Good News: Many speed limits in MI are illegal

An update on a post from a year and a half ago: Stimulus? Michigan speed limits set illegally low to generate speeding ticket revenue. To 'serve and protect' has become 'serve and collect.' 5 years ago Public Act 85 was passed that required all municipalities in Michigan to conduct studies to set proper speed limits. Most Michigan municipalities from cities to villages to townships have not complied. Thus, there are plenty of speed limits that are themselves unlawful. Why would municipalities do this? One word: money.

If anyone in Michigan gets a speeding ticket, it can actually be successfully thrown out in a court of law if the speeding occurred on a road with a speed limit not set by study. It's already been done and more Michiganders need to be aware of this. Turning public safety on its head and converting that directive into a money maker for local communities isn't anything new. Last March, I posted about how tickets have skyrocketed in some Michigan communities that just so happened to go in the red: Another Tax on MI Drivers. In other states, red light cameras that automatically generate tickets are facing pushback from citizens as they are nothing but a money generating scheme are are proven to increase accidents, not prevent them.

MI Gov Rick Snyder To Stamp Fat Kids With Scarlet "F", Rip Them From Families, Stuff Them Into Trains And Haul Them Off To Fat Farms

Good grief. Government-run schools will now apparently be weighing your kids on the way in and/or out, branding them as fat or not, and sending the data to the nanny bureaucrats. You can see what's coming down the road, right? The government confiscating your children because they literally do not fit in a bureaucratic cookie cutter. Think that's a bit unhinged? Try this on, err...for size: British Social Workers Confiscate Children

I wonder how motivated Britons would have been to bravely defend their homeland from the Nazis if they knew that only two generations later it would degenerate into a country so far from free that the government seizes children from their parents for not meeting bureaucrat-mandated body mass index requirements:

Four obese children are on the brink of being permanently removed from their family by social workers after their parents failed to bring their weight under control.

In the first case of its kind, their mother and father now face what they call the ‘unbearable’ likelihood of never seeing them again.

Their three daughters, aged 11, seven and one, and five-year-old son, will either be ‘fostered without contact’ or adopted.

Either way, the family’s only hope of being reunited will be if the children attempt to track down their parents when they become adults.

The couple, who have been married for nearly 20 years and are not being named to protect their children’s identities, were given a ‘draconian’ ultimatum three years ago…

Warned that the children must slim or be placed in care, the family spent two years living in a council-funded ‘Big Brother’ house in which they were constantly supervised and the food they ate monitored.

But despite subjecting them to intense scrutiny … there was apparently little or no improvement.

So the children will be confiscated, and the parents will probably never see them again, despite not having committed any crime.

This intolerable tyranny is justified by official statistics claiming that people who are overweight are a burden on the socialized healthcare system.

That is just plain evil. And this is how it begins on this side of the pond: Michigan to Track Kids' BMI

In an attempt to combat Michigan's childhood obesity epidemic, Gov. Rick Snyder announced Wednesday that the state would begin tracking kids' body mass index through the Michigan Care Improvement Registry. Although the policy would be one of the most extensive government anti-childhood obesity efforts, pediatricians were divided over whether it would have the desired impact.

The tracking system would require pediatricians to calculate patients' BMI using height and weight measurements, and report these numbers to the state through the existing immunization tracking system, the Michigan Care Improvement Registry. The numbers would be reported anonymously, meaning that the child's identity would not be connected to his or her BMI in state records.

The hope is that having doctors track height and weight in this way would encourage more discussion among parents, kids and doctors about the dangers of being overweight, says Geralyn Lasher, director of communications at the Executive Office of the Governor.

A video report:

Never mind that using the BMI in the first place is STUPID! The problem with BMI is that it is a standard measure of obesity but a very poor one indeed. Other research has linked waist size, not BMI, to dementia, heart disease, asthma and breast cancer (It's your waist size, not your BMI, that is an indicator of obesity). I have to think that measuring waist size is even easier for the bureaucrat (and the doctor) than measuring BMI. I would also think that waist size would be indexed to height (a 40 inch waist for someone 5 foot 5 inches would be worse than for someone 6 feet 5 inches). This is reason #151 not to use the BMI to gauge obesity and thus health. Professor Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit points to this article over at NPR a while ago: Top 10 Reasons Why The BMI Is Bogus. Here's the short of it: 

1. The person who dreamed up the BMI said explicitly that it could not and should not be used to indicate the level of fatness in an individual.

