Bob Owen

Posted 2/28/2002 08:48:00 AM by Bob
Some people have strange ideas of what a PC should look like. Check out these "futuristic" designs at the Intel site. Several definitely look better than the cream colored box that holds up my monitor today. Others are just plain silly.

They aren't really creative but they have high hopes, as this description for the Tetra shows: Tetra is the smallest member of Ziba Design's new legacy-free PC line. It's configured specifically for the game lover. Playing games is even more fun when your computer is playful itself. Mmmm. Form enhances function?

Or this: Aztec, from Ziba Design, is for the experienced consumer. It contains the smallest motherboard available with a 500 MHz processor, so that speed is not sacrificed despite its compact, pyramid-like shape. 500 MHz? Geez, in the era of 1 - 2 gigahertz machines they've designed a Spec. Try reading it this way: The Aztec, by Pontiac, is for the experienced driver. It contains the smallest engine block available with a 50 horsepower engine, so that speed is not sacrificed despite its compact, pyramid-like shape. Sure speed isn't sacrificed if those experienced drivers were only expecting to tool along at 30 MPH. While I'm waiting for my programs to load I can look at that smart pyramid-like shape and congratulate myself on owning such a snappy looking device.

I think of my PC as an appliance. It should perform well and have all the bells and whistles. No, it doesn't have to look like some Soviet implement. Yes, I'd like it to look pretty even when it's not in use, just like a car. The Chrysler PT Cruiser is functional and interesting looking. But it's not silly looking just for the sake of being different.

Posted 2/28/2002 05:42:00 AM by Bob
Killing, In the name of religion:

GODHRA, India (AP) -- Police fired rifles, injuring six people, to halt a Hindu crowd trying to attack Muslim houses Thursday as violence spread across western Gujarat state after the mob-burning of a train that killed 58 people, mostly Hindus returning from a disputed religious site.

For hours, outnumbered police stood watching, or occasionally fired tear gas in the state's commercial center, Ahmadabad, as gangs of hundreds of people burned hotels, petrol pumps, cars, restaurants and shops. They made bonfires of the looted goods and blocked the roads.

Rioters killed three people, including a truck driver dragged from his vehicle, police said.

Too bad the following is just something that appeared in The Onion:

"Look, I don't know, maybe I haven't made myself completely clear, so for the record, here it is again," said the Lord, His divine face betraying visible emotion during a press conference near the site of the fallen Twin Towers. "Somehow, people keep coming up with the idea that I want them to kill their neighbor. Well, I don't. And to be honest, I'm really getting sick and tired of it. Get it straight. Not only do I not want anybody to kill anyone, but I specifically commanded you not to, in really simple terms that anybody ought to be able to understand."

Worshipped by Christians, Jews, and Muslims alike, God said His name has been invoked countless times over the centuries as a reason to kill in what He called "an unending cycle of violence."

"I don't care how holy somebody claims to be," God said. "If a person tells you it's My will that they kill someone, they're wrong. Got it? I don't care what religion you are, or who you think your enemy is, here it is one more time: No killing, in My name or anyone else's, ever again."

Posted 2/28/2002 05:32:00 AM by Bob
Some people deserve what they get. But, of course, it's not their fault and guess what they want to do...

Bangor News -- A convicted sex offender wanted in Florida who fled into the Maine woods from police is complaining that he got frostbite and lost a few toes because he wasn’t arrested fast enough.

Harvey Taylor, 48, who spent at least three nights in the woods in Mattawamkeag after running from a Penobscot County Sheriff’s detective a few weeks ago, is threatening to sue the detective for not arresting him promptly.

“If the detective had done his job, I wouldn’t be in here now,” Taylor said Tuesday during a telephone interview from his hospital room.

“I’m trying to find an attorney to bring a lawsuit against this detective,” said Taylor, who is a patient in police custody at St. Joseph Hospital. “If he had done his job properly I wouldn’t be in the condition that I’m in right now. I would have been in jail that very same day.”

Taylor said he was approached by a man he later learned was a detective. “I thought he was a nut,” Taylor said. “When he opened his coat a little bit I took for granted he was trying to show me, ‘Hey, I got a gun.’ I took off running and he chased me until I got to the side of the woods.”

[Chief Deputy Glenn] Ross said the detective opened his coat to show his badge, but Taylor refused to identify himself and jumped into a car driven by another person and left. He said Jameson called for assistance and pursued the vehicle in his cruiser, turning on his siren and blue lights to stop the vehicle. He said Taylor jumped out of the car and ran into the woods. Jameson followed Taylor’s tracks a few hundred yards into the woods, but could not find Taylor. Ross said police patrolled the area and sent out an alert to other agencies.

Taylor said he got lost and spent three nights in the woods at times in snow knee and hip deep. “Nobody looked for me, not even the detective that I’m going to sue as soon as I can find me an attorney that will take the case,” said Taylor. “He could have arrested me right there and then way before I went into the woods. It would have stopped me from thinking he was a nut and running into the woods.”

Posted 2/27/2002 06:01:00 PM by Bob
The boys and I are eating a horrible, unethical, immoral, unhealthy meal of macaroni and cheese, milk, pears and (gasp!) chocolate chip cookies. I want to make sure we become even more overweight. I'm an awful parent. I'm not even sure if the cheese was shade-grown. Fortunately no animals were harmed during the preparation of the meal.

Just the other night I wished I had two microwave ovens so I could fix two frozen meals at once. The reason I wanted to save time, of course, was so I could spend more time in front of the TV.

After dinner, I’m going to watch the Simpsons. Being an ignorant consumer of the mass market I’ll have to emulate something Homer does. If I could just find someone to shoot a cannonball into stomach. Then I’ll let one of the kids drive my car.

I am not responsible for anything bad that happens to me. I am going to be overly sensitive to everything around me.

Yesterday Wisconsin governor Scott McCallum called Rhinelander television reporter Matt Barrie a "dumb son of a bitch." The Milwaukee Sentinel Journal reported on the story.

"I was shocked," Barrie said. "It was one of those things where you know what you just heard but you are in shock. I'm just doing my job, serving the public, to inform them where their money is indeed going. To have the state's top official call me a 'dumb son of a bitch' just because of a line of questioning - I was offended."

If Barrie is in shock, then he really is a dumb son of a bitch. Is he an adult TV reporter or did the report say he writes for the junior high school newspaper?

Steve Kean, executive director of the state Democratic Party, said McCallum "made an extraordinarily inappropriate remark."

So that’s an extraordinary thing to say. My God, what would Kean think of a racial epithet or threat on someone’s life? He’s in politics! I wish I had that much time to worry over such crap. Good thing Kean doesn't have to deal with a governor like Minnesota's: a former Navy SEAL who has "hunted man" and hates "media jackals."

Posted 2/27/2002 01:29:00 PM by Bob
All in the name of religion:

Pioneer Press -- Muslim attackers set train on fire in western India, killing dozens

A Muslim mob set fire to a train carrying Hindu nationalists home from a disputed religious site today, killing at least 57 people, officials said. Fearing religious strife could spread, the prime minister appealed for calm.

The fire gutted four coaches in the early morning attack at a station in the western city of Godhra, where Muslims angered by slogans chanted by the Hindus stoned the train cars and doused them with kerosene, according to state officials and witnesses.

Posted 2/27/2002 10:46:00 AM by Bob
Teaching hatred in Muslim schools. Disgusting. Even more troubling is that it's happening in America, in accredited schools. This is from a Tech Central Station article today (containing information from a Washington Post story):

Classrooms of the Washington Islamic Academy, which teaches kindergarten through 4th grade, feature world maps without Israel. "Upstairs in Al-Qalam girls school, the word is blackened out with marker, with 'Palestine' written in its place."

With the massive immigration of Muslims over recent decades - primarily because of the wretchedness of most native Islamic states - these parochial schools are increasing. Throughout America now are 200 to 600 Islamic day schools, teaching at least 30,000 full-time students and thousands more on weekends. The Washington Islamic Academy, outside the nation's capital, teaches some 1,300 kids, including children of Arabic-speaking diplomats.

It may rank among the worst of these academies, as it is funded by Saudi money. Its high school textbook, in the reporters' words, "says one sign of the Day of Judgment will be that Muslims will fight and kill Jews, who will hide behind trees that say: 'Oh Muslim, Oh servant of God, here is a Jew hiding behind me. Come here and kill him.'"

Posted 2/27/2002 07:24:00 AM by Bob
Great Lileks screed today.

Posted 2/26/2002 05:43:00 PM by Bob
Look at this cute picture of a four-year-old boy and his, um, toy and wonder when there will be peace in the Middle East.

Posted 2/26/2002 02:20:00 PM by Bob
A lawyer joke told over the radio caused a disruption in the Rice County courthouse today:

Channel 4000 -- A radio station owner in Northfield, Minn., said he's sorry for telling an on-air joke about lawyers being taken hostage at the county courthouse.

After listeners to KYMN-AM called Monday, two court hearings were interrupted at the Rice County Courthouse and offices and rooms were checked. But there was no hostage situation.

KYMN president, owner and general manager Wayne Eddy wrote a letter to the sheriff's department, saying he never thought his lawyer joke would cause a problem.

