Ruminations Of A Wage Slave

What makes people rebel against the status quo?

2012-01-27T13:00:00.002-05:00

Every time time the feds hire another rude, obnoxious TSA agent, or the city hires another jackass clerk or the state hires another pricky, menacing road reaver, a potential insurgent is created. That's what Steven Metz's study published at the Small War Journal seems to say.

"Insurgency arises from a combination of two conditions:", says Metz, "significant unmet psychological needs, and the feasibility of violence (via both attitudes receptive to it and the actual tools of armed action). To grapple with this, a psychological conceptualization of insurgency would be more powerful and useful than a political one."

So I gather the boiling frog scenario doesn't always work after all.

"If you're going to walk a long, lonesome highway, be sure you've chosen it for yourself."

2012-01-27T11:49:00.000-05:00

Indeed. Doing the work for a M.A. or a Ph.D. that you don't actually "need" is not only a long lonely road but it is also a time-sucking, often frustrating, and hugely expensive undertaking as well. Myself, I dropped out of grad school after one semester. I've regretted this sometimes, but mostly not. Do I Have to Finish My Dissertation?

The Dear Leader is speaking now...

2012-01-27T10:21:00.000-05:00

The Dear Leader

...so there isn't much happening. (10:22 AM) The suits with wires in their ears and unidentified black uniformed men with automatic weapons as well as the local cops have all us peons on lock down. So I am just twiddling my thumbs waiting for the Dear Leader to finish his speech and go home. Hope & change mofo!

The Ron Paul campaign is becoming a cult-of-personality movement like Obama's did in 2008

2012-01-26T14:20:00.001-05:00

Ron Paul action figures? Sheesh. Graven images of the Dear Leader for the Paulists to drool over? Weird.

"if yr not getting happier as you get older, then yr fuckin up."

2012-01-26T13:41:00.000-05:00

So says Ani DeFranco. Hmm. That observation says it all.

The decline and fall of the white working-class American family

2012-01-26T13:31:00.000-05:00

From Kay S. Hymowitz's review of Charles Murray's new book on the decline of white society in America published at City Journal.

"In short," says Hymowitz, "America has become a segregated, caste society, with a born elite and an equally hereditary underclass. A libertarian, Murray believes these facts add up to an argument for limited government. The welfare state has sapped America’s civic energy in places like Fishtown, leaving a population of disengaged, untrusting slackers. It has also diminished upper-class confidence: the well-to-do dare not suggest they have a recipe for the good life. 'The underpinning of the welfare state,' Murray writes, 'is that, at bottom, human beings are not really responsible for the things they do.' ”

It takes a lot of nerve to write stuff like this these days but I suppose someone has to.

Attention media big-shots: You can put a show on cable but you can't make us watch it

2012-01-26T13:02:00.000-05:00

Ex-Michigan governor Jenny Granholm has a temp talk show gig on Al Gore's Current TV channel now through November 2012 it has been announced.

"The premise [of her show]" says Detroit News columnist Laura Berman, "is that Granholm's inside knowledge of campaign strategy and communications will enable her to provide insights into the process — and the mayhem — that aren't easily understood from outside."

Whatever. As a hugely disappointing two-term Michigan governor and recent migrant to California I seriously doubt that Granholm has that much "insight" to offer viewers on national politics and I fully expect that the ratings she gets will reflect that. The Gore Channel must be really, truly, hard-up for media personalities if they're taking her on, even as a temp.

Detropia

2012-01-25T12:46:00.002-05:00

I find it is really odd how a certain type of white ex-Detroiter relishes the opportunity to masochistically chronicle the death, decay, and dismantlement of a once great city on film. But on the other hand such displays can get you noticed at the Sundance film festival and by the Huffington Post so there's that. Turn the camera around and speak into the microphone Ms. Ewing* and tell why you left Detroit?

*(Detropia's co-director Heidi Ewing is from Farmington Hills)

Silly boondoggle or law enforcement theatre? Does it matter?

2012-01-25T11:23:00.001-05:00

InfoWars and the AP are reporting that East Orange, NJ cops are gonna put red colored spotlights on telephone poles in high crime areas to shine red colored light beams on suspicious persons or activity to let the potential culprits and the public know that the cops are watching them and/or on the way.

I guess the crooks and thugs in East Orange have never heard of shooting out lights or wearing masks to disguise their identity. The cost of this bullshit is to be borne by the federal treasury of course. Given the human cesspool that inhabits East Orange demographics-wise perhaps that is the case. However they will no doubt quickly learn and adapt. After all even amoebas learn from simple stimulus-response cycles. What a laugh. Scary and funny at the same time.

Polymer casings: The future of ammo?

2012-01-24T13:17:00.001-05:00

Some will no doubt view this development happily. The savings in production cost and weight might be impressive. I wonder if these plastic and steel casings can be reloaded though? BATF the federal anti-gun bureaucracy/Brady Campaign/VPC types all love the idea of severely restricting our ability to produce our own ammo and so I'll be on the lookout for any of their machinations as this technology emerges. Word to the wise. [The Gun Nut blog]

The "leader of the free world" creates his own mini-police state everywhere he goes

2012-01-24T12:48:00.000-05:00

And so it seems we Ann Arborites must endure another Obama visit this coming Friday. Look for DTX to be closed to take offs/landing whilst the ~~Imperial Barge~~ Air Force One is on the runway. Look for major highways like I-94 between Detroit and Ann Arbor to be closed to traffic and for police/feds/unidentified black uniformed goons to be posted at all the bridges, on/off ramps and on the tops of every tall building along the way. Furthermore, the immediate area around the pres will become a civil liberties free zone and from which you can/will be barred from regardless of your business for being there. The Big Ø will zip into town in a fast moving multi-SUV motorcade, speak, and then zoom back out to DTX but even so downtown will be on lock-down for 24 hours probably starting around Thursday until the Big Ø leaves.