2. It is scientifically nonsensical. (why square the height? And ignore waist circumference?)

3. It is physiologically wrong. (bodybuilders and athletes are screwed)

4. It gets the logic wrong. (if you are obese, your BMI is high. If you have a high BMI, you may not be obese at all!)

5. It's bad statistics. (assumes little muscle mass)

7. It suggests there are distinct categories of underweight, ideal, overweight and obese, with sharp boundaries that hinge on a decimal place. (nonsense!)

8. It makes the more cynical members of society suspect that the medical insurance industry lobbies for the continued use of the BMI to keep their profits high. (Some insurance companies charge higher premiums for people with a high BMI! Bingo!)

9. Continued reliance on the BMI means doctors don't feel the need to use one of the more scientifically sound methods that are available to measure obesity levels. (body calipers anyone?)

10. It embarrasses the U.S. ("It is embarrassing for one of the most scientifically, technologically and medicinally advanced nations in the world to base advice on how to prevent one of the leading causes of poor health and premature death (obesity) on a 200-year-old numerical hack developed by a mathematician who was not even an expert in what little was known about the human body back then." - yup!)

In short, the BMI is utter garbage.

UPDATE: "Governor says he'll be a role-model for Michigan residents."

UPDATE #2: The libs over at The Detroit Free Press give the Snyder plan a thumbs up, which is reason enough to resist it at all cost: Editorial: Gov. Snyder points public and legislators to healthier choices

Gov. Rick Snyder delivered a prescription pad full of best practices Wednesday in his special message on health and wellness. The list is laudable. But breaking through legislative inertia in some of these areas may be just as hard as getting Michiganders in general to put down the remote and take a walk.

Snyder is right to try. He clearly wants the state's residents to understand how much they have at stake -- and how much they control their own destinies in the rising costs of health care. If every Michigander fell within normal ranges on four behaviors and four health measures -- which Snyder calls the 4x4 plan -- health care costs would fall by more than half, he said.

Funny how liberals insist we will control our own destinies as they grow the nanny state, no? Liberals - always minding other people's business.

Heh: Grosse Point Shores Residents To Vote On Leaving Wayne County To Move North Because Of Global Warming And To Escape High Taxes, But Mostly To Escape High Taxes

Just further proof that you can't tax your way to prosperity. You've probably heard the term voting with your feet," but that tends to apply to individuals. Cities and townships have a different way to fight high taxes:

Wayne County may as well be called Detroit County. That's the source of that big sucking sound you hear when looking over the budget.

UPDATE: More over at The Detroit Free Press: Grosse Pointe Shores to consider switching to Macomb County

In Grosse Pointe Shores, -- a city that straddles Wayne and Macomb counties -- officials will discuss this evening whether to pursue county boundary changes that will place the whole city in Macomb County.

Under a 1974 state law, cities located in two or more counties are allowed to pursue having their city in only one county.

City Councilman Dan Schulte, who proposed that the city consider changing, said it was about the benefit of lower taxes in Macomb County.

"That's the No. 1 issue -- money," Schulte said.

Residents could pay 3-4 mills less living in Macomb, he said.

Kurt Russell's next movie - "Escape From Detroit!"

Detroit Free Press: Yes To Obama $400 Billion Tax Hike, No To MI Business Property Tax Break

In college I was dating this girl once for a couple weeks. We saw each other every day, became romantically involved, yada, yada. But then I cooked her dinner one evening, and she totally freaked out, said it was "too soon" and our dating stopped there and then. I was like 'what the heck?' Apparently, my kind of ex got a job at The Detroit Free Press: Editorial: It's too soon for another big tax change in Michigan. The freep insists that what they admit is a bad, job-killing tax be kept for the collective good:

...Admittedly, the personal property tax -- the additional millage that most businesses pay on their equipment, on top of what they pay for land and buildings -- is difficult to administer. It is also an obstacle when Michigan competes for new firms with states that have dropped or changed similar taxes.

By why let that stand in the way on the road to their collectivist Utopia?

The personal property tax also helps sustain day-to-day operations of local governments, community colleges, counties and intermediate school districts. Its impact, however, is erratic. In Wayne County, the Village of Grosse Pointe Shores gets just 0.5% of its property taxes from the personal property tax. In River Rouge, by comparison, it's 56.8%.

Gross Pointe Shores, by the way, is bailing on Wayne County to become part of Macomb County to... pay fewer in taxes! You can't tax your way to prosperity you know. Quite the opposite. The freep's insistence that the admittedly bad tax helps "sustain day-to-day operations of local governments, community colleges, counties and intermediate school districts," is disingenuous because hiding behind that statement are unsustainable union benefits like free healthcare that lets employees retire in their late 40s on full dinosaur pensions that we can no longer afford. The freepkind of alude to that later in the piece:

Lawmakers have talked about replacing some of this money, but not all. Indeed, some apparently view this as a backdoor way to force more local efficiency and consolidation.

