Regulators regulate, and if there’s any government office that’s good at coming up with new regulations, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is one of the top contenders. The regulations will have economic effects (read: your wallet or even your job), sometimes with minimal environmental benefit. A new report on the EPA pegs Michigan as getting hit harder than all but four other states. Expect […]
Michigan View
Ron Paul: Winning at the wrong time
When it comes to selecting candidates for the general election ballot, some states have a primary. What happens when a state has both? Contests that grant fleeting victories. Back in February, Republicans in Minnesota (where I live) held their party caucuses. They took a vote on the presidential candidates. Rick Santorum won, which gave him a boost in publicity, and most likely, fundraising as well. […]
Over in Badgerland
Wisconsin is having a primary election today. Mitt Romney will most likely win it, but as one observer notes, today’s election is a mere undercard to an election on June 5, in which Gov. Scott Walker could be removed from office for the offense of crossing public-sector union bosses. I should have followed the Wisconsin primary more closely, but I haven’t, so I’ll go with the safe […]
Daily Grope: 87 percent say changes in airline security have done more harm than good
The world of air travel has changed a lot since 9-11, and not for the good. After a recent debate (Oxford Union-style), 87 percent of respondents agreed with the statement,“changes made to airport security since 9/11 have done more harm than good.” The number from the online debate conducted by the Economist magazine doesn’t come from a scientifically valid survey, but it is part of […]
Nevada Chronicles: No escaping the politicians in the airport
It’s not unheard of for politicians to spend your money on projects that then get named after themselves. (See: Byrd, Robert.) But I think that Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has in some ways done that act one step better. Last week, I flew into the Reno-Tahoe airport for a convention. The baggage-claim area was playing videos of the senate majority leader, touting the charms of […]
Breitbart RIP – hold the conspiracy theories
As I browse through various websites and email lists today, it’s sad to hear people suggest conspiracies regarding the death of Andrew Breitbart. Yes, he was young, and yes, he made enemies, but it’s likely an undetected heart problem claimed him. It happens to high school and college athletes; why not to a man in his early 40s? Death due to a heart problem at […]
Religion, yes; political religion, no
A few thoughts on the Michigan primary: Predictions at the top of the race are more likely to be accurate than predictions at the bottom. At least that was the case for me. I overestimated Romney’s performance by 9 percent (not bad for an amateur who didn’t carefully follow the polls), and things got more inaccurate after that, to the point where I underestimated Gingrich’s […]
Socialism’s ancient roots
This year I’ve set a goal of learning a few things about the history of China–you know, that country that’s holding a substantial portion of our national debt. So far I have listened to eight out of 30 lectures, bringing me (roughly) from pre-history up through the birth of Jesus. One thing that has struck me is that underlying today’s political debates are disagreements that […]
I thought conservatives hated it when people play the victim card
Conservatives talk a good game about personal responsibility and accepting the consequences of one’s actions, until … Newt Gingrich is a rising candidate in the Republican presidential sweepstakes. It’s primarily for his record as a conservative leader, though I do give him credit for leading the Republicans out of 40 years in the congressional wilderness as a neutered minority party. It’s also not for his […]
What Gov. Snyder should learn from a long-dead Dutch politician
I’ve always been a bit leery of the idea that what government needs is a successful business executive. Henry Payne’s recent column comparing Gov. Snyder and Gov. Daniels prompted me to wonder why. I came up with a few more ideas. He wrote, “Contrary to popular wisdom, the Daniels role model — followed to a ‘T’ by Snyder — is not conservativism; it is creating a successful […]