EU directive on kids, balloons and other toys

“Whistle blowers, that scroll out into a long coloured paper tongue when sounded – a party favourite at family Christmas meals – are now classed as unsafe for all children under 14. … the EU legislation will impose restrictions on how noisy toys, including rattles or musical instruments, are allowed to be.” Unsupervised children under 8 should not be allowed to blow up balloons, according to the European Union directive, which has just taken effect. [Telegraph; headline changed after objection that the Telegraph’s headline was misleading]

In related news, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, addressing a United Nations conference on “the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases,” has said that “mak[ing] healthy solutions the default social option” on matters such as diet is “ultimately government’s highest duty.” [Sullum]

Filed under: child protection, Europe, Michael Bloomberg, nanny state, United Nations

NYC cracks down on dogs in bars

And community is undermined as a result, argues Thom Lambert at Truth on the Market.

Filed under: alcohol, animals, Michael Bloomberg, NYC

Mayor Bloomberg and for-your-own-goodism

I’m quoted in this article by the Daily Caller’s Caroline May on New York’s paternalist chief executive. Another memorable Bloomberg health-nanny moment: his health department’s edict ordering labs to report high blood sugar readings to the city whether patients want them to or not, the better to pave the way for “interventions.”

Filed under: Michael Bloomberg, nanny state

July 22 roundup

Illinois prisoner sues for land to start his own country [AP]
“Have you got a piece of this lawsuit?” Important Roger Parloff piece on litigation finance [Fortune, now out from paywall] “Hedge Funds Finance Medical Malpractice Claims” [Jeff Segal, Michael Sacopulos and Wayne Oliver, Forbes via White Coat]
Criminalizing bad parenting: more scrutiny of “Caylee’s Law” proposals [Steve Chapman, L.A. Times and Boston Globe editorials, New Scientist]
Deal with ADA complainant averts closure of popular Popponesset Marketplace in Mashpee, Mass. [Cape Cod News]
Because it’s not as if NYC needs electricity or anything: Bloomberg gives $50 million to Sierra Club campaign to stop coal burning by utilities [WaPo] “Environmental justice” arguments deployed against pipeline that would bring Alberta tar sands oil to U.S. [John Kendrick, WLF]
Unimpaired have permanent right to sue: Fla. high court throws out asbestos-reform law [PBP]
Red tape demanded by quality-of-life progressivism suffices to strangle poorer urban economies [Walter Russell Mead]

Filed under: asbestos, Chevron, disabled rights, environment, Florida, litigation finance, Massachusetts, medical malpractice, Michael Bloomberg, prisoners, regulation and its reform

Bloomberg on perp walks

If you don’t like the Mayor’s principles, he has different principles [NYDN]

Filed under: Michael Bloomberg, prosecution

Mayor Bloomberg’s outdoor smoking ban

When you go too far even for the editorialists at the Times, you know you’ve really gone overboard.

Filed under: Michael Bloomberg, smoking bans

“What can we get away with?”

How Mayor Bloomberg’s Health Department decides how far to go in its food-scare advertising. [New York Times] I’ve got much more in a new post at Cato at Liberty.

P.S. Gothamist: “in the end, it was decided that going viral was more important than going accurate.”

Filed under: Michael Bloomberg, obesity

A story that can’t be true

We know it can’t, because Mayor Bloomberg has assured us that smoking bans don’t cut into restaurants’ business. [Saginaw News via Fountain; Vassar, Mich.]

Filed under: Michael Bloomberg, restaurants, smoking bans

NYC’s outrageous Apple settlement

Among its most insidious features, notes Ira Stoll, is a $2.5 million cy pres fund earmarked for “corporate governance programs at 12 universities across the country,” and which will predictably encourage such academic programs, at law schools and elsewhere, to align themselves further with the agenda of the plaintiff’s securities bar and against the interest of actual shareholders at companies like Apple. I’ve got much more about cy pres law school slush funds in Schools for Misrule, forthcoming. [Future of Capitalism; Jim at PoL]

Filed under: Apple, colleges and universities, cy pres, Michael Bloomberg, NYC

NYC’s “astonishingly presumptuous” salt plan

“Because it requires the participation of restaurant chains and food manufacturers, it will, if successful, affect the diet of the entire country,” notes Jacob Sullum. Ira Stoll offers a reminder “that, as the government assumes a larger share of health care costs, it is increasingly able to use that as a justification to intrude into personal decisions or private enterprises, whether it’s a matter of smoking policy, trans-fats, or salt.” (& ShopFloor).

Filed under: Michael Bloomberg, nanny state, salt