If there is one thing we can all do without, it is an overreaching
intrusive federal government which goes to great lengths to protect us
from ourselves — at our expense. Nor do we need a micromanaging, nit-picking
Big Brother to prohibit everything that isn't mandatory.
Note: The material
about RFID chips has
been moved to another page.
You may also be interested
in The Invasion of the Food Police.
There is now a smoking section for
all the information about the government's efforts to get people to stop smoking.
And be sure to check out this material
about closed captioning — a
simple courtesy that gradually turned into an inalienable right.
There is a special subsection about Texas Governor Perry's vaccination mandate
on this page.
New!
The U.S. government recently outlawed the incandescent bulb! The environmental lobbyists insist that we
use fluorescent bulbs, whether we like them or not.
The Fed's Plan is More Scary Than the Bird
Flu. Like many Americans, I have been mildly interested, if not amused, watching the parade of
warnings — some quite dire — about the possibility of a bird flu pandemic. The
feds have spent billions of dollars preparing for a pandemic that most experts predict will not occur.
Free
lunch "safety": Some people can die from eating ordinary wholesome foods
like salmon or peanut butter. If the government banned every food that was fatal
to someone, we might all die of malnutrition. If a drug is not safe, neither is
the illness for which the drug is prescribed. Nor are alternative drugs likely
to be perfectly safe, since nothing else is. Life involves weighing alternative
risks, whether in football, pharmaceutical drugs, or a thousand other things.
Taking
liberties: In New York City, where Mayor Michael Bloomberg has become a champion of a supposedly
new "post-partisan" movement of for-your-own-good-government, trans fats are off the menu. Smoking has
become the ceremony of heretics and outlaws. In 2006 alone, New York City banned — or attempted
to ban — pit bulls; trans fats; aluminum baseball bats; the purchase of tobacco by 18- to
20-year-olds; foie gras; pedicabs in parks; new fast-food restaurants (but only in poor neighborhoods);
lobbyists from the floor of council chambers; vehicles in Central and Prospect parks; cellphones in upscale
restaurants; the sale of pork products made in a processing plant in Tar Heel, N.C.; mail-order
pharmaceutical plans; candy-flavored cigarettes; the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus;
and Wal-Mart.
Crackberry Crunch: Techno
"addiction" is plainly becoming both a social phenomena and a growing social problem in our age. As
such, it can only be a matter of time before nanny-governments — it being none of their
business — insist on manufacturers devising warnings or even spamming us to that effect.
Some
recent laws seen as protecting Dallas residents from themselves. At the decade's dawn, Dallasites could
smoke in restaurants, walk their dogs without carrying a pooper-scooper and stroll through downtown or South Dallas
without being monitored by police video cameras. Children, meanwhile, were free to run through parks playing with
their toy six-shooters. Homeless people could beg for money at will. Today, no more — the Dallas
City Council has since deemed such actions illegal and subject to stiff fines.
The
Lawnmower Men: Al Gore blew into Washington on Thursday, warning that "our very way of
life" is imperiled if the U.S. doesn't end "the carbon age" within 10 years. No one seriously
believes such a goal is even remotely plausible. But if you want to know what he and his acolytes
think this means in practice, the Environmental Protection Agency has just published the instruction
manual. Get ready for the lawnmower inspector near you.
Anti-DWI interlocks considered for ALL drivers.
The New York Times [10/21/2007], in an article that may not have been widely noticed because it was buried
in the Automotive section, reports that automakers and researchers, with U.S. government funding, are working
on anti-drunk-driving interlocks that ALL drivers will have to pass in order to drive their cars, whether or
not they have a record for DWI.
Activists Battle Mental Health Screening
Law. Two years after a new law was passed in Illinois creating the framework for schools to
screen students for mental health disorders, the state has saved more than $44 million in hospital costs,
according to a report released in early October. But some groups say the alleged cost savings do not
justify a program under which schools are overstepping their authority. They also say it imposes a
mandatory, universal plan to screen all children from birth through 18.
Nanny State Makes a Poor Babysitter for
Americans. Recently, the Economist ran a cover story on what the magazine called "soft
paternalism." The article focused on the emerging idea among some public policy thinkers that
too many Americans make "bad" decisions. Thus, we need government to nudge us in the right
direction, be it through sin or vice taxes, public relations campaigns, or in some cases,
outright prohibitions.
Nanny
State. Frontpage Interview's guest today is David Harsanyi, an award-winning columnist at The
Denver Post. … He is the author of the new book, Nanny State: How Food Fascists, Teetotaling Do-Gooders, Priggish Moralists, and other Boneheaded Bureaucrats are
Turning America into a Nation of Children.
Tyranny Update:
[We would have been skeptical] back in the '60s, when the anti-tobacco movement started, if someone predicted that
the day would come when some cities, such as Calabasas, Calif., would outlaw smoking on public streets.
Back in the '60s, had someone predicted that there'd be bans on restaurants serving foie gras; citations for
driving without a seatbelt, that the government said would be unnecessary if cars had airbags; and school bans
on kids having peanut butter sandwiches in their lunchbox, I'm sure people would have said that would never
happen.
A New
Declaration of Independence. We don't want other people's dough and we don't want other
people taking ours. We want to start our own businesses without being overregulated and overtaxed.
We want to educate our kids where and how we see fit. Whereas the Takers are trying to turn America
into France — where most everybody is dependent on government in one way or another —
we Leave-Us-Aloners believe what our Founders believed. We believe that government should handle the
basics, then butt out….
Portion Control: It's
What's (Left) For Dinner. Worried you haven't been hearing enough bad ideas lately? Be sure
to check out the Food and Drug Administration's new report on food and obesity. Chief among the report's
recommendations is that restaurants should adopt portion controls on what they serve to customers.
Why
Are Americans Giving Up Their Freedom? Dispensing with the idea of limited government in realm of
benefits has meant dispensing with the idea of any limits to government power at all. Once we accept the
notion that government should ensure that our pursuit of happiness succeeds, we have accepted the notion that
government has the right to define what a happy life should look like. We can call this trend the
encroachment of the "nanny state," which it is, or the spread of "liberal fascism," which it also is.
But it is also the inevitable result of Americans' increasing desire to have government guarantee that more
and more aspects of our lives turn out all right.
Safety first. The
safety first movement has begun its attack on school playgrounds. Their first target: Swing
sets. Yes, Plano Independent School District (in an upper class suburb of Dallas) has been
convinced to remove swing sets from playgrounds at all 40 local elementary schools. The
move, Plano ISD says, will make recess safer.
Editor's Note: This
situation is probably the result of an overabundance of ambulance-chasing lawyers, not just
overprotective liberal do-gooders.
Alcohol Nanny Breathalyzers:
Maybe we ought to think twice before adopting similar measures when it comes to traffic law. Specifically,
when it comes to an idea floated by Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) to require that all new cars be fitted
with an ignition interlock that can detect alcohol in the driver's system — and shut the car down if it does.
