Welcome to the Nanny State

**Chris** · January-9th-2012, 10:43 PM

Welcome to the Nanny State

Welcome to the Nanny State
By Todd Strandberg

The arrival of the new year brought with it a host of new laws that regulate every detail of our daily lives. I read one report that said over 40,000 new state laws took effect at the start of this month. The amount of regulation is reaching insane levels.

In Illinois, you now need to provide photo identification and sign a log just to buy drain cleaners and other caustic substances. State Rep. Jack Franks obtained passage of the new law following attacks in which drain cleaner was poured on two Chicago women, badly scarring them. Noncompliance results in fines: $150 for the first offense, $500 for the second, and up to $1,500 for the third and subsequent violations.

It is now illegal to produce 100W and 75W incandescent light bulbs in the U.S. Anyone who doesn't like the light produced by Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs will need to stock up before they run out. In a few years, they will probably be made illegal all together, and we'll hear stories of them being smuggled into the country.

I'm dead-set against all these laws that trample on our rights while going after criminals. I understand that Sudafed is used to produce methamphetamines, but it shouldn't be a controlled substance for someone who uses it for a cold remedy. Arrest the guy with a drug lab in his garage, and leave the rest of us alone.

The regulation of products used to make drugs doesn't work anyway. It just makes addicts more resourceful. In response to the clamp-own on cold remedies, someone came up with a one-pot or shake-and-bake method of producing meth. Instead of a lab with beakers and hoses taking up a lot of space, all drug producers need now is a two-liter drink bottle. A couple of weeks ago, a woman was arrested while making meth in the bathroom at a Wal-Mart. I guess we now need a ban on plastic soda bottles.

Last week, President Obama named Richard Cordray director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CPFB). The appointment was in the news because Obama used unconstitutional means to make appointment. What was lost in the headlines was the fact that here we have yet another layer of regulation gumming up our financial markets. We already had about 20 major agencies governing finance. For some brokerages, their largest division is the one where people are working to ensure compliance to government rules.

One of the most sinister examples of how we are turning into a Nanny State is the regulations that govern our banking industry. Your bank is required by law to keep an eye on your financial transactions to make sure you are not engaged in a growing list of illegal activities. Years ago, it was unheard of to have your bank nosing around in your account. Last year, I saw a photo of a $2 million check written in 1979 by author Hunter S. Thompson. It had “Cocaine” written in the memo field. If Hunter had written the same check today, there would probably be a call to the Drug Enforcement Agency or the FBI.

Turning America into a police state is not going to solve our problems. The need for laws is a sign of the lack of morality in a society. There was once a time when anyone could walk into a drugstore and buy a bottle of opium or heroin. We didn't have drug crimes because people knew the abuse of these drugs was contrary to biblical values.

It absolutely astounds me how tolerant people are about the government incursion into their daily lives. I still can't believe people are now willing to allow strangers to feel them up at the airport. Obama signing the law on New Year's Eve that allows him to arrest anyone for any reason was just plain scary. I just wonder what would cause the public to say to the government, "Now, you've gone too far.”

When I was a youngster, I wondered how the Antichrist would be able to get everyone to line up and receive the mark of the Beast. Back then, there were all types of civil rights watch groups, and anything that hinted of a "big brother" move by the government was automatically shot down. Today, the watchdogs are all gone and any move seems very possible. All the Beast would need to do is say the 666 mark is to fight terrorism, and people will be bustling to be the first in line.

"He required everyone--great and small, rich and poor, slave and free--to be given a mark on the right hand or on the forehead. And no one could buy or sell anything without that mark, which was either the name of the beast or the number representing his name" (Revelation 13:16-17, NLT).

-- Todd

**mattfivefour** · January-10th-2012, 12:02 AM

From the website of Jack Chambless, Professor of Economics, at Valencia College in Orlando:

On the first day of class this semester, I asked my students to spend 10 minutes writing a brief essay explaining their definition of the American Dream and what they expected the federal government to do to help them achieve their version of this dream.

When contemplating the role of Washington, D.C., in helping them achieve their goals in life, my students — most of whom were educated in America's public schools — wrote that they wanted government to "pay for my tuition," "provide me with a job," "give me money for a house," "make sure I get free health care," "pay for my retirement," "raise taxes on rich people so that I can have more money" and so forth. One student who thought her American Dream could be best achieved with more government regulations went so far as to say, "We all know that there are many bad side effects when regulations take place, but as human beings, we are not really responsible for our own acts, and so we need government to control those who don't care about others."

In other words, the student believes—per her last statement—that the government should force the rich to give to those who don't want to work hard for what they want. And these are young adults, not kids ... adults studying economics and about to move out into society.

Further in the same article, Dr. Chambless gives the following statistics:

Recently, The Wall Street Journal reported that for the first time in our nation's history, 51 percent of Americans will not pay income taxes this year. It should also be noted that in 1983, just over 29 percent of Americans received some form of government assistance. Today the figure is 44.4 percent.

No wonder his students have the attitudes they do. It is the attitude fostered by the over-privileged bums who as young men and women wanted to turn on and drop out, and then became mainstream society with the attitude that "if it feels good do it." The work ethic of our parents and grandparents who had made it through the Great Depression was gone; the thirst for life and the knowledge that a person got what he or she earned, that gave the men and women who returned from World War Two their drive, was rejected by their kids because they grew up expecting everything to be handed to them. This was likely a natural consequence of those who had survived the war years wanting to ensure their children did not do without and were free from the deprivations they experienced. Unfortunately these kids thought that was life. And then they raised the next generation with that belief, and they in turn raised the next and now we have what we see in the shocking attitudes in the essays above. We as a society are reaping what we sowed.

(The article from which the quotes were taken may be found at Welcome To JackChambless.com along with a link to an interview on the topic on Fox News.)

**GlennO** · January-10th-2012, 02:08 AM

A good commentary regarding the condition of our Republic!

Sad...so sad.

How far we have fallen

.

I'm of the opinion this slide began when the Baby-Boomer generation(mine) hit high school. But the slide could have occurred without a fresh crop of progressive teachers entered the workplace the with meaningless degrees but, with a sense of misguided higher purpose.

What might of been: First Amendment Schools: The Five Freedoms - Religious Liberty FAQs

**KissimmeeBeliever** · January-10th-2012, 02:29 AM

Working with high schoolers I've learned A LOT of the same things. Someone really missed the ball on teaching most of these children that they are responsible for their actions. Many are growing up where it is cool to look like you are in a gang, look up to the prisoner population for their styles and fads, compare and contrast who's been to jail the most, an awful treatment of females, and most of all deny, deny, deny! We've busted kids smoking all kinds of things and you could look at them with it in their mouth and they would drop it and say, "No I wasn't!" I just saw you, "No you didn't!" Call the parents, "My child doesn't do that kind of thing so no he didn't!" It is just plain awful!

**Carl** · January-10th-2012, 10:05 AM

Seems that the citizens of this God Breathed nation are going the way of the Pharisees of Jesus time. Get away from Abosolute Truth and you get absolutely no truth whatsoever.