Why We Lost Western Civilization

Articles: Winning the Long War:

The simple answer is that the "progressives" incrementally turned public education into collectivist indoctrination. Allan Bloom sounded this alarm strongly and unequivocally with "The Closing of the American Mind", but the standards had already sunk so far that only a few could hope to begin to understand what he was saying.

This article is EXCELLENT and well worth the time to read it.

Some "cheat sheet" on the subsequent paragraph, the article is generally easy to read, don't be put off ...

• ethics -- right/wrong, What we would have learned in Sunday School, from our parents, and nursery rhymes in a free country. Today what is taught is environmentalism, political correctness, re-distribution (robbery, or "fairness") and the worship of man and the state. 
• epistemology  -- the study of knowledge, what is known and what is knowable. Western civilization arose on the idea of perfect and transcendent  forms (Plato) and a rational universe -- typically assumed so because it was created by a God that is reasonable (a God of order). "irrationalism" essentially says; "it all happened randomly, and except for being skeptical and possibly believing your senses when they are not in conflict with "progressive" dogma, whatever you think is as good as what anyone else thinks." 
• metaphysics -- religion/theology being the former name and what most readers of this blog will at least have heard of. If there is a God that is reasonable, he has a purpose for us, so our mission is to find that purpose and do it well as we worship him. It there isn't a God, this whole idea of "finding what you were intended to do" is rubbish. There is no "intention". Life has no meaning or purpose, which is nihilism".

I spent 16 years in state schools prior to ATTEMPTING to read "Closing of the American Mind", and then studying on my own, and then attempting again, then studying some more, and repeating a couple of times. I feel that I now understand a good deal of that book. My "cheat sheet" above would have not been possible without decades of self-study and hundreds of books and articles.

The state educational establishment relative to Western Civilization is much like the Catholic Church was prior to the reformation relative to the Bible. They really don't want you poking around on your own, you are likely to come up with some questions that are going to be VERY hard to answer!

The reason that I often come close to despair is that there are so few Americans that can even really read and understand well enough to even grasp the danger. The advancement of technology is a two edged sword. Will this descent into darkness be a millennium? Could it be shorter because the technology can empower renaissance  as the printing press once did? or will the technology enable "Big Brother" to lock the culturally lobotomized drones in a "Matrix" forever? I certainly don't know, but I know the danger is very real and very urgent. Read ... and maybe weep.

 "Civilization -- all of it -- is currently under the domination of progressive collectivism in ethics, authoritarianism in politics, irrationalism in epistemology, and nihilism in metaphysics. The architects of this calamity have paved the road to the devil's dominion over several generations. Their recent boldness, moving in for the kill on the last, crumbling bastion of principled resistance, America, shows that they believe ultimate victory is at hand, which, in human terms, means we face a thousand years of darkness."

and this gem is so on target it must be seen ... 

Men capable of living independent, confident and self-reliant lives grounded in their own skills, their own interests, and their own minds, are a threat to the authoritarians, mainly because what such men naturally crave -- more freedom -- is precisely the opposite of the desire progressivism seeks to foster in every child, namely the desire of a helpless dependent for perpetual security, to be provided by the all-knowing, all-caring über-parent, Government.

You OWE it to yourself to read this article. You are still alive in one of the brief flickers in history where the level of freedom for this to be seen is allowed! Savor that knowledge before the Gulag!

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Remembering America

America’s honor | Power Line:

The linked article is excellent, just read it all, and shed a tear for a once great country suffering a long road to death, as my mother suffered the past 10 years. Sadly, I'm nearly certain that the final moments of America will not be peaceful with adoring children at it's side.

My Mom was struck down by a dissection of one of her aortas, which medicine did it's best to repair. She lived, but while miraculous that she lived at all, her remaining life was spent in a nursing home and much less sweet than that which had come before.

America was struck down by leaving God behind and deciding to worship at the alter of human "progress". An idea that darkened Russia and Eastern Europe for 70 years, turned the German nation into an instrument of evil, and killed hundreds of millions of born and unborn over the course of the century in war and "peace" (Satan is always at war with life).

