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.
Friday, January 25, 2008
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 $$ back to the taxpayer. But don’t lower taxes.
It is a financial version of the national dem effort to protect the nation against barbarians while letting the anti-terrorist laws expire.
Menace!!!!!
We are in an election year. The economy is a little edgy. The dem leadership in the Congress has been a spectacle. The dem base is not happy.
I wonder if this is a national dem attempt to buy an election.
I love it.
Give $$ 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.
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.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
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!”
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!”
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
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.
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.
Monday, January 21, 2008
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.
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.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
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.
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.
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