2004
Uncivil War
The Uncivil War is not a book I would have typically purchased for myself. It was sent to me along with an invitation to a discussion group. Humorously enough it was sent by a law firm while Lebedoff goes on at some length about how lawyers are one of the specific groups that typically make up his unimaginatively titled “New Elite”. I’ve been particularly interested in the presidential campaign this year and this book showed up at the right time so I decided to give it a read.
Lebedoff’s text describes a “New Elite” that he believes are fundamentally against majority rule, which he ascribes as one of the most important functions of the American democracy. He believes that this New Elite is in the process of trying to take America away from Americans. While Lebedoff proclaims the book to be non-partisan it is somewhat hard to believe as he spends the first 170 pages of the book showing how Democrat = Liberal = New Elite and how the Republican = Conservative = The Left Behinds. The Left Behinds are his name for those that believe that the majority is right.
It’s hard to swallow his naming and categorization of people in these bins. Perhaps any text that tries to take such a simple approach to the American public is bound to have these type of problems. Perhaps it’s also my own personal beliefs that conflict with Lebedoff’s and make his theories seem so conspiracy theorist and convoluted. Of course the author could simply write me off by saying that I were one of the New Elite. As any prejudiced label is bound to do, it makes the argument simple by writing off the opposing opinion. Something that he proclaims the New Elite does all the time.
It took 180 pages and nearly the entire book for Lebedoff to make any reference to a republican agenda or elected official as a member of the new elite. He picks Newt Gingrich and even when he does he pardons Gingrich with temporarily using New Elite tactics. Please…
I do believe there is a “New Elite” but it’s not limited to liberals and educated people. There clearly is a desire to minimize the majority electoral practice in favor of the game of politics. And both parties are equally guilty of this.
As a final note, I found it somewhat revealing that while the author goes on and on about majority rule and how important it is he makes no reference to the fact that Gore won the popular vote in 2000 and lost the election. As Lebedoff even uses this election as an example of the success of the Left Behinds, I find it surprising that there was no reference to an action that flies clearly in the face of what Lebedoff suggests is so critical to the future of America.
Team America
This Tuesday we got the opportunity (Thanks Chad!) to go and see a sneak preview of Team America. This is the newest movie from the creators of South Park. The schtick for this is that the entire thing is filmed using puppets. I have to admit that I found the fight seens with puppets banging against each other and strings clearly visible was pretty funny.
Don’t go to this expecting any cerebral entertainment. If you went to anything from the creators of South Park expecting something other than just mindless chuckles you are sadly confused. It’s a funny movie, and the political overtones are humorous. However, I may wait and catch this one on video rather than shell out hard earned dollars for it.
Defending the Caveman
Last night Tammy and I went to Defending the Caveman by Rob Becker. I’d heard this was a really funny show and was not disapointed. Becker’s 100 minutes of reflection made me laugh pretty hard.
It’s worth checking out if you have the opportunity.
I wouldn’t say that I’m a Francophile, but blocking cell phone signals in theatres sounds like a great idea to me!
TC 10 Mile Run
I got to be the spectator today while Tammy did her longest running event ever. Today was the Twin Cities Marathon and Tammy ran the sister event in the morning called the TC10 or the Shortcut to the Capital. Her longest run prior to this was a 9 mile training run and she wasn’t starting with a lot of confidence this morning. She has had trouble running because her knee has been hurting every time she runs.
Today was no exception, her knee started hurting her after a couple of miles but she kept going. She was able to make the whole 10 miles and averaged just below 10 minute miles. She was disappointed since she felt the run wasn’t too bad, but her knee was absolutely killing her. Without the injury, she felt she could have done so much better. She’s limping around fairly badly now. I’m sure it will be better in a couple of days, but she’ll need to take it easy for a bit.
I was very proud of her either way – and it was kind of fun to be the spectator and photographer.
New Vacuum
Having your own website is pretty fun. You get to be your own editor and can decide what things you feel are important and want to share with people. Sometimes things happen that really don’t seem that big. For example, you may get rain gutters installed on your house. Why would you ever put that up on a web site? Who else would ever care about that? Probably nobody.
You may think that getting a new vacuum cleaner would be the pinnacle example of such trivial nonsense that has no place being shared with others around the world. It’s just a vacuum cleaner! Who cares!? Really. Get over it.
Well, I’m telling you, this is not just a vacuum cleaner. This is a miracle machine. It sucks dirt and cat hair with an efficiency that brings a tear to your eye. It leaves a visibly cleaner and more enticing carpet in it’s trail. It is the Dyson DC07 Animal.
First off, how cool is it that the vacuum is called Animal. Really, they’ve figured out how to get a man to actually care about what the vacuum is. Animal! Grrr! The thing is big, tough looking and purple. A manly purple, none of this lilac business. It could be in the shop, but it’s meant for your house.
