MICHIGAN GOVERNOR: Only Rick SNYDER will do...

Our candidates for governor of Michigan are very wide apart as far as the polls are concerned; Bernero (D) is trailing the Republican candidate Snyder by a very wide margin.

Bernero won his Democratic primary only by attacking his opponent Dillon who proclaimed to be an avowed pro-lifer with no circumstances where an abortion would be legally allowed. Well that sealed Dillon’s fate as Bernero hit him with everything he had and Dillon, who led early on, drowned in his own stupidity, believing that Democrats are now somehow anti-choice.

Bernero, knowing that abortion is still such a hot issue in Michigan, brought it up again (in desperation?).

Snyder, who calls himself a businessman and is running to help Michigan’s economy and job’s market, is after all a Republican. Early on, Snyder said that he will not delve into social issues because that is not his primary focus; he would not act on social issues such as abortion.

As a matter of policy, he reiterated that he is pro-life in principle (who isn’t) but believed abortion is and should be allowed in cases of rape, incest and if the woman’s life was in danger.

I am an avowed pro-choicer but I will accept Snyder’s stance on this issue wholeheartedly and will absolutely vote for him in November; he is the best hope Michigan has.

As for Bernero, he will attempt every desperate tactic to turn the tide against Snyder but he will fail. Dillon would have been a much better candidate against Snyder since he was a businessman also and has a record of bi-partisanship unlike Bernero who is a life-long politician (no real job). Too bad Dillon was so stupid on the abortion issue; who was his advisor?

Bottom line, I respect Rick Snyder for making abortion a non-issue which it is and for sticking to what is important for Michigan.

I recommend SNYDER for governor!!!

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TEA PARTY: Are they the answer...

I have been reading a lot about the so called TEA PARTY movement to kind of gauge what, if any, influence the party may have on the November elections.

It is no secret that most of us are fed up with our government and our political parties and there is a general mood among voters to basically throw the incumbent bums out and replace them with someone new and fresh and not tied so tightly to their respective party ideologies.

Tea Party candidates that are receiving financial help from unknown sources present a quandary. They are new, inexperienced and hold a variety of political views. They run as Republicans in primaries against established Republicans who they deem to have lost their Republican core beliefs; small government, no new taxes and cut spending to a bare minimum.

Karl Rove, the Republican guru is livid. He feels these Tea Party upstarts are ruining the political plying field for “real” Republicans. He called Christine O’Donnell who defeated an older, established Republican running for his senate seat in Delaware, a loony and if you heard her talk, you would agree with that characterization. Hey, Sarah Palin supports these people so that should tell you a lot about their character.

Democrats feel the Tea Party is good for them because they make easy targets in November but I am not so sure; they resonate with a lot of people that are exited about the upcoming elections and want a real change and they WILL vote.

Right now, the Tea Partiers are all about the economy. They follow Friedrich Hayek (1899-1992), an Austrian born economist that championed the free market and capitalism against socialism and the policies of John Maynard Keynes who favored massive government intervention in a nation’s economy.

I can go along with that but underneath the economic positions they hold lies a pretty solid conservative social agenda and this is where I would have some issues.

I have just noticed that Mayor Bloomberg of New York City, a nominal Republican, is positioning himself for a possible run for the presidency in 2012 as a moderate willing to back both Democratic and Republican moderates as opposed to extremists on either side; I could back a person like that!

Maybe more people should run as independents or maybe a third party should come into being. I guess what I am saying is that I am sick of both Democrats who can’t get their shit together or the Republicans that have no plans of their own but just say NO to everything and I am looking for something else but I am pretty sure the Tea Party candidates are not the answer…

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POPE: Did he insult the British?

I just have one more comment on the pope’s visit to the UK.

I spoke before about the pope insulting Britain with some of his remarks. I forgot to mention the biggest insult was his original purpose for visiting the UK; to beatifie or move towards sainthood, Cardinal John Henry Newman (1801-1890).

Newman was an Anglican priest / bishop who converted to Catholicism. Last year, Pope Benedict made public an invitation to Anglican clerics to come join the Catholic Church and retain some of their Anglican practices. He was doing this when the Anglicans decided to allow gays to become bishops; not all Anglicans were in favor of the move and it is still a controversial decision which may eventually split the Anglican Church.

To me the beatification of Newman and his fishing for Anglican converts while visiting Anglican England is offensive, to say the least. But the Brits were polite even when the pope was not!

King Henry VIII would have known what to do...

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POPE: UK Protesters have their say...

I was not disappointed in the Brits; they protested the Pope’s visit as I expected and as they should. The Pope has insulted their country (called it a third-world country) and insulted their intelligence with his absurd pronouncements and beliefs that not even Catholics in the UK follow or believe in (why the hypocrisy).

Over 20,000 people marched in London in protest against the pope and his visit. Many were outraged that taxpayer money (~$19 million) was used for the “state” visit when the Vatican is no state (even if it thinks it is).

Protesters had a variety of issues with the pope with many angry with the way the Vatican handled priestly sex abuse cases. Some angry at the Vatican’s stance on contraception and especially the ban on condom use even in AIDS infested Africa. Gays were out in force saying that they are people too and not the evil creatures the pope portrays them as.

All in all it was a good protest and I hope it gets the media coverage it deserves…

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DETROIT: New council may not be any better...

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I had such hope for the new Detroit City Council. The old council was corrupt and plain stupid but the new council had young, smart people and things would absolutely change but alas, I am no longer optimistic.

Something that has struck me is the fact that three (3) council members, including the president of the council had money woes and face foreclosure. Charles Pugh (president) did work out something with his bank but Kwame Kenyatta walked away from his home and now Saunteel Jenkins will lose her condo and is being sued for unpaid debts.

One immediately thinks that people with money troubles are prime targets for corruption as they need money desperately.

Another thing to think about is if these people cannot manage their own money, how capable are they managing a whole city’s money?

They say that since many in Detroit are in foreclosure, council members in foreclosure know first hand what Detroiters are going through?

I am not buying that as a positive experience but I also question if there is anybody in Detroit that is a suitable candidate for the city council. We finally have a mayor that is a regular, honest guy with a brain after all these years but he basically volunteered to run the city. Should others who are capable and honest volunteer also? I can only think of retired people that would not need the money and would serve because they love the city and would not want anything from the city.

Bing’s plan to downsize the city is a great plan that would work but did you see the popular opposition at the meetings he has held so far? A normal politician (like those on the council) wants to be re-elected so he has to listen to the crazies in Detroit and do what they want or else. A retired person (like Bing) can just do what he thinks is right and not be swayed by those screaming the loudest…

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THE POPE: Visit to the UK...

Pope Benedict is on a state visit to the UK and has been drawing some pretty good crowds; not as large as Pope John Paul drew, but still pretty large for a secular country.

The Pope apologized for the priestly sex abuse debacle but his apologies all ring hollow and insincere as he has not moved to punish the bishops that allowed these abuses to go on after learning of them and has not instituted rules and regulations that would prevent those abuses from ever happening again. In fact, he seemed puzzled how priests that swear before God to be good representatives of Jesus on earth, behave in such despicable ways. The reason he is so puzzled is because the entire Vatican is made up of very naïve people that don’t have a lick of sense when it comes to the real world and should not be representatives of anything especially Jesus and should stay the hell away from kids – always!

In his initial speech in Scotland, the Pope thanked England for standing up to that Nazi Hitler who wished to eradicate God from society. Here again, I think that the speech was written by somebody other than the Pope, but to not know your historical facts makes him and his speech writer just plain stupid.

Hitler was a Catholic and many members of the Nazi party were Catholics. In fact many German Catholics supported Hitler whole heartedly. Pope Benedict was a member of the Hitler Youth Corps when he was 14 but now says he was forced to join and his father never liked Hitler anyway, so there!

