Big Nanny Government
October 18, 2011
This blog may bore you and seem a little lengthy, but it deals with one of the most ridiculous results of our Big Nanny government run amok. It is a startling fact that all across the country children are being told that their lemonade stands are against the law. And not just the sale of lemonade, but sales of Girl Scout cookies and Japanese green tea have also been declared enemies of the State.
I kid you not. In community after community, these budding entrepreneurs are being told to pack it up and scoot before they’re charged with various violations. In some instances, fines have even been levied.
I’m beholden to the Freedom Center of Missouri, a relatively new public policy group in the Show Me State, for documenting the following list of outrages. Please note that all of these occurred this year. Such crackdowns are becoming more and more common.
Feb. 26: Georgia police demanded the closure of a Girl Scout cookie stand until the girls obtained a peddler’s permit.
Feb. 26: Savannah, GA officials determined that city ordinances require an end to a 40-year tradition of Girl Scouts selling cookies outside the historic home of the organization’s founder.
March 7: Officials in Hazelwood, MO stated that a cookie stand in a family’s driveway violated local ordinances and ordered an end to the Girl Scouts cookie sale.
June 10: The Philadelphia Department of Health shut down a lemonade stand operated by a cancer charity because it lacked a necessary permit and — get this — didn’t install a hand-washing station.
June 16: A county inspector in Maryland closed kids’ lemonade stand and fined parents $500 for violating county law.
July 15: Cops in Midway, GA shut down a lemonade stand some children were running in their own front yard, saying the kids had to obtain a peddler’s license and a food license and pay $50 per day for a temporary business permit.
July 17: Police in Appleton, WI informed children that despite legally selling lemonade and cookies in their front yard during an annual city festival for the past several years, a new city ordinance banned these sales. The reason? To protect licensed vendors from competition. How’s that for a great example of how America works?
July 19: In McAllen, TX, authorities shut down a girl’s lemonade stand for failing to obtain a food permit and threatened a grandmother who protested with a $50 fine.
Aug. 1: Police officers in Coralville, IA ordered at least three sets of children to quit selling lemonade during the Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa unless they first got a vendor’s permit and a health inspection. This is the first known example of a coordinated set of shutdowns at a single time.
Aug. 6: Massachusetts State police shut down the stand of a 12-year-old refugee from Fukushima, Japan, who was selling green tea he brought with him when he and his family evacuated after the tsunami.
Is this a world gone crazy or what?
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