Flying: Up 6, Down 6

Finally got some time to go flying and the weather was perfect for some after work pattern work.

Winds were calm all day, which was nice. Not a cloud below 5,000 feet.

They stayed calm as I got to the airport.

A good preflight, I added another quart of oil to get it up to 6 quarts, and it was time to get going.

Listening to the tower frequency ahead of time, the pattern had been busy but as I started up to taxi, the pattern calmed down a bit. Instead of the pattern, most pilots were heading off to the practice area to the north and I pretty much had the pattern to myself.

With no wind, my first landing was a bit of a floaty mess. I came in at a bit of a high angle with too much speed and floated nicely down the runway and the plane didn't really want to land. Still put it down nice and gently with no thumps even as it did eat up a whole lot of runway doing so.

Then, off to do it again and again. The landings got better each time, with no thumpers or aircraft carrier landings. By landings 5 and 6, I had the airspeed dialed in and was flying near-perfect patterns. Much tighter landings right on the center-line resulted.

Great to get back in the air again and it was some good and productive practice.

That's .9, and 6 landings ranging from meh to very nice.

What, You Think Criminals And Their Supporters Don't Lie?

The protests continue about the thug who fired shots at Detroit police and was then killed when they returned fire.

Of course, his buddies and the Detroit branch of BLM are still protesting about it.

The lies began almost immediately, with the classic "He had his hands up" lie by his family member:

Loved ones on the scene cried and were incensed, with Asar Amen-Ra, who said he was Littleton’s uncle, questioning police, calling for Craig to speak straight to those gathered and saying the time for peaceful protest was over.

He said his nephew was like many young men, working all the time and hanging out with his friends.

"We hear one thing from the police, and another thing from the community. The community told us that the police pulled up, told (him) to get on the ground. He put his hands up, and these mother f------ shot him in the back of the head," he said, adding his sister had been to the hospital and saw his nephew's body.

"He has got two shots in back of his head, plus other bullet wounds."

Well, no, no he doesn't. He also didn't have his hands up, he pulled a gun and fired four shots at the police.

So yes, the "community" lied its tail off as to what actually happened, as had occurred in multiple other similar incidents, including the first false "Hands up don't shoot" canard.

Detroit's BLMers of course continued to protest even Sunday, long after the video had been released and there's no question as to what the facts actually are.

The Detroit News: Activist released after protest; prosecutor declines to charge, but police plan to refile

So why are they protesting the death of a thug who was firing at police at the time of his justifiable demise?

Apparently they figure its systematic racism, really. Certainly defining that ninsensical term even further down.

"This is systemic racism," Taylor told 150-plus people on the lawn outside the center on the city's east side, "being played out in real time."

Apparently, according to Detroit BLM, Detroit police should simply accept being shot at by thugs, and then having protestors throw bricks and bottles at them after surviving an ambush attack - to do anything else would apparently be systematic racism.

How Dare The Detroit Police Shoot Back At Someone Shooting At Them?

Yes, that is the current local BLM cause and outrage de jour - a criminal who shot at Detroit Cops as they were arresting another criminal and then was relieved of his mortal coil by those same cops who returned fire.

The Detroit News: Detroit Will Breathe returns to protest near site of police shooting

Protesters began marching at the intersection of McNichols and San Juan, near the location where Detroit Police officers shot and killed 19-year-old Hakim Littleton while making an arrest of another individual.

Talk about burying the lede - it took until the eighth paragraph before we learn form the article that Mr. Littleton did in fact do soemthing that made him rather worthy of getting shot by the police:

Craig said the shooting was justified and released footage showing Littleton shooting first at officers before police returned fire.

Yes, the camera footage has been released, mere hours after the shooting - and protesters are complaining it wasn't released quickly enough as after all, they've watched CSI on tv and investigations of a fatal shooting should be resolved in mere minutes before the next commercial, right?

There also complaining the police weren't nice to them when the protest initially started and the protestors threw bricks and bottles at police.

Well the body-cam footage certainly erased the myth that he dindu nothing, but his brother is still arguing he's a good guy:

Littleton's older brother, Rashad Littleton-Schafer, spoke after the protesters finished their route shortly after 8 p.m. and said he is demanding a sit-down with Police Chief James Craig and Mayor Mike Duggan.

"My brother was a good, good man. He was a warrior," Littleton-Shafer said. "I want to let everyone know this, including Chief James Craig, the mayor of Detroit. I want a meeting with them by next week."

It's good to want things, I suppose. We will note that his dear brother "warrior" Hakim was on probation at the time for armed robbery when he decided to take shots at the cops.

So yes, BLM and Detroit Will Breathe are busy protesting the justifiable shooting of a thug who without provocation took shots at the police. Expect his name to join those of other criminals celebrated by BLM.

Socially Distant Jiu Jitsu Party - With Brisket

I had invited friends from Jiu Jitsu over for a fun socially distant get together at the house today.

I enticed them with a promise of my homemade smoked brisket. So smoked brisket there had to be. I purchased a whole packer brisket earlier this week and got the preparations underway.

So I made the rub and applied it to the brisket, than into the smoker it went.