But this is the wrong way to do that.

And of course, in the freep's opinion:

 ...Business is getting enough of a tax break. Let's see how that works, and how many jobs it creates, before making further changes.

So surely the Detroit Free Press is also against Obama leveling a $400 billion tax increase via Stimulus II, right? I mean, it's so soon! So sudden. So big of a change without the first one proving it did a darned thing at all. Well the freep did come out for it (Detroit local MSM come out swinging for more Obama spending where the freep editorial was titled "Congressional inaction not an option"), and don't call me Shirley.

Leslie Nielson made more sense in character that the Detroit Free Press editorial board does in their jobs

UPDATE: Via Instapundit:

MEGAN MCARDLE: “I was tentatively in favor of the jobs plan that Obama proposed last week. But that’s before I realized that he has no intention of trying to get it passed. . . . I really wish that Obama hadn’t wasted my Thursday evening, and that of 31 million other Americans, listening to a jobs plan that was only designed to produce one job–a second term for Barack Obama.”

And here people thought that Obama would want to raise $1 billion to get re-elected. The pundits were off by some $450 billion. All that money and corresponding tax increases to save one single job which is filled right now by a person doing it as badly as possible. And the freep likes it...

Pure Michigan Video Spoof: MSU Spartan Girls

Another in a line of these that I have posted here:

Well, Obama does demand we go green...

Previously:
Pure Michigan Video Spoof: Renaissance Festival
Pure Michigan Video Spoof: Detroit Tigers
Pure Michigan Video Spoof: DEMF
Pure Michigan Video Spoof: Monsoon Season
Pure Michigan Video Spoof: St. Patrick's Day
Video: More 'Pure Michigan' Spoofs
Pure Michigan Video: Winter Virgins
Video: Even More 'Pure Michigan' Spoofs
Video: Pure Michigan - Pure Pothole Hell
Video: More 'Pure Michigan' Spoofs
Video: 'Pure Michigan' spoofs that are going viral on YouTube

Video report: MI pharmacist fired FOR DEFENDING HIMSELF!

Good grief:

I hope his suit is successful, because letting yourself be murdered because of a stupid policy is asinine. And what is it with targeting pharmacists anyway? From just a couple months ago: Obamaland: Pharmacist sent to prison for life for shooting armed robber. In Britain, it is routine to punish the victims for defending themselves against burglars and muggers (Good grief: Police demand residents not put up wires on windows - might hurt... THE BURGLARS!). It seems that that sort of weapons-grade moonbattery is infecting socialists on this side of the pond as well. Via the blog that bears that name: Life Sentence for Shooting Armed Robber in Oklahoma City

Business owners be warned: it isn't only armed thieves you have to worry about, but their fellow travelers running our demented legal system:

A controversial decision to send a pharmacist to jail for life for shooting dead a young man who tried to rob his store has caused a storm of protest.

Jerome Ersland was given a life sentence for the first-degree murder of 16-year-old Antwun Parker at an Oklahoma court last week.

Never mind that Parker and another punk burst into his pharmacy and pointed a gun at Ersland. How many urban juries or liberal judges are going to side with a white guy who served as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Air Force against a historically put-upon person of politically correct lineage?

I opined back then that fortunately, the disarming of our right to self defense hasn't made it's way to Michigan, with this as an example: Prosecutors won't bring charges against Warren homeowner who shot teen burglar

Warren Man Calls 911, Says He Shot Intruder: MyFoxDETROIT.com

Perhaps I was wrong. In the liberal Utopia, it only pays to be a violent criminal living on welfare and the plunder of honest citizens, as long as you keep voting for liberal Democrats.

UPDATE: A second thought on this. It strikes me as quite ironic that these pharmacists are being persecuted (and prosecuted) for defending their own life. Meanwhile, Obama and liberal bureaucrats are forcing them to dispense abortion pills to murder innocent babies against their conscience.

UPDATE #2: NY Couple Pleads Guilty in 4 Pharmacy Killings

 

Detroit Free Press blasts GOP bill banning frakazoid prisoners from receiving taxpayer-funded sex change operations

Funny that liberals are pro regulation-on-steroids for anything and everything... except for abortions and societal depravity. Case in point, from a Detroit Free Press editorial: When a legislator needs a priority change operation.

Michigan's still-struggling economy and enormous budget problems have not kept some lawmakers from squandering their time on legislative lunacy that would embarrass any high school student council.

