Political weirdness is endemic to Washington, the first state to legalize marijuana. But we've outdone ourselves this year with I-522, an initiative that would require labeling of some (but not all) foods that contain ingredients from genetically modified organisms (GMOs). This is a controversial issue, with valid arguments on both sides. But, as usual, the initiative has been written in an illogical and misleading way, The fundamental illogic of the measure is best explained by analogy. Suppose someone were to propose the following initiative: All residents of the State of Washington will be required to wear and prominently display badges stating that they are not policemen. Only active policemen will be exempt from this requirement. You would conclude that the proposer either had a paranoid fixation about policemen or was in the business of selling badges. The sensible alternative would be for policemen to be the only ones who need to wear badges.I-522 has the same sort of...(Read Full Post)