Well this certainly explains Minnesota

From the Andrew Sullivan site, where Eric Weiner attempts to explain why Danes are happier than other Scandinavians.

Danes tend to be healthy, married and active — all contributing factors to happiness. But why, researchers wondered, are Danes happier than Finns and Swedes, who share many of these traits, not to mention a similar culture and climate? The answer is, in a word, expectations. Danes have low expectations and so “year after year they are pleasantly surprised to find out that not everything is rotten in the state of Denmark,” says James W. Vaupel, a demographer who has investigated Danish bliss.

My emphasis btw. Of course, you would have had to live in Minnesota for a few years to really understand this post.

or listen to Garrison Keillor non stop for a weekend or two.

maybe this explains Jesse Ventura. Or Al Franken.

St Paul: My old neighborhood

St Paul is my adopted hometown. I lived on the bluffs of the Mississippi just off Summit Avenue one block from the Lake St bridge. I called it 'Catholic Corner.' At the other end of Summit Ave was Summit Heights, a wonderful place filled with a world class cathedral and world class bars. Now some of Blogistan's elite are finding out about it the easy way: this just in from Matt Yglesias:

In the spirit of Barack Obama’s call for national reconciliation and a de-escalation of the culture wars, after knocking off work yesterday I went with Chris Hayes (pictured) and Ari Berman of The Nation and Mike Tomasky of The Guardian to grab some beers and, like any good beer-track voter, pair them with a selection of local cheeses.

This was all in St. Paul’s Summit Heights neighborhood, which seemed to come straight out of liberal elite central casting. Indeed, we literally — and not just Joe Biden literally, but actually liberally — wound up in Garrison Keillor’s living room. He turns out to be a very generous host, but not a blog reader.

God I wish I were up there. It would even be worth listening to Jesse Ventura to be on Summit Avenue again.

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News of the other political party

No. Not the Democrats (remember them?): the Libertarians. Who needs Sarah Palin when you have Jesse Ventura to electrify the Ron Paul crowd? Here's his take on the second amendment.

The founders did not write the Second Amendment to protect hunters and sportsmen, he said. “The Second Amendment is there so that we the people, if our government gets out of control, we have the ability to rise up and change it.” The ensuing standing ovation was louder than anything so far today.

He added, “Some say, well how could we stand up to the U.S. government and its entire military might? I got the answer. We threw everything we had at Vietnam, and they were nothing but a bunch of farmers with a couple of AK-47s...” (the rest was drowned out by the cheering).

And his views on the 9-11 cover-up.

When Ventura brought up 9/11, these people starting cheering and clapping. “ Why is it that when you ask questions about 9/11, it’s out-of-bounds?” he said. “Why has the U.S. Department of Justice not charged Osama Bin Laden for 9/11?”

As Ventura continued to “ask questions” about what really happened on 9/11, a vocal contingent in the crowd (coming from all parts of the arena) took to chanting, “9/11 was an inside job.” At one point, it got so loud that Ventura had to pause for a few moments before going on. Many in the crowd were applauding Ventura throughout his discussion of 9/11, but some were sitting stone-faced, looking on with dismay.

I can't quite remember the reasons my very intelligent, conservative lawyer friends in Minneapolis gave me for voting for this guy for governor of Minnesota, my adopted home state.

no doubt it will come to me. I just want to make it clear I was gone from the state at the time.

A few thoughts on the bridge disaster in Minneapolis

As I described in the last post you can see that I take this accident very seriously. It is unlikely given the size of the place that I knew anyone dead or injured, but I may make a few phone calls this weekend, just in case.

The 35W bridge was built in '57, I think. It was at the time the best engineering that we could give it. It has been regularly inspected and while the last few inspections found deficiencies, this does not mean that it was in any danger of collapse.

Now Minnesota has, rightly, a reputation for clean government and a lack of corruption. That doesn't mean that something wasn't fudged, just that it might be less likely than elsewhere. Minnesota, on the whole, has always been more willing than most states to put money into its infrastructure.

In other words, if this could happen to an 50 year old bridge in Minneapolis, it can damn sure happen anywhere else in our aging and rusting transportation system. The problem has been noted for over two decades at least. No level of government wants to spend the money needed to keep these things in good shape. And they certainly are not willing to raise taxes for something that the public could not "see." So the bridges continue to deteriorate.

For all of you out there who think that government is the problem and should be starved of taxes so it can be spent on something better (bigger houses? more toys? bigger cars?), just keep telling yourself that the next time you cross a bridge with your loved ones on the back seat.

I'll be praying for you.

Justice Dept - Minnesota Division

While we are all aware of the troubles of the Department of Justice in Washington where Alberto Gonzalez has become everyone's favorite piñata, dangling in the air waiting for the next whack, but now the troubles have spread to my old home town, the home of squeaky clean politics and Jesse 'the Bod' Ventura. You can read about it in the WaPo here.

It seems that three top federal attorneys resigned rather than work with the new US attorney.

"The discontent in Minnesota centers on U.S. Attorney Rachel K. Paulose, 34, who
previously worked for Gonzales and his deputy, McNulty. She is part of a wave of more than a dozen Bush administration insiders appointed as federal prosecutors over the past two years, according to government records. "

This is all very embarrassing for the DOJ given that it is trying to tamp down the situation and get it off the front pages. A local law professor at Hamline University, a school I know very well, explains:

"You never really hear political rumblings out of that [Minnesota] office, so it comes as some surprise to see three people step down like this all at once," Schultz said. "It raises the question of whether attorneys are starting to become uncomfortable about the politicization that seems to be going on at Justice."

One can only hope. Makes me homesick for Saint Paul .... it will be lovely in a month or so when winter ends.