The Bacteria Grows

A former boss used to tell me whenever I was being too nice, "Give a pig a chair and he'll want to get on the table." I get this feeling sometimes when it comes to governments who want to run the lives of its citizens. Slowly but surely, if left to their own devices, the monsters of the nanny state will rid us of our freedom to choose. Rob us of our soul. Surely we do not have to give into every single damn "health" or environmental hazard that comes our way, right? At some point we just have to let it, well, be. People are free to make their decisions - smart or otherwise. We tolerate gambling and alcoholism but not smoking? It makes little sense. Do we grade human vices now? How far is too far?

It's getting to the point where we want to legislate how we eat, how we talk and soon enough how we think. Whenever my fridge is running low on food, I sometimes joke that we need to run to the store before some social worker comes in a examines our eating habits. "These people are unfit t be parents blah, blah, blah." For the record, my house is filled with fresh fruits and vegetables - usually from the farm or my grand father's garden. Of course, an organic freak may think this to be just as bad as buying from conventional store shelves. Organic foods: are the premiums justified? I digress.

I remember watching the news a few years back about a McDonald's that was opening up down town. A bunch of students protested and began to harass people who were going in to eat a Big Mac - I have never eaten a Big Mac in my life - I'm more of a McChicken guy even though I have not been to McDonald's in years. I tend to go to Wendy's once in a blue moon. Maybe three times a year. I digress again.

One of the students actually told a mother "how can you feed your child that stuff?" as she chomped on a carrot. It was a shocking and arrogant display of over stepping over ones boundaries. The mother responded hard and told her to mind her own business and to get a job. She could not tell her to get a hair cut since the protester has short hair.

Which brings me to the point of this post. Germany's Commissioner for Substance Abuse Sabine Baetzing is one who believes and professes to know what is good for Germans. In considering to ban smoking in cars, Baetzing contends that "a ban is urgently needed even if it would represent an invasion of privacy."

How long before the NDP jumps on this idea? "Canada is a world leader in invading privacy!" would be their cry.

In any event, think about Beatzing's statement carefully.

Scary. Jack Nicholson in The Shining scary.

O'Neil is around. I know it. I can just feel him. Redrum, redrum....