It’s Deja Vu all over again

Some things, unfortunately, just don’t change. In the news, these repeat performances appear:

Nationally, following the domination of one political party in the last election, the other party is picking up steam and garnering more support. That is a direct result of having just two dominant parties, with few people satisfied with either. It’s the gnawing old “lesser of two evils” bugaboo. The majority party, regardless of which one happens to hold the majority, is increasingly viewed with disgust, and voters begin shifting to the other. With only two choices, and with neither producing anything worthwhile when in the majority, the pendulum simply shifts back and forth from one to the other.

University of Minnesota athletes are again causing a scandal. As usual, there is little comfort in knowing that these bad-boy players were recruited from other states, not the home of “Minnesota Nice”. As long as college sports are defined as what makes a college important, athletes will continue to be treated as pampered, glorified “stars”, regardless of their other attributes… many will continue to think that they are so important that they can get away with any behavior.

NBA referees continue to call fouls in favor of star players, especially in game-critical circumstances. Last night, the call was a jump ball rather than a foul on a reach-in by Kevin Garnett, now starring for the Celtics. If the players involved had been in opposite positions, I have no doubt that the call would have been a foul instead. It’s been going on for years, and will no doubt continue… that star players consistently get favorable calls that win games.

Oh, and the Yankees won another World Series, their 27th. Big surprise, with a line-up that reads like an All-Star roster. Money wins again.

Yet another case of a registered sex offender being able to commit many more crimes, literally under the nose of law enforcement, for years, without detection. Yes… these same cops who can spot an expired license from 100 feet, but, in this case, don’t notice perhaps 11 murders in the house of an Ohio convicted sex offender. Missing person reports and a putrid smell in the neighborhood weren’t enough to clue in the local cops. Oh yeah… Serve and Protect, for sure.

There was even good news that also isn’t new, but around here, in a state that seems to believe that government can fix problems, it was treated as news. In the midst of a depression, private companies are finding ways to increase productivity… by themselves and without government help. They’ve been doing that as long as there have been businesses… belt-tightening, and laying off all but truly needed workers. In the business world, when the going gets tough, the tough get going. In politics, when the going gets tough, leaders just spend us into more debt, to pretend that they’re fixing something. Let’s watch the administration find a way to pretend that they caused the increased productivity.

Some things never seem to change.

Iowa sports… a lot more than luck

I grew up in the Iowa City area. I attended the University of Iowa. At one time both my parents and I worked for the U of Iowa. Most of my relatives still reside in that area.

Despite all that, there is only one college team I root AGAINST… the University of Iowa. Why would that be?

Over many years, I have watched as Iowa teams, especially playing at home, have had the benefit of officiating in their favor.  In many cases, such as today, in football, against Indiana, the favoritism has been obvious and grievous.

College sports are typically played with high emotions. Very often, penalties can make a real emotional shift in games.  That is the worst effect of biased calls, especially if they occur on key plays. The result can be a terrible and obvious discouragement on the losing team.

Today’s football game was a near-perfect example. In the 3rd quarter, when Iowa could do nothing right, officials managed to keep the game within Iowa’s reach and depress the attitude of Indiana. Two touchdowns by Indiana were obliterated by officials, with challenged results that made no sense to those of us viewing slow-motion on TV.

I don’t know how Iowa manages to have control of officiating, but it’s clear to me that they do have control. As long as that seems to continue, I will root AGAINST my alma mater.

Obama avoids taxpayer protest with a political rally

While tens of thousands of citizens trekked to Washington DC to protest ObamaCare and continued monstrous government spending, President Obama was off in Minneapolis, evangelizing to a guaranteed-favorable crowd. Or, put a little differently… while a huge crowd spent their own money to travel to Washington to protest excessive government spending, the President chose to avoid them by incurring a HUGE additional taxpayer expense.

It costs big bucks when the President travels anywhere. Security costs alone are enormous, with both federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies pressed into service to assure total safety for one man. Air Force One, the President’s aiplane (actually airplaneS) are technolocally extravagant and serviced by a full-time Air Force unit. Typically, traffic is fouled up around a Presidential visit. This visit came on a choice day, shortly before a Minnesota Twins home game just down the street, and a signal football game a few hours late opening the brand-new University of Minnesota stadium to a sold-out crowd.

Despite all the expense and inconvenience, this visit to Minneapolis served no purpose but a sure-thing photo-op love-fest. Minnesota is a thoroughly liberal (read socialist) state, and he brought our 2 Democratic Senators along with him on from Washington.

