The Labor Department has abandoned its effort to ban kids from working on farms.

A victory of sorts for freedom: The Labor Department has abandoned its effort to ban kids from working on farms.

The reason I consider this merely a temporary victory is that the desire to regulate these matters still exists in the people running the federal government. These same people also don’t understand that, as a free nation, they have no moral right to impose these rules in the first place. Thus, they remain a threat, waiting only for another opportunity to try again.

It’s not just a good idea, it’s the law!

Mexico has passed its own very strict climate change law.

The new law contains many sweeping provisions to mitigate climate change, including a mandate to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide by 30% below business-as-usual levels by 2020, and by 50% below 2000 levels by 2050. Furthermore, it stipulates that 35% of the country’s energy should come from renewable sources by 2024, and requires mandatory emissions reporting by the country’s largest polluters.

Some predictions:
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The trial of an ex-JPL computer specialist who claims he was fired for his Christian beliefs ended today.

The trial of an ex-JPL computer specialist who claims he was fired for his Christian beliefs ended today.

Closing arguments ended Monday after a five-week trial. The case will be decided by Superior Court Judge Ernest Hiroshige, who must first review written arguments from both sides and could take months before announcing a verdict. Both sides agreed to forgo a jury.

Passover

For the next two days posting will be light. I am in Chicago visiting family for Passover, the annual Jewish holiday celebrating the release of the Jews from slavery in Egypt. During the Seder meal, Jews read the Haggadah, which retells the story of the Jewish slavery in Egypt and their escape, with the idea of reminding each person what is like to be a slave, and then to be free. As it says in the Haggadah,

In every generation each individual is bound to regard himself as if he had gone personally forth from Egypt.

Tonight, this is what Jews do. It would be nice if all people reflected on this and did the same.

The poster child of the Democratic Party: Marion Barry.

The poster child of the Democratic Party: Marion Barry.

Celebrating his victory in the Democratic primary on Tuesday night, Barry spoke up about the prominence of businesses owned by Asians in the District. “We got to do something about these Asians coming in and opening up businesses and dirty shops,” Barry said in remarks first reported by WRC-TV. “They ought to go. I’m going to say that right now. But we need African-American businesspeople to be able to take their places, too.” [emphasis mine]

The important thing to note here is that Barry won his Democratic primary, and was cheered by his supporters when he made these remarks. Thus, while Barry’s comments are clearly bigoted, it is the voters in the Democratic Party that are providing him aid and comfort.

“a train wreck for the Obama administration.”

“A train wreck for the Obama administration.”

Trying to determine what the Supreme Court will rule on any issue by analyzing the questions they ask beforehand has generally been a poor predictor of their final decision. Sadly, we really won’t know what the Supreme Court will do until they do it.

Moreover, from my perspective it would be far better for Congress to repeal the law rather than have the court rule it unconstitutional. In the former it will be done by legislative action, backed by the voters. In the latter it would be the decision of nine unelected individuals, essentially expressing their personal opinions. In a true democracy the former is definitely preferred.

“This is a stunning power for an agency to arrogate to itself when there is absolutely no mention of it in the statute.”

“This is a stunning power for an agency to arrogate to itself when there is absolutely no mention of it in the statute.”

The agency is the EPA, and the words were written by an Obama-appointed judge in her ruling that told the EPA it had no right to unilaterally cancel already approved permits.

As I’ve said, the law is such an inconvenient thing for this administration.

The reckoning

The reckoning.

Today, it’s the Catholic Church whose free-exercise powers are under assault from this cascade of diktats sanctioned by — indeed required by — Obamacare. Tomorrow it will be the turn of other institutions of civil society that dare stand between unfettered state and atomized citizen.

Rarely has one law so exemplified the worst of the Leviathan state — grotesque cost, questionable constitutionality and arbitrary bureaucratic coerciveness. Little wonder the president barely mentioned it in his latest State of the Union address. He wants to be reelected. He’d rather talk about other things.

Remember, the power of the state is not always wielded by those you agree with. From the right or the left, fear that power, because it will come after you both when it finally has the ability to do so.

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