The Blaisdell Blog

“ A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state , the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. ”   That is the wording of the 2 nd Amendment to the Constitution.   For those of you who think this is an excuse to allow assault weapons to be broad cast throughout the land I would point out that the reference is to a, “well regulated militia.”   If you want guns, join the military, or the police, or the National Guard.   If you really want to interpret that wording to mean that every Tom, Dick and Harry gets as many guns as he can haul home, well then I get to interpret it to mean that only duly authorized militia get to have arms.               I would also like to point out that the 2 nd Amendment is just that, an amendment.   It is not part of the original Constitution.   It is part of the first 10 amendments added to the Constitution after it was originally enacted.   These 10 amendments, added as a block in 1791, are part

I am my family’s historian.   It isn’t the job I wanted, but it is a job I have grown into.   The Blaisdell branch of the family (my maternal grandfather) has been in this country since 1635.   My grandfather Blaisdell’s people came to Minnesota via Canada .   They left Massachusetts for Canada at around the time of the Revolutionary War.   A little creative intelligence tells me that those ancestors (about 9 generations back) were probably British sympathizers.   My other three grandparents were immigrants, two from Norway , one from Poland via Germany .               Most of you out there are probably thinking that what my ancestors did makes no difference to how I should be judged today.   I am a free standing being, making my own choices, my own decisions and my own mistakes.   For all of which I should be accountable both publicly and privately.   You are right, though I feel a certain obligation to my ancestors to carry forward a worthy genetic product.             

Who cares?   At this point, who cares?   Hillary, well rehearsed and focused on dissembling, delivered the line in an Oscar-worthy performance.   Once again, standing behind a lying man, she is willing to trade her, “also ran” standing on the world stage for personal honor.   Since graduating college, this woman does not have a single item on her resume that she did not acquire but by being a compliant apologist to a philandering, but powerful, husband.   Well, at least she married well.   Now, once again the faithful ploy, she is lying as well as she can so President Obama is not revealed as a careless, unschooled and ideologically driven leader, unequal to his most relevant task.                 Anyone, not sold, body and soul, on the myth of The Obama knows what happened in Libya .   The administration wanted to maintain an appearance of having tamed the Islamic militants.   The violence against an American Embassy (essentially American soil in the midst of a foreign count

Newsweek Magazine has offered up a teasing cover of President Obama, billing him as, “The Second Coming.”   How that must have titillated the magazines editor, Tina Brown.   She is one of those journalists (a title evidently offered anyone who earns a, “gentleman’s C” at college) who get dewy every time she hears the President’s name.   She gets to ridicule religion and deify her man all at the same time.   She thinks she is clever.             In the mean time, in the parallel universe of sport news, the press loves the story of Mani Te’o and his imaginary girlfriend.   I may be the only person in the United States who feels sorry for this young man.   Whether he was a willing participant in the hoax, a total dupe, or falls somewhere in between, this is a sad tale of people needing attention at any cost.   What makes Te’o even more pathetic, is the fact that all of the older, wiser, heads surrounding him chose hype over due diligence.   The University and the press shamefully

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association has been passing out awards since 1944.    This vacuous group of snooty foreigners makes its choices in a narrow, but effective, way.   Golden Globes are given to the person/film studio/organization who gives them the most money or the best parties.   Golden Globes are put up for sale and awarded to the highest bidder.   My goodness, what an honor that must be!               Actually, if you want to fill a vacuum with—well—another vacuum, could you really do better than Hollywood , the press and their fawning minions? Hollywood lightweights are frantic to appear relevant in some way.   Your average Hollywood entertainment worker isn’t particularly bright, but they do realize they are paid disproportionate to their worth to society.   When it comes to what this nation needs you aren’t going to hear many people say that what would really straighten out the mess is another good actor.   We need droves of superlative teachers, scientists, ec

There are some things that are always going to be true.   Any recipe that starts out, “brown up a pound of bacon” is going to be a good recipe.   Any business that has, “honest” in its name will cheat you out of your last dime.   When a doctor says, “You may feel a little pinch…” slap a leather strap between your teeth.   Add to this list the fact that some people will always be welfare cheats.               I am not shocked that government issued EBT (Electronic Benefit Transfer) cards are being used to get money ($158-$433/family/month) out of ATM’s at strip clubs, bars and casinos.    I am a little flummoxed by the lack of concern about the lost revenue that this fraud represents on the part of the Democrats.   The current administration loves forking money over for social programs.   Just like Tammany Hall in reconstruction era New York , they are buying votes and they know it.    The money siphoned off welfare programs by the cheats represents money that could be used to gr

For being a practicing, communing, believing Lutheran, I am also embarrassingly proud of my Viking ancestors.   I come from a long line of people who put their stamp on the terms, “rape, pillage and blunder.”   Since half my ancestors come from this Viking mold, and the other from the pagan heights of the Lancashire area near the town of Bleas Dale in Great Britain , there may well be a certain amount of incestuous inbreeding in my past.   The Vikings loved invading, inseminating and occasionally ruling the British Isles .   So it should be no surprise that my DNA shows strong intertwined strands of the peoples of this part of the world.   Add that to my two Norwegian grandmothers and you have two groups of people who may have come together more than once in the dim past.   Oh well, none of us are responsible for more than our own actions.             It turns out that the History Channel will be airing a scripted series on the Vikings this coming March 3, 2013.   They did a go

  Do you make New Year’s resolutions?   I do.   No matter how many times you make the same old promise and fall short you get to try one more time—no questions asked, no recriminations tendered.   It’s a new year, and maybe a new you.   What if we could ask the nation to accept the same optimistic opportunity for renewal?   Given that chance, I would like to see us start an aggressive campaign to improve gifted education in this country.    Our gifted students are an at risk group.   They have a drop out rate equal to all other students (about 5%) but when we lose a gifted student we lose a rare and precious resource.   Unlike students who are musically or athletically gifted there are few bond issues or bake sales devoted to providing special uniforms, special teachers, special buildings and special materials for the gifted.   There is precious little sympathy for their needs and no legislation to make sure that none of them are left behind.   Worst, there is an assumption in t