In Frederick County, Maryland, there lives a man named Kirby Delauter. Delauter is an anti-tax, anti-liberal City Council member and he hates the “liberal media”. He hates the “liberal media” so much that, when they published an article that mentioned him, he immediately took to the Book of Faces to issue a threat to the journalist who had the unmitigated […]

This post has been updated below. Last month, Governor Snyder announced that he was forming a 31-person coalition to present alternatives for education reform in Detroit. The coalition, called the Coalition for the Future of Detroit Schoolchildren, is a made up of representatives from public schools, the school reform community (many who are actively working to undermine traditional public schools), […]

When an AirAsia plane disappeared on Sunday, CNN immediately began non-stop coverage reminiscent of the months it spent tracking the hunt for Malaysia Airlines flight 370, which has never been located. By Monday, the debris of the AirAsia vessel along with the bodies of those lost were discovered. These two lingering tragedies and the massive media coverage that followed have […]

It’s mid-morning on Monday, December 29, 2014. The air is crisp and clear and the light is shining through a slight morning frost/haze as the sun will surely burn it off and present the day. I’m in Downtown Detroit, just off I-75 on East Larned a block behind Jefferson. It’s 26 degrees and the almost empty field in front of […]

For the past four years, Michigan Republicans, taking their cues from the anti-teacher group Mackinac Center, have defunded education, gone after teacher pay and benefits, and done just about everything they could to put public education and public educators out of business. Their model is to make teaching so unattractive that the professionals abandon it as a career, leaving the […]

Now that the election is over, you don’t hear much about the massive cuts Republicans have made to public schools in Michigan. Without someone like Mark Schauer to constantly put it out into the mediasphere, it’s simply no longer being discussed. Well, except by bloggers like me whose “intellectual content” Gov. Snyder gives “a very low number” on a scale […]

Republican members of Congress spent much of the beginning of 1993 warning that raising taxes on the rich would destroy the economy. “It will kill jobs, kill businesses, and yes, kill even the higher tax revenues that these suicidal tax increasers hope to gain,” Rep. Christopher Cox said. And cut to the best job growth of the century — over […]

In the bigger picture of healthcare reform, a clinical approach that prioritizes wellness over treatment is exactly what we need. Over at my personal blog, I recently wrote about my experience with Functional Medicine and how it’s overhauled my health. Although it’s not brand-new, Functional Medicine is an approach to care that’s rapidly gaining acceptance — and for good reason. […]

NOTE: I have updated this post and the title to correct the misuse of the term “assault rifle”. Though semi-automatic AR-15 rifles are commonly called assault rifles, the strict definition of an assault rifle says that it must be “selective fire” meaning that it has “at least one semi-automatic and one automatic mode”. The rifles in the photos below are […]

My daughter turned 26 this past fall and is no longer covered by my health insurance. She had the misfortune of graduating from college with a Masters in bassoon performance right in the middle of the Great Recession. Though she has an advance degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music, finding a full-time position with an orchestra or symphony has […]

Today is December 15, 2014 and that, in itself might mean many things to you. However, for political observers, pundits, analyzers, etc., today marks the final days of the Michigan Legislative agenda for 2014 and will also usher in, in a few very short weeks, a new House and Senate. This is the last week of what is known as […]