News discussion topics for the 11/21/2007 Thanksgiving Weekend

Thanks!

Hope you have a good holiday weekend, Chuck

If I have a choice to buy straight gasoline at regular grade I take it. I get about 2 MPG's better. Something the article didn't mention is what choices your local gas station has in buying gas from his wholesaler/refinery. Refineries can offer the best price for the gas they produce the most of. So, if they have to make both, they can't be as price competitive, so they stick to ethanol. The article should also address state mandates for additives and blends. Because each state has different requirements, it limits what refineries make and how large of production runs they have, thus adding to the price of gas. Farm lobby, baby, subsidies, follow the money.

I forgot war funding.

The Democrats are really investing in the defeat of our troups so to win what they think will be electoral gain.

OMG, what happens if we win? I bet that has been said in Pelosi and Reid's closed door meetings.

Gary, you're stoking the conversational fires... Any other topics you'd like to add to the list?

Why MPR and the rest of the mainstream local media aren't demanding more answers from Mark Ritchie, MN Sec. of State, of why he's using his office for politcal campaigning?

You're talking about how he admits to sharing state roster w/ campaign? That's the first I saw of it, and its the kind of thing that is highly unlikely to stay off the radar.

Just think if that were to happen to a Republican. You and the rest of media wouldn't give up on it. You would be on it every day and not let it go, but, since he's a Democrat, the standards for media coverage are different.

My disclaimer: Don't come crying to me next Monday if you ruined the dinner for everyone.

I come from a large contentious family. I have 10 siblings, all whom are as, or more, opinionated than I. Each of my 20 uncles and aunts produced a family of equal or greater size. It is said that if we lived in Italy in the middle ages, our clan would constitute a national power. We would also be as contentious as medieval politics. So we tread lightly at family gatherings.

Years ago, during the height of the Vietnam War, the family gathered for a funeral. Everyone was instructed to be on best behavior. After the reception, the clan gathered at the large house of a relative, and as was typical in those days, we segregated along lines of age and gender. "The boys" gathered on the porch where we all sat quietly eyeing each other. There were some among us in uniform, and others with hair tied in pony tails. There were cousins attending college, and others stuck in dead-end blue collar jobs. So let's just say, we had our differences.

We were doing as instructed -- everyone behaving themselves, until an "arsenic & old lace" great-aunt stepped onto the porch, blinked in confusion and asked "do you boys discuss politics?"

Six hours and twelve bloody noses later, the "discussion" was broke up at the White Castle on University and Lexington by the Saint Paul Police Department.

So yes, we do discuss politics -- but we also avoid it.

Gary, sounds like you're suggesting the media as a topic. I don't know what else to say today.

Seriously, Greg, you need to write that autobiography. Let me get this straight, you took the conversation from the porch to White Castle? Couldn't have been too bad if you decided to get a crave case together *grin*

I understand about the balance between discussing politics and avoiding it. Sometimes our family talks politics and enjoys it - a sort of pleasant tension - and other times it just resembles the worst of an Internet anonymous-posting-trolled thread.

Julie, everything gravitates to the White Castle on University and Lexington - it is in many ways a cultural vortex, a black hole that consumes all around it. I spent many a night there dead-drunk at 3am trying to explain to a cop why I was crawling under the tables looking for loose change.

Alas I have grown wilder since those days, and my morals have become more maleable but I still look back on that time for direction and hope for what I one day may attain.

great topics...I think I'll keep these for Christmas if you don't mind...today was pretty easy and I'm sure Christmas will be tough! LOL

"Alas I have grown wilder since those days," Greg Surely you mean... you haven't. Or you'd be hanging out with all those dead rockers. In any case, your early escapades sounds pretty wild to me. P.S. That was YOU crawling around? Just kidding, that wasn't my White Castle.

Oh Susan, you can keep them. Or count on knowing I'll have more in time for the Christmas holiday.