Criminalizing poverty

Pathetic. This same sort of thing happened to a relative of mine recently. "Contempt of court", and "failure to appear" were the reasons given for the arrest warrant and the trip to jail not the money owed. Bullshit. It's always about the money.

Mobilization and Poverty Law: Searching for Participatory Democracy Amongst the Ashes of the War on Poverty

Mobilization and Poverty Law: Searching for Participatory Democracy Amongst the Ashes of the War on Poverty by Wendy A. Bach, University of Tennessee, 2012

pot-shots

local pot-shots

Send in the clowns. The editorial board of the MLive (Jackson edition) webzine has called for the ATF to put a detachment in Jackson to help with busting all the felons caught with firearms around there. Be careful what you ask for folks, just in case you get it.

An interesting but altogether too short piece on an Ann Arbor-area homeless encampment with some photos here. Even in the midst of the People's Republic of Ann Arbor's bourgeois whitetopian bliss grinding poverty and its related maladies exist. As does the hateful attitude toward these casualties of the ongoing class war.

Meanwhile back among the People's Republic's lotus eaters comes this semi-amusing vignette which illustrates all too well what passes for a major problem in their lives. Quit a contrast with the above mentioned, eh? If the author of this screed had to live in a tent in mid-Winter Michigan he'd appreciate that he has phone service of any quality at all. Or maybe he just gets paid by the word?

Corruption, malfeasance, stubbornness and idiocy in re the Ambassador Bridge/Maroun family versus MDOT lawsuit continues ad nauseum. The old Alinsky-style tactic of "accusing the accusers" has now been employed by the Maroun legal team. Muddying up the waters isn't going to work though I predict.

When wearing second-hand clothes is a fashion statement rather than a necessity. UM of students prowl the clothes racks at thrift shops toward that end. Funny as toothache.

The wisdom of the pundit class redux

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

Vandals attacking Greater Lansing Food Bank vehicles

First their refrigerated van was stolen and burned and now someone has thrown a steel pipe over the fence and through the window of one of their trucks. Why would anyone attack an organization set up to help people through hard times? (Lansing State Journal)

Sign of the times...cont'd.

Ann Arbor area homeless seeks "private sponsor" for permanent tent city location: So they don't have to squat on Michigan DOT's property. Sheesh. A permanent tent city of homeless people? This is what passes for social welfare these days. Kinder, gentler shanty-towns. They even  have a Facebook page.

weblog

Are "Poverty Tours" Demeaning? - NYTimes.com (Letters to the editor)
If you have to ask...

Sign of the times...

To combat stress, remember: It's not you, it's the economy - Detroit Free Press

Sign of the Times...

Getting paid fairly when job responsibilities spiral - Slashdot.org/
Good luck with that dude.

weblog

A cute little mutant lizard with two heads-io9

Problem is they keep trying to eat each other.

5,600 plus people line up for week-long free clinic in Los Angeles - LA Times

According to economists there is "no demand" (i.e., "the ability to pay")out there for medical services by the poor.

Can you truly "disappear" in modern surveillance state? - Times of London

Secret Safes Let You Hide Belongings in Plain Sight - Popular Mechanics

Pat Buchanan comes out as an admirer of the PRC's state-capitalist model of governance - Taki's Magazine

Implantable bio-medical technology - Technology Review

It can monitor your insulin level or tell the police where you are in real time instantly. Boon or bust? Depends.

The Saiga Model 12 - A very nasty Russian-made semi-auto shotgun.

Will weed lose its mojo if it becomes perfectly legal? - LA Weekly
Some think so. I mean who sings about beer, wine or single-malt Scotch?
"Why I love shoplifting from big corporations" - Crimethinc

weblog

White House Press Secretary's Tweets To Be Archived- USA Today
The Poor Are Better Off Renting - Wall Street Journal
It helps the poor from becoming homeless, you see. As their incomes inevitably fall they'll never be able to make the mortgage, pay the taxes, insure or maintain a house anyhow.
Asian Carp Battle - Chicago vs Michigan - Michigan Public Radio
"Wednesday's public hearing on keeping Asian Carp out of Lake Michigan turned into a forum on the threat to the financial health of Chicago's tour boat industry."
Pop Nihilism - AdBusters
"[By the 1960's] Advertising agencies had mastered the ability to sell the American consumer products that they had never heard of and had no real need for."
ACTA Treaty's secret negotiations - BoingBoing
"...a naked bit of crony-capitalism that has so much more at stake than mere copyright."
Can cops look through your cellphone with a warrant? -Cnet
Special Ops Gunships To Get Pain-Inducing Weapons - Popular Mechanics
The bottom line is that banks like Goldman have learned absolutely nothing from the global economic meltdown.-Matt Taibbi @ Rolling Stone
Army looking at using cockroaches to find hidden nuclear materials - Wired
No stupider than other stuff they've wasted money on over the years.