A list of Legislature lows would have to include a xenophobic bill by state Rep. Dave Agema, R-Grandville, to ban foreign laws. But Agema looks almost statesmanlike compared to Rep. Thomas Hooker, R-Byron Center, who last week introduced a ridiculous and unnecessary bill (HB 4889) to prevent Michigan prisoners from receiving sex-change operations with public funds.

In other words, let liberal activist judges use Sharia Law t decide cases, and let taxpayer money be used to mutilate genitals of men who want to pretend to be women (or visa versa). It's not like it's a non problem in other parts of the country: Should State Pay for Convict's Sex Change?

Freakazoid murderer "Michelle" Kosilek seeking tax $$$ for genital mutilation

A Massachusetts inmate recently lost a bid for state-funded electrolysis treatments. But the prisoner, who has changed names from Robert to Michelle Kosilek, is still pursuing his case to have the state of Massachusetts pay for a sex-change operation in order to complete a gender transformation that started almost 20 years ago.

That puts Kosilek squarely in the middle of a debate over just what kind of medical care prisoners are entitled to, especially in an era of strained state budgets.

More here: Transgender Inmates Seek Sex Change Operations. And here: Sex Change Inmate Claims Prison Denying Treatment, Becoming a Man Again. Because of such absurd lawsuits to fund depravity, other states have had to push legislation. Enter Wisconsin:

State senators passed a bill Tuesday aimed at preventing Wisconsin prisoners from receiving state funds for gender reassignment treatments, including hormonal treatment and sex changes.

...“Wisconsin has spent about $800-$1000 a month for such drugs … and I don’t think [sex change therapy] is a good way to spend public money.”

The legislation was originally introduced by state Rep. Scott Suder, R-Abbotsford, after a Wisconsin prisoner sued the state for halting the continuation of his sex gender transformation surgery.

The prisoner, Donna Kronitzer, born Scott Kronitzer, is suing the state for not completing the sexual reassignment process that would ultimately give the inmate female genitals.

Or at least something that look like female genital, so this man can better pretend to be a woman. In the end though, it changes nothing:

Mr. Garrison's Fancy New Vagina
Tags: SOUTH
PARKmore...

Laws are needed to rein in weapons-grade liberalism:

Suder says the bill will ensure that the state will not change their mind and complete Kronitzer’s sex change with taxpayer money. ...

“No private healthcare plan pays for this and it baffles me why we’re giving this therapy to prisoners,” Suder said. “We want this policy to end to make sure state taxpayers aren’t paying for it.”

The payment for such therapy with state money goes back at least 10 years, and is a policy of the Department of Corrections, ...

Under current law, medical services, including hormonal therapy, are provided for residents in state prisons as well as forensic patients housed in state institutions. But the extension of medical treatment involving sexual reassignment is the “most ridiculous program” seen in the state government, Suder said.

“Prisons should serve as institutions of punishment — this is the worst case of ‘Extreme Makeover’ I’ve ever heard of,” he added.

Enter liberalism:

Some, however, believe the restriction of the hormonal treatment to state prisoners is an infringement on the rights of people with gender identity disorder.

The end result is clearly seen across the pond, where the UK has become the global epicenter of moonbat depravity. Via Creative Minority Report: Freed from Jail as It Conflicted with Sex Change

A loony judge in the UK has freed a convicted drug dealer from prison because it conflicts with his scheduled sex change operation. Oh wait, his taxpayer funded sex change operation.

I Hate the Media reports:

A transsexual drug dealer has escaped a jail sentence after a judge ruled it would ruin his chances of completing a sex change.

Ian Morris, 41, who changed his name to Jean in 2009, is due to start Government-funded hormone treatment next week.

He was on trial after police intercepted nearly 2kg of the hallucinogenic drug ketamine which was sent to his flat.

Mr Morris’s lawyers pleaded with Judge Mark Horton to spare him a jail term because of his sex change operation and asserted that he would find it “difficult” in a male prison.

So long to the days when prisons were designed to be 'difficult.' More than the absurdity of using taxpayer money to fund genital mutilation is the expense in fighting such an idea in the judicial system in th efirst place (again with taxpayer funds). Thus, laws are needed.

Video report: Woman convicted in "rare" welfare trial

Why rare? Because the ruing class for the most part doesn't care. Prosecuting welfare fraud goes against their government dependency agenda:

Here in MI, the GOP is starting to crack down on the leeches, and the establishment MSM is of course up in arms about it. For example, college students can no longer get on the dole for food stamps, wit this reaction by the media: Bridge card victory! Michigan continues its policy of letting college students suffer. Yeah - no food stamps for college kids is 'suffering.' Uh um.  But where one hole gets plugged, elsewhere a new leak occurs: New program offers affordable Internet service for low-income families. Yup -internet welfare. Ugh.

