Critics Must Think Michigan Voters (And Especially Democrats) Are Dumber Than Rocks

That can be the only reason for this specious objection:

Livingston Daily: Critics say citizenship question will confuse voters

Most Michigan voters — but not those in Livingston County — will have to affirm their U.S. citizenship when filling out an application for a ballot in next week's August primary and the November presidential elections despite Gov. Rick Snyder's veto of the legislation calling for the citizen check box in early July.

While Department of State officials believe asking prospective voters to check "yes" or "no" to the question "Are you a United States citizen?" helps clean up the voting process, critics say it's duplicative and confusing to voters.

Look, if you're confused and can't figure out how to check a yes or no box as to whether or not you're a US Citizen when you go to vote, you may want to check if you're still breathing.

Then again, we know the critics are worried about Democrat voters, who supposedly aren't the sharpest tools in the shed, especially considering that they vote Democrat. But, even I suspect that those poor dears who have yet to assume room temperature or below can figure out a simple yes/no check box.

Across the nation, state legislatures are passing laws that backers say will help fight voting fraud. Opponents say evidence of voter fraud is rare and that the laws are really attempts at voter suppression.

Of course, if you block any attempt to detect and prevent voter fraud, its pretty hard to have evidence of it now isn't it?

Books Worth Reading: 1812 The Navy's War

The Bicentennial of the War of 1812 is causing a new burst of histories to be written about this almost forgotten war.

1812: The Navy's War by George C. Daughan, also available in a Kindle edition, published in 2011 is a very good one indeed.

First, the book for your reading enjoyment provides a wonderful diagram of a sailing ship, identifying every mast and sail, which makes understanding what happened when a sea battle took place and why it mattered much easier. Now you'll understand what it means to have a topgallant shot off.

The book also has an extensive glossary. If you ever wondered what a Razee is and why a brig might run away from it, among many other terms, you'll know. In addition, the maps are excellent in showing the various naval and land battlefields.

The book begins with the causes of the war - The British restrictions on American trade with Europe and the impressment of thousands of American sailors. High-handed acts of impressment including boarding even US Navy ships to shanghai sailors served to inflame American opinion against the British. Conditions upon British ships of the time were so terrible for ordinary sailors, and by contrast much better aboard US navy and US merchant vessels that impressment was a necessity to keep the British navy functioning in the war against Napoleon as the idea of improving service conditions for British sailors never took hold in the Admiralty or among its political leaders at the time.

The book then outlines how unready and ill-prepared America was for this war - a theme we will see repeated through the beginnings of World War 1, World War 2 and Korea and likely will experience again.

The US started the war with a navy that was tiny, with no ships of the line, was about to take on the greatest maritime power of the day. It went to war with an army that was tiny and without adequate supplies, with leaders chosen more for political reasons than for any military genius, and was supplemented by militia that were ineffective or in the case of the New England militias, that often had ties and loyalties to Britain and refused to cross the border to invade Canada.

The book covers the impressive success of the American Navy's heavy 44 gun frigates, and the often overlooked success of her privateer commerce raiders that together forced the British to take American maritime power seriously. American privateers operated extensively off the coast of Great Britain and Ireland, capturing British merchant ships in her own backyard. The privateers also competed with the navy for sailors - offering better pay and prize money that the navy.

The book also notes how the New England states, even as the war was going on, would not only trade with the British but even sold provisions to the blockading British ships and troops.

The book covers not only all of the major and many minor maritime engagements of the war as well as the land campaigns and how they were interrelated with the state of war at sea. Control of the Great Lakes, considering the terrible state of roads in the Michigan, Ohio and other wilderness territories was vital to get troops where they needed to go. The book details British plans to hem in and divide the US, with such plans ending after some effective American naval victories and the American victory at the Battle of New Orleans that occurred after the peace treaty was signed.

The belligerents then returned to the status quo that existed before the beginning of the war, but the reputation of the US Navy had been well established.

The book concludes with the US Navy's successful battles against the Bey, the Deys and Basha in the Second Barbary War in the Mediterranean - ending the US payment of tribute to these Muslim pirates and leading to a US naval presence in the Mediterranean that continues to this day.

A very well-written book that thoroughly examines the political, nautical and military history of the War of 1812 timely completed for the bicentennial anniversary of the conflict. Highly recommended.