As you may surmise I've experienced quite a number of presidential/presidential candidate/First Lady/VIP visits to my town over the years and so I know the drill by now.

I guess we're all supposed to feel honored that he and his entourage have deigned to grace us with his presence yet again. Myself, I was hoping that with advent of the modern police state we'd only need to endure the Dear Leader's digital presence on a jumbo-tron screen rather than in person. Less disruptive.

Chicago newspaper's new mission is to inform you, not tell you how to vote

2012-01-24T12:10:00.001-05:00

The Chicago Sun-Times will no longer make editorial page candidate endorsements. I think this is a good thing. Probably should have been their position all along. Very few people really care that much what an editorial board thinks about candidates or political issues, they just want the facts along with some context. The sorting it all out they can do themselves.

Hornaday selling Zombie Max© ammo now because, well, just in case zombies turn out to be real

2012-01-23T07:33:00.000-05:00

No word yet on how that unicorn hunting ammo research is going. [Hornaday]

The era of having numerous nation-states is coming to an end; but what will replace them?

2012-01-22T13:45:00.000-05:00

So will we end up with few huge tyrannical mega-states (like China, Russia, USA), bumbling nanny states (EU, Canada, Oz) or violent chaotic but largely free anarchist groupings (Somalia, Afghanistan, Mexico)? Good question and one that this article in New Geography speculates upon. The author maintains that the cultural elite leadership class for such global entities is in place now and is largely in control already. Now if only those ignorant yahoos who inhabit the world would just stop clinging to their guns and religion and let them run things their way it would all be good. Sheesh.

Remember the good old days when being a "gun nut" meant you liked to shoot targets, skeet, collect old guns, or hunt deer?

2012-01-22T13:04:00.000-05:00

So does one of the shooting bloggers at Field & Stream. David E. Petzal writing about his disappointing realization at the annual SHOT Show that more and more floor space is being devoted to cop/military/tactical stuff and less and less to traditional American gun culture stuff like target shooting, hunting, skeet and trap shooting, and collecting.

"The most densely crowded venues," says Petzal, "were dedicated to the wonderful worlds of the paramilitary and law enforcement. Apparently there is an insatiable need for the equipment used in shooting, clubbing, and gassing people. There are suits of full body armor the like of which has not been seen since the Battle of Agincourt. There are all-black deathmobiles, equipped with lethal gear of all sorts. I’m told that Cop World constitutes fully one-third of the SHOT Show. How shooting and suppressing the citizenry ties into Shooting, Hunting, and Outdoor Trade is more than I can comprehend, but there it is." [emphasis mine]

I've been going to gun and knife shows for a few decades now and I've seen the same transformation there as well. I am not happy with what it says about American culture. A lot of us are totally infatuated by the forces of violence and repression. Somehow I can't imagine 19th century slaves being infatuated with ankle chains, whips, and such. Go figure?

Preppers coming into the media spotlight sadly for them

2012-01-22T11:57:00.000-05:00

The main-stream media is beginning to take note of the nascent "prepper movement". Naturally of course they dismiss preppers as kooks, nothing more than a "kinder, gentler" version of the survivalist types. And why would they not? Nothing seriously ever goes wrong in the world of the big time media types and so they question/mock/ridicule them as to "why all the preparations" then? Which sure isn't true for the rest of us. The big-time media types see looming disaster as a news story to be covered; the rest of us, who would have to live through it, are looking for a way to ride it out as best we can. Therein lies the difference.

Desmond Ryan, educator, athlete, thespian, and all-round renaissance man has died

2012-01-22T11:51:00.001-05:00

One of my more memorable teachers from my high school days has died. Desmond Ryan had quite a life. He even had a character on the TV show Lost named for him by a writer who was a former pupil. R.I.P. Mr. Ryan.

With "allies" like these

2012-01-20T10:32:00.000-05:00

Time.com's Battleland blog which covers military affairs says that in the last two years at least 58 allied troops have been killed by their Afghan army and police allies. These killings were not so-called "friendly fire" mishaps either but deliberate killings. Sheesh. And don't get me started on America's lying, perfidious "allies" in the Pakistan military and intelligence agencies. America needs to get the hell out of that quagmire.

"It takes real guts to stare that sort of power in the face, and then put it in its rightful place."

2012-01-19T14:20:00.001-05:00

And in this case it means putting an 84 year-old billionaire (and his chief lackey) into a cell at the Wayne county jail for contempt. Even if it was for only a day. If you ignore the Detroit Metro-Times' Curt Guyette's hyperbole and snark and just focus on the details you get a pretty good sense of why this Maroun guy is thought to be such an asshole from his article.

Beware the police-industrial complex too

2012-01-19T12:31:00.000-05:00

Echoing the words of former President Eisenhower I wonder why the NYC based Police Foundation is so generous in funding new technology solutions as detailed here in this City Journal article. The piece references a mobile scanner set up so that the cops can run people through it like cattle in feedlot (or passengers at an airport) to scan them for guns and knives and other weapons so they won't have to do so much hands-on stop & frisk patrol activity but which tend to annoy the citizens. Being the cynical sort that I am I have to wonder if the directors of the Police Foundation have a financial interest in these technologies and hope to get some positive buzz for them via the NYPD and other first adopter PD's and who will then lobby Washington to make DoJ, DHS, etc. grants available to other PDs to buy it as well?

Motley crew of union types, teachers, professional protesters, malcontents and kooks march on Governor Snyder's home

2012-01-17T10:19:00.001-05:00

This what "democracy looks like" sad to say. Looking for all the world like a badly mixed blend of church picnic, protest march, and union picket line these misguided fools galumphed down Geddes Road to give a letter to Governor Snyder's chief of staff denouncing Michigan's Emergency Financial Manager law. Too bad these same goofs don't do this sort of protest march to the homes of their mayors, city council and school board members, past and present, who mismanaged their broke ass communities into their present condition in the first place.

