NPM: Detroit

Despite a short stint up in the Wolverine backwoods, I've spent over 75% of my life living one block from the city of Detroit. I grew up in a house across the street from my grandparents and I now live in my grandparents old home. Funny how life can work out sometimes.

Anyone paying attention to the News is well aware of the problems with Detroit. I love the city. I love how dirty, grimey, and unpolished it appears to outsiders. I love the view you get driving north on I-75 coming over the Rouge River Bridge and the city skyline appears with the RenCen glistening and the Ambassador bridge in the foreground and the smoke and haze of manufacturing surrounding the beauty. I'm pretty unapologetic of my love for all things Detroit (even Kid Rock and Eminem, but not so much Lions and City Council)

They say New York is the city that never sleeps, well Detroit is the city that never stops working.

That was until they starting bailing out Wall St.

I won't aplogize for this video, and it's as in your face as it needs to be.

“Pardon me if I don’t shed a tear...‘Cause they’re selling make-believe and we don’t buy that here.” - John Rich

Unfortunately, no one's listening.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORING!!!

This "Presidential Debate" is absolutely brutal.

Neither one of them are answering any of the damn questions.

Lehere specifically asked each candidate what are they going to cut out of thier budgets and programs to help accomodate that probable, supposed $700 billion buy-out, and they spent (no pun intended) more time talking about what they want to do. Be a leader!!! Be a Maverick!!! Bring change!!! SOMEONE...ANYONE

AND THEN LEHER HIT THEM ON IT!!!!

"Neither one of you have said what you would do to make up for this buyout"

"One of you will come into office in January and be staring down one of the biggest and toughest times our country as ever faced."

AND THE BOTH GO BACK TO PARTISAN POLITICS.

"We have to do this..." "I want to do this..." healthcare, education, defense, blah, blah, blah...

And then Lehere says let me ask you the same question a different way to try and get an answer...

The poor guy can't get a straight answer from either one of these chumps, and one of them will be President.....

*sigh*

Hey, did you know that McCain is a Maverick?

Did you know that McCain agreed with Bush 90% of the time?

Did you know that Barack Obama is the most far left voting Senator?

Did you know that John McCain was a war hero?

Did you know McCain was for the war?

Did you know that Barack opposed the war from the beginning?



Do you know what John or Barack are going to do to solve the current crisis?

What are they going to do to maybe balance the budget?

Do we know what actual leadership qualities either of these guys bring to the table?

BIG DAY TODAY!!!!!!

ACTUALLY IT IS A HUGE DAY TODAY!!!!

A DAY LIKE THIS ONLY COMES AROUND LIKE:

3.28542094455852E-05

PERCENT OF THE TIME A CENTRURY





AFTERALL

TODAY IS

08.08.08

Whoa, trippy dude

This happens alot to me....

Maybe all the time actually.

I can't figure out why some things become such a huge deal before legitmacy is proved.

Maybe I am missing something. And I know my bias comes out in these types of things, but nothing has appeared with these types of news stories to make me regret showing bias. Actually, there's been nothing, ever, at all to make me re-think my bias in these situations. That, as the media purports will happen, has my faith been shaken and rocked to its core. Everytime these things prove to be fakes, frauds, or were completely misinterpretted.

James Ossuary (Or "Loss Tomb of Jesus)? - Fake
Gospel of Judas? - Grossly embrassing for National Geographic
Tomb of Jesus? - That was the same thing as the James Ossuary, and yet, it made it's way back to the forefront under a different name and had the backing of "famous" people like James Tabor and James Cameron. Books, TV shows, etc., etc., etc. Big oops on that one

So why keep going?

So, why is Dan Brown-esque hysteria allowed to happen?

So, what am I missing with the newest discovery that, get this, goes from having no evidence at all to almost no evidence at all that Messianic resurection was an option.

There are elements in the Jesus story -- and in other stories in the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament) -- that have analogues in other traditions. If this new discovery proves to be exactly what some think it is, so what? How does that falsify the resurrection of Jesus? It certainly makes it easier to believe that the Jesus cultists, so to speak, made it all up. But couldn't you say the same thing about the messianic prophecies in the Hebrew Bible -- that Jesus's followers, knowing about the prophecies as part of the Jewish tradition, adapted the story of their Lord's life and death and resurrection to fit those prophecies? I mean, if you're determined to disbelieve, there are plenty of reasons to disbelieve. And if,like me, you're determined to believe, material evidence doesn't much matter, does it? Especially when that material evidence continues to fall short time and time again.

My reaction to this latest news is, "Ho hum." But maybe I fail to grasp its true significance. What say you?

FREAKY!!!!

So, I just had to save a file while at work. One of the requirements is to date all work files when updates are made, this way old work doesn't get lost, you can see trends, maybe mistakes, blah, blah, blah.

ANYWAY, I saved my file 06.06.08 and it dawned on me....


2 years ago was 06.06.06


FREAKY!!!!!!!!

