The Left: Shining exemplars of tolerance

From an article in WND.com by Jeff and Chris Knox.  Full article here.

"Animal-rights advocates launched a vicious social media attack on U.S. Olympic trap shooter Corey Cogdell, just days before the 24-year-old Alaska native’s effort to best her 2008 bronze medal performance in Women’s International Trap. Her Facebook page and Twitter accounts were inundated with comments calling the beautiful young athlete a bitch, psychopath and murderer, and suggesting that she should shoot herself, be used as a target, or be physically assaulted. Some of the commenters went so far as to directly threaten physical violence on Corey, while others stuck to name-calling and expressing their hope that she would fail in her Olympic efforts.
The reason for the nasty assaults is that along with being a world-class trap shooter, Corey Cogdell is an avid hunter and outdoorswoman. Photographs of Cogdell with game she had taken were spread among animal-rights networks along with outrageous claims of animal cruelty and waste. As the hate spread, the threats and viciousness escalated, and the lies grew bigger."

 They're such wonderful, compassionate, caring, tolerant folks, those lefties.  Don't you just want to hug them after reading that article?

Appleseed

For two years I have wanted to do one of these with my kids, and now we have had one dropped in our back yard, almost literally - the club that is hosting it is a ten-minute drive from our house!

What is an Appleseed, you ask?  Some sort of organic fruit growers convention?  A cider-guzzling contest?  No, my friends - it's shooting!  And we are going to hone our marksmanship skills while learning the true story of the start of the American War for Independence.  Two days and 500 rounds worth of firearms fun.  I'll try to get pictures and post an AAR next week.  For now, it's time to get our Liberty Training Rifles cleaned and ready!

If you want more info on Appleseed, go here:  Appleseed

Just a plug - my Club in Eaton Rapids is also holding one this weekend (8/18, 19), but as of yesterday had no enrollees.  If you have an interest and Eaton Rapids is close, sign up!  I don't think it will be crowded.

Consequences of Elections

The more I ponder Chief Justice Roberts' statement that it is not the job of the Supreme Court to protect the people from the consequences of elections, the more disgusted I get.

Justice Roberts - it may not be your job to protect us from ourselves, but it IS your job to protect the Constitution from those who are attacking it.  Thus, you have shirked your oath and your responsibility, while trying to deflect the blame to the voters.  You are a coward, sir.

So I suppose this is the consequence of electing George W. Bush, who gave us this coward.  No, I don't miss George, but I do miss President Reagan.

Sue's Brain

I see I haven't posted here in a while, and this one will be outside my normal commentary topics, but there are a few people here who read my blog that I haven't reached with this news yet.

On Sunday, June 17th, I had to take my wife Sue to the ER with "the worst headache of her life".  What we initially thought was a really bad migraine turned out to be a small hemorrhage in her brain.

She is doing well, and has no physical or neurological impairments, but is still in the hospital recovering from this injury.  I have started another blog to keep folks updated on her progress.  It is at Sue's Blog

Thanks for any prayers you might want to send our way!

First Tigers post of the new season

1. Congratulations to Drew Smyly, who won the battle to be the 5th starter in the pitching rotation.  He brings a much needed left-handed arm to the rotation, and will be considered a success if he can win 10-15 games this year, and keep his team in the game consistently.  Outpitched a couple of guys that were drafted a lot higher than he was.  Just keep it simple and throw strikes, buddy!  There's a lot of firepower to back you up on this team!
2. Brandon Inge.  Count me as one of those who has always hoped he would have more seasons like he did in 2006.  But I have come to realize that as much as I like him, it's time for him to retire, as he doesn't hit well enough to deserve a roster spot.  He has been a consistent .200 to .220 hitter for his whole career, and his defense isn't enough to overcome his lack of offense.  Danny Worth has outplayed him and deserves the spot.  The Tigers were willing to eat Inge's salary last year, and I expect they will be this year too. 

Computer Crash

So I'm sitting at my desk at work last Thursday and my wife calls.  "My computer won't start up - all it does is beep over and over in groups of seven beeps".  This is a computer (a Dell Vostro laptop) we bought in mid-December and already it's failing?  Not good.  Well, at least the next day warranty is good for another 250 days or so.

If you are a techie, you know that beep codes at system start up usually mean some sort of catastrophic failure has happened inside that thing.  So when I get home that night I start researching the problem on Dell's support website.  They say "make sure the RAM, disk drive, and CPU are all seated properly".  OK - this makes sense.  So I follow the very helpful on-line owners manual which I downloaded to my machine at home (which I built myself) and crack that puppy open.  Unseat and re-seat all components.  Reassemble.  Power up.  beep beep beep beep beep beep.  Sigh.  Call Dell.

Now, something else that techies know is that much of Dell's phone support is handled in India, and you hear the horror stories of barely understandable phone reps trying to go through the troubleshooting scripts.  I must say that this was not the case for my call.  While I believe my rep was from India, I could understand him very well, and he asked me good troubleshooting questions (although there are only so many questions to ask when the thing won't boot!).  I may have had a little advantage in that I have worked with a lot of folks from that part of the world so I'm more used to the accent than many people are.  It only took about a half hour to go through the troubleshooting and set up the tech support visit.  I didn't think that was too bad.

I also have to say that Dell's "Next Business Day" service so far has not materialized.  It's mid-afternoon of the following Monday as I write this and I still have not heard from them.  After they didn't call me on Friday I had them change the contact information since there would not be anyone at home to receive them this week.  I hope that didn't reset the counter or this thing might not be fixed until Friday, at the rate they're going.

I'm also quite astounded that this computer has failed so soon.  I have been using and recommending Dell computers of all types for ten years at least (and been through a half a dozen of them myself, including three laptops), and this is the first catastrophic failure I have ever had.  Perhaps the law of averages has caught up to me?   We'll see if there are any more problems with this computer - I hope it isn't a lemon!

So my poor wife is relegated to one of the kid's computers, and trying to work through the web interface for her email, and using OpenOffice Writer instead of Microsoft Word to create her documents.  Well, it shouldn't be too long and she'll be back up again.  I may have to look for some disaster recovery possibilities to get around this in the future.  Hmmm - virtual machines anyone?

Updated to add: The Dell Tech finally showed up on business day 3 and replaced the motherboard.  Everything working swimmingly now!

Romney = More Big Government

Yes, the Republicans have come to Michigan - well, at least Romney and Santorum have.  Therefore, the "vote for me" ads are now saturating the airwaves.

Mitt Romney has one that talks about how Santorum admits he's no longer a deficit hawk and thinks earmarks are a great thing, and we should vote for Mitt because he will get rid of Obamacare, and his test to see if we need to keep a Federal program will be "whether we are willing to borrow money from China to pay for it".

