Posts Tagged “John Stossel”

I’ve been reading a pretty interesting book – John Stossel’s latest. He makes some fascinating points, especially regarding the inequities of how rules and laws are used to enforce social policy. Stossel points out that rules like Title IX (the Federal statute dictating that boys and girls sports programs must be “equal.” The result of the law is that schools are finding they have to cut down on boys sports, because of a lack of enrollment/participation by girls.

Other chapters cover how attorneys have profited by suing over junk science witch hunts (DDT, irradiated foods, et cetera). It’s riveting stuff, especially when you realize that there is a radical disconnect between what we are told is the “truth” and what’s really going on. What emerges is a pattern – a pattern that shows that one little erroneous factoid or malicious story generated by some special-interest group can get picked up and amplified by a media hungry for any kind of story that can be sensationalized. Their over-hyping then triggers an over-reaction government, motivated by self-interest and a desire to “fix” everything by way of taxation and/or regulation. In effect, within this system, the truth is either immaterial, or collateral damage to the goals and aims of the special interests/media/government. Read the rest of this entry »