From the fact that people are very different it follows that, if we treat them equally, the result must be inequality in their actual position, and that the only way to place them in an equal position would be to treat them differently. Equality before the law and material equality are therefore not only different but are in conflict with each other; and we can achieve either one or the other, but not both at the same time
-- F.A. Hayak
President Obama's Senior Adviser, David Axelrod, was a guest on ABC News ThisWeek with George Stephanopoulos. Axelrod was asked about then-candidate Obama's pledge not to raise taxes on anyone making under $250,000 per year. Here's his response:
"One of the problems we've had in this town is that people draw lines in the sand and they stop talking to each other. And you don't get anything done. That's not the way the president approaches us. He is very cognizant of protecting people -- middle class people, hard-working people who are trying to get along in a very difficult economy. And he will continue to represent them in these talks," Axelrod said.
Don't you love how a campaign promise not to raise taxes on anyone making less than $250,000 suddenly becomes someone else's "line in the sand" and not the president's solemn word.
Photoshopped, of course, but inspirational nevertheless.
Long Live The Left...
The seduction of federalizing leftist ideology is belied by the real world experience of state governance. So write the editors of today's
Wall Street Journal in which they describe the experience of three states who adopted leftist policies. The residents of New York, New Jersey, and California are faced with heavy tax burdens arising from financing huge welfare states. Moreover, these formerly rich states are governed by capitals dominated by public-employee unions and are infamous for job losses, booming deficits and debt, wage stagnation, out-migration and laughing-stock legislatures. At least Americans have the ability to flee these ill-governed states for places that still welcome wealth creators.
The debate in Washington now is whether to spread this antigrowth model across the entire country. Unfortunately, the movement to extend the principles that brought these three states to the brink of ruin to the federal goverment appears to be winning.
Kimberley A. Stresses writes...
Among the many reasons President Barack Obama and the Democratic majority are so intent on quickly jamming a cap-and-trade system through Congress is because ... In April, the Polish Academy of Sciences published a document challenging man-made global warming. In the Czech Republic, where President Vaclav Klaus remains a leading skeptic, today only 11% of the population believes humans play a role. In France, President Nicolas Sarcoxie wants to tap Claude Alleger to lead the country's new ministry of industry and innovation. Twenty years ago Mr. Alleger was among the first to trill about man-made global warming, but the geochemist has since recanted. New Zealand last year elected a new government, which immediately suspended the country's weeks-old cap-and-trade program.
As of today, more scientists disagree with the theory that the human activities contribute significantly to global climate change than agree (about 13 times the number who authored the U.N's climate summary for policy makers disagree with the report). For example, writes Ms. Stresses,
Joanne Simpson, the world's first woman to receive a Ph.D. in meteorology, expressed relief upon her retirement last year that she was finally free to speak "frankly" of her nonbelief. Dr. Kiminori Itoh, a Japanese environmental physical chemist who contributed to a U.N. climate report, dubs man-made warming "the worst scientific scandal in history." Norway's Ivar Giaever, Nobel Prize winner for physics, decries it as the "new religion." A group of 54 noted physicists, led by Princeton's Will Happer, is demanding the American Physical Society revise its position that the science is settled. (Both Nature and Science magazines have refused to run the physicists' open letter.)
The context for Ms. Strassel's report is the observation that countries whose science hasn't become as politicized as America's are turning away from "unconvincing green science" -- A phrase used by a member of Australia's parliament, Steve Fielding, after having been briefed by President Obama's special assistant on energy and the environment. He wasn't convinced and, because Mr. Fielding represents a key vote for Australia's "cap and trade" bill, the bill is set to founder as the Australian lawmakers break for winter.
The Cap and Trade tax bill comes before congress tomorrow and will likely pass.
California is out of money. Period. This isn't a surprise, of course. But one might think that Sacramento would be focussing, like a laser, on the financial crisis of its own making.
Not so! Evidently, concern about California's reputation for its sunny, healthy lifestyle is such as to cause the legislators to want to regulate the vegetables in school lunches and the milk served to children.
If it becomes law, AB 627 would require low-fat or skim milk to be served to children 2 years old and older. It would limit sugar in cereals and eliminate deep frying and sweetened drinks. It also would establish an 18-month pilot project to evaluate stronger nutrition and physical activities standards.
... one of its original advocates, Claude Castonguay, has had second thoughts and now suggest that government-run hospitals rent their facilities to physicians in the off-hours.
A fellow abortionist lionizes Dr. Tiller.
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