where communities were more than aggregations of people with similar demographics. The evident quirks you see on display are all too human and that’s hard to gainsay in a time where inhumanity is on the march.

We still have t-ball

It's easy to get cynical and one of the greatest challenges I face is avoiding the grasp of cynicism. It's easy to watch the cruelty and indifference of human beings to one another - the daily newscasts are little more than a running chronicle of man's inhumanity to man, along with health tips, since someone in the news departments apparently believes that we all want to cling to this mortal coil for as long as possible. You wonder why that would be, if things are so terrible.

One reason is t-ball. There's nothing like watching a group of six year old kids earnestly chasing a soft padded baseball around a dirt field, the air punctuated with shouts of joy and the occasional tear because someone fielded "my ball." When a kid catches a ball, or strikes a mighty blow that clears the infield, or finally gets to have the post-game treat, there is pure joy on display.

This has been, in many ways, a crappy year. But giving our kids a chance to smile, play and be a kid can make all the bitterness fade away, if only for a moment. Those are moments worth cherishing. Thank you, New Brighton Park Department, for giving us those moments.

8/10 is not 9/11

At least this time. As you've probably heard, British intelligence foiled a plot where terrorists were planning to board commercial airliners and blow them up in flight using liquid explosives. Two quick thoughts:

• Hooray for the MI5; unlike the sieve-like CIA, they don't leak their methods to the press; they simply find the bad guys and catch them.
• Memo to those who aren't currently intersted in the threat of terrorism - you may not be interested in terrorists, but terrorists are clearly interested in you.
• Ned Lamont typically doesn't have to worry about these things, of course, because he can use a private jet.

I'm glad that someone continues to take this stuff seriously.

The Star Tribune begs The Big Question

(Note: edited on 8/10/06 - I got part of the details of this wrong yesterday, but the point is the same)

This campaign season the Star Tribune has decided that merely proffering its hilariously rigged Minnesota Polls is simply not enough. They have also taken on the role of self-appointed "watchdog" of the various political campaigns now ongoing in Minnesota. Today's entry is an especially risible example of begging the question.

The Star Tribune takes on an obscure Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee press release, which alleged that Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty has been calling Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mark Kennedy a "weenie" for distancing himself from President Bush. They take the DSCC to task for conflating statements that Pawlenty made in a different context.

It's all well and good, but there's a problem. No one, except for those who get press releases from the DSCC, would have even known the charge had been made; in nearly every case the pressies didn't run any stories because there was no story. But now, since the Star Tribune has ostentatiously aired the report and branded it false, it has given the false charge currency by mentioning it to an audience many times the audience of the DSCC.

The feature might as well have said, "Pawlenty denies asking Kennedy if he's stopped beating his wife." Put another way, it's the same as killing a mosquito that had landed on Kennedy's leg by shooting the mosquito while it's still on Kennedy's leg. Solves one "problem," but retails another to a wide audience. Another nice performance by the Strib.

The Shadow knows

So it happened - upstart limousine liberal candidate Ned Lamont, darling of the Kos crowd and standard bearer for the Howard Beale wing of the Democratic party, defeated Joseph Lieberman in the Connecticut senate primary yesterday. Lamont will be the official Democratic candidate, while Lieberman will continue to run for re-election, this time as an independent. What to make of all this? A few thoughts:

• While it would be uncharitable to argue that the official position of the Democratic party in re the Iraq War is now abject surrender, that's the case in Connecticut. I am still waiting to hear a coherent explanation of how surrendering will improve the US position in the world, but that seems to be what these folks are advocating. I don't think "cut and run" is actually a pejorative enough term for what is proposed here, by the way.
• If Lieberman goes on to win the election, he has said he will continue to caucus with the Democrats. But I wonder about that - he is now persona non grata and other Democratic representatives will be duty and honor-bound to support Mr. Lamont. Can Lieberman really go back? And if he beats Lamont, will all be forgiven?
• If Lamont really does win the general election, he will likely have a lot more visibility and power than the typical freshman senator. It would be interesting to see how he would use it.

Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? In the old radio show, it was Lamont Cranston, a/k/a the Shadow. In the next three months, the voters of Connecticut are going to be putting on their own show.

Budum alert - time for a Twins update!

It's remarkable, really, that the Twins are sitting at 65-45 and contending for a playoff spot in the American League. Back at the beginning of the summer, this team looked dead, with only one reliable starting pitcher available and a lineup filled with has-beens and never-wases at many positions. I've been watching baseball for over 35 years now and I've never seen a team retool on the fly as successfully as the Twins have.

Think of what has happened:

• Hitting machine Nick Punto replaces cigar store indian Tony Batista at third. Punto doesn't hit for power, but he's on base a lot and he has a knack for driving in key runs.
• Punchless Juan Castro leaves for Cincinnati, and Jason Bartlett comes in. Bartlett is currently hitting over .370 from the 9 hole.
• Lew "Diminishing Returns" Ford gets injured, and two more Jasons, Kubel and Tyner, come in and both hit about 100 points higher.
• Shannon Stewart gets injured, but others cover his at bats and the team doesn't miss a beat.
• Torii Hunter gets injured, but the same thing happens.

If someone had told you at the beginning of the season that Batista, Castro, Rondell White, Ruben Sierra, Stewart and Hunter would produce almost nothing, you would have assumed that the Twins would be 20 games below .500. But here we are. Enjoy the pennant race - you'll not likely see anything like this season again.

Teeing up t-ball for the last time

My daughter's fearsome t-ball team will take the field again tonight for a game against the dreaded Team Three. This is the last game of the season. I had planned to provide ongoing coverage of her season, much as I had for my son's team, but it's been difficult to do that. There are a number of reasons:

1. It's difficult to provide a score when no one is keeping score
2. It's not easy to capture the action of a t-ball game, except to note that it bears only a passing resemblance to baseball
3. You would have to be especially churlish to criticize the performance of a six-year old child
4. At this level, praise is best offered directly to the kids, not via a blog

There are a few things that are true, however, about my daughter's team, that are worth noting here.

1. I don't know that you'll find a nicer group of kids than this group. We had 11 very distinct personalities on display, but they all managed to get along very nicely.
2. Not surprisingly, we had a wonderful group of parents as well. They were uniformly supportive of their kids and really cheered on everyone.
3. My co-coach is really a fine individual and his son has a chance to be a really good ballplayer at the next level. We also had one other kid who is remarkably talented. It can be a challenge for kids like that to not be bored with the basic coaching that we have to do at this level, but these two young men are very good about it.
4. While I'm very happy about the kids I had, it's disappointing that the City of New Brighton was only able to field three teams this year. I know there are kids in the age group who might like to play, but for some reason they aren't on the field. That does not bode well for the future of the sport in this community.

If you are in the area and want to see a fun, spirited game, come check us out. Game time is 6:15 tonight at Pike Lake #2.

Imagine that

So we learn today that Reuters is pulling over 900 published photographs from its archives. The photographs were taken by a "freelance" photographer in Lebanon named Adnan Hajj. It appears that at least some of his photos were faked. I'm shocked, shocked to learn of this.

Neville's heirs

I've been thinking about the 1930s a lot lately, and not just because I've been screening Marx Brothers movies with the kids. It's easy to forget things as time passes, and as I watch the events of the past few weeks unfold, I've been thinking a lot about another 1930s figure, Neville Chamberlain. Chamberlain served as prime minister of Britain in the late 1930s and was famous, and later infamous, for his penchant for negotiating with Hitler. He famously proclaimed that an agreement he made with Hitler in 1938 would offer "peace in our time." Oddly enough, Hitler didn't quite see it the same way and within a year war engulfed the European continent.

