Author: Eric Scheie

In the comments to Dave’s earlier post about Shirley Sherrod’s remark that Andrew Breitbart wants to enslave black people, I was unable to resist making a couple of remarks: If she really believes that Andrew Breitbart wants to enslave black people, she isn’t merely a racist, she’s mentally deranged. OTOH if she doesn’t really believe…

What is authoritarianism? I normally think it means something along these lines: Authoritarianism is a form of social organization characterized by submission to authority. It is opposed to individualism and democracy. In politics, an authoritarian government is one in which political power is concentrated in a leader or leaders, typically unelected, who possess exclusive, unaccountable,…

While I don’t like divisiveness or schismatic memes, as a Tea Party supporter I at least try to keep abreast of emerging patterns, and any case I am hopelessly unable to ignore new political terminology when I see it. So I leaped into “post mode” when I read that the Michigan Tea Party movement has…

Good news. It now appears that the fake “Tea Party” which has been attempting to qualify as an official party in Michigan (see my previous post) has not only been exposed as a fraud, but it also appears to be a fraud perpetrated by Democratic Party operatives. (Surprise!) Michigan Capital Confidential did the research and…

Last night I looked at this scary chart, and I had trouble sleeping: While it’s nice to see that Sarah Palin is number one, my concern is seeing that a man who has stated he wants Singapore-style drug law enforcement for the United States is in the position of being a serious contender for the…

How about a throwaway post about Afghanistan? I’m not a policy expert, but right now, everyone and his or her mama seem to be talking about the Afghan War WikiLeaks, and a friend sent me a link to Stratfor’s interesting discussion thereof. Nearly everything I’ve been reading about the situation in Afghanistan is grim. The…

I’ve got nothing to say today, but if there’s one thing I hate, it’s bloggers who write posts announcing that they have nothing to say, and then invite comments on the nothingness. Of course, if the goal is to solicit what M. Simon called “typical dim witted semi-on-topic blog comments,” (and Donna, that does not…

I’ve been following the arguments about burka bans, and much as I hate these coverings and what they represent (and think countries like Syria are smart to ban them), I think any ban on an article of clothing is not only impossible in the United States, but runs afoul of the First Amendment. I want…

I realize this will sound a bit crazy, but I like Shirley Sherrod. Not like in the sense of wanting to get all warm and cuddly with her, mind you, but like her in the sense that I like Cindy Sheehan, or anyone else who puts the lie to these awful ruling class people. I…

I shouldn’t be sitting here writing a blog post; I should be outside gardening or something. Besides, the latest research shows that sitting in a chair is hazardous to my health. Which means that by sitting in this “death chair” and writing this blog post, I am contributing not only to my own physical decline,…

Speaking of morality (and priorities), I just love this illustration by Thomas Rowlandson: Human sexuality is OK,* but animal sexuality is eeeevil! The guy may have been born in 1756, but he was quite prescient in his anticipation of modern American morality. *Under certain conditions (an oath of fealty to the Democratic Party being the…

There has been a long, drawn out argument in a series of comments to some recent posts, and it’s unfortunate for me, because I’m not an especially comment-oriented person. But OTOH, I don’t want people to think that my not replying to comments means anything. Silence does not indicate agreement or disagreement; often it means…

It’s not every day that I learn about local Ann Arbor politics from InstaPundit, but Glenn Reynolds linked this Michigan Capitol Confidential story about something all too typical. The debate in Ann Arbor, where firefighters are being laid off due to a multimillion dollar budget deficit, is over an $850,000 piece of art. That’s how…

A friend sent me a link to something I could not watch. It is 4 minutes and 23 second long video of a debate between two people I find annoying — Rachel Maddow and Bill O’Reilly — and I was only able to get 1 minute and 3 seconds through it when I just had…

In the course of perusing the relatively new research implicating “third-hand smoke” as yet another dangerous carcinogen, alarm bells went off in my paranoid brain, and as I hope my worries are misguided, I thought it merited a blog post. An article in the OC Register (“Should smoking be banned in apartments?”) — which linked…

I have to admire the enterprising nature of the homeless man who is said to have broken into an abandoned bar and opened it to the public: A Placer County man has been arrested after he broke into a shuttered bar, reopened the business and started selling drinks to unwitting customers, according to the Placer…

While it may seem a bit frivolous, I joined the “California Serpentine Awareness! Keep our Rock! Fight SB 624” Facebook group, because I think the Trial Lawyers are being ridiculous and imperious with their heavy-handed attempt to defrock California’s official state rock. The lawmaker (Senator Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles) and others who would like to…

I just learned that Clayton Cramer has been sued for quoting from and commenting on a newspaper article headlined “Slain store clerk, 77, mourned.” I found the article here and as I am assuming it is the same article, I will exercise my Fair Use rights under the First Amendment, and reprint it here simply…

What is getting high? Does it require drugs? What are drugs? Must they be actual chemical substances ingested by a person? Or might things which stimulate the body to produce its own highs be called “drugs”? These questions were on my mind as I read about the latest form of hysteria and counter-hysteria: I-Dosing: How…

Andrew Breitbart posted a video segment which shows racist remarks being made by a USDA official and applauded by NAACP members. (M. Simon’s earlier post has the embed and a discussion.) When Glenn Reynolds linked the video, he also linked a post by The Anchoress who said she wanted to see the entire video. And…