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.co...ASIN=0767924320
Nanny State
Started by
stocks
, Dec 15 2007 09:18 AM
23 replies to this topic
#1
stocks
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Posted 15 December 2007 - 09:18 AM
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Defenders of the status quo are always stronger than reformers seeking change,
UNTIL the status quo self-destructs from its own corruption, and the reformers are free to build on its ashes.
Defenders of the status quo are always stronger than reformers seeking change,
UNTIL the status quo self-destructs from its own corruption, and the reformers are free to build on its ashes.
#2
stocks
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Posted 07 January 2008 - 04:17 PM
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/...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/...Nanny-State.htm
-- -
Defenders of the status quo are always stronger than reformers seeking change,
UNTIL the status quo self-destructs from its own corruption, and the reformers are free to build on its ashes.
Defenders of the status quo are always stronger than reformers seeking change,
UNTIL the status quo self-destructs from its own corruption, and the reformers are free to build on its ashes.
#3
stocks
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Posted 08 January 2008 - 10:51 AM
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.timesonli...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.timesonli...icle3128959.ece
-- -
Defenders of the status quo are always stronger than reformers seeking change,
UNTIL the status quo self-destructs from its own corruption, and the reformers are free to build on its ashes.
Defenders of the status quo are always stronger than reformers seeking change,
UNTIL the status quo self-destructs from its own corruption, and the reformers are free to build on its ashes.
#4
maineman
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maineman
Posted 08 January 2008 - 11:19 AM
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
#5
stocks
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Posted 14 January 2008 - 06:10 PM
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
-- -
Defenders of the status quo are always stronger than reformers seeking change,
UNTIL the status quo self-destructs from its own corruption, and the reformers are free to build on its ashes.
Defenders of the status quo are always stronger than reformers seeking change,
UNTIL the status quo self-destructs from its own corruption, and the reformers are free to build on its ashes.
#6
Rogerdodger
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Posted 14 January 2008 - 09:52 PM
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.
Edited by Rogerdodger, 14 January 2008 - 09:57 PM.
"Nature's Failure to Function in a 'Predictable Way'... 500 years ago?"
BIGGEST SCIENCE SCANDAL EVER...Official records systematically 'adjusted'.
BIGGEST SCIENCE SCANDAL EVER...Official records systematically 'adjusted'.
#7
stocks
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Posted 06 February 2008 - 08:15 AM
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...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...in_page_id=1774
-- -
Defenders of the status quo are always stronger than reformers seeking change,
UNTIL the status quo self-destructs from its own corruption, and the reformers are free to build on its ashes.
Defenders of the status quo are always stronger than reformers seeking change,
UNTIL the status quo self-destructs from its own corruption, and the reformers are free to build on its ashes.
#8
stocks
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Posted 09 July 2008 - 09:01 PM
Whether you love it, hate it, or have never thought about it, chances are some politician wants to ban it. "Welcome to the Nanny State Nation," says reason.tv host Drew Carey. "Where the government minds your own business."
Saggy pants, fire places, plastic bags, light bulbs, poker—it's all been banned somewhere. Same with owning swine or fowl, feeding pigeons, owning pit bulls, and chomping on trans fats, a naughty little substance that makes food taste better.
Of course, smoking's been banned in all sorts of places—indoors, outdoors, near doors, beaches, casinos, even private homes. America's smoking ban craze began in California. So many bans start there.
"But is New York City the new California?" asks Carey? Smoking, trans fat, aluminum baseball bats, straddling a bike, wearing in-line skates or drinking coffee on a subway—the Big Apple bans them all.
Even if we don't particularly like something we should be wary of banning it because every ban is backed up by the force of law. Plus, would you want to live in a nation that bans everything that offends someone?
Carey wonders when so many of us turned into "ban-happy busybodies," and compliments the British on their more civilized approach to bans.
http://reason.tv/video/show/466.html
Saggy pants, fire places, plastic bags, light bulbs, poker—it's all been banned somewhere. Same with owning swine or fowl, feeding pigeons, owning pit bulls, and chomping on trans fats, a naughty little substance that makes food taste better.
Of course, smoking's been banned in all sorts of places—indoors, outdoors, near doors, beaches, casinos, even private homes. America's smoking ban craze began in California. So many bans start there.
"But is New York City the new California?" asks Carey? Smoking, trans fat, aluminum baseball bats, straddling a bike, wearing in-line skates or drinking coffee on a subway—the Big Apple bans them all.
Even if we don't particularly like something we should be wary of banning it because every ban is backed up by the force of law. Plus, would you want to live in a nation that bans everything that offends someone?
Carey wonders when so many of us turned into "ban-happy busybodies," and compliments the British on their more civilized approach to bans.
http://reason.tv/video/show/466.html
-- -
Defenders of the status quo are always stronger than reformers seeking change,
UNTIL the status quo self-destructs from its own corruption, and the reformers are free to build on its ashes.
Defenders of the status quo are always stronger than reformers seeking change,
UNTIL the status quo self-destructs from its own corruption, and the reformers are free to build on its ashes.