As I've listened to all the wise souls in the UN and other respectable organizations call on Israel to cease fighting back against the Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon, it certainly seems like 1938 again. The intellectual backdrop for these calls posits, intentionally or not, a moral equivalence between the Israeli democracy and the Islamic terrorists who attack it. Israel has, as modern democracies do, taken great pains to avoid inflicting civilian casualties. Hezbollah couldn't care less and routinely attacks Israeli civilians. Some of their mis-fired rockets have even struck the West Bank, killing Palestinians. But somehow, even though Hezbollah instigated this, the Israelis are apparently supposed to offer a cease fire.

It seems bizarre that we have to keep belaboring this point, but we do. Israel's enemies seek nothing less than the destruction of the Jewish state, and as a bonus, the death of as many Jews as possible in the process. In short, they seek genocide. And these enemies are remarkably consistent in this. Hamas, Fatah, Hezbollah, the former government of Iraq, the current government of Iran - they all agree on this. Genocide is not rational in any sense; it's even less rational to believe that you can successfully negotiate with those who seek genocide. I too am tired of this war, but we cannot negotiate it away. Neville Chamberlain famously carried an umbrella with him, but it provided no shelter from Hitler. Those who offer an umbrella today are no better.

Is Mel Gibson really more dangerous than Hezbollah?

You'd think so, based on some of the news coverage this week. Everyone in the news media seem to be completely up in arms because Mel Gibson apparently went on some sort of an anti-Semitic tirade during a drunk driving arrest in California over the weekend. Meanwhile, back in the real world, Hezbollah continues to attack Israeli cities daily, while their patron Mahmoud Ahmedinejad casually suggests that hostilities would end if Israel would simply get with the program and cease to exist. Maybe, just maybe, do ya think there might be some misplaced priorities here? Just asking.

Hooray for Captain Spaulding

Turner Classic Movies did a good thing yesterday, running a Marx Brothers marathon. I was able to watch Animal Crackers with the kids last night, which gave them another look at the anarchic humor of these now American icons. Over 75 years have passed since Groucho, Chico, Harpo and Zeppo shared their zany antics with the world and yet the humor is so universal that it stands up well today.

Humor is, inevitably, a very self-referential form of communication. Context can be everything and many comedians who had audiences in one era have great difficulty reaching an audience later on. If you ever have a chance to watch an episode of "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In" on television, you should do it. It is amazing to see how gracelessly the humor there has aged; the one major talent on the show is Lily Tomlin, who has made a fine career for herself in Hollywood, but nearly everyone else on display has faded quickly from the scene. For that matter, watch some Lenny Bruce if you can. You'll be amazed at, with the distance of 50 years, his humor seems to lack the edge that was his calling card back in the era. Just guessing here - audiences 30 years on will mostly wonder what the fuss was all about when they watch re-runs of "Seinfeld."

The great comedians of every era understood (and understand) what while humor is self-referential, the best humor is grounded in understanding of the human conditions and the inherent silliness that resides within all of us. We all need a laugh and the Marx Brothers knew how to get one. And now, so many years on, they still do.

Minimum Wage! Hah! (Sound of whip cracking)

You might remember They Might Be Giants, a two man band that trafficked in short, cerebral and often surreal little ditties. My understanding is that they are still a working band, but they have not really had much prominence since the early 90s. One of their funniest little songs was one called "Minimum Wage," whose lyrics are captured just about in their entirety in the caption to this post. The royalties for that song probably have contributed to the estates of the TMBG members. More on that in a moment.

Whenever I hear the debate about raising the minimum wage, I think of that song. The minimum wage is largely a fiction, since nearly every job in America pays more than the minimum, which is currently $5.15 per hour. Even the crappiest temp jobs I've seen listed pay at least double that amount. You have to be especially inept to make the minimum wage in this country.

As a result, raising the minimum wage will do very little to help anyone. However, eliminating the estate tax would be very helpful. There has been a lot of carping about linking these two items, especially since eliminating the estate tax is seen as a "tax break for the rich," which makes it EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL. The really rich rarely pay it, because they can afford financial advisors who set up lawful means to avoid it. Those who lose out because of the estate tax are largely heirs to a family farm or business; they are often forced to sell or close their farm/business/enterprise to pay the tax. It's always difficult to see how the estate tax is anything but destructive in those instances. To use just one example, the brilliant attorney Amy Klobuchar seems to think repealing the estate tax will somehow benefit Paris Hilton. I would wager that Ms. Hilton's money is already well-protected. And even if it weren't, it's difficult to understand why a law should punish Paris Hilton just because she is rich.

If you have an estate, the money in it was likely taxed at least twice - once, when you earned it, and a second time after you've invested it. I wonder how many times the government really needs to reach into our wallets.

El Caudillo

For reasons that only the mainstream media might comprehend, but only if they were willing to think hard about it, the apparent health crisis of Fidel Castro is front page news across the country, momentarily bumping the Middle East to the bottom of the page, or even page 3 in some cases. This is curious.

Castro has run Cuba for nearly 50 years now. In this time, the Cuban nation has suffered through a slow, steady decline into ruin. He has tolerated no dissent, has regularly jailed political opponents and has been more than willing to send his citizens off to die in pointless wars across the globe. Oddly enough, these are some of the things that George Bush has been accused of doing, but it is the rare voice outside of Miami’s Cuban enclave that brings any of this up. Most coverage of Castro in this country tends to take his pronouncements at face value.

One of the main reasons tyranny persists is that there are always those who admire tyrants. Even today, Hitler has his supporters, as do Stalin, Mao and countless others who were willing to do anything to gain and maintain power. Castro is cut from the same cloth as these others. If he is indeed entering his final days and preparing to meet his Maker, it would be a very happy day for the Cuban people.

The month of ghosts

August arrived this morning. For many people August is vacation month, summer's last hurrah. Here in Minnesota August is the month of the State Fair, a huge part of our collective consciousness. It's a month of pennant races, pre-season football, golf championships and some of the best, most accessible sunsets of the year.

It's my least favorite month, by a long shot. Everything I mentioned above is important to me. We have had some wonderful times during August, but it is the month of ghosts. It is the month that I lost both my parents. I've discussed my mom at some length in this feature earlier this year, and there's a lot more to say about her amazing, contradictory, awful yet fascinating life. But today I'm going to talk a little about Dad.

Dad was born in 1933, a child of the Depression. He came of age in the late 1940s and early 1950s, a time of tremendous upheaval in our nation. His generation is something of an afterthought in the American pageant. He was still a boy during WWII, but was a grown man with young children during the 1960s. There has not been a president from his generation, and it is quite likely that there never will be. No one ever called his generation the greatest, nor were his contemporaries indulged as the Baby Boomers are.

Dad, like his contemporaries, was simply expected to participate. He was expected to graduate from high school, and he did. He went into the Army in between Korea and Vietnam, serving two years in Europe. He came back, went to school and married a pretty young executive secretary. He went off to the big city of Chicago to make his fortune. But because his wife suffered from demons that he could never quite grasp, he decided to return to the relative safety of the Fox River Valley. He worked hard, traveling extensively for business. He played hard, too. He liked a cocktail and a cigar and often had a set of golf clubs in the trunk just in case an opportunity arose. He had a warm sense of humor, an expansive if conservative world view and a trusting nature. He had friends all over the state of Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. He was, in short, a hell of a guy.

But the defining relationship of his life, his first marriage, was disastrous. His wife's mental illness was an explosive, insidious beast that caused him almost unbelievable grief. He tried to protect his children from the rages, but the task was too large for him to bear at times. He soldiered on, as members of his generation do, for 13 long years, but after a while he could not take it any longer and he eventually left. It would be six years before he could finally help his children find a better life under his new roof. And then, only seven years later, he was gone, dead from complications following open heart surgery, on August 30, 1990.