Man was given the gift of fire (technology) to be used in his service while man worked in the service of God. We took that gift and replaced the worship of God with the worship of ourselves, our pleasure, and our feeble technical toys.

The opening paragraph is haunting. The stories are somewhat like looking at the Apollo Moon Rocket or Mount Rushmore. We were once great. We rose up and stood as that "Shining City on a Hill" for a season, but no longer. Now we die, and worse, we die with no meaning. By our own hand in slow suicide. No God, no heroes, no purpose, no creed. Just sad pleasure seekers sorry that no more pleasure could be stolen.

Once we knew who and what to honor on Memorial Day: those who had given all their tomorrows, as was said of the men who stormed the beaches of Normandy, for our todays. But in a world saturated with selfhood, where every death is by definition a death in vain, the notion of sacrifice today provokes puzzlement more often than admiration. We support the troops, of course, but we also believe that war, being hell, can easily touch them with an evil no cause for engagement can wash away. And in any case we are more comfortable supporting them as victims than as warriors.

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157 to 1

Shulman had more White House visits than any Cabinet member | The Daily Caller:


157 to 1 is the ratio of visits by IRS chief during  4 years of BO administration vs # of visits during 4 years of W administration.

How curious is the press about this rather large discrepancy? Are you kidding? It doesn't PROVE anything, and with BO in the WH, there isn't going to be any interest unless something is PROVEN!!

Investigate? You would have to be a racist partisan political hack to have any sort of suspicion of anything relative to the BO WH. The job of the press is to protect the president!

Obviously  BO just liked to talk to the IRS chief personally. Maybe they golfed together?
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Mom, Home Forever

As many of you likely know, my Mom passed away peacefully this past Friday surrounded by her three children. http://rauschandsteelfuneralhome.com/fh/obituaries/obituary.cfm?o_id=2101088&fh_id=12239

 It has been a long road from two heart surgeries the summer of '03, either of which by all rights ought to have killed her, through nearly 10 years in a nursing home, now to her home in Heaven.

I love to read, think, comment, and sometimes have the lack of humility to think that my insights have merit. Death and eternity always remind me of the foolishness of man, Every, man, ME!!!

Especially me.

My original title for this was "No Wisdom, Just Humility", but it had to have Mom in it.

Pastor Darrel Robinson, the minister at the First Baptist in Barron was wonderful. Wonderful at the hospital the day of her passing. Wonderful during the arrangements and AMAZING in doing the service. He sang the two songs that she had requested beautifully, and gave a message that I know Mom would have loved.

Very simple, very honest, very caring. God has given us Grace in the person of Jesus and lovingly pleads with us to leave our pride behind and walk to eternity with him. It sounds so easy, but for man, it is IMPOSSIBLE without the assistance of God.

Many people say, "if there is a God, where is he"?? We live in a world where we expect "in your face" everything, so we miss a lot of great opportunities to feel blessed by the hand of God.

In this case:

• All of us expected her to be gone TWICE in the summer of '03. While the way we got her back was not the way any of us would have hoped, it was an important reminder that "our ways are not God's ways". Who knows how many lives were touched in eternally important ways by her sojourn though the nursing home.
• The Barron Hospital was full ... but that meant she went to Bloomer where my sister lives, and the rooms and care were much better than we have experienced in Barron. It was a much better place for her to be for her last days and passing.
• Since she passed away Friday the weather has been unbelievably gloomy as it is now and was as we drove to Barron yesterday am. 15 min before her service, the sun came out and it remained glorious through the burial.
• I saved the slideshow that I had done from my iMac to an MP4, but when I put it up on a laptop screen it looked so bad that I ended up redoing it and showing it on my Air at the visitation. When I put it up on the computer at church, it looked just as bad as it did on the Air -- and then I projected it and it looked great. It is the first time I've seen something that looked better blown up to the big screen than it did on the small!

Oh, I'm very well aware that there are "reasonable explanations" for all of the above. I no doubt could do tests and "figure out" what happened with my MP4, but you know, that really isn't the point. "**I** by my own reason or strength" have no answer. Naturally, as is the way of modern man, I could honor random chance. It would be more "scientific".

