Who gets July’s Nanny of the Month from Reason TV? As usual, there are three finalists, but this month, the winner is kind of a …dog:
Forget the London Olympics, you’ll find the fiercest competition stateside, where faces new and old vied for the title of “Nanny of the Month.”
Proving it can ruin just about any good idea, the Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously to ban the city’s medical marijuana dispensaries, and a North Carolina pol who claims baggy pants are “a part of a culture that breeds drug sales, drug addiction, crime, and murder” is itching to regulate precisely how much sag his constituents may bust (no more than three inches below the waist).
But this month we find the busiest of bodies in the nation’s Garden State:
Imagine getting pulled over for a seatbelt violation. Imagine it cost you $1,000 and six months in the clink. Imagine the cause of this was your failure to buckle up your pooch.
Actually, Reason shouldn’t have forgotten the London Olympics. Perhaps the opening ceremonies didn’t qualify as a “nanny state” entry, but that paean to the NHS with dancing nurses and an inflatable baby could have won special mention as a Nanny of the Month Propaganda Award winner. Perhaps a better choice would have been Michael Bloomberg’s decision to lock up the formula at hospitals to, er, encourage new mothers to breastfeed instead of taking a bottle. Encourage in this case means “intimidate“:
Under the new program, reported by the New York Post, mothers who insist on bottle-feeding will still be able to do so, but nurses would have to sign out the baby formula, which would always be on hand for mothers who have difficulty breast-feeding.
The Post reports that 27 of the city’s 40 hospitals have also agreed to eliminate gift bag giveaways of infant formula and other free items like lanyards or mugs with formula-company logos.
The mayor has gotten criticized over the new policy, which is set to take effect in September. While some are chiding the mayor for imposing a “nanny state,” The National Alliance for Breast-feeding Advocacy says it’s a good program.
The plan forces mothers and their caregivers to explain every time they need a bottle why they’re not breastfeeding. Hospitals will treat formula like a prescription drug. That’s pretty nanny-statish to me, but perhaps this came too late for the July award. I’ll look forward to its inclusion in the August sweepstakes.
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