Attack on Dishwasher Detergent

As Jonathan Last explains in the Weekly Standard, the antiphosphate frenzy began in Washington State, which was attempting to comply with a Clean Air Act mandate that a certain river be swimmable and fishable. This was a problem because tests found inordinate amounts of phosphate in the river. As part of the effort to comply, the state banned phosphates from detergents. That was in 2008, but the way politics works these days, the banning spread to state after state — again with the backing of federal law.

Now, it is clear that the law’s proponents knew exactly what the results would be. It would increase dishwasher use and even end up leading people to abandon dishwashers altogether, and either solution leads to much more water and energy use. In other words, even by the goofy environmentalists’ own standards, this is no savings.

Ice Makers
the Department of Energy hates them. And so it has warned all makers of freezers that it will lower the energy-compliance rating of any freezer that keeps them.

Drain Openers
Now let’s talk drain openers. Everyone knows that the best chemical drain opener is lye, or sodium hydroxide. It is wicked stuff that cuts through grease, hair, or just about anything else. It will burn right through human flesh and leave terrible scarring. But for drains, nothing else compares.

Now that less and less water is flowing through our homes (thanks to regulatory attacks on water use), and the water we use is ever more tepid (thanks to regulatory attacks on hot-water heaters), it is no surprise that clogged drains are ever more common, thus making lye an essential household chemical.

If you can get it. The mainstream hardware stores have stopped carrying the stuff. So have the grocery stores. When I asked around, I thought I would hear stories involving liability for injuries, but no: instead, the excuse is the drug war. It turns out that this stuff is an ingredient in the making of methamphetamine, and hence it too is on the regulatory hit list.

(Read more from mises.org)

Here’s an interview with the man who said “I don’t want to abolish government, I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it to the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.”

Personally, I think he’s an inside-the-beltway pseudo libertarian. He should watch the Hoppe Video I recently posted, The Impossibility of Limited Government.

Having established fairness and equity in Libya and the Ivory Coast, the French now prepare to solve the problem of prostitution. (Read more from thedailybell.com)

Edit: I was hoping Iowa City would at least be nominated for the under 21 ordinance. Oh well. I’m sure the politicians are working hard on next year’s award.

Pretty pathetic. I think the imminent economic crash will fix any recruiting shortages.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced today a ban on cigarettes with flavors characterizing fruit, candy, or clove. The ban, authorized by the new Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, is part of a national effort by the FDA to reduce smoking in America. Smoking is the leading preventable cause of death in America. (Read more from fda.gov)

Expect more interference in our private lives as government increasingly forces us to rely on it for our health.

IRVING TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) – Each day before the school bus comes to pick up the neighborhood’s children, Lisa Snyder did a favor for three of her fellow moms, welcoming their children into her home for about an hour before they left for school.

Regulators who oversee child care, however, don’t see it as charity. Days after the start of the new school year, Snyder received a letter from the Michigan Department of Human Services warning her that if she continued, she’d be violating a law aimed at the operators of unlicensed day care centers. (Read more from myfoxdetroit.com)

“Supreme Court Rules that Government Can Fine for ‘Fleeting Expletives’

‘The commission could reasonably conclude that the pervasiveness of foul language, and the coarsening of public entertainment in other media such as cable, justify more stringent regulation of broadcast programs so as to give conscientious parents a relatively safe haven for their children,’ Scalia wrote for the five-member conservative majority.” (Read more from washingtonpost.com)

fucking bullshit!

ABCNNBBCBS/FOX: “. . . And Lo, Government Upon A White Horse Strucketh Down the Evil and Defendeth the People.”

Safety Regulations Could Kill Handmade Toy Industry

“and so it begins… the ‘obesity’ tax Sigh,
among a bunch of other budget cuts and tax hikes, Paterson is planning on implementing a 15% tax on non-diet soda– a so-called obesity tax for NY.” (Read more from effect modification)