I have heard a lot of insanity coming from California, but what I heard last week takes the cake, or at least the frosting.
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Back in 2008, California legislators drafted a law to partially ban trans-fats. The law, as it was written, go into effect in January of 2010 and would enforce this ban on restaurants first, then bakeries. Ironically, it would not apply to public schools. Take a moment to dwell on this point; the California government imposed a ban in privately owned restaurants that it did not impose in government run school cafeterias. It seems to me that they should first impose bans in their own food service before harassing private entities.
The blatant overreach of this law addressed the following year. In 2009, the legislature imposed the ban on school cafeterias.
Trans-fats, also known as partially hydrogenated oils, have been linked to a number of health problems, most notably raising "bad" cholesterol. The science is pretty well established--certainly more so than global warming hysteria.
That being said, I don't need bureaucrats to plan my diet if they can not even plan a balanced budget--and California is particularly bad at balancing budgets. Recent Nanny-state intrusions like bans on smoking are being made with supposed good intentions but at some point, we must recognized that we, individuals, are best suited to manage our health, careers, families, and lives in general. Otherwise, we will get more proposed legislation like the we saw in May of 2009 to attempt to ban "black cars."
If the government wants to discourage trans-fats, smoking, drinking, and black cars, let them start education campaigns and PSAs, but they don't need to start a new prohibition era.
