Jury pool changes will make for better justice

Jury pool changes will make for better justice
"The public at large has responded very favorably to a new Muskegon County juror questionnaire created in direct response to lackluster participation in this vital facet of the justice system. The result will be more representative juries and, we expect, an even better judicial system."

How is our judicial system made better by "drafting" jury dodgers who want nothing to do with our judicial system?

Democrats can't let McCain win - mlive.com

Democrats can't let McCain win - mlive.com: "Hoekstra ignorant of the Constitution
I listened to your congressman the other night on TV. He wouldn't know the Constitution and the Bill of Rights from a dirty diaper.
If he truly believes in giving up the right to be secure in e-mails then I guess it would be OK to just 'check' his U.S. Postal Service mail and everyone else's just to make sure we don't associate with any of 'those possible terrorists.'
Stephen A. Verchinski
Albuquerque, N.M.
Cul-de-sac's end all-too-real and sad
The powers that be of Norton Shores decided that our wonderful cul-de-sac on Sternberg be eliminated. Prior to this, children would ride their bikes freely up and down the road. They would create beautiful parades and lemonade stands.
Once the road went through to Henry, Norton Shores decided that an 'island' would slow traffic down. We, the residents of Sternberg, offered to place nice trees and shrubs on this 'island.' Shores decided that concrete, made to resemble cheap tile, would be appropriate. Now we have people speeding down our once quiet road.
Some neighbors believe that the speed limit is 35, and some go even faster. I am afraid for the children who are used to playing on a cul-de-sac. Since Norton Shores has decided to make our lovely road into a speedway, could they at least put up signs that say the speed limit is 25?
Sheri Costello"

At U. of Georgia, Furor Over Clarence Thomas

At U. of Georgia, Furor Over Clarence Thomas

"Now some faculty members say that having Thomas as the undergraduate commencement speaker sends the wrong message at a time when the university is in the midst of a process that could change the way sexual harassment is dealt with in the campus judicial system.
“Given all of this work, and what felt like progress, the news that Justice Clarence Thomas is to give the commencement address this year has been met by dismay,” said Chris Cuomo, director of the Institute for Women’s Studies and a professor of philosophy, in an e-mail message. “Members of the UGA community who are concerned about the problems with enforcement of the university’s own policies against harassment wonder if the university administration is sending an intentional message that they believe matters of sexual harassment and gender equity are trivial.”"

They don't seem to have the same problem with Slick Willy or Ms Lewinski....

Why are we wasting $$$$ on idiot programs like "women's studies"?

Commencement Speaker Controversies

Commencement Speaker Controversies
"If you ask me, they oughta try to switch 'em around because it seems to me that based on their low-class behavior, the protesting UGA faculty deserves to have Jerry Springer as their Commencement speaker."

Indianapolis Bank Teller Katherin Shuffield Loses Twins After Being Shot During Robbery

Indianapolis Bank Teller Katherin Shuffield Loses Twins After Being Shot During Robbery: "one twin was born dead and the other died after birth, said Marion County's chief deputy coroner, Alfarena Ballew."

How can a "fetus" be born dead"?

Maybe it was a "baby" who was killed in the mother's body?

(the photo is an 8 week old "fetus".

A baby human being.)

For a Pinball Survivor, the Game Isn’t Over - New York Times

For a Pinball Survivor, the Game Isn’t Over - New York Times: "But this place, Stern Pinball Inc., is the last of its kind in the world. A range of companies once mass produced pinball machines, especially in the Chicago area, the one-time capital of the business. Now there is only Stern. And even the dinging and flipping here has slowed: Stern, which used to crank out 27,000 pinball machines each year, is down to around 10,000."

South Africa becoming like the rest of Africa?

US moves SA staff due to crime: South Africa:
"Crime concerns have prompted the embassy to terminate residential leases in stand-alone houses in Pretoria, Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town. The US plans to move embassy families to multi-unit security complexes.
Letters of termination have already been sent to some landlords and rental agents have advised them that US Embassy staff and their families will vacate stand-alone houses within 90 days.
'The US Embassy has taken a decision to move from stand-alone residences to compound residential units due to increased security concerns,' reads a letter sent to one rental agent in Pretoria."

Not too much international outrage when blacks kill blacks.....

Study Suggests Math Teachers Scrap Balls and Slices - New York Times

Study Suggests Math Teachers Scrap Balls and Slices - New York Times: "The students who learned the math abstractly did well with figuring out the rules of the game. Those who had learned through examples using measuring cups or tennis balls performed little better than might be expected if they were simply guessing."

