Monday evening roundup

I'm going to ignore the more controversial "logic" Rand Paul espoused the other day and focus on a small section of what he said:

For example, I am opposed to the government telling restaurant owners that they cannot allow smoking in their establishments. I believe we as consumers can choose whether to patronize a smoke-filled restaurant or do business with a smoke-free option.

Think about it - this overreach is now extending to mandates about fat and calorie counts in menus. Do we really need the government managing all of these decisions for us?

I'm even going to refrain from commenting on the first paragraph, in that what I'd say has been said hundreds of times: what about the restaurant staff? Can they choose to do business with a smoke-free option?

But let's talk about the second paragraph, because it's completely non-sensical. It's not like the government is mandating how many calories we should choose to consume; the government is mandating making health-related information available to consumers. Isn't capitalism all about making self-interested decisions based on information? So wouldn't you encourage the availability of that information?

Here's another thing I'm not really going to delve into, but I will comment on it in passing: I've come to see discourse over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the same way as that over nutrition: the vast majority of the people who run their mouths freely have no f*ing idea what they're talking about.