Citizen Writers Fighting Censorship by Helping Americans Understand Issues Affecting the Republic.
I learned something while sitting on a Michigan jury that sent me down one hell of a rabbit hole: Michigan can separately criminalize using a computer to commit a crime. In 2026, when your phone, truck, watch, bank, doorbell and possibly your toaster are computers, that starts sounding suspiciously like an enhancement for breathing oxygen while committing a crime.
Systech Environmental—pitched a brilliant idea: instead of burning traditional fuels, why not torch hazardous waste in the kiln? Tires, solvents, industrial byproducts—if it could burn, it could earn. Companies paid to get rid of their waste, Lafarge saved on fuel, and everyone shook hands like they’d just invented fire. The pitch was wrapped in the kind of language only a regulatory lawyer could love: “resource recovery,” “alternative fuels,” “energy efficiency.” What it meant in plain English was this: Alpena became a destination for waste that nobody else wanted, cooked at 2,500 degrees and released into the same air the locals were breathing.
In 1976, Michigan became the first state in the nation to tell litterbugs to put their money where their mouth was—literally. With the passage of the Beverage Container Act, Michiganders slapped a 10-cent deposit on soda and beer containers.
Once upon a mitten-shaped land, there lived a government agency so full of self-importance that it began confusing itself with the Almighty.