Big Nannies of the Year
Big Nannies of the Year
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2010
It was a nefarious year for nettlesome nosy-bodies employed by the Nanny State. Here are the top power-grabbers of 2010 who just can’t leave us alone:
– New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Two feet of snow paralyzed trains, buses, plows and emergency vehicles in the Big Apple this week. Perhaps if Bloomberg — the nation’s top self-appointed municipal food cop — spent more of his time on core government duties instead of waging incessant war on taxpayers’ salt, soda, trans-fat and sugar intakes, his battered bailiwick would have been better equipped to weather the storm.
– Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. He proposed meddling mileage taxes, mused about a system to track drivers’ routes, lobbied for high-speed rail boondoggles and promoted a “livability initiative” to limit suburban growth and force dwellers into public transportation. Then America’s driving czar floated a plan earlier this fall to disable cell phones through some kind of centralized government mechanism. LaHood backed off that creepy crusade, but he is still intent on waging war against drivers who choose to use cell phones, entertainment systems and GPS devices on the road. Just last week, the unstoppable control freak proposed a new rule banning truck and bus drivers from any use of cell phones while driving — including emergency calls on hands-free devices. His anti-car agenda is stuck in overdrive.
– The city of Cleveland. The green police in this Midwestern metropolis made headlines in February with an intrusive plan to roll out electronic snooping trash cans — “smart” rubbish bins bugged with radio frequency identification chips and bar codes to monitor residents’ recycling habits. Violators can be fined $100. Federal stimulus money has gone to fund similar programs in Dayton, Ohio. The technology originated in Germany, was adopted by eco-authoritarians in England (where at least 500,000 trash cans are now embedded with snitch chips) and has spread across Europe. Welcome to the age of Bin Brother.
– The city of San Francisco. The city board of supervisors recently took the “Happy” out of McDonald’s Happy Meals by banning all restaurants from serving toys with children’s meals that exceed arbitrary limits on calories, fat, salt and sugar. Even the mayor of the People’s Republic of San Francisco opposes the latest food-control scheme. But the bossy City by the Bay continues to assault consumer freedom with bans on everything from plastic bags to pet sales and soda pop. By executive order this summer, Mayor Gavin Newsom outlawed Coke, Pepsi and Fanta Orange drinks from vending machines on city property. The decree dictates that “ample choices” of water, “soy milk, rice milk and other similar dairy or non dairy milk” must instead be offered. It’s not clear how vendors will be able to circumvent the city’s hostility toward plastic bottles. Maybe beverages will be served straight out of those noxiously trendy reusable cloth bags?
– The architects of Obamacare. After ramming a trillion-dollar package of unconstitutional federal health mandates down our throats, they said children and seniors would be saved, we could keep our doctors, costs would go down, and the economy would be boosted. Reality: Premiums have continued to skyrocket. Insurers nationwide have dropped child-only plans in the individual market. Obamacare taxes forced the AARP to raise its members’ rates. Hospitals have stepped up layoffs and shutdowns. And millions of Americans have only been able to keep their doctors and coverage after their employers, unions or health providers begged the feds for special waivers. Heckuva job, health bureaucrats.
– First lady Michelle Obama and Republican Mike Huckabee. Mrs. Obama first played the anti-childhood obesity card in September 2009, as a rationale for using her office to crusade for taxpayer subsidies supporting her hometown Chicago’s failed Olympics bid. Her argument: Kids would stay fat, lazy and uninspired if the Daley machine didn’t get its share of massive sports corporate welfare.
Next came Mrs. O’s push for the $5 billion expansion of federal child nutrition programs. As I first reported in February 2010, the legislation was a pet project of the Service Employees International Union, which seeks to swell the ranks of dawn-to-dusk year-round public school food service workers who organize under the progressive activist slogan “serving justice, and serving lunch.” In addition to school breakfast and lunch, the kiddie food patrol is now pushing subsidized dinner plans and summer food service to create a “stronger nutrition safety net.”
