Your Government Builds A Sandwich…Better

The government makes a sandwich:

Despite technically including all the required elements of a sandwich it ends up an impressive feat of stupidity. useless for it’s original intent. And it only costs $219.99. I suppose it could be worse; it could be PB&J.

May all have a good week.

Is The Babylon Bee Actually Satanic?

There is an Atlantic article this month that chronicles author Emma Green’s interview with Kyle Mann, the managing editor of the Babylon Bee. The title, The Christians Who Mock Wokeness for a Living, explains to Ms. Green’s audience what the article is intended to do: chastise America’s new newspaper of record for being rather un-Christian. What it actually does is prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that the left has absolutely no sense of humor… 

“Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see.” – Martin Luther King

…at least when the joke is on them. This excerpt is quite self explanatory, although the author repeatedly demands an explanation.

Green: You guys wrote an article in January 2020 that was shared roughly 3 million times, claiming that Democrats called for the American flag to be flown at half-staff when the Iranian general Qasem Soleimani was killed in an American strike. What makes this funny? I know that’s the worst question to ask somebody who writes jokes.

Mann: It’s funny because General Soleimani died and then they called for flags to be flown at half-mast. Get it?

Green: But that’s what I’m saying. Besides just saying the joke again, what makes it funny?

Mann: Do you want me to explain the joke to you? Because the joke is that General Soleimani died and Democrats were sad.

If you don’t know why that’s funny, then you’re not the audience for the joke. The funniest part is that it got fact-checked because it was so believable that Democrats would do that. That’s a real honor.

Green: …But I want to ask about the fact-checking part. I don’t think the reason Snopes fact-checked it was because it was so plausible. I think it’s because it was being shared millions of times. What if people did believe it was real? Do you worry about that, regardless of how many times you make it clear that you’re a satire publication?…Does that impose any ethical responsibility on you?

Mann’s answer is my favorite part of the entire piece:

Mann: Not any more than any other comedian whose joke gets mistaken for reality. Does SNL bear responsibility because people still think Sarah Palin said she could see Russia from her house?

And because it is Caturday, I add this bonus feature direct from the satanic Babylon Bee itself: Is Your Cat Actually Satan? 9 Things To Look For.

 

Leaf Peepers Guide To Koroks

Seeing as how it’s officially leaf-peeper season I have something for you that’s at least as important as anything you’ll hear in the news: an official guide to Korok Kharacters.

I won’t pretend to understand Koroks but apparently there are a series of Nintendo games - another thing I don’t understand – featuring these leaf-like Koroks. Whereas I’ve never played a Nintendo game in my life, or any other computer game for that matter, I cannot add anything beyond that.

Like the news they seem to be made-up factoids based on something real. Unlike the news they have been created for fun and entertainment rather than agitprop. In that they could help you identify different tree species as you cruise about they are probably more useful than most of the news. And whereas they appear to be quite harmless they are probably healthier as well.

Still, it’s important that you not mistake the real thing

with the cleverly designed and packaged fake thing intended to lure you in with it’s too-cute by half appeal.

Now get out there, buy some cider and donuts and get a good peep at the real world.

WTF Theater Episode 8: Je Suis Paris Cafe

We join Faith & Drake at a café, somewhere in Seattle, a few days after the islamic terrorist attacks in Paris…

Linked By: BlogsLucianneLoves, and Free Republic, Thanks!

Cross-Posted on Patriot Action Network

Look What You Can Do Without The Government

“It might be tough, but my dad used to say, tough times don't last — tough people do." – James Robertson

James, on his 21 mile daily commute on foot

I know we could all use a feel-good story, and I have a doozy for you today.

It comes to us from - of all places – Detroit. As you read James’ story you may begin to understand what once made Detroit a great city; a monument to American enterprise and the “Arsenal of Democracy” before the liberals took it over and tried to “fix” it with government dollars. It’s because people like James used to be the norm here, not an oddity of such note that it’s news worthy.

This is James’ story:

Leaving home in Detroit at 8 a.m., James Robertson doesn't look like an endurance athlete.

Pudgy of form, shod in heavy work boots, Robertson trudges almost haltingly as he starts another workday.

But as he steps out into the cold, Robertson, 56, is steeled for an Olympic-sized commute. Getting to and from his factory job 23 miles away in Rochester Hills, he'll take a bus partway there and partway home. And he'll also walk an astounding 21 miles.

Five days a week. Monday through Friday. Read the whole, amazing story here.

