David Weigel reports over at the Washington Independent that Rep. John Campbell (R-CA) thinks our society is now beginning to look like the society in Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. “The achievers, the people who create all the things that benefit rest of us, are going on strike. I’m seeing, at a small level, a kind of protest from the people […]

I work in the very conservative Livingston County, Michigan. You may know of the city of Howell because it’s where a former Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan, Robert Miles, lived for some time. Even recently mysterious pamphlets have shown up in the driveways of Howell residents condemning Tiger Woods for marrying a white woman. Many of coworkers are […]

Remember when I wrote about how Shepard Fairey totally stole a photographer’s work? This one? Turns out that Manny Garcia was an AP photographer when he snapped the photo and the AP owns the rights to the image. They aren’t happy about the situation. The AP says it owns the copyright, and wants credit and compensation. Fairey disagrees. “The Associated […]

The President of the United States said this today: This is America. We don’t disparage wealth. We don’t begrudge anybody for achieving success. And we believe that success should be rewarded. But what gets people upset – and rightfully so – are executives being rewarded for failure. Especially when those rewards are subsidized by U.S. taxpayers. For top executives to […]

There’s a positively spectacular photo slideshow over at Flickr called “Please Don’t Divorce…”. Click the photo below to have a look. It really puts a human face on the love between couples that is being legislated by the small-minded people in our society. Marriage between consenting adults should not be banned on the basis of sexual orientation. A society benefits […]

So today the Fed dropped the federal funds rate to it’s lowest level ever. It’s ironic. I listened to a “This American Life” episode called “The Giant Pool of Money” and it was their contention that it was the Fed’s lowering of these rates are that got us into this mess in the first place. Why? Well I’ll tell ya […]

Today, the Detroit Free Press had an extra Front Page. The entire page was an open letter to the United States Congress regarding the bridge loan they are considering for the Big Three automakers. It’s not something I’ve ever seen the Freep do (that’s what we Michiganders call the Detroit Free Press, btw.) In it they make a pretty compelling […]

This is very interesting study about the effect of disorderliness on people’s behavior. (H/T Andrew Sullivan). The gist of the study outlined in the article is that a messy/trashy/disorderly environment encourages negative behaviors. Here are two examples: His group’s first study was conducted in an alley that is frequently used to park bicycles. As in all of their experiments, the […]

Mitch Albom, author of Tuesdays With Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven is an unapologetic Detroit lover. That’s no big surprise, I suppose, given that he works for the Detroit Free Press. Albom is also known for his plain talk and his editorial piece this past Sunday, “If I had the floor at the auto rescue talks“, […]

No, not Newt Gingrich. (Newt? Really? Your name is Newt?) No, it’s his sister, Candace. She’s a lesbian that’s been actively involved in LGBT issues as part of the Human Rights Coalition for quite awhile. She has just published an open letter to her brother Newt (dude, Newt?) on the Huffington post and it’s impressive. Dear Newt, I recently had […]

I am so ambivalent about the entire discussion surrounding the Big Three auto companies asking for a $25 billion bailout. Truly ambivalent. First of all, I have been a loud and frequent critic of these dinosaurs of the business world. They have relentlessly pumped out gas-guzzling Humscalade after oil-gulping SubdivisionBlazer with absolutely no regard for either the environmental destruction they […]