Twisted right wing thinking

My local paper, the Star Tribune, regularly gets irate letters from readers complaining about their liberal bias. Apparently in an attempt to convince everyone they are not commie pinkos, they have started carrying a column by Katherine Kersten, a senior fellow of the Center for the American Experiment, a conservative think tank. Here is her latest screed, amusingly titled "Tolerance Should Be Extended to All," a column praising up and coming Republican state senator Michele Bachmann, who has done her best to shut down all business in the state (including blocking a sorely needed bonding bill) if the legislature doesn't pass her pet project, outlawing legal protection of any sort of relationship between gays--never mind marriage, she also wants to outlaw civil unions. Ms. Kersten is scolding the people countering Ms. Bachmann for being "intolerant" of her. As Clever Peasantry says here:

Happy Katherine ends with this gem:

Here's the irony: It's self-styled advocates of "tolerance" who have shouted Bachmann down at community meetings, and waved signs at rallies that say "Go to hell, Michele." Tactics like these expose them for what they are: folks who advocate tolerance for the other guy, but not for themselves.

This may be the stupidest thing I have ever read. Let me get this straight: Party A suggests an idea that is anathema to Party B; in response to said idea, Party B attacks Party A; Party A then complains that Party B is intolerant of Party A's intolerance of Party B; major newspaper columnist writes a column that is completely void of the dispute's content (from either side); said column is complete with single source information from Party A; columnist complains about the irony of selective indignation; readers' heads explode from double irony of selectively indignant columnist writing about irony of selective indignation. Oh well, Katherine and Michele are only human...most people really don't like it when other folks point out the ugly pictures.

And for those of you who still think that Mrs. Bachmann has any substance of value...please click here and enjoy the overflowing wealth of information.

What made me spew my Shredded Wheat across the breakfast table when I read Katherine Kersten's column was this remark:

In today's fractious political climate, says Bachmann, "you need three things as a legislator to get anything done. You need to know who you are and what you believe, and you need to have a backbone of titanium."

Courage is indispensable, and Bachmann has that in spades.

That's like saying we admire George Wallace for his courage in standing at the doors of the University of Alabama to block the admittance of two black students, thundering "Segregation today, segregation tomorrow and segregation forever."

Uh, no. Personally, I never admire people for their firm and courageous insistence on bigotry.

Puppet show on a summer's night

Our neighbor down the alley, Victor Zupanc, the resident music director of the Minnesota Children's Theater Company, had arranged to have Open Eye Figure Theatre, a young company that works with puppets, come to present a puppet show on the boulevard facing his house, and he invited friends and neighbors to attend. (This is the Open Eye Figure Theatre's Driveway Tour -- see the schedule of upcoming performances here) About sixty or seventy people were there, kids and adults, and the show lasted about an hour. We saw "The Adventures of Juan Bobo," an original story inspired by a Puerto Rican character, Juan Bobo, or "Foolish John."

It's been quite a while since I've sat through an hour's entertainment that included quite so many fart jokes. Light-heartedly and humorously vulgar, just the thing for a warm summer evening.