Further proof that all that stuff in the constitution about the right to a speedy trial, the prohibition against excessive bail, and the presumption of innocence and all the other safeguards we supposedly have are all just bullshit.

2012-01-17T09:20:00.002-05:00

Two years after their arrests the Hutaree Militia defendants finally going to trial says the Detroit News.

Sadly in Detroit that's just how we roll

2012-01-16T14:35:00.000-05:00

Grandmother beat down by irate party-goers at the Dearborn Chuck E. Cheese when she asked them to stop cursing and swearing so loudly near her grandson's birthday gathering inside the restaurant. This isn't the first time something like has happened before either. Go figure?

Notes and pictures of the ruling nomenklatura class of the People's Republic of Ann Arbor

2012-01-16T13:48:00.001-05:00

Old lame Democratic Party hacks from Ann Arbor and its environs like Congressman-for-Life John Dingell, his wife, various local pols, hacks, fanatics, kooks, dopes, and wannabes are pictured and profiled. Know your enemy folks.

Getting our terms right: free enterprise isn't the same as capitalism

2012-01-15T14:23:00.000-05:00

The real divide in our political economy is the Wall Street versus Main Street outlook amongst the business management folks.

"At many companies," says Felix Salmon writing at Wired, "both public and private, the optimal course of action is a modest one — run the business so that it makes a reasonable profit, and can continue to operate indefinitely. If you chase after growth, you often end up in bankruptcy: that’s one reason why the oldest companies in the world are all family-run. Families, unlike public companies or private-equity shops, don’t need growth: they’re more interested in looking after their business over the very, very long run."

Yep. Even though "in the long run we're all dead", as John Maynard Keynes observed we at least have something to pass on.

Another reason nation-states need to die

2012-01-15T11:51:00.000-05:00

Elites run state entities for their own benefit and justify it all to the sheep with cynical appeals to nationalism, patriotism, and economic mythology and fill in any holes in their story with out-right lies.

"This portfolio is a half step away from a cellar-full of canned goods and 9-millimeter rounds.” *

2012-01-15T11:21:00.000-05:00

An examination of U.S. Representative and GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul's financial disclosure documents by the Wall Street Journal shows that he holds cash, silver and gold mining stocks, and real estate. Less than 1 percent is in stocks and none is in bonds, derivatives, futures or other paper assets. Paul thinks that a financial collapse is on the way and has bet his net worth on that assumption. I have mixed feelings about those predictions myself, but say what else you will about Paul you still must admit that he puts his money where his mouth is.

*William Bernstein, an investment manager at Efficient Portfolio Advisors as quoted in The American Conservative.

Why I am an NRA member despite some misgivings

2012-01-14T14:17:00.000-05:00

Stories like this one from the legal blog The Volokh Conspiracy: "Felon Steals Gun, Accidentally Kills Himself, Estate Sues Owner and Gun Manufacturer".

Yes the plaintiff here was the deceased felon's estate who wanted to sue the arms-maker Glock for not designing a safer storage box for their pistols and the owner of the Glock pistol which the deceased felon stole and then shot himself with. And they may well have done so except that the National Rifle Association's brainchild The Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act of 2005 required that the Masshole courts decline to allow such lawsuits to proceed.

Many of my libertarian friends are often telling me that the NRA while good on RTKBA issues represses freedom in other areas and is stupidly, blindly, pro-war and pro-cop. I agree that it usually is, but in this instance it kept a decent if misguided person from being sued and the Glock firearms company from having to defend an expensive lawsuit leading to potentially ruinous claims for damages. So, like them or not the NRA can be "useful idiots" on occasion. Occasions like this for example.

A dipshit yuppie writer's exploration of the stolen bicycle racket

2012-01-14T12:31:00.000-05:00

Silly masochistic fun on the author's part I guess given all the bikes he's lost to thieves. Now if he'd have gone all Paul Kersey on the thieves I'd have enjoyed it more. The sad conclusion the author comes to is that if you inhabit an urban area your bike is going to get ganked, dismantled, and fenced and there ain't nothing you can do for it. Bottom line: Buy something cheap so it can be easily replaced. Not much else is to be learned from his screed beside that sad to say. [Outside]

How Glock conquered America

2012-01-13T17:39:00.000-05:00

One guy's opinion on how and why the Glock polymer frame, double-action-only pistol replaced the Smith & Wesson revolver as America's handgun. [Popular Mechanics via Instapundit]

Some "libertarians" that hate state interference try to use cops to bust someone else's chops

2012-01-13T09:10:00.000-05:00

Go figure? An outfit called FreeKeene.com/ that says it's libertarian in orientation was blocking the path of an SUV containing some Newt Gingrich campaign staff at a Hudson, NH school were Gingrich had an engagement to speak. Words were spoken and then the "libertarians" immediately began hounding the cops on site to arrest the SUV's driver (who would not identify himself). The Free Keenians said the guy assaulted one of them but their video doesn't show that as far as I could see. I think they were just trying to provoke the Gringrich staff people into something newsworthy.

Now I don't like Gingrich but what I dislike even more are supposed libertarians who act like petulant children not to mention blatant hypocrites who want to act out their version of civil disobedience theatre but who then want to sic cops on people that won't play their game. In a limited night watchman form of government or even stateless society like they advocate for who is gonna come to their aid every time somebody disses them? Sheesh.

Bottom Line: Don't start nothing and there won't be nothing eh, guys? But then they wouldn't have any dramatic videos to post would they?

Well that ought to get his attention

2012-01-12T11:40:00.000-05:00

Ambassador Bridge owner Matty Maroun was ordered to jail for contempt of court for failure to complete work as promised (but mainly for being a dick-head if the truth be known). Heh.

