Browse Stories
Stories written by Jack Lessenberry
841 stories found. Showing page 1 of 29.
Two cheers for Granholm: Our governor (finally) decides to lead on two key issues
Published: 2/3/2010
Types: News, Government
Last week Gov. Jennifer Granholm actually did blow me away for the first time since she took office more than seven years ago. What's more, she did so in a positive way — twice. First, she came out strongly in favor of holding a convention to rewrite Michigan's now-broken Constitution. More t...[MORE]
Cable TV vs. America: The problem with paid-for pundits
Published: 1/27/2010
It's now clear that Adolf Hitler might easily have won World War II if cable TV had existed in America at the beginning of the New Deal. I am dead serious about this. When Franklin D. Roosevelt took office on March 4, 1933, the United States economy was in a state of near-collapse, with the nation's...[MORE]
Unstoppable Matty: Like a zombie, Moroun takes a beating and shambles forward
Published: 1/20/2010
You have to have a certain amount of grudging admiration for Matty Moroun, sort of like you do for crabgrass or those zombies in the low-budget horror flicks we used to watch as kids, when we should have been running around getting fresh air and exercise. Matty takes a licking; has holes blown thro...[MORE]
A tale of two cities: Ferndale and Pontiac prepare for even tougher times
Published: 1/13/2010
Types: News, Government
Bob Bruner is like a lot of young guys in downtown Ferndale. He's in his early 30s, married, and is the proud father of a wonderful little daughter named Audrey. He's also a little different from everyone else in the city, however: He runs the place. Next month, he'll celebrate his third anniversar...[MORE]
Aughts for naught: Looking back on a squandered decade, and to what's ahead
Published: 1/6/2010
I sit in one of the dives/ On Fifty-second Street/ Uncertain and afraid/ As the clever hopes expire/ Of a low dishonest decade: Waves of anger and fear/ Circulate over the bright/ And darkened lands of the earth,/ Obsessing our private lives. —W.H. Auden Nothing like calling on one of the w...[MORE]
Farewell to 2009: A year that taxes the imagination comes to an end
Published: 12/30/2009
WASHINGTON — If you were writing the great American novel about Detroit, how would you come up with an ending for a year in which General Motors and Chrysler went bankrupt, the city held four mayoral elections and the first black U.S. president took the oath of office? If you were some great ...[MORE]
Christmas cheer: We're battered, bruised and ... better off than we were
Published: 12/23/2009
Be of good cheer, comrades, whatever ghosts you worship, or don't worship, at this time of year. True, the economy stinks; we've got a pack of fools in Lansing doing their best to ruin our state, and various other horrors too numerous to mention. And yet there is good news most of us are overlookin...[MORE]
Carping criticism: The fish are on the move. Who's protecting the Great Lakes?
Published: 12/16/2009
Types: News, Environmental
You probably know far more about Tiger Woods' sex life than you do about large Asian carp. That's a serious indication of what's wrong with journalism today, and maybe this nation. Here's what you need to know about Tiger Woods: Almost certainly, he is not going to come to your house and have sex w...[MORE]
SOS: Save our state: You think things are bad now ...
Published: 12/9/2009
Types: News, Government
Last week I went to see Andy Dillon, the speaker of the House, to talk about what will happen to us in Michigan next year. Most people have no idea what's coming. They know that times are bad; they may know schools and cities took a big hit when Lansing finally managed to balance its budget in Octo...[MORE]
Detroit's sad Gypsies: Knowing that Detroit's financial tsunami is coming is half the battle
Published: 12/2/2009
When you ask Joseph L. Harris what he thinks about Detroit these days, he likes to talk about the Sea Gypsies of Southeast Asia. No, Harris is neither on acid nor a surrealist poet. In fact, he may know more about Detroit city finances than anyone alive. A CPA by training, he was auditor general fr...[MORE]
Time for Thanksgiving: Believe it or not, we have some things to be grateful for
Published: 11/25/2009
This has been a painful, bruising year for our entire state. Unemployment has soared past what the leading economists predicted. The state has slashed spending for schools, scholarships and cities. And when it comes to tough times, we ain't seen nothing yet. Hundreds of thousands of workers lost j...[MORE]
Perils of ignorance: Vietnamnesia: Why it's dangerous that today's kids don't know their history
Published: 11/18/2009
For weeks, we've been waiting for President Obama to decide whether to send more troops to Afghanistan, and, if so, how many. This ought to give Americans a worried feeling in the deepest levels of their guts. Afghanistan has been wearing down, chewing up and defeating invading armies for centuries...[MORE]
Education's last chance: How to prevent many Michigan school districts from being utterly ruined
Published: 11/11/2009
Suddenly, there's a chance to do something to prevent many of our state's school districts from being utterly ruined this year. Last week, I wrote an open letter to the governor, criticizing her for, among other things, making massive cuts to the schools. Her cuts mean that every Michigan school d...[MORE]
Dear Gov. Granholm: Jenny nears the disappointing end, a political invertebrate
Published: 11/4/2009
Gov. Jennifer Granholm signed off on the last of this year's state budgets last week, avoiding, for now, a government shutdown. Unfortunately, in the process, she sold out our future, doomed vast numbers of schoolchildren, and betrayed the people who elected her. Then, naturally, in classic fashion...[MORE]
Make them fix it
Published: 10/28/2009
Types: News, Government
Everybody's sick of the state budget crisis, and for good reason. The idiots in Lansing have not only screwed us over, they have bored us to death. We've had pretty much all we can take of droning Andy Dillon, the caveman-like Mike Bishop and our governor. Probably the nicest thing you can say abou...[MORE]
I did know Jack: Looking back on Kevorkian, good and bad
Published: 10/21/2009
Film crews were swarming around the Wayne and Oakland county courthouses last week, shooting a few final scenes for the forthcoming HBO movie, You Don't Know Jack, about our once-nationally famous zero-population-growth activist, Dr. Kevorkian. Well, I do know Jack. Did, anyway. I covered all the m...[MORE]
Dumbing way down: Michigan needs a better-educated workforce, so why cut the schools budget?
