Monday, November 30, 2015

Black Friday sales way down on Chicago's North Michigan Ave because of #BlackLivesMatter

Michigan Avenue
Yes, the Black Lives Matter movement is anti-capitalist. As someone who works in sales I have tremendous sympathy for the Chicago Magnificent Mile retailers who suffered on Black Friday because of theses leftists. The rabble--who had no parade or rally permit--blocked North Michigan Avenue and the entrances to stores. The police should have arrested these lawbreakers. Even if the protesters had a permit, they violated the law when they blocked street traffic, sidewalk foot traffic, and store entrances.

From the Chicago Tribune:
Activists who blocked the entrances to stores on North Michigan Avenue on Black Friday to protest the fatal shooting of a black teenager by a white Chicago cop may have split opinions with their tactics.

But their goal of forcing retailers to suffer economic pain on what's historically the busiest shopping day of the year was a success, according to unhappy store staff and managers who said Monday that Black Friday sales on the Magnificent Mile were 25 percent to 50 percent below projections.

Images of protesters marching down North Michigan urging a holiday shopping boycott dramatically reduced foot traffic while protesters who physically blocked shoppers from entering stores also hurt sales in a big way, according to the retailers, some of whom were critical of the low-key police response.

"We were down a lot," said Sarah Midoun, a sales associate at Aldo shoe store. "We were budgeted to make $37,000 but we only did $19,000 — customers told us they were concerned.
Leftists don't care about "the people." They only care about their causes.

Related post:

With #BlackLivesMatter some black lives matter more than others

(Video) Hillary: I cannot conceive of a reason to send ground troops to Iraq or Syria

When dealing with sociopathic terrorists such as the Islamic State, we cannot take any option off of the table.

But like Barack Obama, Hillary Rotten Clinton is telling our enemies how we won't fight--that is, no ground troops. Using them should be one of our last resorts--but it is a resort. Besides, troops are what we may need to drain the ISIS swamp and kill the crocodiles in Iraq and Syria.

Of course we had soldiers in Iraq--but Obama pulled them out.





With #BlackLivesMatter some black lives matter more than others

On Black Friday on Chicago's North Michigan Avenue Black Lives Matter protesters blocked traffic and tried to prevent people from shopping at the high-end stores there. The BLM screechers were protesting the death of Laquan McDonald, a black teen who was shot sixteen times last year by a white Chicago police officer, Jason Van Dyke. The cop has been charged with first degree murder.

While I have to wonder why it took more than a year for Van Dyke to be charged, the justice system is working. But that's not good enough for the Black Lives Matter leftists, so they disrupted traffic, shopping, and most importantly, harmed the livelihoods of the people who work at North Michigan Avenue retail outlets, most of whom don't make much money.

During Thanksgiving weekend, there were eight shooting deaths in Chicago, including one on Friday afternoon while the Black Lives Matter protest was taking place. All of the victims were men, at least five of these homicide victims were black. There were no protests in the neighborhoods where these men were gunned down. No one has been charged in any of these murders as of this writing, which is not unusual because most Chicago homicides go unsolved.

At least 20 other people were wounded  over the weekend in shootings all across the city.

Nationally, between 1980 and 2008 ninety-three percent of black murder victims were murdered by other blacks. There's no reason to believe those figures aren't radically different in 2015 Chicago.

Of course Black Lives Matter protesters care about black-on-black murders. But most of these 1.16 murders per day are not worthy of their attention because a white man usually doesn't pull the trigger. So don't go looking for a Black Lives Matter protest in Chicago's crime-ridden Englewood on the South Side soon.

Yes, black lives matter. All lives matter. But to the leftists some black lives matter more than others.

Finally, the image of Black Lives Matter protester Lamon Reccord facing down a cop at a Wednesday downtown Chicago protest has gone viral.

I wonder if Reccord has the courage to pull the same stunt with the leader of the notorious Gangster Disciples street gang.

