A battle report from the nanny wars. And as usual with nanny measures, I’m left wondering whether they went too far or, per their own logic, not far enough. If you’re looking to spare the smaller, shyer, beta-male kids from unnecessary public humiliation, why not ban school dances too? Those sting much worse than taking a nerf ball off the face. Or, er, so my beta friends in grade school used to tell me.

Pro tip for the school board: If you want to build support for banning something, try to put a price tag on it instead of resorting to nebulous claims about what the practice might do to kids’ self-esteem. E.g., here’s HuffPo noting today that gun-related violence costs the U.S. billions in medical care each year. Mike Bloomberg’s also usually careful to work up a number on whatever problematic behavior his latest ticky-tack nanny initiative is designed to address. Lefties can be quite cost-conscious when they need to be if it helps them to, as Bloomy put it, “infringe on your freedom.” But if you’re going to use this strategy, understand going in that Ann Coulter and Nick Gillespie are right about it only working one way. Social conservatives eager to save the U.S. some of the $16 billion spent each year treating the 20 million or so new cases of STDs contracted annually by infringing on your sexual freedom will not be warmly welcomed by Bloomberg-style nannies.