And, here’s an interesting aside, as long as we’re discussing Bennett. I received an email a year or so ago from a fellow who claimed to have information about the murder of one of Henry Ford’s mistresses, on the grounds of Greenfield Village, at the hands of Bennett and his goons. As details were never forthcoming, and since it could well have been made up, I never noted it here, but I do wonder just how many people Bennet killed for Ford, and whether it’s conceivable that any of the ugly business was done on either the Village grounds, near Hitler’s boyhood home, or, here, in Ypsi.

Here, by way of background, is a clip from a short article about Bennett, and his role at Ford.

…Shortly before World War I, workers flocked to Detroit by the thousands, where Henry Ford promised prosperity by offering the then unprecedented wage of $5 per day for industrial workers. Ford opened job positions to African-Americans, in a age when they were denied many industrial jobs. Ford’s showcase was the River Rouge plant, an industrial power house where every auto part was not only assembled, but also fabricated.

In 1929 when the Great Depression struck, Ford cut back his workforce. Detroit, like many industrial cities, badly suffered through the economic outrage, with evictions and hunger.

Fearing communist influence, Ford fought unionization. He was aided in this effort by Fr. Charles Coughlin, a Detroit Catholic priest who won a national audience, first supporting Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal, but then turning against it, offering race-based and anti-Semitic diatribes. Ford hired a former prize fighter, Harry Bennett, as his security chief, and Bennett ruthlessly went after any union sympathizer.

In 1932 hungry Detroit workers marched on the Rouge. The march was organized by Communist Party members and four were killed on the “Ford Hunger March.”

Eventually the union came to the auto industry, with General Motors the first to sign after the 1936 sit-down strikes, which began in Flint, Michigan. Ford finally signed a United Auto Workers (UAW) contract in 1941, but not before the “Battle of the Overpass,” where Bennett’s thugs beat Walter Reuther and other union organizers trying to pass leaflets at the Rouge’s gate…

Sadly, as very few in this country seem to know their labor history, and of the sacrifices that were made by our ancestors, who, in many cases, gave their lives so that we might have a middle class, a 40 hour work week, and laws keeping children out of factories, I fear that we’re going to have to face the likes of Harry Bennett again.

CONAN:

Mark, your point about EM’s not being charged with developing sustainable strategies for a city’s turn-around is the most critical one to me. The long-term fiscal health of a city depends not on some quick-fix tricks like divesting assets or restructuring contracts, but on a community committing to a path to prosperity that may take decades to travel. The EM is decidedly not the individual to set that course — thank our lucky stars. Rather the EM’s optimal role is to right the ship — to come in, take (sometimes dramatic) corrective action to end a fiscal emergency and put the community back in a place where the threat of bankruptcy or insolvency isn’t a constant distraction.

In my opinion, it’s when EM’s take their charge to mean more than that that we get the dictatorial exercise of power that people so rightfully fear. The decisions about systemic change in a community belong to the residents and the elected officials, and a good EM would be smart to recognize when the voice of the citizens should speak louder than whatever distant enabling legislation led them to that community in the first place.

DRAGON:

Why don’t you introduce yourself Conan Smith. Husband of state Sen. Rebekah Warren, D-Ann Arbor, boss of local know it all Murph.

“Mark, your point about EM’s not being charged with developing sustainable strategies for a city’s turn-around is the most critical one to me.”

That’s why I have spent my time figuring out sustainable strategies for Ypsi. But I will keep these sustainable strategies secret, hoping the citizens of Ypsi are stupid enough to believe my bullshit.

“The long-term fiscal health of a city depends not on some quick-fix tricks like divesting assets or restructuring contracts, but on a community committing to a path to prosperity that may take decades to travel.”

So you feel our pain? That’s nice.

“The EM is decidedly not the individual to set that course — thank our lucky stars.”

Conan Smith started things off. In addition to being the chair of the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners, he is the Executive Director of the Michigan Suburbs Alliance, representing suburban cities that ring the metro Detroit area. Smith has gone on the record as generally in support of Public Act 4 saying:

We absolutely need it.

“Rather the EM’s optimal role is to right the ship — to come in, take (sometimes dramatic) corrective action to end a fiscal emergency and put the community back in a place where the threat of bankruptcy or insolvency isn’t a constant distraction.”

What are these corrective actions? Please help us not be constantly distracted.

“In my opinion”

We know your opinion.

“At the forefront of any emergency policy should be a respect for our democracy and a recognition that overriding a vote of the people is an act of last resort. Michigan citizens are also extraordinarily responsible individuals, rarely pointing the finger at another for their problems.”

But Mr Smith we are pointing the finger at business tax cuts of 1.6 billion while running a surplus.

“it’s when EM’s take their charge to mean more than that that we get the dictatorial exercise of power that people so rightfully fear.”

How can we prevent this?

“The decisions about systemic change in a community belong to the residents and the elected officials”

So why are you in favor of taking this right away from elected officials?

“and a good EM would be smart to recognize when the voice of the citizens should speak louder than whatever distant enabling legislation led them to that community in the first place.”

Are you also a stand up comedian?

BUSY DYING:

Conan,

Thanks for your feedback (if this is, indeed, Conan).

What you don’t mention–and it’s something at the bottom of local outrage about PA4–is the root cause of things like working-class public school systems “failing”: continued withdrawal of funding, thought, resources… in short: support.