Sunday, November 29, 2015

NY Daily News blogger blames GOP for Planned Parenthood murders

New York Daily News blogger Bob Lefsetz is blaming Republicans for Friday's deadly shootings at a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in Colorado Springs. He demands an answer as to why GOPers are "recruiting and influencing loonies to do their dirty work to eliminate the evil scourge known as abortion?"

Here's a task for Leftsetz. Name one Republican who encouraged this heinous crime.

From Da Tech Guy blog: College football, bowling for mediocrity

Yes, there are too many college bowl games. From my weekly Da Tech Guy post: College football, bowling for mediocrity. 

Saturday, November 28, 2015

West Sider murdered while #BlackLivesMatter protesters blocked Chicago's Michigan Avenue

Douglas Park, Chicago's
West Side
While the media videotaped Black Lives Matters leftists blocking Chicago's Michigan Avenue shopping district Friday afternoon, Hommy Vega was shot to death in the predominately African American neighborhood of West Garfield Park on the city's crime-ridden West Side.

So far protesters have not blocked Madison Street, which is near where Vega was murdered.

(Photo) Traffic Signal Under Study for Removal in Detroit

Sixty years ago when the Packard plant in Detroit was still pumping out luxury cars the nearby corner of Concord and Harper was probably packed with cars.

Detroit has many problems now but traffic congestion is not one of them.

As you can see here, the traffic lights at Concord and Harper are under consideration for elimination.


Related posts:

Authentic pioneer log cabin on a golf course

On Tuesday I braved the "No Trespassing" sign off of Golf Road in the town of Golf to photograph a vintage log cabin at the 17th hole at the Glen View Club. It was built by John Dewes, who was one of the first European settlers in Niles Township, Illinois.

Those portholes you see are supposedly so the Dewes family could defend themselves with rifles if there was an Indian attack.


Related post:

(Photos) Dewes family pioneer cemetery in Golf, Illinois

Friday, November 27, 2015

Maniac kills 3 and wounds 9 others at Colorado abortion clinic

Just as with radical Islamic terrorism--there is no justification for today's horrific shootings in Colorado Springs.

From NBC Denver:
Two civilians and a University of Colorado-Colorado Springs police officer were killed when a gunman opened fire inside a Planned Parenthood clinic on Friday.

University of Colorado-Colorado Springs officer Garrett Swasey, 44, was killed while responding to the active shooter situation. Swasey was a six-year veteran of the UCCS Police Department.

Colorado Springs police said nine others, including five officers and four civilians, were transported to area hospitals and are in good condition.

The alleged shooter was taken into custody just before 5 p.m., after a nearly five-hour standoff involving multiple agencies.

Chiraq: 1 dead and five wounded in Thanksgiving shootings

Later today Black Lives Matters protesters will attempt to block Chicago's Michigan Avenue as Black Friday shoppers look for bargains. If have the chance to speak to one of the leftists, ask them if they know about Jontaye Walker. The 23-year-old was gunned down on the North Side on Thanksgiving afternoon.

At least five other men were wounded in Chicago yesterday.

Related post:

Chicago: As leftists protest Laquan McDonald killing, 7 shot, 1 fatally on South Side

Thursday, November 26, 2015

#BlackLivesMatters protesters plan to disrupt Chicago Black Friday shopping

Michigan Avenue
A 1960s leftist wrote, "The issue is never the issue. The issue is always the revolution."

Tomorrow Black Lives Matters left wing protesters will attempt to disrupt Black Friday shopping on Chicago's Michigan Avenue. Christmas shopping has nothing to do with the killing of black teen Laquan McDonald by Chicago cop Jason Van Dyke. But the rabble will be rousing because the issue, well you know.

The Reverend Jesse Jackson will be there too. His son, ex-con Jesse Jackson Jr., knows a lot about shopping.

Related post:

Anti-cop protesters rip lights off Chicago's Christmas tree

Lincoln Park Native American statue, a Signal of Peace

Happy Thanksgiving!

