July 2013

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) Some real American history 
Neuro-scientists able to create false memories in mice.
Game over for Zynga? Firm loses 25 percent of daily active users in one quarter 
 Doctor Who actor warns against using social media. It makes you into a phony he says.

Det News critic: Bob Dylan's voice is shot, performances lackluster.  I found this out back in '07 myself. 

"Smart guns" not selling: Who wants one that can be hacked, won't work if the battery is dead, or that can be remotely tracked. disabled? 
More collateral damage from the drug war: Local idiot blows up his house trying to make hash oil via the butane extraction method.
Nate Silver leaving NYT for ESPN: Called Times style political reporting "useless". 
Pentagon discovers that buying weaponry from your enemies is a bad idea, even if it's cheaper.   
Book review: This Town dissects the ecosystem of America's gilded capitol city and its haughty in-crowd
Goodyear to replace its blimps with zeppelins 

 

Pot-shots

>>>Local cops sued over taser death. Four Washtenaw county Sheriff's deputies who were assisting in a Livingston and Washtenaw Narcotics Enforcement Team dope bust tased a guy and it apparently killed him. We'll see how that plays out in court.

>>> Rush Limbaugh has lost seven advertisers from his radio program since  last week over his  comments about contraception. Free speech has a price sometimes.

>>> Zombie Apocalypse course being taught at MSU? No, not really. But that sexed-up course title for a class about group dynamics in times of crisis during and following natural disasters and social upheavals is being promoted by a market savvy MSU social work professor. Smart. This will no doubt get picked up by the news media for inclusion in articles and blog posts about silly course offerings at public universities but it really isn't. Just some clever marketing. I wonder how many goofs sign up for this course drop it when they figure this out?

>>> The proles & peasants need to just STFU and work, pay, and obey their betters. Cornell professors conclude ordinary people are too stupid for democracy to work very well. The dumb proles need experts like, say, Cornell professors to decide important issues about society and government.

>>>Government Is Not Civilization, It Is Slavery by J.G. Vibes
"If we attempt to examine government from an outsider’s perspective, we would see a world where people are grouped into two different categories, those in government and those not. At face value, we can see that these two groups of people have completely different standards and expectations, even though they are the same species and have the same basic needs. Looking closer, we can see that these different standards and laws are not neutral, they are very much benefiting those in government at the expense of those who are not. The most important discrepancy to mention here is the fact that those in government have a license to kill anyone who happens to disobey them." [read it all here]

Word of warning to the stoners at EMU; Pot is still illegal

Kind of amazing that this even needs to be said. The campus cops will arrest you for having and smoking that stuff.

Ex-Detroit police chief Isaiah McKinnon says it's time to decrimimalize marijuana

"My position is, "says McKinnon, "let's look at this realistically and honestly. Too much law enforcement money and resources are being used on this. There are better things to spend our money on."

Okay, this represents progress. But it really begs the question: Why is it that all these ex-cops, ex-feds, ex-judges and ex-politicians only come to this conclusion after they've left office? 

ATF say medical marihuna users may not have guns or ammunition

No surprises here really. It's illegal under federal law [pdf] and that's the end of it as far as ATF is concerned. Furthermore in that the feds are the least accountable of the many layers of government we are afflicted with that is indeed that. Congress isn't going touch this issue with a ten foot pole and neither is the administration so unless ATF relents or some federal judge engages in some "judicial activism" this door is shut tight.

My advice to shooters that like to get high is this: Just grow your own, be discreet about it, and leave the feds the hell out of it. What this portends for local stoners with guns around here (especially those with Michigan-issued CPLs) is uncertain.  What is certain, at least to me, is that no amount of permits, licenses, and permissions slips from the bureaucracy is ever going make you free.

Meth lab clean ups: Who should pay?

Or more to the point who should do the work? The often times politically connected professional lab clean up specialists have priced themselves out of the market now that the federal grants to pay their tabs have been exhausted. Some in Jackson county are suggesting using county jail inmates for cleaning meth lab sites.

"Unless the job requires some kind of great skill or training (which I doubt)", says one commenter, "I don't have a problem with using inmate labor to do meth lab clean ups. We use them to pick up trash on the side of the road and we should expand their use. Call it 'community service' or something and pay 'em minimum wage. A full eight hour shift at minimum wage covers the $25 a day for their incarceration that they're ordered to pay [already] and it keeps them from being such parasites on the counties' taxpayers. Win win, in my opinion."

