Speed Gibson

A couple of weeks ago, Dennis Prager made an interesting observation. But let's start with a premise, that the secularists have their own religion, usually borne of narcissism and Nihlism.

The secularists mock the "leap of faith" we believers take in accepting God. But they have their own leaps of faith to perform says Prager.

In fact, those who accept God take but one leap of faith - to accept God and his Word. The rest is reasoned out from there.

The secularist, however, has no base on which to build. Socialized medicine? It's a leap of faith that it's a good and just thing, if it works at all and doesn't kill anybody. Poverty causes crime? Guns are bad? Public schools are good, and getting better? Partial birth abortion isn't murder? On what basis, other than simply what you feel inside, do you take a position or claim something is just?

Every time the secularists take up a new topic they need a fresh leap of faith that somehow they've got it right and others are wrong.

Seems like a lot of extra work, and it doesn't work near as well.

Last week, Rush played back a number of audio clips of the media covering then U.S. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott's five - count'm - five apologies for his comment to his fellow Senator Strom Thurmond that cost him his leadership position. As Rush noted, Lott apologized profusely five times, even on Black Entertainment Television (BET), and not one of them was accepted. But Senator Dick Durbin apologizes once, really not at all, and it's immediately accepted.

I remember Dr. Laura saying a real apology has three parts - remorse, repentence, and restitution. You're truly sorry you did it, you resolve to not do it again, and you do what you can to set things right. Dennis Prager would add a clarifying prologue, a statement up front of what you did wrong that you are now apologizing for.

Senator Durbin's apology embraced none of this. He only wished we could understand him better, like his journalist friends do. Of course, if a teenage child of one of those journalists tried to float an apology like that, they'd be grounded for a week.

A lot of little things are coalescing. First, Wisconsin and other states are demanding excise and sales taxes on goods "imported" from other states. Four red light cameras are up and running in Minneapolis, and soon there will be twelve, generating perhaps one million dollars in fines a year. GPS and tollway transmitters know where you're driving. Your credit cards, your library card, your drivers license, whatever else is in your wallet track your commerce. Google and cookies watch your internet usage. Your cell phone and Wi-Fi connections are there for anyone to tap. It's all coming together to build - The Database!

Yes, this was the great fear in the mid seventies, that Big Brother was going to track you in a giant database! Back then, databases were a relatively new concept to business at least. They were conjectured to be some sort of bottomless pit capable of assimilating, storing, and correlating everything about you.

Of course, disk storage was then at least $2,000 per megabyte in today's money. Now we track megabytes per penny. The PC I am using is at least 100 times faster than anything IBM made even 25 years ago, and 10,000 times cheaper.

But now we are finally at the point where such databases could be built, maybe have already been, and probably must be in this age of terrorism. I'm not really worried yet, but I am starting to wonder about it all.

President Bush talks about an ownership society, of defined contributions for retirement and health care that you can take from job to job and/or will to your children. Maybe that's not enough. Maybe we have to insist that cities don't run the Wi-Fi, that the Internet remain essentially unregulated as today, that we adopt a less intrusive tax system, and so on to keep our freedom.

I'm disappointed by the U.S. Supreme Court's Kelo decision upholding the local government's use of eminent domain. But it's not the end of the world. It might even be correct.

From a Federalist point of view, wouldn't this be a State matter? Yes, we have the Civil War amendments that supposedly extend and impose the Federal Bill of Rights throughout the states. But really, isn't a Federal government that simply accepts your state's definition of boundaries, covenants, easements, liens, mineral rights, etc the ideal? Do we want any branch of the Federal Goverment deciding what a "public purpose" truly is?

"... the Law is an ass -- an idiot." said Mr. Bumble in Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist. Many laws can be abused, such as the general power to tax. Attempts have been made in the past to prohibitively tax guns, even ammunition out of existence to circumvent the Second Amendment. On its face, it's perfectly legal.

