Links around the collar: Thursday night stuff

by: Eric B.

Thu Mar 01, 2012 at 21:01:45 PM EST

I've been on this epic search at the local Meijer for the last two months for naan. For the longest time, they stocked it in the bakery area with the bagels and then it disappeared. The thought that the store would stop carrying it frankly horrified me, because Indian-inspired food is something of a cold weather staple around these parts (I like to substitute distinctly non-Indian tofu for meat) and naan is a fine accompaniment to that. But, no matter how often I looked, I could never find it ... in the bakery or in the ethnic food aisle. I was saddened at the prospect of simply giving up. Until today, that is, when I realized they moved it to the deli area and not in the wraps but in the specialty buns and "Hawaiian rolls." My retribution was swift and terrible ... I paid the entire $14 in dimes, nickels and pennies in the self checkout lane.

Onward!

*--While we're sitting here, conversing so enjoyably about the mess that was Tuesday night's primary, the Legislature is moving towards continuing its shift of the state's tax base from businesses, which consume government services no matter how they are configured (i.e. the nonsense about double taxation is just that, nonsense), to people. This time, it's the personal property tax, which they should have gotten rid of first if they were interested in competence over ideology.

*--Nolan Finley mistakes selectively chosen polling results for what defines extremism. What's his point? What is it ever?

*--The plan for tonight is to introduce my girlfriend to seasons four and five of The Simpsons, long regarded as two of the best at the show's pinnacle of excellence. It has nothing to do with the lingering problems at the Pallisades nuclear power plant, which coincidentally is where my father is employed.

*--A mark of a competent Legislature is that it won't pass bills that are later found to be unconstitutional. In other words, last year's legislation banning PLAs is found unconstitutional.

*--East Detroit Public Schools thinks an emergency manager may be necessary. That sounds dire, and important, the sort of thing that demands deliberate attention and intelligent action. Unfortunately, our current emergency manager law was crafted without the first apparent thought to whether the citizenry might object to its broad, sweeping powers and is about to be suspended until it can be voted on by the citizenry. Please see above item regarding competent legislating. They did it so badly they neglected to include a small appropriation to educate the public on what the law does to make it referendum proof.

*--Jack Lessenberry writes one of the best columns he's written in years. No, seriously. Read the whole thing. If you're not outraged by the end, you're illiterate.

*--State Rep. Ray Franz wants to repeal a state program that is working splendidly and creating jobs. He won his seat from Dan Scripps, the man smart enough to want to enshrine a common law principle dating back centuries to England in statutory law, something for which he was denounced as a communist. I give you the decline of American legislative bodies embodied.

*--Gary Peters continues to rack up support from labor with an endorsement of the Teamsters. Meanwhile, Tim Walberg will soon get a Democratic challenger.

*--Finally, there was another of those protests over DTE shut-offs today. I have considerable sympathy for these people, frankly, given my personal history with DTE (fuck those people). What do wintertime utility shut-offs lead do? People dying. You can say, "This wouldn't have happened if only he'd called," until you're blue in the face, but people who have trouble making ends are generally so not interested in letting people know about it that they won't bother even at risk of losing utility service.  The only way you're going to prevent tragedy is to prevent all wintertime shut offs and let the utilities sort out their past due accounts in the spring after most people get their tax refunds back (oops!, that was more relevant last year before we made poor people shoulder the burden of taxation) and the danger of dying from hypothermia is more or less past.