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Attended the Wild vs Rangers game at the Xcel Center this evening, figured it would be a good game but nothing like this.

If case you didn’t already hear, Marion Gaborik scored five goals in the game, and he started off the streak with a natural hat trick. In addition he assisted one the one other Wild goal in the game. For a little bit of perspective, the last player to score five goals in one game was Sergei Fedorov on December 26, 1996 in a 5-4 win over Washington, almost exactly 11 years ago.

And here I thought the awesome smackdown by Brent Burns was gonna make the highlight reel.  Burns knocked Prucha off his feet with a great check.  When Tyutin tried to retaliate with a check on Burns, Burns didn’t even budge and knocked Tyutin onto his back.  Happened just below our seats and you could see the astonishment on Tyutin’s face.

Game had a little bit of everything, lots of scoring, some roughhousing, bizarre plays, and an extremely raucous crowd that laid into the Rangers all night long.  Good times at the X.

Close Circuit To Lemaire : Skoula still sucks, please end your love affair with this kid, he hasn’t done a damn thing right since he was put on skates, tonite proved that.

Back in August, the Rosemount Port Authority* voted to use eminent domain to steal acquire 0.57 acres of “downtown”**. They wanted to steal acquire this land from the current owner because they didn’t like the way they planned to develop it. So instead they were going to steal acquire it and develop it themselves. So when the owner wouldn’t sell, they threatened him with eminent domain and planned to just take it. How Stalinist of them.

Faced with the possibility that the city may just take his land, the current owners, Kurt Walter-Hansen and his wife Patricia Walter, decided to reluctantly sell their property to the city. On Dec 13th, they closed the $550,000 deal. While no doubt the city was happy that it had the power to force owners from their land, the former owners were considerably less happy. As the Apple Valley/Rosemount Sun Current reports:

[Kurt Walter-Hansen & Patricia Walter] argue as willing developers that they should be able to do with the land as they please

Actually I wouldn’t even qualify the statement. As owners they should be able to do with the land as they please. But that aside, I don’t think their argument is a completely unreasonable request. They own land. They want to develop it and by all accounts it would have met zoning restrictions. So what’s the problem? Well Rosemount wants to develop it it’s own way, and rather than do it the capitalist way, they channeled the Soviet Union.

Years back, while sitting around a campfire talking with a few friends enjoying a frosty beverage or twelve, one of them launched into a frustrated rant about how nobody in this country really OWNS land anymore. At best it’s a leased, although with the slightest transgression the government will take it back from you. I used to think it was a rather cynical way of looking at the world.

I’m not sure I wasn’t just naive.

* Does it strike anyone else as dreadfully stupid for a landlocked city, 170 miles from the nearest thing you could call a “port”, to have a Port Authority???

** Ok seriously….it’s freaking Rosemount, there is no “downtown”.

Wow….just wow.

In response to Republicans winning some key battles in Congress:

“Who’s winning?” Reid asked a group of reporters. “Big Oil, Big Tobacco. … Al Qaeda has regrouped and is able to fight a civil war in Iraq. … The American people are losing.”

I’ll say it again…Wow.

Big Oil huh?? We can’t drill anywhere. We haven’t built a refinery in decades. And the only thing politicians want to do about Big Oil is slap more regulations and taxes on them. Yup, Big Oil sure is winning!

Big Tobacco?? Smoking bans are going up everywhere. Big tobacco is being depended on to pay for health care. Yup, Big Tobacco is sure getting away with murder here!

Al Qaeda has regrouped and fighting a civil war in Iraq?? You noticed both military and civilian casualties are plummeting right?? You’ve noticed that Al Qaeda is no longer to mass ANYWHERE right??

Although you’re right….the American people are losing. Congress hasn’t done shit all year, but guess who is in charge of Congress. That’s right, YOU, Harry Reid.

Big Oil, Big Tobacco and Al Qaeda certainly aren’t the winners, but I can tell you the Democrats are the Big Losers.

Ok, so here we go again. And I’m rather thinking of making this a semi-regular feature. Often each day I end up with a few things I’d like to write on, but for whatever reason I couldn’t see fit to make a full-blown post out of it. We’ll see….

But here are a couple other things that rolled round in my head but due to time limitations are not going to make a full blown post out of.