Lousy Recent Anti-Gun Range Decision From The Michigan Court Of Appeals

In a stunningly bad series of decisions, the Michigan Court of Appeals in the cases of Township of Addison v Barnhart Cases Barnhart I and Barnhart II has held that a shooting range is not protected under the Sport Shooting ranges act if it conducts any business or charges any fees for commercial activity such as teaching firearm classes.

The statute, MCL 691.1541 et seq states:

(d) “Sport shooting range” or “range” means an area designed and operated for the use of archery, rifles, shotguns, pistols, silhouettes, skeet, trap, black powder, or any other similar sport shooting.

Note how it does not say a sport shooting range may not charge fees or cannot be run or owned by an organization, or corporation, whether for- or non-profit. In contrast, the act even defines the word person to mean: "(c) “Person” means an individual, proprietorship, partnership, corporation, club, governmental entity, or other legal entity."

In short, the Michigan Court of Appeals made this determination up out of whole cloth, claiming the word "sport" in the statute disallows any fees or commercial activity at a range, to essentially eviscerate the protection of the statute to just about every range in Michigan, on the flimsiest of pretextual judicial reasoning.

The decision is being appealed to the Michigan Supreme Court where hopefully this deliberate misinterpretation of the statute will be overruled.

Thanks to MUCC and Rob for the heads-up on this decision.

DRM Frustration and Fail

DRM being Digital Rights Management. The various methods for content providers pissing their end-users off to all heck and gone.

So my local library, in addition to books, DVDs, CD, MP3 on CD and such is also offering e-books and e-audio books.

Makes sense right? Good for the library as no worries about shelf space, damaged discs or vandalized books. In the case of audio CDs, considering as how they get scratched as fast as being looked at, it makes sens to keep it electronic.

In addition, this kind of content is cheap as hell for a content provider - no repeat production, printing or stamping costs as each item is a digital file and if it gets corrupt you can upload another one. Nice, convenient and accessible with no worries about someone else checking it out - what's not to like?

Should be easy right, for them maybe, for a user not so much.

To listen to an audio book, as I planned to do on my iPhone and plug it into my car and listen to it to and from work would have been great.

Not so fast.

First I had to download Overdrive Media Console, which then wanted Windows Media player to be upgraded with some sort of DRM update.

The problem being, it would not update.

After multiple tries with the online help, it wouldn't work. After 2 hours of messing around with it, I finally figured out that it will not update if you try it through Firefox - you must do it through Internet Explorer - note that the help files do not mention this in any way, shape or form.

So I finally get the fisking thing downloaded and it issues the audio book files in protected WMA format - I try to load it up in iTunes to transfer to the iPhone and nope, it doesn't work with an error message that its protected. Of course.

Nor can I get the Overdrive to transfer it to the iPhone as per the Overdrive site: "OverDrive Download Station is not able to transfer to iPhones." Wonderful. So it looks like I've got the capability of sitting in front of my computer and listening to an eAudioBook - wow, that's really handy and useful.

However all is not lost: The program allows you to burn then to a CD and transfer the files in CD Audio format.

Good grief.

After all the fisking time wasted to comply with their stupid DRM model, the end result is a file that has no DRM protection whatsoever and once on the CD could be transferred, ripped back into mp3 and loaded on an iPhone, or given away to the entire universe I suppose.

You are supposed to destroy your CDs when the loan period is up. How many people do that, I have no idea.

I'm personally toying with the idea of mailing them, postage collect, to the publisher with a cover letter detailing how messed up their whole DRM concept is.

Epic Failure from a security standpoint and from a usability standpoint.

All that nonsense to protect content that ends up unprotected once you waste hours making the software behave and then about a half hour burning a few discs.

Public Sector Pension Follies: Wayne County Edition

As Instapundit often writes concerning the subject of public pensions: Something that can’t go on forever, won’t.

One can expect that the mess of a pension system in Wayne County (The County dominated by Detroit) similarly won't continue, unfortunately the taxpayer will likely be on the hook for the mismanagement and malfeasance.

After all, its only underfunded by $800 million dollars.

The Detroit News: Bad Wayne County pension bets take toll County retirement fund suffers investment losses of $340M since 2008

A $340 Million dollar loss isn't pocket change, and the article goes on to detail some interesting ways in which the money was lost, and the fund is performing worse than 97 percent of similar public funds.

