Gulp: Bloomberg’s Stunning Nanny State Overreach
If you enjoy having a Big Gulp along with your burger and fries, you’d better drink up fast if you live in New York City: do-gooder Mayor Michael Bloomberg thinks you are too irresponsible to know what’s good for you. He believes super-large sugary drinks contribute to all sorts of bad health issues, so he’s determined to make you downsize whether you like it or not.
The mayor’s ban on these drinks could go into effect as soon as early next year, and would affect drinks larger than 16 ounces. Bloomberg’s ban is aimed at drinks sold only at movie theaters, restaurants, or from street carts, meaning you could still get your large-sized drink fix at convenience stores, supermarkets, or other retail sellers.
This isn’t Bloomberg’s first foray into the “nanny state,” or employing excessive state action to protect people from themselves by restricting freedom. Under Bloomberg’s leadership — and via an equally meddlesome and liberal city council — the city has banned trans fats from food preparations in restaurants (the ingredient that makes french fries, doughnuts, and other deep-fried foods taste so yummy) and has forced chain restaurants to post calorie counts on their menus.
Bloomberg, in one of his most Orwellian moves, even banned donations of food to the homeless because the city didn’t have the ability to monitor these much-needed and welcomed gifts for things like fat, salt, or fiber content — a concern not typically voiced by individuals desperate for a meal.
Of course, the mayor’s rationale is the protection of public health. After all, there is an epidemic of obesity and diabetes. However, who among us really believes regularly downing upwards of 32 ounces of soft drink is a healthy thing to do? And since anyone addicted to gigantic-sized soft drinks can easily ask for a second 16-ounce drink or find a nearby retail outlet, is this ban likely to impact obesity among people already making unhealthy decisions?
For libertarians and conservatives, the far more greater concern is government intrusion into our private lives. There can be no confusion about this: controlling the intake of food and drink is simply not a function of good government as outlined by the framers of our Constitution. (David Harsanyi’s excellent book probed exactly this issue. Nanny State: How Fast Food Fascists, Teetotaling Do-Gooders, Priggish Moralists, and other Boneheaded Bureaucrats are Turning America into a Nation of Children spotlighted politicians like Bloomberg.)
The problem of meddling, “I-know-best” bureaucrats obviously isn’t just an affliction local to New York City. In 2008, Los Angeles City Council member Jan Perry succeeded in imposing a resolution banning any new fast food restaurants in a 32 square-mile area of South L.A. Like Bloomberg, her rationale was the disproportionate rates of obesity and diabetes among the largely poor, black, and Latino residents of her district. The racist, infantilizing message: poor minorities living in South L.A. are too stupid to make their own food choices. Her patronizing solution: experiment with their lives by forcing them to eat what she wants them to eat.
All of this obviously ignores longstanding cultural habits that might cause residents of poor neighborhoods to engage in unhealthy behaviors of all sorts. It’s one thing for bureaucrats to engage in public education campaigns in an effort to steer people away from unhealthy behavior, but another thing entirely to insult them and to argue that government must force them into making approved choices.
And people do already have choices. Even fast food restaurants now offer a variety of food, including salads, fruit, and yogurt, as well as soft drinks that come in a variety of sizes.
If government bureaucrats can ban the types of fast food outlets available, manipulate the size and types of drinks we can consume, and regulate every aspect of food preparation, what couldn’t they attempt to ban? Some studies have suggested that red meat is “unhealthy.” Will Bloomberg next propose a measure limiting red meat intake to one steak per month? Will the nanny state do-gooders ban hot dogs, or force Americans to take part in government exercise programs like those promoted by the first lady?
On the same day that Bloomberg was touting his ban on oversized sugary soft drinks, he was taken to task by a typically compliant member of the media. It seems that the mayor was also taking part in National Doughnut Day, causing even Matt Lauer, NBC’s consistently liberal host, to appear incredulous. He stated that Bloomberg’s support for a day celebrating doughnuts “sounds ridiculous,” as it coincided with his proposed drink ban.
There are far more pressing civic matters. Rather than have food fascists obsess over what we eat or drink, we should force a city bureaucrat like Bloomberg to concentrate on relieving taxation, to provide public schools that actually work, to deal with crime and violence, and to solve his city’s paralyzing traffic jams. Instead, he took us further down the slippery slope of infantilization.
There is no subtlety involved here – Bloomberg is a buffoon and an idiot. There is no cure short of a extra-large gulp of reality.
You just wrote an article that amounts to explaining that water is wet – this is how stupid we’ve become. What’s really disturbing is that people agree with him.
I used to have a friend who said that Americans will do anything to lose weight but exercise regularly and eat sensibly. In the politically correct world of today, tough exercise is just too weird to do. Tough love is too weird to think about. Do the least to get the most is one of PC’s greatest arguments.
Let the gov’t make all the rules it wants. I have this phrase called “self-evident” and it is my guide. I’m an American, and I’ll damn well do what I please and I’m not waiting for one person on this Earth to rubber stamp it, least of all some moron I’ve never met.
Yes to all that. I actually didn’t believe the Drudge headline — but there it was again the next day. Relax… We Are Your Friend… We Have Your Brain… Relax…
Have we really fallen so far?
