Detroit’s Autorama is in town

Now here is something that makes me get a bit nostalgic:

Now that Detroit has had a month to bask in the future of what the automotive industry has to offer, the Motor City will now take a look at its past.
The 60th annual Autorama begins noon Friday and runs through Sunday at Cobo Center, One Washington Blvd. in Detroit.
Around 100,000 people are expected at the annual car event, which will feature about 1,000 exhibits with celebrities, attractions, beer and — of course — more than 700 hot rods, classic cars and customized vehicles.
via 2012 Autorama Detroit: Motor City revs up for ‘America’s greatest hot rod show’ | MLive.com

When I was a little kid, my Father and I would always head to Cobo Hall in Detroit every year to go to this show. It was like a year religious pilgrimage for us. Some years, like back in the 80’s, my cousins, my Mom, and her sister and hubby would trek down to the show. Back in the 80’s stars from shows like “The Duke of Hazzard” would be there. People like Tom Wopat, James Best — who played Roscoe P. Coltrane — were there. What I remember the most, was the walking; we would walk that entire show, all rooms, upstairs and downstairs of that hall and look at everything. We used to go to the auto-show as well; it was fun time. I remember getting my picture taken in the car from the T.V. Series “Knight Rider,” You know K.I.T.T.? I got it taken in the car from the first season and I believe the second season. It was a Polaroid, and it cost my Dad five bucks.

My Dad, because he worked at General Motors, used to get free tickets to all of those shows. I miss those old days; they were the “magic years” for me as a kid. Sadly, we stopped going to those shows, mainly because it was such a pain in the rear to get down there and the walking was not easy on my Dad or me, as we both got older. In addition, in addition, we started hearing about incidents happening at those show, shootings, robberies, and so forth, so we just quit going. I went to an Auto Show once, by myself, back in the days when I was actually working. I actually found a good parking spot on the roof of Cobo, I went inside, and the place was heavily crowded. I went and looked at a few cars, fought my way through the crowd; and finally got disgusted and left. After that, I never went back. In addition, people were rude, and one person even hurled a racist remark at me, for simply being in his way. Naturally, he was black and I was white; so in that City, this was considered normal. This was, for what it might be worth, in the 1990’s. Things changed in 10 years, I suppose.

The bottom line is this; if you do not mind crowds, rude people and want to see some nice classic cars, this is the show to see. The cars, of course, come from an era when Detroit was on top of its automotive game. Like good, moral women —-they just do not build them like that anymore.

Never trust a Baptist

Looks like this Church learned the lesson I learned here a few years ago:

A West Bloomfield man was arraigned Thursday on charges that he embezzled more than $600,000 from a Pontiac church over the last six years, the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office said.
Reuben Bynum, 61, was released on bond. He had been the financial officer for Trinity Baptist Church until August, when the money was discovered missing, the Sheriff’s Office said.
A complaint from a deacon led to a review of church accounts, the Sheriff’s Office said. It showed that Bynum forged a signature on church checks and misused a church ATM card.
via West Bloomfield man faces charges of embezzling $600,000 from church | Detroit Free Press | freep.com.

It is a lesson that I learned here back in 2006, which I wrote about here a few weeks ago, when writing about something else — and that is, if a Baptist knows that they can stab you in the back, they will most likely do it. Although, to be fair to my Baptist brethren, most so-called Christians would do it too.

Why do Christians do stupid stuff like this?

The reason I ask this, is because every time a Christian does something as ignorant as this; it never ends well.

Videos: (Via Mediaite)

The Story:

