DETROIT:Candidates for council?

Sticking with the Detroit theme I was initially overjoyed that there were so many good looking, young and seemingly intelligent people running for the Detroit City Council. The old council was filled with people like Monica Conyers that will ne off to jail for selling her vote as well as other twits with big mouths but little brains.

The shocking revelation that appeared recently and so close to the elections was that many running for the council were either in foreclosure on their homes or owe back taxes to the city, state and federal government. The obvious question was that if these people are such poor managers of their personal finances, how can they possibly be responsible for the finances of a city in deep trouble?

Another obvious question was that if they are so hard up for money, won’t they be ideal targets for bribes like the previous council members?

Some of the candidates tried to paint their troubles as normal for the average Detroiter which actually made them more sensitive to the troubles of the average Detroiter – huh?

These are people running for public office because the office is a paying job and they will get as much out of that office as they can. In other words, they are looking at making some money and living large at the taxpayer’s expense and not trying to help a city in trouble.

I am having trouble with this whole scenario and so are the local papers which for the first time in my history have rescinded their endorsements of certain candidates – wow – what a fine mess!

DETROIT: Kwame was back for awhile!

I don’t know if anybody has been following the continuing saga of our former mayor Kwame Kilpatrick but after he did his jail time he ran away to Texas to live in the lap of luxury thanks to a bunch of rich white guys who thought he would never be forced out or are hoping he will be back like he said he would and grant them all the favors they paid him so handsomely for.

The idiot was back in town for a court hearing as to why he is not paying back to the city the money the court said he needs to pay back; 1 million dollars.

On the stand he basically played dumb and said he has no money even though he lives in a mansion and drives luxury vehicles. The court can either buy into his bullshit or throw him back in jail – we shall see.

What caught my eye was a statement he made to a reporter outside the courtroom. He said that all men will understand when he says that he needs to keep his lady satisfied by buying her expensive stuff to please her. He actually said this with some seriousness so I had to believe that he was honest in what he said.

Now, since he cheated on his wife with every woman that came by his office, I wonder why he now needs to please his “woman” so much; is it a pay back that she is demanding for sticking around or is this another culture thing that I am not familiar with?

Dave Bing the current mayor is so good, so business like, so honest and so determined to save a city that he did not even come from but just played basketball in that the difference between him and Kilpatrick is almost blinding even though they are both black.

The election next Tuesday will show if Detroiters are serious in their desire to survive and improve or are they fundamentally like Kilpatrick, living in and trying to preserve a corrupt and incompetent black political urban culture that should have died a long time ago; we shall see…

UNIONISM: Ford needs to kick ass!

Today, Ford Motor Company realized that the UAW workers at its plants are not going to ratify a new contract requested by the company; contract UAW leaders have endorsed.

Ford, which did not go bankrupt and is not receiving any federal bailout dollars would like to be on an even competitive playing field with GM and Chrysler who did go bankrupt, received federal bailout money and could then re-write their UAW contracts to help them be competitive with the foreign car manufacturers.

What Ford UAW members are telling their company is that GM and Chrysler can have favorable UAW contracts but Ford, because it is doing better than GM and Chrysler, cannot? Ford workers want Ford to be uncompetitive with other manufacturers and therefore fail because their cars will be priced above the competition to cover their higher labor costs. Ford UAW workers believe like they always have, that Ford is in business to provide them jobs and not to build and sell cars.

My socialist wife thinks this is fine since the Ford workers deserve what they can get from a company that is being run well. She has no concept of the big picture and the fact that Ford has to remain competitive or they will die and all those high paying UAW jobs will die with them; UAW leaders understand this but the rank and file is having trouble grasping the concept.

This whole issue pisses me off to no end and I think Ford needs to make a hard move to quash this union blackmail once and for all. Times have changed FOREVER and cushy union auto jobs do not exist and never will again; there has been a sea-change in auto manufacturing and the Ford workers need to be shown the new way or the highway.

GM and Chrysler are licking their chops in anticipation of Ford falling behind in cost control so Ford needs to make a big decision here; they cannot survive a prolonged strike or is that the only way to make the union come to their senses. The UAW cannot afford a strike either but Ford may want to force them into a strike to bankrupt them.

This is a historical time for Ford. Allan Mulally has been great at stewarding Ford through this treacherous time but now may be his finest hour and I hope he is up to it. He cannot give in or the company will falter. I hope he has the balls to castrate the union once and for all!

FACEBOOK: Self censorship?

Some time ago I linked my blog to my Facebook page; yesterday I unlinked it.

Since some of my posts are controversial and may offend, I was writing fewer and fewer posts and I can blame that on a lack of time but also on restraint on my part because of the people on my Facebook page and my not wanting to upset them even though originally, I thought I would bring a different perspective on the issues I write about.

One person on my Facebook page is actually a priest so I thought that may be a good thing to see if he would comment on my religious views but no such luck.

I still will link a blog or two to Facebook if they are neutral like vacation comments or of local Detroit or Michigan issues.

Am I a chicken shit or a little too sensitive in doing this self censorship? Maybe and I promised that in my later years I would let it all hang out. I will have to examine my feelings on this issue a little more…

RELIGION: Catholics, Anglicans and Episcopalians!

