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Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Reflections on the Ash Heap of Detroit h/t MOTUS.

NOTE: MOTUS has allowed me to re-post An Empty Chair for the Ash Heap of History from her blog, as it’s largely about Detroit. I hope you enjoy it.

An Empty Chair for the Ash Heap of History:

Please, no more tweets about the organic garden at the Giant’s AT&T Park. It was a joke, okay?

“I’m proud to announce that next season they’re planning to turn the centerfield bleachers at AT&T Park into what’s believed to be the first ever edible garden in a major American sports facility. With rows of kale and strawberries and eggplant, the Giants are going to help encourage local youth to eat healthy – even at the ballpark.” 

It is funny though, isn’t it, how people will believe anything that comes out of Big Guy’s mouth.

LGBT's for Obama“Free healthcare? For everybody?! Oh Mr. President, you are soooo cool!”

But seriously; I don’t think this is really such a bad idea. Just because San Francisco is at the top of the “best cities in America” list today doesn’t mean they won’t end up at the bottom tomorrow. Just like Detroit, the city the Giants trounced in last year’s World Series. They started out as one of the “best cities in America” too, the “Paris of the Midwest” no less.

So it’s never too early to begin planning for your municipal bankruptcy, especially if your city is run exclusively by progressive Democrats.

I’ve been doing some research on this situation and from what I can tell, the best path out of bankruptcy for Detroit is going to be urban farming. Interestingly, we’ve been running some trial programs right here in Washington D.C..

 

White-House-Vegetable-Garden

It appears that urban farming – crops as well as fish - is the perfect solution for rehabbing an industrial city that’s gone belly up. It’s sort of a “back to the future” recovery. Progressives highly approve of this scheme: it’s very green, has a small carbon footprint and provides jobs for people educated in the local public schools:

In the 19th century in this country, farm-hand work was a traditional trade for the unlettered and semi-skilled. In a way, RecoveryPark brings this neighborhood full circle, to a time before the industrial age transformed Southeast Michigan. “The fish don’t care if you can’t read or write,” he said. “The fish don’t care if you have felonies.”

And apparently the felons don’t care if you have fish either, as Food Field’s shipping container house and upcoming fish farm was robbed last week, before they even went operational.

aquaponics_050813_6015_copy_5215The progressive promised land: mind you, they think conservatives are regressive.

So they need some new equipment to replace what was stolen but there’s no hurry, as they are still awaiting approval from the city for their farms. The city hasn’t quite figured out all the red tape they’re going to need to impose yet:

Though the systems are nearly complete, neither farm is sure when they’ll get individual approval from the city. Exactly how to become a fully permitted, legal aquaponics business is still fishy.

“The city is in the process of coming up with a process,” for approving fish farms, says Kathryn Underwood of the City Planning Commission. “We don't even have all of the forms quite in place yet for all of things that need to happen. We're riding a bike and building it at the same time.”

As I said, I’ve been studying this and I think that there could be a real future for failed cities in farming: getting “back to their roots” so to speak. In fact, I discovered that other countries have been doing urban farming for decades. Here for example, is an established farm in Havana (Cuba, not Florida):

havana cuba urban farmHavana Acres: Forward! comrades.

And let’s face it, growing a few onions in Detroit sure wouldn’t hurt anything.

detroit urban-farm-3.jonions pg

Just like Roosevelt’s New Deal morphed into Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society, all our new urban renewal project needs (aside from cash) is a great, historic name: How about “Obama’s Field of Dreams”?

0908columns

Yes, I like that. And I think we can all appreciate the symbolism of the dreams; 70 years of fighting to end poverty and racial injustice, 70 years of progress. 70 years of “we can’t wait,” 70 years of fundamentally transforming America. And now, finally, we have something  to show for it: corn fields in Detroit where once great industries stood and people lived. That, my friends, is Progress with a capital P.

cornfield in downtown detroitGolden ears of corn growing in the shadows of the Golden Towers of the Fisher Building and the former GM World Headquarters

So I guess Detroit is going to be okay, they shouldn’t be needing another federal handout, maybe just a little gardening advice from our master gardener and a hand at getting the spring plantings in.

165538749

And later BO can come drop in for the royal harvest:

Screenshot Studio capture #1262“I told you boys, if I build it they will come.” He didn’t say they’d be rats though.

So I think Detroit’s positioned to make the shift from industry to our new urban renewal farming program. Heaven knows, they’ve certainly made enough compost to last another 40 years. And if the onions and corn thing doesn’t work out, I hear there’s always a big demand for medical marijuana in the city.

What is it about Progressive stewardship that always leads us to the ash heap of history?

