OW

I just hit my head really REALLY hard.

Hello? Anyone?

Fridays usually suck around here, so I suppose Fridays before a holiday suck even louder.

Is this blog on?

Christopher Hitchens has some recommendations for the Left. Here's my favorite:

Isn't it time to revive the demand that homosexuals be allowed to wear the uniform of the U.S. military? This was once the united cry not just of all gay organizations but of a wide liberal consensus that helped elect Bill Clinton. How can such a thing have been so vital and yet been so hastily dropped? Surely the slogan should be "Now More Than Ever"? Our enemies are torturing and butchering gays whenever and wherever they find them (as are some of the militias who claim to be our "friends"), and meanwhile the American establishment is not just denying gays the right to join but actually firing those who have joined. (I am thinking in particular of the Arabic and Persian translators, fired by a CIA that can barely read English, let alone any Middle Eastern language.) Which Republican will dare resist?

"Gays in the military" has become a forgotten battle-cry ever since the left has decided they'd rather they had the right to walk down the isle together.

Of course, if my neighbor's behavior is any indication of what a gay man might do in the face of danger ...

H/t: Karol

Friday Catblogging

Cats that look like Hitler.

H/T: Maggie.

Dumbest Dog Ever (sorry Missy)

images
Originally uploaded by Carinroz.

Pictured here is a Chihuahua; the dumbest dog on the planet. In the past, as I have mentioned, I have be accosted, while walking my German Shepherd, by a pair of Chihuahuas that live on the next block. You do the math - if that little dog gets within eating distance of my dog, it's gonna get hurt. The dogs have run out from their back yard at Greta, and twice they have even run across the street to "fight" my dog. Before, I had always managed to get enough distance between Greta and the stupid snack. Until yesterday.

That stupid dog came running out, and I had managed to get Greta into the street, but the dog continued to chase us and started nipping at her hind legs. That was not to be endured, and Greta turned and gave that dog something to think about.

I really do hope that the dog was ok. But, even more I hope that dog learned something.

And, as if yesterday didn't totally suck enough, at the end of the walk, a PIT BULL (which wins for ugliest dog ever, and qualifies for Stupidest pet to own, but that really should be awarded to the owner) broke its CHAIN LINK to come after Greta. It was like a mouth of knives - that's the view I got of the hideous beast. I screamed myself horse for help, but the (gay) guy who lived next door was too busy running the other way. A young man did come to my aid. His sexuality will not be questioned.

* Missy is my cousin's wife, who owns a pair of Chihuahuas. I'm sure yours are nice, and would never attack a dog 20 times their own size. And, if it would, then I'm sorry because your dog is stupid too.

Sure, Fateh ....

This from Reuters:

MULTAN, Pakistan (Reuters) - Fateh Mohammad, a prison inmate in Pakistan, says he woke up last weekend with a glass lightbulb in his anus.

Wednesday night, doctors brought Mohammad's misery to an end after a one-and-a-half hour operation to remove the object.

"Thanks Allah, now I feel comfort.

Yes, thanks be to Allah for that, I'm sure.

Mohammad, who is serving a four-year sentence for making liquor, prohibited for Muslims, said he was shocked when he was first told the cause of his discomfort. He swears he didn't know the bulb was there.

"When I woke up I felt a pain in my lower abdomen, but later in hospital, they told me this," Mohammad said.

"I don't know who did this to me. Police or other prisoners."

Yes, tell me another one. Matter of fact, let me know - what does Mohammad (PBUH) say about sticking things up your ass? You may have another sentence coming up.

Grrrr

I just went postal on a postal employee. And, I could do a bit more.

GRRRRRR.

My dog has never chased or bit or otherwise bothered that damn lady. Yet, if the dog is even OUT when she she anywhere near my block, she will complain. I try to keep the dog in totally until she delivers the mail. I even sat outside, this morning, while she did her business in the back yard to insure there was no trouble.

Yet, today, I get a visit. I was polite for a while. A pretty long while, actually. But, then it got to me and I snapped.

Riiddle me this

I can burn the American flag, and it's protected as freedom of speech. But, what would happen if I burned this flag?

From Comments

I read over the weekend that the fine public educational system of Detroit graduates under 50% of it's students.

If you're going to get snarky about the quality of public education, you might not want to use "it's" when you mean to use "its."
Marc | 06.27.06 - 7:53 pm | #


Well, Marc, I did go though the Detroit Public school system. What can you expect?