Perhaps more important, at what point does the shooting start?
They won’t have to shoot you. They can just keep banning and regulating things until we starve and freeze to death in the dark.
I have no way to know if you meant your comment just as an hyperbole, but I must say that your comment is the most precise analysis of all the folly we are dealing with.
The most precise.
The best comment ever.
“To get back my youth I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable.”
– Oscar Wilde
If obamacare ever kicks in fully, the amount of regulation into our daily affairs that will ensue will make Bloomberg look like a piker.
Drudge linked to the NYT article on Bloomberg’s ban. Among his statements was that “we are going to force you to understand what is good for you.”
Whenever an elected or appointed official uses the words “force” or “coerce” in relation to law-abiding citizens , said b*****d or b***h should be immediately removed from office. They are public servants, not civil masters.
(By comparison, when the term “lethal force” is used by law enforcement re violent criminals, that shows that whoever says it at least understands the mission. Not necessarily a given today.)
Also, the NYT thoughtfully provided a chart of what is and is not verboten. Any sugar-sweetened drink over 16 ounces is out- except sugar-sweetened cappuccinos of all types. You can have however big a sweet cap’ you want in the Big Apple. Never mind that any of them has roughly twice the sugar of a same-size non-diet fountain soda.
Naturally, Bloomberg is not going to honk off his main constituency, the OWSers and other self-styled post-modern “urban (pseudo-)intellectuals” whose day starts with getting their fix from some cute barista at Starbuck’s. And I suppose he, like they, feel that everyone should bask in the aura of progressive intellectual ambiance there. It’s so “culturally nutritious”.
Proving once again, as if we needed it, that the only thing about progressives that is more obvious than their arrogance, is their hypocrisy.
Myself, I’ll stick to Diet Dew and decaf. Hold the sweetener, I just take it with (fat-free) non-dairy creamer.
clear ether
eon
I will eat an entire chocolate cake for breakfast, a mammoth box of Junior Mints for lunch, eat instant mashed potatoes smothered with butter and gravy out of a giant bowl I hold on my lap for dinner and wash it all down with chocolate milk, which is what I use to rehydrate after jumping rope anyway.
“Among his statements was that ‘we are going to force you to understand what is good for you.’”
The hired help is getting mighty uppity. But do New Yorkers have the intestinal fortitude to fire them? Probably not.
Perhaps it’s time for non-brain-dead citizens to encourage Nanny Bloomers to recognize what’s good for him? And us, too?
How long until this particular bleepin’ idiot can be voted out of office?
I hope no one expected anything better from Bloomberg. Remember, this is the man who strove with all his might and main to overturn NYC’s term limit on the mayoralty, simply because he wanted another term. Clearly, any gaggle of canaille that would impose a two-term limit on His August Majesty Micheal Bloomberg needs to be re-educated, starting with dietary matters!
A city government that officially wipes it’s behind with the 2nd amendment for decades.
A federal government that “declares war” on a simple deciduous plant.
And people are surprised and upset over soda pop?
What the h**l did you people expect when you helped create a police state? More donut shops?
Next step; everybody is a assigned a personal food trainer. That might alleviate our current unemployment debacle. Bloomie is another genius. Remember his wind turbines on skyscraper proposal? He probably ranks just behind Obama in smarts, who himself is only outshone by Moe, Curly and Shep.
Well, as I see it, New Yorkers brought this on themselves by electing this clown three separate times. They “have sown the wind and will now reap the whirlwind.”
So, I am afraid my sympathy for them is somewhat limited.
While this “For libertarians and conservatives, the far more greater concern is government intrusion into our private lives.” is true it rather misses the point. Bloomberg’s nannyisms are just diversionary tactics that are swallowed transfat-free by the punditry. It’s a classic misdirection… look at this egregious behavior and ignore the complete failure of my administration. By making a joke of himself as a loony-leftist Bloomberg escapes a careful examination of his pathetic record. He’s the equivalent of a Roman Circus, he keeps the masses entertained while the City crumples around them. New York can’t deliver basis services but it can create new initiatives that scream “Look!! We’re doing Something!!!” and it’s all orchestrated to keep you from looking at what they’re not doing, which is their reason for existing in the first place.
You only resort micro-managing minutia when you can’t do the real job. The Soviet Union failed because they focused on useless trivialities since they weren’t competent to deal with the important issues. California is failing for the same reason, as are many other Blue States and Blue Cities.
The most common colloquialism is “rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic”, not to make your post seem trite.
It’s true that there is an entire GENERATION of ill-equipped people out there who went into politics because they have NO MARKETABLE SKILLS. They never developed a talent for anything, shunned competition and hate “unfairness” in all its forms, especially if it gives someone an edge over them, personally.
So rather than learn to be competitive, they instead found a means to usurp natural law through manipulative legislation, longing for the day when they could control everyone and “show” them. Nyahhhhh! (Complete with tongue sticking out and thumbs in the ears, fingers wiggling).
