Editor’s Note: This is the third in a series of six monthly columns in which Craig Ruff proposes five far-reaching proposals to revamp state government if voters in November 2010 choose to convene a constitutional convention. Find the previous columns at http://domemagazine.com/blogs/. by Craig Ruff September 16, 2009 Can you handle two people representing you [...]

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Editor’s Note: This is the second in a series of six monthly columns in which Craig Ruff proposes five far-reaching plans to revamp state government if voters in November 2010 choose to convene a constitutional convention. by Craig Ruff August 16, 2009 Michigan should have a single-body, unicameral legislature. Like 48 other states (Nebraska, alone, [...]

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by Craig Ruff July 16, 2009 Over the next few months I will propose far-reaching (a polite way of saying far-fetched) proposals to revamp state government. The calls will include: (a) a unicameral legislature; (b) two-member legislative districts; (c) a parliamentary system; (d) appointment of judges; and (e) restricting spending and taxing to a current [...]

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by Craig Ruff June 16, 2009 What with the economic woes, a somber summer-time read may be Grapes of Wrath. With all this nationalization, maybe we should re-read 1984. Escaping, Pat the Bunny or Goodnight, Moon may be in order. I cannot face rereading Steinbeck (an absolutely dreadful writer who somehow rose above carelessness, verbosity [...]

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by Craig Ruff May 16, 2009 Price of Stamps Rising This Week (The New York Times headline, Sunday, May 10, 2009) On the morning of April 15, I visited the Okemos post office. After 20 minutes, I reached what was the end of the line, but not the end of my tether. Fifty percent of [...]

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by Craig Ruff April 16, 2009 Colleague Peter Pratt asked me what plays we would be seeing in New York City on a visit in late March. I mentioned Exit the King. Peter howled: “Really. Is theater of the absurd making a comeback?” Mounting dramatic absurdists’ works like Exit the King (Ionesco) and Waiting for [...]

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by Craig Ruff March 16, 2009 In Prince of Tides, Pat Conroy described South Carolinian Tom Wingo’s first impression of Manhattan from an airplane: “It was too much of too much.” Talk about too much of too much. How about the more than 3,000 units of government and 22,000 elected officials in Michigan? My late [...]

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We must grasp our deep-rooted hope, not others’ clichés about Michigan.

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by Craig Ruff January 16, 2009 Last January in Dome, I reintroduced Michigan’s Prophesy Contest. The contest was sent on sabbatical for several years. You may enter the 2009 contest at: www.pscinc.com/prophesy. Deadline for entries is Wednesday, January 21. Let us look back on 2008’s questions, crown last year’s Michigan’s Prophet of the Year, acknowledge [...]

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by Craig Ruff November 16, 2008 Election results, the public mood, and economic forces likely will produce a national government and public ready to take a dip in socialism. W “Hooverized” his political party. All but stalwart Republicans (and even some number of them) spit on the White House’s calamitous domestic and foreign policies. W [...]

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