Even if SCOTUS had ruled otherwise, similar ways could have been found to achieve the same result. Even zoning is a hidden form of this, where despite grandfathering of the old classification, should your house burn down you may not be able to rebuild it if it is now zoned non-residential.

What ultimately matters most is the integrity and judgement of those we elect and give such powers. Where these are lacking, either don't move there or insist on a healthy discount as insurance against later seizure.

The movie industry is seemingly perplexed as to why business continues to fall this year. It hasn't been this slow since 1985 according to one account.

There are a number of reasons - DVD's, home theatre equipment, high ticket prices, overpriced concessions, commercials, cell phones, rude audiences, and others, but there seems to be some agreement that the quality of the movies themselves is problem #1.

To wit, I just saw "Bewitched" starring Nicole Kidman and Will Farrell. We knew going in the general plot, that it wasn't just a longer episode of the original. The truth was, it wasn't even really about Bewitched at all. It was the worst film I have seen in years. Absolutely awful, maybe 1/2 a banana peel on Chumley's scale, not even worth a DVD rental later on.

Nicole Kidman played her part well, but she was a prisoner of a script aimed at 12 year old girls, based entirely on the physical comedy of Will Farrell. Why she would accept such a terrible screenplay or play second fiddle to Will Farrell's incompetent romantic lead is beyond me. Michael Caine and Shirley McLaine sleepwalked through their parts. And the rest of the supporting cast - the program execs, agents, directors, etc, were all too young and all too dumb to be credible.

This is a great example of why the crowds are thinning.

OK, I've had my fun with the Minneapolis Star Tribune. But I again see numerous appeals to cancel our subscriptions, and I will not. The case is increasingly compelling, but still an over-reaction.

I believe at least a third of the news room is trying and generally succeeding to get it right. Erik Black, for one. I believe that another third are trying but generally unaware how prevalent their biases are. Dane Smith comes to mind. And yes, there's the final third or so that need a fresh challenge at another paper. You know the names.

The ratios will vary, but almost every organization has a similar "portfolio" of workers. Even if we were put in charge, the problem really wouldn't go away. You might change the percentages, you might at least swing the bias to the right, but it will still be a less than perfect product. And suppose you bring them to their fiscal knees? Then what?

Like other major dailies, most of what you read is correct and useful. But by reading it with a trained eye and drawing on other sources such as on cable or the Internet, you'll be able to sort out the rest.

Stop subscribing, and you'll soon stop reading. Stop reading, and you'll soon stop learning, particularly regarding local events and issues.

I'm a little behind the reaction to the Minneapolis Star Tribune's editorial supporting U.S. Senator Dick Durbin to the letter. By Tuesday, it had drawn rebuke on several national radio talk shows, including Rush Limbaugh. I think it's fair to say that our paper has now passed The Los Angeles Times to be the worst major city daily in the United States.

I'll be catching up over the next day or two, but meanwhile, here's a little parody I put together while on vacation, sung to Tracy Byrd's "The Truth about Men".

The Truth About The Strib

We don't like to do fact checking.
We don't care what's for real.
We just like to print whatever we like,
And watch you wingnuts squeal.
When you fill out your taxes,
And say, "Isn't this rate too high?"
We just look you in the eye with a big fat lie
And say, "Nope, look's just right."

That's the truth about The Strib.
That's the stuff we like to do.
We like to tax and spend without any end,
Regulate your smoking, too!
And no matter how hard you fisk us
When you come blogging in,
We aren't wrong; we aren't sorry,
And it's probably going to happen again.

We hate watching "Fox News Sunday".
We like Rather, and Channel Four.
Jump up and down like fools when they pass the new rules
Down on the Senate floor.
We don't really want to talk issues,
Dodging all those facts.
The only reason we do is because it leads to
The election of Democrats.

Yes, that's the truth about The Strib,
Where only liberals tread.
We'd rather pretend we're smart and our wisdom impart
Than dwell on the flaws in our unsigned Op-Ed's.
And though we might support you
Every now and then,
We aren't wrong; we aren't sorry,
And it's probably going to happen again.

