There's a nice piece by Kuttner in the Globe this morning in which he makes the point that regulation of business, the environment and probably even traffic is an effort to pre-empt abuse, mistakes and error (accidents) and that the people who have tried their darndest to get rid of regulations are now going after the trial lawyers, the last bastion of the public's effort to make people accountable for their actions.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2004/08/25/now_smearing_the_trial_lawyers
Kuttner doesn't overtly make the point that regulation is essentially pre-emptive, I think, but it's a point we should make over and over. The people who are all for pre-emptive aggression are the same people who resist pre-emptive regulation and pre-emptive legislation with all their might.
Come to think of it, pre-emption doesn't even apply to their assault on Iraq. What was pre-emptive in that regard was the negotiated surrender to the first Gulf War and the subsequent inspections and over-flights to make sure those surrender agreements were complied with.
The unprovoked assault by the U.S. and its allies was just that, an unprovoked assault based on misinformation, deception and falsification.
Perhaps if our sitting President had been a better student, he would know what the words his subordinates use actually mean.
I guess that was Secretary O'Neill's point when he referred to his boss as deaf. The fellow couldn't understand what people were telling him and the people who were talking couldn't see from his facial expressions that there was no comprehension.
Posted by Hannah at August 25, 2004 07:42 AM