On Tuesday, Franklin Graham appeared on Morning Joe and made some statements that threw the show’s panel — which included Alex Wagner, Willie Geist, and John Heilemann — into disarray. Graham questioned President Obama‘s faith and contentiously explained why Mormons aren’t considered Christian.
Graham, throughout the interview, repeatedly said he didn’t know if President Obama was a Christian.
“I asked him when he was running… how he came to faith in Christ. He said that he was working in the South Side of Chicago in the community and they asked him — the community — asked him what church he went to, and he said ‘I don’t go to church.’ They said, ‘If you’re going to work in the community, you have to join one of our churches.’ And of course, he joined Reverend Jeremiah’s church. So that’s what his answer to my question was.”
“So therefore, by your definition, he’s not a Christian,” Geist said.
“You have to ask him,” Graham said. “I cannot answer that question for anybody.”
Mike Barnicle then asked why Graham couldn’t just say, “Yeah, I believe he’s a Christian,” in light of him saying he is, going to church, and practicing his faith.
“I accept him as what he says. If he says he’s a Christian, I accept that, I’m not going to say he’s not,” Graham said. “All I know is what Jesus Christ has done in my heart and how he’s changed my life.”
Graham also explained how the Muslim world sees President Obama as a Muslim, but he doesn’t believe he’s a Muslim. He did stop short of categorically saying he wasn’t a Muslim. “I can’t say categorically because Islam has gotten a free pass under Obama,” Graham said, pointing out the Christian minorities throughout the entire world coming under attack by Muslims, especially after the Arab Spring.
[….]
“His values are so clear on moral issues,” Graham said on Santorum. “No question about it.”
“[That’s] an amazing double standard that you just applied,” an incredulous Heilemann said. “Your reaction to the difference — The question about Rick Santorum and President Obama, I think, just exposes an incredible double standard you’re applying to those people. They’re exactly the same situation!”
“No, I asked President Obama how he came to faith in Christ and he said, ‘I don’t go to church,’” Graham replied.
“Have you had that conversation with Rick Santorum?” Heilemann asked.
“I’ve talked to Rick Santorum, yes.”
“And he was just more persuasive to you?”
“I think so,” Graham said. “But you have to look at what a person does with his life. Anyone can say he’s a Christian. But you look at [how] do they live? Where do they go? And act? Listen, Obama is a nice man, I’ve met him on several occasions–”
“But you think he behaves in an un-Christian way,” Heilemann interrupted.
“No, he is a nice man. And his wife is a class act and their kids are class — You can’t help but like them,” Graham said. “So I have no idea what he really believes and I really don’t have any idea other than what Rick Santorum stands for or what he really believes.”
“What about Mitt Romney?” Wagner asked.
“I like him,”
“Is he a Christian?”
“He’s a Mormon.”
“He says he’s part of the Judeo Christian faith, do you take him at his word?”
“Most Christians would not recognize Mormonism as part of the Christian faith.”
“So he is not a Christian…”
“I’m just saying most Christians would not recognize Mormonism. Of course they believe in Jesus Christ, but they have a lot of other things that they believe in, too, that we don’t accept theologically,” Graham explained. He then added that Romney, “would be a good President if he were the nomination, because I think the man has got the ability. He’s got the strength, business-wise, political-wise — he’s a sharp guy, and he’s proven himself. Any one of these candidates–Newt Gingrich, all of them. Now, newt’s been married several times, he’s had those issues, but he could make a good candidate. And I think Newt is a Christian…at least he told me he is.”
“So Newt Gingrich is a Christian,” an exasperated Geist asked, “but you’re not sure that President Obama is!”

Again, I am not saying that these men not do not have the right to believe what they do; they do, and I also happen to agree with their assessments of Romney and somewhat on Obama. However, to haul themselves to the biggest liberal network in America and do something like this, makes these men, Christianity, the Church — look like complete buffoons. Perhaps Rev. Graham and his Ministry should concentrate more on furthering the Gospel of Christ and not be going to a liberal network and making statements which, in all honesty, does more to hurt the cause of Christ, than it ever does to help it.

In other words my friends, as a 29 year veteran of the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ; I just do not see the Godly wisdom of doing this sort of thing. It just does not strike me as something helpful for the body of Christ. Let those who have ears to hear; let them hear.

Former Ron Paul Ally confronts Paul on double dipping on expenses

Proving my ever-growing suspicions on this guy:

In March 2005, David James called Rep. Ron Paul’s (R-Texas) Congressional office for some documentation.
James’s nonprofit group, the Liberty Committee, had paid for one of Paul’s flights, and James needed a receipt or boarding pass to document the expense. He’d been pushing Paul for the paperwork and now, on the phone, he was “putting his foot down.”
“So I called the office manager,” James recalled. “They knew me, like, as well as they knew Ron. And I said, ‘Liberty Committee is paying for this expense. I need to get the boarding pass or the ticket or something.’”
The office manager said Paul’s Congressional office no longer had documentation for that flight; Paul had sent it in to the House Finance Office for reimbursement. But Liberty Committee had already sent a check to American Express to cover the charge on Paul’s credit card.
“I don’t care what flights the Liberty Committee pays for,” James said, “because Ron never took enough in expenses to come anywhere near his value to us. And this was piddly. But it’s just what it was.”
James first thought it was accidental and faxed a letter to Paul’s office, requesting that its money be returned for the flight. Paul did repay the $403.70, but the episode strained their relationship and led to a falling out a year later.
In a subsequent conversation, James raised the issue, and Paul “was very curt, and he simply said, ‘Yep, well, happens all the time,’” James, 64, told Roll Call.
via Associate Confronted Rep. Ron Paul About Flights : Roll Call News.

