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Nanny State

The Concierge State

We call it the Nanny State and don’t like it because as it attempts to make you safer it becomes intrusive and takes away freedom of choice. But if you call it the Concierge State it sounds pretty good. Same intrusions and limited choices but with an attitude of helping and positiveness. I’ve had three examples of the concierge state this year.  First was on my dive trip to Palau with Brock in January.  It was a live aboard boat where everything was taken care… Read More »The Concierge State

They’re Back

The tables at my neighborhood Starbucks are back.  They were gone because of a “permit renewal issue” and I wrote a blog post about it, that was pretty scathing, last week.  But this morning when I walked Missy the Brave they had returned. Perhaps my blog post helped. More likely it was the intervention of Andy Wilson our local councilperson.  He was very responsive and the desired result was achieved within a few days. I’m pleased because I need a place to tie up Missy… Read More »They’re Back

Pasadena Priorities

Pasadena it seems you have your priorities mixed up.  My local Starbucks had to remove the outside seating on South Lake Avenue because of a “permitting issue.” And yet in the same block homeless men are sleeping on the street. Maybe they have permits?  Maybe they have advocates. It’s a good thing I know the key to happiness.

Climate Change and Butter

Since the 1970’s Nutritionists and Doctors have been warning about the dangers of fat.  Butter was deemed to be a particularly insidious danger and its usage was discouraged.  Now the same Nutritionists and Doctors are changing their tune and saying that maybe fat isn’t such a problem and it is okay to eat butter again.  NY Times Story Photo credit CloneHenge.com Since the 1970’s Environmentalists and Scientist have also been warning about Global Warming (later Climate Change).  Fossil fuel were deemed to be a particularly… Read More »Climate Change and Butter

Bags, Gloves and Plastic

This is the state of the Nanny State in California: In order to improve food hygiene there is a new law that requires that food service workers wear disposable plastic gloves. And in order to save the environment there is a new law that prohibits the use of disposable plastic bags to transport food. So on one hand we are urged to sacrifice the environment (by using more plastic gloves) to improve food safety and on the other we are urged to sacrifice food safety… Read More »Bags, Gloves and Plastic

The Weather is Not Getting More Extreme

The graph below shows that human deaths from natural disasters have decreased dramatically in the last century contrary to what many people want to believe. There is a normal human tendency to extrapolate from a particular premise to a universal conclusion coupled with our desire to find data to support our bias.  The fact is the weather isn’t getting worse and people are surviving it better.  For more details here is a link to a good news web site. Or follow this link: http://humanprogress.org/static/extreme-weather-deaths It… Read More »The Weather is Not Getting More Extreme

Why the Plastic Bag Ban Will Fail #17

In the long run all OTBE* people search for ways to make their lives easier and more enjoyable.  Banning plastic bags doesn’t make life easier and it doesn’t increase enjoyment. For the least organized people in society banning plastic bags, that used to be free, makes grocery shopping significantly more difficult as this picture shows: A selfy of the difficulty of not having a bag for bananas and one other thing. * Other Things Being Equal (a great acronym) I don’t oppose you using recyclable… Read More »Why the Plastic Bag Ban Will Fail #17

Plastic Hypocrisy

The Los Angeles Times has been actively editorializing in favor of banning plastic bags from grocery stores.  Example: one of their editorials from last April.  And they have succeeded in getting them banned from most cities in LA County. In the meantime the LA Times is delivered to homes every day in a plastic bag. The Los Angeles Times Commits Plastic Hypocrisy My last post on the Bag Ban Hypocrisy: The practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one’s own behavior… Read More »Plastic Hypocrisy

The Nanny State Gone Wild

The FDA wants to keep “junk food” junky so you will eat what they say you should. “Pink Stuff” The following is from The Food Lawyers newsletter: “FDA has long had a policy against letting candy and snack food companies (chips, soft drinks, ice cream, etc.) add vitamins or protein to their products.  It’s called FDA’s “Jelly Bean Rule.”  (Honest – – I can’t make this stuff up.)  It makes it illegal to nutritionally fortify snack foods. But now, FDA has commissioned a public survey… Read More »The Nanny State Gone Wild