Speed Gibson

That's what the Minneapolis Star Tribune wants:

It's a fantasy, we know, but it's wondrous to imagine a governor who actually leads a reluctant state into doing something that's difficult now but clearly in its long-term best interest. And that's to finally approve the Twins and Gophers stadiums.

If only Pawlenty would surrender to House Speaker (hey, it costs me nothing) Steve Sviggum and Senate Majority Leader (in name only) Dean Johnson, Minnesota could avoid COS - Cold Omaha Syndrome.

If history repeats itself, Pawlenty will indeed soon surrender. He has presented lists of demands before and come away with nothing, Q-Comp, for example. He will claim to get some concession from the DFL, but if history repeats itself, Johnson will be lying once again and concede nothing.

The leadership the Star Tribune (who has vested interests here) seeks is really cowardice. Don't build consensus toward a successful referendum, just go around the electorate by routing it through as few officials as possible. These aren't weighty matters that require immediate action or circumvention of the existing processes for approving them.

No, true leaders would confront the unreasonable demands of the Twins, Vikings, and Gophers, not the reasonable expectations of the already highly-taxed citizens of Hennepin and Anoka counties.

Losing five evenings to the power outage put me way behind. All I had was the newspaper and my portable radios. Holy MSM, Batman!

It takes a while to catch up with my blogroll. Captain Ed is seldom short of words, nor is Michelle Malkin or Hugh Hewitt. But I finally got through them all.

Actually, I'm not quite caught up in that I'm behind on my Dennis Prager podcasts, listing to last Thursday's show at the moment. And I won't get to last Saturday's NARN (via my Pogo recorder/player) until tomorrow. And I have some Race to the Right to finish listening to, checking up on our dynamic duo's Sunday show in St. Cloud. But I'll get there, with a little Old Time Radio and Radio 365 music thrown in.

I decided to watch Geena Davis's new show first hand, starting with tonight's premiere. It was better than I thought it might be, but still has a way to go. Series like this sometimes start slow, build once they find what works and what doesn't.

What clearly doesn't work for me was this nonsense of VP Allen (Davis) being an "independent" in a Republican administration. This is a euphanism for Democrat. I have yet to meet an independent that had any significant appreciation for the GOP or even Libertarians.

Another point that doesn't work is the age. Geena Davis is 49, but looks 39, and has young children on the show. Her full, red lips and perfect figure, well, it's hard to take the concept seriously.

Finally, her first speech to a joint session was under-staged, and the speech delivered very poorly - wooden, rushed, and trite.

Still, it's worth at least two more episodes. And for those who think this is an opening gambit in Hillary's 2008 Presidential bid, relax. "Mac" is already operating at a level significantly above anything Mrs. Clinton has shown us.

I truly hope I was the last in the M.O.B. to get power restored, meaning I hope everyone is OK now. But being out for 93+ hours gives one a small taste of what is happening in the Gulf right now. And it's frustrating, especially when as in my case, the outage is in a small pocket surrounding by well-lit homes at night.

I'm not thinking very good thoughts about Xcel right now, as it turned out to be maybe a six man-hour job to get our 70 homes reconnected. But actually, it's the fact that Xcel was unseen until Saturday night that had us all upset whether justified or not.

In a situation like this, obviously safety comes first, finding and de-activitating downed, live wires. But then, what should the utility do? Sure, fix the substations and other major connection points. This resolves thousands of outages at a crack, an efficient use of time. But I'm guessing that many, probably most of the 600+ workers are not trained at that level, so they are presumably on the streets.

So here's the management challenge: do you process all of the outages in a "logical" order - largest to smallest, or do you do some at least some token work every area? Again, in my neighborhood, Xcel was not seen at all until Saturday night, and even then, they were actually working on the heavily damaged streets to our North. That's unofficial of course. They may have scouted our pocket at least, but no repair was performed until late Sunday morning. Meanwhile, Qwest (telephone) and Comcast (cable TV) trucks were seen everywhere, every day, all day.

It may be that Qwest and Comcast actually performed poorly while Xcel performed very well. But even if this were the case, Qwest and Comcast's much greater visibilty amidst the visible destruction can't help but create the opposite impression.

