Quote of the Day
While the right to talk may be the beginning of freedom, the necessity of listening is what makes the right important.
Walter Lippmann
California/Feds Busts Raw Milk Product Retailers: Thumbs DOWN!
There are a couple of routine food-related topics that I have followed on a recurring basis in this and my nutrition blog: the first is local licensing/regulations/restrictions like child-operated lemonade stands and food trucks; these generally serve to arbitrarily restrict competition, limit consumer choice and increase prices. The second involves state or federal restrictions on food choices: in particular, I've looked at raw milk products.
The embedded video focuses on a Fed crackdown on three California retailers selling raw milk and related processed products (i.e., 'mislabeled' cheese) in a 'conspiracy'; state laws were also allegedly violated. Among other things, the Feds reportedly dumped raw milk and various product items (including mangoes).
There's an interesting split between conservatives on issues like this, similar in nature to TSA concerns. Certain law and order types simply ask whether or not a law exists, no matter how arbitrarily it's enforced, its effectiveness, reasonableness or costliness. Thus, the law and order folks think it's perfectly fine to shakedown a young child through invasive search procedures. A few years back we saw people arrested under a Texas sodomy law. And here we have a premium, nutritionally superior product.
Somehow along the way, individual liberty got sacrificed in favor of dubious, self-important authoritarian bureaucrats engaging in fear-mongering.
Obama and His Recycled Policy Ideas on Job Creation
How many times does President Obama have to hit his head against a brick wall before it starts to hurt? Obama had this hubris during the disastrous ObamaCare law was being debated: it was just a matter of rephrasing the intuitively obvious necessity of passing this 2000-page bill. There was more hubris: once people understood the program, the GOP opposing him would face an electoral disaster.
Obama is resorting to the same old, same old expensive, ineffectual policies, e.g., partial payroll tax holidays, extensions to two years of unemployment insurance, etc. Never mind disingenuous discussions of infrastructure spending. The issue here is not whether or not America has been cutting corners on upkeep of its infrastructure for generations: it's a variety of other points. If these programs had their purported effect on economic growth in the first place, why were they given short shrift to begin with? Why should we be underwriting state or local infrastructure projects? Doesn't this constitute moral hazard? Won't state and local governments simply be trained to neglect infrastructure because they know Uncle Sam is going to bail them out?
This shows Obama hasn't learned anything from the failures of the 2009 stimulus bill. What businesses want is not another gimmicky tax cut but a halt of new initiatives, more competitive tax policies and a reduced government footprint in business decision making.
Musical Interlude: My Favorite Groups
The Eagles, "Lyin' Eyes"
