Because flying can be very complicated and repetitious, pilots realize the danger of counting on a mental checklist. They depend on a written list and announce when they have completed it. If there's even a single problem, the flight may be held until the problem is fixed, or it may be canceled. Pilots know that one slip can mean not only their life, but the lives of their passengers. I don't think a police officer's role is that much different.
Donald Trump is teaching us an extraordinarily important lesson about the value of not forcing politicians to sell themselves to donors. He is not beholden to the Koch brothers, or to any of the enormously rich corporate "persons" who really control our government. Former U.S. Rep. Martin Sabo once said that campaign donations didn't buy his vote, just access to him. The hundreds of thousands, or millions, of people who are attracted to Trump understand that access is the whole ballgame. The public already pays for campaigns, indirectly through profits that corporations and individuals reap from our economic system and funnel to candidates who need to buy media time. Trump has trumped the system, both with his wealth and with the media's hunger for the controversy he brings, putting him at the forefront of news coverage while at the same time belittling his candidacy.
I strongly disagree with many of Trump's "views" and am disappointed at the erosion of his independence as he backs away from a reasonable view of Planned Parenthood's hugely important services to low-income women, selling out to Tea Partiers by calling for Planned Parenthood's demise. We all knew that Jesse Ventura, whose light-rail project to the Mall of America has proved highly successful, never shilled for anyone — individual or corporation. The stupidity of the Iraq war makes Ventura's more outrageous comments seem harmless (and they were). His independence proved valuable to this state. Trump may be doing the same thing for the nation.
I did a lot of fishing as a kid, and the fishing was good. We'd pull big sunnies and crappies from Medicine Lake and bass from — where else? — Bass Lake. I also remember fishing Mille Lacs with Dad and the uncles and catching walleyes of all sizes until we made our limits. Those were good times, but those times are now history.
I don't fish much anymore — once in a while, just to be polite. But even nostalgia gets boring if the fish don't bite. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has many explanations for why the state's premier walleye factory is having production problems. I'd like to add one more reason that maybe hasn't been fully explored: The unintended consequences of "catch and release."
Mille Lacs is a shallow lake. Anglers who still fish it tell me that on calm, sunny days they can see the bottom, and that the bottom is littered with dead fish, many of which are not of legal size and not "keepers." They most likely have died because the hooks have been torn from their stomachs. As any experienced angler can tell you, once that hook is swallowed and the guts are ripped out, that fish will die as surely as if it were filleted and eaten.