Eddy said his joke was -- "This just in from the Rice County Courthouse: a crazy guy is holding a dozen lawyers hostage. He is threatening to release one per hour until he gets what he wants."

Posted 2/26/2002 10:13:00 AM by Bob
Can't get in to Harvard's medical school? They won't take you at Johns Hopkins? Grades not good enough to attend the University of Minnesota med school? You may have to consider going to Mexico or Greneda. Or the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas.

Dallas News -- The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas used to automatically reject applicants with lousy grades and low test scores. It's not that easy anymore.

Because of a new state law, the admissions process is more complicated for the medical school and for all graduate schools in Texas. The measure, passed in June, says graduate programs may not use test scores as the sole or primary factor in admissions.

Instead, the law throws in 11 other factors schools must consider, including applicants' hometowns and whether they grew up in poverty.

In medical schools, officials have long considered entrance exam scores an indicator of a student's likely success on medical licensing tests, said Scott Wright, director of admissions at UT Southwestern. Now, it's just one of many factors to consider.

Posted 2/26/2002 10:02:00 AM by Bob
Is it real or is it the Onion? -- "New York Mayor Ponders Selling Brooklyn Bridge"

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Unbelievable perhaps, but New York City's new mayor wants to sell you the historic Brooklyn Bridge.

In fact, he wants to sell three other bridges in America's biggest city -- anything to raise cash in a city reeling from the economic effects of the Sept. 11 attacks coupled with the first U.S. recession in 10 years.

Michael Bloomberg, elected mayor last year just weeks after the destruction of the World Trade Center, inherited a nearly $5 billion hole in his $40 billion spending plan, which an official in his administration said could be partly filled through the sale of the four bridges.

Posted 2/26/2002 09:13:00 AM by Bob
Evil Starbucks is ruining the world. In this letter to the editor of the Daily Cardinal (student newspaper at the University of Wisconsin-Madison) the writer announces protests at Starbucks across the nation and world today by "consumer, environmental and social justice activists." They want Starbucks to change its menu. If I didn't like Starbucks I wouldn't patronize it. But activists aren't content to let the marketplace determine what Starbucks serves. If we let that happen, the capitalists will have won!

This Tuesday, consumer, environmental and social justice activists in 300 other U.S. cities and five other nations (United Kingdom, New Zealand, Canada, Australia and Japan) will be leafleting and staging protests in front of Starbucks coffee shops. These protests are timed to coincide with Starbucks' annual stockholders meeting, which takes place in Seattle Feb. 26. Protestors, including shareholders in Seattle, will call attention to Starbucks' use of genetically engineered ingredients in their foods and beverages, as well as Starbucks' refusal to brew Fair Trade, shade-grown coffee as its "coffee of thee day" at least one day a week.

Alternatives to Starbucks exist. Even though the horrible, oppressive United States of America requires each citizen to buy coffee every day at Starbucks, other coffee cafes can be found in Madison.

Fortunately, in Madison there are many coffee shops that offer an alternative to injustices perpetuated by Starbucks. For instance, there are many individually owned coffee shops; there are many coffee shops that serve Fair Trade coffee; there are many coffee shops that serve organic products and abstain from serving rBGH milk; and finally there is one coffee shop that is cooperatively owned. Unlike Starbucks, Cafe Assisi is doing these positive actions. When asked, an employee/owner of the cafe said, "An important distinction between us and Starbucks is that we only brew Fair Trade coffee and that all of us are equally invested in the cafe, as opposed to corporate executives who are reaping in all of the profits."

Sarah Langford
UW Greens
UW-Madison junior

If we could just force Starbucks to go out of business then people would have to frequent Cafe Assisi. Instead of corporate executives earning money, the members of the Cafe Assisi co-op would reap the profits. Then the members would become wealthy. And could begin to hate themselves for being successful. While enjoying shade-grown Fair Trade coffee more than one day a week.

Posted 2/26/2002 07:12:00 AM by Bob
If Target sold bourbon, I would just put the family in a Winnebago and live in the parking lot. -- James Lileks.

Posted 2/26/2002 07:07:00 AM by Bob
Our governor, G.I. Jesse Ventura, whom I've never disliked, had declared that he'd never raise taxes. George Bush (41) said "read my lips" but ended up raising taxes. The world continued to revolve around the sun. Ventura wants to raise taxes. But he's said that anyone who opposes that during wartime is not a patriot. Read this as: anyone who opposes ME isn't patriotic.

Pioneer Press -- He has called them "gutless cowards,'' said the way they fund their campaigns is "legalized bribery'' and has argued for three years that they regularly put politics ahead of the good of the state.

But until Monday, Gov. Jesse Ventura had not questioned the patriotism of the Minnesota Legislature.

In a speech announcing his veto of the Legislature's budget-balancing bill and in his response to a question afterward, Ventura came close to saying those who disagreed with him on how to fix the budget were less patriotic and less committed to winning the war against terrorism than he is.

In a prepared speech on his decision to veto the budget bill, Ventura said he believes that "politics, not public service or patriotism, is the driving force behind this bill.'' He said legislators "do not seem to understand that taxes and personal sacrifice are the price we pay for freedom.''

A reporter asked him after his speech if he meant that those who took a different position on the budget bill were unpatriotic. "You're darn right I'm saying that,'' Ventura said.

Ventura then lobbed a hand grenade, donned his Navy SEAL gear and swam away.

Posted 2/25/2002 09:59:00 PM by Bob
Sixty grand for wine? At just one dinner? Here's one for News of the Weird:

NY Times -- Perhaps it was the bottle of 1947 Château Pétrus for £12,300 ($17,500). Or maybe it was the 1945 vintage from the same vineyard for £11,600 ($16,500). During dinner at a fashionable restaurant here, six investment bankers lapped up £44,000 ($62,700) in fine wines, and now they are suffering from a huge hangover.

Their employer, Barclays Capital, has fired all but one of the bankers since the dinner last July at Pétrus, a restaurant in London named for the vineyards that produced the wine.

Initially the bankers, who paid the bill with their own money, received only a slap on the wrist for having spent so lavishly — and having been documented doing so in newspapers at the time — while Barclays, like other banks here, was trying to project a new sobriety as an antidote to the excesses of the 1990's.
But when some of the bankers secretly tried to pass off their part of the bill as client expenses, Barclays began firing them one by one. The firings were reported on Sunday in newspapers here.

That's over ten-thousand dollars per diner. Imagine what one spill costs. I'd be using a plastic tipee cup. Laugh if you will but that's more grounded in reality than actually paying over $15,000 for one bottle of wine, let alone more than one.

Posted 2/25/2002 01:47:00 PM by Bob
ZD Net commentator John Dvorak writes on the state of small computers. He lists twelve steps that have brought us where we are today. Number one is word processing; next is spreadsheets. So far, so good. After that are e-mail and desktop publishing. Fine. Number ten is bootleg music; eleven is porn. The last item on his list is a sign of the apocalypse:

12. Mullet awareness. Until recently, I didn't know what a mullet was. For those who still don't, this is the haircut that's cropped short in front and left long in back. I never fully appreciated this dopey hairdo until I typed "mullet" into a Google search. Wow! There are probably a hundred sites dedicated to ridiculing the mullet. Thank goodness for the Web. I guess the evolution of personal computing has been leading to this all along: mullets. It's a shame.

Posted 2/25/2002 10:13:00 AM by Bob
It's been a while since I've read anything about the anthrax letters. Today the Washington Times has an update. The FBI has a suspect in mind. News to me.

The FBI's search for the person who mailed anthrax-laced letters that killed five persons has focused on a former U.S. scientist who worked at a government laboratory where he learned how to make a weapons-grade strain of the deadly bacteria.

Law enforcement authorities and leading biochemical experts familiar with the FBI's five-month investigation said agents targeted the unidentified scientist after extensive interviews with more than 300 persons associated with the government's anthrax program, although no charges have yet been filed.

Barbara Hatch Rosenberg, a microbiologist at State University of New York who heads the biological arms-control panel for the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), said that the FBI has been working on a "short list of suspects" for some time, and that agents had narrowed the list to "a particular person ... a member of the biochemical community."

Here's what the story has about the suspect:

The unidentified scientist, according to the sources, was twice fired from government jobs and, after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon that killed more than 3,000 people, reportedly made a threat to use anthrax.

He has been interviewed by FBI agents on several occasions, according to the sources, and his house has been searched.

The sources said that while numerous chemicals were located inside the house, no anthrax was found.

Posted 2/25/2002 08:13:00 AM by Bob
A poor choice on the part of the Minneapolis Star Tribune for a commentary piece today. The Strib runs Paul Krugman's article in which he states:

Finally, there's line 47. You haven't heard about that, but you will.

Here's the story. The Bush administration didn't want to give those famous $300 rebate checks; its original plan would have pumped hardly any money into the economy last year. Under prodding from Democrats the plan was changed to incorporate immediate cash outlays. But those outlays were included only grudgingly, and with a catch: They really weren't rebates. Instead, they were merely advances on future tax cuts.

What that means is that most taxpayers, when they reach line 47 of their 1040s, will discover that they owe $300 more in taxes than they expected. In other words, the one piece of the Bush tax cut that probably did help the economy last year is about to be snatched away. The direct monetary impact will be significant; the psychological impact, as taxpayers realize that they've been misled, may be even greater.

