Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Aside from murder, that is......10 top stories of 2013 in metro Detroit

10 top stories of 2013 in metro Detroit | Detroit Free Press | freep.com:
"Detroit’s historic bankruptcy was clearly the story of the year in Michigan and beyond.
It’s not nearly over, as its far-reaching impact is measured from the city streets to Wall Street.
But there were plenty of other things happening, from silly to tragic.

Here are other top stories, based on what you read on freep.com in 2013.
“Lapeer 6-year-old drives family car, heads to Chinese restaurant”"

Metro's Detroit's most notorious crimes of 2013: A look back at a violent year

Metro's Detroit's most notorious crimes of 2013: A look back at a violent year | Detroit Free Press | freep.com:
"An escaped inmate led police on an hours-long manhunt across Detroit.
A 19-year-old was fatally shot on the porch of a Dearborn Heights home.
A gas station employee on the state’s west side was abducted.

These are just a handful of stories that grabbed headlines in 2013.
Here are some of the biggest crime stories of the year."

The definatitive link----Lake Superior State University :: Banished Words List :: The List

Lake Superior State University :: Banished Words List :: The List:
"SELFIE-Has the honor of receiving the most nominations this year."











2012 http://www.lssu.edu/whats_new/articles.php?articleid=2545

2011 http://www.lssu.edu/whats_new/articles.php?articleid=2332

"Far more than $225 an ounce" for something they can grow in their living room?-------High Prices for Getting High Expected as Colorado Opens Legal Pot Shops

High Prices for Getting High Expected as Colorado Opens Legal Pot Shops - US News and World Report: "The state will impose total taxes of 25 percent on marijuana plus the regular 2.9 percent state sales tax, and local taxes will also apply on top of those.
At Kine Mine, a store in the small town of Idaho Springs, for example, total taxes will come to 31.9 percent – 27.9 percent in state taxes plus 1 percent in county taxes and a 3 percent city tax, according to store founder Theran Snyder.

But he expects he may have to charge recreational users even further above and beyond his medical marijuana prices to stay stocked.
....Though Snyder declines to give exact price points, he believes he may have to charge far more than $225 per ounce for non-medical marijuana to ensure that product stays on the shelves when the new law kicks in."

Remember when 'civility" was the big buzzword among the elite left?--------------'Entourage' Creator's Crack: Gays Should Shoot 'Duck Dynasty' Star

'Entourage' Creator's Crack: Gays Should Shoot 'Duck Dynasty' Star:
"Entourage creator Doug Ellin is taking sides in the Duck Dynasty culture war via his Twitter account.
Ellin mentioned the reality show's controversy several times in recent days, most notably with a Tweet that mirrors the tolerance some on the left show for those who have different point of views."

RINOs are dangerous to your freedom-----The West Michigan Rino Hunters search for Senator Hansen

Great video from our young, West Michigan Patriots.
Plus, these RINO hunters understand that Sen. Hansen's "generosity" is coming out of their pockets.
Wake up folks!
He's spending your future!
click link to see video:
The West Michigan Rino Hunters search for Senator Hansen | Michigan Campaign for Liberty:

Progressive's prognostications as accurate in their anti-gun propaganda as they are in climate change hysteria----2013: Fewest Police Killed by Firearms Since 1887

2013: Fewest Police Killed by Firearms Since 1887:
"A December 30th report released by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund shows that 2013 had the fewest police deaths by firearms since 1887.
According to the report by the Associated Press, there were a total of "111 federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial officers killed in the line of duty nationwide" in 2013.
Of these 111 fatalities, "46 were killed in traffic related accidents and 33 were killed by firearms." 
The number of firearm related deaths is down 33 percent and is "the lowest since 1887."
Moreover, "deaths in the line of duty generally [all causes] fell by 8 percent and were the fewest since 1959."
All of this happened while a potentially record number of Americans were obtaining and carrying handguns on their persons for concealed carry, personal protection, and home protection. "

