what the hell is wrong with our city/county health dept???

September 19, 2011 in Montana

by problembear

rockin’ rudy’s can no longer sell candy!!!!!!!

apparently the missoula city/county health department has declared that you can no longer buy your sweetheart a chocolate truffle because there isn’t a sink eight feet away from the front counter.

with all the real things to worry about regarding health hazards, apparently this department has all the time in the world to bother about this stuff????

makes me wonder what other trivialities they are bothering our poor small businesses about during a protracted recession. wonder how many jobs this decision is going to cost missoula?

29 Comments

ladybug

September 19, 2011 at 5:20 pm

You can breath U of M’s wood smoke, but candy poses an unacceptable health risk. In any other country this would have the corruption label pasted all over it. We, of course, have none, have never, and will apparently never experience this common occurrence. What to call it then?

Reply
- jhwygirl
  
  September 19, 2011 at 8:20 pm
  
  ~applause~
  
  Reply
Chuck

September 19, 2011 at 5:34 pm

It’s a slow process PB…running every business out of business in MIssoula… but together we can do it. We need to elect more progressives and pass more ordinances. We need to take away private property rights through land use directives and we need to charge more fees. When all that fails we need to regulate them to death.

Reply
Ingemar Johansson

September 20, 2011 at 7:21 am

You guys ever hear the story of “The Progressive and the Pencil”?

It’s worth telling again.

http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2011/04/progressive-and-pencil.html

Reply
- JC
  
  September 20, 2011 at 9:50 am
  
  I hope Obama uses at least one pencil to veto any deficit bill with no revenues in it that comes across his desk.
  
  Reply
  - Ingemar Johansson
    
    September 20, 2011 at 11:45 am
    
    I’m in full agreement JC.
    
    What we need is 15% unemployment a year from now.
    
    Reply
    - JC
      
      September 20, 2011 at 11:49 am
      
      So you’re an economic terrorist, now are you? NIce of you to acknowledge it.
      
      We need a 7% unemployment rate next year. And your way isn’t going to get us there. You may believe in the confidence fairy, but it’s demand — demand held back by unemployment and a crashed housing market — that is driving the lack of hiring.
      
      Reply
      - Ingemar Johansson
        
        September 20, 2011 at 12:12 pm
        
        Took RR 2 full terms to halve the unemployment rate.
        
        Seriously, do you think that O got his way by taxing the rich and Stimulus 2.0 we’d drop the rate 3% in a years time?
        
        Admitting failure prematurely?
        
        Reply
        
        Ingemar Johansson
        
        September 20, 2011 at 12:31 pm
        
        Who needs jobs anyways?
        
        http://curmudgeonlyskeptical.blogspot.com/2011/09/ridiculing-obama.html
        
        Reply
        
        JC
        
        September 20, 2011 at 12:34 pm
        
        I said “what we need”, not what’s possible. You think 15% is possible what with all the right wing intransigence? Could be.
        
        If we would have had an appropriate response to the economic collapse when it happened — instead of a getting a bunch of inept politicians all with their panties in a twist because they couldn’t comprehend the magnitude of the problem, much less the magnitude of the response needed — we would be getting there.
        
        Reply
        
        Ingemar Johansson
        
        September 20, 2011 at 1:10 pm
        
        The question still stands.
        
        Would Obama’s solutions work?
        
        Pete Talbot
        
        September 21, 2011 at 8:42 am
        
        RR raised taxes 11 times while in office, Ingy. Spent a bunch of those increases on defense, which did lower unemployment but in the long run didn’t help the economy because the defense spending doesn’t really boost consumer manufacturing or goods, or R&D on much other than weapons.
        
        Is that your solution?
        
        Reply
        
        Ingemar Johansson
        
        September 21, 2011 at 11:40 am
        
        Everyone one here knows were I stand.
        
        What I seem to be hearing, or better yet not hearing, is support for this President’s economics.
        
        I’m just wondering if your enthusiasm has waned.
        
        JC
        
        September 21, 2011 at 2:32 pm
        
        I’ve never been enthused about Obama’s economic plan or his economic team. I think he tempers his proposals by pre-compromising them. I don’t agree with that. But as far as partial or insufficient solutions (i.e. the stimulus) kept unemployment from topping 10%, I support that.
        
        I think the president has ducked his responsibility in many ways for the economic doldrums we’re in. But I think that conservatives have nothing to bring to the table that will help anything.
        
        Republicans have been in control of the House for 9 months now, and have done zilch. Give them the senate and the WH, and that zilch will just change to a resumed wealth transfer from poor and middle class families to the rich–the class war from the top don (“trickle down”)–and Reagan’s legacy will resume in ernest.
feralcatoffreedom

September 20, 2011 at 9:37 am

Matt Taibbi nailed this phenomenon in “Griftopia”. The big fish regulate the small fish out of existence and gobble them up. The big fish hire media types to make sure that the “small business” owner blames the “gubmit” instead of the big fish banksters and other crooked big fish business types. In other words, the big fish keep people confused over the difference between “regulation” or “rules” for capitalism that is a good idea and “red tape” that strangles small business as a bad idea.