At Lincoln Park near Diversey and Lake Michigan is statue of a plains Indian, A Signal of Peace.


Its sculptor was Cyrus Edwin Dallin.

Related post:

Lincoln Park Native American statue: The Alarm

While #BlackLivesMatter protesters marched in Chicago last night, 1 dead and 5 wounded in city

The #BlackLivesMatters crowd and their leftist allies marched in Chicago's streets yesterday--without a permit of course--protesting the disturbing shooting death of Laquan McDonald by Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke. The cop has been charged with murder.

Also yesterday in Chicago one teen was shot to death, and four other Chicagoans were wounded in incidents across the city, including some in predominantly black neighborhoods.

As they were with Tuesday's shootings, the protesters are mum about these.

Anti-cop protesters rip lights off Chicago's Christmas tree

Trump Tower
The "mostly peaceful" leftists who are protesting the death of Laquan McDonald displayed their destructive side last night.

From CBS Chicago:
After marches in the Loop, River North and South Loop, protesters set their sights on the City of Chicago’s official Christmas Tree in Millennium Park.

Several dozen protesters were seen taking down metal barricades and then stripping the lights off the tree before 10 p.m. Wednesday. It was yesterday that the city held the official tree lighting ceremony. CBS 2 observed two women being restrained by police.

The protesters then went north down Michigan Avenue and stripped Christmas decorations off of Trump Tower.
Of course the protesters didn't have a permit.

Lincoln Park Native American statue: The Alarm

There are a couple of dozen statues in Chicago's Lincoln Park.

On Thanksgiving I'd like to focus on one honoring Native Americans.

Pictured here is The Alarm, also know as Indian Alarm, a bronze statue by John J. Boyle, a tribute to the Ottawa Indians who once populated northern Illinois.


There are carvings on the base, each portraying scenes on Ottawa life, "the Peace Pipe, the Corn Dance, Forestry, and the Hunt."

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Detroit teen arrested for murder of 91-year-old who was beaten, shot, then set on fire

A horrible crime took place earlier this week just south of Eight Mile Road on Detroit's northwest side that you may not have heard about until now.

From the Detroit Free Press:
A 17-year-old has been charged with first-degree murder after authorities say he beat his 91-year-old neighbor and set his house on fire.

George Steward, who lives on Bentler in Detroit, was also charged with felony murder and arson, said Maria Miller, a spokeswoman for the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office.

Steward is accused in the killing of Paul Monchnik, a retired TV repairman, in the early hours of Monday morning. Police have said that the assailant had entered the elderly man's home intending to steal, but that an attack soon followed -- and then the assailant, to cover his tracks, ended up buying gasoline and lighting the home on fire.

When authorities were called on reports of a fire at about 3 a.m. Monday, they found Monchnik with a head injury and severe burns all over his body. Monchnik was pronounced dead at the scene.
In a statement, a Wayne County prosecutor said, "The word 'heinous' does not even begin to describe this crime." True, very true.

There is a reason why you probably hadn't heard about Monchnik's murder. The victim was a white man who lived in a mostly African American neighborhood. The suspect is black.

But imagine if the man murdered lived in a mostly white neighborhood--and he was black. Imagine if the suspect was white. The Black Lives Matter protesters would have descended upon the Motor City in force by now and the crime would be a leading national story. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton would be holding competing press conferences.

All lives matter. But many leftists say such a statement is racist.

They're the racists.

Monchnik's son spoke to the Free Press about his father, who came to the United States from Poland when he was a child. "He lived by himself; he was nearly deaf," the younger Monchnik said, "so he lived in his own little world and got along in his own little world very comfortably."

Until the end of his life, that is.

From my post at Da Tech Guy:

I walked its streets--the tragedy of Detroit.

Chicago Public Schools teacher arrested at anti-cop protest

Chicago Teachers Union
member at Occupy rally
Most Chicago Public School teachers are hardened leftists. We can thank the radical Chicago Teachers Union for that.

Here's a teacher who got herself in trouble last night.