I heard something interesting coming out of the Vatican recently that attracted my attention and that of many others. The Vatican announced that it is opening its doors to all those disaffected with the Anglican Church (Episcopalian in the U.S.). It is welcoming even those priests that are married and with children even allowing them to keep their beliefs and traditions; they will have to go through some “re-training” though.

At first read, I thought that the Vatican has found a way to ease its priest shortage. Those Anglican priests who are most disaffected do not agree with their own church’s rulings allowing women to become priests or gay people to become priests or even allowing same sex marriages to be performed. In essence, the Vatican would get the staunch conservatives they so desire.

This is not unprecedented or shocking news because Pope Paul II opened the door to Anglicans in 1980 and there has been an on-going dialogue between Rome and Canterbury about joining the two churches for many years. If you remember, Henry VIII broke with the Vatican and started his own church in England when the then Pope would not grant him dispensation to marry over and over again. Essentially, it became a Catholic church with the king or queen of England as head instead of the pope.

On the surface, this appears like a shrewd move on the part of the Vatican, making the most of the turmoil in the worldwide Anglican Church but I see it as a fundamental division, schism if you will, among Roman and close to Roman Catholicism.

Many Catholics left their church to join the Anglican Church because they could not longer stomach the Vatican’s conservative and in many cases, preposterous positions on religious and social issues but they still wanted to maintain Catholic ceremonial traditions they grew up with; the Anglican Church was perfect for them.

Now those Anglicans that want to maintain their conservative positions have an opportunity to maintain those positions by joining the Roman Catholic Church; it’s just a big switcheroo.

Pope Benedict has not tried to hide the fact that he wants to wash the liberal stain of Vatican II right out of the church. He wants to take the church back to the dark good ole’ days of smoke, mirrors and superstition and there are many Catholics and Anglicans that prefer it that way even to bringing back the unintelligible to most, Latin language as the language of the mass; it adds to the mystery and solemnity of the mass when you can’t understand the incantations.

The questions many are asking have to do with priestly celibacy and the fact that if you want to become a Catholic priest but want a wife and kids, all you have to do is become an Anglican priest, marry, procreate and then convert to Roman Catholicism.

A very interesting situation to be sure…

LIFE: The cycle of life

At the end of September I made a trip to Tampa, Florida. It was hotter than hell out there but the trip was not a vacation trip. I was visiting my aunt and cousin; the last U.S. relatives from my father’s side.

My aunt was diagnosed with late stage lung cancer and my wife thought we should visit before we go on our Maine vacation; just in case. We had a great visit. Took her to the beach, ate at her favorite restaurant, walked around the block, all, as it turned out, for the last time; she died a few days after we returned from Maine.

People of my generation, the baby boomer generation, are in life positions where they may have elderly and needy parents or relatives (mother 87 / father-in-law 92) on the one hand with young and needy grandchildren (and children in some cases) on the other.

Many generations obviously have been in similar positions but this time is different because I am in that position.

People my age (62) can start receiving Social Security, some have retired, some, like me, are semi-retired, some have to work full time to make ends meet but, I think, we are all aware that we are deep into the second half of our very finite life.

If you keep busy which most of us are, you may not give life longevity a second thought but I feel many of us do allow the thought of an ebbing existence to brush against our consciousness once in awhile.

My aunt’s passing and my visit with her, looking over old family photos, gave me pause. We all will have to evaluate our lives and grade them as to what we intended and what we accomplished at some point and if we had to do it over, what would we do different.

My nephew interviewed me about my military service and my decisions at that time for a school project he had to do. He asked if I had to do it over again would I have done something different. My thinking was that I was part of a generational movement, some went one way and others went a different way. In my case, it turned out to be the right way for me although at 18, I doubt I was giving anything much thought.

VACATION: Bar Harbor, Maine / Fall Colors

Instead of just going up north to our condo in Charlevoix to see the fall colors, we decided to do something a little different; we journeyed to New England, more specifically Bar Harbor, Maine to see their fall colors and to munch on fresh lobster.

We have never been there so it was a true adventure for us. The weather was in the 50s and we were lucky to have sunshine most of the time.

Bar Harbor is actually located on an island (check your map) which also happens to be Acadia National Park.

We drove the loop roads around the area, we hiked small mountains and around ponds (small lakes) and perched on the rocky cliffs that make up Maine’s coastline. We also took boats out into the bays to learn about lobster and crab fishing and view mansions of the rich and famous perched on top of rock formations. We took the most pictures of any vacation so far (500+) because every where we turned – another photo op!

The village of Bar Harbor was quaint with one or two cruise ships in their harbor on a daily basis which deposited hundreds if not thousands of people in the small village. Lucky for us, most ship passengers were whisked away by tour busses to explore the area and did not interfere too much with our adventure.

We ate a lobster dish every day (as we intended) everything from lobster in a kind of hot dog bun to lobster enchiladas and lobster pizza. We even visited a real lobster fishing village to get the full feel and flavor of the area.

We will now bore our relatives with all those pictures…