 

 James’ daily commute; notable only because 21 miles of it is covered on foot.

Yes, you read that right, 21 miles a day. And he’s been performing this Sisyphean effort for 10 years, ever since his car died in 2005. In order to get to work on time for his 2:00-10:00 pm shift he has to leave home at 8:00 am. He doesn’t return until early morning the next day – sometimes as late as 4:00 am. He gets by on an average of 2 hours during the work week and “catches up” on the weekend.

More astounding still: James has a perfect attendance record for the entire dozen years he’s been working at Schain Mold & Engineering in Rochester Hills.

James and plant manager Todd Wilson, whose wife fixes dinner for James every night.

Why does he do it?

Robertson has simple words for why he is what he is, and does what he does. He speaks with pride of his parents, including his father's military service. "I just get it from my family.

"I can't imagine not working," he says

How does he do it”

"One word — faith," Robertson says. "I'm not saying I'm a member of some church. But just before I get home, every night, I say, 'Lord, keep me safe.' " Robertson adds, "I should've told you there's another thing: determination."

While the reporter who filed James story originally also had an undercurrent storyline running about the lack of mass transit in the “motor city” the only real story here is of one man’s extraordinary work ethic, commitment and perseverance. It is the story of James Robertson, doing what he has to do to keep his job and keep food on the table.

God helps those who help themselves.

The author makes no note of the fact, and probably is to young to know, that this city was once predominantly populated by people just like James, both black and white citizens who were fiercely committed to doing whatever it took. It was that type of mindset that created the modern automotive industry and all of its spin off businesses. It’s the kind of mindset that vanishes when government steps in to do for you what you once were able, and willing, to do for yourself, no matter how hard.

But that’s not the feel-good part of the story. That would be here. On reading James’ story a young Wayne State computer science student decided to set up a crowd funding site to raise enough money for James to get a car and pay the high cost of insurance on it in Detroit, Several others had the same idea; they co-ordinated their efforts. Meanwhile a downriver auto dealer offered to give James his choice of a 2014 Chevrolet Cruz or Sonic. Many others offered used cars, money or rides. As of Monday night, $130,000 had been raised. A vice-president at a local bank, who befriended James after seeing him on his daily trek so often that he finally stopped to see if he could give him a lift, has offered to set up an oversight board to help James manage the donations that are rolling in.

James getting a lift from his friend, UBS banker Blake Pollock.

Most amazing of all: this happy outcome happened without the intervention of one single government agency or service: the Justice Department was not consulted to make sure James’ civil rights were not being violated. The Labor Department was not called upon to demand that James hourly wage be increased. The EPA did not have to order an environmental impact study on James’ new car, nor was Commerce consulted regarding the economic analysis of James’ additional free time. OSHA did not have to issue new regulations for walking to work, and HHS did not show up to perform a mental health assessment on James. Although I am fairly certain that the IRS will be on site shortly to extract their “fair share” of James endowment.

Instead, James story just struck a note in the hearts of middle class Americans in middle America: empathy for a fellow human being who has been doing for a decade what most people could not imagine doing for a day. And they did what good, decent people people have always done; they rallied their resources to assist James. Because often people of good heart are more than willing to help out a fellow human being without the manipulation of social programs or the coercion of monetary reward/punishment. More amazing still to the bureaucrats in Washington, all this good will appears to be without bias; colorblind acts of random kindness taking place in Detroit, one of the most racially segregated cities in the country. That definitely doesn’t fit the current racial profiling template of the Obama administration.

So that’s all, just one little story of an amazing man and an amazing community-of-man that has responded to him. Allow it to lessen the grip that cynicism has had on your heart. America is still the greatest country on earth. Do whatever you can to keep it that way.

All I know for sure is that if Obama had a son, he wouldn’t look anything like James Robertson

You Won’t Learn This with Common Core Curriculum

And now a message from Political Islam:

Here’s a history lesson that will never be incorporated into the Common Core Curriculum of Western Civilization, where context is not just optional, it’s actively discouraged.

Fact based history? How is that going to help your children get a good score on their Advanced Placement History exam? Answer: it won’t.

Common Core: uncommon, involuntary and rotten to it’s propagandist core.

Don’t just sit there, do something.

Never, never, never give up.

Linked By: Larwyn’s Linx on Doug Ross@Journal, Thanks!

