Detroit Apocalypto: As my birth city continues its devolution into primitivism, over at the Wall Street Journal they have written up a good summary of the current situation. It's nothing you haven't already read right here, but it's an excellent quick intro. Here's a telling prognostication:

A recent study by the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments estimated that, if current trends continue, the city's population will shrink to 770,000 in seven years, from about 900,000 when Mr. Kilpatrick became mayor.

That's about 18,500 people leaving every year. I still maintain that the end for Detroit will come when the population is reduced to about a dozen people wearing rat pelt loin cloths who, in turn, die out when they finally have to resort to cannibalism. At the current rate of population loss, it could happen in my lifetime. Alternatively, we could wall off the city into a big prison and send in Kurt Russell to rescue any innocents.

A perfectly telling video is now available on YouTube. City Councilwoman Monica Conyers derogatorily referred to the (noticeably bald) president of the city council as "Shrek," because that's what mature, reasonable council members do in the course of policy debate. For doing this, she got a dressing down from a 13-year-old school girl, Kierra Bell, about her bad manners, so she then proceeded to engage the child in strident lawyerly debate. Mind you, this is the same woman who has threatened to have her "brothers" attack council members who have crossed her. Good god, what a horrible woman.

Conyers eventually backed off and even arranged for Kierra to get some sort of award, which I'm sure was totally sincere and had nothing to do with damage control. Kierra seems like a sharp cookie; the kind of citizen the City of Detroit needs. Here's hoping she gets out ahead of the cannibals.