Again. When Will Politicians Understand Their Bounds?

By: Erick Erickson (Diary) | March 11th, 2010 at 10:00 AM |

RESIZE: AAA

The folks at My Food. My Choice bring us word tonight of another instance of politicians not knowing the limits of government.

New York Assemblyman Felix Ortiz (D-Brooklyn) wants to ban the use of salt in preparation of restaurant cooking.

You know salt right? Sodium Chloride? It’s one of the tastes our tongue can detect and it helps bring out other flavors? Yeah, that one — the one that brought us the word “salad”, which came from the Roman Empire habit of putting salt on leafy vegetables.

What an idiot.

Media Matters and the leftist crowd out there took me on last year when I asked, in relation to a report from Washington State that people were crossing state lines to buy dishwasher detergent after Washington State banned phosphates, “at what point do people revolt?”

They tried to make it out as a lunatic question to ask, but more and more people are getting really hacked off by the small burdens imposed on them by out of touch government. The accumulation of small things — the tyranny of small things — will be what decent and calm people eventually blow up over.

At what point do people go back to tarring and feathering politicians? It is stupid little things like this that will do it. Remember, the Brits thought the Stamp Act was a rather innocuous piece of legislation too.

At least this hasn’t been put into law. We can hope it stays that way.

Tags: Felix Ortiz, New York

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wales

We need salt…

If they ban salt… prepare for goiters being the new human appendage…
Locked and Loaded

it is time for active and sustained disobedience – especially corporately, as individually it is happening, but corporately, it will be noticed and felt, and it will bring about the push-comes-to-shove that will cause the masses to rally and act.
fpete13527

Check out his video encouraging illegals to fill out their census.
http://bit.ly/bZnYTw

Ortiz is a poor representative. Brooklyn has great people living there…Ortiz is not one of them.
http://www.thesubstratum.com GJ Merits

Talks about secession and nullification in a 10 mintue interview. If you are at the point where tar and feathering goes from a figurative descriptive to an actual desire (Erick is being tongue-in-cheek – well, sort of), then it is time to look for a non-violent way to take back your rights.

Erick is very correct in asking the rather uncomfortable question “At what point do people revolt”. There are to kinds of revolt – violent and non-violent. See “Precariously We Stand: On The Edge Of Revolt – A Thoughtful Appraisal Concerning The Possibility Of Violent Revolution In America.” – http://tinyurl.com/l2k3bq. I will post this here at Redstate as well.

As Obama likes to say, let me be clear, IF enough states nullify a law then by God it cannot be enforced. So the goal is to use the passion to drive local politics to nullify the entire ObamaCare law (not just the mandate, but the taxes, the bureaucracy – all of it. If your state legislature or governor is not on board – recall them. A member of Congress at the federal level is beyond your power to recall, but your state officials are not. Start taking action now.

While I think secession is a way to far for my tastes and not at all necessary to put the federal government in its rightful place, Napolitano’s statement that if enough states nullify a law then it cannot be enforeced is not. I have always been an advocate of nullification. I also like his statement that those who disagree with such a viewpoint often resort to namecalling (he uses the word wingnut as an example), but that they never have an actual argument against nullification (he also includes secession in this argument).

Again, secession is out of the question in my book. But nullification is a real constitutional option that we can use to block ObamaCare and Napolitano sites examples where it worked in the past without ANY violence.

He also lays the blame for our current situation squarely at the feet of not only Obama, but also GWB and both parties.

Over the many years since the Constitution was ratified, there has been an assault on individual liberties by all three branches of governement. The result is that today we find ourselves in a situation where no party has the will to extricate the country from the pathway of self-destruction we find ourselves on. The answer is for State’s to take back their rights – NOT through secession but through nullification. We can only restore fiscal sanity when we control the purse strings.

http://www.campaignforliberty.com/blog.php?view=33362

http://tinyurl.com/ya3dc7f

This movement is gaining steam and over 30 states have passed, or are in the process of passing, nullification laws and resolutions. We are on our way. The second link provides the necessary background. Learning why nullification is constitutional, how it works, what needs to be done, and where the good sites are are included in the second link. Educating oneself takes effort and time, but in comparison to the sacrifices made by many in this country’s history both in the past and today, it is not a whole lot to ask. And the rewards of becoming a nation more powerful and free than any time in recent memory are priceless. Your children and their children will thank you it.

