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Tom Miller

Coon Rapids, MN
Commenter for
3 years 21 weeks

Recent Comments

Posted on 05/21/12 at 05:24 pm in response to Fear and loathing at the state GOP convention

From the DFL website:
"The 2012 State Convention will be held on June 2-3 at the Mayo Civic Center in Rochester."

Posted on 04/14/12 at 10:28 am in response to Did the Constitution's framers favor a health care mandate?

The Militia Act of 1792 mandated that every able-bodied man between the ages of 18 and 45 be drafted into the militia, and to buy guns, ammunition and equipment. This act was signed by George Washington.

from the law:
"That every citizen, so enrolled and notified, shall, within six months thereafter, provide himself with a good musket or firelock, a sufficient bayonet and belt, two spare flints, and a knapsack, a pouch, with a box therein, to contain not less than twenty four...

Posted on 04/10/12 at 09:04 pm in response to Twin Cities’ exurban housing boom stalls — perhaps for good

It comes down to two things: nearby social amenities, cheap and easy transportation.

When gas hits $12.50 per gallon, an apartment or small home in the city, with bus and light rail nearby, will get you to the theater, museum, entertainment, stadium, university, doctor much better than driving for twenty miles and paying for parking.

Even in America, the old cities were built on a human scale. Suburbs and exurbs are built on an automotive scale (early-70s Pontiacs)....

Posted on 03/30/12 at 09:43 am in response to Swift action needed to save same-day registration

conservatives felt that government mandated IDs were an intrusion on privacy, antithetical to a free society and the foot in the door of a police state?

Posted on 03/16/12 at 01:37 pm in response to Michael Brodkorb raises the stakes for GOP

When fired, Brodkorb's salary was $94,000 (StarTribune 1/30/12). At resignation time, Sen. Koch's salary was $31,140. If money is power, it is an interesting situation when the assistant earns three times what the boss makes. Generally one percieves the elected official as having power over the subordinate. I wonder, in the instances Brodkorb's legal team could cite, how often this power reversal will be the case.

Posted on 02/27/12 at 02:31 pm in response to Letter from Skunk Hollow: New buckthorn tools enable winter warfare

I've had pretty good luck with a 1 1/2 inch weed wrench. It has been used on hundreds, if not thousands, of small buckthorn trees, as well as honeysuckle, small elms and juniper. Any tree much over an inch in diameter may be too difficult to remove with the weed wrench. In these cases, I saw the trunk and paint with triclopyr. Seems to work pretty good.

A ten or twelve inch channellock pliers works great to uproot buckthorn with a pencil-thick trunk and smaller. Sometimes there...

Posted on 11/09/11 at 01:03 pm in response to On marriage amendment, Catholic Church leaders would be well served by words of the Gospel and history

The main point in the article is being missed or ignored by many of the commentators: Leave marriage to religious institutions and civil unions to government.

The state's interest in the relationship between a couple is a business partnership that promotes a stable society; the state's interest is not procreation as a religious mystery.

If we separate the unknowable mystery of God's creation and intent from our God-given ability to create stable civil societies (all humans...

Posted on 10/19/11 at 12:23 pm in response to Minnesota's school-finance inequities have multiple causes

A lot of it is about money. That's a good reason to vote for a levy. Think of it as a premium payment on property value insurance. Using Anoka-Hennepin as an example, it will take 21 years of tax savings to equal a 5% drop in property value should the levy renewal fail.

The value of social amenties, such as golf courses, schools and parks, in a community is monetarized (through the magic of the free market) into the price buyers are will to pay for real estate. Anything that...

Posted on 10/05/11 at 11:55 am in response to Teachers from all walks of life are miserable or happy on the job for remarkably similar reasons, study finds

Young teachers would stay in the profession if it paid it paid as well as professional alternatives and, likely more importantly, teachers were respected as much as other professionals.

The recent focus on Finland's educational attainments highlights this approach. Finnish teachers are drawn from the top 1/3 of college graduates and they are comparably paid, due to the Finnish culture and nation taking the importance of teachers to heart, and giving teachers the respect they deserve...

Posted on 09/29/11 at 07:43 pm in response to Revisiting Highway 61

Excellent series of photos. Thank you.