Author Archives: The Night Writer

Here’s lurking at you

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I’d like to join Bogus Gold, the Cake Eater Chronicles and others in celebrating “National De-Lurking Week”, recognizing regular but silent visitors to blogs like this one.

Here’s to you, the few but faithful and oh so circumspect, who stop by regularly but don’t comment, leaving no mark but a wisp of your presence in my referral log. Here’s to you, Sunnyvale, CA (Qwest), Chicago, IL (Earthlink), Kirkland, WA (Level3), Scottsdale, AZ (ClearSky) and Edna, KS and many others! (You know who you are, but I don’t). Have a cookie!

And while you’re here, drop a line or just say “Hi” in the comment box. It’s your week!

Hijinks and drinking games at the Alito confirmation

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Reading and listening to the speechifying, as opposed to actual questioning, being conducted by Senators Kennedy, Biden, Durbin, Leahy, Feinstein, Feingold and others — and Justice Alito’s largely stoic response — puts me in mind of some of the (regrettable) drinking games from my college days.

The point of games like Buzzz, Indian and Cardinal Puff were to give the contestants an apparently easy task to do or repeat, but complicate it with innumerable distractions or bizarre behavior in order to cause a slip. That has to be the explanation for the embarrassing behavior of these senators as they ramble, ramble, drone, hem and haw their way through their “questions” as if this was billable time for them. They’re apparently hoping to so benumb the nominee that he might lose his focus and slip with a comment (such as “are you on drugs?”) that they can exploit. It’s a desperate strategy that shows how weak their position must be; certainly if they had a valid legal point or argument they’d have brought it to the fore by now — if not to dismantle the nominee, at least for the sake of their own credibility.

Instead of a debate this has turned into a test of endurance which Justice Alito should be able to weather as long as his ears don’t begin to bleed. Meanwhile the Kenneday, et al, are coming across like lubricated frat boys trying to outdo each other in coming up with hazing tactics. Meanwhile Sam Alito, the supposed right wing freak, is looking as sober as — well, as a judge.

Bird flu in Turkey raises questions on spead of the disease

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Three people have died and 12 others have been infected in an outbreak of avian flu in Turkey this week; the dead, all children from the same family, are the first bird flu deaths outside of Asia. While the relationship between the dead children has raised concern that the virus may be transmmitted from human-to-human, the evidence still suggests this is a case of animal-to-human infection, as reported by the BBC News:

Mehmet Ali Kocyigit, 14, and his two sisters Fatma, 15, and Hulya, 11, have all died this week.

Tests carried out in a UK laboratory confirmed that Mehmet Ali and Fatma died from the H5N1 strain, which has killed more than 70 in south-east Asia and China.

The children’s family kept poultry at their home in Dogubeyazit, close to the Iranian border in Van province.

All four children developed symptoms including a high fever, coughing and bleeding in the throat.

Doctors said they had been playing with the heads of chickens who had died of bird flu.

There is concern by health officials that the concentration of victims may suggest, however, that a strain of H5N1 is circulating that is easier to pass to humans. While this is not the human-to-human mutation required that could lead to a pandemic, it is a serious concern for populations in close proximity to infected (or potentially infected) poultry. Since January 2004, more than 140 cases linked to bird flu have been reported to WHO. More than half the patients died. The WHO is concerned by developments in Turkey but not ready to raise the global alert level at this point, according to spokesperson Dr. Maria Cheng:

Cheng said at this point the WHO isn’t contemplating changing the global pandemic alert status from the current Phase 3 (no or rare instances of person-to-person spread) to Phase 4, where small, localized clusters of cases indict limited human-to-human spread – a development that would suggest the virus is adapting to a human host.

“We’re still at a very preliminary stage in the outbreak investigation. And to move from (Phase) 3 to 4 we’d have to see a substantial change in the virus to know that it’s becoming more adapted to human transmission,’’ Cheng said.

She added that at this point, the WHO doesn’t think the virus is passing from person to person in Turkey.

“Our hypothesis is that we know that this is an area where people raise chickens and that there tends to be a lot of contact between people and chickens,” she said.

“So I think our working hypothesis is that they contracted disease through common exposure. But at the same time we can’t rule out human-to-human transmission.”

Two concise but very informative posts by Revere have appeared here and here on the public health blog Effect Measure that provide a useful update on the situation in Turkey and the possible implications.

Dog gone – what next for Camp Snoopy?

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The Mall of America has lost its rights to use the Peanuts characters, which means the signature Camp Snoopy amusement park in the center of the Mall will have to be renamed. The Snoopy theme had been a good fit for the Mall because comic strip creator Charles Schultz had grown up in the area, and Mall management is said to be looking for another Minnesota-related name out of concern that they’ll be sued by Blois Olson if they remained nameless.

