There’s nothing that will get my dander up faster than bad news. Yesterday’s bad news screaming straight off the front page of the Detroit Free Press was enough to cause me to blow a gasket, which is something I don't care to do on my day off. Since my state seems to think they can get blood out of a turnip, I think it's high time this turnip speaks up.

If you think that the economy is taking a downturn in your area, try being me. Living in Michigan these days is much like trying to empty the bilge of the Titanic with a play pail. Scratch that; make it a broken pail with no handle and a hole in the bottom. It’s bad enough that business sucks because the manufacturing jobs have dried up and moved away. Property values are so far in the toilet that I’m not sure we could sell our house for what we paid for it back in 2005. It’s so bad, I’m not sure we could get enough to satisfy the outstanding mortgage. Are you kidding? These days, you can buy a house in Detroit for $1,000 or less. There aren’t many cars, even on Craigslist, for that little.

The other thing that has really irked me in the last couple of years are the series of commercials featuring Jeff Daniels that tout Michigan as the place to start or move your business. The “Let Michigan Give You the Upper Hand” commercials, sponsored by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, have been seen in such faraway places like Arizona, Colorado and California, where people in their right minds wouldn’t leave whether bribed by dollars or bullied by dynamite. I like Jeff Daniels (who supposedly lives here in Chelsea) as an actor, but he has to be blind in one eye and have a stick poking out of the other if he thinks this state is willing to cultivate a friendly business climate. So far, the State of Michigan hasn’t done anything to foster my business. In fact, the state has thwarted my business' growth by throwing up road blocks every few months just to see if we are still breathing. Every time I see Jeff Daniels’ smiling, phony face on TV, I want to throw a rock through it.

I’ve spent much of the last year researching our sorry state of affairs, and writing to every member of the legislature to protest the raising of taxes. From the lack of response, I surmised that it’s far easier for the bureaucrats to raise taxes than it is to cut costs. Heaven forbid! Cut costs!? You mean, like they do in the private sector? What kind of blasphemy is that?