HometownSource Blogs

If you’re prone to ringing in the new year under modification, there may still be time to pick up a jug of absinthe, which hasn’t been available to law-abiding folk for a century. MPR serves up an an article describing its return, which I must admit increased my awareness of the formidable beverage by 100%. Most amazing to me is that a previously controlled substance - one well over a hundred proof - could be freed from its shackles in this era, no matter the evidence. Our juggernaut of conservative moralists and overly-liberal safety cops must have been temporarily distracted. So I went over to Wikipedia for more of the story, and realized absinthe is a substantial topic. Maybe I’ll have time to read it in 2008. More likely, not.

A study by the British government finds that, for boys, playing with toy guns is “healthy,” allows for “safe risk-taking,” and can make “learning more appealing.”

Another researcher concurs:

Research by Penny Holland, academic leader for early childhood at London Metropolitan University, has also concluded that boys should be allowed to play gun games.

She found boys became dispirited and withdrawn when they are told such play-fighting is wrong.

Still, educators have chosen to ignore the science in favor of their own politically correct view that playing with toy guns “symbolizes aggression.” Asks Glenn Reynolds: Don’t they care about the children?

The decision by the NYT to hire Bill Kristol, is causing outrage! amongst the faithful:

The New York Times’ hiring of Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol to write for its op-ed page caused a frenzy in the liberal blogosphere Friday night, with threats of canceling subscriptions and claims that the Gray Lady had been hijacked by neo-cons.

Hijacked! By the neo-cons!

Indeed, Kristol will join “token conservative” writer David Brooks in offering right-leaning commentary on the hallowed pages of the Grey Lady. Space for left-leaning columnists Maureen Dowd, Roger Cohen, Thomas Friedman, Frank Rich, Paul Krugman, Nicholas Kristof, Bob Hebert, and the NYT’s editorial board is not expected to be threatened.

Says Times editorial page editor Andy Rosenthal:

“The idea that The New York Times is giving voice to a guy who is a serious, respected conservative intellectual — and somehow that’s a bad thing,” Rosenthal added. “How intolerant is that?”

The question, I think, is rhetorical.

UPDATE: Art Sulzberger introduces the “Neo-Con Sensitivity Training Program.”

The fallen and broken I35-W interstate highway bridge in August is symbolic of this “broken” 2007 year.

All Minnesotans are broken hearted because we are members of the state community that allowed a main bridge to collapse, killing and wounding our citizens.

Much has been written about who is to blame, but does it matter? It happened in our state touted for its quality of life, its health, its education and safety.

Like the bridge, our state government is broken because it is unable to reconcile differences between political parties and its governor.

This past year was one of brokenness.

Read more »

…of the far left is on display in this one handy commentary about - you guessed it - climate change.*

“Award winning journalist,” graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism, and former contributor to the NYT, Dave Lindorff can hardly contain his glee that conservatives will bear the brunt of climate change.*

…huge swaths of conservative America are set to face a biblical deluge in a few more presidential cycles.

Certainly there is something “biblical” about the predictions of climate change* devotees, in fact they seem to relish in a rather Old Testament approach to the subject. But “good will to men” didn’t quite make the grade in the new religion of environmentalism, as Lindorff apparently sees conservative America’s suffering as its just penance: Read more »

The Center for Media and Public Affairs has studied election coverage by major television media and found - surprise, surprise - Fox News to have provided the most balanced coverage (pdf) of both parties’ candidates. Here’s an excerpt:

Fox News Channel’s coverage was more balanced toward both parties than the broadcast networks were. On FOX, evaluations of all Democratic candidates combined were split almost evenly – 51% positive vs. 49% negative, as were all evaluations of GOP candidates – 49% positive vs. 51% negative, producing a perfectly balanced 50-50 split for all candidates of both parties.

On the three broadcast networks, opinion on Democratic candidates split 47% positive vs. 53% negative, while evaluations of Republicans were more negative – 40% positive vs. 60% negative.

That’s going to leave a mark.

Via Don Surber, if this keeps up, moving to Wisconsin to escape the nanny state might prove counterproductive. Police with radar guns at sledding hills? Possible helmet laws?

Believe it.

The Chicago Tribune has 2007 Scared of Santa winners, a score of photos where kids simply were not buying into the program.

This seems to have been the year of the virally interactive Flash-based Christmas, with Office Max leading the way. The supply superstore-sponsored ElfYourself.com (originally launched in 2006) became a sensation these past few weeks. Office Max also has ScroogeYourself.com and the ever obstreperous guys over at JibJab have a sleighload of ways to humiliate you, your friends and family. There’s a Snowball Fight!, Office Party, and my personal favorite, It’s a JibJab Life.