Weblog

Pilot OK after home-built aircraft crashes in Napoleon Township (Jackson Citizen-Patriot/MLive)
Ultra-lights are dangerous fun.

New Michigan law to require ID registry for those buying some cold medicines (annarbor.com)
Takes effect January 1, 2012.

18 Term veteran US Rep. Dale Kildee to retire (Detroit News)
Look for his son to run for the seat. Politics is the family business for the Kildees.

Michigan senate likely to approve four year lifetime limit on cash welfare benefits (Lansing State Journal)
I hope the economy is better by then or there's gonna be hell to pay.

Weblog

Black men safer, healthier in prison than outside (Reuters)
Bottom line: Less alcohol, drug, tobacco use, and less violence; better diet and access to medical care. That is sad.

Lying liars tend to lie to you (James Brovard, American Conservative)
"Politicians nowadays treat Americans like medical orderlies treat Alzheimer’s patients, telling them anything that will keep them subdued."

The University of California is cutting back on many things, but not on its diversity programs (Heather Mac Donald, City Journal, via the iSteve blog)
"The main purpose of the UC Berkeley Initiative for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion seems to be to buy for the academic identity racket the respectability that no amount of campus mau-mauing has yet been able to achieve. 'Area studies such as ethnic studies, queer studies and gender studies tend to be marginalized and viewed as less essential to the university than such fields as engineering, law or biology,' glumly noted the press release."

Salt cravings may be the origin of all human addiction behavior (Tim Barribeau, io9)
"All humans crave salt once in a while. The desire is hardwired into an ancient part of our brains, the hypothalamus, because we need it to keep our bodies working properly. Now it looks like some of the more addictive drugs out there could be co-opting this neurological system — which means our desire for salt is what underlies our cravings for everything from heroin to coffee."

Some thoughts on the higher-education bubble and the unemployment rate (Survival Blog)
"Combine those easy student loans with state-sponsored universities which create fluffy degrees in order to attract more debt-leveraged students, and you have a job market that will never recover. The student loan bubble will burst. And it will burst on the backs of young families just trying to survive."

The science of fanboyism (Slashdot)
Our brains unconsciously develop an affinity for products we choose over similarly attractive alternatives.

Mexican drug cartels now building their own military-style assault vehicles (John P. Sullivan and Adam Elkus, Small Wars Journal)
"Known alternatively as 'narco-tanks' (narcotanques), 'Rhino trucks,' and 'monster trucks' (monstruos), the crude armored vehicles emerging in Mexico’s cartel war are evidence of a changing tactical logic on the ground. 'Narco-tanks' are better characterized as improvised armored fighting vehicles (IAFVs)—portending a shift in the infantry-centric nature of the cartel battlespace."

Weblog

Livonia based U.S. Rep. McCotter decides to run for GOP presidential nomination (Det News)
It's hard to see why though.

Anti-affirmative action Michigan Proposal 2 (passed in 2006) overturned by US Appeals court (Michigan Daily)
The usual suspects are crowing about this big victory. Good for them. But somehow I don't think this is over.

Suburban LA counties looking into seceding, form their own state (CBS-TV)
Fat chance of that ever happening but I understand the sentiment. Futile as it may appear  I support all anti-state activity. Was anybody predicting the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1987? Nope, that was impossible. Until in happened.

Recent Ann Arbor shooting over botched dope rip-off begs the question: "When was the last time anyone got shot over a beer deal?" (Lee Higgins, annarbor.com/)
Enough already. Let people have their dope. Illegal black-market stuff like dope deals breeds this kind of thing. Let's redirect the drug warriors and let 'em get back to real public safety work. Peace and order
first, eh?

Portrait of a "professional activist" (Peter David Blaska, Blaska's Blog)
"Jeremy [Ryan] tells us he is 'vital to the overall movement' because 'I ... make the GOP legislators very nervous. My mere presence causes automatic tension in any committee meeting.' Now, after harassing people in the Capitol for the last four months, the lad is out of money, can't pay the rent on his admittedly expensive apartment. (He does not mention the $3,600 on 15 citations for disorderly conduct.)"
A full-time hell-raiser up in Madison, WI since last January Jeremy Ryan has now run out funds to pay his rent and and other bills and so now is begging for money.  Hope all his friends in the public employee unions and the Madison activist community come through for him. Of course he could always go get a job though, eh? Sheesh. Dipshit slacker.

