'Chicken and waffles' racial stereotypes won't move Detroit forward

Susan J. Demas: 'Chicken and waffles' racial stereotypes won't move Detroit forward | MLive.com:
"But the fact that Finley, who's unquestionably intelligent, chose to trot out the loaded "chicken and waffles" line about an African-American in the year 2013 is jaw-dropping. "

OK.
The list of words-white-people-dare-not-utter now includes "chicken" and "waffles"?
What's gonna happen if a bird says "Polly want a cracker"?
PETA SWAT team?

Muskegon woman gets jail for biting off another woman's finger in fight over 50 cents, cigarettes

Muskegon woman gets jail for biting off another woman's finger in fight over 50 cents, cigarettes | MLive.com:
"MUSKEGON, MI – Senta Marlice Staffney got six months in jail for chomping off and spitting out another woman’s ring finger in a fight over 50 cents and a cigarette."

Detroit and the Special-Interest State

RealClearPolicy - Detroit and the Special-Interest State:

Capture by faction has become endemic. 
As government has grown and budgets and regulatory empires have expanded, economic and ideological factions have carved off satrapies in the agencies and congressional subcommittees. 
The true greens control EPA. Unions have Labor and the NLRB. 
The banks have the Fed and Treasury. 
The energy companies used to have the Department of Energy, but now it is in the hands of the green crony capitalists. 
Farm policy is controlled by a coalition of agricultural interests and food-stamp advocates. 
HUD serves housing industry and urban constituencies. 
HHS and its state satellites are a tool of the health-care industry -- my state senator in Montana deals with 63 health-care lobbyists, all of them focused on one thing: more money from the state. 
Academia, teachers' unions, and the consulting industry control the Department of Education. 
Public employees have become a powerful interest group in themselves. 
And so on.

Conservatives keep arguing about Obama's political philosophy, but they miss the point. His strength is that he has none. He has no views on environmental or labor or health or education policy; whatever the interests that have been given that part of the government want is all right with him. His job is to assure each member of his coalition that it will indeed be given freedom of action, to mediate the occasional conflicts, and to serve as a mouthpiece when interest-group talking points are put on his teleprompter.

The system of capture by faction is also leading to huge and growing systemic corruption, as the beneficiaries tithe to whoever promises to keep the benefits flowing. Business has given up on efforts to support a market economy and devotes itself to competitive crony capitalism. For example, as George Gilder recently wrote in Knowledge and Power, the alternative-energy scams are ruining Silicon Valley by triggering a "general Gadarene rush for green subsidies" and "transform[ing] venture capitalists from heroic contributors to American innovation . . . into a pack of grubby petitioners for pork."

Only the Koch Brothers hold to the ideal of the free market without cronyism, which is why they are so thoroughly excoriated by the Progressives.

Study: U.S. Debt Obligations $70 Trillion

Study: U.S. Debt Obligations $70 Trillion:
"A new study by University of California-San Diego economics professor James Hamilton finds that the United States has over $70 trillion in off-balance sheet liabilities--an amount nearly six times the on-balance-sheet debt figure.
The Treasury debt outstanding is $16.74 trillion. Of that, $4.84 trillion is money the U.S. owes itself.
For that reason, explains Matt Phillips of Quartz, “many analysts tend to focus on the $11.91 trillion in debt that is publicly available to be traded.”
Hamilton’s study, however, examined the federal liabilities that are not included in the government’s officially reported numbers.
Specifically, he examined the federal government’s “support for housing, other loan guarantees, deposit insurance, actions taken by the Federal Reserve, and government trust funds.”
Not surprisingly, Hamilton found that Medicare and Social Security represent the bulk of future U.S. debt obligations, coming in at $27.6 trillion and $26.5 trillion respectively.
The study's $70 trillion debt estimate may actually be overly optimistic."

Chicago sees pension crisis drawing near

Chicago sees pension crisis drawing near:
"The pension fund for retired Chicago teachers stands at risk of collapse.
The city's four funds for other retired city workers are short by $19.5 billion.
At least one of the funds is in peril of running out of money in less than a decade."

Drunk walking leads to pedestrian fatalities

My Way News - Drunk walking leads to pedestrian fatalities:
"Thirty-five percent of those killed, or 1,547 pedestrians, had blood alcohol content levels of .08 or higher, the legal limit for driving, according to data reported to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration by state highway departments.
Among the 625 pedestrians aged 25- to 34-years-old who were killed, half were alcohol impaired. Just under half the pedestrians killed who were in their early 20s and their mid-30s to mid-50s were also impaired. Only among pedestrians age 55 or older or younger than age 20 was the share of those killed a third or less.
By comparison, 13 percent of drivers involved in crashes in which pedestrians were killed were over the .08 limit."

New paper finds climate change over decades primarily determined by the oceans

New paper finds climate change over decades primarily determined by the oceans — Published in journal Nature | Climate Depot:
"A new paper published in Nature finds climate change over timescales longer than 10 years is “primarily determined by the ocean,” which skeptics, including famed Professor Emeritus of Atmospheric Science Dr. William Gray, have been saying for years.
According to the paper, “the ocean significantly affects long term climate fluctuations, while the seemingly chaotic atmosphere is mainly responsible for the shorter-term, year-to-year changes.”

