President Obama set off the crazies over at Center for Consumer Freedom (the pro-smoking, pro-junk, pro-booze front group) when he appointed Harvard law professor Cass Sunstein as the head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. What's the uproar about? After all:
Sunstein is best known for his balanced views between government regulations and cost-benefit analysis and for his theory of behavioral economics and he is widely considered to be a great choice for the office.
Oh, and Sunstein is a vegetarian. What??? I am sorry but disqualifying somebody for public office because they are veggie is about as stupid as disqualifying them because they are black! And in our new "post-racial" America, I don't think we're interested in doing that anymore. May the best man (or woman) for the office get the job. Besides, the country is much better off with this veggie in power than it was with the group of vegetables who are leaving office this week. |
| What does Sunstein's vegetarianism have to do with his job? Let's see... he's now our "regulatory czar" - responsible for all regulatory agencies and overseeing all administration rules. Hmm, clearly he only took the job so he could find a way to ban Americans from eating meat. In fact - he's not even FOR banning meat!
In Sunstein's own words:
If we focus on suffering, as I believe that we should, it is not necessarily impermissible to kill animals and use them for food; but it is entirely impermissible to be indifferent to their interests while they are alive. So too for other animals in farms, even or perhaps especially if they are being used for the benefit of human beings.
Sunstein is for what many Americans are for: eliminating needless animal suffering in all industries that use animals (and if you want proof, look at the overwhelming vote in CA to pass Prop. 2, the ban on several cruel livestock practices). Clearly, with the passage of Prop 2 and the widespread public outcry over the Michael Vick dog fighting story, Americans ARE interested in treating animals well... even if we don't like to think about that stuff while we are eating. America as a country may not be ready to give up meat, but we ARE eager to end unnecessary cruelty to animals that occurs in our names. In that respect, I think Sunstein's views are quite mainstream... not that he's even in a position to really affect change on that area of our laws.
So what DOES the Center for Consumer Freedom say? From their press release:
...Cass Sunstein, the Harvard University Law School professor tapped by President-elect Obama to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, has a secret aim to push a radical animal-rights agenda in the White House.
Sunstein's work could spell the end of animal agriculture, retail sales of meat and dairy foods, hunting and fishing, biomedical research, pet ownership, zoos and aquariums, traveling circuses, and countless other things Americans take for granted.
Mr. Martosko said: "Cass Sunstein owes Americans an honest appraisal of his animal rights agenda as America's top regulator. Americans don't realize that the next four years could be full of bizarre initiatives plucked from the wildest dreams of the animal-rights fringe. Think about every outrageous idea PETA and the Humane Society of the United States have ever had, and imagine them all having the force of federal law. This doesn't look good for hunters, ranchers, restaurateurs, biomedical researchers, or ordinary pet owners." |