Fortunately there’s an easy answer. There’s nothing more Minnesotan than DFL politics, and the park can easily be converted to reflect this, starting with a warm, fuzzy-sounding name. Since Camp DFL doesn’t quite roll off the tongue (and might confuse people who think it refers to the public education system), a cuddlier adaptation would be Camp Doofy. All the rides, of course, are for the children.

Some of these rides could be renamed as well. “The Treetop Tumbler” would be more appropriately named “Tax and Spin”, but they’d only have to add one letter to rename “The Timberland Twisters”. Given their commitment to national security, “The Screaming Yellow Eagle” could stay the same, though there would be some pressure to rename the ride “The Belching Green Bus”. This faction would be placated, however, by converting the Paul Bunyan Log Chute into light rail and renaming it for Paul Wellstone.

Hmmm, “The Red Baron” could probably stay the same, but I’m afraid we’d probably lose “The Mighty Axe”, given its resemblance to the Republican platform.

Blois in the ‘hood: do you need to know your gangstas?

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Much has been made of the presumed warfare between the mainstream media (MSM) and the blogosphere. Rather than “cats and dogs”, however, the nature of the relationship is more “dinosaurs and mammals.” I picture brontosauri slowly nodding their masticating heads and opining on those small, fast and furry creatures: “They’ll never last,” one says as the others harrumph in agreement. “Hey, does anybody else feel cold?” says another. This sophisticated level of analysis is again demonstrated in last weekend’s The Blog House column in the Strib, which features people who live in glass houses lecturing others on the importance of window dressing.

The turf war for influence is pretty much over, just like any pretense of objectivity. All that’s left is merely negotiating the terms of surrender. There will be ongoing skirmishes, but the outcome is pretty clear for anyone who thinks about what the media will look like in 20 years.

No, if you want to see where the real warfare is going on you need to look to the world of politics where the blogosphere is not the reason for the strife but merely the latest territory to be exploited – kind of like those movie scenes depicting the start of the Oklahoma land rush. Politics has always been a fight for jealously guarded turf, block by block with lots of knife and club work to determine what colors will have dominion. It is gang warfare, which brings me finally to the reference I made in my headline (my journalism professors are retroactively flunking me).

For those of you not familiar with the latest bloodletting in Minnesota, the current stir in local politics is about how Blois (rhymes with “royce”) Olson, a prominent consultant for the Democratic Farmer Labor (DFL) party, co-publisher of
Politics In Minnesota and head of the PR firm New School Communications, filed a lawsuit against an anonymous blog, Minnesota Democrats Exposed, alleging defamation and damages. MDE has long been a thorn in the DFL’s side for getting embarrassing scoops on party candidates and officials and his identity and those of his usually reliable sources have been a cause of great consternation and angst to the party. This time MDE was able to make a case for a chain of events that suggest New School Communications offered to assist the campaign of DFL congressional candidate Coleen Rowley and that after the offer was declined, Blois Olson began to publicly criticize Rowley as a candidate. In radio interviews and newspaper articles, however, Olson hasn’t been able to disconnect the timeline or articulate how he’s been damaged and the heavy suspicion is that the suit is mainly a way to force out into the open the name of the person behind MDE. If so, that goal was accomplished as Michael Brodkorb outed himself on his blog after the suit was filed. Brodkorb has long been affiliated with the GOP, but that’s probably not shocking given that the name of his blog doesn’t exactly suggest excruciating objectivity in the first place. (I hope that wasn’t too long an explanation for those of you already familiar with this story).

On one level it’s both sides seeking to discredit the other and it’s hard to say who has been hurt the most by the suit; Broadkorb is getting a lot of support in the blogosphere (including from center-left blogs) while Olson is being criticized for his heavy-handed tactics and the whole thing has even made it into the MSM (which, predictably, refers to Olson as a consultant and Brodkorb as an operative) where most readers probably have stronger feelings about whether or not Mike Tice got a raw deal. As ongoing sniper fire in the big war it may not be much, but the concern is that it might be an opening salvo in a battle to neutralize the ‘sphere leading up to the ’06 elections.

Does a blogger have a right to blog anonymously? I believe that most think so – and it’s a perogative for bloggers of any affiliation. Does a blogger have an obligation to be responsible in what he or she writes about the other side? You’d hope so, just like you’d hope that people won’t use foul language around your kids – yet you know it’s going to happen. How big an effect can these attacks have?

Bloise Olson wrote, “anyone can start a blog in 10 minutes, while not just anyone can buy millions of dollars in television ads.” True, but just because you put something in a blog doesn’t mean everyone’s going to believe it or even read it. The blogs that get the readership have typically earned it by establishing some credibility, even if just among like-minded readers. They have cemented the relationship by being consistently interesting and heartfelt. As a reader, you can begin to feel as if you actually know the person behind the blog – especially if the blogger uses his or her own name.

