Since I’ve been otherwise occupied making a living, it’s reassuring to know that my government is looking out for me. In just the last month, our tireless public servants have proposed numerous measures that will make my life better and more worry free.
No longer will I have to worry about drug addicts being able to rig a urine test. The Senate is set to vote on a measure that would make it illegal to sell fake urine for the purpose of falsifying a drug test. Whew.
While they’re at it, Congress is also working on banning smokeless tobacco in Major League Baseball. Not only that, but Obama just signed legislation that bans the Post Office from shipping cigarettes, and the CDC is preparing to launch a co-ordinated 50-state anti-smoking campaign. This is just in case you didn’t know that smoking may contribute to lung cancer.
Meanwhile, the bureaucrats at the Food and Drug Administration are planning an unprecedented effort to reduce the salt in my diet. Of course, this is for my own good. The FDA is also developing a new regulation that would require food manufacturers to display the nutritional content of food on the front of packages. Finally!
Going a step further, a county supervisor in California has proposed a ban on the inclusion of toys in restaurant meals that contain high amounts of sugar, salt or certain fats. Whoa. Now my kids are protected too – for their own good.
The new fuel mandates Obama recently instituted will keep the earth from melting. Who knew? I figure the additional $1,100 cost they add to every new car is a small price to pay. And in a further effort to save the earth, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi held a press conference to announce that the new “green” light fixtures in the House cafeteria will recoup their $140,000 cost in only 10 years. You won’t find any waste of tax dollars on her watch. You betcha.
Speaking of going green, our eco-conscious legislators are also considering enacting the 21st Century Green High-Performing Public Schools Facilities Act. For only $32.9 billion bucks, this act will create a “healthier, safer and more energy-efficient teaching environment by requiring schools to use green materials.” This is a small price to pay to save the earth and educate future generations, right?
Our government has been working overtime on our behalf. In just the last month it has cracked down on profiling Muslim terrorists, made it easier for gays to sue their employers and threatened to sue Arizona for requiring citizens to actually prove they are U.S., citizens.
I figure the $670 billion in gross tax increases since January of 2009 are well worth the price for the excellent work being done on my behalf. Hey, that’s only $2,100 dollars for every man, woman and child. And Obama assures me that rich fat cats will be paying the freight for all these new safety measures that will benefit us all. How cool is that?
With Obama in charge, I no longer have to worry about terrorists attacking us. And if Obama is OK with rogue state Iran having the ability to make nuclear bombs, then its OK with me, too. After all, he’s the expert. And after seeing him on American Idol, I’m reassured that our president will be able to charm all our enemies into laying down their arms and joining Obama in his quest for world peace. Kumbaya.
Just knowing that the government is looking out for me makes me feel warm and fuzzy. Even though 80% of Americans say they can’t trust Washington and have little faith that the massive federal bureaucracy can solve America’s problems, I know they’re wrong. Just look at what the government has done for us lately.
Crossposted from Right Bias
Every day we get closer and closer to the ultimate police state. We elected these corrupt politicians an it is our duty to remove them. They are making a mockery of our Constitution. It seems that they forgot that they took an oath of office “to uphold and protect” that document.Let us remind them in November.
It seems that they forgot that they took an oath of office “to uphold and protect” that document.Let us remind them in November.
April 30th, 2010 at 7:06 am
I agree, but some friendly advice to keep you from looking foolish and incurring the wrath of the combined left, the correct quote is: “…preserve, protect and defend…”
Excellent post. Isn’t it nice that our government is looking out for me, little ole me, because I am too stupid to do it for myself. I am so glad we have people in power to prevent me from destroying myself after all these years I accidently prospered and survived using just the little brain God gave me. Thank you Obama and friends for trying to remove any self respect I have for myself that I worked hard to gain. Little do you know that I will fight you tooth and nail to prevent you from turning our great country into a socialistic, marxist, communist community.
Madalyn
And how will they get you to go along, or deal with you when you revolt?
Here is a very disturbing article.
http://patriotpost.us/alexander/2010/04/29/army-preps-for-tea-party-terrorists/
Read the linked original article in the first paragraph.
Here is my take on it.
http://truthandcommonsense.com/2010/04/30/a-new-twist-in-an-old-problem-the-army-practices-taking-on-the-tea-party/
Like I said is it dangerous to have a solider in charge of other soldiers all well armed and trained thinking that ‘Tea party” members are threats? Absolutely, because for every smart soldier with a conscience there is one of these guys.
Mr. “Get some” from FMJ.
@savage24, they never read the Constitution. Why should they read the Bills they vote for?
They can’t be out of Money, they still have Checks!
@archer52: http://oathkeepers.org/oath/
http://oathkeepers.org/oath/2009/03/03/declaration-of-orders-we-will-not-obey/
I will keep my Oath. It is to the Constitution and not to not to any Temporary Elected Officials.
