USA Melting Pot

A recent series of bicycle accidents has made me realize I am not 25 anymore; slower reflexes, less agility, and poor balance. Though I spent two summers in Europe bike touring (3700 miles each), I have fallen off my Trek 720 touring bike multiple times in the last month. After the first incident, I spent several hours in the Beaumont Emergency Room while they checked thoroughly for cracked ribs, a bruised hip and of course a skinned knee.

When I was walking the bike home (the chain came off) I fell again while pushing the “walk” button at Golfview and Coolidge. My bike and I landed in the crosswalk. Several people stopped to see if I was OK. Thanks to all who helped me including a doctor who checked me out and recommended an Emergency Room visit. One neighbor offered to take my bike home and a few others waited until the ambulance arrived. Many thanks to all the kind and generous people who helped me.

I use the old-fashioned toe clips and straps after I fell over at a stoplight at Long Lake & Squirrel Roads a few years ago with the newfangled clipless pedals. The bike fell over because I had stopped quicker than planned from the uphill grade. So hello toe clips! The proper way to get in them is to straddle the bike after lifting the right leg over the top tube, put the left foot into the toe clip and tighten the strap. Backpedal until the left foot is positioned for a downstroke, then after you get rolling, flip the right pedal right side up with your shoe. Reach down and tighten the toe strap (optional) if you have a long ways to go.

Lessons Learned

Are you training for a race (no), so what’s the hurry? You’re on retirement time.

Take your time and use crosswalks

Irreversible corrective action

Know before you go. I would have learned that the Clinton River Trail is mostly unpaved and brought my mountain bike instead. I should have gone home and swapped bikes!

Having surer footing on wider tires of the mountain bike would have prevented three of the falls Saturday, including the most spectacular: a soft landing on my right side at the bottom of a ravine. Thankfully I landed on bushes instead of hitting a tree. In a total of five falls, three times my helmet saved me from a concussion or worse. Thanks to another biker on the trail who stopped and my riding partner, my bike and I were hauled up the steep hill.

Replace the helmet (done) since there are now three cracks in the Styrofoam.

Use the crosswalk across Big Beaver Road (heavy traffic moving at 50 mph most of the time). Get off the bike and walk it the two blocks over from my usual riding route. Too hard to navigate slow turns entering sidewalks. Unnecessary risk of a fall.

Consider removing the toe clips from the mountain bike and use it exclusively for outdoor riding. For sure no more Trek on gravel roads!

Bubble wrapping my body might help protect from skinned knees and bruises but wouldn’t be comfortable. Maybe some Gore-Tex fabric insulated riding pants? Probably too small a market for those.

Conclusion

It’s possible to bicycle into your 60s, 70s and even 80s. As I often do on vacation, I ask people questions, like “do you like your job?”

I asked the camp store owner near Wilderness State Park south of the Mackinac Bridge to the Upper Peninsula, “Who were your most interesting customers?” “Well, one August day, two white – haired couples in their 80s took off their bicycle helmets. I asked them where they were headed; one replied, ‘Grand Rapids.’ I said ‘that’s pretty impressive. Where did you start?’

‘Alaska’”.

My goal is to bring a unique, independent perspective to the council, representing all stakeholders in Troy: residents, firefighters, police, and city employees, regardless of political views or citizenship, including business owners and those who work in Troy but live elsewhere.

Sustainable development.

Troy has very little undeveloped land; we want to have developments that fit in with the nearby neighbors, ideally that they are happy with. We don’t want new five-story apartment buildings overlooking backyard swimming pools. We may need changes in zoning laws to remedy this.

The 20-acre development proposed at a recent council meeting had over 140 single family dwellings. It might meet the current zoning laws but cries out for changes to not put five hundred people on a postage stamp.

New housing developments could leave most of the backyards forested for the wildlife. The Fox Run senior citizens development in Novi left a lot of woods and wetlands for the residents to enjoy.

• We can encourage apartments and condos to have curbside recycling.

• Maintenance costs in city buildings could benefit from large rolls of toilet paper like many businesses already have.

• Automatic faucets too, where we don’t already have them.

 Fiscal restraint.

Troy already has good fiscal discipline. I will propose a 1% inflation-adjusted budget cut each year for five years. Each department can look for creative ways to economize. We could use the savings for the firefighters incentive fund or a property tax cut.

We need to remember we are spending other people’s money!

Keep Troy family friendly. Let other towns have marijuana dispensaries!

Treat government like a business,

Partner with schools, and promote

Energy efficiency and recycling.

More at dalemurrish.com

I pledge to work harmoniously with the other council members and mayor. Different ideas do not have to be divisive.

I look forward to serving on the council and ask for your support. I think I would bring it diversity of thought.

Nancy Pelosi has this bill first on her agenda after Congress is done with their unconstitutional harassment of a private citizen by trying to remove him from an office he has already vacated. Chief Justice John Roberts is not presiding as judge – the Supreme Court would probably rule this sham trial unconstitutional 9-0, or at least 6-3.