It’s like this: if you put a bandaid on a massive leg wound, so that you can save sutures and gauze for your cronies, the person with the leg wound is going to fail to thrive, to say the least. Then you want to send in a specialist to chastise the victim for his leg wound, and to rummage around in drawers searching for other kinds of bandaids to put on it.

It’s this fact–that Republicrats are more interested in material wealth than in human welfare–that the 99% have awakened to. Emergency Managers are a mistake, no matter what race / class you are, and no matter how much “tidying up” they appear to do. If you fail to take a stand on this issue, your base is eventually going to punish you at the polls (despite the fact that the Governor might hook you up with some sweet swag).

CONAN:

Busy Dying, you’re absolutely right that the 30+ years of public policy that drained resources out of urban areas and essentially created the financial crisis that our cities on the edge (like Ypsi) now face is the real challenge. No EM’s going to really be able to save a city in this environment.

I’d like to be able to point the finger exclusively at Republicans for the systemic disinvestment (and they have been more responsible than Dem’s, driving “reforms” to the revenue sharing formula, designing tax expenditure systems that push resources to exurban areas, leading the creation of infrastructure bonds that allow rural areas to have both high-quality roads and low taxes….I could go on) but the truth is that Democrats have been consistently complicit or worse. The Granholm administration, for example, with the support of a Democratically-controlled House slashed statutory revenue sharing to near meaningless amounts in order to fill holes in the state budget (a pass-the-buck strategy used by Engler before and Snyder after).

Long diatribe… sorry. In short, state leaders haven’t taken care of cities the way they should. And they’re not likely to do an about-face and suddenly restore primacy to urban areas in the state’s investment strategies.

So, if state funding or significant policy change is not forthcoming, what do you do in a community whose financial decisions no longer allow it to serve the basic needs of its residents? Do you let it fail? That’s one option…allow the decisions up and down the political hierarchy to run their course. But the consequences of a government’s collapse are simply too great. You have to have an emergency action policy.

Now, my own approach to this is not that of this Legislature or those past. I do not believe that a singular hero can keep a city from insolvency. EFM, EM, whatever. I do agree that the State needs tools to ensure that a community is on the path to financial stability and that the leadership is held accountable to that outcome. Is take-over the ultimate action for consistent egregious behavior? Possibly. But we’ve yet to see a city — not Highland Park, Flint, Pontiac, Detroit, Hamtramck, Ecorse or Benton Harbor — where the local leaders were intransigent about financial reforms. Were some of them over their depth? Absolutely. But that is a time for mentorship, not dictatorship.

About PA4 specifically….lots of people claim based on a handful of clipped quotes that I’m a proponent of the current emergency management system. I’m not. If you take the time to read the whole article (based on one short conversation with Ryan Stanton) that gave everyone the heebie-jeebies about me and the EM law, you’ll see that I’ve always thought it had huge problems.

Michigan had an active Emergency Financial Manager law on the books (think Highland Park, Hamtramck, Benton Harbor, Ecorse and Detroit Schools) before PA4. That law had all the wrong-headed anti-democratic underpinnings that the current law does. Worse, it even failed to do the job it was designed for.

PA4 made some serious and badly-needed improvements to that existing law. It raised the bar on overriding labor contracts. It allowed for earlier and softer State interventions. It permitted local elected officials to exercise some of the powers previously allowed only to an EFM. When I said, dragon, that we definitely needed it, that’s what I was talking about, and I meant it.

PA4 also made some unnecessary and hideous politically-motivated changes. New managers have powers beyond addressing financial control, running to ordinances and even the existence of a community. The law goes too far — way too far — in empowering an individual in this way.

Like many things that come from Lansing, PA4 has its good and bad sides. I think we’d be smarter as a state to only seat an Emergency Manager after a city has declared bankruptcy and craft a policy that focuses on how we provide elected officials (who are mostly lay-people) the support and resources they need to get their community back on track.

That’s right… Obama is taking us down a road that leads directly to the forced euthanasia of seniors. Yes, just as gay marriage has led to rampant beastiality, contraception will surely lead to old people being dragged from their beds in the middle of the night and bludgeoned to death by the dark forces of Obamacare. But, what would you expect from a President who is clearly doing the bidding of Satan?

Oh, hadn’t you heard? Yeah… well, it seems as though Obama is following “a different theology” than the rest of us. Here’s some of what Santorum had to say yesterday.

…Obama’s agenda is “not about you. It’s not about your quality of life. It’s not about your jobs. It’s about some phony ideal. Some phony theology. Oh, not a theology based on the Bible. A different theology,” Santorum told supporters of the conservative Tea Party movement at a Columbus hotel…

As for Santorum’s claims about the prevalence of unwanted euthanasia in the Netherlands, they appear not to be true. At least, it would seem that laws are on the books to keep such things from happening. The following comes by way of Wikipedia:

…The law allows the medical review board to suspend prosecution of doctors who performed euthanasia when each of the following conditions is fulfilled:

- the patient’s suffering is unbearable with no prospect of improvement
- the patient’s request for euthanasia must be voluntary and persist over time (the request cannot be granted when under the influence of others, psychological illness or drugs)
- the patient must be fully aware of his/her condition, prospects and options
- there must be consultation with at least one other independent doctor who needs to confirm the conditions mentioned above
- the death must be carried out in a medically appropriate fashion by the doctor or patient, in which case the doctor must be present
- the patient is at least 12 years old (patients between 12 and 16 years of age require the consent of their parents)