So again, if you were the head of a utility company, what would you do? Work from largest to smallest exclusively, or bend that a little to make sure every area can see some progress throughout?

Many of us make fun of WCCO-AM, but when the storms come, we could have no better friend. They stayed in their "storm call-in" mode until dawn, the only source of information most of us had with the power out. And even Sunday morning, they were still updating the power outage situation. But KSTP-AM had decided that we, the last 20,000 or so weren't news anymore.

We're in hour 22 of our storm power outage, so I'm blogging briefly here from an undisclosed location. Thankfully, we escaped without lost trees, shingles, etc, even though there were at least six trees down on our street alone.

Update Sat 8:30 AM: Make that hour 61 of the outage. There is power 2 blocks away in every direction, and that seems to be a common pattern here in the northwest suburbs. Xcel says "11:59 PM Sunday night" which even if true would effectively make this a 4.5 day outage, the longest I've ever known. Another neighborhood is being told Monday at the earliest.

Dry ice has held the freezer for the last 24 hours, but now we've moved the meat therein to a relative's freezer, since there is no predictable end to this outage. I may go out generator shopping...

Update Sun 10:20 AM We have been out over 87 hours now. Xcel finally was spotted late Saturday morning, finally appeared in our neighboorhood around 7 pm. They got most of a block up, so now we have power 2 blocks East, West, and South of us, and 1 block North of us. No sign of Xcel yet this morning. Qwest and Comcast, however, have been everywhere, every day. We did use a borrowed generator last night to watch a couple hours of TV, and I was happy to see that cable was OK.

In fact, that's what's puzzling. Our phone service never went out, the cable still works, and there is no sign of damage to the lines that link our houses to a feeder line that is powering other houses. Xcel has moved up the estimated repair to 10 pm tonight instead of midnight, a level of precision that seems totally unsupportable. But 10 pm might as well be 6 am. We'll fire up the generator to watch Desperate Housewives, then go to bed way early - again.

Update Sun 9:30 PM The shroud has been lifted; power was restored at 5:05 pm tonight. The total outage was 93.5 hours, spanning 5 days. The actual repair was done by a one man crew, clearing an individual home's line that had been ripped out and flopped on our circuit, then reconnecting it to the feeder, about one hour. There are four such circuits in our "grid" and I'd say the total man-hours was six to put 70 homes back on line, less the individual pole to home connections needing repair. There are many other areas still out nearby, however, most needing new utility poles, not just wires.

A saw this in Monday's Minneapolis Star Tribune, a profile of a new local company, Restaurant Technologies, Inc.

Grease is the word in the fast-food business. French fries, chicken, fish -- many of our favorite foods are fried in it, with the average fast-food restaurant going through 30 to 100 gallons of cooking oil a day.

Disposing of used cooking oil has been the bane of many a restaurant worker: wrestling with tubs of hot oil and emptying them into a smelly trash bin, often with burns and spills along the way.

But ride with Jimmy Micek in his gleaming tanker truck and you can spend a day on grease patrol without getting a drop on your shoes, shirt or pants.

Micek services a route for Restaurant Technologies Inc., an Eagan-based company that has come up with a new technique for what it calls "bulk cooking oil management services."

It's a seemingly simple solution: a fleet of tankers that pump fresh oil through hoses to 200-gallon storage tanks inside the restaurant, then reverse the process to pump out used oil.

This is what America does like no other. A little guy, not some corporate giant, gets an idea, gets some venture capital, and in a few short years is grossing over $100 million a year.

The key ingredient was the idea, to make cooking oil flow through a restaurant like city water and sewer. The problems of handling grease in a restaurant have been around for decades. The technology isn't cutting edge here, just plumbing, valves, hoses and tanker trucks. This idea was available to anyone for at least twenty years, but founder Paul Plooster was the one who finally put this simple need and simple solution together.

This is how the pie expands in America.


This is capitalism at its finest, creating jobs and reducing waste. Restaurant cooks win, not slipping on or being burned by spilled grease. Restaurant owners save money, able to consume oil exactly as needed, not on a bulk schedule. And, they have fewer injury and medical costs. The restaurant's patrons win because the oil is kept fresh, not overly used because it's such a hassle to change. And this company's investors and employees win, of course.

