I am as desirous of being a good neighbor as I am of being a bad subject.
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That might as well have been the headline of the Spiegel Online article. What else could Der Spiegel mean by the words “Health Be Damned: Denmark Hopes Cheaper Soda Will Boost Economy” except that Denmark’s government is endangering the lives of citizens merely to promote their prosperity and to respect their rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?
Letting individuals again govern their own beverage intake, unimpeded! How is that not tantamount to shoving them over a cliff?
On the other hand, if you live in Denmark, enjoy soda, and dislike being harassed for doing so — thank goodness for tax competition.
Steep new taxes on drinks like beer and soda have been sending Danes across the border for these items. They have long shopped in Germany anyway, but the “sinful drink” taxes have inspired an increase in the international jaunts. Research by a Danish grocers’ association suggests that over the past year, members of some 57 percent of Danish households have zipped over to Germany to buy beverages onerously taxed at home. Denmark officials therefore plan to phase out the new taxes.
The government has already abandoned a notorious “fat tax” on foods with saturated fats. It seemed that Danes disliked the higher prices and unemployment caused by the tubby tax.
At least for now, then, Denmark officials have declared defeat on key fronts in the paternalistic war on soda, fats and liberty.
So, take heart, victims of America’s nanny state! The incursions are reversible.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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Henry David Thoreau
It takes two to speak the truth, — one to speak, and another to hear.
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Henry David Thoreau
It is not enough to be industrious; so are the ants. What are you industrious about?
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Spring Cleaning
For the fifth year in a row, the Washington Post has offered readers a two-page spread, “Spring Cleaning: 10 Things to Toss Out,” featuring ten people on what to cleanse from our society.
Also for the fifth time, the Post’s email asking for my “thing” was obviously snagged by my spam filter. Computers!
Still, ten is a number I can easily count to — here’s the Post’s list:
- Ben Bernanke? The measure carries! Wait . . . do we get to vote?
- Compliments? Really? Well . . . good try.
- Retweets are not endorsements? Skip.
- Flip-flops? Wrong channel.
- Innovation? Love it. And yet I look forward to the new, upgraded version of any computer program like a shot of the Ebola virus with a long, dirty needle.
- Red Lines? Foreign Policy’s Editor Susan B. Glasser tossed out red lines, noting that in Syria “The ‘red line’ has been crossed . . . And Obama is backed into a predictable corner.” By all means, if the Great O cannot live up to his red-line proclamations, let’s been done with such lines. And the color red, too.
- The term “Working Mother”? Meaning: ALL mothers are working mothers. Heck, I can testify; I probably made the mess.
- College Rankings? It’s unanimous.
- Texas? Couldn’t we just move the Dallas Cowboys from the Eastern Division of the National Football Conference so Washington doesn’t have to play them?
- Automatic Tax Withholding? This was Milton Friedman’s idea to get money into the government faster during World War II. Since regretted. But not going anywhere anytime soon.
Too bad that doggone email didn’t arrive, but let me present the eleventh thing to toss out: Career politicians.
Time again to clean both House and Senate.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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Henry David Thoreau
Talk of mysteries! — Think of our life in nature, — daily to be shown matter, to come in contact with it, — rocks, trees, wind on our cheeks! The solid earth! the actual world! the common sense! Contact! Contact! Who are we? where are we?
Talk is cheap. And hey: this weekend’s Common Sense column over at Townhall.com is free!
But the president’s sanctimonious talk is cheaper yet, because his actions are about everything but high-minded principles. Including freedom.
Click on over to the column, and then come back here for more links to more reading.
- LobeLog: Obama Condemns Indefinite Detention (And His Own Record)
- New York Times: Amid Hunger Strike, Obama Renews Push to Close Cuba Prison
- Slate: President Obama Can Shut Guantanamo Whenever He Wants
- Breibart: Jon Stewart Mocks Obama for Guantanamo Bay Posturing
- MSNBC: Obama signs 2013 defense authorization, minus indefinite detention ban
The author of two very popular histories, 1491 and 1493, is here interviewed, discussing the great exchange of species (and specie) after the discovery of the New World:
On a pedantic note, Mr. Mann apparently had not read (at the time of this interview) E.M. Forster’s classic essay on political systems, “Two Cheers for Democracy.” And he mentioned “Two Cheers for Capitalism,” a famous essay not by William F. Buckley (whose name he suggested as the work’s author) but, instead, neo-conservative Irving Kristol. But, no matter, this remains a fascinating discussion, and makes me want to read his books. Or at least buy them. (Finding time to read a book is getting harder and harder, it seems. One of the points made in this excellent discussion is that labor is the only thing getting more expensive, over time. Reading is work, if very fun work.)
John Tierney conducts the interview, and has a great segment in the question-and-answer period towards the end.
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William H. Prescott
The authority of the Inca might be compared with that of the Pope in the day of his might, when Christendom trembled at the thunders of the Vatican, and the successor of St. Peter set his foot on the necks of princes. But the authority of the Pope was founded on opinion. His temporal power was nothing. The empire of the Incas rested on both. It was a theocracy more potent in its operation than that of the Jews; for, though the sanction of the law might be as great among the latter, the law was expounded by a human lawgiver, the servant and representative of Divinity. But the Inca was both the lawgiver and the law. He was not merely the representative of Divinity, or, like the Pope, its vicegerent, but he was Divinity itself. The violation of his ordinance was sacrilege. Never was there a scheme of government enforced by such terrible sanctions, or which bore so oppressively on the subjects of it. For it reached not only to the visible acts, but to the private conduct, the words, the very thoughts, of its vassals.
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John McCrae
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.