The criminalization of honest, law abiding Americans-Tougher NY gun law results in 1,146 felony charges

Remember.
NONE of these Americans were breaking ANY law until the gun grabbers created this new law. Intended, not to protect ANYONE from these Americans.
But, instead, to create a new class of American criminal.
Obama's america....... 
Tougher NY gun law results in 1,146 felony charges:
"ALBANY, N.Y. — Nearly a year after passage of the state’s new gun law, dealer sales of popular AR-15 semi-automatic rifles have ended in New York and arrest data show more than 1,000 gun possession charges in New York City were boosted from misdemeanors to felonies because of the changes.

Meanwhile, 59 people have been charged statewide with misdemeanors for possessing large-capacity magazines or having more than seven bullets loaded in a magazine, both outlawed by the law passed last January in the aftermath of the school massacre in Newtown, Conn."
....“January will be the first anniversary,” he said of the law. “Show me proof violence is down, shootings are down, murders with handguns are down.”

▶ THE CUTEST ANIMAL MOMENTS OF 2013

▶ THE CUTEST ANIMAL MOMENTS OF 2013 - YouTube: "

Proof of global warming!


History for December 31 - Bad move, Timely move, Bright Idea!, Island of Freedom, 1929?!!, Over There, Was Trigger there?, Libs called it "unconscionable", Proof of Global Warming, GOLD!, Camelot Doh!, KGB back in charge

History for December 31 - On-This-Day.com
1695 - The window tax was imposed in Britain, which resulted in many windows being bricked up. 









1862 - U.S. President Lincoln signed an act admitting West Virginia to the Union. 









1879 - Thomas Edison gave his first public demonstration of incandescent lighting to an audience in Menlo Park, NJ









1891 - New York's new Immigration Depot was opened at Ellis Island, to provide improved facilities for the massive numbers of arrivals. 






1929 - Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians played "Auld Lang Syne" as a New Year's Eve song for the first time. 









1946 - U.S. President Truman officially proclaimed the end of hostilities in World War II. 









1947 - Roy Rogers and Dale Evans were married. 










1955 - General Motors became the first U.S. corporation to earn more than one billion dollars in a single year. 









1967 - The Green Bay Packers won the National Football League championship game by defeating the Dallas Cowboys 21-17. The game is known as the Ice Bowl since it was played in a wind chill of 40 degrees below zero. (NFL







1974 - Private U.S. citizens were allowed to buy and own gold for the first time in more than 40 years. 








1997 - Michael Kennedy, 39-year-old son of the late U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, was killed in a skiing accident on Aspen Mountain in Colorado




1999 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin resigned. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was designated acting president. 

Monday, December 30, 2013

You'd think he'd have resigned by now-----Did you hear about the Obama administration scandal?

Did you hear about the Obama administration scandal? | St. Louis County GOP:'

Bob: “Hey Jim, did you hear about the Obama administration scandal?,

Jim: “You mean the Mexican gun running?”

Bob: “No, the other one.”

Jim: “You mean SEAL Team 6?”

Bob: “No, the other one.

“Jim: “Obama saying the avg family would  save $2,500 on their premiums?”

Bob: “No, the other one.”

Jim: “Forcing businesses to violate their religious beliefs by paying for drugs that abort the unborn?

Bob: “No, the other one.”
click link above to see the amazingly long, sad, frightening list.

Your Money in Pictures: Where Did Your Tax Dollar Go?

Your Money in Pictures: Where Did Your Tax Dollar Go? - Illinois Review:
 "YOUR MONEY IN PICTURES: WHERE DID YOUR TAX DOLLAR GO?

Wonder what happens to your hard-earned cash after you hand it over the IRS each year? Almost half goes toward paying for the ballooning entitlement programs—Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid—a proportion that will only increase as the number of retirees expands in the near future. Even worse, your tax money only funded 70 cents of every federal dollar spent in 2012, meaning the remaining 30 cents was borrowed and tacked on to the massive national debt."
Dollar600649

Class-action lawyers are Obama's money machine------The Lincoln lawyers — Is Illinois the land of lawsuits?

