Yet Another Dumb Idea

I am soapboxing in a Big Way today!  Last night was the Miss USA pageant and one of the questions concerned NYC new ban on sugary sodas.  I had not heard this and so I looked it up today.  Apparently Mayor Bloomsberg is proposing to no longer sell regular sodas over 16 oz.....

There are a Crap TON of issues going on in our nation (and in NY) and banning 32 oz sodas is the best thing Mayor Bloomsberg had to do with his time?  Let's look at some of the issues of which I see several.

1.  They are still offering 32 oz drinks in diet, fruit juice, dairy products and alcohol.
    1A.  Diet drinks are filled with with unnatural chemicals that may not make you fat, but are inconclusive on whether or not they will give you cancer. 
    1B.  Fruit juice rarely is made with much actual fruit juice.  It is Filled with sugar!
    1C.  Dairy products-why yes, you may have a 32 oz hot fudge milkshake, because that has no sugar.
    1D.  Alcohol?  Really?  Need I say more?
2.  America is supposed to be a nation of freedom.  Why is it acceptable for someone else to legislate what you can drink when you are a grown adult?  We aren't even talking about people under 18, we are talking about people who should be able to make their own decision.  Where is this going to lead?  No where good.  Yes, sodas can make you fat.  So can eating McDonald's three times a day.  You can guarantee if this goes through, then other things, like eating McDs will be legislated too.  Not that this will stand up when (not if) it is brought up to court.
3.  Who in the world is going to oversee this?  Who is going to watch the soda machines and make sure no one gets a non-free refill?
4.  And then there is this quote from the CBS article:  "If I'm given huge amounts of food, I'm going to eat it,".  This is a quote from a professor of nutrition in NY who supports Bloomsbergs proposal.  This is a self-control problem.  If we allow the government to legislate our self-control issues, then we have some major problems heading our way.  What happens when the government gets to dictate how many Hershey's Kisses you can eat in a sitting?  I know my Valentine's Day would be sadder.

I don't live in NY but where this starts it becomes a precedent that can be cited in any court case and that is bad.  It's dangerous to let the government make decisions for us.  We need to think for ourselves.  Don't be a sheep.  Don't follow without questioning.

P.S.  On another food related topic, the month of vegetarianism is going really well.  I'm not craving meat at all.  I've had a lot of veggies.  The only issue is that I am hungry constantly.   You just don't get full on peppers and kale.