As noted by Eaton Rapids Joe extensive rioting is going on in France, with Leftists and Muslims joining forces to burn schools, buildings, and yep, people --including a fireman set on fire.
We now have on display a real Riot from the Riote Region of France.
Remember, if it is not from there, its not a riot -- it's just a "Fiery But Peaceful Protest".
If you're an American in Arlington Virginia, expect to get the full-on punishment and record for driving under the influence, which after all you should because you should not be drunk driving.
But, If you're an illegal under DACA driving under the influence, expect to get a lesser punishment and more favorable treatment to protect you from deportation.
The Post Millenial: DACA recipients charged with DUIs get special treatment from Arlington Commonwealth's Attorney to shield them from immigration law
It has been revealed that the Commonwealth’s Attorney for the County of Arlington in Virginia testified over the summer that her office has a DUI policy that pertains only to DACA recipients. Commonwealth’s Attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti had been subjected to a closed-door deposition in July, and the transcript for the hearing was released on Monday.
The Omani co-pilot of an Air Dubai flight flying from Dubai to Israel with 174 passengers on board including mostly Israelis, attacked and repeatedly stabbed the Indian Captain of the plane and attempted to crash the plane.
Fox News: FlyDubai pilot stabs fellow pilot, attempts to crash plane, Netanyahu says
The Captain, during the fight ,was able to open the cockpit door and Israeli passengers on the flight then entered, subdued the Omani attacker, and were narrowly able to prevent the plane from crashing and a relief crew on board was able to then land the place. An Israeli dentist on board helped treat the captain's stab wounds.
Lots of serious heroism all around, this was moments away from becoming a total disaster.
The plane suffered severe damage to its tail section, including loss of most of the rudder during the terrorist-caused descent, which was in excess of the never exceed speed of the aircraft by at least 100 knots, which is one heckuva lot.
The New York Times in a fit of deliberate understatement, reported this Muslim terrorist attempt, which was complete with an "Allahu Akbar", as an "Altercation".
Yep, it was just an altercation between the pilot and co-pilot and no mention of the attempt by the co-pilot to crash the plane. Just like the NYT to bury the lede like that when a certain "Religion of Peace" is involved.
ABC News, similarly, also reported it as "an incident took place inside the cockpit".
Interestingly, the Detroit Free Press has not covered this story at all, but if they had, I assume the headline would've looked something like this:
Probably better the Free Press has ignored it then.
It's likely unremarked upon by them as the incident is too close to the election of their endorsed Muslim Brotherhood supporting candidate Abdul El-Sayed for US Senate, I suppose.
Unfortunately, anytime you use a service online, especially a free service like Facebook, and also often when you buy stuff, your name and data ends up in the hands of data brokers.
The data brokers then sell your personal info to anyone, including scammers and scammers. You then get inundated with spam and scams calls and emails. This doth suck.
Without using a service like Optery, Incogni, Cloaked, or others, you would have to find these myriads of data brokers, fill out their removal request forms yourself, and keep an eye on them to stop them from putting your info in their system again - which they do, a lot.
I'd say nobody with a life has time for that.
Is it ridiculous and unfair that you need to pay a service to remove your personal data from data brokers before they provide it to spammers and scammers?
Of course it is, but here we are.
I decided after looking at various services to give Optery a try.
Since signing up, the amount of spam and scam emails and calls has declined most impressively. Spam/Scam calls have declined dramatically from one per day to almost none per month, and the amount of spam and phishing emails has declined impressively, but not stopped completely, and let's face it, it likely never will no matter what service you use.
Anyway, I'm having a good result with Optery, with my info now removed from over 100 data brokers where it was found (yikes!) and Optery keeps at it removing the info repeatedly when the data brokers added it back in. And I get to see the status on my dashboard with them, which is rather satisfying to see where my data was and how it has been removed.
So, I do recommend Optery as I'm having a good result with them, and they are not giving me anything for this review, and I'm fully paying them their regular price for the service. If you want to check them out to reduce your online footprint and scam and spam emails and calls, a referral link for them is right here.
As usual, you file a flight plan to depart Toronto Island Airport, it gets accepted, and then it gets changed when you ask for your clearance.
I had asked for a simple plan that had been approved before - Depart direct DERLO and from DERLO to Port Huron.
