Illegal Gay Terrorists

Since I live in a stereotypic American, suburban, bedroom community the number of non-chain restaurants is rather limited so it is with joy that I report that my neighbor Dave and I had a very tasty lunch today at a locally-owned establishment called -- "Jan's Brown Bag Deli" -- which you can contact at 952.431.DELI -- yes sad they don't have a website :)

I had Jan's "U-Boat" sandwich which was a collection of German meats served on pumpernickel bread. It was so tasty I was ready to invade a country if needed to eat one more (insert laughter here)!! The staff was very friendly and the decor felt like a New York City deli. Although they forgot to bring our glasses of water to the table since they were pretty business I would still rate them with a "3.5" on my 5 point scale since this is the kind of neighborhood restaurant every community should have in business.

Now some FOOD for thought --

The front page of my local newspaper today reported on a new poll of Minnesota voters regarding what their "top issues" are for this November's elections. For the 2006 election Minnesota has the governor's re-election race against our current Attorney General, an open Attorney General's office campaign, and an open US Senate seat up for grabs so overall this is an exciting year for politics in Minnesota. The poll results included:

TOP ISSUES FOR MINNESOTA VOTERS - 2006:

Education -- 23%
Health Care -- 23%
Economy - 15%
Iraq war - 12%
Illegal Immigration - 7%
Gas prices -- 5%
Terrorism - 5%
Gay marriage - 4%

Source: University of Minnesota poll of 1,023 voters

First let me state my obvious biased world view -- I am very concerned, almost depressed that "Taxes" did not register as one of these top eight public policy concerns for my fellow Minnesotans. But beyond that let me impress readers with my math skills! :)

Now if Minnesota suffered an attack by a group of gay terrorists who crossed the Mexico/USA border illegally -- yes of course Minnesota is a long way from Mexico and borders Canada of course but the US Congress is funding the creation of a fence across the Mexican border to keep illegal aliens out since apparently our border with Canada is not a threat to our security and of course because Canadians don't look like "Mexicans" (racism at its finest?) -- the current (primarily) Republican leadership in the US Congress and the Minnesota Legislature would be returned to office in a landslide!!

Why? Just do the math. If you simply up these three "Top Issues" based on this Minnesota Poll:
Illegal immigration -- 7%
Terrorism -- 5%
Gay marriage -- 4%

TOTAL -- 16%

Which would make this new, aggregate "top issue" the new #3 concern for Minnesotans after Education (23%) and Health Care (23%).

If you can't tell yet I am highlighting the mis-guided overemphasis placed on these three issues by too many of our current political leaders who have spent too much time and tax dollars championing the need for --

• a Mexican-USA border fence/wall
• constitutional amendments to "defend the santity of marriage" by preventing homosexuals from marrying despite the high divorce rate among public officials
• airport security checks that consider tweezers to be offensive weapons

I am ready to vote my wallet.

Enjoy your meal,

Todd