Akkam’s Razor

No, you read that correctly.

Jonah’s book is horrible.   The book’s very premise is more a Mel Brook’s film than a serious piece of critical analysis.  Anything which  can honestly transpose the smiley face with the Hitler mustache needs to be looked at with a critical eye.

Indeed, I have no intention of reading this piece of … literature (?) unless I should be given it for free or discover it holding up a door or substituting as a sofa leg.  I’ve gotten more than my share from the Editors at the PoorMan and Sadly, No!, thank you.

Just for the sake of being illustrative, here’s a typical passage from the book:

Moreover, Nazism also emphasized many of the themes of later New Lefts in other places and times: the primacy of race, the rejection of rationalism, an emphasis on the organic and holistic — including environmentalism, health food and exercise — and, most of all, the need to “transcend” notions of class.

Now, you may say, where is the brilliance?  We all know that GOP is actually  an acronym for Group of Parrots, and the flock readily ‘parrots’ whatever their thought leaders, be they O’Reilly, Limbaugh,  or some lesser pundit.   Jonah has equipped them all with a talking point and sound bite sure to resonate with the black-helicopter crowd - the Liberal Facist - facism with a smile.

These guys have screwed things up royally - and I don’t buy into stories of their intending to do it and profit - see Hanlon’s Razor (”Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.”).   The interventions will likely be painful to the populace, disruptive to business models, and yet another excellent wedge for the GOPers (pronounced goo-pers) to employ against any attempts at moving past our various quagmires.

They will gladly say that banning incandescent light bulbs is a fascist removal of consumer choice.  They will say that banning trans-fats is Big Brother in the burger box.  They will say whatever they can to stay relevant and pander to the craziest and most-selfish of the selfish-crazies.

It’s worthwhile to remember Reagan’s mantra on taxes, subsidies, and regulation, which actually runs counter to the revisionist hagiography  we’ve seen since he’s left the political stage (and this mortal coil):

If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.

Likewise, examine this quotation regarding the ‘nuding’ of humans towards a desired outcome via John Tierney in the NYTimes’ Science Blog:

Dr. Thaler and Mr. Sunstein advocate what they call “libertarian paternalism,” and they insist it’s not an oxymoron, because they advocate policies that guide people in one direction while still giving them freedom to make a different choice.

Sin taxes of one sort or another have been widely accepted, from alcohol, to cigarettes, to gas guzzler taxes.  I posit that the main reason we have been seeing cigarette use going down is not the success of the Clinton Administration and the Tobacco Settlement, better education of the populace as to the detrimental effects, or the efforts of the tobacco companies.  N, plain and simple, as prices, fueled by taxes on cigarettes rose, consumption went down.  When future legislatures contemplate handling our current and future challenges, they’d be well advised to keep that fact in mind.