The 2014 MN Legislature will be taking up legislation on Sunday Liquor Sales. After a comment on that I made on the Facebook page, I was invited by Walter Hudson to speak about unproductive government and the government’s role in … Continue reading →
The Glass-Steagall Act, also known as the Banking Act of 1933 (48 Stat. 162), was passed by Congress in 1933 and prohibits commercial banks from engaging in the investment business. This act is an example of principled regulation of business … Continue reading →
The metaphor “the blind leading the blind” comes from ancient wisdom and is an apt metaphor for Western politics and higher education today. Not that there aren’t very smart and shrewd politicians or many new discoveries in the sciences. But, … Continue reading →
A resurgence of ideas of public virtue and principle, rather than politics as usual, is entering American consciousness as a result of a growing awareness of the divergence of law and principle.
Continue reading →The use of legal definition has become a common strategy for legislatures to fund special interests that contribute to political parties.
Continue reading →It is a common misconception to think that, because the U.S. has a democratic system of governance, it will be responsive to the people. At the macro level, where voters have some impact on their representatives, this is true. When the voters get frustrated enough, they can create enough pressure for the representatives to pass or rescind a law. But the laws that create government agencies to address problems usually create hierarchical agencies, responsive to appointed officials and budget appropriations. By nature, they are not responsive to real-world feedback.
Continue reading →Since the Columbine High School shooting on April 20, 1999, where 12 students and a teacher were killed, there has been increased concern over school safety. But the original intention to improve security at schools has morphed into anti-bully campaigns … Continue reading →
The sequester is supposed to be about government self-control, but Washington has once again made it politics.The mandated reductions of $44 billion, about 1 percent of the budget (which is still larger than last year’s budget), are supposed to be … Continue reading →
One way we can improve the U.S. system of government is to change the nature of U.S. Supreme Court appointments. Anyone watching the appointment process realizes that there is a bitter partisan rivalry in which the money funding Democratic and … Continue reading →
In a December 30 editorial in the New York Times, Georgetown professor of constitutional law talks Louis Michael Seidman wrote about ideas in his book On Constitutional Disobedience, arguing that the failure of the U.S. government lies in archaic and … Continue reading →