Personally, I always dismiss the letters to the editor in my little hometown paper if they are “signed, but name withheld by request.” Yeah, retribution can be swift and sure in a small town where everyone knows everyone else, but I always thought that if you believe enough to write it you ought to stand behind it. In Minnesota harassment and intimidation are not unheard of on either side so anonymity can be useful in preserving your career and/or your hostas – or the finish on your car. All in all, while I endorse a blogger’s right to be anonymous, I think Michael Brodkorb and his positions gain by being identified. While I may only dip my toe where others wade in up to their necks, I too need to consider whether to claim my own opinions.

Respectfully submitted by John Stewart.

Update:

Two excellent reviews of the Blois Olson op-ed piece have been done by Gary at Kennedy vs. the Machine and by Mitch at Shot in the Dark.

Challenging Word of the Week: Freebooter (filibuster)

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freebooter
(FREE booh tur) noun

A freebooter is a pirate or buccaneer, one who roves about freely in search of booty; an anglicization of the Dutch noun vrijbuiter, based on vriji (free) plus buit (booty). Vrijbuiter gave rise to another word, filibuster, first applied to the pirates of the West Indies in the 17th century, and later to the unlawful groups organized from the United States to invade and foment revolution in some Spanish-American regions, e.g., those of Cuba in 1850-51, Sonora in 1853-54 and Lower California in 1855. Filibuster was metamorphosed into a term for obstructive tactics in legislative proceedings through endless speeches.

This selection is taken from the book, “1000 Most Challenging Words” by Norman W. Schur, ©1987 by the Ballantine Reference Library, Random House.

I post a weekly “Challenging Words” definition to call more attention to this delightful book and to promote interesting word usage in the blogosphere. I challenge other bloggers to work the current word into a post sometime in the coming week. If you manage to do so, please leave a comment or a link to where I can find it.

Thanks, NARN, but it wasn’t me

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Joy-joy. I was listening to the Northern Alliance Radio Network program on 1280 today when this blog got mentioned! Yowza!

The guys, however, were talking to a caller named Gary who wanted people to start calling the MSM the “Agenda Media”, and Mitch said that the caller’s blog was the Night Writer.

So, while it was great to hear “Night Writer” on the air, it wasn’t because anything I’d written had caught their eye. Therefore I only wet myself on one side.

Banning Christ from Christianity

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This week’s Faith and Values section of the StarTribune focuses on the annual Muslim pilgrimmage to Mecca and with a focus on Minnesotan Muslims who are participating. It’s a relevant topic given the time of year and a good effort to find a local angle to the hajj. Almost lost in the online version of the section is another “hodge”, an article by Sharon Hodge in response to the U.S. military telling its Christian chaplains not to pray in the name of Jesus in public prayers (the article is well displayed in the print version).

Hodge’s take is a brief, well-written illumination of the absurdity of this policy in the name of political correctness and an excellent, concise testimony.

Why? Because praying in the name of Jesus is not form or fashion, but essence. It is a fundamental function of the faith itself that transcends religion and rests on relationship. Just one of many scriptures on the topic illuminates why: “There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

Jesus left his home in heaven to bridge the chasm of sin that separated me from God. He suffered betrayal, denial, scourging and crucifixion for my sake. He stretched his battered body across that great divide so I could cross to the other side. There, covered in his blood, I am able to stand in the presence of almighty God: rescued, redeemed and reconciled. Even now, the resurrected Christ is my intercessor, my advocate with the father. It is by Jesus’ stripes I am healed, by his sacrifice I am saved. Jesus was the only one able and willing to do this, for me personally and for mankind.

What really made me smile, however, was getting to the end of the article and discovering that Hodge is a features copy editor for the Strib. We really are everywhere!

From what I’ve read about this topic, my understanding is that the military’s interest in this issue is more to avoid controversy than squelch Christianity per se as the restriction is on using “sectarian” prayers in public settings, not on praying with or counseling individuals. Nothing new here, there were people that told even Jesus to “tone it down.” Of course, even having the policy at all is problematic because it inevitably leads to ever more restrictive interpretation to “be safe”. (That this is an issue at all is because of this type of thinking being applied to the establishment clause of the First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”)

No wonder scripture says that that heathen rage and God laughs at their vain thinking (Psalms 2:1, 4)!