As one would expect, not only are the pension funds badly managed and enmeshed in graft and corruption, but the incredibly rich benefits given to public employees with taxpayer funds will take their toll and make the fund unsustainable:

Pension board members said the system is strained because County Executive Robert Ficano's retirement incentives allowed workers as young as 37 to retiree with a $42,000 pension. In the last five years, the average annual pension has increased 30 percent to $23,145.

A lifetime pension of $42k per year to a 37 year old? Think about how much money that will be over the persons lifetime? With an average life expectancy of 78 years, that's $1,722,000.

Having the right connections in Wayne County and getting on the pension gravy train is the equivalent of winning a lottery, paid for by the public.

Any remaining questions as to why the Wayne County pension plan is under strain?

On Guns: Sensible News And Infantile Freep

As Say Uncle often says, we're winning.

I thought I'd never see it but the Detroit News, even in the face of the atrocity of Aurora has come out with an editorial that actually defends private ownership of firearms including "Assault weapons".

The Detroit News: In defense of the maligned assault weapon

Well written and well reasoned, Nolan Finley wrote a fine editorial indeed.

It truly wasn't long ago when the Detroit News editors' knees would have jerked along with most of the MSM in calling for banning guns after such a massacre by an insane individual.

Jerked much like the response of the Detroit Free Press for example.

In another sign that we're winning the debate, we get a stereotype-filled editorial cartoon and content-free editorial sniping by Mike Thompson:

Mike Thompson: Post-Aurora shootings gun control debate

Accompanying the cartoon and wacky emotion driven and fact free rant below it is a truly infantile "survey", that you can actually vote on and feel like a real sophisticated bien-pensant!:

The reason most likely to be given by National Rifle Association members when arguing for private ownership of assault weapons is:
a) Ninjas ! Why, they can be ANYWHERE!
b) The zombie apocalypse is coming, mark my word!
c) The Mayans were right! Just wait until December when all he_ _ breaks loose!
d) That Charles Bronson "Death Wish" movie was actually a documentary!

Nice, the thoughtful editorial equivalent of "neener-neener" that we've come to expect form Thompson and the Freep on firearms.

Sadly, he neglected to add choice e:

e) Because I can, so F you, Mr. Thompson, you hoplophobic pissant. That's why.

Headline News Dazed And Confused

On the Same Day, On The Same Subject, Two Completely Opposite Headlines:

The Detroit News: Polls: Romney gaining in Michigan

The Detroit Free Press: Poll: Obama widens lead over Romney in Michigan

Your daily sample of lies, damned lies, statistics and spin brought to you by the MSM.

A Dying Detroit Refuses To be "Imposed" Upon

Detroit continues to try and reject the life ring thrown to it, insisting they’ll do it themselves because they can’t stand the though of a life ring being imposed on them even as they’re drowning in red ink. However, they’ll still gladly accept the state’s money as long as it is sent without conditions.

The Detroit News: Bing blasts state for imposing its plans on Detroit

Speaking before the NAACP, Bing blasted a State Plan for the State to lease Belle Isle and make it become part of the state parks system, not to mention levy an entry fee on visitors to pay for its upkeep and improve it.

Saying he doesn't want help "imposed" by Lansing, Mayor Dave Bing on Tuesday said he cannot support the state's proposal to lease Belle Isle for 99 years, and that he will seek a plan to improve the iconic park that's more favorable to the city.

Speaking at a packed Detroit NAACP headquarters in Midtown, Bing said he received a letter from the state two weeks ago asking for those terms "without telling me what they're going to invest and upgrade in Belle Isle."

Bing then went on to state:

"I have never in my 46 years in this city seen a governor of the state of Michigan involved in city politics like this one," Bing said. "I'm not opposed to getting help. But it's the kind of help that we need, not the kind of help that's going to be imposed on us."

The rest of us in the state haven’t seen a City quite as messed up as Detroit, nor as much silly politics and grandstanding as the city crumbles since the Emperor Nero allegedly worked on his musical talents as Rome was engulfed in flames.

"My position as of yesterday in a meeting is no, you're not (coming in to do demolitions), because this is our city," Bing told the audience about conversations with Snyder's staff. "You can't come in here and think you can do any damn thing that you want.