Opinion: Gas up your Prius, starve a peasant

Opinion: Gas up your Prius, starve a peasant
"it has become the habit of progressive opinion to appropriate the language of war for everything but actual war."

Muskegon fattie trades blubber for TV "15 seconds"

A transformation -
"She will tell the nation about it on the Joy Fit Club segment of NBC's Today show between 10 and 11 a.m. Monday. She left for New York City at 6 a.m. today.
Had Hartman not seen the scale register a 'a whopping 307 pounds,' she said she might never have changed her eating and exercise habits."

Forum addresses 'Politics and Environment'

Forum addresses 'Politics and Environment'
"The event, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the Progressive Women's Alliance-Lakeshore. It is scheduled to run from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at Christ Community Church, located on M-104 in Spring Lake."

Chicago carnage continues!

Semi's deadly crash into Chicago station probed: "Without warning, the truck barreled into a street-level bus shelter, ending part of the way up the station's north stairwell. Two women died on the scene and at least 21 others were injured, authorities said."

and this:

Police planned to increase patrols and put SWAT officers and specialized units on the streets over the weekend, a show of force aimed at deterring violence like the three dozen shootings that left nine people dead last weekend.

Sun spot love-- See Gore, See Spot

-- See Gore, See Spot: "'the rout of Napoleon's Grand Army from Moscow was at least partly due to the lack of sunspots.'
This is more than a historical footnote. The same pattern of solar activity that doomed Napoleon is occurring as we speak."

Back To The '70s?

IBDeditorials.com: Editorials, Political Cartoons, and Polls from Investor's Business Daily -- Back To The '70s?: "Oil Shock: When it comes to energy policy, Democrats always talk a good game. But look at their actual record while in control of Congress in the last year and a half. It's been nothing short of disastrous.

Wasn't it two years ago that then-Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi vowed, if her party took over Congress, to cut energy prices — especially gasoline?

'Democrats have a common-sense plan to help bring down skyrocketing gas prices by cracking down on price-gouging; rolling back the billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies, tax breaks and royalty relief given to big oil and gas companies; and increasing production of alternative fuels,' Pelosi wrote back in April 2006, as part of her efforts to convince Americans to elect Democrats."

The psychology of the housing mess - Opinion - USATODAY.com

The psychology of the housing mess - Opinion - USATODAY.com: "The crisis is compounded by what psychologists call 'loss aversion.' The real estate market is by no means immune to this phenomenon. Numerous studies have shown that humans hate losses much more than they like gains. This means that losing $1,000 hurts you about twice as much as winning $1,000 makes you feel good. In the stock market, investors hold on to losers longer than winners, even though there are tax incentives to do just the opposite.
How does this play out in the housing market? Reluctant to take less for their houses than their neighbor got just a year ago, sellers tend to keep their houses on the market for far too long. So even as the market began to go south, people foolishly failed to budge."

Palestinians: Carter Achieved Nothing

Palestinians: Carter Achieved Nothing
"Recent talks between former president Jimmy Carter and a militant leader failed to make much of a difference in Gaza, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki said Wednesday."

Antarctic Deep Sea Gets Colder

Antarctic Deep Sea Gets Colder: "At the same time satellite images from the Antarctic summer have shown the largest sea-ice extent on record"

12,491 total alcohol-related crashes

TBO.com - News From AP: "In the past decade, the number of impaired drivers involved in alcohol-related crashes has remained relatively stable - from 12,348 in 1996 to 12,491 in 2006. Those figures cover drivers with a blood-alcohol level of 0.08 percent or higher.
The federal government also released estimates of driving under the influence of illicit drugs. The rates were highest in the District of Columbia, 7 percent; Rhode Island, 6.8 percent; and Massachusetts, 6.4 percent."

If the 12,491 number is accurate, it sure seems like a lot of energy spent on a relatively small problem.

The Editors on Ethanol on National Review Online

The Editors on Ethanol on National Review Online: "Congress has created an artificial demand for ethanol to satisfy the farm lobby, which is one of the most powerful in Washington. To make matters worse, almost every major candidate for president in the last 20 years has supported ethanol subsidies because of the program’s importance in the capital of corn, Iowa, which holds the nation’s first presidential caucuses."

Obama’s Real Bill Ayers Problem

Obama’s Real Bill Ayers Problem
"Ayers’s politics have hardly changed since his Weatherman days. He still boasts about working full-time to bring down American capitalism and imperialism. This time, however, he does it from his tenured perch as Distinguished Professor of Education at the University of Illinois, Chicago. Instead of planting bombs in public buildings, Ayers now works to indoctrinate America’s future teachers in the revolutionary cause, urging them to pass on the lessons to their public school students."