See, we know what you're all thinking.
It's really so bourgeois.
It's just something cold at Keegan's
And a whole lot of trivia.

Well, that's the truth about The Strib.
Where we're all deep in ... thought.
Our ideas don't work, but the blame we shirk,
Claiming that it's all your fault!
And regardless what we publish
When we come opining in,
We aren't wrong; we aren't sorry,
And it's probably going to happen again.

We aren't wrong; we aren't sorry,
And it's probably going to happen again.
Sure, it's going to happen.
You know it's going to happen.
And that's the truth about The Strib.

As luck would have it, we were within range of KSTP-AM by 2pm while returning from Chicago today. But my luck ran out when I heard Barry Zevan ("the weatherman!") at the mike.

I'm sure Barry is a wonderful man of many talents, but as Dirty Harry said, "A man's got to know his limitations." Even on television, his pronounced nasal vocal quality was a hindrance. There, he could mostly overcome it with his quirky on air persona. My late Grandmother called him Peek-A-Boo from his KSTP-TV weather days, always leaning into the picture from the sides. Mr. Zevan has many other enviable broadcast credits, including radio, so Pass / Fail grading is in effect.

He started off reading a long Ben Stein column almost "for the record" with little additional insight. But then he picked up on the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision on the Kelo case, and took some calls. OK so far.

But then Iraq came up and he soon took the up the opposition case that it was a mistake. After an anti-Iraq caller agreed, the producer spoke up to gently ask if establishing democracy in Iraq would be worth it. He waffled. A pro-Iraq caller was next, and he started agreeing with him!

Barry, Barry! We can tolerate the loyal opposition, e.g., "Morning Sedition" on Air America, even learn from them. But nobody can learn from an echo chamber. That and your voice quality I mentioned means you are my first professional talent to get a failing grade.

I'm back from a quick but great five days in Chicago for a very nice wedding. Short ceremony, fabulous dinner, open bar, need I say more? Actually, I do, for the couple deserved as much and my wife and I wish them all the best.

Now, to old business, week 16 of KSTP's "The Next Big Thing" series Sundays from 2pm-4pm. This was Father's Day. FYI, I got a Little Giant ladder so I can unclog the second story gutters!

Today we heard "The Straight Scoop" from Brad Carlson and Greg Bittner (sic?), aka "two straight guys who love their wives."

It being Fathers Day, they were of course obliged to cover same, which they did, and did well. The second feature was a phone interview with the blogger behind ProtestWarrier.com, a self-described arsenal of information to turn back the Liberals. This, too, went fairly well.

And since they gave no clue as to being professionals, I hereby award them an A. I normally find the co-host concept a difficult one to accept in radio, but they balanced each other well, and seemed to always remember we were there, too.

It wasn't Boone & Erickson, but it was a great debut performance.

Another corollary of Murphy's law: the closer you come to a planned vacation, the more likely a sudden project appears at work to consume all your time up to your departure date. This is the third year in a row for me.

The past two years, I worked until 2-4am that morning. This year I was on track for 6 pm, but when a key resource called in sick, it bacame 9 pm the night before. Still, better than the prior two years.

Anyway, I'm off until Monday.

Censure? The way Dick Durban is talking, he'd welcome it as a badge of courage. Removal from the leadership? Not bloody likely. I have another idea. Stop calling him Senator, and stop calling him a gentleman. He is neither until he starts acting like one, starting with a full apology to the Senate, the country, our troops, and our allies.

Instead of "will the Senator yield" say "will Mr. Durbin yield?" Instead of "as the gentleman from Michigan explained" say "as Mr. Durbin explained." Stop calling him a Senator, and stop calling him a gentleman.

Maybe this would result in playground retribution and escalation. But I'd bet this would really get under Mr. Durbin's skin, far more than any censure motion.