Zero Tolerance or Unneccessary
Legislation? In New York the trademark jingle of the iconic ice cream truck has
been silenced. In Sacramento you have to use your inside voice on a thrill ride called
the Screamer. And in Murpheesboro, Tenn., the city council implemented a body odor ban on
its workers. Forget your deodorant and you could be breaking the law. … With more and
more schools and local governments telling people what they can't do these days, some say
America has become a nation of bans.
The British government says Santa Claus
is too scary for children. "For very young children, Father Christmas can be terrifying,
and if you are planning a visit from Santa, you'll need to make sure that fearful children are near an
exit." … Children should give "experiences" instead of Christmas presents and stop sending cards
to cut waste, according to government advice.
Also in the U.K. ...
Family
life faces State 'invasion'. Government surveillance of all children, including information on
whether they eat five portions of fruit and vegetables a day, will be condemned tomorrow [6/27/2006] as a Big Brother
system. Experts say it is the biggest state intrusion in history into the role of parents.
Protecting
us from the good things? Most people think government keeps us safe. It's why
the Food and Drug Administration is regarded as absolutely necessary. It protects us from
snake-oil sellers. Who could argue with that? I will, because years of consumer
reporting have taught me that the regulators, by protecting us from bad
things, protect us from good things, too.
What's
the alternative? Without an FDA, how would doctors and patients know
which drugs were safe and effective? The same way we know which computers and
restaurants are good — through newspapers, magazines and word of
mouth. In a free, open society, competition gets the information out, and
that protects consumers better than government command and control.
FDA: Friend or Foe? Should a drug be
disapproved whenever it poses a health risk to some people but a benefit to others? To do so would
eliminate most drugs, including aspirin, because all drugs pose a health risk to some people.
Autism
crusade plagued by incaution, illusions. The recently launched crusade to have every child tested
for autism before the age of two has as its reason an opportunity for "early intervention" to treat the
condition. … But the dangers of false diagnoses of toddlers and preschoolers have been pointed out by
Professor Stephen Camarata of Vanderbilt University, who has tested and treated children with autism for
more than 20 years and has encountered many cases of inaccurate diagnoses.
Michigan
close to mandating HPV vaccine. First-in-the-nation legislation requiring HPV vaccinations for
girls entering the sixth grade is headed for a final vote in the Michigan House of Representatives, where a
committee approved the two related bills last week. The Senate already passed the measure.
Warning:
Products Ahead. Hide the children: Commercial products are visible on network television.
That's the urgent message from a clatch of public interest groups who wrote to the Federal Communications Commission
last week demanding an end to "advertainment." … This conspiratorial view of advertising goes back to Vance
Packard and the "Hidden Persuaders," the book unmasking the supposed media manipulation of the 1950s.
Hiring the
Nanny State. With his book "Nanny State," Denver Post columnist David Harsanyi has thrown a
conservative-libertarian rope around a disturbing political and cultural trend — the nannification
of America by moral busybodies and nitpicking maternalists who use government power to micromanage our
personal lives and protect us from ourselves.
Pie menace averted. Members of
the Community Advent Christian Church in Norwalk, Ct. wanted to bake pies this Thanksgiving and donate them to
the city's emergency shelter, but were told that under a state regulation home-baked pies cannot be donated to
the shelter and that any pies that get donated anyway are thrown out, reports the Norwalk Hour.
Big Brother Prescribes: Are mandatory aerobics
classes in your future? "When anyone dies at an early age from a preventable cause in New York
City, it's my fault," New York City Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden declared recently. In his campaign
to make sure that no New Yorker dies before his or her time, Frieden has adopted an expansive notion of public
health. … Safeguarding people from the risks potentially imposed on them by third parties is no longer
enough — Frieden now wants to protect people from themselves.
Twinkies, Smokes, and Fries: The Fallacies
of Sin Taxes. The search for government revenue in fiscally tight times tempts legislators to
raise revenue by imposing unusually high excise taxes on cigarettes, liquor, gambling, and so on.
Recently, we've seen new and creative measures aimed at fatty snacks, fast food, and soft drinks —
proposals familiarly known as "Twinkie" taxes. This type of charge, often called a "sin tax," appeals to
voters who view them as a way of discouraging consumption of certain objectionable products. Yet the
temptation to impose sin taxes is one that should be resisted for both economic and moral reasons.
Aluminum Bats May Go Way of Trans Fat. The [New
York] City Council, already one of the nation's leaders in the attempt to ban trans fats in restaurants, may
be first in the country to ban another potential safety hazard — aluminum baseball bats. On
Monday, the City Council will hold a hearing on legislation that would allow only wooden bats
be used at high school baseball games.
Book review
Hazardous to our
Health? FDA Regulation of Health Care Products. In this book, four
outstanding scholars examine how the FDA accumulated its enormous power and what effects
it has had on the public. It also explores who actually benefits and loses from
FDA actions, and whether alternatives exist to safeguard the health of Americans. This
book raise serious questions about the wisdom of giving policing power with little oversight or
appeal process to scientists, as the FDA currently does. It also argues forcefully that the
FDA unnecessarily delays beneficial medicines and medical devices, many of which are routinely
available in Europe, from being available to Americans.
Protecting us from
sunscreen? People are happily protecting themselves with Mexoryl in South America,
Europe, Australia and Canada, but in the USA you are forbidden to use it. The FDA won't approve
it. It won't even say why.
Nanny's guide to
being nice: Good manners abroad, like good manners anywhere, are good, of course. But
the government just can't help being the nanny. Good manners start at home, and you can't take with
you what you haven't packed.
Nanny-state
nonsense from the country that once ruled half the world. England used to be a world
power. Now it it morphing into a caricature of political correctness. A government
proposal to ban TV advertising for "junk food" makes a mockery of the principles of freedom and
individual responsibility.
New
Nanny State Push in Britain. As if they don't have enough to worry about already, Britons are being
told by their government to stop smoking, stop eating so much, be more patriotic, drink less wine
and — oh, yes — be more polite. Beginning in July, a sweeping smoking ban comes into
effect throughout Britain, making it illegal to smoke in restaurants, pubs or any public
place under threat of an instant fine of around $100.
"One of the greatest delusions in the world is the hope that the evils in this
world are to be cured by legislation."
— Thomas
Reed, 1886.
The tyranny of
visions. Visions are powerful things. For some people, visions make facts
unnecessary and can even over-ride facts to the contrary. Even in democratic nations,
there are people who can impose their vision on other people, with no consequences for being
wrong and no requirement that they prove themselves right. Social workers have for years
tried to stop white couples from adopting orphans from minority groups because that goes
against their vision. They don't need a speck of evidence to back up their preconceptions.
The
tyranny of visions: part II. California has long had more than
its fair share of busybodies with a vision of the world in which it is necessary
for them to force other people to do Good Things. One of the latest examples
is a recent ruling by one of the many busybody commissions in California that people
who build houses, or just remodel their homes, will in the future have to have more
fluorescent lights and even install motion sensors to control lights – all
in the name of saving energy.