Detroit City Council needs to get its priorities straight

Feedback: Detroit City Council needs to get its priorities straight | Detroit Free Press | freep.com:
"I find it interesting, if not mind-boggling, that the Detroit City Council has the time and finds the need to pass a resolution calling for a federal investigation into the killing of Florida teen Trayvon Martin.
With all of Detroit’s problems, bankruptcy, crime, blight, political corruption — to name just a few — they find the time and need to spend on a legally settled trial in another state?
Give us a break.
Is that the most important thing the council has to be concerned with?
Greg Arceri
Northville"

Michelle O’s L.A. school lunch menu: potato-chive waffles and a ‘black bean mountain’

Michelle O’s L.A. school lunch menu: potato-chive waffles and a ‘black bean mountain’ - EAGnews.org powered by Education Action Group Foundation, Inc.:
"The school district estimates students threw away more than 8 million meals last year, according to the paper.
It’s just the latest example of a string of problems created by the federal overhaul of school lunches."

Snake kills 2 N.B. boys after escaping store, RCMP say

Snake kills 2 N.B. boys after escaping store, RCMP say - Windsor - CBC News:
"New Brunswick RCMP have launched a criminal investigation into the deaths of two young boys killed by a python that reportedly slithered through ventilation shafts after it escaped from a reptile store, though police say it's too early to determine whether charges will be laid.
Police confirmed that the store owner also resides in the upstairs apartment in Campbellton, N.B. where the two boys, aged five and seven, were found dead Sunday morning."

Monday afternoon links | AEIdeas

Monday afternoon links | AEIdeas:
"3. The unreliability of wind power could mean Scotland will have to import energy from England – leaving it with the highest household bills in the world.
Is that why it’s called “green” energy – it takes so much “green” to pay for it?"

Guards allegedly forced into union day before right-to-work implemented

Guards allegedly forced into union day before right-to-work implemented | Fox News:
"The federal government is investigating a Michigan labor group and company for forcing three employees into the union on the eve of the state's implementation of right-to-work"

WHY DOGS DON’T LIVE AS LONG AS HUMANS

WHY DOGS DON’T LIVE AS LONG AS HUMANS | TechNudge
Jeepers, grab a hankie if yer gonna read this one.

Dem Polling Firm PPP Names Registered Dem George Zimmerman Among Potential 2016 GOP Nominees

Dem Polling Firm PPP Names Registered Dem George Zimmerman Among Potential 2016 GOP Nominees: "Yes, that George Zimmerman--the acquitted shooter of Trayvon Martin.
Why George Zimmerman, a registered Democrat who voted for President Obama in 2008?
And why would PPP list Zimmerman, 29, in polls for a presidential election in which he wouldn't even be eligible, at 44 years old? "

Poll: Michigan voters wary of gay marriage legislation, ballot measure

Poll: Michigan voters wary of gay marriage legislation, ballot measure | MLive.com:
"LANSING, MI -- A slim majority of likely Michigan voters would oppose legislation or a ballot measure seeking to allow same-sex marriage in the state"

The Rise of Al-Qaeda and Why the Administration Lied about Benghazi

Roger L. Simon » The Rise of Al-Qaeda and Why the Administration Lied about Benghazi:
"For nearly a year, we have had no answer to why the administration lied about Benghazi — why it told the world, not to mention the parents of our murdered SEALs at the funeral of their sons, that the cause of that fatal conflagration was an anti-Islamic video no one saw, when the various arms of our executive branch (White House, State and intelligence) already knew, or strongly suspected, it was a terror attack orchestrated by al-Qaeda affiliates.

You only have to read the now infamous talking points to know that.


That this lie was deeply immoral is obvious.
What still eludes us is the cause of that lie, other than the equally obvious desire to avoid embarrassment weeks before a presidential election."

For some, college not worth the debt

For some, college not worth the debt: Column:
"In their recent book, Academically Adrift, Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa note that many students show little actual learning in college.
Some students -- especially those from poor and minority households -- actually come out of college doing worse on assessment tests than when they went in. "

EMU's strategy of new buildings, classes attracts students; freshmen GPA on rise

EMU's strategy of new buildings, classes attracts students; freshmen GPA on rise | Crain's Detroit Business

Third Woman’s Burned Body Found On Detroit’s West Side

Third Woman’s Burned Body Found On Detroit’s West Side « CBS Detroit

Granholm and econuts in Muskegon MI 8 5 2013 - YouTube

ATTENTION AL SHARPTON: Black Dude in White Hoodie Viciously Stabs White Teenage Girl

ATTENTION AL SHARPTON: Black Dude in White Hoodie Viciously Stabs White Teenage Girl - Doug Giles
"Did you hear about the seventeen-year-old Queens resident, Natasha Martinez, who was stabbed eleven times last week by a black male wearing a white hoodie?
Yep, just a few days ago, as this young lady was walking home from her job at Mickey D’s, and right in front of her house, Natasha was jumped by a black dude in a white hoodie and suffered eleven stab wounds -- she is in serious condition.
Her state was so grave the doctors at Jamaica Hospital had to remove her spleen and confiscate a vein from her leg and implant it into her arm.
Back to my original question: Did you catch that story last week?
You didn’t?
Yeah, I didn’t think so."

Top 10 College Towns 2013

Top 10 College Towns 2013 - Boulder, CO | Livability

Genesee County delaying bond sale, Wayne County rating cut shows Detroit bankruptcy penalty spreads

Genesee County delaying bond sale, Wayne County rating cut shows Detroit bankruptcy penalty spreads | Crain's Detroit Business:
"Standard & Poor's may adjust ratings on general-obligation bonds from issuers throughout Michigan depending on how Detroit's debt is dealt with in bankruptcy, Jane Ridley, the New York-based company's primary Detroit analyst, said in an online presentation Thursday."

Analysis of July Employment Numbers 1955 to 2013; Full-Time Employment Down Over 5 Million Since 2007

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis: An Analysis of July Employment Numbers 1955 to 2013; Full-Time Employment Down Over 5 Million Since 2007: