Ernie Harwell, the "Voice of Summer" passed away last week. For any of my readers from the Detroit area, this was a monumental loss. Ernie had called games for the Tigers for over 40 years on the radio. Three generations of us had grown up listening to him tell us what city the person who caught the foul ball was from. He was, and will forever be a part of this city and state. When I was younger, we did not have cable TV, so there were not many opportunities to watch the Tigers ...
Just a few days ago, I was out for a leisurely run around the neighborhood. I am training to run in the Detroit Half-Marathon in October as a fundraiser for a church mission to Malawi, Africa. Well to be honest, as of late it has been more Not training then training, but this day I decided would be great for a nice short run around a couple of the subs by me, I figured around 2 miles or so. Little did I know that a teenage girl on a bike could be such a safety hazard, if only she came equ...
We knew that it was going to be bad. So bad in fact, that the movie was not screened for reviewers ahead of time. This is a sure sign that the studio knows the movie will be trashed by reviewers. But we went anyway. We went fully knowing the experience would probably be grueling and mind-numbing. Dissapointed we were not, expectations were fully met. To give you some history here, I, like many other men my age, grew up watching GI Joe every Saturday during my formative years. I used ...
Everyone should have an unchanging place. A place where time has no hold, where memories can flourish EXACTLY as you remember them. A place where the laughter of childhood resonates through your veins the very moment you arrive. Some people are lucky in that their parent’s home can be this unchanging place, if they have been in the same home for a long time. Even then, it is hard because rooms get painted and bathrooms get remodeled. It is hard to find your unchangin...
Just what the beleaguered Metro Area needs right now, a major highway shut down for days...possibly weeks. Apparently, last night around 8pm, a tanker carrying approximately 13,000 gallons of fuel was in an accident, and just happened to be under the overpass for 9 mile rd. Of course, it blew up, and burned the overpass for hours. The picture above is from the Detroit News, and shows the damage done to the overpass. Amazingly, no one was killed or even seriously injured in this debacle. ...
Man, we must be headed for some sort of infidelity record in the political arena. We have had two major players go down in the past few weeks, each in their own agonizing manner. Gone are the days of illicit meet ups at a hotel, now we have international intrigue, with Governors jetting off to to other countries just to cheat. It is an exciting time to be a scandal watcher in politics. First was a senator from Nevada, John Ensign, who while being a staunch proponent of "Family Values" and be...
A new poll by USA Today/Gallup finds that the majority of respondents, when asked to name a person who speaks for the Republican party, could not. They could not pick a person who leads roughly half the countries population in their political views. So, that begs the question, of the 48% who were able to name names, who came in first place? Maybe Sarah Palin, Michael Steele or Bobby Jindal? Nope, number one, with 13% of respondents votes was Rush Limbaugh. Second place on the list goes to our ...
General Motors, or as some people are calling to nowadays...Government Motors has declared bankruptcy. My new favorite nickname is Major Motors, as the company is literally being demoted. I do not mean for this post to talk about the politics involved in GM declaring bankruptcy, but more the human toll on my home state and the entire country. Few people completely understand how BIG of a deal this is, literally. The General is so large, so much a part of every part of the economy, t...
This is a short post for me, but I was wondering if anyone out there has ahad a chance to play Cities XL via their beta? I know I have signed up, but have not been offered a chance to play yet. I was wondering if anyone out there has, or if it's not opened up yet. I am very excited for this game, although I am really going to miss the organic feeling you get that comes from zoning and not plopping. Thanks, JD
Arlen Specter has bailed on the Republican Party. I want to approach this news from three different directions: 1. Swine Flu made the man go crazy 2. Republican's are battling an increasingly conservative party structure that does not leave room for moderates like Specter. 3. Specter is just out to save his political life, this is just a pragmatic switch to stay a senator. Ok, so the swine flu probably has nothing to do with this, but you cannot count it out, because apparently every ne...
So, I am reading my usual daily dose of Politico, and I come across a blog article by Glenn Thrush talking about how Ron Paul is backing up the Texas governor in saying that succeeding from the USA is an American thing to do. He talks about how the original 13 colonies succeeded from England and all that jazz. Here is the Paul's direct quote: " it is very American to talk about secession. That's how we came in being. Thirteen colonies seceded from the British and established a new country...
I was pointed to this survey by a friend. It is a very detailed survey of religious attitudes in America. The information is very interesting and thought provoking. I give it credence because they have been using the same methodology over many years, so even if they are wrong, they should at least show trends well. The trend, if you are a mainline Christian like myself, is not a good one. The old churches in every town, the Methodist and Presbyterian ones, are basically in a free fall. Ca...
Yup, that thing pictured above is what is causing all these divisiveness and argument. It is a human embryonic stem cell. During his eight years in office, President Bush took a hard line on the stem cell issue, eventually banning the use of federal monies in research using these guys. Now President Obama has opened to door for money to flow into this research once again. This is sure to whip up a frenzy on both sides. The problem that the right has in trying to argue their side is t...
So, as a Democrat in this resurgent age of liberalism, I thought it might be a good idea to take stock of how things have gone in the Obama administration so far. In general, I like what I see so far. I think the stimulus is a bit unruly, and could get out of hand, but in general I like the direction the new administration is heading. BTW, all of you who thought that line item for the Coast Guard Ice Breaker was obnoxious... here is an article to the tangible side effects of canceling that out...
Through the glory of Facebook, I have been following the day of my friends who are Detroit expats, who are looking for their regular paczki (poonch-ki) fix on what around Detroit, is passionately known as Paczki Day, or more colloquially, Fat Tuesday. The idea is to load up on calories before the supposed Lenten fast, but of course, now we just pig out for the purpose of pigging out. We do this by eating VERY LARGE doughnuts ALL DAY LONG. If you think that picture above is the standar...