Sriracha Maker Compares US To Communist Vietnam

Although he's decided to keep his factory in California (for now; the requirement that chili peppers be grown in the immediate vicinity played a big part in this decision), Huy Fong CEO David Tran is covering his bet by making plans to add a second factory - - outside California.

Michael Bloomberg Brags Of Earning His Place In Heaven

" “I am telling you if there is a God, when I get to heaven I’m not stopping to be interviewed. I am heading straight in. I have earned my place in heaven. It’s not even close.”

I'm sensing something here...a word...hmm...starts with an "H." Hamfisted? Hack? No, that's not it...Horrible? No, that's not it either...Humble? Good Lord, no. Hubris! That's it! Hubris!

Meanwhile, In New York City...

...a pizzeria owner does to Mayor Michael Bloomberg what Bloomberg wants done to the rest of NYC's citizenry:

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg was denied a second slice of pizza today at an Italian eatery in Brooklyn.

The owners of Collegno's Pizzeria say they refused to serve him more than one piece to protest Bloomberg's proposed soda ban,which would limit the portions of soda sold in the city.

Click the link to read the whole glorious thing. The downside is that the pizzeria owner is likely to be retaliated against with bogus "food inspections" and regulations intended to send a message about picking a fight with City Hall.

Update: I'm informed that the story is probably a satire. Darn it.

All Your Baby Are Belong To Us

Remember Hillary Clinton and "It Takes a Village?" Now it's Your baby belongs to the whole village.



Shades of "You didn't build that!"

Nice House You Have There. Now Pull It Down.

UK nanny-statism.

Shame, too, it was a beautiful little house:

Regulation Nation

With SWAT teams to enforce those rules.

Meet Eustace Conway, 51, the owner of Turtle Camp near Boone, North Carolina. He's a back-to-the-land guy who bathes in a creek, grows his own food, and welcomes others to learn some survival skills at his place (which he runs as an educational nonprofit) for a small fee.

He's been doing this for 30 years, but he was recently featured on a reality TV show. That bought local planning officials sniffing around his campfire.

Want to guess what happened next?

A team of health, construction and fire officials showed up for an unannounced inspection of the preserve, acting on an anonymous tip. Escorted by two sheriffs' deputies, they executed what Mr. Conway describes as a "SWAT-team raid"—peering into outhouses, stomping around log cabins, and climbing hand-hewn ladders.

Their findings are compiled in a 78-page report with a bullet-point list of violations. Mr. Conway's sawdust urinal and outhouses? Unpermitted, according to the officials. The wood he used to erect two dozen buildings? Built with lumber that isn't "grade-marked," meaning it doesn't specify the mill where it was produced.

The open-air kitchen, with its crates of potatoes and stacks of pots? "Not protected from insects and animals," according to the report. "It is, in fact, outdoors."

The county says Mr. Conway must rebuild or tear down his cabins, barn, kitchen, blacksmith shop and sawmill, and create a septic system before hosting any more classes and camps.

"These buildings aren't fit for public use," says Joseph A. Furman, county planning director.

The Problem With Paying the Fat-Tax...

...is getting the Dane to pay it.*

COPENHAGEN — Denmark said Saturday it would scrap a fat tax it introduced a little over a year ago in a world first, saying the measure was costly and failed to change Danes’ eating habits.

“The fat tax and the extension of the chocolate tax — the so-called sugar tax — has been criticised for increasing prices for consumers, increasing companies’ administrative costs and putting Danish jobs at risk,” the Danish tax ministry said in a statement.

“At the same time it is believed that the fat tax has, to a lesser extent, contributed to Danes travelling across the border to make purchases,” it added. ”Against this background, the government and the (far-left) Red Green Party have agreed to abolish the fat tax and cancel the planned sugar tax.”

Apart from the obvious failure of nanny-statism that this story acknowledges, it's remarkable also for identifying the Red Green Party as being "far left." A US newspaper probably wouldn't describe it so, more than likely would refer to it as "centrist." In fact, a US newspaper would either ignore this story entirely or relegate it to a single paragraph on page A37, under the fold, down in a corner somewhere. And US leftists like Nanny Bloomberg of NYC wouldn't acknowledge failure, they'd double down and write laws and regulations to force people to comply.

*As soon as I read this story it made me think of Rudyard Kipling's poem Dane-Geld.

"Stick Control" Laws To Be Proposed In 3...2...1...

