Israel: Day 2

We woke up and realized we were waking up in Jerusalem. Since we were a bit jet-lagged we had no trouble getting up early and we were rather excited to take on the day.

The day was set for Leah's Bat Mitzvah at the Wall.

We got up early and met our tour guide and picked up the Rabbi and then were dropped off and walked to the Robinson's Arch at the Southern End of the Western Wall. As we did we passed by blowing shofars and other musical instruments being played to mark Orthodox Bar Mtzvahs that were going on at the time.

The Robinson's Arch was first discovered and excavated in the 1860s and is used by the non-orthodox for religious ceremonies at the wall, unlike at the main plaza which is separated by gender.

The ceremony took place on a platform set by the Western Wall.

We did the morning service and Leah read form the Torah for the first time.

All her practice and hard work paid off. She was letter-perfect with the portion and did great. She also gave a good D'var Torah, which is a speech concerning her understanding of the portion she read (in English) and how it applies to her.

It was a great and meaningful ceremony and we were extremely proud parents.

After the ceremony we walked to the main Western Wall plaza, where we split up and each went to the Wall to say a prayer and to put in a kvitl (a prayer) into the wall.

Pretty awesome moment, that.

That ended the first half of Day 2, in the next half, we explored Jerusalem.

Ave, Atque, Vale - Oakland County Has Lost A Giant

L. Brooks Patterson, the Oakland County Executive who steered the county throughout tumultuous times, has died.

The Detroit Free Press: L. Brooks Patterson dies after leading Oakland County for a generation

He made the county an economic powerhouse and a soundly managed, fiscally responsible county with competent government.

His willingness to put his constituents, the county residents, first, and not letting them become a piggy bank for Detroit "Regionalism" (read Oakland County pays, Detroit spends it with no oversight) and his leadership will be sadly missed.

His fiscal responsibility, business acumen, and leadership that made Oakland County a AAA rated county will be sadly missed.

While not perfect, with plenty of foibles, Brooks put the county and its residents first and we've all benefited from his solid management and stewardship of the county.

I fear we will not see his like again, and Oakland County will be the worse for it.

Israel: Day 1

We flew out of Toronto, driving there in the early hours of the morning for a direct flight on Air Canada.

We arrived at the airport a suitable number of hours early, checked in our bags, cleared security, had lunch and then got on the plane. The plane was a 787-9 Dreamliner. Seated in Economy, the seats were decent room wise, but the backs were thin enough that the little bugger sitting behind me hitting my seat with his knee at dd times got annoying after awhile.

A nice, smooth 10 hour flight where I got to catch up on some movies with the in-flight entertainment system (The Mule, Green Book, and Super Troopers 2 'cause by the end of the flight I wanted mindless comedy and got it). Service was good and friendly , food palatable enough for airline food - but pass on the omelet, order the pancakes, trust me. Interestingly, every announcement was first in English, and then repeated in French, Hebrew, and Arabic which made every announcement take forever. A tad bit of turbulence but nothing terrible, managed to catch a short nap even. Landing was smooth as silk and we had arrived in the Holy Land.

We cleared passport control and customs quickly.

We then got transport for th ride to Jerusalem and arrived at our AirBnB on Jabotinsky street.

The AirBnB owner courteously allowed us to drop our bags off when we arrived there at 11am even though check in is at 2. We then headed off much less encumbered, to explore and walked about 25 minutes to the Mahane Yeyudah market.

Quite a huge market it is.

Fruit and vegetable stalls were evrywhere and we bought some fresh fruit, some dried fruit and other delicacies as we wandered around.

Then we headed back to the AirBnB at 2, dropped off our purchases and headed off to the German Colony.

The German Colony was, as you guessed it and as the name suggests, founded by Germans.

In 1873 the Templers (note not Templars, but Templers) settled in the area. Today it has trendy shops and eateries and was very nice to walk around. Some shopping was done, including at Sabon that had a delightful fountain/sink "well" for washing hands and trying some Sabon products.

Very nice,a nd they got to try and then by some nice prodicts and felt very refreshed after doing so, and then we went to a nice fresh bakery which had delicious baked goods as a snack.

After the German Colony, we headed home and had a light dinner.

Then to bed, as the next day would be for an event that was the main reason why we had traveled to Israel.

Flying - Escanaba In The Daylight

Delta County Gun Owners [The county in which Escanaba is located] and Michigan Open Carry held their 2nd Annual Picnic in Escanaba.

This time I'd be flying up there in my own aircraft.

I also had a couple passengers who wanted to go as well. Both were ATP Pilots with Endeavor, a subsidiary of Delta. Both fly Regional Jets. No pressure, right? They were also on board as backup in case the weather turned and we needed someone with an IFR cert to take over. Both the Diamond and Seneca frrm Last year were also flying along so we had a three ship visit rather than two last year.

So this would be not only my longest cross country as pilot in command to date, but also my first over a great lake.

Aside from about a 15 minute window, the route I had planned kept us within gliding distance of land should an issue arise. They liked that plan.

So I flew on up.

9,500 feet, about the highest I've flown so far as well. Altitude is your friend when crossing the lake.

The air was nice and smooth and it was a great flight up. I picked up flight following and soon talked to various flavors of Great Lakes Approach and then Minneapolis Center. Quite a bit of radio work and frequency and transponder code changes.