Published: 10/14/2009
Michigan's political system no longer works, and is rapidly sending our state careening toward a future of poverty and hopelessness. That's not wild-eyed leftist talk. That's just a sad, inescapable clinical diagnosis that can be confirmed by anyone who takes the time to collect the information and...[MORE]
Behind closed doors: Who cares who David Letterman has sex with?
Published: 10/7/2009
Well, the national economy is still terrible, and the situation in Michigan far worse. The deal under which Roger "Superman" Penske would have saved the auto manufacturer Saturn fell apart, which probably means thousands more jobs down the drain. And in Lansing, the dysfunctional set of w...[MORE]
Merrily down the drain: Lansing sharpens the cleaver for social programs
Published: 9/30/2009
Types: News, Government
At the moment I am writing this column, the collection of largely pathetic political creatures known as the Michigan Legislature is fighting over how to damage our futures. Basically, one of two things seems certain to happen. They may pass a budget that is guaranteed to weaken the quality of educa...[MORE]
The great deceivers: The forces of darkness are trying to distract us from real health care reform
Published: 9/23/2009
There was once a major league baseball player named Rube Waddell, who may well have been the best pitcher there ever was. He set major league records for shutouts, strikeouts, you name it. Unfortunately, he had one little problem. He was easily distracted. As in, attention-deficit disorder to the m...[MORE]
They lie, all the time: Why we should feel sorry for Joe Wilson
Published: 9/16/2009
You have to feel sorry for Joe Wilson, that nonentity of a congressman from South Carolina who yelled, "You lie!" at the president as he spoke to a joint session of Congress last week. Wilson has had to cope with a lot of trauma in his own life. Not Vietnam; he managed to dodge that by go...[MORE]
Chance for real change: Michigan is headed for a shutdown; let’s think beyond the crisis
Published: 9/9/2009
Don't look now, but Michigan government has, literally, suffered a nervous breakdown and is in a semi-paralyzed, near-catatonic state. That might not be so bad if things otherwise were humming along perfectly, but they aren't. We are headed for the edge of a cliff, and we know exactly when we will ...[MORE]
Defend real Americans: Anyone who seeks safety and freedom in America is one of us
Published: 9/2/2009
They come from the hellholes of the earth, from the torture cells of the former Yugoslavia, the military prisons of South America and the killing fields of sub-Saharan Africa. Usually tortured, with family members murdered, they show up on the doorstep of the century-old former convent they call Fre...[MORE]
Up against Goliath: Is the bridge baron pulling the strings against Gregg and Rashida?
Published: 8/26/2009
Manuel J. "Matty" Moroun is an 82-year-old billionaire, one of the richest people in the world, according to Forbes Magazine's annual ranking. He lives in Grosse Pointe, and owns, among other things, the Ambassador Bridge, the hulking ruin of Michigan Central Station, and vast trucking ope...[MORE]
Michigan on the rocks: How the tax-haters have taken us to the brink
Published: 8/19/2009
Types: News, Government
Everybody hates government, right? We bitch, moan and complain about it constantly. Nationally, the right wing is cleverly whipping up the yahoos, getting them to noisily protest against a health care plan that would drastically help this nation and greatly improve most of their lives. Here in Mic...[MORE]
Getting it wrong: On Kwame-proofing our pols' campaign funds
Published: 8/12/2009
Imagine that you foolishly are in the habit of leaving your back door unlocked. One night, a burglar comes in and steals all your money. You flip out, call the cops, and they catch him. A lengthy legal process follows, but eventually he is convicted and sent to the slam. Most of your money is gone,...[MORE]
The newspaper scam: It's more than an online paper: It's a pile of illiterate crap.
Published: 8/5/2009
Last month The Ann Arbor News closed for good. But not to worry, we were told by the publisher, a chipper corporate creature with the improbable name of Laurel Champion. Yes, we were losing a newspaper, and 272 employees would join the vast reserve army of the unemployed. But we were gaining Ann Ar...[MORE]
Time to get real: Michigan needs to face facts and find savings
Published: 7/29/2009
Speaker of the House Andy Dillon, a Democrat from Redford, hasn't made much of a mark leading his party in the Michigan Legislature. That is, until now. Earlier this month, he came out with a plan that would amount to a vast change in health care for state employees. He wants the Legislature to ena...[MORE]
That's the way it was: Looking back on Cronkite, the last man to unite us as Americans
Published: 7/22/2009
My guess is that if you are in your 30s, or younger, you have a hard time understanding why everybody made such a big deal over Walter Cronkite dying last week. He hadn't anchored a news program since 1981. You probably don't remember him, except as a sort of ghostly, grandfatherly figure in some o...[MORE]
GM revived: It's early days yet but looking better
Published: 7/15/2009
So they celebrated the birth of the "new" General Motors last week, which emerged from bankruptcy in a mere 40 days, precisely as long as Jesus is said to have spent stomping around in the wilderness. According to the Bible, that experience purified the young man from Nazareth, who showed...[MORE]
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