Nope. Instead I got the PERL4.08 Departure, to ANCOL, to DERLO, To MARGN and then Port Huron. The controller first mistakenly said White plains airport and I asked that be clarified and she changed it to Port Huron so that was good at least.
MARGN is past Port Huron, but that was the required plan.
Why Port Huron? Because Customs and Border Patrol is not open at Oakland County airport on the weekends, but Port Huron is Open 24/7 assuming you file the requisite paperwork and make the proper arrival intention call, which I had.
So I did the run up and got in line for departure and was soon off and on my way.
Again, very nice weather but windy with a good gusting crosswind on takeoff and very much during the initial climbout.
Got put over the Lake Again, climbing to 3,000. Got turned out farther into the lake and climbed up to 4,000 then 6,000 and finally 8,000 as I was then told to turn direct to ANCOL.
I then flew the route and got handed through the Toronto Control frequencies and then handed over to Selfridge ANGB before the Border.
Selfridge then changed my plan to have me go direct to Port Huron which was great, and the controller was very much on the ball, and descended me perfectly, in plenty of time to be on track to get to pattern altitude at Port Huron.
I had already picked up the automated weather, which was reporting a shifting and gusting crosswind that would wander near the heading for Runway, 4 so Runway 4 it was.
Selfridge had me descend to 2,500 and once I had the airport in sight, and then had me switch to the CTAF. I listened for traffic, made my calls, crossed over the airport and then dropped down into the downwind for Runway 4 and made a darn nice pattern and excellent landing. My first landing at Port Huron.
I then taxi'd over to the CBP building, cancelled my IFR flight plan with Selfridge, got out and cleared customs. The officers were very friendly and made it a very easy experience with no issues.
I then went back to the plane, taxi'd back to the runway, did the runup and departed heading for Pontiac. I contacted Selfridge and requested VFR flight following as the weather was nice and clear and they obliged, alerting me to a ton of traffic around Romeo. I stayed above it at 4,500 feet.
I then got passed to Detroit Approach and requested the RNAV 27L approach as the setting sun was right in my eyes, making the approach almost IFR-light and making it hard to see the airport, much less the runway.
Using the RNAV approach guidance it5 was easy to be on a proper glidepath and I was able to make yet another very nice landing.
Then taxi'd back to the hangar and that was then end of a very nice weekend trip. Using Poet Huron makes a weekend trip to Toronto and back a lot more doable and convenient, which is great.
That's a 1.7 and a .6 flight, and 2 great landings.
On Friday, I prepped the Archer and then left Pontiac and headed to Toronto.
After all the necessary filings, I got my clearance and took off.
Flying IFR, Detroit Approach had me fly north for awhile and climbed me up to 7,000 as filed, and then got me heading east to Toronto.
Got passed over to Selfridge ANGB Approach, and crossed the Border right by the Blue Water Bridge as usual.
The new GPS was fantastic, making changing frequencies and entering the route and route changes en route very easy.
The approach for Toronto Island Airport was all sorts of busy.
I was number 5 in sequence and got held over the water for awhile, and was being assigned a continuously declining altitude to stay under Toronto airport's traffic.
So at 3,000 feet, I was way out over Lake Ontario/Lake America:
After holding for awhile, that felt longer than it was, I was then in sequence for the Runway 8 RNAV Zulu approach and was told to keep my speed all the way up and stay at 2,500 until the Final Approach Fix due to traffic.
This led to a chop and drop at the FAF, but I got it in and made a very nice landing, shedding speed and altitude as much as I could at the same time. After landing I was then told to keep my speed up on the runway, run it to the end and taxi off, while staying with Tower the while way.
That was fine and I got to the FBO, shut down, notified Canada Customs of my arrival and got my clearance number. I then could get out of the airplane and get things handled.
On the way into the FBO there was an aircraft with a most suitable tail number:
A little pilot humor there.
After checking in with the FBO and asking for the plane to be fueled up, I headed into town.
Then I met up with family, celebrated a relative's 90th birthday at a very nice party, and headed back yesterday evening with a different return procedure that I had not used before.
That was 2.2 and 1 very nice landing.
In a feat of both self-promotion and historical amnesia, has announced he's going to hold a series of "Free Palestine" Concerts.
An interesting choice.
Particularly so for he is promoting the cause of those whose relationship with music festivals and concerts has been, shall we say, somewhat less than harmonious:
Abdul El-Sayed's support of the Muslim Brotherhood is wide and deep, as is his contempt of free speech when it does not support himself and Islam.