Hell, Pope Pius XII who was pope during WWII has been accused of being a Nazi Pope because he did not vigorously oppose the Nazi regime and did little to protect the Jews from the extermination plan he knew Hitler had initiated. No, Pope Pius XII is up for sainthood – figure that one out will you?

Hell, the Church encouraged anti-Semitism in past history as killing the Jesus murderes. Even Martin Luther (German) preached against the Jews. Hell, its not atheism that condemned the Jews, it was Christianity you morons!

The Pope was also condemning the “aggressive secularism” that is going on in Europe and especially the UK. Many British writers no longer just accept religion and religious people as equals and treat them with respect, no, they tell it like it is and don’t mince any words calling religion and religious followers as stupid for believing in fairy tales and superstitions; Benedict does not like that kind of grownup talk.

I realize that he is taking an aggressive stance at winning back some of the respect the Vatican lost in the priestly sex scandals but realistically he knows he will always have those blind followers who see no Vatican evil no matter what the evidence. He realizes and has said so in the past, that the Catholic population will shrink as those who are aware of what is going on in the Church leave the faith and try to find another religious denomination that will not be so arrogant, naïve and so full of itself. And yet the pope will not change and the Church will not change even though it has in the past and needs to right now – is that stubborn or plain stupid?

I am surprised that there has not been a larger protest against the pope in the UK where many if not most, oppose the Vatican views on social issues such as banning condom use in AIDS stricken Africa and other such gems.

More on his visit later…

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COMMUNIST CUBA: I told you so...

I am going to gloat a little bit about the recent developments in Cuba. My wife leans leftward; some of her friends are either socialists or unabashed Communists and they all support Cuba as if it was some idealistic nation arguing that their system of government is the only fair system as opposed to a quite unfair capitalist system here at home.

Well I am happy to symbolically kick them in the ass and call them naïve, misguided twits now that Fidel Castro himself has stated that their system (Communism) will not work for any other country (Venezuela, etc.) because it does not work in Cuba and has not worked for a long time (if ever?).

Today, Cuba announced that it is firing 500,000 government workers because they are not needed. Fidel himself said that up to a million workers will have to be let go because they are redundant (they pretend to work and Cuba pretends to pay them). Up to now, 85% of workers in Cuba worked for the government.

When asked where are these laid-off workers supposed to find jobs, the reply was in the private sector but there is no private sector in Cuba? Raul Castro (brother of Fidel) has been trying to ease restrictions on private enterprise but expecting 500,000 workers to start their own companies overnight is absurd.

In the past, Cuba was subsidized to the tune of billions of dollars by the Soviet Union but obviously the Soviet Union’s Communist system collapsed some time ago and they became the poor man among nations and could no longer give Cuba any help; Cuba had to rely on their economic model all alone and see what happened?

Fidel will not admit that he was dead wrong and his revolution only condemned the happy people of Cuba to a life of poverty and want. I wish I could rub his face in shit and say see you moron what you have done?

But if we want to help the long suffering people of Cuba we need to do what we did to China; open the flood gates to capitalism. Let investment flow in. Build resorts and spas putting people to work and bringing in tourist dollars.

Allow private ownership of farms and factories; Cuban cigar and rum for everyone! Of course we would have to get rid of the Communist government first; maybe they would be willing to just dissolve themselves.

I will say that the misery of the Cuban people was prolonged by the U.S. insistence on blockading the island and guaranteeing the people would remain in poverty to this very day. That policy was misguided and plain stupid; who were we really punishing?

I call on President Obama to open talks with Raul Castro and ease all restrictions on Cuba in response to Cuba easing all restrictions to a free market system in their country. I would love to visit Cuba in my lifetime and have a drink and cigar where Ernest Hemingway used to do the same!!!

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FRIENDS FROM THE PAST: What a blast from the past!

I had a great blast from the past this weekend.

Because this goes so far back, I have to set the stage a bit. I came out of the Air Force in 1970 as a medic / laboratory specialist. Signed up at Wayne State University on the GI Bill for what was then a degree encompassing marketing / public relations / journalism / business. I was living at home.