Dad died less than a month after Jill and I announced our engagement. I am comforted to know that he knew I had found a wonderful woman to marry. But he never met any of his grandchildren. It's a shame, really. And while I think of Dad nearly every day, it's always in August, the month of ghosts, where it gets toughest of all.

Eddie gets religion

We made a quick trip back to Appleton last weekend for my nephew's baptism. Young Eddie is a strapping young lad with a full head of hair and very long fingers. Although there's not a lot of tall people on either side of the family, this young boy has a chance to tower over his parents and his cousins once everyone has grown up. The baptism itself was nice and it was good to see my family again.

It has been said that the birth of every child is another vote that the world not only will go on, but that it should. My nephew is a perfect example of that.

Appleton, ho!

Not exactly the most inspiring call, but what are you gonna do? We're going to load the family up for a quick trip back to Appleton this weekend. My nephew Eddie will be baptized on Sunday at St. John's Church in lovely Little Chute. We're only going to be gone one night, but it will be good to see my siblings and get a change of scenery. As readers of this feature well know, I've been out of work for some time now and while we're surviving this blow, it's been getting more difficult as the weeks go on. I haven't left the state of Minnesota since Jill and I test-drove the Portland area in December, so we're long overdue for a change of scenery.

Every time I return to my home town, I get to resume my ambivalent relationship with it. I've long believed that Appleton was a great place to grow up, but throughout my youth I was eager to find a larger canvas and I haven't lived there for well over 20 years now. In many ways, Appleton is a very different place than it was in the 1970s. The population has swelled and has opened its doors to the world, for better and worse. The Appleton I grew up in was prosperous, provincial and sometimes uncurious about the larger world. It sent a famous magician (Harry Houdini), a largely forgotten early female literary lion (Edna Ferber), a genuine American hero (Rocky Bleier) and a greatly reviled villain (Joe McCarthy) into the national scene. Some 20 years ago now, Sports Illustrated chose Appleton as Sports City, USA, for the varied sporting opportunities available there. It's a baseball town that has sent numerous teams to the Little League World Series, but it also lies in the shadow of Green Bay, professional football's holy of holies. In the 20 years since, Appleton has continued to prosper, growing into a modern small city. As Appleton has grown, its contradictions have become more visible, but from my perch 290 miles to the west, it seems like a better place now than it was when I grew up. It has changed, and so have I.

Mo' Bulldog

It was passing strange that Mike (the Bulldog) Hatch, the endorsed DFL candidate for governor, made a formal complaint to the Minnesota News Council about a story that the Star Tribune had not run. Since there was no article, it seemed especially weird. The Strib reporters had been asking about Hatch's parking tickets, which were part of the dirt that Matt Entenza's oppo investigation turned up. Ordinarily, parking tickets are not that big a deal per se.

But the question is far more interesting when you are asking where the parking took place. The Strib decided to run an article today. Here it is - draw your own conclusions:

Hatch was smear target, a sheriff suspects

Location of attorney general's parking ticket spurred a private investigator's interest, says Dakota County's Gudmundson.

Mike Kaszuba and Pat Doyle, Star Tribune
Last update: July 26, 2006 – 10:54 PM

When Dakota County Sheriff Don Gudmundson heard last year that someone was asking his office about an old parking ticket issued to Attorney General Mike Hatch, he said he quickly became suspicious.

Gudmundson said Wednesday that he is convinced that a man working for a Chicago firm, hired by former state attorney general candidate Matt Entenza, tried to use the ticket to link Hatch to a park-overlook known as a gay-cruising area as part of what he surmised was a smear attempt.
He said any effort to link Hatch to the area and its reputation was "pure crap." But he said the firm may have thought it had "won the lottery" when it saw the ticket was issued to Hatch's car parked at the overlook.

Entenza was unavailable for comment Wednesday. Earlier this month, he acknowledged hiring the firm to explore the workings of Hatch's office, yet said he was "horrified" to learn later that broader inquiries were made without his knowledge or approval.

The firm has confirmed it collected more public documents than Entenza requested.
But if Gudmundson's theory is correct, the inquiry into the 2003 ticket illustrates the tough and unsparing digging into Hatch's personal as well as professional life by the firm, Gragert Research. After reports of the broader investigation surfaced, Entenza withdrew from the attorney general race. Gragert did not return a phone call Wednesday seeking a comment about Gudmundson's conclusions. V.J. Bustos, the man who sought details about the parking ticket on behalf of Gragert, also did not return a phone call. Both have declined repeated requests to discuss their roles.

Hatch didn't comment Wednesday on the sheriff's conclusion. His spokeswoman, Leslie Sandberg, said he was moving on to other issues "rather than rehashing what is now history."

Antennaes up
Gudmundson said when he heard about the inquiry he quickly surmised -- because of the location where the ticket was issued -- that the goal was to find potentially unflattering information about Hatch.

"I had no idea who was looking," Gudmundson said. "I didn't have a hint. I knew ... it would have been, what I would consider, opposition research."

Gragert's investigation of the ticket surfaced after the Star Tribune reported on July 12 that Entenza had hired the firm to conduct an inquiry into possible government spending by Hatch on furniture and artwork for his personal office and on travel. Bustos filed a request for such financial details, and the newspaper later obtained documents showing he also asked Dakota County authorities about the parking ticket.

It was issued to Hatch's car in December 2003 when it was parked after hours at the Big Rivers Trail scenic overlook parking lot in Mendota Heights.

Hatch's office has said that he and his wife each drove their cars to the Big Rivers Trail overlook, left their Buick at the site and drove in one car to a party they attended that night. The next day, they retrieved the Buick, discovered the ticket and promptly paid it.

Bustos inquired about the ticket in early 2005.
Said Gudmundson: "My antennaes were up right away, from the beginning, because why would anybody be interested in this petty parking ticket?"

He said he learned of Entenza's hiring of the firm only after reading about it in the newspapers. "My senior staff, my chief deputy and other people, they knew exactly what this investigator and Mr. Entenza was trying to find," Gudmundson said.

But Entenza previously said the broader inquiry wasn't his idea. He said Gragert, "in an effort to impress me and other clients in Minnesota," went far beyond his requests and conducted a full-scale investigation of Hatch's professional and personal history. "It's not right, it's not something I condoned," Entenza said.

More reputation than fact
Dakota County officials said the scenic overlook's reputation as a cruising area for gay men, while not generally well known, also is based more on reputation than fact.

"I don't know if the general public would know that," said Sgt. Brian McGinn of the Sheriff's Office's parks, lakes and trails unit. "I bet if you asked 90 percent of my friends, they'd have no clue."

Gudmundson said he telephoned Hatch in March 2005 to alert him to the inquiries about the parking ticket -- a move he said he made because Hatch was the chief law enforcement officer in Minnesota and, as a Burnsville resident, was also a constituent of Gudmundson's in Dakota County.

"He was surprised there was this reputation," the sheriff said. "He's like, 'What? I didn't know that.' "

Hatch this week referred to the call in a letter he sent to the Minnesota News Council objecting to questions from Star Tribune reporters about the ticket and other matters. Reporters asked about circumstances leading to the ticket after learning that Gragert had inquired about it.
The sheriff said he believed Hatch's explanation that he received the parking ticket after leaving a car there overnight because he and his wife were attending a social event and did not want to drive two cars.

Gudmundson said he kept a file on the episode and faxed a copy, including the private investigator's request for information, to Hatch. "I knew way back in March [2005] that I was going to get caught in the middle of this," he said. "It troubled me the whole time because I thought, you know, they're going to try to pin this on Mike Hatch."