At a time when unemployment is high and people are worried about their personal finances, you might think that a concerned President might actually make some effort to economize. It’s obvious just how concerned Obama is about taxpayers; not in the slightest.

70 years ago…

was a very significant year. It was the year of the World’s Fair in New York City.
Lou Gehrig retired from baseball with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), commonly known since then as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Nuclear fission was first accomplished.
Hewlett Packard was formed.
The first Minneapolis Aquatennial occured.
Gandhi began his famous fast.

Hitler invaded Poland, beginning World War II in Europe. The St. Louis, a ship carrying a cargo of 907 Jewish refugees, is denied permission to land in Florida after already having been turned away from Cuba. Forced to return to Europe, many of its passengers later die in Nazi death camps during the Holocaust.

Siam became Thailand.
La Guardia airport opened in New York City.
CBS television began transmitting.
The National Baseball Hall of Fame opened in Cooperstown, NY

A lot of well-known people were born in 1939:
Bobby Hull, Sal Mineo, Phil Everly, Ray Stevens, Mike Farrell, Paula Prentiss, Neil Sedaka, Marvin Gaye, Francis Ford Coppola, David Frost, Lee Majors, Judy Collins, Dixie Carter, Al Unser, Jackie Stewart, Carl Yastrzemski, Frankie Avalon, Melinda Dillon, Lee Harvey Oswald, Ralph Lauren, John Cleese, Grace Slick, Russell Means, Yaphet Kotto, Tina Turner, John Amos… oh… and me.

1939 is considered THE big year for movies… the list is rather astonishing:
Gone with the Wind
Wizard of Oz
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Four Feathers
Wuthering Heights
Bachelor Mother
Destry Rides Again
Goodbye
Gunga Din
Hound of the Baskervilles
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
The Women
Beau Geste
The Young Mr. Lincoln
Stagecoach
Of Mice and Men
Only Angels Have Wings
Ninotchka
Juarez
Love Affair
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Another Thin Man
Babes in Arms
Drums Along the Mohawk
Each Dawn I Die
Golden Boy
Intermezzo
Jessie James
The Little Princess
Love Affair

Aside from all those famous movies (now classics)…
Batman and Captain Marvel (SHAZAM) were created. A hell of a year!

Mighty masonry

Despite the annoying inconvenience of living amidst a 4-year construction zone, and my belief that the resulting “major improvement” will only ease 35W traffic for a short time, I have found it fascinating to watch the construction.

I live alongside the infamous 35W/Crosstown highway, a problem area almost since it was built. The east/west Crosstown came first, built as a means to enable traffic to the stockyards in St. Paul. The stockyards is gone, but the trouble began when Interstate 35W was planned, coming into Minneapolis from the south. Freeways cross all the time, but a poor decision was made way back when… to use part of the Crosstown as part of the new 35W. The reason was to qualify for more government money. The result was a stretch of maybe half a mile of jams and confusion as one highway merged into the other and then quickly out again. It also meant that 35W had two big curves… to merge into and out of the Crosstown section. The simplest routes, just staying on 35W or just staying on the Crosstown, both became tricky merges. It became “the bottleneck”.

There were other choices back then, but, gradually, those choices have disappeared as people built around it. Solving the problem has since been proposed and abandoned several times,also complicated by it involving Minneapolis, Richfield, the county, the state, the feds, and many other related groups. Nevertheless, a grand new plan IS being implemented, over 4 years, and I live in the heart of it. The building next to mine was taken, and the new freeway wall is at the end of our lawn now. Traffic is raised far off the ground through here, because of a couple of major streets and railroad tracks.

The freeway right here is built up on earth (as it was before), blocking all north/south traffic except for the two major streets, but the area east of Nicollet Avenue is where the construction gets interesting. The new solution doesn’t take up much more space than the old, but it separates the two freeways better, allowing through traffic to flow without merging together.

The design is spaghetti-like, with many long ramps. In spite of the grand design, it will undoubtedly still result in slowdowns for both freeways… any curve does. To the extent that it makes traffic somewhat faster, it will become a choice for even more drivers, and will inevitably again become “the bottleneck”.

All that negativity aside, the construction project is impressive. Coordinating the placement of workmen, heavy equipment, and resources coming in from subcontractors has to be a mammoth task. Many very large cranes are deployed and redeployed as needed. My favorite part of the complexity is the construction of the elevated roadways. These are built of pre-cast cross-sections, each section making up about 8 to 10 feet of 2-lane roadway. If you haven’t seen such construction before, the photos below will make it understandable.

