Category: Nanny State

I Guess She Needs to Run Farther

From John C. Dvorak’s blog we get a story that starts like this:

During the conversation the frail widow, who fled to Britain from Communist East Germany

Sadly it appears as though she hasn’t ran far enough to escape a police state:

A disabled pensioner was hauled before the courts and charged with assault after she prodded a teenage ‘hoodie’ in the chest with her finger.

Renate Bowling, 71, confronted the 17-year-old youth in the street after stones were thrown at her home.

Yes some punks threw stones at her house and she confronted them because she’s old and therefore is from a generation that has a spinal cord. During the confrontation she pokes one of the hooks in the chest with her finger and ,being this is Britain, is brought up on assault charges.

Is there anything that is legal in that police state across the pond?

If You Have a Cold You’re a Criminal

The War on Guns reminds us that there is a law against doing almost everything. Sally Harpold is a dirty criminal. Why? Because she dared to purchase a box of Zyrtec-D and a box of Mucinex-D in the same week. See both of these common medicines contain pseudoephedrine, the main ingredient in meth. Under Indiana law you can only purchase 3.0 grams of pseudoephedrine in a week. Her combined medicine purchase netted her 3.6 grams. Hence she is a criminal.

Always remember the nanny state knows best and enacts these laws to protect you from yourself. After all even if you are purchasing medicines containing pseudoephedrine for your cold you probably aren’t aware that purchasing more than 3 grams will actually alter your thinking and make you want to produce meth.

Britain Ensures Scouts Won’t Always Be Prepared

Well it looks like the British nanny states strikes again. Scouts in Britain will no longer be allowed to carry pen knives on camping trips.

Penknives may have formed as much part of the scouting experience as badges and campfires, but according to advice from the Scout Association they must no longer be brought on camping trips, except when there is a “specific” need.

Modern Britain’s knife culture, including the rise in fatal stabbings, has been cited by troop leaders — although some have countered that the code contradicts the tradition that Scouts are to be trusted for their honour.

Yes that’s right Britain doesn’t want scouts wielding those dangerous pen knives because of their new found fear of knife crime. After seeing how well the gun ban brought down the number of shootings it only makes sense to ban knives to bring down the number of stabbings… hey wait a minute! If banning guns didn’t stop shootings than why the fuck is banning knives going to bring down stabbings? It’s not. Especially considering they are taking knives away from scouts who have legitimate uses for them.

Just because the tool can be used as a weapon doesn’t mean it should be banned. But hey the first step in establishing a fascist government is to completely disarm the populace.

Britain Proves Once Again They are THE Nanny State

Wow Britain I have to hand it to you, when it comes to being a nanny state no other can touch you. The Home Office commissioned a new design for pub pint glasses. Well glasses will no longer be the word since the newly designed ones are made of shatter resistance plastic. The reason? They don’t want pint glasses to be used as weapons:

The Home Office has commissioned a new design, in an attempt to stop glasses being used as weapons.

Official figures show 5,500 people are attacked with glasses and bottles every year in England and Wales.

Yes that’s right now that there are no guns to be scared of and the anti-knife campaign is well under way they are looking at the next available weapon. Broken glass appears to be it. Next they will require all beer to come in shatter resistance bottles, house windows will have to be replaced with plexiglass, and owning crystal drinking apparatuses will be illegal.

But remember they are doing all of this to protect you.

Congress Slipped in a Book Ban, Clever Girl

As with many things I find Snowflakes in Hell has a link to an article on the book ban Congress passed. I know what you’re thinking, how could Congress pass a ban on books? The first amendment protects the freedom of speech.

Although that’s true Congress didn’t base the ban on a book’s content but on the ink. Remember last year when there was a panic over Chinese toys that contained lead? As a knee jerk reaction Congress passed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008. This act in essence banned any amount of lead from childrens’ items and it was retroactive. We’re not talking simply lead paint on toys but lead in any products aimed for use by children.