Ed Morrissey also writes about this, and thinks that Ron Paul should come clean or face a house ethics committee hearing. I wholeheartedly agree. If you are going to pawn yourself off as the most honest person on capital hill; you should try actually being the most honest person on capital hill. I have written on my previous blog about this man’s claims to be the most honest politician, and for a short time, I actually believed that, but as time wore on, I began to read about the stuff that Mr. Paul does and does not want his own followers really knowing about it. But, I, as well as other bloggers have documented his antics for a while now.

While Mr. Paul might have some very good ideas on capitalism, free trade and our monetary system; his utter hypocrisy when it comes to issues like this and his utter idiotic ideas on foreign policy handicap him. Not only this, but his past writings that did have his name on them, and his associations with Jew haters, racists and other such sort of nonsense make him someone, despite what I said recently, which was honestly in jest; that I could never, in good conscience vote for in a million years. All one would need to do is look through the archives of my previous blog to see all the stuff that I have written about the man over the past 6 years.

Again, while I can appreciate his opposition to Wilsonian foreign policy; something that I have spoken out against myself here, and I can and do agree with very much, as much as I agree with his idea of free trade, free markets and the gold standard. I cannot side with this man because of the rest of his problems. As I have said on this blog and my previous blog many, many times; Ron Paul is NOT, nor has he EVER been the Messianic figure that many of his well-intentioned followers assumed him to be. This proves that and if the Ron Paul crowd had any sort of common sense at all; they would back away from Ron Paul and support someone who could actually fix this Nation’s problems.

However, if I know the Ron Paul crowd like I do; they will simply dismiss this true story, as some sort of Jewish conspiracy by the Illuminati and the Bilderberg boys to keep him from winning the White House, which is pretty much par for their course. I could tell you stories of how when I, on my previous blog, would write something even remotely critical of Ron Paul; my inbox would overflow with Ron Paul supporters calling me everything from a Neo-Con (which is Jew in Ron Paul speak) to a Bush-lover. Once, though, one of them went over the line and sent a death threat via e-mail. I did report that to the FBI in Detroit. This is why I try to avoid writing about the man. Because his most devout followers are absolutely insane.

Trust me, when I tell you this; the left’s crazies, have nothing on Ron Paul’s crazies. 😯

Hope and Change: Obama Administration throws in towel on corruption case

Another campaign promise broken:

(Reuters) – The Obama administration on Tuesday threw in the towel on one of its biggest bribery cases in the military equipment business, which it had touted as part of its campaign to crack down on corruption, moving to dismiss charges against 16 defendants.
Twenty-two people were arrested in early 2010 on charges that they had tried to bribe a supposed African defense minister by padding their bids to supply military equipment to his country.
Instead, the minister was an FBI agent who was part of the first large-scale undercover operation of its kind seeking to root out corruption under the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which makes it illegal to try to bribe government officials.
U.S. prosecutors filed a motion to dismiss the case after two lengthy trials ended in mistrials and three defendants were acquitted. Three individuals have already pleaded guilty.
via U.S. abandons high-profile bribery sting prosecution | Reuters.

Hope and Change? Yeah right! 🙄

Black CNN Commentator plays race card with GOP

…and openly admits he is doing it!

Grand Rapids, Michigan (CNN) — In case you plan to see Wednesday’s GOP debate, allow me to offer up some crib notes so you don’t get lost.
First, when you hear the candidates talk about “job creators,” that’s just another way of saying “rich people” or “the guy bankrolling my super Pac.”
When someone says “family values,” that’s to remind the audience that they don’t like gay people; “religious freedom” means “Christianity”; and it’s not really a GOP debate until a candidate attacks the “liberal media” for asking questions they’re too afraid to answer.
LZ Granderson - Playing the race card!
Now there will be plenty of other buzz words and euphemisms that will be tossed around during the debate, but since it is being held in Arizona, chances are the most popular phrase will be “secure the border.”
We must secure the border.
The candidates will argue that it’s a matter of national security. That it isn’t just the friendly illegal immigrants looking for work we must worry about, but terrorists, drug lords and other criminals who seek to make their way through our porous border. They will say if they were president they would build walls, add troops, even commission a Death Star to keep this country safe.
Newt Gingrich has promised to build a double fence along the entire southern border, adding, “”The United States must control its border. It is a national security imperative,”
Ron Paul said “If elected president, I would move to quickly end foreign nation building efforts and use many of the resources we waste playing world’s policemen to control our southern border.”
They all will receive applause, and it will all sound great … until you realize that “secure the border” is slang for “keep the Mexicans out.”
Oh boy, here comes the black guy playing the race card again.
Yep, that’s me
via Does ‘secure the border’ mean ‘keep America white’? – CNN.com.

