The Arrogance of the Nanny

Michael Bloomberg shows that he is better than us.

"Nobody is taking away any of your rights," Bloomberg said later in the broadcast. "This way, we're just telling you ‘That's a lot of soda.'"

We're just telling you.

New York Nanny

The People's Cube provides this take on Michael Bloomberg's latest nanny proposal.

These people think they know more than you do, and they are the only ones who can protect you. 

Food Police

From The Lonely Conservative:

A Utah high school will have to take money from its budget to pay a $15,000 fine to the federal government for leaving a soda vending machine turned on during lunch. Davis High routinely turned off the lunchroom machine during the lunch hour, but forgot to turn off a machine in the library. Somehow the food police got wind of it and the school was punished. What’s ridiculous is that the kids are free to buy soda before lunch, and drink it with lunch, they just can’t buy it during lunch. Thanks to the feds school has lost every cent raised through vending machine sales this year.

A fine for having a vending machine turned on?  This is government run amok, all in the name of protecting you from yourself.  When will America say "Enough is Enough"??

It reminds me of the old line that Popeye used to say before grabbing the spinach: "I've had enough, and enough is too much, I can't stands no more!"

Human nature

From David French at NRO's The Corner:

As we watch Europe’s unfolding debt drama, it’s worth asking a question: If socialism and central planning can’t succeed in Europe, where can they succeed? After all, Europe possessed tremendous advantages when it launched its slow-running experiment in cradle-to-grave welfare statism and post-national political unity many decades ago: historically dynamic economies, educated citizens, relative religious unity (around a lack of belief), a commitment (born out of sorrow and blood) to peace, and military protection provided by the world’s great superpower. The result was something resembling a social-democracy Disneyland, a virtual theme park for believers in nationalized health care, progressive social views, soft power over hard power, and carefully managed democracy.

Yet human nature still prevails, doesn’t it? It turns out that the euro couldn’t turn Greeks and Italians into Germans, that cradle-to-grave welfare benefits have the same impact on the work ethic and productivity of millions of Europeans as they had on millions of Americans, and that “post-Christian Europe” was hardly a more-rational Europe.

We can’t just shake our heads at the Europeans, however, not when our current president looks across the Atlantic and sees not a cautionary tale but instead a model for our American future. Name one Obama administration policy goal that wouldn’t make us more European. From nationalized health care to more “progressive” taxation to state/corporate ownership models to a shrinking defense, every significant policy choice is dragging us closer to the model that is collapsing before our very eyes. Does he think that Americans are better at being French than the French?

In reality, we’re all just people. And if there’s one thing that history’s proven and keeps proving, it’s that socialism and real people simply don’t mix.

How true.  Unfortunately for the Europeans, they are providing a preview of what may very well happen here in America.  And unfortunately for Americans, many aren't learning that lesson from the European crisis.

East coast nanny state

From the Boston Herald comes more news about government saving citizens from themselves.

Bake sales, the calorie-laden standby cash-strapped classrooms, PTAs and booster clubs rely on, will be outlawed from public schools as of Aug. 1 as part of new no-nonsense nutrition standards, forcing fundraisers back to the blackboard to cook up alternative ways to raise money for kids.

At a minimum, the nosh clampdown targets so-called “competitive” foods — those sold or served during the school day in hallways, cafeterias, stores and vending machines outside the regular lunch program, including bake sales, holiday parties and treats dished out to reward academic achievement. But state officials are pushing schools to expand the ban 24/7 to include evening, weekend and community events such as banquets, door-to-door candy sales and football games.

The Departments of Public Health and Education contend clearing tables of even whole milk and white bread is necessary to combat an obesity epidemic affecting a third of the state’s 1.5 million students. But parents argue crudites won’t cut it when the bills come due on athletic equipment and band trips.

Remember...these folks know more about what's important in your life than you do.  Or so they say.

Broccoli anyone??