The tyranny of
visions: part III. Nowhere is the tyranny of visions more absolute than with
issues involving safety. Attempts to talk about costs, trade-offs or diminishing returns are
only likely to provoke safety zealots to respond with something like, "If it saves just one human
life, it is worth it!" That immediately establishes the safety zealot as being on a higher
moral plane than those who stoop to consider crass materialistic costs. And being on a higher
plane is what a great deal of zealotry is all about.
The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission Takes a Bite Out of Crime
Undercover
agents target drunks in Texas bars. In one operation in a Dallas suburb, agents from the
Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission visited 36 bars and arrested 30 people for
intoxication. Carolyn Beck, the commission's spokesman, said the arrests were designed
to detain drunks before they left bars and behaved in dangerous ways, such as driving.
The Editor says...
The TABC is doing this despite two important facts:
1. The inside of a bar is private property, not public. Private
intoxication is not illegal.
2. People sitting in a bar are not driving; therefore, they are not
drunk drivers.
Sometimes common sense eludes public officials.
Texas Arrests Drunk People
in Bars. Some stories are just too stupid to make up and this is one of them. The Texas
Alcoholic Beverage Commission is arresting drunk people in bars to prevent drunk driving.
Public intoxication stings
catch 2,200 in Texas bars. The arrests included people who were drunk in bars, who sold
alcohol to a drunk person, or a drunk employee on the premises of a bar or restaurant with a license
to sell alcohol, said Carolyn Beck, a spokeswoman for the TABC. … Part of the problem with enforcing
the state's code regulating alcohol sales is "people still think that a bar is place to go get
drunk," Beck said.
There's a shocking revelation — people go to bars to get drunk!
TABC Patrolling Bars For Public
Intoxication. If you have a drink in an Austin bar or restaurant, and you do something out of
the ordinary, you could go to jail. The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission says they can spot people
who've had too much to drink, just by looking at them. … TABC busts are up 95 percent over the last
year. Legal experts say there's a reason for that. "TABC is trying to justify their
existence. They think that it is a politically popular thing to get out there and arrest
folks," defense attorney Ken Gibson said.
Lawmakers To Review Bar Busts.
Lawmakers plan to review a state drinking crackdown that uses undercover agents to arrest drunk people in
bars. … Legislators who oversee the commission said they agree with the emphasis on public safety, but
the program should be reviewed to check for abuses and to measure its effectiveness.
Texas Attempting
To Become A Dry State? [For example,] How about the three most ridiculous
arrests, just from my tiny bar in a Houston suburb?
- We've had our bartender arrested for serving one person two drinks. One was for the
customer's boyfriend, and they attested to this fact at the time. Neither were "falling down drunk."
- We had a patron arrested for playing trivia and drinking diet coke. No
alcohol — just caught up in the sting.
- While walking from the bar to a cab that he called, a customer was arrested for public intoxication.
And all of it is absurd, especially "saving people from themselves."
Exploding the Fireworks Safety
"Threat": Though about 70 million of us live in states that
allow all sorts of fireworks and firecracker use, 50 million other Americans
who live in nine states, including New York and Arkansas, need a permit to even
light a sparkler. … Safety is the major concern of those who ban our celebratory backyard
light and noise shows, but their fears are overblown. In fact, banning personal
use of fireworks may actually result in more accidental fires because some of
those who try to avoid getting caught set them off in remote fields, causing
fires that take longer to discover.
Freedom
Means Never Having to Take Down Your Fuzzy Dice. About two-dozen states
across the country passed laws micromanaging transportation, education, business, alcohol,
and social issues, while a few struck blows for personal freedom. Freedom means
having personal responsibility and the ability to make certain choices about everyday
living that should not be dictated by the government. It is not the job of the
state to make sure people are happier, healthier, and more productive by making decisions
for them.
In Canada...
Scrap the nanny
state and return our cash. For the most part, we ought to have our money given back to us and
be allowed to spend it on whatever we like. We may make bad choices or good choices -- but choice,
so we are told by the left, is a basic human right. There are the obvious areas of tax abuse, such
as tendentious and political arts funding, competing public broadcasters and government corruption and
inefficiency, all of which should go.
Air Bag Safety Coverup: Americans
ought to be free to choose to have air bags or not. After all the additional safety benefit
air bags provide, for seatbelt wearing passengers, is virtually zero.
Death by Government. Even
after it became known that air bags could kill children and smaller adults the government
continued to insist that they be used, propagandized in favor of their use, and refused to make
them optional. The regulators finally caved in and allowed switch-off devices in 1995, but it
is nearly impossible to find an automotive service center that will install one because of
their liability fears.
Mandatory
seatbelt measure defeated. New Hampshire will remain the only state in the nation not to require
adult drivers and passengers to buckle up. The state Senate, in a bipartisan 16-8 vote, killed a
House-passed bill that would have made failure to wear a seatbelt a primary offense. … While proponents
called the bill a life-saving measure, opponents framed it as a debate about government intrusion on
personal freedom — a case of what one senator termed "nanny state" legislation.
Facts
About State Mandatory Seat Belt Harness Laws: While the use of a seat belt has saved
some people in certain kinds of traffic accidents, there is ample proof that in other kinds, some
people have been more seriously injured and even killed only because of forced seat belt use. … The
public is denied the right to know there is a legitimate contrary side to the seat belt law
controversy. At one time, it was the same with air bags until one investigative reporter
decided to start printing the truth about air bag dangers in certain kinds of traffic accidents.
There's a web site about this specific issue:
Seat Belt Choice dot com. There
is a concerted effort from Washington through the National Highway Transportation Safety
Administration to pressure every state in America to enact a primary seat belt law and make
everyone buckle up or lose federal transportation money. A primary law means you can be
stopped solely if you or someone else in your vehicle is not wearing a seat belt. And
if you are stopped, you may be ticketed, fined and perhaps even arrested.
The truth about seat belts: When
we read the instructions to police officers and emergency personnel for filling out the FARS data
forms, we learn that all persons who fell off the bed of a pickup truck or fell off a snowmobile
or a three-wheel or four-wheel ATV or from a go-cart are to be listed as having been
"ejected". Moreover, there is no evidence to prove that all the persons who are
listed as having been "ejected" actually were. … When we look at the actual data we
find that most of these data points are coded as "9" which is the FARS code in this
category for "unknown". In other words, all they really know in most cases is
that the victims was outside the vehicle when they arrived on the scene.
Seat
belt laws: Primary seat belt laws give law enforcement agents a virtual carte blanche
to conduct traffic stops. Nevada's recent experience proves states don't need more intrusive
statutes to persuade more people to buckle up.
