North Carolina vacation 2 - Onward to Wilmington

So after the joys of Raleigh we drove to Wilmington on the North Carolina Coast.

Very nice place, historic and charming, with very nice people (there is something to the ideal of the Southern Gentleman - and many in Raleigh and Wilmington more than lived up to the ideal.

Of course this being the 4th of July weekend as soon as we arrived and checked into the hotel (a nice one, with the very last non-smoking room available), we first hit the beach.

The Leah had never seen the Ocean, and Abby didn't really remember the time she saw it as a 2 year old, and they were intimidated by the crashing of the waves.

We came back on the morning of the 4th and the beach was packed.


After the beach we went into town and toured around, seein the many original historic homes there, as Wilmington was lucky in that it was unscathered during the Civil War and the local residents have preserved the exterior looks of the hisotric houses:

We took a horse-drawn carriage tour of Wilmington's historic downtown, and having a horse drawn tour was a real treat for the kids. The horses are rescue horses and treated very well and they seem to enjoy their current occupation.


We walked around the historic downtown, including walking buy the home of James Whistler of Whistler's Mother fame, and then took a boat ride around the harbor.


The great ship on the other side of the harbor caught my eye:

But its the subject of the next day and our next post.

Thanks Microsoft for knocking me off the Internet

For two days until I figured out why.

The latest Microsoft Update KB951748 conflicts with ZoneAlarm Firewall and prevents access to the internet. -- ping worked, showing there was connectivity, but no email or web browser could establish a connection.

Of course without a connection to the Internet I couldn't figure this out and Comcast didn't realize this until this afternoon as well, when a message on its helpline clued me in.

The update also seems to mess with registry settings, such as turning back on the autorun setting on your CD/DVD drive, reopening up a nice security hole that I had closed.

Thanks so much Microsoft.

For those still suffering from thsi but accessing from another computer to find a solution, the fix is to reduce Zonealarm security to medium, go to zonealarm.com and download the latest update and then after installation put your security setting back up.

I should add that Check Point, maker of ZoneAlarm moved real quickly with a fix to this problem and certainly has endeared me to their great customer support. Nicely done Check Point.

Nothin' could be finer than North Carolina in the Summer

So for our 4th of July trek we decided to go and explore North Carolina for a week. Time for an all-American road trip, and the first time going as a family to somewhere other than Toronto, and North Carolina was it.

We had never been there and had heard lots of good things about the state, and it lived up to its reputation.

So we piled the kids in the van and headed south eastwards,as we pulled out of the driveway, Abby asked "are we there yet?", but at least she wasn't bored -- yet.

Through, Ohio, and through Ohio and through Ohio - that's a long state when you're driving through it -- Abby became super double bored. This was bad.

Then into West Virginia.


West Virginia is miles more scenic than Ohio, but we got hit that night around Parkersburg with a rainstorm that would not quit, and we pulled off the highway into a hotel that gave meaning to the term any port in a storm. (Its a bad thing when the hotel rating is in roaches not stars but beggars cannot be choosers).

On the road again that morning we crossed into Virginia and then North Carolina. The kids were pretty good with the ride, but even without the rain we would have had to stop for the night as you can't keep them in a car for 12 hours.

North Carolina was nice and warm and everyone was quite friendly. We began by looking around the Raleigh/Durham area and enjoying exquisitely excellent barbecue at a restaurant called Danny's - truly a fantastic place to dine.

The hotel at our first stop in NC, the Comfort Suites Inn in Cary was tons better than our Parkersburg stop, having hot breakfast every day as part of the stay and a pool. Leah at 22 months can now pronounce pool with excitement, emphasis and lots of insistence.

We also went to Pullen Park in South Raleigh where we took the kids on the carousel, mini-boat ride, a train ride and pedal boat rides.

Here's the train:

I then got a chance to go Scuba diving with some excellent DIR divers from North Carolina, who graciously showed me around the Fantasy Lake Quarry which was delighfully warm -- 77 degrees under the thermocline and in the 80s above.

After a few glorious days looking around the RDU/Chapel Hill/Cary area we went on to Wilmington for the 4th.

Marathon's Detroit refinery gets go-ahead to expand

And about time too.

From the Detroit Free Press: Marathon refinery gets OK to expand, but concerns expressed

Part of the concerns were of course making sure there were jobs for Detroiters - which was given:

Marathon made concessions to improve pollution controls and help the nearby community, including promises of preferential treatment for Detroit residents.

There are some concerns about increased emissions, but its in an industrial area, the refinery capacity in the US is badly in need of expansion and Michigan and Detroit in particular is in drastic need of more jobs, which this expansion will provide.

Certainly well past time this was approved, and good luck to Marathon on the expansion.

At long last, Power is restored.

While I was at work, the power was restored to our street sometime after 11:00.

Certainly it has been the longest blackout we've experienced -- from last Sunday afternoon to today.

We're now catching up on cleaning, laundry and hot running water showers.

Of course, they're predicting more storms tomorrow so this may very well be the proverbial calm before the storm.

Maybe I'll go take another shower, just in case.

Day 7 Without Power

Just in case someone took me seriously when I said last one out of Michigan please turn out the lights - you're a wee bit premature, some of us are still here.

We're here, still with no power.

One of our subdivision's resident wags has put up a sign at the entrance to the subdivision.

On one side it reads: We need power.
On the other: Hey DTE you missed us!

On heading out to work this morning, I saw two DTE trucks drive right on past our subdivision. This of course signifies absolutely nothing, but hope springs eternal, especially as laundry piles up.

Day 6 Without Power and more rain to mess it up.

It had to happen.

Apparently due to the minor rain storm we have had this morning, we have a new estimate for power restoration instead of Friday at midnight -- it is now:

Sat Jun 14 23:45:00 EDT 2008

Yet another day. This doth suck.

Day 5 Without Power - The fun wore off long ago

Actually, I got a shower yesterday at a friend's house with power, which beat bathing in the lake. Of course, I now owe said friend a nice bottle of wine, and it is worth it.

Still no power and its a bit of a pain indeed. We've carried a bucket over to a friends house who is on city water and it is functioning so we go back and forth to get enough to flush toilets, do basic cleaning etc.

I can see the commercial now "for just $10 a day you can provide an Oakland County family with running water....."

No computer, no internet of course, which I can live without at home, and lots of difficulties due to no running water supply, which makes you appreciate what you've got and gets some creativity going for shaving, washing and keeping kids and house clean.

On the upside, with no power, you also get more focus on your family, so thats a plus. Abby at 4 is having a little trouble understanding how the generator makes the lights work, and hates the noise, but is dealing with the loss of power well except for at night when she is a bit afraid of the dark.

DTE's Estimate as to restoration is still Friday at 11:45 pm. My mother-in-law arrives on Friday at 5 pm. This will not be pretty.

Another thing I've found that works real well: Compact Fluorescent Bulbs. The CFLs draw much less power and gives basically the equivalent light of a comparable incandescent so the load on the generator is much lower.

For example, the bathroom used to have two 100 watt bulbs, I had changed them out last week after one burnt out with GE CFLs that each take 26 watts and give off essentially the same amount of light, so I save 148 watts that can be used for other things, like powering the fridge and sump pump.

I've installed similar bulbs around the house already and they make a real difference in power loading with a minor difference in lumination. The only issue is they don't work with dimmer switches and we have quite a few of those, like in the kids rooms, so we just set the light low. Very recommended if you have a generator and want to run your lights while saving watts.