Ann Arbor rated "6th gayest city" in America

2012-01-11T14:29:00.000-05:00

What?

"The Advocate magazine has ranked the gayest cities in America according to its own admittedly unscientific and somewhat quirky criteria, such as the number of nude yoga classes and International Mr. Leather Competition semifinalists in the city. (To be fair, we’ll note that the criteria also include things like the number of LBGT elected officials and number of transgender legal protections.)"[Ann Arbor.com]

The People's Republic of Ann Arbor is quite tolerant of sexual and life-style choices but it isn't "gay" in the sexually freaky sense as The Advocate crowd seem to think. The number of "nude yoga studios" a city has is more an issue of its own sleaziness than sexual/life-style tolerance. AA doesn't even allow XXX bookstores or "Asian massage parlors". Too sleazy, tacky, and low class.

Neo-cons pushing us into another war nobody wants

2012-01-11T13:16:00.001-05:00

"These let’s-bomb-Iran crowd consists of the same politicians and pundits that not so long ago were warning that Saddam Hussein’s Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and that the world-as-we-know-it would come to an end unless the U.S. invaded Iraq." [American Conservative]

U.S. Navy SEALs are known to be physically tough, but apparently not all that bright, esp. when alcohol is involved

2012-01-09T11:17:00.000-05:00

News item: "...San Diego police said the unidentified man [later identified as a SEAL] was handling the gun and pointed it at his head to show his girlfriend it wasn’t loaded, but pulled the trigger and shot himself. Both had been drinking at a local bar earlier that night,..." [Navy Times]

Michigan AG Schuette sure is an obstructionist jackhole ain't he?

2012-01-09T10:22:00.001-05:00

The Detroit Free Press reports that Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette wants to prohibit UM grad students from unionizing. Why does he even care about that? The reasons the AG gives are kinda obscure at least to me. Schuette has also begun an all-out war against government employees having same sex employment benefits and the "medical" marihuana law. For one in that same sex couples cannot legally marry under Michigan law denying them a benefit that is available to heterosexuals seems unfair. As to the medical marihuana law that was passed by plebiscite in 2008, (as a work-around for people who wanna get high without risking being arrested), AG Schuette has taken it as his mission to overrule the legislature's and the people's decisions on these two issues. It's hard to see why other than just blind arrogance the AG has tried to thwart their decisions. Go figure?

"Detroit is Ground Zero for the breakdown of the Blue Social Model."

2012-01-08T11:16:00.001-05:00

Says Walter Russell Mead. "The race issue is a red herring", Mead goes on to say, "when it comes to Detroit. Detroit isn’t broke because it has an African American majority; it is broke because for decades its politicians have spent more money than they had, and because Detroit never figured out how to reinvent itself as it lost its industrial core."

Well that and auto union greed and short-sightedness, a national government hell-bent on destroying the manufacturing economy in favor of financialism, and the obtuse, incompetent, corrupt, African-American "elite" (such as they are) that have run Detroit since 1973.

The people must be led! (Driven! Pushed! Forced!)

2012-01-07T12:47:00.000-05:00

"The Left’s growing support for a soft authoritarianism", notes Fred Siegel and Joel Kotkin @ City Journal, "is reminiscent of the 1930s, when many on both right and left looked favorably at either Stalin’s Soviet experiment or its fascist and National Socialist rivals. Tom Friedman of the New York Times recently praised Chinese-style authoritarianism for advancing the green agenda."

Just to cite one example of the exasperation that the the ruling class has for the democratic process. There are many others as well, sadly.

Microsoft wouldn't offer it if there wasn't a demand for it, would they?

2012-01-06T14:14:00.000-05:00

Microsoft has patented an "avoid ghetto" feature for GPS devices that is designed to keep you out of inadvertently blundering into "dangerous" neighborhoods. [CBS Seattle.com/]

No "compassionate conservatism" here

2012-01-06T06:46:00.000-05:00

From a commenter at the Daily Trawler blog in re Current TV's Keith Olberman's emotional stability/labor management issues: "People with Olby's personality disorder don't change for the better. They just get worse and worse." Replies blogger Jim Treacher: "Which just makes it better and better!"

Building sports stadia, convention centers may be the "conventional wisdom" but the facts show that there is nothing wise about it

2012-01-05T12:08:00.000-05:00

If it "takes money to make money" then why do all these private developers sit on their wallets and checkbooks and insist that the taxpayers pay for it all? Hint: Because it's all a swindle and they know it.

"Provocation" is in the eye of the beholder

2012-01-05T11:47:00.000-05:00

The PTB in Washington, D.C. truly have a serious empathy deficit. How would this shoe fit on their foot? To wit:

[A] "WSJ lead story about [the] Chinese developing a ballistic missile designed to fragment – like a cluster bomb – on the deck of a U.S. carrier and wipe out all aircraft and personnel. Naturally, it’s unbelievably provocative to us [i.e., the US Navy], because in our world view, U.S. carriers get to come right up to the coast of any nation whenever we please, bringing all that magnificent power projection to bear." [Thomas P.M. Barnett @ BattleLand blog]

The nerve of those Chinese! How could these countries be so damn provocative?

Are STEM* types like Dilbert "natural-born libertarians"?

2012-01-03T16:07:00.001-05:00

Nope. My experience is that they are natural-born control freaks. But opinions differ.
[OpenDemocracy.com via slashdot.org]

* STEM = Science, technology, engineering, and math.

The sniper they called "white death": Simo Hayha

2012-01-03T12:47:00.000-05:00

White Death: the Sniper Who Killed 700 Soviets in 100 Days : A photo montage of Corporal Simo Häyhä the Finnish Army sniper who rained well aimed bullets upon Soviet invaders in 1939-40. The Soviets eventually deployed a 100 man special team of counter-snipers to take him down and they did eventually wound him. But not before he killed or wounded over 70 of them first. Hayha used a standard issue Mosin-Nagant Model 28 rifle often without a scope! Amazing. Hayha lived to the ripe old age 96.