Living and working in the "1099 economy" (Erik Pages, NewGeography.com/)
"We used to call it 'Free Agent Nation.'  Now, it seems like the new term of art will be 'The 1099 Economy.'   While the names may change, they all point to a phenomenon of rising importance: the growing number of Americans who don’t have a 'regular job'  but instead work on individual contracts with employers or customers.   These folks don’t get the traditional W-2 paystub at the end of the year; they report their taxes with the IRS form"

Google Chrome hits 20% global share as Microsoft continues browser slide (NetWorkWorld)
I'm not sure it's really any smarter to trust Google than it is to trust Micro$oft. Corporations are corporations. A pox on both their houses.

Weblog

Ann Arbor Hash Bash organizer arrested for felony marijuana & firearm charges after raid on his home
"For the last two decades, Brook organized Ann Arbor's spring Hash Bash, an outdoor gathering of marijuana supporters that drew 5,000 people last year to the University of Michigan's campus, where the crowd openly smoked the drug while police watched from a distance." Det Free Press [link]

Ex-Detroit Mayor's legal woes (in re a dead crack ho') just won't go away
Bottom line: Don't hang around with the dope boys and you probably won't get shot dead on the street.
Asia's male to female ratio is dangerously out of balance say Niall Ferguson 
Such gender imbalances have led to violence in the past.
NPR's senior vice president for fundraising Ron Schiller is seen and heard on hidden video calling middle Americans ignorant, racist, xenophobic, gun-toting Christers
Now more than ever NPR needs to be privatized. If people want a 24/7 radio version of MSNBC they should be willing to pay for it.
How can you legally carry a pistol in your car in Michigan?
According to state law unless you have a license you can't. It's a five-year felony if you're caught trying to.

weblog

41 % of NYC pregnancies end in abortion - WABC-TV on-line
Some believe this is a bad thing.
“[T]here is nothing most business people like less than free markets." - Reason.com
The truth about "crony capitalism"
Police drug-sniffing dogs "wrong" at least 4 times out of 10 - Chicago Tribune on-line
Nostalgia for old record shops - Untimely Meditations blog
Record stores, bars you can smoke in, independent bookstores, non-franchise coffee shops, and lots of other cool places are slipping away. And we're poorer for it too.
Obama's New Wall Street White House - The Nation
Otaku Nation: Sega Installs ‘Toylet’ Games in Japan’s Urinals - Wired.com
The games are needless to say short, since you use your urine stream to play them.

weblog

Truer words were never spoken, #1: “You can’t bloat a modest republic into a crapulent empire without sparking one hell of a centrifugal reaction.” Bill Kaufman @ FPR
How to save the next Generation: Getting rid of the Drug War - John McWhorter @ TNR
The birther issue comes up yet again: "If you ask me, this folderol of reincarnating the “Birther” issue by two prominent liberal Democrats just smacks of orchestrated political psy-ops." And why is that? Cui bono?

weblog

Coyotes have come back to Michigan. Even downtown Ann Arbor has reported sightings. You just can't keep a good predator down, eh? Or not for long anyhow.

Michigan's next governor: Rick Snyder (R) doesn't want to debate Virg Bernero (D), period. Snyder is up in the polls with six weeks to go and probably figures "who needs it?" Bernero rightly and quite predictably goes ape shit nuts about it too. Sheesh.


FBI probe is sought by pissed and offended Muslims in East Lansing who found a trashed and burned Koran on the doorstep of their mosque. Say it might be a "hate crime".

Mexican gunmen are now regularly shooting at Border Patrol agents from the Mexican side of the border. Another warning of the coming race war? Stay tuned.

Sign of the times...

Marijuana is coming closer and closer to being legal again. Even woebegone Detroit, Michigan is starting to get real about the consequences of the War On Drugs. And well they should. Public television station WKAR in East Lansing had the prime mover behind a ballot proposal in the city of Detroit that would effectively legalize possession of one ounce or less for those over 21 on it's public affairs interview show Off The Record recently. Notice how deftly this libertarian-oriented gentleman parries the predictable objections of the mainstream media reportorial types. Heh.

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Further proof that drug law enforcement is futile - Ann Arbor.com
If you can't keep pot out of a high security location like a federal prison, you can't keep anything outta anywhere.

Michigan has an oil leak problem too - Detroit News
Battle Creek area oil pipeline leak spilled a million gallons of crude into the Kalamazoo river.

weblog

If they legalized marijuana WTF would all these drug enforcement teams do?
The true tale of a lawful Kalamazoo pot grower and the drug warriors who'd be out of a job without the war on drugs.