Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Dems' Plan: Scale Back Select Corporate Tax Credits They Already Voted For

Dems' Plan: Scale Back Select Corporate Tax Credits They Already Voted For [Michigan Capitol Confidential]
A new proposal announced state Senate Democrats would use saving generated by eliminating “ineffective tax loopholes” to pay for the college tuition of Michigan students.
However, these same “ineffective tax loopholes” for particular businesses include ones that the Michigan Senate Democrats have overwhelmingly voted for over the past several years.

Monday, January 30, 2012

Investors face more than 70 pct loss in Greek deal

Investors face more than 70 pct loss in Greek deal
BRUSSELS (AP) - Investors participating in a deal to slash Greece's massive debt would face an overall loss on their bond holdings of more than 70 percent, a person involved in with the negotiations said early Tuesday.

Sunday, January 29, 2012

EyeOnMuskegon 1-29-2012

Forget global warming - it's Cycle 25 we need to worry about (and if NASA scientists are right the Thames will be freezing over again)

Forget global warming - it's Cycle 25 we need to worry about (and if NASA scientists are right the Thames will be freezing over again) Mail Online
The supposed ‘consensus’ on man-made global warming is facing an inconvenient challenge after the release of new temperature data showing the planet has not warmed for the past 15 years.
The figures suggest that we could even be heading for a mini ice age to rival the 70-year temperature drop that saw frost fairs held on the Thames in the 17th Century.
Based on readings from more than 30,000 measuring stations, the data was issued last week without fanfare by the Met Office and the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit.
It confirms that the rising trend in world temperatures ended in 1997.

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Forget about Economic Recovery: Obama Is Toast

Spengler » Forget about Economic Recovery: Obama Is Toast
The official unemployment rate may have fallen, slightly, but the real unemployment rate — the number of working-age Americans who aren’t working — rose from about 12% before the 2008 crisis, to about 23%, and hasn’t come down.

That includes people who have retired early because they can’t find work, spouses who used to earn a second income but have gone back to homemaking because work isn’t available, self-employed people whose businesses have collapsed, young people who live in their parents’ basement because they can’t afford tuition and can’t find work.

Friday, January 27, 2012

Occupiers vs. The Constitution

Breitbart.tv » Occupiers vs. The Constitution
Can members from Southern Occupy movements answer four basic questions about our Government?

The video that answers the question "are they really that dumb?"

Unemployment rates up in December, down for 2011

Unemployment rates up in December, down for 2011 MLive.com
While not great, the unemployment picture in Muskegon County is improving.
The county had ended 2010 with a 13.4 percent unemployment rate.
However, much of that improvement is due to a reduction in the labor force.

Success hasn't changed Tom Izzo

Andy Katz Blog - ESPN
I've covered the sport since I was in college in the late '80s and there has never been someone who has achieved so much success that defines true character than Izzo.

S/lt Riley's P-38

S/lt Riley's P-38
La Ciotat's P-38 Lightning, Rhône's delta, France
Pilot : second lieutenant James G. Riley Jr.

Rest in peace Uncle Jim

THE YEAR IS YOUNG: Worst News Story of 2012? “

Instapundit » Blog Archive » THE YEAR IS YOUNG: Worst News Story of 2012?

THE YEAR IS YOUNG: Worst News Story of 2012?
“That’s right; Reuters wrote that Rubio voted against Obamacare, but, as with Sotomayer’s nomination, he wasn’t in the Senate yet.
This kind of journalistic incompetence is stunning.
How can any reporter–here, David Adams of Reuters–write that Rubio voted a certain way, without even checking to make sure he was in office at the time?
And where did the false idea come from in the first place?”

Um, Media Matters, maybe? Just a wild guess . . . . Of course, calling this “incompetence” is charitable.
Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 11:33 pm

Thursday, January 26, 2012

The Volokh Conspiracy » Charles Murray on Elite Ignorance of Ordinary Americans

In his new book, Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960–2010, Charles Murray argues that a new elite class has emerged that is much more ignorant about the lives of ordinary Americans than were the elites of earlier generations:

The Ruinous Reign of Race-and-Gender Historians

The Ruinous Reign of Race-and-Gender Historians
In a significant case involving history (the Montana court relied heavily upon the scholarship and words of historians to reach its conclusions), all the books cited were more than 35 years old.
And that wasn't a coincidence: the kind of U.S. history relevant to influencing legal and public policy debates increasingly has been banished from an academy obsessed with scholarship organized around the race/class/gender trinity.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Japan shutting down all nuclear plants

Japan shutting down all nuclear plants News24
Before the disaster, around 30% of Japan's electricity was nuclear generated.

