Even if Wikipedia was censored, students would still be able to learn by reading the WSJ headlines which party controls the U.S. government administration.     Note the contrast between the headline where the cheerleading is done  (to be read by the masses) and the subheadline that provides a more sober view (and is read fewer people):

Headline:   U.S. Economy Picks Up Steam

Subheadline:  Fourth-Quarter Growth Rate of 2.8% is Fastest in 18 Months, but Doesn’t Appear Sustainable

The image (derived from Wikipedia Commons) is of a clay tablet that contains the prologue to Hammurabi’s Code.

The latest regulatory atrocity that made me go here is the Obama administration’s plan (now dropped, at least in this instance) to regulate pharmaceutical companies by forcing the resignation of executives it disapproves of.  (WSJ article:  “U.S. Drops Effort to Oust Forest Labs CEO“   The print edition headline was a less honest, less accurate one:  “Forest Chief Prevails Over U.S.”)

When I was a wee kid in elementary school (possibly as early as 4th grade) we learned that Hammurabi’s Code was an advance because people knew from it what the laws were and what the penalties were.    Now our leaders devise regulatory systems under which nobody can know what is required, and under which the best one can do is try to stay on the right political side of the authorities.    And this in an environment where the current administration has been willing to attack and threaten private businesses that make political statements that it perceives to be critical or contrary to its agenda.

People in our country used to understand about due process.  But now we have President who supposedly has an advanced degree in constitutional law, but who institutes a regulatory system that is about as far from any constitutional system as you can get.   And some headline writers for the WSJ don’t get it.

There is such a thing as good regulation and there is necessary regulation.  I’ve long wished that we could discuss good vs bad regulation rather than re-regulation vs deregulation.   But trying to regulate in the way Obama has tried to do here is likely to give all of regulation a bad name.

So to do my part to get the discussion back where it needs to be, I’ve instituted a new category of articles:   Hammurabi-Handedness.   That term is in part an allusion to related concepts, such as the invisible hand.    Hammurabi-Handedness refers to letting the invisible hand do its thing, but within a regulatory system that is as clear and well-defined as possible, and which minimizes waste and corruption.

I don’t watch television news, but I learned from the internet that a reporter named Contessa Brewer recently asked a U.S. Representative who disagreed with her if  he had a degree in economics.   (His answer:  “Yes ma’am, I do.  Highest honors.”)   URL here.

That’s a good start.  But reporters need to start asking President Obama questions like that, too.

And instead of just printing his campaign ads as news, they should ask him these questions about the debt limit debates:

• If the debt limit is not raised or is not raised enough to pay for all of the nation’s spending, which would you cut first?   a)  NPR/CPP subsidies  b) ag subsidies  c) NEA subsidies  d) Social Security  [A non-answer would be almost as good as an answer.]
• If the debt limit is not raised enough right away to pay for all the nation’s spending, will you use your $128 billion in unspent stimulus funds to help pay the bills?   Or is it more important for you to hang on to it to pay for your 2012 re-election campaign?

The headline is stupid, dangerous, and Murdochish. The judges make rulings. They don’t “strike at” things. If they do, the reporters should present their evidence and impeachment hearings should begin.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said the Obama administration would oppose any effort to strip the Federal Reserve of its mandate to pursue full employment and warned Republicans against politicizing the central bank.

“It is very important to keep politics out of monetary policy,” Geithner said in an interview airing on Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt” this weekend. “You want to be very careful not to take steps that hurt our credibility.”

Not everyone would have the skills to criticize an effort to unpoliticize the Fed on the grounds that they shouldn’t politicize the Fed.

Of course, Geithner shouldn’t get all the credit. Al Hunt’s people helped, too, by not laughing out loud.

But to think, some people criticized the Tea Partier who is supposed to have said, “Keep your government hands off my medicare.” Maybe the Partier was just auditioning for a job in the Treasury Department.

Arizona’s new anti-immigration law, which goes into effect on July 29, has been a rallying point for many conservatives. It reinvigorated … (WSJ article by Alex Nowrasteh : “Arizona’s Immigration Surprises.”)

“Imagine what would have happened if we hadn’t taken a look at what happened with Shirley Sherrod and plumbed the depths further and found out that what had been posted on the internet was not in fact reflective of what she said.”

Imagine, he said. But it doesn’t take much imagination at all. There are any number of topics where the MSM have declined to take a close look and “plumb the depths.” That’s how President Obama can get by with some of his wild conspiracy theories, e.g. about how the economic crisis came about.

Think about what might happen if the MSM did investigate ObamaCare or the financial crisis, or the latest bank nationalization act. That’s something that requires a feat of imagination.

It’s amazing that this article was written without a single reference to the census bureau scandals this year – overcounting the number of jobs created by census bureau hiring, and faking the data by filling out bogus questionnaires. With skills like that, the author is eligible to be a full-fledged journalist. Or she could get a job at the census bureau.

Democrats say the documents, released over the weekend by the Department of Defense, strengthen support for Kagan by showing that she permitted military recruitment through the Harvard Law School Veterans Association, despite her opposition to the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy regarding gay servicemen and women.

But Republicans are using the documents to blast Kagan’s “discriminatory treatment of the military” while she was at Harvard.

Fox news URL here.  The emphasis is mine.

That is an inaccurate headline, of course. It’s the Obama administration that’s asking for it, not the U.S. The U.S. has laws against extortion. A better headline is a small blurb on the same page on which the misleading one appeared: “The White House plans to ask BP for a damage fund.”

If there is such an escrow account, though, who would keep the money for safekeeping and administer it? The Obama administration is not eligible, because its policy of nationalizing any industry within reach creates a conflict of interest.

The British government also has a conflict of interest.

The United Nations? The money would be gone in a day if deposited there.

Here are my three nominees:

• The government of Ireland. The Irish have no great love for the Brits or for America, but get along reasonably well with both.
• The government of the Czech Republic. Václav Klaus can be trusted not to be easily intimidated.
• The government of Georgia. This would help focus more attention on a country that needs it. And Georgia would have great motivation not to mess up.