Mark Steyn Describes the US Government

As I say, just another day in the life of the republic: A corrupt bureaucracy dispensing federal gravy to favored clients; a pseudo-legislature passing bills unread by the people's representatives and uncomprehended by the men who claim to have written them; and a co-regency of jurists torturing an 18th century document in order to justify what other countries are at least honest enough to recognize as an unprecedented novelty. Whether or not, per Scalia, we should "condemn" the United States Constitution, it might be time to put the poor wee thing out of its misery.

Alaska State Trooper retires so he can go back to work for troopers

Here we go again, a public employee gets his much deserved retirement and then goes right back to work for the same agency, effectively doubling his income.  No financial details in this story from the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner but the most essential ones are obvious.

Can Political Freedom Survive the Welfare State?

James Taranto, in his daily "Best of the Web" column in the on-line Wall Street Journal, has been exploring the ramifications of the IRS targeting of Tea Party groups.  The implications aren't pretty.

Can Political Freedom Survive the Welfare State? 
A point this column has emphasized repeatedly is that if the Internal Revenue Service scandal turns out not to have been directed by the White House, the situation is much direr than if it turns out Barack Obama or Valerie Jarrett was giving the orders. In the latter case, we have a corrupt administration; in the former, a corrupt government. Reader Thomas Hodson, responding to a Friday item on the subject, has this penetrating elabortion on the idea:

The possibility you omit is that every IRS employee over GS-12 instantly recognized that the Tea Party is a credible threat to the IRS as an organization. I am quite confident that nobody had to issue any orders, directions, suggestions, hints, or blow any dog whistles for them to know what to do to defend their jobs and promotion possibilities. Indeed, the difficulty for the GS-14s, -15s, and SES-types would be to prevent this kind of activity, assuming that the 14s, etc. were so inclined, which I doubt very much. It was not an accident, either. Even if every single one of the elected federal officials were a Republican, and even if the entire federal bureaucracy were populated by Republicans, you would still get this self-protective behavior from IRS leadership and staff.

In my view, this episode reveals a problem that is much worse than the sort of political direction at which you hint. It means that the only remedy is to remove the institutional incentives for this kind of behavior. The only way I can see to do that is to eliminate the federal power of direct taxation. There is a reason that the Framers deprived the federal government of this power, being concerned as they were, especially Madison, to impede the use of government power for political ends.

This is much more than a mere political scandal. I have not been able to conceive of a clearer illustration that with the power of direct taxation, any government, even the U.S. Government, can become over time as totalitarian as it finds useful. Nevertheless, even the most limited-government-oriented commentators I have heard or read are still treating it as a political scandal.

Abolishing direct taxation sounds good to us. But how does one pay for a vast (or even only half-vast) welfare state without it? Abolishing the welfare state sounds good to us too, but even paring it back has proved tough to sell politically. If the welfare state inexorably erodes freedom, that poses a hell of a political problem for those who cherish the latter.

Interesting Fact of the Day

US government sources estimate that 48% of the Americans that own riding lawn mowers also have health club memberships.

Joelle Numainville Canadian Time Trial National Champion and Elite Women's Road Race Champ

Optum Pro Cycling p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies second year team member Joelle Numainville has captured the Canadian Women's National Time Trial crown at St. George, Quebec by a 20 second margin over Anika Todd, averaging 40.6 km/hr over the 27 km. course.  The next day she overcame a puncture and went on to sprint past team mate Leah Kirchmann and former team mate Lex Albrecht for her second national championship in as many days.

Optum Ladies Cycling Team

Tibco Women Win At Nature Valley GP

German Claudia Hausler, victor in the 2009 Giro Donne, won the Stillwater Criterium, final race in the Nature Valley GP series.  Hausler moved into the NRC  lead with 822 points, Allison Powers is second with 730 and Shelley Olds third with 688.

After the Optum win on Friday night in the Minneapolis Uptown Criterium, it looked like the orange and black clad ladies had everything going their way.  New US road champion Jade Wilcoxson had won the previous day's  road race near Cannon Falls, MN and her powerful team had delivered her first to the line in Uptown as well.  The long and wearying Menomonie, WI road race on Saturday, however, ended with Wilcoxson having the infinitesimal advantage of one second over Tibco star and 2012 Olympian Shelley Olds, who had worked hard to collect as many bonus seconds as possible.  On the final turn at Stillwater leading to the finish on Chilkoot Hill, Wilcoxson crashed into the outer barriers and was unable to cross the finish line.  Given the time that the group she was with, she lost the general classification to Olds by 8 seconds.

Overall winner Shelley Olds also won the NVGP women's GC in 2010.

Best young rider winner Denise Ramsden of Optum Cycling and the Canadian Olympic team.

            St. Paul Criterium winner Lauren Hall and Tibco mainstay Samantha Schneider.

                             Optum super rookie Brianna Walle finished fifth in the general classification.

All-around threat Joelle Numainville finished sixth in the GC.