Reply
- problembear
  
  September 20, 2011 at 12:06 pm
  
  big players like wal-mart once railed against over-regulation but they have since learned to put it to their advantage…..
  
  one good example to use for the purposes of this post would be for example- national franchise famous dave’s would prefer to keep local competition down. for instance – let’s just say that their product isn’t good enough to withstand serious competition from a locally owned BBQ company so they would prefer that our city/county health department regulate them out of business.
  
  famous dave’s has the capital to build whatever they want so they would prefer to keep onerous regulations on the books to quell some poor company’s encroachment on their market. it stifles competition and prevents entrepreneurship.
  
  i have talked to many people who would like to offer their culinary talents in this city but they are scared away by the costs to meet the regulations. how many jobs are lost simply by stifling potential small business owners in missoula?
  
  it is bad enough that they are shutting down the chocolate truffle market at rockin’ rudy’s, but when you consider the dampening effect onerous regulation has on potential businesses, one begins to grasp the way our county/city health department works hand in hand with the franchise industry to keep them safe from any new ideas that threaten their market share.
  
  someone should look into regulation of the culinary industry in this town and determine if we are in fact helping to promote health or just helping to preserve market share for some mediocre big player like famous dave’s at the expense of potential local talent.
  
  by the way- bears like a good BBQ and i would sure like to see a real one in this town.
  
  Reply
  - Dave Budge
    
    September 20, 2011 at 12:28 pm
    
    You’re sounding damn near libertarian Pbear. This has been one of my pet peeves for years. And it’s pernicious creep.
    
    Reply
    - JC
      
      September 20, 2011 at 12:36 pm
      
      Pbear sounding like a libertarian is one of your pet peeves?
      
      It’s pernicious, creep.
      
      ;-)
      
      Reply
      - Dave Budge
        
        September 20, 2011 at 1:33 pm
        
        I cheer every time I hear the cause of freedom! Everyone (including Pbear) is welcome under the tent. I even welcome these guys
        
        Reply
  - JC
    
    September 20, 2011 at 12:30 pm
    
    “national franchise famous dave’s would prefer to keep local competition down. for instance – let’s just say that their product isn’t good enough to withstand serious competition from a locally owned BBQ company so they would prefer that our city/county health department regulate them out of business.”
    
    No supposing needed. What do you think happened to Knuckleheads BBQ? Not to mention the Missoula Downtown Asociation allowing Famous Daves to become a member of the MDA and to come downtown and compete against locals at Caras Park events.
    
    Pretty disgusting.
    
    Reply
- The_Boneshackler
  
  September 20, 2011 at 12:30 pm
  
  Exactly. It is the small businesses that are the ‘job creators’ in the United States. Government has become a tool for big business to crush their smaller competition.
  
  Reply
  - JC
    
    September 20, 2011 at 12:40 pm
    
    Unfortunately, it is all the big corporations with all of their mergers and takeovers, political power, lobbyists and buyouts that kill jobs by killing small businesses.
    
    To wit: Mitt Romney’s Bain Capital
    
    Reply
    - feralcatoffreedom
      
      September 21, 2011 at 5:16 pm
      
      Yes, glad you helped clarify my point. We no longer have a government of the people and for the people. We have crony capitalism. Corporations like Wal-mart through their lobbyists and bought politicians on so-called left and right use “laws” to screw with the Mom and Pop businesses. Excellent books on this are by the conservative David Cay Johnston, “Perfectly Legal” and “Free Lunch”. One example I love is the home alarm systems companies that charge a bunch for the system. But who has to respond to the alarm going off? Our police departments. Who pays for that? We do not the owner of the alarm company. What a rip off.
      But It is not just small business that are the job creators. The great middle class jobs in auto production, washing machine making, steel, TVs, computers and tool and dye all were the greatest job creators. But we let the CEOs of those industries in the 1980s strip their companies of their assets and fire their workers to increase the stockholders take. Then we let the stock holders only pay on 15% of their profits. And we allowed those jobs and our trade secrets to be exported.
      It is important that we try to keep telling our neighbors that it is not “regulations” that are killing us, but it is rather “corruption”. It is wholesale looting under the disguise of “privatization”.
      
      Reply
Rev. Timothy Gordish

September 20, 2011 at 11:54 am

Those who make these rules mean well. They want to make our world safer. The problem is that these regulations have unintended consequences which are paid by all, whereas not everyone who touches a dirty candy bar wrapper gets sick. (Let me wildly speculate one in three trillion).

Wisdom and government regulation are more often than not antithetical.

Reply
problembear

September 20, 2011 at 1:03 pm

Dave: my political leanings are an amalgamation. Libertarianism makes sense for me sometimes in moderation.

I think any belief swallowed whole is bad philosophy.

Reply
- Dave Budge
  
  September 20, 2011 at 1:42 pm
  
  But I have to suggest that in any given broad belief system there are usually several flavors. Swallowing anyone one of the whole would require ignoring contradictions.
  
  Reply
problembear

September 20, 2011 at 1:42 pm

Everyone is welcome at my campfire dave. Except max baucus of course. You and I would find lots of common ground. I like common sense.

Reply
problembear

September 20, 2011 at 1:57 pm

democrat and republican party leaders are entirely too allegiant to big corporations. So I don’t trust either party to do the right thing about jobs in this country.

I think this post’s example of lack of common sense illustrates the stranglehold that the marriage of big corps with govt is our largest obstacle to reinvigorating america’s small business economy which hires most of our workers.

Govt/big corps are killing the american dream one bad decision at a time.

Reply
rawr

September 21, 2011 at 4:49 pm

Who do you think implemented the ridiculous rules? Well, since the City and County has been run by progressives for years, let’s take a wild guess!

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