According to Forbes, Red McCombs made a pre-tax profit of $350 million over his seven years of ownership. That's roughly $5 million per home game, excluding pre-season. He's got a good job ...

Wow, that didn't take long. The Vikings have their stadium proposal on the table now, just in time for the Special Session to strip Anoka County voters of their right to vote on it.

Of the three stadium deals on the table, this is clearly the best. The Gophers don't even need a stadium, i.e., building it would not fix the underlying problems of northern college football in general or the Gophers in particular. If anything, the U of M should make it official and drop out of Division I football. The proposed Twins stadium is in a terrible location, and has no roof that our climate requires given the extended MLB season.

The Vikings stadium has a roof, has a good location, and seems to have a good suite of related developments. The infrastructure required would help everybody by accelerating the expansion of the nearby Interstate and other roads in this fast growing area. The Vikings are throwing in a significant $280 million. The 0.75 percent sales tax (only 15 cents per double sawbuck!) sounds a bit steep, but it's honest. The Twins would soon be back asking for that roof.

If we must have another publicly financed stadium, I prefer this one. I'll like it still more when Mike Tice is gone. I like the fact that it isn't downtown. I like the fact that it seems to address the total needs of the team, unlike the other two.

I think this is a good first offer, but it may need some work. It should be made available to the Gophers, for example. But let Anoka County vote on it. They might surprise you.

Update: OK, OK, I just wanted to see how even a tepid endorsement would look like for a few hours. Do the math that King requests, figure out how many million dollars a game this is going to cost us.

Supreme Court appointee John Roberts is all but confirmed. I am increasingly impressed with this selection, assuming he walks his talk. But how many John Roberts are there, qualified jurists who will uphold our Constitution and so effortlessly explain why?

I fear that appointees from now on, given the repeated GOP capitulation to the noisy Left, will be picked for there ability to handle these hearings, not their philosphy of the bench.

Mr. President, damn the torpedos. Pick the best person for the job. The Senate Democrats hardly distinguished themselves this trip, talking endlessly to avoid any extended debate with Roberts, one they cannot possibly sustain let alone win. Indeed, we have a lot of foolish gibbish from Biden, Schumer, Kennedy, even Feinstein that we can play back at the appropriate times.

Why do I let myself get the least bit excited about the Vikings? This was supposed to be the break-out year for Tice, yet these first two games show no promise whatever. My two cents:

1. Culpepper is not a hall of fame quarterback after all. A pro QB with his experience should not be giving up a season's worth of interceptions in just two games. And he's set these kind of records before.
2. Mike Tice has to go, and soon. The players are clearly not playing for him, for whatever the reason. And Tice is clearly a one play at a time guy, not one to comtemplate an overall game plan. The concept of stretching a defense or establishing a running game over a series of plays is beyond him.

After years of pushing the rock up the hill, Northwest Airlines has finally filed the bankruptcy they have held off since 9/11, really much longer than that. Even if Northwest survives, and I think chances of that are even or better, there will likely be fewer total flights in and out of MSP.

It wasn't that long ago that our civic planners were busy drawing up plans for a new airport, remember? Ham Lake was the most frequently mentioned site. We were going to need much more capacity than MSP could possibly provide. The truth now is that we probably don't even need the Humphrey Charter Terminal anymore.

The National Cancer Institute (as Bob from the Lung Assn keeps reminding us) estimates that 38,000 deaths a year are attributable to second-hand smoke. That's a remarkably precise figure for something so difficult to measure. I find that validating the NCI's overall credibilty may be as challenging.

Since this is a statiscal estimate, let us analyze it accordingly. By stating a value with a precision of 1,000, this implies that 38,000 is a demonstrably better statistical estimate than 37,000 or 39,000 would be. You don't have to be a doctor, scientist or actuary to understand why no such demonstration is even remotely possible. The variables involved simply vary too much, and most of these are masked by many more significant factors.