Armageddon: Global Densification

Originally posted April 6, 2010

 

In today’s Wall Street Journal, Bret Stephens poses the question: What's the Next 'Global Warming'? That alone was enough to get my attention, but then he throws down the ultimate challenge:

Herewith, then, I propose a readers' contest to invent the next panic. It must involve something ubiquitous, invisible to the naked eye, and preferably mass-produced. And the solution must require taxes, regulation, and other changes to civilization as we know it. The winner gets a beer and a burger, on me, at the 47th street Pig N' Whistle in New York City. (Nachos for vegetarians.) Happy panicking!

It just so happens that I have developed a theory about a coming disaster of such biblical proportions that it keeps me up at night. I have, until now, shared my observations and theory with only a few, trusted colleagues. But Mr. Stephens has prompted me to come forward, announce my theory and provide a layman's abstract. Also, I like beer and burgers. I think you’ll agree I’m a shoo-in for the Pig N’ Whistle prize.

Abstract:

Earth’s Imminent Destruction Due to the

Effects of Anthropogenic Global Densification

Anthropogenic Global Densification (GD) will cause the earth to implode unless mankind takes immediate and aggressive actions to relieve the pressure exerted on the earth’s crust and reverse the progression of GD.

GD is caused by a number of factors, all of human origin:

1. Unchecked, explosive population growth exacerbated by high calorie diets in developed nations,
2. Massive surface development to support populations principally in the industrialized world,
3. Drilling and mining to extract fossil fuels, minerals and other raw materials from beneath the earth’s crust.
4. An unrelenting accumulation of things in a consumer based materialist economy.

The center of the earth is a hot, dense, molten core. The core is so dense that its gravitational pull keeps you and me and everything else on the earth’s surface from floating off into space. The force of the core’s attraction is inversely proportional to the square of the distance to the earth’s surface. That means that as the radius of the earth shrinks, gravitational pull increases exponentially. For example, if the earth’s radius shrinks by 1/2, the force of gravity at the surface is 4 times greater. This is the force exerted on the earth’s surface by every object residing on it: the object’s “GD Footprint” or GDF.

Because of the actions of mankind listed above, the radius of the earth has been shrinking since the “Industrial Revolution.” Human population exploded in the 18th century, increasing the stress on the earth’s crust in direct proportion to the increase in population. From 1800 to 2010 human population grew by a factor of 7. That means that the stress on the earth’s fragile crust is 7 times greater now thn in 1800.

“Hockey Stick” increase in Human Population Induced Stress on Earth’s Fragile Crust

In the industrialized, developed nations with primarily capitalist based consumer economies, the populations began to eat higher caloric diets rich in animal fats. This caused these populations to rapidly and dramatically increase their mass and therefore their GDF.

The populations in these nations built larger houses in vastly larger cities with huge hotels, office towers, factories and massive shopping centers. These populations accumulated larger gasoline powered vehicles, and covered the earth’s already overstressed surface with massive concrete pavements for roads and parking areas.

These same populations began to fill their houses with possessions; furniture, appliances, electronics, RVs and every imaginable consumer product. It is estimated the mass of these possessions increased the damaging GDF of every person by a factor of 10⁷ , or 10,000,000 times.

To fabricate all these possessions, greedy corporations developed elaborate mining techniques which extracted minerals from deep beneath the earth’s crust. To power all the factories making these products and the homes and vehicles and products themselves, fossil fuels, oil, natural gas and coal were also extracted from deep within the planet.

These massive extractions left voids in the interior of the earth; voids which, with increasing frequency, collapse, causing earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Worst of all, these collapsing voids reduce the radius of the earth, bringing the surface closer to the core.

Human populations continue to grow, develop, build, extract and accumulate. This increases the earth’s surface stress in direct proportion to its growing mass. The human induced stress causes the radius of the earth to shrink further, increasing the stress exponentially, which in turn causes the radius to shrink even further.

The apocalyptic cycle has begun. Most people I have interviewed report that they can already see the effects of GD on themselves, their children and friends. In one recent poll, 95% of the respondents reported their weight as measured by a bathroom scale (the force exerted by gravity) has increased each year for the past 10 years.

Global Densification is well under way and is rapidly approaching the point of no return. A self-perpetuating feed-back cycle is already in play: the expanding mass on the earth’s surface combined with the extraction of the protective layer between the surface and the core results in a reduction of the radius causing an immediate increase in gravitational force which further reduces the earth’s radius. This negative feedback loop will lead to entropy if not broken immediately

Without robust and immediate action, our beautiful blue spaceship will compact and shrink at an exponentially growing rate until it becomes the planetary equivalent of a black hole, extinguishing all life forms on earth and several neighboring planets as the infinitely growing gravitational pull of the earth distorts the orbit of all planets in the solar system and beyond. Apocalypse, Armageddon, call it what you will, but tomorrow is too late to start. We must begin today.

