Unheralded

RON SCHALOW: Lies, Lies And More Lies

According to the almanac, this is Rob Port’s 715th Heitkamp lie, which I believe beats Basil Ruth’s record. Basil had good run, but was forced to join the circus last year. Rumor, from one of my anonymous sources, suggests that Port was smiling during the abduction but refuses to lift things. Anyway, Sen. Heidi Heitkamp ran an ad, an open …


Unheralded

JIM FUGLIE: View From The Prairie — Could A Facebook Screwup Determine Control Of The U.S. Senate?

Wouldn’t it be something if control of the U.S. Senate turned on a couple of misinterpreted Facebook posts by an overzealous supporter of an obscure senator from North Dakota named Heidi Heitkamp? Could happen. Heidi, who I would have rated last week as having at least a 50-50 chance of holding her seat in the Senate, is in big trouble. …


RON SCHALOW: But Kevin, What If It Was Your Daughter?

Based on his related comments, it’s hard not to imagine a Kevin Cramer conversation with a sexual assault survivor that doesn’t go something like this. A Cramer-related female rushes in the front door, and yells, “Father, er, sir, I’ve been attacked.” Cramer doesn’t look up. “Who are you?” He continues smiling down on a photo of him trying to give …

RON SCHALOW: All Of The Things I Don’t Remember

Caution: Some meandering ahead. I believe Dr. Christine Blasey Ford because I can see, hear and comprehend sincerity. It isn’t a tough call. As for this Brett Kavanaugh character, he has a disposition that would embarrass a Rottweiler. All that snarling would get irritating after about 10 minutes. I’ve seen his type before, and they usually screwed me out of …

NICK HENNEN: Now I See — Me, Too

My first memory was playing in the dirt with a hand trowel just inside a wooded area near my home. I was digging deeply into the tan soil, pulling up chunks to later break down in search of “gold” — all of the good stuff was going into my dump truck, which was nearby. I was really into the moment. …

RON SCHALOW: Why Do Kevin Cramer And Cronies Detest Females?

The regular Kevin Cramer hijinks and loathsome burbs is required writing because the belligerent stupidity is such great fun to opine. After the stomach stops churning. I mean his last gullet convulsing diatribe, on the attempted illegal something versus the completion of an illegal something equals Q was brilliant in it’s combative contempt for women, girls and sanity. I assume …

TONY J BENDER: That’s Life — Move Over, Dorian Gray

I spent more time on my fantasy football picks than the Senate has on Brett Kavanaugh. No matter how it turns out, I’ll have another chance next year. But the Supreme Court is for keeps. If the 53-year-old nominee serves to the age of 90 like Oliver Wendall Holmes Jr. did, he’ll reign until 2055. Ruth Bader Ginsburg will be …

PAULA MEHMEL: Shoot the Rapids — As A Survivor, I Stand With Her

This has been a tough week for survivors of sexual assault. And today, it just got worse. Donald Trump, who prior to this morning had used uncharacteristic restraint, tweeted, “I have no doubt that, if the attack on Dr. Ford was as bad as she says, charges would have been immediately filed with local Law Enforcement Authorities by either her …

PAULA MEHMEL: Shoot the Rapids — Finding Freedom From Shame

I began blogging a couple of years ago, in the aftermath of the Brock Turner sentence. Turner was the 19-year-old Stanford student who drunkenly raped a fellow student and received a ridiculously short jail sentence. I wrote about my own experience as a rape survivor and talked about how there is not a “type” of victim, but there is only …

TOM COYNE: Back In Circulation — Living In Denial

They call them “gawker slowdowns.” Delays caused by curious spectators unable to resist checking out a major accident. While we may shake our heads and feel bad for the victims, there’s often a bit of relief, maybe even some sadistic satisfaction it wasn’t us involved in that car wreck. I grew up in the Twin Cities, earned my degree from …

PAULA MEHMEL — Shoot The Rapids: There Is No ‘Type’ Of Rape Victim

I was 23 when I was raped in 1987. I was also serving as a hospital chaplain as part of my clinical pastoral education for seminary. I remember — as the police responded and as the hospital staff tended to my bruised and battered body — how everyone kept saying, “And she’s a chaplain,” as if there was a “type” to be raped …

TOM DAVIES: The Verdict — Is This Country Becoming Morally Bankrupt?

Watching the Academy Awards Sunday, I wondered why Vice President Joe Biden would be making an appearance. He introduced Lady Gaga, and I thought that was odd, too — until he spoke and she sang, with a group of college-aged men and women in the background. Then Biden spoke of the sexual assaults taking place on college campuses. Lady Gaga …