Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Dangers - to who?
As you're probably aware of, there's stuff these days that you can't buy easily because someone has decided it's too dangerous to allow. Cold/allergy medicines are one. My wife has allergies and finds that pseudoephedrine works well, and she's not alone in that. There's a new amendment to the U.S. Patriot Act says that anything containing the ingredient pseudoephedrine must now be sold behind the counter of your local pharmacy or drug store. You're limited to how much you can buy, 30 grams (120 tablets) per month. If you do want to buy the drug you must also sign a logbook, and show identification to get the medication. And why is this? Because idiots are frying their brains on methamphetimes that are made with this. Instead of making this a tremendous hassle for everyone, why not target the (I'm guessing pretty small percent) of assholes who are making the stuff. Now, because some idiot wants to fry their brain and rot their teeth with homegrown meth, I have to jump through hoops.
Here's part of what the FDA has to say, "Buyers must show a government-issued photo ID, such as a driver's license, and sign a logbook. Stores are required to keep a record about purchases, which includes the product name, quantity sold, name and address of purchaser, and date and time of the sale, for at least two years."
There's another chemical that has the same problem. You probably haven't noticed but drain cleaner containing lye isn't available in the store anymore. Why? See the above. We want to try making some handsoap, and one of the ingredients needed is lye. So what used to be a nice hobby to kill some time with now falls under the auspices and evil eye of the U.S. Patriot Act.
Which brings me to my old buddy Orwell and 1984. If you haven't read this book, you really need to (while you still can). Pay attention to newspeak and see if you don't find frightening parallels to today's government. Especially the names big brother, er, the U.S. government has come up with; Department of Homeland Security, The Patriot Act, renditions, weapons of mass destruction, and on and on.
By the way, Russ Feingold was the only Senator to oppose the U.S. Patriot Act which makes me want to vote for him for something.
Labels: government
