{"id":1594,"date":"2012-03-01T13:09:35","date_gmt":"2012-03-01T18:09:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.davehitt.com\/blog2\/?p=1594"},"modified":"2015-01-15T17:44:23","modified_gmt":"2015-01-15T22:44:23","slug":"beware-of-mark-bittman-and-people-like-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.davehitt.com\/blog2\/beware-of-mark-bittman-and-people-like-him\/","title":{"rendered":"Beware of Mark Bittman and People Like Him"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many years ago some of us were sounding the warning<\/a> that once the Nicotine Nazis mastered their blueprint for vilifying and marginalizing smokers, other nannies, with different agendas, would use that blueprint to force compliance with their cause. Those predictions have come true, and now the country’s foremost nanny movement wants to control our diets.<\/p>\n

Before reading the rest of this article, please take a few minutes to read this<\/a> column.<\/p>\n

Done? If you’re Smartenized, your bullshit meter is smoking.<\/p>\n

When Ronda Storms, a Republican state senator in Florida, is accused of nanny-state-ism for her efforts on behalf of a sane diet, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s worth noting.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Note his choice of words: “A sane diet.” By implication anyone who disagrees must be insane.<\/p>\n

And as someone who has called for the defunding of an educational Planned Parenthood program and banning library book displays supporting Gay and Lesbian Pride Month, she is hardly in her party\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s left wing.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Trying to pin her to the left or right is a distraction, a complete waste of time and a perfect illustration of the false dichotomy driving American politics. She’s not right wing or left wing. She’s a Big Government, Big Nanny Statist. (I keep repeating this in hopes that it will sink in: We need to stop arguing about left vs. right. The discussion should be about government vs. liberty.)<\/p>\n

Yet she makes sense. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just bad public policy to allow unfettered access to all kinds of food,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she told me over the phone.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Let that sink in for a minute. Unfettered access to a\u00c2\u00a0variety\u00c2\u00a0of foods is bad public policy. \u00c2\u00a0She wants \u00c2\u00a0public policy (which is a nice way of saying Big Brother) to limit our choices to foods that meet her approval.<\/p>\n

Mr. Bittman thinks that makes sense.<\/p>\n

The argument for limiting the use of food stamps to actual food is consistent with established policy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ah yes, the old “we’ve always done it this way” argument. That’s compelling if you’re a statist, but not if you’re a grown up who wants to make their own decisions.<\/p>\n

All of this is part of the bigger question: How do we regulate the consumption of dangerous foods?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He’s not asking if we should<\/em> regulate our choices. \u00c2\u00a0He assumes we must<\/em>. His only concern is finding the most efficient way to do it.<\/p>\n

There is no such thing as dangerous food. Danger comes from over consumption of otherwise harmless food. No matter how much fat or calories or other scary\u00c2\u00a0bogymen\u00c2\u00a0are lurking in a plate of Fetechini Alfredo or a Big Mac,\u00c2\u00a0occasionally\u00c2\u00a0indulging in them is harmless.<\/p>\n

Last year a brigade of parents stood watch outside a corner store in North Philadelphia in an attempt to prevent their kids from buying junk food.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A group of adults, dressed as authority figures, stood outside a convenient store and intimidated children to keep them from buying candy, and chastise them if they did. \u00c2\u00a0How would you feel if your children had been subject to such\u00c2\u00a0harassment?<\/p>\n

Mr. Bittman finds this praiseworthy.<\/p>\n

We need the government on our side.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There it is. The demand for Big Brother to step in and make all this mandatory.<\/p>\n

It must acknowledge the dangers caused by the most unhealthy aspects of our diet and figure out how to help us cope with them, because this is the biggest public health challenge facing the developed world.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The kind and benevolent government must step in and “help us cope.” Not just provide information or\u00c2\u00a0encourage\u00c2\u00a0us to make the “right” choices, but “help” us cope with the horrible burden of choosing what we eat. Let us bask in the warmth of the helpful, loving hand of Big Brother, and pretend it never turns into a fist.<\/p>\n

This battle isn’t just starting, folks. \u00c2\u00a0It’s in full swing and gaining momentum. Studies that equate sugar with crack cocaine have been published. Cities like LA are preventing fast food restaurants from opening or operating. The FDA has conducted an armed raid, guns drawn, on the Amish for the horrible crime of selling fresh, healthy raw milk to willing customers. Mars Inc. has just given into Michelle Obama’s arm twisting and is not only reducing the size of regular candy bars, but also\u00c2\u00a0completely\u00c2\u00a0eliminating king size bars.<\/p>\n

All of us need to wake up, learn about these weasels and their cause, and fight and oppose and discredit them at every opportunity. Unless, of course, you want bureaucrats writing and regulating every menu in the country.<\/p>\n

…this is the biggest public health challenge facing the developed world.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And people like him are the one of biggest challenges to liberty in a free world. They must be stopped.<\/p>\n

Other Info<\/strong><\/p>\n

F. Paul Wilson’s short story Lipidleggin’<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0predicted the current mess way back in ’78. \u00c2\u00a0I recorded it<\/a> as a Quick Hitts podcast, with Wilson’s permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many years ago some of us were sounding the warning that once the Nicotine Nazis mastered their blueprint for vilifying and marginalizing smokers, other nannies, with different agendas, would use that blueprint to force compliance with their cause. Those predictions have come true, and now the country’s foremost nanny movement wants to control our diets. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","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\/1594"}],"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=1594"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/www.davehitt.com\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1594\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2066,"href":"http:\/\/www.davehitt.com\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1594\/revisions\/2066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.davehitt.com\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.davehitt.com\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.davehitt.com\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}