Imagine with me, for one second, if a white conservative political commentator had said something like this in an op-ed. The outrage would be deafening. But, because it is a black liberal, taking pot shots at the GOP; it is just fine! This is why the removal of Pat Buchanan was so important; it is the stifling of political debate in this Country, by the radical left. When the radical left in this Country is controlling the media and setting the rules of the political discussion in this Country; stuff like the above happens. It is unfair, it is liberal bias and it must be exposed.

Remember that LA Shooting involving 3 ICE agents???

I thought I had blogged on this, but I guess I didn’t.

A few days or so ago, there was a shooting out in LA involving three ICE agents.

To her much deserved credit, Detroit Blogger Debbie Schlussel has some inside information on that, about how the media is spinning the incident; and some information that not everyone knows about. I highly suggest that you go read it. I have to hand it to the woman, She does have the sources; I’ve defended her in the past, against people who want to try to shut her down. Yeah, she has said some things that I didn’t like; But, heck, I have said stuff others did not like—- like recently for example!

More of that “Religion of Peace” at work.

Via Israel Today:

A mob of some 50 Palestinian Muslims stoned a group of Christian tourists atop Jerusalem’s Temple Mount on Sunday morning. Three of the Israeli police officers who acted to protect the Christian group were wounded by the stone-throwers.
Police arrested 11 Palestinians, several of them minors, for their role in the attack.
The attack is believed to have been instigated by the former Muslim mufti of Jerusalem, Ekrama Sabri, who told Palestinian media over the weekend that Jewish groups were planning to break into the mosques that occupy the holy compound and desecrate them.
Sabri urged all local Muslims to protect the mosques from “the Israeli conspiracy against the city and its holy places.”
Muslim religious figures regularly claim that Israel is plotting to destroy the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aqsa Mosque to pave the way for the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple, which the Muslims now insist never previously existed.
Because of the constant threat of Muslim violence, and despite the fact that the Temple Mount is the most holy place on earth to Jews and many Christians, the Israeli police comply with Muslim demands for harsh restrictions on non-Muslim visitors to the site. For instance, Jews and Christians are forbidden to carry Bibles atop the Temple Mount or to utter even silent prayers within its walls. Jews and Christians are regularly detained for violating these conditions.
In other violence, Palestinian terrorists operating out of the Gaza Strip fired a Grad-type missile at the southern Israel city of Beersheva on Saturday. The projectile landed in an open area just outside Beersheva and did not cause any injuries or damage. Two more short-range rockets hit nearby Israeli towns.
Palestinian forces fired at least two rockets at southern Israel – one at the coastal city of Ashkelon – on Friday, again causing no injuries or damage.

But-but-but-but they’re just peaceful Muslims! 🙄

The same damned peaceful Muslims who did this:

and this:

These are the men who did the above, and Shanksville, Pa:

We should never forget what these men did, we should never forget thier race, their religion and why they did it to us, ever!

They were acting under the command of this man:

The liberals in this Country want to flush this event down the memory hole. They would rather blame Bush and Cheney for the attacks; and not the incompetence of Bill Clinton, which was the real cause of 9/11. Like his incompetence in rigging the housing market to fail, like it did. This is why I no longer vote Democratic Party; because those bastards are the reason why we are living in the police state hole that we live in now.

Some people cannot see that; and that’s their own darned fault. I’m no fool and I see things for what they really are. Terrorism is a threat and these same people CLAIM to want a two-state solution! Which is a lie of the devil, they want to see Israel pushed into the sea and the Jewish race exterminated from the earth, kind of like Hitler.

Remember this come November and vote accordingly.

The Sunday Night Music Express: In Memory: John Fairfax 1937-2012

He crossed the Atlantic because it was there, and the Pacific because it was also there.
He made both crossings in a rowboat because it, too, was there, and because the lure of sea, spray and sinew, and the history-making chance to traverse two oceans without steam or sail, proved irresistible.
In 1969, after six months alone on the Atlantic battling storms, sharks and encroaching madness, John Fairfax, who died this month at 74, became the first lone oarsman in recorded history to traverse any ocean.
In 1972, he and his girlfriend, Sylvia Cook, sharing a boat, became the first people to row across the Pacific, a yearlong ordeal during which their craft was thought lost. (The couple survived the voyage, and so, for quite some time, did their romance.)
Both journeys were the subject of fevered coverage by the news media. They inspired two memoirs by Mr. Fairfax, “Britannia: Rowing Alone Across the Atlantic” and, with Ms. Cook, “Oars Across the Pacific,” both published in the early 1970s.
Mr. Fairfax died on Feb. 8 at his home in Henderson, Nev., near Las Vegas. The apparent cause was a heart attack, said his wife, Tiffany. A professional astrologer, she is his only immediate survivor. Ms. Cook, who became an upholsterer and spent the rest of her life quietly on dry land (though she remained a close friend of Mr. Fairfax), lives outside London.

