Katherine Mangu-Ward | August 18, 2008

Here at reason, we've been on the bacon dog beat for a while now, chronicling the brave men and women who grill bacon dogs on L.A.'s street corners, in defiance of rules and regulations which class bacon as a "hazardous food." The story has everything: class warfare, racism, protection rackets, relish, and mustard.
This latest development is so not kosher—a veritable bacon dog Kristallnacht:
At Hollywood and Highland last Friday night, police cracked down on the little ladies with the cars selling those street favorites. All the food and all their equipment were confiscated and trashed.
An LAist photographer was there, and he caught a series of horrifying images, including the one above, which depicts illegal hot dog carts being fed into the gaping maw of the dumpster truck. This is a cruel variation on the proper order of things, which should include grilled bacon dogs being fed into the gaping maws of drunk idiots.
The Ur-text of bacon doggery, starring Drew Carey:
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Wait, without a trial?
Their stuff was confiscated and destroyed?
I thought that everyone in LA was packing! How could this stand
without at least one person getting shot?
It's about time. These people are going to kill someone someday with a bacteria-laden dog.
Makes me proud to not live in L.A. How anybody can choose to live there is beyond me.
I guarantee if you gave this as a hypothetical to 100 people on the street, 90% or more would think you were making a slippery-slope argument by grossly exaggerating and making something up that would never happen in America.
The same could be said about some of the current LEO domestic
surviellence techniques.
Is food so abundant in this country that we can afford to
illegalize some of it and throw it in the garbage?
I'm a firm believer that no one should eat hot dogs, I a bigger
believer that I can't tell everyone else what to do.
If even one child is forced to suffer from obesity brought on by a bacon dog then the terrorists have won.
"I guarantee if you gave this as a hypothetical to 100 people on
the street, 90% or more would think you were making a
slippery-slope argument by grossly exaggerating and making
something up that would never happen in America."
Since most people don't think the freedom to eat bacon dogs is all
that important and also don't care about the welfare of street
vendors who are selling bacon dogs most people find this practice
acceptable. Yucky bacon dog vendors make the street yucky
anyway.
Liberals justify this in the name of public health and
Conservatives justify this in the name of the Rule of Law.
Bacon is not a health food. The government has a right and in
fact an obligation to protect us from things that are not good for
us. Anything that helps the cops to keep us a slim and trim is
inherently a good thing, I'm all for it. The government is
responsible for our food choices because they pay our health care
through medicare/caid.
J
The story has everything: class warfare, racism, protection
rackets, relish, and mustard.
Sweeeeeeet
Juantia, you ignorant slut. The government has no business telling what we can or can't eat. If I want to pump up to the size of the Goodyear blimp, that's my business and no one else's.
The writeup should probably mention that this has absolutely nothing to do with obesity or deliciously hardened arteries, which is what I had assumed; instead the health department feels some old, cheap food carts are inadequate to keep bacon from being contaminated with food-borne pathogens and requires vendors who sell bacon to use newer, $26,000 carts with three-compartment sinks, etc. This is oppressive and probably unnecessary but at least it sounds like it's within the health department's jurisdiction.
Bacon is not a health food. The government has a right and
in fact an obligation to protect us from things that are not good
for us.
And yet, inexplicably, the government hasn't shut down Juanita's
trolling. Clearly not living up to their obligations.
Bacon is not a health food. The government has a right and
in fact an obligation to protect us from things that are not good
for us.
And yet, inexplicably, the government hasn't shut down Juanita's
trolling. Clearly not living up to their obligations.
Apparently, "i" in brackets doesn't close tags nearly as well as
"/i" in brackets. Preview, dammit!
Reason doesn't really care about this issue, they're just trying
to a) smear those who support our laws as racists, and b) try to
appear "cool" by (yet again) supporting illegal activity.
It also seems to be yet another violation of at least the spirit of
libruhtarian* "principles". If a hotdog made someone sick it would
be very difficult to go track down the culprit. Libruhtarian
"principles" would seem to require the give and take of those who
are sold something being able to hold the seller responsible.