Scott of Providentia recommends I check outThe Lehmans non-electric catalog and nitro-pak.com.

Thanks for the tips, Scott, I'll be checking them both out shortly.

Without power for 4 days and the Saga continues

Last Sunday afternoon, a storm came thorough the area.

Not a bad storm, as far as storms go, with winds up to 80 miles per hour accompanied by some wicked rainfall and some thunder and lightning. This was not a real disaster by any stretch of the imagination.

Unfortunately the storm knocked out power to over 273,000 people in the area and as of today at least 160,000 are still without power.

The current estimate from DTE is that my area will get power back on Friday at 11:45 pm. - over 6 days after the storm struck. I'm not too confident of the estimate, given they underestimated those who were out of power by over 100,000 people.

It is certainly not a strong energy transport infrastructure that can be taken out for almost a week by one relatively minor storm. I had hoped the energy infrastructure people had learned from the 2003 blackout (when we were out of power for 5 days) to make infrastructure more resilient, but that doesn't seem to have trickled down to Oakland County.

On the upside: We had a portable generator that we bought after the 2003 outage.

Downside: It is not working 100% and not putting out enough amps to start the well pump for water. One part is putting out the full and proper 12, the other only 6 instead of 12. So we have some light, the fridge and sump pump work but thats about it. This will be fixed.

Upside: overall the food supplies on hand are adequate and no problem getting to stores for additional supplies. Hand sanitizer rocks and baby wipes, of which we have many on hand, have tons of uses especially when there is no water.

The BBQ with its side burner works like a champ for cooking and reheating food.

Downside:

1. Clear deficiencies in flashlights, our electric lantern (provided as a gift by Lagniappe's Keeper after the 2003 outage) just died when Abby hit the top of it for some 4-year old exuberant reason as yet undetermined -- but certainly without malice aforethought. It was a good lantern but not very resilient we now need another one.

Plus, some flashlights had been hidden by tiny hands so we only had my surefire for awhile to get things going again and to find the other flashlights.

2. Need more hand sanitizer on hand in the emergency box.

3. More stored emergency water, flashlights, and water filter would be good.

4. Need a hand crank radio or such.

5. Need more gasoline on hand. The 7 gallons or so that we had would not be adequate, we semi-occasionally use it to keep it fresh and got caught at a low point below our normally stored 12 gallons.

6. Need more 5 gallon buckets and a funnel.

7. Probably should have a second propane tank on hand for the BBQ.

On the upside this was an opportunity to test and see if we learned anything from the 2003 outage, and it appears we have. Now if we just had water.....

To The St. Mary’s Polish Country Fair

The largest High School Country Fair is held in my neck of the woods in Michigan, at St. Mary's Prepatory School on Orchard Lake Rd, and is well worth a visit if you're in the area this Memorial Day weekend.

So we took the kids yesterday and had a great time, this has become part of our annual Memorial Day weekend activities and its fun to watch the kids grow and be able to try new rides as they get bigger. Parking was $7, an all-day wristband for all rides for Abby was $22, a sheet of tickets for the little one and the adults for occasional accompaniment was another $20. A bottle of good Polish beer was $5, a plate of Polish delectables $10, and then the obligatory cotton candy and other sweets added up. The results: An absolutely perfect day, with Abby saying it was the best day EVER - which is worth it no matter how you slice it.

Abby went up the huge fun slide all by herself, which was quite an accomplishment.


She also went up a very high ride with rope ladders, rickety bridges and a large slide aptly called Raiders - watching her make her determined way up was quite heartstopping at times for the parents.


She also went on both Carousels multiple times, and on the Kid Model T ride, and she took her sister on it and the train ride, so she definetly used her wristband for all it was worth.

She did not go on this ride however:


Or this one:


Here's a few more pics from the fair


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There were plenty of arts, crafts, and products on display for sale or mere browsing, and lots of live entertainment.

Among the many live acts listed, there was one curious act featured:

Here's a close up:


Polish Muslims? How does that work?

Is it like: "Hates Jews, but can't remember why"?
Or is it: "Ready to charge American Tanks on horseback?"
Or is it: "Communism wasn't bad enough, lets try Islam?"
For entertainment do they blow up backwards?

Actually the Polish Muslims are a pretty funny music group out of Hamtramck, with a darn curious name.

St Marys Polish Country Fair is a great Country Fair and if you in the area, go to it, you'll have a great time, the kids if you have them will have a great time, and the fair acts as a fundraiser for the school so you're helping out a worthy cause while having a great time.

Dives 78 and 79 - Wrecks of Lake Huron

For the Kickoff dives of the 2008 Wreck Diving Season, I along with Jerry and Rob drove up to Port Sanilac on Friday night. We stayed at a motel and after realizing that nothing in Port Sanilac was open, drove to Lexington for breakfast.

Returning to Port Sanilac, we went to the Marina and met Captain Venet of Rec Tec Dive Charters.

We loaded out equipment on board and after a while more divers started showing up, with James, Terry and Chad coming in last but at least before the boat left the dock.
The water was nice and clam, with the sun shining as we arrived at our first dive site.

The first dive was on the Mary Alice B., a steel tugboat built in 1931 that sank in 1975, and not found until 1992.


The dive was cut short as Rob wasn't feeling well, so we aborted the dive. Unfortunately, Lake Huron decided to play some tricks. When we surfaced, instead of calm we faced 5 foot waves that were rocking the boat nicely and making getting back on a challenge. The swells continued for most of our surface interval, so Captain kept the boat moving, and once it calmed down we prepared to enter the water, which was still somewhat choppy, for our second dive.

The second Dive was on the famous CSL Regina:

The Regina was one of the lost ships of the Great Storm of 1913. Like the Wexford, the Regina was lost with all hands in the storm, and Regina was not discovered until 1986. As there were no survivors, no one knew the exact location of the wreck. The greater mystery was that bodies of sailors from the Charles S. Price, another ship lost in the storm, washed onshore wearing Regina lifejackets and vice versa. This mystery has never been fully solved -- Did the Price ram into the Regina, accounting for the hole in the side of the Regina? Did looters accidentally switch vests after plundering the bodies of the sailors? The mystery heightens the excitement of diving this interesting wreck.

The Regina rests on the bottom upside down, with its huge propeller and rudder intact, which is an awesome sight. A debris field surrounds the ship, including her zebra-museel encrusted smokestack, with soot still visible inside.

Here's a drawing of how she looks on the bottom:


Here's a picture of the prop with a diver alongside to give you an impression of its size:


The Regina is an awesome dive. I'm not yet cave/wreck certified so I didn't try going inside, nor did Jerry. Instead we watched James, Terry and Chad, who are certified, run a line and go in. We watched them through the portholes as they explored the interior. James took a video of both the Mary Alice B and Regina dives and once he's finished I'll link to it. I am going to buy a case for my digital camera, as my team mates forgot theirs, so no original pictures in this post -- but the next wreck will have some.

Jerry and I descended onto the wreck and examined the Prop, rudder, smokestack, and looked through the portholes, and then Murphy decided to show up. Jerry's drysuit, and my drysuit started flooding. Mine wasn't very bad as the thinsulate insulation garment kept me warm even as I was getting wet, but Jerry had on fleece that once wet in the 45 degree water got him cold quite quickly, so we had to thumb the dive.

Because both dives on these wrecks were incomplete, I'll simply have to go back again, as if I needed an excuse to visit these cool wrecks once more.