Unfortunately which flying near Saginaw on Great Lakes Approach (Saginaw) frequency, we heard an emergency in progress and as a plane went down due to an engine failure. You could tell the controller was shook up and a few planes assisted in looking for the ELT and rescue was dispatched to the location of the crash. Thankfully, it seems injuries were minor and everyone survived- 25 News: BREAKING NEWS: Plane crash in Saginaw County.

On we flew, and going "feet wet" over Lake Michigan was pretty cool.

When over water you don't want to adjust your power setting, mixture or fuel tank as those are the three most likely causes of engine failure, which would be bad.

I landed at KESC just minutes behind the other two aircraft in the group.

The landing was one of my best, nice and smooth and one of the pilots on board said it was smoother than how they land their CRJs. Bit of an ego boost, that as I always like to have my passengers happy with my landings.

Then to the picnic.

Quite a good turnout and both State Senator Ed McBroom [in the blue shirt] and State Rep Beau LaFave were there. Both are pro-second amendment and have been working on a variety of bills, including one to fix an issue with Concealed Carry Permits.

Some speeches took place including one from Tom Lambert, President of Michigan Open Carry.

Food was eaten, friends made, and as usual the people up in Escanaba are just top-rate nice folks.

Heck, even the airport manger was at the picnic and he was open carrying! He replaced the prior airport manager who had been from California and called the Sheriff on us last year when our passengers were open carrying in the General Aviation section of the airport, which is legal. Bit of a culture change at the airport.

On the flight home however, weather presented some issues. We were able to remain VFR but had to skirt some storm cells and instead of trying to thread through them we decided to stay on the west side of the state to about Grand Rapids to get well around them before heading for Pontiac. One of the flight tried to IFR their way through and ending up delayed and re-routed to the north to avoid the storms for quite awhile and I beat them home by a considerable margin even as they had a faster airplane. The ATP pilots were very helpful in planning the route back, the guys had weather route planning down to a science and made it look easy - I learned a lot from them and still have more to learn for sure.

Large cloud formations abounded, and I could only get as high as 6,500-7,500 due to cloud layers.

Here's the route back:

Contacting Pontiac, I was told to notify them when I was 2 miles from the downwind and then to land on 27R.

Again I did a really nice smooth landing. I was most pleased at keeping the professionals happy. Both enjoyed the flights a lot and enjoyed getting out for a jaunt in a GA aircraft. Really nice guys the both of them.

Thanks to a tailwind, we were doing 130 knots ground speed on the way back, so even with the route we got back quicker than when we headed out into a 9 knot headwind. 3.0 hours there versus 2.6 back.

It was a great flight both ways.

That's 5.6 hours and 2 landings.

I'm Back

With many a tale to tell and journeys to recount.

In the past two weeks I've been to Israel for a very special occasion, spent a 5-hour layover in Germany, visited Canada, and then yesterday flew myself to and from Escanaba.

Heckuva couple weeks.

You Know That "No Weapons " Sign On The Courthouse Door?

They mean it when they put that sign up. They really mean it. It's not a polite suggestion.

The Detroit Free Press: Pontiac woman arrested after trying to bring stun gun to court

You need a Concealed Pistol License CPL to even carry a stun gun (Taser-type) in Michigan. The article isn't clear if this even was a legal stun gun device, but it is clear she lacked a CPL so could not have been legally carrying it in any case.

Now, even if she had CPL, which she did not, that still wouldn't let her carry it into the court. You would think the no weapons sign and metal detectors, not to mention the court officers at the door, would have tipped her off that she really shouldn't try to bring it into court.

Some people really can't pick up on very obvious clues not to do something felony-stupid.

33 Killed In Mass Murder, No Firearm Involved

In a land with pretty much perfect gun control, Japan, evil people still can come up with ways to kill a lot of people.

In this case a whole lot of people, with a higher death count than Parkland or Newtown.

The Detroit News: Man screaming ‘You die!’ kills 33 at anime studio

A man screaming “You die!” burst into an animation studio in Kyoto, doused it with a flammable liquid and set it on fire Thursday, killing 33 people in an attack that shocked anime fans across Japan and beyond.

Like the 1990 Happy Land club mass murder by gasoline in the US which killed 87 people, flammable liquids are very easy for murderous criminals to obtain and use.

When You Come At the King, You Best Not Miss

The Democrats just had a rather embarrassing swing and a miss today.

The Detroit Free Press: Democratic-controlled House kills articles of impeachment against Trump

The impeachment attempt, done apparently against Pelosi's wishes, based on the rationale that Orange Man Bad, He Hurts Widdle People's Feewings, went down in flames in the Democrat controlled House 332-95. Such flames in fact that it seems mighty difficult to retrieve the resolution itself from the House's website (it comes up page not found), and the vote is not listed on the front page of the House's website that lists activity that took place today. Perhaps they're a tad embarrased they even brought it up.

The Four Donkeywomen of the Derpocalypse voted for the impeachment resolution. Interestingly and likely mindful of his upcoming contested race, Rep and former Republican Justin Amash, who had called for Trump's impeachment did not vote for this futile gesture. Nor did most Democrats for that matter who knew it was baseless and not a hill to even fight on, making it much sound and fury, signifying nothing. Without any impeachable offenses behind it, the resolution was doomed to fail and just one more example of the Democrat party being unable to not act like crazy spoiled children chasing a shiny bauble.