Umm, excuse me Mr. Romney, but isn't it borrowing that has gotten us into the economic mess we're in in the first place?  You're telling me that you are willing to continue to saddle future generations of Americans with huge debt loads?  That's your great plan for reforming the government?  Mr. Romney, that isn't reforming government, that's more of the same.

If your ad is truly reflective of Santorum (which I doubt), then all you have done is prove to me that you are as clueless as he is about what the problems are in DC, and you have no vision for solving them.  Why would I vote for that?

Another example of economically challenged Socialist Democrat thinking

Perusing an article in The Detroit News today reporting that Chrysler is pulling out of talks with the fedgov for several billion dollars in new loans to pay for retooling to produce more energy efficient cars.  It appears that Chrysler is tired of the fedgovs foot-dragging and haggling over the amount of the loans and will finance the retooling themselves out of their own resources.  (Full article here)  To which I say:  Bravo Chrysler!

It seems that the original loan request (in 2008) was for over $8 billion, and the last number for the loans (from early 2012) was reported in the article to be under $2 billion.  The article also mentioned that epic failures of fedgov handouts to companies like Solyndra were a factor in the administrations delays and reductions, especially in an election year.  No surprise there!

Then, reading on, I notice that Michigan's own Sen. Debbie Stabenow was quoted from Jan. 2011 saying the projects Chrysler was working on would save 520 million gallons of gasoline between 2011 and 2015.  And I got to thinking:  How much is 520 million gallons of gasoline?  It sounds like an impressive number, but is it really?

Answers.com tells me that the percentage of gasoline that can be extracted from a given volume of crude oil varies based on the amount of sulphur in the oil, but the best case seems to be around 50%, so it takes 2 gallons of crude to make 1 gallon of gasoline.  So its 1.04 billion gallons of oil to make that 520 million gallons of gasoline.

So then - how many gallons of crude oil does a tanker hold?  Off to Wikipedia for that one.  The largest tankers in the world, the TI Class, hold about 130 million gallons of crude.  So it's 8 trips of one of those tankers to reach the 1.04 billion gallon mark.  Use the largest vessel for the most economic method of transport.

Our friend Democrat Debbie spreads that out over five years, so that's 208 million gallons of crude per year, or less than 2 tankers full of crude oil which would be saved per year by all this federal largesse.  2 Tankers full of oil.  2 tankers.  OK - 1.6 tankers, to be precise.

Friends, this is why socialists should never, ever be put in positions of power. Because to support this kind of spending means one of two things, ultimately:  either they can't do simple math to find out if something they want to do is economically feasable.  Or, they have another agenda in place, to which the economic realities of the universe are secondary.  Well, I suppose there could be a third option:  they're just stupid.

Hmmm.  Wonder which one it might have been here for ol' Democrat Debbie?

Edited to Add a little more math (2/17/12):   At the $3.119/gal price I saw on the sign coming in to work today, that would be $1.6 billion in gas saved over 5 years (520 million times 3.119).  At $3.50/gal it's $1.8 billion.  So the socialists in DC were going to spend anywhere from 2 to 8 billion dollars to save 1.6 to 1.8 billion.  You math-whiz types - tell me if this is a good return on investment or not?

Thank You, Carlos Guillen

Sports Post:  Yesterday it was made official - Carlos Guillen is no longer a Detroit Tiger, after signing a minor-league contract with the Seattle Mariners, the team he broke in with.

Carlos - you were terrific.  You played with heart and passion and you showed up every day.  You didn't whine and complain, you just went out and played where they put you.  And I will always smile when I think of you completely getting into Jeff Weaver's head last year when you hit the homer off him.  That was just wonderful!

I hope your body lets you have a full season this year - if anyone deserves it, it's you.  Thanks for wearing the 'D' with pride and professionalism.

Happy Birthday, Michigan

Quietly celebrating 175 years of statehood for Michigan today, created out of "The Toledo War"

Tigers news: Victor Martinez out for the season

What a kick in the teeth - this guy was money for Detroit last season, and tough as nails.  The perfect guy to hit behind Miguel Cabrera.  So now the question is who takes his place?  Here is the list that the Detroit News came up with, with their 2011 stats:

Carlos Pena, Cubs, .225, 28, 80
Vladimir Guerrero, Orioles, .290, 13, 63
Johnny Damon, Rays, .261, 16, 73
Prince Fielder, Brewers, .299, 38, 120
Yoenis Cespedes (NA)
Carlos Guillen, Tigers, .232, 3, 13

I tell you, if I'm the opposing manager, the only guy I don't walk Cabrera to get to is Fielder.  Maybe Guerrero.  Those other guys hitting behind Cabrera means you are losing a ton of offense, especially since you are then counting on guys like Worth, Inge, and Kelly to be big RBI guys, which they have never been.  The only proven reliable hitter they have in the lineup after the 5-hole would be Delmon Young.  I might still walk Cabrera to get to Young, but I have to think a lot harder about it.

Fielder is an interesting thought even as a 1-year rental.  Since they both play the same position, you could split the defensive tasks between Cabrera and Fielder, and they might both be a little fresher come playoff time.  They both play every day, just one or the other of them plays defense.

I know - that's a crazy and expensive scenario.  But interesting.  And you don't waste a season plugging in utility guys in that spot.  You have to figure VMart's salary this year is covered by insurance, so you might give Fielder 10 or 12 million on a 1-year deal for a shot at the World Series if no one else signs him.

Sugar Bowl proves UM a fraud

Once again, UM shows the world what a fraud they are and how undeserving they were of a BCS bowl bid.  Less than 200 yards of total offense?  Are you kidding me?  Va. Tech handled you guys, but couldn't handle themselves.  Any team with a decent defense can stop the supposedly Heisman-worthy Denard Robinson (as Michigan State has proved 2 years in a row).  There are a couple of nice players there, but please - UM is living on its reputation (which the current crop of guys did nothing to deserve) and nothing else.  They didn't beat anyone substantial and got handled by the better teams they faced.

Fraud-verines.

More Anti-Gun Illogic

I'll let my friend Aaron over at The Shekel say it, because he does it so well:

The Shekel - Coins, Law and Commentary: When Misguided Belief In Magic Regarding Guns Overcomes Rational Thinking

Who are these guys? A Look at OWS.

I'm just spreading the word here, via Lagniappe's Lair (and many others!)

OWS Raw

The Storm Drain of Government

Reading an article today by Eric Fry, and he gave this terrific simile:

The governments of the West have come to see themselves as a financial Army Corps of Engineers — overpowering the course of nature with brute force. They respond to short-term crises with powerful, overly engineered “solutions,” without ever really considering the long-term harm these solutions may produce. Sure, the river doesn’t flood when you transform every oxbow into a concrete storm drain. But diverting nutrient-rich silt away from farmland and into the sea is not exactly progress.