Gudmundson said he is not a supporter of Hatch's gubernatorial bid against Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who has also been a Dakota County resident. "I don't have a dog in this fight," he said. "The governor's my friend. Mr. Hatch is my friend

Burning Bright

Yep, it is time to talk about the Twins again. It was pretty easy to be skeptical of the Twins' recent run, since many of the games were (a) at home, and (b) against weak sister National League teams. But a 5-1 road trip against two credible division opponents, Cleveland and Chicago, indicates that the Twins are actually for real. Now comes the test - the Detroit Tigers are coming to town for a crucial three-game series.

The Detroit Tigers, only three years ago, were one of the worst teams in baseball history. For most of the 2003 campaign, they were challenging the record of the infamous 1962 New York Mets, who managed to win only 25% of their games. The '62 Mets were known for having a collection of has-beens (Richie Ashburn, the first Frank Thomas) and never weres (nearly the entire pitching staff). They were an expansion team and were brutally bad. The 2003 Tigers were different, though - they had three pretty good starting pitchers, but simply could not hit enough to win much. The young pitchers in question - Jeremy Bonderman, Mike Maroth and Rich Robertson, are still part of the squad, while this year the Tigers have unveiled Justin Verlander, a strapping young right-hander who has been as effective as Francisco Liriano has been for the Twins. Add a little hitting, actually a lot of hitting, and suddenly the Tigers are winning 67% of their games, on a current pace to win 109 games. In 2003, they won 43. It's an amazing transformation.

This year, the Tigers have been busily pounding lumps on the Twins, beating them repeatedly earlier in the year, often by shutout. This time it is likely to be different. The Twins have been retooling on the fly all season, replacing the dubious starters of April (Tony Batista, Lew Ford, Ruben Sierra) with significantly more productive players from within their organization (Jason Kubel, Jason Bartlett, Nick Punto). Even injuries to longtime mainstays Shannon Stewart and Torii Hunter have not mattered that much, as players such as Jason Tyner have been key contributors. The Twins have been frighteningly good since Memorial Day, winning 34 of their past 42 games. It should be a fun weekend at the Dome.

Without fear or favor (or content)

Well, the Minnesota Senate race is starting to heat up, and the two major candidates have now hit the airwaves with introductory advertisements. Amy Klobuchar, the DFL candidate, has come out of the gate with two ads touting two separate, non-impressive accomplishments. The first ad discussed her role in putting a corrupt appellate judge in jail for stealing from a mentally incompetent person for whom the judge served as conservator, while the second ad touted her efforts to extend hospital time for new mothers from 24 hours after birth to 48 hours after birth. Both ads sound real good, until you think about what she’s actually saying. In the case of the judge, it wasn’t exactly a profile in courage for Klobuchar’s office to prosecute the case. The evidence was overwhelming and the judge did not mount a vigorous defense. Any district attorney would have done exactly what Klobuchar did. In the second case, Klobuchar talked about her own experience after her daughter was born. Her daughter ended up having to spend time in the neo-natal intensive care unit (NICU) before she could go home, but Klobuchar was required by her insurance company to be discharged from the hospital 24 hours after she gave birth. As it happens, my family was similarly situated – my son was born a month early (but healthy) and my wife had been on bed rest for a month prior to a bout of pre-term labor that required her hospitalization for five days the month before my son was born. You can argue that mothers should have an extra day in the hospital to recover, but the implication of the ad is that Klobuchar’s newborn daughter was somehow imperiled by limiting Klobuchar’s hospital stay. That is not how it works, of course: once the child is born, it becomes a separate patient and no insurance carrier forces a child out of the NICU, no matter what the expenses turn out to be. Klobuchar’s slogan for the campaign is “Without fear or favor.” Based on the ads she’s run so far, she seems to be bragging about her bravery in prosecuting a judge who was caught red-handed, and she seems to believe she was entitled to a favor (another night of hospital care) because her child was in the NICU. Is that too harsh an assessment? I don’t think so.

Then there’s Mark Kennedy, whose opening ad is simply bizarre. He again reintroduces us to his family, who have authentic Meen-uh-SOH-tuh accents and who prattle on about how Kennedy had to share a bedroom with three brothers, who are shown sitting on a bunk bed with the candidate. Then the family assures voters that Kennedy is not a party guy, showing Kennedy wearing a party hat in grainy footage. Then various family members praise him for being an accountant. As Dave Barry would say, I am not making this up. I don’t know how any of this helps to make Kennedy’s case. Kennedy has defeated three separate DFLers in the past three elections, but Klobuchar is not boring (like David Minge) nor a petulant limousine liberal (like Janet Robert) or a well-meaning novice (like Patty Wetterling). He won’t win unless he figures out Klobuchar’s weakness and exploits it remorselessly. Here’s a hint for Mr. Kennedy – she’s a lightweight. Problem is, based on the opening ad, it would be easy to conclude that Kennedy is a lightweight, too.

You must stop shooting at us so we can attend to our mission of hurling you into the Mediterranean

That appears to be the message that Israel is getting from Hezbollah, which has been getting a great big can of whoop-ass since they attacked northern Israel two weeks ago. I can’t believe that those who are calling for a cease-fire actually believe that it would hold, or do any good at all. You have to be either stupid or cynical to believe otherwise. So which is it, do you think?
I’m guessing that you can divide things between the cynical (like the Syrians) and the stupid (like the peaceniks). Then there are the anti-Semites, who are both stupid and cynical. But the good news is that the current U.S. government shows no sign of putting any real pressure on Israel to stop doing what is necessary, i.e., blowing away as many Hezbollah types as necessary.

Moments of Clarity - Revisited

Back when I started this feature, I had a number of posts under the heading "Moments of Clarity." A moment of clarity comes when something that should be obvious, but is obscured, becomes clear to everyone. We have had at least a few moments of clarity this week.

1. The events in Israel and southern Lebanon, where the IDF has been fighting back against the terrorist organization Hezbollah, have brought unusual clarity. Ever since the British bugged out of the region in the 1920s, there have been countless squabbles over the region variously known as Israel, Palestine, the Holy Land, the West Bank, etc. The struggles over this land have occupied various governments and have been on the world stage ever since. Israel, a sovereign nation with well-established democratic institutions, has been under attack for nearly 60 years. The current battle against Hezbollah has provided conclusive proof that Israel's enemies, no matter what they say for public consumption, are implacable, and that the only solution that will mollify them is the complete destruction of the Israeli state. Once again, we have heard voices urging that the Israelis back down, that they accept a "cease-fire," that they sublimate their future to the ministration of UN peacekeepers, etc. This is the counsel of people like Madeline Albright, who apparently was U.S. Secretary of State at some point. One problem - Hezbollah is already violating various UN resolutions, so it's really hard to see how another resolution will solve anything. Moment of clarity - people who expect the UN to solve world problems are foolish.
2. Matt Entenza's bumbling bid to succeed Mike Hatch as Attorney General of Minnesota ended this week amid a welter of scandals regarding his political activities and the murky responses he provided as explanations/justifications. Entenza left the race only six hours prior to the filing deadline for the primary. Somehow, by the time the deadline passed, five other DFLers were on the ballot, including former congressman Bill Luther and Steve Kelley, a state senator from Hopkins who lost the DFL gubernatorial endorsement to Mr. Hatch. This lineup of candidates has produced a cavalcade of yawns from most Minnesotans. Moment of clarity -- there are a hell of a lot of DFL politicians in this state and most of them are pretty lackluster.

