Detroit Mayor off to the slammer for violating his bond

Kwame Kilpatrick gets to spend some time with some of his constituents - up close and personal.

FoxNews:Detroit mayor ordered jailed after bond violation

This was his second bond violation and it led to the Judge, quite properly, ordering some jail time.

The problem with people in powerful positions is that they think they do not have to abide by the rules laid out for everyone. That belief leads them to do rather stupid things - in Kwame's case violating the terms of his bond order.

Now hizzoner the Mayor will get some privileges due to his exalted public status - a separate cell and not being introduced into the general population of the jail. Given the charges pending against him, he may want to get used to it.

Now that's arrogance

Apparently it really runs in the Kilpatrick family.

In the primaries, it seems that Congresswoman Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick won her primary race, not by the majority of votes, but by having the good fortune (or good planning) to have two opponents splitting the vote against her.

The Detroit News: Kilpatrick declares victory in 13th District race; rival Waters doesn't concede

With 39% of the Democrat vote in the Primary in her favor statement is rather breathtaking:

"I will be your congresswoman ... until I decide to retire," Kilpatrick told supporters just before 1 a.m.

Not "For as long as you want me", Not "as long as i can serve you" but She said "until I decide to retire". Given that its a lock-box Democrat district, she's probably right that she is a "Congresswoman-for life". But the arrogance is quite revealing.

Now we know where Kwame gets it from....

Voted in the Primary Today

Yes, today was Michigan's State Primary.

So I went off to vote.

As a Democrat.

What happened I hear you asking? The reason being in the Township where I live is currently run by Democrats, and two of them are pushing an unconstitutional ordinance that would severely curtail riparian rights and access to the lakes by non-shoreline owners that have easement access or jointly owned boat launches.

This is of course a retroactive taking that is quite unconstitutional, and they are doing it at the behest of a developer that happens to have some nice waterfront property and doesn't want others to access the lakes, especially not the people who have an easement that is beside his property.

Of course the ordinance as proposed doesn't just affect the few people who have an access easement beside his property - it would affect the entire township, including my subdivisions jointly-owned boat basin and launch and basically legislate it out of existence.

Thus are the politics of pull played with the little tinpot Democrat officials working at the behest of the few wealthy squeaky wheels (or in this case the one) and by result trampling over everyone's property rights. So much for being the party of the common man against the rich (Did anyone really believe that?)

As such I needed to vote against these two proponents and the best way was to vote for their competitors in the primary. With luck they've annoyed enough other people that this might work, and we'll end up with better (or at least more careful) township government.

After voting I left the booth and was feeling a little strange.

I immediately felt an urge to vote to raise taxes on everyone else.....

I got better though.

UPDATE: Apparently they both annoyed a lot of people. Both were handily beaten by their opponents -- One by 63% and the other by 64%. Hopefully their successors got the message.

Firefly for $17.99

If you haven't heard, or checked the left side of the screen on this blog, Amazon.com is having a nice sale for the Firefly complete 4 disc series. That's a good 64% off the regular price.

Since everyone should own a copy of this fine show, if only to enjoy it in all its greatness while lamenting how Fox messed up and mis-showed it and then canceled it before its time, go ahead and buy it if you don't have it already.

You won't be disappointed, except for the knowledge that there is no Second Season.....

Now Obama wants Michigan to be counted

When it doesn't mean anything of course....

Detroit News: Obama: Give Michigan delegates full vote

arack Obama followed through Sunday on a pledge to give Michigan a full voice at the Democratic National Convention, asking the party to restore full voting rights to delegations from Michigan and Florida.

"I ask that the Credentials Committee ... pass a resolution that would entitle each delegate from Florida and Michigan to cast a full vote," Obama wrote in a letter released Sunday.

Obama wrote that he was making the request, to the three co-chairs of the convention's Credentials Committee, in the interest of unifying Democrats for the fall election.

