Michael Braun’s Blog

And tired. Time to sleep soon. The trip was great; expect more details tomorrow.

No, it isn’t spring, and I hope everyone caught the sarcasm in that title. In fact, the advent of spring on Thursday brought about NO spring-like weather. Instead, it is snowing heavily outside. Big flakes, heavy stuff, lots of melty slush, and generally awful conditions. It’s no reason to declare disaster, […]

Or rather, we had five years, now squandered on a wasteful and needless war in Iraq. With nearly 4,000 US service members and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis killed, we’re no closer to a stable government in Iraq than we were when our shock and awe rained down upon them. We tried to […]

The new Gnarls Barkley album has been released three weeks ahead of schedule and is available for download on the iTunes Music Store! Evidently, the new album will be available in stores later this week. I was completely shocked by this news when I saw the album on iTunes this morning! I […]

Today, I was treated to a replayed demo of a new Google product, Google Health, as shown at the 2008 HIMSS (Health Information and Management Systems Society) Conference. While the replay was via a YouTube video and thus not always the clearest, the whole thing really piqued my interest.
The basic idea is that Google […]

At this time in one week, Lauren and I will be in O’Hare airport, waiting in a security line, ready to get to our gate and wait to board a big plane, bound for Charles De Gaul airport in Paris! We’ll probably be dreading the endless flight, the cramped seats, and the poor movie […]

Welcome to the first in recurring blog series discussing the biggest idiots around our country and world. Today, I will focus on Mr. Glenn Beck, former Christian Rock radio host and current pundit on CNN. I’ve been quite annoyed with Mr. Beck for some time, mostly because he continually overlooks subtlety in situations, […]

Yesterday, Governor Doyle signed into law a piece of legislation that forces hospitals statewide to provide emergency contraception, known as the Morning After Pill, to any rape victim that requests it. This is absolutely vital legislation for protecting the rights of women. Nevertheless, sick, ignorant people have decried the legislation, saying that it […]

That’s right, Ms. Hillary Clinton; you cannot have all the electoral votes in Florida and Michigan. They messed around with the system, got punished by the DNC, and even though you stayed on the ballot, it’s not fair for the other candidates for you to be awarded the delegates. Especially in Michigan, where […]

The new CellBlock album is ticking right along. I’m actually on schedule for my originally planned May release, but I think I will still push that back to September. As I plan on purchasing a drum machine in May, I want to have plenty of time to work with it, rather than trying […]

Current New York Governor Eliot Spitzer sure has gotten himself into a raft of trouble. Federal instigators, while looking into a prostitution ring, found out that Spitzer has been a client of the ring and arranged, most recently, to meet a prostitute (Kristen) at a Washington D.C. hotel room last month.
Fans may […]

Supposedly, it’s supposed to warm up this week. And that could very well mean that we are due for “spring” to arrive. We’ve pushed our clocks back an hour, meaning the mornings are darker. But so too are the evenings lighter. That is a good sign that spring is coming soon. […]

I need my gay marriage ban to convince me that it is worth getting married in the first place! If two consenting, unrelated adults are allowed to marry, even if they are the same sex, then what is the point of two opposite sex, consenting, unrelated adults getting married? Seriously, if a guy […]

I read an article in the New Yorker recently reviewing two books that had come out about the fascinating study of behavioral economics. Some of you may recall my interest in the behavioral sciences prior to coming to college. These two books tried very hard to illustrate times in which people act irrationally. […]

What is it with people fabricating a book and then selling it as a memoir? I’ve just read recent reports that the memoir of “Margaret B. Jones”, recently published as an autobiography titled “Love and Consequences”, is a fake. Its author grew up in the suburbs, not on the streets selling drugs for […]