AND FOR THE RECORD, my blog isn't a dissertation. I have been known to post without editing very closely. Big deal. If your only comment is regarding the grammar of my blog, then spare me.

And, I do I live in the City of Detroit. The horrible condition of the public school system should be an embarrassment to all of its (see, I caught it that time) citizens. Graduation rates are estimated to be as low as 27% - that would be only ONE of my five children graduating from high school, if statistics were borne out by my family.

And, not only do they suck academically, but the corruption that exists is astonishing. Just today, this article came out.

The Detroit Public Schools must repay nearly $1 million to the federal government after an investigation found officials misspent money earmarked for increasing parental involvement in low-income schoo

My favorite example? The five flat-screen TVs that were purchased, but aren't actually IN any of the classrooms. Where do you think we'll find those tvs?

Good Luck with that.

How many days do you think Cynthia McKinney is going to last?

Hilarious

Because conservative talk-show hosts have no right to privacy. Isn't it just the funniest?. You know, because he's a right winger, and he can't get it up.

I'll tell you what's really funny? Incontinence. Every time I see an older person buying depends, I just laugh and laugh.

In New Orlean; Fear the Drag Queen

I really don't know what my favorite part of this story is :

“A couple weeks ago, a group of them was outside and one looked like the guy who came in here and ripped us off so I locked the door on them,” Celino said. “I know maybe that’s rude, if they really were innocent people, but there’s nothing else we can do. You look like the queens who ripped us off so I’m sorry but I have to lock the door.”

Ogle and Bonga say they regret being forced to resort to such profiling but they feel they have no other choice. The transvestites, Ogle said, appear to be drug-addicted and fearless in their lust for designer shoes, jackets and jewelry.

“The city’s not functioning the way it was and I’m sure a lot of them were getting some kind of government aid, which they probably aren’t getting any more so they’re incredibly desperate,” Ogle said.

You must fear the drug-addicted transvestite, driven by lust for designer shoes, jackets and jewelry.

I know, it's not funny. It's not.

Thanks River Rat

Detroit is #12.

And, I read over the weekend that the fine public educational system of Detroit graduates under 50% of it's students. Let's give those teachers a raise.

Story I Missed Over the Weekend

Holy Crap! Over the weekends, I read my local paper front-to-back, but generally skip any other sources. Anyone have any guesses as to why this story didn't make a blip:

The Aksa Martyrs Brigades announced on Sunday that its members have succeeded in manufacturing chemical and biological weapons.

Those would be the Palestinians.

According to the statement, the first of its kind, the group has managed to manufacture and develop at least 20 different types of biological and chemical weapons.

The group said its members would not hesitate to add the new weapons to Kassam rockets that are being fired at Israeli communities almost every day. It also threatened to use the weapons against IDF soldiers if Israel carried out its threats to invade the Gaza Strip.

"We want to tell [Prime Minister Ehud] Olmert and [Defense Minister Amir] Peretz that your threats don't frighten us," the leaflet said.

As a commenter on Aces's site (who gets the H/T) called them: Stupidest people on the planet.

Friday Catblogging

DSC00577
Originally uploaded by Carinroz.

That's funny, I don't remember planting that in the garden?!?

Essential VDH

On why it's depressing to be a jihadist:

How do you arrange a marriage, insist on a beheading for adultery, conduct a proper honor killing of your daughter, or calmly call Jews “pigs and apes” when the wider Westernizing world broadcast into your living room, car, and workplace thinks you are some groveling zombie? Can an Airbus or Compaq be constructed according to the principles of Sharia? How can you demand amoxicillin as your birthright, but hate the system of free thinking and rationalism that created it? Does the Islamist despise equally Chinese internet pornography; does he issue fatwas against South Korean video games; does he ostracize Latin American evangelical Protestants, or burn down Bollywood? In the short-term maybe; in the long-term it is not so easy.

And this:

A Cindy Sheehan or Noam Chomsky still resonates with a minority of the public because he can; thanks to Western capitalism and freedom, both jet at will around the globe, live comfortably, and count on the tolerance of the Western bourgeoisie society that they so roundly condemn. But should the Islamist endanger that comfortable embryo — as they almost did on 9/11 — then folks like these would be as quickly forgotten as were Neville Chamberlain and Charles Lindbergh by 1941.

Yes, a little VDH was exactly what I needed this Friday morning.

It's quiet in Mitchieville

The Mayor lost his father; Mitchieville: Goodbye Dad. I'm so sorry for your loss.

The doofus I am, I just read it today.

