1911 Range Report and prep for GSSF match

The day began with the family going to the West Bloomfield Art Show as the temperature reached 100 degrees.

We saw lots of art on display, much of it very talented indeed, especially in the area of photography, as well as some impressive pottery pieces.

Abby was enthralled with an 8x10 picture of a bee on a flower and she persuaded us to buy it for her room. Funnily enough, she described it to the photographer as the bee picture and he wasn't quite sure which one it was until she brought it to him. He stated he calls it after the flower in the picture as he had taken the picture meaning to focus on the flower but the bee wouldn't leave, and since it stayed still he took the picture with it. He was impressed with her enthusiasm and even gave her a kid discount on the purchase price. Nice guy and I think he just got a customer for life.

So, tent after tent of art was set out upon the blistering concrete, with not a bit of shade to be found except within the tents themselves.

It was so hot I was inspired to artistically fry an egg on the concrete. Alas, no egg was at hand for the job.

After surviving the art show death march, we had lunch and headed home.

After experiencing so much art, I joined up with Rob and we headed to the range for a different kind of artistry, of an amateur and far more noisy sort.

The 1911, as hoped, shot very well indeed with the first eight rounds looking like this:

The new sights line up on target very nicely.

It handled 50 rounds of FMJ with no problems, ate some 50 lead semi-wadcutters reloads with aplomb, and only had some issues with the 230 gr Hydrashocks. For some reason it failed to eject the fired casing from the last round of Hydrashocks on a few magazines. It wasn't consistent and seems to have gone away by the time all 50 Hydrashoks were fired.

I then shot my Glock 19 in preparation for next week's GSSF match. I also let Rob try my Glock 17 as that is what he is going to shoot in the match. This will be my first GSSF match ever and I'm looking forward to it.

This should match should be fun. Rob was a student in one of my CPL classes and it is good to watch him improve as a shooter and challenge himself by shooting a match, and I can always stand some improvement that comes from the pressure of a match myself.

Tigers under a scorching sun

Today I took the family to a company function in Detroit that featured a picnic lunch and a Detroit Tigers game.

It was sunny and real hot, 95 degrees hot.

Unfortunately the seats that we had were right under the sun without a bit of shade.

So hot that we a new record stay on the stands - one and a half innings.

Leah announced that she was being barbecued, and even being slathered in sunscreen she was looking a little pink.

So we got under some shade and the girls declared we were done so we headed back to the cart and headed for home.

A quick little outing indeed.

The 1911 Returns

As I blogged about before, my go-to 1911 was looking a little worn and sad. The night sights on it had gone dim, the bluing was worn, and it still had a drop-in kinda beavertail rather than a properly installed one.

So I sent it off to Robar to be redone and brought back hopefully better than even its former glory. They were having a sale on NP3+ finishes so I decided to go for it, along with new night sights and a proper beavertail.

I hoped it would return refreshed and restored from its sad state, ready to return to use.

After a reasonable wait, the result:

I can't wait to get it to the range this weekend.

The NP3+ is a really slick coating. The slide moves much easier, and magazines drop with alacrity (the magazine was also NP3+ coated as part of the job).

The new beavertail is flawlessly fitted and fills the hand perfectly, making an instinctively perfect grip a simple thing. The bump on the bottom of the beavertail makes sure it is always depressed when a grip is taken.

Oh yes, the new night sights are bright and perfect, and have a nicer appearance than the old sights.

Robar did a really, really, nice job on this refurbishment. Robar lived up to its reputation and exceeded my expectation.

My go-to 1911 looks and feels like a completely new pistol, and I expect it will shoot as nicely as it looks.

How do you say "Stop, Thief!" in the form of a question?

Jeopardy! host injured after chasing burglar in San Francisco

“Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek says he snapped his Achilles tendon while running after a burglar who had stolen cash, a bracelet and other items from his San Francisco hotel room.

