Nanny State: How Food Fascists, Teetotaling Do-Gooders, Priggish Moralists, and other Boneheaded Bureaucrats are Turning America into a Nation of Children
Besieged by do-gooder legislators and activists pushing health, safety, or "family values," Americans have been subjected to bans on everything from trans fats to cookie-scented ads in bus shelters to happy hours. Harsanyi offers a catalog of rules imposed by "Twinkie fascists" and "playground despots" who are micromanaging all manner of bad habits and immorality that threaten to remove from citizens the right to choose how they live their lives. For example, he notes that the Centers for Disease Control has evolved from an agency concerned with infectious diseases to one concerned with overeating. Conceding that one person's idea of government intrusion is another's idea of prudent policy, Harsanyi stakes a claim on common sense as the judge.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/076792432...ASIN=0767924320
California — The Nanny State that Never Sleeps
A few years ago, we ordered a fine saltwater fishing reel from a fine specialty sporting goods purveyor in California. It arrived in fine condition, in a fine box listing attributes that would turn the angler into a fisherperson of superhuman ability.
The box, however, was marred by a hideous, scary sticker warning that the product therein contained, by the findings of the most oppressive nanny state in the history of the world (the aforementioned California), could cause cancer to ourselves, our loved ones and our unborn, yea unto generations.
A fishing reel? Well, no, not the reel itself, but the oil the manufacturer had diligently but sparingly applied so as to improve the efficiency of precision machined parts and bearings.
That warning, and literally millions of others like it, resulted from California's Proposition 65, a 1986 initiative that has turned California into the warning label capital of the world, worrying more about driplets of this and droplets of that than mudslides, fires and earthquakes that really do pose consequential dangers to Californians in their lifetimes.
Now it's caffeine in the Prop 65 crosshairs. On December 10, California's "Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment's Developmental and Reproductive Toxicant Identification Committee" (we kid you not as to the name) voted 4 to 3 to add caffeine to a new list for review, which will take about a year, and possible inclusion on the Prop 65 warning list.
http://www.cfif.org/htdocs/legislative_iss...Nanny-State.htm
A few years ago, we ordered a fine saltwater fishing reel from a fine specialty sporting goods purveyor in California. It arrived in fine condition, in a fine box listing attributes that would turn the angler into a fisherperson of superhuman ability.
The box, however, was marred by a hideous, scary sticker warning that the product therein contained, by the findings of the most oppressive nanny state in the history of the world (the aforementioned California), could cause cancer to ourselves, our loved ones and our unborn, yea unto generations.
A fishing reel? Well, no, not the reel itself, but the oil the manufacturer had diligently but sparingly applied so as to improve the efficiency of precision machined parts and bearings.
That warning, and literally millions of others like it, resulted from California's Proposition 65, a 1986 initiative that has turned California into the warning label capital of the world, worrying more about driplets of this and droplets of that than mudslides, fires and earthquakes that really do pose consequential dangers to Californians in their lifetimes.
Now it's caffeine in the Prop 65 crosshairs. On December 10, California's "Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment's Developmental and Reproductive Toxicant Identification Committee" (we kid you not as to the name) voted 4 to 3 to add caffeine to a new list for review, which will take about a year, and possible inclusion on the Prop 65 warning list.
http://www.cfif.org/htdocs/legislative_iss...Nanny-State.htm
Stop curing me.
These unwieldy plans can only further undermine the efficiency of the health system, the role of doctors as clinical professionals � and most importantly, the autonomy of individuals. They turn the purpose of healthcare on its head. As René Dubos wrote in 1960, “it is part of the doctor's function to make it possible for his patients to go on doing the pleasant things that are bad for them � smoking too much, eating and drinking too much � without killing themselves any sooner than is necessary”. There must be more to life than healthy living. Amid the talk of rights and responsibilities, one that gets ignored is the individual's right to make the “wrong” choices.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/c...icle3128959.ece
These unwieldy plans can only further undermine the efficiency of the health system, the role of doctors as clinical professionals � and most importantly, the autonomy of individuals. They turn the purpose of healthcare on its head. As René Dubos wrote in 1960, “it is part of the doctor's function to make it possible for his patients to go on doing the pleasant things that are bad for them � smoking too much, eating and drinking too much � without killing themselves any sooner than is necessary”. There must be more to life than healthy living. Amid the talk of rights and responsibilities, one that gets ignored is the individual's right to make the “wrong” choices.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/c...icle3128959.ece
We could give a rat's @ss if you want to kill yourself. Go for it. Just don't ask the rest of us to pay for your "health" once it starts to go in the toilet.
