My brother-in-law, Kevin Land, sang this fantastic tune at my son’s baptism. It’s a song he wrote and I’m not even sure of the title of it, but the line that ties it all together is “Death is no more master over him.” The phrasing is excellent and I liked it so much that I played it from my camcorder and listened while I drove home from Mankato with Jen and Axel. For those who don’t know Jen and I have a new baby boy, Axel Christian Erickson, who was born on March 19, 2009…just over a month ago. We have piles of pictures on Facebook.

Here’s a shameless plug for my mother and father-in-law’s potato farm:

Roger and Markell Vogt are potato farmers near Palisade in Aitkin County, Minnesota. They grow red and russet potatoes that are out of this world!

So if you’re in that area come harvest, drop by their farm and pick up some potatoes. You won’t regret it.

My favorite is their red potatoes. When mashed, they are remarkably creamy. We rarely mash them, however, because boiled or steamed, these potatoes express down-home goodness with each and every bite.

For more information, visit their one page website: www.gunlakepotato.com

Last night I finished writing a blog entry at the Albert Lea Tribune about McCain and Obama. I emphasized the importance of replacing personal attacks with policy insights. One really fun thing about writing a blog at the Tribune is that the comments people leave are so colorful.

I would say that about 50% or more of the comments people leave are insults. Not a lot of thought goes into them and folks don’t use their real name in order to remain anonymous. I just finished responding to a comment and attempted to take it at face value even though the tone of this person’s writing made them sound as though they were angry.

Even if a person leaves an angry comment or tries to rifle off a string of insults, I’m usually happy to know that they’ve read what I written. What I often find rather funny and sometimes frustrating is that I am simply a blogger at the Tribune, and am in no way part of the Tribune’s reporting staff. I’m not paid, just a member of the public who has a blog. Some people assume that because I have a blog, I’m a Tribune writer and, therefore, when I share my opinion, I am contributing to the Tribune’s liberal bias. It’s hard for people to understand that the blogosphere is all about sharing one’s opinions with the world. Occasionally bloggers do reporting, but most of their writing is done with a known and acknowledged bias.

About an hour ago I got of the phone with a pollster from “Midwest Research” who asked me a series of legitimate questions about how I was most likely to vote this November 7. Specifically, the pollster wanted to know whether I was more likely to vote for Tim Walz (DFL) or Gil Gutknecht (R). (Both are running for U.S. Congress in Minnesota’s first district.)

There was one issues based question at the very end of the poll. It went something like this: “Given that North Korea now has nuclear weapons now and Tim Walz is not in support of missile defense legislation, would you be more likely to vote for Tim Walz or Gil Gutknecht.” I had to think for a second, flustered that an objective pollster would phrase a question that way.

“Tim Walz,” I said.

I’m guessing that “Midwest Research” was hired by a conservative special interest group. But I really have no way of knowing who was behind it. Next time, I’ll ask more questions of the pollster to find out more about “Midwest Research.” Fear mongering at it’s finest.