The CPSC: Anti-Darwin.

I’ll tell you where the outrage is. It’s at Daddytypes, who fumes a little that the Consumer Product Safety gurus’ latest recall is for cribs that have been killin’ since 2002.

Would it be too libertarian of me to take some pleasure in yet another example of federal incompetence? After all, this is supposed to be the New and Improved Consumer Product Safety Commission, because it got a big budget increase and a host of new powers in response to the 2007 Chinese melamine pet poisonings and lead toy extravaganza.

Of course, Congress cocked it all up. Just one example: They held children’s books published before 1985 to strict lead standards, even though, as the (quite libertarian) City Journal pointed out, there was no evidence that any children were ever harmed by the books. But resellers and consignment stores still felt the threat of liability for having classic children’s lit on the shelves.

This is our federal government: years late addressing a known killer, way too quick to clamp down a dubious danger.

On a positive note, they recalled a Chinese-made SWAT toy gun set because the small orange tip that distinguished it from a real gun breaks off too easily. The Commission cited it as a choking hazard, but we all know they were also trying to protect kids from wielding realistic-looking guns in a country where federal agents occasionally shoot the hell out of a person.