Delusions are tough to relinquish, and what is clear at this moment will probably become opaque again, since there remain many, many people who want to believe that things would be better if only we had more "progressive" leadership, both in St. Paul and in Washington. It's worth remembering - the lies that are most destructive are the lies you tell yourself.

Good Questions

Good Questions

It’s a cliché to say that old habits die hard, but like most clichés, the truth is evident. One of my worst habits is that I continue to watch television newscasts, especially at 10 p.m. I’ve been a consistent watcher of the late news ever since my parents relaxed my bedtime back in the early 70s, so my habit has lasted for over 30 years now. Back in Wisconsin, it seemed that most of the local news involved bad traffic accidents and barn fires – this was apparently an especially acute problem in the Manitowoc area, based on reports by “Lakeshore Bureau” chief Carmen Winkler back on WBAY news. There was something almost soothing about these shows, with the calm litany of misfortune, followed by the avuncular weatherman, then the smattering of Packers news. A thin but nutritious gruel, and served comfortably warm.

Things change, though, and now watching a 10 p.m. newscast has become increasingly difficult. It’s almost like a toothache – you know you shouldn’t put your tongue up against the aching tooth, but you can’t help yourself. My wife and I typically watch WCCO, the long-time CBS flagship that has been, for better and worse, the gold standard of television journalism in the Twin Cities since the medium began 50+ years ago. The 10 p.m. newscast is a marvel of market research and focus group dynamics; news is shaped to fit templates and is presented quickly and typically without context. This can be irritating, especially when the earnest anchors and reporters prattle on about something that is demonstrably false, but it’s often worse when the news folks try to frame their reporting within a context of their choosing.

For most of this year, WCCO has decided to run a series of reports under the heading of “Project Energy.” The tone and tenor of these reports have been that of a jeremiad, essentially taking all of us to task for our profligate energy use. We’ve been treated to reporting that has asserted that we are now past “peak oil,” that global warming (sorry, I mean global climate change, since somehow global warming has made some places cooler) is quickly destroying the world, that we continue to use SUVs, which are apparently the mark of the beast. It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for an Escalade driver to park at Ridgedale, I guess. Anyway, WCCO earlier this week asked, through their “Good Question” feature, “why aren’t we using less gasoline?” Since prices have been within sniffing distance of $3/gallon, apparently we were all going to stop using our cars and join the enlightened souls (and panhandlers) on the light rail. But it isn’t happening. Odd, huh?

I’d like to propose a few answers to this “Good Question.”

· Not everyone wants to live and work in the urban parts of the Twin Cities. Minneapolis and St. Paul are both lovely, but urban life has its hassles and many suburban areas are more peaceful.
· If you work in Blaine and live in Golden Valley, light rail is useless.
· Try to carry $75 worth of groceries on the bus sometime.
· The light rail won’t get you from your job to your son’s 6 p.m. baseball game at the Lily Pond. A car will.
· Panhandlers are never in your car.
· Cars don’t have second-hand marijuana smoke unless you put it there yourself. Bus stops on Hennepin Avenue often do.

There’s too much to unpack in a single post, but the war on the internal combustion engine is not going nearly as well as some would hope. I don’t begrudge anyone who chooses to use public transportation – I rode the 4 bus from my house to downtown Minneapolis for well over 5 years, and took other buses (the 33, the 94H, etc.) when I lived elsewhere prior to that. But making the commitment to doing without a car means that you have to change your life in fundamental ways. For most people, it’s not an option.

Rich Becker, please pick up the white courtesy phone...

It hasn't come to that, yet, but the Twins are dropping like flies. In the past week Lew Ford, Shannon Stewart, Torii Hunter and now Nick Punto have been injured. The Twins have had to bring up Jason Tyner, Josh Rabe, Rondell White and Rob Wilfong to replace them.

Okay, okay, I know that Wilfong played for the Twins back in the 70s, so it wasn't him. But I know this much - as much as I need a job, I wouldn't want Terry Ryan's job right about now. This is an amazing run of injuries and Ron Gardenhire is running out of bullets. If this keeps up, the Twins lineup will look like the Cantina scene in Star Wars.

"Is this mike on? Oh, #%@!"

So George W. Bush used a barnyard epithet in a conversation with Tony Blair yesterday. It's a scandal, dammit!

Oops, did I just say that? What the #%*@# was I thinking about? Man, did it again. If my dad were here, he'd clean out my mouth with a bar of #@*@# soap.

We'd talk more about the substance of the President's remarks, but I don't want to get into that #*&%.

Stick a fork in Entenza

He's done. The Star Tribune (www.startribune.com) has the information. Lots of rumors going around right now, but only one declared DFLer in the race, a young (only 29) woman named Mattson, whose father and grandfather were political figures in Minnesota. Other potential candidates are Mike Freeman (Amy Klobuchar's predecessor as Hennepin County DA and the son of Orville Freeman) and Bill Luther, the former congressman. This race is getting a heck of a lot more interesting.

We'll do a little more schadenfreude on Mr. Entenza when I have time. Put it this way - even if you are a DFLer, this guy was the poster child for everything that's wrong about modern Democrats. The contrast between him and the other heavyweights on the ticket (Hatch, Klobuchar, etc.) could not have been more stark. Good riddance.

Memories of Governor Skip Humphrey

Minnesotans look back fondly on the administration of former Governor Skip Humphrey. Humphrey brought his well-known personal charisma and decisive character to bear in solving myriad issues the state faced following his 1998 election victory over former St. Paul mayor Norm Coleman and wrestler-turned-politician Jesse Ventura. Governor Humphrey was able to parlay his Minnesota successes all the way to the White House, where he ably serves President John Kerry as his Vice President.

Wait, you don't remember that? Really, it was all right there in the Star Tribune. I remember reading the results of their Minnesota Poll back in 1998, and it said that Humphrey has a comfortable lead over Coleman and Ventura. It was pretty much in the bag, as I recall, but then something really strange happened. The election took place, the lines at the polling places were out the door, filled with giggling guys with mullet haircuts, and somehow lead-pipe cinch Skip ended up finishing third. I always thought that was really strange, that somehow the Minnesota Poll could be so wrong.

Now we learn from today's Minnesota Poll that DFLer Amy Klobuchar has a 19 point lead over Congressman Mark Kennedy in the U.S. Senate race. The poll says that Klobuchar leads in all demographics, including outstate farmers. They find the results "surprising." Somehow, I think they picked the wrong word....

I Don't Want To Go Down To The Basement

But it's the place to be right now. On Friday I jinxed myself by mentioning that the air conditioning hadn't gone out. So much for that theory - it went out Friday night and has not worked properly since. The air temperature in the Twin Cities was officially 99 on Saturday, but the readings in certain locations (downtown St. Paul, for example) were above 100. This heat wave is supposed to abate as the week goes on, but we do expect it to be in the 90s again today.

One of the big disadvantages of unemployment is the lack of income, and that includes paying for repairmen to come to your house. But the basement is still cool and the kids don't mind being down there, since that's where the television is. So we spent a lot of time down there in the past few days, including sleeping down there the last two nights. Meanwhile, I do have an interview today, so maybe the income issue will start to abate as well.

Meanwhile, the Twin Cities are a good place if you are looking for free things to do with the kids. I continue to use the heck out of the Ramsey County Library system, which offers a lot of books and DVDs. We screened "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" for the kids on Saturday night; still one of my all-time favorite movies. I got a copy of Gaylord Perry's 1974 memoir, "Me and the Spitter," which is a very amusing look at his career up to that point. And we took the kids to the Minnesota Children's Museum in downtown St. Paul on Sunday; the third Sunday of each month features free admission. The kids love going there and they are old enough now that we can simply turn them loose, instead of guiding their efforts. Jill and I even got to sit down a few times. These days, that's a benefit I dare not overlook.