The Lincoln lawyers — Is Illinois the land of lawsuits? « Watchdog.org:
"The two counties, across the river from St. Louis, have become one of the favorite locations for venue shopping lawyers looking for a big payday, said Travis Akin, executive director of Illinois Lawsuit Abuse Watch.

“This is more than just the occasional slip-and-fall lawsuit,” Akin told Illinois Watchdog. “This is a very systematic, very purposeful manipulation of our legal system in the state of Illinois.”

Akin said trial lawyers have found judges and juries who will hear cases with no ties to Illinois.

The Hellhole report notes that one in four of all asbestos cases in America are tried in Madison County.

“Last year, there were nearly 1,600 asbestos lawsuits filed in Madison County, Akin said. “About 90 percent of those cases had nothing to do with Illinois.”

St. Clair County is becoming the go-to jurisdiction for lawyers looking to sue drug makers, he said."

America's race war----Knockout: Victims of brutal Downtown Mall assault want arrests, and answers from police

Knockout: Victims of brutal Downtown Mall assault want arrests, and answers from policeC-Ville Weekly:
"Even though one of the victims, Jeanne Doucette, managed to take photos that appear to show the assailants as they kicked and pummeled her boyfriend Marc Adams to unconsciousness, Charlottesville Police still do not have any suspects.
Doucette says there were other witnesses to the crime, which allegedly occurred just outside the Wells Fargo building at around 1am as she and Adams walked from Miller’s to Rapture, and she is baffled as to why the police haven’t shared her images more widely with people who could have seen the suspects earlier in the evening."Knockout: Victims of brutal Downtown Mall assault want arrests, and answers from police

Holy crapoli! We're paying the enemy to get more money from us?-------------------Republican Congressional Leaders Investigate 201 Salaried IRS Union Reps

Republican Congressional Leaders Investigate 201 Salaried IRS Union Reps - Tom O'Halloran:
"Republican congressional leaders are demanding to know why the Internal Revenue Service pays hundreds of full-time employees to do union work.

As reported last month by The Daily Caller, 201 IRS employees receive full-time pay while doing no actual work, instead devoting their entire work days to union business"

Our commander-in-chief and most of his party hate our warriors-------How political correctness took down Navy SEALs

How political correctness took down Navy SEALs | New York Post:
"In the event, no shots were fired, but the SEALs faced another kind of ambush: a humiliating, baffling, infuriating struggle with the military-justice system that would end with an unsatisfying victory.
Because the man those SEALs captured — Ahmad Hashim Abd Al-Isawi, aka “the Butcher of Fallujah,” a man who lived for mayhem — somehow sustained a bloody lip on the night of his capture.
The contrast between the two instances of violence seems, like many of the details of the case, absurd.
On the one hand, four Blackwater contractors were murdered and beheaded as they pulled security in a convoy that was attempting to deliver food.
On the other hand, Al-Isawi had a small cut on his lip that a doctor would later testify appeared to have been self-inflicted.
Yet for this latter instance of bloodshed three SEALs were charged with serious crimes. "

Silence of the Lambs: GOP Establishment Remained Neutral on 'Duck Dynasty' Controversy

Cowards.
Pandering cowards!
Silence of the Lambs: GOP Establishment Remained Neutral on 'Duck Dynasty' Controversy:
"Later in the day, Sen.Ted Cruz (R-TX) said Robertson's suspension was an affront to those who value freedom of speech and religion.
"The reason that so many Americans love Duck Dynasty is because it represents the America usually ignored or mocked by liberal elites: a family that loves and cares for each other, believes in God, and speaks openly about their faith," Cruz wrote.
Palin, Cruz, and Jindal were repeatedly mentioned in stories in the mainstream media about Robertson.
In contrast, the Republican establishment organizations and D.C. figureheads were ducking for cover and nowhere to be found, reinforcing the suspicions of the "Teavengelical" base that has always suspected that the Republican elite on the coasts and in D.C. disdains them and their "flyover country" values. "