The crazy progressive wing of the Democrats just took a shot at the President, and they missed, which will likely cost them with voters that aren't pat of their progressive crazy fan base.

Some Legal Considerations For After A Self-Defense Incident

I'm currently representing a client in a self-defense case where he succeeded in defending himself in an incident but is now being charged by the prosecutor with felonious assault with a firearm, a 4-year felony. He did not discharge his firearm during the incident.

Without discussing the case further, as it is pending, and while it is a self-defense case, it has some "he said - he said" and conflicting witness accounts with grey areas that certainly let the prosecutor bring charges.

So Here's some Important Things to keep in mind in a self-defense incident:

1. Expect To Be Arrested.
You may have done it right, but the police and prosecutor may not agree or not even care to know at the time. My client had been arrested on the weekend, after the incident, and got to spend a night in jail as there was no judge available for Sunday arraignments. He did get a phone call, and he used it to contact me which was good. He also cooperated completely with the police and jail staff during his arrest and jail stay. This is important - don't do anything to increase any charges against you or make a court reluctant to grant you bail by acting out when under arrest. Instead, continue to behave as a law-abiding citizen at all times. Yes, it sucks, don't make it worse.

2. Have Bail Money.
At the arraignment, I was able to get the judge to see my client's perspective concerning the incident and presented an outline of the evidence to set the stage for it being a self-defense case. This was good and the judge actually told my client to thank me as based on the prosecutor's urging and the public defender, who I replaced at the arraignment, he was going to set bail at $50,000 (which my client did not have). But instead, based on my lawyering, he set it at a $2,000 / 10% down bond, meaning my client had to come up with $200 to get out of jail.
In short I did a nice job.

The problem was, my client didn't have $200 on him, nor did his family member who came to pick him up. This led to some interesting moments but it got worked out. Make sure whoever is coming to pick you up has money available for bail. Instead of buying your umpteenth firearm, have some money set aside in an envelope that your family member or trusted friend can get to for these ugly occasions. While item 3 below may help with bond, it can take time to get that arranged, so having cash easily available beats sitting in jail waiting to get bailed out. Trust me, you don't want to stay in jail any longer than you have to.

3. Concealed Carry Insurance Is Highly Recommended.
Good lawyers are not cheap, bail money isn't cheap, potential expert witnesses aren't cheap. The judicial process in a felony charge situation is not cheap. Having Concealed Carry Insurance is a darn good idea. I can say that the client has USCCA insurance and the USCAA is really stepping up and providing coverage for him which is vital. I have no experience as an attorney with other insurance programs for CPL holders, but based on my interactions with USCCA in this and prior incidents for clients, I can say their personnel, including their legal staff, are extremely responsive, on the ball, and do step in to get their member help. USCCA does get a retainer to the representing attorney, fast. Unless you have $5k-10k lying around just for a retainer for a felony case, you will want insurance, and an insurance program that pays up front.

4. Please be the one to call (or have someone on your side call) the police immediately and report the incident.
While no lawyer wants you making voluminous off-the-cuff statements where you may unknowingly be implicating yourself, any time you draw your firearm to protect yourself you're in a race to the phone. Not contacting the police immediately afterwards is very much not helpful. It is sufficient to state in the call that you were attacked; the attacker went that-away; you used a firearm to protect yourself; and you will happily stay where you are and wait for the police to arrive so you can report the incident (assuming that's safe to do, otherwise state you will drive or otherwise go direct to the police station); and yes, you do want to press charges if they catch the attacker.

Drawing your gun and preventing the attack is only the first stage in the encounter, winning the race to the phone is the next stage. Yes, bad guys do lie, call the police, and claim they're the victim and demand charges against you. It happens in real life.

5. Expect Not To Be Allowed To Own Firearms While The Case is Pending.
Most release terms for felony charges will include no alcohol, no drugs, and no possession of firearms. It's not a bad idea to have someone you can trust be ready to take possession of your firearms in such a situation.

In short, unless your self-defense incident was absolutely crystal clear, your protecting yourself and prevailing in the face of a violent attack is just the beginning.

Last Night's Meeting With Good Friends

Some people you can not see in person for years, just online, but meet up with them and the conversation flows and its like you've never been apart. Some people are like that.

I had a good meetup with Keads and Nancy yesterday when they visited Michigan to tour the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village.

They had a great time visiting one of this Country's finest museums, and I was able to meet up with them afterwards for dinner at the Dearborn Inn.

Keads even brought be a gift which is otherwise unobtainable in Michigan:

Yuengling is not distributed in Michigan, so getting any of it is always a treat.

Thankfully, I had planned ahead knowing he was coming, and on my last trip to Canada had gone to duty free to buy a case of his favorite libation (in bottles, not cans mind you), which is similarly very hard to find this side of the border.

I had a darn good dinner with both of them, the fine southern gentleman and southern lady that they are.

39 Warning Shots Are Kinda Excessive And Dangerously Ineffective

Breitbart: Father Fires 39 Shots to Fend off Naked Suspect Claiming to Be ‘the Devil’

A female home invader claiming to be the devil (naked, of course), breaks into a family's home and attacks them.

Father of the house fires shots in her direction to get her to leave, which only annoys her, leading to her attacking him.

He fires a total of 39 shots to no effect, eventually throwing furniture at her and she's not stopped until the man's son nails her with a wrench to the neck.

