Big Nanny: Get Out of My Life!

Today’s noon news was illustrative of where we find ourselves today, in the Obamanation.  There was a common theme to the stories, although it’s doubtful that the news producer recognized it: That being the emerging Nanny State, to which any constitutional conservative must be driven to scream,

Get out of my life!!!!!

First story:  Say bye bye to “trans fats”. [emphasis added to quotes]

The Food and Drug Administration has declared war on trans fats. The government agency said Thursday it would require food makers to gradually phase out artificial trans fats — the artery-clogging ingredient found in crackers, cookies, pizza and many other baked goods.

Trans fats are not good for you.  That’s today’s judgment.  Tomorrow’s?  Who knows?  But in the meantime, in typical knee-jerk fashion, Big Nanny says, “NO!!!!”

You clueless people won’t stop buying food containing trans fat, so Big Nanny is going to take it away from you, for your own good, by ordering companies to stop making products that contain trans fat.

Next up:  A father is tazed to stop him from saving the life of his toddler.

The family of a 3-year-old killed in a northern Missouri house fire says it is outraged after police used a stun gun on the boy’s stepfather as he tried to run back in and save the child.

Riley Miller died early Oct. 31 in the Mississippi River town of Louisiana. A city police officer fired his stun gun at Ryan Miller [handcuffed him, then tazed him twice more] as he tried to re-enter his burning home, which was destroyed.

The family is considering a lawsuit.  Sadly, the little boy’s body was found just 12 feet from the door, which his dad was prevented from going through, for his own good, the authorities would probably say.  The cops made a “judgment call,” but in so doing they took away Mr. Miller’s individual freedom to make his own judgment call about what risks he freely chose to take in order to save the life of his child.

Next we have yet another food-related story.  There ought to be a law to prevent “fast food giants” from “targeting” your children:

A new report from researchers at Yale University shows fast food restaurants are still targeting kids with their advertising.

Marlene Schwartz with the Yale-Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity says parents might just give in because they simply feel overwhelmed by the constant bombardment on TV and at the restaurant.

So Big Nanny ought to, ought to, protect parents from their tendency to “give in” (for the parents’ and childrens’ own good, of course).  The recommendations made by the report’s authors are here.  While none explicitly call for government action (yet), there are quite a few “musts” for restaurants to follow (e.g., “Fast food restaurants must establish meaningful standards for child-targeted marketing that apply to all fast food restaurants — not just those who voluntarily participate …”)  And if they don’t do what they “must,” voluntarily?  Enter Big Nanny, stage left.

Speaking of musts, now millions of our fellow citizens “must” do as Obama says and “shop around” because Obamacare, his signature law, has forced insurance companies to drop policies that aren’t, in Obama’s opinion, good enough, and Big Nanny knows best.

As we all know by now, despite Obama’s oft-cited promise that if you like your insurance you can keep it, the regulations deliberately implemented by Obama’s administration have removed your individual choice.  Now you must “shop around,” whether you want to or not; but it’s for your own good.  Obama (aka Big Nanny) says so.

The case of Richie Incognito, of course, is also in the news.  Incognito, for those who have managed to avoid the latest ginned-up media controversy, is accused of “bullying” another behemoth of a football player by the name of Jonathan Martin. Whether the charges are true or not, make no mistake: Big Nanny has an interest in this case, too.  The goal?   To rid the world of the violent sport of football.  It’s a hotbed of macho culture. It’s a hotbed of racism, for goodness sake!  It’s full of bullies.  Big Nanny is already moving against this violent sport because players can suffer concussions, as they’re being bullied.  Just look at these headlines:

Is Football Just Too Dangerous?

An Ugly Truth — Football Can Cause Brain Damage

League of Denial: The NFL’s Concussion Crisis

Listen up, folks. It’s only a matter of time until Big Nanny decides that football must be banned.  For your own good. For the good of your children. For the good of the multi-millionaire players.

Paul Hsieh, MD, said it best, in an article at Forbes:

Nanny state regulations and universal health care thus create a vicious cycle that erodes individual responsibility and habituates citizens to ever-worsening erosions of their individual rights.

To break this vicious cycle, we must therefore reject both the nanny state and universal health care and instead advocate for a properly limited government. The proper function of government is to protect individual rights, such as our rights to free speech, property, and contract. Only those who initiate physical force or fraud can violate our rights. A properly limited government protects us from criminals who steal, murder, etc., as well as from foreign aggressors. But it should otherwise leave honest people alone to live peacefully. It should not limit our diet choices “for our own good,” nor tax us to fund “universal health care.”

Of course, healthy diet and exercise are good. But these are issues of personal — not government — responsibility. Adults should enjoy the right to eat and drink what they wish — and the corresponding responsibility to enjoy (or suffer) the consequences.

Then Dr. Hsieh quoted G.K. Chesterton:

The free man owns himself. He can damage himself with either eating or drinking; he can ruin himself with gambling. If he does he is certainly a damn fool, and he might possibly be a damned soul; but if he MAY not, he is not a free man any more than a dog.

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