Nanny State Republican Mike Huckabee, who used his bully pulpit position as Arkansas governor to campaign for Big Government-endorsed “healthier living” in public schools and private life, naturally sided with Mrs. Obama — and took a swipe at Sarah Palin last week for criticizing the White House usurpation of parental responsibility and rights. Huckabee scoffed at the idea that the feds are “trying to force the government’s desires on people.” But school bake sales are already under siege, and Mrs. Obama’s childhood obesity task force has already called for new and dramatic controls on the marketing of unhealthy foods. Did Huckabee miss (or does he agree with) Mrs. Obama’s officious rallying cry on child nutrition: “We can’t just leave it up to parents”?
God save us from more busybody bipartisanship in 2011.
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I am so sick of govt…..leave me and mine alone….
If you’re offered really good tasting poison, would you drink it? That’s the Koolaid a liberal governance offers. Once you’re convinced to join the pity party its easy to be convinced of the, soft gentle night goodness, of the nanny state, all that’s required then is to rage against those perceived evils that have so unfairly sentenced you to the slavery of, feeling so sorry for yourself.
Hey Bucko, my parents made me who I am today!
Hmmm, you could be on to something there.
Rouge…
.
…I knew there was a reasonable explanation somewhere
My seven-year-old daughter has never had a soda. Her favorite foods are carrots, and broccoli, organic, of course. She also likes venison cheeseburgers. This is because the lovely Mrs. Ragman and I want it that way. Not because some gubmint bureaucrat said so.
I voted for the huckster. At the time, I believed he was the best choice. However, now that Sarah Palin, Michele Bauchman, Jim Demint and others have stepped up to make conservative commitments and have shown the political will to fight for conservative values, I will not offer support for Huckabee or any other “Conservative Light” individual.
We need fighters if we are to save ourselves from the progressive madness that is destroying the best country on the planet.
Amen, Michelle! As Rush would say, “right on, right on”. Thank you for all you do for us, Michelle. You are our voice in the wilderness. God bless you and your family and may He continue to richly bless you all in 2011.
Children will generally like what they see their parents genuinely liking. They will generally turn their noses up at anything they are being coerced into eating. They can develop a gag reflex to the forced food that may stick with them the rest of their lives.
If you want your children to eat nutritiously, just let them see how much you enjoy eating nutritiously. If they turn their noses up at something you like, move on to something else. Don’t force it.
Teaching young children really is as simple as setting a good example. They want to mimic their parents.
Adults who haven’t really grown up want to mimic their rulers. Nanny Stater rulers and their child-like followers who have no clue about maturity don’t understand why adults resist their indoctrination. The rulers regard people as young children and themselves as the kind of Absolute Authority parents represent to children.
Nanny Staters are insane.
Inept, inept, inept! The nanny staters have misused tax money, lined their pockets and then think that they can bury us in their BS. Everything that gov is supposed to do, it does poorly, while it moves to mandate and control everything else. It is time to get all these self-proclaimed do-gooders swept from power and thrown in the dust bin.
Biggest mistake in laws is not allowing people to sue the government. It pushes irresponsibility towards government activities and away from private enterprise.
A cagey law would be to open up all governments to law suits for not doing its NANNY responsibilities properly. It would drive these governments out of the NANNY business.
Don’t get my street plowed in 6 hours – Sue the City.
Can’t get a vegetarian lunch at the school – Sue the School Board.
The ride to the Senior Center is 15 minutes late – Sue the County.
We could create a web app for suing cities, counties, states and the good ole US of A.
Want authority, better take the responsibility.
Also allow these lawsuits to include the politicians who pass the Nanny laws and the Unions pressed to enforce them.
For example. My taxes go up with no new services. Then I get to sue the state for extortion.
I agree with Denis Leary in Demolition Man.
MM, all good examples, but I think you just touched the very tip of the iceberg… How about the FCC intrusion into “OUR” internet??? Nanny now running our BANKS… The BIG BROTHER who wants to tell you what kind of vehicle you will be driving in the future… MORON CONGRESS that now tells me I have to use those SUPER EXPENSIVE and absolutely useless CURLY Q LIGHT BULBS… I could go on and on… Makes me seriously think LIBERTARIAN may be the way to go in the future… GOVERNMENT , please get the HELL out of “OUR” lives!!!