When Michigan and Florida were going for Hilary in the primary he fought to shut the states out at all costs. Now when he needs them in the general election he's hoping he can bring the states back in and act ll magnanimous and the Democrat voters will forget how he shunned them when their votes mattered.

Let's see if he fools the rubes with this maneuver or not.

In the UK - Diving for Tanks

An impressive find of D-Day tanks in the waters off of England:
Divers look to solve sunken tanks mystery

A diving club is set to find out whether Second World War tanks found on
the seabed are two of only four left in the world.

On Saturday Southsea Sub-Aqua Club will send divers down to take
pictures and video footage of what they think are Centaur CS IV tanks.

And during the dive they will also try to work out the mystery of how
they were lost, given there is no shipwreck nearby.

The tanks, assigned to the Royal Marines Armoured Support Group, lie
eight miles off East Wittering, West Sussex.

They were part of an 80-strong contingent bound for France on D-Day but
sank in mysterious circumstances.

. .. .
Alison Mayor, who is leading the diving team, said: 'It's a real puzzle
how the tanks and bulldozers came to rest so far off shore when there is
no shipwreck nearby.

'These war machines are of significant interest, and we hope to find
clues to solve the mystery of how and when they sank.'

. . .

The rusting tanks lie with two bulldozers and a field gun, but no ship.

The bulldozers are believed to be armoured Caterpillar bulldozers, used
by the 79th Armoured Division of the British Army - there are no known
surviving bulldozers of this type.

A very neat find indeed, and it goes to show how much of historical value yet lies beneath the waves waiting for a diver to find it.

The Centaur Tank was designed by the Royal Marines for close marine infantry support and mounted a 95mm howitzer.

Here's a pic of a Centaur:


An interesting and very rare find.

Hat Tip: The Drawn Cutlass.

As the US comes to the table the Iranians stall

And the US State Department looks like a bunch of pikers yet again.

Iran nuclear talks stall -- even with U.S. at table

GENEVA -- A U.S. decision to bend policy and sit down with Iran at nuclear talks fizzled Saturday, with Iran stonewalling Washington and five other world powers on their call to freeze uranium enrichment.

In response, the six gave Iran two weeks to respond to their demand, setting the stage for a new round of U.N. sanctions.

Iran's refusal to consider suspending enrichment was an indirect slap at the United States, which had sent Undersecretary of State William Burns to the talks in hopes the first-time American presence would encourage Tehran into making concessions.

Officials and diplomats refused to characterize the timeframe as an ultimatum, but it appeared clear that Iran now has a de-facto deadline to show flexibility.

After backing away from a pledge not to negotiate directly with Iran, the Department of Islam Appeasement (oops sorry I meant the State Department), they get shown that Iran wasn't really serious about negotiating and now the US is shown to have given in to a demand and received nothing in retunrn.

No wonder US diplomacy is the laughingstock of the world.

Terrorist scum released by Israel get heroes welcome from Lebanese

Israel certainly does not live in a nice neighborhood.

Just look at the heroes welcome cop-killer and child murderer Samir Kuntar received in Lebanon today. Greeted by a crowd of thousands cheering this scum on.

Thousands cheer 5 released Lebanese militants

Not only by Hezballah, but also by the "moderate" Lebanese Government.

"Your return is a new victory," President Michel Suleiman told the freed men as he stood in combat fatigues supplied by Hezbollah in what was meant to display its unending fight against Israel. Suleiman, who was supported by all factions for election to his post, congratulated Hezbollah "for this new achievement."

Prime Minister Fuad Saniora, a leader of pro-American factions that had to accept Hezbollah and its allies in a new unity government after the street fighting, did not attend the rally. But he was seen kissing the five freed men in greeting at Beirut airport.

