How to fix bankrupt Detroit

History was made yesterday as Detroit became the largest American municipality ever to file for bankruptcy.

What was once the wealthiest city in the United States is now $18 billion dollars underwater.  It can't pay its bills.  It can't pay out pensions to employees.  And there is practically no income.

But hey!  All is not lost!  Detroit can simply have a "Save Detroit Telethon"!


How does a city as ruined as Detroit make a comeback? Getting rid of every vestige of its failed leadership would be a good start. But that alone isn't going to make up for all the damage that kowtowing to the unions (representing both government employees and private industry) has done.

Actually, to be honest: I don't know how a city like Detroit could recover.  I believe it's possible, but it would take a very long time.

Expect all kinds of hell if the United States federal government gives Detroit a bailout.  I have even heard some suggest that it was the bailout of GM which helped precipitate this bankruptcy.  Now imagine that on a larger scale.

Gotta wonder how many other cities across this country are poised to go broke.  Or even how many states...

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The worst school massacre in American history

38 children and six adults killed. Several dozen wounded. The assailant killed himself.

That was the toll from the Bath Township Consolidated School Massacre in Bath Township, Michigan. On May 18, 1927...

You can read more about it here.

Incidentally, not a single firearm was used in the worst school massacre in the nation's history.

It is not what is in the hand so much as what is in the heart.

Thoughts and prayers going out to the people of Newtown, Connecticut this afternoon.

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"WILMAAAAA!" Driver tries to brake truck... with his feet

"This guy ain't no rocket scientist", said a deputy police chief about a dude in Michigan who tried to pull a Fred Flintstone... by attempting to stop his pickup truck with his feet! He caused two collisions before he was finally stopped (turns out the brakes on the truck weren't working).

Story and video here.

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Detroit to get geeks-financed statue of RoboCop

I guess if Philadelphia can have a Rocky Balboa statue, and if New York City has one of Ralph Kramden and if Milwaukee has the Fonz as a landmark, then Detroit should get a lasting monument to its own... hero?

(Oh yeah, I almost forgot : nearby Mount Airy - the model for Mayberry on The Andy Griffith Show - has that life-sized bronze statue of Andy and Opie going fishing! So I guess the precedent has already been set for fictional lawmen. Law-cyborgs. Whatever...)

Earlier this week a flood of support coalesced across Facebook and Twitter to erect in Detroit a statue of... RoboCop. The titular "part man, part machine, all cop" hero of the 1987 sci-fi action smash-hit movie. Somebody forwarded the idea to Detroit mayor Dave Bing, who responded with "There are not any plans to erect a statue to Robocop. Thank you for the suggestion."

That's when the wheels of justice, ummm... Motor City, errrr... fandom kicked into overdrive. Before you can say "interface spike" a fundraising effort was in high gear, determined to raise $50,000 to finance the statue of RoboCop.

A few days ago, with $25,000 left to accrue for the project, a donor kicked in the last half. The RoboCop statue has enough money to become a reality.

When that will happen is another story. Word on the streets of Old Detroit is that Mayor Bing won't give the clearance for the statue to be placed. One of the reasons why some don't want it is how RoboCop was a movie that played off of Detroit's hard times and urban blight during the Eighties (something which hasn't drastically improved). A RoboCop statue, opponents claim, would be a monument to the Detroit that many in that city are trying to escape from being. But the statue might well wind up on private property, where it is hope that it will become a landmark regardless.

Ehhhh, interesting. I wonder what Bixby Snyder has to say about it:

"I'D BUY THAT..."

"...FOR A DOLLAR!!!"

And now there's news that a reboot of RoboCop is underway. Hmmmm... not too crazy about that. The first movie was excellent and RoboCop 2 is better than its reputation. I think there should be a serious RoboCop 3 (forget the one that was, what, direct to video?) and put lots of Bixby Snyder in it. Or, have a full-length It's Not My Problem movie. Surely I can't be the only one who would watch that... right?!?

(Or make me really happy and put a statue of Snake Plissken up in Central Park.)

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Man tricks Apple into giving him 9,000 new iPods

As you can guess however, he didn't get away with it. Nicholas Woodhams of Kalamazoo, Michigan has pleaded guilty to mail fraud and money laundering and has been sentenced to a year in prison and made to pay $650,000 restitution for his scheme that tricked Apple into sending him nearly ten thousand brand new iPods...

Prosecutors say he took advantage of a warranty program by guessing the serial numbers of iPods still under warranty and claiming they were broken.

The company sent him 9,000 new ones over a year and a half.

Investigators say he turned around and sold those on the Internet.

Actually rather clever. I have to admire him for coming up with such a plan, even though it was obviously the wrong direction to direct such creativity toward.

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College student builds working half-sized Panzer tank

As clever as Erwin Rommel was, I can't remember him ever pulling off what Will Foster of Flint, Michigan has done: build a working Panzer tank (albeit one-half sized) from scratch...

The Kettering University engineering student's mini-Panzer can go up to 20 miles per hour with its three-cylinder diesel engine, is quite maneuverable and the turret can rotate 360 degrees to fire empty Red Bull cans from its air-compressed cannon powered by a SCUBA tank. Foster said that he built the tank to use in paintball competitions, after seeing some people drive "tanks" that were really golf carts.

Aim your targeting reticle here to read more about Foster's creation. And here's a YouTube video of the tank in action...

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iPolitics: Michigan kids may get free MP3 players

State reps in Michigan want to give each child in that state a free iPod, courtesy of the taxpayers of that state.

That has to be one of the worst and most stupid proposed abuses of government power that I've ever heard of. The Detroit News expresses blunt outrage in an editorial about the proposal, that says it better than I can here.

You know, if this goes through, these Michigan politicians are going to be encouraging crime. Think about this for a minute: free iPods for people who might ordinarily not be able to afford an iPod. Well, is the government of Michigan going to be getting iTunes for all of those people to go along with their new iPods? Probably not. These kids will have an MP3 player but no MP3s. And the music for those iPods has to come from somewhere...

So if this goes through, the state of Michigan will in effect be encouraging illegal music downloading among its people. It would be like handing out free bongs but not supplying the marijuana: of course people would be looking for weed to use it with!

I'll bet the RIAA is already salivating at the legal prospects that would be coming with this, if this proposal passes (which hopefully it won't).

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