"There's a process that's already in place. You've got to use city departments for permits, for licensing, moving and equipment."

The mayor cited the state's offer of funding to tear down abandoned buildings: "I want your $10 million, but you're not going to take the lead on this."

And that’s the crux of the matter right there.

Send Detroit money, get some palms greased as portions of the funding get siphoned off through the city departments for processing and don’t expect any accountability or action in return. In other words, Detroit (lack of) business as usual.

Bing then ended his presentation by channeling Obama:

"I'm not here to lay blame and point fingers at anybody, but the reality is this: I inherited a mess," he said.

True Mayor Bing, you did inherit a mess, one that is indeed comparatively worse than the one Obama “inherited”. However the Mayor, just like Obama, is busy being obstructive, playing to his base, and making it worse rather than better.

Snyder has to be kicking himself for having gotten suckered into a consent agreement that will continue this ridiculous obstructionism and political posturing and bluffing. Instead he should have appointed an EFM to prevent just this kind of standard graft, delay and racial politics from preventing anything from being done. Either that, or he should have stood back and, because its their city and they reject having the state impose anything on them, let them suffer the consequences of their mismanagement and watch them file bankruptcy.

A Sher Lock On A Great Viewing Experience

Sherlock: Season Two that is.

The BBC's modern reboot of Sherlock Holmes just got even better in Season 2. Consisting of three episodes, the season leaves you wanting more.

A Scandal in Belgravia with Irene Adler was simply stunning with a very clever twist on the classic story and is very well acted by all involved.

Hound of the Baskervilles was stunningly well done, bringing in a plausible modern day reason for the situation and gave a chilling edge of your seat horror/suspenseful atmosphere that was really fantastic.

The Reichenbach Fall, the last episode of the season, is quite simply a masterpiece and works very, very, very well. It also leaves you desperately wanting this awesome show to continue.

I certainly hope the BBC will go ahead with Season 3. It sounds like it has been approved and will appear in summer 2013, which is a long time to wait especially as we'll only get the DVDs well after its already played in Britain, as this series is quite simply some of the finest television being produced today.

You can see the promo trailers for Season 2 below. Watch them to whet your appetite, then go watch Season 2 forthwith as your viewing enjoyment will be assured.

Incredibly smart, witty, detailed and well-done television at its finest.

Dive 220 - Alone In Lake Vernon

I had brought my dive gear up to my folk's cottage on the shores of Lake Vernon and I was determined to get a dive in. I had brought my 2 mil wetsuit and single tank setup along. So, with an aluminum 80, a single regulator with a two first stages attached and only a backup light with me as I was without a canister light I headed into the water towing a dive flag as I went.

The light zone extended down to 13 feet. After hitting 13 feet the lake bottom continued to descend but it turned pretty much pitch black and I could just make out a huge tree trunk in front of me.

As I had no can light and no dive buddy, discretion was the better part of valor and I kept out of the pitch dark as there wasn't much worth seeing anyways, considering I couldn't see it even if it was there. Next time I'll bring a can light and a dive buddy.

So I headed into the light zone and wandered around the shallower parts of the lake bottom, and I found a few cans that people had thrown into the lake, which I retrieved and brought back to the dock for disposal.

I also found one pretty decently sized fish that was wandering about:

I then surfaced and gave the kids some submerged rides with them sitting on top of my tank out of the water over to the neighbor's trampoline and they enjoyed that experience.

Then my dad came to the dock and told me about a rock pile that remained from an old large dock that was under a marker buoy and I decided to go check it out.

There were indeed lots of rocks down there:

There was also some large pieces of lumber from the old dock pilings

There was also a crappie load of blue gills making their home among those rocks:

The blue gills were rather interested in what I was doing interloping in their domain and they had no trouble coming right up close to me. it was fun to just sit neutrally buoyant just floating a few inches off the bottom and watch them swim around me.

So while it wasn't the most exciting or challenging dive, it was a rather relaxing one. A long and shallow dive, with the average water temp of 77 degrees and 1500 of the 3000 psi used in the tank by the end.

On the upside, I finally have dove at least a very tiny piece of Lake Vernon and was probably the first diver to visit that portion of the lake.

Then this morning we packed up our stuff, loaded the car and drove home and I'm now back home to reality, and a decent internet connection.

