Food is a product of supply and demand, so try to figure out where the supplies are fresh, the suppliers are creative, and the demanders are informed.
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Some things about government are eternal.
The latest New Jersey scandal a-brewing has it that Hoboken’s mayor was informed her city was to be denied federal aid following Hurricane Sandy unless she went along with a real estate project favored by Governor Chris Christie.
Shocking, but hardly . . . unheard of. Back in the 1930s, Franklin Delano Roosevelt distributed disproportionate “stimulus” funds to swing states for one reason: re-election.
Corruption is ancient.
Christie’s staff seems, well, merely a bit more honest than usual. For modern America. Take the “Bridgegate” scandal: Trying to “hurt” a mayor by shutting down bridge lanes to his city, thus severely inconveniencing the mayor’s constituents? This sort of pettiness in policitics is common, with one difference: Most players disguise the pettiness.
So how does the continuing scandal of misgovernment usually get hidden? Dishonesty? Evasion?
Or, just ideology?
In several cities throughout the United States — Portland, Oregon, in particular — top metropolitan bureaucrats have deliberately developed policies that make automobile traffic more congested. Why? To encourage ridership in public transportation, which is considered (for ideological reasons) somehow better. Thus billions are spent on infrastructure supporting light rail, which take lanes away from car drivers, and move fewer people at greater inconvenience.
So why is that policy not itself a scandal?
The intent of Chris Christie’s aides was, obviously, base and petty and wrong. And actionable.
The ideology driving today’s anti-automobile agenda, on the other hand, is said to be noble and altruistic. Even though the harms to the public in terms of hours lost in frustrating commutes far exceeds the recent New Jersey scandal.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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Alger Hiss
On January 21, 1950, Alger Hiss was convicted of perjury, with Whittaker Chambers being the main witness in Hiss’s prosecution. Chambers confessed to having been a Soviet spy, and accused Hiss as an accomplice, which Hiss denied to his dying day. Chambers wrote a fascinating memoir about all this in Witness.
Today is economist Tyler Cowen’s birthday. Happy Birthday, Tyler.
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Tyler Cowen
The right wing will be identified with the monied class, even when the left often has more money. And the left wing will be identified as the whiners, even though the right at times whines as much or more. You might say that both sides are monied, high human capital whiners, on the whole.
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ACLU, Jan 20
On January 20, 1920, the American Civil Liberties Union was founded.
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Too Sneaky by Half
A funny thing happened on the way to reform.
The freshly minted Republican-dominated Arksansas State Assumbly put up three constitutional amendments for next November’s ballot. Secretly, they are likely proudest of one of them, “The Arkansas Elected Officials Ethics, Transparency, and Financial Reform Act.” For, snuck into the amendment, is a gutting of term limits.
The voters long ago enacted six-year House limits, not the 16 years proposed now by legislators. The voters limit state senators to two four-year terms, while legislators are trying to double their ride on the gravy train.
A number of legislators now claim even they didn’t know the term limits provision was in the legislation. Others explain that their “aye” vote was cast mistakenly on their behalf after they had left the building.
But all that’s nothing compared to this wrinkle, which I wrote about on Townhall this weekend. Hidden in a separate piece of legislation passed last year was a strange provision dealing with setting ballot language for measures referred by the legislature. Legislators took the power to write a ballot measure’s “Popular Name” — the so-called short title — away from the Attorney General, who previously enjoyed that statutory role, and gave it to themselves.
However, after legally stripping any other elected official of that same power, the plotters neglected to do one teensy-weensy thing: provide that language for their new term extension.
The upshot? The sneaky, dishonest anti-term limits amendment may not appear on the ballot.
Hoisted on their own petard, the whole elaborate scheme threatens to blow up in their own dear faces.
Couldn’t have happened to a more deserving bunch.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
Illustration by ocularinvasion used under a Creative Commons license.
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Frank Knight
All science is static in the sense that it describes the unchanging aspects of things.
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Townhall: Arkansas Accidents
This weekend at Townhall.com? Arkansas’s GOP-unified legislature has initiated a constitutional assault on Arkansas citizens.
Expect them to be called out. Click on over, then back here, for more reading.
- AR Legislative Digest Blog: “Oops — the three proposed constitutional amendments referred by the 2013 legislature are now in limbo”
- Arkansas Times: Term limit advocates form group to fight constitutional amendment
- Save Arkansas Term Limits
- Arkansas Democrat-Gazette: Outrage of the year (And it snuck right past us)
- Sen. Warwick Sabin (D-Little Rock): Unethical Attack Against Term Limits
- Arkansas Times: Regnant Populus ethics group renews canvassing for initiated ethics law
- Common Sense: The Natural State of Politicians
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Lysander Spooner, January 19
On January 19, 1808, Lysander Spooner was born. Spooner’s achievements in American life, law, and political philosophy, are among the most colorful of the 19th century. He sued to practice law, and won the suit. He set up a postal service that directly competed with the United States Postal Service, delivering mail at a fraction of the cost. He wrote “The Unconstitutionality of Slavery,” and convinced noted Garrisonian abolitionist Frederick Douglass of his argument. (The book became the centerpiece of intellectual ammunition for the Free Soil Party.) Later in life Spooner turned against constiutionalism itself, and penned some of the most radical political works of his day, including “Vices Are Not Crimes” and “The Constitution of No Authority.” Spooner also clearly articulated a “jury nullification” position in his classic treatise “Trial by Jury.”
You probably saw the original video on Upworthy, a slick presentation of the pop inequality meme. But you probably wondered: isn’t there some slippery income/wealth evasions going on here? Well, it turns out it’s far, far worse than you (or at least I) guessed:
This response video is from nearly a year ago. But the ideas and stats are worth looking at anyway.