Monday, August 26, 2013

Ex-Ficano aide might find out today if he'll receive $97K annual pension

Ex-Ficano aide might find out today if he'll receive $97K annual pension | The Detroit News

Italians wake up, and their factory is gone. Literally.

Italians wake up, and their factory is gone. Literally. | Conservative Intelligence Briefing:
"Earlier this month, Fabrizio Pedroni wished his employees a happy summer holiday and told them to return to work in three weeks.
That night, he began dismantling his electric component factory in northern Italy and packing its machinery off to Poland.
“Had I told them earlier about any plans to shift the production abroad, they would have occupied my factory and seized all my stuff,” Pedroni said in an Aug. 21 telephone interview from Poland.
“The plain truth is that I wanted my business to survive and there weren’t the right conditions for me to operate in Italy any longer.”
Pedroni is now facing death threats and probably can’t show his face anywhere in Italy.
But his company had been losing money for five years running."

A recent history of hate-crime hoaxes

A recent history of hate-crime hoaxes | Conservative Intelligence Briefing
Holy crapoli, this a LONG list!

Farmer's Almanac Predicts 'Bitterly Cold' Winter

Farmer's Almanac Predicts 'Bitterly Cold' Winter:
"The famous Farmer’s Almanac is going to damper the mood of many man-made global warming alarmists when the book hits the shelves on Monday.
They predict the 2013-2014 winter will be extremely cold.
The book uses words like “piercing cold,” “bitterly cold,” and “biting cold” to describe the upcoming winter. The authors predict a huge winter storm during the first outdoor Super Bowl in years. "

Right-to-work's practical effect: Subdued

Right-to-work's practical effect: Subdued | Crain's Detroit Business:
"There will be more pressure on unions to justify their existence to their members, so employers should be prepared to see more grievances filed, he said. "

Detroit creditors' tales of owe

Detroit creditors' tales of owe | Crain's Detroit Business:
"Fifteen cents on the dollar.
That's the going rate for debt that Detroit owes its trade creditors, at least in the estimation of firms seeking to buy that debt."

Obama hides Obamacare subsidies for foreign students, guest workers

Obama hides Obamacare subsidies for foreign students, guest workers | The Daily Caller:
"He made the misleading claim during a televised roundtable at the second stop of his two-day, two-state tour promoting more aid to students.
“Obviously, when it come to federal grants, loans, support, subsidies, that we provide, those are for our citizens,” Obama told a student questioner from the friendly audience of college professors, administrators and students at the Binghamton University in New York."
...A 1996 law bars foreigners and recent immigrants for most means-tested products.
But the Obamacare system will provide valuable health-care subsidies to many student-workers and foreign guest workers hired for jobs in America.

Sunday, August 25, 2013

Author and former tutor Lacy Crawford reveals rich parents’ college-admissions madness

Author and former tutor Lacy Crawford reveals rich parents’ college-admissions madness - NYPOST.com:
“My ex-husband, he’s not seeing the application, so we’ll say what we want.
We lived four years in Senegal. 
Our name is exotic. 
So, we will check the box and say he is black.

I said this was not a good idea.
“Why not?” she pressed me. “Can they ask for proof?”
Her son sat silent as a stone, blue eyes fixed on his notebook, while the appraisers’ cameras flashed on the Picassos on the walls.

In the months to follow, I failed to dissuade the mother of her plan. Her son was not admitted."

‘Lawless White House’ Has Made a ‘Clear Attempt’ to ‘Aid & Abet Voter Fraud,’ Says GOP Rep

‘Lawless White House’ Has Made a ‘Clear Attempt’ to ‘Aid & Abet Voter Fraud,’ Says GOP Rep | TheBlaze.com:
“Whether it is blocking the prosecution of voter intimidation in Philadelphia, illegally running guns to Mexican drug lords or assisting voter fraud in Texas Barack Obama has decided the rule of law takes a back seat to ‘Rules for Radicals,’” he added."

Man Banned From Farms. All Farms

Man Banned From Farms. All Farms. - The Daily Beast:
"He, BAAAD
Man Banned From Farms. All Farms.
Robert Newman, a 23-year-old man, was banned from visiting every single farm in London after he was caught having intercourse with a goat at a farm in Wiltshire. "

A Proud Nation Ponders How to Halt Its Slow Decline

A Proud Nation Ponders How to Halt Its Slow Decline - NYTimes.com:
"Today, however, Europe is talking about “the French question”: can the Socialist government of President François Hollande pull France out of its slow decline and prevent it from slipping permanently into Europe’s second tier?