The News They Don't Talk About

I heard this story last night on Fox. You'd think it would make somewhat of a splash, seeing as though the "Where are the WMDs?" has filled the mind of everyone questioning and criticizing the president for the last three years.

Since 2003, coalition forces have recovered approximately 500 weapons munitions which contain degraded mustard or sarin nerve agent. Despite many efforts to locate and destroy Iraq's pre-Gulf War chemical munitions, filled and unfilled pre-Gulf War chemical munitions are assessed to still exist."

Yes, it was pre-1991, but so what? Saddam was supposed to destroy them, and he didn't; he hid them, and lied about it.

Of course, I had to go online to read more about this story, since not a whiff can be found in my local paper, The Detroit News. Not even one of those small blurb-paragraphs stories in the "World Briefs" section.

There is a huge story about the murder charges against the seven Marines and a sailor.

Of course.

Update: heh.

A funny

Jenna Thomas-McKie: You know, I thought it was just me

I know, I know

So just shut up about it. Did you read that link I posted yesterday? Funny stuff.

It's already been done

And, much funnier than I could ever do. Go read How Not to Blog #38. It's a classic.

Apparently

My only limitation is time.

How many...

short meaningless posts can I put up?

Nothing here folks

Keep clicking along.

I'm a pimp

Manolo says ...

don't wear these shoes.

Are her 15 minutes up yet?

Mother Cindy goes to Canada:

A group of American military deserters publicly embraced their new lives in Canada on Saturday with the support of "peace mom" Cindy Sheehan, who said she wished the son she lost in Iraq was among them.

"I begged him not to go to Iraq," the anti-war activist said through tears at a rally in support of the former soldiers, who wore black T- shirts emblazoned with "AWOL." "And I wish he was standing up here with these people because he didn't want to go."

Sheehan was making her second visit to Canada in support of sanctuary for those fleeing the U.S. military. The Canadian government has so far denied political asylum to U.S. soldiers who have sought it but appeals are pending.

"They're trying to deport me," said Darrell Anderson of Lexington, Ky., who arrived in Canada by way of Niagara Falls in January 2005. He spent seven months in Iraq with the Army's 1st Armored Division and received a purple heart following a roadside bomb attack before deciding during a leave he would not go back.

"When I was in Iraq, we were killing innocent people for oil. It was obvious they didn't want us there," said Anderson, 24, who is petitioning to remain in Canada.

The gathering at a park in the town of Fort Erie, across the border from Buffalo, N.Y., was organized by peace groups on both sides of the border.

About 20 former U.S. soldiers, referred to as war resisters, have applied for refugee status in Canada. Organizers estimated there may be as many as 200 soldiers in the country who have not yet sought formal protection.

"They say we're traitors, we're deserters," said former Marine Chris Magaoay, 20, of the Hawaiian island of Maui. "No, I'm a Marine and I stand up for what I believe in, and I believe the Constitution of the United States of America is being pushed aside as a scrap piece of paper."

I'm all for Canada keeping Cindy and the treasonous, sound-bite-informed, AWOL military personnel.

Today's the big day

Now, if I could only get the web-cam working, you would all be able to see how incredibly buff I am. Since I'm having technical difficulties, I searched the web to find a photo of someone who closely approximated my general appearance; NSFW. Granted, she is wearing a see-through slip, and I'm completely naked, so you'll just have to use your imagination for the rest.

Other naked bloggers:

Dustbury
Miriam
Matt
Lides and Statistics
Diana
Airforce Wife
Curses and Chrome
Armadillo Online
Metaphor Voodoo

Blog-Nekkid Day is tomorrow!

Prairie Biker has the low-down.

Although, i don't know how much there is to it. I mean, you blog, while naked. All day. I'd advise a towel for your chair, especially if you have a vinyl seat.

Important announcement

Just moments ago, I spotted a hummingbird in my front garden.

Certainly, this isn't as big as Jason Leapold's breaking news for the past month, but it was a big moment for the entire household.

Breaking: ROVE not indicted

And the left is silent.

Truthout has been so far ahead of the news cycle on this story, they are apparently reporting from Mars. Where they still stand by their story.

On God

Francis Collins, the scientist who cracked the human genome code, on finding God:

“I was very happy with the idea that God didn’t exist, and had no interest in me. And yet at the same time, I could not turn away.”

His epiphany came when he went hiking through the Cascade Mountains in Washington state. He said: “It was a beautiful afternoon and suddenly the remarkable beauty of creation around me was so overwhelming, I felt, ‘I cannot resist this another moment’.”

