Commentaries
Dec 22, 2009
Merry Christmas, one and all. Or, as Mel Torment and the rest of us down here at the deli serenade Garrison Keillor every year, "Ich bin ein Irving Berliner."
Did Keillor really tell Jews to scram because he doesn't like listening to Christmas songs written by Chosen Composers while at the Dales?
Dec 21, 2009
By this stage, many people around town—and not a few across the country—have heard of the controversy surrounding a task force report on “Race, Culture, Class, and Gender” coming out of the College of Education and Human Development (CEHD) at the University of Minnesota.
Dec 7, 2009
It’s safe to say we are two of the more conservatively inclined members of the board of directors of Greater Twin Cities United Way. It’s also safe to say we are acutely alert to the many new and immense financial pressures confronting Minnesota government.
Nov 3, 2009
President Obama recently signed a law mandating that states give military voters a window of at least 45 days before an election in which to submit absentee ballots. It looks as if this measure will force the Minnesota Legislature finally to move the state primary to an earlier date.
Oct 2, 2009
I hope the following analogy works, but in the same way that writers like Bernard Malamud can make a loaf of bread, a chunk of cheese, and a bottle of inexpensive wine sound as bountiful as an evening at the new Manny’s in downtown Minneapolis, the stories here make it clear that true-blue capitalists reside in all stations and come with all-sized bank accounts.
Sep 27, 2009
We've argued here against quick fixes to Minnesota's election system. Our premise is this: The storm of the Coleman/Franken recount helped identify leaks and loose spots. They need repair.
Sep 10, 2009
Now that the chalk dust has settled, I would hope that just about everyone might agree that the problem with President Obama's speech to students on Tuesday had exclusively to do with its bungled initial staging and not with its eventual message -- which was terrific.
Aug 31, 2009
What possesses anyone to have any faith whatsoever in any of the projections coming out of the Obama administration and the rest of Washington about what assorted health care proposals may eventually cost?
Aug 17, 2009
Public officials, analysts, and others are busy – one might say feverishly – predicting what various health care plans under consideration in Washington might eventually cost. Suffice it to say numbers are very big and disagreements are very wide.
Aug 14, 2009
The confluence of Sonia Sotomayor’s Supreme Court nomination and the court’s recent 5-4 ruling on the New Haven firefighters’ case – on which she had ruled contrarily as an appellate judge – has provoked the country once again to consider the wisdom and fairness of certain race-conscious policies.