Back in 1978 F. Paul Wilson wrote Lippidleggin’, a short story about a farmer bootlegging butter and eggs, which had been banned to improve everyone’s health.  I’m guessing that back then most people thought it was entertaining, but silly.

Back in 2007, with the author’s permission, I did a reading of the story for an episode of The Quick Hitts Podcast.  By then it didn’t seem silly at all.

And now the UK is taking the first steps toward making it a reality: spew from an expert who claims banning butter will save thousands of lives.   Uber nanny Shyam Kolvekar says, “By banning butter and replacing it with a healthy spread the average daily sat-fat intake would be reduced by eight grams.  This would save thousands of lives each year and help to protect them from cardiovascular disease – the UK’s biggest killer.”

This kind of nonsense is already starting here in the US.  Transfat is illegal in New York City, many states are clamoring to tax soda, and in 2006 Chicago banned foie gras to placate animal rights activists.  (The ban was lifted two years later, proving that incessant ridicule can be an effective political tool.)  If Obamacare becomes a reality Big Brother will have a perfect excuse to ban, regulate, and/or tax anything it deems unhealthy.

This may seem unrealistic – after all, there’s a huge dairy lobby, and they’d never let that kind of thing happen, right?

Ask a tobacco company executive about that.

So make it a point to enjoy real butter and eggs while you can.  It won’t happen immediately, or even very soon, but given how well nannies and Big Brother work together, it will happen unless we wake up and put a stop to this kind of nonsense.