You Use What You Got

I had to grab this image from the Strib because it is just too cool not to.

This morning movers hauled this 1880s era house off Manitou Island and across White Bear Lake. It was about a hundred yard trip:

Kraemer and the mover, Terry Semple of Semple Building Movers of St. Paul, didn't take the weather for granted. Last weekend, they pumped water onto the ice to make it thicker. Kraemer calculated that the lake level was 2 feet below normal, and said tests showed that the ice sat on about a foot of water and muck. And Denice Semple, Terry's wife, said the company hired an engineer who advised how to distribute the weight enough to keep the house from crashing through.

I think it would have been cool to be underwater and watch the ice flex as the 60-ton house moved over it.

No Accident

This is truly astounding. Please read Al Gore's remarks to Congress today and see if you can tell what elementary assertion is missing. That it isn't there can't possibly be an accident.

I'll give you a day or two to figure it out but I don't think it will take that long.

Said With a Straight Face

Nancy Pelosi has a sure-fire way to stimulate the economy:

"Well, the family planning services reduce cost. They reduce cost. The states are in terrible fiscal budget crises now and part of what we do for children's health, education and some of those elements are to help the states meet their financial needs. One of those - one of the initiatives you mentioned, the contraception, will reduce costs to the states and to the federal government."

No, no. It's true. She's the majority leader in the House of Representatives. Really. And she thinks federally funded birth control will help save the economy.

Just think how much stimulus we would get if we just ceased federally funded "family planning services."

Global Yawn

In the latest Pew poll, global warming ranks dead last among people's priorities for 2009. Not only does that mean my prediction for 2008 was even more successful than even I dared imagine, it also means global warming is as dead as a doornail, despite the left's scare mongering over the last eight years.

Also, despite assurances from the left that the terrorism "scare" was made up neo-con nonsense, it remains a top five concern, along with the economy, jobs, education, and Social Security.

It's always heart-warming to learn the people aren't as stupid as the left gives them credit for.

Blast from the Past

Caught up with an old friend for awhile tonight. It ain't what it used to be. While on the phone we started trading photos and links via e-mail, like looking at photo albums together a thousand miles apart.

A few of you might remember my old neighbor in Maplewood, Lee. Back in the early 90s he was a teenager with real long hair, a black leather jacket, and a Flying V. He and his mom shared the other half of our town house.

Lee moved to Boston shortly after we moved to the stix, from where he sent me this picture of the Boston Light, the oldest lighthouse in Boston, and near where Lee catches four-foot Stripers in the summer.

Apparently it takes about 15 years to lose the ability to say the letter "r." Anyway, Lee sounded chippa.

Weekly Whitley

This week's contribution is Scrapyard Lullaby, a pretty song from a pretty album - Dirt Floor:



As you listen: Dirt Floor was Chris's first album on indy label Messenger, and was recorded in a barn, in one day, with a single microphone. The basic production value meant it probably most closely resembled his typical live performances - just him and a guitar. Although, when he would play songs live they had a more raw feel where in this studio recording they are sweet and gentle.

I have no way of knowing for sure, but I believe the footage of Chris singing in this video was taken during rehearsals for the recording of Dirt Floor. At least, he appears to be wearing a wife-beater and sitting next to a pork pie hat, both of which he wore for the cover photo. I would be shocked to learn the photo wasn't taken the same day as the album was recorded.

The One We've Been Waiting For

Please welcome GDD¹ (grand grave disappointment the first) to the Teaparty clan. Little Barack O. Teaparty was born at 4:01 p.m. today. He is 21 inches long and weighs in at 7 pounds-15 ounces.

Mama, GD¹, is doing fine.

It was a helluva day waiting for the blessed event, but if there is any consolation, it is that I wasn't forced to suffer through one single minute of inauguration coverage. I understand it was wall-to-wall and soaked with the usual media neutrality.

Home Is Where You Get Across

Do not listen to this song if you like your decor, because the guitar will peel the paint right off the flippin' walls:



The lousy recording and obnoxious fans can't take away from the quality of the performance. We should have just retired the instrument in 2005.

What More Do You Need to Know

When I see images like the one at right my heart just breaks for the damage the president has done to our relationships with our friends abroad.

Don't people understand that his policies have created a legacy of hatred that is sure to feed into an endless cycle of global violence? Could there be any better evidence that America has gone down the wrong road; a road of fear, war, shame, and damaged credibility?

This country needs a leader who can unite the world's people in peace, not one whose very image incites rioting and demonstrations of hate against us.

When I look at this picture I am embarrassed and ashamed. His very presence in office has done nothing but create more terrorism; has done nothing but galvanize the less fortunate against the greed and domination culture of America.

God bless America? I say God damn America. It deserves what it gets for electing such a leader, an act tantamount to thumbing our nose at the global community.

And he hasn't even assumed office yet.

My only solace is that four years from now, America will have a chance to turn away from the fear mongering and oil lust that has resulted in demonstrations like this; demonstrations that prove we've got a lot of growing up to do before we can once again be considered a beacon, rather than an oppressor, among the league of nations.

'It's a Hell of a Thing Killin' a Man'

GD² and I have been on a Clint Eastwood kick for the last couple of weeks in anticipation of the release of Gran Torino, which is getting rave reviews. More recent films mostly, I personally am a bigger fan of his directing than I am of his acting, which I don't intend as a knock on his acting.