This is similar to the libruhtarian support for potentially
dangerous things whose dangers won't be known for decades.
Do some of Reason's sponsors make hot dog carts or something?
* "libruhtarian" is their new preferred term for themselves.
What would happen if you paid somebody to paint a mural on the
side of your hot dog cart in L A? Would the city council send
somebody out to hunt you down and paint over it?
You can't let these itinerant hot dog salesmen run roughshod over
brick-and-mortar fast food franchises; that would be
un-American.
Katherine loses the thread right in the post with Godwin-
invoking Kristallnacht reference.
Between this and the Michael Phelps 12,000 calorie strawman she
posted the other day her batting average is rapidly approaching the
mendoza line.
I'm frankly astonished by the level of LoneDipshit's energy. He has his website, goes out and asks people dumb questions, monitors reason for any story related to his obsession, etc. Where does he find the time?
Death Dogs (as they are known) are delicious and a vital part of
the glory of LA.
The trick is picking a dog that has the bacon (which is wrapped
'round the dog in a spiral) well done.
The wise consumer will always be safe from pathogens (plus the Dogs
sit on a heated tray, the same that cooks them, just pushed to the
side once done).
Street food needs more boosters in America and less attacks by
foolish bureacracy.
Lonewacko,
Many of theose IllegalHotdogs are scavenged from outside bordertown
nightclubs.
When I was in San Diego serving in the Marines in San Diego me and
some buddies went down and caught a show called "Bride of the
Bratwurst". Needless to say I never ate a street hotdog again.
"""Anything that helps the cops to keep us a slim and trim is
inherently a good thing, I'm all for it. """
Cocaine? Crystal Meth? Those will help slim and trim.
Perhaps the City of Angels could institute a program to subsidize guacamole vendors, in order to combat the evil HotDogAlienMenace.
Sweet Jesus! Neil, Juanita, AND LoneWacko? On the same thread, no less? Bacon dogs are a more divisive issue than I thought.
Are bacon dog vendors in league with terrorists or something similiar to warrant this kind of suppresion?
Too late P Brooks,
they already banned Taco Stands from parking for more than an hour
in one location. They are now forced to deal with
IllegalHotdogs.
How the hell does so much nannyism reside in one metropolitan
area?
""""Libruhtarian "principles" would seem to require the give and
take of those who are sold something being able to hold the seller
responsible."""
Tisk, tisk. It really shows you have NO understand of the issue. If
someone was hurt as a result of the hotdog, then they have a right
to make a claim to be judged in front of a netrual party. That's
not the problem here. How many lawsuits have happened as a result
of a bacon dog harming someone?
Do you have a problem with people eating what they want? Or better
yet, you really think the government should decide our diet and
enforce it by law?
I won't feel safe until they have surveillance cameras in every
public restroom. Then, when someone doesn't wash for 30 seconds,
the SWAT team breaks down your doors at 3:00 a.m.
It's the government's job to keep us all safe, after all.
TrickyVic: your libruhtarian "principles" would seem to require
some degree of accountability. Otherwise, there'd be no need for
courts, and people could dump ToxicWaste and the like at will.
Therefore, in your Randhead fantasy, there'd have to be an
infrastructure of laws that would have to be enforced. Unless, of
course, this site is advocating pure anarchy, and they
aren't.
I'm sure very many people have gotten sick, and they have little
recourse. Yet, libruhtarian "principles" would seem to require
there being some recourse against a malefactor.
Once again: is one of Reason's contributors a manufacturer of
hotdog carts or something?
P.S. Someone Weigel was mocking last week has reply to this
P.S. Someone Weigel was mocking last week has the report Weigel isn't capable of.
Atabrat,
If the tamale girl isn't safe then . . . (gasp) even lobster girls
isn't safe!!!
Maybe the cops don't like bacon dogs because they don't like
seeing one of their own cooked to a crisp.
Ba-da-boom.
or
You can have my bacon dog when you pry it from my dead, rather
corpulent, dead fingers.
Needless to say I never ate a street hotdog
again.
And without requiring the police!