Lost In Translation

Something was either lost in translation or they found a way to up the ratings of this particular movie to X in China.

Terrorist Attack In Bulgaria Has A Michigan Connection

The bombing of a bus carrying Israeli tourists in Bulgaria is looking more and more like a Hezballah operation. Vehicle bombings are their stock-in-trade and it's even more so now that there's a Michigan tie-in.

Bulgaria bombing suspect had fake Michigan ID

A lanky, long-haired man wearing a baseball cap and plaid shorts with a fake Michigan driver's license carried out a deadly suicide attack on a bus full of Israeli vacationers, Bulgarian officials said Thursday. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed the attack on Iranian-backed Hezbollah, a Lebanese Shiite Muslim guerrilla group, and threatened retaliation. Seven people — five Israelis, the Bulgarian driver and the bomber — died in the blast Wednesday. .... Officials were using DNA samples to try to establish his identity. Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borisov told reporters that a Michigan driver's license was retrieved, but he said U.S. officials reported that "there was no such person in their database." Michigan is home to one of the largest Arab communities in the U.S.

And the support for Hezballah is very heavy in Dearborn, and the probability of them supporting such an operation is very high indeed. In fact, as noted by Debbie Schlussel it was 18 years ago to the day of this bombing a Hezballah suicide bomber with family ties to Dearborn was one of the suicide bombers in the attack on the AMIA Jewish Friends center in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Iran and Hezballah are certainly stepping up their terrorist attacks, and this is going to get ugly if it is allowed to continue without any effective retaliation.

Update: As pointed out by Proud Hillbilly in the comments, the bomber is a released inmate of Gitmo. So much for the narrative that they're all a bunch of poor inocents locked up there. Debbie Schlussel has a lot more on this scumbag and how he happened to be set free to kill again.

Hiking Around Arrowhead Park

Continuing our Ontario travels we've been hanging around with the relatives in Huntsville Ontario, enjoying the cottage and the company. Six kids, 4 adults and a nice cottage. Internet connectivity is sporadic at best.

So today we're off with the Canadian relatives and we decided to go on a hike at Arrowhead Provincial Park in Ontario.

The kids wanted to climb on rocks and see the falls.

So after a short drive there we paid our park admission and headed onto the Stubb's Falls trail.

The scenery is absolutely breathtaking and very relaxing. First we crossed a bridge over the river:

Then we got to the top of the falls and the kids, all 6 of them, rocked out climbing on the huge boulders:

Then on down the boulders to Stubb's falls themselves:

The falls themselves are nice to look at and the water is refreshingly cool. But, there's an advisory against drinking any of it due to some outbreak of nasty parasites that are in the water.

So, after stopping to climb every boulder, view every angle, splash in the water and have an obligatory snack along with bottled water I had carried in, it was time to head back.

While the trail is marked easy, it is markedly more difficult carrying a worn-out 5 and 11/12 year-old on your shoulders on the way out, but I managed handily, even with a sprained finger.

Certainly a beautiful spot, a great hike, and well worth the excursion. They also have some decent campgrounds and given the size and beauty of the park, it would be worth a few days camping out and exploring it thoroughly one day.

New Canadian Drastic Plastic "Paper" Money

Polymer- its not just for Glocks and Thermold mags anymore:

Yes, I managed to get my hands on one of the new Canadian $50 bills, just released in March of this year. The new $50 (and the new $100 for that matter) is made from polymer, complete with see-through windows, holograms, and raised braille indentations for the visually impaired.

The $50 bill also celebrates the 50th anniversary of Canada's Coast Guard, featuring the icebreaker CCGS Amundsen.

It definitely feels different than standard paper money.

Of course, this isn't a completely new technology. The Australians have had a polymer bill for quite some time but it's the first go-round for Canada.

While the bills look pretty neat, and apparently last longer than comparable paper bills, the technology may not be fully ready for prime time.

There's reports of the bills crinkling and melting in the Canadian heat. Somehow I suspect a US version wouldn't last long in Arizona until the formula gets a bit more refined.

Canadian Travels - Londonistan Ontario

Traveling through Ontario making our way Up North to hang out with the folks.

We stopped at a London Tim Horton's to make a pit stop and get some of their very good coffee.

We noticed a couple London Police cruisers parked up front.