Nevertheless, governments throughout the West continue building their storm drains. They continue to divert essential nutrients away from the private sector and pour them into a bottomless sea of bankrupt governments and failing too-big-to-fail enterprises. In other words, the governments of the West continue to “do more,” when “less” would work just fine.

Friends, we have a century's worth of evidence that government at every level is a bumbling fool when it tries to do anything.  It never solves problems, but only creates bigger problems, which it then tries to fix with even bigger "ideas" that will lead to even bigger failures.  But the common thread through all of it is that taxpayers are expected to foot the bill for these ever-increasing failures without complaining.

Understand that I am not one of the anarcho-marxists currently "occupying" certain parks in several American cities.  I know there is a certain amount of government that is necessary for the orderly operation of society.  Vital records must be kept.  Contracts must be enforced.  Traffic must be regulated.  Property rights must be upheld.  Things of that nature.  But the sort of cradle to grave handout mentality that stifles and ultimately chokes out the God-given creativity and dignity of humanity, not to mention taking every penny from everyone it can just to feed it's Jabba the Hut-like maw - it must be done away with.  I pray that voters realize this in time, before those who don't particularly care for voting decide to do something about it.

Tigers Eliminate Yankees

There is joy in Motown today as the Detroit Tigers eliminated the New York Yankees from the American League playoffs last night.  Lots of clutch pitching against a potent Yankees lineup.  Despite two blowout losses, Tigers pitchers held that lineup to a .260 batting average for the five game series.

Yet, to read the national media today (ESPN and CBS Sportsline in particular), the theme of the day is a requiem for the Yankees, bemoaning their loss rather than the Tigers win.  Because of course, nothing important happens outside of New York, at least in the media's eyes.  Or, in Baseball context, nothing important happens outside of the American League East (or the National League East for that matter).

I sure am enjoying the fact that the two AL East teams, those great juggernauts, the supposed cream of the league, who were going to beat up on those other teams from flyover country, are now both out of the playoffs!  It seems that the East isn't the beast it was made out to be.

So hats off to "Jimmy Smokes" and his band of baseballers - you sure have made it an enjoyable summer, and we who are your fans are looking forward to more baseball wonderfulness as you take on the Rangers.  But whoever wins that series, it doesn't matter, because the Yankees have been vanquished, and there will be at least one non-East team in the World Series.

But I do hope it's the Tigers!

Man is not free unless Government is limited

If you recognized that quote from Ronald Reagan's farewell address, give yourself a gold star. 

Now, many of you might think that this is the start of another rant against President Obama and all the other socialists that are running this country.  Although that would be an obvious and worthy place to direct more criticism, that is not where I am going with this post today.

Instead, I am directing it at Gov. Rick Snyder, and his proposal for the State of Michigan to require doctors to report to the state the Body Mass Index (BMI) of all children in the state.

Friends, this is where elections have consequences.  We all knew that Rick was a fiscal conservative and he has proven that since he was inagurated in January.  What most conservatives were willing to overlook was that he was a social liberal.  A social socialist, if you will.

The Governor appears to have no problem with big government when it comes to meddling in the private lives of individuals in this state.  Why is the business of the government what the BMI's of my kids are?  Of course, the answer from the big government Republicans is "we are paying for health care for a lot of these kids either through the insurance plans of their state employee parents or through the social welfare systems, so we have a vital interest in tracking that information, so we can form our policies appropriately".  Sounds all legal and proper doesn't it?

Well, if that sounds proper to you, then you have bought into the big government lie as well, because you have bought into the mindset that says "the government must provide the social safety net".  Or more broadly, "the government must provide the solution to every problem".  Ladies and gentlemen, this is socialism.  This is nanny-stateism at its most insidious.  It is this mindset that has let us to the edge of social, financial, and political ruin.  And unless we reject this thinking, our country will join all the others in the ash-heap of history who had freedom in their grasp, and traded it off for a bowl of stew named socialism (Gen. 25:29-34).

President Gerald Ford (no conservative, he) had it right in his address to Congress in August 1974 when he said "A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have."  This government, at all levels, continues to take everything we have.  Every right.  Every freedom.  Every dollar.  All in the name of enlarging the scope of its control over everyone.  Though he would never say it, this is what Gov. Snyder is doing.  The government has no business prying into the private relationship between a doctor and his patients, no matter how old those patients are.  Aren't we tired of the same old "it's for the children" rationalization for every new government program or initiative that comes along?  Haven't we learned that that isn't the reason at all?

Friends, this is not our birthright!  Our birthright as Americans is freedom, not slavery!  Freedom bought with blood and sweat and privation and death, because freedom is worth such things.

So no, Gov. Snyder, I don't want you prying into my children's personal information.  You can't know their BMI, their cholesterol, their weight, their music choices, or their reading habits.  You can't have them or their measurements.  My wife and I are the ones responsible for all these things, not you.  And the same is true for every other parent and child in this state.

Of Struts and Chryslers

Two weekends ago I had opportunity to drive my wife's van (a Dodge Grand Caravan), which I don't do very often.  This vehicle is 11 years old, has 155,000 miles on it, and is really starting to show it's age. But it still runs well.  She had been complaining about the front struts not being right and making strange noises, but I had not really driven it to see what she was talking about.

During this drive, which was about an hour of about 80% interstate and 20% surface streets getting to and from the interstate, I couldn't believe how bad it was.  It seemed that every ripple and tar strip in the road was going to bounce me off the road.  I called the mechanic on Tuesday and had it in Wednesday morning first thing.  Well, this began my education in the foibles of Chrysler minivans, circa 1996 to about 2004 (which I think they call "Gen. 2")

Wednesday after lunch the mechanic calls and says that the top strut mount is completely rusted through, and there is no way he can put a strut in there.  This is the spot in behind the wheel well where the top part of the strut attaches to the body/frame of the van.  Of course, I am now having visions of having to purchase a new vehicle for my wife in the next few days.  Then I remember a little tidbit of information I got a couple of months ago.  In my mind this is an example of how God acts in our lives and we don't even notice it.

At that time, we had had several major storms go through in the space of a week or so, and there was some serious water on the road.  My wife had driven home from her mom's after one of these storms, and upon arriving at home told me that the "transmission light" was on, and she was afraid the transmission was failing.  Well, what it really was was the "Check Engine" light, so I took it over to the local auto parts store and had them put their code reader on it to see what was going on.  It was nothing more than an oxygen sensor.  The clerk asked if we had driven it through any water lately (which obviously my wife had during the storms) and said that this was a common thing to happen.  During our conversation he said that he had owned a couple of Grand Caravans and had really liked them, but they had a problem with strut mounts rusting through.  My ears perked up at this and I told him I had a lot of rust on one my mine, and he told me that Chrysler had so many problems with it that they had made a little kit that you could install to fix it fairly cheaply.  Well, I filed that little bit of info away for later use, little knowing that I would need it really soon.  But God did.

