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Tales of the Red Tape #10: The State Department’s Passport Inquisition

Rewarding failure is a fundamental precept of The Bureaucratic Code, which helps to explain why government’s regulatory powers grow in spite of its incompetence. Examples are legion, of course,...

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Tales of the Red Tape #11: Circumcising Principle in San Francisco

From the city that has already banned military recruiting, plastic bags, cat declawing, new billboards, ATM fees, citywide phone book delivery, Styrofoam takeout boxes, officials’ travel to Arizona,...

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Tales of the Red Tape #12: Regulatory Grapes of Wrath

In the 1939 movie You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man, W. C. Fields demands to know “What contemptible scoundrel stole the cork from my lunch?!” If asked today, the answer might well be Congress. Dozens of...

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Tales of the Red Tape #13: An “F” for Train Regulation

Most folks would reasonably think that a railroad engineer or conductor would be able to distinguish the front of a train from the back of it. Not so the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA). To...

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Tales of the Red Tape #14: Old MacDonald’s Commodity Cartel

Growing an herb (the legal kind) might seem pretty straightforward. Clear soil; plant seeds; water, fertilize, and harvest. Until the government gets involved, that is. Then we have the likes of...

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Tales of the Red Tape #15: More Regulatory Manure from USDA

It’s impossible to imagine that the Founders conceived of America as a place where the federal government regulates compost. Yet here we are. Effective May 9, the use of compost in the production of...

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Tales of the Red Tape: Tackling Serious Matters in Washington, D.C.

The nation’s capital is wracked by indecision these days. Raise the debt limit, or no? Don’t ask, don’t tell, or do? And, how will President Obama obfuscate this week on Syria, Libya, Pakistan, Egypt,...

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Tales of the Red Tape #17: A Myopic Regulatory Vision

Optometrists and ophthalmologists aren’t seeing eye to eye these days on the proper role of government. So contentious is the issue that divides them, in fact, that West Virginia legislator Don Perdue...

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Tales of the Red Tape #18: Americans Take a Regulatory Bleating

Some 14 million Americans are jobless, but there just aren’t enough qualified sheepherders or goatherders to meet demand. The federal government, therefore, is allowing ranchers to “import” foreign...

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Tale of the Red Tape #19: A More Perfect Union Advantage

Let’s take a closer look at how the Obama Administration demonstrates “efficiency” and “economy” in actual practice. Fair warning: It ain’t pretty. New rules (supposedly) intended to maximize the...

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Tales of the Red Tape #20: The Outer Limits of Regulation

The Obama Administration has issued a record number of costly rules and regulations compared to its predecessors. But one set of new guidelines, in particular, takes government authority to new...

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Tales of the Red Tape #21: USDA’s Affirmative Action for Vegetables

First they came for the donuts, and few dared to defend partially hydrogenated vegetable oil. Then they came for the soft drinks, declaring high-fructose corn syrup verboten. Now they’re after lima...

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Tales of the Red Tape #22: A Real Waste of Regulatory Energy

If you’re concerned that the Solyndra scandal is hampering other energy initiatives, worry not. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is moving right along with its review of urinal efficiency. Not...

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Tales of the Red Tape #23: Internal Revenue Scam

The straight text of the U.S. tax code exceeds 5,000 pages. Throw in the annotations necessary to actually decipher the thing and it swells beyond 72,000 pages. (Instructions for filing the “EZ” form...

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Tales of the Red Tape #25: EEOC Disables Employers

A high school diploma has long served as the most basic requirement for an entry-level job (notwithstanding declining standards in government schools). But now comes the Equal Employment Opportunity...

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Tales of the Red Tape #27: Don’t Dress Grandma!

The bosses at the Department of Labor (DOL) have decided that federal wage and overtime provisions should not apply when grandma’s “companion” assists her with toileting. Moreover, said companion is...

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Tales of the Red Tape #28: Simplifying Insurance a la Obamacare

Obamacare requires health insurance companies to produce a summary of benefits and coverage (SBC) based on a government-imposed template and glossary. Below is a sampling of the requirements (70 pages)...

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Tales of the Red Tape #29: Drowning in New Regulations

Some 120 regulations taking effect in the past year require enhanced accommodations for disabled individuals at 65 different types of public and private facilities—encompassing 7 million privately...

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Tales of the Red Tape #31: Charlie Manson for Hire

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has brought forth yet another excuse to punish employers: Conducting a criminal background check of job applicants could trigger charges of race...

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Tales of the Red Tape #32: Civil Rights for Bashful Bladders

There are several colloquialisms for “paruresis” (par-YOU-ree-sis), one of the newer additions to the growing list of ailments supposedly protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA): “pee...

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