It’s very prevalent in Obama, Frank, Dodd, Pelosi, Reid, and this human-failure, Doomberg. When I think of the old TV series “Batman” and the campy, often-weird surreal nature of it, even the characters of police commissioner Gordon and chief O’Hara were dedicated public servants. The city that Gotham was modeled after, NYC was nowhere near like that then, nor now. NYC has been a boil on the backside of the United States for 150 years. Although there is some good there, it’s really not much to praise. That it produced a guy like Doomberg is no surprise.
Another metrosexual who thinks he knows how to make everyone think and act. And if they don’t think and act as he does, then they must be punished. A bastion of government-think. The government is the only entity that can solve humanities problems. Never a thought toward individual responsibility and consequence. Probably one of the first who used to say things like “They should do _________”. When my typical response would be, “Why don’t you do _________ for yourself and not worry about what ‘they’ should do for you?”. The few times I’ve said that to people, they have looked at me like I had lobsters crawling out of my ears.
Nope, we’re sliding down into a collectivist state, thanks to collectivist thinking and socialist indoctrination/manipulation.
“humanity’s” not “humanities”
Maybe Bloomturd is adopting the P.T. Barnum stance: “Say anything about me you like as long as you say something!” Seems to me that is a high price to pay for publicity.
When it comes to the food police, the Liberals think they have the right to tell you what you must do with your body. When it comes to abortion, they claim “NO ONE” has that right.
Does the government have the right to tell you what to do with your body or not?
“The government” exists to serve the people, is set up to be an extension of the will of the people.
This formal relationship is being reversed, daily, relentlessly, incrementally, at every level of “government”.
Mikey seriously opined for the Ground Zero mosque, within spitting distance of the WTC site.
So self-righteous, so smug, so ignorant.
Don’t forget his response to the Times Square bomber. He blithely attributed it to some right wing nut who didn’t like the health care bill.
Ok, I’ll remember that, too.
A picture taken nearby of a guy changing his shirt, that was Mikey’s bomber.
Also symptomatic of the leftist brain, the preferred and politically correct “narrative” will be true, on any given incident.
Screw the facts.
This makes no sense to me. Bloomberg wants to outlaw large soda drinks, but he seems to be OK with people drinking as much beer as they want. Beer is not only more fattening, it will get you drunk, too. And by the way, we tried stopping people from drinking beer and alcaholic beverages during Prohibition and it didn’t work out that well, either. That was the first experiment in trying to regulate what people could eat and it failed miserably.
And what about all of the packaged junk foods in the supermarkets, like Twinkies or Chips? Those are extremely fattening, too. Deli meats? They’re terrible too. Are we going to do away with them as well? And how about any other food that’s loaded with sugar, such as cakes or pies? Are we going to have black-market pie sales in our future, or shady men selling ho-ho’s out of the trunks of their cars because they’re illegal?
This is going a bit insane and it’s very scary as well. Once the government determines what you can eat, where will it stop? Soon we’ll be like North Korea where you’ll be allowed to eat almost nothing. But they get away with it because they say it’s all for your own good, right? Wrong. This should be stopped immediately. People should have enough common sense that if you eat and drink like a pig you’ll soon start looking like Orson Wells on an eating bender.
There are plenty of people out there telling you to go on a diet, from TV shows to books. If you want to listen to them, it should be your choice. But the city or the state or the Federal Government should not be allowed to tell you what you can and cannot eat or drink. Because once that happens, it controls the food supply and that’s the worst form of tyranny there is.
Beer is not as bad as high fructose corn syrup. Beer is not legal for kids, and is thus not going to contribute to type 2 diabetes, which is part of the issue.
Maybe Nanny Bloomingberg owns a beer company.
You know it’s bad when the Grasshopper, who self-invited himself into the ants home, no longer is content helping himself to the ants food, drink and money, but announces the ant is overweight from his stressful desk job he slaves at in order to pay for his family and the increasing burden of the parasitic grasshopper’s taxing demands.
“While you waste time in that office, Mr. Ant, I stay lean and healthy with my three personal trainers and gym that I have attained, which incidentally, you need to pay as the loan shark in China that I borrowed the money from for you is getting very unhappy with you. I’ve also decided you will no longer consume sugar soda beyond 16 ounces because I cannot have you getting fat and unhealthy, as you’d shrug your responsibility to pay these bills and put your responsibility to me at risk. I’ll be making a lot more decisions about your lifestyle as it’s clear to me that you aren’t equipped to make them yourself.”
These grasshoppers are curious creatures. We have one that pretends to read off of a screen for 15 minutes to a handful of factory workers so he can bilk you out of a few million dollars in travel money so he can go off to six fundraisers and a party with celebrities. Mr. Ant, why do you permit these grasshoppers to live and do as such?
Now that the soda problem has been fixed, Bloomin-Idiot better pass legislation that addresses cannibalism and public flatulence.
I mean what quality of life issues are more important in NYC?
Much of this is an extension of Michelle Obama, who, generally lacking intellectual heft and substance herself, has made eating in America some kind of big deal.
Which led to things like the recent incident in South Carolina (?) where a grade school child was informed by some on site Food Nazi that the lunch her mom had fixed for her was inadequate. The lunch (sandwich, banana and something else) was taken away from her and she was given chicken nuggets.
Chicken nuggets ?