So the Detroit mayor and the city council get to the pearly gates.....

The current crop of leadership of Detroit find themselves at the pearly gates.

St. Peter is a little confused and notes that he's never had an city councilman or mayor from Detroit ever show up at the gates.

They insist they're there properly and St. Peter goes off to check with God.

After hearing the news, God instructed him to admit the three most virtuous
people from the group.

A few minutes later, Saint Peter returned to God breathless and said,
'They're gone!'

'What? All of the Detroiters are gone?' asked God.

'No!' replied Saint Peter. 'The Pearly Gates!'

Nice try Kwame but too little, too late

The Detroit News:Mayor Kilpatrick issues new rule: City text messages private

Given Kwame' downfall was due to the text messages he sent, on Detroit City equipment his new policy seems to be in anticipation of his next scandal to try and keep private the texts he may send the next time around.

Of course, this new policy certainly hurts his current case, because if he had to make a new policy that City employees now have some expectation of privacy in their text and electronic communications on City equipment, he certainly lacked such an expectation up until he issued this policy today.

To add to the fun,the purported date of the effectiveness of this policy, just unveiled today was April 15.

At a Bargain price of $371 Million, Woodward Ave may get 8 fashionable miles of Light Rail - What could possibly go wrong?

Lyle Lanley: Well, sir, there's nothing on earth
Like a genuine,
Bona fide,
Electrified,
Six-car
Monorail! ...
What'd I say?
Ned Flanders: Monorail!
Lyle Lanley: What's it called?
Patty+Selma: Monorail!
Lyle Lanley: That's right! Monorail!

The Simpsons Marge vs the Monorail

From the Detroit News:

DETROIT -- City leaders have pinned their mass transit hopes on an eight-mile stretch down Woodward Avenue that connects the State Fairgrounds with downtown, calling the $371 million project a "first step" toward the return of light rail to Metro Detroit.

Construction could begin in three years, with an estimated 11,000 riders a day by 2013.

At about $33,727.27 per rider, we may be better off buying each of them a used car...but that $371 Million is just the starting cost.

"It's not an end, it's a start," said Norman White, the chief financial
officer for the city and project manager of the Detroit Transit Options for Growth Study.

We were afraid of that.

But questions remain: How will the area pay for it, and how will it handle a substantial annual subsidy?

White, a former DDOT director, said mass transportation is subsidized in Detroit and elsewhere.

The reward for developing interconnecting transit systems is the development they'll spur. In Dallas, Denver and other cities building or expanding their light rail systems, land around the lines has seen millions of dollars in construction.

"That's the payoff you get," White said. "No system will ever pay for itself."

Draw your own conclusions on that one, a promise of potential development along an 8 mile strip on Woodward - in Detroit, a city quite unlike Denver and Dallas in quite a number of economic ways, in return for an eternal tax subsidy that you know Detroit will mismanage and will be tapping the suburbs to pay for...

Step right up for the monorail folks, step right this way....

Democrat Primary Implosion - Rochelle Riley loses it.

Some days it is rather fun to watch the Democrats explode along race/gender lines in the current primary nomination race.

Take Rochelle Riley, in the Detroit Free Press, please. Clinton lets dream take a backseat

The worst won't be that Sen. John McCain will win the presidency. The worst will be that America came so close to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream.
...
Democratic attempts to call this election anything other than what it is will not work: This isn't politics as usual. What is at stake in this election is THE DREAM.

Somehow I thought Rev.Martin Luther King's dream wasn't dependent on a black person becoming president, but more on racial equality and valuing people as people, but we'll read on.

And the greatest irony is that Bill and Hillary Clinton were on the wrong side of history.

And the first woman president wouldn't be historical?

Paragraphs later, Reiley finaly elucidates her version of "the dream":

That the Clintons have been too shortsighted to see it means they are missing the watershed event -- America accepting a man and his ideas without regard to his color. This election is the moment that civil rights workers of all colors died for in the 1960s, the moment for which my grandmother prayed.

Come now Riley, be honest, Obama, with his lack of experience and seasoning, as well as his 60-80s timewarp leftist ideas, would not be where he is now but for his color. Indeed, Obama has been playing the race card to the full this election. Somehow I don't think the dream included Chicago machine politics coupled with old line Marxist thought and membership in a liberation-theology church, but perhaps I missed that part of the speech.

Riley has her dream. Obama is being criticized, and rightfully so, as being an empty suit, full at most of old left-wing ideas, dissimulations, and his repeated attempts to "bamboozle" and "hoodwink" the electorate, and because of his close associations with various left-wing radicals -- and not because of his color.

Riley, by his running and being beaten on his lack of real content and substance, you got your dream, unfortunately an Obama presidency would be a nightmare.

Dive #74 Michigan's Cass Lake

We'll skip Dive #73 except to say it lasted all of 6 minutes with plenty of cold water flooding into the dry suit.

Dive #74 was more promising.

For the first time I dove Cass Lake along with my buddy Jerry.

In we went and yesterday the surface water temperature was a balmy 60 degrees and we had to get lower to hit 45 degrees near the bottom.

We started our descent from about 8 feet to 30 then bottomed out at 35 feet. We then swam along and hit the Cass Lake Sandbar. From 35 feet looking up the sandbar seems to go up forever, almost vertically. We swam along side it for a bit just nosing around.

We saw numerous concrete blocks, a very strange large black net that was strung along near a lake front property that seemed to have no real purpose as there is a very low risk of torpedo or submarine attack in Cass Lake.

We saw no fish but an empty beer can or two, logs and not much else than a sand/muck bottom.

Visibility was about 8 feet, and this was with only one boat visible in the water.

On the upside, the repair to fix the drysuit cuff dump installation paid off and I exited the water nice and dry, which was a refreshing and pleasant change over the last couple dives.

When PC, Politics, and University Research Collide

The Detroit News: Tribe demands U-M hand over remains

The Chippewa tribe is demanding that the University of Michigan's Anthropology Department turn over ancient burial objects to the tribe.

One problem with his demand for ownership is that the artifacts predate the Chippewa's arrival in Michigan by hundreds of years:

At issue in this dispute is that the law also allows universities to retain possession if the remains and objects are considered "culturally unidentifiable" -- items that cannot be linked to an existing, federally recognized tribe. U-M's anthropologists believe that applies to most of its Michigan-found collections.

"It goes back to a period when, really, the federally recognized tribes as we know them in the Great Lakes didn't really exist as such prehistorically," said John O'Shea, curator at U-M's Museum of Anthropology. "And that makes the problem even more complicated."

The Chippewa, for instance, didn't move south and west into Michigan until the 1600s, O'Shea said. That would put them in the state hundreds of years after the remains and objects were buried by Native populations at the contested sites in Macomb, Lapeer and Saginaw counties.

This is simply silly. A claim from Shannon Martin of the tribe is one that thankfully is a not yet

legally accepted -- view of the ties between ancient remains and present-day Native Americans. "It's Michigan. We're all related."

This argument is laughable on its face. Under that view, I've got a good claim to all the Chippewa artifacts, not to mention a share of their casino operations -- after all, It's Michigan, we're all related. I somehow don't think they'll accept that at face value. Nor should the U of M accept their statement.

