Dumbass Alert: Strangle That Entrepreneurial Spirit In The Cradle

This is the gift that keeps on giving.

My very first post here was about a seven-year-old girl whose lemonade stand was shut down by county inspectors because she didn't have a license to sell food at the county fair where she'd set up her little business.

Now we get a couple of 13-year old boys selling cupcakes. Their local councilman spots them, and calls the police to complain.

When Andrew DeMarchis and Kevin Graff, two 13-year-olds from Chappaqua's Seven Bridges Middle School, set up shop at Gedney Park on a fall weekend last month, they were expecting a tidy profit.

Instead, the two wannabe entrepreneurs selling cupcakes, cookies, brownies and Rice Krispie treats baked by them for $1 apiece got a taste of cold, hard bureaucracy.

New Castle Councilman Michael Wolfensohn came upon the sale and called the cops on the kids for operating without a license.

The boys' parents are incensed and can't believe a Town Board member would handle the situation that way.

"I am shocked and sad for the boys. It was such a great idea, and they worked hard at it," said Laura Graff, Kevin's mother. "But then some Town Board member decided to get on his high horse and wreck their dreams."

DeMarchis and Graff, along with two other classmates, Zachary Bass and Daniel Katz, had a simple, if half-baked, business plan: sell their treats at Gedney Park for a couple of years and save up enough to open a restaurant.

Their first day was wildly successful, the boys said. They netted $120, of which they invested $60 to buy a cart from Target and added water and Gatorade to their offerings on their second day, the next Saturday, Oct. 9.

After about an hour of brisk business , during which DeMarchis and Graff — Bass and Katz were not with them — said they made $30, police arrived at their stand and asked them to shut it down.

"The police officer was extremely pleasant. He said he was sorry to have to do this, but that he was following up on a report filed over the phone by a Town Board member," said Suzanne DeMarchis, Andrew's mother, who was called to the scene. "Kevin was so upset, he was crying all the whole way home. He was worried if he was going to get arrested or have a criminal record."

This is what happens to entrepreneurs in America. Kids selling lemonade and cupcakes get busted by dumbass officials for not having spent a day at the local zoning and licensing office getting a $150 temporary permit. If this is what they do to kids, imagine the hoops you have to jump through to open a factory. BOHICA.

And you wonder why it's cheaper to have your computer built in China and shipped halfway around the world than it is to have it built in the U.S. Just multiply what these kids went through by a factor of about a thousand and you'll have an idea what it's like to start a business in America.

President Obama promises we're going to have lots of green manufacturing jobs. Really, dude? Factories are going to be able to manufacture solar panels and wind turbines cheaper in the U.S. than in China, where they don't have an EPA, OSHA, suffocating union contracts, Greenpeace, EEO, and "If you have a phone, you have a lawyer"? Really?

Congratulations, Councilman Wolfensohn (at left); you've just given a couple of boys their first lesson in strangling the American dream.

You stupid dumbass.

Henryk Górecki

Polish composer Henryk Górecki died this past week. His third symphony, "Symphony of Sorrowful Songs" is possibly the most heartbreakingly beautiful music you will ever hear. Listen to the last movement; words will fail you.

Was Jon Stewart's Rally to Restore Sanity Racist?

Jay Nordlinger observes that the Rally to Restore Sanity on the National Mall was whiter than a meeting of the Utah GOP.

I hadn't noticed, frankly, so I did some googling. Poster "Security_In_Anonymity," at U2.com was there. "My photos came out poorly, but here are some gathered from the web," she says.

Here they are.

See any black faces anywhere?

Remember that next time someone tries to tell you the people at a Tea Party rally are a bunch of white racists.

Y'know, maybe black folks just don't like crowds.

The Easier-For-Them Association

John Derbyshire is one of my favorite writers over at National Review. He's observant and curmudgeonly, and bears an unusual resemblance to John Cleese.