In 2012, when Egypt was under the control of Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood prior to Morsis removal form power, El Sayed was a doctor in New York.
He then signed a public, published statement in support of Morsi's actions to purge the media and police from those who dared oppose the government and insulted Islam.
Washington Free Beacon: Abdul El-Sayed Called on Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood To 'Purge the Media and Police' Shortly Before Islamic Government Arrested Reporters for 'Insulting Islam'
At least he's been rather consistent about "defunding the police" in both Egypt and the USA, so he's got that going for himself.
That is who the Democrats have running for the US Senate in Michigan right now.
I have a friend who has a kid attending University of Michigan as a freshman.
His English class had this as his first required novel reading:
Described as a "genre-bending novel exploring queerness, art and desire through an interview interwoven with a developing lesbian romance".
Because of course they do.
Now, making freshmen read lesbian erotica is standard stuff to Épater la bourgeoisie to show how stunning and brave and progressive they are, along with making students read the article If Black English Isn't a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is? Without giving freshmen the viewpoint to challenge the claim. Quick note - It linguistically isn't. At most its a bastardized dialect of English, not a separate language.
Yep, its a progressive incubator with carefully curated curriculoum to push a singular leftist viewpoint.
Now I'm not objecting to My Lesbian Novel just because it is Lesbian Erotica that students are paying to be made to read to open their horizons ina politically correct manner (the horizon is only off to the left for some reason).
I'm objecting to it because it's really badly written lesbian erotica:
For example:
I'm sorry, but this is ridiculously disappointing, with such an opportunity lost.
You do not write a paragraph discussing miso where the woman is anticipating sex and miss the chance to have her reflect: "Miso horny".
Like I said, it is bad genre-bending lesbian erotica.
Tuition at University of Michigan is $1,150 per credit for instate students and 3,158 per out of state students. Neither taxpayers nor students are getting their money's worth out of the reading.
UofM: Strong in the sciences and business, but the "liberal arts" have sadly gone progressively woke - and dumb.
Michigan progressive Democrat Islamic candidate for Senate Abdul El-Sayed had an opportunity.
He deliberately decided to miss it.
He was asked straight out yesterday at a townhall meeting by an University of Michigan student who his family in Iran ,who have suffered under the Islamist regime, a very, very, simple question:
Does he stand "unequivocally against the IRGC?"
Fox22Bangor: Michigan student confronts El-Sayed over Iran stance in tense exchange: ‘Do you stand with us?’
He refused to answer and instead dodged and switched to saying the USA acted too often as the world's policeman.
It was truly a very simple question.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has killed at least 100,000 pro-democracy Iranians in the latest uprising against the theocratic Iranian dictatorship. The same folks who lead crowds in compulsory chants of "Death to America". The ones who beat women who don't wear hijabs. The models for the bad guys in Margaret Atwoods's Handmaid's Tale. Those guys.
It would have been very easy, and indeed reassuring to moderate voters, for him to have said that yes he does. Verily, any normal person would be against a massacre of 100,000 pro-democracy innocents.
He would not.
Because both he and his base are for the IRGC and support their despicable acts.
This is the same Sayed who would not comment on the death of Iran's dictator Khamenei because per his words "there's a lot of sad people in Dearborn" -- namely himself and his supporters -- who were so sad about it.
Note well, neither the Detroit News nor the Detroit Free Press covered this exchange, which is rather interesting.
So we now know that El-Sayed stands firmly with America's and indeed the Free World's enemies.
Flying like shooting. It is a perishable skill. Instrument flying even more so.
Instrument currency can also be a pain to maintain as it is like herding cats to find a safety pilot sometimes, and you need a safety pilot for those practice approaches to count.
So I got up early this morning and headed to the airport to meet Scott who I had convinced to be my safety pilot.
It was a beautiful sunny day to fly, if a tad windy, with gusting winds at 10 knots from 100 degrees.
After the preflight and adding some oil, we got ready to go.
I got flight following and let then tower know I would be doing practice approaches and they got me all setup.
A nice takeoff and tower had me initially turn on course for Flint and then changed their mind and had me go due north for traffic, and then handed me over to Detroit Approach, who almost immediately handed me over to Great Lakes Approach.