That really has no scientific or cultural basis as an argument. The artifacts are useful for study and learning about these prehistoric cultures, to have them returned under such a tenuous claim would undermine historical collections everywhere and lead to far less knowledge while supporting a politically correct but historically wrong argument. To allow any Indian group to claim that artifacts that predate their tribal existence are theirs and belong to the spirits of their tribe is ridiculous.

As noted in the Detroit News, the curator of the American Museum
of Natural History in New York City, explained the controversy quite simply:

"It's about power and control of the past and who gets to tell the story of the past" he said.

A Carterstrophe, and a right move by Michigan's Congressman Knollenberg

Jimmy Carter, worst ex-president, a living carterstrophe, overseer of crooked elections, and victim of rabbit attacks just doesn't know when to stop digging.

If he had just left it at his excellent work with habitat for humanity, his mediocre at best performance as a President might have been overlooked and he would have been viewed as a productive fellow.

Instead he feels the need to try and formulate US foreign policy for himself, even going against the State Department's recommendation (no mean feat, that) and trying to hug every terrorist scumbag that comes his way.

He met and hugged the head of Hamas, an Islamic terrorist group as designated by the State Department and by their own acts.

He tried to meet and hug Palestinian Islamic Jihad, an even more nasty Islamic terrorist group (hat tip Little Green Footballs).

What's next? Jimmy giving the latest second-in-command (they blow up so fast so there's a lot of turnaround and opportunity for advancement) of Al-Qaeda a little tongue action?

Congressman Joe Knollenberg thinks Jimmy's actions have been reprehensible and so: Knollenberg wants Carter Center Funding Cut

Rep. Joe Knollenberg is pushing legislation that would prohibit the
federal government from giving money to a center headed by former
President Jimmy Carter - a reaction to Carter's plans to meet with
Hamas, an Islamic militant group.Knollenberg, a Bloomfield Township
Republican, introduced the legislation in Congress on Wednesday to block
future funding of the Carter Center, a human rights organization based
in Atlanta and founded by the former president.

Carter has been criticized by officials in the United States and Israel
for agreeing to meet with Hamas as part of a Mideast peace mission.
Hamas has opposed peace negotiations and has called for Israel's
destruction, and the United States considers Hamas a terrorist
organization.

Said Knollenberg: "America must speak with one voice against our
terrorist enemies. It sends a fundamentally troubling message when an
American dignitary is engaged in dialogue with terrorists. My
legislation will make sure that taxpayer dollars are not being used to
support discussions or negotiations with terrorist groups."

Well done Congressman, well done.

Oh, and Jimmy, please go back to building houses instead of pandering to America's enemies.

Some Good Michigan Firearms Bills and One Problematic One

A good, pro-firearms pair of bills are moving through the Michigan House.

These bills, HR 4490 and HR 4491 remove the need for Michiganians (Michigunners?) to present their handguns after purchase to be registered in the so-called "Safety Inspection process". The bills maintain the requirement that a pistol purchases permit or a Concealed Pistol Permit is required to purchases a handgun.

These bills make sense. Registration of handguns in Michigan has failed to solve crime and takes up police resources that could be better dedicated elsewhere, as well as inconveniencing law-abiding pistol purchasers who need to take time off work to go to their local police or sheriff's department to have the pistol inspected.

While the pistol purchase permit remains, it provides a gate-keeping function to ensure a purchaser is legally able to posses a firearm, which is not a bad thing, and it is not needed if you have already jumped through the legal hoops and qualified to get a Concealed Pistol Permit.

Another firearms House Bill 5108 which would exempt veterans and former police officers from CPL training is more troubling. This bill would remove the training requirement for veterans and for former police officers applying for their Concealed Pistol Permit.

While well intentioned, this is a mistake. While many veterans may be proficient with pistols, many may not. More importantly, the training required in the State of Michigan includes instruction in the laws regarding the use of deadly force in Michigan and the laws relating to the Concealed Pistol Permit and veterans are not informed regarding these laws and restrictions.

Veterans were trained in a very different manner, that of use of a pistol in a combat situation - which has much fewer restrictions on the use of deadly force than everyday civilian carry. Veterans need to be informed regarding the laws in Michigan regarding both deadly force and where they can and cannot carry their pistol. Indeed, former police officers likely do not know the law regarding where they can or cannot carry under the CPL laws and they could certainly get into trouble by carrying in a manner that they were used to but which is prohibited for a civilian - for example a permit holder may not carry a firearm together with the consumption of any alcohol, carry in a hospital and the list goes on.

Thus the bill, while well intentioned will likely create more problems and headaches for the veterans and former police officers than their attendance at the required training class.

Darn it Michelle, those Proletariat Rubes won't vote for their class interest!

Classic Marxist theology from the Obaminator:

Under fire, presidential hopeful doesn't retreat from earlier comments on economic inequality.

In the midst of an assault from his rivals, a defensive Barack Obama said Friday that many working-class Americans are angry and bitter over economic inequalities and have lost faith in Washington -- and, as a result, vote on the basis of other issues, such as gun protections or gay marriage.

The Illinois senator's analysis of what motivates working-class voters came after chief rival Hillary Rodham Clinton accused him of looking down on them. Clinton rebuked Obama on Friday for similar remarks he made privately last Sunday to a group of donors in San Francisco.

"People don't vote on economic issues because they don't expect anybody is going to help them," Obama told a crowd at a Terre Haute, Ind., high school Friday evening. "So people end up voting on issues like guns and are they going to have the right to bear arms. They vote on issues like gay marriage. They take refuge in their faith and their community, and their family, and the things they can count on. But they don't believe they can count on Washington."

In other words, nothing except class is important, and if the rubes voted on economics alone they, according to Obama, would vote Democrat, presumably as the Democrats claim to champion the working classes. (Let's forget that the party with the greatest number of millionaires in the house and Senate is the Democrats, but what else is new?)

Maybe if the Democrats didn't keep pushing ideas that were anathema to the working classes, like gun bans and partial-birth abortion they might get more of a hearing on their economic aspects.

Then again, much of Obama's economic policy to appeal to the workers seems to be just there to fool the rubes anyways, so why wouldn't the rubes vote on issues that they know the Democrat are adverse to them. They know if a Democratgets into the White House, those issues will get shoved at them good and hard, and against their values. Maybe they're not rubes Obama, maybe their just more perceptive than your class uber alles analysis predicts.

Not the Wright Move - This should really help Detroit's Image

NAACP in Detroit to host Obama's embattled ex-minister

With such wonderful statements as "God Damn America" (with accompanying applause from his church's crowd.

With hisReprinting endorsing the terrorist group HAMAS' charter on his opinion page.


With his Insane claim that Israel worked on designing an "Ethnic bomb" to only kill Blacks and Arabs (anybody with a scintilla of scientific knowledge knows such a thing is impossible not to mention Israel wouldn't make one even if it was possible).

So what does the Detroit branch of the NAACP do:

Make him their feature speaker for the NAACP 53rd Annual Fight for Freedom Fund dinner.

One would think the NAACP would not want to showcase to the rest of Detroit what a racist, liberation theology, Marxist Black preacher looks like, much less act to affirm his statements by giving him pride of place at their freedom event.

You would think the NAACP would want to feature a mainstream Black sucess story, someone who has used precious freedom for a valuable endeavor, of which many exist in Detroit.

Or, this could just be a way to get the heat off Kwame by brining someone who is even more infamous on the national level.