I see that long time broadcaster Rod Trongard has died at age 72 from cancer. I remember him from the days of Chuck Knapp on KSTP-AM. But mostly, I remember his years as a ringside announcer for the American Wrestling Association.

Those were the days, my friend. Wrestlers had personalities, promoters hatched plots, and we loved it so. I attended a couple of the TV matches at the Calhoun Beach Hotel, then home to channel 11 (WTCN). Today's bunch of steroid-loaded wife-beaters doesn't work unless than't all you know

I remember one night in St. Paul where Verne Gagne was again taking on Nick Bockwinkle. When Bobby (the Brain) Heenan was introduced as Nick's second in his corner, Verne stormed off in protest - we thought. And then I heard a roar from the crowd as Verne returned with The Crusher in tow as his second. Throughout the match, whenever Heenan so much as stood up, so did the Crusher. Heenan retreated and we applauded our approval.

Those of us who remember wrestling's glory years feel sorry for those who were born too late. For no mater who won, you went home happy.

Many cities have an annual civic celebration, the most well-known being the Minneapolis Aquatennial. This week Brooklyn Park celebrates "Tater Daze" and next week Brooklyn Center hosts "Earle Brown Days." Next month we have "Whiz Bang Days" in Robbinsdale, the Hopkins "Raspberry Festival" and the eagerly anticipated "Duk Duk Daze" in New Hope. There are many others.

There's a parade or two, various events, some sporting events, and often royalty. And they're largely a bore.

My home town of St. Louis Park flirted with one of these for a few years. It was called "Robin Hood Days." They hosted a pretty good Contract Bridge Tournament and crowned a Maid Marion. But either apathy or reality brought the civic leaders to their senses and they quietly did away with it.

If I may suggest, let's retire the rest of them as well. They served us many good years, but they just weren't made for these times.

U.S. Senator Dick Durbin has backed off little and apologized not at all from his absurd and damaging characterization of our Guantanamo Bay prison to history's legendary death camps.

Now, if the world's greatest deliberative body were largely composed of the learned leaders and scholars the Framers intended, reaction would be swift and certain. He would be officially rebuked and removed from his leadership positions. But neither action is likely, for the Senate is no longer, if it ever was, composed of mostly learned people.

I looked up the roster. There are a few quality intellects among them such Mitch McConnell and Diane Feinsten. The list of what Hugh Hewitt would call "dummies" is much longer, including: Patrick Leahy, Lincoln Chafee, Barbara Boxer, Arlen Specter, John Kerry, James Jeffords, Mark Dayton, Charles Shumer, and Patty Murray. Oh and add Dick Durbin to that list. The rest are largely millionaires, mavericks, and moderates, many of whom are simply enamored with the title and ceremony.

So again in Hugh's phrasology, most of the Senate "doesn't get it." There are voices, but not enough to worry Senators like Durbin. As the Democratic Party continues to slide left-ward, such rhetoric is now expected. There will be more.

The U.S. Senate is apologizing for fillibustering anti-lynching legislature sought by several Presidents and repeatedly passed by the House of Representatives.

Maybe the GOP needs to apologize to Brian Sullivan, who narrowly lost the GOP endorsement for Governor in 2002. Could he have won the general election? I think so. Tim Penny's independent campaign collapsed in the late going and Roger Moe's heart clearly wasn't in it.

Pawlenty was solid the first two years, the 2004 election notwithstanding. But I can't help now wondering how Brian Sullivan would be handling things now.

Today we heard Clinton Collins, Jr., a name familiar to many of us, and currently a contributor to The Rake.

He spent the first hour on why the media seems obsessed with young female blonde crime victims vs the less-attractive, older, or minority equivalents - even white men. Michelle Malkin and others have also discussed this, given the most recent tragedy unfolding in Aruba.

He reminded me a bit of Lew Freeman, who found race issues in most anything. I still remember Lew's claims that Denny Green was unpopular, then fired, because he's black. Rubbish. We were happy to have the new sherriff in town. It was consistently poor playoff performances and clock management even Sid Hartman could improve on that caught up with Green. When you realize that your coach isn't going to get you to the Super Bowl, you move on. Remember Les Steckel?

