Author: Eric Scheie

As a longtime Wolverine fan, I feel particularly obligated to respond to a news item about an Oklahoma kindergartner who has been banned from wearing a University of Michigan T-shirt toschool. It’s not as if the school dress code banned all T-shirts, which might be understandable.Rather, the Michigan T-shirt ban reflects the official dress code…

I am so sorry to see that Phyllis Diller has died. She was a comic genius. Ms. Diller, who became famous for telling jokes that mocked her odd looks, her aversion to housekeeping and a husband she called Fang, was far from the first woman to do stand-up comedy. But she was one of the…

While it has become a huge political debate, I was not surprised at all by Congressman Todd Akin’s remark about “legitimate rape.” [The remark] has prompted a rare moment of bipartisan unity as Americans of all political stripes ask: What in hell is “legitimate rape?” Not surprisingly Akin quickly issued a backtracking statement. In reviewing…

Quick question. Does anyone know why it costs so much more to use the online usps.com “Print Shipping Labels” service than it does to take your item down to a physical post office? I am returning a small electronic item to Canada, and the Canadian postage label read $2.80. I wanted to simply send it…

Yesterday I made friends with a Cockatoo named Angel, who was so friendly that I thought she wanted to go home with me: And today I paid a visit to the Raptor Center to look at my friends there. They have a Barn Owl (Tyto alba) which I have inappropriately given the inappropriate name of…

Earlier I caught one of these guys chomping on my tomatoes: I had noticed some of the stems and tops had been chewed off, but I blamed the squirrels which have plagued me. Yet at the same time, this didn’t seem like squirrel behavior; even if they had chewed on the tops of the plants,…

In yesterday’s news, Paul Ryan has created divisions among Log Cabin Republicans: Since his pick as Mitt Romney’s running mate, Paul Ryan has not spoken about his position on gay rights. But the Log Cabin Republicans, one of just two conservative gay rights groups in the country, has pointed to him as a model for…

That’s how Barack Obama was recently described. Not by a Tea Party leader or conservative radio talker, mind you, but by Bill Maher: HBO’s Bill Maher on Tuesday blasted President Barack Obama over his administration’s decision to ramp up prosecutions of medical marijuana dispensaries. “This is one place where Obama has been such a dismal…

I bought what I thought was a good bicycle U-lock the other day. It certainly is well constructed, made of hardened steel, and it would be a pain in the ass to open through brute force. Sawing it would take forever, and prying it open would be near impossible unless you had a hydraulic jack…

I don’t know whether she realized it or not, but Maureen Dowd has paid Paul Ryan the highest compliment yet: I’d been wondering how long it would take Republicans to realize that Paul Ryan is their guy. He’s the cutest package that cruelty ever came in. He has a winning air of sad cheerfulness. He’s…

While there have been entirely too many of them this summer, I’m especially horrified by the latest shooting incident because of what appear to be quite blatant political motivations. WASHINGTON (AP) — A man suspected of shooting and wounding a security guard at the headquarters of a Christian lobbying group on Wednesday made a negative…

They get bored. And when they’re bored (at least, so goes the narrative), they beat complete strangers nearly to death: NORTH COLLEGE HILL, Ohio (AP) — Police say that six 13- and 14-year-old boys charged with robbing and badly beating a man told officers they were bored and looking for something to do. The Cincinnati Enquirer…

Everyone is talking about Social Security these days, and I’ve been pondering the issue, but I just can’t decide. Clearly, we need some form of social security, but I’m trying to make up my mind over which of the following pictures makes a better statement in favor of the kind we most need. This granny?…

As someone who not only believes in God, but who also believes in working towards an alliance between libertarians and social conservatives, I am frustrated. Perhaps I should explain, perhaps not. The problem is that whenever I try to say what I think (especially regarding religious issues), it is nearly impossible not to have people…

Speaking of savages, I think the word is entirely appropriate to describe the actions of a group of armed thugs who forced their way into a home, shot and killed the family pet, chained up the children, and forced them “to sit next to the carcass of their dead and bloody pet for more than an…

Over the weekend, I read several attacks on Paul Ryan which bordered on hysteria and centered on his alleged slavish devotion to Ayn Rand. The attack premise is simple. If Ryan is a lockstep Rand cultist, then it is only necessary to cite one among many of Rand’s loony or ill-tempered remarks. There is no…

The left is loudly sounding the alarm about Paul Ryan, who among other things is being painted as a cruel man who wants to cut off senior citizens’ Medicare benefits and watch them die. A “lunatic” supply sider. So the Dems are said to be gloating: Democrats are celebrating. Are they overdoing it? Ryan is…

On Youtube, I found some music from my childhood. I used to watch American Bandstand when I was a kid, and I remember seeing this very song — “Baby Talk” by Jan & Dean: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppJtKtmCebo&feature=related 53 years ago. It would be scary if I took the time to think about it.

Not me. Anyone who’s a regular reader knows I would do almost anything to stop it.  I would fight against it any way I could. Americans who love their country should be shocked that highly respected military officers are right now considering this scenario: A key and understudied aspect of full spectrum operations is how…

A nutty outfit I’d never heard of before is described in a headline as “a conservative group“: Conservative Group Launches “Dump Romney” Campaign A group called “Jews and Christians Together,” which backed Rick Santorum in the Republican primary, is sending a memo to Republican National Convention delegates urging them not to vote for Mitt Romney at…