FireUpChips10

FireUpChips10's Journal

March 28, 2014

Labor unions saved Ford in our 'darkest' hour: Bill Ford

Though they are sometimes blamed for the financial woes at other car companies, labor unions actually helped "save" Ford Motor as competitors such as General Motors went bankrupt, Bill Ford told CNBC on Thursday.

Ford, the executive chairman of the Detroit automaker, said in an interview on CNBC's "Squawk Box" that former UAW President Ron Gettelfinger doesn't get enough credit for helping to shore up the books during Ford's "darkest hour."

"When we got into a really tough period, I sat down with Ron and I said, 'You have to help me save the Ford Motor Company so we didn't have to go through bankruptcy, so we didn't have to get a federal bailout,'" Ford said. "And he did that."

Ford credited the union with helping his company regain a foothold in the North American market. He added that the UAW helped the entire industry "get back on its feet."

http://www.cnbc.com/id/101529786#_gus

March 27, 2014

Episcopal bishops on gay marriage: Discrimination is not the Lord's way

As bishops of the Episcopal Church in Michigan, we are compelled by our office and our conscience to present a perspective on marriage equality that differs substantively from the positions of our state’s top elected leaders and the religious leaders whose voices have dominated the public square. We offer a message of hope to those alienated by the traditional teachings of the church and the constitutional denial of civil rights.

When asked what is the greatest commandment, Jesus said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind,” and “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37-38 NRSV). Condemning love and condemning those seeking to make a faithful, committed, and covenantal relationship to one another under God is not a message built on the teachings of Christ, but is rather a fear-laden response to one’s neighbor.

Our faith is in a loving and compassionate God who does not condemn love, and in our experience, there is holy goodness in the love of gay and lesbian couples and their families.

As the case of DeBoer v. Snyder continues to work its way through our judicial system, we hope that judges will find that the denial of marriage to those whose expression of love is same-gendered is both a denial of human dignity and a denial of rights under the law. We pray that Michigan will finally be able to proudly stand on the right side of history and join the 17 other states whose laws affirm the equality of all faithful, committed and covenantal relationships.

http://www.freep.com/article/20140325/OPINION05/303250133

March 26, 2014

Corn Dog Spill Closes Interstate

This week's weather report in Louisiana didn't say cloudy with a chance of meatballs. But a massive corn dog accident did shut down the interstate there, which is about as close to the real thing as you can get.

KTBS reports a section of I-220 had to be closed in Shreveport early Tuesday morning after a semi-truck loaded with corn dogs crashed and covered the road with about 40,000 of the batter-coated sausages.

Shreveport locals were apparently happy to act on the five-second rule, stocking up on the free food for a later date.

"There were some reports that passersby were coming in and loading up on some of those corn dogs for dinner," Cpl. Marcus Hines told WWLTV. "It's been a big mess but a lot of folks will be eating pretty good this afternoon ... Everything you need to make a good corn dog was in the middle of the roadway."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/26/corn-dog-spill-closes-interstate-louisiana_n_5036733.html?utm_hp_ref=weird-news

March 26, 2014

Guy gets McDonald's receipt tatooed on his arm

Let's hope he's lovin' it.

An 18-year-old from Norway now has a McDonald's receipt tattooed on his right arm. Stian Ytterdahl of Lorenskog, said that his friends wanted to punish him for being "too active with the ladies," according to Scallywag and Vagabond's translation of Romereskes Blad.

It's entirely unclear what that means, but his friends gave him the option of getting a Barbie tattooed on his butt or his fast food purchase on his arm.

"Now I'm a living billboard," he told Romereskes Blad, according to Gawker. "But I think all this is just fun. Maybe it won't be as fun when I'm 50 or 60 years old, but it's my choice."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/26/stian-ytterdahl-mcdonalds-receipt-tattoo_n_5037725.html?utm_hp_ref=weird-news

March 24, 2014

TV's Judge Joe Brown arrested

Judge Joe Brown just got a taste of his own medicine -- the former TV judge was arrested after allegedly blowing a gasket at a Memphis juvenile court ... TMZ has confirmed.

Brown showed up to court Monday to represent someone in a child support case -- but was turned away by court staff, who informed Brown they had no record of the case in question.

Brown reportedly lost it ... becoming verbally abusive and was warned several times to quiet down.

http://www.tmz.com/2014/03/24/judge-joe-brown-arrested-court-juvenile/#ixzz2wv2jh1hT

March 23, 2014

The Catholic Roots of Obama’s Activism

In a meeting room under Holy Name Cathedral, a rapt group of black Roman Catholics listened as Barack Obama, a 25-year-old community organizer, trained them to lobby their fellow delegates to a national congress in Washington on issues like empowering lay leaders and attracting more believers.

