US Cities Scramble to Attract Hot Sauce Maker

Huy Fong Foods, Inc., maker of the famous and beloved Sriracha hot sauce, has been forced to relocate from its home in California. Neighbors object to the stinging cloud of hot pepper essence that wafts from the factory. However, other cities are running campaigns to get the factory relocated in their back yards.  One city, somewhere on the ocean, is running an ad with a Sriracha bottle water skiing in what, presumably, is their sunny clime.

As part of our on-going support for Governor Snyder's attempts to seduce attract new business into Michigan, Wood-Charles is running a campaign of its own, the theme being "Michigan: things could be hotter here." 

Traffic Jam, Soo-style

Update: 2014 04 24: At least one ship has made it to Thunder Bay, and others are following.

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There is some small attention in the press right now paid to the continued ice-coverage status of the Great Lakes. Because it's no longer 1930, some of the focus on Great Lakes shipping as a component of the economy has slipped.  However, a large amount of bulk cargo, including ore and grain, still goes back and forth between Thunder Bay and Duluth, Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit, and, um, other places on Lakes Erie and Ontario, not to mention up and down the St. Lawrence to the Atlantic and onward.  So each year, the shipping industry waits impatiently for the ice to go (or be pushed) away.  This year, they continue to wait:

This is a shot from an app that uses ship position reporting to present nice maps of who's where and (to some extent) what they're doing.  It was screen-grabbed this afternoon. Just look at all those ships (triangles, meaning stopped, and boat icons, meaning underway) lined up, trying to get up the Saint Mary's river and out onto Superior.  The lower lakes are at least passable (or these boats wouldn't have gotten this far), but Superior is still gummed up.

The green icons are cargo ships, the red ones are tankers, and the light blue symbols are tugs and/or Coast Guard craft, trying to move things along.

Yet another thing to waste time when I should be writing.

Screen Grab from Marine Traffic's Android app.

Same-gender marriage undecided still

2014 04 11: Update
Michigan was told that their pathetic attempt to demonstrate anything at all bad about gay parenting was ludicrous and "clearly unconstitutional". Now Utah is coming up on a court date, using the same unqualified hoonyack that Michigan tried to use.  It's a great chance to see whose Judges are smarter, at least.

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After the close of testimony, the defense was optimistic in a lawsuit brought against the state of MI, seeking to have the ban on same-gender marriages declared unconstitutional. The judge had disallowed testimony from their star expert witness on the basis of his less-than-impressive credentials, forcing them to scramble for a more-respected authority.  They settled on a ten-year-old boy, Travis Bungle, whose work in social science is widely recognized throughout the Grand Rapids suburbs. His four-page, handwritten paper, Why I Hade Phagids, won the Agema Prize and the unanimous support of the Westboro Baptist Church. Its key assertion is that a disproportionate number of the children in same-gender households have cooties.

The judge, after having regained his composure, agreed to allow the youth's testimony on the grounds that "we could all use a laugh".

A third little mystery

Due to being one of the annoying people who send him mail, I'm now on Governor Snyder's email list. This week, he sent me a messzage that said, in part:

“Unlike Washington, we found a way in Michigan to get our fiscal house in order. We've balanced our budget three years in a row, eliminated a $1.5 billion deficit and have saved over $500 million in our rainy day fund. We did it by setting politics aside, planning ahead, and solving one problem after another with relentless positive action."


I am putting together a FOIA request for all documents related to what the Governor's been smoking.

Who am I (to stand and wonder, to wait ...)

I have been characterized, when anyone pays enough attention to bother characterizing me, as a "liberal" and even a "Democrat," primarily because I often mock, abuse, cast stones at, and generally disrespect Republicans and conservatives. I respond, when I pay enough attention, by asserting I am Rubber, You are Glue ... --- Oh, yeah! Well, yo' momma so left of center, she ... by asserting that I approach issues without reference to ideology or partisanship, and that I am just mindlessly cynical a true independent.

The current social and economic situation in Detroit gives me a perfect opportunity to demonstrate the extent to which I cannot be easily lumped into one political grouping, just because I usually make the sign of averting when I hear of take a position in opposition to that of the Republican party. Some people see the appointment of an Emergency Financial Manager for the city as a disenfranchisement of the voters, since it effectively yanks the rug out from under the Mayor and City Council, for whom, hard as it may be to imagine, someone actually voted. My view is, to quote a associate of mine, so what's your point?

The City of Detroit, under the leadership of people elected by the city's voters, has become an embarrassment, an international joke, and a flaming disaster, not only for itself but for the whole state. No matter how much both of us may regret it, Detroit and the State of Michigan are inseparable, part of the same family, as it were, and the patience of the family is exhausted. Detroit -- its leaders, its voters, and all -- just got a bad performance review, and the state is putting them on an improvement plan.

Whether or not the EFM can "succeed" (and the definition of success in this case is wildly unclear, ranging from, on the one hand, a return to at least marginally balanced books to, at the other extreme, selling the whole place to North Korea,) something has to be attempted. Under the current crew of idiots Mayor and Council, nothing would have been tried, nothing would have changed, no effort beyond quibbling and posturing would have been imaginable.

So, while the state Democrats consider whether they can make an issue of it in opposition to the Governor's reelection campaign, and the Republicans undoubtedly hope to smear the Dems as being "soft on Detroit," I'm in the unusual position, for me, of backing Snyder.