It is a non-profit, after all

Many non-profits need volunteers in order to meet their goals. Naturally, the NFL is looking for volunteers for this year's Super Bowl in Arizona. They only need a few - like 10,000.

The league drives a hard bargain with cities that host the Super Bowl. Here's what its getting from Minneapolis, site of the 2018 Super Bowl:

    every cent of ticket revenue 
 · 35,000 free parking spaces 
 · Free ads in local newspapers and on radio stations, and lots of free billboards 
· All ATMs at the stadium must be those with NFL-approved credit cards 
 · Free presidential suites in the top hotels 
 · If cellphone reception isn't quite good enough around and about, then Minneapolis has to build the NFL sufficient new cellphone towers 
 · The NFL even unsuccessfully tried to demand the right to select the only vendors at the airport — the public airport — who could sell NFL merchandise.

That's the kind of support most non-profits get. Right?

In Minnesota?

It's not rare to find that your cab driver has a hard time with English, particularly if you're coming from an airport. However, it is rare, at least in my experience, to have a cab driver refuse to take you if you are carrying liquor. Yet, that is what is happening at the Minneapolis airport, where three-fourths of the cab drivers are Muslim. While the Koran prohibits drinking alcohol, but not transporting it, these drivers want to go beyond the Koran - and beyond the laws of our country.

Then, there are the Muslim clerks at Target stores in the Minneapolis area. They will not scan pork products; the customer or another clerk must do it. Again, the Koran allows people to touch, but not eat, pork. Why Target keeps these people on is beyond me. I'm sure there are aspects of the job that some non-Muslim clerks hate. Would they get fired if they said their religion barred them from doing that part of the job?

Something doesn't make sense here. If you are so upset about coming near alcohol or pork, then find a job where you can avoid them.

Prescient Paul

Here's a quote from a speech made by Ron Paul in April 2005:

Today it’s easier to get funding to rebuild infrastructure in Iraq than to build a bridge in the United States.

While this comment is relevant today in light of the Minneapolis bridge disaster, the speech as a whole is also quite relevant to today's predicaments.

What do you make of these quotes?

"So if you compare Facebook and Twitter, which seem pretty cool, to electricity or the internal combustion engine, or the airplane, it’s just not that important.” by Neel Kashkari, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.

“The things at which Google and its peers excel, from Internet search to mobile software, are changing how we work, play and communicate, yet have had little discernible macroeconomic impact. Productivity—the goods and services a worker produces in an hour—grew just 0.4% per year over the past five years…” by Greg Ip, reporter for the Wall Street Journal.

Courtesy of Wall Street on Parade.

Our bridges are not in good shape

The NY times has introduced a new feature, Retro Report, which looks at past stories in the light of the early 21st century. The first article is about the 2007 collapse of the I-35W Bridge spanning the Mississippi River in Minneapolis. Thirteen people died. Nearly 150 others were injured. Many vehicles fell into the river. The problem was there from the day the bridge was completed in the 1960s.

I've written about our deficient infrastructure often. But we're still not spending the money we need to. Of 607,000 bridges in this country, more than 65,000 are deemed “structurally deficient” by experts. Some 20,000 bridges around the country are labeled “fracture critical,” which means that the entire structure could collapse should a single critical component break. At least 8,000 bridges fall into both of those categories. Most bridges are meant to last 50 years; those classified as structurally deficient are, on average, a good deal older than that.

When will we learn?

The Golden Kitty

“Henri 2, Paw de Deux” won the first Golden Kitty award given at the Cat Video Festival in Minneapolis.

A Sad Occasion

The Pillsbury Doughboy died yesterday in Minneapolis of a yeast infection and traumatic complications from repeated pokes in the belly. He was 71. 

Doughboy was buried in a lightly greased coffin. Dozens of celebrities turned out to pay their respects, including Mrs. Butterworth, Hungry Jack, the California Raisins, Betty Crocker, the Hostess Twinkies, and Captain Crunch. The gravesite was piled high with flours. Aunt Jemima delivered the eulogy and lovingly described Doughboy as a man who never knew how much he was kneaded. 

Born and bread in Minnesota, Doughboy rose quickly in show business, but his later life was filled with turnovers. He was not regarded as a very smart cookie, wasting much of his dough on half-baked schemes. Despite being a little flaky at times, he still was a crusty old man and served as a positive roll model for millions. 

Doughboy is survived by his wife, Play Dough, three children: John Dough, Jane Dough and Dosey Dough, plus they had one in the oven. He is also survived by his elderly father, Pop Tart. The funeral was held at 3:50 for about 20 min. If you smiled while reading this, please rise to the occasion and pass it on to someone having a crumby day and kneading a lift.

Courtesy of a child friend

Minneapolis gets tough

Starting May 11 cab drivers who refuse to transport people who are carrying alcohol will be barred from driving cabs at the airport for 30 days for the first offense and two years for the second. Some of these drivers have refused to take the passenger to his destination when they find out a passenger is carrying alcohol. This is aimed at the Muslim drivers who want to go beyond the Koran, which allows the carrying of alcohol.

The drivers see it as being against religious freedom. They should move to a land where sharia is the law of the land. Fortunately, that is not the case in Minnesota.

Soliciting votes in the Men's Room

Remember Larry Craig?  He was a long time Senator from Idaho who was arrested back in 2007 for soliciting sex in the Men's Room at Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport.  He eventually paid $216,000 to his lawyers before pleading guilty to a disorderly conduct charge.  The money came from his campaign funds.  The Federal Election Commission claims that was a misuse of these funds.  Craig claims he was on official business plus other Congressmen were able to use campaign funds for similar offenses.

I find his reasoning faulty.  I don't see how soliciting sex qualifies as official business.  Nor do I understand the reasoning that if one person gets away with murder then others should also.

Hubert Humphrey Must Be Rolling in His Grave

Who would have thought that the leaders of Minneapolis and St. Paul would authorize their police forces to infiltrate groups that would be protesting at the GOP convention? I certainly never thought that what I considered a liberal state would countenance the behavior that resulted - in Glenn Greenwald's words, "teams of 25-30 officers in riot gear, with semi-automatic weapons drawn, entering homes of those suspected of planning protests, handcuffing and forcing them to lay on the floor, while law enforcement officers searched the homes, seizing computers, journals, and political pamphlets." Reporters were stopped at gunpoint. Lawyers representing detainees were handcuffed at the scene.

The Land of the Free?

Farms having problems

Over the last 12 months ending in June, 84 farms have declared bankruptcy in Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Montana, more than doubling the number of bankruptcies over the same stretch in 2013/2014, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.

Does the trade war help or hurt the situation?