Tendentious

This article, linked by instapundit, is tendentious.    Definition of tendentious:

having or showing an intentional tendency or bias, esp a controversial one.

Is all of America turning into Detroit? Hell, no.  Not even close.  The author cites a number of distressing problems in an  attempt to prove that we are going down the tubes.  In his zeal to make his point, he is mixing apples and oranges and throwing in a grapefruit or two and maybe a papaya.

The second most dangerous city in the United States - Camden, N.J. - is about to lay off about half its police.

I hardly know where to start taking this one to pieces:  1)  Camden has been a hellhole for ages; 2)  Some of those policemen are unemployables who are assigned to sit around the courthouse all day and never have any effect on crime; 3)This is an old game--those in charge want to make the citizenry feel their pain so that someone, somewhere, will give them more money; 4) Police in New Jersey are overpaid and have benefits the average working stiff would die for.

I could go on, but I'll let someone else have a go.  Read the article.

Late-breaking:  Linked by instapundit! 

News from the food police

While you--or most of us, anyway--have been stuffing our faces with unhealthy foods, the food police have been sitting around their Spartan vegan dinners and planning new rules for us.

A consumer group prodded the Food and Drug Administration yesterday to regulate salt as a food additive, arguing that excessive salt consumption by Americans may be responsible for more than 100,000 deaths a year.

Rachel takes umbrage at this. But why not? If carbon dioxide, one of the commonest substances in the world and part of the air we breathe, can be considered a pollutant, why can't salt be a dangerous substance?

The nanny-minded among us are discovering brave new worlds to conquer every day. There are no limits except for their own chutzpah. Let's hear it for Mayor Bloomberg, who decided to ban transfats. He's obviously a pioneer.