And one day a Los Angeles county health inspector walked up to me, removed his shoe, and with it he drew a picture of a bacon wrapped hotdog in the sand.For a minute there were just two hungry men there. I'll never forget that.
Reminds me of what my first cousin whispered to me at a recent
family reunion. He whispered because he didn't want his Little
Woman to hear.
Seems he can't resist going for lunch to a hole-in-the-wall place
down in Nashville called, "Chicago Dog."
He says that when she suspects something--smells it on his breath,
I guess--he says, "Hey, I'm on my Lipitor."
MY company sells/repairs hot dog carts, and I am a Reason
subscriber...
Sure gettin' my $20 worth, keep it up!
""""TrickyVic: your libruhtarian "principles" would seem to
require some degree of accountability. Otherwise, there'd be no
need for courts, and people could dump ToxicWaste and the like at
will. Therefore, in your Randhead fantasy, there'd have to be an
infrastructure of laws that would have to be enforced. Unless, of
course, this site is advocating pure anarchy, and they
aren't."""
You're funny, and an idiot. You read a couple of posts and you
think you really know something about someone which sums up your
critical thinking skills. You hear a couple of things and you think
you know it all.
"""I'm sure very many people have gotten sick, and they have little
recourse. Yet, libruhtarian "principles" would seem to require
there being some recourse against a malefactor."""
Show the proof that anyone has gotten sick from the bacon
dogs.
Why don't you go back to the AOL boards where appeal to personal
attack might mean something.
When you eat a bacon dog, you eat with bin Laden. Of course he's eating the Morningstar Farms soy bacon dog, but the point remains.
Bacon is somehow dangerous? It's CURED MEAT, by it's nature, it's safer than the cr@p that goes into most hotdogs. It's a salty, relatively fatty cut.
Bacon is somehow dangerous?
Well it doesn't pay property taxes, purchase a business license, or
collect sales taxes. It doesn't play by the rules with the county
health department bureaucracy either.
Bacon just wants to be free.
This is a cruel variation on the proper order of things,
which should include grilled bacon dogs being fed into the gaping
maws of drunk idiots.M
Hey! I resent that! I'm not drunk yet.
LA is like a cable repair man's ass crack. Sure it gets some sunshine, but I definitely wouldn't want to live there.
My lovely Juanita,
I want you to want me.
I need you to need me.
Id love you to love me.
Im beggin you to beg me.
Ill shine up the old brown shoes, put on a brand-new shirt.
Ill get home early from work if you say that you love me.
Forever a prisoner of love,
J sub D
Dan, prolefeed,
Leave Juanita, the internet goddess who all to rarely graces us
with her wisdom, alone!
I mean it.
In a slightly more serious vein, I've eaten food from street
vendors in not a few third world locales. I've gotten ill from
these rpadside gasronomical expeditions exactly zero time. I did
get food poisining from a sit down Denny's like restaurant in Texas
once. That was probably my fault for ordering my eggs over easy.
The fears of a new Typhoid Mary are overblown to put it
mildly.
L.A., sell them a vendor's license for $100 per annum and leave
these industrious purverors of deliciousness the fuck alone.
looks like it's time to ship 30lbs. of weed to the LA city council and Health Dept.
They can take my bacon dog when they pry it out of my cold, dead
....uh, actually, because its so slippery, I guess they can slide
it out pretty easily.
But it sure is hard to give up a long, hot bacon wrapped
weiner.
Since the government is paying for Juanita's healthcare, she must be an illegal alien. Those of us who were born on American soil, (and have a brain - i.e. aren't Demunists), take a somewhat dimmer view of the government telling us what we're allowed to eat "for our own good".
Orange Line Special (LoneWacko) wrote:
Reason doesn't really care about this issue, they're just
trying to a) smear those who support our laws as racists, and b)
try to appear "cool" by (yet again) supporting illegal
activity.
"Supporting illegal activity" sounds really sinister until you
remember that it applies to anyone who thinks a government ban is
stupid. And the world is filled with stupid government bans. So
what's your point again?