The fun will be if this gets on video and we can see who celebrates and applauds this sorry excuse for a supposed minister. This certainly doesn't help Obama, who is now trying to distance himself after lying and claiming he had no idea about Wrights speeches. The only place this helps BHO is among those in the community that think what Wright is saying is just fine, it should be interesting to see who shows up and cheers for Wright, and hopefully the media might deign to report on the event -- with video.

Dive #71 - First Midwest Dive - Cold and Wet

Last Sunday we went to Whitestar Quarry in Ohio for the first dive of the season.

My regular teammate Jerry (Rob couldn't make this one as he had to go study) and I met Dan (a diver and friend of Jerry's) and his wife at Jerry's house and off we went. After a stop for breakfast we arrived at the quarry in good time and prepped to go in.

We met up with the rest of the Scuba Cult, our local group of hard-core DIR divers and off we went. The water was a brisk 36 degrees F.

Dan and Jerry's dive lasted about 8 minutes. Dan had a freeflow and drysuit issue and aborted, Jerry had his primary reg bubbling and a leak off the right post and called it.

I was then passed off to join the team of two others of Scuba Cult - Maki and Scotty (both of whom, may I add were absolutely fantastic divers - way, way above me in skill level and I had to really work to keep up, and they're both divers worth trying to emulate) so we formed a team of three and away we went. We got to the blockhouse and went inside, which was quite cool.

Actually it was fargin cold, about 36 degrees cold. I had developed a leak in my drysuit on the left arm and water was trickling in nicely. I was either leaking at the cuff dump or the left glove didn't seal right, or its something else. A swim in the tub is in order once the suit dries out.

I called the dive due to being ridiculously cold and we headed out. I was soaked through from left arm through the lower regions and on standing up soaked to my socks. A Substantial amount of water came out of my boots when the suit came off....

The good: Jerry did an excellent job on his emergency drill, shut his post down like a pro and did damn nice. I had good communication throughout and somewhat decent dexterity with the dry gloves. A further upside is I have dove every month from April to March with the exception of January this year. An almost year round sport.

The bad: One very wet and icy cold Aaron in the world's most expensive wetsuit.

My tanks are now in the shop to get vipp'ed and O2 cleaned and I'll have them in a few days and be ready for more diving once my core temp gets to normal again.

Detroit City lawyer suddenly remembers the secret deal she signed

About to be faced with an order to produce her emails, Detroit's chief assistant corporation counsel, Valerie Colbert-Osamuede suddenly had her memory refreshed and recalled signing the deal.

From the Detroit Free Press:

A city lawyer who told a Wayne County judge that she wasn't aware of any confidential agreements in Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's text message scandal changed her mind Friday.

Valerie Colbert-Osamuede, the city's chief assistant corporation counsel, wrote in a letter to Wayne County Circuit Judge Robert Colombo Jr. that she now recalls signing a confidential settlement agreement Oct. 17 (- the deal that secretly settled the Kwame lawsuit case -) and that she also received subsequent e-mails about that deal.

Her letter came a day after her e-mails were ordered to be produced in a Free Press Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the city.

"I have discovered ... my answers did not fully reflect all of the circumstances," Colbert-Osamuede wrote. "This letter is submitted to clarify my prior statements. The responses to the court's questions were my best recollection at the time and were truthful."

It will be interesting to see how far the scandal reaches in Detroit. These memories that suddenly reappear pending the inevitable discovery of the truth are rather convenient aren't they?

Coordinated laser attacks against aircraft in Australia

As reported in FoxNews and other sources, there was a 15-minute long attack on aircraft flying into Sydney airport.

Government officials also are considering a ban on the lasers after pilots of six planes made emergency complaints of the distracting light being shone into the cockpits and had to alter their flight paths into Sydney when they were targeted in a "cluster attack" last Friday.

The planes changed their flight paths into Kingsford Smith airport after pilots were targeted by four green lasers around 10:30 p.m. local time.

Authorities said it was a co-ordinated attack lasting 15 minutes.

The laser beams appeared to have originated from the Bexley area in southwestern Sydney.
The attack was described by an Air Services Australia spokesman as "the worst attack in our experience."

What the report doesn't say is that Bexley is the home of a large contingent of Lebanese Muslim immigrants (source is a socialist rag that seems to think pointing this out is a bad thing) many of whom are suspected of supporting Hezballah.

New County Building to be named for Kwame?

It may be too late, or it may be premature to have buildings named for now indicted Mayor of Detroit Kwame Kilpatrick.

However, renaming the Wayne County Jail the "Kwame Kilpatrick Correctional Facility" may prove reflective of his legacy to the city, as well as a timely idea.

Cruise Report - Day 4 - Cozumel

As I mentioned, on the night of Day 3, the weather started getting rough, the big ship was getting tossed, but thanks to a very competent crew, we certainly weren't lost.

But many a passenger lost their lunch among other things. This made craps especially challenging as not only did you have the randomness of the dice, you also had the randomness of the swaying of the ship and table to contend with.

So in the morning we arrived at Cozumel.


We had all planned to go snorkeling together, but it was not to be. The sea was much to choppy and all offshore excursions were canceled. So instead we out into motion the girl's Plan B - Shopping.

Lots of Shopping.

Cozumel is a bargain hunters dream and full of stores selling silver goods, high end and low end souveniers, T-Shirts buyt the million and Tequila.

Especially Tequila.

Did I mention the free Tequila samples in about every store?

Did you realize that there are not only white and yellow tequilas but also blue, red and brown, and that the different flavors of tequila must all be sampled to ensure a complete and thorough study of Mexico's national beverage?

This was a plot to have the men comfortably tequil-lized while their lady-folk shopped and it worked. We let them shop, they let us drink, everyone was happy. Jerry and I each bought a bottle of the white tequila that we liked the best - 100 Anos - a very smooth Tequila, much nicer than the Tequilas I've tried at home.

We took a break for lunch at a nice Mexican restaurant and I had s Fish Taco - much better than it sounds along with half of a combination plate with Tash. Meanwhile Tash and Cary needed refreshment after all that shopping and each had a huge Margarita.

We ate our fill and then headed to Mr. Sanchez's Beach -a very nice free beach. Unfortunately for the girls sense of survival our taxi driver thought he was the second coming of Speedy Gonzales. he hit 140 km/h on a road rated for 60 with signs saying - This Road not for high speed in Spanish. After that thrilling experience, complete with body sway and the feeling that the taxi would fall apart at any moment, we made it to the breach. On the upside he got us there very fast.

The beach was very pretty and we had a nice dip in the ocean from the shell lined beach.



We then got in another taxi, with a driver who only drove 90 km/h on the same road and headed back to the port and boarded the ship.

After dinner we saw another show and a very funny comedian and then to bed.

It was a great day.

Tis better to give then to receive - Pinkeye!

While Code Pink infests Washington D.C., Pinkeye is infesting my house.

It began with the little one, who began having some oozing mucus-like substance dripping from her eye late Sunday night - after all the urgent care clinics had closed of course. Given that it wasn't stopping and that you don't mess around with your kid's eyes we took her to the emergency room and they diagnosed it as bacterial conjunctivitis.

Sure enough like clockwork by the next day our older daughter came down with it and we took both kids to the Minute Clinic, got them antibiotics and prepared for the inevitable.

The little one being miserable, contented herself to rub her face and hands in our faces so you guessed it, by Monday night I had it and went to the Minute Clinic on Tuesday. It was an easy diagnosis for them, I said I had conjunctivitis, they said no kidding and prescribed an antibiotic for me. Indeed this week we should have earned frequent flier points to Minute Clinic as we all went there in sequence, as Natasha came down with it as well.

