“Watching Obama rack up victories in states like Virginia, New Mexico, Ohio, and North Carolina on Election Night in 2008, anyone could easily conclude that racism, as a national force, had been defeated. The thought should not be easily dismissed: Obama’s victory demonstrates the incredible distance this country has traveled. Indeed, William F. Buckley Jr. later revised his early positions on race; Robert Byrd spent decades in Congress atoning for his. That a country that once took whiteness as the foundation of citizenship would elect a black president is a victory. But to view this victory as racism’s defeat is to forget the precise terms on which it was secured, and to ignore the quaking ground beneath Obama’s feet.”
via Fear of a Black President – Ta-Nehisi Coates – The Atlantic.
Meandering about the Internet, The Tortoise came across this article. It is profound, subtle and powerful. It is about racism in America, but not of it. Proud to be an American in many ways, but our experiment is not done; well, I hope not.
Red Tape: Rising Cost of Government Regulation
“From the beginning of the Obama Administration to the end of March 2011, a staggering 75 new major regulations, with costs exceeding $38 billion, have been adopted. While the President has acknowledged the need to rein in regulation, the steps taken to date have fallen far short. The President cannot have it both ways—having identified overregulation as a problem, he must take real and significant steps to rein it in. At the same time, Congress—which shares much of the blame for excessive regulation—must step in, establishing critical mechanisms and institutions to ensure that unnecessary and excessively costly regulations are not imposed on the U.S. economy and the American people. Without such decisive steps, the costs of red tape will continue to grow, and Americans—and the U.S. economy—will be the victims.”
via Red Tape: Rising Cost of Government Regulation.
Every time there is a major scandal, there comes a call to get the instigators. Next comes a new agency to effect a new regulation. Surely there must be enough law and regulation on the books to get the job done. The Tortoise has been digging around to understand better what goes on. Truly it goes at a tortoise pace because he just doesn’t have a high confidence level in many watchdogs. Truthfully our good, major newspapers are stretched to make the slightest dent in oversight. In the meantime we we are nearly forced to rely on sound bites and over-simplifications.