I know a lot of people who have a lot of faith in regulations. And I'll admit this much: regulations sure do change the landscape of this world.

But for the better?

The case of the Hemingway cats is a good example of government run amok. These descendents of Ernest Hemingway's own six-toed cat wander around a privately run Hemingway museum. They are, in fact, well cared for. But the government wants to cage them:

The USDA insists that these cats be confined, restricted from roaming. A six foot stone wall surrounds the grounds of the Hemingway Home. Yet USDA inspectors have deemed this wall insufficient. They want to throw these cats into cages. The USDA has also suggested the installation of an electric fence around the Hemingway Home premises.

I'd like to know the exact rationale for the regulators' ruling. Economist D.W. MacKenzie, writing for the Mises Institute, doesn't go into a lot of detail. He sticks to sticking it to the regulators.

But I bet the full story has its own fascinations. And I bet it is funny.

Nothing like bureaucracy to tickle the funny bone.

Leave a comment

Comments:

No Comments for this post yet...

Leave a comment:

Name:

Email:

Your email address will not be displayed on this site.

Site/Url:

Your URL will be displayed.

Comment text:

Allowed XHTML tags: <p, ul, ol, li, dl, dt, dd, address, blockquote, ins, del, span, bdo, br, em, strong, dfn, code, samp, kdb, var, cite, abbr, acronym, q, sub, sup, tt, i, b, big, small>

Options:

Auto-BR (Line breaks become <br />)
Remember me (Set cookies for name, email and url)
Allow message form (Allow users to contact you through a message form (your email will NOT be displayed.))

Pingbacks:

No Pingbacks for this post yet...