UPDATE: Via Carpe Diem: A New Civil Right: The Right to Raise Hell in Section 8 Rental Housing in Formerly Nice Neighborhoods: Another Failed Government Housing Policy 

"Section 8 rental subsidies have long been one of the most controversial federal social programs. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) under the Obama administration is making a troubled program worse.

In the 1990s, the feds were embarrassed by skyrocketing crime rates in public housing—up to 10 times the national average, according to HUD studies and many newspaper reports. The government's response was to hand out vouchers to residents of the projects, dispersing them to safer and more upscale locales.

Section 8's budget soared to $19 billion this year from $7 billion in 1994. HUD now picks up the rent for more than two million households nationwide; tenants pay 30% of their income toward rent and utilities while the feds pay the rest.

But the dispersal of public housing residents to quieter neighborhoods has failed to weed out the criminal element that made life miserable for most residents of the projects. "Homicide was simply moved to a new location, not eliminated," concluded University of Louisville criminologist Geetha Suresh in a 2009 article in Homicide Studies. In Louisville, Memphis, and other cities, violent crime skyrocketed in neighborhoods where Section 8 recipients resettled.

Recall that Obama famously stated that he wanted to "spread the wealth around" to Joe the plumber. But socialism does no such thing. Instead, it spreads the misery around, as the above story demonstrates.

ReasonTV: Michigan Bar Owners Ban Lawmakers for Banning Smoking! (Nanny of the Month, Aug 2011)

An update on a post from a couple of day ago: Heh: MI Bar owners who oppose smoking ban ban MI lawmakers.

Reason TV picked up on this and awarded a Nanny of the Month to the controversy, and it's apparently a first:

For the first time ever Nanny of the Month is cheering a ban.

That's right, starting September 1, more than 500 Michigan restaurant and bar owners are banning state lawmakers from their establishments. State Senator So-and-so wants a brew? Too bad. Politicians won't be served until they revisit the state's 2010 smoking ban, which, owners say, has devastated business, and left bars like Sporty O'Tooles on the verge of collapse.

The video:

Previously on the smoking ban:

• Can the Michigan legislature ban urination in Michigan businesses? Part 2


• Can the Michigan legislature ban urination in Michigan businesses

Previously:
ReasonTV: Plant A Garden, Go To Jail For 93 Days?
Video: Reason TV announced 'Nanny of the Month' recipient for April 2011
Irony: Political prostitute Harry Reid wants to ban Ted Kennedy's favorite passtime - having sex with hookers. Get 'Nanny of the Month' Award for his troubles
Video: Reason TV announced 'Nanny of the Month' recipient for January 2011
Video: Reason TV announces 2010 "Nanny of the Year"
Video: Reason TV announces "Nanny of the Month" for November 2010
Nanny State: San Francisco bans McDonalds Happy Meals
Video: Reason TV announces "Nanny of the Month" for September 2010
Video: Reason TV announced 'Nanny of the Month' recipient for August 2010
Video: Reason TV announced 'Nanny of the Month' recipient for July 2010
Video: Reason TV announced 'Nanny of the Month' recipient for June 2010
Video: Reason TV announced 'Nanny of the Month' recipient for May 2010
Video: Reason TV announced 'Nanny of the Month' recipient for April 2010
Video: Reason TV announced 'Nanny of the Month' recipient for March 2010
Video: Reason TV February 2010 Nanny of the Month Recipient...
Video: Reason TV picks January’s Nanny Of The Month
Nanny state: Phoenix Councilman bans churches from feeding the hungry
Video: The Nanny Of The Month for September 2009

Pure Michigan Video Spoof: Renaissance Festival

Another in a line of these that I have posted:

Previously:
Pure Michigan Video Spoof: Detroit Tigers
Pure Michigan Video Spoof: DEMF
Pure Michigan Video Spoof: Monsoon Season
Pure Michigan Video Spoof: St. Patrick's Day
Video: More 'Pure Michigan' Spoofs
Pure Michigan Video: Winter Virgins
Video: Even More 'Pure Michigan' Spoofs
Video: Pure Michigan - Pure Pothole Hell
Video: More 'Pure Michigan' Spoofs
Video: 'Pure Michigan' spoofs that are going viral on YouTube

Can the Michigan legislature ban urination in Michigan businesses? Part 2

Another update on a post from a couple of day ago: Heh: MI Bar owners who oppose smoking ban ban MI lawmakers.