“He so quickly got us,” said Andrew Lyke, a participant in the meeting who is now the director of the Chicago Archdiocese’s Office for Black Catholics. The group succeeded in inserting its priorities into the congress’s plan for churches, Mr. Lyke said, and “Barack Obama was key in helping us do that.”

By the time of that session in the spring of 1987, Mr. Obama — himself not Catholic — was already well known in Chicago’s black Catholic circles. He had arrived two years earlier to fill an organizing position paid for by a church grant, and had spent his first months here surrounded by Catholic pastors and congregations. In this often overlooked period of the president’s life, he had a desk in a South Side parish and became steeped in the social justice wing of the church, which played a powerful role in his political formation.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/23/us/the-catholic-roots-of-obamas-activism.html?_r=0

March 14, 2014

Man conceived at tollway oasis chains himself to protest its closure

A 21-year-old Crystal Lake man staged a one-man protest Friday morning over the permanent closing this weekend of the Des Plaines Oasis along the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway. The reason will do doubt come as a surprise.

...

“It is a weird story, I must admit. About 21 years ago, my parents were at a Phil Collins concert here in Chicago, and one thing led to another. They ended up at the oasis … and I was conceived there,” he said.

Asked how his parents went about telling him that, Walters said “it just sort of came out just randomly in conversation.”

“They were like, ’Oh yeah, hey, we never really told you how you were born, or your conception,’ and my parents are weird people, so it’s not that surprising,” he said.

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2014/03/14/man-conceived-at-des-plaines-oasis-stages-one-man-protest-of-closure/?utm_medium=VPH&utm_source=topvph_news&utm_campaign=536735

March 12, 2014

Woman unwittingly joins search party for herself

A group of tourists spent hours Saturday night looking for a missing woman near Iceland's Eldgja canyon, only to find her among the search party.

The group was travelling through Iceland on a tour bus and stopped near the volcanic canyon in the southern highlands Saturday afternoon, reports the Icelandic news organization mbl.is.

One of the women on the bus left to change her clothes and freshen up. When she came back, her busmates didn't recognize her.

...

But the search was called off at about 3 a.m., when it became clear the missing woman was, in fact, accounted for and searching for herself.

http://www.torontosun.com/2012/08/28/missing-woman-unwittingly-joins-search-party-for-herself

March 12, 2014

Women go missing looking for open McDonald's

Staying at her parents, an 18-year-old Ontario woman planned a quick trip to McDonald’s to get milkshakes with her 11-year-old cousin.

She drove them to the Bellaire McDonald’s, not far from her parents’ condominium, on Saturday, March 8, but it had already closed when they arrived at 10:30 p.m. She then used her global-positioning system to find the next closest McDonald’s.

...

Meanwhile, her family became frantic. They called the Antrim County Sheriff’s Department. Sheriff’s deputies spent several hours looking for her. Her family did, too.

The trouble was, “They didn’t even know where to start,” Antrim County Sheriff Daniel Bean said.

http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2014/03/quick_trip_for_mcdonalds_milk.html

March 7, 2014

Ex-U. of Michigan student blocks Ohio State students from social network he created

Akash Nigam, a University of Michigan dropout who left school with just one semester to go, is building a social network exclusive to college students. Everyone with a .edu email address is welcome. Unless, of course, you're a student at Ohio State University, Michigan's most hated rival.

Blend encourages users to share pictures that match the app's theme of the day, themes like "Tailgate Saturday" or "Library Shenanigans." When users get Snaps from others on Blend — the app's equivalent to Facebook Likes — they can turn them in as social currency for free gift cards from brand advertisers.

Take cool photos. Get your friends to Snap them. Redeem those Snaps for gifts. It's a simple concept that has attracted more than 50,000 daily users across the country. None of them hail from Buckeye country, however. The reason? Nigam and cofounder Matt Geiger, who also dropped out a semester early from the University of Pennsylvania, delete all Ohio State students who sign up.

"It's like, look, let's fix the problem for the people we care about, and we just don't care about Ohio State," "It's like, look, let's fix the problem for the people we care about, and we just don't care about Ohio State," says Nigam. "That's what it comes down to. We said, 'they probably shouldn't be included in a cool product that we're building.'"

http://mashable.com/2014/03/06/blend-social-network/

Profile Information

Gender: Male
Hometown: Kentwood, MI
Home country: USA
Member since: 2001
Number of posts: 23,980

1 2 Next »