Americana

I attended the first Badgers football game of the season today, which also happened to be my first college football game (of the American variety, that is). In fact, excepting one of my cousin Karl's high school games, it was my first football game ever. It wasn't the thrill of a lifetime by any means, but I enjoyed myself. Officially, I "sat" in section M, row 47, seat 27. In reality I spent the game standing on or near that section of the bleachers.

This evening I did a little looking into the U.S. Representative race back home in Minnesota's third district. Jim Ramstad has a Republican opponent this year. I wasn't really sure what to expect in this new guy, whose name is Burton Hanson, but I visited his site, and I am really floored by this guy. I haven't read everything, but he sounds perfect thus far. I really hope this guy gets enough out-of-party activity to at least give Ramstad a run for his money.

Also, I watched The French Connection, which surprised me with it's New York locale; I guess I've always thought it would be in Europe like Ronin, which is so often compared to it. I suppose the title didn't do anything to dissuade me from such an erroneous belief.

And while I address things American this evening (or morning, I guess), I just thought I would ask my readers about the situation in Florida. Bush is showing his compassionate side by promising billions of dollars of money to help Floridians rebuild after these hurricanes. It seems to me though, that this is an act of "compassion" that actually negates the "conservative" part of his tagline. I guess this is one of the cases where I am quite conservative; I'm pro-choice and against drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, but I really don't see this kind of spending to be an acceptable use of federal money. I really don't want my tax dollars going to a bunch of people who live in an area that is often hit by tropical storms for the purpose of building new structures that will be destroyed and/or flooded sometime in the foreseeable future. Where's the incentive to improve and innovate if we just bail these people out time and again? Any thoughts?