Dave Barry’s Review of 2013, the Year of the Zombies

Dave Barry’s Review of 2013, the Year of the Zombies - The Washington Post:
"And then — not to leave out the ladies — there was Miley Cyrus.
We thought her career was over; we remembered her fondly as a cute and perky child star who played Hannah Montana, wholesome idol of millions of preteens.
And then one night we turned on MTV’s Video Music Awards and YIKES there was this horrifying, mutant, vaguely reptilian creature in Slut Barbie underwear twerking all over the stage while committing unhygienic acts with both Robin Thicke and a foam finger, both of which we hope were confiscated by a hazmat team.

This year was so bad that twerking wasn’t even the stupidest dance craze. 
That would be the “Harlem Shake,” which is not so much a dance as a mass nervous-system disorder, and which makes the “Gangnam Style” dance we mocked in 2012 look like “Swan Lake.”"

The Solar Swindle

Another economic fascist scam that robs the poor to enrich the wealthy.
Oh. And it sure helps to reelect the incumbents!
Articles: The Solar Swindle:
"Solar electricity is growing, promoted, and most importantly, heavily subsidized.
The promoters of solar electricity claim that it is close to being competitive with conventional sources of electricity.  
That is a fantasy."
...An example of a hidden subsidy is the California Renewable Portfolio Standard that mandates utilities to obtain 33% of their energy from so-called renewable sources by 2020.  
This mandate forces utilities to contract for expensive sources of energy, such as solar.  
The cost is passed on to the utility customers with the connivance of the government.  
Although the motivation behind the California scheme is to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, politically incorrect sources of CO2-free electricity, such as nuclear and large-scale hydroelectric, can't be counted as renewable.

I'm thinkin' this ain't gonna work out well for us small government types--------------Google And Apple Smart Dashboards

Google And Apple Smart Dashboards - Business Insider:
"Google and Apple are both working on competing technologies that would bring apps, navigation and music together into smart dashboards for cars based on their own mobile operating systems"

Trust. But verify--------------------The Devious Ad Campaign That Convinced America Coffee Was Bad for Kids

The Devious Ad Campaign That Convinced America Coffee Was Bad for Kids - Jordan Weissmann - The Atlantic:
"As Smithsonian's Joseph Stromberg recently explained in great piece of pseudoscience debunkery, the idea that coffee is bad for youngsters was actually a myth first propagated by the early 20th century cereal Tycoon, C.W. Post. 

Before  he developed his signature breakfast products like Grape Nuts, Post went into business in 1895 selling a cereal-based, caffeine-free coffee substitute called Postum.
Now, the words "cereal-based, caffeine-free coffee substitute" might sound about as appetizing to you as a wet wad of newspaper.
But Post cannily marketed his product as a health beverage while spooking consumers about the allegedly malign effects of coffee on both adults and children. "

END the SCAM------It's time for wind power to stand or fall on its own

This is and has ALWAYS been a get rich program for big contributors.
Stop it!
It's time for wind power to stand or fall on its own - The Week
"Federal subsidies for wind energy are set to expire at the end of the year. Again.

Since 1992, the Production Tax Credit (PTC) has offered generous federal subsidies to wind generators.
Under the policy, wind generators are eligible for 2.3 cents in taxpayer subsidies for each kilowatt hour (kWh) of wind electricity generated. 
That's nearly a third of the total retail price of electricity for industrial customers."

Waddya bet the government types are come up with a plan to "fix" this-------Michigan's rural counties face barriers to health care

Michigan's rural counties face barriers to health care | Crain's Detroit Business:
"The residents of Sanilac, another spread-out county of roughly 42,000 people with 45 people per square mile — compared with 174 statewide — are slow to adopt and loath to embrace the law, health officials say.
"They're not real interested in this — there isn't anything that's incentivizing them to sign up right now," said county health director Dianna Schafer.
"I don't have them pounding my door down. ... What it tells me is that something is going to happen, something is going to implode soon."
That's frustrating public and community health workers, who often are as vexed as their clients by the website's technical problems and confusing design.
Cook said she attended a recent meeting with colleagues from surrounding counties and successes were few and far between."

