POOR DETROIT

Poor Detroit.

What can one say?

I have always believed that a democracy eventually gets the leadership it deserves.

I am afraid that Detroit has gotten what it deserves.

It would appear that the Mayor has problems whilst testifying under oath, to say the least.
The people elected him.

The schools are a sad joke.
The family/school dynamic is…dysfunctional.

Cultural icons have been closed or thrown upon their own resources. Some of them are doing quite well, but no thanks to the city.
Too many folks of Detroit have no interest in their cultural icons.

Crime rates are a disgrace.
Local TV news reports read/sound like a police blotter.

Reports and suspicion of graft and/or incompetence and/or inefficiency are ever-present parts and parcels of news regarding the city and even sometimes of Wayne County.
Folks who deal with the city tell a sadly-consistent tale.

Unemployment rates are enormous.
It is no fun to work at low paying, unpleasant jobs, and lots of folks have decided to avoid them.

And now the Mayor appears to have been caught in blatant perjury. And the city appears to have attempted to suppress evidence.

Is it racism to declare that Detroit is a city in trouble? That it has been in trouble for a long time? That it shows no signs of getting out of trouble?

The suburbs have long been criticized for causing Detroit’s problems.

I submit that a new rapid transit system will not help.

I submit that more gambling casinos will not help.

I submit that modifying Cobo Hall/Arena will not help.

I submit that Detroit’s problems are probably insoluble.

Michigan and the Middle West will just have to find the least unpleasant ways to coexist.

MORE RE I AM CONFUSED

I wonder if we are witnessing a national dem effort to, dare I say it, buy a few votes.

We are in an election year. The economy is a little edgy. The dem leadership in the Congress has been a spectacle. The dem base is not happy.

I wonder if this is a national dem attempt to buy an election.

I love it.

Give $$ back to the taxpayer. But don’t lower taxes.

It is a financial version of the national dem effort to protect the nation against barbarians while letting the anti-terrorist laws expire.

Menace!!!!!

I AM CONFUSED

Tax rebates are coming our way in a few months.

I wonder if I have it right.

The national democrats and the Republicans have more or less agreed that tax money should be given back to the taxpayers in order to save the economy, in order to stave off a recession.

Give money back to the taxpayers….

But the national democrats argue that our taxes are not high enough, that we need to tax ourselves more. They do not want to make the Bush tax cuts permanent. Instead, they want to let them expire, effectively raising taxes.

But, they are hurrying to give money back.

I am confused.

But then I am retired and, as Rush says, a Seasoned Citizen. If more money in the hands of taxpayers is a good thing, and if the national dems want to give it back to them, why in hell do the national dems want to raise taxes?

National dems are a menace to the Republic.

WE'VE COME A LONG WAY, BABE

A large shopping complex near us has a problem.

Some nights, a hundred or more teenagers gather at the theater end of the shopping mall just to hang out. Many never pay to see a show. They hang out, that is, loiter, often till after midnight, especially when parents are late picking them up.

The mall is apparently being used as a babysitting service.

Some of the kids have no way to get home by themselves.

The police chief and local officials point out that the communities involved have provided little or nothing for the kids to do with their free time.

The mid-teenagers have nothing to do but hang out in a mall!

Do communities really have to provide things for the kids to do after school?? And if they don’t, are the kids utterly helpless to find anything constructive to do? Or at least benign to do?

Good God!

How did we who were born sixty or more years ago ever survive those benighted decades of the 1940’s-60’s?

We went to a rare movie there a week or so ago and were greeted by something we had never seen before: six police cars outside the theater; six officers inside bolstered by two security guards.

I asked the ticket seller what was going on. She said that kids sometimes caused a little trouble when certain movies were being shown.

We were told by one officer that such problems are routine.

Of course, it is easy to sit at the keyboard and criticize, but one has to wonder.

Nothing to do??? Significant numbers of parents who use a mall as a babysitting service??

I think now more than ever that youth is wasted on the young.

And in the papers this AM is an item about a school district paying students to participate in tutoring…and giving them raises when their grades improve.

As the ad used to say, “We’ve come a long way, Babe!”

NATO – PRE-EMPTIVE NUCLEAR STRIKE

On the one hand, the pundits, political strategists, etc., are all saying that the main public interest now is the economy, that Giuliani’s campaign is being hurt because the nation no longer seems to be so threatened by foreign enemies, terrorists and the like.

And then appears the article linked to below in the Guardian.

