I got my 17%+ increase notice yesterday. Last night, I figured out that my property taxes are now roughly equal to the entire food budget for my wife and myself. I'm on Social Security, so that's not going up. My wife, who is a few years younger than I am, is also a type-1 diabetic (for 32 years), so you can just imagine what our medical insurance and co-pays come to (roughly 3 times our food bill for the premiums alone). I understand that those "closed pensions" for the firefighters and...

Every time I hear cars hitting the massive potholes next to my house, I think of the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on the Carl Pohlad Memorial Sports Palace. It just seems odd. If they don't have enough money to do minimum repairs on the infrastructure, how can our city fathers afford such luxuries? As we see more and moral gravel where our streets used to be, as we watch our fire stations close and our park buildings shutter, will they also find nearly a billion dollars for a new...

Wow, that was certainly a lot of words, and a lot of passion concerning the words of a political commentator.

We seem to have forgotten, however, that last week Israel boarded an aid ship loaded with supplies for a million and a half people under siege, that 9 unarmed civilians were killed, that several ships have been confiscated on the high seas and all camera equipment stolen to hide any photographic or video evidence.

Lots of outrage about a few words. Not much outrage...

I seriously wonder whether Smith or any other metro chief will have the courage to stand up to the police lawlessness typified by Ramsey County sheriff Bob Fletcher. Perhaps because I was there, I was shocked to see Fletcher during the Republican National Convention, riding roughshod over so many metro jurisdictions, while those in charge stood by silently. It has amazed me ever since that good cops stand by, while thugs like Fletcher's Gang Strike Force steal money and goods without...