Visions of Johanna

My wife works every other Saturday. Today is one of those days, and it's often a challenge for me to find something for the kids to do. I took the kids to the beach at Lake Johanna today. Johanna is a nice little lake in Arden Hills, about one mile square, and the beach is level and smooth, with a nice pavilion. All along the lake are $700K-$1M domiciles, where some of the power brokers of the northern suburbs make their homes. The kids love going to the beach and my wife is pretty diligent about taking the kids at least a few times each summer. Me, I hate the beach, but you have to make sure the kids are happy and on a hot day like today, it's a sensible place to go.

Like many of the metro lakes, Johanna has a lot of activity. You can see boats nearly from the moment the ice goes out until the winter chill returns. The water is pretty good; we saw about half a dozen small yellow perch darting around in the swimming area near the beach, and there are walleyes and northerns to be had there as well, out beyond the buoys. Lakes are a huge part of Minnesota life - most Minnesotans have some access to the lakes, either through owning a cabin up north or having a relative or friend who has one. The northern lakes are gorgeous, especially the big ones like Mille Lacs, Winnibigoshish and Lake of the Woods. But one of the benefits of living here is that you can find a scenic lakeshore in a matter of minutes. And even when the lake is full of activity, there's serenity to be found. It's something that's easy to take for granted, but we shouldn't.

Maria is here and we're going to talk about our family

It's a very hot Friday afternoon and I have stopped at the Ramsey County library in Roseville. Maria and I decided to do some blogging this afternoon. Maria has already put a post up on her blog (www.aboutmaria.blogspot.com) and now it's Daddy's turn.

Maria thinks we should talk about our family. I think that's a wonderful idea, since I am lucky to have such a wonderful family. Let's start with Maria. Maria is six years old and is enjoying her summer quite a lot. She has been spending a lot of time at Park Program at Hazelnut Park in Arden Hills and has made new friends and had a chance to make even more art projects. Maria never stops making art projects, of course, but that's okay, as we seem to have a big enough house to hold all of these projects, at least for now.

Maria would like to talk about Ben now. Ben recently finished his baseball season and is finally getting a chance to relax a little after that. He's already thinking about basketball and has been practicing his jump shot and dribbling. This year, he'll need to try out for a team, and that will be a new experience for him.

Then there's Mommy. Maria thinks that Mommy has been spending a lot of time cooking this summer, and I suspect that Maria is correct. Maria also thinks you should know that Mommy loves me. I'm very glad about that and am a very lucky fellow to have her in my life.

Maria now suggests that we discuss me and my great fondness for cherries. Maria has noticed that I eat cherry yogurt for breakfast at least 4-5 times a week. She finds that interesting and she often wishes that I would eat strawberry banana instead, since she likes to help me eat that in the morning. Somehow, we work that out.

That's it for today - Maria suggests that I say goodbye. So, goodbye it is.

Heat Wave

It's beginning to look a lot like 1988 here in Twinstown. We are in the early stages of what promises to be the worst heat wave we'd had here in a long time. Forecasts for Saturday and Sunday promise daytime highs of 100 degrees or more, which has not happened here since 1995. It's been pretty hot already and we've been battling with a balky air conditioner all summer, but so far it's holding up.

The heat rarely lasts that long, but I've had to make some allowances. I have already cancelled Maria's t-ball practice for Saturday; I don't like the idea of making her and her buddies run the bases in a blast furnace. We've also spent more time in the basement, which remains cool and comfortable no matter what. I am writing this afternoon from the Arden Hills Library, where I have been coming on Thursdays for most of the summer. This branch of the Ramsey County library is not much bigger than my house, but it has a remarkable DVD collection and enough good books that I've been able to keep the family entertained all summer. I was able to show the kids short films from the Three Stooges, Charlie Chaplin, W.C. Fields and Buster Keaton in the last few days and have also introduced them to the Marx Brothers and Peter Sellers. We try not to let the kids watch too much television, but they have a strong allegiance to Cartoon Network and I find a lot of its programming to be strange. It seems to me that most of the fare on that network is either highly stylized anime or aggressively ugly sub-Ren and Stimpy comedy built on a barrage of non sequiturs. There's better stuff out there and I'd like my kids to see it. And this heat wave provides an opportunity.

Mo baseball for Budum

Baseball returns today after what was a pretty ho-hum All Star game. A few quick thoughts:

• The American League's dominance is starting to get ridiculous. The NL team played well and was one out away from winning the game, but the AL was able to rally quickly and steal the game. When I was growing up, the NL teams would routinely crush their AL opponents, with an endless cavalcade of Joe Morgans, Willie Stargells, Tom Seavers and Johnny Benches whipping up whoever the AL would trot out. The NL has not won a game since the mid 90s now.
• Although I know Budum would disagree, the Twins played a very minor role in the game. Johan Santana did pitch one inning and Joe Mauer did play for over half the game, but neither were instrumental. Meanwhile, Ozzie Guillen managed to mess up Francisco Liriano's vacation by calling him in at the last minute, then not using him at all during the game. Maybe next year....
• If the Twins are going to get into the hunt, they'd better sweep the Indians this weekend. The primary reason the Twins are so far behind the Tigers and White Sox is that they have fared quite poorly against those squads. The Twins have whipped up on the rest of the American League and laid waste to the hapless NL teams, but if they want to win, they'd better do it now.
• My beleagured Brewers are, despite everything, much better positioned for a playoff run. They are 5 games back and will be getting their ace pitcher, Ben Sheets, back for the second half. The Cardinals do not look as strong as last year and if a few things break right, the Brew Crew could be right there at the end.

Now, back to our regular programming.

The bulldog and the weasel

It’s early and it’s entirely possible that when November finally arrives, the whole thing will be forgotten. But it was highly, hugely entertaining. No, I’m not talking about Pirates of the Caribbean. I’m talking about the entertaining spat between the two men who will likely head the DFL ticket in the fall. Let’s set the stage:

In this corner, we have the bulldog, Minnesota Attorney General Mike Hatch. Hatch has decided to give up the AG position and is running for governor this year. Hatch has been a fixture on the Minnesota political scene for over 20 years now. He’s intensely partisan and not afraid of anyone. In many ways, he is more of an old-school DFLer than many of the folks in that party now – he grew up in the Duluth area and brings an Iron Range mentality to his job. Hatch does have a propensity for grandstanding, but it’s pretty clear that his heart is in the right place, even though as a DFLer he regularly proposes poor policy choices. On the political continuum, he’s center-left. He’s someone I can respect, despite my disagreement with what he says and does. While I strongly prefer Tim Pawlenty, I could live with a Governor Hatch.

In the far corner, we have the weasel, Matt Entenza. Immediately, the thoughtful reader objects to the term weasel, thinking it pejorative. Damned right it is pejorative, but accurate, I think. Entenza has risen through the ranks of backbenchers to become the leader of the DFL in the Minnesota House and he is running for Attorney General, Hatch’s current perch. Entenza is an attorney who derives most of his political muscle because of money. Entenza is a prototypical “limousine liberal” and used his great wealth to make huge contributions to specific House candidates in 2004; in some cases this spending may have tipped the balance in some tight elections. He also has become a fixture of news coverage in Minnesota, with his eat-your-spinach visage and his droning denunciations always available for a video camera. He is, in my view, a sneaky, opportunistic and sometimes vicious adversary.

