Government Overreach

Sometimes I think government just makes rules to make rules.  I would think that a birthday party at a farm would be OK!  My LW grew up on a farm, I hope they don't come after her for enjoying parties!

Article Mishmash

(NaturalNews) In a bombshell revelation of the depth of the food police state that now exists in LA County, California, NaturalNews has learned that the LA County health department has unleashed door-to-door raw milk confiscation teams to threaten and intimidate raw dairy customers into surrendering raw milk products they legally purchased and own.
According to Mark McAfee (see quotes below), both LA County and San Diego county have attempted to acquire customer names and addresses from Organic Pastures (www.OrganicPastures.com) for the sole purpose of sending "food confiscation teams" to customers' homes to remove the raw milk from customers' refrigerators. Using both phone calls and home visits, these teams intimidate customers and try to force them to give up their milk.  ...

"I received a phone call yesterday morning from a wonderful young gal, a 36-year-old mom out of LA County. She's one of our UPS customers that we deliver overnight raw milk to her house. When the CDFA was in here the other day on our recall, they demanded to have all our delivery addresses for overnight UPS delivery. We screwed up and [inadvertently] gave it to them, they got it from one of our secretaries here. The LA County health department started calling her, six or seven times, demanding that she give up her raw milk from her own home to the health department.
She refused, then they showed up at her house and demanded that she give her raw milk to them. She was getting ready to call 911 for the Sheriff's department and have them removed from her front doorstep, and she was threatening to use her camera to take a picture of them and post it on Facebook for harassing her over her raw milk... The investigators left after she told them she was not going to give them the raw milk and to get the Hell off her property.(http://www.naturalnews.com/035895_food_police_raw_milk_confiscation.html)


I don't drink raw milk, but I don't like the idea of people who chose to use it being harassed by the government.  Sometimes people need to live their own lives without the GOV!


The violence in northern Nigeria is mistakenly viewed as a religious conflict rather than simply a tribal dispute over land, according to the Obama administration.
Despite the ongoing Muslim destruction of churches and the slaughter of Christians – including many murdered during worship services – the U.S. Agency for International Development claims that the misunderstandings make it difficult to administer aid programs. ...
The unveiling of PEACE comes as the slaughter of Nigerian Christians is on the rise.

As WND reported earlier this month, an international Christian ministry says Muslims recently killed hundreds of Christians gathering for worship.
Patrick Sookhdeo, international director for Barnabas Fund, said at the time: “The simple act of going to church on a Sunday has become a perilous one for Christians in many parts of Nigeria.”
Indeed, Nigerian media have reported that the Muslim jihadist group Boko Haram has pledged to “eradicate Christianity.” (PEACE is Programming Effectively Against Conflict and Extremism from PO that will cost $600 million). (http://www.wnd.com/2012/05/obama-slaughter-of-christians-a-misunderstanding/)


Sometimes violence against Christians is just violence against Christians.  PO seems to believe that "radical" Muslims don't really dislike Christians they are only rebelling against poverty!


Davis High School has been fined $15,000 after they were caught selling soda pop during lunch hour, which is a violation of federal law.
The federally mandated law prohibits the sale of carbonated beverages after lunch is served. The program is an effort to help fight childhood obesity and to have young students make better food choices.  
The mandate allows for carbonated beverages to be sold before lunch, but restricts students from buying lunch, then purchasing carbonated drinks afterward. 
“Before lunch you can come and buy a carbonated beverage. You can take it into the cafeteria and eat your lunch, but you can’t first go buy school lunch then come out in the hallway and buy a drink,” said Davis High Principal Dee Burton.
Principal Burton said he does not understand the law with rules that seem to be contradictory.
“We can sell a Snickers bar, but can’t sell licorice. We can’t sell Swedish Fish, we can’t sell Starburst, we can’t sell Skittles, but we can sell ice cream, we can sell the Snickers bar, Milky Ways, all that stuff,” said Burton.
The school is bound to obey the law, however, if they want the $15,000 the federal government gives to subsidize their school lunch program. (http://fox13now.com/2012/05/14/davis-high-fined-for-having-unhealthy-vending-food-choices/)


Why can't the federal government just let parents control thier children, why must they make stupid and conflicting laws?  Well, when you except anything from the Federal Gov, their is a cost!

Can't Help Ourselves

The above ad was on the web page (http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/nutrition/225985-iom-feds-should-prepare-to-intervene-on-childhood-nutrition-standards) which said:


Federal agencies should step in if industries that promote high-calorie foods to children do not implement common nutrition standards within two years, the influential Institute of Medicine (IOM) said Tuesday. 
The recommendation came as part of a 478-page IOM report on the U.S. obesity epidemic that outlined broad policy changes the panel says are necessary to stave off a healthcare crisis.
The changes are aimed at a complete overhaul of the United States's "obesogenic" environment, the panel wrote.
"People have heard the advice to eat less and move more for years, and during that time a large number of Americans have become obese," panelist Shiriki Kumanyika of the University of Pennsylvania said.
"That advice will never be out of date. But when you see the increase in obesity you ask, what changed? And the answer is, the environment.
"The average person cannot maintain a healthy weight in this obesity-promoting environment," she said.
Strategies like a possible soda tax and new zoning laws to encourage walking and biking are designed to "reinforce one another's impact to speed our progress," said panel Chairman Dan Glickman, a former secretary of Agriculture.