I was attacked for the substance of that post and responded with this: Can the Michigan legislature ban urination in Michigan businesses? Dan Calebrese over at The Michigan View challenged my assertion that the legislature didn't have the right to pass the law, and did so by comparing it (IMO absurdly) to the right to urinate in public. Henry Payne got wind of my response, and that, along with another response against Dan by Jack McHugh (who correctly asserted that private property is just that) precipitated a response to the response by Dan: Not to further a pissing match, but . . .

I think we have a useful discussion going on among View contributors here, with my colleague Jack McHugh and Oakland U. BlogProf Chris Kobus taking me to task for my belief that the Legislature does, in fact, have the right to ban smoking in privately owned restaurants.

There are several points I want to make in response to recent comments from Chris and Jack, so let's get right to it:

- People keep asking me if I would be OK with the Legislature banning smoking in people's homes. Some Mackinac Center type on Facebook told me that if not, I am "inconsistent" and at any rate I apparently have statist tendencies that require therapy or something.

...- Just to be clear, my intentionally absurd example of urination referred to what someone might do in the dining room of a restaurant itself, the very same place we're talking about banning smoking. I didn't want to get too graphic with this example, but you guys keep asking me questions, so here we, er, go . . .

Let's say someone in the dining room of a restaurant walks right up to your table and pees on you. Let's say you complain to the manager or owner of the restaurant, who says, "This is my property and I allow people to pee wherever they want. If you don't like it, eat somewhere else." Let's say you call the cops and make a complaint against both the urinator and the indifferent owner. Do my doctrinaire free-market friends really think the owner has the right to take the position he took, and that no law can be passed that says otherwise?

- In fact, you don't have to use an example anywhere near as absurd as that one. Restaurants have to comply with public health codes, and are subject to inspections to ensure that they have done so.

Would Chris and Jack be OK with the following? A restaurant posts a sign on the front door that reads, "This restaurant is not subject to health or food safety inspections. This is private property and we keep our establishment the way we want. Don't like it? Eat somewhere else."

Would this represent a righteous invocation of the owner's rights as private businessman?

Dan goes on, but never answers, or even attempts to, my question to him that was the stuff of the very headline to the piece he was responding to. So let me ask again: can the Michigan legislature ban urination in Michigan businesses? Since Dan brings up safety inspections (which have morphed over time into revenue streams that manage lifestyles, healthcare and pensions of unionized government workers that inspect safety on the side and not very well), let me further my argument with this scenario: some douche in the MI legislature thinks it's a good idea to ban urination or defecation in any restaurant. After all, it's a public safety issue, they claim. They get up to the podium and assert that in their observations over the years, urinals tend to have a certain amount of splashback (due to fundamental laws governing fluid mechanics) especially at the hand holding the Johnson. So when you're done draining your main vein, you have urine on your hands. So you go to wash said hands but the first thing you touch is the knobs on the sink, which now have not only your urine on them, but those of other patrons as well. You finish washing your hands and immediately reach for those same knobs. Congrats, you now have urine on your hands from multiple people, and dried your hands with the hot air dispenser such that the clean water has been evaporated but the essence of the pee was preserved. You now grab for the bathroom door that undoubtedly has a ton of urine on it too, and are now a walking health hazard spreading urine and possibly fecal matter onto anything you touch. Thus, as the lawmaker's argument goes, urination (or defecation) of any kind in a place where you consume food must be banned for the public good. Except of course in casinos. Again, would Dan have a problem either with the law or with that argument for it? What say you, Dan?

Lastly, Henry called this a bar brawl (Bar brawl: Kobus fires back). And Dan, ironically, a pissing match. I think it's more like this though:

The only question is, which one is the monkey and which the idiot with the shaving cream on their face? Indeed there are far bigger fish to fry these days,no?

Good News: 50+ government workers in MI collect jobless benefits while still on the job

Via The Detroit News: Genesee County: 50 get jobless benefits on the job. Genesee, huh? Read: Flint.

An audit by Genesee County officials has found that more than 50 government employees have collected about $30,000 in unemployment benefits while still on the job.

The Flint Journal reports Sunday that county officials are working through the cases to determine if the double-dipping was intentional. Ten cases could involve fraud of more than $1,000 and are being investigated by the sheriff's department.

The audit comes after the July arrest of seven county employees. They were suspended from their jobs indefinitely and charged with unemployment compensation fraud.

AFSCME Local 496 Chapter 01 Chairman Matt Spodney says he doesn't believe the 53 employees are part of his union. But he says it could be a case of poor communication with seasonal and other employees who didn't intend to commit fraud.

Yeah - those two checks they were getting at the same time raised no flags with them whatsoever.