Entenza has money galore because his wife, Lois Quam, is a senior executive at United Health Group, a gigantic and often controversial health care management concern based in the western suburbs. UHG has recently received a lot of scrutiny for the executive compensation package that former CEO William McGuire has received; he will leave UHG within shouting distance of being a billionaire. While there’s no evidence that Quam has done anything unethical, she has benefited substantially from the executive pay structure at UHG. UHG and its corporate conduct will likely be subjects for the Attorney General’s purview in the coming years; needless to say, if Entenza sits in that chair, he will a pretty substantial conflict of interest.

As for the battle itself, last year Entenza hired an oppo group out of Chicago to investigate Hatch. The group began asking Hatch questions about his office finances, what he was spending money on, etc. Hatch figured out what was going on, traced the matter to Entenza and then confronted Entenza about it. While both sides officially claim things have been patched up, there’s plenty of reason to believe this is not the case. Hatch has gone as far as asking other prominent DFLers to consider a primary challenge to Entenza, including such figures as former congressman Bill Luther and former U.S. Attorney David Lillehaug. Both Luther and Lillehaug would bring significant credentials to the battle, but at this point neither seems inclined to run.

We’ll be watching this matter closely.

What do you do with a Muslim terrorist?

It's not an easy question. Since the Supreme Court says the government cannot haul the Gitmo detainees in front of a military tribunal, the Bush administration has a real problem - they are holding a lot of people who, if released, would return to their jihadist ways, bringing death and mayhem wherever they alight. It's a lot like receiving a Fedex envelope filled with loose asbestos - you don't want the material and have to get rid of it, but how?

News reports seem to indicate that the administration will treat these individuals as if they were prisoners of war, proving them rights and protections that our soldiers don't have any chance of receiving if they are captured. The gruesome murder of two captured U.S. servicemen last month shows what we are up against. Our enemy is varied in many ways, but uniform in a very important way - they don't give a rip about human rights.

So what would you do? The floor is open to suggestions.

Phillies drop two in Saturday heat; season complete

It was a tough Saturday for our Arden Hills Phillies, who were eliminated from the Shoreview Area Youth Baseball 9-10 year old tournament on Saturday. The Phillies lost a tough 6-1 battle against the Athletics at noon at Perry Park, then were eliminated later in the day, losing 7-1 to the White Sox in a 6 p.m. game at Southpoint Park in North Oaks. Temperatures were in the 90s and a strong summer sun meant that the team was especially tired for the second game, against a White Sox team that had not played earlier in the day. My favorite Phillie was 0-1 in the first game and 1-2 in the second game, rapping a sharp single to right field in the 5th inning.

The Phillies end their season with an overall record of 7-10-1. This team was significantly better than the squad my son played on last year, on all counts. My son learned rather a lot about the mental aspects of baseball and is a better player for the experience. And that's what youth sports should provide.

Terrorists foiled - Democrats blast Chertoff

So the news today says that the FBI managed to stop a terrorist plot aimed at blowing up the Holland Tunnel in New York. Good for the FBI - they haven't had many positive headlines lately. So, what's the response from the loyal opposition? Check out the response of Senator Charles Schumer, D-NY, to the FBI success (from CNN):

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer said no evidence existed that "in any way anything was done, either purchase of explosives or sending of money" and it "was caught" when investigators discovered "terrorists talking to one another."

"This is one instance where intelligence was on the ball," the New York Democrat said.

Meanwhile, Schumer's colleague, Senator Robert Menendez, D-NJ, had this to say (from Fox News):

"More than anything else, if true, these news reports offer incontrovertible proof that the federal government's homeland security strategy is flawed in its rhetoric and in its application. Let me be clear: Americans who face the greatest risk should receive the greatest amount of funding," said Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J. "How anyone, at any level of government, could argue otherwise is beyond me and shows a flagrant disregard for the realities of protecting our homeland."

He continued: "For too long, the federal government has distributed security grants in a manner that seems to be based merely on whim. It certainly is not based on risk. It defies common sense that a would-be terrorist in Beirut with an Internet connection recognizes that the New York region is rife with significant landmarks, yet Homeland Security Secretary [Michael] Chertoff doesn't."

Way to stick to those talking points, boys. Wouldn't want to let a news cycle pass without throwing cold water on things, after all....

Phillies outlast Angels, prepare for mysterious Athletics

The mighty Arden Hills Phillies overcame a slow start and rallied from a 3-1 deficit to defeat a game Angels team 11-3 at Island Lake School yesterday. The first three innings were tough, as the Angels starter pitched magnificently against our Phils. During the playoffs, a pitcher can go four innings, so the Angels starter came out for the 4th inning, and that's when our Phillies struck, scoring 3 runs to take a lead they would not relinquish. My favorite Phillie was 1-3, rapping a sharp single in the 5th inning and scoring a crucial insurance run in the 5th.

The Phillies now move on with two games on Saturday. The first is a matchup against the mysterious Athletics, who played on the other side of the league this time. Game time is noon at Perry Park. A win would move them to the quarterfinals and a 3:45 tilt, also at Perry Park in Arden Hills . A loss would move them to the consolation bracket and a 6 p.m. tilt at South Point. If the Phillies win both games on Saturday, they will play again on Monday in the semifinals, this time at Sitzer Park in Shoreview. There are other possibilities, but listing all the permutations seems especially cruel to my faithful readership.

Marissa and the echoes

Two days on, the reality that our friend Marissa Irwin has passed away is only starting to sink in. I've also been thinking about another friend from Beloit, who left a long time ago. Way back in 1987, I lost another Beloit friend to cancer. Andy Boggs, son of a Beloit art professor, was quite a character. He was an amalgam of Jeff Spicoli and Johan Sebastian Bach. He absolutely loved to party and was a fixture in the various watering holes around campus. Somehow, though, he was an amazingly prolific musician who wrote and recorded dozens of songs and compositions, including many that were daring and even startling in their musical complexity. Following our junior year, Andy began to have difficulties and went in for some tests. It turned out that he had an inoperable brain tumor.

For the next three years, Andy waged a very public battle to fight the cancer that was ravaging his body. He became known throughout Wisconsin for his courage in facing the disease and, because of his talents and the friendships he developed, he was able to focus a lot of attention on cancer among youth. Andy threw out the first pitch at a Milwaukee Brewers game and, for a time at least, seemed to rally, even as he endured the ravages of cancer and the various regimens of chemotherapy and other treatments. Eventually, though, the cancer gained the upper hand and, in the warm spring of 1987, Andy left, only 23 years old.

Marissa fought much longer than Andy; her cancer developed more slowly, relentlessly and her struggle was much more private than Andy's was. She had the comfort of a wonderful husband and the support of an outstanding family. She also refused to feel sorry for herself, spending a number of years in India, assisting various organizations that were involved in alleviating poverty. She did not wallow in her misfortune. She understood that the time she would have was limited; she made the most of it.

I remember writing a poem about Andy shortly after he died; I happened to find it when I went through some old papers recently. The poem was alternately sad, angry, resigned and defiant, the work of a much younger man. But one of the thoughts I penned those many years ago remains - you can reach the essence of who you are, in the time you have. It's a challenge all of us face, but I am certain that both Marissa and Andy were at least close to that goal. And there's hope in that.

Ken Lay, RIP

Word came this morning that Ken Lay, the founder of Enron who was about to go to prison for his role in the widespread financial malfeasance that happened under his watch, died of a massive heart attack at his vacation home in Colorado.