Something on the rear panel caught my eye:

Very interesting, and I daresay taking multiculturalism a little too far, especially as no other languages were evident and Arabic is not an official language in Canada...not yet, at least.

The Hits Keep On Coming...

I had just completed a seminar presentation at the business center at Michigan State University in East Lansing on business entity legal considerations and was heading back to the office this afternoon to get some work done and then start a relaxing weekend.

It was not to be.

At the corner of Hagadorn and Mt. Hope, minding my own business, stopped completely at a red light with a grey Nissan Titan truck to my front and nothing behind me, relaxing after a fun but involved presentation, looking ahead at the lights, waiting for them to change and wa-bam!

The RAV4 was struck from behind, hard enough that it was pushed forward to hit the truck in front of me even as I was on the breaks.

I had a very weird feeling as it happened, watching my car moving closer to the truck - I clearly remember thinking "What the heck is happening, my car is moving forward and I'm on the brake, what the hell?"

Not a pleasant feeling.

And this was the result:

Ouch. In addition, my left pinky finger feels sprained or something and hurts like a bugger. I'm not sure how it happened as both hands were on the wheel at the moment of impact. The back is also sore but the neck is fine so far.

In addition to mine, he managed to make his car not look too good either:

Interestingly, there was no damage to the Titan visible, but my front bumper had some grey marks on it and one of the plastic things popped out and I shoved it back into place.

It turns out that the fellow wasn't paying attention, had looked behind him to talk to his kid, saw the cars in the lane next to him move and must have just hammered the gas pedal. The problem of course was that that lane was the left turn lane and it was moving on a green arrow!

Thankfully the kid was unhurt because he was properly buckled up in a booster seat, so the guy is not a complete moron. Nice fellow, very apologetic and was kinda shaken and shocky over the whole incident.

The lady whose truck my car taped was also a decent sport about it and was impressed her truck had no damage and the front of my car only a bit considering the impact we both felt. Given the extensive damage I called the police and about a half hour later the Meridian Township Police officer arrived, got everyone's data and heard everyone's statements and went to write his report. Good and courteous fellow. So we got an accident report out of it and the guy was cited, I believe for careless driving. Happily, the RAV was still drivable so I drove it homeward and called my friend who owns a collision shop and I dropped it off there and it now awaits the adjuster's assessment. That's a non-preferred way of starting a weekend off with a bang. It's also the second frickkin time I've been minding my own business stopped at a red light and I get rear ended by someone not paying attention. I'm beginning to wonder if inattentive drivers are mistaking the spare tire cover for a target marker. Sheesh.

A Michigan Example Of Criminal Chutzpah

The customary English definition of the good Yiddish term chutzpah is that after you kill your parents, you plead for mercy because you're now an orphan. That's chutzpah. So, Tia Skinner, who was mad at her adoptive parents for not letting her go out with a certain boy, plots with the boy to kill her parents. She succeeds in killing the father and puts the mother in hospital with 25 stab wounds. Convicted of her crimes she's now appealing her life sentence. Why? According to the Detroit Free Press:

She is appealing on the grounds that she was interviewed by police as a minor without parental consent and had ineffective counsel.

That's chutzpah all-right.

I'd expect the Court of Appeals will find there's a necessity or impossibility waiver on that rule when you're the one who tried to do your parents in, and in fact got one killed and the other hospitalized and unavailable to be present to grant the consent, or there damn well ought to be.

Even more incredibly, she's upset that her family is not standing by her:

Since being sent to a state prison near Ann Arbor, Tia Skinner said she has not heard from her mother, her siblings or anyone else from the close-knit Yale community near Port Huron.

"It's been rough. It's hard losing your whole family in a blink of an eye," she said. "It's tough because that's my family; they're supposed to stay by you through thick and thin."

Talk about your narcissistic personality disorder writ large. It is all about her, isn't it?

Excuse me murderess, but you just tried to kill off your family. It's kinds unbelievably hard to expect them to stick by you when you plotted to stick them with knives. Just saying.

The story is also well commented upon by Murphy's Law, who saw the story before I did.

The Obama Inspired Utility Scam

Remember this lady from Detroit?

Well, it turns out that someone was paying attention and figured the denizens of Detroit and southeastern Michigan could be easily scammed with promises of Obama handouts:

The Detroit News: Obama utility bill-paying scam hits Metro Detroit

Metro Detroiters should beware of an online scam that promises President Barack Obama will pay their utility bills.