From the Chicago Sun-Times:
A Chicago Public Schools teacher was one of four people arrested Tuesday night during downtown protests after the release of the police dashcam video of Laquan McDonald's fatal shooting.

Johnaé Strong, a third-grade teacher at Ogden International School in the Near North Side neighborhood, was charged with one misdemeanor count of resisting a police officer.

Strong said she was arrested about 7:30 p.m. near Balbo and Michigan amid "a tension that was being created that was very purposeful."
Huh? "A tension that was being created?"

Of course getting busted wasn't her fault.
"The police were agitating us," she said. "That aggression from police towards us made it difficult for us to keep tabs on everyone. They were definitely physical with more than a few folks."
Meanwhile on Chicago's West Side, a man was shot tonight. Of course the anti-cop protesters aren't rallying in his support.

Related post:

Chicago: As leftists protest Laquan McDonald killing, 7 shot, 1 fatally on South Side

Ex-Obama CIA director says ISIS oil wells not bombed because Obama feared environmental damage

One way--killing all of them of course is the best way--to harm the Islamic State is to cripple their finances, such as destroying their oil wells. But watch here as former acting CIA Director Michael Morell says President Obama, the rigid ideologue, refused to bomb the wells because of fear of environmental damage.

We're at war, you moron. Do you think, Dear Leader, that ISIS would hesitate for one second if they had the opportunity to blow up one American oil well?

Obama is more concerned about offending his leftist environmental base than he is of ISIS attacks on civilization.



Chicago: As leftists protest Laquan McDonald killing, 7 shot, 1 fatally on South Side

On the same day professional protesters swarmed downtown Chicago in response to the release of a disturbing 2014 police dash-cam video showing a teen, Laquan McDonald, being shot 16 times by cop--who has since been charged with murder--seven people were shot on the South Side, one of them fatally.

The silence you hear is the response from those leftists over those shootings.

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

12 dead in Tunisian "setback"

There was a terror attack in Tunisia today, or as President Obama calls them, a setback.

Tunisia of course is where the Arab Spring, which Obama tried to claim credit for, began.

From the BBC:
An explosion has hit a bus carrying presidential guards in Tunisia's capital, Tunis, killing at least 12 people, officials say.

President Beji Caid Essebsi has declared a 30-day state of emergency and the capital is under curfew.

No group has yet said it was behind the attack.

Tunisia has been targeted by the Islamic State (IS) group, including an attack by a gunman on the beach resort of Sousse in June, killing 38 people.
The article goes on to say that over 3,000 jihadis from Tunisian have joined the chaos in Iraq and Syria.

Obama won't claim credit for that.

Great Blue Heron in the Des Plaines River

A Great Blue Heron looks for prey in the Des Plaines River at the Big Bend Lake Forest Preserve


Liberal defending Woodrow Wilson calls Ben Carson "a political ignoramus"

Woodrow Wilson Street in
Carson's hometown of Detroit
Liberal hero Woodrow Wilson, easily the most racist president of the 20th century, is under attack from leftists. The Washington Post's Richard Cohen, while acknowledging the progressive icon's bigotry, defends Wilson, although he leaves out another shameful chapter from the 28th presidents's term--his shameful attacks on civil liberties during World War I.

But Cohen does make the effort to call Dr. Ben Carson "a political ignoramus."


Turks shoot down Russian jet for violating airspace

Now if a Russian plane violated American airspace, what would President Obama do?

Probably nothing.

From Fox News:
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that Turkey’s decision to shoot down a Russian warplane near Turkey's border with Syria is a "stab in the back" and it would have “significant consequences” for its relations with Turkey, as NATO called an emergency meeting over the incident.

Putin said the Russian Sukhoi-24 jet was shot by a missile from a Turkish jet over Syria about just over a half-mile away from the Turkish border, which he described as a "stab in the back by the terrorists' accomplices." Putin was meeting with Jordanian King Abdullah II in Sochi. Prior to the meeting, The New York Times said Putin was "speaking slowly and clearly angry."