Liberty Versus
Socialism: [Scroll down] Similar justification was used for laws requiring helmets for motorcyclists
and bicyclists. After all, if one exercises his liberty to ride without a helmet, and has an accident and
becomes a vegetable, society has to bear the expense of taking care of him. The fact that an obese person
becomes ill, or a cyclist has an accident, and becomes a burden on taxpayers who must bear the expense of taking
care of him, is not a problem of liberty. It's a problem of socialism where one person is forced to take
care of another. There is no moral argument that justifies using the coercive powers of government to
force one person to bear the expense of taking care of another.
"Protecting" Kids Right off the
Playground: Safety bureaucracies and consumer activist groups routinely
invent or exaggerate dangers to maintain their budgets and inflate their apparent
worth. And nothing works better than saving children who are already safe.
Obesity
is now an illness, and it can be covered by Medicare. Health and Human Services
Secretary Tommy G. Thompson announced [7/15/2004] the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
Services would remove language in Medicare's coverage manual that states obesity is not
an illness.
Why the State Hates
Cholesterol: Cholesterol is found in every cell of the body. This
fascinating molecule, found in rich abundance in the tastiest of foods, is the most
critical component of mental function — surely one reason the State has waged its
historical role on this vilified yet truly magnificent molecule, independent thought
being the primary threat to its existence.
Nanny State Pushes
Prohibition. Yet another scientific report was released recently detailing the
health benefits of moderate alcohol consumption. That's right, the benefits of moderate
drinking. But don't expect to hear about this good news from Budweiser or
Bacardi. The Federal Trade Commission prohibits brewers, vintners and distillers from
communicating to consumers any factual information regarding the health benefits of their
legal products. The only health-related information the sellers of alcohol products
are allowed by the government to communicate to their customers is those scary warning
labels about potentially negative consequences of drinking.
This has "unintended consequences" written all over it...
Governor
joins students in Jericho to sign bus idling law. Gov. Jim Douglas used six pens Friday to sign
his name to a bill that will ban school buses from running their engines while parked on school grounds,
except under special circumstances.
Get-Tough
Politics: Joe Lieberman wants nutritional labels placed on the food
wrappers at fast-food joints. He wants the government to impose nutritional standards
on the food sold in vending machines in schools. He wants this, he wants that, he
wants the other. Let's get clear on one thing. This isn't about junk
food. It's about junk politics. It's about controlling every single last
itty bitty detail of everything anybody ever does.
Under 8? Use a booster
seat. Parents will have to strap their kids into backseat car booster seats until they are
eight years old or reach a certain height if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signs a bill the Legislature sent
to him Thursday [8/24/2006].
The Editor says...
Why eight? Why not twelve? Why not 16?
Compare child restraint laws in
other states.
See also Texas
Occupant Restraint Laws.
"Click
It or Ticket" History knows of no totalitarianism agenda where noble goals
weren't used as justification. Health and safety have become the American justification
for attacks on liberty. Whether seatbelt usage is a good idea is beside the point, for
daily exercise, nutritious meals, eight hours sleep, and cultural and intellectual
enrichment might also be good ideas. The point is whether government has a right to
coerce us into taking care of ourselves.
Click
it or ticket - Part II. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, an
office within the U.S. Department of Transportation, just finished its annual campaign to
get us to wear our seatbelts under a program called "Click It or Ticket." States
receive federal subsidies to ticket drivers if they or their passengers are not buckled
up. Some states, such as Maryland, are so eager that they've equipped their officers
with night vision goggles….
Victims of Over-Zealous Police
Officers: No one disputes the fact that seat belts save lives. Most states, therefore,
have buckle-up laws that make it a misdemeanor to drive with being properly belted. However, in Texas,
the Transportation Code not only permits a police officer to stop a driver for the non-use of seat belts, it
also permits the officer to arrest the driver for violating that law. Gail Atwater was one of those
unfortunate Texans.
Hillary
Clinton Joins Fight for National Seatbelt Law. Sen. Hillary Rodham
Clinton (D-N.Y.) has joined Sen. John Warner (R-Va.) in sponsoring a bill that
would establish a national seatbelt law.
Dangerous Changes in Seat
Belt Law: Primary enforcement allows the police to freely go
on a "fishing" expedition to find sometime wrong under the pretense of not using
a seat belt. Primary enforcement resuscitates the once dreaded "general warrants"
of King George III of colonial America against motorists.
Congress
Should Repeal V-chip Requirements. Imagine a law that required printers
to encode on the spines of books a bar code that could be used to record ratings for
violent content. If, within a year, publishers and authors had not come up with a
rating system for book violence, a federal agency would be empowered to craft guidelines
on their behalf. Publishers would be required to attach a rating to all the books they
published. No one would pretend for a moment that such a system was voluntary.
Forbidden Fruit: When Prohibition
Increases the Harm It Is Supposed to Reduce. An exhaustive essay on the
misguided and farcical attempts of lawgivers to keep people from temptation.
Convoy! Originally,
a license was required for Citizens' Band radio, but masses of people simply broke the law
and operated without a license until the FCC was forced to bow to reality. Citizens'
Band radio became popular because of widespread resistance to another example of regulatory
overreach: the unpopular 55-mile-per-hour speed limit.
One Bad
Limit: I'm all in favor of limits, especially term limits. But some
limits are bad. For example, the 55-mile-an-hour federal speed limit. It was
always a dubious claim that it made the highways safer. Most drivers, no matter how
law-abiding, didn't really abide by the 55 mph limit. What they did was worry
about whether there was a cop around.
None Dare
Call It Fascism. If problems were actually solved, all these government
programs and bureaucrats wouldn't be needed. Thus, the crises must be perpetual,
never solved, always requiring another program, another intervention, more taxpayers'
money, more authorities granted, etc. The game is not to solve the problems but
to use them to control people through regulations and subsidies, increasing their
dependency upon the people writing and enforcing the regulations and providing the
handouts. People who are dependent upon you are people who vote for you.
It's Time to Roast the
Pig. The CPSC (US Consumer Product Safety Commission) created in 1972 by Congress, received a
budget of $55,200,000 for the year of 2002. The CPSC spends its time on important issues like having
8,000 "Bottle Cap Bear" key chains recalled because of the possible "choking hazard to young children."
This is typical government; they don't think you are capable of deciding what is safe and what isn't for your
own children.
FTC Outlaws Freedom in the Ice Cream
Market. The FTC is taking what should be a free bargaining process between producer and consumer
and is stacking it in favor of the consumer. Why are people who make ice cream less entitled to equal
protection under the law than people who eat ice cream?
Same story: Life, Liberty,
and the Bureau of Competition: The Federal Trade Commission set a new low
when it announced plans to block a merger between Nestle Holdings, Inc. and Dreyer's
Grand Ice Cream, Inc., two of the world's largest ice cream makers.
The Rise of the Nanny
State examines the origins, goals, and activities of the modern consumer
movement — a movement that, in the words of Tom Holt, "does not address
the needs of consumers. Instead, it serves the bureaucratic interests of governing
elites and the ideological and organizational interests of the movement itself."
