After
St. Paul Democratic state senator needs head examined
My TA in local politics (I already knew about it, but it’s good to get a third party evaluation)
Gambling for state funds and senator fuckup strikes again.
Gore Vidal on modern America
Military propoganda documentary, also contains reference to a perhaps less propaganda-ish representation. I’d like to see the latter. And maybe the former as well, under the principle that ignorance is bad.
Lamers protest smoking ban (t-minus 1 week, yay!)
Childrearing, (s)mothering, and independence
I may have to start reading it regularly. =)
I am on a committee with Beth Hawkins, who wrote the article on childrearing. She is very sharp and writes a lot of great stuff.
I’m currently reading through a few of the articles, but I just have to comment on the smoking ban one (even though I’m pretty sure you share my opinion on it ;):
‘Jerry, who has stood behind the bar at Stasiu’s for 10 years, calls the ban “absolute bullshit.” He and his comic friends concede smoking is not the healthiest pastime, yet they still believe local politicians are encroaching on their personal rights.
Uh huh. I happen to be of the opinion that smokers’ don’t have a “personal right” to inflict harm on others via second-hand smoke. If they do, then _I_ have a “personal right” to hit them with a baseball bat every time they light up in public.
As for the fear of losing patrons, perhaps they should do some research – when California passed its ban on public smoking, there was a similar outcry and worry over losing customers. The result? For a brief period of time following the ban, there was a decline in customers. Then, once all the non-smokers (who outnumber smokers in this country at this point) discovered they could eat and go to bars and clubs without having smoke inflicted on them, patronage _increased_ in most public restaurants, bars and clubs. So, from a strictly financial point of view, more places should be in favor of the ban – or at least enact their own on their place of business 😉