Evil Novelty Lighters
Last month, I blogged about how a Michigan legislator proposed banning novelty lighters in the state. Well, the dumb idea made its way to Washington.
Rep. Darlene Hooley (D-OR) is sponsoring HR 6488, a proposal that would direct the Consumer Product Safety Commission to ban novelty lighters. She is the only sponsor on the bill.
Here's Jim Harper's thoughts on the bill:
With energy prices soaring, a war in Iraq, and a humanitarian crisis in Darfur, we really should think of the children. And that’s what I assume this bill is about, protecting children from the attractive nuisance of novelty lighters. Well, guess what. Children are going to be attracted to lighters whether they’re “novelty” or not. They’re lighters, after all.
And that’s why we have “parents.” To tell children to leave lighters the heck alone. And to take them away from children, and to scold children, and to send children to bed without any supper, and ultimately to mold children into well-adjusted adults.
Again, that’s what parents do to children. It’s not what the Consumer Product Safety Commission does to all of us grown-ups.