The NY Times ran this article February 22. It has since been rebuffed by a number of people. Keep in mind that Krugman is a Professor of Economics and International Affairs at Princeton University in addition to being an op-ed writer for the Times. (He's also a former Enron advisor, a fact omitted in his Times biography.) This is from Instapundit:

A February 22 Treasury Department release seeks to clarify an op-ed by Paul Krugman that appeared in the February 22 New York Times. Krugman's "The W Scenario," says Treasury, incorrectly said that last summer's rebate checks were going to be "snatched away" by line 47 of IRS Form 1040. Says Treasury Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Michele Davis, line 47 "takes nothing away from the taxpayer, and instead provides a tax cut for millions of taxpayers."

Krugman had said the president did not want to give "those famous" $300 rebate checks, but did so only after "prodding" by Democrats. The rebate checks, or "outlays" as Krugman calls them, "were included only grudgingly, and with a catch: they really weren't rebates. Instead, they were merely advances on future tax cuts." Krugman explains that for most taxpayers, when they reach line 47 of their tax form, they will discover that they owe $300 more in taxes than they expected. Not so, says Treasury's Davis. "Line 47 of Form 1040 (line 30 of Form 1040A and line 7 of Form 1040EZ) provides a Rate Reduction Credit for those taxpayers who did not get the maximum benefit from last summer's Advance Payments, and whose 2001 income or tax amounts qualify them for an additional amount."

Davis added that last summer's checks did not reduce refunds or increase tax bills. "In fact, the most recent figures show that the average amount for nearly 23 million refunds processed has actually increased by $232, to $2,210."

The Treasury advises taxpayers who have received the maximum advance payment for their filing status to leave line 47 of their 1040 forms blank. "The Advance Payment check they received last year is theirs to keep. Period."

Here's another rejoinder. This one appeared in Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish the same day the Times published Krugman's claims. This is from an e-mail Sullivan received:

It might be worth pointing to today's Krugman column as an example of how intellectually slack this once able economist has become. He completely mischaracterizes "line 47" (the rate reduction credit on the 2001 Form 1040) as some sort of snatching away of the $300/$600 tax credit we all received last fall. In fact, it is an opportunity for those who did not receive a check they should have received to claim the credit. And the $300 was not, in any case, an "advance on future tax cuts", it was the immediate implementation of the 2001 tax cut retroactive to the beginning of 2001. Doesn't this guy check his facts anymore? I met Krugman once circa 1994 when he was still a working economist. At that time, most economists thought of him as a highly skilled trade theorist whose work had been mischaracterized by those more intellectually sloppy than him (he had written some papers showing how free trade was not desirable in some limited circumstances, and the anti-trade lobby had used it as ammunition against free trade generally). Economics is a profession where rigor is usually prized above 'money calls' (not that good economists don't get money calls too sometimes), and Krugman was on everybody's short list of future Nobel Laureates. It's rather sad to see him trading on a stale reputation.

Posted 2/24/2002 05:01:00 PM by Bob
More Olympic medal juggling:

(AP) -- Cross-country skiers Johann Muehlegg of Spain and Larissa Lazutina of Russia were stripped Sunday of their most recent gold medals at the Salt Lake City Olympics after testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug.

A third cross-country skier, Olga Danilova of Russia, also tested positive for the same drug, darbepoetin, which is used to treat anemia by boosting the production of red blood cells that carry oxygen to muscles.

All three athletes were tossed out of the Olympics.

Olympic authorities are now considering a lottery to award medals. Athletes’ names would be randomly drawn for the awards. Officials figure this would reduce the complaining currently associated with measured results. After all the medals have been awarded there would be one extra drawing for the two left over silver medals from pairs figure skating. Finally, all competitors who didn’t receive gold, silver or bronze medals would get a “participation” medal forged from depleted uranium.

Posted 2/24/2002 04:30:00 PM by Bob
The younger son had a soccer game today. Q: What is the attention span of a five-year-old soccer player? A: Soccer Ball. This means, if a player has control of the soccer ball, he is paying attention. If the ball is not near the player, he is not paying attention.

I just love the look of surprise on a player's face when the ball comes his way. Or bumps into the back of his legs. The ball can smack a player's calves because if he doesn't have the ball the chances are fairly good that he isn't facing the action. The look of surprise isn't so much "Hooray, I'm getting control of the ball." No, it's more like, "Hey, what's this? Who started a soccer game?"

Posted 2/24/2002 09:06:00 AM by Bob
The thrill of victory, the agony of figure skating judging. I didn't realize that it could be a "career."

NY Times -- In describing the pressure and the reaction to her vote, [French figure skating judge Marie Reine] Le Gougne painted a vivid picture of the highly politicized interior of big-time figure skating, a world in which a pat on the back, a casual smile or even an invitation to a birthday party can be part of a subtle campaign to draw favor for one skater or diminish the stature of another.

But the darkest part of that world, Le Gougne said, was her realization that she had nowhere to turn for help. She said that many of those lobbying her were the same people who control the careers of judges and influence their ascent to important international committees. "They have all the power to decide about your career, about promotion and so on," she said. "That is why all judges are so scared. It's about your career. I was trapped."

Welcome to politics. All that's missing is campaign contributions.

Subtle nudges turned into overt pressure in the days leading up to the pairs final. On the night before the short program, she said, the Canadian judge for the pairs competition, Benoit Lavoie, invited her along with about 10 other people, including two officials from the technical committee, to a birthday party for a Polish judge on the panel for the ice dancing competition. The judge was close friends with the Polish judge on the pairs panel, she said. At the party, guests brought gifts and made Champagne toasts.

Posted 2/23/2002 11:21:00 PM by Bob
Before and After pictures of the WTC site from Space Imaging. Pictures of the Pentagon site from Space Imaging.

The availability of satellite photos for many places on earth via the Internet is amazing. That it's all free makes it almost unbelievable. Go to Mapquest, enter an address and get a map of the area. Then click on the "aerial photo" tab to see a picture of the neighborhood. Zoom in or zoom out. The detail is to the level where you can make out individual cars and swimming pools. Here's a picture taken from space of a well-known place not too far from where I live.

Posted 2/23/2002 06:25:00 PM by Bob
The older son's party is tonight. Two weeks ago he planned it without telling his parents. Now, we've had time to actually plan for the invasion of the seven-year-olds. They're all here now. Chaos reigns tonight. Actually, they're fairly well behaved, just quite loud. The twelve-pound dog is hiding. She won't play with them. That's because the pizzas haven't arrived. She knows I've placed the order and it waiting for it to arrive. For beverages, my wife picked up some Mountain Dew Code Red. Yes, the perfect refreshment for kids. I've always felt good party food for young children would be turkey (love that tryptophan), mashed potatoes, warm milk and wine (white, not red, in case of spills). But what do I know. I'm just the one who's here with the boys tonight while my wife is at work. Funny how those things work out.

Posted 2/23/2002 06:12:00 PM by Bob
Matt Drudge reports on more Olympic sportsmanship. This time the U.S. and Canadian women hockey players snipe at each other:

Gold medals in hand, the victorious Canadians took aim at the biased officiating of the American referee and accused Team USA of abusing the Maple Leaf before the game began.

Alternate captain Hayley Wickenheiser of Calgary got in her shot on national TV immediately following the game.

"I hear they had our flag on their dressing room floor," Wickenheiser told CBC. "I wonder if they'd like us to sign it."

The American players were adamant they didn't stomp on the Maple Leaf. In fact, forward Julie Chu said she was offended by the suggestion she and her teammates would stoop to such disgusting behaviour.

As of this posting there's been no word if the final score of the game will be challenged.

Posted 2/23/2002 03:18:00 PM by Bob
An interesting bit on how part of the war in Afghanistan was fought, from a Washington Post story:

Sometimes, the nature of the war made targeting easier. Many Afghan Taliban and Northern Alliance soldiers were friends who had found themselves drafted into opposing armies. They would communicate over rudimentary radios, sometimes taunting each other in the heat of battle.

"Your bomb missed us," one would say, recalled members of [U.S. Army Special Forces] Team 555.

"Where did it land?" a Northern Alliance officer would respond with some coaching from the Americans.

Five hundred meters to the north, would come the answer. Or 1,000 meters to the south. The combat controller would immediately recalculate the coordinates and pass them to the nearest aircraft, which could restrike the target within minutes. Team 555 members said that in a week, they killed many Taliban commanders this way and destroyed much of their communications network.

Posted 2/23/2002 02:46:00 PM by Bob
Can Minnesotans ever be taxed enough? The sales tax is already ten percent. Now, Hennepin County is proposing another tax (from a Pioneer Press article):

To fund its portion of a stadium, Hennepin County has proposed a maximum 2 percent increase on food, beverage and hotel sales taxes in the downtown area and a 6.5 percent tax increase on ballpark tickets. Those levies would be added to the current combined state and Minneapolis tax of 10 percent on food and beverage. For hotels, the total would be 13 percent.

Philadelphia is the only U.S. baseball city to tie with Minneapolis for the highest restaurant tax. New York City's hotel tax is 13.3 percent, and its restaurant tax is 8.3 percent.

But why stop at taxing just the downtown area, the area that benefits most from a new stadium?