#9
stocks
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Posted 23 September 2009 - 07:33 PM
Mayor Bloomberg Doesn’t Live by His Health Rules
HE dumps salt on almost everything, even saltine crackers. He devours burnt bacon and peanut butter sandwiches. He has a weakness for hot dogs, cheeseburgers, and fried chicken, washing them down with a glass of merlot.
And his snack of choice? Cheez-Its.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg has become New York City’s nutritional nag, banning the use of trans fats, forcing chain restaurants to post calorie counts and exhorting diners to consume less salt. Now he is at it again, directing his wrath at sugary drinks in a new series of arresting advertisements that ask subway riders: “Are you pouring on the pounds?”
Under his watch, the city has declared sodium an enemy, asking restaurants and food manufacturers to voluntarily cut the salt in their dishes by 20 percent or more, and encouraging diners to “shake the habit” by asking waiters for food without added salt.
But Mr. Bloomberg, 67, likes his popcorn so salty that it burns others’ lips. (At Gracie Mansion, the cooks deliver it to him with a salt shaker.) He sprinkles so much salt on his morning bagel “that it’s like a pretzel,” said the manager at Viand, a Greek diner near Mr. Bloomberg’s Upper East Side town house.
Not even pizza is spared a coat of sodium. When the mayor sat down to eat a slice at Denino’s Pizzeria Tavern on Staten Island recently, this reporter spotted him applying six dashes of salt to it.
A health tip sheet from the mayor’s office tells New Yorkers to “drink smart” by choosing water, even though Mr. Bloomberg has a three- to four-cup-a-day coffee habit.
“I can count on two hands the number of times I have seen him drink water,” said one dining companion, who spoke on condition of anonymity, so as not to offend the mayor (who likes his coffee weak, and with milk).
http://www.nytimes.c...2...tml?_r=3
HE dumps salt on almost everything, even saltine crackers. He devours burnt bacon and peanut butter sandwiches. He has a weakness for hot dogs, cheeseburgers, and fried chicken, washing them down with a glass of merlot.
And his snack of choice? Cheez-Its.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg has become New York City’s nutritional nag, banning the use of trans fats, forcing chain restaurants to post calorie counts and exhorting diners to consume less salt. Now he is at it again, directing his wrath at sugary drinks in a new series of arresting advertisements that ask subway riders: “Are you pouring on the pounds?”
Under his watch, the city has declared sodium an enemy, asking restaurants and food manufacturers to voluntarily cut the salt in their dishes by 20 percent or more, and encouraging diners to “shake the habit” by asking waiters for food without added salt.
But Mr. Bloomberg, 67, likes his popcorn so salty that it burns others’ lips. (At Gracie Mansion, the cooks deliver it to him with a salt shaker.) He sprinkles so much salt on his morning bagel “that it’s like a pretzel,” said the manager at Viand, a Greek diner near Mr. Bloomberg’s Upper East Side town house.
Not even pizza is spared a coat of sodium. When the mayor sat down to eat a slice at Denino’s Pizzeria Tavern on Staten Island recently, this reporter spotted him applying six dashes of salt to it.
A health tip sheet from the mayor’s office tells New Yorkers to “drink smart” by choosing water, even though Mr. Bloomberg has a three- to four-cup-a-day coffee habit.
“I can count on two hands the number of times I have seen him drink water,” said one dining companion, who spoke on condition of anonymity, so as not to offend the mayor (who likes his coffee weak, and with milk).
http://www.nytimes.c...2...tml?_r=3
-- -
Defenders of the status quo are always stronger than reformers seeking change,
UNTIL the status quo self-destructs from its own corruption, and the reformers are free to build on its ashes.
Defenders of the status quo are always stronger than reformers seeking change,
UNTIL the status quo self-destructs from its own corruption, and the reformers are free to build on its ashes.
#10
*JB*
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Posted 24 September 2009 - 12:11 AM
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
I guess people who drive poorly (even for the conditions, not speed limit) and get in a wreck should not get long term expensive care if they end up with brain damage or spinal cord injuries -- OR -- someone who walks carelessly on ice and ends up the same way -- just like people who ride horses, play football, jump blindly into the old "swimmin'' hole, hike on rocky terain, etc., etc.
How 'bout those who don't check their house for Radon and "irresponsibly" get lung cancer -- or -- kids who get serious conditions from lead poisoning because their parents didn't have the house checked and "remediated" for lead paint --or -- don't get checked from head to toe every day and get crippling Lyme disease -- and on and on -- and on.
(believe me, I could go on for pages and pages about everyday "irresponsible" things people do -- like talking on cell phones when walking or driving)
Pick the simple examples YOU decided, with a simplistic mind set, and it's easy to point fingers.
Sounds like you support the Nanny State. I wonder what you'd think when "they come for you" and say you don't DESERVE medical care because of what you did or didn't do.
"Don't think...LOOK!"
Carl Swenlin, founder of Decision Point and original Fearless Forecasters board.
Carl Swenlin, founder of Decision Point and original Fearless Forecasters board.