. . .

Also Wednesday, the state's Public Service Commission, which regulates the state's utility companies, issued a warning for consumers.

Last week, officials with the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department did so as well.

. . .

Under the scam, victims are contacted in person, through fliers, social media and text messages.

Scammers tell consumers Obama can provide credits or apply payments to their water, electric and heating bills in exchange for their Social Security number and a bank routing number.

Once someone provides the information, they receive a bank routing number that will supposedly pay the bills.

No such federal program exists. Customers think they've paid their bills, but they haven't.

Lisa Dilg, a spokeswoman for the Better Business Bureau for Eastern Michigan, said people are still being snookered.

"A lot of people are falling for it," she said. "It's pretty shocking. We're getting several complaints about it every day."

Not to mention they just provided all the information needed for their identity to be stolen.

Its no wonder that the credulous dolts are falling for this scam.

Remember Obama's promise of taxing oil companies and using the money to help people pay their utility bills?

It's a pretty sad turn of events when scammers can use the same magical thinking and economically illiterate approach used by the president to get elected to fleece the same bunch of ignorant fools.

Update: The Detroit Free Press reports that as of July 24, at least 2,300 Michigan residents have been scammed by this scheme.

Dive 219 - Into The Warm Soup

Yesterday Jeremy and I met up at Union lake for an evening dive.

The water was wonderfully warm - 84 degrees at the surface, 77 at about 15 feet and 66 degrees past the thermocline at around 22 feet plus all the way to the bottom.

Absolutely wonderful temperatures for the lake and it sure beats freezing I can tell you that.

On the downside, visibility was sucky with an extra serving of suckitude.

Massive amounts of particulate was in the water, stirred up by the boats and especially the idiots on jet skies, and one jet ski idiot in particular that kept going around and around in circles above us - thanks much fella!

Nothing like a constant hi-speed engine sound above you to remind you to keep your buoyancy in line and stay at depth.

In addition, there was massive aquatic plant growth so the combined effects reduced visibility to 2-3 feet and the water had the appearance of pea-green soup.

What the heck, it was a dive and it was wet and warm so it was good.

However, it was to be a short dive, lasting only 28 minutes.

Both of Jeremy's regulators started continuous bubbling and no underwater repair attempts fixed the issue so the dive was called.

We made our way back to the entry point, had a short and comfy safety stop in the 77 degree water at 20 feet and slowly ascended and departed.

Hopefully the next dive will be longer, and if these temperatures continue and the visibility improves it is going to be a great diving season.

Detroit PD's ND With M&P Now With Even More WTD?

Details of the Detroit police officer's firearm's negligent discharge leading to a lady's fatality at a party are getting curiouser and curiouser:

The Detroit Free Press: Police: Party-goer was on her knees dancing when officer's holstered gun went off

Adaisha Miller was on her knees while dancing behind an off-duty Detroit police officer early Sunday when his holstered gun fired, striking her in the chest, a police official familiar with the investigation told the Free Press today.

The official said that explains how Miller was shot in the chest while dancing behind Officer Isaac Parrish during a fish fry early Sunday at his home on Archdale.

The official said the angle of the gunshot is possible because Miller was not standing and described it as some type of "exotic dance" where Miller, 24, was tugging at Parrish’s waist.

Wayne County Medical Examiner Carl Schmidt said his office can't tell the position Miller was in when she was shot but said the police version could have happened. Schmidt said the gun's muzzle was pointed downward in such a way that the bullet went into Miller's chest and came out of her back at a lower point.

"The angle was slightly downward," he said of the findings of an autopsy conducted Monday

...............

The early investigation shows the holster Parrish was using may have allowed the trigger of his gun to be "manipulated" while the Smith & Wesson M&P 40 was stored.

Certainly a strange situation, and the family claims it occurred differently:

Yolanda McNair, Miller's mother, said she was told by witnesses Sunday that her daughter and Parrish were side-by-side and her daughter put her arm around Parrish as she got a birthday hug from him when the gun went off.

However, the family's witness story makes the situation even stranger and more unlikely. If they were side by side as described, how did the gun in an IWB holster pointing downward have a shot that could have then angled downward from his waist level be able to strike her in the chest?

Very strange, and the investigative report should prove very interesting indeed.