Government’s always trying to save our souls by moralising to us, no matter how many times they damn us to the eternal fires, dancing daemons, and countless pointy thingies of hell. Anti-discrimination legislation is a perfect example of this. Racial or religious discrimination is stupid, and bad for the perpetrator as well as the victim, but this story just takes the biscuit.

A hair salon owner is being sued for religious discrimination after refusing a Muslim teenager a job as a stylist because she wore a headscarf. Sarah Desrosiers said she refused 19-year-old Bushra Noah the position because it was an “absolutely basic” requirement that customers could see their stylist’s hair.

I was a bit slow in commenting on this story, and I’m ashamed of that because it’s some bloody indicative of how incredibly stupid most government regulation is. However, I had only read about it in the London Lite and thelondonpaper (bastions of only the highest of journalistic standards, and as an ex-reporter for the Sun, I should know). Having just read the Telegraph’s account, my jaw dropped, as I just noticed the detail that brings home how silly the whole situation is.

The 32-year-old, whose “alternative” salon in London specialises in “urban, funky punky” cuts, has already spent £1,000 fighting the case.

“Urban, funky punky?” She wears a hijab! How on Earth does she keep her own hair “urban, funky punky”? Heck, who’s to say that she has any hair at all, let alone urban, funky punky hair? It’s like sitting James May down in front of a particularly angry-looking skinhead with a big pair of clippers. I don’t care how many times he’s watched Top Gear, he’s probably not going to be as clued-up and reassuring as he could be otherwise.

However, fortunately, it seems, the government’s religious discrimination legislation may force employers to consider the hijabi as equally qualified to style hair - HAIR!! - as someone that is actually willing to show it off. Such a requirement reduces the quality of service that a customer receives, and may put the business at risk, just as Ms Noah has in this case by suing them for refusing to hire someone that doesn’t meet the job description.

A requirement for a free society is a free market, and that involves allowing people to hire whoever they want, for whatever reasons their business may have. Maybe they need male bouncers, rather than put women on stilts to inspire fear in the local drunkards. Maybe they need black actors, rather than ask white people to daub blackface to portray black characters. Or, maybe, just maybe, they need hair stylists that are willing to prove they have some basic hair-styling sense by showing their own hair.

If the business has a legitimate reason, as those given above, the ‘discrimination’ will increase their profits. If there is none, they will be punished by having to hire inferior alternatives that suit their bigotries. Thus, as with almost all things, the market mechanism solves the social problem by providing an automatic righting system, without government regulation. If only the state realised that, and stopped moralising, businesses like this salon wouldn’t go out of business. We’d be climbing the ladder out of hell, rather than riding snakes down into its pits.

Oppressive dictators like to put on a show. Whether it’s as complicated as building the world’s largest stadium to host choreographed propaganda events, or as simple erecting a statue of himself made out of solid gold that revolves to always face the Sun, it’s always nice for the Leader to let people know he’s also the Man.

Robert Mugabe is no different, and what better way to prove that famine-striven Zimbabwe is doing A-OK under Mugabe than to hold an agricultural show?

But, if the pro-Mugabe Harare Herald is to be believed, not only is an agricultural show is the logical step, but it’s been an unbridled success! An ‘annual exhibition extravaganza‘, it writes, as ‘hundreds of people from all walks of life’ gawp at what moderately-acceptably-sized carrots are on show. And what’s even better, apparently:

Children could also be seen enjoying ice-cream, chips, sweets and other goodies as they visited the stands of various companies.

And isn’t that what Robert Mugabe’s all about? Not famine, but children enjoying ice cream. And that’s the beauty of being the Man.

For Old Worlders, much of the character of the United States can be summed up with one word: big. From the skyscrapers of New York to the mega-budgets of Hollywood, from the Navy’s super-carriers to the population’s super-sized waistlines, Americans just seem to do things on a larger scale than we do.

They have an unquenchable thirst for largesse, and nowhere is this better represented than in the monuments to the federal government, erected as ‘public’ works by the earkmarking endeavours of corrupt Congressmen. This was tragically brought home by the collapse of the Interstate 35W Mississippi bridge in Minneapolis last week, as one of these monuments came crashing down, with the loss of at least five lives.

The Washington Post has an interesting op-ed on the decline of the American efficiency at building such structures, and completing all other ‘big projects’.

The United States seems to have become the superpower that can’t tie its own shoelaces. America is a nation of vast ingenuity and technological capabilities. Its bridges shouldn’t fall down.

And it’s not just bridges. Has there ever been a period in our history when so many American plans and projects have, literally or figuratively, collapsed? In both grand and humble endeavors, the United States can no longer be relied upon to succeed or even muddle through. We can’t remake the Middle East. We can’t protect one of our own cities from a natural disaster or, it seems, rebuild after one. We can’t rescue our citizens when they’re on TV begging for help. We can’t even give our wounded veterans decent medical care.

And it’s all true; the United States doesn’t do any of those things particularly well. But there’s one thing that these ’simple’ tasks all have in common. Not only are all these projects stamped with the Stars and Stripes, Made in the United States, but they bear the hallmark of the government: Made in Washington DC. It’s not America that’s lost its way, but the government.

The private sector continues to be as inventive and productive as ever, particularly when it comes back to the super-size. American companies still make up 8 of the top 12 corporations worldwide in terms of sales. 5 of the top 6 films at the UK box office are American (and the other one - Harry Potter - is made with American money). Boeing’s 787 is raking up hundreds of orders, whilst Airbus struggles to flog its mammoth A380. And four-fifths of global software sales are racked up by US companies.

The biggest failings of the United States, as with all countries, are the failings of the government. The Sarbanes-Oxley regulations have destroyed the American finance sector; Wall Street gets the blame. The Food and Drug Administration blocks the development of new drugs, killing thousands; ‘Big Pharma’ gets the blame.

It shouldn’t be a surprise that the Washington Post misrepresents state failure as national failure. As a newspaper that builds its reputation on reporting about the federal government, it must equate the two. However, to do so does both themselves and their country a great disservice. The free market environment and entrepreneurial spirit of the United States means it remains the place to do ‘big things’, and do them right. Just don’t ask the government to do them; they can’t even tie their own shoe-laces.