Focusing on numismatics, and commenting upon current legal and world events, not to mention asides into the world of scuba diving, flying, and fine firearms.
The problem with that statement is that the now destroyed Francis Scott Key Bridge has NEVER HAD RAIL LINES ON IT, much less a train running passenger service - ever.
I've blogged quite a bit on the Q-Line, a private-public partnership with losses socialized and profits (which don't exist) privatized, producing a train in Detroit that moves at the speed of a walk for 3.3 miles and costs millions to operate.
Now the State of Michigan is stepping in to forgive a 3.5 million dollar loan to keep the Q-Line in the black in return for . . . advertising rights on the side of the Q-Line streetcars. Oh joy. This is on top of another $85 million in taxpayer subsidies given to the Q-Line courtesy of Governor Whitmer.
This is being done as the non-profit operating the Q Line gets folded into the Regional Transit Authority. So, moving forward, the entire region including Macomb and Oakland Counties and not just Detroit can be on the hook to pay for this streetcar to nowhere.
Just more choo-choo cronyism at work, paid for with your tax dollars. Note that its the taxpayer and not the users that pay for the Q-Line as the rides are free as people won't pay to ride it.
At the University of Michigan's Honors Convocation, Hamas supporters decided the appropriate thing to do was to disrupt the ceremony to get out their pro-terrorism message, along with their false claims of genocide.
Jewish leaders in Michigan are calling out the University of
Michigan’s administration for its response to anti-Zionist protesters
who disrupted Sunday’s Honors Convocation.
The event, an annual celebration where undergraduate students are
recognized for their academic achievements, came amid heightened
tensions on the campus.
Two days earlier, a student posted a message on Instagram that
threatened “death and worse” for supporters of Israel. The university’s
administration has not taken disciplinary action — and announced only
after the ceremony that security would be increased on the campus.
Of course, the University has not disciplined the disruptive and threatening students yet. After all, it's a progressive university and Jews are permissible targets to leftists as they are considered, in a rather topsy-turvy manner, to be "privileged" and/or "oppressors" vs the terrorists and Islamists who are cast as "victims" and "oppressed".
The University claims violations of law or University policy will result in appropriate
consequences, up to and including expulsion. Conduct that may violate
criminal law will be referred to federal, state, or local prosecutors.”
However, the University has not yet reported to the Michigan State Police the student that was making the death threat for any investigation.
As to discipline being applied against those who disrupted the ceremony, I'll believe that when I see it, but I sure won't hold my breath waiting for it to happen - and the lack of such enforcement of the rules will encourage further disruptions by this pro-terrorist faction.
The Biden administration form the outset wasn't happy about Israel defending itself from the Hamas October 7 attack.
Remember the first tweet after the attack form the Biden administration was a stern notice that Israel was not to retaliate:
Now, fearing they may loose the Muslim vote in Michigan and thereby lose enough votes to have Michigan go to Trump, they just threw Israel under the bus in the UN Security Council.
The resolution the Biden Administration refused to veto would, if enacted, give Hamas time to rebuild and refortify its positions by requiring a ceasefire during Ramadan - the same ceasefire Hamas had rejected as they refused to release the hostages - and leaves the Israeli hostages (including Americans) in Rafah with their captors.
If it is actually enacted, I bet Hamas will continue to fire rockets at Israel and perform other attacks, and then Israel will be blamed for breaking the ceasefire when it responds to Hamas attacks.
Shame on the Biden Administration and for the other members of the security council that voted for this resolution for this craven appeasement of terrorists for domestic political gain.
Ebonics is getting a makeover in public schools to be sold as a more palatable sounding "African American English".
The current crop progressive DEI educators are trying to frame it as "just another way of speaking" and that it is not slang but its own language. They tried the same approach when calling it Ebonics and they couldn't sell it, now they've repackaged the same progressive garbage as African American English.
Of course, they blame the lack of pandering to "African American English" as a reason why students using "African American English" have literacy issues. The current desire is that instead of schools actually teaching them to read and communicate effectively, it is more important to value their "identities and experiences".
Maybe they should spend more time teaching kids how to read and communicate effectively, after all, that might help with illiteracy now wouldn't it?
The explanation of the post title for those who haven't seen the movie Airplane! (and if you haven't you owe it to yourself to go watch it):
With snow still on the ground, and temperatures a balmy 20 degrees F, I headed to the range to meet up with Tosh and Spencer.