Then began 18 hours of smoking low and slow over locally-sourced hickory wood (I'm running out of hickory and apple wood now).

It came out rather awesome, if I do say so myself.

The meat from the flat was nice and lean but still moist and fork-tender. The meat from the point of the brisket was fatty as expected and described by some of my meat-loving jiu jitsu friends as "candy".

The brisket was a big hit and we pretty much devoured the whole thing.

Everyone brought a dish to pass (and some brought more than one - a generous group they are), and they brought beer to help wash the brisket and other delectables down.

A great time was had by all 10 guests as we sat around in a socially distant manner and had some good food among a good bunch of people.

Gov Half-Whit To Michigan Property Owners And Businesses: "F You, Pay Me."

MiBiz: Whitmer vetoes property tax deferment bills

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer vetoed two bills that would have effectively deferred summer property tax payments to relieve struggling businesses and property owners during the pandemic.

This is the same governor that has ordered that tenants have not had to pay the rent for the past four months with no fear of being evicted.

Now landlords, not having received any rent for those months by her order, are still expected to come up with the property taxes for those properties on time or risk them going into tax foreclosure.

Commercial ventures, closed for months by her orders, and some like gyms which are still closed, will still have to come up with their property taxes on time without relief or sympathy from the governor for their loss caused by that same governor-ordered inability to operate and have revenue to pay those taxes.

Also, she provides no relief for homeowners affected by the economic disruption - they have to pay their property taxes as well.

If you're a tenant, you're golden in her eyes, after all, she cares about them and they're her core voting block.

If you own property or run a business, she doesn't give a damn about you except for your tax payments which better be in on time.

Gov Half-Whit To Healthcare Workers: Thank You Medical Heroes, You (Checks Notes) Racist Bastiges!

3WWMT: Whitmer: Michigan healthcare workers must receive implicit bias training

Yep, she's passed an executive directive (as opposed to her typical executive order) that in order for any healthcare worker to have their license renewed, they must receive implicit bias training because healthcare workers must be unconsciously racist.

After all, how else could the disparities in Covid results that proportionally more Black people than White people are being hospitalized be explained, along with Blacks having higher mortality from heart disease and stroke? Quick note - Don't you dare raise lifestyle choices nor the many gas station parties held by Blacks in Detroit during the initial outbreak of the virus in this state under their rather head-shaking belief that they were were immune due to their race?

Well, her Lieutenant Governor did suggest the disparity was due to some Anti-Black conspiracy theory -

Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II said the challenges that communities of colors face during the pandemic, were not "ordained by God, instead they were designed."

You just may have that tinfoil hat on a little too tight there Lt. Governor.

Some Democrat-connected diversity consultant is about to make serious bank. Maybe NGVP will be awarded the training contract on a no-bid basis.

So anyways, thank you healthcare heroes for your service. You're apparently all racists according to our governor, but you're heroes, so you've got that going for you, which is nice.

Why We Can't Have Nice Things - Michigan Roads Edition

Michigan roads are renowned as being rather lousy. So much so that there is a marked difference as you cross the state line with Ohio, even as there's never-ending road work in Toledo.

So why can't we have nice roads like Toledo?

One of the reasons is our rather inflated road construction cost.

The Detroit Free Press: Conner Street to get $4M in roadwork ahead of FCA Mack plant opening

That 4 million dollars will resurface all of 2 miles of road.

Yep, it's now $2 million per mile to fix a road. Hardly a bargain.

But hey! At least it'll have bike lanes right for those two miles beside a automotive factory, which is clearly something that every cyclist will want to cycle on by.

Expect A Lot More Injuries When People Resist Arrest In NYC

New York City has decided, and other jurisdictions in the spirit of wokeness may follow, to ban police from using a variety of control techniques.

This includes choke-holds, and any other restraining maneuvers that may restrict blood or air flow to an alleged perpetrator.

In other words, a ton of non-lethal control techniques will be out the door. Expect a lot more physical injuries to occur for if police can't use retraining techniques to effect an arrest on someone resisting, they're going to have to resort to a lot more physical force to do so.

Instead of defunding the police, what is needed is more funding for far better training in the proper and appropriate use of restraint techniques including chokeholds - they can be used to safely and effectively to incapacitate a criminal resisting arrest as long as proper training is followed.

In the Floyd situation, they officers pretty clearly were not appropriately trained -

At least one officer was worried: Mr. Lane asked if the officers should roll Mr. Floyd over on his side.
“No, staying put where we got him,” Mr. Chauvin replied.
“I am worried about excited delirium or whatever,” Mr. Lane said.
“That’s why we have him on his stomach,” Mr. Chauvin responded.

Turning him onto his side would have made sense and helped him breathe, but Chavin apparently responded that keeping him belly down was the appropriate way to keep someone with ED, which is completely wrong - a lack of effective training certainly didn't help here, amongst other issues, inlcuidng the obvious that you don't keep your knee on someone's neck fro over 8 minutes.

Proper training and use of proper restraint techniques on the part of Police can effectuate arrests without people getting badly hurt - banning these techniques and you'll see an increase of taser firearms usage, not to mention possible broken bones from harder hand-to-hand techniques when the soft techniques are outlawed.