David McElroy

What’s the purpose of state regulations? We’re told that the state has to regulate various things to protect the public’s health and safety. We’re also told that regulations protect us from being cheated. But governments prove every day that their regulations aren’t about protecting us. Instead, they’re all about politicians and bureaucrats maintaining control over the world around us.

The latest example comes from Minnesota, where state education bureaucrats told a free online education website that it’s illegal for the site to make its courses available — for free, remember — to the people of the state.

You see, there’s a state law that requires any college operating in the state to get permission from the state. The bureaucrats at the state’s Office of Higher Education informed Coursera (and possibly other free online providers) that it’s illegal for them to offer courses to people in Minnesota.

What is Coursera? It’s part of a growing movement that’s making world-class university courses available online for free to whoever wants them. (Take a look at the list of 33 schools that make some of their classes available through Coursera.) Just to emphasize this again, the people taking these online course pay nothing. They have access to great educational opportunities that other people pay thousands of dollars for.

But because the system isn’t set up as state education bureaucrats envisioned it, they don’t like it. They want to shut it down. They want to take the choice away from people who are getting a tremendous value for free. This isn’t about protection. This is about control.

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Earlier this week, a friend of mine told a little story that I love. He’s a professional photographer, and he had just done engagement photos for a very happy couple. He got to know them well enough to learn their background. Here’s how he told the story:

A nerdy guy fell in love with a beautiful, beautiful girl in high school. He wrote her love letters. He told her he would do anything for her. She wasn’t having any of it and dated not-nerdy guys all through high school. Then she dated hot guys in college. Her life got vapid as guy after guy used her then ditched her. She had a kid. She kept dating hot but awful guys. Then, one day, she decided that she should call the nerdy guy who fell in love with her from high school, because these other guys were bad people and the nerdy guy was the best person she could ever remember meeting. Now she’s going to marry the nerdy guy and they’re happy and madly in love.

I thought it was a great story about the triumph of love and about how people can grow and change, finally realizing what’s most important in life. It seemed like a pretty clear-cut happy ending to me, so I posted this feel-good story on Facebook for my friends. I quickly found out that other people viewed the story through very different lenses.

“Yeah, now that’s she’s used up,” one friend commented, and he followed it up by expanding on his thought. “This woman has a bad track record and she’s defaulting to her last best option; but, people rarely change, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she didn’t have an affair or leave him for the next hot guy. Good luck, nerd, I sincerely hope it works out well for you, but keep your eyes open.”

Another woman told the story of her own bitter experience of having rejected a nerd in high school, focusing on the hard lessons she learned from her own behavior.

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I’ve rescued many cats and dogs, but some folks in Malawi have an unusual rescue going on. They’re raising a baby elephant.

Moses is almost 8 months old now, but when he was found in the Vwaza Marsh Wildlife Reserve in Malawi, he was alone and close to death. Jenny Webb, who owns the Jumbo Foundation, took the tiny elephant in and adopted him. He’s being raised with an interesting assortment of humans, dogs and other animals. If you love animals, I think you’ll enjoy the pictures.

As much as I like elephants, I’m not sure whether he’d fit in here at my townhouse, so I’m glad Webb and Co. found him instead of me. I can’t look at the pictures without hearing “Baby Elephant Walk” in my mind.