Even Californians Are Rejecting Backward Government

Yesterday I offered my opinion that Wisconsin’s recall vote was evidence that “taxpayers of all political stripes are beginning to realize” the excesses of government benefits to public sector unions. It turns out Wisconsin wasn’t Tuesday’s only evidence. There were also ballot proposals in California. As NPR reports:

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Thoughts on the Wisconsin Recall Vote

Last night, Wisconsin governor Scott Walker won his recall election by a larger margin than his original election in 2010. Today there will be a lot of pundits telling you exactly what this means for Wisconsin and the future of the country, but I just want to try to recap what happened and tell you my reactions.

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Where is the Climate Change Food Crisis?

For years we’ve been hearing about the looming global food crisis caused by climate change and overpopulation. But the world continues to refuse to cooperate. This morning, Bloomberg reports the world is likely to have a third consecutive record year for rice production:

Farmers will harvest 466.4 million metric tons in the 2012-2013 season, boosting stockpiles by 0.7 percent to 104.9 million tons, the largest since 2001-2002, says the U.S. Department of Agriculture…

There is enough supply to meet all the demand in the world,” said Concepcion Calpe, a senior economist at the UN’s Food & Agriculture Organization, where’s she is also secretary of the Rome-based group’s inter-governmental body on rice. “There will be ground for a further slide in prices.”

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The Right To Drink Unhealthy Soda

New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg wants to ban soda. Well, except for sizes 16 ounces and smaller. And all sizes in grocery stores. And diet sodas and fruit juices. But if you’re a cup of 32 ounces of Coke in a movie theater, Bloomberg wants to get rid of you.

“Nanny Bloomberg” has already done things like ban smoking in parks and restaurants and ban “artificial trans fat in restaurant food,” but apparently those haven’t done enough to increase the health of the city, where over half of the citizens are allegedly obese or overweight.

You might think it would be smarter for Bloomberg to go the California route and increase taxes on soda to at least make some money while they’re making people healthier. Actually, he already tried to get a state tax on soda, but it was rejected. So he came up with this new plan that conveniently just has to be approved by a board of people who were all appointed by him! (Brilliant system of checks and balances you got there, NYC.)

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