December 17, 2014

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Larry Arnn, President of Hillsdale College on wave elections.

We have had a wave election. For those of a conservative disposition, it is a satisfying wave. According to Michael Barone, speaking recently here at Hillsdale’s Kirby Center, this wave is like several recent wave elections in its magnitude and decisiveness. There was a wave in favor of the Republicans in 1980 and again in 1994. There was a wave in favor of the Democrats in 2006 and again in 2008. There was a wave for the Republicans in 2010. There was a stalemate in 2012. Now there is a Republican wave in 2014. Looked at one way, these waves appear more like tides, ebbing and flowing.

These waves have something to do with a change in opinion over the last 50 years. Increasingly large majorities of the people consistently profess themselves afraid of their government. They think it too big. They think it does not account to them—that it is beyond their control and does not operate with their consent. They think it should be smaller, even if that means they receive fewer services. It seems that the growth of government has not made people feel safe and happy.

Nonetheless, two of the recent waves elected people who support larger government, and Americans continue to depend upon government more than ever. At all levels, government consumes something close to 40 percent of the economy, not even counting regulatory costs, which are nearing $2 trillion. People seem to be groping for a solution to this, and they do not seem to think they have found it.

This picture is not unprecedented. In the period leading up to the American Revolution, loyalists or Tories contested with revolutionaries, and these two groups alternated having the upper hand between 1763 and 1776, and even later, after the war had begun. The people were making up their minds about something fundamental, and a consensus was slow in forming.

In the period before the Civil War, there were those who advocated destroying slavery in the slave states, where the national government’s constitutional authority to do so was weak or nonexistent. There were others who supported slavery where it existed, and even the extension of slavery into new regions. Others still would find some compromise that would do the least dramatic possible thing. And then there was the new Republican party, founded to stop slavery’s expansion and seek a constitutional path to its eventual abolition. This too was a fundamental question, and it took a long time and eventually much blood to decide it.

This controversy over slavery grew up in the course of one generation. One may mark it by two of the most important statutes in American history—the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 and the Missouri Compromise of 1820. The Northwest Ordinance brought the territory that became Michigan and other states into the Union, and it was the first time that a government like ours, ours being the first such government, had grown. It did not choose to grow by establishing colonies, but rather by treating the citizens of the new regions as full citizens as quickly as they could get organized. The Northwest Territory had belonged to Virginia, and Virginia, a slave state, on the motion of Thomas Jefferson, a slave holder, gave the land to the Union for free on condition only that there be no slavery allowed in it at any time. Although Virginia also insisted on a provision to return escaped slaves from Virginia back to their servitude, the document must be read as a sign of a consensus about slavery. We have it, those early Americans said, and we do not know what to do about it, but we know that it is wrong and should not be extended elsewhere. Many in the Founding generation stated this, often in beautiful terms. And eight states either abolished slavery or set up laws for gradual emancipation relatively quickly after the Revolution. …

 

 

The Smithsonian Magazine writes on the healthy benefits of sunlight.

The year’s darkest day is drawing near. December 21 marks the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, the shortest day and longest night of 2014. Thanks to artificial illumination, winter’s lack of sunlight doesn’t change our lifestyles quite as much as it did in the past. But our bodies definitely take notice—scientists are discovering that prolonged darkness can play a role in disorders from depression to diabetes. The consensus seems to be that sunlight is essential to humans, provided we can get the right dose on a regular basis.  

Most people know that too much exposure to ultraviolet (UV) rays from the sun can cause cataracts and skin cancer. The World Health Organization estimates that between 2 and 3 million rarely lethal non-melanoma skin cancers occur globally each year, along with 132,000 far more serious cases of melanoma skin cancers.

Protecting the skin with lotions and clothing and avoiding too much time in searing sun can drastically reduce the odds of developing of skin cancer. But avoiding sunshine altogether isn’t a great idea, because the light can produce a plethora of positive health impacts. For starters, UV rays in sunlight trigger a photosynthetic process in the skin that produces vitamin D. This vitamin’s active form may help to regulate more than 1,000 genes, which in turn govern most of the body’s tissues. Vitamin D is also crucial for bone health and for keeping the immune system going strong. …

 

 

Andrew Malcolm with late night humor.

Stephen Colbert to President Obama the other night on jobs: “I’ll give it to you. You’ve employed a lot of people—mostly as secretary of Defense.”

Conan: President Obama met with Britain’s Prince William in the Oval Office. A meeting between a symbolic ruler with no real power and the future King of England.

Fallon: Joe Biden will help with the 35th annual lighting of the National Menorah at the White House. Hearing that, Smokey the Bear said, “Hold my calls.”

Meyers: California’s DMV is issuing drivers licenses to undocumented immigrants. After about two hours at the DMV, they all asked to be deported.