Rebels said they fired at the two parachuting pilots as they descended, and that one had died. A rebel spokesman said they would consider releasing the body in exchange for prisoners held by Syria. The fate of the second pilot was not immediately known.

Monday, November 23, 2015

State Dept issues worldwide "setback" alert

President Obama's State Department has issued a world wide travel terror alert. Of course Dear Leader calls terrorism attacks "setbacks." The warning expires on February 24.

What's with the expiration date? Will al Qaeda, the Islamic State, or Boko Haram move on to other pursuits as winter ends?

Here's part of that alert:
The State Department alerts U.S. citizens to possible risks of travel due to increased terrorist threats. Current information suggests that ISIL (aka Da'esh), al-Qa'ida, Boko Haram, and other terrorist groups continue to plan terrorist attacks in multiple regions. These attacks may employ a wide variety of tactics, using conventional and non-conventional weapons and targeting both official and private interests. This Travel Alert expires on February 24, 2016.

Authorities believe the likelihood of terror attacks will continue as members of ISIL/Da'esh return from Syria and Iraq. Additionally, there is a continuing threat from unaffiliated persons planning attacks inspired by major terrorist organizations but conducted on an individual basis. Extremists have targeted large sporting events, theatres, open markets, and aviation services. In the past year, there have been multiple attacks in France, Nigeria, Denmark, Turkey, and Mali. ISIL/Da'esh has claimed responsibility for the bombing of a Russian airliner in Egypt.
threats.
It goes on, but State seems to be implying that it's best to stay home.

Oh, I wasn't aware that the alternative name for ISIS, Daesh, had an apostrophe in it until now. Or did the State Department add it to make it look more Middle Eastern and exotic?

Abram C. Fisk Home in Coldwater, Michigan

On the east end of Coldwater, Michigan on US Route 12--Chicago Street in the Branch County town--is the Abram C. Fisk Home.

This Second Empire structure is one of many spectacular 19th century houses in Coldwater. And this one is easier to photograph than most of them--because it's situated next to a Biggsby Coffee with ample parking.


If Coldwater, Michigan sounds familiar to you, it could because you're British or you read Erik Larson's 2006 bestseller Thunderstruck, which recounts the story of Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen. The Coldwater-born homeopath was the first criminal suspect captured with the aid of wireless technology. Crippen murdered his wife--although his guilt has been questioned in recent years--and was fleeing on an ocean liner for the United States with his girlfriend when he was captured by a Scotland Yard detective. He was arrested and returned to Great Britain.

Crippen was hanged on this date 105 years ago in Pentonville Prison in London. He was buried, as was the practice at that time, in an unmarked grave on the prison grounds.

The Crippen case is one of Britain's most notorious crimes.

Related posts:

Tibbits Opera House in Coldwater, Michigan

Cadet Motor Inn in Coldwater, Michigan

Chiraq: 5 dead and 12 wounded over weekend

Despite a weekend snowstorm there this past weekend was another bloody on in Chicago. Five people were murdered and at least twelve others were wounded.

In related news, the world premiere of Spike Lee's new movie, Chir-Raq,

Sunday, November 22, 2015

(Photos) Morton Grove the day after Bella

The Midwest's first snowstorm of the year, Winter Storm Bella, passed through Morton Grove, Illinois yesterday. Today it's bright, sunny, and cold--a perfect opportunity for capturing striking photographs.

The official Chicago accumulation from the storm was 11.2 inches--the heaviest November snowfall in the city since 1895.


Brush on the ground gains beauty after snowfall.


Ice develops on an unnamed creek.


The North Branch of the Chicago River photographed from St. Paul Woods.


Box Elders, considered a weed tree, are much more attractive when covered in snow.


An Amtrak train passes through St. Paul Woods.


Drivers on Dempster have this view of Linne Woods.


Back to the North Branch of the Chicago River.


What a place to run, walk, or ski! The North Branch Trail is beautiful any time of year.


