Jacob Sullum on Strengthening Bloomberg's Beverage Ban

Writing in the New York Daily News, Senior Editor Jacob Sullum asks why Mayor Michael Bloomberg's beverage regulations are limited to soft drinks. What about the hard stuff? Alcohol, Sullum notes, adds not just calories but myriad other hazards.

View this article.

Comments

[Paul.]

That's it. Give these humourless pricks more ideas.

I'm guessing irony isn't the strong point of your typical New Yorker.

[Paul.]

limited to soft drinks.

Oh, and Thirst!

[Xenocles]

^This. Even someone like me who hates New York and its people mourns state they're in.

[heller]

I hope you realize that the typical reader will not understand this as ironic...

[Whiterun Guard]

Hilariously the first comment over there misses both the point that the government shouldn't be trying to restrict our diets AND the fact that they already are.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

It looks like someone responded to that first post.

[Caleb Turberville]

Judging by the trend these bans are going in, it's just a matter of time before everything is banned.

...That is, unless someone can give me an reason why large sugary drinks will be the absolute limit of ban-creep.

[Whiterun Guard]

Well in a few years when the crisis is over and obesity is a thing of the past, I bet you'll have a new attitude on the bans then!

[WTF]

Wait a minute, wait a minute - didn't the smoking-banners tell us that they would never go after food and drink, and that the very idea was rediculous?

[WTF]

From the comments:

"Money, unfortunately, is always more powerful than any politician.

Right, because Coca Cola can send men with guns to my house to force me to obey. These people really are that clueless.

[GettiYetti]

Never really thought about it liek that dude.

http://www.Hittin-Anon.tk

[Robert]

Which leaves the question of why soft drinks have been singled out by NYC's Health Dept. (starting years before this proposal) as fattening. AFAICT, it's because they're supposed to look feel deceptively low-cal.

As was said on "Saturday Night" decades ago: "Milk: the beverage that's not filling, but is fattening." Except that because it already has that rep, they felt no need to rope it in with non-dairy soft drinks for att'n.