Michael Bloomberg
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants to ban the sale of soft drinks, sodas, in containers over sixteen ounces. He says it’s not good for us. He says the sale and consumption of these super-extra-large sugary beverages is a contributing factor in our nation’s obesity epidemic. He says he only wants to do right by you. (In fairness to Bloomberg I have no idea whether he said these exact words. But the sentiment is certainly implied)
My response to this gesture of help and support for New York City’s throngs? It’s none of your damned business what I put in my mouth Mr. Bloomberg. And it’s also none of your damned business what legal product my company sells to individuals willing to part with their own money and make it my money. Butt out.
Liberals from NY to SF (San Francisco) continue to propose laws, rules, and ordinances with the intent of taking good care of you, apparently because you can’t take care of yourself. We now have laws governing or prohibiting smoking tobacco or marijuana, trans fatty acids, and increasingly sugar.
A story, not too long ago, told of a Federal bureaucrat from the Department of Health and Human Services prohibiting a four-year old from eating their homemade lunch at her kindergarten class because it didn’t meet Federal standards for a healthy lunch. What was in the lunch, you may ask? Chunks of glass, glue on toast, and to wash it all down a thermos of Liquid Plumber? No. This dangerous lunch, made by the child’s mother, contained a turkey-meat and cheese sandwich, a banana, potato chips, and apple juice. Conservatives and Libertarians continue to warn us all that at some point government control over our lives is going to go to far. Ladies and Gentlemen I offer you Exhibit A for the argument IT ALREADY HAS.
English: A Portrait of Thomas Jefferson as Secretary of State. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
None other than the author of The Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson, said of big government and government control:
“My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government”
Jefferson also said, “A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have”
You may say, calm down this is all for your own good. Too much soda is bad for you. I agree that too much carbonated soft drinks are bad for me, which is why I exercise my personal liberty, my right, and never buy a “Super-Sized” soft drink. But remember when everyone, and I MEAN EVERYONE, told us that salt in any amounts was bad for us and would increase our likelihood of high blood pressure and heart disease? Well, it turns out EVERYONE was wrong. The authors of the study wrote: “Our current findings refute the estimates … of lives saved and health care costs reduced with lower salt intake. They do not support the current recommendations of a generalized and indiscriminate reduction of salt intake.”
The number of times we ALL knew something that proved to be wrong throughout history are innumerable. As late as the early 1900s cocaine was promoted as a healthy medicine. The first recognized authority and advocate for this drug was world-famous psychologist, Sigmund Freud.
Sigmund Freud
Early in his career, Freud broadly promoted cocaine as a safe and useful tonic that could cure depression and sexual impotence.
Jefferson was one of many American heroes to oppose too much government. Abraham Lincoln said, “Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as a heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere. Destroy this spirit and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors. ”
We must overcome this national infection to control people’s lives and do what’s best for them. The only way we can do that is to accept that some people will make poor decisions, including drinking too much “pop”, possibly leading to obesity. It is every American’s individual right to be obese. It is every American’s individual right to fail. And all the government control, in the name of caring for our well-being, won’t change the fact that some of us will make bad decisions, and fail. Accept it.
And accepting individual’s rights to fail is not a lack of compassion or love as many liberals would have you believe. Just ask any parent of any teenager if it’s possible to love someone who repeatedly chooses actions against the parent’s will whether its possible to love and feel compassion for that person.
Michael Bloomberg may think he knows what’s better for you and me. But it’s not his place, or his right to do anything about it. Unless there’s this small unknown Amendment to the Constitution which I’m unaware of which says the Government can dictate what you and I eat and drink. Democrats will tell you it falls under the Commerce Clause.
Thanks for visiting. Comments are welcome.
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- Big Governments Enslave Thomas Jefferson (livingstrongandhappy.blogspot.com)
- The Issue is Freedom, Not Soft Drinks (commentarymagazine.com)
- Mayor Bloomberg The Mother of All Nanny’s (socyberty.com)
- The unsweetened truth about Nanny Bloomberg’s soda laws (humanevents.com)
- Bloomberg Insists His Plan to Limit New Yorkers’ Soda Sizes Cannot Possibly Work (reason.com)
- New York mayor proposes ban on large sodas and other drinks to tackle obesity (guardian.co.uk)
- In Defense of Nanny Bloomberg (newyorker.com)
- The battle of the Big Gulp: Mayor defends move against soda-loving New Yorkers (theglobeandmail.com)
- Soft Drink Industry Fights Back, Depicting Bloomberg as Nanny – ABC News (abcnews.go.com)
- Morrissey: Big Gulp? Meet Big Brother (cnn.com)
- The unsweetened truth about Nanny Bloomberg’s soda laws (humanevents.com)
M Schuett blah blah blah 