If This Happens, It’s WAR!
You know, twenty or so years ago, I believed in our government. I believed that the government listened to us and then acted in our best interest in ways dictated by the constitution.
Then I became “woke” in the sense that I realized the government really isn’t always acting in our interest – it’s like they’re treating us more like a veal, or like Bubble Boy.
In the last 50+ years, the government has started trying to protect us from ourselves. Ban trans fats. Ban sugary beverages. Put airbags in cars. No smoking. No cyclamates. No red dye #2.
Why? Control? Probably. But we’re adults and parents, let us decide for ourselves.
Frankly, I think all this has to do with the bureaucratic belief that the government knows better than us, exists to protect us from ourselves and that we are the subjects of the government. The government runs us, versus the constitutional fact that we run the government.
I feel that all this government control is misplaced and that there are unintended consequences to every government action. Have We Been Dieting Wrong? describes how the U.S. Department of Agriculture turned nutrition on its ear by creating the “Food Pyramid” that puts carbohydrates at the base. From a dietary standpoint, the pyramid appears inverted.
Maybe that’s why we’re all obese? And everything is supersized?
They even want us to eat bugs to help with global warming.
In my blog article Oat Bran Kills, I point out that there are varying degrees of the effects of alcohol on our health, from the good to the not-so-good.
But that’s not good enough for members of the kakistocracy1.
A secret government committee of unelected bureaucrats may be working on a second version of Prohibition.
The Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Prevention of Underage Drinking (I’m using ICCPUD to avoid this jumble of meaningless words) is leading this effort. According to the Milwaukee Sentinel Journal, the ICCPUD is a "secretive, six-person panel" that conducts an "opaque review process" and "operates deep within the [Department of Health and Human Services, (HHS)], receiving little scrutiny from the public."
The HHS is currently reviewing their 2025 dietary guidelines, and the guidelines, among other things, will provide recommendations for how much booze Americans should drink. According to reports, it's looking like Prohibition is about to make a silent comeback. May I ask, besides wanting to change the guidelines to manipulate the American people, what could possibly have changed from the 2024, 2023 or any other guideline? Food is food, people are people, what’s different? Ah, control.
As reason.com puts it: “In modern-day America, the fact that six obscure bureaucrats, whom no one has ever heard of, could be the deciding voice on a major public policy issue may come as little surprise to the government cynics among us. But it gets worse. The Wall Street Journal reports that half of the committee has already made up its mind that alcohol is harmful, with three of the six members having published their own studies on the alleged harms of alcohol. In addition to the anti-alcohol outcome being baked into this temperance pie, half of the committee also resides in Canada—they don't even live in the United States.”
So basically, we’re going to have a bunch of unelected, pointy-headed bureaucrats telling a vast number of Americans they can’t participate in one of our country’s most beloved pastimes: enjoying a cold beer, an orange crush (BTW, try a grapefruit crush, they’re deeeeeelish!), a nice cabernet or even a glass of bubbly champagne.
I think we Americans are a resilient bunch and that we will suffer many unpopular government actions without too much outcry. But I also believe that if Uncle Sam takes away our booze or makes drinkers pariahs like smokers, there will be a civil war.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R–Texas), channeling the spirited defiance of our anti-prohibition forefathers, declared his commitment to continue imbibing unabated: "If they want us to drink two beers a week, frankly they can kiss my ass."
Don’t test us! With the current state of the world and our teetering economy, this could push Americans over the edge.
kakistocracy /kakɪˈstɒkrəsi /
▸ noun (plural kakistocracies)
[mass noun] government by the least suitable or competent citizens of a state: the danger is that this will reduce us to kakistocracy.
▸ [count noun] a state or society governed by its least suitable or competent citizens: the modern regime is at once a plutocracy and a kakistocracy the man in the street must share part of the blame for allowing such a kakistocracy to entrench itself.
– ORIGIN early 19th century: from Greek kakistos ‘worst’ + -cracy.