Thursday, April 05, 2007

Cutting smoking, trans fats and... weenies

I hate Republicans as much for their incoherence as for any other of a multitude of reasons. The incoherence of conservatism in this country begins with the claim that government is the problem, not the solution, a big central tenet of the Cult of Reagan. One might usefully ask all Republicans, why, if they hate government so much, do they ever run so eagerly for office or fight with such passion to get their hands on the levers of legislative power, but don't expect a coherent answer.

The Bush Administration is so messed up that it cut the federal budget for the levees at New Orleans a year before Hurricane Katrina, while spending and even just losing track of, unheard-of amounts of tax payers money... in Iraq.

In every direction, the party of small government reaches out with its stinking, blood-dripping hands and seizes whomever by the throat and croaks "do as I say, not as I do." Remember how Terry Schiavo was fair game?

Milder, but no less incoherent examples can be seen here in New York City. Local Republican Mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, showed his adherence to the government-is-bad mantra first by banning smoking in public spaces. More recently, trans fats were banned in all city restaurants. And now, not content with regulating pedicabs and anything else that looks regulate-able, the Department of Health wants to regulate your penis:

"New York City’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene is planning a campaign to encourage men at high risk of AIDS to get circumcised in light of the World Health Organization’s endorsement of the procedure as an effective way to prevent the disease."