We have ALL seen "unexplainable things" that felt miraculous to us. Maybe we eventually "figured it out", but that is a bit like guessing the lottery number after the lottery. We don't even understand if we are made of waves, particles, strings, "branes", or something completely different. Oh, and while we are at it, we absolutely don't understand our "brains" wetware, and have even less concept of what our consciousness is.

But most of us believe that we do in fact exist and are even conscious. Often with a good deal of false pride.

So, the fact is that of our own reason and strength we know nothing, which everyone knows in their heart when they stand next to their mother's grave.

The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.

The past few days has been a time for me to remember that, and to follow "Be still and know that I am God".

The Great Liberal Death Wish, A Night in a 2nd Class Hotel

Malcolm Muggeridge -- The Great Liberal Death Wish:

This is one of those gems that one finds on occasion that restores your perspective. It is all worth a read, but the following are a couple teaser excepts that really struck home.

The following is relative to Dostoevsky "The Devils", which I clearly need to read:

To me, it's one of the most extraordinary pieces of modern prophecy that has ever been. Especially when Peter Verkovensky says, as he does, that what we need are a few generations of debauchery - debauchery at its most vicious and most horrible - followed by a little sweet bloodletting, and then the turmoil will begin. I put it to you that this bears a rather uneasy resemblance to the sort of thing that is happening at this moment in the western world.

I wish I had read the following years ago, America is well down the road to the vast masses converting the "2nd class hotel" to a Bowery Flophouse.

...And it seems quite a toss-up whether you go back and resume full occupancy of your mortal body, or make off toward the bright glow you see in the sky, the lights of the City of God. In this limbo between life and death, you know beyond any shadow of doubt that, as an infinitesimal particle of God's creation, you are a participant in God's purpose for His creation, and that that purpose is loving and not hating, is creative and not destructive, is everlasting and not temporal, is universal and not particular. With this certainty comes an extraordinary sense of comfort and joy. 

Nothing that happens in this world need shake that feeling; all the happenings in this world, including the most terrible disasters and suffering, will be seen in eternity as in some mysterious way a blessing, as a part of God's love. We ourselves are part of that love, we belong to that scene, and only in so far as we belong to that scene does our existence here have any reality or any worth. All the rest is fantasy - -whether the fantasy of power which we see in the authoritarian states around us, or the fantasy of the great liberal death wish in terms of affluence and self-indulgence. The essential feature, and necessity of life is to know reality, which means knowing God. Otherwise our mortal existence is, as Saint Teresa of Avila said, no more than a night in a second--class hotel.

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Chilling Drone Deaths Reported Straight Up

Holder: Drone strikes have killed four Americans since 2009 - CNN.com:

The BO position is that he is against the death penalty for crimes, he would never "torture" anyone, but he will kill Americans and many others abroad with a drone strike when he sees fit.

It reminds me a lot of the old using a gun in home defense strategy -- "make sure they are dead".

This doesn't work so well in home defense of course, because it is very hard to guarantee kill shots, and "grace shots" are going to be discovered by CSI ... just watch. It is also true that very very few law abiding citizens are good liars. Leave that to to the professionals -- Politicians.

BO is going to fill in the details of his drone policy today, I'm sure the press will at a minimum report it as they did this article -- straight up. This is a good job of REPORTING as opposed to COMMENTARY -- this article doesn't tell you what to think. The administration uses drones to kill people abroad, including Americans -- that is their policy, nuff said in this case from the reporters POV.

If the press is willing to report that way, death is a nice clean thing. Unlike "torture". We all understand the definition of death, but "torture" is a label that is applied to something and we all get to visualize our worst searing horrible pain and obsess over how much we would hate it. Pain we all have some experience with ... death, not so much.

Of course death too can have meaning attached or detached through the magic of press commentary. During much of the time from 2004 on when there was no reason for us to be in Iraq or Afghanistan, the soliders dying there were suffering "meaningless deaths". Kerry even raised it in '04, "who was going to be the last man to die" -- the assertion being that death would CERTAINLY be a "meaningless death".