Interestingly enough, adult pink eye sucks. My eyes are not very red but they certainly itch like crazy and the right eye is especially irritated, and both eyes have this constant feeling like sandpaper is rubbing them. I highly do not recommend getting pink eye. I can't wear my contacts so I'm stuck with an older and uncomfortable pair of glasses while I keep dosing myself with antibiotics hoping this will clear up.

Basically it sucks. We're being careful not to give the kids any Worcestershire sauce as giving it to someone with Pink Eye may lead to them becoming a zombie (indeed using it as an embalming fluid has the same effect, and it tastes great on steak...a million and one uses!).

Cruise Report - Day 3 - Got Stingray?

While the men were off diving, the ladies originally planned to go shopping.

This plan lasted approximately 10 minutes from contact with the enemy - namely, the stores of Grand Cayman near the port are for definite high-enders in terms of jewelry, watches crystal, etc.

So not to be bored, at the dock they signed on with a combination snorkel and stingray experience. Talk about being brave and getting out of your comfort zone, especially as neither of then like to get their heads underwater.

They had a great experience.

The snorkling according to them was great - no problem viewing the reef and fish.

Then on to the stingrays. These were not aquarium rays, but wild - sting in - stingrays, in the ocean, and the stingrays would swim up to them.

The girls proceeded to hold, pet, feed and even give the stingrays a kiss for luck. (Lucky stingrays indeed to get that kind of treatment). They had a great time with those gentle creatures, and they couldn't stop talking excitedly about it.

We then all met back on the ship for lunch and had a great time.

The girls highly recommend the snorkel/tingray encounter, and being such savy shoppers they got it at the dock for much less than what it would have cost through the cruise line.

Jerry and I were both proud of our respective ladies for their daring adventure - now if we can just get them to trade the snorkel for a Scuba regulator....

Cruise Report - Day 3 - Diving!

So in the morning the ship arrived at Grand Cayman.

We had a quick breakfast then went to the gathering spot on the ship for the shore excursions, and Jerry and I along with our gear got on a tender and headed for the port. A tender is a smaller boat that takes you to the dock as the Cruise ship didn't directly dock. The girls, not being divers hadn't booked a shore excursion - more on their experience in the next post.

At the dock we were met by the rep from Don Foster's Dive Cayman, the Scuba company that was running the dive excursion. After a very fun bus ride, complete with the driver talking to the other traffic - "I'm turnin here mon, don't you see me turnin?" , it was a blast. We got to the shop and signed our waivers, showed our C cards and of course bought Don Foster's Dive T-shirts.

We were briefed that the first dive would be to 80 feet and the second to 50, so Jerry and I opted for Nitrox for the first dive - the only two out of the 6 divers to do so. So with our tanks ready, we got on the boat and headed to the reef.

e had an excellent divemaster and she gave a very good briefing on the boat, including the instruction "If you see us putting our life jackets on you may want to do the same". We opted to forgo our wetsuits and went in in t-shorts and shorts. The water was 80 degrees, a far cry from cold Michigan lakes. Indeed, the visibility was stunning. From the surface at 80 feet we could clearly see the reef below.

Here I am hanging out at 80 feet:

Here's Jerry:

We saw a great variety of fish on the two dives:

On both dives Jerry and I kept up excellent team communication and had excellent trim and buoyancy control - That DIR Fundamentals class and subsequent practice really paid off.



Some of the other dives were diving feet down, banging their SPGs off the reef as they swan or running or bumping into us due to lack of good situational awareness.

Jerry and I did ascents without touching the upline and held our safety stops perfectly, so it was a great display of all of the past year's practice really paying off.

The dives were incredible, clear, warm water, and wonderful dive sites. The staff of Don Foster's kept everyone essentially together during the dives and ran the dive profile, even though Jerry and I had our computers and full gear. This made sense given there were 6 divers in the water with very different skill levels, and the divemaster pointed out some neat fish and coral formations as we went.

So if you're in the Caymans, you'll definitely want to consider diving with Don Foster's Dive Grand Cayman - a very nicely run dive operation indeed.

The excellent dive experience was enough for me to seriously consider moving to the Carribean.

Cruise Report Day 2

February 26th began as an auspicious day at sea.

We awoke around 7:30 am to sunlight streaming in through the portholes.

Inspired by the sun and waves I actually got up, convinced Natasha to get up and we headed to the Lido deck (The deck with the cafeteria style restaurant, pizza shop, ice cream shop, and great ocean views)for a glass of juice. I then went to the top of the ship to the running track, and Natasha went into the spa for a yoga class.

After a beautiful 2 mile run around the track (22 laps), weaving past people that couldn't figure out that slow traffic should keep right and constantly maneuvering around the same 4 people walking abreast covering the entire track was darned impolite. The run was great - the wind would be at your back half the time and you had a beautiful view of the ocean and clear blue sky...with a track like that I could really get fit.

After the track I went into the fitness area and worked out with some weights and then met Tash after her Yoga class.

Then we went off to meet Jerry and Carey for breakfast.

After breakfast we hung out on deck chairs just above the pool and got a little sun and took it easy, reading, relaxing and just watching the waves.

The Natasha and I went for a swim in the main pool, the one they fill with seawater from the ocean while the boat is underway. It was great, until we got out and found that someone had taken one of our towels. Given that you only get one towel per person and you get charged megabucks if you don't turn it in at the end of the cruise, this sucked. Probably it was taken by someone that was already seriously drinking before the sun was over the yardarm, but it was a pretty blatant move that was very annoying.

It took until Day 4 in the late afternoon before the purser and towel staff figured it out and reissued us a towel...that was the only major annoyance for the trip, as it took multiple discussions with them to finally get it straightened out.

Then we went to lunch, which was very nice and we ate on the open deck and then Natasha and I returned to our room for a nap.

Here's a view of the stateroom with everything unpacked, as you can see it was quite spacious, heck, it was practically as big as the apartment we first lived in when we got married, which tells you about starter apartments for starving students...and that Carnival offers pretty decent sized staterooms.


After the nap, Jerry and I again went to the craps table and won some more money and then we all met for dinner again, and once again the food was quite wonderful. The chocolate melting cake is not to be missed, and it wasn't.

We then went to a show, which was quite enjoyable, sort of a 50s and 60s rock n' roll cabaret style song and dance extravaganza.

After that we turned in and got ready for Day 3 and our first of two shore excursions...the Cayman Islands.

Cruise Report - Day 1

As promised here's the recounting of our 5 day western Carribean cruise, starting with day one.

On February 25 at 6 am we (myself, my wife, my dive buddy Jerry and his girlfriend) got on a Spirit Airlines flight to Tampa to meet the ship.

We had signed on for a 5 day cruise with Carnival Cruise Lines.

The start was not exactly auspicious. It was good we had booked a very early flight as there was a 30 minute delay on the taxi way while some maintenance issues with the plane were dealt with. The issues sounded and felt like a flat tire, complete with NASCAR-like pit service and air torque wrenches on the fix. After that the flight was uneventful. Impressively enough the pilot made up the half hour delay in the air and put the plane down smooth as silk on the runway at Tampa (he was either real good or worried about that new tire, either way it was a nice landing). We arrived in Tampa early enough to wander around for a bit and we made our way to the Port.