The United Nations Security Council must immediately form an Intergovernmental Panel on Global Densification (IPGD). The nations of the world must agree in a Gravity Change Treaty that will:

1. Immediately, and humanely, reduce the population of the earth by half. Examples of recent, successful population reduction programs are available in several African countries. The new American nationalized health care law shows promise as well.
2. Establish a Mass-Tax in all industrialized nations to help under-developed nations cope with the effects of GD. Every citizen's Mass-tax will be based on their individual GDF.
3. Establish a new world commodity : Gravity Credits. The IPGD will be tasked with allocating Gravity Credits to the least developed nations, which have the smallest GDF. These Gravity Credits can be sold/traded in open markets to greedy capitalists who insist on increasing their GDF.
4. Move towards a new “Light Technology” economy based upon reducing mass and GDF. The new “Light Technology” economy will create millions of new jobs developing and producing “Light GDF” products that will replace the old heavy products of the past. Examples of “Light GDF products:
   •    a) Helium filled shoes and clothing.
   •    b) Personal dirigibles to replace surface based vehicles.
     •     c)“Air Dwellings” and structures suspended beneath balloons tethered to the earth. These “air structures” will both remove stress laden masses from earth’s surface, but will also stretch the surface of the earth skyward, increasing the radius of the earth and reducing the strength of the cores gravitational pull.
5. Extraction of minerals and fossil fuels from beneath the earth’s surface will be strictly regulated. Voids created by such extractions will be required to be filled with private property confiscated as part of the IPGD personal GDF reduction program. Alternatively, Gravity Credits can be purchased to offset the increase in an extractors GDF.

Several “research studies”, funded by corporate interests, claim that they can not reproduce the results I obtained in my study. They conclude that even if my theory is correct and GD is caused by mankind's activities, that the apocalyptic results I predict are wildly exaggerated and much further off in the future. They argue that the “…drastic and economically devastating actions…” I call for can not be justified by the data.

Global Densification deniers claim that the theory is flawed, the data is incomplete and/or manipulated and that the recorded effects (such as people reporting recent, dramatic weight gain) can be explained by other factors. 

To these so called researchers and their small community of deniers I say this: you have not seen my data, my model or my movie, so how can you dispute that which you have not seen? Then I ask you to step on the scale and tell me if you think my theory is flawed.

I will be the first to admit that there is a very small, almost infinitesimal, chance that I am wrong. But the risk of doing nothing, in the face of such utterly cataclysmic destruction is too great. We must take action.

We’ve got to do something! Because doing nothing is stupid. Just in case I’m not wrong.

Update: See Follow-up Global Densification: FAQs Posted Here

 

Linked by Small Dead Animals. Thanks!

Detroit Mayoral Election: What difference, at this point, does it make?

Detroit held an election yesterday and as I advised MOTUS at the time, what difference, at this point, does it make?  

Zombieland Detroit: have at it

Both candidates appeared to be qualified and either one of them would have been more qualified to run for president than Barack Obama was in 2008 - aside from the perfectly creased pant legs that is.

Candidates Benny, left; Mike, right, the winner .

Since the Detroit Mayoral election is non-partisan, candidates are not listed by political party; there’s no need - there simply aren’t any Republicans here. This year the election came down to a choice between Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon (D) and former Wayne County Deputy Executive, Mike Duggan (D).

Like the 2008 presidential election, this race was historic. Mike Duggan, the white guy, won by a 10 point margin in a city that is currently 82% black. The last time a white man was elected Mayor of Detroit was 1969. Indeed, I think the last time a white man even ran for mayor was sometime in the 70’s.  So why, after electing black liberal Democrats to run their city for the last 40 years, did the citizens of Detroit elect a white man this time? Maybe they had grown weary over the course of  4 decades of seeing no results other than a perpetual death spiral of rot, decay and unemployment, combined with continually escalating taxes (property, sales/utility, income). Or maybe people have finally grown tired of  the Boss Hog mentality of City Hall. And perhaps even the black citizens are getting sick of hearing that every problem in Detroit is the fault of the racist suburbs.

