The daily digest of Twin Cities culture | Secrets of the City

The McCain campaign has taken Obama to task for supposedly saying Sarah Palin will do what she's told. I can't say whether anyone really said that Palin will do what she's told, but the evidence of her appearance with Charlie Gibson on ABC certainly suggests she SAYS what she's told.

When Gibson asked her if she would back Israel if Israel were to attack Iran's nuclear facilities she said, "I don’t think that we should second-guess the measures that Israel has to take to defend themselves."

Hockey moms across the nation collectively ovulated in sheer rapture Wednesday night at the coming of their messiah. Palin's pointed attacks on Obama were justified and applauded by "political speech experts" for their use of humor. The awkwardly-executed humor was the type you're supposed to laugh at, like when the postman tries to make small talk.

It was on the far right, literally. A tiny block of space someone had purchased to help The Rake live another day. Pay up, and you can paste your sign/add your link/sing your song on my web page/television/telephone/window/door/floor/car/bus/butt/etc...

In the ultimate capitalist pervasion of everyday life, this heat-seeking piranha of an ad jumped at me, propelled by the finely tuned instincts of specialized software, somewhere in cyberspace, sensing Barack Obama's name on the page and inferring from it the presence of intellectual prey.

Just when I thought it was safe to cancel my Strib subscription, they surprise me and put something on the front page that actually 1) contains information that I care about; 2) contains information that elucidates a larger story; and 3) nudges at least one piece of television-like spot news dreck out of the paper. (Actually, I’m only guessing about point number 3.)