It would be helpful to all of us, the citizens of the Republic, if the Little Englanders of the United States, especially the leaders of the national democrat party and their less than brilliant supporters, would at least consider the points made in the Guardian article.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/nato/story/0,,2244782,00.html

Check it out.

The national democrats are a menace and those who vote for them are accessories after the fact.

BORING! TEDIOUS! ENOUGH!

The Bishop of New Hampshire, Gene Robinson, is now alleging that the Church of England is so full of gay clergy that if they were forced to withdraw, the Church might have to close up shop.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article2155865.ece

Gene is a bishop of the ECUSA.

His sexual preferences have been well documented in the media.

He certainly is proud of his lifestyle, regardless of the fact that he is accelerating the breakup of the ECUSA.

And now he is alleging that a significant number of the clergy of the Church of England share his sexual preferences.

I for one am tired of reading about Gene’s sexual orientation. Unless the media is editing his pronouncements, all he talks about publicly is the importance of gay relations and the hypocrisy of those who do not agree with him.

Boring! Tedious! Enough!

Gene, get on with your life. Soon you will have helped to bring about the disruption of a major religious organization.

You should be very proud of yourself.

Then possibly we can forget about you and your opinions regarding anything.

THE new york times

The links below will take you to two items in Powerline which will serve as evidence as to the reliability of The New York Times.

Not that evidence is really needed anymore.

One has to do with the Medal of Honor. The other with transparency.

They should be hard to believe.

They are not hard to believe.

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives2/print/019597.php

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives2/print/019596.php

Check 'em out.

CHARLIE

Saw Charlie Wilson’s War over the weekend.

The reviews I have read have been mostly positive.

There is profanity.

There is nudity.

There is some earthy language.

There is a lot of drinking.

There is common sense. Even some heavy philosophy.

There is info on the kind of enemy the Russians can be.

There is info on the kind of mistakes which the US has made over and over again in foreign affairs. It is a sad truth that an otherwise intelligent nation can repeat the same mistakes.

The positive reviews have it right.

This is an entertaining, informative movie.

It is also inspiring. For me, two of the best secenes, the most moving, were the opening and closing ones. Charlie is in a hanger and is being honored by the intelligence community for his services to his country. The movie takes place in between the beginning and ending of the ceremony.

And there is humor. Again, some of it is earthy. As in the answer to the question of why Charlie’s office staff is composed entirely of buxom beauties.

One young luvlie answers the question: "Charlie says he can teach us how to type but not how to grow tits...." [or words to that effect].

Charlie is still alive and has been interviewed by the media.
He is proud of what he accomplished. He should be. He regrets the mistake his country made after the fact.

He must be quite a guy. Perfect by no means...but very significant.

The national dems should be taken to this movie.

CONUNDRUM

I learned some time ago that writer’s block leads to drinking.
I also learned that drinking leads to writer’s block.

Now, there is a conundrum.

ON THE EVE OF THE SOUTH CAROLINA PRIMARY

McCain leads in the polls. Followed by Huckabee. Then Romney and Thompson. And only then Giuliani.

Obama and Clinton are frontrunners for the democrats.

I guess in some ways it is like a horserace. The gates have opened and the horses are pounding on the track.

Giuliani is in the rear, almost, but he is a contender. I say again, he is needed as a counter to who may become the democrat candidate.

Obama is apparently outpolling hillary. Damn the polls, but that is what they are saying.

Were we better off w/o polls?

Anyway, we at this end are hoping for a Huckabee decline. We are resigned to a win for McCain. And we hope that Giuliani improves his stats. We wish that he was not banking so heavily on Florida. As we said before, he will be needed if the dem candidate is Hillary.

Who needs the TV script writers?

MORE ON THE ANGLICAN SCHISM

The controversies swirling within the Episcopal Church of the United States, acronym ECUSA, I believe, the American branch of the Anglican Communion, have not, thus far, washed very far into our parish.

Our diocesan newspaper, a thin sheet indeed, has precious little to say about them.

There are no study groups actively pursuing this or that position on this or that ‘heresy’.

We are a conservative parish and we go about our business. I have no doubt that we are known as such down at the Diocesan Center. Most of us share a consensus, toleration, a mutual caring.

We guess at what the various opinions are within our group. We surmise about what ideas might be lurking within our company. We worship together. We do not fight with each other. We are a community. We get along and we need each other.

I suspect that the ECUSA used to be like that on a much larger scale. Or that it wanted to be. A while ago.

Not today.

