Reblogged: No Need to Persuade

[Gus Van Horn blog]

John Stossel writes a columnon regulation empowering left-wing "activists" that should concern anyone who values our current standard of living:

It also turns out that some [National Resources Defense Council] activists now work for the EPA, and although activists aren't supposed to get involved in issues pushed by the agency, they do it anyway. The NRDC's Nancy Stoner became an EPA regulator. Then she wrote her former colleagues, "I am not supposed to set up meetings with NRDC staff," referring to a pledge she signed not to participate in any matters directly involving her former employer. Then she got around these restrictions by qualifying that she could attend such a meeting if "there are enough others in attendance."

Stossel details how the EPA stopped a precious metals mine in its tracks despite its being 90 miles away from an area it supposedly "threatened" -- not that the government has any business dictating how someone should develop his own property. Also worthwhile is Stossel's account of the dishonest tactics used to sway public opinion about the proposed mine.

I have found too often today that when the media refer to someone as an "activist", that person is not one in the true sense of the term. That is, he is not really concerned with persuading someone else of his point of view. He is typically just a bully with an agenda. Sadly, our leviathan state increasingly makes the opinions of such people equivalent to law, rendering debate irrelevant. This is a trend we must reverse.

-- CAV

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