We live in interesting times.
mustango

Geez, Mr. Assemblyman, if you’ve got some kind of condition that leaves you intolerant of anything not totally bland, just tell us about it rather than impose your dietary restrictions on the rest of your district just so you don’t have to worry about going out for dinner!

(Yes I’m tongue-in-cheek here but couldn’t you see that happening?)
Aaron Gardner
Richard Mullins

in the Legislature don’t have a bill like at the beginning of the 82nd Legislature in Jan 2011. I don’t want a sneak bill by either Garnet Coleman or some other Dem.That’s the real hope.
http://www.erickerickson.org Erick Erickson

n/t

But shouldn’t it be “piece”?
Bob_Frazier

but where are the libertarians on issues like this? Is it only moral issues that concern social conservatives that get their blood up? This is just another example of the loss of liberty. You can’t even use salt???

How about the land grab out west Obama is ready to do by executive order?

Where are the libertarians? Their silence is deafening.

And I still want my incandescent light bulb back.
Bob_Frazier

but where are the libertarians on issues like this? Is it only moral issues that concern social conservatives that get their blood up? This is just another example of the loss of liberty. You can’t even use salt???

How about the land grab out west Obama is ready to do by executive order?

Where are the libertarians? Their silence is deafening.

And I still want my incandescent light bulb back.
http://andrightlyso.com/ civil_truth

Only outlaws will have salt – preferably loaded into shotguns.
Richard Mullins

and hasn’t been bought up in states like here in Texas(ok, that’s because they can’t do it until Jan. 2011[start of the 82nd Legislature]). So far a bill in congress seems unlikely, so at this point it’s not goin nationwide.
Trelaina

This proposed ban is at the state level. Nullification is not an option.
Ausonius

To paraphrase a famous statement:

When they took away the salt, I did nothing, because I did not use salt.

When they took away the sugar, I did nothing, because I did not use sugar.

When they took away the trans-fat, I did nothing, because I did not use trans-fat.

There have been times when the people did not revolt, because the loss of freedom had been subtle enough, and incremental enough, that it was too late.

We can only hope that the Nanny-State Nimrods will NOT be subtle and incremental, and that they will instead catalyze a reaction against their micromanaging grabs for power over every aspect of our lives.
Ausonius

To paraphrase a famous statement:

When they took away the salt, I did nothing, because I did not use salt.

When they took away the sugar, I did nothing, because I did not use sugar.

When they took away the trans-fat, I did nothing, because I did not use trans-fat.

There have been times when the people did not revolt, because the loss of freedom had been subtle enough, and incremental enough, that it was too late.

We can only hope that the Nanny-State Nimrods will NOT be subtle and incremental, and that they will instead catalyze a reaction against their micromanaging grabs for power over every aspect of our lives.
Trelaina

how horrible food tastes without salt? And you can’t just add it later….that doesn’t fix it.

Maybe they should go a month without salt and then tell us if they support the ban.
archer52

Obama’s desire to take more land from the ranchers and farmers out west is the quickest way to get to that open revolt. Of course the elites really don’t get this. They really don’t understand how tied to the the land those people are. They consider those farmers and rancher just another group of uneducated underclass. But, they are a well armed underclass.

When do people revolt? When they are scared, hungry and can’t feed their kids. There are two waves coming ashore from opposite directions and D.C. is in the middle.

Wave one is the unsustainable debt owed generations of Americans. Welfare, SSI, Medicare etc. Sooner or later the checks will quit coming and we’ll see Greece here. That scares the dickens out of the politicians. Why? Simple. When the crowds have no money to feed their kids they’ll come looking for it, and who has the money? Rich elites.

