First they came for the foie gras ...

What's behind the impending ban on foie gras, ponders Jonathan Gold in today's L.A. Times.

In a period when New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg pushed through a regulation banning supersize soda, California banned the sale of sharks' fin soup and Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia asked whether the federal government could force an individual to buy broccoli, can kitchen morality be legislated? Do the ban's largely vegan supporters see it as a first step toward a larger ban on meat? Does a prohibition on products obtained from over-fattened ducks and geese protect animals or erode liberties — or both?

And why aren't there similar protests over bluefin tuna?

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Photo: Dueling protests outside Melisse restaurant. Credit Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times