Note that the report is that

the father and the alleged intruder were both injured during the altercation but none of the injuries were from the gunshots

39 shots fired, zero hits. If they were warnign shots, they were impressively ineffective in warning off anything.

Either he needs some remedial marksmanship training, and/or some legal retraining to know that warning shots, especially 39 warning shots, really aren't.

Tasers Aren't 100% Effective

Especially when they are used against large drunken football players, as can be seen in the video in the attached story.

The Detroit News: TMZ releases video of ex-MSU star Malik McDowell in scuffle with police

The scene: Lathrup Village north of Detroit.

In short, a rather drunk and rather large Detroiter is pulled over, exits his vehicle, refuses to comply with an officer, goes into the convenience store where he's pulled over, keeps refusing to comply, and then sparks fly.

Sparks from repeated tasings that can be heard in the video don't seem to affect this guy at all.

Finally multiple other officers arrive and get him properly arrested as the original officer on the scene definitely had his hands full.

The drunken fellow gets charged with assault and resisting arrest, and operating while intoxicated, and also has some outstanding charges for receiving and concealing stolen property.

P30SK At 1,750 Rounds

Finally got out to the range with the P30SK. I met up with a friend at an indoor range in Utica, Close Quarters Tactical, trying it out for the first time. Decent range, nice staff, no issues at all.

I shot 200 rounds of Remington 115 grain 9mm brown box through it

No failures of any sort.

Since it was an indoor range, and this batch of 9mm seems to be rather full powered, being marked for military and police training, we saw a healthy amount of muzzle flash, including muzzle doughnuts heading out of the P30SK's short barrel.

Yes, lots of muzzle flash.

It was also markedly loud, which was interesting. A shooter in a neighboring lane was wondering if I was shooting a 357 Sig. Nope, just 115gr 9mm.

No failures or any malfunctions of any sort, and no issues accuracy wise even after 1,750 rounds through with no cleaning or additional lubrication.

Fifi! And Friends

The Commemorative Air Force's B-29 Superfortress came to Oakland County International Airport this week.

I managed to go see her today, along with the CAF's Stearman and a T-6 Texan that came for the event.

This was not a mere static display. They flew!

First the T-6 Texan took to the skies, taking off from Runway 9R.

She passed above Fifi on the way:

Then wheels going up, she headed off for the tour.

The Stearman was next:

Then the Grand Dame of the show taxi'd

Then Fifi was told to line up and wait on Runway 9R to start her two outboard engines and do the run up.

Then clearance to take off:

Fifi was purchased from the Air Force in 1971 and transferred to the Commemorative (then Confederate) Air Force and restored to flying condition. The restoration then took three years. She's one of only two flying B-29s.

So she took off this morning and at 8:16 am, directly over Detroit's City hall she opened her bomb bay does and serious urban renewal took place. Just kidding. Although, much of Detroit still looks worse than if it had been bombed, just saying.

Fifi took people on flights yesterday and today and she'll be wrapping up her visit here.

An awesome visit by some mighty historic aircraft.

Legal Phrasing Questions Abound

Legal Phrasing Question: How does one tactfully asks an opposing attorney on a contract deal:
"Who pissed in your Cheerios this morning?"

Normally the guy comes across as a reasonable and friendly guy getting a transaction done, which is as it should be, this morning not so much.

Here's the thing, he drafted the purchase agreement, which stated 60 days for due diligence and a closing 30 days after that.

Simple to read, simple to do, we agreed to it, no problems, and my client as seller has done their part.

He recently asked for an extension of both dates and my client agreed to extend the closing but not the due diligence date, mainly because the buyer is already occupying the building and has for years, and thus knows all about the building, so any diligence has been more than due and has really been done before he exercised an option to buy it and we don't want this going on forever.

Opposing counsel is rather testy by that response and claims we're being technical and that since the deal is based on an option the numbers and dates in the purchase agreement shouldn't matter. He follows up that he didn't even really need to ask to ignore the dates.

I point out that's not how a contract works, and it is his own document and his own numbers, and we're giving him an extension on the closing date, so what's the real problem?

He then threatens that since we're taking a "hard line" (by following his own document) he's going to get "technical" as well.

Ok then. My bet is they're looking for an excuse to get out of the deal. We'll see where he goes technically from here.

Happy Independence Day!

243 Years Ago, the Continental Congress issued the Declaration of Independence that the thirteen colonies were no longer subject to Britain but were united independent states.

Since then, while our country hasn't always lived up to the promise of the Declaration, nor been perfect, we've done pretty darn well, and America remains the greatest country on earth and, for all its faults, an example to the rest of the world.

Happy Independence Day!

The Woke Eat Their Own, Expensively

Progressives must always keep the wheels of progress moving, even if that means eating their own.

The New York Times: San Francisco Will Spend $600,000 to Erase History

The best part? They're spending $600,000 to destroy a mural painted by a communist back in the day as a critique of America as an evil, slave ownin', Indian killin' colonial country, but that critique is too "triggering" for the delicate progressive sensibilities of today:

Victor Arnautoff, the Russian immigrant who made the paintings in question, was perhaps the most important muralist in the Bay Area during the Depression. Thanks to President Franklin Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration, he had the opportunity to make some enduring public artworks. Among them is “City Life” in Coit Tower, in which the artist painted himself standing in front of a newspaper rack conspicuously missing the mainstream San Francisco Chronicle and packed with publications like The Daily Worker.