Excellent:
We
made it. Whenever someone says that this or that government program is
absolutely necessary, I always wonder, "What did people do and how did they survive
before the program?"
The Feds Want To Bus
Everyone In Yosemite. The National Park Service wants to make your family vacation a huge hassle
by forcing you to take a bus to Yosemite.
California Makes Cars Less
Affordable: California today became the first state in the nation to restrict automobile emissions
of carbon dioxide, the same gas humans exhale. The auto industry pointed out, to no avail, that the
measure would make cars even more expensive and pressure people to buy death traps they don't feel safe driving.
Q: What should I do if I find a rock in a bag of potatoes?
A: Simply return the rock to your grocer, who will give you the rock's weight in potatoes.
— from a USDA booklet, "How to Buy Potatoes"
quoted in Stupid Quotations
Protecting Us Out of Our
Rights: It is nobody's business whether I eat eggs sunny side up, drive
without wearing seat belts or pig out on hamburgers and French fries.
Protecting Us Out of Our Rights -
Part II: Some New Jersey localities have a ban on people pumping their own gasoline.
Policemen issue citations for driving without a seatbelt. By law, new cars must be equipped with
air bags. Federal law mandates that all new toilets flush using a paltry 1.6 gallons of water.
The Government Says You're Fat. As if the
government isn't trying to control every aspect of your life, it has now launched a program to determine what
and how much you eat.
States consider raising beer taxes
to help balance the budget: With cash tight and bills looming, legislators around the country are
turning to neighborhood pubs to help them drown their sorrows: At least 19 states are considering plans
to boost beer taxes.
The Sin of "Sin Taxes": Taxation is not a
proper venue for government officials to engage in half-baked social engineering programs. One of the
major impediments towards true tax reform in this country is the inability of almost all
politicians — Democrats and Republicans alike — to divorce themselves
from the use of tax policy to indulge their personal whims.
Big Nanny Takes a
Bath: How parents bathe their children should be no one's business — and no one
else's responsibility — but their own. But thanks to pressure from Big Nanny liberals like
New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, the government has torn down the shower curtain and belly-flopped into our
bathwater. In an attempt to rescue inattentive parents from themselves and their children, the U.S.
Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) voted unanimously last week [mid-2001] to regulate
baby-bath seats.
Death by Regulation: Many government
programs increase the death rate among certain groups of people, although it often takes careful statistical
analysis to reveal the connection. Regulations motivated by political correctness are killing
Americans. It's time to face this reality and scrap the regulations. People should be allowed to
choose which risks they wish to assume, which risks to protect themselves against, and how best to do it.
The Crisis du
Jour: Phoneless
in America! Texas is #1 in phonelessness.
Do American Voters Need Speech
Nannies? Many incumbent members of Congress are eager to provide America's voters with a new
government service — a federal law to protect them from messages about politicians that may
"manipulate" simple-minded voters, especially those communications that are "negative" in tone, or that
will result in "unhealthy" debate.
Personal Health and Safety: Whose Business Is
It? Whose business is it if I don't adequately plan for retirement or save money for my child's
education? If I don't wear a seatbelt while driving or a helmet while biking, whose business
is it?
The Moon opens for business:
The first private Moon landing has finally been given the green light by the US government.
Editor's Note:
What unmitigated audacity! The US government presumes to own the Moon. Why stop there? Why
not just print a nice-looking deed and sell the Moon to the highest bidder? Or how about raising money
by selling lunar acreage?
The "For Your Own Good" Police Are
Coming ... After You. By turning away from rule of law and constitutional
government, Americans are following in the footsteps of the decent Germans, who during the
1920s and '30s built the Trojan Horse that enabled Hitler to take over.
How
Many Gun Laws Are There? Study Disputes 20,000 Number. Why pass more
gun laws, when there are 20,000 of them on the books that should be enforced? Many gun
owners use that argument in the effort to stop gun-control groups from infringing on their
Second Amendment rights.
Paved
With Good Intentions: Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) has introduced Federal
legislation that would prohibit schools from selling soft drinks or "foods of minimal
nutritional value" (read: snacks) during times when breakfast and lunch are served. It
would also give the US Department of Agriculture the power to ban sodas and snacks
outright on school grounds.
The Green Taliban Of
America: The hubris of the Greens has allowed them to dictate to everyone just how we should
conduct our lives for decades. That is why you can't build a home, an office building, a factory, a
hospital or a school, without an "environmental" study. That is why Americans have been steadily deprived
of pesticides, many used safely for decades, to protect us against the diseases spread by insect and rodent
pests. That's why millions of acres of our national forests burned this year because Greens won't let
them be managed through selective logging or to allow roads to be built into those forests. The list
goes on and on because the Greens have been responsible for one third of every law and regulation in the
Federal Register today.
Totally
Committed: What would we do without the California Legislature? How could
we survive without the guidance of environmentalists? Oh how our lives would be
meaningless without the Legislature taking care of our every need. Who else
can protect us from ourselves?
Cell Phone Regulation Federalizes
Traffic Law: Just when you thought there was nothing left for Congress to federalize, along comes
a bill by Rep. Gary Ackerman, D-NY, and Sen. Jon Corzine, D-NJ, that would regulate how Americans use their
cell phones while driving. Apparently no human action is too small or parochial for the federal
government to police. So now Congress wants to play the role of local traffic cop, too.
California Governor Signs Bill
Banning Hand-Held Cell Phones While Driving. The measure will take effect July 1st, 2008
and will make it an infraction to use a hand-held cell phone while driving except to make a call to an
emergency service provider. A first offense will be punishable by a $20 fine. Subsequent
violations will carry $50 fines. It's similar to laws in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and
Washington DC.
The Editor says...
It is unfortunate that so many cell phone users have made this kind of legislation necessary through
their irresponsibility and narcissism. But it is also worth noting that laws of this sort have
been created first in the "blue" states, where Democrats predominate.
The War on Margarine: This
year marks the 116th anniversary of the Federal Margarine Act of 1886, part of an
80-year war on butter's toughest competitor. The Act was the capstone of a movement
to prevent consumers from enjoying the cheaper spread, which was introduced in 1874.
They Messed With
Texas: The fight to regulate personal food choices has infected Texas. That state, always
rightly proud of its spirit of self-determination and independence, will now restrict sales of so-called "junk
foods" at all public schools, usurping the role of parents in deciding what their children should and should not eat.
Zero-Tolerance Policy Applied to
Snacks: Controlling kids has become a national priority for schools. Zero tolerance is the
catch phrase for no lenience on students found with drugs, guns, and now candy and soft drinks.
Foreign Policy and Foreign Wars: Once a
government sets itself the task of trying to rectify the errors and choices of its own citizens, it soon
begins sliding down a slippery slope in which the end result is state supervision and regulation of all
of its citizens' activities, and all in the name of a higher "social good."
