URLs du Jour

2022-04-18

  • It only hurts if you think about it. J.D. Tuccille provides a reminder: Tax Day Is Here, Because Government Bungling Won’t Pay for Itself.

    Well, actually, that's two reminders.

    In recent weeks, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) conceded that, perhaps, the agency really sucks at performing its assigned tasks and should reevaluate how it does things; a federal jury told off the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for entrapping a handful of dummies into a high-profile political kidnapping plot; and several of the federal government's own economists placed the blame for soaring prices on runaway government spending. That's some impressive governance, for a certain value of "impressive," and it certainly doesn't come cheap. In fact, on this Tax Day, some of us might be forgiven for wishing we could skip not just the tab, but also the services for which it's supposed to pay.

    It's no joke that government doesn't come cheap. In revisiting its federal spending and revenue forecasts for 2021, the Congressional Budget Office conceded in January that its "projection of $3.43 trillion for federal revenues in 2021 was too low—by $614 billion" and its "projection of $7.07 trillion for federal outlays in 2021 was too high—by $250 billion." Not that taking in more money than anticipated and spending a bit less means the feds balanced their books. No, not even close. In the end, the feds spent "only" $2.78 trillion more than they collected. And they do that every year, so it adds up.

    Also the Red Sox lost badly today. Sigh.


  • To repeat: abolish the FDA. OK, their bungling bureaucracy might have helped kill thousands of Americans during the pandemic, but they at least keep our food safe, right?

    Well, Baylen Linnekin offers some disillusionment: New Investigation Finds FDA's Food Safety Division Is 'Broken'.

    Last week, Politico published the results of an in-depth, months-long investigation into the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) regulation of our nation's food supply. The findings? The agency "is failing to meet American consumers' expectations on food safety and nutrition."

    The Politico investigation, which focuses chiefly on food safety, nutrition, and structural issues within FDA, includes interviews with dozens of current and former senior FDA officials, industry representatives, members of Congress, and trade groups—all of them familiar with the inner workings of the FDA. Those who spoke with Politico for the investigation characterized the agency's regulation of the food supply invariably as "ridiculous," "impossible," "broken," "byzantine" and "a joke." The piece notes even many agency supporters are now "questioning whether the agency is making the best use of its roughly $1 billion food budget," pointing out that even though around two-thirds of that budget goes to pay for food safety inspections, "the number of food safety inspections performed each year has been going down despite increased resources." Such complaints about the FDA—that the agency consistently does less with more—have been at the heart of my own criticisms of the agency over the years.

    Unfortunately, statists will have a ready comeback: "This goes to show they need more money and power to do their job."


  • Uff da! Lee Edwards describes a Scandinavian myth that doesn't involve Thor, Yggdrasil, etc.: The Myth of Scandinavian Socialism.

    When the U.N. released its latest index of “happiest countries,” it probably came as no surprise to Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez that all of the Scandinavian countries finished in the top ten. They often cite them as models for their far-left policy prescriptions.

    Sanders doesn’t point to China, Cuba, or Venezuela when pushing his vision for America, but to Denmark. Surveying its spacious safety net and liberal benefits such as free education and universal health care, the socialist senator says enthusiastically, “We can learn a lot from Denmark.”

    Ocasio-Cortez agrees. As the unofficial head of the House’s Progressive Caucus, explains: “My policies most closely resemble what we see . . . in Norway, in Finland, in Sweden.”

    Sanders, AOC, and their socialist cohorts laud the Nordic model (comprising Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland) for its supposed management of the market, draconian taxes on the rich, and cradle-to-grave welfare system. Polls show that a large number of Americans, especially those under 30, would welcome the Nordic way.

    But there is a problem: Scandinavian “socialism” does not exist, except in the Marxian imagination of radical progressives. It is a chimera wrapped in an illusion inside a dream.

    Edwards' thesis might be familiar to many: the Scandinavian countries are pretty free-market. They have massive welfare programs, but those are financed with massive taxes.


  • But that would risk those pushing-granny-off-a-cliff ads again. The wonderful Jane Galt (aka Megan McArdle—I knew her when) has advice: Republicans are on track to regain power. They should decide what to do with it..

    All signs portend a historic Democratic wipeout in the midterms, and if things don’t change, a Republican presidency in 2024. Many analysts fret that Democrats are sleepwalking into disaster. They’re not wrong to worry, but at this point I’m more worried that Republicans are sleepwalking into success.

    Let’s say the GOP manages to hit the trifecta: control of the presidency and both houses of Congress. What, exactly, is it planning to do with all that power?

    Currently, the entire Republican agenda seems to consist of complaining about moderation policies at Twitter and Facebook and trying to curb perceived radicalism on race and gender in the nation’s schools. In fairness, the best case for this narrow focus is that it gets results at the ballot box.

    I'm pretty sure that success at the ballot box is all they want at this point.


  • Kafka traps: much more literate than Catch-22's. Julian Adorney writes on White Fragility: Unpacking the Kafka Traps of Robin DiAngelo's NYT Bestseller. Specifically, under DiAngelo's rules, white people have no way to refute or otherwise defend themselves an incoming charge of "racisim".

    If you're accused of racism, under DiAngelo's approach, even asking a third party to weigh in is considered unacceptable. DiAngelo says that sometimes, if someone calls her a racist, she's tempted to ask another person of color for their perspective. But she dismisses this urge as "inappropriate" and something that "upholds racism."

    Even weirder, for DiAngelo, denial of the accusation of racism is proof of your racism. In a telling passage, DiAngelo talks about, "white people who think they are not racist, or are less racist, or are in the 'choir' or already 'get it'." Those people, she asserts, "cause the most daily damage to people of color."

    That is: if you deny that you are racist, you are part of the group that (according to DiAngelo) does more actual damage to people of color than the KKK.

    This is a logical fallacy known as a Kafka trap. A Kafka trap is when someone is accused of something, and if they defend themselves then it's considered proof of their guilt.

    I'm glad Adorney read her book so I don't have to.


Last Modified 2024-01-22 9:23 AM EDT