Personally, I always feel closest to God when I'm out admiring his handiwork in nature.

Collins joins a line of scientists whose research deepened their belief in God. Isaac Newton, whose discovery of the laws of gravity reshaped our understanding of the universe, said: “This most beautiful system could only proceed from the dominion of an intelligent and powerful being.”

Although Einstein revolutionised our thinking about time, gravity and the conversion of matter to energy, he believed the universe had a creator. “I want to know His thoughts; the rest are details,” he said.

Science and God. Compatible. Unless you view Newton, Einstein, and Collins as intellectual lightweights.

Gross

At least my dad got his kidney from a known source.

Go AWAY, TTLB

One day it calls me a "Flappy Bird", the next it's saying I'm some sort of an insect. I hate the cursed thing, but the last time I tried to delete it, I crapped up the blog.

Garden shot

DSC00573
Originally uploaded by Carinroz.

Yesterday, Blue Girl suggested I needed to go hug a tree. Silly, I don't hug trees (at least when people are watching), but I do like to dig in the dirt.

Not an overabundance of things flowering in this shot, but good things come to those who wait.

The Celebrations Begin

Those crazy kids over at atrios are already celebrating the death of Al-Zaraqawi. From the 8:13 open thread, since there is no post regarding the event :

Nothing will change, war will go on, gas prices will rise, stock market will keep heading south. This is all bullshit!
-----------------
NPR is fucking orgasmic over the alleged demise of al Zaarqawi
i mean, hour upon hour, interspersed with occasional bits of GOPuke lore...
jeezisFUCK!
------------------
Bread and carcuses.
Should make the sheep happy.

So, being a sheep, I AM happy. Sheep people celebrate the capture, or demise, of people who behead other people. Who videotape, and celebrate to their God such acts. I'm sure Nick Berg did a little dance somewhere (although his father is still probably blaming Bush.)

So, the question is, how long is it going to take for someone to "question the timing?" I believe it will go something like this:Kind of convenient to have such a victory right when the Haditha story is getting hot. They probably knew where he was all along, and were waiting for when they "really needed" his death to get something else off of the headlines. You know someone is going to say it. Who will it be?

Update:: more fun with comments:

Won't make one wit of difference in the civil war going on there.
Zarqawi was our boy, protected by Bush before the war, promoted as a terrorist rock star during the occupation.
He's like a Jordanian Ziggy Stardust.

And, DING DING DING, we have a winner :

Oh, and isn't the timing on this thing rather fortuitous for the Bushies? The big story last night was Spector whomping on Cheney. We won't be hearing any more about that tonight, I imagine.
B1 Bummer |

Sure, I was wrong as to what/how "the Bushies" would benefit from the timing of the story, but I believe the comment did capture the spirit of my prediction.

Update II: Here's a good one from Kos:

long live Zarqawi!!!

By my reckoning he's been dead for years.  Great photo-op though.  But what news are they trying to keep hidden from us?

The best that liberal bloggers can manage is a grudging admittance that his death is a good thing, quickly followed-up by a pronouncement that his death means nothing because there are thousands more anxious to replace him. Totally ignored is that the U.S. military was able to find Zarqawi because the Iraqi people have had enough. This from Iraq the Model:

In the first official confirmation, PM al-Maliki said that Jordan has provided intelligence that was used in the raid on Zaraqwi's hiding place but he also stressed that tips from locals were the primary lead to Zarqawi's exact location and these were the information according to which the missiles were guided.

Al-Maliki said that among the 7 killed with Zarqawi were two women who were responsible for collecting intelligence for the al-Qaeda HQ cell.

I'll prepare myself for the criticism sure to be coming, that women were killed during the raid. Perhaps they were even mothers.

Blood Money and Haditha

I know, The Nation has already declared that we have enough facts to make the assumption that there was a massacre in Haditha, but what say you that we actually wait until the entire story is revealed before we start shooting Marines? This excellent article dispels the myths being reported regarding "eyewitness" accounts of Haditha, as well as explaining how the of paying "blood money" in Arab-tribal culture may fit into this tale:

The logic in the British case [ed: another case where foreign troops were accused of a crime] and possibly in Haditha is simple: If the coalition did not have a fight with the insurgents, the deaths would not have occurred. The deaths cause a loss in the resources of the tribe. The tribe cannot file a claim with Zarqawi--he might chop their heads off--therefore it is the coalition that owes blood money. In the eyes of tribal people such as Haditha residents, this debt is owed regardless of who actually killed the 24 people in Haditha or the circumstances of those deaths. The payment of blood money is not an admission of guilt; it is a balancing of tribal obligations.