The people who tried to mandate 1.6 gallon toilets are now pushing
politically
correct washing machines: The Libertarian Party says the
Department of Energy wants to make American consumers pay up to $800 more for
new "environmentally friendly" washing machines that may not work as well
as older models.
Tell
Big Brother To Get Out Of Our Washing Machines: In a back room deal
without consumers or taxpayers present, the Clinton-Gore environmentalists conspired
with industry to mandate the manufacture of only front-loading, instead of
top-loading, washing machines. The mandate requires elimination of the agitator
which is the element that washes our clothes. Front-loading washers are available
now but they make up less than 12 percent of sales. So Big Brother's
attitude is, let's force people to buy front-loading washers.
US Rep. Joe Knollenberg
fights 1.6 gallon toilets
Flush
Congress. Every time I flush the toilet, I think of Congress. Well,
that's not quite right. Every time I have to flush twice, I think of Congress. It's
been over a decade now that Americans have had to put up with ineffective toilets, toilets
that don't flush properly. In 1992, supposedly to save water, Congress mandated
that all newly manufactured home toilets flush with less water than the industry had
previously set as standard. Instead of flushing with over three gallons of rushing
water, toilets were mandated to flush with no more than 1.6 gallons.
And, with this, American frustration with their toilets began in earnest.
Should
the Government Choose What Kind of Car You Should Drive? As
a simple matter of personal freedom and consumer choice, it should not be
up to the government to determine how many miles my car can travel on a
gallon of gasoline.
Too Much Safety? You
can't put a price on human life. That's a frequently heard response to safety issues,
often accompanied by: If it saves one life, it's worth it. Walter Williams
questions this assumption.
The Smoking Section:
I've never smoked a cigarette in my life, and I certainly would not recommend cigarettes to
anyone -- even someone who is looking for a costly, destructive and deadly
habit. Nevertheless, tobacco is a legal product. It is one of this country's
major exports. The decision to light up a cigarette is voluntary, at least at
first. After that, of course, it becomes a matter of addiction.
Of course it's a nasty, smelly habit. Even the smokers themselves will say so. But
passing laws that prohibit smoking is, in my opinion, just a method used by public officials to flex their
muscles and get the public used to accepting more and more intrusive regulations. Just as
with seat belt laws, it's not about public health and safety, it's about control. It's
also about bureaucrats who need to find something to do, in order to perpetuate their jobs.
And it's also about taxes.
Tobacco and the Rule of Law: On
the one hand, DOJ promoted its novel lawsuit against cigarette makers. On the other hand, the same
watchdog agency stood idly by while tobacco companies and state attorneys general teamed up to violate the
antitrust laws. The multistate tobacco settlement, a cunning and deceitful bargain between the industry
and the states, allows the tobacco giants to monopolize cigarette sales and foist the cost onto smokers.
Anti-Tobacco
Crusaders Boldly Go into Smokers' Homes. During Prohibition, making and selling liquor was illegal,
but drinking it was not. With tobacco, we are moving toward the opposite situation, where it will be legal
to make and sell cigarettes but not to smoke them.
Congress Aims to Put Out Cigarettes.
Congress is taking new whacks at the cigarette industry, banning tobacco sales in Senate buildings and —
more importantly — seeking a significant federal tax increase on cigarettes. The industry, once
a lobbying behemoth, is quietly working against the tax bill. But it lacks the clout it once wielded.
Bill
to Regulate Tobacco Moves Forward. The House Energy and Commerce Committee approved a bill
Wednesday [4/2/2008] that would give the Food and Drug Administration sweeping regulatory authority over
the tobacco industry, clearing the way for a House floor vote on the legislation, which has long been
sought by anti-tobacco activists. If adopted, the bill is expected to dramatically reduce tobacco
marketing, to ban many flavored cigarettes, and to prohibit the labeling of cigarettes as "light"
or "low-tar."
FDA-Approved Cancer Sticks. A consumer
protection bill that reduced competition, raised prices, restricted choice, blocked information, and made
products more hazardous could not really be counted as a success. Yet the Family Smoking Prevention and
Tobacco Control Act, which has broad support in both houses of Congress, promises to do all these things in an
effort to discourage consumption.
Cigarette
Tax Burnout. Politicians in Annapolis are scratching their heads wondering what happened to all
those chain smokers who were supposed to help balance Maryland's budget. Last year the legislature
doubled the cigarette tax to $2 a pack to pay for expanded health-care coverage. Eight months later,
cigarette sales have plunged 25% and the state is in fiscal distress again.
Judge Strikes Louisville Smoking
Ban. When Democrats took control of Congress last January after more than a decade of Republican
dominance, their leaders and supporters talked as if anything was possible: They'd end the Iraq war,
boost spending for neglected domestic programs, even roll back some of President Bush's tax cuts. Nearly
a year later, they've confronted a bitter reality.
It's Official — Belmont Bans Smoking In
Some Homes. Thought to be the first of its kind in California, the ordinance declares secondhand
smoke a public nuisance and extends the city's current smoking ban to include multi-unit, multi-story residences.
Though Belmont and some other California cities already restrict smoking in multi-unit common areas, Belmont is
the first city to extend secondhand smoke regulation to the inside of individual apartment units.
Phony Science Begets Phony Public Policy.
Many Americans find tobacco smoke to be a nuisance. … But how successful would anti-smokers have been in
a court of law, or public opinion, in achieving the kind of success they've achieved based on tobacco smoke
being a nuisance? A serious public health threat had to be manufactured, and in 1993 the Environmental
Protection Agency stepped in to the rescue with their bogus environmental tobacco smoke study that says
secondhand tobacco smoke is a class A carcinogen.
Nanny State,
USA. City governments go from banning smoking in city buildings one day to banning smoking
on the sidewalks the next. Several states are working on bans that prohibit driving while smoking if
anyone under 18 is in the car. There's no question that secondhand smoke is harmful, but where
is the appropriate limit for governmental intrusion into an individual's privacy?
Cannabis bigger cancer risk than
cigarettes: study. Smoking a joint is equivalent to 20 cigarettes in terms of lung cancer
risk, scientists in New Zealand have found, as they warned of an "epidemic" of lung cancers linked to cannabis.
Studies in the past have demonstrated that cannabis can cause cancer, but few have established a strong link
between cannabis use and the actual incidence of lung cancer.
Manure drastically
reduces development of lung cancer. Working with manure can drastically reduce chances of
developing lung cancer, scientists have discovered. Dairy farmers are five times less likely than the
general populace to develop the disease, New Scientist magazine reports. The study found farmers
typically breathed in dust that consisted largely of dried manure, and all the bacteria that grew in it.
New Scientist said adults who had a greater exposure to germs than usual might build up a better
resistance to bugs, including cancer.
I've got a great idea...
Why not just put manure in cigarette filters instead of activated charcoal?