This led to lots of good practice switching frequencies quickly with the new Garmin 650XI GPS unit. We have just replaced the 23-year-old GPS 430Ws units that were in the planes with nice new 650XIs.
We went from this:
Some serious improvements in 23 years, including a touchscreen, better integration with the autopilot, much easier entry of Arrival and Departure Procedures and T-Routes, and a much more intuitive process -- that does take some training and study to get used to and take advantage of to use it safely.
I had studied and used a simulator of 650XI, and had used it for a VFR flight, and this would be my first time using it for IFR approaches.
So we headed to Flint and I put the foggles on, and we started doing approaches. Unfortunately Flint's main runway is closed so no ILS approaches were available, and it would be an RNAV day.
The first approach quite frankly sucked.
The controller dumped us to join the approach right on top of the Final Approach Fix for the RNAV 36 at 3,500 feet and it was chop, drop, and try to get on glideslope and glidepath time. The plan was to make it a missed approach even if it was good. This one truly was not and was blown from the start and was missed pretty much as soon as it began.
Went missed, climbed out, got a little bouncy at 2,500 feet in light chop from the wind shifting all around, and tried again and had a much better result. The controller had us vectored in from a much more doable distance from the final approach fix rather than past it.
Then tried it with the 650 and Autopilot flying the vectors and then the approach to the final approach fix and that went well as I manually adjusted the altitude as we reached the waypoints. Then hand flew it in the rest of the way. Then did it one more time.
After that it was back to Pontiac for two more approaches.
The last approach I hand flew and was right on track on the glidepath and glideslope both, even with the crosswind. Landed it like butter and it was a great finish to some very focused practice, and I'm now instrument current again.
That's 1.9, 6 approaches, and 1 great landing.
As unfortunately expected, there were several attempted terrorist attacks on Jews worshiping during Yom Kippur.
First, in Belleville Ontario, a courageous police police was shot while engaging a terrorist shooting at a synagogue. The officer is critically injured but will hopefully make a full and complete recovery, but thanks to him and another responding officer, the attacker will not.
An attempted attack in Manchester, United Kingdon was foiled by counter-terrorist police who captured two men of undisclosed ethnicity who were plotting to attack a synagogue there on Yom Kippur. This on the anniversary of last year's attack in Manchester.
The FBI interdicted an ISIS-backed terrorist attach on a Pittsburgh synagogue before it could take place, arresting the terrorist who had pledged himself to ISIS in a hotel room.
In Germany, a disaster was averted when a member of a synagogue in Wuppertal saw an Afghan national throw three firebombs at the synagogue lighting it on fire just before Yom Kippur.
This doesn't even count the multiple terrorist attacks that took place in Israel.
Yes, Islamics do like to attack people on their holy days and on Islamic holy days as well. Happily, authorities managed to stop quite a number of them.
Expect more attempts on the anniversary of October 7, and during Christmas and Easter.
As Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar approaches, arriving tomorrow, The Detroit Free Press had this sub-headline on their front page today:
Clicking on it however changes the headline: The Detroit Free Press: After tense year, Michigan Jews mark holidays with resilience and faith.
Why the change? Perhaps because then they would need to explain right up front exactly why the extra security is required these days.
The article does eventually get around to explaining this in part:
On the same evening, a few miles away at the largest synagogue in Michigan, Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, about 1,000 people packed the sanctuary for their first services since a terrorist struck the house of worship six months ago, in March.
It only takes another 7 paragraphs down past that statement in the article to find out the terrorist attack was not in fact by the Amish, but was "Hezbollah-influenced" and the I-word doesn't appear even once.
Meanwhile, we still have to have extra police presence at synagogues here due to the Muslim's habit of attacking people on their religious holidays or indeed on Islamic holidays.
How often does your house of worship require a police presence to have presence and hopefully deter a terrorist attack?
In any case, and completely aside from the Detroit Free Press' obfuscation, I wish my readers G’mar chatima tova, and that you be sealed in the Book of Life.
Yahoo News/USA Today: NAACP sues ICE, DHS, FBI to prevent sending agents to midterm polls
The plaintiffs suing a group of agencies and officials – including the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Department of Justice and the FBI – allege that sending federal agents to the polls violates the Voting Rights Act because it is an intimidation tactic.
I was under the impression that it was illegal for illegal aliens to vote in our elections, and only citizens should be there to vote, and it thus shouldn't be an issue if immigration enforcement checks out things near the polls, right?