Debt slavery and the modern state

2012-01-02T11:23:00.000-05:00

"Since the Renaissance, however, bankers have shifted their political support to democracies. This did not reflect egalitarian or liberal political convictions as such, but rather a desire for better security for their loans. As James Steuart explained in 1767, royal borrowings remained private affairs rather than truly public debts. For a sovereign’s debts to become binding upon the entire nation, elected representatives had to enact the taxes to pay their interest charges."

Debt Slavery – Why It Destroyed Rome, Why It Will Destroy Us Unless It’s Stopped, by Michael Hudson, Counter-Punch]

Lewrockwell.com is in the tank for Ron Paul

2011-12-31T13:17:00.000-05:00

It is so sad that the web site that claims to be "anti-war, anti-state, pro-market" falls for the same rotten, smelly old cheese of conventional politics when one of it's own favorites is packed in it. Just about every article on LRC these days is now devoted the GOP (!) presidential candidacy of Rep. Ron Paul. The Ghost Dancer faction of the LP/paleo-con American political scene that LRC caters to fairly whirls up a storm seeking comfort by trying to return to a past that can never be again no matter who they vote for. Even Ron Paul.

The Story of H

2011-12-31T02:28:00.001-05:00

"My friend H. is probably gonna kill a cop some night. Deliberately, violently, and with no remorse in his heart whatever. But it could be a hapless security guard or night watchman that he kills though too. Or perhaps maybe a pizza delivery-man that knocks on H.'s door by accident some night also. Hell, it could even be me that he kills. Now me getting hurt would presumably be an accident on H.'s part. I am his friend and comrade of longstanding after all. However I wouldn't be any less dead or wounded for all that though would I ?" [Read the rest here.]

Some times the unexploded bombs that lay dormant after a war are flesh and blood rather than metal devices, but they are still capable of death and injury. Some we find in time and get them help. Some just can't take it any more and go mad, kill themselves, become shut-ins, alcoholics or addicts or just go catatonic. And some finally explode. And when they do it ain't pretty.

I could not have put it better myself

2011-12-31T01:49:00.000-05:00

"A bureaucrat is a bureaucrat, regardless of the bureau."

Indeed they are. And a pox on all of them too.

(Via the Getting Your Hands Dirty blog)

I don't have to justify what I "need" to Sarah Brady

2011-12-31T00:58:00.003-05:00

...or any of the rest of the nannies, scolds, shrews, harpies, buttinskies, kvetchers, control-freaks, and the rest that ilk. And the Scumfuck Living In Babylon blogger puts it even more bluntly than I do. To wit:

"I'm sick of pretending", says the SFLB, "that there are sporting purposes to my shit. I'm a survivalist and my weapons are for killing motherfuckers in a theoretical Mad Max future, and perhaps most importantly of all I don't have to justify shit to you, god damnit."

Indeed. Μολὼν λαβέ you bastards!

(Via the End the War on Freedom blog of Bill St. Clair)

Hell yes! No doubt in my mind at all

2011-12-30T21:42:00.001-05:00

In re Mikhail Gorbachev's piece in The Nation (Is The World Really Safer Without The Soviet Union?) Of course it is. Now we need to dismantle the United States of America and the People's Republic of China as well. Kill off the big ones and the rest will go too, in time. The best state is no state at all.

If a police dog can sniff around your car why can't it sniff around your house?

2011-12-28T12:59:00.002-05:00

Asks poster Orrin Kerr at the law blog Volokh Conspiracy. One thing is for sure though; once the dog appears sure as hell the cops are gonna be rifling through your stuff quite soon.

Disarm the state!

2011-12-28T12:29:00.000-05:00

It will make the rest of us safer. Armed cops beating on your door is scary; an unarmed security guard is a mere nuisance. Bureaucrats whose only "back-up" to their edicts, regulations, citations, pronouncements, and so on is some unarmed goof doesn't seem so scary.

Ask Slashdot: Should geek-centric magazines still publish paper editions??

2011-12-27T12:50:00.001-05:00

Hmmm. Seems like geeks would like the trend of magazines going paperless. The link is to a lively conversation over at the Slashdot web forum on that topic.

The chronicle of a distinguished professor who was a lying liar

2011-12-24T14:00:00.000-05:00

The case of Herr Doktor Professor Diederik Stapel who was unmasked as a dissembling liar who published many studies and articles based on research data that was entirely fabricated by him to prove whatever point he was trying to make.

“ 'I was not able to withstand the pressure to score points, to publish, to always have to be better,” and that he felt 'a sense of dismay and shame' but that he was 'sincerely committed to the field of social psychology, young researchers, and other colleagues.' " [Chronicle of Higher Education]

But he didn't have enough of a "sense of shame" to, you know, actually quit doing it though. Sheesh.

Going, going, gone.

2011-12-21T10:50:00.001-05:00

Pontiac's state-appointed Emergency Financial Manager plans to sell off every bit of the city's property possible at auction in order to pay its bills. Sad.

The wisdom of the pundit class redux

2011-12-20T12:34:00.001-05:00

Megan McArdle and Noam Scheiber talk about the drawbacks of being poor in a half-assed welfare state like modern America.

No kidding!

2011-12-20T12:17:00.001-05:00

From Bill Roggio at the Threat Matrix blog:"How many times do 75 percent of al Qaeda's top leaders need to be killed before the terror group is dead?" You really can't win this game of whack-a-mole like this in my opinion.

