Politicians take a lot of blame for the stupid laws they pass, but most of the fault lies with the mentally challenged masses they represent who constantly demand more and more “action” from them. Yes, it’s the constituents out there who are the real problem. The politicians are just performing a perceived obligation to satisfy the needs of their flocks.
When I use the term mentally challenged I’m talking about those otherwise intelligent morons among us who either can’t or won’t take charge of their own lives by thinking for themselves but desperately want the collective to do their thinking for them as well as for everyone else. You know; the ones who really mean it when they say: “there ought to be a law…”
This is why the federal register of new congressional legislation grows by tens of thousands of pages every year. It’s why the volumes of statute books in every state have multiplied to fill law libraries to overflowing, and why this avalanche of mandates together with local laws, ordinances, rules and regulations have come to stifle human liberty and the pursuit of happiness everywhere in America today.
Here are just a few of the many thousands of examples:
The Texas legislature passed a law last year requiring doctors who provide abortions to show and describe in detail an ultrasound image, and play sounds of the heartbeat of the fetus, to pregnant women seeking an abortion.
Women may not decline to undergo this legally mandated protocol unless they qualify for an exception under the statute. Such exceptions suspiciously include situations in which the woman was raped, the fetus is a product of incest, or has congenital abnormalities.
Thus, this law was plainly promulgated for the sole purpose of allowing the state of Texas to insult and intrude upon the personal liberty of innocent women by harassing and attempting to dissuade them from exercising their constitutionally protected reproductive rights.
Governor Rick Perry, the unabashed anti-abortion zealot who signed this outrage into law, praised it as “a victory [which] ensures that every Texas woman seeking an abortion has all the facts about the life she is carrying."
A federal district judge declared the law unconstitutional but was overruled by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. "The required disclosures of a sonogram, the fetal heartbeat, and their medical descriptions are the epitome of truthful, non-misleading information," Chief Judge Edith Jones wrote for the three-judge panel.
I guess this means that a state legislature can dictate the substance of what every doctor must advise a patient in any medical situation as long as the information is truthful and non-misleading. If, for example, a state wants to mandate that doctors, during every doctor visit, tell all their patients they should eat spinach for their own good, that’s just fine as far as the federal judiciary is concerned.
Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa signed into law recently an ordinance requiring porn actors to use condoms to prevent STD’s. It also forces film production companies to pay a fee for a film permit in order to finance inspections.
According to Nina Hartley, a registered nurse and long-time professional porn actress, most porn films feature sexual intercourse that lasts 30-60 minutes, and wearing a condom for that long would lead to chafing, open sores and a greater risk of transmitting diseases. “It’s a disaster for health and safety. I know it looks different from the outside, but it will not work to protect anybody,” she explained.
But what does the L.A. Authority care about health and safety? All they care about is issuing permits and collecting fees charged to create jobs for inspectors and to regulate film companies the privilege of shooting films on their turf.
A Kansas state legislator has introduced a bill to give the dog breed that played Toto in "The Wizard of Oz" special status by making it a state symbol. The proposed law designates the Cairn terrier the official dog of the state of Kansas right up there along-side the official state tree and grass.
The lawmaker says the issue was important to constituents and the terrier is an "appropriate choice." Apparently legislators in Kansas have nothing better to do with their time and taxpayer money.
A Lake County, Fla., judge didn’t even bother to wait for the passage of a law allowing her to impose her arbitrary will upon hapless prisoners under her Authority!
George McCovery, a 345-pound man jailed for driving with a suspended license was freed nine days early thanks to the judge’s self imposed nanny style "lose-a-pound, gain-a-day" deal. "She gave me a chance to prove myself, and I didn't want to let her down," he told the Orlando Sentinel after shedding 25 pounds in 20 days.
Judge Donna Miller, whose courtroom proceedings are replayed in the TV show "Lake Courts," is famous for her unusual sentence deals. In her 17 years as a judge, she has ordered defendants to start jogging, take a dance class, tutor math and write Christmas cards. "I do what I do to try to change the person in front of me," she explained.
She decides on her own, without the benefit of law, what her prisoners need, and doesn’t hesitate to discriminate when it comes to her deals. "If the person needs jail, they get jail," she said. It’s no longer any surprise to me that judges don’t give a damn about administering the law.
Last year, the statist city fathers of San Francisco, CA, passed the Healthy Food Incentives Ordinance, prohibiting chain restaurants, i.e. McDonald’s; from giving away Happy Meal toys with high-fat, high-sugar food orders that do not meet San Francisco’s nutrition standards.
Yes, the city of San Francisco actually has nutrition standards mandated by law.
This particular ordinance appears to be far more about politics than nutrition though. “We should not be nannies, but we should not be ninnies either,” opined Dr David Katz, director of the Yale Prevention Center, who supports the law.
“McDonald’s puts toys in those meals because well-paid executives have advised them that doing so would drive demand and sales. Parents need to exercise responsibility, but the defaults in our culture should not conspire against the weight and health of kids. No reason to make the job tougher than it already is.” The toys and the trinkets “clearly goad children to prefer and request less nutritional meals,” Katz huffed.
Who would’ve thought?
But Dr. Keith Ayoob, associate professor of pediatrics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, disagrees. “It’s misguided to think that this is going to combat childhood obesity,” Ayoob, who grew up in San Francisco, says. “We should be focusing on school lunches, where there are a lot more calories and fat than Happy Meals, and what kids are eating at home.”
“These politicians want to be seen as childhood advocates, and they were probably feeling the pressure to do something,” he added. “But [if] they really want to be seen as that, they should be doing something like mandating physical education for all grades in the school system.”
You see, they all want their politicians to mandate something here or ban something there; many things; it’s just a question of what now to these mentally challenged anti-liberty morons.
Has all of this nonsense hurt McDonald’s?
Nope. Instead of giving away the Happy Meal toys for free, they’re now charging an extra 10 cents for the trinkets, and are therefore in total compliance (and circumvention) of the law – for now at least – but probably not for long.
There will always be more and more laws for the benefit of the mentally challenged.
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