• Ok recently a Huckabee ad came out, and people commented on it because it looked like it highlighted a floating cross in the background. Yeah so what? We know he’s the theological pick. I don’t pick my candidates because of their religion, and I don’t think others do either. What really annoyed me though is when Huckabee comes out today claiming he never intended to show a cross, it was just a bookshelf in the background. Which is true enough, but if you look at the ad, Huck himself is offset so that clearly the focus was this cross like image in the background. There was a clear intention to frame that cross. If you want to have a cross in your ad, fine do it, I don’t care. However, don’t come around and fucking lie about it later. Last I checked Jesus wasn’t real hip on the whole lying thing….and you invoke his name in that same ad, you damn hypocrite.
• Romney further proves he doesn’t have a damn clue about immigration. He’s still smarting over the fact that he got caught TWICE having illegals doing yardwork on his property. So he wants a national employment verification system so companies can figure out if their employees are legal. I’d applaud him if I didn’t want to cry, because such a system ALREADY EXISTS. And it’s a program we’re looking to expand to every employer.
• Mexico is pissed off that we’re shooting tear gas across the border at people attacking DHS agents. Sure I guess I can understand it. In researching the situation, apparently Mexico has no problem with people shooting bullets across the border, since people routinely do that from the Mexican side. I suppose our DHS agents could try that, you up for that Mexico?? Otherwise shut your damn mouth and worry about your own side of the border, it’s a shithole already, a few tear gas cannisters are barely gonna be noticed.
• If you ever wanted Chewbacca to growl/sing Silent Night to you, your wish has been fulfilled.
• Apparently Microsoft not only makes shitty software, but they are also incompetent. My employer allows me to order some MS products for cheap. My sister wanted a copy of MS Office 2007 for her PC (against my advice), so I ordered her a copy. Yesterday I get it in the mail. Today I get an email telling my copy of MS Office 2007 is on backorder but will be shipped by January 12th. Wow….not that I’m gonna complain. I bet my other sister wouldn’t mind a copy.

That’s it…

Politicians just couldn’t understand the massive opposition to the Comprehensive Immigration Reform. After all, in addition to granting amnesty they were going to give us a damn fence and maybe a few border enforcement measures. The problem was we the American public had heard this gimmick before. We always get the amnesty, but the enforcement never happens.

As yet another example of this, and what is sure to inspire further opposition to the next attempt at Comprehensive Immigration Reform, is the latest actions of Congress. Buried in a 3500 page omnibus, filled with over 11,000 earmarks, is language that basically guts the entire Secure Fence Act.

The Secure Fence Act was one of the few pieces of anti-illegal immigration legislation passed. It was the bill that politicians used to pretend they were serious about immigration. Now it’s been gutted. Rather than having to build the same two tier fence that has worked so damn well in California, they can just build the single tier fence more suitable for cattle ranches than a national border. In addition, the provisions on where some of these fences had to be and how much should be constructed have also been eliminated.

However, they did manage to fit in an earmark that give the Council of La Raza $390,000 of your tax dollars, to further their goal of giving the entire Southwest of the United States back to Mexico to form the Aztlan nation they keep going on about. Wow, thanks alot Congress.

I think I prefer it when you do nothing.

Ok and by deep thoughts, I mean completely random half-assed thoughts. At work today, I was notified that I’m in charge of a inventory of our software lab, which means I get to do my regular work during the day, and then after everyone goes home do this as well. Awesome, so posting will be light the next couple days until I finish….upon which time I’ll probably leave for Christmas break and I’ll see you in 2012.

So while I haven’t had time to really develop anything into a full blown post, I have a few thoughts rolling around in my head that I’d like to put to bed.

• Ok seriously, is Huckabee’s 15 minutes up yet or what?? He came out of nowhere to gain the top spot and, near as I can tell, for absolutely no good reason. Honestly I figured it was a fluke, he’d peak, fizzle out and we’d be back where we were. Well….that was a week ago. Did I miss a major news item?? Can the 80% of us who are not evangelicals, plus ambivalent about immigration and/or big government spending, please reassert ourselves???I mean I wasn’t real happy with Guiliani or Romney either, but at least their popularity was based upon……well, actually I’m not sure what their popularity was based on either. Perhaps the sky in this world changing from purple to orange isn’t that big of a deal…although I beat the Goreacle is pissed.
• Thompson picks up the Rep King endorsement. Very nice. I pretty much expected it. King is a pretty solid conservative so who else was he going to endorse?? Tancredo and Hunter maybe, but they stand about the same chance as Ron Paul at this point. He picks up a big endorsement. Pretty much the only highlights of the last debate were from him. He’s finally on top of his game and being the candidate we had all hoped for this summer. He’ll be campaigning non-stop all over Iowa until caucuses. Can he build up the momentum to unseat either Huckabee or Romney?? Honestly I doubt it. However, a third place showing would be breaking even for him. A second place showing would be a minor rout. If he takes first place, I expect the beginning of panic mode of several other GOP campaigns. However, realistically for that to happen, Huckabee would have to fizzle (which he may very well do) because Thompson would be the likely beneficiary of any jettisoned Huckabytes.
• I’m almost sort of routing for Clinton as the Democrat candidate at the moment. I mean sure she’s pretty much the embodiment of what most Republicans don’t want. However, she has proven herself to be so completely AWFUL at campaigning that I almost wish she were our opponent in 2008. How can you have some of the best advisors, one of the most powerful political machines to exist, and the help of arguably one of the political geniuses of the past decade, and still suck so bad???
• Finally decided to take the plunge and upgrade my new Vista machine to XP. Upgrade should arrive in the mail in a week or so. I’m hoping that it arrives before the motherboard on my current PC fries up. I wonder if I blog while my computer is on fire, would I be pioneering fire-blogging?? Or would I just be completely stupid?? Probably both.