Greg Ortale, head of the Greater Minneapolis Convention and Visitors Association, said his organization wants to keep the Twins and Vikings in Minnesota, even if it means taxing the entire state.

"But the solution really ought to be spread as widely as possible," Ortale said. "You could take a quarter-percent statewide restaurant tax and cover it and have money left over. You could do both stadiums, in fact."

And have money left over! If you're not worried how carried away these people could get with the taxes, you should be now. They're not thinking clearly anymore, they just want a stadium, or two, regardless of cost to taxpayers. It's not often I find myself agreeing with a "liberal advocacy group" but I do with this:

A ballot initiative in St. Paul struck out the stadium in 1999, when voters defeated Mayor Norm Coleman's half-cent sales tax proposal. Minneapolis passed a 1997 referendum limiting that city's contribution to any stadium to $10 million.

"I think it's still bad policy to ignore what the voters have said in the past," said Dan McGrath, executive director of Progressive Minnesota, a liberal advocacy group. "The people have been clear," he said Thursday. "I don't understand why we need to ask them again."

Posted 2/23/2002 11:35:00 AM by Bob
The Americans with Disabilities Act is hurting us? A Pioneer Press story today about "the American lifestyle of high-fat foods and little physical work" lists the ADA as one factor contributing to our unhealthy lifestyles.

Scientists are struggling to determine the factors behind the obesity epidemic and to develop viable solutions, said Kathryn Schmitz, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Minnesota.

Prompted by the Americans With Disabilities Act, architects now design our buildings in ways that require less physical activity. They have attached enclosed parking ramps, all the doors open automatically and the first thing to greet us when we walk through the door is a fancy bank of elevators. The stairways are there but you have to hunt to find them. When you do, you find that most appear unfinished and project a “use only in case of emergency” aura.

Other modern conveniences are also blamed:

Our homes are equipped with microwave ovens, dishwashers, trash compactors, built-in vacuuming systems, wireless telephones, remote controls, automatic garage door openers and countless other labor-saving devices.

“We have automated, automated, automated,’’ Schmitz said. “As one of my colleagues says, we have engineered ourselves into this problem.’’

Was there a marked increase in our collective body weight with the onset of the industrial revolution? The story also had this:

Unless we change our unhealthy habits, [Former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. David] Satcher warned Americans in December, obesity may soon overtake tobacco as the leading cause of preventable deaths.

When this happens look for McDonalds and Burger King asking Philip Morris and RJR Nabisco for the names of a few good attorneys.

Posted 2/23/2002 09:03:00 AM by Bob
I mentioned the USA Today story about reparations recently. Media Minded took a critical look at the reporting.

I found a copy of Thursday's dead-wood "USA Today" to see how the coverage was handled. Besides the main "cover story," there were two open inside pages of coverage. It included a sidebar about one of the members of the reparations "Dream Team" and "independent" research the paper conducted supporting the charge that many companies profited from slavery. (Why a newspaper is doing its own research in support of an ideologically driven movement such as slavery reparations is beyond me.) What really jumps out about the coverage is this: other than an expert who takes the academically neutral position that the lawsuits are a long shot, there's just one person quoted in opposition to reparations, and he's a no-name lawyer for a potential defendant.

Media Minded goes on to say:

This begs the question: Why couldn't "USA Today" find a prominent intellectual to express, in a coherent, logical fashion, why the reparations movement is a disastrously bad idea that will only lead to the further racial Balkanization of American life? (Here's one. And another from "The Progressive," of all places!) David Horowitz created a stir last year with his anti-reparations ads in college newspapers. Couldn't "USA Today" have at least called him for a quote? Or made him the subject of a sidebar such as the one granted to Deadria Farmer-Paellmann? I know that most of my journalistic colleagues are liberals. On most issues, they at least make an effort to be fair to the other side. But race is one of the areas where the blinders almost never come off. This is as good an example of that as any.

What a great example of the beauty of a blog. The USA Today story is incomplete. Media Minded, finding the story lacking, has completed it. The follow up is articulate and provides links to other sources of information. Here's the really unfair part: James Cox, the USA Today writer got paid for his effort; Media Minded did not.

Posted 2/22/2002 10:17:00 PM by Bob
If anyone wonders why people from all over the world want to live in the U.S. and not in China.

LA Times -- The Chinese government responded to President Bush's call for religious tolerance on Friday by promptly editing out his remarks on freedom and faith in its transcript of a speech that Bush delivered on live national television.

But the censored transcript demonstrated the ambivalence of the Communist regime toward the United States. While top leaders publicly advocate stronger ties with Washington and agreed to the White House's request for live air time, they remain sensitive to any criticism of their rule.

Posted 2/22/2002 12:25:00 PM by Bob
The Olympics bring nations together -- to whine and complain.

(AP) -- Russian officials filed a formal protest of the women's Olympic figure skating final, saying silver medalist Irina Slutska should get her own gold medal because of biased judging.

"We filed the protest last night because we think the judging was biased," the head of the Russian delegation in Salt Lake City, Viktor Mamatov, told The Associated Press on Friday. "Canadian pairs skaters were awarded their gold medals. Now that subjective judging harmed us, we want the same for Slutskaya."

Russian anger boiled over after nine-time Olympic medalist Larissa Lazutina was disqualified from the 20-kilometer cross-country relay following a blood test.

A short time later, South Korea (news - web sites) said it might boycott Sunday's closing ceremony over a judge's decision that gave a short-track speedskating gold to American Apolo Anton Ohno.

Russia wants a "do-over" in a cross country skiing race:

However, the lower house of Russia's parliament passed a resolution 417-0 calling on Russian athletes to boycott the closing ceremony unless the IOC reruns the cross-country race, bars North American referees from the hockey game and apologizes to the Russian Olympic team.

Posted 2/22/2002 12:17:00 PM by Bob
This week maintenance people have been replacing all the lights in the lobby and hallways of the building I work in. They are installing -- here’s a novel idea -- white lights. For the nearly ten years I’ve worked in that building those lights have been orange. It’s like walking under heat lamps at a cafeteria serving line but without the warmth. I’m guessing the orange lights used less electricity than conventional lights. The white lights are much brighter. Suddenly, people are smiling. Or, maybe they always have smiled but now I can see their faces.

Posted 2/21/2002 10:16:00 PM by Bob
Matt Welch sums up what happened to Daniel Pearl in one word.

Posted 2/21/2002 10:08:00 PM by Bob
Tonight I watched a PBS special about SUVs. It wasn't too bad. I expected worse. The one thing that I think is overlooked is what responsibility the SUV drivers have. Remember the saying: "Guns don't kill people, people kill people" that some gun rights advocates like to say? Well, in this PBS special I think they were aiming for this: "Drivers don't cause crashes, SUVs cause crashes." Overlooked (or ignored) are how the actions of drivers contributed to rollovers and crashes. Folks, SUVs are not cars and have to be handled accordingly. But you can't sue yourself if you crash.

Posted 2/21/2002 12:55:00 PM by Bob
Gary "O.J." Condit says re-electing him would help the Chandra Levy case:

Channel 4000 -- Condit admitted that winning re-election will be difficult, but said his re-election could help in the effort to find missing intern Chandra Levy.

"Well, I don't know what the public does and I don't know what you guys do, you probably won't even report it again if I'm not around. But I intend to make sure there is a closure and resolvement of the case, and I think the fact that I would be in Washington, D.C., I would be able to at least have some contact with law enforcement to see that they don't let the thing sort of die out," Condit said.

Posted 2/21/2002 12:16:00 PM by Bob
Brock Yates writes about importing oil and the "need" to reduce our dependence on foreign oil:

Let's hope we never reach a crisis state such as wartime to seek radical solutions, but even as the world careens from one crisis to the next, are we in mortal danger of losing our sources of petroleum to the mullahs of the Middle East? OPEC tried twice in the 1970's to blackmail the West. Twice it failed. Is there any possibility of a repeat attempt? Perhaps, presuming Russia, Norway and other potentially strong sources of petroleum join up, which is highly unlikely. The immediate challenges to OPEC are not bringing the West to its knees but rather to keep its shaky membership in line and to hold the price somewhere around 20 bucks a barrel. Neither is exactly an example of muscle flexing on the part of the Organization. Moreover, if it shuts off the spigots to the West, where is its next market? Chad? Uganda? The Fiji Islands? Iceland? Living like a Saudi Sheik is expensive. Bills have to be paid. In dollars.

I think all too often admonishments about reducing foreign oil consumption (without drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge, of course) are a pretense to attack wealth, success and automobiles, just as PETA isn't truly about the animals, it's about one group trying to force a lifestyle change on another.

Posted 2/21/2002 10:21:00 AM by Bob
I try to avoid making this blog a summary of other blogs but here's one time I make an exception. I wholeheartedly agree with Instapundit's take on federalized airport security screeners:

Glenn Reynolds writes: EVERYONE'S MISSING THE POINT on "Underperformin' Norman" Mineta's ban on special VIP screening lines at airports. Sure, it's fun to abuse him over this. But the real point is that this decision is more evidence in support of the InstaPundit Airline Security Conspiracy Theory (tm): The reason Bush gave in on federalizing airport security was because he knew that the inevitably lazy, inefficient, and rude security screeners would become the face of the federal government to the chattering classes, undermining big-government sentiment more effectively than a brace of Cato Institutes.