Anyway, Collins was a bit less heavy-handed about it, but also didn't seem to add much to the discussion, either.

The second hour was about airline tickets by the pound, proper treatment of the Koran, and a couple of other topics. Again, not exactly exciting.

As he said, this is an audition, and he wanted to not rehash topics done all week, be it Iraq or Jacko. But it's tough to make a given cultural topic work for more than a few minutes, even for the best at it like Prager, Limbaugh, and Ingraham. I felt he was too passive, that he needed to dig and challenge us listeners a little more. Instead, it was pretty thin soup. I give him a C, but I think he's better than that.

Forget the culture, the airlines, etc. I'd sure like to hear him discuss what's going on with Minneapolis School Superintendent Thandiwe Peebles. That's the type of topic that could earn him a shot as the Next Big Thing.

An SAT question: newspaper is to blog as United Way is to ____? Is the United Way, still a great success overall, on the decline, even an anachronism?

Much as we can trade stocks etc on the internet, maybe someone should figure out an "e-Bay" equivalent to the United Way.

Vetted charities would join the "e-Way" site, explain their programs, finances, etc., all linked and indexed for surfing. So if you're looking to donate to a particular concern, say battered women shelters in the St. Paul area, you do the usual keyword search to come up with them.

Member donors (not just anyone) can write reviews of a charity, much like Amazon accumulates user book reviews.

You assemble a portfolio of regular donations, then make some sort of PayPal-like arrangement to collect and disburse the funds, and print a statement for your tax returns. Unlike the United Way, you know exactly where it's going. If you wish, the charities know that you are one of their supporters. The site pays for facilities and auditors with a small percentage and/or usage fee, no doubt much less than the United Way's current bite of the apple.

It also gets the fundraising back at home, where it all began with the original United Fund. The transition to workplace fundraising came years later, unfortunately with corporate and peer pressure. The truth be told, I think the United Way has worn out its welcome at a number of companies.

"e-Way" would help bring back the days of personal, private, efficient, and effective charity.

I'm old enough to remember when the United Way (then the United Fund) got its start in the 1950's. It was framed as a contract. You contribute one hour's pay per month. We (UF) will only support those charities who are willing to live entirely on that support.

The idea was that we paid once, let experts allocate the funds where they will do the most good, and we don't get solicited further by these partnering charities. Overhead was small, and the results large. It truly was a pleasure to give to the United Fund/Way.

But then, somehow one hour's pay per month wasn't enough. President Reagan was cutting all those vital programs, only he really wasn't, of course, just trimming their growth. But fine, I raised my percentage gradually over the years.

And then I remember the American Red Cross joining the United Way. Not the most reputable charity to begin with, the ARC did not discontinue it's side fund-raising. Neither did the other big names that joined soon after. But I stayed the course.

Now I see that several of these charities have been caught engaging in (and concealing) the politics of second hand smoke and smoking bans. Now I must act.

I could exclude these offending charities as the forms allow you to do, but let's be realistic. The undesignated contributions will be adjusted to make it come out the way the trustees want regardless.

Therefore, I will be making a significant cut in my United Way pledge this fall, and include a letter as to why. The difference will go to the Salvation Army, possibly others I find worthy as well.

But if and when the United Way takes the hint, making a strong public statement that this abuse of our trust will no longer be tolerated, I will be back.

I've sorted through the blogs' analysis of the GOP shakeup, and I came to a sudden but obvious conclusion. Tim Pawlenty is just plain incompetent as our Governor because he can't stop acting like a Legislator.

Pawlenty lost my 2006 vote months ago. He did this wrong, he flip-flopped on that, and he just isn't acting like a conservative. And then he breaks his no new taxes pledge. Clearly, many of these quirks swayed many of the delegates. Pawlenty tried to save Eibensteiner, and left angry when he failed. And he seems not to know why.