Michelle complains about “food deserts” in our inner cities, apparently places where people don’t have a supermarket immediately in the neighborhood and are therefore forced…forced…to buy Ding Dongs and Big Gulps at the local convenience store.
Kathleen Sebelius of HHS has criss-crossed this nation spewing Michelle’s “food desert” theme and showing Obesity Maps of the US. Kathleen herself is a social x-ray that, in recent congressional hearings, demonstrated that the concept of constraints on federal power was alien to her.
When she isn’t busy traveling ( (on the taxpayer dime), she keeps herself occupied writing volumes, implementing the tiny, arcane language of Obamacare.
Michelle & friends replaced the Food Pyramid with some dipstick chart (at a cost of millions) showing a plate with protein, veggie, potato (?) and then dairy (a glass of milk) off to the side.
Michelle and Barry both seem to go for french fries and hamburgers. Our Prezzydent, smug like Bloomberg, once cautioned us to “never get between Michelle and a tamale”. But he added, in her case eating a tamale is OK because…”She moves”.
(I wish they’d both move)
In the élitist spirit of “we know better for you than you know for yourself”, these people like Mikey from coast to coast share the Obamas’ micromanaging mentality.
It was North Carolina and there’s some good news about that:
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/06/who_should_choose_a_kids_lunch_-_parents_or_government.html
It’s amazing that we’ve descended to a point that you have to write a state law about the content of children’s lunch boxes.
Yep, you’re right. Good or common sense would apply but remember, we live in an age of “hate-crimes” now where the fruit-loop left thinks that if they can just get at the psychological core of what the perp was thinking, they can re-mold him into a correct-thinking individual. At the base of many new laws is simple lack of ability along with a desire to make people think a certain way.
My natural resistance to being told what and how to think is pretty evident. My work just crucified me for being offensive to gay men when what I did had nothing to do with such a thing. Yet they hung me out to dry and punished me in the interest of showing how “serious” they are about “standards” while they, themselves present a very poor standard and often refer to subordinates maliciously and with derision.
But I still had to attend re-education school and get the presentation on how to think properly. Not something I don’t do anyhow and I received high marks in the exercise but I used to teach this stuff in the military for years and it’s never been a problem. My employer MADE it a problem because certain members in our management are gay and they have an axe to grind.
But I learned a new word that has now invaded our lexicon: “Protected classes of people” which means anyone who’s not white, straight, anglo, Christian. The war has progressed that far and I live in a generation that has to suffer for it. I don’t use racial terms, or sexist terms and believe me, that has nothing to do with any training I got anywhere, it’s how I was raised, which centers on accepting people by their own merits, not their peculiarities. And that, in my mind trumps any politically correct “training” any company or entity can place upon me.
The problem comes in when overzealous managers and do-gooders think they are showing everyone else how “pro-active” they are by condemning a good employee. And said good employee only develops contempt for their heavy-handedness.
However, someday, all this will level out and the homosexuals and race-baiters will find themselves unemployed because on a cost-basis alone, when their record of complaining about every single person who as somehow slighted them comes to the fore, the company or entity will see how much time and money it’s costing them and they will be dismissed or put in a job where they don’t interact with others.
Lastly, the reason society has stereotypes is because people DO act stereotypically. For some, it’s just a personality trait but for others it’s a uniform so as to identify themselves with the group they want to be a part of. We are mammals and thus, we adopt pack and herd behaviors. I tend not to, but I still act like a stereotypical white guy, I’m sure. But what I mean is, I do not subscribe to group-think or go along to get along. When everyone in the office is clamoring to glom onto the next big thing, I am instantly put off by it. Not the least bit curious. My instinct usually tells me it’s not worth any time or discussion.
I’m glad I’m out of the work world, because I’m sure I couldn’t tolerate some of the stuff I read about for even an instant.
How you can get caught up in a web of lies and mis- and disinformation that really has nothing to do with who you are or your character. But once the accusation is out there, the wimpmeisters have to pretend to treat it seriously, which can complicate your life and cause immense stress.
I’m also pretty sure I couldn’t sit in most liberal arts university classes for more than about 5 min.
Little voice of slight dissent here.
Folks, consider a demographic angle. It crosses a fiscal angle.
I think what we have here is a cases of “ruining it for everybody” because New York’s sick, obese minority populations are burdens on the city’s resources. Go there and look at them for yourself; you’ll be shocked at their failures to care for themselves in any way whatsoever. I honestly think all of Bloomberg’s diet regulations are targeted at the people in Harlem, Spanish Harlem, and other pockets where ethnic welfare recips live in complete ignorance of the most basic requirements for healthy diet and exercise, and other New Yorkers are paying for it out of their muni tax dollars. He cannot dare to say what he’s actually doing.
I think Michelle Obama is doing the same thing. She sees obese Black people and she wants them to quit disrespecting themselves and fulfilling stereotypes of overfed welfare mamas. But she can’t say so, so we all get the lectures on veggies and sit-ups.
According to Edward Klein’s new tell all book (“The Amateur”, Bill Clinton’s description of Obama), Michelle has distanced Oprah Winfrey from the White House because…wait for it, here it comes…Oprah is fat.
Oprah, reportedly, is not campaigning for The One this go round.
