Whenever I meet a progressive wonk-type, I always make sure to ask them: “If you could wave a wand and fulfill your every political goal, what kind of world would you build?”
The answers inevitably consist of more policy. “A nationwide jobs program,” “universal pre-K,” or “guaranteed annual income.” -Nathan J. Robinson 
Only two of the thirty recoveries since 1870 have been this lackluster: Franklin Roosevelt's and Barack Obama's. During the administrations of both men federal spending skyrocketed and economic paralysis set in.
Roosevelt's New Deal brought about a "tectonic shift" that made government more involved in the economy. Roosevelt's barrage of new laws, tax increases, and regulations was unequaled until President Obma. -Charlotte Hays
Even the most simple-minded among us would realize that there isn’t a single answer to that question: Some trips are best done in a 747, some in a Honda Civic.
What is the ideal mix of walking paths, bicycle routes, rickshaws, Hindustan Ambassadors, airliners, private jets, trains, hyperloops, spacecraft, sailboats, Teslas, hot-air balloons, zip lines, etc., for the world’s 7.125 billion people? And what will it be 20 years from now? Would you really trust a group of politicians to figure that out? -Kevin D. Williamson
Government, Incompetence, Funny, Waste, Regulation
A new bill moving through the State Assembly and Senate will require “shampoo assistants” working in hair salons to complete a minimum of 500 hours of a 1,000-hour course in cosmetology. The completion of 500 hours will entitle applicants to a newly established “Shampoo Assistant Certificate.”...
The job primarily involves draping the client, lathering the head and rinsing, and odd jobs like sweeping hair off the floor.
Liberal, Government, Incompetence, Regulation
During times of natural disasters, communities and local businesses come together to provide much-needed necessities to one another. In Green Cove Springs, Florida, Jack Roundtree, owner of the Triple J BBQ food truck, decided to set up shop in front of a restaurant to provide lunch to hungry residents and workers cleaning up in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma...
But instead of serving lunch, the police ordered Roundtree to shut down Triple J and leave town. His crime? Operating without a permit.
Government, Incompetence, Oops, Education, Academia, Regulation
The University of California, Berkeley, will cut off public access to tens of thousands of video lectures and podcasts in response to a U.S. Justice Department order that it make the educational content accessible to people with disabilities... The department ordered the university to make the content accessible to people with disabilities. Berkeley, however, publicly floated an alternative: removing everything from public view.
“In many cases the requirements proposed by the department would require the university to implement extremely expensive measures to continue to make these resources available to the public for free,” Koshland wrote in a Sept. 20 statement.
Government, Incompetence, Regulation
TUCSON, AZ (Tucson News Now) - A local cosmetology student is being investigating for giving free haircuts to homeless in the community. Juan Carlos Montesdeoca has given dozens of free haircuts to the homeless at the Santa Rita Park over the past few months. “Out of the kindness of my heart. Out of the memory of my mom, because she lost her hair,” Juan Carlos Montesdeoca said... the state statue that says in part “A person shall not perform or attempt to perform cosmetology without a license or practice in any place other than in a licensed salon.”
Government Says: No Laundry and Shower In Same Day...
"Doing a load of laundry takes about 40 to 50 gallons of water. Taking a shower for about eight minutes uses about 17 gallons of water.
Well, there’s a limitation of your daily use of water, 55 gallons per day.
So that means if you’re taking a shower and doing a load of laundry, you can’t do both without being in violation of the law.”
Even as Communist political correctness was thrown back on its heels for a time in the former Soviet empire, it was defying gravity in Europe and America. Indeed, in the United States, our constitutional republic based on limited government had already begun to give way to an expansive bureaucratic liberal regime built on court-constructed interest-group “rights.” -Fred Siegel
Government, Character, Regulation
The Miranda family said the playset was a gift from the Make-A-Wish Foundation for their 10-year-old daughter, Tiffany, whose severe seizure disorder makes it practically impossible for her to go to a city park... Jessica and her husband, Felix, said they can’t believe the city is telling them they have to take down the playground because it’s allegedly a public nuisance. “When I asked the city, ‘So where do you expect my daughter to play?’ they said ‘Well, the city’s not responsible for your daughter’s disability,'” Torres said.