Indeed, I have been repeatedly assured of this by Democrats.
Funny their concern over federal immigration enforcement ensuring it is just American citizens voting then, isn't it?
The Archbishop of Canterbury, a known arch-progressive, and the first female head of the Church of England, in a fit of wokeness publicly honored a Muslim Imam -- on the 25th Anniversary of 9/11.
She awarded him the Hubert Walter Award for Reconciliation and Interfaith Cooperation 2026.
The Muslim imam in question, Hafiz Muhammad Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi himself had presented an earlier award.
He presented it to Osama Bin Laden.
Ashrafi awarded him the title of the award of "Sword of Allah" and that's not all. Ashrafi has supported suicide bombing, Islamic terrorist attacks against Britons and others.
Most people would consider this to be highly irreconcilable and uncooperative regarding other regions.
When these issues were pointed out, and a public outcry over the insanity of giving it to the Imam in the first place ensured, the award was revoked.
MSN/Christian Daily International: Archbishop of Canterbury revokes award to Pakistani cleric after bin Laden remarks resurface
Ashrafi received the Hubert Walter Award for Reconciliation and Interfaith Cooperation 2026 from Archbishop of Canterbury Dame Sarah Mullally at Lambeth Palace in London on Sept. 11, the 25th anniversary of the terrorist attacks in the United States.
. . .
The immediate controversy over the Lambeth award concerns comments Ashrafi made in 2007 following the British knighthood awarded to author Salman Rushdie.
Media reports quoted Ashrafi as saying that the Pakistan Ulema Council would honor bin Laden with the title “Saifullah”, meaning “Sword of God.” He described bin Laden as a “mujahid” (holy warrior) who had fought for Islam against Russians, Americans and Britons.
National Post: Head of Church of England rescinds interfaith award given to Muslim cleric who praised bin Laden
We may also note that the archbishop, who has made feminism a keystone of her liberal progressive archbishop focus, and has publicly vowed to call out misogyny, also had no issues presenting the award to the Imam as female members of his family looked on - in full burkas. She then failed to call out such misogyny. Funny, that.
The lack of self-awareness among the progressive left and their complete blindness to the clear anti-progressive intolerance of Islam is rather fascinating and disheartening.
After Macklemore was kicked off Ed Sheeran’s tour following his Gaza stunt—bringing partisan politics and what critics called antisemitic imagery onto the stage—he was out.
His past antics probably didn’t help either, including a performance in which he appeared to give a Nazi-style salute while dressed as a stereotypical caricature of an Orthodox Jewish man.
Off the tour he went.
And now the predictable outrage has arrived: the Left claims his removal somehow violated his free-speech rights.
So, of course, Dearborn’s Progressive Muslim mayor has invited Macklemore to perform a free concert in Dearborn—sponsored by the city and, therefore, supported by taxpayers.
Of course.
The Detroit Free Press: Dearborn mayor invites rapper Macklemore to perform free concert
Then there’s Hamtramck, another Detroit-area city with a large Muslim population.
Its former police chief, according to reports, advised officers that wife-beating should not be treated as a formal crime because it isn’t prohibited under Sharia law.
That claim takes on an especially ugly dimension given allegations that the former chief himself repeatedly beat his wife. Those allegations are just that—allegations—but they make his reported position on domestic violence all the more disturbing.
Law Enforcement Today: Michigan: Muslim Police Department Chief Advised Officers to Follow Sharia Law
The chief is now out of the job amid allegations involving this conduct and other corruption issues. He was also the founder of the NYPD Muslim Officers Society and the Yemeni American Law Enforcement Officers Association, and I'm sure there's no possible issues with either of those organizations.
The larger point is difficult to miss.
A movement that presents itself as progressive and tolerant can still make plenty of room for people and ideas that are deeply hostile to liberal democratic values.
And the history is hardly new. Islamist movements have, at various times, found common cause with fascist and Nazi movements, including the infamous alliance between Nazi Germany and the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem beginning in the 1930s.
How very progressive.
Among the many things we've learned from the Lindsay Clancy trial and its ignominious end, he most entertaining -- and illuminating -- is what happens when intersectionality collides with itself.
Lindsay Clancy fan discovering that the lone juror is black might be the greatest video in history pic.twitter.com/jIAjIvMcU5
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) September 11, 2026
Before it was revealed that the holdout juror was a Black man, progressives were all up in arms against him.