“For the People” would “expand Americans’ access to the ballot box, reduce the influence of big money in politics, strengthen ethics rules for public servants, and implement other anti-corruption measures for the purpose of fortifying our democracy, and for other purposes.”

The title and introduction for this 620 page law sound pretty good. However, …

The first major provision of H.R. 1 would federalize the election laws, abolish state voter ID laws, force states to use same-day voter registration and ballot drop boxes for absentee voting, and make early voting available at least 45 days before election day. All of these make voter fraud easier, as we observed this past election cycle.

Another provision expands the definition of lobbyist to include every American, including citizens who sign petitions or call their elected officials. This would have a chilling effect on free speech and increase harassment, since every donor’s name and address would be published.

This is what single party rule looks like. Last time the Democrats controlled both houses of Congress, Congress rammed through Obamacare at the end of the year with a lot of arm-twisting and kickbacks.

What will happen in the next two years until the Republicans have a chance to take back the Senate? H.R. 1 is a foretaste of the bad legislation we can expect.

This is not government “of the people, by the people, and for the people.” Abraham Lincoln would roll over in his grave. Today is his birthday.

This is government of the Democrats, by the Democrats, and for the Democrats to keep their power.

No, this is not about Jill Biden. She may turn out to be OK. We’ll see.

I’m talking about Melania Trump, who has brushed off abuse from the news media and been disdained by many others. She was attacked in the media for not attending today’s inauguration without her husband. Seriously? She also got criticized for her accent and modeling background. Here’s a lady (not just a woman) who speaks seven languages. Some fashion designers boycotted her because of her husband. A fashion model would be a dress designer’s dream, you’d think.

So in honor of Mrs. Melania Trump, here’s an article she wrote (well, probably a speech writer helped her with it) about the White House renovations thanking the team who worked together on these projects to restore the “people’s house.”

Like most First Ladies, she’s also worked on many projects besides this one, of course.

Here’s the link to the White House renovation:

https://lnkd.in/edvfa8t

#MelaniaTrump #FLOTUS #FirstLady

Comment on a YouTube video:

Thank you for posting this great oratorio written by George Frideric Handel in just 24 days. He furiously wrote the music with very little sleep, inspired by God. The lyrics are Scripture and the music is amazing!

Handel was born Georg Friederich Händel in Halle, Duchy of Magdeburg, Brandenburg-Prussia in 1685 and died in 1759 in London, age 74, and is buried in Westminster Abbey.

YouTube tip: if you pick the longer classical pieces, sometimes you only have one commercial at the beginning. Here’s one with relaxing piano music. Don’t know if that’s an omission, but just in case, don’t tell them!

Here are the links – for some reason they didn’t post:

YouTube:

24 days:

https://www.thetabernaclechoir.org/articles/history-of-handels-hallelujah-chorus.html#:~:text=The%20composition%20of%20Messiah%2C%20the,orchestration%20on%20September%2014%2C%201741.

Korean piano music:

This comment was written in response to a comment on the LinkedIn article posted by Gary Gatehouse, talk show host in Texas, about the Catholic Archbishop saying that Joe Biden should not be given communion.

Comment: “Was it the Catholics that burned witches at the stake? … asking for a friend.”

Here is my response:

Why, because he is afraid to ask? Yes, there were atrocities in the past (both Protestant and Catholic — not sure about Catholic witch burning) and current issues like homosexual priests abusing altar boys.

However, Christians have done far, far more good in the world than harm. Concern for orphans etc. since Roman times, more recently universities and hospitals.

Atheistic communism on the other hand, claimed the lives of 100,000,000 people in the twentieth century.

This is a brilliant piece and well worth reading. Victor Davis Hanson flips the attacks on Trump into attacks on Biden and the softball coverage he will get in the media. I am getting really tired of this collusion between the media and the Democratic Party.

#HunterBiden #Corruption #MediaBias #Hypocrisy #EtcEtc.

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer should look to South Dakota for how to handle the lockdowns. Perhaps Michigan could not do everything South Dakota has done, but she could at least open up the restaurants. Many are set up for outdoor dining and are in danger of going out of business if they haven’t already.

Governor Whitmer, please open up Michigan’s economy and quit begging Congress for unemployment money to shore up the sagging economy. Let us get back to work!

As you’re watching A Charlie Brown Christmas this year, think about what these two minor Peanuts characters have in common in 2020. They don’t interact with each other very much, so that can’t be it. Well, they each have a major event happening this year.

December 16, 2020 is the 250^th anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven’s birth. You can bet that Schroeder would be celebrating it in a big way if Charles Schulz was still alive and penning new comic strips. Classical music stations across the country are celebrating it, too. Detroit station WRCJ 90.9 FM has played Beethoven music all week, with one piece per hour on the 15^th. On December 16, they will play 100% Beethoven. Schroeder would have his radio tuned in so he can listen when his hands get tired of playing Beethoven. Hopefully Lucy got him a gift for the big event this year.

