Quotation of the Day…

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… is from page 305 of Jonah Goldberg’s excellent 2008 book, Liberal Fascism (footnote deleted):

Most businesses are like beehives. If government doesn’t bother them, they don’t bother government. If government meddles with business, the bees swarm Washington. Yet time and again, the liberal “remedy” for the bee problem is to smack the hive with a bigger stick. There are hundreds of medical industry lobbies, for specific diseases, specialities, and forms of treatment, each of which spends a fortune in direct and indirect lobbying and advertising. Do you know which medical profession spends almost nothing? Veterinary care. Why? Because Congress spends almost no time regulating it. Why do pharmaceutical industries spend so much money lobbying politicians and regulators? Because they are so heavily regulated that they cannot make major decisions without a by-your-leave from Washington.

DBx: Of course, these bees are special. They only appear to hassle and sting Washington insiders. These insiders can point to the swarming bees and declare to the public how very annoying are these insects. But in fact these bees inflict on Washington insiders no harm or pain; these insiders receive from these bees political support in return for crony-nectar that the bees promptly turn into Potomac honey – a sweetener enjoyed only by the bees and the nectar-supplying insiders.