They assumed he was white and therefore an oppressor -- and thus a bad person. He was a bad person for not being sufficiently empathetic to Lindsay's plight. After all, in this framework, a woman who claims to have been suffering from mental illness when she killed her kids means she's the real victim and deserves empathy. He was even more bad for going against the "wisdom" of the female jurors, who were being noble and empathetic and trying to make this about something more than just the acts Lindsay Clancy committed and her mental state at the time.
Once the progressive pundits found out the juror was a Black man, they needed to recalculate their oppressor-victim equation and promptly divided by zero. a
After all, by their standards, who is the greater victim and who wins the Victim-Oppressor Olympics now that it is known the holdout was Black?
Is it the lone Black male being nagged, hectored, and lectured incessantly by white women who claim to know better and are thus whitesplaining the issues to him?
Or is it a white woman alleged to be suffering from postpartum psychosis who killed her three children?
How do they decide who wins when empathy and intersectionality is all you have to go on?
It is entertaining to watch them struggle. But beneath the humor is a rather sad commentary: this kind of intersectional “analysis”—in which people are assigned points on a hierarchy of group victimhood and empathy is elevated above objectivity and facts—has become a mainstream way of determining who is right.
When intersectionality becomes the primary lens through which a situation is judged, the facts become secondary to the identities of the people involved.
And when two supposedly competing categories of victim and oppressor collide, the resulting calculation gets very complicated.
Especially when someone forgets to account for the possibility of a Black man being the holdout on the jury.
Twenty Five years ago:
8:46 am - the Islamic hijackers crash American Airlines Flight 175 into the North Tower.
9:30 am - The South Tower is then struck.
9:37 am - The Pentagon is struck.
9:57 am - the heroes on board United Airlines Flight 93 fight back and try to take the plane back from the hijackers, or at the very least stop them from using the plane in yet another attack.
9:58 am - The South Tower collapses.
10:03 am - United 93 crashes into a field in Pennsylvania, all aboard perish, but the Islamic hijackers intent to crash the plane into a monumental building in Washington DC is foiled.
10:15 am - Five stories of the Pentagon collapse due to the fire from American Flight 77.
10:28 am - The North Tower collapses.
At least 2,977 were murdered that day, twenty-five years ago, the youngest being two and a half years old, a passenger on Flight 175.
We may not be at war with Islam, but Islam sure as heck has been and still is at war with us.
The majority of the denizens of New York City have forgotten. 25 years later they have voted in a Muslim, who in commemoration of the event, he as a progressive Islamic Mayor of New York directed his Jewish police chief to hand the pen that he signed mayoral orders marking 9/11 to Mamdani's chief counsel, Ramzi Kassem who previously represented al-Qaeda operative Ahmed al-Darbi.
You cannot make that up.
Hopefully, unlike the progressive Democrats of NYC, and the Democrats of Michigan looking to be voting for El-Sayed, you haven't forgotten.
After the riverboat, I headed to an iconic Honky Tonk. As one does.
The place was jam-packed, standing room only, and barely enough room to stand.
After a while, manged to get a seat at the bar. The bar tenders never stopped working for an instant, but they were attentive and friendly the entire time which was cool.
Great music, a fun atmosphere, and it was time to order lunch.
Probably the cheapest lunch on Broadway:
Yep, I ordered the famous Recession Special.
It arrived reasonably quickly as the cook was also jammed up with people ordering the special, among other dishes.
It's the iconic order there.
But, the fried baloney served with lettuce and tomato was tasty, filling, and the included PBR worked with it, as did the chips and Moon Pie for dessert. It was the cheapest lunch I've had out just about anywhere.
Stayed for some tunes and then decided to do a bit of a bar crawl.
Next stop was Tootsies Orchid Lounge, back in the day, prior to 1979, the hang out for the Opry performers as the Ryman Auditorium where the Opry had been located, was next door.
A solid live band was performing:
Had a local brew, Hap and Harry's Lager, which was ok, and listened to some tunes.
Then headed off to do some more wandering around.
The Cumberland River that is, for a riverboat tour.
Walked on down Broadway to the riverfront. This should have been easy, but lower Broadway leading to the riverboat and the river was blocked and fenced off due to the America's Tailgate event.
But we all did eventually get to the boat.