This headline is sorta like "choose between the liar and the truth"-----------Benghazi: The New York Times vs. the Truth

Don't believe the NYT.
Read all of this column.
Roger’s Rules » Benghazi: The New York Times vs. the Truth
They never give up at the New York Times.If at first they don’t succeed in twisting the truth to fit the Newspeak fit to print, it’s try, try again.  Their latest exercise in mendacity is “A Deadly Mix in Benghazi,” an elaborate essay that substitutes a plethora of irrelevant details and animated graphics for historical truth. The long essay takes up an event which, in a rational world, would have led the to resignation of former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and the impeachment of President Barack Obama. I mean the terrorist attack on our consular facility at Benghazi, Libya.
You remember Benghazi: a U.S. ambassador and his security detail were ambushed by Islamic radicals and, after an hours’ long firefight, Ambassador Chris Stevens, Foreign Service Officer Sean Smith, and former Navy SEALs Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty were brutally murdered. By Islamic radicals.
The cataract of misinformation that gushed out of the Obama administration about that event, a mephitic current of lies and half truths streaming from the cloaca maxima in Washington, D.C., was stunning even by the low standards of “the most transparent administration in history.” I wrote about the events here several times, as did several of my PJM colleagues.
The administration’s line was that the savage ambush that left four Americans dead was part of a “spontaneous uprising” by adherents of the Religion of Peace, goaded to murderous fury because of a hitherto obscure internet video that portrays Mohammed as a corrupt sexual predator. It’s a silly film.  But, however silly, however offensive to Muslim sensibilities it may be, is it grounds for mayhem and murder? And, more to the point, did it in fact have anything at all to do with the events in Benghazi of September 11, 2012? 
The short answer is:  No. The internet video had nothing to do with that terrorist attack. The date, however, — September 11 — probably had a lot to do with the timing of the attack.
According to the New York Times, the perpetrators of the attack were not elements of al-Qaeda and kindred radical groups but disaffected members of the Arab street who were distraught by Innocence of Muslims, the sophomoric internet video on which President Obama and Hilary Clinton blamed the attack.  My own view is that if a group of people is so criminally puerile that they can can be roused to murder by a video, then they deserve to be treated as mental incompetents.  But in this case, the question doesn’t really arise because the Times offers no evidence that the video had anything to do with the murderous attack.
As a House Intelligence Committee report concludedpace the Times, the Benghazi attack was “an al Qaeda led event.” The culprit was “not a video,” Rep. Mike Rogers observed — “that whole part was debunked time and time again.”  It was not a “spontaneous uprising,” as was put about by the administration at the time and is now reprised by the New York Times, but rather a “pre-planned, organized terrorist event,” orchestrated by al-Qaeda.
How are we to understand the Times’s latest entry into the contest to rewrite history for ideological fun and profit?  My own sense is that it has less to do with salvaging President Obama’s tattered reputation — he is well on his way to winning the prize for the least competent and most destructive president in the history of the republic. 
No, Barack Obama is yesterday’s news, and unless and until he is impeached and removed from office he will be pretty much forgotten by purveyors of all the Newspeak fit to print. 
They have their eyes on another player in the Benghazi scandal, namely Hilary Clinton. 
If anyone emerged from that shameful episode more discredited than Barack Obama, it was Ms. Clinton. 
But time is passing fast, and there is a lot of remedial work to do if Hilary Clinton is to be suitably repackaged as the Democratic candidate for president. That ambition, I believe, stands behind this elaborate, breathtaking exercise in journalistic mendacity.

