Government to Inspect Yard Sales and More....

Oh, yeah. Remember when Congress assured us that the little guys had NOTHING to worry about with the CPSIA because they weren't going to come after us? They. Lied.
From HotAir:

federal inspectors threatening to start investigating yard sales and church bazaars. They say they’re just going to focus on thrift stores and Craigslist … for now:

If you’re planning a garage sale or organizing a church bazaar, you’d best beware: You could be breaking a new federal law. As part of a campaign called Resale Roundup, the federal government is cracking down on the secondhand sales of dangerous and defective products.

The initiative, which targets toys and other products for children, enforces a new provision that makes it a crime to resell anything that’s been recalled by its manufacturer. …

Among recalled products now illegal to sell- Easy Bake Ovens. I saved my easy bake oven from my childhood and my older five daughters used it as well. Then my husband stepped on it during a move, not that I am bitter. Nobody ever got any worse injury than a burned finger, which is part of learning how to cook.

In what way do they even have the right to do this? Yard sales are NOT interstate commerce.

Choice comments from the comments at HotAir:

When toys are outlawed, only criminals will have toys.

We are all criminals now.

Gee. Sounds familiar.

“He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.”

That probably doesn't sound familiar to our lawmakers. I suspect they've read neither the Declaration of Independence nor the Constitution.

So, the one thing that will help people survive in this sagging economy, selling their used goods, is now targeted by the Fed? People can’t catch a break with this administration.

And these are the people who think they should be in control of our health care:

I have a very hard time seeing how sending out all these people to train and enforce this law will actually produce positive outcomes commensurate to their cost. Do we have an epidemic of injuries or deaths coming from people who bought used items that had been recalled? I’m not aware of that. Even if we did, is it reasonable to think that this measure will appreciable lower the injury/death rates? I do not believe it is.

There really isn't anything you can use to mock these people- they've already thought of it. And enacted it:

And my two year old COMMONLY picks up rocks when walking around and exploring. Every one of them is a chocking hazard. Will gravel be banned and regulated too?

Too late, it's already happened.

Oh, please, not this again:

You can't deny that there are good intentions here.

I do deny it, and I think I have done so fairly effectively, but I loved this response, four letters and all:

Your mother cares about your intentions. Maybe your friends do. The universe only gives a damn about the consequences of your actions.

The key flaw of liberalism is the complete inability to learn from past mistakes, thus y’all keep trying the same horrifically failed policies and fall back on your intentions. I DON’T CARE what your intentions are, you are already HARMING ME because you don’t understand economics.

Rick Woldenberg, CEO of a small educational toy company who has been on this from way back, talks about tracking labels and features a video by Tristan Bentz. We've mentioned Tristan here before. She makes beautiful, functional, barrettes for children. Or she did. The neat thing about her barrettes is that they were guaranteed to stay on, no matter how thin your child's hair. She's about driven to distraction by the confusing, counterintuitive, asinine requirements for the labeling called for in this law.

She makes a useful product that improves the lives of others- I was particularly moved by a comment she received from the mother of a severely disabled child who finds these barrettes are the only ones that work for her daughter. I, too, am the mother of a disabled child, and I know just how much joy a seemingly small item can bring to our lives. The benefits to our lives from seemingly small things are out of all proportion to the small things themselves. As I wrote before:

If that child cannot hold her head up, then she probably also cannot brush her own hair out of her eyes. Can you imagine the annoyance and daily frustration of having your hair unkempt, in your face, and blocking your view of the world, tickling your nose, irritating your cheeks, and you cannot do anything at all about it? You are at the mercy of the world around you, and even the most attentive and devoted of mothers cannot be available 24 and 7 to swish your hair out of your face- and then... along comes a unique (patent pending!) product that makes her life just that much more pleasant, and it's even attractive! How inspiring! How happy that child and her mother must have been with such a simple thing that makes their lives so much easier.

Thanks to the CPSIA, that other mother whose child cannot keep her hair out of her own eyes now cannot buy the only product she's found that works. That's immoral and every person defending this law ought to be ashamed.

This is also the homogenization of our entire culture, and the creation of a nation of utter dependency, as entrepreneurial spirit is punished and regulated out of existence, the cost of doing business in niche markets is too high to continue, and the only jobs left are with large corporations making identical items (they can't afford the price of diversification anymore either), or with the legion of government employees and lawyers.

I judge the merits of this law on its actual results, not the campaign claims of politicians and special interest groups, and I deny that the intentions were any more noble than their own political gain.

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