Now tell me if this is perhaps the best and only hope we "morally superior" Americans have to return sanity to intercity travel:

Enter the ICHC online Poker Cats Contest!

"CULTURAL HERITAGE."

Those two words are a favourite among cultural conservatives who want such promoted as part of their ideal educational syllabus for "reclaiming America from herself"--as in homeschooling based on the apartheid South African syllabus of Nasionale Christen Opverdoing, which sought to equate the defence of racism and free-market capitalism as being one with National and Racial Identity, particularly so from the Afrikaner standpoint.

In promoting what cultural conservatives would see as "cultural heritage" in furtherance of a True Patriot Love in All Thy Sons Command for the Nobility of America, expect many such to suggest among their "recommended reading" reprints of the original editions of the likes of Stratemeyer Syndicate pablum such as Tom Swift, The Bobbsey Twins, Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys. All recommended notwithstanding their containing all manner of racist, xenophobic and jingoistic language as was considered acceptable when these works first came out.

And AFAIK, said reprints (presumably from the originals) don't contain any type of disclaimer alerting readers (especially children) that the language likely to be encountered reflected prevailing social attitudes towards minorities when these works first came out.

That, and imagining how many copies of the original versions of these series (racist language and all) are still around in attics and antiquarian bookstores from Eastport to Mauna Loa, Point Barrow to Key West, ready for parents to introduce nothing less than lessons in racism and jingoism under the guise of "cultural heritage" to a new generation.

And Another Thing:

How does "cultural heritage" excuse promotion of outright racism and bigotry excused as "patriot love"?

SOMEHOW, THE MINNWISSIPPI REGION AS IS HOME BASE TO YOUR CORRESPONDENT "LUCKED OUT" FROM THE EXPECTED WINTER STORM the weatherpeople were expecting up this way last evening.

But then again, some rain did arrive late in the day before colder weather set in on the backside of some strong winds on the overnight.

In any event, let's hope we don't see a false thaw before the "real" such begins in dead earnest.

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MEANWHILE, WITH THE SUMMER SEASON NOT ALL THAT FAR BEHIND, and the thoughts of many in the Upper Midwest turning to Wisconsin Dells in substantial measure (if not already), Your Correspondent, ever fond of Wisconsin Dells, thought you might find interesting this silly little video showing a crowded wavepool in an indoor waterpark out Tokyo way--and with the waves going full blast, @ that!

Occupying Iraq has hardly helped oil prices stay low. Last week, oil prices reached a record high of over $102 a barrel. On March 19, 2003—the day the Iraq war commenced—oil was trading at $36 a barrel. A look at the rise in oil prices:

None of this should have come as a surprise to the Bush administration; before the war, economists were widely predicting a prolonged presence in Iraq would lead to a rise in oil prices. As Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz recently noted in Vanity Fair, "The soaring price of oil is clearly related to the Iraq war. The issue is not whether to blame the war for this but simply how much to blame it."

Rove is also out of step with the American people, a majority of whom believes that the Iraq war is tied to the current economic downturn. A recent AP poll found that 68 percent of Americans say that redeploying from Iraq would help the economy.

In other words, Machiavelli on steroids and amphetamines, in lockstep with their droogs in His Fraudulency's "inside of the inside," so to speak, is out of contact with Reality. And deliberately, come to think of it.

And besides:

• How many of the major oil fields still in production across CONUS still have viable production capacity for the long run?
• Are there any as-yet-untapped fields in CONUS whose known reserves could rival the major oil discoveries in the early part of the 20th century?
• Is there any evidence that a significant oil-field discovery in CONUS will translate into a significant and measurable reduction in wholesale oil prices?
• How do we know that His Fraudulency's "inside of the inside" isn't secretly investing in crude-oil futures, hoping to use the ur-RAHOWA to profit all the more (and depositing any ensuing profits into offshore "pure trusts" "for tax reasons")?

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"SMOKING IN THE DOWNSTAIRS AND OUTER LOBBY ONLY, PLEASE!" was the call of an usher whenever the long-running (1930-53) radio drama anthology series The First Nighter went into commercial break (as in the "between-the-acts" breaks of the week's play @ "The Little Theater Off Times Square," where the show was set).

I bring this up because a number of bars and lounges in Minnesota have taken advantage of a loophole in legislation as made them smoke-free from last summer allowing for "theater nights" where smoking would be permitted during the performance.

Which is prompting anti-smoking advocates, led by the American Cancer Society and the American Lung Association, to push for amending legislation as would close the "theater night" loophole crossing into farce.

(Come to think of it, how do we know the tobacco interests weren't secretly pushing for the "theater night" exemption when the legislation was first proposed--and would like it to so remain, citing a "cultural heritage" argument?)

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AS WAS THE EXPECTED FOREGONE CONCLUSION, VLADIMIR PUTIN'S HAND-PICKED SUCCESSOR FOR THE RUSSIAN PRESIDENCY, DMITRI MEDVEDEV BY NAME, easily "won" election to Putin's position in the farce otherwise known as "elections" across Russia yesterday.

I say "farce otherwise known as 'elections'" because it was clear all along that the elections were expected to be neither free, fair nor transparent, and the head of Russia's electoral commission acknowledged as much days beforehand to the BBC. Making things worse was the absence of outside observers and monitors of the sort the Kremlin would consider as "meddling in Russia's internal affairs" more than anything.

How do we know that the GOP's "inside of the inside" didn't secretly send in some discreet ur-observers with an eye towards looking for ways to manipulate Indecision 2008 to the GOP's unfair advantage, and excuse such as "natural"? That prospect alone needs to be addressed as much as John McCain's connexions with a notoriously blatant pseudoreligious having known and notorious anti-Semitic and anti-Catholic views ... not to mention contending that the destruction of New Orleans via Hurricane Katrina was Divine Judgement for tolerating homosexuals and homosexuality (cf. Rev. Fred "Westboro Baptist Church" Phelps, Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell in Katrina's immediate aftermath).

Which ought be enough for people to start reconsidering whatever the GOP will wind up offering @ Xcel Energy Centre in St. Paul this September for Indecision 2008.

THE APOLOGISTS FOR SOUTH AFRICA'S NOW-DISGRACED POLICIES OF APARTHEID MUST BE DROOLING WITH ENVY over some rather controversial video footage made public just this past week, which you can see below (the dialogue in question is in Afrikaans):