…Euthanasia remains a criminal offense in cases not meeting the law’s specific conditions, with the exception of several situations that are not subject to the restrictions of the law at all, because they are considered normal medical practice:

- stopping or not starting a medically useless (futile) treatment
- stopping or not starting a treatment at the patient’s request
- speeding up death as a side-effect of treatment necessary for alleviating serious suffering

And, on top of that, Santorum’s numbers don’t add up. In 2010, 136,058 people in the Netherlands died. During that same year, there were 3,136 cases reported in which a physician assisted in the death of a patient. That’s nowhere near the 10% number that Santorum notes. Furthermore, it’s my understanding that only 182 of those 3,136 cases were actually assisted suicides. The others, if I’m not mistaken, were instances in which patients were allowed to die on their own, without intervention. But, you don’t get to be the frontrunner of today’s Republican party by sticking to the facts. It’s far better to take the stage and say, categorically, that the government of the Netherlands murders over 6,500 people per year, and that’s what Obama has planned for us. That’s the kind of shit that wins elections.

It’s been a while since I’ve read the Bible, but I have to think that, somewhere in it, there has to be something about lying being wrong. But, it seems, the more “religious” you claim to be, the less you need to worry about conforming to what Jesus actually taught. Case in point – Santorum came out a few days ago, saying that the murder of Iranian scientists was, “a wonderful thing.” (Can someone point me to the place in the Bible where Jesus says murder can be a wonderful thing?) But, apparently it’s OK in this instance, though, as Iran is a theocracy. As Santorum pointed out not so long ago, when talking about Iran on the campaign trail, “They’re a theocracy that has deeply embedded beliefs that the afterlife is better than this life… When your principal virtue is to die for Allah, then it’s not a deterrent to have a nuclear threat… It is in fact an encouragement for them to use their nuclear weapon.”

Santorum, who believes in an afterlife better than this one, and just criticized Obama not governing in accordance with “Biblical law,” apparently struggles with the concept of irony.

While we’re on the subject of Santorum, did you happen to see today that he’s suggesting that the federal government sell off all public lands? Who needs national parks anyway, right? Now that they’ve all been photographed, what’s the purpose? Plus, just think of all the beautiful monocle cases and cigar boxes we could make from that old growth timber.

You might also be interested to know that he’s come out and essentially said that we should abolish public education, in favor of home schooling, like during the good ‘ole pioneer days… Which makes total sense, given that what we need as a nation isn’t doctors looking for cures to deadly diseases, and high-tech entrepreneurs, but girls that know how to churn butter and boys who can count high enough to know when they’ve put three seeds in a hole.

I’ve got to think that the people of Michigan will wake up before the 28th, and send this guy back to Pennsylvania once and for all, for the good of the nations, but you never know. People could vote for him just out of sheer dislike for Mitt “I loved Michigan so much that I tied the family dog to the roof of my foreign car and sped away the first chance I got” Romney.

Oh, and speaking of euthanasia bracelets, I’d like to have one made that says, “Please Kill Me if Santorum Wins.”

While we’re on the subject of Degrassi, did you hear the news late last week that Neil Hope had passed away? Hope, who played Derek “Wheels” Wheeler in the classic Canadian coming-of-age drama, apparently died five years ago, alone, in a Hamilton, Ontario rooming house, but the news just now became public. Hope, who had a long history of alcoholism, is said to have died of natural causes.

Speaking of Hope, here’s one of my favorite episodes that centers around his character. It’s called, Best Laid Plans.

And I know that it’s unlikely, but I’d like to see if maybe I could convince Pat Mastroianni, who played Joey Jeremiah, to recreate the drugstore scene that takes place at the 16-minute mark, with me filling in for Wheels. I think that would be incredibly cool.

And, yes, apparently all of the episodes of Degrassi Junior High are now available on YouTube… Enjoy!

MARK: When did you move to Ypsilanti, and what brought you here?

GILLIAN: We (my partner Adam and I) moved here in July 2011. Honestly, coming to Ypsi was just a happy accident. We were planning to stay in Ann Arbor… but suddenly and unexpectedly had to leave our house – so we had less than 30 days to find a new place to live for two people, two cats and a dog. We looked all over Ann Arbor, found one place that was pretty nice, but that was stretching the price range, and would have left us homeless for almost a month. (July is a terrible time to look for immediate occupancy in A2.)

Just as we were starting to get desperate a coworker sent out our plea via email and Facebook to the Ypsi neighborhood associations and his various Ypsi connections. (I believe the title was, “Here’s a chance to steal a household from Ann Arbor.”) We got an email within a couple of days about a great little house, bigger and $400 cheaper than the Ann Arbor place we looked at, walking distance to Depot Town and with a fenced-in backyard for the dog. I couldn’t be happier about the decision. We’re pretty much hooked on Ypsi now.

MARK: According to my files (yes, I keep files on everyone), you work for a non-profit in downtown Ypsi. I don’t seem to have any information on Adam, though. Does he work, go to school, etc? And, if so, where?

GILLIAN: Adam writes software for a small company that specializes in restaurant management software – scheduling, inventory, that kind of thing. The company was started in Ann Arbor but their employees are international, so he works from home. (I also work from home about half the time – another reason we wanted a bigger house.)

