Brazil: The new frontier

I'm going to make a broad generalization that only city-folk could make and if I get ripped for it, i deserve it. With that disclaimer out of the way, it's nice to see farmers taking the bull by the horns instead of asking the government for protection or a handout.

Superman

I'm trying out the blogging capability of Rhapsody. Here's a link to Five For Fighting's Superman, a song that will always take me back to the autumn of '01.

Reasoning with middle

Laurie Sturdevant had a good piece: in Sunday's Strib. It's not often I agree with her since she leans quite a bit further left than I do right, but I think she's got a point.

The Democrats, the party with the most to gain, can start focusing now on what it will take to win the votes of moderate Republicans. They can, and, to succeed, they must. For despite their near-extinction among the ranks of elected officials, moderate Republicans are still the people who decide elections in this state (emphasis added).

Atrios' selective memory

What Atrios seems to forget is that we already hit "double 0" on 9-11. It amazes me how people who criticize the impact of economic policy during the Bush administration almost always selectively ignore 9-11. Atrios, and others, like to compare the last three years to history as if there is a historical precedent.

The golden years of the US economy, 1945-1973, coincided with the period of record high top marginal tax rates.

Let me remind you THERE IS NO HISTORICAL PRECEDENCE FOR 9-11.

Lest I e thought a shill for Bush's economic policy, I need to give credit where credit is due. Atrios also says:

Did the Bush tax cuts "cause" a sluggish economy? It's doubtful, but what we can say with some certainty is that they spent a lot of money and don't have much to show for it.

My own feeling is that the combination of the tax cuts plus the out-of-control spending will have long-term negative consequences and that is contributing to the common citizen's less-than-enthusiastic feeling about today's economy. If one doesn't feel positive about his longterm economic outlook, he will tend to think tomorrow (literally) things could fall apart.

Back at the end of 2001 and the beginning of 2002, the public was aching for a way to "contribute" to the war effort. They were also hanging on every word Bush said and he was winning kudos for his leadership. It would have been so easy for Bush to rally the country to the idea of no tax cuts. he could have said, "We all need to pull together and tighten our belts for awhile to help defeat this threat to our country."

In short, I think there are plenty of ways to criticize Bush's economic policy without using donut logic.

Wild Unloads

It seems like Risebrough is back on track after being distracted by last year's playoff run. He probably wanted to unload some of these players last year. However, last year's accomplishments set the organization back a bit in trying to build a team from within instead of a team of expansion-draft castoffs (although those castoffs had a hell of a run last year).

I'm not unhappy to see Bombadir go. He never impressed me as a player. He didn't do anything a defenseman needs to do (skate, pass, hit, poke-check) particularly well.

Bombadir must've been some kinda leader for the Wild to hold onto him so long and give him the "C" more than any other player. I found it amusing that games missed because of injury were included when calculating the captains' winning percentages because it seems like Bombadir was injured more than he played.

Although Zholtok definitely has the physical skills to make a living in the NHL, I think he really struggles with the mental/emotional aspect of the game. I was at a game earlier this season when he gave up to breakways on the same shift while playing point on the powerplay. It wasn't because a pass was intercepted or anything like that. The puck just got dumped out of the offensive zone and trickled back toward the Wild blueline. He didn't make even a mediocre attempt to skate down the puck, but an opponent did and Rolli had to come up with two big saves. When Zholtok returned to the bench he was bitching about something and it totally turned me off.

Magers matters

Although it appears that Paul Magers' departure hasn't hurt KARE's ratings, my wife and I miss his wit, humor, and personable nature.