Do you add Dura Lube or STP to your engine oil? Assuming that their friction-reducing claims are true, why wouldn't you? Because even with any nominal brand of oil, the rest of the car will age far faster than the engine. The wheels will fall off long before STP can make a significant difference.

So it is with second-hand smoke. How much exposure do you get, both time and parts per million? What's your family medical history? Do you exercise? How old are you? What do you weigh? Did you ever smoke? Are you married? Do you eat healthy? How much do you drink? Trying to find the needle in this formidable haystack of competing factors is absurd.

Craig Westover has penned one of the best columns to date on the effects of the infamous smoking bans, profiling a couple of bartenders at a landmark bar in Northeast Minneapolis. As expected, Bob from the American Lung Association chimed in with his usual denials in the comments. The good Captain lays him out flat near the end:

[T]hat’s your problem, Bob. You cannot articulate a set of neutral criteria independent of secondhand smoke that necessitates government intervention, yet you demand that government intervene. You [refuse] to acknowledge that the policy you support does cause harm[. Y]our argument, [that] if the greater good is served then there is no harm[, is similar to the argument for sterilization of the retarded. And you can’t articulate the scientific evidence for the dangers of secondhand smoke -- you can only spit back estimates with no statistical support.

Your cause is just, Bob. Your methods are despicable.

These methods are why I will be slashing my annual United Way donation in half this year, until they publicly refuse to help charities like Bob's that engage in such blatant, destructive political activity.

Wandering through the "On Demand" on my new digital cable service, I found the NFL network has 10 minute "rewinds" of every game last week. Each runs about 10 minutes, with 9 minutes of action with few replays, using the home radio announcer feed over the video.

I watched the Vikes of course, then the Packers, finally Cincinatti, next week's opponent. Lay the points, take the Bungles.

I was pleased to hear Sue Jeffers again, from week 22. But since we've had three repeat performers in a row now, the time has come to end this series. Among the 25 entries, here are the top five in my opinion.

Fourth runner-up: Malcolm Cloud, the Barstool Philospher from week 7.

Third runner-up: Brad Carlson and Greg Bitner, the "two straight guys that love their wives" from week 16. I'm hoping these gentlemen get a break soon, maybe with a little more politically correct subtitle. (Chris Krok, when are you leaving?)

Second runner-up: Sue Jeffers, from week 22, owner of Stub & Herbs. She has a mature viewpoint and has a number of contacts around town, sort of like Barbara Carlson without the bombast.

First runner-up: Tony Garcia and Marty Andrade whom you can find on my blogroll as Always Right, Usually Correct and Martin Adrade Blogs respectively. These gentlemen had the misfortunate of debuting on week 2, before I had a chance to really know the overall field. As you may know, they have their own live show now on Sundays 1-3pm in St. Cloud. Check with either web site for a link to their excellent quality streaming link. I heard their first three broadcasts and I hereby give them a field promotion to "A" status. They're good and getting better, and I plan to listen more in the future now that this series is at an end.

The winner: Kelly ("NASCAR") Gunderson from week 19. We had a number of engaged, enthusiastic entries, but none as convincing as NASCAR Kelly. As she noted, why not more women? Not to worry - whatever success she has after delivering twins she will earn without affirmative action.

Two honorable mentions: "The Dude" from week 10, and Professor Brian Huffman from week 25.

I have long been a critic of high school "Advanced Placement" (AP) courses on a couple of fronts. Supposedly they teach college level material. Supposedly they can help you get accepted at the more prestigious schools. But an article in US News & World Report asks "Is AP too good to be true?"

Let me put my cards on the table first. I think a large number of schools are simply pandering to parents' vanity by "offering" these courses to their above average if not outright "gifted" offspring. Against a steady backdrop of dumbing down the existing curriculums, I suspect many of these AP courses are on par with the standard offerings of 40 years ago. The colleges know this, and they know about grade inflation, too. If you insist on going to a high-end university, your best weapon is a cashiers check for the full out-state tuition. The article supports a number of my assertions.

[S]ome experts wonder whether the program's wild proliferation has begun to dilute its quality. Several new academic studies indicate that simply taking AP classes--as opposed to passing the end-of-year examinations run by the College Board--isn't a very good predictor of college success. Some high schools are complicating matters by pasting the AP label onto subpar existing courses. And a few highly selective schools have become sufficiently alarmed over the quality of AP classes that they are getting picky about awarding credit even to those who have passed the exams.