Arnautoff, who had assisted Diego Rivera in Mexico, was a committed Communist. “‘Art for art’s sake’ or art as perfume have never appealed to me,” he said in 1935. “The artist is a critic of society.”

This is why his freshly banned work, “Life of Washington,” does not show the clichéd image of our first president kneeling in prayer at Valley Forge. Instead, the 13-panel, 1,600-square-foot mural, which was painted in 1936 in the just-built George Washington High School, depicts his slaves picking cotton in the fields of Mount Vernon and a group of colonizers walking past the corpse of a Native American.

A Communist mural designed to denigrate America, ironically paid for by American taxpayers, is now too triggering for the left to endure.

Just like the Taliban, for the progressives left this can't just be covered up, this affront to the modern day progressive religion must be utterly destroyed:

Mark Sanchez, the school board’s vice president, later told me that simply concealing the murals wasn’t an option because it would “allow for the possibility of them being uncovered in the future.” Destroying them was worth it regardless of the cost, he argued at the hearing, saying, “This is reparations.”

That $600,000 could have gone a long way for the School Board to use for educating students, but instead, the proggy left must waste it by destroying an anti-American mural while claiming the destruction of admittedly crappy commie art, previously paid for at taxpayer expense of course, with the destruction paid for at taxpayer expense, is somehow an act of "reparations".

Happy Canada Day!

It's been a very long day at the office and court, so I'm finally getting to some rec time to make this blog post.

Happy Canada Day, Eh!

Government Efficiency: Your Call Back Time Will Be In Approximately 1,144 Minutes

1,144 minutes is about 19 hours and that's no mistake, that's the waiting time for a Tier 2 call.

Tier 2? Well friends, I'm dealing with USCIS hell.

I have a client applying for an H1B Masters's cap opening.

In short, the kid is an engineer, has a master's degree from a US University, he's a sharp, good and clean kid from India, and his employer here for his apprenticeship wants to hire him as he's good at what he does and they've trained him up.

So I do the I-129 process, including getting a labor certification, and he's actually going to be paid more than the company's American workers due to a very screwed up average wage calculation required by Department of Labor for the area. Stupid as hell, but that's the law.

I submit it with premium processing and send it via express mail on April 3 to their Premium Processing address in California.

USPS shows it was delivered to Premium Processing on April 4 at 11 am.

Then it disappears.

USCIS can't find it, and the fun begins.

First I have fun just calling the USCIS help line - 800-375-5283.

After being on hold for 30-45 minutes per call, I get to Tier 1 support. Half the time Tier 1 just drops the call and I have to start in the queue all over again.

Finally with Tier 1 going through the same maddening script every time and refusing to move it to Tier 2 until we go through the script, they then send me to Tier 2 phone waiting hell. How much hell? It's so bad you do not wait on the line, instead you enter your number and they tell you when a Tier 2 officer will call you back. That call back wait time can be rather extreme.

On a prior Tier 2 call, I was told to email Lockbox support which I did. Lockbox support acknowledged the email and said they would reply within 30 days.

They Didn't. I waited over 30 days before bugging them, but no contact from them, because that would be too easy, right?

Back to calling, starting with Tier 1 hell again. I get connected to Tier One and they tell me to call Premium Processing support and give me a phone number.

There's a little problem with that number. It requires you to enter a receipt number that I don't have because the package was lost so they never issues a receipt number. No receipt number - the call disconnects.

Back to call Tier 1, and after going through the same script tell the next helpful idiot that suggests that I call Premium Processing support that that will not work.

Then I finally get a call actually completed to route to Tier 2 and the time to get the call back?

That's where the 1,144 Minutes comes from. That was the latest estimate.

Then 1,144 minutes later, Tier 2 calls back at 8pm tonight and I have to explain everything again because no one has kept any notes on this issue. At all.

Tier 2 agrees with me that this is getting ridiculous and offers to send me to Tier 3.

I know what is about to happen so I politely ask for the number so I can call myself....

Nope, they won't gove that out, nor the direct number to even get into the queue for Tier 2, but she'll transfer me to Tier 3.

And she drops the call.

This means I need to start all over again with getting on hold to get to Tier 1, to get to be put on hold with Tier 2 to get put on hold with Tier 3, al the while hoping some functionary doesn't have a malfunction and drop the call.

At this point I am beginning to develop rather strong anti-government feelings and a vocabulary to go with it.

So in short, USCIS has lost an application, refuses to do anything about it, refuses to connect me to anyone who can do something about it and this should in a normal world not take this farging long and this much time to even get to the point to find someone to fix their mistake, and we're still not there. And all this for a simple I-129 application that should have been granted over two months ago now.

Meanwhile, Illegals can waltz across the border and work illegally with fake social security numbers have no such troubles.

I halfway want to tell the kid to change his name to Sanchez, have his employer pay him under the table, move to California so he gets free healthcare, and everyone will be happy, unfortunately that's just not good legal advice.

Just wait until government controls your healthcare, expect your service times and levels of customer service to be similar.

The Democrats' Cognitive Dissonance On Reparations

Democrats in Congress and elsewhere demanding reparations for slavery, to be paid from people who never owned slaves, indeed whose parents never owned slaves, and in almost al cases whose granparents never owned slaves, to be paid to people who were never slaves because history.

Nevermind the reparations would go, as reported by Sultan Knish to millionaires who aren't exactly in need of "reparations", the rationale for such is incredibly eak but makes a great campaign talking point to get some votes in exchange for the promise of other people's money .

