doctor sobek slapping hos

one of the rare enjoyable things about my car commute is the chance to listen to minnesota public radio's music station KSJN 99.5 FM. the morning show is on when i'm driving to work in the 96 ford escort with the broken speedometer. the two hosts are dale connelly and mr. action, mr. sports, knows all, tells only some, mr. jim ed poole. the morning show delights the ears with an eclectic music selection. this morning they were playing a little woody guthrie.

now i must dedicate space to the former owner of our home.

dr. matthew "tour de force" sobek is a research associate for the minnesota population center at the university of minnesota. dr. sobek is also involved in a world census project. the minnesota population center is currently working to digitize the entire world's census data and post it on the internet. although it might never be completed, it is already the largest and most comprehensive international census database on the planet.

that's nice, but let's get to the reason i find him such a venerable fellow. he lambastes bush and coleman.

i found this on the web (you must read it, although it may induce depression):

election 2004: some facts for republicans

this letter to the editor was in the star tribune yesterday:

coleman's courage

it was inspiring to see norm coleman's call for kofi annan's resignation over the U.N. oil-for-food affair. as coleman says, the "CEO" should take responsibility when something so significant goes wrong.

fortunately, coleman has the moral high ground to take this stance, given his incessant demands that high-level heads roll over the abu ghraib scandal - one of the blackest marks on our national reputation, a terrorist recruitment bonanza, and a danger to american troops in the future.

and who can forget coleman's podium-thumping demands that the ax fall on the head architects of the iraqi occupation, an inexcusably slipshod affair for which we can only guess at the final cost in lives and treasure?

and we all saw how coleman put his political career on the line in calling for a full accounting up the chain regarding the faulty claims about iraqi weapons that were used to justify an unprovoked war. he has surely been a tireless champion calling for accountability from an administration that seems only capable of pointing the finger outward. but that's the kind of consistency - dare we call it integrity - that we've come to expect from our senator.

Matt Sobek, Minneapolis

in other news:
last night was one of those runs that affirms it, i love running. running is catharsis. running in minnesota is great. running in winter is great. after working 8ass to 5ass, i'm always primed for physical activity. running also cures all ills. i've had a little sinus/throat sickness dragging me down this week and i've been hacking greenish industrial glue out of my throat. i've been saving it to use as a garnish. anyway, the run really cleared shit out. thanks run. and the weather was great: calm, quiet, nineteen degrees, crisp, salubrious. running allows my mind to hover between my subconscious and conscious, touching a thousand subjects or relaxing with the om. running.

what makes chains bad?

from tuesday, october 26, 2004
i found an article on kofi's old neighborhood, andersonville in chicago. andersonville commissioned an economic impact study to elucidate the importance of small, locally-owned businesses. "for every $100 spent in 10 locally owned shops studied there, $73 stayed in chicago's economy. for every $100 spent in a chain with comparable products, $43 appeared to stay, according to the study by civic economics, a firm that penned an often-cited 2002 report comparing a chain to a local bookstore in austin, texas. the chicago study found that money spent in local stores stayed local because employees were paid more, owners used more local goods and services for their businesses and contributed more to local charities."

chains are bad for local economies and chains destroy indigenous culture. homogenous=bad. some people like to shorten that to homo=bad. personally, i don't want to live in anyneighborhood, anycity, anystate, U.S.A.

whole foods is a chain. i could do better, say, mississippi market. but whole foods is better than a cub or rainbow. so, are high quality chains good. chains have the power to do a lot of good. star bucks does good.

i don't really know why i shop at whole foods. i'll have to think about that.