Who ARE We?

Steve and I just had a quick back-and-forth at the end of the comments section of the previous post, in which I list a few suggestions that don't and do bug me.  I agree with Steve:  let's do that next, because we start to hash-out some actual policy suggestions that have come up recently, and of which there will certainly be more as Congress will apparently begin to actually debate this issue.

But for now, after reading posts like this, I simply need to say:

Who the hell are we??  What kind of society do we live in where we actually suggest that having armed teachers is a good thing??

Accidental-discharge deaths aside, nobody anywhere arms their teachers because it is just...wrong.

So seriously.  In what kind of strange alternate reality do we dwell where arming teachers like airline pilots and US Marshalls seems like a reasonable suggestion?  Are we so insane, so fearful and so violent that we feel like from now on, we need armed people in classrooms?  This isn't some sort of minor issue from the nutbags.  This is a seriously-debated topic here in Lansing among Serious People.

Or that maybe the reason the kids died is let's-blame-the-victim-because-they-shoulda-bum-rushed-the-gunman?

Good fucking holy mooley on a beach, people.

Look, if the folks who want some gun control measures have to claim the Dirty Hippies and pro-ban-on-everything people on their side, then the anti-ban folks have to claim the "let's arm the teachers" people on their side.  Then we can summarily dismiss them.

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My Poor Michigan.

If one wanted to destroy a community, how would you do it?

A good way would be to increase taxes on average people, parents and retirees. Then you would defund local government, and starve it of resources for cops, firefighters, and libraries. You would drive up the cost of higher education to unaffordable levels. You would implement laws to push down wages. You would endanger children by allowing weapons in classrooms, churches and sporting events. You would pass bills alienating one of the state's largest religious minorities. You would finally implement laws to prevent it from being undone.

 If you think the above is just hyperbole, consider all the ideas above were passed by the Republicans in the Michigan legislature this session, most in the last 12 hours.

 Why would any young person remain here?

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Michigan's Proposed Anti-Bullying Law

There is a good discussion over at Streak's Blog on "religious" exception. In looking at the rest of the law, I see some potential problems, but before I get on my soapbox, I wanted to see what other people thought. Here is the main portion of the Bill.

SB 137, Section 10:

(b) "Bullying" means any written, verbal, or physical act, or any electronic communication, by a pupil directed at 1 or more other pupils that is intended or that a reasonable person would know is likely to harm 1 or more pupils either directly or indirectly by doing any of the following:
(i) Substantially interfering with educational opportunities, benefits, or programs of 1 or more pupils.
(ii) Substantially and adversely affecting the ability of a pupil to participate in or benefit from the school district's or public school's educational programs or activities by placing the pupil in reasonable fear of physical harm.
(iii) Having an actual and substantial detrimental effect on a pupil's physical or mental health or causing substantial emotional distress.
(iv) Causing substantial disruption in, or substantial interference with, the orderly operation of the school.


Does anyone see any potential problems with the language of this bill?

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Pure Michigan: U of M Football

I just couldn't resist posting this. Despite being an MSU grad, I have a great deal of respect for Michigan and will cheer for them against any school but mine. That being said, I have gotten a great deal of flak over the years from Michigan fans that never went to Michigan...or liven in Ann Arbor...or worked there...or had a relative that went there.

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An open letter to Tiger Johnny Damon's wife abt Michigan!

I don't post often, but this just was just hilarious to me so I thought I would throw it out there for consumption.

As you may or may not know, Johnny Damon is the newest Tiger. He signed a huge one-year contract. He previously played for Boston, then the Yankees. Apparently, his wife (who is a debutante of sorts) didn't think Michigan or Detroit were "cosmopolitan" enough and she didn't want him to come here. So the Tigers had to give him more money to placate that problem. So he is here now.

Sean Mann, of Let's Save Michigan, composed an open letter to Johnny Damon's wife. The letter is awesome. But even more awesome are the pictures that Sean created, using several cut-outs of her.

I think this is simply awesome, and wanted to share...

Link Here

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230 Miles Per Gallon?

I haven't been able to post much lately on the subject of the auto industry, even through the whole bankruptcy, which is realy a shame because I could have vented a lot.

Today though, GM announced good news for a change. Their new green, halo car, the Chevy Volt will be E.P.A. rated in the city for 230 miles per gallon!

This would be calculated by some sort of combined driving cycle where the car runs on battery power only for the first 40 miles, using no gas, and then on electric drive with electricity being supplied by the on-board generator.

It will also be able to run on E-85 and will be built in Detroit starting next year.

This is quite an achievement unobtainable a few short years ago.

See autoblog here.
See CNN Money here, which explains a possible driving cycle.

All I can add is this: Fuck You Toyota!

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Toyota=Good, Detroit=Bad

I have previously pasted links to autoextremist.com , which is an excellent website with great insight and commentary into the auto industry, foreign and domestic. The site’s creator, Peter M. De Lorenzo is a fan of the American auto industry, but also one of its fiercest critics.

In addition to weekly columns, his site features “On The Table”, which is essentially a “thumbs-up” or “thumbs down” look at the auto world. This week, in addition to giving three out of three arrows down to Rahm Emanuel, for his complete lack of knowledge of the auto industry, (which hasn’t stopped him from telling the big three what to do) he also gave three arrows down to Toyota. It seems that contrary to what the media and the greenies of the world would have you believe, Toyota is in just about the same predicament as the Detroit Three.

“Toyota. That wonderful company that successfully pulled a Green Snuggie over consumers' eyes by actually convincing them that the hallowed Prius walked on water is now asking the Japanese government for $2 billion in loans to help its financial unit through these tough times. That's rich. It seems that Toyota was no different than the American car companies in their inability to predict the end of the large SUV era and all of the associated fallout that came with that egregious miscalculation, and now lo and behold, they're hemorrhaging money too.

Because, guess what? Toyota didn't make money selling the Prius, it made money by selling those trucks and SUVs. Not that anyone in Washington would care to notice. After all, we're talking about an entrenched mindset that revolves around the Toyota=Good, Detroit=Bad formula that has dominated thinking by the Potomac over the last decade. And that's not likely to change anytime soon. Another thing for the new administration to contemplate while they're burying Detroit? The fact that a large share of Toyota's profitability on the way to it becoming The Greatest Car Company on Earth was due to the fact that the Japanese government blatantly manipulated the yen to Toyota's advantage in order to help boost its profitability in the American market. Why do we think the Obama administration will find a way to blame that on Detroit somehow too?”

So someone else is saying the same thing. Green cars aren't profitable. If the D3 take the advice of Washington DC and the enviros, they will go out of buisness faster than their current rate.

Welcome to Michigan's world Toyota.

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The Brew It Yourself Culture (Michigan and Metro Detroit)

I ran across this article while on a website that features good stuff happening in Metro Detroit. Metromode is an awesome internet magazine that shows all the really cool stuff happening in Detroit and the surrounding suburbs. They are the anti-Detroit News and anti-Detroit Free Press. They don't report on the bad stuff, they report on the good stuff (and yes, there is tons of good stuff!). And they have a distribution list of about 600,000 people.

This week, they did an article on why Michigan is better than other states with beer brewing. This is probably all stuff that Mr. Smitty and many of you already know, but it is cool that the media is picking up on it as something that makes the Detroit area and all of Michigan a better place culturally!

http://www.metromodemedia.com/features/MetroDetroitHomeBrewers0101.aspx

(and, FYI, they do a Lansing version called Lansing Area Capital Gains that is awesome and I recommend all in the Lansing area to read!)

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