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Ray Schoch

Minneapolis, MN
Commenter for
3 years 14 weeks

Recent Comments

Posted on 01/20/11 at 10:24 am in response to About 8% of baseball and football fans -- especially tailgaters -- leave games legally drunk, U of M study finds

Point taken, Chris. A newbie to the state, I wasn't aware that checkpoints are unconstitutional here. They're routinely used in Colorado.

Posted on 01/19/11 at 03:16 pm in response to About 8% of baseball and football fans -- especially tailgaters -- leave games legally drunk, U of M study finds

I’ll take issue with Jeff’s statement (“…watching sports sober is kinda boring”). If you’re a fan of the sport, it’s almost never boring, even, maybe especially, when you’re sober. If you don’t care for the sport, no amount of alcohol will make the game interesting. It’ll just make it blurry and incomprehensible.

Why, he asks rhetorically, aren’t the Minneapolis police, the State Patrol, St. Paul police, and anyone else with jurisdiction, regularly stationed outside the various sports...

Posted on 01/19/11 at 03:29 pm in response to Chamber of Commerce president denounces regulation before a friendly crowd in Minneapolis

I was about to launch into a tirade, but Neal (#6) says it as well as I could, especially in regard to health care. Really, Mr. Donohue must have failed every math class he ever took, since even a cursory look at health care numbers shows just what Neal says. Other countries get better health outcomes for their populations at about half of what it’s costing us here – and they’re not all government-run systems. As usual, corporate types want to socialize risk while privatizing profit.

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Posted on 01/19/11 at 10:30 am in response to The new civility rears its job-destroying head

Casting aside, for the moment, all the moral and economic arguments in favor of national health care – like other civilized countries have, with better health outcomes and less expense than we manage here in the U.S. – I’m still waiting for some shred of evidence that the administration’s newly-enacted plan “destroys jobs.”

Posted on 01/18/11 at 02:05 pm in response to The Fix: Kent Conrad will not seek another term

I think it will make little difference whether Mr. Conrad’s replacement is a Republican or a Democrat. It seems likely that, whoever takes that Senate seat next, he or she will be a deficit “hawk.” Unfortunately, I see little evidence that being a deficit “hawk” means very much in the real world. I share Eric’s cynicism about Congress (and the Presidency) dealing with the budget. It appears that much – not all, perhaps, but a significant portion – of being a budget “hawk” consists of the...

Posted on 01/18/11 at 04:50 pm in response to Breastfeeding controversy offers lesson to researchers about conflicts of interest

“And that’s why researchers who accept money from industry shouldn’t be surprised to find their studies and recommendations — and, yes, their motives — questioned.”

That's it exactly. Well said, Susan.

Posted on 01/17/11 at 11:13 am in response to The Vikings stadium puzzle: Can anyone put the pieces together?

I don’t care about the Vikings. My days of obsessing over NFL games ended 25 years ago, so I don’t really have a dog in this fight. But a taxpayer is a taxpayer.

The other metro areas I’ve lived in over the years (St. Louis & Denver) both have at least one professional sport facility that was at least partially paid for by taxpayers, whether they were fans of the sport or not, so there are plenty of precedents for that, and I’m glad Jay included the bit about the New England...

Posted on 01/17/11 at 10:37 am in response to John McCain gets into the spirit of the Obama speech

How oddly different from the Rush Limbaugh / Sarah Palin style of commentary on the Arizona massacre. Maybe Senator McCain is returning to his former, more independent, more thoughtful, self.

Posted on 01/12/11 at 04:10 pm in response to Tucson tragedy: What it means for Pawlenty and Palin

Ditto to #3. Frankly, I'm more disturbed by her language ("Reload") than by the symbolism. Crosshairs / targets / "surveyor's marks" have been a standard graphic element to draw attention in the print environment for as long as I've been alive, which goes back to – appropriately, I guess – World War II. Too much is being made of a link there that, in my view, at least, doesn't genuinely exist except as a political statement. "Here's a Congressional District we think we can win!"

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Posted on 01/12/11 at 12:30 pm in response to The Star Tribune's op-ed lineup turns rightward

A relative newbie to the community, I’m not as familiar with the names and viewpoints as you are David, but I’ve subscribed to the dead-tree edition of the ‘Strib since I had a place of my own to have it delivered, and the rightward tilt of the ‘Strib’s editorial page has been a disappointment from the get-go, especially given Minnesota’s reputation (considerably exaggerated, in my view) as a “liberal” state by folks in other parts of the country.

I do read some national columnists...