France, that is. Not "Ile de France," the Department (state) in which Paris is located. Not Burgundy, not Provence. The whole country.
The NYT informs us, this morning, that French President Francois Hollande yesterday signed the country's law allowing marriage "for all." France is the 14th country, the article says, to legalize gay marriage. In the U.S., 12 states and D.C. have done so.
This is another example of the ill effects of our federal system, in which individual states have a wide and bewildering array of powers, with the result that our national laws are a patchwork of silly variation that serves no one's interest and costs us, undoubtedly, billions annually, if only in endlessly repeated lawsuits, bribes --why not just one level of bribery, in the national Congress?--, and special accommodations and duplicative work by businesses operating across state lines.
Whose interest is served, other than that of state legislators and lobbyists, by having fifty fiefdoms, each with its own legislature, governor, political establishment, and so on? And don't even get me started about the thousands of county governments across the country. My own state, Illinois, leads the nation with over 7,000 separate and distinct taxing authorities. Seven thousand!! Even Republicans believe that this is too many.
This blog will comment on our states, and what I believe to be their pernicious effect, as they are now constituted, on our national well-being.
For another example, here's an old post of mine from another blog. It still stands, in my opinion.
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