Since the chattering classes are disproportionately frequent-flyer types, making the process less painful for them would undermine the plan.

Sure, Mineta's stupid -- stupid like a fox. Remember, you heard it here first.

Well said.

Posted 2/21/2002 08:51:00 AM by Bob
Another letter to the editor in the Star Tribune today. I won't argue with the writer's feelings about women's rights for reproductive choices. But she is wrong to say that what happened to Karen Hubbard is somehow linked to "efforts to circumvent or deny" choices. Karen Hubbard wasn't denied any choices.

I agree with the editorial warning of various legislative efforts to circumvent or deny women's rights to informed health care and reproductive choices ("Abortion drama / Second verse, worse than the first," Feb. 19). Family-planning clinics and doctors' offices must be places where information flows freely to all patients, and where women's reproductive choices are defended.

I am stunned by tragedies like Karen Hubbard's death after giving birth in her University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire dormitory. This sad and surprising event, and others like it, speak to the dangers of facing (or avoiding) reproductive choices in isolation. Our health-care and educational systems should educate about birth control options, as well as to present lawful options in the case of a pregnancy. We need lawmakers and leaders who will address these challenges by supporting choice, education and funding for family-planning initiatives and organizations.

The Karen Hubbard tragedy was not the fault of government.

Posted 2/21/2002 08:18:00 AM by Bob
A letter to the editor in today's Minneapolis Star Tribune. The writer has questions, I have some answers.

In response to the article about businesses not accepting checks, I have a few questions. Will restaurants and other establishments pay my ATM fee if they don't accept my checks? Checks usually are free, costing only the time it takes to write them. Checks are not always free. Often, businesses are charged for each check deposited into an account. Some customers are charged for each check written on an account. There is almost no risk to a business that accepts cash, credit cards or debit cards that the payment won't be good. So you want the restaurant to pay your ATM fee? Are you willing to pay extra for each meal to cover the costs of bad checks the restaurant accepted?

Also, it is unsafe to carry large amounts of cash around, which is necessary unless you want to pay the fee it costs to use the ATM. Is this really what Minnesota businesses want, their clients getting mugged or wasting more of their money? What is wrong with using a credit card or debit card? Only a fool pays an annual fee for a credit card. If you pay it off each month there is also no interest charge. You can still use your beloved checks to pay the credit card bill. Get with the times.

-- Chad Baker, Maple Grove.

The things people find time to worry about. Why don't they take advantage of modern payment options? Some people are probably still trying to figure out how many chickens and blankets a meal at Chilis costs.

Posted 2/21/2002 07:53:00 AM by Bob
The list of companies and organizations targeted for lawsuits for African-American reparations is huge.

USA Today -- Some of America's most respected companies have slavery in their pasts. Now, 137 years after the final shots of the Civil War, will there be a reckoning? A powerhouse team of African-American legal and academic stars is getting ready to sue companies it says profited from slavery before 1865. Initially, the group's aim is to use lawsuits and the threat of litigation to squeeze apologies and financial settlements from dozens of corporations. Ultimately, it hopes to gain momentum for a national apology and a massive reparations payout by Congress to African-Americans.

By targeting corporations, the activists are opening a new chapter in black America's quest to be compensated for 2 1/2 centuries of bondage. The activists contend that major corporations today possess wealth that was created by slaves or at the expense of slaves -- and that it's time for African-Americans to reclaim that wealth.

The list of corporations tied to slavery is likely to grow. Eventually, it could include energy companies that once used slaves to lay oil lines beneath Southern cities, mining companies whose slaves dug for coal and salt, tobacco marketers that relied on slaves to cultivate and cure tobacco.

The original benefactors of many of the country's top universities -- Harvard, Yale, Brown, Princeton and the University of Virginia, among them -- were wealthy slave owners. Lawyers on the reparations team say universities also will be sued.

Would efforts like Aetna's stop if it gets sued and loses?

Aetna first confronted allegations it had insured slaves two years ago. Since then, it has struggled to put the matter to rest, apologizing and pointing out that it funds college scholarships for African-Americans, pays for studies on racial disparities in health care and sponsors a national forum on race.

Posted 2/20/2002 12:31:00 PM by Bob
The next time I'm stopped from bringing a nail clipper on an airplane I'll think about one of the alternatives, and it's not hijackers.

AP -- A train crowded with Egyptians leaving the capital for a religious holiday caught fire and sped on in flames for miles Wednesday, killing 373 people, including some who died as they jumped from the burning cars, police said.

The news agency said the cause of the fire was a burst gas cylinder using for cooking in the dining car. But al-Sherif said the cause was still under investigation. He said the train had no dining car, but that passengers often brought gas cylinders and small stoves aboard despite regulations forbidding it.

The cars were separated, but witnesses saw passengers running from car to car, including one women who was on fire. People were likely smoking on board, as well.

About 1/8 as many people died in this event as those who died in the WTC attacks. Compensation for victims families will be about 1/2400 of the amount the WTC families will get:

The government announced compensation of about $665 for families of the dead and $222 for the injured, but did not admit responsibility.

Posted 2/20/2002 07:46:00 AM by Bob
Proof that life isn't always fair. Andy Rooney was paid to write this column. Ken Layne, Andrew Sullivan and Glenn Reynolds are not paid to write their web logs. Read them and compare. Rooney had his time. The other day at the end of 60 Minutes he mentioned that he's been a journalist for 48 years. It's okay to retire, Andy. I don't care for his reporting any more than I want to see 70-year-old former sports stars playing today in the NHL or NBA.

A Rooney sample:

The best Olympic picture was of the four attractive winners in the skating competition posing together with their gold medals. The Russians and the Canadians looked exuberantly happy. They had nothing to do with the judging scandal in which the French judge's vote was bought for the Russians in exchange for we-know-not-what. It would have been wrong if what the dumb or dishonest French woman judge did rubbed off on them.

Car manufacturers are beginning to advertise convertibles for spring sales. The idea of a convertible looks and sounds better than it is. There's no question that a beautiful girl with long blonde hair flowing in the wind looks great in a convertible. The fact of the matter is, on most days it's either too hot, too cold, or you have to put the top up because it's raining.

A Layne sample:

Need more proof that the thumb-sucking authors of the late 1990s have run the course? Prescription-drug whiner Elizabeth Wurtzel says the Sept. 11 attack on New York City was a "pain in the ass."

Sure, Ms. Jackass. Too bad there's not much need for spoiled, whining little girls when we're at War. Oh, it's so post-post-modern and all. Thousands of people being killed ... yawn, what does that have to do about me? I had a prescription! Don't I matter?

No, you don't. Shut up and get a job, you stupid, whining fraud. You don't matter. You whine in the night. The saddest thing is that the New York Post has to finish you off. Oh! You took Prozac! That's so interesting. I bet you had issues with your family. Gosh, that's compelling. See you in the unemployment line!

Posted 2/20/2002 07:31:00 AM by Bob
Co-worker made fun of my coffee mug yesterday. It's insulated, with a plastic handle, screw-on lid and spill-resistant (the mug, not co-worker). And today it leaks. This is no coincidence. It's an inanimate object but co-worker hurt its feelings. I filled it up at the office coffee machine this morning and returned to my desk to begin work. I start to savor that first sip of hot, brown caffeinated water and HEY - OH MY GOD - WHY IS HOT LIQUID DRIPPING ONTO MY CROTCH? My leak resistant coffee mug is crying scalding java tears. Co-worker will pay for this.

Posted 2/19/2002 01:34:00 PM by Bob
Mike can fight! Today the Washington D.C. Boxing and Wrestling Commission granted Mike Tyson a license to box Lennox Lewis. Showing that the terrorists haven't won, Commission Vice Chairman Mike Brown explained in this Reuters story why Tyson will be allowed to box --

Brown said the commission hopes a Tyson-Lewis fight could bring a much-needed economic boost to the D.C. restaurant and hotel industry, which has suffered since the Sept. 11 attacks.

``If this can provide a boost to get people back in spending money and doing business, we are all in favor. And that outweighs any issues concerning Mr. Tyson's past,'' said Brown.

Posted 2/19/2002 12:14:00 PM by Bob
Warning labels we don't want to overlook:

Star Tribune -- Michigan Lawsuit Abuse Watch sponsors a Wacky Warning Label Contest each year to reveal how lawsuits, and concern about potential lawsuits, have created a need for common-sense warnings on many of the products consumers use every day.

This year, selected by listeners of Detroit's WOMC Dick Purtan show, the wackiest was this: "Do not use the Ultradisc2000 as a projectile in a catapult." Mary Beth Eckberg of Medina, Ohio, who submitted the winner, got $500 and a copy of attorney Philip K. Howard's book, "The Death of Common Sense."

"Despite the obvious humor in the wacky warning labels, the purpose of this contest is not to make fun of those who put funny warnings on products," said Robert Dorigo Jones, M-LAW's president. "The contest was created to reveal that frivolous lawsuits have become such a problem in our society that common-sense warnings are necessary."

Probably the best of all time was the grand prize winner in the contest's second year, when this caution appeared on a baby stroller: "Remove child before folding."