Can the Michigan legislature ban urination in Michigan businesses?

An update on a post from a couple of day ago: Heh: MI Bar owners who oppose smoking ban ban MI lawmakers.

I wrote in that post: "For the record, I'm a non-smoker. I hate the smell of cigarettes. But Michigan lawmakers of both parties have no right to tell property owners what they can or cannot legally do on their own property. Like it or not, smoking is legal." That precipitated this response from Dan Calabrese over at The Michigan View: Public urination for everyone! Dan challenges my assertion that the legislature didn't have the right to pass the law:

Would Kobus have a problem with allowing people to urinate anywhere they want? Urination is legal, after all. What right do they have to restrict where you can do it?

Kobus may not agree with the law, but how does he justify his argument that the Legislature doesn't even have the right to pass it? There are all kinds of things that are legal to do, but are still subject to restrictions as to when and where they can be done.

...The Legislature has made a judgment call that smoking in public is a nuisance and isn't going to be allowed. I don't think Kobus really believes they don't have the right to do that.

Actually - and this is something I have written before and should have repeated in my prior post above - I believe the smoking ban is unconstitutional because it violates the Headlee amendment of the Michigan constitution (the ban is a mandate on local government to enforce a rule for which no state funding was provided). It also violates the very first Section of the very first Article of the MI Constitution where it is written, in part, that "Government is instituted for their equal benefit, security and protection." (Casinos were exempt from that equal "protection") But that aside, Dan's analogy to public urination isn't quite accurate. My premise was based on personal property rights, in this case private Michigan businesses, rather than personal behavior (which by the way should and does have limits, not to so that the former does not but anyway). Be that as it may, Dan's premise brings up an interesting counter-question: can the Michigan legislature ban urination of any kind in a private businesses (and for the sake of argument, let's include the #2 with the #1)? If so, would Calabrese have a problem with that?

Video Report: MI girl who became pregnant as the age of 11 has given birth at 12. Psychologists try to redefine pedophilia to eliminate 'stigma'

And from The Detroit News: Macomb sheriff investigates claims that school janitor impregnated girl, 11

Macomb County Sheriff Anthony Wickersham said his department is investigating allegations that a janitor contracted to work at the Prevail Academy School impregnated an 11-year-old girl.

Wickersham released few details but confirmed Thursday an investigation is under way. The sheriff said no inappropriate activity occurred on school grounds.

...Wickersham said detectives are conducting interviews. The suspect, a 28-year-old Mount Clemens man, is not in police custody, he said.

Believe it or not, liberal psychologists are giving the above a thumbs up! Psychiatrists Advocate Change to Pedophilia Definition

"Stigmatizing and stereotyping minor-attracted people inflames the fears of minor-attracted people, mental health professionals and the public, without contributing to an understanding of minor-attracted people or the issue of child sexual abuse."

Next up, accusations of conservatives being pedophilephobic. Sodom and Gomorrah here we come!

Heh: MI Bar owners who oppose smoking ban ban MI lawmakers

Heck yeah:

For the record, I'm a non-smoker. I hate the smell of cigarettes. But Michigan lawmakers of both parties have no right to tell property owners what they can or cannot legally do on their own property. Like it or not, smoking is legal. From the AP via MLive: Bar owners who oppose smoking ban may turn tables on Michigan lawmakers

Bar and restaurant owners upset about Michigan's workplace smoking ban have a ban of their own in the works.

An organization called Protect Private Property Rights in Michigan said Tuesday that roughly 500 bars statewide plan to ban state lawmakers from their premises. The ban would start Sept. 1.

The lawmaker ban is a way for critics to draw attention to what they say are the harmful effects of the smoking ban. Some bars say they have lost business because of the ban. Others say the ban is unfair because decisions about whether to allow smoking should be left to property owners.

The Legislature-approved smoking ban took effect in May 2010.

For those that say it's a health issue, then how come Casinos were left out of the law?

The 'New Civility' (Cont'd): MI DemocraticParty sends Governor Snyder BDay Card with "Some day you will get yours. You are an A--"

A few choice snippets from the birthday card sent to MI Gov Rick Snyder by the Michigan Democratic Party last Friday (via Nolan Finley):

"You suck."

"Dumb a-- smarten up."

"Some day you will get yours. You are an A--."

"Up your a--.."

"Leave the country idot (sic)."

Comments Finley on the Democrats 'new tone:' "As angry as Republicans - and a lot of other folks - were at former Gov. Jennifer Granholm, neither the GOP or Tea Party activists ever resorted to such gutter-level stunts." That didn't sit well with Michigan liberals, or in this case Michigan Liberal, where Eric B challenged Finley: Ummmmm, pssst ... Nolan?

