We at Detour are the first people that should take the advice to look before you leap to a conclusion. We watched the Eric Garner video several times and voiced our dismay over the grand jury failure to charge Officer Pantaleo. We were told that the death was the result of his illegal choke hold and in any case the coroner ruled it a homicide. A death over a few cigarettes! Of course, we were in good company with virtually everyone on the Left and all sorts of people in the middle and the right echoing the same sentiments. People as diverse as Hillary Clinton, Al Sharpton, Rand Paul and Bill O’Reilly all seemed equally dismayed. Better still we could show how fair and balanced we were after concluding that the Ferguson Grand Jury acted properly, now we could heartily condemn this grand jury. Unfortunately some little bits of knowledge began to sneak in. Continue reading
Commentary
REAL ECONOMISTS DON’T DO MINIMUM WAGE
One of the other things that happened in 1776 was the publication of a book, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, by the Scottish moral philosopher Adam Smith who became the father of modern economics. Since then we’ve had a proliferation of people known as economists. Originally they sought to better understand the Smith’s “invisible hand” as it relates to such things as free markets, supply and demand and market pricing. There are still economists working to enlarge on what he brought forth, but there are others who call themselves economists but actually believe that governments rather than the market should set prices. Logically the name economists can’t cover opposites. The market people got there first so they should have the name. Maybe those that believe the opposite should be called faux economists. Is there an easy way to tell the difference between real and faux economists? We submit the argument over raising the minimum wage is a great place to separate real from faux. Continue reading
Yes, Joe Biden could become President
Joe Biden just might become our next President, maybe within a year. Oh, we can just hear the usual sources saying, “Good the GOP is going to impeach the President. Well just let them try.” No that’s not what we’re saying. The idea that Republicans would go through a fruitless effort to impeach the President just to have Biden take over is ludicrous. The GOP isn’t going to push Pres. Obama out the door, but the Democrats just might.
Presently, almost 2 out of every 3 Americans think the President is doing a poor job. Things could get a lot worse. Suddenly 30,000 Lois Lerner emails show up. Now maybe nothing is found there, but what if a link to the White House is established? Criminal behavior? Continue reading
MAYBE BLACKS JUST DON’T GET IT
Sunday is generally a very laid back time for us. Sports, Sunday papers and talk shows to settle into. Not this Sunday. Ferguson, Mo ready to explode regardless of which way the Grand Jury decides. Michael Erich Dyson telling Rudy Giuliani the New York police are an occupying force. The New York Times devoting a third of their editorial page on letters about Niholas Kristof ‘s endless white guilt trip series “When Whites Just don’t get it”. It seems that non blacks just don’t see things from a black point of view the way they should. O. K. But it got us to thinking, maybe there’s another problem. Blacks don’t see how they are viewed by others and maybe they should. Here at Detour we have always held the belief that the wealth of any nation is in its people not its natural resources. Where others just see rock, a motivated entrepreneurial people produce bountiful oil and gas. People make it a resource not the other way around. In that vain we see developing our people to be the best they can be is our highest priority. The biggest underdeveloped part of our society is the Black community and as such we have backed things we thought would improve their prospects to the nation’s benefit. Continue reading
AFTER TACKLING A BIG DOMESTIC POLICY, WE LOOK ABROAD
While we compile Q & As on Dave’s Plan, our next post give our take on Middle East Policy.
Detour on the Road 