Musings on a hump day.....

Its 5:13 pm

   Its getting dark outside...and a little colder. We had another mild day but getting a heads up we actually might some snow on Friday,anywhere between 1-4 inches. Anything over a inch will mark our seasonal high this winter. But it sure as hell beats 18 feet as Cordova and Nome,Alaska are finding out.
 Can't even imagine the hell those folks must be going through,its so bad that the Russians are helping out by shipping badly needed fuel to the folks in Cordova.
  Big news in the Motor City is both the 10% hike in the murder rate for Detroit,we had 344 people get murdered here. Only Philly beat us out but Detroit is looking to make strong start to the 2012 title by killing 17 more of its citizens.
  Of course this is what happens when you allow all the guns on the streets AND combine that with a weak mayor like we have in Dave Bing-a-ling. He forced the very effective Warren Evans out as police chief and crime has shot up under the leadership of Ralph Godbee.
  And Ralph's answer to this is convert the police stations to "virtual stations" by locking the doors to the public at 4 pm and leaving a 2 man staff behind to take accident reports. This is supposed to put more cops on the streets but defeats the very idea of a police station being a safe haven in case of a emergency. You know,like when your driving and a car full of young thugs bump your car at nighttime. Instead of going to a police station and safely exchanging info,your ass is as good as jacked. Its a very short sighted solution to a very chronic problem in the D.
 Just another reason to stay the hell outta the city if you ask me....and that's a shame,it really is. And with a EMF almost a certainty,Detroit is looking to become even more dangerous when the layoffs start coming in and the police department starts losing even more cops.
 And the effect of this is starting to show in the suburbs as the people leaving Detroit are setting up shop and bringing that crime mentality/culture with them. We have seen a sharp uptake in the criminal activity in my area and sad as it seems,its young black men that are shooting at sports centers,robbing people by gunpoint and shoplifting like there is no tomorrow. The seeds of hate and prejudice are being sown once again by shortsighted people who are "out to get mines"while not thinking about how stealing 400.00 worth of CDs at a Wal-Mart will affect us all. Now I'm not saying its a all black crime wave but the attention is more sharply aimed at them and who needs that on ANY level?
  Another interesting figure was also released,justifiable homicides shot up 80% in Detroit. These are shootings that considered "self defense",many happened when intruders broke inside a home or attempted to rob someone and they got blasted by a citizen carrying a legal gun...almost like the Old West days.
The local media spun it as a lack of enough police to respond to the crime. The cops there are so overwhelmed by the caseloads that it can be DAYS before a cop will come out and take a crime report. This has spurred a sharp rise between criminal and victim. But not everyone who decides to take the law into their own hand has gotten away with it,many have been arrested,tried and convicted of murder.
Its a slippery slope for anyone who decides to pick up a gun as a solution to a problem and for the citizens of Detroit,its seems it the ONLY solution.

  I decided to ask people what the word "Community" means to them. I'm going to push that for 3 days then post the answers I get on here and see if we can get a grip on what is a community.

A little bit bummed that I missed out on Crystal Light's free sample promo. I was pretty gung-ho for free samples on here but when I noticed that I was barely getting any despite being told that I was,I got discouraged. I mean,the company got my info but I got zero in return. But when I saw the ad in the Sunday paper,I was caught in the middle,should I go for it or not chance another disappointment. I waited til today to try and get a sample but I was too late,they had given out all 80,000 samples.
 Such is the life of a couponer like me....some days you are the bear,some days the bear gets you...but it will give me some motivation to go down and revamp our coupon book. That is if I can some Campbell soup coupons first....