The blogs and newsletters and news reports tell a different story. So do the law suits and the threats and the ‘intrusions’ of authority of ‘alien’ bishops into our greater American Church.

Some ECUSA leaders say and do things which the general church-going public finds to be bizarre and shocking, offensive to community standards.

Well, to what used to be community standards.

Community standards can be wrong. They have taken a long while to form. They are being challenged and are changing at an ever-increasing pace. A breakneck pace.

It occurs to me that if the generals of the Christian ‘soldiers’ get too far out in front of the troops, the army might not be able to keep up.

A leaderless army will not remain so for long.

A new reality will form. The word in current political parlance is...change.

Perhaps that is how it has to be.

Perhaps nothing stands still. Perhaps time itself is defined as change.

Sir Winston Churchill once said that if you are going to make an omelet, you have to break some eggs.

That is all well and good if you are not part of the eggs involved. And if the omelet is a good one.

I really wonder if those seeking all this change in the ECUSA have thought about the change they are wreaking on the Anglican Communion.

QUOTE(S) OF INTEREST

Charles Schulz on worrying about the national democrats taking over the White House after the 2008 election:

I have a new philosophy. I'm only going to dread one day at a time.

A LITTLE COURTESY

The Michigan Primary was over; the networks had declared winners; and the candidates were beginning their summary speeches, either victory or congratulatory.

The weakest of the candidates started first.

The second-place candidate started his congratulatory and explanatory speech a few minutes later.

The coverage switched midstream to him as he began.

And then the winner started his victory speech, and again the coverage switched to him.

All the speeches were underway, simultaneously.

The networks that jumped speakers abetted the rudeness of the second and third candidates.

They were perhaps less guilty of …dare I say rudeness? They had a story/stories to cover.

The second and third speakers had to know what they were doing.

I wonder if there were any apologies.

There should have been.

ON THE EVE OF MICHIGAN’S PRIMARY

Below are a few of the thoughts on my mind as I consider what to do tomorrow with regard to the Primary. They are in no particular order:

It is of paramount importance to defeat the national democrat candidate.

The Michigan Primary must be the vehicle for electing the best, if not the perfect candidate to achieve the defeat of the national democrats.

The Republican choice of Michigan voters need not be the one finally elected to the White House – for we do not know who the national democrat party is going to select as the final candidate – so, the duty of Republicans in the Michigan Primary is to keep the best two candidates alive to defeat the national democrat.

The two front national democrats are obama and hillary.

It is very likely that the best Republican opponent for obama is McCain.

It is very likely that the best Republican opponent for hillary is Giuliani.

Therefore, it follows that both McCain and Giuliani must be kept in the race.

With this in mind, it also follows that McCain must be the winner over Romney in the Primary to keep him alive as we wait to see who the national democrat candidate is going to be.

Romney lacks a real Michigan connection. He does not appeal to enough of American society. He just does not excite enough people.
He probably could not win a national election.

McCain or Giuliani could win a national election.

Further, Republican voters should not demand a perfect candidate. We can wait a bit to decide on the best one, if for no other reason than the one cited above.

The next President will appoint Supreme Court Justice(s).

He will probably have to deal with a democrat Congress.

We want him to be feared by the barbarians. Emphasize that word…FEARED. The barbarians will not fear a national democrat candidate.

We need a President who will thwart the high-tax democrat Congress.

We do not need a fool who emptily calls for change.

Vote to keep the best two Republicans in the race, to keep the viable options open.
Sorry Romney.

If the Republican nomination process is not resolved until a bit later, so be it.

I regret that Giuliani chose not to engage until Florida. He is a valuable part of the effort to safeguard the Republic. So is McCain.

The national democrats as presently constituted are not.

Good luck to us all as we make our selection. It will do us no good to elect the perfect candidate who cannot win a national election.

THOSE WHO PROMISE CHANGE

Many of the candidates this primary season are calling for and promising change.

Look up the word:

To give a completely different form or appearance to; transform:

To promise an entirely different form w/o giving any specifics is either to promise nothing or to promise the unknown.

Such a promise is an empty promise, even a dangerous one.

Empty promises are made by ignorant people; by manipulative people; or by fools.

Only ignorant or manipulated or foolish people vote for folks who promise such emptiness.

Don’t vote for or trust such candidates.

Don’t be ignorant, manipulated, or foolish.

ANGLICAN SCHISM INEVITABLE?

Dr. Elane Pagels has suggested that there was possibly at least as much disagreement in the early Christian Church as there is today.