With the election of BO, that went away. The dead soldiers were "just dead", like folks killed in a car accident, or any of the other "standard ways to go" with little or no reporting. More soliders have died in Afghanistan under BO than died there under W. The loved ones of those soliders are left to find meaning in their life and death as they saw fit -- no longer an issue of national concern.

So why do I write about this??

Because I see an EXTREME danger in how far down the path of just letting an omnipresent MSM either tell us what to think, or not tell us to think at all, and for the majority of people to be just fine with that. The Sheeple are indeed sheeple.

My PERSONAL belief is that collecting terrorists and doing very strong interrogation on some of the high value targets (that some are certainly going to label "torture) is a worthy pursuit. I find the policy of not using any form of coercion any stronger than what we use in training for our own troops (eg. "waterboarding", used in SEAL training)  to be very defensible. Does "extreme rendition interrogation" work? I can't prove that it does, but I CAN absolutely guarantee you that we get ZERO information out of a terrorist killed in a drone attack ... nor from the "collateral damage", which is no longer discussed.

I'm fine with killing some terrorists in drone attacks. If they are AMERICANS and they are high value enough to warrant a drone attack though, then I think they are high value enough to warrant capture. I understand that the decision to not strongly interrogate them for fear of being labeled a "torturer", lowers their value and makes the risk of a capture raid seem too risky, but maybe that is good?? They are after all American Citizens, and at least in the past, that meant something.

Most of all though, what I find "chilling" is the near absolute willingness of the MSM to go with whatever BO says without question, and the near total acquiescence of the vast majority of the American people to be OK with that. EVERYTHING is "questionable", and the once-purpose of the "free press" was to question everything done by BOTH SIDES!

I find the assertion that killing people outright is somehow more "humane" than interrogating them with what some have called "torture" to be in the realm of the laughable -- but it is unimaginable that there isn't at least a national discussion on it.

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I Stand for Nixon!!

He’s No Nixon | The Weekly Standard:

I agree completely with the spirit of the linked column, although I lack the personal connection to Nixon of the column author.

To even compare BO and Nixon in any way is ridiculous!!  In no way does BO even come close to Nixon as a person or as a president!

There is little doubt that Benghazi is more serious than Watergate -- nobody died in Watergate, and last I checked, Watergage was domestic vs international. To attempt to add stature to BO simply because he managed to create a more serious scandal than  Nixon is beyond the pale.

Watergate was a tiny scandal, but a huge triumph for the left wing media and the Socialist Workers Party. It had little to do with Nixon the man, but everything to do with Nixon the hated (and historically justified) villan of the Alger Hiss trial.

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The Socialist Workers Party (SWP) Questions Prayers

IRS's Lerner Had History of Harassment, Inappropriate Religious Inquiries at FEC | The Weekly Standard:

I'm still working on the name, but it has become obvious to me that the "Democrat Party" by virtue of it's unionizations of teachers and government workers is already the "Socialist Workers Party" (SWP) of the US and has been for some time. This ought to have been obvious to me for a lot longer, but it took the Walker / union fight in WI added to the current IRS scandal to make me realize what has happend.

Our nation is under SWS rule and has been at the federal and state level for some time. Our children are propagandized into the party through the SWP party members that call themselves "teachers".  SWP members get preferential treatment, and in some quarters -- much of government, education and media, you must be a SWP member to get a job. We are still at the phase where the favors of being a SWP member and the punishments for speaking out against the official policies of the SWP are not totally in the open, but they are increasingly obvious.

Lois Lerner questioning the content of people's prayer life is not new! It dates back to at least the late '90s when she was trying to intimidate religious organizations for SWP in her role at the FEC. The FEC is one of the main SWP organs to control political speech in the US. Part of that activity is the intimidation of Christians who attempt to spread their noxious hate speech over the airwaves.,

Here is a transcript of late '90s proceedings where she (Q) is grilling Oliver North (A). (O) is counsel for the awful Christian broadcasters:

Q: “What did you mean in paragraph 2, about thanking -you and your wife thanking Pat Robertson for kind regards?”
A: “Last time I checked in America, prayers were still legal. I am sure that Pat had said he was praying for my family and me in some correspondence or phone call.”
Q: “Would that be something that Pat Robertson was doing for you?”
A: “I hope a lot of people were praying for me, Holly.”
Q: “But you knew that Pat Robertson was?”
A: “Well, apparently at that time I was reflecting something that Pat had either, as I said, had told me or conveyed to me in some fashion, and it is my habit to thank people for things like that.”
Q: “During the time that you knew Pat Robertson, was it your impression that he had - he was praying for you?”
O: “I object. There is no allegation that praying creates a violation of the Federal Election Campaign Act and there is no such allegation in the complaint. This is completely irrelevant and intrusive on the religious beliefs of this witness.”

Apparently, praying for someone has a long history in the minds of the SWP as being subversive!

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A Crisis of Authority

Best of the Web Today: A Crisis of Authority - WSJ.com:

Taranto hits the long ball. Worth the time to read it.

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Remember, You Still Like BO!!!!!

CNN Poll: Likability helps Obama survive brutal week – CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs:

 See, we found out over the weekend that the WH Chief of Staff knew about the IRS Targeting of conservative groups for some time prior to it coming out ... in fact it is even linked next to the nice picture. Note, they NEVER said anything to BO, I mean, why would they??? He just reads the papers after all. Who is it that the IRS reports in to at the top anyway???

**BUT**, what is really a headline is "most of you still like Obama". Sheesh ... this is NEWS??? Isn't the issue of "who likes him and not" more appropriate for High School hallway talk than for the leader of a once powerful and important nation?? How about "What did he know, and when did he know it"??? ... Oh, and BTW, Nixon not knowing about the break-in at Watergate prior to it happening was GOOD. BO not having any idea of this before, after, or even after the info had gotten to the WH is **BAD**!!! He is supposed to be IN CHARGE OF THE IRS!!!

Independently of how well liked he is. He is not running for anything!!!

The IRS, an organization that IS under his control, no matter if he chooses to admit it, wants to know what people say in their PRAYERS ???? and we are supposed to be focused on how popular BO may be at least in a poll taken by CNN????

This nation is completely hopeless.

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IRS: What do you pray for?

IRS: Tell Us What You're Praying For - Ricochet.com:

My imagination isn't good enough to make this up. What one prays for is a subject of government questioning and the media IS NOT outraged??

Which universe is this?

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BO Denies Role in Government : The New Yorker

Obama Denies Role in Government : The New Yorker:

The truth and the fiction are pretty darned close here http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/19/obama-irs-targeting_n_3302449.html

He IS claiming that he found out about the IRS scandal only from the news media.

REALLY?? People are taking COMFORT from the President of the US only finding out about very significant things in the government for which he has sworn responsibility for.

I know I'm wrong -- because the media is without bias, but it just seems to me that were a Republican claiming this there might be a bit of coverage.

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BO Strong Union Collaboration

SMOKING GUN: Obama Met With IRS Union Chief the Day Before Agency Started Targeting Conservatives | The Gateway Pundit:

“For me, it’s about collaboration.” — National Treasury Employees Union President Colleen Kelley on the relationship between the anti-Tea Party IRS union and the Obama White House

Isn't that special. The head of a union of the government employees that collect our taxes and decide who gets audited and doesn't is happy about the "collaboration" they have with the White House. 

Let's see. The left and the WH are so incensed about the SCOTUS ruling on  "Citizen's United" that the president finds it appropriate to scold the justices during the STOTU address. Mr President, the power of the Supreme Court is EQUAL to your own at a MINIUM -- when they are making a determination based on the Constitution, they OUTRANK YOU! (as do the PEOPLE BTW, he is our EMPLOYEE!!) 

However, it is perfectly acceptable to have government employees that are supposed to be working for ALL of us in unions that support only Democrats and have the POTUS and union leaders "collaborate" on activities!! 

Dear god, why don't we just start calling the Democratic party "The Party" and get rid of the fiction!! If you are a member of "The Party", then you have privileges, if not, you will be harassed and possibly imprisoned!


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Republican Hypocrisy, Tax Exempt

House Republican Hypocrites Rage About The IRS While Demanding An Audit of the AARP:

This column is an interesting read on how the "liberal" brain operates.