'Look Ma! No cavities!' Wired report examines fluoride effort that started in Grand Rapids

'Look Ma! No cavities!' Wired report examines fluoride effort that started in Grand Rapids MLive.com
Before the fluoridation began, 32,000 city school children, plus control groups of 8,000 kids in Muskegon and Aurora, Ill., were given complete dental examinations.
After eight years, the Grand Rapids kids showed reductions of 50 to 70 percent in tooth decay rates.

11 Incredible Weapons That Only America Has

11 Incredible Weapons That Only America Has

Familiar Rhetoric, Failed Record

New iPads for Fruitport school board members paid for with bond funds

New iPads for Fruitport school board members paid for with bond funds MLive.com
The school district spent $3,000 for iPads for all of the seven board members, said Superintendent Bob Szymoniak.

Gimme a break!

Woman Claims Neighbor’s Energy Efficient Windows Are Melting Her Toyota Prius

Woman Claims Neighbor’s Energy Efficient Windows Are Melting Her Toyota Prius « CBS Los Angeles

2012-1-19 Muskegon county Strategic planning Community developement- Northern Machine Tool

Why the United States Will Never, Ever Build the iPhone

Why the United States Will Never, Ever Build the iPhone - Jordan Weissmann - Business - The Atlantic
Here are four basic lessons that we can learn from Apple's manufacturing:

Muskegon Mayor Steve Warmington asking citizens to be involved in their neighborhoods

Muskegon Mayor Steve Warmington asking citizens to be involved in their neighborhoods MLive.com
“We need to become friendly again,” Warmington told the Nelson association members, in a message he has repeated at seven other neighborhood association meetings.
Warmington has another five neighborhood meetings, concluding March 19 with the Oakview and Sheldon Park association.

President Obama calls for raising dropout age, other reforms adopted or proposed in Michigan

President Obama calls for raising dropout age, other reforms adopted or proposed in Michigan MLive.com
High school students should be forced to stay in high school until they graduate or turn 18, President Barack Obama said in his State of the Union address.

Senate Democrats propose free college tuition funded by reducing corporate tax credits

Senate Democrats propose free college tuition funded by reducing corporate tax credits MLive.com
"Free"???????

POGO's Joint Strike Fighter Resource Page

POGO's Joint Strike Fighter Resource Page
More problems threaten to exacerbate the already spiraling costs of the F-35, which has already been set back by years of delays and double digit cost growth.
The F-35 is the world’s most expensive weapons program...

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

State Dependency on the Federal Government

http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/state-dependency-on-the-federal-government
As the following charts shows, total state spending continued to increase during the economic downturn because the federal government picked up the slack.
Note that the federal share of total state spending went from 25.7 percent in 2001 to 34.1 percent in 2011.

George Soros on the Coming U.S. Class War

George Soros on the Coming U.S. Class War - Print View - The Daily Beast
As he sees it, the world faces one of the most dangerous periods of modern history—a period of “evil.”
Europe is confronting a descent into chaos and conflict.
In America he predicts riots on the streets that will lead to a brutal clampdown that will dramatically curtail civil liberties.
The global economic system could even collapse altogether

Why the United States Will Never, Ever Build the iPhone

Why the United States Will Never, Ever Build the iPhone - Jordan Weissmann - Business - The Atlantic
The price of labor, though, is just one small piece of what makes China a better place to make an iPhone.
...........................For Mr. Cook, the focus on Asia "came down to two things," said one former high-ranking Apple executive.
Factories in Asia "can scale up and down faster" and "Asian supply chains have surpassed what's in the U.S."
The result is that "we can't compete at this point," the executive said.

Monday, January 23, 2012

Lagarde calls for bigger eurozone firewall

Lagarde calls for bigger eurozone firewall - FT.com
In a speech in Berlin, Christine Lagarde, IMF managing director, said that without a larger bail-out fund, fundamentally solvent countries like Italy and Spain could be forced into a financing crisis.

Some Chevy dealers spurn Volt allocation

Some Chevy dealers spurn Volt allocation
GM's "thinking we need six more Volts is just crazy," Hedrick says.
"We've never sold more than two in a month."
Hedrick says he usually takes just about every vehicle that GM allocates to him.

South Carolina's Attorney General detects voter fraud

South Carolina's Attorney General detects voter fraud - WTOC, Savannah, Georgia, news, weather and sports
Wilson says an analysis found 953 ballots cast by voters were people who are listed as dead.