All being paid for with our tax dollars!
Ain't America great?
Not to Obama's buddies......

Tuition outrage at MSU!

Tuition at MSU could go up 7 percent for fall '08

"Students at Michigan State University could face a 7 percent tuition increase this fall, according to preliminary budget materials released by the university."
That increase, which would put average annual tuition at about $10,300, would be one of the lower ones of recent years. MSU has upped tuition by double-digit percentages twice since 2003.
An additional $12.6 million has been proposed to pay for faculty salary increases, an average 4.5 percent increase, in order to make them more competitive with salaries at other Big Ten schools. MSU salaries currently rank ninth out of 11.

"We don't want to have a compensation program that causes a brain drain," Simon said.

Is there no limit to the brain drain of Michigan taxpayers?

Atlantic City votes to ban smoking on floor of casnios

Atlantic City votes to ban smoking on floor of casnios
"Atlantic City leaders have voted to ban smoking on the gambling floor of all casinos."

Farmers Market getting its spring cleaning

Farmers Market getting its spring cleaning
"Friends of the Muskegon Farmers Market will roll up their sleeves and do a little spring cleaning from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday at the market, 700 Yuba.
Anyone in the mood to volunteer is invited to join the Friends to paint stall tops, sweep parking lots, pick up winter trash and do general cleaning to get the market ready for its May 3 opening.
The city of Muskegon, which owns the market....."

Shirley Temple breaks arm on eve of 80th birthday | Entertainment | People | Reuters

Shirley Temple breaks arm on eve of 80th birthday Entertainment People Reuters: "Shirley Temple Black, one of the most popular child stars in Hollywood history, marks her 80th birthday on Wednesday but plans a subdued day at home because of a recent accident.
'I broke my arm last week at my house, it hurts quite a bit,' she told Reuters on Tuesday."

Bombed Syrian reactor was nearly complete

Bombed Syrian reactor was nearly complete
"The Bush administration will tell Congress tomorrow that a nuclear facility in Syria built with North Korean help was nearly complete when Israel bombed it in September, and that Pyongyang has not provided any further nuclear assistance to the hard-line Arab nation, at least at that site, U.S. officials said."

Senate Republicans kill pay discrimination bill

Senate Republicans kill pay discrimination bill:
"Republicans in the Senate have killed a bill that would have removed limits on how long workers can wait before suing their employers for pay discrimination....
So important was the bill to Democrats that Majority Leader Harry Reid delayed the vote until dinnertime to allow Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama to cast votes and, for the first time in months, speak on the Senate floor. Republican presidential candidate John McCain did not attend the vote.
Opponents said the bill would cause a flood of lawsuits. Democrats said it was needed to help employees to recoup lost wages."

Classic liberal "journalism" avoiding the "how did they vote" minutia.

GordoM will help!

B.Hussein and Mrs Bill voted to have unending time limits for lawsuits against employers.

Like... forever dude....

If you were "dissed" 45 years ago, call a democrat check-writing-class-action-lawyer and cash in baby!

B. Hussein and Mrs Bill voted for the bill.

Sen. McCrook didn't have to vote because there were enough votes to defeat the bill.

No wonder "newspapers" are dying.

Bad News on North Korea

Bad News on North Korea:
"This has not been a good few weeks for the North Korean nuclear accord, which Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice apparently hopes will be one of her signature achievements. First came word that Pyongyang would not deliver the full and complete listing of its nuclear activities that had previously been agreed to. The State Department, desperate to clinch a deal, would not allow this blatant noncompliance to sink the agreement.
Now comes word, via this Wall Street Journal report, that the intelligence community will confirm for Congress what is already widely suspected–that the Syrian site bombed last September by Israel was a plutonium-producing nuclear reactor being built by North Korea."

Is Condi turning into Maddie?

Great Lakes water supply at risk

Author says Great Lakes water supply at risk
"Great Lakes need better protections against future water diversions that could hurt the lakes' ecosystems and the region's economy. Current rules governing water diversions from the lakes are dysfunctional,"

Water wars will be bigger than energy wars over the next 20 years.

Ethanol Effect causing worldwide FOOD riots!

Evil Ethanol

"Food riots caused by rising food prices have erupted around the world. Five people died in uprisings in Haiti, perhaps the first of many casualties to come from the fad of being 'green."

It uses more energy than it produces.

It raises food prices worldwide.

It results in less oil for the world.

And it increases our cost of gasoline.

(click on the ear to see the entire story)

Global warning

Stop the world!
A Muskegon teenager will go to trial on felony assault charges for throwing a classroom globe at a tutor."

"So Diamond, you'd prefer to watch a video....?"