Always for the children

Regulating tobacco. And by restrictions on commercial speech.

If by "children" they mean "citizens who are treated like children."

Tax on wine and liquor unchanged for years

And David Leonhardt has a problem with that.

But taxes serve a purpose beyond merely raising general government revenue. Taxes on a given activity are also supposed to pay the costs that activity imposes on society. And for all that is wonderful about wine, beer and liquor, they clearly bring some heavy costs.

Because what is government for, if not to force us to behave in the way people like David Leonhardt want us to behave?

The non-smoking lobby

Has grown so powerful that it can now force you to stop smoking
in your own house or garden.

Via David Harsanyi.

Fat? It's not your fault

Someone should have warned you.

So now I know. It’s taken me until this weekend to discover the real reason that I’m two stones heavier than I should be. There I was, thinking it was because for most of my adult life I ate too much and took no exercise.

What a relief to discover — from the Public Health Minister, no less — that it’s not my responsibility. When I stuffed that extra piece of rye bread in my mouth this morning, I wasn’t to blame. The man with whom I need to remonstrate is the chap who sold me the loaf and didn’t point out that if I eat too much of it I’ll get fat. As for the waiter who let me eat two pieces of cheesecake when I went out for my 14th birthday and never once told me to be careful; there’s a 28-year grudge I ought to bear.