"I'm Ready for Hilliary"

Seen on bumper sticker last night. 

Friends, nobody has any cause to look down on or sneer at Detroit any more. Why?  Because the whole country is willing to do to itself what Detroit did - elect corrupt and incompetent leaders who drive us to insolvency and collapse. 

Kwame: Kilpatrick says Bing 'has a problem connecting with people'

Full Article Here

This headline in The Detroit News today.  Here are a few quotes:

"Economic development was the best it had ever been when I was there".
"City services worked better when I was there"
 And one of the reasons why the current mayor is not doing well: "they're talking about the old mayor every week."

Mayor Bing may well have a problem connecting with people.  But clearly, Kwame has a problem connecting with reality.

Kwame - just go away and leave Detroit alone.  She is better off without you there.

Glen Beck and Detroit

I'm hearing and reading news reports of Glen Beck's rant comparing Detroit to Hiroshima, but I didn't hear the rant myself.  Most of the Detroit media is huffing and puffing about how horrible it was and what a jerk Beck is and Detroit is coming back, you just wait.

I have to ask Detroiters - what do you expect?  People have been down on the D for years.  Don't you remember "Murder Capital of the World" for all those years?  And frankly, you don't have a lot going for you right now.  Do you think Mayor Bing would be wanting to consolidate neighborhoods and move people around and create "Urban Farms" if there was much of a chance of recovering your former glory?  It's time to face reality, folks.  Your city sucks.

I was talking to a friend of mine that grew up in Royal Oak, a city right on the northern border of Detroit.  He hasn't lived down there for probably 25 years, but was back recently to take his daughter to Childrens Hospital.  He said he can't believe the decay since their last trip to the hospital about 3 years ago.  Neighborhoods that used to be nice are now nasty.  Not like it was when he was growing up.

The last time I was down there was in 2006.  My wife and I spent the weekend there at the Renaissance Center, which happened to coincide with Game 1 of the World Series which the Detroit Tigers were playing in.  We didn't go to the game, but we did walk around the area of Greektown and Comerica Park during the afternoon before the game.  Certainly it had been spruced up a little bit for the game, but I remember looking around and seeing all the buildings that had no tenants and were already decaying.  I remember thinking how grim it looked outside the stadium district. 

I would truly love to see a true revival of Detroit's fortunes because frankly that city has been dragging down the rest of this State with all of its problems and corruption and racist knucklehead politicians at every level.  But I don't see much hope for that because they keep electing the same kinds of politicians and running the place out of the same socialist playbook they have used for the last half century.  Where has that gotten you, Detroit?  Be honest with yourselves.

So when Glen Beck or anyone else goes off on you, don't get all self-righteous and whine about how mean and unfair the remarks were - use it as a motivation to effect real change.  More of the same will get you nowhere and you'll drag the rest of us down with you.

Why Detroit will continue to FAIL

Once again The Paul W. Smith Show provides fodder for this blog. (I really need to meet Paul W. one of these days to thank him for all this stuff.)

Paul was interviewing Mayor Dave Bing this morning about the shooting death of a Detroit police officer, and Mayor Bing was doing a commendable job of talking about what happened with the class and dignity he is renowned for. If he would have stopped there I would have nothing but praise for him in performing this most difficult of mayoral duties. But then he veered off into the hackneyed liberal blame-speech that does nothing but make inanimate objects responsible for the problems Detroit faces. It was the old "we need to get handguns off the street" line.

Ladies and Gentlemen, if Mayor Bing feels the need to trot out these foolish old arguments, it merely reveals him as another in the line of "same old thing" politicians that have driven Detroit into the mess it's in over the last half-century or more. His worship of the usurper Barack Obama (also on display in this interview) merely adds more evidence that supports my contention.

To Mayor Bing (one more time): Inanimate objects do not cause crime. Inanimate objects do not commit crimes. People commit crimes. People use knives, fists, baseball bats, wood chippers, rocks, bricks, and tire irons to kill people - not just guns. They have been doing so for the six millenia of human history, and they will continue to do so as long as this world continues to exist.

To the People of Detroit: as long as you continue to elect clueless individuals to lead your city, you will never recover. Remember the common definition for insanity: doing the same thing over and over but expecting different results.

Finally, as the son of a Police officer, tragic events like this mornings shooting always hit home with me, and my heart and my prayers go out to the family of the slain officer. News reports indicate the officer leaves behind a wife and 10 year old son. I never thought about my dad going off to work one day and never coming home when I was a kid, but this young man gets to live with that reality for the rest of his life. If you are the praying sort, please remember this family before God today.