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Do We Restrict Peanuts Because 100 People a Year Die from Allergy?

-By Warner Todd Huston

Here is the nanny state at its most ridiculous. Healthies — people that obsess about health — are on the march in Madison, Wisconsin trying to get the state government to ban people from feeding peanuts to squirrels on the state Capitol grounds. It’s a state emergency, ya know? Why these casually discarded peanuts could just maybe affect a child that has an allergy. We MUST ban the evil peanut to SAVE THE CHILDREN!

One would think that people are dropping dead every 5 seconds from peanut allergies with all this energy and focus directed against that monstrous Mr. Peanut. You would think that this important health effort would save uncounted lives, wouldn’t you?

Maybe not.

Sure, Americans do die yearly from complications of peanut allergies but at a rate of 100 or so a year, the absurd hyperbolic action being sought by the state government in Wisconsin is just plain silly.

Are we now getting government involved in banning people’s activities because 100 people a year might be affected by it? And if we are stooping to such absurdly low statistics, why are we not making rules and getting all exercised over other things that are far more dangerous to far more people. Like bicycles, for instance. It is estimated that some 700 bicyclists were killed in 2007 alone. Are we going to have a crusade to eliminate bicycles? If not, why not? Since Wisconsin is all crazed about the peanut that might affect far less than 1% of the whole country, why are bicycles off the hook for a good banning?

Of course, I no more want the state to start banning bicycles than I want the state to worry about peanuts. Nor should the state have any such role to play with these two issues.

And, what happened to the personal responsibility of these peanut allergy sufferers, anyway? Should they expect the whole world to bend to their needs? Isn’t it their responsibility to make sure they don’t eat a peanut? Isn’t it the duty of parents of children that have such allergies to teach them not to eat a peanut?

No, what we have here is just another idiotic fad being taken up by the nanny state getting involved in areas in which it does not belong.

So, Madisonians… buy yourselves a few jars of Planter’s and spread them liberally about the grounds of the state Capitol. Feed those hungry squirrels. Tell the nannies in the Capitol building that they are off the nut. Oh, and also tell them to keep their hands offa your nuts.

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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as newsbusters.org, RedState.com, Human Events Magazine, AmericanDailyReview.com, townhall.com, New Media Journal, Men’s News Daily and the New Media Alliance among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events and is currently the co-host of “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Conservatism” heard on BlogTalkRadio. He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of publiusforum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston

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