MARK: Where have you lived prior to Ypsilanti?

GILLIAN: Adam and I both grew up in Ann Arbor (and met at Community High oh so long ago). He’s lived in Ypsi before and was also in Plymouth for a while. I’ve been all over – Baltimore, Toronto, and almost a year in Thailand. I moved back to Michigan for grad school in 2007.

MARK: I won’t hold you to it, but I’m wondering if you’re planning on staying in Michigan for the foreseeable future, now that you’re back.

GILLIAN: Yep, I’m pretty committed to staying in Michigan. Coming back home for grad school was very intentional – I had been doing international development work in Toronto and came to the realization that I had a lot more power to make a difference here than in Kenya. I guess I was ready for a longer term commitment to a community. It also helps that both my parents and Adam’s parents are all within 30 minutes. It makes holidays a little hectic, but in general it’s nice to be close.

MARK: Have you made friends here? It’s OK to say, no, by the way. I’ve heard that it can take up to three years for people to make friends when moving to a new place.

GILLIAN: Yes! I think that’s why I like Ypsi so much.To be fair, we had a few good friends here before moving, and Adam was getting pretty involved with Bike Ypsi, but I’ve met a lot of great people. It’s actually a nice balance of familiarity for me – I like seeing familiar faces around town, but Ann Arbor had been getting to the point where I couldn’t go anywhere without seeing people I knew from a million years ago – it’s a very small town when you grow up there.

I will admit, though, that my fears of not seeing as much of my Ann Arbor friends have kind of come true. The Great Washtenaw Rift is real.It takes some extra effort to overcome it.

MARK: Do you have any childhood friends from Ann Arbor who now live in Ypsi, or are you the only one?

GILLIAN: Not many at the moment, but there’s kind of an Ypsi revolving door with Ann Arbor kids. My best friend lived in Ypsi when she moved home after 10 years in Chicago, but she went back to Ann Arbor just a couple months before we moved here. Another friend from high school is currently trying to buy a house here. I also run into a fair number of people I know from A2 around town. (For example I see Erin Dion, who I went to elementary and high school with, almost daily at Beezy’s – it turns out she used to live in the house I live in now!)

MARK: Do you own a home, or do you rent?

GILLIAN: Rent (see above). But we’re looking at buying within the next couple years and Ypsi has moved to the top of the list of places where we’d look.

MARK: Do you have any questions about Ypsilnati that I could, maybe, help you with? Have you seen anything, or smelled anything, for instance, that just doesn’t make sense?

GILLIAN: Glad you asked! Do you know anyone who has tried the Bul Taco at the Chick Inn? I am intrigued and terrified.

MARK: Hmmm. I usually get the fried chicken basket, and Linette usually opts for a Hammy Sammy wedged between two Paul Bunyon burgers. (She calls it a Triple Down.) So, we’ve never tried the Bul Taco. (Does it really just have one “l”?) But I suspect that someone in the audience can help you out.

GILLIAN: Yep. Just one “l.” Rumor has it it’s a Bul Go Gi taco.

MARK: Where else do you eat when you eat out in Ypsi?

GILLIAN: Two words: Hidden. Dragon. I can not get enough Ma Po Tofu. It’s a little embarassing to say how often I eat there, but I will tell you it was the #1 thing I was excited about when I moved to Ypsi. I was introduced to the place probably 6 years ago by friends who used to live in Ypsi, and we’d go at least once a month – they’d drive from Northville and I’d come from Ann Arbor. The secret is that you have to ask for the Chinese menu.

MARK: Do you read Chinese? Or do you ask for the Chinese menu, and then ask for them to read it to you?

GILLIAN: Oh yeah, I should have clarified – The Chinese menu is in both Chinese and English. It’s just got more traditional Chinese dishes than the American-Chinese menu that they usually give to white people. Their American-Chinese food is okay too, it’s just nothing special.

MARK: What’s a typical weekend like for you?

GILLIAN: To be truthful, weekends involve a lot of cleaning, grocery shopping and working, but right now it’s Friday afternoon and I’m working from Corner Brewery, so I guess I can’t complain. Other than that, I try to get a board game in – scrabble or something geekier, and I usually try to do something outside, too – either riding bikes or going for a hike with the dog. You also might catch me at Hidden Dragon on Sunday night.

[For those interested, the rest of my Ypsilanti Immigration Interviews can be found here.]

…Speaking straws, I can’t use one without remembering something that my friend Jeff once told me. He said that his dad, every time he saw a man using one, would roll his eyes and mumble something about the guy needing a, “sissy stick.” Has anyone else ever heard that term used? Is straw use considered less than masculine in popular American culture, or is this something unique to my friend’s family in West Virginia?

As for the Wurst Bar, it was packed last night at 8:00… A very cool thing to see in Ypsilanti.

[For more on the Wurst Bar, you can find my interview with owner Jesse Kranyak here.]

MARK: I thought that I’d start out by running a question by you that I once posed to Jim Kunstler… “Is there anything that can be done, in your opinion, to lessen the impact of the converging catastrophes that await us when cheap oil is no longer easy to come by? Putting global warming aside, isn’t it conceivable that we could, through conservation, a renewed dedication to mass-transit, and the implementation of significant gas taxes (with proceeds going toward sustainable alternatives), avoid some of the terrible things that lay ahead?”

