Author: Eric Scheie

There is an election in this country tomorrow, right? And whoever wins is supposed to be in charge of the Executive Branch of government, right? While these questions seem obvious on their face, reading this is enough to make many people wonder who really runs things, and whether the president in fact has power the Constitution supposedly…

Sorry I haven’t had time to post much lately, but I am in a pre-election dither. Almost every pundit has written off Mitt Romney’s chances in Michigan, but if this poll is to be believed, Romney and Obama are in a dead heat. Who are you most likely to vote for in the Presidential election…

While Tuesday’s election may not hinge on the answer, I have a perplexing question. If alcohol is forbidden, and if pigs are also forbidden, then are pigs allowed to drink alcohol? Who gets to decide??

Via Glenn Reynolds, I see that Charles Krauthammer recently contrasted how President Obama is ‘playing president’ for Sandy, but not Benghazi. Apparently, he wants to have credit where credit is not due, and avoid blame where blame is due. Not to be unduly facetious (for I know innocent people are suffering) I nonetheless think there are some interesting…

I took the “Candidates you side with” test and here are my results: 89% Gary Johnson Gary Johnson Libertarian on healthcare, domestic policy, economic, science, and immigration issues 83% Mitt Romney Mitt Romney Republican on foreign policy, economic, environmental, science, and domestic policy issues 67% Virgil Goode Virgil Goode Constitution on economic, environmental, and domestic…

As part of an unbroken 36 year tradition, here’s today’s jack-o-lantern.

Despite the storm, the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Dick Polman has an interesting election analysis, his thesis being that the “reelection of America’s first black president is imperiled because he’s doing so badly with white voters.” Is it really about race? It’s sad, but inescapable, that we have to crunch the numbers on the basis of race.…

Shit. I just turned on the news only to see major storm hysteria on both major news networks. One week before the election. I don’t mean to deny the serious nature of this hurricane. But consider the timing. This storm — which Fox just called “the Mega-Storm of 2012” –is shaping up to become the…

The Democrats have lately been flailing away at the damn abortion issue as if it is the most important issue facing ordinary voters. They continue to conflate abortion with contraception and then frame it as a “Republican war on women” — which (yeah, this is old) not only mis-characterizes the debate, but completely disregards the…

I haven’t had any time for posts today, but I want to thank M. Simon for doing what I should have been doing. (Never mind this post; just keep scrolling…)

In a brief post last night, I mentioned the attempt to demonize Mitt Romney (and the GOP in general), and how it has been remarkably unsuccessful. I see Romney’s likability as a major factor. Well, this morning I learned about a line of attack that Barack Obama and the countless talking heads seem to have mostly…

Romney is such a square that the Democrats are having an impossible time of it trying to come up with a scandal. The decades-old divorce testimony (said to be an “October surprise“) amounts to nothing but an opinion about the price of stock, and the supposedly “scandalous” pictures of him as a prep school kid…

Well, it’s now 11:22 p.m. and I have yet to write a blog post (including this one). I dragged myself out of bed when it was dark and for the rest of the day it’s been GO GO GO, and I hate my damn 3-mile run almost as much as I hate cranking out a…

Politicians and their friends in the news media have an unending penchant for stirring up hysteria, and I think a story linked by Drudge earlier is a great example. It seems that a teenage girl with a heart condition managed to ingest more caffeine than her heart could handle, and she died. The fallout has has…

Another debate? The final debate? Do I have to watch it? Apparently, yes. Romney is said to be in the lead now, but not in crucial Ohio, which the conventional wisdom (and political history) says he has to win. Hope he kicks ass again by remaining firm and being disarmingly nice at the same time, which…

If you live in a leftie town like I do, you have probably seen the usual signs about “controlled burns,” the “restoration of native species,” and “Natural Area Preservation.” Nonsense. Here in Ann Arbor, the intent is not preservation, much less conservation. It is wholesale destruction, often by clear cutting, poisoning with herbicides, and fire.…

Remarking on the upcoming election, a libertarian friend I super respect is hoping that Romney will win, not because the man is a libertarian (far from it), but because it will make it more fun and constructive to be a libertarian. Let me quote from the email: Being a libertarian can be fun again, when…

What I liked in 1970, YouTube enables me to like today. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvq2JTWdJ1U&feature=related What’s the world coming to that it didn’t then?

Remember all the talk of how government-sponsored “green jobs” would save the economy? Because of the way the government gets its money, “government sponsored” ultimately means financed by taxpayers, with no one in particular being in charge. So the “workers” sit around: HOLLAND, Mich. (WOOD) – Workers at LG Chem, a $300 million lithium-ion battery…

Whether you like them or not, personal attacks on celebrities (especially people who enter politics) have long been a thing to be expected. (Hell, when I was irritated by her obvious bias, I compared Candy Crowley to Jabba the Hutt, so I am hardly squeaky clean in that regard.) However, what many people (myself included)…