I have been warning for years about the constant struggle of police against Lemonade pushers, here, and here. They are just as bad as veggie pushers. Now, Multnomah County has found one in their own backyard. Julie Murphy, 7, was found boldly peddling lemonade in Northwest Portland.
Police shut down Murphy for operating without a license — specifically a $120 temporary restaurant license.
Jon Kawaguchi, environmental health supervisor for the Multnomah County Health Department, insisted “we still need to put the public’s health first.”
What is really disturbing is that this little felon had the audacity to make a sign with a person saying “yummy” after drinking her contraband product. “Yummy” is well known gang slang among lemonheads.
Source: Oregonlive
anon nurse,
I second Blouise. It’s nice to have you back.
Lemonade police? Damn, you should really quit your day job.
Blouise,
Thanks for your note and kind words.
Get used to that crap little one, the world is full of people that know what is good for you and want to regulate your every thought and action. They are called democrats and republicans, the former want the state to run your life, the latter want some great unknown to run your life. They are different sides of the same coin. Fight them both they are equally evil.
http://www.sott.net/articles/show/212383-Valedictorian-Speaks-Out-Against-
“John Taylor Gatto, a retired school teacher and activist critical of compulsory schooling, asserts, “We could encourage the best qualities of youthfulness – curiosity, adventure, resilience, the capacity for surprising insight simply by being more flexible about time, texts, and tests, by introducing kids into truly competent adults, and by giving each student what autonomy he or she needs in order to take a risk every now and then. But we don’t do that.” Between these cinderblock walls, we are all expected to be the same. We are trained to ace every standardized test, and those who deviate and see light through a different lens are worthless to the scheme of public education, and therefore viewed with contempt.
H. L. Mencken wrote in The American Mercury for April 1924 that the aim of public education is not “to fill the young of the species with knowledge and awaken their intelligence. … Nothing could be further from the truth. The aim … is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed and train a standardized citizenry, to put down dissent and originality. That is its aim in the United States.””
anon nurse,
I gotta run but before I do … I’ve missed you … glad to be reading your posts again!
Blouise: Well put. I so hope that Americans are, in fact, growing weary of “ignorant bullying”, gross overreactions and the like. (I especially like your conclusion.)
Just because this article has caught my fancy I read the links others have posted and then decided to check out this Chairman Jeff Cogen. From what I’ve read he sounds like a candidate I would support for almost any office. Considering that two of his platform planks were Ending Dysfunctional Government and Helping Small Businesses … this was a golden opportunity:
“… A lemonade stand is a classic, iconic American kid thing to do,” he said. “I don’t want to be in the business of shutting that down.” … The crowd surrounded the two inspectors, who felt threatened, Cogen said. … Cogen emphasized that his employees’ safety is also a top concern for him. … “
No matter what he said to the media and to the mother of the child (he called to apologize)… I’ll bet, in the privacy of his office, he had quite a bit to say about those two inspectors for now he is facing planned “Lemonade Stand Revolt” demonstrations with lots of radio talk show involvement.
Although this kind of a reaction seems over the top … I think there’s more to it than that … I wonder if Americans are getting fed up with the ignorant bullying used by so many government employees and justified as “in the general public’s interest”, or “public safety” or any of the other numerous excuses given.
Sometimes it’s the littlest sparks that set off the biggest fires.
Greenspan: End Bush tax cuts
The problem that we’ve gotten into in recent years is that spending programs with borrowed money, tax cuts with borrowed money, and at the end of the day that proves disastrous and my view is I don’t think we can play subtle policy here,” said Greenspan.
“You don’t agree with Republican leaders who say tax cuts pay for themselves?” asked NBC’s David Gregory.
“They do not,” Greenspan replied firmly.
http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0801/greenspan-end-bush-tax-cuts/
Now who has the cajones do do it?
Hark, Hark…..
Greenspan…yes…the FRB Chairman for the stars….said…THE TAX BREAK FOR THE WEALTHY SHOULD STOP. That the country is in dire straights and even though he was supported by Bush he can no longer carry the burden which will bring financial disaster to the US……..
I wonder if the ‘real’ problems are too big and this little guy was ‘just the right size’ to pick on…
http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2010/08/lemonade_stands_get_reprieve_m.html
Lemonade stands get reprieve: Multnomah County Chairman Jeff Cogen apologizes for health inspection shutdown
Friday, August 06, 2010, 12:20 PM
Helen Jung, The Oregonian
“Cogen said the inspectors were “following the rule book,” but should consider that food-safety laws are aimed at adults engaged in a professional food business, not kids running lemonade stands.