I also object to overloading students like the one profiled with so much homework that there's no time for sports and other extra-ciricular activity.

So he pushed his nonacademic life aside and signed up for a total of five AP courses as a junior--Spanish, calculus, statistics, European history, and chemistry. The workload made him miserable, of course. He had five hours of homework most every night and scaled back his commitment to his beloved tennis team to just one weekly practice.

It's not time to panic. These programs, properly implented, can be of value as the article indicates. The point is to be careful in choosing these options for your student. The additional effort is significant, good or bad. Make sure it's worth it.

A common assumption in the blame games going on over hurricane Katrina is that the Federal government, with all that money, resources, people, and power, can respond almost immediately, even when the state and local officials are in your way. But in almost every hierarchy other than Congress itself, more money is accompanied by more controls.

Picture a private company. You spend $10 for dinner when you have to work late supervising an equipment repair. You boss expenses it even without a receipt. You spend $100 on a couple of technical manuals for that equipment. Again, the boss expenses it, but wants a receipt, maybe a short explanation justifying the expense for his boss.

You want to spend $1,000 to bring in a consultant to examine this troublesome machine. Company fiscal controls kick in, requiring pre-approval. You want to spend $10,000 to refurbish the machine. Now you must also price out alternatives such as buying new or getting by until next year.

You want to spend $100,000 to buy a new machine. Your boss now has to sell it to his or her boss. You want to spend $1,000,000 to build a new plant, not just the machine. It has to go before the Board of Directors. You want to spend $10,000,000 to buy the company that makes this critical machine. You have to be on the Board of Directors.

At each level, the amount of paperwork and level of approval rises, by necessity, so that a large purchase or a number of smaller ones don't threaten the liquidity of the business. The same applies at home. If you did all the home improvements you could think up all at once, you'd likely be filing bankruptcy before long.

Thus, for FEMA to spend a significant portion of its budget necessarily requires more approvals and review, and that's a good thing. Katrina will like exceed FEMA's entire budget, so an Act of Congress is also required. Were that they were as careful.

I'll lay odds that Laura Ingraham will pick up the Fox News Sunday round table discussion today. Juan Williams, unhappy with the Federal response to New Orleans and beyond, ran off some quotes by FEMA Director Brown and others.

Brit Hume upbraided Williams, saying what counts is not so much what this or that person said, but what this or that person did. That's what mattered then and matters now. Chris Wallace also gave Louisiana Senator Mary Landieau some heat over her own votes on the local infrastructure.

Should be a good program tomorrow on Laura Ingraham.

I heard David Strom rant a little yesterday morning on Taxpayers League Live (9am-noon Saturdays on AM 1280) about Ted Mondale on Almanac. I haven't had a chance to watch it on tape yet, but I did see "At Issue" this morning, with the Face Off segment at the end between Ember Reichgott-Junge (attorney and former DFL Senator) and Dave Thompson of KSTP-AM 1500, now on Sundays from 4pm-7pm.

I don't like these cross-fire style segments on any network. They're predictable and pointless. If it gets idiotic, as in James Carville, Joe Biden, Pat Buchanan, or Arlen Specter, I hit fast forward or quit watching. But I like Tom Hauser and his weekly "At Issue" program, and it is good therapy to see Ember Reichgott-Junge whipped soundly as she was recently by David Strom - and she knew it.

Ember is DFL all the way, regardless of the facts. To be fair, she is correct maybe five times a year, but the rest of time her convoluted charges and weak defenses are often humorous. Not so this time, with rescue efforts still ongoing in New Orleans and elsewhere.

To say that tax cuts and lack of attention to domestic priorities were factors in this tragedy is absurd. Even Tom Hauser couldn't stay silent when she talked of how the Royal Canadian Mounted Police reached New Orleans before FEMA, pointing out that that even the Canadians would need an OK from some level of goverment to enter New Orleans, probably FEMA in fact.