Wave two- And not to shamelessly promote the book, but I predicted this thirteen years ago. The elitist plan to stop wave one is to steal the cash from any source of private industry and private citizens then turn around to pay the mounting debt. A “Peter to pay Paul” moment but at the end of the barrel of a gun.

However, this is America. A nation not built of indentured servitude or a peasant population, unlike Europe or China. We are also very, very well armed. Which means when the moment comes, when that last straw is thrown onto the camel’s back, citizens are going to say no. And only a violent response by the government will frighten them enough to submit. Maybe. The issue will be how scared are they because they can’t feed or care for their families verses how afraid of the violence and repercussions the government can bring (tax audits, public smears, police intervention, etc., even being jailed).

In the book “REVOLT” (www.revoltthebook.com) the plot centers around that very moment and all that happens afterward as a rogue President, supported by a frightened political class and a compliant MSM, initiates the takeover.

Sooner or later we are going to have to face the music. It is the natural order of things and the fate of all dominant nations which fell from its own internal corruption.

How we respond as a people will set our future and our children’s future for the next hundred years.
kipling

I have been boiling pitch and plucking feathers for the past week!
kipling

Somehow or another, the salt ban will only affect us.
4life

from one of the former Eastern Block countries, can’t remember which one. They were in a new restaurant that was trying the raise the culinary level in their city since under communism food was for survival only and people had just gotten used to eating bland lifeless dishes. Apparently, most people are still just eating the few recipes that they learned to cook from their parents and this restaurant was trying to raise their awareness of ‘good food’.

Also, when skiing out west another person on our long gondola ride said that he heard the gov’t might go after companies like Kraft for making snack foods tasty, since that adds to the obesity rate. He thought it was a good idea. I thought he was joking. Maybe he wasn’t!!!
USNJIMRET

Sounds like one I would like to read, but current circumstances mean that if I can’t on the computer or on my Kindle, I don’t/can’t.
I did check the box at Amazon to send you/your publisher a request to allow it on Kindle.
As for the base idea of this thread, I don’t know if enough of the “People” are seeing what they need to in order to arrive at the conclusion that Revolt, violent or not, is rapidly becoming the only answer left.
I do trust the current power Trio (Nobama, Pelosi and Reid) to continue working like the crazed ideologues that they are to provide the teachable moments. Just not sure that enough people are paying attention.
http://theundergroundconservative.wordpress.com pdigaudio

Of course nullification is an option. Individuals and businesses can simply refuse to comply, much like we can refuse to comply with the individual health mandates in ObamaCare.
raydawggie

I’m sure some of the nanny staters would love to pass it, but there’s a bigger issue at stake here.

This would absolutely cripple the dining industry in the culinary capital of the world, right in the middle of a terrible budget crisis. That’s a whole new level of crazy.
revolutionary

I am a Dietitian by trade and I would love to see people take better care of themselves, BUT (and it is a big but) regulating what we CHOOSE to eat is not going to stop anyone from unhealthy behavior. I am so sick and tired of the government trying to regulate everything we do…my God is nothing sacred anymore. I mean are they going to charge in and arrest me if I add salt to my food after it is served to me. Why can’t the Dems understand things like personal choice, responsibility, consequences for poor choices…oh wait they do understand those things but only when it applies to something THEY want!!!! My question to all of the legislators is this: When legislation is passed that prohibits chocolate from being sold in the free market, will you still think it is a good idea to regulate our food consumption and free will in choosing what we eat as your wife stabs you with a whittled carrot stick?
http://www.thesubstratum.com GJ Merits

The reason for the reference is explained in the first two paragraphs. The purpose of listing it is in response to the explicit question from Erick concerning tar and feathering and revolt. I doubt his reference is to a single issue by a local pol, but rather a string of usurpation of our rights that have been well catalogued here at Redstate, with healthcare being the number 1 topic of discussion.

So I get your point, but it not applicable to the reason I placed my reference here.

I had two purposes. One of them is outlined in a post at my site that I duplicated to a degree here: That of violent revolution in America. That post ends with my conclusion that nullification is a way to peacefully achieve our ends. I use the interview with Judge Napalitano to make my point that nullification has been used in a non-violent way in the past.