So, back to the present, I mention this to my mechanic, and he says he will look into it, and lo and behold the dealer has a kit and so he is going to go ahead and see if it will work.  A day and a half later, after installing the repair kit (which he said worked better than he though it was going to), two new struts (completely shot, fluid completely out of them), a new tie rod on one side, and $1500, my 11 year old van now rides and handles like it's almost new again!  And I'm not making another car payment for the next 4 years!

On Saturday, wife goes out to a friend's house.  She gets back around midnight, and tells me "the (power) window won't close on the passenger side door".  Well, I wasn't going to go out at midnight to try to fix it.  We have already had trouble with these windows, and the drivers side doesn't work at all, but now the other window is stuck in the full down position.  So the next day after church I get on the internet and start searching, and wouldn't you know, Chrysler has had window motor problems with their minivans for a long time as well.  Indications are that it is a problem with the brushes in the motor, but of course you can't just buy the brushes, you have to buy the whole motor.  But I also found out that if you hold the switch in the "up" position while slamming the door, the window will move.  This did, in fact, work, and I was able to get the window up from the fully down and inside the door position to where I could pull it up and help the motor.  Banging on the motor with the handle of a screwdriver helped as well, and I got the window up.  So now the van is drivable in all weather conditions, not just when there is no rain in the forecast!

All I had to spend for that one was about $3.00 for the little door panel fasteners to get the inner panel put back on.

My conclusion is that cars are a pain, but I'm glad I don't have to walk to work.

Family Pride

I have to admit, I have been posting a lot this year about foolishness, stupidity, and downright idiocy, and I didn't want this blog to be all about that stuff, so I have been searching for some positive content that I could post.  And this morning it landed in my inbox.  This is my cousin Isaac (the fiddler) and one of the bands he plays in:

And the amazing thing is, he doesn't read a note of music.  He just makes it!

Al Gore: Eat less meat to fight global warming

From an article in The Politico

Al Gore wants society to ditch meat-heavy diets and go organic to combat global warming.
"Industrial agriculture is a part of the problem,” Gore said Friday during an interview with FearLess Revolution founder Alex Bogusky. “The shift toward a more meat-intensive diet,” the clearing of forest areas in many parts of the world in order to raise more cattle and the reliance on synthetic nitrogen for fertilizer are also problems, he added.

If AlGore is so concerned about "Global Warming" he can do two things today that would have a huge impact:

1. Stop writing and giving interviews to newspapers and magazines.  That would leave more trees available to cleanse carbon dioxide from the atomosphere and turn it into useful oxygen. It would also decrease electricity consumption needed to print his drivel, thus less coal would have to be burned to generate that electricity.  Not to mention all the gasoline and diesel fuel needed to fuel the vehicles that deliver these publications to their readers - lots of CO2 in those exhaust emissions.
2. Shut his fat gob.  That would decrease greenhouse gas totals in the atmosphere by at least 25%

Meanwhile, I'm going to have a steak for dinner this week in Al's honor.

Traffic Stop

I don't know if this is a true story or not, but I think it's funny nevertheless.

True story from a Kansas State Highway Patrol officer:

I made a traffic stop on an elderly lady the other day for speeding on U.S. 166 Eastbound at Mile Marker 73 just East of Sedan, KS.  I asked for her driver's license, registration, and proof of insurance.  The lady took out the required information and handed it to me.  In with the cards I was somewhat surprised (due to her advanced age) to see she had a conceal carry permit.  I looked at her and ask if she had a weapon in her possession at this time.

She responded that she indeed had a .45 automatic in her glove box.  Something---body language, or the way she said it---made me want to ask if she had any other firearms.  She did admit to also having a 9mm Glock in her center console.  Now I had to ask one more time if that was all. She responded once again that she did have just one more, a .38 special in her purse.  I then asked her what was she so afraid of.

She looked me right in the eye and said, "Not a damn thing!"

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.

Pistons considering Isiah Thomas for coaching vacancy

I don't think I have ever posted about the NBA because I don't particularly enjoy the NBA any more.  I kind of follow it from afar just through general sports interest.  So, over the last couple of days in my meanderings through the sports pages, I see that Isiah Thomas is being considered for the coaching vacancy on the Detroit Pistons.

Now, back when the NBA was actually enjoyable to watch - when they didn't have all the strutting, preening thugs that they have today - you had great teams with great players beating each others brains out on the court.  When you think of great basketball teams you think of the Lakers of Jabbar and Johnson, the Celtics of Bird, McHale, and Parrish, and yes, the Pistons of Thomas, Dumars, and Laimbeer.  That was the Golden Age of Baskeball.

I loved watching the "Bad Boys" Pistons teams in their heyday, and I loved Isiah Thomas as a player.  He wasn't afraid of anyone or any situation, and played his best in the biggest games.  His coaching record, however, is less than spotty, and his days with the Pacers and Knicks don't give any reason to hope that he has talent as a coach, or that he can develop a team, especially one that will be rebuilding as the Pistons will be.  He's pretty much been a bust as a coach and as a GM.

Hiring Thomas to coach the Pistons would perhaps bring some positive PR, but it would quickly go downhill once the games were being played.  Please, Mr. Gores - don't start out your ownership of the Pistons with a move like this.  You will end up destroying your franchise.

Congratulations to Mickey Redmond

Former Detroit Red Wing and longtime hockey broadcaster Mickey Redmond has been elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame for his 30+ year broadcasting career.

I love listening to Mickey do color on a hockey game.  He came from a different era, but he understands the game so well and makes it easy for his audience to pick it up too. 

Congratulations Mickey - no one deserves it more.

This person is a Teacher?

Reading an article in today's Detroit News (full article) about protesters at the Mackinac Policy Conference, who apparently held a news conference, which was " organized by A Better Michigan Future, a coalition of about 50 union and public interest groups".  One of the quotes from a teacher really caught my eye:


" 'It can't be possible that everyone really believes that corporations need the money more than children,' said Tammy Hazley, a special education teacher from Sault Ste. Marie Area Public Schools."

Ms. Hazley, let me ask you a simple question:  From where does the money come to pay your salary?  I'll answer the question for you, ma'am:  it comes from taxes.


If, by the tax policies imposed on businesses by politicians to fund schools, libraries, parks, mass transit, subsidized housing, road commissions, police, fire, ambulance, etc., businesses which operate in your district have to downsize in order to remain profitable, how many of that company's former employees are going to be able to pay their taxes?  Especially in an economy like Michigan has had for the last 8 years?