At stake is whether a social democratic system...... can survive the combination of globalization, an aging population and the acute fiscal shocks of recent years."

Peter Konetchy for Congress | Candidate U.S. House of Representatives – Michigan 4th District

Peter Konetchy for Congress | Candidate U.S. House of Representatives – Michigan 4th District

Save us from govt’s good intentions

Save us from govt’s good intentions | Columnists | Opinion | Ottawa Sun:
OK, that’s a real mess. So how did it happen?
Simple. The government decided some nice people should get something free and some other people should have to pay, not because they deserved to but because they could. It wasn’t even fair. In this sense social justice already bears no discernible resemblance to actual justice. But, in any case, it didn’t work because many of the intended pinatas not only couldn’t pay, they didn’t have to.
Governments in hock up to our eyeballs don’t seem to get the basic notion that driving useful businesses like assisted-living residences into bankruptcy leaves their customers worse off. They certainly don’t grasp that owners are unlikely passively to submit to personal ruin for no social gain.
Faced with new requirements including staff background checks, “panic” buttons in all rooms and 24-hour surveillance that one owner claimed would cost between $200,000 and $300,000, owners didn’t just have choices. They had minds able to grasp those choices. They could notice a change in their circumstances, pleasant or otherwise, and respond rationally. People usually do. Yet many people in government simply don’t believe the common man or woman notices what’s going on and reacts sensibly.
When I say politicians think we’re stupid and helpless, this is what I mean. They figure we can’t tell what’s happening and if we could, we wouldn’t know what to do about it.

Ban E-Cigarettes? The Anti-Smoking Lobby's Clueless Crusade

Ban E-Cigarettes? The Anti-Smoking Lobby's Clueless Crusade - The Daily Beast:
"The anti-smoking movement is going after e-cigarettes, the harmless inhalers that help people kick the habit."

Pledge of aggrievance: ‘United States of Obama’ flag waves at March on Washington

Pledge of aggrievance: ‘United States of Obama’ flag waves at March on Washington | Twitchy:

View image on Twitter

Eric Holder fails to fight election policies that discriminate against me

Eric Holder fails to fight election policies that discriminate against me | The Barbershop: Dennis Byrne, Proprietor:
For example, Illinois' 4th Congressional district  (below) is designed to protect Democratic Cong. Luis Gutiérrez.
 Does it look 4th districtcompact and contiguous to you?

ObamaCare: When Socialist Theory Meets Practice

Articles: ObamaCare: When Socialist Theory Meets Practice:
"America is lucky to have had two great social theorists:
Yogi Berra and Richard Feynman.
Had the Democrats heeded their words of wisdom when the issue of ObamaCare arose they'd not be sliding down the slippery slope they greased all by themselves.

Yogi's warning is nice and succinct:
"In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is."

Professor Feynman said much the same thing but in a few more words:
"The real question of government versus private enterprise is argued on too philosophical and abstract a basis. Theoretically, planning may be good. 
But nobody has ever figured out the cause of government stupidity and until they do (and find the cure) all ideal plans will fall into quicksand."

Whichever version you choose, it's clear that Democrat stupidity is at the heart of Obamacare, the entire juggernaut is sliding into quicksand and taking the party down with it as bits of the law become implemented, other bits have been delayed, waived for some buddies, or jettisoned as unworkable by an administration which consistently confuses executive and legislative functions. "

See how cops and crime trended in your area; search our database of Michigan police agencies

See how cops and crime trended in your area; search our database of Michigan police agencies | MLive.com:

Medicaid expansion: There is a better alternative

Sen. Patrick Colbeck on Medicaid expansion: There is a better alternative | MLive.com:
"I remain stridently opposed to this legislation because it:

