What's The Gov't Thinking?

News, Commentary And Analysis By Dan Rather

(CBS)  Maybe you caught these three stories on the evening news the other night. Taken together, they make you wonder about the U.S. government's 21st century thinking. Anyway, make of these what you will, as a combo platter, or a la carte.

The U.S. Labor Department first said it would, and then said it won't, enforce rules that deem injuries among the millions of us who work from home the same as injuries to workers right in the workplace. I guess they rolled back when they realized they don't have enough OSHA inspectors to case your basement for violations. There was also the avalanche of complaints from the business lobby that they'd be open to millions of lawsuits by anyone who's working for the company from home. At last count, that's about 20 million of us.

And then there are two stories about what you don't know and what the government would rather you not know -- about gene altered food and about radioactive waste recycled into consumer products.

Yes, that's right, if the U.S. government has its way, starting next fall, reprocessed radioactive nickel could be in forks, knives, bikes and other metal-based consumer products.

As for gene-altered foods: despite new chain-rattling by health food chains, the government still doesn't want to put labels on gene altered foods. It makes you yearn for the good old 1980's, when the government wanted to declare ketchup a vegetable for public school lunch programs.