The Carnival ship for this Cruise was the Inspiration. While not the newest ship in the fleet it had been recently renovated and was very nice indeed. Its also a very large ship:

Boarding was delayed as fog had prevented the ship from docking and unloading its passengers from the previous cruise.

So after a short break in which we chatted with on of the recently disembarked passengers and got lots of tips for Cozumel, we began the boarding process.

Now loading 2000 passengers on a ship takes some time, but it was done pretty efficiently and in a short while we were on board and had a snack while waiting for our rooms to be available. The luggage was loaded separately.

We then hung out on the Lido deck and had a snack and then watched as the ship departed the port. It barely felt like the ship was moving but we were leaving at a decent clip.


Then after a while of exploring the ship with Jerry acting as tour guide (he had been on the inspiration a few years before and knew it well). We went to out cabins and found the luggage had arrived and we changed for dinner.

We had been courteously upgraded by Carnival from an interior cabin on the lower deck to a lower deck cabin with portholes. The Cabin was surprisingly spacious and the portholes gave a decent view of the outside.

Dinner was everything Carnival had built it up to be - simply wonderful food, nicely presented with excellent wait staff service.

After dinner Jerry and I went to the casino and saddled up to a hot craps table and both won some money. The ladies went to the introductory show, which we missed due to our craps game.

After the show and the game we went for a stroll on the deck and then to bed.

And that was the first day, a great beginning.

Cruise Vacation and Dive Report Pending

Just got back from a long put-off vacation, a 5 day cruise that was spectacular.

There were boats and diving involved and a report along with pictures will soon follow.

No, I did not see any sharks, but yes I did have my bar card along just in case.

The Mistake of the Diving Attorney

As you've by now read and can read at Scuba Blog, an Attorney was fatally bitten by a shark while diving in the Bahamas on a cage-less shark dive excursion.

He made one fatal mistake.

He forgot to bring his bar card with him on the dive.

Michigan Democrats wooing a worrisome core constituency

Convicted Criminals.

Yep, the current push by the Democrats in Michigan to get lots of prisoners released early is to get them to the polls.

Read the excellent article at Right Michigan: Promising early release to win criminal votes... Does it get much smarmier than this?

Kwame is looking for a few good cops

As long as they're the right color, of course.

In the midst of the text messaging scandal and the possibility that Wayne County prosecutor Kim Worthy might actually prosecute him, Kwame went in front of Detroit's City Council and indicated he wasn't worried.

Instead he discussed city business and the city needs 500 more police officers.

Yhere's a little problem: He's having trouble finding the "right" kind:

Kilpatrick said the city needs about 500 more cops, but is having a hard time getting the right types of cadets --whom he described as black or Detroiters -- into the academy. He said the city has 300 openings for police officers and only 40 cadets in the police academy.

He then indicated that he's having trouble with recruiting this right kind o' cop because:

Too many potential candidates were failing the urine test that screens for marijuana, he said.

The rest were failed for having felony records but hey, that's Detroit.

Nice of Kwame to come right out and say he's directing the police to hire using discriminatory criteria. Normally racists and bigots just use code words.

Michigan's Economic Development Law in need of Reform

Right now, it has business shop outside Michigan before they can get a tax break to expand here.

Not very smart:
MEDC: Incentives today drive site searches out of Michigan by Nathan Bomey

Michigan Economic Development Corp. officials hope to change a state statute dictating that local companies must consider relocating in another state before getting tax credits to expand. The policy, often referred to as the "but for
clause," has been widely criticized - although generally behind the scenes,
given the sensitivity companies face in the tax credit approval process. The
state statute could only be changed by legislative action.
MEDC President and CEO James Epolito told Business Review that the idea
behind the policy is reasonable. But he said the statute itself doesn't make
sense.
"To be honest with you," Epolito said, "I think we're going to remove that in
future legislation."
The statute effectively requires companies seeking tax credits to expand to
prove that they have considered completing the expansion in a different state.
"Under the current process we're essentially encouraging businesses to
proactively look for incentives in another state, which can be
counterproductive," said Bridget Beckman, MEDC spokeswoman.

Indeed. While such a search is designed to have companies say "give us a tax credit or we'll move our expansion elsewhere", now, when we need every job and bit of expansion we can get, here in the state with the highest unemployment in the nation, such a policy is dangerously outmoded.

We should give tax credits for businesses that create more jobs here. Better yet, instead of credits we need to reshape and change the tax and regulatory (read governmental) environment to make Michigan much more business and expansion friendly to try and turn around this State recession.

While Michigan wants to be first in the nation, being first in unemployment and foreclosures is nothing to be proud of, and we need positive change to end that dismal ranking.

Bush recognizes an independent Kosovo

Can't say that I'm thrilled by this latest Bush foreign policy faux-pas.

Given that the Kossovars are ethnic Muslim Albanians, and that Serbia, the country they just seceded from views Kosovo as a fundamental, if not sacred place for Serbs.

Whether such recognition is in America's interest is an open question. Given the likelihood of bloodshed over the unilateral declaration, recognition was probably not the best thing to do. (On the other hand, such recognition may prevent war from breaking out given any move to stop it would likely be opposed by the US and the UN). Indeed, recognizing a new Muslim state which has ethnically cleansed lots of Serbs from the territory it now proclaims as independent, and the resultant alienation of Serbian Orthodox Christians, and their patron Russia, was probably not the best move to make.

A Current Assesment of the 2008 Presidential Candidates

I was asked by a Canadian Relative who I'd be voting for in this Presidential race, and these were my thoughts that I sent on.

First thing for Canadians to understand is that unlike you with 3 parties and a provincial party, we have two dominant political parties that matter here. The Stupid Party (Republican) and the Evil Party (Democrat). On occasion these two parties come together and do something both stupid and evil. This is called bipartisanship.

That being said here’s my thoughts on the candidates:

On the Democrat side-

This election is certainly the Democrat’s to lose but they might succeed in losing in spite of their present advantages.

First look for a major brouhaha over counting delegates from Michigan and Florida . Both went for Hillary and both are important core states for the Democrats. Expect Hillary to push for counting them as it will be important to count every vote. If Obama objects he’ll be accused of disenfranchising significant black democrat supporters – not good. Already there have been serious calls for a do-over primary in Michigan. This could get exciting so have some popcorn ready.

Obama – opinion - really not good. Aside from saying he’s for change and hope he doesn’t talk about his policy platform. Reading it looks like old hard left Chicago democrat machine politics which it is. He doesn’t have much of a record to run on, and he’s not up to the job.

More worrisome is his ties to the Nation of Islam, including having them in positions in high levels his campaign including policy and treasury. His membership in a black separatist church is similarly worrisome. Additionally his ties to now indicted Syrian businessman Tony Rezko is highly worrisome, with ties that go to other shady Arab business interest in London and Iraq. Obama received more than $150,000 in contributions donated or raised by Mr. Rezko during his political career. The senator also purchased property from Rezko’s wife at way below market. While federal prosecutors in Chicago are mainly focused on Mr. Rezko's ties to the governor of Illinois, they claim in court papers that Mr. Rezko illegally reimbursed another donor for a $10,000 contribution to Mr. Obama's 2004 Senate campaign, and that’s the tip of the iceberg.

Hillary – Hard to say. On principle this is bad as the history of the presidency will read Bush-Clinton-Clinton-Bush-Bush-Clinton-Clinton, which means expect to see Jeb Bush running for president in 2016 and Chelsea Clinton running in 2024. Dynasties aren’t a good feature and think of the poor history students in the future trying to memorize American presidents. Someone must think of the children.

