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Thursday, June 2, 2011
Immigration
The answer is simple - Low taxes, reasonable regulation of business, energy investment. The economy takes off, jobs for everybody. Then we go back to being the land of opportunity that welcomed everyone in.
B
This needs little comment. We can quibble about overloading the Melting Pot, but given energy and a low level of regulation, the Melting Pot can accommodate a lot of newcomers. Of course the trend is not toward a low level of regulation.
But there was a time when this would be the automatic thought of many of the American people. Of course that was before we handed over our school systems to unionized bureaucrats and multiculturists who hate and denounce American exceptionalism, so that the only route to a decent education for most Americans of any origin is to escape the public school system. There is more than one way to destroy a middle class.
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Yesterday I noted that the Feds have inspectors looking for unlicensed rabbit sellers. It turns out that's not all of the story.
I find that the rabbit police has at least 64 employees we could get rid of without losing much. They are now harassing stage magicians who have rabbits in their act. It would be legal to buy a rabbit, take it home, and feed it to a rattlesnake without a Federal permit; but if you use the rabbit in a show, you must have a Federal license, and there are Federal inspectors who scour the newspapers hoping to find the names of stage magicians who don't have Federal rabbit licenses. I understand you probably think I am making this up.
My source is http://bobmccarty.com/2011/05/25/usda-rabbit-police-stalking-magicians/. The worst of it is that it no longer surprises me that there are grown people, holding Government Service ratings, who are willing and eager to do this sort of thing for a living. Tell me what you did for your country before you retired, grandma? Now I live on pension...
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Sarah Palin seems to be taking Mitt Romney apart, but she has not announced that she is a candidate for President. It's going to be an interesting summer.
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We can all be pleased to hear that
The lawsuit filed by a Pennsylvania woman who claimed that she was sexually assaulted by a Donald Duck performer at Epcot has been settled. April Magolon sued Disney in December 2009 over the May 2008 incident, where she claimed that she was carrying one of her children and approached "Donald" for an autograph when he grabbed her breast, then made a joking gesture indicating that he had done something wrong.
Magolon's suit claimed that she had suffered "severe physical injury, emotional anguish and distress including, but not limited to post-traumatic stress disorder, muscle contraction headaches, physical harm resulting from distress, including, but not limited to acute anxiety, headaches, nausea, cold sweats, insomnia, nightmares, flashbacks, digestive problems and exacerbation of the physical injuries and other severe emotional injuries." It also claimed that she "suffered injuries of an unknown nature; she suffered severe pains, mental anxiety and anguish, and a severe shock to her entire nervous system, and other injuries the full extent of which are not yet known."
http://www.mouseplanet.com/9624/
Walt_Disney_World_Resort_Update
Magolon got her suit transferred from Florida to Pennsylvania
because traveling to Florida would be a hardship for Magolon, her fiance, and the doctors treating Magolon, who would all be testifying in the trial, and because Disney could better afford to conduct the trial in Pennsylvania than Magolon could afford to conduct it in Florida. This change of venue took the trial out of Disney's home base in Florida, where it would be more likely to prevail.
Terms of the settlement are sealed, but one may expect that they include payments for the lawyers, the clinical psychologists, and various other experts willing to testify to the terrible pains and damages suffered by April Magolon, who with her children and fianc� was visiting Epcot when a cast member in a Donald Duck costume (limited visibility; thick gloves with only three fingers and a thumb) fondled her breast. It's hard to assess how much money a terrible trauma like that to 27 year old unmarried mother might be worth, but it is safe to say that the entire cost of this matter to the tax payers is not trivial, and that perhaps this indicates some needless costs in the legal system? It may be true that "severe physical injury, emotional anguish and distress including, but not limited to post-traumatic stress disorder, muscle contraction headaches, physical harm resulting from distress, including, but not limited to acute anxiety, headaches, nausea, cold sweats, insomnia, nightmares, flashbacks, digestive problems and exacerbation of the physical injuries and other severe emotional injuries." constitute a wrong that needs a'rightin', but given that the governments -- Federal, Florida, and Pennsylvania -- are nearly bankrupt, is this a high priority item? Has no one ever recovered from having a man in a duck costume pinch her mammary and then apologize? Or are headaches, nausea, cold sweats, insomnia, nightmares, flashbacks, etc.. etc., such terrible suffering that we should pay for a system to remedy this horror while cutting appropriations for science research, space, the military, prisons, health care...
Perhaps some drastic tort law reforms might be an appropriate part of any laws raising the debt ceiling?
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As to why we might not want to cut our defense budget too much:
Press Trust of India
ISLAMABAD, 19 MAY:In the wake of the US raid in Abbottabad that killed Osama bin Laden, China has �warned in unequivocal terms that any attack on Pakistan would be construed as an attack on China�, a media report claimed today.
The warning was formally conveyed by the Chinese foreign minister at last week's China-US strategic dialogue and economic talks in Washington, The News daily quoted diplomatic sources as saying. China also advised the USa to �respect Pakistan's sovereignty and solidarity�, the report said. Chinese Premier Mr Wen Jiabao informed his Pakistani counterpart Mr Yousuf Raza Gilani about the matters taken up with the US during their formal talks at the Great Hall of the People yesterday. The report said China �warned in unequivocal terms that any attack on Pakistan would be construed as an attack on China�. The two premiers held a 45-minute one-on-one meeting before beginning talks with their delegations.
http://www.thestatesman.net/index.php?
option=com_content&view=article&id=370105&catid=35
Of course the days when the US and Pakistan (and Iraq and Iran and UK and Turkey) were in a NATO-like formal alliance against both China and the USSR are long over (CENTO ended in about 1980); still, this is a warning. If China is looking for a causus belli (unlikely at the moment) there are junior officers at Nellis capable of providing one any day of the week...
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