Author: Eric Scheie

For criticizing the Islamists, Bruce Bawer has become an enemy of the people — and he might even be liable for criminal prosecution. In Norway of all places. Being an American of Norwegian heritage, I take this personally, and I think that the Norwegian government is making all Norwegians look bad. In fact, I feel…

Speaking of entitlements like food, housing, and healthcare, advocates for the poor are now insisting that having a cell phone is also a necessity of life which should be taxpayer-subsidized: Should the poor have cell phones? It’s a question that has engaged both ends of the political spectrum since 2004, when the conservative Heritage Foundation…

While I never liked the term “fag hag” or the superficial stereotypical thinking surrounding the whole meme, an article in Scientific American discusses the latest research results. Not only are women who are attracted to gay men not as ugly as commonly supposed, but according to one expert, their existence has encouraged and facilitated gay…

Yesterday I had the pleasure of visiting the Toledo Museum of Art, and I only wish I had visited the place earlier. In my state of ignorance, I had assumed that the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) would be the the be all and end all, and I was both annoyed and disappointed by a…

A new trend in crime is taking the form of vicious, potentially fatal attacks by children. They prey on older people whom the attackers deem incapable of defending themselves: Vincent Poppa, 72, spent 39 days at Methodist Hospital after he was assaulted, robbed, and stomped by a group of youths, the victim of the notorious…

Do you have the right to eat what you want? To most people, even posing such a question would seem ridiculous, as we take such freedoms for granted. Yet the idea that there should be free choice in foods is under relentless assault by neo-Prohibitionist busybodies who believe that the government should prohibit food deemed…

White flight. The term denotes racism, as it means that white people run away from black people. White flight is the sociologic and demographic term denoting a trend wherein whites flee urban communities as the minority population increases, and move to other places like commuter towns. The loaded term carries with it the implication that…

I don’t know why these things don’t make it into my local newspaper, but thanks to Memeorandum’s link to a post by Eugene Volokh, I learned that I am in a higher crime neighborhood than I ever imagined! In fact, based on the behavior that I witness regularly at drunken late night parties, many of…

Watching Steve Jobs’ so-called “keynote meltdown,” I could understand the guy’s frustration, because no one likes to look foolish in public, and regardless of whether it was his fault that the WiFi was hopelessly overloaded, he’s Mr. Big — and expected to be some sort of magician. So even though what happened to him would…

While it’s not his fault because he didn’t know, I blame M. Simon for inspiring this post, which started innocently with a pleasantly haunted photo taken by me inside a former church: It was when I started to see reflections that I realized my initial effort to photograph what I thought I was photographing had…

Writing about the pervasiveness of what he calls “lawsuit culture,” Philip K. Howard noted in passing the demise of the jungle gym: Jungle gyms, diving boards, and seesaws seem relics of some past civilization. They really do. I can’t remember when I last saw a diving board (in the United States) or a seesaw. And…

Patrick Dorinson has an interesting piece on the so-called Western “Watersheds” Project in which he touches on the plastic issue: …hidden behind the facade of planting trees or discussing the virtues of “paper or plastic” is a well-financed global group of dedicated radicals who are bent on changing the way we live whether we like…

The Ann Arbor area suffered a torrential downpour last night — so bad that my yard looks like a swamp, and I’m having to take precautions about the possibility of more water: A state of emergency was declared in Dundee Township and the village of Dundee. A help line was set up for anyone who…

The much-beloved (by the left and by Barack Obama) Helen Thomas is in the news for saying that the Jews should go back to Poland: The grande dame of the Washington press corps put her foot in her mouth with an answer at the White House last week, suggesting Jews should “get the hell out…

Another day, another heresy. California is on the verge of banning “single use” plastic bags in all stores. California would be the first state to ban plastic and most paper bags from grocery, convenience and other stores under a proposal that appears headed for a major legislative victory this week. Shoppers who don’t bring their…

I’m noticing a very peculiar trend in restrooms lately. In government buildings, I am seeing floor after floor in which there are two types of restrooms, labeled thusly: Women’s Restroom and Unisex Restroom While it’s not the biggest deal in the world, I find myself having no other choice than to use the unisex restroom,…

The situation in the Mideast is really looking ugly, and I think Allison Kaplan Summer (who has been quoted by Glenn Reynolds and David Bernstein), but it best: “Israel appears to have stepped directly into a trap of a carefully planned suicide mission dressed up in the clothing of a humanitarian effort.” And what a…

Joy McCann (who writes Little Miss Attila — a blog I have enjoyed for years), is being subjected to legal attacks for criticizing a man many people would consider religious crackpot and cult leader, one R.L. Hymers. Let me begin by saying that I never heard of R.L. Hymers until today! Perhaps I don’t keep…

There are a lot of good Memorial Day posts and this one quotes Reagan’s 1986 “Price of Freedom” speech, and has a sad photographic reminder that not everyone “celebrates” Memorial Day. It’s a day simply to remember those who gave their lives for this country. Traditionally, American presidents go to Arlington Cemetery for the Arlington…

Thaddeus McCotter is a congressman from a neighboring district, and I saw him speak at a Tea Party rally in Plymouth on April 15. I have a video of some of his speech somewhere, and were I better organized I could upload it which I found and uploaded to YouTube so readers can judge for…