Tom Bartel W, you’re a much better lover than Hadassah “If we just pick up like Ned Lamont wants us to do, get out by a date certain, it will be taken as a tremendous victory by the same people who wanted to blow up these planes in this plot hatched in England,” Mr. Lieberman said at … Read more
“You can waste your time on the little lies, but Americans have shown they are even more gullible when you hit them with the whoppers.” There was in interesting piece in the Strib this morning, from the Associated Press, noting that half of all Americans still believe that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. That … Read more
The first ride I ever had in a Mercedes sedan was on the German autobahn in 1975. In case you aren’t familiar with the autobahn, it’s a speed freak’s dream: There is no speed limit, and the German autobahn cops drive Porsche Turbos so they can keep up. The right lane moves along at about … Read more
One must be awful careful these days when bringing up H. L. Mencken. The “Bard of Baltimore” was an inspiration to a generation of plain-talking columnists long before Molly Ivins or Maureen Dowd were even born—or before anyone in journalism worried about hurting people’s feelings. Mencken’s specialty was puncturing the pomposity and pointing out the … Read more
Some pills make you taller and some pills make you small If you didn’t get a big enough laugh out of Bush’s petty moralizing at his stem cell research funding veto ceremony, here’s one for you: Tim (I’m Only Looking Out for You) Pawlenty thinks the frequent television ads for prescription drugs are too much. … Read more
Bush to stem cell researchers: “Up yours!” Well, it was a bit strange today to see Bush drag out the veto stamp for the first time in his presidency to kill the funding for stem cell research. “It crosses a moral boundary that our society needs to respect, so I vetoed it,” he said to … Read more
Gina L: A chassis shape we can appreciate It occured to me yesterday while reading a vapid article on the merits of “Post Modern Girlfriend” (I don’t believe it was in The Rake, but alas I myself suffer from vapidity often.) why I hate many recent BMWs. I have always understood “post modern thought” to … Read more
Ready. Aim… A big whoop engendered yesterday by the Growth and Justice gang’s ad in the Strib yesterday indicating the willingness of 200 upper income Minnesotans to pay more tax to fund education, transportation and health care got the expected response from Tim “I answer only to David Strom” Pawlenty: “If those people want to … Read more
Diane Arbus, whose retrospective is now on view at Walker Art Center, used her exceptional technical skill as a fashion photographer to create a world inhabited by circus freaks, the mentally handicapped, nudists, giants and midgets, and, even more disturbing, “regular” people made up to go out on the town. Taken as a whole, this … Read more
Julie Quist wants to save your children from the horrors of knowledge about other countries. A story in the Strib today mentioned growing opposition in some quarters (such as the sixth district Republican ones that nominated Michele Bachmann for Congress) to the growing trend in Minnesota school districts to adopt the International Baccalaureate method of … Read more