I’d like to believe that’s at least partially it. The reality is more likely that Mike Duggan, despite being accused of being a carpetbagger, and a sloppy one at that, was simply better than his opponent at co-opting the problems of Detroit’s citizens as his own and demonstrating the appropriate empathy. He parlayed his public/semi-private experience into a resume of a “turnaround specialist” and promised to fix all of Detroit’s problems (with somebody else’s money, which is always compelling).

He’s an experienced, some would say quintessential, politician who knows every liberal Democratic trick in the playbook and brings the added benefit of knowing how to run the table on crony capitalism. And thanks to a series of plum political appointments to quasi-private positions following his tenure as Ed McNamara’s henchman, he can play that table from both sides. Unlike Obama he’s not the smartest guy in every room, but he’s smart enough. And ambitious. And tenacious; he earned his designation as McNamara’s bulldog. 

While Duggan is a charter member of the “say anything” school of Democratic prevaricators, I suppose Detroit could do worse. In fact, we have:

Kwame, our Hip-hop Mayor, gets ‘cuffed following his conviction.

So I’m  suggesting that, just like white guilt was partially credited for Barack Obama winning his historic 2008 election, black guilt (see Kwame, above) could be partially credited with Mike Duggan winning his historic election. The city’s citizens finally realized that the giant sucking sound they’ve been hearing all these years was the whoosh of the tide that was supposed to be rising and lifting all boats; only it was ebbing and swirling around the drain.  How could you not feel guilty when you find out you’ve been enabling that sort of thing?

I’ve chronicled the magnitude of the city’s problems many times in the past, but here is the Cliffs’ note version:

Both private and public infrastructure has been left to languish well beyond disrepair; much of it is now irreparable.

The city owned electric system has been falling apart for years, the streets are crumbling, along with the steam pipes under the streets. Libraries, factories, theatres, schools – all have been abandoned to the rot and  crumble of entropy on display. Vacant buildings that can’t even be given away multiply by a power of 10 faster than the city’s ability to demolish them.

And then there is the Detroit Public School system: all but consumed by its bureaucracy, debt and corruption; it’s a microcosm of Detroit itself. The DPS is so buried in its own detritus that it has lost sight of its prime objective; to provide children with the tools and education required to become independent citizens able to survive, thrive and pass their knowledge on to the next generation.

So, is Duggan the savior that Detroit desperately needs? Hardly, he’s just filling time while waiting to leapfrog into the Governor’s office. He might have stayed on at his $2 million job as CEO of the Detroit Medical Center (DMC) had he not gotten eased out after his chum, Governor Jennifer Granholm, former colleague and fellow McNamara protégé, was term limited out of office. And when she left so, too, did the state subsidies to the DMC. Subsidies gone, CEO gone as well. Coincidence? Probably not, that’s how crony capitalism works. Last I looked, Granholm was still looking for a new gig too, as Al Jazeera America wasn’t working out so well.

Definitely room for this talent somewhere in the DNC

Will Duggan be able to improve things in City Hall? Hell, a cockroach should be able to make things work better after the bankruptcy court clears the docket. The city is currently under the control of  Emergency Financial Manager (EMF) Kevyn Orr, and will continue to be so until such time as Detroit emerges from it’s bankruptcy in a year or so. When the bankruptcy is settled Detroit will be unshackled from a ton of bloated administrative overhead, bloated union contracts, unfunded union pension plans and billions of dollars of accumulated debt. Until then, the new mayor will be little more than a figurehead.  That gives Mike 2 years to get plans laid out and ground work laid for addressing the ongoing managerial problems in city management.

But if history is any gauge, and it usually is, Duggan will spend the time lining up allies, getting rid of enemies, signing corporations up for their annual donations to the “community chest” and aligning a whole raft of cronies who will prove valuable in the care and tending of the war chest for his next election – be it Mayor 2.0 or Governor 1.0.

Despite his lack of the perfect crease in his pant legs, the media by and large has given Duggan a pass on the baggage he brings to the Manoogian Mansion. His linchpin position in the McNamara machine is simply one of those inconvenient truths that must be ignored for the greater good: the advance of liberalism.

So, while I’m not a personal or political fan of “the Duggan’s,” I do wish him well, for the sake of the city. But I feel it only wise to keep my expectations low with respect to the turnaround of Detroit until I see a good reason not to.

Politics are an ugly thing, Democrat politics are uglier and Democratic policies in Detroit are uglier still. Would Benny Napoleon, the other liberal Democrat, have been a better choice?  Like I said before, what difference, at this point, does it make.

 

If you can think of something.