I short, my attempt is to pivot everyone to nullification and at least seriously consider it, before Erick’s post concerning revolution becomes true. I live in Austin, I have personally seen the beginning of the extremists coming out of the woodwork. I fear this will only increase over time. In this case, it was a leftists nutjob. In short, Erick’s post is not just about the salt ban from a local pol, it also references another post that really caught my eye and I have been thinking about since August of last year. When do we reach the tipping point?
http://www.thesubstratum.com GJ Merits

Post title should be “I Know That”. I type too fast.

To the point of the salt ban I can only way this. It was recently discovered that the number one reason for death in the world, after much research, money, and manpower was dedicated over many years can be attributed to one thing….birth.

So quit trying to tell me what to eat and drink and if you put a warning label on my cellphone I’m ripping it off.
indyjohn

These true believer, utopian fascists are so committed to their program of domination that nothing will stop them except a credible threat of physical harm. They do not beilieve that the American people have the guts to take that extreme step. They believe that, if they exert enough pressure, the fat, lazy majority of Americans will just shrug its shoulders and let them destroy the political system.
hickorystick

because New York won’t allow Restauranteurs to add salt to their food. I live in Washington State, in Seattle. If New York politics leads them to ban salt I couldn’t care less. It doesn’t affect my interest. Frankly, I’m glad we have the power in the states to make these choices. What works for New Yorkers doesn’t work for Washingtonians . The enviroment(s), culture, history, and make-up of the people, are entirely different. Oftentimes the State politicians march down the wrong road, or make an unpalatable choice for the People of Washington, and we have to change some personell, or get an initiative on the ballot to stop or change (theirs your nullification) a law. If your state doesn’t have a right to initiative, work to get one. It works great here in Washington.
My bigger concern is when Federal City imposes their ideas on my State. They don’t know anything about Washington State. Apples and oranges, even apples and apples. An apple doesn’t taste the same grown in New York or Michigan as it does in WA. The external markets for Apples is different. The growing method and certification process is different. Organic farming is highly profitable in Washington and Oregon, not so much elsewhere, I think; I don’t know ’cause I don’t live there.
Eastern Washington near Spokane is Semi-Arid, and waste water doesn’t dissipate or get carried off to the Ocean. If Spokane County wants to ban Phosphates, thats their problem. In Seattle, were more mountainous, and the difference in grades facilitates movement of rainwater from inland to the sea. Ponds and water tables don’t accumulate these minerals. We have modern waste treatment plants, that release into the Puget Sound, which eventually carries into the ocean.
Apparenly the progressives in Western WA can’t stand the fact progressives in Spokane have a more stringent enviromental Regulation than in Western Washington, and have done a knee-jerk law to catch up. When the dishes come out dirty, and the dishwasher stops working and the repairman has to be called out, there is going to be hell to pay politically. This will be a good internal state issue. we’ll could pick up a couple R’s in the legislature over it. But please don’t nationalize it or the Lib’s will rally with the progressives and use the gun issue to mock conservatives (previously linked article). Murray is already raising funds over a ‘hanging Patty Murray’ remark, taken out of context of course, made in Asotin County. We need to remember Swamp Yankee’s advice when dealing with metropolitan areas. Stay away from the buttons. When talking about cities and urban environments, use the word Liberty, not rights, choices, not duty, lifestyle, not tar and feathering government officials.
The mayor in Seattle got thrown out over an imposition of a twenty cent tax on plastic bags, and poor snow removal last year. The cities can be penetrated, and enough people convinced to vote for a Republican to replace Murray. Just be careful as an outsider not to seem like your pushing your national or rural values on the state. We can make our own choices, and we have our own tipping points. You may not agree with them, but we are a sovereign state.
Thanks, and you’ve been writing some fabulous stuff recently.
hickorystick