Environmentalist, Liberal, Government, Fascism, Regulation
In Virginia’s Arlington County, car wash fundraisers have been banned in part to new regulations passed by the Virginia General Assembly. Under the new regulations, the Arlington County’s storm water permit does not allow charity car washes, according to a report from ARLnow’s Ethan Rothstein.
New Rules And Regulations...
"The state and city governments have totally failed us, whether it’s the outrageously high minimum wage or the nonstop oversight from government agencies [that] like to impose new rules and regulations on what seems like a daily basis."
The Liberal Narrative And The Minimum Wage
"You've got to watch out because at some point you run the risk of harming the people you set out to help."
Government, Incompetence, Sex, Degeneracy, Funny, Regulation
California’s workplace safety guardians have proposed an amendment to a bill that would require porn stars to wear protective goggles while filming. The bill, which has so far stalled in the state senate, establishes numerous mandates for the porn industry to follow with the goal of curbing the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.
Democrat, Liberal, Incompetence, Obama, Funny, Oops, Regulation
New York's Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake school district has become the latest casualty in first lady Michelle Obama’s preferred lunch plan, dropping the menu after too many students complained of hunger. “[Food service manager Nicky] Boehm and her staff worked hard to implement the new regulations, but there were just too many problems and too many foods that students did not like and would not purchase,” said Assistant Superintendent Chris Abdoo about the National School Lunch Program...
A 2013 study from economists John Dawson of Appalachian State University and John Seater of North Carolina State University, Federal Regulation and Aggregate Economic Growth, estimates that the past 50 years of federal regulations have reduced real GDP by roughly two percentage points a year, or nearly $40 trillion. -James Pethokoukis
Government, Incompetence, Funny, Economy, Regulation, Jobs
Comment: nearly 6000 regulations and you wonder why no new jobs, stupid bastards -Darrell Roeters
Government, Incompetence, Financial, Oops, Economy, Regulation
ALBARET-SAINTE-MARIE, FRANCE — Although he is rich with 25 years of experience as mayor of this little town in the wooded hills of central France, Michel Therond gets advice from the bureaucrats in Paris almost every time he opens the mail. One day’s delivery brings a directive stipulating that the sidewalks must be widened to permit two wheelchairs to cross paths without bumping. Another says the school cafeteria must be made accessible by elevator. Trees must be trimmed of branches six feet up their trunks, the orders go, and only government-certified technicians can change a light bulb on city property. “We are being strangled,” Therond complained, sifting through a pile of rules and regulations on his desk that he largely ignores — and many of which he does not even understand.
Democrat, Liberal, Government, Obama, Regulation
The Obama administration on Friday released more than 700 pages of new regulations to implement portions of the Affordable Care Act. The four rules, which are scheduled for publication in mid-March, finalize both major and minor parts of the healthcare reform law that Congress passed in 2010.
Its attitude is key to understanding our bipartisan ruling class.
Its first tenet is that “we” are the best and brightest while the rest of Americans are retrograde, racist, and dysfunctional unless properly constrained.
Government, Law, Regulation
A disability debacle is playing out in Yuba City as officials are paying a man to stay away. And because of it, he’s cashing in. Yuba City officials say the man is attacking small business owners with frivolous lawsuits. This settlement agreement is the first of its kind in the state, and while it does give the city and businesses a moment of relief from one lawyer, it also opens the floodgates for others to cash in on their decision. Owners of JJ’s Tools and Merchandise shop off Gray Avenue say they are relieved a notorious local lawyer will not be able to target their business over Americans with Disabilities Act compliance laws. “We’d probably have to close it down. We do not have the capital; we’re barely breaking even,” owner Jayne Sawyer said.