The 71-year-old Trebek tells KGO-TV that he also injured his other leg while falling down during the chase early Wednesday. He was on crutches later Wednesday when he hosted the National Geographic World Championship at Google headquarters in Mountain View.

San Francisco police Lt. Troy Dangerfield says 56-year-old old Lucinda Moyers was arrested on suspicion of felony burglary and receiving stolen property.

It cannot be determined from the news report if she yelled while being chased ""Then the day is mine!"".

I should note that stealing from 71-year-old cultural icon Alex Trebek is absolutely disgraceful and unacceptable.

I'd suggest that as a fitting punishment, she be strapped to a chair with electrodes attached every time Jeopardy! is on TV for a year. Each time a contestant fails to correctly answer a question she gets a painful electric shock and a double shock every time Trebek says "wrong answer".

Circumcision Ban Snipped From San Francisco Ballot

In an appealing display of normalcy and sanity, a San Francisco Superior Court judge has ordered the circumcision ban off the ballot.

USA Today: Circumcision ban to be stricken from San Francisco ballot

Superior Court Judge Loretta Giorgi said in a tentative ruling that the proposed law prohibiting circumcision of male children violates a California law that makes regulating medical procedures a function of the state, not cities.

"It serves no legitimate purpose to allow a measure whose invalidity can be determined as a matter of law to remain on the ballot," Giorgi wrote.

Giorgi ordered San Francisco's elections director to remove the controversial measure from the ballot that would have made the city the first in the nation to hold a public vote on whether to outlaw the circumcision of minors.

The proponent's campaign for the ban included some very typical and classic anti-semitic imagery to promote the proposal, which certainly calls their real intent into question.

Nice to see the judge restore some sanity in San Francisco.

Who is this Jalen Rose person and why should I care?

So I was going to the 48th District Court this morning on a motion and as I entered the parking lot I found it packed, complete with three TV crew vans and camerman and reporters milling about.

One would think there was a high profile murder arraignment or something similar going on.

It turns out that the focus of the feeding frenzy, Jalen Rose is a former University of Michigan and NBA star who was involved in a single-vehicle accident after drinking 6 martinis and veering off the road in the snow. He plead guilty and was set to be sentenced today.

So I did my motion and left the circus behind.

Given that Mr. Rose is set to come in front of Judge Kimberly Small, a judge well known for hammering drunk drivers, I expect he's going to be looking at some jail time and heavy fines, not to mention being an example pour encourager les autres.

Some people's lives are lived as an example to others of what not to do, and drunk driving in West Bloomfield tends to be heavily penalized, unlike Detroit for example.

Drinking 6 martinis and then getting into an automobile is behavior to be avoided not emulated.

Update: And he gets 20 days in jail after having 73 days of the 93 day sentence suspended Not a bad amount of time, considering the pressure the judge was under to be lenient on him from such luminaries as Detroit Mayor David Bing and the Detroit Free Press with its uncannily timely coverage of the differences in sentencing for drunk driving around the southeast Michigan / Detroit area.

Family Reunion Time

Blogging is light as I'm up in the wilds of Huntsville, Ontario with no Internet access nor cable tv, a rather relaxing and blissful no-news state. It's been quite relaxing to be pretty much cutoff from the outside world for a bit with no outside distractions. At least there was none until my sister-in-law Sonya handed me her IPad, a most addictive device.

So here I am looking at a lake from my parent's cottage, hanging out and now browsing the net, doing some work remotely and then heading back to supervise the kids swimming.

A nice getaway indeed.

Blogging shall resume when I get back. For now there's kids to help swim and kayak around the lake and dinner to plan.

Teen Robber's Career Gets Off On The Wrong Foot

Findlaw: Teen Robbery Suspect Shot Himself in the Foot

Michael Anthony Randall Jr. literally shot himself in the foot.

According to the Augusta Chronicle, Randall, a teen robbery suspect, shot himself in the foot while preparing to rob a convenience store on the west side of Athens, Georgia.

Police said Randall, 19, shot himself above the ankle with a sawed-off shotgun when he tried to pull it from his coveralls.

Ooops, you have to hate it when that happens. Then again he was about to pull a robbery so this is one of those fortunate mistakes.

After reviewing surveillance videos, investigators said Randall had his finger on the trigger of the shotgun, which was concealed beneath his coveralls with the barrel extending down his left leg, and that the gun went off as he tried to withdraw the weapon.

Such a pity they don't teach gun safety in schools. Perhaps he'd have learned to keep his finger off the trigger, but I suspect ne'er do wells like him wouldn't have paid attention anyhow.

On the upside, it looks like his criminal career is somewhat stalled and he'll have to hop to his next criminal activity:

Randall was taken to the hospital. Doctors did not think they would be able to save foot due to extensive nerve and tissue damage.

The downside: Why they heck aren't they charging him with an NFA violation for the sawed off shotgun?

Investigators plan to charge him with criminal attempt to commit armed robbery.

A measly attempt charge with presumably not much time or an opportunity for a 10 year federal felony?

This is crying out for an NFA charge, namely 26 U.S.C. sec 5861(d): here we have an actual criminal, caught in the act of being about to commit a robbery with a sawed off shotgun - it doesn't get much better than that.

Making Iran-Contra And Watergate Look Like Games Of Tiddlywinks

The biggest Obama Administration scandal that the media doesn't want to touch so far.

Project Gunrunner - walking guns to Mexico through Border States in such a way that their use as evidence was questionable and with no real prospects of accomplishing any real criminal investigations.

Operation Fast and Furious – a subpart of Project Gunrunner, again walking thousands of guns to Mexico through Border States in such a way that their use as evidence was questionable and with no real prospects of accomplishing any real criminal investigations.

Operation Castaway – allowing guns to be illegally transferred to Mexican criminals from Miami via shipment through Honduras. So much for claims that this was an operation solely based out of the ATFE’s Phoenix office.

For a good well-written description on project Gunwalker, and see Larry Correia’s write up and linkage to a good timeline of the investigation so far. Say Uncle also has good details.

Now further information may come to the fore, as the family of murdered U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, who was most likely shot with weapons that were “walked” by ATFE (and funded with stimulus funds and possible involvement by DEA and DHS) which were recovered at the scene might be suing the US Government under the Federal Tort Claims Act for its malfeasance.

The Operations seem to have no real criminal investigative purpose and certainly no real potential for success to match against thousands of gun illegally shipped to Mexico with the government’s acquiescence.

It seems that this was part of Obama’s plan to push for gun control “under the radar” by creating a crisis and claiming that crime in Mexico is caused by American guns sold in gun shops, which is untrue...but for those thousands shipped there with ATFE’s blessing and connivance.

The scandal doesn’t seem to be getting a lot of coverage in the MSM.

Given that an American Border Patrol agent and possibly hundreds of Mexicans also have been killed due to this colossally messed up operation that seems to have been ginned up for domestic political considerations, the lack of such focus is indeed curious.

Of course, given the scandal deals with Democrats, malfeasance and a ham-handed attempt at backdoor gun control by the Obama Administration, it isn't too surprising.

After all, the MSM loves Obama and gun control both, and it is rather hard for them to get through their ideological blinders on this one.

This scandal isn’t over yet, nor have all the details on it come to light, including the important question of how high up the Obama administration this goes. Nor have those Howard Baker-esque questions been seriously asked yet:

What did President Obama know, and when did he know it?

They Shoot Cars, Don't They?

Not in Kingman, Arizona, at least not anymore.

Findlaw: AZ Man Gets 90 Days Jail for Shooting His Car That Wouldn't Start

[Lauriano Lawrence]Lovato went out to his car at around 9 a.m. in April and tried to start up his car, reports the Daily Miner.

But alas, it did not start. And in what was probably a fit of a rage - or at least a fit of frustration - Lovato shot his car twice. The shots went through the windshield and into the car's dashboard. And, guess what: Lovato's actions actually set off a SWAT team standoff.

Neighbors heard the sound of the gunshots, who reported it to the police. Police arrived at the scene and found some bullet casings, reports the Daily Miner.

Shots fired, bullet casings... the responding officers were understandably unsure as to what kind of situation they were facing. So, officers established a perimeter around the house and tried to communicate with Lovato who was inside, according to the Daily Miner.

During the entire ordeal, Lovato says he was blissfully taking a nap inside, the Daily Miner reports. He had no idea that he had caused such a huge commotion.

Eventually, police broke into the house and found Lovato on a couch in the back of the house. According to Lovato, he had slept through the entire ordeal, even though officers had used loudspeakers to try to communicate with him, reports the Daily Miner.

The end result? Lovato pled guilty to a count of discharging a gun unlawfully within city limits and was sentenced to 90 days in jail and 3 years of probation, the Daily Miner reports.

Got to watch those improper firearm discharges within city limits. A little anger management can really go a long way.

The sentence seems a bit excessive and probably has more to do with the standoff than the shooting of the car itself.

Typically, your car isn't going to work any better with bullet holes in it. Next time I suggest giving it a good swift kick, or for more satisfaction take the tire iron out of the trunk and give the car a good beating, that'll teach it.

Radom - Polish for Good Gun

I just acquired a Radom P-64 pistol in 9x18 Makarov.

Designed by the storied Łucznik Arms Factory factory in Radom, commonly known to non-Poles as Radom for pronounciation reasons. The pistol was developed by the design team of W. Czepukajtis, R. Zimny, H. Adamczyk, M. Adamczyk, S. Kaczmarski and J. Pyzel.

The pistol is reminiscent of a Walther PPK in size and take-down procedure and holds 6 rounds in the magazine. It is a double action, blow-back design. The magazine release is located on the butt of the pistol and there is no external slide release. Like the PPK, on the last shot the magazine raises the internal slide catch to hold the slide open.

Adopted in 1965 as the standard sidearm for the Polish army to replace the Tokarev pistol. It is an interesting choice for a military sidearm. A pistol that is small, light, and easy to conceal is typically not the specifications for a military sidearm, and it is, as far as I know, the smallest Warsaw Pact adopted as a standard issue military pistol.

The pistol came with a spare magazine, cleaning rod, and leather holster.

Interestingly, my Radom, dated 1972 (a nice coincidence as I was born in 72) does not have the triangular trigger spur that makes the P64 look so distinctive, but instead has a rounded spur that is almost completely blended into the frame. This makes it rather snag free but hampers quick cocking of the action, which is why I can see they went to a new design as the double action trigger on this pistol is hardly what anyone would characterize as light.

While the double action is a fair bit lighter than the double action on my FEG PA-63, that really isn't saying much, and it takes some significant finger pressure to get the double action shot off. It is not nearly as nice as the double action on the Bulgarian Makarov, but it was still possible to keep the shot on a silhouette target at 7 yards.

The sights on the pistol are very small, yet very usable.

The first six rounds fired at seven yards, two handed standing looked like this:

The sights were very usable and single action mode was simple with a decent trigger that was easy to use for rapid aimed shots.

Notice where the double action first shot went on a subsequent string:

Reliability was excellent- 150 rounds fired - 100 Silver Bear hollow points and 50 Brown Bear FMJ rounds. No stoppages or failures of any kind were experienced.

Recoil is not bad at all with this pistol. The P64's size, shotability and performance with hollow points it makes a great CCW firearm. The P64 easily dissappears in a pocket and between the safety and the extra-heavy double action first shot its rather secure for such a discreet carry option.

While the Kahr PM9 is a better choice for CCW as it is slightly smaller in barrel length than the P64, and fires a 9mm Luger round and has better sights and a consistent action trigger, there are positive aspects to the P64, namely cost and reliability, not to mention history.

You could buy two P64s and 1000 rounds of ammo plus a hundred or more Hornady 9x18 hollow points to carry for the price of a Kahr PM9 and still have enough left over to go out for dinner. Not everyone can afford a Kahr for CCW and the P64 will suffice with practice.

In addition. the P64 makes a fine addition to a collection of Cold War firearms and is a welcome addition to my 9x18 collection.

Dear Mr. Concerned Boat Guy – You’re a Moron

Dive 184 at Union lake started much like any other dive.

Rob and I geared up and got in the water about 10:00 pm. In addition to our standard gear we carried a deco bottle to practice gas switching and passing the bottle back and forth.

About 10 minutes into the dive we hear a boat’s engine zipping by right overhead. We’re comfortably deep in 28 feet of water so while it is annoying to have a boat come by that close we’re safe from harm.

We have a dive flag flying in full compliance with the law, complete with a solid blue battery-powered lightstick attached as an extra (and statutorily unnecessary) warning device. Since lights tend to attract drunken boaters its efficiacy as a safety tool is questionable.

So after 45 minutes we surface about 20 feet from the boat launch and see a car and a truck pointing towards the water with their headlights on, which is peculiar

As we approach the dock, we see it is this post’s eponymous Mr. Concerned Boat Guy and an Oakland County Sheriff’s deputy.

Mr. Concerned Boat Guy then launches into a diatribe on how he called the Sheriff because he was on his pontoon boat and ran over our dive flag and we really should have a bigger light on it ‘cause he couldn’t see it till he was almost on top of it. He then states he could see our lights below.

We kindly point out that we were 28 feet down and our lights were moving around for a good 35 minutes after he passed us.

We point out that we're fully in compliance with the law by carrying a flag and go beyond it by putting a light on it.

Doesn't seem to help with Mr. Concerned Boat Guy.

He then says we should put a white light on it. We point out a white light tends to get washed out by the shore lights and it tends to attract boaters who proceed to run over the flag.

We also kindly point put that boats are suppose to remain 200 feet from the flag,

The deputy doesn’t say much during this exchange, but he seems to be in a decent mood and understands that we are diving in full compliance with the law. He finally says for everybody to be safe and heads off, as does Mr. Concerned Boat Guy. Sadly he doesn’t stroke Mr. Concerned Boat Guy for violating the law, namely running over a dive flag and busting the 200 foot radius and admititng to it.

We head back to our cars and it turns out that Mr. Concerned Boat Guy (MCBG) left a page long screed on my windshield that is amazing for its mix of self-righteous and stupidity, and it makes me wonder if he was tipping back a few during his boating excursion or if he's this naturally stupid 24/7.

“To whomever was diving in the DARK tonight!”

Yes, that us, and you were boating in the dark tonight with or without your capslock on, your point?

You almost got ran over tonight. I can’t understand for the life of me why you would dive at nihgt without having a lighted marker! Just so you know, it is impossible to see your little tiny blue light on your Flag in the DARK!

We did get run over, by you. Luckily we were 28 feet under you.
And again with the dark in caps, methinks MCBG never learned proper grammar. Look moron, you admit our marker was lighted. Why don’t you have a sufficient light on your boat so you can see what’s in front of you, dummy?

I was idling in a pontoon and we did not were not able to see your dive marker until we were right over top of you. I am not sure if you even knew how close we were to you, but I did see you flash your light under water once the boat was over top of you.

No, the heck you were idling. That was a running motor that we heard you lying sack. Yes, we knew you were 28 feet above us driving your boat like an oblivious idiot.

If you are going to dive in Union Lake or any other of the surroundings lakes please make sure that your location is clearly marked, especially at night. I do not want you to end up dead / or as a statistic of an unsafe / unprepared diver & I definatly (sic) do not want to be part of an accident involving any diver that is careless & irresponsible of their surroundings.

This is a bit like yakking on a cell phone, staring out your back window, ramming the back of a car stopped at a red light and then blaming the person that was stopped.

Look dumbass, we are fully aware of our surroundings and floating a flag in full compliance with the law. In this case it was you the unsafe / unprepared driver of the boat who was "careless & irresponsible of their surroundings". Quit blaming others for your own stupidity if you please.

Please remember that you are not the only ones using these waters & that there are many other people out here trying to enjoy the lake as well!

Right back at you dumbass. Please learn and remember what a dive flag means and share the lake accordingly. Please try to pay attention the next time you drive your boat in the lake would ya?

Thank you,
A concerned citizen.

You’re welcome.

Now please take a boater safety class as soon as possible and learn the laws of boat operation before you cause an acccident.

Also, please man up and leave your name and contact number next time you fancy leaving a page-long ignorant screed on someone's vehicle you irresponsible, unsafe, and pathetic excuse for a boat operator.

On Order: Monster Hunter Alpha

If you have yet to read Larry Correia's Monster Hunter International and Monster Hunter Vendetta, you better get with the program as the next sequel, Monster Hunter Alpha is coming out in August for shipping according to Amazon.

Go Ahead and Pre-order and and then wait impatiently for it to arrive in your hands.

I suspect its going to be worth this short wait in spades.

Kwame, tired of the Race Card, reaches for the Joo card

Kwame is truly the Detroit Democrat that just keeps on giving.

Michigan Citizen: Kwame Kilpatrick was victim of Jewish conspiracy, says Kwame Kilpatrick

If you thought Kwame Kilpatrick’s downfall was the result of his own hubris, prepare to have your mind blown by Michigan Citizen writer Zenobia Jeffries. Oh sure, Kilpatrick made some mistakes, but he was really brought down in a plot instigated by…wait for it…the Jews

The "progressive" rag the Michigan Citizen reviews Kwame's book thusly:

There’s always been somewhat of an underlying question in the midst of the Kilpatrick scandal: Who the hell did he piss off to bring this level of scrutiny?

This question could be answered in Kilpatrick’s account of visits by Detroit attorney Reggie Turner on behalf of the area’s powerful Jewish community.

I guess when your basic race card stops working, its back to blaming the Jews to regain your follower's support.

Frankly, I'm surprised Kwame didn't blame the bicyclists for his demise.

Happy Independence Day

For this Independence Day Weekend, the family and I went down to northern Indiana to visit Amish country and allow Tash to do some serious quilt supply shopping and for the rest of us to have a short break.

We visited Shipshewana, where we stayed for a couple nights at a hotel with a water park, which the kids loved, We also did some day trips to Nappanee and Elkhart. Northern Indiana is a very beautiful pastoral area - lots of farms, and horses galore and the locals are friendly.

Since Leah at 4 seems to have every young girls love of horses, we couldn't go more than 5 feet down the road before a joyous cry of "horse!" arose from the back seat.

This meant that we had to do a buggy ride in Shipshewana, which was a lot of fun.

An Amish man ran the buggy and told us quite a bit about Amish culture during the ride. He amazed both kids with the news that Amish children as young as grade 2 could take their own horse and buggy to school if they were responsible enough to do so.

Lots of horses and buggies on the roads and of course, Amish-style food is out of this world good - the broasted chicken is awesome, as are the many amazing ways they can prepare egg noodles. Not to mention the desserts.

Then on July 3 we went to Elkhart for a three hour tour on the River Queen, a 150 passenger stern-wheeler, on the St. Joseph River.

The River Queen was leading the annual flotilla of 4th of July boats, many of them extensively decorated:

But, this idyllic riparian cruise was not to last.

While leading the boats, there was a sudden clang and the River Queen came to a sudden and complete halt.

So sudden was the stop and so loud was the noise, I was going to ask if there was an extra charge for the unplanned wreck dive.

