On The Twelfth Day Of Christmas, The Overbearing State Gave To Me…

…overreach just because they can:

Sriracha sauce “is a great American story, it’s the American dream: he uses these fresh peppers, quality ingredients, nobody is complaining, there’s no problem with the safety of the product and then boom, all of a sudden the state decides he’s got to stop selling it,” says Daren Bakst, an agriculture regulation expert at the conservative Heritage Foundation, in Washington.

“Bottom line is that other businesses and consumers need to understand the rationale for this: did the state overreach, was it using sound science, were there other options, was it just arbitrary? Regardless of whether you care about this sauce, you do care about what the business environment is going to be like in your state.”

Well, of course it did! No point in having power if you don’t use it, pour encouragers les autres, eh?

Also pressure to conform or else, the arming of its enforcers for trivial incidents, pointless gestures to undermine personal responsibility, regulation of every tiny detail of our lives even when safety’s no longer an issue, rushed-through ‘feel good’ policies that fall at the first hurdle, the total inversion of previous guidelines as a result of media hysteria, expansion through scaremongering, confusion over competing rights and equality legislation, rigid application of ‘weapons policies’, prosecution via hindsight and justice system intransigence.