Who's Knocking On Fear's Door

coalition of the willing and the judgmental
patricians, politicians, and the fundamentalists
you never have to tell them how the money's spent
you never have to tell them where their freedom went
homophobes in the high command
waitin' for the rapture like it's disneyland
hide all the bodies from out of view
channel all the treasure to the chosen few

Eliza Gilkyson
Man of God



"It's telling that a number of politicians have lately cited as their model on terrorism issues Jack Bauer, the counterterrorism agent on the TV hit "24," who routinely tortures the truth out of bad guys as the clock ticks toward catastrophe. It's not hard to understand the appeal. There's a certain atavistic attraction to the Jack Bauer method, an attraction that bypasses the head en route to the gut.

Too bad, because had the head been asked, it might have pointed out that Jack Bauer is a fictional character on a TV show not noted for its realism. Using him as a guide to terrorism makes about as much sense as using Barney Fife as a guide to law enforcement.

And the very fact that Jack Bauer is invoked in the most crucial policy debate of our time tells you something about the state of the union going on seven years after the Sept. 11 attacks. In a word: scared.

There is nothing new about being scared. Nor about abridging civil liberties in response. It happened in the civil rights movement, in the Red scare, happened when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, when the nation plunged into World War I, when the French offended John Adams.

But it's worth noting that, for all the illegal wiretapping, arrests, detention, blacklisting, censorship and loss of life this country has seen in the name of fear, only one major abridgement of civil liberties in time of national emergency - Lincoln's suspension of habeas corpus during the Civil War - stands justified by hindsight.

The rest, we regard with a shamefaced fascination. We wonder what we were thinking, how we wandered so far afield from the principles that should make us great."

Leonard Pitts, Jr.
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A Piece of Freedom's Pie

"Going West" by artist Therese Desjardin.

"The man and woman moving behind the westering sun wanted room to think fast and big, invent, speak, plant land and children with freedom's plow. They wanted new ways of being together. They hankered after something beside death and taxes. They wanted to see straight and live on earth. Like the growth of scientific thought, the twin of democracy, they wanted to examine the humus, look at decay, the minutiae of soil and society, honor the lowest labor and growth. Hard-headed, they wanted their pie in the "here and now," every man under his tree, no man a servant. Horse sense or common sense was "commin doin's": they all had it together because without it they should not survive."

Meridel Le Sueur
The North Star

The Immigration Question in 1891

A friend showed me a box of old area newspapers from as far back as the 1890s -- newspapers from Hudson and River Falls, Wisconsin, the Twin Cities and a few other areas. There is fascinating information in these papers and it is easy to see how much times have changed and how they have not changed.

For instance, immigration is huge debate in today's political debate. In 1891, the Wisconsin-Minnesota border country was a major stopping point for Scandinavian immigrants and other areas of Europe -- Germany, Ireland, Italy, France, etc.

One paper is from the May 27, 1891 edition of the North, a weekly newspaper published in Minneapolis every Wednesday and edited by Luth Jaeger, a Norwegian immigrant. According to is masthead, The North was "a weekly newspaper in the English language, devoted to the inculcation of American principles among the Scandinavian citizens of the United States." The goal of the paper was to Americanize Norwegian immigrants into the American way of life. It was published from 1889-1894.

Jaeger was a member of the Norwegian-American intelligentsia and he was nominated for Minnesota Secretary of State on the Democratic ticket on Sept. 14, 1886.

Below is photo of an ad from the newspaper that I took with my digital camera. Below the picture is a quote taken from the newspaper about the issue of immigration.



"The national life, as developed in the great port of entry - New York - is a huge crucible into which has been dumped in overwhelming masses the sweepings of European cities. The scum at the top, the dregs at the bottom, we wait with anxiety the slow process of national assimilation which shall fuse with the old Dutch and Anglo-Saxon stock, the stolid German, the mercurial Frenchman, and the fiery Celt, and, out of the compound, present the American nation of the future."

Luth Jaeger
The North

Barack Obama

Tiger Beat Cover Clinches Slumber Party Vote


WASHINGTON, DC—According to a poll released Monday by Teen Zogby!, both Barack Obama's approval and dreaminess ratings among slumber party–attending tweens have risen to 82 percent following last week's publication of the Tiger Beat cover pictorial "Hangin' With Barack!"

"Barack is sooooo hot!" said 12-year-old Tiger Beat subscriber Beth Majors upon reading the issue, which included a "supercute" poster of Obama leaning against the Lincoln Memorial and an interview in which he revealed that his most inspirational hero is "you." "He so totally has my support. Obama in '08!"

Obama is expected to remain a solid favorite with the giggling-and-talking-until-4 a.m. voting bloc, as hunky war hero John McCain, his closest contender, is widely considered by the slumber party demographic to be a gross dork.

Losers Pick Losers in Iowa Caucus - OTBL Regroups for 2012 Election

Like this is any surprise? Ontheborderline candidate Ron Paul explodes into 5th place finish.
Achieving the seemingly impossible, generating less enthusiasm than Fred Thompson, Ron Paul finishes with a stellar 9.7% of the GOP'ed Iowa caucus vote. Way to go borderliners, we've always known you've had your finger on the pulse of America's least popular opinion. An even brighter note, 9-11 candidate Rudy Gulianni winds up in the Iowa Whine Cellar with 3%.

Ron Paul's Kool-Aid Drinking Klan Unites!

In the picture below of George W. Bush bringing his fear and smear campaign to Hudson, Wisconsin in 2004, how many ontheborderliners can you pick out of the crowd. Look will have to look very hard, because most of them were on their knees licking Bush's boots...

O. Schmitt! This Guy's From Gilman...

Who is that guy?

When the college bowl games hit, there is always some great stories that come to the surface. Owen Schmitt from Gilman -- east of Cornell on US 64 -- left his imprint on bowl fans last night. He rumbled down the field like a dump truck at full throttle -- bound for the end zone on the breakout play of West Virginia's 48-28 victory over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl.

His story is inspiring! Schmitt overcame anonymity and overcame a childhood that was far from easy. Born with a cleft palate in a family that toted a lunch pail, he once described himself a “a fat little kid with glasses”. He was raised in Gilman, Wis., a town of 474 people and maybe twice that many cows.


Read more...
On Last Lick

Schmitt paving way for W. Va.

New Year's Resolution: Understanding The Opposite Sex

The Sun Rises On A New Year

"Yesterday, everybody smoked his last cigar, took his last drink and swore his last oath. Today, we are a pious and exemplary community. Thirty days from now, we shall have cast our reformation to the winds and gone to cutting our ancient shortcomings considerably shorter than ever."

Mark Twain


"Year's end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us."

Hal Borland