One final look at the river.


Next summer's seeds resting in the snow.


Because there are leaves on some of these bushes, this trail is nearly impassable.

From Da Tech Guy: Land of the IOU--Illinois Lottery spends money on ad to say it has no money for big payouts

The farce that is Illinois continues to play on, as I discuss in my weekly post on Da Tech Guy.

Land of the IOU: Illinois Lottery spends money on ad to say it has no money for big payouts.

Day after snowstorm: AP posts global warming fact check on prez candidates

On the day after much of the Midwest is digging out from a major late fall snowstorm, AP chose to publish a fact check on presidential candidates--with grades--on their climate change beliefs. Needless to say, Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton pass.

Related post:

Global warming: Biggest November Chicago snowfall in 120 years

Saturday, November 21, 2015

Global warming: Biggest November Chicago snowfall in 120 years

The climate change cultists will come up with some convoluted reason that despite global warming it's getting colder. Chicago got hit with a smashmouth snowstorm that began last night and ended this afternoon--11 inches was the official accumulation in the city--but some northern suburbs were punished with 17 inches.

I dug through a lot of it at work today.

This is the heaviest November snowstorm in Chicago in 120 years. The temperate is just 22 degrees Fahrenheit (-5 Celsius) right now.

(Photo) Grosfield Building in Detroit

On the corner of Michigan Avenue and 23rd Street in Detroit is an abandoned building that one was the home of Anthony Grosfield Hardware. The conical roof, which some call a "witch hat turret," caught my eye; I've always had a soft spot for them.The store was on the first floor, apartments were upstairs.

A tattered sign out front promise that the Grosfield Apartments were "coming soon."

Waiting...waiting...


Tibbits Opera House in Coldwater, Michigan

There are very few towns in the United States with 11,000 residents that can boast an Second Empire style opera house, but Coldwater, Michigan can with its Tibbits Opera House.

The venue has hosted nearly every imaginable form of entertainment since it opened in 1882. Tibbits is Michigan's second oldest theater.



Monday, November 16, 2015

Detroit neighborhood group opposes veterans center so it can preserve dog path

About a mile from the
proposed vet center
The Michigan Veterans Foundation sold its headquarters in Detroit's Cass Corridor to make way for the new Red Wings arena and the Wayne State University Business School. The group purchased space in Detroit's Woodbridge District, which, like many Detroit neighborhoods, is dominated by vacant lots and abandoned buildings.

From the Detroit News:
The veterans group wants to relocate and build on an empty triangular lot where Grand River Avenue, West Forest Avenue and 14th Street intersect. Several empty buildings are nearby and one of the closest businesses to the location is a party [liquor] store. The vets group bought the property from Detroit Public Schools last year.

But some residents of the Woodbridge District, a neighborhood west of Wayne State University where property values are steadily rising, are balking.

"This development would further curtail what many Woodbridge residents use as a dog-walking path and ski trail," members of the Woodbridge Citizen Districts Council wrote to the Detroit's City Planning Commission, objecting to the relocation of the Veterans Foundation. "We would like to have development projects that appropriately complement our neighborhood and the amenities our residents would need."

While the neighborhood organization states it's "supportive of the mission" of the veterans foundation, the proposed center doesn't belong in the community, the group argues.
What the community, which is really a wasteland, needs is more people in it. Here's another view, which includes that party store. I can only conclude that the neighborhood group just doesn't want the vets there. After all, there is plenty of other open space so a new dirt dog path can develop.

From my post at Da Tech Guy:

I walked its streets--the tragedy of Detroit.

Obama defends his non-existent strategy against Islamic State

President Obama doesn't have a coherent strategy against ISIS, unless you count appearing to do "something" and running out the clock until he's out of office in fourteen months.

He tried to defend the non-existent at a press conference today during the G20 summit.

From CNN via KTLA:
"We have the right strategy and we're going to see it through," Obama said. "There will be an intensification of the strategy we have put forward, but the strategy we have put forward is the strategy that will ultimately work" though it will take time.

