Sauce For The Goose

Last weekend, my family visited the palatial Doubtless redoubt in Olmstead County. JB and his wife were gracious hosts and we enjoyed their generous hospitality, especially the one-hundred-eighteen inch hi-def plasma surround sound hi-fi superbad television that JB recently picked up.

After JB grilled up lunch for us, we elected to just order up a couple of pizza pies for dinner. I listened with interest as JB rang the local 'za parlor to place the delivery order and asked demanded that we receive extra sauce with the pies.

Extra sauce with your pizza? Hmmm...sounds familiar...

Restless 'Roots

An e-mail sent out by MoveOn.org is asking its members whether they should push for the extinction of the DINO:

We've all heard it from the Democratic leadership over and over again: "we don't have the votes."

Hundreds of thousands of us worked to get Democratic majorities elected. So why don't they have the votes? One reason is that there are a set of weak Democrats who side with the president--especially on Iraq. They're too scared to fight for what's right and what they were elected to fight for.

This fall, we face a pivotal series of votes on Iraq--votes that, if we win, could spell the end of the Iraq war. MoveOn members have made phone calls. We've held town meetings. We've run ads and written letters to the editor. But now, given this big moment, we have an important decision to make together.

Should we support primary challengers against some Democrats who side with the president on Iraq? It's a tough question, and one we need everybody's input on.

My response was, "Hell yeah, purge baby, purge!"

Yesterday's WSJ had an editorial (sub req) on how MoveOn.org reacts to Democrats who stray from the herd:

In the Hell Hath No Fury sweepstakes, groups like MoveOn.org are gearing up to take on a new set of perceived traitors in their midst -- Democrats who have acknowledged some success from the troop surge in Iraq.

Chief among the targets is Washington Congressman Brian Baird, whose indiscretion was recognizing progress on the ground, despite having initially opposed the surge and having opposed the war in the first place. After a recent trip to Iraq, Mr. Baird said: "One of the things that gets very little attention is that virtually every other country I visited says it would be a mistake to pull out now."

We hope he took his flak jacket home from Baghdad. MoveOn is rolling out an ad this week in Mr. Baird's Washington district, in which a former soldier tells of being shot at in 2003 by the Iraqis he had fought to liberate and calls America's continued presence in the country "wrong, immoral and irresponsible." What does this have to do with the wisdom -- or lack thereof -- of the current strategy? Nada, which tells you something about MoveOn's honesty.

There IS Such A Thing As A Stupid Question

This week's edition of local alternative weekly City Pages includes a Three Questions section with noted filmmaker Ken Burns. One of the four towns featured in Burns' upcoming World War II documentary The War is Luverne, Minnesota and he stopped off in the Twin Cities on his way to the world premier of the film in said town. City Pages' John Behling had the opportunity to direct the three queries at Burns and, based on the substance of the last question, it was one too many (for some reason this doesn't appear to be available on the CP web site):

CP: You've been working on this film for six years. What effect has the war in Iraq had on the way you approached World War II?

To his credit, Burns shut the door on Behling's hunt for a political angle rather abruptly:

KB: Very, very little; we did most of the shooting of the interviews with folks before we invaded Iraq...This film does not have a political agenda to it; it doesn't have a political axe to grind.

At that point, you can imagine Behling slapping his notebook shut. No more questions.

It's Feeling Like I'm Already Dead

My biggest fears of what US foreign policy would (will?) look like under a Hillary Clinton administration are not so much driven by the views that she has expressed, but rather by the kind of people she would put in positions of power. As the Wall Street Journal noted yesterday (sub req), if the folks advising her on the campaign trail are any indication of future appointments, it's going be quite a reunion in the Clinton White House Redux:

While Mr. Obama's camp is working to give heft to a freshman senator just three years removed from the Illinois state legislature, Mrs. Clinton considers her foreign views largely set -- one reason why she has such a small squad of advisers. The core of her team includes several staunch loyalists from her husband's time in power, including former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, former United Nations ambassador Richard Holbrooke, and Samuel "Sandy" Berger, who succeeded Mr. Lake as national security adviser during Mr. Clinton's second term. The first two have been outspoken critics of President Bush's foreign policy and his handling of the Iraq war, and strong defenders of the Clinton legacy.