Yet, these very same progressives in Congress and elsewhere argue the DACA kids should not be blamed neither for themselves being here illegally, nor should they be blamed for their parents immediate illegal actions in bringing them here illegally. Verily they should not be blamed nor accountable for their own acts and indeed should be awarded citizenship for illegally crossing the border, but for reparations, everyone else should be held collectively responsible for the acts of others long ago.

The cognitive dissonance is most impressive.

When A School Has Been Failing Its Students For Years, Only Racial Considerations Can Keep it Open

The standard leftist approach to failure of a government program is to reinforce it, and do it harder.

Eventually, the failure reaches such an extent it can't be ignored.

So Democrat Governor Whitmer, in reviewing the failure and impeding bankruptcy of the Benton Harbor School System has faced a hard choice and proposed closing the High School to preserve the rest of the school system. This is not going over well, especially as this happens involve some core Democrat constituent groups.

Bridge: Whitmer faces some backlash over Benton Harbor High closing

Interestingly, the backlash is not over the abject failure of the schools, but that a Black run school in a Black majority district might close. No one is disputing that the Benton Harbor's school system is a bankrupt dumpster fire leading kids to be not exactly educated. Unsurprisingly, the student level of performance is as lousy as its financial state.

For example, in the past 5 years, the High School produced three, yep count 'em three students that were ready to go to college.

3 Students in Five years.

That's a level of failure for a High School that would be hard to comprehend, much less defend, and should be considered completely unacceptable.

Yet, many are protesting the closure and are defending it on the grounds that closing it would force students to go to other schools where they might just get a shot at a decent education, or something. The argument is seriously being made that closing it would not help the students being failed by it.

The Detroit Free Press: Closing high school won't help Benton Harbor, or the city's students

Would this have even been an issue if it was a white-majority school failing this badly?

Interestingly enough, the school closure is causing a split among Democrat party constituents. The Governor is for the closure, as it, almost surprisingly, the Michigan Educational Association, and much hilarity is thus ensuing: The Detroit News: Bankole: In Benton Harbor, labor’s interests run counter to blacks.

This makes some people upset (See Bankole and his article above) because race issues trumps educational performance and its apparently better to have a Black-run school with failing educational performance and under-served students than daring to close it and send the kids off to surrounding schools to get a better education.

Get your popcorn ready, as this one could get interesting if the Governor will continue with the plan, or instead back down and leave the students in their current failed high school.

Ah, Michigan Government Bureaucracy Liquor Licensing Division

So I'm doing some work for a client that involves a liquor license.

Here's the instructions on the form itself, with the form very recently updated in June 2019, this very present month, so it's rather recent indeed:

Please return this completed form along with corresponding documents and fees to:
Michigan Liquor Control Commission
Mailing address: P.O. Box 30005, Lansing, MI 48909
Hand deliveries or overnight packages: Constitution Hall - 525 W. Allegan, Lansing, MI 48933

So I send it Fedex to Constitution Hall - 525 W. Allegan, Lansing, MI 48933. Simple right, I can follow instructions, easy to get this done, right?

Not so much.

Turns out Fedex contacts me with a delivery exception that MLCC will not accept it there and it has to be sent to another address (not on the form) because they do not accept the deliveries there even though their form says to send it there.

So I call MLCC directly and after being on hold for awhile, find out that yes, in fact they will not accept it on the address listed on their own forms but will only receive it at the other address (not on the form) and then they will transport it themselves to the 525 W. Allegan.

I asked then why they don't specify sending it to the other address on their forms considering they just updated them and they really didn't have an answer for that and their final answer was a brusque "Just send it to this other address (not on the form), not the one the form".

Ok, then.

Just A Passenger Ahead Of His Time On Security Screening Technique

You know how some wags suggested that TSA would soon require everyone to disrobe before getting on an aircraft?

Sumdood decided to put this security screening method to the test before it was bureaucratically approved.

The Detroit News: Naked man tries to get past security at Detroit Metro Airport

In short, TSA is not ready to adopt naked passenger security screening at this time.

Cambridge's Progressive Double Standards

Verily, If A progressive person or institution didn't have double standards, they'd have no standards at all.

Cambridge University, the rather historic British institution got very woke and earlier this year and rescinded an invitation to Jordan Peterson over protests at allowing him to speak on their hallowed grounds.

That was met by applause by the the Cambridge Student Union who said

“We are relieved to hear that Jordan Peterson’s request for a visiting fellowship to Cambridge’s faculty of divinity has been rescinded following further review. It is a political act to associate the University with an academic’s work through offers which legitimise figures such as Peterson.

Meanwhile, the very same Cambridge University yesterday hosted and feted Malaysian Prime Minister and antisemitic moonbat Mahathir Mohamad, who used the opportunity to speak to make at least one anti-Semitic joke, to the delight of those attending the Cambridge Union Speech.

The Telegraph: Cambridge Union audience laughs at anti-Semitic 'joke' by Malaysian prime minister

Note how Cambridge defended inviting Mattahir:

Dr Mohamad's invitation to speak had already proved controversial, but Cambridge University said he should not be banned because they respect freedom of speech.

Ah, so Cambridge is all for free speech for anti-Semitic progressive scum -- and applauding it no less -- but not for a world-famous rather centrist University professor that disdains and demonstrates the fallacies of leftist cant.