"Long Stick Is Robbery Weapon In Bronx."

Weapon of choice. Got to use that trademarked gun control language. And don't call it a long stick, call it an assault stick. It's even more dangerous if the robber drives a couple of cop-killer nails through the end of the assault stick. And maybe we just ought to regulate those nails, too. No one other than a licensed carpenter needs to be walking around with 10-penny nails.

Of course if we're going to have stick control we're going to have to change the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), which allows anyone to carry a short stick (cane) with no questions asked. Cane owners should have to be registered with a federal agency and prove their need for carrying a stick. In the states of Massachusetts and California, special cane laws will be written so that senior citizens who need canes will only be able to buy special canes made specifically for those states, and bringing in canes from other states will be a felony. Throw those gimpy geezers in prison!

It's Your Dog, and They'll Prove It...

...with DNA testing.

They really want you to clean up after your dog, Winston Smith. Yes, they know who you are.

Feds Threaten To Arrest Musicians In Concert?

Because their guitars might be made with "illegal" wood?

Keith Richards has the proper response to that:



Seriously, folks, it's about time that Second Amendment solutions were applied to government over-reach. Amy Alkon reports on another example, arrest of people who produce and drink raw milk, here.

It'll Only Be a Matter of Time...

...before these are required by law for skiers.

Elyse Saugstad was taking a break with several fellow skiers Sunday in the Washington state backcountry when the shouting began. "Elyse! Avalanche!"

The 33-year-old turned to see tons of snow boiling toward her.

"I pulled the trigger," she said, inflating two air bags attached to her backpack. The device is meant to keep skiers and adventurers from disappearing beneath waves of snow in an avalanche.

It likely saved her life, said Saugstad, who was hurled half a mile down the slope.

"(It was) like being in a washing machine," she said.

Saugstad came to a stop buried in densely packed snow. Only her face and hands were free.

Because Perky Boobs Are a National Priority

UK trying to mandate sports bras for school PE classes.

They're better from an aesthetic standpoint, of course. And from an 'elf and safety standpoint, you don't want to accidentally step on them and trip while you're walking. Can't be too careful.

'Ere's Mud In Yer Eye

A wet-sponge-throwing battle in UK has been changed to a Super-Soaker duel for health and safety reasons.

Organiser Ralph Spours said: “We decided that, in the face of health and safety, it would make better sense to use super-soakers instead.

“We did note that sometimes when the sponges were landing on the ground, they were landing in dirt and grit, being put back in the water butts and thrown again and there was a danger that people could get grit in their eye.”

OK, He's Got My Vote

Ron Paul calls for the abolition of TSA.

I predicted this months ago. I said that the GOP would be stupid not to take advantage of TSA's outrages, and minor outrages like banning incandescent light bulbs and mandating low-capacity toilet tanks. Watch this gather steam now. I'm thinking it might make its way into the GOP platform next year.

Big Brother Jails Abusive Cop

I rag on the UK a lot for its nanny-statism, its coddling of criminals and its criminalizing of self-defense and self-defense tools (guns), but I have to admit that they are far harsher on abusive and crooked cops than we are here in the US, treating them far more like common citizens than Angels In Blue, which happens all too often here.

In this case the abusive cop was only caught because of the pervasive Big Brother closed-circuit TV monitoring that goes on routinely in the UK, so I'm conflicted. The CCTV was employed in the cause of justice in this case, but all too often you hear stories of CCTV footage being used to harass citizens for minor infractions such as littering or failing to clean up their pet's waste.

UK: Health & Safety Silliness of the Day

Butchers at the Sainsbury supermarket chain aren't allowed to use knives to de-bone joints of meat because of health and safety regulations.

So the alternative is for the customer either to live with the bone in the meat, or perhaps try to de-bone it herself, which you think would be much more of a risk to "health and safety" than a professional with 30 years' experience cutting the meat...

Thus the nanny state infantalizes adults more and more each day.

In The UK, Even The Hedgehogs Are Subject To The Nanny State

Fat hedgehogs? Can't have it, m'lads! Orf to fat camp with you!

Lardass Hedgehogs

Feeling Over-Nannied, Maybe?

In Peterborough, Cambridgeshire (UK), retirees who had met in a public library for four years without incident were banned from the library because of the chance of their spilling coffee on children attending a reading hour.

It's for the children. If only one child is saved by having the coffee-guzzling geezers banned from the library, isn't it worth it?

No, I didn't think you'd think so, either.