So, if the persons in your school district don't have jobs, they move away.  Or they stop paying taxes because they have lost their homes from forclosure. How much revenue is coming in from those people who aren't paying taxes any more?  How much tax revenue is being generated by that company you want to raise taxes on which has had to cut its operation to the bone just to stay alive?  Is that tax revenue amount more or less than it generated when times were good and its operations were expanding?  And how many more people will it have to lay off if you increase their tax burden?  And what effect will that have on the tax base in your district?  Not to mention the amount of tax revenue not being generated by the companies that have already gone out of business.  But by law we still have to educate their kids.

So in light of these economic realities, and your expressed desire to have yourself in a classroom to teach students, isn't it in your best interest, Ms. Hazley, to see that those corporations that give people in your area jobs so they can buy houses and pay taxes [edited to add] are successful and thriving?  You really need to let go of the socialist claptrap you have been taught during your time in the Public Schools and step into the real world.  Because socialism doesn't work.  It never has and it never will.

Now - why are you on Mackinac Island protesting instead of being in your classroom teaching?  Did you take a vacation day, or did you call in sick?

Granholm Tweets Arnold: keep ur pants zipped

Full quote: "Another guy guv admits 2 cheating on his wife. Maybe we need more women governors. Guys: Keep ur pants zipped, for Pete's sake."

So Professor Granholm of UC Berkeley weighs in on the apparent moral superiority of women over men.  I guess she was too busy screwing up Michigan to engage in that other sort of behavior.

Frankly Ms. Professor Granholm, your Governorship isn't exactly one to be held up as a shining example for the rest of the country to emulate.  You and Arnold are running neck and neck in that regard.  We sure don't need more Governors like you, Professor, be they male or female.

I Voted

Today I voted to tell Virg Bernero no, you can't have any more of my money.  I need it more than you do.  You have streets to resurface- I have a roof to resurface.  You have Police to pay for - I have $4.29 gasoline to pay for.  Somehow I have to find a way to pay for that on my current income - so do you.  So cut the fat, put off purchases, sell off assets you don't need (like some of those school buildings you've closed), and all the other things that we poor peasants have to do when times are hard.

Edited to Add:  By a slim margin, Lansing voters rejected the tax increase proposed by Mayor Bernaro.  Frankly I expect to see an increase in "Impeding Traffic" speeding violations issued to try and make up the shortfall.  Nobody gets any points, but the City gets $120 or so each.

New Big-10 Division Names

I have to agree with Lynn Henning, whose headline in the Detroit News today reads:  Time to ditch ‘Legends,’ ‘Leaders’ for more logical Big Ten division names

From day 1 the current "Leaders" and "Legends" names have been completely lame.  The Big-10 should have asked for their money back from whatever marketing firm came up with them.

I actually like Henning's suggestions:  "Great Lakes" and either "Great Plains" or "Heartland"

You know it's a slow sports day when...

... one of your top headlines is "Long Snapper Daly commits to Notre Dame".  (From the ESPN Website today)

Monica Conyers wants to finish out her prison sentence at home

Former Detroit City Council member Monica Conyers wants to finsh out her prison sentence for bribery at home.

Now you might think I would be all indignant about this, given the arrogance and deceitfulness this woman has displayed over her time in public office, and I must admit that I did have these thoughts at first. But upon reflection, I think maybe Monica has come up with something here. Let me 'splain.

It is well known that Michigan has a fiscal problem, and there isn't as much money as there used to be for stuff like prisons, so perhaps as a cost cutting move, we can let felons like this just go home. Then we don't have to pay to feed and house them, and we don't need as many prison guards to watch over all these prisoners.

This could even be bumped up to the federal level. Let all those criminals go home! I'm sure they won't cause any problems for anyone, or commit any more crimes. They'll just go out and find jobs and become productive members of society.

Thanks, Monica! That's a really helpful idea in these days of governmental money problems!

Four More Years!

The Peaceful, Compassionate, Altruistic Left

As embodied by the teachers unions.  This excerpt from an article in today's Detroit News entitled "Tougher teacher no-strike law pushed" shows how the left uses logic, peaceful dialog, and uplifting art to argue their point:

Acrimony over school funding played out Tuesday in controversy over the MEA's Facebook page and its image of Snyder with satanic stars, red eyes and blood spatter.

The photo appeared to have been posted on March 11, according to Michigan Capitol Confidential, an online news agency run by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a conservative think tank.

The agency alerted the MEA to the photo on Tuesday morning, and it was removed minutes later.

Ken Braun, managing editor of Michigan Capitol Confidential, said his staff had noticed even before discovering the photo that the tenor of comments posted on the page had grown remarkably harsh in recent days.

Folks - these are the people who have control of your kids for 180 days a year over 13 years.  Think about that for a minute.  13 of the most formative years your kids will have in their entire lifetime are spent with people who for the most part think that drawing demonic horns and blood spatters is an acceptable way of expressing themselves.

Is it any wonder that people home educate their kids more and more these days?

High Capacity Freedom

In the aftermath of the Tuscon shootings earlier this year, there is lots of heat being generated these days in the hallowed halls of Congress over a renewal of the "high capacity magazine" ban. (Thanks again for nothing, Bill Ruger). This article by Rabbi Dovid Bendory gives logical reasons why high capacity magazines are essential. Not that gun banners care about logic.

Link to the original article: http://jpfo.org/rabbi/five-reasons.htm

Minutes before lunatic Jared Loughner began his mayhem in Arizona, the issue of a Federal high capacity ammunition magazine ban was a complete political non-starter. Obama didn’t go near it when he had Democratic majorities and he certainly wouldn’t have tried it after the election rout of 2010. High cap bans were simply not possible. Add to this the pro-self defense victories in the U.S. Supreme Court’s Heller and McDonald decisions, and the door to magazine bans seemed both locked and barred … perhaps even welded shut for good.

And then came Jared Loughner. And the gun grabbing vultures circled and landed. We now face a replay of the hysteria that brought us the so-called “Assault Weapons” Ban (and the included magazine bans) of the Clinton years. The act of a single madman has struck a blow against the Second Amendment that all the gun grabbers combined have been unable to strike. Please think long and hard on this irrational state of affairs.

Today, the most common plaintive question you hear from the victim disarmament crowd is: “Why would anyone need a high capacity ammunition magazine?” Note that the emphasis is always on the word “need”.

So-called “gun control” has always used semantic deception. What the gun confiscators want to do is apply “needs” to situations that more accurately require “wants”.

No one “needs” a seat belt. After all, 99.999 percent of your driving time you don’t “need” a seatbelt. You only “need” a seat belt during an automobile crash. Do you want a seatbelt? Of course! No one would even debate this issue.

To a greater or lesser degree, the same goes for property insurance, fire extinguishers, spare tires, life jackets, and first aid kits, to name just a few things.

So with this in mind, here are five good reasons that you should WANT a high capacity magazine.