GUY: I seriously doubt it. Jevons’ paradox and its latest incarnation, the Khazzoom-Brookes postulate, indicate conservation and efficiency are irrelevant. Also, at this late date in the age of industry, collapse is baked into the cake, and soon.

MARK: In reading up on your work, I was struck by a quote, and I was wondering if you might be able to elaborate. “I think anarchy is the best that we can hope for.” We talk a lot about worst case scenarios, but I was wondering if you could talk a bit about anarchy as the best case scenario.

GUY: Anarchy means taking responsibility for yourself and for your neighbors, human and otherwise. It means breaking away from the big-government savior state.

MARK: What do you intend to discuss during your stop in Ypsilanti?

GUY: I will discuss my personal decision to walk away from American Empire, and I will encourage others to do the same.

MARK: Have you been successful in convincing others? Do you maintain a network of individuals who have taken your advice and detached from modern society? I ask because I suspect there’s value to be had in the exchange of information on best practices and the like.

GUY: Although there is no evidence either way, I believe I’ve induced little significant change. It’s difficult for people to change. There has been very little follow-up after I speak, consult, or host visitors on the property.

MARK: How was your message received at your earlier stops along this speaking tour? Did it resonate in Northern Michigan?

GUY: My messages have been received well in each of the ten places I’ve spoken so far. So far, I’ve received numerous accolades and no death threats.

MARK: Were you expecting any hostility when you set out? I can see how some folks might become extremely defensive when confronted by a world view such as that which you espouse.

GUY: I expect and receive a certain amount of hostility on every trip. So far, I’ve been experienced enough, and clever enough, to defuse the hostility before it becomes too personal.

MARK: After retiring from the University of Arizona, where you taught at the School of Natural Resources and the Environment, you decided to move off-grid, and live in a straw bale house, in order to put your theories into action. In a recent interview you said the following… “I no longer live according to the expectations of others. While I have long valued the notion of self-reliance, I’ve only recently put the idea to the test. The result is that I now have a profound sense of satisfaction with my own self-reliance, which is rooted in work ethic, creativity, and a decent human community.” I’m interested in knowing more about this “decent human community” you’ve worked to create. How did it come together? How did you find other like-minded people to go on this journey with you?

GUY: My wife and I share a small property with another couple and their young son. So our human community begins with the property and then extends, in concentric “circles” to a dozen or so neighbors with whom we regularly participate in a gift economy. And then it extends to another 80 or so neighbors with whom we participate periodically in an economy of gifts and barter (and, occasionally, cash).

MARK: I’m curious to know how, in your arrangement, you deal with things like health care. I can see how, through gardening, the raising of livestock, the preservation of food, and trade with like-minded neighbors, you could sustain life, given access to clean water, and a climate conducive to agriculture, but I’m curious as to how, in a situation like yours, you interact with the outside world. I guess what I’m getting as it that, in today’s world, at least as I see it, it’s impossible to detach completely, and I was wondering if you could speak to how one manages that intersection of the off-grid world, and the on-grid world, and the concessions that must sometimes be necessary.

GUY: It certainly is impossible to leave American Empire behind. I shop at the grocery store now and then, and I have coffee with several neighbors each Tuesday morning. If I need medical care, I will take advantage of the system. I lived fully in two worlds for quite a while, and I’m gradually transitioning more completely to the off-grid world. In fact, this slow collapse has been one of the truly painful parts of this entire process, for many reasons, most notably including the love I feel for the living planet.

MARK: I know it’s not something that can be answered briefly, but if you could share a bit about how you share work and other responsibilities within this intentional community of yours, I’m sure that my readers would appreciate it. Do you, for instance, have a process in place to deal with grievances, consider others for the community, etc?

GUY: Because there are only two small families sharing the property, and because we take communication seriously, we tend to head off problems before they grow out of control. We have a legal agreement by which all parties have their names on the deed.

MARK: Do you foresee a day when you might grow your immediate community to include more than two families? would there be advantages to doing so? Is there, based on your research, an optimal size for a sustainable off-grid community?

GUY: We’re already very close to human carrying capacity on the property, so I suspect we’ll not expand. Because we work with our neighbors, I think the size of our human community is about right — several dozen people.

MARK: When things get bad, have you given any thought as to how you will deal with those around you, who haven’t prepared?

GUY: There are too many variables, too many potential outcomes. But if our world resembles Mad Max, I doubt I live long. And if our neighbors suffer, we will try to help them.

MARK: Can you tell us about your home?

GUY: It’s an off-grid straw-bale duplex. Each side has about 680 square feet of living space, and the breezeway dividing the two living spaces is about 600 square feet. Designed and built with durability in mind, it has an acid-stained concrete floor and a metal roof. It has large, south-facing windows to passively heat the house. I’m sure I’m forgetting many things, so feel free to follow up.

MARK: I don’t know much about the climate in Arizona, where I believe you live, but it seems to me, given the realities of global warming, that there could be other areas more hospitable to human life over the coming decades. Have you considered leaving? If so, what parts of the world do you think are best suited for long term habitation post collapse?

GUY: I live in New Mexico, but your point is valid. I have placed my picket-pin in the small valley I occupy for several reasons, some of them intensely personal and private. It’s probably among the worst places in the world to be in light of ongoing, accelerating climate chaos. Better places would include places at higher latitudes, including the interior, mountainous region of North America and also coastal western North America.

