The Nanny State

I've noted that this year the government knows best crowd seems to be going full tilt.

Read this.....
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/
la-me-nannybills8mar08,0,5897241.
story?page=3&coll=la-home-headlines

SACRAMENTO — Sacramento — Enjoy fast food? Like to light up while you watch the waves? Forget to sock away money for your kids' education?

Some California lawmakers want to change your ways. They've planted a crop of proposals this year — "nanny" bills, as they're called — that would:

• Restrict the use of artery-clogging trans fat, common in fried and baked foods and linked to heart disease, in restaurants and school cafeterias.

• Bar smoking at state parks and beaches, and in cars carrying children.

• Open a savings account, seeded with $500, for every newborn Californian to use at 18 for college, a first home purchase or an investment for retirement.

• Fine dog and cat owners who don't spay or neuter their pets by 4 months of age.

• Require chain restaurants to list calorie, saturated fat and sodium content on menus.

• Phase out the sale of incandescent light bulbs, which are less energy-efficient than compact fluorescent bulbs.

The debate has commenced in the Capitol: How far should government go?

The proposals are the brainchildren of Democratic legislators. Republicans, who say the sponsors are trying to parent the whole state, are having none of it.

"Could you imagine the founding fathers dealing with — I don't know — wearing a helmet when you're in the buggy?" said the Assembly's Republican leader, Mike Villines of Clovis.

"We all know you can't mandate behavior; it just does not work," he said. "It creates criminals of people for things that are not criminal behavior…. You can't legislate for stupidity."

No more trans-fat for you, stupid subject citizen.