The long elevated sections of roadway are supported by large vertical columns, placed a considerable distance apart. One at a time, a cross-sectional piece is added atop a column… first on one side, then on the other, etc. Each new piece is pulled tight against the previous ones, under what must be enormous tension. They continue to add pieces to either side, seemingly balanced on the columns, until about a dozen are hanging out on either side, where they, amazingly, meet with the roadway stretching out from the next column.

Most impressive to me is that these elevated sections curve, often in elevation, direction, and banking, which means that each cross-section is built precisely and uniquely for its location.

You can click on the photos to see large versions.

Here are several cross-section pieces waiting to be placed over
Nicollet Avenue. These were placed at night because the crane
blocked the street.


This shows a bare column and another with the
first couple of cross-sections in place.

Here is a closeup of two sections about to meet.

Two long ramps coming together over Nicollet Avenue, from
the north and from the east.

Shows the complex curve of the roadway.

When I look at these constructions, I get the same feeling as when I see an airliner flying over… it doesn’t look like it should be able to do that, but it obviously can.

as I’ve been saying for years…

A new study shows that cigarette smoke can prevent allergies by decreasing the reaction of immune cells to allergens.

I’ve smoked for 54 years and have never found anything I was allergic to, while almost everyone around me has become allergic to more and more substances. I’ve asked many smokers about their allergies, and found out that it isn’t just me. My assumption has been that smokers have stronger immune systems, so are less affected by alien substances.

I think it is more than just not-smoking that has led to increased allergic reaction. Modern humans have become fearful of so many things that could be harmful. Although scientists know better, other organizations seeking political power and/or donations have pushed the idea that if a substance is harmful at some dosage level, then it is harmful at any dosage level. Thus, because extreme exposure to sun can occasionally cause skin cancer, then any exposure should be avoided. Many people now believe that laying outside to tan (or even in a tanning bed) is a foolish flirtation with cancer. If trans-fat isn’t good for you, then you should avoid it completely. The list goes on and on.

I recall that, a few years ago, new homes were being built tightly, to conserve energy, resulting in no fresh air, and making residents sick until they starting piping in fresh air to their cooling systems. Even pets have become sicklier, as their owners have eliminated one pollutant after another.

In the U.S. we are extreme about what we fear. All of our food products are now freshness-dated, and many people simply throw food away when it passes the date… even when it still looks and smells fine. Guess whose idea that was? Follow the money.

Pseudo-science has turned Americans into frightened pansies who are losing their natural resistance to alien substances. The human body can develop resistance to almost anything harmful, if it has to, but when we artificially isolate ourselves from the natural world, we become weaker and more vulnerable.

Doesn’t it also seem likely that, if you develop an allergy, and medicate to lessen the symptoms, that you have made yourself even more dependent on the medication… and more vulnerable to the allergic reaction?

School teachers are a good example of immunity. In a typical elementary classroom, one or more children have a cold almost every day, so teachers are exposed continuously. Given the normal fear of most people, teachers should be sick continuously… but they’re not. Over time, they develop an immunity to the constant barrage of germs.

There are lessons to be learned from these examples. Americans used to be tough folks, working in dirty jobs, living in less clean environments, and over half the population smoked cigarettes… unfiltered ones. Now the air is cleaner, our home environments are far cleaner, only about 20% of us smoke and almost never indoors, yet we have become a sickly, overweight population.

We used to eat anything that tasted good or was cheap. We didn’t much know or care what was in it or how it was processed. Are we healthier now? Hell no, we’re not.

Health care costs have skyrocketed, a higher percentage of us are suffering from dementia, childhood asthma is rampant, and clinics and hospitals are constantly hiring.

When are we going to question the advice that has been pushed on us?

What a bunch of losers!

The Minnesota legislature is controlled by the local Democrats, called DFLers. After years of trying, they finally passed a medical marijuana bill, but, at the last minute, watered it down to include only TERMINALLY-ILL patients.

They will undoubtedly claim that they wanted something that our lame GOP governor wouldn’t veto… something is better than nothing, ya know? They’re right in that claim… he intends to veto even that pathetic bill, but does that justify what they did? Hell no, it doesn’t… they took him largely off the hook by chickening out in advance.

Marijuana can help terminally-ill patients, but they are, after all, by definition, going to die. The real value of medicinal marijuana is for thousands of patients who are going to live… and marijuana can often be the difference between dying and living for them. All those people were sacrificed by one late and cowardly amendment to the bill.

While they were caring not for sick people, they also declared not wearing a seat-belt to be an offense for which cops can now stop you… and charge you.