MARK: Given the fact that it’s unlikely that we’ll ever find a leader at the national level to make the changes necessary to turn away from fossil fuels in a timely manner, what options do we have? Clearly, one option is to move off-the-grid, and encourage others to do so, but have you considered political alternatives as well?

GUY: There are no politically viable solutions. No politician will run on the platform of economic decline. Do you think Obama doesn’t know what I know?

MARK: Knowing what you know of Michigan, how well do you think we’re situated here to deal with the future?

GUY: Considering we need the following to survive, the areas in Michigan not characterized by cities are in good shape: clean water, healthy food, the ability to maintain body temperature, and a decent human community.

As you might imagine, the internet lit up immediately. Women, rightfully, were angry to hear this rich, old man presuming to tell them how to live their lives, and conduct themselves in their bedrooms. After the initial shock wore off, the instinctive anger people were feeling seemed to give way to more thoughtful responses. The “I’d like to shove an aspirin right up this old man’s ass” comments, at least among my friends, gave way to more thoughtful discussions on the history of women’s reproductive freedom, and these recent threats posed by the likes of Santorum, who has, on several occasions, indicated that individual states should be given the opportunity to outlaw contraception. And, by this evening, I noticed that women were starting to embrace the aspirin meme, and claim it for their own. One friend sent around a picture of an aspirin held tight between her knees, and another pointed out the flaw in Friess’s inexpensive health care plan for women. To paraphrase, she said something like, “I’m pretty sure I can have sex with my knees together.” And that’s what got me wondering whether or not we might be standing on the precipice of the most filthy politically-motivated internet meme ever. Might we wake up in the morning, to find the internet bursting at the seems with videos of women having sex while holding aspirin between their knees? Or, if not video, maybe just photo galleries of sweaty, happy, satisfied women with chalky white aspirin residue on the insides of their knees…

If I worked for Baer Aspirin, I’d be all over this in a heartbeat, buying up advertising time, and hiring a celebrity spokesperson. (Bristol Palin, I think, would make a great campaign spokesperson.)

And here’s the video or Friess.

If you want to send him your empty aspirin bottles, here’s his address:

115 E. Snow King Avenue
PO Box 9790
Jackson WY, 83002

[Tonight's post is brought to you by Congresswomen Carolyn Maloney and Eleanor Holmes Norton, who awesomely got up and walked out of a House oversight committee hearing on contraceptive coverage this morning, accusing Chairman Darrell Issa of blocking female witnesses from testifying.]

MARK: Where did you live before moving to Ypsilanti?

VALERIE: To start at the beginning of my Michigan story, my family moved to the state when I was 6 and we lived in Battle Creek through high school. I moved to the east side of the state to attend the University of Michigan.

MARK:: What brought your family to Battle Creek?

VALERIE: We moved to Battle Creek for my dad’s job and to be closer to family. My mom’s parents live in Kalamazoo, and my dad’s are in northern Indiana, so the move brought us closer to both. My dad worked at a high-powered law firm in DC, and the new job in Michigan was a great opportunity that allowed him to retain slightly more sanity and balance.

MARK: What did you study at U-M?

VALERIE: I studied political science, with a focus in community work.

MARK: When, if you can recall, was the first time you stepped foot in Ypsilanti? What were the circumstances?

VALERIE: The first time I visited Ypsilanti, it was actually a mistake. At some point during my freshman year of college, my friends and I accidentally took the bus the wrong way from Meijer, further into Ypsi, rather than back to U-M. We ended up at the end of the line, at the Vu, and picked up some colorful characters along the way. I had some high school friends who attended Eastern, so I visited them a few times, as well. My first impressions of Ypsilanti weren’t the greatest. They weren’t bad, but I didn’t really think Ypsi was anything special.

MARK: Would I be right in assuming, based upon what little I know about you, that a job brought you to Ypsi?

VALERIE: It’s fairly accurate to say that a job brought me to Ypsi. I work for a nonprofit based out of Ferndale, but we have so many employees who live in Washtenaw County that the boss man decided to open up a satellite office in the area. I was living in Ann Arbor at the time, so I ended up spending a lot of time at the Ypsi office, which led me to explore the surrounding area a bit. I started going to local bars, eating delicious food, and figuring out that Ypsi is pretty awesome.

MARK: As I understand it, you rent in Ypsi. Can you tell us what it was like looking for a place? How did you find the quality of the available properties here? The landlords? Did you do much online research before starting your search?

VALERIE: Logistically, we leaned pretty heavily on Craigslist to find apartments, and I went to my coworkers for advice on landlords. While searching real estate, we found some not-so-great student apartments, some fantastic historic spaces, and some pretty good generic-type apartments. Before I moved here (and before my job plunged me into Ypsilanti community work), I actually didn’t realize the strength or extent of Ypsilanti’s community networks. I had not read your blog, or seen Dreamland, or even gone to see a show at Woodruff’s. All that was just a great bonus.

MARK: If you’re like most folks, you probably debated a bit between whether to rent in Ypsi or in Ann Arbor. Can you talk a little about the decision process, and why you chose Ypsilanti?