That’s all….

I’d like to commend Rep. Kline, my representative and one of the few Minnesotan politicians I trust, for signing onto the SAVE Act. That now makes 128 co-sponsors onto the first bill to really take immigration reform and the rule of law, seriously.

Furthermore, I’d like to commend Kline for being the ONLY Minnesotan politician that has signed onto the bill in either the House or the Senate. While politicians may talk about how they share the American publics concern regarding illegal immigration, they surely don’t act like it. So far Kline is the only Minnesotan willing to side with his constituents against criminal invaders.

Despite copious numbers of Democrats co-sponsoring this bill, our Minnesotan Democrats remain in the pockets of the open-borders crowd. They’d rather sell us out American jobs and lives to criminals. That’s probably worth remembering in 2008.

And while our Republican Senator talks up a big game, and claims he voted for cloture on the DREAM Act to improve it, he certainly doesn’t appear to have his heart in it. All those “improvements” you talk about constitute the SAVE Act Coleman, time to put your pen where your rather large and your frequently less-than-truthful mouth is.

Congrats and many thanks go to Kline. Shame on everyone else.

I’m a stubborn bastard sometimes, and I know that. And I’ve been criticized for, when a politician finally comes around on an issue, not giving them credit for it. I’ve been lectured that I got what I wanted, why not let the newly converted in from the cold? Believe me I can understand the argument, but to be honest, with politicians many Damascus road conversions happen far too frequently and conveniently for me to take them seriously.

Yes, Paul finally “saw the light” and he’s come around, but I want to hear the words that convinced him. I want to see the line of logic that lead to the final switch on the issue. The fact that you made that flip on the issue is of little importance to me. I want to know that your conversion is real, and not just of political convenience. Because what is political convenient changes constantly, so I have no reason to trust, or “let in from the cold” anyone who’s conversion is not real.

I equate it to doing long division in grade school. The teacher could give you 20 problems and if you turned in 20 correct answers you could still get an F. Because the correct answer is not the important part. You have to show the work that got you there. Otherwise for all they know you got it via a calculator, copying from a neighbor, or just plain luck. The point of the exercise is that you can follow the process to get that answer.

I’m not concerned that they eventually got the right answer on the issue. I want to know that they got to the right answer and because they did the work, their heart is behind it for reasons other than that that is what the latest poll said. Leave the convenient flip-flopping to the Democrats. And if I can’t trust you on an issue, the fact that you’re telling me what I want to hear doesn’t mean a thing to me.

I’m looking for allies, not political parrots.

The Rankings Are As Follows:

• Triple “I Whine Like A Child” A : 5
• Dan S : 3
• NightWriter : 3
• Mall Diva : 3
• jroosh : 2
• Harvey : 2
• Bogus Doug : 2
• Aelfheld : 2
• Sola-Man : 2
• Bobby_B : 2
• Drunkguy : 2
• kingdavid : 1
• Lloyd : 1
• tommy g : 1
• spurringirl : 1

For this contest you get to make up your own answers!! That’s right…just pretend you’re a real life journalist and just make shit up. Post answers in the comments. They will be judged on creativity, plausibility and humor.

Question : “What is this Mickey Mouse shit?”

BONUS POINT : Name the movie the main question quotes…

Previous contests

I’ve heard alot of conservatives say they really have no preferred candidate for the GOP nomination. I think that says more about the field of candidates than it does about the decisiveness of the conservative in question. So I thought I’d help simply the whole process, and help you decide which candidate you should probably cheer for.

If you think President Bush was the perfect president:
Your preferred candidate is Mike Huckabee

If you thought former President Clinton was a nice upstanding guy but just wanted him to be slightly more conservative:
Your preferred candidate is Rudy Giuliani

If you didn’t understand the flip-flop criticism of John Kerry:
Your preferred candidate is Mitt Romney

If you wonder what our Reptilian Alien Overlords think:
Your preferred candidate is Ron Paul

If you think the sun rises and sets according to immigration policy:
Your preferred candidate is Tom Tancredo

If you’re a conservative, but feel that Free Trade is a failed concept:
Your preferred candidate is Duncan Hunter

If you’re a conservative, but you like being screwed more often than a hooker in Bangkok:
Your preferred candidate is John McCain

If you feel asleep during my post and/or haven’t found your candidate yet:
Your preferred candidate is Fred Thompson

NOTE : If you still don’t like your preferred candidate, you’re normal. Talk to political activists until you find someone that will lecture you about the 80:20 rule long enough to lull you into a blissfully unconscious state. I recommend staying in that state. Beer helps.