What tribal Iraqis would understand as blood money has in fact already been paid by US military representatives in Haditha. According to the May 31 New York Times payments totaling $38,000 were made “within weeks of the shootings” to the families of 15 of the 24 dead.

In the rush to declare that Haditha is another My Lai, may the facts be damned.

(I wrote this earlier, but for some reason it wouldn't post.)

Cinderella Man

Being way behind the curve on these things, I just watched Cinderella Man last night. Man, Hollywood must really hate Russell Crowe or something, because they wuz robbed. Of course, I really think this is the reason it received little recognition from the Academy.

James J. Braddock (Russells' character) wasn't gay, or transgendered; there wasn't even a gay person in the film. He didn't cheat on his wife, or do drugs, or commit a racially motivated crime. He was merely a man down on his luck, who didn't blame anyone, and fought to keep his family together. How boring is that?

Hitchens: Comparing 'Nam to Iraq

Not one to mince words:

I, for one, will not have them insulted by any comparison to the forces of Zarqawi, the Fedayeen Saddam, and the criminal underworld now arrayed against us. These depraved elements are the Iraqi Khmer Rouge. They have two methods of warfare. One is the use of random murder to create a sectarian and ethnic civil war—perhaps the most evil combination of tactics and strategy it is possible to imagine. The other is the attempt to alienate coalition soldiers from the population.

Even before the fall of Baghdad in 2003, Saddam's foreign minister, Naji Sabry, wrote a memo about how to combat the increasing fraternization between advancing Americans and Iraqi civilians. Send some suicide bombers to the scene, he recommended, and force a wedge between the two. The Americans would then learn to distrust anyone who approached. As with the foul policy above, the awful thing about this charming policy is that it works.

And, of course, the media and the anti-war movements plays along perfectly. The term "useful idiots" comes to mind.

Question

How does one get a yard in which every blade of grass is dead, yet the weeds are green and growing tall? If I can get the courage to snap a picture of such a yard (it's not mine, it's a few blocks from my house), I'll slap it up here. It's really amazing.

The clock is ticking

It has now been 34 minutes that my son has been whining, crying, and yelling about the fact that we are going to do school over the summer.

Updates to follow.

Update I (11:24) : Son #1 did his free reading, then resumed whining. BIG whining. Now, he's resorting to negotiations. Why do they think this is up to negotiations? Son #2 did all his stuff sans whining.

News you may have missed

Massacre in Iraq. I mean, Freedom fighters resist being overtaken by the 21st Century.

Terrorism in Canada.


UK Times smears U.S. Marines. Sure it wasn't intentional.

On Haditha

So, everyone has to wait. I don't care what Murtha said; he isn't exactly the best friend of the military (I know, he was IN the military, and decorated, but he's spent the last 30-plus years in Washington, so he's more of a politician now). Neither am I concerned what Wesley Clark says. What makes Murtha and Clark the authority, the inside scoop, on all things military? Because they have a contrary viewpoint, they must be speaking truth to power regarding Iraq. Heck, we could make my BIL the go-to guy on military information on Iraq, who was actually IN Iraq for a year.

We don't know, what we don't know. I prefer to have faith in our troops, presuming innocence while the wheels of justice turn. W. Thomas Smith Jr. has an interesting article in NRO detailing the stress of combat, and the methods used to prevent events such as those alleged at Haditha. Command may have broken down, and atrocities may have been committed. But, the pieces missing from this story may be pivotal. In a war where the "enemies" wear no uniform, innocence is not easily determined. Especially in the fog of war.

John Temple Ligon, a former Army Ranger officer and artillery forward observer in Vietnam, says that, while he does not condone the killing of 24 civilians, he cannot condemn the Marines, either.  “Chances are, whenever a roadside bomb kills a Marine or a soldier, there are nearby civilians who saw the installation of the bomb and the concealment of the bomb, and the civilians operated at a safe distance when the Marines rolled by,” Ligon tells NRO. “In South Vietnam, I saw soldiers lose their feet, legs, and lives as they walked over land mines hidden in the rice paddy berms. The civilians were planting rice at the time nearby, but never near the mines when the soldiers walked by. They, too, knew exactly where the mines lay.”

