I'm really finding this debate annoying. Those fighting this nomination would relieve all of us of a requirement for the most common on common sense.
azstarnet.com
<<Tucson, Arizona Wednesday, 1 August 2001
Let them eat marbles
By Arianna Huffington
Having handed the Interior portfolio to Gale Norton (who famously added "the right to pollute" to our many freedoms), George W. Bush has now appointed another fox to guard a henhouse.
This time, it's Mary Sheila Gall, whom he's nominated to head the Consumer Product Safety Commission, despite her tendency to blame consumers rather than manufacturers when defective products injure or kill.
In her 10 years on the commission, Gall voted against regulating baby walkers, infant bath seats, flammable pajamas and children's bunk beds.
She even adopted a "Let them eat marbles" stance on the need for toy labeling, voting against choke hazard warnings on marbles, small balls and balloons.
Consumers, she argued, "know that marbles are not intended for very young children."
In other words, if a kid chokes on a small toy, it's because the parent is defective, not the product.
And while I'm all for slapping warnings on defective parents, Gall's attitude dances on the graves of the 20,000 people, many of them children, who are killed every year by defective products.
To say nothing of the close to 30 million people a year who are injured by faulty products. America, meet the new guardian of your children's safety. <snip>
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