Memo to Rick Santorum: This is not helping your cause

This is not a smart move, Mr. Santorum.

Via the Detroit News:

Washington — Rick Santorum on Sunday condemned what he called President Barack Obama’s world view that “elevates the Earth above man” and requires insurers to pay for prenatal tests that will encourage more abortions.
A day after telling an Ohio audience that Obama’s agenda is based on “some phony theology, not a theology based on the Bible,” the GOP presidential candidate said he wasn’t criticizing the president’s Christianity.
“I’ve repeatedly said I don’t question the president’s faith. I’ve repeatedly said that I believe the president’s Christian,” Santorum said in a broadcast interview. “I am talking about his world view, and the way he approaches problems in this country. I think they’re different than how most people do in America.”
The former Pennsylvania senator said Obama’s environmental policies promote ideas of “radical environmentalists,” who, Santorum argues, oppose greater use of the country’s natural resources because they believe “man is here to serve the Earth.” He said that was the reference he was making Saturday in his Ohio campaign appearance when he denounced a “phony theology.”
“I think that is a phony ideal. I don’t believe that is what we’re here to do,” Santorum said. “We’re not here to serve the Earth. The Earth is not the objective. Man is the objective.”
Obama’s campaign said Santorum’s remarks were another attack on the president’s faith by Republican rivals in a nominating contest that has grown increasingly bitter and negative.
“It’s just time to get rid of this mindset in our politics that, if we disagree, we have to question character and faith,” said Robert Gibbs, Obama’s former press secretary. “Those days have long passed in our politics. Our problems and our challenges are far too great.

I really hate to be the one to bring this out; nothing bothers me more than to have to point out the obvious. However, because I am a Lincoln Conservative, a libertarian-minded Conservative and because I happen to believe that all forms of bigotry are simply immoral, I must address this issue.

Mr. Santorum, your dog whistle racism needs to stop. This idiotic notion that President Barack Obama is not a Christian because he happens to disagree with your political stance is asinine at best. Mr. Santorum your use of the word “worldview” is troubling. Because I happen to believe that what you are actually saying is that because President Barack Obama is a man of color, because he is a black man; that somehow or another he views American differently than say yourself or even me.

My simple question to you sir is this; would you make the same statement of that nature to a Democratic Party Presidential candidate who was of the White race? I happen to believe that the answer to that very important question would be a resounding no. Because sir, it is a fact that your Party and the Conservatives that happen to reside in have been fanning the flames of an belief that because President Barack Obama is a black man and has ancestral ties to the African nation of Kenya; that somehow or another he is a communist. Further that he somehow or another loves the Nation of Kenya more than he loves the United States of America.

Mr. Santorum because I grew up on the southwest side of the City of Detroit, in the state of Michigan here, I find all of this to very mightily offensive. Furthermore, sir, I have a solemn warning to you and your campaign, and to the Republican National committee. If you do not drop this idiotic and utterly contemptible pursuit of dog whistle racism in your pursuit of the White House, you sir will lose and the Democrats will win the election in 2012.

Because there is something that you, your campaign and the Republican National Committee need to know, Michigan is a very diverse state; racially, politically and economically. Good portions of the residents of this wonderful state of ours are neither Republicans nor Democrats; many of them, like me, indentify ourselves as political independents, who usually vote for other third parties, if the candidates in the two major parties do not meet to what we feel meet our needs as citizens of this great Country of ours.

Mr. Santorum, if you continue this practice of “dog whistle” racism during this primary, you might actually succeed in defeating Mitt Romney in the primary here in Michigan. You might just also successfully be able to win the nomination of your own party. However, I assure you that you will lose the general election, not only here in Michigan, but nationally as well; because the America know when nuanced racist language is used against a black man. We knew in 1964, when the southern Democrats wanted to keep blacks in the south from being truly free and we know it now. We knew it during World War 2, when people from your own party objected to rescuing Jews from the insanity of Hitler. Sadly, some of your people in your party are still bigots of that sort.

So, please sir; stop this madness while you still can maintain control of your own message.