More on that stopping Christians from feeding homeless story. It wasn't the first time this has happened inj recent years.
Nanny State: Houston, TX shuts down homeless outreach because couple don’t have ‘feeding’ permit
(Read WP posts from Chris Kobus) | (Read MT posts from Chris Kobus) | rssLiberal compassion is an oxymoron if there ever was one. From The Houston Chronicle, check out this death of a good deed by a thousand paper cuts: City puts a stop to homeless outreach
NO SOUP FOR YOU!
Bobby and Amanda Herring spent more than a year providing food to homeless people in downtown Houston every day. They fed them, left behind no trash and doled out warm meals peacefully without a single crime being committed, Bobby Herring said.
That ended two weeks ago when the city shut down their "Feed a Friend" effort for lack of a permit. And city officials say the couple most likely will not be able to obtain one.
"We don't really know what they want, we just think that they don't want us down there feeding people," said Bobby Herring, a Christian rapper who goes by the stage name Tre9.
Anyone serving food for public consumption, whether for the homeless or for sale, must have a permit, said Kathy Barton, a spokeswoman for the Health and Human Services Department. To get that permit, the food must be prepared in a certified kitchen with a certified food manager.
...Bobby Herring said those rules would preclude them from continuing to feed the 60 to 120 people they assisted nightly for more than a year. The food had been donated from area businesses and prepared in various kitchens by volunteers or by his wife.
He and his wife became involved in the effort several years ago, when she would take leftover food from work to the homeless downtown. From there, it expanded into a full-time effort for her working through Eyes on Me, the Herrings' nonprofit organization that focuses on Christian-themed youth outreach efforts.
If you think this is the first of its kind in terms of utter stupidity, you would be wrong. From a post of mine back in December 2009: Nanny state: Phoenix Councilman bans churches from feeding the hungry. Just who goes around banning a church from feeding the hungry over Thanksgiving (Thanksgiving!) on church property because it is not zoned as a functioning dining hall? Meet Sal DiCiccio, Phoenix Councilman and Nanny of the Month as selected by Reason tv (via Instapundit):
That story followed yet another similar one over in New York City: Liberal priorities: In NYC, food for hungry homeless thrown out, deemed "unhealthy".It had to do the New York's trans fats ban. The ban extends even to food donated to the hungry homeless - donated to charities that are already short on food. Exhibit A of liberal compassion. HT: drudge
rightwingnews.com
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Liberal priorities: In NYC, food for hungry homeless thrown out, deemed "unhealthy"
This has to be one of teh stupidest things I have seen in some time now, and it boils down to the same propensity liberals have for everything - statism. The state (read: bureaucrats) knows better. They know better than parents as to how children should be brought up and educated. They know better than consumers what kind of tv to buy, what kind of car to drive, what kind of lightbulb to use, how to look after your healthcare. And also, they know better than you do as to how to eat. Case in point is New York City, which has instituted a ban on the liberal boogeyman of trans-fats. The ban extends even to food donated to the hungry homeless - donated to charities that are already short on food. From Metro International via Instapundit: Hungry, sure, but food is healthier.
When a small church comes to the Bowery Mission bearing fried chicken with trans fat, unwittingly breaking the law, they’re told “thank you.” Then workers quietly chuck the food, mission director Tom Bastile said.
“It’s always hard for us to do,” Basile said. “We know we have to do it.”
A Manhattan deli going out of business delivered a pickup truck’s worth of lettuce, sundried tomatoes, hamburgers, sausages and other food to the Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen last week.
With 1,400 meals to serve daily, Operations Manager Michael Ottley was extremely grateful. He didn’t check the trans fat content of the food.
Lines at soup kitchens are up by 21 percent this year, according to a NYC Coalition Against Hunger report released yesterday. The city’s law banishing trans fat took effect in July 2008 and touched everyone with Health Department food licenses — including emergency food providers.
Less than 5 percent of donated food still has the artificial fat, Ottley estimated, but he said, “I can’t in good conscience throw away food.”
First of all, trans fats do not correlate with an increase in CVD (cardiovascular disease) any more than human CO2 emissions do with global warming. People didn't become unhealthy because trans fats were introduced into the diet. As a matter of fact, it is the government that is to blame for the modern diet. Some decades ago, one person lead a successful effort to demonize all fats as unhealthy, even though our ancestors ate a lot of it, and instead promoted carbohydrates which our ancestors ate sparingly. Because - you know - they knew better then and still claim to know better now. To this day high carb diets are promoted by our government as the obesity epidemic, and a rash of CVD and diabetes among other diseases that used to be rare, continues to worsen.
Now if you think the ban in NYC is a ridiculous case of statism that is negatively affecting the homeless, it gets even worse. Turns out that RINO mayor Michael Bloomberg, who spearheaded the ban, was caught in public photos eating cheez-it snacks that contain trans fats. From FreeRepublic: Trans fat foe Bloomberg seen munching Cheez-Its.
They may be too unhealthy for regular New Yorkers to eat, but not so for Mayor Michael Bloomberg, apparently.
After gaining national media attention for spearheading an almost total ban on trans fats in city restaurants starting last July, Bloomberg was photographed in this month's issue of Wired magazine munching on those very same dangerous fats.
The photo, which accompanies a short Q&A about technology and politics, features Bloomberg at his City Hall desk, looking thoughtful and serious. Meanwhile, his right hand is seen almost absent-mindedly pulling a Cheez-It out of a single-serving bag of the crackers.
The reader can only assume that the baked snack cracker is headed for the mayor's mouth, and along with it some of the half-gram of trans fat found in every serving of Cheez-Its.
The mayor's food choice directly counters the guidance of his own Department of Health, which specifies on its Web site that "there is no safe level of artificial trans fat consumption." The site also points out that trans fats are responsible for at least 500 deaths in the city every year from heart disease....
Far more dangerous than trans fats in our food is statism with a good dose of hypocrisy.
theblogprof.blogspot.com
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Nanny state: Phoenix Councilman bans churches from feeding the hungry
Just who goes around banning a church from feeding the hungry over Thanksgiving (Thanksgiving!) on church property because it is not zoned as a functioning dining hall? Meet Sal DiCiccio, Phoenix Councilman and Nanny of the Month as selected by Reason tv (via Instapundit):
This story follows a similar one over in New York City: Liberal priorities: In NYC, food for hungry homeless thrown out, deemed "unhealthy". In both cases, the effect was negative on hungry homeless people. Are liberals thus against the homeless? Or just charities trying to help them? Ed Morrissey has a unique take on th esituation as a former Phoenix resident:
I’ll share a story with you. I lived in Phoenix for a couple of years, and worked at a nice office park — or at least it was until a strip club opened in it. We would have our parking lot littered with syringes, broken liquor bottles, used condoms, and more than occasionally passed-out drunks. The city refused to do anything about that situation for as long as I lived there, even after a tiger in one of the strip acts attacked and seriously injured someone in the audience (don’t ask what a tiger was doing in a strip act; I’ve never figured that one out). Their sudden concern over a free meal service at a church doesn’t impress me much.
theblogprof.blogspot.com |