This kind of rhetoric based on zero accountability of state and local officials (who happen to be members of your political party) gets people killed, either in this disaster or the next. The Federal government cannot be expected to expertly plan for the thousands of possible natural disasters, let alone terrorist attacks. It certainly cannot be expected to immediately take up the slack when local officials like the New Orleans Mayor and Police Chief refuse to follow their own stated plans.

To value your political party's success over the lives of disaster victims, well, it's just not the American way as the millions of dollars raised across all demographics in private charity demonstrate. I think it's time Tom Hauser send Ember to the Penalty Box until she decides to conduct herself in a more civilized manner.

In today's Minneapolis Star Tribune appears an almost silly counterpoint about the proposed new University of Minnesota open air, on campus football stadium. Minnesota House Representative Tim Mahoney, DFL-St. Paul, begs that we not selling the naming rights to TCF or anyone else for that matter.

Mahoney skips some significant steps here, like

1. Will there be a Special Session this fall?
2. Will the Gopher TCF proposal be on the agenda?
3. Will it pass?

He assumes the answer is yes to all three, as his question is moot otherwise. What is depressing is that he's probably right. Given so much, the Twins deal is probably passed as well.

Our foul-weather conservative, fair-weather moderate Governor Pawlenty will surprise few and annoy many when he calls the Special Session, probably around October 1. Our House Majority Leader, the ever-mushy Steve Sviggum is clearly on board. Whatever Senate Majority Leader Dean Johnson has said to date is of no account given his record of repeatedly saying one thing and doing another, but he'll probably go along with it, too.

Our only hope is that the Minnesota Vikings lobby against it, at least until they can get their proposal on the table.

This one's for you, Mitch.

In recounting KSTP-AM 1500 in the late eighties, you said you had worked for "Mel "Mel Freakin' Jass" Jass". Some closer to my age may remember Mel in a number of TV roles, notably the Matinee Movie, not all that far removed from Johnny Carson's Art Fern. Mel would introduce the films, sometimes sharing one of his Hollywood insights. Sometimes he'd note something in the paper, like the "new" Daytons symbol, sort of a Sergeant's chevron laid horizontal. "Looks like the KKK," he quipped, no doubt getting a note or two from the general manager and the sales department.

He did an occasional remote, like going to the Indy 500 to check on the Bear wheel alignment equipment also used by his sponsor Woody Harrier. Wherever he went, he was oft heard to say of a guest or person in the news, "he's got a good job" as he ran his curled hand through his hair. And who could pass up those three rooms full of furniture for just $299 at The Furniture Barn, with free delivery and a 9 x 12 rug?

Well, Mel didn't always have such a good job. Shortly after World War II, he was the manager/program director/salesman at a small radio station in Butte, Montana. My dad was his engineer. He worked all hours, running the boards during the day, maintaining the equipment and transmitter at night. Radio equipment was much more primitive in those days. Vacuum tubes would give out, resistors fried, capacitors de-formed, it was always something.

The hours and climate got to my dad, who took ill with a bad cold and fever. Mel stopped by to see him, and his young bride and later my mother happened to mention that his temperature was 104 degrees. She didn't know what that meant but Mel did, who promptly bundled my dad off to the hospital. He had pneumonia, and it was close.

So if it hadn't been for Mel Jass, you wouldn't be reading this blog, nor one of my more frequent commenters, and the credits on Mystery Science Theatre 3000 would read a little differently.

Mel Jass died in 1997. He was one of kind, the kind only America can produce.

I was out and about this past weekend, and at 4 pm my stomatch was growling a little. I hadn't eaten anything since breakfast, and happened to be by a McDonalds in Maple Grove.

Now except for a couple of vacation breakfast on the run stops, I haven't eaten at McDonalds in at least two years, maybe three. But I thought it might be time to try the old "three course meal" they used to advertise forty years ago - a hamburger, (small) fries, and a drink or shake. With the shake, that used to be 45 cents, and there was no Minnesota sales tax then.

I really just wanted a hamburger and small fries to tide me over to dinner. I had some nice cold water with me. I pull into the drive through menu, and realize I can't order that. I park and walk in, look at the big overhead menu and see the same problem.

