One thing that I have noticed during my recent trip back to Michigan is the bottle-deposit law. When the idea of requiring customers to pay extra money for their beer or pop was put before the voters in 1976, I thought it was a good idea. (Then again, I also would have voted for Jimmy Carter, had I been old enough.) In my defense, I […]
More in a continuing series of observations made during my recent trip to western Michigan. There’s a presidential election coming up this fall, one that will be the most important in our lifetime. At least that’s what I hear from my activist friends. But I’d never know it by driving around. There are no yard signs for Barack Obama or (as would be more likely […]
So the NCAA has brought the hammer down on the Penn State football program, and more generally, the university. Good for them. The scandal reminds us that there (and should be) various institutions in our lives, each with a different role to play. Prosecutors within government brought criminal penalties against Jerry Sandusky, who now awaits sentencing for his crimes. There may also be criminal penalties […]
During my recent Michigan trip, I made several visits to Meijer. Going to the outfit that pioneered the superstore concept always takes me back to my childhood, and I was pleased to see that they still offer the kids penny rides on the mechanical horse. But I noticed something else in my shopping there: Michigan residents are fat. While pacing the aisles looking for coffee […]
Recently I spent several weeks in western Michigan, the part of the world where I lived the first 30 or so years of my life. Today starts the first of a series of commentaries based on that visit. If a geographic region is going to thrive, it needs to “export” something to the outside world. For metro Detroit, it’s been cars. One thing that western […]
Was it an act of civil disobedience, or simply a bad decision? I’m going with the latter, but a man, upset at the treatment he receives from TSA screeners, stripped naked at the Portland International Airport earlier this year. While I’m all for calling attention to the numerous problems of the TSA, I’m not sure that getting naked in front of your fellow travelers is the right […]
Here’s my belated comment on the deal that Gov. Snyder struck with Canada. Some politicians talk; others get things done. To put it another way, some are show horses, some are work horses. It’s easy to dismiss the show horse, the politician who is often on the losing end of a 440-1 vote in the U.S. House (I’m looking at you, Ron Paul), or is […]
Oops! Hundreds (thousands?) of people went through a TSA metal detector at an airport in New York City before the employee realized that the machine … wasn’t plugged in. Inconvenience for passengers ensued, according to the New York Post
Ever since LBJ’s “Great Society,” laws have been enacted and government programs established on the belief that we (politicians, bureaucrats, “stakeholders” in government, etc.) are smart enough to fine-tune life. In other words, experts will save us. Witness, for example, the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), by which the federal government (and to a much lesser extent, state governments) will overhaul one-sixth of the U.S. economy. […]
The American Spectator, a conservative opinion website, is just the latest media outlet to publicize the fact that the government unions-v-the people battle has moved from Wisconsin to Michigan. At issue: A proposed constitutional amendment called “Protect Our Jobs.” The proposed amendment is “already being billed as an anti-right-to-work measure, but the major impact would be the reversal of reforms to government union privileges.” So says […]