I like nannies, I personally know nannies. Using a benign word like nanny is misused in describing these criminals. These people are not nannies, they are power hungry authoritarian statists determined to impose fascist control over this nation.
They need to be called on it constantly. Use their own Alinsky tactics against them. Use mockery, derision and ridicule when appropriate, with liberal helpings of logic and reason too. Mix well. Bake in the furnace of public opinion. Enjoy.
I warned people during the last election about Huckabee. Still the press pushed him hard! Now I’m seeing that he is the top continder according to polls. Are people really that nuts, or has the media already started picking who will run against Obama.?
Will someone plaese stand up andstop this insanity?
and everybody wanted the Huck to run again–Not Me!!!
C-CS
Yes.
Those wonderful gov approved bulbs….. they work oh sooooo well with dimmer switches, much the same way the gov does on full speed ahead.
Anyone suggesting a ban on products or services should be shipped to Siberia. Send the lawyers with em.
And these are the same people who became apoplectic about the federal government “intruding” by monitoring domestic calls to terrorists in foreign Countries!!!
As long as:
the intrusion on freedom supports a left wing cause, its ok.
the speech they want to censor is conservative it’s ok.
the President conducting the war is a democrat, its ok.
its a left wing crazy killing somebody because they are rich, its ok.
its a Muslim jihadist member of the military killing 13 people, its ok
the laws being broken or ignored are ones meant to protect our borders, its ok
its a dem (Pres) mispronouncing simple words, or a dem congressman worrying that an island will capsize, it’s ok;
it’s a Dem abusing women in the oval office, or not paying taxes, it’s ok,
its the Virgin Mary being desecrated in so called “art” it’s ok
etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc
Hate to be politically incorrect, but liberals are truly mentally retarded children in adult bodies. They are as stupid and transparent in their hypocrisy as the day is long.
Huckster will get strong Evangelical support by well meaning folks that know he was a Baptist minister who is good on social issues, but is, at best, an economic populist, and an opportunist who did a 180º turn on amnesty and illegal aliens from his Arkansas days when he got into the 2008 elections.
Speaking of Bloomie, just remember, he had a real challenger, a reformed Democrat who ran against him in the GOP primary for NYC mayor, and Rudy Giuliani, who donates money annually to the baby killers at Planned Barrenhood, endorsed the lifelong Democrat over the lesser known but sincerely changed Republican.
The real converted Democrat, Badillo, later published a book in 2006 called One Nation, One Standard: An Ex-Liberal on How Hispanics Can Succeed Just Like Other Immigrant Groups.
I certainly don’t want Rudolph Giuliani running for POTUS (or the adulteress opportunist who sits on couches smooching with San Fran Nan) or the Huckster, but, on the general principle that the best one can hope for in the Northeast is a Scott Brown votes with the caucus half the time kind of squish (the Maine babes, on the other hand, have no right calling themselves Republicans), if Rudy ran for the US Senate from New York, even knowing he’d vote with the Dems a quarter of the time, it’d still be an improvement over a NY Dem.
adulterous, adjective, not adulteress, noun, a female who commits adultery, but for Mr. Newt, both terms work…
Bloomie is now whining about the flack he’s getting over the lack of snow removal. Get out the violins…..No one forced him to take the 3rd term. Man up or get out. The city is responsible for the snow removal. Maybe those union contracts prevent going to work to remove the snow because that would be too much like work. Snow is nothing new and removing it is not that complex, unless the plan is to let it melt. The city just doesn’t have a strategy to deal with it because politicians pander to unions not voters.
The greatest generation (and those before it) didn’t need this “risk free society” coddling to make this the greatest country in the world. Why now? Oh, yeah: the government wants control over every thing you do (soon to be taxed, no doubt).
Bingo.
Most NYC union contracts specify how much work city workers have to perform on a given shift. If there is more work to be done, but the “quota” has been reached for that day, get out the deck of cards. Tell me again why dinosaur unions are good for America??
*I would say to the Huckster, that healthy choices begin at home, and he needs to take a closer look at his wife and start cracking the whip; Stay out, and I mean completely out, of my lifestyle choices!