At least at this location, there is no more a la carte at McDonalds. The menu was nothing but "Value Meals" and "Happy Meals" - plain old hamburgers and cheeeburgers, even french fries were not listed separately. I walked out, probably never to return as long as Culvers is around.

Does the "Liberal Arts Requirement" still work both ways? I had to take several quarters of history, literature, philosophy etc at the U as an IT (engineering) student. Conversely, the CLA (liberal arts) students had to take some math and science. I, in fact, graded tests and exams for their Physics classes, and by the way, they did just fine as a group.

But that was over 30 years ago. Does, say, a Journalism major have to study the physical sciences anymore? (Or statistics?)

Some of the reporting on New Orleans and Katrina I've seen leads me to wonder. What, for example, is the kinetic energy of a air-dropped sandwich? And how accurately can you drop them near the Superdome anyway?

Seriously, these reporters seem to have no concept of the scales of matter and energy at work in a hurricane. Do they understand that even if the levee that broke held, the tremendous mass and pressure of all that water very well might have breached another. Make it a Category five hurricane, and nothing works. If Lake Pontchartrain doesn't get you, the gulf surge will.

Further, these reporters seem to think that the military can function effectively in heavy rains and high winds. They have all that big stuff that supposedly can stand up to this and crawl over all the debris whenever they want.

And then there's round 37,203 of all undesirable weather is a consequence of air pollution during Republican administrations argument.

The physical forces involved are massive. As a responder, all you can do is watch and wait until it subsides. As a respondee, all you can do is get out of there before it hits.

I did some restructuring of my home office electrical devices. I have well over a dozen devices to plug in, spanning 4 power strips. Actually, it's somewhat worse that than because of those damned wall transformers that usually take up two slots on a powerstrip.

It adds up fast. A computer, stereo, cable box, cable modem, router, TV, VCR, shortwave set, desktop fan, and several charger/adapters including my cell phone and electric toothbrush. The total load is well under 10 amps, and each power strip is switched and fused. Still, it worries me just a little. It's not octopus wiring, but it's not the best either.

I plan on remodeling sometime next year, and a clear requirement of whatever new furniture is involved will be good cable management - electric, telephone, digital cable, audio cables, speaker cables, and Ethernet.

Summer is over, as is my self-imposed "casual summer" dress code. From Labor Day to Memorial Day, I wear a tie Mondays through Thursdays, so tomorrow is the first tie in several months.

I do this to refocus myself a little bit. I work in retail, so the all-important fall and holiday business is upon us, time to get serious. Some even jump the gun, like J. C. Penney who sent us their Christmas catalog a couple of weeks ago.

I wrote last week of my other toy, the FM broadcaster that cannot penetrate air. It was supposed to put my PC audio on an unused FM frequency for a range of "up to" seventy feet. In my case, it was effectively zero.

But my other toy, a Pogo RadioYourWay LX has been a joy. It is a combination AM/FM radio, MP3 player, and MP3 recorder. In fact, you can schedule it to record radio broadcasts just like a VCR or TIVO. Files can be uploaded, downloaded, and managed via its USB connection.

I used it to record Taxpayers League Live and the NARN on Saturday while I attended to breakfast and some household tasks. At 32kbps, very adequate for talk radio, it can record over eight hours in its 128mb. I can add a memory card to raise that to 512mb, but this seems adequate for now. I played it back later, using its 1.5 playback speed option and skipping over commercials. I suppose I should feel guilty, but I know all the Patriot ads by heart from endless repetition as it is, and patronize a few.

It's rechargable, either from USB or AC, and the battery appears to have its stated 15 hour playback life. So, now I can load up my pod casts (Limbaugh, Prager, Ingraham) plus my old time radio (www.rusc.com), and listen whenever is convenient. At bedtime, I use the included earbuds and the auto-sleep timer.

Be advised John Gordon. Pogo will be recording you soon, with a post to follow.

It was another live broadcast from the Minnesota State Fair, and another "rerun" - Clinton S. Collins, Jr from week 14. I therefore am giving myself another week off. But I'll be ready to hear the next contestant next Sunday.

