So. Conservatives said when they went after the tobacco companies that it was a bunch of busybodies who were (a) elitists who wanted to control how people live their lives, (b) business-bashers who want the state to control the free market as much as possible, and (c) an effort by trial lawyers to make themselves rich. No one listened.
Then they went after the gun manufacturers. The elitists who don't trust the people and want the nanny state to protect us from ourselves had continually failed at the polls to ban guns, so they tried (as so many people on the Left do) to have the courts do their bidding instead. Success there was mixed, but only because quick-thinking activists used the democratic process to defeat them--perhaps a first. But conservatives warned that this was a continuing trend. No one listened.
So now where do the nanny-state elitists, money-grubbers and moralizing control freaks turn their attention? Conservatives and libertarians warned that fast food was next. It Has Begun.
Alcohol is next on the hit list. Just you wait. If the Center for Science in the Public Interest doesn't think it's good for us, lawyers will find a way to line their pockets while "protecting" us from the evils of freedom of choice. God, it's just the simple truth: if it does not involve the pelvis, there is nothing the Left hates more than FREEDOM OF CHOICE.
Why do we consider these preachy, moralizing, "people aren't responsible for their own behavior/Big Business Is Evil" assholes to be "liberals?" It's the exact opposite of what they are. When will the real liberals wake up and realize that these people have shanghaid them? Or is it, as I've said, that the real liberals are the people we call "conservatives" and "libertarians" today?
(Thanks to alert freedom-lover Clay Waters for the news flash.)
Conservatives and libertarians believe in the power of old ideas, tried and true ideas like freedom and capitalism. Liberals, true or not, always seek out new ideas, "progressive" answers to the problems of being human on planet Earth.
Alcohol isn't next. Beef is next.
I think it was Ralph Nader that said that a double cheeseburger was a weapon of mass destruction.
If that is true (which it is) then why are you getting hot under the collar, railing against the nanny-state?
Hate to break it to ya, but the party's almost over!
They're going to be the only ones left standing after all you guys drop dead of arteriosclerosis, lung cancer and cirrhosis of the liver.
Bwa-hahahaha!
god, I'm evil, aren't I?
Is it just me, or are those goobers from "Demolition Man" starting to take shape in reality?
You remember: "Anything not good for you, is bad for you, and hence illegal."
One other Safety-Nazi fetish you missed was the offensive against any & all overweight individuals. Jacob Sollum of Reason Magazine made a tounge in cheek suggestion during a radio interview that chubbers should suffer a tax penalty for every pound over the line, and so on. What was truly frightening was that the show host and many of the callers took the idea seriously. Sheesh...
Tried to amend my carnivorous habits
Made it nearly seventy days
Losin' weight without speed, eatin' sunflower seeds
Drinkin' lots of carrot juice and soakin' up rays
But at night I'd had these wonderful dreams
Some kind of sensuous treat
Not zuchinni, fettucini or bulghar wheat
But a big warm bun and a huge hunk of meat
Chorus:
Cheeseburger in paradise (paradise)
Heaven on earth with an onion slice (paradise)
Not too particular not too precise (paradise)
I'm just a cheeseburger in paradise
Heard about the old time sailor men
They eat the same thing again and again
Warm beer and bread they said could raise the dead
Well it reminds me of the menu at a Holiday Inn
Times have changed for sailors these days
When I'm in port I get what I need
Not just Havanas or bananas or daiquiris
But that American creation on which I feed
Chorus:
Cheeseburger in paradise (paradise)
Medium rare with mustard 'be nice (paradise)
Heaven on earth with an onion slice (paradise)
I'm just a cheeseburger in paradise
I like mine with lettuce and tomato
Heinz 57 and french fried potatoes
Big kosher pickle and a cold draft beer
Well good God Almighty which way do I steer for my...
Chorus:
Cheeseburger in paradise (paradise)
Makin' the best of every virtue and vice (paradise)
Worth every damn bit of sacrifice (paradise)
To get a cheeseburger in paradise
To be a cheeseburger in paradise
I'm just a cheeseburger in paradise!
I must respectfully disagree, wholeheartedly.
Not with the premise that the biz-bashers (the left) will go after what they don't like, but the notion that alcohol is next.
You forget, young Skywalkers, that their number one affection is POWER and they get it via tax money. Alcohol is taxed at around 60% (depending upon the drink) and simply provides too much revenue that they use for social programs, to try to do away with it. Besides, the Kennedy's would all go into detox.
My prediction: A tax via cafe standards on the eeeeevil SUVs or even higher gasoline taxes (private transportation, bad - sitting on a train, good). The btu tax trial-balloon was shot down, but a 'gas crisis' could provide good fodder for higher taxes (but not domestic drilling).
Actually, I agree they'll never go after alcohol. That would be too much like the Prohibition folks, most of whom I believe were inspired by religion. Today's leftists aren't having any of that.
They'll just go after really good alcohol. After all, single-malt scotch, fine brandy, rare wines, and the like are all elitist drinks. All we'll have left to drink is something like that awful gin that Orwell had his protagonist getting drunk on at the end of 1984.
I think it may be true that Beef is next, but don't count out alcohol, guys. Cigarettes were already heavily taxed and regulated before the spate of lawsuits by the states hit them even harder.
I wouldn't expect alcohol to be outlawed. Just taxed harder. I would also expect them to be sued, hard, first by class-action sharks, then by the states attorney generals, who will seek compensation for all the state's expenditures "due" to alcohol.
Wherever there is a deep pocket, there is a class-action law shark and hungry political piranas looking for money. They won't go after the small-time people, the bar owners and whatnot--they've already done a little of that, but mostly bar owners aren't rich enough to bother. But the beer and wine and liquor manufacturers, the really big boys, they've got plenty of money.
Lawyers working class action lawsuits on contingency fees make far, far more money than their clients ever do. The sharks will follow the money, and the trial lawyers will give even more to the (mostly Democratic) politicians. The states won't be far behind.
The demogogues who attack tort reform have not yet begun to see the end of the damage they've allowed.
Dean,
You said:
I think it is not realistic to simply describe this as a political football; you can't just pin this on one political party or the other...
Mark Twain recogized how the game was played when he said:
Yes I can. It is one of about a half-dozen reasons why I finally quit the Democratic party in disgust.
It's mostly Democrats demogoguing against tort reform. The Trial Laywers give tens of millions of dollars in campaign contributions to the Democrats every year. Almost none to Republicans. That won't be changing at all after the new campaign finance "reforms" come into effect, either.
It has mostly been conservative Republicans (with a few maverick Democrats) who have railed against the excesses and abuses of tort law. And, as usual, the class warriors rail against them for doing it--even though in reality it's mostly the poor and the middle class who bear the brunt of these excesses.
Look at who's been talking up tort reform. Look who's demogogued against it. And who's demogoguing against it still.
Truely tremendous blog!