Our Shameful Federal Government

Via Reason, John McWhorter points out the folly and destructive nature of The War on Drugs. A snippet:

The simple fact is that if there were no profit to be made in selling drugs on the street, no one would bother. For all of the “root causes” reasons so many young black and Latino men turn to this trade instead of seeking legal work, if there were no War on Drugs, they would seek other solutions to the obstacles that face them. And whatever those were, they would involve less murder, fewer crossfire injuries and killings of the kind that have likely ruined Ms. Vasquez’ life at 15, fewer men in prison for long periods, and fewer of their children growing up fatherless and on their way to repeating their father’s mistakes.

What's holding back millions of poor young Americans (black, white, Latino, male, female, whatever) is not lack of healthcare or tax-cuts for the rich or other important but ultimately red herring issues, but is The War on Drugs combined with a disastrous federal school system (no child gets left behind if every child gets left behind!).

You can demonize Wall Street and insurance companies and Bernie Madoff and whatever super-rich entity is the populist flavor of the month, but if you ever want to make a real difference for the most disadvanted in our country, start with the mafia that our federal government has mutated into.

Pro Business vs Pro Market

Luigi Zingales on why Republicans need to abandon their Big Government, Big Business policies and become pro-market. I don't agree with everything he says (the FDA is NOT pro-market; it is about as pro-business as a governement agency can be), but I think it's worth a read.