I just heard on DC radio here a classic example of just how unresponsive large bureaucracies can be, when there is no good reason for them to behave as they do. In a rare feat the Washington Nationals professional baseball team has won its division (miracle!) and is now in the baseball playoffs. Of course […]
Archives
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The Pleasures of Government
12 Oct 2016
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Buried in Red Tape and Administrative Law
30 Sep 2016
I am just getting around to reading a book I have meant to read for over a year, Is Administrative Law Unlawful? By Philip Hamburger (University of Chicago, 2014). Besides, this is also a good time to raise the whole issue of administrative rulemaking, regulations and judicial hearings, something that in the last 70 years […]
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Miscellaneous Interesting (and Weird) News
13 Sep 2016
There are all sorts of interesting and disturbing issues and events out there in the news these days, some obscure and others more obvious and with greater implications. Below I simply want to list a few I have been reading about in recent days, and then later perhaps write some longer blogs on some of […]
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Power and Its Expressions
06 Sep 2016
We have been here in Washington, DC for about two weeks now and after two prior stays, one in 2013 and another in 1964 (!), I have a few observations about just how big, powerful and even “Messianic” government has become at the federal level, based on what I have seen physically in terms of […]
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Another Federal Failure
22 Jul 2016
I have no doubt that the following blog will be controversial, but it is so important that I must permit the controversy to rage. I read and agree with a recent piece in SeeThruEDU by George Leef, entitled “America’s Ridiculous Notion: Accreditation is What Makes Colleges Good or Bad.” (http://seethruedu.com/americas-ridiculous-notion-accreditation-is-what-makes-colleges-good-or-bad) The argument in the article […]
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The Progressive Dream: In Reality
30 Jun 2016
In the period from about 1890 to 1920, labeled the Progressive Era, political thinkers, economists (a new profession then) and public intellectuals told Americans and Europeans that the best way to get efficient government that actually worked was to create independent boards, commissions and other similar organizations. We were told they would be free from […]
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The latest Obama Admin edict: Let them eat Tofu!
28 Jun 2016
In today’s Wall Street Journal (gated) reports on a political battle over the provision of food stamps, and it illustrates much of what is wrong in Washington DC. Many of us lament the almost doubling of the number of people receiving food stamps, with only a slight drop off well after the recession is over. We […]
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Innovation and Bureaucracy: A Match Made in….
27 Jun 2016
“Bureaucrats Stifle Innovation” Maybe that sounds like something I might say. And you would be right. But I didn’t say that. It was the title of an article in Reason on June 1, 2016 by John Stossel. Yes, Stossel is polemical. But I think he is also on to something. The subtitle is “Taught Not […]
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Goodbye EU
24 Jun 2016
Since the vote to leave the European Union is done, and Great Britain is out, I suppose I will give my opinion about it. This undoubtedly will not be shared by all. First, let me say—again—that I strongly favor free trade among nations. Having said that, the EU is very much more than an economic […]
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This is Not a Shampoo Commercial: It’s Worse
07 May 2016
I read another article today on the evils of occupational licensing, this one coming from Tennessee, which requires 300 hours of approved training to (get this) shampoo hair. And the so-called shampoo degree coats upwards of $5,000 to $12,000! (see The Daily Signal of ma2, at http://dailysignal.com/2016/05/02/it-takes-300-hours-to-become-a-shampooer-in-tennessee). After reading the entire article I was just […]
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