Craig's Corner

Theraflu is nasty.  It’s totally effective and I swear by it, but the “lemon” taste is just awful.  I reintroduced myself to it this week as the temperatures in the Twin Cities went from 80 to 40 to 70 to 40 day to day sending my internal temperature rising.  Whenever I feel the fever coming I proactively drink the nasty and it generally staves off something more serious --- whether that’s true or whether that’s my own hypochondria doesn’t matter.  It works.  The symptoms were gone by morning.  Since I don’t have insurance, I’ll continue to practice medicine my way.  Perhaps I should have just walked into any doctor’s office or hospital and get care for free.  That’s ObamaCare, right?  His socialized medicine system will make us wait in line to get cold medicine, right?  For an aspirin we’ll have to get permission from Congress, right?  None of that is true…much to the chagrin of many liberals (and some conservatives) … t...

This week Spring officially began.  Living in Minnesota  where this year winter leap year’d into summer, much of the talk is about “climate change” as a way to explain the strange weather patterns.  It’s a no-brainer way to fire up controversy in this now purple state. Archbishop Rowan Williams, the leader of the Anglican Communion has had his fair share of controversy and after ten years in office announced his resignation this week.    During his tenure the threat of a schism in the Communion became a real possibility.  The issues of homosexuality that have become wedge issues in political campaigns have been front and center in the Denomination.  The Episcopal Church, the American member of the Anglican Community, led the way by electing Gene Robinson the first gay bishop.  (Robinson will retire within the year himself.)  Mary D. Glasspool became the first lesbian Bishop two years ago.  On the other side of th...

I spent my junior year in England and unconsciously adopted some of the British peculiarities such as referring to the elevator as a lift, and mumbling ‘right’ and ‘sorry’ as part of virtually every sentence.  As a kid I enjoyed playing the board game Sorry!, racing game pieces around the board faster than any other.  As an adult and an executive I recognize the importance and value of authentic acknowledgment of one’s errors.  Maybe I should go for elective office! President Obama earned a reputation early on in his Presidency as the Apologist President.  The Heritage Foundation went so far as to put together a list of the top 10 apologies that ‘humiliated’ America.  The Washington Post (some eighteen months later) put the claims through it’s ‘ FactChecker ’ and determined that the “apology tour” Republicans claimed defined his foreign policy never actually occurred.   Recent events won’t appease those who think the President is ove...

In the 1993 movie “Groundhog Day” Bill Murray plays Phil Connors, an egocentric Pittsburgh TV weatherman who, during a hated assignment covering the annual Groundhog Day event in Punxsutawney, finds himself repeating the same day over and over again. The movie title has become a modern-day equivalent to déjàvu, the French word for “already seen.”   This week’s news reports of the happenings in Russia personify the expression “history repeating itself.” First things first, though.  Congratulations to Vladimir Putin!  After a 4 year respite from his 8 years as President to serve as Prime Minister, he took 62% of the vote this week with his nearest competitor at just 17% to regain the top spot in the country.  The other 3 candidates were all in single digits.  He was emotional in victory.  Much of the Western news coverage has been skeptical of the validity of the vote.  Tens of thousands of younger Russians protested the vote, a si...

Filing taxes is the annual reminder that neither the Republicans nor the Democrats have any legitimacy on policy issues relating to taxes.  I did my civic duty this week with the assistance of software.  The tax code is so complex that unless you have the simplest of situations either a tax preparer or an interactive computer program is needed to sort through all of the various options.  After many hours of answering totally irrelevant questions (that the dang Turbo Tax should already know after all the years we’ve spent together) I got an error message I haven’t before.  “A tax return with the same Social Security number has already been submitted.”   Joy to the world.  My doppelganger is under the illusion that it’s 2007 and not 2012 when my (financial) identity might have been worth stealing...or even borrowing.  Hopefully my situation is just this year’s system glitch from Intuit.  The Federal Trade commission reported this week ...