1. Multiple assailants. Whether on the street or during a home invasion, violent criminals often move in pairs or packs. Realize that you will never shoot as well as your score at the range when you are under the unbelievable stress of a life-or-death encounter. Which would you prefer to have in your magazine in such an event? Ten rounds? Or fifteen or seventeen? Or perhaps even 30?

2. Private citizens always face the threat before the police arrive. Private citizens were on the front line at Tucson, Columbine, and Virginia Tech. Why limit our effectiveness?

You should logically want whatever cops choose to carry. How many cops choose a ten round magazine? If politicians want to hinder us “little people” with a ten round limit, they should also hamper the police with the same limit. Let’s see how far that flies.

In nearly every instance it is not a cop on the “front line” of a violent situation. It is private citizens who must face the “lone gunman” until (and sometimes even after) the police arrive. See Dial 911 and Die. Is the life of a policeman more important than yours?

3. Civil disturbances. Watch the Reginald Denny beating video some time. Review the looting insanity of Hurricane Katrina. You’ve got a crazed mob of ten, twenty, or fifty people headed in your direction. Are ten rounds enough? Might you want fifteen, or seventeen, or even thirty? 

Oh, and while you’re at it, perhaps bring from memory those Los Angeles Korean store owners standing guard on the roofs of their businesses with semi-auto AKs during the Rodney King riots. No one messed with those stores, did they?

4. Because it is your most fundamental right as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, and, more importantly, as given by G-d A-lmighty: the right to the righteous defense of yourself and the innocent. “Shall not be infringed” simply means what it says. When politicians infringe on magazine capacity, they infringe on the Second Amendment. You should want a high cap mag because you can have one! 

This is America, not a socialist nanny state or tin pot Third World dictatorship. The saying “use it or lose it” is never so relevant as when applied to our Bill of Rights. See "2A Today for the USA"

5. Your assailants may well be armed with high cap magazines themselves. No ban will affect these criminals; it will actually encourage them. Do you really think the gang bangers care about federal laws? Again, ask the local cop why he or she won’t “downgrade” to a ten round mag to go along with this feel-good idiocy. Ask the pols why they don’t think the cops should do so.

These are just a few of the reasons for WANTING (not “needing”) a high cap magazine. In the spirit of JPFO’s recently launched “High Cap Freedom” campaign, go out and buy one or more high capacity mags for your pistol or rifle today.

Always remember, the present drive towards a ban might fail, but all it will take is “Loughner II” (another convenient “crazed lone gunman”) to drive the hysteria machine to victory for the gun grabbers. Get your high cap magazines before any ban can take place.

“Because your life is too precious to risk running out of bullets.”

Rabbi Dovid Bendory
Rabbinic Director
Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership
(http://jpfo.org)

Continuing Irresolution

My frustration with this whole continuing resolution mess in Washington is summed up by freshman Rep. Lankford (R-OK). In an interview with Radio America, Rep. Lankford defends the continuing resolutions with the statement "We're cutting 2 billion per week". Well, let's do a little math, shall we?

The first number we need to know is 14 trillion. That is the commonly accepted total budget deficit right now (not that I believe that, but for the sake of argument we'll use that number). The second number we need to know is 104 billion. That is 2 billion per week times 52 weeks. That is the amount that will be cut from the deficit if Rep. Lankford's pace continues. So what percent of 14 trillion is 104 billion?

Let's start with an easy one to show the formula. What percentage of 100 is 50? We all know it's 50%, but how do we do the math? Well, we make a fraction. The bottom number (the denominator) is the number we want to determine the fraction of, in this case 100. Then we put the other number on the top of the fraction (the numerator). So in this case, the fraction is 50/100, which can be said as "fifty over one hundred" or "fifty one-hundredths".

All you sixth-grade math students can see that we can reduce this fraction by asking which numbers can be evenly divided into both numerator and denominator. I can see several: 2, 5, 10, 25, and 50. I'll take the largest to eliminate steps, so 50/100 becomes 1/2, or "one half". We all know that "one half" is fifty percent.

It's easier to show it in decimals, so we would express our 50/100 in decimal notation as .50 - fifty one-hundredths. To express any decimal number as a percent, you multiply it by 100 which is the same as moving the decimal point two places to the right, which gives you 50. - that is, fifty percent. This is how we calculate batting average, save percentage, winning percentage, all kinds of things.

So using this formula with our actual numbers, the equation is 104,000,000,000 (that's our 104 billion) over 14,000,000,000,000 (14 trillion) which comes out to .007428571429 according to my handy-dandy Casio calculator (and Microsoft Excel confirms it). Multiply that by 100 to move the decimal point for our percentage, that gives us .7428571429 percent. Let's just round that off and say .74 percent.

Folks, that is three-quarters of one percent. Less than one percent. Or put it another way: for every $100 of deficit, Rep. Lankford and his colleagues are cutting seventy-five cents.

All this wrangling, all this speechifying, all the meetings and arguments and proposals and interviews - all for a lousy .74%. This is beyond appalling, beyond disgusting, and bears a passing resemblance to a great heaping mountain of male cow excrement. Only much, much worse.

Rep. Lankford, let me remind you and your fellow freshmen why you were voted into office last November: GET CONTROL OF WASHINGTON'S EXCESSIVE SPENDING!!!! With this kind of crapola you are spewing publicly, you are showing yourself to be no better than the one you replaced. YOU ARE NOT DOING YOUR JOB, SIR! GET WITH THE PROGRAM OR WE'LL FIND SOMEONE WHO WILL TO REPLACE YOU IN 2012!

Let me help you out. You have set your goal way too low, obviously, so let's give you a new goal by taking your original yearly goal (104 billion) and make it your weekly goal! That would lead you to cutting 5.408 trillion by this time next year. That's over one-third (38.6%) of the deficit in one year! THAT would be a much more worthy goal for you!

I'll go even farther for you. Here's a list of programs that could be cut completely from the budget:

Dept. of Education
Dept. of Commerce
HUD
Dept. of Interior
Dept. of Homeland Security

And here's a list of those that could be cut drastically:
IRS
BATFE
Transportation

That's just a start, Congressman. I'm sure you can come up with some more.

Public Sector Unions Explained

Energy

If we would have started drilling in ANWR when we first found the oil there, we wouldn't be having $3.55 gasoline prices today.

I'm just sayin'.

And we're going to lose at least two more years until we get someone (and more like a lot of someones) in Washington who will not cave in to the enviro-socialists.  And then it will be ten year (or more probably, since the eco-weenies litigate what they cannot legislate) before we see the first tankful of gas produced from oil out of ANWR.

You know - Congress can limit the jurisdiction of the US Courts...

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.

"Romney tops state GOP poll on presidential hopefuls"

This is the headline from The Detroit News today.

