Jon Sanders

No kidding, the NYT is promoting a chat program so kids can practice arguing politics with an "Angry Uncle" during Thanksgiving.

But North Carolina is caught in a public-choice trap with its occupational licensing system. Licensing reform is an issue that unites conservatives and liberals, the political Right, Left, and Center, but deep-pocket lobbies have so far been able to suppress attempts to restore people's fundamental civil right to earn a living as recognized in the State Constitution.

It is as if American vocabularies have lost the ability and terms to make the fine distinctions needed for drawing richer, fuller distinctions.

It's not as if Texas was minding its own business and suddenly won the low-tax business-welcoming climate lottery. Texas adopted policies that economists have consistently shown to promote stronger economic growth.

Now North Carolina isn't having to plumb new depths in cronyism like some mad Captain Nemo. Make no mistake, that's what our leaders were fully prepared to do.

It was in sheer desperation that their leaders decided to abandon socialism and let families own and farm their own land.

It seems as if city officials might be trying to interfere with their business model so as to make the things infeasible. If so, it would be a passive-aggressive de facto ban.

This troubling new scheme gives privately funded environmental litigator/activists — who are unaccountable to the people — state police power, if the attorney general demonstrates environmental fealty to the special-interest group funding it.