We watched Absolute Power, one of my favorites, a couple of weeks ago, and In the Line of Fire the other day. But I had forgotten what an incredible film Unforgiven is.

I'm not a fan of westerns. Blazing Saddles and Unforgiven are the only two I can recall seeing, I reckon. But having seen Unforgiven tonight for the first time in about five years, I was reminded that it is as fine a film as you are likely to see. A truly incredible work.

If you're looking for a great film you might otherwise overlook, check it out.

The Nation Admires a War Criminal

In "Our Lincoln" left-leaning The Nation, in an effort to somehow claim Abraham Lincoln for the left, actually does an admirable job of describing his brilliant and often conflicted brain.

But in three pages of looking back at Lincoln's personal and national struggles to end slavery during four years of civil war, The Nation couldn't find one sentence to describe for readers the compromises to civil liberties Lincoln found essential to victory in that war.

Suspension of civil law and habeus corpus, blowing off the Supreme Court, and arresting dissidents in the thousands. It all happened. I don't criticize Lincoln for these actions. As Judge Richard Posner has stated, civil liberties are not a suicide pact.

What I find offensive on a regular basis about the Left's treatment of Lincoln is its attempt to rewrite his history to erase qualities about Lincoln it finds unsavory.

The Nation has spent the last eight years (10 pages of entries on the subject) decrying the relatively insignificant "compromises" to civil liberties under the Bush administration. Yet, it can write about the great man Lincoln and neglect to note, for the record, that he took extreme measures to insure military victory. The kind of measures, that if taken by the Bush administration The Nation would not even be able to whine about because its press would be shut down; its editors in jail without charges.

The Nation fails to accurately characterize Lincoln on purpose I have no doubt. It becomes a lot harder to stake claim to such a great man if you must endorse the kinds of actions that even the perception of has practically driven you over the cliff for almost a decade. So, it simply leaves that out of the story.

Lincoln was a great man. But the drastic actions he took to win the civil war are part of that story, not an embarrassing footnote to be left out of a historical rewrite. The Nation does the presidency, and history itself, a shameful disservice omitting such an important part of the story. And doing so is at odds with its own editorial policy, which appears to have been to harp on any perceived erosion of civil liberties over the last eight years.

Of course, The Nation has no interest in fairness here. It seeks only to claim for itself someone history has determined to be a great man. That it would have tarred him as a war criminal had he been alive and in office today ends up being one of those sweet, obscure ironies most people will never catch...in no small part because outlets like The Nation have worked so hard to help us forget.

'Nothing Really Matters...'

Via KAR, it's a damn good thing I could never afford cars with air bags:

The Vikings: A Postmortem

Listening to talk radio today the general consensus was "the Vikings choked again." They blew it, screwed the pooch, proved the coach can't coach, the team can't succeed, what a bunch of losers.

I beg to differ.

What was interesting about listening to all the Vikings whiners today is they were the same folks telling us all year that they weren't that great to begin with. All of a sudden in the post-season they are a failure if they don't go to the Super Bowl?

Personally, I thought they had a great season. 2008 was "the return of the defense." I had more fun watching Jared Allen perform than any Viking I can remember since...maybe...Millard and Doleman. And, we've never had a running game like this. Pray the Vikings can find a way to hold onto Chestaaah! Taylor for one more season, and any announcer who refers to him as a "backup running back" should be thrashed publicly. He was so much more this year.

If there is a glaring weakness on the squad it is, unfortunately, at the quarterback position. At the end of last year I was excited to give T-Jack a shot. At the end of this year I am not confident. He had an opportunity yesterday to make a double statement: That he could come from behind and therefore he could be the QB of the future. With his career hanging in the balance he underperformed.

I like the kid and he may very well have a career in this league someday. But the Vikings need a steady, pressure passer now, not three years from now. The rest of this team is prime to make deep post-season runs in the next two years but for the lack of a solid passing game. And with so many possibilities coming available in the off-season, the Vikings owe it to the team to get one in here and provide the missing link.

All that said, the Vikings went farther than I thought they would this year. And only rubes would be disappointed with the team. But that's how it is when you expect a Super Bowl every year. I'm happy to be in the thick of it and this team looks like it can be for awhile. If they can win the big one...great. If not, well, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

In the meantime, all the morons who are blasting this team are free to move to Cincinnati or Detroit, where there will never be any question if the team is good enough to win the Super Bowl.

Anywhere But Here

Here's what the WSJ has to say about the Minnesota recount, which now appears to have gone Franken's way:

Minnesotans like to think that their state isn't like New Jersey or Louisiana, and typically it isn't. But we can't recall a similar recount involving optical scanning machines that has changed so many votes, and in which nearly every crucial decision worked to the advantage of the same candidate. The Coleman campaign clearly misjudged the politics here, and the apparent willingness of a partisan like Mr. Ritchie to help his preferred candidate, Mr. Franken. If the Canvassing Board certifies Mr. Franken as the winner based on the current count, it will be anointing a tainted and undeserving Senator.

I've never been so embarrassed to be a Minnesotan.

Don't You Go A'Changin'

MSNBC plays Name That Party.