Shmegulation
How does more taxes, pro-abortion, pro-partial birth abortion, pro-gay rights, pro-regulation, how does that play…(ANDREW NAPOLITANO, FOX News senior judicial analyst: The Big Story with John Gibson, 7/7/04)
So I am thinking about that bland phrase “pro-regulation”, and how it’s actually code for “tree hugging mother f*k*r”. And how pointless, really, it is to point out that when the phrase is taken at face value, it is powerfully meaningless. And I am considering what a complete waste of time it is to point out that if one were to claim being pro-regulation, or anti-regulation for that matter, than one might as well be saying, if you live in Chicago, for example, that you are pro-Winter or pro-Summer. You might seriously believe that the warm weather is preferable, or that you, to the contrary, love Winter’s warm hearth, and don’t forget the magic of the Holidays, and that Summer humidity is just unbearable, but wait! how about those July Fourth barbecues, and bike rides along the Lake! Of course, none of this prognosticating matters because Winter will come and then Summer will come, and then Winter will come again and so on.
Regulation is simply the weather. We don’t argue about whether we need it IN GENERAL. The uncomfortable fact that Capitalism would be a flat failure without regulation is one of the most ridiculously OPEN dirty little secrets of American Culture! I can hardly stand it. It’s even true that Adam Smith HIMSELF argued that government must reign in the excesses of private capital (See Schlesinger’s The Age of Jackson; he has a great chapter on this.) This is almost religiously forgotten.
But, like I said, what a waste of breath to even BROACH the subject…