Are those who watch a roadside bomb being installed, and then stand off to watch while our servicemen get blown to bits "innocent?" I don't have a good answer to that.

Additionally, some troops on the ground say they are increasingly coming under fire by armed children: a sign of desperation and recruiting woes for the terrorists, but an additional challenge for infantry and special operations units who must confront them.

“This is not new, in war or the Middle East, but seems to be a new trend in Iraq,” says former Marine infantryman Robert L. Rohrer, who claims to have seen “several statements” indicating there is much more to the Haditha story than has been released.

It would be nice if a few more people in the U.S., the media and Murtha especially, could join us in that assumption of innocence. Otherwise, why not just hang them now?

Update: one last thing. The biggest problem with the "Presumed guilty" approach taken by Murtha, and the media, is that it blinds people to any future revelations. HADITHA ATROCITIES gets burned into the psyche, and if (or when) facts later support their innocence, or at least mitigating circumstances that make it a tragedy, but not necessarily a crime, the assumptions (by liberal pundits, Randi Rhodes, Wesley Clark, and Mother Sheehan) is that there is a cover-up. Certainly the Marines are not innocent - BushitlerRovian war machine merely managed to manufacture evidence. I can guarantee that will be the tact taken by terrorists in Iraq. And Randi Rhodes.

Update II: Exhibit A:

Enough details have emerged from survivors and military personnel to conclude that in the town of Haditha last November, members of the 3rd Battalion, 1st regiment perpetrated a massacre.

There you go, we have enough details. Let's hang 'em high! Or, is The Nation one of those "extreme" sides we shouldn't be listening to?

To Detroy the Earth

Rush read this a while back. It's a hoot.

Whatever might have happened at Haditha

We did not do this. BlackFive has the response politicians should have regarding the incident at Haditha.

The difference between the right and the left regarding instances of possible military scandals, is that the right hopes they are untrue, while the left hopes the opposite. Never mind that this would mean that innocent people were murdered, because it would support their political position.

If Haditha went down as Murtha proclaims, it would give advantage to the Democrats this year. If it's only sorta true, well, then they can give it the Abu Gharib treatment; massage the facts, repeat the message over and over again until it's taken as fact. If it's totally untrue, well that won't matter either: Al Gore really won the 2000 election; Bush carved a fake turkey; peeing on Korans in Gitmo. Doesn't matter that not one of these things are true, they still get repeated.

Truth. Facts. Reality. All tangled together by journalists with an agenda.

No no NO!

Yesterday, Detroit City Council voted 8-0 to rename the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel the "John Conyers Jr. Tunnel." The resolution was proposed by Monica Conyers, his Councilwoman wife, who got into office with the help of her husband's congressional staff to campaign for her. And to babysit their children.

But, like all good Democrats, no one cares when corruption points to them. Or hypocrisy. Papa Conyers votes pro-NEA (he has a 91% rating by them) and anti-Vouchers, yet speaks truth-to-power where his own children are concerned: the Conyers send their kids to an exclusive private school in the suburbs.

In one of the most shameful acts for a man who touts himself as a champion for the downtrodden, Conyers accepted turkeys from a food bank a few Holidays back, which he was going to disburse to the needy. the needy, apparently , were in his office staff.

Among the achievements of his 20 terms in the U.S. House (can anyone say term limits?), is Conyers plot for Reparations. He first introduced his bill H. R. 40 in 1989, and says he is going to continue to introduce it until it's passed into law. Of his bill he says this:

But reparation is a national and a global issue, which should be addressed in America and in the world. It is not limited to Black Americans in the US but is an issue for the many countries and villages in Africa, which were pilfered, and the many countries, which participated in the institution of slavery.

You mean, the African villages which sold the slaves to the traders? The African villages which were pilfered by waring factions?

Another reason that this bill has garnered so much resistance is because many people want to leave slavery in the past - they contend that slavery happened so long ago that it is hurtful and divisive to bring it up now. It's too painful.

I'll tell you who doesn't want to leave slavery in the past, Jesse Jackson, John Conyers, and countless others, who have used racial politics not as means to make the world a better place, but for self advancement.

As embarrassed by and opposed to I am to Conyers, the finally analysis is that the Detroit city Council is a bunch of jackasses who spend way to much time on stupid, irrelevant things. Perhaps they should concentrate on the failing schools and the breakdown of inner-city society which corrupts Detroit from within. Or, they could spend some time eliminating the mounds of the red-tape that stands in the way of business.

Nah, that stuff sounds way too complicated. Let's just rename a tunnel.