Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Fargo, North Dakota - Let Them Eat Sand or Go Hungry - Nanny State

The folks in Fargo, North Dakota, who are resolutely attempting to stem the flood tides of the Red River, have been at this battle for some time now.  You have to admire them, and the coming together of diverse individuals to bag sand and then stack those sand bags around businesses and individual homes.

Some individuals, though, are unable to assist in the physical labors required in this effort, but, they are able to cook meals, and then voluntarily supply these meals to the hungry individuals manning the shovels and stacking the sand bags.

Well, as the following letter to NRO’s Jay Nordlinger shows, this is not sitting well with the health agencies in North Dakota or Minnesota.

The local radio folks did a great job hooking up hungry workers with complimentary food, until the Minnesota and North Dakota health agencies heard what was going on. They called in to the radio stations to remind listeners that the only food that could be delivered must be in its original store-bought packaging or prepared in a commercial kitchen!

Thankfully, the radio folks mentioned in the letter are telling individuals to ignore the health department (maybe civil disobedience isn’t dead), but, it still goes to show you that the State is pushing you to realize that you are helpless, unless you have their approval.

Posted by John Venlet on 03/31 at 11:49 AM
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Apologizing and Pleading

Interesting essay/advertisement in the Wall Street Journal, directed at AIG bonus recipients, but which should be read by all individuals who recognize that the State is overreaching its bounds.  The purchaser of the advertisement does not reveal his name, but, he does provide us with a brief profile.

My name is regretfully withheld to avoid the wrath of small minds and big government.
I’m a small business owner who started my career 52 years ago with nothing but a $500 used car loan and a pop up toaster and proudly, as part of Corporate America, created jobs around the world and wealth for my family.

The ad is titled A Public Apology and Plea to all AIG Associates [including bonus recipients]

An excerpt.

Thoughtful Americans – people of common sense and good will – know exactly what is going on today in American Politics.
Whether or not the proposed absurd, onerous tax penalties are eventually signed into law, we share the outrage you must feel for the utter hypocrisy, heavy handedness, and pure idiocy of our elected officials. There is nothing new about the concept of politicians identifying scapegoats to divert attention from their own ineptness, but they have now taken it to a preposterous level.

Read the whole thing.

Via The Corner.

Posted by John Venlet on 03/31 at 10:34 AM
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No Man’s Land and I Don’t Want It

In a post titled Collective withdrawl, Mike Soja brings to our attention two developments in regards to abandoned and foreclosed homes.

First, in regards to the abandoned homes, specifically in Flint, MI, we learn this.

Property abandonment is getting so bad in Flint that some in government are talking about an extreme measure that was once unthinkable—shutting down portions of the city, officially abandoning them and cutting off police and fire service.

If put into effect, this would effectively create a no man’s land, a possible rootin’ tootin’ wild west.

Off-the-cuff suggestion prompts discussion on what to do with abandoned neighborhoods in Flint

Secondly, in regards to foreclosed homes, evidently more and more banks are simply walking away from foreclosed properties.

City officials and housing advocates here and in cities as varied as Buffalo, Kansas City, Mo., and Jacksonville, Fla., say they are seeing an unsettling development: Banks are quietly declining to take possession of properties at the end of the foreclosure process, most often because the cost of the ordeal — from legal fees to maintenance — exceeds the diminishing value of the real estate.

Just another effect of a burst bubble.

Banks Starting to Walk Away on Foreclosures

Posted by John Venlet on 03/31 at 09:54 AM
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May Not Have to Wonder Much Longer

In a post I titled Is That a Promise, or a Threat?, wherein I commented on Congress’ desire to ensure that no one executive’s pay exceeded an arbitrarily set level, said arbitrarily set level to be determined by a committee of professional jobholders rather than the stockholders and market forces, I stated the following.

There will be many American individuals championing this nonsense for State oversight of compensation for executives of private enterprises.  I wonder how they are going to feel about it when the reach of the State makes it down to the worker level?

I may not have to wonder about how the workers, feel, much longer.

But now, in a little-noticed move, the House Financial Services Committee, led by chairman Barney Frank, has approved a measure that would, in some key ways, go beyond the most draconian features of the original AIG bill. The new legislation, the “Pay for Performance Act of 2009,” would impose government controls on the pay of all employees—not just top executives—of companies that have received a capital investment from the U.S. government. It would, like the tax measure, be retroactive, changing the terms of compensation agreements already in place. And it would give Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner extraordinary power to determine the pay of thousands of employees of American companies.

Beyond AIG: A Bill to let Big Government Set Your Salary

Posted by John Venlet on 03/31 at 09:26 AM
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“Richman’s Law”

“No matter how much the government controls the economic system, any problem will be blamed on whatever small zone of freedom that remains.”

Via Mises Economics Blog.

Posted by John Venlet on 03/31 at 07:14 AM
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