Engineering

» JohnCrandall - What do you think?

Yes, the transfat thing is definitely a travesty. Is "Big Brother" flexing his totalitarian muscles? Hamburgers are not a healthy food, should we outlaw them? Pizza with a lot of meats? If the government makes even one such decision for us we become liars if we call ourselves a free society, and the precedents are set for total control of our every thought and action.

So I say, "I think hamburgers and french fries are delicious, and I want to sell this delicious food to other people who like it."

The police come and say, "You can't serve hamburgers and french fries.", and they write me a citation, or cuff me and take me to jail.

Thats not liberty, freedom, free market, democratic, or anything else our country usually claims to be. It is just like Hitler's making decisions about the value of Jews for a whole country. It is totalitarianism although maybe just in its birth stages. Today it's hamburgers, in the future it may be internet writers writing about bad laws, people with a certain heritage, or people who like lasagna with a lot of parmesain (I'm guilty of liking lasagna, cuff me, how utterly ridiculous).

The Right to Liberty surely covers hamburgers and french fries, and if legislatures or City Councils can take that precious right, then the 1st Amendment won't protect us from the CIA acting under the Patriot Act if they decide writing about seatbelts and french fries is "terrorism". That law states no habeas corpus or right to a jury, and trail by a military court with sentences including death for "terrorists" which is a word dangerously lacking a solid definition in the legislation. The Jacobins had good intentions at one point as well,but that didn't prevent the Reign of Terror as events unfolded.

I'm still considering your question about infant car seats. I'll get back to you on that. . .

-- posted by JohnCrandall