And a fine riverboat it is, a nice stern paddle-wheel steamer. We were checked in and welcomed on board. With three decks accessible it was easy to find space to relax and enjoy. The bar on board didn't hurt the effort at relaxation either.
Soon we were off.
We also learned about the many barges and such that we passed along the way.
You can tell the difference between a concrete barge and a sand barge very easily.
Heading down the river, we also got to see a fellow on a Sea-Doo doing some impressive stunts.
In addition to jumps he did complete flips.
The fellow was able to do a series of complete loops as he flipped the Sea-Doo in the air multiple times in a row, landing successfully each time until:
He mistimed this one and then wiped out most impressively, leaving a splash behind as he completely buried the Sea-Doo and himself underwater.
He got up, shook himself off, got the Sea-Doo going, and headed on his way.
Quite fun to watch and he did do 10 successfully, so a single wipe out is no diminishment of the skill demonstrated.
We then headed back to the dock and debarked in good order.
The River Boat tour was fun, informative and a great time. A highly recommended activity if you're visiting Nashville.
It was a darn nice river tour. Then everyone was walking around the stage setup again, and it was on to Broadway for lunch.
I spent this weekend in Nashville, taking some time to enjoy the city.
Arrived there on Saturday after a pleasant flight and checked into the hotel.
I then walked from the hotel to the WeGo bus station which was about a 20 minute walk along Broadway and Rep John Lewis Way. It was sunny and hot in the low 90s.
On my walk, I passed by quite a few homeless people and meth-heads, of which there was a strong overlap.
One in particular was busy loudly arguing with himself most vociferously, and a but further on a meth lady was getting in another homeless person's face and barking like a dog at him which was interesting to watch as I strolled on by. I decided not to remain around and see the entire interaction play out, as it was the very definition of "Not my circus, not my monkeys", leaving plenty of space between me and the meth-heads.
Got to the bus station and then hopped on the #34 bus to Opry Mills. Pretty easy system to figure out and the bus ride was pleasant with few people on the bus.
Got off at the last stop at Opry Mills.
Since this was the south, I had a meal at Mission BBQ, which was very good, with great friendly service and a nice atmosphere. I made short work of the Brisket platter which was excellent.
Then it was off to the Opry.
Getting there was a tad complicated as the easy walkway from the Opry Mills Mall to the Opry was closed for some reason, necessitating a wide detour around a pretty trafficy road on foot without much room for pedestrians. But, I made it.
The Opry is a live radio show that has been running since the 1920s.
Went in and got seated for the show.
The show is broadcast live on air and the announcer would announce the performers and also read out advertisements from sponsors in between performances in a most warm and welcoming voice.
Before the show officially starts, the announcer gave a nice audio/visual show giving the history of the Opry which was a nice introduction.
The On Air signs lit up and the show began.
It opened with Mark Wills:
Stefanie Quayle, who sang a Dolly Parton song -- and absolutely nailed it. Dolly had encouraged her to keep on singing early in her career and this was a wonderful tribute.
Medium Build did his debut at the Opry and you could tell he was all sorts of excited to do so, and he really gave a performance.
Charles Esten, who first performed solo and then in a duet for Islands In The Stream in honor of Dolly.
Keith And Kristen Getty along with two of their daughters, for the daughters' first time on stage at the Opry and they did great.
Tommy Emanuel, who dazzled everyone with his amazing guitar playing.
John Conlee, who did a very meaningful and emotional rendition of A Lot of Things Different that brought down the house:
The Oak Ridge Boys who sang Elvira, with one of them sporting the most epic beard to grace the stage closed out the show
It was a great performance.
After the show, I went to the Opry gift shop, and then after having some after show beverages decided to take an Uber back to the hotel as walking late at night back through the meth-elated area didn't seem like the wisest decision.
It was a great first day in Nashville. If you happen to be in Nashville and the Opry has a performance, be sure to go to it, it is really worth it.
So long as they are just fish, she's otherwise just fine with illegals coming to and staying in this state.
The Detroit Free Press: Why stop-work order on Great Lakes carp barrier was suddenly lifted
Work on a more than $1 billion project to deter invasive carp from entering the Great Lakes is set to resume in Illinois, after the Trump administration lifted a stop-work order following a direct appeal from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to President Donald Trump.
She's in favor of effective barriers to keep invaders out, but again, just for fish.
Funny, that. If only the invasive carp could just be relabeled as "Undocumented finned immigrants" she'd be all for letting them flood in.
