Happy Father’s Day, or as it might be more appropriately called in today’s entertainment world, Happy Doofus Day! Look at any number of TV shows, movies, or other elements of pop culture, and you’ll often, though not always, see fathers–when they’re even around the kids–portrayed as buffoons and doofuses. At the same time, we’re suffering, as a nation, from an epidemic of fatherlessness, leading to […]
Michigan View
Summer at highway speeds
What happens when you raise speed limits on highways? Slate has some answers. In brief: more severe crashes, but no increase in their number. And here’s something with implications for law more generally: Compliance with the law goes up. In other words, people are able (at least in the context of driving on the highway) to use their own self-interest and judgement to self-regulate. Making a […]
Sen. Stabenow: American ag is so successful it needs government help
People who write about federal policy, such as Sallie James, have so many opportunities to comment on the foolish remarks and doings of our elected officials that they can’t cover it all. But recently, Sen. Debbie (I can feel global warming when I fly) Stabenow uttered a “pretty obvious logical fallacy” that needed to be pointed out. Said the senator, who is chairman of the […]
Solyndra-like boondoggles receive majority, bipartisan support; but let’s give a cheer for Conyers and Dingell
You’d think that after all the controversy over money poured down the rathole known as Solyndra, members of the U.S. House of Representatives would ax the program that wasted taxpayer dollars. But you’d be wrong. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) and Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) sponsored an amendment to shut down the Department of Energy program that funded Solyndra. It failed,receiving only 136 votes. Republicans are […]
It’s not polite to ignore the feds
There’s a saying, attributed at various times to Lenin or Trotsky (same difference!): “You may not like war, but war likes you.” I can’t authenticate the source of it, so at the risk of taking it out of context, I take away this lesson: you may have to deal with some unpleasant facts of life, whether or not you want to, or are ready for […]
What have the Ron Paul forces won?
Call it the revenge of the Ron Paul community. As John Gizzi described here on the Michigan View, there’s been a changing of the guard within the Michigan Republican Party. Both of the state’s representatives to the Republican National Committee were booted from office at the recently concluded state convention. Why? Terri Lynn Land, one of the new officers, cited Ron Paul supporters and unspecified “other groups.” […]
The dead vote in Michigan, too
Over 1,400 dead people voted in Michigan elections during a recent 30-month period, according to Governing magazine and the secretary of state’s office. Nearly all of those “voters” used an absentee ballot. Thankfully, 1,400 is a very small number compared to 7.3 million registered voters. But when an election for U.S. Senate can be decided by a mere 312 votes, people can have an impact on the […]
Do Michigan’s freshman congressman still support limited government?
So how committed have the freshmen members of the U.S. House been to the Tea Party goal of rolling back government? The Club for Growth, one of my favorite political organizations, is a group for people “who believe that prosperity and opportunity come through economic freedom.” The club, like many groups, “scores” a select number of congressional votes as a way to identify which politicians […]
Hoekstra slammed for EFCA support
The somebody v. Stabenow race has attracted national attention again, with an op-ed in the Daily Caller weighing in. Yates Walker, identified as a political activist, gives five reasons why conservatives should vote for candidates other than Pete Hoekstra to be the Republican nominee against Sen. Debbie (I can feel global warming when I fly) Stabenow. Here’s number one: Walker writes, “Hoekstra voted for the […]
CISPA in your casa: Federal snoopervision without search warrants?
Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) has shepherded CISPA, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, through the U.S. House. That’s good for the federal government, and bad for Americans. According to the tech site CNET, the measure “would usher in a new era of information sharing between companies and government agencies — with limited oversight and privacy safeguards.” Privacy and civil liberties groups beg to differ. While […]