Urban renewal schemes don't work that well outside the classroom

2011-12-19T11:56:00.000-05:00

This is news to some. Professors, think-tank geeks, and newspaper editorial boards come up with grand schemes to revitalize declining or dead urban core cities. The local and state politicos try and carry them out (with the attendant corruption, cronyism, waste, fraud, and incompetence) and then act surprised when the whole scheme fails to deliver. We shouldn't really be all that shocked says this piece in City Journal; the record for such programs being largely wastes of effort and resources has been there all along.

Would the Army let itself be used against us?

2011-12-18T12:42:00.000-05:00

Up until recently I would have said no, but today I'm not so sure. Neither are some others who have a better handle on this than I do. Starting a few decades ago the armed forces started becoming its own class that has different goals, values, and loyalties than the rest of the population. A bad omen to be sure.

No tears in my eyes: No Raises for Ann Arbor Mayor, Council

2011-12-18T12:16:00.005-05:00

Ann Arbor's so-called "independent" commission (who are all appointed by the mayor) on salaries for AA elected officeholders says no raises. Reports the Ann Arbor Chronicle:

"Salaries for Ann Arbor’s mayor and 10 city councilmembers will remain constant for the next two years at $42,436 and $15,913, respectively. That was the conclusion of the four members on the local officers compensation commission (LOCC), who met Friday morning for around a half hour."

And so that's that until 2013.

Even people who benefit from big government love it less when they have to live under it.

2011-12-16T11:51:00.001-05:00

What a shock eh? It's way easier to build an ideal society with other people's money, I guess.

Hitch is dead. RIP

2011-12-16T09:58:00.001-05:00

For a self-defined "man of the left" Christopher Hitchens always showed a lot of integrity. Hitchens reminded me of his hero George Orwell. He had his principles and he never pushed them aside in the interests of supporting the left's current "party line". I know he was an avowed atheist but even so, rest in peace Hitch; your voice will be missed.

Elections have consequences; except in Ann Arbor

2011-12-15T12:26:00.004-05:00

The Ann Arbor Board of Education narrowly passed salary increases for top administrators it has been reported. Seven to ten percent increases too. When push comes to shove Ann Arbor's BOE comes down firmly on the side of the guys and gals who polish chairs with their asses all day and against the students, workforce, and taxpayers. How do they get elected, never mind re-elected? Go figure?

This what democracy looks like?

2011-12-15T11:41:00.002-05:00

Applicants are lining up to be appointed to the 15th District Court (city of Ann Arbor) judgeship recently vacated by Julie Creal. Why can't have a primary and then an election to fill this seat? That is what democracy looks like at least to me. Having the governor pick some partisan hack to fill the position isn't democracy. Any governor not just Governor Snyder.

UM divers retrieve 9000 year old wooden pole from ancient hunting camp from the bottom of Lake Huron

2011-12-12T21:47:00.000-05:00

U of Michigan scientists found a wooden pole from a hunting camp on the bottom of Lake Huron. Carbon dating says it's ~9000 years old. Video included. Cool.

Dropping paper text books instead of trees

2011-12-12T13:09:00.000-05:00

And replacing them with PC tablets or iPads. For college students this should save them a fortune on overpriced dead-tree edition textbooks. For secondary students maybe not..unless they're neigh indestructible and include tracking software for when the kids lose them.

The yuppie cubicule dweller's fantasy version of the "war experience"

2011-12-12T12:41:00.000-05:00

Chronicled in Outside magazine. Sheesh. These retards really think that getting a few sprains or bruises while running through a muddy obstacle course and then going out for beers is actually the equivalent of having "been through a war ". Not even close boys, not even close.

Ann Arbor politicians dither while people freeze

2011-12-11T10:05:00.000-05:00

Ann Arbor politicians and their bureaucrats say they want to find a downtown building for a warming center but while they are looking for the perfect site the homeless lumpen freeze. Jeez. So what if this proposed building is not a perfect gem of architectural quality? As a place to avoid freezing to death it will do fine. Clear out some space, get running water, and haul in some porta-potties and it'll do. The city could come with some cash to hire some of their laid off cops to provide overnight security. Not a perfect solution but it'll do.

Why Republicans can't do foreign policy without seeming like hypocrites

2011-12-10T11:33:00.001-05:00

Leon Hadar has a piece over at The American Conservative where he posits that libertarians can't do foreign policy because of their convictions. What that really amounts to is that libertarians only will engage in wars of defense on American soil or the high seas. They would not roam the world looking for monsters to destroy. Republicans have the same problem though. Call it cognitive dissonance or call it hypocrisy the outcome is the same. You can't call for the the government to leave you alone at home and then send the government's soldiers, sailors, Marines, and airmen all over the world to rebuild nations and reformulate their cultures more to our liking. That in a nutshell is what the neo-conservative, Christian zionist wing of the GOP do on a regular basis.

Can Owning A Cat Void Your HP Warranty?

2011-12-10T11:07:00.001-05:00

Apparently so. What fucking weasels. Chicken shit stuff like this is why I don't buy extended warranties.

Okay now tell us what you really think

2011-12-09T16:43:00.001-05:00

Florence King on democracy: "The crude leading the crud."

And I thought metro-Detroit politicians were corrupt

2011-12-08T11:41:00.001-05:00

Then along comes Illinois. From this article at Newgeography.com comes some really harsh stats on the swamp that is politics in Chicago. And I thought we were bad because Detroit's ex-mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was removed from office after pleading guilty to several corruption related felonies as was the Detroit City Council President who is currently in prison for taking bribes and a huge federal investigation is underway in re Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano's shenanigans. That's all pretty bad I admit but then along comes Illinois: At least 27 Chicago aldermen/women have been convicted of felonies for their conduct in office in past few years. (Frosting on the cake: Four of the last six Illinois governors were convicted of felonies and went to prison too.) And yet these guys get elected and re-elected with the regularity of a well oiled machine. Go figure?

