Speed Gibson

Cory Jensen for State Senate

Back from vacation, I'm finally caught up on my reading, mail, podcasts, and now, the Candidate Forum for Senate District 46, that of the late Linda Scheid.  Republican Cory Jensen is of course the best choice on the issues, but he should win by default.  The Democrat, Chris Eaton, is the wife of current Brooklyn Center Mayor Tim Willson.  Since District 46 includes Brooklyn Center, this is a clear conflict of interest. 

There is an Independence Party candidate, serving only to help get the Democrat elected as usual.  He seemed not as informed as the major party candidates.  But I will give that Mr. Reynolds props for not making any false statements.  Mr. Jensen misspoke once, and Ms. Eaton made 5 factual errors. 

More concerning should be Eaton's talk of "putting politics aside" and "coming together" and "common good" and "setting aside extremism" and the like, all admissions of weak ideas that require Republican capitulation to pass.  She of course embraces universal heatlh care and pouring still more money into the public schools.

Normally none of this would matter in what has been a solidly blue area, even in 2010.  But the fact that neither House incumbent stepped up suggests we may have a chance.  Republican Jeff Lunde was elected Mayor of Brooklyn Park earlier this year.  A strong GOP turnout could win this Tuesday, Oct 18th special election day.

 

The Wild West

I'm back from our two week vacation to Seattle and back, including a side trip to revisit Yellowstone and Mount Rushmore.  OK, I admit it: Wall Drug, too.  And along the way back we had a late dinner in a bar whose location shall be our secret, that this fading slice of America might escape the notice of our betters in Washington.

Scattered on top of the bar that had maybe 15 stools were 10 big old fashioned black plastic ashtrays.  They were on every table and a shelf by the pool tables.  Yes, it's legal to smoke here, indoors!  And did I mention the drive through?

Their secret is safe with me.

Hobnobbing In Seattle

My wife and I are wrapping up our vacation in Seattle, heading back this morning.  We caught what the locals say was their summer that never arrived, beautiful warm clear sunny weather.  We went out a tour, yes, a three hour tour, to see the whales by San Juan Island and they put on a great show for us.

Last night, we checked off an item on our bucket list, attending a live performance / taping of Imagination Theater, perhaps the last vestige of radio drama as it was.  You may remember that I'm a big fan of "Old Time Radio" and that my nom d'blog is taken from a 1937 radio serial.  We saw them record an episode each of "The Adventures of Harry Nile" and "The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" that will air locally on WCCO 830 AM sometime in November.  Imagination Theater is syndicated on over 100 radio stations nationwide, plus XM radio.  They also sell CD sets of these productions.

As luck would have it, we encountered Mr. Sherlock Holmes himself, actor John Patrick Lowrie and two of the guest stars (one, the murderer!) in the parking lot afterward and struck up a wonderful conversation.  Lowrie has just published his first book, Dancing with Eternity, which we bought in the lobby earlier.  When he was first introduced my wife and I looked at each other.  He didn't sound at all British.  But his talent and training allow him to summon his Holmes persona at will.  I've heard many actors portray Sherlock Holmes on radio, movies, and television.  Basil Rathbone is probably still my favorite, but Lowrie is right behind him, ably assisted by great scripts from British writer M. (Matthew) J. Elliott.

It was great fun and also a reminder of what's so great and still so great about this country.  Owner/producer Jim French, now in his 80's embodies that old maxim, find a job you like and you'll never work a day in your life.

They Report, We Decide

In case you missed this from The American Thinker, here is yet another example of PBS filtering the news, in this case removing a gaffe in the President's "American Jobs Act" speech to Congress.  The highlighted sentence was removed in the transcription published by PBS, something even the New York Times found fit to print:

"We all remember Abraham Lincoln as the leader who saved our Union.  Founder of the Republican Party.  But in the middle of a civil war, he was also a leader who looked to the future -- a Republican President who mobilized government to build the Transcontinental Railroad -- (applause) -- launch the National Academy of Sciences, set up the first land grant colleges.  (Applause.)  And leaders of both parties have followed the example he set."

As The American Thinker and PBS noticed, Abraham Lincoln did not found the Republican party.  Such a gaffe would have brought guffaws upon George W. Bush, Sarah Palin, or any of the GOP Presidential candidates.  But not President Obama.  It is better thinks PBS that we not dwell on an obvious staff mistake while considering the wise course the boss who hired them laid out before us.

End PBS funding now!  Liberals can afford their own media filters.

Whose Fair Share Is It Anyway?

Earlier this year we heard our Minnesota Governor's demand that "the rich" pay their fair share of taxes, meaning paying an even larger share than they already do.  Tonight (9/8) we heard President Obama's similar demand that "the millionaires and billionaires" pay their fair share.

So I ask rhetorically: if Federal taxes on "the weatlhy" were indeed raised significantly, would Governor Dayton drop his own demand, content to know that [social] justice was finally being done?  Me neither.

I Had It Right All Along

I remember way back when the Euro currency was established in Europe.  And I remember thinking, with little beyond a couple of quarters of Economics in college that this can never work.  There is no honor among thieves.

