Sep 29 2009

Taking The “Nanny State” To All New Heights Of Stupidity

Published by at 2:20 pm under All General Discussions

Two stories caught my eye this week which indicate to me we should be seriously cutting back onthe lame bureaucracies we have put in place over the last 100 years or so. First is this article from across the pond:

The government has ordered a review of the case of two police officers who were told they had to stop looking after each others’ children or face prosecution.

Detective Constable Leanne Shepherd, from Milton Keynes, was warned by Ofsted that she could be prosecuted if she did not end the “illegal” reciprocal arrangement with her friend, DC Lucy Jarrett.

The women, both 32, have taken turns looking after each other’s daughters twice a week for the last two and a half years while they worked a ten-hour shift at Aylesbury police station in Buckinghamshire.

I heard about this idiocy and basically decided the socialists in the UK/EU were just being their silly selves. Until I saw this article:

It seemed like such a practical and good arrangement, the kind that moms have been making with each other since the beginning of time: One woman would watch her friends’ kids while they waited for the school bus so the other women could go to their jobs.

And then the Michigan Department of Human Services stepped in to tell the Good Samaritan mother that she was facing fines and possible jail time for running an illegal day care center.

“To me, this is just a friend helping a friend, plain and simple,” Lisa Snyder said during an interview with TODAY’s Matt Lauer from her Middleville, Mich., home Tuesday.

This is what these bureaucrats are wasting their time and our tax money on? The Orwellian nature of this intrusion into simple neighborly support is a clear indication We The People need to dismantle the bureaucracies which have grown fat, bored and useless.

What a crock. This is the “Nanny State” on steroids – or would it be more accurate to say “acting like a hemorrhoid”?

One response so far

One Response to “Taking The “Nanny State” To All New Heights Of Stupidity”

  1. crosspatch says:
    September 29, 2009 at 3:49 pm

    AJ, it is already happening here in the US. First this story:

    A West Michigan woman says the state is threatening her with fines and possibly jail time for babysitting her neighbors’ children.

    Lisa Snyder of Middleville says her neighborhood school bus stop is right in front of her home. It arrives after her neighbors need to be at work, so she watches three of their children for 15-40 minutes until the bus comes.

    The Department of Human Services received a complaint that Snyder was operating an illegal child care home. DHS contacted Snyder and told her to get licensed, stop watching her neighbors’ kids, or face the consequences.

    Then there’s this:

    Nothing short of an outright power grab is occurring in Michigan. The Democrats have by fiat created a shell corporation that forces union dues out of private babysitters to fill union coffers that will then be used to elect more puppet Democrats, rinse, repeat, etc. The need for the Democrats is clear as the Granholm administration has been an abject disaster putting the Dems on defense in 2010. Here is a telling video from the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation that is bringing suit against the Department of Human Services (DHS) that imposed the union dues:

    So here is what is going on in Michigan:

    If you are a certified caregiver you are REQUIRED to hand over union dues even if you are not a union member. For BABYSITTING!

    If you are not certified and are just watching your neighbors kids for a few minutes, you MUST get certified (and pay union dues) or go to jail.

    It is just insane. The Democrats are alienating the very people who are supposed to be voting for them. They are greedy, drunk with power, and believe they can do whatever they want.