Obligatory post about Michigan's terrible pothole situation

2011-12-07T11:51:00.001-05:00

The Eastern Echo has a typical article addressing this topic that features pissing and moaning from local residents about their tires and wheels getting all bent up and then moves on to feature some typical bleats for more "revenue" from the usual suspects in order to fix it all. Funny these sort of articles are usually run in springtime.

Ann Arbor city council still acting like goofy tweens with their first cellphone

2011-12-07T11:29:00.001-05:00

Some of council members are mortified at the prospect of the public reading their "personal" messages sent and received during council meetings using city issued computers and so they have directed the applicable bureaucrats to redact all that shit from publicly available transcripts. WTF are they even doing sending texts, IMs and emails during meetings for? They are supposed to be present, alert, and paying attention to the proceedings at hand, no?

You'd think the rocket scientists at NASA had this phenomenon under scrutiny from the get-go.

2011-12-01T15:39:00.001-05:00

It is rocket science!

Fire burns differently in space and so how to suppress it aboard a space craft or space station is of prime importance. It's not like you can just open a window and jump out or call the fire department is it?

Business Insider: "Detroit dominates as the auto industry roars back to life"

2011-12-01T13:50:00.001-05:00

"Detroit Industry" by Diego Rivera 1933

This is good news if it's true. [Link] It's hard for me to get too jazzed about the American automobile companies any more given that during their 2009 bail-out GM killed off its most exiting brands and Chrysler became subsidiary of the Italian-based Fiat.

Ideologues are a humorless lot

2011-12-01T11:05:00.001-05:00

People' Liberation Army hottie!

"Satire must never be directed against the class whose aspirations you share - only against the enemy." - Chairman Mao criticizing La Chinoise, a film by Jean-Luc Godard in the novel The Adventures of Mao on the Long March.

Empathy for others is not a major factor amongst the revolutionary types. Good tactical advice though.

The Kwamester, despite all he's done (as well as been convicted of), "has forgiven himself" he tells EMU audience

2011-11-30T15:12:00.001-05:00

Awww. Forgiveness sure is nice isn't it? Especially when it is extended by the one and only person you really do actually care about. What a narcissist, eh? If this puzzles you consider this. The political class is different from the rest of us you see. Estimates are that the general population is about 4 percent sociopathic but among the political class the rate has got to be more like 99 percent. The only realistic course of action I can see therefore would be this: I wouldn't trust a government office to anyone who desires to have one. Just wanting that power shows they can't be trusted with it.

Never mind the ads; Just make the buses run on time, please.

2011-11-29T12:58:00.001-05:00

That is my first impression of the ACLU lawsuit against the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority due to their refusal to run some anti-Israel political ads on the sides of their buses. Well that is the downside of taking on ads for pay isn't it? Sadly the extra revenue derived from such endeavors is likely to be completely eclipsed by the cost of defending this suit if it progresses. Myself, I would settle for just having the buses keep to their schedules.

Herman Cain to speak at Hillsdale College tonight; To what end though?

2011-11-29T09:51:00.001-05:00

What he is going to talk about the announcement does not say. Cain refuses to discuss the accusations of sexual harassment or philandering made against him and unfortunately for him that seems to be all that the media want to ask him about. Given these problems I doubt that Cain will still be a viable candidate by the time the Michigan Republican primary takes place although Cain may still be on the ballot.

Robotic guards will soon patrol South Korean prison

2011-11-28T13:32:00.001-05:00

To quote Princess Laia: "I have a bad feeling about this."
(Popular Science)

Well they're finally admitting what's been the case for a while now

2011-11-28T13:23:00.001-05:00

Democrats set to openly abandon White working-class interests in favor of Obama's coalition of elites, ethnic and racial groups, and public employees union members.

You can lead a horse to water...

2011-11-28T09:45:00.001-05:00

Abandon all hope ye who enter here

...but you cannot make them drink it. Michigan's education bureaucracy is considering withholding badly needed funds from Detroit Public Schools because of their persistently high rate of truancy it has been reported. Threats and sanctions such as this are likely futile though; if there were anything the DPS could do about this chronic problem they would have done it already.

China's educrats to cancel college majors that don't lead to ready employment

2011-11-27T10:22:00.001-05:00

It's all about the Benjamins, yo!

What even makes people want go into majors where they are likely to be unemployed two years after graduating? The heart wants what it wants I suppose but the cost for that indulgence is enormous. The Chi Com educational bureaucracy is now studying how to cut back on college majors that leave over 40 percent of their graduates unemployed or employed outside their fields after two years. Mao Zedong's Year Zero concept from the Cultural Revolution days being applied here albeit with less pain and blood.

Jack Lessenberry: "An Emergency Manager could be what Detroit needs"

2011-11-27T09:30:00.001-05:00

Whoa. Lessenberry is and has always been a pretty standard progressive Democrat for as long as I have been reading him and so I never expected to hear this opinion from him. Ever. But now we have.

"Detroit government is terribly broken and dysfunctional", says Lessenberry, "in a way it has so far proven impossible for elected leaders to repair. The basic problem is this: What was once a prosperous city of nearly 2 million people is now a largely dilapidated and shrunken one of barely 700,000 mostly very poor people.

In addition to vast debts and a current budget deficit, the city has a social services and public employee sector built for a larger, richer city, and can no longer sustain it. Especially not in the face of massive revenue cuts from the state."

Sad but true.

EMU to produce Eastman's "Go, Dog. Go!" as play

2011-11-27T08:56:00.001-05:00

My kids loved P.D. Eastman's book Go-Dog-Go. And now it is being produced as a stage performance. Seeing as how the book only takes about two minutes to read straight through aloud I wonder what the play will consist of?