From the article:  "Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, was the first choice of 28 percent, followed by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee at 15 percent."  Romney?  And Huckabee?  Are you kidding me? 

This is why Michigan Republicans drive me crazy - they keep on voting for losers who have no clue.  Romney, who created and passed through the Massachusetts legislature the model legislation on which Obamacare is based?  Really?  He's a guy to bring fiscal sanity to the US?  And Huckabee, who never met a legislative solution to a problem that could better be solved in the private sector that he didn't like?  And who releases murderers so they can go out and murder again?  He's the smaller government guy you like?  Hope you're prepared to lose again, folks.

Yes, it's early.  No, there isn't much to choose from right now.  But nearly a third of you Republicans think Romney is a better choice than a bag of hockey pucks?  And 45% of you would vote for either one of these two over said bagged rubber?

I sure am glad I'm not a Republican any more.  I would be embarrassed.

Winter Fun

My daughter went sledding with her church youth group last Saturday.  I think it was about 10 degrees, and the wind chill around zero.  Fahrenheit, that is.

Granholm to teach at UC Berkeley

So reads the headline in The Detroit News today.

First:  THANK GOD THAT WOMAN IS GONE!!!!  Now we might actually make some headway with our economic woes here in Michigan, since we have someone in the Governors office that actually understands how to make economic decisions based on reality instead of some fluffy leftist utopian academic brain fart.  Which means she'll be right at home at Berkeley, where that sort of thing happens daily.

The article goes on to say that she will teach in their Public Policy school.  She's certainly qualified to teach what NOT to do in terms of Public Policy.  But again, this is Berkeley we're talking about, so she'll probably be the darling of the department.

And finally, the article reports she will be a "paid contributor" to NBC's Meet the Press show.  This fact tells you all you need to know about NBC.  Well, I guess the whole country is going to see the incredible ignorance we have had to put up with in Michigan for the last eight years.  Have your barf bags ready everyone.

Congressional response to Giffords shooting

First things first:  my fervent prayers and best wishes go out to Rep. Giffords and her family, as well as the families of those wounded and killed by this piece of excrement.  None of them deserved what happened to them, and the piece of crap that did it needs to fry - with extreme prejudice.  And yes, I'll say it:  I'll volunteer for the firing squad.

As for the reaction of those in Congress, I am a little disturbed by the haughtiness of those who believe that they need more protection for themselves in the wake of this attack.  I say if they can afford it, they should absolutely hire more security for themselves out of their own means, not that of the taxpayers.  Otherwise, they can live under the same laws and in the same environment they have set up for the rest of us to live in.  If DC is a gun-free zone, then those laws need to apply to them too.  If their district does not allow for "shall issue" concealed carry permits, then they shouldn't have any special privileges for self protection either.

They have created this little slice of utopia - they need to live it it like the rest of us do every day.

Sometimes, I just shake my head

Working at a major state university, "political correctness" and "diversity" are a part of the daily landscape.  But today my email contained one that just caused me to facepalm.  I was reading an email conversation from a Listserv I belong to for network administrators on campus, and one of the topics was whether or not there were a list of email addresses from our SAP implementation project, so they could be put into what is called a "whitelist" on a departments email server.  For those who don't know, in the email server world, a "whitelist" is a list of email addresses that are always allowed through, while a "blacklist" is a list of addresses that is never let through (usually because they are known spammers or attack sites).

So one guy gets on and requests that everyone use the terms "allow lists" and "deny lists" because of the racial connotations that are attached to "whitelist" and "blacklist".

I don't understand why otherwise intelligent people continue to subscribe to destructive philosophies like "diversity", which is not about equality and inclusion, but about divisiveness and exclusion based on external physical characteristics that no one can do anything about.  It pigeonholes people based on these characteristics, it makes broad assumptions about what they think and how they think based on these characteristics, rather than promoting understanding and reconciliation.

I have been through all the seminars and heard all the slogans and experienced the attempts at indoctrination over my twenty plus years at this institution, and it has always revealed itself as a philosophy that is empty of meaning and substance, promoting of strife, and frankly rather paranoid.

Not for me, thank you very much.

FIND BANE

This is Bane.

Bane is a tracking dog with the Michigan State Police, working out of the Alpena Post in northern lower Michigan, and he is lost.  On November 13, Bane and his partner, Trooper Jamie Bullis were out looking for a dementia patient who had wandered away.  They were in very dense brush and because of that Bane was working off-lead.  During the search they kicked up a deer which crossed his path within a couple of feet, and being a dog, Bane took off after the deer.  That was the last time he was seen.

If you are reading this and know anything about where Bane might be, please call 989-354-4101 or 989-734-2204 
Here are Bane's web and Facebook pages 
www.findbane.com
www.facebook.com\findbane 

I'm officially sick of all this Nick Saban talk

Well, MSU is going to face Alabama in the Capital One Bowl on New Years Day. It's been official for less than a day and already I'm sick of the storyline being MSU facing it's old coach Nick Saban - football's version of Larry Brown.

Friends, the story here is a team who was picked to finish seventh in the Big Ten having an 11-1 season and getting a share of the conference championship, not a guy who coached here ten years ago (or whatever it was).

Lions: Nate Burleson Guarantees Win this Sunday against 8-3 Bears

Hey Nate - you guys are 2-9. You have no cause to be guaranteeing anything. Just shut up and play. You and the rest of those knuckleheads on your team. Just shut up and play. No chest thumping, no first down gestures, no end-zone celebrations, no sack dances. You guys have not earned that right. Your team has sucked for 40 years - it takes more than a single catch or a single sack for you to celebrate anything. Just give the ball back to the ref and go back to the huddle and do it all again until you win the game. Then celebrate.

I know you haven't been around for any but this year's edition of sad-sack football, and I certainly don't blame you for all that has (and hasn't) happened with this team, but please - less talk, more walk.

Government Gropers

I've been stewing about this for a while, but didn't know quite how to articulate what was wrong with what is happening.  I happened on this article while reading another blog, and it spells out very well what is wrong with what the Government Gropers (aka "TSA") is doing to people.  It's written by a former police officer.  May I particularly point out his response to the "if you don't like it, don't buy the ticket" argument.

http://thewarriorclass.blogspot.com/2010/11/tsa.html

News you can Use: Laptops Cooking *ahem* Testicles

Well, I'm past the time when this would be a concern for me, but for the sake of all my nephews, I'm posting this today.

Scorched scrotums: Is your laptop cooking your testicles?

Scientists warn of sterility concerns after testing temperatures of nether regions

Whoever invented the 'laptop' probably didn't worry too much about male reproductive health.

Turns out that sitting with a computer on your lap will crank up the temperature of your nether regions, which could affect sperm quality.

And there is little you can do about it, according to the authors of a study out today in the journal Fertility and Sterility, short of putting your laptop on a desk.

