Good piece, which applies in every Soviet in the world.

It's also worth noting that when they are pressed to cut spending on personnel it's not the Solid Waste Management Board or the Lesbian Outreach Co-ordination department that is threatened with cuts. It's police, fire brigade and ambulance personnel that are at risk.

I really like the "human shields" phrase. We excoriate Hamas for hiding its personnel and munitions in civilian areas, and call them "cowardly terrorists". We should start using that same formulation for those who use "the children" as an all-purpose justification for increasing taxes and the power of the state. They are economic terrorists, and should be called such at every opportunity.

Darleen Quick over at PW has a relevant post on some new provisions which criminalise children's books that were printed before 1985, (because of the lead in the illustrations), and another one which opens your backyard herb garden to federal inspection.

All this is justified as 'For The Children'.

To quote the Q&A section of the bill:

“If this bill can prevent one American child from being sickened or killed by a tainted product intentionally or accidentally sent into the food stream, then this bill is anecessary.”

D'oh! That should of course be Darleen Click. Apologies to all concerned.

Laird - "economic terrorists" - excellent. That will be used.

Can a Quote of the Day generate a Quote of the Day or will that cause a Stack Overflow? Can blogs support tail recursion?

The terrible thing is that these schemes are doomed to collapse - by the very success of the "Guardian reading classes" (in the United States the "New York Times reading classes") in maximising the number of people who depend on them.

The Welfare State (and the United States is a Welfare State - contrary to what people are told) will collapse within a few years now (the financial bailouts have brought forward the collapse - but it would have happened eventually anyway).

And that will leave vast numbers of the old, the sick, the disabled and the poor with no alternative means of support.

By undermining the voluntary institutions of civil society and replacing them with government schemes (thought up by academics and administered by their students) that can not last, the left have committed a great crime.

The terrible thing is that these schemes are doomed to collapse - by the very success of the "Guardian reading classes" (in the United States the "New York Times reading classes") in maximising the number of people who depend on them.

The Welfare State (and the United States is a Welfare State - contrary to what people are told) will collapse within a few years now (the financial bailouts have brought forward the collapse - but it would have happened eventually anyway).

And that will leave vast numbers of the old, the sick, the disabled and the poor with no alternative means of support.

By undermining the voluntary institutions of civil society and replacing them with government schemes (thought up by academics and administered by their students) that can not last, the left have committed a great crime.

The Pentagon is an utter disgrace:

http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/2009/03/03/on-pentagon-waste-just-give-it-to-us-straight.html

Time to privatise the Spentagon.

Problem Reaction Solution

First of all cause society to collapse till people start to call out, something must be done.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFx7lSI8srg