Running Amok

Today a Drudge Report headline caught my eye: “DOJ raids Guitar Factory”.  I followed the story, thinking I was going to read about a crackdown on some store-front operation near the Mexican border.  Nope, not by a long shot.  The first line of the WSJ article made my jaw drop, “Federal agents swooped in on Gibson Guitar Wednesday…”  Gibson, really?  They’re at the top of the heap of US guitar manufacturers.  What in the world can this be about?  I read on.

"The Fish and Wildlife Service alleges Gibson bought wood illegally harvested from protected forests."  I knew guitar makers regularly used rosewood and ebony in manufacturing instruments.  But heck, I didn’t even know ebony and rosewood grew in this country.

Rreading on.  The Fed’s are talking about wood grown in Africa, South America and Asia.  We’re spending tax dollars chasing down some pieces of wood to enforce a possible violation in another hemisphere?  Geeze, these Fish and Wildlife guys must not have a lot on their plates.

Unfortunately, I continued to read and it got worse.   According to the Feds’ present interpretation of law the burden isn’t only on a manufacturer like Gibson when importing.  It’s on you and me too.  OK, so what. I’m not an importer.  No?  Got a guitar?  What’s the fingerboard made out of?  There’s a good chance it’s ebony or rosewood.  Again, so what?

Here’s what - if you take your guitar with you on a trip out of the country, when you return you will be required to sign paperwork certifying what you’re bringing back into the US.  If you can’t document that your “endangered species” of wood (i.e. fretboard) was obtained from an approved source, or is grand-fathered in due to manufacture prior to regulations currently in force then you are a violator, the same as Gibson, and subject to fine and seizure.

You think government expansion is a good thing? That more services, more "protections", more regulations are good for us?  Do you think as a people we are as free in 2011 as we were 10 years ago?  50 years ago?  This Gibson thing is a small example, but perhaps an instructive one.

More government means less liberty. It really is that simple.

Link: WSJ - Guitar Frets: Environmental Enforcement Leaves Musicians in Fear

On Wisconsin!

May the Nation turn its eyes to the Badger State.  In response to its budget deficit issues Wisconsin has dared to question the preeminence of union demands over the needs of the public at large. In less than 8 months, since the 2010 elections,  the State has begun reining in burdensome costs and recast its financial position from billion-dollar deficits to million-dollar surplus.

How is this being accomplished?  Draconian cuts?  Ending the social safety net?  Throwing grandma off the cliff?  No.  None of that. 

Small adjustments to large spending programs can reap very significant results.  For example:

• Zero-based budgeting.   Don’t start with the assumption we need 100% of what was spent last year, and add a minimum increase (a la CPI plus).  Start with zero – then ask is the program effective, is the spending appropriate, do we need more, can we make due with less.  Instead of government growth-by-design, as is the case with baseline budgeting, we end up with right-sized government in response to the needs of the day.

• Limit collective bargaining for public employee unions on non-wage issues.  This simple change allowed school districts to place teacher’s health insurance up for bid, rather than be forced to buy coverage from the union-owned health insurance carrier.  The result – school districts around the state are saving hundreds of thousands of dollars for the same coverage, are able to spend more money in the classroom, including hiring more teachers, AND some districts are even considering LOWER TAXES in their next fiscal years.

There is so much hyperbolic rhetoric in our national debate it seems as if there are no answers, no direction we can turn to make changes in this country.  We are left in malaise.  That's not what makes America exceptional.  The reality is WE CAN get our financial house in order.  You and I do it with our personal finances month in, month out.  Government can do it too.  All it takes is desire and commitment.

The founders of our Republic saw the states as civic laboratories, where public policy could be deliberated, enacted, tried and tested.  Today, let our state and federal governments look to Wisconsin and use its experience as a guide.  Forward!

Read more:

Report: Wisconsin Union Changes Saving Schools Millions

School districts seeing savings in union changes

Street Justice

A fire-bombing in Tottenham is a natural result of government not doing enough to assure the bomb-throwers’ inclusion in society.  So I shouldn't be surprised by such things since we all know government is imperfect.  Then when people riot and loot it is nothing more than a reflection of the inequities they have suffered.  No more, no less.  I suppose then it should be tolerated since these disenfranchised are simply exercising their personal initiative to take their due.

Am I getting this right?

And so when in Birmingham hooded youths shatter storefronts and strip shelves in search of booty that is simply an adjunct to the existing redistributive work of government – a sort of mano-e-mano tax levy.  In that sense I suppose the looting is a cost-saver, direct redistribution eliminating the state middle-man, reducing the government's burden.  It's actually a good thing in this age of troubling sovereign debt.

Funny though, how at first blush the images seem out of line. I might have called them criminal or even barbarous if it weren't for my budding enlightenment and ongoing re-education. See, that’s how this mindset thing can screw you up. I get so stuck in my own world, I forget that everything is relative and "my" reality is not the same as the other guy’s. What gives me the right to look at someone’s actions and think they’re wrong?  Have I traveled in their moccasins?  Or in this case Nikes, or maybe Birkenstocks.

You’ve got to be careful out there, otherwise you get the wrong impression of people.