It also seems to be yet another violation of at least the
spirit of libruhtarian* "principles". If a hotdog made someone sick
it would be very difficult to go track down the culprit.
Libruhtarian "principles" would seem to require the give and take
of those who are sold something being able to hold the seller
responsible... This is similar to the libruhtarian support for
potentially dangerous things whose dangers won't be known for
decades.
What are you talking about? No libertarian, no liberal, no
conservative, no reasonable person would ever say that your rights
are violated every time you eat food that makes you sick. If you
voluntarily decide to eat some food, knowing the risks involved,
and the vendor has in no way misrepresented the food or the
attendant risks, then you should have no legal recourse should you
get sick. It sucks to get sick, but it's not a matter of
injustice. Likewise, when the risks of some activity are
unknown, but the individual(s) offering the activity have in no way
misrepresented the activity or the attendant (unknown) risks, then
you should have no legal recourse should you meet with misfortune.
This is pretty basic stuff for any society that wants its adults
free to experiment with different activities, and offer up
different activities to each other.
"libruhtarian" is their new preferred term for
themselves.
LOL WUT
Matt wrote:
Katherine loses the thread right in the post with Godwin-
invoking Kristallnacht reference.
Matt, if you read the sentence "This latest development is
so not kosher-a veritable bacon dog Kristallnacht" and
take it seriously, you need to get out more.
Leave it to the nanny-statists in the coastal cities to turn
around and make new laws, criminalizing behavior under the guises
of "protecting the consumer", all to go after anyone who deviates
from their ideas of "what is good for you". God forbid we have the
right to make any choices with which these fascists disagree. Go
Drew, and keep exposing the idiots whenever you can.
For all of you who misguidedly believe I'm just a moron who
glorifies law-breakers, nay, and au contraire. I'm a firm believer
in law an order and despise those fascists out there (Tom Frieden,
Mayor Bloomberg, that Predator-looking guy from L.A. in the video,
etc.) who subvert the process to control our lives in every fine
detail. Unfortunately, most people have their heads jammed so far
up their own rectums, they don't even notice that their personal
freedoms are disappearing because it has nothing to do with
"American Idol", box scores or the other worthless minutiae in
which they normally wallow.
its horrifying that people can still buy deadly bacon at grocery stores. (or can they in california?)
Juanita,
"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little
temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety" Benjamin
Franklin
BTW, choosing what to put in your body IS an essential liberty.
"This latest development is so not kosher-a veritable bacon dog
Kristallnacht."
Why don't you throw in another Nazi reference, because as we all
know, shutting down a hot dog vendor is the moral equivalent to a
pogrom against the jews.
"Matt, if you read the sentence "This latest development is so
not kosher-a veritable bacon dog Kristallnacht" and take it
seriously, you need to get out more."
Hahahahaha, you are so right. Those Kristallnacht jokes are
absolutely hilarious. I tell you, those crazy Nazis. What a wacky
bunch they were. Sixty three years after the fall of the Third
Reich and they are still providing us with pure comedy gold.
B... I'd really hope you can see a distinction between making a
humorous Nazi-related reference like (my personal favorite aspect
of this board thus-far) Kristallnachtwurst and say, for
example, the PETA ads comparing chicken coops to concentration
camps.
One is serious... the other is just a joke. 2 guesses which is
which.
B wrote:
Hahahahaha, you are so right. Those Kristallnacht jokes are
absolutely hilarious. I tell you, those crazy Nazis. What a wacky
bunch they were. Sixty three years after the fall of the Third
Reich and they are still providing us with pure comedy
gold.
B, quit whining. We've all seen The Producers (some of
have even seen "Hitler on Ice"). Also that Fawlty Towers
episode.
Seriously, fuck off.
"Seriously, fuck off."
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.
If those ninny-nanny neocoms tried doing THAT to MY hot dog
stand, I'd fill their asses with .44 slugs at pointblank range, and
FUCK THE POLICE AND A 187!
Hey Juanita, how about you go move to Cuba, where people DON'T eat
good food, because they CAN'T eat good food, eh?
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