The real sweetness is tasted when you fire this thing up after reading the instructions. You really have to read them, it’s a bit complicated. This is a turbine vacuum. No bags for this baby. And it’s got this super cool clear turbine thingamajig where all the dirt and most notably cat hair spins around like it’s in a little tornado. We ran this thing three times in a row in one room and took a half-gallon milk jug stuffed full of cat hair off the floor. There was more there, but we stopped for now.
When you take the dirt tornado thingamajig off it’s like this Ghost Busters contraption that you take over to your trash can, pull a trigger, and the bottom flips off and the junk falls out. Yeah baby!
If you have a pets, you need an Animal. This thing will suck the eyeballs out of a frog through the patio door. Amazing. I’ll be sleeping on the carpet tonight.. it’s that good. 🙂
Napolean Dynamite
Tammy and I went to Napolean Dynamite this evening. I have to admit right off that this movie did not endear me in any way at all. I generally thought it was stupid, without any interesting characters and even the couple of laughs were minor at best. I’m sure my experience wasn’t helped by the fact that the theatre was crowded with young teenagers.
What is it with groups of young teenagers!? They all have cell phones. They take calls in the movie and yack on their phone right in the middle of everything. Grrr! Tammy turned and told the three particularly moronic girls behind us to “shut up and turn off your phone”. Didn’t do a lot of good though.
Anyway, the movie reminded me of the film equivalent of a Ween album. However, unlike Ween which I find a little interesting, Napolean Dynamite just went on, and on, and on… 90 minutes of meandering nothingness.
Tammy didn’t dislike this as much as I did. Aside from the teens in the theatre, she thought it was an OK movie. Seems the critics also side more with her than I. Your milage may vary.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
I think it was three years ago that I caught the Harry Potter bug. In a matter of a couple of months I had read the four books that were available and loved every page. Yes, it’s a kids book. But the story is just great.
I was very excited when the fifth book, the Order of the Phoenix, came out. I had pre-ordered it at least a year in advance on Amazon.com and it seemed like forever to wait. When I got the nearly 900 page tome I started reading it right away.
But then something happened. For the first time ever I wasn’t all that excited to read it and it sat on my nightstand for months. I finally picked it back up and got infected with the Potter frenzy again.
The book was a great read. Very enjoyable (even with a 6 month pause in the middle). Clearly the story is evolving to even bigger and bigger levels. Now the wait begins for Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince!
Hot Air Balloon Scams
I broke this originally in early June when I wrote my Expose on the Hot Air Balloon industry. My theory has proven itself out. As I said before, this is the perfect system. You buy tickets ahead of time and for mysterious and unknown reasons your flight never happens. “Oh, a bird flew south today so we cannot fly.” Sure…
I called for the umpteenth time to schedule our flight a while ago and found out that Aamodt’s Hot Air Balloons is no longer in business. To be honest, I was a little excited about this. Great, I can just get my money back for these certificates and forget this crazy mess.
Yeah, right. They cannot be reached on the phone. Multiple calls are not returned. Mail is returned to sender. All the while, they’ve got nearly $300 (and have had it now for at least 3 years) and I am positive I’ll never see a cent of it.
Nice going. It really sucks that one of the tickets was a gift from my family. Not the way anyone wants a gift to unfold.
Take my advice. Don’t ever pay for one of these things unless you are getting off of the balloon having just enjoyed a great ride.
Chet Ringwall in the Paper
The Minot Daily News ran a big interview with my grandpa from my birth-fathers side of the family. They keep referring to him as Chester but I never heard him called that once, he’s always been Chet. My fondest memories of Chet and the farm were of winter and riding on a real, honest-to-goodness sleigh that he had restored behind a magnificent pair of horses. I also remember building a snowman in the entryway of the farmstead (I figured it was too cold outside), chasing chickens around in the summer and staring at the goat herds with the dogs. It’s amazing how stuff like that still sits deep in your heart and head so many years later.
This interview is one of a number of pieces I’ve read in recent months about the part of the country I spent some of my earliest years in. An entire way of life is disappearing in front of us, and a lot of people probably don’t even know it. All of the stereotypes of rural North Dakota are essentially true. It’s bitterly cold and nothing for scenery. But the people are amazing and the roots run very deep. I remember on a regular basis going to the cafe with my other Grandpa, Ardell, in Lignite, ND (I am completely stunned to find that Lignite has a web page, wow! To give you an idea of the size of the town, this is the whole phone book.) and sitting at the counter with the other men. There is nothing like that in the cities that the majority of us live in.
I hope that I will have the opportunity to bring my children, and even their children, back to this part of the world and tell them about it.
Columbus man talks of decades of farming
By MARVIN BAKER, Staff Writer mbaker@ndweb.com
COLUMBUS - Chester Ringwall has a lot of stories to tell. There’s a lot of information stored in his memory since the 1920s. But the 80-year-old Ringwall doesn’t like to reminisce with crowds of people. He’d prefer telling you about the past one-on-one.