He said that airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition have been effective in taking out key members of the terror group's leadership and that a large presence of ground troops in Syria would be a "mistake."
Hello Obama! Never telegraph to an enemy--although Dear Leader won't used that word--what you will or won't do. The fear of the unknown is powerful weapon--but so is a bullet through the brain.

(Photos) Detroit's King Solomon MB Church

Detroit has many historic churches--and one of the most compelling stories of those houses of worship belongs to King Solomon Missionary Baptist Church on the corner of 14th and Marquette in the rundown NW Goldberg neighborhood.


DetroitUrbEx wrote a detailed account about this church that I drew heavily upon for this post.

In the early 20th century there was a large influx of southerners--both white and black--into Detroit as the auto industry took off. Unfortunately they didn't leave their prejudices at home.


Temple Baptist, an all-white congregation, built the Tudor Revival church in 1917. Five years later King Solomon, a predominantly African-American church, was founded in the Black Bottom neighborhood. Temple's evangelizing mission was wildly popular and the church had over 3,000 members thirty years later. By then the church had outgrown its space and it moved to the Petosky-Otsego neighborhood where it once held outdoor revivals. Temple moved one more time in Detroit--then to the suburbs. In 1986 the first black member joined, at the urging of its pastor, Truman Dollar. But Dollar got caught up in a sex scandal, resigned, and later committed suicide. NorthRidge Church in Plymouth is considered the successor of Temple.


"Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone." Ephesians 2:19-20.

An art-deco style auditorium, with a capacity of 5,000, opened in 1937 across 14th Street from the church.


When King Solomon moved in, the auditorium was one of the largest black-owned meeting spaces in the Motor City. It was there that future US Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, who was then president of the NAACP, spoke in 1954. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. addressed parishioners twice, in 1958 and 1963. Malcolm X also twice spoke at the church in '63--where he gave his non-conciliatory "Message to the Grass Roots" speech--and he presented another fiery address a year later.


Religion, like the arts, doesn't always pay the bills, so retail space was part of the Temple/King Solomon complex.


NW Goldberg's sidewalks are crumbling and covered with vegetation--forcing residents to walk on the streets, which are in shoddy shape too. There are more vacant lots than occupied houses there.

The membership of King Solomon Baptist Church has withered to about 150 people, DetroitUrbEx reported that in 2011 the church was being powered by a generator and being heated by propane.

But this summer the church was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

So ends another only-in-Detroit story.

Michigan, Alabama guvs say no to Syrian refugugees

It's starting...

From the Washington Post:
The terrorist attacks in Paris have prompted two governors to announce that Syrian refugees will not be allowed to resettle in their states.

Gov. Rick Snyder of Michigan and Gov. Robert Bentley of Alabama, both Republicans, issued individual statements Sunday declaring that their states would not be open to refugees fleeing the conflict in Syria.

Noting Michigan's "rich history of immigration," Snyder’s statement said, "But our first priority is protecting the safety of our residents."

Sunday, November 15, 2015

Baltimore surpasses 300 homicides, most since 1999

Since this spring's riot, Baltimore has descended into hell. Last night Maryland's largest city recorded both its 300th and 301st murders--its most since 1999.

And there are still six weeks left of 2015.

France bombs Islamic State terror stronghold

France is doing what our country should have been doing months ago. But our dithering president believes ISIS has been "contained."

From AP:
France launched "massive" air strikes on the Islamic State group's de-facto capital in Syria Sunday night, destroying a jihadi training camp and a munitions dump in the city of Raqqa, where Iraqi intelligence officials say the attacks on Paris were planned.

Twelve aircraft including 10 fighter jets dropped a total of 20 bombs in the biggest air strikes since France extended its bombing campaign against the extremist group to Syria in September, a Defense Ministry statement said. The jets launched from sites in Jordan and the Persian Gulf, in coordination with U.S. forces.
And Obama didn't know about this camp before the Paris attacks?