Be afraid.

Mrs. Clinton's aides point out that her main adviser is President Clinton himself.

Be very afraid. A side bar to the article also mentions that Strobe Talbott is also on Team Hill. What, Warren Christopher isn't available?

For the most part, I give Clinton a fair amount of credit for managing the economy during his time in office. He didn't do anything to egregiously tinker with it, which is probably the best you can hope with any Democrat. And he was a tried and true advocate of free trade.

But when it came to foreign policy, he and the team that surrounded him were mealy-mouthed and feckless. Too afraid to take risks or offend international sensibilities, he allowed Al Qaeda to fester and take root in Afghanistan leading of course to much pain for our country down the road. And now his foreign policy team, which projected weakness abroad in word and deed, is where Hillary turns to for counsel. Yikes.

The alternatives are not encouraging either. While Barak Obama's foreign policy team includes a few intriguing names:

For crafting his counterinsurgency strategy, Mr. Obama has Harvard University's Sarah Sewall, who worked in the Pentagon under President Clinton.

(And also wrote a forward to the U.S. Army/Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual.)

He appears to be looking back to the future as well:

For overall security issues he leans on Mr. Clinton's former national security adviser, Anthony Lake. What about fighting AIDS or boosting U.S. trade in Africa? For that and more, he has former Clinton administration diplomat Susan Rice.

Way back:

Mr. Obama did get a well-timed boost recently from one of his party's foreign-policy eminences, Zbigniew Brzezinski. The 79-year-old former Carter national security adviser not only backed Mr. Obama but panned Mrs. Clinton's views as "very conventional" and merely a continuation of "what we had eight years ago."

An endorsement from one of the guys responsible for the foreign policy of the "good ol' days" of the Carter Administration actually makes Hillary's team look good by comparison. Is it 2012 yet?

Con Text

So I'm watching "Top Chef" with my wife last night (I assigned Atomizer the GOP debate beat and expect his lengthy analysis to be posted later today) and as they went to a break they promoted this "poll" they were running. For a mere ninety-five cents (plus any applicable messaging charges) you could participate in a text-message poll on which group of remaining chefs, the women (two) or the men (five) were more talented.

Two questions came to mind. Who participates in these silly things? And more importantly, why? Since they were able to show us results later in the show (the men won), I assume that people actually pulled out their cell phones and voted. Who are you people? And what the hell are you thinking?

Text me at 555-555-5555 to let your voice be heard. Only ninety-five cents per message.

Back On The Wagon?

Having a hard time making it to Keegan's for Thursday night trivia? I know I am, although this past Sunday I did manage to get the family out to the premier Irish Pub in town where my wife I enjoyed two of the best Cobb Salads in town.

If Thursday nights at Keegan's are tough on your schedule, you now have another option. Friday night trivia at The Little Wagon:

NEW! WAGON QUIZ EVERY FRIDAY AT 5:30pm

Get a team of two, three or four and join is for the new Wagon Quiz. The "quizmaster" will ask 25 questions and you write down the answers. Winners receive prizes and eligibility for a drawing for a trip to Boston, courtesy of Sam Adams.

Be prepared to be insulted and humilliated. This quiz is not for the faint of heart.

That's right, the same crack staff (and Marty Newton) who have made Keegan's the destination that it is are now running the The Little Wagon, within easy stumbling distance of the Metrodome.

It may just be time to get back on the trivia wagon again. Or is it off the wagon?

Healthy Debate

Summer is over and the Argument of the Month Club is back:

TUESDAY OCTOBER 9TH
Dr. Arthur Hippler is back for his monthly dose of debate. He will be giving his presentation, "Is religious liberty the road to secularism?" Is religious liberty based on truth or religious relativism? Does religious liberty require the separation of church and state? Is religious liberty only for non-Christians? If you think these are important, timely questions for our day, wait until you hear his answers.

Church of St. Augustine, South St. Paul, MN
Social at 6:30pm (beverages and appetizers)
Dinner at 7:00pm
Total cost for the evening is $12 at the door

There will be time for you to agree or disagree with our speaker during the Q&A, which starts immediately following dessert. But you are all encouraged to enjoy the good humor, food and fellowship. We enjoy the company of men from all different creeds and ages. Priests and seminarians get in for free but are not shown any partiality in debate. Fathers may bring their sons as long as they accompany them.

