Poor “Nanny” Bloomberg…
One day before New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s ban on sugary drinks was to take effect, cooler heads prevailed at the New York
Supreme Court. Judge Milton Tingling – great name for a judge – found the law “arbitrary and capricious because it applies to some but not all food establishments in the city,” adding “it excludes other beverages that have significantly higher concentrations of sugar sweeteners and/or calories on suspect grounds.”
I’ve read a lot of legal opinions and in a lot of them the law and common sense, are mutually exclusive concepts, but here the judge nails it!
Apple juice was not banned in sizes exceeding 16 ounces-which was the maximum size that a vendor could sell a soda- and it has as many calories as Coca-Cola. Grape juice has a whopping 50% more sugar than Coke!
If you want to see the totalitarian mindset in all its glory, I would highly recommend going to YouTube and watching Mayor Bloomberg’s total
meltdown at a press conference in response to being shot down by Judge
Tingling. He’s truly unhinged at times.
My favorite quote is him attesting that, “I’m trying to do what’s right!…My job is to do the best I can for New Yorkers.”
If he really wanted to do that, he should get rid of the union contractors who just said it would cost $500 plus million dollars and two years to fix one of the subway lines damaged by Hurricane Sandy and hire a private sector group that could probably do it for less in six months!
There were times during his grilling by the press that I half expected
Bloomberg to blurt out, “No one puts Mayor Bloomy in a corner!!!!”
I don’t know that Sly James is the best Mayor in the World, but we would be better served by giving him the job for life if we had to choose between him and Bloomberg.
Bloomberg’s like a spoiled billionaire tyrant.
Who is this guy? Trying to ban salt, donuts and Coca-Cola… He would have been considered extreme in the old Soviet Union.
There are lot of legal and illegal things that have deleterious
effects on human health – but I’ve yet to see where laws, bans or embargoes work or stop people from engaging in self-destructive
behaviors.
It’s fair to say that America has an obesity problem.
My solution would be to make gym memberships and personal trainers tax deductible and offer discounts on health insurance for people in who are in shape. In short, PAY people to get healthy. A new study was just
released showing that giving people money for reaching weight goals
worked!
But that would entail common sense, something totalitarian nannies
like Bloomberg have very little of…
No way to regulate health other than to deny health care to people that abuse their bodies with booze, drugs, tobacco, poor nutrition and lack of exercise. Even then there will be exceptions.
That will never happen in this country. We’re not really much on TOUGH LOVE.
Next best option is basing health insurance rates on an individuals actual health and lifestyle. Can’t just say if your BMI is x you are in bad health. Two people with identical BMI’s will often have very different blood pressure, cholesterol and blood enzyme levels. Problem there is that it would actually require your doctor to spend time with you and get to know you.
Screw Obamacare. Tear down the walls that limit companies from competing nationwide and let the free market dictate who wins and loses. Competition is always the best way to improve service and reduce costs.
Need to recognize the value of alternative health treatments and tell big pharma and big medical to F#CK OFF!
The best solutions are not synthetic pills tested on Armenians or cutting you open.
Most, but not all, ailments can be treated with diet, exercise and natural remedies
The government has f#cked up everything including the government. Health care is the last arena the feds need to be playing in.
Hey, I pay higher health/life insurance premiums because I smoke. I pay lower car insurance premiums because I don’t speed and don’t crash my cars. Insurance has always been about risk assessment. Just makes sense that a “healthy” person should pay less than someone that is 100 pounds over-weight. How you establish those health perameters might be a challenge, but not impossible. If Bloomberg thinks that sodas are the root cause of obesity, he needs to check out a few Golden Corrals on a Friday night. It ain’t the soda machine getting the work-out.
It was bizarre and paternalistic that a 2 liter bottle of Dr. Pepper bought at a Spanish Harlem bodega would have been illegal, but a xtra tall frappuccino with extra caramel and whipped cream bought in lower manhattan would have been legal.
It’s official: Bloomberg’s a ‘soda jerk.’