Reason discusses America's love affair with czars. It's a sure sign of sickness in our culture that Americans embrace tyrants to solve our "most important" problems, so it's not surprising that the ultimate consequence of that social sickness so far, Barack Obama, has named more czars than the Romanovs.
The czar is a perfect techocratic role—appealing to Obama, who has been much praised for "surrounding himself with smart people." The appeal of the czar rests on the belief that if we could just figure out the right smart, competent, well-intentioned person to put charge, everything would go more smoothly. This is often true on a micro-level. Having someone in charge of a school field trip, or a division inside a large company is a good idea. But the bigger and more complex the problem, the less likely even the most impressive technocrat will be able to set things in order, especially since these czars lack the very thing that defined the Russian czars: total control over the lives of their subject.How successful has the drug czar been? This fundamental sickness this exposes is a desire to have others fix our problems.
Systemax Inc. purchases Circuit City e-commerce brand and promises better service and prices. Creative destruction in action.
Among the many powers of free speech is the power to thwart corruption. Limiting free speech increases corruption. Free speech is the enemy of corruption because by its very nature, corruption cannot stand being illuminated.
Bad economy influences people to have tattoos removed. Maybe they shouldn't have got them in the first place.
Who would have predicted this?
Banks are basically saying that because they're going to have to change some lending practices to comply with the bill, they'll be facing greater risk.Oh, yeah. I did. Passing laws with unintended bad consequences is stupid enough, but these bad consequences were well understood before the law was passed.
To cope with that risk, they say they'll have to turn the screws on their best customers -- the ones who manage their finances prudently and pay off their bills on time -- by possibly raising interest rates, scaling back rewards and imposing annual fees.
Forcing postal style lines on 22 pubs in Britain to combat problem drinking. What about combating problem government?
Federal government transfers prisoners by giving them a one way bus ticket and sending them unsupervised to another prison. Needless to say, many don't show up. But this begs the question, if the prison board considers these people such low risk that they can be set free with no supervision to transfer themselves to another prison, why are they in prison in the first place?
Hot dog sales are up. I just had a hot dog for lunch. Ball Park Franks sues Oscar Mayer for false advertising. I guess they both have so much money, they don't know what to do with it other than give it to lawyers.
As if we needed more proof that obesity is a mental problem and solving it is simply a matter of eating less, woman hypnotized into thinking she had stomach band surgery loses 55 lbs. Obesity is a symptom of the sickness in our society caused by the culture of dependency.
The leftist media campaign against bottled water goes to a new level with this report that a toxic substance leeches from the bottle into the water.
Police officer coerces woman into having sex to avoid traffic ticket. You know this guy expected to get away with this.
Victory for Craigslist. Judge puts gag order on Attorney General at Craigslist request.
Provacative ad slogan: "In the beginning, man created God."
New Jersey politicians are trying to justify red light cameras because they save lives of pedestrians killed by cars performing rolling right turns on red. The only problem is, no pedestrians have been killed by the rolling right turns on red. You know how to tell when a politician is lying? His lips are moving. This is tax pure and simple.
"More parents are focusing on messages of frugality and humility that, they say, just don't fit with the princess mentality that has become a rite of passage for many girls." In other words, some parents have stopped spoiling their little girls rotten because of the economy, not because it's the right thing to do.
Houston's graduation rate is 58.5 percent. That's why Obama wants to give government schools more power over children, families and our future. Just like George Bush did.
Hurricane center predicts average hurricane season. As inaccurate as these guys are, that probably means it will be extra destructive.
Putting police sketch artists to the test. Sketch artists depend on eye witness descriptions, which are notoriously inaccurate, which are then subjectively applied by the sketch artist, making them doubly inaccurate.
Man sentenced to $227 fine and 12 months probation for walking in street to avoid water and mud filled hole in sidewalk. I'm sure the cops, prosecutors and judges are a having a good laugh over drinks about teaming up and sticking it to that guy.
Minnesota Gov. vetoes tax hikes as legislative session ends, then uses power to cut $4 billion of unfunded programs from budget. Hell, yeah. Where was this kind of action from Republicans the last eight years?
Bobby Kennedy's son to run for Barack Obama's old Senate seat. These Kennedys feel entitled to our freedom, power and money.
Republicans planning to fight Obama's Supreme Court nominee. I think this is smart. You might expect a more thoughtful president to pick a non-ideological candidate, but the way that blew up on Republicans in the past, there's no hope Obama will do that. He's going to nominate somebody to the left of Karl Marx. Let's just hope he doesn't nominate Bill Ayers.
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