One of the best things he's written - at least, of those things I've read - is an expose of the Easier-For-The-Association. What on earth is the Easier-For-Them Association? Derbyshire explains:

The aim of this secret brotherhood is to infiltrate all organizations whose chartered purpose is to serve the public in some way. Once they have taken up key positions in such an organization, the EFTA moles then set about subverting all its processes and procedures — enlisting the aid of corrupt or unsuspecting legislators when necessary — so that the work of the organization, instead of being oriented towards true public service, is redirected towards the ease and comfort of the organization's employees.

In particular, public employees.  If you've ever been tempted to throw a brick through the window of your local motor vehicles office, if you wonder why getting a permit to build a deck on the back of your house is a Kafka-esque affair, if you fume to your neighbors because your local animal control people refused to track down the fox that attacked your two cats but instead fined you fifty bucks per cat because you neglected to buy cat licenses for them,* then you have been the victim of the work of the EFTA.

More here.

* Yes, that last actually happened, here in the Democratic People's Republic of Alexandria, Virginia. But that's the subject of another post.

The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow - In China

President Obama keeps promising us that our hopey-changey future is bright because we're going to create billions of green jobs.

"If we harness ingenuity, take the talent of our workers and innovators, and we invest in it, we'll forge a future where life is better in our country over the long run," Obama said.

So how's that working? Not so well.

Solyndra, a Silicon Valley solar-panel maker that won half a billion dollars in federal aid to build a state-of-the-art robotic factory, plans to announce on Wednesday that it will shut down an older plant and lay off workers.

The cost-cutting move, which will reduce the company’s previously announced production capacity, is a sign of the notable shift in the prospects for cutting-edge American solar companies, which now face intense price competition from Chinese manufacturers that use more established photovoltaic technologies.

Just seven weeks ago, Solyndra opened Fab 2, a $733 million factory in Fremont, Calif., to make its high-tech solar panels. The new plant was supposed to be the first phase of a rapid expansion of the company.

Instead, Solyndra has decided to shutter the old plant and postpone plans to expand Fab 2, which was built with a $535 million federal loan guarantee...

...the market had undergone a significant shift since Solyndra filed for the stock offering, with solar module prices plummeting as low-cost Chinese manufacturers like Suntech and Yingli ramped up production.

Emphasis mine. I wonder if a lack of red tape might explain why Chinese photovoltaic cells are less expensive than American ones.

Oh, and that $535 million federal loan guarantee? Any time you see the words, "federal loan guarantee," it means, "if and when the company can't pay the bank the money it owes, you'll need to reach for your wallet."

Brother, can you spare $535 million?

How Can You Tell She's a Witch? Build a Bridge Out of Her!

British police now have a three hundred page book on diversity that tells them, among other things, how to deal with witches:

The online handbook also advises officers not to jump to conclusions if they encounter a situation where a blindfolded, naked person is tied by their hands – they could merely have stumbled upon a pagan ritual, where such activities are normal practice...

The guide, drawn up by the Metropolitan Police, Britain's largest police force, warns against interrupting a pagan ceremony.

It adds: "Some ceremonies include a blindfolded, naked participant, whose hands may be bound. This is in accordance with ritual and has the full consent of the participant."

Bobbie: "What's all this, then?"
Knife-Wielding Guy: "Just a little pagan ceremony, officer. Isn't that right, my dear?"
Naked Bound and Gagged Woman: "Mffftt!!! Mfffttt!!! Mfffttt!!!"
Bobbie: "Oh, all right then. I was concerned you might be raping her. Carry on."

Three hundred page manual. I've had shorter college textbooks. Are Britain's bobbies expected to read through this on their off-duty hours? Or are they ordered to stay in the station house and read and master the material (examination at 4:00...) before they can go out again and protect the public? How many man-hours are spent reading this manual instead of patrolling the streets?

Oh, and regarding the post title...

Do You REALLY Want to Know How the Stimulus Works? REALLY?

This is the clearest explanation I've ever seen. It shouldn't take you more than 30 seconds to read, but once you do, you'll totally grok the so-called stimulus.

And you'll laugh out loud.