'Nanny Boo-Boos' By John Leo

John Leo is a writer for the Manhattan Institute and former columnist for the US News and World Report. Leo focuses much of his work on social and cultural issues. “Nanny boo-boos” is an essay Leo wrote that first appeared in the US News and World Report addressing “nannyism” in society. Leo’s thesis throughout the essay is that “nannyism” programs may begin reasonable and beneficial, but grow out of hand and require extreme measures to become effective. He shows that “nannyism” policies that attempt to ban everything potentially harmful are extreme and often unachievable. Leo introduces his essay with a definition, and an example of “nannyism” through anti-bullying, and explains how it is an excellent case of “creeping nannyism.” He continues throughout the work to provide the audience with further examples of programs that fit this

The use of specific examples such as anti-bullying in Edmonton, Canada, and political views of Democrats in Austria to give the reader physical places and people to link the thesis to everyday life. Leo also uses statistics to demonstrate to the reader the absurdity of some “nannyism’’ policies. In line eight, he uses the definition of a bully to show that 99 percent of students would be defined as one. Therefore, he shows how the simple idea of an anti-bullying program would require much more work than originally thought. Again Leo uses logic to argue that “nannyism” policies are not as simple as perceived with the example of cell phone use in cars. He demonstrates that car radios cause just as many, if not more, accidents than phones in cars with the statistic of the California Highway Patrol, “768 of some 9,000 crashes were caused by drivers fiddling with radios or CD players.” (Lines 49-51) Leo proceeds to humorously claim that car limitations would eventually lead to the ban of “distracting” spouse-passengers, dogs, and even children in