James Madison-Checks and Balances to Limit Government Power

Very recommendable! Rarely in history have so many great minds met in one place!

In particular, James Madison and Thomas Jefferson had apparently a very close and affectionate friendship:
"As Jefferson wrote in his most poignant letter, February 17, 1826 [just a few month before his death on July 4]: “The friendship which has subsisted between us, now half a century, and the harmony of our political principles and pursuits, have been sources of constant happiness to me. . . . It has also been a great solace to me, to believe that you are engaged in vindicating to posterity the course we have pursued for preserving to them, in all their purity, the blessings of self-government. . . . To myself you have been a pillar of support through life. Take care of me when dead, and be assured that I shall leave with you my last affections.”"

James Madison-Checks and Balances to Limit Government Power - Foundation for Economic Education: James Madison didn't originate the idea of checks and balances for limiting government power, but he helped push it farther than anyone else before or since. Previous political thinkers, citing British experience, had talked about checks and balances with a monarch in the mix, but Madison helped apply the principle to a republic. Contrary to such respected thinkers as Baron de Montesquieu, Madison insisted checks and balances could help protect liberty in a large republic.

Unsung Heroes: Private Food Inspectors

Recommendable! Anybody who believes that food safety depended on government inspections is pretty foolish! Private businesses themselves have a keen self-interest to make sure that their food is safe and enjoyable!

"In Private Governance, prominent economist Edward Stringham presents case studies of the various forms of private enforcement, self-governance, or self-regulation among private groups or individuals that fill a void that government enforcement cannot."
It is by far not just a void left by government, it goes far beyond. Private assurance of product/service quality or safety, contract fulfillment etc. have been plenty in history!

Unsung Heroes: Private Food Inspectors – AIER: Both mortality and morbidity figures would be much higher if Americans really did leave something as fundamental as food safety to government bureaucrats.

White House Petition Against FDA And 23AndMe Decision Is Languishing

The petition is here. Why is this petition not advertised more?

At present (12/5/2013 at 22:50 Arizona time zone) this reasonable petition garnered only 3,769 votes.

Please vote for it!

Tocqueville On Self Government

Posted: 7/22/2013

A Quote From His Masterpiece

Today, I came across following quote from Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy In America (Emphasis added):

“The Anglo-Americans place moral authority in universal reason, as they do political power in the universality of citizens, and they consider that you must rely on the sense of all in order to discern what is permitted or forbidden, what is true or false.

Most of them think that knowledge of his interest well understood is sufficient to lead a man toward the just and the honest.

They believe that each person by birth has received the ability to govern himself, and

that no one has the right to force his fellow to be happy.

All have an intense faith in human perfectibility; they judge that the diffusion of knowledge must necessarily produce useful results, ignorance must lead to harmful effects;

all consider society as a body in progress; humanity as a changing scene, where nothing is or should be fixed forever, and they admit that what seems good to them today can be replaced tomorrow by something better that is still hidden.

I do not say that all these opinions are correct, but they are American.”

(Source: “CHAPTER 10: Some Considerations on the Present State and Probable Future of the Three Races That Inhabit the Territory of the United States”)

Were Tocqueville To Return Today

Tocqueville would be surprised would he come back to visit the U.S. today to see that elected big government is forcing happiness on its citizens for at least the past 113 years and that the ability to govern themselves has diminished so drastically in this country.