VALERIE: I continued to live in Ann Arbor for a bit after graduating. At the end of my lease last August, though, I knew I wanted to move somewhere new. My boyfriend goes to med school at U of M, so we couldn’t move too far away. We were looking for a place with some character and I was insisting on living in a walkable, downtown area. We did look at a few apartments in Ann Arbor, but most places were either out of our price range or just not that great. That’s when I started pushing for a move to Ypsi.

I was born in Virginia and my mom’s a huge Civil War buff, so I was raised to appreciate a historic home. That was a huge part of our current apartment’s appeal. We’re renting a gorgeous three-bedroom, two-story house that was built in 1860, and we’re paying less than the boyfriend was paying for a truly horrible student apartment in Kerrytown, Ann Arbor. And unlike Kerrytown, Ypsilanti’s historic character doesn’t feel pretentious or forced. Neither my boyfriend nor I have regretted the move for a minute. We love Ypsilanti–the people, the culture, the restaurants and bars, the affordability, the walkability, the access to everything we could need or want, and most of all, our house.

MARK: Is there anything you miss about Battle Creek?

VALERIE: Battle Creek’s where I grew up and went to high school, so I definitely have a little of the “boy am I glad I got out” syndrome. It does have a great history, though, as the birthplace of cereal and a key stop on the Underground Railroad. Sojourner Truth is buried there! I probably most miss my home church and congregation. I actually wrote my thesis on community organizations in Battle Creek, which re-exposed me to how great the people and neighborhoods there can be.

One of the best things about BC, though, was the smell of cereal in the air–literally. Some factory towns smell horrible all the time, but BC had the fantastic aroma of whatever cereal Kellogg’s was making that day. De-lish.

MARK: If you could change one thing about Ypsi, what would it be?

VALERIE: If I could change one thing about Ypsi, I’d ask for improved public schools. I think that’s what keeps me from thinking seriously about living here for the long term. Also, I’d like to be able to teleport from my house to Michigan’s campus. Can we make that happen?

I asked the boy for his input, and he says “More barbecue places and a movie theater downtown.”

MARK: What, if anything, could we do to make it easier for new Ypsi transplants, such as yourself, or people who are looking for information about the city online, prior to looking for a place to live here?

VALERIE: It would be nice to have some central location for finding information about rental places or reviews for landlords. Actually, even more than that, it would have been nice to have information on the different neighborhoods in Ypsi–their culture, assets, and weaknesses.

MARK: Is there anything else that you’d like to say?

VALERIE: Move to Ypsi!

[There are only three primaries left between now and Super Tuesday (March 6). They are to take place in Arizona (February 28), Michigan (February 28), and Washington (March 3).]

Nate Silver, in his New York Times column today, elaborated on the advertising war shaping up in Michigan. Here’s a clip:

…Mr. Santorum has a larger lead, 15 points, in another poll of Michigan from Public Policy Polling. That firm projects Michigan’s electorate to be decidedly more conservative than it was in 2008. For instance, it projects 48 percent of the voters to be evangelical Christians, up from 39 percent in 2008, and 38 percent of voters to be “very conservative,” up from 24 percent…

So far, Mr. Romney’s campaign has relied more on the “air war” — television advertising. In Florida, where he came from behind to beat Newt Gingrich, he ran far more advertisements than the other candidates.

Almost all of these ads were negative, however, and almost all of them targeted Mr. Gingrich. There are two risks to Mr. Romney if he adopts a similar strategy in Michigan.

First, Mr. Santorum might prove more resilient to the attacks. Mr. Romney will need to develop a more creative line than the one he has used so far, calling Mr. Santorum a “career politician.” That line may produce diminishing returns, since Mr. Romney has leveled a similar charge against opponents like Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry in the past, and since it is slightly discordant coming from someone who has spent most of the past six years running for president.

The bigger problem, however, is that negative ads are no way to increase your base; instead, they may alienate key constituencies within the party.

That could be especially important to Mr. Romney because the window of voting through Super Tuesday might represent the last chance for him to win the nomination by consensus, with voters coalescing around him. To date, they have rejected several opportunities to do so, and the evidence probably weighs against their doing so now, but a decisive set of victories in different parts of the country would allow Mr. Romney to make a credible pitch to voters and party elites.

If, however, Mr. Romney gets only narrow wins in states like Michigan and Arizona after a negatively charged campaign, he would probably be the favorite to win the nomination, but a lot of those winning scenarios would be ugly ones, including an outside chance at a deadlocked convention…

And, not having the Republican base behind him could doom Romney when it comes time for the general election, assuming he wins the primary, as Obama’s approval numbers continue to climb with every positive report on job creation. So, most poll watchers, from what I can tell, seem to think that Romney will run a positive campaign in Michigan, forgoing the negative tactics that have gotten him this far, and try to pick up some momentum with rank and file Republicans, who have, until now, been filling the coffers of Gingrich, Santorum and the other perceived “culture warriors”. Romney’s first television ad for the Michigan market, which was released today, would appear to confirm this non-attack, let’s-look-Presidential strategy. Here it is:

Not a bad ad… if you can get beyond the fact that the car that he’s driving, or pretending to drive, was made in Canada.

And, here, for comparative purposes, is Santorum’s first ad for the Michigan market, which, on the surface, attacks Romney for having a history of running attack ads. Ironic, right? It’s a great strategy for Santorum, in that it allows him to attack, and poke fun of Romney, who is portrayed by a bumbling look-alike in the ad, while still maintaining the perception that he alone has attained the moral high ground. One might question his use of imagery, though, as the mud being slung throughout the ad brings small-s santorum to mind.