“A lemonade stand is a classic, iconic American kid thing to do,” he said. “I don’t want to be in the business of shutting that down.”
__________
Always willing to take another look at my sometimes faulty conclusions. As I concluded the first time, much ado about nothing. If only we focused on real problems, instead of manufacturing them. As Buddha said, “Nitwit.”
When lemonade is outlawed, only outlaws will have lemonade.
Jon Kawaguchi, environmental health supervisor for the Multnomah County Health Department, you, “sir”, are a pencil pushing slack-jawed moron.
Consider this a “lemon”. Hey! Maybe you should make some lemonade out of that! Then you can have your goons harass you yourself. But you’d probably just enjoy that a little too much.
Nitwit.
Guilty. I was skimming. Will read more carefully and recomment.
When I was a wee lad in the previous century, I participated in this type of “Assault on the Public Health”. I was free to commit my crime (selling Kool-Aid) without let or hinderance from any government agency. There was only one thing necessary to start such a business…. MOM !
Sorry George Anonymuncule Seldes but after having read the article, it’s not at all like you tried to spin it.
From the article:
“Julie had become enamored of the idea of having a stand after watching an episode of cartoon pig Olivia running one, said her mother, Maria Fife. The two live in Oregon City, but Fife knew her daughter would get few customers if she set up her stand at home.
Plus, Fife had just attended Last Thursday along Portland’s Northeast Alberta Street for the first time and loved the friendly feel and the diversity of the grass-roots event. She put the two things together and promised to take her daughter in July.
The girl worked on a sign, coloring in the letters and decorating it with a drawing of a person saying “Yummy.” She made a list of supplies.
Then, with gallons of bottled water and packets of Kool-Aid, they drove up last Thursday with a friend and her daughter. They loaded a wheelbarrow that Julie steered to the corner of Northeast 26th and Alberta and settled into a space between a painter and a couple who sold handmade bags and kids’ clothing.
Even before her daughter had finished making the first batch of lemonade, a man walked up to buy a 50-cent cup.
“They wanted to support a little 7-year-old to earn a little extra summer loot,” she said. “People know what’s going on.”
Even so, Julie was careful about making the lemonade, cleaning her hands with hand sanitizer, using a scoop for the bagged ice and keeping everything covered when it wasn’t in use, Fife said.
After 20 minutes, a “lady with a clipboard” came over and asked for their license. When Fife explained they didn’t have one, the woman told them they would need to leave or possibly face a $500 fine.
Surprised, Fife started to pack up. The people staffing the booths next to them encouraged the two to stay, telling them the inspectors had no right to kick them out of the neighborhood gathering. They also suggested that they give away the lemonade and accept donations instead and one of them made an announcement to the crowd to support the lemonade stand.
That’s when business really picked up — and two inspectors came back, Fife said. Julie started crying, while her mother packed up and others confronted the inspectors. “It was a very big scene,” Fife said. “
I hate to defend an enforcer, but, really, this isn’t as black and white as you pitch it — the mom drove this girl from Oregon City into NE Portland for an informal “Last Thursday” street festival that is kind of a bohemian arts crawl and she set up shop. This wasn’t a lemonade stand in front of her house, or even in her neighborhood, or even in her own city —
Except for the little girl fronting the thing, you’d say it was a commercial vendor. Unless food safety laws don’t apply to the cute, what was the guy supposed to do?
Woosty’s still a Cat: Saw Sandra Day O’Connor on NPR a couple of years ago. She was discussing her web site:
http://www.ourcourts.org
According to O’Connor, civics classes are being eliminated in some districts. As you said, “a harsh civic lesson.” I guess others, including the police, are stepping in to fill the void. (Where are we headed folks? One of the NSA’s program is called “Perfect Citizen” — those who run this country are apparently trying to create a complacent and compliant populace.)
Don’t these people have any real and meaningful work to do in the course of a work day? Now they’re resorting to shaking down kids who are selling lemonade at home?)
Well….well….what do we have here….Nothing….so when life gives you lemons….well…don’t make lemonade….not here at least..
“What is really disturbing is that this little felon had the audacity to make a sign with a person saying “yummy” after drinking her contraband product. “Yummy” is well known gang slang among lemonheads.”
hahahaha!….oh thanks for the a.m. laugh, but that’s a harsh civic lesson for a 7 year old….
@Jon Kawaguchi You just came across as a idiot & a total waste of taxpayer’s money.
Hopefully others will realize this and you will be looking for a job in food service that you can handle.