San Francisco banned plastic bags because they were spending ungodly amounts of taxpayer money picking them up from the streets.

So, in those two cases, there are reasons beyond trying to make a nanny state for passing those local laws. The line is thin, though.

I’m glad you mentioned LEDs, BJ. In a few years, CFLs will be a thing of the past and LEDs will be in everything. CFLs are more than revenue neutral– they save a lot of money on your electricity bill.

I’m responsible enough to make these decisions for myself, as are most people, and if they’re not they’ll be the ones who suffer the consequences of their actions.

Freedom is about choice and when the government starts limited our choices they start limiting our freedom. This is a dangerous trend.

According to the government (depending on where you live, and in some cases at federal level), you can’t eat foie gras, or anything cooked in trans fats because it’s “bad for you” and “unhealthy” or in the case of the foie gras, “unethical.” You can’t use incandescent bulbs or plastic bags or drink bottled water because it’s “bad for the environment.” You can’t smoke, eat or talk on your cell phone while trying because it’s “unsafe.” You can’t smoke in your own apartment because it’s “unhealthy” and “unsafe.”

It’s just getting ridiculous. What’s truly “unsafe” is tyranny and that’s what we’ll be living in if we keep allowing freedom to erode like this. These may seem like small things, but they all add up. Little by little we lose our liberty and that’s always how it happens in a free society. It never happens over night but instead is always a gradual process, a gradual erosion.

On this, I take the stance of Patrick Henry: “Give me liberty or give me death.”

I’d rather die in a car accident while driving and eating a Hardee’s Monster Thickburger cooked in trans fat than live under the weight of tyranny by conforming to the freedom infringing rules of an authoritarian society.