I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts
2 Comments Published by Loosestrife on Wednesday, June 27, 2007 at 7:09 AM.
Recently, I was up with some out of state guests at the North Shore. At our lunch stop was a brochure promoting the tour of the Glensheen Mansion in Duluth. I told them about the famous murder that took place there, mangling the details and knowing it. We searched in vain through the brochure for the story. It was totally absent.
Today is the anniversary of the 1977 murder--the Strib has a story on it.
There is something quintessentially Minnesotan about this--the denial of unpleasant reality so as to better appreciate that local beauty. Recently, it has come to light that Health Commissioner Diane Mandernach withheld information about the deaths of Iron Range miners from cancer related to their asbestos exposure. Then, there is the 3M corporation's problems with chemical abuse.
Locally, we have R.T. Rybak, the master of positive thinking. Someone just sent me R.T.'s "Minneapolis Update." Damn! Things are great in Minneapolis. How did I not notice?
As the relentless Avidor keeps pointing out, we are coming up on a year after Dean Zimmermann was convicted of bribery in a federal court, but the tapes from his trial are still not public.
I had hoped that Kevin Hoffman would use his tenure as the City Pages editor to dig into all this local suppression of the dirty secrets. Alas, he seems to be more concerned with violence and sports.
Sure, sometimes these things reach the surface as in today's Strib article on Glensheen, but to me, part of the flavor of Minnesota is hiding the truth so as not to upset the children.
So it goes.
--Loosestrife
Today is the anniversary of the 1977 murder--the Strib has a story on it.
It was 30 years ago this morning that someone broke into Glensheen and smothered 83-year-old heiress Elisabeth Congdon with a satin pillow in her bed after bludgeoning her night nurse Velma Pietila to death with a candlestick holder. Congdon's son-in-law and later her daughter -- who continues to make headlines for her legal problems -- were implicated in the murders.Apparently, the blackout extends beyond the brochure to the tour itself--tour guides only address the murder through rote answers, most guides only discussing it if asked.
There is something quintessentially Minnesotan about this--the denial of unpleasant reality so as to better appreciate that local beauty. Recently, it has come to light that Health Commissioner Diane Mandernach withheld information about the deaths of Iron Range miners from cancer related to their asbestos exposure. Then, there is the 3M corporation's problems with chemical abuse.
Locally, we have R.T. Rybak, the master of positive thinking. Someone just sent me R.T.'s "Minneapolis Update." Damn! Things are great in Minneapolis. How did I not notice?
As the relentless Avidor keeps pointing out, we are coming up on a year after Dean Zimmermann was convicted of bribery in a federal court, but the tapes from his trial are still not public.
I had hoped that Kevin Hoffman would use his tenure as the City Pages editor to dig into all this local suppression of the dirty secrets. Alas, he seems to be more concerned with violence and sports.
Sure, sometimes these things reach the surface as in today's Strib article on Glensheen, but to me, part of the flavor of Minnesota is hiding the truth so as not to upset the children.
So it goes.
--Loosestrife
On Saturday morning I read that "liberal" R.T. Rybak appeared with Governor Scotchgard to plead for corporate donations to fund the Republican National Convention.
Is there any more to say?
Well, if you are bulimic, there is the Strib editorial on the same day extolling the virtues of Lee Sheehy, the corporatist who until recently ran CPED before leaving to run Amy Klobuchar's Washington office.
Hmmm. I find Sheehy's move an odd one. Is he bailing out before it hits the fan?
--Loosestrife
Is there any more to say?
Well, if you are bulimic, there is the Strib editorial on the same day extolling the virtues of Lee Sheehy, the corporatist who until recently ran CPED before leaving to run Amy Klobuchar's Washington office.
Hmmm. I find Sheehy's move an odd one. Is he bailing out before it hits the fan?
--Loosestrife
This is What Recession Looks Like (Cont.)
1 Comments Published by Loosestrife on Thursday, June 14, 2007 at 10:25 PM.
If you are paying attention, the reality is hard to ignore.
The unemployment rate in Minnesota has exceeded the national average for the first time in 31 years. The Strib has a handy interactive map that will show you all the foreclosures in your neighborhood, all the more poignant for me since I could read my former neighbors' names listed.
Fuck Tim Pawlenty. When I moved here, I moved here because the economy was better than almost anyplace in the nation. Now?
--Loosestrife
Those Other Progressive Knights
1 Comments Published by Loosestrife on Wednesday, June 13, 2007 at 9:16 AM.
It is happening in slow motion. But make no mistake; it is happening.
The Bush administration is imploding.
Hence, the appearance of hokum such as what appeared recently on the MnBlue, "Knights of the Progressive Round Table," wherein the writer, Grace Kelly, appears to have reached a kind of liberal nirvana of self congratulation.
Trafficking in the long discredited royal "we," as in, "We are the ones we have been waiting for. We are the heroes." Kelly posits some aphorisms, imagines her political allies as Arthur's Knights, and apparently is ready to celebrate the assured achievement of a heavenly afterlife.
But as the Knights of Progressive Round Table wander the land, they might just encounter other Progressive Knights, and in fact they have, because we are those very knights.
Who are we? We are those progressives who are weary of the bullshit line about speaking truth to power, especially when it comes out of folks who have power.
We are too self aware to steal our ideology off bill boards.
We don't accept vanguardism, especially from ambitious electoral politicians, self-appointed baby boomer elders, self-satisfied liberals, or dogmatic sectarian lefties.
We do not confuse our own consumer choices or giving money to the Democratic Party with radical political action.
We wear a lot of black.
Ni.
To appease us you must bring us a shrubbery. One that looks nice.
And not too expensive.
--Loosestrife
The Bush administration is imploding.
Hence, the appearance of hokum such as what appeared recently on the MnBlue, "Knights of the Progressive Round Table," wherein the writer, Grace Kelly, appears to have reached a kind of liberal nirvana of self congratulation.
Trafficking in the long discredited royal "we," as in, "We are the ones we have been waiting for. We are the heroes." Kelly posits some aphorisms, imagines her political allies as Arthur's Knights, and apparently is ready to celebrate the assured achievement of a heavenly afterlife.
But as the Knights of Progressive Round Table wander the land, they might just encounter other Progressive Knights, and in fact they have, because we are those very knights.
Who are we? We are those progressives who are weary of the bullshit line about speaking truth to power, especially when it comes out of folks who have power.
We are too self aware to steal our ideology off bill boards.
We don't accept vanguardism, especially from ambitious electoral politicians, self-appointed baby boomer elders, self-satisfied liberals, or dogmatic sectarian lefties.
We do not confuse our own consumer choices or giving money to the Democratic Party with radical political action.
We wear a lot of black.
Ni.
To appease us you must bring us a shrubbery. One that looks nice.
And not too expensive.
--Loosestrife
