Neo Puritians

Somewhere somehow someone is enjoying something fun that might be a vice.

And Bloomberg shows that anti's never saw a prohibition they didn't want to foist on the rest of us.

Bloomberg has a dream, a dream of a New York City with less booze.

One of the goals listed in the “request for proposal” document to community groups is “reducing alcohol retail outlet (e.g. bar, corner store) density and illegal alcohol,” the document states.

And how will he accomplish that dream?

The city Health Department’s far-reaching Partnership for a Healthier New York City initiatives proposes to slash the number of establishments in the city that sell booze.

Community “transformation” grants provided under President Obama’s health-care law would help bankroll the effort.

This is my shocked face.

So much for my body my choice eh? Well we know the anti's don't believe it's your choice on how you can defend yourself or what chemicals you put in your body or what you eat (yes I'm pointing to both of the Paternalist Statist Parties).

And speaking of nannying bans, here's a ban for smoking within your own apartment (regardless of what your landlord says), or even out on the balcony.

But only if you're smoking tobacco.

These kinds of prohibitions are a bizarre form of redlining, one that bans poor people (who, in Marin, are more likely to be renters) from an activity in which richer people can freely engage. More than that, this kind of policing strikes me as hypocritical when it comes from the very same people who routinely lambast conservatives for trying to impose control over people’s private lives.

It's for their own good you see. Like how Bloomberg's alcohol crusade won't affect the well to do in New York. Just like how the well to do in NYC can get handgun permits.

The net result is that Marin’s poor people are barred from engaging in Dangerous Behavior “A” because it’s associated with capitalism (i.e., Big Tobacco) while they’re free, under Marin ordinances, if not under criminal law, to engage in equally Dangerous Behavior “B”, because it comes under the pop culture/counter culture rubric. Likewise, third parties in Marin will now be relieved from the burden of inhaling politically incorrect second-hand tobacco smoke, but must still suffer the hardship of inhaling hip, politically approved second-hand marijuana smoke.

Stories such as this one remind me that one of the best things about leaving liberalism behind is the fact that I no longer have to grapple daily with the cognitive dissonance and hypocrisy that is an integral part of the “liberal” mindset.

It is hard to tell what is and what is not in the Party's favor.