Linked By: Legal Insurrection Post of the Day, and Larwyn’s Linx on Doug Ross@Journal, and Abby L Call on facebook, and BlogsLucianneLoves, and NOBO2012 on Free Republic, Thanks!

Cross-Posted on Patriot Action Network

Previous Popular Posts about Detroit:

• The Motor City: Broken and Out of Warranty
• Why Detroit Still Matters
• Saving Detroit: It’s going to require more than just saying nice things
• A Short History of Detroit
• So, Mr. President, Who Do You Think Destroyed Detroit?
• Michigan Math
• Live and Die in Detroit
• Feral in Detroit
• Detroit, Back to its Roots
• You Can’t Handle the Solution!
• Detroit Schools: Where We Eat Our Young
• Detroit: A Ghost Story
• Burn Baby, Burn

WTF Theatre: Episode 9: If You Like Your Healthcare Plan…

Welcome to Episode 9 of WTF (Win The Future) Theatre, “If You Like Your Healthcare Plan…” well, you know.

Following the Great American Shutdown of 2013, Cody and Skylar have finally ventured out of their Seattle condo to restock their *ahem* supplies, and go back to work.

Today, they’re excited as they’ve just received their annual health insurance policy renewal. We join them as they discuss the huge savings they’ve been told to expect:

So, to recap: If you like your plan, but can’t keep your plan, blame the Big Greedy Insurance Companies.

This message was brought to you in part by the Valkarie and O-BS (Operation Blame-Shifting). MOTUS has more details.

Linked By: @AllisonZulma on twitter, and Mary Deeters, Joseph Stephens on facebook, and BlogsLucianneLoves, and NOBO2012 on Free Republic, Thanks!

Cross-Posted on Patriot Action Network

WTF Theater. Episode 8: Shelter in Place

I’m pleased to present Episode 8 of Dewey’s WTF (Win The Future) Theatre,  “Shelter in Place.”

The government shutdown has resulted in hardships all across the country. As day 13 dawns in Seattle we rejoin Cody and Skylar, holed up in their Seattle condo, trying to wait out the uprising of the Tea Party Anarchists waging outside.

Unbeknownst to them, their satellite TV is locked onto the History channel, which has been running a month long anniversary marathon of footage from the 2011 Occupy Wall Street uprising.

So you can understand their confusion:

 

As always, this episode wad brought to you by GE: “Imagination At Work.”

  The original GE Theater

Linked By: Legal Insurrection, and Larwyn’s Linx on Doug Ross@Journal, and Kathleen Franklin Avant on facebook, and BlogsLucianneLoves, Thanks!

This episode has been cross-posted at Michelle’s Mirror

Cross-Posted on Patriot Action Network

Sweet Lorraine: A Love Song from the American Heartland

In a world that is increasingly shaped and formed by Hollywood’s version of love, i.e., sex; and where celebrities have redefined “forever” to mean until something better comes along, behold Fred Stobaugh.

At 96 he’s of an era where “till death do us part” meant till death do us part. His story embodies everything good and decent in America’s heartland, where people face life with stoic determination and heartfelt emotion need not be overwrought. 

Here is Fred’s life story, summarized in one simple song that he wrote for his deceased wife commemorating their 75 years together. In a world where “relationships” barely last 75 days this is an edifying story of love, commitment, loyalty and remembrance.

If you can watch this and remain dry-eyed, you’re probably not from around these parts.

 

 

Love like Fred and Lorraine’s is like a thousand layer cake: deceptively simple when all is said and done.

Life is not like a box of chocolates, more like a mille-feuille

But in reality it has been carefully constructed over a long time, one delicate layer after another, each overlaying the last; a very labor intensive, often tedious, endeavor.  The final product is a sweet concoction that stands tall; a homage to the dedication,  commitment and work put into it. And when you’ve added the last layer, you yearn to add one or two more – so it  can stand a tad taller, to last a bit longer. Anything to forestall that inevitable moment when it is served…and it’s gone in what seems like a millisecond. Thankfully, it lingers on in your memory.

P.S.  “Sweet Lorraine” is available on iTunes

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.

“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..

 

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.

The 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 Acres: Forward! comrades.

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

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”?

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.

Golden 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.

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

“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?

What idiot left this classic Eames chair out in the field to rot!??

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

Hope fades, the empty chair continues to rot.

I Don’t Often Tweet Pictures of my Weiner…

Submitted for  your consideration without further comment:

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

The Motor City: Broken and Out of Warranty

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

 

Two of the racists who raped and pillaged their own city

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

 

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.

 

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