Political Philosophy

The Rust Coast

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The speed with which socialism can destroy a region never ceases to stun me. In the 1960s Los  Angeles  eclipsed  New York as the place to be in America to make things happen. And now...

“The Rust Coast” seems an incorrect  metaphor as California does not have great industries of steel as did the Great Lake states. Yet, what do film, silicon and aircraft aluminum decay to?    

Whatever we call it, it is the dust of squandered dreams.  

[h/t Instapundit]

[Update: (2009-2-25 3:14pm):  Steven Malanga via Instapundit,

But California doesn’t just have a spending problem. Increasingly it also has economic and revenue problems. Even as I write this other neighboring states are running ads in local newspapers inviting California businesses to move their headquarters out of the state. That’s advertising money well spent. A poll of business executives conducted last year by Development Counsellors International, which advises companies on where to locate their facilities, tabbed California as the worst state to do business in.

There are a host of reasons why California has become toxic to business, ranging from the highest personal income tax rate in the country (small business owners are especially hard hit by PITs), to an environmental regulatory regime that has made electricity so expensive businesses simply can’t compete in California. That is one reason why even California-based businesses are expanding elsewhere, from Google, which built a server farm in Oregon, to Intel, which opened a $3 billion factory for producing microprocessors outside of Phoenix.

]

The Great Leader — A Brief Dialogue

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He said, “Yes We Can!” meaning, for each us, “Yes You Will!”

We answered, “No We Won’t!” saying, to each us, “Yes You Can!”

Delusional

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Obama Print

I recently saw this print in a Chicago window that neatly encapsulates the delusions of the fervent Obama supporter. I love the fact that it is in a storefront strewn with nuts, quite appropriate in the context of this bizarre love affair.

The Impact of Regulatory Overkill

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This is so depressing that I barely have the heart to write this post.

Back in December, I posted about the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, which was passed with the intent of protecting children from harmful substances in clothing, toys, and other products. This legislation, as I said at that time, was apparently drafted without proper attention to the practical issues involved with compliance, and it appeared likely to devastate the businesses of many companies–especially small ones–and to greatly reduce product diversity.

In early January, Trying to Grok reported that this legislation will likely have a very constraining influence on homecrafters.

It now seems that the legislation requires, or at least is being interpreted to require, the removal from trade of children’s books which were printed prior to 1985. According to a comment at one thread on this subject:

I just came back from my local thrift store with tears in my eyes! I watched as boxes and boxes of children’s books were thrown into the garbage! Today was the deadline and I just can’t believe it! Every book they had on the shelves prior to 1985 was destroyed! I managed to grab a 1967 edition of “The Outsiders” from the top of the box, but so many!

Please read the links, especially the last one. This comes via Shop Floor.

More Leftist Dual Models

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This post and the subsequent  discussion  at Reason demonstrate the behavior that I discussed in my Tale of Two Poverties post, i.e., leftists often advance two  contradictory  models of the same behavior depending on the argument they need to sell at any particular moment.  

In this case we see two instances of the behavior in the Obama’s advocacy of increased tobacco taxes, as described in the  article,  and then in the comments we see reliably leftist commenter “Joe” calling payroll taxes a regressive “tax”.

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