Leviathan Ankle-Biter

Bringing down Leviathan’s welfare-police state, one ankle-bite at a time

Ibrahim Prize

Leviathan Ankle-Biter, Term limits No Responses »

Oct 242009

This is the first time a Leviathan Ankle-Biter award goes to a billionaire, but Mo Ibrahim gets one.

The foundation that runs the Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership said this week its prize would go to . . . no one.

Though not widely known, the prize, created by Sudanese-born billionaire Mo Ibrahim in 2007, is one of the more thoughtful efforts at bestowing honor on a public figure. For starters, the prize can go only to a democratically elected head of state in Africa. But here’s the kicker: The winner has to have left office in the previous three years.

Mr. Ibrahim clearly is all too aware of Africa’s history of being governed by strongmen who either don’t bother holding an election, or if they do, ensure that they win—forever.

So he’s designed his prize with the world’s biggest carrot: The winner gets $5 million spread over 10 years, plus $200,000 for life annually. We’d call this one of the more creative exercises in term limits.

URL here.

I’d be in favor of instituting an award like that for the U.S. Congress. Give away a couple dozen of them each year. If it would get rid of those who have been corrupted by the power of seniority, never mind any achievements in leadership, it would be cheap at twice the price.

Unfortunately, even though members of Congress can be greedy, the worst of them are motivated more by a lust for power than by filthy lucre. It might be that by getting rid of the greedhogs we’d only create more slots for the powerhogs.

Ira Wagler and the hillbilly Amish

Leviathan Ankle-Biter No Responses »

Oct 102009

A Leviathan Ankle-Biter award goes to the hillbilly Amishman that Ira Wagler met in the south end of Lancaster County, PA.

I never heard of Ira Wagler before today, but I’ll be following his blog from now on. Erik Wesner of Amish America introduced me to it. The article about his experience in the south end is great. Ira was raised Amish, but experienced a bit of culture shock among the Amish down there, and is both funny and informative as he tells you about it. It’s great even without the Ankle-Biter bit.

Here’s something I posted on Erik’s blog about it, though:

BTW, regarding the Amishman who may once have had a run-in with a zoning officer, I am reminded that when I stop on my bike rides to take photos of houses and farms along the way, the places where I’m likely to have someone come out of the house yelling at me, asking what I’m doing, are the places that are somewhat rundown. I don’t know for sure why that is, but given that I myself live on a place that has sometimes been in a state of suspicious compliance with state and local ordinances, I can understand. BTW, these people who confront me also tend to be some of the more interesting characters I meet.

State vs neighbor

Leviathan Ankle-Biter 1 Response »

Oct 012009

A Leviathan Ankle-Biter award goes to Lisa Snyder of the next county to the north of us, Barry County Michigan. From an AP article headlined, “State to mom: Stop baby-sitting neighbors’ kids.”

Each day before the school bus comes to pick up the neighborhood’s children, Lisa Snyder did a favor for three of her fellow moms, welcoming their children into her home for about an hour before they left for school.

Regulators who oversee child care, however, don’t see it as charity. Days after the start of the new school year, Snyder received a letter from the Michigan Department of Human Services warning her that if she continued, she’d be violating a law aimed at the operators of unlicensed day care centers.

Fortunately, she is getting support in resisting this state of affairs. Governor Granholm who is working to get the law changed. (It isn’t often I’ll have good things to say about Gov. Granholm. I looked hard for something to snark about but all I can say is that she is doing what needs to be done in this case. And I’m not sure all people in her position would do that these days.)

No, no, we won’t undergo

Health care reform, Leviathan Ankle-Biter No Responses »

Sep 302009

A Leviathan Ankle-Biter award to these health care workers in New York:

New York is the first state in the country to mandate flu vaccinations for its health care workers. The first doses of swine flu vaccine will be available beginning next week. Much of it is reserved for state health care workers, but there is growing opposition to required innoculations.

Health care workers in Hauppauge screamed “No forced shots!” as they rallied Tuesday against the state regulation requiring them to roll up their sleeves.

URL

Will work to keep hiking

Leviathan Ankle-Biter No Responses »

Sep 232009

A Leviathan Anklebiter award goes to those unemployed people who work their way down the Appalachian Trail and to the people along the way who hire them to do odd jobs. Leviathan will try to put a stop to it, I imagine, but Leviathan is being challenged.

“Trailing Indicators: Out of a Job, Some Decide to Take a Hike” by Joel Millman (WSJ)

History is not only bunk, but banned as well

Leviathan Ankle-Biter No Responses »

Aug 082009

Lenore Skenazy is the chronicler of the movement to keep kids out of the outdoors except when closely supervised by hovering parents. A recent episode was titled, “Outrage of the Week: “We LOVE Seeing Children Outside (But Not Under Age 16).” It was about a housing development in Colorado that forbad children from playing outside, unsupervised, until they reached age 16. The ban has since been rescinded, to some extent, but there are still extreme elements of our society who do not want children taking on any kind of responsibility at all for their own well-being. These people are numerous enough to give Ms Skenazy no end of things to write about.

