Tag: Senate Democrats

The issue is important enough to state Sen. John Gleason that he has introduced legislation that makes it clear only licensed barber shops should have the right to display a barber pole.

When he was in high school, he and his friends would go to the barber shop every Saturday morning. It was the "social center" of his hometown, the Democrat from Flushing said.

"Fifty years ago, you knew if you saw the red and white pole, you knew there was a licensed barber in there," Gleason said.

Or, in other parts of the globe its a good front for brothels.

Gleason introduced a bill in November to try to ensure the barber pole is only displayed outside a licensed barber shop, not every place that offers hair cutting services. Most beauty salons with cosmetologists don't have barber poles outside, but Gleason said he wants to prevent the barber pole symbolism from being watered down.

The significance of that red, white and often blue striped -- usually rotating -- barber pole dates back to before modern medicine, when barbers performed minor surgeries, like teeth pulling and bloodletting to rid the body of disease, barbers said. Each color is a different symbol -- white for bandages, red for blood and blue for veins -- and the rotation represents how the bandages were applied.

Yessirree.  Welcome to the Michigan Democratic Party's mid 1300's vision for us in Lansing, folks.  

What a difference a day makes.  

Yesterday the Senate gave it another try and managed to approve the measure 29 to 8.  

Seems like common sense to give voters in the state the option of preventing their own taxes from going up while their home values go down but 8 Michigan Democrats have, apparently, never met a bit of financial sanity they couldn't refuse.  Especially when lobbyists are in their ears arguing how much more desperately than homeowners they need $253 million.

Thank goodness someone in this state finally stood up for taxpayers, though, and told the lobbyists to shove it.  The Detroit News caught up with the resolution's sponsor, John Pappageorge:

"Homeowners shouldn't be strapped with rising property taxes while watching their home values drop," he said.

Common, meet sense.

Because that whole status quo thing?  Not working out so well and sending folks scrambling out of the state.  The Ivory Tower reports this morning that metro Detroit has seen the steepest population drop of any region in the entire nation over the last two years.

Read on...