Screenshot Studio capture #1263 What idiot left this classic Eames chair out in the field to rot!??

Do you see, now, the danger in leaving the chair empty?

empty chairHope fades, the empty chair continues to rot.

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

I Don’t Often Tweet Pictures of my Weiner…

Submitted for  your consideration without further comment:

weiner tweet copy

In Commemoration of National Weiner Day, July 23, 2013

Linked By: Julie Ann, Robert Watkins, Monika Gainor, Mary Devore, Mark C Easterly, Kathleen Franklin Avant,  on facebook, and BlogsLucianneLoves, and Free Republic, Thanks!

Cross-Posted on Patriot Action Network

Friday, July 19, 2013

The Motor City: Broken and Out of Warranty

mind if i play through

Detroit: officially a man-made disaster

It’s official; Detroit is now legally as well as morally bankrupt.

“The city of Detroit filed the largest municipal bankruptcy case in U.S. history Thursday afternoon, culminating a decades-long slide that transformed the nation’s iconic industrial town into a model of urban decline crippled by population loss, a dwindling tax base and financial problems.”

In short order there will be allegations of racist-fueled white flight and business abandonment of the city. Charges of unfair treatment will be leveled against “the system” that  led to the Motor City’s devolution. This will be followed immediately by demands of restitution payable in the form of a massive federal bail out.

What sort of malignant, greedy, hateful racists would not only allow this once magnificent city to self-immolate but actively participate in its demise through racist acts of willful negligence and outright theft?

The usual  kind, our leaders: Coleman A. Young, Kwame Kilpatrick

 

Screenshot Studio capture #1241

Two of the racists who raped and pillaged their own city

Here is the entire Detroit mayoral lineage from 1974 to the present:

 

Screenshot Studio capture #1240

Coleman A. Young 1974-94, Dennis Archer 1994 –2002, Kwame Kilpatrick 2002 – 2008, Kevin Cockerel 2008 – 2009 (interim, following the Hip Hop mayor’s felony conviction), David Bing 2009 – present.

Five black men have run Detroit for nearly 40 years. Although Archer, Cockerel and Bing are all decent enough men, none of them - for no doubt complicated reasons – could turn the legacy of their predecessors’ graft, corruption, cronyism, and bloated union contracts around. 

But the point remains: Detroit has been served exclusively by Democrat leadership since 1962, and exclusively black Democratic leadership since 1974. Coincident with that 50 year period the city began a steady state of entropy that culminated in the bankruptcy filing yesterday. 

Never-the-less, the race mongers will be on scene shortly to file charges against a “system” rife with racial animus for causing the collapse of Detroit. Let the record reflect that Detroit, which has been grappling with an explosive crime rate for decades, has also had a black police chief for decades; that the city where the infamous “Devil’s Night fires” were invented has a black Fire Commissioner. Note too that Detroit, led by a black mayor and black city counsel for 40 years also has one of the most abysmal public school systems in the country. In Detroit fewer than 25% of its students graduate high school, and many who do are still functionally illiterate. Of those managing to graduate from the Detroit school system with aspirations of higher education, only 2.3% of them are deemed to be “college ready” based on  their ACT scores. The school system too has been led by a black Superintendent and a black Board of Education, for decades.

So when Jesse and Al and no doubt President Obama himself show up in Detroit to protest and demand equality and “social justice” from “the system” that has held the black man down for hundreds of years, let the record reflect the following: Detroit is a city comprised of 90% black citizens. They consistently elect almost exclusively blacks to run the the city government and fill the school board seats. Blacks have run the city’s fiscal affairs for 40 years, they have staffed and provided city services for nearly as long. In Detroit – a city of blacks for blacks and by blacks - blacks have not just been part of “the system” they are the system.

So I agree with Eric Holder when he said:

“…in things racial we have always been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards."

If we are to address the real issues that caused the implosion of a once great American city, we are going to have to discuss race because it is not just a card in somebody’s hand, it is the entire fixed deck. Let’s have an honest discussion regarding the flagrant use of racial pandering, victimization and exploitation for personal and political gain. Let’s talk about why the city’s civic jewels were bequeathed to the city’s black population; and let’s examine why they have been so devalued ever since. Let’s discuss how a city exclusively run by democrats and blacks has spent the better part of half a century circling the drain.

Let’s honestly discuss who and what is “holding the black man down” in Detroit because, brother, it most assuredly isn’t white America any more.

This is Dewey; reminding you that if Obama had a city, it would look like Detroit.

 

detroit-skyline

Moon over Detroit: waxing or waning?

 

Excerpts from Dewey’s previous posts on Detroit:

Why Detroit Still Matters:

But you probably don’t think it could happen “here” do you? Neither did the citizens of Detroit, 50 years ago.