So how does this ban books? Well before 1985 there was no law regulating the use of lead in dyes and inks used in children’s books. This means any children’s book printed before 1985 must first be tested for lead before it can be sold. Failing to to this means you a used book you sell can be an illegal item for resale and you could face up to a $100,000 fine or even prison time.

This law was appalling to begin with but is doubly so to me since I’m an avid reader with books printed before 1985. If I should allow a child to read such a book I can be brought up on charges. And this is how the government works people. If they can outright ban something they do it through regulations. Granted I don’t believe banning childrens’ books was the intention of this law but due to its poor wording that’s what it has accomplished.

But government does use regulations to ban items directly. The assault weapon ban of 1994 a perfect example. The government knew it would be hard to flat out ban specific guns so they regulated the features hoping that would accomplish the ban. They made a list of features which were not illegal when a certain number of them were on a single gun. Everything from bayonet lugs to pistols grips fell on this list. Furthermore any magazine with a capacity beyond 10 cartridges was now illegal to produce. Unlike the law this article primarily aims at the assault weapon ban was not retroactive.

The scary thing is anything can be regulated so long as it can be found to be bad in some way. Lead ammunition is being restricted more and more in the Peoples’ Republic of California because it’s “harmful to the environment.” The federal government could pull the same thing. Being you can still get ink poisoning it is possible to regulate anything that uses ink period. Granted that’s an extreme case but it is meant to be to show the extent unregulated government to reach.

This is why we need to fight pointless and knee jerk laws. They never accomplish solving anything and always accomplish harming people whom were not criminals before the passing of the law.

Further Research

The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008. (PDF)

Senators Move to Make Texting While Driving Illegal

Remember that post yesterday about the study that said people who text while driving are 23 times more likely to crash their car? Well to prove once again that no tragedy (or study in this case) should be left unexploited some senators on capital hill are going to introduce legislation to make texting while driving illegal…

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jQIakqMFgrC0KAeMfxrWUQCz2U2QD99O2NL04

The legislation will use the federal government’s favorite weapon against state rights, money. Pretty much if a state doesn’t introduce a law making texting while driving illegal they lose their federal highway funding.

It’s funny how the states only have rights when it’s convenient for the federal government. For instance the states have a right to make their own gun laws when national reciprocity is being voted on but they don’t have the right to make their own gun laws when they want to make any gun sold and used in their state exempt from federal regulation. Well it looks like states don’t have the right to make legislation when it comes to their drivers either.

That said texting while driving is just fucking stupid. But just because something is fucking stupid doesn’t mean it should be made illegal. The fact of the matter is there is no way to enforce this law since phones can be used for a great many things. For instance my phone has Google Maps on it which I use to navigate my way around. But being I’m holding the phone to look at the map it looks like I’m texting.

Likewise reckless driving is already illegal hence if you are swerving around on the road while texting you are committing a crime and will most likely be pulled over. This law in effect will only exist to give police another reason to pull you over without having any actual reason to do so (sort of like Minnesota’s new mandatory seat belt law).

Irony Defined, Knife Crime Up During Anti-Knife Campaign

Since Britain has all but banned guns they are now targeting the next evil weapon criminals use, knifes…

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8161880.stm

They have run into a problem though. Knife crime is actually going up in areas they are targeting with their anti-knife campaign. This implies that telling criminals not to do something doesn’t prevent them from doing it. Who would have guessed that?

I wonder what will happen next. I’m betting some kind of ban on all knifes that can’t be used for sporting or cooking purposes. Eventually there will be a requirement to register all kitchen knives with the government and licenses will be required to own them. After that a total ban on all knives will occur. Afterwards they will go after blunt instruments. This will lead to law abiding citizens having no objects as most things can be used as a weapon while the criminals will still have guns, knives, and blunt instruments.

Fresh Statistical Numbers from Britain

It looks like we have some new violent crime numbers for Oceania…

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8153392.stm

They are claiming killings are at a 20 year low and gun crime along with other violent crimes are down…

But overall crime is down by 5% and violent crime has fallen by 6%, and gun crime has seen a 17% fall.