Wanted to get married but was harshly informed that I needed to get a job first? Saw an ad for a midnight position at Garden City Hospital – perfect; go to school during the day and work at night.

Joining me on the late shift were a number of interesting fellows, all going to school during the day. Garden City Hospital back then had a pretty busy ER so there was a need for a number of us to cover the lab.

One fellow that worked with me was going to U of M for a masters in public health. His name was Paul Pongpitoon and he came from Thailand where he worked for the U.S. military during Vietnam and it was those American soldiers that encouraged him to come to the United States for a better chance at a good and successful life. We worked well together and grew to become friends.

Eventually, I went on to start my own business in 1981 manufacturing laboratory reagents and analyzers and he moved to St. Louis where in 1985 he started a reference laboratory.

I received a call from him this weekend saying he is visiting his daughter who just had a baby girl (his first grandchild) and who lives in Birmingham. I told him that my daughter and my two grandkids live in Birmingham also. We met for dinner at the Big Rock Restaurant in Birmingham and that brought back such memories. Memories of struggle to get our businesses off the ground floor while still maintaining and supporting our families. And we brought pictures of our kids and grandkids and their stories…

We are both looking to retire and see what else we can do. He has over 100 employees now and is worth many millions. His goal after retirement is to go to Thailand, to his village and maybe fund scholarships for children that need a chance at a good life. He got that chance once; why not give others a chance too.

I relate this story to show what determination, dedication and a willingness to work very hard can bring you and of course you need a lot of smarts which he has in abundance.

He will be visiting his granddaughter often so we will have more chances to reminisce.

BURNING KORANS: Why?

Wow, what about all the hubbub about burning Korans / Qurans in Gainesville, Florida?

Here is Terry Jones who has barely any parishioners in his church, on the news channels worldwide and potentially inciting rioting all over the world because he has decided that a passage in the biblical book of ACTS, calls for the burning of Korans?

We all know that you can find justification in the Bible for about anything you want so that’s not a big deal but the fact that he wants to do this is why? He needs more parishioners, more money, likes being on the news, is a total Looney bird in need of treatment?

He has every right to burn books as long as the fire codes allow it. I have railed in the past about cartoons depicting Mohammad that led to riots as an over-reaction by Muslims; I defended the right to print those cartoons and decried officials trying to assuage Muslims by banning their publication.

The fact that this twit has garnered all this world attention is problematic and in some way, mimics the Muhammad cartoons issue; they are just cartoons. Eventually all books, Bibles and Korans, etc. get old and need to be burned or disposed of.

Americans hate when people burn our flag but the Supreme Court established the act of burning as a free expression right and I agree with them. Burning Korans is symbolic and a free expression right. I suppose Muslims can burn Bibles but I don’t think Christians would get all bent out of shape about that; they would just print more Bibles and I think here lies the problem. Muslims feel a need or even an obligation to somehow defend their God, Prophet and religion against people that they feel defile or insult them and they take this to absurd levels; remember Salman Rushdie and his book?

The fact that all these high officials are publicly repudiating Jones just leads to more attention for Jones. We have blown this issue way out of proportion and really, it is a media issue since no one gave a shit about Jones until the media got a hold of the story.

I had enough with the mosque issue but now this…

PILLARS OF THE EARTH: See the series, its great!

We just finished watching the series called PILLARS OF THE EARTH on the cable channel STARZ. We actually added Starz to be able to watch this series which had all the elements we absolutely love.

First, it took place in England during the Middle Ages (1100) which is a fascinating time in history. It involves the building of a cathedral, an honest prior and an evil bishop. It has a lot of palace intrigue among nobles trying to influence the king. It has good guys and very bad guys and a story that just envelops you; we could not wait till the next episode.

Now that the series is done, it is available at ON DEMAND if you have Starz. When I added Starz to my Comcast channels, I actually received a lower rate than I was paying before; go figure. Anyway, we recommend the series whole heartedly.

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