Yearly Archives: 2004

Federalism?

This entry was posted in Capitalism Constitution Drug Laws Federal Government Government Libertarianism on by

Jonah Goldberg thinks federalism is a good thing and rues the apparent abandonment of the concept by bush and other conservatives:

The virtue of a federalist, republican form of government is that the more you push these decisions down to the level where people actually have to live with their consequences, the more likely it is they will be a) involved and interested in the decision-making process, and b) happy with the result. Federalism is also morally superior because it requires the consent of the governed at the most basic level.
Goldberg, though, believes the “most basic level” is the individual state when, in fact, state level legislation exhibits the same problems as federal legislation, e.g., it can not properly take into account the local1 context and, as above, legislators at all levels are disconnected from the consequences of their decisions, their feedback loops are broken, the have likely been captured by moneyed interests, and their citizens are poorly served.
It is time for us, the citizens, to eliminate the federal, state, and, perhaps, city monopolies on creating law and implement federalism carried to a more appropriate level, a polycentric government structure.
Via Running Scared.
1At the level where human interactions take place.

Raich v Ashcroft

This entry was posted in Capitalism Constitution Domestic Terrorism Drug Laws Law Enforcement Libertarianism Regulation on by

This is what you should be paying attention to today! Drug War Rant has a detailed guide on the issues and links to the supporting documents.
Though I do not have high expectations that the Supremes will do the right thing Lawrence v Texas does give me a bit of hope. Heck, maybe they will go just a bit extreme and just whack Commerce Clause legislation back to its foundations: the feds only business in regulating interstate commerce is to make sure the states do not establish laws that discriminate against the citizens of other states.

Friday Ark

This entry was posted in Friday Ark on by

Cats, Dogs, Spiders and ? every Friday.
Warning: Ark loading delays this week. The regular staff is on the road with limited time and bandwidth. Expect delays until Sunday or Monday.
I’ll post links to sites that have Friday (or shortly thereafter) photos of their chosen animals as I see them (no photoshops and no humans).
Leave a comment or trackback to this post and I’ll add yours to the list. If there is interest I’ll keep this as a weekly feature.
Do remember The Carnival of the Cats every Sunday.
Privious editions: 11/19/04, 11/12/04, 11/5/05, 10/29/04, 10/22/04, 10/15/2004, 10/8/2004, 10/1/2004 and 9/24/2004.
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