We live in an time when it often feels as if there are no consequences. After losing two wars, a financial crisis and a concerted effort to prevent a recovery, Republicans now hold more elected state and federal offices than any time since the Great Depression. Instead of preventing gun deaths, the gun industry profits off them by raising the […]

My Facebook feed has been an endless stream of diatribes against Dr. Walter J. Palmer, DDS, the American dentist who paid over $50,000 to murder a lion lured out of a wildlife sanctuary. With the help of some guides, Palmer shot Cecil, a human-friendly animal, with a crossbow and then “hunted” him for the next 40+ hours as the animal […]

Federal Communications Commission chairman Thomas Wheeler has proposed increasing the current Lifeline telephone subsidy to help the poor get Internet service. Such access is good for the economy, good for job and service searches, and good for connecting poor children and their families to their schools, churches, health care providers, and governmental institutions. Most of us know the Lifeline program […]

A couple of weeks ago New York Times writer Neil Irwin wrote a piece in the Business Section about why a nation with our wealth is reluctant to ask for more from its richest citizens. Some of the reasons given included: low taxes encourage greater investment and entrepreneurship; the rich have grown accustomed to their income and have built their […]

Last summer, Warren mayor James Fouts denied an athiest group the right to have a “Reason Station” in the Michigan city’s City Hall. The Reason Station was athiest Douglas Marshall’s response to a “Prayer Station” the mayor had allowed to set up shop in the City Hall atrium. When denying the permit to Marshall, Fouts compared athiests to the KKK […]

A few days ago I posted an article on my Facebook page about a speech Catholic Pope Francis gave, a speech the Washington Post described as “roughly the equivalent of a CEO sending his or her top executives off to Christmas vacation with a cleverly-worded list of everything they do wrong at the company.” The speech makes it clear that […]

Like many of you, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year. Being a literal person, Thanksgiving is a time and an opportunity to give thanks for the many things in our lives that we are truly thankful for and blessed with. The people, the opportunities, the occasions, the events, the connections, and sometimes just being alive. Oh sure, we […]

On Wednesday, we finally learned that two Democratic members of Congress from California will keep their jobs. This was remarkable for two reasons. First, Democrats in Congress got some good news for maybe the first time all year. And, secondly, these two victories mean that a Democratic incumbent in California hasn’t lost a House seat in 20 years. Hmm. I […]

Is Schauer tied with Snyder? Down by 5? Somewhere in between? This may be old hat for some of you, but people keep asking me what’s going on with the polling in the Governor’s race and I thought I would put together a little primer. For reference, just in the last week, NYT/CBS has had Schauer up by 1 point, […]

There are many variations of the saying that the ultimate measure of a man (or woman) is not what they do when they are in public but what they do when they are alone. Another simple, quaint saying is, “it’s the little things.” If we were to juxtapose those two sayings we might just end up with something that would […]

Here is a glimpse of the huge march and rally to protest the Detroit water shutoffs. It’s an amazing feat of organization, led by National Nurses United. The massive turnout was bolstered by hundreds and hundreds of attendees of the Netroots Nation conference.