Author: Eric Scheie

Government tyranny is hardly restricted to the federal government. Many people believe that the worst governmental tyrannies of all are committed by local government. New York and San Francisco have become infamous for regulating food and drinks, and San Francisco has led the way towards the use of invasive recycling police, banning the sale of…

One of the many electronic annoyances in life consists of the endless “updates” which are sometimes requested, other times demanded, and in the case of my antivirus software, performed automatically and without notice in the most annoying, computer-freezing manner. Lately I have been hassled by a box screaming at me to “Update Adobe Flash Player.”…

I just got back from a long meeting of the Michigan State Board of Canvassers in Lansing. I am pleased to report that they voted to refuse certification of the obvious (IMO) attempt by Democratic Party operatives to place the fake “Tea Party” on the ballot. Many genuine Tea Partiers (including myself) were there, and…

Saying “It reminds me of something, but I’m not sure what,” Glenn Reynolds linked this picture of the red hot new Dodge logo: It reminded me of something too. (Especially what’s buried in the middle.) I think it’s surprisingly evocative of the notorious 1933-1945 German Luftwaffe and Wehrmacht military logo, the dreaded Balkenkreuz. . To…

Back in October, I worried about Coco possibly having a close encounter with a local skunk. I called it one of my worst fears, which it is, and I have dreaded the night when Coco and a skunk actually cross paths. It finally happened on Thursday “night,” then again last “night.” (The two encounters took…

A headline in yesterday’s Detroit Free Press offers MSM confirmation of what I suspected in my earlier post about Michigan’s smoking ban. The headline is “Smoking ban dries up business,” and even though I consider it old news, I am still outraged by the number of Republicans who voted for such statist nonsense: …since Michigan’s…

With my sincerest apologies to the beloved political junkies who visit this site (and seriously, because I’m one myself, you know you are always very welcome here), it’s time for a bland post about gardening. It’s been three weeks and five days since I started my backyard vegetable garden, and as I have had to…

An emerging issue epitomizes a phenomenon I have discussed in countless posts, and I hate to be a repetitive bore, so please bear with me…. I am hardly alone in noticing that like-minded, single-issue activists often associate with — and tend to exclusively surround themselves with — other like-minded, single-issue activists. The result is what…

All talk of rights to the contrary notwithstanding, I think that building a Hamas-sympathetic mosque near Ground Zero is a bad idea. That does not mean I favor religious discrimination, nor does it mean that I don’t think mosques should be allowed in America. But I think there is a time place and manner issue…

Back in the old days, our ancestors used to be awakened by the sounds of roosters crowing. Today’s equivalent is the much more annoying construction/delivery/workplace vehicle backup alarm. Unlike roosters, though, the backup alarm noises do not settle down. All day long there’s a relentless chorus of artificial BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! I find it grating…

I just learned that Right Wing News is the first sponsor of HomoCon 2010: Today, I want to make an announcement: Right Wing News is the first sponsor of Homocon. We’re going to be supporting the event, promoting it, and encouraging Republicans in New York to attend. Thanks to GOProud for giving us the opportunity…

I realize that with all of the pressing problems in the world this is a goofy thing to be doing, but when I saw Glenn Reynolds’ “FUN WITH Google AutoComplete” link I just had to play. Play with hate, of course. I wanted to know who hates what, what hates who, what hates what, and…

One of the more comical aspects of the mess in California is that despite the state’s terrible financial crisis, legislators continue to busy themselves with utter nonsense — such as defrocking the official state rock. When I wrote a post about the idiotic campaign, I had not seen Ron Bailey’s Reason piece, which after noting…

So says Ute Linhart, a fashion merchandise director who made the mistake of riding the New York subway and was suddenly pushed into an oncoming R train: The incident occurred around 8:00 p.m. when Linhart was waiting for an uptown train. According to the Post, Jose Rojas, a cook at Cipriani, was “on the platform…

I’m an inch away from total writing burnout mode today, but I thought I would try to squeeze out a couple of Friday tidbits from my dying fingers…. Much to my amusement, it turns out that Glenn Beck has (via the other Glenn) joined Dick Cheney and Laura Bush in being to the left of…

I don’t know exactly why, but of all the potential Republican presidential candidates, it is Newt Gingrich who most makes me see red. There’s more to it than disagreement on issues; if I sat down and went through their various platforms and statements I’m pretty sure I would disagree with Huckabee more than Gingrich. Yet…

Perhaps because I have a strange compulsion to obtain facts so I understand the human motivations behind crimes, every once in a while I’ll find myself utterly baffled over a news story, and a really creepy series of fatal stabbings in Flint, Michigan has left me without a clue. It was widely speculated that the…

Speaking of marijuana, I think it’s high time that we cracked down on huge landowners who know or have reason to know that Mexican drug cartels are growing the stuff on their land. This sort of outrage is typical: GREEN BAY, Wis. — Several people have been arrested in a raid on a large marijuana…

In an earlier post, I defended Andrew Breitbart (who probably doesn’t need me to defend him) against a snarky left-wing remark by John Dean that he was some sort of tribalist: Now, while they love accusing people who disagree with them of “tribalism,” I suspect this might stem from the fact that people like Glenn…

While I haven’t had as much time as I might like to sound off on the issues of the day (and don’t really have the time now), I want to take the time to say this: GOD BLESS GREG GUTFELD’S GROUND ZERO GAY BAR! No, really. I cannot stress the importance of such, um, inclusion,…