The state of Michigan is well on its way to taxing the tar out of the job makers and the achievers, in order to spread the wealth. Lawmakers in Michigan are currently considering a plan to help sure up the community health department's budget. What they want to do is tax healthcare providers in order to pay for Medicaid coverage for the poor. The taxes would range anywhere from 1.7% to 4% and would be paid by doctors and healthcare providers. The lawmakers believe that this tax will generate six months worth of revenue.

So let's get this straight .... The state of Michigan wants to tax all healthcare providers in the state in order to raise reimbursement rates for healthcare providers to provide services for poor people. Some lawmakers aren't worried because the people opposing the plan would be those without Medicaid patients, which tend to be "high-end doctors." (Read: doctors for evil, rich people) In other words ... these "high-end doctors" will be paying a tax that will then be redistributed to other doctors who treat poor patients.

Now you have a clearer understanding of why Michigan's economy led the rest of this country into a recession. These folks were way ahead of us. As soon as they get this cranked up it will surely catch the eye of the DC looters.

What fun.

By now you know that some thug shot and killed an anti-abortion protestor outside of a school in Michigan last week. James Pouillon was standing across the street from a school holding aloft pictures that were purported to represent aborted fetuses when he was gunned down. A man has been arrested and charged with Pouillon's murder.

Now .. .make no mistake. I believe that the man who gunned down Pouillon should be convicted and then executed. In keeping with my oft-stated position, I think that he should die the same way his victim did. He should stand before a firing squad.

So .. why this column? Well, two reasons, actually, First ... I want to address the way the media defined the players in this sad story. Secondly; I just feel like really stirring up the pudding here with the anti-abortion crowd. Since most of these anti-abortion activists are men and will never really come face-to-face with the issue, I just enjoy getting under their skin.

You will notice that I've been using the sobriquet "anti-abortion" thus far in this piece. For the most part the media has been defining him as "pro-life." Well, I have a problem with that ... so let's proceed with making a huge number of people mad as a hornet's next. Just send your "I'm never going to listen to you again" emails to getoveritfool@hotmail.com.

Simply put, the "pro-life" label is bogus. It doesn't work. These labels have to define both sides of this issue on comparative terms. "Pro-life" fails the test. If one side is "pro-life," than the other side must be "anti-life." You simply cannot take people who support the idea of a woman's right to chose as "anti-life." Being "anti-life" would mean that in virtually all cases where a decision had to be made between life and death, that person would chose death. I would hate to be a bicyclist on a narrow road in front of such a person.

OK .. let's move on to "anti-abortion" and "pro-abortion." Again, it doesn't work. I'll use me as the example here. I am most definitely anti-abortion with exceptions, of course, to protect the health and life of the mother. Having said that; I do not want our government to have the power to use a gun to force a woman to have a child that she does not want to have. Now don't give me a hard time with this "use a gun" thing. Government is force. Government is the only entity in our society that can use deadly force to accomplish its goals. That's what the so-called "pro-life" activists are after ... giving the government the authority to use force in this manner. Anyway; to use the "pro-abortion" label to describe me would be factually wrong.

So, where does this leave us? Well, just what are we discussing here? That would be whether or not a woman should be able to make the choice between terminating a pregnancy or going full term. And there is our solution. There we have the proper way to describe the combatants in this seemingly endless argument. If you believe the ultimate choice should rest with the woman, then you would be pro-choice. If you believe that instead of choice there should be compulsion, then you're anti-choice.

If the media in this country actually gave a rip about accurate and objective journalism these are the phrases that would be used in reporting on the controversy.

I'm talking about Debbie Stabenow. She's a Democrat Senator from Michigan, and she's oh-so-concerned about (gasp!) global warming. (I don't have to tell you that she is a Democrat, do I?) Stabenow is so special that she can actually feel the global warming when she's flying! Yup! She's that good! The Detroit News tells us that the brilliant Senator Stabenow says that "climate change is very real" because she can "feel it when I'm flying. The storms are more volatile. We are paying the price in more hurricanes and tornadoes."

Fact? Michigan just had its coldest - not its warmest, its COLDEST July since they began keeping records. The waters in the Great Lakes are starting to rise .. .keeping up with a 30-year cycle. These higher water levels fly right into the face of media reports that global warming is drying up the Great Lakes. The people of Michigan don't even put global warming on their list of top-ten concerns .. but this moonbat can feel the global warming when she's flying.

I love Henry Payne's (Detroit News) parting comment: "And there are sea monsters in Lake Michigan. I can feel them when I'm boating."

This would be funny if it weren't so sad. How in the world do the voters of this country manage to put such dumbasses in positions of power and responsibility? So far as I can see this moonbat has never worked a day in her entire life in the private sector. I've seen some vague references to "social worker" and "leadership training consultant." Leadership training? She is nothing less than a professional political hack ... and an amazingly ignorant one at that. And .. get this ... she's the 3rd ranking Democrat in the Senate. Sad.

Oh .. one more thing. Stabenow's husband, Tom Athans, has worked in a few executive positions for left-wing talk radio networks, including Air America ... this while Senator Stabenow has been working to reinstate the so-called "Fairness Doctrine." Conflict of interest anyone?

We can expect more stories like this, folks. Our country is becoming so wussified, so afraid of offending someone, that we are willing to sacrifice common sense.

A marching band from Roosevelt High School in Wyandotte, Michigan was selected to play in the inaugural parade in Washington. That's great. Now, the official name of this band from Roosevelt High School is The Wyandotte Marching Chiefs high school band. Well when you turn on the tube to watch the inaugural parade, don't expect to see The Wyandotte Marching Chiefs high school band. They will be marching under a different name, the Roosevelt High School Marching Band. And you can probably guess why they had to change the name ... because the word "chiefs" is offensive to American Indians.

The band will have to sew patches over their logos on their uniform sleeves and they will not be able to carry their Marching Chiefs banner.

The decision actually came from the band's director after he received a letter from a group that opposed the use of American Indian nicknames and logos. He says that he didn't want to bring any negative publicity to the school. Yeah, and if I applied that thought process to my own show .. I would have been out of a job ages ago.