The most dangerous threat to the safety and well-being of New York City residents is now apparently Big Soda.
No worries, though. NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg has popped to the rescue.
Bloomberg is using his office to take on the ample-sized non-diet soft drink indulgence.
Prior to snipping the straws of beverage drinkers, the mayor had previously set his meddlesome sights on the smoking, alcohol, trans-fat, and salt habits of Big Apple consumers.
Bloomberg's latest proposal would banish the sale of sodas and other 16-ounce plus sugary drinks from restaurants, movie theaters, sports arenas, and food carts. Evidently, the offending liquids would remain available on convenience store and supermarket shelves, at least for the time being.
Those parched New Yorkers who would like more than the mandated amount of their favorite fluids will undoubtedly still find a means of obtaining the sweet stuff, the most obvious way involving the purchase of multiple soft drinks.
Bloomberg is presumably concerned with the issue of obesity and has seemingly made it his cause célèbre a la the first lady. However, the demographic reflecting the highest rate of obesity is the one that contains those folks who are living below the poverty line, who may or may not consume large sodas and may or may not do so at restaurants, multiplexes, and sports stadiums.
The primary cause of excessive weight gain is actually related to the consumption of food. Sodas constitute only a small part of the total caloric intake for the average American. In fact, research indicates that soda sales have been trending down in the country.
A government incursion such as Bloomberg’s is consistent with the pretzel logic upon which liberal ideology is based. No one with even a modicum of common sense could support Bloomberg’s ban.
Enter Alec Baldwin. The actor has rushed to the mayor’s defense.
The “30 Rock” co-star and possible New York mayoral candidate wrote a column, which was posted on the Huffington Post, expressing his support for Bloomberg’s Big Soda nose poke.
“Food is a drug,” Baldwin wrote. “At least in the way it is marketed today, which is significantly different from when I grew up. As a child, sweets were referred to as ‘treats,’ and were dispensed far more judiciously than they are today.”
Baldwin described fast-food restaurants as places serving “high-fat, high-sugar meals” and tagged them “sugar dispensaries.”
“Many of those who cry loudest about measures like the one Bloomberg has proposed are probably sick, too: hooked on high-fat, high-sodium and high-sugar diets who don't want their 'drug' taken away,” Baldwin added.
The actor’s thoughts on the mayor’s coerced diet plan was countered by an unexpected source.
Jon Stewart, host of “The Daily Show,” vehemently disagreed with Bloomberg and Baldwin, sounding a bit conservative in the process.
“It [Bloomberg’s soda ban] combines the draconian government overreach people love with the probable lack of results they expect,” Stewart said.
Actor Denis Leary chimed in via his Twitter account to further define the Bloomberg scheme.
“Basically — u can no longer drink out of any cup he can fit into,” Leary wrote.
James Hirsen, J.D., M.A., in media psychology, is a New York Times best-selling author, media analyst, and law professor. Visit Newsmax.TV Hollywood. Read more reports from James Hirsen — Click Here Now.
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