1. Expands an already unsustainable Medicaid program
2. Encourages poor quality care through managed care
3. Raises the cost of healthcare for many to subsidize lower cost healthcare for some
4. Increases government spending
5. Increases the debt risk for future generations
6. Promotes uncertainty in Michigan’s healthcare market as its parent legislation, Obamacare, suffers from so many implementation delays that Democrat Senators Max Baucus and Harry Reid have referred to it as a “train wreck”
7. Discourages job growth as expenses and uncertainty increase
8. Simply converts uncompensated care in hospitals to undercompensated care
9. Promotes current third party payment model with minimal price transparency
10. Promotes expanded control over “we the people” rather than returning control of healthcare decisions to patients and their doctors

The most significant reason that I remain stridently opposed to HB 4714 is very simple, though.
We have a better option. 
That option is the Patient-Centered Care Act that I have introduced as Senate Bills 459 and 460. "

United States As Fifty States With Equal Population

Neil Freeman Redraws United States As Fifty States With Equal Population
50 States Redrawn With Equal Populations

Texas Rodeo to Feature Obama Clown

Texas Rodeo to Feature Obama Clown | TheBlaze.com:

Saturday, August 24, 2013

When I was a rich kid, we were all pro-communist

Articles: When I was a rich kid, we were all pro-communist:
"Communists back then pretended, like Obama today, to defend the middle class and spitefully attack the rich.  But communism actually decimated the middle class and created a new power-class out of the communist faithful. 
It is a party built on jealousy. 
The communists, like the Occupy Wall Street crowd, are so jealous of the rich that they are willing to destroy the business structure of Wall Street without leaving themselves a viable path to success.
Imagine those unemployed rich kids and rapists setting up a new business model on Wall Street. 
Failure, thy name is inexperience and youth. "

How Responsible Is Obama for the Oklahoma Killing?

Articles: How Responsible Is Obama for the Oklahoma Killing?:
"Even if true, Obama neglected to mention the motive behind this seeming bad behavior: according to best evidence, blacks commit interracial muggings, robberies and rapes at thirty-five times the rate of whites, and everyone more or less knows it, Jesse Jackson included."

Escaping the death spiral of Blue State taxes

Examiner Editorial: Escaping the death spiral of Blue State taxes | WashingtonExaminer.com:
"Debt-ridden California needs every cent it can squeeze out of its taxpayers.
The government unions that control the state through the Democratic Party are the highest paid state government employees in the nation. 
Despite being near the bottom in student academic achievement, California is near the top on per-pupil spending.
And that $68 billion high-speed train to nowhere that the state is building in the Central Valley won't pay for itself."

A recent history of hate-crime hoaxes

A recent history of hate-crime hoaxes | Conservative Intelligence Briefing:
"Here’s a brief and partial recent history of hate-crime hoaxes, culled from various online sources including trendsinhate.com (which contains accounts of several real hate crimes as well) and fakehatecrimes.org:"

Bert Fish Medical Center: Smokers need not apply

Bert Fish Medical Center: Smokers need not apply | News-JournalOnline.com:
"[NEW SMYRNA BEACH — Starting Jan. 1, Bert Fish Medical Center will no longer hire tobacco users, joining two other local hospitals in telling smokers not to apply.
Applicants will be tested for a nicotine byproduct and sign an agreement to remain tobacco-free during their employment with the New Smyrna Beach public hospital. "

Friday, August 23, 2013

Unacceptable: New Study Shows Welfare Benefits Surpass Minimum Wage

Unacceptable: New Study Shows Welfare Benefits Surpass Minimum Wage |:
"In Mississippi, a welfare recipient can receive as much as $16,984 in welfare benefits.
That is more than working for minimum wage in the private sector.
However, it gets worse. 
Why? 
It’s because Mississippi is dead last in handing out welfare goodies. 
It only goes up from there."

Best Cruises - Cruisers' Choice Awards

Best Cruises - Cruisers' Choice Awards:

We've sailed on 2 of the top 6 with Equinox with coming up in Mar.
Our 1st cruise was a few years ago......


There are some clever boat names out there (30 Photos)

There are some clever boat names out there (30 Photos) : theCHIVE:
clever funny boat names 20 There are some clever boat names out there (29 Photos)

Car-Ownership Costs By State

Car-Ownership Costs By State | Bankrate.com:
Estimated annual cost of car ownership
Interesting.
MI v IN cost 20% more to operate a car.
How much more to operate a truck?


RankStateRepairsTaxes/feesGasolineInsuranceTotal

24Michigan$317$976$1,025$921$3,240

46Indiana$329$558$1,190$621$2,698