When I Want Something And Don't Want To Pay For It

Attention neighborhood "scavengers": just because something has been set out in the walk in front of our house (and clearly marked "ARC") does not mean it's fair game for you to scoop up. We intended to donate this item to a charitable organization not your grubby little paws. Taking something that is not being given to you is still stealing.

Going With The Grain

Sage child-rearing advice from John Derbyshire in the latest issue of National Review (sub req):

Human beings are not, after all, infinitely malleable. No one who has raised a child could think so. A human personality has a grain, like wood, that cannot be ignored. The trick with raising kids is to discover their grain, their innate inclinations, and encourage those that are healthful and civilizationally positive.

And not assuming that their grain is the same as yours. Much easier said than done.

The One To Have When You're Having A Liter

In yesterday's Wall Street Journal, Eric Felten wrote on the difficulties that vodka makers are having trying to dfferentiate their brands (since they all pretty taste the same) and brought up a blast from the past (sub req):

For vodka sellers, these are the best of times, in that sales of high-priced vodkas continue to grow. And they are the worst, too, in that just about anyone can -- and is -- getting into the vodka marketing game. "Go into a liquor store or a bar, and there are 20 vodkas on the shelf," says Vic Morrison, marketing veep at McCormick Distilling. The challenge is to come up with some clever gimmick to set one's vodka apart.

The salesman who thinks he can crack the market with claims of superior taste will be sorely disappointed: I went to a vodka tasting hosted by the head of a prominent luxury liquor house. It was an exercise meant to dispel the notion that the differences among vodkas are illusory. But after being walked through the vodkas on the table with elaborate descriptions of the characteristics of each, I found myself hard-pressed to discern much difference. So I asked the executive to demonstrate the differences by tasting the vodkas blind. He couldn't even identify his own flagship brand.

McCormick Vodka is now in the high-end game? When I was in college, McKormick was our rot-gut vodka of choice along with the likes of Kamchatka, Siberian Ice, Popov and other bargain basement brands that had Russian sounding names despite being distilled in Cold Spring, MN.

McCormick used to run $4.99 for a liter and when dilluted with a little Sunny Delight was a cheap, effective way to get mind-numbingly drunk (and suffer some of the worst hangovers imaginable the next day). We even had an anole lizard that we named after our favorite vodka. He was a great pet, whose life was tragically cut short after a close encounter with a sparkler. RIP McCormick.

Holiday Weekend Reading

Labor Day 2007 by Center for Union Facts:

Right now, labor is a mere shadow of its past. The kind of labor union that most of us grew up knowing just isn’t there anymore. Membership has been declining for decades, and despite economic realities, labor leaders continue to cling to the belief that Americans accept this idea of paying dues in order to keep their job.

Bret Jacobson on Unions on National Review Online:

You've got the extra day off. You might as well use it to appreciate the "labor" in Labor Day. Here's one way: Click over to Netflix and order up some union classics. One warning: There's only a remote chance you'll like what you see.

Since people don't talk as much about unions as they used to, here are some recommendations: On the Waterfront, Norma Rae, and the Academy Award--winning documentary American Dream. Between them there's corruption, violence, strikes, shady organizing tactics, and Marlon Brando before he swelled to the size of the labor movement.

Beer Pong For The Elder Set

Have a beer with that bingo card:

You'll soon be able to mix drinking and daubing in Minneapolis.

The City Council voted 12-0 Friday to lift a longstanding ban on serving alcohol where bingo is played, a move that puts it in conformance with most of the rest of the state.

Bingo.

You can travel in style to bingo on the PedalPub:

The PedalPub offers tours of different Twin Cities neighborhoods -- mostly bar tours, of course. While it looks like a bar and even has a spot for a keg, state law prohibits drinking on the PedalPub. Its owners hope to get their contraption grouped with limos and party buses, which would allow drinks on board (anything non-alcoholic is allowed). Its newness -- there's nothing like it in the state and perhaps the country -- means the legal landscape is bumpy.