“Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment.”

- Damon Runyon

Facts and proof can be sticky things for academics - especially when they prove you're a liar. This article in the February 19th Guardian reports that German anthropologist and professor Reiner Protsch von Zieten - who in his 30 year career had claimed to have found the missing link between Neanderthals and modern humans - has been shown to have falsified dates, fabricated evidence and plagiarized other researchers.

His "finds" such as the supposedly 36,000-year-old "Hahnhöfersand Man", "Binshof-Speyer Woman" and "Paderborn-Sande Man" were all misdated by tens of thousands of years (the latter, in fact, was determined to have died in the 1700s - A.D., that is).

"Anthropology is going to have to completely revise its picture of modern man between 40,000 and 10,000 years ago," said Thomas Terberger, the archaeologist who discovered the hoax. "Prof Protsch's work appeared to prove that anatomically modern humans and Neanderthals had co-existed, and perhaps even had children together. This now appears to be rubbish."

Protsch's earthshaking - and textbook rewriting - discoveries had lead to a prominent and rather lavish lifestyle, suggesting that if his ethics and motives had themselves been submitted for carbon dating they would have proven to be among the oldest known to man.

As for carbon-dating, I'm opposed. I tried it once and it left my hands even messier than from reading the newspaper.

Be sure to check out Scrappleface for its funny take on the story.

Churches United in Ministry and the Joint Religious Legislative Coalition think it's the proper exercise of their faith to exhort the government to take from everybody in order to help the poor (see my earlier post). Setting aside for the moment the question of - if their efforts are successful - how much of this money will survive the legislative process and ever end up in the hands of those its supposedly aimed at, I have realized that maybe these groups and I aren't really so far apart.

I mean, what if these groups, representing mainline churches and synagogues, were to put their philosophy into practice within their own congregations? That is, what if they said that they could no longer rely on freewill offerings, but in order to support social and economic justice they were morally obliged to assess a mandatory tax on every one of their members, based on a fixed rate they had prayerfully considered? To make it all appear legal they could let their members vote on it.

I wonder how many would vote with their feet?

I was thinking more Nigel Tufnel than Nihilist in Golf Pants when I extended my list of reasons for conservative blogging in Minnesota to 11. It was, because, you know, 11 is more than 10.

Perusing the NIGP's blog today, however, I see that he has pretty much staked out the whole top 11 list concept. Oh well, great minds and all that. I apologize to him for unintentional poaching.

You know, the concept of a nihilist golfer conjures quite an image. Do golf pants even come in Goth? Are they black plaid? Golfing with him could be interesting, but with that name I'm not letting him keep score.

OK, the Night Writer is a nice guy, but he worries too much about hurting people's feelings. I, the Minfidel, agreed to post here from time to time on Minnesota issues because too much "Minnesota Nice" has seeped into NW and somebody's got to be able to tell it like it is. Wimp. And that's me, the Minfidel - a non-believer when it comes to the Minnesota legislature being God.

Anyway, Shot in the Dark posted earlier this month about the day he realized he was far from being the lone conservative blogger in Minnesota. He wondered why this state produces so many right-leaning blogs. Well, duh. I typed the first seven things that came into my head into his comment box. Now that I've elbowed my way onto this blog, I'd like to repeat those reasons, plus a few more now that I've had time to think. I was going to do a "Top 10" but that's overdone. You see, mine goes to 11.

Reasons for Right Thinking MN Blogs:
1.Plagues. Minnesota is plagued by mosquitos and liberals. While slapping a mosquito brings some satisfaction, slapping a liberal gets you sent to Anger Management. Therefore we blog.
2. The need for an outlet. The StarTribune and Pioneer Press only publish one of our letters to the editor for every 8 or 10 from the left.
3. Familiarity breeds contempt. No one knows better that socialism doesn't work than someone who has experienced it up close.
4. Perspective. Transplants such as myself know that Republicans in Minnesota sound like Democrats in at least 46 other states.
5. A target-rich environment. If you can't find an example of mushy thinking or stubborn wrong-headedness every day, your body may have assumed room temperature (if it has, don't worry, you can still vote in Washington State).
6. Size of Audience. Each year you can be fairly certain that at least 50% of Minnesota high school graduates are able to read.
7. Frustration. "Conservative" leaders here are often as elusive as our walleye - and put up about as much fight.
8. Hope. Hubert Humphrey ran the Communists out of the Democratic Party here once; maybe it can happen again.
9. Wildlife management. We love the sound of a loon calling across the lake, but not from the editorial offices of the Strib.
10. Because ice fishing isn't as exciting as you might think.
11. Because it's not Nice.

Think I'm joking? Further proof of #5 above appeared in Thursday's Pioneer Press. Two groups from the religious left - Churches United in Ministry from the Duluth area and the Joint Religious Legislative Coalition - are planning to lobby the legislature to raise taxes for "social and economic justice," saying that it would be "immoral" not to.

"Much has been made of moral values during and since the presidential election," said the Rev. David Tryggestad of Duluth's Concordia Lutheran Church. "One moral value that has not been talked about much is poverty and homelessness. As long as we live in a society that tolerates such monumental disregard for the least of these among us, we are an immoral society, regardless of what we might say about other moral issues."

So, apparently, taking from others is the only "moral" solution. Let's see, I think it is the seventh commandment that says "don't steal" and the 10th that says "don't covet," but I'm not sure. Maybe this group could go look at the 10 Commandments monument in front of the Duluth City Hall and get back to me. Oops, too late for that.

I do know the fifth commandment is that "do not kill" one. Since they are concerned about "the least of these among us" I assume Churches United in Ministry and Joint Religious Legislative Coalition will next lobby the Legislature to stop abortion, although it doesn't appear to be a priority on the JRLC web site.