The largest point here is why is the Government doing ANYTHING to regulate POLITICAL SPEECH!!! The whole purpose of the first amendment is for political speech to be FREE OF GOVERNMENT CONTROL!!!! This column is an object lesson in why that is a very good idea!

How in any sort of rational sense at all can "liberals" argue out of one side of their mouth that "we can't go back to the 1800's", so government MUST be gigantic, intrusive,  and horrendously expensive. Oh, but political speech??? Why THAT should be funded at say 1950 levels BY THE GOVERNMENT who would provide very strict controls so it was "fair". Uh, "fair" TO THE GOVERNMENT???  I'm sure ... but to anyone else?? Very hard to say.

So we have Elected Republicans  OPENLY suggesting that various liberal groups ought to be investigated due to specific things they have said or done  UNDER EXISTING LAW (which is SUPPOSED to apply equally to ALL of us!)  ACORN, AARP, NAACP, Media Matters. These are avowed liberal groups that are ALREADY Tax Exempt, are supposed to follow existing law,  and everyone knows EXACTLY where they politically stand and how they advocate constantly. So Elected Republican Representatives openly asked for the IRS to insure that these groups follow existing law. Hypocrisy?

They ought not do that? The alternative would be to step back and allow the IRS to execute completely one-sided enforcement of political speech regulating laws that ought not even be on the books??? It is pretty damned clear why BO and the left hates "Citizens United". It is a fly in the ointment of effective government control of political speech! If enough people are aware of what is being done to them, it might still be just barely possible that BO and company would be in trouble. Political speech that is not in agreement with the "progressive" progrom must be stamped out!!

OTOH, we have the IRS INTERNALLY and SECRETLY targeting "Conservative Groups" for audits, gathering information on their members so that they may also be audited, and preventing many other groups from even getting their tax exempt status. (the Rochester Tea Party Patriots were rejected)

Let's see. The IRS is an agency of the US Government that is supposed to be acting on behalf of ALL the people! Strange though it obviously is to the "liberal" mind, that meant that people were at least formerly allowed to have freedom of DIFFERENT speech!! Meaning, the 1st amendment was not created to allow "Free Speech for those that Agree with the "liberal" position"!! Apparently, a concept that is alien to the authors of this column.

Note the similarity in how "liberals" (actually STATISTS) see the 1st and 2nd Amendments. They see them as GOVERNMENT rights!! In the 2nd, the MILITARY has the right to have guns ... not "the people". For the 1st Amendment, individuals and groups have a right to "obscene" or "offensive" speech (as long as it doesn't make any of the Federally selected special groups feel bad ... women, blacks, gays, muslims). However, POLITICAL SPEECH needs to be "fairly regulated" by the government! The Fox guarding the henhouse really doesn't do it justice.

Were we arguing about if a Democrat Representative ought to be able to ask for a specific Conservative group to be investigated -- say the NRA. (oops, not tax exempt) ... but find one, have some elected Democrats stand up and ask the IRS to do an investigation of if they are following the law, and THEN, if Republicans think THAT ought not be allowed, it would be hypocrisy!!

What we have here is proof positive that our government is WAY too intrusive, and just HOW FAR we have slid toward one party rule. 90%+ of those IRS union employees vote Democrat. They KNOW where their bread is buttered. It is completely UNsurprising that they would be strongly motivated to reduce the political speech of those seeking a smaller government, with or without prompting. It is also pretty hard to imagine that even if pushed rather hard by Republicans in government, that they would be anxious to prosecute groups whose political leanings they agree with.

The ONLY solution here is to GET THE GOVERNMENT OUT OF REGULATING POLITICAL SPEECH!!! Exactly as the 1st amendment says!!!!

Sadly, what the left is trying to use this incident for is to ADD to the speech regulating powers of the IRS. Guess whose favor the IRS is going regulate???

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MN #1 !!

MN Has Most Expensive Gas In The Nation « CBS Minnesota:

When you live in a state with Mark Dayton as a Governor and a failed comedian as a Senator, it isn't often that you can brag about being NUMBER ONE!!!

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