The logical extension

I'd say that many, if not most, people are now familiar with the tactics employed by the busy-body industry in its crusade against deleterious activities or substances that affect the health of individuals and stretch and strain public health services. That is, get something banned because of that very drain on those very services.

Here's the latest: Ban pornography because of the physical damage it causes to the brain and the subsequent strain it places on public health services:

They are urging federal prosecutors to pursue more obscenity cases and raising funds for high-tech brain research that they hope will fuel lawsuits against porn magnates.

"We don't think it's a lost cause," said Harmer, a Utah-based auto executive and former politician who's been fighting porn for 40 years.

"It's the most profitable industry in the world," he said. "But I'm convinced we'll demonstrate in the not-too-distant future the actual physical harm that pornography causes and hold them financially accountable. That could be the straw that breaks their back."

First cigarettes, then fatty foods, now pornography. This tactic is very effective. The United States will soon become a bureaucratic state more draconian and convoluted than ancient China -- or modern Europe.