Tuesday, August 01, 2006

the hidden evils of flame retardant kids' pj's?

Where do they find these people? Via Josh Marshall, we find out that the nominee to be the new OMB regulation czar positively froths at the idea of the government making sure kids' pajamas are safe:
From the moment we wake up in the morning -- flushing the toilet twice, courtesy of the Department of Energy's appliance standards -- to the time we put our children in their Consumer Product Safety Commission-approved pajamas, regulations not only increase the cost of goods and services we buy, but also the choices we can make.
And to think, the extra cost of creating nonflammable pj's comes out of our pockets! O Liberty, whither hast thou fled!

I think she's gonna fit in the oil-lobbyist-turned-EPA-head just fine.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

There is a wonderful case from Constitutional law talking about the wonderful products we got when we didn't regulate companies: US v Carolene Products. Carolene involved a law prohibiting "filled milk", milk in which cream and fats were taken out and replaced with other cheaper oils, like palm oil, in an effort to save money. Needless to say, there was not much nutritional value in these products. Carolene was one of the cases that ended the court's adherence to a misguided laissez faire doctrine. Maybe one of the judges drank the milk and saw the light. Point being: there is a reason for this shit. If people in government could read, they might recognize this.

el ranchero said...

Or if they weren't so blinded by their own ideology.

Not that I'm against ideology per se, but come on, you've gotta allow for grey areas and exceptions and whatnot (not to mention the possibility that you might just be wrong).