Fraters Libertas

A Quick Spin Through The Sunday Strib

How about a tour of today's edition of the Minneapolis Star Tribune to give you an idea of what us lucky readers here in Minnesota get to enjoy on a typical Sunday?

Let's start with the front page and the bold-faced banner headline on the war in Iraq:

ORDER LOST;HISTORY STOLEN

Hmmm....Something seems to missing here. Oh yes, People Liberated.

Next let's check out the always interesting Op/Ed section. Lets' see a piece by Al Franken attacking Norm Coleman which proves once again why Franken will never be the "liberal Rush Limbaugh".

A. He's not particularly funny

B. He's not that smart either demonstrated by the fact that he tries to claim that Paul Wellstone was a humble man. Sorry Al, small was an appropriate word to describe certain things about Wellstone but not his ego.

Next a piece by Richard Broderick founder of Minnesota Poets Against War With Iraq explaining, "Why it's still worth protesting this war":

the war in Iraq is just one front in a much larger war being carried out by the Bush administration and its ideological kin across the United States -- a war whose other fronts include attacks on the rights of women, gays and lesbians, minorities, the poor, immigrants and, yes, middle-class Americans.

Yup first it's the Iraqis. Then the women, the gays, the minorities, etc. eventually ending with the destruction of rights for middle class Americans. That's the plan. We'll start building the camps any day now right Richard?

Moving on we find...

Wait. What the hell is this? An article by Victor Davis Hanson in the Star Tribune? Was this supposed to go in the April Fools edition? Didn't the Strib editors get the word that Maureen Dowd doesn't like "Mr. Davis"? Heads must roll for this slip up.

Finally let's end our journey with a look at the lighthearted Variety section. Nothing to get too riled up about here right?

Here's an article about Margaret Atwood's book 'Handmaid's Tale' that begins thusly:

Margaret Atwood has enjoyed many successes, but her 1985 bestseller about a repressive society, "The Handmaid's Tale," now seems more prescient than pessimistic.

Interesting. I wonder what Atwood had so accurately predicted way back in '85?

In 1985, a novel called "The Handmaid's Tale" vaulted to the top of U.S. bestseller lists within weeks of publication. The story, set in the not so distant future, offers a grim view of life in the United States after religious zealots overthrow the government.

In the dystopic Republic of Gilead, the regime spins news of war and terrorism to its advantage. Civil rights have been extinguished, books have been banned and culture has been terminated with extreme prejudice. Women are forbidden to hold jobs, property or money. Pollution and disease have decimated fertility rates -- birth control and homosexuality are now crimes punishable by death. The few remaining fertile women, called handmaids, are used as brood mares for regime officials and their barren wives.

Wow. That's uncanny. I mean she nailed it. The terrorism. The war. That religious zealot President Bush believing in God and (gasp) praying in public. Ashcroft taking away civil rights (see Richard Broderick's piece above). Any day now I expect we'll learn of the handmaids that Rumsfeld, Cheney, and Karl Rove have hidden away in order to propagate their lineage.

That's all for today folks. I hope you enjoyed your ride through the looking glass of the "newspaper of the Twin Cities".