Please, sir, to explain this:

So in liberal moral equivalence - you know, like Obama comparing the Jews to Hitler in regards to the Palestinian situation - the Michigan Democratic Party sending a cheap shot at the Governor is the same as one lone person, whom EricB later refers to as "only one teabagger" (more 'new civility!'), uploading a YouTube video. Even worse, the uploader of the video, 'yourdrawerness,' doesn't appear to be a 'teabagger' at all but rather a rapper making discs titled "Hot Dog Buns." No indication of any political affiliations on his or her Myspace page. As far as moral equivalency goes with this one...

And one more thing:

I mean - really. That's all???

Mackinac Center: Saving $5.7 billion annually without higher taxes or program cuts in Michigan

I've mentioned the $5.7 billion number several times in this blog, but the Mackinac Center for Public Policy now has a video of what most of us would call common sense' reforms:

Every year, politicians in Lansing propose raising taxes and cutting programs to balance the state's budget. There is an alternative: Bringing public sector benefits in line with private sector benefits would save Michigan $5.7 billion annually. Find out more: www.benefitsinbalance.com.

The video:

Instead of cuts, we have an unnecessary increase in the budget. Again: State Spending From State Sources Going Up Next Year

Despite headlines, the 2012 Michigan budget signed into law on June 22 actually hikes state spending by $758 million. In addition, a Senate Fiscal Agency analysis released last week understated this increase by leaving out so-called “one time” spending items (for example, $25 million for film subsidies, a figure that some lawmakers are already trying to increase).

Given all the news stories about “draconian cuts,” many might be surprised by this news. Yet only after accounting for the winding down of federal stimulus money does the state’s bottom line show a less costly government. In other words, when a new fiscal year starts in October, the state will be spending more money that’s taken directly from taxpayers here, and less that comes from the federal government.

It's like The Blob. 'It just keeps getting bigger.'

ReasonTV: Plant A Garden, Go To Jail For 93 Days?

An update on government over-regulation gone awry: Good grief: MI Woman Faces Jail Time for Veggie Garden. Oak Park resident Julie Bass made the mistake of daring to grow a vegetable garden in her front yard, that landed her under the foot of the ruling class wielding vague regulations as to what she could and could not do with her own property:

Oak Park Drops Charges Against Julie Bass and Her Vegetable Garden: MyFoxDETROIT.com

She was to face a jury trial and ultimately jail time. But like cockroaches scattering when the lights go on, the bureauweenies scattered when the news went national: About time: Detroit Suburb Drops Charges Against Woman For Growing Vegetable Garden. But the absurdity of the whole thing landed the episode, and its perpetrator, as the Nanny of the Month:

Via Instapundit.

Previously:
Video: Reason TV announced 'Nanny of the Month' recipient for April 2011
Irony: Political prostitute Harry Reid wants to ban Ted Kennedy's favorite passtime - having sex with hookers. Get 'Nanny of the Month' Award for his troubles
Video: Reason TV announced 'Nanny of the Month' recipient for January 2011
Video: Reason TV announces 2010 "Nanny of the Year"
Video: Reason TV announces "Nanny of the Month" for November 2010
Nanny State: San Francisco bans McDonalds Happy Meals
Video: Reason TV announces "Nanny of the Month" for September 2010
Video: Reason TV announced 'Nanny of the Month' recipient for August 2010
Video: Reason TV announced 'Nanny of the Month' recipient for July 2010
Video: Reason TV announced 'Nanny of the Month' recipient for June 2010
Video: Reason TV announced 'Nanny of the Month' recipient for May 2010
Video: Reason TV announced 'Nanny of the Month' recipient for April 2010
Video: Reason TV announced 'Nanny of the Month' recipient for March 2010
Video: Reason TV February 2010 Nanny of the Month Recipient...
Video: Reason TV picks January’s Nanny Of The Month
Nanny state: Phoenix Councilman bans churches from feeding the hungry
Video: The Nanny Of The Month for September 2009

MI man goes Fred Flinstone, drives car without brakes, tries to stop with feet, redictable results

Remember how Fred Flinstone tops the car?

Check this out in local news:

A 24-year-old Detroit-area man who tried using his feet to stop a runaway pickup truck with faulty brakes caused multiple collisions.

Thank goodness no one was hurt, so that we can poke fun at this guy for trying to claim his own Darwin award.

UPDATE: Another report: VIDEO: Man Arrested for Driving Like Fred Flintstone

UPDATE: More over at The Detroit News: 'Moronic decision': Driver pulls Fred Flintstone, tries to stop car with feet