Tobacco tax is overtaxation. The
Legislature's proposal to increase the state's cigarette tax by another 50 cents per carton will give the
State of Michigan the dubious honor of having the third highest cigarette tax in the country. What is
even more troubling is that the proposal would increase the tax on cigars, pipe tobacco and chewing tobacco
by 100 percent.
Forgetting the Consequences of Totalitarianism.
Last year Surgeon General Richard Carmona declared there is "no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke."
For effect he added, "I would not allow anyone in my family to stand in a room with someone smoking." His
opinion was supposedly based on 20 years of scientific evidence, and it has been cited as gospel by
smoking ban supporters.
Killing the
passive smoking debate. "Secondhand smoke debate 'over.'" That's the message from the
Surgeon General's office, delivered by a sycophantic media. The claim is that the science has now
overwhelmingly proved that smoke from others' cigarettes can kill you. Actually, "debate over" simply
means: "If you have your doubts, shut up!" But you definitely should have doubts over the new
Surgeon General's report, a massive 727-page door stop.
See
a Smoker in a Non-Smoking Area? Call 911. If you catch someone smoking in a non-smoking
area in Omaha, Neb., call the police. The Omaha Police Department is encouraging city residents to
call 911 in the wake of the citywide ban on smoking that went into effect on Oct. 2.
[Is that what the designers of the 9-1-1 system had in mind?]
Anti-smoking Efforts Go Too
Far. How far has the anti-smoking movement come in just the past four years? Much further
than many of its most ardent activists would have dreamed of in the 1970s, when the notion of smoking bans
first surfaced and was met largely with derision. … Of course, as with most limitations on personal
freedom, California leads the way.
The
Subjection of Smoking: Smoking, once a common habit in American society, has become a lightning
rod for controversy in recent years. Smoking sections in restaurants were rare 50 years ago, but
now places like New York City have implemented blanket bans for indoor public places. Some places have
even extended bans to outdoor space.
Florida Companies Forbidding Smoking In Private
Lives. A growing number of companies in Florida are forbidding their workers from smoking not
only at work, but also in their private lives. Westgate Resorts, the largest private employer in Central
Florida, has banned smoking and won't budge from a policy of not hiring smokers and firing employees who do
smoke.
Smoking ban concerns businesses
in D.C.. Smokers are being forced out of bars and nightclubs in the District of Columbia beginning
Tuesday [1/2/2007], and some businesses are worried about losing dollars to Virginia, which has strong ties to
tobacco. "A lot of people are just going to drive closer to home (in Virginia)," said Jody Taylor,
manager of the Black Rooster Pub in downtown Washington. "For a lot of people, it's hard to have that
cold beer in one hand without a cigarette in the other."
The Last Gasp
of a Smoke-Filled Room? When the District goes smoke-free Jan. 2, at least one nicotine
haven will remain: the U.S. Capitol. Lawmakers, several of whom enjoy a good cigar, have exempted
themselves from the city's smoking ban, not to mention rules that forbid lighting up in federal buildings
across the country. But winds of change may be blowing on the Hill.
The Lynching of Big
Tobacco. The Florida Supreme Court is about to render final judgment in the Engle case,
which ordered tobacco companies to pay $165 billion in immediate, punitive damages in the name of their
alleged crimes against 700,000 Florida smokers.
Coalition Appeals
Colorado Smoking Ban. A coalition of businesses and an El Paso County tavern owner today
[11/22/2006] filed an appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in their challenge to the
constitutionality of Colorado's "Clean Indoor Air Act." In October, a Colorado federal district court
upheld the law's constitutionality.
Ban
smokers from some surgery, says doctor. It is known to cause more heart complications, impair
tissue healing and result in more post-operative infections. Now a doctor is pushing for smoking to be
a criterion that eliminates people from access to some elective surgery.
Some hospitals won't
let smokers light up anywhere on grounds. Nationwide, hospitals are snuffing out tobacco on their
campuses, spurred in part by state and local laws restricting the habit. Half of King County's major
hospitals have joined the movement. Swedish Medical Center, the state's largest health-care provider,
went smoke-free two weeks ago. Valley Medical Center in Renton did so in March. Virginia Mason
Medical Center in Seattle was one of the first to ban smoking entirely, acting in 1994.
Propaganda from the Surgeon
General. According to U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona, … only smoke-free
buildings and public places "truly" protect us from the hazard of breathing in other people's tobacco
smoke. Separating smokers from nonsmokers and requiring air filtration systems are not
enough. Is this twenty-first century compassion or just another case of junk science
run amok?
Is
this the end of English literature? What do the following have in common: Oscar Wilde,
Henry James, Joseph Conrad, Virginia Woolf, T S Eliot, W B Yeats, Charles Dickens,
William Makepeace Thackeray, Evelyn Waugh, Philip Larkin and Kingsley Amis? The answer is, of course,
that if they were to come back to life in Gordon Brown's Britain and wanted to go out to their club, or a
restaurant or cafe, they would not be allowed to indulge in a habit which sustained them during the most
creative phases of their lives.
Cigarette Nazi update: Since
Carnival Cruise Lines banned smoking on its "Paradise" ship, 14 passengers and one employee have been put off at
the nearest port. One of the passengers was put off the ship after the steward simply found a pack of
cigarettes. According to Carnival, she was guilty of possession.
Laws prohibit smoking around
children. Anti-tobacco forces are opening a new front in the war against smoking by banning it
in private places such as homes and cars when children are present. Starting Jan. 1, Texas will
restrict smoking in foster parents' homes at all times and in cars when children are present, says Darrell
Azar of the Department of Family and Protective Services. Vermont, Washington and other states and
counties already prohibit foster parents from smoking around children in their homes and cars.
[Awwww … "It's for the children" after all. Who could be against that? Once again,
sentimental rhetoric prevails against individual liberty and personal responsibility.]
The
surgeon general hypes the hazards of secondhand smoke. According to Surgeon General Richard
Carmona, secondhand smoke is so dangerous that you'd be better off if you stopped going to smoky bars and
started smoking instead.
The Hazards of a Smoke-Free Environment:
The real threat is not cigarettes but the unfettered power of government.
Belgium can now picture the worst from
smoking. Heavily taxed by governments, barred from smoking in offices, bars, restaurants and other
public spaces, and now forced to carry around small anti-smoking billboards, European smokers are not happy.
Charge smokers
for right to buy cigarettes. Smokers should be forced to apply for an annual £200 licence
in order to purchase cigarettes, a Government advisor has suggested. The scheme would ensure smokers had
to make a conscious decision to continue the habit and require people to become "registered addicts".
Tobacco
and firearms: Preserving liberty in NH. Two issues sure to come up in the next legislative
session are cigarette smoking and self-defense. Really, they are two aspects of one larger issue:
personal freedom. The petty tyrants who love to dictate the personal behavior of others nearly succeeded
in banning smoking in all restaurants and bars in New Hampshire this past legislative session. Make no
mistake, this is not a health issue. It's about control of private property.