Add "anti-semite" to the list of ANYONE who would dare question Barry's "signature legislative achievement"...... Left is getting desperate over Pajama Boy

Blog: Left is getting desperate over Pajama Boy:
"The palpable embarrassment of the Left over Obamacare has led to an odd and disturbing reaction.
Following the creation of the now-infamous Pajama Boy tweet from Barackobama.com (aka Obama for America, aka Organizing for Action), embodying so much that is wrong with Obamacare and socialism in general - the infantilization of adults, the smirking know-it-all attitude of the nanny state, and the inappropriate intrusions in our private lives - conservatives erupted with a wave of hilarious mockery. 
The resulting sting obviously has psychologically wounded the Left.
How else to explain this from the Foward: "Obamacare 'Pyjama Boy' Controversy Wrapped in Anti-Semitism.""

Time to Stock Up on Incandescent Bulbs Before They Go Out Permanently

Time to Stock Up on Incandescent Bulbs Before They Go Out Permanently
MB12.26_v2 - light bulbs

Your governor just increased your health insurance premiums to pay state and local income taxes. How's that sound?-----------5 new laws affecting businesses in 2013

5 new laws affecting businesses in 2013 | Crain's Detroit Business:
"2. Blue Cross
Snyder ended 2012 by vetoing a bill to convert Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan into a nonprofit mutual insurance company, because lawmakers tacked on language regarding abortion coverage he felt want too far.
A few months later, a new bill was drafted, sans the abortion language, and Snyder signed it.
Under the new law, the Blues will contribute as much as $1.56 billion over 18 years to a fund aimed at improving the health and wellness of state residents. 
It will also pay an estimated $100 million in annual state and local taxes."

Yes, the "BIG ONE" is coming-----Steve Keen (Briefly) Explains Why Janet Yellen Won't See The Next Big One Coming

Steve Keen (Briefly) Explains Why Janet Yellen Won't See The Next Big One Coming | Zero Hedge: ""Conventional economic theory says 'crisis don't happen' unless they are hit by an [outside] shock" exclaims Steve Keen, adding that numerous Nobel Prize winning economists have suggested that "capitalism is stable..." and "the problem of avoiding depressions has been solved for many decades."

But as Keen explains in this brief but extremely succinct interview, they are wrong - and simply won't (or can't) see the next one coming.
"People in the public think economists are experts on money; but, in fact, they are experts in finding ways not to include money, debt, and banks in their models"

And yet, despite their failed forecasts and dismal 'scientific' models, we trust they can enter (and exit) the greatest monetary experiment in history with no bad outcome..."

It's GOVERNMENT dude! Ya think it's gonna be efficient?----------Massachusetts, the model for Obamacare, has highest health costs in the United States

Massachusetts, the model for Obamacare, has highest health costs in the United States | WashingtonExaminer.com:
On Oct. 30, as President Obama was under fire for the botched rollout of his signature health care law, he visited Boston's Faneuil Hall.
It was in that hall in 2006 that then-Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, with a smiling Ted Kennedy by his side, signed a sweeping health care overhaul into law that would eventually become the model for Obamacare.
As with Obamacare, the Massachusetts program (also known as Romneycare), expanded Medicaid, mandated that individuals purchase government-approved coverage, and provided subsidies to individuals to purchase government-designed insurance plans on a government-run exchange.
In his October remarks, Obama used the Massachusetts experience to argue that Obamacare could work, despite what the naysayers claimed.
"All the parade of horribles, the worst predictions about health care reform in Massachusetts never came true," Obama said. "They're the same arguments that you're hearing now ... Care didn't become unaffordable; costs tracked what was happening in other places that wasn't covering everybody."
As Modern Healthcare reports:Yet a new report from the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission reached a different conclusion.
Massachusetts, whose health care reform program was used as a template for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, had the highest per capita health spending in the U.S. in 2009. According to the commission's report, the state spent $9,278 per person on health care in 2009, which was 36 percent higher than the national average of $6,815, and 11.2 percent more than the next-highest state, New York, which spent $8,341.