I'm waiting for the day when someone gets injured despite the presence of a legitimate warning label. Their excuse will be that there were so many labels that they just couldn't read them all and still have time to use the product. A personal watercraft that I operate has so many warning labels on the back end that it resembles a NASCAR racing car's sponsor decals.

Posted 2/19/2002 11:59:00 AM by Bob
The Minneapolis Star Tribune runs the following story today. An interesting view and a possible lesson on the laws of unintended consequences.

Terrorists who strike against the rich may be doing as much or more harm to the poor, according to experts studying world hunger.

Economic growth promises to lift millions out of desperate poverty, but the aftermath of terrorism threatens to stunt advancing prosperity, University of Minnesota economist Ben Senauer warns in a new study.

"The remarkable international movement of goods, capital and people of the 1990s is likely to be affected by new security measures and an increased sense of risk," Senauer wrote in a paper presented at a conclave of the American Economic Association last month in Atlanta.

"Global economic growth may well be slower over a prolonged period as a consequence of the recent major terrorist attacks than it otherwise might have been," Senauer said.

"If this is so, international terrorism should be branded as anti-poor, since sharing in the gains of robust global growth is the sine que non for making substantial gains against poverty and hunger throughout the world."

Posted 2/19/2002 10:18:00 AM by Bob
Now ballpark plans are falling out of the woodwork, as noted in this Channel 4000 story:

Less than 12 hours after a House committee snubbed state assistance to build a new football stadium desired by the Vikings and to be shared by the Gophers, another House committee Monday OK'd two bills to help the Twins get a new ballpark.

One of the bills is sought by St. Paul Mayor Randy Kelly, who proposed levying a 3 percent tax on St. Paul bar and restaurant bills and a $1 stadium ticket tax as part of a city financed package to pay half the cost of a new stadium in the Capitol City.

The other bill is sponsored by a pair of St. Paul DFLers and calls for a variety of stadium, city and metro taxes that were recommended funding sources by a legislative task force that met through the late fall and early winter, WCCO 4 News reported.

Meanwhile, Hennepin County Board chair Mike Opat is poised to introduce a funding plan of his own Tuesday, bringing to three the number of funding proposals thrown into the mix.

I fear that if these plans get off the ground we're going to end up with more taxing than needed and a chance for the team owners to back away from paying their fair share (which should be close to one-hundred per cent anyway). These taxes never go away either. Downtown Minneapolis still has a food and beverage tax (we now pay ten percent total tax to eat and drink downtown) for the paid-off Minneapolis Convention Center.

Posted 2/19/2002 09:29:00 AM by Bob
I just heard on the KQRS Morning Show a breathless piece about Oliver North and why he installed a $60,000 alarm system in his house. North, testifying before the U.S. Senate, said he was afraid of the "most dangerous man in the world." A senator asked him who that was and North allegedly replied: Osama bin Laden.

See, we were warned back in 1987 during the Iran-Contra hearings. Or not.

This is just another example of an urban legend, urban myth or rumor that has become fact in some people's minds.

Anytime you hear a story like this you should check it out at snopes.com or urbanlegends.com.

Posted 2/18/2002 02:09:00 PM by Bob
The Georgia mortuary mess is getting bigger. About 130 sets of remains have been recovered so far.

AP -- The state's chief medical examiner says additional vaults at the site have been found to be "filled with human remains." He says he "can't even begin to guess how many may be there."

Posted 2/18/2002 01:14:00 PM by Bob
More stadium news:

AP/Pioneer Press -- A plan to build the Minnesota Vikings and University of Minnesota a new football stadium was quashed by a large margin Monday in its first committee test this legislative session.

The stadium would cost as much as $500 million. Vikings owner Red McCombs and the NFL would put up a combined $150 million. Both the Vikings and the Twins say they need new stadiums because the Metrodome does not generate enough revenues to make the teams profitable.

The bill calls for a package of new or increased fees tied to the stadium or sports in general, including a 6.5 percent tax on NFL and collegiate memorabilia and clothing sold in Minnesota. A large "tips" jar would also be set up at each doorway to the new stadium. Coffee shops and pizza counters do it; there's no reason why it couldn't be done at a half billion-dollar stadium.

Other debt would be erased using player income taxes, a fee on media that broadcast from the stadium and proceeds from a football-themed lottery. Other items under consideration for taxing include children's clothing, schoolbooks, pens, pencils, milk, butter and eggs. A plan to place a tax on library books is also under consideration. Authors of the bill explained, "If a city doesn't have a stadium, it doesn't have a football team. If a city doesn't have a football team, everyone will move away. If everyone moves away, there would no longer be a need for a library. A library tax would to pay for a stadium would actually save the library."

"Obviously we're disappointed," said Mike Kelly, the Vikings' executive vice president. He said the vote wasn't representative of what Minnesotans want, and the team isn't giving up. "This isn't the end of the world for this legislative session," he said. Kelly later added, "I don't care if every man woman and child in Minnesota signs a petition telling us they don't want to pay for a new stadium. I'm the one who knows what Minnesotans want. Committee votes? Referendums? We don't need no stinkin' votes.

[Kelly] said the Vikings would try to address some of the House committee's concerns in a bill they plan to put before the Senate. But, he said, "there's growing impatience" on McCombs' part, and that it would be "a big disappointment" if the Twins got a new stadium and the Vikings didn't. Childhood logic: If mom says no, ask dad. If dad says no, call grandpa. Kelly also indicated that if the House and the Senate can't come up with the money he and Vikings owner Red McCombs will explore the creation of a third arm of the legislature called the House of Sports Fanatics.

University officials said the proposal satisfied most of their concerns, but mentioned a couple of sticking points. They said they wanted a retractable roof, instead of a fixed roof as currently proposed, because open-air stadiums are preferable for Big Ten football. They also said the proposal, as written, didn't give the university a big enough role in governing the stadium. And it would require the university to build a new parking ramp that might not get enough use on non-game days. Gopher football coach Glen Mason piped in, "If Minnesotans don't come up with money for a stadium I just may take this team to Ohio. I've always wanted to coach in Ohio. If you don't give me a stadium there's nothing keeping this team and me in Minnesota."

Posted 2/18/2002 11:52:00 AM by Bob
Today I’m working at home. The boys don’t have school because of Presidents’ Day (otherwise knows as dead white oppressors’ day to some people) and my wife is working. I have the great fortune of working for company that allows me to work at home from time to time. I’m set up with an extra PC with secure access to the mainframe, all my e-mail and all my files. I prefer to work in the office but the option of working at home is wonderful. I go one more day without shaving, I don’t get dressed until lunch and I’ll get in a full day’s work without leaving the house. The boys are too young to stay home alone but they’re old enough to keep each other occupied so I can toil in peace. At lunchtime, I’ll take a break and fix a meal for the three of us. It’s a nice change to be home with them. With our unseasonably mild winter, I’ve had to get the bicycles down from the garage rafters for the kids. What a great day.

Posted 2/18/2002 09:37:00 AM by Bob
Lose weight now! Eat all you want and don't exercise!

Does this sound too good to be true? Yes, and so does this story:

No-Tax Twins Ballpark Proposed In St. Paul -- Developer Says He Can Build Riverfront Stadium Without Public Subsidy

After years of the Twins and stadium supporters struggling in vain to get state aid to build the team a new ballpark, suddenly plans calling for construction of a stadium without public subsidy are sprouting up on both sides of the Mississippi River.

There is the well-chronicled effort by Alabama businessman Donald Watkins to buy the Twins and, he has said, build the team a new ballpark with private financing.

Now, across the river in St. Paul, where city officials are pushing a plan for a bar, restaurant sales tax to pay half the cost of a new stadium, a private developer has popped up saying he can build the park without public subsidy. Developer Jerry Trooien (pictured, right) said he has broad plans for a near 60-acre site along the Mississippi River across from downtown St. Paul that includes a new Twins ballpark, WCCO 4 News reported. And, he said, it would be built entirely with private financing.

Even if these pipe dreams get off the ground, there's every chance they will stall. Selling the idea to investors might be easier than completing the job. Then once again the taxpayers will be tapped for financing to finish the job. When that happens there's one more question that must be asked: How long will this new stadium last? The Twins played ball in Met Stadium from 1961 until 1982. The Met was the first modern ballpark to be abandoned. The Twins have almost been in the HHH Metrodome for the same number of years. Are we only capable of using a stadium for 20 years?

Posted 2/17/2002 06:32:00 PM by Bob
The younger son had soccer practice today. This time, instead of working on kicking and ball handling, several of the boys were more interested in performing cartwheels and hopping like frogs. During the scrimmage, it wasn’t unusual to see several youngsters (mine included) talking to each other, blissfully unaware of a black and white ball rolling their way. Why, they almost seemed irritated that the commotion of the game interrupted their playing.

I thought about being a good parent by yelling loudly and threatening my child for not playing as well as professional. Instead, I giggled. I hate to admit it but it was funny watching several distinct games being played. Only one of them involved a soccer ball.

After the game the older son, who plays hockey instead of soccer and watched all this, had just two words for his little brother: “Soccer stupid.”

The younger son had an equally brief reply: “Hockey hopeless.”

