December 2012 - MyChoice Australia

Emily’s List and the Nanny State

19 Dec, 2012 admin_ata

Samuel Jay, writing at Catallaxy Files, makes a rather interesting observation on Tanya Plibersek, who has taken over from Nicola Roxon as “Chief Nanny”.: Our current health minister, Tanya Plibersek, has been an active member. Emily’s List has as its most important doctrine: We believe women must have control over their own bodies and choices in their lives. This is only, it seems, in respect of abortion. When it comes to smoking, drinking, eating (etc), members of Emily’s List are quite happy to cede responsibility to the Government. Go figure. Exactly. As Chief…

Nanny Statists Advocate Food Rationing: Not A Joke

17 Dec, 201206 Sep, 2013 admin_ata

When I wrote earlier today about the food police, I thought wanting to ban phone apps and rare burgers was rather extreme, but nothing compares to this. Rachel Davey, the Director of the taxpayer-funded Centre for Research & Action in Public Health at the University of Canberra has just written a piece in the taxpayer funded The Conversation arguing not just for the usual policy clap trap of banning advertising and introducing fat taxes, but has actually gone so far as to advocate food rationing. That’s right, food rationing. She…

Beware The Food Police!

17 Dec, 2012 admin_ata

We have long argued that food is the new frontier for the fun police, and the nanny statists have certainly been busy these last few days seeking to impose their radical conformist ideological agenda onto the rest of us. Today’s News.com.au reports that nanny statists are calling for a ban on fastfood smartphone apps, claiming that teens become… wait for it… addicted to it! That’s right, that universal catch-all cry of the nanny statists “addiction”, is now being applied not just to food, but to phone apps! There is not even a pretence any…

Health workers told not to use ‘mate’

11 Dec, 2012 admin_ata

In the latest instalment of just how obsessed about over-regulating the smallest minutia of behaviour we are, ABC News reports that health workers have been banned from using words like “mate” : Health workers on the New South Wales north coast are being told they cannot call colleagues or patients “mate”. A memo was sent out by the Northern NSW Local Health District last week, reminding community and allied health workers in the region about the need for professional language within the workplace at all times. It specifically referred to terms that could be seen…

Can’t we all just stop thinking about the children?

10 Dec, 2012 admin_ata

David Pemberthy has an excellent post in today’s Punch. It’s well worth reading in full, but here’s a couple of extracts: Earlier this week it emerged that those wicked bastards who make energy drinks, the kind that are packed with caffeine and guarana and the same mysterious blue chemical used in radiator coolant, are now selling their monstrous hell-fluid in 1.25 litre “family-sized” bottles. Cue the pavlovian calls for government to step in. Clearly, nobody has thought about the children. “We can’t see a single reason why the energy drink…

4 Consumer Bans That Limit Freedom

06 Dec, 2012 admin_ata

This is from a U.S. blog, but, the anti-choice idiocy is just as prevalent over here: How would you feel if someone tried to tell you what foods you could eat, what products you could purchase, or how you could spend your free time? Sound like something from George Orwell’s 1984? Well, it’s actually a description of what is happening in the U.S. today with consumer bans. Living in a free society means you have the freedom to choose to live your life as you see fit—assuming, of course, that you don’t hinder…

ID needed to buy chocolate pudding because “you might burn yourself”

02 Dec, 2012 admin_ata

The latest insanity from the UK: If you’re lucky enough to look about 18, there’s a good chance you’ll be asked to provide ID at the supermarket to buy alcohol, knives or glue. Now an addition has been made to that list of potentially hazardous items – chocolate pudding. Robert Nemeti was amazed when he was asked for ID while buying a microwaveable pudding at Tesco. Mr Nemeti, 24, was going through the self-service checkout when an on-screen warning announced that his purchase had to be ‘approved’. A member of staff at…

MUST READ – Addicted: the medicalisation of bad behaviour

02 Dec, 2012 admin_ata

Chris Berg has a must-read article in today’s Age on how “addiction” is being used to attack personal responsibility: OUR ancestors used religion to ward off the things that scared them. We use medicine. .. Medicalisation comforts because it suggests that our bad decisions are not our fault. Describing self-destructive behaviours as addictions is the ultimate way to shirk individual responsibility. Rather than agents of our own choices, we become passive recipients, preyed on by our surroundings. This is utterly dehumanising. One could ask why we’re so eager to dehumanise…

More Addiction Mythmaking Hits Bookshelves

01 Dec, 2012 admin_ata

The Center for Consumer Freedom reports: The latest gambit of the food police to get people to give up their freedom to choose foods and drinks that they enjoy is to categorize that very enjoyment as addiction. Then the lawyers and bureaucrats can sue, tax, and ban everything they don’t like. It’s for the children, of course. And as with any bureaucratic movement, there are parallel hype generators seeking airtime and publicity… (Remember Meme Roth piggybacking on school cupcake bans.) “Food addiction” may have found its hype machine in Pamela Peeke, author of The Hunger Fix. In an interview with Salon.com,…