no third solution

Blogging about liberty, anarchy, economics and politics

Category Archives: Michigan

Detroit Mayor Guilty of Perjury?

January 24th, 2008

In case you’re not familiar with Kwame Kilpatrick — and there’s no reason you would be, unless you have a fetish for all things Detroit, or you live here — let me recap. There was the curious one-year lease on a Cadillac Escalade, to the tune of $24,995. Or, the use of a tax-exempt fund to pay for a personal vacation, while the city’s fire departments literally deteriorate by the minute. A whistleblower suit, filed by two wrongfully-terminated police officers led to a $6.5M settlement, in favor of the whistleblowers. There are also strange allegations about all-night partying at the Manoogian, and a dead prostitute (unsubstantiated). Then, last fall, his press secretary was arrested on domestic abuse charges.

Today, the Washington Post is bringing a new Kilpatrick story to the national stage, yet hardly an unexpected one. As reported, text messages from Kilpatrick obtained under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that he perjured himself in vehemently denying an affair with one of his top aides.

The county prosecutor’s office declined to comment on the legal implications of the report, posted Wednesday on the Detroit Free Press’ Web site. A conviction of lying under oath can bring up to 15 years’ imprisonment.

As I wrote a few months ago:

The fact that Detroit Mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick’s press secretary was recently arrested on domestic abuse charges is not terribly newsworthy, except as part and parcel to an ongoing series of mishaps that seem to befall the Mayor and his associates at every turn…

…Trouble doesn’t find people. People find trouble. like a nightmare version of the Midas touch, eventually everything King Kwame touches turns to trouble.

Teflon Kwame won’t do any time. He won’t even be asked to resign his post. The citizens of Detroit elected him twice — once after many of these improprieties were made public. Kwame is embarassed, but he ought to feel like he’s 10 feet tall and bulletproof. Nothing sticks.

People will argue that we should forgive his indiscretions, and I’m inclined to agree. But what I’m unwilling to forgive is the millions on millions that he’s spent defending, deflecting, and denying charges throughout his tenure as Mayor. Look, I could care less about Kwame’s infidelity. I feel sorry for his wife and for his children. And I’m not even sure that the relationship with Beatty is even tangentially related to the whistleblower suit (details escape me…) Regardless, Beatty is still in the city’s employ. Kilpatrick is still the Mayor. And the city, more specifically, the taxpayers, are out millions of dollars.

Smoking: Still Healthier Than Fascism

December 16th, 2007

http://freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071211/NEWS06/71211072

I will no longer be providing links to the Detroit Free Press, because they don’t have a permalink structure and source articles go stale after about a week, which is terribly annoying as a blogger.  In any event, a recent article about the pending smoking ban in Michigan cited that:

“The action could squelch a decade-old effort by anti-smoking advocates to rid public places of smokers. ”

As always, an improper application of the term “public” exacerbates the debate. What anti-smoking advocates want is to rid private places of smokers. When we begin to recognize that your restaurant is your property, we will be able to table the issue permanently. But as long as people continue to delude themselves into thinking that your restaurant is “public” property, smoking, trans fats, nude dancing, beer sales on Sunday mornings, etc., will continue to be banned.

Perhaps another way to look at the issue is like this: If we grant legislators the power to ban smoking, then we also grant them the potential power to make every establishment tolerate smoking, however unlikely a scenario that might be. Politics cuts both ways.

Of course, there is always the question of whether politicians have solved all of life’s far more pressing problems. And they haven’t. So unless smoking is a higher priority than, I don’t know, robbery or murder or theft or poverty, they shouldn’t worry about it in the least.

When they cure all other social ills, we can still remind them that property is property, and rights are rights.

We Overdosed on Marijuana and I Really Think We’re Dying…

December 11th, 2007

In reference to some old posts of mine, (“Get Out of Jail Free” and “K9 Officer Eats Hash Brownies: Hilarity Ensues“) I finally stumbled across the poor sap’s 9-1-1 phone call, thanks to YouTube. I can’t recall how I fell upon it, because I’m not an avid YouTube user, I don’t sit around watching web videos, and I actively ignore them as content on most other sites. Anyways, for your viewing pleasure:

I hope you find it as hilarious as I did.

The saddest part of the story is that he got a free pass, after years of sending people to jail for doing the same thing.

no third solution

Blogging about liberty, anarchy, economics and politics