Gerrymandering is an affront to the core principles of representative democracy. Citizens of all parties must seek to end this abomination in all 50 states.

Read this article.

It's long, it's not very rosy, it's the first plan I've read that makes sense to me.

On the other hand, see how the NY Times compares Iraqization by Bush to Vietnamization by Nixon, which is where I got the Krepinevich reference.

Radical right-wing judges are dangerous extremists, not conservatives.

Rebel Without a Pulse

(I tried to link the image but Woody is too smart for me!)

What do we want?
BRAINS!
When do we want them?
BRAINSSSS!

Despite glamour and merriment aplenty last night, Shannon and I decided we needed a date night out. I had planned to go to some nice-ish restaurant and a movie, but stopping in at United Noodles after picking her up from work changed that. We browsed and bought and bought and bought some more. There are neat fried tofu things just waiting to be stuffed with the sweet and spicey chinese "style" sausages (ones without MSG). There are bonito flakes and panko breadcrumbs. There's all sorts of goodness to go into our fish-stock and coconut milk shrimp soup tomorrow (like tom kha. We're going to use a DEADLY PEPPER! from Larry's garden). But then I saw the kim chi. I didn't buy any, but I decided we'd go to the cute little korean place by the Cedar Cultural Center.

Lo! Misery! I walk in and the walls are painted a cheerful fresh yellow. There's a ... door ... rather than the odd plastic curtain thing. The tables and chairs are new. The people are almost stylish. Almost. A lot of them were still folkies. The waitress is a nice young thai woman in black who asks us if we're dining in or taking out. Stall! Stall!

I ask for menus, catch my breath, and realize that the nice old koren couple who ran the old place must have sold the place. This isn't that surprising, as they were old when I first ate there ten years ago. The menu looks nice - some Thai staples, entree prices between 7 and 9 dollars, and so we eat. And my ... we were pleased.

First our food. The perfect combination of bitter and sweet in the thai iced coffee (his) and tea (hers). We ordered a fried crab-avocado roll. It took a bit to get to us, but the kitchen is small and the other table that arrived when we arrived ordered the same thing. It was mild, subtle, flavored with cilantro, and lovely. Then came duck: Roasted duck in ginger with shitakes and bok choy and other glorious things. It was cooked to absolute perfection and the sauce, alone, was worth the modest price (9$ for a healthy serving of duck is good value!). The cellophane noodle seafood extravaganza (I could look up these names as I took a take-out menu) offered, again, perfectly cooked scallops and squid (no easy task) and a few shrimp. The sauce saturated everything without blurring the separate flavors into obscurity. For desert: Bananas fried in a (wonton?) wrapper, served in a big martini glass, on top of some sort of rubbery leaf (perhaps banana?), with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, fudge, and two halved strawberries.

I loved the menu. A lot of thai places offer pages and pages of dishes. Chai (the name of the owner and the restaurant, we were told) had one page for starters, one for soup/salad, one entree, one noodle, 3 curries (green, panang, massaman), and desert/drinks. Each dish seemed fairly well thought out. Some were standard, some a little different. They were all served with this delightful arrangement of carrot and dikon strings.

Nothing was spicy. Now, we didn't order anything spicy. But I'm used to even the non-chili-marked items in Thai places having a little heat, but not so here. That said, they were succulent, and succulent non-spicy Thai food is probably essential for success in Minnesota. I reserve judgement until I go back and try something marked as hot.

So I miss the Korean place. But good, affordable, Thai on the West Bank is a nice addition.

Does anyone have a DVR or any other fancy recording device?

This documentary: History Channel Crusades is airing on Sunday at 8 central (and again on Monday) and I'd like a recording of it. I can tape it, but ...

I think this is the one I applied for and didn't get. There are a lot of good historians on the list, but the show itself looks scholocky and awful. This New Republic review pans it (you can log in with BugMeNot's help). On the other hand, I'm not wild about some of this reviewer's comments and perceptions.

So ... anyone got a DVR? :)

Your mission is to come up with a 2-4 word statement that should (not does) define the Democratic Party's message to the American people. You then need to have 3-5 bullet points that say what your message would do. Nothing can be longer than about one sentence. Only one of them can be negative (like, throw the current guys out!)

Examples:

The New Deal
- Job training
- Job creation through public works
- Social security/welfare net
- Reinvigorate the morale of the American worker/economy

The Great Society
- End racism
- End poverty
- Beat the Ruskies

Contract With America
- Throw out career politicians, replace with term-limited private citizens
- End big government
- Cut taxes
- Give people jobs, not welfare

-----------------------------------

So if you're a democrat (which I am, and I suspect most of my friends here are), what's our message going to be for 2006. I'm not convinced the actual politicians know, at least not in any nice three word phrase which the average voter will comprehend.

EDIT: I posted some amusing responses from (This red sox site)

Sports and Religion Conference at St. Olaf

For whatever reason (probably the Red Sox losses) I have been thinking about this subject myself a lot lately. I'm going to go to some of the Friday sessions, and probably the early Saturday one on the superbowl and pilgrimage.