There's a lot of "armchair first-responders" (from a HH caller) out there, blaming President Bush and others for the allegedly poor planning, tactical mistakes and supposedly overall slow response to the plight of New Orleans, and Katrina in general. It would appear that some of these accusations have some merit, but it's far too soon to discuss this as the Left insists.

The Left, of course, only wants to discuss President Bush, Mississippi Governor Barbour, and perhaps FEMA Director Michael Brown. But three other officials - Louisiana Governor Blanco, New Orleans Mayor Nagin, and New Orleans Police Chief Compass - also clearly have some explaining to do.

But let's drop all this for now, please, not while people are still missing and the rescue missions continue. It will take some weeks, probably months before we know the full effect of the criticized actions.

One thing I do know: the situation would have been no better and probably worse under a President Gore or a President Kerry. Unlike President Bush, neither of these candidates has demonstrated any executive ability, unable to even manage their own campaign offices.

No, not New Orleans. The Patriot. Both I and II. They've been off the air since sometime last night. The special editon of the NARN scheduled at noon, not to mention the special editon of Taxpayer's League Live at 10 AM are at risk. They'll be special but only "if we have power at the transmitter site by then" according to The Inhaler.

I am hearing some noises and hum, even some unmodulated carrier wave I think, so it sounds like Patrick is working on it.

It reminds me of the early Hugh Hewitt show when he was on mornings, before he went national. This was during the Gray Davis power kerfuffle, and Hugh would introduce his show as "the intermittently powered" every day, given all the brownouts going on.

We saw the sudden closing of three restaurant/bar/entertainment businesses at the Mall of America, leaving only Hooters, surrounded by dark windows all round. There's no ducking this one - the Bloomington smoking ban, which took effect before the Hennepin County ban, was reported in the Minneapolis Star Tribune as the main cause. There's no way to add a deck or patio and no quick step outside to light up on the fourth level.

Closer to home, our favorite weekend breakfast spot closed up ten days after the ban took effect. So we've been roaming here and there, mostly in Anoka County. This time, though, we went to our local Cracker Barrel. We hadn't been there in a while, because of the weekend queues that have you wandering their store while you wait.

But this time, we were seated immediately. The food was great - scrambled eggs, grits, grilled catfish, fried apples, biscuits, gravy, and coffee for me. I think we'll be back more often, now that the smoking ban has thinned the weekend crowds.

Captain Fishticks has sailed, won't be back in port for a few days. It may take that long to read his A libertarian (different) view of Katrina post, including the spirited comments and various supporting links he provides.

The subject is "price gouging" which many politicians, including President Bush, are decrying as hurting the relief efforts in particular and the population in general where hurricane Katrina has struck.

There is, of course, no such thing as "gouging" unless the government is involved. In a free market, which includes Louisiana even now, transactions don't happen unless both buyer and seller consider it to their advantage. This is explained eloquently and thoroughly in the post and links.

I ordered a couple of toys from the C Crane Company, who sell the legendary "CC Radio" that I bought a few years ago and worth every penny. So this time I bought a Pogo RadioYourWay that can digitally record radio broadcasts like TIVO does for television. I'll provide an update on this later once I've put it through its paces.

But I also bought a $70 FM transmitter with an stated maximum range of 70 feet for extending PC or other audio to the FM radios in the house. After a full hour of trying various positions, frequencies, inputs etc, I found the true range is about 5 feet, and that is with considerable FM hiss. In checking the internet (wish I had before I bought it, but I trusted C Crane) I see this is what many others found.

I also found there is a secret adjustment you can make inside the unit to raise the power. I tried that, now it's maybe 10-15 feet, still noisy, still far short of what was promised or what I want. The only configuration that works is to grab the transmitter antenna with one hand and hold a Sony Walkman in the other.

I guess I'm going to have to spend serious money to get a real unit.

I probably listen to too much talk radio as it is, but I've gone out of my way to catch as many programs as I could the past couple of days, to hear how the tragic news from the Gulf states was being portrayed. The programs and their hosts did fine, I'm happy to report, even on Air America.

But there were a few people who insisted on politicizing the damage, blaming President Bush mostly. As we might expect, they were all leftists, such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Why is that?