Her opinions are worthy of consideration in light of her standing in the world of Biblical scholarship:

Elaine Pagels is a preeminent figure in the theological community whose impressive scholarship has earned her international respect. The Harrington Spear Paine Professor of Religion at Princeton University, Pagels was awarded the Rockefeller, Guggenheim and MacArthur Fellowships in three consecutive years.
As a young researcher at Barnard College, she changed forever the historical landscape of the Christian religion by exploding the myth of the early Christian Church as a unified movement.

If she is right, and she apparently is, I wonder if the current divisions, especially the ones now developing within the Anglican Communion, are not only normal, but even unavoidable.

It just may be that splintering is how it works, especially in matters of faith; that we should be glad that there has not been even more divisiveness amongst the believers.

Since infallibility is a non-starter and all that we know about anything comes through the human filter, it stands to reason that there will be all sorts of disagreements.
And those who disagree can be expected to say, sooner or later , “Enough, one or the other of us must go.”

Maybe to expect otherwise is to expect too much, especially in these modern days of apparently increasing polarization.

OAKLAND PRESS SCORES ON FRIDAY

In the 11 January edition of the Oakland Press, Tim Skubick tells why it is important to vote carefully in Michigan’s “wimpy little primary.” And reveals a political secret.

The editorial makes the case for voting for Mitt Romney.

An op-ed piece by Ruth Johnson, Oakland Country Clerk, tells the Michigan primary voter what to expect at the polling place on Tuesday.

The Oakland Press has been shrinking in size and relevance. These three articles are exceptions to a depressing trend.

The national democrat party has insulted our state. The national democrat candidates who pulled out of the Michigan primary may have miscalculated.

National leaders who have challenged the stranglehold of Iowa and New Hampshire on the selection process perhaps should be congratulated.

SIR EDMUND HILLARY…R.I.P.

Sir Edmund Hillary, 20 July 1919 – 11 January 2008.

And so another of the great ones has passed. Sir Edmund was a hero at a time when heroes were not heroes because they were movie actors; sex kittens; or drug-taking sports figures.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Hillary

How times have changed!

Not everything in this old world is getting better and better.

THE FLIPPER FLOPPED AGAIN

Wouldn’t you just love to have john kerry watch your back in a tight situation?

Today he endorsed one of his Vice-Presidential running mate's opponents as best candidate for the Presidency of the United States.

What a guy!!

Aren’t we sorry he didn’t make the White House?

I guess the flipper flopped again.

ROMNEY...A MICHIGAN CONNECTION?

Mitt Romney has a Michigan connection??

Has he lived in Michigan in the last 30 or more years??

Does he vacation in Michigan??

Does he visit Michigan regularly, prior to the current primaries??

Does he conduct business in Michigan??

Does he hold elective office in Michigan??

Isn’t he the east coast guy??

NO BRAINERS

The Supreme Court is currently considering whether or not it is legal to require voters to identify themselves as they attempt to vote.

Now, I only spent a few months in law school a lifetime ago, but this really does seem to be a no-brainer.

We need ID to drive a car; to cash a check; to cross a border; to do any number of things, and yet the democrat party thinks it is racist to require us to id ourselves when we want to cast a ballot.

Opponents of the ID law claim that our electoral systems rarely ask for ID anyway, and that there are precious few times when a person attempts to vote with a false name.

I respond that the precious few times might be the result of fearing that an ID might be required.

This is much the same idea that folks use to argue against the death penalty. We will never know how many folks are deterred from killing by the fear of assured execution, a type of punishment which is by no means common in the US of these days.

Require ID and there will be no phony voting. Guarantee execution to capital criminals and there will be few or no capital criminals.

No-brainers, both of em.

PROVOCATION

You have to wonder why Iranian gunboats would aggressively approach three significant elements of the United States Navy: a cruiser, a destroyer, and a frigate.

There is no question here of testing the sensitivity of target acquisition equipment.
There was no apology.
There should have been.

Rival naval forces routinely do this. Months ago, a PRC submarine surfaced within the secure zone around a US carrier battle group.

The PRC immediately apologized.
They were right to do so.

The sub no doubt was practicing silent approaches to the US carrier group.

The Russian Air Force routinely violates national air space of neighboring countries to check out detection capabilities. When discovered, they quickly turn away.
This is relatively routine.

In the PRC and Russian cases described above, there was little danger of combat occurring.

In the Iranian case, however, it was only the restraint of the US commanding officers that prevented the death of many Iranians.