I almost couldn't click the save button, my heart was fluttering so bad......

An Inconvenient Conference

This weekend, my family and I (or should I just say my family?) travelled to Cedar Springs (15 miles or so North of Grand Rapids) to visit some college friends and to partake in the festivities of a first birthday party for their son Ethan. Good times for sure.

But during the festivities, I believe it was channel 8 news ended up on the TV and the weatherman proceeded to tell the viewing public that February 2008 was going to go down as the snowiest ever for Grand Rapids and only had 16% sunshine the whole month.

What a truly incovenient month it has been for Grand Rapids and really the whole left coast of Michigan. And I can tell you that Metro Detroit has not been much better at all. Probably right on the same track. And again today, 3-6 inches of snow.

It has almost become something of a joke when some "global warming" conference has to be cancelled because of a snowstorm or bitterly cold weather.

But stampedes and hysteria are no joke -- and creating stampedes and hysteria has become a major activity of those hyping a global warming "crisis."

They mobilize like-minded people from a variety of occupations, call them all "scientists" and then claim that "all" the experts agree on a global warming crisis.

Their biggest argument is that there is no argument.

A whole cottage industry has sprung up among people who get grants, government agencies who get appropriations, politicians who get publicity and the perpetually indignant who get something new to be indignant about. It gives teachers something to talk about in school instead of teaching.
Those who bother to check the facts often find that not all those who are called scientists are really scientists and not all of those who are scientists are specialists in climate. But who bothers to check facts these days?

A new and very different conference on global warming was and is currently being held in New York City, under the sponsorship of the Heartland Institute, on March 2nd to March 4th -- weather permitting.

It is called an "International Conference on Climate Change." Its subtitle is "Global Warming: Truth or Swindle?" Among those present will be professors of climatology, along with scientists in other fields and people from other professions.

They come from universities in England, Hungary, and Australia, as well as from the United States and Canada, and include among other dignitaries the president of the Czech Republic.

There will be 98 speakers and 400 participants.

The theme of the conference is that "there is no scientific consensus on the causes or likely consequences of global warming."

Many of the participants in this conference are people who have already expressed skepticism about either the prevailing explanations of current climate change or the dire predictions about future climate change.

These include authors of such books as "Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1500 Years" by Fred Singer and Dennis Avery, and "Shattered Consensus," edited by Patrick J. Michaels.

This will be one of the rare opportunities for the media to hear the other side of the story -- for those old-fashioned journalists who still believe that their job is to inform the public, rather than promote an agenda.

The subtitle of the upcoming conference -- "Global Warming: Truth or Swindle?" -- is also the title of a British television program that is now available on DVD in the United States. It is a devastating debunking of the current "global warming" hysteria.

Nobody denies that there is such a thing as a greenhouse effect. If there were not, the side of the planet facing away from the sun would be freezing every night.

There is not even a lot of controversy over temperature readings. What is fundamentally at issue are the explanations, implications and extrapolations of these temperature readings.

The party line of those who say that we are heading for a global warming crisis of epic proportions is that human activities generating carbon dioxide are key factors responsible for the warming that has taken place in recent times.

The problem with this reasoning is that the temperatures rose first and then the carbon dioxide levels rose. Some scientists say that the warming created the increased carbon dioxide, rather than vice versa.

Many natural factors, including variations in the amount of heat put out by the sun, can cause the earth to heat or cool.

The bigger problem is that this has long since become a crusade rather than an exercise in evidence or logic. Too many people are too committed to risk it all on a roll of the dice, which is what turning to empirical evidence is.

So why has no one heard about this conference? Why no news or reporting or a daily update from cable news networks? Why no "panel of experts"?

Because, it's a true inconvenience for those who have a big stake in global warming hysteria to show up at the conference in New York, and unfortunately that includes much of the media.

The Bride's a Slut. They Call it Progress

The New York Times reports today on a new trend in weddings:

The gown was almost wanton — fluid but curvy with a neckline that plummeted
dangerously. “It makes me feel sexy and beautiful,” said Natasha DaSilva, who
slipped it on for a fitting last week.

Cut away at the rear to reveal a tattoo at the small of her back, the dress suggested a languorous night in the honeymoon suite.

Except that Ms. DaSilva, who will be married on Long Island in
September, plans to wear it at the altar.

“Why not?” she asked. “I want to look back in 20 years and feel like I
looked hot on my wedding day.”

Ms. DaSilva, 26, thinks of herself as adventurous, but not so brash
that she is about to cross a line. Dressing for a wedding as if it were an
after-party is accepted among her family and friends. “For my generation,
looking like a virgin when you marry is completely unappealing, boring even,”
she said. “Who cares about that part anymore?”

Natasha DaSilva, that tattoo just above your butt telegraphs to the world that you're one classy dame. I'm sure your daughters will be so proud of you one day. "Wow, Mom, you really hooched up your wedding, didn't you?" Dreary old me, maybe you do become an old-fogey at 30.

