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Niall Ferguson on the Regulated States of America.
In “Democracy in America,” published in 1833, Alexis de Tocqueville marveled at the way Americans preferred voluntary association to government regulation. “The inhabitant of the United States,” he wrote, “has only a defiant and restive regard for social authority and he appeals to it . . . only when he cannot do without it.”
Unlike Frenchmen, he continued, who instinctively looked to the state to provide economic and social order, Americans relied on their own efforts. “In the United States, they associate for the goals of public security, of commerce and industry, of morality and religion. There is nothing the human will despairs of attaining by the free action of the collective power of individuals.”
What especially amazed Tocqueville was the sheer range of nongovernmental organizations Americans formed: “Not only do they have commercial and industrial associations . . . but they also have a thousand other kinds: religious, moral, grave, futile, very general and very particular, immense and very small; Americans use associations to give fetes, to found seminaries, to build inns, to raise churches, to distribute books, to send missionaries to the antipodes; in this manner they create hospitals, prisons, schools.”
Tocqueville would not recognize America today. Indeed, so completely has associational life collapsed, and so enormously has the state grown, that he would be forced to conclude that, at some point between 1833 and 2013, France must have conquered the United States. …
Voting present yet again, the administration is now in a Keystone fix according to Kim Strassel.
If President Obama once thought it politically savvy to kick the Keystone XL pipeline decision down the road, he’s surely ruing that strategy today. The delay has allowed the environmental community to elevate the project into a litmus test of his environmental fealty—so much so that some of Mr. Obama’s biggest supporters are now vowing to turn his base against him if he moves ahead with a win-win project that will boost the economy.
The ultimatum was expressed clearly in an open letter to Mr. Obama on June 3 from Thomas Steyer, the billionaire climate activist. Mr. Steyer has been a loyal Obama ally, speaking at the Democratic National Convention in 2012 and donating generously to the president and his party.
In his letter, Mr. Steyer nonetheless made clear that he and his NextGen political action committee will turn their force on the president if he approves Keystone. …
According to the Weekly Standard and the NY Times, President Present laid an egg in Berlin today.
The White House pool report reveals that only 6,000 will be in attendance for Obama’s Berlin speech today:
The stage for the president’s speech is set up on the East side of the Brandenburg Gate, in the old East Berlin. The sun is pounding down and there are around 6,000 invited guests according to German authorities. There are bleachers set up either side of the square, with a big two storey riser facing the stage which has a row of bullet proof glass and 12 US, German and EU flags and the grand backdrop of the Gate. There is a large standing crowd between the bleachers.
Last time around, when Obama delivered a speech in Berlin in the 2008 presidential campaign, when he was still a senator, 200,000 folks came out to see him.
UPDATE: The pool reporter says only 4,500 were present for Obama’s speech:
Crowd count at the Brandenburg Gate speech was 4,500 according to Elmar Jakobs. …
Bloomberg News reveals how college sports are subsidized by students.
As parents and students struggle to keep up with rising college tuition and take on greater burdens of debt, universities are being challenged to justify the ballooning athletic fees they tack on to the bill.
In the 2010-11 academic year, the 227 public institutions in Division 1 of the National Collegiate Athletic Association collected more than $2 billion in athletic fees from their students — or an average of more than $500 per enrollee — according to research by Jeff Smith at the University of South Carolina Upstate.
These fees, which can exceed $1,000 a year, are often itemized as a “student activity” or “general” expense. That may explain why separate research, by David Ridpath of Ohio University, found that students were only dimly aware of the extent of the fees, and weren’t pleased once they found out how much they were paying.
Worse yet, institutions with high proportions of poorer students carrying substantial education debt appeared to be charging the highest fees. While all students must pay the costs of maintaining athletic programs, few actually benefit from the services they subsidize. In this sense, the fees are comparable to a regressive tax — and one that is more onerous for lower-income students than for the more affluent, who are able to attend schools where athletic fees are lower.
For the six public schools in the Big South conference, Smith shows that the average athletic fee was $1,512, about 25 times more than the average $61 paid by students at the Big Ten conference schools. …
And the Gothamist reveals how NYU profs have their housing subsidized by students.
NYU students pay at least $40,000 in tuition (and over $10,000 for on-campus housing-PDF) for the academic year—an insane amount. But it makes sense when you consider that NYU not only forgives mortgages for star professors but also helps buy vacation houses for star professors and other esteemed administrators.
The NY Times has the depressing details today. For instance, NYU President John Sexton has a place on Fire Island—”an elegant modern beach house that extends across three lots… bought with a $600,000 loan from an N.Y.U. foundation that eventually grew to be $1 million, according to Suffolk County land records.” …
Late night humor from Andrew Malcolm.
Fallon: Last week Obama asked China’s president to stop spying on Americans. And the Chinese leader responded, “You first.”
Conan: Everyone please turn off your phones. I’ve got some jokes I don’t want the government to hear.
Leno: Eliot Spitzer and John Edwards both have birthdays the other day. Which explains why no strippers were available for other parties.
NBC News Cosmic Log with an ode to duct tape.
Over the past half a century, duct tape has been keeping NASA’s astronauts alive, putting airplanes back together, making race cars speedier and patching up millions of fix-it projects. It’s even been used to remove warts. But the makers of duct tape aren’t resting on their sticky, gray laurels: On the contrary, engineers and designers are adding some new twists to the decades-old standby.
“Ten years ago, I used to hear kids say, ‘Oh, my dad uses that to fix everything,’” Scott Sommers, director of marketing for ShurTech Brands, told NBC News. “Now I hear the dads say, ‘Oh, my kids make everything out of that stuff.’”
ShurTech makes one of the best-known brands of duct tape, known as Duck Tape, and is the motive force behind this weekend’s Duct Tape Festival in Avon, Ohio, the company’s corporate headquarters. The annual event is scheduled to coincide with Father’s Day — which is apt, considering how many dads have gotten out of a tough fix thanks to those silvery rolls of adhesive.
“I hope that women never find out about duct tape,” humorist Dave Barry joked, “because once they do, men will no longer serve any useful purpose.” …