A Secondhand Scare Campaign:
Secondhand smoke is a dramatically diluted substance compared to what active smokers breathe in. Spending
an hour in a typical bar back in the 1970s was the equivalent of smoking only .004 cigarettes. The
level of smoke contaminants in today's bars is much lower, and several orders of magnitude less than OSHA
indoor air quality standards.
Can
we just cut to the chase about the great Baltimore smoking-ban debate of 2006? City Hall
chambers were packed last week — packed, mind you — with hundreds of folks dying to weigh in
on the topic of whether the City Council should ban smoking in restaurants and bars. Many
opposed the ban, claiming that some owners of bars and restaurants might suffer a loss of business.
Proponents of the bill pointed out the hazards of secondhand smoke. But this issue isn't
about secondhand smoke. It's about firsthand stink.
Why I smoke
(cigars). There are few personal confessions more likely to alienate many Americans than to admit
to smoking. Singles ads are filled with people who will never even go on a first date with someone who
smokes. I strongly suspect that more women would date a millionaire who earned his money disreputably
than a millionaire who smoked.
California City Says Secondhand Smoke is
a Nuisance. Smokers, beware: This bedroom community near San Francisco may soon put you
in the same category as rodents, junk cars and weeds.
Anti-Tobacco Zealots: Tobacco
executives have been accused of lying to Congress about their knowledge of tobacco's addictive
nature. Scientists have been analyzing the addictive qualities of nicotine since the late
1800s. Hundreds of medical studies have shown nicotine to be addictive. For a congressman
to ask a tobacco company executive whether nicotine is addictive is just as intelligent as that
congressman asking an astrophysicist whether the Earth revolves around the sun. Tobacco
executives fear liability suits and, therefore, deny addiction.
Tobacco
foes to renew push for smoking ban. Anti-smoking advocates plan to renew their push in the
Oregon Legislature for a ban on smoking in bars and taverns.
Menu madness: In the
early stages of the anti-tobacco campaign, there were calls for "reasonable" measures such as nonsmoking
sections on airplanes and health warnings on cigarette packs. In the 1970s, no one would have ever
believed such measures would have evolved into today's level of attack on smokers, which includes
confiscatory cigarette taxes and bans on outdoor smoking.
A
nation of sheeple. They started out calling for reasonable actions like no-smoking
sections on airplanes. Then it progressed to no smoking on airplanes altogether, then private
establishments such as restaurants and businesses. Emboldened by the timidity of smokers, in
some jurisdictions there are ordinances banning smoking in outdoor places such as beaches and
parks. Then there are seatbelt and helmet laws that have sometimes been zealously enforced
through the use of night vision goggles. On top of this, Americans accept government edicts
on where your child may ride in your car.
Mandatory
helmets rejected by motorcyclists. They came by the hundreds Sunday afternoon [10/7/2007] to the
Statehouse, on Harleys and Hondas, wearing jeans and leather, young and old, male and female, with one message
for lawmakers: Don't mandate helmets for adults. "It's not the helmet we oppose," Jeff Coleman,
state coordinator pro tem for ABATE, a motorcycle advocacy group, told those seated on the Statehouse
steps, to sustained applause. "It's the freedom of choice we defend."
Intolerable. The
government is only too eager to attempt to regulate people's private personal decisions. A few
years ago, Montgomery County, Md. considered a law that would have made it illegal to smoke in your
own home if neighbors complained. And several states, including New York and California, have
outlawed smoking in bars and restaurants.
U.S. Citizens Must Be Protected,
Controlled, Regulated, And Intimidated For Their Own Good. The United States realizes that a
citizen must be protected whether he wants to be or not—controlled, regulated, and intimidated in every
aspect of everything he does, for his own good. He must not be permitted to ride a bicycle without a
helmet, smoke if he chooses, or go to a bar where smoking is permitted. He cannot be trusted to run
his life.
NY Mulls
Extending Smoking Ban to Cars as Protests Mount. New York lawmakers are considering extending the
state smoking ban to private automobiles even though smokers and bar and restaurant owners recently took to the
streets to demonstrate against it.
Hill
Eyes National Cig Curb. Hillary Clinton lavished praise on New York City's tough
anti-smoking laws yesterday — and said she supports smoking bans in public places across the
country. Asked at an Iowa forum on cancer whether banning smoking in public places would
be good for America, Clinton replied, "Well, personally, I think so. And that's what a
lot of local communities and states are starting to do."
In Sweden...
Woman banned from smoking in her own garden. The
Environmental Court in Växjö has banned a woman from smoking in her own garden, Sydsvenkan reports.
The 49-year-old single mother is enraged by the decision but says that she will obey the ruling to avoid having
to pay a fine.
Officials
in California Town Say Smoking Ban Is Working. Ten weeks after they enacted the most draconian
smoking ban in the nation, city officials in Calabasas, Calif., say the rules are having the desired
impact — reducing exposure to the secondhand smoke that can accumulate when smokers congregate
outdoors and near building entrances.
Statement on the NIH 'Consensus' Report on
Tobacco Harm Reduction: "The National Institutes of Health conference statement on tobacco use is
only eight pages long, followed by another nine pages listing the M.D.s, M.P.H.s, R.N.s, etc. who participated
in the process. The report is typical government work, a statement of politically determined objectives
followed by a superficial review of programs and research, ending with a call for 'more research,' 'more
effective strategies,' 'more collaboration,' etc. … In short, this report is a virtually complete
whitewash of the evidence and even the debate taking place on the use of smokeless tobacco products as smoking
cessation aids. All the distinguished scientists and doctors whose names appear on the document ought to
be ashamed of themselves."
Thanks,
but no thanks. The latest assault on common sense comes from no less than
New York Assemblyman Alexander Grannis. The Manhattan Democrat is a perfectly nice guy, with
what seems a perfectly nice idea: ban smoking in cars in which there are children.
Editor's note:
I do not recommend the use of tobacco; however, the following article provides an interesting overview
of the history of tobacco use. Evidently the recreational use of tobacco wasn't known to cause
lung cancer and other diseases until matchbooks and lighters became available and people started
smoking constantly.
WHO Document Relies on Half-Truths and
Omissions. In recognition of World No Tobacco Day, May 31, 2006, the World Health
Organization (WHO) published a lengthy document titled "Tobacco: Deadly in Any Form or Disguise."
The publication misleads at least as much as it informs, and distorting the health risks of various modes of
tobacco usage may cause more harm than it prevents.
Smoke-free crusaders may now be
at your door. Fresh from their success winning a statewide smoking ban in bars
and restaurants, Minnesota's anti-smoking advocates are ready to zero in on where you live.
One anti-smoking group will kick-start a campaign this week to encourage landlords to outlaw
smoking in their buildings.
Another page has information about the use
of taxes to discourage smoking,
or at least to take advantage of the people who are addicted to tobacco.
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be
the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under
omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep,
his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our
own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of
their own conscience."
— C. S. Lewis
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