Look at Scott Browns victory. He gained tons of independants in Mass. And this is exactly my point. His election was issue specific to MA. He avoided inflamatory rhetoric. He spoke to things that were important to MA. Our party, the Republicans got started defending the Union. If we fail to win elections, it’s because either we become too corrupt for the electorate to stomach, or we fail to connect with the voters issues. As Republicans, we all of people should understand a Republic is made up of a number of different states, each one unique. If we try to nationalize issues, it’s at the danger of losing connection with the individual States. The candidates last election didn’t even bother coming to Washington. When they do come to states, they don’t know squat about them. If we are upset now, we only have our ourselves to blame, because we didn’t hold our own leaders accountable when we had power. They failed to speak out about anything else, except the Iraq War and Terrorism. People got tired of it, so tired they elected a governance neophyte. We as a party need to develop a wide range of issues and interests, and stop trying to take the easy way out by nationalizing issues. Nationalizing and bringing under the power of the Fed is a Democrat strategy, we should reject it and start acting like republicans. Then, people will have a party they can trust again. Before a revolution or after a revolution, a trustworthy party will have to be built. I’d rather do it without revolution.
http://theundergroundconservative.wordpress.com pdigaudio

Should be opposing this, but many of the people I know who call themselves libertarians really are statists except for single issue things such as legalizing drugs, pushing the radical homosexual agenda, protecting jihadist “civil liberties” and pushing aggressive, in-your-face atheism.

I know one libertarian who is true to his beliefs and no doubt is outraged, but at least he is consistent. Most of your faux libertarians don’t care if we are enslaved by the Nanny State, as long as they get the right to toke up or bend over and grab their ankles and be anti-Christian bigots in the process.
Doc Holliday
Doc Holliday

I have been saying all along that those who are libertarian conservatives oppose EVERY government nanny state infringement. There are others that only notice when they start to lose thing important to them. But for the libertarian-conservative, liberty itself is the most important thing, so we always fight against government encroachment.

The government realizes many on the right and left can be divided by standing apart. First they go after tobacco and gambling because they know many will say: “well, I don’t like smoke and don’t care about gambling, let the government tax it more or ban it”. At that point the camel has his nose firmly inside the tent. The goal was never to ban “bad things”, the goal was always to set a precedent that government can ban ANYTHING.

So when I defend smokers rights, it is not because I smoke (I don’t), it is because I know all our rights are at stake. So when I defend people’s right to gamble, I am thinking about the government stealing our individuality and rights to live as we see fit.

When they went after trans fats, it was to “make us healthy”. But you must ask yourself, why do they care? Do they really care about my health or are they planning socialized medicine and a socialist order where we must always think of the whole, we can’t be individuals?

In the end we must decide if we are going to become some great mass of eunuchs or if we are going to be free men. I have already made my decision, and there is a point where they will go too far, there is a bridge that can not be crossed.
Doc Holliday

his mom must have been a terrible cook.
http://impudent.blognation.us/blog kyle8

Listen to my reasoning. Everyone who is born eventually dies. Therefore if you live a very long life or a very short one it is of no consequence since eventually you will probably need some medical care.

However if I drop dead of a massive heart attack at the age of fifty five while my neighbor lives to be ninety then you tell me who is most likely to use up health care and put burdens on the system?

If you live old enough you will have a LOT of things go wrong with you.
Furthermore you will certainly use up more retirement and social security than someone who dies before the age of 65.

So, I categorically deny that entire argument. We would be better off as a society (cost wise) if everyone just died at the age of sixty fivefive.

so don’t buy into the argument that they want to regulate our lives for our own good, that is a lot of horse hockey.
america1st

There is a lot of steam in the kettle. Somewhere among us there has to be someone who will become the flash point, the person who reaches his / her tipping point and says not merely “no,” but “Hell, NO!” So they become the rallying symbol for patriotic American citizens, others who will stand on the green and give their lives if need be to end the leftist nanny state despotism. At this rate, that time is coming – perhaps even this morning.
Michael Dugas

n/t
sccrenny

Have you seen the instructions as to how to dispose of the curly mercury bombs they are pushing? Why would anybody willingly fill their home with these?