Posted 2/17/2002 02:13:00 PM by Bob
Governor Jesse Ventura sometimes has his foot in his mouth; other times he know what he's talking about as in this example. St. Paul Mayor Randy Kelly desperately wants to fund a baseball stadium so the Twins can move from Minneapolis to St. Paul. In the past, St. Paul residents have voted down a tax increase to build a stadium.

ST. PAUL (AP) - Gov. Jesse Ventura said in an interview broadcast Sunday that he was "disturbed" about a stadium plan St. Paul officials are pursuing because it would raise city taxes without voters' consent.

St. Paul Mayor Randy Kelly and some area legislators have proposed a 3 percent increase in city bar and restaurant taxes to help pay for a new Twins stadium. The plan wouldn't be put to a referendum.

In 1999, voters rejected - 58 percent to 42 percent - a half-cent increase in the citywide sales tax as part of former Mayor Norm Coleman's plan for building a stadium.

"Apparently, some people didn't like the outcome of the voters so they are going to take them out of the loop," Ventura said on KSTP-TV's "At Issue." "I don't like to take voters out of the loop."

Posted 2/17/2002 12:04:00 PM by Bob
The Central Library Implementation Committee (that's a Soviet sounding moniker) in Minneapolis has been working (?) on selecting a site for a new downtown library. The Star Tribune reported this week that the site has finally been chosen (sound of trumpets).

A 10-year journey to choose a site for a new downtown Minneapolis library ended Tuesday with a familiar choice -- the library's current block, bordered by Nicollet Mall, Hennepin Avenue, and 3rd and 4th Streets. Ten years to figure out the current location is the best location. I guess we can't accuse them of rash thinking. Can they be accused of thinking at all? Ten years?

But the Central Library Implementation Committee, the group overseeing the two-block library project, also voted to explore a new idea: turning the project's northern block into a city park. It has been assumed that housing would be built on the block not chosen for the library. They voted to explore a new idea? What have they been doing for the last ten years?

The 8-0 vote for the current library block resolved a passionate, sometimes contentious debate between advocates for the current block and for the block to the north, once home to the Pick Nicollet Hotel. Two committee members who were the strongest advocates for building the library on the north block, City Council Member Lisa Goodman and Wells Fargo Vice President Tom Parish, were unable to attend Tuesday's meeting. A unanimous vote! With an even number of voters, I would have only expected a tie from these people.

Library planners have said the current block, which is larger and closer to downtown's core, works best. Advocates for the north block said it would give the library more visual prominence and make it a "gateway" to the city. The current block and the north block are merely across the street from each other, not on opposite sides of downtown.

Citing the city's serious budget shortfalls, Mayor R.T. Rybak cautioned committee members not to fall in love with the idea until they understand the financial implications. Housing has been planned for the non-library block to generate tax revenues that would go toward public amenities for the library project. Would this housing be affordable as the mayor is fond of?

The decision on a site will allow the library design team to begin designing the 400,000-square-foot building, envisioned to be a new cultural anchor for Minneapolis. The preliminary design for the library is to be introduced in August, the same month the current library will probably close. An interim library in Marquette Plaza, kitty corner from the current library, will open this fall. But don't hold us to these dates.

Whatever the reported cost of this library is now, you can surely bet the final figure will be much, much bigger.

Posted 2/17/2002 09:30:00 AM by Bob
Minnesota's legislators want to assign an official state photograph. Joe Soucheray has this to say about the photo titled "Grace."

It is hard to believe that this collection of legislators would assign to such a spiritual photograph an official state status. That wouldn't mean much, by the way. It would hang in the secretary of state's office, just as it already hangs in probably every farmhouse in Minnesota and in quite a few doctor's waiting rooms, too. But to think that a collection of DFLers in the Senate who more normally spend their time worshiping at the altar of what they believe is diversity would actually approve a photograph of an elderly white man saying a prayer as the official state photograph would be, well, a miracle.

Posted 2/16/2002 11:33:00 PM by Bob
This just in...Turtle defeats Hare in the men's 1000 meter short-track speedskating:

Star Tribune -- A pileup led to victory for the skater who was trailing the five-man field, and it led to second place for the United States' four-gold candidate Apolo Anton Ohno. Ohno had to lunge across the finish line to finish that high.

On the last lap of the final, contact started between Ohno and China's Jiajun Li and it turned into a four-skater wipeout. Australia's Steven Bradbury was too far back to be involved, and as the frontrunners slid around, Bradbury skated through the debris, reached the finish line and raised his arms in bemused jubilation.

Posted 2/16/2002 11:18:00 PM by Bob
Have you ever forgotten you wedding anniversary? Did you suffer for that oversight? Read this story of one Garage Logician who survived, no - triumphed over forgetting his wedding anniversary.

Posted 2/16/2002 07:31:00 PM by Bob
Dave Barry writes about the luge. I still believe the luge should be a theme park ride, not an Olympic sport. People should be standing in miserably long lines, waiting to pay $10 for a ride down the track, not winning medals or showing up on Wheaties boxes. If they want medals, there could be an arcade at the end of the track, right after you pass the photo booth where you can purchase an overpriced photo that was snapped during the ride down. Guess the scores of figure skating routines and win a silver medal (I hear there's an extra one this year that nobody won). I saw this picture on Yahoo of participants in the men's pairs luge competition. Pairs? It's like someone forgot a luge and had to double up with a buddy. Another scam for for someone to get an Olympic medal.

Barry adds this at the end of his article: "FIGURE-SKATING SCANDAL UPDATE: International tension is mounting. At any moment we expect the Rev. Jesse Jackson to step in." Would this really surprise anyone?

Posted 2/16/2002 05:26:00 PM by Bob
Another person offended by Tom Barnard and the KQRS morning show. From a commentary in the Star Tribune:

I urge anyone with children to read this. Because anything that is worthwhile is doubly worthwhile if it’s done “for the children.”

Imagine you are at your local park with your kids and a group of six adults are there using profane language loud enough for all the children in the park to hear. What would you do about it? Leave and go to a different park.

Or imagine you're at the mall with your kids, and that same group of adults is handing out literature (even to children) that describes all forms of sexual behavior in graphic detail. That's worse that what you hear on the KQRS Morning Show. What would you do about it? Walk by, avoiding them as I do any annoying people; my kids are too young to go the mall alone; when they’re older they’ll have enough sense to stay away from weird people.

Or the same group shows up to speak at your child's school, and openly ridicules anyone with faith in God. What would you do about it? At my child’s school? If my kids’ school permitted this, I’d be choosing a new school the same day.

I would like to believe most people would use any means possible to stop them or, at a minimum, get their children away from them as quickly as possible. Any means? Is brandishing a sword or heavy club okay? Personally, ignoring people I don't care for works, though I'm making an exception here.

Here's my point. While they would argue it's not the same thing, that's exactly what the six adults on the KQRS morning show do every morning, for anyone to hear, including your children. No, it isn't. Their juvenile banter about sexual behavior is no less graphic than what you'd read in Hustler and Penthouse. Clearly, the writer has never read Hustler or Penthouse; any radio station that broadcast the contents of those publications would be fined into oblivion by the FCC. Their offensive language would turn heads in most prisons. If the inmates are nuns and children. And Tom Barnard makes his atheist beliefs abundantly clear, to the point of ridiculing anyone with faith in God. This would be news to most Morning Show listeners. All on the air for any child to hear. If they have a radio tuned to 92.5 FM between 5:15 AM and 9:15 AM weekdays.

KQRS will say, if you don't like it, don't listen. Trust me, my kids don't. The writer letting us know she's better than you and me. But thousands of kids do listen to its trash and sadly, that's exactly what KQRS wants.

KQRS will argue its First Amendment right to say whatever it wants. I hardly believe our forefathers ever imagined the likes of Howard Stern and Tom Barnard. Howard Stern? I thought this tirade was against Tommy B. The authors of the ten amendments knew you’d get the good, the bad and the ugly with freedom of speech. Does the writer feel that we need someone to decide what we can hear? Do we get rid of the first amendment?

Barnard frequently condemns Steven Bosacker. Not for what Bosacker did, but for doing it in public. Bosacker, chief of staff to Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura, was charged with and plead guilty to a misdemeanor crime, indecent exposure in a health club locker room. What a hypocrite Barnard is. What he and his morning crew say and do on the air (a far more "public" place than any health club) is even more crude, disgusting and offensive. But not illegal. "More crude, disgusting and offensive" -- that's open to interpretation.

Obviously I've listened to their show or I wouldn't know what I'm talking about. Listened to it? Perhaps. Knows what she's talking about? Perhaps not. But what used to be a fairly entertaining show, with good music, has progressively gotten more and more offensive, pornographic, indecent and adolescent.

They (sic) are like a kid who does something funny once, and then tries so hard to be funny again he only makes a fool of himself. You're simply not funny anymore, Tom. It's not that I have no sense of humor. It's just that I have a stronger sense of decency.

-- Kelly Gothier, Andover. Advertising art director.

Posted 2/16/2002 06:37:00 AM by Bob
From the Minneapolis Star Tribune. I can personally confirm the veracity of this story. At 2:00 AM this morning one of my sons was verifying the accuracy of the report. --

The flu bug has had a light touch this winter, but it's starting to be felt in Minnesota. The same is true for the upper respiratory crud -- the hacking coughs, sore throats, fever and aches that aren't influenza but also make the rounds each winter.

