Michael R. Shannon's Past Articles

215 articles

Tea Party? What Tea Party?

published: February 13, 2011

Out–of–touch politicians with short memories are not confined to the Washington, D.C. Zip codes. For example, Republicans in the Virginia General Assembly managed to destroy whatever c...

You Can’t Be a Little Bit “Private”

published: February 06, 2011

Who would have thought lawbreakers would have an effective lobby and among Republicans at that! What’s more, it’s not the expected Wall Street miscreants; it’s mean street miscrea...

All the News That’s Good for You

published: January 24, 2011

One of the reasons newspaper circulation and TV news ratings are falling is because people no longer trust journalists. They are tired of being mislead as reporters select and distort news coverage...

Guns Don’t Kill People, Rhetoric Kills People

published: January 15, 2011

I’m a very chastened conservative this week. In looking over last year’s columns I find I’ve used the words: jewelry, sneeze, impatient and grab. By my calculations — assist...

No Wonder Henry Ford Said “History Is Bunk”

published: January 07, 2011

It’s surprising that so few parents are concerned that some of Virginia 4th grade history teachers don’t appear to know much more about the subject than their students. What appears to...

Help ‘Public’ Broadcasting Kick the Habit

published: January 01, 2011

It’s time for tough love in Virginia. We’ve got a group of squatters living in the basement, enjoying a subsidized lifestyle paid for by hard–working adults. And at a time when ev...

The Cathedral of Can’t We All Get Along?

published: December 26, 2010

This Christmas brings another “can’t we all just get along“ story that once again demonstrating how the media fails to understand committed Christians. According to the Washingto...

Dems: OK to be ‘Bi’ as long as it’s not ‘Partisan’

published: December 17, 2010

The House Democrat Caucus is so furious with Obama, over his compromise with Senate Republicans that extended the Bush era tax cuts, they voted to demand to see his birth certificate. Previously, ...

The First Rule of Holes

published: December 10, 2010

The first rule of holes is simple: when you’re in one, stop digging. Currently Congress ranks at the bottom of Gallup’s 2010 Confidence in Institutions poll with half of all Americans ...

Ratchet Effect – How the Old Maximum Becomes the New Minimum

published: December 05, 2010

The Oxford Dictionary of Economics defines the Ratchet Effect as: “A tendency for a variable to be influenced by its own largest previous value…the ratchet effect implies that variable...

Why Are Schools of Education Such an Oxymoron?

published: November 27, 2010

Most of the problems of modern public education originate outside the school building. The locus of the worst influences are schools of education that turn out teachers and administrators who have ...

Bend Over & Experience 21st Century Air Travel

published: November 19, 2010

Visiting grandma’s house is going to be a lot different this holiday season. Instead of “Grandma, what big teeth you have!” It’s going to be “G–man what cold han...

How to boost the TEA Party's Caffeine Level

published: November 12, 2010

Once you start bossing people around it’s really hard to stop — just ask Janet “No Toner for You” Napolitano. Last week it was instructions the new Congress, this week the b...

New Congress To–Do List

published: November 05, 2010

Tuesday voters placed the House of Representatives under new management and put the fear of God into what remains, temporarily, a Democrat Senate. Now it’s time for a resuscitated GOP to deli...

Is Anyone Not Offering Flu Shots This Year?

published: October 29, 2010

I’ve been forced to get my flu shot early. Normally I wait until November for my vaccination, unless the federal government declares an influenza emergency. Then the resulting vaccine shortag...

Are Newspapers This Hard Up?

published: October 23, 2010

The most remarkable thing happened last week. The Wall Street Journal tried to pick my pocket. I assumed when Titans of Wall Street selected victims they focused on businesses that actually had mon...

Another 18th Century Infestation Courtesy of the EPA

published: October 15, 2010

Normally it would be cause for great joy when “socially–conscious progressives” are literally bitten on the behind by the results of their bad ideas. In this case it’s unfor...

Why the GPS Is Magellan and Not Columbus

published: October 09, 2010

1492 was a big year for Christendom. The fortress of Granada fell to the combined forces of King Ferdinand of Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castile. Driving the last of the invading Islamic horde ou...

Call 1–8700–Ask–A–Lawyer

published: October 01, 2010

In a recent Washington Post story, University of Virginia Law Professor A.E. Dick Howard ruled it is not unconstitutional to ask your lawyer a question. This is a load off my mind, because when it ...

Death Is Cheapened in VA

published: September 24, 2010

Last week Teresa Lewis was Virginia’s only woman on Death Row (although she has permanently vacated the premises by the time you read this). Lewis earned her death sentence by conspiring to m...

Take Two Tranquilizers And Call After November

published: September 17, 2010

Democrats have inadvertently stumbled across a sure–fire method of depressing Republican turnout in November: put House Minority Leader John Boehner (R–OH) on TV discussing how he inten...

Elephant Community Suffers Another Drive By

published: September 11, 2010

There was a RINO sighting in the capitol over the weekend. Meghan McCain (Republican In Name Only) was making the rounds selling her new book. Meghan personifies what former University of Oklahoma...

Northrop Grumman Introduces Y2K!

published: September 03, 2010

Conservatives occasionally wonder if anyone would notice should the government just go away one morning. This is not an attractive prospect for elected officials and Virginia Lt. Governor Bill Boll...

You Wouldn’t Take a Dog to that Clinic

published: August 27, 2010

Fetuses all across the Virginia are smiling on their sonograms this week in the wake of Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s opinion that concludes the Commonwealth can legally resume oversight ...

Brass Ring Escapes Again

published: August 22, 2010

My local delegate to the Virginia state house, Bob Marshall (R—Prince William) is not particularly popular in Richmond because he’s conservative even when it’s inconvenient. This...