I will not obey Illegal Orders issued by Anyone. I have read the Bill of Rights and the Constitution and will not argue the point with anyone. Your Rights are Safe. I am neither Schutzstaffel or Gestapo. Those that I serve with aren’t either.
Reading is a serious issue soon to be addressed by the current regime. It causes eyestrain and undue stress on the comrade citizens by being exposed to malicious anti-revolutionary rhetoric.
Soon the teaching of reading will be outlawed and all information will be by daily audio broadcasts at the various prayer times during each day.
And don’t forget the watts.
The government requires you to use fluorescent light bulbs in order to protect you from all those dangerous excess watts. That’s why it’s necessary for you to pay $4-$5 for each one instead of the .75 or so that you used to pay. And of course, you will have to dispose of the new cfls in the hazardous waste collection that your city/state sets up because they have mercury in them – you can’t just throw them out in the trash like those old incandescent bulbs. But that’s ok…somebody has to work at the waste collection sites, so that helps reduce unemployment. And of course, the Chinese who make most of the cfls have a problem with mercury, but they don’t care if their people die – they have _lots_ of people. I’m not sure what they’re doing with the mercury here in the US. Maybe we’re shipping it all back to China. Or maybe it’s being buried in Yucca Mountain.
The really important thing is that the exposure of each of us to all those dangerous watts is being limited…
The only problem I see with the government protecting me from the hazards they are is that I am going to live a lot longer and keep drawing a Social Security check for many more years than I would have if I could make my own decisions. With Social Security paying out more now than they are taking in, how long will those checks keep coming?
I could do like one liberal politician said I should do when I start costing the government too much money: I should consider suicide. If I die for my country it won’t be on a VOLUNTARY basis. It will be because I don’t have any fight left in me.
Does anyone really believe that all of corporate America could be trusted to put consumer health and safety ahead of profits?
I don’t think it’s logical to expect them to effectively self-regulate. The profit motive builds a conflict of interest directly into the system.
Suek Walmart charges less than 20 dollars for 12 CFCs The “nanny stae” tries to protect those that are most vulnerable like kids from too much salt and too much sugar. Now some might say that should be the responsibility of the parents, BUT not all kids have parents or parents that are always doing the best for their children. so the government is trying to protect them Of course that means that some of us are now going to have to salt our own food, instead of having corporate America do it for us. So just SUCK IT UP you know, for the kids of America.
And Suek those bulbs have about 1/1000 of the mercury in an old thermometer and even less than in a hearing aid battery. STOP LISTENING TO THE FEAR MONGERS
@Greg: All you have to do is see all of the “high fructose corn syrup” in foods to realize that MONEY is the sole driving force for a lot of businesses. Even breads have replaced sugar with the stuff. Sugar is bad, but HFCS is much worse. This is probably one reason I had to have two stints put in my 90-95% plugged artery.
@John ryan, I don’t know what point you are trying to make. They contain approx 4 mg of mercury, and still need to be disposed of per EPA rules, per EnergyStar.
And that doesn’t even include all the caveats and hoops you jump if they’re broken. EPA also gives similar, if not more stringent, warnings.
Then let’s go to that “fear mongering site”, The Northeast Waste Management Officials’ Association. There you can read more about mercury leaching into groundwater and the air emissions…. even from those miniscule amounts (so you portray) from lightbulbs.
@suek: When I found out what the label on the energy efficient bulbs said you should do when a bulb breaks, that told me I don’t want them. According to the article I read the label says to open windows and leave the room if a bulb breaks. Then there are certain steps you should take to clean it up, and you can’t throw them in the trash. You have to take them to a hazardous waste disposal center. I’ll stick with my incandescent bulbs.
Greg, you make a few assumptions.
1) People are too dumb to make decisions on their own
2) Govt. can make a better decision.
3) Corporations will toss aside safety for profits.
“Greg, you make a few assumptions.”
Intelligent people often aren’t in a position to make good decisions on their own. The erroneous assumption might be that industries are looking out for their customers.
How many dangerous pharmaceutical drugs have been pulled off the market in recent years after industry-conducted tests had previously established their safety and effectiveness? How can you decide if you want to buy fresh beef or chicken, when the industry has effectively resisted country-of-origin labeling? Suppose you don’t want your kids drinking milk produced by cows dosed on BGH. Big dairy successfully fought to make it illegal to label milk to show that it isn’t being used. There are questions about the safety of genetically modified corn, wheat, beans, etc, but the industry behind them has successfully blocked labeling, so there’s no choice to be made; meanwhile, genetically modified ingredients are now present in 70-75% of all processed foods. Known airline safety issues have gone unresolved because of the cost to the industry of correction. Auto industry cover-ups haven’t been uncommon. The safety of imported consumer products is often a crap-shoot, and the hazards are often far from apparent. Just today, I read that 60% of the population doesn’t have the option of avoiding hazardous levels of contaminants in the air they breathe. The safety of the air we breathe isn’t a matter of individual choice. Polluters often won’t trade maximum profits for greater public safety levels unless they’re coerced.