My number one reason in opposing candidates Gore and Kerry is that they both were so obviously lacking in executive ability. Neither could even run their campaign offices. This is why, perhaps unknowing, voters prefer Governors to Senators as Presidential candidates.

And this explains Pawlenty, totally. Everything I find puzzling, inconsistent, or just plain wrong flows from a negotiating, compromising, "cake and eat it, too" Legislative mentality, which is fine if you are indeed a Legislator, not a Governor. Al Quie had the same problem years ago, to the point where the disgraced Rudy Perpich found new political life.

Pawlenty just isn't executive material and being Governor is an executive position. He has reached his Peter Principle level of incompetence, or as they say these days, jumped the shark. Any thoughts of a Presidential bid should scare you.

Pawlenty is not a casualty of Chairman Eibensteiner's defeat. Quite the reverse: he is the very cause of it.

I feel a little sorry for the embattled Hatch daughters. Their parents, particularly their father, weren't there for them when they needed them.

Taking the press accounts at face value, they get drunk and disorderly to the point they are tossed out of a Chicago bar. Rather than ask the bouncer to retrieve her coat, one starts a fight that the other quickly joins, slapping a police officer and kicking in a squad car window.

And now the money quote: "You don't know who I am. My dad is the state's attorney of Minnesota."

State Attorney General Mike Hatch's response? Get them acquitted. After dropping counter-charges filed by his wife, the high-priced defense team the family hired argued that all those people over-reacted, that it just didn't happen. Sure enough, they were acquitted.

If I had done something like this to my "Attorney General" father, I know what he would have done. After assessing the situation, he would have issued a press release to say something like this:

"As you know, my son was arrested and charged with simple battery, resisting arrest, and damage to property, all misdemeanors. This took place in Chicago, Illinois and as such, my office has no role or jurisdiction in the matter. Indeed, I have contacted the authorities there to assure them that they have a free hand to act appropriately within the law."

"I do have one duty as your Attorney General to perform, to apologize those involved for my son's unfortunate statement that he deserves special treatment because of my title. He does not. I further assure those involved that the legal representation my wife and I have hired are equally clear on that point."

"As I will be reminding my son, he more than most should share the faith and respect his mother and I have always had for the law."

"Let justice be done."

And I, once sober, would have feared what my parents said far more than any court.

Shot in the Dark picked up on Nick Coleman's rather well-written column yesterday, noting that a roof for the proposed new Twins stadium is back on the table.

Yes, the roof is back. It had to be, didn't it? What Kool-Aid was I drinking that made me think otherwise? We're going to play ball in April and October outdoors up here?

It's hard to believe that this new phase wasn't part of the plan all along, like a Mission: Impossible script. Cut a deal that only 4 people in Hennepin County have to approve, needing only a "variance" from the Legislature and Governor that requires no state spending. Then wait for someone to notice how absurd this is in our climate, especially if we wind up having to play Game 7 of the World Series here.

Maybe I have the wrong show. Maybe there's a Sgt. Bilko here somewhere. Is it Jerry Bell of the Twins perhaps, conning Hennepin County Commissioner Mike Opat? Or is our "tough negotiator" Mike Opat himself conning us? Or both?

Regardless, this has been a con since day one. Which is probably why it will pass, sticking us in Hennepin County with 90% of the bill.

I have multiple reports of comments problems. I checked my settings, found it was defaulting to a max of seven days. I have changed that to 4 weeks. But otherwise, other than having to supply a name, guest commenting should be allowed.

I'll try an experiment or two myself, see if I can break it. Meanwhile, please accept my apologies for any difficulties. Powerblogs has been flawless so far, so I'm assuming its my problem for now.

Did lightning strike the Patriot last night? Where was Bill Bennett? I woke up to Michael Savage this morning. A quick switch to KSTP. Oh yeah, Davis is out until Monday. So I finally had a good excuse to try Ian & Marjorie on 107.1 FM, which was good.