All this puts the pressure on grandaddy sites like NORAD Santa to keep up their game. To its credit, the king of Santa tracking now puts Google Earth to work on the job. It can only be a matter of time before Google acquires NORAD.

Eric Black, in leaving Minnesota Monitor, makes an admission that is about a year overdue:

…Soros’ foundation is one of several that contribute to the CIM so I guess I have some Soros money in my checking account,…

Here’s how the sentence finishes:

…but I was never asked, pressured or even encouraged to promote any particular point of view and the same goes for the Monitor’s other writers.

As if he had to. As LearnedFoot notes, “Do you have to tell a cat to go hunt the mice?” Soros is famous for funding organizations that agree with him. Hello.

Captain Ed summarizes the problem: Read more »

More than 400 scientists, including “climatologists, oceanographers, geologists, glaciologists, physicists and paleoclimatologists” are challenging the fear mongering of Al Gore and the global warming disciples. Who are they?

The scientists — many of whom are current or former members of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that shares the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Mr. Gore for publicizing a climate crisis…

Were this a collection in favor of the theory, it would no doubt be considered a “consensus.” Since the group question the theory, it can only be a conspiracy, says the global warming “profit” himself.

I always look forward to MRC’s “The Best Notable Quotables,” and 2007 doesn’t disappoint. Here’s just a brief sample.

In the most unhinged category is eternal heavy breather Keith Olbermann, who, apparently, has a subtle dislike for George Bush:

“You could argue that even the world’s worst fascist dictators at least meant well. They honestly thought [they] were doing good things for their countries by suppressing blacks/eliminating Jews/eradicating free enterprise/repressing individual thought/killing off rivals/invading neighbors, etc….Bush set a new precedent. He came into office with the attitude of ‘I’m so tired of the public good. What about my good? What about my rich friends’ good?’”

Bush is worse than Hitler! He’s Hitler with no regard for the public good!

In the most vile category is Chicago Sun-Times columnist Cathleen Falsani, who was filled with glee when Jerry Falwell died: Read more »

We already know that LiveEarth and Bali have been extremely destructive to the planet. Now, the Bali butcher’s bill rises:

The air-conditioning system installed to keep more than 10,000 delegates cool used highly damaging refrigerant gases - as lethal to the atmosphere as 48,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide, and nearly the equivalent of the emissions of all aircraft used to fly delegates to Indonesia.

Gaia is weeping, and so, in fact, is this guy:

He is known as the “hard man” of climate-change negotiation.

But after 12 exhausting days of trying to reach a worldwide agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, it was suddenly all too much for Yvo de Boer.

As the 200-nation Bali conference wrangled over a minor procedural matter, the Dutch diplomat in charge of the talks burst into tears and had to be led away by colleagues.

It’s official. Global warming - or “climate change” as it’s called from November through April - causes nervous breakdowns.

The AP gives a look at what Kyoto is supposed to accomplish:

The Kyoto Protocol requires 37 industrial nations to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by a relatively modest average 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2012.

But how have the nations who signed the agreement actually done?

Emissions from countries that signed the treaty increased 21.1%.

Meanwhile, how has America (Gore’s bogeyman) done?

Emissions from the U.S. increased 6.6%.

Isn’t it interesting that those nations who signed the treaty are championed even while they increase emissions at a frightening pace, while America’s restraint has earned her only scorn. As Randall Hoven points out, it’s further evidence that, when it comes to emissions and global climate warming change, it’s what you appear to do that matters, not what you actually do.

Fun was had here back in October, when a debate ensued regarding the City Pages treatment of “hookah bars” and smoking as a cultural issue. Who could have known at the time that the author of the story, Jonathan Kaminsky, would be working on a story about the city of Harris and the circus-like atmosphere that existed there in 2006. As part of his research, he and I spent an enjoyable afternoon discussing some of the issues Harris has had recently.

To his credit, when made aware of the arguments against his hookah piece, Kaminsky characterized it as “fair criticism.” Pretty fair-minded guy and a fine writer to boot. His story on Harris is worth a read.

Regret the Error has “The Year in Media Errors and Corrections.” This is my personal favorite, from the Guardian:

We misspelled the word misspelled twice, as mispelled, in the Corrections and clarifications column on September 26, page 30.

Correcting the correction…In fact, correcting the misspellings in a correction about misspellings. The next step would have been to simply wave a white flag.