I don’t know who or what would be in a position to deal with such problems than the government. I figure protecting the health and safety of the general public against the carelessness or outright indifference of impersonal corporate entities is one of the fundamental reasons government exists.
BTW, regarding the compact fluorescent lights…
The primary source of hazardous environmental mercury is coal-fired electrical plants. Since the compact fluorescent bulbs contain only traces of mercury and give the same light as an incandescent at 20-30% of the electrical consumption, widespread use results in a net lessening of environmental mercury. (A mercury thermometer has 100 to 600 times as much mercury as a single compact fluorescent bulb.) The powder in a broken coil isn’t mercury, but the fluorescent coating that glows to produce light. The main hazard if one is broken is the glass.
I like ’em because they last a long time and save money. I don’t like the fact that I can hear some of them buzzing. It can also be weird if they malfunction in an otherwise dark room. The bright, high-frequency strobe of a malfunctioning CFL could probably trigger seizures if someone has photosensitive epilepsy.
Well Greg, those medications that were pulled were approved by the FDA before hitting the market.
The BGH scare is BS (no pun intended) and junk science at it’s worst.
The same applies to fears about genetically modified crops. FYI, those very crops have kept millions from starving.
California law requires that fluorescent bulbs be taken to a hazardous waste location. I have no information about other states.
Re: drugs in foods we eat.
Greg, I really think that in order for you to be safe, you need to grow your own. That is…if you are _really_ concerned. You can also grow your own fruits and vegetables. “Heirloom” vegetable seeds are widely available online.
The effectiveness with which the FDA previously protected public interests has been considerably diminished in the spirit of deregulation–as were the effectiveness of the FCC, the EPA, the SEC, the FTC, etc.
Concerns about what companies like Monsanto have done and are presently doing seem entirely legitimate to my way of thinking. Use of a number of their genetically engineered products have been banned outside of the United States, owing to unresolved safety issues. I don’t think it’s “junk science” to err on the side of caution instead of automatically assuming that dramatic departures from the natural order are safe unless proven otherwise. I especially resent industry efforts to deprive the public of information, and of a choice.
The problem with genetically modified crops is that we don’t know what the long-term consequences will be. What I find especially worrisome is that Monsanto’s patented genetic codes have slipped the leash and are showing up in natural produce. The escaped code sequences move around the normal genetic chain unpredictably with entirely unpredictable consequences. “The World According to Monsanto” explores this issue, as well as others. Anti-corporate, junk science propaganda? Decide for yourself. It’s free to watch on YouTube in 8 parts:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hErvV5YEHkE
@Greg
Hmm…. So, what you’re saying is that:
(1) People are stupid and do not have the ability to make educated decisions, not even the intelligent ones. (Excluding yourself and your omniscient political fellows, who are the only ones qualified to make smart decisions for everyone else.)
(2) Corporations are evil, nasty, corrupt, filth spewing demons. They are all killing us with toxins and pollution, while they care nothing of what evils they do to their customers, so long as they can profit from it. Their every move must be heavily regulated or they will destroy the Earth as we know it. They will eat our children, drink our blood and grind our bones into dust unless they are neutered and on leases. (Except for those mercury vapor fluorescent bulbs which are good.)
(3) What we need is more government control of corporations and the people so that they can expand the power and reach into ever aspect of our lives. (Even though up to now, expanding the government has not made us as much safer as we might think, that’s simply because they aren’t big enough yet.)
(4) Thus, we should follow your advise, turn back to tilling the Earth, become lowly Amish peasants, and leave all the big decisions to you and the great cabal of liberal nobility. Whom we can trust to know what’s best for our own good.
[Sarcasm off]
The BGH “scare” has been proven to be global warming like. In fact, it has been pointed out that that milk from cows where BGH was NOT used is MORE expensive than milk where it was. Interesting how the left likes to say, “follow the money” until it’s their sacred ox being gored.
The FDA? Typical of liberals you like to claim that more regulation is the answer. They easily had the power to do something about those medications had they chosen to do so. A little bit of info for you, I work in an area where the decisons of the FDA DIRECTLY impact my job. So please don’t try to tell me they are mostly toothless because I know otherwise by direct experience.
As for “Frankencrops”, humans have been “tampering” with plant genectics for centuries. Corn is proof of that. So you’ll have to excuse me if I dont get my boxer briefs in a bunch over current modifications.