Airplaneseatreclineology

It took me awhile to find this comic, but I finally did so.

Corey's post is what got me thinking about it. I read this comic quite awhile ago but it is very appropos to the conversation.

Read Corey's post, view the comic and have a good laugh. But I would encourage everyone to think about the fact that a comic strip is mocking the jist of the problem with humanity.

If you have more to say on the subject, do so at Corey's blog, he started the conversation, let's keep it going over there.

If you like the comic then I encourage you to check out Pearls Before Swine....it is hilarious stuff. Basically the mouse is an arrogant "know-it-all" who feels the need to tell his "pearls" of wisdom to the pig (who is the only one that will listen to the mouse). Hence "Pearls Before Swine"

And yes it is a direct result of Jesus words in the gospel. But I have found nothing that tells me the author is an Evangelical or Born-Again.

There's more to it, but give it a chance. Good stuff. A lot of pop culture and a look at humanity in the whole....as the above comic.

Here's the website (via comics.com)

Here's some Wikipedia info on the comic strip. Maybe a good place to start to figure things out.

Lions are to good football as Global Warming is to...

I'm Brian A. Maloney and I approve this message.

Al Gore has just been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, an honor he shares with Yasser Arafat and Le Duc Tho. Gore has received a number of awards and honors from Europeans, who seem to wish to punish George Bush's policies by showering awards on his defeated opponent. (Gore would have been president had he carried his own state of Tennessee, but he couldn't manage it.)

Unfortunately for Europe, the United States has been independent now for more than two centuries. It's nice for Gore that he won the prize, but who now remembers Frank Billings Kellogg, who won the Nobel for co-authoring the Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928, which outlawed war? How's that pact working out?

Americans have happily been ignoring Europeans for quite a long time, except when they have dragged us into their various wars between awarding people peace prizes.

The Nobel Peace Prize Committee likely cares little about Al Gore's "moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity" or his green cult or its pagan Earth-god. Gore's Nobel is just the latest evidence of the committee's use of surrogates like the ex-veep and Jimmy Carter (in 2002) and Mohamed ElBaradei (in 2005) to embarrass the United States - a state of mind that says more about European elites' insecurity in the modern age than anything else.

But as much material as the Gore Nobel feeds people of like political mindness like myself, the dimunition of the prize's seriousness is a tragedy.

The Nobel can have real power in shining a light into some of the world's darker corners.

In Burma, courageous monks are defying a brutal military dictatorship. In Iran, men and women die for their civil rights at the hands of religious despots. International chess star Garry Kasparov and others have been arrested resisting that country's slide back to authoritarian rule.

The Nobel could help elevate these causes to international attention. Instead, preening Nobel leftists throw their baubles at a rich ex-politician so that he can assuage his guilt of flying on gas-guzzling private airplanes to green fundraisers in sprawling Hollywood mansions.

Paid for by the committee to stop the FEARMONGERING!!

Throwing a Hissy Fit

MoveOn.org threw a hissy fit, taking out a newspaper ad suggesting Gen. Petraeus is "General Betray Us." Good stuff, if you like semi-snappy language that libels a soldier at war. And this, days before he even presents his findings to Congress.

MoveOn leaders pretend to know more about Iraq than the general who lives there. MoveOn was founded as a special interest group amid the bitter partisan warfare in Washington in the late 1990s. But now the organization itself vomits up partisan bile.

In a recent poll, 63 percent of Americans say they have confidence in Petraeus, who holds a Ph.D. in international relations from Princeton. His 63 percent is substantially higher than the numbers for Bush and the Democrats in Congress.

So, Moveon.org took out a full page ad in the most influential paper in the country to impugn the integrity of David Petraeus - a highly decorated four star general who has spent his life in service to America and is currently leading 160,000 of our citizen-soldiers in war - and to call him a liar two days before he offered testimony to the United States Congress. Yes, it generated "buzz." But it was still a truly slanderous, repugnant thing to do.

Mitt 2008?...getting closer now.



And one more 9/11 item......

Here is some sentiment from 6 years (it is a PDF file) and right on.

Politics, Fans are Stoopid!

Matt Hasselbeck and Mack Strong attended a recent Republican fundraiser where they presented President Bush with a Seahawks jersey. Naturally, people were self-righteous dipshts about it.

"How dare Hasselbeck declare Bush an honorary Seahawk," wrote one. "Who is
Matt speaking for? Bush is no Seahawk. He is the worst president of my lifetime,
and I'm almost 60. Shame on you, Matt."

"To learn that two of the most popular Seahawks are strong (Bush)
supporters ruins the season for me and my family," wrote another

...Added Hasselbeck: "I don't understand. This is America. We're not going
to agree on everything."

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Did he not get the memo? Athletes aren't allowed to have opinions on politics. He should have done something less damaging to his reputation, like cheating on his wife or getting a DUI. At least that wouldn't have ruined the season for fans.