Washington Redskins, PC Police and Unintended Consequences

 Because the right to hold personal property is so fundamental to a free society, many Americans are justifiably appalled that the United States Patent & Trademark Office has arbitrarily chosen to remove trademark protections from the Washington Redskins’ name and brand.

Unintended Happy Consequences

Perhaps I have once again fallen into the trap of seeing the bright side of everything, whether optimism is warranted or not.  Maybe I just have a hard time facing ugly truths and run home to momma for a happy ending—just like story time when I was little.  Or, perhaps this is yet another example of bureaucrats’ making decisions that result in the exact opposite of their stated intent. 

If I am right, and the law of unintended consequences trumps bureaucratic regulations, Chief Zee may be poised to offend millions more people than he ever could as the protected trademark of a single sports team.

All we have to do is remain calm and think this through. 

Q:  Does the removal of patent protection mean the team 

has to change its name?

A:  No.  It only means that the team does not have the right to sue organizations that use their logo without the team’s permission. 

That is all.  In other words, under this patent office decision, ANYONE can now use the Redskin logo.  "Chief Zee Is Free!" and will become a member of the public domain—free for anyone to use.

Q:  Even if the logo is free for anyone to use, will anyone do so and risk offending so many potential customers?

A:  It depends on how many people are actually offended by the name “Redskins”.  (They are called the “Washington” “Redskins" and people are offended by the “Redskin” part???)

The Consequence:  

Members of native tribes don’t seem to care and freely use “Indian” icons with their businesses, products, communities and schools.  Crafty marketers will start to use the Redskins' name, logo and variations thereof because there is scant evidence that anyone-- other than the usual crowd of terminally-offended and politicians who try to benefit from meaningless controversy-- gives so much as a gopher turd about the entire kerfuffle. 

With the “offensive” brand in the public domain, prepare to start seeing it EVERYWHERE:

Washington Redskins Moving Forward

As for the future of the Washington Redskins, I suggest they do change their name.  With a little subversive creativity, they can choose a name that is truly an offensive joke—one that is so subtle, the bureaucrats will never figure out that the joke is on them:

This article from the Independent Journal Review provides a concise summary of why the End Run Project exists.  Government is bad at so many things because there is simply no way for it to be good at them.


http://www.ijreview.com/2014/05/139258-5-reasons-government-will-never-work-way-liberals-tell-can/

Government (almost) Always Makes It Worse

Pick a situation-- any situation that politician insert themselves into-- and compare those situations before and after politicians get involved.  Measure the actual outcomes against the stated goals of the action the politicians impose.  Why on Earth do people still think seeking solutions from politicians is a good idea? 


http://blog.heritage.org/2014/05/02/johnson-crapo-housing-finance-fannie-freddie-caution-senators-at-work/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social

The VA and The Screaming Jar

It is naive to expect people to act in altruistic ways when we place them in situations where the preservation of their jobs and organizations will naturally be their top priority.  It's simply human nature.  Thus it is with bureaucracies.  The good intentions of those who create these organizations are lost when they are forced to compete with the instinct of self-preservation.

Comedy Central's Jon Stewart is a genius, able to convey that same idea in very funny ways.  Pass the pencil sharpener.

THE DAILY SHOW:  A Bureaucracy of Dunces

Government = Legal Use of Force

The article from Reason.com relates to the impact that the passage of Michigan's "Right to Work" law has had on unions, now that union membership is no longer mandatory for employees of certain organizations.  The fact that many forced members leave the union when given a choice is very revealing. 

However, that is not the reason this article was re-posted on End Run Blog.  Within the details of the story lie a vivid example of the way politicians can be manipulated by the special interest groups who support them financially... and the unchallenged ability of politicians and bureaucrats to use force against the citizens for the benefit of their cronies.

Take note of the plight of relatives caring for ailing family members (for free) who were "legally" classified as Home Health Care Workers and forced to pay union dues which the government deducted directly from their Medicare/Medicaid checks.  That is how our neighbors use government force to take money from our pockets and transfer it to theirs. 


http://reason.com/blog/2014/05/01/mich-right-to-work-law-results-in-mass-e

THE END RUN PROJECT

END RUN to a BETTER REPUBLIC

This entry is an introduction to the End Run Project.  It is dedicated to Dr.Zoltan Kemeny who escaped Soviet tyranny and now applies his considerable skills here in the Valley of the Sun.