This is who and what they are cheering for:(From Wikipedia by way of the Volokh Conspiracy)

After drowning Danny [the father] in the sea in front of Einat (as Ahmed Al-Brass, Mhanna Salim Al-Muayed, and Abdel Majeed Asslan served as look outs and backup cover for Kuntar), Kuntar turned his attention towards the 4 year-old. He took his rifle and then swung it across the toddler's head, knocking her to the ground. Kuntar then dragged the toddler a couple of feet to the closest rock he could find and laid her head down on a rock, with the intention of crushing it with the butt of his rifle. Einat, instinctively covered her head with her arms, Kuntar struggled with the toddler until he finally managed to clear her arms out of the way. Once her arms were out of the way, Kuntar repeatedly beat her on the head with the butt of his rifle and stomping on her body, until blood rushed out of her ears and mouth. Then, to ensure she was dead, Kuntar continued beating her over the head until her skull was crushed and she was dead.

Animals. My sympathy for the non-Hezballah people of Lebanon just dropped a lot. For all their talk of being pro-western, when it comes to killing Jews thye have no problem uniting with Hezballah. The next time Hezballah kidnaps Israelis and sparks off another way, these people will have to live with the consequences.

Israel makes huge mistake and further weakens its deterrence

Israel in a decision that creates incentives for terrorists to take more hostages, not less made a lousy move in the war on terrorism -- trading live terrorist scum for the bodies of dead soldiers.

Israel originally negotiated with Hizballah to return 5 live terrorists and 199 dead terrorists for what it believed was its two live soldiers kidnapped in 2006 - Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser.

Instead it received the dead bodies of both. Israel then stupidly after finding out the soldiers were dead, continued the trade on the original terms.

This creates lousy incentives for Hizballah to continue to kidnap Israelis and kill them -- after all it has no need to keep them alive in order to get back its people alive.

Israel should have returned the five live terrorists in the same condition as they received Regev and Goldwasser - dead -- If only to preserve the lives of Israelis to be held in the future. Right now, Hezballah, and Hamas, the current kidnapper of Cpl Gilad Shalit have no incentive to keep captured Israelis alive - after all, they get back live terrorists regardless of whether they keep up their bargain and keep Israelis alive or if they kill their hostages and send them back dead.

This is a bad deal, and creates all the wrong incentives for terrorists.

New Survey Puts Detroit First

A survey by a leading bath soap manufacturer has found that Detroit has the highest number of people who have sex in the shower.

86% of Detroiters, the highest response in the nation indicated they had done so.

The other 14% responded they hadn't been to prison yet.

North Carolina Vacation 3 - The Battleship North Carolina

On July 5th we visited the BB-55 Battleship North Carolina Memorial.


The 16 inch 3 gun turrets never fail to impress.

The Battleship with a commissioned time in service of only 6 years served with great honor during World War 2, playing a role in almost every one of the Pacific campaigns and earning 15 battle stars.

The ship sank one Japanese troopship and downed at least 24 Japanese planes, as well as participated in 9 pre-invasion bombardments and even bombarded the Japanese mainland, as proudly displayed on her kill board:


10 crewmen were lost in action during the war and 67 wounded. The ship survived a torpedo hit by the Japanese submarine I-19, after which the inadequate antiaircraft armanment was upgraded with more 20mm Oerlikon guns and 40 mm Bofors cannon.

Here's one of the Oerlikons:


And a Bofors quadruple mount:


The memorial also has one Vought Kingfisher aircraft on the stern, one of only 7 of these aircraft in existence worldwide.

The Kingfisher detachment on North Carolina performed quite heroically, picking up downed pilots, including picking up downed airmen under fire in Tokyo Bay.


The after decommissioning, the citizens of North Carolina preserved her, payign the navy $300,000 to keep her as a memorial and she has been proudly at rest, located across the bay from Wilmington ever since, serving not only as a memorial but an educational site for all her visitors to learn about her role in the war and the lives of the crew who sailed her and made her so effective. With so many of the ships from World War Two sent to the scrapyard, her existence is a great display of America's proud history of seapower, well worthy of preservation.

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.....