The researchers hooked thermometers to the scrotums of 29 young men who were balancing a laptop on their knees. They found that even with a lap pad under the computer, the men's scrotums overheated quickly.

"Millions and millions of men are using laptops now, especially those in the reproductive age range," said Dr. Yefim Sheynkin, a urologist at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, who led the new study.
"Within 10 or 15 minutes their scrotal temperature is already above what we consider safe, but they don't feel it," he added.

So far, no studies have actually tested how laptops impact men's fertility, said Sheynkin, and there is no bulletproof evidence that it would. But earlier research has shown that warming the scrotum more than one degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) is enough to damage sperm.

Under normal circumstances, the testicles' position outside of the body makes sure they stay a few degrees cooler than the inside of the body, which is necessary for sperm production.

"I wouldn't say that if someone starts to use laptops they will become infertile," Sheynkin told Reuters Health. But frequent use might contribute to reproductive problems, he said, because "the scrotum doesn't have time to cool down."

According to the American Urological Association, nearly one in six couples in the US have trouble conceiving a baby, and about half the time the man is at the root of the problem.

Both general health and lifestyle factors such as nutrition and drug use can influence reproductive health.
However, Sheynkin said tight jeans and briefs are generally not considered a risk factor.

"Clothes should not significantly change scrotal temperature, because you are moving around," he said.
To hold a laptop on your knees, however, you need to sit still with your legs closed. After one hour in this position, the researchers found that men's testicle temperature had risen by up to 2.5 C.

A lap pad kept the computer cool and also made sure less heat was transmitted to the skin. But it didn't do much to cool the testicles, and might give "a false sense of security," according to Sheynkin.
"It doesn't matter what pad you use," he said. "You can put a pillow beneath your computer and it still won't protect you."

As it turned out, leg position played a far bigger role. When the men sat with their legs spread wide -- made possible only by placing the computer on a large lap pad -- they could keep their testicles cooler. But it still took less than 30 minutes before they began overheating.

"No matter what you do, even with the legs spread wide apart, the temperature is still going to be higher than what we call safe," said Sheynkin.

Belkin International, Inc., which sells lap pads and other electronics accessories, did not wish to comment on the new findings.

Dr. James F. Smith, a urologist at the University of California, San Francisco, cautioned that a clear impact of laptop use on fertility had still not been shown, and that it probably didn't play a big role.

Still, he added in an e-mail to Reuters Health, heating up the scrotum is likely to be bad for sperm production. He often asks patients that he sees for infertility if they use a laptop and, if so, suggests that they spread their legs periodically or place the computer on a desk.

Dr. Smith said the consequences of continued overheating of the testicles -- so-called scrotal hyperthermia -- probably weren't permanent, but might take months to go away.

"When interested in maximizing fertility potential," he advised, "minimize harmful exposures, eat a healthy diet and exercise regularly.

Boy, these test subjects sure gave their all for science.  I wonder if the researchers monitored what was being viewed on the laptops while the temperature changes were being measured!

It's time for a Lions post

I haven't done one in a while, so at the halfway point, here goes.

1. Expectations were on the upswing for the team entering this year after another good draft and some good free agent pickups, and you can see the progress that has been made.  However, they still shoot themselves in the foot in ways almost unimaginable.  This weeks game was a perfect example:  two penalties on center Dominic Raiola for illegally shifting the ball.  Three penalties for chop blocks.  An absolutely inexcusable personal foul on Julian Peterson (who should know better) for hitting the ballcarrier out of bounds on the final drive, giving the Jets the field position for free to kick the field goal to send the game to overtime.  And Drew Stanton doing what he has been doing since he played here at Michigan State - making a boneheaded play at a crucial time to give a game away.  This time throwing an incomplete pass on third down to stop the clock late in the fourth quarter when the most important thing to do was run off as much of the clock as possible before giving the ball back to the Jets.  How long have you been playing football again, Drew?
2. How far can Matthew Stafford take this team when he can't stay on the field?  His talent and ability are obvious, but he's only played in 50% of the games in his first two years.  Shaun Hill isn't the long term answer, but is fine as a backup.  Stanton's contract is up after this season - he should be allowed to walk and another QB found to develop, in case Stafford isn't the answer.
3. There should be no excuse for the Lions not making the playoffs next year.  They have good players, they need to play up to their talent level now.

Important Rule of Warfare

This is a 2-part rule.  The first part is to know who your enemies are.  The second is to know who says they are your friend, but they are not. 

In the war to reclaim the Republic, it is easy to know who the enemy is:  Democrats, plain and simple.  There is not one of them that is interested in cutting the size and scope of government.  There is not one of them that is interested in actually being constrained by the Constitution (although they will twist it to their own purposes at every opportunity).

The second is not so easy.  They will rejoice at our victories.  They will say the right things.  They might even do things that we think are right, or that we agree with.  But their aim is to accumulate power for themselves, not to take away the unauthorized power of the government.

So how can we recognize them?  There are a couple of indicators I can think of off the top of my head.

1. Long-term incumbancy, or career politician.  This is not a complete indicator, because there are some long-term incumbents that get it.  These tend to be ones who had a successful career outside of politics before running for election.  Barack Obama never held a real job before he got elected.  A community organizer is a politician-in-training, funded by some Foundation or another.  It produces nothing tangible and serves no one but itself.  Ron Paul had a successful medical practice before he ran for Congress.

2. Uses the word "reform" rather than "eliminate".  Slogans like "we need to reform healthcare/Wall Street/Banking System/Education/etc." flow from his lips, rather than "we need to eliminate the Department of Education/Death Tax/Earmarks/Obamacare/etc."  This indicates a basic conviction that government involvement in every aspect of our lives is a good thing, and that their plan to control people is better than the enemy's plan.  Folks, neither plan is acceptable - you are just changing slavemasters, not gaining your freedom!

I know there are more indicators - feel free to add to my list.

RIP Sparky Anderson

The Tigers, and all of baseball, lost one of the great ones today. Sparky Anderson died at age 76.

That's two beloved legends we Tiger fans have lost this year.

Apparently, my image from The Detroit News was moved. Sorry about that folks.

To Conservatives Everywhere

Today is the first day of the war to save the Republic. Yesterday just defined who is going to be on the front lines. Conservatives - we are the logistical train that keeps them supplied with ammunition and sustenance during the war. We are Rosie the Riveter. We are the Merchant Mariners. We are the stevedores in the ports. We are the doctors in the hospitals that heal them when they are wounded and weak. We can't leave them there to be chewed up by the enemy - we have to support them, cajole them, kick their butts, yell at them, plead with them, and do everything we can to keep them pressing forward against the leftist, marxist tide. We cannot fail them, for if we do we fail not only ourselves, but our posterity.

Oh, I miss this man