Image via Wikipedia You can’t make this stuff up, folks. First, the so-called leaders of Michigan’s state Legislature, Senate majority Leader Mike Bishop and Speaker of the house Andy Dillon, blow a Sept. 2 deadline to put a permanent ban on drilling for oil in the Great Lakes on the November ballot. Cue up the…
Image via Wikipedia Ok, I just went back through all the emails I get from my right-wing relatives and other careless forwarders of chain letters debunked by snopes.com 10 years ago. Survey says most of the tin-foil coated conspiracy theories permeating my inbox are OUTRAGED about the supposed “Ground Zero mosque” (read: Muslim community center…
Image via Wikipedia Timothy Egan nails it in today’s New York Times blog. Take a look at Tuesday night’s box score in the baseball game between New York and Toronto. The Yankees won, 11-5. Now look at the weather summary, showing a high of 71 for New York. The score and temperature are not subject…
Image via Wikipedia In 2002, Michiganders voted to fund sewage system upgrades. Simply put, they created a bond, the Great Lakes Water Quality Bond , that would provide funds to upgrade and fix failing sewage systems across the state. When sewage systems are overloaded, they fail, sending millions of gallons of raw or partially treated…
I’m a little late getting to this, but with yesterday’s launch of a petition drive to block health care reform in Michigan – by a group of right-wing backed Tea Partiers and extreme conservatives like state Representative Tom McMillin – it’s pretty pertinent. First, let’s not forget that the Michigan Citizens for Healthcare Freedom launched…
So while Michigan’s right-wing flank in the state Senate is voting to rescind a slight wage increase for state workers (who have already taken concessions on benefits and unpaid furlough days), they’re conveniently forgetting about the tens of billions of dollars in corporate tax loopholes that flood out of Michigan’s coffers every year. How much?…
Confession: I am not one of those people who believes the answer to every question is “let the free market decide.” I don’t believe that the market does what’s in the best interests of the people, either short or long term. See: the dominance of sport utility vehicles in the United States, effects on the…
You can’t read this story in the Detroit News about Kirk Miller, a twenty-something who can’t afford his health insurance, and tell me big insurance companies are managing our health care system just fine on their own. He’s also suffering from a chronic blood disorder, making the emergency room his only viable treatment option. After…
The climactic moment in the best non-Pixar children’s film I’ve ever seen, The Iron Giant, comes when little Hogarth Hughes teaches his new pal, the Iron Giant, about what it means to be alive. “You are who you choose to be,” he says. “You choose.” Contrast that with the childish, oft-repeated statement made by the…
Alright, first, let me just say that one of my pet peeves is the misuse of the word, ironic. So let’s just review quickly. It is not, as Alanis Morissette would have us believe, "like rain on your wedding day." That’s just bad luck, and probably poor planning. It’s also not "a free ride" when…