In a conspicuous example of the never ending storm of special interest groups, lawyers and misguided politicians thundering ahead to steal your freedom and liberties, Controlifornias (CA) esteemed Governor Schwarzeneger - Shriver signed into law AB 97 a ban on the latest scourge in our nation… “trans fats”.
What this means is that in 2010, no Controlifornia restaurant will be able to serve foods containing trans fats.
It does not mean that business owners can choose that their foods contain these little devils of destruction and that customers would be able to choose to eat them or not. It means that our paternalistic state has made it illegal (making the choice for us for the good of our health).
"California is a leader in promoting health and nutrition, and I am pleased to continue that tradition by being the first state in the nation to phase out trans fats," Governor Schwarzenegger said today. "Consuming trans fat is linked to coronary heart disease, and today we are taking a strong step toward creating a healthier future for California."
These “I know how you should live and you’re going to live your life my way by God” people have taken a matter of private choice and turned it into public policy… again! Like the ratchets on handcuffs, they are squeezing another notch closed around your freedom of choice and we’re going along with it like confessed felons.
Lo and behold also just in... this past Tuesday, July 29, 2008 the Los Angeles City Council passed a law barring fast food restaurants from opening in South Los Angeles.
Another Deadly "War" Instigated to Kill Your Freedoms … The War on Obesity!
This is not a “slippery slope”. This is a cliff we have fallen from and unless the American people wake up in time to pull the rip cord on the parachute, the thump you won’t hear at the bottom will be government laws and mandates about more of your diet, your exercise, what and how you can cook in your home and every other personal choice you make in these very personal matters.
We have talked about bad science, misrepresented statistics and media perversions before. How does this happen?
Here’s the simple fact of it… these people want you to live the way they think you should live regardless of your constitutional rights. You then combine these groups with the segment of law “professionals” that are out to make millions by exploiting our legal systems acquiescence to extract settlements through blackmail in the millions and billions of dollars. Add to this stew, politicians looking for headlines and to pursue their own personal agendas regardless of the oft unheard, more often unknowing people they represent, and the recipe is complete.
Systematically Breaking Down Your Constitutional Rights
Step 1
Think of it strategically from the hunting lawyer’s perspective… Broad rights limit revenue, narrowing your rights generates revenue.
If you have a broad right, it is difficult to entrap, ensnare or take legal action against you. If I (the lawyer) can narrow your rights, I not only have the opportunity to win huge settlements by initially cracking the door open, I now also have massive fresh streams of revenue as the trip wires of new rules, regulations, and further narrowing flood through the now cavernous breach in the wall.
Step 2
The “Mommy Groups” (“mommies” is not about the gender but the traditional role that has to protect and coddle everything we touch so that no one and no-thing, can possibly get hurt) position their issues as the high moral ground that the general public finds politically incorrect to argue with because they have forgotten their constitutional right to personal choice. It even tugs at the public’s sense of righteousness i.e., no one likes smokers and it’s dirty and killing everyone, drinking is bad for your health and a moral turpitude, fat people are ugly and unhealthy, risk takers endanger everyone, everyone should have equal access to everything regardless of the cost or the benefit, we need to protect the environment and our children will all die if we don’t do it the way they want, guns kill people, cell phones kill drivers.
Lawyers see the dollar opportunity, the mommies raise their righteous flags and the two come together in a twisted marriage.
Step 3
The next step for these abusive parents is to gather facts to sensationalize and support their cause. They commission studies through academia, enlist the power of government agencies whose budgets and missions are positively influenced by the “cause” and obfuscate the inverse information that doesn’t support their position.
This information always includes how many people are dead or dying from the problem and the unfair burden it places on the rest of society through increased cost to everyone else!
Step 4
Mommy based government officials and governmental departments seeing an opportunity to maintain or expand their budgets, increase their fame and influence and/or further their own personal agenda join the family to further their interests.
Step 5
Having assembled the family and formulated the battle plan, the job is to then get the perverted message to the masses with the ever obliging, “don’t let the facts confuse the message” hyper liberal media. With very few current exceptions, these mommy enablers (editorial mommies themselves) require nothing more than a few juicy bylines to warrant the complete agreement and continued skewing of the message. Opposing facts and issues would not only require work on their part but be in opposition to their own editorial “beliefs”.
Step 6
Law suits are filed against companies and individuals and they are blackmailed into millions of dollars in settlements or incur unsustainable legal costs to defend their position.
Step 7
Having cracked open the door, they pursue two activities in tandem; spread the lawsuits and regulation as far and wide as possible and pursue further narrowing of the right.
Private Mommy Interests
One also cannot underestimate the benefits and thus influence applied by benefiting private interests. Let's take one magnificent example of a continual mommy supporter… the insurance industry.
Ever in pursuit of collecting as much in insurance premiums as possible while paying out as little in claims as possible, these new narrowed rights bring them the ability to segment out these now deleterious populations for discriminating treatment.
No longer do heavy people, smokers, people who drove after 2 glasses of wine and received a DUI, people talking on their cell phones in their cars, people with traffic tickets, etc. have to be included in the "general population". They can now restrict their coverage to these new "groups", charge much higher premiums or deny these abhorrent people access to insurance completely.
The more “groups” we create, the fewer of the” general population” there are (now) by definition and “insurance” no longer has any connection to its meaning for the masses. It has now morphed into a “lifestyle” credit application with ever tightening approval guidelines.
You can write in stone that this trans fat absurdity and the war on obesity will continue to erode your very personal choices. The “obesity chart” will continue to change so more people can be categorized as “overweight” or “obese” from its already ridiculous levels. Business owners and individuals will be further restricted by the government in what food they can serve or eat and the amount, type and frequency of your exercise will come with differing taxation and costs. It is just the latest example in a very long, proven line of constitutionally crushing efforts.
Our country has its national security at risk, energy independence to pursue, a broken social security system, crushing budget short-falls and our leaders involve our government in weighty matters like vegetable oil and margarine because apparently we aren’t equipped to decide what to eat on our own.
Our need for Mommies that care for us and our inability to make these weighty choices is probably a direct result of the great job mommies have done running the educational system in this country… since we’re all apparently just too stupid to know any better.
