Silver Lining to Obama's Suffocating Nanny State: No More Loud Commericals!

Because nobody should ever have to fumble around for the remote after being rudely awoken by a blaring infomercial.

That's in the Constitution somewhere, I think.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama has signed legislation to prevent advertisers from abruptly raising the volume of TV commercials louder than regular programming.

The law signed by Obama on Wednesday requires the Federal Communications Commission to adopt industry standards coordinating ad decibel levels to those of the regular program within one year.

The new regulations go into effect a year after that. They apply to all broadcast providers, including cable and satellite.

Lawmakers who sponsored the bill said they were reacting to their constituents’ complaints about abrasively loud television commercials — and their own experiences.

The FCC has been receiving complaints since the 1960s about jarring sound bursts when commercials come on, but had not regulated program or commercial volume.

Hmmm. Any chance the FCC might crack down on the jarring sound bursts MSNBC bombards unsuspecting channel-surfers with night after night?

Just askin'.

Cross-posted.

Nanny-Stater Bloomberg Finally Tackling Important Issues

Now that tiny tyrant Michael Bloomberg has been sworn in for his third term he's decided it's time to clamp down on one of the great plagues affecting New York City.

Too much salt in people's diets.

Fun City, my ass.

Mayor Bloomberg, the mayor who declared war on tobacco, sugary drinks and trans fats, has identified a new public enemy -- now he wants to protect New Yorkers from salt.

Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley launches a campaign today to cut New Yorkers' sodium intake by one-fifth over five years.

"If we achieve our goal, we would talk about saving tens of thousands of lives," Farley said, predicting that deaths from strokes and heart attacks will dramatically fall.

The City Health Department is spearheading the National Salt Reduction Initiative, which will cajole food manufacturers to voluntarily cut sodium content 20 to 25 percent by 2014.

Some 26 other cities, states and organizations, including the American Medical Association, back the campaign.

The initiative is modeled on a program enacted in the United Kingdom to lower sodium in 85 food categories. It resulted in a 9 percent drop in sodium consumption over nine years.

Table salt, which accounts for a minuscule amount of a person's salt intake, is not targeted.

After more than a year of meetings with major food producers, the US food industry is offering cautious support.

"We very much believe we share a common goal with New York City," said Juli Mandel Sloves, a spokeswoman for Campbell Soup Co.

She added, however, "The recommendations proposed are laudable but very aggressive."

I'm all for people eating right and watching their salt intake but let's get real. We've got more than enough government in our lives. Politicians dictating to food companies how to produce their food products is absurd. If Bloomberg is so interested in low-salt products, let him start up a company and sell them himself. Until then, could you please stop with the nanny state nonsense?

Hot Air links. Thanks!

Day Care for Google Employees

First off I am sure a lot of people think that Google employees need full time adult supervision, but in this case it is the company provided day care for the children of Google employees. However in reading the article I was left to ask, just how damn much money does Google pay it's employees?

Under price changes to be phased in over the next five quarters, parents of a preschooler can expect to pay $1,116 a month by October of this year and $1,710 by October 2009. Furman said the prices, while eye-popping in many regions, are competitive with top-notch day care pricing in San Francisco.

You have got to love liberals with all of their high priced touchy feely stuff. How many other people find this statement disturbing?

He denied reports the company is seeking to adhere to a specific philosophy of child-raising and said multiple approaches would be offered.

Silly old me. I always thought it was the parents responsibility to raise their kids, not the company they worked for. Doesn't it make you feel all warm and fuzzy they they say multiple approaches will be offered. I would really love to see the menu of kid rearing entrees. Can you mix and match your child rearing options?
I wonder what these people are going to do when Google loses market share and people finally wake up and burst Google's bubble. I wonder if the employees in their Chinese office has the same options, or in keeping with the spirit of Google's contract with the communist regime, is that information also not returned on search of the web?
The New York Times, never known for citing their sources, and therefore leaves us to believe that they make this stuff up, just like they do with their stories involving top secret information that they just have to spill there guts about, has this quote in a story about this.

At a T.G.I.F. in June, the Google co-founder Sergey Brin said he had no sympathy for the parents, and that he was tired of “Googlers” who felt entitled to perks like “bottled water and M&Ms,” according to several people in the meeting. (A Google spokesman denies that Mr. Brin made that comment.) On Monday, Google began the first phase of its new day care plan, letting go of the outside day care firm it had been using.

As California Goes; So Goes The Nation

Take a state legislature that's dominated by neocoMs, add a healthy measure of moonbats, then swirl with a RINO governor and you can reasonably conclude how this will turn out.

State to Look Closer at Caffeine as Health Hazard
A state environmental health committee Monday voted to further study the stimulant caffeine for possible inclusion on California's list of substances known to cause cancer or reproductive harm.

By law, the governor must publish an updated Proposition 65 list of harmful chemicals each year. Inclusion on the list also requires that the chemicals be publicly posted and also appear on product labels.

The earliest the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment's Developmental and Reproductive Toxicant Identification panel make a decision on adding caffeine to the list would be next year. The Proposition 65 designation would only apply to products with caffeine added artificially, not naturally-occurring caffeine products like coffee and tea. Five of seven committee members would have to approve the listing.

The committee has already looked at caffeine research for the last 10 years and found studies associated the chemical to reproductive problems.

The American Beverage Association defends caffeine consumption, citing the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the March of Dimes as saying up to two cups of coffee daily -- including for pregnant women -- is a safe amount.

Ahnold's uncle-in-law, the Fat Drunk from Taxachusetts, was unavailable for comment.

Via News10/Sacramento

In honor of the California Legislature & bureaucrats


Damnable fools.

'Global Warming' Panic Strikes Again

The foolishness continues.

It could become illegal and an anachronism to sit before a cheery fire on a chilly Southern California evening.

The far-reaching proposal includes 37 measures to cut pollution from new commercial and residential developments, require businesses to install the cleanest possible equipment and use less polluting solvents and cleaners.

"We're in a crisis," said Barry Wallerstein, executive officer of the South Coast Air Quality Management District, or AQMD, which adopted the plan.

We're in a crisis, alright. It's called the Nanny State.