FDA Abandons Cigarette Warning Fight From http://www.medpagetoday.com/PrimaryCare/Smoking/37974
The court stepped in and stopped this employment act for graphic horror show artists that would have been hired to put scary pictures on cigarettes. Thank God. Now that they won’t hire the artist, they can resume White House tours for eighth graders during sequestration.
Why blog this from California? To remind people that who you vote for locally does matter. Here we see the lousy job Mayor Nanny Boobberg has done, because he squandered the time he should use to keep his citizens in a state of readiness for natural disaster and attack such as the infamous 9/11 for programs such as banning over-sized sugar drinks and coercing women to breastfeed. How does breastfeeding fit in a city code laws as infrastructure? The first response is always the local response starting with the citizen and moving very quickly to the local government. FEMA will hand you insurance forms, not food, clothing and medicine.
California Catholic Conference Issues Statement on the Budget | Diocese of San Jose
California Catholic Conference Issues A Not So Useful Statement on the Budget-Doesn’t Address Public Sector Unions Excessive Out- of-Control Pensions or high tax rates and regulations hostile especially to small business!
Ok, so that is probably why I don’t work on a local newspaper. But that is the real news of the not in the least bit helpful commentary on the budget. They don’t begin to address the burning issue of the high unemployment and the tough business environment in California. California seems to be heading into a situation similar to Europe as described by Samuel Gregg, Ph.D of the Action Institute in an article entitled Europe's Broken Economies, October 6, 2010. Particularly, Dr. Gregg talks about the situation of soft corruption:
“Soft corruption essentially involves cozy relationships between European interest-groups — such as businesses unwilling to compete, or public-sector unions intent on securing permanent employment for their members — and political parties from across the ideological spectrum. The interest-groups provide the cash and votes that help elect politicians. The politicians reciprocate by legislating to protect their supporters.
The fatal flaw of this arrangement is that neither hard nor soft corruption creates wealth. Instead, they shift the incentives away from creating wealth through entrepreneurship and competition. More and more people are thus drawn into playing a dysfunctional game in which the objective is to manipulate state power in order to redistribute wealth towards oneself.”
While the California Catholic Conference should be concerned with the needs of those that are in need of a safety net, they also need to ensure that they are not routinely pushing programs that lead to the “dysfunctional game” that Dr. Gregg talks about. They must advocate for a better business climate where those who have the talent and ability to form businesses that create jobs are not hindered by an over reaching revenue destroying public sector. Their economic statement gives no indication that they appreciate the economic realities of the State.