Now, why is it that whenever technical issues arise at 1280, we get stuck with the Savage Nation? No royalties for replays?

Meanwhile, the Patriot got in about 10 minutes of straight commercials around 7:30am, followed by the start of a new Savage hour at 7:40.

What happened, Chumley? And why is it always that Savage wins and we lose?

I knew this day was coming. The first of the red light traffic cameras are up and issuing warning tickets. If all goes well during the first few weeks, it will then issue tickets.

This is a response they say to the growing problem of running red lights. I agree with the diagnosis, but not with the solution. Even in traffic court, I should have the right to face and challenge my accuser. Here, we have no humans, only a machine whose entire output can be inadvertently or can maliciously wrong. I say maliciously because in one city, the duration of the yellow light was decreased when the camera was installed.

Radar guns are very accurate, but (at least for now) there is an officer operating it to certify its output, and that it applied to your vehicle. Similarly, a photograph is not admissible in and of itself in a criminal trial. Someone must testify as to how and when and where it was taken, and withstand any cross-examination as to whether it was altered after the fact. But with the red light camera, you have no such rights.

Indeed, that's a big part of this. These cameras are literally cash machines to the government. You put them up, it writes the tickets, there is no cost for an officer, no real appeal possible in traffic court, so the money pours in, even if you don't tamper with the yellow timing.

Even if the machines function perfectly, is this what we want? If you're approaching such an intersection and the light turns yellow at "the point of no return" what do you do? Do you take a chance, knowing, yes, that your rear bumper might not clear when the light turns red? And do you really hit the gas to make sure? Or do you brake hard, unsure of the yellow timing, taking a chance that an inattentive driver behind you doesn't plow into you? Sure, it's not your fault, but it's still significant time and money out of your pocket even after insurance, and hopefully no one gets hurt.

And what about in bad weather? If it's icy, do you really want to brake, possibly spin out and hit someone? Or coast gently through? Yes, the light turns red on you, but it's the correct driving decision for the situation. The camera doesn't know that.

What if traffic is congested? The timing is based on 40 mph, but we're crawling along at 28 mph today. What now? Even if we know exactly where the point of no return is at 40 mph, are we expected to be able to instantly calculate where it is at 28 mph?

That's why we put traffic cops out there, to put the situation in context. The correct decision might be to waive the technical offense, issue a warning, issue a ticket, maybe more if flagrant.

Finally, let me note that some good old fashioned speeding is now rewarded. The faster you go, the more time you have to decide and less time you spend in the intersection.

A letter writer in the Minneapolis Star Tribune cited evidence that increasing the yellow time would eliminate 94% of the problem. I'd like to believe this, but long term, we'd all eventually adjust accordingly. The adjustment many of us have long since made is to simply look both ways before entering an intersection when the light turns green.

Sooner or later, unless you crawl to each green then gun it at the line, you will be ticketed. If you think these are more than just revenue generators, that first ticket will educate you like your first W-2 did.

Finally, another true amateur takes the mike. Today it was Dr. Paul G. (I'll fill this in tomorrow when I find where I wrote it down.) Vocally, I think he did just fine for a debut performance.

Paul spent the whole two hours on one topic. This is tough to do, but I think he made it work, for the subject was TV's effects on small children.

He believes no child under seven should see any TV, not even Disney or Sesame Street. During this critical time when the child's imagination is developed, TV is stultifying by giving you the images directly. He walks the walk in his own home, the sole exception being NFL football.

I raised an eyebrow, however, when he mentioned, claimed really, that all this TV was causing learning disabilities like Attention Deficit Disorder. I was skeptical not so much over his premise, but his implied acceptance of the ADD statistics out there that many of us question.

I raised the other eyebrow when in the second hour, he said he was a chiropractic doctor. I don't want to start a side discussion about the merits of chiropractors, but they do have a tendency to wander into other areas like nutrition, allergies, and yes, learning disabilities.

