Missing In Action

Credit goes to the Minneapolis Star Tribune for running a front-page, top headline story on the Minnesota/ISIS connection, “Federal grand jury targets local terrorist pipeline.”

I have no idea what help that a Federal grand jury can provide in combatting what appears to be an imminent threat.  But the Star Tribune’s article provides a useful summary of what is known about the two dozen or so people with Minnesota connections who have gone to fight in the Middle East.

The Star Tribune documents efforts by local police—in several jurisdictions—the county sheriff and the Federal Department of Homeland Security, among other local and Federal agencies.

Conspicuous in their absence is any mention of state government involvement.  The state has considerable investigative and law enforcement capabilities located in the Attorney General’s office, the state Department of Public Safety, the State Police, the state airport commission and other agencies.

What, if anything, is state government doing to protect its citizens and aid the multiple investigations into terrorist recruiting in Minnesota?

MN’s Banana Republic: Fiber Optic Edition

In another late-Friday-afternoon news dump, the Administration of Democrat Mark Dayton quietly dropped plans to dig a two-mile fiber optic cable to the Governor’s Mansion.

After the least bit of media scrutiny (credit Minnesota Public Radio with the scoop), Dayton dropped the $261,000 project that would have resulted in construction underneath the street running through the tony Summit Avenue neighborhood of St. Paul.  The Governor’s mansion would have been the only location with access to the taxpayer-paid fiber optic cable, boasting 10 times the speed of regular internet connections.

Apparently, the optics of the fiber optic project are not favorable for the Governor in an election year.  We’re still not sure of the purpose of the project—security at the Mansion, better TV reception, faster internet—but the bungled handling of the project fits within the “let them eat cake” attitude of this Administration.

The Cupcake Principle

George Will wrote a column recently in which he promulgated the cupcake corollary to explain the exponential growth of the regulatory state.  Will writes on the subject of cupcakes,

Washington’s response to the menace of school bake sales illustrates progressivism’s ratchet:  The federal government subsidizes school lunches, so it must control the lunches’ contents, which validates regulation of what it calls “competitive foods,” such as vending machine snacks.  Hence the need to close the bake sale loophole, through which sugary cupcakes might sneak:  Foods sold at fundraising bake sales must, with some exceptions, conform to federal standards.

Here is the North Star State, there is no shortage of examples that illustrate the cupcake principle or as Will summarizes, “Swollen government has a shriveled brain.”  I offer the example of the Amish man in trouble for not building a modern septic system for his new home.  The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports,

Ammon Swartzentruber appeared in Fillmore County District Court on Wednesday to contest a misdemeanor charge of failing to get a building permit for the home his family began constructing in Harmony [a town in Minnesota].

"We never had to do it before and we don't believe in changing," said Ammon.

He may not believe in changing, but his local county government sure does.  The Star Tribune adds,

The county adopted new treatment system ordinances in December of 2013. Swartzentruber told KTTC-TV that he was able to obtain building permits in the past because that ordinance didn't exist.

"In the past some of those conditions may not have been in place," said Fillmore County Attorney Brett Corson.

Following the inexorable logic of the cupcake principle, we have the situation in 2014 where Fillmore County Minnesota is prosecuting an Amish man for not joining the 21^st century.