Of course since guns are illegal in Oceania shouldn’t gun crime be at 0% of all crimes? I mean the magical gun ban barrier stops all guns from coming into the country. Oh wait there are more statistics…

The number of attempted murders is also down 7%, but attempted murders with knives is up 11%.

Oh Hell now people using knives in murder attempts are up. Oceania better get on banning all knives quickly.

Other violent offences were up, however, including a 5% increase in the number of women raped to 12,165.

You know it’s much harder to rape a woman when she has a gun. I’m just saying.

Police recorded 284,000 domestic burglaries – the first increase in six years.

And criminals are more likely to break into your domicile if they know that not only do you not have any means of self defense but defending yourself against the intruder can nail you a prison sentence.

The British Crime Survey suggests the risk of being a victim of crime has risen from 22% to 23%.

Once again the risk of being victimized greatly increases when you are unable to defend yourself against an attacker. The strong prey on the weak. There is no likely way I’m going to be able to defend myself against a man with a gun unless I to have a gun. God made man but Samuel Colt made them equal is the right saying for this.

But BBC Home Affairs correspondent Andy Tighe said the survey showed overall crime and robbery appeared to be stable.

Wow if that’s not lying through numbers I don’t know what is. I’m sure they defined a certain percentage as being stable such as 5%. Now to me any increase in crime (for the likelihood of being a victim in a crime as they state) is not stable but an increase. Likewise if there were a drop it wouldn’t be stable but a decrease, which is what you want.

And now for the money quote provided by Mr. Chris Grayling…

It looks like the government is trying to cover up the scale of the problem we face with knife crime, little wonder given its policies have failed to get to grips with the challenge. Massaging the figures on knife crime twice in two years is just an insult to the families of those who have been tragically murdered in knife attacks and who are campaigning for real action to get knives off our streets.

I guess it’s time for Oceania to raise a magical knife ban barrier. Once that’s up and all knives, like all guns, are out of the country they can work on all blunt interments. Of course it’s going to be hard to cook without knives but who cares it’s for the protection of yourself and others.

More Overreaction in Everybody’s Favorite Fascist State

Only in Britain people…

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/5732821/Parents-banned-from-sports-day-over-paedophile-fears.html

Parents are not being allowed to attend their kids’ events because of the pedophile scare. Yes you heard that right because of potential pedophiles parent are not being allowed to attend their own kids’ events.

And because I like pointing out bad quotes…

“I would have taken time off work to support my child. It would have meant a lot to me. I’m all for measures to protect the safety of children but lines must be drawn and common sense must prevail.”

This in itself is a very good concept the problem is that it’s coming from Oceania where common sense doesn’t exist. I mean this is the same country who decided to fight crime by disarming the law abiding populace and placed closed circuit television cameras on every street corner.

Source: http://www.dvorak.org/blog/2009/07/15/parents-excluded-from-school-events-because-pedaphiles-might-get-in/

Remember Your Nanny Knows Best

So apparently the Food and Drug Administration is working to ban a whole butt load of painkillers…

http://www.philly.com/philly/business/homepage/20090702_Painkillers_at_a_crossroads_as_FDA_decision_
looms.html

From the article…

The FDA advisory panel recommended banning Vicodin and Percocet because they contain acetaminophen, which can cause liver damage if taken at higher-than-recommended doses. The panel also urged the FDA to lower maximum doses for acetaminophen, best known as the branded drug Tylenol.

Yes they want to ban widely used drugs such as Vocdin because if it’s abused it can damage your liver. Well with that reasoning we have a whole list of things we need to start banning. If you abuse alcohol you can die, strangely enough from liver damage as well. The FDA better get a move on to ban alcohol because that worked so well in the past to prevent alcohol abuse.

Did you know that apple seeds contain cyanide…

http://www.snopes.com/food/warnings/apples.asp

Of course it takes a massive number of seeds to ingest enough cyanide to kill you but still it could be abused. We need to ban apples in all forms.

Yes the FDA is playing nanny state again trying to save us from ourselves. I wish our government would spend their time worrying about things that are actually a problem instead of wasting their time banning things that people can die from if abused (which is pretty much everything that falls under the jurisdiction of the FDA).