The more laws, the less justice. -Marcus Tullius Cicero
Government, Brilliance, Education, Regulation
According to its attorneys, companies risk federal prosecution under the Americans with Disabilities Act if they seek out job applicants with high-school diplomas... The legal problem, the EEOC says, is discrimination against people with learning disabilities. This astonishing requirement places an enormous burden on employers, who would either have to stop screening on the basis of diplomas, or go to great pains to prove that each applicant without a diploma is unqualified.
Editorial, Government, Incompetence, Character, Justice, Corruption, Regulation, Theft
One single fisherman, Larry Yacobian, ended up paying $450,000 in fines and owing $250,000 in legal fees. He was forced to sell his boats, his gear, and the farm that had been in his wife's family since the days of the Pilgrims. A special master appointed by the IG found that Mr. Yacobian had been treated unfairly. The government returned $400,000 to Mr. Yacobian, and the Secretary of Commerce, Gary Locke, apologized personally.
Government, Incompetence, Regulation
A Georgia man was slapped with a ticket and threatened with jail time after he refused to remove an American flag that’s been flying outside his business for more than thirty years. An Albany code enforcement officer alleged that Tom Gieryic’s flag was in violation of the city’s sign ordinance. The standard size American flag was posted on a pole outside Gieryic’s automotive repair shop. “It’s been there for 30 years,” Gieryic told Fox News. “She told me my flag was in the city’s right of way.”
Government, Incompetence, Economy, Regulation
Alongside the export juggernaut, though, is another, creakier economy that operates well below its potential and holds back not only Germany but the rest of Europe, some economists say. This economy is overregulated, intended to insulate insiders from competition and deeply resistant to change.
After years of rapid growth during the Obama administration, the cost of federal regulations is now bigger than the entire economies of all but nine countries in the world.
Government, Incompetence
SEABROOK, N.H. -- Fishermen on New Hampshire's Seacoast are warning that new fishing regulations could destroy their industry and have already caused them severe emotional stress.
Democrat, Liberal, Government, Incompetence, Obama, Energy, Regulation, Jobs
In 2009, Obama dedicated $7.2 billion of stimulus funds to build "clean tech" jobs. He vowed to create 5 million jobs over the next decade. So far, that effort has "created or retained" just 7,140 jobs, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. That's about $1 million per job. The number is actually down from last year, when the EPA claimed 16,605 green jobs.
Government, Incompetence, Regulation
How will parents react when they find out they will be expected to provide workers' compensation benefits, rest and meal breaks and paid vacation time for…babysitters? Dinner and a movie night may soon become much more complicated. Assembly Bill 889 (authored by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, will require these protections for all “domestic employees,” including nannies, housekeepers and caregivers.
Democrat, Liberal, Government, Obama, Regulation
The Obama administration is setting new workplace regulations to assist foreign workers who fill goat herding positions in the U.S., including employee-paid cell phones and comfy beds. These new special procedures issued by the Labor Department must be followed by employers who want to hire temporary agricultural foreign workers to perform sheep herding or goat herding activities. It describes strict rules for sleeping quarters, lighting, food storage, bathing, laundry, cooking and new rules for the counters where food is prepared.
Communism advocates the abolition of private property; socialism advocates government ownership of the means of production. Fascism leaves that property in private hands–then shackles those hands, every economic decision being directed by the state. Property rights are non-existent under fascism. -Harry Binswanger
Government, Incompetence, Economy
PRINCETON, NJ -- Small-business owners in the United States are most likely to say complying with government regulations (22%) is the most important problem facing them today, followed by consumer confidence in the economy (15%) and lack of consumer demand (12%).
At present, obtaining a government permission to shampoo hair requires taking two exams, at a cost of $140, plus a $50 annual fee. On top of that, someone must take 300 hours of training “on the theory and practice of shampooing,” at a cost of upwards of $3,000 for the tuition. -Elizabeth Nolan Brown
In Illinois, if you don't do your domestic-abuse training course every two years, you'll lose your hairdressing license - and your livelihood. As I write in After America, in the Fifties one in 20 members of the workforce needed government permission to do his job. Now it's one in three. -Mark Steyn
Hell, there are no rules here - we're trying to accomplish something. -Thomas A. Edison