Somewhere in the Great Beyond, Hermann Goering is laughing.

In recent years, the dream of home ownership has gotten farther and farther out of reach, as house prices have escalated. According to a recent study, the primary cause is excessive zoning laws - that is, government over-regulation.

Bureaucracies never die, and India's still uses genuine red tape.

What's more important to the bureaucracy - fighting the war, or keeping the paperwork up to date?

To Michael Moore and company, being good to the poor is a human obligation; and those that disagree must be compelled. And what legitimizes this obligation? Because it is "simple".

Brazil serves as an object lesson in how government incompetence - not greed, not really bribery even, certainly not totalitarianism, just simple incompetence - can make life difficult on an otherwise free and vibrant economy.