Our liberal legislators seem to be totally incapable or unwilling to keep their damned noses out of every aspect of our business. They think they know what is best for every one of us, regardless of our individual situations, and they’re willing to FORCE us to comply for our own good.

That attitude is SICK, ELITIST, AND TOTALITARIAN.

A day at Art-A-Whirl and back in time

There are few things I enjoy doing more than stepping back into history, and yesterday was all about that. I used the annual Art-A-Whirl in NE Minneapolis as the impetus and focal point to revisit a couple of places. Sometimes things happen to coincide in a way that produces rather spooky results.

In the 70’s I visited the Northwestern Casket Company briefly on insurance business, and was delighted to find a company that had been in business, in the same place, since Civil War days. I recall a 100-year-old clock in the office, still working, and office furniture that might have been as old.

In 2005, I was visiting an old friend in that part of town and sensed that the place I had visited 20 years earlier was nearby. I drove around until I found the old building, and took a couple of photos of it. It looked to me as if the casket company was gone, and I posted the photos and my regrets at the demise of the company on my website.

Not long after, I got an email from someone at the Casket Company insisting that they were NOT gone, and that they would prove it if I wanted to take a tour. A tour of a company well over 100 years old? There are few things I could want more.

I called a couple of friends I knew would be interested in joining me, plus the friend who lived near NWCC. He fixed lunch for us and we went over to the massive old brick building with the huge name painted on the bricks.

We were given a tour by the company president David Koll, and it was marvelous. Although the company was by that time small and less active by comparison with it’s earlier days, the building added great interest.

Oh, to have seen the company operation at it’s peak… hauling logs in by rail to their own sawmill and dry kiln, and watching craftsmen build caskets of all kinds, followed by the custom interiors created by the ladies on the 3rd floor. Putting interiors on purchased metal caskets had become the bulk of the company’s business.

This day, I was with another friend, and drove by my old friend Ed Contoski’s house, and saw him outside, so we stopped for a few minutes to find out Ed’s latest activities (Ed should be a whole other blog). From Ed’s, we drove up by the St. Mary’s Orthodox Cathedral you can see from Ed’s dining room. It’s an impressive old church from the outside, with a huge central dome and other smaller ones. I was surprised to see that the church was an Art-A-Whirl stop too, so we parked and went in. There was a service just finishing as we got there, and we were directed to the church’s tea room for some great tea, pleasantly sweetened with a dab of Huber’s jam.

When the service ended we entered the church proper and stood surprised at what we saw… a truly magnificent room under the huge dome, with an incredible iconostasis in the front and paintings all around. Additionally, there was an exhibit of more recent, smaller icons. Words cannot do justice to the interior of this cathedral, but they have a website with lots of photos.

From St. Mary’s, we drove to the nearby casket company building. Yes, the casket company was indeed gone, but the huge building, plus the carriage house, were filled with people touring the artist’s studios. There were many remaining vestiges of the building’s prior appearance, but I had hoped for a small historical “shrine” to the company that built the building in 1855 and occupied it for 150 years. The story of that company reveals much about the ways in which our nation has changed over that time.

It’s a little ironic that a building that was built to produce fine hand-crafted caskets now displays hand-crafted art. Another small twist of fate… one of the people I invited on that 2005 tour of the casket company was Joan Nygren, who, for several years, has done the massive Design and Production of the Art-A_Whirl catalog.

I hope someone is recording the story of Northwestern Casket Company for posterity. It’s possible that the company itself is still in business in a different location. I think I’ll try to find out. With a great deal of luck, perhaps I’ll be the one to put at least some more of their long history online to share.

The Susan Boyle phenomena

If, by some miracle, you haven’t watched the video of Susan Boyle’s performance on Britain Has Talent, take just a few minutes here to do so, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

There are so many ways to appreciate that performance, that, combined, they overwhelm most viewers. First, that a frumpy, unemployed middle-aged woman would have the courage to face a huge audience with daring and confidence, shows that Susan truly has chutzpah. Second, that she would choose to sing a difficult song… a restrained-emotion song that must be delivered perfectly to be convincing. Third, that she would deliver that song with no theatrics, relying only on her strong and unwavering voice.

Of course, much of the thrill of watching lies in the shocked reaction of the audience and judges. Talent shows usually present performers who look like stars who have simply not been “discovered” yet. Susan looks like what she is… the woman down the street who volunteers at her church. Her voice and her splendid performance was all she brought to that stage, and we were all stunned to realize that it was way more than enough. It was breathtaking.

