DISQUS

David · 2 years ago

There's at least one "healthy" thing about FYOG (For-Your-Own-Good) legislation:  it's about two steps away from re-defining just how far the State can kick the individual around before the individual kicks back.

I'm trying to quit smoking at the moment - down to a half a pack, anyway. I started in my teens (I'm 28 at the moment). I have no intention of defending Phillip Morris and their confederates: I wish I'd never picked up this disgusting habit. I do, however, have a touch of sympathy for the seventy-five million Americans or so who are locked in to nicotine addiction -naturally, as I am one myself. What's been going on for the last 10 years or so, plain and excruciatingly simple, is the Tyrrany of the Majority over the Minority.

That's not democracy. Au contraire, the cornerstone of democracy -and you'll quickly lose it, otherwise- is the protection of the minority from the majority. Without those civil liberty protections in place, you don't have democracy. You have Mob Rule. Just the other day, I read about a group of senior citizens who were being denied donuts "because it's not healthy." Buckle up, don't eat carbs, no smoking, and what else? Where's the line of demarcation? Where is all this teetotalling going to end?

The members of the City Council who came up with this (where else but California, right?) claim -and one reads a little bewilderment between the lines of their remarks - that they've recieved death threats as a result of the legislation they propose. I'm amazed that they aren't down on their fat white knees thanking God that they live in the early 21st century and not the early 20th. A hundred years ago, it wouldn't be a threat. You'd be in a box.

Underpining all of this nonsense is, in my opinion, a very real, a very VALID sense of outrage: "Who do you think you ARE??" Perhaps a better question would be: "WHERE do you think you are?" This is America. Get out of my house.

-David S.

Rogel · 2 years ago

Well said, David.<div>I have one small comment, the nanny legislation has very little to do with how democratic is the country rather with how liberal (as classic liberal) it is. If I'll take this to some extreme if a regime is focus on protecting individual right, and only them, it is not so important how democratic it is. That being said, we have to remember that liberal democracy tend to be the least worse regime know.</div><div></div>

Benson Litwak · 2 years ago

I cannot imagine that this would pass the test of constitutionality.  Although, I live in Florida and some of the things that the Condo Commandos have gotten approved would boggle the mind.

Rogel · 2 years ago

I lived in NYC, it will be hard to shock me with crazy laws...:)