What about Pigpen? He is perennially in a dust cloud of his own making. For the last nine and a half months of 2020 the American people have been focused on how to avoid getting COVID-19 and spreading it to others, especially the most vulnerable, the elderly and people with underlying health conditions.

Imagine that your breathing out carbon dioxide and water vapor is like Pigpen’s dust cloud. By wearing a mask, you can keep most of the “dust” confined behind the mask. The six-foot social distance came from how far water droplets from a sneeze can travel before hitting the ground. So the safe distance is probably more like 3 feet, or the size of Pigpen’s dust cloud. Turning away and sneezing into your sleeve is now the polite thing to do.

So remember Pigpen and Schroeder and have a merry Christmas and happy New Year. Dut dut dut dah!

HEALTH CARE / COMMENTARY

This article first appeared in the Daily Signal, a publication of the Heritage Foundation.

In two cases that were fast-tracked to the Michigan Supreme Court, justices ruled against Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s overuse of executive orders on COVID-19 restrictions.

During the past several months, COVID-19 policies have stretched the limitations in the constitutions of Michigan and other states, as well as those of the U.S. Constitution.

In two cases that were fast-tracked to the state’s highest court, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled against Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

Whitmer and several other governors across the country have used executive orders extensively, instead of working with their legislatures or county health departments on solutions.

That distorts the separation of powers in our constitutions, both state and federal. The orders have devastated innumerable businesses by keeping them closed longer than necessary.

Here in Michigan, Whitmer, a Democrat, has issued 192 executive orders, many of which were struck down recently by the state Supreme Court.

The governor got spanked unanimously by the court for flouting a 1976 law, the Emergency Management Act. She extended the state of emergency without the Legislature’s permission. Lawmakers must renew their consent every 28 days. They did that once, through April 30. Whitmer has been in violation of the law ever since.

The court’s unanimous ruling was not widely reported. It went unmentioned by the governor as she criticized the “narrow majority of Republican justices” in a second ruling, which, by a 4-3 decision, struck down as unconstitutional a 1945 law that gave governors expansive authority without a time limit.

A recent Heritage Foundation analysis of the ruling described some of the orders the governor made under the emergency management laws.   

The court ruled that Whitmer unlawfully used her power to “reorder social life and to limit, if not altogether displace, the livelihoods of residents across the state and throughout wide-ranging industries.”

Instead of being chastened by the judicial branch or embarrassed by her unconstitutional actions since May 1, Whitmer doubled down:

“Today’s Supreme Court ruling, handed down by a narrow majority of Republican justices, is deeply disappointing, and I vehemently disagree with the court’s interpretation of the Michigan Constitution.”

Then she vowed to accomplish her purposes by other means. Some existing regulations by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services could be legally expanded. County health departments have also stepped in with mask-wearing and other regulations.

Those are appropriate and lawful means, unlike the governor’s use of a perpetual state of emergency to shutter businesses without the Legislature’s approval.

The judiciary’s job, beyond ruling on civil or criminal cases, is to rein in rogue legislatures and other lawbreakers.

Despite the COVID-19 virus making collecting signatures more difficult, Unlock Michigan, a coalition of residents concerned about Whitmer’s lockdown orders, turned in 500,000 signatures on Oct. 2 for its ballot proposal to repeal the 1945 law. The Supreme Court ruling rendered the ballot proposal moot.

The spin from Democrats, echoed by many in the news media, has been that we need to maintain mask-wearing indoors and social distancing everywhere. However, most people don’t have a problem with that.

Not mentioned are the numerous orders restricting businesses. Gyms reopened Sept. 9, while other businesses remained closed. Movie theaters, bowling alleys, performance venues, and stadiums reopened on Oct. 9.

How will all this affect the Nov. 3 elections in this battleground state? Whitmer is not on the ballot for another two years, but her policies are. Conservatives are more fired up than liberals about all this, so it will be interesting to see what effect it will have.

In this major battleground state, former Gov. John Engler, a Republican, was dubbed “King John” by his critics for what they viewed as his heavy-handed leadership. Whitmer has been labeled “Queen Gretchen” and worse.

Government works best with a diversity of opinions working toward the same goal; in this case, safety from a deadly virus, but without crippling businesses, and without the collateral damage of clinical depression and even suicides. (A June survey by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 31% of Americans had anxiety or depression symptoms and 11% had seriously considered suicide.)

Of the coronavirus crisis, state Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey, a Republican, said it well: “Now is the time for bipartisan action to transition from government operating in fear of the virus to government managing life in the presence of the virus.” 

Other states would do well to follow Shirkey’s advice.

Dale Murrish is a 36-year resident of Michigan, an engineer who has worked his entire career in the transportation industry, and a member of SAE. His opinions are his own, not those of General Motors, his employer.