Register Your Chickens

For John, BLUF:  The British Government has gone overboard in its fight against avian flue by registering every owner of a chicken in England.  It has not gone well.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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As God Is My Witness, I Thought Roasted Chickens Could Fly

From VodkaPundit, by Blogger Stephen Green, 10:15 AM on 8 October 2024.

Here is the lede plus five:

Ordinary people need to enjoy a little taste of rebellion against their oppressors now and then, particularly when it comes in the form of a delicious roasted chicken. But there's something I need to get off my chest before we get to Britain's tawdry tale of chicken registrations and crashed government websites.

Watching the once-Great Britain slowly slide into soft totalitarianism has been a great disappointment. It's virtually impossible to do anything in the UK any longer without being surveilled on video, audited, indexed, reported to the authorities, or jailed for silently praying. You can't own a pistol, and they've considered banning knives. You'll be hounded or stabbed by Islamic colonizers or beaten with reeds for using the incorrect imaginary personal pronouns.

I made up the part about the reeds. But Britain's Labour government has considered making it a hate crime punishable by up to two years in jail for purposely using the "wrong" pronouns.

All this is from the people who invented the English liberty that evolved here into American exceptionalism.

True, it's sad, but glimmers of Ye Olde English Liberty remain.

Following a 2021 outbreak of avian flu that resulted in millions of culled birds, the UK's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) was placed in charge of new registration requirements for chickens.

I was beginninhg to have my doubts about Vera Lynn and her singing There Will Always be an England:

There'll always be an England
And England shall be free
If England means as much to you
As England means to me

I am not English.  I am an American.  But, both. physically and politcally I am a descendent of England,  Thus, this gives me hope.  This tells me there are people in Merry Old England who still believe in individual freedom and who are willing to tweek the nose of oppressive government.

The point is that if you have just one chicken, even for a pet — and I won't judge you, I swear — as of Oct. 1, you have to register your bird with DEFRA. (I swear I keep reading that as "DERPA.")

This is when Britons have finally said, "Enough!" because pranksters hit the registration page so hard last week that they crashed it.

The prank registrations aren't limited to Tesco roasted chickens. Some people have reportedly registered rubber chickens and even chicken nuggets.

As of this writing, one week later, the website is still "unavailable due to technical issues."

Good on you People of England.  Good on you for standing up to petty bureaucrats who would crush the idea of individual freedom.  Good laws make everyone safer and happier.  However, oppressive petty restrictions are the bane of freedom and democracy.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Be Safe, But Not Rigid

For John, BLUF:  The right to not use the handrail affirmed in Canada.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Canadian woman arrested for not holding escalator handrail awarded $20G in damages

From Fox News, by Miss Nicole Darrah, 1 December 2019.

Here is the lede plus one:

A Canadian woman who was arrested for not holding on to an escalator handrail has been awarded $20,000 in damages by the nation's Supreme Court.

Bela Kosoian was riding an escalator at the Montmorency Montreal Metro station in Laval, Quebec, in 2009 when an officer stopped her because she wasn't holding on to a handrail, as she was looking through her purse.  A sign that stated "caution" and "hold handrail" was located near the escalator.

And here is the Supreme Court of Canada:

This case was about civil liability for doing something wrong.  In a free and democratic society, police officers can’t interfere with people’s freedoms except where the law says so.  They have to know the law and act within it.

Earlier we talked about Canada's abhorrence of Free Speech.  Here we see that the Canadians have not totally forgotten about the Rights of Englishmen, and kudos to them for that.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Concierge Bureaucracy

For John, BLUF:  What is your milage?  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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"Cartels and Concierge Bureaucracy Management".

The blog is Ricochet and the author is Skipsul.♠

I have been arguing for some time that the ever increasing petty rules and regulations are squeezing out the little guy, while empowering the big operators.  It is the big companies that can afford the lawyers and accountants needed to sift through the myriad of rules and regulations to ensure their company is not in violation of this or that.♥

But, Skipsul does a much better job of describing the situation.  Here are his first three paragraphs:

Several years ago I heard an amusing story on NPR’s Planet Money program. The story described an Indian entrepreneur who, frustrated with India’s local political corruption and red tape, started a new business:  Concierge Bribery.  For a fee, he would seek out and pay off all of the sundry local officials whenever a local business needed something done.  I thought how lucky we were that America had not yet descended to that level.  I was deeply wrong.  We, in fact, have had concierge bureaucracy managers for some time.

While it is generally a good maxim to never ascribe to mendacity that which can be explained by incompetence, normal logic seems rarely to apply to any of the corruption and rot stemming from Obamacare (and for the record, I refuse to call it “The Affordable Care Act”, or ACA).  The act seems explicitly designed, among other things, as a tool to force a cartelization of the entire medical industry.  We see this in the rapid demise of independent practices, as they close up shop and merge into large provider networks — effectively regional medical cartels.  What we are not yet seeing, or rather noticing, on any scale is the very similar effect Obamacare (when coupled with the many other business strictures in place) is having on general employment itself.

The complexities of complying with the myriad kludges of federal, state, and local income taxes, payroll taxes, workers’ comp systems, and unemployment taxes have already driven most employers to contract with specialized firms for handling payroll.  Only larger corporations have the budget to acquire and maintain the complicated accounting packages for running payrolls internally, so most smaller companies have, for years, offloaded this work on companies such as ADP or Paychex.  With every added employee comes a new set of filings, and more potential for error.  Just within my own company, we have have employees from two states and seven different local taxing jurisdictions, each of which has its own income tax, to be submitted on its own form, and by its own arbitrary deadlines.  Say what you will about the virtues of federalism, each of those various towns, cities, and counties is a petty fiefdom unto itself, and all must be paid whether I actually do business there or not.  Payroll services are effectively already the concierge bureaucracy managers.  Now they are also changing into employment cartels.

Hat tip to the Day-by-Day.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  Skipsul describes himself as a Midwestern owner of a small manufacturer of automotive electronics.  He also claims to be an Erstwhile history teacher and Gun Nut.
♥  This, in fact, is how the Democrats actually favor big business.  It is the Republicans who are trying to help small business.  Former SecState Hillary Clinton and Senator Bernie Standers (and dark horse Senator E Warren) only promise more of the same.

SJC Denies the Second Amendment

For John, BLUF:  Nice Video this AM on the show.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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On City Life this AM was a discussion of Massachusetts Gun Control laws and policies, particularly with regard to Lowell.  The second amendment hovered in the background, as did the effectiveness of gun control laws in resolving our homicide rate issues.

Now comes the SJC ruling that Massachusetts Gun Control Laws are just fine.  Here is the headline from The Boston Globe, "SJC rejects challenges to state gun licensing law".

In my limited experience, our Commonwealth has been slow to adapt to Federal rulings on a number of issues.

Regards  —  Cliff

Avoid Fire Works

For John, BLUF:  Many small petty rules.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Hat tip to the Instapundit.

NANNY ALERT:  Massachusetts State Agencies Warn Motorists against Transporting Illegal Fireworks into the State.  Fireworks bans, as reported so many years ago by Henry Reed, were the entering wedge of nannyism.

I have been seeing the flashing signs on the Route 3 Freeway for several days.

And hearing those fireworks here in Lowell at night.

If Mary Jane can be legalized, why not fireworks?

Regards  —  Cliff