How odd.

Iran is a piece of work, a dangerous nation to trust with serious weaponry.

QUOTE(S) OF INTEREST

Ben Franklin on the right to bear arms:

Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch.
Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.

FOLLOWING THE PRIMARIES

I suspect it has to be, but it is pathetic to watch candidates tailor their presentations and even the manner of presentations to suit their audiences.

I like to imagine a time when the candidate would simply be himself and say what he had to say.

By the way, I offer no apologies for using the masculine gender above. I am in a mood tonight, I guess. In Church this AM, I again noted that most of the Congregation, a lot of it anyway, substitutes God for He whenever possible.
For heavens sake, the prayer is …Our Father, not Our God…. or Our Mother….

So, when I am in a mood, I will use the masculine pronoun, the way I was taught fifty years ago. Good grief, was it that long ago???
Sorry for the digression.
No I am not.

Anyway, when watching the primary speeches and coverage, I suggest watching a few of the actual speeches or debates, as they are called, with a few grains of salt. It is a given that the candidates may say things that they have no intention of ever doing when and if they are elected. They do it to make their elections possible in these days of sound byte news coverage.

And one should watch at least two news networks for analysis: Fox with Brit Hume and his people for one; and cnn and their people for another.

Brit Hume is the best on the air. cnn is flamingly liberal but it will give you the liberal spin. And some of their people are ok.

For the national candidates, I would ignore the local broadcasts.

If you are able, utilize online journals; newspapers; and commentaries from more than the correct side in order to maintain perspective and check on your favourite analysts.

Why should one be interested in the primaries??

Well, one reason is that we have a ringside seat at watching how the most powerful nation in the history of the earth picks its leader. The Greeks and Romans and British were awesome.

The United States is more awesome.

It is a privilege to be able to follow events. It is an even greater privilege to participate in the process.

Go for it.

We did a tiny bit last election.

Maybe this election too.

RE ELECTING A PRESIDENT...2008 POST ON SATURDAY 5 JANUARY

The link below supports the importance of the #9 slippery slope awareness characteristic for a good Presidential candidate.

http://www.americanthinker.com/printpage/?url=http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/01/britney_anna_nicole_and_the_fu.html

How can anyone argue against this logic.

QUOTE(S) OF INTEREST

Al Capone on the Axis of Evil:

You can get much further with a kind word and a gun
than you can with a kind word alone.

ELECTING A PRESIDENT...2008

The Iowa Caucuses and the subsequent primaries are a big part of the way we go about selecting the President of the United States.

When these pre-election exercises are over, both major parties will have a candidate.

If the system works well, the two nominees may be good ones. May is the operational word.

The job of the citizen is then to select the better of the two.

We elect an inferior Chief Executive at our national peril.

As I consider the candidates, I will be looking for evidence that they are capable of being the world’s most important national leader: that they know the challenges facing the US and possible solutions to those challenges; that they are able to act on what they know; and that they are willing and able to tell it like it is.

Below is a list of fifteen characteristics of a good President in the year 2008. The list is incomplete. There are dozens and dozens of other important characteristics.

Please feel free to add to it.

I may do so myself as they come to mind.

As is usually the case, the world will be watching our elections this coming fall.

The best candidate for the Presidency of the United States is the one who:

1 Commits to unconditional victory over terror

2 Prevents national democrats from taking the White House
3 Rejects the algore view of global warming and deals intelligently and wisely with global warming
4 Knows that there is no world community or world government, that right will win out only if it is combined with might, US might.
5 Reminds us that there really is evil in the world which is a mortal threat to our way of life
6 Secures our national borders
7 Works to safeguard majority as well as minority rights
8 Believes that the best way to assure peace is to prepare for war, as in …they had to choose between peace or war. They chose peace. They got war [from Churchill, I think].
9 By example and word reminds us that good taste, courtesy, morality, and doing the right thing are all subject to the law of the slippery slope, that a slide down that slope has consequences
10 Will be feared in the councils of the barbarians, in the sense that it is better to be feared by the barbarian than loved by him
11 Makes it clear that profiling of the criminal [especially the terrorist] is how it is done in effective police work
12 Knows that preemption and unilateral action are not in themselves violations of international law
13 Knows that the UN is an unreliable protector of US interests
14 Reminds the American people that our international responsibilities are long term, not responsive to the quick fix
15 Knows that world stability is in our own best interest and that only US power and leadership can make it possible

Being the nation that is the last, best hope of the world is not a small responsibility.