I can’t share your positive assessment of Michelle Obama and her motives. My assessment of “that woman” was set in concrete when she called Americans lazy and incompetent during her husband’s ’08 campaign.
And then I read her Senior thesis at Princeton, on Black and White in America.
Oh, don’t mistake me — I don’t mean to be “positive” about Michelle. In fact, the anecdote about Oprah (if true — it sounds a little too good to be true) is exactly what I’m talking about.
I think Michelle would rather surround herself with slim, elegant, educated Black folks instead of Peggy Josephs any day. Better for her image, better for her constituents’.
Bloomberg and his allies/minions/persons of hench are Nutrition Nazis. Screw Godwin’s Law.
One of the main reasons I’ll be voting for Romney is that his old lady doesn’t give a damn what I eat.
If you take medicare then you gave up some freedom to your insurance providers. Its that simple. There is no free lunch. Now that we’ve let the gov’t handle our health insurance, they are going to protect their interests (in your health) any way they feel necessary.
This is how socialists collect special interest groups. The elderly are now squarely at the mercy of these raiders. You cannot vote them out because you will lose your benefits.
and yes, you will care what you eat else your coverage for insulin will be denied by your providers…
Could someone please sneak up behind Mayor Bloomberg and play Slim Whitman’s Indian Love Song? You can never be too sure.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MhgnMX73Pw (from “Mars Attacks”)
I agree with Seth (post 6) on this one; NY’ers have to sleep in the bed that they make, unf. the smart NY’ers who didn’t vote for this jackass have to suffer the consequences of democracy. Which is why defining in written law precisely what a government may and may not do is essential to maintaining liberty.
Once smoking was made a capital offense, it was only logical that some tin pot fascist would take the next step. If you arrogate to yourself the right to tell anyone about what to do or not regarding CHOICES they make as an adult using a LEGAL product, then you have the power to continue to abolish everything. All those who thought the smoking offense was perfectly correct are probably wondering how we got to this point. And what is truly hilarious is that the tiny little midget dictator from New York is a BIG supporter of abortion. You know: IT’S MY BODY AND I’LL DO WHAT I WANT. Leftism never makes sense. Because it’s all about devices and levers of power. GULP.
Nannies + Nazis= Nanzies.
Coming soon, the Nanzies are goosestepping to a town near you.
Nanzies will tell you which religion you will be allowed to follow. Which foods and drinks you may consume. Which insurance to buy. They will decide which light bulb you can buy, which car you can drive, which town you can build your new business in, which mortgage you can have and how much money is “too much” to have earned.
Nanzies will take your inheritance money from your children, because they haven’t done anything to have “earned it”. They will “reidistribute” your wealth to those to whom you haven’t given your “fair share”.
Nanzies (or should it be Nanzis?), will have the DOJ run guns to drug cartels so that people can be murdered, in order to eliminate YOUR right to own a gun.
Nanzies will sue your state for trying to protect its borders.
Nanzies will allow uniformed thugs to threaten to kill babies on the basis of their race at polling places.
Now that Nanzies have told New Yorkers they can’t have a soda larger than a certain size, I suppose free refills of soda or bottomless cups at restaurants will be next. The TSA (tossed salad authority) will be strip-searching you for candy bar possession and groping you for Coke possession…or Pepsi if you prefer.
Hey, if Nanzies can force you to buy their insurance and Nanzies can put you on their healthcare/death panel roster, they can lower their risk to insure you by forcing you to eat twigs and seeds. Or worse…smoke them.
It’s all about taking away personal liberty and couched in touchy feely “for your own good” to make it go down more easily.
There is no aspect of human activity the Nanzis (I like that better) don’t want in on.
People eating seems to be in the news a lot these days.
Since Nanzis are into eugenics, maybe that will be their next big promotion.
Nanzis it is.
You can get anything you want at Alice’s restaurant, except refills on soda.
I hear Bloomberg is contracting with a pet food manufacturer to produce “PEOPLE CHOW”. Two cups twice a day with a bowl of water and you will be a nice healthy little slave.
Ahh, People Chow. I guess the name “Soylent Green” was taken.
Can someone who knows NY State and City law tell me exactly where the authority to do this comes from? What law permits the mayor to make this rule?
There is none, as the Speaker of the state House (a Democrat) pointed out to Bloomberg. The legislature is now considering a bill prohibiting such antics by mayors. The general feeling on the Democratic side is that Bloomberg’s brainstorm is (are you ready?) “Orwellian”. (Yes, the irony escapes them completely.)
Bloomberg responded by calling the bill, and the Speaker, “ridiculous”, predicting that the Governor (Andrew Cuomo) would veto it, and further stating that the state legislature should both adopt such a prohibition statewide, and telling them to otherwise mind their own business.
I thought progressives liked “Central Control”?
Oh, right, only when what it’s “controlling” is in line with progressive dogmas. (For another example of this sort of pretzel logic, see “sanctuary cities”.)
Again, arrogance only exceeded by hypocrisy. OK, maybe also exceeded by cluelessness.
clear ether
eon
Told them to mind their own business, did he? That’s rich.
I live in the central valley in Kalifornia, quite far from the coast. I think the answer to your question lies in these cities being so close to salt air. I would surmise the salt air is making them regress into single cell amoebas severely limiting their thought processes.