The boat had struck an underwater stump on its keel and was well and truly stuck.

We were stuck on a stump for about an hour with two police boats and a jet boat with volunteer river patrol members all with ropes attached trying to tow the vessel off the stump:

They finally succeeded in their efforts and we continued on our way.

The grounding of the River Queen was such a rare event that it made the local news.


So today we woke in Shipshewana and went to both the Shipshewana flea market and Yoders. The flea market was huge, with a tpical vareity of flea market wares from used books to beautiful woodworking to chinese junk trinkets and everything else you could think of at a flea market.

Yoders Meats and Cheeses however was the highlight of the day and the place to go for incredible food to take home.

We bought excellent Amish made cheeses, especially after the kids loved the samples, and a 1.5 lb grass-fed sirloin steak. Then we drove home.

We BBQ'd the steak tonight and it was big enough for the four of us with an unbeatable taste - only a slight bit a kosher salt and a couple grinds of pepper were used and it was fantastic.

A great vacation.

Now the kids are asleep, I'm going to walk outside and see the fireworks.

Happy Independence Day!

6th Circuit: Refusal to consider race unduly burdens minorities in collecge admissions

In a decision that makes one stop and wonder, 6th Circuit in Coalition to Defend Affirmative v. Regents of the University of Michigan has come it with quite the opinion.

The 6th Circuit panel has held that Michigan's Proposal 2, that ended affirmative action in Universities by refusing to allow the race of an applicant to be considered is an undue burden on minorities by not allowing their race to be considered in college admissions.

Orwell would be proud.

Proposal 2 targets a program [affirmative action] that
“inures primarily to the benefit of the minority” and reorders the political process in Michigan in such a way as to place “special burdens” on racial minorities....We therefore find that the race-conscious admissions policies now barred by Proposal 2 inure primarily to the benefit of racial minorities and that Proposal 2, insofar as it prohibits consideration of applicants’ race in admissions decisions, has a “racial focus.”

Under this analysis, affirmative action can necessarily never end as its absence will end a program that benefits minorities. Affirmative action is a one-way ratchet according to this panel of the Sixth Circuit.

The court then heads way off into left field and holds that the ending of affirmative action reorders the political process in a manner that unduly burdens minorities because it prevent public university boards from using affirmative action without arranging for a change in the constitution to permit such racial discrimination.

By amending Michigan’s Constitution to prohibit university admissions units from utilizing race-conscious admissions policies, proponents of Proposal 2 thus removed the authority to institute racially-focused policies from Michigan’s universities and lodged it at the most remote level of Michigan’s government, the state constitution.

Constitutionally enshrining a non-discrimination policy on the basis of race is, according to the court, discriminatory.

I know this decisions is heavily outcome-determinative [both judges were Clinton appointees, the one dissent on the panel was a G.W. Bush appointee), but did the judges draft this tautological and fallacious reasoning with a straight face?

Expect this one to go to the 6th Circuit en-banc and most probably to the Supreme Court.

The Case of the Cancelled Czech

The Detroit Free Press: St. Clair fisherman catches Czech man trying to swim into U.S.

St. Clair County fisherman reeled in a man from the Czech Republic who investigators say was trying to illegally swim from Canada into the United States.

“I’ve caught some big things on this river but never anything this big,” Brad Pederson of Algonac said in a news release about Wednesday’s 11:40 p.m. catch off his boat in the St. Clair River between Marysville and Algonac.

You do have to slightly admire anyone with the gumption to try to swim across the St. Clair River - the current is a real kicker and it is not exactly at spa temperatures with the water hanging around the 60s.

But, instead of returning him to the Canadian side from whence he came, taxpayers will now pony up to return him to the Czech Republic:

The man was arrested for entering the United States at a place other than a designated port-of-entry and is being sent back to the Czech Republic

This creates some bad incentives for visitors to Canada from foreign lands - run out of money? Just start swimming towards the USA and get a free ticket home!