Friday Fundamentals in Film: The Shootist

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I have some more movies in mind that will allow me to continue this Friday series, but this week’s movie was the last one I presented to a class of junior high and senior high school boys. I chose The Shootist (1976) as the final movie not just for the character issues, which we’d pretty much covered already in other movies, but for the subtleties and shadings of character and the way a movie or story can manipulate our emotions and get us to identify with a “hero” who might not be all that heroic when you look really closely.



This is not to bad-mouth John Wayne at all, here appearing in his final movie, or even the character he played. Fittingly, this is the story of a famous but terminally ill aging gunfighter (or “shootist”) trying to find peace in his final days. The point I was trying to get across to the boys, however, is how easily we look for a “good” guy in a story and identify with him – even if it’s only because he’s “less bad” than others.



The movie features a great cast with Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, Lauren Bacall, Henry Morgan, Richard Boone and Ron Howard as a fatherless and impressionable young man. Howard narrates the opening sequence of the movie, a flash back of gunfights featuring the infamous John Bernard (JB) Books which were, cleverly, scenes lifted from earlier John Wayne movies. When Books rides into Carson City, Nevada in 1901 he suspects he’s dying and is looking to lie low and pass away in obscurity. After his doctor friend (Stewart) confirms the diagnosis, however, word gets out in the town that they have a “celebrity” in their midst and many people start angling for a way to make a name or some money for themselves at Books’ expense. In the process he meets and eventually befriends the widow (Bacall) running the boarding house where he stays and her son (Howard). In interludes with this broken family Books gains a small taste of the life he might have had as a husband and father if he hadn’t followed the path his life took instead.



There were three things I wanted the boys to get out of the movie. One was the way Howard’s character, young Gillom, attempted to act more “manly” by swearing and drinking and otherwise carrying on as he thought men do because he didn’t have a model in his life. Another lesson was in the way Gillom’s mother, a staunch Christian who deplored Books’ lifestyle and history, came to see the “Christian” way to act toward someone who is suffering. The main point, however, was the code Books emphatically claimed that he lived by — “I won’t be wronged, I won’t be insulted, I won’t be laid a hand on…I don’t do these things to others, and I expect the same from them” — and how he regularly broke that code without seeing the irony in doing so.



Points to Ponder:


  • Does your life make your reputation, or does your reputation make your life?


  • The influences (or lack of influences) that shape our lives.


  • The consequences and significance of decisions we make.


  • Society’s expectations and exploitation of heroes.


  • Is being good, good enough?




Some questions you might want to be able to answer:


  1. What was Books’ personal code that he explained to Gillom? Did he live up to it?


  2. What were Mrs. Rogers’ personal codes? How did her codes come into conflict with each other?


  3. How did Gillom try to make himself appear manly? What events in his life might explain his behavior?


  4. Was Books a good man or a bad man? What qualities did he have that were admirable? What qualities did he have that were not?


  5. What price did Books pay for his way of life? (What things did he give up, or miss out on?)


  6. Did Books have faith? Was it sufficient to get him into Heaven?



Great Quote:

JB: “Damn!”

Bond: “John Bernard, you swear to much.”

JB: “The hell I do!”



As I said, I have a few more movies in mind that I think portray admirable character qualities and motives and are useful examples for young people and I hope to continue this series and format here. If you have a favorite movie that fits this profile and objective by all means leave a comment or send me an email; I’d be happy to consider watching the movie and including it here at some point.



In a future, separate, post I’ll describe the results of the class and the impact, if any, it had on the young men who participated.


There are worse ways to promote women’s athletics

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There’s been some discussion and consternation on the radio shows today about the U.S. women’s hockey team taking on the Warroad High School boys team last night — and losing. Some callers thought it was great for the game, others thought it was an embarrassment and a no-win situation for both teams.

Frankly, I would have paid to watch the game if it had been in the Twin Cities. I’ve watched women’s hockey on several occasions – including going out with some friends a few years ago specifically to watch a little 8th grade girl named Natalie Darwitz play – and I’ve wondered how an elite team such as the Gophers or the Olympic team would fare against different levels of men’s teams. It sounds like it was a good, close game (2-1 final), and my guess is that in a five or seven game series the Olympic team could prevail.

I suppose it was a bit of a promotional stunt, but at least it was done as a legitimate competition, and it was a case of women athletes calling attention to their sport by actually playing the game and not by taking their clothes off like so many teams and athletes around the world are doing now — even curlers (not the hair-variety)!

Yes, the less inhibited say they’re doing it to raise money for their chronically underfunded sports or to show off the beauty of a classic form. I suppose it’s a few degrees better if they’re exploiting themselves instead of leaving it to others, and you could say it’s just savvy capitalism (kind of an “all the market will bare” approach) and simply another way to “go for the gold.” Whatever.

I say if the women’s hockey team wants to play the boys, let ‘em. Just so long as they keep their breezers on.