Cross-posted at the the Left Coast Rebel
Freedom-obstructing road block ahead - beware the totalitarian nanny state!
Writes the New York Times (emphasis mine):
New York City plans to enact a far-reaching ban on the sale of large sodas and other sugary drinks at restaurants, movie theaters and street carts, in the most ambitious effort yet by the Bloomberg administration to combat rising obesity. The proposed ban would affect virtually the entire menu of popular sugary drinks found in delis, fast-food franchises and even sports arenas, from energy drinks to pre-sweetened iced teas. The sale of any cup or bottle of sweetened drink larger than 16 fluid ounces — about the size of a medium coffee, and smaller than a common soda bottle — would be prohibited under the first-in-the-nation plan, which could take effect as soon as next March.I could go after every false assertion and misguided idiocy in this article (such as this being Bloomberg's effort to "combat obesity" or that even a ball-game soda will be illegal but beer won't!).
But I won't.
I'll just use this story as today's teachable moment in American Statism Gone Wild.
I'll start things with an honest statement: I don't drink sodas, sugary drinks, soft drinks, colas, root beer; in fact, save for a few spoonfuls in my morning coffee, I completely avoid sugar in toto as well.
I know, I know; I understand -- anything that deteriorates a penny in 24 hours can't be good for you. Soda rots your teeth, sugar in extreme amounts exacerbates diabetes and poor health.
But so what?
I will defend to my dying breath the freedom of my fellow American to drink as much soda as they wish. And shouldn't every American do the same?
When in the world did America go from our collective understanding and appreciation of, "that which doesn't interfere with my liberty or rights is none of my business," to, "hey look over there, a fat kid; it's time to ban soda!"
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| (Onion Image) If NYC's Mayor Bloomberg has his way, this guy could go to jail |
Instead of becoming more tolerant (real tolerance, not the mind-prison politically-correct kind), we are becoming more ready, able and willing to criminalize behavior that we don't like, or things, substances, behaviors et. al. that we think are damaging to our fellow citizens.
Instead of making societal judgement calls using individual liberty as our only guiding light, we castigate and legislate against those different than us. This has to stop. We have to regain the spirit of individual freedom and the freedom to fail or succeed that made America so great.
Nevertheless, if there is a silver lining to this story it is political for it demonstrates in Big Gulp-Red flying colors just what the progressive agenda is truly about.
In the 1920s, progressives gave us Prohibition and the mayhem that thus ensued. Among many other things, progressives then gave us the gift of failure that is the War on Drugs and the War on Poverty (both of which have done nothing to "solve" the problems they supposedly address, rather they have put into place multi-trillion dollar Industrial Complexes (untold incarceration costs, lost liberties and untold billions/trillions for the former and in excess of $9 trillion for the latter) that actually perpetuate the targeted issue. Dozens of additional government schemes fall into this category.
True conservatives abhor limiting individual. It is the progressive left (and progressive Republican types) that wish to do so. In their sense of nannyism and elitism and I-know-better-than-you-ism they will stop short of nothing in taking away our once-cherished freedoms.
Until we say enough is enough.
