You have probably seen and heard about the poor rodeo clown, now banned from the Missouri state fair. Our clown’s offense? Wearing a President Obama mask and asking the crowd if it wanted to see President Obama get run over by a bull. According to reports, the crowd cheered the question. I don’t have anything […]

Well, that didn’t take long, did it? This evening, Gov. Pat McCrory (R-NC) signed one of the most extensive voter identification laws in the United States. North Carolinians must now show a government–issued photo i.d. to vote. The act also shortens the early voting period from 17 days to 10, and it eliminates voter registration on election […]

So says a new book reviewed by Martin Wolf in the Financial Times, The Entrepreneurial State.  The basic thesis is that Yes, innovation depends on bold entrepreneurship. But the entity that takes the boldest risks and achieves the biggest breakthroughs is not the private sector; it is the much-maligned state. Martin Wolf approves of this […]

I have written about the Keystone Pipeline on this blog before and I do not intend to go back through the reasons why I think it is something the President should support here.  I was struck this week, however, by his recent comments that the pipeline would not produce meaningful jobs.  He believes it would […]

Gov. Bob McDonnell (R-VA) should resign. The Virginia governor, a self-proclaimed Christian and a graduate of Notre Dame and Regent University, is outspoken about his faith. Upon his inauguration, he called his post a ‘ministry‘, and McDonnell has encouraged the Republicans to be more ‘humble’ and Christ-like in their approach to public life. While seemingly willing to […]

I have been reading quite a bit on the travails of the City of Detroit and I find this is an opportunity for me to rant about one of my favorite topics: economic development efforts in cities, or what is also called urban renewal, better labeled “urban removal.”  These wonderful programs (note the sarcasm please) […]

Late this afternoon Gov. Snyder of Michigan authorized Detroit’s emergency manager moving Detroit into Ch. 9 bankruptcy.  I have not seen the details of this proposal (and much more is coming out tomorrow), yet what we do know is encouraging from the perspective of the people of Detroit.  Detroit is an utter disaster in many […]

I am very, very late to this particular issue, but for those who have not done so, I encourage you to read Will Saletan’s excellent piece at Slate on the Trayvon Martin shooting and the Zimmerman verdict. While I do not agree with all he has to say here, he strikes a good tone and […]

Supreme Court Justices Scalia and Ginsburg see the Constitution quite differently. When it comes to the most salient issues (like gay marriage, abortion, and racial preferences), the antipodes verbally combat and vote on opposing blocs. Scalia is wedded to original understanding, a philosophy that emphasizes both text and historical context, while Ginsburg is more organic, […]

Politics has many definitions. My personal favorite breaks the word down in its parts: poly–many tics–blood-sucking parasites Yes, it is an old joke, but I love it so much I just cannot part from it. Politics is ‘the art of the possible,’ according to Otto von Bismarck. David Easton calls it ‘the authoritative allocation of […]