In Jupiter, Florida, residents whose lawns are taller than eight inches risk $250 per day fines. The city council voted last night on raising the fines to $1,000 per day.
Jupiter, of course, is about as far away from America as one can get.
But wait, there’s more:
The town code regulates items such as when garbage cans can be placed outside, noise volume, parking of boats, heights of fences, the number of tenants and landscaping. Lawns cannot be higher than eight inches…
Nanny state regulators in the United Kingdom have been up in arms about a beer–Tokyo released by BrewDog– that dares to contain just over 18 percent alcohol! One legislator even submitted a motion in the Scotland Parliament condemning the beer. Others have called for for regulations. “It is completely irresponsible and a real worry … It highlights the need for a mandatory code for the alcohol industry to prevent irresponsible drinks promotions such as this,” noted a representative of a the UK-based British Liver…
In Japan, it is illegal for men to have a waist larger than 33.5 inches. The limit for women is 35.4 inches. Those in violation are forced to undergo counseling (Hat tip to CEI colleague Megan McLaughlin).
The law, passed last year, is part of an effort to keep obesity rates low and avoid related health problems.
One problem with using wasitlines as the primary metric is that results can vary among measurers. According to one article, “Satoru Yamada, a doctor at…
It’s not just bottled water. It’s not just soda taxes. It’s not just fast food. There seems to be a never-ending crusade by big government do-gooders to chip away at the family budget and our personal freedoms. Why? They think know what’s best for the rest of us. As usual, California leads the way with this stupidity. They’re now mandating that California automakers use “metallic reflective window glazing” on the windows of all new cars in the state starting 2012.…
Many, if not all, people depend on government employees to be positive role models for their children. They can give kids something to which to aspire; to show what they can be if they only work hard and stay in school. To give us all a walking, talking example of a life well lived.
It is in that spirit that Executive Order No. 13513 prohibits federal employees and contractors from texting while driving while on duty.
As the Order reminds us, “With nearly…
Kahlua contains 20% alcohol in 49 states. But in Ohio, it is 21.5%. Weird, huh?
Turns out regulations are the reason. My friend Jacob Grier pointed me to an article showing that Ohio groups alcoholic beverages into two categories: wine/beer and spirits. Any beverage below 20% alcohol is in the wine/beer category and can be sold in grocery stores. Anything above 20% is classed as a spirit and can only be sold in state-run liquor stores.
Drinkers often mix Kahlua with spirits such as…
In the interest or saving trees, the legacy of Mr. Whipple (please don’t squeeze the Charmin!) could be a thing of the past. The greens have already succeeded in taking away well-functioning toilet bowls, why not soft toilet paper? Michael Fumento notes today on his blog how the greens want to ban soft toilet paper (see Washington Post story). Instead, we will only be able to buy toilet paper made with recycled materials, which might make fine-toothed sand paper feel smooth in comparison.…
In Virginia, state law requires hearing aids to be calibrated at least annually. Records must be kept for three years.
Having already solved all of the country’s economic problems, the FTC now has time to threaten to step in and stop Budweiser from selling cans of Bud Light with college sports team colors on the labels.
Hat tip to Mark Calabria.
In today’s Financial Times, CEI Senior Fellow Gregory Conko responds to Clive Crook’s criticism of employer-sponsored health insurance. Read the original here or see below.
Nationalising healthcare flaws
Published: July 17 2009 03:00 | Last updated: July 17 2009 03:00
From Mr Gregory Conko.
Sir, It is ironic that Clive Crook condemns employer-sponsored health insurance for encouraging over-consumption of medical services while simultaneously touting publicly provided or publicly subsidised universal healthcare coverage (“Two cheers for US health reform”, July 13).
It is true that the “link between consumer…
Dana Milbank has a great piece in the Washington Post this week about recent congressional hearings on bottled water. He notes: “The nation is entangled in two wars, a deep recession and a flu pandemic, and the people’s representatives are hard at work investigating the menace of . . . bottled water?” Indeed. This is a silly issue for them to focus on, but unfortunately, their regulations may increase prices of a low-calorie, healthy beverage option.
The same day of the hearings, the…
CEI Fellow in Regulatory Studies, Ryan Young, talks about the latest bill in Congress to regulate your carry-on habits. Find the article here.
Eager to sustain his regulatory whirlwind, President Obama is now calling for efficiency standards for household and business lighting. As if the climate-themed energy rationing bill that just blew through the House wasn’t enough, the White House now wants to force lamp and light bulb manufacturers to make their products use less energy. This plan appears modeled after the ambitious fuel efficiency standards applied to the now decimated auto industry and Obama’s order to the Department of Energy to mandate increased efficiency for household…
Nanny statists are, apparently, equal opportunity hacks. Activists on the left and their legislative team players are not only going after the bottled water “sin industry.” They are also increasing the pressure for regulations on other beverages, seeking to slap a federal 3 cent tax on beverages containing sugar. Where will it end?
Look at this debate between Jeff Stier of the American Council on Science and Health and Michael Wolff of Vanity Fair. Wolff basically calls any American who is over-weight a needless…
Growing up in Long Island in a nearly 100-year old wooden house meant there were innumerable opportunities for bugs to enter–everything from stinging, buzzing, and blood-sucking creatures found their way in. We did have one really good weapon against them. Periodically, we would vacate the house for the day, and my mother would set up the “bug bomb”—the pesticide fogger that would penetrate the hiding places of all those nasty pests. It worked miracles. The bugs cleared out, and we…
In a running theme, I again cover the topic of the U.S. government’s heavy-handed dealings with swiss bank UBS. A nod to my colleague John Berlau, whose letter in today’s Financial Times gives a nod to former ambassador Faith Whittlesey and her commentary in FT expressing concern over the Obama administration demanding the names of 52,000 Americans who do business with UBS. As I stated in previous posts on this issue, these actions by federal authorities are setting a bad precedent for the privacy of…
Just what is up with the section of the Obama administration’s budget which plans to ‘phase-out’ tax deductions for charitable giving? Frankly this is a little unnerving to someone who works for a nonprofit organization like I do, I have heard similar sentiments among those from all parts of the political spectrum. To this news, there are those who would say: it only affects those “rich” folks making over $200K/year. To which I say: So what? Furthermore, the ‘rich’ are responsible for a good deal of…
I would rather Clark Kent.
lolprez and the “do-something-anything” Congress is at it again
But, alas, not as a litigator - the role that made him rich and famous - but as a defendant. According to Legal Newsline, Richard “Dickie” Scruggs is headed back to federal court to plead guilty to another count of trying to bribe a judge. He’s already serving a five-year sentence for a previous bribery attempt.
OpenMarket readers will remember Scruggs as one of the fattest of fat cat trial lawyers to emerge from the multi-state tobacco settlement reached between tobacco companies…
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