{"id":1061,"date":"2010-03-11T23:33:34","date_gmt":"2010-03-12T04:33:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.davehitt.com\/blog2\/?p=1061"},"modified":"2010-03-22T22:47:47","modified_gmt":"2010-03-23T03:47:47","slug":"nys-wants-to-ban-salt-in-restaurants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.davehitt.com\/blog2\/nys-wants-to-ban-salt-in-restaurants\/","title":{"rendered":"Drop that Salt Shaker and Put Your Hands In The Air"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New York Legislature is considering a bill<\/a> that would make it a criminal offense for restaurant chefs to add salt to food.<\/strong> Yes, you read that right.\u00c2\u00a0 Once again, the absurdity of real life makes satire obsolete.<\/p>\n

This is exactly what happens when you let the nanny camel get its nose in the tent.<\/p>\n

It started, of course, with smoking bans.\u00c2\u00a0 Nicotine nannies, using concocted “science,”<\/a> demanded laws that prohibited smoking in any “public” establishment.\u00c2\u00a0 The results were devastating to many businesses,<\/a> but they lied about that too.\u00c2\u00a0 Those of us who believed in property rights and freedom of choice were shouted down and treated like ignorant lepers.\u00c2\u00a0 Our warnings<\/a> that this was the first step of an increasingly nanny state were met with derision.\u00c2\u00a0 “Pfft, that’s just the slippery slope argument.”\u00c2\u00a0 But slippery slope is exactly how these weasels operate \u00e2\u20ac\u201c time and time and time again.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Two years ago The New York City Department of Health asked restaurants that survived the smoking ban to “voluntarily” limit their use of trans-fats.\u00c2\u00a0 (New York City has their own health department, because New York State’s DOH isn’t nanny enough.) Within a year it was law.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00c3\u0153ber-nanny Michael Bloomberg hailed it as another victory.\u00c2\u00a0 Next they forced most restaurants to post nutritional information about all their dishes.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 So although this proposed state law is so ridiculous we need a new word for ridiculous to describe it, it’s not surprising.<\/p>\n

Felix Ortiz, the weasel proposing this legislation, has a history of extreme nannyism.\u00c2\u00a0 He once tried to legislate mandatory ignition-interlock breathalyzers in all automobiles in NY.\u00c2\u00a0 Not just those for people with a DUI, but for everybody.\u00c2\u00a0 Sound goofy?\u00c2\u00a0 Several car manufactures are now working on making it standard equipment for future models.<\/p>\n

It won’t be the first time an oppressive government has tried to interfere with people using salt.\u00c2\u00a0 This legislation was announced on 80th anniversary of Gandhi’s Salt Satyagraha protesting the British salt tax.\u00c2\u00a0 It was the start of India’s revolution against the UK.\u00c2\u00a0 On this side of the pond it would be nice to imagine this could be the final straw, the thing that makes Americans rise up and lash out at any congress weasel that supports nanny legislation, but that’s wishful thinking.\u00c2\u00a0 Americans used to be made of sterner stuff, but today the majority either doesn’t care about this kind of tyranny or actually likes <\/em>it.<\/p>\n

The bill won’t pass this time, but once the derision dies down it will be back, probably in a more “moderate” form.\u00c2\u00a0 Nannies are the most persistent dirtbags on the planet.\u00c2\u00a0 To those who scoff, let me remind you that fifteen years ago the idea of Big Brother arresting you for having a smoke in a bar seemed outrageous.<\/p>\n

So, liberals and progressives, still think having Big Brother in control of every aspect of your lives is a good idea?<\/p>\n

Edited to add:<\/strong> With each passing day the wonderfully cheesy movie “Demolition Man<\/a>” becomes more accurate.\u00c2\u00a0 Check out this clip at the 4:45 mark:<\/p>\n

<\/param><\/param><\/param><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The New York Legislature is considering a bill that would make it a criminal offense for restaurant chefs to add salt to food. Yes, you read that right.\u00c2\u00a0 Once again, the absurdity of real life makes satire obsolete. This is exactly what happens when you let the nanny camel get its nose in the tent. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,7,4,19],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.davehitt.com\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1061"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.davehitt.com\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.davehitt.com\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.davehitt.com\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.davehitt.com\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1061"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.davehitt.com\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1061\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1088,"href":"http:\/\/www.davehitt.com\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1061\/revisions\/1088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.davehitt.com\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.davehitt.com\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.davehitt.com\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}