Posted 2/15/2002 10:34:00 PM by Bob
Is there room in the axis of evil for a fourth player?

NY Times -- No one would dispute that Huang Shurong is stubborn and outspoken. She is also smart, confident and articulate, attributes that would seem to leave her poised for success. But not in rural China.

Instead, for her tenacity in protesting a land dispute with her local government in rural Suileng County of Heilongjiang Province in the northeast, officials have had her forcibly committed to a series of psychiatric hospitals, five times in the last three years.

Ms. Huang, who is 42 and divorced, has spent a total of 210 days under lock and key, at times subjected to powerful drugs and electroshock therapy, although friends and family, experts in Beijing and even some of the psychiatrists who have hospitalized her say she is perfectly sane.

Ms. Huang had this to say about the events:

I would agree that I'm strong- willed and very determined, perhaps too determined," she said recently, shortly being released for the fifth time, after 52 days, by doctors who concluded that they could not justify keeping her. "I'm not mentally ill," she said. "I know that. And anyone who knows me will say that as well."

Oh, they're not evil, they just have good loopholes:

Officially, Chinese psychiatrists adhere to the same commitment standards as doctors in the West: that people can be hospitalized against their will only if they present a danger to others or themselves. But in China that standard is not combined with legal time limits on how long a person can he held while the assessment is made.

Posted 2/15/2002 10:06:00 PM by Bob
Two gold medals!

AP -- The Canadian figure skating pair was awarded a gold medal Friday after the sport's top officials uncovered judging misconduct in a controversy that has dominated the Winter Games. The International Skating Union indefinitely suspended Marie-Reine Le Gougne, the French judge in the middle of the dispute.

But don't look for any apologies from France:

AP -- The head of the French Olympic team is still insisting his federation had no part in an Olympic skating scandal, and a Russian skater is angry over the controversy. The official, Didider Gailhaguet, denies a French judge was pressured into changing her vote in Monday's pairs figure skating.

Posted 2/15/2002 06:06:00 AM by Bob
Figure skating "scandal" --

NY Times -- The head of the French Olympic team said tonight that the figure skating judge Marie Reine Le Gougne of France had been approached by trainers and other judges during a practice before the pairs competition on Monday but that she had not succumbed to pressures to ensure that the Russians won the gold medal.

The French Olympic official, Didier Gailhaguet, did not specify the judges or trainers who approached Ms. Le Gougne, saying only that they had come from "both sides." (Both sides? Did the Canadians pressure her to award them the silver?)

Ms. Le Gougne was one of five judges on the nine-judge panel who scored an imperfect long program by the Russians Yelena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze ahead of the flawless performance by the Canadians David Pelletier and Jamie Salé, who were awarded the silver medal.

"She might have made a mistake," Mr. Gailhaguet said, referring to Ms. Le Gougne's professional judgment about which pair was superior. "But five judges made five mistakes."

I think the skating officials have more than one problem on their hands.

Posted 2/14/2002 05:43:00 PM by Bob
The common cat, facing almost certain extinction, has a new lease on life. Scientists at Texas A&M announced today that they had cloned a cat. They've also come up with a simply wonderful moniker for their fuzzy wittle fwiend:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A 2-month-old kitten called "Cc:" is the first successful product of a program aimed at letting people clone their pets, scientists said on Thursday.

This bodes well for all you who have had to limit yourselves to only a dozen or so pet cats. The bad news for you eccentric millionaires is that if you're thinking of cloning that cat who's gone to the great scratching post in the sky, the cloned cat might not look exactly the same as the original:

"The scientists said her coat coloring was unique because not only genetics contribute to an animal's markings, but also conditions in the womb.

Posted 2/14/2002 05:25:00 PM by Bob
Afghanistan has, er, had, a tourism minister?

DUBAI (Reuters) - Afghan Muslim pilgrims, angry over plane delays, have attacked and killed Afghanistan's interim transport minister at Kabul airport, Arabic-language al-Jazeera television has reported.

It quoted its reporter in the Afghan capital as saying Air Transport and Tourism Minister Abdul Rahman had gone to the airport to leave on a trip abroad when he was attacked on Thursday by a large number of disgruntled pilgrims awaiting flights to Saudi Arabia.

There was no immediate confirmation of the report by Afghan officials. Foreign journalists were unable to go to the airport to check on reports of a disturbance there because of a curfew.

More than 5,000 Afghans planning to leave for the annual haj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia have been told that foreign aircraft are being leased for the trip as Afghanistan's Ariana airline has only one functioning plane, Afghan-based reporters said.

Posted 2/14/2002 04:35:00 PM by Bob
This is good news for me...

Study: People Live Longest With Seven Hours Of Sleep. Getting eight hours of sleep might not be your best bet after all, according to a new study. Research published in Friday's issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry suggests adults live longer if they get six or seven hours of sleep each night, not eight.

Research published in Friday's issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry suggests adults live longer if they get six or seven hours of sleep each night, not eight.

If the study has any relevance to animals, it's very bad news for my dog.

Posted 2/14/2002 07:28:00 AM by Bob
The Piper, KS school board must have Lake Wobegon in mind: "Where...the children are above average." Apparently, if some students cheat and flunk a class the school board will order the teacher to raise the grades.

NY Times -- It began in December with a teacher's finding that 28 of 118 Piper High sophomores had stolen sections of their botany project off the Internet. The students received zeroes and faced failing the semester. But after parents complained to the school board, the teacher, Christine Pelton, was ordered to raise the grades, prompting her resignation. Now, the community is angrily pointing fingers as they debate right and wrong, crimes and consequences, citizenship and democracy.

Of course, this could hurt the parents where it really hurts -- the wallet:

Several teachers said that nearly half the high school's 31-member faculty plus its brand new principal planned to resign at year's end over the case, while parents fretted that the school's dwindling reputation might result in a decline in property values and disappearance of scholarship opportunities. Mrs. Pelton, meanwhile, has become a kind of folk hero, with dozens of calls a day offering support — and jobs.

But wait... the cheating students, "victims" once already, will become further victimized:

Students, plagiarizers and non-plagiarizers alike, have already begun to feel the backlash. A sign posted in a nearby high school read, "If you want your grade changed, go to Piper." The proctor at a college entrance exam last weekend warned a girl wearing a Piper sweatshirt not to cheat. A company in Florida faxed the school asking for a list of students — so it would know whom never to hire. At Tuesday's board meeting, as five television news crews rolled tape, a woman worried that the community has been "stamped with a large purple P on their foreheads for plagiarism."

Call the lawyers!

Posted 2/13/2002 09:50:00 PM by Bob
Jonah Goldberg writes about the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in a National Review Online article. He calls it the Westminster Eugenics Show. It's interesting. One line in particular resonated with me: "My former family basset hound, Norman, was among the finest and most noble dogs ever to race down a hallway because he was late for a nap.” I could rewrite the beginning of that sentence this way: "My wife's dog, Sophie, is among the finest ...

Of course, with Sophie, the only reason she’s late for the next nap is because she overslept from the last one.

I call her my wife's dog because the dog adores my wife. Sure, if my wife is gone, the dog will nap in my lap or beg biscuits from me but once the woman of the house is in, that dog won't come near me.

Goldberg’s story is about dog breeding. It made me think about what our twelve-pound dog is made of. She’s definitely a mutt. However, I’m not sure she’s consists of entirely canine breeds.

Part cat? Sure, many dogs sleep all day, wake to greet owners coming home from work, stretch their backs and promptly go back to sleep. Lately, though, she’s will merely lift an eyelid or two when we get in. I think she’s finally achieved that feline state of sleep that never seems to end.

Part chameleon? The all-black dog likes to snuggle up in a navy blue blanket on the couch. The blanket was to protect the couch from dirty children but the dog has seized it for herself. She blends in with the blanket and more than once a human, selfish enough to want to sit on her couch, has nearly flattened her. Absent the blue blanket, she sometimes sleeps among dark clothing the children have left on the floor. This dog does not show up in photographs, either. It looks like some censor got happy with his black marker. There’s just a space in the photo where a dog used to be.

Part ostrich? When she gets on a bed, she prefers to sleep with her head under a pillow or a blanket. Note to self: for dog’s safety make sure blankets have a loose weave so she gets oxygen.

Part possum? She sometimes sleeps on her back, feet in the air, mouth open. She won’t move if she’s in the way. If she didn’t snore, she could be mistaken for dead.

Part foghorn? The snoring. My God, the snoring! How so much noise can emanate from such a small package baffles me.

Part food connoisseur? Purina and Science Diet are not to her liking. I dropped a cracker on the floor the other day. It landed six inches from her. Could she clean it up? Nope. She didn’t even sniff at it. Perhaps she thought she’d just wait for whatever was cooking in the oven. She likes her food warm, after all. This also makes me wonder just what the rest of the family feeds her when I’m not home. No real dog would ever pass up a free cracker.

Part pizza lover? Every time that Dominos commercial with the doorbell sounding is on TV, she barks in approval. Why, she keeps on barking long after the commercial has concluded, so she must really love pizza.

Despite all this, she’s a decent dog. Just the other day I held up a treat and said, “sit.” She looked at me, looked for my wife, yawned and finally sat down. She probably just got bored looking at me and tired of standing. I still gave her the treat.