When considering "Health Care" benefits, the issue comes down to who "deserves" what care?
If someone smokes and drinks and then needs oxygen and medications and liver transplants should the rest of the taxpayers or company employees pay for it?
No one has ever or will ever make it illegal for you to abuse yourself. It is your right. Just take responsibility for your actions.
mm
When considering "Health Care" benefits, the issue comes down to who "deserves" what care?
If someone smokes and drinks and then needs oxygen and medications and liver transplants should the rest of the taxpayers or company employees pay for it?
No one has ever or will ever make it illegal for you to abuse yourself. It is your right. Just take responsibility for your actions.
mm
Above these [citizens] an immense tutelary power is elevated, which alone takes charge of assuring their enjoyments and watching over their fate. It is absolute, detailed, far-seeing, and mild. It would resemble paternal power if, like that, it had for its object to prepare men for manhood; but on the contrary, it seeks only to keep them fixed irrevocably in childhood; it likes citizens to enjoy themselves provided that they think only of enjoying themselves. It willingly works for their happiness; but it wants to be the unique agent and sole arbiter of that; it provides for their security, foresees and secures their needs, facilitates their pleasures, conducts their principal affairs, directs their industry, regulates their estates, divides their inheritances; can it not take away from them entirely the trouble of thinking and the pain of living?
***
Subjection in small affairs manifests itself every day and makes itself felt without distinction by all citizens. It does not make them desperate, but it constantly thwarts them and brings them to renounce the use of their wills. Thus little by little, it extinguishes their spirits and enervates their souls….
Alexis de Tocqueville
***
Subjection in small affairs manifests itself every day and makes itself felt without distinction by all citizens. It does not make them desperate, but it constantly thwarts them and brings them to renounce the use of their wills. Thus little by little, it extinguishes their spirits and enervates their souls….
Alexis de Tocqueville
Soon the California government may remotely control your home's thermostat.
I love it!
I have several ideas for a thermostat ice cube holder for the winter and a candle holder for the summer.
LINK
Next year, California lawmakers will fit homes and buildings with special radio-controlled thermostats to help manage electricity shortages. The utility will transmit a suggested temperature setting through the Internet to local radio transmitters, which will then forward it via radio to the homes.
I've already devised a couple of motion sensing overrides for the new motel thermostats which only turn on the airconditioning when someone is in the room.
You can use a helium balloon swaying in the breeze or hang toilet paper from the ceiling near a vent.
I love it!
I have several ideas for a thermostat ice cube holder for the winter and a candle holder for the summer.
LINK
Next year, California lawmakers will fit homes and buildings with special radio-controlled thermostats to help manage electricity shortages. The utility will transmit a suggested temperature setting through the Internet to local radio transmitters, which will then forward it via radio to the homes.
I've already devised a couple of motion sensing overrides for the new motel thermostats which only turn on the airconditioning when someone is in the room.
You can use a helium balloon swaying in the breeze or hang toilet paper from the ceiling near a vent.
Teachers ordered to 'police children's lunchboxes
School lunchboxes could soon be monitored by dinner ladies to ensure children are eating healthy meals, ministers said.
Under the Government's obesity strategy, all schools will be expected to design a "healthy lunchbox policy" on what makes a nutritional packed lunch over the next year.
Some parents may even be asked to sign a form agreeing to ban unhealthy foods from their children's lunches.
If a packed lunch is deemed to contain too much fat and sugar, parents could be sent warning letters or their children's meals confiscated.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/arti...in_page_id=1774
School lunchboxes could soon be monitored by dinner ladies to ensure children are eating healthy meals, ministers said.
Under the Government's obesity strategy, all schools will be expected to design a "healthy lunchbox policy" on what makes a nutritional packed lunch over the next year.
Some parents may even be asked to sign a form agreeing to ban unhealthy foods from their children's lunches.
If a packed lunch is deemed to contain too much fat and sugar, parents could be sent warning letters or their children's meals confiscated.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/arti...in_page_id=1774