http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/hazard/wastetypes/universal/lamps/index.htm
mdd1956

rest. can’t season food
food tastes bad
people visit restaurants less

social and cultural aspects of city life damaged
less public interaction
citizenry becomes more isolated
competence in arts (culinary) exported to France
pursuit of happiness harmed for all

business declines
workers get laid off
invested capital becomes less productive
private property damaged

taxis not used to go out to eat
agencies not used for advertising
printers not used for menus
culinary and art schools loose students lay off teachers

economy slows
entry level jobs no longer available
tax base declines
social problems increase
additional rules, regulations, programs and taxes needed
liberty eroded

means of support destroyed
life in peril
xstriperguide

sent legislation to newly elected Republican governor Bob McDonnel barring the enforcement of forced purchasing of health insurance….he will sign it into law.
xstriperguide

wants to go to Heaven……nobody wants to die!
jimwzdp

When you give power to people with disturbing authoritarian tendencies, and whose intellecutal development falls someplace between wood and toothpaste….
BA Cyclone

As has been said in several other posts and topics, it’s not about salt. It’s not about medical care. It’s not about (insert subject here).

These are excuses and feel-good topics of the day to use central power and central planning to exert more control. It is the only logical answer.

Government-lovers only yearn to focus more power in city halls and capital cities, so they and their friends can get elected and eventually never have to worry about the multitudes electing anyone else that will upset their new balance…the only popular pols will be those who will send voters “free government stuff”.

…or so they think.

The worst thing is the attitude of “it can’t happen here.” We are already there with Medicare and SSA. Sacred cows.
BA Cyclone

As has been said in several other posts and topics, it’s not about salt. It’s not about medical care. It’s not about (insert subject here).

These are excuses and feel-good topics of the day to use central power and central planning to exert more control. It is the only logical answer.

Government-lovers only yearn to focus more power in city halls and capital cities, so they and their friends can get elected and eventually never have to worry about the multitudes electing anyone else that will upset their new balance…the only popular pols will be those who will send voters “free government stuff”.

…or so they think.

The worst thing is the attitude of “it can’t happen here.” We are already there with Medicare and SSA. Sacred cows.
realskinny

Progressives are exactly in the position of farmers. The people are livestock to them. The livestock must be kept healthy so they will produce. They must be dehorned, put in the proper pasture, fed the most efficient diet, milked as required, and culled when no longer useful.

Now you know everything you need to know about the agenda and motivation of progressives.
Common_Cents
Common_Cents

Latest show on licensing freakin florists! This head of the floral board in Louisiana made a fool out of himself, saying requires govt to “ensure a quality flower”.

Stossel also said that states such as MN with highest requirements for electricians have some of the most electrocution cases because people try to do it themselves rather than pay a higher cost for a more limited supply of electricians by union/license requirements.

Unintended consequences hurt.
spim
Doc Holliday
Doc Holliday

you will be better off it is cocaine.
JHancock

To make Thyroid hormone and prevent goiter and cretinism. I can envision Dems trying to add this to your coffee so you can have a low salt day….or just taxing the he!! out of salt

Yeah…they will probably just tax…that’s all the left is good for!!
JHancock

Just give me a military faction big enough to be trouble and a state or two who say no-more!! I’ll be there to lend a hand!!
edintexas

As some wag pointed out on Limbaugh’s show Friday (IIRC), Dick Durban claims that 70 people die each day because they have no health insurance. Since the number of people in the US who die each day is far higher than 70, that means that having health insurance is, by far, the greater cause of death.
edintexas

The city which we have called “Moscow on the Guadalupe” for decades? Surely you jest. Well, OK, I’ve observed it at least since the 70s, and in the mid to late 60s I was not in TX and Austin wasn’t on my mind.
mikerazar

when they are with their friends, drinking blue label and scarfing down beluga. Only out in public, when they are touting whole grains and veggies, do they get that patronizing look in their eyes as they assure us of their unselfish motives.

RS

EDITOR OF REDSTATE

Again. When Will Politicians Understand Their Bounds?

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