And That Will Be Counted As A "School Shooting"

The Detroit Free Press: Charge dismissed against officer whose gun fired at Fowlerville wrestling meet

Note that most people in such an incident likely would not have received a resolution of adhering to plea conditions, whatever they were, and then having the charge dismissed and erased from your record.

This event will, I'm sure, be included in Everytown's database and other anti's sets of statistics as a school shooting, even though not only was no one injured but it was a negligent act by a police officer. But no matter, even as calling it a school shooting is one heckuva false impression. it will increase the count of the emotionally laden term "School Shooting".

Father's Day 2019

Father's Day was off to a rather rainy start.

Leah and Natasha were out of town so it was up to Abby to wish me a happy Father's Day.

She did so, and even walked the dog which is my typical duty, which was nice. I also called my dad and wished him the best of the day as well.

Then she made me breakfast:

Then there were some presents:

Yes, the socks are a gag gift. The Two Left Feet brand may refer to my dancing skills, but girls do think it's hilarious to have their dad wear pink socks with green toecaps and diamonds on them, go figure.

After that I got to work on the ribs I had prepared and covered in a rub the night before and got the smoker going.

There was quite a bit of rain going on.

The chorus from Singing Smoking In The Rain was heard.

But with all that I got the smoker going and then did some stuff around the house, including working on a project I'll blog about later when its done, and after about 3 hours on the smoker I tucked the ribs into the oven covered them in foil and with some water and apple cider vinegar to keep them company, at 225 degrees for awhile.

Then Abby drove me to lunch which didn't cause any coronary health checks, even as we drove through a roundabout that happens to be declared Michigan's most dangerous intersection. The kid did good.

Then she drove me as we did some errands and shopping for the house, including through the same roundabout again, then back home.

Leah and Tash soon arrived and we had dinner.

The ribs came out great.

So good they didn't even need a sauce, but there was sauce for those who wanted to add it.

I had mine with a Moosehead lager I had brought in the duty free store when I came back from last weekend's Toronto trip. A rather perfect pairing.

An excellent dessert followed, and then a nice long night drive with Abby just to have her drive around in the dark for awhile to get some hours in. She's certainly improved in quite a short time.

It was an excellent Father's Day indeed.

I hope all you dads out there had a great Father's Day day as well.

Perhaps The Best Example Of Fallacious Journalism You'll See Today

Journalism used to be about getting to the facts and reporting on them. Now it's far more about political correctness and feelings, and the facts be damned.

Here's a lovely example of a journalist looking at facts and imposing her ideological world view with a whopper of a logical fallacy right off the bat, never-mind the facts, she had an agenda to push, facts be damned:

The Toronto Star: Blowback to the word genocide proves the national inquiry report was right

Basically a progressive, politically-driven report by the "National Inquiry into Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls" was recently issued that named violence against Canadian indigenous women over the years to be an act of genocide.

Analysis of the facts indicate otherwise, and many people pointed out the facts and how these varied and separate acts of violence, while reprehensible, simply do not amount to any actual established definition of genocide.

The journo decided the existence of opposition to the report's findings proves the report's findings was correct.

It really doesn't work that way.

The argument is sort of a combination of the Fallacy of Opposition and Kafkatrapping - any denial of the assertion apparently proves the assertion.

Instead of declaring if others oppose her position that must mean its right, simply by virtue of the existence of people opposing it, she could have looked at the facts, which are pretty well known.

Instead of acts of genocide, indigenous women over the time period looked at were almost all killed or murdered in either of the following situations:

1. Killed by their domestic partner, which while reprehensible and plainly wrong, isn't genocide, it's spousal abuse that the government of Canada does in fact prosecute and punish the murderers when possible; or

2. Killed by an unknown sexual partner/opportunistic killer. Most of those who were killed were murdered while working in the sex trade, which unfortunately exposed them to potential killers by nature of the fact that they were plying an illegal trade that involved getting into vehicles with unknown persons, going to unknown places, not letting other people know where they were going or who they were with, and being in an extremely vulnerable position all the while and unfortunately being murdered. Again, reprehensible and wrong, but still not an act of genocide, nor does blaming colonialism work for either situation, but since leftists now believe Canada is a colonial nation and therefore bad, it's better to blame the nation collectively than the wrongdoers themselves, many if not most of whom are indigenous peoples.

Considering the fact that Canada's indigenous population is growing and expected to almost double by 2036, if this is genocide, Canada has done a piss-poor job of it, because well, Canada is simply not committing genocide against its indigenous population and these women's murders are not acts nor evidence of genocide no matter how much the progressives wish to believe them to be.

While its an important act to seriously prosecute those who commit crimes against indigenous peoples and devote resources towards prosecuting such crimes, to call random acts of murder and spousal abuse leading to death genocide is simply inappropriate and an attempt to mischaracterize a very real problem to get attention, and it completely devalues the word genocide and victims of actual genocides.

This Needs To Happen

In Edmonton Alberta, the City is about to redidicate some land downtown to make a new park.

Edmontonians have come up with a petition to name it, in a rather clever, awesome, and whimsical way, after one of Edmonton's famous native sons.

The proposed name: The Nathan Fillion Civilian Pavilion.

CBC News: Could 'The Nathan Fillion Civilian Pavilion' come to fruition?

If you're a fan of Nathan Fillion, and after all, you really should be, you can sign the petition at Change.org.