Saving Detroit: It’s going to require more than just saying nice things:

As Young’s pack of leaches grew fat and very, very wealthy, the people and the city coffers grew poorer and poorer. Both businesses and middle class residents – black and white – fled the city to escape crime, crappy schools and high taxes. And the city grew more and more segregated as only poor blacks stayed put: racial politics tend to do that.

A Short History of Detroit

The Democratic regime that has governed Detroit for decades squelches all critics through one of two ploys: leveling the irrefutable charge of racism, or if that’s inappropriate, demanding that additional funding is needed e.g., schools: because God knows, $11,600 per student isn’t enough (private schools charge $6,600, and I doubt many would pay that if their dropout rate was 75%). The death-spiral of liberalism has annihilated Detroit.

So, Mr. President, Who Do You Think Destroyed Detroit?

Let’s use Detroit as our test case, since it has had its share of wealthy individuals, corporations and special interest groups over time. And it once had a prosperous middle-class, although that socio-economic demographic has all but disappeared from inside the city borders. So it presents the perfect Petri dish of cultures for this experiment.

Let’s see if we can ascertain who ruined Detroit, and is therefore responsible for the demise of the middle-class.

Michigan Math:

In return for relocating in Detroit – and planning to build something, somewhere, some time - they’ll get a 12 year tax credit of around $29 million granted by the MEDC. They’ll also get an $18 million tax credit granted by the Michigan Economic Growth Authority to help them complete their current relocation project. In addition the City of Detroit will throw in parking concessions and additional tax abatements.

So is Quicken moving from Toronto? New York? Ohio, maybe? No, they’re moving from…Livonia. Michigan. Let’s see: net new jobs for Michigan?

Live and Die in Detroit:

When Marabel moved into the house on Robinwood Avenue in 1964 it was a beautiful neighborhood of 1920’s era brick bungalows, stately trees and neat gardens. The northwest Detroit neighborhood was adjacent to the exclusive Palmer Park Golf Course and Country Club. A serene, safe and attractive community. Forty five years later, it had turned into a dump.

Feral in Detroit:

Possibly there’s an element of schadenfreud attached to Detroit’s decline that both enthralls and repulses people. In the course of less than 50 years  –a blink in the history of a city - it plunged from the pinnacle of urban industrial prosperity to the depths of urban industrial decay: completely, indisputably, very likely irreversibly.

Detroit, Back to its Roots:

There is something innate in human nature that draws our gaze to an impending train wreck, and maintains our slack-jawed attention as we gape at its aftermath. It’s like that with Detroit, which has been voted the worst train wreck in the “major American city” category. Journalists, artists and bloggers from across the world come to look at, photograph, write about and paint us. Then they go home to wring their hands and weep over our detritus.

You Can’t Handle the Solution!

To avoid charges of racism there were only a few proscribed approaches for discussing the city’s problems:  you were allowed to wring your hands helplessly, you were allowed to mourn the demise of the city as long as you acknowledged that its fate was the result of white flight and governmental neglect, or you could pull a Pollyanna and proclaim that Detroit was simply in hibernation waiting to rise from the ashes. But under no circumstances were you allowed to speak the unspeakable truth: that for over 30 years Detroit has been governed by Black leadership - with the complete complicity of the Democratic Party – and that each year the city had grown worse.

Detroit Schools: Where We Eat Our Young:

If you can read this, thank your parents for not sending you to a Detroit public school.

Detroit: A Ghost Story:

It feels like a nerve unsheathed, it looks like a malignant menace. It is the face of a city waiting for salvation, it’s worthiness unclear.

Burn Baby, Burn:

Detroiters escalated the time honored traditions of trick-or-treat vandalism - home egging and mailbox assaults – to arson in the ‘70s. Over the next decade, financially troubled business’ and others with good insurance policies joined in the Devil’s Night fun for profit.

Linked By: American Digest, and  Larwyn’s Linx on Doug Ross@Journal, and Adrienne’s Corner, and Daily Timewaster, and Don Rodrigo on PJ Media, and Rumbear Chronicles, and Nancy Bailey Mironov Ziegler, Richard Emery, Jon Wesley Turner, Kathleen Franklin Avant, Melissa Kunstadter on facebook, and BlogsLucianneLoves, and Free Republic, Thanks!

Cross-Posted on Patriot Action Network and RedState

Monday, July 8, 2013

Obama in Africa: Where Multiculturalism Hits the Wall

 

swu-treatmentgay-image

Don’t you hate it when multiculturalism bites you in the ass? 