But he largely restrained whatever urge he might have had to plug his trade, and I felt the discussion was a good one.

A solid B here, but I'd like to hear a second hour on say, the new I-394 toll lanes.

I'm not what this new term "pod-casting" means over and above downloading and playing MP3 files on a portable device. But that's what you can now do on Rush 24/7, the best talk radio premium site out there. Until now, you could only listen to the last four weeks via online streaming.

The fidelity is better (48k vs 20k online), but there's no theme, bumpers, not even the end of segment sounder. And you get an automatic downloader to fetch them when available. So far so good. (If you want to see the opposite, a totally screwed up multi-media enabled site, visit www.nascar.com.)

So let's review. We can get Rush, Bennett, Prager, Ingraham, Medved, Savage, O'Reilly, Hendrie, ... on demand. Who am I leaving out, i.e., who is leaving us out?

"Vat ist dis man doink here?" would shout Major Hochstetter of the Gestapo on Hogan's Heroes when Col. Hogan always seemed to be around when things weren't going so well at Stalag 13. Some of the Democrats must be wondering the same thing. How could someone so short of public speaking skills (Arggggghhh!) possibly be elected head of the Democratic National Committee?

I have to believe that this mistake will be corrected soon, as his supposed ability to raise money has yet to produce same. Quite the opposite, in fact. Contributions are way down, and that cannot be tolerated going into 2006.

I don't think the Democrats can wait that long. Consider this statement making the talk show and blog rounds:

You think people can work all day and then pick up their kids at child care or wherever and get home and still manage to sandwich in an eight-hour vote? Well Republicans, I guess can do that. Because a lot of them have never made an honest living in their lives.

A lot of us must be making a dishonest living, then. This would be an easy slur to toss at Senator John Kerry, former Vice President Al Gore, or Senator John Edwards. But I wouldn't. It's too personal and a pointless judgement, even if objective standards could be found.

If Mr. Dean is truly bothered about people not making an honest living, he might start with the people running these voting precincts with the eight hour lines. Funny, but these places are almost all run by his own party's minions. And when investigated, we find not a shortage of equipment or supplies, but a people problem. His people.

If you're getting paid to raise money, and do so in part by making false statements, now that's making a dishonest living.

UPDATE (per Josh at Remain Calm): It would appear that so far, Dean is beating his predecessors for fund raising at this point in the election cycle. But Bob Novak, Business Week and others point out that the GOP is currently doing twice the business. At the individual contributor level, supposedly Dean's strength, the ratio is even more lop-sided.

U.S. Senator Bill Frist (allegedly the majority leader) was the honorary starter at last week's Coca-Cola 600, meaning he got to wave the green flag at the start.

Then I saw a Democrat I didn't recognize complaining on Chris Matthews' Hardball about it. After all, Frist is from Tennessee, not North Carolina where the race was held. With a record 22 cautions, I'd like to complain about that race, too, but I digress.

Twice during this brief segment, said Democrat tried to slip in the "fact" that Frist is an "extreme" partisan. Amazing as this claim is (we wish it were true), even more amazing was that Matthews cut him off in mid-sentence both times. Matthews, for once, kept the discussion on point, noting that the primary sponsor, Coca-Cola, not NASCAR, made that choice. He even jabbed at the Democrat, asking if there was a problem with American corporations making these kinds of choices.

The Democrat had the very good sense not to answer that one.

Ronald A. Cass, once dean of the Boston University Law School, has written a great summary of the "gang of 14" situation in the U.S. Senate.

'Great Compromisers' didn't do Senate a favor is not only accurate, but a great piece of writing.

It's ironic that such a competent piece should have been written for the Los Angeles Times and carried by the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

I have put out the first page of my summer project, to create a new Constitution for the State of Minnesota. I welcome comments and suggestions, even arguments, such as over whether to include, ignore, or prohibit Initiative & Referendum.

Link to: My Proposed Constitution