You forgot to mention the significant impact Dihydrogen monoxide has on salt air’s toxicity.
In defending Solyndra and other administration boondoggles, energy related and not, taxpayer $ down the proverbial drain, this President (and his inept press secretary) muttered this week about how a president has responsibilities different from and higher than some creepy guy who simply wanted to rape companies through private equity (creepy guy shall go unnamed)
That higher task was “making sure all Americans got a chance at the brass ring” (I paraphrase)
When did that BS enter into the pantheon of presidential duties and responsibilities ?
The answer is never.
This is obama’s Hitleresque “I’m the one you’ve been waiting for” savior of a nation where all things will be set-to-right and all unfairness abolished.
It’s that age-old disease, for lack of a better term where people think they know how to run other peoples’ lives.
But to quote a very cool song from 1971 by John Edwards, curiously categorized as a “folk anti-war” song. But he sang in his hit, “Sunshine Go Away Today”:
“He can’t even run run his own life, I’ll be damned if he’ll run mine.”
A socialist thinks they have all the answers for everyone else while they, themselves sit in abject intellectual poverty.
Correction: Jonathan Edwards, not the other guy who slimed away from court the other day.
I did not hear one suggestion about how to combat the growing obesity epidemic. Is your answer to do nothing? The diabetes and obesity issue has a great impact on the country as a whole. If you do not understand that the issue is of national importance you are ignorant. What solution is there outside of regulation? It is not like he is making the rule in pure arbitration. Also, why is it the fastest parts of the country are the poorest and least educated, and all heavy republican?
Also, why is it the fastest parts of the country are the poorest and least educated, and all heavy republican?
Because that’s the way you want to see it, Brian.
Hell, the 400 pounders can’t even get out of their chairs to vote, democrat OR republican.
More regulations imposed, more fat people. A direct relationship.
People gotta wanna change, not get some directive from the state.
“obesity epidemic” ? who coins terms like that except jackbooted statist micromanagers like Kathleen Sebelius ?
Big Fear operating, some of it justified. I doubt these days I’d let my 1st grader walk home from school alone, like I did in the olden daze.
Lots of sedentary kids, texting, facebooking. I was never inside as a kid, until my parents yelled at me as night fell.
How about making people responsible & accountable for their actions? You need medical attention? Fine. Pay for it. Can’t afford it out of pocket? Purchase a health care insurance policy. If everyone bought a policy, there would be such a demand that the natural force of competition (wow what a concept!) would ensue & prices would be driven down. Of course, gov’t intrusion would have to be removed. Yes, that’s right, NO MEDICARE! *gasp* No, it’s not that I don’t believe in publicly-funded programs, but they should only be there for those who are truly needy, not you, me, God & everybody. For the umpteenth thousandth time, the entitlement mentality must be racheted back a good deal if there is to be any hope of continuing our level of a standard of living or else, we will all be forced to settle for less. A. Lot. Less.
I have a very simple solution:
If the health insurance companies gave folks a hefty discount on their premiums if they ate right, exercised and maintained a healthy lifestyle, you would see a lot more people doing that. It’s exactly analogous to those “Safe Driver” discounts on auto insurance premiums.
Or if you want to go further, make obesity a “pre-existing condition” when it comes to applying for health insurance.
But that would run counter to the ObamaCare requirement for community rating. ObamaCare won’t allow premiums to be calculated based on the policyholder’s health or the risks of his lifestyle.
Oh, Brian N, how you do love to distort the facts. As for the top 10 “fattest” states, only South Carolina & Alabama (#8 & #2) are also in the top 10 “most heavily Repb.” states: SC = #10, AL = #8. Go look it up; I did. In fact, #10 in the fattest states is Mich., and they’re VERY Democ. Also have waaay too many regulations, which is why Detroit is now 1/3 empty.
Why do we NEED to do “something” about obesity? Is it REALLY a “nat’l epidemic”? On what are you basing your figures? Or are you just repeating an Obama admin. mantra? (yes, yeah, & YES) STOP IT, pull your head outta your a$$, and THINK/RESEARCH FOR YOURSELF.
The top 10 fattest states, starting with number 10, Michigan, Arkansas, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Louisiana, Tennessee, West Virginia, Alabama, and Mississippi. 9 out of the 10 are moderately to heavily republican states. Current estimates are that 16-33 percent of children in america are obese, and cost of obese people overall to our country is 100 billion a year. If those two things do not make you take the issue seriously then I do not know what would. Not to mention that it is expected that due to the high rates of childhood obesity, the newest generation is not expected to live is long as the last generation. This has nothing to do with Obama, we have been sliding into an unhealthy country for a while, and people have been bringing up the issue for a while. You people are so funny. If Obama said that gravity exists, and I agreed with him, you would call me brain washed, and point out that there is no such thing as gravity. You are a caricature of rational citizen.
http://www.aacap.org/cs/root/facts_for_families/obesity_in_children_and_teens
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2011/09/the-10-fattest-states-in-america/245346/
He IS being arbitrary. The problem with obesity is consuming more calories than are expended and the calories are not limited to sodas. It is beyond the province of government, ANY government, to pursue social engineering. The job of government is to govern including protecting us from each other but not from ourselves. Free will is a philosophy recognized by most major religions and personal responsibility emanates from it. The mayor is out of his realm playing God. Can you say: Megalomania?