*The tide will turn, and the folks listed above will be swept away by it.
Big NINNIES of the Year.
Yup. More to the point.
Fred G Sanford: “You Big Dummy(ies)”
It is amazing how people who get elected suddenly want to tell you what to do (theoretically because they ‘care’).
The arrogance that someone must have to tell everyone else what to do is astounding. I wouldn’t want to rule the world because I wouldn’t want the responsibility.
And if I did have the responsibility I would feel extremely uncomfortable telling people what to do. . . much less requiring it by law.
I will recommend people stop smoking, do Yoga, eat fruits and vegetables, get plenty of rest, drink lots of water because I know it is good for you. But I couldn’t imagine forcing someone to do it even if I was elected.
Do you realize what a world of deep doodoo we are going to be in, when we get rid of these intrusive SOB’s in two years. We will probably fall back to our degenerate normal lives.
In NYC, union workers can not be compelled to do overtime. It is nuts for them to refuse it since they can often make two or three times their regular rate. But if they choose not to do it, the boss can’t compel overtime. SO when it is cold and freezing out and snowing, heck, why not stay home and in bed? And the heck with sidewalks and streets!
Ahhhhh, the energy saving compact fluorescent lamp and ballast. Phosphorus, Mercury and a little arsenic thrown in, just to name a few ingrediants. Break one and you are legally dealing with a hazardous material spill. CFL’s to replace the incandescent light bulb with steel filaments, glass bulb, aluminum/brass base, and ok a little bakelite.
The next crisis, not to waste, is being brewed/sowed with the CFL bulbs and how they are poisioning the earth. FYI, every fluorescent light bulb contains mercury. This includes all the gaseous discharge lights used for neon, highway, parking lot, and sports lighting.
That’s the problem with Utopia, it just can’t be done.
Sure it can! We just need the right people in charge to bring it and we need to keep them in charge to maintain it. But first, we need a few new laws passed for your own good…
/sarc
For all our problems, the closest thing to Utopia that will ever exist is what we already have in America. Most of the world wishes they were here and most anti American mind-set in the world is born in envy, not hatred.
The problem with Utopia is the people who have it destroying it thinking there is something “better.”
If the unions really did have a work slow down during the snow storm, then heads need to roll. The selfish little snots need to lose their jobs.
These nanny staters need to get a REAL job where they do REAL work and do not have so much free time on their hands. Give them snow shovels and send them to New York City.
How much work could get done if no one cared who got the credit? Shame is a powerful tool to use against the political elites.
looks like the unions stalled the snow removal in protest-drudge/gateway–
My take:
Detroit is a dead city because of the UNIONS–(and socialist welfare-whoops -same thing) –
the UNIONS were among the first community organizations that got top heavy…
I had heard that union members start fires-even forest fires – to get the CHECK $$$$ –
Wonder if the NY plows were run into the citizens’ vehicles on purpose–
Law suit time -against the $$$$$ filled unions….
C-CS
Charge the union bosses with the deaths of all the folks who died as a result of rescuers not being able to get to the victims. The effort to stick it to Bloomie caused tragedies for the taxpayers.
When I was weaned off breastmilk, my dad would give me soda because that’s what he drank. I ended up with my first cavity at the age of 3. My parents learned their lesson – or at least Mom did – with little sister who came along around the time I was getting holes drilled in my teeth for fillings. Dad was no longer allowed to provide soda to the baby. Being the oldest, I was the guinea pig for a lot of lessons that Mom and Dad learned the hard way. My barely-out-of-their-teens parents and I managed to survive just fine without the government intervention, thank you very much. Of course, considering the fact that both are US Army vets, self-sufficiency was a given. Mom was not only an Army vet, but an Army wife – I challenge you to show me someone as self-sufficient as a military spouse. We didn’t need to be babysat by some goverment weenie.
I didn’t get my first cavity until I was 11. My Mom’s a Saint!
You mean Napolitano did not even get an honorable mention. Why, hey, Big Sis is now in Afganastian with the troops and is going to show th Afganies how to control their border.
Those nannyism examples seem more like Nurse Ratchet than Mary Poppins.