McIlheran's Fan Club Is Growing

From the MSJ's letter to the editor section:

Who qualifies as being a bossy nanny?

In his never-ending attacks on governmental activity, Patrick McIlheran's columns are occasionally disgusting and frequently amusing. In a mid-December column, his defense of a hospital and doctor refusing to give information and treatment to women who have been raped was disgusting. Then in a Dec. 31 Quick Hit, he reverted to humor when writing about a smoking ban in Illinois.

Since smoking is "a legal adult activity," he contended that attempts to regulate smoking are done by "nannies." Obviously, if there weren't problems with smoking, why keep kids from doing it? Why is the state even that "bossy"? And if his argument revolves around the legal issue, why doesn't McIlheran take a legal gun into the state Department of Natural Resources office the next time he goes to purchase a legal hunting license? Those bossy nannies have numerous laws regulating firearms.

The preamble to the Constitution includes the phrase "promote the general welfare." Obviously, the laws and regulations McIlheran is against - providing medical treatment and eliminating carcinogenic smoke in public places - fall into that category.

Since McIlheran presents himself as a conservative, I am surprised he would not be more supportive of the Constitution and not imply that George Washington, the president of the Constitutional Convention and our first president, was a nanny.

John Fitzgerald
Hartford