The Food & Drink Police: America's Nannies, Busybodies & Petty Tyrants

Rating:
Summary: Thoughtful, thought provoking, amusing, and alarming
Review: If you are one who thinks the government had your best interest at heart when it took on the cigarette industry, you need to read this book because you'll find out here that the federal tobacco wars were only the beginning. Sugar, salt, fat, wine, beer, distilled spirits, and beef are all on the chopping block of federal nannies who want only what is best for us. And it's all "for the children." Bennett and Dilorenzo make an important contribution to the national debate over what role--if any--the federal government should play in providing for the happiness which Americans derive from their personal choices of food and drink. The authors skewer federal bureaucrats and their private sector "non-profit" cronies who use taxpayer money to try forcing their own self-righteous world views on all citizens. They show with bitter humor that prohibitions on food and drink will follow in the wake of recent success against tobacco companies. I'll put this slim, entertaining, alarming volume right up there with James Bovard's Lost Rights as a book which thoughtful Americans should read. If citizens don't start reining in their representatives in D.C., the executive branch bureaucrats will be free to continue spending our tax dollars to make us all miserable. And thin. And free of alcohol, beef, and pleasure. An important book.

Rating:
Summary: Hilarious and right on target; skewers the lunatic nannies
Review: This book is so badly needed. It shows the racism, elitism, paternalism, and hypocrisy that infuses the demands of those who want to run our lives and tell us what to do, what to eat, and how we should think. The authors have an incredible way with humor. Once I started the book, I could not put it down. What is very impressive is the huge list of footnotes that provides solid documentation for their research... This book is scholarship and was published by a University press. Well Done!! A must-read for everybody who is tired of the endless pontification and preaching.