Superbowl Ads

Posted on 7 February 2011 by Erik Hare | 5 Comments

The Superbowl is over, and the Packers won a great game. I couldn’t have asked for much more, except a Steelers win, but that wasn’t coming to a team that managed to cough the ball up three times. For many people, however, the game was just the setting – the event that got them huddled around the teevee with friends with a little bit of everything for everyone. That obviously includes the ads – aired at a cost of $3 million for every 30 seconds.

But do these ads – big single events on what is increasingly called “old media” – really sell anything?

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Teachers with Experience

Posted on 4 February 2011 by Erik Hare | 12 Comments

Should it be easier to become a teacher? An simplified alternative licensing procedure for Minnesota has been outlined by SF40, a bill introduced to our newly Republican State Senate. The core of the proposal is that school districts must have in place a system for bringing in anyone who has a four-year degree, make their way through at least 200 hours of intensive training, and can pass a test. It’s something that caught my attention because I’ve often thought about becoming a High School teacher – but the current system is arduous and very expensive for those of us who want to change mid-career. Is this a good idea?

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Superlatives!

Posted on 2 February 2011 by Erik Hare | 16 Comments

It’s become a staple of The Daily Show lately. A Democratic Congressman works down the list of talking points by Republicans on the Health Care bill and compares it to the “Big Lie” of Joseph Göbbels and the Nazis. Jon Stewart pokes at the hyperbole, saying, “You don’t have to go there. There’s already a perfectly good word for liars … liars”. But this is far from the only example of excessive use of superlatives.

It’s become a total epidemic that threatens to end life as we know it!

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No Decision, Big Decision

Posted on 31 January 2011 by Erik Hare | 14 Comments

When is no decision actually a policy? In government it’s often the default position, a deliberate plan to stay the course and keep things the way they are. Bureaucracy has a tendency to be conservative, punting whenever it can and allowing things to stay as they are. But in a time of great change or even crisis, is this acceptable? Increasingly there are signs that Minnesota has become a state mired by diffuse responsibility and an inability for the government to respond to the situation at hand in a way that is effective.

No action can be very dangerous. But there is increasing evidence that it is become a serious problem – and I doubt that Minnesota is alone.

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The Pop Bowl

Posted on 28 January 2011 by Erik Hare | 10 Comments

Y’ins gon’ rut fer Stillers? I ask the room for its opinion in my best Pittsburghese, a language I’m woefully out of practice with. Nevermind. Out here in Saint Paul no one can tell if I’m getting it right or not. The language, with deep Polish and Appalachian roots never made it outside of the hills of Western Pennsylvania a land with its own rugged rhythm tempered by a gentle decency. It’s an easy culture to define by language but a hard one to get to know.

The upcoming Superbowl features two teams from “The Midwest”, the industrial heart of the nation that quietly defines much of what we consider solid and good about the USofA. We can find this stretch on a map as one people, but we can also hear it in the way they talk and the values they cherish. It’s where football itself was founded and continues to thrive in basic principles of fair competition. It’s America both unassumingly small and big hearted at the same time.

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