A South Dakota Moderate

After 2 weeks in the land of fruits and nuts and after a remarkably uneventful return flight that included no delays and empty seats next to me on both legs of the trip home (can the airlines make the seats any smaller?), I am back and catching up on all the news I missed. Besides [...]

I just finished up a long day behind the wheel so I don’t have much time but I did come across a few interesting tidbits besides the Shell Oil poverty post below.
It’s been a good week for Conservative Republican scourge John McCain who not only picked up the endorsements of Rudy Giuliani earlier this week [...]

Vending machines are just about everywhere and nowadays you can almost anything being dispensed by one somewhere. Soda, chips, candy, marijuana? In California at least, the answer is yes.
The World’s first “Weed ATM’s” as they are being dubbed should be available for use in LA and elsewhere in the land of fruit and nuts on [...]

Can you earn a rebate on something you never bought? The latest negotiations over President Bush’s economic stimulus plan now includes tax rebates of at least $300 even to those that didn’t pay any taxes.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi agreed to drop increases in food stamp and unemployment benefits during the Wednesday meeting in exchange for [...]

How much confidence does Wall Street have in President Bush and his financial “Midas Touch”? Well this morning the Dow was up 150 plus points thanks to good news from IBM, that is until the President announced his outline for a $145 billion dollar aid package. It then proceeded to drop like a rock continuing [...]

Let’s play what doesn’t belong…or sticks out like a sore thumb.

Laura Bush from her visit to that bastion of womens rights, the UAE.

addthis_url = ‘http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sdmoderate.com%2F2007%2F10%2F24%2Fwhich-doesnt-belong%2F’;
addthis_title = ‘Which+Doesn%26%238217%3Bt+Belong%3F’;
addthis_pub = ”;

No need for a federal marriage amendment here.

Of course Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad failed to mention the reasons why when speaking at Columbia University yesterday.
Some international gay rights groups believe that more than 4,000 lesbians and gay men have been executed since the Ayatollahs seized power in 1979.

addthis_url = ‘http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sdmoderate.com%2F2007%2F09%2F25%2Fright-wing-utopia%2F’;
[...]

Sioux Falls Mayor Dave Munson has no problem vetoing the hiring of 6 new police officers because of budget issues.
Munson said that the department has added 44 new positions since he took office in 2002. But he warned councilors that the proposed hires weren’t just an issue for next year’s budget. They also would affect [...]

Just a quick note but when I saw that OJ Simpson had just been arrested in Las Vegas for allegedly being involved in a hotel room armed break in, thoughts of Al Capone came to mind. I am sure you remember that Capone, who was widely believed to be among Chicago’s top mob guys as [...]

Updated tallies after the latest Catholic Church $198.1 million agreement with 144 childhood sexual abuse victims in San Diego. Via the AP
Sex abuse by Roman Catholic priests has cost the U.S. church at least $2.1 billion since 1950. Here are some of the largest known payouts to victims since the crisis erupted in 2002 in [...]

I noticed an interesting little tidbit while watching the horrific scenes during the coverage of the I35W bridge collapse next door in Minnesota regarding an event that was canceled because of the tragedy.
As Alanis Morissette would say, isn’t it ironic that a bridge collapse that might have in part been caused by not having [...]

It seems the newly minted Congressman from Minnesota is already making friends on Capitol Hill.
Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) believes it is his right as a Muslim to be sworn into Congress with the Quran. But apparently, the freshman lawmaker doesn’t believe it’s Rep. Tom Tancredo’s (R-Colo.) right to smoke a cigar in his congressional office.
Ellison’s [...]