(OBESOGENIC A strange-looking word, it comes from obese plus the ending -genic, something tending to generate or create. It refers to conditions that lead people to become excessively fat — a worrying trend in developed countries, especially among young people, who are eating too much of the wrong things and not taking enough exercise. The problem is variously put down to social causes (too many sedentary pursuits available; fear that the outdoors in cities is dangerous, leading to less cycling, walking and running about) or to the results of our consumer lifestyle (eating pre-prepared meals that contain excessive sugar and fats). The term seems to have appeared in the last decade (the first example I can find is from a British newspaper in 1996) and is not as yet mainstream, though it is increasingly turning up in newspapers and medical journals. Its opposite is not often called for, but if you need it, it’s leptogenic, leading to weight loss, from Greek leptos, thin, fine or delicate.)(http://www.worldwidewords.org/turnsofphrase/tp-obe1.htm)


I actually believe that people can maintain a healthy weight in this environment.  But many people believe that only government can save us from ourselves!

Taxes on pop is another "great" way to "help" us, my personal pop consumption is about 12 ozs. a week on pizza day (another no-no, oh please help us Gov!).  Though I do believe in making it safer to walk and bike.

I know that I am old-fashioned in believing that people can do what is right without the government's help.

Our Government at Work

 http://video.insider.foxnews.com/v/1452785152001/

Can you imagine being told your lunch is unsatisfactory?  When I was a kid, my lunch often contained Cream Cheese and Jelly sandwiches.  I think that the Government is going too far;  a 4 year old child being told that a Turkey & Cheese sandwich, banana, apple and potato chips does not meet the federal guidelines.  To top it off the little girl was afraid to eat her lunch and just had 3 chicken nuggets (high in fat & calories with minimal if any nutrition).

Some parents probably need some help but not this mother, she sent a good lunch that I would be proud to eat.

The Obama administration really thinks we are idiots (of course the people who elected him, enough said).   Most parents try to do a good job and love their children!

Village

A few years back, our area was incorporated into a new Village.  The reasons were to keep the adjacent towns from annexing us and to get water for parts of the area whose wells had dried up.

But whenever you have a new governmental office, it adds laws and regulations to restrict your freedom.

One of their great ideas: is to get our own zip code (now we share zipcodes with adjacent towns) < no matter the expense in having people and businesses change their mailing addresses, and there would not be a separate post office just a different number) - expensive and useless!

They pass ordinances like if you don't keep your grass cut they will come and cut it for you at $100+ a pop.  I don't want to live in a area that has a homeowner's group because I want freedom to do what I want without having to meet a group's idea of what is right.

Here is an example of how we must treat composting:


A. No landscape waste shall be stored on the property from which it is generated for more than seven (7) days unless composted as provided in this chapter.
B. All landscape waste to be composted shall be kept in a compost bin or turning bin either of commercial or home construction. Tree, bush or shrub branches in excess of one-half inch (1/2") in diameter shall not be permitted in a compost bin or turning bin.
C. Only one compost bin or turning bin shall be permitted on each property whether it consists of one or more legally described lots contiguous to each other or a parcel legally described by metes and bounds.
D. Compost bins shall not exceed five feet in width, five feet in height and five feet in length (5' x 5' x 5') and shall be constructed of permanent materials, such as wood, brick, block, plastic and wire or consist of a wooden or steel barrel or drum.
E. Turning bins shall not exceed three feet in width, three feet in height and nine feet in length (3' x 3' x 9').
F. Compost bins and turning bins shall not be located on the front yard. Compost bins and turning bins shall not be located closer than three feet (3') to either the side lot line or the rear lot line. On corner lots, compost bins and turning bins shall not be located on the side yard abutting a street.
G. Compost bins and turning bins shall not be located in a drainage easement or drainageway and no drainageway shall be blocked or impeded in any way by landscape waste or compost.
H. Compost bins and turning bins shall be maintained in good condition and not become unsightly, allowed to emit foul odors or otherwise be offensive to the neighboring property owners or the public.
I. Compost bins and turning bins shall not be located in a utility easement or other easement.
J. No food wastes, pet or animal feces, bones, fats, oils, fish or other animal products shall be permitted in compost bins or turning bins.
K. Notwithstanding anything in this chapter to the contrary, grass clippings may be left on the lawn when cut. (Ord. 1990-O-1 § 1)


Government abhors a law vacuum!