The first person I worked for was Hal Riney, the man who, over whiskeys at the Washbag, wrote the famous "It's Morning Again in America" for Ronald Reagan. Hal wrote those ads at a unique time in America's history and the work framed Reagan as a leader who had successfully...

You may know this already, but the one thing I've learned since I moved here is that many, if not most, of the people who identify themselves as being from "Detroit" have really no idea what Detroit is like. That's because they really live in, say, Novi, Warren, even neighboring...

I've heard a lot about public employees in the past few weeks, lots of rhetoric about how their salaries, pensions and health care are too excessive. While I agree that in times of sacrifice we all need to compromise, I also wonder if the people attacking the public sector really...

Just because headquarters can't figure out how to make your location viable does not mean you can't. You've got loyal customers, you know the shelves. You've been sitting behind the cash register for years now saying, "If it was up to me..." So, do it! Organize, approach Borders and say,...

We know what Glenn and Sarah hate. We know what all the Tea Party candidates hate. They hate taxes. They hate Big Government. They want to see our great nation once again standing on top of the world. You know, like it was in the 1950s, when the magnificent United...

It is hard to tell which is more intolerable, the current blistering, muggy weather or the current news about the weather, specifically the way the news media is underplaying the incredible drama that is now unfolding all around us.

Yes, there are articles and news flashes about record heat,...

The NBA's tagline is "Amazing things happen." Right now the most amazing thing happening is that David Stern and the rest of the NBA are acting like their angel investor Mikhail Prokhorov is some sort of a noble gentleman with a spotless reputation.

It's easy to sympathize with the NBA....

A friend who owns an independent bookstore was recently telling me about a disturbing trend where people go into her store, browse titles, read a few pages, and then go order it from Amazon, all to save whatever you save by shopping on line.

I told her that I...

It is sunny right now in Los Angeles. Which, of course, makes geeky guys like me think about solar energy. It's also something the state and the local government are thinking a lot about lately, weighing increases in California utility rates to subsidize solar panels on residential homes. Great idea....

I didn't think I should have to write this. They should be smart enough to figure it out themselves, these infamous titans of industry. But then I saw how Bernie Madoff fleeced the lot of them and I thought, maybe these aren't the sharpest tools in the shed, even if...

My heart sank when I saw the thousands out protesting health care reform in the Washington today. While I would love the idea of us joining the rest of the civilized world with a policy of universal health care, I now know this is just a dream. Thanks to that...

When Obama and the Democrats try to explain how America's health care crisis can be fixed, they often point to our neighbors to the north.

"Canada provides health care to all its citizens, we can too," say the optimists.

Sounds good until you consider this scary fact: at some point...

Not that there's anything wrong with that. Butterflies are weak and they're very beautiful. Babies are weak and cuddly and adorable. Weakness is not inherently a bad thing.

Also, trying to act strong just for the sake of acting strong can lead to all sorts of problems, just look...

This week those classical paragons of state's rights, the august senators of Utah, Oklahoma, Texas, etc, have all lined up behind something called the Thune Amendment, a bill which -- of course -- tramples all over state's rights.

Now why would they do such a hypocritical thing? Especially at...

The meetings occurred behind closed doors, there are no transcripts, and we'll never know exactly what transpired, but through the art of simple deduction we can logically piece together a likely scenario of Fiat and Chrysler's discussions.

(It helps if you imagine Fiat being played by Marcello Mastroianni, and...

Of all the things that shock and awe me these days - and there are so many - for some reason this little piece of news blew my freakin' mind. In response to the 10 million dollar suit Woody Allen filed against American Apparel for the unauthorized use of...

I've had this tune stuck in my head for two weeks. "Love Take Me Down" is a pitch perfect parody of a Wings song that plays at the end of the movie Role Models. Now, you will swear to yourself it's a Wings tune, but it ain't. The real story...

Somewhere between the stuffing making and the gravy sipping, I'd like to propose we pause and consider our continuing relationship with the Native Americans.

Because centuries after we broke bread on that first day of thanks, and despite all our continual promises to do the right thing, we still, of...

For the past couple of weeks I've been pontificating that Obama would have had trouble winning if he had run against Mitt Romney. Unlike McCain, Romney had serious economic credentials and, as a Washington outsider, he wasn't as tied to Bush's record. The past week, however, has reminded me why...

There's a last minute ripple of inflammatory rhetoric churning round a radio interview Obama gave last winter. As it's currently being spun by the right, Obama supposedly said he "wants to bankrupt the coal industry."

Well, not surprisingly, that's not what he said.

I wouldn't care except that Obama...