The video has been viewed many millions of times. The Susan Boyle Facebook page has over 900,000 fans. In an era when being a star usually requires a bevy of specialist consultants in dress, makeup, movement, etc., Susan simply appeared and sang a song for us. In doing so, she reminds us that music is not about hype, or glamour, but about one person performing a composition from the heart.

Susan’s comments reveal that she knew she could present a powerful performance, yet she was surprised at the strength of the reaction. I think we were all surprised, which is revealing. Susan’s performance brought us back to reality, from the never-never land that the performing arts have become. She smashed through our sophisticated appreciation and “with-it” fav-bestowing, and touched us with no more than the sound of her voice.

Why the Libertarian Party of Minnesota is closing the Liberty Center

Within the next month or so, the Libertarian Party of Minnesota will close our storefront Liberty Center at 799 Raymond Ave. in St. Paul. It’s a big change that deserves some explanation.

Almost nine years ago, when I was State Chair, I convinced the LPMN that we should have a storefront office in order to grow and become more successful. The party was 29 years old then, and had always operated without an office, with a brief exception in the 70’s. During the years prior to 2001, the party had relied on a series of strong and very committed leaders and a small cadre of activists who spent excessive amounts of their time on party work. We operated with a post office box number rather than an address, and phone calls were taken at home by the Chair or Vice Chair.

Computer work was done from our homes. Meetings were held in a variety of locations. That mode of operation was very limiting, and didn’t create a very professional impression.

Opening the first Liberty Center, at 42nd and Nicollet S. caused a high point in party activity. Membership grew, volunteers at last had a place to work, and we had a public image on a busy street. Then the 9/11 attack happened, and the political focus of the nation changed. Some people began to believe that political competition was less important than supporting the President. Dissent became unwelcome… and we were all about dissent.

Party membership began to drop here and on a national level too, reducing income and activism. The change was gradual, and there were internal causes as well. We went through several years when party officers were not able to spend the great amount of time needed to keep an all-volunteer party moving forward. We suffered through a major theft and a break-in that cost us dearly.

As is always true, trying to maintain an all-volunteer political party is never easy. Turnover of activists and members is high. Activists (and contributors) help for quite emotional reasons, and because we are always fighting a steep uphill battle against the two entrenched and powerful parties, disppointment is a way of life. Successes are small, and defeats can make it seem as if progress is impossible. Emotional burnout is frequent.

The relationship between a small political party and campaigns for office is a strange one. Everyone expects a political party to run candidates, but the usual effect of campaigns actually makes it more difficult to keep the party moving and growing. Campaigns are exciting and fun. When we had active campaigns, all of the extra time and money of party supporters shifted to the campaigns and away from the party itself. When a campaign ends in defeat… no matter how successful a defeat… some of those who poured themselves into the campaign drift away, to again reconcentrate their efforts on their personal lives. Some will be dissillusioned and avoid politics again. While campaigns will bring a few new people to the party, very few stay after the elections, and the party struggles to get moving again.

This past election year was no exception, even though LPMN ran no partisan candidates. The Ron Paul campaign drew many of our most active party members to it, and they made their contributions to that campaign rather than to the party. Without question, Ron Paul has awakened many people to libertarian ideas, but he has done it as a Republican, and pulled many back into that party. Like many other Libertarians, I attended the Republican caucus, and even read Ron Paul’s statement to the group. The Liberty Center was Ron Paul headquarters before they opened a separate office, and we distributed a lot of Paul materials from there. As it became obvious that Paul would not get the nomination, I went back to working for the LPMN. Fortunately, or unfortunately, the Ron Paul movement did not end with the election, and the negative effect on the LPMN continues.

If and when the Ron Paul Revolution peters out, I do not expect that many of those who have invested time and money in it will turn to the LPMN or other state LP groups. Some will have damaged their personal lives enough, or become too disillusioned to continue political activism. It is ironic and sad that, in a time when libertarian ideas are more prevalent than ever, support for the party that has kept those ideas alive for 37 years, has decreased. LPMN, the 50 other affiliates, and the LP itself, were the core of support for new and successful movements such as the Ron Paul Revolution and the Free State Project (several of our most active members moved to New Hampshire to be part of the FSP), but the very success of those movements has left the party struggling.

LPMN has always been viewed as a much larger organization than it actually is. We have had a presence, and influence, that is much greater than our numbers should allow. We have operated with a few extremely dedicated individuals who are willing to fight the long fight to keep libertarian ideas in front of the public. While it is easy to get emotionally involved for a short time, it requires a serious committment to liberty to keep the fires burning when the bonfires go out. LPMN will continue, and you are certainly welcome to join and help.