Life, liberty, and the pursuit of a half gallon of corn syrupy soda. Maybe we could make both camps somewhat happy and reduce welfare stipends to fat people, hell, throw in some drug testing too. If you want government money, then you can’t be fat or a druggie. The concept of liberty does not apply to licentious people on the government dole.
Jan Perry views people as farm animals that must be fed, housed, clothed, medicated,…
California bureaucrats are terrified. The latino demographic surge insures Democratic Party Governance for the next 100 years, but it will also crash the system that has handed out $150,000 salaries to so many ethnic studies majors.
Latinos are suceptable to diabtes. Latinos in LA are fatter than their cousins back in Michoacan. Fat latinos get diabetes at a terrifying rate.
Diabetes leads to kidney failure and 5-20 years of kidney dialysis — incredibly expensive.
California latinos will crash the California State Government. The same thing can be said for Asians. Back in Guangdong, China or across the border in Tijuana people die from kidney failure, bucause they can not afford even a couple of days of kidney dialysis.
Stop jumping on Mayor Bloomberg! It’s the knuckle-heads that continue to have him as their mayor. Stop whining and VOTE them OUT!!!
Speaking of Nanzis, Janet Napolitano is ranting today about hurricane awareness.
She says I should go to some .gov website and take the hurricane pledge.
(the official hurricane start date is June 1, so any big, nasty storms that came off the ocean in the month of May are just SOL (sh!t outta luck) for any bureaucratic recognition)
Is Big Sis getting bored writing directives for manhandling at TSA ? Sebelius did her best in earlier in the Obama admin. to scare the bejesus out of you over the flu.
Their ideal citizen hides behind the curtains in his living room, waiting for word from the government that it’s ok to breathe. His destiny and all of his possibilities in life have been pre-set in stone as a function of their directives, just like in Huxley’s Brave New World.
People who believe the impetus behind Obamacare was anything other than control over them are deluding themselves, have bought into the propaganda, have bought into government language and now believe in things like an “obesity epidemic” that can only be fixed by…guess what ? More rules, more regulation.
Leftist women in particular seem to get excited at a chance to be Nanzis, just like those very austere and very severe and very cruel women that show up in movies about Nazis.
Thanks a lot. Now I have an image of “Janet, She-Wolf Of The TSA” in my head.
Excuse me while I go use some brain-bleach.
cheers
eon
I guess if you predict every single year that it will be “the worst hurricane year on record”, eventually, you might get it right.
Joe – Haven’t seen a Hicks File video lately. Have you given up that avenue?
Most of the stuff coming from the nannies nowadays remind me of one of Heinlein’s propositions (paraphrasing) — freedom begins by telling Mrs. Grundy to go to hell. Personally, I would have put it a little more strongly, referencing a well known body part.
I seem to recall reading several headlines a few years back about an epidemic of anorexia and bulimia among young people. Shouldn’t we save them from themselves by strapping them down and forcing them to eat a nutritious (organic, of course) meal? Why are we wringing our hands about this? Let’s do something!!
I recently moved out of New York City after 15 years.
There are many things I will miss about Manhattan, but the Bloomberg administration’s meddling into the lives of the citizens I won’t miss at all.
I predict we’ll see many businesses making offers like free refills or buy 1 16 oz drink, get a second for half price.
See “A Prison Conversation”.
What a gaggle of peeping tom control freaks. Stay out of my bedroom, stay out of my soda, and stay off my lawn!
Mr. B is nothing more than a wealthy, self-absorbed narcissist. The sooner New Yorkers wake up and realize they elected, yet again, a class act jerk, they may begin to exercise common sense in their next choice for Mayor.
Wait a sec… you expect a bunch of fat-heads who voted for this guy to exercise common sense? Why… that would mean they would have to exercise. Aint gonna happen.
And what’s all the hub-bub over overweight kiddies? Take their stinkin’ cell phones, iPods, Kindles, xBoxes, etc… and smash them with a large hammer. Then give the lil-darlings a bat, baseball and a few gloves. Shove ‘em out the door.
If you can turn a 32oz soda into d@mn near a felony, seems to me you can ban the little darlings from spending half their waking lives in front of something electronic that is probably emitting EM fields that will eventually give them cancer of the fingers.
Maybe the NY elite have not yet figured that it takes more calories to run around a base path than push buttons on a cell phone. It’s also a lot more healthy.
Pssstttt… dime bottle of coke anybody?
Do you think Nanny Bloomberg will direct his petty ministrations toward the iconic “soul food” eateries of Harlem? Isn’t it a rite of passage for NY politicos to be seen dining at Sylvia’s? Especially in the company of “Rev” Al?
Liberalism, being an incoherent mass of identity politics — little occasionally warring fiefdoms if you will — boils down to what is essentially an elaborate game of Rock, Paper, Scissors. Liberalism professes to love them all, but sometimes one of its cherished fiefdoms has to trump the other.
So which one will win out here? Health & Safety (TM) or Down With The Struggle (TM)?