It's a most worthy effort, and I wish them success in this honorable endeavor. It sure as heck beats Parky McParkface as a name.

Detroiters And Car Insurance, Part Deux

Got a call from a Detroiter today who has, yes you guessed it, outstanding tickets and warrants in my jurisdiction.

First she figures since marijuana is now legal, her open warrant for failing to appear for sentencing for possession of a decent amount of the electric lettuce in 2009 should just go away.

No, it really doesn't work like that.

Next, of course, she has an outstanding warrant for failure to appear on driving without a license, no proof of insurance, and no proof of registration charges - the Detroit Driver Trifecta.

Her explanation for it is something else indeed, and I quote:

"I didn't do anything wrong - the lady who loaned me the car, she knew I didn't have a license, and she shouldn't have had expired plates on the car that caused me to get pulled over, it's not my fault."

So much was wrong with that emotionally declarative sentence that I didn't know whether to laugh, cry, or ask her if she's still smoking the good stuff when I heard it.

She honestly and vehemently thinks she did nothing wrong by driving without a license or insurance, and it's all her friend's fault for giving her a car with an expired plate.

She was then surprised that she needed to pay a retainer to a lawyer up front to fix this problem and the only reason she wants to fix it is the outstanding warrants are giving her issues with her benefits and preventing her from getting even more government assistance.

So no, she won't be retaining me 'cause she don't want to pay up front. This of course means she wouldn't be paying when it's done either, I do know how this works by now and sorry, but this just doesn't qualify for a pro bono case.

There really is no need to wonder why auto insurance is so high in Detroit.

The University of Toronto Soldier's Tower

I had a nice visit this weekend with the family in Toronto.

The weather decided to be pleasant for a change, so we went for a stroll along the grounds of the University of Toronto, which is located in the heart of Toronto itself.

The University grounds were rather quiet and uncrowded in the green space set in the middle of downtown, as most of the students have departed for the summer.

Amongst the fine architecture, along the walking path, we first approached and then walked under this large bell tower.

At base if the tower was an alcove with a chain running across it. Within the alcove were inscribed the names of all those from the University of Toronto who had died in the First World War.

The first panel has In Flander's Fields inscribed upon it (click to embiggen).

Then come the lists of names.

A closing panel contains a final admonition:

628 University of Toronto students, faculty, staff, and alumni, 627 men and one woman, Nursing Sister L.D. Keys CAMC, who died in World War 1.

As I found out later, there's another archway that contains a memorial and a list of names of the 557 members from the University of Toronto who died in World War 2.

The 143-foot tall tower with its bell carillon was built in 1923-1924 with donations from the University of Toronto Alumni. The money raised back then is in an endowment and is still used for scholarships and tower maintenance expenses, and continues to stand today as a monument for those who gave their lives in the service of their country from the University of Toronto.

The Real Reason Why Detroit's Auto Insurance Is So High

One of the hot-button issues for Democrats in Michigan and Detroit is the complaint that Detroit's auto insurance rates are incredibly high, as in on average $4,000 a year for insurance high. Of course, the Democrats tend to claim this is due to racism.

There's a reason for the rates being so high, and it isn't racism.

Lets take Y for an example.

Why Y? Well, why not? Y is a female Detoriter I've come across in my legal journey in court recently who has a little issue.

You see, Y has been driving with her license suspended.

How long?

She's been driving suspended continuously for 15 years!

Y's license was suspended back in 2004 and she's been driving on it suspended ever since.

Prior to that she's had her license suspended and restored multiple times from 1999 until 2005, when it got suspended and stayed suspended as she never bothered resolving the 2005 suspension, she just tacked a series of more suspensions on top of that one.

Why? Because she doesn't pay tickets when she gets them and had been driving often without insurance. This has not however stopped her from driving all around the Metropolitan Detroit area.

She's unfortunately not a particularly good driver and tends to get pulled over. When she's and when she is pulled over, the police tend to quickly find out she's driving on a suspended license and then charge her yet again for driving suspended along with the reason why she was pulled over, she doesn't pay the tickets and it stays suspended

These episodes of her being caught speeding and improper lane changing and going through red lights mainly take place outside of Detroit and she complained that clearly, she's being ticketed and pulled over because she's being "profiled".

No, Y is bring ticketed not due to profiling, but because she's driving, and driving badly enough to warrant police attention, on a long-suspended license.

Oh, and Y's driving record goes on for 10, yes ten pages worth of charges and convictions for driving while license suspended and related charges that she keeps getting pulled over for and ticketed by the police.

Insurance costs are high in Detroit not due to racism.

Insurance costs are sky-high due to the fact that insurance companies don't like risk and due to Y and people like her driving around without insurance and with suspended licenses, and causing accidents without the slightest care, Detroit is a very high risk and high cost area.

In short, the real reason for Detroit's high insurance rates can be summed up in one word - Detroiters.

D-Day And The Liberation Of Europe - 75 Years On

75 Years Ago, beginning 10 minutes after midnight, the invasion of Europe began when hundreds of C-47 transports and gliders headed across the English Channel began to deliver their loads of paratroopers and glidermen onto continental Europe.

This was followed by thousands of men in landing craft arriving at the five invasion beaches in the greatest amphibious invasion in history.

The greatest invasion succeeded in gaining a foothold and breaching Hitler's "impregnable" Festung Europa, and it was the beginning of the end of the Third Reich.