First off, apparently you can’t buy Kinder Surprise eggs in the US, for some reason.  They allege that the parts are too small and children might choke on them.

Now, it seems that Germany is going to follow suit and ban them because:

The children’s committee of the German parliament fears children might mistake the toys contained in the eggs for food and swallow them.
“Children can’t differentiate between toys and nutritional items,” said Miriam Gruss, a member of the committee (also a huge fricking buzzkill and “nervous Nancy”). “It is a sad fact, but that means that Kinder Surprise eggs have to go.”

I’m sorry, but this is crazy.  First off, I’m pretty sure that even a three year old could probably tell the difference between chocolate and a jagged plastic penguin.  Chocolate; yummy, plastic penguin; nasty, chokey, and tasteless.  Secondly, I would like to meet the three year old who could actually get the toy out of the plastic sarcophagus they package it in.  I can barely, just barely, squeeze and pry the thing open before my vision darkens and I see spots swimming in front of my eyes.  Seriously, I have no idea why they have to be sealed into that plastic shell so tight I’m looking around for a set of cutters or a hammer.

All is not lost, however since this government “committee” (which makes it sound like an overly protective PTA meeting) also had another recommendation:

The same committee meeting proposed a law requiring the paper in school books to be lighter to reduce the health risk of heavy schoolbags.

Uhhh, sure.  Ok, we will get right on that.  Lighter paper?  You know, you may want to maybe focus on the low-hanging fruit for health risks, like um, eating fruit, or maybe serving breakfast in schools, or even more gym classes.  Lighter paper will get you a whopping 2 ounce difference in a knapsack, maybe.  Methinks if these pointdexters are leading the charge, maybe the Kinder people can rest easier…

Saw this stuff on Metafilter, just had to pass it along.