Wall Street Journal Roundup

I don't have much time to develop arguments today, but these items from the Journal speak for themselves. Arizona police are worried that allowing volunteers with guns to patrol the Mexican border might lead to vigilantism. Boy, that would be shocking, huh. Aren't these just fair-minded, self-surrendering citizens who want to police the border? These wouldn't be people with a personal grudge against immigrants. Also, some parents are now "outsourcing" their children's potty training to "fussy-baby" services. Perhaps you'll be able to send your infant to Banglalore to have its diapers changed. The current administration's tax policy hypocrisy is addressed in a piece about the AMT, which, because it isn't indexed to inflation, is shifting more and more of the tax burden to middle-class families in Democratic-leaning states. I wonder why Congress isn't fighting to cut these taxes? Maybe because the shortfall for cutting business taxes is made up conveniently by this little loophole. Also of note, a front-page story about Chinese tax collection reminds us that in America, 83% of the tax burden is bourne by individuals rather than businesses. And why shouldn't it be that way, when our friends at the largest insurance company in the world, AIG, have confessed to essentially systematically defrauding their investors for several years. What! Insurance companies defrauding? I thought we the people had the problem with defrauding them -- as when we refuse to report our addresses honestly or pwn up to our preexisting health conditions so they can bar us coverage. I'm just shocked to see a scandal like this in such an honest, straightforward business as insurance. Next you tell me that there's waste and needless paperwork in the medical-billing industry. To finish things up, the heart-warming story of the executive with MS who didn't feel comfortable enough to admit his condition to his employer. Though companies are mandated by law to be tolerant of such medical conditions, this person must not have felt reassured that his company wouldn't find little ways to screw him over that would be hard to prove on the record.
Also: the Bush administration is prosecuting blacks for their discrimination against whites, is cutting funds to the victims of crime, and is gutting the protection of whistleblowers. All in all, a banner day.