But, thanks to Super PAC spending, that’s not all. There’s also this anti-Santorum ad, released on behalf of the Romney campaign. While it’s not terribly aggressive, it raises a few points that may resonate with the Tea Party set, like the fact that Santorum once voted with Hillary Clinton to extend voting rights to felons.

Romney’s got a hell of a way to go. Michigan should have been an easy win for him, given his ties to the state, and his corporate war chest, but people still can’t seem to muster the enthusiasm for him. And it doesn’t help that he penned that 2008 op-ed in the New York Times advocating against the auto company bailout. Word is Michigan Governor Rick Snyder will be endorsing Romney shortly, but I’m not sure that will carry much weight with the Tea Party types that are rallying around Santorum, in hopes that he might be able to roll back modernity, and restore some illusive sense of American religiosity and pride. I guess we’ll have to wait and see how it plays out.

Oh, it’s also worth mentioning that Romney is trying as best as he can to spin that New York Times editorial in which he said that we should let the GM and Chrysler fail. Here’s a clip from his op-ed in today’s Detroit News.

I am a son of Detroit. I was born in Harper Hospital and lived in the city until my family moved to Oakland County.

I grew up drinking Vernors and watching ballgames at Michigan & Trumbull. Cars got in my bones early. And not just any cars, American cars.

When the president of American Motors died suddenly in 1954, my dad, George Romney, was asked to take his place. I was 7 and got my love of cars and chrome and fins and roaring motors from him. I grew up around the industry and watched it flourish. Years later, I watched with sadness as it floundered.

Three years ago, in the midst of an economic crisis, a newly elected President Barack Obama stepped in with a bailout for the auto industry. The indisputable good news is that Chrysler and General Motors are still in business. The equally indisputable bad news is that all the defects in President Obama’s management of the American economy are evident in what he did.

Instead of doing the right thing and standing up to union bosses, Obama rewarded them.

A labor union that had contributed millions to Democrats and his election campaign was granted an ownership share of Chrysler and a major stake in GM, two flagships of the industry.The U.S. Department of Treasury — American taxpayers — was asked to become a majority stockholder of GM. And a politically connected and ethically challenged Obama-campaign contributor, the financier Steven Rattner, was asked to preside over all this as auto czar.

This was crony capitalism on a grand scale. The president tells us that without his intervention things in Detroit would be worse. I believe that without his intervention things there would be better.

My view at the time — and I set it out plainly in an op-ed in the New York Times — was that “the American auto industry is vital to our national interest as an employer and as a hub for manufacturing.” Instead of a bailout, I favored “managed bankruptcy” as the way forward.

Managed bankruptcy may sound like a death knell. But in fact, it is a way for a troubled company to restructure itself rapidly, entering and leaving the courtroom sometimes in weeks or months instead of years, and then returning to profitable operation.

In the case of Chrysler and GM, that was precisely what the companies needed. Both were saddled with an accumulation of labor, pension, and real estate costs that made them unsustainable. Health and retirement benefits alone amounted to an extra $2,000 baked into the price of every car they produced.

Shorn of those excess costs, and shorn of the bungling management that had driven them into a deep rut, they could re-emerge as vibrant and competitive companies. Ultimately, that is what happened. The course I recommended was eventually followed. GM entered managed bankruptcy in June 2009 and exited it a month later in July…

So, he would have saved the auto companies, but done it in such a way that they could have killed the unions, and driven labor costs down even further. Sounds great, right? Of course, people familiar with the situation at the time, don’t think that Romney’s plan would have worked, as no private firms would have given either GM or Chrysler the money they needed to reorganize after bankruptcy. Here, with more on that, is a clip from today’s New York Times.

…Officials in Mr. Obama’s administration, and many economists in both parties, scoff at Mr. Romney’s suggestion that a managed bankruptcy was possible without the billions of dollars in government aid to the car companies. They say Wall Street and private equity firms in early 2009 were in no position to lend the kind of money that the companies needed to manage the bankruptcy process in an orderly fashion.

They also point out a fact that Mr. Romney neglects to mention in Tuesday’s opinion article: that it was the Bush administration that made the initial loans to General Motors and Chrysler, starting the “bailouts” that Mr. Romney derides…

All I can say with any certainty is that the next few weeks are going to be interesting ones for Michigan, with the candidates moving among us, desperately spinning the truth in order to stay alive and throwing mud (or that delightful mixture of fecal matter and lube shown in the ad above) as they accelerate toward the 28th. That is, if Santorum doesn’t implode before the primary, like Herman, Newt, and Rick did earlier in the season. (Romney’s clear hope is that people will see Santorum as a religious nut, who wants to make birth control illegal, but he’s afraid to say so himself, as it may turn off some of the backward Republican base, who long for the good old days when women had no control over their own fertility.)

So, with all of that said, I’m curious to know which of the ads resonated with you? Do you buy Romney’s explanation as to why he suggested that we let GM and Chrysler go bankrupt? Do you accept Romney’s “I’m a regular Michigander” narrative? If you’re a Democrat, will you be crossing party lines to vote in the Republican primary, in hopes of keeping the crazy train rolling? And, regardless of party affiliation, who will you be voting for come the 28th?