After everything that's happened with the Enron scandal since it first broke five years ago, Lay's death seems like a very odd end note. While there were many people who wanted Lay to go to prison, it was never clear to me how sending Lay to a cushy federal pen really would have accomplished anything. The Enron scandal was a bit of a blank screen and most of the people who have opined on the matter have used the scandal as a cudgel by which to beat those they dislike, especially the current resident of the White House. Since most of the crimes took place during the Clinton era, it never made much sense to link Enron to Bush, even though Bush was the governor of Texas. We tend to believe that our governments have more power over our lives than they often do, of course, and there are those who believe that government needs even more power. These people, who have a rather dim view of human nature, are often called idealists.

Phillies prepare for Angels

The mighty Arden Hills Phillies begin playoff action on Thursday, with a 6 p.m. game against the Angels at Island Lake East. The Phillies are seeded 3rd in the South Division, while the Angels were 6th in the West. The two teams played earlier in the year, with the Phillies coasting to an easy victory. If the Phillies win, they will face a team they have not seen before, the Athletics, at noon on Saturday at Perry Park. A loss on Thursday would mean a 6 p.m. Friday matchup against the loser of the Rangers/Red Sox game; that game would take place at Snail Lake West. This is a double elimination tournament, meaning the Phils will play up to five games in the next four days. All your playoff action will be right here.

Marissa

We knew it was coming soon, but we had hoped that the phone call wouldn’t come, at least for a while. But it did arrive yesterday. Our friend Marissa Irwin, who I discussed last month, died yesterday in Washington, D.C., succumbing to ovarian cancer at the age of 40. She is survived by her husband of 11 years, Hans Verlome, and by her family back in Connecticut.

It is distasteful, even horrible, to be forced to discuss someone you care about in the past tense. But that is where we are. Marissa was a true friend and genuinely fine person. She met Jill during their freshman year at Beloit and they became part of a larger circle of friends that was a typical gathering of people at our school. Marissa was a very bright young woman with an East Coast sensibility, but utterly lacking the pretensions that often come west with students who alight in Midwestern schools. She immersed herself in the hard sciences at Beloit, spending countless hours in the labs of Chamberlain Hall, diligently applying what she’d learned to various experiments and projects. In a small school like Beloit, you get to know most everyone. I met Marissa after I had graduated; I was working for the school at the time and still hung around campus a lot, and so our paths would cross regularly. The image lingers; Marissa, often with Jill and our friend Sue Law in tow, sitting at one of the long row of tables in Goody’s Bar, watching the passing parade intently, her dark eyes shining and an intermittent smile crossing her face. She enjoyed the camaraderie and laughed easily; it always seemed that she enjoyed escaping the confines of Chamberlain and joining the more devil-may-care collection of English and history majors you could always find at Goody’s.

We have a picture that was taken on Jill’s graduation day in 1988. The picture shows Jill and I sitting at a table with Marissa, Sue and Sue’s brother Bob, who did not attend Beloit but who frequently visited. The picture itself is unremarkable; it simply shows friends basking in the glow of accomplishment and preparing to find their way in the larger world. We all did go our separate ways, of course, not knowing what was ahead. What we could not have imagined is that one of us would be gone so soon. There is a lot more to this story, of course, and I’ll revisit it tomorrow.

Elian Gonzalez returns to television

I noted that CBS decided to put Elian Gonzalez back on television last night. When last we saw him, he was being sent back to Cuba by the Clinton administration after being taken at gunpoint from his Miami relatives in a midnight federal raid. Now 11, young Elian is the very model of a Cuban boy, denouncing the people who sheltered him and claiming that he was never happy living in that little house in Miami. The smiling, happy young boy, not much older than my own child, seemed altogether too serious, especially as he denounced his mother, who drowned while trying to escape.

I always thought that, of all the crappy things that Bill Clinton did, one of the crappiest was sending this boy back to Cuba. It was always obvious that the various family members that Castro had dispatched to the U.S. to reclaim young Elian were greatly fearful and were under a whole lot of coercion. Watching the rote answers that this young man gave last night hardly made me change my mind. Some day, when Castro finally keels over, there will be a lot of reckoning.

Obligatory Twinsblogging

I don't know what else to say, except that the Twins have been amazing lately. As of the Memorial Day weekend, the TC Men looked like a Baby Ruth bar in a swimming pool - gross and barely floating. But the past 30 or so days have been nothing short of phenomenal. The Twins have now won 10 in a row and 18 of their last 19 following an 8-0 thrashing of the Milwaukee Brewers yesterday. I have been following baseball for the better part of 35 years now and I've never seen a stretch like this, where a lifeless team suddenly becomes potent in every way. For those of you just tuning in:

• Twins pitching has been nothing short of phenomenal. You have to begin with the performances of the two southpaw starters, Johan Santana and Francisco Liriano. Liriano and Santana currently rank 1 and 2 in the American league in earned run average, which is still the best single measurement of pitching effectiveness, especially for a starter. Liriano toyed with the Brewers yesterday, striking out 12 batters with a bewildering array of fastballs, sliders and off-speed pitches. Santana was merely the American League pitcher of the month for June. He has been as dominating as he was in 2004, when he won the Cy Young award in a runaway. This year he has competition, from his teammate Liriano. That both of these guys are still well short of 30 is even more amazing. No one in baseball has an answer for these guys.
• Joe Mauer has received a lot of well-deserved attention for bringing his batting average within a few points of .400, but the real story in June has been the torrid hitting of the other JM, Justin Morneau. Morneau has been absolutely devastating in June, hitting home runs and driving in key runs on almost a daily basis. The shot Morneau hit yesterday in the Dome was one of the hardest hit balls I have ever seen. The ball was gone almost before announcer Dick Bremer could proclaim it so, and it was still rising when it hit the facing of the football press box.
• The removal of Tony Batista and Juan Castro has totally transformed the offensive look of this club. Replacements Nick Punto and Jason Bartlett have quietly made key contributions all month long, including some very timely hitting that has started or continued big innings in front of Mauer, Morneau et al. You get the sense watching this team that everyone in the lineup can hurt you, even when a sub like Terry Tiffee is in the game. The only guy who isn't hitting for the Twins right now is Lew Ford, but he is seeing a lot less time now and it hasn't mattered.
• Despite how hot the Twins have been, they haven't been able to make up much ground because the White Sox and Tigers have been equally hot. Ordinarily when a team wins 18 of 19, they will pick up a minimum of 5-6 games in the standings. That has not happened this time around.
• Right now, the National League looks more like a AAA league than a major league. The Dodgers and the Brewers are contending in their respective NL divisions, but both teams looked feeble in comparison to the Twins. While the respective strengths of the leagues vary over time, the current dominance of the AL is absolutely shocking. The Twins finished their series with the NL teams with an overall 16-2 record. That just shouldn't happen.

Sunday nights and Monday mornings

Most people dislike Sunday nights. It’s a predilection that develops early, as a child contemplates having to return to the classroom after a weekend of fun. Then, as people enter the working world, it becomes the harbinger of the work week to come. Technically, for most people, Sunday nights are “free time,” but it’s a nearly universal thing that the following morning is the beginning of the work week and the start of additional obligations. Even for people who genuinely love their jobs, there’s a certain twinge of regret, a sense that something is about to be lost, on Sunday nights. It’s a temporary thing, but I think it’s pretty much universal.

When you are unemployed, it would seem that, at least in theory, Sunday nights would lose some of those resonances. If you don’t have a specific place to go the next morning, it shouldn’t necessarily matter as much. But it’s funny – at least for me, Sunday nights have been a lot worse since my job moved to Oregon without me. I have always found that, once you reach your Monday morning destination, things look better – there’s a challenge on your desk, you have a chance to chart your course for the week, you get to see your co-workers again. Once it’s about 10 a.m. and you are back in the swing, Mondays are often quite enjoyable. But right now, Mondays aren’t a lot of fun. And it’s making Sunday nights seem a lot worse.