Thursday, January 05, 2006

Nanny State

Teresa Nielsen-Hayden:

If Ralph Nader is run over by a beer truck and killed, if a very large meteorite falls on the offices of Public Citizen and vaporizes the lot of them, I won’t feel sorry. Not the least little bit.

Why? Because she has narcolepsy, and the only drug that keeps her functional has been pulled from the market because of side effect concerns that will not impact her. Nader lobbied the FDA to take this action.

But what does she know? She's only an independent, self-sufficient adult. It's government's job to make these decisions for her.

Hat tip to Glenn Reynolds, who has more on the subject.

UPDATE: In the comments, Jeff fact-checks me to the effect that it was Public Citizen, not Ralph Nader, which lobbied for the ban on Cyclert. True. Nader is no longer the President of the organization, even though he founded it.

2 comments:

Jeff the Baptist said...

Actually Nader didn't do any of this. Public Citizen, a group Nader founded, is responsible for lobbying the FDA.

John said...

Wow! That's the great thing about the blogosphere: occasionally experts come to your cyberdoorstep. Thanks for the info, guys.