The Federal Government As Jabba The Hutt – Too Big And Too Slow To Get Anything Right
The Federal Government As Jabba The Hutt – Too Big And Too Slow To Get Anything Right
It occurred to be recently while watching television that the U.S. Federal government is really nothing more than the political incarnation of Jabba The Hutt from the Star Wars movies. As you may recall, Jabba was a formless, slow moving, overweight entity that ruled with an iron fist while devouring resources brought to him. He did not pay for anything, he just took them, and he was not there to help anyone but himself. Those he ruled over had no say in how their resources and wealth were used and had no chance in dislodging Jabba from his position of power. Kind of sounds like our political class currently sitting in DC.
Jabba came to mind today as I thought about some recent occurrences in which the Federal government has gotten so big that it is doubling back on itself and putting itself in some very weird situations and conflicts with the reality of the world around us:
– According to an article in the July 23, 2010 issue of The Week magazine, a Boston Federal judge has ruled parts of the Federal Defense of Marriage Act to be unconstitutional. This act forbids the Federal government from recognizing gay marriages and granting Federal benefits. The judge ruled that the Federal law forces Massachusetts to discriminate against it own citizens. Now for the weird part. the Obama administration is now forced to appeal the ruling, even though his administration and the Democrats in charge of Congress oppose the Defense of Marriage Act and want it repealed. The Federal government has gotten so big that it is expending legal resources to fight for something that it does not want to exist in the first place.
– This weird situation is similar to the current illegal alien situation. A recent Associated press article reported that the latest statistics relative to illegal border crossers shows that the Federal government recently had the highest levels of prosecutions for illegal aliens and the highest deportation levels of illegals since they started keeping track of such statistics but at the same time this same Federal government was in court fighting the new Arizona state law that was trying to stem the flow of illegal aliens into that state.
– Getting back to gay marriages, according to a July 15, 2010 Associated Press article, the country of Argentina recently became the first Latin American country to legalize gay marriage. The article reported that Chile and several other South American countries are likely to try and follow suit. Do we think that our Jabba, parading as the American political class, has any chance of making that happen in this country when it finds itself in court defending against gay rights?
– According to an article in the August issue of Reason magazine, since 1996 fourteen states and the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana use for medical purposes and several other states are considering doing the same. This is in direct conflict with Federal law which has sometimes resulted in Federal raids of medical marijuana providers which are illegal under Federal law but legal under state law. This is also in conflict with Obama the campaigner who wanted to decriminalize the drug when he ran for President but now defends the outlawing of it at the Federal level. Again, government has gotten so big that we have entered the weird zone regarding medical marijuana where it is legal at the same time as being illegal.
– Speaking of drug conflicts, a recent Associated Press article reported that the Federal Veterans Affairs organization would allow its patients to use medical marijuana if those patients resided in the fourteen states where medical marijuana is legal. Thus, one arm of the Federal government (Veterans Affairs) is perfectly fine with medical marijuana use while other arms of the Federal government (FBI, DEA, Federal statue) wants to wipe it out.
– If you think the Federal government has a drug problem now, wait until the Oakland City Council votes on whether to allow industrial farming of marijuana to be established in city limits, industrial farms which would produce marijuana for medical use as well as for use in products ranging from baked goods to body oil. Winning applicants who would operate these farms would have to pay annual permit fees and eight percent of their sales to taxes as well as carry million in liability insurance. Similar efforts are being pushed in other cities throughout the state along with a November ballot issue to legalize non-medical use of marijuana, according to the article. Now consider the contents of a short blurb in the July 23, 2010 issue of The Week magazine that reported on a Rand Study that concluded from their analysis that the legalization of marijuana would reduce the street price by up to 90%. Thus, the efforts in California may help reduce the street price of the drug which in turn would significantly reduce the power, wealth and influence of the Mexican drug cartels
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