The Three Christs of Ypsilanti

2011-11-26T12:22:00.001-05:00

Why have I never heard of this book before? It's about an experiment done at the (now closed) Ypsilanti State Hospital located near Ann Arbor, MI in 1959. Three men who all claimed to be Jesus Christ were put in a room together during the day to interact while being observed. It was a study of delusional behavior when confronted by reality. Spoiler: Each considered the other two to be delusional. Go figure?

Founder of the Meijers superstore enterprise and philanthropist dies at 91 in Grand Rapids

2011-11-26T10:36:00.001-05:00

Frederik Meijer has died.

Motorcycle club president put on probation, told to abide by liquor laws by judge after after conviction for selling alcohol without license

2011-11-25T12:31:00.000-05:00

Chief Wiggum

So if the Cement City, MI chapter of the Iron Coffins MC had obtained a liquor license then that asshat who drank too much and crashed his van into some parked cars wouldn't have done so? Somehow I doubt it. But as a famous cartoon policeman once opined: "The government is powerless to help you, but not to punish you." And so it goes.

Did Lee Harvey Oswald acting alone really kill JFK?

2011-11-24T10:04:00.001-05:00

Oswald's POS rifle

JFK's assassination occurred some 48 years ago on this date (November 22 + 2 as this is written) and still the question is asked. I think so and here's why.

After all this time no credible evidence whether physical or circumstantial has emerged to show that the JFK murder played out any other way than as how the Warren Commission said that it did. That Lee Harvey Oswald, who was at best a mediocre marksman during his Marine Corps service, managed to hit a moving target with a shitty-ass Italian mil surplus bolt-action rifle three times seems unlikely on the face of it but somehow, some way he managed it.

So with all the conjecture, conspiracy theories, and alternate scenarios examined and then rejected what we have left is what likely really happened: Oswald, acting alone, shot and killed JFK and wounded Texas Governor John Connally with three quick and well-placed shots using a cheap mil surplus rifle and crappy scope and changed history. And that is that.

Some thoughts on people shooting their neighbor's dogs

2011-11-23T09:42:00.000-05:00

That's how things are being reported over in countryside near here. One dog had his ear shot off by a hunting arrow launched by an irate archer although it lived. Another dog was shot dead under more serious circumstances possibly justifiable.

It seems to me that you cannot even have a dog any more in these United States other than the little chi-chi dogs who are smaller than house cats, (and who barely even qualify as dogs in my opinion) these days without having to live in fear of lawsuits, complaints, and police citations, as well as the unabashed antipathy from many of your neighbors.

Ann Arbor judge steps down amid allegations

2011-11-21T09:21:00.001-05:00

Ann Arbor.com reports that 15th District court judge Julie Creal has resigned because of "ill health." But the allegation of Creal sexually harassing a county probation employee (who's charges were settled out of court for $80K recently) being the real cause are being bandied about.

Human, all too human.

Psychologist's finding: "Self-control is like a muscle."

2011-11-19T10:42:00.001-05:00

An interesting idea. Roy Baumeister of Florida State University seems to conclude that the "mental energy" (my term for it, not his) needed for conscious and deliberate behavior is the same phenomenon as an athlete who has to pace themselves so they don't burn through their physical reserves too fast to compete effectively. Like the athlete a person's self-control energy can become depleted just like a runner's glucose or oxygen levels. If Baumeister turns out to be correct his findings sure do explain a lot about how people act.

This mofo is the best guest speaker you guys could come up with?

2011-11-18T15:33:00.001-05:00

The Kwamester

Ex-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is scheduled to take his lame ass book-tour to my alma mater in a few days. Probably trying to raise a few more thou to pay for the legal team he is no doubt assembling for his upcoming federal corruption trials.

US government soon to have the capability to hit any target anywhere in the world in one hour or less

2011-11-18T11:53:00.001-05:00

USAF's advanced hypersonic weapon

The US Air Force is looking to become the Dominoes Pizza of nuclear Armageddon soon.

Are bolt-action rifles a realistic choice for home defense?

2011-11-16T10:21:00.001-05:00

Savage Scout Rifle

This is the question that I posted over at The High Road gun forum. I'd be interested to see what people think. I was planning to acquire an SKS or a Mini-14 rifle for home defense but the more I look at it the less I'm convinced all that having all that firepower is the most important factor unless I am confronted by a a zombie-style swarm attack.

Update: After four pages of comments the THR moderator closed the thread. The general consensus was the bolt rifles can be effect but it isn't a good idea unless it's all you have. Kinda disappointing but true I suppose.

Credit unions are a better deal for most people than banks are

2011-11-15T11:25:00.001-05:00

So says this article from Business Insider. I agree. But then I thought so before the Great Recession hit.

The Internet will eventually kill public schools

2011-11-15T10:58:00.001-05:00

Boy that would be nice.

"Those who hammer their swords into plowshares, will plow for those who do not."

2011-11-14T13:51:00.001-05:00

Indeed. I don't know who said it but I fully agree.

In your face bitch!

Detroit becoming an "artist's haven, hipster's hotspot" says LA Times

2011-11-13T09:31:00.001-05:00

Downtown Detroit could perhaps evolve into something interesting but only if they do something about all those icky, nasty neighborhoods (and the people that live in them) that surround it.

"Yet Detroit is evolving," says the LA Time's Andrew Bender, "not unlike late 1990s downtown Los Angeles. Cheap rents and an urban pioneering spirit are attracting young artists, and new restaurants, nightspots and even urban farms are serving this growing community and its hipster fans. It's still the early days, but change is palpable, even to the casual visitor."

Yeah well we've seen this sort of thing before Mr. Bender. The last time Detroit had a cultural renaissance back in the 1960's all the artistes and their parasites moved off to Los Angeles and New York just as fast as their checks cleared. I'm not trying to be a buzz-kill here but there needs to be a sobering reminder of how things go in real life injected into this fog of optimism.