Facebook Blocks MyBillofRights.org as “Abusive Content”

As some of you have no doubt heard, the only American currently on the list of important modern political thinkers in our standard world history textbooks is about to be cut from it, replaced by a Frenchman no less. This snub is not the work of some America-bashing academics from Marin County. Au contraire, it’s [...]

When I first began doing comedy after 10 years as a juggling act, I promised myself to have just one rule: don’t pander. If I couldn’t figure out how to make what was funny to me funny to others, I told myself, then I’d move on to the next thing. As a juggler I’d tried [...]

My name is Chris Bliss and I am the Executive Director of MyBillofRights.org, the Bill of Rights Monument Project. For the last 20 years I’ve been a stand-up comedian, though I’m probably best known for my “Amazing Juggling Finale” video,  which went viral with over 60,000,000 hits a few years back. 60,000,000 is an impressive [...]

Comedy Central’s reaction to the threat issued against South Park’s creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone by Revolution Muslim, a website promoting fundamentalist Islam run by a group in New York City, is misguided and regrettable. The small and until now mostly obscure group posted Parker and Stone’s Colorado addresses as well as Comedy Central’s [...]

A few years back the Environmental Protection Agency announced a policy change that called for re-pricing the lives of our citizens over seventy at 63% of the value assigned to those under that age when assessing the costs and benefits of environmental regulations.

The change was the result of new guidelines from the little-known Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, an agency set up under the Reagan Administration to do statistical cost-benefit analyses of all draft rules and regulations for the federal government, giving the executive branch approval (and effective veto power) over how new laws are interpreted and implemented by federal agencies.

As soon as the details of the EPA’s decision came to light it caused a heated controversy, forcing the agency to beat a hasty retreat. The reversal was as predictable as it was unfortunate, because the abandoned OIRA guidelines held the essence of a revolutionary insight: that our government has for too many years placed an unbalanced and fiscally irresponsible priority on assuring the longevity of average Americans.

Much of our debt and deficit problems can be traced to this interference by the federal government in the personal lives and choices of We the People. If our federal, state, and local agencies were mandated to pursue only “life expectancy neutral” regulatory regimens, not only would individual and corporate liberty soar, but over time popular programs like Social Security and Medicare could very well offer improved rather than reduced benefits.

All we need do is look at a country like Afghanistan, where the average life expectancy is 46. As many seemingly impossible challenges as that nation is facing, paying for entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare is not among them.

I’m not suggesting we need to aim that high (or low, in this instance). But even with some minor and relatively benign deregulation, such as raising the national speed limit; eliminating seat belt, airbag, and motorcycle helmet laws; and cutting back on the intrusive federal inspection of meat, we could trim 12-18 months off the national average in no time.

Since approximately 80% of Medicare expenditures come during the last two years of a recipient’s life, the savings would be more than enough to pay for a real (if somewhat counter-productive) prescription drug benefit.

Best of all, the changes would usher in a new era of freedom of choice for financially strapped consumers, who could opt for cheaper cars – and meats. This would also offer relief for that other oppressed group who has just recently gotten their due from the Supreme Court, our corporate citizens, by reducing production costs for two major industries; a clear win-win.

While there are bound to be the usual objections from the usual suspects, I predict that before too long the surviving public would be won over by its new found personal freedoms, its access to cheaper products, and the peace of mind of knowing that if you make it to 65, your benefits will be waiting for you.

At that point these same principles could be more broadly applied to create whole new sets of incentives for government, business, and the individual alike. To mention but a few:

1. Instead of ever more punitive “sin taxes” on alcohol and cigarettes, which are particularly burdensome for older Americans on fixed incomes, add both substances to the aforementioned prescription drug benefit. Here’s your carton of Kools and your quart of Wild Turkey. You go, Granny!

2. End the endless debate on juveniles and the death penalty by mandating it for all juvenile crime. Such a “one strike and you’re toast” policy will not only bend the life expectancy curve early in its arc, but will eventually result in a precipitous drop in adult crime, saving untold taxpayer billions on what has for several decades been the fastest growing budget buster for our state governments: the prison-industrial complex. Collateral benefits include fewer courts and police, and smaller class sizes for our struggling secondary schools. We’ll even save money on last requests. How much is a Happy Meal?

3. Rather than restricting the freedom of our corporate citizens by oppressive regulations that force them to spend billions cleaning up toxic waste sites, give them tax credits if they donate the land for either day care centers or nursing homes. West Virginia already has at least one enormous coal slurry pit (Marshy Fork) perched above a Head Start school, which could serve as a pilot program.

I realize that to some this sounds draconian, if not unjust. But as our friends at OIRA were trying to tell us, there is ultimately no avoiding the human toll. Anyone who has ever fallen behind on a mortgage, credit card, or IRS payment can tell you that freedom is never free, especially not freedom from creditors. The only questions are: who pays now, who pays later, and who decides. I don’t relish offering the approach outlined above. But considering the options, I’d rather have a shorter life of quality time than stick around long enough to see who gets the bill, let alone how and where they get stuck with it.

About three weeks ago I got my first mention in the New York Times. The most interesting thing about getting a mention in the Times is how people react to that information. They are either impressed or suspicious, including a substantial group of people that harbor a near-religious hatred for the Gray Lady. I’m sure [...]

By my rough count, I’ve just bought my 18th copy of the Beatles’ Abbey Road album. That includes somewhere between 10-12 vinyl copies before the CD version was released in 1987, plus 4-5 CDs before the advent of the iPod, and culminating today with what I have to believe will be my once and future [...]