It is the nature of the politics that those we elect are forced to make reelection their highest priority. Hence, rampant corruption, fiscal malfeasance & failed programs. All of the media "issues" about which we argue serve the political class by distracting & dividing us.

If we ever unite and hold them accountable, their wealthy, privileged, lives of power would crumble.  The key is to marginalize politicians and rely on our fellow citizens to champion causes they are passionate about.  In other words, we all have a civic duty to DO AN END RUN.  

A Doctor's Declaration of Independence

It's time to defy health-care mandates issued by bureaucrats not in the healing profession.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304279904579518273176775310?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702304279904579518273176775310.html

The Young Will Save the Country

Distrust of authority should be the first civic duty.

Norman Douglas

 

 

Harvard Poll:  Millennials Distrust the Government

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/poll-millenials-have-historically-low-levels-of-trust-in-government-2014-4#ixzz30LHag9C8

Libertarian Crosses the Road

Manipulated by Those Who Would Divide Us

Posted as a follow-up to the post

"How to Lose Friends and Influence No One"

http://blog.heritage.org/2014/04/18/ben-carson-manipulated-trying-divide-us/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social

How to Lose Friends & Influence No One

Game-Changing the Conversation of Politics

My favorite coffee shop is my favorite because the coffee is good and nothing weird ever happens there.  Now I’m going to have to find a new one.  Yesterday morning, two of my fellow regulars who appeared to be old friends, changed the subject of their friendly conversation and went through a rather theatrical transformation. 
 

• One levitated and began croaking like a demon. 

• The other’s head began to spin and vomit pea soup.

Naturally, the topic the subject had changed to was politics.  When finally un-possessed, neither of their positions had changed an iota but they had managed to throw cold water on their normally warm relationship.  The exorcist transformation they experienced is completely typical of what happens between the closest of friends and family.  Small wonder that “never discuss politics” is so high on Miss Manners’ etiquette list. 

One of the reasons The End Run Project exists is to reframe and challenge the idea that we-the-people should be unable to calmly discuss and analyze what our elected officials and public employees are doing.  It is our civic duty is to hold public servants accountable for how they spend our money and how they wield the force of government with which we have entrusted them.  Yet it has become the nature of politics that instead of evaluating their performance we are constantly turned against one another, gnawing, stabbing and belittling each other over the latest media hysteria or meaningless, politically generated “issue”. 

• Obama misspoke when he referred to visiting “57 states” and therefore he’s a Muslim. 

• Mitt Romney’s dog took a kennel ride on the roof rack. 

Really?  That is the kind of trivial, brainless excrement that we are supposed to concern ourselves with?  At the risk of sounding paranoid, I suggest that it is in the best interest of politicians and their parties to keep us focused on such rubbish so as to distract from their very real shortcomings as legislators and administrators.

 

 

 

“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”

--  H. L. Mencken

 

 

The idea that we can achieve civility in our political discourse is not a pie-in-the-sky impossibility.  Future posts will describe a methodical approach that anyone with a scarecrow brain can learn and use.  The pay off will be our ability to focus clearly on our employees’ performance in Congress and the bureaus of the executive branch.  If we don’t care enough to hold them accountable, they will use our political system to further their own ends.  Here’s how we put our collective foot down:  disrupt the dialogue with an end run.

“No one will really understand politics until they understand that politicians are not trying to solve our problems.  They are trying to solve their own problems—of which getting elected and re-elected are number one and number two.  Whatever is number three is far behind.”

—Thomas Sowell.

 

 

Upcoming Posts: 

• The Method of Civil Discourse

• If They Can’t, We Will.  The Rise of Private Initiatives

• Meet the Cronies

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Which Founding Father said the following?

 

 

“It is the institution of government that is violent,

forceful and coercive.  (It) kills people and

subjects them to will with a force."

 

It’s a trick question.  The person to whom this quote belongs is the person who appears on camera-- an unlikely source for such a profound statement.  Find the quote at 03:17. 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIMnIh10po0#t=108