The last time I saw Walter Mondale was the day I graduated from law school. Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro delivered the commencement address. That was six years ago. The man is nearly eighty now and looks remarkably good for his age. It must be something in that Scandinavian DNA. Listening to Mondale made me nostalgic for the heyday of progressive politics in Minnesota, an era I never witnessed firsthand. He bemoaned the lack of civility in modern politics and the fiscal irresponsibility that is driving our country towards insolvency. I think he remains generally optimistic about the future of our nation, but he sounded like a man with deep reservations about our current leadership.
Temperatures here in Minnesota are going to remain below zero until Monday. I consider myself a hearty Midwesterner, but this is brutal even by my standards.

I’ve been refraining from commenting on political matters because–well, I needed a break. I figured I’d let the Republicans strut around for awhile and yammer on about their moral rectitude. But I can stay quiet only so long. I absolutely love this story about the newspaper columnist who accepted what essentially amounts to a bribe for promoting the No Child Left Behind Act. Maybe the moralists out there can explain to me how the Administration can justify giving $240,000 to an independent columnist to promote its own political agenda? Isn’t this akin to promoting a state-sponsored media? :Sniff sniff: Smells like communism to me. Does President Bush know the Department of Education is run by a bunch of communists?
Today, I was on a panel of attorneys teaching a continuing legal ed class for new attorneys who wanted to know more about careers in public service. To put people at ease at get them to listen to me and not ogle the chair the whole time, I’ve cultivated this understated, ironic style for presentations and the like. It seems to work well for me and it gets people to relax. Kind of like my blogging style but without all the links. Anyway, it went well. I’m lucky in that I like what I do and I have fun talking about it.

Slate has a provoking piece on Green Bay Packers QB Brett Favre and his lionization in the sports media. As a former resident of that fair town, I can attest to his near-deity status. After all, they named a street after the guy and he’s not even dead yet. As the article points out, Favre is regarded as a kind of “just folks” superhero. He’s the football equivalent of President Bush; you can imagine having a beer with the guy. You don’t see this same attitude towards many African-American players. Ahman Green, the Packers running back, is arguably a better athlete than Favre. And he’s probably an equally decent guy. But he doesn’t receive nearly the same amount of reverence as Favre. If Green disclosed that he was addicted to painkillers, as Favre did a few years ago, I’m not sure fans or the media would show the same forgiving, beneficent attitude. It’s a distinction that might make many people uncomfortable, but I think it’s important to recognize that the world of professional sports is not as colorblind as we might like to think.

Adam Curry did a sort of walking tour of South Beach during his podcast today. He walked down Ocean Drive, which I wish I had explored more while I was there. But the sounds of the wind off the ocean and the multilingual chatter at the sidewalk cafes sounded awfully familiar.
I’ve been fighting a headache most of the day, so I think I’m going to veg in front of the tube and maybe watch the DVD of I, Robot that I rented from Netflix. I wonder if Isaac Asimov has finished rolling in his grave yet.

As usual, St. Paul is following Minneapolis’ lead and is considering the establishment of a city-wide wireless broadband network. I’m waiting for the cable and telco companies to start making some noise about these public efforts to provide broadband access. I heard one of St. Paul’s councilmen on the radio today and he was comparing broadband access to other public projects like roads and bridges. When you consider that the Internet as we know it only began taking off a decade ago, it’s a tremendous leap for government officials to now perceive it as a public utility.