African leaders last week rejected President Obama’s self-righteous proclamation of American moral superiority with respect to recognizing the rights of homosexuals. He criticized his host nations’ refusal to accept homosexuality and gay unions as normal.

Cardinal John Njue, Archbishop of Nairobi and president of the Kenyan Episcopal Conference, effectively schooled him on both good manners and good faith:

“Those people who have already ruined their society…let them not become our teachers to tell us where to go,” said Njue in response to Obama’s statements promoting same-sex marriage. “I think we need to act according to our own traditions and our faiths.”

And from Kenya, homeland of Obama’s father, lest we ever forget, Deputy President William Ruto said:

“Those who believe in other things, that is their business…We believe in God.”

That must have served as a particularly bracing rebuke: our el Presidente is  accustomed to being idolized by the masses and underlings. His proclamations are never, ever seriously challenged by the little people. Bad enough he’s had to be annoyed by that little ex-KGB gnat from Russia, but who, exactly, do these tin pot African leaders think they are?

So listen up progressives, here’s the take-away: you can’t have it both ways. If you cram multiculturalism down our throats, you can’t then turn around and tell other cultures to modify their societal norms to comport with your concept of superior moral codes. That just seems to be so, so…colonial!  But since Progressives like our President suffer from either an inability to recognize contradiction or a high tolerance for incongruity, this internal conflict eludes them. 

Let me see if I can make this perfectly clear; don’t tell me that I have to accept everyone else’s values, morals, standards and mores, if you intend to impose your values, standards, morals and mores on those cultures you find lacking in the moral superiority department.

Yet the people who trip over themselves in their rush to accept the Muslim sense and sensibilities seem oblivious to the intolerance endemic in that cult. How is it they give Muslims a pass for their rather low tolerance for homosexuals very existence, i.e., they kill them, yet stand at the ready to condemn Christians who are “intolerant” of homosexual marriage?

This is my “evolved” position on the Islam faith: as long as they refuse to bifurcate their faith such that we can readily identify the “moderate” Muslims from the insane clown posse of blood thirsty throwbacks to the 7th century, don’t expect me to – bifurcate the cult, that is. Unless and until I see “moderate” Muslims actively condemning those of their faith who still believe in, support, tolerate and participate in acts that are abhorrent by all modern civilization standards I will continue to condemn Islam as a radical political ideology.

If Muslims cannot stand up and specifically denounce those in their midst who still condone female genital mutilation, wife beatings, honor killings, stoning of adulterers, torture and death of homosexuals and the beheading of apostates and infidels, I cannot accept their dogma as a “religion.”

Adherents of this malevolent form of Islam, which advocates for sharia law and has called for a return of the caliphate are members of a political party not a religion. Let me repeat that; a movement that ideologically supports and acts to establish an Islamic theocracy is not a religion. It is a totalitarian political party seeking, like all totalitarian regimes, to exert complete power over its subjects. What else would you expect from a political party whose name, Islam, means “submit?”

How many Instagrams do these people need to send before we on the receiving end get it? They hate us; they hate liberty, they hate our way of life.

State_Department_Images_WTC_9-11_The_Twin_Towers_(Right)_thumb[2]Instagram to America

They’ve been sending these little messages for years. Here’s one  from Turkey for example, another from Palestine, as well as from Iran, Egypt, Tunisia, and Syria. They wish to end our way of life. Get it?

Don’t take my word for it, here it is directly from the goat’s mouth:  Imran Waheed, a UK based doctor and Representative of Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain, as interviewed by World Security Network in 2008:

WSN: What kind of Islamic ideology does Hizb ut-Tahrir promote?

IW: We view Islam as a comprehensive system of life that addresses both individual and societal problems. In Islam we have a judicial system, a social system, an economic system, an educational policy, a foreign policy, a punishment system and a ruling system. Therefore, unlike the Western model of secular liberalism - where religion and state are separated - Islam accepts no such dichotomy. We are an Islamic political party and not a sect or a school of thought.

And that’s just what they’re willing to say on the record.

If Islam is a religion it ought not be in the business of governing; and if it is a political party, it has no business being a religion.

I would think that the President of the United States would place the eradication of our sworn enemies higher on his to-do list. In the grand scheme of future generations it would seem that it would warrant more attention than such things as ensuring college coeds have federally funded birth control, gay NBA players are free to marry, or even implementing universal health care. I suppose the only priority that even come close might be passing an amnesty bill which will grant citizenship to millions of illegal citizens in order to ensure that the control of the country remains in the hands of progressive morons for another half a century.

Linked By: Sam Argull on facebook, and BlogsLucianneLoves, and Free Republic, Thanks!

Cross-Posted on Patriot Action Network