The Detroit News: Consumers Energy plan calls for more than doubling capacity by 2040
Consumers Energy says it will more than double its system capacity by 2040 by using an “all-of-the-above” mix of natural gas, solar, wind, pumped and battery storage as part of a long-term supply proposal.
Energy matters. America's economy, businesses, and consumers all depend on available, reliable, and (relatively) inexpensive energy.
And we as a country have been deliberately negligent in maintaining that available, reliable, and (relatively) inexpensive energy - whether going for the Greenies with their no building of power plants whether coal or nuclear at all, to the Green New Deal with its demand of having unreliable solar and wind to replace reliable baseline power.
That Consumers is announcing they will double production capacity is welcome news, especially as all coal plants in Michigan have been set to close by 2032 and we're down to two nuclear plants from five and energy demand has not decreased.
In short, there's not going to be much in the way of reliable baseline production aside from some natural gas plants.
Certainly that will be badly needed, as there's been scant increase in reliable production capacity. But notice that nuclear is missing from the “all-of-the-above” mix.
Nuclear provides excellent baseline power and is reliable and yes, safe, and verily non-polluting and not even making those greenhouse gases the Greenies fret about, so long as you don't put communists in charge of it.
A pity Consumers isn't leading the way with the new SMR reactors or even the large safe reactor designs.
We are now under a Tornado Warning.
The sirens are going off, the sky is all sorts of dark, the wind is whipping impressively, and the rain is coming down in solid sheets.
So, I thought it was a good idea to quickly review tornado safety procedures:
Happy to be working from home today, and it is down to the basement I go.
Update: I Did lose internet yesterday, but I didn't lose power more than a few short moments, and a few trees near me are down, but everything is back to normal with just some thunder storms around today.
Crain's Detroit Business: Democratic donors break with party to back Rogers over El-Sayed in Senate race
It remains to be seen whether the defections amount to an isolated break or a broader problem for Abdul El-Sayed.
Hopefully it will indeed be considered a broader problem as all but progressives realize who he is and what he represents.
Good to see how some at least are waking up and not falling for the "Vote Blue No Matter Who" and "Sacrifice Yourself for the Democratic Party" lines.
For the Democrat stalwarts, it is Party over principle, every time.
And they are calling on Democrat Jews to be chickens for KFC.
The Democrats have their Kapos publicly urging Democrat Jews to put aside their very valid concerns over El Sayed including his support for Iran and even more locally, excusing and rationalizing of the attack on Temple Israel, so long as the Dems get to keep a Senate seat.
MSN/Detroit News: Nessel urges Jewish Dems to place world's needs above self-interest
Attorney General Dana Nessel suggested in a private speech to Jewish Democrats on Aug. 30 that they should sacrifice their own safety and comfort in exchange for what she described as "the opportunity to save the rest of humanity."
Nessel, Michigan's top law enforcement officer who is also Jewish, was honored by the Michigan Democratic Party's Jewish Caucus during a celebration in Birmingham. Members of the media were barred from the gathering.
In other words, bend the knee, vote for El-Sayed because he has a (D) after his name even though he is without a doubt extremely contrary to Jewish and indeed American interests.
This is the same Attorney General Dana Nessel who announced she was not going to the Michigan Democrat Convention due to threats against her for being Jewish due to the progressive wing of the party going full on anti-Israel and anti-Semitic in their fervor for Abdul El-Sayed.
We will also note that Ms. Nessel is a lesbian -- not that there is anything wrong with that -- yet she did not call on lesbians to sacrifice their safety and comfort to the Democrat Islamic wing of the party, the same one that has banned pride flags from flying in Hamtramck. Funny that.
At this point Vote Blue No Matter Who has now nominated a man with a Nazi tattoo (only removed by the Dems from the race when all the polls showed he would lose); an Islamic terrorist supporter, Adam Hamawy who testified and provided material support for the World Trade Center bomber; and of course, Mamdami in NYC.
The Detroit Free Press: Teenage e-bikers on Oakland airport runway force plane to abort landing
Teenage e-bikers on an Oakland County airport runway last week forced a pilot to abort his landing, taking the potential perils of e-bike misuse to a whole new level."This is very, very dangerous," Oakland County Airport Aviation Manager Cheryl Bush said. "They aren’t respecting the impact they could have on aircraft trying to get in or out or what it could do to them."
