Reply #13: "Nanny state" is a freeper meme,

[pnwmom]

dreamed up by a conservative in England several decades ago, and picked up by people like Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh ever since then. It gets some of its rhetorical zing by associating an unliked quality with females. Again, that's a typical freeper strategy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanny_state

"Its usage varies by political context, but in general it is used in reference to policies where the state is characterized as being excessive in its desire to protect ("nanny"), govern or control particular aspects of society.

SNIP

The term "Nanny State" was probably coined by the Conservative British MP Iain Macleod who wrote "what I like to call the nanny state . . ." in his column "Quoodle" in the December 3, 1965 edition of The Spectator.