Time has certainly slowed him down, however, Ringwall keeps going day to day by taking care of some livestock.
Back in the day, Ringwall raised as many as 15 flocks of turkeys because business was good in Minot and Williston after World War II.
His son Charlie and wife Roberta now raise chickens in the same brooder house that kept a roof over the turkeys for so many years. Chester Ringwall believes chickens are more difficult than turkeys even after watching his son’s work the past seven years.
Ringwall also raised as many as 250 sheep at one time, but that number has dwindled to just 16 ewes. He can no longer protect that many animals from the predators.
“These are basically here to keep the grass down,” Ringwall said. “Twenty-eight coyotes were taken by the state on the soil banks south of Columbus.”
He also cares for four ponies, which are his pride and joy. And he tinkers in the vintage 1916 barn that still stands on the Burke County homestead just a couple of miles east of Columbus.
Some of his handiwork includes renovating buggies and sleighs, but as he describes it, parts are so hard to get hold of these days. Still, Ringwall drives on as much as he can because if the sheep and ponies don’t keep him going, the nostalgia certainly will.
“It would sure be fun to go back to the old days. I would like to go to Amish country and see it all again,” Ringwall said. “Farming with horses was kind of peaceful in those days. You could hear the dirt turning and the leather squeaking.”
Farming has indeed changed a great deal over the years, he admits. Ringwall has seen farms grow by leaps and bounds and has seen the community of Columbus shrink by the same ratio.
As a result, he believes farming is its own worst enemy.
“I can’t say that I quit farming. I don’t know if I ever quit,” Ringwall said. “This bigness has sure gotten the best of the country, but this farm has been good to us.”
And when he needed parts for his machinery, a dealer was nearby, even though many people in North Dakota think Columbus and northern Burke County are so isolated, with Minot 99 miles to the southeast and Williston 93 miles southwest.
A short 12-mile trip, however, to southeastern Saskatchewan’s principal city, Estevan, alleviated any broken down machinery problems and while there, Ringwall usually picked up other supplies. He doesn’t get to Estevan much anymore, but can still see Canadian progress from his farm in two power plants just across the border toward the northwest.
Ringwall said that to this day, he can’t imagine how his parents raised a family in a 10-foot by 14-foot shack. His father, Hjalmer, was a Swedish immigrant who arrived in Columbus via Cooperstown with four horses and a buggy in 1903.
The elder Ringwall was fond of growing trees, according to Chester, and it shows today. The farm on the high prairie has an abundant variety of evergreen and deciduous trees, a great shrine to show his effort from a century ago on the treeless plains.
Ringwall, who walks with a diamond willow cane, said there are plenty of willow trees around but he doesn’t know where to locate diamond willow. The species, which is native to North Dakota, typically grows in river bottom land and has become somewhat of a rare species.
When Ringwall got married in 1948, he said he built a new house for $3,600 but it didn’t have electricity. He recalls his head carpenter worked for $1 per hour.
He can also remember in the late ’40s hauling coal from a mine south of Columbus back to the farm six miles away.
“It took 20 tons of coal a year and at one time, coal cost 65 cents a ton,” he said. “So in 1948-49, it cost us less than a $20 bill for heat.”
And back when property lines became established, fences were put in to keep the cattle and sheep on the homesteader’s property. Nowadays, those fence lines are being yanked out of the ground to make more room for tillage and planting of grain. Often times, original landowners would bury items or leave old machinery along those section lines.
“They’re pulling them up and finding what you call artifacts,” Ringwall said. “But I remember what some of those things actually are.”
And growing up just six miles south of the international boundary, he also has food memories of the Prohibition days, even though he was a young boy. Ringwall has heard plenty of stories about the liquor runs between North Dakota and Saskatchewan.
“Liquor was certainly available during Prohibition days,” he said. “They used to call this road right out here ‘whiskey run.’”
That road today is Burke County Road 7, which is a gravel road running north and south from the Canadian border and past the Ringwalls on the east side of the farmstead.
He added at one time there was a coulee along the border northwest of Columbus where someone lived. There was also someone living near the coulee on the Saskatchewan side.
“I think there was a tunnel across the line and they were bringing booze back and forth,” he said.
Another story related to the border involved Ringwall’s own commerce. He recalls having taken five Shetland ponies to a market in Prince Albert, Sask. When he came back, he came through the port of entry at nearby Portal and was questioned. He was asked what he was hauling. He told the border patrol agent that he had sold some ponies in Prince Albert, but apparently, the agent didn’t believe him.
“The young fellow was giving me trouble,” Ringwall said. “The chief came out and said ‘Hi Chet!’ That ended that.”
(Prairie Profile is a weekly feature profiling interesting people in our region. We welcome suggestions from our readers. Call Regional Editor Eloise Ogden at 857-1944 or Managing Editor Kent Olson at 857-1939. Either can be reached at 1-800-735-3229. You also can send e-mail suggestions to (mdnews@ndweb.com).