But suppose kids are kept off the streets, out of the playgrounds, and out of the yards. What are they supposed to do? Sit inside and watch television? Because some of these same types of people don’t want children reading old books, either. I learned from Walter Olsen in City Journal (by way of Banned for your Safety on LiveJournal) that Congress passed a book ban last year. (“The New Book Banning“)

It’s hard to believe, but true: under a law Congress passed last year aimed at regulating hazards in children’s products, the federal government has now advised that children’s books published before 1985 should not be considered safe and may in many cases be unlawful to sell or distribute. Merchants, thrift stores, and booksellers may be at risk if they sell older volumes, or even give them away, without first subjecting them to testing—at prohibitive expense. Many used-book sellers, consignment stores, Goodwill outlets, and the like have accordingly begun to refuse new donations of pre-1985 volumes, yank existing ones off their shelves, and in some cases discard them en masse.

No Leviathan Anklebiter award for the Consumer Products Safety Division. Banned for your Safety and Walter Olesen each get one, though.

Editor’s offensive note

Leviathan Ankle-Biter No Responses »

Aug 042009

I noticed the following notice at the end of an article (“Amish Cook: Kids detasseling, vegetables late“) in the Battle Creek Enquirer:

EDITORS’ NOTE: Home canning and pickling should be practiced by only experienced people. For more information, check sources online or contact your local county extension agent.

That is just sad. No, it’s not just sad, it’s some other things, too, starting with disgusting and disturbing, and working its way up to offensive, vile, and beyond.

No Leviathan Anklebiter award for that editor.

Scalper bites Leviathan’s Ankle

Free markets, Leviathan Ankle-Biter No Responses »

Jun 082009

I posted this in the comments section of a WSJ article titled “Going ‘Paperless’ to Thwart Scalpers.”

I love scalpers, too. They don’t suck anyone’s blood. They don’t steal anything. I decide if I like the asking price, and if so, I pay it. If not, not. Usually it’s not, because my wife doesn’t want me spending a lot of money on tickets for sporting events, even though she’s the sports fan in the family. But once in a while I make use of a scalper’s services. It’s unlike Obama’s cars, where you have to pay whether or not you want one. Now THAT is something like stealing. Scalpers, on the other hand, perform a valuable public service. They should be held up as heroes to the younger generation. In fact, they deserve one of my not-so-famous Leviathan Anklebiter awards.

If people have emotional problems with the idea of free-choice prices, they should get therapy rather than keep other people from making their own choices.

No Politicians Please: We’re British

Leviathan Ankle-Biter, Rule of law No Responses »

Mar 212009

It has been a while since the last Leviathan Ankle-Biter award. But here are some exceptionally deserving recipients — a bunch of British combat veterans of World War II. (“We’ll Fight Brown on the Beaches : D-Day veterans angry at ‘politicisation’ of anniversary“, in The Independent.)

They raised money so those who are fit for the trip could go to the Normandy beaches for the 65th anniversary. There are about 500 who can go. It will be the last opportunity for a lot of them. It was with some difficulty that they raised the money, but they got it — through private contributions.

Then the politicians wanted to horn in on the event. But the veterans are telling them to buzz off:

But Peter Hodge, secretary of the Normandy Veterans Association (NVA), said: “Ministers on the beaches is not really what we wanted or needed. We never complained about the Government not giving us money. We wanted this to be between the veterans and the British people. The public response to our appeal, first publicised in The Independent, has already been fantastic.”

“We also wanted this to be mostly about the veterans themselves. If ministers go along, the extra security tends to mean that veterans are pushed into the background.”

It’s good to hear that something like this can still happen in a country that has been busy trashing its heritage (e.g. throwing out the rule of law in favor of anti-social-behaviour ordinances). Even though these guys are old, they’re going out by setting an example that the rest of the country would do well to learn from, as would those in our own country.

Roadside memorials

Leviathan Ankle-Biter 1 Response »

Dec 292008

I’ve often noticed those wood & styrofoam roadside memorials with flowers and handwritten signs for people killed in road accidents. They’re tacky but I love them because they show a piece of life where people just go and do things without getting permission from some government person. It’s a bit of life that hasn’t yet been standardized, bureaucraticized, and MacDonaldized.

Except in some states, such as California, Colorado, North Carolina, and Wisconsin, regulators have stamped out the personal initiative aspects. And now West Virginia is trying to do the same.

I didn’t realize until now that that the people who put up these memorials deserve one of the Leviathan Ankle-Biter awards. So I hereby present them with one.

And here‘s a link to Matt Frost’s article at The American Scene where you can follow the links to more information about them.

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