Bonfire of the Absurdities in News New Format

Good news: Congress can force you to buy broccoli, but can’t force you to eat it

Good news: Congress can force you to buy broccoli, but can’t force you to eat it. A Harvard genius law professor says everybody engages in “commerce”, hence the Commerce Clause gives congress the power to micro-manage their lives. So, in the Commerce Clause the Founders essentially said “ignore the rest of this document”? Hey, the federal government’s powers are limited unless you buy or sell something, then they can do anything would want. Genius.

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Bonfire of the Absurdities: After 35 year career writing software for IBM mainframes, am now self-employed contractor thinking of joining a union and striking for higher wages. Cured morbid fear of heights when I learned to look at them as lengths standing on end. Uncompromising in refusal to accept browser cookies. Amateur investor who has accumulated a small fortune in the market after starting out years ago with a large one. For recreation, I run, hike, kayak and play tennis but will not consider synchronized swimming under any circumstances.

View Comments (5)

poppajoe49 says:

November 20, 2011 at 8:32 pm

OMG!!
The left will stop at nothing to turn us into the USSR of the 50's.
Did any of these assholes read their history books?
Kip Hooker says:

November 20, 2011 at 11:28 am

Here is some video of Kagan on this issue.

http://thevitaminpress.com/2010/06/29/fascist-kagan-youre-mom-might-not-bea-able-to-make-you-eat-your-vegetables-but-i-sure-can-muahahaha/
PsychoDad says:

November 20, 2011 at 11:00 am

PS - right n wrong: . "The 1935 Laws of Wis., ch. 106 came close; it required serving a small amount of cheese and butter with meals in restaurants (effective from June 1935 to March 1937)."

http://www.slashfood.com/2009/10/19/wisconsin-apple-pie-and-cheese-dont-always-go-together/
PsychoDad says:

November 20, 2011 at 10:58 am

Thank God this chowderhead isn't actually a judge or something. Uh-oh. Did someone just say "Second Obama Term"?

What I think is more disturbing is not so much this egghead's flight off into theoretical lala land, but that the Constitution does NOT outright prohibit this sort of government action, but rather actually does assign it to the states - witness Romneycare here in Mass. There was never any argument against it on the legal basis that our dear Commonwealth could not do it.

Even more bizarrely, states have mandated even pettier things. Unless I am misinformed*, the state of Wisconsin once required the purchase of not broccoli, but cheese. Every restaurant in the state was required to serve 2 oz. of cheese with every meal, to support the dairy industry. I don't see the Federal government, acting in a completely, narrow-construction manner, could not establish some guidelines to require the states to implement some form of socialist medical scheme. Look at how the states must maintain the Federal interstate highway system (I'm not saying that's a bad thing, or even socialist -roads have always been a job of governments),; only Texas and Montana, I believe, have shunned the King's Shilling and forfeit the Federal dollars to run the highways their way.

But yeah, you can go back to FDR of course for the current abomination of Commerce Clause interpretation: that's when newsreels of milk trucks being emptied into the sewers, fields of wheat being burned, and whole herds of pigs being shot were seen every week - all part of the "National Recovery Act." Burn in hell, Franklin.

*I haven't verified this on Snopes.
Notsosilent says:

November 20, 2011 at 9:23 am

I would like to meet the professor, and show him where he could store his broccoli. And since I would have to buy the broccoli, I would be engaging in commerce and have the right to stuff it where the sun don't shine. Harvard appears to be run by either small children or apes, not sure which.