On that exact same note but different sheet of music, Governor Brown has run smack-dab into the environmental laws he fought for for decades that will hamper his beloved high-speed rail project and delay it possibly for years. So he wants a work-around for those very same laws.
Isn’t irony ironic?
Yep, this for me brings the, ‘multiculturalism and diversity’ idiotic meme full-circle.
The L.A. city council woman who bans the fast food joints is of the same brain trust who believe ‘It’s best’ for hard working, law abiding, money saving people/ families FORCED to welcome into your neighborhood – the low educated, middle-aged minimum wage earner, if employed.
Many of which possess a criminal record, abuse government ‘entitlements’ via food stamps, school provided meals, Section 8 Housing complete with a methadone clinic and homeless shelter near one’s city(s) library (I’ve seen this occur in too many cities whereas the methadone clinic is mere blocks from an Elementary/ Jr. High School!). Whereas crime, violence, graffiti and a myriad of other horrible situations ‘surprisingly spring up’.
Though we needn’t worry. It’s all part of our government, ‘Spreading diversity’ amongst us plebes who don’t know any better or unable to see, ‘The forest through the trees’ endgame. Riiiight.
Lastly, nice to see an article from Mr. Hicks. I usually take in Mr. Hicks’ viewpoints via PJTV.
A great picture of Mayor Bloomberg
Note to residents of New York: You voted him in, this must be what you wanted. Sometimes “Karma” is a good thing.
Actually I didn’t vote for him, but he’s done a decent job. The ban doesn’t touch convenience stores or diet soda. What it does do is give people who don’t know better an idea of what proper portion size is. Soft drink cups have doubled and trebled since I first ate fast food.
If I’m still thirsty I can always buy another drink. It’s just sized the way things used to be twenty or thirty years ago. Maybe things were better before businesses decided we all needed mega humungo extra sized soft drinks that would eventually put us all on dialysis.
This clown doesn’t follow the noise abatement laws with his helicopter. The people of New York City may tolerate hypocrites. I do not.
What’s next an outright ban on all containers that hold more than 16 oz?
Then it will be what’s in the containers.
Pretty soon NYC will be eating liberal pap and leftist goulash buried under oppressive laws made to make sure they do not injure themselves or d3stroy the earth for the children of the future! Those that don’t get aborted that is.
Just for fun, I might get myself a collection of 32 oz cups from the local convenience store, take a trip to NYC and fill them up with some Coca-Cola, and just walk around waiting for a cop to ask me where I got it. When I say, “South Carolina” I would be telling the truth. I’ll pick a nice hot day in NYC to do this and let lots of people see me walking around Central Park with my cup clearly marked “Big Gulp” or similar.
Yup…just to cause trouble.
Didn’t buy it from a local convenience store…brought it with me and a cooler full of cold drinks and ice. No law against that (yet) so….some overzealous bureaucrat or badge-polisher, who really has better things to do in a city of that size may not notice me. Or, if they do, they will hopefully ignore me.
But if one of them causes a fuss, I’ll take movies. Then they’ll go on Youtube which is fast becoming an effective weapon of the right.
Could be a fun project. Could even get me arrested. Now THAT would be something. “Country Bumpkin Paralyzes Gotham With Self-Toted Big Gulp” on the NYT front page.
However, I’ll bet there are those who live in Connecticut and Pennsylvania and New Jersey contemplating doing this very thing. It would be especially fun if Doomberg saw a bunch of them walking about, all with 64 oz size cups filled with Mountain Dew or Pepsi or Coke. Might even make his head explode.
Nothing more fun than tweaking a national socialist control freak.
The truly amazing thing is that Bloomberg wasn’t laughed out of town! When something this ridiculous comes along, I would like to think that even Democrats would find it an objectionable assault on liberty. Apparently not….
It would be, had a republican proposed it.
The template is: GOP=mean, nazi, control freak, cruel
Democrat=well-intentioned, kind, warm, fuzzy, best-for-everybody, fair, equal
And the irony is that in order for the democrats (pronounced “national socialists) to get their way they have to be exactly what they THINK the GOP is all about.
Thus, when GWB was monitoring phone calls for potential terrorist activity, the national socialists cried “foul” for invasion of privacy. But when the Obama regime has drones spying on feed lots in Nebraska for the EPA clean water act enforcement, the media and the left is silent as a stone.
However, history has shown that such double-standards are usually the undoing of the party and people perpetuating them. They tend to cause an implosion by their own actions.
This article is quoted appreciatively here:
http://www.theatheistconservative.com/2012/06/05/the-orderers/
Really miss the Hicks File on PJTV. He should run for President.
So lately my kndle fire has been acting strange. One day i put it to charge but the light wouldnt come on so i tampered with it a little and after bending the charger up towards the kindle it would charge but now even after putting the charger in its position it wont charge and its gotten worse now when the charger is in it’s position the green light comes up, turns orange and then it turns on (like normal) but when i unlock it the battery is red, showing that the it’s not charging, and then shuts off. and now its more horrible than b4! the light goes green then orange, it begins to turn on and then just shuts off!!!!!!!! now it wont even light or charge!!!!!!!!! what do i do?????