On the upside she’ll likely be tough on foreign policy. Downside foreign policy wise, she’ll continue the Bush I-Clinton I policy of pressure on and betrayal of Israel and continually demanding Israel make concession in the face of terrorism without simultaneous real pressure on the Palis et al. Bush II started to get away from this but went right back to this failed approach after James Baker came on board and the Saudis told him what to do. Thankfully Hillary is less beholden to the Saudis than Bush is, but she loses points for giving Suha Arafat a serious kiss and nodding and not contradicting Suha when she accused the Israelis of using poison gas on Palestinians.

Another Downside, she’s got a Hsu problem, i.e. an illegal foreign donor scandal of impressive proportions from the Chinese, which means Taiwan is likely to be toast after the Olympic games. Further downside, we get Bill Clinton back in the White House or even appointed a Supreme Court Justice – think of the man in black robes with Supreme Court interns. In addition her domestic policy is only marginally better than Obama’s and publicly announcing she’s going “to take things away from you on behalf of the common good” is somewhat worrisome. On the upside, she’s a natural born triangulator and wants to stay in power over ideology so we can expect some pragmatism from her in office. This will beat Obama’s change mantra by far. Downside, if the Dems keep the House and Senate and get the Presidency, all bets are off.

On the Republican Side:

McCain – that’s it, nobody else left.

On the downside he’s a populist and the media’s choice for a Republican candidate and far closer to a Democrat than to a Republican so Democrats won’t need to worry too much about his policies, indeed, he’s often accused of being Democrat-Lite. He’s consistently worked with Democrats to get matters passed ie McCain-Feingold, McCain-Kennedy, Gang of 14, etc and will likely go along to get along. Typically is very much tracking Democrat domestic policy but will be more restrained on spending than Bush, or either Democrat candidate and would be tougher foreign policy wise, and has been pretty consistently pro-Israel without being beholden to the Saudis as Bush is. Downside is he may go along so far with the Democrats that no one will put the brakes on if a Republican President promotes the House and Senate Democrat policies - expect lots of bipartisanship starting with amnesty under another name.

Benefit, as the Democrats will likely keep the House and Senate, a McCain presidency will offer divided government which tends to work best for America, as long as he acts like a Republican and holds the line on spending, if not and his populist tendencies get the best of him he may be the best thing for Democrat policy promotion and we’ll see a leftward shift far beyond what we might get with Hillary or Obama as nobody will be trying to put the brakes on it.

In short, not sure who I’m voting for yet, but it is turning into an interesting race on the Democrat side and I’m waiting to see who McCain picks for his Vice President running mate to see where he’s shifting.

Mind you after viewing their relative positions at OnTheIssues.org, McCain looks a lot better and far less scary than either Obama or Hillary. This may a situation where a lesser of the evils vote is called for, especially if the House, Senate and Executive branch are likely to belong to one party alone. Time, further debates and Vice Presidential picks will tell.

Winter Cleaning - Refrigerator Coil Dust from hell

What else to do on a freezing cold, mid-winter Sunday but a manly clean up?

The wife had an urge to clean the heck outta the place and the safest thing to do in such situations is say "OK" and get cleaning.

This led me to decide on some properly manly cleaning and maintenance tasks - cleaning the basement work area, checking on the furnace and humidifier - easy basic surface cleaning and filter changes and working on the downstairs refrigerator.

The downstairs refrigerator cleaning came from watching Alton Brown's Good Eats - a manly cooking show if there ever was one. Where else is there a camera at the back of an oven and Alton explains how and why the food actually cooks on an atomic, chemical and biological level, complete with humorous depictions. And he cooks meat. Which is manly in and of itself.

Back to the refrigerator - on one show he mentioned that the refrigerator coils should be cleaned to ensure best possible functioning and efficiency. Indeed, the coils should be cleaned every 6-12 months. Doing so makes the fridges work more efficiently, prevent overheating the motor, etcetera, etcetera. Just a good maintenance chore to do every 6-12 months.

The fridge downstairs has not been cleaned the 5 years we've lived here, and after opening the kick plate it looks like it probably was not cleaned before then either.

Some fridges have dust bunnies, this fridge had an entire dust warren of bunnies in residence. The coils were barely visible under massive layers of dust that surrounded them and filled the spaces between them.

So cleaning I went. Mind you the website says turn the fridge off first - ha, real men leave the power on in times such as this.

Of course the hand vac we had was under powered and almost useless, indeed the dust laughed and began sucking dirt out of the vacuum, just to show it could. Dust Devil hand vac, my foot, it was more of a Dust pansy.

So I did it the hard way - damp paper towel and careful maneuvering by hand, then with a compressed air can that blew more dust out than the vac, in thick clouds that settled thickly enough to be seen and wiped up, and finally with a baby bottle brush that we don't use for bottles. The coils are now visible and much cleaner than before, even though some dust remains.

So task completed I went on and cleaned other stuff.

The upstairs fridge is a project for next week, and I'm not sure how many new cultures I'm going to meet when I open that kickplate.

Refrigerator coil cleaning - not for the faint of heart, but necessary and a properly manly cleaning task involving power tools, compressed air and danger of electric shock.

Kwame, You're just not a Blues Brother

In case you didn't know, the mayor of Detroit is embroiled in a scandal over perjury in court, the corrupt firing of some Detroit Police Officers and a text message scandal regarding an affair he had with his chief of staff. In all it cost the City of Detroit $84 Million topsettle the case with the fired officers, including keeping the text messages under cover, and they're out now.

So what does Kwame do when he's caught - again- with his fingers in the cookie jar or in this case, on the keyboard?

Why he goes to church and delivers an apology and political statement from there. And I thought it was only republicans that stand accused of mixing church and state.

And now to top it all off.

Kwame claims he's not resigning because he's "on an assignment from God". A little hubris there. Pretty amazing, get caught committing perjury, claim, from within a church that the scandal is about a private matter and state you won't resign because you're on a mission from god.

No, Kwame, it was the Blues Brothers on a Mission From God, not you Kwame. Let's face it, we've watched the Blues Brothers, we know theBlues Brothers, and you're not a Blues Brother, not even close.

Let's see if he slips free or if there are any actual consequences for perjury, and scandal, not to mention firing police officers to try and cover up the scandal in the City of Detroit.

A Six Word Motto for America

Courtesy of Little Green Footballs, The New York Times is running a cute contest to have readers come up with a 6 word motto to sum up the USA.

A view of the entries reveals that, unsurprisingly, the New York Times readership seems mainly composed of America hating, self-loathing moonbats and assorted leftists. (and the NYT wonders why its subscriptions and stock prices keep dropping faster than a high-demand call girl's undies.)

So to answer such, here are my suggested mottoes, feel free to post some of your own here or even better at the New York Times' page, but do be polite.

Freeing People From Tyrants Since 1776.

Piss us off, we'll bomb you.

Always Saving Europe From German Invasion.

You send rhetoric, we send Marines.

Keeping the world safe without thanks.

Not perfect but beats the alternative.

Carrying the load, while others bitch.

While others dream, we get'r done.

Not arrogant, just better than you.

The Land Of Promise For All.

Always Defeating Commies, Fascists and Thugs.

The Country Where All Can Prosper.

and one sure to get all the moonbats in a tizzy:

The Last, Best Hope For Humanity.