Saving Detroit with a Sin Tax on Fast Food

As part of Mayor Kilpatrick's budget slashing attempts to reduce Detroit's mammoth $300 million deficit, the Mayor is proposing a 2% tax on Fast Food sales.

This proposal will likely earn him kudos from such sources as the Center for Science in the Public Interest and other groups that feel that Big Macs and the like are the roots of all evil, or at least obesity.

But for most people, the move is just one more transparant attempt to further tax the residents and visitors to the City of Detroit to support a bloated and expensive City Government that provides services so poorly that Detroit continues to loose population as people gather the werewithal to get out.

As reported in the Detroit News article, Terry Marshell a resident of Detroit wryly observed

How many cheeseburgers will it take to pay for the mayor's Navigator?" Marshell said.

Kilpatrick was recently embroiled in a controversy surrounding a Lincoln Navigator leased to the city for more than $24,000, allegedly for use by the mayor's wife.

"He's the hip-hop mayor, and he wants a 2 percent tax on cheeseburgers? It's not going to happen.

"People will remember this when it's time to vote," Marshell said.

How long it will take other cities to jump on this scheme as a way for raising revenue raising and pushing an agenda is unknown.

Detroit Free Press Doesn't Mind Voter Fraud

The Detroit Free Press Editorial is up in arms that the proposed Michigan legislation permitting early vpoting requires that those voting must show some form of government issued picture identification.

In Absentee Voting Drop ID requirement from bill expanding rights, the Freep bemonas such a requirment for the reasons that

While it's true that a huge majority of people have photo ID these days, there will always be some people who don't -- and they don't deserve to be disenfranchised no matter when or how they vote. For elderly people who no longer maintain a driver's license but still might choose this option over filling out an absentee ballot at home, it would be particularly insulting. For others, the $10 fee for a state personal identification card may be a burden and can amount to the equivalent of an illegal poll tax.

Wow, what a specious argument! The Elderly might be insulted by having to show ID, and being made to purchase such id could be an illegal poll tax. Nonesense.

Apparenlty the Freep concern for people without ID "don't deserve to be disenfranchised no matter when or how they vote" must extend to felons, ilegals and people voting multiple times in terms of when or how theyt might vote.

The right to vote is a precious right, a safeguard and basis for our system of govvernment and reserved for citizens and non-felons to use -- ONCE PER ELECTION. Surely the Detroit Free press ought to be in favor of this minimal requirement of picture identification, which helps protect this cherished right.

Detroit Police Car used to Rob Drivers

The City of Detroit has had an umarked Police Car either misplaced or stolen.

It has likely turned up being used by criminals to impersonate police.

As reported in the Detroit Free Press Article - Fake cops stop driver, leave with his wallet:

Detroit police officials are searching for a 2001 black Crown Victoria that may have been used in a Friday robbery.

Cops are paying special attention to this case: The missing vehicle is an unmarked police car.

Police spokesman James Tate said the vehicle, with the license plate 580X24, disappeared between March 16 and March 21 from its parking spot at . . . outside of Police Department headquarters.

Since then it has apparently been used by criminals to pull people over and steal their wallets. Not good. The public was finally informed about the theft of the car on Monday April 4, after the robbery on Friday.

Another Good Reason for private ownership of Antiquities

The article in Reason online titled Artifact: Idol Hour by Charles Paul Freund shows a picture of wooden statutes that have been restored after being damaged by the Taliban in 2001.

Part of a collection housed in the Kabul Museum, the wooden statues were badly damaged in 2001 on the orders of the Taliban regime. At the same time that the giant Bamiyan Buddhas were destroyed, the contents of the museum were reduced to rubble. A weeklong orgy of destruction in the museum involved thousands of ancient artifacts. Some of these objects had long been in private collections but were returned to Afghanistan in the 1970s.[emphasis added]

The items had been safe in private collections, but in the museum they became easy targets for destruction by the fundamentalist regime of the Taliban. Many have likely been destroyed beyond repair.

Yet another reason why all antiquities should certainly not be housed in government museums where they can be easily targeted for destruction, not to mention theft or defacement.

Unlike the Japanese-Americans, The Islamists in the US do pose a real threat to the US

Appropos the obituary of Mr. Korematsu, a Japanese American subject to exclusion during wartime for personally doing nothing wrong comes this story:
Jihad in America's Public Schools From Little Green Footballs:

Kifah Wael Jayyousi, arrested Sunday at an airport in Detroit, Michigan, was chief facilities director for public schools in Washington from 1999 to 2001. But in the years running up to that high-profile position, he supported “violent jihad” in Bosnia, Kosovo, Chechnya and Somalia, according to a criminal complaint unsealed Monday....Jayyousi, a U.S. citizen originally from Jordan...

Unlike the Japanese, we have Arabs in the US, including citizens clearly supporting terrorism and jihad against the United States. Mr. Jayyousi is merely the latest in a great number of such. Considering that Korematsu is still on the books activitiesd such as those conducted by him and his ilk are not exactly the brightest course of action.

While exclusion and internment were reprehensbile when applied against the loyal Japanese Americans, at some point the American public may become less tolerant and demand such action against those who clearly are harmful and disloyal and represent a clear and present danger today.

Fred Korematsu dies

As reported in the Lansing State Journal, Fred Korematsu Dies at Age 86.

Korematsu was the titular appellant in Korematsu v. United States, the case which upheld the exclusion of Japanese and Japanese-Americans from the West Coast during World War II.

The Korematsu decision is still good law today.