You didn't say anything when they pushed tobacco ads off the air, or when they drove up the price of cigarettes with sin taxes, or when they tried to classify nicotine as a drug. Smoking, you believed, is nasty and unhealthy; why shouldn't the government discourage it?

You kept quiet when they made air bags compulsory. When they passed laws to keep adults from owning guns. When they tried to censor the Internet. Yes, all of these eroded Americans' freedom to make decisions for themselves. And yes, they further empowered the government to regulate the way we live our lives. But none of them affected you personally, so you didn't see any reason to speak out.

Mr. [Kelly] Brownell doesn't stop there. He isn't satisfied with trying to persuade you to eat less junk food. He wants Big Brother to make you eat less junk food. In a dispatch from New Haven last week, the Associated Press reports: "Brownell believes the government should subsidize the sale of healthy food, increase the cost of nonnutritional foods through taxes, and regulate food advertising to discourage unhealthy practices."