Alex Massie

Hendrik Hertzberg has some fun with Rick Perry's occasional suggestions* that Texas could secede from the United States of America. Doing so he quotes extensively from a message Abraham Lincoln sent to Congress on July 4th, 1861. It is, as you would imagine, good stuff. But that doesn't mean it solves everything and nor is it the case that Lincoln is an anti-Godwin whom you need only quote to prevail in any argument. In any case, you might also think that there's a difference between what was true in the Civil War and what must be true - legally or politically - now. Meanwhile, some of what Lincoln has to say is interesting to consider given Unionism's struggle to make a good case for itself in Britain too...

There is a stramash over government bin policy! James writes: The government is, rightly, receiving a monstering from the papers for its u-turns on weekly bin collections. But what is at stake here is more than just the issue of bins. The government’s failure to honour its promise on this matter casts doubt on whether ministers are strong enough and tough enough to impose their will on their departments. The two ministries dealing with the rubbish question are the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Department of Communities and Local Government. Both are run by Conservative Secretaries of State.

Three cheers for Megan McArdle: I think Pawlenty's claims are crazy--though not specially crazy.  They're crazy the way that all political speeches on the economy are insane: they claim far more power over economic growth than any politician actually has. It is entirely possible that the economy will, for some period in the next few years, grow at 5%.  But if it does so, this will not be because Tim Pawlenty--or Barack Obama--have done something to cause it.  We don't know how to lift real GDP growth much above its trend level, and we certainly can't do so for [years o end]...  A really bad president can lower growth from its trend (wage and price controls, anyone?)  But--sorry, Republicans--Barack Obama is not that bad a president.

John Rentoul's column in the Independent on Sunday this week was uncharacteristically unpersuasive. His text was Mencken's aphorism that "There is always a well-known solution to every human problem – neat, plausible, and wrong" and Mr Rentoul suggested the Cardoso Commission's report on drug legalisation is an example of this approach. Well, perhaps. But I think "neat, plausible, and wrong" actually better characterises the Drug Warriors mania for prohibition. To which one might add "ineffective" too. Most advocates* of decriminalisation or legalisation (as Rentoul says, two different approaches) concede that these alternatives will not eradicate all of the problems associated with drug use but argue instead that they will make it easier to deal with the consequences of drug use.