Started out shooting carbines. I shot my 300 Blackout with the AAC suppressor and was impressed over how very quiet it is. Haven't shot it in some time and it shot well, but needed some added lubrication as it hadn't been shot in quite awhile. That has now been remedied, as well as it being cleaned thoroughly after the range trip.
After the rifles, we then switched to handguns.
Tosh had a new drill he wanted to try: A variation on this impressively difficult shooting on the move drill.
It was a very challenging drill and we certainly didn't hit the 3.5 second par time, especially as Tosh had declared that only A-Zone hits count.
Doing it in the snow, in the cold, and drawing from concealment with all the winter gear on, was quite time-consuming. I used my Sig 320 to shoot the drill.
We managed to do it in around 5-6 seconds per sub stage and now we have a time to improve on.
We then did a variation of doing a Bill Drill on each of the two targets while moving from cone to cone. It made for a great drill but it eats a box of ammo to get to all 4 cones. We figured out a reasonable par time for that one is 6 seconds.
This drill is a lot of fun and leads to some practice in an often overlooked area of shooting on the move and combines speed, movement, and accurate shooting.
After that we then shot some other handguns and I brought out the boat anchor.
The S&W 5946 is a heavy 15-shot 9mm pistol. It is still the standard sidearm of the RCMP and has a very smooth double action only trigger. This one happens to be an ex-NYPD officer's pistol. The upside from all the weight is the recoil is pretty much negligible and quick accurate multiple shots are easy to do, such as on a bill drill. The heavy weight sucks up the recoil and keeps it on target.
3 hours on the range, and it was getting all sorts of cold for everyone and it was time to head out.
Lots of good practice and that's a fun new drill to try and keep on improving.
So, it was a very fun and challenging, and indeed chilling time at the range.
As Leah's team had advanced after winning the County finals to the State finals, I drove ugly early this morning to Lansing and the Ingham County Circuit Court Courthouse for the State-level competition.
Leah's team had both a Plaintiff and Defense team and she was on the Varsity Plaintiff team. Leah gave a great opening, did a solid direct and cross examination and all the kids on her team did a fine job indeed. The Junior Varsity Team also made it to the state finals and did very well too.
We then watched the Varsity Defense side team battle another team's Plaintiff side.
It was a fun fact pattern that had a few annoying holes but was designed to be able to be argued either way. I believe the fact pattern was weighted a bit towards defense-side but was a fun one to work with, but it had an error regarding one of the exhibits in that it, per the rules of evidence, couldn't be admitted by either side with the way the fact pattern and witnesses were arranged - the fact pattern was missing a witness that could get it admitted.
I had ordered in pizzas for the team so we had that for lunch as we waited for the initial results after the end of the second round.
Unfortunately, both the Varsity and JV team failed to advance to the semi-finals, but I'm very proud of their effort, and that they won the county level and they got this far.
That's the last high school competition for 6 of them as they graduate and go on to bigger and better things.
Leah was asked to substitute on another water wars team.
Her only task: Not get caught by the opposing team.
So she was super careful with her movements and even when they came by the house they couldn't time it to get her. This lasted for quite some time and the other team was getting frustrated that she was being really clever at avoiding them.
Today however, when she went to the Michigan State Mock Trial Finals in Lansing they actually drove all the way there found her in the courthouse, and got her out.
That's a three-hour round-trip drive just to be able to find and get a player on another team out.
So, sadly, she is out again. But, you gotta admire the dedication it took to drive all that way just to get someone with a squirt gun.
While it has been declared to be officially Spring, the weather in Michigan decided to call that a lie and declare that instead it was Third Winter.
Over three inches of snow in the morning and its continuing to fall now and it's accumulating quite nicely.
The roads are a shambles with hundreds of car accidents reported in southeastern Michigan due to the conditions, and roads have been closed due to accidents.
Bryan
Malinowski, 53, was injured with gunshot wounds around 6 a.m. Tuesday
in Little Rock, while the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and
Explosives was serving a federal search warrant, Arkansas state police
said in a statement. He was treated on scene by paramedics before being transported to a local hospital, and his condition is unknown.
It is unclear who shot Malinowski, but Arkansas State Police are calling the incident an "officer-involved shooting."
So, what was he about to testify about regarding Hillary?