It's a small place, with food that's tasty, even though I can't vouch for "authenticity" beyond liking it - a lot, and recognizing it as not really Vietnamese and not really Thai.

Nice people run it, and I sadly don't get there enough. If you happen to find yourself in St. Paul, MN, it's on University Avenue, and called Cheng Heng. Been there for some years, and people keep going, so they'll probably be there for some years more - I hope. It's a tough business.

Norman (Quimby) Coleman is one of the sleaziest characters Minnesota has ever sent to elective office. That he'd be OK with deporting a beating or rape victim in order to pander to the paranoid hard-right crowd does not surprise me in the least.

I am personally not in favor of illegal immigration, and there is one and only one answer to it, just to step to the side a bit here in order to address the overarching issue: Make the employment of an illegal immigrant a felony, make the second violation (or concurrent employment of two or more) punishable under RICO statutes, beginning with pretrial asset seizure.

Back to Norman Quimby, I am hoping strongly that he is looking for a new job after next fall. Minnesota deserves better.

Quibble out of the way: "...Oden at 19 is more polished offensively at this point than Ewing was when he came into the league at 23. He has better hands and he played a smarter offensive game as a freshman at Texas than Ewing did in his prime with the New York Knicks."

Greg Oden is emerging from Ohio State. But you knew that.

And I'd take him first as well.

Patrick Ewing never got his ring because the rest of the Knicks around him ranged from adequate to bizarre, and because the opposition around the division and league were very, very good at the time. Give him the cast that surrounded Willis Reed (the last great Knick center) and he'd have been a winner, no doubt.

Here in Minnesota, we're watching a strange drama unfold around Kevin Garnett. Trades are rumored with everyone except the Chicago Cubs. (Can he play right field?) I doubt one will happen, he's kind of expensive, and even Kevin McHale can't make him enough of a giveaway to get a trade package done by tonight. And it's a shame - I like KG, and he deserves at least one ring. His supporting cast over the last several years makes Ewing's look like All-Stars. And now, with some decent youngsters (Rashad McCants, if he stays healthy, for one, Randy Foye, and a good pick at #7 in a fairly deep draft) finally appearing at Target Center, he's on the block.

Me, at #7 I think I'd take Noah - yes, he needs a bit of work on his shot, but the guy's a winner, and plays with heart every time out. And what he would also bring is some much needed speed to the T-Wolves lineup - they've needed that for years. In the absence of any big, physical inside "intimidator" I'd go for the athleticism and intensity Noah provides. Or someone with a scary high 3-point shooting percentage...

I watched a lot of the event. Some of it was great, some was quite forgettable. And I do think we need to address the worsening climate crisis, and fast.

That said, all the CFLs, unplugged phone chargers, and Prius hybrids in the world will not have the desired effect unless and until there is adoption, as a national policy, in every capital worldwide, a massive public works revision of the energy and transport infrastructures. It takes vision and political courage, which we lack in DC now.

A pleasant side effect of this would be the creation of many, many high-value-additive jobs building wind and wave generators, geothermal systems, solar panels, and laying inter- and intra-city rail lines, as well as constructing the rolling stock for those lines. Creating the tools here, as well as installing the infrastructure, makes far more sense, the cost and energy savings realized by doing it locally ought to be obvious to anyone.

It's going to require an undertaking akin to multiplying the Manhattan Project by the Apollo Project to make this work. We have the ability. The question is whether we have the vision and the will. And time is getting very short. In the next 40 to 50 years, the world will increase in population by roughly 50%. If we don't change things now, that increase is going to help make things very, very ugly indeed.

But yeah, lots of the concerts were pretty cool...

People will pay for their oil. This, we know.

Cost is not the issue, as even a little thought will illustrate. The real "breaking point" will come when that difficult-to-extract oil requires more energy to extract than it yields. In other words, when it takes more than a barrel of oil's worth of energy to get a barrels' worth of oil from the ground to the gas pump.

Once it becomes a net energy loss, oil is over, no matter what cash prices are.

I care far less about X or Y chromosomes on any potential candidate for next year, and far more about wisdom, vision, and good judgment.

We might well all be advised to care similarly. Just my own opinion...

And yes, let's also have more and better ways of slagging Republicans in catchy and especially "sticky" ways. And more effort to take such ideas and catchphrases and disseminate them widely. Ridicule is a far to little used tool on our side. Less whining and carping, more insults and belittling.