Sooner or later I reasoned, especially with so many of the European Union (EU) countries in the something for nothing socialist mold, one or more of them would find clever ways to work around the discipline of a hard currency, even use it to advantage to foist their spending on their neighbors.  I also reasoned that the Euro would collapse 20 years ago.

But not that I wish it, it appears I may finally be right, the irony being that it will collapse when the dollar has never been weaker.  Brace yourself, Bridget, it looks like we're going to see a lot more strife on the Continent this fall.

UPDATE: A great thing about comments is the education the blogger himself receives.  As noted here, yes, the Euro was not formalized formally until 1999.  I conflated my historical recollections, where the concept of a united European current goes back decades but always moving forward with several big steps in the 1990's.  Remember the Common Market?  But I stand with my intuition all along, that if even importing wine across seemingly friendly borders can lead to violence, no agreement like the Euro can hope to stand.

Reform 2.0

I recently posted that we need to stay focused on reforming Minnesota's State government structure.  You know the reasons why, some of which clearly illustrated by the Governor's recent partial shutdown.  The pain he anticipated was not felt.  Instead, we saw a permit-happy bureaucracy.  We saw inconsistent rulings by the Court trying to decide just what are essential services beyond the obvious.  And when the Governor realized he couldn't keep his idled public union supporters in line, he quickly conceded, lest the voters learn even more how their government really works.

I got my wish the next day, when Minnesota Speaker of the House Kurt Zellers announced a new GOP initiative called Reform 2.0.  Quoting the linked Facebook page:

The state budget cannot grow faster than the economy that funds it. We will never reduce or control government spending unless we change how government operates.

Reform 2.0 builds on the foundation of the 2011 reforms signed into law. The campaign will result in a 2012 legislative agenda that furthers the Legislature’s ability to align spending to available revenue and reduce the burden on taxpayers.

They want our input.  Mine I'll be posting here the next couple of weeks, cataloged here.

• Thu 8/18: Prologue
• Fri 8/19: Consolidate the Counties
• Tue 8/23: Unincorporate the Corpses
• Tue 8/23: Size Up the Suburbs
• Wed 8/24: Clean Up the Pollution Control Agency
• Thu 8/25: Dead End the Department of Education
• Tue 8/30: Carve Up the Met Council
• Wed 8/31: Pass on MnSCU Failure
• Wed 8/31: And Your Little Gopher, Too!
• Sun 9/4: Break the Board of Education
• Tue 9/6: Epilog

Reform 2.0: Epilog

I think I've made the point in this Reform 2.0 series.  Which is: there is tremendous opportunity to reduce the size, scope, and number of governmental agencies here in Minnesota.  Anyone claiming we've cut to the bone, at any level, is poorly informed, never really had to deal with all these layers, or is a government employee.  Those who claim that we need tax increases for education while continuing to chuck billions into passenger rail are the ones most in need of an education.

I am now going to continue my own education, traveling along the Empire Builder route to Seattle.  Nowhere do the winds of freedom blow stronger than here in North Dakota this morning.

Reform 2.0: Break the Board of Education

You've probably seen makeover shows like Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares and Restauarant: Impossible.  They typically take a venerable restaurant that has lost its way, months or weeks away from bankruptcy, and give them a second chance.  That usually means: everything must go!  The decor, the menu, the sloppy / dirty kitchen, sometimes the chefs.

Aren't our school districts in roughly the same condition?  Fifty years ago it was seemingly wonderful, rigorous, disciplined, and a financial marvel by today's standards.  In came the unions and the experts.  Out went accountability.  Up went the cost.  Down went the results.  Old are aging buildings, not kept up, some unused for years.  New are what should be wholly unacceptable acheivement gaps.

And yet, our school boards and administrators continue to promise "A Future Without Limits" (Anoka-Hennepin) while "Uniting Communities of Excellence" (Osseo).  We get welcoming speeches every fall and gushing tributes every spring.  And a jeremiad about inadequate funding every Legislative session - and election.  It's not working, the whole system, at every level.  End it, don't mend it.

I must allow some reality, that vouchers or some other private sector enabling system won't happen.  But I can see a world without elected school boards.  The easy case would be outside the metropolitan area.  Let the county board hire the superintendent.  And when they don't perform, they get sacked promptly like a sheriff unable to cope with a rising crime rate or internal corruption.  It would much curtail the Kabuki dance that typifies far too many board meetings.

In the Twin Cities, it may not be the County that decides, there being too many districts and/or some conflicts of interest.  But I think an appointed joint powers board from the cities would still be an improvement over traditional school boards whose elections are heavily influenced by the unions.  Like their outstate county board equivalents, they have one job: hire and when necessary fire the superintendent.

There's more.  The school districts per se should be stripped of all responsibility for property management, the reasons obvious enough.  Let the cities who own and manage other city properties own the school properties and lease them to the districts.  If Plymouth residents want Pilgrim Lane reopened, make District 281 a lease offer they can't refuse.

I am obviously rambling a bit, but that's what we need, this sort of rambling - brainstorming - to get rid of the school board metaphor, an institution of the last century that we can do without in this century.  For if this doesn't work for you liberals out there, then privitization is the only thing left.