Sad news to report today: Buckyballs have finally succumbed to government thuggery. This showed up in my inbox today.
There are a few thousand sets still available. I have two sets of the cubes. They’re a lot of fun, and a great way to unstick your brain when you run into things like writer’s block. By buying up some of the last stock, you’re also donating to Hurricane Sandy relief.
Buckyballs have been under government assault since July, when the Consumer Product Safety Commission declared them unsafe for children. The CPSC ended up admitting that government-imposed warning labels tend to be useless. The fact that Buckys aren’t made for or marketed to children has not hindered the CPSC’s campaign to ban the products, and wreck the company and the jobs that it supported.
I really don’t like this country at times. I’d go somewhere else, but they all seem even more authoritarian.
A few more comments.
Is the CPSC going to go after every thing a two-year old might find enticing and put in his mouth and choke on? Because as anyone with kids knows, that basically regulating anything smaller than my thumb. Are bottle caps next? Thumb drives? Dad’s keys?
Next, it is clear to me that their needs to be a layer between the Executive Branch and the people. We do not permit the Justice Department to just outmuscle you by saying “tough” if you have no money for an attorney. Why do we allow the same for other agencies? We do not allow the Justice Department to act without having to go through a grand jury or other outside independent government check. Why so with other agencies?
We need an organization–a new branch of government, really, not of the judiciary (too busy, sometimes too in awe of the majesty of the state), not of Congress (too politically aware sometimes to act, and having other things to do) to insure Executive Branch agencies are not being destructive of the liberties of the people. For always remember, the seat of sovereignty in the United States lies not with the Federal Government or the states, but with the people of the states. Why then should the Federal government have unlimited resources at its disposal, and the citizen none, but access to a court? Why shouldn’t one part of the government have to explain to another independent part ON A ROUTINE BASIS why action is needed?
We need a tribunate.
And if folks will pardon the stream of consciousness, and the “wide-eyed dreaming”, for a moment–we need a seperate body because the courts need to follow the laws as set. Thus, Nakoula needs to go to jail. But….given the circumstances, justice does not seem to be served by his arrest. Some lubricant thus needs to be able to be added to the system to unstick it and prevent government action from being based on purely political concerns.
A Tribunate can do this–Take other considerations into account besides the law, but be constructed in such a way that the principle of the rule of law is preserved. For example–one tribune can veto a government action for a short period of time. A larger body of tribunes, sitting en banc, upholds or overturns. But maybe with a time limit–say, no government action for two years (allows the people to go to the polls and decide the issue in the voting booth). So, in this respect, like the judiciary. Temporary injunction, and semi-permanent injunction.
But more automatic, solely focused on policing government (not the people) and with this important caveat–composed not of lawyers or judges, but citizens. Citizens who cannot run for political office for a set period of time after being a tribune, to jeep them from using the system as a stepping stone the way DAs do. A body also designed to be more in touch with the spirit of the community than judges.
And of course, nothing would change as far as the ability to go to the courts. This would be an extra adfitional layer.
A tribunate. This way, wen it comes to deciding about the propiety of government actions, the courts can get back to the law, and the people themselves can take care of the justice.
I welcome an argument here, though I’m probably not going to get much of one. Because I want to perfect the idea, as much as humanly possible. As one translation of Pericles I have seen says–”we think ideas improved by discussion.”
My key concern, and something I see as a showstopper–how to keep the “by hook or by crook, by any means necessary, we will have our will be done” social justice crusaders from perverting the intent? Until that safeguard is in, I would actually vote “no” on my own proposal. If the people want “social justice” to be the purpose of government, they can vote in legislators to that purpose. I obeject to them hijacking the courts, the media, and every other institution in America.
The idea of the Tribunate is not to get policies made to move”forward”. The idea is to preserve the American Experiment at a time when parts of the body politic are already dead. Economic conditions and status come and go, and can be addressed, within bounds, by legislatures. The misuse and poor use of power will be with us, always, and is handled imperfectly by the courts (for reasons good and bad), and if the officeholder is a Democrat, not at all by the press.
Most places are. Keep fighting for yours, I don’t think we can afford to lose you. As long as there is one good, or even just a bit better example to point at perhaps there is some hope even for the rest of us.
I bought some back in July. They are all Bryan says they are. Just bought a few more. Sad.
When the CPSC wrecks a company and puts people out of work, they’re both pluses!! Marxists hate greedy capitalist pigs but love greedy bureaucrats like themselves! And every person put out of work and onto government assistance is another yet potential democrat voter!! It’s win-win!
Big government; destroying another freedom every day since FDR.
I do beleive Obama was elected due to the Consumer Protection act.
By making sure that stupid people survive childhood, and subsequently have stupid children of their own, we have insured that 47% of the population is Stupid enough to fall for this huckster.
We had been promised a fundamental transformation of America, and here it is.
Some Homo Sovieticus in his cubicle fills up forms and forms and destroys business, jobs, profit, free market economy. Then he goes home and eats what Michelle Obama and Major Bloomberg tell him to eat and to drink, then he watches TV shows designed to keep his mind empty.
And tomorrow is another day for the Homo Sovieticus, he will cut the Buckyballs to some other business…
I guess I should stop looking for a small set of Buckyballs in my Kinder Eggs–oh yeah.
You’re missing the forest for the ugly little gnarled trees. What do you suppose happens to all the precious little two year-olds who never get a chance to choke to death on on something a moderately intelligent child would refuse to inhale? That’s right, they grow up, amass a huge student-loan debt, and go to work for government, doing their part to protect us all!
A nationwide airdrop of marbles could rid us of mindless bureaucrats in a single generation.
It ain’t mean, baby, it green!
Bryan,
Thanks for the update – I am buying these for Xmas presents.
Screw government oversight.
People stop putting them in your mouth and noes. Use them to build http://www.dotpedia.com… ugh idiots.